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The resignation drama
Save the child |
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Mere words won’t do
Prevailing realities in Pakistan
“Commentative Indian”
Painting controversies-Lalit Kala Akademi
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The resignation drama
Maharashtra
Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar surprised everyone by resigning on Tuesday. Twenty other ministers of the Nationalist Congress Party also submitted their resignations, but not to Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan as Ajit did. They sent their resignations to their state party chief. NCP president Sharad Pawar clarified that he had “permitted” Ajit, his nephew, to resign and rejected the other resignations. On Wednesday a meeting of the NCP legislators asked Ajit to take back his resignation. For the time being, the coalition government in the state appears to be safe, but the NCP is putting pressure on the Congress leadership to rein in Prithviraj Chavan, who is targeting the tainted in the NCP. Two months ago there was a flare-up between the Congress and the NCP. Union ministers Sharad Pawar and Praful Patel stopped attending Cabinet meetings, alleging that they were being ignored in decision-making. The standoff ended with the setting up of coordination committees at the Centre and in the state. The protest actually was against Chief Minister Chavan’s attempts to pin down NCP ministers by bringing out a White Paper on the Rs 20,000-crore irrigation scam. The Irrigation portfolio has been held by the NCP since 1999 — first by Ajit Pawar up to 2009 and since then by Sunil Tatkare. The 2011-12 state Economic Survey revealed that Maharashtra’s irrigation capacity increased by just 0.1 per cent despite spending Rs 70,000 crore between 2000 and 2010. The cost of 32 irrigation projects in the backward Vidarbha region was increased by 300 per cent between June and August, 2009. It is alleged that Ajit Pawar cleared the projects without following the due process. There was a politician-bureaucrat-contractor nexus at work. It appears the resignations were meant to exert pressure on the Chief Minister. Since the NCP and the UPA have a marriage of convenience and neither is keen on a divorce, they would sort out the irritants in Maharashtra. However, it remains to be seen whether in the process they let the guilty get away with the loot.
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Save the child
The
Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) — launched in 1975 with the aim of advancing nutritional and health standing of children up to 6 years of age — has achieved much, particularly in the past decade, and yet falls way short of the goals. Perhaps jolted by the recent UN reports that have shown under-five child mortality rate in India (61 per 1,000 live births) is worse than even Nepal (50) and Bangladesh (48), the Union government has decided to raise the budget for the ICDS during the 12th Plan nearly three times to Rs 1.23 lakh crore. This is a significant — and much needed — increase. The ICDS, in conjunction with the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), would be responsible for achieving the UN-set target of reducing the mortality rate to 42 per 1,000 by 2015. As per today’s calculations, India is projected to come down to only 54. The goal, however, just might come closer if the fresh budget boost is also combined with better supervision of the utilisation of funds. At present, the scheme is plagued by pilferage and lack of infrastructure, including staff. As many as 45 per cent of the 13 lakh anganwaris (nurseries) under the scheme don’t have dedicated accommodation; funds would now be made available for the construction of rooms for this purpose. Poor management of the scheme results in many children — if not entire villages — being left out. As the functioning of not every anganwari can be checked, the government should focus on educating villagers, especially mothers, on what to expect, so there is local pressure on the centres to deliver. The NRHM being perpetually short of funds — and riddled with corruption — is the other factor that needs to be addressed if the country has to meet the child mortality reduction target. Health of expectant mothers and treatment of children is dependent on this. Most children die of treatable diseases such as malaria, diarrhoea and pneumonia. The UPA government — which brands itself as that of the aam adami — needs to spend heavily on health and education, as these are the primary concerns of the poor, who either get these services from the government, or don’t get them at all.
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Mere words won’t do
Had
it not been for the intervention of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, perhaps, no action would have been initiated to arrest the culprits involved in the rape of a teen-aged Dalit girl in Hisar. The crime was committed on September 9, when 12 young men allegedly raped the Dalit girl, but only two were arrested till September 25. The accused, alleged to be from higher castes, had threatened to make public her obscene pictures after raping her. The girl’s shocked father had committed suicide. The shocking incident reflects how the caste hierarchy still dominates Haryana and also complete lack of fear of law among the high caste men. Cases of atrocities on the Dalits have been on the rise in the state. In 2005, if it was Gohana in Sonepat district that bore the brunt of the upper caste aggression where several Dalit houses were torched. Barely 58 kilometres away from Gohana, in April this year 18 homes belonging to Dalits were torched in Mirchpur, Hisar district. People have not forgotten the horrifying images of the 18-year-old disabled girl and her father who died in the fire, trying to rescue her. In May this year, 70 Dalit families from Bhagana camped outside the mini-Secretariat in Hisar to protest against the alleged social boycott of their community by the Jats of their village and the unauthorised takeover of common land in the village allegedly by the Jats. Sociologists say the rise in atrocities against the Dalits is a manifestation of the intolerance of Dalit empowerment. As more and more schemes aimed at their empowerment reduce the gap between the social status of the Dalits and the upper castes, identity assertion too grows. The vice-chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes rightly took the administration to task and ruled out any compromise between the accused and the victim. It is for his assertive efforts that on Wednesday five more arrests were made.
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Cease to inquire what the future has in store, and take as a gift whatever the day brings forth. — Horace
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Prevailing realities in Pakistan Ministerial-level
visits to Pakistan evoke considerable media interest. Former Home Minister P. Chidambaram, who had made his realistic, no-nonsense approach to Pakistan very clear, selected a group of television and print media journalists to accompany him during his visit to Pakistan. Pakistan denied a visa to a journalist working for a television network. Unlike some other channels that pander to Pakistani “sensitivities,” that channel has been scathing in its denunciation of Pakistani support for terrorism, especially after the 26/11 terrorist attack. Mr Chidambaram’s response was swift. He made it clear to his counterpart Rehman Malik that he would not visit Islamabad unless the journalist, who was a member of his Press party, was issued a visa. The Pakistanis immediately complied. Another journalist, one of India’s foremost experts on Pakistan’s sponsorship of terrorism, was invited by the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to accompany Mr S.M. Krishna to Islamabad. He was summoned to the Pakistan High Commission and lectured by two “diplomats,” evidently ISI goons, who “advised” him that Indian and Pakistani journalists should join hands to “counter American conspiracies”. The journalist demurred and his visa was cancelled, even though his passport had been formally forwarded by the Ministry of External Affairs. The Pakistanis told the Editor of the paper concerned that they would issue a visa to anyone else from the newspaper — a proposal summarily rejected by the Editor. The readiness to meekly accept this deliberate Pakistani affront was compounded by what can only be described as the timidity with which the Indian side responded to provocative statements by Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who disdainfully rejected Indian references to the depth of public sentiment in India about the events of 26/11. She brazenly demanded that India should forget the past and move on. There have been snide comments in the Pakistan media about the Indian delegation’s fascination for the elegance, attire and style of Pakistan’s Foreign Minister. More shocking were the contents of the Islamabad joint statement in which the two ministers “expressed satisfaction” on the meetings on issues of “‘counter-terrorism, “including progress on (the) Mumbai trial”. How can one express “satisfaction” at the “trial” of those accused in Pakistan, or the refusal to bring Hafiz Saeed to book? Why are we virtually equating the Samjhauta Express bombing with the carnage of 26/11? We seem to have learnt no lessons from the diplomatic fiasco in Sharm el-Sheikh. While Mr Krishna received assurances of good intentions from the wide range of political leaders he met in Islamabad and Lahore, one has to be clinically realistic in analysing Pakistan’s national life today. The present PPP-led government will be replaced in a few months by an Interim government, which will conduct elections scheduled in April 2013. Pakistan is now going through a crisis, which makes it economically the “sick man of South Asia”. Economic growth has plummeted to 2.4 per cent. With a savings rate of 10 per cent, tax to the GDP ratio of 9.4 per cent, a population growth of 2.7 per cent, a precarious balance of payments situation and virtually no foreign direct investment, Pakistan is set to remain a dysfunctional, a global economic basket case, for the foreseeable future. Neither it’s “all-weather friend” China nor its long-term patron Saudi Arabia are in any mood to generously open its purse strings. Much as the Pakistan army would like to demonise the Americans and the West, the country has no option but to bite the bullet and go with a begging bowl to Western capitals for economic survival. Given these dire economic straits, Pakistan’s resources available for defence are limited. Moreover, the army has been compelled to deploy 1,50,000 troops on its borders with Afghanistan, as attacks across the Durand Line continue. Adding to the army’s headaches has been the fact that its fight against its former “assets” in the Tehriq-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) has attained new dimensions. The TTP now has Punjabi extremist allies, who joined it in the attack on the strategic Kamra airbase. The Americans have no illusions about the Pakistan army giving up its “strategic assets” like the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-toiba. American academic Christine Faire, who is one of her country’s best informed experts on the Pakistan army, recently noted: “Pakistan has squandered the last decade. Rather than shutting down the various Islamist terrorist groups operating from Pakistan’s soil, it has pushed jihadi leaders as well as the Lashkar to the forefront of the recent political gathering of rogues, the Difah-e-Pakistan Council (Defence of Pakistan Council)”. India’s strategy has been to see if Pakistan could be drawn into a web of greater economic interaction and people-to-people contacts so that the incentive to promote terrorist attacks against India is curbed. The new visa agreement to liberalise travel is a very welcome development, as we need to cultivate a wide range of people in Pakistan for promoting understanding and goodwill. More security and Kashmir-related CBMs and expanded trade and investment ties will be welcome. But it would be a folly, which we seem to have compounded since the Sharm el-Sheikh Summit, to give an impression that the dialogue process with Pakistan is “irreversible” and that with the passage of time, we will forget and forgive the carnage of 26/11. Writing in Dawn, after the visit of Mr Krishna to Pakistan, Moeed Yusuf, a US-based Pakistani analyst with close links to the Pakistan military, observed: “The last decade has shown the lack of Indian military or diplomatic resource to clamp down on terrorism. India realises that more and more Mumbai-type attacks may come, but it will absorb that cost as long as the (dialogue) seems to be led by economics rather than outstanding political disputes”. We are reportedly preparing for more summit diplomacy. We rushed to the Lahore summit disregarding Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The Kargil conflict followed. We ignored the attack on Red Fort by Lashkar men in January 2001, and invited General Musharraf to Agra for an ill-prepared summit. The attack on our Parliament followed. Prime Minister Vajpayee agreed to the resumption of the composite dialogue with Pakistan in January 2004 only after he received a categorical public assurance from President Musharraf that Pakistani soil would not be used for terrorism against India. Quite obviously, we neither sought nor got such a categorical assurance during the recent talks in Islamabad. Repeating this mistake and thereby undermining the seriousness of our concerns on Pakistan-sponsored terrorism would have
dangerous consequences.
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“Commentative Indian” Argumentative Indian” by Dr Amartya Sen mentions a scene at a corner tea shop where people argue over a cup of tea on various issues. Newspapers often provide fodder for the thought. The scene at a tea shop now plays out somewhat differently. Waiting for my flight in a lounge at the airport, I picked up a newspaper and settled for some articles appearing therein, in arrangement with The Economist, The Observer and The Guardian, to name a few. Soon, a gentleman walked in, and after a brusque look around, sat down by my side, ordered a coffee and picked up a newspaper, and my travails started. “Lau ji, Mamta Didi nu the ladai toh sawah koi kam hi nahin. Comradean nal lad-di, lad-de udi addat hi ban gai hai” (Lo behold, Mamta didi has nothing else to do but quarrel. Fighting with comrades, she has made this her habit.) “What do you say, ji?” I smiled politely, which he gratefully accepted as my endorsement of his views, and proceeded to read further. “Now this FDI business. This opposition has nothing else to do but oppose, even the projects that it had proposed. If they do something, it is Leela (Godly) but if others do it, it is Paap (sin). This is their motto, kyon ji?” I was by now getting a tad annoyed. I just grunted “Hun”, hoping he would leave me alone, but he was made of sterner stuff. “Some leaders vi nah, claim to be pehlwan but are poll vaulters, hai, nai jee?” I told him a bit irritatedly, “Sir, I do not have any opinions to offer on these issues.” What followed was exasperating. He took my newspaper and opened the pages which I was reading. “Oh foreign news? World News? it is good, after all, foreigners are the ones behind the circus in our country, but they do not know it is difficult to control our leaders. Bade complicated ne ji, ki kehnde ho?” I went back to my reading, but like a pest he carried on. “All right ji, foreign news discuss kar lehnde han. Prince Harry di news suni? And, of course, Kate Middleton now?” (Heard about Prince Harry and Kate Middleton). “But no Indian Press has carried the photographs. Do you think the Supreme Court guidelines have something to do with it, I mean postponement of publication. I think we people have been robbed of ‘real news and issues’. This is judicial overreach nah, what do you say?” I opened my mouth to speak, but my wise grey cells told me to keep my mouth shut which I did. Just then a guy came and revealed my identity by requesting me to come for boarding. His face now had an accusing look. Obviously, he was blaming me for being a part of the judicial fraternity which had robbed him of the right to appraise “real issues”. I walked away, with a ‘could not care less’ attitude, his eyes stabbing my back like stilettos. Today Dr Sen would have to reinvent his writing, when argument as an art has vanished, gagged by the intolerant, even from the institutions designed solely for debates; what to talk of a poor ‘Chai Wallah’. Instead, what we have today is a ‘Commentative Indian’ with an opinion on everything, often
irresponsible.
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Painting controversies-Lalit Kala Akademi
In
an effort to capitalize on the tremendous growth of the Chinese art market, last Friday Sotheby’s entered into a 10-year joint venture with the Beijing GeHua Art Company, a state-owned enterprise, to become the first international auction house in mainland China. The auction house is investing $1.2 million in this venture. Almost all art journals across world carried this news front page, reflecting the relevance of the new destination of global art market. Despite a throttled democracy, which poses many restrictions on the freedom of artistic expression (globally celebrated artists Ai Weiwei and Zhao Zhao are persecuted by the state), thanks to its state sponsored world class infrastructure in art education and art management, China shares 30 percent business in the global art market. India, with all the noise about its 20 odd artists who have found global recognition, contributes only one percent to the art market.
The reason; despite its thriving democracy and great potential of its artist community to innovate and experiment, the state bodies created to support art activity have regressed into petty power games. This creates a peculiar situation for Indian art-- no one is bothered to create a market for a huge supply line of creative energy that is unleashed in an unplanned manner in obscure corners of the country. Private galleries, keeping their competitive commercial stance offer space only to the well-known names. The 200 odd art colleges that produce about 5000 graduates in art every year often find no avenue for sustainable practice of art. Lalit Kala Akademi( LKA), the state body instituted in 1954, “ to preserve the glorious traditions of the past and enrich them by the work of our modern artists” as per its constitution, is accused of neglecting its basic responsibilities by none other than the people who headed this institution in the recent past. While the Akademi has been mired in controversies for multiple reasons, its constructive role in shaping the contemporary art scenario of India cannot be denied. It started a series of National Exhibitions of Art in 1955 and India’s first Triennale in 1968 that offered native artists an opportunity to observe global trends in art and to meet artists from other corners of the world. However, it has been nine years since any efforts were made to revive the tradition of organising Triennale.
Ailments of the apex body
According to painter and sculptor Balan Nambiar, who was, for a six-month period acting Chairman of the Akademi, that concluded in July this year, the present LKA secretary is “one individual who has systematically destroyed the Akademi over the past decade.” Nambiar has documented the ills destroying the Akademi in a letter he personally handed over to the Minister of Culture, Kumari Selja, on August 9, which was passed on to the Joint Secretary, Pramod Jain. The letter highlights in great detail the multiple shortcomings of the Akademi’s present set-up and its many failures. Apart from discontinuing of the Triennale, Nambiar alleges ‘Lalit Kala Contemporary’ the Akademi’s in-house English journal has also become a rare publication. The two last guest-edited issues came out after a five-year gap. The post of the editor for ancient art hasn’t been filled for years, and there is no editor for the other English publications. The Akademi cannot even boast of a regular newsletter, a basic requirement for a body of art of national stature. The sole Hindi editor was shifted to the Akademi’s camp office in Shillong, and the Akademi’s publication division is almost non-existent. He further adds that the secretary’s favourites are given curatorial jobs and the exhibition wing of the Akademi too has “slowly and steadily been reduced to zero.” While the apex body of art is on a slide, entangled into its own chain of accusations and counter accusations by those whose responsibility it is to run it properly, the rest of the world is creating new opportunities and spaces to take advantage of a thriving art market. The most serious of all these accusations relates to the preservation of close to 6000 artworks, a national asset that had been acquired by the Akademi since its inception. Nambiar alleges that the document prepared by the four member committee which had verified the permanent collection of 2000 works, identified that 11 paintings were missing. Some works by stalwarts like Jamini Roy, J Swaminathan and M F Husain were found to be destroyed. In an email response to these allegations, secretary LKA, Sudhakar Sharma says, verification of only 2000 works could be done, “because the Delhi Metro work had abruptly occupied half the building where the works were kept.” And the identity of the so called ‘missing’ 11 works is yet to be established. Both accuse each other of “sending a wrong report to the Government in answer to a Parliamentary Question” related to the permanent collection.
Is the LKA constitution faulty?
Nambiar is not alone in voicing his grievances against the secretary, accused of “promoting nepotism and insubordination.” Sharma’s reputation was mired in controversy in 2011 when the then chairman LKA, Ashok Vajpeyi (2008-2011) tried to relieve him of his position in a 15- page order “on the charges of non-compliance of several decisions, not upgrading his own subordinates, and not doing enough in spite of instructions that includes holding of triennial in November 2011.” The procedure adopted by Vajpeyi was found by the Legal Department of the Union Ministry of Culture to be incorrect. Many reputed and senior artists went public in support of Sharma. The sacking was annulled and Sharma was reinstated as secretary, a position he continues to hold. As per the constitution of the LKA, one/sixth of the members of the Executive Board is enough to have a quorum. There are only 11 members in the Executive Board, “this clause makes it easy for the secretary to get things done,” says Nambiar. The finance Committee consists of just five members, hence, one/sixth of this number only makes a mockery of the system. On his part, Sharma says, he follows only the “provisions of the Constitution as on date” and he cannot manipulate the Members of the Executive Board who are elected and nominated Members of the General Council of the Akademi. If questions are being raised about the validity of the constitution of the central Akademi, what happens at the state level bodies is left to anybody’s imagination. Vajpeyi adds, “The LKA administrative setup is full of babus lacking professional expertise and skills…no annual critical assessment of the secretary has taken place for the past ten years in spite of its clear provision in rules.”
The Garhi studios
If the apex body is mired in power games, down the line, the artist community is not free from creating their own fiefdoms. Under the Akademi, community and common studios were established at Garhi, in Delhi, in 1976, on a no profit no loss basis for practising artists of the region. The intent was to provide emerging artists a creative space that was close to galleries. But, this too has become, “a hotbed of destructive and negative politics that dominates the LKA structures. There are artists of dubious artistic merit who are occupying studios in violation of all rules for more than 25 years. No serious attempt has been made to force them to vacate. Sadly, the necessary government support was also not forthcoming,” says Ashok Vajpayee in an e-mail interview. A regional centre was created for the artists of the northern states in 2000 at Garhi, Nambiar adds, “Ten of them have been there for over 34 years, treating it as their private property.”
LKA is just a microcosm of the larger neglect accorded to matters related to culture. Nambiar points at the larger issue-- of the neglect of the cultural bodies by the government. According to him, Ministry of Culture has been treated as the least important ministry by all prime ministers, except Nehru. The Ministry is supported by a network of 41 organizations, which includes two attached offices, six subordinate offices and 33 autonomous institutions. There are 7 Zonal Cultural Centres, but all of which are headed by IAS/IPS officers. There are 7 museums, two of which are directly under the Ministry and others are autonomous institutions with no mobility of staff between them. There are 1500 vacancies in the cultural institutions under the Ministry. But, we do not have trained people to
manage them. So, should the Akademis be closed, or, should their constitution be changed to make them relevant to the fast changing art scenario? Vajpeyi suggests, LKA needs a new constitution. One has been prepared by Krishen Khanna Committee, which suggest more transparency, reducing representation and laying more emphasis on excellence. Though, the way things move in government departments, things are easier said than done. Also, if people heading the Akademi feel so helpless in bringing about a change during their tenure, the lesser said about the functioning of the national body is better.
Juxtaposed
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