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Cleanup onus on PM Divided house |
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Agenda for new Army Chief
An NRI is not a foreigner
Unplanned way to scrap planning panel Planning Omission
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Cleanup onus on PM Instead of issuing a directive, the Supreme Court’s Constitution Bench has advised the Prime Minister and the chief ministers to rid their ministries of members against whom charges have been framed in a criminal court. The apex court has taken care to respect the executive’s jurisdiction. It is after all the PM's or a CM's prerogative to appoint persons of his or her choice as ministers. The Bench did raise some valid questions, however. “Will any reasonably prudent master leave the keys of his chest with a servant whose integrity is doubted?” Similarly, when a person of even doubtful integrity is not appointed a judge and a candidate facing trial cannot join the civil service, how can a person against whom charges have been framed in court based on prima facie evidence be made a minister? No matter how sound or well-argued the advice, it would have little effect on political leaders, whose overriding concern is to win elections and stay in power. The court is also helpless since there is no constitutional or statutory bar on appointing persons with criminal antecedents as ministers. The executive itself has little interest in amending laws to debar criminals' entry into politics or government. In July 2013 the Supreme Court came out with a landmark order disqualifying MPs and MLAs jailed for two or more years. The UPA government was about to nullify the verdict when Rahul Gandhi, bowing to public pressure, intervened and trashed the ordinance. Political parties are guilty in varying degrees of criminalising politics. It is because of the collective efforts of the judiciary, the Election Commission and the civil society that some success has been achieved in cleaning up the system. The latest court verdict places the responsibility of giving the people a government free from criminals on the Prime Minister/ chief minister. Prime Minister Modi has spoken about the need for fast-tracking pending criminal cases against elected representatives. He can set an example by dropping the tainted ministers and ensuring that no shady character is given the party ticket in the coming
elections.
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Divided house Men may make houses, it’s women who make homes”, is a popular adage whose essence is rarely questioned. Yet strangely and ironically, when the relationship between husband and wife turns sour, men become too eager to not only dump the wisdom of the saying but also to show their other half the door. However, a judgment by the Punjab and Haryana High Court has upheld the rights of estranged and divorced women over residential property. In fact, Justice K Kannan remarked unequivocally that the law is clear that a divorced wife is to be protected against her husband by a provision for maintenance, including a right to residence. For quite some time now there has been talk of defining women’s share in matrimonial property. The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill provides the woman, in case of divorce, half a share in her husband's residential property. Court judgments too have been empathetic to the plight of women. More recently the apex court reprimanded family courts against granting adjournments in cases involving the grant of maintenance to estranged wives. The Supreme Court was categorical that delay in a maintenance order violates a women's rights. No doubt divorce spells trauma for both partners. However, given the social reality of India, a woman suffers more, more so financially. Studies have pointed out that separation/divorce spells a financial disaster for women and children and a considerable percentage are left with no income. Thus protecting women's alimony rights becomes paramount. Women have to be recognised as equal players in the institution of marriage and given their legitimate due. Men, however, continue to proclaim that the proposed amendment granting a woman legal rights over property solely acquired by her husband is discriminatory and would be open to misuse. Instead of crying hoarse and labelling such moves as anti-men, it is time men conceded women their due ground even in circumstances when relationships have failed. As Justice Kannan said recognition of her right to safety is a non-negotiable tool for nurturing her dignified living. Laws as well as their interpretation have to bear this in mind.
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Thought for the Day
No one appreciates the very special genius of your conversation as the dog does. —Christopher Morley, an American journalist & novelist
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War and humanity REPORTS of inhuman conduct on the part of German troops in Belgium have been received and the conduct of the army severely blamed. In India accusations of inhumanity and cruelty inflicted on disarmed or non-combatant populations will be severely condemned. For in India warfare in the past has in most cases been the affair of Kings and their armies and they have left the ordinary non-combatants generally uninterfered with. In the Mahabharata and Ramayana, for instance, the combatants are reported to have observed a code of ethics superior to any thought of by the Hague Conference. Even the war between Rama and Ravana has shown the fact that the threatened murder of captive Sita by Indrajit, son of Ravana and then by Ravana himself was admitted by the enemy to be a mean and unjustifiable act of inhumanity. But both of them justified wanton cruelty as a measure of self-defence when driven to extreme straits.
State aid and town-planning WE have already commented on the resolution issued by the Punjab Government on the town-planning methods to be pursued in the Province. The main line is to interest the Municipal Committees in the scheme and urge them to take action by creating suburbs. It is not known what support the Government is prepared to give to Municipalities in lending money and men to carry out this object. If the Municipalities are offered assistance they may be tempted to undertake town improvements and extensions. We desire to bring to the notice of the Government the announcement made by Mr. Runciman in the House of Commons. He proposed to spend £5,000,000 for building cottages for agricultural labourers and Government employees.
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Agenda for new Army Chief In March 2012, Gen V K Singh, the then COAS, had written to the Prime Minister about 'critical hollowness' in the Army's operational preparedness. He had pointed out large-scale deficiencies in weapons systems, ammunition and equipment in service and the fact that many of the weapons and equipment were obsolete or bordering on obsolescence. In particular, he had brought out that the artillery and air defence arms needed the infusion of modern guns, missiles and radars and the aviation corps required new helicopters to replace the ageing fleet. Two consecutive reports of the CAG of December 2011 and November 2012 brought out that the state of defence preparedness was a cause for serious anxiety. The Standing Committee on Defence (SCD) in Parliament has also noted these developments with concern several times. In an unprecedented move, the SCD insisted on meeting the three Chiefs to take stock of operational preparedness. The SCD has repeatedly urged the government to increase the defence budget to enable the armed forces to undertake meaningful modernisation. Weapons, ammunition and equipment shortages have persisted for long and several Chiefs before Gen V K Singh had written to the PM and the Defence Minister for help to make up the shortfall. During the Kargil conflict the nation had heard Gen V P Malik, the COAS, make the chilling statement on national TV, “We will fight with what we have.” Though the conflict was confined to Kargil district, 50,000 rounds of artillery ammunition had to be imported as an emergency measure because the stock holding was extremely low. If it had become necessary to open another front, the shortage of artillery ammunition would have seriously hampered operational planning. Military modernisation has two major facets: the replacement of obsolete and obsolescent weapons and equipment with modern ones, which results in increasing combat effectiveness; and, the qualitative upgrade of combat capabilities through the acquisition and induction of force multipliers. General Suhag, like his predecessors, faces a major dilemma: Given the small budget, how can the Army improve operational preparedness while simultaneously making concerted efforts to modernise? Logically, operational preparedness takes precedence over modernisation. The art of military leadership lies in finding an optimum balance so that all efforts that are made to enhance operational preparedness also contribute substantively to modernisation. The most critical operational deficiency is the inadequacy of artillery firepower due to the obsolescence of guns and mortars. No modernisation has taken place since the Bofors 155mm howitzer was purchased from Sweden in the mid-1980s. The 'night blindness' of the Army's mechanised forces needs to be rectified immediately. The F-INSAS (future infantry soldier as a system) programme for the modernisation of infantry battalions must be implemented on an urgent basis. Air defence guns and missiles and their radar systems are reported to be 97 per cent obsolescent. Aviation Corps urgently needs 197 light helicopters. The old and inefficient intelligence, reconnaissance, surveillance and target acquisition systems available today adversely impact command and control and 'targeting' during war. Hence, the C4I2SR system needs a complete overhaul. The logistics support system also needs to be revamped, with the concept of 'just-in-time logistics' being implemented. The new COAS will preside over the modernisation process during the remaining three years of the 12th Defence Plan, including the raising of 17 Corps for deployment on the border with China. This Corps, being raised as a ‘strike corps’ for the mountains, is expected to cost Rs 64,000 crore to raise and equip over a period of five to seven years. Approximately 90,000 new personnel will be added to the Army’s manpower strength, including those in ancillary support and logistics units. New weapons and equipment will have to be procured for the divisions, brigades and battalions of this Corps. It will be a retrograde step to milk these from existing battalions to equip new raisings. Recruiting additional manpower of the requisite qualifications has so far not posed any problems for the world's third largest volunteer army. However, finding officers for 17 Corps will be a major challenge as there is an ongoing deficiency of approximately 10,000 officers. Transferring officers from existing battalions will further dilute their command and control and weaken them intrinsically. The methods for remedying this shortcoming are well known; it is for the NDA government to take appropriate action in an early time frame. General Suhag wishes to ensure that relatively softer issues like human resources development and the welfare of serving personnel and veterans are not neglected. Morale is adversely affected if these issues are not appropriately handled. As a member of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, the General will help in the formulation of the recommendations of the armed forces for consideration by the Seventh Pay Commission. This has been a rather contentious issue in the past and will require sage handling. Finally, civil-military relations have not been good in the recent past and need to be improved. If one may take the liberty of using a few well-known American buzzwords and catch-phrases, the ‘revolution in military affairs’ had whooshed by the Indian Army in the 1990s. The 'transformation' process that followed must be gradually implemented even though it is a decade late — primarily due to budgetary constraints. The COAS will be responsible for the transformation of the Army to a ‘network centric’ force capable of executing ‘effects-based operations’ over the full spectrum of conflict. General Suhag must forge a light, lethal and wired Army that can fight and win India's wars on the battlefields of the 21st century — jointly with the Navy and the Air Force. The writer is a Delhi-based strategic analyst
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An NRI is not a foreigner Sometime back, three of my friends from Sri Lanka visited the Taj in Agra. Standing in a queue in front of the ticket counter meant for foreigners, they were approached by a gentleman. “Sir, we value your time and have a special arrangement for you”. And soon he got them three tickets by taking Rs 2,250 (For a foreign visitor the entry charges are Rs 750 each). They were happy and thanked him profusely. Back in the hotel as they casually looked at the tickets, they were shocked to find that the printed value on the ticket was Rs 20. He had managed their entry with the tickets meant for Indians. But when you try this on an NRI, chances are that he beats you at your own game as another incident narrated by my friend in Dasua suggests. An NRI Sardarji had come to his village after three years. Naturally most of the appliances in his palatial house, which was locked during this period, had become non-functional. Finding our sweltering heat intolerable, first he looked for an AC mechanic. The one whose nick name was Kala did the repairs and demanded Rs 800. Sardarji instantly gave him a Rs 1,000 note. A bit surprised that Sardarji didn't indulge in haggling, though his labour charges already had that provision, he hurriedly took out Rs 200 to refund him. Sardarji pompously patted his back and said: “Kala, keep it .This is a small tip. Yes, if you don't mind send an electrician.” Within minutes Kala was there with one. When the job was over, Kala quietly relieved the electrician. Having already tasted Sardarji's generosity, Kala demanded double the amount which he was paid without any fuss. Now, Kala would take care of Sardarji’s all needs, from repairs to the supply of daily needs. But what was really astonishing was that despite Kala's unfettered greed, Sardarji's remained munificent. Now the time had come for Sardarji to return. Busy in normal tête-à-tête with Kala, he made an overture, “Kale, I’ve found you very enterprising. You can earn at least 10 times the money you earn here if you migrate to Italy.” It sent Kala on the seventh heaven. Betraying his emotions, he muttered: “Sardarji, I was already thinking of making this request to you. Indeed, God is very kind to me”. Sardarji paused and said, “Look, the Italian government takes around 5,000 Indians every year for agriculture work. I can forward your name but one has to pay around Rs I lakh to middle men. Since you served me so well I will pay Rs 50,000 from my pocket but the balance Rs 50,000 you will have to arrange.” The next day Kala was at Sardarji's feet with a bag of Rs 50,000 and both separated happily. Three months had passed but there was no news. Worried and anxious, at last Kala called Sardarji. “Kale, sorry. This time you were not lucky. But, next time I will ensure that you are selected but please send at least one lakh as the rates have gone up” was the reply. Kala had understood that any NRI was an Indian before he became an NRI. Therefore, one should not commit the mistake of treating him like a foreigner.
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Unplanned way to scrap planning panel
The recent two declarations at the national level indicate the direction the economic policy is taking shape. One relates to the dismantling of the Planning Commission. an announcement made on the Independence Day this year. The other is about reform of the labour laws. In both the cases the argument is that they have become old systems, thus outdated. These announcements give a clear message that the state is going to withdraw from its economic role, giving greater role to the private sector especially the corporate sector under PPP (Public-Private-Partnership) mode. The Planning Commission represented a national legacy and commitment of the state to play an effective role in the economic and social development on the one hand and promotion of welfare measures to ameliorate the lot of weaker sections, on the other. It was a commitment enshrined in the Constitution in Directive Principles of the state. The new government’s intentions are to distance itself from the national legacy of the institution of using national resource base in a planned way and move to the institution of market in which the national resources are used through market forces in pursuit of private profit. It also signifies the resolve of the new dispensation to give more freedom to the corporate sector to hire and fire labour, depending on the market situation without any constraints. It needs to be noted that such legislation is applicable for 8.00 per cent of the workforce employed in the organised sector. The remaining 92 per cent is engaged in the unorganised sector without any social protection. It is an announcement of the withdrawal of the state in economic and social affairs. It also means that the economic affairs of the society will not be monitored any more by any central authority in a holistic way. The announcement of dismantling of the Planning Commission states that it will be replaced “with a new institution having a new design and structure, a new soul, a new thinking, a new direction, a new faith towards forging a new direction to lead the country based on creative thinking, public private partnership, optimum utilisation of resources, utilisation of youth power, to promote aspirations of states seeking development to empower the state governments and the federal structure”. The Planning Commission was set up exactly for this purpose. The difference between March 1950 and August 2014 is that in the first case an institution of planning was created with a long-term vision, with national consensus. In the second case, the institution of planning is being dismantled by a majority government without building a national consensus on the alternative to be created. At present it is not clear what will be the structure of the new institution. The Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012-17) has been approved by the National Development Council, headed by the Prime Minister with representation of the states. The plan is in operation. It is not clear as yet that in absence of the Planning Commission whether this plan will continue or does it stand suspended. In the later case, the allocations to different departments, programmes and states will stand suspended. In case the plan continues without the Planning Commission, the monitoring of the programmes, their mid-term appraisal and necessary corrections will not be possible. It seems that this decision has been taken in haste to dismantle planning without necessary homework. The Planning Commission was designed in such a way that it could be reorganised in terms of appointments of experts as Deputy Chairman, members, advisors and consultants to reflect the will of the popular government. It had been headed by the Prime Minister and other members and advisors can be nominated by the government the way it likes. The revamped Planning Commission could serve the present government equally well in pursuit of its economic and social agenda in letter and spirit. The government has decided to do away with it without creating a new structure at the same time. This has sent the signal that the government is no longer interested in planning its activities and has suspended planning mid-stream. This implies that some programmes of the Twelfth Plan will continue on an ad hoc basis for the time being and may be discontinued in the next budget to be presented in February 2015. This also implies that the government has set in motion the process of its withdrawal from allocation of resources under the planning process. In future, the resources in the country will be allocated through market forces and in employment the employers will have the power to hire and fire as per their requirements. In this context, the labour laws will be reviewed, revised and, if necessary, abolished. A new paradigm based only on the market will be fully operational. It is in order to mention that banking reforms are also on similar lines. The JP Nayak Committee, appointed by the RBI in February 2014, submitted its report on May 12, 2014.The significant findings of this committee has been the denationalisation of the public sector banks. It has recommended the repeal of the SBI Act of 1955, which led to the nationalisation of the Imperial Bank and repeal of the Bank Nationalisation Act of 1970. It has also recommended reduction of government shares in equity below 50 per cent and end of dual control of Ministry of Finance and RBI. It has recommended that the control of the government should be transferred to the Bank Investment Company (BIC), which will be constituted as the core investment company under the RBI. The proposed BIC will be run on the basis of the corporate principles where a big investor will be allowed to hold share up to 20 per cent and voting rights proportionately. There will be no representation of employees, as at present, on the board of directors of the banks. The signals thrown by the new government make it clear that its policy is directed at the reduced role of the government in economic and social development especially in a planned way. The space being vacated by the state is to be occupied by the corporate sector which has amassed a large quantity of wealth. They are looking at public sector enterprises, including banks, to buy them to enlarge their clout in the economic affairs and use the wealth of the country for profit making. The welfare of the common citizens will suffer. The people placed at the margin of the society, especially living in the rural areas with non-existent or poor asset base, will suffer. The lack of skills on account of poor education would make them further vulnerable at market places confronted by the rich employers empowered to hire and fire. The free play of market can give high profits and returns to those who have the power of capital to back them. The vulnerable sections would need government support and protection against their brazen exploitation. Efficient use of national resources would need watchful eyes of public agencies to save them from big sharks. This is especially needed in case of mineral wealth, land, forest and environment. The economy at this stage cannot be left in the hands of big private players motivated by greed of profits. The mere persuasion to function for welfare of the poor will not work with the greedy rich. They have to be taxed properly and programmes for welfare and empowerment of the poor have to be funded through public spending in a planned way. The withdrawal of the state at this stage will not be considered as a wise policy option. The writer is Director General CRRID, Chandigarh
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Planning Omission By abolishing the Planning Commission, the government has provided itself an opportunity to redesign its economic strategy formulation and implementation mechanisms. This exercise in organisational restructuring is fundamental to good implementation. Its objective must be to align public strategy with objectives on the one hand and with implementation on the other hand. Most governments have left this matter to informal teams or to key leaders, including the head of government (Prime Minister or President). However, public strategy is so important that it deserves a formal organisation and processes that place its formulation and evolution in the public domain. In mature democracies, the legislature (Parliament) is actively and closely involved in this process. Typically, the head of government places his/her vision before parliament and takes cues from house debates, committees, reports and advisory bodies associated with the parliamentary processes. We know that the Planning Commission was modelled after the Gosplan which was created to substitute all this in the Soviet context, in that sense copying it was an aberration in India's federal democracy. There are two reasons for the Planning Commission's obsolescence. One is the spread and development of markets in India that has changed the context for public sector investment and government intervention. The other is the incongruity between centralised planning and federal democracy. These arguments work for abolishing the activity of planning itself, and not just the Commission. However, government does need to formulate its public strategy in the context of economic development and implement the chosen course of action. Can this be left to each ministry and to the Prime Minister as in many other mature democracies, or do we need to design a formal organisation to house these functions in India? India is a complex democracy, not only because of its size, diversity and federal structure but also because building this nation is a set of social experiments like none other. The government's capacity to implement reforms is limited, not least by lack of political consensus. This issue is likely to persist even when we have a single-party majority in parliament with a motivated and communicative leader. Lack of expertise The other limitation is the lack of expertise and organisational capacities in government, or the mismatch between aspirations and available expertise and systems. In these circumstances, a head of government who wants to change the direction and increase the pace of development in India will be well served by a specialised body that looks after public strategy and its implementation. This body would house specialised skills that all ministries and all state governments can avail of. It would be a forum for debate and exchange of ideas. However, to be effective and focused, it must never stray into implementation; that will have to be done entirely by implementing agencies which will report to it. A strategy is a set of decisions that address various trade-offs. If there were no trade-offs and dilemmas, there would be no need for strategy. Therefore, the first step is to identify which trade-offs are important for the organisation, only these need to be addressed in a strategy. The second step is to communicate with stakeholders and create a vision of the future that everybody agrees on. Only then will the sacrifices involved in trade-offs be willingly made by stakeholders. The third step is to arrive at a feasible method of implementing the strategy, so that it has some hope of succeeding. The final step is to keep track of implementation and course correct either by changing strategy (pivoting) or by improving implementation (optimising). Each of these steps is best done by a specialist rather than by political leaders who must ultimately take and own the decisions. This is because elected representatives are locked into a five-year cycle with its electoral dynamics which they cannot take their eyes off. However, public strategy is by nature a long-horizon game because of the slow pace of market development and social change that are its subject and its objective. A democracy has several institutional mechanisms that overcome the short-horizon problem created by electoral dynamics. The foremost is legislation, which is permanent in nature, and its creatures such as the civil service, regulators and statutory bodies. Another is the creation of (non-statutory) institutions that are more or less permanent and function to house expertise, knowledge and memory beyond election cycles, such as the Planning Commission. However, it failed to address the issues of public strategy described above, perhaps because it was not designed for this task. It is time to design a new institution that can formulate a public strategy aimed at achieving government's stated objectives of economic development, especially those objectives whose implementation period will clearly extend beyond the five-year election cycle. Need for long-horizon strategy The five-year plan needs to be replaced with a long-horizon strategy. Such an 'Office of Development Strategy' (ODS) would require three teams to do the tasks described. First, a Vision Group that articulates the government's vision and confers with stakeholders in effort for consensus. Its vision statement will translate into a plan (or a mission statement) and an implementation programme (or milestones). These will have to be finalised through a process of internal consultations with government agencies; reviewed with them periodically. For this, the ODS will need an Implementation Group, which will not be a monitor but act as a filter and signalling device telling executing agencies how and when to optimise and telling the Vision Group when it needs to pivot towards a strategic correction. This way, strategy will continuously evolve, with the judgement call to pivot being taken at the highest level by the Prime Minister, so no plan or programme will be sacrosanct. They will all be continuously evolving. The Implementation Group is the core of this dynamic ODS and its objective will be to keep everybody on their toes, constantly evaluating, learning and correcting. Every strategy overarches all teams and processes in an organisation, and to achieve its objectives will necessarily require changes in organisation functions and structure as well as process reforms. The third team in the ODS is a Reforms Group that will define new roles and functions of government agencies, and then align with these objectives the structure or the organisation and its IT architecture. A major set of issues for the Reforms Group will be the interface between government agencies and their clients, in particular the transparency of processes, objectivity of rules, certainty of outcomes, clarity of decisions and communications and ease of transactions. The other major set of issues for the Reforms Group shall be restructuring public services through modes such as public-private partnership. The activities of the three groups will be so intermeshed that they will have to confer and work in unison. We require a small, effective and active Office of Development Strategy- consisting of three groups for Vision, Implementation and Reforms (VIR) that will address issues at the highest inter-ministerial level. This can lead to a 'VIR'tuous cycle of feedback, learning, optimisation and course correction, which is vital for a successful, dynamic development programme. The writer is Principal Secretary, Investment Promotion, Government of Punjab. The views expressed are personal
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