Indian Armed Forces vs. Human Rights

Canada's denial to visa to some of Indian Armed Force personals lately on ground of violation of human rights has given a serious point for discussion to all Indians that do our security forces really respect human rights?

Indian security forces have a huge tainted history as far as respecting human rights & dignity of individuals are concerned. Since Indian forces have not shown any independent will/policies from central government unlike their counterparts in neighbouring countries, so whatever stains are there on uniform are actually owed to policies of political system. However forces couldn’t run from the role they played.

The violence against tribals on name of fighting Maoist terror, numerous instances of fraudulent encounters, suppression of people in Kashmir valley on name of fight against terror, misuse of Armed Forces Special Power Act in North East are only few of the recent examples of atrocities of armed machinery.

No doubt they are doing the thankless job of protecting Indian borders from hostile neighbours, maintaining integrity of nation, fighting terror, safeguarding the interest of nation & its citizens and so on.

But all these services don't give them status above International charter of human rights of common citizens and above the fundamental rights defined in our very own Indian constitution. Though it is their responsibility to maintain a clean image while doing their duty as even a single slur on their collar not only tarnish their image but also severely damage the very democratic, liberal & socialist spirit of Indian state, beyond any repair.

Turmoil in Air India – A National Carrier?

Air India, whether national carrier or not, but is a symbol of Indian Economy & our policy of middle path with combination of government & private investments working alongside and compliment to each other. India is a socialist nation as per the preamble of our constitution. So we are neither capitalist nor communist but follow a middle economic approach a genuine mixture of two ingredients in right proportions.

As much as the private airlines are necessary for our kind of economy, so much the government one(s) to control business malpractices and economical monopoly. They are also necessary so that government, through them implement their people centric policies.

However we don’t need a government carrier which keeps on functioning like typical government department of a third world country (!) We need that its management, functionality, services and handling of issues should be at par with any top rated private limited.

If common taxpayers are investors, representing in form of govt, they need returns from their investment like anyone else want from his portfolio. We couldn’t blindly bear the losses for infinite period. In that case there is only resort of scrapping the Non Performing Assets.

But first we need to give this identity a chance to implement certain measure to control the leakage. As a very first step, AI needs to monitor its expenditures. Financial transparency should have to be established in all form of dealing from fuel to maintenance or new purchase to talent upgradation.

As a very necessary step, all kind of free soaps to Politicos & Bureaucrats need to be stopped at once. Since there is market listing of company too, no government representative has any right to claim benefit (atleast visible ones) from it. Though it is hard & harsh step for government but it has to be taken to save the identity itself.

Then there should be a genuine rating system for all Management & Employees based upon the performance. Base upon this rating salary and job rationalization should be there. It should have to respect the talent and brought it forward to provide leadership.

In the end, though we can’t deny the right of union/association to employees but strike shouldn’t be the way to represent you grievances or protest. There might be hundreds of reasons for disagreement between management & employees but why a common passenger (a taxpayer) would have suffer (who is investor too) for differences between these two parties?

If Air India is national carrier then it has to bear the burden of national duty in addition to maintaining the proper functioning as an enterprise. The resort of ESMA as last option can be & should have to be used to control this kind of disfunctioning to save the interests of common man in such fiascos.

Breach of our Privacy – Are we aware?

While its been in news - Germany lashes out at Google for privacy breach - Are we Indians concerned about privacy breach of individuals in India by government or corporate. Our privacy is being breached daily in India from our call being prone to tap by service providers or agencies without any reasons, internet usage being under surveillance, monitoring bank transactions, our credit card payment histories & phone payment records by centralized systems, search engine data being under analysis, and many or other ways including records of even our pizza purchased are analysed closely by vendors.

These days when we are so much excited about UID projects we have to look about its drawbacks also. There would be a centralized system available with government with almost all details an identity can have including biometrics.

While there would be numerous benefits from such a gigantic database, this information would be available at hands of ruling class involving democratically elected politicians or undemocratic government agencies and would be prone to misuse on large scale.

India needs strong privacy laws while we proceed with UID project to protect the individuality, privacy and dignity of its citizens.

Manglore Tragedy – We Need CALA

Manglore tragedy reminded us about the need of civil accidental liability both financial as well in terms of fixation of responsibility in such scenarios. We are talking about of becoming a superpower while we are still unable to secure the lives of our citizens as well fixing ownerships. We have a huge discussion inside/outside parliament about Nuclear Liability Bill but current need is Civil Accidental Liability Act. We need CALA as a 3 teethed act, one fixing the responsibility, second fast & rigorous judicial punishments for responsible persons & third early compensation to victims/families.

Compensation in such cases should be linked with living cost, dependents, earning potential for lifetime as well liabilities of deceased/survivor in addition to a threshold fixed amount. We do require early closure of compensation procedures without any involvement of middlemen. Direct transaction to bank account with least possible procedures would only help the cause. We need to close the need of government generosity depended upon each and every situation. Law should itself fix financial responsibilities and the payer.

Fast track courts like Qasab's trial are required. We need to learn that there is no difference between the responsible ones for loss of life in such cases and a terrorist killing people ruthlessly. Law of land should be strong enough to punish the people behind the scenes for such losses.

We don't need dramatic sequences like leaders’ visiting of sites, ministers giving resignation while taking moral responsibility, ready-made rejections of these resignations, announcement of meagre compensation like doing some favour, relatives running one corner to another & paying bribes after that to get that meagre amount and again moving on with continuous repetition of such instances.

Civil Society needs to raise voice for CALA in very strong way. We need to force government to get the CALA tabled and passed as Law, via every possible route involving sending memorandums, media support, RTI, PILs or whatever way we can.