The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Maya wins court battle
CBI gets well-deserved dressing-down

Former UP Chief Minister and BSP supremo Mayawati has succeeded in proving her point in the Supreme Court that it had never ordered an enquiry into her assets. Upholding her stand that the CBI had wrongly interpreted the apex court’s order issued in 2003, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Friday quashed a corruption case against her and pulled up the CBI. Through its 2003 order the apex court had asked the investigating agency to hold a probe into the Taj Corridor project scam involving the release of Rs 17 crore without due sanction and nothing beyond this.

The CBI, however, went overboard. It not only filed an FIR against Mayawati and some officers with regard to their role in the Taj Corridor scam but also instituted a case against her under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The court has, therefore, given the well-deserved dressing-down to the investigating agency. The judges held that the CBI probe into Mayawati’s assets was “beyond the scope of the directions” of the apex court. What the court wanted the agency to do was strictly confined to the Taj Corridor case.

In its over-enthusiasm to expose Mayawati, the CBI began an enquiry into the growth of her assets since 1995 whereas the Taj Corridor project was launched in 2002. Yet it is a partial relief for the BSP supremo. In an affidavit filed along with her nomination papers for a Rajay Sabha seat, she had given Rs 111.64 crore as an estimate of her wealth a few months back. She had explained that the increase in her assets was a result of contributions made by her followers out of “love and affection”. The CBI had claimed in an affidavit before the apex court that between 1998 and 2003 Mayawati and her close relatives had acquired 96 plots of land, houses and orchards. It had also stated that her assets had increased from Rs 1 crore in 2003 to Rs 50 crore in 2007. But, perhaps, nothing can be done now.

Sartorial radicalism
Stop it before it’s too late

Sometimes it’s good to travel back in history to get a perspective. Way back in 1991, at the peak of militancy in Kashmir, the local media had posed a few questions to the champions of burqa. It raised simple questions like how Kashmiri women would work in the fields donning a burqa. Or, will they be comfortable leaving surgery of their kith and kin in the hands of a burqa-clad doctor? These questions were raised after radical Muslim women’s organisation, Dukhtaran-e-Millat (Daughters of the Nation), had issued a diktat for the local girls to cover themselves properly in a burqa. To implement the command, some cases of acid throwing were also reported to teach a lesson to the detractors. But even those days tourists were spared from this self- imposed law — both foreign and domestic.

To fill that gap of securing a complete cultural alienation, even at the cost of losing revenue that the tourists bring, a politico-religious organisation, the Jamaat-i-Islami, has asked tourists visiting the valley to follow a “proper dress code.” This dress code does not allow short or mini skirts, or “objectionable dresses” but it remains free to interpretation. The Jamaat has also asked the Tourism Department to enforce the dress code on tourists.

Once again, history should be recalled. After the incidents of killing of 18 tourists in grenade attacks in 2006, Kashmiri separatists had issued an appeal to tourists to visit the Valley, assuring them that they would be treated as “guests of Kashmir” and no harm would come to them. What is more surprising about the Jamaat diktat is that no one has come forward to challenge the edict even in these times of peace. The mainstream leaders who took the initiative for establishing peace and security in the Valley and spent huge sums of money to lure tourists from abroad have maintained total silence. If they do not take a clear stand, the situation may lead to a new kind of radicalism in Kashmir.

Thought for the Day

Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope. — Josh Billings

ARTICLE

Whither national polity?
BJP has bigger problems than Congress
by Kuldip Nayar

The Bharatiya Janata Party seems to have tryst with doom. In the wake of scams and scandals in the Congress-run government, the BJP was gaining ground. Its performance in Parliament was comparatively better and its younger leadership assertive and more meaningful. But once again old RSS men have brought it back to square one.

First Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi joined issue with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on the concept of secularism and then the RSS played the Hindutva card. Both have scotched even the remotest chance of the BJP returning to power. A person who has his hands tainted with the blood of Muslims cannot be projected as India’s next Prime Minister. Nor can the false clothes of culture hide the real face of adherents to the Hindu Rashtriya concept.

The BJP has, by and large, remained quiet. One of its leaders has spoken out of turn and questioned the very concept of secularism. But he was hushed up quickly. It seems the party did delude itself with the idea that the Hindu voters were beginning to accept the RSS philosophy. The BJP should have learnt the lesson in 2009 when it was all set to win but lost the race for power to the Congress. Political parties, including the Congress, do not understand the new electorate, mostly young. It is liberal in outlook and hates to mix religion with politics. This was the ethos which the nation adopted during the Independence struggle and after freedom as a pole star under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad.

True, regional chauvinism, which is coterminous with caste and community in certain states, is rearing its ugly head. This is because the Centre looks confused and equivocal when it comes to enunciating policies which demand secular credentials.

Having little feedback from the field, New Delhi continues to monopolise power and fails to appreciate that decentralisation would infuse life among the people in a state. Regional aspirations have got a new edge in the recent past and the locals are fired with confidence that they can sort out their problems themselves and find a consensus quicker than the remote New Delhi does.

This is the reason why the Trinamool Congress won in West Bengal and the Samajwadi Party in UP. The voters found the parties closer to them and more sympathetic to their problems. Even if these regional parties do not give them a better administration, the people are not likely to go back to all-India parties which they have found failing them again and again. They may try another party within the region because they are getting convinced that all-India parties are not an answer to their problems of appalling living conditions.

The idea of India may be pushed further into the background. There may be insurgents and separatists in certain areas to assert the identity of their caste or community, believing that in the affairs of all-India politics they may get lost. Much would depend on how New Delhi handles the situation. The Sarkaria Commission on Centre-state relations has become outdated. Had its recommendations been implemented when the report came out more than two decades ago, the demand by the states to have more powers might not have arisen. The Centre has to curtail the subjects it has, either voluntarily or through a Constitutional amendment. Apart from defence, foreign affairs, currency and overall financial planning, New Delhi should not have more subjects. Once it decentralises its power, it should ensure that the decentralisation goes all the way, from the state capital to the district and then to the panchayat so that people themselves participate in governance.

The main parties, the Congress, the BJP and the Left, would have problems. The Left does not seem to bother because it is dictatorial in its working. The CPM ousted a member from the party even though he had resigned after supporting Pranab Mukherjee, the Congress party’s Presidential candidate. Yet, both the Congress and the BJP need to handle their members carefully. Even when a state Chief Minister speaks out of turn, he has to be brought around as has been the case with Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, although he owes his position to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

The BJP faces a bigger problem because it rules in twice the number of states the Congress does. Leave Modi apart — he is a bull in a china shop — the Chief Ministers in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka are too tall to tame. They are leaders of their own communities and command wide influence.

Both parties would have great difficulty in the 2014 elections, first in choosing the top person and then tackling him or her. Take, for example, the BJP. It is already wooing Vasundhara Raje Scindia, former Chief Minister, who thumbed the party and stayed in the wilderness because she was sure that the Central BJP would one day come to her and accept her authoritarian leadership.

Problems of the Congress on this count are negligible. Sonia Gandhi has all the authority. That Rahul Gandhi, her son, should be nominated as number two has already been done. There is no dissidence and she alone, more so after the departure of Pranab Mukherjee, has the confidence of allies in the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) she chairs.

The BJP would need more and more assistance of the RSS to sort out difficulties with the state leaders. Realising this, RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat has announced that Modi has all the qualifications to become India’s new Prime Minister. However, this has naturally infuriated the BJP’s main ally, Janata Dal (United). Its President Sharad Yadav has said that if Modi is the Prime Ministerial candidate, the JD(U) would quit the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

What is wrong with having a Hindutva Prime Minister, as Bhagwat questions. This question itself shows how the RSS lives in a world of its own and does not face the reality of secular India. For the BJP, already a divided house, the confusion is more confounded. It realises that the country can never be ruled through a communal agenda. Even former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee realised this and always put his liberal foot forward. He refused to oust his Principal Secretary Brijesh Mishra despite the pressure of the RSS. But then the BJP’s problem is that it does not have a tall person like Vajpayee today to withstand the pressure of the RSS.

MIDDLE

Talks with a taxi driver
by V. K. Kapoor

We were standing on North Lake Shore Drive in Chicago, waiting for a taxi. I along with my wife had gone to Chicago to attend our son’s graduation ceremony.

Soon a taxi stopped and we three got in. The previous evening our son had taken us for dinner to a high-rise building which had a restaurant on the 96th storey. From the dining room, Chicago looked like a sea of light.

Sitting in the taxi, we were talking about cleanliness and beautiful buildings of Chicago. Suddenly, the taxi driver intervened, “Sade sohne Punjab da muqabla nahin” (There is no comparison with our beautiful Punjab.)

He was from Pakistan. We had conversation in colloquial Punjabi for 20 minutes till we reached our destination in Chicago. He told us that he had relations in Ferozepur, Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Rawalpindi, Sargoda and Multan.

His family originally belonged to Gurdaspur. His parents and grandparents shifted to Pakistan after Partition. He talked of Punjab, Punjabi and Punjabiat and said very emphatically, “Je ah eko mulak rahenda, taan Americana ne sadia taxia chalaya karnia se” (Had this country remained one, Americans would have driven our taxis).

I was reminded of my talks with the Mayor of Lahore, where I had gone with the Indian hockey team for the World Cup. The mayor told me that had there been no Partition and this Punjab remained the same from North-West to Delhi, the Prime Minister would always have been a Punjabi – whether a Hindu, Musalman or Sikh. “Kyonke zamin damdar, log damdar (The land is good and people are tough). I feel countries also have their destiny like individuals, and some decisions taken by a few people affect the destinies of many succeeding generations. The mayor stressed the point that India and Pakistan had a common umbilical cord.

The taxi driver told me that his mother’s village was the same as that of legendary Sohni (of Sohni Mahiwal fame). His happiness knew no bounds when I told him that my wife, too, belonged to Sialkot. He added that his “Phoopi” (father’s sister) was married in Sialkot and people of Sialkot were very good.

Emphasising that Punjabis enjoy the same music, he switched on his music system. I heard the voice of famous Pakistani singer Mussarat Nazir singing “Aj teri laddo pardesan hoi”, a very popular wedding song on both sides of Wagah.

In the meantime, we had reached our destination —- Lincoln Park. As we got down, he gave a respectful “Adab” to my wife, a warm handshake to my son and a very warm hug to me.

It was interesting to find the yearning for “pind” (villages) in all expatriates.

As we walked in the park, I felt that the pain of Partition still persists. During my stay at Lahore the late Gen Tikka Khan, who was the Governor of Punjab then, hosted a reception for all the teams. I met a former minister who was very nostalgic about the days gone by. I asked him what can be done to bring the two countries together. He smiled and recited a couplet which I still remember:

“Mumkin nahin halat ki gutthi sulajh sakay

Ahle Danish ne bahut soch ke uljhai hai”

(It is not possible to unravel the knot; it is too complicated).

OPED SAFETY

The frequency and severity of road accidents in Punjab call for a serious thought on road safety. The trends witnessed are too horrifying to be contemplated with equanimity
PUNJAB’S LAWLESS ROADS
G.S. Aujla

The fatality figure in road accidents in Punjab is nearly six times higher than the deaths caused in homicide cases. According to a report circulated by the Government of India, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, another disturbing trend has come to light. Punjab leads a majority of the states in the severity of road accidents. For every 100 accidents there are 64.3 fatalities in Punjab, which are two to three times more than the figures of Kerala (11.3), Karnatka (20.7) and Maharashtra (17.3). Ludhiana enjoys the dubious distinction of leading other major cities of India where accident severity stands at 52.8, taking the totality of dead and injured persons into account.

It is, therefore, high time a revolutionary change was effected into the entire gamut of safety management on roads – covering its three cliché-ridden components – engineering, education and enforcement. At the moment there is an underperformance under all the three heads.

An average Punjabi, given to conspicuous consumption, goes in for fast-running vehicles. With speed being the essence of driving there is a temptation to drive with impunity. The faster the vehicle and the better the road, the more dangerous is the road accident with a corresponding reduction in safety and survival quotient

User-unfriendly roads

One can begin by looking at engineering, which is the principal culprit in endangering road safety. Our roads compared to what we have seen in the better developed countries are not user-friendly. With rampant encroachments, the inadequacy of berms and hard shoulders, with approach roads cutting into highways at right angles and no separation between coming and going traffic, it is a challenge to drive on roads. Hitting the nail on the head, American TV celebrity Oprah Winfrey compared the driving in India to a ‘video game’.

Six-laning or at least four-laning of all the important arteries should be accorded due priority. Unfortunately, the Ludhiana-Chandigarh segment is arguably one of the most neglected areas in spite of such intense traffic between these two important cities. The Ludhiana-Ferozepur, Ropar-Phagwara and Chandigarh-Patiala-Bathinda roads need to be six-laned in the first instance. There is no harm if more roads are built on the BOT (build, operate, transfer) basis as some of our better roads already are. It is often said that there are vertical solutions to horizontal problems. The need for building more flyovers and under-bridges cannot be over-emphasised.

Poor rail connectivity

Punjab has the misfortune of having a primitive inter-city and no intra-city rail connectivity. One reason for the burgeoning increase in vehicular traffic on Punjab roads is that there is no efficient railway system between the main cities. Lately, there has been a realisation that Metro railways on the pattern of Delhi need to be introduced in Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar and Amritsar, which should have inter-city connectivity. It is necessary to connect all the passenger ‘catchment’ areas of one city with the diverse destinations in the other cities covering contiguous areas as well. There is a crying need for fast railway shuttle services between Amritsar and Chandigarh touching Jalandhar and Ludhiana. One should be able to cater to the passenger need in such a manner that a person starting at 7 am from Amritsar should be able to reach Chandigarh by 10 am to be able to attend state government offices or the high court and return home by 10 pm the same day. This will take a lot of traffic off the Grand Trunk Road, which is getting clogged at various places.

A look at random vegetation along the main roads reveals a retrograde mindset. Gone are the days when slow-moving carts were to traverse the road looking for a shady cover on the protracted journey. With fast-moving and air-conditioned vehicles now becoming more a rule than an exception a clearer line of a sight is more important than getting shady patches on the way.

Trees along roads

The Forest Department puts most vegetation on the verge of berms and whenever a road has to be widened, it entails extensive deforestation, which often invites criticism from environmentalists. Government agencies involved in planting trees along the roads should take steps to put the green cover at the far end of the government land. Putting shrubs and hedges close to a road impedes the line of sight and leads to a frequent loss of human and animal life, especially after dark.

Road discipline

Traffic Education, which is the second constituent of security, is confined mainly to cities. In the countryside and on highways there is no attempt at educating road-users. There is need to address the student and farming community at greater length. Awareness of road discipline is inadequately practised both by youth as well as farmers, although for different reasons. Youth may be aware but less willing to be cautious due to sheer adolescence. Studies reveal that 32.4% of fatalities on roads in India are in the age group of 15 and 24. The farming and rural community accounts for 60.6% fatalities in a spatial distribution of road accidents. There are about half a million tractors on road in Punjab. It is necessary that a comprehensive education programme addresses the farming community.

The enforcement of the traffic rules is not the job of the police alone. Scrapping the road enforcement powers of the police a few years ago was like throwing the baby with the bathwater. Corruption on the road was quoted as the solitary reason for withdrawing the police from the highways. Instead of detecting and punishing the erring police officers it was found easier to leave the roads alone to the potential violators of traffic rules. But a realisation has now emerged that unless you trust and empower the police and equip it with the latest gadgetry and interception vehicles, nothing tangible can be achieved. The ubiquitous and stealthily deployed traffic cop is highly dreaded in the western countries because of his unsparing professional commitment. We can have similar cops here as well if they are truly motivated and protected.

Undetected ‘hit-and-run’ cases are a major concern impacting safety on the roads. In the absence of traffic check-posts it is difficult to report an offending vehicle on the run. Often the road-user is not aware of the police station or the district of jurisdiction where the offence is taking place. It is very important that the telephone and mobile numbers of the SHOs and their superior officers are displayed on roads so that an offending vehicle is easily reported and intercepted.

Grant of licences

Obtaining a driving licence, especially of heavy vehicles, is perhaps the easiest thing in our country. A majority of the illiterate drivers do not have the volition to drive in the dedicated lane. They often block traffic on the fast lane, making it necessary for the faster traffic to overtake from the wrong side. Stricter qualifications of driving capability and road awareness needs to be prescribed for granting a licence to the drivers of heavy vehicles.

Studies reveal that nearly 30% of accidents involve heavy vehicles on the roads. There is need to instill a fear of the law on the road, which at present seems to be supplanted by the ‘horsepower’ that a vehicle has behind its engine. Speed really thrills but kills. Some NGOs and private hospitals are doing a good job of emergency evacuation but it needs more uniform adoption all over the state.

Skewed excise logic

And now a word of caution against our skewed excise logic. Punjab roads are a tippler’s paradise. It is a joke in informed circles that it is easier to buy a bottle of liquor on the road than to get a tablet of aspirin. If you buy a bottle on the road, you are not expected to stay sober for very long. Even if it amounts to losing some excise revenue, liquor vends near the roads should be removed. The step may be in consonance with the Directive Principles of State Policy which are enshrined in the Constitution of India – the supreme law of the land.

Road Safety Board

The government can begin by taking the initiative of setting up a Road Safety Board on the pattern of what the Government of India is contemplating. It should not hold its deliberations in air-conditioned chambers only. Those involved should visit all traffic sectors in the state and carry out a holistic in-depth study of the shortcomings in road safety and study the causes of accidents in the accident-prone areas to do extensive accident mapping of the state.

The board can consist of retired engineers, police officers and enlightened citizens who may give time-bound reports for the government to start acting without much delay. Some harsh decisions will have to be taken but they will be amply justified by a favourable social ‘cost-benefit’ analysis. There is need to save lives on the road: one does not know for whom the bell may toll next.

G.S. Aujla, IPS, is a former Director of the Punjab Police Academy, Phillaur