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Too little too late
Message from the Valley |
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More offers for public
Countering Maoist menace
I had a dream…
Decline in quality
Development at what cost? Delhi Durbar
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Too little too late THE nation is bound to be disappointed over Monday’s ruling of a Bhopal court in the Union Carbide gas tragedy case which concerned the world’s worst industrial disaster to date. It sentenced eight former officials of the plant (including the then non-executive chairman of Union Carbide India Limited, Keshub Mahindra) to only two years in jail and released them on bail on a personal bond of Rs 25,000 each. It is small wonder then that the nation feels cheated. Considering that the disaster killed over 15,000 people and left lakhs maimed in December 1984 and the court took 26 years to try the accused, it can justly be described as a case of too little and too late. Shockingly, the IPC sections — 304A (causing death by negligence), 336 (acts endangering life or personal safety of others) and 337 (causing hurt by act endangering life or personal safety of others) — under which the accused have been tried carry a maximum punishment of two years of imprisonment. The CBI will have to take a major share of the blame for its failure to convince the court on the need for higher punishment for the accused. It presented a weak case which helped the accused to get away with minor punishment. Even those convicted, except Keshub Mahindra, are all small fries. But why did the Centre fail to try Warren Anderson, the US-based Union Carbide Corporation’s former Chairman? Why was he not even charge-sheeted in this case and made an accused? Unfortunately, the Centre did little to bring Anderson to book for criminal liability. It is common knowledge how he got bail from a Bhopal court soon after his arrest on December 7, 1984, and how he flew back by a state government plane to New Delhi from where he managed to leave the country. There is an Interpol warrant against this absconder and yet, the government did not make honest efforts to bring him to justice. The victims of the gas tragedy and the kith and kin of the deceased may have decided to knock the doors of the Madhya Pradesh High Court. But they have a long battle ahead. Most of them have got only a measly compensation so far. While there is no escape from fighting for justice because the killer gas has hit the survivors in their genes, it may take many more years for the judiciary to pronounce the last word in the case.
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Message from the Valley THE suspension of a Major and the removal of a Colonel from a command following the institution of an enquiry into the death of three youngsters in an allegedly fake encounter on April 30 in the Machil sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s Kupwara district should be enough to send across the message that security personnel indulging in human rights violations will not be allowed to go scot-free. Such Army personnel are guilty of not only killing innocent citizens of the country because of the lure of rewards, but are also responsible for damaging the armed forces’ image. All the good work the armed forces personnel do under trying circumstances loses its lustre if someone from their ranks is found involved in questionable acts. The action against the two Army officers came on the eve of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s two-day visit to Jammu and Kashmir, perhaps, in keeping with his recent statement that he believed in zero-tolerance for human rights violations. The police enquiry into the Machil encounter has yet to unravel the truth, but it has drawn attention to the fact that some people in the Army can go to the extent of stage-managing encounters with “infiltrators” for claiming awards, medals, etc. The controversy over the Machil incident has led to the launching of a probe into all the suspected encounter deaths like what happened at Tanghdar on May 26. This was essential to make it clear that the government has no intention to shield anyone whose name figures in controversies relating to human rights violations. The policy of zero-tolerance to human rights violations must be pursued vigorously to weaken the argument of separatists, extremists and enemies of India on the other side of the LoC, who have been exploiting such incidents to mislead the gullible public in the border state. It would be better if the Army holds its own enquiry into all the controversial encounter cases to punish its guilty officers and men. However, whatever steps are taken to assuage the hurt feelings of the people should not go to affect the morale of the security forces. The difficult circumstances under which they have to function cannot be ignored. There are always chances of their committing mistakes unintentionally. The forces defending the country’s borders need to be dealt with sympathetically.
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More offers for public THE government decision requiring all listed companies to have at least 25 per cent public holdings will help reduce volatility in the Indian capital markets. The stocks of companies with high promoter stakes are often manipulated and over-valued. The new norms will reveal a more realistic worth of a company. Now the promoter(s) of every listed company, whether foreign or government-owned, will have at least 25 per cent public share-holdings. To ensure that this does not lead to a sudden rush of public issues, the government has stipulated that public holdings can be raised by 5 per cent annually. According to Crisil Equities, 179 companies, most of them PSUs, will issue stocks worth Rs 1,60,000 crore to meet the new listing requirements. This is a huge amount even considering increased foreign capital inflows. Many shareholders may sell their existing equities to lap up more lucrative offers. This will also force the closely held firms to price their shares competitively to attract investors. This, in turn, will bring down the market capitalisation of state-owned companies by at least 22-23 per cent, according to experts. This means the PSU disinvestment plan may not bring in as much money as was originally expected. For ordinary investors it is good news if they have surplus funds. But they will have to be careful in picking grain from the chaff. If the public response to new offerings is lukewarm, firms may opt for the easier route of qualified institutional placements and avoid the time-consuming regulations that go with a public offer. Since the euro zone problems are not yet over and the recovery in Europe and the US is uncertain, investors will have to be cautious while making fresh commitments. Even some of the foreign institutional investors are pulling out of the turbulent markets to park their cash in gold or the debt market. Better safe than sorry.
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Let justice be done, though the world perish. — Ferdinand
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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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Countering Maoist menace THE police and paramilitary forces of the state governments and the Centre fighting Maoist terrorism need to inculcate the Army’s professional ethos, operational culture of young officers leading from the front and high standards of personnel and sub-unit training. However, they do not need the Army’s physical presence to boost their morale and achieve operational effectiveness. Nor can the already over-stretched Army sustain another major long-term internal security commitment. The Army has been deployed for counter-insurgency operations in several north-eastern states for over half a century. It has been engaged in counter-proxy war operations against the so-called mujahideen mercenaries sponsored by the Pakistan Army and the ISI in Jammu and Kashmir for two decades. While answering a question in Parliament a few years ago, the Defence Minister had averred that 1,20,000 Army personnel are deployed for counter-insurgency operations. In addition, 65 battalions of the Army’s counter-insurgency force, the Rashtriya Rifles, are deployed in J&K, and 31 of the 46 battalions of the Assam Rifles in the North-East. The Army’s prolonged employment on internal security duties, its secondary role, hampers its preparedness for its primary role of safeguarding the territorial integrity of India’s land borders by defeating aggression and fighting and winning conventional wars against the country’s military adversaries when necessary. It wears out front line weapons and equipment. It also imposes a heavy burden on the Army’s annual budget due to the cost of replenishment of ammunition expended in counter-insurgency operations and frequent replacement of vehicles and other equipment and, consequently, adversely affects the Army’s modernisation programme. The prolonged employment of the Army for internal security duties could encourage inimical neighbours to undertake military misadventures. The Pakistan Army launched large-scale intrusions across the LoC into Kargil in 1999 under the mistaken belief that nine years of counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir would have tired out the Indian Army. Such deployment reduces the peace-time “rest and recoup” tenures of Army units, especially infantry battalions, curtails the time that the troops can spend with their families and eventually — imperceptibly but surely — undermines the morale of individual soldiers and even whole units. No thinking Indian would like to see the latter development take place as its consequences for national security and India’s integrity as a nation-state would be truly horrendous. In 2000, the Group of Ministers (GoM), led by Mr L. K. Advani, then Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, had accepted the recommendation of the Task Force on Internal Security to designate the CRPF as the primary Central government’s strike force for counter-insurgency operations. Since then, 10 years have passed and many battalions have been deployed in J&K but, regrettably, the CRPF has not so far done enough to rise to the challenge. This was borne out by the dastardly massacre of 74 of its men at Dantewada. The report of the E.N. Rammohan Enquiry Committee that looked into the incident has reportedly pointed out the major organisational and training lapses in that operation. For success, CRPF units must upgrade the quality of their counter-insurgency tactics, techniques and procedures and be armed with modern weapons for close-quarter battle and surveillance, reconnaissance and communications equipment suitable for jungle terrain. Leadership at the level of commanding officer (CO) should be drawn through lateral induction of volunteers from the Army, as was done when the BSF was initially raised. Young IPS officers must spend the first three years of their service with CRPF battalions on active duty in Maoist-infested areas. This will instil confidence in them and give them valuable operational experience in internal security duties. CRPF units must operate as cohesive battalions under the direct command of the CO and not as independent companies in penny packets, with the CO responsible only for administration. No CO, whose companies are deployed for anti-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh and who himself is sitting in his battalion HQ in Allahabad, can be effective in exercising operational control, ensuring high standards of training and boosting the morale of the men under his command. Nor can he be held responsible for operational and administrative lapses under such circumstances. The army must continue to train CRPF and state police personnel for counter-insurgency operations and provide whatever logistics support is possible. However, the DG, CRPF, must ensure that full sub-units are sent for training together and not individual personnel. The CRPF officers must accompany their troops for training, and all of them should be physically fit. Recent experience has shown that many of the CRPF personnel report sick on arrival, the officers rarely accompany them and the men are disinclined to put themselves through the rigorous training regimen. Speculative reports have appeared about the imminent deployment of eight or more Rashtriya Rifles battalions after approval by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS). These battalions and two or three Sector HQ will have to be pulled out from the counter-insurgency grid in J&K, provided the CCS is convinced of the operational necessity of an immediate surge in anti-Maoist operations. However, it is not sustainable in the long-term. Enough evidence is available to affirm that whenever the counter-insurgency grid in a district is denuded of troops, the insurgents make a rapid comeback. If such deployment is being contemplated by the CCS, it would be better to raise additional Rashtriya Rifles battalions for the purpose. The regular Army should not be employed for internal security and counter-insurgency duties unless it becomes absolutely unavoidable due to the presence of well-trained and well-armed foreign terrorists, and when secessionist tendencies are discerned in a movement. Even then it should only be for short-duration surgical operations under the umbrella of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act with a Unified Command in place. In certain circumstances special forces units should be preferred over infantry battalions, for example, for hunting down the leadership of the politburo of the
Maoists. The writer is Director, Centre for Land Warfare Studies, New Delhi.
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I had a dream…
I
had a dream a couple of days back. It was not something that had to do something with ambition as I have never been ambitious. It was years back that I had struck a compromise with life that I would never seek big cars and fat salaries and in return life would just offer me a peaceful existence on my own terms while being far away from the rat race. Coming back to my dream, I must say that it disturbed me a lot. It was something that had come much unexpected. In this dream of mine I was exported back to my schooldays and the year was 1984. Yes, I remember the year precisely because at that time I was in Class 7 and it was in that year that our Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated and this assassination was followed by a pogrom against the Sikhs. Well, my dream had nothing to do with the assassination or with the pogrom. It has something to do with a thing as simple as a paper plane. What I saw again was a mischievous act to which I had resorted to in the social sciences class. My teacher Uma Hiteshi, a great human being who loved me a lot despite me being a naughty brat, was sitting on the teacher’s desk. I came to know that she passed away last year and it was yet another great personal loss for me. And it was perhaps my continuing to remember her in my subconsciousness that she decided to come alive in my dream once more. Anyhow, while she had sat correcting our notebooks towards the end of the academic session with the exams approaching, a naughty thought had struck me. Confident that I would get promoted to the next class and there was no use of revising my course in that autumn class, I decided to have some harmless fun. I took out a notebook, tore a page and made a paper plane. Making a paper plane those days, at that age, was a huge delight…..a very fulfilling experience. With deft hands, I tore a sheet out of the notebook, gave it the required multiple folds, smoothened its wings on my palm and like any great inventor I wrote my name on it. Then came its launch from the window of my class and I was confident that it would definitely soar high on account of the strong late autumn, early winter wind. To my childish delight it came true to my expectation and it did soar high and travelled a long distance away from the window. But to my shock, the wind played the truant and after travelling a long distance, it made a u turn and my sincere hopes and wishes that it does not re-enter the class were dashed. Not only did it re-enter the class, it landed right under the nose of my bespectacled teacher who was busy correcting a notebook. My name on the plane gave away my identity. What followed was on expected lines. I was labelled a goonk, my ears were wrenched and I was promptly thrown out of the class. This was something of a routine. It was at this point that my dream broke. I woke up feeling thirsty. Saw the time on my mobile which read 5.35 am. Then I had a longing. The craving to make a paper plane returned after all those years. I felt restless on discovering that I no longer possessed a notebook whose sheets were worthy of making a paper plane. I decided that I would borrow a sheet from the kids in the neighborhood the first thing in the morning and I would definitely make a paper plane and once again write my name on it. But I realized with horror once again that the notebooks along with their new form of stapling and binding that are in vogue today are not ideal for making a paper plane. With the slopes of the hills becoming a jungle of concrete, there is no scope for the planes to soar high into the clear blue sky. Themulti storeyed buildings would halt the plane’s flight and these buildings no longer allow the blowing of breeze and winds that would facilitate an ideal launch. So my agenda now is to once again put my dream into reality. I would go to the wilderness one of these days with a notebook that has sheets ideal; for making a paper plane and indulge in that childhood luxury for the whole day. Perhaps this would be a befitting way of paying my respects to my lost
teacher.
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Decline in quality This has transformed the very sectoral composition of the economy — from a basically agricultural economy (or an industrialising economy) to a fast-growing service economy. This has also brought about a fundamental change in the occupational distribution in the country, with a larger proportion of the workforce now engaged in the services sectors. The large presence of foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) in the Indian markets, mainly in the ICT sectors including telecommunications, and other tertiary areas of economic activity, has been induced by the availability of abundant and inexpensive professional and highly skilled manpower. Nonetheless of late these MNCs have become circumspect about the quality of India’s technical manpower, and instead prefer to train in-house the newly recruited professionals before inducting them into their business. Thus it should be imperative for the new Education Policy to focus on augmenting the quality of professional skills and competence of our technical manpower. Although since Independence, a huge emphasis has continued to be placed on forging a monolithic edifice of education, research and training institutions, with the objective to groom our own home-grown scientific and technical (S&T) and professionally skilled manpower, yet if we looked at the nature of the turnout of S&T personnel from Indian universities, it would purport an extremely pathetic picture of its quality. Around 55-60 per cent of the students in science-related areas complete their training only up to graduation; only 10-13 per cent complete postgraduation, while less than 2 per cent end up with a doctorate in sciences. Likewise, in technology related subjects (engineering etc.), whereas 13-15 per cent acquire education up to graduation; only about 2 per cent complete postgraduation, and less than 1 per cent of the total go up to complete doctorates. The same is true of the other subjects related to medical, agricultural and veterinary sciences. Similarly, over 30 per cent of the total PhDs awarded in the Indian universities happen to be in basic science disciplines, and over 37 per cent in arts and humanities; while less than 6 per cent of the total PhDs awarded are in engineering and technology-related subjects; about 3 per cent in medical and veterinary sciences; around 8 per cent in agricultural sciences, and only around 4 per cent in education. This pattern of education and knowledge acquisition at the higher and specialised level indicates that an over-bearing majority of the prospective professional S&T manpower restricts training up to the graduation or at best to postgraduation levels and that too in basic science disciplines rather than in applied technology areas. Very few end up with doctoral degrees in science and technology related disciplines, or in the faculty of education, which would entitle them as qualified professional teachers. Hence there is a grim shortage of quality teachers in S&T institutes and universities to train and mould our technical human resources for the bourgeoning science and technology intensive productive sectors. According to an estimate, every year about 16,000 qualified teachers are required to take up teaching positions in higher and technical education institutions, but only about 12,000 PhDs are available. In the absence of good quality professionally competent teachers, even the ambitious plan of setting up 1,500 universities, 40 Central universities and 14 world class universities, as envisaged by the National Knowledge Commission, is bound to run into rough weather, because if these model institutions of higher learning are to be manned only by mediocre incumbents, this would dilute teaching standards and frustrate the lofty objective of producing high-grade skilled human resource. Owing to the quality and skill gap of our professional workforce, many incoming MNCs have started to look askance at the capability and professional competence of our technical graduates, and thus, have contemplated to set up their own training units to reorient the technical skills of the newly recruited technical personnel before finally inducting them into their organisations. It is because of the skill inadequacy among our technical personnel that we are currently encountering the paradox of abundant availability of skilled professionals on the one hand, and high unemployment rate among them, on the other. This is because of the lack of employability of the Indian technical workforce, which is on account of the mismatch between the quality of their training, and the skill requirements determined by the ever-expanding technical parameters of production technologies. Though we produce about 3 lakh engineers each year, not more than 25 per cent of our skilled human resources are employable in the ICT sectors alone. This reflects poorly on the standards of our institutes of technical and higher
learning. Although we have quite a few universities and technical institutions of world repute, yet the current times are witnessing a haphazard and unbridled growth of engineering and technical institutes. Many of these technical institutions do not endeavour to adhere to impeccable standards of teaching, training and research, and instead only aim at making loads of money. The paucity of qualified and trained teachers, lack of monitoring of these institutions for standardising and updating syllabi, and lack of practical nature of the instructions are some of the causes of below par human resource generated in these institutions. The government is trying its bit by making teaching a more attractive profession by offering quite lucrative pay scales now for teachers in the institutions of higher education. It is also resolved to apportion 20 per cent of the Eleventh Plan outlay for education. But the imperative is to stretch the expenditure on education to well beyond 6 per cent of the GDP from the current low of less than 2 per cent; and also by spending proportionately more out of the annual budgetary educational expenditure on higher and technical education which at present is as low as 10-12 per cent of the total. India in its current phase of development with an ambition to touch double-digit growth needs to focus on the elevation of quality of its technical and professional manpower rather than its
quantum.
The writer is a Professor in the Punjab School of Economics, Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar
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Development at what cost? WE have entered a new period in our relationship with the natural environment. It has been noticed that human influence is pervasive and deep as the modern civilization has sought to transform the essential life support systems of the planet. Since the time of the industrial revolution, human progress has been leading rapidly to a pervasive deterioration of our environmental assets. With our present approach to development we have caused the clearing of much of the original forests, drained half of the world’s wetlands, depleted three quarters of all fish stocks and emitted enough heat-trapping gases to keep our planet warming for centuries to come. We have put our foot on the accelerator making species extinctions occur at up to 1,000 times the natural rate. This year the focus of the World Environment Day is on biodiversity and entitled as “Many Species. One Planet. One Future”. It echoes the urgent call to conserve the diversity of life on our planet as biodiversity is the foundation of all life on earth. It underpins the functioning of ecosystems from which we derive essential products and services (known as ecosystem goods and services) such as oxygen, food, fresh water and medicines. Healthy biodiversity is essential to human well-being (global food security and nutrition), sustainable development and poverty reduction. In view of rapid industrialisation and urbanisation, it is being lost through human activities such as habitat destruction, land conversion for agriculture and development, climate change, pollution and host of other threats. Each of us ought to do our best – as Gandhi had emphasised years ago “to minimise our needs and jettison our greed”. In turn, it could only provide a breathing space for regeneration of vital support systems of the earth and help in improving our heritage of shared global environment. Every society needs to take steps to stop the careless exploitation and destruction of the environment by making the drastic changes in attitudes and behaviour. How many times have you driven in traffic and thrown a piece of waste or a beer bottle out of your car? When you eat your Saturday barbecue do you sometimes think where your Styrfoam containers end up (Styrfoam takes thousand years to degrade if at all)? When you drive past the rivers, lakes or ponds do you sometimes feel sad or upset or do you merely shrug your shoulders? When you smoke a cigarette or eat a chicken leg on the beach do you toss it on the sand or throw it in a dustbin? When you see whole hillside cleared and beaches and reefs damaged because of the construction of more high-rise condos or marinas do you rejoice in the name of development or does your heart bleed? The answers to these questions are important at the personal and sociological levels. How can a society take pride in itself if it has no pride in its cultural and natural environment? The key is to recognise that humans and the natural environment are interdependent and part of a larger entity the “whole-life-system.” We are left with very limited choices to redefine the values and principles that underlie our relationship with the earth. As a result, we need to strive for equitable benefits and burden-sharing from the use of the environment. All are responsible for maintaining the integrity of the environment as an integrated entity since “change in one element means change in the others”. Even as we wait with bated breath the global intergovernmental efforts, individual efforts are vital through building networks within and at all levels of civil society, government, industry and non-governmental organisations. All of us need to cultivate a lifestyle that can be sustained within the means of our natural resources.
The writer is a doctoral scholar, Centre for International Legal Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi
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Delhi Durbar Strange
are the ways in which some of our MPs behave. Congress MP from North Mumbai Sanjay Nirupam brought out his own “performance report” for 2009-10 to mark his one year in the Lok Sabha. The report was distributed among reporters at the AICC, a day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released his report on the performance of UPA-II. The glossy 44-page report had pictures of the Prime Minister and, who else but Congress president Sonia Gandhi, her son Rahul and Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan. Nirupam, who before the general election visited the House of “Big Boss” in a TV programme and was eliminated in the second week itself, was also there on the
cover. Obviously much labour has gone into the preparation of the report, leaving journalists wondering about the money that must have been spent on it. A senior Congress leader, not from Maharashtra, was heard saying: “Who can have more money to spare than Maharashtra leaders?” Hope NCP strongman Sharad Pawar and his daughter Supriya Sule are listening.
Krishna learns the ropes Found embarrassing for the government in the early months of UPA II when he fumbled often in Parliament while replying to questions, Krishna has slowly but steadily gained full control of his ministry and is seen to be skillfully conducting the delicate business of diplomacy. One official recalled how Krishna left a lasting impression on Iranian President Ahmedinejad during his visit to Tehran last month. But the real test for Krishna lies ahead when he goes to Islamabad in July to kickstart the dialogue with Pakistan by eliminating the trust deficit.
Sangh Parivar’s love
for cricket There is no dearth of such leaders in the BJP/RSS. Arun Jaitley is the better known cricket enthusiast, but he is merely better known. There are many more: Kirti Azad, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Anurag Thakur, and our very own Narendrabhai Modi, to name a
few. How many people know that the current president of BCCI Shashank Manohar too has a close and long association with Resham Bagh, Nagpur , and was at some stage a classfellow of Sarasanghchalak Mohanrao Bhagwat. Perhaps that is why most BJP cricket top guns are now keen to have Shashank Manohar take the centrestage at the IPL too, for Manohar has earned his certificate of honesty and integrity direct from the top man at Resham
Bagh.
Contributed by Vibha Sharma, Ashok Tuteja and Faraz Ahmad
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THE economic reforms initiated in the 1990s marked a complete turn-around in the country’s development strategy from a regulated economy, to a progressively deregulated market economy. The forces of liberalisation and globalisation ushered in India’s increasing integration with the global markets, eventuating in an influx of foreign capital, technology and businesses in the Indian markets. 
Foreign Minister S M Krishna standing alongside US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington after the Indo-US strategic dialogue clearly reflected the confidence the minister has gained in the past few months.
All the while the world may have believed the RSS and its swayamsevaks’ interests were restricted to the lathi and how to swing it. But it seems men of the Parivar have taken more interest in swinging the cricket bat than the good old lathi.