http://www.suniti.org/ PostNuke Powered Site en-us http://www.suniti.org/images/suniti_01.png http://www.suniti.org/ admin@suniti.org http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=820 Bibek Debroy in the Indian Express writes: "both executive and legislature have been mentioned in the Constitution and the latter is supposed to act as an effective check on excesses of the former. There are too many blemishes on this "check" function, some created by the executive itself. As the Constitution has changed, so should parliamentary practices and procedures" Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=819 Former Chief Justice of India, J. S. Verma, has put it as good as anyone can that the High courts have taken the right step in supporting the proposal of making an account of judges' assets available to the public. No public office, funded by public money, to serve the public, should be immune from public accountability. As Shri Verma has rightly stated, the only debatable point is the mechanism of such declaration. One would hope that the Supreme Court will accept this proposal without reservation. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=818 Should a criminal be payed to surrender? Granted that in a short-term economic sense, it might be cheaper to pay a criminal to surrender than to invest more resources in security forces etc. Also, we can be reasonably sure that many Naxals have been pushed on a destructive path partly because of misgovernance. But, how is paying Naxals to surrender different than a surrender by the government that has admitted its defeat in bringing Naxals under control? And won't it encourage more unemployed youth to join the Naxals only to surrender thereafter to gain free government money? Rehabilitation of criminals is a noble goal, but it should not come before due process and their subjugation to the law of civilized society. The proper way to deal with the Naxal situation is to bring about good governance (so that people do not have to turn to Naxalism), bring about rule of law (by capturing or forcing Naxals to surrender and bringing them and those who allegedly pushed them to break the law to a fair trial) followed by rehabilitation efforts. Naxals who are released with minor charges after a trial could be given micro finance loans or some such thing that is accessible to anyone who wants to improve their own life, but no special treatment should be given. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=817 If a recent recommendation by top three science institutes goes through, pretty soon specialization at the BSc level will not be allowed. This move is counter productive as it is coming in the way of letting the demand for skills decide what skills can be imparted in institutes of higher education. The reason cited behind this recommendation is that the subject matter understanding of those who study super-specialized courses such as biotechnology remains shallow. If specialization does not let people acquire depth, then what does? Generic BSc that teaches science in all its broad glory? In this world when the amount of knowledge doubles every few years, one can either specialize early or increase the years one spends on "basic and broad" education. So, which is it going to be? And how will we decide what it should be? And for whom will we decide? What is the purpose of education anyway? If it is to acquire the knowledge and skills to be useful to oneself and the society, then let people and society decide what knowledge is useful to them. In other words, if a certain education makes a person employable or an entrepreneur, and there are people ready to get that education, then the state should not put roadblocks for it. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=816 Is the job of a Chief Minister to ensure that his party wins Lok Sabha seats? Where does that misplaced priority leave time for his duty towards the state as the Chief Minister? What about his record as the Chief Minister, whether he is good in that role and what he has accomplished for the state. BJP asking for resignation of Khanduri for its poor performance in Lok Sabha polls for seats in Uttrakhand is another example of how centralized authority in our political parties can compromise local aspirations. We need to decentralize power so that local leaders can help take care of local issues and problems. Otherwise, people will keep blaming center (whether central government or party high command) for all the problems of local areas, and perhaps rightly so. Look at all the dissent in many of our states for neglect by central government and party high commands. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=815 Andhra government has proposed a ceiling on school fees based on infrastructure it offers. The main reason cited is that some schools are charging "unreasonable" fees. Instead of asking why some schools are very sought after while others are languishing, the government decides to put a cap on these fees. This is wrong on several accounts: 1. First of all, it will increase government spending as it will need to add capabilities to set price tags for and monitor school infrastructure. 2. It does not take into account the "quality" of teachers. It does talk about "qualification" of teachers, but we all know how the two are very different concepts, at least in India. Infrastructure is not the only measure of value that the students get from a school. 3. It opens up an avenue for corruption where the schools can potentially bribe the government officials to get higher fees approved. 4. By potentially lowering the fees, and teacher pay as a consequence, the government will drive good teachers away and make all schools mediocre just the way the government schools are. Why not just let the schools set their own fees, and let the parents and students decide whether they want to pay that fees for what the school has to offer or move to another school. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=814 How a person is treated in a neutral foreign country is often telling of how she is treated by her own country. In a moving account of modern day slavery of countless Indian citizens (and others who come from countries with similarly apathetic or uninfluencial governments), the author brings out the plight of debt-ridden people who are lured into paying huge sums for a visa to go to Dubai. Our governments hardly raise these issues with the government of UAE, of which Dubai is a part. Perhaps, expecting the governement to strive for better treatment of its citizens abroad is a far cry when humane treatment of Indian citizens within its borders is an unachieved goal. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=813 TOI reports, HC slams Delhi govt. for publishing ads touting 2010 Commonwealth Games using taxpayers' money. The government has been asked to identify officials who authorized the release of these ads, and make them pay personally for the related expense. This is a step in the right direction, as these ads represent the most blatant act to misuse public funds for promoting the cause of governing political party. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=812 Sudheendra Kulkarni in the Indian Express writes: "What an abominable situation it is that we have created a two-class society in India, of VIPs and non-VIPs, the former receiving special treatment from the officialdom and the latter denied even normal courtesies. Corruption, harassment, systemic apathy, and colossal delays and inefficiency are what law-abiding citizens often encounter in their interface with government. Of course, those who are deficit in honesty and surplus in ill-gotten wealth know how to work the system because they know how to hobnob with the VIP class." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=811 We have a collective obligation as a country and society to invest in under-developed areas, such as the North-East India, and tourism can be one such investment. However, tourism is largely an industry with local stakeholders. So, when the government decides to spend money in well-developed areas on tourism, we can be sure that this would be unnecessary, wasteful and inefficient. Local governments should be given more autonomy in deciding how to raise money and where to spend it, instead of making them beg to the Center for money and permissions. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=809 Coomi Kapoor rightly points that time spent by our MPs in their respective houses, and the quality of what they do in that time has severely deteriorated. As we have said before, we need to make attendance compulsory for our MPs. An MP who cannot be bothered or is simply unable to represent his/her constituents (due to illness or circumstances) must be made to relinquish the seat to someone else. The quality of what they do in the parliament is something even harder to control, unless there is voter awareness and backlash. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=808 The Indian Express writes: "While finance ministers and central bank governors across the world are working overtime to save their economies from a world downturn, the Indian establishment is behaving as if it is almost business as usual. With no full-time finance minister and a central bank governor who appears to lack the courage to take any step for fear of those at the RBI who warn that there may be some inflation lurking in these deflationary times, one wonders who will take the lead in actually moving forward." Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=807 The Indian Express writes: "The Gorshkov saga should be a learning experience for India. The defence establishment will have to come out of its Cold War-era, single-source mindset, which anyway belies other big and dependable partnerships, most notably with Israel. It’s time to analyse hardware defence procurement from Russia as a whole, which supplies the same equipment to China, which uses Indian money to subsidise its decrepit shipyards, and which withheld critical technology for the T90s and is the cause of our bigger problem of spare parts." Read More. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=806 Is the recent ban on use of cellphones in schools by Maharashtra government a sensible and enforceable law? The spirit of the ban is completely legitimate, since use of cellphones in a class by a teacher or a student can disrupt the process of learning. However, there are many other ways in which cellphones can be a big help to the teachers and students outside the class, for instance, calling parents to coordinate a child's pick up. Besides there are a million other things that can disrupt learning during a class, such as talking among students or knitting by teachers. If laws were to ban each such activity, without due thought to define context of the ban, then either life would become too restrictive or laws will become meaningless and unenforceable. And if the context is defined for each banned activity, the law will become too rigid, narrow and complicated. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=805 The Indian Express reports that the Congress party led UPA government is planning to 100,000 houses each costing Rs 10-20 lakh over the next two years. We need no proof that this plan is going to be a waste of money. Whenever government initiated such plans in the last sixty years it has resulted in a shoddy housing projects. Moreover, why is the central government initiating such project in a first place. It is a job of the local government. The local government needs to take lead on such issue and based on the local needs they can sell land to private developers (for prevailing market price) and let the developers build houses and sell. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=804 The Indian Express writes: "Razi’s appointment, by the then new UPA government to an NDA-ruled state, was problematic from his first couple of months, when he decided to question the government’s decision to convene a session of the state assembly after elections had been notified in late 2004. Since then, he has stumbled from one politicised disaster to another, most notably when, in March 2005, he invited Shibu Soren to form a government when the NDA appeared to have the support of 41 members in the 81-strong assembly. That decision was reviled even within his own party, with the national-level Congress hastily dissociating itself from the decision once it blew up. " Read More http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=803 The original purpose of IITs was to create institutions of excellence in technical education that will help in advancing the technical know-how in the country. This purpose has arguably been little served for various reasons. A significant by-product of IITs has been individual advancement of its alumni and brand-value abroad. In the light of two new IITs being announced in this budget for operation from fiscal year 2009-10, a pertinent question is whether the government should open new IITs using tax payer money, and if so, how. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=802 U.S. Special Envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan Richard Holbrooke on Monday said India, the United States and Pakistan all faced a common enemy - Taliban. Taliban is more of a threat to Afghanistan (by extension US), and bordering regions of Pakistan, where it has managed to force Pakistani government to agree to imposing Islamic law. But, to India, this threat is still distant as Taliban seems mainly concerned with fighting US, Afghan and Pakistani governments to impose Sharia in areas with its significant presence. Our immediate threat is ISI-backed terrorism, and we should not get side-tracked by show of solidarity by US on what is clearly its self-interest at the expense of ignoring our own self-interest. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=801 The Indian Express writes: "The distress of those employed in the diamond industry of Gujarat could perhaps have been anticipated the moment the US began hurtling towards recession last autumn. The state accounts for more than 70 per cent of the world’s processed diamonds, and more than 80 per cent of India’s diamond exports." Read More. Government should not be in the business of bailing out businesses. Let the market forces take its own course. Eventually, the Surat diamond industry will come out of this recession more stronger and more resilient. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=800 During every new year most news papers run reports and articles on drinking and driving and also on how police is handling drunk drivers. This report by the Times of India is a classic example of such articles. The fact is that the drunk driving is a big problem in our cities. The bigger problem is that the way police handles such matters. Most of the time it is up to the discretion of police to declare whether or not a person who is driving is drunk or not. Moreover, on most occasion, intent of the police is not to catch drunk driver but to harass the drunk driver and fellow passenger to extract bribe. On top of it, newspaper articles which primarily deals with legal mumbo jumbo does not help a single bit. Drunk driving is a societal problem. It exists because we tolerate it. We need to force our law makers to draft a law in plain english that clearly specify what constitute drunk driving and how to establish whether or not a driver is drunk. To start with we can define that a blood alcohol content of 0.08% (universally accepted number in most countries) and above is considered drunk driving. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=799 Dhiraj Nayyar in the Indian Express writes: "Now, as long as incumbent governments appoint people to these positions, there will be a problem, either of actual partisanship or a perception of partisanship. So, why not actually make the appointments partisan? Let election commissioners be appointed at the suggestion of political parties — let each national party (or any party which gets over 10 per cent of the national vote) appoint an election commissioner of its choice. Democratic systems, remember, work not on neutrality but on checks and balances. A group of directly opposed partisans may make for a better system of checks and balances than a group of malleable bureaucrats that nobody trusts." Read More. The point of the debate is not how to reform the election commission or how to bring checks and balance to the commission. The point we need to concentrate upon is whether or not Mr. Naveen Chawla, an election commissioner, leaked information about a meeting that was supposed to be a private meeting of the election commission. If he did that, which is what the CEC is claiming he did, then that should be construed as improper conduct and he should be penalized for that. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=798 The Indian Express reports that the speaker of the Loksabha has decided to donate his body to the hospital after his death. The article rightly lauds the speaker's decision and goes on to bat for a spine chilling plan by the Health Ministry under which your dead body would by default be available for medical purpose unless you explicitly opt out. Amusingly enough, the article goes on to claim that this plan would not affect your freedom in any ways. Whatever happened to the old axiom "my body my decision"? http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=797 The Indian Express reports that the All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) is planning to meet the HRD Minister Arjun Singh demanding scrapping of the plan to setup a Central Madrasa Board. The AIMPLB considers this plan interference in a way they run their educational institution. I for once agree with this demand. As a matter of fact the HRD ministry should stop interfering in the educational institutions setup and run by all the communities. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=796 The Indian Express writes about a report issued by the Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in which the CJ reveals that with the current case load the court would take 466 years to clear pending cases. The usual reason for delay (read justice denied) cited is the lack of sitting judges. That may be one of the reason, but the real reason seems to be how casually judges grant adjournment to proceedings, which causes major delays. Our earlier views on this issues can be found here. We know and we have been hearing from the last decade on how case load has increased on courts. The real question to be asked is what are we doing about it. http://www.suniti.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=795 Sushant K. Singh and Dhruva Jaishankar in the Indian Express writes: "The new chief minister must exploit the opportunity presented by these two welcome developments to firmly secure the goodwill of the electorate and reinforce its faith in his democratically-elected government. In consultation with Delhi, he should help initiate a drawdown of security forces from active counterinsurgency duties, particularly in rural areas, starting with the Rashtriya Rifles (RR). This will encourage voters in the Valley to participate more actively in the forthcoming parliamentary polls, and could provide a critical setback for an already discredited Hurriyat leadership." Read More