Issue 6

I want to be an agent of change: Nilekani
p.08
The man who wore a sanitary napkin!

p.12
Because the police must be in good health

p.46
April 16-30, 2010 | Vol. 01 Issue 06 | Rs 30
Hand
her
Sonia Gandhi has firmly put social agenda on national centre stage after decades.
p.28
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Founders Team
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contents

08 Interview with Nandan Nilekani
I want to be an agent of change.
12 Innovative launch pad for womens empowerment
28 The uncommon woman

Quietly, Sonia Gandhi has been revising the lexicon of our political discourse as the common man is rising up on the governance agenda. By Ajay Singh From her dress code to her Hindi jokes, what the various facets of her persona tell us about her brand of politics. By Shiv Visvanathan
34 Deconstructing Sonias persona
An innovator who has designed a machine to manufacture sanitary napkins distributes it among women entrepreneurs.
46 Ab tak 56... push-ups

18 Does she have a choice?
The Womens Reservation Bill creates only an illusion that she can decide her own identity, while deeper patriarchal notions remain in place. By Pradeep Bhargava Whenever Modi is criticised, he equates himself with Gujarat, paying tribute to the infamous slogan India is Indira and Indira is India. By Tridip Suhrud This e-court could well be a sneak-peek at the future of the judiciary available at broadband speed, transparent and transcending distances.
World-class gyms, yoga classes, modern kitchen: are these police stations or MNC offices? Resigned to the resignation game...
50 Last Word

36 In defence of dissent
40 This cant be a court! Right, this is e-court!
www.GovernanceNow.com 3
EDITORIALS
Lessons from Dantewada
Unless there is clarity on the objective and the way to go about it, anti-Maoist operation will remain a losing battle
hen things dont turn out as planned, what do you do? Obfuscate. That is what our security agencies did after the massacre of 76 CRPF jawans in Chhattisgarhs Dantewada. First, they claimed the Maoists rained bullets from hilltops after the CRPF contingent was trapped and blasted in a narrow valley. When a TV channel beamed visuals of the massacre site and it turned out to be a plain, they said the insurgents fired from treetops. Similarly, they said at first that the CRPF had rushed to confront the insurgents without informing the local police. Later, they changed it to suggest that it was a planned exercise and that the local police was very much part of that planning. All this, however, is not to suggest that the security agencies alone are to be blamed for the tragedy. It is merely a symptom of a larger malaise a systemic failure. The other day, Ajai Sahni of the Institute for Conflict Management said when the state does not have a strategy, it goes in for operations.
Any engagement of this nature will call for building necessary capacity firstin terms of intelligence as well as training
The Dantewada massacre reflects that syndrome. Both the central and the state governments have been fighting the Maoists for years but there is no comprehensive plan, even when it relates to the short point of engaging and neutralising the insurgents. As any layman will point out, any engagement of this nature will call for building necessary capacity first capacity in terms of understanding the mind of the insurgents, developing sufficient intelligence about their activities and movement, knowing the territory in which they operate and raising a force that can match the guerrilla tactics and jungle warfare techniques they employ. As the Dantewada incident establishes, not one element was in place. Forget the operational details like the Standard Operations Procedure. Take a close look. The CRPF contingent rushed in on the basis of a tip-off, not on the basis of intelligence inputs which would have meant the insurgents exact location, their numbers, the territory where they had holed up and the nature of weapons and explosives they were carrying etc. That these jawans were not trained in jungle warfare and knew little about the guerrilla tactics is also evident. Accounts of survivors suggest that the injured bled for eight hours before they could get medical help and that the villagers ferried many of the dead and the injured to the nearest police post 5 km away in their own vehicles. This would make it clear that there was absolutely no planning. In short, the CRPF contingent was miserably illprepared for the eventuality. Look at the bigger picture. There is utter confusion. At the political level, some chief ministers, like Nitish Kumar and Shibu Soren, wouldnt even attend home minister Chidambarams meet to work out a coordinated strategy, let alone launch an actual operation
in their territories. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tells Chidambaram to mind his language for saying that the buck stops at the CMs table. Mamata Banerjee doesnt know which side she is on. At the civil society level, an important chunk of academics, intellectuals, writers and social activists doesnt tire of screaming genocide, holding protests and rallies to condemn the anti-Maoist operation day in and day out, not even when the CRPF contingent was being butchered in Dantewada. All this cacophony eventually leads to the same old dilemmas; about who is a Maoist and whether his cause is right. Also, since the root cause of insurgency is lack of development, should development activities be carried out in tandem with the security operation? Or before the operation? Or after? Its all as complicated as a 40-year-old unattended to problem will be. Unless there is clarity and consensus on the objective and approach at all levels government, political parties and civil society the anti-Maoist operation will remain a losing battle. The 76 CRPF jawans paid the price of that like hundreds before them.
Dinakaran episode exposes fundamental flaws in the self-appointing mechanism in the judiciary
Time for judicial reforms
he Supreme Court collegium has been under sharp focus for quite some time now, and for all the wrong reasons. The Dinakaran saga is the latest one. A couple of months ago, a retiring chief justice raised serious questions about its functioning, pointing out that there were basic flaws in the procedure and parameters it followed in appointing the higher judiciary. Its transfer policy has been questioned in the court through a PIL. A couple of months ago the central government sent back its recommendation to elevate three judges to the Supreme Court, again raising doubts about its selection process. In the case of Justice P D Dinakaran, it was alleged that his antecedents were not checked before recommending his elevation to the supreme court. When newspapers went to town about how he had accumulated land disproportionate to his known income and, worse (he had allegedly grabbed public land in Thiruvallur district of Tamil Nadu which was found to be true in subsequent inquiries by the collector), the collegium refused to take back his name. Instead, it asked the central government to take a call. And months after an impeachment motion was admitted against him in the Rajya Sabha, the collegium asked him to go on leave. Dinakaran refused to do that, following which it has reportedly recommended that he be shifted as chief justice of the Sikkim high court,
sparking protests there. All these have led to questioning the very mechanism the apex court has adopted in matters of selection and transfer in higher judiciary. For one, the collegium system has no constitutional mandate. It was through three judgments, known as the Judges cases I, II and III, that this judicial selfselection process began. By defying its direction to go on leave and getting away with it, Dinakaran has revealed serious flaws in the way the system worked. If it cant discipline a judge, what authority, moral or otherwise, does it wield in the fraternity? Secondly, there is no transparency in its functioning. Why a judge is selected for elevation or rejected is never known. It has landed the collegium in so many controversies that the Law Commission took suo motu cognizance in 2008 and sent a report to the government asking it to seek a review of the judgements that led to the collegium system or passing a law to restore primacy of the chief justice of India and the executive power to appoint higher judiciary. The episode also reflects a lack of mechanism to punish judicial misconduct, the impeachment process having failed to do so in all these years. A piece of legislation to bring in judicial accountability is pending for some time. But more than that, the present state of affairs calls for a comprehensive judicial reform.
Between the roll out and the roll call

lame it on the All Fools Day. Even if the central government didnt choose the date of implementation of the Right to Education Act by design, it perhaps couldnt have turned out otherwise. It is perhaps no surprise then that one state after another that is not ruled by the Congress party is throwing up its arms in despair and pleading its inability to afford the legislation. It is perhaps no surprise either that no state ruled even by the Congress party has cared to frame its own rules based on the model rules supplied by the central government. It
Wasnt the Right to Education Act supposed to be implemented from April 1, 2010?
was perhaps all meant to be little more than a farce. But why, then, did the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance central government lead us to believe that nothing short of a war on illiteracy would be unleashed from the onset of this fiscal by mandating free and compulsory education for all children aged between six and 14? Clearly, there is a missing link between the roll out of the legislation and the roll call of all those new students who were supposed to benefit from it. That missing link, as ever, remains good governance. Between the feel-good act of legislation and
the real-world process of implementation lies a gaping gulf that can only be bridged by pragmatic legislations backed by foolproof coordination between the centre and the state governments. Why is it only now that the centre is being besieged with demands for more funds to implement the Act? Why didnt the centre resolve the all-important matter of funds to implement the legislation much before the deadline? If the non-Congress states are politically motivated and are only out to push the ball back into the centres court, why didnt the Congress-ruled states take the lead in implementing the Act? What about the centres half-hearted budgetary allocation for meeting its own share of the commitment? Though there are few easy answers to these and several other such inevitable questions, it is manifestly clear that if the centre had been half as serious in ensuring implementation as it had been in pushing this, and other such equally ambitious legislations, it would have been able to ensure some
compliance on the ground. Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka and Gujarat have all joined the chorus to claim a paucity of funds. So already there is talk of increasing the centres share to as much as 75 percent, instead of the originally mandated 55 percent, to facilitate implementation of the Act. According to an estimate, states will get to save Rs 200 crore each on average if the share of the states is reduced by 10 percent. That will surely come as a relief to several cash-strapped state governments, but in a number of cases it is equally a question of priorities. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati manages to find the money to erect statues, including those of herself, for instance, but finds education for the states children unaffordable. In any case, the proclaimed paucity of funds is not the only roadblock in the path to education for all as envisaged by the legislation. Even as private schools are supposed to reserve 25 percent seats for children from the economically weaker sections of society, private schools, in Delhi for instance,
If the non-Congress ruled states are politically motivated and are only out to push the ball back into the centres court, why havent the Congress ones taken the lead in implementing the Right to Education Act? What about the centres half-hearted budgetary allocation to meet its own share of the commitment?
said they had not received any directive from the government. Admissions for the next session were already over, they pointed out, and any increase in the number of seats would necessitate additional funds and therefore a hike in fees. That can only spell additional burden on parents who are already at the mercy of private schools. The government, on the other hand, however, maintained that the schools knew well in advance that they would have to implement the Act, so no further directives were necessary. Be that as it may, private schools say in no unequivocal terms that they will approach the courts rather than implement the quota. So who will finally educate these schools about their obligations under the legislation? Debate as we might this legislation, its intent and ways to ensure its implementation, we will still fall short of even initiating a discussion on the quality of free and compulsory education to be imparted. For the worlds fastest-growing democracy, that is surely a lamentable lapse.
GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2010
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LETTERS
Why I voted against the womens quota bill

In your editorial on the Womens Reservation Bill (March 15-31, 2010) you claim that the opponents do not have any tenable arguments. You may be interested in knowing why I was the lone member to speak and vote against the bill in the Rajya Sabha. The concept of political empowerment of women did not start with Rajiv Gandhi or HD Deve Gowda. It was my organisations, Shetkari Sanghatana and Shetkari Mahila Aghadi, which proposed 100 percent women panels in the panchayati raj elections in Maharashtra as early as in 1986. This frightened the then Congress government in Maharashtra to such an extent that they did not dare hold elections to panchayats for three years until 1989. It was at that time that the concept of 33 percent reservation for women in panchayati raj institutions was introduced in Maharashtra. It is this concept which is now being applied at all-India level and at the centre. Unfortunately, the drafters of the bill got carried away by their enthusiasm and failed to do the necessary analysis of the longterm consequences of this piece of legislation. Nobody will object to the concept of having a fair proportion of women in any legislative body. The question is: is reservation the best way of getting them in? My party, the Swatantra Bharat Paksha, and myself hold the view that it would have been much better to hand over the entire panchayati raj to women before introducing partial reservations at the centre and in states. I honestly feel that the selection of the reserved constituencies by lottery-cumrotation is highly dangerous for democracy and that the government as also the members of the Rajya Sabha should accept to have a one more look at this bill. Let us have a close look at this lotterycum-rotation system. 1. First, if we draw the reserved constituencies we might face a situation where there is no particularly enthusiastic woman candidate in that particular area. 2. On the other hand, there might have been a male aspirant nursing that constituency for some time. This can cause unnecessary bitterness about the womens movement and provide an opportunity for the established leaders to push the candidates of their family members who might not have shown any interest, till then, in political activities. 3. In the lottery system, a large proportion of voters may never get a chance to vote for any woman candidate in their entire lifetimes. 4. Women who get elected to the legislative bodies may have very little interest left in nursing their constituency as they know that they will not have a second chance to contest from the same constituency. 5. Even the male candidates who get elected from the non-reserved constituencies would work knowing that the chances of contesting from the same constituencies again are only 50-50. Conclusion: the level of nursing of all the constituencies will go down. 6. Simple arithmetic will show that a legislature with the Womens Reservation Bill will not have more than 33 percent experienced repeaters coming for a second term. This kind of drafting comes out of lack of imagination and absence of real concern for womens interests. That is the reason why the bill remained pending for 13 long years. This could have been avoided and the bill could have been passed much earlier if the drafters had followed an alternative system. The alternative solution can be provided by constitution of new multiple-seat constituencies where each constituency will club together three existing ones. This constituency will become a multiple-seat constituency where every voter would have three votes out of which one has to be exercised in favour of a woman candidate for valid voting. If a woman candidate gets the highest number of votes among all candidates, she should be considered elected on the general seat and the womens reservation seat will go to the one who gets the highest number of votes from among the remaining women candidates. This system would ensure that every voter gets the possibility of voting for women in each of the elections that will be held. Further, it will not affect adversely the quality of deliberations in the legislature or the quality of servicing of the constituencies.
Sharad Joshi, Rajya Sabha MP. Also see: Does she have a choice? P 18
Holy river unites faiths

Janata Party leader L K Advani. The Dalai Lama expressed concern over the depletion of the Gangotri glacier, while Advani called for shunning the use of plastic along the course of the river. The chief minister said the campaign would not be restricted to
people
K
Expose corruption, face defamation charges
arnataka Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde has effectively battled political and administrative hostility to relentlessly expose corruption in high places. But the most proactive anti-corruption raider in the country is increasingly facing a barrage of defamation charges. Interestingly, those who have come under his scanner are resorting to the excruciatingly slow judicial process to thwart Justice Hegde and officials of the Lokayukta police. While the move can only strengthen the Lokayuktas resolve, he is concerned about his officials whose careers may suffer because of the slew of court cases showing up in their confidential reports.
et another campaign to clean the Ganga brought together public figures from across the faiths. When Uttarakhand Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank launched the Sparsh Ganga campaign in Rishikesh, Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama, yoga guru Baba Ramdev and Christian priest Father Dominique were present to lend their support, as was Bharatiya
the official machinery but would involve the common people as well.
Sanias foreign affair involves foreign affairs

ndias fading tennis sensation Sania Mirza captured air time for the wrong reasons when her proposed marriage to Pakistans former cricket captain Shoaib Malik ran into legal trouble. It transpired that Malik had failed to divorce his former wife. Malik even refused to acknowledge the marriage. Pakistan government too threw its hat into the ring to back Malik. But it all ended tamely as Malik eventually confessed his lies, divorced his former wife and paved the way for his second innings.
Dignity of Rajya Sabha
It refers to your editorial, Mani Shankar Aiyer, litterateur and now MP, (April 1-15). Nominated Rajya Sabha seats must not be misused for rehabilitating defeated politicians. Rather, the system should be that no one having been active in party politics in the past should be made a Rajya Sabha member through nomination. For example, it was equally unfair of the NDA government to have nominated BJP member Hema Malini as Rajya Sabha member. Only non-controversial dignitaries with no political links should be nominated to the upper house. Moreover, a rule should be that persons defeated in any election in last, say, six years should not be allowed to contest Rajya Sabha elections. Subhash Chandra Agrawal Delhi
to prevent misuse of public money and government machinery for selfish political and personal interests. Any delay in such much-needed reforms will further strengthen Mayawati. Madhu Agrawal Delhi
Jairam disrobes to make a point
Maya and Malaise
Referring to the editorial Maya mirrors larger malaise (April 1-15), why attack Mayawatis BSP when other political parties have also been accused of similar misuse of public funds and government machinery? All parties and alliances that have ruled the country at one time or other have failed to introduce necessary legislation
Write to Governance Now We invite your suggestions, reactions to the stories and analyses and, of course, your own take on all matters related to governance. You can email or send snail mail. All letters must accompany your postal address. feedback@governancenow.com SABGROUP Publishing Division 24A Mindmill Corporate Towers Film City, Sector 16A, Noida 201301
nvironment minister Jairam Ramesh removed his traditional gown at the convocation of the Indian Institute of Forest Management, revealed his white kurta and decried the practice of wearing ceremonial robes at convocation ceremonies. I still have not been able to figure out, after 60 years of Independence why we stick to these barbaric colonial relics, he said, drawing applause and kicking up controversy at the same time. Why cant we have a convocation in simple dress
instead of coming dressed up as medieval vicars and popes?
6 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2009
people politics policy performance

A Governance Challenge
ravi choudhary
INTERVIEW
Nandan Nilekani
I just want to be a change agent
n March 6, I made an e-mail request to Nandan Nilekani for an interview. Barely an hour later, came his reply suggesting that I should get in touch with his colleague Srikar and within no time the interview was scheduled for 11 am on April 8. On April 8, when we reached the office of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) in the heart of New Delhi, we did not have to sign any register or get a gate pass. As we started setting up our cameras, Nilekani arrived. He was punctual, prompt, and articulate; and he spoke at length about the challenges associated with the project. Edited excerpts from an exclusive interview with Samir Sachdeva:
weeks. We have started proof of concept (a small feasibility test) in three states. We came out with a strategy for using UID for financial inclusion which should get released in the public domain soon. So, we have made significant progress in these eight months.
So when do we see the first UID number being rolled out?

We are sticking to our original commitment. When Mr (Pranab) Mukherjee gave his budget speech in July 2009, he said he wanted the first set of numbers within 12 to 18 months and for us the 12 to 18 months started on August 12, 2009 when the PMs Council approved our strategy. So, the numbers will start rolling out between August 2010 and February 2011.
our document will get the UID number. It continues to be the responsibility of the appropriate agency to determine the eligibility for other things. For example, whether they deserve to get a BPL card, whether they deserve to get a passport, whether they deserve to vote all those things are with the existing government agencies. So we are not taking anybody elses authority. All we are doing is saying this is the person.
or no. You come and give your name and number and fingerprints, we will confirm within seconds that the person is the same person with that name in our database. So, we are not sharing any data.
Will the State be able to look into the database?

No.
Not even the law enforcement agencies?

Only under the appropriate law.
So even Bangladeshi nationals staying in India will be able to get the number?
Any person who meets the verification and residency standards will get it.
But in the absence of a privacy law
What all fields will be there on this number?

There is a number itself...
In the interest of national security or public order or whatever is the appropriate thing, there can be a request to get information on a particular individual but it has to be subjected to due process like a court order.
You joined the UIDAI on May 23, 2009. What has been the progress so far?
Do we look forward to August 15, 2010 or January 26, 2011?

(Smiles)
How long will be that number?
I was the first person to join. Within a week, my colleague Ram Sewak Sharma joined as the DG (director general) and then others started joining us. Now we have a team of people headquartered in Delhi and a technology group in Bangalore. We will have eight regional offices out of which five have started functioning... a couple of them have DDGs (deputy directors general) also. We have a number of DDGs in our head office for various matters. We came out with a draft approach which was signed off by the Prime Ministers Council on August 12, 2009. We appointed two committees that came out with the biometric standards and data standards which are published on our website. We appointed Ernst & Young as consultants. We floated a tender for software which will be decided in a few
Will the UID number be for residents or for citizens?

It is for the residents.
Its a 12-digit number. There is the name. There is the date of birth. There is the sex. There is the address, fathers name and mothers name. Its just four to five fields.
That due process will be part of the UID Act

Yes, that will be defined in the UID Act.
Will we need a legislation for UID?
You just mentioned that Ernst & Young has been taken on board as consultant. What will be its role?
What is the difference?
Well, for residents means there is no check of proof of citizenship. But this number does not confer nationality, citizenship benefits, perquisites, entitlements and rights, none of these things. Its just a number to identify a person; that he is the person he claims to be. It says X is X; Samir is Samir.
One of the parallel tracks is the drafting of a UID Act. A separate team in our group is looking at drafting the bill and getting it ready to be taken up. But right now its at the conceptual stage.
What will be the highlights of this bill?
Basically it authorises this body and defines the framework for its operation.
There are a lot of illegal migrants in some states. Will they also be able to get this number?
Will it also address privacy concerns?
Anyone who meets the verification and residency requirements as defined by
Well, the UID bill will address the privacy concerns of the data which it will have. For example, nobody can read our database. All you can use this database for is authentication. You use it to only say yes
Ernst & Young has been selected through an RFP (request for proposal) process. We are going to appoint a managed service provider (MSP). Because this database, which has more than a billion records, has to be managed, that has to be outsourced to somebody. And that is a very big decision the business model, the security, making sure that it is an organisation that has a prior experience. So we will be floating an RFP for that purpose and Ernst & Young will assist us in drafting that RFP for the final MSP choice.
Will this be a public-private partnership (PPP) like the Passport Seva project?
We will appoint an MSP who is an outsourced partner who may or may not be a
GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2010
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A Governance Challenge
private entity. It could be a public sector entity. Thats really based on the best candidate. The roll out will primarily happen with state governments and others like LIC, SBI and banks being registrars. So, initially, the registrar will essentially be a state or public sector entity. They, in turn, may appoint enrolling agencies, which may be private entities, to collect data.
You suggested students as interns and representatives of IT companies on a sabbatical and a contest for the logo. Is that to save money or to involve people?
Is Infosys among them?
I am actually not even involved with that selection process.
Looking ahead, what will be the role of the National Informatics Centre (NIC) or Department of Information Technology (DIT) in the UID project?
We have been in touch with NIC to provide team members for the project. DIT is well aware of whatever we are doing.
What about the ministries for rural development and consumer affairs?
We are working with them. For example, we are forming a joint coordination committee with the ministry of rural development for things like NREGA. We are working on a coordination committee with RGI (Registrar General of India) on the National Population Register. So, we are looking at various such partnerships.
The database of 1bn records has to be managed, so that has to be outsourced. That is a big decision the business model, the security, project experience...So we will be floating an RFP for that purpose and Ernst & Young will assist us in drafting that RFP for the final MSP choice.
has to get a passport or a voter identity card. Does that make it compulsory?
We want to do this project in the spirit of public participation. We have evangelised this project. For example, I have visited all states, personally gone to meet state governments. Raipur, Ranchi, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram, Kolkata, Shimla, Dehradun, you name it and I have gone there. Thats one way to spread the message. Second, we are encouraging people to come as volunteers. Third, we are encouraging people to come on a sabbatical from companies. Fourth, we are encouraging interns. Fifth, we had an open logo competition and got more than 2,000 entries. Then we are encouraging people to submit the source code. We are updating all progress on our website. The whole purpose is to make it an inclusive project.
How much will the overall project cost?
Well, the cost of the project one part of it will be technology, another part of this is the cost incurred by the registrar to enroll, and third part is the incentive we give to the people. We dont know the exact figure but it will suffice to say that whatever may be the expenditure the benefit is well worth. Today India spends 100-200 thousand crores on various kind of social welfare programmes and subsidies. You can use UID to improve the efficiency of the systems. It will pay for itself very quickly.
because we have an excellent team. Mr Sharma has about 30 years of experience in civil services. He is supported by very able officers who know how the system works and they work very hard and make sure they meet all requirements of the system in terms of due process.
Can citizens participate in the meet?
Its organised by NISG (National Institute for Smart Government) for us. It is more business-to-business gathering.
What are the risks involved in the project?
There is a technology risk, enrollment quality risk, there is a political risk.
You are chairman of the UIDAI, chairman of Technology Advisory Group for Unique Projects, president of NCAER (National Council for Applied Economic Research), and on board of ICRIER. What next?
This is not enough?!
Political risk in which way?
Probably a member of parliament?
It will mean a lot of change and change management. Whenever there is a massive change, there will be a reaction.
No! My thrills come from solving complex problems and I have been given enough to figure out. I am very happy where I am.
Have you worked out some figure?
We cant say because we dont know the exact spending and benefit comes only when different people use the number.
You mentioned about the quality risk as well. All cards PAN card, voters card have a lot of errors.
What is your role in the Technology Advisory Group?
So, it becomes a governmentcitizen partnership.
Exactly. We thought that rather than we doing it, we will open it for contribution from people.
There is a revenue model as well. I understand the UIDAI has estimated revenues of Rs 288 crore.
Are you working with the ministry of petroleum also?
Yes, through oil marketing companies, because oil marketing companies do the LPG and kerosene subsidies. They also need to use UID.
Abhigyan, Adhar, Asmita are a few names going around for the branding of the project.
Thats an estimate. We thought something like address verification saves our clients money, so they can pay a bit for it.
I understand Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal also wants to collaborate with the UID on the Right to Education Act.
Over time, as more and more benefits get linked to UID, yes, having UID will make a lot of sense. From our end the UID number will be voluntary but if a partner of ours makes it mandatory in its zone of operation then it can do that.
No, that is some article. But at some point we will come up with a brand identity for the whole thing as well as the logo and messaging campaign.
What are the greatest challenges in this project people, technology or process?
First is de-duplication, that is, somebody does not have more than one number; and second is enrollment quality being standardised. So whether I am enrolled in a NREGA programme in Orissa or a bank in Mumbai, it is done the same way. For that we are going to provide the enrollment software, so that there is no room to change that.
Any names that have been shortlisted?

No, I cant say that at this stage.
We have had very good meetings with Mr Kapil Sibal. With the Right to Education Act private schools have to take 25 percent of students from the underprivileged background. How will you monitor that? How will you know that? You need UID for that. Or even for mid-day meals. The point is UID is applicable to rural development, urban poor, health, education, PDS, pensions, RSBY (Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana), insurance everything finally boils down to identity choices.
Will you provide Rs 200 incentive to BPL families for registration for UID as the 13th Finance Commission report recommends?
You have Rs 1,900 crore in this years budget. How do you plan to use it?
The Finance Commission has made a provision of Rs 2,989 crore which is primarily meant to give incentive to the poor to get UID number.
So, will they get Rs 200 or Rs 100 to get registered for UID number?
Rs 100
You have to get latest information because every day some of the states are signing.
With regards to states, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have already signed MoUs with you.
Do you foresee amendments to other laws, say, the Passport Act, to incorporate UID?
Well, part of the money is for the infrastructure. We have to set up a data centre, we have to select an MSP, we have to get software, hardware, and biometrics. Not the biometric client equipment but the biometric de-duplication on the server side. The rest of the money is for the registrars. But that is still to be done. There is allocation in the budget. There is a process in government. It has to be approved by the Expenditure Finance Committee and that process is on.
Everything, technology is on the cutting edge. This project is 10 times larger than any other biometric project. The largest biometric project is about 120 million (people). We are doing at a scale of 1.2 billion. Therefore, we have to have cutting edge technology and we have to make de-duplication work on a massive scale. Thats one thing. Enrollment is a big challenge. Enrolling a billion people at every nook and corner in mountains, forests, islands all kind of places....thats a huge challenge. Then, coordination is a big issue, because you have to work with partners state governments, oil companies, banks. The design of this whole ecosystem is very complicated. Adoption is a big challenge, getting people to use this number. Dealing with security and privacy and making sure that happens. This is a very complex project.
Given that this is the largest biometric project ever, are we going on an uncharted path?
That is a request from the finance minister. Because the finance sector has five very large projects Tax Information Network, GST which is to come next year, the debt management office, NPS and expenditure information network. These are large projects and there is a realisation in the government that these large IT intensive projects require a different paradigm to conceptualise and manage. So the idea of this group is to come out with a template, playbook on how to do such projects.
Absolutely. We have to find out how it works. De-duplication is a big challenge, because we want to make sure that you get only one number.
But is this only for the finance ministry only?
What about the pilot project?
These five projects are for the finance ministry. But the template we come out with can be used for a complex large government projects.
Right now we are doing what is called the proof of concept (POC) in three states. After we do the proof of concept we will learn about the operational problems. In the meantime our data centre will come up, our software will get ready, and then only we can do pilots.
Where does it fit in with the National e-Governance Plan?
Well, the National e-Governance Plan is something which is run by the Department of IT and many of these projects are part of the National e-Governance Plan.
Which are the states where the POC is going on?
UID is the foundation of this whole plan.

Yes, it is. They have many projects and some of the projects I am looking at are common to that list.
Three states, but we have not announced these states. We think we are creating a huge ecosystem around UID. The enrollment companies, the biometric vendors, IT companies, training companies. To lay down the roadmap on the same we are organising a big workshop on April 26.
The UID will be required when someone
I am not aware of that. Say, the PAN number is used in the stock market; it is used more by the regulator than by the law.
Nine consultants have been shortlisted for the software assignment
No, I think there were 19 who had applied and 10 have been shortlisted.
With regards to processes, how different is it to work in the government compared to the private sector?
Government processes are different from (those of) the private sector. But I think so far we have been able to move quickly
You are organising a national seminar.
You wrote Imagining India in 2008. Are you planning to write another book?
Not for next five years.
How do you define yourself author, bureaucrat, technocrat or political leader?

I just want to be a change agent. n

Selfless Innovator
The man who wore a sanitary napkin!

Muruganantham, a school dropout from Coimbatore, designed a sanitary napkin and machine that is not just helping improve hygiene of women across the country but giving them sustainable employment, too. What a man!
Sonal Matharu
The one who loves my Gujarat is my soul.The one who loves my India,Is my God.
Muruganantham, left, demonstrates how to make sanitary napkins to women of Sara Saria village in Uttarakhand (bottom left)
perating on a single machine at a time, A Muruganantham explains his every move in broken English to four village women who watch carefully as he delicately handles lumps of cotton-like substance and rolls them to make sanitary napkins. A young management student translates the instructions into Hindi and the women nod, following the method that they will soon adopt. The final product, after the raw material passes through four other machines, is a thick, rectangular sanitary napkin costing just Re 1. Thats about one-fifth the cost of an average branded sanitary napkin. The women in the small, carpeted room, where the machines are installed, take turns to examine the outcome of the two-minute labour. The youngest among them, Kumari Sharda Rana, 18, is too shy to even touch it. Eight women from Sara Saria village near Khatima town of Udham Singh Nagar district, Uttarakhand, will soon manufacture and package these napkins under the brand name of Sahyogpath and each will get Rs 1,500 as monthly salary. It will be marketed and supplied door-to-door by many others like them. This small business set up at farmer-innovator Ashok Kumar Singhs home employs eight women in two groups of four each, who have been working in shifts of four hours a day since April 1. Muruganantham taught the women how to operate the machines and when he returns to his home in farway Coimbatore in Tamil Nadu, he will have given Sara Saria not just hygienic sanitary napkins but these women sustainable employment. Once the project starts running smoothly, these eight women will join hundreds of others who have benefited from 47-year-old Murugananthams innovative device. Most of these women have no clue about how this genial, soft-spoken man hit upon this ideathe saga of a common man, a chance incident and a bright idea backed up by a lot of hard work, the trial and error way.
The idea of making sanitary napkins first struck him a decade ago when he once saw his wife trying to steal a piece of dirty cloth into to the bathroom. He later found out that she used it during her menstruation. My wife was using such a dirty cloth that I would not even use to wipe my scooter, Muruganantham told a gathering of more than 60 village women at the inaugural function of the venture in Uttarakhand. I realised that so many women like
The idea of making sanitary napkins first struck him a decade ago when he once saw his wife hiding a piece of dirty cloth and carrying it to the bathroom. He later found out that she used it during her menstruation. My wife was using such a dirty cloth that I would not even use to wipe my scooter, Muruganantham told a gathering of more than 60 village women.
her must be using such unhygienic means during their periods, he added as many women covered their mouths with their dupatta, turn to their neighbours and giggle. Coming from a below poverty line family, the task was indeed tough for Muruganantham. It was his curiosity and determination, he says, that kept him going. He was in fourth standard, studying in a convent school in 1979 when his father died in a road accident. Within three months his family was left with no money and he moved to a municipal school. His mother started working on a farm for seven rupees a day. He dropped out of school after class 10 and joined a workshop where he made metal doors, grills and staircases. He worked there for seven years to help his mother and to support two younger sisters. In 2000, Muruganantham researched extensively on sanitary napkin-making companies in the US and started experimenting. Looking at a sanitary pad one would feel it is cotton that these multinational companies use. So my first experiment was with cotton but it did not work as cotton cannot hold liquid, he says. The first sanitary napkin he made was cotton wrapped in a medical cloth which he gave to his wife and asked for her feedback. He was disappointed when she said that it was useless and that she was going back to using that piece of dirty cloth. For more useful feedback, he went to a medical college and gave the napkins to girls there thinking they were future doctors and would not be shy of giving feedback. When he did not get frank responses from them, he prepared feedback forms which he asked them to fill. One day, when I went to collect the forms, I saw that two girls were filling out forms for the rest. This was not the kind of feedback I wanted; so I stopped the research, he says. Strange though it may sound, he started using the napkin himself. I wore a napkin, tied a football bladder full of goats blood to my waist and attached a pipe to it. But this technique did not work either. In what he calls his last resort, he asked the medical college girls to collect their used sanitary napkins and keep them in a corner in one

Selfless Innovator
His machines are now in Massachusetts, California
Less than five percent women in India use sanitary napkins. For poor women, affordability and accessibility are the main concerns. My dream is to have these (sanitary napkin-making) machines installed in all districts of India first, and then I will expand the concept abroad.
A Muruganantham, innovator
packet. He collected these napkins and opened them in his backyard. When my mother saw me doing this, she made a hue and cry and thought I had gone mad. She left me and went to stay with my sisters, he smiles recalling the scene. Upon analysing the used napkins, Muruganantham realised that the multinationals used cellulose, not cotton. So he imported a cellulose sample from the US, anticipating a substance as fluffy as cotton. They sent me a thick sheet. I would just hold the sheet in my hand and wonder how they made sanitary napkins with this. Then one day I tore the sheet and saw that it was made of fibres. The sheet was to be torn and made into fibres. I now needed a machine to make the pads, he said. The plant set up in the US cost not less than Rs 4 crore, which, of course, I could not afford. I understood the technique and designed simple machines that performed the same task but took up only a rooms space. Today, his workshop under the name of Jayaashree Industries produces sanitary napkin-making machines in bulk. He has supplied the units to over 200 districts in India. Though the scope of making profits from this venture is huge, he follows one golden rule: he promotes his machines only through womens cooperatives. The idea is not only to make money but to bring about an attitudinal change, he says. Muruganantham believes only a woman can reach out to other women when it comes to discussing issues
like menstruation. Of course, he considers himself an exception to the rule that he indeed is. A rooms space is exactly what he needs to bring about a habit change, generate employment at the grassroots level and make these women financially independentand address a huge issue of the governance of womens hygiene in the country. Back at the Sara Saria workshop, the red ribbon tied outside the old wooden door of the room, which is now the working space of eight young volunteers from the village, is cut by the eldest woman of the house, Ashok Kumars mother, Atrwas Devi, 75. Attending to the guests on the occasion was Sonia Suryavanshi, Ashok Kumars 26-year-old daughter who spearheaded this concept in the village, going house-to-house to spread awareness about menstrual hygiene. The reason why women here still use cloth during menstruation is due to their habits and not because of lack of money, says Suryavanshi. This is a fairly prosperous village and they all know about the problems they may face using cloth, but they do not want to switch to a sanitary napkin. Apart from educating these women and telling them about locally produced napkins, Suryavanshi, with a team of seven students, provided them an opportunity for parttime work. Their weeks of efforts finally showed on the big day when women came in groups to attend the inauguration. You may suffer from backaches, white discharge from the vagina and
uruganantham set up the first unit to make sanitary napkins at his home in Coimbatore in 2005; the unit in Uttarakhands Sara Saria village is his 212th. Since 2006, when he gave his first unit to the All India Womens Organisation in Dehradun, his expertise has spread across India and abroad mainly through word of mouth. He has never advertised his product. Instead of giving 50 units to one organisation, I give them one, train four women and give the unit to them. Muruganantham has no share in either the profit or the loss they make, though he still takes care of the requirement of raw material at any unit installed. He imports cellulose from the US and the medical cloth from Germany. The UV tube used in the sterilising machine, in which the pads are put for a minute once ready, is ordered from the Netherlands. The raw material available abroad is cheaper and to import and export an IEC (import export code) licence is required which I have, he says. Travelling for 22 out of 30 days and installing around five units a month, he earns around Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000 which cover just the rental for storing raw material and cost of transportation. One unit can be operated by four women at a time and in a day 800 to 1,000 sanitary napkins can be produced. One lakh units installed means 10 lakh jobs generated, he says. In 2006, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras honoured Muruganantham for his innovation and in 2009 he won an award at the National Innovation Foundations (NIF) fifth national biennial competition for unaided grassroots innovations. His technology, which he sells for Rs 1.4 lakh inclusive of the raw material, has been patented by the NIF. NIF gave him Rs 8 lakh under the micro venture infrastructure finance scheme which he has to repay at an interest rate of 12 percent. All 21 districts of Haryana have at least one such unit. However, Orissa and the northeast are still untouched, Muruganantham says. Last month, an individual from California bought the machinery and one unit was set up at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Muruganantham says proudly. These machines will soon be seen in Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh as well. Instead of exporting the bulky machines to far off places in Africa, Muruganantham will first teach them how to manufacture the machines. Once the unit is ready, he will teach the technique of making sanitary napkins. This will cut down the cost of exporting the machines from India and will be much cheaper for those poor countries, says the innovator. Not less than 110 countries in the world are suited for the technology he has devised, he says.
Women of Sara Saria village at Murugananthams (seated, in striped T) workshop listen as volunteers translate his story.
ulcers if you do not maintain hygiene during your menstruation. Also, most families in villages isolate women during this time. Most of them stay in one room for over five days and do not clean or wash. This can have serious impact on their health, says Dr Sunita Chuphal Raturi, the gynecologist who works in Khatima, as the women listen attentively. Holding a sample in her hand, Anti Devi, one of the women who was trained to make the napkins, says, This is better than the ones available in the market. It is thick and we can see how it is made. We will work with dedication and sell it to all the women in the village. The women throng the table where sample packets of the napkins are lined. Within minutes, all packets, each costing six rupees for three pieces, are sold. A week after the inauguration, Suryavanshi was overjoyed. We have received orders for 12,000 packets from the women volunteers, under the central governments National Rural Health Mission, from
the nearby villages. They are very impressed with this project and have taken up the responsibility to market it. We are thrilled. The work will begin in full swing now, she says. Most of the women who have volunteered for the project and those who bought the packets at the inauguration are illiterate; some have not studied beyond standard five. Though money is not a problem at their homes, they still work as daily wage workers in fields. The project, a collaborative effort of students from the Indus World School of Business (IWSB) college in Noida, Uttar Pradesh, and a Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) team from Britains Sheffield University, has given Uttarakhand its first indigenously developed sanitary napkinmaking machine. Each contributed Rs 100,000 and bought a unit of the machine from Muruganantham, who sold it at cost price of Rs 140,000. The rest Rs 60,000 will be used for paying salaries to the eight volunteers until the venture turns profitable. The idea is not to give money to
people but to give them projects which can be sustained and which can generate revenues. We give them a set-up. We want them to run it and to earn money from it, says 21-yearold Sagnik Mukherjee, a member of SIFE, a non-profit organisation run by students of various universities in several countries. After setting up projects we teach them market economics, business ethics and knowledge transfer as well. We teach them how to price the pad, market it and sell it, says Mukherjee. Once the venture picks up, the profit will be shared by the women volunteers (50 percent), the IWSB team (30 percent) and the Sheffields SIFE team (20 percent). A lot of women across the country are employed in hazardous and high drudgery jobs like bidi making, match-stick making and in various chemicals industries, says Muruganantham, If we give them sustainable non-hazardous work like sanitary napkin-making, it will be far more beneficial for them. n
Three-fold salary hike for lower judiciary
policy
Food bill back to the drawing board
onia Gandhi is back as the chairperson of the National Advisory Council II. The impact is visible. The first thing that she did was to send the National Food Security Bill back to the EGoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee for an overhaul. So, there is a rethink on several of its components increasing entitlement from 25 kg of wheat and rice to 35 kg, adding oil and pulses to the list, including vulnerable groups like women and children in the beneficiaries and re-defining BPL families on the basis of nutritional intake and not just monthly income. Bravo!
ood news for the lower judiciary. At least six states, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa and Rajasthan, have agreed to a three-fold hike in their salary. This means, a civil judge can now expect to get a monthly salary close to Rs 36,000 and a district judge Rs 60,000 to Rs 80,000. These states gave their written consent to implement the recommendations of the Judicial Pay
Commission set up by the apex court. Other states have expressed their inability citing financial difficulties, except Madhya Pradesh, which said it was in the process of implementing the Sixth Pay Commissions recommendations and that once this was done, the lower judiciary would get a better pay package than what the Judicial Pay Commission envisages. The apex court has now fixed May 4 to hear the pleas of reluctant states.
An RTI library!
une will soon have a unique librarya library that would house all the essential information regarding the Pune Municipal Corporation that is mandatory under the RTI. Just walk in to get details of variousprojects and funds allocated to each, particulars of permits and concessions
granted, various rules and regulations etc.
inally, our government is set to ratify the UN Convention against Torture through a piece of legislation. The union cabinet has approved the Prevention of Torture Bill that seeks to check inhuman treatment
A law against torture

of people detained by the armed forces and the police. It provides a stiff punishment of 10 years in jail if anyone is found guilty of torture in custody. Of course, this would exclude cases covered by special laws such as the Unlawful (Activities) Prevention Act.

Of Women In Governance
Does she have a choice?

Womens reservation bill creates an illusion of women as decision-makers of their identity.
Pradeep Bhargava hey act as if they have not failed. Political parties, which gave little space to women, now propose to use the state institutions to bring them in the arena where power is brokered the public world of formal, institutionalised politics. All parties agree that the number of women in parliament should increase. Governments are moved by numbers. And so as many as 33 percent of parliamentary seats are to be reserved for women through the 108th constitutional amendment. Womens organisations support the parties and agree that whatever be the regulatory frame, through and in which women are elected, if women are in decision-making, it would substantially strengthen democracy. Discourse in and around the womens reservation bill shall construct a new gendered identity of peoples representation. The reality of this body construct shall be the manner in which it is constituted and deconstructed over time. There are multiple ways of constituting this reality and the proposed amendment, it is argued, is not the best option. Nonetheless, for Mrs Denvers, the infamous villain and housekeeper of the Manderley estate in Rebecca, this is the best option. In the climax of the novel, the narrator shocks her husband, de Winters, by turning up at the estates annual costume ball in a dress identical to that worn by his dead wife Rebecca to much acclaim the previous year, just before her death. It turns out that Mrs Denvers has manipulated the protagonist into wearing a replica of the dress. The narrator believes that she is choosing her costume and thereby creating herself whereas Mrs Denvers is, in fact, recreating the narrator as Rebecca. On several instances
in the novel Mrs Denvers implies with impunity that the new Mrs de Winter lacks the experience and knowledge necessary for running an important estate such as Manderley. The second Mrs de Winter is intimidated by Mrs Denvers imposing manner and complies with the housekeepers suggestions. If Mrs Denvers is taken to exemplify authority/power, Rebecca may provide an example of the way in which identities, far from being chosen by an individual agent, precede and constitute those agents. In this essay, we shall see how the political parties and others create identities, and women have little space to choose and
act on their identities. Let us begin with the meta narrative of the Parliamentary Standing Committee Report on the 108th Amendment Bill (Womens Reservation Bill): The Committee is of the firm opinion that there is no adequate representation of women in the social, economic and political life of the country even after more than 60 years of independence. It notes that though women have made their presence felt in many male dominated professions, their representation in the decision making bodies/processes is far less than that of men. The Committee acknowledges that there has been a historical social exclusion of women from polity due to various social and cultural reasons and patriarchal traditions. The Committee feels that meaningful empowerment of women can be achieved only with adequate participation by women in legislative bodies or parliamentary machinery, as inadequate representation of women in Parliament and State legislature is a primary factor behind the general backwardness of women at all levels...The Committee is of the unanimous opinion that reservation of seats for women is a valid and necessary strategy to enhance womens participation in the decision/policy making process. It feels that representation of women in policy making machineries is critical to the nation building process. The sweeping meta narrative on women, as above, sadly reminds of the writings of colonial powers describing our people as lazy, primitive, inferior etc. and the prescriptions suggested thereafter. Not very different from this description is the truth constructed by the Committee that reflects the power vested in the members to describe the status of women in their view. Excluded in the report and of course in the extract above, among other things, are womens own contribution to nation building, growth of womens agency (choice and action), and role and attitudes of parties towards women. The womens organisations also represented in the Committee did not
The sweeping meta narrative on women sadly reminds of the writings of colonial powers describing our people as lazy, primitive, inferior etc. and the prescriptions suggested thereafter. Not very different from this description is the truth constructed by the Parliamentary Standing Committee that reflects the power vested in the members to describe the status of women in their view.
accept that participating in elections was not on the agenda of the womens movement. So the Committee, which represents all major political parties and a few womens organisations, creates a truth about women to conclude that their inadequate representation in parliament is a primary factor behind general backwardness at all levels. The exclusions above are purposive. The hegemonic relations in which the political parties, the society and women are trapped in the present times are complex: political parties carry deeply embedded patriarchal attitudes, social norms disapprove of women in politics, and womens movements hardly have electoral politics on agenda. Why in such circumstances have political parties agreed to reservations, or say reservations within reservations (some argue for separate reservations for backward caste women)? What then is the truth? Is it true that there has been a change of heart in the political parties? The stated objective in the proposed Act is empowerment of women, a grand narrative of the State in present times, which has great acceptance in diverse fora, says the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the 108th Amendment. The Act does not define empowerment though, but perceives political empowerment of women as a powerful and indispensable tool for eliminating gender inequality and discrimination. On the contrary, Bina Agarwal calls empowerment as a process that enhances the ability of the disadvantaged (powerless) individuals and groups to challenge existing power relationships that place them in subordinate economic, social and political positions. The Act perceives empowerment as a virtue, that being in the position of authority deliberately enhances ability, and provides women the instrument for change. On the other hand, the scholar says that empowerment is a process, to acquire the ability to challenge subordination. The former gives a quick recipe for change and the latter suggests an arduous path for change. Reservation could be used in either methods, albeit
with different results. In recent times women are becoming a constituency to reckon with: thousands holding positions in the panchayats and millions in self-help groups. The number of professionals in urban areas is increasing. That women agency gains importance, political parties need to encounter it. Each party needs to show solidarity with women and at the same time devise means to control the unleashed women force. And the best way to do this is to ensure their reservation in one third seats of parliament and assemblies but on a rotation basis. The script of a gendered identity is being written through institutions and discourses. First, women shall come for a fixed period of five years, enact and then leave. Evidently, they are there because of the legislation, and in all probability be ousted, as men claim back their constituencies. The amendment makes it possible for identities to be reconstructed in ways that reinforce power structures, rather than subvert these. Given so few women in politics, they are bound to take on board the values and ideologies of those in power in their respective parties and accept them as their own, leading to accepting position within the hierarchy as natural or for their own good. Among many insidious reasons for parties to accept the amendment are also that it helps them maintain hegemony over rather supplant and loyal members for a period of five years and so have them in their bandwagon and by the time they are in a position to subvert, it shall be time for them to leave and move into the oblivion. Parties are known for their dislikes with women who are strong and act on their will: Indira Gandhi, Najma Heptullah and Uma Bharti, to name a few. The proposed amendment builds the agency of men, more than that of women. Mulayams statement about blowing whistles at women representatives has sadly become a subject more for the cartoonists. While condemning the comment, the underlying current of his statement is important that such

Of Women In Governance

Government Files
women as in Gadkaris team or in his own erstwhile team could be held in poor light by the public and would be poor representatives in parliament. There are fewer similarities than differences between women in panchayats and those who would be in parliament. At the panchayat level, no Jayaprada or Jaya Bachchan is brought to contest for the post of pradhan. Women and their families are well known. True, women of the dominated caste may be suppressed in the panchayat, insulted, commented on, scowled at, demoralised, but seldom whistled at. And even if such an event occurs, it could be condemned. Mulayam has also said that only elite women would be able to reach parliament in this manner. His critics miss out on this point as well, namely, that there are so few women in politics and especially from backward castes, that parliament would provide a short cut to an elitist group of women to reach parliament. This point is dismissed on the plea that Mulayam is anti-reservation for women. His similar point of 20 percent reservation at the party level is of course a hoodwink. However, let us examine the (M.S.) Gill proposal of 33 percent quota at the party level. This has sadly not received the attention it deserves. On this issue, the representatives of the National Federation of Indian Women, while tendering oral evidence before the Standing Committee, stated that ...one of the alternatives that was mooted even by the Election Commission also has been much talked about by various foras not so by the womens organisations, they have unanimously rejected itand leaving it to the parties to bring 33 percent reservation. Now, we have gone into almost the mechanics of how actually it will work. Surely, you know, given the patriarchal attitudes, ...Now you will find, if you give the opportunities, they will come up. But, overnight, things will not change. It is quite clear that in a competitive politics, when winning a seat is absolutely uppermost, if women are not already working in a constituency or being prominent or known, they wont make a winning seat.
Therefore, winning seats will be given to the male candidates and it will be the losing seats for women... The discourse suggests how womens federation has become an object of regulative discourse: while agreeing that given an opportunity women will come to the fore, and understanding that things do not change overnight, the federation thinks that winning a seat is paramount. So democracy is made to be about winning seats, and that women have lost in the last centuries, it is pertinent that women should win and this could only be ensured if they contest among themselves. And an extension to this poor logic is also the much-stated argument that women as those in Gadkaris teamthe Maharani from Rajasthan, Hema Malini, TV personalities Smriti Irani and Vani Tripathishall be our decision makers. Womens movement being non-political would not like their women to face men in elections, and instead have an easy way out: to foist as near as may be one-third women in parliament. Such politically empowered women, not contesting men, shall end gender inequality and discrimination. The Samajwadi Party is also nave when it suggests 20 percent reservations in a party. This would of course allow the party to leave out such number of seats where it is weak. However, what if the proposed legislation suggests 50 percent reservation at the party level in each state, where it is recognised? Imagine Sonia Gandhi or Mayawati or Mulayam or Karunanidhi in the most piquant situations, when they would be forced by patriarchs not to field women candidates to contest from their constituency. No party wants to create such a situation for itself where it faces the patriarchs in the party and get into a situation of a real inner party democracy, where not so elite women could perhaps also have a voice. Each party is happy with a guaranteed rotation, where the patriarchs would field their own women for a block of five years. After all, it has to happen only once in 15 years in a constituency. And for
No party wants to create such a situation for itself where it faces the patriarchs in the party and get into a situation of a real inner party democracy where not so elite women could perhaps also have a voice. Each party is happy with a guaranteed rotation, where the patriarchs would field their own women for a block of five years. After all, it has to happen only once in 15 years in a constituency.
the National Federation of Indian Women, winning of women is of paramount importance. Undoubtedly, reservation is necessary to provide women the opportunity in politics but at the same time it should not be in a manner that defeats the very purpose of reservation, namely their empowerment. What is of significance to women agency: winning an election with a mirrored identity; or with an identity of ones own? The latter is to a greater extent possible with 33-50 percent reservation at party level whereby there could be women candidates in almost all constituencies of one or the other major party. And to do this over time political parties will have to involve more women intensively as full-time party workers rather than relying on family members and film actresses. Who knows that in this number game onethird or even more women reach parliament. Do womens organisations sense that women are so weak for participation in such political processes, and thereby reject this proposal in unanimity with parties? If democracy is to deepen, participation has to be extensive and quotas redefined at the party level. If women are instituted in this manner, defining their own agency, they are more likely to challenge the power structures. It is sad that parties are unwilling to accept the challenge to deal with satraps within and field one-half to one-third women candidates on their own in different constituencies. The reservation bill in its present form creates a mirage where women are also decision makers. Mrs Denvers shall define the women identity and roles. We could then only dream of the unknown narrators being able to style their own destinies. The name of the narrator in the novel, the second Mrs de Winter, is never revealed and remains a mystery. Let not the one-third women live with a borrowed identity and then sublime into the blue, mysteriously. This would be tragic for women agency. n Bhargava is director of the GB Pant Social Science Institute. pradeep@gbpssi.org.in
Circular motion for FDI

Rohit Bansal
Describing a jalebi in English, somebody once said round, round, round, stop. The Commerce ministrys master circular designed to simplify FDI rules can at best be described as round, round, round, no stop. It just sends you in unending circles. Now... why is this damned FDI not coming?
nand Sharma, the minister for commerce and industry, has issued a master circular on foreign investment. It goes into 102 pages and came into effect on April 1. No one can find fault with Sharmas intent. But try reading 100 pages [http://siadipp.nic.in/policy/fdi_circular/fdi_circular_1_2010.pdf] and you will emerge with serious doubts (and a spinning head) on whether to invest in such a complicated investment environment. Youll wonder if India really wants you there. Especially if you are a small or mid-sized company which cant afford expensive lawyers. Sharma had the right intent. Who would want scores of circulars authored by his predecessors floating around with a scary set of appendices, clarifications and contradictions? But what he has released now is neither here nor there. For at least three reasons. First, the master circular consolidates and subsumes as on March 31, 2010 all that has been notified so far, but swiftly disclaims the omissions and inconsistencies. What is inconsistent with the earlier regime is swiftly buried under the carpet with a disclaimer: Notwithstanding the rescission of earlier Press Notes/ Press Releases/Clarifications, anything done or any action taken or purported to have been done or taken under the rescinded Press Notes/ Press Releases/Clarifications prior to March 31, 2010 shall, in so far as it is not inconsistent with those Press Notes/Press Releases/Clarifications, be deemed to have been done or taken under the corresponding provisions of this circular and shall be valid and effective. What does this wonderful bureaucratese mean? Who will decide what is inconsistent? Is it Sharmas department of industrial policy and promotion? Or is it the Reserve Bank
MASTER OF ALL HE SURVEYS? His circular leaves too much to the RBI
of India (RBI) as well discover in a moment? In effect, and for lack of proper homework, this is the governments way of sustaining the flourishing industry of circulars and clarifications. In their love for keeping safe, our babus forget that foreign investors have limited patience. These investors prefer to stay away from local loopholes and intrigues. What they hate the most is midstream changes in investment policy. Most of all, they are fair-weather friends and constantly evaluate countries that are competing with us. If our story has glitches and inconsistencies, they dont grin and bear it. They either balk, or if theyre stuck with us they give us bad wordof-mouth. Our FDI inflows between April 2009 and February 2010 are down to $24.68 billion (versus $25.39 billion in the corresponding period
of the previous year). Do we really want to confuse those who want to be part of the India story? My next problem with the master circular is confirmed by clauseby-clause research of my colleagues Manoj Kumar and Kriti Saxena. The extinguishing of old investment circulars has left a host of sectors in no mans land. To illustrate, Sharmas omnibus policy provides for 100 percent FDI in trading under cash/carry wholesale trading, trading for exports and trading for e-commerce activity. A master circular issued by RBI (dated July 1, 2008), as presently effective, already provides 100 percent FDI in trading of items sourced from small-scale sector and test marketing of items which a company approves for manufacture. These categories (of investment up to 100 percent) are not otherwise provided in Sharmas master circular. So, in the name of a master circular, has he, perhaps inadvertently, ended up reducing the size of the window? Finally, Sharmas master circular confuses the investor on who really is the master. It leaves a lot at RBIs doorstep. Notice how this abdication of responsibility is drafted: It is the intent and objective of the Government to promote FDI through a policy framework which is transparent, predictable, simple and clear and reduces regulatory burden. The system of periodic consolidation and updation is introduced as an investor friendly measure. While this circular consolidates FDI Policy Framework, the legal edifice is built on notifications issued by RBI under FEMA. Therefore, any changes notified by RBI from time to time would have to be complied with and where there is a need/scope of interpretation, the relevant FEMA notification will prevail. Wonderful. This means the babus in RBI will write the script. Couldnt RBI and Sharma have been co-authors? n Rohit Bansal is CEO of India Strategy Group, Hammurabi & Solomon and an HBS alum.

Inclusive Governance
Ravi Choudhary
Though she is the sarpanch, it is her husband, the sarpanch pati, who calls the shots.
Husband empowerment
Prasanna Mohanty ne fine morning in March, I landed in a village named Kalipali in Orissas Ganjam district. Nestled in the midst of kewra shrubs and fertile farmlands, this village has been living on the edge for close to 13 years after the government acquired a part of the village land for Tata Steels Gopalpur plant and then forgot all about it. I went looking for the sarpanchs house where a middle-aged woman ushered me into the bedroom. An old man, her husband, was lying on the bed, immobilised. The woman said not to ask saar anything as he was very ill. Disappointed, I tiptoed out. The woman saw me off at the verandah. Outside the house, I inquired from the villagers who had gathered around by then if I could meet a panchayat member. I was in for a shock when someone from the crowd pointed straight to the very same woman and said but the sarpanch is standing right behind you!
In sheer disbelief I asked her if indeed that was the case and she nodded shyly. Why did she then take me to the old man? But saar looks after everything, she said. I went back in and said I wanted to talk to her about the Tata project. She looked unsure but offered me a chair and sent someone to call her son and son-in-law. While waiting for them, I started talking to her and inquired for how long she had been the sarpanch. She looked at her daughterin-law who stood in a corner of the room and said three years after her prompting. Soon I gathered her name was P Revati Reddy and she was a matriculate. For the moment I forgot Tata Steels project and asked her if the village had a school, primary health centre, clean water etc. Every time I asked a question she would look blank, turn to her son and son-in-law, who had arrived by then. Replies came from them. Soon the topic of conversation turned to the Tata project. While leaving the house, I wanted to find out why she had given up her privilege of running the panchayat affairs to her husband. She admitted
candidly that she had been attending to the home and the hearth all her life. It was the saar who took care of the outside world. This wasnt my first experience of a woman sarpanch. A couple of days earlier I had another chance encounter in the same district but in a different block, Aska which used to be Biju Patnaiks constituency and his son Navin Patnaik represented this parliamentary constituency thrice before becoming the chief minister. Incidentally, Orissa was the first state to grant 33 percent reservation to women in panchayats during Biju Patnaiks regime in 1992. But Karnataka was the first one to set aside a quota (25 percent) for women way back in 1987. I was in Khukundia village of Bangarada panchayat to find out about the condition of the migrants who had lost their jobs in Surat and had returned home. After hearing their plight I wanted to meet the sarpanch to find out about various social support schemes like PDS and NREGS. I was told the sarpanch was away. A gram saathi, a panchayat official, and an ex-sarpanch called
(Left) P Revati Reddy who is happy to play the second fiddle. (Right) Subardani Wadaka who isnt but is forced to do so.
up the sarpanch and found out that he was in a nearby town. A meeting was fixed at a local market mid-way. After spending nearly three hours, during which time I visited the panchayat office and inquired at the PDS outlet, I left for the meeting place. The man arrived on a bike and introduced himself as Gaurahari Behera, a school teacher. As I started asking for details about inadequate PDS supply and delayed payment for NREGS, he fumbled again and again. I wondered aloud, how come the sarpanch didnt know what should be on his finger tips. I wasnt prepared for what was in store. He said: I am not the sarpanch, my wife is. I felt outraged but wasnt sure whether it was because I felt cheated or that the husband was openly masquerading as the sarpanch. Why didnt you tell me that at the beginning? I demanded to know. He kept mum. I took the social activist accompanying me aside and whispered: Didnt you know he is not the
A chance encounter reveals how women sarpanchs of Orissa have fared. Will their fate be any different in the legislative bodies?
sarpanch? He said everybody treated the husband as the real sarpanch and went on to explain how none even in his village referred to his wife when we were fixing a meeting with the sarpanch. Such a husband is better known as sarpanch-pati, he explained. The sarpanch-pati later said he had stepped
in since his wife didnt know how to deal with official documents and so on. I found out her name is Basanti Behera and that she had passed ninth standard. I would have liked to photograph her but I was desperate to reach another village to complete my assignment. I was to meet one more sarpanchpati, though of a different kind, the next day. This time it happened in the village of Dongaria Kondhs, a primitive tribe that lives on mountain slopes of Niyamgiri (which Vedanta wants to mine for bauxite) and the surrounding hills. It was in Kurli village of Bissam Cuttack block in far away Rayagada district. Subardani Wadaka is a Munda (another tribe from Keonjhar district) and is married to a Dongaria Kondh, Suresh Kumar Wadaka. Subardani was a social worker after completing her plus-two education when she came in contact with Suresh. They fell in love and married in 1999. She first became sarpanch in 2002. It was a reserved seat then but her good work saw to it that she defeated all her male competitors in 2007 to retain her position. She seemed well versed with panchayat affairs. In fact, I found her working in the panchayat office, along with her husband, another panchayat official. She had all information on her fingertips. Like many other villagers she was also worried about the mining project, though her village wouldnt be directly affected. Her thoughts drifted to mountain streams, fruit trees and other forest produce that sustains the tribals. I was glad to have met a woman sarpanch who embodied all that the policy makers had dreamt of while fashioning the womens reservation in the panchayats. I complimented her as I prepared to leave and told her about the two sarpanch-patis. To which, she replied: Everybody here too treats my husband the same way! A sad comment indeed. n
It just Occurred to us
In deference to the sensitivities of the people of Qatar regarding bare feet, M F Husain has started wearing socks instead of going bare foot like in India. What a hypocrite! n It must have been the scorching desert sun under his bare feet rather than the sensitivity of the desert people...

Rights and wrongs
only legitimise existing inequalities within and between Indias schools. Far from providing a common schooling system for all children, this law discriminates between students in government schools and private unaided schools. The government has also used the fanfare surrounding the RTE Act as a smokescreen for pushing its sinister agenda of public-private partnership (PPP) and entry of foreign universities in the country. The bid to push education further into the marketplace not only violates the constitutional principle of equal opportunity and social justice, but also allows powerful corporations to influence the content of Indian education.
Undemocratic throughout
RTE fails the children

Far from giving children access, equity and quality in education, the law legitimises existing inequalities within and between schools
The central government has refused to hold a single public hearing since the drafting of the Right to Education Bill was started by Kapil Sibal Committee under Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) in November 2004. An appeal to hold a public hearing was also ignored by the HRD ministry-related parliamentary standing committee when the bill was in Rajya Sabha in early 2009. The Lok Sabha speaker also did not pay any heed to a memorandum presented to her in July 2009 to this effect by a delegation under the leadership of the Communist Party of Indias D Raja. This undemocratic stance of the government can only be explained in terms of its growing collusion with the global capital and market, even if that sacrifices the interests of Indian people.
sections (EWS) whose cost of education will be borne by the government. It will mean that families of 75 percent of the students in such schools will continue to pay hefty amounts in fees for elementary education, also absorbing the likely hikes in fees to compensate for the EWS quota. Is that free and compulsory education for every child of the age of six to fourteen years that section 3(1) prescribes? Doesnt no child shall be liable to pay any kind of fee or charges or expenses Section 3(2) actually mean well, some children will obviously have to pick up the tab? Another question that arises is that even if the children from disadvantaged groups get admission in these schools, how will they handle the soul searing gulf between them and their much better off mates? There are more unanswered questions. nHow will economically weaker sections be defined and verified? nHow will the government select these students for entry-level class? nWould a draw of lots for EWS students be conducted by a neighbourhood or entire village/town/city? How would the gap between supply and demand in each neighbourhood be addressed? nWhat will be the mechanism for reimbursement to private schools? nHow will the government
monitor the whole process? What type of external vigilance/social audit of the process would be allowed/ encouraged? nWhat would happen if some of the EWS students need to change school in higher classes? As early as 1964-1966, the Kothari Commission had recommended a common school system and very pragmatic ways of achieving that. The personal and collective preferences of a few politicians and capitalists, however, ensured a quiet burial of those recommendations.
RTEs selection of age group
The selection of age group of 6-14 years in RTE Act has left a void for children below 6 and above 14. The pre-primary education has been left untouched, making for a weak foundation. The Act also mentions that none of the children will be held back in any class till he/she passes the class eight. Such a measure is likely to make it difficult for children from disadvantaged groups to continue their studies once they have finished their elementary education.
Provisions for teachers
Education for all?

Jaya Singh
he Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, also known as RTE Act, fails miserably in living up to the promise of a legal framework that will foster access, equity and quality in school education for all children. It is also being implemented without thorough discussions with states, a clear road map that takes into account possible pitfalls and adequate funds. In its present form, the RTE Act will
If right to education had really been meant for all children, the government would not have used all to mean children who will study either in government schools or government-aided private schools excluding those who will study in unaided private schools. Allowing the unaided private schools, which take advantage of the poor state of government schools to fleece people of all economic classes, to continue to function as they are, is the first act of betrayal. This betrayal is barely hidden behind the fig leaf of 25 percent quota in unaided private schools for students from economically weaker
The RTE Act does nothing to put an end to the practice of employing parateachers who tend to be poorly trained instructors hired on a temporary basis. Qualifications, salary and job description of teachers have not been prescribed.
The RTE Act does nothing to put an end to the practice of employing para-teachers who tend to be poorly trained instructors hired at low salaries on a temporary basis. By not prescribing the qualifications, salary and job description of teachers, the government has ensured that it will continue to use its discretionary powers in such matters. It will mean that appointment of para-teachers will continue in government schools and private schools will continue to exploit teachers by keeping them on very low salaries. The Act also allows the unfortunate practice of commandeering government school teachers for census surveys, election duties and emergency relief activities. So the education of government school pupils will continue to get interrupted in contrast to the education of their counterparts in private schools, leaving the gap between them unbridged.
School management committees
The government has also legitimised discrimination between one class of children and another by providing for constitution of school

Rights and wrongs
management committees only in state-aided schools (section 21). Its another proof that the government does not have the courage to even touch the systems made by the capitalist class. The purpose behind the formation of these committees is to have a group that will keep a vigil on the activities of the school and be involved in all important school matters, including financial management. These committees will also publish a report which will be accessible to the public. Parents will make up 75 percent of the membership of the committee.
Funding and other issues
The timelines for appointment and training of teachers and provision of infrastructure vary from three months to more than five years. The governments plan for dividing the cost of RTE implementation in the ratio of 55:45 between the centre and states is also flawed. The central government had set up the Tapas Majumdar Committee in 1999 to estimate the funds required to ensure that elementary education of eight years is provided to all children. The committee estimated
that an additional investment of Rs 1,37,600 crore would have to be made over a 10-year period to bring all out-of-school children into the school system (not parallel streams) and enable them to complete the elementary stage. That works out to an average investment of Rs 14,000 crore a year, which in 1999 amounted to a mere 0.78 per cent of the GDP or 78 paise out of every Rs 100 India earned then. In 2002-03, the same amount made up only 0.63 percent of the GDP. However, the financial memorandum to the Constitution (93rd) Amendment Bill, 2001, states that a sum of Rs 98,000 crore will be required over a 10-year period to implement the fundamental right to education for children in the age group of six to 14 years. It works out to Rs 9,800 crore a year on average (0.44 per cent of the GDP in 2002-03), about 30 percent less than the Majumdar Committee estimate. Is the government saying that it cannot allocate an additional sum of merely 44 paise out of Rs 100 from the national income to ensure that every child exercises his/her fundamental right? Even the lowered estimate of
44 paise out of Rs 100 of the GDP was eventually not allocated. Already, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayawati has said that her government is not in a position to provide the states share of 45 percent of funds, putting a question mark on the implementation of the Act in the largest state of our country. Nitish Kumar, chief minister of Bihar, has similarly expressed his inability to provide funds for RTE implementation. There are also signs that show state governments are still in the pre-RTE mode. An admission notice from the directorate of education of the Delhi government, which appeared in newspapers on March 28, 2010, and is also available on the DoE website, invites students to appear in an entrance test for admission to class VI in all Rajkiya Pratibha Vikas Vidyalayas. The entrance test will consist of objective type questions to test numerical ability, mental ability, general knowledge and language comprehension and the selection will be done on the basis of merit, says the notice. Thats a clear violation of section 13 of the RTE Act, which prohibits any kind of screening for admissions. The application form costs Rs 25, another violation of the Act.
Sheila Dikshit takes on CAG

elhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit defended her governments decision to acquire low-floor buses and slammed the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) for its adverse report. Dikshit said the CAG should take a holistic view and refrain from nitpicking. In its report, the CAG had criticised the
Delhi Transport Corporation for purchasing the buses at rates over and above the justified rate prepared by the technical committee of the corporation. The CAG report further said that the government spent an additional Rs 168.94 crore on features such as automatic transmission system, retarder and anti-lock braking system which were unnecessary.
politics
PC delivers a few home truths BJP wins Bangalore municipal elections
Citizens must do their bit
Despite the serious flaws in the RTE Act, it is important for civil society to contribute towards its proper implementation. Besides bringing about design changes, we need to make the government accountable through social audits, filing RTI applications and demanding our childrens right to quality education. Moreover, a number of different groups affected by this Act are likely to challenge it in courts. It is, therefore, critically important for us to follow such cases and, where feasible, provide support that addresses their concerns without jeopardising the implementation of the Act. n The author is with CRY. These are her personal views.
That we were way off the mark about Manmohan Singh. Exhorting children across the nation to go to school, he told them recently that he is what he is today because of his education. Stupid of us. We thought he is what he is today (Prime Minister) because Sonia Gandhi is an Italian by birth.
nion Home Minister P Chidambaram was caught in a spat with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee when he visited the Maoist-hit Lalgarh and said the buck stopped at the chief ministers table. Chidambaram expressed dissatisfaction over the law and order situation in the area that the chief minister had not even cared to visit, while the chief minister advised the home minister to just mind his language. Chidambaram, however, remained focused on the Maoist threat and visited Chhattisgarh, too, when Maoists trapped and massacred 76 Central Reserve Police Force personnel there the very next day.
he Bharatiya Janata Party captured the Bangalore municipal corporation for the first time, nearly two years after the party formed its first government in a southern state, in Karnataka. The party won 112 of the 198 civic seats in a victory significant also because of the factional feuds that have continued to dog the state government. With its victory, the BJP unseated the Congress party from its uninterrupted domination of the civic body since Independence.
Lalu versus Baba Ramdev

ashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad slammed yoga guru Baba Ramdev for criticising politicians and called him senile for his decision to launch a political party. Interestingly, before Baba Ramdev declared his political ambitions and emerged as a competitor, Lalu Prasad ranked among his vocal admirers. As railways minister, Prasad had backed the Baba against a virulent attack launched by the Communist Party of India (Marxist)s Brinda Karat, for example.
ravida Munnettra Kazhagam (DMK) chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Karunanidhis apparent succession plans in favour of his younger son MK Stalin hit a roadblock when the elder son MK Alagiri spoke up in defiance. Alagiri, Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers, told a Tamil magazine that he would not accept anyone as his leader when his 86-year-old father decided to call it a day. Having made Stalin deputy chief minister, Karunanidhi had indicated that he would retire from politics after a global conference on Tamil in the state in June. But the elder sons revolt could upset the veteran scriptwriter-turned-politicians plans.
Family plot thickens in DMK

Governance Star
Ajay Singh n May 2009 the liberal economist in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must have been on cloud nine. He had just vanquished L K Advani who constantly rubbed salt on his wounded ego by calling him a puppet PM. His party had managed to win enough seats not to be left to the whims and fancies of the Lalus and the Mulayams. And most importantly, he had dropped the millstone round his neck, the Left parties, which had immobilised the eager reformist in him.Business and industry celebrated, expecting that unfettered Manmohanomics would unleash a string of reforms to put the Indian economy growth machine on the fast track to 10 percent and the pending economic reforms would get under way. And why not? Manmohan had just acquired a decisive streak with the way he took on Advani and stood firm on the Indo-US nuclear deal.But just a few weeks into the euphoria, Manmohan received a letter from Sonia Gandhi reminding him about the Congress partys election promise to the poor, the Food Security Bill. She suggested that the government get to work immediately on the same and even attached a draft bill. Not a word on economic reforms. That in effect, highlighted Sonias eagerness to bring the social agenda to the centre stage. It also brought into focus, the disconnect between the Manmohan governments predominantly economic reforms route to governance and Sonias social agenda approach to it. The notable thing about the letter was that it was not the first. With or
Hand it to her
Sonia Gandhi has finally put socialist agenda on national centre stage after decades.
31 letters to the prime minister and almost all of them concerned themselves with her social agenda. Every letter was about NREGS, resettlement and rehabilitation policy, liberation of manual scavengers, Ganga Action Plan and so on. Only on two occasions she touched upon economy/liberalisation issues (Bharti-WalMart tie-up and Free Trade Agreement with ASEAN), both times to caution the government on the impact they would have on the livelihood of small and medium businesses and farmers. Sonias social agenda, the Womens Reservation Bill, that diverted the heat off a government hopelessly caught in the vortex of the Opposition offensive on the price rise. Sonia put her foot down, staked the future of her government, but decided to see the 15-year-old bill through the Rajya Sabha. Even as she was busy collecting encomiums from every corner for her commitment to a social cause, the government came up with the Civil Nuclear Liabilites Bill that would have let off American companies lightly in the social agenda on the centre stage of Indian politics after nearly four decades. For the first time since 1971, when Indira Gandhis ingenuity came to her rescue in coining the garibi hatao slogan, Sonia has brought poverty, illiteracy and hunger back into the national consciousness after two heady decades of rising economic superpower talk. In her role as mentor of the UPA government, she has successfully changed the political discourse by initiating a slew of measures which are purported to benefit the marginalised, minorities and women. Even her adversaries admit that after Indira Gandhis 1971 elections, this is the first time that the political discourse has come to be dominated by the issues pertaining to the common man, or aam aadmi, for Sonias party and government. That is no mean achievement. If the late seventies and early eighties were dominated by the plank in 2004 elections was ridiculed till the results were announced. Since then, Sonias visible hand has been consistently shaping the social agenda of the government. Be it Right to Information (RTI), NREGA, social security for the unorganised sector or the forest rights law, her intervention has been critical. Her detractors rarely question her intent because they see her perseverance in putting legislation behind commitment. So, is Sonia turning to socialism -- a political streak which was historically a part of the Congress? Some analysts equate her concern for the poor and the marginalised to the political philosophy of a christian social democrat rooted in her christian upbringing. But noted historian and political commentator Mahesh Rangarajan maintains that it is her profound understanding of the Congress culture,
without the Left parties, Sonia was always acting like the socialist opposition to her government even right through the first term of the UPA. It was Sonias National Advisory Council that initiated the Right to Information Act, the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) and a slew of other social agenda laws such as the Forest Rights Act, not to forget her hand in the massive loanwaiver programme for debt-ridden farmers. Right through the six years of the UPA, Sonia has hardly ever concerned herself with weighty economic issues, but has been obsessed with social ones. According to an Indian Express report (April 12), Sonia wrote
While the Manmohan government cannot stop talking about double-digit growth and how dexterously they dodged the recession, Sonia, as recently as March 5, 2010, proclaimed at a public rally in Shillong that the Right to Information Act is the single biggest achievement of the UPA government to date. This she said a few weeks after writing to the prime minister not to tinker with the Act as it was working wonders for transparency in governance. (Manmohan wrote back to her saying the law needed to be amended, giving fodder to civil societys fears that babudom was about to strike back to render the law toothless.) Days later, on March 8, it was
case of a nuclear accident. It killed the political bonhomie among the bigger parties instantly. Never was the divergence of interest between the party and government more stark, possibly prompting Manmohan to address the nation on April 1 to announce the roll out of the Right to Education Act. That in turn may have prompted Sonia to return to head the NAC two weeks later. And the first thing she did was to ask the government to rethink the Food Security Bill to include more of the poor and increase allocation per family. In effect, if we step back from the immediate and analyse the past, we will see that in six short years Sonia has firmly put
Emergency and sikh terrorism, Rajiv Gandhis era introduced poverty eradication measures but was better known for his penchant for technology and modernisation, particularly computerisation. The late eighties were overshadowed by the ghost of Bofors to be followed by two issues in the nineties, Ayodhya (which openly divided society) and Mandal (which divided society while aiming to bring in equity.). Of course, the other theme running concurrently all through the nineties and the new millennium has been economic boom and the India Shining euphoria. The rediscovery of the common man as the Congress poll
Indian history and social realities. This is consistent with the Congress culture and history, he says. On the other hand, veteran socialist Surendra Mohan refuses to give credit to Sonia. They are pursuing capitalism on the pretext of social agenda, he says, insisting that though Indira had some credentials to claim the socialist agenda, Sonia none (see
For the first time since 1971, when Indira Gandhis ingenuity came to her rescue in coining the Garibi Hatao slogan, Sonia has brought poverty, illiteracy and hunger back into the national consciousness.
interview: page 32). Tracing Sonias socialist antecedents is at best an academic exercise and at worst a wild guessing game, considering how little she speaks in public. But there is no doubt that history appears to be repeating itself in more ways than one. Indira took over the reins when anti-Congressism was at its peak and sparks from Naxalbari threatened to engulf large parts of the country. She turned to socialism, presumably to neutralise her detractors. In his book India after Gandhi, Ramachandra Guha avers that Indira was persuaded to adopt socialism by one of her key advisors, P N Haksar. She divested Morarji Desai of the finance portfolio and went ahead with nationalisation of the banks - a move that evoked a strong reaction from the partys old guard. She also abolished privy purses. This move, too, was resisted by the right

Governance Star
Photo Montage: ashish ast hana
Political Lexicon Down the Years

drafted the BJPs manifesto and NDAs common minimum programme for governance, admits that there was singular lack of commitment in the BJPs top leadership. They were more involved in running the government than addressing real social issues, he says, admitting that Sonia brought these real issues back to the centre stage. If the idiom of governance is centred around peoples welfare, it is not a small change, he says. The NDA was never sincere about it and they sidelined all those who talked about peoples agenda, he saiys. For the first time in independent India, a bill exclusively protecting the rights of tribals was brought in, says Mahesh Rangarajan. Social activist Aruna Roy, who has watched Sonia at work closely as a member of the NAC, says: Sonia genuinely believes that the RTI is good for the country. She is convinced about it. Similarly, on NREGA, she genuinely believes that it is needed. She extended full support and her engagement didnt end with enactment of laws. Even now she supports us when we go to meet her with our delegations to express our concerns over implementation of these laws. It is not a superficial interest or publicity mongering. She genuinely supports these measures. That Sonia co-opted and consulted people with unimpeachable integrity also goes to her credit. There is no doubt that she should be appreciated for including people like Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy or N C Saxena in her think-tank, says skeptic Surendra Mohan. And there is no denying the fact that the second stint of the UPA is seeing even more radical agenda, including womens reservation, right to food and right to education. There could be many shortcomings in the bills related to right to food or right to education, but the move has certainly triggered a debate on how to contain poverty and feed the hungry. So much so that chief ministers across the country are speaking sation,
wingers in the party. As the controversy reached its peak, the courts and the legislature proved to be stumbling blocks for Indiras bid to implement her agenda. In 1971, she dissolved the house and called for elections a year before schedule. Her famous slogan was, Woh kehte hain Indira hatao, hum kehte hain garibi hatao (they say remove Indira, I say remove poverty). The timing was immaculate. The ship-to-mouth syndrome was still fresh in peoples memory when stocks of coarse wheat from the United States used to be released every month. The slogan caught the peoples imagination and Indira returned with a thumping majority. Socialist icon Ram Manohar Lohias goongi gudia had not only found her tongue but also formulated a robust political strategy which decimated her rivals. Of course, Indiras glib talk of socialism and eradication of poverty remained in the realm of rhetoric as she soon assumed dictatorial hues to put out all challenges and undermined every institution to remain in power. Sonia, on the other hand, took over a party that was all but decimated in 1996. The P V Narasimha Rao governments dubious handling of the Babri Masjid issue caused the flight of the minorities from the Congress that would mean almost a decade out of power. Political novice Sonias ability to pull the party out of the quicksand was under extreme doubt and her political philosophy was completely unknown. Of course, Sonia showed the aam aadmi, socialist streak even before she entered politics in 1995 when her traction with the Narasimha Rao regime was at best limited. She pioneered and pushed the Disabilities Act reserving three percent government jobs for the disabled because that was, in her words, Rajiv-jis dream. It was not until the 2004 elections that her socialist agenda took firm roots, or was exposed fully to the test of electoral
Garibi Hatao, Pokharan, Bank nationaliEmergency, Operation Bluestar
Indira Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi Hope, Anti-Sikh riots, Technology, Computers, 21st century, Consumerism, Corruption, Babri Masjid VP Singh Coalition politics, Identity, politics, Bofors PV Narasimha Rao
There seems to be a gap between her social agenda and her governments economic agenda just as wide as the gulf between wishing well and doing well. High on Sonias agenda is the Food Security Act, but her government has just presented a budget that actually cut the food subsidy!
politics and national governance. With Atal Bihari Vajpayees NDA fully engrossed in its boastful, self-congratulatory India Shining campaign of the 2004, the aam aadmi, you can say, was almost thrust upon Sonia as a fait accompli. The attendant electoral success, marginal in terms of seats, but hugely unexpected, turned her into a cult figure in her party overnight. That stature was only reinforced by her decision to opt out of prime ministership and her domination of the party and government was total. At the height of Manmohanomics, she ensured her social agenda did not get blown away. Despite objections from the finance ministry, she ensured the social security bill for the unorganised sector was passed to give the impression that the government cares for the common man. Similarly, the RTI Act was her initiative. As was the NREGS, launched to fulfil the constitutional obligation to provide a minimum of 100 days employment to each family of rural poor. The loan-waiver to farmers was considered yet another master-stroke which connected people to a benign governance. For people who want to believe that the aam aadmi was just a politically expedient slogan rather than a policy close to her heart, the pertinent question is, why couldnt the NDA government take up a similar agenda? Former BJP ideologue K N Govindacharya, who
Contradictions, Mandal Commission,
Liberalisation, Economic Reforms, Manmohanomics, Babri demolition
HD Deve Gowda
Zzzz
IK Gujral
Gujral doctrine, Foreign
policy
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Pokhran II, Coalition politics, riots, Lahore ment, India Shining
Contradictions,
Mandir, Remote control, Gujarat
trip, Kargil, Develop-
Manmohan Singh Growth rate, Nuclear deal, Dual power centres, Political cab sec
Sonia Gandhi
politics
Aam Aadmi, NREGA, RTI, Foreign origin, Office of profit, Dynasty
the same political language. In Gujarat, Narendra Modi says he wants to eliminate poverty. Nobody in Gujarat should require a BPL card, Modi declared in one of his meetings. The echoes of the battle against poverty, illiteracy and hunger can be heard across the country from every state. This is, no doubt, a major shift in the political discourse, says Mahesh Rangarajan. There are reasons to believe that Sonia deeply imbibed the Congress history when she edited two volumes of Jawaharlal Nehrus letters to Indira Gandhi. What appears to have really acted as her brain trust is the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation which silently took up certain welfare projects and carried out deep social studies. The RGF is really acting as a think tank for Sonia to formulate her strategy whereas there is no such group for the BJP, points out Govindacharya. That the congress has been strategically reaching out to socially marginalised groups is evident from the frequent forays of general secretary Rahul Gandhi into tribal or backward regions of the country. Significantly, Sonias vigorous socialist agenda shares another similarity with Indira Gandhis tilt towards socialism. The menace of the radical left loomed large in the late 1960s when students from elite colleges of Delhi, Kolkata and other parts of the country were drawn to an ideology of violent mass uprising in Naxalbari. There was a vertical division in the communist movement on the slogan that implied that China chairman (Mao) is our chairman. In this context, Indira Gandhi unleashed bank nationalisation and abolition of privy purses which catapulted her to a position of undisputed leader. In the present context too, the shadow of Maoism looms larger than ever over bastions of power in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Patna, Raipur, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Bhubaneswar, Bhopal and Lucknow. That Maoists are
the sole spokespersons for the poor, dalits, tribals and socially marginalised is a formulation that has found grudging acceptance even in drawing rooms of the urban middle class. In such circumstances, the change in political discourse from Mandir-Mandal-economy to fighting illiteracy, poverty and hunger appears to be a welcome relief. Of course, all this is still in the realm of Sonias policy thrust. There seems to be a gap between her social agenda and her governments economic agenda just as wide as the gulf between wishing well and doing well. High on Sonias agenda is the Food Security Act, but her government has just presented a budget that actually cut the food subsidy! Sonias draft bill suggested expansion of scope and coverage under the Food Security Act, the governments draft actually reduced both (prompting Sonia to write to the prime minister to send the bill back to the drawing board). Sonia is proud of the Right to Information Act and the way it is working, Manmohan is keen to amend it under some pretext or the other. And the government has just rolled out the Right to Education Act without thought and budgetary backing. Sonias political lexicon has words such as aam aadmi, right to food, right to education, NREGA, forest rights laws and womens empowerment while Manmohans government is preoccupied with 10 percent growth, FDI, divestment, deregulation, easing labour laws, nuclear liability bill, foreign affairs, etc. But this is the silver-lining: In an increasingly globalising world that first serves the interests of the rich and powerful, civil society groups working to reduce the gap between the have-mores and have-nots couldnt have had a more receptive national leader. After all, as some of them say, right now Sonia Gandhi is the countrys most prominent NGO activist! n

A Socialist Speaks
urendra Mohan is perhaps is the only surviving socialist who can claim to have closely worked with Ram Manohar Lohia, imbibed and understood his leaders anti-Congressism credo and its context. In a free-wheeling interview with Ajay Singh at his east Delhi home on a Sunday evening, he talks about Sonia Gandhi and the UPAs socialist and egalitarian agenda.
INTERVIEW
SURENDRA MOHAN
A slew of measures initiated by the UPA government are aimed at fighting poverty, illiteracy and hunger. Do you feel that Sonia Gandhi has been implementing what socialists have been crying all along but forgot when in government?
What kind of progressive government is this which failed to define the family yet? How is it that they are defining even poverty line vaguely? Various expert committees are giving different yardsticks to measure poverty. The bill on social security for the unorganised sector workers is a dead letter and diluted so much that it has lost its teeth. Even if you go by the government records, over 21 lakh people lost jobs in the organised sector. Are they doing anything about it? The government which cannot contain inflation should not talk about eradicating poverty.
any measures for social security? Now this government is at least seen taking initiatives.
Let me explain as to what our agenda is with regard to the common people. Right from the beginning we have been demanding that the right to work be included as a fundamental right. The obvious implication of this step would have ensured food for each family. But what we have got as the minimum employment guarantee scheme is much too small. In the family of four persons, one person is entitled to 100-day work out of 365 days in a year. This implicitly means a family is guaranteed only 100-day employment. This is not socialism by any stretch of imagination.
But why did socialists fail when they came to power in 1977 and 1989?
This govt is eradicating the poor, not poverty.

distribution system is improved, no right to food act is required. Let me tell you that this government is bent upon eradicating the poor not poverty.
But how would you describe the UPAs decision to bring in the right to education and right to foodthe two pieces of legislation that are being cited as Sonia Gandhis commitment to fighting poverty, hunger and illiteracy?
On the face of it, these two pieces of legislation are touted as major achievements of the government. But what is the reality? If you take the case of the right to education act, it would appear that the government is hell-bent on segregating the society into various groups. We have been demanding a common school system in which children from all sections of society could go to the school. You know, we have two school systemsthe first represented by the public schools meant for the affluent and the second as government schools meant for the poor and marginalised sections. Now with the effect of this right to education bill, we are going to create yet another, third, system of school which will cater to those children who are legally mandated to impart education but their parents have no resources. What kind of education will such schools impart? Then you take the right to food. In fact, this act would have become irrelevant if the government would have given employment as fundamental right. Similarly if the public
Dont you think it was at Sonias initiative that the issues pertaining to poverty, food and price rise have been brought back to the focus? Even the political discourse has shifted away from mandal-mandir to real issues.
I dont believe this. To my mind, this government lacks serious commitment on these issues. I can give you specific example to prove this point. The budgets of 2007-08 and 2008-09 preceded the meltdown but the finance minister had given direct tax benefits to corporate houses to the tune of Rs 500,000 crore. From where did this money come? This is peoples money lavished on coporates by this very government. On the other hand we are reducing the food quota for the poor. The government is not giving fair and minimum justice to the poor. There is hardly any attempt to contain the food prices which spiraled to a 19 percent inflation.
In 1977 there was no price rise. In fact we had contained the prices during the Janata Party regime. To be specific, three socialist leadersMadhu Dandwate, Raj Narain and George Fernandeswere in the Morarji Desai cabinet. Madhu Dandwate in his role as the railway minister eliminated the distinction of third class in the railways and provided cushion to ordinary passengers. Raj Narain, the much misunderstood leader in those days, tried to introduce conventional and traditional medical practitioners to villages. Similarly George Fernandes as industry minister was credited with setting up district industry centres for the single-window clearance system. This was our commitment to peoples cause. The same holds true in VP Singhs term as the price rise was largely contained. VP Singhs biggest agenda was implementation of the Mandal commission. In addition, the VP Singh government came close to introducing two constitutional amendments to make employment a fundamental right. But the Ayodhya issue led to the fall of the government. The tragedy with socialists and communists is that they used to harangue the government on the issues related to common man. Now this has collapsed.
Will you not give Sonia Gandhi any credit for the measures initiated to fight poverty, hunger and illiteracy?
Why is it that though socialist leaders came to power they failed to bring in
She can obviously be given credit for various things. Though the womens reservation initiative has a long history, Sonia Gandhi certainly pushed it forward. Similarly, she was instrumental in bringing in the RTI. Her NAC consisted of illustrious people like Jean Dreze and Aruna Roy. But why should one appreciate all this when qualitative difference of governance for society is almost negligible? Governance has been as poor now as before. n

Face-Reading
illust ration: as hish asthana
Shiv Visvanathan
friend of mine once tried to work out the differences between the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Congress party president, Sonia Gandhi. He said that it was more than a question of persona. A persona stands between mask and face, individual and role. Sonia Gandhi, he claimed, was an ecology. She was also a translator. If Singh represented government and economics, Sonia stood for governance and the human face of the economy. He added Sonia could not be understood alone or monadically. She is a value frame of connections. Her meaning like any linguistic term moves with context. She conveys different sets of messages to different sets of people. He advised me not to seek individual biography as one might with Indira Gandhi but seek a sociography. The woman is a circuit of connections. I think the advice was both guarded and wise. To understand Sonia, one shifts her from party to government, from mother to politician, from woman to nation to understand the multiverse of Sonia as a travelling fact. The negative and the positive then combine in a kaleidoscope of fascinating angles. Let us begin semiotically. She is picture perfect. Yet her politics is never a costume ball. Her clothes are right. They convey sophistication, an ease about surroundings, a body under control. She moves like an icon and knows it. She conveys thoughtfulness and a sense of having thought through issues. Sonia never impresses as a hoarding. She is never larger than life, an inflation of herself like a NT Rama Rao or a Mayawati. She is
Deciphering Sonia
Deconstruction of often contradictory facets of her personality that has transformed Indian politics
life-like, life-size, in fact, true to life. She is more of a photograph but never a still life. She begins as noun and graduates to be a verb, creating a transition from presence to decisive action. The colours are always right, the combinations subtle. It is as if dress and the appropriateness of dress reflect the wider search for correctness. She has arrived and knows she is a presence. She is able to make her own Hindi Jokes, laugh quietly in a way her husband could not. She has a vintage quality which Rajiv never conveyed and Rahul is far from acquiring. She represents the outside as inside, the prodigal as family, the stranger who worked at being at home in a world she never dreamt of domesticating, a backstage mind as a public imagination. One reluctantly stops realising one is outlining an almost cryptic character certificate. But character she is and has and it is this sense of character that has helped her transform
Indian politics. Calling her Italian or international or a doll or even a puppet makes little sense. She is a leader and knows it. In fact, Peter Druckers distinction between manager and leader could apply to Manmohan and Sonia. Singh as manager does things right, Sonia as leader guarantees that one hopefully does the right things. But between the correct and the true there exists a gap and the challenge before Sonia is that the gap should not become an abyss. To understand this, one has to look at party politics. Sonias control of the Congress party is not in doubt. Her cabinet is a team, a collection of deputies. The ones who dissented have faded away. Arjun Singh or Sangma appear like forgotten footnotes. She has mastered the power game but not yet the ironies and paradoxes of power. Like all Congress men and women, she carries in her life the ambivalence between the logic of the party and the logic of the family. The Congress has made nepotism into an institutional necessity and a fine art. It is the party of the epigones where genealogy functions like a PAN number. A kinship chart could function like an organisational chart and genes provide a tacit code of membership. As a result, the Congress is an embedded party and a powerfully populist one. Yet its real grammar of internal party democracy moves across the fault lines of hypocrisy and sycophancy. Dissent is rare and fated to fail. Oddly and paradoxically, Sonia might approve of critique from outside but dissent inside is a form of sacrilege which triggers the hunt for the scapegoats. The uniformity within is seen as a sign of loyalty, whatever the level of anarchy in performance. Plurality, diversity, tolerance is what one extends to ones allies. A Prakashi Karat can be subversive, a Lalu problematic or a Mamata, hysterically contradictory. They will be greeted with patience but God help a Congressman who dares to take the cue from them. This creates
what I call the Janus face of Sonia and the Congress, a hybridity of tolerance and uniformity which one senses as tactical but which leaves in doubt the integrity of the final gestalt. The fate of the dynasty always holds in abeyance the future of the Congress as a democratic entity. What haunts Sonia and, in fact, many mimic Congressmen is Rahul Gandhi. Here is a man seen as a harbinger of the future often entangled in time warps. At one level, he represents the youth of the party, at another he signals a Prince Charles in waiting. His initiation period like some pregnancies is a prolonged one. He appears a boy scout in the making, reciting a few everyday lines that flee from memory. While his mother is a walking mnemonic, he stands like a boy scout in politics. One can acknowledge a few cameo roles, but he is not yet a politician like Digvijay Singh or Chidambaram. His exploits sound simulated. Instead of a politician marathon or a ruthless sprint, here is someone still running a lemon-and-spoon race. It is this, for all the publicity about Rahul having arrived, that conveys the flaw of the party in a democratic sense. But back to Sonia. In a legislative sense the woman is an adept. She bears a large part of the credit for the Womens Reservation Bill, and provided a large part of the stamina whereby the Congress survived the nuclear deal. The womens bill is fundamental and took over a decade to patch together. At one level, it was a national agenda, a vision that other parties shared. At another, it was a personal obsession, a commitment that she felt she had to honour, a search that began in fragments with panchayati raj, with the appointment of a woman as president and as a speaker. It is a radicalisation of the fate of politics few have achieved. Suddenly the OBC or dalit politician sounds like a crotchety patriarch or an absentminded Marxist. Also, there was grace in victory. She
didnt personalise it but saw it as a commitment of all major parties. Rituals of generosity add to her reputation. In that sense, she understands the long run, unlike Keynes who thought we will all be dead, Sonia realised that sustainability begins at home. She handles politics with ease and threats with equanimity. She plays poker, understands the changing nature of trump cards, allows the Lalus and Amar Singhs their clowing movement in politics, waiting to make the right bids. Of all the Congress politicians, she is the one who has mastered the nuances of time and silence and knows how to use them as poker chips. When a smile can serve as a death sentence, why ask for the crudeness of a guffaw. She extends table manners into politics always honouring an Advani or a Vajpayee. May be, it is an act of reciprocity, a favour, a return for the courtesy they extended in her more vulnerable years. To her political acuteness, she brings a sense of governance, a complementarity with Manmohan Singh, a jugalbandi which appears as a play of moves between governance and government. If Singh is the technocrat personified, Sonia selectively adopts the face of civil society. One is not sure she understands everything that she nods about, but one can sense she has appropriated the image if not the content of many issues. Next to the womens bill, her greatest achievement, at least in sustaining it as an institutional idea, is NREGA and the RTI. These two ideas represent the two great achievements of civil society as an imagination. By grafting them onto governance, she has amplified the democratic imagination. It is as if you adopt the two prime vaccines against poverty and corruption, even if you do not accept the overall theory of health which is at another level of complexity. One is not sure whether the government will accept the full consequences of the Sengupta
report on the informal economy, or how citizenship will get defined if one accepts the premises of the Report of Nomadic and Pastoral tribes. The two reports are truly radical. One will transform the way we look at rights and the economy, the other, the manner in which we construct citizenship. But for the Congress, some sense of reform is preferable to a paradigm change. RTI and NREGA are humane alternatives which provide the minimum of hope and concern. The very presence of Jean Dreze, Aruna Roy, and Harsh Mander guarantees that some of the best of the civil society imagination and its integrity is being incorporated into the government. The NAC with these individuals and also NC Saxena in its midst sounds like the kitchen cabinet of the al-
Peter Druckers distinction between manager and leader could apply to Manmohan and Sonia. Singh as manager does things right, Sonia as leader guarantees that one hopefully does the right things. But between the correct and the true there exists a gap and the challenge before Sonia is that the gap should not become an abyss.
ternative imagination that the Congress so desperately needs. If Sonia creates an incubatory possibility for them, democracy might feel hopeful about the future. Between meaningful acts of the political like NREGA and the womens bill, the Congress unfortunately creates the farce. The farce as a political skit can range across poverty to democracy. In reacting to the
conspicuous consumption of its own members, it created conspicuous poverty, allegedly cutting down a few bastions of expense. But these have sprouted back revealing that combating poverty as a lifestyle is not yet the real idiom of the Congress. Sonia as an icon has added little here. Finally, her silent messages of likes and dislikes turn her into a dummy of her own projections, while party men provide the ventriloquism. The recent furore over Amitabh Bachchans presence at an inauguration showed that there are a thousand third-rate politicians mimicking Sonia. The epidemic of vigilantism and witch-hunting it creates is worrying. What adds to it is her silence, where reading her lips adds little to our sense of politics. One final thought. While Sonia adds a lot to governance and the Congress vitimanising its politics, there is always a sense of disquiet. It is what linguists and literary critics would call a synecdochal failure. Synecdoche, as a part of speech, deals with the relation of parts and wholes. One must salute Sonia for revitalising some of the parts. Yet by creating a penumbra of power, one always feels the whole is less than the sum of the parts. The system cannot stand because the Congress as a whole, as a mass and middleclass imagination, needs to rework itself. This will require a struggle of a different kind beyond the power of experts and committees. This wider magic Sonia lacks. It needs a sense of the future as a different country, where the democratisation of democracy will start taking place. n Visvanathan is a social scientist.
In defence of dissent
illustration: ashish asthana

Liberalism for Dummies
The irony of Narendra Modis Talibans of Public Life remarks and other complex metaphors
beginners is not a deep commitment to a plural, egalitarian, compassionate polity and society. It is merely an exercise in table manners, in good behaviour, initiation into a Rotarian life. And a blog is as good a place as any to begin. The issues are larger and go beyond the controversy of Shri Bachchans decision to be a brand ambassador for Gujarat tourism. The sub-text of the argument is what we need to focus on. It alludes to three processes. One, Shri Modi personally, his government and people of Gujarat have been victims of canards of untruth since 2002. Two, any critique of Shri Modi or his government is a critique of the people of Gujarat and her asmita. The critics are, by their very act of dissent, purveyors of a new form of untouchability. Three, the nuances of what constitutes Gujarati asmita has to be the one that is officially accepted and put out. Any deviation from it is an act of ignorance, treachery or secession. We are not unfamiliar with this trajectory. That forgotten comic figure, Dev Kant Baruah, made a lasting contribution to the lexicon of sycophancy with his Indira is India and India is Indira. The man did not realise that incarnation is a subtle process. Dev Kant Baruha died in ignominy but not before he gave us a methodology of loyalty that Sanjay Gandhi understood. What seems a comical formulation was one of the legitimising principles of the Emergency. The idea that a nation and her people are wholly constituted by their unreserved identification with a leader is the first principle of demagoguery. The logic is simple. The nation and her people are because the leader Is. Those who are not so constituted are not just dissenters but in fact traitors. This inevitably leads to muzzling of dissent and hence loss of democratic polity. Creation of a closed society and polity necessarily requires a monolithic imagination, wherein dissent and polyphony are seen as dangerous to national life and hence require to be eradicated. But Modi has created a more complex range of metaphors. Earlier, the critics were outsiders. If they were seen as sophisticated, then they were English educated. The non-governmental actors were five-star NGOs. But with the metaphor of the Taliban he has surpassed himself. One does not have to be a cultural psychoanalyst of Ashis Nandys originality to realise what the term implies. The rules of the game are simple. If I do not like you, you are the projection of my worst fears. Taliban is that undemocratic, violently fundamentalist Muslim that he cannot control or turn into decent middle-class entrepreneurs. It is a blanket term that allows for blanket elimination. Rhetoric apart, what does this signal for our democracy and more importantly for our society? A society becomes a democracy because of difference; political, ideological on a range of issues that concern the lifeworld of its people. People become citizens because they participate in this polyphony. Expression of dissent is an act of responsible citizenship. Criticism is an act of commitment to a democratic society. Only in a closed, autocratic system would dissent be seen as unpatriotic, anti-leader, anti-national. This is what the movement for our national freedom taught us. For Gandhialso because he is invoked in the blog Swaraj required an internal critique. Critique of the Hindu
Tridip Suhrud The one who loves my Gujarat is my soul. The one who loves my India is my God. ith these lines from his poem Narendra Modi signed off his blog of March 28, a day after he faced a 10-hour interrogation from the Supreme Courtappointed Special Investigation Team (SIT). It was a characteristic Modi intervention. He ably deflected the attention to Amitabh Bachchan and the Congress inept fumbling. He characterised all those who opposed Amitabh (not Modi) as Talibans of Public Life, accusing them of spreading a new form of untouchability about all things Gujarat and Gujarati. The next day, on March 29, he intervened through the cyberspace again wherein he cautioned, Any unsubstantiated criticism of the land of Gandhi, Sardar can never be tolerated. Gujarat will give a befitting reply again, and again and again, come what may. We shall put aside the irony of the formulation Talibans of Public Life coming from a person whose government banned though unsuccessfullyJaswant Singhs book on Jinnah, whose government colluded with the unofficial ban on films such as Black Friday and Fanaa. But clearly, Modi has discovered a new religion. It is called liberalism and let me assure you that it is different from liberalisation, which has to do with political economy. Liberalism for
Modi has discovered a new religion. It is called liberalism and let me assure you that it is different from liberalisation, which has to do with political economy. Liberalism for beginners is not a deep commitment to a plural, egalitarian, compassionate polity and society. It is merely an exercise in table manners, in good behaviour, initiation into a Rotarian life.

Liberalism for Dummies
society for its caste oppression, critique of tradition in so far as it subjugated. And even Gandhi did not go unchallenged, not only from the Sanatanis, but even by the bard of Santiniketan. The open debates between Gandhi and Tagore on the very idea of Swaraj made the national movement one of the most culturally and philosophically sensitive freedom struggles ever. In absence of the critique of Gandhi by Ambedkar the distance that Gandhi traversed in his understanding of untouchability would have been impossible. The RSS itself is based on a critical understanding of Hindu tradition. One does not need to remind a RSS pracharak the uneasy relationship that the ideology shares with the caste system. Not once during the freedom movement the dissenting imaginations were castigated as anti-people, anti-national. But this search for consensus runs deep in our polity. The Congress is no stranger to censorship of ideas and dissent. Its search for a monolith continues unabated. But Gujarat might have something to teach even the grand old party as to how to forge a consensus that works. Gujarats ability and need to forge agreement has its roots in its merchant-capital imagination. The new consensus that we are seeking goes beyond the benign bricolage of the Mahajan tradition (Ahmedabads erstwhile mill-owners). The consensus is also different from the one that was witnessed during the Mahagujarat movement that led to the creation of a separate state of Gujarat. It is also not deeply felt politics of the Navnirman movement that gave Gujarat its first non-Congress government. It is different from the political coalition of castes and communities called KHAM (Kshatriya, Harijan, Adivasi, Muslim) created under the Congress. The new consensus that Gujarat has forged is simultaneously cultural, economic, political as also religious. It involves two other processes, loss of a certain kind of speechaphasiaand a loss
of certain kind of memory amnesia. The most significant loss of memory has been the liminal existence of Gandhi. Let us remind ourselves that Gandhi left Sabarmati Ashram on March 12, 1930 never to return. It is evident that the self-imposed exile applied not only to the Ashram but also increasingly to the city of Ahmedabad and Gujarat itself. In the remaining eighteen years of his life Gandhi was to spend some 301 days in Gujarat. His last visit to Ahmedabad was on November 2, 1936. His exile from Ahmedabad is reminiscent of a tap. He did not visit Gujarat after January 1942. The other phenomenon is a loss of a certain kind of speech. Gujarat has created unanimity of opinion around key issues that is unprecedented in any society. Be it Narmada, be it what we call development, be it our capacity to turn against ourselves in frenzied violence with unnerving regularity, we have attained a unity in our self-perception that precludes speech of another kind. We have come to believe that all those who pose questions to our cherished beliefs are not just critics, but
Gujarat has created unanimity of opinion around key issues that is unprecedented in any society. Be it Narmada, be it what we call development, be it our capacity to turn against ourselves in frenzied violence with unnerving regularity, we have attained a unity in our self-perception that precludes speech of another kind.
enemies of Gujarat and the Gujarati people. We castigate them as anti-Gujarati. This allows us to preserve the self-image that we have created. If we want to peel off the layers of this cultural self-image some things are apparent. First, we think of ourselves as pragmatic entrepreneurs. We are wealth creators. This pragmatism is a strange thing. It is forward looking, but in so doing it also prohibits a backward glance. In this memory becomes a burden that we wish to shed. Be it Gandhi, be it violence, be it our culpability, we would rather look forward. Absence of such memory impedes self-reflection. Thus our pragmatism comes with the blunting of self-awareness. This entrepreneurial instinct allows us to reach out, to search for possibilities, to be outward moving. At the same time it allows us to believe that all things, including ethics, are negotiable. The second layer of this self-belief tells us that we are peaceful and peace loving people. We speak with justifiable pride that women in Gujarat can go out late into the night unescorted, free from any fear. This is true, but this narrative does not allow us to look at the alarming slide in our sex ratios. This allows us to forget that Gujarat has one of the highest rates of domestic violence and what are termed as unnatural death of women. This notion of peace loving, vegetarian people also allows us to brush aside the regularity of communal and caste conflict. We either see them as mere aberrations in the even flow of life or as just reprisal meted out to the muslims or dalits. Between amnesia and aphasia we are forging a new asmita. The cultural self-image that we are forging is part fantastic and part grounded in our society. That it should be such is not a surprise. We have borrowed the idea of Gujarati asmita from K M Munshi. Munshi in his trilogyGujarat No Nath, Rajadhiraj and Patan Ni Prabhutacreated a fantastic history of medieval valour. In this we marginalise
other forms of imaginations that went in making of modern Gujarat. The asmita that we speak of is not rooted in either Gujarati language or creative expression. Most Gujarati writers express dismay that we do not read serious literature, at least not in our language. Our whole-hearted endorsement of English as a preferred medium of instruction even in semi-urban areas is held up as an example of the sorry state of Gujarati language, which compelled us to take out Matru Bhasha Vandana Yatra. We speak less and less about ourselves in our tongue. In this asmita the West as a source of consumption and opportunity plays a role. Ahmedabad is dotted with buildings that bear the name New York, and believe it or not we also have a very un-aesthetic and stunted Statue of Liberty in the main shopping artery of Ahmedabad. And yet, we wish to create an identity that is aggressively exclusive and not inclusive. Instead of a dialogue with those who challenge us, we would prefer their annihilation. The most active part of Gujarati civil society is religious sects. They have become arbitrators not only of our relationship with the divine but of the cultural space itself. They facilitate commerce, pass literary judgements and provide bedrock on which the politics of Hindutva is forged. It is in this cultural context that a formulation such as Talibans of Public Life finds legitimacy. It deepens our sense of victimhood. It castigates the plea for justice and compassion as deeply undemocratic. We must realise that a plea for justice can be a cry, a shrill, jarring note and even a deep, melancholic silence. It is not expected to be a sublime, sonorous melody. We cannot shut out these voices or silence as noise. It is our ability to hear these voices which is going to determine the future of our society. n The author, a social scientist, lives in Ahmedabad. tridip.suhrud@gmail.com
Turning our cities green

arooq Abdullah seems set to become Lalu Prasad of UPA II. His reputation as a chief minister notwithstanding, the senior Abdullah is taking his job as a minister for new and renewable energy so seriously that he has worked out a plan to turn 60 cities into green ones by 2012. As per this plan, Chandigarh will be developed as a
performance
nknown to most, Behen Mayawati has turned reformist and the area of her focus is power sector. As a first step, she handed over power distribution in Agra to a Gujaratbased private company, Torrent Power Limited. The mandate is to cut down power theft which stands at 42 percent. Work has begun and going by the first impressions, the city folks are mighty pleased with her!
model green city, with the ministry footing 50 percent of expenses. Such is the pace of work that 36 more cities have already been given in-principle clearance and 14 are working on their master plans! For a city to be considered green, it needs to cut 10 percent of electricity and fossil fuel consumption through renewable energy and energy efficient measures.
Maya the Reformer
SAIL for sale
AIL will be the first state-run, navratna company to hit the capital market in the new fiscal. Keeping with the UPA IIs target of raising Rs 40,000 crore through disinvestment, the CCEA has decided to off-load 10 percent government stakes.
At the same time, SAIL has also been allowed to issue 10 percent shares to the public. The twin-measure will help mobilise Rs 16,000 crore. Once the exercise is completed, the government holding will come down to 61 percent, while the public holding will go up to 31 percent.
South leads the way in e-readiness
arnataka, Chandigarh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Andhra Pradesh have been ranked as leaders in e-readiness, as per the India e-Readiness Assessment Report 2008 released by the centres department of information technology. The report, published by the department in collaboration with the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER), is the fifth in a series of reports that ranks states/ UTs on e-readiness.

e-Justice
illust ration: ashish ast hana
Samir Sachdeva/Sarthak Ray
A
This cant be a court! Right! This is e-court!
This e-court could well be a sneak-peek at the future of the Indian judicial system available at broadband speed, transparent and transcending distance barriers.
lasting image of courtrooms, borrowed from almost every Hindi movie of the 1980s, is that of a bespectacled judge poring over sheaves and heaps of paper while the squeaks of an old ceiling fan only make the ambient silence absolute. But at the Karkardooma Courts complex in east Delhi, there is one that runs a wild brush on this picture of courtrooms. The surprise starts with the walls which show off wood. No peeling paint, no aged concrete chipping off the ceiling just the shine of polished wood. The leitmotif of the squeaking fan is gone. An air-conditioner maintains a comfortable temperature setting for the judge and the accused alike. Add to the milieu some CFL lighting, and the swank of a corporate office is immediately apparent. But among the atypical features, there are some more singularly so. Looking for the gavel, you are more likely to wonder what exactly that curious lamp-like contraption on the bench does. That is not the only courtroomalien. A closed-circuit (CC) camera stares right at the judge from the ceiling while three others capture proceedings from three corners of the room. The gadgetry also includes two LCD screens one for the trial attendants, the other for the judge on which proceedings, documents and depositions can be watched. However, the queerest sighting in the room are the three computers which make the bench look more like a office workstation. This is Indias first districtlevel e-court, inaugurated on February 8 by Justice Ajit Prakash Shah. The pilot project is being executed under the guidance of Justice BD Ahmed of the computers committee of the Delhi High Court. The project is being funded by Technology Information, Forecasting and Assessment Council (TIFAC) under the department of science and technology. C-DAC, Noida has been enlisted to develop the technology for the project and provide back-end
A closed circuit camera stares right at the judge from the ceiling, three others capture proceedings from the corners of the courtroom. But the queerest sight are the computers that make the bench look like an office workstation.
support. The LCD screens are the courts mirrors on the wall. One airs court proceedings for those in attendance and the other exclusively for the bench. These mirrors of the courts are also portals portals for deposition from jails, hospitals and police offices. The e-court ISDN line is used for videoconferencing. A C-DAC representative dials the Tihar line and a face flickers on the screens. Moments later we have a stable visual. Under-trial Bharat Taneja is ready to depose from the jail. Preempting the security risks and costs involved in the transit of under-trials from prisons to the court and back, the technology used here just makes sure the necessity for transit is minimal. The videoconferencing facility is also a relief to witnesses and police who otherwise had to be physically present in the courtroom to testify. Currently, the court is linked to the Tihar jail, other Delhi courts complexes and the office of the deputy commissioner of police (Delhi East). Coming back to the lamp-like contraption on the bench it is a document visualiser. The secrecy surrounding court documents is dispelled using the device which projects any document on to the two LCD screens installed. The document is then visible to the accused, witnesses, lawyers, court staff and all present in the court. A lawyer can easily refer to the desired document during his argument and highlight the same on the LCD screen. All documents and information are stored on the server housed behind the courtroom. And in a first, court proceedings are streamed live on the internet at http://delhicourts.nic.in/ecourt/e_main.html except for sensitive cases. This e-court could well be a sneakpeek at the future of the Indian judicial system available at broadband speed, transparent and transcending distance barriers. And it claims to be paperless. All records of trials past and ongoing have been digitised more precisely scanned and filed in a database which the judge can access on a touch screen. Now, all the judge has to do is lift his finger and click and a minefield of trial data sorted by case, date or Act is available for reference. The government seems to have taken a cue from the Abhishek Bachchan ad and evolved this concept, says Mahender Sharma, an advocates clerk

e-Justice

Future of RTI
working at the court. Clutching a bunch of files and notes, he cant help but feel left out of the paperless grid. He is ready, though, to vouch for its success the day he is able to get certified copies of documents from the court without considerations to the court staff. We still have to make requests to the official or call in favours, or worse still, take the guy out to tea to get the certified copies of documents. But now we dont know what will be the status, whether we will get a CD or have to access the internet to get the copies. No doubt the scope for corruption goes down, says Sharma. Mohammad Rahat, a young advocate practising in the court, is enthusiastic as he feels that the e-court will make the life of lawyers easier. Lawyers will no longer have to carry files to the court. They can connect to the server through their laptops in the court and access the case documents. Rakesh Mehta, additional public prosecutor with the court, feels that the system will take some time to stabilise as the complete ecosystem is not ready. To achieve a true paperless court the police, lawyers and other courts also need to become paperless. He believes it is too early to call it a success and that it will take time for the court to be fully functional. But at the same time, he minces no words in hailing it as the dawn of process reforms in courts. His wishlist includes technology to connect the LCD to the stenographers computer which will enable the lawyers and witnesses to see what is being recorded by the steno as evidence Going ahead the e-court will be connected to the forensic lab in Rohini, GTB Hospital, Hedgewar Hospital and Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital. Doctors will be able to attend to their patients and will not lose their entire day just to be present as a witness in the court. Videoconferencing facility will also be provided at all police stations in Delhi so that policemen may not have to spend their entire day to give their witness in the court. An SMS will alert the concerned police stations personnel to get ready for deposition at the videoconferencing studio attached to the station. All they will then need to do is appear on camera. For lawyers e-filing will be enabled whereby documents will be filed
Going ahead, the e-court will be connected to a few hospitals. This will enable doctors to attend to their patients without losing their entire day just to be present as a witness in the court.
through the internet in digital form. They will also be able to inspect court files of their own cases through internet from their offices through secure login and password. Lawyers will also be able to display their arguments in form of presentations on the LCD screen in the court. Outstation lawyers will be able to argue their matter through videoconferencing from anywhere in India. Even though the right infrastructure is already in place the paperless court is still using paper files which are transported from a nearby room whenever required. There are paper based registers still in use and a printout of evidence record is still taken, signed by the witness and then scanned and saved. The e-court team at C-DAC Noida has preferred to wait and watch before commenting. But they have a lot of faith in their product. Theirs is a dilemma akin to that of all pioneers watching and reading for flaws almost as if on a mission to find one, but at the same time hoping that there is none. Says Rishi Prakash, a senior manager in the team, The project is up and running and the judge and other stakeholders have not faced a problem so far that our support staff present there couldnt fix. Even as we keep our fingers crossed, we know this is the start of the next generation of courts in India. Project engineer Sujit Kumar echoes the thought, saying, The project was implemented with a view to bring process reforms in the functioning of courts. And so far, no ones complaining. The training we gave those who are using the technology has facilitated a smooth transition. The interface that the judge or the clerk uses is very simple and easy to use. It may further take time for the horizontal transfer of the project to the 15,000 courts spread across 2,500 court complexes in the country. Generation of automated case list, copies of judgments, facilitating availability of case status and daily orders on website have already been implemented in big way across various district courts. But with the obvious benefits of re-visiting of testimony from recorded depositions, and technology ensuring transparency this e-court is the next link in the evolution of the courts. n
Pioneering Right to Information (RTI) activists believe that with more and more youth getting invloved, the future of the movement looks bright.
RTI and the power of youth T

he movement for the right to information has been undergoing a silent change. In the initial years, leading activists across the country including Aruna Roy, Nikhl Dey and Arvind Kejriwal created awareness about the law. Workshops, forums and debates were held to take the RTI Act to the masses. Four years after the Act came into existence, the youth has taken over the movement. When the YP Foundation organised a discussion on From exploring the RTI Act to building a movement do young people matter? in March at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi, college students from the capital were in majority in the audience. It is heartening to see the youth using the RTI Act in larger public interest. And the phenomenon is not restricted to the cities. It is happening at the vilage level too, said Shekhar Singh, member, National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI). Recalling the genesis of the RTI movement, Singh said: People were demanding a right to know since the 1980s, but things changed especially after the Bhopal gas tragedy in 1984. Environmentalists and social activists sought to know the details of those companies which were a threat to our lives. The real push came in the 1990s when the villagers in Rajasthan claimed that they were not getting their daily wages and demanded a scrutiny of government records. Of course, there was resistance from various quarters in the government, he added. Once the common man realised what information could do to his life, people formed lobbies which maintained constant pressure on the government and finally the law was
(Left to right): Raj Liberhan, director, India Habitat Centre, Venkatesh Nayak, coordinator, a ccess to information programme, CHRI; and Shekhar Singh, member, NCPRI.
enacted, he added. Central Information Commission chief Wajahat Habibullah said the real change would come only when the youth become actively involved in the RTI movement. More and more youth should participate, he said. Speaking on Improving the efficiency of public authorities through RTI applications, Habibullah said that a majority of the citizens was not aware of the fact that the scope of the RTI Act went beyond the government departments. The RTI Act covers all the NGOs and institutes which are directly or indirectly funded by the government, he said, adding that section 4 was the most important section of the Act. As per this section, all the government records should be computerised. But we still follow archaic ways of preserving documents, which is turning out to be a hindrance in the implementation of section 4, he said. Commenting on the debate over the office of the chief justice of India vis-a-vis the RTI Act, Habibullah said the Supreme Court ruling will have to be respected and one should not assume that the apex court would rule against the spirit of the law. The apex court has challenged, before itself, a Delhi High Court order that the office of the CJI is a public authority covered by the RTI Act. After all, the Supreme Court is supreme,
said the CIC chief. Yamini Aiyer, director, Accountability Initiative, ran the audience through the range of issues for which the citizens are now using the RTI route. People are filing RTI applications to expose corruption in government schemes such as NREGA; to know the details of their passports and driving licences etc and to know the progress of projects going on in their towns and villages, she said. Manju Sadrangani, a political officer with the US Embassy, presented a comparison between the RTI Act and the Unites States Freedom of Information Act. In the US, diplomats think of themeslves as public servants, while in India, the district magistrate is treated like a minor god. In such a scenario, I believe that the RTI Act will be a game changer for India, she said. Speakers in the forum also took note of an increasing number of attacks on RTI activists. Venkatesh Nayak, coordinator of access to information programme with the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, said that people should exercise caution while filing RTI applications. There are a handful of people who are creating a perception of fear among the RTI users. We have to fight them, Nayak said, adding that it was always better to file an RTI application in larger public interest rather than for any personal gains. n
Where is Arundhati Roy? After her 32page essay on the selfless Maoists, dont It just we deserve to hear at least 32 words Occurred to us from her on the Dantewada massacre?

Governing Health Of The Force

Governing Health Of The Force
AB TAK 56... I
Relax! We are just counting Mumbai cops push-ups!
Geetanjali Minhas
(Pic above) Maharashtra DGP AN Roy (plain clothes) and Mumbai Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan at the inauguration of the Tardeo gym.
f you see people doing yoga or working out in a gym at their workplace, you will think they are employed in a software firm or a BPO. Actually, they are policemen. Consider this: they work long hours extending up to 12 hours, mostly under stress, they eat when and where they can, and the result is health risk. On average, 200 policemen in the 37-41 years age group in Mumbai succumb to heart attack every year. No wonder, when the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) surveyed 3,500 policemen and their families to prepare a report on police welfare measures in 2006, health emerged as their top concern. Taking note of this, Mumbai Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan launched Operation Arogya to change the stereotypical image of a policeman as a pot-bellied, pan-chewing, tea-gulping man in khaki. The need for this was always there, but now with terrorism looming large over the city it is important to have a fitter and healthier police force, Sivanandhan says. Operation Arogya, the brainchild of
Sivanandhan, was launched on November 5, 2009 under the Police Welfare Scheme. It builds on the success of a low-profile health awareness campaign Additional Commissioner of Police Sadanand Date had started in the Mumbai Central Region on November 15, 2008. That exercise has now been extended to the entire city and, thus, approximately 42,000 police personnel of Mumbai Police have been undergoing thorough health check-ups. Within one week of taking my current charge in June 2008, I was taken aback when a constable just 32 years old died due to cardiac arrest when average life expectancy today is 72 years, says Date. The initiative started with yoga classes for the south central region at Kaivalyadham, Marine Lines, and later expanded through the Yoga Institute at Santacruz, and Ambika Yoga Kutir at Kandivli. Now, there is a new batch every 10 days. The aim is to teach the asanas so that the policemen can continue practising them at home after the course is finished. More than 3,500 policemen have attended yoga classes since October 2008. Lintas advertising agency also chipped in by spreading fitness awareness through an internal
campaign. Alongside, Dr Vispi Kapadia has been conducting karate training camps and Dr Naini Sitalvad has been giving nutrition guidance at individual police stations. Datamatics has provided free data processing solutions and Thyrocare has been providing pathological services at competitive rates. Next, executive health check-ups were started with the help and support of Dr Sanjay Oak, dean of the Nair Hospital, and then Brihan Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Jairaj Phatak. Three BMC hospitals, KEM, Nair and Sion, conducted check-ups on about 4,500 police personnel of the central region. Pathology tests in OPD cases were provided free of costs. This saved substantial costs along with identifying health problems, issuing health advisory according to individual case, taking corrective action and making fitness a lifestyle choice. As the benefits became visible, it was decided to continue this on a regular basis. Between November and December 2008, 4,500 policemen underwent check-ups at medical camps held in three zones under the central region. With Operation Arogya extending throughout the city, 100 doctors from the Indian Medical Association are also conducting tests on policemen. So far, head-to-toe health check-ups have been conducted on 28,000-30,000 personnel and another 12,000 have undertaken some additional vital checks. Once a policeman completes medical tests, he is given books on family health care by KEM doctors. Kaivalyadham is giving complimentary books on yoga and asanas. The project is expected to complete by June 2010. Upon completion, all medical reports will be kept confidential at the Mumbai Central Office in Byculla. Medical reports of the policemen of an individual police station will remain with a senior inspector. This will help him fine-tune allocation of duties according to each policemans fitness. The information will then move up the hierarchy, to the deputy commissioner and finally the police commissioner, to keep them updated about fitness levels of the
entire police force. A research design is being created to consolidate and document the data on year-on-year basis for the next five years. This will help in focusing on issues of central concern and making policy improvements to keep the police force in the pink of health. The aim is to bring down the number of avoidable deaths from 200 to two digits in five years. Policing is a stressful job, therefore policemen have to take special care of their diet and exercise and improve their lifestyle choices. If we continue with the plan on a sustainable basis we will make a difference, says Date. The drive has continued its momentum despite setbacks when partners in the PPP mode pulled out and again when the 26/11 terrorist attacks happened. Of course, it is a costly exercise, but now the Police Welfare Fund is seeing it through.
The health drive has continued despite setbacks when partners in the PPP mode pulled out and again when the 26/11 terrorist attacks happened. Of course, it is a costly exercise but now the Police Welfare Fund is seeing it through.
And more is coming through. As part of the comprehensive welfare plan, Sivanandhan has sanctioned 100 gymnasiums for Mumbai policemen. A worldclass gym with a total price tag of Rs 1 crore was opened at the Naigaon Police Headquarters in October 2009. Another one is coming up at the Worli police headquarters. State-of-the-art gyms are already functioning in police stations at Vakola, Dharavi, BKC, Oshiwara, Juhu, LT Marg, Agripada and Nagpada. When a gym was inaugurated at the Tardeo police station on March 19, 2010, the top brass also rewarded those policemen who managed to lose extra weight. Next in line is adding capacity to police hospitals. Apart from five wellequipped OPD rooms at the Nagpada Police Hospital, an ultramodern ophthalmology centre is coming up with full-time doctors. As for the right food for policemen, a modern kitchen is coming up at the Naigaon police headquarters with a budget of Rs 60 lakh. Hygienic, wholesome and nutritious food will be prepared in the kitchen and delivered to the policemen anywhere in the city. Policemen spending long hours on duty and away from the family should not worry about at least the education of their children, so a state-of-the-art school in Worli at a cost of Rs 18 crore is also on anvil as part of the comprehensive welfare plan, the police commissioner says. We are concerned about the welfare of the policemen. The most important thing in running a force is to ensure that their welfare is given the top priority. Here my priority is to give best possible health facility and education to their children, says Sivanandhan. Health can be divided into preventive and post disease care. Nutritious food, gymnasium at workplace, canteen that provides nutritious food are included in preventive care, says Sivanandhan. The hospital will take care of post-disease care. Subsidised and best possible help will be provided on both counts. The government is fully supportive in this exercise. n
That West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya is justly upset with Home Minister P Chidambaram for using uncouth, non-political language. Chidambaram used four words that are not generally part of any decent politicians lexicon: Buck stops with you. n They are both right. Chidambaram said the buck must stop with Buddha, Buddha said the bak-bak must stop with Chidambaram!

Last Word
Illust ration: Ashish Asthana
Resigned to the resignation game

Bikram Vohra am so impressed with P Chidambaram. Not only has he trotted down to the site of the CRPF massacre but he even took the salute with his hand squashed across his forehead at the CRPF parade and stood near the bodies of the dead and cheered up the wounded and then showed the gravel in his gut by resigning because the buck stopped at his desk. The buck, he said, stops here. The buck, he roared, goes no further. Then, in ringing tones he said, the buck stops here, right here, nowhere else, on this table, my table, not the PAsthis table here, I am responsible. So touched was I that the HM had the spit in the eye to take the blame so squarely that I wept copiously. My wife asked me why I was weeping copiously, she being an expert in stating the obvious. Old PC, I said, whatttaaman, hes holding the hot little buck. So call him, tell him how you feel. I did. PC, I said, over the phone after waiting 17 minutes, proud to shake your hand, what a sterling example to the rest, at least the 76 did not die in vain, those widows and orphans will be truly grateful, a nation salutes you. A man has to do what a man has to do, he said, all valiant and stoic, his voice breaking like one of those Japanese businessmen about to shove a sword up his gut for honour except here it was a paper cutter to open the envelope from the PM telling him he couldnt quit. There was a deathly silence. Wassup, I said, there seems to be a deathly silence over the phone. The PM, he has rejected my offer to quit. There was a deathly silence. He cant do that, fight him on it, tell him the souls of the dead wont let you keep your Z security and your white kurta laundry allowance and your Black Cats ..My cat is brown I meant the commandos, mate, look, I am with you, dont let Manmohan Singh bully you, here you are ready to throw it all in including the red light on car and the buck on the table once it stopped there and he is being a spoilsport, I mean tell him you cannot in good whatstheword Conscience Yeah. Right onyou cannot carry on... Woe is me, what can I do, it was a point of principle now I am stuck with the job. Heyheyhey, old buddy, easy, well find a way out, well keep that buck on your table, lets take him up I cant, I am loyal servant of the party, I serve at his pleasure, I cannot say no, I will have to soldier on Did you just say soldier on, PC? You know what I mean, I cannot go against my leader Much as your conscience is pricking you, right, I mean you cannot sleep at night thinking of those poor guys who got slaughtered, right and there is that buck staring up at you balefully... Who is Bail Phully, I dont know any Bail Phully Never mind, I have an idea, it will work What, I am so sad, I wanted so much to do the right thing Then do it. Lets organise a media blitz, you know a whole feeding frenzy pressuring the PM into reconsidering the reconsidered resignation letter so that it can then be considered as having been reconsidered and in the fresh consideration he can then accept the rejected resignation having given it renewed consideration, tell you what, for you, my political shining knight, I am going to start calling people now, hello, hello, PC, your line is going faint, I cant hear you, PC, PC, do you hear me Funny, I havent been able to get through to him since then. [The author wishes to confess that the editor demanded a 600 word article or else it could have been written in one line: You think we are stupid?] n
The marriage of Sania Mirza and Shoaib Malik underscores two delightful sports It just cliches. For her, game, set and match and Occurred to us for him, bowling a maiden over.

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I want to be an agent of change: Nilekani

The man who wore a sanitary napkin!

Because the police must be in good health

April 16-30, 2010 | Vol. 01 Issue 06 | Rs 30

08 Interview with Nandan Nilekani

I want to be an agent of change.

12 Innovative launch pad for womens empowerment

28 The uncommon woman

34 Deconstructing Sonias persona

46 Ab tak 56... push-ups

18 Does she have a choice?

40 This cant be a court! Right, this is e-court!

Lessons from Dantewada

Time for judicial reforms

Between the roll out and the roll call

GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2010

Why I voted against the womens quota bill

Holy river unites faiths

Sanias foreign affair involves foreign affairs

Dignity of Rajya Sabha

Jairam disrobes to make a point

Maya and Malaise

instead of coming dressed up as medieval vicars and popes?

6 GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2009

people politics policy performance

I just want to be a change agent

So when do we see the first UID number being rolled out?

Will the State be able to look into the database?

Not even the law enforcement agencies?

But in the absence of a privacy law

What all fields will be there on this number?

Do we look forward to August 15, 2010 or January 26, 2011?

How long will be that number?

Will the UID number be for residents or for citizens?

That due process will be part of the UID Act

Will we need a legislation for UID?

What is the difference?

What will be the highlights of this bill?

Will it also address privacy concerns?

Anyone who meets the verification and residency requirements as defined by

GovernanceNow | April 16-30, 2010

people politics policy performance

Is Infosys among them?

I am actually not even involved with that selection process.

How much will the overall project cost?

Can citizens participate in the meet?

What are the risks involved in the project?

There is a technology risk, enrollment quality risk, there is a political risk.

Political risk in which way?

Probably a member of parliament?

Have you worked out some figure?

What is your role in the Technology Advisory Group?

So, it becomes a governmentcitizen partnership.

Are you working with the ministry of petroleum also?

Any names that have been shortlisted?

But is this only for the finance ministry only?

What about the pilot project?

Where does it fit in with the National e-Governance Plan?

Which are the states where the POC is going on?

UID is the foundation of this whole plan.

The UID will be required when someone

Nine consultants have been shortlisted for the software assignment

You are organising a national seminar.

How do you define yourself author, bureaucrat, technocrat or political leader?