P A G E
Monday, November 15, 1999
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Monday, November 15, 1999 |
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Kalyan’s
bitter legacy FORMER Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has
created two nearly insurmountable problems for the BJP in
Uttar Pradesh. One is his demand that the party should
return to its Hindutva roots.
SIGNALS
FROM PAKISTAN |
 |
Jeopardy
of incomplete justice
Celebrations
despite Orissa calamity
Hilarious
moments
November 14,
1924 |
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Kalyan’s bitter legacy FORMER Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has created two nearly insurmountable problems for the BJP in Uttar Pradesh. One is his demand that the party should return to its Hindutva roots. The other is his charge, and his supporters’ perception, that a backward caste leader has been sacrificed to restore the hegemony of the Brahmins, Banias and the Thakurs (BBT). The first will have an impact on the party’s relations with the partners in the National Democratic Alliance. The second will affect its electoral chances in the state at the time of Assembly poll in less than two years time. Mr Kalyan Singh obviously raked up the Ram Mandir issue mainly to get even with Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee and some party colleagues in his state who held him solely responsible for the loss of more half of the Lok Sabha seats. But now he is stuck with it and in the days and weeks to come he will repeatedly go back to it to keep intact his following. To retain his political relevance he needs an emotional issue and the Ayodhya temple meets his need perfectly. If and when he decides to go around the state championing the old cause with new enthusiasm, he will pose a dilemma to the party high command. It cannot distance itself from him as it did with hardcore saffron bodies like the VHP and the Bajrang Dal. Nor can it silence him with a threat of expulsion. Any punishment will alienate the hardliners in the party, who are all from the upper castes. The backward caste versus the forward caste debate, which has cropped up in the wake of the dismissal of Mr Kalyan Singh, is a slow-ticking time bomb. Reports from UP talk of backward castes, not his fellow Lodh Rajputs alone, sympathising with him. This indicates that the multi-caste consolidation, which the BJP achieved in UP thanks to its mandir policy, has broken up. The upper castes are by and large with it but together the BBT combination accounts for only about 25 per cent of the electorate. This is slightly less than what Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party polls. The BJP would then need an ally to win enough seats to form the government in 2001 but barring the Congress and BSP splinter groups, there is no one in sight. Even the upper castes may not remain its exclusive base; the Congress threatens to nibble at this chunk. The ongoing de-Kalyanisation process cannot be stopped and he cannot be mollified either. He will not shift to Delhi and slowly fade away. He is too ambitious and active for that. The way the BJP changed
its Chief Minister in UP and selected his successor is
reminiscent of the Congress style during the heyday of
Indira Gandhi. She picked Chief Ministers and sacked them
in her imperious way. The party forum had no say. The
same trend has now surfaced in the leading party of the
ruling alliance. If the stern order to resign as Chief
Minister robbed Mr Kalyan Singh of his dignity, the
hush-hush nomination of his replacement mystified even
party faithfuls. It is almost certain that the decision
was personally taken by Mr Vajpayee, and the top leaders
merely endorsed it. Even Mr L.K. Advani, a supporter of
Mr Kalyan Singh, was reportedly overruled. Critics of the
BJP have pounced on this to accuse the party of building
a personality cult and they refer to his projection both
from election campaign platforms and posters as the sole
leader. |
Storm over GAIL THE sale of Gas Authority of India Limited shares at a discount to foreign buyers has provided the Opposition one more issue for tormenting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance during the winter session of the Lok Sabha beginning on November 29. Both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha will have a lot of explaining to do regarding the rationale behind the under-valuing of 135 million GAIL shares for foreign buyers. GAIL is among the handful of public sector units which enjoy blue chip status. As it is, the target of raising Rs 10,000 crore during 1999-2000 through the disinvestment of PSU shares appears unachievable. The under-valuing of the GAIL shares by a whopping Rs 10 against the listed price of Rs 79.80 has only confounded the confusion and given the Opposition the opening to once again raise the over-worked bogey of corruption in high places. The Congress and the Left parties have already raised some stink over the lack of “transparency and credibility” in the procedures adopted for the disinvestment involving the GAIL shares. But they seem to have decided to save most of the ammunition at their disposal for a major explosion during the winter session of Parliament. Mr Yashwant Sinha’s mysterious silence over the deal has only added to the suspicion that he is reluctant to open the closet because there may be skeletons in it. The names of the beneficiaries of the government’s unexplained generosity may interest those who love political scandals with the same intensity which growing up boys and girls show in fictional murder mysteries. But the GAIL deal is not a fictional one. It is a real story of how political parties demand and promise transparency in public dealings and forget all about it once the irksome process of elections is over. One of the beneficiaries
of the unexplained discount of Rs 10 per unit is the
familiar yet controversial name of Enron. The other
beneficiary is British Gas. For the two foreign buyers
the discount may have been inconsequential, but for India
the loss of about Rs 135 crore in the deal means a heavy
and avoidable loss. There are those who say that the
selling price of GAIL share was actually Rs 115 and the
government lost Rs 500 crore in the deal. Another theory
doing the rounds is about Enron increasing its
share-holding in GAIL in the future and securing a place
on the board of directors. A valid question being asked
in political circles is about the “indecent
haste” with which the shares of a profit-making PSU
were sold at a heavy discount. One explanation is that it
is the arrogance of power which has made the BJP-led NDA
shed even the pretence of fulfilling the promise of
introducing a greater degree of transparency in public
dealings. Former Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram
should know what he was talking about when he said that
the United Front government had first cleared the
disinvestment proposal for the GAIL shares on the basis
of the market estimate of each share fetching at least Rs
150. However, when the government realised that the share
would not get the estimated price the disinvestment
proposal was shelved. It is difficult to buy the
explanation that the government had no option but to go
in for distress sale of the GAIL shares for meeting its
other financial liabilities. Why must GAIL be made to
raise “instant cash” for covering part of the
government shortfall under some different head? Mr
Chidambaram, who described the deal as
“scandalous”, may be guilty of trying to
practise the British-style art of understatement. There
is much more to the GAIL deal than meets the eye. It
remains to be seen whether the Opposition would be able
to force the NDA government to come clean on the issue
when the Lok Sabha’s winter session starts later
this month. |
SIGNALS FROM PAKISTAN THE coup in Pakistan, initiated from the skies above Karachi, attracted comments mainly on the bilateral ramifications. The curriculum vitae of Gen Pervez Musharraf, who won epaulettes for his country’s Afghan and anti-India operations, was the main cause for the concerns expressed in India. The implications are far more serious. The message to democracies the world over, and particularly to the subcontinent, is quite alarming. The smooth execution, widespread acceptance in Pakistan with not even a dog barking and veteran politicians making it an opportunity to settle scores, all these do not augur well. The signals are dangerous for free societies. The survival of democracies in the developing world mainly depends on the political leadership. When rules and values are violated with impunity, the men in uniform try to step in. Credible and honest civilian leadership alone is the best guarantee to keep the Generals confined to their rightful place, the barracks. To expect that the masses would take to the streets to protect freedom and democracy is unrealistic. People certainly like democracy and love freedom. They equally love orderly functioning and political correctness. Take the case of the Emergency. Wherever excesses were not committed generally the people endorsed the draconian measures and even voted with enthusiasm for the Congress in 1977. People’s resistance grows when policies directly affect their lives. Family planning through coercion, which was a special feature in the Hindi belt during the Emergency, was one such policy, and people in the region voted with a vengeance. The point is that people at large prefer a regime which ensures law and order and protection to life and property. It is not easy to lead them to the streets for the sake of freedom and liberty, which helps dictators thrive in countries where free societies emerged without going through the struggle process. Such a process helps in building institutions, which provide the checks and balances and help in keeping the military in the cantonments and politicians with dictatorial instincts within the framework of the provisions of the constitution, conventions and moral laws. For India, fortunately, independence came after a long freedom struggle. In the initial years the country had leaders who were disciples of the Mahatma, the greatest moralist the world has seen in this century. The ministers in those formative years were keen to lay down conventions rooted in morals and principles. They were clear that a majority does not confer on them the moral authority and to them the latter was the guiding spirit. The case of Finance Minister Shanmugham Chetty is a typical example. Chetty resigned in 1948 following the withdrawal of certain groups of cases from the Income-Tax Investigation Commission, which raised suspicion in some quarters though the decision was bona fide. Chetty did not take time to resign and in his famous statement on August 17, 1948, he said; “Even though that had been done (the procedure set right) my conduct in the original order of withdrawal has created a suspicion about my bona fides. It would naturally create a suspicion in any man who reads the circumstances. I put it to the Hon’ble Prime Minister whether he, at any rate, had any doubts about my honesty or bona fides. “But, sir, notwithstanding this assurance from the Hon’ble Prime Minister, I felt that in the context of the new Independence that our country has obtained, in the context of the parliamentary institutions which we have begun to work we must set absolutely the highest standards of integrity in public life; not even the second rate of standards would be sufficient for us. It must be absolutely first rate even though a minister’s conduct and bona fides may be justified by argument, yet if in the minds of our people, who do not understand these technicalities, there is room even for suspicion, such a minister ought not continue in office”. Jawaharlal Nehru, speaking on the resignation in Parliament, said, “Normally I would have hesitated a great deal in accepting that resignation. Partly because first I felt that what had happened was an error, secondly because the government had profited a great deal by his ability and by his hard work in the very responsible office he held, thirdly that in this very session there are certain important measures which he was going to pilot... nevertheless in spite of all these considerations, it seemed to me that the very first consideration, that I should have and that I was sure this House would like me to have was that when any kind of a mistake or error of this kind was committed, we should accept the consequences of that error and try to remedy that in the way we had tried to do so. “We, in this House, and even more so the government live and ought to live in the full blaze of publicity. There should be nothing hidden .... Otherwise these, our activities must be completely public, open to the public questioning and open to public condemnation. No democratic system can function otherwise satisfactorily. Therefore, when anything occurs that is open to public criticism of this kind, we must frankly face the issue and not try to slur over it or gloss over it.” Those were our golden days, of high moral standards in public life. But as days passed by, even during Nehru’s life-time, things started deteriorating. So much so that the corrupt could get away if they were on the right side of the leadership. There were some shining examples like Lal Bahadur Shastri resigning after the Ariyalur train accident in the fifties. Well, Nitish Kumar also resigned after the recent rail tragedy on the eve of elections, but public perception of this was that it was just a stunt. There were resignations due to moral pangs by M.C. Chagla. The only resignation in recent years to uphold morality was that of A.K. Antony, though he was wrongly mentioned in the sugar import scandal. But there are far too many scandals destroying the credibility of the political leadership. Each is followed by a bigger one. The Rs 64 crore Bofors scandal became insignificant when one was informed about the Rs 143 crore urea scandal. These days we have far too many of such scandals involving politicians. Today the declaration of India, along with Pakistan, as one of the most corrupt countries shows the alarming proportions. Continued lack of moral standards can have disastrous consequences. More so in a country where the masses at large are pre-occupied with getting the next meal. The system also gets corroded if political parties themselves fail to function democratically. It is difficult for those parties which do not function with inner-party democracy to uphold democratic values. Naturally, we find in India that parties rely more on caste and communal considerations than on policies and programmes. Sadly enough, there are very few parties which hold regular inner-party elections. Even the fiat from the Election Commission has been effectively scuttled by a number of parties. With little inner-party democracy becoming a debilitating factor, we find the phenomenon of “one leader, one party” in the country. In recent times even the BJP, which claims to function democratically, has been reduced to a one-leader outfit, in which party president and office-bearers have precious little say on policies. Another notable feature is that there are a few hundred dynastic families who hand over seats in the legislatures, generation to generation reminding one of the hundreds of principalities which were abolished with Independence. These small and tiny dynasties spread across the country and the big ones located in New Delhi make a mockery of our democracy. These also give severe knocks to the credibility of our politicians. The media too play its negative role. Newspersons often fail to double-check their stories. Editors too rush stories on corruption without the due process of verification. Media trials before the real trials destroy the fair name of the leaders on many occasions. Little do they realise that if the credibility of the politician is destroyed in a democracy the alternative is a close society. While the corrupt needs to be exposed, there need to be circumspection and objectivity as well. Otherwise misuse of freedom may lead to the loss of liberty itself. The coup in the
neighbourhood is an eye-opener, particularly for India.
Democracy, of course, has faced many a challenge, even
the Emergency. But ignoring the morals and the
aspirations of the people may lead them to welcome, with
open arms, negative forces. The sooner the politicians
and the media realise this, the better for this country. |
M’rashtra’s financial misadventures FROM the manner in which the Shiv Sena-BJP combine has left the state government almost bankrupt, one would imagine that they must be relieved that someone else has taken over the cumbersome administration in Maharashtra. Warnings about the impending financial crisis had been given as early as September, 1998, a full year before the Sena-BJP government had been voted out of office, by the Maharashtra Economic Development Council, an autonomous research body. The findings of the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) had also been on similar lines. The Governor, Dr P.C. Alexander, had at that time called the Secretaries in charge of planning and finance to assess the gravity of the situation. It is now too late in the day for the most vocal leaders of the two parties — Mr Narayan Rane, former Chief Minister, and Mr Nitin Gadkari, former PWD Minister — to deny the new Chief Minister’s charge that the state has been left bankrupt by the previous government. Fast rising expenditures and the decline in growth resulted in a spectacular rise in the annual deficit from Rs 609 crore in 1995-96, when that government assumed power, to Rs 5,221 crore in 1998-99. The government seemed to take no interest in the steep decline in capital expenditure, which, in turn, affected the funding of the creation and maintenance of infrastructure and assets vital for economic services like agriculture, energy and industry, and social services like health and education. Capital expenditure as related to total expenditure declined sharply from 13 per cent in 1995 to 7.5 per cent in 1998. The MEDC points out that the decline indicates that “the government is paying to consume rather than paying to invest.” The government then went on a borrowing spree merely to keep afloat. It also started cutting down on expenditure to fund current deficits. In other words, the government began financing long-term loans through short-term borrowings, instead of creating new assets. A worse foolhardy adventure in economic management could not have been visualised. The announcement by the new Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh, that his government would bring out a White Paper on the state’s economy is welcome. The people have a right to know the truth before they vote the same parties to power in future, since anything is possible in politics The White Paper must also make an inventory of the squander of public funds by various ministers of the previous government at the whims and fancies of one man who claimed to wield the remote control on the government. It must also list the amounts spent on the personal security of all the ministers, some MLAs of the ruling parties and other political leaders. The high level of security provided by the state to some of the government and party leaders had risen to ridiculous heights. There have been many who had enjoyed such security merely as a status symbol. It has been proved in recent times that no amount of gun-wielding security men could safeguard the person sought to be protected, against a determined assassin. It might do some good to all the highly protected politicians from Ms Jayalalitha down to Mr Bal Thackeray to recall the words of Indira Gandhi: “The kind of security provided for me looks impressive, but would anyone of them lay down their lives to guard me?” In the case of some of the “powerful” men during the previous regime, security had been taken to ridiculous levels. Entire pavements in front of the residential colonies they lived in had been taken over for the construction of tin sheds where the security men could take a quick nap after long hours of vigil. With such sheds put up on either side of the narrow road, residents of neighbouring areas had been inconvenienced for years on end. In the case of some other Sena leaders, high category security was provided around their houses merely as decoration to demonstrate their newly-acquired status. In some cases, it was to ward off their own victims who were out for revenge now. The new government should immediately review the need to provide such elaborate security at the cost of the exchequer to the men who have enjoyed the unwarranted benefits of office. There are glaring examples of such ridiculous security being provided to the grandchildren of some Sena leaders when they go to school. The absurdity of providing elaborate security guards to political dignitaries and ministers has been provided by the glorious example of the Union Minister for Mines, Mr Naveen Patnaik, who went out to meet the distraught people of the cyclone-hit regions of Orissa recently. He was heckled by angry mobs as the government had not reached relief to them during the first three days after the cyclone hit the state, when nothing moved. Yet, Mr Patnaik braved the wrath of the unfortunate victims of nature’s fury in his own state. I have not seen a single Sena or BJP minister all the past five years go out among the people in such a manner, without the trappings of office. There is, of course, deep resentment against all politicians in general all over the country. But in no other state had security been taken to such elaborate levels as in Maharashtra during Sena-BJP rule. This only goes to prove the mass base and popularity of ministers in office in other states. The Chief Ministers of Kerala and West Bengal are not known to go about under the heavy guard that one witnesses anywhere in Maharashtra. Are the threats any less in those states? Or is it that the men who occupy high offices there are more mature and less demonstrative than those in Maharashtra? The Sachivalayas in other state capitals are much more free and open to the visitors who have some business with the government than in Mumbai’s Mantralaya. There has been some controversy recently about the state government’s purchase of an expensive car for the use of the Governor. The Governor had little say in the make of car the government sought to provide him, except that it should not be an Ambassador. The state government bought it of its own volition so that ministers could justify similar purchases for themselves later on. To hold the Governor responsible for it, as some self-styled social workers have done, is not quite appropriate. To begin with, Raj Bhavan had a Mercedes for the use of the Governor for over a decade. The new one is a replacement for the old one, which of late had been costing heavy on repairs and maintenance. The White Paper on the
economic situation in Maharashtra that the new government
has promised must include all the items of extravagant
and unjustified use purchased by the previous government,
including the money spent on the Michael Jackson show a
couple of years ago to raise funds for a private trust.
There have been several other functions organised by
those close to the centres of power, which have drawn
heavily on the state’s resources and have gone
merely to enrich personal or private trusts. For its own
survival, the Congress (and the NCP) owe it to the people
of this state to make a clean breast of matters. |
Hilarious
moments IT was a house-warming party in one of the recent additions to the “nagars”, “niketans” and “vihars” of South Delhi. To call the place a “house” would have been a misnomer. It was a veritable palace, all marble and glass and chromium fittings. It exuded an air of opulence, ostentation and laundered black money. The brocade sari draped round the ample figure of our hostess must have cost a sum that would have fed and clothed a poor family of six for that many months. There was the customary conducted tour of the mansion with envious “oo’s” and “ah’s” coming from the guests as they were shown each new imported gadget. Then, someone rather tactlessly remarked that another lady who had given a house-warming party a few days ago had a marble-floored bathroom with a Bidet in it. “But how shocking!” said our hostess. “I could never treat art like that. Of course, I know some ignorant people who have a Husain or a Sanyal hanging in their dressing rooms, but fancy a Bidet in the B.R.!’ Obviously, the lady had heard of the French painters, Monet, or Corot and imagined that “Bidet” was one of their ilk. One is reminded of a verse in the Book of Psalms: “Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than the heart could wish, or the mind could comprehend!” My mind went back to a day 60 years ago when my club, the Roshanara, decided to host a luncheon for Brigadier (later F.M.) the viscount Gort, V.C. Another club member, scion of one of the oldest families of Delhi’s Rai Sahibs, who had benefited by switching their allegiance from the last of the Mughals to the British at the time of the Mutiny, was in a flap. His gold-buttoned sherwanis and churidars wouldn’t do at a formal reception in honour of a member of the British aristocracy, so what was he going to wear? “Why, Lalaji”, I said in mock surprise, “I thought you knew. We shall be wearing’ lounge suits but for a man of your ancient lineage and a member of the club committee nothing less than a cutaway coat, striped trousers and a cravat will do. Ranken’s or Phelps would do it in a jiffy”. He thanked me profusely for solving his problem. but, somewhere between the club, his kothi in the Civil Lines and Kashmere Gate where the two gents’ outfitters had their establishments, he got a bit muddled. I shall never forget the look of amazement on the face of the Chief Commissioner, who was the President of the club, as he was about to present the members of the committee to the distinguished visitor. There stood Lalaji,
looking resplendent in white tie and tails, a large pink
carnation in his buttonhole! Mercifully, he hadn’t
bought himself a top hat! |
Jeopardy of incomplete justice
VICTIM of judicial injustice at the highest level, Haryana Superintendent of Police M.S. Ahlawat was requited by history a fortnight ago. But not entirely. Setting aside “unhesitatingly” its own earlier judgement convicting him for the offence under Section 193 IPC (furnishing false evidence in judicial proceedings), as highlighted in this column last time, the Supreme Court maintained nonetheless its conviction of Ahlawat for committing contempt of court by the same act or conduct. And thereby permitted, while correcting one grievous error, the perpetuation of another no less palpable. Double jeopardy. “No person,” says Article 20, Clause (2) of the Constitution, “shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once.” That is the fundamental right against double jeopardy, derived by our founding fathers from the unwritten common law of England and the Fifth Amendment to the American Constitution adopted in 1791. Ahlawat’s conviction by the Supreme Court twice over in January, 1996, on exactly the same facts — one, under Section 193 IPC, the other in the name of contempt of court — was a textbook example of infliction of double jeopardy. Technical complexities aside, the Supreme Court speaking through Justice M.N. Venkatachaliah ruled in 1989, the protection against double jeopardy “includes a protection against reprosecution after acquittal, a protection against reprosecution after conviction, and a protection against double or multiple punishment for the same offence.” That was in State of Bihar versus Murad Ali Khan, and the court was summarising the effect of Article 20(2) of the Constitution when read with Section 300 of the CrPC, Section 71 of the IPC and Section 26 of the General Clauses Act all of which bear on the point. “The proliferation of technically different offences encompassed in a single instance of crime behaviour,” Justice Venkatachaliah continued, quoting American law, has increased the importance of defining what is meant by “the same offence” for the purpose of the double jeopardy guarantee. He was referring to a situation which Judges and criminal lawyers in India are fairly familiar with, but whose larger jurisprudential and constitutional implications are seldom realised. A situation where an act or conduct constitutes an offence under not merely one but two or more laws. Distinct statutory provisions, said Justice Venkatachaliah, invoking American law again, will be treated as involving separate offences for double jeopardy purposes only if each provision requires proof of an additional fact which the other does not. “Where the same evidence suffices to prove both crimes, they are the same for double jeopardy purposes, and the clause forbids successive trials and cumulative punishments for the two crimes.” Read the original Ahlawat judgement of 1996 any number of times you will, but there is not a single fact or a single piece of evidence more supporting his conviction for contempt than those that led to his conviction under Section 193 IPC. Call it perjury to begin with, call it contempt later — if Ahlawat’s is not a case of double jeopardy, the law reports will never ever reveal any other. Nor can it be doubted that the offence of contempt of court is an offence subject to the Double Jeopardy Clause, however different it may be from all other offences. Not, in any case, after 1993 and the judgement that year of the American Supreme Court in United States versus Dixon, the first direct authority on the point. “We have held (before),” ruled Justice Antonin Scalia for the court, which has so often inspired and influenced the evolution of constitutional jurisprudence in India, “that constitutional protections for criminal defendants other than the double jeopardy provision apply in nonsummary criminal contempt prosecutions just as they do in other criminal prosecutions......We think it obvious, and today hold, that the protection of the Double Jeopardy Clause likewise attaches.” That one of the two punishments, the punishment for contempt, is “designed to protect the court rather than the public is, in this regard, of scant comfort to the defendant,” added the seniormost puisne Judge on the Bench, Justice Byron White in a concurring opinion. Contempt proceedings have been exempted from some constitutional constraints, he said, in view of the necessity of securing judicial authority from obstruction in the performance of its duties to the end that means appropriate for the preservation of the Constitution may be secured. No such end being invoked in the case of double jeopardy, the “principle of necessity cannot be summoned for the sole purpose of letting contempt proceedings achieve what, under our Constitution, other criminal trials cannot.” By absolving him of the
stigma of perjury under Section 193 IPC, the Supreme
Court of India has certainly done justice to M.S.
Ahlawat. But not complete justice. The court’s
failure to address the issue of double jeopardy shows, in
fact, that complete justice remains an elusive hope in
the precincts even of the highest court. |
Celebrations despite Orissa calamity
BEFORE anything else it was definitely disheartening to see most of us celebrate Divali as though nothing amiss had happened in Orissa. True, less crackers were burst this year (at least in New Delhi) but that was because some sort of awareness vis -a-vis environmental pollution has come about and not because we chose to mourn those who perished or are still dying in that particular state. I wonder why we have become so immune to all that’s happening around. In the context of this apathy, let me mention that I have just returned from the British Council where a book “Punishment And the Prison” (published by Sage and edited by Rani Dhavan Shankardass) was released by V P Singh and a film on the conditions in our prisons was screened soon after this book release function. Viewing this film was like seeing visions from hell — for that’s what the interiors of our prisons look like. Absolutely shocking, sub-human conditions and to top it all this fact — 75 per cent of those languishing in our jails are undertrials (as compared to 15 per cent in British jails). Another shocking fact is that our people at the top are probably well aware of the torturous prison conditions, for Justice M N Venkatachaliah said during the course of this film that “when a person enters a jail he is an undergraduate in crime but when he comes out of it he is a post-graduate in crime!” Justice Leila Seth added that conditions are so pathetic that at times there are not even sanitary towels for women inmates. Or as V P Singh during his brief inaugural speech put across “When I was lodged at the Naini jail I often wondered why no fat men can be seen in the jail. True, no one can ever remain fat on the food provided by the jail but what I mean to say that I saw no fat man entering the jail premises...it is just the poor and under-privileged who are jailed for, perhaps, the rich manage to engage the best lawyers and get bailed out.” Actually none of these people needed to say anything for the film said all. Such third-rate conditions that I cannot come up with adequate words or descriptions — men lying atop cemented beds (what looked like cemented) in the most cramped conditions, watery daal being thrown into thalis, demure looking women prisoners sitting and crying, tortured eyes of the imprisoned adolescents as though looking for a way out, supposedly hardened criminals choking on their words whilst pleading that their sentences be reduced, ill looking children (of the women inmates) playing in those dank surroundings. And as if this was not enough shots of British prisons lay webbed with shots from Indian prison interiors. The comparison was too stark. And experts who spoke during this documentary did stress that prison conditions reflect the state of the society and the living conditions around. But surely the living conditions of even the worst of our bastis or mohallas would be a shade better than what an average prison in India holds out: barbaric and torturous conditions. The only ray of hope seemed coming from Rajasthan, where they have come up with a cross between open jails and community living — after serving the first a few years of the prison term, inmates are allowed to live with their families (I suppose under the watchful eyes of the police). This film was indeed an eye opener. And its time we get up and ask ourselves as to why we have turned a blind eye to all that is happening in our jails. As Shankardass says: “We take interest and want to know about other social institutes of society — be they be schools, hospitals etc so don’t we want to know what’s happening inside our prisons?” Probably the politician and his hand-in-glove partner, the civil servant, have purposely kept us away from the prisoners. Which is ironical, since prisoners do not constitute any vote bank so they should have been away from politician’s glare but where is the guarantee that to keep many away from his way the politician uses the prison. And till the community doesn’t step in and question the so called happenings behind those high walls there seems little hope. In fact, one never realised the strength of community’s outreach till last fortnight, when I visited village Tilonia in Rajasthan. Not just one village but a vast cluster of 110 villages do not depend on the government for either power or solar energy and nor for food, water, shelter or educational facilities. All taken care of by the community networking under the guidance of Bunkar Roy and SWRC (Social Work and Research Centre). The other happenings Politics in Uttar Pradesh and Kalyan Singh’s removal followed by his replacement have overshadowed all other political happenings here. And now speculation is centred around whether he would be fitted in the Union Cabinet. Though he is said to have denied accepting a slot in the Union Cabinet and rejected all governorship offers but efforts are on to make him accept the former. He may as well do so, as they say, for,” the sake of the party!” And on November 14 the India International Trade Fair would get inaugurated. I visited the venue just last week and one of the main attractions will be a hall focusing on different cuisines of the country. Right from cuisine of the North East to Lucknow’s kakori kababs and Malavali spread from the Malabar to the best from Delhi. Tailpiece At a panel discussion
centred around Rajmohan Gandhi’s latest book —
“Revenge and Reconciliation, Understanding South
Asian History” (Penguin) — one spotted Maha
Qazi sitting cosily (chaperoned) between her parents, in
the last row of IIC Annexe’s auditorium. Of course,
because of that `Khushwant Kiss’ by now we all know
who Maha is! And though queries during this discussion
did focus on Pakistan, but its High Commissioner AJ Qazi
sat more like a rapt listener. |
November
14, 1924 A FEW days ago the “Bombay Chronicle” published the painful account of a Mahomedan labourer and his wife having died from self-inflicted injuries as a result of being unable to find employment and being hardpressed by creditors. This double tragedy ought to bring the question of unemployment to the prominent attention of both the Government and the well-to-do classes, whose duty it is to do something to relieve the widespread distress caused by unemployment. It is a pity that the Government in India does not own responsibility as the Government in England has done in this respect, and has organised no institution to provide work to the unemployed in urban and rural centres. The educated and well-to-do classes ought to devise measures to start employment bureaus and to offer relief to those who are in acute distress. India produces food and cotton to meet the requirements of the whole population but owing to unequal and unfair distribution of wealth and continued exploitation by the strong, the weak and the poor do not get even the barest necessaries of life. Until the existing
economic errors are corrected the Government and the
moneyed classes ought to do something to relieve the
unemployed. The problem is general throughout India and
should be faced with courage |
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