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Mamata is upbeat
Strategic ties with US
Heads must roll |
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Politics of corruption
Kerosene and the bride
Spare the tiger
Telangana: Keep Andhra intact
Chennai Diary
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Mamata is upbeat SINCE
only 16 per cent of West Bengal’s total electorate was eligible to vote in the civic polls, the ruling Left Front is understandably tempted to dismiss the results as of little consequence. Some of the CPI(M) leaders have stated as much after Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress swept them out of the Kolkata and adjoining Bidhannagar municipal corporations. The reverses suffered by the Left Front, they asserted, were temporary and influenced by various local factors which would have no relevance when the Assembly election is held next year. The fact remains that the Left Front not only suffered a rout in the state capital but also lost control over a large number of municipalities in the districts. The reverses also confirm the trend that began with the panchayat elections in the state in 2008 and continued in the general election in 2009. The results of the civic polls this week now indicate that the slide of the Left Front has not been arrested despite the CPI(M) digging in its heels and fighting back. The sobering message for Mamata Banerjee , however, is that she still needs Congress support to wrest the state from the Left Front. The two alliance partners of the United Progressive Alliance ( UPA) fell out before the civic polls on the question of seat-sharing. In most of the districts the two allies fought not-too-friendly contests, resulting in hung houses in 29 municipalities across the state. While the Congress may no longer be relevant in Kolkata, it performed creditably in the districts. Mamata, therefore, will be hard put to do a Mayawati or Jayalalithaa to the UPA. The civic polls in the state may actually have strengthened the UPA and paved the way for the alliance to jointly take on the Left Front in the assembly election next year. Going alone may no longer be an option for her and the state could theoretically see a UPA government , and not a Trinamool government, in the state. While there is no Constitutional compulsion for the Left Front government in the state to step down in the wake of the civic polls, it will be a lame duck government that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will continue to head. Successive poll reverses have robbed it of its legitimacy and the state government will find it increasingly difficult to govern the state or assert its authority.
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Strategic ties with US THE Barack Obama administration seems to have realised that it was improper on its part to send out hints that the US would not be as much interested in developing strategic relations with India as it was during the two tenures of former President George W. Bush. This impression can be gathered from US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns’ speech at the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday before the beginning of the second phase of the strategic dialogue between the two countries. Mr Burns has made it clear that the US will support India’s case for permanent membership of the UN Security Council when the issue of its expansion comes up. The US is likely to forcefully demand the induction of new permanent members in the Council in the near future. Whether the new permanent members will have the same privileges as the old ones have remains to be seen. Both the US and India need each other to fight global terrorism. They together can hope to prevent terrorist attacks like 9/11 and 26/11. India is now in a position to play a major role for promoting nuclear non-proliferation after acquiring a new status as a result of the 2008 Indo-US civilian nuclear deal. India and the US remain committed to operationalising the historic accord with New Delhi ready to get the controversial Nuclear Liability Bill passed by Parliament. The Liability Bill is essential for undertaking nuclear trade with India. President Obama must have also realised that India cannot be ignored if he wants to ensure successful implementation of his Af-Pak strategy. Relying too much on Pakistan has only further complicated the situation. India’s contribution to the use of development as a weapon to fight the Taliban in Afghanistan has earned world-wide appreciation. India can do more in cooperation with the US. This and the resumption of the peace dialogue with Pakistan, if it leads to easing of tensions in South Asia, can go a long way in changing the climate in the region. The US and India together can, in fact, considerably alter the course of global affairs.
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Heads must roll THIS year the Punjab State Education Board has surpassed its own shoddy record of conducting examinations with one goof-up after another, causing needless mental agony to students and sinking its own reputation to a new low. Students are already stressed by unreasonable parental expectations, insensitive teachers frequently bashing them up for childish pranks and the unbearable load of the bag. Any mistake in the evaluation of answer-sheets or in the total marks can cause major stress to an impressionable young one. How could the school board, with years of experience in holding examinations, award 86 marks out of 75 in a plus-two subject or place a class XII student in compartment in a subject in which she actually got cent per cent marks? How many errors go undetected is anybody’s guess. The public faith in the board’s quality and competence stands eroded. What impression does it leave on students about the quality of officials running the board that decides their fate? The board, it is clear, is manned by some really dubious persons, which is hardly a surprise in Punjab given the role politicians and bureaucrats play in influencing appointments. It will do students much good and lift the standard of education in Punjab if the government and private schools affiliate themselves with either the ICSE or the CBSE. Few will shed tears if the Punjab school board is wound up. The CBSE has made the class 10 examination optional. However, many state boards, including the one in Punjab, still hold even the middle standard examination. Both the ICSE and the CBSE have cut the burden on students and offer five subjects compared to nine prescribed by the Punjab board. It seems the state leadership is blissfully ignorant of school education reforms initiated at the national level. Is there anyone at the top who can purge the board of its deadwood and restore quality? The Punjab board must either perform or perish. Some heads must roll, at least.
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We are all worms. But I do believe that I am a glow-worm. — Winston Churchill
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Corrections and clarifications
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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Politics of corruption TILL recently the CBI was breathing down the neck of the Chief Minister of UP, Ms Mayawati, in the disproportionate assets and Taj corridor cases. However, the public perception is that she has now received a breather reportedly because she has rushed to the UPA government's support on the cut motion issue. Almost the same thing happened in the case of the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Mr Shibu Soren, who ditched the BJP to keep the UPA government going. Where does all this leave the CBI, the primary investigating agency, and the routine proclamations of the Indian political masters that corruption at high places will not be tolerated? Corruption is a malaise which affects the political system of the country as a whole. Ms Jayalaithaa, Mr Karunanidhi, the late Chandrababu Naidu, Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mulayam Singh Yadav, all holding high public offices of chief ministers and above, have all been investigated at some time or the other on corruption charges. However, not a single politician in India has ever been found guilty beyond doubt and decisively punished. In other developed democracies, politicians do have the decency of resigning from whatever public post they hold till investigation is over and they are again proved as honest. Not in India. Here not only that they continue holding their public offices, they brazenly keep on giving sermons to others not to be corrupt. We learn from an RTI filed by a Delhi daily that governments headed by leaders of various parties have withdrawn criminal cases against 51 politicians in the past 10 years, the beneficiaries including ministers, MLAs, former ministers and former MLAs. In most cases, the state government withdrew the charges using its power under Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code. What type of a sick society is ours which provides powers to political parties to forgive people having committed crime so that they continue to stay in power? The buck does not stop at the politicians alone. Our bureaucrats are a step ahead of the politicians. The latter at least have accountability towards the public. The bureaucrats have none. How the politicians and the bureaucrats help each other in sharing the corruption pie is borne out by the fact that more than 200 senior bureaucrats across India have come under the scanner of various anti-corrupting agencies but none of them can be proceeded against because various governments have not given the necessary sanction. This is really strange. When prima facie the case needs investigation or the charge-sheet requires to be filed, why not grant permission for the purpose? In other words, in India, the political party in power can do no wrong. One can loot as much as one can, knowing well that law will never be able to catch the culprit if he is in politics and wields power. Unfortunately, the politics in India has reached this nadir at a time when India is the youngest country in the world, needing a strong leadership to guide this predominantly youth polity. Today we in India have 74 million people who are below the age of 35. The youngsters have their dreams, aspirations, desires and energy to better their lot as also of their country. To keep them focused we need jobs in the country which must be urgently created. For this we need large-scale investments in infrastructure, agriculture and educational fields. Most of all, we need a responsive government which must make people feel that it cares. We need dedicated and committed politicians who live up to the basic standards of honest leadership. We need transparency in governance and upholding of law and order in the country. With the cancer of corruption at high places eating away the vitals of this country, currently all this is not possible. Needless to say, the treatment of this disease has to start from the top and at the earliest. The big fish must be caught and punished for people to see and develop faith in our democracy and system of governance. Paying lip-service will not do. This will also ensure that the pseudo-Robin Hoods like Naxals and members of other terror groups, who have taken to arms against the Constitution on the pretext of fighting for the cause of the downtrodden and are gaining ground in the country, will lose their support base. As many as 39 million people of this country live below poverty line and barely get two square meals a day. This loot and scoot politics, if not brought to an end, will result in these people becoming recruits of the Naxal movement and other terror organisations which will then become unstoppable. For last more than a decade the much-talked about Lok Pal Bill, bringing all politicians under its ambiance, is gathering dust. No government wants to make it a law. Time has come now that it must be implemented. All members of Parliament, including Prime Minister, must be included in it. The Lok Pal at the Centre and the Lok Ayukta in the states as also the Chief Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) of India and state-level Vigilance Commissioners must be appointed in a transparent manner. This process must be institutionalised and be broad-based. These institutions must be totally autonomous like the Election Commission of India, with various appointments having fixed tenures. Currently, the CVC has powers only to recommend the launch of criminal proceedings against a bureaucrat. It is the government which decides whether to proceed further or not. This must come to an end. Let the CVC initiate the proceedings. The CBI must work under an autonomous CVC and not under the Prime Minister’s Secretariat. Special courts must be set up to deal with all these corruption cases and the existing laws must be simplified. Once the charge-sheet has been filed, the property of the accused must be ceased till the disposal of the case. All cases must be decided in six-months- to-one-year duration. Let us not procrastinate on this issue of corruption. The country is fast sliding into an anarchy mode and the rampant corruption prevalent in all spheres of life is the main cause. A country of one billion plus cannot afford a perception that their leaders are corrupt and politics is a bad word in
India.
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Kerosene and the bride APART from being an alliance between academically unequal partners, the case under reference, which came up before me in the very first year of my placement in the Superior Judicial Service, had a uniqueness in itself. In the discharge of statutory duty to effect reconciliation between the warring spouses, a direction had been given for the personal appearance of the parties. The husband, a small- time shopkeeper supporting a widowed mother and also fending for the only progeny of the estranged couple whom the mother had deserted, looked a forlorn character. The wife, a B.Ed., was a Hisar-based teacher. In the course of the reconciliation parleys, it was apparent that there was really no real controversy between the parties and the cause of trouble was the disinclination of the husband to either shift to Hisar (where the wife was posted) or to, in any case, separate in mess and residence from his widowed mother. The former option was impractical because the husband was a small-time shopkeeper at Faridabad and the financial resources at his command did not admit of starting a business afresh in another town which otherwise also boasted of a number of departmental stores which had come up since the period the parties got married. As if the proposal was a “magical” solution, I told the wife that the boy had “agreed” to give poison to his mother in order to be able to lead a comfortable life with her. She instantaneously agreed. It was obvious that she had not exactly heard the former part of the proposal, “Yeh apni vidhwa maan ko zahar de dega taki aapke saath shanti se reh sake” (He would administer poison to his mother so that he can live with you in peace). The woman’s brother, who was accompanying her, intervened and whispered into her ear. She immediately told the court “Maine aisaa to kabhi nahin chaha” (I never desired it that way). It took me no time to persuade her to be reasonable and to start afresh, without insisting upon the two “illogical” proposals put forward by her. She agreed, took the child into her lap and also touched the feet of her mother-in-law (the only surviving parent of the distressed husband who was accompanying him). The consensual statements of the parties were recorded and the parties (and those accompanying them) were about to leave the court room when she suddenly turned and addressed me. “Main aapse ek sawal poonchna chahti hoon. Hindustan ke kerosene oil mein aisa kya hai ki voh patni se jism ki taraf hi badhta hai” (I wish to ask a question from you. How come that the Indian kerosene would burn only a wife?) I could see her counsel giving her a “toe” signal but the “damage” had been done. I asked him to leave it at that and told the lady that though the query was very relevant in the Indian context, the addressed quarters were not proper. “Aap ka sawal to bilkul sahi hai. Aapne poochha ghalat jagah hai. Yehi sawal aap apne bhai se karen. Apne ilaqe ke MLA se karen. Apne MP se karen. Voh shayad iska behtar jawab dene ki halat mein honge.” (You have a very valid query. Just that you have asked it at an improper forum. You may address it to your brother or your local MLA or MP. They would, perhaps, be in a better position to respond). My “reconciliatory” attitude appeared to satisfy her. That the query was otherwise relevant to the prevalent societal scenario was apparent. As a part of the male specie, I felt ashamed and my sensibilities went numb for a
while.
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Spare the tiger
THE “Save the Tiger” phrase seems to be the new Dhoni in the ad world. We read hoardings all over that we must “Save the Tiger”. But do these campaigns really have an impact on the tiger itself? It seems not. The main problem appears to be in the message of the ad text itself. These ads ask people to visit the companies’ websites to blog about saving the tiger, or to read about tiger facts or to donate to the NGO’s working to save tigers. But nowhere do they tell the common man how he himself can save the tiger. The behaviour of most tourists visiting national parks and sanctuaries is often shameful. Many of them are drunk and travel in cars playing loud music. Drastic action needs to be taken if we really want to save the tigers and wildlife and not just do lip-service. We must realise that poachers are not the only threat to wildlife. According to experts, the number of animal deaths in road accidents is higher than deaths by poaching. An eight-year-old tigress died on May 19 2010 inside the Bandhavgarh National Park in Madhya Pradesh. The Chief Wildlife Warden of Madhya Pradesh, Mr. R. S. Negi, feels that it was hit by a vehicle and has asked for police help to track the culprit down. Preliminary reports state that a politician’s vehicle hit the tigress whilst driving through the forest. This car supposedly entered the forest at 4 in the morning, even though the entry to the park is only allowed after 6.30 am. She leaves behind three cubs, five months old. Their fate is unknown. They will probably end up in an artificial habitat, like a zoo, where teasing and torture of animals is common. Ten days earlier another tiger was found dead in the Bandhavgarh National Park. The cause of the death is not known. Earlier in April 2010, a male tiger cub died after being run over by a safari vehicle carrying foreign tourists in the same park. A few months ago a leopard died on the Gurgaon-Jaipur highway after being hit by a vehicle. The leopard had strayed on the road from the jungles in the Aravalli Hills. The death of wild animals after being hit by vehicles is nothing new. In fact, in 2007 this issue was even brought up in the Lok Sabha, yet the number of deaths has only increased. According to the data collected by the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI), 23 big cats (20 leopards and three tigers) died as a result of road accidents from January 2009 till date. An additional 81 animals died as a result of being hit by trains. An ongoing study conducted by the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) near the Pench Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh reported 355 road killings in 310 days of observation. These included 208 snakes, 75 birds and 72 species of mammals. The study was conducted along National Highway 7 which runs from Nagpur to Jabalpur. Private resorts are coming up in sanctuaries which house endangered animals. Permissions for the same are given by the local authorities without taking into consideration animal corridors present there. For example Tala village in Bandhavgarh has many huge resorts. Earlier, it had a couple of small hotels only. Because of urbanisation, animals wander out onto roads looking for food and are hit by fast-moving vehicles. A recent ruling by the Karnataka High Court has banned travel on National Highways 212 and 67, which cut through the Bandipur Tiger reserve, between 9 pm and 6 am. This is the second road where there is a ban on travel at night. National Highway 17D from Mysore to Manathawadi, which cuts across the Nagarhole Tiger Reserve is also closed to vehicular traffic at night. The National Wildlife Action Plan (2002-2016) states: “The (ministries of) Surface Transport and Railways should plan roads in such a manner that all national parks and sanctuaries are bypassed and integrity of protected areas is maintained. Wildlife corridors also need to be avoided, or measures such as restricting night traffic need to be employed.” But the Kerala state transport corporation opposed the ban on night travel through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve saying that it was a shorter route. Fortunately, the High Court upheld the ban. State governments need to become sensitive to the importance of conserving wildlife. There are no boundaries or fencing on roads plying through forests. This makes it easy for animals to move onto roads. Curbing this problem is not a herculean task and could be handled with proper planning. Some simple suggestions are: the construction of speed-breakers to regulate traffic speed, reducing the speed limit of traffic which passes through forest roads, regulating the time of traffic going on these roads and putting up warning signs for the motorists to take care while driving through wildlife corridors. They should ensure that all roads passing through forests are monitored regularly by forest guards. Cars should not use high beams while travelling through forests I wonder if we are being too optimistic on the environmental responsibility being placed on the common man. Yet we must depend on the common man. After all, the future of the tiger depends on him. He must be sensitised on what he can do to save the tiger. And the directions for controlling vehicular traffic by the National Wildlife Action Plan should be implemented
urgently. The writer is a former head of PETA
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Telangana: Keep Andhra intact MANY changes took place in the boundaries of states after the adoption of India’s Constitution. For example, on October 1, 1953, the old state of Madras was divided into two - Madras and Andhra Pradesh. Following that, a wholesale reorganisation of States took place on November 1, 1956, with the result that the country was divided mainly on a linguistic basis. Occasionally, some territorial changes took place after 1956. On May 1, 1960, the Bombay Presidency State was split into the new linguistic states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. On November 1, 1966, Himachal Pradesh and Punjab were re-organised and split into four parts, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab and the Chandigarh Union Territory. On November 1, 2000 the new states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Uttarakhand were carved out of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, respectively. At present the country consists of 35 political entities, 28 states and seven Union Territories (UTs). The carving out of new states has become a regular feature. The long-pending demand for a separate state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh has recently gained momentum. Along with that are demands from various quarters for separate states, such as the demand from the Gorkha Jan Morcha (GJM) for Gorkhaland by dividing West Bengal, Vidarbha out of Maharashtra and Kamatapur out of Assam and West Bengal. Arguing that the present size of Uttar Pradesh state is unwieldy, the state’s Chief Minister has demanded its division into four smaller states like Harit Pradesh, Awadh, Bundelkhand, and Poorvanchal. The argument in favour of smaller states is that smaller states are more manageable and will develop faster. How far this argument holds is a big question. In the case of Jharkhand, carved out of Bihar in 2000, received but 24 per cent (26 million) of the population of undivided Bihar and 40 per cent of the country’s mineral wealth. Soon after Jharkhand’s formation its people suffered mass starvation and industrial backwardness. Even after a decade of its birth it has not been able to formulate its development policy after having four Chief Ministers during the decade. The case of Chhattisgarh is slightly different. Though it has made progress in the health and education sectors, its law and order situation has worsened due to Maoist influence. Uttarakhand’s situation is also not satisfactory. Even the question of distribution of assets with Uttar Pradesh and a permanent state capital have not been resolved during the past decade. We should, therefore, learn lessons from the past experience and seriously think of the consequences of bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, which was carved out in 1953 on a linguistic basis. Some demand that a new state of Telangana may be carved out of Andhra Pradesh. Another demand is to trifurcate Andhra Pradesh into Telangana, Ralayaseema and Coastal Andhra. Further, a demand from some quarters is to merge four districts of Ralayaseema with Telangana. Andhra Pradesh comprises 23 districts, of which 10 are in the proposed Telangana and 13 in the rest of Andhra - 9 are Coastal Andhra and 4 in Rayalaseema. The population of Andhra Pradesh, according to the 2001 census, was 76.2 million of which 31.0 million or 40.7 per cent was in Telangana and 45.2 million or 59.3 per cent in the rest of Andhra - 31.7 million or 41.6 per cent in Coastal Andhra and 13.5 million or 17.7 per cent in Ralayaseema. The number of towns in Andhra Pradesh at the time of the 2001 census was 210, of which 82 were in Telangana. Though the difference between the two regions was quite significant, the difference between the share of urban population was not much. Telangana’s share of the urban population of the state was 47.4 per cent and 52.7 was for the rest of Andhra Pradesh. The lower share in the number of towns and significantly higher share of the urban population in Telangana is due to Hyderabad district which is entirely urban having a population of 3.8 million. The density of population in Andhra Pradesh was 277 people per sq. km. Telangana had slightly less people per sq. km. (270) while the rest of Andhra was slightly more densely populated having 282 people per sq. km. The difference between the levels of development in the two regions is quite significant and Telangana appears to be in a happier position. Telangana definitely has an edge over the rest of Andhra. Succumbing to pressure, the Government of India constituted a committee for consultations on the situation in Andhra Pradesh with a deadline of December 31, 2010 to submit its recommendations to the Government of India. Should Telangana be carved out of Andhra Pradesh is a big question. Can’t we set right the existing small regional imbalance by judiciously planning new developmental programmes for the two regions so that the state carved out on a linguistic basis remains intact? The writers work for the Population Reference Bureau, Washington-DC.
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Chennai Diary Most of the ministers and party leaders, including Karunanidhi and his son MK Stalin, were present when Khushboo joined the DMK. However, Kanimozhi did not attend the function. Several reasons were attributed for her absence and now it is seen as an expression of displeasure. A section of the party feels that Stalin deliberately brought Khushboo into the party to diminish the focus on Kanimozhi, who is close to elder brother and Union Minister MK Alagiri. Interestingly, Kanimozhi was one of the first voices in support of Khushboo, when there were protests against the actress for her remarks on pre-marital sex. But ever since Khushboo joined the party, Kanimozhi is observing silence on the new entrant. One song, 29 singers Carnatic musicians, light music singers and folk artistes have sung the song, which is being screened in theatres throughout Tamil Nadu. Rahman has also given an opportunity to three generations of singers from veteran PB Srinivas to Sruthi Hasan, daughter of film star Kamal
Haasan. MGR’s prediction Tamil film producers and actors have a craze for old titles of matinee idol MGR’s films. Nearly all film titles of MGR have been used again by the present-day action heroes. MGR’s Nadodi Mannan (Vagabond-turned-king) was used by Sharath Kumar, who is heading a party. Another title “Ayirathil Oruvan” (One in Thousand) was used by popular director Selvaragavan. Even popular heroes are not exceptions. Young star Vijay acted in a movie with the title “Vettaikaaran” (hunter).
But MGR himself did not like the idea of his titles being used again, says actor Sathyaraj, who was close to the matinee idol. When he approached MGR to use one of his film titles, the matinee idol had declined, saying: “If anyone uses my film titles, the film will not succeed”. True to MGR’s prediction, none of the films which used his titles has been successful so far. Now the fate of actor Vijay’s new film “Kaavalkaaran” (Policeman), which is the title of a successful MGR movie, is being keenly watched.
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WITHIN a few weeks of entering the DMK, Tamil film star Khushboo has begun to eclipse party chief Karunanidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi. The Chief Minister’s daughter was undoubtedly the leading personality in the party’s women’s wing till now. But the focus has now shifted to yesteryear’s dream girl Khushboo, who attracts youths as well as women. 
Music maestro AR Rahman, who composed the music for the theme song of the World Classical Tamil Conference, has involved 29 singers in it. As the song written by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi describes the values of equality and universal brotherhood of mankind, the composer has involved popular singers in the theme song.