NDA Mocks Parliament

Mini-budget and after By Praful Bidwai If the National Democratic Alliance wanted to deliver an insulting parting kick to the 13th Lok Sabha, it could not have discovered a better means than presenting the "interim Budget" on February 3.

This came on top of a three weeks-long multi-instalment cascade of tax breaks and announcements of arbitrary new schemes and other concessions, besides a Railway budget and new export-import rules.

The whole exercise, which involves a drain of Rs.

20,000 crores-plus on the public exchequer, was highly improper and violative of all conventions of democracy.

It reflected blatant partisanship with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha elections.

In Parliamentary government, the Budget is not an exercise merely in balancing books and changing tax rates or in announcing new schemes of incentives and disincentives.

The Budget is the sole democratic means of giving the government a mandate to spend public money.

Without a Budget approved by Parliament, the government has no democratic sanction and hence no business to incur any financial expenditure.

That's why Cabinets which exit Parliament close to the end of a fiscal year go in for a vote-on-account, a provisional mandate to tide them over till a proper Budget can be presented and passed.

Time-honoured conventions say the vote-on-account must not involve changing tax rates.

Parliament approves the vote quickly, without division--unlike with the Budget proper, where there is detailed, elaborate debate on its general character and specific provisions, followed by further debate and votes on the demands for grants and the passing of the appropriations and finance Bills.

The NDA's "interim Budget" short-circuited this process by effecting changes in tax rates, subsidies, salary structures, interest rates, allowances--the lot.

Mr Jaswant Singh even announced his intention to raise the income-tax exemption limit.

His new schemes relate to a wide range of subjects, including defence procurement, shipping, agricultural credit and cooperative banks.

He violated Parliament's dignity when he presented all these measures knowing fully well that they could never be debated and approved by this Lok Sabha or by the next one! This Lok Sabha will be dissolved in disgrace, without even the mandatory address of the President to both Houses of Parliament at the beginning of the calendar year.

If Parliamentary conventions are violated so casually even in "normal" times, nothing will stop the NDA from breaking more serious rules during "crises".

Mr Singh's interim Budget will further weaken India's already fragile macro-economic balances, which the Reserve Bank has just warned, are under extreme strain.

The government is living beyond its means; the quality of its fiscal deficit has worsened.

The revenue deficit now accounts for 82 percent of the gross fiscal deficit, compared to about a third a decade ago.

The government is spending about half its total tax revenue on interest payments alone, which leaves little for public services and capital spending.

In a period when private investment has to be stimulated out of stagnation through public capital expenditure, India has seen a decline in it.

Thus, in the current year, expenditure by various Ministries fell short of the target: by 17 percent in Women & Child Development, 14 percent in Communications, 3 percent in Agriculture, 6 percent in Health, 28 percent in Coal and Mines, 18 percent in Power, 41 in Steel, and 17 percent in Science and Technology.

This will slow down current and future economic growth.

Yet, Mr Singh blithely announced all kinds of concessions, including continued capital gains-tax exemption for stockmarket investors, big salary increases for the bureaucracy, and higher baggage allowance for returning passengers from abroad.

His key assumption was that the fiscal deficit for this year has fallen below the budgeted 5.6 percent of GDP to 4.8.

But this is based on jugglery with figures.

The Centre offered debt-swaps to the states.

While accounting, Mr Singh took credit for the income, but did not show the outgoings! There were also one-off measures like squeezing huge dividends from public oil companies.

These don't indicate fiscal stabilisation.

Mr Singh is leaving a burden for future governments.

Unethical as that is, it may not bring in votes, particularly those of farmers, who have been in acute distress for the past five years.

Mr Singh's concessions are directed mainly at the elite.

It's a safe bet that the promised cheap credit won't reach most farmers; there are no mechanisms for such delivery.

Nor will the Antyodaya Anna Yojna replace the now-crippled Food Distribution System in this food-insecure country.

The plebeian layers aren't about to change their view of the BJP as a pro-rich "Brahmin-Bania" party which isn't compassionate to their concerns, as opposed to those of semi-criminalised business conglomerates amassing fortunes through real estate, telecom, aviation and petroleum/gas.

The NDA has treated the outgoing Lok Sabha with utter disdain.

The House witnessed several developments of national and international importance.

The Kargil war immediately preceded its formation.

Soon after came the "coffin scam" and the Tehelka expose.

In the background hung the stockmarket scam and Unit Trust of India's meltdown, which wiped out the savings of over 50 million people.

Then came the Gujarat carnage.

After that came the world's greatest military mobilisation since World War-II when 10 lakh troops confronted each other for 10 months at the border.

The 13th Lok Sabha's life also coincided with a serious agrarian crisis and the suicides of 2,000 farmers.

All these issues deserved to be fully debated in Parliament with openness and honesty.

But the NDA stonewalled all debate.

The Treasury Benches mindlessly resisted the Opposition's wholly reasonable demand for a Parliamentary committee investigation.

The Gujarat carnage was a national shame; indeed, it was crime against humanity worthy of international judicial trial.

Refusal to investigate Gujarat through a Joint Parliamentary Committee will do down as one of the most despicable acts of the NDA, compounding the BJP's complicity in the genocidal crime.

As thousands of citizens were being killed and raped in Gujarat, the government refused to adjourn Parliament--because the Budget was being presented! The Kargil intrusion and war--in which more Indian soldiers died than during the 1962 China war--were treated in the same way.

No JPC was constituted.

Instead, the government set up the K.

Subrahmanyam committee which did a whitewash job.

Ultimately, the 13th Lok Sabha set up only two JPCs--on the stockmarket scam and on pesticide residues in bottled drinks.

The second has just submitted its report.

One honestly hopes it doesn't meet the same fate as the first JPC's.

That report was unanimous.

It indicted the Finance Ministry on 52 counts for its failure to exercise caution and control.

The government's Action Taken Report at best has shabby, insubstantial answers to the charges.

Mr Yashwant Sinha took no responsibility for the scandal.

He should have been sacked for ruining thousands of households because of his Ministry's failures.

Instead, he was shifted to the Foreign Ministry! This story is of a piece with the NDA's lack of respect for Parliament and for core democratic values.

Take its abuse of the mechanism of a joint session of Parliament.

When there are differences between the two Houses on a particular issue, such a session can debate and reconcile them in a democratic spirit.

Its rationale is not to somehow manufacture a majority to push through a legislation.

The NDA bulldozed Parliament into a joint session just to pass the Prevention of Terrorism Bill.

POTA was being rightly opposed by a majority of parties--and by the thinking public.

But super-hawkish NDA elements like bogus "Iron Man" L.K.

Advani were keen to ram POTA down the public's throats.

It is another matter that Parliament had to amend the Act because some sections of dubious legality led to the prolonged detention of an NDA ally--the MDMK's G.

Equally cynical has been the NDA's brazen abuse of over Rs.

450 crores of public funds for the "India Shining" campaign, now extended to Ministries, which have been forced to buy loads of lurid advertisements.

The expense is half of what the 1999 national elections cost! It includes Rs.

67 crores on books and booklets extolling the achievements of the Vajpayee government.

Such partisanship is utterly condemnable.

The new Chief Election Commissioner has criticised the NDA for this.

But Mr Vajpayee says the campaign will continue till the poll schedule is announced.

Cynicism and deviousness are a contagion in the NDA's leading party.

The BJP comes from the viciously sectarian, viscerally communal and profoundly undemocratic Hindutva tradition.

It distrusts open debate.

The NDA has shown little respect for statutory authorities like the President--it launched vicious propaganda against Mr K.R.

Narayanan in 1999--, the Comptroller and Auditor General, the Election Commission and the National Human Rights Commission.

It introduces strife and contention where cooperation is needed.

The NDA tried to bypass Parliament on the HPCL-BPCL sell-off--until it was restrained by the Supreme Court.

If it could rule by ordinances alone, it would, as happened with the Prasar Bharati Act amendment.

The NDA has degraded Indian democracy.

One only hopes the public does not have to suffer the NDA for another spell.

The electorate should send it packing.

Women in top gear By Sreedevi Jacob Thrissur, the cultural hub of Kerala, situated about 300 km away from the state capital Thiruvananthapuram, appears an unlikely place for a women's transport movement.

But it is in Thrissur that the Women's Transport Cooperative Society (WTCS), India's first all-women transport company, was launched in 1999.

Vaisalakshi, a woman sarpanchayat (village council chief) in Thrissur, conceptualised WTCS in 1998.

Initially, no one believed in this dream.

Many dismissed the idea as a publicity gimmick.

But with a development grant of Rs 250,000 ($US1=Rs 46), the panchayat launched WTCS.

The panchayat was also encouraged at that time by the Left Democratic Front government, which insisted that 10 per cent of the development funds allocated to local bodies be used for women's development programmes.

As part of the People's Planning Programme (PPP), the panchayat decided to support a transport society which would prepare excellent women drivers (of both private and passenger vehicles), conductors, and run buses on its own.

The panchayat wanted women to excel in a male-dominated profession.

Most of the first grant went in buying two buses.

The panchayat was soon flooded with requests to train women.

"There was no point in asking women to come with their licences and start working.

We decided to first train our staff," says K G Satidevi, Secretary of WTCS.

The first batch was sent to the nearby Priyadarsini Transport Society for training.

"It was difficult for women initially.

It took about six months for them to be efficient enough to handle passenger vehicles.

But once they learnt, there was no looking back," she remembers.

The society met the daily expenses of the women when they were undergoing training and thus ensured that there were no distractions.

"Women are prone to think about difficulties at home even while working.

We told them that this new skill demanded utmost caution and concentration.

We gave them food, bore the fuel expenses for the hired vehicles and employed vehicle inspectors from outside to give the women a real feel of working in a transport company," explains Satidevi.

In the last four years, WTCS has trained scores of women, many of whom were later selected by other transport companies, including the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation.

WTCS also runs a driving school that trains drivers for two, three and four- wheeled vehicles.

"We have to hire more buses to train women drivers," Satidevi reveals.

Although no educational qualifications are required for the driving school, Class 10 graduates are preferred.

WTCS's two buses operate on the Thrissur-Kodungalloor and Thrissur-Tiruvilyamala route between 6 am and 7 pm.

The buses run under the company name Vanitha (Malayalam for 'woman') Transport Buses.

A woman driver gets about Rs 350 per day and a conductor Rs 250, similar to what men earn in other companies.

Both the driver and conductor are dressed in khaki-coloured salwar-kameez and a cotton coat.

The women were not comfortable with the idea of wearing trousers for work.

Like their male counterparts, the women call out the destinations from the bus stand and help passengers in.

But the four-year journey has not been easy for WTCS.

"People were hesitant to use our services initially," recalls Shaija Vasudevan, a driver with WTCS.

"Surprisingly, it was men who encouraged us.

Women were scared we were not experienced and would not drive safely.

But male passengers boarded our vehicles right from day one." The women also had to compete with male drivers and conductors for routes and timings.

Despite the initial hiccups, the journey in such buses has been an inspiring experience for some women passengers.

Rosamma, a schoolteacher who rides the all-women buses regularly, says she feels one with the driver.

"I don't even know how to cycle.

When these women drive I feel they are proving a point." Says Satidevi, "Earlier, people used to stare at us when we drove past them, some would even snigger and pass comments.

But now all that has stopped." "We have buses, three-wheelers and cars.

And as much as possible, we want women as drivers," insists M K Subramanian, the panchayat head.

Satidevi admits most women prefer to train as conductors.

"If one woman driver falls sick (there are three of them) we often have to hire men.

But we have never had to employ male conductors to run our buses." The panchayat now plans to increase its fleet and would prefer to buy more mini buses because of the tax concessions they offer.

So far, WTCS has been running on a no-profit-no-loss basis.

"We are happy about what we are doing.

We don't make big profits, but nor do we owe loans to any bank.

Making profits has never been on our agenda.

What we wanted to achieve was freedom to do what women want, that too fearlessly.

The fact that we are operating with the same zest even after four years, proves we didn't aim too high," Satidevi sums up.

--WFS Raining memories!!! By Sabeen Beg Wani Pittar pattar...pittar patter...and the rain continues...bringing with it floods of memories.

Hey there I am...sleeping and the alarm bell ringing...time to get up for the school.

Oh lord how much I would like to skip the day and enjoy the luxury of sleep in my bed.

But alas there is no respite and dad comes to make sure that I don't fall to this "falling" temptation.

Matching the "heaviness" with the downpour outside my "heart" excepts this parental verdict! But they got to understand it is raining and it demands breaking the rut-offers my rebellious heart.

I mean that is what the rain is all about...breaking the celestial monotony.

Pittar patter...pittar patter...

school anyway used to be fun during rains.

After all teachers are human too and they are susceptible to fall to the wet spirit allowing certain relaxation (breaking the monotony again).

Games period used to be the best part when we used to be execused from the rigorous drill and were given the liberty to sing and dance in our classrooms and my...happy spirits around used to spark off the creativity in one and all.

So many happy and singing faces under one roof!!! Pittar patter...pittar patter...The day gets drifted to my college days when we could afford the luxury of sleeping over college...after all we were in control of our lives then.

But going to the college on a rainy day had become an inviting preposition.

Well it provided us with a greater stimulus to enjoy our gossiping sessions.

Rains could never dampen our spirits...bunking classes used to be the natural course of action and mind you teachers were compassionate enough to grant us this privilege! Pittar patter...pittar patter...Singing this hymn rain drops take me to my university days when rains gave us an impetus to organize dance parties and what fun we used to have dancing away the rainy blues!!! Pittar patter...pittar patter...the day I got married it rained announcing my transition in life and wishing me luck in the shape of beautiful rain pearls.

Pittar patter...pittar patter...and the rain continues refusing to throw a wet blanket on my wonderful memories and promising new horizons ahead! About us | Advertise | Other Publications | Subscriptions | Weather | Letters | Send Mail Disclaimer: Information is being made available at this site purely as a measure of public facilitation.

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