The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Seat surfeit
Quality in technical colleges missing

From a time of capitation fee for admission in a technical college to lakhs of engineering seats remaining vacant each year in the country, India has come a long way. It is undoubtedly a success story per se — supplying trained manpower for an economy growing in a liberalised environment over the past two decades. However, certain imbalances in the mushrooming of these colleges and a drop in the demand from a slowing economy have given a jolt to technical education, with many institutes on the verge of closure. Himachal would not be able to fill more than 40 per cent of its engineering seats this year, while in Punjab 40 per cent seats remained vacant in the 2011-12 session. Andhra Pradesh has reported that 1.5 lakh of its 3.2 lakh seats will remain unfilled. Nationally, the vacancy figure for both engineering and management seats is around 20 per cent.

The All-India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), however, believes the number of vacant seats is not unexpected. That is the norm globally. In fact, it wants more colleges, as nearly 30 lakh students out of the 80 lakh who pass Class 12 each year do not join further education for various reasons. If India means to cash in on its famed human resource, it will have to invest heavily in education, especially technical. The only question that remains is quality, which is very poor in a vast majority of the institutes. They have good buildings, but not the required faculty or infrastructure. This is a failure of the AICTE too, whose job it is to ensure quality before giving approval to colleges.

A country with limited resources, India cannot afford to have seats going vacant, which need to be reconciled with the demand, and not increased until quality is assured. While many students may want to study engineering, not all are able to pay the fees of private colleges. To overcome this, student loans have to become more readily available. If an institute is good, a student will be able to pay back the loan after getting a job.

Not an indulgence
Separate transport for women is a need

Any kind of segregation is unhealthy. So is reservation. But the ideal situation where everyone is treated with parity is possible only when a sense of equality in instilled in all sections of society. The orders issued by the traffic police of J&K (Jammu and Kashmir) under which a certain number of seats are reserved for women in public transport have to be viewed keeping in mind the peculiar reality in the state. Anywhere in the world when war, insurgency or militancy afflict a state, the worst affected are its women and children. As such, for decades women have had no visibility in Kashmir, and when small gestures like these are introduced to bring them back to mainstream, it should be welcomed by all.

It is easy for men to use the demand for gender equality, which is often raised by women, against them in such contexts. But a mature assessment of the social reality would reflect the demand comes from women’s quarters because gender bias is experienced by women at every step. No woman feels safe travelling in public transport anywhere in India. No wonder, women in Kashmir feel intimidated by men who occupy seats reserved for them and do not report it to the police. Though a fine of Rs 150 is fixed by the traffic police in J&K for violators of the order, cases are not registered against them because women do not come forward. So, now they demand that a proper challan (fine bill) should be issued to the offenders by the conductor to protect their right to travel in safety.

The demand for reserved seats is not unique to J&K; women across the country get this privilege due to the peculiar South Asian reality where incidents of harassment by male passengers in public transport are common. In metros, women have special coaches reserved for them, and ditto goes for the local trains in Mumbai. Reserved seats and coaches are not a special indulgence extended to women; these indicate a serious social problem.

Thought for the Day

Change your thoughts and you change your world. — Norman Vincent Peale

ARTICLE

Where are Shah Commission files?
Records of 1975 Emergency must be restored
by Kuldip Nayar

Reports appearing in the Press say that the proceedings of the Shah Commission are missing from the Archives of India. The one-man Shah Commission was appointed to examine the instances of excesses during the Emergency imposed 37 years ago. The commission held Prime Minister Indira Gandhi guilty of subverting the Indian Constitution and of demolishing the rule of law in the country. The effort of the ruling Congress has been to rub off the stigma of that period. Apparently, the party has come to resort to mean tactics. By destroying the documents containing proceedings, the party does not efface the memory of the darkest time the nation underwent after Independence. True, wounds heal after sometime but they leave a scar too.

It is, however, important to trace the proceedings and restore them to the Archives of India where they were kept originally. I recall having asked the secretary to the commission, P.R. Rajagopal, how he would ensure the safety of proceedings. He said that he would deposit all the papers with the Archives of India. Since there has been no denial either by the archives or by the government on the disappearance of the proceedings, I assume that the rope trick attributed to India has proved to be correct in the case of the Shah Commission records.

Even the attitude of Indira Gandhi when she returned to power in 1980 showed that she was determined to take revenge from those who had tried to act against the pro-Emergency culprits. In fact, her anger was visible at the very first function held after she assumed power.

It was an investiture ceremony where top police officials were being honoured for the outstanding service they had rendered to trace and punish those who had committed excesses during the Emergency. In the midst of the ceremony, she got up and ended the function.

Another example is the disdain with which the Police Reforms Commission report was treated by Mrs Gandhi. It confirms the fears that the Shah Commission proceedings may have been destroyed. In fact, even a copy of the report is not available either in the market or in the government offices. Does the Congress believe that the Emergency would disappear from history itself? At least, the Police Reforms Commission report exists, although its recommendations have not been implemented because most state chief ministers are not less authoritative than Mrs Gandhi was. In its report, the commission has “viewed with concern the enormous power” that R.K. Dhawan, Navin Chawla and others wielded and misused.

Since no one has been punished for the wrong he or she did, the political leaders and bureaucrats have come to believe that they are not answerable for their deeds. Today the situation has come to such a pass that those occupying high positions do not care what is said or pronounced by a law court or a commission against them. They are too arrogant, too thick-skinned.

It was a good advice that the Shah Commission gave: “If the administrative set-up in the country in its largest and most comprehensive sense is to settle down to a spell of clean, efficient and purposeful functioning, the government must encourage its establishment to function freely and fearlessly and yet within the framework of established disciplinary principles, making it clear that deviations from established procedures without justification would be dealt with severely.

When political masters and civil servants have made a mess of the country, it is hardly necessary to tell them that they have driven the country to a point from where it cannot afford to go down further. At least, let us start building the future from now onwards. The process of reformation and rejuvenation, especially in the field of administration, will have to be speeded up bringing it in tune with the nation’s requirements. This alone would prevent a recurrence of the type of maladministration and misuse of power and authority as had occurred during the Emergency.

What non-accountability has done to the country is that people have no faith in public servants. Politicians can at least be defeated at the polls but bureaucrats are permanent and cannot be even probed, without the sanction of the government, if they enjoy the rank of joint secretary and above. It is expected of the services, the Shah Commission said, that they would tender frank, informed and well-considered advice. But what is happening is the opposite. Officials write on the files what the ministers tell them to do. It is no use talking about ethics or principles when hardly anyone from among the rulers or civil servants rises above personal gain, position or electoral gain.

Unfortunately, the vocabulary used during the Emergency is back. At that time Mrs Gandhi used to call every critic anti-national. Now the officials working in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), sounding like street urchins, have described Anna Hazare and his team as anti-national. Mrs Gandhi never proved the charge of anti-national against Jayaprakash Narayan and thousands of others whom she detained without trial. The Manmohan Singh government may not have started detaining people but sounds desperate when it hurls abuses on those who differ.

No amount of demand that there should be some proof to call someone anti-national has elicited response from the government. The PMO was remained quiet even when challenged. I do not think that organsiations like the IB and RAW or even the local police would concoct something as they did during the Emergency. People are too vigilant now and they can see the smoke screen which the government is trying to create.

MIDDLE

A dream called life
by Pritam Bhullar

THE unimaginable and gory tragedy of Partition in 1947 dealt the family a severe blow. We lost our home in Lyallpur (now Faisalabad, in Pakistan), where we left large land holdings. We remained poorly compensated on this side of the border. Having joined the Army, I was commissioned in 1949 and had my first tenure of service in J&K.

Then came the time to find a girl and get married. The elders started working on this and found a suitable match. When I was asked to see the girl, I said no to it. We both had seen each other’s photograph and that was enough for me. We saw each other only after our marriage in 1955 at Ludhiana, where her father was posted then.

Being a BSc, BT, she had appeared for a science teacher’s interview (for which there was only one vacancy in Punjab) before the wedding. She got a letter a few days later that she had been selected and should join the post by the given date. The temptation of staying together went in favour of saying ‘no’ to this job. My leave having come to an end, I left for my duty station and she went back to her parents.

It was in the third week of March that I was happily strolling up and down on the platform of Bareilly railway station (in UP) early in the morning. She was joining me for the first time at a military station that day. When the train steamed in, I inquisitively kept my eyes moving with its movement till we caught each other’s gaze with a sublime satisfaction.

I advanced at a quick pace towards the door of the compartment where we met with great joy. Soon we were in a well-furnished two-room officers’ mess guestroom, where I was staying. It took us about a month to get accommodation in accordance with my entitlement. What followed was setting up a house for the first time in life.

In 1956, I was off to a field area again and she went back home to experience the first separation. With the passage of time, hazards of Army life kept on unfolding with field and peace areas, packing and unpacking drills becoming a part of life.

When militancy was at its peak in the Mizo Hills (now Mizoram), the infantry battalion that I was commanding was inducted into that area in 1967. After having cleared the area of my responsibility, I was given the task of launching a brigade operation in another area. During this, a Mizo hostiles’ ambush party opened fire when I was moving with only 10 men. We broke the ambush and snatched some weapons. But we all got wounded by the hand-grenade that they had thrown on us.

It was on March 29, 1968, that my wife got a message at Chandigarh from Army Headquarters, saying: “Your husband got wounded in action against Mizo hostiles on March 27.” This message got corrupted somewhere when it reached the CDA (Pensions), Allahabad. The CDA sent family pension papers to my wife along with a letter, saying: “Your husband got killed in action on March 27.”

She felt devastated, but could not believe the CDA message. Her immediate reaction was, “I may be dreaming.” She proved to be right, as after a few days she got another communication from the CDA (Pensions), Allahabad, apologising for sending a wrong message.

Now when she is no more in our midst, I feel our entire life is a dream.

OPED SECURITY

Piracy in the Indian Ocean is on the rise. Monetary losses apart, the safety of sailors is a major concern. India has to flex its muscles and show its strength in international waters
Charting a strategy to tackle sea piracy
Capt KS Sujlana

The risks and deprivations faced by the sailing community, who despite these threats, relentlessly continue the seaborne trade that is so vital to the economies world-wide, are enormous. It is imperative that the fight against the scourge of piracy is seen and addressed in the correct perspective. The menace of sea piracy emanating off the coast of Somalia is slowly spreading its octopus like tentacles along the coast of Africa and extending deep towards the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean.

Taking full advantage of the permissive environment in the failed state of Somalia, where job opportunities are non-existent, the way ward, poor and unemployed youth are readily available to be exploited by nefarious elements. These forces inimical to peace, distant from Africa, provide it subtle backing and have a stranglehold control over this lucrative business. They propagate quick money gains and the soft option of rags to riches, which encourages piracy. Year by year piracy is growing, with pirates extracting huge ransom payments running into millions of dollars.

Financial implications

The Joint War Committee has declared the piracy infested waters as enclosed on the north-west by the Red Sea, west of the Gulf of Oman along longitude 58° East, on the East along longitude 78° East and to the south along Latitude 12° South (see map).

About 400 merchant ships are in the high risk area at any given time. Diplomatic initiatives with other nations must be taken to ensure mutual understanding and if need be, develop links covertly or overtly, for deep penetration into the stronghold of piracy. There is also a lesson to be learnt from decisive anti-pirate operations taken by the US

The International Maritime Organisation has highlighted that piracy worldwide reached an all time high in 2011, during which 544 attacks were reported. It is estimated that pirates took in 160 million dollars and a study predicts this figure to go up to 400 million dollars by 2015. Compared to this, the logistics and functional cost of this highly established and structured business is negligible. All it needs is a small investment in boats and arms, the manpower requirements drawn from the unemployed youth are readily at hand, who mostly under the effect of intoxicants, get easily enamored by the propaganda of quick gains.

Who exactly are the beneficiaries of this uncontrolled loot is oft debated. Who is making most of the money, while the sun of piracy shines? Are these the African pirates who represent the visible front face and seen on the wrong side of the law; or, are these the back office white collar pirates in the form of insurance companies, the arms and equipment manufacturers, the private maritime security companies (PMSC) providing armed guards, the negotiators who include lawyers and a host of other elements? This enormous loot is a self propellant, which only fuels piracy and makes it eradication a difficult proposition. Rumored whispers claim that the pirates who form the sword arm as the boarding team get only 10 per cent of the ransom money, 15 per cent goes to the African operations headman and a whopping 75 per cent finds its way out of Africa!

It is estimated that about 400 ships that are in the high risk area at any given time, voluminously add to the financial pie. These ships take additional insurance cover estimated at 8 million dollars a week, the PMSCs providing armed guards charge 4,500 dollars per day, the kidnap and ransom negotiators (KRN) charge 200,000 to 400,000 dollars for negotiating. Ransom money it seems is further insured, the private aircraft companies who take the responsibility to drop the ransom charge up to 150,000 dollars, besides the lawyers and a host of others. Reportedly, majority of the controls and the negotiators are based in Europe.

Money losses apart, the safety of the sailors is of major concern for Asian countries, particularly India, Philippines and China, and those from the erstwhile Soviet Block, who provide majority of the sailors. It is in this back drop that the theme for the 26th Asia Pacific Roundtable at Kuala Lumpur in May, was Asian Security Governance and Order. During the roundtable, Prime Minister Datuk Najib, of Malaysia, emphasised that Asia needed to change its mind set and take greater responsibility for its security and must specially cater for security at sea to protect the large percentage of Asian crews manning merchant marine fleets the world over.

Government response

In the past, the Indian Government's response in particular has been lukewarm, merely reiterating that keeping in view the need to comply with international law, it is difficult to react proactively. However, for the record, it was the Indian Navy which took one of the first actions against pirates along the Somalia coast, but that action has since been down played and a tight muzzle placed over this readily available effective dissuading force. On the other hand, the same international law does not seem to hold good for some countries. A glaring contrast is the much publicised case of pirates attacking and hijacking an American ship, Maersk Alabama, where the five day standoff ended when US Navy SEALs went into action on April 12, 2009 and got the American crew and vessel released. There is a lesson to learn from the American attitude, when it comes to American lives and interests, no international rules or agreements hold good. Another example, though in a milder and different way, is that of the European Union (EU) Navy in May. The EU forces carried out a disruptive action against known pirate supplies and equipment along the coast of Somalia. Post action, a very cautious and carefully worded statement released by the EU commander stated that the action undertaken was merely to show full sympathy for the local Somali people and fishermen, and it emphasised that at no point did EU boots step ashore. In response, the pirates threatened dire consequences on the seamen held hostage. From this it is evident, that such half hearted operations cannot be a permanent solution, well knowing that no war is ever won without the boots landing ashore.

The other end of the reaction spectrum does not involve western countries. On May 10, around 250 nautical miles from Ras Al Madrakah, Oman, ten armed pirates in two skiffs chased a crude oil tanker. It took anti piracy measures, increased speed, made evasive maneuvers and managed to evade the first boarding attempt. The pirates regrouped in their skiffs, linked with the mother ship in the vicinity and launched a second attack. This time, approaching at a high speed they managed to successfully board and hijack the vessel taking the crew hostage. The tanker carrying 135,000 tonnes of crude was commanded by an Indian captain and manned with a crew of 11 Indian, 14 Filipinos and 1 Romanian. There was no concrete reaction to this incident.

The hijacking clearly indicates that there is a prolonged time gap between the sighting of pirates and raising the alarm before the final act of a hijacking. However none of the military forces deployed in the region, be it NATO, Oman, EU or Iran, made any proactive attempt to negate the hijacking or take any follow up action. Given that the place was distant from Indian shores, an immediate proactive action was not feasible, but even subsequent responses were markedly adrift and wanting. Satellite tracking later pinpointed the ship at anchor, off Somalia, north of Bandar Bella, at a pirate hub. There was a rather meek, embarrassing reaction from the Director General of Shipping (DGS), asking the Mumbai-based recruiting agent to obtain information on the condition of the Indians onboard the vessel. This shows the neglect to such matters, because, as per norms the DGS is continuously kept abreast of the position of every vessel transiting this high risk area with details of the nationality of its crew.

Insurance factor

Another issue being circumvented is regarding insurance companies that respond only where an insured ship owner has a legal liability. There is no legal requirement or obligation to pay ransom, as it is not covered by insurance companies despite the fact that any payment made by a shipping company as ransom is likely to be extremely high. However, after the piracy nightmare has been enacted, insurance companies step in again with their post piracy humanitarian response programme to mitigate the risk of piracy induced mental trauma for seafarers, which is beyond comprehension of those who have never been in such situations. Hijackers detain ships ranging from six weeks to eight months, torture crew and are now even resorting to inhuman measures like chopping off limbs of the captives to expedite extortion of ransom.

The advocacy of best management practices for on board staff to fight back the pirates is totaling misplaced. Merchant mariners are not trained combatants; their evasive or proactive actions have limitations. They are no match to the inhuman tactics adopted by the pirates who are armed with automatic weapons and hand grenades. Backed and reinforced by mother ships, the pirates approach the targeted slow moving vessel in high speed boats giving them no scope to escape. The pirates are resolute in their intent, and are mostly under the effects of hallucinogens perpetrating schizophrenic behavior and once onboard, they are known to run amok. It is reported that this unpredictable behaviour is the result of chewing khat, a drug made from a Somali plant.

Setting course for future

India and Asia have to respond and stand up to protect their citizens. To reduce this threat, a two pronged strategy is necessary. Firstly, the Asian countries concerned must have a response plan and put in place an Asian security net in this high risk area that authorises hot pursuit and elimination of such vagabonds. Secondly, develop streams to divert the money reaching the primary recipients. As far as India is concerned, they need to adopt new measures. First, the Indian insurances companies must develop financial muscle to cover the risk of vessels transiting the area and look to exploit business and have a stake in the maritime sector. Secondly, the land based security companies in India should develop into PMSC that would provide security guards on board the vessels. For such employment, there is no dearth of trained ex-servicemen. Thirdly, there is a need to enact special laws applicable in this high risk area, which besides other appropriate laws must include one which forbids another craft to approach within 150 meters of the ships and, if they do so, same is at their own risk. The security guards must be covered by law to avoid unwarranted legal actions. Having said that, security guards must exercise due diligence and follow the rule of minimum force to avoid repeat of an event like that of the Italian guards killing innocent Indian fishermen. Fourthly, India must exploit its long association with African countries. Diplomatic initiatives must be taken to ensure mutual understanding and if need be develop links, covertly or overtly, for deep penetration into the stronghold of piracy. The drying up of the money, coupled with harsher rules will help to eradicate this menace.

India has to flex its muscles and show its strength in international waters. The recent initiative by India and China to periodically exchange views with each other on maritime trade and security and the grouping of naval ships of these two Asian giants with that of Japan and South Korea in anti-piracy patrols in infested waters from July 1 are welcome steps.

The writer is a Captain in the Merchant Navy