The population agenda
FOR reviving a muted debate on the importance of small family the Congress deserves a gentle pat on the back. It is unfortunate that at the Pachmarhi conclave the reference to the two-child norm for Congress members was received with suppressed sniggers and not loud cheers.
An atomic milestone
THE dedication of the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to the nation is, indeed, a milestone in India’s nuclear history.
To dam currency turmoil
IT has the unmistakable marking of a stray, impromptu thought, but Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s call for a global authority to guarantee currency flows enjoys powerful theoretical support.

Trapped in laws, procedures
by K. F. Rustamji
I WOULD like to start in an unusual way by first giving the solution to the problem of decay in public life. Every Indian is troubled by that decline.
Knee-jerk policies
won’t help
by G.K. Pandey
WHILE recent measures such as those to reduce interest rates for exporters as well as to provide more tax sops are welcome, they are unlikely to give exports a sharp boost that the government is hoping for.

The population agenda

FOR reviving a muted debate on the importance of small family the Congress deserves a gentle pat on the back. It is unfortunate that at the Pachmarhi conclave the reference to the two-child norm for Congress members was received with suppressed sniggers and not loud cheers. Perhaps, the reason why the population agenda for the party was deliberately underplayed was because the Congress itself was responsible for giving the family planning programme a bad name. Before the Emergency promoting family planning was part of the national agenda and no political party felt embarrassed to be associated with the programme. Sanjay Gandhi’s aggressive approach gave birth to wild rumours that the government was following a policy of forced sterilisation. During a panel discussion on television Mrs Pramilla Dandavate was honest enough to admit that no party was willing to take a public stand on the need for population control because of the emergency-related odium attached to the programme. However, a clue that the Congress was serious about enforcing the two-child norm after January 1, 2000, was provided by the reference to the programme at the party’s working committee meeting in New Delhi. The unstated message is that the Congress, for the time being, would not force the programme on the people but enforce it within the party. Whether Mrs Sonia Gandhi would be forced to bend the rule and offer party posts and nomination for contesting elections to partymen who violate the two-child norm after the deadline is not the issue. What is important is that the Congress has gingerly taken the lead and promised to set an example for others to follow.

However, there should be no disagreement among political parties that the programme for population control should be accorded the highest priority. It is far too serious a subject to be left to the experts alone for periodic discussions at seminars and symposiums. Without the political will to enforce the agenda at the national level, through a policy based on persuasion and not “aggression”, no amount of polite discussion would have the desired impact. Now that the Congress has taken the decision to promote the small family norm within the party, it should also take the initiative to organise an all-party debate for evolving a national consensus on how to implement the population control programme. It must be understood that without population control economic progress will remain slow. Official statistics show that by the year 2050 India would be the most populous country in the world. Therefore, the long-term objective should be to encourage a negative growth rate. A negative population growth rate would mean reduced demand for shelter, food, healthcare facilities, transport, policing and a number of other goods and services. The reduced rate of mortality without a matching drop in the rate of growth of the country’s population has, ironically, added to the problem of banishing poverty and illiteracy. The population bomb has the potential to cause more allround damage than the threat of a nuclear war. The Congress has shown the political courage to at least whisper the banished two-word expression “population control”. It is up to the rest of the political class to turn the whisper into a national slogan. It should collectively offer the nation the choice between “populate and perish” and “plan and prosper”.

An atomic milestone

THE dedication of the Kalpakkam Atomic Reprocessing Plant (KARP) by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to the nation is, indeed, a milestone in India’s nuclear history. KARP is a link between the pressurised heavy water reactors of the past and the fast breeder reactors of the future. Self-sufficiency in energy is crucial for national development and security. Control over energy sources and their development is no longer a routine business or a mere technological concern. In the perception of our scientists, it is an issue of technological growth. Politicians see it as a matter of global politics. In the words of the Prime Minister, the politics of energy has become a subtext of much of international relations. In this field we require global cooperation. The nuclear regime of the Big Powers is pursuing a highly distorted policy. On the one hand, says Mr Vajpayee, the traditional nuclear weapons states want to keep the destructive power of nuclear technology in their own hands and resist a nuclear disarmament agreement. On the other hand, they prevent the enormous benefits of peaceful energy from reaching humanity at large which needs it most. The shape of things is becoming clearer now. KARP will enhance the utility of the spent fuel from the Chennai atomic power station and the fuel for the 500 MW prototype fast breeder reactor that will be set up at the Indira Gandhi Centre closeby. The hurdles placed on the path of technology transfer are highly deplorable. Scientific development in the USA shows that instrumentation increasingly knits together science and technology—nuclear magnetic resonance, scanning electrone microscopes, a panoply of lasers, new sources of synchrotron radiation, and a boggling array of other tools that are indispensable various advances.

The implication of the dissolving boundaries is that they alter the question of which areas of science should have priority support. The question must be rephrased before it can be answered reasonably. Because of the strong effects that advances of knowledge in one field may have on understanding certain phenomena in a quite different field and the major contributions to instrumentation, technique and methodology that flow across disciplinary boundaries, it is essential that all of the major fields of science continue at strong levels of activity and excellence. In addition to general strength, but not in substitution for it, particular “targets of opportunity” may be selected for special attention from time to time. However, in the long run, the highest priority is balanced strength and an insistence on the highest quality. These are difficult times and the next decade may be an era of greater economic stresses. The temptation is to select, to have priorities, to mark some scientific fields as more critical to the nation’s welfare and others as less so. If one lesson has been learnt in all of the studies of the relation of scientific knowledge to technological advancement and in turn to economic strength, it is that we will be overwhelmed. We cannot choose selective excellence in science. Mr Vajpayee has right men like Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam in right places. For technological growth even the sky is not the limit. We should acquire a scientific status in which we do not have to beg for technology. We should be able to give abundantly to other nations which come to us asking for our advanced technology.

To dam currency turmoil

IT has the unmistakable marking of a stray, impromptu thought, but Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s call for a global authority to guarantee currency flows enjoys powerful theoretical support. The latest advocate is the hugely respected MIT Professor, Paul Krugman who sees a need for some form of control on capital movement, and thinks it may even do good to the country. Mr Sinha has now fixed the idea in a wider context and joins those who prefer an international banking arrangement to act as the conduit for and guarantor of all money movements. In fact, the Minister’s idea is the other side of the control coin and neatly complements it. His is the more refined in that it would reflect the collective thinking of all — the cash-rich hedge and mutual funds and also banks, the credit-hungry developing world and the multilateral lending institutions — and save the borrowing countries the painful task of imposing unpopular curbs on currency trade across the borders. Mr Sinha envisages an agency to ensure the safe return of the invested (in shares) or lent capital without a loss of its value. It would be like similar institutions most countries have to offer insurance for investment and credit. On a global scale, the idea looks very ambitious and idealistic. But it should appeal to those countries which have suffered the most by the tidal wave dimensions of hot money rushing in and rushing out, wreaking a financial havoc. Like Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. The threesome may take at least a decade to recover the ground lost during a few tumultuous months last year.

The suggestion has great merit coming as it does from India. It is one of the two countries — China is another — among developing countries with a reasonably healthy growth record and which have skilfully ducked the danger of the Asian meltdown. It is not a completely closed system nor completely vulnerable. The Indian system is attracting favourable attention, particularly since Malaysia reverted to currency control on September 1. It has scored an initial point : its currency, the ringgit, has stabilised, something the troubled three can only envy. The next thing that would come under scrutiny is the rate of economic growth. Capital inflows have in the past imparted a powerful stimulus to growth and if the new controls drive out foreign funds, a reverse process will set in. But then there is one advantage. Any investor will now know that his money is safe even if he cannot take it out at any time he likes. In other words, long-term involvement will become more attractive and less risky, unlike in the past when sudden plunges in stock and currency markets threatened the real value of capital. The case for some form of fixed exchange rate is gaining currency from unexpected sources. Last month George Soros, who has made his dazzling billions by manipulating the currency market, asked for the setting up of a currency board (to control the capital inflow and fix exchange rates) in Russia and a further pumping in of $ 40 billion. When Soros plugs the control line, it is an ear-shattering collective “mea culpa” from the secretive army of currency market raiders.

Trapped in laws, procedures
Decline in India’s public life
by K. F. Rustamji

I WOULD like to start in an unusual way by first giving the solution to the problem of decay in public life. Every Indian is troubled by that decline. He knows that something has gone wrong, mainly in ourselves. He knows instinctively that in an overcrowded and poverty-stricken land, the struggle for survival can be acute and can produce consequences like a dictatorship if wrong trends are not checked in time. The basic cause of the decay is the failure of the system to punish the offenders promptly. India is not only a soft state, lacking in discipline. It actually shelters the criminal under its own laws, and on the pretext of a fair trial. It has to devise measures to revive the economy, and give a boost to technology. However, nothing can be done if we fail to see the damage being done in the rural areas, and continue to view it with indifference.

We are still moved by some of the images created during the freedom struggle to weaken the British government. As a people we hate the word “repression” (memories of lathi charges, firing and “kala pani”). But we do not hate the words disorder, rioting, bandh or mob rule. We dislike the word “police”, but do not hate the words “injustice”, “dishonesty” or “criminal conspiracy”. Nor does police inaction and the failure to register crime cases. Bias or communal intent drive us to distraction. Again, we still have all the reverence in the world for anyone arrested, so much so that even the politician who has swallowed millions of rupees gets our sympathy if he or she is put in the jug. Besides, we have a traditional dislike for courts and convictions. An acquittal to us always seems like justice. We have to get law-breaking out of the system if we want to be a successful democracy.

Our justice system has become the safe refuge of every scoundrel, every corrupt politician and government servant, every businessman who commits fraud or takes loans from banks and refuses to repay them, even tax-evaders, whose arrears now amount to Rs 48,000 crore. I think if the total amount of money that is involved in litigation is computed, which is due to the government but has been held back for payment under the guise of appeals, it will probably amount to more than the central budget revenue of a year or two. To that extent we can say that our system gives protection to defaulters. Why don’t we have a system that would compel defaulters to pay half or part of the amount before an appeal can be preferred.

We are a nation trapped in our own laws and procedures, guided by a benign sense of love and forgiveness for those who have ransacked a poor nation. They are too many to be mentioned. New on the list is the cooking oil adulterator, the politician who refuses to pay for the IAF aircraft that he has used, the bureaucrat who refuses to pay his house rent, or the out-of-office politician who does not vacate the house he has usurped in Delhi.

The government is prepared to condone all the faults of those who want to defraud it, who are well-to-do but cannot give adequate relief to those who have lived in squalor for centuries, or provide adequate relief to those who have lost everything in the recent floods and are destitute.

Crime is poisoning our republic, and we use wrong methods to deal with it. We took corruption cases out of thanas because we considered them unreliable. Then came the turn of the state CID, and the CBI replaced them. Now the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate and all other such agencies have been shackled to the Vigilance Commission. If any case is proved, it takes years to get government sanction for prosecution. We do not like to face the fact that during the past 50 years we have railed incessantly against corruption but only three prominent persons — Mundhra, Dalmia and now Hiten Dalal — have been convicted. Thousands of politicians, bureaucrats, police officers, the accused in massive corporate frauds, the Harshad Mehta type of cases, all linger on as pending reminders of our hypocrisy and dishonesty. We have not dealt with corruption effectively. We have perpetuated it; and all this at a time when the poor are sinking deeper into dejection.

Extortion, kidnapping, even the “supari” murders are so common that thousands of people live in fear. We cannot accept that the law has failed, the police has failed, the courts have failed. Criminals have succeeded. They roam triumphantly over the land. Some even get elected to our legislatures. Is this a sign of decay or of growth.?

Uproar and pandemonium in our legislatures have come to be accepted as a way of life. Hooliganism is setting a pattern for life in the land. Even doctors are assaulted and hospitals stoned, when a patient dies of suspected neglect. The blame for disorder in our legislatures lies squarely on the Speakers who have not used the powers that they have to regulate debate.

The people of this land look up to the legislatures with respect and hope. They want them to bring out the anguish and the suffering that is present, and to find out remedies for poverty and injustice of any kind. They are not elated when they see their representatives engaged in toppling games, in constant interruptions, in throwing chappals and mikes, or in increasing the number of ministers to 93 just to accommodate defectors. Damn the expense. Mr Romesh Bhandari’s book, “As I Saw It”, is a record of the decline of the system in Uttar Pradesh, a backward state of India.

We seem to forget that disorder in legislatures and the quarrels of politicians have been the main cause of dictatorships in Asia and Africa.

Jayalalitha is a symbol of our decay. She signifies greed, and a brazen lust for the withdrawal of corruption cases: a new form of extortion.

We cannot talk about urban decay or poverty in our countryside without noting that we are much worse than we were in 1947. Every Indian ought to read Siddharth Dube’s book, “Worlds, Like Freedom”, the memoirs of an impoverished Indian family (1947-1997). It is only if you keep before you a picture of “this naked hungry mass” in Nehru’s words that you can judge the plight of India and our efforts to advance.

I think our past history of feudal tyranny has left a permanent mark on us. We just cannot work together with each other for a common cause without conflict because we are all courtiers. The politicians and the IAS men cannot get along in several states. The IAS and IPS officers disagree everywhere. The IPS and Army officers start bickering at the height of a riot. The worst is the controversy that has broken out between the Chief Justice and their lordships in the Supreme Court on the meaning of the word “consultation”. The Jain Commission took seven years and only pointed fingers aimlessly. The Sri Krishna Commission report remains rejected without reason. Labour and capital are at each other’s throats. On the law and order front there is incompatibility that one would find only in a divorce court. The judiciary distrusts the police. The police in turn believes that the judges do not work and try to spend time pleasing the lawyers. The lawyers are suspicious of both.

Knee-jerk policies won’t help
by G.K. Pandey

WHILE recent measures such as those to reduce interest rates for exporters as well as to provide more tax sops are welcome, they are unlikely to give exports a sharp boost that the government is hoping for. Indeed, the government is still hoping that exports will grow by around 20 per cent this year, but actual growth is expected to be much lower, around 5-6 per cent. Apart from the fact that the sluggish growth in world trade puts a natural barrier to the rise in India’s exports, the government’s approach continues to be knee-jerk and doesn’t address the real issues.

Take the most obvious case: the periodic attempts to protect the rupee. What the government doesn’t seem to appreciate is that currencies in all the competing countries — such as those in South-East Asia and now, possibly, China — have fallen dramatically. No one is recommending competitive devaluation as this benefits only the buyers abroad. But if your competitors are getting cheaper, clearly something has to be done. Moreover, when the market feels that the rupee is overvalued, there is nothing the government can do to protect it. We have lost billions in the past trying to protect the rupee by making purchases of dollars, but the rupee continued to fall. Similarly, imposing restrictions and raising CRR limits as has been done in the last few weeks is certain to raise interest rates. The measures announced by the RBI on August 20, for example, sucked out Rs 5,200 crore from the system — money that would otherwise have been available to finance domestic industry and exporters.

What the government really needs to do if it is serious about boosting exports is to have greater coordination between ministries/departments to ensure that immediate action is taken wherever needed. Take the two strikes in the cargo handling division at Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, for instance. Both times importers as well as exporters suffered grievously as their consignments got delayed. Nor, of course, is this problem just confined to these few strikes. Exporters and importers routinely complain of how this problem affects their competitiveness. Even a cursory visit to any of the cargo yards at any of the major ports will reveal how the government is yet to come to grips with this problem.

Similarly, the reaction such as banning exports, especially of agricultural commodities like rice, sugar or even onions, just because domestic prices are rising is something which is totally avoidable. This may be good practice to fight inflation, and may convince the voters that the government means business, but what it does is make foreign buyers even more sceptical about the ability of Indian suppliers to deliver their goods in time. That, surely, is the last thing they need.

Another very important perspective on exports, of course, is the one related to our competitiveness and what the government is doing to help improve the situation. A recent study by the World Bank, in fact, gives some perspectives on this. In a nutshell, the analysis done by the bank’s economists shows that Indian exports have done well primarily in those years in which its imports have risen, and in which case tariff levels have been falling. All the countries showing high export growth — Korea, Thailand, Mexico, Indonesia, China — are those which have had high import growth. The correlation is too big to be a statistical coincidence.

The reason seems obvious, even intuitively. For one, when exporters are allowed easy access to cheaper imports and use the facility to improve the quality of their end-product, this enhances their competitiveness. By contrast, if imports are restricted in any form, these quality improvements cannot take place, and exports suffer. It is for this reason, for example, that one of the major recommendations of the Information Technology Task Force set up by the Prime Minister is to lower the import duties to zero for major industrial inputs. The reason is that if local industry is able to import critical hardware at cheap rates, it will be able to sharpen its own competitive edge in the export market.

Apart from the fact that cheaper inputs make industry more competitive, what is also important to keep in mind is that when imports are allowed relatively freely, and at lower rates of tariffs, this increases the competition faced by domestic industry and forces it to become more efficient, to utilise its resources more carefully. Naturally, the quality of exports also improves.

This is the lesson one learns from the market. No sops will help; increased competitiveness alone will. However, in these swadeshi times, will the government wish to further open up industry to face competition. Any other measure, though welcome in the short run, will amount to missing the woods for the trees.

A pre-dawn drill
by D. R. Sharma

WHILE battling 40 summers in pursuit of professional moksha, I would often dream of owning a gazebo or a log cabin in some sequestered pine forest girdled by snowy tops. Now that the pursuit is nearly over, I entreat my wife to appreciate at least the creative content of my dream and let me explore the possibility of having a foothold in some alpine village.

Aware of her fact-caring nature, I apprise her of the scientific fears that after the Pokhran and Chagai blasts the global warming will henceforth make summers hotter than usual. “So, why not have a refuge up in the Shivaliks?” I suggest knowing very well that her earthy sense is mightier than science and poetry put together. Unfortunately, whenever I put across this rejuvenating idea, she looks at me squarely in the face and remarks: “A run-of-the-mill academic owning two houses has to be loony.”

So, to survive the scalding surface winds and hurricanes of May and June — and the attendant water famine — I resort to a home-spun strategy that tends to make our summers less searing. Despite the repetitive civic bluff that water scarcity belongs to history — the Jurassic Park of the City Beautiful — the augmentation projects remain still-born. Around mid-April, therefore, I reset my biological clock and rise at three in the morning to fill the three buckets and one four-bucket storage bin in the first-floor bathroom. I hate to curse anyone so early in the morning since that can upset my own bio-rhythm.

I can identify the victims of a ruptured bio-rhythm among those walk-addicts whom I meet every morning. When I casually ask one of them why, of late, he has been late or irregular in his walks, he says: “Water crisis on the first floor with our bedroom. The lady wants me first to fill all the buckets and only then stir out for my constitutional.”

Compared to these bonded bucket-fillers, my situation is far happier. Wife never issues any such edict so long as I don’t rattle her slumber with my musical invocations to the Lord, or my irksome shuffling in those creaky slippers.

Somewhat proactive in my responses, I anticipate the menace of dry taps and accordingly shorten my sleep-span by one hour. Since I keep the top tap open through summer months, I leap from the bed the moment I hear the gushing sound in the bathroom. It is only after the containers look brimful that I don my athletic outfit and rush out with a baton in hand.

If I remember correctly, our sages remark that, instead of cursing darkness, we should light our little candles. While running my morning marathon I often mull over this adage.

Tewatia panel fulfils a felt need
by Rajinder Sachar

A PERSISTENTLY planned condemnation is afoot by police personnel and their supporters and even sometimes by some from the legal fraternity about the legality and propriety of the non-official Tewatia Commission enquiring into human right violations by the Punjab police and security forces and also those committed by terrorists. An unfortunate propaganda, calling it a Kangaroo court in responsible media is a sad spectacle.

It is said a non-official body is not competent to examine such complaints, which is the function only of State agencies. The critics’ assumption is not warranted and flies in the face of any number of such commissions which have enquired into matters of public importance both in this country and outside.

The PUCL commission which included ex-Chief Justice S.M. Sikri as its member held an enquiry and gave a report on the 1984 killings in anti-Sikh riots in Delhi, titled “who is guilty”.

Non-official enquiries into serious communal riots in Meerut, Aligarh, Karnataka, have been many. People’s Commission has held enquiry into police firing in Bhilai. Even outside India, People’s Commission held enquiries into serious cases of human right violations. Thus Mr Goldberg, former Judge of the Supreme Court of USA held a public enquiry into the killings in Iraq by US bombings in the 1990s. In all democracies it is accepted without debate that people have an inherent right to know the truth about human right violations and in the absence of any official enquiry, there will be people’s commissions.

Of course it will be an acceptable objection that if a case has been tried by a regular court, Tewatia Commission should not be reopening it. I have no doubt, considering there are numerous allegations of human right violations to be enquired into, that the Tewatia Commission will have its hands more than full and will itself be disinclined to go into those matters which have been the subject of proceedings in a court of law. No question of contempt of court at all arises.

The Commission consists of eminent judges known for their knowledge of law, objectivity and fair-mindedness. It is calumny to suggest that the Commission is in any way prejudiced or partial. Their fairness is shown by publicly inviting the alleged victim of terrorist violence (which would include police personnel) to give their side of the story so that the public can judge on their own. Some of those who are rightly showing concern for these victims of violence will be well advised in bringing out all these facts before the Commission, because there is no denying that terrorists in Punjab have committed heinous acts. Nobody will dispute that the yardstick for measuring the enormity of the crime has to be the same in the case of police or the terrorists.

Another untenable argument is that it is not wise to reopen old wounds. This is a most astounding proposition, completely contrary to human rights jurisprudence and international covenants.

The danger of permitting extra-legal action in justifying flagrant violation of human rights will be a permanent danger to the life and security of an average person. As it is, the Punjab police even now feels itself free to indulge in illegal acts. This is evidenced by the May, 1998 order of the National Human Rights Commission directing the Punjab government to entrust the case of disappearance of Mr Avtar Singh Mander, a journalist, to the CBI. He was allegedly picked up by unidentified policemen in September, 1992, from his house. On enquiry by the NHRC, the Punjab government had sent a report saying he was not called by the police and that a writ petition filed on his behalf had been dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The NHRC then directed that a case be registered. On that it received a report from the SP, Jalandhar that even after extensive investigation, the police remained clueless. The NHRC was not satisfied and did its own investigation and found prima facie that Mander had been taken away by the police, and that is why it has now directed a CBI investigation. Will the critics call the action by the Commission presided over by a former Chief Justice of India to be interfering with the working of the courts or being insensitive to the dignity of the courts?

Criticism from the legal fraternity of Punjab and Haryana is ironic. Have these friends so quickly forgotten the killings by the Punjab police of Kulwant Singh, advocate of Ropar, and his family? That killing had led to weeks of strike by lawyers all over the State. Chief Minister Beant Singh had arrogantly denied police involvement. Unfortunately, the Punjab and Haryana High Court dismissed the High Court Bar Association’s writ petition demanding an enquiry. Fortunately, the Supreme Court reversed the High Court and directed a CBI enquiry, which found credence in the allegation and resulted in police personnel being prosecuted for murder.

No, I am not in any way underestimating or oblivious to the sense of duty and determination of large groups of police and others who faced the challenge of violence by terrorists. It may even be readily conceded that some of the excesses might have been committed not deliberately, but as an unthinking, instant over-reaction to a dangerous situation faced by the police. But even while accepting all these we cannot, and should not, consistent with civilised existence, refuse to investigate allegations of deliberate killings of innocents, of extortions, made against the police.

The specious excuse that without such unlawful actions it was not possible to curb terrorism, is both legally and morally dishonest, apart from being factually flawed. Terrorism has not been curbed by state terrorism but by public opinion turning against the senseless killings, rapes, and extortions committed by the terrorists. As aptly said by the Supreme Court in D.K. Basu’s case “.... Challenge of terrorism must be met with innovative ideas and approach. State terrorism is no answer to combat terrorism. State terrorism will only provide legitimacy to terrorism. That will be bad for the State, the community and above all for the rule of law. .... That the terrorist has violated human rights of innocent citizens may render him liable to punishment but it cannot justify the violation of his human rights except in the manner permitted by law.”

It would have been legally proper if the Punjab government had itself appointed a commission consistent with its election manifesto but on its failure to do so, the Tewatia Commission fulfils a felt need. It is understandable that police personnel may feel diffident in appearing before a non-official commission. But then public morality and human right compulsions, in the absence of an official commission, leave no other alternative.

The choice is with the government. The proper response from the Punjab government is not to fall into the trap of those critics of the Tewatia Commission who to subserve their own end are doing a great disservice to the human rights movement. I would, in all fairness, expect the Punjab government to itself constitute an official Commission consisting of five members, including the present three of the Tewatia Commission. About the other two, it should request the Chief Justice of India to nominate two retired Judges of the High Court, as he deems fit. I would certainly hope that if proper courtesy is shown and the Commission is appointed as mentioned above, members of the Tewatia Commission could be persuaded to accept this public responsibility.

Parallel court without legal authority
by G.S. Grewal

ALL major political parties in Punjab have disapproved the formation of the so-called People’s Commission, headed by Justice D.S. Tewatia. Mr Parkash Singh Badal, the Chief Minister of Punjab, known for soft speaking, has also advised people to file their complaints before the State Human Rights Commission. One reason for this political opposition is that this Commission has undertaken the job which is constitutionally meant for the courts. The Commission has enlarged its scope even to examine the cases which have been decided by the courts and also those cases which are pending in courts. Under the garb of a Commission, a parallel court is being created without any authority of law. The Commission has issued formal summons to a large number of police officers whose names have also been published in the press. When the summoned officers refuse to acknowledge the authority of the Commission an ex parte verdict will be given and published which is bound to demoralise the police administration and encourage lawlessness.

Nobody says that police excesses are justified. Wherever evidence is available, people have gone to court. As many as 1873 writs against police officials are pending in the High Court, and 76 are pending in the Supreme Court. The CBI is investigating 81 cases and 64 cases are being inquired into by judicial officers. About 20 cases against the police are being tried in various courts. A total of 123 police officers are facing criminal trial at various stages. To say that our judicial system is not adequate to give justice against the police is to doubt the integrity of our judges. In fact to run a parallel private justice system is to mock at the established institution of the judiciary and make it a laughing stock. It will be ruinous for democracy in the country.

The National Human Rights Commission, presided over by a retired Supreme Court Judge, is already working and has country-wide jurisdiction. The scope of the NHRC is the widest and it is already seized of a serious case of human rights violation in Amritsar in which more than 2500 dead bodies of unidentified people were buried by the police. It can hear complaints of any nature from anybody. Where is the need for any private Commission? Similarly, the Punjab government has also constituted a State Human Rights Commission and the same is functioning. The proceeding of the official Human Rights Commissions are formal, authentic and binding. They have the right to summon witnesses and enjoy all the powers under CPC for this purpose. Their decisions are binding. The People’s Commission enjoys none of these powers. It has framed its own scope and under Rule 5 it has chosen to act like a super court over the existing courts.

The present system cannot be permitted to be defamed and scandalised in this subtle way. The question of legal validity of the People’s Commission is already pending for adjudication in the High Court in a public interest writ filed by an advocate. It is hoped that the High Court will clinch the issue before the next sitting of the Commission in the third week of October. More than the legal, the Commission has various political, public order, and law and order ramifications.

There was a time when the police in Punjab was so demoralised that it would close the doors of police stations when a blast was heard at a distance. When the proxy war was at its height, there was no law and order in the State and police excesses were on the increase.

That was the time, if at all, when such a People’s Commission should have been constituted. At that time, due to the fear of militancy even the judicial system was affected. Then, perhaps, the Commission would have helped in containing police excesses. But at that time all these Hon’ble members of the Commission were enjoying their privileged status under high security. Now when the situation has normalised, the courts have resumed their proper functioning and the police has restored law and order, this People’s Commission has been constituted to overlook the court decisions and demoralise the police. How can its existence be justified?

Politically only those people are supporting the Commission who were rejected during elections and now want to gain some political mileage under the slogan of human rights protection for which adequate arrangements have been made by states and the Union.

Under SAD-BJP rule in Punjab, whenever any case of human right violation occurred, prompt action was taken. But it will be suicidal for the peace of the State if we demoralise our police at this juncture under any misleading attractive slogans.

We know that eminent people have given some reports against the criminals who indulged in the 1984 Sikh killings, or at time of Operation Bluestar. They sent their team of dedicated persons to discover facts and then compiled it in the form of booklets. But nobody had ever issued summons to the allegedly accused officers to defend themselves. The Justice Tewatia’s People’s Commission is welcome to do research on any subject or case, but if it starts issuing notices to police officers, with complete publicity of allegations against them, it will amount to pure and simple blackmail. The people of the State have no option but to oppose the Commission.

Now the Commission has invited even the victims of militancy to bring their complaints before the Commission. To our knowledge, not a single application of these people has been received by the Commission. Besides, can the Commission have power to enforce its orders against the militants? How will the victims of militancy be given relief? Even ordinary courts have no jurisdiction against the unknown militants. How can the People’s Commission have it?

There has been a sharp political reaction against the Commission throughout the State and in Delhi after the proceedings of the first meeting of the Commission were released to the press. We are waiting and watching with anxiety and fear as to what is going to happen in the second meeting of the Commission in the third week of October at Ludhiana.