Bush shirt and Buffet

Bush shirt and Buffet
By Narendra Luther

Americans gave the world the bush shirt and the buffet after World War II. These improvisations were to meet new exigencies. Now they are part of accepted norms in dress and entertainment. Their search for the novel and the innovative is continuous and unending.
In the last few weeks during my tour of the United States, I have had ample opportunities to study various aspects of life in America. I am impressed by the fact that they have managed their affairs so well. Their genius for improvisation is something to be admired. For every conceivable physical, social and psychological situation they have devised coping mechanisms. Their range of inventions and innovations for dealing with domestic chores is vast. Supermarkets offer a fascinating range of home tools for every conceivable situation. Their town planning is meticulous and there is no question of any one getting away with the smallest violation. Their concern for the aged – whom they call ‘seniors’ – is touching. I visited some residential complexes for seniors. If there is a heaven, it must be quite close to the conditions prevalent there. The care with which they deal with the disabled is also remarkable. They are provided for separately in every public place and utility. Even the meanest establishment has public conveniences – what they call ‘Rest Rooms’. Their traffic regulations are stringent and any violation is strictly dealt with.
Innovative approach
Their craze for experimentation is reflected in the number of titles of books published every year on every conceivable topic. Some of the books I read included ‘Dying Well’, ‘Why We Die’, ‘Meetings at the Edge’, ‘The Professor and the Madman’, and ‘The Art of Imperfection’. They gave insights on life, disease and death. The quaint titles of books in stores and libraries suggest the range of research going on in various fields. Hard to believe but according to Andrew Gabrois of R.R. Bowker Co., 185,000 titles were published in the US in 2004. No subject is taboo for them. People experiment and share their experiences freely. The new knowledge and analyses generated are available in bookstores and public libraries where, incidentally, the use of Internet is free. An average city library is better equipped than most of our university and official libraries. The quality of service and the courtesy of the staff are incredibly superior to any thing one gets in India. The World Economic Forum in its report for 2003-04 lists technological advance as one of the three determinants of the Growth Competitiveness Index (GCI). U.S. is one of what it calls the ‘core innovators’. It is not so in technology only, but in its parent -- Attitude. You see that attitude documented in the museums spread all across the country.
Dignity of Labour
No body feels embarrassed by the way they dress. I never had an occasion to wear any dress except the most casual. The consideration that guides the choice of dress is functionality and convenience.
The other thing that strikes one is the dignity of labour. No body is ashamed of doing any thing to earn a living. Students working as waiters are quite common. I met two female university professors. One was living with a carpenter and the other with a truck driver.
Our Advantage
I talked to many persons of Indian origin about some of these features of life in America. They all agreed that it was indeed a distinguishing mark of the American society. Their explanations varied. One refrain was that it is because of the small population that all that is possible. It is both a cause and an effect of prosperity.
In India all our progress is negated by the growth in numbers. The fall in law and order is also largely due to that. It is true no doubt, but is rather a simplistic explanation. Also a deeper analysis of the demographic profile encourages some hope for us in India despite the growing numbers. Today, thanks to advances made in public health and social security, the population in the advanced countries is ageing fast. In Europe in 1950, the population over 60 years of age accounted for 12%. In 2050, it will be 32%. On the other hand, the population under 14 will decrease from 27% to 16%. Today 66% of the expenditure in European countries is on education, health and pensions. With the ageing of the population, this will only increase and they will be caught in the Wagnerian bind. This will result in an increase in the public debt. A similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States. According to the March 2005 issue of the Harper Magazine, for every two workers in General Motors there are five pensioners. As against that, in India by 2030 the ratio of working population will double while the increase in the dependent population will be marginal. That will give an edge to India against the developed west.
Our Productivity
But before we proceed to celebrate the prospect, let us pause to consider the balancing factors. First, our per capita productivity is about one tenth that of the U.S. One example will suffice. According to the Institute of Management Development, Lausanne, during the past decade, steel production in the US has jumped from 75 to 102 million tons while the number of workers has fallen from 289,000 to 74,000.

Immigrants’ paradise
A further sobering remark was made by a young Indian analyst in America. The emerging adverse demographic profile of the States will be countered by the immigration policy of the U.S. It can tap the productive segment of the population of any country to meet its needs. It can select, it can pick and choose and so meet its critical requirements in the economy. America is an immigrants’ paradise. For those who have visited the Ellis Island and seen the historical statistics displayed in the Museum so attractively, understand the America was built by the best of immigrants from all over the world. The process has not stopped yet. Because of the factors mentioned in the beginning of this essay, the US still remains the magnet for every ambitious person in the world. Young people all over the world are ready to serve America by providing it the most critical resource – human capital. America does not have to spend on skilled manpower; it has just to open the gate and hordes of young, highly skilled, hard working, ambitious persons from all over the globe will rush to meet its needs and more. America is great because the rest of the world is continuously engaged in contributing to its growth. We may criticize it, abuse it, revile it, but we are always at its beck and call and our best talents are only awaiting an opportunity to be let in to the land of opportunity.
High growth is both its cause and effect. There is some food for thought in that.

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A Pilgrimage to Childhood

A Pilgrimage to Childhood
By Narendra Luther

Last month we made an unusual pilgrimage -- in search of our roots. Both my wife and I belong to the part of India that is now called Pakistan. I was raised in Lahore while she came from a landed family from further west, Bhalwal and Malakwal. Smaller places, but a richer family – at least that’s why I had been told by a woman who wasn’t rich by any standards when I married her. She had often talked about the vast lands and the cotton ginning factories, which her families owned before the partition of the country.

The flight from Delhi to Lahore takes only 45 minutes and since the Pakistan Standard Time is set half-an-hour behind India’s, we were there in fifteen minutes.

Loitering in Lahore

I had distinct memories of every place of my childhood in Lahore. I looked for my grandfather’s house on Infantry Road in the cantonment area. It should have been easy. There used to be just two largish houses facing empty fields. Now there was a congested area with houses all around and no trace of fields. We asked a number of old people but no body could help. When we were about to give up, a young man asked me if it was a light yellow painted house. I said yes. He said his uncle had bought a house and was demolishing it to build a complex there. Then he took us across the road and I saw a quarter of the house still in tact. He said if I had come a week earlier, I could have seen the whole house. Then I went to the canal where I learnt swimming. After that I saw my old school, the college where I would have gone in due course, the road which we took to the Mall, the Lawrence Garden, now renamed ‘Jinnah Garden, and Anarkali, the which used to be the best bazaar.

We saw the famed Lahore Fort built by the Mughal emperor Jahangir and the Badshahi Mosque built by his son Aurangzeb. At the foot of the mosque lies the mausoleum of the poet Iqbal who is considered the spiritual father of Pakistan. He also composed what is now India’s informal national anthem – ‘Sare Jahan se acchha...’’. The Fort later became the seat of power of the Sikh ruler Ranjit Singh. His mausoleum lies just outside the fort and by its side is a Sikh Gurudwara dedicated to the fifth Guru of the Sikhs who was executed by the Mughal emperor, Jahangir. He composed the Adi Granth, the holy book of the Sikhs which incidentally has a number of compositions of Muslim saints. It was heartening to see a Sikh temple in the shadow of a mosque.

Jahangir & Noor Jahan

The Mughal emperor Jahangir is also buried across the river in a grand mausoleum. Not far from him is his queen, Noor Jahan’s mausoleum. It presents a stark contrast to her husband’s grand mausoleum who, according to his memoirs, had bartered away his empire to his beloved queen in exchange for a daily heavy drink from her hand.

The Government has preserved the garden city character of Lahore. The people give credit for that to the former Prime Minster, Nawaz Sharif and his younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif who was the Chief Minister of the Punjab. Some beautiful new colonies have come up with spacious single-storey mansions. We did not see many high-rise buildings. Lahore used to be called the Paris of the East. I am inclined to call it Venice with the canal running through most of the city. They also have not changed the old Hindu names of buildings and colonies. ‘Dharam Pura’ where my father had a house was unrecognizable but retains its name. I can’t resist the temptation of dwelling longer upon the city, but I must leave some space to my wife.

After a week of nostalgic trips which included two receptions by the writers of Lahore, we left for my wife’s ancestral places about 150 kms away

Wife’s Home

The journey began with a surprise. The car soon got out of the city and started on a motorway. It is a magnificent eight-lane highway just like the motorways in the United States. The car ran at 120 kmph without our feeling the speed. All the drivers including ours observed the rules of highway driving, as I had seen in US.

We went off the motorway to reach the town where my wife’s family owned cotton-ginning factories next to the house of Sir Feroze Khan Noon who became the Prime Minister of Pakistan later. The old sleepy town had changed dramatically. The over 100 year-old red brick mansion where my wife was born stood there somewhat neglected. A board proclaimed it was now ‘Paragon Model School’. The comely headmistress took us around and the whole place was abuzz with excitement that the original owner of the house, an Indian had come to visit. While we were going round the building we got a message that some people wanted us to visit them. That was a family of the daughter of the maid who worked for my wife’s family. Her father-in-law was the labor contractor for the factories. The family had done well and she insisted that we stay there for the night. Not being able to do so we had tea with them. When we were leaving she put a bagful of ‘fruiters’ -- a new hybrid citrus fruit in our car. Her son told us that the area no longer grew cotton but an abundance of ‘fruiters’ and so was called the California of Pakistan.

As we approached the next town where my wife had spent her adolescent years, she eagerly looked for chimneys of the factories which they had owned. None was to be seen. From outside the town a steel shop owner offered to accompany us. On the basis of cues provided by my wife he took us to the house. It was not only in tact but was being lived in by a large joint family. The head of the family, an old man of 85 rattled off the names of my wife’s grandfather, father and uncles. My wife wiped her tears as she bowed down to touch his feet. I felt a lump in my throat as I witnessed the scene. What happened to so and so and so and so? All of them were dead!

The family took us round to each room -- and then to steel safe embedded in the floor of the bed room. It could not be removed because it weighed five quintals. Of course there was nothing in it to which my wife could lay a claim.

I could write a whole book on this journey – and our respective childhoods. We got so much affection from the people there that both they and us wondered why the country was partitioned?

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A Window on Pakistan

A Window on Pakistan
By Narendra Luther

Last month I wrote about our trip to Pakistan in personal and emotional terms.
Only those who have undergone a trauma of the type which entails forced relocation and loss of entire property can appreciate that sort of reminiscence. The only saving grace for persons of my generation was that we were children and we had lost something which we had not created. I can now imagine the acute distress that our parents must have undergone.

This time I intend to dwell upon the comparisons and contrasts between the two countries.

Military Regime

The first point that struck me was that the people there were invariably not in favour of the military regime. Many had experienced similar spells of military dictatorship earlier and they did not relish any of them. They envied us our democratic system. Some asked me how we could stay free of military rule and whether there was any danger of the military ever taking over in India. I said that we were lucky in our earlier leadership both in their deep commitment to democracy and their longevity. Jinnah died within a year of the birth of Pakistan. The second in command and stature, Liaqat Ali Khan was assassinated shortly thereafter in 1951. There was thus no outstanding leader left after that. It is a moot point whether military rule could have been avoided if their founding leaders had lived longer. Most people expressed their preference for political leaders like Benazir Bhutto or Nawaz Shareef even if they were corrupt. There is something in the knowledge that you can throw the rulers out in a peaceful manner through the ballot box. Only a politician can have his finger on the pulse of the people!

Low Industrialization

Many persons from across the wide spectrum observed that India was a century or two ahead of Pakistan in terms of general progress which included industrialization and the emergence of the service sector. It was after going to Pakistan that I realized the importance of the presence of the public sector in some areas, like public transport. It was privatized some years ago, probably by Nawaz Shareef. A ‘common man’ told us that some ministers and their families and friends now run minibuses and taxis. This, we saw, caused serious inconvenience to the common man.

We were surprised to note the absence of official or cooperative dairies producing milk and milk products. You get milk either from the old conventional milkman or from the grocery shop in imported powder bags. Price of both milk and sugar are rather high.

We noticed the absence of indigenous industries in Pakistan. You get every kind of consumer good there because they are imported. There are many large malls and supermarkets and all sots of goods are available there. They produce good fruits and vegetables but there is a lack of food processing industries.

Though the penetration of cell phones is high, I did not find any cyber - cafe in Lahore. While I was there, the Prime Minister declared that a Technology Park would be set up soon and would be ready in a year.

I found the media rather insipid. Newspapers lack ads. Their contents are mild though here and there you find some strident ant-establishment columns. TV shows a number of India channels and our actors and singes are very popular there. Aishwarya Rai, Sushmita Sen and some other Indian beauties are modelled in Pakistani textile shops. Local video and audiocassettes are of poor quality.

No Burqas

We did not see any purdah or burqas in the new part of Lahore, or in Islamabad. Even in the old parts of the cities, it wasn’t there to the extent that we expected. In colleges and universities, it is extremely rare. I delivered a lecture in the Lahore University of Management Sciences. Boys and girls moved around as freely together in the campus as they would anywhere in India. We saw some going about hand-in-hand and sitting in lawns or benches unselfconsciously. One sees more of burqas in some parts of some cities in India than we saw in Pakistan. The new upmarket colonies like Gulberg in Lahore have very elegant houses each with its own armed private security men.

All markets have banners put up by the traders’ associations warning terrorists that a camera is watching them. Similar banners are also are strung across in streets near police stations condemning terrorism as an unpatriotic and a dangerous activity. One sees all sorts of cars and bigger vehicles – all imported. The bodywork on trucks is generally redone to make a formidable front elevation. They are painted in garish colours. In Rawalpindi, Suzuki vans have their bodies removed before they are turned into brightly- coloured taxis which are invariably overloaded.

Pakistanis are very fond of good food. The older part of Anarkali in Lahore is virtually a food bazar. A neighbouring street is full of food courts. Some restaurants specialize in fish. We went to one such joint where a large queue waited for their turn for take-homes or to eat there.

Town Planning

Lahore is a city of gardens and that character has been maintained in spite of large-scale construction in recent years. No land has been taken away from some of the old sprawling institutions like the Aitchison College which covers 200 acres in the heart of the city. On both sides of the Upper Bari canal rows of trees have been planted and roads built which make the city look beautiful. In Nawaz Shareef’s time the Race Course was shifted outside the city. But the vacated land was turned into a park. The old Lawrence Garden, rechristened Bagh-e- Jinnah has not been touched and occupies a large tract opposite the Government House. They also haven’t changed the old Hindu names of localities like Dharampura, Kishen Nagar or Sunder Dass Road. Ram Gali, however, was referred by some as Rahim Gali by some people.


The Motorway

The biggest and most pleasant surprise for us was the motorway from Lahore to Islamabad. This stretch of 400 km road is an 8-lane highway with speed limit of 120 per hour for cars and 100 kms for heavy transport. It is as good as the freeways in the U.S. and similar discipline is enforced on drivers. Cars cover the distance in four hours while buses run by Daewoo Company of Korea which are like planes on ground take half hour longer. It is something which we should emulate.

Islamabad is a very beautiful city. Planned by Doxiadis, a Greek firm of architects on a large scale, it is not only beautiful, but is very meticulously maintained. It has wide-open stretches of open land between roads and the houses are very well laid out. They say that Islamabad is sanitized sealed city. There are no slums there and traffic rules are enforced strictly. No city in India is as well maintained.


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Two – or Three Will Do

Two – or Three Will Do
By Narendra Luther

We have three wings of State –legislature, executive and judiciary. The legislature represents the people direct and legislates on their behalf. The second, the executive implements the policies flowing from legislation and lays down rules and regulations to ensure that. The third, the judiciary interprets the legislation and its intent. It judges whether a particular law enacted by the legislature is in accordance with the spirit of the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land. It also sorts out the disputes amongst the citizens, between the citizens and the State, and amongst different states. While the executive reports to the legislature, the judiciary is independent. Also while the Centre and the States have their own separate legislature and executive, a common judicial hierarchy runs form the states to the Centre.

Separation of Powers

This separation of powers is a distinctive feature of democracies all over the world. In practice however they are not separated in watertight compartments, particularly in the parliamentary form of governments. Under that system the executive is a part of the legislature. All ministers (executive) have to be members of the legislature.

Similarly, while adjudicating, the judiciary sometimes ends up in virtually legislating. Any act of the executive or legislature and any omission of the executive can be challenged in a High Court or the Supreme Court. Every decision of the Supreme Court has the force of law. The High Courts or the Supreme Courts can be moved through a number of writs or through PIL (Public Interest Litigation). Some times they take action suo moto. Thus the higher judiciary also sometimes ‘legislates’. On occasions even a piece of legislation passed by the legislature is declared ultra vires the Constitution. It therefore becomes invalid and has either to be scrapped or amended suitably.

‘Sins’ of the Executive

Of all the three wings of the State, the executive is most sprawling. It has an army of people both under the Union and the States and every new legilation gives birth to more member of the executive. For example recently the Union government has created a Disaster Management Board to deal with national calamities on a systematic basis. This, in turn, will necessitate the creation of many jobs to anticipate disasters, to determine the quantum and the type of aid and succour to the victims, and to monitor the progress of relief and rehabilitation. Similarly the promulgation of the Right to Information Act has already resulted in the appointment of Information Commissioners at the Centre and in every state. More subordinate staff will be required to ensure the implementation of the provision of the Act.

As a polity, India is said to suffer from over-legislation but under- implementation. There are scores of enactments, which remain dead letter because no one cares to implement them. There are many cases of dereliction of duties enjoined upon the executive functionaries by the Constitution, or under various statutes.

The executive authorities, which function under the supervision and control of the elected authorities some times, do not take action because it might not be palatable to a section of the electorate. Sometimes offenders who need to be booked under law are not touched because of the influence which they wield. There are innumerable instances of members of Parliament and State legislatures who have criminal cases pending against them. But they roam about freely because the authorities are afraid of touching them. There are instances when the Police do not register a complaint because the accused is an important person. The common man in such cases has no alternative but to approach courts. There are cases in which the investigation taken up by the police is deliberately slipshod. The whole case which depends upon that therefore fails and the accused goes scot-free. There are two types of delinquencies committed by the executive – those of omission, and those of commission. Both can hurt the citizen equally.

Calls for CBI

Since the police investigation does not enjoy the confidence of the people, there are frequent demands from different section of the public – and even by the members of legislature for investigation to be entrusted to CBI. That organization has also been called upon to investigate actions of the police itself as in the case of the Mumbai police in the Telgi scam. The frequency with which CBI has been brought into cases makes one wonder how it can cope with such increasing load of work. However, it is one organization which still enjoys a large measure of public confidence though allegations against its partisan role or lukewarm action have been made sometime by the political leaders.

Similarly the courts have had to step in matters that should normally have been disposed of by the executive authorities. From such simple cases as admission to educational institutions, fees to be charged by private colleges, traffic management, and control of noise pollution – to mention only a fraction of cases – the courts had to step in to enforce rules and regulations and to ensure fair play. Recently the Supreme Court had to order the Executive authorities to evict ministers, ex MPs and others from their official accommodation to which they have lost their which they have lost their ex-officio entitlement They had to order the arrest of some of the legislators who had cases pending against them and against whom no action was being taken by the executive authorities. Again, recently the Supreme Court ordered the removal of the chief secretary of Uttar Pradesh whose appointment to that post was a disgusting case of impropriety and open favouritism. The courts have a potent weapon in their hands – the contempt of court. If their orders are not obeyed, they can hold the delinquent authorities for contempt and punish them with fine or imprisonment. In some cases they have done that. One wonders what would have been the situation if we did not have an independent judiciary resorting to what has been called ‘judicial activism’. Some of the instances in which the judiciary has exercised its authority to benefit itself have been criticized, but on the whole they have served to ensure justice and to provide relief to the common man. It has virtually come to supplant the executive.

The Minimum Three

The ready resort to CBI, and the courts makes one wonder whether we need any executive at all. CBI can replace the Police and the judiciary can do so with the executive. In other words, we could do with just two institutins –CBI and the judiciary.

But wait a minute. We still need some organization to defend us against external aggression. So two will do for our internal administration – and our soldiery will guard our frontiers. Also so many times the armed forces have had to come to help the civil authorities to cope with disasters both natural and man-made.
With these three institutions, we will be OK. That is, till we find that there is no ideal arrangement.

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Jawahar jacket and Gandhi cap

Jawahar jacket and Gandhi cap
By Narendra Luther

Culture is mimetic. We not only live but also survive by imitation. A child would not learn to speak – and hence hear -- if it did not have the company of people who spoke to it day in and day out. Keep a newborn child in an isolated closed room and he will grow into a dumb and deaf person. This imitation is both conscious and unconscious. The fashion advertisers exploit this human trait. We imagine ourselves to be looking like the models we see and copy -- if use the products they hawk.

Our Role Models

In the days of my youth we wore ‘Jawahar Jacket’ and ‘Gandhi Caps’. The jacket was the same old one that generations of our ancestors have worn. But when Nehru made it his trademark, it acquired a new name and became a craze. The cap that Gandhi made fashionable was worn by the coolies in South Africa on whose behalf he fought against the regime there.

It was not the external vestments they popularized. They stood for certain ideals, and people of that age – my parents’ generation -- and their children -- my contemporaries also imbibed those ideals in varying measures. Some seniors burnt their normal imported clothes and gave up their vocations. Youngsters too emulated them in their own way and learnt to live frugally and to sacrifice some of their wonted luxuries. We read the books and articles of our revered leaders and heard their speeches. We fasted when they asked us to do so. We joined processions and shouted slogans. The atmosphere was charged and we felt ennobled in a life of voluntary deprivation. There was a promise of Churchillian ‘blood, toil, tears and sweat’ -- and of the reward of freedom. Subhash Chandra Bose exhorted the Indian POWs handed over to him by the Japanese in Singapore: ‘Give me blood and I will give you freedom’. In response, a famished and under-equipped soldiery buckled up and launched on a long march to Delhi to unfurl the tricolour at the Red Fort. People in their thousands went merrily to jails and underwent torture without squealing. People die for ideas and ideals given to them by their idols.

By way of a quiz, I asked some youngsters if they knew what ‘Jawahar Jacket’ was. They hadn’t heard of it. I showed them one that I have and they laughed. ‘It is a normal jacket. What is so great about it?’ ‘Gandhi Topi’ – yes that is what some ministers – and some attenders in offices wear. They are unaware of the history and the emotions of two generation associated with these items of quotidian wear. Some of them had seen Nehru’s photograph with his jacket, but there are very few photographs of Mahatma Gandhi with the cap that he made famous.

These items made many give up their jobs under the British and give up flourishing practice of law. They exchanged them for years of privation and even prolonged spells of imprisonment. They inspired hundreds of youngsters to do so. Some died, others were hanged, some became disabled for life. Because of them we are free today.

Handicap of peacetime

The present breed of political leaders provides no such inspiration. They have had no drama in their lives. They did not give up anything. They joined politics as an alternative profession. There were rewards to be had there just as anywhere else. How many joined politics with the aim of improving the lot of the poor, for removing tears from some eyes?

They are not to be blamed. Normal peacetimes offer little scope for drama. Freedom struggles, revolutions, and wars – these provide situations and opportunities for heroism, for drama, for exhibiting capacity for sacrifice, for demonstrating qualities of leadership. To show leadership in peacetime, in normal, routine situations is hard. One must have issues to fight for.

But in peacetime, conventional politics, must one indulge in favouritism, jobbery, and corruption? These unfortunately are the traits that can be seen aplenty in our political leadership. They do not inspire except in the wrong direction.

Match fixing

It is not as if there is a void. There are role models still aplenty. But they are a different breed. We have film actors, cricket players and now tennis players who become national heroes and thus role models for the youngsters. Film actors have made drug taking and philandering popular, to say nothing of other minor lapse of character, which they glorify. They make conspicuous consumption a virtue, which youngsters will do anything to acquire. Cricket is no longer a gentleman’s game. Match fixing has made it into a big international industry in which scamsters, smugglers and dons are actively involved. It is another matter that cricket by its very nature of being a most lucrative sport has killed all other sports in India. A victory in an international match is celebrated as a national triumph and the highest dignitaries congratulate the wining players. Recently during the course of the selection of a new captain of the Indian cricket team, an office bearer of the Board of Control of Cricket declared proudly that it was more important than the constitution of the Union cabinet! That reflects the current values of our society. Even for government campaigns for vaccinations or for timely payment of taxes, it is these heroes who are brought into the media. Not unoften it is the selfsame people against whom cases of evasion or nonpayment of taxes are pending. Power, whatever its nature, corrupts. And the power of our new idols is no exception

Thanks to the wide spread and reach of the media, particularly the electronic, there are more exposes now than ever before. We find wolves in sheep’s clothing everywhere. We find crooks and debauches in places which were held to be beyond reproach. We find them amongst godmen, religious leaders, teachers, high officials, and political leaders – in every conceivable place. We find gods with feet of clay. We find double standards practised as a matter of course. We encounter daily instances of moral turpitude and we have ceases to be shocked by them.

Uses of calamities

What is missing today is integrity. That faculty which makes you distinguish between right and wrong, fair and unfair, black and white. That quality marks a man of character from one who lacks it. We imbibe that quality from our early life at home, from our schools, from its demonstration in our leaders in various walks of life, from our heroes. We emulate our role models. But that brings us back to the conundrum. Where are the role models?

It is ironic that human exploitation, aggression, wars, riots – and natural disasters bring out the best in human beings. They shake us out of our ordinary life and bring out some of the best human qualities in us. They also throw up role models for us to emulate. Strange, isn’t it?
nluther@hotmail.com

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Police to meet you

Police to meet you
By Narendra Luther

My choice of the subject for this column is generally by current events. Any thing that stands out during the month preceding the week when I sit down to strike the keyboard of my computer becomes the topic for the next issue. This time there I had a dilemma. Two topics were competing for my attention. One is the deep, larger national malaise represented by the deluge of Mumbai. The other is the conduct of the police which was dramatized by the IG of Ranchi who as of now is absconding. Since last month I wrote about the falling standards of IAS, I selected the police so that the picture of our two premier all -India services is complete. If they are not good enough, nothing else in the administrative machinery of the nation can work.

Security – the primary need

State comes into being to make life possible, so said the great philosopher, Aristotle. Life is made possible on the basis of security – what is generally referred to as law and order. The basic function – indeed the raison dệtre of the State (read Government) is provision of law and order. Every thing else is secondary. No welfare state is possible in the absence of law and order. State has to ensure for its citizens conditions of civilized existence. That is the responsibility of the police – to ensure compliance with basic laws, to keep anti-social elements under control and to control civil unrest. In that, if resort to force becomes necessary, it should observe the doctrine of the use of minimum force.

Only a few glaring instances underline the behaviour of the police generally. The 1984 riots against the Sikhs have been highlighted recently on the release of the Nanavati Commission Report, its discussion in parliament and the attendant demonstrations in the streets. The police failed miserably to protect innocent Sikh families by playing a brazenly partisan role. Indeed the charge is that it connived with the rioters. That is the lowest ebb to which men in uniform charged with the responsibility of providing security to citizens could fall. Its conduct during the Gujarat riots of 2002 was no different and drew nation wide condemnation.

The recent brutal attack on unarmed civilians in Gurgaon was, thanks to the electronic media, seen by the entire nation – indeed the whole world. No doubt the initial provocation was provided by the physical assault by the workers on policemen. But the doctrine of minimum force enjoins controlling the mob, not attacking it mercilessly. It was fortunate that the police were not armed with anything more lethal than lathis. If they had firearms, it would have been another Jallianwala Bagh. They were not at war with the striking workers. Their job was to ensure that the workers exercised their right within legal bounds. But they went after them in full fury to teach them a lesson. The use of excessive force at individual level is quite common and generally goes unreported. Gurgaon highlighted a deeper malady.

The Rs. 35000 - wallah

Analyst blames the lower cadres of the police with lack of education and proper training. There is a system of training in all states but the fault lies with the raw human material that gets recruited. It is common knowledge that the recruits pay heavy amounts for their selection. In a case of misbehaviour with me, an inquiry was conducted against an Assistant Sub Inspector of police posted at a Raj Bhavan. The inquiry officer asked him brusquely, ‘Are you a 25000- wallah or 35000- wallah?’ The delinquent officer replied meekly, ‘35000-wallah, Sir’. The Raj Bhavan officer who was present there asked the inquiry officer to be enlightened about the argot. The latter said, ‘This man has paid Rs. 35000 as bribe for recruitment. That is why he is not so good. That is why he has behaved the way he has. The better types pay only Rs. 25000. A recruit from that category would probably have behaved better.’ That was the end of inquiry. Of course the ASI was pulled up formally. The incident points out the root cause of the malaise. Bribes are paid not only for recruitment but also for posting in what is called ‘fetching areas’ - where one can make money. Ministers allegedly collect money for good posting for their petty officials. What will training do to such persons?

Cases of moral turpitude abound and are reported every other day. A woman going by bus late in the evening is in grave danger of being raped by the guardians of law- or their accomplices. Uniform seems to gives them a special privilege to do wrong.

Some will say naively that the recruitment should not be done by officials but by the Public Service Commissions. Thy should be reminded of the cases of a former chairman of the Punjab Public Service Commission, and of the Maharashtra Public Service Commission who even made it to the Union PSC before being apprehended.

One expects better from the higher cadres, particularly the members of IPS. They do things with greater finesse. Remember the case of the Haryana DIG who went into hiding and came out only when he failed to get an anticipatory bail. He is behind the bars. So is a former officer of UP allegedly involved in the murder of Madhumita, the poetess. The arrest of no less a person than the former Commissioner of Police of Mumbai for his alleged involvement in the Telgi Stamp scam is another instance of disgraceful conduct at the highest level. The most recent case is that of the IG of Ranchi who was looking into the case of misconduct of his deputy. He was accused of raping a woman, which he vehemently denied. When confronted with a strip of a film showing him in a compromising position with that woman, he explained brazenly the difference between rape and consensual sex between adults, which is not culpable!

The sanctity of uniform

Senior officers are the role models of junior officials and the lower cadres. When a person dons a uniform he should be proud that he has taken on some of the divine attributes. He becomes the human version of the tiune Hindu gods – Brahma, the creator, Vishnu the protector, and Siva, the destroyer. He creates goodness, protects the week, and destroys the evildoers. He has to be selected carefully; moral values need to be ingrained in him during training. The uniform should transform him into a superman if not a god. A police station should become a sanctuary for any one in danger or fear. People should feel safe and protected there. It is the threshold that leads people to that temple of justice – the court.

That was the dream when our ancestors fought for swaraj. When we meet a man in uniform, we should not be afraid of him, but be able to say genuinely – if you permit me a pun – ‘Police to meet you’!

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The Mumbai Syndrome

The Mumbai Syndrome
By Narendra Luther

What had happened in Mumbai on July 26-27 and on subsequent days this year is symptomatic of a deeper and recurrent malaise in our civic situation and in our administrative system a whole. It rained heavily for four days and the utter inadequacy of its entire civic infrastructure was exposed thoroughly. Nothing functioned. People were stuck in all sorts of situations. Business magnates used to commuting in swanky cars had either to trudge out with those used to walking to and fro their workplace on foot. Some who tarried a while were forced to spend the whole night and day in their offices. Roads became canals. Houses were submerged, slums were washed away. People were killed by the hundred. Water mixed with sewerage freely and people in humbler lodgings could not boil the lethal mixture to make it potable. There were no electricity and phones. Civic authorities could not reach many places because even in normal times they were inaccessible. There was no possibility of helping them even if the municipal officials themselves could come out of their own traps. Statistics have been purveyed to you for days by the media. The authorities have offered mitigating reasons for their lack or insufficiency of action. Of the annual average rainfall of 2300 mm, 1000 mm fell in one day! The high tide in the Arabian Sea compounded the situation. The abnormality of the natural disaster is conceded. But was the response system prepared to cope with even a quarter of the scale of impact? This sort of spectacle occurs every year in varying degrees. People pray for rains. When the prayers are answered, the civic services collapse. People wade through highways of water. The suburban trains are cancelled. We are only amused by pictures we see in the media; we are not roused to action. Ministers and chief ministers promise action against delinquent officials and declare solemnly that situation will not be allowed to recur. Next year is another year and sometime another government. This is Godsend for the new ministers. It gives them an opportunity to blame their predecessors and say that the problem was a part of the legacy that they inherited.

National problem

For Mumbai, substitute any metro, any city, any town of any size. You will see the same scenario replicated on varying scale. In fact, Delhi has just undergone a similar experience on a smaller scale. In Hyderabad in August, some people were sucked away through the topless drainage pipes and pictures of stranded people have started appearing again as I write this. In 2001 Hyderabad suffered a huge loss in life and property because of the flooding of the city in its most modern parts. It is an occurrence that can take place in any monsoon any where in India – and it does.

By classifying such disasters as natural in contrast with human, the authorities cannot escape their responsibility. As Marx put it, ‘philosophers have explained history; the nee however is to change it.’ The authorities are supposed to be ready to meet both types of situations.

The chief secretary of Maharashtra admitted candidly that the drainage system was outmoded and inadequate. He was not the first to make that sort of statement, and he won’t be the last. It is the echo of words we hear every year in every city and town. When the question is raised as to why such a situation is allowed to develop, the reason given is lack of funds.

Laxity & Corruption

As is usual with every state in such situations, Mumbai has asked for a grant of Rs 1200 crores from the Union Government to update the drainage system and to complete the project taken up in 1993 which was originally estimated to cost Rs. 616.3 crores


It is not only the outdated and inadequate drainage system. It is the haphazard constructions -- some of them in the open drains both old and new -- that compound the problem. Such constructions are made by encroachers with the connivance of politicians and the municipal staff. Some are made by land mafias and then let out to the poor for their residences. Local residents also use drains and nallahs for dumping refuse. That reduces the carrying capacity of the drains – and sometimes completely blocks it. This was noted in Hyderabad in 2001. It was announced that all those encroachments would be removed. Some frenzy of action was noted for some time. Today the situation is back to ‘normal’. So, laxity in supervision, and corruption are a part of the problem.

Need for Infrastructure

However, we must not be bogged down by municipal affairs. The point is that our infrastructure is woefully inadequate. Infrastructure includes, transport, power, water, communications, and other utilities. It is one of the points in the Common Minimum Programme. Briefly, we need the development of infrastructure at the national, state and local levels for which the responsibility should lie with respective authorities.

However, given our resources the required quantum of infrastructure in diverse sectors cannot be provided entirely through our own resources. Various models for mobilizing resources through private internal and foreign sources have been worked out in different countries and they need not be spelt out here.

The root problem is that there is hardly anything in India which could be called local or municipal government. Water supply, drainage and sewerage, electricity, education, health, local transport -- are all not in the hands of the Municipal Corporation, but other departments of the government. In spite of the 74th amendment to the Constitution, the municipalities have not been empowered as envisaged in the aforesaid amendment. Apart from the 18 functions entrusted to them in the 12th schedule, nothing has been entrusted to them. Even those functions cannot be discharged for lack of funds which are not provided by the respective State governments. Ironically, on the other hand the State government of AP has taken some of the existing sources of taxation away from the Corporation. For example, the collection of Motor Vehicle Tax was taken over by the state government in lieu of a fixed compensation. That frozen amount is only a fraction of the actual tax collected today. Municipalities function not as the third tier of the Government, as was envisaged by the amendment quoted above, but as departments of state governments. Their scope for action is severely curtailed.

We therefore need to vitalize the local authorities and hold them responsible for the provision of adequate facilities. The funds for discharging their responsibility should be determined not by the whims and fancy of the state government, but by a formula determined by the Finance Commission. Their sources of taxation should not be tempered with by the state governments. The 73rd and 74th amendments should be implemented according to the spirit which inspired them.

But we have a tradition of sucking up power, not delegating it. That is the big challenge.

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