The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Death for Kasab
HC concurs, but he has a long way to go

The Bombay High Court’s confirmation of the trial court judgement awarding death sentence to 24-year-old Mohammad Ajmal Amir Kasab — the only Pakistani terrorist caught alive during the audacious 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that claimed 166 lives — was not entirely unexpected. Given the nature and extent of the horrendous crime, nothing short of death penalty would meet the ends of justice. A Bench consisting of Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R.V. More has ruled that Kasab was directly responsible for seven deaths during 26/11, among whom were three senior policemen who died in the line of duty — Hemant Karkare, Ashok Kamte and Vijay Salaskar. It said Kasab has a “scheming mind” and wanted to “destabilise India”. Having rejected his lawyer’s argument that the death sentence should not apply because of his age, the judges said, “the diabolical and brutal nature of the crime overrides the age factor”. They also said that there was no scope for reform or rehabilitation of Kasab.

It goes to the credit of the Indian judiciary that though the trial court and the High Court have disposed of the Kasab case in record time, there is no forward movement of the case in Pakistan. However, Kasab has a long way to go. After he appeals against the ruling in the Supreme Court, it will once again look at all the aspects of previous judgements, evidence, developments and arguments, and then give its final verdict. If the apex court concurs with the High Court, he can file a mercy petition before the President. Unless the Union Government decides to handle his case on priority, a decision on his mercy petition may get delayed because as many as 29 such cases are now pending before the President. Incidentally, the convict in the Parliament attack case, Mohammed Afzal Guru, is number 22 in the list of those on death row. Moreover, Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram has said that each petition for clemency will be decided on the basis of the number in the list of such petitioner.

Significantly, the High Court’s dismissal of the petition against the trial court’s acquittal of two Indians — Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed — accused of aiding the commission of crime is a setback for the Maharashtra government. Both were charged with drawing maps of targets and giving them to the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Toiba. The High Court said that there was no corroboration of evidence to prove their involvement in the 26/11 terror attacks.

The Jasmine effect
China receives ‘scented’ threat

Hundreds of people gathering to hold demonstrations in Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday, demanding reforms for democracy in China, was not a surprising development. This was expected anytime after the successful Jasmine Revolution in Tunisia led to the ouster of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak and jeopardised the survival of many other dictatorships in West Asia. The protests in China were held after a message was circulated by a US-based website that the time had come to launch an Egypt-style drive to force the communist rulers to introduce democracy in that country. In this Internet age every dictator in the world must be feeling uneasy with the pro-democracy agitations in West Asia becoming stronger with everyday passing.

This is for the first time after the Tiananmen Square happenings over two decades ago that people could muster courage to express their resentment against one-party rule in China. They obviously must have expected harsh treatment at the hands of the communist rulers. Yet they decided to express their urge for democracy conveys a lot. The people’s yearning for democracy perhaps got stronger after the jailed Chinese human rights activist Liu Xiaobao was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace despite Beijing’s protest against the Nobel Prize Committee. Liu, it seems, has emerged as the main source of inspiration for the seekers of democracy in China.

Economic gains and democratic freedoms are two different things. Whatever economic advantages people have cannot suppress their desire for democracy. This has been proved at least in China. There has been a tremendous change in the lifestyle of the Chinese during the past few years with China’s admirable economic advancement. But this does not mean that communist dictatorship will go unchallenged forever. In fact, once people become economically better off, they are bound to aspire for democratic freedoms more strongly. If more autocratic regimes fall in West Asia, a more powerful ripple effect can be felt in China. The protests in China may not bring about the desired result so easily, but those who came out into the streets in Beijing and Shanghai have sent out a clear message: the communist regime is getting weakened from within.

Thought for the Day

It is a thousand times better to have common sense without education than to have education without common sense. — Robert G. Ingersoll

ARTICLE

Corruption in civil services?
Ruling politicians are also to blame
by P.R. Chari

A sign of the times. The golden jubilee retreat of the 1960 batch of the Indian Administrative Service in Mussourie last September chose to reflect on this question. An understandable angst, tinged with anguish, permeates the scene with increasing numbers of higher civil servants, including the high-visibility members of the IAS, having been indicted or are being investigated for corruption. Errors in decisions taken in good faith are excusable. After all, officers on the spot have to decide quickly, especially in dealing with law and order situations, when intelligence might be patchy.

But such decisions can be differentiated from discretionary powers being exercised to favour individuals, settle contracts arbitrarily, and skim off kickbacks from dubious deals. All such decisions must be adjudged on the touchstone whether they resulted in private gain, which could take several forms. It can also be like posting to a “good” (read lucrative) job. But a third category of corruption is not being adequately recognised, which is permitting favoured persons in the hierarchy to enrich themselves, which includes politicians, colleagues and even influential subordinates.

A common excuse heard in the civil services is that they are poorly paid. Invidious comparisons are made with the emoluments and perquisites available in the private sector, which might far exceed what even the seniormost civil servants can get. But the salary and privileges of the higher civil services were always known to these malcontents. Why, then, did they take the stiff competitive examinations to enter the civil service?

In truth, the various Pay Commissions have been generous, and the salary package of the higher civil services, inclusive allowances and perquisites, is quite comparable to what obtains elsewhere in the Indian economy. Naturally, there is no end to greed. Cases of civil servants amassing huge wealth have come to light — the IAS couple in Bhopal currently being investigated has been found to be in possession of over Rs 300 crore. It is hard to even imagine such amounts and wonder how it could be spent in one life-time.

Civil servants are wont to pass on the blame to the political executive when cases of corruption come to light by taking refuge in the age-old alibi that they were only obeying orders. Ministers seek to avoid censure by saying that they took decisions on the file expecting that their civil servants had properly examined the issues involved. The grey area here is that the civil servant might have been persuaded or suborned or coerced to submit the file after suppressing or distorting facts to enable the minister to sign on to a particular decision. However, improper orders are rarely, if ever, given in writing, but issued orally. Whether oral orders should be acted upon without getting them confirmed in writing is one issue. Whether oral orders were given at all can become another issue, since the situation resolves itself into pitting the word of the minister against that of the civil servant. The limited point being made here is that the civil services and the political executive are equally to be indicted for the widespread corruption coming to light.

The civil service tradition, inherited from the British, envisages that policy decisions are the privilege of the minister while execution lies in the domain of the civil services. It is worth recalling that Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned as Railway Minister when a major accident occurred, owning moral responsibility for the loss of lives. That would sound like a fairy tale in these cynical times. But another incident involving Babu Jagjivan Ram is relevant here. He was asked at a luncheon meeting why civil servants were ruling the roost and the political executive seemed unable to control them. Picking up the knife next to his plate, Babuji held it up and said, “This knife can be used as a weapon, but also used to cut vegetables. The power and responsibility lies in the hands of the person wielding the knife.”

His message was clear. The political executive can mould the civil services as it wishes. They can be used to good purpose like undertaking development work, providing good governance, maintaining law and order and so on. But they can also be turned into agents to collect funds for political parties as well as to line private pockets. Suggestions to remedy this egregious situation are galore. It is believed that the recruitment method is flawed and that the training programme after induction need restructuring. This perception is plausible since many of those investigated for corruption recently are young, with less than a decade in service.

There is nothing wrong with the method of recruitment, which still gets the best available talent; although it is felt that the proportion of marks for the interview in comparison to the marks for the written papers needs review. Arguably, too much weight is being given to academics, but too little to personality traits and co-curricular activities. A more serious criticism is that the average age of the recruit to the civil services has now become 28 years. Many have done one or more jobs before joining the civil services. Several are married, and have children; they are unable, therefore, to undergo the gruelling training schedules in the training academy and the field, to equip them for the challenges of the civil services. Some even have lifestyle-related health issues.

The more serious issue is: how and why do tainted officers rise meteorically in the civil services to adorn highest levels? It might be recollected that officers identified as the most corrupt in Uttar Pradesh were selected to become Chief Secretaries. Did their annual confidential reports not reflect their dubious integrity, which has to be compulsorily commented upon? Has the lack of integrity, indeed, become a qualification?

The canker of corruption in the higher civil services is known. Its dimensions and contours are known. Then what is the bottleneck in resolving this problem? Is it that the neck of the bottle is always at the top!

MIDDLE

O Tempora! O Mores!
by Ram Varma

As we T-ed off on the frost-bitten, weed-infected fairways of the Panchkula golf course on the frosty and windy morning, my golf-mate unburdened himself of a load on his conscience. He had attended the tehsildar’s court for getting the sale deed of his flat registered. All the formalities had been completed during the day, but it was only towards closing time that the tehsildar showed up and put his signatures on the deed, but not before my friend had put 1 per cent of sale money on the table in thanksgiving. That’s right, nothing hush-hush about it. He did it openly, in broad daylight! The only consolation was that there were 20 people more in the queue ready to lighten their purse. No wonder, ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ ranks very high on the corruption index of the world.

Opening the newspaper, I saw the banner headline, ‘Lt-General gets 3-yr RI in ration scam’. Lt-General SK Sahni had scored a first in the history of the Indian Army to be ‘cashiered’ (read dismissed) from service for the illegal cash he had stashed away as Director-General of Supplies and Transport and given a three-year rigorous imprisonment.

Some time back there was the news that Neera Yadav, a former Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, had been sentenced to four years’ imprisonment. I saw her photograph in The Tribune, gaudily flaunting a purple suit, reminiscent of royalty, being escorted to jail. She had also scored a first; she is the first Chief Secretary of a state in India, who has been jailed. What a shame! What a fall, my countrymen! The IAS had considered itself the top service of the country and in them we, the Chief Secretaries, were the cat’s whiskers – crème de la crème – like the descendants of the Vedic Rishis among Brahmins or the Suryavanshi among Indian rulers. All that glory has been shattered, alas!

Indeed, it was her ambition to join the select coterie of Chief Secretaries that proved to be Neera’s undoing. Her misdeeds finally caught up with her and will now haunt her in the silence of dark prison cells. Maybe if she had not come in the limelight her past sins would have been forgotten. Much like the beleaguered Chief Vigilance Commissioner Thomas, who, if he was less ambitious, should have taken a quiet retirement and then latched on to one of the post-retirement jobs that abound in New Delhi. How ironical that she belongs to Lord Krishna’s hallowed tribe! How contrary is her conduct to His sermon on the battlefield of Kurukshetra to develop a robust disregard for the fruits of action! She, on the other hand, went allout plucking the luscious fruits on the fecund fields of NOIDA!

It makes me reflect on how different the Chief Secretaries of yesteryears were. One of them, in joint Punjab days, on demitting office wrote to his successor Chief Secretary that he might have willy-nilly used government machinery for personal ends, like the car, the telephone, the peons or the stationary and deposited a certain sum in the treasury in lieu thereof. I had personal experience of working under the late Saroop Krishen, who was the first Chief Secretary of Haryana. I was posted as Director, Public Relations, then. He held the charge of Secretary, Public Relations Department, and I was directly reporting to him. I had to go to Delhi on official tour quite frequently. On one such occasion, he asked me to give a lift in my official car to a lady who was his relation. When I returned, he handed me a certain sum, equivalent to first class train fare to Delhi, and asked me to deposit it in the treasury.

What times! What mores! What Chief Secretaries we had!

OPED SOCIETY

The message that the alarming continuum of Dulina, Harsola, Gohana and Mirchpur in Haryana carries is an intense urge from within not to celebrate violence and anarchy, but to imbibe fraternity larger than caste, compensations bigger than govt. jobs, politics saner than divisive intelligence and notions of social interest broader and deeper than sectarian politics of castes and khap panchayats
Sustaining social cohesion in Haryana
Rajbir Parashar

Dalit women from Mirchpur village making chapatis for the protesters in Hisar. Tribune photo: Raman Mohan

Through the unceremonious route of the Mirchpur incident of violence against Dalits and its aftermath, Haryana has again displayed its internal dilemma about the disruptive working of khaps and caste panchayats. At present, the challenge of identifying and practicing an all-Haryana model of development as well as traditions and values that can sustain its internal social cohesion has become imperative.

The protest of a section of society against arrests in Mirchpur violence, claiming to be led by the Sarvjatiya Sarvkhap Mahapanchayat, aiming at and indulging in mobilisation of caste-jat only, has bluntly exposed the internal fluidity of Haryana society. However, to the state government's relief, a laboured faith in the judicial process and law of the land has been earned. But it would be imprudent to ignore the larger repercussions of the aggressive and collective defense of alleged culprits of Mirchpur happening by khap panchayats.

The self-righteous posture of khap panchayats is no less alarming than the Mirchpur incident itself that stirred Haryana and Indian politics in April last year. This situation carries an urgency to locate the problematic evolution of the collective mind of Haryana. Along with the dynamics of progress in terms of economy, a proper decoding of the growing characterisation of the ruling elite within the identity of caste-jat is also needed. Another issue to be addressed is how the hitherto projected generous and inclusive social behaviour of the peasantry has degenerated into a rigidly Jat-specific identity and assertion.

Haryana has to tread with caution in its politico-administrative approach at the grassroot level. The ideological formations that operate through the dominant political parties and influential as politicians across party lines have an inbuilt short-sightedness and opportunism. Both the Congress and the Indian National Lok Dal find it quite impractical to commit to the question of social democracy beyond an electorally suitable limit. These parties along with other factions collectively build a ruling elite grossly dependent upon caste and regional politics as the only source of organisational strength and priority of developmental agenda.

This political elite's inability to resist incidents like Mirchpur reveals about their overall ideological evolution or no evolution as in terms of ideas and values the young generation of Haryana politicians are a meek and compromised lot. Some of them are direct beneficiaries of the world economy and education. But this new generation politicians have chosen to build the foundation of the much-talked about national level demographic advantage with cosy relationship with caste-based organisations of all castes and formations like khap panchayats.

To them, demographic advantage is a literal upsurge of young population. They are unable to foresee the fact that without youthful ideas and a culture that accommodates young aspirations, Haryana has a bleak future. Since its formation in 1966, Haryana has experienced phases of commendable progress in overall economy, agriculture and education. But the ruling elite must understand that a vibrant and sustainable economy cannot go forward with a vision of limited humanism which in hours of social tension shrinks even further.

The apparent disconnect between the khap panchayats and the political elite is quite deceptive. The former emerging as a sort of social and cultural vandalism incapable of visualising human dignity and civil rights of weaker sections are not automatons. Behind them operate socially influential and political powerful individuals and groups with a definite and competitive political agenda.

The Mirchpur episode and its aftermath have an unmistakable corollary with the Dulina killings (2002). In Dulina when five dalits were lynched to death due to the mistaken identity of Muslims, such panchayats had demanded the withdrawal of cases against those booked. Sadly, the violation of human rights in the context of Dalits and weaker sections is given a political colour to pressurise the victims.

Like other caste-ridden societies, in Haryana too, any simple event of a Dalit entering a temple or putting a bold face to a customary situation of humiliation provokes an unexpected ire in the dominant caste people. Mirchpur has confirmed this in an extended form. A section of Haryana society had refused to sympathise with the Dalits of Gohana incident (2005) simply because they appeared well off, with some of them having enviable pucca houses. This insensitivity and duplicity towards human rights of weaker sections is destined to block Haryana's progress.

However, the social tension surrounding incidents like Mirchpur, Gohana, Harsola and Dulina should lead to a proper understanding of the crisis of peasantry in Haryana. The peasantry here is a multi-layered section and only a small section of rural Haryana got benefited from the Green Revolution which has finally stopped yielding to the peasantry. The trend of perceiving castes as homogeneous communities or classes needs to be examined as it is the very tool upon which divisive politics rely.

Chotu Ram, as an intellectual leader of the peasantry, had tried to initiate a political discourse on the socio-economic plight of peasants. His emphasis was on Jats as peasants and their socio-economic experience. He did not visualise or reinforce caste identity in segregated and sectarian terms as witnessed recently. His ideological legacy graduates for more than a ceremonial respect and its logical destination is a democratic Haryana awakened to its collective secular needs.

The horizons of the hitherto unattended debate on social reform in Haryana touch upon the whole of socio-economic life of the region with a focus on how its educated middle class has virtually discarded the ideological churning manifested in the dynamics of its popular culture. A rational decoding of the popular culture as well as the intellectual history of Haryana is a project yet to be owned and initiated.

Despite the recurrence of happenings like Mirchpur, it would be erratic to conclude that the common Haryanvi, irrespective of caste or region, has lost the wisdom and genuine urge of having a peaceful community living and vibrant socio-economic interaction within the given social structure. The message that the alarming continuum of Dulina, Harsola, Gohana and Mirchpur carries is an intense urge from within not to celebrate violence and anarchy but to imbibe fraternity larger than caste, compensations bigger than government jobs, politics saner than divisive intelligence, and notions of social interest broader and deeper than sectarian politics of castes and khaps.

Such happenings demand not merely an advocacy of a more humanised rationality and liberal-imaginative morality in the public life of Haryana but a consistent perseverance in this very direction of values.

The writer is Associate Professor, RKSD College, Kaithal, Haryana

Paradox of growth and regression
Ranbir Singh

THE attack on the Dalits at Mirchpur (Hisar) and its repercussions require a deeper probe because these are a part of a larger socio-economic phenomenon.

These have to be first ascribed to the paradox of economic development and social regression that has emerged in Haryana during the past six decades due to continued emphasis on economic development and neglect of social development by successive political dispensations with the singular exception of the present government that had come to power in 2005. This has resulted in creating a cultural lag which, in turn, led to a social degeneration as reflected in the sporadic instances of conflict between the Jats and the Dalits at Mirchpur.

Secondly, they are the logical outcome of the impact of modernisation on the rural society of Haryana as a result of improved infrastructure, increased means of communication, growth of educational and technical institutions and the quantum jump in the number of telephones, mobiles, radios, transistors, TVs, VCDs and DVDs on the one hand and fabulous increase in the number of transport vehicles like scootys, scooters, motorcycles, jeeps and cars on the other. Consequently, while the educated Dalit youths have begun to question the authority of the traditional leadership from this peasant caste, the Jat youths have started to reassert their authority.

Thirdly, these should be seen as a result of the frustration among the jobless educated Jat youth. They do not perceive their unemployment as the cumulative effect of the diminishing number of government jobs due to liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation.

They also do not realise that it is the natural result of their non-employability on account of their lack of command in English, Information Technology and professional qualifications. They wrongly attribute it to reservation for the Scheduled Castes in government jobs. Their frustration finds expression in the clashes with vulnerable sections.

Fourthly, these trends may also be ascribed to the pauperisation of the peasantry in which the Jats constitute the largest group. This is attributed to the crises in agriculture due to large-scale creation of small and marginal landholdings due to rising population and breakdown of the joint family system. The problem has been aggravated owing to adverse terms of trade, untimely rains and drought.

As a result, farming has ceased to be a viable vocation. It has led to fears that sooner or later they will join the ranks of the landless agricultural and non-agricultural labourers from the Dalit community and shall lose their identity as zamindars or the land owners. This crisis of identity at times makes them to resort to aggression.

Finally, one should consider the neo-feudal and conservative culture of Haryana’s rural society. This has made a section of the Jats and other peasant castes difficult to tolerate the Dalits' attempts to have a share in the power structure of the state by taking advantage of the one-fifth quota given to them in the membership and chairpersonship of the Panchayati Raj institutions.

This leads us to the question: What can be done to check this menace? First, the liberal elements among the Haryanvi intellectuals, the media and progressive forces among the political parties should unitedly try to bring about a change in the mindset of the peasants and the Dalits.

Secondly, the government should sensitise the police force, democratise and decentralise the district administration to ensure an effective delivery of services for the development of the Scheduled Castes.

Thirdly, the focus of the Panchayati Raj institutions should be on preparing and implementing the plans of economic development and social justice as mandated under the 73rd Constitution Amendment Act (1992).

In fine, the Haryana government should take concrete steps to resolve the agrarian crises and create self-employment opportunities for the unemployed educated youth from the peasant castes. Let us hope that the government's recent steps in this direction will make a difference. These measures will have to be implemented effectively. Otherwise, the frustration and the identity crises among them will continue to reflect itself in the form of conflicts with Dalits and the agitations like the one at Jind.

The writer is Consultant, Haryana Institute of Rural Development, Nilokheri (Karnal)