1
Sacredspace Many A Slip … He who acts, harms; he who grabs, lets slip. Therefore the sage does not act, and so does not harm, Does not grab, and so does not let slip. Tao Te Ching 64 T he unprecedented political storm over Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal directly accusing the prime minister of unle- ashing the CBI on his office, as part of a motivated witch hunt, shines the spotlight once again on the country’s ugly and partisan politics and its apex investigating agency. The central government, of course, has specifically denied all charges. Finance minister Arun Jaitley categorically told Parliament that the CBI raid “has nothing to do with Kejriwal and his tenure as Delhi chief minister” while union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sought an apology, arguing that a “textbook case of corruption is being given political colour”. CBI too has dismissed the claim of raids at the CM’s office as “comp- letely baseless”, saying that the raids, with requisite warrants, were against Rajendra Kumar – principal secretary to the Delhi government – on allegations of favouring a particular firm in getting government tenders few years ago. But the political face-off has pretty much ended hopes of a thaw in Parliament – with opposition parties forcing an adjourn- ment, West Bengal chief minister Ma- mata Banerjee terming the raids as “un- precedented” and Trinamool Congress calling it an “undeclared emergency”. Whichever side one chooses to believe in this case, the fact remains that CBI is not an independent agency but a “part of government”, as then-CBI director Ranjit Sinha told the Supreme Court in 2013. The Supreme Court, in turn, called CBI a “caged parrot”. The problem, therefore, is that even if CBI does the right thing it is easy to lampoon with charges of bias. And political storms will escalate, as is happening now. The time has come to reform CBI and make it a truly autonomous body, like the Comptroller and Auditor General or the Election Com- mission, accountable to Parliament and not to the government of the day. Reforming the CBI’s oversight mechanism, along with much-nee- ded wider police reforms, is a necessity for good governance anyway. If the American Federal Bureau of Investigation were to raid an Ameri- can governor’s premises, for example, few would blame it on President Obama. This is because FBI’s budgets, activities and lead investiga- tions are also closely scrutinised by several entities, including Cong- ress – through several oversight committees in the Senate and House. India needs similar reforms. Else CBI is destined to remain cannon fodder for politics, whatever be the merits of the case it is pursuing. Free The Parrot End controversies like current Kejriwal-BJP face-off by making CBI truly autonomous Who says crime doesn’t pay? Certainly not the Indian penal system. According to a TOI report, the public money spent on prisoners in Indian jails is much more than the estimated expenditure that people living in rural areas, on an average, spend on food, clothing and medical needs. Official data show that people in jails cost the exchequer, on an average, Rs 30,000 a year. In comparison, the annual consumption expenditure in rural India is only just over Rs 17,000. This implies that if you are a law-abiding citizen of village India you’d be far worse off than if you got yourself sent to prison. Indeed, if you are lucky enough, or smart enough, to get yourself into a Delhi jail or one in Telangana you’d be living in the equivalent of five-star comfort. Both Delhi and Telangana have the highest per capita jail expenditure in the country, amounting to over Rs 80,000 per prisoner per year. If in order to escape grinding poverty you got yourself into prison by committing a minor crime – like theft, say – you’d lose one kind of freedom, the freedom of not being confined and being able to go wherever you wanted. But in return for the loss of this freedom, you’d gain freedom from hunger, and the lack of adequate shelter and healthcare. The penal system – of locking up people if they break the law – is supposed to be a deterrent to crime. But the statistics on jail expenditure as compared with rural expenditure suggest that our penal system could act as the exact opposite of a deterrent to criminal behaviour: It could actually encourage it by holding out the lure of a better life behind prison walls than outside of them. The penal system could end up being the most effective poverty-alleviation programme of the sarkar, much better than economic uplift measures like the rural employment guarantee scheme which assures a livelihood for 100 days a year. You’d be much better off in jail where all your needs were looked after for free for 365 days a year. There is much talk about the criminalisation of politics. Perhaps we should also look at what might be called the prisonalisation of poverty: How our political sy- stem rewards crime by making prison preferable to the fettered freedom of the poor. [email protected] http:/blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/ Rewarding crime Jug Suraiya Prisoners in Indian jails are better off than people in rural areas There has been some exceptionally good eco- nomic news in the past few days. The awfully delayed $7.6 billion TAPI gas pipeline agre- ement was signed at last in the ancient town of Mari, Turkmenistan last Satur- day. A day earlier, visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced a virtually interest free loan to India of $12 billion for constructing the bullet train line between Ahmedabad and Mumbai. A week earlier, GE and Alstom broke ground with plans for two plants for the manufacture of railway locomotives with total investments of $5.7 billion in Bihar. These three ultra-large greenfield projects represent a total commitment of $25.3 billion or Rs 1.69 lakh crore! The three projects, all of which have the potential to change the domestic economic landscape, have been hanging fire for long. I initiated the TAPI project, for example, 15 years ago on behalf of the Asian Development Bank. Hopefully, these three announcements represent the beginning of the much awaited de-bottlenecking of more than 60 large projects that the government inherited. While reviewing these projects, as he did with Niti Aayog on 9 November, Prime Minister Narendra Modi could benefit by enquiring about the reasons for such inordinate delays in the past. There is other good news as well. India’s economic growth at 7.2% came in higher than China’s in the April-June quarter. Index of industrial production (IIP) rose by 9.8% in October raising the average growth during April-October 2015 to 4.8%, compared to 2.2% in 2014-15. Commercial vehicles sales, a leading economic indicator, have perked up since July 2015 and passenger car sales have followed suit. Excise collections during April-October 2015 have shot up by 34% over last year and direct tax collections by 15%, providing assurance on fiscal balance despite some disinfla- tionary concerns. Inflationary pressures remain muted with the WPI still in negative territory at (-)3.2% for April to November and CPI at 5.4% in October and 4.7% for past seven months, well within RBI’s target of 6% by March 2016. Agriculture surprised with a growth of 2.2% in the second quarter, despite two sub-normal monsoons. The Indian economy under Modi’s watch seems to be on the move, steadily but surely. This is just as well because negative news was beginning to overwhelm the green shoots of recovery. The continued decline in tractor sales for example; or anaemic growth in offtake of non-food credit from commercial banks; or weak corporate sales and net margins in the two quarters ending September were threatening to pull investment sentiment down and leave the economy in limbo. The good news, which has been long in coming, may finally lift investors’ spirits and trigger the critically needed investment recovery. It will not happen overnight because industrial units are strapped with 30% excess capacity as reported by the RBI governor. But at least downside risks have weakened. Modi and Jaitley have to now balance fiscal prudence with the need to impart greater impetus to growth by pushing up public capital expenditure. Fiscal deficit targets cannot become a dogma. It is, therefore, disappointing that the opposition does not want to play ball by allowing the GST Bill to pass through the Rajya Sabha. Its passage will surely give a strong fillip to both domestic and foreign investors. It is a crying shame that the Congress-led opposition is hell- bent on thwarting economic progress rather than promoting it. I wonder how our foreign partners must be looking at this ongoing travesty of democracy. Rahul Gandhi and company would be well warned that this tactic could backfire. Youth constitutes at least 50% of the population and will soon lose patience if employment opportunities do not open up. Having the country descend into a morass of social and poli- tical strife will sear all political parties. Fundamentalists of all hues, who eagerly wait for such opportunities to attract youth and convert them into cannon fodder for their cause, will thrive – with disastrous consequences for the country. There is still time for the opposi- tion to rise above petty and terribly short-term partisan interest. However, to some extent the ruling BJP is also responsible for the current impasse. Its attempts at forming working coalitions with the opposition are sullied by its unstoppable boors who insist on ba- iting the opposition on one count or anot- her. First, it was the beef ban; then came the National Herald case and now CBI raids on the office of the principal secre- tary to chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. To claim, as some senior ministers ha- ve done, that all these incidents happen autonomously is to presume gullibility. If it is indeed true that both government agencies and parivar affiliates are working at their own sweet will then the Modi administration, which started with a fearsome reputation of close mo- nitoring and hands-on supervision, must get its act together before it is too late. One would wish that in India, as in Italy of yesteryear, economic activity can be completely divorced from political shenanigans. That would allow the positive news that is now emerging to gather the necessary momentum. Unfortunately, India will never be Italy. Therefore, Mr Modi, India’s political economy will need to be nurtured and handled holistically. The writer is Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research Nurture The Good News The economy looks up at long last, don’t let politics become the spoiler Rajiv Kumar It is a crying shame that the Congress-led opposition is hell-bent on thwarting economic progress rather than promoting it. Rahul Gandhi and company would be well warned that this tactic could backfire T hehorrifying incident in Abohar, Punjab, where two men were attacked and their limbs chopped off at the farmhouse of a Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader – leading to death of one of the victims – highlights the deteriorating law and order situation in that state. Shiv Lal Doda – the owner of the farmhouse where the attack took place – was appointed SAD’s constituency in-charge after he un- successfully contested the 2012 polls as an independent. Although an FIR filed in the case names 16 people, including Doda and his nephew Amit, so far only one person has been arrested by Punjab Police. This has led to allegations of the administration shielding Doda due to his political connections. This isn’t the first time that Punjab Police has been accused of behaving like an arm of the ruling Akalis. In another recent incident in Muktsar district, where a 14-year-old schoolgirl was crushed to death by a speeding bus reportedly belonging to another Akali leader, the police dragged away the girl’s body and cracked down on protesters. Add to this the state’s chronic drugs problem and Punjab is fast resembling Bihar’s erstwhile jungle raj. The Akalis can’t escape blame for this state of affairs. There’s widespread perception that the Badals’ business interests have seen them subvert due process and indulge in monopolistic practices. This in turn has led to cronyism, misgovernance and scams. As it is, Punjab being a border state with Pakistan has special security challenges. If the police in the state fails to carry out its duty in a professional manner due to political interference, it can lead to disastrous consequences – the recent Sarbat Khalsa by radical Sikh groups is a case in point. For the Akalis, not acting swiftly in cases such as Abohar reinforces growing anti-incumbent sentiment ahead of the 2017 assembly polls. Punjab Simmering Deteriorating law and order situation adds to anti-incumbency against Akalis THE TIMES OF INDIA, NEW DELHI WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2015 26 THE TIMES OF IDEAS Ruskin Bond is one of India’s most lo- ved writers. Bond, who gave the Penguin Annual Lecture 2015, spoke with Srijana Mitra Das about writing for children to- day, restless small towns, his dream garden – and why he hasn’t returned his awards: ■ You’re an iconic writer. Yet, you haven’t been heard on the in- tolerance and ‘award wapsi’ de- bate – is that a deliberate choice? Not really. Perhaps living whe- re i do, i’m out of the general milieu of politics. Nobody’s actually asked me for my opinion. ■ What is your opinion? Well, we’re living in an age of world- wide intolerance. One form of intoleran- ce breeds another. You get a terrorist at- tack somewhere. Immediately, in Ameri- ca, Donald Trump says, no Muslims. As far as our country goes, there have always been times and incidents of intolerance – but in recent years, the media’s become so powerful that things which earlier got hushed up or died down, those things are now in your drawing room, in front of you. So, everyone is aware of what’s happening. Of course, returning awards is others’ business. I can’t judge them. ■ But you didn’t return any? No. It didn’t occur to me. I’m rather fond of my awards. I’d miss them. They didn’t come easily to me. I got the Sahitya Akademi Award in 93-94. I was broke then – it helped me. Giving the award back would be ingratitude on my part. Of course, it’s personal. ■ You’ve written for generations of children – today, are they still intrigued by ghosts, tigers, plants? Children haven’t changed – the world around them has. Their ba- sic natures haven’t changed. They like ice-creams. They like to have fun, play games if they get space. There’s more pressure on children to- day. When i was a boy, nobody said get 99% – parents we- re happy if you got 60%. You could enjoy life. Children still enjoy enchantment though – they only grow up faster because they’re exposed to a more sophisticated world. ■ What about the small towns you wrote of ? They’ve become small cities! Materialis- tic life has taken over. People in small towns want the facilities, the malls, big city people have. There’s restlessness. The world of Shamli is gone. But perhaps you could only appreciate small town life if you’ve lost it. ■ What do you feel about it? I accept it philosophically. Change has to come. It’s not always what you’d like. It’s what other people like. ■ What would you like? What i’ve never had – a garden. I’ve lived in small rooms, flats, growing plants in pots on window sills. I’d have liked to have had a full-fledged gar- den with all kinds of flowers and plants. I’ve never had enough money to buy a big enough garden space. I remember my grand- mother’s garden. But that’s long gone. Maybe there’s still time though for me to have a garden. ■ Are you worried about how we’re treating nature? We do intrude but the mountains are bigger than us. You have to go a litt- le further to find the solitude you want. It’s there – but you have to go to the next mountain. And there always is one. ‘India’s always had intolerance – i wouldn’t return hard-earned awards’ Q & A T here are so many Holy Scriptures accessible to people today towards which they hold faith and pay obeisance, nonetheless they remain curbed to this mortal form and distanced from the truth. They perform all the arduous rites and rituals, recite religious scriptures, visit places of pilgrimage, sit in penance, indulge in holy bathing and still find they are at odds. Because instead of unifying with the eternal Being, prejudice is holding them back, and the one thing which will set everything right is not obtained, that is, God-realisation. So, one must relate with this Supreme energy. This is how dwelling in this world becomes a festivity throughout the tenure. Like when a goal is achieved or a destination is reached, like when we win a competition in sports or excel in our career or do well in our studies and the success and achievements call for the word “congratulations”. To live a life enlightened and having knowledge of your Supreme Being is a humbling honour that gives a reason to rejoice. Sages suggest to concentrate on acquiring divine knowledge to ensure fostering celestial stability. The sooner one achieves this knowledge the better it is as life would then be spent in peace and tranquillity. Like when some work is pending, the mind feels burdened till it’s done ... it’s like a relief derived after paying back a debt. An errand scheduled for tomorrow, must be done today and the one scheduled for today, must be done right away. Without a shred of doubt we don’t know when we breathe our last and when the curtains to this play would be drawn. So the prudent advise to get acquainted with the Supreme Being promptly, ensuring the remaining duration, more or less bestowed by Lord is spent pleasured and enlightened ... a of God remembrance dawns upon us, the Almighty’s name is in every breath. Not only mind or heartbeat but every iota in the body realises the existence of the Omnipresent each passing moment. Like a person in love remembers his beloved no matter what he’s doing, he doesn’t need a reminder; he gets recur- ring thoughts every hour of the day. Similarly the ones imbued in God’s love are the ones who could perhaps keep their mind connected to God at all times. The journey is itinerant, and reaching the destination is accomplish- ment. Without this spiritual disposi- tion, we are disjointed individuals and not complete beings. Hence, getting enlightened and expelling darkness, living with love, togetherness, compassion and brotherhood makes the journey of life a triumphant and an appreciated one, embellished with the beauty that stays long after one’s departure, too. Follow Nirankari Baba at speakingtree- .in and post your comments there. celebrated understanding. It’s excruciatingly apparent that confinement stifles liberation. Nevertheless, there are so many factions persisting to be free in theory but enslaved in so many ways. Divine awareness imparted by saints implores mankind to optimise human ability. A life of service is keeping one of the prominent facets of devotion elucidated. The way of life is then synonymous to a tree or a river which is ever engrossed in physical and material servi- ce without any motive or desi- re. Selfless service without coercion, done with great delight is how body, mind and wealth are purified. When someone loses track and drifts miles away, it gets difficult to return. The compa- ny of saints aid to step out of shadows when worldly influences cloud the mind. Subsequently, when the magnitude Living Above And Beyond What Is Mortal Nirankari Baba Hardev Singh the speaking tree Secularism, political reforms, court judgments or TV discussions, very few willing to discuss merits. Only ‘if your guy did it, it’s wrong’ Kejriwal screaming vendetta merely because his ‘trusted man’ is raided by CBI without informing is absurd. Should an accused be warned of a raid? Be crazy, but behave like a normal person. You will enjoy and nobody will notice – Prashant Bhushan – Paulo Coelho – Baijayant ‘Jay’ Panda secondopinion HERMANN HESSE Some of us think holding on makes us strong; but sometimes it is letting go A thought for today dilbert theysaidit
