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Operation cover-up
Help on the highway |
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Distanced from quality
India-Pak trade relations
The cycle of dreams
LONDON DIARY
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Operation cover-up THE arrogance, the sense of entitlement of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) officials is breathtaking. Two days ago, a two-member panel appointed by the BCCI said that it had found "no evidence of any wrongdoing" against India Cements, the owner of Chennai Super Kings (CSK), and Raj Kundra, co-owner of Rajasthan Royals, in the spot-fixing scandal unearthed in the IPL earlier this year. Following that, senior BCCI official Niranjan Shah said that the ongoing police investigation of the case is irrelevant. "We can't depend on the police report as we had already constituted a commission and whatever the commission said is final," Shah said, revealing exactly what he and the BCCI think of the law of the land. Does being exonerated by the probe panel obliterate the fact that Gurunath Meiyappan - "team principal"/"enthusiast" of CSK, and also the son-in-law of BCCI president N Srinivasan - had been arrested and questioned, and Kundra questioned, for betting on IPL matches? The BCCI probe panel report said that it found "no evidence" of wrongdoing. Was there a team of investigators digging into the case, collecting evidence and supplying it to the probe panel? A Mumbai police official has said that the BCCI wrote to them asking for an investigating officer to depose before the probe panel, but that the BCCI never got back to them. The panel did not question the cops who have gathered or are gathering evidence. Consequently, the whole exercise begins to seem like a cover-up operation. The Bombay High Court has now ruled that the two-member probe committee was constituted illegally, and that a new probe must be done. "The entire incident needs to be reinvestigated. There was disparity in the evidence collected by the probe panel," the court noted. In fact, to convince everyone that they don't think they are extra-judicial, the BCCI officials must shelve their own probe and let the police investigate the case and present evidence in the court, in the usual manner.
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Help on the highway IN today's world of toll roads, communication facilities, and relatively better developed medical facilities, if people still die in a road accident because they could not get medical attention in time, it is a shame. The inauguration of a project for 'cashless treatment of road accident victims' on the busy Gurgaon-Jaipur highway is the country's first experiment with a scientific approach to addressing the problem. The 'cashless' component of the scheme - under a government-paid insurance - may attract immediate attention, but it is the facilities provided in the ambulances, paramedics specially trained in handling accident situations, scientific investigation of serious accidents, and the involvement of the automotive industry which will go a long way in making travel by road safer. As things stand today, there is every chance that a road accident victim may receive no medical attention for hours, not because of negligence but simply because the response system does not exist. Our policing system and laws - or at least the perception people have of it - also tend to dissuade the common man from helping people in distress on the road; occasionally even hospitals are reluctant to start treatment till legal formalities have been taken care of. Courts have repeatedly stressed that providing medical care should come before anything else, yet the system has failed to give people that confidence. Road accidents account for 35 per cent of all accidental deaths in India, including those from other transport mishaps or natural calamities. Providing prompt medical care is only one factor in reducing the death toll. Vehicle safety, road engineering, traffic management, law enforcement, driver training, emergency infrastructure in hospitals, all add up to road safety, or lack of it. Technology and overall resource availability should not be a problem when an increasing number of people are travelling in private four-wheelers after paying heavy taxes, and highways are paid for through toll. Emergency response and accident prevention have to be factored in as part of comprehensive road transport policies. It is time road management matched the high-tech vehicles hurtling down Indian roads.
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Distanced from quality WHEN it comes to vocational education, there is a huge gap between demand and supply. Keeping this in mind, private institutions were allowed to create more seats to fulfil the perpetually growing demand for technically trained hands. Less than 10 per cent of Indians in the age group of 15-29 receive any formal vocational training. In South Korea more than 90 per cent of the workforce is skilled; this explains why so many automobile companies from that country earn good business here. We are a developing country; this does not mean our quality of education should be compromised. Unfortunately, such is the state of affairs that in Haryana, a state not rated high on academic credentials, the government had to crack a whip on questionable technical degrees awarded by unrecognised institutes. The state government has stressed that degrees not recognised by the AICTE (All-India Council for Technical Education) and the UGC(University Grants Commission) etc. will not be valid for jobs. How such institutions come into existence in the first place, which regulatory authority grants them the licence to offer technical courses, who monitors these programmes, are questions that need to be asked. The government wakes up late when students have already spent their time and money in procuring these useless pieces of paper. An overwhelming majority of the 1.2 million science and engineering graduates churned out by India's 352 recognised universities and 18,000 colleges is nowhere near what industry demands. Technical education dispensed by them is way below par. But what confronts this knowledge is the confusion about regulation of these institutions. Should technical education be controlled by the UGC or the AICTE? The role played by these bodies in providing infrastructure suitable for technical education, updating curriculum according to the changing demands of the industry and selecting competent faculty leaves much to desire. What happens in unrecognised institutions is anybody's guess. Instead of cancelling degrees, such institutions should not be allowed to operate.
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Men are what their mothers made them. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
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India-Pak trade relations TRADE between India and Pakistan is fraught with problems and benefits from trade are being denied to the people on both sides. There is hope that with Prime Minister Nawab Sharif at the helm, trade and investment relations between India and Pakistan would improve. Pakistanis love to shop in India and Indians love to buy Pakistani goods, especially textiles whenever they get a chance. Yet trade between the two countries with a common culture and tastes has been sub optimal. While normal trade has suffered, informal trade has flourished. Informal trade is close to $1 billion and it has a smuggling component as well as a third-party component in which goods from India travel via Dubai or Singapore to Pakistan. It means a loss to the exchequer for both countries and for third-country trade, Pakistani consumers suffer because transportation costs lead to much higher prices. Both countries are relatively poor and both have common problems like inadequate infrastructure and obstacles in the form of tariff and non-tariff barriers impede the free flow of trade between the two countries. India accounted for less than 5 per cent of Pakistan's trade in 2010-11 and the share of Pakistan in India's trade was less than 1 per cent. India granted Pakistan MFN status in 1996 but Pakistan is still dithering and though the likelihood of its coming through has increased, it has not yet happened. Pakistan is worried about being swamped by Indian goods if it were to give MFN status to India, which would automatically lead to bringing down import duties and giving India the same tariff treatment that it gives to other WTO members. Certain amount of progress, however, has been made in recent times with the visit of Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma in September 2011 and the two countries agreed to pursue full trade normalisation. As a result, Pakistan moved from the positive list of 2,000 goods that could be imported from India to a negative list of about 1,200 items that are not allowed to be imported. According to one report, Pakistan still has a short positive list of 137 items. India is hoping that the negative list will get shorter in future. With acrimonious political relations for decades, the hope that trade would usher in peace is hardly likely. India is sour with Pakistan on many counts -especially about the lack of any progress regarding the trial of the 26/11 Mumbai attack suspects, many of whom roam freely in Pakistan. There is also the escalating nuclear programme. India and Pakistan have fought three wars. Though the train service has been started between Lahore and New Delhi, it has not shown a way out of the impasse. There are fears of imported terrorism in India and there is deep suspicion of any political move that grants concessions to Pakistan. How can trade, and especially investment, flourish in such an atmosphere? Although foreign direct investment from Pakistan has recently been allowed into India, not much has come. Nor is there much Indian investment in Pakistan; especially significant is the absence of any long-term investment and joint ventures. The cause for this slow movement of investible capital across the borders is the lack of investment guarantees. Also the problem of transferring money across the border, especially from India to Pakistan, remains. There are many possible joint ventures that would be beneficial to the people and businesses on both sides like food processing industries and IT, there is very little forthcoming because of the problem of guarantee and security of capital. Unless this problem is solved, hopes for enhancing investment are dim, which is a pity, because more investment would have created jobs and increased the GDP growth in both countries. India, being the bigger neighbour and a country with much more developed industries and skilled manpower, can afford to be generous and reduce tariffs unilaterally. It can assure the agriculturists in Pakistan that it would refrain from dumping surplus agricultural products. Pakistan is also worried about opening up its agricultural sector imports because it fears the entry of subsidised Indian agricultural products. That is why there was a huge demonstration by farmers against the opening up of Pakistan's farm imports. While business contacts between the two countries are increasing and Pakistani consumers are seeing and buying more Indian goods in trade fairs, the governments' stand remains cautious and constrained. Though the current trade volume is lower than its potential and is around $2.5 billion, there is scope for increasing trade to $10 billion in the next few years. The infrastructural problems have to be addressed before opening up trade further. There are few good roads that can carry goods from India to Pakistan and there are problems in transporting goods through rail. In April 2012, the two countries launched a new integrated checkpoint at the Attari-Wagah land border crossing, which could increase trade through this sector at least tenfold. Both sides have concluded a landmark visa agreement that would loosen travel restrictions. Better infrastructure at the border check-posts would facilitate border crossings. There is need for better warehousing, x-ray machines and testing laboratories at the border. Pakistani automotive parts and accessories manufacturers have also felt threatened by the prospect of freer trade between the two countries. India is, no doubt, the biggest economy in the region and the smaller neighbours have reasons to feel threatened. More contact between businesses from both sides could dispel fears and usher in more cooperation. There is no doubt that Pakistani producers would be happy importing low-cost raw materials and machinery from India. There is scope for cooperation in IT and pharmaceuticals also. India would want to access cement from Pakistan as it produces more than it can use. India also has to be liberal in allowing Pakistan to access third countries like Nepal, Bangladesh and Bhutan via its territory and Pakistan should give transit rights to India to access export markets in Afghanistan. This is essential in furthering regional trade and including countries like China and Iran in the bigger trade map. The normalisation of trade between India and Pakistan could lead to preferential trade arrangement under SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Agreement of 1996). This would increase regional trade and stability. Both sides should remember that security and political tensions should not spill into trade and economic relations because thousands of lives are dependent on such trade. The suspension of trade due to isolated terrorist attacks can be counter-productive and will only lead to more fractured bilateral economic relations between the two immediate
neighbours.
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The cycle of dreams Chirpily
she announced,
"Bhaabi, he has invited you for the party". The 'he' in question was none other than her brother. And the cause of celebrations was the birth of a baby boy. Now in a country where alarming infertility rates have rendered thousands of couples childless undeniably the birth of a child is an occasion for joy. Even at the risk of sounding politically incorrect, dare I say that of a male child doubly so. But here I stood perplexed wondering whether I should congratulate his sister the bearer of the good news and the invitation. My mind raced back in time... only a few years ago when the now proud father was a 14-year-old boy and worked in my house as part-time help. His ready wit and eagerness to learn and know always gladdened my heart. The first thing he a student of class VII would always do was to pick up the newspaper. Not your vernacular one but an English newspaper. As he would browse through headlines, halting a little more on the film and sports pages, for expressions and words that were incomprehensible to him, he invariably turned towards me or my husband. My other half usually a man of few words and lesser patience would often go out of the way to explain things and concepts alien to him. Yet another common point of interaction between the two was Hollywood films. Jurassic Park, Titanic, Godzilla... the boy had seen them all, of course, their Hindi versions on television. But all this exposure seemed to have enhanced his vision and world view. Many a time I would cite his example to my daughter studying in an English medium school. In a world full of dismal realities his urge shone like a beacon. A child in the shining armour he sure was to his large brood of family of seven brothers and sisters. His mother would repeatedly share that she was going to educate him, no matter what. All was not lost I would often think to myself. One day he could bring in the much-needed change, at least in his family. Often I found myself advising him to take up a vocational course and train to become an electrician that India has an acute dearth of. But with stars in his eyes, he would say "Nahi bhabhi, I am going to be an engineer." A tough way ahead but nothing
is impossible. As destiny ordained, a love affair in teens landed him up straight into wedlock and fatherhood at 20. Today as he works in a factory as a worker... I am not too sure whether the birth of his son is such a happy occasion after all. If the newborn's father couldn't unshackle the weight that generations before him carried, what was the guarantee the new baby would be able to break the vicious cycle of responsibilities dotted with struggle and poverty. Redemption for a certain class of people remains a mirage. Will the small baby find deliverance for himself and the father? I am sure the cycle of dreams has once again begun to acquire a
shape.
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LONDON DIARY
Admirers
of New Delhi's architecture designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens will be astonished to discover that one of the homes he designed in the West Sussex town of Thakenham, 90 minutes by train from London, is on sale for a comparatively modest price of £5.5 million, approximately Rs 50 crore. Lutyens’ New Delhi bungalows, usually reserved for Central Government ministers, rarely (if ever) come up for sale. If these did, these would be valued at hundreds of crores. So architecture enthusiasts with pots of money could do worse than put in a bid for the 12,500 square foot Thakenham mansion, set in three acres of rolling countryside, with nine large bedrooms, huge fireplaces and a luxurious swimming pool. It also has the arches, windows and long corridors characteristic of the New Delhi masterpieces, including the Rashtrapati Bhavan. The price demanded for this architectural gem is less than what would be required for a modern, six-bedroom house in an upmarket New Delhi suburb like Vasant Vihar. Lutyens’ Thakenham property, said to be one of his best private houses, was commissioned in 1902 by a wine importer called Ernest Blackburn. The property also has eight bathrooms, a kitchen, a family room, dining room, utility room, huge fireplaces and a double-height drawing room. Lutyens was born in 1869 and studied at the London Royal College of Art. He embraced the traditional forms of his local Surrey buildings in his early days but his style changed after meeting a landscape gardener called Gertrude Jekyll. She taught him both the ‘simplicity of intention and directness of purpose’ which he deployed when designing one of his first private houses in the Surrey town of Godalming. He also designed a number of country houses before being commissioned to advise on how to plan the garden city of New Delhi.
A painting that once belonged to Prince Frederick Dalip Singh (Prince Freddy), younger son of Maharaja Dalip Singh, is one of the key items due to be shown at the Tate Gallery in London this October. The painting is of Oliver Cromwell, the English military and political leader, who led the anti-royalist forces during the 17th century Civil War, later confirming the death warrant that led to the execution of King Charles 1. Prince Freddy, who was a staunch supporter of the British royal family, despite their questionable support to his father and the purloining of the Kohinoor diamond, used to deliberately hang Cromwell’s portrait upside down in the lavatory of his home at Blo Norton Hall in Norfolk. Born in 1868, and surviving on an income of £2,000 a year from the India Office, Freddy lived the comparatively happy and peaceful life of a country gentleman until his death in 1926. He was educated at Eton and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read history, later joining the British army where he reached the rank of Major. The portrait of Cromwell was part of a much larger collection of 90 paintings that Freddy’s sisters, Princess Bamba and Princess Sophia, donated to the nearby town of Thetford following his death. A handful of paintings depicting the Sikh royal family from the court of Lahore were kept by Princess Bamba, who settled in Lahore where she died in 1957. The paintings, photos and other articles in her possession were left to her secretary, Pir Karim Baksh Supra, who subsequently sold these to the Pakistan Government for display on the walls of the fort in Lahore.
NRI members of Britain’s House of Lords could be among the peers thrown out of parliament for bringing their august institution into disrepute. New legislation under discussion seeks to permanently expel those peers, who have been found guilty of bringing the House of Lords into disrepute. The planned legislation follows a UK media campaign that highlighted the cases of three white peers, who were willing to table questions in parliament in exchange for cash. Under the new Bill planned for the next session of parliament, any Lord caught accepting money to table parliamentary questions will be automatically expelled from the upper chamber of the British parliament. Similarly, strict rules would apply to those Lords jailed for more than a year, or any others found guilty of fraudulent expenses claims. Two NRI Lords were recently found guilty of wrongly claiming expenses. They were suspended but subsequently allowed to return to the upper house. They include Lord Swraj Paul, Lord Amir Bhatia and Bangladeshi-born Baroness Pola Uddin, who was ordered to repay £125,000 after her questionable expenses claims. Jalandhar-born Lord Paul, a former deputy speaker in the Lords, was suspended from parliament for four months and ordered to repay £41,982. East Africa-born Lord Bhatia, who was educated in India and Tanzania, was suspended for eight months and repaid £27, 446. The investigating committee said about Lord Paul “his actions were utterly unreasonable and demonstrated gross irresponsibility and negligence.”
THE London branch of the Aam Aadmi Party, which is projecting Arvind Kejriwal as the next Chief Minister of Delhi and a future Prime Minister, says it has so far managed to attract approximately 1,000 NRI supports and between £20,000 and £25,000 in donations. Mumbai-born Raj Redij-Gill is one of the party’s main UK coordinators, and who has taken a year off from his job in e-commerce and marketing to campaign for the party, says Aam Aadmi Party is trying to generate interest among the NRIs by campaigning at key events like the recent Indian film festival in London and the test match at the Oval in Birmingham. Redij-Gill says one of the key issues for the party is fighting corruption in electricity and water bills. This is one of the themes that party candidates will focus on during the Delhi elections this coming October. The Aam Aadmi Party is fielding 70 candidates for all 70 Delhi constituencies.
A UK-based NRI has returned home to freedom after being held for a year in a Dubai prison where he is alleged to have been tortured by the local police. Suneet Jeerh, together with his friends Grant Cameron and Karl Williams, all in their mid-twenties, were released earlier this month as part of a traditional amnesty announced by the Prime Minister and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, to mark the beginning of Ramadan. They were on holiday in Dubai last year when they were arrested after the police claimed they found synthetic cannabis, known as “spice” in their car. All three denied the drugs charges. In a draft witness statement distributed by the human rights charity Reprieve, Williams was quoted as saying, “I remember that the police put a towel on my face so I could not see. They kept telling me I was going to die. I was so scared.” Earlier this year Jeerh’s sister, Davena Kumar, said her brother had also been tortured. She said, “They dragged my brother from his apartment, kicking and punching him. They handcuffed him, punched and electrocuted him”. “He is innocent, he is not guilty. All those charges will be dropped. I originally found out about the torture from a friend and I just started screaming. I couldn’t believe any human could do that.” While they were held in custody, British Prime Minister David Cameron expressed concern over the torture allegations, saying, “The UK Government takes all allegations of mistreatment very seriously.”
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