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Markets on upswing
Condemned abroad |
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’62 war and India’s China policy
Where the poor were richer than the rich
Is empowerment just another hype?
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Markets on upswing AS the stock markets are touching a new high day after day and the rupee is strengthening against the dollar because of heavy capital inflows, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram credits the upswing to UPA policies, while former Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha and other BJP leaders would like to attribute the upbeat market mood to the projection by opinion polls of a Narendra Modi-led NDA government at the Centre. The truth lies somewhere in-between. Sinha has been rather harsh in his assessment. Chidambaram, he says, will be "remembered in history as a sub-5 per cent growth specialist due to his hubris and arrogance". The UPA can be faulted for stretching the Treasury to its limits by embarking on rights-based policies aimed largely at winning over different sections of society with an eye on elections. Despite political compulsions, Chidambaram kept his promise on fiscal deficit, improved the government finances through drastic cuts in spending and controlled the current account deficit through curbs on gold imports. He exercised restraint in giveaways and avoided loan or tax waivers in his budget, probably his last. Tax worries of foreign investors were put to rest. The successful sale of spectrum and the payment of hefty dividends by PSUs came handy. The appointment of Raghuram Rajan as RBI Governor also sent a positive signal. Inflation has come down and there is a growing belief that the worst is over for the economy. The RBI may start cutting interest rates, if not immediately, at least in the months to come. All this has led foreign funds to invest heavily in Indian shares and bonds --$9.3 billion this year alone. Inflows may continue unless the election results throw up a surprise. Of course, investors everywhere are put off by political uncertainty. Narendra Modi's pro-business image and the anticipation of a stable, decisive NDA government at the Centre have contributed to the market rally. Small investors entering the market at this stage, however, need to be cautious. Any reversal of expectations on May 16, when the votes will be counted, could lead to a sharp sell-off. Stakes are high on
Modi.
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Condemned abroad Thirty-eight
Punjabi youths are reported to be in forced employment, doing menial jobs, in Saudi Arabia because they were sent there by travel agents with false documents, including international driving
licences. There are thousands of other Indians in worse situations where they do not even have valid passports. They can get no help because they fear legal action back home as they have been made party to document fraud by travel agents. Around 4 lakh Indians emigrate each year, many of them on fraudulent documents or personal claims, often in violation of laws of the countries they land up in. It is a combination of their desperation to emigrate, ignorance, and false promises by unscrupulous travel agents that put them in such a soup. As for the Saudi Arabia case, the Government of India needs to ramp up its services in the country to facilitate the current exodus of Indians working there illegally. In a pre-announced move, since November last Saudi Arabia has expelled nearly three lakh people from various countries living there illegally. The drive is still on. In Punjab, a hope was created when the state government passed the Prevention of Human Smuggling Act, 2012, but there has been little follow-up action. Many travel agents have failed to register under this law, which is mandatory. In fact, the government is under pressure to relax some of the provisions under the Act. Emigration is a major industry with huge revenues and, therefore, clout. Among the immediate measures the state government can take is implement the Act and set up advisory desks in each district where emigrating youth may go to have their queries answered and documents checked at least for obvious fraud. Lack of awareness is what the agents feed on. The long-term solution, of course, lies in curbing the desperation to emigrate. For that youth need jobs at home. Technical skills that can be useful in finding jobs both abroad as well as in the industry or services sector here have to be the focus.
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Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again? — A. A. Milne
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IN the mail, educationists in England were discussing the meaning of the figures supplied by a medical man of repute on the health of the London slum boys. Dr. H.C.C. Mackenzie has for the last four years been keeping careful records of his medical inspection of 208 slum boys who are members of Hollington Club, Camberwell. The average, he says, is distinctly above the Rowntree “poverty line.” The average height of boys between 13 and 14 was 4 ft. 8 ½ in. and of those between 18 and 19, 5 ft. 6 ¼ inches. These figures are said to be below the standard amongst well-to-do people and Dr. Mackenzie attributes the low stature to “lack of leisure, fresh air and meat food.” But he also adds that heredity play its part. Among other interesting particulars given are that 22 per cent of the boys had good teeth, 11 per cent had really bad ones, 25 per cent normal vision and 42 per cent had both eyes affected. The hearts of the boys were unexpectedly good, 81 per cent being quite normal, and as regards lungs 62 per cent were quite sound. A NEW unofficial committee has been formed in England to show hospitality to Indian students. The chairman of the committee is Sir Frederick Robertson, ex-Judge of the Punjab Chief Court who on the eve of his departure from Lahore called pointed attention in a speech to the “advent of the educated Indian.” Among the members are a number of retired Anglo-Indians like Lord Inchcape, Sir James Dunlop-Smith and Sir Henry Craik. But the names of the Lord Chief Justice, Sir William Wedderburn and Sir Seymour King are also mentioned. The new committee proposes “to give young Indians an opportunity to come into more intimate touch with better sides of English life and will be entirely free from any idea of officious interference, or of improving or supervising Indian students.”
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’62 war and India’s China policy Since the Review was ordered by the Army Chief, follow-up action to correct shortcomings in the Army was prompt. I recall that several exercises e.g. Exercise Ram Ban and Ram Chakor were conducted in 1963 to learn more about mountain warfare and make necessary organisational changes. These resulted in the creation of mountain divisions, modification of infantry battalions and many other units for their role in the mountains. A better prepared Army for mountain warfare performed well in Kargil in the 1965 Indo-Pak war and in the India-China skirmish at Natula
in 1967. It is also important to note that since 1962, due to technological upgrade of military weapons and equipment, our military strategy, doctrines, command and control system and tactics have undergone substantial changes. This Review, therefore, has little relevance today except for military leadership issues, perennial deficiencies and in some cases antiquity of authorised weapons and equipment. That brings me to the first, more important geo-political and strategic aspect because military preparedness, operational planning and tactics must flow from policy and grand strategy. Have we learnt lessons from that part of this disastrous war? The armed conflict resulted from a chain of strategic events which started in 1950 when the Chinese PLA, after defeating Khampas in the battle of Chamdo, occupied Tibet. Within a month, on November 7, Sardar Patel wrote a detailed letter to Nehru giving the geo-strategic and security implications of the event and his cautionary advice on this issue. Nehru ignored it. He had a mindset on China. Patel's advice was not discussed in the Cabinet. It was confined to a vault for the next 18 years. Instead, our government assisted the PLA in routing its logistical requirement through Calcutta Port and Kalimpong. The India-China cartographic tussle started soon thereafter. It had to because India's northern boundary on British era maps in many parts had been left blank with markings 'areas not surveyed'. Nehru was friendly with China but quite firm and was not prepared to yield any territory. As this was causing a problem in diplomatic negotiations and perception, he took the decision to delineate Indian maps with the McMahon Line in the Northeast, the India-Tibet boundary in the Central sector and a history-based line in the Northwest, which included Aksai Chin. Military advice or the need to increase Army strength to establish check posts along the 4,056-km border was neither sought nor
considered necessary. Subsequent events of Chinese road construction across Aksai Chin (1951-57), patrol clashes and assaults on check posts in Ladakh and Northeast, and the Dalai Lama's surreptitious escape into India are well known. Despite the deepening of distrust between India and China, failing diplomacy over the boundary issue and increased tension on the border, the government kept reducing the strength of the Army and starving it of weapons and equipment. When Shrinagesh took over as Chief in May 1957, the strength of the Army was about 4, 50,000. The government wanted to bring it to 1,50,000 reducing 10,000 men a year. Shrinagesh, in his diary noted later: “Leaders of free India were busy impressing upon the world that we were a peace-loving nation, with people wedded to the ideology of Ahimsa, and steeped in the belief that peaceful attitude was a sufficient safeguard against any thought of aggression……. “To me this kind of thinking seemed manifestly short-sighted. Dr Katju's (then Defence Minister) and my arguments on Pakistan seemed to make some headway with Panditji. He agreed that Pakistan was making military alliances, had been contemplating rearming with modern weapons, and had by no means forgotten Kashmir. But when it came to China, it drew a firm "No" because the Chinese were our trusted friends; and we (army commanders) were foolish, hot headed, and needlessly belligerent….we came away with the agreement to a 3,00,000 force, less than what we had contemplated, but still a force and a military one - not a labour corps!” The civil-military alienation under Krishna Menon, Thimaya's retracted resignation, Kaul's political patronage and climb and the resultant dissension amongst senior military officers are too well known. Under these circumstances, Nehru approved the strategically disastrous 'forward policy' advocated by an unprofessional coterie (Menon, BN Mullick, BN Kaul, MJ Desai). This political policy direction led to military movements without concern for communications and logistic reach, or eyeball to eyeball confrontations. When the Chinese escalated the border skirmishes into a full-fledged war, our political leadership, the foreign and defence ministries and the intelligence organisation abdicated their responsibilities. What stands out here is that we failed in our prolonged diplomatic dialogue and thoroughly neglected military preparedness. The Intelligence Chief was involved more in policy-making and less in intelligence collection and assessments. There was a total disconnect between the civilian and military leadership. There was gross political favouritism and interference in the military chain of command. This resulted in excessive influence and authority of some juniors and failure of some seniors to stand up firmly to the strategically flawed policies and measures. The role played by the MoD to enable implementation of the policy and the Defence Secretary, who according to the Business Rules of the Government of India, is responsible for the defence of India, including preparation for defence by the armed forces, remains unanalysed. As these strategic aspects and lessons are not covered in the HB Review, or in any other official document, India's higher defence control organisation thus remains oblivious to the strategic level mistakes of the 1962 war.
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Where the poor were richer than the rich They built our houses, market places, roads, educational institutions, clubs, courts, hospitals, the lake and many more. They worked as our maids, malis, chowkidars, peons, vendors, hawkers, labourers, safai karamcharis, rickshaw-pullers, auto and taxi drivers and did many other chores for our comfort. They slogged to give us our 'City Beautiful', which over the years has developed into a Tricity. I have been closely associated with this JJ colony for more than 20 years. We operated for them a health centre, a centre for the disabled, a children's school and a centre for adult education. All this in an open 30x60 feet shed. An open space was converted into a play ground. We raised senior and junior cricket teams. The school vibrated with an opening and closing song of a different kind, which echoed across the entire colony. To quote a few verses: Yeh school hamara hey/ har roj aainey gey / nahakar, tooth brush kar key/ school ki vardi pahen kar/ har roj aainey gey/ teacher ka kaha maaney/ maat-pita ka kaha mane gey/ bhai behan ban kar/ seedhey ghar ko jaaiyen gey. The Tricity grew by leaps and bounds. The rich became richer. Millionaires became multi-millionaires. The crime curve ascended in the Tricity every year. But these JJ dwellers happily continued to live in their thatched nests, in contentment, simplicity, living harmoniously with moral and ethical values, enjoying paucity in the midst of plenty, fellow feeling, sharing the neigbour's grief and sorrow. If these values were the touch- stones, these poor people were richer than the rich. Jesus said: “They see God who are poor, simple, humble, pure at heart, merciful and who suffer hunger and thirst for others.” In this multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multi-cultural colony I saw no communal riots in 20 years. They were irked to be called migrants. Can't an Indian settle in any part of India, not as a migrant but as a son of mother India? Aren't all residents of the Tricity migrants? Guru Gobind Singh said Maanas ki jaat ekas hoe (The entire mankind is one family). The government has built for them 8,500 one-room large apartments with attached bathrooms and kitchens at an enormous cost of Rs 2,200 crore. They are now no longer migrants. The Colony No. 5 was erased in November-December 2013. When we went to salvage our equipment, we saw long caravans of rickshaws, two-wheeler carts, bullock carts loaded with their meager belongings. They were in tears. They were addicted to poverty and loved their JJ colony. The words of Guru Nanak flashed across my mind — in serene silence: Hukmi uttam neech, hukm dukh sukh paaiyen (By His will we are destined to be high or low, at comfort or discomfort). Many of them shifted to other JJ colonies. Mullah Dilshsad, a resident for over 30 years, said: Unko Mubarak hon unchey mahal, humko pyari hamari jhugian.
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Is empowerment just another hype?
Women’s
empowerment happens to be the most discussed and yet least understood of major issues. Basically, a woman is empowered when she is able to take decisions regarding herself, her family, community and society at large. The fact is after 66 years of independence, women’s empowerment still appears to be a mirage. Girls are performing better academically, are winning medals and scholarships; more women are entering as professionals, but they are unable to reach positions, where decisions are being made. How many universities in India, barring the women universities, have women vice chancellors, or registrars? Why is it that while it is the women who put in days of hard work and labour in organising the prestigious academic functions, they are missing on the dais except in seminars on the women's issues? If we have failed to make our higher educational institutions 'inclusive' in terms of gender, what can be expected of other social and political institutions? It is an irony that while we are harping on inclusive growth all the time, we have failed to introduce the long pending Bill on Reservation for Women in Parliament and State Assemblies, even in the year of Lok Sabha elections.
Present scenario In order to woo women voters, Rahul Gandhi has been saying that if Congress comes to power, he will get Women's Reservation Bill passed as an Act. Why did he not get it passed all these years while the Congress led UPA was in power? Is it in order to keep the issue pending? Ironically, all political parties are equally averse to the enactment of this Bill, which shows the extent of gender insensitivity among them. It is a pity that women's inclusion in developmental process continues to be an issue to be hyped during seminars and election rallies only. There is little doubt that just as the issue of poverty, which got over politicised with 'garibihatao' slogan, women’s empowerment too has been trivialised as an objective, often abused as a political gimmick by all political parties. A state that has failed to offer a physically safe environment to half of its population certainly cannot claim to govern the largest democracy in the world. State cannot just get rid of its responsibility towards ensuring equal rights to its women to facilitate their share in political, legal and civil rights. In a country that boasts of the legacy of being one of the oldest living civilizations, the strife for such basic issues becomes even more ironical.
Crucial to growth Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations has asserted that gender equality is a "pre-requisite" for achieving the Millennium Development Goals. Amartya Sen has referred to the phenomenon of 'missing women' to capture the point that the proportion of women is much lower than what it should have been, had girls been allowed to take birth just like boys, and then to survive thereafter. World Development Report of 2012 says that around 6 million women are missing every year, out of which 23 per cent are never born, 10 per cent go missing in early childhood, 21 per cent in the reproductive years and 38 per cent above the age of 60 years. These figures however do not include lakhs of women who are never able to access the resources, jobs and opportunities. In short, even in the 21st century, it matters a lot whether one is born a man or a woman.
Major obstructions No doubt, we have travelled a long way in empowering women with legal rights, public policy and incentives, and we also understand very clearly by now that the culprit is the 'mindset'. But have we, as a State, done anything to change this mindset? 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment Acts were great steps towards an inclusive development, but in most of the cases reservation of women has been usurped by men for retaining political power within their hold. Panchayats have continued to be male spaces, completely excluding women, especially if they also happen to be Dalits and hence poor. Numerous structural barriers keep women away from powerful positions; so much so that even when they are in powerful positions, they are not able to exercise power, primarily because the centres of power continue to be patriarchal. With men at the helm of affairs, a few women who somehow reach these positions are always seen as women first and professionals later. In fact, when choices are made to put women in positions of decision making, generally submissive women are selected, the ones who can toe the patriarchal line while the assertive and independent women are sidelined. The few women who do get to taste empowerment get so obsessed with their accomplishments that they become totally oblivious of their sisters who need their support. Women are also blamed for prioritising family and children more than their work. This is exactly the 'blaming the victim' approach. Society continues to hold her responsible for the failure of the child, who happens to be a joint responsibility of both parents. She has to struggle hard to meet the domestic and work expectations, which happen to be contradictory.
The premium of honour Another major obstruction to women’s empowerment is the huge premium attached to the honour of a woman. Right from a poor unskilled illiterate woman to a highly placed and successful woman, she can be easily violated. For a woman whose honour is once violated, the damage becomes irreparable. The burden she thus has to carry is enormous which often stops her from reaching at the helm of affairs. While struggling to work with men in construction work, in factories, in bureaucracy, in politics, in universities and so on, she has to continuously struggle maintaining that honour, for which only she is held responsible by society and the State interventions in such cases have been nil. Ditto has been the case with the honour killings where the State has chosen to be a mute spectator. Whenever a woman is violated, she is blamed to have 'invited' it. The slow pace of women’s empowerment reflected through increased incidents of honour killings, domestic violence, rape and molestation, trafficking in women, is often blamed on the mindset that refuses to change. It is strange that we could so easily fight our religious beliefs for adopting abortion, at least easier than it was in the West, we threw away joint families to enjoy the independence of conjugal families, we prefer working daughters-in-law because they bring money, we rush to send our daughters to beauty pageants and film industry the moment they get an offer, why is it then the mindset refuses to see women as decision makers? Is it sufficient for the State to frame statutes, policies and then wait for the patriarchal mindset to change? Does the State care enough that the thoughtfully drafted policies get implemented with firmness and sincerity?
Moving ahead Let the political parties ensure 50 per cent representation for women as their office bearers and the candidates they field for elections. That will be the first test of a political party towards the issue of women’s empowerment, which every party has been abusing. Let us ensure that women, who get elected as members of panchayats, exercise their decision making role without the interference of their husbands. It is an absolute lie that these women are not capable of taking decisions. There are numerous cases where completely illiterate, Dalit and extremely poor women sarpanches have done wonders for their community, while educated, upper-caste women have been rubber stamps. Why measure the competence of women with such tough yardsticks when we have hundreds of men as members of panchayats, State Legislatures and even Parliament, who are dumb spectators, but are never criticised for being worthless and irresponsible.
State intervention a must The very first indicator of women’s empowerment is an equal representation of women with men in every walk of life and at all levels, I mean at top positions too, in governments, in ministries, in universities and in the corporate sector. The State cannot absolve itself of the responsibility of dealing with the situation with a heavy hand. Whenever a woman sarpanch is removed from office by a no-confidence motion, whenever an assertive Dalit woman panchayat member refuses to appease the male patriarchs, whenever a woman construction worker resists the sexual advances of her employer, whenever a woman victim of domestic violence fails to get an FIR lodged at the police station, whenever a woman employee fails to get justice from authorities against sexual harassment at workplace, does the State react with the same force as it does for other offences? If not, it is not a question of mindset of people it is a question of the mindset of the State, especially in a democratic state. The hype created around women’s empowerment notwithstanding, it is women who shall have to break through the glass ceiling and claim the space where decisions are made. Women in decision making positions shall have to remember millions of other women who are invisible and voiceless. If women are not prepared to stand for themselves, no one else would, neither the State, nor men, nor the civic society. Merely being in the decision-making positions shall not make women empowered so long as their decisions reinforce the patriarchal mindset. State shall have to ensure that women’s empowerment is not treated as a hype but gets translated through its institutions. The seriousness of the State and society on the issue shall have to get reflected through the grassroots reality, which at the moment seems stuck.
The writer is Professor, Department of Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh.
Road to nowhere
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IN analysing any armed conflict, two aspects have great importance. Why did it happen, or what were the geo-political and strategic circumstances which led to the conflict? And, how was it fought on the ground? The Henderson Brooks' Operational Review (HB Review) of the 1962 India-China war, long overdue for de-classification and academic study, deals with the latter part. It was tasked only to look at training, equipment, system of command, physical fitness of the troops and capacity of the military commanders at all levels to influence the men under their command. For inexplicable reasons, General Chaudhury, who took over as Army Chief on November 19, 1962, advised the authors not to review the functioning of Army Headquarters (AHQ). As a result, the role of the Ministry of Defence (MoD), its relationship with the AHQ and the directions given to it by the former were not examined. The HB Review and its lessons thus deal only with operational tasking, logistics, staff duties and military leadership issues at the operational and tactical levels. 
IN search of food, clothing and shelter, 50,000 men,womwn and children came in waves from various parts of India during the last few dacades. For shelter they made thatched nests, spread over hundreds of acres of open land south of Chandigarh. The area in due course was called Jhugi-Jhopri, (JJ), slum colony No.5.