23-12-2016 (Important News Clippings)
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Date: 23-12-16
A perverse plan
Karnataka’s plan to introduce job quotas for locals must be scrapped
At a time when the entire political establishment is working together to dismantle fiscal barriers between states and create a common market, Karnataka has chosen to go the other way. The state plans to reserve for locals all blue collar jobs in private companies which have sought government aid. This is a perverse move which will act as a barrier to labour movement in India. Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah must refrain introducing this policy, which will not only hurt Karnataka’s economic prospects but could trigger similar steps in other states, hurting Karnataka further.
Demand for job quotas is a symptom of governance failure. A good education is the single most empowering endowment an individual can get and one which governments across India have failed to deliver. Siddaramaiah’s government is now trying to offset this failure with a dangerous short cut. This short cut will jeopardise the state’s industrial policy which aimed to generate an industrial growth rate of 12% and enhance the contribution of the manufacturing sector to the state economy from about 17% to 20%. Potential investments in Karnataka will be diverted if an onerous new condition such as 100% job reservation for locals kicks in.
It is not as if Karnataka government is unaware of the danger. Hence the draft proposal has chosen to leave the information technology and biotechnology sectors out of the ambit of reservation. But what is sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander: other industries too create jobs and growth, they do not deserve stepmotherly treatment. Private companies, in any case, have a bias for local hands. If the government wants to boost local employability further, it can do so by improving skills and education in the state to a high level.
Date: 23-12-16
Pivot to the east
To be relevant in the 21st century, India must establish its presence in the Indian Ocean
“Nations have no permanent friends or allies; they have only permanent interests,” said English statesman Lord Palmerston. What that implies is diplomacy is dynamic. Nations need to constantly evaluate and re-evaluate their preferences in the international arena and strategise. There is no place for romanticism in diplomacy. It has to be cold-blooded and utterly pragmatic.
Pragmatism demands that we talk about the Indian Ocean region more. India’s foreign policy has long been tilted westward. Time we turned eastward.21st century politics is going to be markedly different from the previous century. The global power axis has today shifted away from the Pacific-Atlantic region to the Indo-Pacific region. That brings tectonic shifts in world politics.
Many institutions will become irrelevant. 20th century power alliances like the NAM, Commonwealth, etc have become redundant. The European Union is imploding. Nato is more or less dead, waiting for the last rites to be performed jointly by Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.In their place new power alliances are emerging. The epicentre of these new alliances is going to be the Indo-Pacific region. Asia is today home to some of the world’s leading and fast growing economies. 45% of the world’s population lives here. Half of world’s container traffic and one-third of bulk cargo traverses the Indian Ocean. Around 40% of the world’s offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean. Nearly half of the world’s energy supplies pass through this region.
Half of the world’s submarines will be roaming around in the Indo-Pacific region in the next two decades. This region will witness power play between three major powers. India and China are the two fast growing economies in the region. Both nurture big power ambitions. Both compete for the same resources. Hence competition is imminent between the two.China, with its bigger financial and military muscle, is seemingly ahead today. It is in the driver’s seat of many new transnational trade alliances like AIIB, Brics and RCEP. It is aggressively pursuing ambitious infrastructure projects like Belt and Road. Its efforts to emerge as the leading naval power in the region seem to be coming to fruition. In no time it has built a formidable navy with over 300 vessels of various sizes.
The future of America’s role in the region is uncertain. President-elect Trump doesn’t share the vision of his predecessors in this matter. President Obama launched an ambitious alliance of nations of the Indo-Pacific region, the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). But Trump is not enthusiastic about it at all. At the Halifax security conference PASCOM chief Admiral Harris described TPP as “more or less dead”. This signals diminishing US influence in the region.India has great power ambitions. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has openly talked about India’s “ambition to rise as an influential and responsible global power”. In order to realise them India has to change gears and proactively engage in the region.
One of its first measures should be to bring the required nomenclature into vogue. Asia-Pacific is a phrase coined during the 1960s and 70s, when Asian powers like Japan and Singapore raised it and it suited America to bond with them. But today it is India and other Indian Ocean neighbourhoods that are emerging as powerhouses. Some Western scholars have started using the phrase ‘Indo-Asia Pacific’. We need to call it ‘Indo-Pacific’, implying the centrality of the Indian Ocean to the region.
Modi has started many initiatives in the direction of asserting India’s proactive role in the region. Greater bilateral engagement with countries in the region, enhanced interface with regional groupings like Asean, South Pacific Island Nations group, etc and keenness to play a role in regional disputes by shedding trademark reticence are some of the visible actions that Modi has taken.De-hyphenation of bilateral relations is another major step taken by Modi in this direction. Our engagements with countries like America, Russia and China are based on standalone bilateral interest, without conflicting with our relations with any other country.
India has to strengthen its naval power if it really wants to play a bigger role in the region. Towards that end steps have been taken by the new government. A target of securing 200 vessels for our navy has been set for 2030. We have expanded Malabar Exercise to include Japan as the third member besides India and US.
But we have to go a long way. We live in an unstable neighbourhood, the challenge of which needs to be handled diligently. Technology – digital and cyber – is going to play a big role. India, with its vast tech manpower and demographic dividend, can take advantage of this.India is going to face a new challenge in the form of changed US priorities. Certain actions undertaken by Trump could affect the regional balance in Asia. His future relationship or rivalry especially with countries like Russia, China, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is going to change the power dynamic in the region drastically. We need to be alert to these challenges.
Hillary Clinton, during her visit to India in 2011, has called for India to assume a greater role in its region. “We encourage India not just to look east, but to engage east and act east as well,” she said. “India’s greater role on the world stage will enhance peace and security,” she added in an essay in Foreign Policy magazine.
The stage is set for playing that role in the Indian Ocean region.
Excerpted from an address delivered at Symbiosis International University, Pune
साहस दिखाए चुनाव आयोग
देश के पांच राज्यों उत्तर प्रदेश, उत्तराखंड, पंजाब, गोवा और मणिपुर में फरवरी-मार्च में विधानसभा के चुनाव होने हैं। जब भी चुनाव आते हैं, चुनाव आयोग का सारा ध्यान नए मतदाता बनाने और चुनावों को सफलतापूर्वक संपन्न कराने में लग जाता है, लेकिन जो असली मुद्दा है कि चुनावों में अच्छे लोग कैसे आगे आएं और अपराधी प्रवृत्ति के लोगों को चुनाव लड़ने से कैसे रोका जाए वह हाशिये पर चला जाता है। हमारा संविधान ‘हम भारत के लोग’ से शुरू होता है, लेकिन क्या कभी चुनाव आयोग इस बात को सुनिश्चित करने की कोशिश करेगा कि भारतीय लोकतंत्र में अभिव्यक्त ‘हम भारत के लोग’ एक वास्तविकता बन सकें? क्या हम यह कह सकते हैं कि भारत का एक आम नागरिक, जो उस अभिव्यक्ति का अंश है, के भी चुनाव लड़ने और चुने जाने की कोई संभावना है? क्या चुनावों में बढ़ते धनबल और बाहुबल के आगे उसमें चुनाव लड़ने का साहस हो सकता है? देश में चुनाव सुधारों पर बहुत बहस हो चुकी है और अभी भी हो रही है, लेकिन लगता है कि लोकतंत्र में कोई भी निर्वाचित सरकार राजनीतिक कारणों से इस संबंध में कठोर निर्णय लेने के लिए तैयार नहीं।
चुनाव आयोग निर्वाचित संस्था नहीं है। उसे संवैधानिक स्वायत्तता प्राप्त है और वह जनता को नाराज करने की चिंता से भी मुक्त है। वह इस संबंध में कोई निर्णय क्यों नहीं ले सकता? क्या उसके पास अपराधियों को चुनाव लड़ने से रोकने का कोई और रास्ता नहीं? क्या इस संबंध में संवैधानिक और कानूनी प्रावधान उसके मार्ग में बाधक हैं? क्या चुनाव आयोग बिना संविधान और कानून में परिवर्तन किए अपराधियों को चुनाव लड़ने से रोकने की कोई पहल नहीं कर सकता? वर्ष 1993 में राजनीति के अपराधीकरण पर गठित वोहरा समिति को सीबीआइ ने बताया था कि पूरे देश में छोटे-बड़े हर शहर में क्राइम-सिंडीकेट’ बन गए है जो स्वयं में कानून हैं, क्योंकि अपराधियों के गैंग का पुलिस, नौकरशाहों और नेताओं से गठजोड़ हो गया है। उत्तर प्रदेश, बिहार, हरियाणा आदि राज्यों में अनेक नेता इन अपराधी समूहों के मुखिया हो गए हैं और वे अपने गैंग के सदस्यों को स्थानीय निकायों, विधानसभाओं और लोकसभा में निर्वाचित करा देते हैं। इसीलिए अनेक जनप्रतिनिधि संस्थाओं में अपराधियों की बाढ़ सी आ गई है। जनप्रतिनिधित्व अधिनियम 1951 की धारा 8(3) के अंतर्गत यदि न्यायालय द्वारा किसी अभियुक्त को दो वर्ष या उससे अधिक अवधि के कारावास की सजा मिलती है तो तत्काल प्रभाव से उसे चुनाव लड़ने के अयोग्य घोषित कर दिया जाता है और वह अयोग्यता सजा की अवधि खत्म होने के 6 वर्षों बाद तक बनी रहती है। इसी अधिनियम की धारा 62(5) के अंतर्गत जेल में बंद किसी कैदी को वोट देने का अधिकार नहीं है।
कई लोगों को यह आश्चर्यजनक लगता है कि दो वर्ष से कम अवधि के लिए कारावास की सजा काट रहे अभियुक्त को (जेल में होने के बावजूद) न केवल चुनाव लड़ने का अधिकार है वरन यदि कोई अभियुक्त जमानत पर जेल के बाहर है (चाहे उसे दस वर्ष की जेल क्यों न हुई हो) तो कानून उसे वोट देने का भी अधिकार देता है। सितंबर 2013 में संसद ने जनप्रतिनिधित्व अधिनियम की धारा 62(5) में संशोधन कर जेल में बंद अभियुक्तों को भी वोट डालने और चुनाव लड़ने का अधिकार प्रदान कर दिया था, लेकिन मुद्दा अभियुक्तों या अपराधियों के मानवाधिकारों का नहीं वरन चुनावों में आपराधिक प्रवृत्ति के लोगों के प्रवेश को रोकने का है। देश में जिस तरह का राजनीतिक माहौल है और जिस प्रकार मानवाधिकारों की दुहाई देकर अपराधियों और अनेक समाजविरोधी तत्वों को बचाया जा रहा उससे डर है कि कहीं लोगों का लोकतंत्र पर भरोसा ही न खत्म हो जाए। हमें तय करना होगा कि लोकतंत्र बड़ा है या मानवाधिकार? क्या लोकतंत्र के बिना मानवाधिकार या अन्य किसी अधिकार की कल्पना भी की जा सकती है? क्या अपराधियों द्वारा संचालित कोई लोकतंत्र जनता के हितों की रक्षा कर सकेगा? क्यों इतनी असहाय है हमारी संसद और न्यायपालिका? आयोग चाहे तो इस समस्या को अपने ढंग से हल कर सकता है।
चुनाव आयोग द्वारा बनाए गए ‘मॉडल कोड ऑफ कंडक्ट’ का अनुपालन सभी पार्टियां करती है जबकि उसका कोई विधिक आधार नहीं। ऐसा इसलिए है, क्योंकि उसे चुनाव आयोग ने सभी पार्टियों के विचार-विमर्श से बनाया था। चुनाव आयोग यह देखता है कि सभी दलों द्वारा इस आचार संहिता का पालन किया जाए। सर्वोच्च न्यायालय के 2002 के निर्देश के अनुसार सभी प्रत्याशी हलफनामा देकर सभी आपराधिक मुकदमों की सूचना चुनाव आयोग को देते हैं। अच्छा यह होगा कि चुनाव आयोग इस व्यवस्था का सकारात्मक प्रयोग कर अपराधियों के चुनाव लड़ने पर कोई अंकुश लगाए। चुनाव आयोग विभिन्न दलों से पुन: विमर्श करके यह तय कर सकता है कि किस-किस आपराधिक गतिविधियों में लिप्त आरोपी और अभियुक्त चुनावों में भाग नहीं ले सकेंगे। यह भी तय होना चाहिए कि आयोग की शर्तों का उल्लंघन होने पर क्या कार्रवाई की जा सकती है? यह समय की मांग है कि आयोग ऐसे दलों के विरुद्ध अपने स्तर पर कोई कदम उठा सके जो आपराधिक प्रवृत्ति और छवि के प्रत्याशी खड़ा करते हैं। अगर दलों में इस पर कोई मतैक्य न हो पाए तो आयोग इतना तो कर ही सकता है कि वह आपराधिक छवि और प्रवृत्ति के किसी दलीय प्रत्याशी को दलीय चुनाव चिन्ह से वंचित कर दे। इससे न केवल ऐसे दल की प्रतिष्ठा कम होगी, वरन उस प्रत्याशी को स्वतंत्र उम्मीदवार के रूप में चुनाव लड़ना पड़ेगा। इससे वह दलीय-मतदाताओं के मतों से वंचित हो सकता है और उसके निर्वाचित होने की संभावना क्षीण हो सकेगी।
इसके लिए चुनाव आयोग को केवल अपने चुनाव चिन्ह आवंटन आदेश में संशोधन करना है। संबंधित कानून में किसी संशोधन की जरूरत नहीं। इससे सर्वोच्च-न्यायालय का असली मंतव्य भी पूरा होगा और बिना कानून में बदलाव के चुनाव आयोग चुनावों में अपराधियों के प्रत्याशी बनने पर लगाम लगा सकेगा। जुलाई 2013 में सर्वोच्च न्यायालय ने जनप्रतिनिधित्व अधिनियम की धारा 8(4) के अंतर्गत सांसदों और विधायकों को आपराधिक मुकदमों में दंड के बाद प्राप्त तीन माह तक अपील हेतु सदन की सदस्यता की अयोग्यता से उन्मुक्ति को गैर-संवैधानिक करार दिया था। क्या चुनाव आयोग न्यायपालिका की इस पहल को और आगे ले जा सकेगा? यदि ऐसा हो सके तो चुनाव आयोग भारतीय संविधान की प्रस्तावना में उल्लिखित ‘हम भारत के लोग’ की परिकल्पना के अनुरूप भारतीय लोकतंत्र को संचालित करने में अभूतपूर्व योगदान दे सकेगा।
[ लेखक डॉ. एके वर्मा, सेंटर फॉर द स्टडी ऑफ सोसायटी एंड पॉलिटिक्स के निदेशक हैं ]
All play
Changes to education policy do not address fundamental problems, risk reopening old wounds.
Almost every government change in the past 15 years has been accompanied by a change in education policy, whether that of curriculum or related to examinations. The T.S.R. Subramanian Committee on Education had warned against political interference in education. Given that pedagogy has a political purpose, some politics is unavoidable. But the wounds caused by the turmoil over the language agitation in Tamil Nadu, for instance, have long healed and the government should be careful to not open them up again in a state with a long history of resistance to the imposition of Hindi.
It is nobody’s case that the school education system in India should not be reformed. But changes have rarely been well thought out. Take the move to make the Class X exams optional. It was believed that the board exams stressed students, tested their rote learning and did not make allowances for different types of learners and learning environments. But the UPA government’s decision to replace the Class X exams with the continuous comprehensive system of evaluation has run up against problems which should not have been difficult to foresee. There is much fuzziness around what is to be assessed and how. There is no mechanism to use the evaluations to ascertain a child’s educational growth. Teachers have complained that the process adds to their workload. That said, in India, the board exams acquire disproportionate weightage in a student’s academic life. Instead of raking up politically-fraught issues, the CBSE and the government should address these problems.
Finding the missing children
In November 2016, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court, while addressing a complaint relating to a missing child, criticised the State government’s laxity in tracing missing children. It noted the lack of coordination between officials of the district administration, social welfare, child welfare committee and the police.
The issue of missing children is hardly a problem restricted to Tamil Nadu. It is a national problem which needs to be tackled efficiently and at the earliest. Statistics show that over 60,000 children go missing every year in the country. In the past year, 2,953 children have gone missing in Uttar Pradesh. There are also concerns about the number of girl children who go missing, which, besides being particularly high, is often connected to human trafficking.
Online tracking sites
In 2012, non-governmental organisation Bachpan Bachao Andolan — which is run by Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi — filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court on the issue of missing children, consequent to which the court ordered State and Central governments to periodically submit compliance reports in the court relating to the status of missing children in their respective States.
Pursuant to this order, the Ministry of Women and Child Development also set up a website, trackthemissingchild.gov.in. This interactive website has information relating to missing children in each State. This includes information relating to police stations in every State and the number of children missing and traced in real time. Another portal which was set up in June 2015 is http://khoyapaya.gov.in where information relating to missing children can be submitted.
Setting up these portals has been an encouraging development but greater awareness and specialised manpower are needed to ensure that these websites perform the functions that were envisioned for them. Additionally, despite the direction of the top court and action taken by the governments, there are also predominantly informal ways of dealing with the issue. For instance, images of missing children are shared on social media in an attempt at increasing outreach and tracing them.
Human trafficking
According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), incidents of human trafficking are rising every year. This issue was also addressed in the briefing book released by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy earlier this month. One of the areas where evidence pointed to the urgent need for legal reform was the issue of tracing missing children and the links with trafficking.
Between 2013 and 2014, at least 67,000 children in India went missing; 45 per cent were minors who were victims of trafficking for prostitution. In trafficking, several causes have been identified by the NCRB. Primary causes are forced marriage, child labour, procuration of minors as domestic help and sexual exploitation. According to an answer to a question in the Lok Sabha in March 2016, a large number of minor girls were rescued from domestic servitude in 2014-15. In 2015, 147 minor girls were rescued from domestic servitude, with the largest number from Madhya Pradesh.
Grey area of ‘other reasons’
A study by Bachpan Bachao Andolan put the number of missing children as much as 10 times more than what is stated in their findings and research because the majority of trafficking victims are not included in missing cases nor is there any official record. Perhaps it is time to look further into the links between missing children and trafficking.
Interestingly, in the reasons identified by the NCRB for human trafficking, the most predominant cause was labelled as “other reasons”. Considering the critically large number of cases that fell under this category, this issue needs deeper study to find a targeted solution.To begin with, the reasons behind children going missing need to be identified through specialised studies, unique to different States. This is because the reasons differ across the country. For example, in Madhya Pradesh, a key cause behind children being kidnapped is because they are used as domestic labour, which is not so in many other States.
The issue of missing children of India, and in particular the rising problem of children becoming victims of trafficking frequently makes international headlines and there is rising global concern about trafficking. It is worrisome that trafficking syndicates are thriving in the country, and this is a problem which must be addressed aggressively. The draft Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, 2016, which seeks to address loopholes in the legal system, impose stronger penal measures and address issues of rehabilitation, was not taken up in the winter session in Parliament this year. Hopefully it will come up in the budget session.
Strong, well-coordinated platforms are needed to deal with the problem of missing children. Sound rehabilitation measures need to be in place as well for the well-being and protection of rescued children who have been victims of violence. There is still a long way to go for a realistic solution to the problem.
Medha Srivastava is a Research Fellow at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.
Date: 22-12-16
Ending the Manipur blockade
The blockade of the national highways leading to the Manipur valley, called by the United Naga Council (UNC), has been in place since November 1. This has severely affected life in the State, with shortages and escalating costs of essential supplies such as fuel and food, even as demonetisation has exacerbated problems. Blockades like this are not new to Manipur. In 2011, there was initially a hundred-day-plus blockade enforced by Kuki-led groups, and countered later by Naga groups, which together had a debilitating effect on life in Manipur. This time the blockade is in place to oppose the creation of new districts by the Okram Ibobi Singh government. On December 9 it issued a gazette notification for the creation of seven new districts by bifurcating seven (of a total of nine) districts. This decision had as much to do with long-pending demands — in particular, for a new Kuki-majority district to be carved out of the larger Senapati hill district — as with easing administrative access to far-flung areas from the district headquarters. With State Assembly elections around the corner, the decision by the Congress-led government was also a desperate measure to woo the hill residents. While residents and groups in the new districts have welcomed the decision, the UNC has protested, alleging that areas with a Naga population have been divided and that the lack of consultation is a violation of commitments made by both the Centre and the State in various memoranda of understanding.
Already, just as in 2011, counter-blockades have been called by other groups, this time in the Meitei-dominated valley, and there has been violence both in the hills and in the valley. The State government last month sought the Centre’s assistance to end the blockade, given that New Delhi has been in peace talks with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) group that supports the UNC. While the Centre has sent paramilitary forces to both Nagaland and Manipur, the inaction in clearing the blockade of the national highways is puzzling. Efforts to impose a political solution through blockades that cut arterial routes supplying essential goods to various areas of Manipur are a cynical ploy. Such action heightens ethnic polarisation and threatens, once again, the fragile peace in the State. Ideally there should be a dialogue that involves all major stakeholders — the State government, groups that support redistricting, the UNC and the Centre. But first, there should be zero tolerance towards all such blockades.
हिंसा से निपटें
उत्तर-पूर्व का सबसे अशांत राज्य मणिपुर एक बार फिर हिंसा के आगोश में है। हिंसा, आगजनी और गोलीबारी के बाद पिछले दो दिन से इंफाल घाटी में कर्फ्यू है। इंटरनेट बंद हैं और हालात बेहद गंभीर बने हुए हैं। कई इलाकों में पूरी तरह कर्फ्यू लगा है। दरअसल, राज्य के हालात पिछले एक नवम्बर से बदतर हो रखे हैं, जबसे नगा संगठनों ने मुख्य सड़कों की नाकेबंदी की है। इस नाकेबंदी से घरेलू सिलेंडर से लेकर आलू और अन्य खाद्य पदार्थो की कीमत ऊपर चढ़ गई।
नतीजतन, जनता को भारी परेशानी उठानी पड़ रही है। ताजा विवाद की जड़ यहां की कांग्रेस सरकार द्वारा सात नये जिले बनाने का ऐलान से है। जिलों के गठन की घोषणा के बाद से नगा संगठन आक्रोशित हो गए हैं और इस निर्णय की खिलाफत कर रहे हैं। संगठनों का कहना है कि नये जिलों के गठन के पीछे सरकार की मंशा हमारी संस्कृति, बोली और बात-विचार को बर्बाद करने की है। लिहाजा, हम किसी भी कीमत पर नये जिले का गठन नहीं होने देंगे। नगा संगठन इस सिलसिले में दिल्ली में केंद्रीय गृह मंत्री से मुलाकात भी कर चुके हैं और राष्ट्रपति से भी गुहार लगाने की बात कह रहे हैं।
दरअसल, राज्य में हिंसा की वजह पहाड़ और घाटी के बाशिंदों के दिलोदिमाग में भरा वैमनस्य है। मणिपुर भौगोलिक रूप से दो भागों में विभक्त है। पर्वतीय इलाके और घाटी का इलाका। पर्वतीय इलाके में नगा जनजाति की बहुलता है। इस इलाके की प्रमुख पार्टी भाजपा नगा पीपल्स फ्रंट (एनपीएफ) की सहयोगी है। चूंकि, राज्य में 15 साल से कांग्रेस की सरकार है। अब असम पर कब्जे के बाद भाजपा अपने स्थानीय सहयोगी एनपीएफ की मदद से यहां भी सरकार बनाने का सपना देख रही है। यही वजह है कि न तो केंद्र ने हिंसा को खत्म करने की पहल दिखाई न राज्य सरकार ने। यहां तक कि आर्थिक नाकेबंदी को खत्म कराने की भी पहल नहीं हुई। सही है कि नये जिले के गठन का अधिकार राज्य सरकार का विशेषाधिकार है। मगर विकास और रोजगार की बात कहने के बजाय अगर कोई सरकार जिला गठन के शिगूफे छोड़े तो इसे हास्यास्पद ही कहा जाएगा। बाहरी बनाम स्थानीय के संवेदनशील मसले पर सरकार की चुप्पी हैरान करती है। हालात ज्यादा न बिगड़े इस नाते केंद्र की जिम्मेदारी ज्यादा बड़ी है।
