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A question of dignity
Children’s murder |
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Police assaulting women
Reforming Prasar Bharati
Constant change
Canada seeks indian business
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A question of dignity
Parliament failed to transact any business on Monday as opposition parties protested against the recent fuel price hike. Last Friday the Indian Oil Corporation raised the petrol price by Rs 1.40 a litre excluding taxes. Earlier on February 16, petrol became dearer by Rs 1.50 a litre plus sales tax or VAT as applicable. The IOC has attributed the price hikes to two factors: (a) international prices of gasoline have escalated from $128.57 a barrel to $131 since the last revision and (b) the rupee has appreciated from Rs 53.43 to Rs 54.15 a dollar, making imports costlier. India imports 80 per cent of its oil requirements. The BJP-led NDA partners made two objections. First, why the petrol price has been increased and, secondly, why the announcement has been made outside Parliament when the two Houses are in session. While the IOC answered the first objection, Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Rajiv Shukla replied to the second by saying that petrol prices had been decontrolled and it was the petroleum companies’ decision, not of the government. The Opposition contended that since the companies were state owned, the government could not escape its responsibility. Fuel price hike is an emotive issue and opposition parties try their best to squeeze every bit of political mileage out of it. Last September when the diesel prices went up, the BJP and Left parties organised a Bharat bandh with limited success. The Opposition has a legitimate right to highlight issues it wants to. But why not do that inside Parliament? Though the UPA decontrolled petrol prices in 2010, these are at times dictated by the government, and sometimes by political considerations. The UPA has decided to make incremental changes in diesel charges till the domestic rates reach the global levels. The issue of ballooning fuel subsidy should be discussed by MPs threadbare. Parliament’s dignity is not hurt by announcements of price hikes but when it is not allowed to carry out important legislative work on one pretext or the other.
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Children’s murder
TO lose a child is any parent’s worst nightmare, and the Jalandhar school bus accident left 13 dead, all under 11 years of age. To accept this as a matter of fate would be unreal, for there have been just too many accidents involving school buses, whether in fog or collision with a train. Yet as a society we have been unable to prevent this travesty of both personal responsibility and governance. The bus involved in the latest tragedy was violating every rule in the book — whether on colour, permit, capacity, driver qualification or speed. There are innumerable such buses operating every day out there for anyone to see. It is unpardonable if a school, administration or parent claims they were not aware of violations, or were not responsible for one reason or the other. The responsibility of the administration comes foremost, for there are rules governing the running of school buses, and implementing those is its job. Rampant violations mean either rampant corruption or gross negligence, and neither is acceptable. The school bus incident may also be an occasion to introspect on the larger issue of transporting children to school across long distances within large cities as well as from villages to cities, which is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. A bus run as per regulations and specifications will have a certain cost per child. If that is too high, there will be pressure from parents to bring it down, which may lead to unethical practices by contractors. Or some parents may opt for cheaper but unsafe modes such as autos or rickshaws. In the immediate context, however, parents and schools have to take charge, for they can naturally be the most responsible towards children’s safety. Administrations have to intervene to ensure schools take responsibility for the quality of buses and drivers. Parents on their part have to be bold enough to demand certain minimum standards in this regard. There are certain parent associations that even depute a parent each day by rotation to travel in the school bus. If children are transported in unsafe conditions for one more day, all — the administration, schools and parents — are morally responsible for any harm they may come to.
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Police assaulting women
WE as a country cannot grow beyond symbolism. To honour the memory of 23-year-old student whose fatal gang-rape on a moving bus in Delhi stirred national outrage, the government created a special Rs. 1000-crore "Nirbhaya Fund." The fund was ceremoniously announced in the Budget- 2013 and was dedicated to improving women's safety. This was also meant to placate angry womenfolk, who are at the receiving end of growing violence against their gender. The same government prefers to remain blissfully unaware of the insensitivity of its police force that is supposed to help implement this well-meaning scheme. Brutalisation of the police is a known reality for the rest of the country; only the political class that uses them for its security remains oblivious of their growing violence towards those they are supposed to protect. The brutal attack on a young girl on a busy highway at Taran Taran by six Punjab policemen who thrashed the girl in full public view would have remained unreported, had it not been for a passerby who recorded the horrid saga on his mobile phone and made it public. The shocking video shows policemen in uniform beating the girl mercilessly with batons and hands while her father fell on the road under their blows. The girl and her father had gone to report sexual harassment of the girl by some drivers who were passing lewd remarks at her. If women are going to be thrashed mercilessly by the police even when they are accompanied by their family members, one can imagine the predicament of a single woman. Will they ever approach the police under duress? Such behaviour from the police is absolutely unacceptable, irrespective of the gender of the person. Against women it calls for the harshest punishment possible under the service rules. Unfortunately, what makes such incidents more alarming is the reaction of the police officers that always begins with denial. It was only when the video was put on the air they decided to take action against their own men.
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Dreams are today's answers to tomorrow's questions. — Edgar Cayce
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Reforming Prasar Bharati Among the agenda of reforms being urged or promised, few are more needed, and overdue, than the grant of autonomy to the public service broadcaster, Prasar Bharati. This, hopefully, is now on the anvil and, apart from preliminary steps already taken, such as a more professional approach to newscasting, a committee has been set up under Sam Pitroda to make specific recommendations for the future. The new Minister for I&B, Manish Tewari, has come in with a new broom and some cobwebs have started disappearing. The government’s communication policy, or rather the appalling lack of one, has had a crippling effect on public relations and national morale as AIR and DD came to be used as a propaganda trumpet rather than as a voice of India to its multitudinous diversity. Now that reform is promised, one must beware inventing a solution in search of a problem. That such a danger lurks was evident in a roundtable broadcast over DD recently where there was a certain lack of clarity on the subject. The first fallacy is that Prasar Bharati (PB) is His Master’s Voice, a creature of the Union Government. This it is not. It is a national public trust whose purpose and functions are spelt out in Section 12 of the PB Act, 1990. Prime among these is “safeguarding the citizen’s right to be informed freely, truthfully and objectively on all matters of public interest, national or international, and presenting a fair and balanced flow of information, including contrasting views, without advocating any opinion or ideology of its own”. The Act requires Parliament to make due appropriations for PB which is accountable to it through the Ministry of I&B and its annual report. Additional funding is permitted through broadcast receiver licence fees, currently not levied, commercial broadcasting, sale of programmes, etc. Broadcast information is a service like the supply of electricity, water and telephony; but, unlike the others, it is somehow considered a free good. The PB Act permits the corporation to levy fees for all external and monitoring services in the same manner as the BBC is funded by the Foreign Office for its external services. This is not being done. It is, however, being selectively paid for other home service extension broadcasts, though not in a uniform, standardised manner. Personnel policy has been a huge millstone around PB’s neck as the bulk of its staff remain seconded from government cadres and are, therefore, under the discipline of the Department of Personnel. Lazy staffers prefer the security of government service while the government enjoys the power of cadre control. There is a fierce official reluctance to let go. Even the CEO, Directors of Finance and Personnel and other senior staff are primarily selected from among government servants. There are certainly good people in the official ranks but to exclude others in the first place is clearly anomalous. In-house engineers too are excluded from programme jobs. This again is discriminatory and makes no sense. This is autonomy with fetters. In a classic case, SY Quraishi, a Haryana cadre IAS officer, selected by PB’s first in-house recruitment board to be DG Doordarshan, was summarily removed by an illegal and underhand governmental fiat for the ostensible reason that his cadre control officer allegedly wanted him back in the government! PB has been a hardware-led organisation with a surfeit of transmitters and relay stations and a corresponding complement of engineers who far outnumber the programme staff. This is a top-heavy structure with huge idle capacity and a paucity of programme content or staff. It had neglected foreign language development with the loss of the old monitoring service and is unable satisfactorily to reach the world outside its borders. Great events are currently going on in all of South Asia, but PB has little capacity or capability to reach out and report let alone interpret these events to its domestic audience. People tune into the BBC and CNN to find out what is going on in Bangladesh and Myanmar, Southeast and West Asia, Africa, China and Latin America. It has few foreign correspondents or stringers. Equally, the voice of India is scarcely heard abroad. Why should PB not have regular daily and weekly bulletins or round-ups on its near and farther neighbourhood with good commentaries on economic, political and cultural developments? Where are the in-house commentators and in-house productions that once made AIR and early-PB lively channels? The talent is there. Likewise, why should PB not have more community and local broadcasts to reach out and down to the grassroots as intended because of a crippling paucity of programme staff? One answer would be to farm out idle time to local community broadcasters and institutions on payment so that the transmitters are optimally utilised. Some franchising is being done but not in a structured manner. The other option — and the two are not mutually exclusive — would be to hive off the entire transmission system into an independent PB Transmission Corporation that would be free to service private and commercial broadcasters and become an independent and highly remunerative profit centre. Such a proposition was indeed examined by a committee PB appointed quite some years back under the late PV Indiresan, in collaboration with the French broadcasting organisation, and found feasible. Unfortunately, the idea was not pursued as PB was mired in its own problems and inhibitions. The research and development wing of PB too should be hived off as yet another profit centre that could become a national asset. After all, it was PB that, in collaboration with ISRO, pioneered the set top boxes and related systems for the SITE (Satellite TV Experiment) multi-lingual programme in 1976 in rural India that became the first successful direct-to-home broadcast service in the world. The PB Act calls on the corporation to take such steps as it thinks fit “to establish a system for the gathering of news for radio and television”. This is something PB is well placed to do, nationally and globally. It needs to build its own oral and audio-visual news services that provide an additional, standard-setting, third major news service for a country of a greater size and diversity than all of Europe (plus Russia) and North America combined. Standard-setting is important in the light of the editorialised and sensationalised new reportage current today and phenomena like “paid news”. Autonomy within PB must travel down through the regional to the local and community kendras. So too must accountability, not to the I&B Ministry (which is but a conduit to Parliament), but to an independent Broadcast Complaints Commission. Such a regulatory body was initially provided for but never constituted, as a parallel complaints authority was proposed to be set up to regulate private broadcasting. In the event neither body was constituted. A single complaints body is very necessary, possibly with regional affiliates in view of the size of the country and its multiplicity of languages. These are among the broadcast reforms that should be contemplated. India deserves nothing less. Public service broadcasting, unlike private broadcasting, must primarily be designed to cater to the citizen, not just the
consumer.
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Constant change In life, skyline keeps on changing. The chaotic tumble of progress, the simultaneity of events and an unemotional network of computers, censors and signals have accelerated the pace of change. Life has become an open port perpetually on the boil with no steam vents. Every age has an aura, an atmosphere, a vibration that is characteristic and unmistakable. Presently anxiety is the murmur of times, and discontent is the medium of the age. Smooth as a snake, change can be seen from real life to reel life. Corruption has gained acceptability. Acceptability is the first step to respectability. Money has become an effective lubricant of the political and administrative machinery. Recently an old farmer-friend came to see me. He told me that he had come for some work. He was all praise for the bureaucrat who had accepted bribe in his office. He told me that the bureaucrat was a man of principles, frankness and straight-forward conduct. He had told him that instead of Diwali gifts, he should pay him cash. "Khandani aadmi hai" (He comes of a good stock). People who should have been in Tihar Jail have reached the chambers of governance. Most of the politicians have been "thana-level" operators. An MLA, who was the chairman of a corporation, misbehaved with his lady PA. There was a lot of furore. I knew him and asked him about the incident. He said, "Eh taan facility hai" (This a facility with the job). Power vendors and influence peddlers have an effective presence in the corridors of power. Pimps and touts can be seen in the company of bureaucrats and ministers. They make easily available, easy glow damsels who are in a perpetual state of tumescence. They cultivate influential people with their husky bedside manners. These princesses are used for striking big deals. Some of the ministers and bureaucrats are shrines of sin. The corridors of power resonate with the cooing of psycophants. Some of them not only lick but slurp also and feel happy when their slurp is heard. The strong coating of Indian inhibitions has been replaced by perversion, prurience and pornography. Cellphones, booze and high infidelity are the symbols of new age. Visible change can be seen in reel life. There is thirst for trivia. What a Meena Kumari or a Madhubala could convey through a glance is now pointedly brought home to the audience by reference to "Choli ke peechey kya hai". Begum Akhtar's "Mohabbat teray naam pe rona aya" has been replaced by "Anarkali disco chali". "Badnam Munnis" and "Jawan Sheelas" dominate the silver screen. Our erotomania has taken us to eroticism. Now nothing is erotic. Love requires decency, silence and privacy. It is as if Mona Lisa has revealed the secret of her smile. Traditional values of civility, decorum and restraint have disappeared. There is a smell of sorrow, smudged rages and dead brain cells. Life has become an archive of unhappiness and catacomb of darkness. Memories of old straight-forward days and decent people remain fresh. The songs are over, but the melody
lingers.
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Canada seeks indian business Cutting across party lines, leaders of various Canadian political parties — both federal and provincial — have strong reasons for courting India, not only because of more than million people of Indo-Canadian region (of a total population of 34 million) living in Canada but also to diversify their country’s trade beyond the United States. For them, China, India and Brazil have been the major options. This could be one reason for the increased frequency of visits of ministerial, parliamentary and business delegations from Canada to India. In spite of the intertwining of populations of India and Canada, the growth in economic relationship between the two nations has not much to cheer about.
While Canada has a much bigger and stronger trade partnership with China at $57.8 billion (all figures in Canadian dollars unless specified), its business links with India, with which it shares a common British legacy in legal and political systems, besides the dominant English language, was just $5.2 billion. Interestingly, the Australian economy, which was just half the size of Canadian economy, has bilateral trade with India of more than Australian $15 billion. Intriguingly, India’s size and the common Commonwealth history and ever-bulging number of immigrants, remains miniscule. Bilateral merchandise trade between Canada and India totalled approximately $4.2 billion in 2010. Though it reflects an increase of 46.6 per cent since 2005, it is still 1/10th of the Canada-China trade. In 2008, India was Canada’s 16th merchandise trade partner while being ranked 30th for India. In 2009, the prime ministers of Canada and India set a combined annual trade target of $15 billion to be reached by 2015. Though Canada and India started working towards a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in 2010, it may not be signed till the end of current financial year.
Manmohan Singh’s visit That year, Canadian exports made up $2.12 billion of the $4.2 billion trade relationship. Of the $3.57 billion in direct investment between the two countries, Indian investment in Canada, at $2.97 billion, far outstripped the reverse.
In June 2010, when Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh visited Canada, he had set a target to increase bilateral trade to $15 billion by 2015. Before Dr Manmohan Singh, the only Indian Prime Ministers to visit Canada were Jawaharlal Nehru (1949) and Indira Gandhi (1973). The prime ministerial visit after 37 years, however, was not able to accelerate the bilateral trade as was expected. Against three visits by Indian prime ministers since the Independence, Canadian prime ministers have been visiting India regularly. This was in spite of the lull between bilateral relations after the NDA government went for a nuclear explosion. Exchange of ministerial visits is normally an indication of cordial and friendly relations between two nations. However, in case of India and Canada, the visits have mainly been one-sided for many reasons, including the Kanishka tragedy. Not many political leaders from India, including states, have been on official visits to Canada though Canada declared 2011 as Year of India and played host to the IIFA awards. Though both India and Canada have put behind them all such chapters that led to discords earlier, yet the pace for augmenting business ties is still to pick up. Since 1993, the strong Indo-Canadian community has made deep inroads into mainstream politics, both in federal and provincial politics. Since the size of the trade is small, annual increase of 20 to 30 per cent witnessed since 2005 has failed to make it substantial. In the next two years, both nations set committed to triple the size of this trade that for the time being looks gigantic.
Canadian delegations Recently, a nearly 100-member Canadian business delegation visited major Indian cities, including Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kochi, Ahmedabad and Amritsar. It was a follow-up visit to that of the Canadian delegation led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper that came to India in November last year. Immediately before and after the prime ministerial visit, several Canadian ministers have been to India. Besides federal ministers, several provincial delegations, including Premier of Manitoba and Finance Minister of British Columbia have been on official visits to India. A couple of years ago, a business and trade delegation from Punjab had visited Toronto to showcase its inventory. If one looks at the Foreign Direct Investment from Canada in Punjab, it is far from heart-warming. No Canadian Prime Minister to visit India has skipped visiting either the Golden Temple in Amritsar or the new wonder Nishan-e-Khalsa in Sri Anandpur Sahib. In fact, Stephen Harper became the first visiting Prime Minister to visit Nishan-e-Khalsa. Though a big delegation accompanied Stephen Harper on his last visit to India, it did not meet or hold negotiations with any trade, industry and business organisation of Punjab. Two years ago, when British Columbia Premier Christy Clark came to India to make a bid for holding the IIFA awards 2013 in Vancouver, she also visited Amritsar and Chandigarh. Here she invited Chief Ministers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh to visit British Columbia to explore possibilities of regional cooperation in the areas of agriculture, power, oil exploration, besides education and trade. Her invitation appears to have remained in papers only. She, however, honoured her commitment by getting a British Columbia trade office functional at Chandigarh Consul-General in December last year. Recently, Premier of Manitoba, Greg Selinger, also came to India to invite Punjabis to come and invest in his state. He, in return, offered expertise in the areas of food, including storage and value addition, clean hydel power generation and transmission, education and other areas. Unfortunately, he could not meet any major political leader of Punjab.
Lack of response Even in November last year, at least one of federal ministers of Canada also rued that in spite of his efforts, he could not meet top political leaders of the state after Prime Minister Stephen Harper had left Punjab. Investments in Punjab from Canada are limited to remittances and some money that comes under Village Life Improvement Programmed (VIP). Other than business and trade, India, in general, and Punjab in particular, have been evincing keen interest in immigration policies of Canada as a major source of supply of unskilled and skilled manpower to Canada. Immigration and Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney travelled to Amritsar, some time back to reveal that that in 2012 Chandigarh office issued a record number of 17,608 Temporary Resident Visas to Punjabi visitors. This was nearly three times the number of such visas issued in 2005. Jason Kenney held that this was made possible because of a greater cooperation from the Punjab state officials in combating illicit activities of unethical immigration agents. He also met with Punjab Minister for NRI Affairs Bikram Majithia to discuss efforts to combat immigration fraud, and implementation of Punjab’s new Anti-Human Smuggling Act. Minister of State Tim Uppal and Member of Parliament Parm Gill accompanied him. Jason Kenney also attended the Parvasi Bharat Divas 2013 in Kochi, besides making his presence felt at the Vibrant Gujarat, an event organised for overseas Indians to seek their investment in the state by its Chief Minister Narendra Modi. The Canadians are now reaching out to a more and more Indian states.
High-level visits India Canada In 2012, a delegation led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper visited India. Other important visits include:
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