E D I T O R I A L   P A G E

EDITORIALS

Tasks ahead for Talwandi
Akali politics has taken a new turn with the appointment of Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi as the 31st President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). A seasoned person, Mr Talwandi is a pastmaster in Punjab politics, having worked in various positions within the party as well as the government.

V.K. Khanna vindicated
THERE are several red faces in the Punjab government, both in the political establishment and the senior bureaucrats close to it. The Supreme Court has dealt them all a severe blow which they will like to forget in a hurry but will need a lifetime to live it down. For smiling faces one should go to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, two of whose Judges struck a bold course and built a powerful and cogent case which the Supreme Court endorsed.

Global warming
A WAG once said that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. The same is true of related issues like atmospheric pollution, environmental degradation and global warming.

TWO-NATION THEORY FAILS
The triumph of secularism
by K. F. Rustamji
IT is interesting to observe that slowly, discreetly, almost surreptitiously, the whole of the Indian subcontinent has come to realise that secularism is the only answer to our problems. The two-nation theory has blown up in the face of its sponsors. The people who agitated for Pakistan with fury and violence are today the most troubled by the results of partition. The leader of the Mohajirs says that partition was the biggest mistake in history.

Pilferage of power — a societal menace
by Surinder Kumar
THE power sector reforms in India were initiated by the Central and the State Governments at the behest of the World Bank and the IMF to be eligible for “soft” loans to “accelerate” the process of economic development in the country.

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Tasks ahead for Talwandi

Akali politics has taken a new turn with the appointment of Mr Jagdev Singh Talwandi as the 31st President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). A seasoned person, Mr Talwandi is a pastmaster in Punjab politics, having worked in various positions within the party as well as the government. He is sharp and calculating in his move and has the ability to surprise both his supporters and opponents. There was a time when he was opposed to Mr Parkash Singh Badal. In fact, he was responsible for toppling the Badal government in the late seventies. But in politics, today's friends are tomorrow's foes and vice versa. The fact that Mr Badal has picked him up as the chief of the SGPC amidst varied speculations indicates that they have buried their differences for the sake of Panthic unity. Of course, in a way, the Punjab Chief Minister had very limited options available to him in the wake of the unfortunate developments involving the outgoing SGPC chief, Bibi Jagir Kaur. Hers was a sad case. Many well-wishers of Bibi have reasons to be upset at the setback suffered by a very promising career. But then she hardly had any choice except to step down gracefully from the presidentship of the SGPC, known as a "mini parliament" of the Sikhs since the passing of the Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Act in 1925. Akali politics is at the crossroads and Panthic unity is the prime need at this juncture. Unfortunately, Akali politics has a tendency to get factionalised because of misplaced personal ambitions and wrong priorities. Whether Mr Talwandi has been selected because of being the best choice under the circumstances or out of some compulsion, it must be said to the credit of Mr Badal that he has played his cards tactfully and intelligently. By his latest move the Chief Minister must have grown a few inches taller in the public eye. He has been both graceful and gracious in reposing faith in the veteran leader. Mr Talwandi, in turn, also seems to be in a positive frame of mind. He has made it clear that he would run SGPC affairs according to the wishes of the Chief Minister. If he constantly remembers these words, basic harmony can be ensured in Akali politics for a long time. As a matter of fact, the Akali Dal headed by Mr Badal badly needs harmonious functioning and a coordinated approach to men, matters and issues. Of course, each Akali leader has his own calculation. All the same, every leader must acknowledge the need for clarity in thinking and action in the interest of the Sikh community, Punjab and the country as a whole.

Mr Talwandi starts his new assignment on a goodwill note. This is clear from the fact that Mr G. S. Tohra and Mr Simranjit Singh Maan, Presidents of the Sarb-Hind Shiromani Akali Dal and the Akali Dal (Amritsar), respectively, have hailed his selection, and understandably so. In fact, Akali leaders should wake up to the new challenges and practise what they profess publicly. They cannot afford to create a credibility gap vis-a-vis people. A lot will depend on how Mr Talwandi conducts himself. It is said that his infectious smile conceals his determination and outspokenness. However, more than his outspokenness, what is required is a healing touch in the faction-ridden Akali politics. Mr Talwandi's long experience in Akali politics will surely stand him in good stead while conducting SGPC affairs in the face of the hard tasks ahead. 

V.K. Khanna vindicated

THERE are several red faces in the Punjab government, both in the political establishment and the senior bureaucrats close to it. The Supreme Court has dealt them all a severe blow which they will like to forget in a hurry but will need a lifetime to live it down. For smiling faces one should go to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, two of whose Judges struck a bold course and built a powerful and cogent case which the Supreme Court endorsed. Oh yes, there is Mr G.S. Grewal, the then advocate-general who defied his political and bureaucrat masters to offer advice unpalatable to them. He preferred to resign rather than speak on the dotted line, as it were. What started as a routine bureaucratic rivalry soon erupted into a ferocious fight on two fronts. The state administration was simultaneously hounding out its former chief secretary V.K. Khanna and deploying its full force to defend two senior officers. Both efforts have now come finally and permanently unstuck. And that is the heartening part of what has been for a better part of four years a sickening administrative farce bordering on a moral nightmare. Mr Khanna today feels vindicated but the mystery of his complaint to the CBI just hours before the then Congress government was ejected from power remains to be solved. The manner in which he secured the Chief Minister’s approval and handled the case is not fully known. But that was just the beginning. Mr Khanna had the rules to back him, as the High Court repeatedly said. But his detractors were hungering for a bare-knuckled fight, and fight to the dirty finish. He was shifted out, as senior officers are with a routine change of government. Then came plain persecution. A chargesheet, an inquiry by a retired Judge but an in camera one, and the whole works. Vindictiveness is not unheard of, but others indulge in its with a modicum of fairness. It is this crude display of power without responsibility that influenced the High Court to uphold Mr Khanna’s petition and order the resumption of the CBI inquiry.

The Punjab government owes it to the people to explain why it threw its full weight behind the two officers facing CBI investigation. Their background and offences are totally different. One is Mr I.S.Bindra, a high-profile cricket administrator and a former president of the BCCI. For people with a long memory, it was he who made a huge success of the Reliance Cup in the eighties. He is accused of gifting 20 acres of urban land and funds to build the cricket stadium at Mohali. Maybe there were a procedural mess and misses but it was all for a popular cause. Dynamism of politicians and bureaucrats, if it is not coloured by self-interest, is all for the good of society. Remember Kairon and Mr Bansi Lal? They were not sticklers for rules but chased goals relentlessly. Bracket Mr Bindra with them and regularise (as the cliche goes) his actions. But the case of Mr Bikramjit Singh is different. He faces a charge of corruption and the CBI raid has found him worth much more than his known sources of income. The Punjab government should have nothing to do with his defence, lest it is brushed with the same brush. While the government should not prejudge issues, it should leave it to the courts to remove his taint. The state government should learn to distance itself from him since he had once been the principal secretary to the Chief Minister. This is one of the many lessons to be learnt from the Khanna fiasco; and it was nothing short of it. 

Global warming

A WAG once said that everyone talks about the weather, but no one does anything about it. The same is true of related issues like atmospheric pollution, environmental degradation and global warming. This sad fact has been proved yet again by the collapse of the sixth round of the UN climate conference at The Hague the other day. Despite a 12-hour session on how to cut down pollution that is warming the planet, an agreement could not be sewed up. There were differences not only between the USA and the EU but also among the Europeans themselves. The net result is that the goal of reducing worldwide emissions of heat-tapping gases to the 1990 levels and eventually lowering them by 5.2 per cent over the next 12 years will remain just a dream. The tragedy is that while the problem is caused mainly by the irresponsibility of the developed world, the catastrophic consequences have to be borne even by people in the developing countries. Major floods and storms that ravaged several Asian countries and parts of Australia earlier this month were believed to be caused by the climatic change. Still, every country wants to minimise its own commitment in this regard. Fossil fuels are burnt with profligacy and no one wants to reduce their use.

The Kyoto protocol (1997) had suggested self-discipline while offering many concessions so that the tightening of the belt did not hurt. For instance, a country with a buoyant economy could buy the emission quota of another country that may be going through recession, in return for cash or technology. Under this provision, a country like the USA can continue to spew greenhouse gases by burning oil, gas and coal provided it purchases the rights of, say, Mexico. But the USA being USA, it wants to introduce many other factors like carbon sink, claiming that countries can offset their carbon emissions by planting trees. The co-relation between the two is well known but not properly quantified. Acceding to this request would have made the entire exercise redundant. The world has become wiser to American strategies. Even the EU seems to have realised that the USA is the world’s biggest polluter, but does not want to do its part of the bargain. The unfortunate part is that Kyoto will be in further trouble if Mr George W. Bush comes in as President. He has already announced that he will not sign the protocol unless India and China agree to control their emission as well. What he has chosen to ignore is that the emissions of these countries are not even a fraction of its own. Anyway, there is no reason why India and China also should not clean up their act. The spectre of global warming knows no national boundaries and the whole world has to sink or swim together. The problem with the western world is that it is so complacent in its affluence that it does not want to increase production costs by investing in alternative sources of energy. Perhaps it will wake up to the gravity of the situation when the wolf is right at its own door. Unfortunately, it will be too late by then. In fact, it already is. 

TWO-NATION THEORY FAILS
The triumph of secularism
by K. F. Rustamji

IT is interesting to observe that slowly, discreetly, almost surreptitiously, the whole of the Indian subcontinent has come to realise that secularism is the only answer to our problems. The two-nation theory has blown up in the face of its sponsors. The people who agitated for Pakistan with fury and violence are today the most troubled by the results of partition. The leader of the Mohajirs says that partition was the biggest mistake in history. Even the man who worked to achieve Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, saw in his last moments that the partition of India was a tragedy.

India had agreed to partition believing that both India and Pakistan would live in friendship, but Pakistan directed all its attacks on us, and gradually became weaker and weaker in the process. Today it is slowly crumbling or fragmenting because of ethnic conflicts and religious intolerance. The best way of saving Pakistan from its Islamic cults, is some form of secularism and some way of economic revival that would make a living by murder unnecessary.

The disintegration of Pakistan will not help us. What we need is a secular, friendly Pakistan, which does not support terrorism or send out the ISI to secure subversion. The biggest benefit of friendly relations will come to the Muslims of India who have suffered discrimination, insult, even police harassment because of suspicions. Once friendly relations are established, the future can be one of progress towards trade, joint ventures, a glorious common culture, and social dependence on each other. Jammu and Kashmir will be our common Protectorate.

Partition was achieved in the face of considerable opposition. Sind voted for it by a narrow majority, there was much hesitation in Punjab, and the NWFP was positively against it. Unfortunately, Lord Mountbatten who wanted a referendum in the NWFP would not agree to the third option of independence. The result was that the Khudai Khidmatgars who were wholeheartedly in favour of India, abstained from voting and the referendum went in favour of Pakistan. It was betrayal of a people who had put their faith in us.

I must say first that I am a confirmed secularist because I have seen much communal violence in my service. I am convinced that if the administration in India loses its impartiality, which is based on secularism, the result will be disastrous. We will sink into a state of chaos, and the sheer weight of population and economic discontent will drag us down. We have learnt no lesson from what has happened in the past. It is easy to lead people into believing that they will be attacked by another community, another sect or another cult. It is difficult to convince them that secularism is not only our protection for today, but our hope for prosperity tomorrow.

There are few men who have seen as much communal violence as I have done in 50 years of policing. From the first year of service I was pushed into districts which were considered tense by the British. I have handled some of the worst riots like those of Jabalpur and Ahmedabad, and have had a close view of the horror and suffering of communal rioting — streets in flames, shops destroyed and looted, men insane with fury attacking each other, women in refugee camps speechless, unable to understand what happened. At one camp, a bedraggled man came up to me and said: “I was your P.A. My wife and sons have been killed, our house has been burned down, people who I thought were my friends have done this”. That is the real tragedy of communal conflict. Men who are sober and sensible are dragged into the conflict through fear and panic. True, there are many who shelter the stricken, even at a risk to themselves; but does that compensate those who have lost everything?

We thought we had put an end to communal rioting at the time of Independence. We had a tradition of tolerance and laws to deal with offenders, as a nation we believed in secularism, yet even today we are struck by rioting.

And each time I keep asking myself: “Where is justice? Where is sanity? Where is secularism? Where is the chance to live together in a union of South Asia?”

In Pakistan they made it difficult for the Hindus to live there, confiscated their fields and houses and hoped that this would lead to prosperity. But, banditry once it becomes a habit, has to find new victims. First they turned on the Mohajirs; then on the Ahmedias, then the Shias, and when the dictators found that this was leading Pakistan into oblivion, they turned them out to terrorise Kashmir. They had to find a way to satisfy those who could not be given jobs, and the easiest way was the fundamentalist catechism of hating India, and sending them into Kashmir to kill people.

The botched up decision to dismiss General Musharraf probably led to the fall of the Nawaz Sharif government, although there were rumours of a takeover bid before that. Charges of corruption were brought against Nawaz Sharif and he was kept in custody. Now the charges have appeared against military leaders and they seem to be more serious than those against Nawaz Sharif. A leading English daily has said in an editorial: “Politicians and military officials may have looted the exchequer, the latter not only took kickbacks but jeopardised national security by buying inferior equipment.”

The biggest setback to secularism that occurred in India was in 1992 when politicians and police bungled and the Babri Masjid was brought down by triumphant chauvinists, S.K. Ghosh has summed up the Babri Masjid problem in a few choice words: “If there was no politics of communalism the Muslims would have said to the Hindus “you take it” and the Hindus would have said “No, no, it is yours” and reason would have said, “Let us both use it.”

That was not the only setback. The real damage to us was the way the police forces of the land surrendered their impartiality and allowed rioting to occur. For the first time in the history of India, almost every district was racked by an intense spell of tension and violence in which more than 2,000 persons were killed. We failed to take any proper action against miscreants, and I would not be surprised if such a debacle occurs again. (The riots in Delhi (1984) are another instance of the police losing its secular balance.)

Why did this breakdown in 1992-93 occur? True, the nation was taken down the path of communalism by its leaders, but, even this could have been controlled and the unspeakable atrocities that occurred in modern India could have been prevented if the police had not lost its heads when all round them people were losing theirs. The police is meant to be firm and impartial at all times. The Constitution commands it. The law demands it. The welfare of our nation needs it. But, if the police loses its impartiality and becomes a tool in hands of communal politicians, there is nothing to stop us from becoming a nation that failed.

It is necessary to examine why the police loses its impartiality in times of crisis. Why does it become a party to murder and arson? There are two reasons: First, the police force gets carried away by popular emotion, and second, it wants to please politicians, and tries to derive some personal advantage. Unless we are able to free the police from misuse by politicians, or liberate them from the transfer mania and obedience of illegal orders, we will never be able to fix responsibility. I recall a discussion with Jayaprakash Narayan about the illegal orders which are given to the police by politicians. He was so positive about it that he immediately wrote a letter to the Home Minister, Mr Charan Singh, that steps should be taken to insulate the police from illegal interference and orders. That was the genesis of the National Police Commission.

BJP President Bangaru Lakshman’s plea for getting Muslim support should not be treated as an attempt only to win votes. It is politics at its best — a plea for secularism, for equality and brotherhood. It is the need of the hour in the wider context of what is happening in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is the precursor to a union of South Asia. There is a growing movement of dissatisfaction in Pakistan — both with the military government and also with the type of democracy that they have had. The gradual spread of Taliban influence which was restricted to parts of Baluchistan and NWFP, and is now threatening to spread into Punjab is a factor which will destabilise the whole region.

The BJP has made an effort to win over the Muslims, other parties are likely to follow. It is now up to the Muslims to reciprocate the drive to gain their regard and understanding. It is no use harping on the destruction of the Babri Masjid. It was a political and administrative blunder for which Narasimha Rao and Kalyan Singh were jointly responsible. If we want to look to the future, we have to push it out of our minds and begin to think of an understanding and the only way to achieve it is the secular way. New leaders of Indian Muslims are appearing, and one of them is Saeed Naqvi who writes a column in the Indian Express. He gives support to the secular moderate views that came out of the Town Hall Meeting in Action, London, on September 17, 2000, in which leaders of the Mohajirs, Sindhis, Baluchis and Pakhtoons came together to declare the death of the two-nation theory. That was the real victory of secularism.

Pilferage of power — a societal menace
by Surinder Kumar

THE power sector reforms in India were initiated by the Central and the State Governments at the behest of the World Bank and the IMF to be eligible for “soft” loans to “accelerate” the process of economic development in the country. From a banker’s perspective “legitimate” concern of multilateral financial institutions has been to ensure certain degree of viability of loan funded projects to avoid the risk of default in repayment of loans and interest (amortisation) and to ensure adequate market for the advanced countries as a long term perspective.

As public sector enterprises like the state electricity boards (SEBs) require huge amounts of funds, which were not easily available, even to meet their current expenditure requirements, the ruling elite — the political leadership and the bureaucracy — found it expedient to accept IMF-World Bank conditionality to reform power sector even if it may conflict with their vested interest developed over the last 50 years. As various parties involved in the reform process have their own agenda to promote, it is quite legitimate to be skeptical about the genuineness and suitability of the power sectors reforms.

The SEBs are vertically integrated entities controlling generation, transmission, and distribution operations. They were established under the Electricity (Supply) Act, 1948, as “autonomous” corporate bodies. They have played a remarkable role in electric development in the country. However, existing institutional arrangements and the policies appear to have exhausted their potential since mid-eighties and the SEBs have been faced with serious financial crises.

Various expert committees constituted by the government from time to time did make useful recommendations to restore financial health and to improve the technical performance of the SEBs.

However, vested interests of certain stakeholders in the existing setup, scuttled every move to take corrective steps. Under these circumstances, the present-day power sector reforms were introduced in some of the states under the supervision of the World Bank. Therefore, unless adequate strength is generated to address the real issues in the alternative institutional structures being created, there is every chance of relapse and in the process, it is ultimately the “sovereign” consumer who will have to pay the price.

Two key non-technical reasons for the deepening financial crisis of the SEBs are irrational pricing policy and pilferage of power. Nobody knows in Punjab or Haryana the precise cost of supplying electricity to various consumers in different regions. Where half of the supply is not metered but an “intelligent guess”, economic calculations are bound to be arbitrary. Before the reform process was initiated in the states like Haryana, to conceal technical and non-technical losses, a major part of pilferage was shown as agricultural consumption. However, since the transmission and distribution companies have come into existence, in the last two years, trend has reversed. Now these companies are exaggerating their transmission and distribution (T&D) losses to more than 35 per cent (which includes pilferage to the order of 15 to 20 per cent) before the Haryana Electricity Regulatory Commission to extract some financial concessions. The Punjab State Electricity Board in an exercise in self-deception still wants to make us believe that its T&D losses are less than 20 per cent though its commercial losses have crippled its functioning.

Non-technical T&D losses are due to pilferage of power, defective meters, “errors” in meter reading and unmetered supply etc. Pilferage of power may be broadly defined as dishonest use of electrical energy by any person, including the authorised consumers, by either bypassing the meter completely or by tampering with it in such a manner that it does not record the consumption fully. This consumption cannot be billed whereby the SEB incurs huge financial losses in its operations.

An opinion survey of various categories of consumers and employees has brought out very startling facts:

A common perception of most of the consumers as well as the employees was that consumers of almost all socio-economic and educational backgrounds indulged in pilferage of power. However, consumers having political backing and direct or indirect patronage of high officers indulge in this malpractice more than the others. People indulge in pilferage generally with the active and at times passive, connivance of the employees. Industrialists indulge in power theft at the times of power shortage or otherwise with the active involvement of employees. Landlords indulge in pilferage of power as they know their political clout, and the flat rate system or unmetered supply in agriculture offers them a convenient cover.

An analysis of perceptions establishes beyond doubt that the employees, by and large, personally knew the consumers who indulge in the pilferage of power. Consumers were induced to involve in this malpractice when they see others do the same but escape scot-free or get away with small consideration or fines. Tampering with meters, use of “kundis”, delayed replacement of defective meters have been identified as the major methods of pilfering power. Most of the methods were detectable and in the knowledge of the employees at one level or the other. Farmers installed bigger motors than the sanctioned load as a matter of routine and they used the agricultural connection for other purposes and again, the flat rate system provided them with a conduit to pilfer power with no additional responsibility to pay for the increased consumption.

A large section of the employees was actively involved or was a silent spectator. Honest field employees faced individual consumers’ or their collective hostility even to the extent of physical assault or threat to life and there was no adequate security in such situations. They felt insecure due to the potential threat of undue pressure, and harassment such as threats of transfer and spoiling of annual confidential reports by their superiors. The employees believed that corruption has been institutionalised to the extent that it has gained social acceptability. By ignoring pilferage, they keep their superior in good humour and may be in the process make some easy money through bribes. Inaction was the highest form of job security and obliging for a consideration, the most rewarding approach to the professional security!

Consumers as well as the employees were skeptical about the involvement of community based organisations such as the gram panchayats and municipal committees. They believed that these institutions were faction ridden and were not discharging their normal functions in a satisfactory way. Most of the consumers and employees agreed that theft of power was a bad practice and should be discouraged and the culprits exposed in public. Steps may be taken to increase the awareness of the people regarding the effects of pilferage on quality of service and its implications on the tariff to be paid by genuine consumers.

This response pattern of the consumers and employees needs to be examined in the historical context. The consumers continue to believe that electricity supply by public utility is a social responsibility of the State and the government should bear its cost like that of education and health.

Secondly, the general attitude towards the goods and services provided by the state is rather casual due to low level of democratic and social consciousness and commitment. If the same commodity is supplied by a businessman, it is considered legitimate for him to earn a profit but expectations from the government are different. The government is expected to supply it free or at a subsidised rate. People do not muster the required moral courage to prevent one another from indulging in socially undesirable and illegitimate practices.

In the existing scenario as depicted above, even the positive aspects of the contemplated power reforms will not succeed and continue until various installments of “foreign aid” are exhausted. There is little chance of any private company entering into distribution business in rural areas, except the ones who have an eye on purchase of distribution assets at a throwaway prices and make windfall gains. Therefore, the problem of pilferage of power must be addressed with all the seriousness. The whole system of energy accounting and financial accounting must be made transparent and management made accountable. To overcome the problem of pilferage, social marketing can play a key role. NGOs can be called upon to bridge the gap.

Campaigns need to be launched to increase social consciousness and social accountability. The people should be made to realise that the supply of public goods involves cost, which is ultimately borne by society. It is a high time that the people were made to appreciate that electricity is a precious source of energy, its supply is a commercial proposition, and they may use it optimally and pay for its consumption.

To bring about such a change in the attitude of the people, various strategies for social marketing should be devised.

— The writer is from the Department of Economics, MDU, Rohtak.

Education, healthcare are government’s responsibility
by Tavleen Singh

BY one of those coincidences that add spice and vigour to the lives of us hacks, I travelled almost directly, last week, from the villages of Orissa to the most exalted annual gathering of Indian businessmen. Held in Delhi, as winter begins to descend, it goes by the name of the World Economic Forum’s India Economic Summit and brings together the biggest names in Indian industry. So, from wandering among nameless, landless peasants in villages bereft of even the most basic consumer goods — radios, bicycles, watches — I found myself in a whirl of French perfume, Italian suits and Swiss watches. One short flight had taken me from the poorest of the poor in our land of cruel contrasts to the richest of the rich.

The first session of the two-day conference was held on the lawns of Teen Murti House under a blue and silver tent. First, there was tea and chocolate cake laid out on white damask tableclothes then we filed into the blue and silver tent to await the Prime Minister. He walked, it seemed to me, with a spring in his gait and spoke in strong, confident tones to the foreigners present about how his government sought their investment but only if it was in India’s interest. “Our goal is clear: we will globalise to India’s advantage. In the process, we will ensure that the fruits of productivity and the gains of growth bring about a qualitative change in the life of our people”. If the landless peasants I met in Orissa could have heard him they would have been confused because, alas, none of the benefits of globalisation or economic reform mean anything to them yet.

The Prime Minister seemed aware of this and said; “No government can alone meet the massive challenge of providing education and healthcare facilities to every family in a billion-strong country without allround cooperation. Can each of CII’s (Confederation of Indian Industry) 4000 member companies and the 300 foreign companies represented here take charge of at least one primary school and one healthcare centre to supplement the Government’s efforts in the social sector? Indeed, Indian industry as a whole must deepen its involvement in the crucial social sector areas of primary health and education”.

If that sounds good to you check yourself because it is not good. Education and healthcare are fundamentally the government’s responsibility. No matter how many Indian companies promise to do their bit it will amount to no more than a symbolic gesture and we need no more of those. We need from Mr Vajpayee a policy in these areas that will reverse the ham-fisted approach of the past 50 years that has resulted in leaving half the country illiterate. And, something like 70 per cent of the population (rural and urban) with no access to sanitation and only minimal access to healthcare. This is not the fault of Indian businessmen but of the government.

Alas, this was the story of the entire two days I spent listening to informed speeches about the state of the Indian economy. While businessmen explained that the government was not doing enough to control wasteful spending (mainly on salaries and benefits for its own staff) or on disinvestment in the public sector, the government explained that it was doing its best. Yashwant Sinha in his last budget pronounced grandly that he planned to raise Rs 10,000 crore this year from privatising public sector companies. So far it has not managed to raise one single rupee. This is what matters to the poor peasants I met in Orissa because only if the government stops wasting money on doing business will it have enough to fulfill its own unfulfilled objectives in what is called the social sector.

But, the government is blind as only governments can be so not only was the Prime Minister full of praise for what his government has managed to achieve his Finance Minister went even further and said bureaucratic delays were now under control. The businessmen I sat among gasped audibly at this outrageous statement. Did the Finance Minister now know? Was he unaware that even the smallest thing in India — leave alone a massive privatisation programme — took 10 times as long to do than anywhere else in the world because our babus are so skilled at procrastination? Perhaps, the Finance Minister does not know because from where he sits he merely gives orders. He does not need to cower and cringe before some official who sits behind mountains of dusty files and takes months to give you such simple things as a ration card or a driving licence. When it comes to clearing development funds for peasants in Orissa it can take years before the money reaches those it is meant for and even then most of it disappears along the way into mysterious holes so deep nobody can identify them.

So, there was an air of cynicism that swathed the conference. Rahul Bajaj dared to articulate this to the Finance Minister himself saying that everyone was getting impatient with the delays in implementation. The foreigners who came were even more forthright and told the Ministers and high officials who came to boast about their achievements that India must stop measuring itself with itself and start using other developing countries as the benchmark.

Claude Smadja, Managing Director of the World Economic Forum, provides an overview of the Indian economy at every annual summit and this time he was brutally frank. “India cannot continue to take comfort in comparing where it stands today with respect to its economic situation five or ten years ago. Everything in the world, be it technological evolution, market trends, opportunities, risks potential, has become a fast moving, fast changing target.

“This is the inescapable reality of the new global economy in which India has to become a fully engaged player it ever wants to achieve economic take-off”.

You do not need to be an economist to know that we are nowhere near that take-off. And, you do not need to be a political scientist to know that if those peasants in Orissa have no money for even food and clothes then we as a country have not understood at all what has gone wrong. The smug faces of the Ministers and officials in Delhi offer a dismal comment on how little they understand. Instead, of boasts and lists of achievements what we need are explanations: why is there no new education policy that ensures real change? The same goes for healthcare, rural development, privatisation, investment in roads, power and housing. Delhi is a long way from India. Perhaps, the next India Economic Summit should pitch its blue and silver tent in a field in Orissa’s Ersama district, perhaps then those smug expressions would change.

NAB exercise depresses industrialists
by Syed Nooruzzaman 

Pakistan's much-publicised National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which has completed one year, is a flop show. It was to focus on corruption to uncover the hidden wealth of people in positions of power and others. It was expected to recover unaccounted funds enough to help the military regime take care of various developmental activities without approaching international donors like the World Bank and the IMF. But this has not been the case. The NAB has recovered only Rs 26 billion, which is hardly 5 per cent of the federal budget. The recovery is expected to go up to Rs 100 billion by next year, which is not a big amount, going by the scale of the loot indulged in by politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen, et al.

Like the Ehtesab Bureau set up during Mr Nawaz Sharif's second tenure as Prime Minister, the NAB has come in for sharp criticism for its unbridled powers and lack of transparency in functioning. As The Nation says, "What was required for conducting a credible exercise in accountability was the creation of an institution known for even-handedness and transparency. It would be difficult to claim that the military government has succeeded in creating such an institution."

In all, 173 cases have been filed by the NAB in courts of law. Politicians top the list with 69 cases against them, followed by bureaucrats (32). This clearly shows that it is these two classes of people who have been bleeding the Pakistan economy white. Only 10 cases have been brought against businessmen, though investigations are on against 17 more.

As many as 73 cases relate to the misuse of authority where the role of politicians and bureaucrats has come under scrutiny. Cases against bank loan defaulters number 27. It seems the whole exercise is either aimed at terrorising the political class and its yes men in officialdom, or it is mainly these two sections of people who have been violating the law to make unaccounted millions.

The fallout of the NAB exercise is most visible in two specific areas — politics and business. There are reports that investors are afraid of setting up new ventures. The government seems to be alarmed at the development. Politicians (46 per cent of the people affected by the NAB's proceedings) of different hues are coming together to launch a united campaign against the military regime. Mr Nawaz Sharif and Ms Benazir Bhutto could have never thought of forming a common front in the absence of the NAB factor. Their involvement in corruption cases is working as a cement. Mr Sharif's industrial empire grew by as much as 4000 per cent after he entered the government! Ms Bhutto's husband, Mr Asif Ali Zardari, now in jail, used her position to amass as much wealth as possible, without the least regard for the law of the land.

But what is greatly worrying the military government is the slow-down in business and industrial activities as a result of the NAB. It is widely believed that this single factor has forced the government to replace the NAB Chairman, Lieut-Gen Syed Amjad Hussain, with Lieut-Gen Khalid Maqbool. General Amjad has had the reputation of being an upright and incorruptible officer but very poor at public relations. As against this, General Khalid is gifted in the art of maintaining cordial relations even with his adversaries. He demonstrated this quality when he was the Corps Commander, Lahore, during the traders' agitation against the documentation drive for sales tax purposes.

Thus the military government somehow wants to end the feeling of helplessness in the business class. This is definitely a tall order. There are businessmen who are politicians also. A lenient NAB will fail to act as a deterrent. A Catch 22 situation for General Khalid, indeed.

Ire against Indian chillies

There is no end to Pakistan's grievances against India. At the moment they want an immediate ban on the import of Indian chillies. Recently the country's Export Promotion Bureau held a seminar on the cultivation and marketing of this major cash crop at Kunri in Mirpur Khas division of Sindh province. Kunri is Asia's biggest mandi for chillies, grown in large parts of Sindh.

Most of the speakers, including those representing the farming community, expressed their strong opposition to the import of Indian chillies, the main source of the trouble for Sindhi kisans, according to an extensive report carried in Urdu daily Jang.

Their argument goes like this. The current year's yield is expected to be more than double that of last year — 1.7 lakh tonnes. Pakistanis consume 1.35 lakh tonnes of the produce annually. The remaining 35,000 tonnes must be exported to West Asia, East Asia, the USA and European Union countries where Sindhi chillies, specially the Dundi-cut (Laungi) variety, are very popular. In this situation of glut and low prices there are traders who import chillies from India to bring down the prices further. They have their own logic, which obviously does not suit the growers.

There is a great difference between the quality of Indian chillies and those grown in Sindh, particularly in Mirpur Khas division. Since the produce from this side of the border is of an inferior quality, it is available a little cheaper, as the Jang report says. Traders mix Indian chillies with the Pakistani crop and get an attractive price in local markets. Sindhi farmers are upset as they get a price hardly covering their production cost. "Can we get rid of Indian chillies?" they ask. 

SPIRITUAL NUGGETS

Love and devotion the gateway to God and eternal bliss.

— Baba Hardev Singh, Gems of Truth

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Pride

Remove from me,

O my Lord,

this root of pride dig deep, probe out.

Keep me bending low at Thy feet;

May I know no uplifting save by Thine own Gracious hand.

—Charlotte Skinner, The Marks of the Master

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Pride and conceit were the original sin of man.

—Alain Rene Le Sage, Gil Blas, Book 7, chapter 3

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Pride, like the magnet, constantly points to one object, self; but, unlike the magnet, it has no attractive pole, but at all points repels.

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There is a paradox in pride - it makes some men ridiculous but prevents others from becoming so.

—Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1.111,207

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Pride is the mask of one's own faults.

—A Hebrew proverb

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Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

—The Holy Bible, proverbs 16:18

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The hurricane does not uproot grasses, which are pliant, and bow low before it on every side. It is only the lofty trees that it attacks.

—The Panchatantra, Book I

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Pride is over estimation of oneself by reason of self love.

—Spinoza, ethics, 4

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The wise man should make effort to control the senses running amid the alluring objects of sense, as the driver the horses.

—Manusmriti, II.92