The Judiciary: Cutting Edge Of A Predator State

Author of this article, Mr. Prashant Bhushan is a senior lawyer in the Supreme Court of India.

At a time when the dominant class in India is obsessed with power and when India appears to be at the threshold of becoming an “economic and military superpower”, it is interesting that Tehelka has organized this seminar called, “The summit of the powerless”. Though one hardly sees any powerless people here, or even many who represent them, it is still important that a meeting on this theme has been organized by Tehelka.

It is this obsession with power which is the driving force behind the vision of India of the ruling elite of this country. That is why we see the frequent “power summits” being organized by major media organizations which are dominated by talk of India as an “emerging superpower”, with a booming sensex and a GDP growth poised to reach 8, 9 and even 10%. And it is this power crazed libido of the elite which have made them the cheerleaders of the government which is straining to become the Asian right hand of the United States. This single minded pursuit of a strategic relationship with the US has made us lose our moral bearings as we vote against our old friends like Iran and keep quiet on unimaginable atrocities being committed by the US in Iraq and by Israel in Palestine.

What kind of society is this “power driven” vision of India producing. While the elite celebrate the booming sensex, the consumer boom among the middle classes which the spectacular GDP growth appear to be giving them, the poor are pushed to greater and greater destitution, as the agricultural economy collapses and they are sought to be deprived of whatever little they have in terms of land and other natural resources. After all, when agriculture is not contributing to the GDP growth, why not take away the land, water and other resources from agriculture and give them to the sectors which are leading the growth-the SEZs and the IT industry for example. That (and the opportunity for a real estate killing) explains the stampede for setting up SEZs and IT parks, which will be high growth privileged enclaves, helped no doubt by the cheap compulsory acquisition of land, the absence of taxes, labour and environmental laws. They are envisioned almost as private and self governing States with their own police and courts. It makes no difference to those who hope to occupy these enclaves that India is almost at the bottom of the heap in terms of the Human Development Index, in terms of the percentage of people in the country who have access to housing, food, water, sanitation, education and healthcare.

So as the rural economy is destroyed (partly by agricultural imports) and the poor are deprived of their land, their forests, their water and indeed all their resources, to make way for mining leases, dams, SEZs and IT parks, all of which augur faster GDP growth, the poor get pushed to suicide or to urban slums. Here they struggle for existence in subhuman conditions with no sanitation, water, electricity, and always at the mercy of the weather, corrupt policemen and municipal officials. These slums often exist side by side with luxurious enclaves of the ultra rich who pass by them with barely a scornful glance and regard them as a nuisance who should be put away beyond their gaze. And if the government cannot accomplish that, there are always the courts to lend a helping hand. In the past two years about 2 lakh slum dwellers from the Yamuna Pushta and other Jhuggi colonies of Delhi have been removed on the orders of the court and thrown to the streets or dumped in the boondocks of Bawana (40 Kms from Delhi) and without any sanitation, water, electricity or even drainage. It would be surprising if many of them do not become criminals or join the ranks of naxalites who have come to control greater and greater parts of the country.

What kind of society are we creating? A society which is not only deeply divided in economic classes with a vast chasm dividing them, but also one where the preoccupations of the dominant classes are becoming increasingly crassly materialistic, narcissistic and base. If one were to examine the content of the mainstream electronic media-even news channels, particularly private channels which are the main source of information and entertainment for the middle class elite, one would find that it is characterized by an increasingly vacuous intellectual content and pandering more and more to the baser instincts of sex, violence and a morbid fascination for gossip particularly about the private lives of Bollywood stars. Stories about real people and serious public interest issues have been reduced to mere sound bytes of a few seconds. The interest of the middle classes in and their attention span for serious issues of public interest have been reduced to a vanishing point, as the culture of consumerism and self indulgence has taken over contemporary society. Even as scientific evidence piles up about how the world is headed towards environmental catastrophe due to global warming, not many among our well to do elite have even bothered to understand the issue, let alone bother about tackling the problem. They are oblivious of and unconcerned about the disaster which will certainly affect their children if not themselves during their lifetimes.

A sickness afflicts the soul of the dominant elite of India today. It is a sickness which has led to a total loss of vision and has made us lose our moral bearings. It is this sickness which is allowing us to celebrate our great GDP growth and our emerging superpower status when the majority of our countrymen sink to deeper and deeper depths of destitution and despair. It is this sickness which allows us to rejoice in our becoming the main sidekick of the global bully, while we shut our eyes to the enormous injustice being done to the oppressed people of Iraq, Palestine and other countries at the receiving end of the bully’s muscle. It is this sickness which has produced the vision of the State as the facilitator of this rapaciously exploitative model of development. A vision where the State’s role is seen as an institution which tries to facilitate the maximization of GDP growth. Which naturally requires the State to withdraw from its welfare obligations and facilitate a privatized society run on laissez faire economics. After all, private enterprise, run on the profit motive is the best bet for maximizing GDP growth. It is this model which snatches land from the farmer for the SEZs, the IT parks and the mines. That vision is producing a society which is intoxicated with a kind of development and feeling of “power” which are sowing the seeds of its own destruction in not too far a future. We have become a society of many Neros who are fiddling while the country is on fire.

It is not surprising then that the “powerless” regard the State as predator rather than protector. Even more unfortunately, the recent role of the judiciary which was mandated by the constitution to protect the rights of the people is making it appear as if it has become the cutting edge of a predator State.

There was a time, not so long ago, when the Supreme Court of India waxed eloquent about the Fundamental right to life and liberty guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution to include all that it takes to lead a decent and dignified life. They thus held that the right to life includes the right to Food, the right to employment and the right to shelter: in other words, the right to all the basic necessities of life. That was in the roaring 80’s when a new tool of public interest litigation was fashioned where anyone could invoke the jurisdiction of the Courts even by writing a post card on behalf of the poor and disadvantaged who were too weak to approach the courts themselves. It seemed that a new era was dawning and that the courts were emerging as a new liberal instrument within the State which the poor could access to get some respite from the various excesses and assaults of the executive.

Alas, all that seems a distant dream now, given the recent role of the courts in not just failing to protect the rights of the poor that they had themselves declared not long ago, but in fact spearheading the massive assault on the poor since the era of economic liberalization. This is happening in case after case, whether they are of the tribal oustees of the Narmada Dam, or the urban slum dwellers whose homes are being ruthlessly bulldozed without notice and without rehabilitation, on the orders of the court, or the urban hawkers and rickshaw pullers of Delhi and Mumbai who have been ordered to be removed from the streets again on the orders of the court. Public interest litigation has been turned on its head. Instead of being used to protect the rights of the poor, it is now being used by commercial interests and the upper middle classes to launch a massive assault in the poor in the drive to take over urban spaces and even rural land occupied by the poor, for commercial development. While the lands of the rural poor are being compulsorily taken over for commercial real estate development for the wealthy, the urban poor are being evicted from the public land that they have been occupying for decades for commercial development by big builders, for shopping malls and housing for the wealthy. Roadside hawkers are being evicted on the orders of the Courts (which will ensure that people will shop only in these shopping malls). All this is being done, not only in violation of the rights of the poor declared by the Courts, but also in violation of the policies for slum dwellers and hawkers which have been formulated by the governments. Usually these actions of the Court seem to have the tacit and covert approval of the government (and the court is used to do what a democratically accountable government cannot do). Let us examine a few of these cases.

In the Narmada case, the Court recently refused to restrain further construction of the Dam which would submerge thousands of families without rehabilitation even when it was clear that this was not only in violation of the Narmada Tribunal Award, but against their declared fundamental rights. The court’s behaviour in first refusing to hear the matter, then repeatedly adjourning it, then allowing the construction to be completed on the specious ground that they needed the report of the Shunglu Committee, clearly demonstrated a total lack of sensitivity to the oustees and a total subordination of their rights to the commercial interests of those industrialists led by Narendra Modi who are eyeing the Narmada waters for their industries, water parks and golf courses. The gap between the rhetoric and the actions of the Court could not be more yawning.

Meanwhile, as the Narmada oustees were being submerged without rehabilitation, a massive programme of urban displacement of slum dwellers without rehabilitation was being carried out in Delhi and Bombay, also on the orders of the High Courts. Sometimes on the applications of upper middle class colonies, sometimes on their own, the Courts have been issuing a spate of orders for clearing slums by bulldozing the jhuggis on them, on the ground that they are on public land. Some of this is being done with the tacit approval of the government, such as the slums on the banks of the Yamuna which are being cleared for making way for the constructions for the Commonwealth games. And all this, without even issuing notices to the slum dwellers, in violation of the principles of natural justice.

This was not all. The Court’s relentless assaults on the poor continued with the Supreme Court ordering the eviction of Hawkers from the streets of Bombay and Delhi. Again, turning their backs on Constitution bench judgements of the Court that Hawkers have a fundamental right to hawk on the streets, which could however be regulated, the Court now observed that streets exist primarily for traffic. They thus ordered the Municipality and the police to remove the “unlicenced hawkers” from the streets of Delhi. All this again without any notice or hearing to the hawkers. This effectively meant that almost all the more than 1.5 lakh hawkers would be placed at the mercy of the authorities, since less than 3 percent had been given licences.
More recently, the Delhi High Court has ordered the removal of rickshaws from the Chandni Chowk area, ostensively to pave the way for CNG buses. This order will not only deprive tens of thousands of rickshaw pullers of a harmless and environmentally friendly source of livelihood, it will also cause enormous inconvenience to tens of thousands of commuters who use that mode of transport.

Several recent judgements of the court have grossly diluted the various labour laws which were enacted to protect the rights of workers. The government has been wanting to dilute these laws for bringing about what they call “labour reforms”, in line with the new economic policies, but they have been unable to do so because of political opposition. The courts have thus stepped in to do what the government cannot do politically. They have not only diluted the protection afforded to workmen by various laws but have openly stated that the Court’s interpretation of the Laws must be in line with the government’s new economic policy- a fantastic proposition which means that the executive government can override parliamentary legislation by executive policy. The same proposition was enunciated by the Supreme Court in the Mauritius double taxation case, where the court said that the government can by executive notification give a tax holiday to Mauritius based companies, even though it is well settled that tax exemptions can only be given by the Finance Act which has to be passed by Parliament. Thus we find that the Courts are becoming a convenient instrument for the government to bypass Parliament and implement executive policy which is in violation of even Parliamentary legislation. This congruence of interest between the executive and the courts is most common when it comes to policies which are designed to benefit the wealthy elite.

One important reason why the court can do such things is because it is completely unaccountable. The executive government must seek reelection every 5 years which acts as a restraint on its anti poor policies. The court has no such restraint. There is no disciplinary authority over judges, with the system of impeachment having been found to be completely impractical. On top of this, the Supreme Court has by a self serving judgement removed judges from accountability from even criminal acts by declaring that no criminal investigation can be conducted against judges without the prior approval of the Chief Justice of India. This has resulted in a situation where no criminal investigation has been conducted against any judge in the last 15 years since this judgement despite common knowledge of widespread corruption in the judiciary. Even serious public criticism and scrutiny of the judiciary has been effectively barred by the threat of contempt of Court. And now, they have effectively declared themselves as exempt from even the right to information Act. Is it surprising then that they suffer from judicial arrogance which enables them to deliver such judgements.

This has bred and is continuing to breed enormous resentment among the poor and the destitute. Feeling helpless and abandoned, nay violated by every organ of the State, particularly the judiciary, many are committing suicides, but some are taking to violence. That explains the growing cadres of the Maoists who now control many districts and even States like Chhatisgarh. The government and the ruling establishment thinks that they can deal with this menace by stongarm military methods. That explains why the government relies more and more on the advice of former cops like Gill and Narayanan and why there is talk of using the Army and Air Force against the Maoists. Tribals in Chhattisgarh are being forced to join a mercenary army funded by the State by the name of Salva Judum to fight the Maoists. But all this will breed more Maoists. No insurrection bred out of desperation can be quelled by strongarm tactics. The very tactics breed more misery and desperation and will push more people to the Maoists.

Unless urgent steps are taken to correct the course that the elite establishment of this country is embarked upon, we will soon have an insurgency on our hands which will be impossible to control. Then, when the history of the country’s descent towards violence and chaos is written, the judiciary of the country can claim pride of place among those who speeded up this process.
We desperately and urgently need a new vision for the country as well as for the judiciary. We need to rediscover and perhaps reinvent the concept of the State as a welfare State. Our judiciary was created by the British who created it mainly to protect the interests of the empire. That is one of the reasons why it in inaccessible to the common people. We need to reinvent the judiciary in line with a new vision for India. A judiciary which will really be people friendly, which can be accessed without the mediation of professional lawyers and which will consider it its mission to protect the rights of the poor. Unless we can demonstrate the capacity to form that vision and translate in into action, we are headed for serious trouble.

US companies target India’s $50-billion nuke programme

Financial Express, December 01, 2006

MUMBAI, NOV 30: US companies involved in nuclear energy are bullish over the approval to the Indo-US civil nuclear deal by the Senate, and indicated that they would like to participate in India’s $50-billion programme for nuclear capacity addition of 50,000 mw by 2030.

The state-run Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL), which runs nuclear projects with the capacity of 3,900 mw, has already lined up a capacity addition of 20,000 mw by 2020.

US nuclear companies participating in the US delegation, led by under secretary for commerce Franklin Lavin, also stated that India’s skilled manpower could be of great use in building new nuclear plants in the US and other parts of the world.

The companies are involved in constructing nuclear plants and supplying nuclear fuel. They claimed that the per-unit tariff from the plants would be quite cheap. In the US, it is 2 cents a kw, while NPCIL sells it below Re 1 in India.

Companies like Westinghouse Electric, Transco products Inc, BWXT, WM Mining, Fluor and Thorium Power on Thursday said their mission to develop and nurture bonds with the Indian firms would lead to partnerships, enabling them to tap new opportunities in the sector.

Ron Somers, president of US India Business Council said these companies would also discuss the regulatory regime with the NPCIL and the Atomic Energy Commission, during their meetings slated for Friday and Saturday.

Craig S Hansen, vice-president of BWXT said the US proposed to increase its share of nuclear energy from 20% of the country's total power capacity to 30% by 2030, and it would not be possible for the American companies alone to achieve this.

“India, with experienced manpower and experts, can play a major role in the US capacity addition. Besides, US companies associated in the supply of nuclear fuel and reactors will play a key role in India’s capacity addition. On top of it, both Indian and US companies can join hands to meet the nuclear energy requirement in the underdeveloped countries,” he added.

Wallace M Mays, president of WM Mining, which is involved in uranium mining and supply, said his company has already entered into an agreement with Hyderabad-based Nuclear Fuel Centre for supply of uranium for pressurised heavy water reactors.

Wiliam E Cummins, vice-president of Westinghouse said India would not face any funding problems for the proposed capacity addition.

“Already NPCIL has announced it can add at least 1,000 mw, annually, through its internal accruals. In addition to this, NPCIL has also indicated that it will explore market options also,” he added.

Indian companies are most corrupt on Transparency Bribe Payers Index

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

NEW DELHI: In a global recognition to the "Much Merited Upper Class Rule", India has been ranked as the worst performer by Transparency International on its global Bribe Payers Index, which is based on the propensity of companies from the world's 30 leading exporting countries in bribing abroad. India has been ranked at the 30th position in the Transparency International 2006 Bribe Payers Index (BPI), with a score of 4.62. A score of 10 indicates a perception of no corruption, while zero means corruption is seen as rampant. India's major weapon supplier, Israel also ranked as one of the most bribing nation, with a score of 6.01. Israel accounted for 0.4% of global trade in 2005.

Upper castes — that is, Brahmins, Kshatriyas, and Vaishyas — constitute less than 20 per cent of the Indian population but controles the business and civil service sector of the country. They claim perhaps 80 per cent of the jobs in the new economy, in sectors such as software, biotechnology, and hotel management. The large corporates and MNCs in India prefer candidates come from the upper caste families, so that they can get their jobs done using their contacts and networks. The scores of corruption among these groups explain why they want to shut every door for the Dalits and backward communities in the name of 'Merit'.

The BPI Index results draw from the responses of more than 11,000 business people in 125 countries polled in the World Economic Forum’s Executive Opinion Survey 2006. In first place Switzerland scored 7.81 points out of a possible 10 in the BPI. Israel tied with Hong Kong with 6.01 points (Hong Kong accounted for 2.8% of global trade in 2005). The US, which accounts for the 8.9% of global trade, the highest proportion, received a score of 7.22 points. China, with 5.5% of global trade, and India, with 0.9%, closed the list.

Under BJP's rule, India became Israeli arms industry's prized market and there were also reports in 2003, of the Israeli defense establishment dispatching "scores of agents" to persuade the Indian armed forces in to buying weapons resulting in large scale bribes among civil servants and politicians. The ideological bond between Zionism and Hindutva made India as the second largest trade partner for Israel in Asia, after China. It is currently working hard with their old "Hindutva bureacrats" to make India as their "biggest trade partner". Since the advent of Hindutva's grip on the Indian elite castes, every visit by a delegation of Israeli officials either preceded or followed the cementing of ties involving the purchase of weapons, or the training and/or expansion of cooperation between Israeli armaments interests and their Indian counterparts.

In 2005, Israel has achieved a four-fold increase in the bilateral trade with India which stood at $2.4 billion. Business Week reported in 2005 that India became Israel's largest importer of weapons the previous year, accounting for about half of the $3.6 billion worth of weapons exported by that country. Not coincidentally, that year also proved to be the second best recorded year for the Israeli weapons industry, making Israel the 5th largest weapons exporter in the world and accounting for about 10 percent of the world's weapons trade. Obviously the Israeli armaments industry values India as a major new market for its weapons, and as such has much to gain from maintaining and deepening the appetite for arms by the Indian state.

The international corruption watchdog on Wednesday said overseas bribery is still common among the world's export giants despite the existence of international anti-bribery laws, while companies from emerging export powers India, China and Russia are the worst performers. Switzerland has been ranked at the top slot with a score of 7.81, followed by Sweden, Australia, Austria and Canada at the top five positions on the index. The US and UK have been ranked at 10th and sixth positions respectively.

Transparency International said that Switzerland has managed a leading score of only 7.8, which is far from perfect. This indicates there might be variations here but there are no real winners, it added.

According to the report, businesses from India, China and Russia, who are at the bottom of the index, have the most propensity to pay bribes.

This year's BPI data shows that leading exporters are undermining the development with their dirty business practices overseas, while the foreign bribery by emerging export powers is disconcertingly high.

Companies from the wealthiest countries have been ranked in the top half, but they still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies, it added.

"In the case of China and other emerging export powers, efforts to strengthen domestic anti-corruption activities have failed to extend abroad," the report said.

"Bribing companies are actively undermining the best efforts of governments in developing nations to improve governance, and thereby driving the vicious cycle of poverty," said Transparency International Chairwoman Huguette Labelle.

"It is hypocritical that Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) based companies continue to bribe across the globe, while their governments pay lip-service to enforcing the law," Transparency International CEO David Nussbaum said.

"The enforcement record on international anti-bribery laws makes for short and disheartening reading," he added.

"Domestic legislation has been introduced in many countries following the adoption of the UN and OECD anti-corruption conventions, but there are still major problems of implementation and enforcement," he added.

The index has been prepared on the basis of responses of more than 11,000 business people in 125 countries polled in the World Economic Forum's Executive Opinion Survey 2006.

The watchdog said that India consistently scores worst across most regions and sub-groupings, while China is the world's fourth largest exporter and ranks second to last in the Index.

Transparency International Chairwoman said, "With growing influence comes a greater responsibility that should constitute an opportunity for good."

"This is the right time for Russia, China and India to commit to the provisions of the OECD Convention against bribery and contribute to the vitality of tomorrow's markets. In doing so they will become part of the effort to make corruption history."

Transparency International says the countries can be divided into four groups. In the first group - those whose companies are least likely to pay bribes - are Switzerland (which came top in the survey), Sweden, Australia, Austria, Canada, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the US and Japan.

In the second group - somewhat more likely to bribe - are Singapore, Spain, the United Arab Emirates, France, Portugal and Mexico.

The third group - even more likely to bribe - are Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Brazil, South Africa and Malaysia.

Finally - and most likely of all to pay bribes - are Taiwan, Turkey, Russia, China and India (which came bottom in the survey).

Before countries near the top of the list start patting themselves on the back, it's worth noting that their companies often apply different standards, according to where they are doing business. "Companies from the wealthiest countries generally rank in the top half of the index, but still routinely pay bribes, particularly in developing economies," Transpency International says. It continues:

Even high scorers are in major need of improvement. The behaviour of the Australian Wheat Board in the UN oil-for-food programme is just one example.

In March of this year, German-US motor company DaimlerChrysler admitted that an internal probe confirmed allegations of "improper payments" made by their staff in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe.

Turkey, in 27th place, is nearly at the bottom of the BPI. This is a crucial result as the country pursues its bid for European Union membership. The poor score also raises troubling questions about the country's commitment to the OECD (Organisation of for Economic Cooperation and Development) Anti-Bribery Convention, which entered into force there in 2003 ...

The United States, which blazed new trails with its Foreign Corrupt Practices Act of 1977, ought to be leading the way, but ranks behind many OECD countries.

The United Kingdom has demonstrated minimal enforcement of the Convention, despite scandals implicating firms such as British Aerospace.

Companies often try to shrug off bribes as a way of fitting in with local customs and practices, and there is a popular notion that the recipient, not the giver, is the guilty party. Apart from the fact that such payments are often illegal, they undermine any efforts to promote good governance in developing countries. Bribes also have a corrupting effect on the firms that pay them. Often, the payments are made by local subsidiaries - allowing parent companies to pretend that their hands are clean.

Transparency International warns:

Multinationals cannot be absolved of the corrupt activities of their foreign branches, subsidiaries or agents, and they must conduct due diligence before engaging with joint venture or alliance partners. The purchasing, export, and marketing and sales departments remain the business functions most vulnerable to bribery and corruption.

It adds:

The cost of a tarnished image "back home" can be immense. And companies with a culture of bribery overseas face a heightened risk of being undermined by the unethical acts of their own employees. In the long run, it pays for companies to take proper measures to end corrupt practices.

About 150 years ago, there were no Black Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in the US, there were no rights for Blacks and there was no cultural influence from Blacks. But now, 75 Black CEOs are working in major US companies. On the contrary, there are no Dalits as CEOs in any private company in India today.

In 1930, the IBM Company in America gave reservation to Blacks, and at present almost all business houses there are accommodating Blacks, Native Americans, and Hispanics. Since the intention of our Govt. is not to empower Dalits otherwise on similar lines how US had done for Blacks and others, Dalits can be given participation in govt. contracts and the supply-chain of different articles. After millennia of oppression, it was the British in 1932 which gave reservation through the historic Poona Pact. English and public school education in India is undoubtedly out of reach for Dalits, and this is resulting in lack of English knowledge which is blocking Dalits to take up high profile jobs.

In India, the perception is that if you are a Backward then you do not deserve anything. And the worst is that the Backward is being touted as the hurdle to the ushering in the era of competitiveness. The reservation policy is only to deceive the rest that we have been properly taking care of the Backwards. But India is absolutely clueless about what results have been achieved through the huge money allocated and the policies being pursued for the development of SC/ST/BCs over the last 50 years. According to NSSO, Census of India and NFHS-II, 37 percent of Dalits living below poverty in India while 45 percent them don't know how to Read and Write. When any insurgent or terrorist strikes, the ready answer is: "foreign hands bent upon to destabilizing our social fabric and economy". If the reservation is introduced, our industrial giants would put the blame on reservations.

The Govt. of India protected our industry from foreign direct competition. Are they not reservations? If they talk of survival on the basis of "merit" then let the Indian market be open to foreign companies.
Who is to blame for the dismal performance of PSUs or their closure? Why do we forget that "meritorious" professionals are heading most of the PSUs since their inception? Why only PSUs enjoying a monopoly in the Indian economy are doing well? In whose interests a few PSUs (even the profit-making ones) are forced to either close down or are sold to private parties at a paltry sum?

When a person born Untouchable as per the Hindu caste system is condemned to carry the cross then why is this bogey of "merit" raised constantly by the educated elite? Let us not forget that a caste-ridden society like ours hardly provides a level playing field for a large section of Indian society. A person's station in life is largely determined by birth. In such a system, there is little space for "merit" and efficiency. The recruitment practices in the private needs scrutiny. The upper castes have been enjoying unstated birth-based reservation since centuries. And extending the benefits of reservation to Backwards at any cost can only neutralize this. When can we see 17.5% IAS officers from Dalits, 27.5% from backward communities and 7.5% from tribal?

Someone who is familiar with the Indian social fabric know the age old doctrine of exclusion legitimised and sanctified by the Brahminical ideology. This upper caste elite controles the Business and Civil Service structure in India, by culminating "Bribing" as a ‘routine matter’ in India's daily life. Transparency International's BPI Index proves how this dangerous ideology of "self purity and pollution" has extended its wings to the "Globalization of Corruption."
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Tehelka's three rules of graft for arms-dealers.
1. If it's a bit dodgy, do it in cash.
2. If it's unethical, outsource it.
3. If its totally illegal, do it through the MOD's licensing procedure.

Download the Transparency International Report from

http://www.transparency.org/news_room/in_focus/bpi_2006

India's bureaucracy is a bummer for the boom

June 26, 2006, The Age, Australia

Eric Ellis is South-East Asia correspondent for Fortune

Economic growth is yet to improve the ground-level conditions for business in India, writes Eric Ellis.

THAT India is booming is beyond dispute — 10 per cent growth last year to rival China, $200 billion in foreign reserves. Next stop, with The Bomb and a huge consumer market in hand, will be permanent membership of the UN Security Council.

You'll see its emergence as a global economic power; its start-up companies described in rapturous terms by the media. World leaders will exhort their businesses to harness its energy.

But what type of boom is it? After three weeks travelling and reporting around a country I know reasonably well and enjoy very much, I've concluded it's an uneven one, and even a dangerous one.

Let's start with flying, or using an Indian airport, as business travellers do. I write this column sitting on the floor of Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, delayed four hours for a flight. The filthy airport, regarded as one of India's better ones, may be a disgrace to her legacy but I think it's a fair reflection of it.

The Indian boom is a product of overdue deregulation, kick-started in 1991 by the current Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he was finance minister.

It was a wonderful thing after 40 years of the so-called "licence raj", the muddle-headed socialism the first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, instigated and his daughter Indira did little to reform.

Governments administering the licence raj provided permits to a few companies to produce a single product or service. It held India back for years, created monopolies, bad products, rampant corruption and woeful infrastructure.

The so-called Bombay Club of tycoons got fat, lazy and protected. The system also discouraged entrepreneurship — one reason why Indians are among the world's most numerate expatriates, seeking to make their fortunes.

To foreign tourists, Hindustan Motors' Ambassador car, one of the motor world's heaviest vehicles, is a picturesque throwback to a colonialesque 1950s Morris Oxford. But to forward-looking Indians, it's an indictment on 50 years of the Indian car industry. Yes, there have been new cars in recent years, many of them sub-standard cast-offs from exhausted Western moulds as the industry deregulated.

But would you buy a Tata Indica? Ratan Tata, lionised by India's media as the father of its modern car industry, drives a Mercedes, or rather, has one driven for him.

Now Indira and Nehru's licence raj is history, the situation has completely reversed. New car models appear weekly, and the Indian airline industry is now a private free-for-all. But the creaking Indian bureaucracy can't keep up — it's too slow and cumbersome to improve the hopelessly undermanned and overcrowded airports and roads. The Indian military is also an obstacle, refusing to release its paranoiac grip over airspace, forcing civilian flights to follow tight and increasingly crowded routes lest someone steal a glance at a base.

Some $100 billion has been slated for infrastructure improvement, but there's not much evidence of it, as start-ups arrive daily. Delhi is supposed to be getting a new airport in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games. It is now 2006, and this is India, so don't count on it.

The reason why I'm on the floor of the airport is that after an airport-wide search, I've finally found a "live" electricity socket to plug in my laptop. The other 15 sockets tested didn't have any current.

I got here from Kathmandu last night on a state-owned Indian Airlines flight that was delayed two hours, because of security checks, Nepal being in the grip of a Maoist insurgency that's no friend of Delhi. Few travellers quibble with the post-9/11 security burdens of air travel, but if the plane is scheduled to leave at 1700, why not do the security two hours earlier? That two-hour flight was one of the most dangerous I've ever taken, but most passengers didn't know that. About halfway through the flight, over Indian airspace, I saw a blue-liveried plane streak past the right wingtip, no more than 300 metres away. The internationally accepted distance standard is about 500 metres vertically and about five kilometres horizontally. This near-miss was more horizontal than vertical. Approaching Delhi, there were two alarming, aborted attempts at landing. The pilot explained that the airport was busy, and I'm not surprised. More than a dozen new airlines have been launched in recent years, overburdening an airport infrastructure that was already mayhem when there were just Indian Airlines, its big sister Air India and the relatively new Jet Airways in the market. Now there are carriers owned by a brewer (Kingfisher), two by textile companies (Go Air and Paramount) and one by a public relations agency (Magic Air).

The one new flyer that sprang from aviation roots, Air Deccan, is regarded by Indians as the worst of the lot. But what does a brewer bring to the aviation sector? Can you imagine flying VB Airlines? Or Antz Pantz Air?

Technology also has issues. "Incredible" India's image today is one of cutting-edge innovation. One of the best products I've seen is a nifty Reliance Industries broadband laptop card from India that connects to mobile cell towers. But try logging on to the net conventionally in Bangalore, India's Silicon Valley, which advertises itself as having the world's fastest broadband — "warp speed" — or being trapped in darkness in the elevator of an average but overbooked hotel you've paid $US200 a night for. Yes, Indian engineers are performing programming miracles in the back offices of Bangalore's myriad companies at a tenth the cost — and with twice the education — of their Western counterparts, but their skills aren't being evenly spread, or perhaps they are just reserved for penny-pinching Western clients, and dollar-hungry India Inc.

This flowering of entrepreneurship has made Indians richer than they've ever been. I'm fascinated by it, I love India and I think it will muddle through. But as I fly and drive around it, I just hope its long-overdue boom doesn't kill me.

Fake Caste Certificates By 30% Candidates For Govt Jobs: CBI

17th April 2006

A CBI investigation has found 30 per cent people belonging to Scheduled Caste and scheduled Tribes have produced fake caste certificates to acquire government jobs.

This was stated by K N Singh, Chief of National Scheduled Caste/Tribe Commission, today at the inauguration of the three-day national workshop on reservation policy being held here.

The CBI conducted the investigation on the orders of Supreme Court. Singh said action would be taken against the defaulting government officers and employees.

He said Social Welfare Ministry will soon bring a bill to stop such a practice and all states have been requested to send in their suggestions.

(UNI)

Large spending in the social sector pays off in Finland

Garimella Subramaniam, The Hindu, 16 March 2006

No corruption in public institutions, says Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen

CHENNAI: Finland is the global leader in competitiveness for the fourth time in the past five years, ahead of the United States and other industrial giants of Europe, according to the World Economic Forum

Ranking. It invests heavily in basic education and social welfare, says Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen.

In an interview to The Hindu here, he said Finland's continued success in achieving a combination of fiscal prudence, high quality public institutions and technological innovation owed it to the large spending in the social sector.

"In addition to well-functioning public institutions which are marked by the absence of corruption, we invest substantially in the basic education of our people. The expenditure on education and social welfare also means that people have to be paid high salaries," Mr. Vanhanen said.

"Finland cannot compete with countries such as India in terms of wages. So we necessarily have to fall back upon technological innovation, provision of education, welfare and clean and transparent administration. I don't think the Nordic model can be viable if we sacrifice any of these components. It also means that we have to continuously innovate and create new jobs because of loss of jobs in manufacturing due to globalisation."

Labour migration

Explaining his Government's recent announcement that it would allow people from eight of the 10 new member-states of the European Union to work in Finland, Mr. Vanhanen said the move to open the doors after two years of EU expansion was the decision of Parliament as part of a compromise with trade unions. "We are now confident that we won't face serious problems on account of immigrant labour."

Denying that it was a recent European Commission report highlighting the benefits of labour inflow from the East that prompted the decision, he said it was based on an independent assessment by the country's trade unions and employers' organisations. It was true that Britain, Ireland and Sweden opened their doors to labour from the new member-states right from the beginning of the 2004 EU enlargement. But the member-countries were free to review the transition period (leading to full freedom of labour movement), which was allowed for a maximum of seven years.

European Constitution

Talking about the European Constitution, in limbo following the Dutch and French rejection last year, Mr. Vanhanen, who will chair the EU Council from July to December 2006 as Finland assumes the six-monthly rotating presidency, said progress on its ratification might not be possible till the general elections in the two countries. The Prime Minister, who was involved in the negotiations on the treaty, said the Constitution that was framed when the EU had only 15 member-states might need changes. "We need new rules now because we have enlarged and we will have more new members in the future."

Against NATO membership

Asked whether the success of European integration would determine the extent to which Finland could resist pressures to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), Mr. Vanhanen noted that his country, a traditionally non-aligned state, had to take independent responsibility for its own security. "There is a large unanimity both within and outside Parliament against NATO membership. There was only one candidate (who secured just one per cent of the vote in the recent presidential election) who advocated membership of NATO. Support for NATO membership was only one-fifth even in the opinion polls."

India's "supercops" in firing line over mob links

24 Feb 2006 Source: Reuters, By Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI, India, Feb 24 (Reuters) - For eight years, Daya Nayak killed with impunity -- sometimes with his pistol but often with an AK-47 automatic rifle -- as he bumped off people suspected to be gangsters or involved in acts of terrorism in Mumbai.
These days, the policeman just kills time.

Once the poster boy of Mumbai's police force and eulogised by Bollywood filmmakers, Nayak helped to dramatically curb organised crime in India's financial capital, breaking the back of violent gangs and sending mobsters on the run.

But after years of tormenting crime dons, the past has returned to haunt him.

The tall, moustachioed Nayak, 34, has been arrested and ordered held until early March as anti-corruption officers probe allegations he had amassed wealth, including real estate worth millions of rupees, far beyond what his salary could pay for.

Nayak is not alone in his fall from grace. More than half a dozen officers of a crack force, formed over a decade ago, have been accused of corruption and links with the underworld.

Known in the Indian media as "encounter specialists" for shooting down criminals in raids, the men have either been dismissed or suspended until an investigation into their financial assets is completed.

Nayak's critics claim that as well as taking mob money, the so-called "supercops" have been routinely killing gangsters in stage-managed shootouts and in custody. Human rights workers have branded the deaths nothing more than extra-judicial executions.

"I've done nothing wrong. These charges are false," the sub-inspector, who says he killed over 80 criminals in shootouts, said recently after appearing in a Mumbai court.

In the late 1990s, Mumbai, then known as Bombay, faced a tide of mafia killings, abductions and extortion demands.

Poor migrants from villages and small towns were drafted into gangs, taking up the gun for cash, earning relatively small amounts but more than they could hope to make honestly.

The underworld was remote-controlled by bosses based in Dubai, Malaysia and Karachi who had fled India to avoid arrest, leaving behind associates to carry out their orders.

ROUGH JUSTICE

Mumbai's authorities hit back, giving a free hand to officers like Nayak who worked informers and wielded their guns to administer justice.

In a decade of violent confrontations, the officers busted hideouts and shot dead at least 350 suspected gangsters, drawing cheers from businessmen and the Bollywood set, prime mob targets.

Newspapers splashed photographs of the officers across their front pages, while film directors explored Nayak's climb from abject poverty.

Many people supported the "supercops" because snuffing out the bad guys, most felt, was better than putting them through a failing justice system where witnesses could be manipulated and cases drag on for years.

Human rights activists say police routinely killed criminals in cold blood after taking them to a lonely spot and telling them to run. When they did so, or even if they did not, they were shot, usually in the back.

"They kill them (criminals) somewhere and then take their bodies to hospital and put it down as a shootout death," P.A. Sebastian, a human rights activist, told Reuters.

Sometimes, rights activists allege, officers blaze away as they compete with each other for media headlines.

But police say they open fire only in self-defence.

"Does a policeman enjoy killing? Those killed are trying to get us. They aren't saints," said officer Pradeep Sharma, who police records say has shot dead 104 criminals.

Sharma is facing an inquiry in the disappearance of an accused in a 2002 bomb blast in Mumbai. Human rights activists say the man, Khwaja Yunus, was killed in custody while police say he simply escaped.

"Many of these encounters are fake and killings by police extrajudicial," said criminal lawyer Majeed Memon.

Sharma's boss says the controversial tactics have yielded results.

"It's for all to see that stern police activity has curbed crimes," Mumbai police commissioner A.N. Roy said.

Indians bribe 21,068 crore Rupees in 2004

Hindustan Times, 19 January 2006

For those who believe that corruption in India is almost an industry, here’s proof.

A survey conducted by Transparency International India (TII) says Indians paid bribes amounting to Rs 21,068 crore in the past year. And no one would have guessed it, but the biggest chunk of this money goes to schools till the Class XII level.

“The money was paid for either getting admission or certificates,” said Navin Sarangpani of the Centre for Media Studies (CMS), which carried out the study. The police (crime/traffic) were second in terms of collecting bribe money, accounting for Rs 3,899 crore.

This is not to say that schools are the most corrupt. That honour goes to the police who have been ranked the most corrupt according to a ‘corruption index’ prepared by the CMS. The reason schools receive the biggest chunk of bribe money is that “(the) proportion of citizens interacting with schools is much more than the police or municipalities,” said Sarangpani.