A Mockery of Justice

One of the incongruities of our legal judicial system is keeping people incarcerated in jail without bail or trial for years on the one hand and the inability to get successful verdicts on the other once the case goes to trial.

While on an emotional considerations one may applaud the justice of that since people we believe are guilty get some punishment, before trial at least. The absence of a strong legal-judicial system is a major stumbling block in our efforts to take our self appointed place in the community of nations. We are in some respects quite close to a banana republic. 

I do believe that it also raises serious barriers which keeps capital away. We have a lot of access to hot capital for Lays chips but little capital for long term investment. The inability of the legal-judicial system to enforce contracts is hurting us badly particularly when we need investments to drive the economy out of recession.

Prem 

Bhopal Again

Anderson must be extradited screamed the headlines of most major dailies reflecting our concern with symbolism instead of reality. Thousands of people have been permanently maimed or incapacitated because of the negligence of a private company, weak law of torts, negligent regulator and successive governments that have ignored environmental legislation in search of industrial development. Anderson is but a figurehead and his extradition and subsequent incarceration will only be symbolic and will change nothing. On the contrary his extradition and trial may actually put back Government action on industrial pollution control since the immediate problem would have been solved.

Governments culpability in the Bhopal disaster is of the same magnitude as that of the Head of Union Carbide India at that time. We must have a mechanism to ensure that exemplary  punishment is given to the Government Officials who were charged with the duty of ensuring that our factories operate safely. They should share the same cell that we build for Anderson.

Capping of nuclear liability falls in the same category. The question the Government has to answer is whether nuclear technology suppliers could claim a capping of liability if they were to set up a plant in the US. If the secondary infrastructure in India is inadequate in comparison to the US and consequently risks to Nuclear plants are higher then the Government is much better off creating that secondary infrastructure and ensuring that plants are safe. In a competitive business environment any capping of liabilities could result in reduction of safety measures to meet price points in international tenders. Post Dhabol we can have no faith in our Government being able to negotiate a project in the best interests of the country.

Bhopal - A tragedy of the Indian state

The Bhopal gas tragedy has everyone frothing at the mouth. News channels have talking heads decrying the current Government for having sold out to US business interests. Newspapers have been carrying front page stories and editorials about the culpability of Governments past. If past experience is anything to go by then the heat will die down in a few days and our eyeballs will be captured by new events. The Bhopal saga is symptomatic of the failure of the Indian state. The criminal is within, Anderson is but small fry, finding him and prosecuting him successfully may be palliative but the deeper malady will linger on. Bhopal symbolizes the withering of the Indian state.

Laws and their implementation are designed to protect and further the interests of the citizens of a country. Pollution control and plant safety is just one of the many laws that we have which is more breached than upheld. The pollution control process successfully adopted by many companies is to pay off the departmental officials charged with the task of ensuring a pollution free environment. The damage that has been done to our rivers, ground water and the sea near our industrial hubs bear mute testimony to the cynical disregard of human life, particularly where the poor are concerned.

It is not that other countries are more socially aware. In most countries laws covering environment and safety have evolved against stiff resistance from industry. It is only when the balance of political power moves from a narrow base to a broader one that the interests of a wider population are considered more important than the profits of a handful of shareholders. The tragedy of Bhopal was waiting to happen and it is only incidental that Union carbide was involved. While it does not absolve the company the larger responsibility lies with the state. The same state that handled the MNC and its officials with kid gloves when the full force of the law should have been applied to ensure compensation for its victims and prevention of siumilar events in future.

The beast is within and it is called callousness, corruption and incompetence. In a dramatic way the executive, the judiciary and the legislature have failed the common man. The legislature did not provide a strong set of laws, the executive continues to preside over the violation of whatever feeble laws exist and the judicial system takes an inordinately long time to deliver justice if at all. 

Breakfast In Amritsar Lunch In Lahore

The PM's wish list of having breakfast in Amritsar and lunch in Lahore is indeed an interesting dream. The thought of a hot aloo parantha with a blob of butter with thick lassi in the morning and delightful kababs for lunch can make anyone drool, gourmets, gourmands and cardiologists. Dr. Manmohan Singh could always wrangle an invitation from President Musharaf, for himself but this dream is likely to remain at best a dream for the rest of the country.

Relationship with Pakistan is based on a foundation of distrust. In both countries and more particularly in Pakistan a significant part of the establichment will have no role if they do not foment trouble for their neighbour. This is the case and will continue to be the case so long as the process is political.

Long term peace will only be possible with economic exchange. Only if producers and consumers in Pakistan and India see each others markets as compelling, for goods and services, would there be real peace. So may be the economist in our Prime Minister did get it right when he talked about breakfast in Amritsar and lunch in Lahore.

A Dogs Life

The other day a young girl of 9 was mauled to death in Bangalore by stray dogs (not rabid dogs). The BMC predictably suddenly were "seized of the menace" and swung into action trying to catch and put strays to sleep. Equally predictably animal rights activists raised a shrill cry against man's inhumanity to beast. There were suggestions that the dogs could be neutered instead of being killed. Which sounds like punishing murder with castration.

I have mixed feelings here. The child that was killed was the daughter of a construction labourer who was playing around on the roads while her parents were at work. She should possibly have been in school if our society and powers that be had any interest in universal education. The protesters are predictably drawn from the middle and upper classes, who possibly never see a stray dog except when it is being taken away by the BMC.

I am against the killing of any animal for sport or for similar purposes. That is an act of cruelty. Removing dangerous stray dogs (or rabid dogs) is not easy to classify as a sport. Catching them and keeping them in cages in the Municipal Pound may be a solution but again in a country where we do not have adequate resources to educate and feed over 300 million people it may be difficult to find resources for dog shelters. We need to find a solution that is not cruel but is also practicable in our socio-economic context.

Murder Most Foul

Have been following the Nithari slaughter case with both horror and anger. At one level the case is a reflection of the madness that afflicts some of us and is in some way a universal phenomenon. Such mass murderers do surface from time to time in various parts of the world and are often a subject of curiosity, fear, awe and revulsion. Very soon they fade away from our memories and life goes on. Such cases are few and far in between since a vast majority of us are by and large normal individuals.

The revulsion stems from the manner in which the case seems to have been handled or not handled by the police. The inability of poor migrant workers to have their cases registered reflects the feudal nature of our society. In all societies the rich and the powerful have greater access to state services than the poor and the weak, that unfortunately is the reality. Shamefully in ours it seems that poor people's access to state services is minimal if at all. The callous remark of a senior politician that such incidents are insignificant only reinforces this feeling. That such incidents are much more likely to happen in certain parts of the country as compared to others is a reflection of the different stages of social evolution that different parts of the country experiences at a given point in time.

India may be shining but it shines very dimly if at all in Nithari and Khairlanji.