IF INDIA’S economy has been growing at the rate of nine per cent for the last two years, why should it bother us? If an Indian company concludes a deal to buy a steel multinational at $12 billion and other Indian companies are acquiring businesses in Europe and the US by the hundreds, why should it concern us? Or if the US government announces 800,000 visas for the Indians during one year, next only to the number of visas issued to the Mexicans who live next door, should we be bothered?

Yes, it does bother one because we were carved out of the same country 60 years ago and have had a kind of a sibling rivalry ever since. If Malaysia came from behind and overtook us that is a another thing, or if South Korea borrowed our development strategy in the 1960s and is now miles ahead of us, that is a far-off country. But if India is getting ahead of us, it gives one a hollow feeling in the pit of one’s stomach.

I had the opportunity to travel through India early this month on a consultancy assignment and what I saw needs to be shared with my dear countrymen for a possible wake-up call – knowing well that it may not have the desired effect considering the depth of our slumber.

Since there was no contact with officialdom during this trip, my impressions are based on personal observations and through meeting ordinary people. To give a sense of India today, it is possible to indicate a few things that strike one as different from Pakistan. These are related in no particular order.

While I was in Amritsar, the election campaign for the Punjab state assembly elections was in full swing. In that connection I was told that the DG police (equivalent to our IG police) had been recently transferred out on the orders of the election commission, the reason being that the opposition had complained to the election commission that the chief minister of Punjab had recently allowed the conversion of a plot belonging to the Punjab DG’s brother for the construction of a hotel. Note the transfer was ordered by the election commission.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Amritsar to address a political rally to support Congress candidates. It was reported in the press that the attendance at the prime minister’s political rally was rather poor. Finding it odd I asked someone as to why the district administration was sleeping. Were they that incompetent that they could not arrange an audience for the rally of the prime minister? I was told that this did not happen in India. If the DC had tried to be efficient and to show his loyalty to the prime minister, he would have lost his job.

In the state of Bihar during the election campaign, the DG police surreptitiously visited Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, the former chief minister and the current railway minister, at his residence in a private car. The visit was reported by the press. Political opponents of Laloo Prasad reported the matter to the election commission. The DG was shunted out of the state immediately.

Now on the lighter side, we went to see a film in Amritsar. Having gotten there a little early, we had to wait in the main lobby of the cinema hall. Waiting along with us were beggar women with several small children. Nobody harassed or pushed them out because they also had tickets. Inside the cinema they sat a few rows ahead of us.

I observed with intense curiosity the behaviour of young men in the presence of young women at public places. No one stares at women, a great pastime for us Pakistani men. As a matter of fact, the sight of a girl driving a scooter does not even elicit the batting of an eyelid.

While in Delhi, we asked someone to direct us to a particular restaurant we had visited the last time we were there. We were told that the building in which the restaurant was located had been pulled down as per the orders of the supreme court as it had been built on that land against the rules. The officials who had allowed the illegal construction were being prosecuted.

In Mumbai, we spent a weekend at the farm of an affluent friend. This farm was 50km from the city. During our two-day stay we did not see a single security guard. When we asked our friend how he, despite his affluence, lived without security, we were told that a few years ago, he used to have a number of gunmen, but was now left with only one, and he did not feel it necessary to carry his gun with him all the time. We were told that a few years ago, his servants used to avoid going out at night to the town for grocery shopping, but that things had improved since and there was no longer any risk in driving on those roads at any time of night or day.

On the streets of Mumbai one was struck by the sight of thousands of taxis, all of the same brand of an old model of Fiat. They do not have air-conditioning, are run mostly on CNG and charge strictly as per a digital meter, which cannot be tampered with. There is no bargaining and no arguments on the fare with the commuters. The traffic is exasperatingly slow-moving but orderly. No one tries to push the other off the road, so while it takes hours to get from one part of the city to the other, everyone seems to be at peace with himself and there are no fights or undue blowing of horns or a show of discourtesy to each other. While walking on most roads one did not see any beggars and the only person who sometimes pesters you is the shoeshine boy.

Indians despite their numbers and recent success have not dropped their bias towards Pakistan. We could not find any Pakistani television channel in any hotel or home on cable TV. When asked we were told that it is so because there is no demand from the Indian public to watch Pakistani television. This is an unbelievable argument, but they give it to you with a straight face.

Newspapers also carry only negative news about Pakistan, especially news pertaining to terrorism. I came away with that impression that the image of Pakistan in the eyes of the Indian public is being lowered day by day as they are not being encouraged to see the normal face of Pakistan. Most Indians who visit Pakistan, therefore, go back pleasantly surprised.

An Indian businessman, who visits Lahore very often, on being asked what he found different in Lahore, said that two things stood out. Firstly, Pakistani hospitality is overwhelming. (This is the impression of not just one Indian). Secondly, he got the distinct impression that in our society the maxim of might is right fits well and he felt that important people in Pakistan could get away with anything. According to him, the Indian judiciary and the press make sure that nobody feels that they are above the law in India.

Actor Sanjay Dutt, who is very popular amongst the masses because of his role in film Munna Bhai, was recently convicted by a terrorist court for an offence committed in 1993 on the charge of possessing illegal weapons. He was cleared of the charge of terrorism. Since the mandatory term for possessing illegal arms in India is five years, he is attending court to receive the final verdict on his sentence. The anti-terrorist court took years to decide the case but did not lose sight of it and did not let it die. Also the message of law being equal for all is clear, and the offence of possessing arms is highlighted for everyone to note.

These may be small observations but they pertain to a country of which we were once a part. The earlier we get out of our state of denial the better it would be for us and, more importantly, for our future generations.

The writer is a former interior secretary.
Email: tasneem.noorani@tnassociates.net

THE expression of shock at the state of law and order in Punjab is just not good enough to rectify the countrywide malaise of disorder. Such expressions are well-meaning but do little to rectify the ground situation. The Chief Justice of Pakistan is the latest in a long list of high-ups who have joined in deploring the state of things related to the maintenance of law and order in the country.

What has prompted these remarks by the Chief Justice is the cold-blooded killing of the additional advocate-general, Chaudhry Arif Bhindar, his younger brother and six others. This ghastly happening in Lahore has of course been followed by the usual expressions of sorrow and grief throughout the country. But beyond that, one sees little that is likely to happen in the form of containing and eliminating altogether the phenomenon of wanton killing of people.

Coming straight to the point, may I put my finger on what has seriously gone wrong with our society? The situation, as it is, was bad enough at the time when the military took over the running of the country’s affairs in 1999. But since then, the law and order situation in the entire country has been on a rapid downhill course. The biggest blunder in the running of the country since 1999 has been the abolition of the office of the district magistrate along with the executive magistracy as his tool in taking the initiative in preserving the peace by maintaining law and order in districts all over the country.

And what has been put in the place of the district magistrate/deputy commissioner? The new dispensation consists of a loose triumvirate of sorts. The nazim apparently is intended to be the new king-pin. In theory, he is there as the overall controller of the administration of law and order, revenue collection, municipal affairs, development and so on. But with all that formally placed in his hands and without either the training or the capacity for maintaining the equilibrium in any society is indeed a strange combination. In the conduct of his functions, he is supposed to be assisted by the DCO who in turn has institutionally taken a hammering and been substantially eroded as a consequence of devolution.

As a result of this downward process that officially goes by the name of devolution, the district magistrate who, magistrate has in effect been reduced to something of a staff officer of the nazim. He therefore lacks the inherent overriding powers that his institutional predecessor used to possess. He is now officially named and described as the district coordination officer who, when the chips are down, is without any real clout and is no longer the local centrepiece that he once was. Now he is described as well as called a DCO.

And yet the third element in the local administrative equation — the police — has survived the process of devolution. Not only that, the police’s power and influence has increased compared to that wielded by almost every other civilian apparatus. Its command and control mechanism and departmental systems have not only survived but also been further beefed up from time to time without much justification.

Over the years, the military has always had a soft corner for the police and has generally treated them as a useful paramilitary force always available at their beck and call, somewhat like the Rangers who are the beneficiaries of both the military and civilian budgets. Therefore, it is no coincidence that it is the police that have come out of the devolution process as winners. As an aggregate force, they still have a lot of deficiencies but there is no denying that they have gained more clout added to their already over-weaning powers and influence as compared to the rest of the civilian paraphernalia.

Since the police happen to be a uniformed force, they have indeed successfully found their way around and managed to get a lot closer to the armed forces and gained a lot of ground in the process. But the growing importance of the police has not done much to better the crime situation in the country.

To sum up, one may say that it is only the path of judicial activism that is the viable alternative through which the making of arbitrary changes in our systems can be effectively checked in the present circumstances. The Chief Justice is therefore perfectly justified when he expresses his shock at the current state of Punjab’s law and order situation.

Not a day passes without some horrific law and order incident being reported. Surely the chief justice is fully aware that the law and order situation in the country was much better when there were district magistrates and executive magistracies in every district of the country. Since the elimination of the office of the district magistrate things have really got out of control. If we are pragmatic enough would it not be in the fitness of things to revert to the institution of the district magistrate that we thoughtlessly abolished nearly five years ago? These officers were accountable and subordinate to the higher judiciary.

Neighbouring India still retains the system of district magistrates and an executive magistracy. It is about time that as a nation we woke up and re-enacted the time-tested methodologies that the British administration in the subcontinent had introduced and left behind for us. In those days a great deal of crime used to be pre-empted through preventive proceedings. That would indeed be the most sensible way of tackling the worsening law and order problems facing the country. The Chief Justice has in a short period come out with some momentous decisions and hopefully he will not restrict himself to only expressing his shock on the terrible law and order situation that every citizen experiences almost every day, but suggest appropriate remedial measures.

PREDICTABLY enough, the action of the police in last year's Forest Gate raid has been excused with the mildest of rebukes. Out of more than 150 complaints, only a tiny number were upheld. The whole operation, you will recall, was a figment of the security services' imagination.

A fortnight ago, there was another spectacular anti-terrorist operation, this time in Birmingham, concerning an alleged plot to kidnap a Muslim member of the armed forces. The pattern of these operations is now well established. The police swoop on an area, make dozens of arrests, accompanied by lurid media reports about the would-be plotters' intentions. There have now been charges, although an innocent party who was arrested and then released has given a disturbing account of his experience in custody.

The most alarming example was last summer, when it was alleged there was a plot hatched in Pakistan to blow up as many as 10 aircraft, which resulted in a huge security clampdown at Heathrow and new hand-luggage rules. But, despite a number of charges, a degree of scepticism would be wise, given the experience of cases such as the plot that never was.

Just what are these operations about? You may remember MI5 chief Eliza Manningham-Buller suggested last November that the intelligence services had discovered 30 "plots to kill people and to damage our economy", often with "links back to Al Qaeda in Pakistan and through those links Al Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale". The authority for such a statement, I assume, comes from MI5 agents.

The quality of such reports, though, must be treated with profound scepticism, dependent as they are on the doubtful calibre and knowledge of these agents and the tendency of such people to live in a semi-fantasy world of endless conspiracy. The fact remains that, notwithstanding the huge security operations and the large numbers arrested, relatively few people have actually been charged. The test of justice is, fortunately, more demanding than the criteria used to justify headlines and political hyperbole.

Of course, we must take terrorist threats seriously -- but also the price we pay for these alarums. They magnify our sense of trepidation and persuade people the worst is about to happen: it is under the cloak of such fear that governments on both sides of the Atlantic have been able to impose swingeing restrictions on civil liberties. The fact remains, however, that deaths in the UK from Islamist terrorism have been far fewer than those perpetrated by the IRA.

Meanwhile, the price for these constant security operations is paid, above all, by our Muslim communities. Every such operation tars them with the brush of terrorism, anintimation to rest of society that extremism lurks within their ranks.

The scapegoating of the Muslim community has become the stock in trade of politicians, the Conservatives recently accusing the Muslim Council of Britain of separatist tendencies, and New Labour all too frequently indulging in the same kind of refrain -- notably during the most disgraceful period of its domestic rule last autumn, when cabinet ministers were falling over themselves to make disparaging remarks about the Muslim community.

The argument typically starts from the global terrorist threat and ends up by suggesting the Muslim community nurtures and sustains such a terrorist mentality by its failure to integrate. Jack Straw squirmed about the veil, Ruth Kelly inveighed against imams, Alan Johnson proposed that faith schools admit up to 25 per cent not of the same faith (patently directed against the Muslim community), and John Reid warned a Muslim audience of "fanatics looking to groom and brainwash [your] children ... for suicide bombing".

Amid this panic-inducing rhetoric, there was little acknowledgment that Muslims suffer more discrimination than any other section of society, no recognition that every attack on their community can only intensify that prejudice. Imagine what it feels like to be a Muslim, stalked by a constant sense of distrust and suspicion? As a society we may condemn racism, but when it comes to Muslims, it seems to be somehow acceptable, from the cabinet downwards.

And what is to blame for this failure to integrate? Prejudice, perhaps? Discrimination? Racism? No, according to David Cameron, Ruth Kelly and many others, the cause would appear to be multiculturalism. Pause for a moment and spot the slippage in the argument. It is no longer only about Muslims but all our ethnic minorities. For enshrined in the principle of multiculturalism is the idea that the white community does not insist on the assimilation of ethnic minorities but recognises the importance of pluralism.

It is not about separatism but a respect for difference - from colour and dress to customs and religion. The attack on multiculturalism is the thin end of the racism wedge. It seeks to narrow the acceptable boundaries of difference at a time when Britain is becoming ever more diverse and heterogeneous. —Dawn/Guardian Service

The writer is a visiting research fellow at the Asia Research Centre, London School of Economics.