P A G E
Tuesday, July 14, 1998
today's calendar
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E D I T O R I A L P A G E |
Tuesday, July 14, 1998 |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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For an open
government
Future reward to
judges |
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On selling an old
car
Will Sonia revive
the Congress?
When Samata saved
Balayogi |
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For an open government The occasion evokes the assurance, as it did in Mandi Gobindgarh on Sunday. Addressing a gathering of friendly journalists from Punjab, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee promised not to abridge freedom of the press and also to enact measures to make right to information a reality. To take the second one first, this right is the key element in making the government functioning open and transparent. Also, it empowers every citizen, and not journalists alone, to demand and secure information on all but a few sensitive subjects. But it is necessary to first dismantle the present administrative structure which rests on the belief that every bit of information is a state secret and should be treated as such. This colonial hangover draws sustenance from a draconian service rule which prohibits government servants from parting with any fact related to his department. The punishment for defying this rule is dismissal. This restriction has led to a rigid mindset in generations of officials who calm up when asked about even innocent developments in their office. Of late this has bred an unhealthy practice. Men with mischief in their mind can, and do, plant reports based on selective information. Fair-minded pressmen cannot cross-check the facts as even the affected official is wary of discussing his work. Information is power — the power to rake in tainted money when it is safely locked away in government drawers and power to fight precisely this tendency when shared with a citizen. The USA which wrote a law granting the right to information has a simple and painless way of citizens obtaining it. It is necessary to stress this point since the earlier debates have talked of an approach to courts of law to make the government part with documents. In Canada, the government unloads most information and on a day-to-day basis in its version of Nicnet. Not that everything is scrutinised but the very possibility keeps many bureaucratic palms from becoming itchy. Mr Vajpayee said his government would not indulge in the suppression of a free flow of news as it happened during the emergency. This assurance is dated. A crackdown on the media is no more possible because of dramatic changes in the political system and the way news is gathered and disseminated. It does not appear possible for any party to throw up a strong and strong-willed leader like Indira Gandhi with comfortable and submissive support in Parliament and state Assemblies. Satellite communication and cable TV can thwart any attempt at muzzling the media. Further, censorship takes a sophisticated form these days. A few telephone calls to men in vantage points in an organisation would do. There is no need for messy laws and the resultant bad publicity in today’s global village.  |
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| New soccer power Who could have forecast that Brazil, four-times champion, would fail to lift the soccer World Cup yet again to add to its over-crowded cupboard of trophies? Who, except the French, would have placed their bet on the host team chalking up a convincing victory in the final of this century’s last major football tournament? But World Cup ‘98 was all about upsets and under-rated teams pipping the more fancied ones at the post. In the end it was the game of football, the most popular spectator sport in the world, which won the final round. This was one tournament in which the bookies must have lost heavily. The pre-World Cup hype had projected Ronaldo of Brazil as the player to watch. Expert opinion had placed Brazil, Germany, Argentina and the Netherlands as the teams which were likely to fight for soccer glory. The teams from Italy, Paraguay and Chile too were given a fairly high rating. In the end all the pre-tournament calculations went haywire. Iran was among the 16 teams which went out in the first round but had the satisfaction of having beaten the USA at least in the game of soccer. The Ronaldo magic failed to work for Brazil in the final and in most other games because from the very beginning he was a “marked man”. In the final analysis it can be said that Brazil paid the price of depending on the magical footwork of just one player. For France the player who ensured victory for a host team in 20 years was Zinedine Zidane. Without doubt, he has emerged as the new superstar but not the only one to push out the established names from soccer’s hall of fame.But the team which made the soccer buffs sit up and take note of its giant-killing performance in the tournament was the one from Croatia. The bookies had put it among the first round losers. That it went on to grab the third place by beating a more talented Dutch team — at least on paper is the stuff football legends are made of. No one had heard much about Davor Suker — the media later called him the “Sukerman” of the World Cup — the Croatian striker, who went on to claim the “Golden boot” for scoring the highest number of goals in the 64-match tournament. There were other aspects of the mega event which need to be discussed to understand the criticism about India’s low ranking in world football. Saudi Arabia, South Korea and Iran were the only teams from Asia to qualify for the World Cup. All of them were eliminated in the first round. Nigeria was the only team from Africa to reach the second round but did enough to earn the respect of the aficionados. Considering the fact that Nigeria has rarely experienced political peace ever since it gained independence in 1960 and that it does not have worthwhile infrastructure to help its players hone their skills in any discipline the soccer team’s performance was impressive. Croatia was born out of the political chaos of the early 90s. The phase of civil unrest and ethnic violence is now part of its seemingly endless story as a free state. Yet Croatia came close to causing the biggest upset of the World Cup. Against this backdrop, it may not be unfair to say that only those who lack the will to succeed blame the system for their poor performance. This is a lesson which most Indian players, in any discipline, prefer to ignore. Those who spent sleepless nights watching the World Cup on television have a legitimate grievance that India was not among the teams vying for soccer glory.  |
| Future reward to judges Limitations of code of conduct by S. Sahay The judiciary is in the news again. The good news is that the salary and perquisites of the higher court judges, first initiated through an Ordinance, have now acquired a more permanent character through legislation. The two Houses of Parliament have passed the necessary Bill. A salary of Rs 26,000 a month for the High Court judges and more for those adorning the Supreme Court is no great shakes in these days of inflation. Only the other day I commented to a senior lawyer friend that the judges now earned in a month what a senior lawyer did in a day. Not quiet, he said, for the senior lawyer these days charged Rs 50,000 or more for a day’s appearance. Little wonder that some senior lawyers earn a crore or more in a year, and show it as their income. The truth is that few senior lawyers now want to be judges, but the increase in the salary and allowances should now encourage the more conscientious among them to respond to a call to national duty, which is what a judgeship is. However, in order to make this possible the pay and perquisites of the judges should be delinked from that of those belonging to the other branches of government, in particular the Indian Administrative Service. And the same goes for their status in the state hierarchy. Even after the raise in the salary of High Court judges, they still receive, I understand, less than the members of some tribunals, which is a pity. This is an aspect that needs to be considered in depth. The judiciary is also in the news because of the election of Mr Justice Rangnath Mishra, former Chief Justice of India, to the Rajya Sabha. This political reward to a former Chief Justice of India naturally raises the question of judicial independence. Is it a healthy practice for a political party to favour a judge in this manner and for a judge to accept it? True, a judge, after retirement, is like any other citizen, but the question is whether or not the office of a judge does get compromised if there is an expectation of a future reward while in office. One must regretfully point out that even as the Chief Justice of India Mr Justice Mishra did not have the ungrudging admiration of the Bar as a whole. And his report, as enquiry commissioner, on the Delhi riots following the murder of Indira Gandhi had even fewer admirers, though it must be said in his favour that, as the Chief of the Human Rights Commission, his performance was praiseworthy. That is why it was all the more important that Mr Justice Mishra should not have accepted the membership of the Rajya Sabha, especially when it is likely to be interpreted as a reward for services rendered in the past. One need say no more. A more blatant case, of course, was that of Mr Justice Baharul Islam. It will be recalled that the judge resigned his office on January 13, 1983. He was made the Congress candidate for the Barpeta constituency the next day. On the day of his resignation, Mr Justice Islam told a newspaper reporter that he intended to enter public life but had yet to decide whether to contest an election. However, on January 12 itself a senior Congress member told a Delhi journalist that Mr Justice Islam was being included in the Congress list of candidates and that the judge was going to resign his office.The whole episode left a bad taste in the mouth. As in other walks of life, journalism included, standards have been going down in the judiciary — a fact acknowledged by some members of the judicial fraternity themselves. During the tenure of Mr J.S. Verma, as the Chief Justice of India, a five-judge committee formulated a code of conduct. It was unanimously adopted by the Supreme Court judges. The judges of all the High Courts, except it is said of Gujarat, decided to abide by the code. But just as every law has a loophole, every code of conduct, it seems, has an escape route. Take the item in the code which says the judges must disclose their assets, and in order to ensure that justice is also seen to be done, they should not act either in their private life or official capacity in such a manner as may erode the credibility of the entire institution. The formulation is certainly welcome because it includes the conduct of a judge in both official and private life — but this was a proposition enunciated by the Sawan Committee which enquired into the Ramaswamy affair. What is noteworthy is that the formulation leaves out the conduct of a judge after retirement, leaving open the possibility of a future reward to retired judges. Take another item: a judge should not seek financial benefit in the form of a prerequisite privilege attached to his office unless it is clearly available. What does this mean? Does this mean that a judge is not free to write a book and demand the best price for it in the market? Remember the royalty earned by a former Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, and his subsequent resignation from office? Then there is the principle that a judge should not allow any member of his immediate family (spouse, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law or brother) to appear before him or even to be associated with in any manner with a cause to deal with by him. Indeed a good principle, provided there is no truth in the suggestion that it still leaves the room open for a judge showing favour to a brother judge’s son, son-in-law, or daughter and receiving reciprocal gesture in return —an unworthy suggestion no doubt — but then sceptics will be sceptics. Then the code of conduct lays down that a judge is expected to keep off the media. This it must be said, is true of most of the judges but then there is the new tendency to be appreciated by society, through the media, especially electronic. Any code of conduct can at best be a guide; it can be no substitute for the appointment of men of highest character and ability as judges. |
| US
capital
targets Russian Sectors by Leo Makarevich The Russian corporate-securities market had crumbled by the end of the first quarter of 1998. State securities are no longer replenishing the federal budget, and the rouble now faces a rather serious threat of devaluation. In a bid to prop up the rouble, the Central Bank of Russia continues to expand its gold and foreign currency reserves, which were estimated at $25 billion in the summer of 1997. These reserves had plunged to $16 billion by March, 1998. Of that sum, foreign currency accounts for $10 billion. This amount is too small to ensure adequate protection against new upheavals. The dismissal of Mr Viktor Chernomyrdin's government stemmed from 1997-98 international financial crisis, as well as an anti-rouble campaign waged by foreign currency speculators. This has nearly demolished Russia's banking and financial system serving as a warning for the new Cabinet. The Kremlin and the Russian White House have moved to quickly integrate the Russian economy into the global economic community. However, neither the Kremlin nor the government bothered to shield the nation's economy from the colossal "battering-ram" potential that was amassed by the global financial custody system in 1997-98. The volume of daily global foreign currency transactions exceeds $1 trillion. This is twice as much as the annual Russian GDP ($445.8 billion), and is more than 63 times the volume of all Russian gold and foreign-currency reserves. Everyday thousands of transnational and national banks, corporations, financial companies, brokerage offices, investment institutions, pension funds, share-holder funds and hedging funds take part in the lightning transfers of all of these tremendous financial resources. These entities (many of which operate in Russia) are armed with state-of-the-art technology, financial techniques and products, which have no "respect" for state borders. This mighty financial system, which is mostly dominated by US capital, can seriously weaken Russia's alliance with European and Asian countries that regard it as a reliable source of raw materials and a strategic "rear guard" in their competition with the USA. The number of channels and "bridges" linking Russia with the global financial system has increased dramatically. The loan and investment sector has become the foundation for many of the links that have appeared. As of March, 1998, 16 banks with 100 per cent foreign capital and 10 banks with 50 per cent foreign capital were active on Russian territory. Another 145 banks were partly owned by foreign shareholders. Twelve foreign loan institutions (including Deutsche Bank, Commerce Bank, the Bank of America, the Swiss Bank Corporation and J.P. Morgan) have requested permission to open branches in Russia. According to some estimates, the total share of foreign capital inside the Russia banking system reached 5.6-8 per cent early this year, (while domestic legislation limits their involvement to 12 per cent). The direct investment used to pass through Russian banks, totalling about $3 billion last year or less than 2 per cent of the entire global investment market — $300-320 billion per year). The share of non-residents' funds in Russian inter-bank credit soared to 60 per cent by early 1998. Foreign investors, however, controlled over 80 per cent of the entire Russian blue-chip market, as well as second-echelon and third-echelon stock-market instruments. True, Russian stock-and-bond market's capitalisation (in relation to its GDP) is one of the world's lowest (about 20 per cent). For comparison, the capitalisation of similar Mexican and Brazilian markets is 34 per cent and 46 per cent, respectively. — CNF The author is based in Moscow. |
| On
selling an old
car by Darshan Singh Maini When a car has been too long in service, and the old Jalopy spends more time in the town garage than in her own yard, it’s clearly a candidate for exile. You may linger for a while to let go an “old charmer” who in her dream days had become your “vice”, but few, indeed, become sentimental enough to keep her as a faithful mount, and let her spend her lean and grey years under your benign roof. There are too many problems — of space, of upkeep, of prestige — to allow the imagination of indulgence much chance. So, go she must, though the going may be hard on her, and harder on you. At times, if your purse or fancy permits you to pension it off to a needy friend or relative gratis, it may escape the ordained ordeal of being palmed off to a “sucker”, but generally such “hags” even when dressed up for the occasion do not draw any “suitors”. And, of course , the beneficiary in question knowing something about her past and her present may insist upon looking the gift horse in the mouth. So, for all practical purposes, and to all intents, Your old Padmini — “the Rajput Princess”, or the old Ambassador — a hulking harridan now, or even the malingering Maruti, she has to be “done-up” and prepared for her new home or stable! And, what’s more, You have to limber her up into a state of health where her frequent tantrums and sudden, inopportune bursts of temper are, for a day or two, kept in abeyance. For she must take her departure or bidai as a loved “daughter” of the house with suitable ceremonies! If I’ve used a familiar metaphor for such a convenience, no politics of power as such are involved, I assure you. For as we all know, the competing car companies have always sought to fashion the bodies of models in the cast of eyeful exotic beauties. That’s how the expensive, lavish “ads” project them — as objects of desire and dream, what with their features and forms, their curves and busts, their chromatic charms and suggestive tails. A sleek beauty and an exotic apsara is the thing that emerges from the drawing board to the showroom , wanting to waylay all the gallants in search of fun and adventure. And the names , the names are so very important in this business of the beauties. But let me return to the vexing question of our “matron’s” disposal. In my own life, two old cars, a British Morris-8, which had seen better days with an Army Captain, and an Italian Fiat fairly battered by her Agra owner, but still serviceable, often made me ponder later the problematics of acquiring such spoilt beauties. I’m not, of course, talking of these “vintage” varieties that their proud owners keep in trim, and in fancy frills, and for which they can demand, if the need arises, a fabulous price. For, the used and abused cars are always and anywhere a hard “sell”. In the USA, for instance, such jalopies, as they call them, can be put to a variety of mean chores, or in certain situations, sent to the guillotine for a song, or in more desperate circumstances simply deserted in some obscure country or dirt – road, stripped, a food for the pecking kites or vultures. But here in our country, where even a decaying old skeleton on wheels is still a sign of some distinction, no old dear can be so abandoned to her fate. She still has her value and her price. So when, finally, the family decides to put her out in the market, a lot of thinking and scheming and luck is needed to bring off the deal. Should she be given, in view of her years, to hiccup — starting, rattling, stalling or swerving, etc, a confidential mechanic has to be summoned, paid his “pound of flesh”, and the lady made fit for the day of days. And yet the little anxieties will not go, for one never knows the ways of the customers, as also of the wayward wares on view. I once heard a wit in such a situation compare the lot of his “lady” to that of a spinster or a left-over of the family — an aggrieved person who has to be presented to her suitors in the best possible aspects. And should that mean a hiring of jewellery or a borrowing of her suit or sari or an expensive make-up and a dyed hair-do in a top beauty parlour to hide her wrinkles, that kind of indulgence is gladly accepted. And as for her “virtues” — her culinary skills, her crooning abilities, her housekeeping expertise, etc — these are judiciously dropped on your plate one by one. After that all that’s left is to pray and pray! I guess that goes also for the old stuck-up bachelor who has to be “sold” in the lean years of his life. To conclude, I’m reminded of a joke against President Nixon in this connection. Nixon’s shiftiness and cunning were a known feature of his political career. To highlight that aspect a story in a Boston paper during my stay at Harvard put it so dramatically. When a cabbie was asked if he would buy a second-hand car from President Nixon’s private stable, he gave a prompt and flat reply, “No, sir, not from that man”, or words to that effect. |
 75 YEARS AGO London Letter Protect the natives “SAVE the natives from Indian control,” is going to be the slogan of these astute Europeans. They are going to pose in this country as the champions of African rights, which are supposed to be in jeopardy by reason of the Indian claims. To this end they have enlisted the support of certain militant missionaries, whose attitude in this matter will do the Christian Church far more harm than good. Archdeacon Law, Nairobi, had a letter in The Times, last Friday in which he completely misrepresents the case of the Indian population. He would make it appear that if their demands are heeded it would mean the subjugation of the indigenous inhabitants by Indian civilisation, methods of government and religion, and that like consequences would speedily follow in Tanganyika, Uganda, and other parts of the African continent. What this man is really afraid of is that non-Christian influences will assert themselves in Kenya in such a way as to threaten the superior status of the present “White oligarchy”. The same spirit of religious intolerance and racial ascendancy shows itself in the attitude of the Rev. Dr J.W. Arthur of the Church of Scotland Mission, Kikuyu, who is also described as Secretary of the Alliance of Protestant Missions. He is a sort of unattached member of the Kenya European deputation, who, we are told, will take no part in the political debates at the coming conference. |
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