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A pragmatic President
Avoidable deaths
Birth control |
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Changing face of West Asia
How green were those trees!
To secure matrimony, registration must
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A pragmatic President President-elect Pranab Mukherjee’s new role in Rashtrapati Bhavan will be quite contrary to the one he has just finished playing. Used to working long hours, he may have to find new outlets for his unbounded energy. Though it was apparent that the UPA had the numbers, 76-year-old Pranab campaigned tirelessly, moving from state to state, winning the support of even rivals in Karnataka, Bihar, Maharashtra and West Bengal. Reaching out to anyone and everyone who matters is a quality Pranab Mukherjee is known for. As President, he is expected to build bridges. After being in the thick of politics for long years, will it be now Presidential activism for Pranab Mukherjee? Will he be able to rise above party politics in 2014 when the general election is expected to throw a split verdict? Since the Constitution is unclear about the formation of a government if no party gets a majority, the President is free to exercise discretion. In 1996 Shankar Dayal Sharma invited the BJP to form a government but it fell in 13 days as Atal Bihari Vajpayee could not muster enough support. K.R. Narayanan, setting a precedent, asked for letters of support from the party staking the claim to form a government. How Mukherjee handles such a situation would be keenly watched. That may well be the defining moment for him. Being a product of Congress culture, he may not do anything to harm the UPA interests. But he may also not stretch his limits for the benefit of the party that has catapulted him to the highest office in the country. Like President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed he may not sign on a dotted line. Nor like Giani Zail Singh he would ever contemplate dismissing a government. While President S.Radhakrishnan made his mark as a scholar and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam caught the public imagination by his vision of development, Pranab Mukherjee comes to Rashtrapati Bhavan as a pragmatic, problem-solving parliamentarian. As President, he would apply his mind to issues in keeping with the Constitution and his pragmatic thinking.
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Avoidable deaths THE adverse effects of tobacco on people’s health have been driven home time and again. Tobacco continues to be the leading preventable cause of death, and the link between smokeless tobacco and oral cancer has been established by many studies. The Haryana Government’s ban on manufacture, storage, distribution or sale of chewable tobacco products to be applicable from August 15 is, without doubt, a step in the right direction. The moot point, however, is whether the ban will translate into action and be properly implemented. Haryana is not the only state to announce a ban on smokeless tobacco products. Other state governments like Maharashtra, which is set to fight a legal battle with the manufacturers of gutkha and pan masala over the ban, appear to be determined in their resolve to tackle the menace. Merely announcing the ban is, however, not a solution and has to be followed up by concrete measures. Even in smoke-free cities like Shimla and Chandigarh, those flouting the rules are rarely fined. Though only recently Budgam and Srinagar districts of Jammu and Kashmir were declared smoke-free, the state is on its way to becoming the smoking capital of north India. Despite the fact that in India tobacco use kills 2,500 people every day, a large percentage of those hooked to the fatal addiction remain deliriously oblivious to its lethal effects. The inefficacy of awareness campaigns and warning signs on tobacco products underlines the need for bolder initiatives. Health hazards of tobacco can’t be understated. Undeniably, there is an urgent need to curb tobacco abuse of all kinds. While on the one hand anti-tobacco laws, including restrictions on the sale of tobacco products around educational institutions, need to be enforced sternly, on the other access to quitting methods has to be increased. To avert the impending health catastrophe, perhaps the answer lies in imposing a ban throughout the country. Erroneous beliefs about the killer habit too need to be countered by stepping up awareness
programmes.
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Birth control WHAT would happen if women in Europe lose access to contraceptives for a night? The interesting question was raised by Melinda Gates in one of her articles. Hundreds would drop out of school, or would be forced to quit jobs, which would result in a catastrophe. So, when you know that 215 million women in the Third World countries do not have access to contraceptives, this means 75 million unintended pregnancies taking place every year, not only threatening the health and lives of millions of mothers and infants, but also keeping their countries in a state of perpetual poverty. And putting an extra burden on the natural resources to feed and sustain a perpetually growing population. In India, only 20 out of the 284 high-focus districts in the country’s most populous states have so far met population stabilisation goals, according to the Annual Health Survey report. These poor results are a consequence of severe dearth of availability of contraceptives – one-fifth of female population in the nine high-population states has no access to contraceptives. In terms of cost effectiveness, family planning devices are far more economical than termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Also, if the focus of the medical fraternity, already squeezed under pressure from growing population, remains on family planning, other health services will continue to suffer. Population has to be stabilised by reaching the replacement fertility level of 2.1 children per woman to keep natural resources in a state of sustainability. Since male sterilisation is almost nil in India, the burden of family planning is borne by women alone. In the Indian context, family planning goals can’t be realised by providing easy accessibility to contraceptives alone. This demands their empowerment, which can come with the aid of better educational facilities and economic freedom. The coercive methods of family planning of the 70s and 80s have also complicated these issues. But if political will is there, positive results can be achieved in voluntary family planning, as has been done in Bangladesh.
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Earth laughs in flowers. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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Corrections and clarifications
The Tribune welcomes comments or observations about errors that warrant correction. This Corrections and Clarification column appears twice a week — Tuesday and Thursday.
Please email to us: corrections@tribunemail.com. Raj Chengappa
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Changing face of West Asia AFTER nearly a year and a half of the Arab Spring, is there a pattern emerging of the future shape of things? Tunisia, a precursor of the revolution in the Arab world, has settled down to a relatively quiet life while it wrestles with sorting out new contradictions. Egypt is very much in the throes of an unfinished revolution, with the two major forces, the Muslim Brotherhood and the military, eyeing each other warily even as each seeks to clip the other’s wings, the latter having pre-empted the former by appropriating most powers. Yemen has had some respite after the painful staged shoving aside of the long-time ruler, Ali Abdullah Saleh, even as he and his kin remain figures of influence. The battle against an Al-Qaida affiliate continues, with considerable assistance from the United States, particularly in the form of drone attacks. Bahrain simmers because Saudi Arabia has its minority Sunni ruler in a Shia-majority population under its protection buoyed by the United States, which has its Fifth Fleet stationed there. Libya is rid of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, thanks to a long season of NATO bombing runs conducted by the US and other Western powers to help the anti-regime forces by stretching the UN Security Council resolution, which has come to haunt them now on Syria. The blood bath in Syria continues as the West and Russia tussle over the legitimacy of outside intervention, with President Bashar Assad’s days destined to be numbered. The disunited opposition now armed with help from Saudi Arabia and Qatar among others with US encouragement, and Turkey increasingly complicit in the anti-Assad regime crusade increasingly gathering mass. With the UN Security Council stalemated, the country has descended into a civil war. The war has come to the centre of Damascus, with the daring murder of key Assad men, including the Defence Minister and the President’s brother-in-law. The winds of change in Tunisia and Egypt have gone the way of Islamists although the main Muslim force in the former has wisely sought a broader coalition. In Egypt, the focus of the first freely elected President in 60 years, Mr Mohammed Morsi, is on wresting power from the armed forces even as he refines his strategy in his war with the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). It promises to be a long-drawn-out one. But as the Arab Spring has spread like a wave of wild fires in one Arab country after another, the winners thus far have been Islamists of varying stripes – the showing of the Salafists in the elections to the now dissolved Egyptian Parliament was something of a surprise. It is too early to celebrate the victory of the pragmatists in the Libyan election. Its situation is unique because during the long rule of Gaddafi the country was denuded of institutions of governance, with a single person with his family and kin monopolising power with a bizarre array of tools. Little wonder that the country quickly reverted to being split into tribes and various militias have yet to meld into an even notionally united army. But the trend across the region as the democratisation wave has spread is clear. Future Arab governments will be Islamist in nature and the main struggle will be centred on how Islamic- based they will be — whether the Sharia law will be one branch or the main talisman of jurisprudence and how far the rights of women or their freedoms will be restricted. Even in the old days of almost universal dictatorships, there were great variations in the freedom, or lack of it, womenfolk enjoyed, ranging from cigarette-smoking women in cafes in Tunis at one extreme to their largely cloistered sisters in other societies at the other. Implicitly, the question being posed today is whether, after the dust settles, Turkey’s Muslim-oriented Justice and Development will provide the model for an Islam married to the modern world. But modern Turkey’s history has been rather unique. Ataturk built an aggressively secular society on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire ensconcing the military as the guardian of the state by giving it supreme powers. It took many decades for Islamist forces to assert themselves finally in the form of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party, which again took several years in power to whittle down the military’s dominance. Mr Erdogan was, of course, helped by the economic revolution brought about by the newly-prosperous observant people of heartland Anatolia. They represented the new ruling class eager to displace the traditional westernised city elite and pro-western army officers. Given the differing circumstances and mores of the Arab world, the solution to how Islamist a country will become will vary. Even in Egypt, the divided liberal forces represented a chunk of the vote in the first round of the presidential election, with a Left-winger coming third. In other words, Islamists, though the dominant element, cannot have the political field entirely to themselves and must contend with the demands and compulsions of the modern world. Even a country like Iran is discovering for itself the costs of running a clerical regime. The future of an Islamic state in the Arab world will take time to evolve, with the range of contradictions that exist in traditionally conservative and Islamist-oriented societies learning to live with the compulsions of the modern age. In a sense, we live in a world of growing religiosity. It is a marvel to think that Russian leaders have become such enthusiastic members of the Orthodox Church so soon after the demise of the supposedly God-less Soviet Union. In any event, the Russian countryside had its share of believers even in the Soviet days. Similarly, whatever the secular credentials of traditional Arab dictators, the countryside has remained deeply conservative and religious. The danger, of course, arises from political Islam, as with any religion used for political purposes. The danger is greater with Islam because religious movements, especially the Muslim Brotherhood, have been brutally suppressed in the past. There is a vital external dimension to the shape events take in the Arab world. Even more than the rest of the colonised world, the Middle East and North Africa – the region we call West Asia – have been subject to Western need for oil and energy supplies. The very durability of dictatorships in the region was due to Western preference for dealing with a single authority in ensuring constant and reliable energy supplies. This may perhaps be less true in the future, given indications of American self-sufficiency. But for the United States, there is the perennial compulsion of supporting Israel, irrespective of the methods it employs in colonising Palestinians and their
land.
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How green were those trees! DURING our recent trip to Dehradun, we also visited Mussoorie, the queen of hills, to revive memories of our earlier visits. Across Rajpur Road on the way to Mussoorie we were surprised to see an artificially created lake, where tourists had lined up to enjoy paddle boating. However, what saddened my daughter, Kshipra, was the absence of a line of green
trees. This was the place where we used to halt for a hot cup of coffee amidst thick trees and used to click pictures that adorn our living room. I got to know that trees had been felled, though after taking due permission, to make way for the lake and the resort. But the old memories of the trees where my young daughter would play hide and seek continue to haunt us. During one of our visits, there was very heavy rain as we reached the place. We took shelter at the makeshift café enjoying the music created by the raindrops. The mesmerising music of those raindrops still gives us happiness when we recall those golden moments. Nature’s beauty was still in abundance on the Dehradun-Mussorie route, but those trees were missing. As I delved deeper into the issue, it made me sad that worldwide about 300 million tonnes of paper is used each year and most of this is made of virgin pulp. Almost 2,70,000 trees are cut to make the required amount of toilet paper! As if that was not enough, if discarded wrapping paper and greeting cards printed on different “International Days” were collected and fermented, they could make enough bio-fuel for a double-decker bus to run more than 20 trips to the moon! When there are other ways in this age of communication, why sacrifice trees to make paper? The report of the Inter-governmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCL) formed by the UN draws a parallel connection between “human activities and natural hazards like wildfires, dust storms, severe weather, floods, droughts, typhoons and hurricanes”. We know that forests are under assault by paper companies which are competing to meet the growing demand for paper. And now a recent study at Imperial College, London, has demonstrated that the paper that is being used for making greeting cards, later thrown as waste paper, could have been turned into high grade bio-fuel to power motor vehicles by fermenting paper-using micro-organisms. What a shocking criminal waste! The study found that bio-fuels made from waste paper could ultimately provide an alternative to fossil fuels like diesel and petrol, in turn reducing the impact of fossil fuels on the environment. According to their estimates, 1.5 billion cards and 83 square kilometres of wrapping paper were thrown away every year. This amount of paper could provide 5-12 million litres of bio-fuel, enough to run a bus for up to 18 million km, as the researchers say. On the way back from Mussoorie, I recalled a beautiful poem “Rukh” (Tree) by Shiv Kumar Batalvi which said, “Kujh rukh maenu, put lagde ne/Kujh rukh lagde maavaan/Kujh rukh noohaan dheeyaan lagde/Kujh rukh vaang bharaavaan” (Some trees look like sons to me, some like mothers, some are like brides, daughters and some like
brothers).
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To secure matrimony, registration must
A
marriage breaking up is not only a painful process for those involved but also has a social cost, with increased litigation and creation of liabilities in the form of ditched spouses, especially women. Personal family law enactments prevalent today lack effective solutions. The problems are further compounded in NRI marriages, in which parties import foreign matrimonial laws to address unions solemnised domestically in India. Therein lies the need to bestow upon marriage a surety grounded in firm legal basis. An optional marriage registration law in India led the Supreme Court to pass orders on February 14, 2006, and October 25, 2007, making it mandatory that marriages of all persons who are citizens of India belonging to various religions be registered in the states where the marriage is solemnised. Unfortunately, Punjab, as of date, has no compulsory registration of marriages prescribed under any state enactment or rule. Compulsory registration of NRI marriages is urgently required to ensure that brides and grooms from Punjab have proof and evidence of their marriage, as also to prevent the matrimonial frauds being perpetrated commonly in the state. Punjab bears the shame of about 30,000 abandoned “nowhere” brides, with no succour or legal remedy. The Punjab State Commission for NRIs in a decision of July 11 recognised this phenomenon of fraudulent marriages with overseas Indians leading to cruelty and harassment, suggesting that the menace needed to be curbed with a heavy hand. The possible answers lie in a compulsory marriage registration law, setting up of family courts in the state to deal with all aspects of disputes arising out of a matrimonial relationship, and meaningful amendments to give teeth to the Punjab State Commission for NRIs Act, 2011.
Make it compulsory
Punjab needs a law to provide for compulsory registration of marriages, irrespective of religion, caste, creed or nationality. This mandate flows from the direction of the Supreme Court, as also the dire need within Punjab to document the occurrence of marriages. It should be made essential that every marriage between Indian nationals, NRIs or foreign nationals solemnised or performed in Punjab, regardless of the status of parties, be compulsorily registered. Additionally, where both or either parties are NRIs or foreign nationals, it should be made mandatory to disclose passport particulars, foreign residence details, and social security number or other identification proof issued by the country where the NRI or foreign national permanently resides. Parties married outside Punjab, but who are residents of the state, may also get marriages registered under this proposed law. However, if the marriage already stands registered outside Punjab, or under any other law applicable to parties, no necessity be provided for additional registration. This law of compulsory registration may also give liberty to decline registration if the marriage between the parties is not solemnised or performed in accordance with the personal or other law of marriage applicable to the parties. Hence, there would be no conflict with the Anand Marriage Act, as parties could opt and choose the law of registration of marriages. A register of marriages would record all essential details and the certificate of marriage would further transmit all such information, leaving no abandoned spouse without a remedy of knowledge of details of the other partner residing in a foreign jurisdiction.
Empower NRI panel
The Government of Punjab enacted the Punjab State Commission for Non-resident Indians Act, 2011, (Punjab NRI Act) to provide for the constitution of a commission for NRIs with a view to protecting and safeguarding their interests in the state, and to recommend remedial measures for their welfare. The commission is fully functional, taking up matters with efficiency. However, the powers of the commission are stunted, as it has been created prematurely without the required authority. The panel can order or conduct an enquiry or investigation on a complaint with respect to NRIs, but the Punjab NRI Act stops short of providing it the power to pronounce a decision or giving any judgment. Hence, the exercise is in futility, as the commission has no teeth. Therefore, it is recommended that the Act should be amended with the following powers, to be exercised after an inquiry or investigation: n Where the inquiry discloses the violation of rights of any law concerning parties of a serious nature, it may recommend to the government or relevant authority the initiation of proceedings or prosecution of such action as deemed fit. n Approach the civil, criminal or high court concerned for directions or writs as the court may deem necessary in the case. n Recommend to the government for the grant of interim relief to the victim or members of his/her family. Until the powers of inquiry and investigation vested in the NRI Commission are enhanced with authority to take the matter to a logical end, its existence will remain an exercise in futility. These powers would give the panel statutory teeth to enforce its orders. Beleaguered NRI spouses in distress would then be able to see justice in their cases as there would be legal remedy available. NRI family disputes will no longer remain at sea. A judgment of the Punjab State Commission for NRIs, delivered on July 11, 2012, read: “The phenomenon of women being abandoned by bridegrooms who happen to be NRIs is not new. Earlier also there have been such instances. Women trapped in such fraudulent marriages with overseas Indians are increasingly reported. The problem is not only about women being abandoned in India, but includes the demand of dowry, cruelty and harassment by her in-laws. It is only when it is “too late” that the parents, who have possibly liquidated their assets to have their daughter enter into the so-called marriage, wake up and approach the state authorities. This is a menace and needs to be curbed with stern hands.” Punjab, which contributes the highest number of NRIs among the 30-million NRI population living in 180 countries, owes this as a moral duty to its residents. There has to be redress for family law problems in a proper legal framework. Rhetoric, empty promises, platitudes and non-remedial forums will not serve the purpose. The government must act and perform. Punjabi NRIs have hope, faith and expectations. These additions and amendments for meaningful remedies in matrimonial problems must be met with without delay. At the same time, law must provide answers so that NRIs do not take recourse to foreign laws, which defeats the very purpose and meaning of our domestic laws. The need is to make the amendments required for all.
Create family courts
The Family Courts Act, 1984, which provides for the establishment of family courts with a view to promote conciliation in and secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs is the appropriate forum where such matrimonial matters ought to be decided. The Act leaves it open to the respective state governments to provide for such courts. Punjab needs family courts to provide fast-track, effective and meaningful relief for abandoned spouses, deserted children and for resolving other disputes arising out of a matrimonial relationship. Under Section 3, the family courts are required to be constituted by the state government in consultation with the high court. Family courts should be set up in every district in the state so that all matrimonial disputes, particularly of NRIs, get effective and speedy adjudication. As of now, the district judge or his nominee under the Hindu Marriage Act (HMA) entertain and adjudicate all matrimonial cases in their respective jurisdictions. Even though the HMA contemplates day-to-day trial of matrimonial petitions and conclusion within six months, the statutory mandate remains an optical illusion. This deters NRIs from starting any matrimonial cause in Punjab. Hence, constitution of family courts could prove to be a boon. Exclusively deciding matrimonial cases with conciliation, mediation and settlement procedures would put such matters in a better adjudicatory fast-track mode for effective relief. Abandoned spouses in every district will have a forum for expeditious relief regarding their grievances. Redress could be had in person too if
desired. The writer is a practising lawyer and member of the UT NRI Cell,
Chandigarh.
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LEGAL RECOURSE AVAILABLE TODAY An Act to amend and codify the law relating to marriage among Hindus. It provides that the trial of a petition under this Act be conducted day to day until its conclusion, unless the court adjourns the trial beyond the following day for reasons to be recorded. Every petition under this Act has to be tried as expeditiously as possible and endeavour should be to conclude the trial within six months. The Family Courts Act, 1984 The law provides for the establishment of family courts with a view to promote conciliation in and secure speedy settlement of disputes relating to marriage and family affairs. It provides that the state government after consultation with the high court and by notification may establish family courts, as it may deem necessary. Registration of marriages has to be made compulsory. The Supreme Court in Transfer Petition (C) No. 291 of 2005 — Seema vs Aswini Kumar — in judgment dated February 14, 2006, issued directions that the Central and state governments take the following steps:
It is now incumbent upon the states to provide for registration of marriages, which also needs to be implemented in case of NRI marriages taking place in India. Marriage certificates for NRI marriages should be issued in duplicate, and must carry social security number of the NRI spouse.
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The Hindu Marriage Act, 1955
Supreme Court ruling