CRONY ECONOMISTS AND PROPOGANDA

According to Mao Zedong the intellectuals often tend to be subjective and individualistic, impractical in their thinking and irresolute in action. To bring the revolutions and socialistic pattern in China he killed many to so called intellectuals. He always believed that intellectuals can overcome their shortcomings only in mass struggles over a long period. 

In India the there has been a steep rise in number of crony economic intellectuals they have vitiated the socio economic democracy of India. Their economic intellectualism is mainly driven by money and media in connivance as usual actively and closely covering their activity and disseminating their nonsensical propaganda. For them when the stock marketing is bullish India is shining and in the name of fiscal discipline they are actually helping the rich at the cost of poor

Now many of us have become victim of this crony economic intellectual propaganda and are unable to call their theory as nothing but bluff. 

It is surprising that India (at least I am not proud of) is having second large number of billionaires after USA, because this displays extremes of rich and poor, wealth and poverty Luxury and miserly, excess food and hunger. This type of disparity does not exist anywhere in the world. These cronies are actually aggravating moist movement where have nots will only left with the option of जो चीज माँग कर प्राप्त नही होती उसे छीन लिया जाय“ SO it is high time now the poor and middle class stop being fooled by these so called crony macro-economists who spread their propaganda of their corporate bosses and false theories. The economy is not actually free market economy which is propagated by paid media

ACTION ,REACTION AND INQUIRY

Now the charge sheet has been issued to Ms Durga Shakti Nagapal for her alleged misconduct, and she has already replied on the charged. This charge sheet can come in public domain in some days; Further High court of Allahabad has rejected PIL of Ms Nutan Thakur to set aside the suspension order. Now Supreme Court has also rejected the petition filed by advocate M L Sharma, who had sought quashing of all the proceedings against Nagpal for allegedly demolishing of wall of a mosque.

The bench headed by Justice H L Dattu dismissed the plea and said that it may entertain the petition if she (Nagpal) herself approaches the court. The bench further said that the officer can take care of herself and can also approach the other authorities including a court, against her suspension order.

In the both cases court has said that She (Durga) can approach the court and court can entertain the plea of her. But Still I believe that if Ms Durga Shakti Nagapal approach the court this juncture court will not accept her plea and rather will asked before approaching the court whether all option available to her for review appeal were exhausted ? If she approaches the court as on date she will be doing misconduct. I think she understands that as well and applying her mind correctly.  

But why so many legal luminaries knowing fully it trying to score the point and why they are not filing PIL in general to correct the law rather than specific case.  Before answering it let us understand the following in case of domestic inquiry

What is charge sheet?

Any disciplinary proceedings start with an allegation of some misconduct against the employee. Whether something/anything/nothing further will happen or not will obviously depend on first, the relevance and importance of the evidence and second on situation. If this is decided that means action stage as initiated and charge sheet is prepared which describe the article of charges and imputation of charges. The charge sheet itself decides the tone and tenure of action.

Why the charge Sheet issued?

In case of departmental inquiry charge sheet is issued it generally means that sufficient prima facie case has been built against the employee. Practically speaking the departmental enquiry is only initiated when the employer has made up his mind that a certain action has to be taken against a employee and these proceedings are carried out to fulfill the procedural requirement and employer try to prove that the principal of natural justice has been followed.

What is the difference between Domestic inquiry and criminal/Civil Investigation?

The Disciplinary proceedings are quasi judicial process by which the employer enquires into the allegation of misconduct on the part of employee. Criminal investigation does not fall in the domain of employer. Let us understand the criminal and civil offences as well. The criminal offence may have some motive while civil offences are with some consideration or may be misconduct. In disciplinary proceedings involving moral turpitude a departmental enquiry/action is generally necessary while misconduct not involving moral turpitude a disciplinary action may be avoided. In departmental inquiry it is not the concern of employer whether the facts established disclose the commission of criminal offence. The proceedings are neither criminal nor quasi criminal in nature. The nature of proceedings appears to be taken to civil proceedings. The materials of evidence in two proceedings departmental and criminal investigation are relevant in one and tabooed in other. An incriminating statement made by accused in criminal trail can be totally inadmissible in departmental inquiry or vice versa. The degree of proof which is necessary in an order of conviction is different from the degree of proof which is necessary to record the commission of delinquency. The domestic inquiry is not bound by the Rules of Evidence and probably it is ignorant of that. Article 20(2) of the constitution provides that a man cannot be punished for the same offence more than once. Relying upon this it is also contended that if the person is under criminal trial /convicted by criminal court then no action should be taken against him during departmental enquiry. 

Service Conditions

The employee –employer relation is law of master and servant and it is a law of contract and in this contract one of the parties has the power to adjudicate on the action of the other party. In this process complaint many times originate from employer (master) and enquiry is also conducted by the employer. In such case the principle of natural justice does not hold good here because the prosecutor is judge for his own cause. The Tribunal and Courts have the power to review the decision of employer if employee suffers from malafide victimization or where principle of natural justice is not applied

Courts view

India before globalization, the tendency of courts were pro employee but after globalization of 1991 at after changes in labour laws ,Tribunals and courts have not shown any positive response in service matter. In case of servicer rules and disciplinary matters, courts only comment on procedural law and not on substantive law. If procedure law is followed by employer courts rarely comments. Now in case of Durga Shakti Nagpal departmental inquiry has been started Commissioner has been appointed as Inquiry Authority. The commissioner will inquire into the article and imputation of the charges, She will be given full opportunity to demolish the article of charges, argument counter-argument shall be recorded and each party shall be asked to submit their written statement. Based on record on inquiry and written statements, witness and relevant documents, Commissioner will submit his report with proving, not proving and partially proving the article of charges. On the basis of report of commissioner, the employer Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary/ will decide the fate of Durga Shakti Nagpal . It is hoped that Commissioner will reports the facts without any external and internal pressure and will be unbiased in his report. All the procedures will be followed in this case as it has media attention. If the report is in favour of Durga can be accepted or rejected by Disciplinary authority. If, Durga is given punishment, after due process of law will court question it on the basis of substantive law?

The rules of suspension are very painful, one hand the all the service rules do not term the suspension as punishment and there no definite time frame wherein charge sheet can be filed against the suspended employee after suspension. The charge sheet can be filed/issued to officer may be after one year, two years etc. Even the courts have not come out in this matter with clarity. It only says reasonable time and reasonable time is highly subjective.

As such people, lawyer and activist who are filing PIL on behalf of Ms Durga Shakti should file PIL to bring change in service matter conduct discipline and appeal. The service rules should be in accordance to article 14 to 32 of the constitution. The responsibility and accountability of appointing and dismissing authority should be examined and   there should proper system of reward and punishment in acting as disciplinary authority or Inquiry authority. There should be provision of imposing severe punishment on Disciplinary Authority if is found that and action taken was vindictive or against the spirit of law so that a visible and vindictive and unconstitutional act of bureaucrats can be controlled. If this happens there will be many officers who will follow the rule of the land rather than illegal and unethical orders of politicians.

Discretion and Preference Discretion and Preference

In Uttrakhand it was a tradition our earlier generations to joined the army My Father was in Army also, he used to tell that they were taught in Army that “Though Lion is known as King of Jungle but he cannot lead the Army of all animals but of Lions.  The deers,dogs,jackal and rabbit all will be scared to follow the lions.    Therefore the captain should be the person who is not only leader but people should also follow him. If he cannot lead he cannot win the battle. Lions always need lion only as his followers. It is no fun leading jackal and dears by Lions, because deers and jackals can always desert the lions.

Now question arises do we have lions in organizations.  As I wrote in my previous blog   and I would like to repeat it here again “In Public sectors and government sector, the corruption in promotion, transfer & posting is the most dangerous forms of corruption as corruption of the governing body can lead to widespread effects. (Example post retirement benefits, job of consultant after retirement, Director on boards etc.  Recent research by the World Bank suggests that who makes policy decisions (elected officials or bureaucrats) can be critical in determining the level of corruption because of the incentives different policy-makers face. The reason of this being the most dangerous is because it contributes lot to GDP. The size of the public sector is usually measured by either the amount of revenue raised or the value of expenditure undertaken by the state as a percentage of GDP.  

I am watching the “Indian Idol Junior” every Saturday and enjoying the singing of singing prodigies of India. There are three judges, all three are most respect in their field namely Shreya Ghosal (I call him modern Lata Mangeshkar and Vishal and Shekhar both musician and singers.  I observed that in a “reality show”  I guess the judges were awarding the marks by pencil.   Instantly the thought came in my mind. Have I ever seen any selection process, be it fresh recruitment, or promotion etc. where a pencil is not used? The answer is unfortunately NO.  The power of pencil is stronger than the pen. The discretion can be used anytime by using eraser.  It is well proven that discretions are always biased and have no judicious character in it.  

It tempted be to write something about the promotion process in India. We were taught in the beginning of that, the premise of the promotion policy has been that "Unless the best officers are promoted faith of other officers and enlisted men in the integrity of the system will be shaken." The minimum qualifications for the officer to be promoted are, a good leader, having good administrative skill and wide array of knowledge. It is essential that best officer be promoted who will be best qualified to lead the organization. It is a saying that ducks pick ducks and swans picks the swans. It is also believed that when swan is served the solution of water and milk, it can take in milk and water is left. But in the Organization when incompetent personnel, once they have moved up, one day they will be in necessarily be in a selection board, they will themselves be apt to select other inadequate and incompetent personnel because they know that if knowledgeable one is chosen will be of no use for their personal wisdom and competency and incompetency. If you look around yourself, you will find that there are people who are a real manager and another who are Yes man (masked manager) if both of them are promoted and equa ranked. One can understand the insides of the real one and happiness of masked one. As far as merit channel and normal channel are concerned, there are presently two types of seniority/normal (upto Scale-III) and merit from Scale-I to Scale-VII. In the government sector many believe that the Seniority is the most transparent form of promotion led by DPC. Because there is no confusion about your seniority everyone knows his seniority number. Promotion by seniority is the fairest, transparent and stress-free system as far as employees are concerned. There is always one big consolation that your junior can never “jump the queue” and “leap frog” over you in the system. Organizations where promotion is purely by seniority will have harmony in the workplace because of the high degree of contentment in among employees (The bureaucracy is the happiest class). But in Banking and financial sector of India there was no seniority channel but a normal channel (but seniority is always followed in clerk to officer cadre promotions).  This normal channel many times became abnormal. That is why we have some ducks and Swans it the system and it is up to you that whether ducks are in the selection board or Swans Last but not the least one of very intelligent AGM (never compromised with his principles) used to say that if anyone is promoted he always used to two lines 1. Congratulation you have been promoted 2. Congratulation you have been promoted and you deserve it. Now, how many people congrats in second manner from bottom of their heart.

Now lets us talk about the merit channel which has become the buzzword these days which is actually allowing the discretion in full swing. The actual merit means preference over something and merit is like beauty and “Beauty” lies in the eye of the Beholder. Same way “Merit” lies in the eyes of your Godfather Who evaluates your merit for promotion and Godfather will always be true to his son and “Merit” is a highly subjective term, and it can never be assessed merely on interview or APA. The initial five IITs maintained their position across the world because it has been conducting a free fair and independent written examination and so the CAT.

Now let use decide if we are lions,deers,jackals. The lion will always lead lions, jackal will always lead jackal and Deers will lead dears. We must also take not that whether our selection boards are promoting ducks or swans.

The word discretion has been the widely misused world in the society. The idea of discretion was  the trait of judging wisely and objectively and it should be judicious. but in reality there has been rampant abuse of discretion

It was interesting to read “Animal Farm” by George Orwell where commandments were changed to say some animals are more equal than others but finally it has to go to original manor farm and all the pigs leaving the place of Napoleon the Pig. Now I think the suggestion made by the Khandelwal Committer were good and spirit of the committee was excellent but implementation is being done as it was done of the character of Napoleon in  but implementation “Animal Farm” by George Orwell.

 ..

Rajesh Kumar

Greed Vs Human Life –Part-I

Greed Vs Human Life –Part-I

There are three questions in my mind, one How to change the system which has failed or every time tells that Satyamev Jayate is mere slogan? ,two how to not become a part of the system? And three If you cannot change the system how to become a part of system. The reply many time I hear is “Sab chalta hai”,”Karna Padata hai “etc. It is society the corruption is a way of life now etc.

Here corruption I mean not only transactional but also any wrongdoing on the part of any authority or person through any means that are illegitimate, immoral, patronage or incompatible with ethical standards. In Public sectors and government sector, the corruption in promotion, transfer & posting is the most dangerous forms of corruption as corruption of the governing body can lead to widespread effects. Recent research by the World Bank suggests that who makes policy decisions (elected officials or bureaucrats) can be critical in determining the level of corruption because of the incentives different policy-makers face. The reason of this being the most dangerous is because it contributes lot to GDP. The size of the public sector is usually measured by either the amount of revenue raised or the value of expenditure undertaken by the state as a percentage of GDP. Therefore,, expenditure as a percentage of GDP is more than revenue in the high fiscal deficit countries. As such bigger the project bigger the cost of project and more chances of corruption and more the volume of corrupts money.   The Dam industry is the biggest Industry of the world having no single balance sheet but have one common cause “the human greed of corruption”

It was well settled policy across the world during late seventies and beginning of eighties in 20the century big dams are not good for the eco balance nor are economically viable, despite that we in India continued for big dam because our first prime minister and architect of modern India hailed the dams as the "Temples of Resurgent India” have to look at some of the biggest ones.  Based on the philosophy of Pandit Nehru we continued for following three recent big dams.

1.   Bansagar , multipurpose River Valley Project ,construction began in 1978 and started in 2006 (Total 336 villages have come under submergence of Bansagar Reservoir out of which 79 villages are fully submerged and rest 257 villages are under partial submergence.) when I was in Satna in the year 1997,I met with two Land acquisition officers (LAO) who were responsible for paying compensation to farmers. One of them was honest and another very corrupt. The corrupt was given full power and honest has no work at all. The honest once said to me “ This Bansagar is Sanatan “. He explained that Sanatan here means never-ending, these big project will continue for long.  The original approved cost was Rs. 91.31 crores. The latest estimated cost in 1998 was Rs. 1054.96 crore.   

2.   The  Tehri Dam is the highest dam in India and one of the tallest in the world and which is situated  in the fragile ecosystem of the Himalayan foothills project started in the year 1978 and completed in the year 2006 ,power started in 2003. The construction cost was  $ 1 billion (USD). The Dam was responsible to relocate 1 Lakh people and complete submerge of Tehri . The Uttrakhand Kranti Dal and chipko leaders once upon a time used to say” "We don't want the dam. The dam is the mountain's destruction." ,Big Dam-death dam .Now many are still in UKD who are still the common man and other have joined BJP or Congress and  rich MP/MLA of BJP or Congress.

3.    The Sardar Sarovar Dam , (estimated cost $ 8 Billion USD) the construction started in 1979 The dam is one of India's most controversial dam projects and its environmental impact and net costs and benefits are widely debated. The World Bank was initially a founder of the SSD, but withdrew in 1994. The Narmada Dam has been the centre of controversy and protest since the late 1980s. It was commissioned in 2006.  Ms Arundhati Roy state about this reference to big dam said that “Dams are to a Nation's 'Development' what Nuclear Bombs are to its Military Arsenal. They are both weapons of mass destruction. They're both weapons Governments use to control their own people. Both Twentieth Century emblems that mark a point in time when human intelligence has outstripped its own instinct for survival. They're both malignant indications of civilization turning upon itself. They represent the severing of the link, not just the link—the understanding—between human beings and the planet they live on. They scramble the intelligence that connects eggs to hens, milk to cows, food to forests, water to rivers, air to life and the earth to human existence” . We also not forget that despite strong reservation of the scientist the height of dam was increased to from 110.64 m (363.0 ft) to 121.92 m (400.0 ft) of course with conditional certificate from Supreme Court. When Amir Khan supported the cause of Medha Patkar, his film “Rang De Basanti “was not allowed to feature in Gujarat.

We all know the impact of big dams in eco-system.  There was one 10 hours documentary serial called “Race to save the Planet “anchored by Marlyn Streep and it was well telecasted in many countries also in our Doordarshan for 10 consecutive Sundays. There has been much discussion across the world thereafter and was consensus to no to big dam except India, which could have stopped then and there only and could have many life thereafter. The big dam, they change the fauna and flora system of landscape through which the river flows. It changes the habitats of the river and more than 90% of fauna and flora is destroyed.  The big dams also change the flow pattern of river thereby causing the seasonal variation in the region. The storage of water in dams delays and reduces floods downstream. River and floodplain ecosystems are closely adapted to a river’s flooding cycle.  When water is stored in reservoirs, The flow of the river water changes important lifecycle stage of all plant and animals due to which causes rapid disappearance of riverside species.  Further evaporation rate of water increases from stilled water or from dam. In case of Tehri dam the evaporated water goes up near the Himalayan mountains where it immediately get condensed and near the hills of Uttrakand they can behave like a water bomb when it bursts.

Based on above I think majority of the people believe that “Paisa, Paise ko Khichata hai” . 

--continue next week

Regards

Rajesh Kumar