Round The States

New Delhi, 14 May 2009

Counting Of Votes Today

ALL EYES ON GRAND FINALE

By Insaf

 The curtains finally came down on the month-and-a-half-long election for the 15^th Lok Sabha with the final, fifth-phase of voting ending on Wednesday last. In all, 86 constituencies across nine States and two Union Territories went to the polls. The voter turnout in this last leg was by far the best—62%, with West Bengal recording the highest turnout of 80 per cent. However, the overall polling percentage is expected to be no different from 2004’s 58 per cent. And the results too may not be very different, although some veterans expect lots of surprises. Even as all eyes are now set on the grand finale today, Saturday, in the counting of votes, nearly all exit polls project the expected--a fractured verdict and a khichri sarkar. By the evening the counting exercise, involving 12 lakh electronic voting machines, should be over giving the final push to the unrivalled electoral process.

Unlike the past the States are attracting special attention, thanks to the regional parties and the clout that their leaders will be able to exercise in the numbers game. Heading upfront are Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. Will AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha be able to sweep all 40 seats in Tamil Nadu and extract her pound of flesh from either the Congress or the BJP? Mayawati’s BSP in UP is predicted to get lesser number of seats, but is yet to decide in whole tally these would be added. The Left Front is said to be in for a major loss of not only seats but face in both West Bengal and Kerala, and may rethink its loud procrastination of doing any business with the Congress. If Andhra Pradesh’s TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu is expecting to see a drop, will he have much of a choice which way to go. The coming week will see as much action, if not more.  

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Cong-Led Govt In Meghalaya

Unable to get Parliament to ratify President’s Rule in Meghalaya, the UPA-led centre propped up a Congress-led Government in the State with the help of the United Democratic Party (UDP) on Wednesday last. In place since March 18, the President’s rule was revoked on Friday last after the Union Cabinet was told by the Home Ministry that there “was no option” of getting both the Houses to ratify the Rule expire on May 18. Congress leader and former Chief Minister DD Lapang was thus sworn in as Chief Minister for the second time in just over a year. Six others were administered the oath of office. Lapang has been asked to prove his majority in the 61-member Assembly within 15 days. In the Assembly elections March last year, Lapang had been sworn in as CM but could not prove his majority, paving the way for the Meghalaya Progressive Alliance, an NCP-UDP led coalition government. However, the MPA couldn’t complete a year as the Congress poached on its legislators, resulting in imposition of President Rule. The State has the distinction of having had four governments in just over a year!    

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No Re-Poll In Arunachal

Can voting be more than 100 per cent in some booths and the election still be termed as free and fair? In Arunachal Pradesh it appears to be so, if one goes by the Election Commission’s explanation. On Friday last, it rubbished the complaint of BJP MP from Arunachal West, Kiren Rijiju and rejected the demand for a re-poll in 65 booths. In the second phase of polling, Rijiju had alleged there was total capturing of booths in 3-Mukto and 18-Palin constituencies by the Congress and the voters list was doubtful in the latter constituency as the total votes cast jumped from 7,334 in 2004 to 11,096 this election. Besides, in 13-Itanagar constituency there was bogus voting, wherein of the 518 voters 499 votes were cast even though 90 per cent of the voters in the constituency were government employees, who were on election duty outside the district. 

The MP’s allegation that there was over 100 per cent voting too was termed as “false” and baseless by the Commission after a probe. The explanation offered was: “In a small State like Arunachal percentage is not important. Absolute number is. Allegation of 108 per cent voting looks scandalous.” As per its probe, the polling station had 37 voters and all of them voted. This apart, as per EC rules four poll officers also voted, as the staff is given election duty certificate to cast their vote at the booth they are stationed. Expectedly, the BJP had threatened to a launch a strike in the State if its demand was not fulfilled. Will it? Time and tide wait for no one.

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Ladakh Impacts NC-Cong Ties?

The National Conference-Congress alliance in Jammu and Kashmir may well get its first jolt, thanks to the Lok Sabha election. “Unhappy” over the Ladakh seat going to the Congress in the seat-sharing formula, both Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and father Farooq Abdullah, were seen using some pretext or the other to avoid campaigning in the constituency. A Congress leader has made a note of the excuses: “While Farooq told us he has pain in his leg, he was busy attending other functions. Omar said he had been requested to campaign in Uttar Pradesh…However, we kept a helicopter ready to take the NC leaders. But no one showed up for three days…A minister did take the helicopter after much fuss. But he went to Kargil instead, spoke to some people and left after an hour!” The Congress is still confident of retaining the seat as Ladakh is a party stronghold. However, the NC leaders’ conduct has introduced a sour note.

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Anti-Ragging Panels In States

There is encouraging news for students and parents. The Supreme Court on Friday last directed all the State Governments to set-up anti-ragging committees in educational institutions to prevent recurring incidents. To ensure compliance of its orders, the apex court has asked the States to give an undertaking about steps taken and importantly made the heads of educational institutions and the local police liable for disciplinary action if any such incident takes place under their jurisdiction. The detailed directive follows a two-member committee’s probe into the death of Aman Kachroo in a government medical college in Himachal Pradesh this March due to ragging, which triggered a public outcry. At the national level too, the court has asked for the setting up of a panel to suggest remedial steps in school curriculum to check the ragging menace. If not complete eradication, at least a beginning has been made to check the shocking menace of ragging.        

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109 Year-Old Votes In Ludhiana

Ludhiana seems to have made Punjab proud of having the oldest voter and perhaps setting an example for others to follow. In spite of his age and illness Pashora Singh, 109 years-old went and voted at Lalton near Ludhiana on Wednesday last. Pashora has seven children, the eldest being an 80-year-old son and the youngest 50 years. The man clearly looked excited as he reached the polling booth and was even ecstatic after casting his vote at the push of a button instead of using a stamp. Pashora said that “ever since the Britishers left, I have been casting my vote. Every responsible citizen should do so.”  A message which should make those who didn’t vote think twice next time. ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Round The World

New Delhi, 12 May 2009

Taliban Affect

REFUGEE CATASTROPHE IN PAK

By Monish Tourangbam

(School of International Studies, JNU)

The ordeal of the Tamil civilians in Sri Lanka is all but over and yet another humanitarian crisis is unfolding in neighbouring Pakistan. Under pressure from Washington and the fear of the increasing clout of the Taliban, the Pakistan army has started a major military offensive. The current military juggernaut against the Islamic extremists is being billed as a fight for the survival of Pakistan.

But, Islamabad hardly seems to be prepared for handling the crisis of hordes of civilians fleeing the Swat Valley and the surrounding Malakand region, as the operations intensify in the restive North West Frontier Province (NWFP). Thousands of troops backed by warplanes and helicopter gunships are involved in the massive operation against the Taliban and extremist fighters in the area, where jet fighters were pounding suspected rebel hideouts.

A few days ago, when the government eased the curfew, more than 100,000 people reportedly fled the picturesque Swat valley, a former ski resort torn apart by a two-year insurgency led by the Islamist hardliners. With the government unable to provide transport for the panicked and fleeing civilians, people grabbed what they could and streamed into cars and trucks or set off on foot with their meagre belongings.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has described the exodus as an "intensifying" humanitarian crisis. According to the British-based charity Muslim Aid, the crisis threatens to be the largest man-made humanitarian disaster in Pakistan’s post-independence history. The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) is calling it the biggest displacement of people since Rwanda 15 years ago.

As the mass exodus becomes increasingly difficult to manage, it will become more complicated for the Pakistani army to contain the spreading extremism of the Taliban within its borders. As the offensive started early this month, there were perhaps a million people still in Swat. The Pakistani authorities have said that they expect between 500,000 and 800,000 to flee Swat and its neighbouring two districts, Dir and Buner, where operations against the Taliban are also under way. Adding to almost half a million already displaced by anti-Taliban operations elsewhere in Pakistan, the country faces a refugee catastrophe second only to the crisis in Darfur, Sudan. The sheer enormity of the impending crisis will severely test the local authorities’ ability to deal with the problem.

But, there have been reports of extraordinary generosity exhibited by locals in Mardan, who have provided food and shelter for the displaced. Ariane Rummery, a spokeswoman for the UNHCR in Pakistan told reporters that it was “working with other UN partners. We have set up shelter in camps. We are not just providing assistance in the camps but there are a number of humanitarian hubs and distribution points. So we are giving out assistance to people at those centers as well. These can be things like cooking sets, sleeping mats, even plastic sheeting to help make shelter in people's backyards.” This apart, the UNICEF is providing water and sanitation to the refugees, while the UNHCR together with local authorities has set up reception centers on the main routes from Buner and Swat.

Tales of the Taliban terror, accusations of shelling by the army and the misery of sudden destitution fill the camps. “People are in shock. In some cases their homes have been destroyed. They are wondering when they'll be able to go back. Others already say they will not be able to go back,” a UNICEF official interviewed in a Mardan refugee camp said. The scarcity of resources and the rising number of fleeing civilians are severely straining the effort of those trying to reduce the impact of the crisis.

The vast Jalala camp, just north of Mardan, the first big town on the road south out of Swat, has been declared full as was the other main camp in Mardan, called Sheikh Shehzad. Thus, fleeing people in search of shelter would be forced to trek further for help. NWFP Information Minister Mian Iftikhar Hussain lately appealed to the international community to help Pakistan cope with the flood of refugees.

Meanwhile, public opinion has swung decisively against the Taliban since this year beginning.  The fallout of the Swat peace deal has actually helped open the eyes of many to the xenophobic nature of the Taliban. Ijaz Khan, a professor of international relations at Peshawar University, says the Pakistani public was mostly in denial of the Taliban's intentions because what they were doing in Waziristan and other remote parts of Pakistan's tribal areas was largely hidden from the public eye and scantily reported in the national media. As a result, the public often faulted the US and its Western allies for their woes.

But recent events in Swat have changed that. Experts suggest that reliable public opinion data is difficult to obtain in Pakistan, particularly when intimidation prevents people from openly expressing their views. But anecdotal evidence and changes in the way the media presents the issue hints at a sea change in the public mood. The people seem to have largely understood that the Taliban had used the deal to advance their own narrow interest and influence, refusing to disarm even after authorities had stuck to the provisions of the deal.

On May 4, a small anti-Taliban protest in Islamabad was organized by Aalmi Tanzeem-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat, a Barelvi Sunni political party that fears the domination of rival hardline Sunni Deobandi Taliban, who in turn oppose the Sufism revered by the Aalmi Tanzeem-e-Ahl-e-Sunnat. The leaders of this group and its allies are now planning countrywide anti-Taliban protests. “Our demand is that the government should ban these terrorist militants with immediate effect,” says Shafiqur Rehman Qadri, a key leader of the group. “They are agents of America. They should be wiped out. The government should also punish them for martyring innocent people.”

The statement shows that the largely anti-American voice in the Pakistani public opinion has remain unchanged. It is ironical that the same public is booing the Taliban, an enemy that the US is intent on destroying along with the Pakistani government. The public mood is quite complicated. The people are increasingly becoming annoyed with the Taliban and their   increasing influence on Pakistani civil life, and want them to be crushed. But at the same time, they see this war as a fight to save Pakistan and not a proxy war fought by the Pakistanis for the safety of Americans.

At this juncture, the Pakistani establishment should couple its military offensive with a strategy to “sanitize” the areas cleared of the Taliban cadres and equip the Pakistani police adequately to man these areas after the flush-out. India-Pakistan relationship has taken the descending ladder after the Mumbai tragedy and the undoubted reluctance of Islamabad to come clean on its connection. Moreover, the election season will probably hinder New Delhi from giving a prompt response to President Zardari’s overtures of conceding that the Taliban extremism was the No.1 threat, and not India. But keeping the worsening humanitarian crisis in mind, India, as an effective democracy and a responsible State in the international community, should instantly offer help in the form of aid and other such necessary resources. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Sunday Reading

New Delhi, 11 May 2009

Changing Lives

BANKING ON BEGGARS

By Michael Smith

(UK-based author & journalist)

Banking should help the world’s poorest people and not just be profit driven, says banker J S Parthiban. As the country elects a new government, he tells how he has pioneered banking schemes to free people from the grip of exploiting money lenders.

I have always believed that banking is a service-oriented holistic business, rather than just an enterprise where customer service is only part of the overall profit strategy.

In 1998 I became Branch Manager of Indian Bank at Connaught Place, New Delhi. I used my position to help beggars and street vendors to manage their money intelligently and live a life of dignity. There were no bank schemes designed exclusively for them. Yet many people were selling flowers, water, toys and other things on the streets. I watched them doing their business, wondering what they did with all the money they earned.

I was astonished to find that they earned Rs 500 to Rs 600 daily, which not even a graduate or a government official earned. But they also had to pay bribes demanded by the police to allow them to operate on the streets. They were all street smart and the beggars took their work very seriously. But they were ignorant in money management.

Most of them came from nearby States, such as Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, with a lot of dreams, leaving their families back home. They wanted to earn enough money to clear their debts back home, and get their daughters married. They came hoping to return home soon with lots of money and gifts for family members.

But the reality in Delhi was a lot different. There were no steady jobs and their earnings were never enough to make both ends meet. They would borrow from money lenders, at very high interest rates, to get over their immediate problems and frequent borrowings turned into a habit. They never earned or saved enough to clear their debts or take money back home.

Living alone, with no proper place to stay, led them into a life of frustration with no way out. As a result they became alcoholic with some of them getting into the habit of visiting prostitutes.

Their situation would turn from bad to worse when they visited their villages during festivals or other occasions. They would borrow more from money lenders and visit home with lots of gifts and cash, hiding the reality of their lives in Delhi. Once back, they would have to work twice as hard. The high interest rates of money lenders never allowed them to get out of the debt trap. Yet they were totally ignorant of the role that a bank could play in managing their earnings.

I wanted them to get out of debt and live a life of dignity. So I took the initiative to educate them. It took time and a lot of patience to earn their confidence. I would stand by their side, observe them, pick up a conversation and show my genuine concern to understand their lives and businesses.

They opened up and started talking but rejected outright my suggestion of saving money in the bank. They complained that there was no money to save when they didn’t even have enough to make both ends meet. My persistence convinced them at least to give it a try, with small savings to begin with.

They had no idea how to go about it. It was difficult to open a bank account in those days, with many documents needed such as the PAN (Permanent Account Number), ration cards and proof of residence. So I made sure that my bank staff made them comfortable in their understanding of how to open a savings account. In a few initial cases, I even took their personal guarantee. Their need was genuine and I took the risk.

The next logical step was for them to open a fixed deposit, which required less convincing. We opened almost 500 savings accounts and 300 recurring deposit accounts for beggars, newspaper vendors, fruit vendors, tea and paan wallahs, shoe shine boys, restaurant waiters, auto rickshaw and taxi drivers, housewives, police constables and inspectors--everyone opening an account for the first time.

I remember a young man who sold cold water on the street for 50 paisa per glass. He would earn anything from Rs 600 to Rs 700 per day. And, he would have Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 in his pocket and didn’t know where to keep it. The idea of a bank savings account clicked with him. By the time I moved to Tamil Nadu in 2002, he had about Rs 2 lakhs in his account and had repaid his entire loan. He was free from worry and started spending quality time with his family.

Another person was worried about how to educate his son in a decent institute. He found that the bank could take care of the financial aspect, thanks to some schemes with the bank where he had deposited his money. A lady, who used to sell fruits, saved enough money to get one of her daughters married and came back again to set up another account with us.

Now I am the branch manager of the India Bank near Salem, a city of over 750,000 people in Tamil Nadu. The State government initiated Self Help Group schemes, mostly for women who would hardly step out of their homes. The banks lend money at a low interest rate for their needs. Under the scheme the groups can distribute the loan amongst themselves charging an extra 1%. The additional amount is saved by them for future lending to others in the group at a fraction of the rate. My branch has helped around 188 Self Help Groups, with loans totaling Rs 22.5 million. It gives me great joy to see so many groups getting prizes from the government.

In one poor village I discovered the tattered life of families where they cut trees for firewood and brewed illicit alcohol for a livelihood. It was a life they despised but knew no other way to make a living. The husbands were alcoholics making the life of the women and children a constant torture. I listened to their stories and wanted to do something. I convinced them to take a loan from the bank to buy buffalos and work to change their lives.

 Today, they are selling milk and converting buffalo dung into biogas. There is no more brewing in the village and no more cutting down the forests. They have already repaid their entire loan. Life for them has taken a complete U-turn for the better.

 We have worked out other schemes to empower individuals to live a life of dignity, including auto-rickshaw drivers, policemen, prisoners, and even eunuchs who are too often marginalized. I personally organize meetings with them to explain the schemes that will empower them economically. They understand and are saving with the bank, which is playing a key role in transforming society in and around Salem. It gives me great satisfaction to bring happiness to so many poor individuals and their families.

I learnt from my parents that serving others is like serving God, and to always look for opportunities to help others in need. My meeting with the group now called Initiatives of Change, in my student days was also a turning point that changed me forever. It spoke of building a new world and that to change the world one must start with oneself. This has been my conviction ever since. --INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

Open Forum

New Delhi, 6 May 2009

Public Confidence

EFFORTS MUST TO RESTORE IT

By Dr. Manmohan Kapur

In the long history of this planet, the arrival of the Industrial Revolution (1775) produced profound effect on the meaning of progress and life of the people. It set into motion a competitive growth games’ season between nations. During the same period, the earth’s population burden grew from 900 million to 6.5 billion. In the past 30 years there has been an increase of 2 billion people. This large population is being sustained through growth economics and exploitation of the earth's resources which remain finite.

However, today confidence is a recurring theme coming up in our discourse repeatedly. Many articles discuss market confidence as a subject, focused on economic analysis and so also both consumer and investor confidence. However, public confidence in the State and governance is the basic prerequisite, if any confidence is to return to the other areas of human activity.

Public confidence is based on perceptions of citizens of the changes in the world around them, in particular the performance of governance in the field of public affairs and human welfare. Confidence as an entity is intangible and evanescent, but if based in your mind, it has a powerful effect on your behavior and actions.  It is the direct outcome of actions (inaction's) of Government and other diverse public entities that influences your life and living space.

Though impalpable, confidence is lodged in your mind and affects all your responses in the material world. It colors your perceptions of all subsequent events, and induces tranquility and self confidence. Indeed, abiding faith, hope, and expectations are the internalized contours of confidence. It sustains an internal coolness, balance, and imperturbability of the mind.

Thus, the core qualities that create this confidence are perceived fidelity, reliance, trust, and credibility in governance and transparency of functions of service providers, and the Corporates. Once lodged in your mind, it is difficult to dislodge this confidence. However, it can dissipate over time when there are recurring events that induce negative change in the life and living space of citizens.

Lack of confidence has been observed worldwide. Today, markets are stagnant and people have come out on to the streets in protest even in the developed nations. Among the recent events observed were the vote for change in the US and street demonstration against bailouts, and protests in Greece, the UK, France, Iceland, Thailand and Madagascar. In South East Asia, insurgencies and wars of ethnic independence are in progress and unabated acts of terrorism are an every day event. In Africa, the struggle for order in tribal societies has led to brutal tribal wars transforming into genocidal solutions.

For the realistic, these are all evidence of dissatisfaction and loss of confidence in the current order and dispensation. The underlying cause for urgency and anxiety among citizens is the observed environmental effects on human living space. Clean air, water, and food are scarce and expensive. Climate change affects all in different ways. Floods, melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and droughts are only some of the disasters known to us all. Thus, life is under threat and the dooms-day scenario seems real.

Citizens through access to media are aware that many of their woes are related to the pursuit of unlimited economic growth. In fact, they are convinced that the ever-
increasing economic growth paradigm is faulty and unsustainable. Yet it is the unrelenting pursuit of all nations.

The past year, the citizens have learned of the downturn in markets of the world, to say in some countries recession has arrived. Banks are almost the four letter word and faith, hope, confidence in financial institutions is waning. They have also observed that the political leadership in countries, in both hemispheres, has opted out of non-profit areas of citizen’s welfare (health, education). The prevailing wisdom that has guided them (the leaders) is “that if it makes a profit it must be the right path”. This has lead large numbers of citizens to conclude that this is a similar set of values as held by CEO’s of Corporate Houses. Sadly, the social content of governance has decreased.

The above has been a major cause of loss of public confidence. There has also been an observed rise in the numbers of the ‘very rich’ and the ‘very poor’ in the world. Thus, equity in governance is called into question, leading to plummeting of confidence.  If confidence is to be reinstalled, a two-pronged intervention must be adopted.

One, we need bail outs for financial institutions as survival packages in the short and medium term. Two, for the long term we need a major input in security of life and property of citizens, health-care and universal standard education for all. Thus, it is through these efforts, which have a social agenda that we must wait for return of confidence. Clearly, public confidence is crucial for the retail investor to return.

In India, the infrastructure for health care and education already exists in form of schools and 22,000 Primary Healthcare Centres and 4,400 district hospitals. But the Government needs to provide resources to full staffing and supplies for patient care. The PHC must be linked to district hospitals for backup, upgrade of knowledge and skills. Only then will these inputs convert the low-performing assets into high-performing service units.

Likewise, security agencies need to change their mindset from the existing disaster management role, to a more proactive disaster prevention agenda. This requires major inputs in creation of a high technology intelligence gathering organization, linked to a new counter terrorism unit for quick and effective preventive action.

The environment damage and climate change can be mitigated by firm adherence to reduction of carbon footprint in our development effort. The scientific community can use its ingenuity to achieve our development goals within these parameters. This will require a larger investment in renewable energy research and product development through use of indigenous material and manpower. The use of house top solar photovoltaic cells, for domestic consumption of energy will reduce load on the national grid, and cut transmission losses.

However, all these efforts may require subsidy. But, at the end of the day confidence is bound to return. Only if the citizen is convinced that Governments are working in the interest of the Aam Aadmi, both here and around the globe. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)