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last word He's done and achieved all there was to in state politics, but the Congress doesn't seem to run out of use for him. Putting the fighting spirit back in the cadre seems to be the more urgent cause than winning Amritsar. By Sarbjit Dhaliwal
Amarinder
Singh was only 23 when he participated in a war. That was in 1965, and in all he served in the Army for only three years. But the ferocity of a soldier has not died down, much to the discomfort of his political, and even social, adversaries. The recent opening volley of the former Congress chief minister against senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who he is fighting in Amritsar for the Lok Sabha seat, was only one more instance of his acerbic verbal duels.
Jaitley, a top-notch Supreme Court lawyer and a seasoned politician, has to muster all his wits to counter Amarinder Singh, who many in Patiala still refer to as ‘maharaja’. “It is true Jaitley is a leading lawyer, but after 47 years in politics I too have become at least half a lawyer! I am prepared to hold a debate with him on any issue, I’ll make him sweat,” Amarinder declares. Some of his renewed confidence may have something to do with the reception from Congressmen he received in Amritsar on Friday. The Congress rank and file, who had lost the spirit to fight particularly after the Assembly polls, have recently seen a lifting of spirits in the state. Amarinder’s confidant and former Congress minister Surinder Singla fawns over him thus: “Kings are known to win territories, but on Friday Amarinder won hearts and minds of the people of Amritsar.” Just before the elections were notified, Amarinder had put the Akali leadership, especially Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, on the back foot on the issue of Operation Bluestar. And he makes his attacks particularly scathing — as in the Bluestar matter too — by carefully marshalling his facts and arguments. The strident approach, however, has been seen to turn into overconfidence in the past, with treacherous consequences. The heavy price the Congress paid in the 2012 Assembly elections has been blamed on this by many. As ticket seekers lined up at his residence at the time, it made his coterie believe the party would win hands down. The SAD leadership, meanwhile, worked overtime to retain power, and successfully so. A handy barb Amarinder’s detractors have is to call him a royal steeped in pleasures who is not accessible even for his own party men. And Amarinder has never denied he loves to live it up. His opponents raised questions regarding a lady from Pakistan he has befriended. Not the one to flinch, Amarinder asked journalists to meet her at a house in Chandigarh and ask her all they wanted to. A journalist suggested she should hold a press conference, and Amarinder readily organised one in Chandigarh the very next day. However, his colourful personal life is only part of what makes up the persona that is Capt Amarinder Singh. A little known fact about him is that he believes in doing his chores himself, such as typing out the manuscripts of all the three books he has published thus far. He was hammering out the last chapter a book of World War- I just before he was called upon by the party to contest from Amritsar. The book is scheduled to be released on August 5, the day Great Britain declared war on Germany in 1914. Amarinder also types all his personal letters on a laptop, which accompanies him everywhere. He has maintained a lavish personal library, which keeps him supplied for his daily hour of bedtime reading. On a day of leisure, Amarinder loves to rustle up a meal for friends. Preparing pickles is what he takes pride in, and is particularly fond of one recipe for green chillies. Another little known fact about him is that he has received proper training in reciting Gurbani. “Among the Patiala royals, it is a tradition to train all children in reciting Gurbani in correct form, and Amarinder Singh has been trained by a granthi,” says a family friend who does not want to be named. Notwithstanding Amarinder’s social geniality, the charge that he is not accessible is not far from truth. He has not developed the habit of being available to people at all times, as any fulltime politician would. In that none can beat Parkash Singh Badal. Amarinder’s defence is that a politician, when in power, should make his administration such that people may not need to depend on a politician to get their work done. A strong-willed person with clear likes and dislikes, Amarinder Singh trusts his associates and friends, but never forgives those who betray his confidence. That is one of the reasons for his antipathy towards Parkash Singh Badal, who denied him the SAD ticket in 1997 Assembly elections. At the time Amarinder was with the Akalis and was keen to contest from Talwandi Sabo or Dakala. However, Badal and the now late Gurcharan Singh Tohra made sure that did not happen. Soon after, Amarinder Singh resigned from the SAD and returned to the Congress a few years later. He became Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president in 1999 and led the party to victory in the 2002 Assembly elections to become the Chief Minister of Punjab. Not forgetting his wounds from 1997, on coming to power he made life miserable not only for the top Akali leadership but even for those close to the Badals. To date he does not miss an opportunity to attack the Badals, though he now avoids making it personal. Amarinder’s roller-coaster political career took off with his election to the Lok Sabha in 1980. He was then very close to Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi. However, following Operation Bluestar, he resigned from the Lok Sabha in 1984 and also quit the Congress. He joined the SAD, was elected MLA from Talwandi Sabo, and became Agriculture Minister in the Barnala government in 1985. But following Operation Blackthunder, he resigned as minister. After that he remained in the political wilderness for some years and even formed his own party. He was elected MLA from Samana in Patiala district in 1992. After that he was elected to the state Assembly from Patiala in 2002, 2007 and 2012. After nearly five decades in politics, the Amritsar Lok Sabha challenge comes to him at a critical juncture for the party, which desperately needs to win every seat it can, especially in Punjab, where it has been in the doldrums for the past seven years. Up against the BJP’s top marksman and strategist Jaitley, the flagship among the fleet of heavyweight candidates that the Congress has put up in the state, Capt Amarinder has a lot resting on his shoulders.
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With skill development being the buzzword, what is the vision for scaling it up and providing vocational training to the youth? India's available capacity in the vocational training space is quite low, hence the NSDC is funding to create large-scale vocational training organisations. This increase in capacity should lead to diversification of skill programmes that can be offered to the youth to match their aspirations and the market demand. With this increased capacity, new avenues need to be established to relay these messages, and industry needs to play a role in hiring and providing higher wages for certified, skilled persons. The National Skill Development Policy 2009 has recognised this opportunity. Based on it, bodies like the NSDC have been formed to catalyse private sector participation. Better coordination is needed between different stakeholders to ensure sustainable job creation in both manufacturing and services sectors for inclusive economic development. What have been the achievements of the NSDC so far? In 2012-13, against a target of 4 lakh, the NSDC partners trained 4.02 lakh people. Against our target of 10 lakh people for the FY 13-14, we have already trained 9.25 lakh people till February end. With the current projections, we are well placed to surpass our target for the year. The NSDC Board has approved 129 skill ventures to date, creating a 10-year training capacity of 78 million and an annual training capacity of 15 million. Industry feels the necessary skill set is lacking to provide jobs. How can this be addressed? Over the years, there has been a disconnect between the 'world of work' and the 'world of education'. To address this issue, we need a greater alignment of the skills framework with different ministries across the country. The National Vocational Qualification Framework aims to bridge this gap. At the NSDC, we are closely working with industry to form Sector Skill Councils, which are responsible for standardising courses and curriculum for skill development in their respective sectors. The NSDC has approved 29 such councils that have standardised over 500 job roles through National Occupational Standards. Furthermore, many NSDC training partners are working with industry to conduct demand-driven training programmes. However, we need industry to recognise the skills by hiring a certified worker and also pay a premium for it. What should be the priority of the new
government regarding job creation? The new government should continue to maintain focus on skill building. The formation of the NSDC and empowering industry through the setting up skill councils is an unprecedented move that has already started bearing fruit, with over 1.5 million people being skilled over the last four years. The task ahead will see a progressive increase in the challenge. For 2014-15, we have a skill target of 3.3 million or more than three times the 2013-14 target of 1 million. Job creation is a direct function of skill building in the country. While industry is starting to realise the benefit of hiring skilled hands, the scope has to increase manifold. Industry must be more willing to pay top dollar for a skilled hand as it has a direct bottom line impact though improved productivity and lower wastages at work. Apart from the private industry, the government - both at central and state levels - have to prioritise the hiring of certified skilled people. Given the emphasis laid by the government on skill development with a budget allocation of Rs 1,000 crore and certification and monetary schemes, what more needs to be done? The National Skill Certification and Monetary Reward Scheme (branded as STAR) was announced by the Prime Minister in his speech on August 15 and was launched by the Finance Minister the next day in Delhi. The scheme was run on pilot mode for a month before getting operational on September 16 last year. It aims to motivate 1 million youth to voluntarily join the skill programme across the country. Starting slowly, the scheme picked up pace in the last few months, with 3.81 lakh people being enrolled in different training programmes. Of these, nearly 1.74 lakh people have completed training across 204 job roles in 17 sectors. How do you assess the target of skilling 500 million people by 2022? Currently, there are nearly 450 million people employed in different sectors across the country. With the technological advancement and changing socio-economic paradigm, we need to up-skill them every three years or less. This means that nearly 1,350 million people will be skilled over the next 10 years. If you add another 300 million fresh workers - who will be added to the existing working population over the years and the number of times they will be skilled - the potential for skilling and up-skilling is enormous.
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good news Residents of Karnal refer brothers Charanjeet Bali and Raj Kumar as ‘Lawaris lashon ke waris’ (guardians of abandoned bodies) as they have performed the last rites of 5,670 unidentified bodies since 1988. It is not their mission, but it has now become some sort of a tradition in their household. They cremate bodies while their four daughters immerse the ashes into the Ganga at Hardwar.
As soon as they learn of any abandoned body, they immediately reach the spot and start the process of the last rites. Their mobile numbers are printed outside the mortuary, Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College Hospital, ‘Shivpuris’ and in other parts of the district. Charanjeet says the police often brings in unidentified bodies for postmortem, after which they carry the bodies with them for cremation and perform the last rites. “My brother and I have cremated thousands of bodies. We do this for our peace of mind,” says Charanjeet, adding that no financial assistance has been given by the government. “I have been doing this since 1988 and my brother joined me in 1992. Our daughters have been immersing the ashes into the Ganga since their childhood,” he says. By profession, Charanjeet is a property dealer, but he devotes maximum time to this noble cause. “As per religious books, it is essential to perform the last rites of every deceased. So it becomes our religious duty to do so for unclaimed bodies,” says Raj Kumar. “No matter what sorrows a person has faced throughout life, the end should be with dignity so the soul may rest in peace. This is the psychology of every human. Hence, we started this free cremation service. Many bodies stink and are in a highly decomposed state. No one wants to touch them. That’s where we come in.” Charnjeet’s daughters Doli, an MSc student, and Neha, a Bed student, say they are proud of their father and uncle. “After we immerse the ashes, we also experience peace of mind,” say Meenal, a BDS student, and Jiya, a class VI student, and Raj Kumar’s daughters. “It is true that God is on earth. Our father and uncle are the army of God. They are doing it for unfortunate people,” they say. Charanjeet’s wife Sunita has been supportive of this cause. “Although some people disliked their work, I salute my husband and brother-in-law because they want to do something for humanity. Even at night, they rush accident victims in need of medical aid to the PGI. After marriage, I came to know through a neighbour about the kind of social work done by my husband. But I have never bothered about what people say. I have always encouraged them to keep up the good work,” she says. “These rituals are performed according to the religion of the deceased,” says Raj Kumar. They have also devoted their lives to look after the poor, destitute and abandoned people. The brothers have also pledged to donate their organs for medical research. They are not interested in any kind of reward from the government even though they have often been called by the district administration. “It is not good to seek a reward for this noble cause. It is for God to reward us,” says Charanjeet. “If any one finds a body or any person who cannot afford the expenses for the last rites, we can be contacted at 9416110073. Material glory and gains which we humans chase in life are meaningless. Only our good karma will go with us in our next life. The ashes of around 500 unclaimed bodies will be immersed in Hardwar on April 27,” he adds.
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