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EDITORIAL There are very few people in the world who come out clean on all the misdemeanours committed by them either by design or willy-nilly. The tendency is to hide, go for alibis, speak untruths. This is despite the fact that to cover one lie, one may have to tell another 10. This is true of all the people and every profession, even ladies performing domestic chores are not immune from it. There have been occasions when lies are justified as the lesser evil since it helps someone to earn reprieve. If someone can be saved from the gallows through lies, well it is all part of the game. After all where is the morality these days. Different yardsticks are applied to judge similar situations. When someone questioned Vajpayee why did BJP join hands with Mayawati's BSP only to dump it subsequently, pat came the reply, ''Sometime it becomes indispensable to use a thorn to extract another thorn from the body (politics). This was with reference to overthrow of Mulayam Singh's Government in UP with the help of BSP. Call it political upmanship or expediency, the fact remains all routes howsoever nasty are justified to capture power. Come election it is promises galore. This agenda and that agenda. No sooner mandate is obtained, it is all a forgotten story. They reel out alibis like bureaucrats not cooperating, people not appreciating Government's difficulties, resource crunch etc. But the real reason is that they take the people for granted, at least for the tenure mandated by them. Safe in the saddle they engage in self-aggrandisement exercise besides rampant nepotism and money changing hands under the table to shower favours. Surely, there is no mandate as such in any election or even in...more |
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From B L Kak No short-termism in
education By Prof S K Bhalla Corruption, nepotism By Dr. Jitendra Singh Sea power and India Meaning of Deals By M R Rao By K K Mam |
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EDITORIAL There are very few people in the world who come out clean on all the misdemeanours committed by them either by design or willy-nilly. The tendency is to hide, go for alibis, speak untruths. This is despite the fact that to cover one lie, one may have to tell another 10. This is true of all the people and every profession, even ladies performing domestic chores are not immune from it. There have been occasions when lies are justified as the lesser evil since it helps someone to earn reprieve. If someone can be saved from the gallows through lies, well it is all part of the game. After all where is the morality these days. Different yardsticks are applied to judge similar situations. When someone questioned Vajpayee why did BJP join hands with Mayawati's BSP only to dump it subsequently, pat came the reply, ''Sometime it becomes indispensable to use a thorn to extract another thorn from the body (politics). This was with reference to overthrow of Mulayam Singh's Government in UP with the help of BSP. Call it political upmanship or expediency, the fact remains all routes howsoever nasty are justified to capture power. Come election it is promises galore. This agenda and that agenda. No sooner mandate is obtained, it is all a forgotten story. They reel out alibis like bureaucrats not cooperating, people not appreciating Government's difficulties, resource crunch etc. But the real reason is that they take the people for granted, at least for the tenure mandated by them. Safe in the saddle they engage in self-aggrandisement exercise besides rampant nepotism and money changing hands under the table to shower favours. Surely, there is no mandate as such in any election or even in the coalition culture. Mandate is always for meaningful governance. Worst part of the game is that they adopt 'holier than thou' attitude. If someone has the courage and character to speak the truth, well electorate can even pardon and give them another chance to prove their worth. They will not do it though. They go by the theme that 'boss is always right'. The malaise becomes malignant because even bureaucrats sing in chorus to the tunes set forth by His Masters Voice. Those from the older stock can perhaps recollect the photo that used to be inscribed on the HMV gramophone. It is probably worse than that these days. In this context one has to take the cue from Chief Vigilance Commissioner who says until political corruption is tackled, there is no way to reform the bureaucrats. He quotes the recent case of a senior IAS officer who has been found possessing assets of more than 14 crore. Politicians come in to play because they do not permit prosecution of the corrupt and their cases are either buried deep or permission delayed so much that everyone forgets about it all. Even where selective permission is granted prosecution is diluted so asto cause aquittal rather than ensure conviction. Even petty rungs awarded some token sentences are aquitted on appeal for lack of credible evidence. In this context one need not single out J&K State or its rulers. It is undoubtedly amongst the most corrupted States but not the only one. To be precise the malaise afflicts all the States and the Centre. The magnitude however may vary from State to State. Even supposedly clean State ruled by a clean man i.e. Andhra Pradesh has mass affliction of this disease. CVC N Vittal in sheer disgust unhesitatingly declares New Delhi not only the national capital but also 'Capital of Corruption'. According to him 25% of the nation's corruption originates in Delhi or for that matter 25% of the most corrupted belong to Delhi. One really does not know how he arrived at these figures because Financial capital of the country is in Mumbai. Perhaps the website maintained by CVC makes him think so. If Farooq adopts 'holier than though' attitude putting all the blame on bureaucrats, truckers, drivers and of course on the Centre as regards power supply one can give him 'benefit of doubt'. |
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From B L Kak In a swift turn of events, Saudi Arabia has passed a word on to the ruling military establishment in Islamabad against any steps which would disrupt Islamic activity or expression in Pakistan. Considering the regular interaction of the members of the clergy in Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, the message from Riyadh to Islamabad is intended to render ineffective Gen. Parvez Musharraf’s reported move favouring a crackdown on the Islamic extremists in Pakistan. Gen. Musharraf and company had, following the manipulated passage of the deposed Premier, Mr Nawaz Sharief, from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia, planned to come down heavily on the Islamic extremists. But the whole game-plan of the Pak military ruler, in this regard, had to be withheld, if not abandoned, following the dramatic move by the Saudi Government calling for measures in support of undisturbed religious activity across Pakistan. The Saudi Government’s message was loud and clear: Activity pursued by various Muslim organisations in Pakistan should be encouraged. The message required to be studied in the context of two factors-first, the powerful Saudi elite’s considerable leverage over the Pakistani Government and, second, the friendly attitude adopted by the intelligence community in Riyadh towards some of the pan-Islamic outfits in Pakistan. Intelligence specialists have made a pointed reference to the "anxiety" of the Pakistani ruling establishment over the "success" of the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Al Badr and Harkat-ul-Jehad-e-Islami in acquiring independent channels of funding, thereby reducing Islamabad’s leverage to a large extent. There are reports about the clandestine flow of huge sums of money from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE) into the secret vaults of these organisations. The ruling military establishment of Pakistan may not like certain items on the agenda of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and its allies. But Gen. Musharraf himself does not want the militant groups to be thrown into a disarray. Gen. Musharraf, in fact, has been reported to have discussed this aspect during the two-day intensive discussions by top military commanders the other day. If media reports are to be believed, Gen. Musharraf expressed displeasure at the inability of the ISI and the corps commander based in Lahore to unite the militant groups. The fracturing of the militant groups, according to Gen. Musharraf, would strengthen India’s hands. At the meeting, Gen. Musharraf and other participants debated ways to revive the political process after the departure of Mr Nawaz Sharief to Saudi Arabia. What, however, had to be emphasised during the discussions was the "relevance of a strategy or scheme of things" which did not challenge the pre-eminence of the Pak Army. The Musharraf Government has taken a very bold gamble by allowing Mr Nawaz Sharief to go into exile. Whether it proves a costly mistake or one that could yield immense political dividends will depend on its moves within the next few weeks. The Musharraf Government is said to be also attempting a similar coup de grace vis-à-vis Ms Benazir Bhutto’s husband, Mr Asif Zardari. Pakistan’s influential English daily, Dawn, has pointed out that even if Mr Zardaris were to leave as a consequence of any deal, the nature and implications would be way different from those of Mr Nawaz Sharief; equating the two would be simply foolish. On whisking away the entire Sharief clan on a few hours notice in the dead of night, the Pakistani publication observed: "But even in the kindest analysis, the Government has suffered the heaviest blow to its moral standing. From an outfit wanting to hold accountability of the corrupt at any cost, it has been reduced to look like a typical military regime anywhere, willing to cut any deal, to hang on to power somehow. This appears to be the perception today, reality be damned". Can the average Pakistani be faulted for saying that the Government has itself underlined the belief that as long as one had immense wealth and formidable friends, he or she would always escape accountability? Mr Nawaz Sharief’s formidable friends exist in some other Muslim countries as well. No wonder, the overriding factor for the Musharraf dispensation may have been its inability to say no to such powerful financial benefactors as Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Where does the national politics of Pakistan stand today any way? While provincial acrimony has reached alarming levels, business activity, to quote Dawn, "is about as active as a stagnant village pond". The publication says that Mr Nawaz Sharief’s betrayal at the moment is nevertheless set to bounce back into action after Eid. A list of 1,500 volunteers, who shall be courting arrest in the first wave, has already been finalised. Will the Pak Government rethink one of the earlier proposals made by its own trusted think-tank? According to that proposal, Gen. Musharraf should go on to become President and a revived Parliament passes the 16th amendment incorporating the national security council (NSC) as an inalienable organ of the ruling establishment. This would enshrine a constitutional role for Pakistan’s armed forces. |
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Corruption, nepotism in
J&K appointments? By Dr. Jitendra Singh It is disturbing to hear things like this. It is disgusting to believe things like this. One hates to accept this. One hates to believe this. The only redemption lies in somebody from the ruling hierarchy standing up to offer concrete evidence to prove that all this is untrue. The only consolation lies in the unassuming assumption that this is a false impression held out by some stray cases of impropriety. Will, therefore, somebody from the ruling elite gather conviction to deny what a majority of Jammu and Kashmir populace has begun to believe -- rightly or wrongly? Will somebody from the high offices stand up to contradict the popular impression that even the Low Paid Class IV jobs in various Government departments as well as in various Government managed Corporations, Banks and Public Sector Units are available at a bidding ranging from Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 50,000 or perhaps more? Similarly, what about the allegation that all the meaty or the money-making middle-rung appointments and postings are tacitly reserved for the kith and kin of the State high-ups or their henchmen? It was a disgusting scene when at a respectable Government head-office based at Jammu, a handful of disenchanted youth chose to paste the walls with posters stating details of the different rates at which the various jobs could be obtained by the goodwill of the concerned Minister or the concerned Secretary. Now, one does not have to believe all this at the first sight. And, ofcourse, this could all be false, rubbish, malicious, motivated and manipulated by intrigue. But, unfortunately, even as this columnist and others of the ilk would like to dismiss all this as sheer nonsense, the majority of the common populace are sure that this is absolutely true and makes absolute sense. Justice, it is said, should not only be done; justice should also appear to have been done. The stories about a vicious job racket prevailing in the administrative echelons may be totally baseless and unfounded. But, what is important for restoring the confidence of common man is that these stories should also appear to be baseless and unfounded. For example, when applicant after applicant openly declares that he or she has deposited a certain "underhand" amount as advance payment or part payment for a certain appointment letter to be issued by a certain State functionary and there is neither denial nor defence from the alleged recepient of the amount --- what is the inference to be gathered by the onlookers? And, the irony is that the same story is narrated about appointments in practically every State department. The present National Conference Government under the leadership of Dr Farooq Abdullah is committed to eradicate corruption from the State. One has every reason to believe that Dr Abdullah means what he says. Moreover, being a seasoned politician and an experienced administrator, Dr Abdullab also understands too well the negative nuances of the issue. Ignoring merit and instead giving precedence to extraneous or pecuniary considerations in matters of making appointments or granting admissions in professional colleges is bound to build up the simmerring youth unrest with ominous risk of throwing the State back into a phase of tumultuous terrorism from which it is struggling to emerge. Lest this should be forgotten, it is important to keep in mind that temporary gains made by a handful of those engaged in the alleged money-making job racket can ultimately end up in a general turmoil which would also not spare those who make a fast buck by putting appointment letters on sale. Therefore, even if those occupying the positions of power donot care for the sensibilities of the common man, they would hopefully care atleast for their own safety and survival. And, by the way, if this is what the common man was looking for when he had put in all his mite four years ago for restoration of a democratically elected Government after a decade long Governor rule in the State, then Umapathy today receives in reward nothing else but poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous lament "---- Woh Intezaar Tha Jiska, Yeh Woh Sahr Nahin!" |
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Sea power and India in new
millennium Even after half a century of independent existence and having fought five wars, the importance of national security, which impinges upon every facet of people's life, is not yet fully realised in India. What is worrying is the conspicuous lack of understanding of the role that the oceans and their exploitation would play in the new millennium in making India a leading player in Asia and the world. Three-quarters of the earth (360 million sq km) is covered by the oceans. Its total land mass can fit into just the Pacific Ocean with space to spare. Almost 3.5 billion people out of six billion live on the coast or near coastal areas and 150 member nations of the total 180 members in the United Nations, are coastal States. Eighty per cent of world's riches lie untapped under the sea and ships transport 94 per cent of the world's international trade. Sea fishing provides 25 per cent of the world's animal protein and the security of energy which includes oil, gas and in the future hydrates, which are the drivers of progress, are also ocean dependant. In times gone by, the explorer sailor Magellan discovered the Philippine and Columbus found America thereby heralding an era of colonisation through sea-power of which the British rule over us is an unforgettable experience. Sea-power today does not mean naval military might alone, but comprises the fighting Navy reinforced with a sizeable merchant fleet as the more important component amongst other maritime components. This needs elaboration as a rejuvenated India Navy celebrated the first Navy Day of the new millennium on December 4. A great thinker, Friedrik Ratzil, maintained that nation states would be in everlasting conflict to gain control of valuable assets on land and sea. The potential of power would be in proportion to the length of their 'Ocean Trains', meaning sea power. The paramouncy of the British, the French, the Dutch and the Portuguese, who colonised most of the world in the 18th and 19th century was achieved primarily with the use of sea power. In the 20th century, it was Alfred T. Mahan, the influential American Captain turned geo politician, who attached great importance to sea power with emphasis on the Indian Ocean, which as per his enunciation was both sea and land based, as providing unique economic and military strength in international politics. He leaned on Henri Je Jomini, the French military historian, who studied Napoleon's fall and Lord Nelson's victories at sea to explain sea power and its influence on history. Today USA's super power status is partly derived from its 500 ship Navy. The Russian Navy, under Gorshkov, tried to match USA's sea power and succeeded to some extent, but for their overall failure on the economic front. Sea power is the heart of a maritime nation's strategy and India cannot be an exception. Strategy under the impact of technology has expanded far beyond its original military meaning and now transcends the entire socio-economic and political endeavours of a country of substance. So in the 21st century, nations would correlate political, economic, technological and psychological factors with military elements for the management of their national policy and international relations. Hence, the term 'grand strategy' is the mantra to practice and master. Manufacturing of strategic plans has become a specialised industry with intelligence agencies, think-tanks, and consultants like Mc Kinsey, AT Kearney, and Rand Corp, preparing strategic plans alongside universities like Georgetown, Harvard, Oxford and Cambridge and the like for National Security Councils and policy-planners. In India, we have still to see this trend flourish but United Services Institution (USI), Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) and Institute of Indian Ocean Studies and the like are a few institutions who with their position papers contribute to the intelligentsia but not the common man, while the Indian bureaucracy is ill-equipped to plan strategy and is at best tactician. Sea power conotates the maritime environment which consists of the sea, the landing adjoining it called the littoral and the airspace above both making air power a part of it. Advances in technology have integrated aircraft, helicopters and missiles at sea and land, and tri-service co-operation called 'jointmenship' is now be successfully unleashed from sea platforms and submarines. This makes sea power multi-dimensional and the role of Navy in any maritime environment all pervasive viz on surface, in air and under water. With integral air element and co-operation of Airforce and the Army, joint operations provide tremendous mobility, versatility, reach and flexibility in response and application. The Gulf War, Kosovo and Yugoslavian conflicts displayed these attributes fully and did away with the political ramifications of the use of terra firma to launch strikes. Sea Power, therefore, has trans-borders reach, resilience, lift capacity and poise to employ the principles of war with leverage. In peace time it acts as a tool of diplomacy. While, we have critics of the aircraft carrier in India, the question is not a carrier debate, but do we need sea power? What is not so well-known is 'the naval-military manoeuvre' performed by the Indian Navy during the Kargil War by deploying its ships and submarines off Pakistani coast to deny access and gain control of sea routes in order to influence the course of hostilities. Such a move of check-mate can be accomplished only if you have effective air and submarine forces integrated with surface ships. The biggest challenge of the new millennium is swift advances in technology which act as force multipliers. A 'Revolution in Military Affairs' (RMA) is taking place which is of as much significance at sea as on land. the Mahanian concepts may need to be modified as future wars will be short with applications of galloping Information Technology playing a crucial role. The advance and accurate knwledge through communications, command, control commerce and intelligence (C4-I) would give ability to destroy, nullify and throttle the enemy's war potential. USA has gone for Theatre Ara Missile Defence (THAD) to destroy incoming missiles from their sea platforms and submarines. The navies in future will help continental armies in action by launching cruise missiles from the sea thus extending amphibious warfare further for a blue water navy over and above its capability of command of the seas. A tiny maritime nation like Singapore is building naval forces and maritime assets to sea that, if need be, even big naval forces are denied command of the seas and choke points are defended in its vicinity for keeping its own interests unimpaired. Their strategy is sea denial. The Security of Energy that drives the progress of nations is another emerging element of sea power. Nations that are energy deficient will be very dependant on the oceans. India has only 55 per cent of its oil and gas needs and 70 per cent of coal requirements. India's energy deficiency will rise, till hydrates and ther alternative energy sources (most likely from sea) fructify. Now we are turning to gas with Enron Dhabol LNG power project coming on stream near Mumbai next year, Petronet at Dahej, Shell and Reliance in Gujarat and one at Ennore. All these and more would require steady and uninterrupted supplies of oil and gas. Securing these for self and denying them to the enemy shall be an important part of sea power. So sea power is not only the fleet of ships, submarines and aircraft-carriers which are its physical and quantified symbols. It embraces and derives real strength from a nation's economic muscles like maritime experties, the merchant fleet, offshore assets, energy resources, technological proficiency and above all the consciousness and the will power of its people. The seas arouns us can be
a barrier or a highway. We the people of India with
ancestors like Cholas, Cheras and Angre have to make a
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Meaning of Deals with Iraq, Myanmar By M R Rao Pragmatism, says New Delhi, guided its latest diplomatic engagements with Myanmar and Iraq. But for them, it is a lifeline to borrow the cliche popularized by Big B's KBC on the idiot box. Not that there is no justification for what has been attempted and what has been achieved. Nevertheless. For Iraq more than Myanmar, it is essential now to emerge out of the Big A imposed sanctions. In a way, so doing will be taking sweet revenge on Big A. Bush, the Senior led the war against Iraq and did his best to see the end of one person whom he hated the most. Ten plus years after the war ended that hate symbol is very much there in all his glory and has become the rallying point, in a manner of speaking for the proud Arabs. Saddam Hussain has come to symbolize the innate spirit of defiance of what all the America stands for and by extension of his protectee, the Zionist state. Senior Bush through the victory in Desert Storm would pave the way for his second term in the White House. That wish remained unfulfilled. Bush, the junior, may like to relive the dream of his father at a time when the world is becoming increasingly weary of unipolarism and multiple voices are rising, as if on cue. Already, several countries led by France and Russia and in a way China too, are courting Baghdad and have begun to make symbolic gestures, unmindful of the demand for the return of the Butler inspection raj. The brand new Saddam International Airport in humming with activity as if to demonstrate to the world that there is no way you can bend the Iraqi spirit. If there is a lesson to the super cop of the globe, it is: never try to dictate to a nation, however, small and inconsequential it may be, howsoever poor it may be, or who should rule and how that rule should be. In fact, this was the message that went out loud and clear from the heavily mined fields of Vietnam. It has been reinforced by the post-Desert Storm events. To what extent America was responsible for the Iraqi attack on Kuwait and why it adopted the posture it did ultimately and waged a war enlisting the support of all those who have a stake in keeping the global war machine in running condition are no doubt relevant today as was the case a decade ago. To get to the heart of the issue, one will have to wait till the classified Pentagon and White House documents as also the CIA papers come in for public scrutiny. This alone was not the setting for the arrival in New Delhi on Sunday. November 27, of Iraqi Vice-President Taha Yassin Ramadhan at the head of a high-level delegation, which included the ministers for industry and oil. The five-day visit marked an open defence of the ban on fights out of Baghdad. As his plane was touching down at the Indira Gandhi International Airport, the ticker line was flashing an important story from Tel Aviv and its bearing on the sub-continent was unmistakable. The news dispatch said Israel would supply pilotless air craft of India for deployment in Kashmir operations. The sale of these spy aircraft marks a high water mark in the Indo-Israeli relations, which moved to a high trajectory in the past one year, during which the Interior Minister and the External Affairs Minister visited the country. So, the one question observers were keen to find an answer to was: How far New Delhi is prepared to go to win over President Saddam Hussain, given the cozying up of the Vajpayee Government to the US Administration. Adventurism is not India's forte at the best of times! And in just under two days, answers tumbled out of the south Block. Both sides finalized plans for a counter-trade in wheat (Indian surplus) for oil (Iraqi abundance). The quantity and price were kept under wraps negotiated. Iraq is a founder member of OPEC and is and a position to upset the cartel's apple cart. Nevertheless, Baghdad may not like to go below the benchmark price. It is interested in securing a much bigger slice of the global oil market and keep it outside the preying eyes of the Sanctions Committee. Some concessions and the mother of all baits-more access to its market, in hard currency are on offer. Badhdad has signed counter-trade tie-ups with a number of countries, notably Russia and China, outside the purview of the America dominated-UN Sanctions Committee. New Delhi will follow the same route, though the Indian spokesman Raminder Singh Jassal, while displaying his obfuscatory best, had spoken of "consulting" the Sanctions Committee. The US and Britain are the pro-sactions champions in the UN committee; nonetheless, they may not like to standing the way New Delhi owing to the present state of bilateral relations. Also there is the innocuous clause in the UN scheme, which says that any poor country hit adversely by sanctions can do business with Iraq. For the right -wing Government, facing flak for its pro-Israeli tilt, any deal with President Saddam Hussain government is undoubtedly an opportunity to send the right signal to a domestic vote bank they are after since the Nagpur session of the BJP. There is an added urgency too. Pakistan is trying to exploit the Indo-Israeli equation to its advantage. At the recent OIC meeting in Doha it almost succeeded in its mission. On his part, the visiting Iraqi Vice-President was pleased. His efforts at persuading India have borne fruit long months after his meeting with Prime Minister Vajpayee on the sidelines on a NAM meet at Durban. When he met the media at the Oberoi on November 29 afternoon, Ramadhan had nothing but ful-some praise for India and spoke of long-term and strategic relations. "There is no quid pro quo", he made it clear, as can be expected and added the bilateral relations would not be limited to oil alone. Help to us at this crucial juncture would be viewed positively in the post-sanction scenario. Ramadhan's visit marked by the signing of six MOUs with the Indian private sector and a major oil exploration deal between ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL) and the Iraqi Oil Exploration Company. The Saddam government has offered an area of about 8,000 sq kms for Indian exploration. Known as Block No. 8 in Iraq's western desert, it's adjacent to Abu Khema oilfield, which ONGC discovered in 1974-77. "We hope that with it's efficiency and active participation, the (OVL) will manage to get some oil in the block, not necessarily one oilfield but possibly more," said Iraqi Oil Minister Amer Mohammed Rashid, after signing the agreement with his Indian counterpart Ram Naik. Iraq has offered the development Tuba field which yields three lakh barrels a day, besides involvement in the maintenance and upgradation of Iraqi refineries and training of the personnel. Also offered is access to its free trade zones. Above all, Iraq is keen on co-operation in the fields of telecommunications, transport and power. India is importing about $250 million tones of Iraqi oil every year within the limits of UN embargo. This import is under what is called exchange of oil for food and medicines. It accounts for just 2.8 per cent of total Iraqi import bill. In return, India has agreed to offer thirty more slots for training and institute 30 scholarships (10 through ICCR and 20 under the cultural exchange programme). The areas for training and scholarships will be identified de novo and a delegation will come to Delhi to help in the exercise. Certainly, what India is offering in material terms is neither significant nor big. But, who said Iraq is after such crumbs anyhow ? There is yet another person besides Ramadhan, Jaswant Singh and Ram Naik, who was extremely pleased -Ajit Panja, the Trinamul Congress leader, who is not new to the Foreign Office, but had to face some inspired sniping on his return for a visit to Baghdad for what he had said, that India too would go the way France and Russia had gone on the sanctions issue, or something to that effect. He had an audience with the Iraqi big man, the Saddam himself. Did the meeting influence his public remarks? There were ever plants in the media that panja would be shown the door from South Block for his undiplomatic utterances. Whether what he had said was with the full knowledge of the thinking of his Prime Minister or the NDA Government found virtue in the thinking of this old timer will remain wrapped in a NDA mystery. CNF By K K Mam Recently a child below the age of 7 years killed another child of his age group while he was playing near his home in a rural area of Uttar Pradesh. The law could not punish the child because in India children below 7 years of age have been exempted from criminal responsibility. Further on June 26,2000 Badal 11 years old killed a six months old baby by drowning her in Sahibabad. He had also killed two children earlier and was sent to police custody. The children between the age of 7 & 11 years if found to be mentally and unable distinguish between what is right and wrong for them are also exempted from criminal responsibility. The school of penology is based on free will. The concept of free will which means that everybody is conscious enough to distinguish as to what is right or wrong for him and consequently he should be held responsible for his or her criminal act. In India from the legal point of view a juvenile deliquent is a person up to the age of 16 who indulges in anti-social activity. It may be pointed out that the age of the so called juvenile deliquent has both been similarly determined in all countries. In India the reformatory act of 1997 is applicable in many states except U.P, M.P., Maharashtra, Chennai, Karanatka, Delhi, West Bengal, Orrisa and Punjab. It also varies from country to country but is within usual limits of 16 and 20. Even the definition also varies for instance in USA the OHIO code defines juvenile deliquent as one who breaks the law and is a vagrant, persists in disobeying order, who's behaviour endangers his own moral life as well as the moral life of others or one who tries to marry without the consent of his parents. Juvenile deliquent in modern time is not look upon as a sinner or bad person, but rather as a mentally diseased individual or one who has been victimised by circumstances. Earlier small children were severely punished if they committed crimes. With the course of time psychologist is now above the school of law and draws the attention of the civilised world to replace the tradition of punishment by efforts at improving and rehabilitating them. These efforts are made through reformatory school, probation and other majors. The juvenile crime in India forms approximately percent of the total crime under Indian penal code and with the increase in industrialisation, urbanisation, weakening of kinship, community living, joint family system, and due to increase in pressure in human life the rate of juvenile crime is on increase. The rate is lesser of girls, but the growth rate of female juvenile crime is larger as compared with the male juvenile crime. More than 70 percent of the juvenile belong to 16-21 years of age groups. The children commit crimes under IPC are: murder, criminal homicide, rape kidnapping, decoity, burglary, theft, and robbery, riots, criminal breach of trust, cheating, abduction and counterfeiting. And the crime committed under local end special laws are: arms act, opium act, gambling act, excise act, prohibition act, motor vehicle act, SIT act, Indian railways act and other offenses. The girls are largely involved in offenses against property, SIT act whereas the boys are involved in offences against property, riots, gambling, excise and prohibition law violation. The major factors responsible for delinquency in children are physical and psychological, and psychiatrist, and economic and social logic. In earlier days the case of delinquency has been centered within the individual and the punishment based on the principal of deterrent. Modern criminology divides the cause of juvenile deliquency into two classes personal and social And the factors and attributed to internal factors both physical and psychological and external the social elements usually bad in nature. The causes for juvenile deliquency are social and economic related to the government and society and can be taken care of by the government and people respectively. The psychological causes are referred to less IQ, mental decease which are characteristics of personality and emotional instability. Due to mental decease the children turn into psychopathic personality. Born in a home without love, affection and control the child becomes very unsociable, irritable, cruel, obstinate, suspicious self-centered, lonely, full of feeling of revenge, backward, and hyper sexual. He or she also becomes uncontrolled in his or her sexual behavious. Further the child lacks the ability to sympathise and is devoid of repentance pain or suffering of others. The child is an uninvited guest in his own home. Juvenile deliquency is naughty, explosive, disobedient and unsociable. Such children find more interest in works of dangerous nature, see films and recreation of such practices, cigarette, gambling, staying away from home, breaking things, travelling without tickets etc... They are often a member of one or the other gang. Female juvenile delinquents exhibit considerable emotional instability and immaturity. Further these children show lack of acceptability, extreme discriminating, separation of normal and abnormal desires, inferiority complex, extreme hatred and jealousy, illusion of unhappy life and self-condemnation. There are many ways to reform juvenile delinquency which require constant monitoring and follow ups. Probation is one of the method where children are kept under supervision of a probation officer and the delinquent should observe the rule of bail bond get established in normal life. Reformatory institutions which include reformatory, certified schools, observation home and barstool schools aim at allround progress of delinquent. The psychological techniques include play finger therapy, printing and psychodrama. The play therapy and finger print gives expression of their repressed motives and help them in development of creative energy. This can be done individually or in groups. The psychodrama helps the child to express his repressed motives by participating in different rate in group drama. Union government plans to amend the Juvenile Justice Act 1986 to protect the interest of the child and would like to bring the Act in conformity with the UN charter on the rights of the child. The juvenile delinquency can be completely be eliminated by co-ordinated and concentrated efforts of teachers, quardians, the government and the people. There is a need to establish adequate machinery, diversified and dynamic treatment, de-stigmatization of criminal justice system, depenelisation, de-criminalisation and de-institutionalisation of the criminal justice system. (The author is Director SoS Children's village) |
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