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It is a business deal
Belligerent as ever |
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Synthesising life
Options before Nepal
Meet the additional cricket coach
Corruption in education
Crisis of confidence in Nepal
Delhi Durbar Corrections and clarifications
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It is a business deal
The reconciliation between the two Ambani brothers, announced on Sunday, augurs well not only for the shareholders of India’s biggest corporate entity, Reliance Industries, and the ADAG group, but also for the economy and India’s corporate image. By scrapping the non-compete agreements, they have unshackled new opportunities and allowed themselves freedom to step on each other’s turf except the gas-fired power projects. Speculation has begun that Reliance might venture into telecommunications, finance or infrastructure and Anil Ambani’s ADAG group could give competition to Reliance in its most lucrative gas business. Mukesh stands to gain more than Anil because he has the financial muscle to try his hand in new areas whereas Anil is tied up in large financial commitments in several ongoing projects. If India’s top industrialist brothers use their energies and resources for growth instead of wasting them in court feuds, they would create more jobs and wealth. The economy and the exchequer would stand to gain. The speed with which the world-famous billionaire brothers have agreed to end their long-running rivalry and are taking the fight from the courtroom to the marketplace is amazing. Two weeks ago the Supreme Court had ruled in favour of Mukesh in a long-drawn battle over gas pricing. The pact, brokered by their mother Kokilanben on gas pricing, was set aside and a government-fixed higher price upheld. The court asked the two brothers to renegotiate the gas price, which they have yet to work out. The two business houses are hopeful of an early settlement. Too much should not be read into the high-profile reconciliation. There is no sudden rekindling of love between the two brothers, who had been engaged in an acrimonious legal feud since 2005 when the Reliance group was split between them three years after the death of their legendary father, Dhirubhai Ambani. Since the Supreme Court had forced the Ambanis to engage in fresh talks, this perhaps opened the doors for removing other irritants as well that had hindered their businesses. It is a plain and simple business deal in the interests of all. |
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Belligerent as ever
It is heartening that the Sarv Maha Khap Panchayat meeting in Jind, Haryana, was a damp squib, if numbers are something to go by. Billed as a meeting of leaders and representatives from across Haryana, Rajasthan and UP, the conclave was intended to be a show of strength against same-gotra marriages. The mahapanchayat’s ultimatum to the government to meet their demand to ban same gotra marriages by June 19 or face direct action must be seen therefore as a show of bravado by a congregation with dwindling numbers. Passing a resolution to socially boycott the MLAs and MPs who did not support its cause and its threat to stop supply lines to New Delhi must, however, be taken seriously. Clearly, there is an urgent need to rein in the confrontationist khaps who cast a snook at the law of the land and are now employing pressure tactics to force the government to change the Hindu Marriage Act. In the past few years, khaps in Haryana have sanctioned “honour killings” without compunction against the couples who dared defy their medieval notions of custom and tradition. The Karnal Court’s landmark verdict in the “Manoj Babli honour killing case” should have served as a deterrent to these self-styled custodians of society. Instead, it has fuelled the demand for amendment in the Hindu Marriage Act. Even though same gotra marriages were held legal more than six decades ago and Law Minister M Veerappa Moily has ruled out bowing to khap pressure, khaps continue to get political support within the state. Both a Congress MP and former Chief Minister of Haryana have openly supported their unreasonable demand. Many others lend support in hushed tones. The khap mahapanchayat’s recent resolve to impose a token fine on MLAs and MPs is a reflection of their hold over politicians who do not oppose them vociferously enough for fear of losing vote banks. The lukewarm response to the mahapanchayat shows that the youth are unimpressed by the obscurantism. Politicians cutting across political lines need to speak up in one voice against the khaps and their diktats that challenge the constitutional rights of individuals. In case of a divergence of opinion on custom and law, khaps must be made to understand that law has to prevail. In the name of protecting tradition, they cannot be allowed to infringe upon individuals’ right of freedom to chose life partners. |
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Synthesising life
Scientists have created the first synthetic living cell and by doing so, Dr Craig Venter and his colleagues have opened new frontiers of science, as well as an ethical debate. They have synthesised an entire bacterial genome and have used it to take over a cell. While only the DNA in the cell is totally synthetic, this is the first time that a life form has been created in which the synthetic DNA controls the behaviour and characteristics of the cell. Dr Venter somewhat hyperbolically calls it “the first self-replicating species we have had on the planet whose parent is a computer”; but there is no doubt that the scientists have shown that it is possible to make a living cell with a synthetic chromosome. Eventually, the synthetic bacteria created thus could be used for many specialised applications, like building bacteria that absorbs carbon dioxide. While many scientists say Dr Venter has not created life, only mimicked it, the technical breakthrough has evoked strong interest and admiration. Synthetic life opens tremendous possibilities of new foods or clean fuels or ways to clean up the environment. The flip side would be horrifying new biological weapons. In any case, there is always a possibility of unintended consequences taking place. Recently, GM crops have come under a cloud because it is alleged that their genes have created super-weeds and crop pests. The concern about releasing new organisms into the world where it could do more harm than good is not unfounded and it is imperative for society to debate and regulate such cutting-edge scientific work, and place it under proper scrutiny. While we celebrate the success of the scientists, as a society, we owe it to our future generations to insist that proper care be taken to explore and understand the full ramifications of this experiment and the behaviour of the bacteria or other organisms produced through this process before anything based on it is released in the environment. |
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If all the rich people in the world divided up their money among themselves there wouldn’t be enough to go round.
— Christina Stead |
Options before Nepal
Nepal is on the edge. The clouds of political chaos and disorder are hovering around. May 28, 2010, is the date when a constitution for ‘New Nepal’, reflecting the spirit of the people’s movement (Jan Andolan-II) of April 2006 in Nepal should have been completed. But everyone is convinced that this deadline cannot be met. There is no consensus among the principal political players — the Maoists, the Nepali Congress (NC) and the Communist Party of Nepal (UML) — to take the constitution making process forward. If the situation continues as it prevails, then on May 29, there would be a political vacuum in Nepal. There would be no constitution, there would be no Constituent Assembly, which is also functioning as Parliament, and there would be no legitimate government. There are three alternatives to fill this political vacuum, which looms large. One is that new Constituent Assembly is re-elected to take the process of constitution writing forward. The second is that consensus is recreated among the principal political players; the disrupted peace process is restored and the term of the Constituent Assembly is extended by six months as an extraordinary measure, as provided for in the Interim Constitution, to resume constitution writing. And the third alternative is the imposition of President’s rule until another wayout is evolved. The people of Nepal are not prepared for another election. Why should they give another chance to the same political class which has failed them? Being aware of the public mood, the politicians are much more scared to seek this option of re-elections. In any case, most of the NC and UML leaders neither have the confidence nor the credibility to face their respective constituencies. Even the Maoists are not very enthusiastic. Despite their better rating in privately conducted opinion polls, they have suffered considerable political ground as a result of their unsuccessful agitation of May 1 and a lacklustre performance during their nine-month rule from August 2008 to May 2009. And even if a new Constituent Assembly is elected, what will it do in the absence of any constructive consensus among the key political forces? The second option of a political consensus is being hammered out. The major political forces, with the support of the international community, are trying to work out a package agreement to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly. The elements of such a package are varied, complex and conflicting. The NC and the UML are asking the Maoists to concede ground on honouring their past promises on the issues of dismantling their militant units like the Youth Communist League, vacating the illegally occupied lands during the 10-year period (1996-2006) of insurgency and integrating their armed cadres into the security forces, The Maoists have their own positions on all these issues and are asking for the present Madhav Kumar Nepal government to be replaced by a national coalition, preferably headed by them. None of these three major players had sincerely honoured their respective commitments made in the peace process. The Maoists are at fault but no less are the NC and the UML to blame. At the root of the breakdown of political consensus has been the disruption of the power-sharing arrangement after the April 2008 elections. The NC and the UML have not reconciled to the emergence of the Maoists as the dominant force. The NC’s understanding with the Maoists on making their now departed leader GP Koirala as the first Republican President of Nepal broke down after the elections. As a result, the NC, even contrary to the universally agreed constitutional provisions, decided to keep out of the coalition government led by the Maoists. And now the NC and the UML have marginalised the Maoists, who quiet erroneously precipitated the issue of the sacking of former army chief General Katwal and resigned from the government. The Maoists now are reluctant to come on board for constitution making until they are rehabilitated in the government as the principal component. And the NC and the UML would not let that happen unless the Maoists have signed on the dotted lines on the issues of the Maoists militant cadres. Any dominant role for the Maoists in the ruling coalition is seen by the NC and the UML as a prospect of their future political vulnerability. The recently conducted public opinion polls project the Maoists far ahead of the NC and the UML on the ladder of political leadership. Therefore, unless the ticklish issue of power sharing is sorted out, no stable national political consensus can emerge. The third alternative is inevitable if the second fails. But then how long can Nepal remain under President’s rule? There are feudal and extremist forces who may want to provoke the Maoists for violence and disruption, and there are elements within the Maoists and other political parties who would like to resolve political issues through force. The third alternative seems to be a recipe for persisting chaos and instability. India cannot afford to have Nepal on the boil. With the Naxalites on the warpath internally and China asserting itself regionally, it is not in India’s interest to have a turbulent neighbourhood. India has to play a positive role, as it did during 2005-2006, in helping a constructive consensus evolve in Nepal. But for this, it cannot behave as a partisan player, endorsing the marginalisation of any popular political force. India may not be comfortable with the Nepal Maoists style of functioning, but treating them as a source of a long-term threat to India is highly exaggerated and irrational. Any rise in China’s influence in Nepal is primarily due to India’s failure to win Nepalese hearts and minds, and not because of the character of a regime in Kathmandu, be it a monarchy or of the Maoists. New Delhi needs to do some serious homework on Nepal instead of being guided by either the Nepali vested interests, who keep frequenting South Block, or the subjective preferences of its handful of policy makers.n The writer is Visiting Senior Research Fellow, Institute of South Asian Studies, Singapore. |
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Meet the additional cricket coach
Now that the discredited Indian Twenty20 cricket team has returned home unsung, let’s listen to some of the home truths laid out by the India coach, Gary Kirsten. According to him, India crashed out in the Caribbean tour after a poor performance which was mainly due to the lack of fitness and discipline. He earned the ire of the players when he suggested that they should get back to their rooms by 9.30 pm particularly when India had a morning match to play. Players felt that the curfew hour was ridiculously too early. The question that crosses everyone’s mind is how to discipline the wayward players. Whether India needs an assistant or an additional coach to enforce rigid discipline — the person capable enough to take the pressure that currently surrounds the Indian cricket. But who needs a conventional coach when there are other thrilling options? Narrow down the search drastically. Stamp out of mind all macho male coaches, beer-guzzling or lassi-addicted. What our yuva-khilaris and those on the wrong side of 30 need is not gym-oriented training, but inspiration, motivation and emotional guidance. All this and more can be provided so admirably by none other than a Godmother-like figure – big, buxom and bizarre, someone in any bracket (early, mid or late) of her venerable forties, the age when womanhood is at its best. The Godmother who is clever and wise but relentless will be the players’ extra ear, extra mouth and extra set of helping hands. The players can ask or tell her anything, no matter how personal and confidential. If someone desires more personal attention, she will be available for one-to-one counselling. Her devotion, her enthusiasm, her interest will help to fix whatever is keeping the players away from performing. In cherished moments of togetherness, the Godmother will offer her inimitable brand of cocktail made with nimbu-pani, IMFL and the celebrated Goa feni, well stirred with her own index finger. All problems, big or small, whether an explanation to the BCCI, absence at the net practice or personal squabbles will be solved in a jiffy, boosting the self-confidence of players. The players will be disciplined by her august presence and lulled to sleep by her wafting body odour. Now, where to look for such a Godmother? The options are galore. But don’t consider those who themselves are in deep trouble, hounded by the police or having no respite from unending visits to the court. While making the search survey for the right incumbent really fruitful, zero in on Bollywood or small-screen sirens, some gangster hunterwali, discredited police women, sportswomen with dope-ridden accusations, circus divas on trapeze or even bored housewives. say from Hoshiarpur, Samastipur, Midnapore and, in fact, from anywhere!n |
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Corruption in education
Corruption in academic regulatory bodies has reached an all-time high, particularly when the nation is envisioning education as a driver of growth. The paradigm shift in the development priorities in favour of education will not bring the expected dividends if corruption in the regulatory bodies continues unabated. Corruption in the education sector not only distorts efficiency and quality parameters but also acutely constrains social equity by making higher education out of the reach of the ‘aam aadmi’. These distortions certainly come in the way of realising the cherished objective of inclusive growth. The first tremor in the education sector came in the form of according the deemed university status to colleges and institutes on a wholesale basis. In many cases the status was granted in gross violation of the UGC norms. The Tandon Committee constituted by the HRD Ministry to investigate the deemed university scam has found that of the 130 deemed universities, 44 had abysmal academic and physical infrastructure and are mainly family fiefdoms. On the recommendations of the Tandon Committee, the HRD Ministry derecognised 44 deemed universities. The case of the derecognised deemed universities, having two lakh students on their rolls, is with the Supreme Court. In case of the AICTE scam, the CBI has completed its probe in about 200 complaints. The agency found that 42 institutes were granted illegal approval by the AICTE. In a glaring case the agency detected that one building was inspected by the experts appointed by the AICTE thrice and recommended approval for three different colleges for the same building. A few inspection committees did not visit the site of the proposed colleges but submitted their reports. The AICTE scam is so large that 17 CBI branches are investigating it. The Medical Council of India has also a dubious record for granting approval to medical colleges. The MCI President was arrested recently for accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore. According to reports, the CBI in its recent raids found that the former President of the MCI and his family possessed disproportionate assets worth Rs 24 crore. A good development is that the President of India has dissolved the MCI and replaced it by a six-member Board of Governors. The growing cases of corruption in education result in not only distortions in the market but also affect adversely social equity – a central pillar of inclusive growth. The managements of corrupt educational institutions recover the bribe money from students by charging hefty fee and unauthorised charges. The Tandon Committee has reported that many deemed universities have been charging fee much higher than that approved by the official fee structure committees. The practice of charging exorbitant fee and unapproved charges denied the less privileged segments of society like the poor, SCs and STs, women, and rural students access to higher education, thus making professional education less inclusive. The quality of education is another casualty of corruption. For the institutions getting approval by corrupt practices, making money is the sole mission. These greed-centric institutions thrive on unethical practices and are virtually degree printing machines having no correlation whatsoever with quality. The ill-baked products of these institutions in no way can help the nation build a knowledge-based economy. The Tandon Committee has found that many universities have violated the guidelines prescribing excellence in teaching, research and innovations and are basically running unrelated programmes accompanied by thoughtless teaching pedagogy. Only a few private deemed universities supplied evidence of good quality research, especially in the form of publications in high impact journals. Thirdly, these institutions hardly recruit meritorious faculty. A skeleton and under-qualified faculty is the general norm. The qualified faculty, if any, is under-paid and does not enjoy job security benefits. The talented faculty is perceived as a threat to the unethical practices followed by these institutions. Fourthly, for want of quality products of these institutions are hardly employable. These institutions thus in the long run may add to the frustration of youth in the country which may erupt like a volcano at any time. Given the huge social cost of corruption among regulatory bodies, it is essential to attend corruption at the policy, investigation and trial levels expeditiously in the light of following suggestions. The rules of the game (i.e. approval granting criteria) should be made more explicit, transparent, quantifiable and measurable. Each case of approval must pass the test of social audit before getting the final nod. It should be mandatory for all the institutions to put and update information about courses, fee structure, faculty, infrastructure and placement on their websites. Accreditation should be obligatory for all institutions of higher learning. The approval should be cancelled in case an institution does not qualify the accreditation test. There is need to evolve an institutional mechanism for appointing persons of high integrity and impeccable reputation as members of these bodies. The process of appointment may consist of constituting a search committee followed by an integrity audit undertaken by intelligence agencies of the short-listed candidates and validation of credentials of the finally selected candidates by sources other than the earlier ones. High salaries and handsome perquisites should be introduced for attracting and retaining persons of high integrity in the regulatory bodies. Corruption in educational institutions should be made a non-bailable offence. The ongoing cases of corruption should be expeditiously resolved accompanied by exemplary punishments to the guilty. The civil society, the media, whistle-blowers, students and their parents along with the government should play an effective role in eliminating corruption from the education sector. Informed decisions by admission-seekers will automatically weed out the substandard institutions. The writer is a former, Dean, Faculty of Arts, Panjab University, Chandigarh |
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Crisis of confidence in Nepal
KATHMANDU: Nepal is fast approaching the deadline for the promulgation of a new constitution. But the chances are that political parties will not be able to deliver the goods as they have differences among themselves on more than a dozen contentious issues like the political philosophy, fundamental principles, the model of federal units, the form of the judiciary, the system of governance, the promised restructuring of the state and control over natural resources. The major political parties that had promised the people that they would, if elected, write the constitution within two years are also divided on what happens to the objectives of the April 2006 uprising — mainly federalism, a republican set-up and secularism. The former rebels, the Maoists who constitute the single largest party in the Constituent Assembly, are hell-bent on getting into power at any cost. In accordance with the party’s strategy, they want the constitution to be adopted by the country as people’s constitution. Their entire focus is on the future cabinet, not on the Constituent Assembly. They have been holding street protests on the pretext of upholding civilian supremacy, national independence and ensuring peace. They want the constitution drafting process to be carried on by constituting a national unity government under their leadership. But they are reluctant to allow the constitutional process in Parliament. They have refrained from bringing in a no-confidence motion against the government for two reasons. Firstly, the Maoist leaders have repeatedly said that since they have no faith in the parliamentary system, they won’t engage in majority/minority parliamentary politics to form a government. Secondly, the Maoists, who have 238 members in Parliament, have failed to garner support from other political parties to produce a simple majority (support of 301 members in a House of 601) even after receiving the backing of 24 members of the Madhesi People’s Rights Forum led by Mr Upendra Yadav. Besides this, neither the Maoists are willing to write the constitution nor support the government’s proposal to extend the term of the Constituent Assembly after May 28. Rather the Maoist party, which has been protesting mainly against the Nepalese government and India in the name of establishing civilian supremacy and safeguarding
national impendence since May 2009, is intensifying its efforts to carry out nationwide protests to take the advantage of the no-constitution situation and seize power in the name of people’s revolt. On the other hand, the ruling coalition that still enjoys a simple majority in Parliament does not want to give up power. The coalition members fear that if they lose power this time the former rebels will eliminate them with the help of their own military (the People’s Liberation Army having 19,600 personnel inside the UN-monitored cantonments in seven major and 21 satellite camps across the country) and their paramilitary force (theYoung Communist League). So, the ruling CPN-UML and the Nepali Congress have set preconditions asking the Maoists to adopt the constitutional process by producing a simple majority in Parliament if they want to lead the government. Besides, this time the anti-Maoist forces are united against the Maoists and insist that the latter get ready for a package deal along with a credible roadmap to end the political crisis and expedite the peace process and constitution drafting process. They have reiterated that the Maoists should detach themselves from their combatants immediately, return the properties seized by them during the insurgency, and disband their paramilitary youth wing – the Young Communist League – before discussing the Maoist agenda for the formation of a national unity government, etc. This means the constitution-writing process is directly related to taking the peace process to its logical end. But the crisis of confidence among the major political parties and their rigid stance are coming in the way. Unless these parties — mainly the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, the UML and the Madhesi groups — forge a consensus, the peace efforts and the constitution drafting process cannot be taken to their logical end even in the next couple of years.
Mere extension of the assembly’s deadline may not guarantee that the constitution will be drafted within any extended time-frame. If the political parties and their leaders really want to be sure that they will not be cursed by history, they should give up their petty interests and reach a comprehensive deal expressing commitment on certain key issues. Otherwise, both the ruling and opposition parties will be held responsible for pushing Nepal into a fresh crisis. |
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Delhi Durbar
BJP president Nitin Gadkari is privately getting a lot of flak in his party for his current jaunt to Spain. For one even though many leaders, including several from the BJP, have been spending the peak of Indian summers away in Europe, they mostly do it discreetly. If someone gets to know of the leader’s absence accidentally, it is not denied but no one announces his impending tour abroad and that too through a press note! This is unheard of in any political party, more so in the BJP. Besides, BJP leaders are also fuming over the developments in Jharkhand for which they hold mainly Gadkari responsible. Seeing the raised eyebrows in Gadkari’s holiday, Arun Jaitley, who takes a holiday abroad every year, has decided to keep his travel plans a well-guarded secret. In any case last year he went abroad soon after the general election and missed the first national executive of the party, some like Arun Shourie mentioned how Jaitley after taking the party to defeat had left for cooler climes, as if his abandoning the holiday would have undone the BJP’s defeat. Patriotic Professors? Kapil Sibal has no fears on account of prospective foreign education institutions in India poaching India’s cream faculty. He thinks top professors in the country’s premier institutes like IITs and IIMs are too patriotic to desert the soil for small amounts of money. So when at an international education seminar in the capital last week, someone asked the Human Resource Development Minister if he was bothered about foreign institutions (whenever they set up shop in India) walking away with illustrious IIT/IIM professors to run their campuses, the minister shrugged and said: “I know my faculty is patriotic and passionate about India and I know my faculty will not sell their conscience for a little bit of money. Had they wanted to go, they would have gone by now and Stanford or Harvard would have picked them up already. No one has gone. The attrition rate is zero,” said the minister. He seemed to have forgotten how last year he was locked in a bitter fight with the IIT Faculty Federation that was seeking market-compliant appraisals and incentives. Tussle for supremacy The perceived lines that demarcate the functions of the legislature, the executive and the judiciary have once again become a subject of hot debate involving top functionaries of the three wings. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told a function a fortnight ago that the “doctrine of separation of powers” was a basic feature of the Constitution and none of the wings should exceed its powers. A few days later Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan (since retired) said these lines were “blurred” and as such the judiciary had enough scope to step in wherever necessary. In between these two statements, the Supreme Court delivered several verdicts somewhat involving the subject. In one case, the SC ruled that the government had the final say in the matter of natural resources and private companies were bound by its fiat. In another case the court ruled that the legislature had absolute powers for allocating funds for the MPs Local Area Development scheme. However, in another case pertaining to the expulsion of Capt Amarinder Singh from the assembly, the SC made it clear it was empowered to scrutinise the exercise of legislative powers. Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Aditi Tandon
and R Sedhuraman |
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Corrections and clarifications n
In the lead headline of Sports page “Shinning stars” (Page 16, May 18), the word “shining” has been
mis-spelt. n The word “restrains” and not “restricts” should have been used in the headline “HC restricts state from charging entry tax” (Page 9, May 21). n
The word “paintings” should have been added after Picasso, Matisse in the headline “Thieves net Picasso, Matisse in $ 124m heist” (Page 22, May 21). n
In Spectrum supplement (Page 5, May 23) the caption in the article headlined “Rising above rivalry” is wrong. Pt Jawaharlal Nehru is on the “extreme left” and not on the “extreme right” as the caption says. Despite our earnest endeavour to keep The Tribune error-free, some errors do creep in at times. We are always eager to correct them. This column appears twice a week — every Tuesday and Friday. We request our readers to write or e-mail to us whenever they find any error. Readers in such cases can write to Mr Kamlendra Kanwar, Senior Associate Editor, The Tribune, Chandigarh, with the word “Corrections” on the envelope. His e-mail ID is kanwar@tribunemail.com. Raj Chengappa,
Editor-in-Chief |
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