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Open borders Needed autonomy |
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Retrograde verdict Eye-for-an-eye concept must be abandoned AN anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has given a judgement not expected in the twentyfirst century. It has sentenced a young man to be blinded by pouring acid into his eyes. The man had disfigured and blinded his beloved in this manner when her parents fixed her marriage to someone else.
Who is afraid of the immigrant?
Lessons in humility
Delhi Metro: a quality project at low cost
CONSUMER
RIGHTS
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Open borders PRIME
MINISTER Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s impassioned plea to the South Asian nations to follow the European model would have been dismissed as a Nehruvian dream had it been made two decades ago. The European Union has been in existence since November 1993 and the vast economic and social benefits that the entire continent has reaped should make it an attractive idea for other regions to follow. South Asia may not yet be ready for adopting the policies that have given the European nations the political muscle to be treated with respect even by nations that have a history of bullying lesser states. Why look at the European Union model right now? The success of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) should be enough to convince the South Asian audience that Mr Vajpayee’s suggestion needs to be taken seriously. The European Union was not born overnight. It began with the signing of the European Coal and Steel Community in1951 in Paris. The next step was the treaty establishing the European Atomic Energy Community which was signed (along with the EEC Treaty) in Rome in 1957. The Treaty on European Union was signed in Maastricht on February 7, 1992. Open borders and a common South Asian currency, and a common Asian currency in the future, can transform the biggest continent into an economically most advanced region of the world. However, the biggest impediment in the evolution of the South Asian Union is the suspect democratic structure of some member-states of SAARC. India is the only splendid exception. Europe is integrated because member-states are functional democracies. Mr Vajpayee, who made the suggestion at a seminar in Delhi, has thrown a broad hint about the content of his address at the SAARC summit in Islamabad next month. He would strengthen his case for a South Asian Union by urging reluctant members to accept the importance of democracy as an essential element in the success of bilateral and multilateral partnerships. |
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Needed autonomy THE
controversy over the removal of Prof M.G.S. Narayanan from the post of Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) is unfortunate. It not only erodes the autonomy of the premier institution but also affects its administrative reputation. There is apparently strong groupism in the organisation which bodes ill for its future. The government should be more concerned with setting things in order instead of showing the door to an uncomfortable head. Mr Narayanan’s stand that the charge of financial irregularities made against him had been dropped in the new CAG report after verification deserves attention. Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi had fired the late M.L. Sondhi, ICSSR Chairman, also on the same grounds. However, the Supreme Court had later cleared Mr Sondhi’s name, saying that, prima facie, there was no case against him. Professor Narayanan’s case has become all the more sensitive with the CPM alleging that he had actually been sacked because he had “boldly criticised the shoddy textbooks” brought out by the National Council for Educational Research and Training. It is not a question of government interference in one particular institution. The strings attached by the ministries to many professional organisations restrict their manoeuvrability. They have to rush to the minister concerned for seeking clearance for every small matter. Not only that, certain unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats lord over these organisations and force them to bend rules for everything, from appointments to the declaration of results. That is why academic excellence has been on the decline. Most institutions have become hotbeds of politics. Their autonomy has to be restored if they have to regain their past glory. It is true that the government has to intervene in exceptional cases. But at present, exceptions have rather become the rule. |
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Retrograde verdict AN anti-terrorism court in Pakistan has given a judgement not expected in the twentyfirst century. It has sentenced a young man to be blinded by pouring acid into his eyes. The man had disfigured and blinded his beloved in this manner when her parents fixed her marriage to someone else. The eye-for-an-eye verdict has been given by the court at Bahawalpur, Punjab, under the Islamic law of Qissas, enacted during the rule of Gen Zia-ul-Haq. The judge could have definitely found a way to interpret the law differently and given a verdict in tune with the times. But he did his duty in a manner as if he was a “qazi” (judge) of an Islamic court centuries ago. The judgement reflects the state of the judiciary in Pakistan. This is not how the judiciary should function today. The eye-for-an-eye concept can find no place in the justice delivery system in this age. It resembles tribal practices and must be abandoned in the interest of the healthy growth of society. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, an independent private institution, has rightly said that the Bahawalpur court’s judgement offers no justice. “It is not a punishment, but revenge”, which is never expected of a judge of a modern court. The best way to prevent the pronouncement of such retrograde verdicts is to change the law itself. The law should not only be aimed at punishing an offender but also at creating a condition which leads to an improvement in the overall crime situation. Love marriage is a taboo in most sections of Pakistani society. If a change is brought about in the people’s attitude, the number of incidents of throwing acid to disfigure a girl’s face will come down considerably. The courts can play a major role to achieve this objective. Thought for the day I am not only a pacifist but a militant pacifist. I am willing to fight for peace. Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war. —Albert Einstein
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Who is afraid of the immigrant? AS I gazed at the photograph depicting a Bihari job-seeker fleeing from the two-legged hounds who call themselves Shiv Sainiks at a railway station in Mumbai last week, I was reminded of my uncle's favourite story. After his pre-university course, he had gone to Bombay in search of a job. When the train reached Kalyan, a middleman approached him with a job offer. And by the time the train reached Victoria Terminus, he had received four or five pucca job offers. He preferred to join Dena Bank from where he retired as a senior manager. Fifty years ago in Bombay
migrants were welcome but in today's Mumbai, they are hounded out by the Shiv Sainiks. Astoundingly enough, not a single political party in Maharashtra, either ruling the state or in the Opposition, thought it necessary to condemn the attacks on the job-seekers who had arrived in the city from various places to appear for a railway recruitment test. What's worse, some leaders who fancy themselves as above the law of the land have been threatening the "aliens" day in and day out with dangerous consequences if they descended on the Maharashtra capital in search of jobs. That the Shiv Sena is spearheading the agitation, which strikes at the root of the Constitutional guarantee that protects the rights of the citizen to travel anywhere in the country, get jobs and settle down except in the case of notified areas, is not surprising as it owes its genesis to an anti-South Indian movement. Those who know Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray know his tiff with the Malayali founder-editor of the Free Press Journal that prompted him to leave cartooning to take up South Indian-bashing as a career. He and his musketeers chose to forget that Bombay owed as much to Marwari and Gujarati enterprise as to the accounting and clerical talent of what are contemptuously called the "Madrasis". The Shiv Sainik in Mumbai is not all alone. In Germany, the neo-Nazis' favourite hate object is the Turkish Muslim forgetting that the workforce that rebuilt city after city in the World War-ravaged country came from Turkey. Be it Bonn or Berlin, the people who keep the German cities clean are the Turks, who are denied the creature comforts that the citizens of Germany are entitled to. Though supposedly unwelcome, it is the Mexican emigrants, many of them illegal, who keep the construction work in many of the US cities going. Yet the tragedy is that the immigrants are not given their due and are often the target of hate crime. Dozens of Biharis were killed in Assam when some Northeastern railway passengers were attacked in Bihar. The attack on the passengers was in retaliation to the Assamese preventing the Bihari job-seekers from appearing for a recruitment test. Revenge is central to these attacks and counter-attacks. How powerful a motive revenge is was known when nearly 2,000 people were killed for the torching of a train compartment at Godhra. When those entrusted with the responsibility of suppressing such mindless vendetta killings began asking "kisne aag lagayee" (who lit the fire?), they lost the moral authority to upbraid those targeting Biharis in Assam. The net result is that the weak and the vulnerable fall prey to the criminally inclined and the strong. The irony is that many of those killed in Assam were Biharis only in name. Most of them were born and brought up in Assam and spoke only Assamese. Nobody can say with certainty how long one takes to be considered a "native" - one generation or more. Eight years ago on a visit to a village in Changlang district in Arunachal Pradesh, where the largest number of Chakma refugees are settled, youth after youth asked me how they could be called "people from the Chittagong hill tracts" when they had never seen the "hills" having been born and brought up in Arunachal Pradesh. Today the Chakmas have become indispensable to Changlang's economy. They are hardworking, grow large quantities of vegetables, provide cheap manual labour and are considered dependable while the native tribal youth drive around in Maruti vans or whiz on fancy motorcycles. But every now and then, the All-Arunachal Pradesh Students Union threatens to evict the Chakmas, though the student leaders admit in private the impossibility of the task, given the accretion in the Chakmas' strength. The Chakma in Changlang epitomises the difficulty in distinguishing the "alien" from the "native." In fact, there is no yardstick to measure the nativity of a person, though the law is clear on this point. But then it is those who do not respect the law who organise such attacks and killings. All that they need is to brand people. And when political and other forces try to brand the people, their job becomes easier and easier. Those lording it over the academic world have been trying to disprove the theory that the Aryans were a nomadic tribe who settled in the North in their bid to prove that they are as native as the adivasis, who they prefer to call pejoratively 'vanvasis'. But like "all the perfumes of Arabia that will not sweeten this hand", all the cooked up theories they flaunt will not undermine the fact that all are aliens in this world. As sociologist Myron Weiner has remarked, "migration is the story of our world." Take the case of the Northeast, which is as diverse and heterogeneous as the rest of the country is. Few people know that more often than not, the average Assamese is ignorant of the Naga tradition as the Tripuri is of the Mizo heritage. Yet, the tendency is to club the entire Northeast as one entity. Many of the tribes in this area had reached there from such distant lands as Kampuchea, Myanmar-China and the Yunnan province in South-West China. Their languages are also akin to the dialects spoken in those foreign lands. Even the Bodos who are considered the most "original inhabitants" are of Tibeto-Burman stock while the Ahoms who ruled Assam for six centuries until 1826 when the state fell into the hands of the British are of Thai-Burmese origin and settled in the Brahmaputra Valley only in the early part of the 13th century. The Muslim presence in Assam can be traced to the 11th century when an Iraqi prince was allowed to set up a shrine near the banks of the Brahmaputra on a Hill near Hajo, which still flourishes as Pua Mecca. But that did not prevent the worst-ever massacre of the immigrants at Nellie in February 1983. It was the result of the sustained campaign that the Bangladeshis were trying to swamp the Northeast. In the sixteenth century, Italian political philosopher Niccoloa de Bernado Machiavelli had suggested that "sending immigrants is the most effective way to colonise countries". But today's immigrant has no idea of colonization. He leaves his hearth and home in search of greener pastures. The Tamilians move to Kerala where the educated Malayali is not prepared to do manual work as Bihari and UP workers move to Punjab where the youth are no longer willing to work on the fields as their fathers and grandfathers did to make Punjab the granary of the country. It is time we learnt to recognise the reality of the immigrant, who is much maligned but
wanted. |
Lessons in humility HUMILITY. The antidote to a bloated ego, a pre-requisite in the quest for learning, this is a virtue whose merits have been extolled by saints and seers since times immemorial. Yet, there is no fixed formula for imbibing humility. It is essentially born out of an ability to think beyond oneself, to see oneself as an atom in the wider cosmos, as a tiny drop in the ever-swelling ocean of humanity. Communion with nature, for one, evokes in me this sense of being a mere speck on the mega, multi-hued canvas of creation. Like watching the quiet dawn, with stars blurring in the velvety shawl of the receding night, gently rubbing away the drops of darkness nestling on its curly eyelash to bring humanity into wakefulness. Little, everyday sights and sounds are enough to draw one out of a myopic, self-absorbed worldview. Be it the innocent, toothless smile of one’s infant when he wakes up or the carefree abandon of a child swinging on the arm of Big Daddy Banyan. One encounter that really brought me face to face with humility in the true sense took place during a trek to Hemkund with my family. The snow-capped peaks were breathtaking with their patchwork of blue, green and ivory. As we were about to cross the glacier, the pilgrims made a queue to go one by one as the path was wide enough only for one person to pass in each direction. An old villager was walking down with one hand on a young man’s shoulder and the other on a bamboo stick. Even as I nearly slipped the old man walked steadily in his rubber chappals. Later, I learnt that he was blind. What he saw when he reached the holy shrine and what he experienced will always remain a mystery. But this shrivelled, blind pilgrim’s walk of faith through rugged terrain to an altitude of 14,000 feet made me acutely aware of our own smallness in the Creator’s scheme of things. The act of giving too can be a humbling experience. This brings to mind the wrinkled, smiling face of the ayah we had as kids. Her small frame wrapped in a saree and the grey of her hair denoting a timelessness, she served us tirelessly day in and day out. But at the end of each month she would wear her best saree, tie a small knot at the end of her pallu and go out. One day I asked her, “Where do you go?” She smiled and patted me, “I go to my son, baby.” “And, what do you carry in your pallu?” I persisted. “He does not have a regular job, so I give him my salary. I am well-looked after by you all and I’ve paid the Reverend in advance for my burial, so what do I need money for?” Today, as I can comprehend the enormity of her gesture, I feel humbled by this ordinary woman’s largeness of spirit. Often, it is the ordinary people who show more humility than those who’re actually called great or extraordinary. Like that rickshawallah who, I read somewhere, donated the only hundred he had for the construction of a school. Being able to step out of our egocentric visions and taking a larger perspective of life is thus an important step towards humility. |
Delhi Metro: a quality project at low cost
“MY dream is to take the Metro to all the 14 cities in the country and in the next five years. I am sure the Metro will be operational in at least five cities like Chennai. Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad,” observes the
Chairman and Managing Director of Delhi Metro, Mr E. Sreedharan. He maintains “the Metro doesn’t need publicity. Our performance is our only publicity.” The unassuming Mr Sreedharan points out that everyone is satisfied with the progress of the Metro. Initially, the mandate was to finish the entire track route of 55.3 km in 10 years and now even after the route was extended to 68 km the time period has been reduced from 10 to seven years and the work is on schedule. “When the scope of work increased almost by 20 per cent, we have reduced the work time by 30 per cent and it’s a remarkable achievement. We are also within the budget providing quality construction, safety, causing minimum inconvenience to the public and setting environmentally high standards,” remarked Mr Sreedharan in a candid interview. In fact the Delhi Metro is the first project to be certified ISO 14001 by an Italian company for setting up international standards in India. “We have addressed the environmental concerns of the city and the people.” His regret is that “initially we faced setbacks like I wanted the standard gauge for Metro but the Railways wanted broad gauge and I am still displeased and frustrated due to the fact that we could not bring the standard gauge. Another big problem we encountered was land acquisition and lack of adequate technology, which we brought from outside the country. However, with the help of the Delhi government, the land problem was overcome.” Setting aside these problems, Mr Sreedharan wants to make the Metro world class in the shortest time period by incurring the lowest cost. “I don’t have a role model to derive my inspiration, but the work done for the Metro is only an expression of my commitment to serve the people,” he emphasises. After graduating from Government Engineering College, Kakinada, in 1953, Mr Sreedharan joined the Bombay Port Trust as an apprentice engineer and later Southern Railways as a probationary assistant engineer in 1954. From then onwards he never looked back. In July, 1989, he became Member (Engineering), Railway Board, and ex-officio Secretary to the
Government of India. On his retirement in 1990, he became the CMD of Konkan Railways and after completion of the prestigious project, he was asked to take over as CMD of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) in November, 1997. Reacting to the allegation by some traders and residents that Metro did not rehabilitate them Mr Sreedharan explained that a “project of this style and magnitude will definitely put some people to inconvenience but in the larger interest of society we have tried to mitigate their problems and rehabilitate them to the maximum extent with the help of the government and civic agencies.” The affected traders have been provided with temporary places for running their business and the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) is arranging houses for those residents who lost their homes. “We have kept Rs 500 crore especially for the land and rehabilitation and already spent Rs 400 crore. We have gone out of the way to help the people. Also while laying the line-three, we faced fierce resistance from the people on the Pusa and Shivaji roads but we explained to them that in the interest of a world-class facility, such things were inevitable and they agreed. Also there was not much pressure from local politicians because they too wanted the Metro to be in place. Often they take a public stand, but also realise the need for the Metro.” He asserts that the Delhi Metro will be able to cover its cash expenditure. When the second phase was inaugurated by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the crowd was beyond expectations. It was two and a half times more and “we hope this would double when the third phase is ready by March, 2004. Initially, we had glitches like doors were not shutting properly, problems in air conditioning. Singalling and announcements, but all these are fully stabilised now. He was proud that while running 198 trains everyday there is 100 per cent punctuality. This is because even if 60 seconds are lost, punctuality is lost. The Delhi Metro also has a package for its employees under the Workman’s Compensation Act coupled with ex-gratia which is provided outside the statutory responsibilities. “For the first time, we have set up a labour welfare fund for the widows and children of the victims. It is outside the legal obligation but we are more concerned about our social
responsibility,” Mr Sreedharan said. About the difference between Konkan and Delhi Metro, he said “Delhi is a crowded city and complex in nature with limited areas for manoeuvering. We often suspended work at night to avoid inconvenience to the public and have acquired special equipment to minimise botheration. But with the help of all civic agencies like the MCD, DVB, NDMC and MTNL we are managing well. I am not only satisfied, but feel quite proud for the work done in Delhi.” “The success is not because of an individual, but it’s a team effort. I have brought the best from the Railways and the CPWD to ensure the success of the Delhi Metro,” Mr Sreedharan added. |
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CONSUMER
RIGHTS PATPARGANJ in East Delhi is a small locality. However, consumers there have shown the way for others to follow. Some time ago, when a large garbage bin in the area was repaired, but repaired shabbily, the residents suspected that the contractor had not done his job properly. So they used the Right to Information Act, 2001, passed by the Delhi Government to obtain a copy of the work contract pertaining to repair of the bin. As per the contract, besides redoing the floor of the bin, the sides had to be plastered and an iron door was to be installed. However, the contractor had only attended to the floor of the bin and had ignored the rest and collected his money. Within a week of the residents asking for the contract copy, the rest of the work was completed! I use this case quoted by an NGO, the Centre for Civil Society, in its book titled “State of Governance: Delhi Citizen Handbook”, to bring home the point that consumer associations and residents’ associations can effectively take up cudgels against corruption and inefficiency in the administration and force those in power, including the elected representatives, to become accountable to the people. In fact, in the run-up to the elections, political parties and candidates always make a lot of promises. I would like you to ponder ways in which to keep track of these promises and demand their fulfilment after the poll. The Saturday edition of The Tribune carried a report on how thousands of activists of the All India Confederation of SC, BC, ST organisations and Dr Ambedkar Mission Club would stage a dharna the next day in front of the residence of AICC President Sonia Gandhi, protesting against the Punjab Government’s failure to fulfill certain election promises. While this is one way, the other is to assess the performance of the government and the individual elected representatives once a year and bring out a report card. This is not difficult, if in every locality, residents’ associations collectively take up the work. They must make a list of the promises made, keep copies of the manifestoes of political parties and newspaper clips of what individuals and parties have said during the election rallies. Compare this with the MLA’s performance and make it public. This would certainly keep the government on its toes . In this kind of work, the Right to Information Act can be an extremely important tool in the hands of consumers/ citizens. Take the case of construction and repair of roads. Barring exceptions, most roads are full of potholes within a few months. Well, one need not be a silent spectator. Get a copy of the work contract and find out the quality specifications laid out for the road. Find out if these have been adhered to. Take another area: power supply. Residents’ associations must keep a log book to keep track of power cuts and fluctuations. If power supply is erratic, the local MLA and the Minister for Power must be confronted with this evidence. The Centre for Civil Society (CCS)
conducted a social audit of 64 developmental works costing Rs 1.3 crore taken up by the local government in one small area — Sundernagari in East Delhi. What it found was that items or works worth about Rs 70 lakh (or more than half of the recorded expenditure) did not physically exist at all in these 64 works. The NGO found, for example, that electric motors were supposed to be installed on 29 handpumps, but not even one had been fixed. Similarly, whenever a new street is made, the drains on both sides of the street are supposed to be demolished and made afresh. In 35 cases examined, even though payments had been made by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi for the construction of fresh drains, none had been constructed. |
O Lord of the mountains! I do not know how you can love all. You are pleased with anyone, whoever he be, even if a traitor to his own son or to his own father, though you cannot be a traitor ever. — Shri Adi Shankaracharya If there is one word that you find coming like a bomb from the Upanishads, bursting like a bomb-shell upon masses of ignorance, it is the word, fearlessness. — Swami Vivekananda Faith and contentment are virtues of the faithful; patience is the sustenance of the angelic beings. — Guru Nanak Vedanta can be spoken with ease. But to learn and live Vedanta you need to put in considerable effort. You will have to practise it constantly. Study, reflection, practical application and verification of facts in your own life together constitute Vedantic practice. — Swami Parthasarathy Age does not depend upon years, but upon temparament and health. Some men are born old, and some never grow so. — Tryon Edwards |
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