The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Sen & good sense
Impeach him despite resignation

The belated resignation of Calcutta High Court judge Soumitra Sen, the first judge to be impeached by the Rajya Sabha, may have been prompted by the writing on the wall. Following the debate in the Upper House, it was clear that the Lok Sabha too would vote for his impeachment. The judge’s spirited defence that he was given a clean chit by a High Court bench, that his alleged improper conduct relates to the period when he was a lawyer and not a judge and, finally, that he had not made any money for himself and had returned the entire amount, with interest, that he had received and retained as a court-appointed Receiver, cut no ice with the MPs, who tore apart his defence. Sen, as the Receiver, had not only retained the money and kept quiet for over 20 years, he returned the sum only after the High Court intervened. He also tried to mislead the inquiry when he referred to a bank account maintained by another person by the same name, in a bid to prove that he had not withdrawn any money from it.

The discredited judge, however, must be thanked for giving the nation and Parliament a chance to debate on judicial appointments and accountability. The collegium system, in which the five senior most judges of the Supreme Court decide on the appointment of judges, has been criticised in Parliament for being arbitrary and discretionary. The system has been accused of ignoring lawyers from rural background for elevation to the bench and serious concern has been voiced on the kind of lawyers getting appointed as judges.

If the President accepts the judge’s resignation, the impeachment motion in the Lok Sabha becomes infructuous. But if she keeps the issue pending, the lower House can still go ahead and impeach the judge, in which case he would even lose the right to function as a lawyer in the Supreme Court. To set an example, the judge must be impeached and made to pay for his misdemeanour. Justice Sen, however, is right in pleading that there are far more serious transgressions that other judges are guilty of . Therefore, the time appears ripe for a debate on the Judicial Accountability Bill.

Pak justice system
US casts doubts over credibility

The US State Department’s assessment about Pakistan’s justice system has not revealed anything unusual when it says that it is almost incapable of bringing to justice those accused of involvement in terrorism-related cases. The judiciary in Pakistan has always had an image of being pliable towards those in power. The US should, therefore, not feel disgusted when the State Department’s annual report points out that the anti-terrorism courts in Pakistan have an acquittal rate as high as 75 per cent. And this means that the culprits behind the 26/11 Mumbai terrorist attack in which nearly 200 people, including six Americans, were killed can never be punished. Anyone who thought otherwise showed little understanding of the way the legal system functioned in that country. Hafiz Mohammed Sayeed, the founder-chief of the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT), the terrorist outfit believed to have masterminded the 26/11 killings, walks free like anyone else as if his organisation has done nothing wrong. He appears the least bothered about how the world looks at his activities.

India provided sufficient dossiers to nail the 26/11 culprits, but in vain. Pakistan’s response has, however, never given the impression that it is doing all it can to ensure the punishment of the LeT terrorists. But this is what should be expected of the courts in Pakistan. They have the dubious distinction of setting free almost everybody arrested in terror-related cases in Pakistan, where hundreds of people have died in such incidents during the past few years.

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik recently admitted that 606 persons had been arrested for their alleged involvement in terrorist violence after the 26/11 Mumbai attack, but over 50 per cent of them had been set free and the rest might also be out of jail anytime now. Even a known terrorist belonging to the Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Malik Ishaque, was recently acquitted by a court in 34 of the 44 cases filed against him. He was no different from his mentor Riaz Basra, a dreaded Lashkar-e-Jhangvi terrorist, but was happily granted bail in 10 cases. This is how the judiciary functions in Pakistan despite the presence of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who fought valiantly against the Gen Pervez Musharraf regime.

Thought for the Day

Victory attained by violence is tantamount to a defeat, for it is momentary. — Mahatma Gandhi

ARTICLE

Anna’s balance sheet
Democratic institutions can’t be ignored
by B.G. Verghese

There was widespread relief over the ending of Anna Hazare’s fast following unanimous adoption of identical sense of the House resolutions by the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha. Parliament agreed in principle to take into consideration his three latest demands regarding a citizen’s charter for timely delivery of public services, bringing the lower bureaucracy under the jurisdiction of the Lokpal and establishing Lok Ayuktas in the states. It was further resolved to transmit the proceedings of the debate to the Standing Committee “for its perusal while formulating its recommendations for a Lokpal Bill”. Final decisions will now obviously be taken by Parliament itself as expeditiously as possible but without external deadlines.

Anna broke his 12-day fast on August 28. The government and Parliament acted with restraint and statesmanship. Joy on the streets was appropriate and understandable. India had won and democracy had triumphed. However, interpreting the sequence of events as a famous Anna victory and humbling of the government exhibits both hubris and humbug. Team Anna was charging at an open door. The government had made plain that all variants of the Lokpal Bill were or could be placed before the Standing Committee which would hear contesting views, incorporate such amendments as it considered fit and submit the draft consensus to Parliament.

Team Anna climbed down on virtually every single point. Look at the balance sheet of Anna’s demands (D) and the outcomes (O).

D: Only the Jan Lokpal Bill (JLP) shall be considered and passed and the official “Joke Pal Bill” (which was burnt in public) must be withdrawn. O: Negated.

D: The JLP shall remain inviolate. O: The JLP was amended 14 times by Team Anna and has now been further “compromised” on major counts. The JLP will be considered alongside all other Bills and suggestions.

D: The Standing Committee must be bypassed and matters decided immediately and directly by Parliament by August 30. O: Rejected.

D: Every aspect of corruption must be placed under the single umbrella of the JLP, which shall oversee Parliament, the executive and the judiciary as a monolithic, supra-authority defying federal and constitutional principles. O: Comprehensively negated.

D: Parliamentary and constitutional procedures and institutions must be ignored in preference to people’s power as expressed by the ultimate sovereign, “We, the People”, gathered in the street, and duly sanctified and amplified by the media. O: Rejected. “We, the People” speak through their chosen representatives in Parliament and the state assemblies as prescribed by the Constitution.

D: Parliamentarians and politicians are criminals, corrupt, liars, “gavvars”. Neither they nor the government can be trusted. Hence demand for here and now assurances in writing to Team Anna to accept and do its bidding. O: Categorically rejected. Corrupt politicians, ministers and judges are being and must be investigated, prosecuted, arrested and jailed through due process. To abolish politicians would be to abolish politics, overturn the Constitution and invite mob rule and anarchy.

D: “Anna is India and India is Anna”. Hence consideration of his three final demands must be guaranteed by a parliamentary resolution communicated to him in writing. All this must be instantly conceded lest he be compelled to extend his fast and either die on stage before cameras or be removed by the police and force-fed in hospital. The unspoken threat was that in either event the country must risk unrestrained mob fury and violence fed on mass hysteria assiduously built up over the preceding days for which Team Anna would hold the government solely responsible.

O: Since consideration of all these and other issues had already been openly conceded, the government and Parliament agreed to offer Anna a face saving formula. This was gleefully clutched before Team Anna crumbled in consequence of mounting internal dissensions, competing egos and untenable rhetoric and emerging signs of hooliganism by Anna-capped supporters.

The cry is that Anna won and the government and Parliament were worsted. The government repeatedly “bungled” and the Prime Minister had to eat humble pie, his authority diminished. Nothing of the kind! If the government bungled – and it did mishandle some things – much of it was because it unprecedentedly broke with the due process and procedure to invite Team Anna for talks, and later negotiated with Baba Ramdev. Official concessions whetted the ego of Team Anna, which assumed an authoritarian and hectoring tone, setting conditions and deadlines or else …! This was fascist in temper and blackmail in substance. Anna’s stance was un-Gandhian, with bewildering variants of Anna-speak.

Let it be clearly understood that the health and institutions of democratic India, for which millions struggled and sacrificed for 150 years, come first. Complaints regarding the right to protest were far removed from reality. The government leant over backwards to permit protest to the point of licensing potential suicide to the cheers and chants of thousands, amplified by unprecedented carpet coverage by the media of the rally and various side shows. Much of this coverage and commentary was unprofessional and targeted the official line and all dissenters in provocative and unrestrained language. Child warriors, bunking school and college, were “interviewed” and feted.

Some argued that a fasting Anna only risked taking his own life for a cause. Compare this attempted suicide by an Anna strapped to a ticking time-bomb in a crowded national TV maidan with that of a suicide bomber who destroys multiple lives in an instant of madness for a “cause”. Comparisons with Gandhi, the man and his times are completely misplaced. Mature democratic debate and consensus building cannot be had at the point of a gun. What is the difference between the Anna gun, the Maoist gun, the bandit gun, and the mafia gun? Are some guns better than others?

However, everything said, one great good has emerged. People’s anger at mis-governance, fraud and unconscionable delay was catalysed around a focal issue, corruption, and a man who flagged it, Anna. People were energised to protest and demand their rights as citizens. The government and Parliament, which have prevaricated on and obfuscated and relegated vital issues for years on untenable grounds have been warned that this kind of behaviour will henceforth be met head on by people’s anger. That lesson has hopefully been learned.

What remains is to keep chivvying the government and Parliament to perform and to harness the popular energy unleashed by Anna for national reconstruction and reform to lend muscle and professionalism to fulfilling and monitoring many far-reaching rights-based programmes that are under way or on the anvil. This is what Anna and the government should be talking about.

MIDDLE

My teacher, my friend!
by Archana R Singh

In the primary classes, the teacher was the fairy Godmother from our storybook. Whatever she said was always right and a smile from her made our day! She was very careful about her own etiquette so that she could set a good example on young minds. She made sure that the weak, the sick, the sad students got special care from her. She had to keep a hawk eye for the class bully, she felt very responsible for the `Tiffin lunch’ that the students did not eat. She had to manage the students and also use every skill in the book to deal with young, overprotective parents.

She recognised the Einstein, the Keats, the Tagore, and the Bachchan before anybody else and when we grew up and reached high school, she stayed back in the primary section, wiping jam out of little hands, dusting dirt from white tunics, and smiling all the time so that all children just love their school.

As years went by, the teacher turned into a very wise friend. On the shoulders of the high school teacher lay the responsibility of making men out of boys and young ladies out of the girls. Teaching had to be interesting as well as informative, classroom sessions had to be disciplined as well as innovative, and her countenance had to be stern as well as benign, all because the students are children as well as grownups. The contradictions are part of her life as each batch of girls and boys pass out of the portals of the secondary school on their way to high school and college life!

Once in college and later the university, the teacher dons the role of a guide and a mentor. This is where future citizens are created. They make sure that the basic values that hold the society together are in place; equality, freedom and order. Too much freedom would lead to indiscipline, too much order would lead to regimentation, and unequal treatment would lead to lifetime resentment for authority. To add a measure of each and serve it to the young minds is akin to performing the balancing act all the time while making sure that individual self respect increases.

The responsibility is to create analytical minds, groom the professional, direct the performer, and prepare the scholar!

On passing out of the formal education system, we still long for the guiding hand of a teacher and some of us turn to spirituality, some to vocational training, some to hobby classes and some find their teachers in books. We never forget the teachers that we leave behind because we know that they are still there where we left them. We move on, achieve success, riches and fame, and when we meet our friends and classmates; we still refer to our teachers as `Sir’ and `Ma’am’. The teacher lives on.

Happy Teachers’ Day!

OPED SOCIAL WELFARE

Launched in 2006, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) has reduced poverty in states where it has been seriously executed. It has afforded the rural poor better access to food, healthcare and education. However, Punjab has neglected this 90 per cent Centrally funded scheme
Why Punjab is cool to JOB SCHEME
Sucha Singh Gill

The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Scheme (NREGS) has been a major flagship programme of UPA-II in its efforts to make growth inclusive in nature. The programme is aimed at the rural population, especially the poor, for employment generation, which is expected to add productive capacity, save environment, recharge ground water, improve soil fertility and common property resources.

District officials help out NREGS workers in Fatehgarh Sahib district Tribune photo

Under this programme 100 days employment is ensured at least for one member of a family holding a job card. Under this scheme 90 per cent of the expenditure is financed by the Union Government. In order to ensure employment generation, the use of power-operated machines/equipment is not allowed and material cost is restricted to the maximum of 40 per cent in order to keep the labour cost at 60 per cent of the total project cost.

Although any one living in the rural areas can apply for a job card and demand work, yet this programme is aimed at the rural poor doing manual labour. The programme at the same time is aimed at the empowerment of women as 33 per cent of the employment is reserved for them. The wage rate for a maximum of 100 days is provided at the national or state level of minimum wages, whichever is higher. The wages are paid through a bank/post office account in a transparent manner. There is no discrimination between the wages of men and women. This is the only programme in which women get a wage rate equal to that of men according to the piece work done recorded in the muster roll.

NREGS HIGHLIGHTS
n 100 days employment is ensured at least for one member of a family holding a job card
n The use of power-operated machines/equipment is not allowed
n 33 per cent of employment is reserved for women
n This is the only programme in which women get a wage rate equal to that of men
n The wage rate for a maximum of 100 days is provided at the national or state level of minimum wages, whichever is higher
n The minimum wage of manual labour has not been revised in Punjab for the last three years
n The industrial and farm lobbies, backed by the ruling alliance, oppose any wage hike
n A positive intervention from the top in the form of securing the release of village common land from influential families, spreading awareness among panchayats and involving people’s organisations can make the NREGS more meaningful and economic progress more inclusive

This programme was started in selected districts in 2006 and was extended to all districts in the country in 2008. The states and regions within the states where this programme has been effectively implemented it has added to the income of the rural poor (in lean seasons) helping them to cross the poverty line. This has led to an improvement in the environment, water conservation and soil productivity. This has added to agricultural production and productivity, leading to a higher growth rate in agriculture. The direct payment of wages through bank/post office accounts, especially to women, has led to the empowerment of women, a better access to food, health and education of children.

Among the major states Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have generated the highest average man-days per participating households – ranging between 48 days and 70 days. Consequently, the impact on poverty reduction has been more in these states. Also, the share of women employment in the rural areas is higher. States like Punjab, Bihar, Gujarat, J&K, Orissa and Haryana have generated minimum employment.

Sleepy and active panchayats

An analysis of the implementation of the scheme reveals that the key to success or failure of the programme lies in the rural power structure. The entire scheme is implemented through Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) ranging from the planning of work for approval by the higher authorities to the issue of job cards, allotment of work and employment, keeping of records and payment of wages. In the villages and states, where panchayats are active, well aware and favourable, this programme has done well.

Along with the panchayats, the states/regions where the poor are organised they are able to generate pressure from below on the leadership of panchayats to start the NREGS in their village. In some of the cases where panchayats were led by a pro-poor leadership or were under control of the poor through the reservation mechanism in elections the implementation has been better.

In fact, the implementation of this scheme helps generate employment, provide right-based employment, raise wage rates and earnings of the poor helping some households to rise above the poverty line. This process empowers the poor, increases their assertion and frees them from the domination of large, rich farmers. Therefore, it is not liked by the dominant rural power structure. In fact, this programme intends to change the local power structure.

Encroachments on common land

The evaluation of this programme in Punjab shows that in a large number (nearly half) of villages the programme has not been started. In some villages gram sabha meetings, a statutory requirement, have not been called for starting the programme. While in other villages resolutions have not been allowed to be passed by dominant class/caste groups for starting the NREGS. The villages where the resolutions have not been passed, it was found that the village common land on which public works were to be started were under the occupation of powerful persons.

In some villages, common village land has been encroached upon by the traditionally dominant families. There are cases in which the common land is neither occupied nor encroached upon by the dominant families yet the NREGS has not been started. In such cases the village panchayats are dominated by people who are against starting this programme. In some villages the panchayats are controlled by sarpanches belonging to the Scheduled Castes but they are ignorant of the benefits of this scheme.

The cases where the NREGS has been successful a combination of factors has played a positive role. These include an enlightened and pro-poor leadership of panchayats, availability of village common land, pressure of the bureaucracy, especially BDPOs who were able to persuade the panchayat leadership to initiate the scheme.

In some of the villages the existence of a workers’ union, a club or some other organisation has created enough pressure from below, especially in the Moga and Jalandhar belt. In these areas some influential leaders from leftist organisations have played a positive role. There are also examples where representative of the PRIs, who got training and became aware of about the programme, took the initiative in this direction. Organisations like the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) and the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID) have played a positive role in creating such awareness. In the districts of Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Bathinda, Amritsar and Muktsar the deputy commissioners took a keen interest in the programme and produced better results.

It is evident that programmes like the NREGS and social security schemes like the Old Age Pension and the Dal-Atta Scheme involve the inclusion/exclusion of deserving persons and families. The process of inclusion helps the poor and exclusion deprives them of the benefits. The working of the power structure in the rural society, the existence of organisations of the poor and a favourable/ committed bureaucracy makes a qualitative change in the situation.

No increase in minimum wage

The minimum wage of manual labour has not been revised in Punjab for the last three years. It stands at Rs.123 while prices of food items have increased at the rate of more than 10 per cent a year and in some cases they have doubled during this period. The minimum wages have been revised to Rs.170 per day in Haryana and Rs.169 per day in the UT of Chandigarh. Investigations have revealed that the Labour Commissioner is supposed to revise the minimum wages every year. But this has not been done due to pressure from the industrial lobby and some factions of the farm lobby which operate through the ruling alliance.

It is argued by them that the revision of the minimum wage raises the cost of production affecting profitability. This section opines that the implementation of the NREGS in other states like U.P. and Bihar has created labour scarcity in the state and pushed up wages in the busy season. They are against the revision of the minimum wage. Therefore, NREGS workers, especially women and labourers, continue to get lower wages although the entire burden is to be borne by the Union Government.

There is need to take up such programmes seriously. Efficient officers at the state level can sensitise their middle-level colleagues, especially BDPOs, for making the programme effective. At the same regular monitoring can produce positive results. A positive intervention from the top in the form of securing the release of common land from influential families, spreading awareness among panchayats and involving people’s organisations can make the NREGS and other social security programmes more meaningful and effective, and consequently, make economic progress inclusive in nature. A regular revision of minimum wages indexed to food inflation can increase the effectiveness of the inclusion process.

The writer is the Director General, Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development (CRRID), Chandigarh