Exams must be held!
EVERY thinking and educated leader of this country has given the utmost respect to the concept of "the university".

Now the challenging part
IT is the moment of truth for the Congress and its new-found friends and supporters. Operation Topple was comparatively easy since there were enough anti-BJP votes waiting to be mobilised.

Copying enters cable age
COPYING by unscrupulous students is almost as old as the examinations. The nuances of this under-the-table technique to pass with flying colours without studying are constantly refined.

POLL SIGNALS FROM LANKA
by Praful Bidwai
WHEN Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga assumed the Presidency of Sri Lanka in late 1994, she kindled many hopes in that war-ravaged country. Her bold initiative on the ethnic conflict came like a breath of fresh air after the stale, cynical approaches of the United National Party’s 17-year-long rein.

Defence personnel for greener pastures
by P. K. Vasudeva
THERE is a steadily growing trend among armed forces officers seeking premature retirement for greener pastures outside, which should be a cause for concern not only for the Ministry of Defence but also the rest of the nation.

NATO bombing: why might is right
by Anupam Gupta
HUMANITARIAN intervention in the Balkans continues, even though the only success it has achieved till date is the reverse exodus of humanity from Kosovo. Will Kosovo remain a part of Yugoslavia or will the West, flush with the technology of war, manage to gift it independence?

Big leaders go underground
by Humra Quraishi
AT the time of filing this column political instability at the Centre is at its height or you could even call it down in the dumps.

The looming shadow
by Ramesh Luthra
AN open theatre packed to the full. A very interesting play to be staged. That is what the organisers claim. It does begin. A bulky but charming female figure looms large on the stage - the rest of the characters are overshadowed. One wink of her eyes and a few lie prostrate and the rest make a bid to stand. Certainly they are reeling in fright.

75 Years Ago

Bank’s properties
THE sale of the British Bank’s various properties throughout India was extensively advertised and some 43 out of a total of 52 have either been sold or agreements for sale have been entered into.

Exams must be held!

EVERY thinking and educated leader of this country has given the utmost respect to the concept of "the university". Most of the views of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Balagangadhar Tilak, Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, Dr S. Radhakrishnan and Dr Zakir Hussain in this respect are too well known to be repeated. Jawaharlal Nehru found enough time from his duty as the country's Prime Minister to say and exemplify this: "A university stands for humanism, for tolerance, for reason, for the adventure of ideas and the search for truth." Dr Amartya Sen leans heavily on the ideas of Jawaharlal Nehru when he thinks of or makes prescriptions for dealing with national backwardness. Education, like the eradication of poverty, is necessary for the development of India, he says. We are looking at the problem of the neglect of the future of thousands of students, who are unable to sit for their examination, in Punjab, Chandigarh and their neighbourhood. It has become necessary to remind our educationists of the value attached to the temples of learning and thoughtlessly created crises within their jurisdiction by politickers and bureaucrats. What is the status of a Chancellor with regard to a university? Is he a mere figurehead who goes to the university to confer honorary degrees on visiting dignitaries or is he a promoter of the well-being of students, teachers and institutions?

The Vice-Chancellor is the de facto supreme authority of a university. His Registrar is the instrument chosen for helping him in implementing his educational plans. We find it difficult to sympathise with those who see themselves in a tight corner and "can do very little about the prevalent situation if the government has priorities other than the future of the youth". They cannot disaffiliate the aberrant colleges because they are aware of the additional burden of "adjusting" the students and teachers of various institutions. The stalemate between the Punjab government and the federation of managements and principals continues and so does the sorrow of the students who are being denied the opportunity of taking their examinations to get their degrees, diplomas or certificates. It is being said that arrangements for holding tests cannot be made outside the precincts of various private colleges. It appears difficult to find any place for the examinees outside the allocated buildings. Is not there a chance of getting sufficient supervisory staff for conducting the examinations? It is also being argued that the last week of April is not late for starting the tests. The helplessness of the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar can be tackled by them through the exercise of their free will and inherent powers.

Prof M. M. Puri is famous for his convictions and firmness. Registrar Paramjit Singh is known for innovative ideas. The Chancellor, Mr Krishan Kant, is an educationist and academician. If they put their heads together and hire furniture and structures, say, even from "tent houses", as people do at the time of social functions, and request retired teachers to do supervisory work, a precious year of the students can be saved. Examinations can be held also in rented private buildings. It is necessary to remember the stakes. Mentally shattered students and guardians continue to pour into the Tribune office, seeking "help". Some of the guardians say that their wards are showing signs of depression, a serious psychological disorder. They quote Dr Malcolm S. Adiseshiah: "I have spoken of continuing life-long education as the centre of the new society, the heartbeat of new culture, the leaf, the blossom and the bole of a new world which educational development could bring if it were placed in the service of man." It is time for the authorities to realise the meaning of university autonomy and hold the examinations without further delay even if they have to depart from regulations meant for normal times. They will have the full support of the media and the public.

Now the challenging part

IT is the moment of truth for the Congress and its new-found friends and supporters. Operation Topple was comparatively easy since there were enough anti-BJP votes waiting to be mobilised. But some of these votes are also anti-Congress in their orientation, thus proving that an enemy’s enemy is not necessarily a friend. The Congress has to make something out of this pile of contradictions and also out of sharp ideological differences and irreconcilable policy positions. Ironically, the BJP-led coalition did not have this handicap, yet it could barely stumble through for a year before collapsing. A major test for the Congress will come today at the all-party meeting in the Speaker’s chamber. It has said that it will ensure the passage of the Finance Bill. The party’s economic cell has gone through the budget provisions with a fine-tooth comb and has cleared them but for one amendment. The proposed change in the income tax laws will permit religious charitable organisations like the VHP and Bajrang Dal to spend up to 5 per cent of their income on political work. The Congress and its potential allies oppose this and the BJP has hinted that it is open to reconsideration.

The Left Front is, however, opposed to a series of tax proposals and seeks wholesale revision. This has encouraged some hardliners in the Congress to demand major changes to make the budget reflect the party’s economic philosophy. (The Pachmarhi Declaration talks of a broad socialist tilt and lays greater stress on poverty alleviation. It has raised doubts about the future of the outgoing government’s advanced planning to sell off Maruti and restructure the oil industry.) Passing the budget is the first challenge before the party and it should promptly reach a consensus and ensure its smooth approval.If necessary, the party should tell the Left Front to vote against the offending provisions but not hold up the whole exercise. The budget must be passed this week itself, and political rancour should not come in the way of routine parliamentary work. If the Congress clears this obstacle, it will automatically clear the decks for other contentious measures like the Insurance Regulatory Authority Bill and the patents legislation. The final test will be in providing a quota for women in legislatures. The two Yadavs are totally opposed to it, but surely they will respect the majority decision of Parliament.

All this presupposes that the coalition waiting to be born will receive the assured support of 271 members, which constitutes a bare majority. At this moment, even this looks a bit difficult. Some hectic poaching in the rival camp is necessary, and the success in the trust vote should make this a less onerous task. Scent of power and proximity to authority have their own logic. Senior Congress leaders admitted in television programmes that the party did not script the rapid changes that rocked the political world in the past week. Now it wants to be in total command. In other words, it is a reluctant suitor but now wants to emerge as a resolute suitor. Getting the budget through the Lok Sabha will win the Congress the admiration of the bride at Monday’s swayamvara.

Copying enters cable age

COPYING by unscrupulous students is almost as old as the examinations. The nuances of this under-the-table technique to pass with flying colours without studying are constantly refined. The miniature writing done on "parchis" hidden behind one's collar etc would shame even the foreign practitioners of nanotechnology. If the same labour were put into learning the lessons, many of the students would pass without this cheating. But that does not motivate many to take the straight and narrow path. The past few decades brought into currency a new word called mass copying. What was earlier done in retail now came to be practised wholesale. At times it was found that an entire examination hall was indulging in cheating. The helpful invigilators would even write down the answers to some questions on blackboards. The wards of the really influential people would be allowed to take the answersheets to their homes and write the answers at leisure with the help of books and obliging teachers. At times, question papers would be leaked out and would sell on the eve of the examination like the proverbial hot cakes. All this shocked the traditionalists. That is the limit, they would say with a violent shaking of their heads. But then, there is always scope for "improvement", if one may say so. There has been a paradigm shift in the ancient art of copying and this has been brought about in the Muzaffarnagar town of Uttar Pradesh. It is reported that not only the question paper of a board examination last week was leaked well in advance and sold openly in the market, it was duly telecast on a cable network. That is the miracle of advances in science. The "benefits" of emerging technology reach the homes of everyone.

Jokes apart, this incident is perhaps the most shocking in the history of education in the country and should make every right-thinking person hang his head in shame. Some highly disturbing conclusions are inescapable. One, mass copying has come to be taken as a way of life. Two, the fear of punishment is hardly on the minds of the perpetrators of such audacious crimes. If that were not so, nobody would have even dreamt of telecasting a leaked paper. Three, the criminals enjoy the support of the rich and the powerful. The unfortunate result is that the degrees issued by many universities in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and some other States, which were highly respected centres of learning not too long ago, have become so discredited today that the students passing out from there find it difficult to get admission anywhere else. Things have come to such a pass because politicians, instead of coming to the rescue of conscientious students, have always supported the crooked ones. When things had gone out of hand some years ago, it was decided to put those found copying in jail. When Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, who later rose to be the Defence Minister of the country, became the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, this was the first law that he repealed. To cap it all, he boasted of this step as some kind of an achievement. It would be interesting to keep track as to what action — if any — is taken against those who telecast the question paper.

POLL SIGNALS FROM LANKA
Warning for Chandrika
by Praful Bidwai

WHEN Ms Chandrika Kumaratunga assumed the Presidency of Sri Lanka in late 1994, she kindled many hopes in that war-ravaged country. Her bold initiative on the ethnic conflict came like a breath of fresh air after the stale, cynical approaches of the United National Party’s (UNP) 17-year-long rein. Her proposals for the devolution of power to the local authorities, and for replacing the overcentralised presidential system with a more democratic form heralded non-cynical, anti-Machiavellian, open politics. Ms Kumaratunga seemed responsive to new ideas and enthused the liberal intelligentsia and NGOs as no other political leader did.

Today, scepticism, if not despondency, has replaced much of the hope. The shift to open, democratic, participatory governance stands arrested and partly reversed. The anti-LTTE “Operation Jaya Sukurui” (Certain Victory) ran out after bleeding Sri Lanka heavily — at an annual cost estimated at 21 per cent of the GDP. The time for new initiatives seems to have passed; there is a return to manipulative politics so dismally familiar to all of South Asia. The upward-looking popular phase of People’s Alliance rule may be running out. The warning bells are ringing again.

Nothing illustrates this more clearly than the fraught, contentious, April 6 elections to five provincial councils (PCs). The PA barely managed to retain the Western province, Sri Lanka’s largest and richest, with a quarter of its population and 45 per cent of its GDP. It wrested the other four from the UNP too. But its victory was poor, uncertain and slippery. Worse, it came amidst charges of electoral malpractice, backed by independent NGOs such as the Centre for Monitoring Election Violence (CMEV).

Even if the rigging charges are discounted, the PA’s performance marked a sharp decline in relation to the 1994 presidential elections and the 1997 local bodies elections. From 62 per cent, its vote fell to 45 per cent. This put it barely two percentage points ahead of the UNP, itself faction-ridden, and tainted by long years of misrule. The difference in the PA and UNP vote is only 1,26,000. The PA won 120 seats, and the UNP 112. In Colombo district, the PA’s vote declined by a massive 44 per cent. In only one of the five PCs (North-Central) did it win an absolute majority of seats. Elsewhere, it is dependent on other parties.

The elections’ conduct came in for criticism from PAFFREL (People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections), MFFE (Monitoring of Free and Fair Elections) and CMEV, especially after the end-January polls to the North-Western (Wayamba) PC. These were widely acknowledged to have been rigged, with 1,557 incidents of violence, intimidation, booth-capturing and stuffing of ballot boxes. The PA was held responsible for two-thirds of these. Wayamba, much like Meham in our Haryana, became synonymous with electoral fraud. Even the election commissioner admitted that 212 polling centres (of a total of 1,160) witnessed serious malpractices (although he ordered a repoll in only nine).

This time around, the intensity of violence was much lower than in January. It may not have drastically affected the elections’ party-wise outcome, but in Sri Lanka’s individual-candidate preference-vote system, each vote has a unique value and can alter candidate-wise outcomes. But it is sad that there was election violence in the Third world’s first democracy, and worse that the PA got into an ugly confrontation with independent monitors, to the point of running a campaign against them in the pages of the state-owned Daily News. Ms Kumaratunga personally and maliciously attacked the CMEV as “cat’s paw” of foreign interests and UNP “agents”. The confrontation only lowered the PA’s stature and invited parallels with the “Wayamba factor”.

The PA is now squarely on the defensive. It has lost much of its elan, most of its idealism, a good deal of its appeal. Today, it is seen to be exercising power delinked from a larger, universal, purpose. It is unable to outmanoeuvre the UNP, despite Mr Ranil Wickeremasinghe’s weak leadership and lack of political direction. Besides exposing the PA’s weakness, recent developments highlight five significant trends. First, the votes of the southern ethnic-religious minorities, which had swung towards the PA five years ago, are returning to the UNP. Thus, argues Dr Neelan Thiruchelvan, the highly regarded scholar-MP, it is hard to explain the UNPs strong showing in central and northern Colombo (two-fifths of it Tamil-speaking) or in the coastal fishing villages, without that important shift of base.

Second, in the central highlands, with concentrations of Indian-origin tea labour, the influence of Mr S. Thondaman’s Ceylon Workers’ Congress, a PA constituent, is declining. In 1993, Mr Thondaman won 12 seats in the tea districts. This time, he has won only seven, those too with slim margins. This is due to the emergence of educated youth among the “Indian Tamils” (as distinct from the indigenous “Ceylon Tamils” of the North and the East). This layer is unhappy with CWC leaders’ paternalist conservatism, corruption and extravagant lifestyles, and their failure to respond to its own aspirations for education and jobs.

Thirdly, the Sinhala ethnic-chauvinist Janatha Vimukti Peramuna (JVP) has emerged as a significant force. The JVP was brutally crushed after its 1987-89 violent uprising, but has now tripled its vote-share to 5 per cent. The JVP has become the third largest party, with a total of 15 seats (of the 263 in the five PCs). This puts it in a strong position, for instance in the Western Council, where the PA, lacking a majority, needs its support. This will involve some kind of bargain with the JVP. An understanding is apparently being reached, under which the JVP will be offered the council’s chair. More important, its exiled leader Somawansa Amarasinghe, a former politburo colleague of founder Rohana Wijeweera, would be allowed to return. It is unclear if this will facilitate the JVP’s “normalisation”, or encourage it to take an even harder ethnic-chauvinist line.

A fourth trend is the emergence of Mr Karu Jayasooriya as a major power-centre within the UNP. Until he quit as Colombo mayor after the PC polls, he earned exceptional goodwill among the middle class as an able administrator who improved municipal services much like the efficient corporate manager. He won over 2,50,000 preference votes, only slightly lower than the earlier score of Ms Kumaratunga (2,86,000), with all her assets. Mr Jayasooriya is a businessman without a political vision. He is conservative on the ethnic issue, but earnest, uncorrupt and accessible. His emergence signifies middle class despair with the “normal” politician, and a temptation to look for managerial quick-fixes.

Finally, there is growing discontent within the PA among sections of the Left which had hoped for a radical-democratic, progressive alternative to the UNP’s misrule. The PA has failed to deliver on most of its promises, including exceptional provincial autonomy,especially for the North and the East. Its economic performance too has been poor. Historically, the Sri Lankan Left has enjoyed a special intellectual-moral status. It now faces a dilemma: stay with the PA and push from within for progressive policies, or quit the alliance and adopt an independent, critical posture while building its own cadre. Many leaders seem inclined towards the second option. The election results have strengthened them.

These trends mark a watershed for the PA. It faces a choice: should it call an early presidential election? Or wait till August next year? After the PC elections, some PA leaders prefer to temporise and hold on to power as long as possible in the hope that the UNP’s internal crisis will worsen, The other view holds that waiting will only mean further haemorrhage and base erosion; they must call an early election before the situation worsens.

This view derives strength from the likelihood that the economy, which has already slowed down, will decelerate further. Sri Lanka’s public finances are in a mess, with the fiscal deficit almost 10 per cent of the GDP, export growth plummeting to 2 per cent, and prices of essentials skyrocketing. With tighter garment quotas, low oil prices (which will hit Gulf remittances) and pressure on tea exports, the slowdown could have harsh effects.

After the fall of Killinochhi and suspension of “Jaya Sukurui”, there is no likelihood of a big change in the military balance of forces in the North. With political uncertainty looming, the situation could only worsen. Thus, the argument goes, it is best to call a damage-limiting early election. Whichever course the PA chooses, one thing is certain. The phase of hope, new initiatives and change inaugurated in 1994-95 is now past. Sri Lanka’s politics has entered a contentious phase full of turmoil.

An Indian postscript: Sri Lanka is delicately, precariously poised. India must do nothing to upset the situation. New Delhi has done well to keep its hands off the ethnic issue in recent years. But it acted duplicitously on the free trade issue — by promising freer imports of tea, and then reneging. Along with the nuclear and missile tests, which underscore India’s frightening “Big Brother” image, this has created resentment — dangerous in today’s circumstances. New Delhi must promptly take corrective action. Deviousness on its part could spell disaster.

Defence personnel for greener pastures
by P. K. Vasudeva

THERE is a steadily growing trend among armed forces officers seeking premature retirement for greener pastures outside, which should be a cause for concern not only for the Ministry of Defence but also the rest of the nation. Although it is most pronounced in the Army, the virus has spread strongly in the Navy as well as the Air Force. In the case of the Army, the figures have nearly doubled in just three years. In 1996, not more than 371 Army officers either resigned or sought voluntary retirement, and in 1998, the figure rose to 631. Most of these officers are of below Colonel rank for having been passed over for promotion. Similarly, 192 naval officers left in 1998 compared to 105 in 1996, while 222 Air Force officers left in 1998 against 157 in 1996. The trend is dangerous and must be curbed because it is demoralising for the armed forces.

A new and disturbing trend is the increasing number of junior officers — Majors and those below this rank — seeking to quit the forces. It is not because of their supersession. It is because unto the rank of Lieut-Col promotion is on a time-scale and based on the recommendations of the superior authority. The reason lies elsewhere. They either are dissatisfied with their work environment or prefer greener pastures for more money, perquisites and comforts of civil life. There is no denying the fact that the armed forces reflect a neglected service area, and the compensation is also not sufficient compared to the risks and hazards involved.

A proposal for setting up an armed forces administrative and court-martial tribunal has been pending with the government for the last two decades or so. Even the Supreme Court expressed dismay at the high-level defence appointments becoming the subject of judicial action. The government had “agreed in principle” to set up a tribunal but subsequently “certain legal and administrative issues came up in further processing the matter”. While the government took the line that the increasing number of such cases being taken to court “did not reflect mismanagement” within the services, the figures supplied suggest differently. However, the trend of defence personnel approaching the civil courts for justice has been increasing every year. Recent figures tabled in Parliament also point to a spurt in the number of defence officers either resigning their commission or seeking premature retirement.

Currently 1,924 cases filed by defence personnel on service matters are pending disposal by various courts. Most of them relate to their supersession. The numbers of civil suits filed by defence personnel in civil courts has doubled in five years from 1993 to 1997. In 1993, the petitions filed were 763 in the courts. This rose to 1,096 in 1994, 1,090 in 1995, 1,304 in 1996 and 1,489 in 1997.

It seems the justice system in the armed forces is under strain due to the increasing resort to high courts by defence personnel. This could be due to a high degree of dissatisfaction with court-martial decisions and redressal of grievances (ROG) procedures followed in the defence forces, or the fact that defence personnel have developed an appetite for litigation like civilians. The civilian and military authorities ought to look into the phenomenon and find ways of setting right the problems brought to their notice.

The Law Commission’s proposal for an appellate tribunal manned by two senior serving officers and a retired civilian judge should be seriously examined to see if it fits the bill. This tribunal should act like the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) or State Consumer Commissions to settle all the service personnel cases, including a revision of court-martial judgements and other ROGs within three months of filing of applications/petitions. Protracted high court processes certainly do not meet the end of justice.

The most serious difficulty is understood to have arisen from a verdict of the Supreme Court that the awards of CAT can be challenged in high courts. The feeling in government circles was that in the light of the ruling little purpose would be served in setting up a tribunal for defence forces. Even the present Chief of Army Staff, Gen V.P. Malik, while addressing a conference of the Judge Advocate-General’s branch, advocated for a tribunal, but favoured the Supreme Court being the sole authority to review its awards, and not the high courts.

The author, a retired Colonel, is a defence analyst.

The looming shadow
by Ramesh Luthra

AN open theatre packed to the full. A very interesting play to be staged. That is what the organisers claim. It does begin. A bulky but charming female figure looms large on the stage - the rest of the characters are overshadowed. One wink of her eyes and a few lie prostrate and the rest make a bid to stand. Certainly they are reeling in fright.

“Must be the reigning queen”, I whisper to my friend occupying the adjoining chair.

“Yes, she seems to be. You see, everything sinks or swims at her bidding”, opines my friend.

A placard with “DELHI” inscribed on it is displayed in the centre of the stage. A gentleman is seen holding discussion with his team there. Very sober and serene he appears to be. The fatty female figure clad in soft pink sari holding a white purse approaches with mischievous smile.

“The so-called marathon visit to Delhi”, remarks an old man from the back. “The dramatist must have wavered off his roots... this will infuse new life into the play.” I fix my gaze on him when my better half retorted: “Dear, don’t look sideways. Look at the stage .... see the heroine — the mightiest of the mighty has arrived. What an enviable status does she enjoy!”

“You are not less than her at home.” I chip in. She gives me a broad smile which infects me too.

I apprehend some sensation on the stage. The actors are avoiding ireful brows of equally formidable man who holds parleys with her, but she doesn’t budge an inch. Rather nods when not so tough a man rushes to plead with her.....

The stage is empty ... it brings forth yawning from the audience. Thank God rotten tomatoes and potatoes are not showered on the stage .... Nothing dramatic is happening. “Very boring” my wife utters. But it is not that long a wait when a “political earthquake” ensues on the stage. Nature too resounds. The formidable shakes hands with the deliberately silent one while the lioness roars. The audience is all ears. My garrulous friend can’t help commenting: Stands good comparison with a Shakespearean drama. You see the man on the right - note the ‘method’ in his demeanour. He is all smiles. Surely there is some meaning in his smile. “Must be holding strings - the arch manipulator,” I reply.

It is my wife’s turn now “just see all cameras are focused on the buxom figure”.

“Must be the media’s pet. It just can’t survive without her,” I opine looking into her eyes.

“Is that so?” Front page of the paper sans her photograph and statement! Ough! so insipid,” so chuckled she.

The gentleman bachelor in the centre is brooding. Poor thing! he has been besieged by these females. He has had a good taste of female power. Look there the one in pink sari ‘withdraws’ from the stage with her train leaving it topsy-turvy. The rest on the stage seem restless like the surging waves ... a storm is imminent, I presume. And it does, indeed. There is boisterous noise and counter-noise on the stage. “We didn’t come to witness this. Dear let us go home. “Thus we leave the theatre amidst this ludicrous scene, I tell my wife,” Sweetie the ultimate question is to govern or not to govern.

NATO bombing: why might is right

by Anupam Gupta

HUMANITARIAN intervention in the Balkans continues, even though the only success it has achieved till date is the reverse exodus of humanity from Kosovo. Will Kosovo remain a part of Yugoslavia or will the West, flush with the technology of war, manage to gift it independence? Kosovo today, Kashmir tomorrow, Tibet the day after — “Tibet: China’s Kosovo?” is the title of the latest, April 19 cover story of the Newsweek which no Indian can afford to ignore — how many times and in how many parts of the globe will the West stage its long march in defence of human rights and freedom?

Whatever be the shortages in the relief effort in Albania and other states bordering Kosovo, there is no shortage of human rights jurists in the West hailing the bombardment of Yugoslavia. Among them, if examples are needed, is Queen’s Counsel, Geoffrey Robertson, whom I have quoted so often in this column and whose book “Freedom, the Individual and the Law”, now in its seventh edition, makes law seem so delightful.

Speaking to CNN last Saturday, Robertson invoked the recent decision of the House of Lords in General Pinochet’s case. Like Pinochet, he said, Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic enjoys no immunity under international law and should be brought to trial for his crimes.

The vitality of the law as a metaphor obviously exceeds its reality. Pinochet is a former Head of State (of Chile), Milosevic is a serving one. And the ruling in Pinochet’s case that former Heads of State enjoy no immunity for their crimes, applies only to former Heads of State and not Heads of State in office. Assuming for a moment that the ruling is right, which (as I have said earlier) it is not, the only way to bring Milosevic within its reach is to topple him by force and render him a Head of State who once was.

If that, invading a sovereign country and toppling its Head of State (that too, an elected one), is not illegal under international law, what else is?

But even if NATO’s aerial invasion of Yugoslavia is aimed only at forcing Milosevic to come to terms over Kosovo and not at deposing him, it would still be an act of intervention wholly impermissible under international law.

A “jurist asserting a right of humanitarian intervention,” writes Prof Ian Brownlie, “has a very heavy burden of proof.” In the lengthy discussions over the years in UN bodies regarding the definition of aggression and the principles of international law concerning relations among states, the “variety of opinions canvassed has not revealed even a substantial minority in favour of the legality of humanitarian intervention.”

If a new view is now to be put forward, says Prof Brownlie, either it should be based on a “much more substantial exposition of the practice, doctrine and general development of the law relating to the use of force by states, or the view should be offered tout court (simply and bluntly) as a proposal to change the existing law.”

A leading international lawyer, Prof Brownlie holds the prestigious Chichele chair of Public International Law at Oxford. More importantly for the present debate, he argued against Pinochet in the House of Lords on behalf of Amnesty International.

American scholar Louis Henkin (whom I quoted last week on the same subject) or British scholar Ian Brownlie, individual opinions are only a guide to the law, not the law itself. Let us turn now to the International Court of Justice, an institution whose competence to interpret, declare and apply international law can hardly be doubted.

Thus spake the court in 1949, pronouncing its verdict on a dispute between the United Kingdom and Albania, both now prime actors in the Balkans, in the famous Corfu Channel case:

“The Court can only regard the alleged right of intervention as the manifestation of a policy of force, such as has, in the past, given rise to most serious abuses and such as cannot, whatever be the present defects in international organisation, find a place in international law. Intervention is perhaps still less admissible in the particular form it would take here; for, from the nature of things, it would be reserved for the most powerful States, and might easily lead to perverting the administration of international justice itself.”

If minesweeping by the Royal Navy for a couple of days in Albania’s territorial waters, without the consent of the Albanian government, amounted to a perversion of international justice, what must an aerial bombardment of a whole country by the airforces of the world’s most powerful states for already over a month, and no end in sight, amount to?

A little less than 40 years later, the court expanded upon the principle of non-intervention and condemned the USA and its Latin American allies for their military intervention in left-wing Nicaragua.

“In the view of the Court (it said in 1986), under international law in force today — whether customary international law or that of the United Nations system — States do not have a right of “collective” armed response to acts which do not constitute an armed attack...”

But then, the International Court of Justice is only an organ, the judicial organ of the United Nations. And for the USA and its NATO allies in their present phase of international dominance, the court is as irrelevant as the United Nations itself.

Big leaders go underground

by Humra Quraishi

AT the time of filing this column political instability at the Centre is at its height or you could even call it down in the dumps. The vote of confidence over and the Vajpayee led BJP coalition government losing the numbers game, confusion seem so heightened that no one is even willing to utter a word, leave alone making an assessment of the present situation. All the so-called big leaders seem to have gone underground and the smaller ones insist that they are in no position to comment. When today evening (April 17 afternoon) I finally managed to talk to Ms Mayawati she seemed obsessed with just one sentence “Jo Bahujan Samaj party ke hith mein he, ham wohi step lenge ....”. When contacted a general secretary of the Congress party and Tajdar Babar’s son-in-law Imran Kidwai left everything on the Congress Working Committee’s meet scheduled to be held at 8 pm tonight “Just now nothing can be said ...Madam (Sonia Gandhi) is surrounded by people at her residence...In fact, I am also coming from there....”.

The BJP top brass seems to be at present closeted in a meeting so they cannot part with comments at this stage and just after the Prime Minister and Home Minister met the President K R Narayanan, a 10-member group led by George Fernandes also met him. And when contacted, Ms J. Jayalalitha’s secretary confirmed that she has extended her stay here, at least till April 20. And though Jayalalitha was booked at the Maurya Sheraton initially for five days — April 12 to 16 — but sources said yesterday night itself that her reservation had been extended till April 20. Though this date is said to be more or less confirmed but it could be further extended, depending on the political buildups and also perhaps on the hotel services. Not to overlook the fact that earlier her choice of stay here had been the Ashoka and then the two Taj chain hotels and just a day prior to her arrival Maurya Sheraton was pinpointed at. And though hotel sources say she is not demanding and nor is she fussy about food “eats very, very little ... “but her own security bandobast is backed by the hotel’s.

First Lady’s active role

In the last 10 days or so the First Lady of the country, Usha Narayanan, played the chief guest’s role to perfection. First was the 17th birthday celebrations of the sarod queen Sharan Rani where she was the guest of honour. Then, when the President of the Kyrghyz Republic Akaeva Akaevich along with his scientist spouse Mairam touched New Delhi, Usha Narayanan released the Kyrghyz First Lady’s book — “Stars of Science” — at Rashtrapati Bhavan. It didn’t seem just a formal release function, rather Usha Narayanan seemed to have taken personal attention and spoke with a certain sense of feeling and warmth. But the only aspect lacking at that function were men. For some strange reasons, with an exception of those on duty, security, protocol, there seemed no male guest around. And when I craned my neck around, finally just one male invitee sitting self conscious in the third row could be spotted. A pity, for I am certain that our men would have liked to hear what the Kyrghyz President’s spouse had to say or hear from them. And though an interpreter was needed to get across to us whatever she said in her detailed speech but, nevertheless, it wasn’t along boring cliched lines. Or, it could be that so little is known about those countries lying in the erstwhile Central Russia, that any bit of information is welcome. Moving ahead, our First Lady also played the chief guest’s role at the launch of debut solo album (Sony Music) of Amjad Ali Khan’s son Ayaan Ali Bangash. And though I have never heard him play but met him on several occasions and here I must add that both he and his older brother Amaan seem well brought up. Though they went to the capital’s leading public school (Modern, Vasant Vihar) but are seen traditionally dressed in cotton kurta pyjamas and they make a point to wish you, again in the traditional way. I think their mother Subhalakshmi has played a very prominent role in their upbringing — don’t overlook the fact that soon after marriage she gave up her dance career to look after these boys, together with the spouse and home.

Tell me, how many of us have the confidence and sense to place priorities on the right rungs?

Shovana’s obsession

From one dancer who left dance right at the peak to another one, who probably cannot live without dance. Yes, I am referring to Shovana Narayan who seems to be obsessed with dance. If I am not mistaken she performs at an average once a month. In fact, just today morning has come in another invitation from her — on 22 April she is all set to perform ‘Bhavollas’, dedicated to the Maithil poet Vidyapati. The venue is the Kamani auditorium and the sponsors the ICCR.

Not restricting herself to just kathak last weekend she, together with her Austrian diplomat husband Herbert Traxl, held the floor open for the so-called pre-summernight ball. What a ball it was! The so and so of Delhi’s glitterati evenings not only danced but used the occasion to touch you on the shoulder, waist, hand and even further up the hand. At times I wonder why that retired old civil servant was placed in a near dock situation for just patting on the behind. Here, in the so-called glitterati parties men make it a point to touch hands, waist, shoulders and back. And get away with it. All in the name of society norms. Not fair. But, remember this is Dilli!

75 YEARS AGO

Bank’s properties

THE sale of the British Bank’s various properties throughout India was extensively advertised and some 43 out of a total of 52 have either been sold or agreements for sale have been entered into. The values realised are those now current in the real property market, but owing to the recent and rapid slump in property values such values cannot be compared favourably with the prices ruling during the boom and which are the prices at which a majority of the properties stood in the books of the Bank.

Due precaution has been taken that the various properties have not been disposed of at sacrificial or “knock out” prices and accordingly several properties, including the majority of the Calcutta properties, remain on hand and for which liquidators are prepared to negotiate privately.