Two Pieces from the Sentinel:
( Highlighting mine)
Army the Main Hurdle
At a time when the people of Assam are so desperately awaiting a
positive response from the ULFA that it will sit for talks with the
Government of India, there is reason for despair as the ULFA has again
resorted to its earlier stratagem of playing hot and cold by turns. What
started as the ULFA's constitutional difficulties in sending a written
confirmation to the Union Government of its willingness to sit down for
negotiations, has now been supplemented by yet another reason for ULFA's
reluctance to come to the negotiating table. The ULFA leadership now says
that the Indian Army has decided to extend further its presence in Asom by
expanding its bases in Misa, near Nagaon and Changsari, near Guwahati.
ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah is strongly opposed to such
expansion moves not merely because of the implications for the ULFA, but
also because "more militarization" would displace a large number of "our
people" from their land and take away huge stretches of arable land that
can feed thousands of people. It is another matter that the ULFA has been
silent all along about the huge stretches of land occupied by Bangladeshis
around the Kaziranga National Park (KNP) that has gone for many years.
Obviously the ULFA has decided to turn a blind eye to this loss of
Asom's arable land. If anything, this is one clear indication of what the
ULFA is going to do to Asom if it ever manages to secure sovereignty for
our State. It is going to hand over the State to the ISI of Pakistan the
very next day. So we in Asom ought to know what to expect if the ULFA
secures sovereignty.
Having said this, it is also necessary to assert that every
valid argument does not become a bad one merely because it has been
offered by the ULFA. Everyone in Asom and the Northeast will agree that
the sustained army presence in the region with special powers vested even
in the non-commissioned officers has given rise to a situation without
parallel anywhere in the civilized world. With the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act and the Disturbed Areas Act in force, the armed
forces can treat anyone in Asom and some of the northeastern States as no
better than street dogs, to be shot down at the smallest provocation.
And the Army has taken full advantage of these two Draconian laws to
stage countless fake encounters and kill innocent youths on the plea that
they were terrorists or were engaged in anti-national activities. Army
jawans have done all this as coolly as they have raped women in rural
areas as well as in State capitals like Imphal. No wonder, even very
senior dyed-in-the-wool retired army officers from the north have
expressed the view that today the army in Asom is an army of
occupation. Nothing could be a better assessment of the Indian Army as
it has managed to project itself. One is naturally beginning to ask
another very pertinent question: Is the army here only to tackle
insurgency (which it has not managed to too well despite its overkill in
this region), or is there a vested interest that has very little to do
with counter-insurgency responsibilities? One does not easily forget the
armed forces' presence in Jammu & Kashmir in the days of Governor's
rule. Everyone in the bureaucracy, the police, the armed forces and the
paramilitary forces was singing the same refrain: that it was impossible
to hold elections in Jammu & Kashmir. This was because they were all
very anxious to continue Governor's rule indefinitely. After all,
Governor's rule meant no State Assembly and therefore no accountability
anywhere. The bureaucracy, the military, the police and the paramilitary
forces could do precisely what they liked. And the sums of money going in
from the Centre to J&K were astronomical. So what is so terribly
surprising about a vested interest growing up there to postpone elections
for as long as possible. In like manner, the value of food and other
supplies coming in for the armed forces in the Northeast has also become
astronomical. So what is to rule out a similar vested interest convincing
the Centre that the armed forces should not only continue to remain in the
Northeast for counter-insurgency operations, but that military presence
here has to be enhanced.
However, it is difficult to agree with the views of Paresh
Baruah about keeping out a nuclear research centre from the region to
process the uranium from the rich deposits in Meghalaya. Uranium is best
handled in the public sector with very stringent controls. Otherwise the
Meghalaya uranium will find its way to Bangladesh and Pakistan. The fear
of ecological hazards is a misplaced fear considering that the Bhaba
Atomic Research Centre has been functioning in Mumbai for decades without
any known harm to anyone. There are also a few nuclear power plants
running in different parts of India without any mishaps so far. And
nuclear plants for producing electricity will be the norm in the years to
come. That is why the processing of nuclear materials is far safer in the
public sector.
Good governance, which way?
ON THE
SPOT
Tavleen Singh
This piece is about the failure of governance not about the post
office. But, I am going to begin with a description of the Nariman Point
post office in Mumbai with the idea of showing you that we cannot have
governance, national security or dream of being an economic superpower as
long as we have public buildings that look like garbage dumps. Why this
particular post office? Because I went there last week to retrieve a
parcel of books that was confiscated under some outdated law made in the
days when India was desperately short of foreign exchange. More about that
later.
The first thing that hits you when you enter Nariman
Point post office in fashionable, up market South Mumbai is the
unmistakable stench of uncleaned toilets because this amenity has been
thoughtfully provided at the entrance. Visitors are forced to notice the
grime that coats white tiled walls not to mention unspeakable other
sights. You then wander into rooms with paan-stained walls and filled with
dust from old files and packages making what should be the reception area
of the post office look like a disused warehouse. By the time I got to the
official I had come to see, Mahesh Anand Wagholikar, sub-postmaster and
public relations inspector, I was so disgusted with the state of his
office that I berated him for not doing more to keep it clean. He seemed
surprised but said it was because the government did not give them funds
for maintenance. I told him he could clean things up by putting his staff
to work. They seemed to be doing very little. This annoyed him.
Then, I demanded to know what gave him the right to confiscate a
parcel that belonged to me and how dare he send me a notice that said it
would be 'returned to sender' if I did not collect it within five days. He
said I had refused to pay the postman who brought the parcel so this was
procedure. I told him the parcel was from
Amazon.com and contained books
and I had already paid postage for them. He said the money was customs
duty and I pointed out that there was no duty on books which confused him
but made him more belligerent. 'You can't come in here and start making a
racket like this,' he said raising his voice 'this is a government
office'. This made me belligerent and I told him that as a government
servant he was there to serve the people not get officious with them. He
got angrier and threatened not to give me my parcel even though I had by
now paid Rs 600 for it. He also refused to give me a receipt.
To
cut a long story short, I complained to the Principal Chief Post Master
General, Ms Noorjehan, and got an apology and a receipt for the money
along with an explanation. A postal law made in 1985 obliges us to pay for
parcels coming from abroad because in those days we were so short of
foreign exchange that the government was forced to charge those who dared
to spend it. Times have changed as has the state of our foreign exchange
reserves but the law remains.
Why do I consider this story
important? Because I want to draw your attention to the sad reality that
good governance is impossible as long as officials work out of public
buildings that look like garbage dumps. Good governance, like charity,
begins at home. Officials who work in filthy, disorderly conditions cannot
begin to dream of providing us with the standards of governance we need if
our cities are to look like clean, modern cities. They cannot be expected
to provide us first world services if they work in third world conditions.
Post offices, police stations and public hospitals must be well run if we
want these services and utilities to improve but sadly we only become
aware of this in times of crisis. So it was only after the bombs went off
in Malegaon last week that Sonia Gandhi noticed that her government in
Maharashtra had failed to build the hospital that was promised years ago.
National security is a huge issue these days. Recent terrorist
acts have drawn everyone's attention to the inability of our government to
protect the lives of ordinary citizens but while expressing our anger we
seem unable to understand that we cannot expect first rate security out of
third rate governance. You only need to visit your local police station to
know that policemen live and work in appalling squalor and conditions of
virtual penal servitude. They are expected to be on duty 24 hours a day
for a pittance. If things are bad in the cities they are beyond horror in
rural parts of our poorer states where our policemen are being ordered to
win the war against the Naxalites. Police stations in rural Uttar Pradesh
and Bihar are infinitely more squalid than the Nariman Point post office
and often policemen are expected to live and work out of the same hovel.
In the glittering public forums of Delhi and Mumbai you hear
much talk these days of India's status as an 'emerging economy' and a
future economic superpower. Nariman Point, they say, is the centre of
our economic might. May I recommend that they visit the post office for a
quick reality check.
