Building Better Society and not Harsh Punishments is the way ahead

Building Better Society and not Harsh Punishments is the way ahead

By : Srijan Pal Singh, 23.12.2012

In the past one and a half year, I have seen two massive protests for national issues in Delhi – one organized under Anna Hazare and against corruption. Second, this weekend, organized by a group of Facebook and college activists, to protest crimes against women. Two trends are clear, the Indian urban middle class youth, is out there, sensitive to issues where they feel connected. Also, oddly, there is a lack of political respect which such protests command – and they are often brushed aside as holiday protests which are bound to die down with time.

Seeing the charged youth braving against water cannons in the cold month of Delhi December, fighting for an unknown stranger’s need for justice is heart touching and reinstates the hope for brighter India. Take this particular crime or many others this year, like on camera shooting of a toll bridge operator in Gurgaon, mowing down an IPS officer in Madhya Pradesh or two celebrity brothers shooting each other right in the heart of Delhi. The question remains, what is the source of such free-will to commit crime?

 Two things stop crime from happening – strong value system and effective legal remedy. We now need to work on both these aspects.

 Look at the ages of the accused in this recent rape case. Most of them are in early twenties and one is claiming to be a minor – a time when values and culture is shaped in the youth. We need to reform the learning environment which the younger generation is exposed to. I am yet to come across a school or college, even in the top notch, which seriously teaches and grades moral science as a subject.

And it not just the books the youth learns from. Neuro science states that in humans, upto 20% of the neurons in the brains are imitation neurons, which means a young mind learns and imitates the culture around him. That is where the fixing of culture is more important. In the last five years, I have seen the quality of many newspapers; magazines and even news site degrade into what can be called as “soft porn”. Movies would openly crimes and moral compromises as grey shades of heroism – where a woman is shown successfully seducing men to propel her career and a mother is shown as a custodian of her policeman son’s black money. This is what the youth imitates. Culture has to be reshaped, education rewritten to induce better citizens, who have the judgment and self control to stay away from all forms of crimes, and who respect a woman’s or anyone else’s position in the society and are self-governed by law.

Country	Rape Incidence Rate (rapes reported per 100,000 population) *there is expected under reportage of all figures as most rapes are never reported	Capital Punishment Status
India	1.8	Exists but rare. Not for rape.
South Africa	120	Abolished.
United Kingdom	28.8	Abolished.
USA	27.3	Exists for some crimes.
Norway	19.2	Abolished.
Oman	6.9	Exists for some crimes.
Thailand	6.7	Exists for some crimes.
Singapore	2.7	Exists for some crimes.
Canada	1.7	Abolished.
Japan	1.0	Exists for some crimes.
Serbia	0.7	Abolished.

Then we come to the legal remedy side. Personally, I do not agree with the multitude of demands for capital punishment being invoked for rape charges. It would be short sighted and emotional rather than rational. My worst fear is that capital punishment for rape would encourage the rapist to follow their hot blooded crime with a cold blooded murder of the victims to hide the evidence of their first crime. Moreover, statistically, capital punishment has shown little correlation with the incidence of crime as shown in table. While there are nations like USA and Oman which have relatively high rape rate, while having capital punishments, there are also nations like Serbia and Canada, which have no capital punishment but much lower rape rates.

 In fact, it is the surety and not the severity of punishment which will acts as a deterrent. Indian courts have more cases pending in them, than any other nation, which makes us the slowest justice delivery system in the world. Often cases taking more than a decade to culminate into punishment – which erodes all faith in the judicial system. Then, there is the talk of fast tracking rape cases. One year earlier there was talk of fast tracking corruption cases, and two years ago we talked of fast tracking cases of terrorism. This solution is a temporary quick fix only to satisfy the mobs, but if long term solution is desired we need to think on how to speed up the entire judiciary itself – all forms of cases – rather than recommending fast track on whatever crimes catches the news of the day. This would need massive investments, new courts need to be established, new judges need to be employed and in fact the Article 32 needs to be redefined than mere “right to judicial remedy” to “right to time bound judicial remedy”.

Now is the time to revisit our societal order – recheck our legal procedures and reinstate our value system and work to create a society where none feels alienated or unsafe, and where the citizens are self-controlled against committing any form legal or moral wrong.

Scent of a new time in Indian Politics?

It is a moment of eminent change that today we witness the coming of an age where the aware and educated youth of the nation comes forth to take their role of leading the nation and share the responsibility of shaping the future of India. Gone are the days when the most fruitful dream of a middle class Indian youth was leaving the homeland behind in a jet trail leading into an American dream of dollar salaries and matching splurge. Today, the youth of the nation is craving to take the bull by the horns in true sense and be an ingredient of the change he or she wants to happen. I am happily looking forward to a time, when I will find myself with other like and even unlike minded people, who take up politics as a career – with sound understanding of policy from both theoretical and practical angle than a mere talent for mutual mud slinging gameplay, with development not division as their main tool to garner votes, with a vision and not mere skewed views to shape the nation.

But before we get acquainted with a time where the best talent finds its apt place at making the policy we need to formulate a cohesive and talent driven mechanism for promoting this new cadre of nation builders. I see three key initiatives which are needed in facilitating such an infusion.

First, our current political process is not geared for talent and qualification governed system which provides an opportunity for rapid growth for the best. Politics is still considered to be only second to gambling in the role of chance in one’s success. The remedy is a systemic change in the way political parties recruit their cadre. Why cannot our prominent political parties and leaders run campus recruitment at IIMs, IITs and other academic institutions of repute? In corporate, they say “catch the talent fresh!” In the times to come politics needs to borrow a feather from the hat of the industry.

Second, we have a gaping shortage in the availability of political mentors who are willing to hand hold the course of a prospective young politician and give him or her edge of experience. Not that we have a lack of such experts, it is just not a part of our political DNA. Politicians, both retired and incumbent, social champions and academicians should come forth and accept apprentices under them, purely based on talent and merit. In a land of Gurukul culture, where the “Rajas” (kings) used to be mentored by the “Sanyasis” (saints) finding such a system from our heritage is quite possible.

The third key challenge is that of financials. While I completely support the cause of frugality and funding of political processes from voluntary and small donations from its ultimate stakeholder – the common man, we all must accept that in any case the process of creation of a politician leader is not dirt cheap. I recently came across a Ministry of Rural Development sponsored scheme where it runs a three year stipend based scheme of breeding of social worker for NGOs. This is an excellent model for emulating in the process of breeding politicians. Once the basic living expenses are taken care of in this way, they can focus on their core objective of understanding and solving the problems of nation and people. Similarly, institutions of excellence who support infusing talented in youth in politics should consider setting up incubation funds which can help the best and honest youth politicians through their campaigns.

My argument should not be mistaken as handing political positions at the altar of talent and making the process of politics driven by decorative resumes. Politics does require a fair share of getting the “feet wet”. The talented and interested youth should be put through a rigorous process of exploring and growing organically, starting from contesting positions at Panchayat level and state legislatures and then promoted their way up in the national arena.

Recently, I was attending a meeting of young CAT aspirants organized by a prominent coaching institute in Indore – talking about the career options as an MBA. I was amazed to see at least a dozen young passionate souls, who openly exhibited the desire to be a part of the serving and taking the reins of next generation of India, even better was the departure from the regular urban concerns and a deeper understanding of the common man in the last village of the nation. Before this fire is put off by desperation and frustration due to lack of opportunity, isn’t it time we act?

Congress Manifesto - Reheated Promises

 

 

 

The manifesto of the INC is a bag full of goodies making many promises for growth and inclusiveness. However, most of them are a repetition across years and parties.

 

 

What was most starkly glaring was the failure to envision a single concrete policy towards improving agricultural production. In fact, in terms of simple word count in the manifesto, there is four times more mentioning of its rival BJP than agriculture. In this way, this manifesto ignores the need to build economic incomes for almost 60% of the nation. This minimal focus on augmenting agricultural production also questions the feasibility of the promise of Food Security Act.

 

IN contrast, non-agriculture rural employment has received considerable focus. As expected the congress highlighted the achievement of its pioneer scheme NREGA.  While the mission was appreciable, the implementation guided it into a wall of failure with the utmost precision. Against the claims of the government, the ground reality has exposed NREGA to be filled with gaping flaws, often used a vehicle to siphon public money at all levels. The manifesto should have tackled this issue.  Moreover, the promise of above market rate wage of Rs. 100 per day would only distort the labor market thereby crippling the rural development through private initiatives. Moreover, NREGA has to take the poor to the next level - generating semi-skilled and intellectual labor.      

 

Once again a political party rides the roller coaster of Subsidy without safety belts. The existing PDS schemes, as per governments own admission is bleeding 2 of every 3 rupee allotted. In this context, the focus should be to ensure the last mile delivery of food to the common man using reforms in the existing schemes rather than pulling new rabbits out of the hat.

 

The Congress party has made huge promises regarding implementation of the recommendations of the two coveted bodies - the Administrative Reforms Committee (ARC) and the National Knowledge Commission (NKC). However, the party has very conveniently brushed under the carpet it's non-implementation of most of the ARC recommendations and exact opposite actions against the recommendations of the NKC. After all, the dissatisfaction of the chairman of NKC, the respectable Sam Pitroda, and his spats with the union HRD minister, Arjun Singh is still afresh in our collective memory.

 

The Congress promises to fund the National Skills Development Mission with Rs 30,000 crore, which is a welcome plan. However, there is no mention of possible ways to develop skills. This is even more worrisome given too many loose ends and the previous records of efficiency in implementing such behemoth projects. The decision to create so many IITs, IIMs, AIIMSs, and central universities is very lucrative for populist rhetoric; however, there is little recognition of the amount of resource promise made through these plans. Also, there is no consideration of the dilapidated condition of most of the existing universities and colleges across the nation. Perhaps, a promise to upgrade, update, and reform these institutions would have been more promising. 

The congress manifesto also promises reservation in different institutions for backward classes, women, and minorities. However this is more akin to using reservation as a populist short cut instead of pointed capability development, as there is no mention of promoting modern education and mainstreaming of marginalized segments of population.

 

Some new ideas have also come across. INC has shown an understanding of the need to tackle climatic changes, promote SMEs and take the information technology to remote areas. This is a good step towards taking the nation to the future and IT can be a great vehicle to deliver healthcare and education to the last man.


The GST is an appreciable initiative. A single flat tax across spectrum of goods and services would be the most efficient tax system, according to economics text books. However, it would be a good move to eliminate disparities of types and rates of taxes and implementing a unified tax regime, with least exceptions possible. 

The initiative of youth corps and reservation for youth into politics is the most refreshing idea and in-line with Congress' transformed vision. However, two things need to be ensured regarding its implementation. Firstly, it should not end up being a platform for the older politicians to catapult their children into governance. And secondly, the plan has to be attractive enough, to "poach" the best brains of IITs and IIMs from the corporate into nation building. The manifesto is silent on both. 

 http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1242669