The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Punjab’s third front
‘Sanjha’ show of strength

RED and yellow flags were fluttering in harmony recently in a show of strength designed to demonstrate the feasibility of a third political alternative in Punjab. As far as this limited objective is concerned, it succeeded in its endeavour. The newly-formed Sanjha Morcha, for the Punjab Assembly elections, in which the People’s Party of Punjab and the Akali Dal (Longowal) joined hands with the CPM and CPI, has promised a lot to the electorate in its common minimum programme (CMP). It, however, has a long way to go in demonstrating its effectiveness at the forthcoming Assembly polls.

PPP chief Manpreet Singh Badal has found the going tough in recent months as he faced attacks from his family and erstwhile party. However, the presence of CPM leaders Prakash Karat and Nilotpal Basu, CPI leader AB Bardhan, and Akali Dal (Longowal) leader Surjit Singh Barnala at a recent political rally, has boosted the viability of the new dispensation in popular minds. Various components of the Sanjha Morcha cannot claim to hold sway over all of Punjab, like the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress can, but they are effective in different regions of the state, and as such, together hope to gain far more than they can achieve individually.

As expected, the common minimum programme of the Sanjha Morcha is rich in promises, which seek to balance much-needed reforms with populism. However, more than anything else, it is the promise of a third alternative emerging in the political scenario of Punjab that is quite alluring for a section of the electorate which is disenchanted with the two main political dispensations in the state. It is, of course, simply too early to predict how this promise gains transaction in the political hustle bustle that an impending Assembly election heralds. However, there is no doubt that weeks will show hectic political manoeuvring and people will be watching with interest as to how this third political force in Punjab fares at the hustings.

Cyber stalking on rise
Laws needed to deal with complexity of the web

Since economic offences grab the limelight, cyber crimes have come to be associated with credit card thefts and hacking of bank accounts. The fact is, India has crossed the danger mark in cyber crimes targeting women and children. Statistics show, and law enforcers confirm, that the maximum number of cyber crimes are related to obscenity. Mumbai tops the list in these crimes, followed by Delhi. It is believed that about 75 per cent of all cyber crimes are targeted at women, adolescents and children.

The cyber stalker’s chosen victims — women and children — are usually new to the web and inexperienced with the rules of netiquette and internet safety. In the much publicised case of a woman in Delhi, who began receiving obscene calls on her cell for paid ‘dates’, it was found that her cell number and photograph, picked from her social networking account, were posted on a US-based website that ‘promoted friendship between people of different sexes’. When the police contacted the company, it refused to cooperate with details of the person who posted the information. Such crimes raise fresh issues on territorial jurisdiction of the crime, human rights, right to privacy and fresh need for laws and legislations. Particularly in drafting laws for cyber crime, international collaboration is needed, as cyber space does not follow national boundaries.

Apart from following internet safety rules and procedures and putting relevant laws in place, few basic concepts need to be defined with clarity — if the internet is a public arena, do individuals forego their rights to privacy by simply being online, which has been proved in multiple unresolved cases of cyber stalking. Other related issues to cyber crime; lack of cyber savvy police, lawyers and judges need to be resolved. Since the seriousness of crimes against women is not realised, and there is complete absence of women police in cyber crime cells, only 10 per cent of crimes against women get reported. Secondly, cyber crimes set forth by the IT Act are covered under civil procedures rather than criminal procedures, which make the cases linger for long. This needs to be addressed by the government with a sense of urgency.

Thought for the Day

The bent given by education will determine all that follows. — Socrates

ARTICLE

A grand chessboard
Role of regional powers in Afghanistan
by Harsh V. Pant

AS the NATO-led Western military forces prepare to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, all major regional players and global powers are struggling to come to terms with the aftermath. Istanbul (Turkey) was the latest venue where 12 regional states and the Afghan government came together last week to make another effort at trying to bring some semblance of security and stability to Afghanistan and its surrounding region. A broader international gathering on Afghanistan will be held in Bonn next month, followed by a NATO summit in May in Chicago to assess the ground realities and political progress in Afghanistan.

Regional cooperation was declared at the Istanbul conference as the only viable alternative to the festering tensions that have plagued Afghanistan for decades. Various South and Central Asian governments suggested that they recognised that Afghanistan’s problems of terrorism, narcotics trafficking and corruption affected them all and had to be addressed through cooperative efforts. They adopted the Istanbul Protocol that commits countries as diverse as China, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Russia to cooperate in countering terrorism, drug trafficking and insurgency in Afghanistan and in the neighbouring areas. In this context, Afghanistan’s traditionally divisive neighbours have pledged to support its efforts to reconcile with insurgent groups and to work together on joint security and economic initiatives to build long-term Afghan stability.

The Istanbul effort has been touted as a regional endeavour to solve a major regional issue and the very fact that many regional states came together to at least articulate a policy response is indeed a step in the right direction. But as the vision has been laid out in Istanbul, the practical difficulties in implementing the goals outlined remain as stark as ever. The differences among the participating states are strong enough to derail the rhetoric that emerged out of the conference.

The role of the US looms particularly large over the future of Afghanistan. Though the US was not mentioned in the declaration, it did attend the conference as a supporter, not as a primary participant. The presence of the US was necessary. After all, this is the country that spends more than $10 billion a month in Afghanistan and has nearly 100,000 troops there. Given its reluctance to maintain its military presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, the Obama administration has already heavily promoted the meeting as part of a process that it anticipates will set conditions allowing all US and NATO combat troops to withdraw from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The US has reached out to regional powers to bring them into Afghanistan more substantively. Special US Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Marc Grossman, was recently in India and China, and held talks with their governments to assess the role these countries can play in bringing about long-term peace to the strife-torn nation.

Meanwhile, a regional power struggle continues. Turkey made a public effort to try to mediate to end the differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan. As a result of this, Hamid Karzai and Asif Ali Zardari agreed to a joint inquiry into the assassination last month of Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was in charge of negotiations with the Taliban as head of Afghanistan’s High Peace Council. Rabbani’s slaying was part of a series of high-profile attacks in recent months that Afghanistan and the United States charge have been carried out by Pakistan-based Afghan insurgents. It remains to be seen if this would lead to normalisation of relations between Islamabad and Kabul.

India’s participation this year was significant as it was kept out at the behest of Pakistan from the Istanbul conference last year. India has growing stakes in peace and stability in Afghanistan, and the recent India-Afghanistan strategic partnership agreement underlines India’s commitment to ensure that a positive momentum in Delhi-Kabul ties is maintained. Reports that the Obama administration is relying on the ISI to help organise and kick-start reconciliation talks, aimed at ending the insurgency in Afghanistan despite accusing the disgraced spy agency of secretly supporting the Haqqani terrorist network, which has mounted sustained attacks on Western and Indian targets, should be worrying. The ISI has little interest in bringing the Haqqanis to the negotiating table as they continue to view the insurgents as their best bet for maintaining influence in Afghanistan as the United States reduces its presence there.

Other regional players have their own interests in the future of Afghanistan. Iran opposes any long-term American presence in Afghanistan under a security agreement being negotiated between Washington and Kabul that would follow the 2014 combat withdrawal. Russia wants to ensure that Afghanistan doesn’t become the source of Islamist instability that can be transported to its territories via other Central Asian states. China wants to preserve its growing economic profile in Afghanistan but is not interested in making significant political investment at the moment. It can also rely on its “all weather” friend in Pakistan to safeguard its interests in the Af-Pak region.

Conflicting interests over Afghanistan have tended to play a pivotal role in the formation of foreign policies of regional powers vis-à-vis each other and that continues to be the case even today. Afghanistan’s predicament is a difficult one. It would like to enhance its links with its neighbouring states so as to gain economic advantages and tackle common threats to regional security.

Yet, such interactions also leave it open to becoming a theatre for the neighbouring states where they can play out their regional rivalries. Peace and stability will continue to elude Afghanistan so long as its neighbours view it through the lens of their regional rivalries and as a chessboard for enhancing their power and influence. And these regional rivalries will only intensify if the perception gains ground that the security situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. India will have to ensure that it does not lose out as in the past as new realities emerge in the region.

The writer teaches at King’s College, London.

MIDDLE

Classic leave applications
by Harbans Singh Virdi

Writing a simple leave application or a letter is no child’s play. You require some degree of basic knowledge to translate your thoughts into a correct expression. That is easier said than done. Most employees or students who write applications off and on have clerical, read dreadful, knowledge of the English language. They woefully find it difficult to write correctly even two-sentence application for grant of leave — to attend a marriage or a ‘mundan’ ceremony or follow (attend) a funeral (procession). The exercise causes great laughter all around.

Here are samples of a few simple but real leave applications or letters employees or school students wrote, seeking grant of leave. They will surely tickle your bones. They are produced here word for word, without editing, and are not exaggerated.

A clerk who wanted to attend a funeral ceremony wrote to his boss: “Since I have to go to the cremation ground at 10 O’clock and I may not return, please grant me half-day casual leave.”

A candidate, seeking a job, wrote the following application: “This has reference to your advertisement calling for a Typist and Accountant — Male or Female… As I am both, for the past several years and I can handle both, with good experience, I am applying for the post.”

A husband applied for leave when his wife was ill. He wrote: “Sir, my wife is suffering from sickness and as I am her only husband at home, I may be granted leave.”

Another “intelligent” husband wrote: “As my mother-in-law has expired and I am only one responsible for it, please grant me 10 days’ leave.”

A student wrote the following leave application to the headmaster: “As my headache is paining, please grant me leave for the day.”

This is another application by a student sent to the principal: “Sir, as I am studying in this school, I am suffering from headache. I request you to leave me today.”

The third student appears more innocent than naughty. He wrote: “Sir, I am suffering from fever, please declare one-day holiday.”

Even in conversation, one happens to say sometimes what one does not mean. A teacher, angry that a child in the class was watching a monkey jumping outside, said: “Oye, why are you looking at the monkey outside when I am inside?”

Anyway, next time when you write a leave application, be careful not to write anything hilarious as it may land you in a joke book, without your knowledge.

OPED-TRANSPORT

Making our roads safe
People die on Indian highways every day. We need to strengthen the institutional framework in order to make a real difference
Deepak Dasgupta

Road traffic injuries are a major public health problem and leading cause of death and disability around the world. Each year around 1.3 million people die and between 20 million and 30 million more are injured as a result of road accidents. More than 90 percent of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries which have less than half of the world’s vehicles. Road accidents are among the three leading causes of death for people between 5 and 44 years of age.

Recognizing the impact of road accidents on global health, the UN General Assembly has vide resolution 64/255 of March 2010 proclaimed 2011 – 2020 the Decade of Action for road safety with a global goal of stabilising and then reducing the forecast level of global road fatalities by increasing activities conducted at national, regional and global levels. The resolution requires the WHO and other stakeholders to prepare a Plan of Action for the Decade as a guiding document to support the implementation of its objectives. This global plan is intended to serve as a tool to support the development of national and local plans of action.

Higher Indian fatalities

The Decade of Action represents an opportunity for India on getting its act together and improving on its extremely dismal record of road safety. With fatality rates per 10,000 vehicles being 15 to 20 times higher than those of developed countries, road traffic accidents at 35 percent constitute the highest percentage of all deaths from various natural and unnatural causes of accidents in India.

One person dies every four minutes on Indian roads which translate into a jumbo jet crashing every day killing all its passengers. Tragically, road accidents mostly involve earning members, whose loss neither their families nor the society can afford. Road accidents also impose a cost on the Indian economy equivalent to around 3 percent of the GDP.

Only tokenism, no clear plan

Unfortunately, there is little impact at present of the serious situation on our collective consciousness. Whereas, even near misses in the aviation sector receive prominent coverage in the media with considerable analysis of likely causes and possible remedial measures, the equivalent of a jumbo jet crashing on Indian roads every day barely finds a mention.

Even accidents involving a significant number of casualties are reported in a mere factual manner with little analysis of causes and possible remedies. Individually we bemoan the utter lack of traffic discipline but collectively we fail to address the problems. On the side of the authorities, there is a great deal of tokenism and lip service but no clear plan on how to bring down the number of deaths caused by road accidents.

The existing institutional arrangements whereby different aspects of road safety are dealt with by both the Central and State Governments and by different departments within them does not allow for clear cut responsibility for implementation of road safety in a holistic and comprehensive manner. In fact it took some time to even decide the primary responsibility among Ministries for preparing the Plan for the Decade of Action.

The existing arrangements dealing with the important aspects of road safety such as engineering, enforcement, education, emergency care etc illustrate the need for a more integrated and inter-disciplinary approach. The lack of an appropriate institutional structure for the management and proper oversight of action being taken in these different areas is a major reason behind our poor record in road safety.

Multiple agencies, multiple excuses

The lack of an overarching oversight mechanism results in a failure to institute effective road safety measures. Thus road engineering is the responsibility of the various agencies in charge of the different networks, who have an indifferent record in their approach to making road safety assessment in their networks through safety audits or implementing measures. Similarly, any effort to influence road user behaviour through implementation of traffic laws and by creating awareness is the responsibility of a myriad of departments such as the police, transport, information and publicity, education, etc. in different states with no clear oversight for sustained enforcement.

The system to provide emergency care to victims of road accidents also involves a number of agencies that fail to coalesce properly in providing the infrastructure and coming together in an emergency. Improvements have been made in vehicular safety design but there is no clear evidence that regular investment is being made in research and development for enhancement of vehicular safety in line with the prevalent conditions on Indian roads.

Chinese experience

In evolving an institutional blueprint for road safety management, it may be helpful to look at institutional arrangements prevalent in some countries to manage road safety. The growth of road traffic in India follows the pattern seen in China, where a massive programme of road development has led to a spectacular increase in vehicular traffic resulting in a substantial increase in road accidents.

This has led to the promulgation of the Road Traffic Safety law under which the responsibility of different agencies involved has been spelt out with the Ministry of Public Security being responsible for the nation wide administration of road safety. The law lays emphasis on being for the people and protecting the weak, namely, the cyclists and pedestrians, from the strong, viz., motorized category of vehicles.

US model

In the US, the National Transportation Safety Board is an independent federal agency charged with the determining of the probable cause of transportation accidents, promoting transportation safety, and assisting victims of transportation accidents and their families. Its independence and objectivity is mandated by the US Congress.

In addition, for road safety, there is the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under the Federal Department of Transportation which is responsible for achieving the highest standards of excellence in motor vehicles and highway safety. It also provides services to the States through its regional offices.

European Commission policy

In the case of Europe, the European Commission has laid down a detailed Road Safety policy covering the entire gamut of requisite measures including road infrastructure, accident data collection, emergency care, training of drivers, vehicular specifications to enforcement etc. A principal objective of the policy is to implement an EU wide road safety legislation to ensure all EU nationals receive equal treatment.

Given our failure to significantly improve on our road safety record and going by the arrangements of focused central direction that prevail in some other countries, there appears to be a clear need to put in place a more effective institutional structure to manage in an holistic manner the different aspects of road safety more efficiently and infuse a greater sense of accountability upon the agencies involved.

Create Central road authority

An efficacious institutional arrangement to advance road safety in India would be to create a Road Safety Authority under an act of Parliament. The Authority should be legally empowered to call for information and reports on major road accidents around the country and, based on their analysis of the accidents, make recommendations regarding standards of road design for safer roads and provisioning of emergency care, strengthening of traffic rules and their enforcement, assessing the suitability of training arrangements and creating awareness and for improving vehicular safety standards. The Authority could also be the repository of all data pertaining to road accidents.

The setting up of such a Central Authority would require consultation with the States who could consent to the Authority’s jurisdiction as regards road safety for roads and highways under the control of the respective States or, alternatively, they could set up similar bodies in the State that could work in close association with the Central Authority.

A step in the right direction

A step towards a Central Authority has been taken with the bill to establish the National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board that is presently pending with the Standing Committee of Parliament on Road Transport and Highways.

While the proposal to set up the Board is in the right direction towards the creation of a management structure for road safety, its ambit needs to go beyond national highways, as presently proposed in the bill, to encompass all the road networks in the country.

For this purpose, discussions with the state governments would have to be undertaken to arrive at an acceptable formulation that would enable the Board to function as the pivotal authority for road safety in the country. The Board should also act as the provider of all road accident data and for which purpose it should have the necessary powers to call for information and reports on road accidents.

Comprehensive road traffic law

The effective management of road traffic also needs a comprehensive road traffic law on the pattern of the Chinese model. The Law Commission of India has also felt the need for a comprehensive central legislation to effectively and holistically regulate all the different modes of traffic. This will simplify the implementation of the traffic law and also help create better awareness.

The Decade of Action for road safety should help to focus on steps required to bring down road accidents in India in a significant manner. In drawing up the plan, it may be easy to prescribe the goals that we may wish to achieve but the absence of a proper institutional structure to manage and oversee the action being taken may end up in our failing to achieve the objectives. The success of the Decade of Action would thus depend on our ability to set up an effective management structure with an empowered lead agency on top.

The writer is former Chairman, National Highways Authority of India