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| February 12, 2007 | Monday | Muharram 23, 1428 |
Revamping the judiciary
Marriage halls or a nuisance?
Mitra’s startling revelation
DEEP into Dr Ashok Mitra's new book, A Prattler's Tale: Bengal, Marxism and Governance, I began to feel a growing sense of irritation. Here was this virtually ceaseless, seamless sequence of the most wonderful political anecdotes I had read in years, and so many of them lost the last-mile edge because the author had refused to name names, although the descriptions took you near enough the identity.
IT AMOUNTS to putting the cart before the horse. But that is how the city government of Karachi backed by the Sindh governor seems to be working. The city still has no master plan — there is talk of a plan being on the anvil — and mega projects costing billions of rupees are being implemented piecemeal. On Friday, the president, who flew in from Islamabad, inaugurated the signal-free corridor connecting Sharea Faisal to SITE. He also performed the ground-breaking ceremony for the elevated expressway from Jinnah Bridge to the Quaidabad intersection. Since the details of the expressway are not known, one can only raise questions about the plan, as serious reservations have been expressed about its feasibility. They also offer some lessons on how city projects should not be planned and executed, wherever they are in the country.
The first lesson to be learnt is that the basic principle of town planning is that a master plan should be in place and then the various projects that are considered necessary according to the government’s priorities should be integrated into it after due consultations with the stakeholders. Needless to say, the execution of projects should be carried out in phases to cause minimum of inconvenience and trouble for the citizens. This is important if the projects are to improve living conditions in the city and solve its problems. Since it is widely accepted that development must not damage the environment, the universal approach is to require planners to obtain an environment impact assessment and hold public hearings to allow experts and stakeholders to guide the planners and point out the pitfalls.
Unfortunately nothing of this kind has been done. Although huge sums of taxpayers’ money are spent —three billion rupees for the signal-free corridor and $350 million for the elevated expressway — one is not certain what their impact will be on land use, environment and economic activities. Experience shows that many such projects have not resolved the initial problems they were meant to address. They have at best shifted the congestion from one spot to another while creating new problems. Karachi’s Clifton underpass is a good example of this. As for the ecological damage done by many of these projects, they will only be known later. It will also be after some time that it would be possible to assess the quality of construction of these projects. Many roads built a few months ago are now beginning to develop cracks and crevices making one wonder about their durability.
We have been hearing a lot about the elevated expressway in the past several months but not many technical details are available. It seems that it will be built above Sharea Faisal with pillars being sunk in central traffic islands. For three or four years as the construction work goes on, one can visualise the mess this key communication artery will be in for a long time. After the expressway is completed and becomes operational, the lower lanes will have plenty of noxious fumes trapped in there. All this makes an NOC from the Sindh Environmental Protection Agency for the expressway all the more necessary. Unfortunately, this has not been taken. For this it is important to empower the Sindh Environmental Protection Tribunal to enforce its writ.
THE views of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court that the average citizen is losing faith in the country’s judicial system will be shared by many people, including under-trial prisoners who have spent years in jail and others facing a delay in court proceedings. The need for judicial reform has been stressed several times but, although there has been increased activism on the part of the superior judiciary, there is little to suggest that the process of litigation at the level of the lower courts has been speedy or transparent. Corruption has seeped into the ranks of the lower judiciary which is also hamstrung by a chronic shortage of magistrates and other court officials. The number of cases pending before both the lower and higher judiciary is staggering. Given the large number of new lawsuits that are filed almost everyday, it becomes difficult to clear the existing backlog.
All this has made access to justice difficult, especially for the poor man who may not even have the resources to hire a lawyer. In turn, this situation has strengthened the hand of the jirgas that have survived the existing ban on them simply because they have provided a forum for inexpensive and speedy justice if it can be called that. While their use as effective arbiters in the settlement of disputes cannot be questioned, they have many regressive features that are contrary to civilised norms and principles. Reforms must then focus more on the lower judiciary and also aim at removing infrastructural deficiencies in the legal structure, such as the shortage of prison vehicles to produce detainees before court. Above all, the public must be kept informed of what is being done to ensure speedy and transparent justice and how funds — such as the ADB’s multimillion-dollar package — meant for expediting reform are being used. Unfortunately, one of the reasons why justice is both delayed and flawed is because of public apathy on the issue. Sensitising the people about their rights will go a long way in ensuring that the judicial system is overhauled so that cases don’t pile up and justice is done.
MARRIAGE halls in Karachi are doing a roaring business but in a manner that has become a nuisance. Profiting perhaps from the absence of any rules regarding the conversion of residential plots into marriage halls, property sharks are minting money in utter disregard of the fundamental principles of town planning and urban life. Not perhaps without the knowledge of the corrupt in the city government, marriage halls have sprung up throughout the city and in the most unimaginable of places. As a rule all wedding venues must provide for a parking lot. Instead, what we see is traffic chaos not only on main roads but also in neighbouring lanes and bylanes. In many parts of the city, marriage halls are located right on the main roads. This results not only in traffic jams but also in air and noise pollution for the entire neighbourhood. In most cases, these marriage halls were once homes which were sold at fabulous prices in what has become a seller’s market.
To drive some sense into this business, the Karachi Building Control Authority and other relevant departments should enforce the existing rules besides devising some new ones to stop the proliferation of marriage halls. In the first place, no marriage hall should be allowed to be established on a main road. Second, anyone intending to build a marriage hall must provide for an adequate parking lot. Third, at a time when the government is taking measures to save energy, lights at marriage halls should be switched off by 10.30 pm. At present, too much electricity is wasted because over-lit marriage halls continue to glitter up to 2 am and beyond. This will not only save scarce electricity but perhaps make hosts and guests realise the importance of time, instead of serving and eating dinner at midnight.
Dr Mitra's career is packed with "former" designations – chairman of the agricultural prices commission and chief economic adviser to the government of India when Mrs Indira Gandhi was prime minister (she called him Ashok), finance minister to Jyoti Basu after the Left Front triumph in Bengal in 1977 – and his memoirs are a treasure house of incident, perception, analysis and sheer good fun, replete with the kind of story that is a highlight of the epicurean adda, or gossip, sessions that were and are a preferred privilege of the Kolkata Bengali elite.
This book will be exploited by the intelligent historian and should be enjoyed by anyone remotely interested in public affairs. Dr Mitra has a justified reputation for fearless honesty. So why had he hidden so many names?
And then, ouch! I came across a comment about me that was sharp to the point of being merciless. Relief followed: Ashokda, which is how I have called him for well over two decades, did not mention my name.
I went down on a metaphorical knee to offer thanks to God, in whom Dr Mitra does not believe, and the author, in whom Dr Mitra does. Was the comment accurate?
Yes. It was absolutely correct and I fully deserved the toxic barb. Dr Ashok Mitra is honest, but he is not ruthlessly honest. Phew.
Mine was a case of trivia, but the absence of names in one story was of serious import. Dr Mitra has a startling revelation about the surprise appointment of Dr Manmohan Singh as P.V. Narasimha Rao's finance minister in 1991.
This is his narrative: Foreign exchange reserves had shrunk to a point where they could cover only a fortnight's imports. India was "fast approaching bankruptcy".
The US administration, in coordination with the IMF and World Bank, sent a "categorical message" to Delhi through "secret talks" that began as soon as the Lok Sabha results were known: obey and save yourselves, or object and go hang. Delhi agreed to obey. But wary of similar assurances that had been belied in Latin America, Washington sought an implicit guarantee.
It was decided that "the IMF and the World Bank would nominate the finance minister of the country after consultations with the US authorities". It is an astonishing assertion: in the words of the author, "the prerogative of naming the new finance minister was also transferred to Washington".
This is followed by a second bombshell.
"The first person whose name was proposed by Washington DC, thought things over and declined the invitation to be the finance minister." Who was this person? We are not told. This is a serious gap in information, because the credibility of such a damaging revelation dwells at least partly on the name of this first offer-and-decline. We all know who the second choice was; today he is prime minister of India.
Dr Mitra describes this as an "ignominious surrender" and asserts that the "high noon
of that state of affairs continues".
Dr Mitra has seen power in Delhi and Kolkata; he has no political ambitions left. Two of his mentors, Indira Gandhi and the CPI(M) guru, Promode Dasgupta, have passed away. The third, Jyoti Basu, is 93 and has retired. Anyone who knows Dr Mitra will vouch for his integrity.
He describes Dr Singh as a once close friend, and is disillusioned only when he realises that "Manmohan had meanwhile matured as a skilled politician" who could sidestep facts with political rhetoric.
He is not charitable about Manmohan the politician: "I am afraid there is little scope for politeness here: his timidity is the product of his civil servant's mind, which many mistake as humility".
Dr Mitra is experienced and mature enough to measure each word he writes, and if he claims that Dr Singh's sudden rise to eminent political office was at the instructions of Washington, he definitely means it.
I have no information against which to measure this claim, and must take it at face value. But my view is of no consequence. The more important question, given current political equations, is, whether the CPI(M) believes the man it made finance minister of Bengal in 1977, and who could have continued as finance minister till the end of the last century. Dr Singh cannot remain prime minister without CPI(M) support.
A further question: does the American establishment believe this? The present American ambassador, David Mulford, is gauche enough to admonish Delhi on the eve of Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Iran through a press conference.
Even if he had to convey a message, what was the need for a gratuitous press conference? Would Mrs Indira Gandhi have tolerated such an indiscretion? I think not. Will Pranab Mukherjee and Manmohan Singh accept it? I hope not. Their response does not have to be belligerent; that is always unwise. But their actions should speak louder than Mulford's words.
Dr Mitra does not let political animosity – and no one could be more animous than him – interfere with his judgment. There is an evocative and almost sympathetic portrait of the RSS titan, M.S. Golwalkar. The two met when Indira Gandhi appointed both to the cow-slaughter committee, set up after the famous march to parliament by sadhus in November 1966. The Jagatguru Shankaracharya of Puri was also a member. Golwalkar, says Dr Mitra, was “extraordinarily intelligent, modest in manner, soft-spoken. (He was) fluent in all the 15 languages recognised by the Constitution, and made it a point to converse with me in the most chaste Bengali. It was the Jagatguru who was single-handedly capable of driving us to desperation”.
Later, Dr Mitra met Golwalkar on a train to Bhopal: “we embraced each other and exchanged many stories” until the train picked up speed and the men brought out their books. “Suddenly I noticed that Golwalkar was reading a juicy novel by Henry Miller.” Dr Mitra adds, as well he might, “Inscrutable India!”
It gets more inscrutable, with gossip about a Bengal governor's wife carting away the excellent wine cellar from Kolkata's Raj Bhavan on her husband's retirement. Apparently, Vijayalakshmi Pandit, Jawaharlal Nehru's sister, seemed to have similar tendencies. When she returned from Washington, where she had served as ambassador, she brought back expensive carpets which she "forgot" to pay for. Any interest in what Ramakrishna Hegde thought of his fellow chief minister N.T. Rama Rao's sleeping costume? I am not going to supply the answer.
The book is spiced with one-liners that could form an independent manual. The one I particularly liked was: "Parents without an adequate dose of humour are a social menace".
The context is extremely funny: fortunately for the publishers, who would like to sell copies, there is no space here for this wonderful episode from the day on which Dr Mitra was first elected.
No space either for the reasons that compelled Dr Mitra to resign as finance minister. Suffice to note that conscience, now a stranger to politics, played a key role.
A close encounter with death is dealt with the light touch of a master. He recalls his impressions when his pulse rate, fluttering between 25 and zero, would drop towards the death zone: "…my whole consciousness would be wrapped in a steady, serene, very comfortable purple glow and the feeling would be of excruciating happiness".
He does not go beyond this, but that sentence is heavy with possibilities for an atheist.
If there is one fault, then it is the coy and cloying intrusion of nicknames. But nickname mania among the Bengali elite is also a message of inclusion; only the outsider uses the formal nomenclature. Ashok Mitra might have been a Marxist-rebel, but that does not mean he was excluded from the elitist club. Indeed, the prodigal is always enhanced by a touch of glamour.
Don't wait for details about the withering reference to me. I might be a fool, but I certainly am not an ass. If you do want to play hide and seek with seven fascinating decades, buy the book and open it anywhere. You won't put it down.
The writer is editor-in-chief of The Asian Age, New Delhi.