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Manifestly escapist
Dogged pursuit |
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The use of caste in elections
Dancing to the drum beat
Controversial appointments put Navy at sea
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Manifestly escapist IN an election that is more about posturing than specific proposals, the
SAD has come up with a manifesto that harks back to its clichéd slogans. While the party can hardly be singled out for the general degradation of electoral discourse, it has displayed singular lack of imagination by trying to reignite passions over issues that are the least of the current concerns. The salary bill of Punjab employees is a challenge for the state government every month, but the ruling party has sought to woo the Sikh voter by reviving the demand for Punjabi-speaking areas. Paddy as a crop choice in Punjab needs to be cut back, but the SAD has again stressed the riparian principle for its river waters. There is also a gap in statement and commitment, as seen in its actions. The SAD manifesto has proposed fast-track courts in 1984 riots cases and a Supreme Court supervised inquiry into the killings. But Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had disapproved of the SIT proposed by AAP earlier in Delhi. The party has also sought to discredit advocate Phoolka, who has steadfastly fought for justice for riot victims, just because he has become an AAP candidate. For devolution of Central funds it proposes a simple formula of receiving 50 per cent of the money collected in the state, no strings attached. Punjab has repeatedly failed to utilise the funds given to it under various schemes. Does SAD really believe its allies in the NDA will agree to the freedom it seeks without responsibility? That brings up the matter of functioning in a coalition. The SAD could thus far get away by passing the buck to the UPA government at the Centre. Now it is expecting the NDA to be in power. The Akalis and the BJP would find it hard to be on the same page on a lot of issues - river waters, FDI in retail, RSS, and ties with Pakistan among them. For this the SAD's answer is a common minimum programme. History shows that invariably means a logjam. Realism is what the SAD manifesto lacks
sorely.
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Dogged pursuit A
Columbia University professor was beaten up by a group of young men near his place of work in Harlem, New York, on September 21 last year. The New York police recently announced the arrest of one of his attackers. The incident in which Prof Prabhjot Singh, a turbaned Sikh who sports a long, open beard, was abused and injured on his jaw and face, had caused considerable concern in the Punjabi
diaspora. His attackers had hurled abuses at him and made it clear that he was being targeted because of his long beard and turban. A teacher at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, and a doctor who treated the poor in the area, Singh responded with grace and restraint to the attack when he wrote: "Even more important to me than my attackers being caught is that they are taught...This incident, while unfortunate, can help initiate a local conversation to create greater understanding within the community." The police have doggedly followed leads and finally arrested a 20-year-old man for the assault. He was apparently a part of a group of around 20 young men who had punched the professor, after making anti-Muslim statements. Singh was fortuitously saved by the intervention of passersby, but not before he had received injuries in his face and his jaw was broken. He has since continued his teaching work and is practising as a doctor near the area where he was attacked. Even as the incident shocked the
diaspora, the widespread revulsion it caused, along with the nuanced response from the victim, serve as pointers on how to deal with such incidents. The US Sikh community has stepped up various programmes to educate Americans at large about Sikhism and the Sikhs. So have some American
organisations. It goes to the credit of the New York police that they continued to investigate the hate crime for months till they finally arrested a suspect.
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A good leader takes a little more than his share of the blame, a little less than his share of the credit. — Arnold H. Glasow
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A SINGULAR difficulty of preserving race-purity was experienced by the orthodox Parsee community lately by the performance (and admission into the community), of certain religious rites upon a Burmese wife and daughter of a Parsee gentlemen. At a meeting of the Parsee community held last week at Bombay the question was discussed and Mr. J.H. Bhabha made a speech in which he offered a very clever solution. He said that if any Parsee disliked the children of mixed race, they were at liberty to treat them as inferior socially and refuse to inter-marry with them or mix with them on equal terms in society. But they could not deny them the right to embrace the Zoroastrian religion if they wished to do so and claimed the benefits of the rites. THE detection of the cases of political conspiracy is beset with great difficulties. The methods of the police are crude and the policy of the Government is not confiding. It does not seem to repose in the most respectable private citizen the same trust which a ten rupee police constable certainly inspires. But it is a question of policy which at present is best left alone. The fact is undoubted that the detection of cases is beset with the most serious difficulties, and every undetected case is an encouragement to the forces of disorder. To add to the complications there are to contend against the evils of the system of rewards and personal enmity which induce informers to cleverly concoct cases against innocent persons.
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The use of caste in elections The appeal in the name of religion in the fifties was understandable because the country had been partitioned on the basis of religion in August 1947. The world's biggest holocaust took place, followed by the exodus of 3.5 crore of people. The exchange of population was fairly rejected by both the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League, the arbiters of the country's future. First, Mahatma Gandhi and then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru saw to it that religion was not mixed with politics. This worked for a few years. In the sixties the defeat at the hands of the Chinese was the topic of elections. Nehru's negligence in not preparing the country's defence had engaged the voters' attention. The seventies saw the domination of autocrat Indira Gandhi, who also suspended the Constitution and detained one lakh people without trial. Her Congress party was wiped out in northern India. Her return in 1980 was due to the squabbles in the successor Janata Party. It was not her triumph but the rejection of the Janata Party. Thus far caste played a minor role. Some who highlighted it were generally defeated. Money, of course, has counted from day one. The Election Commission fixed the limit for a candidate's expenditure at Rs. 40 lakh in 1951 when the first general election was held. Now it has been raised to Rs. 70 lakh. Still this is far less than what a candidate splurges-an average of Rs 3 crore is spent by a Lok Sabha candidate. Many spend at least triple the amount. Despite the rules the Election Commission has laid down, no candidate has ever been disqualified on the ground of excessive spending. The catch is that political parties are not governed by any law or rule that forces them not to spend more than the ceiling prescribed. In fact, the parties' dishonesty is the real problem. The political parties are under no obligation to have any upper limit on their expenditure. They have unanimously rejected the application of the Right to Information (RTI) to their internal working. If expenses during elections are to be curbed, some accountability is necessary. An accountability commission can be appointed since the Election Commission has been too soft to take action. Since MPs are the ones to pass legislation on this, they would never adopt a Bill which would impose curbs on them. Both the Congress and the BJP spend lavishly. The BJP tops the list because the corporate sector is fully behind the party, believing that Narendra Mori would be the next Prime Minister and would leave the field open to them. Religion has, no doubt, taken a back seat. Modi's most virulent speeches skirt around Hindutva but do not mention it specifically because secularism has a general appeal. The fact is that the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is openly participating in canvassing, although it claims to be a cultural organisation. RSS chief Mohan Bahgwat sat in election committees selecting the BJP candidates. This is ominous for future. My fear is that religion would be increasingly mentioned with politics. True, no party is running down secularism, not even the BJP. The party's manifesto does not use secularism even once. Yet the BJP talks about the freedom struggle and does not write off the sacrifices of leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and Abdul Ghaffar Khan. But the cat is out of the bag when it does not mention Nehru, the torch-bearer of Independence struggle. What is disconcerting in the manifesto is that India will admit the persecuted Hindus from every clime and country. This is in line with the policy of Israel which says that it is a homeland of every Jew, who can walk in whenever he or she feels doing so. Against this stance of the BJP, it is not surprising to find the party supporting Modi's Man Friday, Amit Shah, who talked in UP of taking "revenge" in the Lok Sabha elections. He did not mention the word, Muslim, but everyone could infer what he meant was that they should be punished at the polls. The Samajwadi Party's Azam Khan, trying to be Muslims' Modi, has had no shame in his attempt to communalise the armed forces. He has neither withdrawn his words nor is he apologetic. His remark that only Indian Muslim soldiers captured the Kargil heights, not the Hindus, indicates his polluted thinking. He even does not know that it is the regiments which fight and they have soldiers of all communities. A regiment wins or loses, not soldiers of a particular community. Such persons, including Amit Shah, should have been disqualified from contesting elections. Yet the Election Commission has preferred to impose a ban on them from making speeches in UP, the state to which the two belong. The ban has been relaxed in case of Amit Shah. The punishment should have been more severe. The caste factor, which has affected the electorate, in fact, is the sub-caste. Dalits have many castes and the creamy layer dictates the government. The upper castes have Marathas, Rajputs, Jats and so on. Today, the "baradari" (community) members of the same caste are negating the fair election in a democratic society. How effectively we fight against the sub-caste menace will indicate whether we are really a democratic and pluralistic society. The manner in which the political parties compromise and conquer such malpractices will prove if democracy is really ingrained in us. The current Lok Sabha election gives little hope because the candidates are stopping at nothing to increase votes. The use of money, however difficult, can be tracked. Even religious appeals can be curbed. But caste cannot be. I do not know how long it would take us to raise above all these considerations. Until we do so, we should remain democratic on paper, not in the way the Western democracies are. And what do we do about personal attacks and abuses which leaders of political parties are exchanging? This is another story to tell.
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Dancing to the drum beat While Aziz's formal title was that of a drummer, he also owned a large herd of goats and sheep. As he could mimic animal sounds, Aziz was extremely popular with the teenagers. While grazing his herd, he often carried goat cheese in a pouch and generously shared with others. Aziz also enjoyed official clout. On occasions, when visiting government officials were to make legal pronouncements, like declaring someone an offender or attaching property of a loan defaulter, Aziz was seen leading the entourage; his sombre drumming preceding the chowkidar's announcement. I enjoyed special rapport with Aziz, much to the envy of other children. His thatched shack was adjacent to our original ancestral house, which was located right in the centre of the village. It was built by my great grandfather who was a revenue official. Although we had shifted to an alternate site with the luxury of an in-house well, I often came to the previous house to play with old artefacts and climb trees. On such occasions, stealthily I would slip into Aziz's place to have a feel of the drum. He would allow me, though reluctantly. Aziz often recalled how news of my birth in distant Calcutta was broken in the village when he was summoned by Dr Sahib, my grandfather. It was like a marriage feast. The handsome reward he received was enough to double his herd. The day I was leaving for the boarding school, Aziz dropped in unexpectedly and performed briefly. While I was bubbling with excitement, apparently, it was hard on my mother. Seeing tears in her eyes, he extolled me to keep up the family traditions, squeezing one rupee coin into my palm. Aziz's best performance was on the occasion when the village community had organised a function in the honour of its 1971 war heroes. Barely twenty, I happened to be the youngest. Shafi performed as if in trance. Making circles in the air, he ignited the spirit of patriotism amongst one and all. The crowd went hysterical dancing to the beat, showering crisp notes in abundance. The last time I witnessed Aziz in action was, when the village veterans had arranged a get-together on my promotion to the rank of Major General. Although he had aged, yet the old spark was alive. Just the other day, I happened to pass by our original ancestral house which we had gifted to a needy family. I could not recognise it as it had been rebuilt. Aziz's dwelling too had been modestly renovated. Bhulla Mohamed, Aziz's son, came out to greet me. As a drummer, he was hardly in demand and was making a living as an unskilled labourer. The moment I was about to leave, Bhulla suddenly rushed inside. As I stood a bit puzzled, he came out playing the old beat, his father's favourite, in my honour. Soon a small crowd had gathered. On his insistence, I joined in to shake my legs. While the feet were out of step, the heart was beating in sync. The clock had reversed, by almost half a century. The setting had changed, but the spirit was the same.
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Controversial appointments put Navy at sea
The Indian Navy, the smallest of the three services, is better known as the ‘silent service’ since it is publicly the least visible considering that its operational area is on the high seas. The Navy also has a far better record of contributing to defence indigenisation with its long and well established record of building warships which is in direct contrast to the Army and the Air Force both of which are entirely import-dependent for practically all their weapon platforms and weapon systems. Yet despite being a ‘silent service’, the Navy has created some remarkable and controversial precedents leading to some major upheavals which are likely to forever remain recorded in India’s post-Independent naval history. The latest is the unfortunate recent sequence of events which began with a spate of accidents involving ships and submarines which culminated in the unprecedented resignation of Chief of Naval Staff (CNS) Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi. The resignation, accepted within hours of its submission on 26th February this year, led to the Navy being headed on an ad hoc basis by the Vice Chief of Naval Staff for almost two months (50 days to be precise) – which again is unprecedented – before the latter was formerly appointed to the Navy’s topmost post on 17th April. However, in appointing Admiral Rabinder Kumar Dhowan as the new CNS, the 24th Navy Chief since Independence, the government has simultaneously bypassed two established norms, one of which is unprecedented. First, Admiral Dhowan has never previously headed an operational command (or even a training command), which is considered an essential requisite for an officer to be considered for appointment as CNS. This is unprecedented for all three services. The Navy has two operational commands – the Western Naval Command with headquarters in Mumbai and the Eastern Naval Command with headquarters in Vishakapatnam while a third, the Southern Naval Command with headquarters in Kochi, is a training command with no real operational jurisdiction on the high seas. Second, Admiral Dhowan’s appointment has been made after bypassing the principle of seniority. The senior most vice admiral who was in the reckoning for the post of Navy Chief after Admiral Joshi’s resignation, Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha, the Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief (FOC-in-C) of the Western Naval Command, which is considered to be the most prestigious and important of all commands and in whose jurisdiction all the major mishaps had occurred, had immediately following the announcement of Admiral Dhowan’s appointment requested voluntary retirement from service which only yesterday was accepted by the government. As a result, two key Navy posts – that of the Vice Chief and FOC-in-C of the Western Command – are currently vacant and require to be filled at the earliest. Despite its small size (57,000 personnel), which is smaller in strength than the Delhi Police, and the fact that the men in white have otherwise performed with aplomb and with little controversy on the high seas, the Navy has, disproportionately to its size, made greater negative headlines compared to the other two services. Unfortunate as it is, both the office of the Navy Chief and several senior officers have on several occasions in the last two-and-a-half decades engaged in intrigue, manipulation or maneuvering. What is further disconcerting is that on most occasions, the Ministry of Defence has either been a party to these incidents or has spearheaded it. The history of intrigue, manipulation and controversy mainly began in 1987 when the then Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Radhakrishna Hariram Tahiliani, the Navy’s 13th chief, recommended a short extension in service for Vice Admiral Jayant Ganpat Nadkarni, who was otherwise retiring, in order to facilitate the latter becoming the next Navy Chief. The political dispensation comprising Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, who was also Defence Minister, and Arun Singh, who was then Minister of State for Defence, accepted the recommendation and in due course Vice Admiral Nadkarni was promoted to the four-star rank of Admiral and appointed CNS on 1st December 1987. This move (or maneuver?), according to Brigadier (retired) RP Singh and Commodore (retired) Ranjit B. Rai in their jointly authored book Sacked or Sunk? Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was dictated by Admiral Tahiliani’s desire to work out a line of succession for the Navy that would (or should) have led to the appointment of Vice Admiral Sukmal Jain (popularly known as Tony Jain) as the Navy Chief after Admiral Nadkarni’s retirement followed by then Rear Admiral (later Admiral) Vishnu Bhagwat. What happened subsequently was unprecedented in India’s post-Independence military history. After Admiral Nadkarni took over as CNS, Rear Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was apparently removed from reckoning for the critical post of Fleet Commander of an operational command, an appointment which is considered mandatory for an officer to be considered for the post of FOC-in-C of either of the two operational commands – the Western and Eastern Naval Commands. The Navy exercised its discretion to appoint Rear Admiral (later Vice Admiral) Kailash K. Kohli as Fleet Commander of the Western Naval Command where Rear Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was Chief of Staff. But it was the questionable manner in which the appointment was effected which appeared to smack of intrigue. Rear Admiral Kohli flew to Mumbai by a late evening flight and was driven in a car belonging to the Mazagon Docks Limited (MDL) to the Western Naval Command headquarters where he took charge as Fleet Commander around midnight, all of which was an unprecedented maneuver. The incident led to a major upheaval in the Navy which lasted several years. For, acting on a tip off that Rear Admiral Kohli was being appointed Fleet Commander, Rear Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat filed a voluminous 405 page petition in the Bombay High Court on 12th September 1990. The 13 respondents to his writ petition (number 2757) included a wide range of persons and institutions ranging from the Union of India, both the Defence and Home Ministers, the Defence Secretary, the Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary at that time to eight top Navy officers beginning with the Navy Chief himself (Admiral Nadkarni) and his immediate senior, the FOC-in-C of the Western Naval Command Vice Admiral Jain. Incidentally, the latter too had been given a special extension until December 1990 with the ostensible aim of his being made Admiral Nadkarni’s successor. The writ petition had been explosive to say the least and it was for the first time that a senior service officer had taken the Union government, the Defence Ministry, the Prime Minister’s office and virtually the entire top brass of the Navy to court for having been overlooked for an appointment and a for a promotion. While just the petition comprised 146 pages, the 48 annexures had run into 239 pages. The allegations ranged from the petty (parties attended, overseas visits etc by officers) to the more serious (professional impropriety, financial corruption, conspiracy etc) and from the personal to the professional with the reputation of every officer named questioned. Indeed, the petition reads like the Navy was a den of debauchery, conspiracy, degeneration, anti-national activities and corruption which would put Nero to shame. Eventually, the writ petition resulted in a compromise. Rear Admiral Bhagwat withdrew his petition and was subsequently appointed Fleet Commander of the Eastern Naval Command. The reason(s) for the compromise is a subject of much debate and speculation. Whatever the reason, the compromise was arguably a questionable way out. The charges against the officers were never proved or disproved and yet their reputation was maligned while Rear Admiral Bhagwat got his way notwithstanding. Vice Admiral Sukmal Jain, against who Rear Admiral Bhagwat had leveled charges of professional and personal impropriety and who was then the senior most vice admiral in line for promotion to the post of CNS, was superseded – the first incident of supersession. Instead, Vice Admiral Laxminarayan Ramdas was approved for promotion and he took over as Navy Chief about two months later on 1st December 1990. Interestingly, Vice Admiral Jain’s supersession and Vice Admiral Ramdas’ appointment was decided before Prime Minister VP Singh (who was also Defence Minister) resigned on 10th November 1990. When Chandra Shekhar took over as Prime Minister that same day, there were still 21 days for Vice Admiral Ramdas to formally take charge as CNS and had soon after taking charge considered reversing his predecessor’s decision and giving Admiral Nadkarni extension for a month in order to consider someone else (possibly Vice Admiral Jain) for the Navy’s top post. However, as brought out in his book My Presidential Years, Ramaswami Venkataraman, who was then President of India, strongly advised against it saying it would set a bad precedent. The Navy’s saga of courting controversy did not end there. Six years later, Vice Admiral Vishnu Bhgawat, who by then had become FOC-in-C of the Western Naval Command, rose to CNS. He assumed command on 1st October 1996 which led to an upset Vice Admiral Kohli, who by then had become Vice Chief of Naval Staff, to proceed on leave pending retirement later that year. Admiral Bhagwat’s appointment had been preceded by considerable mudslinging against him and all other officers who were under consideration nfor Navy Chief. Admiral Bhagwat’s tenure as CNS came to an abrupt end when on the evening of 30th December 1998 the government terminated his service for defiance of the civilian government then headed by the BJP-led NDA. Some months before his dismissal from service, a number of senior officers, including two vice admirals, had filed complaints against Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. Intrigue was again at play. Just as Rear Admiral Kohli had been driven in a MDL car to the Western Naval Command to take over as Fleet Commander at midnight, Vice Admiral Sushil Kumar, then FOC-in-C of the Southern Navy Command was surreptitiously flown in a specially requisitioned aircraft belonging to the Aviation Research Centre, the aviation wing of the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) from Kochi to New Delhi on Defence Minister George Fernandes’ instructions and asked to take charge soon after Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat was served his dismissal orders after 5.30 pm, which was well past office hours. Just as Admiral Dhowan has never commanded an operational command, neither had Admiral Sushil Kumar considering that the Southern Naval Command is a training command. But then, Admiral Sushil Kumar is not the only such officer to make to the top post of his service. General Shankar Roychowdhury, who became Army Chief after General Bipin Chandra Joshi died in harness in 1994, too had never commanded an operational command. He was then commanding the Army Training Command or ARTRAC in Shimla, which was designated as an operational command on paper but in Army circles is actually referred to only as a paper command. The recent sequence of events were perhaps avoidable and could have been handled differently. Admiral Joshi’s resignation on moral grounds need not have been accepted. For, there is a need to define moral grounds. Ships have sunk in the past and yet officers at the helm of affairs have risen in rank. Aircraft have crashed and soldiers killed in both peacetime and conflict. Yet, no Air Chief or Army Chief has resigned. If, however, Admiral Joshi’s resignation needed to be accepted, then a Board of Inquiry should have clearly pinned responsibility before the government decided to supersede the senior most vice admiral. Issues concerning the services, the guardian of the country’s security and the instrument of last resort in case of crisis, needs to be handled far more carefully and with greater seriousness.
House of intrigue
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TWO factors have come to the fore so far-caste and money-when we are just about halfway through the parliamentary election process. I am really dismayed about the caste factor. Lately, even religion has been inducted by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
Aziz
