The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Police is for policing
Not extension of a power structure

The Delhi and Central governments are under fire — and rightly so — for the circumstances under which a 23-year-old woman was subjected to brutal assault and gang-rape in a moving bus in the Capital. Several leaders of the Opposition and other states have taken the opportunity to make suggestions on how to protect women. That takes the matter beyond Delhi, and brings to question what has been happening in various states. Punjab has particularly been a case in point in recent weeks, and now leaders from the state’s ruling SAD-BJP alliance have also spoken out on the issue.

An ASI protecting his daughter from a local SAD leader was murdered in Amritsar three weeks back. Personnel from the police station concerned had not responded to calls from the ASI during the assault. Very recently, a woman police constable was harassed by some youths and an ASI who came to her rescue was assaulted. It is not that the police are in any way meek or soft in their attitude towards people. Yet, rowdy elements do not seem to have a fear of the police or the law. That is a sign that the youth have come of age believing they can have their way and the risk of them being hauled up is very little, thus worth taking. There was much noise in Haryana too over rapes in the state, and subsequently the government announced several measures to prevent crimes against women, yet rapes seem unabated in the state.

Direct political patronage to criminal elements gives them encouragement, but what is worse is the deep undermining of the police structure that it leads to. Pursuing narrow goals, the political leadership puts in place submissive police officers, and then, having used them for illegitimate purposes, has to look the other way when the same officials indulge in some of their own transgressions. Police is essentially the only face of the law and government that the common citizen — as well as criminal — encounter. To give the confidence of safety to the people, as well as strike fear in the heart of anyone contemplating crime, effective policing has to be the starting point.

Don’t divorce, save energy
And live unhappily ever after

Even if you are irretrievably unhappy in a marriage, or face abuse in marriage, divorce will not only reflect upon your lower levels of compatibility, it will also result in burdening the environment. Because more households would mean more energy consumption. That living unhappily ever after in marriage may damage your inner environment is a secondary issue; it will certainly paint you as a person insensitive to environmental concerns. Because in the US, where divorce rates have grown over 60 per cent, a study conducted by the scientists of Michigan State University, have reported that divorced households used 73 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity and 62,700 crore gallons of water in 2005 for 38 million extra rooms that would not be required if the families lived together.

Now, it is a different matter that developed countries like America, that produce fuel-guzzlers and cause grave damage to the environment with their luxurious lifestyle, despite lower populations, expect highly populated countries like India to reduce energy consumption. They want India and China, the maximum populated countries to curtail consumption so that the precious earth could be saved. Similarly, while Americans continue to divorce as many times in a life time as they wish, seeking happiness, their marriage counsellors should start towing a different line of counselling, which will look more trendy. Marriages will find a new mission for their longevity, a loftier one, to survive for the sake of mother earth. In developing countries like India, divorce is still not a major problem; we live with power cuts and economise on happiness, hence, Indian divorces will not pose such a grave danger to the sensitive issue of environment.

Then, our cultural icons from our TV serials and films who portray large happy families that sing and dance to glory in large happy weddings — will inspire Indians to go back to the joint family system. That will help more energy conservation and longevity for familial bonds as well as a healthy and green mother earth.

Thought for the Day

He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.

— Roy L. Smith

ARTICLE

Pak minister’s spoiling visit
Extremists could not have asked for more
by Kuldip Nayar

When I received the Mother Teresa award this year for working towards improvement of relations between India and Pakistan, I was happy to believe that there must have been a tangible evidence of that to get the recognition. Indeed, there has been a steady increase in the flow of traffic — doctors, lawyers, academicians, businessmen and sportspersons visiting each other’s country.

I recalled how 20 years ago there were only 15 people when I lighted candles for the first time on the Wagah border to celebrate the birth of India and Pakistan on the night of August 14-15. This year it was a sea of humanity on this side of the border and some 10,000 on the Pakistan side which began reciprocating three years ago. People-to-people contact was improving and trade started making rapid strides. The relationship was looking up.

Then comes Rahman Malik from Pakistan and nearly breaks everything like a bull in a China shop would do. Islamabad’s Minister of Interior, Malik has done everything possible to spoil relations through his statements and remarks. He stayed in the Capital only for three days but reignited the fires of suspicion, bias and hatred. The extremists in both countries would not have asked for more.

First, he compares the Babri Masjid demolition with the terrorist attacks on Mumbai to suggest that the demolition was the job of Hindus and the 26/11 attacks of Muslims, renewing the memory of the holocaust during Partition and reiterating the two-nation theory which even the founder of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, dropped after Independence. And then Malik brushed aside the agony of captain Saurabh Kalia’s father who received his son’s body, mutilated and with all the organs cut after 20 days of the Kargil war. The Pakistani army has denied the inhuman act but it could have at least held an inquiry to allay India’s doubts on Kalia’s case.

Rehman, when pressed, said that his ministry would probe but I am not sure if he can dare do anything against the army’s wishes. In any case, none has taken Rehman’s visit seriously and his attempt to minimise the role of Lashkar-e-Toiba chief Hafiz Saeed, even saying that the latter was never arrested for the Mumbai attacks. This has only annoyed New Delhi. The anger was so deep that India did not agree to a joint Press conference or even a joint statement. New Delhi could have taken the credit of arresting the Hindu extremist who masterminded the Samjhauta Express blasts and planted bombs at a mosque in Maharashtra’s Malegaon town.

Malik’s disastrous visit eclipsed the welcome gesture that the Supreme Court of India had made. It had freed Khalil Chisti, a Pakistani doctor, who was mistakenly involved in a murder in the Indian part of his family with which he was living at the time of the killing. In contrast, the government was rigid and too legalistic. Some human rights activists put before the government the negligible role, if any, played by Chisti.

Initially, the Rajasthan government saw the point that Chisti was not to blame and recommended to the Governor to pardon Chisti. Shivraj Patil, the Punjab Governor, was at that time officiating as Governor of Rajasthan. Patil was adamant and rejected the state’s proposal. Mahesh Bhatt, a famous film maker, and I met Patil at Chandigarh and pleaded Chisti’s case that he was 80 years old and that he was a heart patient. But it did not appeal to the Governor, who argued that Chisti had been on bail and must spend some time in jail to serve the purpose of justice.

Malik has signed in Delhi an agreement not to have visa for children and make it easier for persons above 65 years to travel across the border. Much will depend on the implementation. Even small concessions will do good to relations because the gesture is considered a positive step and more people from both sides will meet in five cities instead of three as was the regulation earlier. The caravan of goodwill will move further when cricket matches between the two countries are played in the next few weeks. New Delhi has agreed to give visa to 3,000 Pakistanis. The number should have been at least 10,000.

The Pakistan media does not take up the case of excesses committed against minorities so forcefully as the Indian media does. It was because of the media that the BJP leaders could not hide their face when the Babri Masjid was demolished. Again, the credit goes to the Indian media that Chief Minister Narendra Modi, however politically strong, awaits judgment on the cases of his involvement in the 2002 carnage.

I can see a change in the attitude of people in India and Pakistan towards each other. They never harboured hostility despite the sterile attitude of the two governments. Now they are bold in their comment and feel repentant on the massacre of 10 lakh people during Partition. What the public in both countries must do is to force their governments to cut the military expenditure. Even a reduction of 5 per cent would make crores of rupees available for schools, health centres and poverty alleviation programmes. India and Pakistan have the largest number of poor in the world. Better relations would force a cut in military budgets on both sides possible. New Delhi should take the initiative.

MIDDLE

It led to the end of monarchy
by N.S. Tasneem

There is no denying the fact that the moral fabric of society has been torn asunder in recent years. The parental authority has become lax not because the younger generation has become disobedient but also due to the refusal on the part of the elders to own responsibility for setting things right. The common man has also stopped to bother about what happens in his neighbourhood. ‘Sab chalta hai’ has become the catchword, resulting in the crisscross of moral values. The authorities entrusted the maintenance of law and order have abdicated their responsibility. All this has resulted in free for all in all the walks of life.

William Shakespeare has recorded in his narrative poem, ‘The Rape of Lucrece’, how the victim faced the ordeal of the violation of her honour. The rape of a virtuous Roman noblewoman by Sextus Tarquinius, son of King Tarquin, created a big public reaction. The incident became instrumental in securing the banishment of the Tarquins and the change of the Roman government from a monarchy to a republic. Lucrece’s resolute response to her violation was an assertion of personal integrity in the face of disaster. Incidentally, the public reaction to the gang-rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a running bus a few days ago has been as tumultuous as had been mentioned by the Bard in his poem written in 1594.

The general demand is that these rapists should be given death penalty as their crime is too heinous to be subjected to even life imprisonment. But the question arises whether death is a deterrent to committing crimes in this age, crowded with the people having devil-may-care attitude to life. Even after the national outcry to this incident, there have been reports of harassment of and sexual assault at girls in some parts of the country. This indicates the rot that has seeped into the vitals of society. The conscience of the perpetrators of crimes no longer pricks them and they are remorseless as well as unrepentant.

I am reminded of the play ‘Oedipus Rex’ by Sopholes, the Greek dramatist of the fifth century B.C. When Oedipus, the king, realises that he has unwittingly committed a sin, he is remorseful to the extreme. He exclaims that there is ‘nothing beautiful left to see in this world.’ He refuses to die as that will be an easy escape from the enormity of his sin, bordering on crime. So he desperately pierces his eyes with the brooch of his wife to atone for his sin. The play ends with Oedipus’ acts of contrition, his self-inflicted blindness and eventual banishment from his country. His wanderings in wilderness provide solace to his troubled mind. Death could not in any way purge his soul of the dross of wrongdoing.

It is high time to realise that girls deserve all the considerations of a civilised society. They are not to be treated in a shabby manner anywhere. Their presence brings about decorum in social circles as well as at the places of their activities outside home. The attempt to waylay an unwary girl indicates the boorishness of the person. He deserves reprimand, severe punishment and excommunication. Such a climate need be created at home and abroad that the girls get equal treatment along with the boys without their asking for it. There should not be any discrimination between the two sexes while creating a social framework that can usher in a bright future. Till then the humanity should hang its head in shame.

OPED Governance

Set the House in order to lead by example
Capt Amarinder Singh

There are charges of blatant hooliganism prevailing in Punjab and, as the recent proceedings indicate, even in the Vidhan Sabha, but the government is in denial mode. The Chief Minister must ensure security issues, and not petty politics, figure on his to-do list

Congress leaders protesting against the ‘unparliamentary language’ used by SAD minister Bikram Singh Majithia in the Punjab Vidhan Sabha. File photo: Manoj Mahajan

The recent Assembly session in Punjab never happened. The Chief Minister wanted his statement on his spending Rs 43 crore in his constituency on the eve of the elections to take precedence over the debate on the law and order situation now prevailing in the state. The Congress felt otherwise, and a day passed without business. The following day, the Speaker’s selective hearing registered a Congress MLA’s abusive words, whether spoken or not or even heard by anyone in the ruckus that prevailed in the House and drowned even his own utterances on the microphone. And, of course, he never heard the disgraceful performance of Bikram Singh Majithia, and the Punjabi abuses he hurled, when he was on his feet and had his microphone on, taking the sound to each seat in the House, including that of the Speaker’s, and the press gallery.

People viewing a recording of the Vidhan Sabha proceedings on a screen put up by the Congress in a marketplace in Chandigarh. File photo: Pradeep Tewari

Subsequent justice meted out by the custodian of the Constitution and protector of the rules and procedures of the House was to suspend Congress MLA Rana Gurjit. So much for impartiality. The Chief Minister and Leader of the House then rose and made an attempt to mediate, only to be told by his son “Tusi baitho ji”, which he meekly did, while the son and a gaggle of Akali MLAs went ballistic to aid an already hysterical Majithia. The Congress boycotted the remainder of the four-day session and demanded Majithia’s dismissal from the government.

What prevailed in the House during this abortive session is not in isolation but a manifestation of the prevailing situation in Punjab. Who rules the state today? The Chief Minister just exists, his son the deputy is too busy trying to crystallise his grandiose plans in an otherwise bankrupt state. Majithia seems to be the man for all seasons. His will carries in the state, from money-making activities of liquor, sand, gravel, etc., to creating havoc in Punjab’s social and law and order climate. And the police is a helpless witness.

Submissive police force

The malaise lies in the total subjugation of the police by the ruling party’s factotums, brought about by irresponsible decisions. A hierarchy and a system were put in place by the founding fathers of our Constitution. From time to time, amendments in the functioning of the law and order machinery were made to suit the requirement of a particular period. During this government, however, the existing system was thrown out to ensure political control at the lower level of police functioning, as was done in Marxist Bengal, a study of which was conducted by Sukhbir Badal some years ago.

The system that existed was of a DSP controlling two police stations, one each in neighbouring subdivisions. Each subdivision had an MLA seat. This was amended to shifting both police stations into the same subdivision under the same DSP, and giving that MLA his choice of DSP and SHOs. Today, the hierarchy of a district SSP, a range with a DIG and a zone with an IG stands non-functional. During my tenure, I spoke to an SSP only on three occasions, when there was a crisis and I could not reach the DGP, otherwise I dealt only with the DGP and he through his chain of command. Today it is the MLA, and in seats where they do not have an MLA, a so-called constituency in-charge has been appointed to do the same job.

At the police station level, the MLA has appointed four or five Students Organisation of India (SOI) operatives, youth Akali workers or members of a newly formed goon squad, ‘The Bikram Sena’, a conglomerate of bad characters, POs, etc., to enforce their will on the station. The SHO carries out their instructions. The emphasis of these political controllers is to focus on the Opposition. Either using their clout to bring people from the Opposition into their party by twisting tails, or where that does not work, by registering cases against them as pure harassment. Preventing or tackling crime is now secondary. Punjab has thus become a victim of political expediency. The day the unfortunate ASI, Ravinderpal Singh, lay in uniform bleeding and dying in Amritsar, the touts who shot him were standing close to this dying officer, shouting slogans of ‘Bikram Singh Majithia zindabad’. The local SHO and his men cowered in their station, just 50 yards away from the dying officer, for fear of upsetting Majithia by rushing to his aid.

Crime burst

Headlines of some newspapers in the state over the past six weeks sum up the situation — ‘Pregnant woman’s husband beaten up in Ludhiana as husband objects to eve-teasing’ (Dec 22); ‘Youth attacks schoolgirl with chemicals’ (Dec 19); ‘Policeman beaten up for objecting to eve-teasing’ (Dec 12); ‘Akalis thrash Punjabi singer Babu Chandigarhia in Mohali’ (Dec 11); ‘Akali leader fires at builder in Sirhind’ (Dec 11); ‘Stopped from eve-teasing, Akali leader shoots ASI (in uniform) dead’ (Dec 5); ‘Liquor vendor shot dead in Patiala’ (Nov 29); ‘Jalandhar: 1 injured in gang war’ (Nov 22); ‘Patiala double murder: Old couple found stabbed to death’ (Nov 16); ‘Minor girl raped, dies in hospital’ (Nov 3); ‘Four minor girls missing, abduction alleged’ (Nov 1); Muktsar ‘gangrape with minor’ (Oct 21); and ‘Dalit girl gangraped in Bathinda’ (Oct 18).

The end result of all this is fear, which has cast a shadow over the state. Children are not allowed to leave home by their parents and there are more restrictions on girls. The average citizen lives in constant fear when he reads, virtually each day, of such incidents in the state. I hope this government realises that if there is no rule of law, no capital will move into the state. Without capital, there will be no growth. No industry will mean no jobs for the 47 lakh unemployed so far, and no contribution to the exchequer. The treasury will continue to remain shut, as it usually is these days, as there is no money to pay government bills. Drug addiction, already a menace, will ruin the lives of many more as frustration grows. Borrowing will increase and so will debt, with its consequences. Crime, too, will register a sharp increase.

The way out

What is the solution? It is for the Chief Minister, who is supposed to be the undisputed head of his party, to solve this problem. Firstly, as I see it, priority should be given to restoring the functioning of the police machinery and thereby restoring the confidence of the average citizen. The MLAs and hoodlums who have usurped the functioning of the police system in the districts should be sent packing. This police rose to the occasion when terrorism was at its peak. It lost 1,700 officers and men in the process, but peace was restored in Punjab under KPS Gill. There is no reason why they cannot restore law and order now, provided they are allowed to do so. The Chief Minister must decide. Is it to be politics or the restoration of law and order?

Secondly, those appointed to field posting at all levels should be selected from the best that we have, not out of favour. I always posted the best and then backed them, and they never let me down. Badal should try this. Finally, if stability is to return to the state, the biggest goon of them all, Bikram Singh Majithia, should be dropped from the Cabinet as an example to others, and a reminder that India is not a banana republic; we have a Constitution and the rule of law prevails. Governments are there at the will of the people and self-styled satraps have no place in its functioning.

This will go a long way in sending the right message to the state. The question now is whether Badal can do it. I know he would like to put this ambitious, arrogant and ruthless man into a political straitjacket, but can Sukhbir as Home Minister rise above being a brother-in-law and support action? Politically speaking, a reported conversation between father and son doing the rounds is significant — ‘Kaka, mere MLA menu pata hai, Bikram de bhi menu pata hai, tere MLA kaun ne?’ If true, Sukhbir has much to ponder. He must know that many Aurangzebs in this world have been born since the original one, but then it is for him to decide.

The writer is a former Chief Minister of Punjab and the state Congress president