Do We Need Cultural Policing?
*Saumitra Mohan
There has been a spurt of protests and red-faced expressions against the deemed moral and ethical degeneration in the Indian society in recent times. Be it the uproar over the so-called bawdy on-field shakes of the imported cheer leaders in the just concluded Indian Premier League cricket matches or the ban on bar girls in Maharashtra, the moral policemen, with their holier-than-thou approach, have always been up in the arms to register their protests. What happened to be occasional outpourings seem to have become quite routine and regular, with the Culture Vultures finding more and more causes to take cudgels for as if we have got devoid of the real and basic issues affecting the common man.
Be it Nelson Mandela’s paternal peck on Shabana Azmi, Richard Gere’s Knightly smackers to Shilpa Shetty, sartorial choices of our tennis sensation Sania Mirza, the romantic liberties taken by lovers in Meerut or elsewhere to meet openly in public parks or the annual ritualistic remonstrations against the celebration of Valentine Day, the Moral Brigade has come down heavily against the same to spoil the party. These Talibani tendencies to dictate the basic nuances of culture to the common man definitely do not gel with the broader framework of a liberal democratic society.
What is surprising is the fact that such incidents of cultural policing are being reported with unceasing regularity now a days, quite surprisingly at a time when we are talking of further liberalisation and consequent freedom of choice for the creature called ‘homo sapiens’. One Rizwanur Rahman from Kolkata fell prey to the same prying eyes of a vigilante moral brigade which culminated in his tragic death. The same pathological penchant of the loony fringe ensured the eventual shelving of the impending visit of Carla Bruni, in company of her more celebrated boy friend and the French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The protocol-related confusions finally had the French President making it all alone.
Such moral pangs take other hues in the form of attempts to ban smoking or drinking scenes on silver screen on the specious plea that the same promotes these vices among the common public, even though there are various other and more effective ways to promote healthy habits among the citizens. One has a sinking feeling that such non-issues emanate from an unwholesome desire to either hog some cheap publicity or to create some controversies in a bid to cater to a select audience for some unseen political advantage.
Since eccentricities and inanities know no boundaries, such cultural policemen could be found throughout the world. So, even artistic freedom of expression exercised by such people as Salman Rushdie, Taslima Nasreen, Maqbul Fida Hussain, Ashish Nandy and the famous European cartoonist who made a caricature of Prophet Muhammad have not been spared by these skin heads. Many of these people are the so called entrenched interests who try to regain their fast depleting acceptability or social respect by way of such dubious means.
While a section of our political class does batten and fatten on such class of politics, what surprises one is the tacit support extended to them by our intelligentsia by not registering their voice against such erratic, indiscriminate and misconceived curbs on the very basic human rights of the individual. How were one to dress up or who to marry ought to be best left to the sovereign desire of the individual in keeping with the law of the land. The numerous caste panchayats and their illegal fiats seeped in hoary moth-balled mores and customs have seen the execution or cold-blooded murders of many of the innocent men and women, something which should be shocking to the conscience of any civilised society. It is here that the state has to guard against any such incursion on individual freedom.
It is such cultural or intellectual policing that, on a different plane, also seems to dictate our reactions to such disparate phenomena as genetically modified food, human cloning or opening of retail chains. Believe it or not, all such reactions somehow and somewhere seem to stem either from entrenched vested interests or from a desire to bask in the evanescent media limelight to gain cheap brownie points in the political sweepstakes. But by doing so, we are only hurting the discourse of human development by blocking way to a more open and liberal society.
After all, if your motor car stops working or is environmentally polluting, you do not go back to the bullock cart. The best course of action would be to make the motor car more efficient or environment friendly rather than dumping it completely. So, when we have accepted so many other benefits of science and have already been interfering with nature enough, there should be theoretically no pangs to GMOs, cloning or stem cell research if the same could be used to better human life further without hurting the nature or compromising with the basic values. In fact, our ethics and values should also be living entities always evolving rather than being stuck in a time warp.
It is such feeling or tendency to benefit from ersatz popular revulsion or fear that has given birth to such entities as Taliban in Afghanistan and elsewhere. It is the bounden duty of the societal leaders to inform and educate the unschooled masses about the various facets of collective social life. But, an irresponsible section of our leadership is busy wasting popular energies on such futile issues rather than mobilising and channelling the same into productive causes.
One just hopes that such protestations and remonstrations shall only further the debate typical of a liberal democracy, giving way to a more eclectic culture by way of a healthy discourse and paradigm on such issues. This is actually symptomatic of an India still being mired in history if we are to believe the postulates as averred by Francis Fukuyama in his celebrates thesis namely ‘End of History’.
The minatory Delphic predictions by such prophets of doom as Samuel Huntington forecasting a ‘Clash of Civilisations’ may not eventually happen if one were to see the silver lining in the cloud. After all, as they say, every threat or difficulty is also an opportunity. So, such negative expressions should actually further the democratic discourse including the need to debate the amount of freedom to be granted to the common man. However, one does feel that quite often some of these artistic freedoms of expression go overboard. Often such expressions could be easily tempered by the practical considerations of public morality by attempting a balance between the two and by stopping short of turning liberty into license. As John Stuart Mill would have said, ‘Our freedom to move our hand stops where someone’s nose begins.’
That such freedom and liberties reinforced by fundamental human rights, as also enshrined in our Constitution and Universal Declaration of Human Rights, should not be completely unchecked and unrestrained is something we all accept. If at all we decide to restrain them in the enlightened public interest, what should be the reasonable limit or curb on the same? But before we can actually see that happening, we have to ensure that the misplaced arrogance of a few does not lead others to react in a way which not only compromises the basic human rights of the silent majority, but can also be more prejudicial to the gradual maturing of human society. However, this is also important for this silent majority to prevent and pre-empt this loony fringe from being able to set the warp and weft of our cultural agenda.
Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Growing Naxalism: Need for a Unified Command
Saumitra Mohan
With the recent arrest of a few Maoists in India’s financial capital by the Maharashtra police, it is more than obvious that this menace is no longer confined to the jungles. The Maoists are increasingly penetrating bigger cities, trying to indoctrinate people and collecting funds for the organisation.
If intelligence reports are to be believed, then the Maoists are already ensconced and entrenched in major cities. It is suspected that that the Maoists may strike bigger cities before long as the same provides good publicity for their intended ‘New Democratic Revolution’. A good cache of sophisticated arms, explosives and detonators have often been recovered following the arrests of many of the suspected Maoists from many of the cities.
According to their new strategy, Maoists plan to target important urban centres in India. They seem to have drawn up detailed guidelines for their urban operations, thereby wishing to mobilise disgruntled elements including urban unemployed in favour of their ultimate ‘cause’ of eventual seizure of state power by way of a so-called people’s war. The naxals reportedly have plans to strike in the industrial belts of Bhilai-Ranchi-Dhanbad-Calcutta and Mumbai-Pune-Surat-Ahmedabad to take their battle into the heart of India.
There may be no immediate threat, but the fact remains that Maoists have been steadily working their plans of building bases and finding a foothold in bigger cities. For the moment, they seem to have confined their activities to propagating their ideology, setting up secret cells for frontal organisations and recruiting people. The Maoists have been trying to spread their movement among trade and labour unions, poor people and students.
The recent Naxal attack on police stations in Orissa’s Nayagarh district is the latest wake-up call for India’s security mandarins. The naxals are said to have looted about 1,100 weapons, including pistols, light machine guns, AK-47s, SLRs and INSAS rifles from the district and police training school armouries in Nayagarh. They struck again on Orissa-Andhra Pradesh border resulting in the death of at least 45 policemen belonging to the elite anti-naxal force, ‘Greyhounds’.
With every passing day, the Maoist guerrillas seem to be tightening their grip on the country, claiming some 500 lives every year. In some areas, the situation is so alarming that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described the menace as a “virus” that threatens the very idea of India. He exhorted the states to pool their resources and crush the leftist rebellion once and for all.
It has been known for long that our police force is definitely not as equipped, trained and motivated as their naxal counterparts who are increasingly growing in strength in every sense of the term. The Maoists today are better organised, better armed, better trained and better motivated to execute their sinister agenda.
Now, the Union home ministry is planning to tackle this problem by helping the states raise 35 India Reserve Battalions (IRB) to crush the Maoist rebellion. The Centre is learnt to have decided to take many other serious steps to curb the menace. There are already four layers of monitoring mechanisms. Since these have proved inadequate, the Union government has decided to have a fifth layer - a task force to be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary to promote coordinated efforts across a range of development and security activities so that the Maoist menace can be tackled comprehensively and effectively.
There are some complex issues which need to be resolved before we can expect a better response to the Maoist menace. Since law and order is a state subject, the Centre can not take direct police action in the wake of an incident unless the situation is deemed to be so alarming as to require its involvement under Article 355 of the Indian Constitution. The article relates to central involvement in extra-ordinary cases of ‘internal disturbances’ making it difficult to run the government there in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
Even though the Centre has provided 33 battalions (over 33,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces to states for deployment in naxal-affected districts, this has proved to be insufficient given the fact that naxalism today affects almost 40 per cent geographical area of this country in one way or the other. Chhattisgarh, for example, has over 13,000 personnel out of the total deployment of central forces, but it has still reported more than 50 per cent of the total casualties (325 out of 601) in 2007.
Andhra Pradesh has shown the way by creating a specialised force called ‘Grey Hounds’ to fight the Maoists and achieved huge success in minimising casualties since its inception almost two years back. The local police, backed by the armed reserve forces, the Grey Hounds and a well-developed intelligence network, have succeeded in controlling the Maoist menace to a great extent.
With Grey Hounds on their heels, the Maoists have been on the run in Andhra Pradesh, but the forces have not been able to take on the might of the Maoist guerrillas effectively in states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal where they are still to find an effective antidote to the Maoist threat.
The Maoists easily slip into another state after attacking civilians and security personnel, knowing full well that they can get away with the same. The rebels seem to be taking advantage of the fact that the states still do not have a ‘unified command’ to fight them. Law and order being a state subject, such a ‘unified command’ is theoretically not possible. But one feels that there is now an urgent need to come out with a better coordinated action and strategy vis-à-vis the Maoists even if that means having a ‘unified command’ by somehow getting over the constitutional snag.
Though the number of casualties in Maoist violence has declined in 2007 (601) as compared to 2006 (678), statistics do not tell the entire story. Incidents like the recent jail-break in Chhattisgarh where rebels attacked a jail and escaped with hundreds of their comrades reveal that the Maoists are only getting bolder. The Nayagarh incident only corroborates this assumption.
It is difficult to say if the new strategy by the Centre will be able to check the growth of Naxals in the countryside and their growing influence in the urban centres. In the past, states have failed to coordinate police operations to tackle such issues. But this time, as the Maoists increase their influence, the states have no choice but to join hands.
Saumitra Mohan
With the recent arrest of a few Maoists in India’s financial capital by the Maharashtra police, it is more than obvious that this menace is no longer confined to the jungles. The Maoists are increasingly penetrating bigger cities, trying to indoctrinate people and collecting funds for the organisation.
If intelligence reports are to be believed, then the Maoists are already ensconced and entrenched in major cities. It is suspected that that the Maoists may strike bigger cities before long as the same provides good publicity for their intended ‘New Democratic Revolution’. A good cache of sophisticated arms, explosives and detonators have often been recovered following the arrests of many of the suspected Maoists from many of the cities.
According to their new strategy, Maoists plan to target important urban centres in India. They seem to have drawn up detailed guidelines for their urban operations, thereby wishing to mobilise disgruntled elements including urban unemployed in favour of their ultimate ‘cause’ of eventual seizure of state power by way of a so-called people’s war. The naxals reportedly have plans to strike in the industrial belts of Bhilai-Ranchi-Dhanbad-Calcutta and Mumbai-Pune-Surat-Ahmedabad to take their battle into the heart of India.
There may be no immediate threat, but the fact remains that Maoists have been steadily working their plans of building bases and finding a foothold in bigger cities. For the moment, they seem to have confined their activities to propagating their ideology, setting up secret cells for frontal organisations and recruiting people. The Maoists have been trying to spread their movement among trade and labour unions, poor people and students.
The recent Naxal attack on police stations in Orissa’s Nayagarh district is the latest wake-up call for India’s security mandarins. The naxals are said to have looted about 1,100 weapons, including pistols, light machine guns, AK-47s, SLRs and INSAS rifles from the district and police training school armouries in Nayagarh. They struck again on Orissa-Andhra Pradesh border resulting in the death of at least 45 policemen belonging to the elite anti-naxal force, ‘Greyhounds’.
With every passing day, the Maoist guerrillas seem to be tightening their grip on the country, claiming some 500 lives every year. In some areas, the situation is so alarming that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently described the menace as a “virus” that threatens the very idea of India. He exhorted the states to pool their resources and crush the leftist rebellion once and for all.
It has been known for long that our police force is definitely not as equipped, trained and motivated as their naxal counterparts who are increasingly growing in strength in every sense of the term. The Maoists today are better organised, better armed, better trained and better motivated to execute their sinister agenda.
Now, the Union home ministry is planning to tackle this problem by helping the states raise 35 India Reserve Battalions (IRB) to crush the Maoist rebellion. The Centre is learnt to have decided to take many other serious steps to curb the menace. There are already four layers of monitoring mechanisms. Since these have proved inadequate, the Union government has decided to have a fifth layer - a task force to be chaired by the Cabinet Secretary to promote coordinated efforts across a range of development and security activities so that the Maoist menace can be tackled comprehensively and effectively.
There are some complex issues which need to be resolved before we can expect a better response to the Maoist menace. Since law and order is a state subject, the Centre can not take direct police action in the wake of an incident unless the situation is deemed to be so alarming as to require its involvement under Article 355 of the Indian Constitution. The article relates to central involvement in extra-ordinary cases of ‘internal disturbances’ making it difficult to run the government there in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution.
Even though the Centre has provided 33 battalions (over 33,000 personnel) of paramilitary forces to states for deployment in naxal-affected districts, this has proved to be insufficient given the fact that naxalism today affects almost 40 per cent geographical area of this country in one way or the other. Chhattisgarh, for example, has over 13,000 personnel out of the total deployment of central forces, but it has still reported more than 50 per cent of the total casualties (325 out of 601) in 2007.
Andhra Pradesh has shown the way by creating a specialised force called ‘Grey Hounds’ to fight the Maoists and achieved huge success in minimising casualties since its inception almost two years back. The local police, backed by the armed reserve forces, the Grey Hounds and a well-developed intelligence network, have succeeded in controlling the Maoist menace to a great extent.
With Grey Hounds on their heels, the Maoists have been on the run in Andhra Pradesh, but the forces have not been able to take on the might of the Maoist guerrillas effectively in states like Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal where they are still to find an effective antidote to the Maoist threat.
The Maoists easily slip into another state after attacking civilians and security personnel, knowing full well that they can get away with the same. The rebels seem to be taking advantage of the fact that the states still do not have a ‘unified command’ to fight them. Law and order being a state subject, such a ‘unified command’ is theoretically not possible. But one feels that there is now an urgent need to come out with a better coordinated action and strategy vis-à-vis the Maoists even if that means having a ‘unified command’ by somehow getting over the constitutional snag.
Though the number of casualties in Maoist violence has declined in 2007 (601) as compared to 2006 (678), statistics do not tell the entire story. Incidents like the recent jail-break in Chhattisgarh where rebels attacked a jail and escaped with hundreds of their comrades reveal that the Maoists are only getting bolder. The Nayagarh incident only corroborates this assumption.
It is difficult to say if the new strategy by the Centre will be able to check the growth of Naxals in the countryside and their growing influence in the urban centres. In the past, states have failed to coordinate police operations to tackle such issues. But this time, as the Maoists increase their influence, the states have no choice but to join hands.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Debating the idea of Federal Police Agency
*Saumitra Mohan
The perceived failure of our police machinery to deal with various cases of law and order satisfactorily has often led to demands for CBI inquiry in those cases. This, inter alia, points to the lack of popular confidence in our police and frequent calls to CBI for causing inquiries in matters as may strictly relate to matters in the state domain. This has not only dented the morale of the provincial police, but has also resulted in the central agency being overly burdened to do justice to its original briefs.
It is in this light that there has been mooted a proposal for a Federal Police Agency (FPA) to deal with such issues in state domain which go beyond the normal law and order or which require more specialised attention and investigation. The same shall also have positive pay-offs for our internal security.
The blame game between the Centre and many state governments as seen recently in the wake of critical law and order failures or terrorist bomb blasts is also supposed to be laid to rest by institution of such an agency. After the recent serial bomb blasts in Uttar Pradesh, while the Centre said that law and order being a state subject, it is the responsibility of the state government to be more vigilant, the state government blamed the centre for having not provided it with adequate intelligence inputs to this effect.
However, the Central Administrative Reforms Committee headed by Veerappa Moily has also recommended such an independent Crime Investigation Agency. The performance of this agency is proposed to be monitored by a ‘high powered collegium’ comprising the Chief Minister, Speaker of the Assembly, Chief Justice of the High Court and Leader of the Opposition.
The committee, inter alia, suggested a State Police Performance and Accountability Commission with the Chief Minister as the head, but also with many members from the civil society to review and evaluate the police performance. The Citizens’ Committee has also recommended specific measures for proper supervision of the police force.
The idea of a Federal Police Agency has been on board for a long time and now the Government of India is also learnt to be toying with such an idea. But before we go about this, there are many issues which need to be discussed and sorted out.
When we go about setting up such an agency, we should see to it that the jurisdictions of the state police and that of agencies like CBI and FPA remain clearly demarcated to avoid any duplication or overlapping of functions and duties, as far as possible. It needs to be ensured that inquiries and investigations as entrusted to these agencies become more automatic and systematic than be reactive entrustments to pre-empt any negative reflection on performance of the local police.
It has been noticed in recent past that the state governments or high courts have entrusted enquiries in high profile cases only after there has been a popular outcry demanding the same. The same was seen in Nandigram and Rizwanur Rahman cases where ongoing state police inquiries were discontinued or nixed in favour of inquiries by the central agency. Such an approach often has dampening impact on police morale.
We should also ensure that even while create such a central agency, we should not ignore and forget that there is no substitute to an efficient and effective police force as that still remains the most primary level where the State-citizens interface usually takes place. Hence, the provincial police needs to be spruced up further rather than marginalising it by whittling down its authority or overshadowing it by creation of parallel authorities.
Ergo, increased attention should continue to be paid to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the state police to restore the popular confidence therein. The state police needs to be made more professional and effective than it has been found to be so far. And to ensure this, the police must be allowed to function more independently and autonomously than it has been able to.
It is realising this that the Dharamvira Commission recommended complete police autonomy long back in the 1970s, but till date no serious thought has been given to this recommendation for the simple reason that it suits the interests of our political class. The cosmetic changes effected in police organisation recently consequent to the Supreme Court judgement have not made any substantive and qualitative difference to their service delivery. Proposal of the FPA also points to the dilettantism which informs the police reforms.
It remains a fact that since law and order is a state subject, frequent calls to CBI also results in erosion of the state authority and, thereby, of our federal structure. Even though our founding fathers never meant India to be a true federation as is obvious in the Constitutional appellation ‘Union of States’, centralisation of powers beyond a point is not advisable notwithstanding the centralising tendencies seen in federal countries across the world.
After all, Nandigram has brought to the fore a sinister side of the reality which needs to be addressed urgently for the better management of law and order situation with serious implications for our internal security. Most importantly, we need to realise that we can allow the institution of police to languish only at the peril of our system.
So, even while we go about creating FPA, it should be ensured that police functions remain unencumbered by interference from any quarters including insidious influence by the politicians and political parties. The police force not only needs to be made more professional, but it also needs be better trained and better motivated to deal with various demands and challenges of policing in an anomic society.
*Saumitra Mohan
The perceived failure of our police machinery to deal with various cases of law and order satisfactorily has often led to demands for CBI inquiry in those cases. This, inter alia, points to the lack of popular confidence in our police and frequent calls to CBI for causing inquiries in matters as may strictly relate to matters in the state domain. This has not only dented the morale of the provincial police, but has also resulted in the central agency being overly burdened to do justice to its original briefs.
It is in this light that there has been mooted a proposal for a Federal Police Agency (FPA) to deal with such issues in state domain which go beyond the normal law and order or which require more specialised attention and investigation. The same shall also have positive pay-offs for our internal security.
The blame game between the Centre and many state governments as seen recently in the wake of critical law and order failures or terrorist bomb blasts is also supposed to be laid to rest by institution of such an agency. After the recent serial bomb blasts in Uttar Pradesh, while the Centre said that law and order being a state subject, it is the responsibility of the state government to be more vigilant, the state government blamed the centre for having not provided it with adequate intelligence inputs to this effect.
However, the Central Administrative Reforms Committee headed by Veerappa Moily has also recommended such an independent Crime Investigation Agency. The performance of this agency is proposed to be monitored by a ‘high powered collegium’ comprising the Chief Minister, Speaker of the Assembly, Chief Justice of the High Court and Leader of the Opposition.
The committee, inter alia, suggested a State Police Performance and Accountability Commission with the Chief Minister as the head, but also with many members from the civil society to review and evaluate the police performance. The Citizens’ Committee has also recommended specific measures for proper supervision of the police force.
The idea of a Federal Police Agency has been on board for a long time and now the Government of India is also learnt to be toying with such an idea. But before we go about this, there are many issues which need to be discussed and sorted out.
When we go about setting up such an agency, we should see to it that the jurisdictions of the state police and that of agencies like CBI and FPA remain clearly demarcated to avoid any duplication or overlapping of functions and duties, as far as possible. It needs to be ensured that inquiries and investigations as entrusted to these agencies become more automatic and systematic than be reactive entrustments to pre-empt any negative reflection on performance of the local police.
It has been noticed in recent past that the state governments or high courts have entrusted enquiries in high profile cases only after there has been a popular outcry demanding the same. The same was seen in Nandigram and Rizwanur Rahman cases where ongoing state police inquiries were discontinued or nixed in favour of inquiries by the central agency. Such an approach often has dampening impact on police morale.
We should also ensure that even while create such a central agency, we should not ignore and forget that there is no substitute to an efficient and effective police force as that still remains the most primary level where the State-citizens interface usually takes place. Hence, the provincial police needs to be spruced up further rather than marginalising it by whittling down its authority or overshadowing it by creation of parallel authorities.
Ergo, increased attention should continue to be paid to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the state police to restore the popular confidence therein. The state police needs to be made more professional and effective than it has been found to be so far. And to ensure this, the police must be allowed to function more independently and autonomously than it has been able to.
It is realising this that the Dharamvira Commission recommended complete police autonomy long back in the 1970s, but till date no serious thought has been given to this recommendation for the simple reason that it suits the interests of our political class. The cosmetic changes effected in police organisation recently consequent to the Supreme Court judgement have not made any substantive and qualitative difference to their service delivery. Proposal of the FPA also points to the dilettantism which informs the police reforms.
It remains a fact that since law and order is a state subject, frequent calls to CBI also results in erosion of the state authority and, thereby, of our federal structure. Even though our founding fathers never meant India to be a true federation as is obvious in the Constitutional appellation ‘Union of States’, centralisation of powers beyond a point is not advisable notwithstanding the centralising tendencies seen in federal countries across the world.
After all, Nandigram has brought to the fore a sinister side of the reality which needs to be addressed urgently for the better management of law and order situation with serious implications for our internal security. Most importantly, we need to realise that we can allow the institution of police to languish only at the peril of our system.
So, even while we go about creating FPA, it should be ensured that police functions remain unencumbered by interference from any quarters including insidious influence by the politicians and political parties. The police force not only needs to be made more professional, but it also needs be better trained and better motivated to deal with various demands and challenges of policing in an anomic society.
Strengthening Indo-Bangla Relations
*Saumitra Mohan
Notwithstanding India’s attempts to further improve and consolidate bilateral relations with Bangladesh, the latter continues to indulge in hostile acts which actually compromise India’s territorial security and integrity. The unprovoked firing by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) from time to time resulting in loss of human and animal lives only confirms this.
Notwithstanding the assertions of India’s Border Security Force (BSF), backed by concrete evidence, Bangladesh is not willing to accept the fact that it is playing host to the militants having inimical designs on India. Bangladesh just does not see any such militant camps being run on its territory. But the fact remains that as many as 172 training camps of different insurgent groups including those from Tripura have been operational in Bangladesh for a very long time.
The BSF has been submitting lists of such camps at annual border meetings with its counterparts namely the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) since the late 1990s only to be rebuffed every time by the latter. However, BDR did assure in 2006 to ‘look into the matter and find out’ but did nothing beyond that.
As per the 1996 accord between the two, both the countries were expected not to allow such bases on their sides of the border, but Bangladesh never kept its word as is obvious from the experience to the contrary. In spite of the initial promise, the present interim government in Bangladesh is no different from its predecessors. It is obvious by now that Dhaka deliberately winks at the disruptive activities of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The latter is out to destabilise India’s North-East as part of its long-cherished desire to bleed India through thousand cuts, dismembering her eventually.
A TV channel’s footage recently of some rebels belonging to the secessionists National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) undergoing training in Bangladesh should leave Dhaka red-faced. Only recently, a Guwahati-based website quoted NDFB commander Ranjan Daimary welcoming and exhorting trained cadets in Bangladesh telling them about their real task starting with the end of their training.
Known as the Bodo Security Force during the height of the Bodo agitation, NDFB took in present avatar in 1995. It teamed up with six smaller ethnic outfits to form an umbrella organisation called the Self-Defence United Front of the South East Himalaya Region. It has links with ULFA and NSCN (IM). Two years after Bhutan busted the NDFB camps, the outfit signed a truce with the Centre in 2005, but it would appear this was merely a ploy to buy some time to be able to consolidate.
Though the Bodos are now masters of their own destiny, the NDFB does not recognise the Bodo Territorial Council under the Sixth Schedule signed by its rival, the Bodo Liberation Tigers. The Centre can not ignore the NDFB’s potential for mischief and must redefine the truce. In all this, Bangladesh’s friendly gestures can go a long way in India’s efforts at fighting such forces as was done by Bhutan a few years back.
Bangladesh’s cooperation on this count would definitely help in tackling the long festering problem of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The fact remains that today millions of illegal Bangladeshi citizens are residing and working in India and it is well nigh difficult for the latter to identify and deport them all for different practical reasons. That is why, there has been a suggestion of completely opening the borders with Bangladesh as is the case with Nepal and Bhutan.
This one measure would not only help in effective monitoring of the inter-border movements of citizens by means of valid work permits for citizens on both sides, but shall also go a long way in improving the bilateral trade between the two countries which is heavily skewed in favour of India presently for the obvious reasons.
And if functionalist theory of international relations is to be believed, then such a bold decision would also pave the way for better political relations owing to the positive spin-offs of the better and improved economic ties. After all, it is a well-known fact that better economic ties have always shown potential to spill over into domain of politics as has shown the experience of the European Community. The same may also help the cause of economic development of India’s North-East.
Though, sceptics may points out that such an act would have its own adverse implications including endangering India’s security and integrity by way of changing the democratic profile of the bordering Indian states. It is believed that India’s stronger pull factor would actually make this inter-border movement one-way, with Bangladeshi citizens encroaching on India’s economic resources including developmental benefits of the Indian citizens.
It may actually make the situation very tense than easing it as is being touted. The bird flue outbreak in West Bengal is also attributed to ineffective border surveillance between the two countries and it is believed that had it been completely open, bird flue situation would have been much more dangerous than has been the case so far.
Doubting Thomases notwithstanding, Indo-Bangla trade ties have only been growing for the better. The very fact that the recently launched bus and train services between the two countries have been taken very well by the two countries and have been functioning very well than the one with Pakistan.
One just hopes that better sense would prevail upon Bangladesh and she would see reason and benefits that better ties with India may fetch her. In fact, the same would have positive implications for the wider regional cooperation as well, making SAARC realise the objectives that have so far eluded the over two decade old organisation.
*Saumitra Mohan
Notwithstanding India’s attempts to further improve and consolidate bilateral relations with Bangladesh, the latter continues to indulge in hostile acts which actually compromise India’s territorial security and integrity. The unprovoked firing by Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) from time to time resulting in loss of human and animal lives only confirms this.
Notwithstanding the assertions of India’s Border Security Force (BSF), backed by concrete evidence, Bangladesh is not willing to accept the fact that it is playing host to the militants having inimical designs on India. Bangladesh just does not see any such militant camps being run on its territory. But the fact remains that as many as 172 training camps of different insurgent groups including those from Tripura have been operational in Bangladesh for a very long time.
The BSF has been submitting lists of such camps at annual border meetings with its counterparts namely the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) since the late 1990s only to be rebuffed every time by the latter. However, BDR did assure in 2006 to ‘look into the matter and find out’ but did nothing beyond that.
As per the 1996 accord between the two, both the countries were expected not to allow such bases on their sides of the border, but Bangladesh never kept its word as is obvious from the experience to the contrary. In spite of the initial promise, the present interim government in Bangladesh is no different from its predecessors. It is obvious by now that Dhaka deliberately winks at the disruptive activities of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI). The latter is out to destabilise India’s North-East as part of its long-cherished desire to bleed India through thousand cuts, dismembering her eventually.
A TV channel’s footage recently of some rebels belonging to the secessionists National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) undergoing training in Bangladesh should leave Dhaka red-faced. Only recently, a Guwahati-based website quoted NDFB commander Ranjan Daimary welcoming and exhorting trained cadets in Bangladesh telling them about their real task starting with the end of their training.
Known as the Bodo Security Force during the height of the Bodo agitation, NDFB took in present avatar in 1995. It teamed up with six smaller ethnic outfits to form an umbrella organisation called the Self-Defence United Front of the South East Himalaya Region. It has links with ULFA and NSCN (IM). Two years after Bhutan busted the NDFB camps, the outfit signed a truce with the Centre in 2005, but it would appear this was merely a ploy to buy some time to be able to consolidate.
Though the Bodos are now masters of their own destiny, the NDFB does not recognise the Bodo Territorial Council under the Sixth Schedule signed by its rival, the Bodo Liberation Tigers. The Centre can not ignore the NDFB’s potential for mischief and must redefine the truce. In all this, Bangladesh’s friendly gestures can go a long way in India’s efforts at fighting such forces as was done by Bhutan a few years back.
Bangladesh’s cooperation on this count would definitely help in tackling the long festering problem of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The fact remains that today millions of illegal Bangladeshi citizens are residing and working in India and it is well nigh difficult for the latter to identify and deport them all for different practical reasons. That is why, there has been a suggestion of completely opening the borders with Bangladesh as is the case with Nepal and Bhutan.
This one measure would not only help in effective monitoring of the inter-border movements of citizens by means of valid work permits for citizens on both sides, but shall also go a long way in improving the bilateral trade between the two countries which is heavily skewed in favour of India presently for the obvious reasons.
And if functionalist theory of international relations is to be believed, then such a bold decision would also pave the way for better political relations owing to the positive spin-offs of the better and improved economic ties. After all, it is a well-known fact that better economic ties have always shown potential to spill over into domain of politics as has shown the experience of the European Community. The same may also help the cause of economic development of India’s North-East.
Though, sceptics may points out that such an act would have its own adverse implications including endangering India’s security and integrity by way of changing the democratic profile of the bordering Indian states. It is believed that India’s stronger pull factor would actually make this inter-border movement one-way, with Bangladeshi citizens encroaching on India’s economic resources including developmental benefits of the Indian citizens.
It may actually make the situation very tense than easing it as is being touted. The bird flue outbreak in West Bengal is also attributed to ineffective border surveillance between the two countries and it is believed that had it been completely open, bird flue situation would have been much more dangerous than has been the case so far.
Doubting Thomases notwithstanding, Indo-Bangla trade ties have only been growing for the better. The very fact that the recently launched bus and train services between the two countries have been taken very well by the two countries and have been functioning very well than the one with Pakistan.
One just hopes that better sense would prevail upon Bangladesh and she would see reason and benefits that better ties with India may fetch her. In fact, the same would have positive implications for the wider regional cooperation as well, making SAARC realise the objectives that have so far eluded the over two decade old organisation.
A New Gorkhaland State: How Justified is the Demand?
Saumitra Mohan
The famed and famous honeymoon haunt of Darjeeling is again in the news, this time for a wrong reason. The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) almost barred the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police from entering Darjeeling recently thereby forcing both the DM and SP to cool their heels in Siliguri for almost five days before they were finally allowed in. GJMM’s decision followed skirmishes between the police and its supporters in Siliguri where the latter were demonstrating to press their demand for a new Gorkhaland state.
During the said skirmish, many policemen and GJMM supporters including ex-servicemen were badly injured. The government wisely decided against advising DM and SP to force their way into the district so as not to precipitate things further. The wisdom somewhere also emanated from the way things turned out in recent past in such far flung places as Singur, Nandigram, Cochbehar and Dinhata in West Bengal.
However, GJMM’s decision to bar DM and SP from entering the district has been roundly denounced by all and sundry. One of their key allies in the ongoing movement, CPI (ML) has castigated the GJMM’s barring of DM and SP out of the district. Referring to GJMM’s recent ban on the entry of DM and SP to Darjeeling, Mr. Kanu Sanyal, the General Secretary of CPI (ML) said, ‘This is an entirely irresponsible act’, further adding that such irresponsible moves can actually spoil the statehood movement.
GJMM as a political organisation rose to prominence since its success with an agitation launched in the wake of a Radio Jockey’s indiscretion against Prashant Tamang, the Indian Idol winner. Since then, it has been trying hard to find some issues for its political survival. Another shot in its arm was the dissolution of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) following its successful movement for the same, forcing the redoubtable Subhash Ghishing to step down as head of the Council.
Encouraged by these successes, GJMM led by Bimal Gurung has decided to keep its flock mobilised on one cause or the other to press the Government into accepting its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. Bimal Gurung, a trusted confidant of Subhash Ghishing at one time fell out with him when the latter demanded and almost succeeded in getting the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling.
Bimal Gurung, reading the mood of the people correctly, not only led a successful coup against Ghishing thereby getting the leadership mantle for Darjeeling, but also decided to rake up the long pigeon-holed issue of a separate Gorkhaland state instead of settling just for the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling, something which was strongly advocated by Ghishing. In its bid to do so, GJMM has found support from such other disparate outfits as Kamtapur People’s Party (KPP) and Greater Cochbehar Democratic Party (GCDP). They together have found a convenient ground to hog media attention for their long-forgotten causes, more so in an election year. Be it noted that West Bengal is supposed to have its panchayat election in the month of May to be followed by parliamentary election very soon.
But many feel that the present bonhomie among GJMM, KPP and GCDP is not likely to last long because of their conflicting interests. After all, the proposed Gorkhaland, Kamtapur and Greater Cochbehar states for which these parties have been agitating have overlapping areas and in case of the last two, almost the same area. So, the friends today may turn foes tomorrow and may not share the same platform in future as things stand on date unless they agree to redefine and restructure their respective movements.
The electoral factors coupled with incidents in Nandigram, Singur and Cochbehar over the last one year have restrained the government to go for the ‘Big Bang’ approach while tackling the instant Darjeeling crisis. Because of the turbulence and disturbances seen in the last few days owing to the ongoing GJMM agitation in Darjeeling, the developmental work in the DGHC area has been negatively affected, resulting in great loss to the local people for whom the said movement has been launched. The experiment of DGHC would have been better able to provide all that the local people wanted, but if it failed the reasons therefor can be attributed simply to those who had been at the helm of its affairs all these past years.
The fact that Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha has raised a new demand by asking for inclusion of Siliguri and Dooars in the proposed Gorkhaland state has also raised many hackles. Referring to this demand of GJMM, Mr. Kanu Sanyal said that ‘a demand must be based on logic and not merely on emotions’. The CPI (ML), hence supports the inclusion of only adjacent and contiguous areas in the proposed Gorkhaland state. Many believe that such a demand is meant to create a divide between the hills and the plains on ethnic lines which is a dangerous trend. Many observers believe that the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state comprising the three sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong may have some justification, but that of inclusion of Dooars and Siliguri is not supported by history.
The fact remains that Darjeeling Hills did not have notable Nepalese population until 1865. The Lepchas, a distinct ethnic tribe, dominated the hills in terms of population. In 1865, when the tea estates came into being, ethnic Nepalese began pouring in in large numbers from Nepal in search of jobs in the upcoming tea estates. The number further grew with the introduction of Darjeeling Himalayan Railways in 1880. As far as Siliguri and Dooars are concerned, ethnic Nepalese were negligible in numbers until 1950 when Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty was signed between the two countries. Even now the ethnic Nepali population is not more than 60,000 in Siliguri out of the total estimated population of 70 million.
One does not know as to how much merit is there in such demands for statehood from different quarters, but one thing can be definitely said that there does exist a case for a second State Reorganisation Commission. Instead of a populist and political approach to such demands for statehood, it is advisable that the entire issue of state reorganisation be considered afresh on such grounds as to ensure a holistic economic development and a compact, self-contained geographical entity. The merit of such demands for statehood as Telangana, Vidharbha, Mithilanchal, Purvanchal, Harit Prades, Gorkhaland and Kamtapur should all be considered on objective criteria rather than being subject to such demands pressed through the media of militant movements.
Also, the experiments in our own country with regards to formation of such new states tell a mixed story. While many big states are quite better governed, there are many small ones who continue to languish despite becoming a separate state. One believes that the issue here definitely is not the formation of a separate state, often the desire of the local elite than being rooted in popular demand. What should be important is the fact as to how well the state is administered and how viable can such a new entity be, economically and geographically. In West Bengal, the successful panchayat system did guarrantee the popular participation in the process of governance, still DGHC was created. But as DGHC remained a one-man show devoid of any real popular participation, the experiment naturally failed. So, one has to really tread very cautiously before even toying with the idea of a separate state.
Saumitra Mohan
The famed and famous honeymoon haunt of Darjeeling is again in the news, this time for a wrong reason. The Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha (GJMM) almost barred the District Magistrate and the Superintendent of Police from entering Darjeeling recently thereby forcing both the DM and SP to cool their heels in Siliguri for almost five days before they were finally allowed in. GJMM’s decision followed skirmishes between the police and its supporters in Siliguri where the latter were demonstrating to press their demand for a new Gorkhaland state.
During the said skirmish, many policemen and GJMM supporters including ex-servicemen were badly injured. The government wisely decided against advising DM and SP to force their way into the district so as not to precipitate things further. The wisdom somewhere also emanated from the way things turned out in recent past in such far flung places as Singur, Nandigram, Cochbehar and Dinhata in West Bengal.
However, GJMM’s decision to bar DM and SP from entering the district has been roundly denounced by all and sundry. One of their key allies in the ongoing movement, CPI (ML) has castigated the GJMM’s barring of DM and SP out of the district. Referring to GJMM’s recent ban on the entry of DM and SP to Darjeeling, Mr. Kanu Sanyal, the General Secretary of CPI (ML) said, ‘This is an entirely irresponsible act’, further adding that such irresponsible moves can actually spoil the statehood movement.
GJMM as a political organisation rose to prominence since its success with an agitation launched in the wake of a Radio Jockey’s indiscretion against Prashant Tamang, the Indian Idol winner. Since then, it has been trying hard to find some issues for its political survival. Another shot in its arm was the dissolution of Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council (DGHC) following its successful movement for the same, forcing the redoubtable Subhash Ghishing to step down as head of the Council.
Encouraged by these successes, GJMM led by Bimal Gurung has decided to keep its flock mobilised on one cause or the other to press the Government into accepting its demand for a separate Gorkhaland state. Bimal Gurung, a trusted confidant of Subhash Ghishing at one time fell out with him when the latter demanded and almost succeeded in getting the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling.
Bimal Gurung, reading the mood of the people correctly, not only led a successful coup against Ghishing thereby getting the leadership mantle for Darjeeling, but also decided to rake up the long pigeon-holed issue of a separate Gorkhaland state instead of settling just for the Sixth Schedule status for Darjeeling, something which was strongly advocated by Ghishing. In its bid to do so, GJMM has found support from such other disparate outfits as Kamtapur People’s Party (KPP) and Greater Cochbehar Democratic Party (GCDP). They together have found a convenient ground to hog media attention for their long-forgotten causes, more so in an election year. Be it noted that West Bengal is supposed to have its panchayat election in the month of May to be followed by parliamentary election very soon.
But many feel that the present bonhomie among GJMM, KPP and GCDP is not likely to last long because of their conflicting interests. After all, the proposed Gorkhaland, Kamtapur and Greater Cochbehar states for which these parties have been agitating have overlapping areas and in case of the last two, almost the same area. So, the friends today may turn foes tomorrow and may not share the same platform in future as things stand on date unless they agree to redefine and restructure their respective movements.
The electoral factors coupled with incidents in Nandigram, Singur and Cochbehar over the last one year have restrained the government to go for the ‘Big Bang’ approach while tackling the instant Darjeeling crisis. Because of the turbulence and disturbances seen in the last few days owing to the ongoing GJMM agitation in Darjeeling, the developmental work in the DGHC area has been negatively affected, resulting in great loss to the local people for whom the said movement has been launched. The experiment of DGHC would have been better able to provide all that the local people wanted, but if it failed the reasons therefor can be attributed simply to those who had been at the helm of its affairs all these past years.
The fact that Gorkha Jan Mukti Morcha has raised a new demand by asking for inclusion of Siliguri and Dooars in the proposed Gorkhaland state has also raised many hackles. Referring to this demand of GJMM, Mr. Kanu Sanyal said that ‘a demand must be based on logic and not merely on emotions’. The CPI (ML), hence supports the inclusion of only adjacent and contiguous areas in the proposed Gorkhaland state. Many believe that such a demand is meant to create a divide between the hills and the plains on ethnic lines which is a dangerous trend. Many observers believe that the demand for a separate Gorkhaland state comprising the three sub-divisions of Darjeeling, Kurseong and Kalimpong may have some justification, but that of inclusion of Dooars and Siliguri is not supported by history.
The fact remains that Darjeeling Hills did not have notable Nepalese population until 1865. The Lepchas, a distinct ethnic tribe, dominated the hills in terms of population. In 1865, when the tea estates came into being, ethnic Nepalese began pouring in in large numbers from Nepal in search of jobs in the upcoming tea estates. The number further grew with the introduction of Darjeeling Himalayan Railways in 1880. As far as Siliguri and Dooars are concerned, ethnic Nepalese were negligible in numbers until 1950 when Indo-Nepal Friendship Treaty was signed between the two countries. Even now the ethnic Nepali population is not more than 60,000 in Siliguri out of the total estimated population of 70 million.
One does not know as to how much merit is there in such demands for statehood from different quarters, but one thing can be definitely said that there does exist a case for a second State Reorganisation Commission. Instead of a populist and political approach to such demands for statehood, it is advisable that the entire issue of state reorganisation be considered afresh on such grounds as to ensure a holistic economic development and a compact, self-contained geographical entity. The merit of such demands for statehood as Telangana, Vidharbha, Mithilanchal, Purvanchal, Harit Prades, Gorkhaland and Kamtapur should all be considered on objective criteria rather than being subject to such demands pressed through the media of militant movements.
Also, the experiments in our own country with regards to formation of such new states tell a mixed story. While many big states are quite better governed, there are many small ones who continue to languish despite becoming a separate state. One believes that the issue here definitely is not the formation of a separate state, often the desire of the local elite than being rooted in popular demand. What should be important is the fact as to how well the state is administered and how viable can such a new entity be, economically and geographically. In West Bengal, the successful panchayat system did guarrantee the popular participation in the process of governance, still DGHC was created. But as DGHC remained a one-man show devoid of any real popular participation, the experiment naturally failed. So, one has to really tread very cautiously before even toying with the idea of a separate state.
Caste-based Reservation: Reflection of Systemic Maladies
*Saumitra Mohan
The Frankenstein’s monster of caste-based reservation in government and non-government jobs and academic institutions keeps rising from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix. The issue which needs discussion and reflection is that as to whether we really need such a thing called reservation. Caste-based reservation should have been discontinued within ten years of the proclamation of the Indian Constitution. But if we still have to contend with the reservation demon, the reason lies in our failure to ensure an equitable and egalitarian process of value allocations thereby necessitating the continued existence of the caste-based system.
The truth is that something as obnoxious as caste-based reservation should not have been there at all in the first instance, but as they say a la Aristotle and many others that ‘equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally’. And in a society wracked by myriad societal divisions including those of caste some remedial measures were required for sure to restore the societal balance before each citizen is able to have an equal opportunity for one’s personal growth.
After all, you can not expect those discriminated against for thousands of years to be treated equally with those sections of the society who have dominated the societal pecking order for aeons. If some of us proffer the argument of merit and competence and say that all the sections of the society should be treated equally, the same emanates from the prejudices inherited by us as member of an ossified social hierarchy to which we belong. We may not even be aware of such prejudices, but still we pronounce and advance them convincingly simply because they suit our own vested interests. After all, there is a world of difference between the societal stratum at the top and bottom of the society in terms of competence, social confidence, cultural capital, social surroundings, appreciation of varied societal realities and opportunities, understanding of their own self interests, and even genetic make-up.
So, reservation in the garb of ‘affirmative discrimination’ was needed in the first instance is something beyond doubt, if at all, to facilitate and prepare a level playing field to all sections of the society. But then, its continued existence can be explained only in terms of competitive and populist politics coupled with an innate inability of our political parties to find better issues for mass mobilisation. Had we succeeded in providing the weaker and marginalised sections of our society with all the bare minimum necessities of human existence, the same people would have revolted against such a system or, at least, the issue of reservation would have ceased to matter in Indian politics.
But the fact remains that even today we have not been able to provide the quality education and health services to all, particularly those on the margins of the society. It has created a status gulf in terms of competence and abilities between the privileged and not-so-privileged sections of the Indian society. The weaker section of the society is naturally disadvantaged vis-a-vis the socially dominant not only because of a long historical discrimination, but also because of the systemic biases and prejudices heaped against them. Since we could not ensure quality education and health services to them all these sixty years of our independence whereby they could have competed on equal footing with the historically privileged sections of the society, hence the reservation genie keeps popping out of the bottle.
We know it very well that in a democracy it is the numbers which count. When the weak and underprivileged in an underdeveloped democratic society are left to fend for themselves, they quite naturally fall back on the strength of their numbers. The social demography then starts dictating politics and numbers start doubling up as a resource to be capitalised on for the purpose of improving one’s societal status. That is what has been happening in India for quite some time, seeing the rise of many caste-based political parties and interest groups.
If we take a look at the turn of recent political developments, we would find that political parties have become more specialised, representing more or less their caste constituents and the latter also somehow gives credence to such parties in the hope of getting a better deal. So, democratic expression and representation have taken a grotesque turn in Indian society in the form of caste-based reservation and politics. That is why, India being a plural society of different societal groups is today governed by a coalition government whose constituents are invariably the representatives of different societal groups. Such groups have been feeding and fattening on identity politics which has been on ascendance in recent times.
These are all the signs of a backward and retrograde society. But such parochial thinking shall continue to dominate our political culture until and unless we succeed in promising and ensuring a real level playing field for all sections of the society. Investment in one’s human resources is the first condition for the healthy growth of any society. Recognising this fact, John Stuart Mill had remarked long back, ‘You cannot think of becoming a great country with small men with small capacities, small thinking and dubious character.’
Caste-based reservation, however, also has had a functional role in our social system, negative though it may appear prima facie. Be it noted that many of India’s time twins in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean have fallen by the wayside in their developmental march. But if India has been growing from strength to strength, the reason somewhere also lies in the way India has tried to balance the different societal forces through a consociational system whereby societal values have been judiciously allocated amongst different sections and strata of the Indian society. So, while many of these societies saw bloody revolution resulting either in their break-up or their getting reduced to the status of ‘a failed society’, India has been experiencing a ‘passive revolution’ where positive changes have come gradually, through different pulls and pressures, almost to the satisfaction of all.
The recent Supreme Court judgement to exclude the creamy layer from the benefits of reservation should be welcomed, but the exclusion should also be extended to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, because what is sauce for the goose ought to be the sauce for the gander. The argument which applies to OBCs for exclusion of its creamy layer from the reservation benefits also applies mutatis mutandis to the creamy layer from SCs/STs. However, the concept and criteria of the creamy layer itself suffers from many anomalies and it is advisable to revise and rationalise the same realistically and judiciously.
The Supreme Court observation that graduates be excluded from the reservation benefits does not hold valid given the way graduates in this country are churned out. One would again say that the quality of our education system leaves much to be desired. Recruitment of teachers at the lower and higher levels of our education system is still subject to lots of pulls and pressures, not to speak of the rampant politics which informs our education system. The politicised academic atmosphere often results in the quality of education being severely compromised. Various kinds of interference, pulls and pressures and literally insidious politics have led our education system where we find it today, though there are many exceptions as well. But exceptions are after all exceptions and it is in these exceptional institutions that we need to find out the way to salvation for our pedagogical administration.
Even though caste-based reservation is an anachronism today, but it is part of our social reality and is likely to continue till we can actually claim to have guarranteed the underprivileged and marginalised sections of our society the bare minimum of civic facilities and necessities including quality education and health services. A system of equal opportunities coupled with a reasonably egalitarian and equitable society is what is required before we can hope to hammer the last nail in the coffin of the politics of caste-based reservation.
*Saumitra Mohan
The Frankenstein’s monster of caste-based reservation in government and non-government jobs and academic institutions keeps rising from the ashes like the proverbial Phoenix. The issue which needs discussion and reflection is that as to whether we really need such a thing called reservation. Caste-based reservation should have been discontinued within ten years of the proclamation of the Indian Constitution. But if we still have to contend with the reservation demon, the reason lies in our failure to ensure an equitable and egalitarian process of value allocations thereby necessitating the continued existence of the caste-based system.
The truth is that something as obnoxious as caste-based reservation should not have been there at all in the first instance, but as they say a la Aristotle and many others that ‘equals should be treated equally and unequals unequally’. And in a society wracked by myriad societal divisions including those of caste some remedial measures were required for sure to restore the societal balance before each citizen is able to have an equal opportunity for one’s personal growth.
After all, you can not expect those discriminated against for thousands of years to be treated equally with those sections of the society who have dominated the societal pecking order for aeons. If some of us proffer the argument of merit and competence and say that all the sections of the society should be treated equally, the same emanates from the prejudices inherited by us as member of an ossified social hierarchy to which we belong. We may not even be aware of such prejudices, but still we pronounce and advance them convincingly simply because they suit our own vested interests. After all, there is a world of difference between the societal stratum at the top and bottom of the society in terms of competence, social confidence, cultural capital, social surroundings, appreciation of varied societal realities and opportunities, understanding of their own self interests, and even genetic make-up.
So, reservation in the garb of ‘affirmative discrimination’ was needed in the first instance is something beyond doubt, if at all, to facilitate and prepare a level playing field to all sections of the society. But then, its continued existence can be explained only in terms of competitive and populist politics coupled with an innate inability of our political parties to find better issues for mass mobilisation. Had we succeeded in providing the weaker and marginalised sections of our society with all the bare minimum necessities of human existence, the same people would have revolted against such a system or, at least, the issue of reservation would have ceased to matter in Indian politics.
But the fact remains that even today we have not been able to provide the quality education and health services to all, particularly those on the margins of the society. It has created a status gulf in terms of competence and abilities between the privileged and not-so-privileged sections of the Indian society. The weaker section of the society is naturally disadvantaged vis-a-vis the socially dominant not only because of a long historical discrimination, but also because of the systemic biases and prejudices heaped against them. Since we could not ensure quality education and health services to them all these sixty years of our independence whereby they could have competed on equal footing with the historically privileged sections of the society, hence the reservation genie keeps popping out of the bottle.
We know it very well that in a democracy it is the numbers which count. When the weak and underprivileged in an underdeveloped democratic society are left to fend for themselves, they quite naturally fall back on the strength of their numbers. The social demography then starts dictating politics and numbers start doubling up as a resource to be capitalised on for the purpose of improving one’s societal status. That is what has been happening in India for quite some time, seeing the rise of many caste-based political parties and interest groups.
If we take a look at the turn of recent political developments, we would find that political parties have become more specialised, representing more or less their caste constituents and the latter also somehow gives credence to such parties in the hope of getting a better deal. So, democratic expression and representation have taken a grotesque turn in Indian society in the form of caste-based reservation and politics. That is why, India being a plural society of different societal groups is today governed by a coalition government whose constituents are invariably the representatives of different societal groups. Such groups have been feeding and fattening on identity politics which has been on ascendance in recent times.
These are all the signs of a backward and retrograde society. But such parochial thinking shall continue to dominate our political culture until and unless we succeed in promising and ensuring a real level playing field for all sections of the society. Investment in one’s human resources is the first condition for the healthy growth of any society. Recognising this fact, John Stuart Mill had remarked long back, ‘You cannot think of becoming a great country with small men with small capacities, small thinking and dubious character.’
Caste-based reservation, however, also has had a functional role in our social system, negative though it may appear prima facie. Be it noted that many of India’s time twins in Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean have fallen by the wayside in their developmental march. But if India has been growing from strength to strength, the reason somewhere also lies in the way India has tried to balance the different societal forces through a consociational system whereby societal values have been judiciously allocated amongst different sections and strata of the Indian society. So, while many of these societies saw bloody revolution resulting either in their break-up or their getting reduced to the status of ‘a failed society’, India has been experiencing a ‘passive revolution’ where positive changes have come gradually, through different pulls and pressures, almost to the satisfaction of all.
The recent Supreme Court judgement to exclude the creamy layer from the benefits of reservation should be welcomed, but the exclusion should also be extended to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, because what is sauce for the goose ought to be the sauce for the gander. The argument which applies to OBCs for exclusion of its creamy layer from the reservation benefits also applies mutatis mutandis to the creamy layer from SCs/STs. However, the concept and criteria of the creamy layer itself suffers from many anomalies and it is advisable to revise and rationalise the same realistically and judiciously.
The Supreme Court observation that graduates be excluded from the reservation benefits does not hold valid given the way graduates in this country are churned out. One would again say that the quality of our education system leaves much to be desired. Recruitment of teachers at the lower and higher levels of our education system is still subject to lots of pulls and pressures, not to speak of the rampant politics which informs our education system. The politicised academic atmosphere often results in the quality of education being severely compromised. Various kinds of interference, pulls and pressures and literally insidious politics have led our education system where we find it today, though there are many exceptions as well. But exceptions are after all exceptions and it is in these exceptional institutions that we need to find out the way to salvation for our pedagogical administration.
Even though caste-based reservation is an anachronism today, but it is part of our social reality and is likely to continue till we can actually claim to have guarranteed the underprivileged and marginalised sections of our society the bare minimum of civic facilities and necessities including quality education and health services. A system of equal opportunities coupled with a reasonably egalitarian and equitable society is what is required before we can hope to hammer the last nail in the coffin of the politics of caste-based reservation.
The Great Indian Growth Story: Recession in the US might not affect us
*Saumitra Mohan
The recent sub-prime crisis in the United States stemming from the problem of failing home loans and municipal bonds has cast a grim shadow on the economic growth around the world. Stock markets all over the world have taken a beating, following foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) selling spree due to fear of slowing growth rates. With stock markets nose-diving, hydro-carbon prices sky rocketing and prices of basic commodities including that of food going northward, the fear of an economic recession in the global economy is looming large. Even though it is threatening only the United States for the moment, it is really a moot point today as to what does a country like India need to do if the crisis really deepens further as the same has serious implications for the domestic economy, which so far seems to be doing reasonably well.
As we know very well by now, the global economy is prone to go through cyclical boom and bust. Hence, there is nothing extra-ordinary about the impending recession or stagflation threat. However, the global economic situation is not the same today as was during the 1930s forcing the Roosevelt Administration to come with the famous ‘New Deal’ proposals. These proposals were predicated on Keynesian prescriptions of increasing public expenditures to cope with the raging recession in the US economy. The situation is also quite different from the crisis of 1971 when the fixed exchange rate system collapsed, precipitating the ushering of the extant system (a judicious mix of both fixed and floating exchange rates).
Before we really get down to the brass-tacks, trying to manage recession and its implications, one has to appreciate that the situation is definitely not the same today as it has earlier been. With the deepening and thickening of the process of globalisation, the inter-dependence among the countries of the world has become more complex. The gradual shift of economic balance of power has changed the global realities.
There was a time when the US or the Europe would lead the world economy by their sheer weight and the latter was greatly affected by the negative or positive vibes emanating from either of the two. The global dependence on these blocks through cascading trading ties made it impossible for the world to avoid any development in those countries.
This monopoly situation also made these leading economies quite imperious vis-a-vis the developing/underdeveloped countries often forcing the latter to toe their lines. But the processes of globalisation and liberalisation have afforded a semblance of independence for some of the weaker economies. The emerging complex interdependence of economies has facilitated a diversification of trading ties to the advantage of some of the developing countries. These developing countries, today, have been bandwagoning with each other to better secure their economic interests vis-a-vis the developed world.
That is why the threat of recession to such countries including India and China is not as real as it is made to appear. They are reasonably insulated from the ill effects of the US recession for the simple reason that they are not as overly dependent upon the US as some of the countries are. It is the latter countries, who have skewed economic ties with the United States, are feeling the pinch more. So, countries like Japan or South Korea or some countries in Europe which have deeper economic ties with the United States and don’t have diversified trade profile, should really have genuine reasons to worry. The US recession can really dampen the pace of growth in these countries by way of reduced exports and inflow of foreign exchange.
The countries like India and China should not get panicky as their trading ties are much more diversified. Both these countries, accounting for almost half the world population, have only a small portion of their trade linked to the United States. Of their total exports, not more than 20 per cent go to the United States. Besides, these two countries’ growth has been more or less dependent on a sound foundation of strong domestic consumer market. The middle class in these countries has been growing handsomely to provide a broad-based consumer base with substantive purchasing power capacity. It is the consumption behaviour of this growing middle class that has become the latest target of the United States for the snowballing food crisis in the world.
If these two countries have managed to survive the negative impact of the US recession, the reason lies in the fact that the high economic growth rate of both these countries are propped by a strong domestic consumer base. So, while you had the US or the Europe leading and influencing the world economic growth at one time or even now, the situation may be different very soon with these two countries leading the global growth by the sheer weight of the size of their economies. By being less dependent on the US, now reeling under a mild recession, these economies are better insulated and secure than any other country.
This fact is well realised by everyone else and that is why when the US has been experiencing a recession, countries like India and China have been trusted with more and more investment in the form of increasing FDI, FII, NRI remittances and deposits thereby increasing demand for the Indian rupees. This has resulted in building an upward pressure on the rupee, making it further dearer after appreciation of its exchange rate vis-a-vis dollar and other leading currencies.
The US economy is experiencing recession also because of its inability to cut the production costs. The developing countries with their cheap labour and skilled manpower provide better investment options to industries thereby motivating many of them to relocate and outsource their operations. This has not only resulted in reduced employment opportunities for the Americans, but has also reduced their purchasing power, thereby affecting demand and inducing recession. The fact also remains that so far Americans have been living off borrowed money (parked in the form of US treasury bonds by the developing countries including India and China), made available to them at increasingly cheaper interest rates thereby creating an unsustainable bubble which seems to be bursting now in the wake of the raging sub-prime crisis there.
So arguably, these two countries should have less reason to worry about the US recession as their growth is self-induced than dependent completely on exports. However, such a recession should definitely be seized as an opportunity to further strengthen and streamline their macro-economic financial structure and thereby put their own house in order.
So, at a time when the US Fed has been trying to prime pump its economy by way of reducing the interest rates substantively, countries like India need to be more careful where its central bank has been following a ‘dear money’ policy for quite some time in its bid to contain the ‘inflation demon’. But as we know that it was Keynesian economics of welfarism which saw the US economy out of recession in the thirties meaning thereby that we need to spur public expenditure more than contain it. That is why, a moderate inflation is always said to be healthy for any economy as that is the sign of a growing economy backed by a growing demand.
If inflation has been rising in this country, the reasons for the same have to be found and fixed. If the huge demand for cement and steel for infrastructure strengthening in China for the upcoming Olympic is a reason for growing prices of these commodities, then we need to make policy and administrative interventions to contain their prices including increasing the production. However, applying brakes on cement and steel exports is definitely not advisable. If rising oil prices has had an impact on our economy and inflation, then also we need to find ways to tackle the problem at appropriate level. But raising interest rates and cash reserve ratio (CRR) is definitely not a right approach. Such moves will not only have a dampening impact on the entrepreneurship, but will also discourage investment and further growth. The same would not only result in blocking huge amount of idle money from being utilised for productive purposes, but would also increase the state debt by enhancing the financial burden for servicing those savings by higher interest rates.
This would also make government’s own borrowing dearer thereby further straining the resources available for public expenditure. It would also negatively affect the fiscal situation by bloating our fiscal deficits. Inflation has been rising also because of the growing food prices. It is felt that the tendency to siphon out fertile land for industries or for bio-fuels or decreasing investment in agriculture has led to reduced productivity and production thereby directly fuelling the inflation. One feels that there is an urgent need for a second ‘Green Revolution’ and more public investment in agriculture. One just hopes that the recently launched National Agricultural Development Scheme shall be able to address this problem better.
Last but not the least, the very fact that inflation has not yet resulted in wide scale public discontent and outrage and still continues to be a debating issue confined only to the political class is because of the fact that rising prices have been accompanied with increasing purchasing power capacity of the public. With more demand chasing fewer supplies, it is at the level of supplies that we need to intervene. The government needs to ensure that more investment, both private and public, are suitably made to further produce the basic goods and products for availability to the common public at an affordable price and that itself would take care of the inflation problem. More broad-based investment would not only result in more demand creation, but would also put in place adequate supplies to cater to those demand, thereby spurring economic growth further. Such a step would also keep the dreaded recession at bay.
*Saumitra Mohan
The recent sub-prime crisis in the United States stemming from the problem of failing home loans and municipal bonds has cast a grim shadow on the economic growth around the world. Stock markets all over the world have taken a beating, following foreign institutional investors’ (FIIs) selling spree due to fear of slowing growth rates. With stock markets nose-diving, hydro-carbon prices sky rocketing and prices of basic commodities including that of food going northward, the fear of an economic recession in the global economy is looming large. Even though it is threatening only the United States for the moment, it is really a moot point today as to what does a country like India need to do if the crisis really deepens further as the same has serious implications for the domestic economy, which so far seems to be doing reasonably well.
As we know very well by now, the global economy is prone to go through cyclical boom and bust. Hence, there is nothing extra-ordinary about the impending recession or stagflation threat. However, the global economic situation is not the same today as was during the 1930s forcing the Roosevelt Administration to come with the famous ‘New Deal’ proposals. These proposals were predicated on Keynesian prescriptions of increasing public expenditures to cope with the raging recession in the US economy. The situation is also quite different from the crisis of 1971 when the fixed exchange rate system collapsed, precipitating the ushering of the extant system (a judicious mix of both fixed and floating exchange rates).
Before we really get down to the brass-tacks, trying to manage recession and its implications, one has to appreciate that the situation is definitely not the same today as it has earlier been. With the deepening and thickening of the process of globalisation, the inter-dependence among the countries of the world has become more complex. The gradual shift of economic balance of power has changed the global realities.
There was a time when the US or the Europe would lead the world economy by their sheer weight and the latter was greatly affected by the negative or positive vibes emanating from either of the two. The global dependence on these blocks through cascading trading ties made it impossible for the world to avoid any development in those countries.
This monopoly situation also made these leading economies quite imperious vis-a-vis the developing/underdeveloped countries often forcing the latter to toe their lines. But the processes of globalisation and liberalisation have afforded a semblance of independence for some of the weaker economies. The emerging complex interdependence of economies has facilitated a diversification of trading ties to the advantage of some of the developing countries. These developing countries, today, have been bandwagoning with each other to better secure their economic interests vis-a-vis the developed world.
That is why the threat of recession to such countries including India and China is not as real as it is made to appear. They are reasonably insulated from the ill effects of the US recession for the simple reason that they are not as overly dependent upon the US as some of the countries are. It is the latter countries, who have skewed economic ties with the United States, are feeling the pinch more. So, countries like Japan or South Korea or some countries in Europe which have deeper economic ties with the United States and don’t have diversified trade profile, should really have genuine reasons to worry. The US recession can really dampen the pace of growth in these countries by way of reduced exports and inflow of foreign exchange.
The countries like India and China should not get panicky as their trading ties are much more diversified. Both these countries, accounting for almost half the world population, have only a small portion of their trade linked to the United States. Of their total exports, not more than 20 per cent go to the United States. Besides, these two countries’ growth has been more or less dependent on a sound foundation of strong domestic consumer market. The middle class in these countries has been growing handsomely to provide a broad-based consumer base with substantive purchasing power capacity. It is the consumption behaviour of this growing middle class that has become the latest target of the United States for the snowballing food crisis in the world.
If these two countries have managed to survive the negative impact of the US recession, the reason lies in the fact that the high economic growth rate of both these countries are propped by a strong domestic consumer base. So, while you had the US or the Europe leading and influencing the world economic growth at one time or even now, the situation may be different very soon with these two countries leading the global growth by the sheer weight of the size of their economies. By being less dependent on the US, now reeling under a mild recession, these economies are better insulated and secure than any other country.
This fact is well realised by everyone else and that is why when the US has been experiencing a recession, countries like India and China have been trusted with more and more investment in the form of increasing FDI, FII, NRI remittances and deposits thereby increasing demand for the Indian rupees. This has resulted in building an upward pressure on the rupee, making it further dearer after appreciation of its exchange rate vis-a-vis dollar and other leading currencies.
The US economy is experiencing recession also because of its inability to cut the production costs. The developing countries with their cheap labour and skilled manpower provide better investment options to industries thereby motivating many of them to relocate and outsource their operations. This has not only resulted in reduced employment opportunities for the Americans, but has also reduced their purchasing power, thereby affecting demand and inducing recession. The fact also remains that so far Americans have been living off borrowed money (parked in the form of US treasury bonds by the developing countries including India and China), made available to them at increasingly cheaper interest rates thereby creating an unsustainable bubble which seems to be bursting now in the wake of the raging sub-prime crisis there.
So arguably, these two countries should have less reason to worry about the US recession as their growth is self-induced than dependent completely on exports. However, such a recession should definitely be seized as an opportunity to further strengthen and streamline their macro-economic financial structure and thereby put their own house in order.
So, at a time when the US Fed has been trying to prime pump its economy by way of reducing the interest rates substantively, countries like India need to be more careful where its central bank has been following a ‘dear money’ policy for quite some time in its bid to contain the ‘inflation demon’. But as we know that it was Keynesian economics of welfarism which saw the US economy out of recession in the thirties meaning thereby that we need to spur public expenditure more than contain it. That is why, a moderate inflation is always said to be healthy for any economy as that is the sign of a growing economy backed by a growing demand.
If inflation has been rising in this country, the reasons for the same have to be found and fixed. If the huge demand for cement and steel for infrastructure strengthening in China for the upcoming Olympic is a reason for growing prices of these commodities, then we need to make policy and administrative interventions to contain their prices including increasing the production. However, applying brakes on cement and steel exports is definitely not advisable. If rising oil prices has had an impact on our economy and inflation, then also we need to find ways to tackle the problem at appropriate level. But raising interest rates and cash reserve ratio (CRR) is definitely not a right approach. Such moves will not only have a dampening impact on the entrepreneurship, but will also discourage investment and further growth. The same would not only result in blocking huge amount of idle money from being utilised for productive purposes, but would also increase the state debt by enhancing the financial burden for servicing those savings by higher interest rates.
This would also make government’s own borrowing dearer thereby further straining the resources available for public expenditure. It would also negatively affect the fiscal situation by bloating our fiscal deficits. Inflation has been rising also because of the growing food prices. It is felt that the tendency to siphon out fertile land for industries or for bio-fuels or decreasing investment in agriculture has led to reduced productivity and production thereby directly fuelling the inflation. One feels that there is an urgent need for a second ‘Green Revolution’ and more public investment in agriculture. One just hopes that the recently launched National Agricultural Development Scheme shall be able to address this problem better.
Last but not the least, the very fact that inflation has not yet resulted in wide scale public discontent and outrage and still continues to be a debating issue confined only to the political class is because of the fact that rising prices have been accompanied with increasing purchasing power capacity of the public. With more demand chasing fewer supplies, it is at the level of supplies that we need to intervene. The government needs to ensure that more investment, both private and public, are suitably made to further produce the basic goods and products for availability to the common public at an affordable price and that itself would take care of the inflation problem. More broad-based investment would not only result in more demand creation, but would also put in place adequate supplies to cater to those demand, thereby spurring economic growth further. Such a step would also keep the dreaded recession at bay.
Saturday, February 16, 2008
Strengthening the Right to Information
Saumitra Mohan
It has been more than two years since the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force in October 2005. Immediately after its enforcement, a concern was expressed in certain quarters about adequate efforts not being made by all those concerned to implement the Act in its true spirit. It was felt that vested interests were making an all out effort to sabotage the Act.
Lot of hue and cry was heard when there was an attempt from within the government to water down certain portions of the Act by excluding the details of information contained in an official note sheet on the pretext of administrative necessity and for securing the officials against victimisation.
But in this all, people failed to realise that the Act was in its infancy and would take its time before it starts working to its potential. And it was not very late before people actually started realising the import and power of the right emanating from this particular Act. Now they seem intent on using the right enshrined in the Act for anything and everything pertaining to their civil right in democratic India.
While there were very few petitions seeking information under RTI to begin with, today there seems to be a deluge of such requests in almost all government departments and agencies. It has not only resulted in increased confidence among the general public about the utility of RTI in ferreting out information from the government on a subject of their interest, the same has also made the different government departments more transparent and responsible than they had ever been, something which was the real purport of this Act.
The many path-breaking decisions and judgements consequent to sundry appeals for information under RTI by the Central Information Commission and various State Information Commissions, the veil of secrecy hanging over the official records has slowly been lifting, resulting in substantive dilution of the draconian Official Secrets Act, 1923 which had been the last resort of a reluctant bureaucrat for denying even innocuous information to the members of common public on one or the other pretext including the one pertaining to state’s security and integrity and the larger public interest.
Now, several landmark decisions and judgements of the Central and State Information Commissions later, it is reinterpretation of the same ‘larger public interest’, which is being proffered as a ground on which various wings of central and state governments should be sharing the information with the common public of this country. Even though today the right to seek information under RTI has come into its own and has become a powerful tool for exercising one’s democratic rights, one feels that still a lot needs to be done to further strengthen and reinforce this right before it can really become a genuine weapon of popular control exercising benign influence over the different government bodies.
Even though the number of petitions requesting information under RTI has gone up by leaps and bounds, this number could be much more substantial than it is presently. Still, there is a lot which needs to be done to generate awareness among the people about their powers under RTI, though various adverse judgements of information commissions resulting in imposition of pecuniary and disciplinary action against many government servants are also creating enough awareness by way of demonstration effect.
Many government departments and bodies including judiciary have made it costlier for the hoi polloi to seek and access information. The price to seek and obtain information has been made prohibitive by many agencies defeating the very intents and purposes wherefor RTI was conceived. Since it has been left to various state governments and autonomous governments bodies to frame such rules relating to the various charges for information sharing, they have found an excuse in the same by way of making the same ridiculously high.
While these prohibitive costs to seek information do discourage non-serious information seekers, they also repel the many genuine ones who are not well-off enough to be able to foot the bill for the purpose. However, there are specific provisions in the Act about the inadvisability of charging anything from people below the poverty line. But one has to understand that there are many millions others in the country who, even though above the poverty line, are no better. These people are, at least, definitely not so better as to be able to spend a princely sum for seeking and obtaining information under RTI.
Then, there is a practical problem which has come to the fore after the requests seeking information started to flow in thick and fast. The problem relates to the shortage of staff and officers for attending such requests. It is because of this that there has been an overload of pending requests with different information commissions and government bodies.
Since there has been many landmark judgements by now wherein specific pecuniary penalties have been imposed upon many government servants for deemed deliberate failure to provide information in time and since such penalties have to footed from one’s own pockets, government staff and officers are found to be on toes now to attend to such requests and provide the requested information within the statutory 30 days’ period as per the Act.
Today, when many government departments and bodies are already reeling under the shortage of staff and officers in these times of downsizing and rationalizing of the size of the government employees, the normal functioning of these departments and bodies are severely getting hampered. As non-compliance under the Act results in personal financial loss including the fear of departmental proceedings, a government staff or officer is more than keen to attend to RTI requests before anything else.
Some of these problems have arisen also because of the fact that many government departments and bodies have still not put the requisite in-house information into the public domain as they are supposed to do under RTI. This also results in delay or outright refusal in furnishing of the desired information to the petitioners. When a request to furnish information on National Policy and Action Plan on computerization of judiciary under RTI was sent to the PIO (Public Information Officer) in the Ministry of Law and Justice, the response was “the details of implementation of the plan are still being worked out. That being so, it is not possible to give any information in the matter at this stage.”
Not only this, many government departments and bodies have still not notified the Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO), Public Information Officer (PIO) and the Appellate Authority (AA) as warranted by the Act. This has resulted in many such RTI petitions being shuffled around among various government departments and officers on the pretext that one has not been notified as APIO, PIO or AA to be able to entertain such a petition or that the desired information is not readily available in sharable form frustrating the purpose of the Act further.
There is no denying that in order to exercise the freedom of speech and expression effectively, you need an informed public opinion and it is here that the right to information comes into play. The right to information, thus, flows out of freedom of speech and expression. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is not the repository of the right to information. Its repository is the constitutional right to free speech and expression. The Right to Information Act is merely an instrument that lays down the statutory procedure in the exercise of this right. It is, therefore, necessary that all exceptions and denials of the right to information must necessarily conform to the restrictions that bear a nexus to those mentioned in Article 19 (2) and to none others.
So, there is an urgent need to do some further soul-searching as far as implementation of the Act is concerned. All the government departments and bodies should not only put all the permissible information pertaining to their establishments in readily sharable form, they should also immediately notify and properly publicise the APIO, PIO and AA for accessing information relating their offices. Also, it is advisable that such notified authorities should remain in the same office for ensuring better efficiency and accountability.
In fact, it is proposed that as far as possible, a self-contained office should have APIO, PIO and AA in the same premises. It makes the system more efficient and also makes it easier for the common public. For example, if the District Magistrate starts entertaining all RTI petitions pertaining to every office under his/her control and supervision, then he/she would be left with no time to attend to his/her normal work.
So, it is advisable that various authorities to be notified remain within the same premises. Moreover, the central and state governments should make further clarifications to ensure that the cost of seeking and obtaining information under RTI does in no case become prohibitive. Also, the entire process of moving an RTI application has to be further simplified. The phone-in system, as instituted in Bihar, should now be extended to rest of the country. This avoids a common citizens several trips to the government office. E-governance should be utilised to the maximum for the purposes of RTI.
Moreover, there shall also be a need for dedicated staff and officers to attend to RTI requests and also to pre-empt the hampering of the normal functioning of the office by engaging regular staff and officers. There is also a need for grant of specific financial grant to a government office for meeting various expenses required to be incurred for provisioning of information (e.g. xeroxing et al) and for further strengthening and reinforcing the service delivery system under RTI for being able to serve the people better.
If we are able to modify and further refine the Act, one is sure that the powers granted to a common citizen here shall go a long way in strengthening and reinforcing our democratic foundations.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283.
Saumitra Mohan
It has been more than two years since the Right to Information Act (RTI) came into force in October 2005. Immediately after its enforcement, a concern was expressed in certain quarters about adequate efforts not being made by all those concerned to implement the Act in its true spirit. It was felt that vested interests were making an all out effort to sabotage the Act.
Lot of hue and cry was heard when there was an attempt from within the government to water down certain portions of the Act by excluding the details of information contained in an official note sheet on the pretext of administrative necessity and for securing the officials against victimisation.
But in this all, people failed to realise that the Act was in its infancy and would take its time before it starts working to its potential. And it was not very late before people actually started realising the import and power of the right emanating from this particular Act. Now they seem intent on using the right enshrined in the Act for anything and everything pertaining to their civil right in democratic India.
While there were very few petitions seeking information under RTI to begin with, today there seems to be a deluge of such requests in almost all government departments and agencies. It has not only resulted in increased confidence among the general public about the utility of RTI in ferreting out information from the government on a subject of their interest, the same has also made the different government departments more transparent and responsible than they had ever been, something which was the real purport of this Act.
The many path-breaking decisions and judgements consequent to sundry appeals for information under RTI by the Central Information Commission and various State Information Commissions, the veil of secrecy hanging over the official records has slowly been lifting, resulting in substantive dilution of the draconian Official Secrets Act, 1923 which had been the last resort of a reluctant bureaucrat for denying even innocuous information to the members of common public on one or the other pretext including the one pertaining to state’s security and integrity and the larger public interest.
Now, several landmark decisions and judgements of the Central and State Information Commissions later, it is reinterpretation of the same ‘larger public interest’, which is being proffered as a ground on which various wings of central and state governments should be sharing the information with the common public of this country. Even though today the right to seek information under RTI has come into its own and has become a powerful tool for exercising one’s democratic rights, one feels that still a lot needs to be done to further strengthen and reinforce this right before it can really become a genuine weapon of popular control exercising benign influence over the different government bodies.
Even though the number of petitions requesting information under RTI has gone up by leaps and bounds, this number could be much more substantial than it is presently. Still, there is a lot which needs to be done to generate awareness among the people about their powers under RTI, though various adverse judgements of information commissions resulting in imposition of pecuniary and disciplinary action against many government servants are also creating enough awareness by way of demonstration effect.
Many government departments and bodies including judiciary have made it costlier for the hoi polloi to seek and access information. The price to seek and obtain information has been made prohibitive by many agencies defeating the very intents and purposes wherefor RTI was conceived. Since it has been left to various state governments and autonomous governments bodies to frame such rules relating to the various charges for information sharing, they have found an excuse in the same by way of making the same ridiculously high.
While these prohibitive costs to seek information do discourage non-serious information seekers, they also repel the many genuine ones who are not well-off enough to be able to foot the bill for the purpose. However, there are specific provisions in the Act about the inadvisability of charging anything from people below the poverty line. But one has to understand that there are many millions others in the country who, even though above the poverty line, are no better. These people are, at least, definitely not so better as to be able to spend a princely sum for seeking and obtaining information under RTI.
Then, there is a practical problem which has come to the fore after the requests seeking information started to flow in thick and fast. The problem relates to the shortage of staff and officers for attending such requests. It is because of this that there has been an overload of pending requests with different information commissions and government bodies.
Since there has been many landmark judgements by now wherein specific pecuniary penalties have been imposed upon many government servants for deemed deliberate failure to provide information in time and since such penalties have to footed from one’s own pockets, government staff and officers are found to be on toes now to attend to such requests and provide the requested information within the statutory 30 days’ period as per the Act.
Today, when many government departments and bodies are already reeling under the shortage of staff and officers in these times of downsizing and rationalizing of the size of the government employees, the normal functioning of these departments and bodies are severely getting hampered. As non-compliance under the Act results in personal financial loss including the fear of departmental proceedings, a government staff or officer is more than keen to attend to RTI requests before anything else.
Some of these problems have arisen also because of the fact that many government departments and bodies have still not put the requisite in-house information into the public domain as they are supposed to do under RTI. This also results in delay or outright refusal in furnishing of the desired information to the petitioners. When a request to furnish information on National Policy and Action Plan on computerization of judiciary under RTI was sent to the PIO (Public Information Officer) in the Ministry of Law and Justice, the response was “the details of implementation of the plan are still being worked out. That being so, it is not possible to give any information in the matter at this stage.”
Not only this, many government departments and bodies have still not notified the Assistant Public Information Officer (APIO), Public Information Officer (PIO) and the Appellate Authority (AA) as warranted by the Act. This has resulted in many such RTI petitions being shuffled around among various government departments and officers on the pretext that one has not been notified as APIO, PIO or AA to be able to entertain such a petition or that the desired information is not readily available in sharable form frustrating the purpose of the Act further.
There is no denying that in order to exercise the freedom of speech and expression effectively, you need an informed public opinion and it is here that the right to information comes into play. The right to information, thus, flows out of freedom of speech and expression. The Right to Information Act, 2005 is not the repository of the right to information. Its repository is the constitutional right to free speech and expression. The Right to Information Act is merely an instrument that lays down the statutory procedure in the exercise of this right. It is, therefore, necessary that all exceptions and denials of the right to information must necessarily conform to the restrictions that bear a nexus to those mentioned in Article 19 (2) and to none others.
So, there is an urgent need to do some further soul-searching as far as implementation of the Act is concerned. All the government departments and bodies should not only put all the permissible information pertaining to their establishments in readily sharable form, they should also immediately notify and properly publicise the APIO, PIO and AA for accessing information relating their offices. Also, it is advisable that such notified authorities should remain in the same office for ensuring better efficiency and accountability.
In fact, it is proposed that as far as possible, a self-contained office should have APIO, PIO and AA in the same premises. It makes the system more efficient and also makes it easier for the common public. For example, if the District Magistrate starts entertaining all RTI petitions pertaining to every office under his/her control and supervision, then he/she would be left with no time to attend to his/her normal work.
So, it is advisable that various authorities to be notified remain within the same premises. Moreover, the central and state governments should make further clarifications to ensure that the cost of seeking and obtaining information under RTI does in no case become prohibitive. Also, the entire process of moving an RTI application has to be further simplified. The phone-in system, as instituted in Bihar, should now be extended to rest of the country. This avoids a common citizens several trips to the government office. E-governance should be utilised to the maximum for the purposes of RTI.
Moreover, there shall also be a need for dedicated staff and officers to attend to RTI requests and also to pre-empt the hampering of the normal functioning of the office by engaging regular staff and officers. There is also a need for grant of specific financial grant to a government office for meeting various expenses required to be incurred for provisioning of information (e.g. xeroxing et al) and for further strengthening and reinforcing the service delivery system under RTI for being able to serve the people better.
If we are able to modify and further refine the Act, one is sure that the powers granted to a common citizen here shall go a long way in strengthening and reinforcing our democratic foundations.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283.
Bird Flue: Posing Threat to Economic Security
*Saumitra Mohan
It is the world of complex interdependence among members of the Comity of Nations. Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane told that much earlier. But still when the bird flue spectre was raging in our neighbourhood, we were busy basking in our 9 per cent plus economic growth rate as symbolised by a booming stock market. But it was not long before the monstrous H5N1 virus travelled the distance from South East Asia and Bangladesh to our shores.
What appeared to be a stray and sporadic incident with the bird flue reports from Maharashtra and Manipur in February 2006 and July 2007 respectively has become a grim reality today with West Bengal in the thick of a raging bird flue crisis. The dreaded pestilence is said to have affected different isolated pockets scattered over the fourteen districts of West Bengal.
And, now it seems to have spread its tentacles to other countries of South Asia as well as confirmed cases of bird flue have been reported from Nepal and Pakistan, not to speak of Bangladesh where the disease has been raging for the past one year.
All this has been giving sleepless nights to the governments in these countries as if allowed to spin out of control, this lone disease may take the shine out of a flourishing Asia and may have a very debilitating effect for the entire regional economy. Not only this, it can also deprive millions of people of India and the sub-continent of their livelihood.
Even though such a bird flue of epidemic proportion was first reported from the South-East Asian countries, we remained oblivious to the threat in the belief that our poultry upkeep standards were much higher. But one should realise that these viruses are air-borne and do not recognise geographical barriers.
And now if the dreaded H5N1 viruses have struck our shores resulting in the state of West Bengal reeling under the spectre of bird flue, the usual and sure suspects are the infected migratory and poultry birds from South East Asian countries and Bangladesh. The porous land and coastal borders make the task of border surveillance extremely difficult.
Bird flue outbreak in West Bengal has more to do with the unfamiliarity with a disease of such nature including lack of prior training, resistance from the local people whose birds are supposed to be culled, inclement weather conditions, and failure to effectively seal the international borders with Bangladesh which has more to do with the difficult terrain and geography than any administrative failure.
The bird flue has serious implications for the economy as a whole as it sends negative signals to the outside world about the poor hygiene and sanitation standards obtaining here, with negative portents for our food processing industry. The same could not only take away the livelihood of millions of people in this country, but can also hurt our larger economy in one way or the other.
The epidemic has definitely left certain lessons for us all. There is definitely a stronger case for prior preparations, building better surveillance infrastructure including testing laboratories, easy availability of more sophisticated equipment and bird flue kits, better training and capacity building to tackle such a pestilence. In this instant case, training on the different nuances of tackling the bird flue for the rapid response teams has been organised instantly after the disease has been reported.
Effective border sealing and checking the inter-regional movement of birds from inside and outside the infected zone need to be ensured for better control of the contagion. Last but not the least, the media management has to be more effective as things have often been blown out of proportion. The very fact that reports of bird flue outbreak has resulted in people completely stopping buying and consuming poultry products has also affected the poultry industry despite the fact that well boiled and cooked poultry, even though infected, does not carry any threat for the consumers.
The reaction abroad to the news of bird flue outbreak in West Bengal has, however, been overboard and completely unwarranted. If media reports are to be believed, many countries have prohibited poultry imports from as far flung states as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the states which, by no stretch of imagination, are affected by this spectre. One should realise that India is not a small country, but is a sub-continental entity and as such, bird flue outbreak in one state is not likely to affect the other states. Though precaution is in order, the same should not verge on unwarranted overreaction.
For the moment, the pestilence is well under control. The government has to ensure that the aftermath of the outbreak is well tackled so that the poultry industry comes back to the normal. Media again has an important role to play here. Also, better standards of hygiene and sanitation have to be ensured through better training and awareness among the operators and personnel engaged in the poultry business to prevent any future outbreak of the disease, including its spread to other states for better securing our economic interests. *Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283
*Saumitra Mohan
It is the world of complex interdependence among members of the Comity of Nations. Joseph Nye and Robert Keohane told that much earlier. But still when the bird flue spectre was raging in our neighbourhood, we were busy basking in our 9 per cent plus economic growth rate as symbolised by a booming stock market. But it was not long before the monstrous H5N1 virus travelled the distance from South East Asia and Bangladesh to our shores.
What appeared to be a stray and sporadic incident with the bird flue reports from Maharashtra and Manipur in February 2006 and July 2007 respectively has become a grim reality today with West Bengal in the thick of a raging bird flue crisis. The dreaded pestilence is said to have affected different isolated pockets scattered over the fourteen districts of West Bengal.
And, now it seems to have spread its tentacles to other countries of South Asia as well as confirmed cases of bird flue have been reported from Nepal and Pakistan, not to speak of Bangladesh where the disease has been raging for the past one year.
All this has been giving sleepless nights to the governments in these countries as if allowed to spin out of control, this lone disease may take the shine out of a flourishing Asia and may have a very debilitating effect for the entire regional economy. Not only this, it can also deprive millions of people of India and the sub-continent of their livelihood.
Even though such a bird flue of epidemic proportion was first reported from the South-East Asian countries, we remained oblivious to the threat in the belief that our poultry upkeep standards were much higher. But one should realise that these viruses are air-borne and do not recognise geographical barriers.
And now if the dreaded H5N1 viruses have struck our shores resulting in the state of West Bengal reeling under the spectre of bird flue, the usual and sure suspects are the infected migratory and poultry birds from South East Asian countries and Bangladesh. The porous land and coastal borders make the task of border surveillance extremely difficult.
Bird flue outbreak in West Bengal has more to do with the unfamiliarity with a disease of such nature including lack of prior training, resistance from the local people whose birds are supposed to be culled, inclement weather conditions, and failure to effectively seal the international borders with Bangladesh which has more to do with the difficult terrain and geography than any administrative failure.
The bird flue has serious implications for the economy as a whole as it sends negative signals to the outside world about the poor hygiene and sanitation standards obtaining here, with negative portents for our food processing industry. The same could not only take away the livelihood of millions of people in this country, but can also hurt our larger economy in one way or the other.
The epidemic has definitely left certain lessons for us all. There is definitely a stronger case for prior preparations, building better surveillance infrastructure including testing laboratories, easy availability of more sophisticated equipment and bird flue kits, better training and capacity building to tackle such a pestilence. In this instant case, training on the different nuances of tackling the bird flue for the rapid response teams has been organised instantly after the disease has been reported.
Effective border sealing and checking the inter-regional movement of birds from inside and outside the infected zone need to be ensured for better control of the contagion. Last but not the least, the media management has to be more effective as things have often been blown out of proportion. The very fact that reports of bird flue outbreak has resulted in people completely stopping buying and consuming poultry products has also affected the poultry industry despite the fact that well boiled and cooked poultry, even though infected, does not carry any threat for the consumers.
The reaction abroad to the news of bird flue outbreak in West Bengal has, however, been overboard and completely unwarranted. If media reports are to be believed, many countries have prohibited poultry imports from as far flung states as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the states which, by no stretch of imagination, are affected by this spectre. One should realise that India is not a small country, but is a sub-continental entity and as such, bird flue outbreak in one state is not likely to affect the other states. Though precaution is in order, the same should not verge on unwarranted overreaction.
For the moment, the pestilence is well under control. The government has to ensure that the aftermath of the outbreak is well tackled so that the poultry industry comes back to the normal. Media again has an important role to play here. Also, better standards of hygiene and sanitation have to be ensured through better training and awareness among the operators and personnel engaged in the poultry business to prevent any future outbreak of the disease, including its spread to other states for better securing our economic interests. *Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283
Securing Our Jails: The Context of Naxal Threat
Saumitra Mohan
Even while the country grapples with the growing law and order problems throughout the country in one form or the other, the naxals have been systematically ratcheting up their fight against a so-called bourgeois Indian state. They have found newer ways to organise themselves and make their presence felt. Today, they are not only better motivated and better organised, but are also better trained and better equipped, vis-à-vis a not-so-well motivated, trained and equipped police force.
The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has termed the Naxalite insurgency as the greatest single threat to country’s internal security. The Central government is already busy coordinating with the affected state governments to work out a synergized policy to deal with the naxal menace including formation of a specialized anti-naxal force. But the naxals seem intent on upping the ante and taking the fight to newer levels as it appears from their recent drive for freeing their comrades lodged in different jails of the country.
There have been a string of incidents in recent times wherein the naxalites have attacked the jails in different parts of the country and have succeeded in freeing a good number of hard-nosed criminals (read Maoists) booked for waging war against the Indian state. What initially appeared to be a one-off incident/accident seems to be becoming a regular feature and definitely reflects very poorly on our prison security system.
While earlier jail breaks used to be examples of dare-devilry by individual prisoners, Maoists seem to be making it a habit and that also in a very well-planned and coordinated manner, pointing at serious lapses in our policing and prison system. This is obvious from some of the most daring instances of jail breaks.
In the celebrated Jehanabad jail break in November, 2005, about 1,000 strong, well-armed naxalites not only successfully managed to set free 341 prisoners lodged in that jail, but also succeeded in killing several Ranvir Sena men and cops.
Again, about 200 armed naxalites raided a jail in Gajapati town in Orissa in March, 2006 and succeeded in freeing more than 40 prisoners after an extended encounter which lasted for over two hours and resulted in killing and injuring of some policemen.
In March, 2007, there was another jail break in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh in which 72 undertrial prisoners including naxalites escaped the district jail complex.
India’s battle against Maoist guerillas suffered an embarrassing setback in December, 2007 when almost 300 insurgents and their supporters were freed by naxalites during a mass jailbreak in the state of Chhattisgarh. The Maoists had overpowered the jail guards and personnel at the Dantewada jail, 375km from Raipur before they succeeded in their motive.
Most recently, hundreds of agitating Maoist inmates took control of the inner wing of Patna's high-security Beur jail in December last year, protesting against alleged ill-treatment by jail authorities. It all started when Maoist inmates attacked police personnel on duty inside the jail, forcing them to flee. The inmates freed two top Maoist leaders, including Ajay Kanu, by breaking open the iron door of the cell where they were lodged.
Official sources said over 300 Maoists were lodged in Beur jail. The Maoist inmates found support from hundreds of other inmates. According to jail officials, there are about 2,400 inmates in Beur jail, almost more than double the capacity of the prison. Maoist inmates accused jail officials of failing to provide prompt medical help to their comrades and also began a hunger strike inside the jail to protest against the lack of basic facilities.
That even the most high-profile and heavily guarded Tihar jail has not been immune to this affliction was pointed out by the celebrated jail break involving ‘Shamsher Singh Rana’ under custody for the murder of the then parliamentarian and ex-bandit Phoolan Devi.
Besides, these jail breaks, there have been various reports of recovery of huge cache of cash, arms, mobile phones and other such items as are strictly barred by the jail manuals and if still such things are found in possession of the inmates, the same do point not only to lax security inside the jail, but also connivance and collusion of jail staff and officials.
All these together do point to the ills afflicting our prison system and thereby also drives home the point for taking necessary initiatives and measures for improving not only the security inside our jails, but the need for better training and infrastructure for our prison personnel to be better able to tackle such threats from any quarters including naxalites.
Of the various security measures for preventing such jail breaks include the installation of a bio-metric system of access control as recommended for installation in all the nine prisons of the Tihar jail complex by S K Cain Committee formed in the wake of Shamsher Singh Rana’s famous escape from Tihar. In this system, the fingerprints of all the prisoners and the jail staff have been saved into a database. The entry and exit from the complex will be permitted only if the fingerprints are matched. This system should be installed in all the jails across the country without any exception.
Besides, simple security measures like installation of close circuit cameras, metal detectors and automatic security lock system should also be thought of for better security of our jails and for further pre-empting such daring jail breaks as seen during recent times. Manpower shortage has been another bane of our prison system which needs to be beefed up for better prison management and security.
The prison system is one of the important pillars of our law enforcement architecture and as such deserves more attention that what it has done so far. There is need not only to rethink the security parameters in our jails, but also to introduce the newer and modern methodologies of prison management. If we are really serious about improvement of our law and order and justice system, then we really need to think about it all very seriously before we can think of some really positive outcomes.
Saumitra Mohan
Even while the country grapples with the growing law and order problems throughout the country in one form or the other, the naxals have been systematically ratcheting up their fight against a so-called bourgeois Indian state. They have found newer ways to organise themselves and make their presence felt. Today, they are not only better motivated and better organised, but are also better trained and better equipped, vis-à-vis a not-so-well motivated, trained and equipped police force.
The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has termed the Naxalite insurgency as the greatest single threat to country’s internal security. The Central government is already busy coordinating with the affected state governments to work out a synergized policy to deal with the naxal menace including formation of a specialized anti-naxal force. But the naxals seem intent on upping the ante and taking the fight to newer levels as it appears from their recent drive for freeing their comrades lodged in different jails of the country.
There have been a string of incidents in recent times wherein the naxalites have attacked the jails in different parts of the country and have succeeded in freeing a good number of hard-nosed criminals (read Maoists) booked for waging war against the Indian state. What initially appeared to be a one-off incident/accident seems to be becoming a regular feature and definitely reflects very poorly on our prison security system.
While earlier jail breaks used to be examples of dare-devilry by individual prisoners, Maoists seem to be making it a habit and that also in a very well-planned and coordinated manner, pointing at serious lapses in our policing and prison system. This is obvious from some of the most daring instances of jail breaks.
In the celebrated Jehanabad jail break in November, 2005, about 1,000 strong, well-armed naxalites not only successfully managed to set free 341 prisoners lodged in that jail, but also succeeded in killing several Ranvir Sena men and cops.
Again, about 200 armed naxalites raided a jail in Gajapati town in Orissa in March, 2006 and succeeded in freeing more than 40 prisoners after an extended encounter which lasted for over two hours and resulted in killing and injuring of some policemen.
In March, 2007, there was another jail break in Nizamabad in Andhra Pradesh in which 72 undertrial prisoners including naxalites escaped the district jail complex.
India’s battle against Maoist guerillas suffered an embarrassing setback in December, 2007 when almost 300 insurgents and their supporters were freed by naxalites during a mass jailbreak in the state of Chhattisgarh. The Maoists had overpowered the jail guards and personnel at the Dantewada jail, 375km from Raipur before they succeeded in their motive.
Most recently, hundreds of agitating Maoist inmates took control of the inner wing of Patna's high-security Beur jail in December last year, protesting against alleged ill-treatment by jail authorities. It all started when Maoist inmates attacked police personnel on duty inside the jail, forcing them to flee. The inmates freed two top Maoist leaders, including Ajay Kanu, by breaking open the iron door of the cell where they were lodged.
Official sources said over 300 Maoists were lodged in Beur jail. The Maoist inmates found support from hundreds of other inmates. According to jail officials, there are about 2,400 inmates in Beur jail, almost more than double the capacity of the prison. Maoist inmates accused jail officials of failing to provide prompt medical help to their comrades and also began a hunger strike inside the jail to protest against the lack of basic facilities.
That even the most high-profile and heavily guarded Tihar jail has not been immune to this affliction was pointed out by the celebrated jail break involving ‘Shamsher Singh Rana’ under custody for the murder of the then parliamentarian and ex-bandit Phoolan Devi.
Besides, these jail breaks, there have been various reports of recovery of huge cache of cash, arms, mobile phones and other such items as are strictly barred by the jail manuals and if still such things are found in possession of the inmates, the same do point not only to lax security inside the jail, but also connivance and collusion of jail staff and officials.
All these together do point to the ills afflicting our prison system and thereby also drives home the point for taking necessary initiatives and measures for improving not only the security inside our jails, but the need for better training and infrastructure for our prison personnel to be better able to tackle such threats from any quarters including naxalites.
Of the various security measures for preventing such jail breaks include the installation of a bio-metric system of access control as recommended for installation in all the nine prisons of the Tihar jail complex by S K Cain Committee formed in the wake of Shamsher Singh Rana’s famous escape from Tihar. In this system, the fingerprints of all the prisoners and the jail staff have been saved into a database. The entry and exit from the complex will be permitted only if the fingerprints are matched. This system should be installed in all the jails across the country without any exception.
Besides, simple security measures like installation of close circuit cameras, metal detectors and automatic security lock system should also be thought of for better security of our jails and for further pre-empting such daring jail breaks as seen during recent times. Manpower shortage has been another bane of our prison system which needs to be beefed up for better prison management and security.
The prison system is one of the important pillars of our law enforcement architecture and as such deserves more attention that what it has done so far. There is need not only to rethink the security parameters in our jails, but also to introduce the newer and modern methodologies of prison management. If we are really serious about improvement of our law and order and justice system, then we really need to think about it all very seriously before we can think of some really positive outcomes.
Rehabilitating the Child Labour
*Saumitra Mohan
It is believed that there are more children under the age of fourteen years in India than the entire population of the United States. Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6 per cent of the total labour force in India. Of these, nine out of every ten work for their own family enterprises in the countryside. Nearly 85 per cent are supposed to be engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9 per cent work in manufacturing, services and repair workshops. Only about 0.8 per cent work in factories.
Child labour is usually a natural consequence of a poor country afflicted by the sundry problems of underdevelopment. Government of India in cooperation with other state governments has been trying very hard for the eradication of child labour. National Child Labour Project (NCLP) is one of the important government interventions towards the realisation of this goal. Needless to say, the project has made significant difference in this regard.
Thousands of child labourers have been rescued and rehabilitated through the special schools run under the Project. These special schools run specially designed bridge courses so that these children can be suitably mainstreamed through consequent admission to formal schools. These children not only learn the three ‘Rs’ in the special schools, but also get some vocational training in the area of their choice. The children receive a monthly stipend of Rs. 100 per month apart from getting regular nutritional and medical support.
Run by NGOs or local self government bodies, these schools have been doing reasonably well towards realisation of the Project objectives. Hundreds of thousands of children have been mainstreamed, but still there remains a lot which needs to be done to extirpate the malaise of child labour from our society for good.
The practical experience in running the Project and the special schools across the country has brought forth many issues which need to be considered, if at all we wish to make a serious dent to this problem.
First thing which baffles one is the age cap of 14 for identifying the child labour. After all, what is the criterion whereby we need to confine our identification of child labour till the age of 14 only, something which is accepted internationally? Do we mean to say that the moment a child becomes 14, he ceases to deserve state attention and care? This is more so when we know that such a child deserves better nurturing to compensate for the poor family background and upbringing he has been getting.
If we stop state support at 14 only, then it is very much likely that the child would relapse to his previous fate. Stopping state support and care at 14 means that the child labourers shall always remain so and would never get out of the morass of an unflattering living standard. Hence, one believes and proposes that the age bar for the identification of the child labour be raised to 18. Consequently, all the relevant government support including monthly stipend, medical care and nutritional support should also continue until the child reaches the age of 18.
As per the extant norms, the stipend is supposed to be stopped once the child is mainstreamed into a formal school. That being the case, there remains no incentive for mainstreaming of the children as they or their parents don’t wish to lose the financial benefit, hence children’s academic performance gets negatively affected. So, one feels that the stipend should be continued even after the child is mainstreamed into the formal education system and the same should be continued till he or she reaches the age of 18.
After all, it is money that drives the poor parents to use their children as additional sources of income. So, some sort of pecuniary assistance should be provided and continued even after the child is withdrawn from the active employment and till he is completely mainstreamed.
Even though envisaged in the overall rehabilitation package, still the parents of the child labourers are not compulsorily entitled to get preferential treatment in allocation of different government benefits or goodies. One feels that there can be a general guideline in this respect so that there can be earmarked quota for such category of people as we already have with respect to SC/ST/OBC, war widows, ex-military personnel and the handicapped.
One another problem commonly faced regarding identification of the child labour relates to age determination. Whatever this project has done, at least, it has generated enough awareness relating to the employment of child labour. Now, every one is aware that employing a child below 14 is an offence.
So, today when one goes about enforcing prohibition of employment of child labour, one is faced with the difficulty that the child himself/herself tells his/her age to be above 14 and the same is told by their employers/parents even though one knows for sure that the child is below 14.
But as there is no way to verify the same, one finds oneself helpless and handicapped to do anything about rehabilitation of such children. These children have not been to schools and their births are also not registered, so they manage to get an age certificate from any corner and proffer the same in support of their age which one is forced to accept for want of any other way to do the same.
One also feels that the exemption given to children working for their parents or in their family workshops/factories also needs to be withdrawn as the same defeats the very purpose of the Project. After all, a good number of such children are employed by their own parents and family members and as such, they start doing so from a very early age which has very negative implications for on their person including depriving them the unadulterated pleasures of an innocent childhood.
Again, there are some flaws in the ways in which the vocational training is supposed to be imparted in the Project-run special schools. As per present norms, while there is provision for the employment of vocational trainer, there is no separate allotment for the capital and recurring cost relating to these vocational training programmes, something without which there shall be difficulty in running these courses successfully.
So, there is also an urgent need to look into this aspect before we can expect to realise the true purpose and benefit of the vocational training. However, one also feels that a good portion of the recurring costs can be recovered if the products manufactured during the course of vocational training in these special schools are properly marketed and sold, at least, at break-even costs. But that depends on the specific Project, the range and quality of products manufactured and the ability of the Project personnel to be able to market the same.
Again, it has come to notice that the process of enforcement against the employment of child labour has been so designed that there has been very less enforcement in the field than expected otherwise. Because of sundry practical problems and the fact that the predominant majority of culprits employing child labour belongs to the poorer sections of the society, there is a general disinclination to arrest them or to penalise them.
Where the employers happen to be very well-off, they somehow manage to get away with the offence. It is here that we need to strike and ensure that the enforcement of the legal provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act does take place so that the real objectives of the Act are realised.
Then, it has also been seen that many of the child labourers rescued are not immediately and suitably rehabilitated resulting in their relapse into child labour, something which should be strongly guarded against. Also, the amount of Rs. 20,000 for rehabilitation of every child labour is too meagre and needs an upward revision to be of any consequence. There has to be centrally designed rehabilitation package/scheme with better financial support, which could be suitably customised at the field level.
Then, it has also come to seen that many state governments hesitate to report more number of child labourers and recommend the requisite number of special schools to avoid attracting stigma of officially having larger number of child labourers as that reflects poorly on their developmental initiatives and performance. This aspect is very important and needs to be addressed urgently as in all this, it is the child labour which suffers, for whom the whole project is designed.
So, if less number of schools are recommended to hide the real picture, then there is also a problem of undertaking more enforcement activities as that would mean more child labourers in need of mainstreaming and rehabilitation, something which shall not be possible in absence of adequate number of special schools and for which, therefore, there does not remain much infrastructure and resources available.
There is not only a need for a renewed thrust towards tackling the problem of child labour, but there is also an imperative need towards making more financial allocation for the Project, not to speak of the need for certain conceptual clarification regarding identification of the child labour and revising certain aspects of the project design. Besides, more coordinated and synergised convergence is required to successfully eradicate child labour from this country.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283.
*Saumitra Mohan
It is believed that there are more children under the age of fourteen years in India than the entire population of the United States. Children under fourteen constitute around 3.6 per cent of the total labour force in India. Of these, nine out of every ten work for their own family enterprises in the countryside. Nearly 85 per cent are supposed to be engaged in traditional agricultural activities. Less than 9 per cent work in manufacturing, services and repair workshops. Only about 0.8 per cent work in factories.
Child labour is usually a natural consequence of a poor country afflicted by the sundry problems of underdevelopment. Government of India in cooperation with other state governments has been trying very hard for the eradication of child labour. National Child Labour Project (NCLP) is one of the important government interventions towards the realisation of this goal. Needless to say, the project has made significant difference in this regard.
Thousands of child labourers have been rescued and rehabilitated through the special schools run under the Project. These special schools run specially designed bridge courses so that these children can be suitably mainstreamed through consequent admission to formal schools. These children not only learn the three ‘Rs’ in the special schools, but also get some vocational training in the area of their choice. The children receive a monthly stipend of Rs. 100 per month apart from getting regular nutritional and medical support.
Run by NGOs or local self government bodies, these schools have been doing reasonably well towards realisation of the Project objectives. Hundreds of thousands of children have been mainstreamed, but still there remains a lot which needs to be done to extirpate the malaise of child labour from our society for good.
The practical experience in running the Project and the special schools across the country has brought forth many issues which need to be considered, if at all we wish to make a serious dent to this problem.
First thing which baffles one is the age cap of 14 for identifying the child labour. After all, what is the criterion whereby we need to confine our identification of child labour till the age of 14 only, something which is accepted internationally? Do we mean to say that the moment a child becomes 14, he ceases to deserve state attention and care? This is more so when we know that such a child deserves better nurturing to compensate for the poor family background and upbringing he has been getting.
If we stop state support at 14 only, then it is very much likely that the child would relapse to his previous fate. Stopping state support and care at 14 means that the child labourers shall always remain so and would never get out of the morass of an unflattering living standard. Hence, one believes and proposes that the age bar for the identification of the child labour be raised to 18. Consequently, all the relevant government support including monthly stipend, medical care and nutritional support should also continue until the child reaches the age of 18.
As per the extant norms, the stipend is supposed to be stopped once the child is mainstreamed into a formal school. That being the case, there remains no incentive for mainstreaming of the children as they or their parents don’t wish to lose the financial benefit, hence children’s academic performance gets negatively affected. So, one feels that the stipend should be continued even after the child is mainstreamed into the formal education system and the same should be continued till he or she reaches the age of 18.
After all, it is money that drives the poor parents to use their children as additional sources of income. So, some sort of pecuniary assistance should be provided and continued even after the child is withdrawn from the active employment and till he is completely mainstreamed.
Even though envisaged in the overall rehabilitation package, still the parents of the child labourers are not compulsorily entitled to get preferential treatment in allocation of different government benefits or goodies. One feels that there can be a general guideline in this respect so that there can be earmarked quota for such category of people as we already have with respect to SC/ST/OBC, war widows, ex-military personnel and the handicapped.
One another problem commonly faced regarding identification of the child labour relates to age determination. Whatever this project has done, at least, it has generated enough awareness relating to the employment of child labour. Now, every one is aware that employing a child below 14 is an offence.
So, today when one goes about enforcing prohibition of employment of child labour, one is faced with the difficulty that the child himself/herself tells his/her age to be above 14 and the same is told by their employers/parents even though one knows for sure that the child is below 14.
But as there is no way to verify the same, one finds oneself helpless and handicapped to do anything about rehabilitation of such children. These children have not been to schools and their births are also not registered, so they manage to get an age certificate from any corner and proffer the same in support of their age which one is forced to accept for want of any other way to do the same.
One also feels that the exemption given to children working for their parents or in their family workshops/factories also needs to be withdrawn as the same defeats the very purpose of the Project. After all, a good number of such children are employed by their own parents and family members and as such, they start doing so from a very early age which has very negative implications for on their person including depriving them the unadulterated pleasures of an innocent childhood.
Again, there are some flaws in the ways in which the vocational training is supposed to be imparted in the Project-run special schools. As per present norms, while there is provision for the employment of vocational trainer, there is no separate allotment for the capital and recurring cost relating to these vocational training programmes, something without which there shall be difficulty in running these courses successfully.
So, there is also an urgent need to look into this aspect before we can expect to realise the true purpose and benefit of the vocational training. However, one also feels that a good portion of the recurring costs can be recovered if the products manufactured during the course of vocational training in these special schools are properly marketed and sold, at least, at break-even costs. But that depends on the specific Project, the range and quality of products manufactured and the ability of the Project personnel to be able to market the same.
Again, it has come to notice that the process of enforcement against the employment of child labour has been so designed that there has been very less enforcement in the field than expected otherwise. Because of sundry practical problems and the fact that the predominant majority of culprits employing child labour belongs to the poorer sections of the society, there is a general disinclination to arrest them or to penalise them.
Where the employers happen to be very well-off, they somehow manage to get away with the offence. It is here that we need to strike and ensure that the enforcement of the legal provisions of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act does take place so that the real objectives of the Act are realised.
Then, it has also been seen that many of the child labourers rescued are not immediately and suitably rehabilitated resulting in their relapse into child labour, something which should be strongly guarded against. Also, the amount of Rs. 20,000 for rehabilitation of every child labour is too meagre and needs an upward revision to be of any consequence. There has to be centrally designed rehabilitation package/scheme with better financial support, which could be suitably customised at the field level.
Then, it has also come to seen that many state governments hesitate to report more number of child labourers and recommend the requisite number of special schools to avoid attracting stigma of officially having larger number of child labourers as that reflects poorly on their developmental initiatives and performance. This aspect is very important and needs to be addressed urgently as in all this, it is the child labour which suffers, for whom the whole project is designed.
So, if less number of schools are recommended to hide the real picture, then there is also a problem of undertaking more enforcement activities as that would mean more child labourers in need of mainstreaming and rehabilitation, something which shall not be possible in absence of adequate number of special schools and for which, therefore, there does not remain much infrastructure and resources available.
There is not only a need for a renewed thrust towards tackling the problem of child labour, but there is also an imperative need towards making more financial allocation for the Project, not to speak of the need for certain conceptual clarification regarding identification of the child labour and revising certain aspects of the project design. Besides, more coordinated and synergised convergence is required to successfully eradicate child labour from this country.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Mobile: 91-9831388803/9434242283.
Reforming the Electoral System
Saumitra Mohan
The regularity with which Pakistan keeps going back to martial law shows in stark relief the strength of Indian democracy which appears to be taking newer strides with each passing day. One principal reason for the same lies in the strong democratic foundations which are predicated on a very sound and effective electoral system. And our electoral system has been moving from strength to strength since the time of Mr. T. N. Sheshan, the redoubtable Chief Election Commission of the nineties.
But there still remain many issues that need to be attended to fortify the gains already made for further solidifying our democratic base and one such important issue relates to our electoral system. The task of conducting elections in a billion plus country is really humongous and mind-boggling. It requires extra-ordinary preparations coupled with astute management skills.
This becomes more important because these days elections have to be conducted with increasing regularity given the fact that elections to parliamentary, different state assemblies and local bodies including panchayats keep taking their turns to keep the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its cognate state bodies engaged throughout the year. Hence, there is an urgent need for ECI to keep its machinery well-oiled all the time.
As the ECI works through the instrumentality of district administration across the country, myriad election related activities also keep the latter occupied through the year. And as the ECI takes newer initiatives to further sanitize the electoral system in this country resulting in more works, it has increasingly become difficult for the district administration to devote the requisite attention and energy to sundry more pressing functions of administration and development.
Be it the summary or special revision of the electoral roll, preparation of photo identity cards, rationalisation of polling booths, conduct of actual parliamentary/assembly/local body elections or an emergent by-election, the district administration has to contend with one or the other election related work almost throughout the year. Since election-related exercises are serious affairs, one has to devote more than cursory attention which often makes it difficult for the district administration to do justice to the other pressing concerns of development administration.
This is why, there has long been felt an urgent need for a full-fledged set-up including full-time officers and staff members for manning the election section at the district level. It gets really difficult for the District Magistrate who in his capacity as the District Election Officer also has to do different election related work with his regular officers and staff members who should otherwise be devoting their time and energy to the regular assignments. Since, the district administration does not have adequate number of officers and staff, it is forced to fall back on the officers and staff from the line departments who have become increasingly reluctant to part with their officers and staff for election related works.
Many government departments including education, relief, women and child development, PWD, health, and backward classes development departments have issued specific directions from time to time against engaging their officers and staff members in election works for the simple reason that such engagement tells negatively on the normal functioning and performance of these departments, preventing them to do the very basic work which they are meant to do.
For example, the school education department has the largest number of employees in the form of teachers and when these teachers are engaged in election and other works round the year, their basic teaching job really suffers, more so when they happen to be teachers from a single or double teacher schools. And now that the Supreme Court has completely banned such employment of school teachers, it has become further difficult for the district administration.
The district administration is, therefore, finding it increasingly difficult to rope in the services of line department officers and staff for electoral purposes. Even though some permanent staff members have been provided recently, the manpower crunch is a serious problem and the government really needs to ponder over this issue seriously, more so when many of these district offices are already understaffed.
The district administration has to do some real tight-rope walking in this regard, trying to apportion officers and staff among the various tasks it is supposed to accomplish to the satisfaction of all concerned. Be it the preparation of electoral rolls or the management of various poverty alleviation programmes, it has to accomplish all with the same level of efficiency and effectiveness. The poor District Magistrate, even though over-burdened, is still the most important, if not the only, point of interaction and interface for anyone and everyone in the government and he/she is held accountable for any lapse anywhere.
Being a first-past-the-post system where every head counts, where electoral numbers make all the difference in deciding the fate of a candidate in an election, the political parties have generally taken the populist route in this country in their bid to beef up their vote banks. They have often been found shielding the illegal immigrants/aliens who have somehow managed to get themselves registered as a voter in this country.
If we really mean to cleanse the electoral system in this country, such dangerous tendency among political parties should be discouraged and corrective measures need to be taken in all possible ways. We need to have a clearly laid down policy in this regard to pre-empt victimization of genuine citizens of the country.
There has been a talk of issuing identity cards to citizens in the border areas to distinguish the infiltrators from the genuine citizens. There has also been a proposal to grant citizenship to all such illegal voters and start taking all precaution from now on to effectively tackle the immigration menace in this country. Our border security and intelligence gathering have to be more up to mark to ensure this.
ECI has taken a slew of steps in recent times to ensure free and fair elections. This inter alia includes introduction of electronic voting machines, photo identity cards, employment of central para military forces for curbing electoral mal-practices, posting of external election observers, videography and photography of critical electoral processes and events including activities at sensitive polling booths on the eve of actual voting, setting up of permanent EPIC centres, round the year voter registration and more scientific delimitation of electoral constituencies. But still a lot needs to be done to further sanitize the electoral system in the country.
The very fact that EPIC distribution has still not been cent per cent in the country is a further reason to worry about. As the country gets more developed and internet penetration grows in the country, one should also give a serious thought to the concept of ‘on-line voting’. If we can pull it off, it shall not only be cheaper, but shall also be more effective and efficient as that would reduce the need for incurring huge expenses on making electoral arrangements including the deployment of massive polling personnel and para military forces almost every year.
Though electors’ photo identity cards (EPIC) has to a large extent prevented bogus voting, but it is still far from full-proof. Frequent reports of tampering with the cards and recovery of fake EPICs have given the tell-tale hints of the unholy practice that might be existing. Hence, the need for making the EPIC more tamper-proof than it is now. The proposal of implanting some sort of bio-metric identification feature in the EPIC to reduce any scope for tampering or faking EPIC needs to be given a serious thought.
There is also a need for further rationalising the polling booths. Still, the size of many polling booths is more than thousand and the same needs to be cut down to half to make the booth size more manageable. This would allow the completion of the voting process within the scheduled time during an actual voting rather than extending it beyond the stipulated time which has often come to be noticed.
Also, it should be seen to it that there should not be more than one polling booth in the same premises. Location of more than one booth in the same premises makes the task of security forces difficult in the eventuality of a law and order problem. Moreover, often voters have also been found to be at loss locating their booth at such multi-booth premises.
It is with this in mind that ECI introduced the concept of Voter Assistance Booth (VAB) for multi-booth polling premises in the recent assembly elections. This has been taken very well by the people and was a great help to them. However, it was felt by many that the booth was not set-up properly and was often not visible to people. The people manning them need to be properly oriented and motivated before they are sent to do the job.
Also, one feels that such VAB can also be set up across the constituency at regular distance, irrespective of the number of booths in a premise as that would be of greater help to the voters who are not in a position to get such assistance if the premise comprises only one or two booths.
Introduction of alphabetically arranged electoral roll at such VABs has also been a good beginning and should be continued. Such electoral roll should also be there at the Permanent EPIC Centres which should actually be suitably renamed e.g. as Permanent Voter Assistance Centre.
Further steps must also be taken to completely rule out the spectre of booth-jamming and booth capturing. The alleged practice of such a thing as planting dummy candidates and thereby having dummy election agents within the polling booth should also be guarded against.
ECI has taken a right step recently whereby it has stipulated that the election agents of the contesting candidates have to be from within the same polling booth areas and have also to be a registered voter in that particular area. This step was warranted because of the reported induction of imported goons as election agents by some political parties which would plant dummy candidates to have these goons masquerade as election agents within the booth premises thereby making it easier for them to engage in all sorts of illegal activities in favour or against a particular candidate.
The electronic voting machines are still not used in election to the local bodies which should be started immediately as the local body elections are the base upon which is built the edifice of electoral democracy. ECI should ensure that exemplary punishment is meted out to those who are directly or indirectly found to be involved in aiding and abetting electoral mal-practices.
The very fact that it is easier to find out the voting patterns when elections are conducted through the electronic voting machines need to be given a serious thought as this is a retrograde development vis-à-vis the manual system wherein it was difficult to find out the same as the ballot papers of different polling booths were mixed before counting to pre-empt identification of voting patterns and consequent victimization of the voters.
The Election Commission also needs to further tighten the noose on political parties to ensure that they not only adhere to the model code of conduct including sticking to the allowable electoral expenses during an election, but their accounts are also regularly verified and audited to ward against any ill-gotten money having its influence on our electoral system.
Even though ECI has been trying for quite some time to cleanse the system of people with criminal backgrounds/antecedents, the same should be done more effectively to purge the system from such people or their unwholesome influence. Laying down some sort of minimum qualification and experience for contesting candidates should also be given a thought.
One just hopes that some of these measures, if undertaken in right earnest, shall do a world of good to our fledgling democracy. The more we delay, the more disservice we shall be doing to the people of this country at the expense of the democratic traditions and foundations of this country.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
Saumitra Mohan
The regularity with which Pakistan keeps going back to martial law shows in stark relief the strength of Indian democracy which appears to be taking newer strides with each passing day. One principal reason for the same lies in the strong democratic foundations which are predicated on a very sound and effective electoral system. And our electoral system has been moving from strength to strength since the time of Mr. T. N. Sheshan, the redoubtable Chief Election Commission of the nineties.
But there still remain many issues that need to be attended to fortify the gains already made for further solidifying our democratic base and one such important issue relates to our electoral system. The task of conducting elections in a billion plus country is really humongous and mind-boggling. It requires extra-ordinary preparations coupled with astute management skills.
This becomes more important because these days elections have to be conducted with increasing regularity given the fact that elections to parliamentary, different state assemblies and local bodies including panchayats keep taking their turns to keep the Election Commission of India (ECI) and its cognate state bodies engaged throughout the year. Hence, there is an urgent need for ECI to keep its machinery well-oiled all the time.
As the ECI works through the instrumentality of district administration across the country, myriad election related activities also keep the latter occupied through the year. And as the ECI takes newer initiatives to further sanitize the electoral system in this country resulting in more works, it has increasingly become difficult for the district administration to devote the requisite attention and energy to sundry more pressing functions of administration and development.
Be it the summary or special revision of the electoral roll, preparation of photo identity cards, rationalisation of polling booths, conduct of actual parliamentary/assembly/local body elections or an emergent by-election, the district administration has to contend with one or the other election related work almost throughout the year. Since election-related exercises are serious affairs, one has to devote more than cursory attention which often makes it difficult for the district administration to do justice to the other pressing concerns of development administration.
This is why, there has long been felt an urgent need for a full-fledged set-up including full-time officers and staff members for manning the election section at the district level. It gets really difficult for the District Magistrate who in his capacity as the District Election Officer also has to do different election related work with his regular officers and staff members who should otherwise be devoting their time and energy to the regular assignments. Since, the district administration does not have adequate number of officers and staff, it is forced to fall back on the officers and staff from the line departments who have become increasingly reluctant to part with their officers and staff for election related works.
Many government departments including education, relief, women and child development, PWD, health, and backward classes development departments have issued specific directions from time to time against engaging their officers and staff members in election works for the simple reason that such engagement tells negatively on the normal functioning and performance of these departments, preventing them to do the very basic work which they are meant to do.
For example, the school education department has the largest number of employees in the form of teachers and when these teachers are engaged in election and other works round the year, their basic teaching job really suffers, more so when they happen to be teachers from a single or double teacher schools. And now that the Supreme Court has completely banned such employment of school teachers, it has become further difficult for the district administration.
The district administration is, therefore, finding it increasingly difficult to rope in the services of line department officers and staff for electoral purposes. Even though some permanent staff members have been provided recently, the manpower crunch is a serious problem and the government really needs to ponder over this issue seriously, more so when many of these district offices are already understaffed.
The district administration has to do some real tight-rope walking in this regard, trying to apportion officers and staff among the various tasks it is supposed to accomplish to the satisfaction of all concerned. Be it the preparation of electoral rolls or the management of various poverty alleviation programmes, it has to accomplish all with the same level of efficiency and effectiveness. The poor District Magistrate, even though over-burdened, is still the most important, if not the only, point of interaction and interface for anyone and everyone in the government and he/she is held accountable for any lapse anywhere.
Being a first-past-the-post system where every head counts, where electoral numbers make all the difference in deciding the fate of a candidate in an election, the political parties have generally taken the populist route in this country in their bid to beef up their vote banks. They have often been found shielding the illegal immigrants/aliens who have somehow managed to get themselves registered as a voter in this country.
If we really mean to cleanse the electoral system in this country, such dangerous tendency among political parties should be discouraged and corrective measures need to be taken in all possible ways. We need to have a clearly laid down policy in this regard to pre-empt victimization of genuine citizens of the country.
There has been a talk of issuing identity cards to citizens in the border areas to distinguish the infiltrators from the genuine citizens. There has also been a proposal to grant citizenship to all such illegal voters and start taking all precaution from now on to effectively tackle the immigration menace in this country. Our border security and intelligence gathering have to be more up to mark to ensure this.
ECI has taken a slew of steps in recent times to ensure free and fair elections. This inter alia includes introduction of electronic voting machines, photo identity cards, employment of central para military forces for curbing electoral mal-practices, posting of external election observers, videography and photography of critical electoral processes and events including activities at sensitive polling booths on the eve of actual voting, setting up of permanent EPIC centres, round the year voter registration and more scientific delimitation of electoral constituencies. But still a lot needs to be done to further sanitize the electoral system in the country.
The very fact that EPIC distribution has still not been cent per cent in the country is a further reason to worry about. As the country gets more developed and internet penetration grows in the country, one should also give a serious thought to the concept of ‘on-line voting’. If we can pull it off, it shall not only be cheaper, but shall also be more effective and efficient as that would reduce the need for incurring huge expenses on making electoral arrangements including the deployment of massive polling personnel and para military forces almost every year.
Though electors’ photo identity cards (EPIC) has to a large extent prevented bogus voting, but it is still far from full-proof. Frequent reports of tampering with the cards and recovery of fake EPICs have given the tell-tale hints of the unholy practice that might be existing. Hence, the need for making the EPIC more tamper-proof than it is now. The proposal of implanting some sort of bio-metric identification feature in the EPIC to reduce any scope for tampering or faking EPIC needs to be given a serious thought.
There is also a need for further rationalising the polling booths. Still, the size of many polling booths is more than thousand and the same needs to be cut down to half to make the booth size more manageable. This would allow the completion of the voting process within the scheduled time during an actual voting rather than extending it beyond the stipulated time which has often come to be noticed.
Also, it should be seen to it that there should not be more than one polling booth in the same premises. Location of more than one booth in the same premises makes the task of security forces difficult in the eventuality of a law and order problem. Moreover, often voters have also been found to be at loss locating their booth at such multi-booth premises.
It is with this in mind that ECI introduced the concept of Voter Assistance Booth (VAB) for multi-booth polling premises in the recent assembly elections. This has been taken very well by the people and was a great help to them. However, it was felt by many that the booth was not set-up properly and was often not visible to people. The people manning them need to be properly oriented and motivated before they are sent to do the job.
Also, one feels that such VAB can also be set up across the constituency at regular distance, irrespective of the number of booths in a premise as that would be of greater help to the voters who are not in a position to get such assistance if the premise comprises only one or two booths.
Introduction of alphabetically arranged electoral roll at such VABs has also been a good beginning and should be continued. Such electoral roll should also be there at the Permanent EPIC Centres which should actually be suitably renamed e.g. as Permanent Voter Assistance Centre.
Further steps must also be taken to completely rule out the spectre of booth-jamming and booth capturing. The alleged practice of such a thing as planting dummy candidates and thereby having dummy election agents within the polling booth should also be guarded against.
ECI has taken a right step recently whereby it has stipulated that the election agents of the contesting candidates have to be from within the same polling booth areas and have also to be a registered voter in that particular area. This step was warranted because of the reported induction of imported goons as election agents by some political parties which would plant dummy candidates to have these goons masquerade as election agents within the booth premises thereby making it easier for them to engage in all sorts of illegal activities in favour or against a particular candidate.
The electronic voting machines are still not used in election to the local bodies which should be started immediately as the local body elections are the base upon which is built the edifice of electoral democracy. ECI should ensure that exemplary punishment is meted out to those who are directly or indirectly found to be involved in aiding and abetting electoral mal-practices.
The very fact that it is easier to find out the voting patterns when elections are conducted through the electronic voting machines need to be given a serious thought as this is a retrograde development vis-à-vis the manual system wherein it was difficult to find out the same as the ballot papers of different polling booths were mixed before counting to pre-empt identification of voting patterns and consequent victimization of the voters.
The Election Commission also needs to further tighten the noose on political parties to ensure that they not only adhere to the model code of conduct including sticking to the allowable electoral expenses during an election, but their accounts are also regularly verified and audited to ward against any ill-gotten money having its influence on our electoral system.
Even though ECI has been trying for quite some time to cleanse the system of people with criminal backgrounds/antecedents, the same should be done more effectively to purge the system from such people or their unwholesome influence. Laying down some sort of minimum qualification and experience for contesting candidates should also be given a thought.
One just hopes that some of these measures, if undertaken in right earnest, shall do a world of good to our fledgling democracy. The more we delay, the more disservice we shall be doing to the people of this country at the expense of the democratic traditions and foundations of this country.
*Saumitra Mohan is an IAS officer presently working as an Additional District Magistrate, Hooghly in West Bengal.
(The views expressed here are author’s personal views and do not reflect those of the Government.)
Address for correspondence:
Saumitra Mohan, IAS, Additional District Magistrate, Office of the District Magistrate, Hooghly-712101.
E-mail: saumitra_mohan@hotmail.com.
Phone: 033-26806456/26802043(O)/26802041(R).
Fax: 033-26802043.
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