Round The States 

New Delhi, 15 April 2010

States To Centre

TALK LESS, WORK MORE

By Insaf

Naxalism and the Dantewada disaster continue to dominate the thinking across the country, not only in the Maoists-infested States but elsewhere too. The States now count upon the Centre to be less bossy and be more cooperative and understanding. Bihar’s Chief Minister Nitish Kumar reflected their thinking as he pithily commented that Union Home Minister P Chidambaram needs to talk less and work more. Essentially, the Dantewada disaster is not just the failure of Chidambaram and his “intellectual arrogance” but is essentially a failure of the Union Home Ministry, Intelligence and other various wings. These Chief Ministers are agreed that the decision of Chidambaram’s resignation should be regarded as a closed chapter but the rest of the matter calls for honest introspection.  

More so as Chidambaram has also come in for a scathing attack from within his own Party. Former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh and Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh, recently in an article slammed the Home Minister for adopting "a narrow sectarian view”. According to Singh, Naxalism could not be treated as a “law and order” problem and that there was “need for a holistic strategy which included pro-poor policies to win over the locals.” Clearly, the Centre needs to identify the causes of failure of the Dantewada massacre in which 76 CRPF personnel were butchered and the measures required to deal with the growing Maoist threat, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has described as the biggest internal threat to the country.  

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UP Turf War Hots Up

Uttar Pradesh appears to be fast moving towards total warfare between the Congress and BSP supremo and Chief Minister Mayawati. The Congress’ young General Secretary Rahul Gandhi flagged off his party’s “chetna yatras” from Ambedkarnagar on Wednesday last. In all there will be 10 yatras spread out over 103 days and each will last 90 days! Indeed, the most ambitious exercise undertaken by the party to regain power in the country’s largest State. Though the launch coincided with the Congress’ 125^th year celebrations, its timing—the birth anniversary of Dr B R Ambedkar and the place assume significance. Not only is it a direct challenge to Mayawati but is also being seen as a kick off for Rahul’s campaign for the UP elections in 2012. The yatras, said Rahul promise “politics of youth, politics of empowerment, politics of development,” which the BSP government has failed to provide. While it’s anyone’s guess how Mayawati will tackle the challenge, for starters her party ensured that Rahul did not garland Ambedkar’s statue, by putting pandals all around it. Instead, he had to garland a photo of Ambedkar along with one of Mahatama Gandhi on the stage!   

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Revival Of TN Upper House

The DMK government in Tamil Nadu is finally going to fulfill its promise made in the late 80s. It is all set to revive the Legislative Council, abolished on 1 November 1986, by the then AIADMK government under MG Ramachandran. On Monday last, Chief Minister M Karunanidhi got his resolution in favour of the Council passed by 155 votes against 61 in the Legislative Assembly. The Council had its roots in the Madras Legislative Council of the pre-Independence days when it was a presidency. It functioned as an Upper House for decades and even had Congress’ C Rajagopalachari and DMK’s CN Annadurai as members, when they were sworn in as CMs. The decision to abolish the Council was taken by MGR and ratified by the Assembly on 14 May 1986 after he failed to send a party sympathizer, film and TV artiste, A B Shanthi as its member. Though the DMK made various attempts to revive the Council, it failed to secure the requisite majority. Now that Karunanidhi has fulfilled his promise of reviving the Council, he must be serious about its composition and ensure it is truly representative of the Elders. It should not be a House to distribute patronage or to bring in daughters, son-in-laws, nieces, et al.

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Khap Panchayats Ultimatum 

The khap panchayats of four States are all set to take on the Centre and the law courts. Its members have threatened a protest march to Delhi if the Hindu Marriage Act was not amended to ban the same gotra (sub-caste) marriages. On Tuesday last, a Maha Khap Panchayat, claiming representation of 36 khap panchayats spread across Haryana and parts of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi was held in Kurukshetra. It condemned the landmark judgement of a Karnal court, which had sentenced five persons to death for the murder of a young couple for marrying in the same gotra. Additionally, it decided to challenge the verdict in the High court. This apart, the panchayats resolved to make it compulsory for parents of youth getting married, as well as the sarpanch to be witness to weddings and demanded a Lok Adalat status for themselves. A 51-member committee said it would soon announce the date for its protest to Delhi. Many may have reason to agree with the khap panchayats as the Parsi community is slowly but surely disappearing. Nothing can save it but marrying outside the gotra.   

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Gurjars On Warpath

The Gurjars in Rajasthan are on the warpath again. They have decided to step up pressure on the Ashok Gehlot Congress government to fulfill their long-pending demand of five per cent reservation in State jobs. On Monday last, the Gurjars led by Kirorisingh Bainsala and his Gurjar Aarakshan Samiti embarked on their plan to lay a siege on the State capital, Jaipur. For starters they organized a mahapadav (sit in) in Hinduan, Karauli district, about 150 km from Jaipur. The step was taken as the first round of talks with Gehlot before starting the agitation had ended in a stalemate. The Samiti is now hell-bent on “cutting off all access to the capital.” However, the government is trying to calm tempers down and has assured the Samiti that it would hold off five per cent of the government recruitment, till the High Court stay on the law granting Gurjars reservation was vacated. The question is will it suffice, as the previous BJP-government was unable to keep its word.

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Custodial Deaths On Rise

Custodial deaths are on a disturbing rise. The number of deaths has increased by 41.66 per cent since the UPA government came to power in 2004. This includes 70.72 per cent increase in deaths in prison custody and 12.69 per cent increase in deaths in police custody. The State which heads the list is the country’s financial capital, Maharashtra with the highest number of custodial deaths—246 in 2009 followed by Uttar Pradesh (165), Gujarat (139), West Bengal (112) and Andhra Pradesh. These startling revelations were released in a report “Torture in India 2010” by the Asian Centre for Human rights (ACHR) released on Tuesday last.  Importantly, the report notes that if an American journalist Joel Elliot could be tortured by the Delhi police in October 2009, “what would happen to the aam aadmi?” Will the Centre and State governments please pay heed? ---INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Events & Issues

New Delhi, 13 April 2010

Right to Education

WILL IT HERALD A NEW ERA?

By Dhurjati Mukherjee

That the Government is serious about education has been manifest with the right to education becoming a reality and the current budget being raised for school education by over 30 per cent from last year’s. The allocation for school education expenditure has been hiked from Rs 26,800 crores in 2009-10 to Rs 31,036 crores in the current year. It is understood that the Centre and the States are expected to share over Rs 173.lakh crores over the next five years to implement this right.   

The Right of Children to Free & Compulsory Education Act 2009 has been a landmark piece of legislation, whereby for all children between 6 and 14 years schooling is a fundamental right. It binds the Government in ensuring neighbourhood schooling in three years, bans capitation fees and bars teachers from offering private tuition. It also stipulates a student-teacher ratio of a maximum 30:1 for primary classes and for Classes, the ratio could be 35:1 while also ensuring that all private schools reserve 25 per cent seats for children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. 

This is indeed a revolutionary step taken by the Government after years of wait. It may be mentioned here that Mahatma Gandhi had talked of universalisation of education way back in 1937. There is now great hope in this landmark law but only proper implementation of the Act would change the spectre of education in the country and ensure the much-needed schooling for children, specially from the impoverished and backward sections of society.    

There has, however, been criticism by a section of experts who feel that the Bill should have included children below 6 years and up to 18 years—i.e. covering the entire gamut of school education up to Class XII. This is no doubt justified and it is expected that after some time the Government would see reason and bring necessary amendments to the Act.

However, the implementation aspect remains the most crucial as most State governments do not have the mechanism or are unable to enforce rules or procedures in these sectors. As such, there are apprehensions that the provisions of the Act will not be implemented and poor children will not get the benefits. It is thus necessary that the Central government should give strict instructions to ensure that the Act is implemented in letter and spirit and that there should be revolutionary changes in the domain of education within a year or so. The States on their own have to see that the district inspectors are well-educated about the provisions of the Act and ensure its implementation in all the blocks under their control. 

It is a well known fact that the Act has been formulated to ensure that more and more children from the lower echelons of society join school and get themselves educated. This can only happen when there is initiative and sincerity by the State machinery, which can also take the help of voluntary organizations in this regard. Moreover, the private schools should also come forward and reserve more than the stipulated number of seats from children of poor and deserving families.

The question arises whether the private schools will abide by the Act. Such schools in low-income localities may adhere to the government decision but what about the elite private schools? The reimbursement the Government proposes to give them may not cover even 50 per cent of their costs and, as such, there may be large-scale dissent. Some believe that socialist politicians see the 25 per cent reservation as a way of hitting the elite schools rather than empowering them. While it is expected that the Government will seek to resolve the issue, it is doubtful whether all kids will be covered.

In spite of modernism entering out life styles, the approach to school education teaching has not yet changed much. The bookish system still continues while many things that students are asked to do obviously have to be prepared by their parents or private tutors. Moreover, students are over burdened with books and very lengthy syllabus (specially in the ICSE system), leaving very little time for serious students to concentrate on extra curricular activities.

Additionally, there is manifest tendency by teachers to neglect their classes and ask students to join their private tuition. It is well-known that most children, even from lower income groups, have to arrange for private tutors from Class V onwards. There are, however, some exceptions in a few States, specially Tamil Nadu and parts of Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka. Sadly, there is a lack of initiative to make students understand what they are being taught and clarify their doubts. But the Act has been concerned only with educational inputs, not outcome -- improvement in quality.

A change in the whole system of education and teaching methodology from primary to post graduate sections is called for as also making teachers more sincere to their work. Possibly a change in societal outlook is necessary. How and when can this happen? Whose help is most necessary to implement this change and enforce implementation?

The Government has to ensure that the standards improve, specially in the schools in rural areas and even in some semi-urban parts of the country. While infrastructure of the schools will have to improve, which undoubtedly entails huge expenditure as over 40,000 schools do not have proper buildings, the lack of adequate teachers is also another big and crucial problem. It is estimated that there are around 2,700 schools that do not have a single teacher! And, most State governments are in dire financial straits and will find it extremely difficult to meet with its share of the funds.

Simultaneously, the content of education as also the methodology of teaching has to improve. It is very much necessary that there should be proper communication with the students for teaching to be effective. ‘Communication’, in psychological parlance, means that what is communicated should be understood and there should be enough scope for clarifying problems faced.

Though the Act is very much welcome, planners and educationists need to investigate the real problems faced by schools in rural and backward areas and the possible scope for improvement. Apart from Government inspectors, whose efficiency and sincerity is very much in doubt, there is need to give some responsibility to the voluntary organizations at every block level to analyse the situation and suggest improvements.

The Tenth Plan pledge of all children being in school could not be achieved due to various obstacles but even this becoming a reality by the end of the 11^th Plan appears remote. It is also well-known that the targets of completion of five years of schooling by 2007 and a 50 per cent reduction of the gender gaps in literacy and wage rates by 2007 could also not be achieved. Thus, there is an imperative need for strong political will in this regard and strong partnerships with NGOs at least in the sphere of primary education. The children are the future torch-bearers of the country and if proper education does not reach them, social ills and impoverishment will accelerate.—INFA

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 12 April 2010

Reservation For Muslims

HOW ABOUT SUPER 30 MODEL INSTEAD?

By Syed Ali Mujtaba

Should Muslims be given reservation or not is the big question doing the rounds. It seems to have got a fillip from the Women Reservations’ Bill, recently passed by the Rajya Sabha. The Pandora’s box is open and some decisions cannot be kept hanging for too long. However, there is a view among a segment of Indian Muslim that instead of seeking favours from the Government and hankering for reservation for shedding the burden of backwardness, some members of the community should come forward and emulate the Super 30 model of Bihar to uplift their fellow members.

The Sachar Committee report reveals the abysmally low share of Muslims in professional courses, especially in institutes of excellence in the country. In 2006-07, only 3.3 per cent of all students in all IITs and around 1.3 per cent in all IIMs were Muslims. In the Indian Administrative Services, the representation of Muslims was only 3 per cent and a per cent more (four) in the Indian Police Service.

Super 30 is an initiative under which poor students are giving educational coaching free of cost to crack the highly competitive Indian Institute of Technology-Joint Entrance Examination (IIT-JEE). The coaching institutes’ takes 90 students every year divided into a batch of 30 students each and it has repeatedly demonstrated that how professional coaching can make the under-privileged students crack the entrance test of the top engineering colleges of the country. 

The 30 students are selected from among 3,000-odd aspirants who write the Super 30 entrance test. The entrance test is held in Lucknow, Agra, Gorakhpur and Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, Ranchi, Bokaro, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur in Jharkhand and Patna, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Bhagalpur in Bihar.

Once selected, the students are provided professional coaching, food and lodging facilities, all free of cost. Parents of most of the students come from the bottom rung of the society, some being brick kiln workers, domestic help and doing menial jobs. 

The institute was started in 2003 by two dynamic persons, one a mathematician and other a police officer. In the first year, 18 of its students made it to the prestigious IITs and the number rose to 22 in 2004 and 26 in 2005. In 2007 and 2006, 28 students made it through ITT-JEE.  In the last seven years, 182 students out of 210 have made it to different IITs across the country. And for the last two years, all 30 students of Super 30 have made it to the IITs and this includes students from the Muslim community as well.

A British filmmaker narrated the success story of Super 30 trough the Discovery Channel and also a Japanese documentary film maker made a film on this innovative and successful attempt to send poor children to India’s top most engineering colleges.

The Super-30 success has made the government of Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh to replicate the model in their respective States. A team of government officials of these States are making a beeline to Patina to study this model of teaching and are preparing a blue prints for its implementation in their respective States.

Is the Muslim community in India being aspired by the initiative like Super 30? This is a big question mark as it has been discovered that there are small and big, more than 50 coaching institutes run by the Muslim community in different parts of the country. Many of these insinuations are receiving funds from the Government, and are making tall claims to run the show and receive more funds but contrary to the claims these institutions are no more than government offices, providing employment and money to those who run them.

A close look at the functioning of the Muslim-run coaching institute provides a very unrealistic picture. Most of them have taken umpteen numbers of courses and they could hardly do justice to any of them. There is hardly any desire or inclination to provide a specialized training. No wonder, the bright students of the community keep themselves away from such institutions.

The Super 30 has provided a direction how a success story could be scripted in the most humble way.  Now the onus is on members of the Muslim community to take this idea forward and replicate it for uplifting the not so privileged members of their faith.  This they can do through professional approach and with utmost resolve and commitment and dedication to the cause.

The Rahmani Foundation, in Munger, Bihar leads the way by adopting the Super 30 model for under privileged Muslim students of Bihar to crack IITs exams. The Foundations picked-up poor average Muslim candidates from Bihar and coach them in Patna providing them free coaching, lodging and foods to appear IIT Jee test. It costs Rs. 80,000 per year for each student’s expenses.

An Additional Director-General of Police Abhyanand, coached and helped 30 students from poor families to join the prestigious IITs, He began working for the Foundation after disassociating himself from Super 30.  The idea of coaching the Muslim students struck the cop because Super 30’s successful students too included Muslim students.

The Foundation announced that students who have scored more than 60-plus marks in the 12th examination can appear in the test at selected locations throughout Bihar. About 2,300 candidates appeared in the test and eventually 10 candidates were selected. All the 10 students enrolled in a special coaching institute passed the IIT-JEE exams.

Clearly, the Foundation is a good example to emulate. It is high time that some dynamic persons from the community should come forward and try to start specialized coaching institute in a professional way on the lines of Super 30 and the Rahmani Foundation in other parts of the country. They should hire the best faculty available and Muslim philanthropist should come forward to foot their bills. Similarly, the food and lodging arrangement should be made by members of the community. 

A good administrator can do wonders, in running such institutions and there is no dearth of them in the community who can produce results.  If this is taken forward with a missionary zeal, it won’t be long when Indian Muslims can too write a new script that can become a talking point in every nook and corner of the country.---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Political Diary

New Delhi, 10 April 2010

Naxalites:  Centre +/ -- States

WHERE DOES THE BUCK STOP?

By Poonam I Kaushish

Remember Alfred Lord Tennyson’s famous poem, The charge of the light brigade. Two stanza’s read: 'Forward, the Light Brigade!' Was there a man dismay'd ? Not tho' the soldier knew, Someone had blunder'd: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do & die, Into the valley of Death Rode the six hundred.

Cannon to right of them, Cannon to left of them, Cannon in front of them Volley'd & thunder'd; Storm'd at with shot and shell, Boldly they rode and well, Into the jaws of Death, Into the mouth of Hell Rode the six hundred.

This 1894 poignant ode, a symbol of warfare at both its most courageous and its most tragic, befits the eulogy of the 100 CRPF policemen who walked straight into the jaws of death, were savagely ambushed and butchered by 1000-odd deadly Maoists in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh last week. Fury and anguish apart, it tore asunder the carefully cultivated mirage of the  rarified air-condition portals of New Delhi’s Raisina Hill and State Capitals that the Red brigade menace was not as serious as made out to be. Exposing the harsh reality that the 1967 peripheral peasant threat had now reached a critical mass.

It is to Union Home Minister credit that he was not only refreshingly candid by putting the Naxal threat higher than jihadi terrorism. But also conceded that “something had gone drastically wrong in the operation by the forces” and offered to quit. Adding, “The buck stops at my door.”

High sounding words, indeed. But a war cannot be fought by battle cries of courage. Given that Dantewada has raised the stakes to an unprecedented level. Think. Maoists have ensnared 20 States and 223 districts in their deadly tentacles, killed over 1,600 security personnel in the past six years, have an armed contingent of 11,000 well-trained, highly motivated and well-equipped groups and are managed by 8 top leaders whose whereabouts are not known to security agencies.

Sadly, successive Government’s over the years have reveled in pass-the-buck mind games and taken the easy way. Discounting the moot point: Has India underestimated the Maoists’ military capabilities? Prepared its security forces enough to tackle a well-entrenched and motivated guerrilla force?  Covering the entire panoply of counter-insurgency skills ranging from training to technology, intelligence to social development. After all, counter-insurgency is not a picnic.

More. The problem is not firepower, it is much more systemic than that. According to Home Ministry sources, the Maoists is to physically occupy the countryside (swathes of land in 7 States have already slipped beyond State control) and surround the cities until they can force regime change. Simultaneously, they want to transmute the social structure through the barrel of the gun and are getting moral & material support from the Nepal, Pakistan’s ISI and China. Their ambition is to have a ‘red corridor’ from Pashupati to Tirupati.

Thus, tackling the Maoist cannot be dismissed as a rural or tribal problem of quelling a mob of stone-throwers. Four, factors need to be borne in mind. One, coordination, cooperation and complete understanding between the CRPF and the State police. Given that the State police are sons of soil and know the terrain while the CRPF gets battalion from all over for short periods who have neither the knowledge of the terrain or the local language. Toward that end, the police must be motivated, given pre-induction training and the right kind of equipment before being sent to the battlefield. The forces need to be vigilant and follow standard operating procedures.

Two, if we demand hands-on bravery from our foot soldiers we need to treat them as humans. Not expendable chhillar currency. Horrific stories of how CPRF camps are set up in the back of the boondock, where they have to trudge four kms for water and 40 kms to the next humam habitat. There is no radio, phone or TV. We expect them to fight?

Three, provide intelligence back-up. As Dandewata shows there was enough information but it was either not shared or simply ignored. The authorities need to sanitize people in the periphery of the security forces: drivers, sweepers and local policemen to ensure that Maoists do not have access to vital information that would help them to mount deadly attacks. Also, one has to think out-of-the-box and adopt unique tactics. Along with constant and continuous uniformity in response.

Four, one has to be ever vigil. It is a well-known fact that one should not use vehicles on the beaten track as it could be mined, instead move on foot. Take a page of Andhra and Punjab. In Andhra it was compulsory for every sub-inspector recruited to train in anti-Naxal operations and IPS officers were posted in Naxal-hit districts before being made SPs.’ In Punjab,  terrorism was  rooted out by the police taking on the terrorists head on. With the CRPF, BSF and the Army playing a supporting role.

Further, learn from the forces. When the military finds the condition tough, it does a tactical retreat, regroup and again assault. The security forces need to do the same. The role and the task of the paramilitary forces need to be overhauled and restructured in terms of command and control. An integrated manpower policy needs to be adopted for the armed, paramilitary and central police forces.

What next? We need to remember that war is a continuation of politics by another name. As Chanakya told Chandragupta Maurya, it is not enough to cut off an offending plant you must destroy its roots. Similarly, the  roots of Maoism lie in the deficit of democracy and development in large parts of rural and tribal India. Our leaders need to address this. Collectively forge a policy to make land-tillers stakeholders and implement laws on forest rights.

Unless and until we have a two-pronged approach --- superior counter-insurgency to put down violence, and good governance to remove the exploitation of tribals by non-tribals blood will continue to flow in the jungles and districts of India. With a judicious mix of the law and order and winning hearts this can be achieved. The forces need to be seen by the exploited masses as caring and sensitive to their anger and bitterness towards the Maoists.

In sum, the time has come for Prime Minister Singh for  working out a comprehensive political, operational and human strategy for dealing with the menacing Red Brigade. Time to abhor sentiment and emotion, roll up on sleeves and think ruthless. The lives of our security personnel is not easy currency. Chidambaram is dead on:  The buck stops with the Government. It remains to be seen if the powers-that-be have the heart for spilling blood. Needless to say, it’s going to be a dirty, messy and bloody war till the finish. Certainly, not for the chicken hearted! ---- INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)