RC Rajamani

Dangerous precedent    If Anna Hazare hogged most headlines in 2011, blame it on government's sloth in coming to grips with the issue of corruption for close to half a century. Mind you, the first Lokpal Bill was introduced in 1968 when many of today's MPs may not have been born. While one has no quarrel with the need for such an institution to probe graft and punish the guilty the way the government succumbed to pressure from Team Anna bristles with ominous portents for future. Why the unholy hurry over passing such a far reaching legislation that truly

warranted serious debate? One wonders if there was any sincerity at all on the part of the government as it appeared anxious to somehow tide over a crisis situation rather than being serious about combating corruption.

   No doubt corruption must be tackled with no more delay. Nevertheless, there is no doubt the country has a host of other issues affecting the life of the common man and these are crying to be examined and solved. Poor health care, poor education

and tardy redress process are some such issues. BJP veteran LK Aavani has often described Dr Manmohan Singh as a weak prime minister. But in truth Dr Singh is heading a weak government. Not all the might of a democratically elected government was enough to stand firm before one Anna Hazare. Any government worth its salt should have had the courage to tell him that he better leave legislation to the government. The fact that this UPA-2 dispensation could not do it is proof enough that it is not just weak but morally weak. Government has set a dangerous precedent. One wonders if the government may not have to contend with more Annas in future.

Anna Hazare and Manmohan Singh

         The killing flames at Kolkatta's AMRI hospital last month turned the 'city of joy' into a 'city of sorrow.' Close to 100 people perished in the inferno. Many victims were patients in sleep — in critical-care and orthopaedic units. Some of the patients were rescued.

   An inquiry is on to go into the cause of the fire. The government has formed a high-level committee, with representatives from police, fire brigade, Kolkata Municipal Corporation and health department. It was said that the death toll rose because the fire brigade had difficulty in entering the hospital premises as the approach roads were narrow. If the hospital had proper fire fighting arrangements, the scale of the disaster would have been much less. It was stated that the basement which caught fire was supposed to be for car parking. But the hospital authorities apparently stored combustible articles there.

AMRI hospital

In the wake of the tragedy, the National Disaster Management Authority has decided to prepare guidelines for hospital safety to deal with on-site emergencies. The NDMA already has guidelines for medical preparedness and mass casualty management but it deals with the preparedness of hospitals to deal with disasters outside it. For emergencies within the hospital, there are no guidelines and this is what the NDMA wants to create now. These guidelines will apply to both government and private sector hospitals. A meeting convened by NDMA after the disaster was attended by representatives from WHO, UN agencies, AIIMS, Health Ministry, Armed Forces Medical Services, corporate hospitals, Delhi Fire

Service, experts IITs and NGOs. The NDMA has formed a core group of experts to identify gaps and look at international best practices. It will also recommend steps for better monitoring and supervision of all safety measures in hospitals.

   AMRI was truly a wakeup call for all hospitals around the country.

         December 19 was the Golden Jubilee of Goa's Liberation. On that day 50 years ago Goa was freed from 451 years of Portuguese rule by the Indian army. The army's Operation Vijay met with little resistance from the small Portuguese force and the last 'imperial pimple' on the face of India was removed.

   A news item of the day in The Hindu noted: "As the Indian forces advanced, the Portuguese offered almost no resistance and abandoned their positions even before being attacked. The Defence Minister, Mr. V.K. Krishna Menon, has designated Major-

Gen. Kenneth Candeth, commanding the 17th Division of the Indian Army in the Goa operations, as the Military Governor of Goa. Early in the morning, Indian Air Force units bombed and damaged the runway of the Panjim airstrip."    It also quoted Prime Minister Nehru as saying: “It was no pleasure to us to take action. But the Portuguese left us no choice. I hope this will be over soon, and the people in Goa will settle down to a peaceful and free life.” Mr. Nehru said: “As we have always stated, we want to maintain the individuality and personality of Goa so that they can live their life according to their own ways. Even though we had to take action against the Portuguese in Goa, we do not wish to nourish any ill-will against them. I hope that in Angola also the Portuguese Government will realise that old colonialism cannot continue.

                  Lok Sabha Speaker Mrs Meira Kumar unveiled the portrait of Goa's freedom movement leader Dr. Tristao De Braganca Cunha in the Central of Parliament House as part of the celebrations.

   Goa Sadan at New Delhi also celebrated the event. The staff of Goa Sadan and Goa Niwas jointly got up the festivities. Former Goa chief minister and current Lok Sabha member and chairman of Estimates Committee Francisco Sardinha, Shantaram Naik, Rajya Sabha MP and Shirpad Naik, Lok Sabha MP from Goa joined in the celebrations that featured a cultural programme, Goan music and lunch. Mr Sardinha, whose enthusiasm was infective, almost forcibly took a couple of journalists, including this writer; he met in the Central Hall of Parliament, to the celebrations. Sardinha, a teenager at the time of Goa's liberation, is today a proud free Goan. And why not? For, Goa today enjoys the highest per capita income in India, very high literacy and growth in tourism, industrial and services sector

         The UPA-2 may be slow on many fronts that demand quick action. However, where its interests are directly concerned, it acts with unsuspected alacrity. An instance of this was the induction of Ajit Singh into the Cabinet. The chief of the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) has perfected the art of easily partnering with parties across the political spectrum – from the right to left of centre like the BJP and Congress to social justice party Samajwadi. He joined the union cabinet on December 18 and got the high profile civil aviation ministry.

   Despite a heavy political agenda staring in its face in the midst of a highly volatile parliament session, the Congress-led government found time to hurriedly arrange for Mr Singh's swearing in ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhavan barely hours after the return of prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh from his Moscow visit. The 72-year old son of former Prime Minister Charan Singh had joined the UPA recently in a move linked to the forthcoming elections to the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly. The RLD

Ajit Singh

contested the 2009 Lok Sabha battle in alliance with the BJP, Ajit Singh was a cabinet minister in the Congress government of PV Narasimha Rao during 1991-96.    The ceremony with its customary trappings was got up exclusively for the solitary minister, perhaps a rare occurrence that coincided with the coldest morning this winter. President Pratibha Patil, another septuagenarian, administered the oath in the presence if still recouping Congress President Sonia Gandhi and the 79-year old prime minister. Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who played a key role in bringing the RLD into the UPA, was also present on the occasion.

         France may have lost out to Britain in the war to establish its rule in India centuries ago. But the French obsession with India, its people, its history, language, literature art and culture is truly magnificent. French writers have written volumes on these subjects. In modern times, who would not have heard of Dominique Lapierre, the co-author of Freedom at Midnight along with American, the late Larry Collins?

   Another instance of French obsession with India came in the capital last month with the release of “India since 1950”, edited by Prof Christophe Jaffrelot. The venue was the residence of Mr François Richier, Ambassador of France to India. The function was organized by Institut Français en Inde, Sciences Po and Yatra Books.

   The release was followed by a group discussion. It had participation from Prof N. Kamala, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Mr Vishvajit P. Singh, former Member of Parliament, Prof Christophe Jaffrelot, the author and French Political scientist, Mr Gilles Verniers, Sciences Po representative to India, Dr Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, former MoS for External Affairs and Mr Prem Shankar Jha, Political analyst and former Media Advisor to the Prime Minister of India.

The book focuses on the many tantalizing and scintillating features that also reveal many contradictions about a country of one billion plus. It captures the mood of a nation from the first flush of enthusiasm in the wake of freedom to its current status as a potential super power in the making. It speaks about how "India has recently asserted itself on the international scene, strengthened by its economic reforms, its newly acquired status as a nuclear power and by virtue of its cultural dynamism best represented by its literature and cinema.

   "India since 1950 tracks the dynamic trajectory of contemporary India as much on the political, diplomatic, economic as on the social and artistic fronts. It is impossible to understand India as a separate entity from its cultural diversity. Hence cultural overtures underpin all aspects of the book, which gives an insight into India in all its complexity."