Daily Excelsior... Editorial

EDITORIAL

By Ashok Thakur

In an interview that will evoke predictable mirth-as much as send a shiver down the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, ...more

Are Kashmir leaders ‘pro-Centre’ or ‘anti- Centre’?

TALES OF TRAVESTY

By Dr. Jitendra Singh

Is it really important and, if so, how important it is for a ruling political party in Jammu and .....more

Congress strategies
in UP

By Kalyani Shankar

The Congress meet at Kanpur seems to have boosted the morale of the grass-root workers in Uttar Pradesh. The UP Congress...more

Guarantee employment
for the poor

By V. Mohan Rao

The National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, has become operational throughout the country from First of April 2008. .......more

EDITORIAL

Don't give up

Almost all of us are haunted by the fact of our team having scored just 76 runs in the first innings in the second cricket Test against South Africa at Ahmedabad. We never thought that it would do so badly. Certainly nobody could have dreamt of such debacle at this point in time. Before this terrible performance we were celebrating the knowledge that we were being hailed among the world's best sides. What should we do now? There is only one choice available to us. We should accept the bitter reality and overcome it as a bad dream. This should also teach us another lesson. We should be restrained while rejoicing over triumph. No useful purpose is served by going ga-ga after a conquest. It is better to go by the advice of tennis legend Martina Navratilova: "The moment of victory is much too short to live for that and nothing else." One is not very enthused to quote a leader like Winston Churchill in this context. Yet, his suggestion has some relevance: "In war, resolution; in defeat, defiance; in victory, magnanimity." A setback, however, should not dampen our spirits in any event. A top American football coach Lou Holtz has rightly concluded: "I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it." Known for his exceptional qualities Wendell Phillips echoes similar sentiments: "What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better." Wilma Rudolph, who fought odds from her childhood to become an Olympic champion, informs us from her personal exploits: "Winning is great, sure, but if you are really going to do something in life, the secret is learning how to lose. Nobody goes undefeated all the time. If you can pick up after a crushing defeat, and go on to win again, you are going to be a champion someday." If we understand this we have every chance of making a great recovery. Let there be no doubt this. This is evident from the history of Indian cricket as well. It has taken long for this country to evolve a fighting team. All along there have been sterling individual displays. As a squad, however, we have started making an impact only during the last quarter of a century. The World Cup victory in 1983 has been correctly described as a defining moment in our cricket journey. That we have not repeated this feat should be equally remembered by us if we want to improve. A silver lining in our case currently is that we are far more consistent than we have been in the past. That is why this figure of 76 all out at this juncture disturbs us all the more. In the past our displays have swung from one extreme to the other like a pendulum: we would be on top the one moment and down in the dumps the next.

Surely, we are not going back to those days again. We have to be steady to convince the world that we have come to stay at the helm. Therefore, we ought to keep in mind: "It is inevitable that some defeat will enter even the most victorious life. The human spirit is never finished when it is defeated … it is finished when it surrenders." Wise persons inspire us even more: (a) "never confuse a single defeat with a final defeat"; (b) "man is not made for defeat"; (c) "if you can accept losing you can't win;" and (d) "there is no defeat except for those who give up."

Politician behind a rustic image

By Ashok Thakur

In an interview that will evoke predictable mirth-as much as send a shiver down the Railway Minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, has admitted he wants to become the Prime Minister. It is not as if this has not been known; why, after all, should a grassroots politician like Mr Yadav be in the power game if it is not to go for, at some stage or the other, the biggest catch of them all, the PMO? Mr Yadav believes he has plenty going for him, even if there are a handful of unresolved court cases of corruption against his name.

For one, as the Railway Minister, Mr Yadav has made sure that the image of the rustic Bihari that he assiduously created is super-imposed with suitable dashes of urbaneness. He has been a largely "successful" Railway Minister through clever media management and also because he has known better than to interfere with the Railway's day-to-day functioning. He has left the nuts and bolts in the hands of the top officers of the IRTS-one of who serves as his OSD and who virtually runs the show for the Bihar strongman from Rail Bhawan.

This is a far cry from the Lalu Yadav we have all known. As the Chief Minister of Bihar, and later when he ruled the State by conjugal proxy, he was a meddlesome man-there wasn't sphere of life in Patna that escaped his notice or attention. Even cricket wasn't spared. He was running Bihar by being seen to be running it; he wanted to prove that there was no politician of comparable stature around him. Such sophistry is imperative to the power game, and he succeeded greatly in assuming larger-than-life image through his craftiness and antics.

Mr. Yadav, in that sense, is self-made to the same extent as he is a creation of the media. Everything he did made not just news-it made the ultimate cocktail, punched as it was with nonsensical entertainment. This was an indigenous marketing genius at work. Wittingly or unwittingly, Mr. Yadav became this inescapable reminder of what we in the boondocks are, what we look like in our rural hinterland. While the charitable believed they were laughing at their own selves, those not so kindly disposed thought they were laughing at the other: The embarrassing country bumpkin.

What has happened in the interregnum is Mr. Yadav has reinvented himself and gate-crashed into, in a manner of speaking, page three parties in Delhi. He understands the need to 'modernise' and the Railway Ministry gives him more than adequate opportunity to do so. He has risen to the next level of his incompetence from where he thinks he can take a shot at what in political terms will amount to the ultimate sweepstakes.

Therefore, the assiduous self-projection: "I want to become the Prime Minister for sure. But, I will not quarrel for it. No matter which corner of the country I go, people always greet me, 'Oh Lalu, aye Lalu.' It's the greatest of blessings, people love me." Mr. Yadav is now pretending to be the messiah of not just the dispossessed of Bihar, whose lot worsened under his totally apathetic dispensation of grabbers and looters of public money. He is now trying to sell same the dream in India's drawing rooms.

He is quite right in believing he can realise his ambition given the electoral system such as we have. After all, if Mr. H.D. Deve Gowda and Mr. I.K. Gujral could become Prime Minister, Mr. Yadav is entitled to claim he, too, can. The question at this stage, therefore, is rather unpretty and different. It is whether India can afford to have someone like Mr. Yadav in one of the most powerful political offices in the world.

This is because it's not any vision of the nation or its building that propels Mr. Yadav; it is its complete absence, which corresponds nicely with the lack of imagination-or the opportunities to imagine-of his own votaries. His understanding of empowerment is horrendously skewed since power to him means only patronage. He has no agenda to reach where he wants to; just some occasional tailwind. "Kaun jaanta hai," he says, "kaun kab kya ban jaayega" (Who knows who can become what in the future). The rise of Mr. Yadav tells us a lot about ourselves: The most important being empowerment has come to mean power without vision. It can prove calamitous.

It would be unreasonable to expect Mr. Yadav to deny himself the opportunities that come his way. If chance knocks on his door, he will be the last person to complain of noise. If the arithmetic in the future of any Lok Sabha permits his entry into the last chance station, let's be sure he will hop across into the engine. And let's be equally sure that we as a nation can, in that event, forget about our destination, for some more time. In the hands of a driver who lays an equal claim to being both stupid and courageous, it will be up to us whether to remain boarded or disembark from the train. That last choice might be the smallest of mercies, but it will be mercy nonetheless. INAV

Are Kashmir leaders ‘pro-Centre’ or ‘anti- Centre’ ?

TALES OF TRAVESTY

By Dr. Jitendra Singh

Is it really important and, if so, how important it is for a ruling political party in Jammu and Kashmir to stay in the good books of the ruling party at the Centre ? This is a question prompted by Farooq Abdullah's recent confession in response to Lal Krishna Advani's observation in his book ‘‘My country, my life ’’ that when given the option to either share power with the NDA Government at the Cenre or quit the union ministerial berth bestowed on junior Abdullah and instead pursue the ‘‘Autonomy’’ agenda, the National Conference had felt tempted to go in for the former option. To be fair to Farooq Abdullah, let us believe that Advani is a liar. To be fair to Omar Abdullah, let us also believe that Advani is only telling one side of the story. Interestingly however, Farooq goes on to justify NC's sharing of power with the BJP during the NDA rule at the Centre with the argument that ‘‘any government in Jammu and Kashmir was economically constrained to go along with the Centre ’’. At the same time, Farooq also does not come out with a categorical answer when asked whether the NC will again vie to share power with the BJP if tomorrow it happens to form a government in the State and the BJP led NDA stages a comeback at the Centre.

Does this imply that any political party that forms a government in the State in future... whether it be NC, or PDP or Third Front or whatever--- the ruling party men will continue to vie for power-sharing or ministerial berths at the Centre irrespective of whether the ruling party at the Centre is the BJP or Congress or Samajwadi Party or Communist or whatever ? If that be so, will this not be a betrayal of the manifesto on basis of which the various Kashmir-centric political parties are seeking the Kashmiri voter's mandate ? And, if that be so, will this not amount to blatant opportunism inspired by a singular objective of sharing loaves and fishes of power, whether in State or at Centre ? And, if that be so, does this not vindicate this columnist’s oft repeated observation that Kashmir-centric rhetoric of most of the Kashmir politicians is supported by a flimsy ideology liable to compromises while bargaining for power ? Even the socalled separatist Hurriyat Conference is unable to come out with a convincing rejoinder to Advani's assertion that the Hurriyat leaders had agreed to hold talks with the Centre under the framework of Indian constitution. The Hurriyat spokesmen are trying to argue that it was not the framework of Indian constitution but the Vajpayee framework of ‘‘Insaaniyat’’ as if that was outside the framework of constitution.

Often, it has been stated in these columns, much to the displeasure of several influential local politicians and former J&K Chief Ministers, that in Kashmir politics, whosoever is out of power or vying for power invariably turns anti-Centre, anti-Delhi or even anti-India but the moment the same politician manages to come back to power he overnight turns pro-Centre, pro-Delhi and pro-India hailing Kashmir as an integral part or ‘‘Atoot Ang’’ of the Indian union. This is evident from the past records which show that most of the individuals heading the leading political outfits in Kashmir today were on the other side of fence till not very long ago.

To put it briefly, each of the high profile protagonists ostensibly crusading the cause of Kashmir has his or her own vested interest to pursue and none of them is honest or sincere to the common man in Kashmir. Be that as it may, the change in Kashmir scene will happen with increasing awareness on the part of common man who now realises the futility of depriving himself of India's grand economic leap forward that holds the promise of a bright future for his children. The change will happen with Umapathy's growing ability to call the bluff of those who have made a fortune in the name of Kashmir, a La, ‘‘Bagbaan Ban Ke Uthe........Aur Chaman Bech Diya’’.

Congress strategies in UP

By Kalyani Shankar

The Congress meet at Kanpur seems to have boosted the morale of the grass-root workers in Uttar Pradesh. The UP Congress Committee convention, held after 18 years, seems to have brought a ray of hope to the Congressmen who have been in political wilderness for over two decades.

Although the meeting did not discuss any strategy or a plan of action to revive the party and meet the twin challenge of communalist and casteist parties in the state, the pep talk given by the Congress high command seems to have worked. The presence of Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi (both MPs from the state) gave a high profile to the convention. U.P Congress leaders agree that the meeting may keep the momentum provided it is followed up with a clear-cut strategy and plan of action.

Does the Congress have a game plan? It seems to have only half a game plan. It has identified the BSP as its enemy in U.P but has not evolved a strategy to combat it.

However, some significant signals emanated from the convention. The first was that the Congress would like to go it alone in the coming Lok Sabha elections. It may be a debatable point in this era of coalition governments where arithmetic matters more than anything else. But the Congress may have decided on this line because no one wants to ally with it as it is not much of a force in the state. .

The second signal was to the ruling BSP in U.P: the Congress is serious about fighting it and is even willing to go to jail. Sonia Gandhi had launched a scathing attack on the Mayawati government; Rahul has also taken on the UP ruler. Mayawati is currently the villain who has usurped their fiefdom.

Why is the Congress calling the BSP its number one enemy when only a few months back it was trying to woo "Behenji" to throw out the S.P? This is a puzzling development for many local Congressmen who are unclear about the reasons for the shift.

Perhaps the reason is that the BSP is growing at the cost of the Congress. In UP, the SP and the BSP have marginalised the two national parties, Congress and BJP. In the coming elections to half a dozen states including Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi, the BSP is slowly spreading its tentacles and positioning itself as a national party. In the recent Delhi Municipal elections, the BSP bagged 17 seats. In Maharashtra, Mayawati's rallies drew big crowds. Mayawati has been planning to broadbase her party in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh while the BSP is already alive in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. All these are giving jitters to the Congress which is trying to retain power at the Centre. How can this be achieved without improving its position in U.P and Bihar which account for 139 seats and where the Congress is almost non-existent? Hence the Congress leadership's plan to give priority to U.P and the fight against Mayawati.

The third signal was the one which indicated a softer stand towards the Samajwadi Party. Till the other day, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav was red rag to Congress and Sonia Gandhi. But things have changed. Sonia Gandhi refrained from levelling charges against the S.P. Rahul Gandhi sent a condolence letter to SP leader Amar Singh on the death of his father, and also called him up to break the ice. Amar Singh is also making the right response by saying the SP is not the enemy of the Congress. The Congress commended Mulayam Singh for marginalising the BJP in the state. AICC General Secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh claims that the casteist forces are a lesser evil that the communalists thus justifying the Congress overtures to the SP. He made no secret of the fact that options are open for both for a post-poll alliance. This is significant in view of the current situation where the big two - the BSP and the SP -- are outside the UPA government.

It would be a feather in the cap if the Congress could manage to combine the forces against Maya. It also suits Mulayam to be on the side of the Centre as he cannot fight the Centre and Mayawati at the same time. The left and the RJD supremo Lalu have helped the SP and Congress to soften their stand.

If BSP is the number one enemy, then what happens to the BJP against whom the Congress has been fighting in many states? Here again, the local Congressmen are confused.

Will the Congress take the next step to build the party? The Congress is faced with two challenges in UP: how to attract the youth who form a major chunk of voters. And how to find a leader who will guide the voters to the polling booth at the time of elections? If these two things are achieved, then the party will be in the pink of health again. The voters are quite demanding. Unless the party is built up at the ground level, the Congress will be no patch to either the SP or the BSP. The BJP too is at a disadvantage as it is being nudged out of its citadel. Congressmen believe that the Kanpur convention is only the beginning but the leadership needs to clarify several issues if it wants to pose a credible challenge to the other parties in UP. (IPA)

Guarantee employment for the poor

By V. Mohan Rao

The National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREG) scheme, one of the flagship programmes of the UPA government, has become operational throughout the country from First of April 2008. The NREG Act, notified on 7th September 2005, aims at better livelihood security of households in rural areas of the country by providing at least one hundred days of guaranteed wage employment, in a financial year, to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work. The choice of works suggested in the Act addresses causes of chronic poverty like drought, deforestation and soil erosion, so that the process of employment is maintained on a sustainable basis. This was the first time a country had passed a law of this nature and scale, guaranteeing livelihood security to rural households. Parliament enacted it expressing the consensus of the states to use fiscal and legal instruments to address the challenges of unemployment and poverty. The rationale for such legislation was based on the need to provide a social safety net to rural households as well as to create assets that rejuvenate the natural resource base of their livelihood. In an economy, where 60 per cent of the people depend on agriculture for livelihood, a major share of the rural populoation is vulnerable to the vagaries of monsoon as an overwhelming share of the gross cropped area is rain-fed. A total of 200 districts have been covered under the programme in the first phase implemented on February 2, 2006 and the same was extended to 130 additional districts in 2007-08. The Rural Development Minister, Dr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, announced that the programme would be implemented in the rest of 274 districts of the country in its third and final phase. He also announced that the 5-year programme would be implemented within three years. He said the scheme has brought about a paradigm shift both in the design and the approach of intervention mechanisms of wage employment programmes.

The significance of NREGA lies in the fact that it operates at many levels. It creates a social safety net for the vulnerable by providing a fallback employment source, when other employment alternatives are scarce or inadequate. It adds a dimension of equality to the process of growth. It creates a right-based framework for wage employment programmes by conferring legal entitlements and the right to demand employment upon the workers and makes the government accountable for providing employment in a time bound manner. By prioritizing natural resource management, and emphasizing the creation of durable assets it holds the potential of becoming a growth engine for sustainable development of an agriculture-based economy. Although the programme is not confined to BPL families, experience shows that it is mainly the poor households willing to do manual labour, who seek employment under NREGA. It is also evident that the nature of employment is seasonal and that the duration of employment sought varies according to prevailing opportunities of employment offered under local agricultural practices and other alternative forms of employment and all Job card holding families do not necessarily request for the full 100 days of employment.

The Gram Panchayats after due verification will issue a job card. Work should ordinarily be provided within 5 km radius of the village or else extra wages of 10 per cent are payable. Disbursement of wages has to be done on weekly basis and not beyond a fortnight. At least one-third of persons to whom work is allotted work have to be women. Work site facilities such as crèche, drinking water and shades have to be provided. Pancyati Raj institutions have a principal role in planning and implementation. A 60:40 wage and material ratio has to be maintained. Contractors and use of labour displacing machinery is prohibited. Social Audit has to be done by the Gram Sabhas. Grievance redressal mechanisms have to be put in place for ensuring a responsive implementation process. All accounts and records relating to the scheme are to be made available to any person desirous of obtaining a copy of such records, on demand and after paying a specified fee.

Water conservation, drought proofing including plantation and afforestation, irrigation canals, minor irrigation, horticulture and land development on the land of SC/ST/BPL/IAY and land reform beneficiaries, renovation of traditional water bodies, flood protection, land development, rural connectivity, any other work that may be notified by the Central Government in consultation with the State Governments.

The Minister asserted that vigilance and monitoring mechanisms have been strengthened for effective implementation of the scheme. More measures are being taken for transparent implementation of the programme. The States have been advised to conduct social audit of each and every work and set up grievance cells at different levels. The States have also been asked to release wages to the workers through banks and post offices by opening accounts. The process has been set in motion in Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Karnataka and some other states have also reported progress in this regard.

Vigilance and Monitoring Committees have been set up at State as well as District levels. Local MPs are the members of the District Vigilance and Monitoring Committees.

According to latest figures, employment provided to 3.08 households as against the demand by 3.10 households. A total of 121.64 crore persondays have been created. This includes 32.89 crore persondays of Scheduled Castes (27.04 per cent) and 36.50 crore persondays of Scheduled Tribes (30 per cent). Women constituted 51.24 crore persondays (42.13 per cent). 2.50 crore Job cards have been issued and the number of filled muster roll stood at 11.27 lakh.

The Centre has issued instructions to state governments for coordination with the Department of Posts to ensure that accounts of NREGA workers are opened in banks and post offices for payment of wages and are made fully effective during 2008-09. A Citizen Information Board has been introduced. The Board, to be displayed at all prominent places, will enable the local community to know the works being undertaken under NREGA and would also facilitate the process of spreading awareness about the programme.

The Centre has also decided to introduce awards to be known as Rozgar Jagrookta Puraskar to recognize the outstanding contribution by the civil society organizations for promoting effective implementation of NREGA in different states. The States have been directed to set up State Fund under the NREGA for greater accountability in Fund Management. The implementation of NREGA is monitored on regular basis.

No doubt, the implementation of the NREG programme has strengthened the bargaining capacity of the workers in fixing the minimum wages. It also gave a big boost to the water conservation. Its implementation in some of the naxal-affected areas was very effective. The minister admitted that it also helped in reducing the distress migration of labourers from rural areas to the urban locations.