gfiles Magazine October Issue 2011

...by the way

 

Fine show by JP Dutta & Co

THE run-up to the 58th edition of the Film Festival of India saw its share of glissaded-over glitches which will be remembered. First, jury chief JP Dutta put a pertinent query to fellow jury members after finalising the names of the winners – who will write the citations? Nobody had given a thought to this aspect, amidst the flurry of viewing the films.

 

Chandraprakash Dwivedi, the director, writer and lead of TV serial Chanakya, offered his services on one condition – he would write the citations in Hindi. There was no option but to agree. Within four hours, he handed them in and, for the first time in the history of the Festival, the citations were translated from Hindi to English. 

 

Next, the jury was faced with the high cost of laundry! It was lodged for 27 days in Park Hotel, which charges about Rs 350 per item for dry cleaning. The total bill would have amounted to almost a lakh of rupees. So the jury came up with a solution. Each member carried his or her clothing in a bag to a local drycleaner, saving the Directorate a good deal of money.

 

 

 

 

Farming the poorest

FARMERS constitute one segment of society that has perennially been exploited. The lot of Uttar Pradesh farmers is a case in point. Their land was acquired by the government decades ago. Some of them received compensation while others have been running from pillar to post to wrest their legitimate dues but to no avail.

 

Under the law, the State allots 5% of the land acquired to the farmer after proper colonization in addition to the cash compensation. But the UP government has been unable to allot the plots as promised. Meanwhile, the cost of land has sky-rocketed and the officials of Noida and Greater Noida perceived an opportunity to make a quick, and handsome, buck. They bought the claim documents from the farmers at cheap prices, making down payments in cash, and saw to it that all the claims were settled within no time.

 

Now, these plots are available in the market at comparatively low prices. However, they still constitute a windfall. If the claim documents have been bought at Rs 200 per sq m, the market price is around 50 times higher. The real claimant, the farmer, remains penurious while someone else is minting money.

 

 

 

Something’s rotten... in Haryana

IT’S bare logic: if there are no apparent problems in the administration in the capital, it actually means there is a heap of problems existent in the corners of the State. But, in Haryana, the Chief Minister, Bhupinder Singh Hooda, seems to have shut his eyes in pigeon fashion.

 

The fourth floor of the Secretariat is overrun with horrifying rumours of maladministration all over the State. There are allegations that even Deputy Commissioner-level officers in southern Haryana are accepting bribes – that too from tehsildars and patwaris. Even the Panchkula tehsildar is running a flourishing racket. The MLAs who posted these officials are silent. There are very few review meetings at Secretary-level. A meeting is called rarely – when the CM instructs the officials closest to him to call one. Files keep piling up, decisions are delayed. Worse, there are some officers who are not informing the CM about issues of administration. It is only due to Hooda’s good public relations that the media is not highlighting this lackadaisical attitude of the Secretariat officers.

 

 

 

 

No adhar for UID

THE Unique Identification Project has fallen into a limbo, owing to a veritable war between the officials of the Planning Commission and those of the Finance Ministry. The project was basically the brainchild of the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who drafted in Infosys’ Nandan Nilekani to implement this gigantic programme of the Government of India.

After two years of the exercise, it was observed at a recent Home Ministry meeting that the programme is inconsistent with the National Population Register. The UID’s Aadhar card is not mandatory. Home Ministry officials are trying to decide on a formatted mechanism for a national identity card. Higher-level officials feel the Aadhar card is not in step with the other data inputs of the Central and State governments. The States will have to spend to align their data with Aadhar. 

 

 

Among the many objections is the fact that the UID number is chosen at random. Senior officials have informed their UID counterparts that 10 crore Aadhar cards have to be completed by March 31, 2012. After that there will be a complete review of the issue. g

gfiles Magazine October Issue 2011

CHANGING SCENE

postal service

 

Stamping a new legacy

India’s huge postal network is going to turn into a banking institution

 

 

by RAJENDRA BAJPAI

 

INDIA has a postal system more than two centuries old and it once had the enviable record of delivering letters and parcels to virtually every nook and corner of the world. Over decades it also acquired the reputation of delivering cash – money orders – throughout the country. No other country has such a formidable postal network. But its full potential has never been utilized – with the result that the Department of Posts and Telegraph has degenerated into a lossmaking entity.

 

However, the government is now considering converting the postal network into a banking institution with a licence from the Reserve Bank of India. Poor farmers who make some money during the harvesting season will no longer have to hide their few hundred rupees in a sack of grain in their thatched huts. There will be a post office close to the village for them to open a savings account and deposit the money there.

 

There are nearly 155,000 post offices in the country and they employ 5.5 million people which means the postal department already has the kind of basic infrastructure that a bank could take years, perhaps decades, to put into place. Compare this with the State Bank of India’s 10,000 branches and 5,500 affiliates. SBI’s journey from a single, standalone Bank of Calcutta in 1806 is not very different from that of the postal network. In the year ending last March, the bank made a net profit of more than Rs 8,000 crore.

 

India’s first post office was opened in 1688 but it was reorganized and opened to the public in 1744 by Warren Hastings, Governor General of Bengal. Each post office in the country serves an area of about 22 sq km and approximately 6,500 people.

 

 

India Post could be this decade’s greatest success story. It could emerge as a monolith that could dwarf most government departments as well as many corporate giants.

 

The earnings of India Post, as it is now known, are not readily available but it makes annual losses of Rs 1,500 crore. In part, this may be attributed to the thousands of courier services that have mushroomed across the country. But they were principally filling the space vacated by the increasingly inefficient postal department. Even in the mid-19^th century, people were confident mail sent by them would quickly and efficiently reach the addressee.

 

Postal departments in other countries also languished but they bounced back in France, Germany and Singapore. The first post office in Singapore was opened in 1877 but it did not get into the banking sector until the early 1970s. It was so successful that Post Office Savings Bank or PosBank had nearly one million customers or half the population of Singapore by 1976 and a deposit base of S$1 billion. Within a decade, the deposits rose 10-fold to S$10 billion. In the 1990s it was acquired by the DBS or Development Bank of Singapore. India Post has the potential to beat every bank in the country on the basis of deposits and loans. To begin with, it is already handling money transactions by way of savings accounts and various government financial certificates. Banking by itself is not new to the postal department and it plans to buy about 800 ATMs by next March, as soon as it gets a licence.

 

An additional advantage is the location in rural areas. It can become a micro lender. Currently, this space is filled by private companies and NGOs. But all the micro finance companies put together do not have the infrastructure of the Department of Posts and Telegraph. Its turnaround from a loss-making to a profit-making government department can be swift and meteoric. But the dangers are equally apparent and alarming. Postal employees will largely be dealing with small farmers and village businessmen, many of whom are illiterate and will be dependent upon postal employees for guidance.

 

The possibilities for corruption are frightening. The postal department’s main money-spinner will be micro finance which will mean lending amounts ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand rupees, mainly during the sowing season. The local dakia or postman will have extraordinary powers to lend and accept deposits. It will not be surprising if some of them demand commissions before lending money to farmers. 

 

Significantly, some micro finance companies lend money only to women in villages because they have an enviable record in returning the loans.

 

India Post could be this decade’s greatest success story. It could emerge as a monolith that could dwarf most government departments as well as many corporate giants. At the same time, the pitfalls and frightening consequences of its failure cannot be minimized. g

 

 

(The writer is a former Reuters and Bloomberg correspondent)

gfiles Magazine October Issue 2011

MY CORNER

rahul singh

 

Drive M for murder

Corruption is the cause of India’s poor roads and its shocking record of the highest rate of accidents for the number of vehicles

 

MOTORING has been a passion with me. The first major car trip I undertook was with an English friend, soon after we graduated from Cambridge University in 1962. We were both 21 years old and planned to drive from London to Cairo, after which my friend was to take up a teaching assignment in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and I would take a ship from Port Said, in Egypt, to Bombay. Our parents were understandably very nervous, but we were a determined duo and overrode their objections.

 

We had a Morris Mini, a small, inexpensive iconic vehicle of those petrol cheap days, and our three-month journey took us through France, Monaco, Italy, Sicily, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt. We stayed in youth hostels and sometimes even slept in the car. And, believe it or not, during the entire trip, we had just one minor mishap – a puncture. Such was the excellent condition of the roads, even in the “Third World” countries of north Africa. Since then, I have motored in various parts of India, in a variety of cars.

 

Earlier, there were just three major makes of cars – the Ambassador, the Herald and the Fiat, all three of which I owned in turn. The Ambassador was easily the worst of the lot and the joke about it was that its only part that did not make a noise was the horn!

 

Then, in the mid-1980s, we got our first international-standard passenger car, the Maruti 800. It transformed the motoring scene. After that, different makes and models of cars have hit Indian roads. However, what has not changed are the roads themselves, though admittedly in the last few years a few major highways have improved. The Mumbai-Pune and Delhi- Chandigarh roads, for instance, which used to be nightmares earlier, are almost world-class now. I recently drove from Delhi to Mumbai and found the highways in Rajasthan and Gujarat much improved (not in Maharashtra, though). Nevertheless, most of our roads and socalled national highways, especially in rural areas and those connecting smaller towns, remain in deplorable condition and constitute a huge national waste, not to mention the hazard they pose to life and limb.

 

Here are some statistics taken from a recent report of the National Transport Development Policy Committee, headed by a former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India: Poor maintenance of roads costs the country about Rs 35,000 crore a year, and erodes 40,000 km of rural roads and 10,000 km of secondary roads. The report estimates that it would cost Rs 900,000 crore to replace these eroded roads.

 

The poor roads reduce the life of vehicles (while also increasing their operating costs), increase travel time and push up the consumption of fuel. The report points out that routine maintenance of roads is virtually absent and the road policy is basically “build, neglect and rebuild.”

 

What it does not say, but is obviously implied, is that underlying all this is big time corruption. Government officials, especially in town and city municipalities, are hand-in-glove with road-building contractors, who use sub-standard materials and are repeatedly asked to rebuild the roads after they deteriorate. This clearly came out when there was a hue and cry in Mumbai recently over its pot-holed roads.

 

India has the dubious distinction of having, by far, the highest death rate due to accidents for the number of vehicles on our roads. China comes a distant second.

 

The guilty road contractors were identified, we were told that they would be black-listed, but you can be sure they will be back again. It is not easy to break their nexus with officials and politicians. Let us turn to deaths and injuries. India has the dubious distinction of having, by far, the highest death rate due to accidents for the number of vehicles on our roads. China comes a distant second. I have often driven from Mumbai to Goa over the past three decades. It is a murderous highway, with mangled vehicles (mostly trucks) strewn along it. Occasionally, I have seen a body, the victim of a hit and - run driver. The number and variety of vehicles on that road has increased exponentially, as Goa has become a prime tourist destination. But the width of the road has barely increased nor its condition improved. The obvious result is more and more accidents.

 

Poor maintenance and a road infrastructure unable to cope with the growing number of vehicles apart, we also lack a proper driving culture. Speed limits are not adhered to, traffic signals commonly ignored, overtaking on the wrong side rampant, the rights of pedestrians at crossings ignored, drive and- drink laws rarely enforced and policemen easily bribed.

 

THESE are only a few of the traffic rules commonly flouted in India. Motorists literally get away with murder. Remember the notorious case of two well-heeled and inebriated youngsters in New Delhi mowing down several people, including policemen, and getting away with it by bribing witnesses and relatives of the victims? In any other civilized country, they would be cooling their heels for several years in jail with their driving licences withdrawn for life.

 

Then, licences are commonly issued without strict tests, with another corrupt nexus existing between hole-in the- wall driving schools and regional transport offices (RTOs), which swarm with touts. Ever tried getting your driving licence renewed? I joined one of the automobile associations mainly for that purpose after a visit to the Mumbai RTO left me bewildered and shaken. Motoring should be a pleasure. It is in most countries, where road conditions are good and driving habits civilized. Sadly, it is not in India, at least not yet. I am still hoping it will be one day, not too far away. g

The writer, a former Editor of Reader’s Digest and The Indian Express, has also written on motoring.

gfiles Magazine October Issue 2011

MY CORNER

 

youth power

 

 

Of fresh blossoms and tiresome fossils

 

Let the young build the India of their dreams

 

by RAMA NAIDU

 

IT is time we acknowledged and leveraged the clout of young India as opposed to “fossil” power. Statistics say that 72% of the population is below 40 years of age and 42% under 20. Now isn’t this something to be excited about? Does this not definitively tell us what kind of life lies ahead for the nation, and the enormous potential we have to fructify long term plans as there will be continuity in action and implementation? This is a dividend India has never had before.

 

The young have an established advantage: of education, technology, thirst for research, a high level of creativity, willingness to take risks, power of communication, flexibility and adaptability to change, the knack of questioning, the will to rise above thresholds set by generations and, most of all, the courage, will and grit to fight for their rights and move forward honestly.

 

As avowed by President Abdul Kalam in 2006, “Our youth, numbering 300 million persons, should develop the curiosity, knowledge, core competence, determination, perseverance and the courage to invent new phenomena….” And, as he recently stated at Wharton, “This resource of the youth is an important building block for transforming India into a developed nation.” Select leaders are convinced of the hidden and untapped potential; some verbalize it, most hesitate to acknowledge it.

 

The youth comprises a mighty force to galvanize change if harnessed correctly and constructively. In every sphere, be it science and scientific research, healthcare, politics, education, defence or even the hardcore manufacturing industry, an appetite for young and fresh minds is discernible. Already, many top positions in the corporate world are held by those under 50. Even Parliament has some refreshing thoughts emanating from young MPs such as the young Scindia family legatee, who eloquently presented them in relation to the Hazare episode in the House. For the common man, glued to Lok Sabha TV, his words were music to the ears.

 

True, there is a large swathe of young people with an attitude of unconcern living life on their terms and their parents’ pockets. At the same time, there is also a huge number of them who have journeyed to the IITs from the back of beyond and are reaching for the stars. They are emitting a strong signal to their peers that it is crucial to have an aim in life, to acquire knowledge through sweat, and be unafraid of the many obstacles that are bound to arise at each step towards change as it is India that will be shining when its people shine.

 

Yet, these young minds have to be cautious of being misled and manipulated by existing powers and smooth operators, who would unhesitatingly use their young shoulders to fire guns and then bask in the glory of success or bolt in case of failure. An instance of this occurred during the recent Anna Hazare movement. Our political leaders should note the immense untapped potential, especially with 2014, election year, round the corner. Will we see an emergence of youth power, innovative new election manifestoes, maybe even some fresh and dynamic promises for a New India driven by young blood? For too long have we heard the mundane slogan of “Roti, Kapda aur Makaan” and “Bijli, Sarak, Pani”. Thinking out of the box, doing the same thing differently, could be the key to revolutionary steps in growth for India. 

 

If a man in his forties can be the President of the US, why can we not have Ministers and maybe even a Prime Minister who is young and has the promise of leading the country for the next two decades? No offence meant to Dr Manmohan Singh; we have never had it better, but he will have to yield to age. A fresh young mind in a Ministry or other centre of power could be the change direly needed in that segment. We are seeing such change occurring, in small ways, and we need to give them space, a chance to blossom and prove their worth. We need to be prepared to

let them take control of the reins. If they make mistakes, so be it. They will learn. The young need to be given a framework and milieu in which they will thrive, not wither or fade away as did their forefathers. Only then will they eventually realise their dream of a superpower India.

 

 

Parliament has some refreshing thoughts from young MPs such as the young Scindia family legatee, who eloquently presented them in relation to the Hazare episode.

 

It is time the policy planners made plans to nurture the youth and their aspirations. In turn, the young need to show responsibility, as they will be accountable for what India becomes a century after independence. g

gfiles Magazine October Issue 2011

NEIGHBOURS

india-bangladesh ties

 

Lost in transit

Mamata Banerjee’s objection to the Teesta pact blocked the crucial reopening of travel points between the two countries

 

 

by DIPTENDRA RAYCHAUDHURI

 

PRIME Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent trip to Dhaka will be remembered for what it failed to achieve. This failure is about transit points: almost all of which remain closed even four decades after the birth of Bangladesh, supposedly our “friendly” neighbour.

 

A couple of days before the visit, the atmosphere seemed ripe for a revolutionary step in the right direction. But then came the spanner in the works from the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, over the Teesta agreement. In retaliation, Bangladesh slowed the pace of negotiations on the opening of transit points.

  

It’s not that Bangladesh would benefit less than India. Opening up of the transit points can reshape the economies of all those involved in free traffic – India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and, at a later point of time, Myanmar. It would be the beginning of open roads to all of Southeast Asia.

 

Such steps are not taken every day, or even pondered. Further, in the context of allegations of widespread corruption against his government, it is uncertain how long Manmohan will remain at the helm. In Bangladesh, it is uncertain if Sheikh Hasina will return to power.

 

Bangladesh needs India to go past its present rate of growth (about 6%). India needs Bangladesh to secure it and show the world how cooperative it can be with a friendly neighbour. These considerations are very important for both countries. India has no respite from its troublesome neighbour, Pakistan. Manmohan made great efforts to integrate the economies of India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, and in return got a heinous terror attack on Mumbai. India also needs more markets in its vicinity to expand its economy.

 

Nepal and Bhutan are small and too poor to serve the purpose. Sri Lanka, being an island, offers limited prospects. So Bangladesh, with a population of 142.3 million and a GDP (PPP) of $258.608 billion (the respective figures for Pakistan are 177.1 million and $464.897 billion) is the obvious choice. Its growth rate is higher than Pakistan’s. And, while it can serve as a good market, it can also play a role in foiling terror outfits’ designs to use its soil for launching ISI-trained personnel into India. It has, in fact, played such a role in the past few years. It has also handed over militants from northeast India cooling their heels in that country.

 

In return, India had to offer scope for Bangladesh to grow even more rapidly. For that, Manmohan had a plan that can change the face of eastern and northeastern India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and even Myanmar. It was about subregional integration of the economies of all these countries through opening up of several transit points. It would make transportation through any country of the region as simple as going through a single country. It would mean going from Kolkata to any of the northeastern States through Bangladesh, reducing the distance to about one-third. Nepal or Bhutan convoys could go straight to Chittagong port. Bangladeshi commodities could travel to the nearest Indian city with ease. This would contribute to poverty alleviation, economic development, and improvement in transport and communication of the whole region.

 

 

Opening up of the transit points can reshape the economies of all those involved in free traffic — India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and, at a later point of time, Myanmar.

 

The terms and conditions for transit will have to include a lot of finer points like tariff and fees for use of the infrastructure and other facilities, and a clearcut policy for the movement of goods across the border, and so on. But, once everything is in place, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and northeastern India will benefit the most. The rich from Bangladesh may invest in Nepal, while India’s private investors would be encouraged to invest in the northeast of the country. And infrastructure in all these countries and in parts of India would get a boost, as increased commercial activities would attract investment. Even the States would have more money to fund these. Tourism prospects would also grow, particularly in Bangladesh. Millions of Indian Bengalis, whose forefathers lived in the then East Bengal, dream of visiting their ancestral homes. 

 

 

The Teesta tangle

 

A World Bank loan of $1.3 billion to build an irrigation system in the Teesta basin will not be forthcoming until India finalises the Teesta Agreement with Bangladesh. The loan will help to complete the Teesta Barrage Project which began three-and-a-half decades ago. Once complete, the project will irrigate more than nine lakh hectares in West Bengal. Currently, less than a lakh hectares are irrigated. The CM’s opposition to the Agreement was that if half of the water to be released from the barrage at Gojaldoba is to be given to Bangladesh, six West Bengal districts will be badly affected by drought. But Central government sources argue that there will be no reduction in the water West Bengal gets from the barrage point while the storage capacity will be augmented. Further, as the Teesta flows beyond Gojaldoba, many streams join it, adding a lot of water. By the time the Teesta reaches the Dalia barrage in Bangladesh, the volume of water has increased significantly. Thus, it is not the Teesta barrage from which all the water for Bangaldesh will be released. But the CM objected to the mention of the Teesta barrage as the point of release.

 

It is said that the CM could not formally agree to release more than 25 percent water from the barrage point because that was the stand of the previous Left Front government. If she were to agree to a higher figure, the Left would get a weapon of attack. There is a risk that she might have to agree to do that during the dry season until the project is completed, because no reliable study has been conducted to ascertain the exact volume of water in the Teesta.

 

The question is, why did she object at the last moment? It is true that any objection to the World Bank aid raised by Bangladesh, in this case a lower riparian state, will stop it. Thus, for West Bengal, a little risk can be translated into a big gain if the World Bank project is concluded.

 

 

These transit points were open at one time but that era had ended by 1965, when India and Pakistan fought a bitter war. Soon after, there was a revolt in East Pakistan against its western counterpart, and a series of historic events changed the geography of the subcontinent for a second time. Bangladesh was born under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Some years later, he was assassinated and Bangladesh’s fortunes swung between military rulers and democracy. But the transit points remained closed. 

 

Now, when Manmohan realised the utility of opening them, Sheikh Hasina – Mujibur’s daughter – was quick to reciprocate. But no major step could be taken because the atmosphere was vitiated by Banerjee’s insistence on changing the contours of the draft Teesta Agreement and her subsequent decision not to accompany the Prime Minister to Dhaka. The Sheikh Hasina regime is more open to reopening the transit points than its political opponents, particularly those close to the Jamaat-e-Islami.

 

The transit agreement would have to consider cross-border security aspects. It would not do to let rogue elements take advantage of it. Clandestine use of the inland and river routes for smuggling of arms and ammunitions is a real possibility. But shutting the door out of fear is no alternative to opening it and prospering. g

gfiles Magazine October 2011 Issue

GLOBESCAN

china in the world

 

 

How long the raj of the Mandarins?

 

Beijing aspires to match up to the US while India merely wants to reach where China is today

 

 

by VIJAY SANGHVI 

 



HOME Minister P Chidambaram’s remarks at a recent panel discussion reflected India’s obsession with measuring its economic development with a Chinese yardstick. China is aiming to reach American standards and levels of economic supremacy while India is struggling to reach where China is today. But many people believe that India can outpace China sooner rather than later. Conditions favourable to India prevail and can be further improved. Perhaps the Indian obsession grew from the highly optimistic predictions by some economists of China’s rapid economic growth, enabling it to carry forward its wealth to be double that of Europe in the next three decades.

 

However, Salvatore Babones of the University of Sydney has questioned these predictions as dependent on many presumed invariables. The conditions favouring China cannot forever be invariables. It is true that China achieved a nearly 9% growth rate consistently since 1970. However, it cannot be presumed that the nation will continue to be ruled with the same discipline by the same political dispensation. Aspirations for better standards of life and exposure to the rest of the rapidly growing world with political freedom brought down the Soviet Union’s system of government at the time when China was embracing liberal economic philosophy. Even the Arab world, reeling under monotheism, has sought a change due to its exposure to the new world. Will people in China remain bound to the authoritarian regime when a new awareness is being thrust upon them every day? It is imperative to replace the old education system with a liberal one that will induce many people to seek liberation from their existing conditions.

 

Yet another factor that China will need to struggle to overcome is that it is a fast ageing nation. The system is laden with nearly 500 million old people dependent on the state for their health and food needs. Their children are unable to look after them. No doubt China is catching up with India’s advantage of an English-speaking youth. However, it will be difficult for young Chinese to get out of their cultural straitjacket with its reluctance to assimilate other cultures.

 

 

China’s growth is based on turning its economy into a totally export-oriented one with minimal home consumption. Its manufacturing is not of indigenous development.

 

China’s growth is based on turning its economy into a totally export-oriented one with minimal home consumption. Its manufacturing is not of indigenous development. It is borrowed from the West, not only the technology but also entire products with designs and labels. It is not even cloning but merely providing labour input. However, China has not been able to retain a hold over markets in Europe and the US due to the low quality of its products. It has suffered recall of inferior products. India has so far not suffered any serious setbacks in recent years in this regard as Indians have learnt the hard way that only quality can withstand competition.

 

The economic troubles that the US and Europe are facing due to high public debt, low demand, low productivity and increasing unemployment has turned the economic operations in foreign trade into deals on the basis of post-dated cheques. China has been using post-dated cheques drawn on US reserves against its $3 trillion plus reserves with the US to obtain technology, raw material and other inputs from various sources. It has been striving for the past two years to enter the African markets (not high consumers but certainly having instruments of negotiation encashable instantly).

 

 

In another qualitative change, China was forced to drop the word “Communist” from its description as a nation which it had proudly adopted during the Mao Zedong era. In fact, the nation is desperately setting a distance from its old image and doctrines. That Communism-oriented education was a liability for modern needs was accepted when China opened the doors for reorientation of its education system.

 

It has not only allowed but encouraged many brilliant minds from the West to join its faculties in an increasing number of universities. China has multiplied its capacity for creating graduates in various disciplines. India is no doubt behind in expansion of education facilities but it does not have to worry about inflow of liberal political ideas, unlike China. 

 

Sensing the need for some change to provide ventilation for the suppressed political urges of the people, China opened the doors half a decade ago when local populations were given limited access to civic bodies through village elections on the same pattern as India’s Panchayati Raj. With increasing liberal thought, it will need to open doors at higher levels as well though not at the pace the West would demand.

 

THE unquestioned power and convenient social contract with its people provided by the system of governance allowed Beijing to go ahead with mega projects and building of infrastructure in total disregard of the environmental costs. It was able to accommodate in the slave labour market the migrating rural population, driven by the extreme poverty in their regions or due to their livelihoods being affected by mega projects. They were offered jobs at lowest returns and living conditions were no better than life in history’s slave dungeons. The poor had no alternative. At the time, China did not care for world opinion as it was consolidating its own base for rule. It was able to impose a social contract that said, “Leave power to us and we shall provide you with the chance to survive.”

 

But altered ambitions and the aspiration to become the world’s foremost economic power have brought in a new set of conditions. Western consumers are demanding proper environmental and human conditions for labour.

 

 

China has been using post-dated cheques drawn on US reserves against its $3 trillion plus reserves to obtain technology, raw material and other inputs from various sources.

 

These consumers have been known to indulge in boycotts on these grounds. For them slave labour is as abhorrent as child labour. China can no more afford to ignore world opinion. In the past, corruption did not affect its growth rate as it utilized corruption as an efficiency factor to ensure that partymen delivered in return for what they were allowed to keep.

 

Thus, India has much to benefit from by viewing China with hindsight. The Anna Hazare movement may not bring about the desired result of minimizing corruption in the system. However, it has a positive angle because it has driven a new awareness among Indian politicians for soul searching to devise new methods for mobilization of resources and to finance their political activities.

 

But greater change is needed in the form of a takeover by educated urban youth of the steering mechanism from dithering leaders and an end to the old concepts of governance and economic development. The middle class young came onto the streets to protest and convey the message that they want to convert India into a new land of hope where their education and skills will be utilized. They would not like undue interference in the realization of their ambitions.

 

 

When he launched his movement, Hazare possibly had no intention of putting the urban youth in the driving seat. But that is what he has achieved. g

gfiles Magazine October 2011 Issue

lokpal bill pm sinha

 

 

A Gordian knot lies ahead of the ombudsman

But the government can cut it by rushing through administrative reforms

 

THE real issue in the Lokpal imbroglio is the manner in which he will carry out his gigantic task. Apart from having power over all Central government servants, politicians and so on, and having the grievances of millions of civil society members to redress, if he and his team are expected to punish the guilty, the office of Lokpal might become unwieldy.

 

Imagine the size of his Secretariat, which will be expected to evaluate the complaints before putting them up to the Lokpal Committee. He will need a Secretariat of 2,000-5,000 people. Next comes the investigative agency, which will require 5000-10,000 people. These numbers will be critical if time-bound action is to be taken by the Lokpal. 

 

We also need to define the corruption. Will it be only financial, or include charges of molestation, rape, murder, attempted murder and physical violence, often indulged in by government servants and politicians? If these are covered, the task becomes bigger. 

 

It also means that the CBI or CVC cannot possibly be under the Lokpal, as they investigate not only Central government employees and politicians but everyone indulging in any act of corruption or misdemeanor all over the country. The CBI has two divisions, one to handle crime and the other for corruption. The corruption wing could be transferred to the Lokpal’s supervison.

 

 

The Hazare movement should not be confined to holding protests at the Centre. The supporters should fan out to every sizeable village and do their job of communication.

 

 

Hence, the Lokpal will have its own investigating agency. So consider multiplying the number of officials by 29, since each State will have a Lokayukta. Forget about expenditure, where will such a large number of honest people be found? It will be difficult enough to find a Lokpal, a Lokayukta and immediate team members.

 

The task of the framers of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bills is monumental. Our country lags in implementation and execution of rules and regulations. A clear definition on implementation by the Lokpal and Lokayukta needs mechanisms and institutions to support it, and this will need to be framed with clearly defined rules.

 

Another troubling question is whether the punishment given by such august bodies can be challenged in court. If so, real justice will take years. It may be possible to have special benches to decide on punishment, and such orders should not be allowed to be challenged in courts. Does our Constitution permit this? Rulings by special courts on punishment will have to be time-bound – say, 90 days. How many special courts will we need? There should also be a  time-frame for the Lokpal and Lokayukta to complete investigation and give a ruling, certainly not more than six months. This will establish the credibility of the Lokpal and Lokayukta.

 

 

Take a look at the current scenario. A Deputy SP in Punjab is raided and Rs 125 crore found in cash, besides 55 bottles of Remy Martin and countless ones of Chivas Regal. In Madhya Pradesh, an IAS officer with a wife also in the IAS had Rs 325 crore worth of cash, gold, ornaments, and other assets. In such cases, why do we need a Lokpal? A sentence by the Central or State government should be enough, and such orders should also not be subject to further court appeals. Prompt action in such cases where people are caught red-handed, with punishment meted out within 30 days, will go a long way in reviving civil society’s trust. Where Central and State funds meant for the poor do not reach them, accountability can easily be fixed by even the District Magistrate, and punishment accorded instantly. This, of course, will require that honest and efficient officers are not transferred three times in six weeks, like in UP, and at least All India Services officers are retained in their posts for at least two years unless found corrupt, when the reasons for transfer are to be submitted in writing.

 

The Central government has to bring in administrative reforms, where the State does not have power to transfer officers appointed by the President of India in an ad hoc manner. In extreme cases, transfers may be done by consent of the DoPT, Government of India. 

 

WE have a Constitutional institution in the CVC. Can he not be empowered to find corrupt officers below the rank of a Deputy Secretary to the Government of India and punish them according to the rules to be framed? The CVC does a thorough probe and can even use the CBI investigation cell to clearly establish the gravity of the offence. As of now, for at least the PSUs, he is a recommendatory authority; the boards can sack corrupt PSU employees but cannot mete out punishment. They can only file an FIR. The process is too tedious and takes too long. 

 

After the Lokpal and Lokayukta come into existence, the government and activists have the massive task of communicating the new rules to civil society. This will need the holding of meetings in every tehsil and at panchayat level. It will be necessary to inform tehsildars and panchayat heads that they can be punished as well if they do not transparently perform the task of delivering to all deserving poor people the money sanctioned under different programmes.

 

It will be necessary to inform tehsildars and panchayat heads that they can be punished as well if they do not transparently perform the task of delivering to the poor.     

 

The district civil administration, including the District Magistrate and his team, or the SP, has to inform all those working for them of the consequences of nontransparent actions. The civil authorities in charge of ensuring delivery of essential commodities must take prompt action against hoarders, and imprison them without bail.

 

Just 30-40 cases of punishment in districts and tehsils in six months will go a long way in building civil society’s trust in government. No one, not even elected politicians, should be spared. The State government, political parties, and certainly the CM and other politicians must readily accept the new system and not interfere with implementation.

 

Finally, the Anna Hazare movement should not be confined to holding protests at the Centre. The hundreds of supporters, many of whom have become serious activists, should fan out to every sizeable village and do their job of communication. Eradicating corruption is a humongous exercise that may take some time, but it must be launched immediately. The government alone cannot communicate the new rules, civil society must play a part. The latter must also ensure that each aam admi refuses to offer bribes in any form. The bribe-giver is equally punishable, and examples must be made of those who continue to get favours by corrupting officials or politicians.

 

I shudder at the responsibility we are placing on the Lokpal and Lokayukta and the giganticity of their task. It is possible only if major administrative reforms are implemented urgently. g

 

The writer is former CEO, Pepsi, and former Chairman of Bata.

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