EDITORIAL
Keep eyes open
A report in this newspaper
recently about a young person impersonating as an officer
of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) should shake
us out of our slumber again. Belonging to Mendhar he
duped innocent people with offers of job. He was caught
after he had collected Rs 5000 each from three women who
developed suspicion about his antecedents and alerted the
police. It is interesting that some letter pads were
seized from him in the name of an organisation called the
Scheduled Caste Democratic Party. Possibly he wanted to
try his skills in other fields too. For many politics is
a profitable avocation. It is considered a tool of making
a fast buck rather than serving society at large. A
consequence is that there is all-pervasive corruption.
Financial frauds are one part of it. The other is
ideological dishonesty as a result of which there is
palpable absence of courage of conviction. Touts
generally hover around the corridors of power. They will
not dare do so if they know that the people inside have
no time and patience for them. They strike deals between
unprincipled influential people and unscrupulous business
persons for a fee. The State Vigilance Organisation (SVO)
has touched the tip of the iceberg in this regard. It
needs to be said, however, that these middlemen and
wheeler-dealers are different from impersonators who are
one of a kind. The latter variety consists of crafty
people. By their actions they give a lie to the phrase
that an idle brain is a devil's workshop. One can keep
one's mind occupied and yet sow devil's weeds. They trade
in human miseries. What especially comes in handy for
them is rampant unemployment. They are well aware that
the needy will even part with their limited resources if
promised an assignment that can bring in regular monthly
returns. Off and on we find them floating bogus finance
and chit fund companies. They sell dreams of paying high
interest and manage to trick the gullible of his
hard-earned savings before disappearing.
To say, however, that they
are confined to our State alone will be wrong. They can
be noticed all over the country. Ironically even the more
educated and affluent West is also not immune from them.
It is said that impersonation causes loss of millions of
dollars every year. In fact, it is seen more in terms of
identity theft in which the criminal tries to assume the
characteristics of another person to commit frauds by
stealing money or getting other benefits. A United
States-based non-profit body called the Identity Theft
Resource Centre has divided this phenomenon into four
categories: financial identity theft (using another's
identity to obtain goods and services), criminal identity
theft (posing as another person when apprehended for a
crime), identity cloning (using another's information to
assume his or her identity in daily life) and
business/commercial identity theft (using another's
business name to obtain credit).
A close perusal will
reveal that all these actions amount to impersonation by
other names. It is high time that we started asking
ourselves questions whenever approached for being
extended any help out of the way. The arrest of "one
CBI officer" does not mean that the others of his
ilk have ceased to be on the prowl in our vicinity.
Of Dogra marriages
Who says that marriages
are made in heaven and consummated on earth? Some of our
top theatre personalities have joined hands to enact a
Dogra marriage as part of the Jammu festival. The idea is
indeed good to highlight an important feature of Dogra
life. According to a report in this newspaper the
ceremonies like "saant", "sehra bandi',
"barat", "milni", "bedi"
and "bidai" have been acted out. Two other
events --- "seekh" and "sehra"
--- are by and large conspicuous by their absence in
today's weddings. It is a pity. "Seekh"
would invariably be a moving poem in which the bride
would be taught how to conduct herself in coming life.
How would she have to deal with new relatives while
retaining old emotional ties with parents, brothers and
sisters? It would be recited at the "bedi'.
"Sehra" would again be an equally effective
poem read on behalf of the groom's family before entering
the bride's house. Just imagine the spell cast on those
who have been fortunate to hear such talented literary
personalities albeit of different temperaments as Ved
Rahi and Deshbandhu Dogra "Nutan" delivering "sehra"
and "seekh". What is a marriage if not a
display of fine human sentiments? Behind all the glitter
there is coming together of two individuals and their
families with the acquiescence of society. It is not for
nothing that the Europeans travel long distances to
perform an Indian wedding even after tying the nuptial
bonds back home. Their preferred venue is Rajasthan.
Evidently they are taken in by tales of the past royal
grandeur. Their shows are stage-managed and, hence,
highly ostentatious which have little to do with the
reality. What, however, comes out clearly is the
tremendous appeal of an Indian wedding and its tourism
potential There is necessity to project its simple,
solemn and touching facets. A Dogra marriage possesses
all these virtues. It is, moreover, mixed with the
fragrance of "ambal", "meethe
chawal" and "rajma" as during "saant".
It has travelled a long distance from the days of child
weddings and "dohri" tradition in which
daughters were blindly exchanged between two families
regardless of the eligibility of the persons they were
supposed to marry. As elsewhere the Dogra women crave for
equality these days and also assert their rights in this
direction. They too are bewitched by the urge of becoming
economically self-dependent. After all, as a wise person
has put it, "marriage is that relation between man
and woman in which the independence is equal, the
dependence mutual and the obligation reciprocal."
An institution like
marriage lasts long if it is able to retain healthy
customs and adopt emerging positive influences. The
involved persons can make a success or failure of it at
any stage. According to a German satirist, "love is
blind but marriage restores its sight." In our
milieu the joint family system has mostly helped to take
care of strained ties between newly wedded couples. This
protection is fast crumbling. Quite a few young people
also prefer to be on their own and at times consider even
sound advice as outright interference. That is a
different subject altogether. In any case it is a
post-marriage development. For the moment we can afford
to relish a Dogra marriage and the cuisine it offers.
Develop
strategy to curb price rise
By Nantoo Banerjee
It is
shocking that the Congress-led United Progressive
Alliance government should, instead of going full
steam to control the spiraling prices of
commodities and services of the common man's
consumption, should defend the inflation by
calling it a global phenomenon and blame
everybody else for the current economic malaise
in the country. From the Union finance minister
and the Planning Commission deputy chairman down
to various Congress Party spokespersons, all are
armed with the data and statistics of inflation
indices of certain select countries to seek
comfort from India's rising inflation.
Their
logic ignores the fact that there exist little
common between India and these countries in terms
of political and economic systems, index
parameters, general living standards, per capita
income, unemployment ratio and the sheer number
of people living below the poverty line.
Inflation may be currently high in the city state
of Singapore, one of the richest economies in the
Asia-Pacific region, but its impact on its
citizens is hardly comparable with the same on
India's famished poor. Some of the countries
having higher levels of Inflation than those in
India at this moment are Russia, China, Pakistan
and Indonesia. The inflation level in Singapore
is almost at par with India's.
Several
UPA chieftains, including Congress president
Sonia Gandhi, prime minister Monmohan Singh,
agriculture minister Sharad Pawar and finance
minister P. Chidambaram, are underplaying the
inflation and have, instead, come down heavily on
the Opposition for 'politicising' the matter
which, they say, is a purely economic issue. What
an argument! Is there a political party in the
world without an economic agenda or economic
philosophy? Should the Opposition maintain
silence when high prices of essential commodities
are causing so much hardship to the common man?
Isn't the current high inflation rate a product
of a sustained economic mismanagement by a group
of well-fed elitist politicians, who are more
concerned with stock prices than those of wheat,
vegetables and cooking oil?
Apart
from the alarming trend in the rising wholesale
prices of commodities, especially the wage goods
consumed by the poor and by those in the
low-income group, the retail prices of food items
are shooting up like anything. The retail prices
of some of these items are sometime 300 to 400
per cent higher than their wholesale prices. This
makes the current inflation index, which is the
wholesale price index (WPI), meaningless in terms
of the ground reality or what price the poor
underpaid consumers have to pay for their
essential purchases.
Moreover,
the inflation index that rose to a three-year
high at seven per cent for the week ended March
22, 2008, comprises items like motor cars,
refrigerators, air-conditioners, colour TV sets,
mobile phones and other white and brown goods,
the prices of which have actually fallen since
the last budget. On the contrary, the wholesale
prices of vegetables have shot up by over 11 per
cent, edible oil by 21 per cent, manufactured
food products by nine per cent and the index for
primary articles also by nine per cent. Thus,
even the seven per cent inflation (WPI) rate is a
gross understatement when it comes to the items
of mass consumption.
Agriculture
minister Sharad Pawar, who probably spends more
quality time to manage the affairs of India's
fund-flush Cricket Control Board than the issues
concerning the low productivity of domestic
agriculture, defends the current inflation of
agro-products as 'imported inflation'.
Ironically, the landed cost of imported wheat
contracted by Pawar's officers in the ministry is
double the price of local wheat. Conveniently,
Pawar does not compare India's agriculture
production and productivity with those of
China's. The latter's agricultural productivity
is three times more than India's. In the last
four years, he is not known to have devoted any
quality time to formulate a strategy to
substantially raise the domestic oilseeds
production to make India less dependent on
imported edible oils, which, in turn, could
benefit the farmers across the country. Also, he
does not seem to be highly concerned about the
frequent suicides by poor farmers in neck-deep
debts in his own state of Maharashtra. Since
agriculture is primarily a state subject, both
Sonia Gandhi and Pawar blame state governments
(read the opposition-ruled states) for the high
prices of wheat, rice, vegetables, edible oils
and other food products.
The
truth is the current high rate of inflation is
primarily due to the wrong economic policies and
priorities being pursued by the UPA government.
The procurement of wheat and rice, which once
topped the agenda of the union government to feed
the public distribution system nationally and
create a buffer stock of foodgrains for emergency
like this, has been drastically pruned. The money
spent on food procurement and on the public
distribution system is considered to be an
avoidable expenditure by this government.
Yet,
the government did little to apply its mind on
the need for controlling the price inflation,
which hurts the common man, and take necessary
measures to keep the prices of the essential
commodities under a check before it became too
late and uncomfortably close to the national
election. The so-called high economic growth rate
has nothing to cheer the common man who is being
systematically pushed to the corner for money to
pay for food, clothing, shelter, children's
education and healthcare. The poor, the workers
in the small and medium enterprises, farm
labourers, the shops and establishment workers,
teachers in private institutions, employees in
private hospitals and nursing homes, unskilled
workers, etc. have little to cheer about the
country's general wage- and inflation-insensitive
economic growth.
Added
to their economic misery and hardship are the
high-pitch marketing and advertising of good life
and life-style products across the country for
the rich and the wannabes, the number of which
has vastly increased in the last 15 years. This
is also giving the poor a strong inferiority
complex like never before, driving them into
frustration and crime and many of them into the
hands of political extremists like the Naxals and
Maoists. These categories of people comprise over
50 percent of the country's population. No
responsible political party can ignore the
economic hardship of such a large population due
to inflation and lopsided economic policies.
(IPA)
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Downsiging-a
challenge
By S.V. Vaidyanathan
Downsizing
the Government is one of the bullets that Finance
Minister P. Chidambaram has to bite, or rather
the bitter pill the Government as a whole has to
swallow if fiscal discipline has to be enforced.
We had for the first time a statement of intent
on this from the government in the President's
address to Parliament. The fiscal deficit of
nearly 4 per cent of the GDP, the huge public
debt and the interest payments on the debt that
take away two-thirds of the central government's
net tax revenue, apart from bourgeoning salary
bill, together have compelled action.
Despite
this urgency, the roadmap to downsizing the NDA
Minister Arun Shourie prepared has been shelved
for the present though the intent to pare the
size has been reiterated. Trade unions are bound
to react violently if the downsizing would mean
disbanding of workers. They could quote with
confidence the Sixth Pay Commission itself to
point out that the impression of 'bloated
bureaucracy' is far from true. Between 1995 and
2005, the number of central governments servants
has gone up to around 35 lakhs while that the
Government's total expenditure has gone up from
Rs. 222,495 crores to Rs. 268,286 crores.
The
Sixth Pay Commission that got this question
examined in depth and employed two consultants,
the IIT, Delhi and the Tata Consultancy Service
(TCS), had made certain interesting discoveries.
On the issue of growth of the size of the
bureaucracy it found that the largest growth of
3.9 per cent per annum took place in the 13-years
1957-71 and then it tapered off to 1.9 per cent
till 1984 and 1.0 per cent subsequently till
1994. Thereafter, the bureaucracy bloated.
But
the Commission also said, "it would be
correct to conclude that the 71.4 per cent
increase in the number of sanctioned posts
between 1957 and 1971 was probably not
justified". The subsequent deceleration in
the growth showed that the "government has
acted to contain its fat". It added
significantly "if the extra pounds have not
been shed, at least the rate of growth has been
markedly arrested". Even the one per cent
rate of growth in the later years was mainly due
to increase in the police and other security
personnel.
If
the entire office is wired, files can move from
place to place without the help of chaprasis;
instead the existing army of chaprasis could be
easily retrained to be helpers in keeping the
premises and machines clean and serviced at low
level. Instead of officers dictating letters to
stenographers, speech to text software already
developed by the NIC could be used by officers to
type, file and dispatch their own memos and
letters and stenographers retrained to decide
issue at a certain level to provide quick service
to the public or formed into a cluster of highly
trained support services. Most of these changes
are already researched and manual for the
transformation already made out or could be made
out within one year.
The
next thing is to reorganise the process of
decision making reducing the layers to the
minimum. A flatter organisation with levels of
decision making specified must replace the
present structure in which every file travels up
and down all levels. The TCS study suggested
reduction of hierarchy from nine to seven; but
with modern management methods it could even come
down to three. The advantage would be that the
human resource would be better utilised, the
people concerned would feel greater job
satisfaction, the endless demands for further
hierarchical levels of promotion would end and
public would get instant service. There is no
escape from this anyway as the Internet fever is
catching up. Pace at which the Internet is
growing would compel such reorganisation as
people would begin to demand online service.
N.
Vittal, an IAS officer and retired Chief
Vigilance Commissioner, says that five steps
learnt in industrial engineering should be used
with the objective of a big increase in
productivity and instant and corruption free
service. Some 3.5 lakh jobs are lying vacant;
should be scrapped outright. Every department
must be asked to undertake a five-step operation
that includes elimination, combination,
prospecting, sublimation and modification of the
entire work process. Like zero-base budgeting
there should be zero-base manpower determination
at every department level. Where human resource
is sub-optimally utilised there should be
redeployment to make it optimal. Vittal, by the
way is the author of an authoritative report on
computerisation in government and a practitioner
of open Government in every department he worked.
His
suggestion to declare an open sabbatical for all
government employees is worth considering. This
should replace the current rules prohibiting
government servants seeking jobs in private
sector. Instead, they should be encouraged to go
out for three to five years. Till they do not
find a job in say three years, they may draw
salary in Government. Shourie had proposed that
being given a severance pay for the years of the
service still left. Either way the objective
should be to encourage migration.
If
the performance benchmarks in Government were
raised high enough, the laggards would soon find
they do not fit in and would either be forced to
improve their performance or seek work outside.
It is the tolerance of a low level of performance
required in Government that attracts people to
stick on even if the job is not satisfying;
besides opportunities in private sector are now
opening up faster than they ever were.
It
took almost 15-years in the 80s and first half of
90s to add seven lakh jobs in the private sector;
then seven lakh more jobs were added within the
three years 1995 to 1998. Environment is also
changing encouraging risk taking and rewards
associated with it. This is the best time to
strike if there is the political will.
"If
the Government has the will to reduce manpower,
it can do it" says the Pay Commission. No
better comment on the prospects is needed. But
the Government would be making a major mistake if
the entire operation is seen merely as job
reduction exercise; what it should be is as a far
ranging and total restructuring of governance
including restoring human dignity to the
government servants in all classes, not the least
the humble chaprasis, through workplace
reorganisation that will help seamless
interaction within corridors of power and between
people and an administration that is supposed to
serve them. INAV
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Armed
forces left out
Col (Retd)
Ajit S Sahi
The pay commission has done
it yet again. The Army has not been
equated with the IAS. Was it not
expected? The problem with the Services
is, we not prepared to change or learn. I
believe, the so-called pyramid is a
self-created one and the problem can be
overcome only if we are prepared to
change. There are two clear ways out of
the problem. The first requirement is for
the Army to be prepared to de link
military ranks from our appointments.
Once it is done, the government can be
approached to increase the number of
vacancies in various ranks in the same
ratio as that of the IAS to provide
better career progression to the Army
Officers. The Government too will not be
able to deny that. What is the problem if
a Major General is the Camp Commandant of
the Brigade Headquarters? Haven’t we
seen as many as twenty DGPs in States
holding various appointments including
deputation vacancies such as Chairman of
the State Housing Boards? Aren’t DGP
ranked officers co – exist as DGP
(Training), DGP (Welfare), Commissioner
of Police etc? We are obsessed with the
military ranks, decorations, awards and
medals which in this country mean
nothing. You realize it only when you are
out of the uniform. These have been
created by vested interests to put the
servicemen off track so that he is
blinded in a manner as not to see the
real issues. Who cares if you are a
Retired Brigadier or a Captain? What
difference does it make if you are a
Mahavir Chakra Gallantry award winner or
otherwise? Haven’t we heard of the
bureaucrat who questioned the necessity
of instituting a medal for the 1971 Indo
– Pak war and its financial
implications? He obviously felt that the
sacrifice of the men in uniform is not
even worth hundred rupees which is the
cost of the medal and its handling. Does
any civil servant or a Government
official give you your dues leave alone
respect you? The second alternative is to
insist on a pay band, which gives our
officers the pay scale equivalent to the
IAS at every stage, based on the number
of years of service. The rank should play
no part in the scheme things. This will
also end the rat race for promotion in
the Army. If the Army wishes to maintain
some income edge to serving commanders,
the solution is a command pay for
officers holding command appointments at
various levels of command. Command
Appointments are not very many and can be
easily accommodated with hardly any
financial implication. The rest needs to
be covered by a hazardous pay to
compensate all ranks for the service
conditions in military service. This will
automatically enhance the retirement
pension of all ranks at the time of
hanging ones uniform. The BSF, CRPF and
other CPOs battalions have a system of
maintaining a location as the base
location to which all ranks are posted
and positioned. All operations and duties
are performed from the operational
location, which is well away from the
Base. All ranks performing various duties
at the operational location are thus
entitled to TA / DA for the duration of
their stay which is virtually their
entire service and tenure. Why can’t
we change and adopt this method, which is
beneficial to our men? Have the BSF, CRPF
and other CPO units and Para Military
units become inferior to the Army units
in any way? In today’s India, ranks,
decorations, and the so-called
“Shan” mean nothing and money
means everything. The sooner we realize
it, the better it is for the Army. The
country has enacted the Labour Laws,
which stipulates the maximum number of
hours of work that can be extracted from
a worker, including the staff working in
the various State and Central Government
offices and departments. Additional hours
of work put in by these workers are
termed over time and are paid for at
double the rates of the normal wages.
These laws are based on scientific
reasoning and are meant to prevent
exploitation of the worker. It is a
well-known fact a soldier in the army
especially in the arms is made to train
and work anything between 15 to 18 hours
a day both in field and in peace
stations. The question is, is military
training and service any less strenuous
than the work in any Government
Department? Are the army men genetically
different from rest of our countrymen? Is
the army then exploiting its soldiers?
Why cannot we demand overtime for our
soldiers whenever they are made to work
beyond a reasonable number of hours a
day? Why can’t a soldier have time
to himself and his family at least in
peace stations? If such luxuries cannot
be given to the soldiers, some one has to
pay for it and the payment has to be in
line with the civil services. The
Services assume a number of things
without any basis. In their enthusiasm to
prove to the world that they are the
best, they do things which they are not
required to and which they are not meant
to. Obviously, in this material world,
what one has done over and above
one’s prescribed duties cannot be
paid for. The Services on the other hand
feel that their hard work hasn’t
been recognized and feel let down. Let us
take a look at a few examples. Army
assumes that it is the sole guardian of
the country, created to solve all
problems for which it is employed. It is
time we realized that the Army is merely
a tool in the hands of the Government in
power, (The Defence Forces are not part
of the Government while the bureaucracy
is) to keep their own “kursis”
warm. Haven’t we seen commanders
insisting on capture of weapons and kills
at any cost and branding a unit
inefficient when they could not produce
the so-called results? Haven’t unit
and formation commanders been penalized
for not bringing in more kills and
weapons? Haven’t our troops in good
faith, out of perceived loyalty to
seniors, Regimental Spirit and
“Izzat” gone over board
resulting in custodial deaths? Who is
responsible for such happenings? The Army
needs to learn to do its job, and be
correct – nothing more nothing less.
Army is deployed in insurgency-affected
areas to keep the levels of violence at
an acceptable level so as to create
conditions to enable the Politicians and
the Administrative machinery to resolve
the issue. They are not there either to
eliminate all insurgents and their
sympathizers or to capture all weapons in
the affected area. Bringing peace in an
insurgency-affected area is the
responsibility of the political system
and the governing body and not that of
the Army. Our enthusiasm creates more
problems than solving. The Army needs to
learn from the IAS in matters like this.
Do they ever take a decision or
responsibility even on issues for which
they are supposedly responsible? Why do
things, which one is not required to?
Flood relief operations, disaster
management, riot control, rescue
operations of civilians who fall in a
well accidentally, opening of an oil pipe
line blocked by agitating industrial
workers, Asiad games, cleaning up a
village consequent to out break of a
disease – you name anything and the
army seems to be the solution. The Army
feels that it is a know all organization,
which is competent to handle any
situation. At the end of the day, the
politicians and the local administration
invariably take the credit for the
resolution of the situation. The question
is, is the army trained to perform all
such duties? Do we have the necessary
equipment and expertise to handle such
situations? Are we better than the civil
engineers of the irrigation department to
handle a flood situation? Are they not
being paid? If they are not good enough
to handle the situation, it is the
problem of the government. Why and where
do we figure in such situations?
Haven’t the Government created the
CRPF to manage riot situations?
Aren’t they organized, trained and
equipped to manage riots? Why aren’t
we protesting when we are called upon to
perform such duties, which we are not
meant to? Why aren’t the men getting
paid for the additional responsibilities
and duties performed by them? Will any
other government employee take on any
such duties? Why is the rule different
for the Army? These issues need serious
introspection and we need to change, if
the Army’s worth is to be realized
by the people and the Government. There
is a need to define the Army’s role
and duties and anything beyond that,
needs to be paid for. There are no free
lunches in our country today. The Indian
Military Academy and the National Defence
Academy not being fully subscribed is not
an army’s problem. It is the problem
of the Government. It is for the
Government to decide as to how potential
officers are to be attracted to serve the
army. The Army needs to lay down the
minimum number of officers required to be
posted in a unit to classify it as
operationally fit and functionally viable
to manage the available manpower and
equipment till the required number of
officers are made available. Where the
strength of the officers go below the
laid down standards, the unit concerned
should be classified unfit for war or un
maintainable respectively and the
Government notified for such action as
considered necessary and appropriate.
The people for obvious reasons are mute
spectators to the whole issue. It is
therefore apparent that the servicemen
and the ex - servicemen need to
strengthen themselves through the
avsailable methods, within the political
system and the system of governance in
the country. This needs to be done
urgently for the benefit of the future
generation of servicemen. If the
servicemen and ex - servicemen expect the
system to deliver, they are mistaken.
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