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Road to Manipur
Raj to the fore |
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Questionable move
The stench we live with
My Name is Iqbal and I am not a terrorist
Challenge of education
Still not ready for industrial disasters
Delhi Durbar
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Road to Manipur
The
‘temporary’ withdrawal of the two-month old blockade of highways to Manipur by Naga groups would come as a relief to the people of the beleaguered state. Forced to live with shortages and compelled to pay exorbitant prices for food, fuel, medicines and transport all these weeks, they would be hoping for an early end to their misery so that they may resume normal life. The withdrawal was announced immediately after a delegation of Naga students met the Prime Minister in New Delhi and hours after the Union Home Secretary confirmed that central forces were indeed being rushed to secure the highways. The Naga groups were possibly left with few options but to end the blockade. They of course gave the impression that their decision was prompted by the ‘good meeting’ they had with the Prime Minister, who apparently listened to them patiently and assured that he would look into their demands. If the solution to the impossibly long stand-off were to be so swift and simple, one wonders why the PM’s intervention was delayed; or for that matter why it took the Union Home Ministry two months to finally flex its muscles. Road blockades are a common form of popular protest that one now encounters across the country and over grievances ranging from the trivial to the grave. It is, almost always, symptomatic of poor and unresponsive governance and signals a breakdown of the local administration at ground level with people demanding intervention, or just a hearing, from the ‘top’. But even by our own standards, the two-month old blockade of the main highways connecting Manipur to the rest of the country must rank in a class of its own. The threat of the Naga Students Federation to resume the blockade if their demands are not met, cannot be dismissed lightly. The stand-off in the Northeast has demonstrated how fragile the region continues to be and how feeble the authority exercised by New Delhi or the state governments. The uncomfortable truce will be short-lived unless steps are taken urgently to resolve the volatile cocktail of political and ethnic issues that triggered the trouble in the first place.
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Raj to the fore
The
support extended by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena to the Congress in getting a Congress-backed candidate elected in the recent Legislative Council elections at the cost of a Shiv Sena nominee has soured the already-strained relations between the MNS and the Sena. Indeed, the 13 MNS legislators were the major factor that led to the victory of all seven candidates belonging to the Congress and the NCP. This is a repeat of the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in which MNS’ support had given the Congress-NCP alliance the crucial edge. This time around, while the MNS has spoken openly that its aim was to placate the Congress to secure the revocation of suspension of four of their members from the assembly, the Shiv Sena has been alleging that Raj and his men fell victim to Congress monetary inducements. As things stand, the chances of the Shiv Sena and the MNS coming together in elections to the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation in 2011 appear bleak. While Sena supremo Bal Thackeray has mocked at his nephew Raj by calling him ‘Dhanajirao’ (wealthy man) in the context of his ‘underhand’ deal with the Congress, the MNS chief has told the Shiv Sena to mind its own business. The Congress on its part, while being elated over the growing chasm between the Shiv Sena and the MNS, also has something to worry about. The Congress has been distancing itself from the migrant-attacking MNS to avoid an embarrassment at the national level, as elections in Bihar and U.P. are due soon. Any revocation of the suspension of the MNS legislators will strengthen the feeling in those two states that the Congress is hand-in-glove with the MNS. There is no denying, however, that the MNS has emerged as a key factor in Maharashtra’s political chessboard. It may not win many seats, but its potential to harm the Shiv Sena is indeed substantial. For the Congress-NCP alliance it is a boon to see the Shiv Sena and its offshoot at dagger’s drawn in the State.
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Questionable move
Uttar Pradesh
Chief Minister Mayawati’s proposal to amend laws for holding party-less polls to urban civic bodies and election of mayors and municipal chairmen not by voters but by corporators and municipal councillors has kicked off a major controversy. Though the BJP, the Congress and the Samajwadi Party have questioned the propriety of her going ahead with the amendments without giving them the mandatory one-month time to give their opinion, she is proceeding ahead with her move. Party-less election to local bodies is nothing new. Bihar and Madhya Pradesh have been following this. Under the Constitution, the state governments are empowered to amend laws on urban civic body elections. But what is being objected to is the surreptitious way by which Ms Mayawati is trying to amend the legislation by keeping the notification under wraps. Apparently, Ms Mayawati has quietly initiated the move so that every candidate in the local body elections is an Independent, implying that no party can technically be a winner or loser. She apparently fears that if the BSP loses the urban civic bodies elections in 2011, it could adversely affect the party’s prospects in the 2012 Assembly elections. As it is, the BSP doesn’t have much of a following in the urban local bodies today. So, if the 2011 polls were held on the basis of party tickets, it would heap as much humiliation on the ruling BSP as the CPM is facing now in West Bengal. A bigger worry is the fallout of the party-less elections. These may increase the role of money power, encourage horse-trading and make it easier for the ruling party to buy councillors, it is feared. Union Urban Development Minister S. Jaipal Reddy has reportedly threatened to hold up funds to the tune of Rs 15,000 crore under the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) for Uttar Pradesh if the Chief Minister goes ahead with the amendment. It is a moot point whether Ms Mayawati will finally succeed, but it does not come through as a fair move.
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A statesman — must wait until he hears the steps of God sounding through events; then leap up and grasp the hem of his garment. — Otto von Bismarck
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The stench we live with We have got so used to the stench that we live with it not realising how foul it smells. The trivial Bhopal verdict is a grim reminder of this truth. The title I gave to Raajkumar Keswani’s essay on the Bhopal gas tragedy, in a book I later edited, was “An Auschwitz in Bhopal”. Keswani, then a small-time journalist in Bhopal, was among the first to alert the nation to the looming tragedy of the ill-maintained Union Carbide pesticide plant that showed signs of becoming a gas chamber. That was in 1982 and 1983 after the first gas leaks and fatalities, when the company cut down maintenance on this loss- making plant that it was negotiating to sell to one or the other of its associates in Brazil or Indonesia. The warnings were ignored. Twenty-six years and more than a generation later, a judicial magistrate in Bhopal has pronounced a maximum sentence of two years imprisonment under the revised offence charged in 1996: negligence rather than culpable homicide not amounting to murder. Bhopal was no “accident”. If at all, with prior warnings, it was an accident waiting to happen. Nine Indian officials have been found guilty. The then UCC Chairman, Warren Anderson, was arrested in December 1984, bailed out and officially assisted to flee the country as he could not be charged with vicarious liability. The Bhopal plant was later sold to Dow Chemicals with no liability even to clean up the still toxic plant site. The watchword both in India and the US was promoting investment, not justice. An estimated 20,000-25,000 have died as a result of the gas leak in Bhopal. Approximately half a million more suffer the agonies of continuing ailments, deformities and genetic deformities. Medical research on the effects of the lethal methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas and its long-term treatment have been faulty. People continue to suffer and remain exposed to unknown risks. The $470 million compensation awarded was clearly meagre and its disbursement delayed. Confusion, incompetence, cover-up and procedural delays all played their part in dealing with the greatest industrial disaster the world has ever seen. The US was quick to cover its back and its response was quite different from that to the soon-to-follow Exxon Valdez oil spill off the coast of Alaska or, currently, to the BP blow-out while deep-drilling for oil in the Gulf of Mexico. Without minimising either event and its ecological implications, the two combined do not add up to anything like the magnitude of the human tragedy in Bhopal and its continuing effects. In both cases, the US response to corporate liability has been very different to that in Bhopal, despite admitted differences in these cases. A most unsavoury blame game and loud name calling has started in India with the usual absurdities like demands for a joint parliamentary inquiry being touted to score political points. To what end? Such antics will only delay action to mend the systemic failures that Bhopal and other events have exposed, expedite justice and bring closure. A 26-year trial is an absolute travesty. The law, often antiquated in letter and intent, has time and again been shown to be an ass. The administration and investigatory agencies can be bent and lack the independence expected of them as democratic bulwarks. Compensation norms have not been standardised and vary from case to case, agency to agency and state to state. There is also a clear class bias in all of this. The well heeled are treated differently and sometimes get away with murder. Take the string of recent cases of drunken driving and its toll of humble victims. A two-year prison term after years of traumatic delay is poor solace to families who lose their breadwinners and loved ones. The permissible punishment should be exemplary, especially when the culprits go missing, prevaricate, and delay justice. Parents and guardians should not be immune so that the spoilt-brat syndrome is checked. Similarly, rape and run or rape and murder criminals should be punished not only for the crime, if found guilty, but also for their conduct after the event such as when BMWs become trucks. It is understandable that many are demanding a fresh look at the civil nuclear liability Bill so as to ensure that criminal negligence cannot be disassociated from accountability. Accidents may happen and the corporate owner or equipment supplier should not be burdened with crushing liabilities unless criminal negligence is proven. Insistence on anything more onerous than that could turn away suppliers and investors to the detriment of the greater common good. The right balance must be struck between total liability and no liability irrespective of
circumstances.
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My Name is Iqbal and I am not a terrorist Are you a Muslim”? This is the first question that everyone always asks me. At first I am defensive. Then I would also feel a little embarrassed trying to claim my non-Muslim identity. Being a Muslim is not at all a crime but because of recent terrorist acts and Muslim propaganda, the religion itself is under scrutiny. So the moment I would say, “I am a Sikh”, I am attacked with another question. How come you don’t have a turban? This, in many cases, would be more embarrassing and make me question my identity myself. But then I would content myself assuring that it’s just a belief that is built up by society. I should not have to tie a turban and keep my hair to do all the good deeds as Sikhs and claim my religion. Well, that’s a separate topic about which even I am confused and don’t have any definite answer. Last week I was looking to rent a place somewhere in Toronto which was close to my work and was a good neighbourhood. Looking at different houses I came across a beautiful house which also happened to be owned by an Indian. I called to set up an appointment and I was asked to come and see the place following morning. In all excitement I also called up my sister asking her to accompany me. The landlady greeted us with a cheerful smile. She was living in a pretty costly area and she seemed very classy herself. After initial introduction we came to know that she belonged to the state of Orissa and had recently lost her husband. All the house expenses and her daughter’s university education fell upon her shoulders and this was the main reason she was renting her ground-floor apartment. The house was huge and was very well decorated with lots and lots of pictures. I could see some prominent Indian musicians and politicians on her walls too. As we walked through her cathedral entrance she confronted me with two usual questions. Since she was an Indian herself I was confident of not being subjected to any discrimination. I very calmly explained to her to that it was just my name that was Muslim but I was a Sikh. I was very sure of not having any further conversation on my name or religion as Sikhs were well established in Canada and were very happily received all over. But I almost lost my ground when she pointed at the picture of her daughter and remarked, “She was killed in 1985 Air India bombing”. She was then 14. I did not know what to reply or how to react. This was first time in my life I was not sure if I was proud being a Sikh. My silence conveyed my apology and sense of shame. She was intelligent and she quickly responded, “Of course, everyone is not the same”. It was then when I realised that not only having a Muslim name can make me uncomfortable but even my own religion can do more hurt. I also experienced an important lesson; how an individual action may raise questions against the entire community or religious
group.
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Challenge of education
The
pressure of the market forces in the era of globalisation has brought home one fact that in the absence of educated and skilled manpower it is not possible to expand the existing domestic market nor the tempo of high gross domestic production is sustainable. However, the quality of higher education is largely dependent upon the quality of students available at the entry level. A sound school education system, therefore, is a pre-requisite to the performance of academic institutions at the level of higher education. The right to education, in a highly inegalitarian Indian society where half the population jostle for two square meals a day would not solve the problem of quality education unless it is complemented with the right to food and the right to work. With a view to providing quality education, efficient administration and greater accountability and transparency in the institutions of higher learning the Union Human Resource Development Ministry introduced four new Bills in the Lok Sabha on May 3, 2010 though only the Foreign Educational Institutions (Regulation of Entry and Operations) Bill has attracted attention in the entire debate on the future of higher education. The country took over four decades to realise the importance of quality education in building indigenous social capital. Most problems India is facing today in the field of education were first documented in detail by the Kothari Commission as back as 1966. Nobody took the recommendations seriously and let the system of education slowly decay from top to bottom. It suddenly dawned that the country has failed even in achieving universal literacy what to talk of quality education to compete in the global market.
There is a widespread belief within the government that the panacea for all its failures lies in the mantra of market and hence allowed mushrooming of private universities and professional institutions that have caused almost a glut of ‘professionals’ in the market who usually fail to produce anything except a laminated certificate. The same worry prompted the HRD Minister to rush to the United States and hunt for foreign universities that can save us from the ongoing crisis. In fact, he went a step further and proposed to constitute Indo-US education council so that the target to achieve 30 per cent gross enrolment ratio in higher education by 2020 could jointly be achieved. There is also a proposal from the Government of India to open up 700 new universities and 35,000 new colleges besides many new IITs, IIMs and specialised institutes in science. But nobody has any cue whatsoever: where are the competent teachers to man these upcoming institutions of higher learning? So far, three American universities have shown interest in India. American University ranked 84th on a scale of zero to 100, Virginia Tech ranked 71st and Georgetown ranked 23rd. The ranking of first two universities shows that they are not preferred by American students. The Georgetown University was basically founded by the Catholics and Jesuits in 1789 with the aim of educating theology. There are still compulsory papers on theology that each student has to clear as a part of the curriculum. It is not difficult to imagine the types of universities showing interest in higher education in India. The challenges before higher education in India are multifaceted. Though there is no dearth of funds in the country, we never achieved budget allocation equal to 6 per cent of the GDP as recommended first by the Kothari Commission and subsequently in the National Education Policy, 1986. The funds for education always hovered around 3 per cent of the GDP in contrast to the other developed countries, including Japan, where it is 10 per cent and above. For quality higher education, the most important factors are: supply of competent students at the entry level, massive production and recruitment of competent teachers, modern teaching and research facilities, and a curriculum directly addressing the social, economic, political and other developmental needs of the country. Therefore, more than asking foreign universities to start their campuses in India, it is worth importing their highly successful idea of neighbourhood school system (US included) whereby no child can join school other than what is earmarked for the given locality. Neighbourhood schools would result in the cultural enrichment of the students across castes and classes and put a check on the mushrooming of the so-called ‘English’ schools creating hierarchies and ‘exclusion’ right from early childhood. It is time to introspect and implement National Education Policy in letter and spirit where common school system and neighbourhood schools have been prescribed in so many words. Unless we check massive desertion from government schools by students belonging to relatively well off parents, it would not be possible to rejuvenate school education. Left to the market, school education system is going to crumble sooner than later, thanks to the new policy of ‘No Exam’ till 12th Standard. Parents pay heavily to private academies/ coaching centres that promise to groom their wards to grab highly paid jobs in the market. This tendency has divorced education from its basic purpose of developing complete individuals, enabled to maintain delicate balance between the individual needs and the collective good. Consequently, humanities, social sciences, music, art and architecture all are pushed to the back burner. If the school system is going to be in shambles, it is futile to stake high hopes from the institutions of higher learning, whether in the private or public sector. Education system cannot be imported as it is a historical process of cultural evolution and not limited to technical expertise. Therefore, instead of running to the West to meet our educational needs we have to overhaul our own education system right from the top to the bottom. There is no dearth of talent, will and human resources within the country. The real challenge is how to tap them in the best interests of the people.
The writer is a Professor, Department of Sociology, Panjab University,
Chandigarh
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Still not ready for industrial disasters On
the one hand the government is trying that justice is delivered in the Bhopal gas tragedy even after 26 years, on the other hand it is all set to pass the Nuclear Liability Bill that is soft on safety aspects. There has been a lot of debate on the repercussions of passing the Bill in its present form. Another objectionable point in the Bill is that the foreigner reactor supplier has no legal liability even if it supplies faulty equipment. This shows that the government has not learnt any lessons. The chairman and CEO of the Union Carbide, Warren Anderson, was let off by the Indian government. He had addressed the US Congress on December 14, 1984, stressing the company’s “commitment to safety” and promised that a similar accident would not happen again. To ensure justice the Indian government passed the Bhopal Gas Leak Act in March 1985. However, no action has yet been taken against Anderson. He was arrested and released on bail in Bhopal on December 7, 1984, six hours after the arrest. He was then flown out of Bhopal on a government plane to Delhi from where he fled the country.
What should be done * A regulator is required to keep an eye on chemical plants. When the industrial catastrophe took place in 1984 at the UCIL pesticide plant the government was not prepared to tackle such a disaster. Twenty-six years since then, the government is till not ready to tackle a tragedy similar to the one that took place in Bhopal. At that time UCIL was an Indian subsidiary of the US Company Union Carbide Corporation (UCC). We are again ready to sign the Bill with the minimal liability in case of a disaster on the companies that will erect nuclear power plants here. The Government of India is yet to learn from its mistakes. Barely any preventive measures have been taken in 26 years. The Nuclear Liability Bill doesn’t hold the foreign equipment suppliers liable to the extent desirable. The financial liability in case of a nuclear accident is about Rs 2142.85 crore. Out of this the liability of an Indian operator of a nuclear plant like the Nuclear Power Corporation of India is fixed at just Rs 500 crore. The balannce of Rs 1,642 crore is to be paid by the government (read the tax payers) while the Bill exempts foreign suppliers from nuclear reactors of legal liability even if they provide faulty equipment. The victims of the Bhopal tragedy are yet to get relief and the government is still to prepare itself for such industrial disasters and we are signing the N-Bill. In fact, the Paris and Vienna nuclear liability conventions provide better protection to victims in case of a nuclear accident. Since the day the gas leaked, that is, the intervening night of December 2-3, 1984, the victims have been running from pillar to post for justice. Pronouncing the judgment the court imposed a two-year imprisonment on those who were responsible for the deaths of thousands of persons. If the imprisonment under various other Sections is totalled it comes to four years nine months. However, the judge has stated that the sentence runs concurrently, making it to two years. As per Section 31 of the Cr. PC, the normal rule is that punishments run one after the other “unless the court directs that such punishments shall run concurrently.” With the passage of time, however, it appears that the “normal rule” has become an “exception” and the “exception” has become “the rule”.
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Delhi Durbar
Union
Social Justice Minister Mukul Wasnik is a busy man these days. Appointed the new AICC general secretary in charge of poll-bound Bihar, he has his hands full with political engagements. But despite his schedules, the minister exhibited unusual promptness in damage control the other day when six disability rights leaders from across the country camped outside the Shastri Bhavan compound which houses the office of the Social Justice Minister, among other social sector ministry offices. They were on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the non-inclusion of the disabled in the government appointed committee to rework the obsolete disability law of 1995. Gathered at the entrance to the Bhavan, the leaders gave bytes to all TV and print reporters who came by. They were so strategically located, no one could miss them. An embarrassed Wasnik was quick to concede to the protestors’ demand of including the disabled nominees in the government panel. The irony, however, is this – for over a week before he granted the concession, the minister had been looking the other way. As one disabled activist put it, “Politicians can ignore issues only as long as such issues don’t affect their image.” However much the media might try to sell Bihar as the new happening place, in essence Patna and the good people of Bihar remain the same old laid-back lot, taking all the time to react to anything, except say politics. For all the development Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Modi may claim, the place is as sleepy as it has always been before Lalu Prasad came into the picture and much after he is out of reckoning. The best hotels are rather untidy, the crockery not up to the mark except that the tariff is no less than that in any other state capital. The taxi driver takes his time preparing his ‘khaini’ while you may be sweating inside waiting for the vehicle to move. The room service is equally tardy and leisurely in best of the hotels.
But there is also a positive side to this rather laid-back non-competitive side of the city and its dwellers. Can one imagine a posh hotel offering the services of its business centre completely free of charge to its occupants? This does not happen in Delhi, Mumbai or Ahmedabad. It happens only in Patna. Come clean: SC
Think twice before approaching high courts with unclean hands! When a person approaches a court, he should go “not only with clean hands but also with a clean mind, a clean heart and a clean objective,” a Vacation Bench of Justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar ruled in a verdict recently. What prompted the SC to make the remark was the failure of a statutory authority and other individual litigants in a case to disclose to the HC concerned the fact that the land in dispute fell in the commercial category, and not in a residential area. The apex court felt this amounted to committing criminal contempt of court as the parties succeeded in misleading the HC by not disclosing the true facts. It, however, clarified that it did not intend to initiate contempt proceedings as it involved wasting the court’s time! Contributed by Aditi Tandon, Faraz Ahmad &
R Sedhuraman
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The Bill decides who would be held “liable” in case of a nuclear disaster. US firms are ready to erect nuclear plants and eagerly await the Bill is passed by Parliament. The Bill makes the victims literally handicapped in case of a nuclear disaster as it limits them to file claims only before the compensation commission rather than courts and no appeals are to be taken up beyond 10 years. 
