Our Life, Our Times :: 46 :: Random thoughts on CAA

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One can understand the opposition to the Citizens Amendment Act. With our secular claims, granting citizenship on the basis of religion appears to be obnoxious and is generally revolting against thespirit of secularism. Whatever might have been the considerations, the law seems to be flawed. One might say that it is what the previous governments did not do following the Nehru-Liaqat Pact more than half a century back and that it is the “unfinished business” that this government has brought to an endand yet it does not quite gel with our secular traditions. One feels certain that there must have been other options available to the government to achieve its objectives but these were not availed of. And the result has been furor and tumult and veritable chaos in the country.

Already, a few petitions have been filed in the Supreme Court quite a few of which are by members of a few Muslim organisations. Whether the law is in conformity with theConstitutional parameters will be decided by the Court. But, in the meantime it has aroused antipathetic feelings among the Indians as well as the Indian diaspora. Among the foreign political parties the Democrats in the US and the Labour Party are clearly unhappy with the provisions of the Law. They did not expect the largest secular pluralistic democracy to frame a law that excludes practitioners of one particular faith from its ambit.

A rumour is floating around that as soon as the government realized that the NRC in Assam produced an unexpected result – that of exclusions of around 19 lakh individuals many of whom are Hindus, the government hastened to bring in the CAA in order to exclude Muslims infiltrators or those Muslims whomay not have the necessary documents to prove their length of residence in India. The idea appears to be to get at only the alleged Muslims infiltrators leaving out those of the other communities, especially Hindus. Thereby the Government advertently stepped on the toes of North-Eastern states, particularly Assam by acting in breach of the provisions of the Assam Accord according to which the cut-off date for determining infiltrators was 25^th March 1971 as against the cut-off date of 31^st December 2014 indicated in the CAA.

The cut-off date thus was pushed away more than forty years during which many more infiltrators – predominantly Muslims and Hindus – would have entered the state. While Muslims may eventually get deported or repatriated or become stateless Assam would be saddled with many more lakhs of Bangladeshi Hindu infiltrators for whom there is nothing provided in the law. Whether they would be absorbed in Assam after grant of Indian citizenship or will be distributed among several states is not known. The law is curiously silent about it. The law overlooked the fact that an infiltrator is an infiltrator regardless of his religion.

The Assamese thus are landed with a problem that they do not like one bit. They have always opposed the way they were being swamped by outsiders, particularly from Bangladesh as their identity, language, traditions and way of life came under threat and was likely to be overwhelmed by the massive induction of foreigners. Their fear was that they would be subsumed under the sheer weight of the foreigners whom they wanted to be ousted from their land. By remaining silent on this scorethe CAA does a bad turn to the Assamese.

One wonders whether the Citizens Amendment Act was really needed. The problem was straightforward, that of throwing out the illegal residents from the country. Assam had the largest number and its problem was more acute. Under the Assam accord some work was done to identify the foreigners but it was the then Assam Government of TarunGogoi which played foul and dragged its feet. The Indian National Congress, the party then in power, thought it had got a vote bank thrown into its lap without ever trying to get one. It never showed in keenness to forcefully implement the existing laws to push out the illegal immigrants. An opportunity of clearing the state of all infiltrators was thus lost.

It is the policy of acquiring vote banks by political parties that is putting the country and its people in difficulties. While the Congress government remained inert in Assam and remained mute and inactive witnesses to the influx from Bangladesh, sometimes even welcoming them as prospective vote bank a similar attitude was displayed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) and later by the Trinamool  Congress in West Bengal. Today Mamata Banerjee of Trinamool Congress is in vehement opposition of CAA and National Register of Citizens (NRC) for fear of losingher vote bank of Bangladeshis. She is singing a different tune today as when she was in the Opposition she would harangue the CPM government to expel the Bangladeshis.

Likewise, the new legislation of CAA has at its back the votes of those who are benefited and BJP thinks that its expectation of this windfall is legitimate. While in the East it hopes to garner the votes of Bangladeshi Hindus in Assam, in the West it is the Sindhis who are likely to go en bloc in its favour in any election. The latter are already pro-BJP and the thousands and lakhs who will be benefited will add to their strength. This apart, if NRC is implemented in West Bengal the state’s Hindu population may feel obligated to vote for the BJP feeling relieved, as it were, from the oppressive presence of the Bangladeshis.

There are so many unanswered questions that one tends to feel that the some lose knots were left to be tightened before the bill was tabled in the Parliament. But one cannot get away from the feeling that in the whole imbroglio political parties are clearly seen to be playing the game of vote banks without any regard to the interests of the country. The loser in this game are the country and the state of Assam as most of the other North Eastern states are already covered by the system of Inner Line Permits (ILP) that are to be obtained by outsiders before they attempt to enter any of them. There was a recent report thatMeghalaya is thinking of introducing the system of ILP. It is only the state of Assam which will have to deal with the hundreds and thousands of illegal immigrants and, in all probability, absorb them within its borders.

One wonders whether the change in the philosophy for grant of citizenship has undone the Partition which was based on religion. If all Hindus of Pakistan and Bangladesh are to be given Indian citizenship, the partition would seem to be undone. While Pakistan and Bangladesh throw out their Hindus the Indian Muslims remain rooted where they are.The new philosophy does not seem to have taken into consideration either the spatial constraint or the limited natural resources that the country possesses. If all Hindus of the world are to be given Indian citizenship on demand, as the RSS seems to suggest, would we be able to accommodate or feed them all nowthat we are already 137 crore?

*Image from internet

Death in the family

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I have lost another brother – this time the eldest one who was a kind of father figure, especially since all of us collected at Bhopal after our respective retirements. He, Sanjoy Bagchi, surviving for 90 years somehow lost the battle with multiple ailments. Towards the end he went under a total life support system but started to sink and eventually passed away on the 20^th evening.

He was a lively person and was a foodie and loved the best of liquors and wines which he could afford being a UN pensioner. Even a few months back he would have “mangoras” and pakoras at the Arera Club to go with his regulation tots in the evenings. Having been to every continent he had developed a keen interest in different cuisines. He was even adept in cooking Mexican paella. It was he who told me to try Schnitzel in Vienna when my wife and I were going there on a brief visit.

He was a precocous child who turned out to be a very bright young man. He scored 240 out of 300 at the IAS interviews in 1953 along with another batch-mate who I think was K. Natwar Singh. He was a voracious reader. After getting into the IAS he became a member of the World Book Society and got Sir Winston Churchill’s six volumes on the Second World War. Eventually he built up a huge library of around 5000 books, most of them hard cover, which he donated to the MP Institute of Good Governance named after Atal Bihari Vajpayee, a friend from his college days. His philanthropy was phenomenal. He used to donate money to several institutions which he felt were deserving of his compassion. He provided financial support for the family of the help he had had for the last twenty years. The Arera Club was his first love and he went and donated Rs 5 Lakh to it for installation of a lift.

In his career at the UN agency of GATT his Director General continued him as his consultant for two decades. Later his distinguished stint at the GATT saw him installed as Executive Director of a “non-official” body of International Textile Control Board by representatives of several countries some of which were not very friendly with India. Textiles were his forte having been Additional Textile Commissioner and Textile Commissioner of India for substantial lengths of time.

A good life – with some lows and many highs – has now come to an end. Hopefully, he will meet up with those from the family who preceded him and have gone where all mortals go after their life on the planet comes to an end.  I, who is left behind, can only wish eternal peace for his soul 

Memories of an ordinary Indian :: 30 :: Chandigarh

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Chandigarh Museum

After the stint in Union Public Service Commission I hopped on to another deputation that came my way. It was to the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI for short) located at Chandigarh to function as Deputy Director of Administration. It was basically a job that dealt with the Institute’s establishment and personnel, including the technical staff and the faculty. My post was of the level of a Dy. Secretary of the Government of India and I had to work directly with the Director whose rank was equivalent to that of a Secretary in the Central Government.

The Institute was created on the pattern of the All India Institute of

A Corbusier creation (from internet)

Medical Sciences of Delhi – the only difference being unlike the All India Institute the Chandigarh Institute did not run under-graduate courses. The Institute had a top class faculty and was headed by a rare intellect as its Director who, professionally, was a Gastroenterologist. Dr. PN Chuttani who was the Director during my time was indeed a rare intellect who had a sharp mind and had the ability to grasp problems in no time. While professionally he was considered outstanding his administrative acumen was no less. He was highly regarded in the entire northern region and the chief ministers of the four northern states were his personal friends. I happened to meet at least two of them in his room.

A poplar in Chandigarh swaying in the breeze

The Institute was replete with modern architecture. Located in Sector 12 of the “Garden City” it was a huge complex with a 700-bedded hospital, an administrative block, a college of nursing, hostels for students and nurses and a smattering of residential houses of various types one of the higher types of which was allotted to me. This apart there was a forest in the land that had remained unutilized. On many a night I could hear jackals howling in the distance. The Institute also had a few larger houses in Sector 24 which was at a little distance near The Punjab University.

My job was very largely routine personnel work, pretty uninteresting. I

Punjab Assembly, another
 Corbusier creation (from internet)

was not quite convinced about the need of a post of this seniority for the work that I was supposed to do. In the Delhi Institute my counterpart had far greater range of functions. Here in Chandigarh it was far too circumscribed, To take care of the hospital there was a medical superintendent, for civil and electrical engineering aspects there was a superintending engineer and for items of academic work there was a dean supported by a registrar. I was there merely for the personnel, supported by an administrative officer and an assistant administrative officer. I thought there were too many men and I was doing precious little. The contrast from the UPSC was stark. While there I was dealing with ministries here I was talking to heads of various departments of the Institute.

Laburnums in Chandigarh

I had been to Chandigarh earlier. In 1961 we were taken on an instructional tour to Bhakra- Nangal dams and the planned city of Chandigarh from the National Academy of Administration. The two dams were still works in progress but the two, together, were called new temples of India by Jawaharlal Nehru. He dedicated them to the nation two years later in 1963. Chandigarh was planned by Le Corbusier, a French architect of repute and his associates. The Punjab Legislative Assembly, the High Court and the Secretariat were designed by him and, to this day, have remained as markers for the city. The complex has since been designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Then, a very enlightened ICS officer, MS Randhawa, intervened and had flowering trees planted all over the town in a way that one or the other sector of the city would always be in bloom right through the year. The neighbouring sector of PGI, Sector 11 had jacarandas and every March we would see purple all over when the trees would be in bloom – a spectacular sight.

It was a garden city indeed. In Sector 16 there was a Rose Garden

The Rock Garden

named after the former President Dr. Zakir Hussain, a rose garden that is considered the biggest in Asia. It was one of the very large gardens I have ever seen with hundreds of varieties of roses. The townsfolk had cultivated a gardening culture and every house regardless of its type had some land where the residents would be nurturing flowering and fruiting plants.  I too had quite a bit of land in the front and the back of the bungalow where my help would try and grow vegetables. There was a huge chikoo (sapota) tree on which we could see a large number of chikoos hanging. The Institute’s horticulturist, Shyam Lal, was dedicated to his job and he would visit every house often to ensure that the gardens, including the lawns, were properly maintained.

I

Another view of Rock Garden

t was because of the efforts of Shyam Lal that the Institute would regularly win prizes in the rose shows of Delhi. He would start preparing his plants soon after the monsoon and select the best ones for exhibitions at Delhi. A very amiable man, he was always eager to share his knowledge of gardening in general. For a man without a degree his knowledge was remarkable.     

He one day brought along one of his friends, Nek Chand, a supervisor of Punjab PWD. Nek Chand, it seems, was stationed at a place where he had lot of land lying unused. Sitting in this barren land he conceived of a garden of his own imagination and started building it with broken crockery pieces which eventually came to be known as Rock Garden. It was for these broken crockery pieces from our cafeteria that he had come to me. He did get into some rough time when the Punjab PWD would entertain none of his arguments and started taking departmental action against him. Dr. Karan Singh who used to be the Health Minister in 1995 visited his garden during his brief visit to Chandigarh. Under tremendous pressure, the PWD allowed the case against Nek Chand to die.

 He kept working on his garden, enlarging it to around a 25-acres affair

In our back yard

and adding variety to it so much so that today it is a “must see” tourist spot in Chandigarh. Footfalls in the Rock Garden are reported to be only second after Taj Mahal. Nek Chand, on the other hand literally went places, getting invites from countries in Europe and setting up such gardens in France and Germany. That he would be accorded state recognition by the award of Padma Shri was a foregone conclusion. That diminutive, rather submissive looking man indeed had imagination mixed with aesthetics and left behind a solid legacy for the city. I was sorry to see the news of his passing in the newspapers a few years back.

Another creation of Le Corbusier is the Sukhna Lake on the outskirts of the city. In the 1970s it was a very quiet place with an occasional picnicking family around. Corbusier had forbidden motorized boats to ply on this reservoir of 3 sq. kms. at the foot of the Shivalik Hills. Motorised vehicles were also banned on top of the dam leaving it as a promenade for walks. Later Punjab High Court banned food carts

Sukhna Lake

anywhere near it to prevent contamination of the waters even though till today its waters are not used for human consumption. This is in stark contrast to our own Upper Lake of Bhopal where not only motorized boats ply freely, scores of push carts assemble near the boat club on the bank of the Lake to do business without let or hindrance even though its waters are supplied to 40% of the city’s population to satisfy their basic needs. This is a matter of attitude. While in Punjab authorities are more concerned about people’s well being, the same would not seem to be the case in Bhopal.

Chandigarh has since emerged as one of the most livable cities in our country. It is beloved by people who live here who often call it “City Beautiful”. Nehru had a vision of making it something that represented India’s future – an educational and cultural hub in the midst of the bounties of nature. Whether his dreams were fulfilled would better be answered by its own citizens. I for one had a very nice time in the city,

Again, in our backyard

picking up a few very sincere friends. I also acquired a life partner while I was in Chandigarh. However, despite all the creature comforts I decided revert to my department even before my term came to an end. My people posted me to Nagpur – a station that was unpopular with my colleagues. For me Nagpur was a turn-around and I never looked back. But that is another story.

                              

Slowdown in automobile sector

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A newspaper reported the other day that automobile sales did pick up before the festive season only to fall in the following month. The car sales registered a negative growth in November, one of the reasons assigned for the slide being the impending imposition of BS 6 emission standards from 2020. Likewise two wheeler sales too dipped after picking up in October helped by the festivals. The upshot is that the sales refuse to pick up.

Many reasons have been assigned for the ever-enlarging inventories of the automobile manufacturers. Despite various inducements, including hefty discounts and freebies, footfalls in showrooms refuse to pick up. The slowdown is for real and the economy has hit a bump. Automobile sector hitting a rough is something that cannot be expected in an aspirational society like ours. New hordes are joining the middleclasses frequently and yet the sales do not pick up. People are, apparently, just not loosening their purse strings. Obviously there is something serious that is holding them back and keeping them away from automobile show rooms.

While in couple of respects it is a good thing – the slump in automobile sales – it is indeed bad for the economy. Lesser numbers of vehicles on our urban roads are likely to offer relief from traffic jams. Our roads are not built for heavy traffic and that too of mostly SUVs and frequently there is a lockdown on the grid either for reasons of breach of traffic rules or absence of management of the traffic. Inadequacy of road space and incompetently engineered roads  present their own problems. The fact, therefore, is that too many passenger vehicles of small as well as unduly large varieties are competing for the ever-shrinking overly encroached-upon road space.

The other reason why a slump in automobile sales is to be commended relates to our environment. It is a straightforward fact that lesser the number of vehicles plying on the roads the lesser is the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs). At around only 25 vehicles per thousand of the population, as against over 800 in advanced countries, our vehicles emit GHGs at an unconscionably high rate. There are reasons for it. Improperly maintained engines with inefficient combustion emit GHGs at a high rate. Many of our vehicles are not attended to as per the requirements prescribed in their manuals and hence become inefficient over a period of time burning more fuel than necessary and emitting more GHGs than warranted. Then, of course, our traffic management in urban India leaves much to be desired. While even flow of traffic is good for the vehicle’s performance in so far as its oil consumption is concerned it also allows the vehicle to pump lesser amount of toxic gases and carcinogens in the air. 

Be that as it may, the government too has not been lending a helping hand to the car buyers. The automobile sector has been treated as a cash cow by the central and the state governments. We in India pay one of the highest tariffs for a litre of gasoline. Even the road tax has not been spared. Over the years road tax collected from car buyers has soared although condition of the roads has not improved. Indian road conditions are well known and the manufacturers design their vehicles keeping that in view. This has been the practice ever since independence when during the early years of the nation’s life foreign car manufacturers used to advertise their product with the assurance that their products were built to meet the challenges of “Indian road conditions”. Many of those manufacturers have since moved to this country and now are, hopefully, more aware of these conditions.

Even car insurance premia have moved northwards. With a regulatory mechanism in place, the insurers are merrily raising them virtually every year. In explanation it is being said that the amounts involved in insurance pay-offs have increased manifold – the amounts it seems go beyond a crore with so many high-end cars plying on the newly-built expressways that are virtually death traps. This year I received hardly any benefit for my “No claim Bonus” as the annual premium had gone up. The insurance agent told me that it has been estimated that these days a car costs Rs. 4000/- a month even if it stands on its four wheels. He may be wrong but he wouldn’t have been far from the real figure.

While a slowdown in the automobile sector can be welcomed for a while it is not a happy augury for this country. It was riding on the automobile industry that the country clocked a growth of around 10%. While it is true that one cannot really expect the industry to remain in a state of perpetual growth yet the growth needs to continue till the country gets fully developed. Growth in it fosters many technically oriented jobs and now that we are close to the era of electric traction for automobiles many new kinds of jobs would be in the offing. Hence, a turnaround in the economy including in the automobile sector needs to commence soon for the economy to start growing as soon as possible. 

There seems to be a ray of light visible as the latest reports say that Maruti Suzuki has raised its production by about 4 percentage points vis-à-vis its production in October 2019. Apparently, things are picking up as the reports on the economy in newspapers are sanguine about a revival soon.

*Photo from internet