Mid-monsoon break
THERE is a sudden break in monsoon activities over this part of the country causing a degree of anxiety among farmers and administrators.

Of Seshan & Congress
WINSTON Churchill once claimed that he got more out of liquor than liquor got out of him. It is unclear whether former Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan can say the same about the Congress, which has evidently found in him the political "heavyweight" it was looking for to take on Union Home Minister L. K. Advani in the election for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat.

Merge, split, merge …
COME to Haryana, the State perpetually in motion! Such signboards have not been put up along highways so far but they might come up one day, considering that there is never a dull moment in the land of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams.

BUOYANT AT THE RED
What PM really means
by Inder Malhotra
NO one could have failed to notice the ring of self-confidence and self-congratulation in Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort.

General election then & now
by P.D. Shastri
JAWAHARLAL NEHRU called the first few elections as the political education of the masses. Today it is not education but mostly miseducation.

Moved 13 years ago, the suit still continues
AMBALA: How speedy justice can a common man get in our scheme of things? If one goes by the 17-year-old saga of suffering of Sharda Kalra and Santosh Malik, two former lady lecturers at the local Dev Samaj College for Girls, one is led to believe that the labyrinthine system of dispensation of justice consumes one’s entire life, apart from ruining one financially and shattering one psychologically. And still justice may not be in sight.

The past tense of ‘think’
by K.K. Khullar
INDIA has intellect but no intellectual, said the author of the “Asian Drama” To disprove this statement we went to a coffee house. Professor Kaila had just arrived with half a dozen books in both arms while Professor Kalia had already settled.

75 Years Ago

South India Floods
Several families disappear
August 18, 1924
THE Madras Mail Cochin correspondent gives gruesome accounts of human casualties consequent on the recent floods. From the reports received, the Moplahs and the Indian Christians appear to have been most affected. Large families, caught by the floods when it was at its height, have disappeared altogether.

Mid-monsoon break

THERE is a sudden break in monsoon activities over this part of the country causing a degree of anxiety among farmers and administrators. The shortfall is not alarming, nor unmanageable. But absence of moisture can affect the output. This is so even in areas with assured irrigation facilities. Hence the concern expressed by farmers in the paddy-rich districts of Haryana, some pockets in Punjab and much of the Kashmir valley. Paddy is a short duration crop, and that means inclement weather can inflict damage without the kisan having the necessary time for counter-measures. Several other paddy-growing areas too are in a similar situation, indicating the near certain possibility of a drop in the kharif output. This would be keeping with the trend; a year of impressive growth in grain harvest is normally followed by a year of a lean harvest. A comparison between the two years makes this glaring. But the healthy buffer stock is an assurance that the slightly shrunken output will have no adverse fallout at the retail market level. This is particularly so this year. There is nearly 12 million tonnes of rice with the FCI, while the norm for this part of the year is 10 million tonnes and the harvest is just weeks away. There is also adequate stock in private hands and rice-shellers, and export has stopped for a variety of reasons.

Another reassuring factor is the steady fall in the rate of inflation. At the wholesale price index (WPI) level, inflation is in a historically low zone. One expert feels that by October or even earlier there may be a real lowering of prices of items of everyday consumption. This has nothing to do with any government policy but everything to do with the abnormally steep climb in prices of several items last year. Since inflation, however unreliable the WPI and however faulty the selection of commodities, is a straight matching of the prices of a week in the current year with those of the corresponding week the previous year, and since prices ruled high last year, the rate will soon show a negative trend. This is so despite a sharp rise of about 15 per cent in the prices of foodgrains during the past one year. It has resulted in agricultural labour getting paid in cash and not in kind, forcing them to buy foodgrains and thus adding to the pressure on prices. The lull in monsoon activities is most certainly a temporary phenomenon but the anxiety of the kisan is genuine and that speaks volumes of the brittleness of the agricultural economy.

Of Seshan & Congress

WINSTON Churchill once claimed that he got more out of liquor than liquor got out of him. It is unclear whether former Chief Election Commissioner T. N. Seshan can say the same about the Congress, which has evidently found in him the political "heavyweight" it was looking for to take on Union Home Minister L. K. Advani in the election for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat. Both Mr Seshan and the Congress high command deserve a"thank you" note from Mr Advani for reasons which need not be explained before the election process is completed. Political compulsions indeed, more often than not, throw up not only strange but bizarre bedfellows. When Mr Seshan was the boss at Nirvachan Sadan the Congress unofficially treated him as its enemy number one. The Congress was more vocal than most other political parties in attacking for the initiatives he took for making the election process as clean and transparent as was possible within limitations imposed on him by the Constitution and the various provisions of the Representation of the People Act. It was not that he did not try to exercise powers which did not belong to the Election Commission. The Congress cannot deny that it was primarily responsible for the creation of a three-member Election Commission with the sole objective of clipping Mr Seshan's wings.

Of course, it is a different story that the same Mr Seshan who used to boast of eating "politicians for breakfast" should seek the company of the Congress for fulfilling his limitless and countless dreams for making every Indian a proud Indian. Within the heavy frame which defines his physical limits lies a soul not at peace with itself or with others. That is the reason why controversy is his second name. He thought he had a right to be angry when the government made him pay market rent for over-staying his welcome in the official accommodation allotted to him as CEC. However, instead of repairing to his native place for leading a quiet life in prayer and meditation he cast his eye on the biggest house an Indian can aspire for. He declared himself to be most qualified individual for the office of the President of India.While other political parties concealed their smirk the Shiv Sena said amen. When the Rashtrapati Bhavan dream did not come true he launched the "Deshbhakti Trust" for fighting corruption. This time the accommodation he found for himself in Delhi for launching the "clean India" campaign turned out to be part of the several ill-gotten properties of gangster Romesh Sharma. However, ask Mr Seshan and he is likely to thunder that he is as clean as the driven snow and that some of his innate goodness would most certainly rub off on the Congress once he launches his election campaign against Mr Advani in the constituency which is close to the Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad from where he had launched the "Deshbhakti Trust".

Merge, split, merge …

COME to Haryana, the State perpetually in motion! Such signboards have not been put up along highways so far but they might come up one day, considering that there is never a dull moment in the land of Aya Rams and Gaya Rams. Yet another twist in the never-ending Robert Ludlum thriller has come with the merger of the Haryana Vikas Party (Democratic) with the Indian National Lok Dal. To use a more indigenous simile, one can say that the donkey has rolled once again in hay. Not that this was unexpected. The seeds of the wholesale transfer were sown on the same day that the group had been recognised as a separate party. The 17 legislators were willing ducks, sitting in wait for the "hunters" to approach them. Obviously, Mr Om Prakash Chautala proved to have the best aim. Fourteen of the 17 legislators are in his kitty. Some others would now approach their "supporters" about their future course of action and everyone knows what the supporters are going to say. The leftovers can either fall in line or be trampled. The switchover does no harm to the heavy-duty conscience of any politician and any resemblance to defection is purely coincidental. The Congress can be expected to use the dirty word repeatedly but cannot hide the fact that it was also out to grab the legislators. Somehow, its recent political moves in Haryana have been full of naivete. First, its helping hand to Mr Bansi Lal earned it the reflected resentment of the general public and now it disclosed its firepower prematurely by lassoing Mr Jagan Nath. As Mr Chautala said with several twinkles in his eyes after the "shikar", what his party and the HVP (D) effected was a merger pure and simple, which is a continuous political process. Be prepared for the next instalment of the postings and transfers. There is a juicy story in his hint that certain HVP MLAs are also in touch with him.

By this shrewd move, Mr Chautala has reduced the dependence of his party on the BJP. There are little chances of the two parting company because the benefits of a coalition are known to both sides. He used the threat of a snap assembly poll to rope in the HVP(D) legislators. But holding the disparate flock together will be more difficult than effecting a merger. Now he will hang the carrot of expansion of the ministry to requisite effect. Those who have switched sides are apparently keen that not only should they receive extra-large chunks of the power cake but should also get party ticket whenever elections are held. It requires the skill of a juggler to keep so many balls in the air simultaneously. One hopes that whenever the Chief Minister gets a breather from this highly technical job, he will find some time for the development of the State. The political "tamasha" which has been continuing for long has kept the sturdy Haryanavis amused all right but has played havoc with the State's economy.

BUOYANT AT THE RED
What PM really means
by Inder Malhotra

NO one could have failed to notice the ring of self-confidence and self-congratulation in Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort. What makes his optimistic outlook all the more remarkable is that, rejecting the advice of his spin doctors, he had refused to embark on extempore oratory, his strong suit, and insisted on delivering a carefully crafted and conspicuously terse written address.

Thus it was that the Prime Minister was able to take credit for the Kargil victory; for Pakistan’s international isolation and growing support to the Indian point of view; for the Shakti series of nuclear tests “which have made India stronger than ever”; and for ensuring, in the councils of the world, “within a year of Pokhran-II”, that “India is synonymous with responsibility”.

Once launched on the topic of national security, Mr Vajpayee pressed his advantage as hard as possible. He declared that Agni-II had been tested, despite intense international pressure, and would soon be inducted into the armed forces. And while recounting the old verity that God and soldiers are remembered only at the time of war and forgotten immediately thereafter, he said that while servicemen had been “neglected” in the past, they would be well looked after now.

Only on the last point has he drawn flak from the Congress and others who have accused him of trying to make “political capital” out of the Kargil operations. For the rest, even his inveterate critics agree that he had his way with skill and sophistication, and in no way used a solemn national occasion to make an election speech.

His own personal sense of propriety apart, one obvious reason for Mr Vajpayee’s commendable restraint is the widespread belief in the country, especially among the middle classes in big cities and small towns, that the outcome of the election is as good as settled, and that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), under Mr Vajpayee’s leadership, is likely to be back in power. Opinion polls, which reinforce this conclusion, and Mr Vajpayee’s performance at the Red Fort, are but the two sides of the same coin.

The key question, however, is whether the opinion polls and public opinion surveys conducted so far are accurate? It would seem so, though one must hasten to qualify this assertion. As events during the last 16 months have shown, the Indian situation can be highly volatile. Something unexpected and unforeseen can easily upset the present calculations, especially because the first day of polling is more than a fortnight away and voting is to last a whole month.

Subject to this, a forecast about the post-poll scene can be made with reasonable confidence, for reasons which are not far to seek. As of today, it appears that Mr Vajpayee, more than either the BJP or even the NDA, and more the NDA than the saffron party, will be returned to power. What is more, the majority of the Vajpayee-led coalition is likely to be somewhat greater than the precarious one in the dissolved Lok Sabha though it is unlikely to be as comfortable as predicted by India Today and might be nearer to Outlook’s estimate of 280-286 seats for the combination.

However, nothing in this country is simple. There are always contradictions galore and wheels within wheels. Ironically, what has strengthened the NDA’s chances of improving its position — consolidation of the alliance by the formation of the laughingly misnamed United Janata Dal and its admission into the fold after a lot of acrimony and bitterness — may also prove to be its biggest weakness after the elections. Especially when the time comes to share the spoils of office and run something resembling a government.

By the hard bargain they succeeded in driving Mr George Fernandes, Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, Mr J.H. Patel, et al, they have acquired a clout incomparably greater than Ms Jayalalitha had in the previous outfit. Furthermore, the resentment of the “purists” within the BJP apart, stalwarts like Mr Sharad Yadav, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and their cohorts are in trouble wherever they are.

However, that lies in the future. At present the pertinent point is that the Congress has unwittingly contributed to enhancing the chances of the BJP and its allies. The party still has no organisation worth the name in critically important states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. The worth of its alliance with Ms Jayalalitha in Tamil Nadu is rather doubtful.

Above all — and this is of cardinal importance — Mr Vajpayee’s acceptability among those who will not vote for the BJP has greatly increased while Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s acceptability as Prime Minister among the Congress opponents and even among its sympathisers has declined. As it happens, with the death of ideology, reckless opportunism (symbolised best by Mr Arun Nehru’s candidature on behalf of the BJP from Rae Bareli) and the absence of any major election issue, the poll has virtually been converted into a “Vajpayee versus Sonia” contest.

This is not and cannot be the end of the story. Who wins the elections is, of course, of significance. But what happens after the elections is vastly more, indeed supremely, important. Notwithstanding our good showing over Kargil, the challenges that continue to confront India are stark, even frightening. No one should be complacent about them, and no government can cope with them without a sturdy national consensus behind it.

What happened on I-Day itself was enough to drive home the point. In spite of the “never-before” security, Pakistan-backed militants and terrorists could act in both Jammu and Kashmir and Assam, attacking military and police posts. The march of events in both states during the run up to August 15 was macabre. In Kashmir, the newly infiltrated terrorists, mostly veterans of the “Afghan Jehad” and Islamists from Pakistan’s NWFP, mounted at least one attack on an army or para-military force a day with apparent impunity. Evidently, the marauders could not have been able to do so without some help or acquiescence from the local population which doubtless is weary of the proxy war. Its mood may be changing because of fear or other reasons.

Typically immersed in our usual self-satisfaction, we Indians are oblivious of some of the crucial nuances of the international opinion, including in countries which fully supported us over Kargil. The outside world believes that the Kashmiri population is alienated from India, that we have done little to win its support, and that we hold Kashmir largely by force. Angrily to deny this may be “patriotic”, but will it help?

Evidently, Mr Vajpayee is not unaware of the problem. But in his Red Fort speech he contented himself with a sharp denunciation of Pakistan’s support to terrorism, warned the world of the “double danger” of terrorism and religious extremism getting intermixed, and bluntly told Pakistan that there could be no revival of the Lahore process until Pakistan’s support to terrorism was ended. But where does it leave us?

In Assam, Bangladesh-based ISI operatives appear to be having a field day. They reportedly come and go as they please, mastermind monstrous acts of terrorism, and sometimes even stay in villages virtually controlled by ULFA. Does the Indian State have no duty or ability to undertake counter-terrorism on the one hand and to take political action to conciliate or contain alienated populations?

As for Kashmir, maximum autonomy within India has been the mantra to defeat secessionism. Mr P.V. Narasimha Rao spoke out “sky” being the “limit” of Kashmiri autonomy. Today, no Indian leader or party even utters the A-word.

General election then & now
by P.D. Shastri

JAWAHARLAL NEHRU called the first few elections as the political education of the masses. Today it is not education but mostly miseducation. Appeals are progressively made to the voters in the name of castes, sub-castes, reservations, linguistic exclusiveness, etc — it is the anti-India process of dividing and sub-dividing the nation.

In the early days of Independence, leaders went in for elections with the objective of getting an opportunity to do great good to India; today the motive is pure personal gain and power. Any progress that we see around is only a byproduct of that programme — the little done, the undone vast.

Elections are the latest fashion. Some time ago it was the World Cup that hogged the headings. They had started the chorus months before. All papers were full of World Cup-related stories; they devoted special pages to it. Soon their day was past; they lost their primacy and public interest after our cricketing misadventure.

Their place was taken by the Kargil war. It was Kargil, Kargil all over the media and people’s talks. The excitement was great. Thank God, though with heavy losses in terms of lives and materials, it has passed into history with our victory.

After that Kargil went off the headlines. Now that place is taken by elections — our elections, the greatest democratic exercise in the world. But there is hardly any public excitement unlike in the past. At present, the only excited persons are those who have to fight the battle of the ballot or their committed supporters. But soon their programme will end.

World Cup cricket matches promoted India’s unity by making the whole population focus on one programme. The Kargil war did one better. It created the greatest feeling of India’s oneness, (amidst its diversities); it produced a tidal wave of patriotism that swept the hearts of the countless millions. The election is the anti-climax. It promotes the opposite process — local, regional and state-wise. The growing number of regional parties is not for the long-term good of India. Already there are some three dozen parties recognised by the Election Commission.

The national parties seem to be yielding their place bit by bit to these regional parties. They are no longer all in all, as they were till Rajiv Gandhi’s days. Any dissident leader or expelled member or anyone having an inflated ego forms his own party and may make a good local showing. In the 12th Lok Sabha there were a large number of parties having just one MP.

During the days of titans like Nehru or Indira Gandhi or even Rajiv Gandhi, the leader like Atlas carried the whole show on his/her shoulders. The single canvasser, countrywide, (Nehru or Indira Gandhi) won the elections for his party and for his nominated candidates and, therefore, was in a position to take all the decisions on their behalf. These decisions included whom they should “elect” their leader and Chief Minister, and how the Cabinet should be constituted and such other matters of national importance. It used to be practically one man’s show, others only playing supporting roles.

It was always the national approach and outlook — no parochial bickerings and pressures and counter-pressures as today.

It was the age of great leaders. Their majorities and capacity to form stable governments were never in doubt (exceptions apart).

Nehru’s (even Indira’s) hurricane all India election tours were a thing of great excitement and expectation for the vast masses — urban as well as rural. Often he addressed a dozen meetings per day (almost non-stop), and some of them were mammoth gatherings. He contacted through them two-three crore citizens (as someone once calculated). The days of collecting mercenary crowds officially or by parties was not yet born. What Nehru said at these gatherings became people’s opinion and talk.

Today that certitude is gone. Instead of a single party and a single unquestioned leader, today we have a plethora of parties and multiplicity of leaders. In place of a single party rule (no question of its shaking for five years), we have what is euphemistically called a coalition government, which means a government cobbled together by permutations and combinations.

Our long and chequered history proclaims one lesson above all — India repeatedly came to harm and its different parts fell apart when the unifying personality of the great leader departed from the scene. India has suffered from its age-old ailment of disunity and disruption. To promote the same separatist, divisive tendencies for individuals or sections today for winning elections is a grave sin against the country and against God.

Let us not forget that India for the first time achieved its political unity under the British and that too towards the end of their rule. Mr V.P. Singh invented Mandalism to catch power, and he was successful but that separatist programme still stays behind with us and is being promoted.

All reservations are evil; they suppress merit and hand over jobs to second and third-raters, when top brains are available to do good to the nation and serve the populace as more efficient administrators, doctors, engineers, scientists, etc.

These reservations do no good even to the favoured groups (take the example of the SCs STs and other favoured groups, after enjoying these reservations for half a century). These are crutches, and no one depending on crutches has ever won a race in the world.

With the intellectuals having abdicated their role of giving the correct lead to society, that role has been taken by the media — print and electronic — which exerts a subtle and unobtrusive influence on the minds of readers and listeners (and through them on others). They create the “hawa” which in India wins and loses the elections.

Where do we go from here? Perhaps nowhere. Or September will show us where. In the meantime, all the parties and candidates are hoping for some good luck in their favour which would bring them victory — of course, it is all their wishful thinking. Knowledgeable observers predict another hung Parliament and the same old interminable rounds to try to forge a temporary majority; one unstable equilibrium yielding place to another.

The past tense of ‘think’
by K.K. Khullar

INDIA has intellect but no intellectual, said the author of the “Asian Drama” To disprove this statement we went to a coffee house.

Professor Kaila had just arrived with half a dozen books in both arms while Professor Kalia had already settled.

“Professor Sahib”, said Kaila to Kalia: ‘If communism comes who will suffer? Only intellectuals like you and me”.

“Great”, said the Urdu poet Daulat Ram Zakhmi ordering his own cup of coffee.

Daulat Ram Zakhmi, in whose life there were more “Zakhms” (wounds) than “Daulat” (Riches), had watched the coffee house scene for at least two decades and had come to the conclusion that the country’s real wealth lies not in the Reserve Bank of India but in the coffee house.

“What’s great in that?” asked Joga Singh, the Punjabi poet whose poetry often mingles with cough.

“You see, an intellectual is one who thinks”.

“Think? You mean whose past tense is ‘thought’?”

“Original. Professor Sahib. Order Omelette”.

“You mean originality flourishes on omelettes?”

“OK, at least a coffee.”

In the coffee house you have to pay for your originality, even your original joke. So he ordered coffee for all.

“By the above definition”, reverted Prof Kalia, addressing Prof Kaila, every BA, BT is an intellectual, every press man is an intellectual, every writer is an intellectual”.

“How many writers are there in our country?”

“You see, there are 1652 mother-tongues in India, about 400 languages with some sort of a script. And yet the best seller every year is a railway timetable.

“Look into history, my friend”.

So we looked into history. Before that we looked into the geography of the coffee house located in the crowded Connaught Place, the roof of Mohan Singh Place, where everyone orders his own coffee. “There has been no revolution in India’s recorded history of more than two thousand years,” said the Professor of Economics quoting Marx, Engels, Trotsky and Lenin, the Gods who failed.

“I tell you”, said the Professor of History thumping the table, communism can come in Nepal not in India.

“Why?” asked the communication expert, with mobile in one hand and transistor in the other.

“Because there are no intellectuals in India. Besides even if it comes, who will suffer? Only people like you and me”. Saying this he brought out his havana.

“Are you an intellectual, Sir?” asked a student who was intently listening.

“No, I am happily married”.

What could be the reason for terminating the services of these teachers? Sharda says there was a simmering resentment among all staff members against their exploitation by the management. The total salary of a teacher in the early seventies was barely Rs 450. Each teacher was bludgeoned into paying Rs 100 without receipt before he or she was given the salary cheque.

Another possible reason could be that they had expressed their sympathy and solidarity with their colleague, Kusum Bhalla, a lecturer in Mathematics, whose services too were summarily terminated in 1980. Her fault? She had sought extension in maternity leave beyond three months. When the management refused the extension in leave on the ground that it was not permissible under the rules, Kusum wrote to Kurukshetra University seeking clarification of the leave rules. The management took offence to Kusum’s writing to the university, adopted a resolution, allegedly backdated, for closing down the Mathematics subject in the college and terminated her services.

Kusum made a representation to the university against the termination of her services. Being convinced that the college authorities had fraudulently tried to seek closure of the Mathematics Department by “tampering with the record and there were mala fide intentions behind the termination of her services,” the Vice-Chancellor invoked his emergency powers under statute 4(IV) and asked the college to withdraw the resolution regarding the subject. He also directed that Kusum be reinstated.

The college management did not comply with the orders of the Vice-Chancellor despite repeated reminders. Instead, it filed a civil suit against the university in the court of the Sub Judge at Ambala.

The Vice-Chancellor took a serious note of the disobedience of his order and asked the Registrar to investigate the matter. In his finding the Registrar held that the Principal of the college did not cooperate in the enquiry. “But on the basis of the statements and cross-examination of various complainants, including Mrs Bhalla, one can categorically say that there were mala fide intentions of the college authorities in terminating her services. The manner in which the college authorities sought to do it was highly deceptive”.

Notwithstanding its castigation by the university, the management did not reinstate Kusum.

Sitting with a heap of files regarding her case, Sharda says the termination orders served on her and Santosh rebelled against the provisions of the Haryana Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Act, 1979. Section 7 of the Act lays down: “No employee shall be dismissed, removed or reduced in rank except after an enquiry in which he has been informed of the charges against him and given a reasonable opportunity of being heard in respect of these charges.”

In their case the management did not hold any enquiry nor were they informed of the charges, let alone seeking approval of the DPI (Colleges) for the termination of their services as stipulated in the Act. Therefore, they immediately moved the lower court to seek temporary injunction. Their prayer was turned down on the ground that the termination orders had already been served on them.

Reacting to this verdict of the court, Sharda says: “It is strange. How could we go to the court unless the orders were issued? And how could we know the crafty design of the management when it was so sudden and no procedure whatsoever was followed?”

The reply of the management to their suit was: “The services of the teachers were terminated without any stigma and action has not been taken by way of punishment.”

On May 25, 1982, Sharda and Santosh made a representation to the DPI against their removal from service under Section 7 of the Haryana Affiliated Colleges (Security of Service) Act. They continued to remind him, nay visit him, for eight months. But the DPI did not budge an inch. Neither did he summon the record nor did he afford them an opportunity of hearing.

It was only on February 24, 1983, that he gave a terse reply, quite like the termination order itself, saying: “Since the Dev Samaj Managing Council has passed a resolution that they would not be getting grant from the government, the college thus is not covered by the Service Security Act.”

Sharda and Santosh questioned this order before the Education Secretary through a revision petition, pleading inter alia that the DPI did not give them an opportunity to explain their side of the case. Moreover, the managing committee did not seek mandatory prior approval of the DPI for terminating their services. Therefore, the order handed down by him deserved to be reversed.

If the DPI pigeonholed the case for eight months, the Education Secretary taxed the patience of the revision petitioners for more than two years. Innumerable reminders and personal requests failed to move him. Pained at the indifferent, if not callous attitude, of the Education Secretary, they preferred a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court. And when the case came up for motion hearing on April 26, 1985, before a Division Bench headed by the then Chief Justice, the government gave an undertaking that it would decide the revision petition within three weeks.

Pursuant to the undertaking given by the state government, the Education Secretary heard the case and ruled: “Strictly in the legal sense, the definition of affiliated college as contained in Section 2(a) of the Act, was applicable to the college on April 30, 1982, when the services of the revision petitioners were terminated.”

As regards the merits of the case, he held: “It is also undoubtedly borne out by the facts and circumstances of the case that the resolution dated April 10, 1982, passed by the management was primarily to get out of the ambit of the Act, so that they could terminate the services of the inconvenient members of the staff with impunity and which they did on April 30, 1982. In this background the resolution of the management dated April 10, 1982, definitely stinks of mala fide intent on their part and the termination orders of the members having 12 or more years of service to their credit without even giving them a charge-sheet appears to be patently illegal.”

Although the Education Secretary accepted the viewpoint of the teachers that their termination was illegal, he turned down their revision petition on the ground that in view of the resolution regarding grant-in-aid from the government, Dev Samaj College for Girls was no longer covered under the definition of ‘affiliated colleges’ on April 30, 1982.

Disappointed by the bureaucracy, the teachers looked upon the judiciary for the redressal of their grievances. They filed a writ petition in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 22, 1985, questioning the order of the Education Secretary.

A Division Bench dismissed the petition on February 19, 1986, with the observations : “The writ petition is not maintainable as the respondent-college is not an ‘authority’ under Article 12 of the Constitution and the petitioners, if so advised, may resort to a remedy in the ordinary court of law.”

Sharda and Santosh went in appeal against this order before the Supreme Court on April 24, 1986 but later withdraw their appeal. A Division Bench of the apex court allowed the petitioners on August 18, 1986, to withdraw their appeal “with liberty to file a suit to establish their rights.”

A little over a month later on September 25, 1986, the teachers preferred a suit in the court of Senior Sub Judge, Ambala, to “establish their rights.”

Since then 13 years have gone by and the case is still at the evidence-recording stage. The court took — hold your breath — seven years for framing the issues or the points of fact and law arising for consideration. They were framed on May 27, 1993.

Prior to this date the case was listed for hearing 44 times. On 13 occasions the case was adjourned on the ground “file not received.” (The dates are May 7 and August 6, 1988, March 3, July 21 and November 12, 1989, January 22, March 20, May 25 and August 30, 1990, January 30, April 9, July 24 and October 22, 1991).

On six occasions the Judge was either on leave or out of station. (The dates are June 5, 1987, April 30, 1988, July 24 and November 12, 1991, January 20 and March 27, 1992). On one occasion, December 16, 1987, lawyers were on strike.

Even after framing of the issues six years ago, the case has come up for hearing 23 times. Yet the evidence has not been fully recorded.

Ever since the suit was instituted as many as eight Senior Sub Judges have come and gone. They are Mr T.C.Gupta (from June 16, 1984 to April 16, 1987), Mr L.N.Mittal (April 24, 1987 to May 3, 1988), Mr R.C.Bansal (May 4, 1988 to April 19, 1990), Mr U.B.Khanduja (April 20, 1990 to February 14, 1991), Mr Varinder Singh (February 14, 1991 to June 6, 1994), Ms Navita Singh (June 7, 1994 to June 6, 1996), Mr S.K.Gupta (June 7, 1996 to February 2, 1998) and Mr S.C.Goyal (February 2, 1998 to May 25, 1998).

Since June 3, 1998, the court is presided over by Mr A.K.S.Pawar.

The duration of the adjournments ranged from a few days to eight months.

Now the case is fixed for August 27, 1999.

Their 17-year-long struggle for justice has left Sharda and Santosh shattered. Wrinkles have surfaced on their faces. They are now in their mid-fifties and have little hope of getting justice in their life time.

Narrating their tribulations, sufferings and miseries, Sharda and Santosh break down. They recall what the heroine of John Webster’s tragedy “The Duches of Malfi” had said:

“Pull and pull down heavens upon us

But think those who enter His gate

Must go upon their knees.”

If this be the fate of highly educated people like Sharda and Santosh, the plight of illiterate litigants in the country is anybody’s guess. Luckily for the two women they have bread-earners in their husbands. What about families where the sole earning member is thrown out and is pushed to the wall to fight his case in court.

Docile and soft-spoken Principal of the college, Mrs Shashi Sharma, says the services of these teachers were terminated much before she had taken over. She is not, therefore, in a position to comment.

Mr S.Kumar, Vice-President of the local Managing Committee, who looks after the day-to-day affairs of the college, however, points out that all these teachers had created problems for the college. More often than not they used to sit in dharnas and hold demonstrations. This disturbed the studies of students. He claimed that Kusum fought her case up to the Supreme Court which had granted her compensation.

He adds that the decision to terminate the services of these teachers was taken when Mr Prem Bal Khera was the President of the Managing Committee. He was succeeded by Mr Nirmal Singh. Now the Managing Committee is headed by Mr Vikas Devji.

Asked whether the Managing Committee is willing to reinstate them, Mr Kumar said: “There is no question of taking them back in service. This will encourage other teachers also to create indiscipline. We have spent crores of rupees on the litigation. Therefore, we shall not reverse our decision. The case is pending in the court. Let the court decide it”.

He admitted that the Managing Committee is still not paying revised pay scales to the teachers: “How can we pay the new scales. We are not getting grant-in-aid from the government. No management can afford to pay full salary out of its own pocket.”

And, thus, Sharda and Santosh’s long wait for justice continues.

75 YEARS AGO

South India Floods
Several families disappear
August 18, 1924

THE Madras Mail Cochin correspondent gives gruesome accounts of human casualties consequent on the recent floods. From the reports received, the Moplahs and the Indian Christians appear to have been most affected. Large families, caught by the floods when it was at its height, have disappeared altogether.

Two rich Christian families, numbering 25 persons in all, were drowned as they were being rescued, the boats capsizing in midwater.

Several painful cases of drowning of women have been reported and in one instance the body of an Indian Christian woman was found with a baby in her arms. At Kandacadavu, 10 miles south of British Cochin, the body of a pregnant woman was washed ashore in a state of semi-delivery.

The number of deaths that have taken place are chiefly of women and children.