Opinion Courting contest
Controvesy and the Padma awards have gone together for many years,we have done little to stem the erosion of prestige of Indias premier civilian honours.
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Controvesy and the Padma awards have gone together for many years,we have done little to stem the erosion of prestige of Indias premier civilian honours. I have long advocated an overhaul in the selection process,left to a secretive committee of officers whose vote decides 80 per cent of the final list. The remaining names are added based on ministerial or other recommendations and apparently,there are no background checks at least of those selected solely on recommendations. Cases of a Kashmiri shawl exporter winning a Padma Shri,or Olympic medalist Vijendra Singh losing out are then a natural consequence. While the numbers of Padma awardees have gone up substantially over the years,those who win these awards because of influential recommendations have little merit to show. It seems every Delhi-based doctor who has a VVIP patient ends up receiving a Padma award. On the other hand,some of the deserving candidates fail to receive the award because they do not understand the intricacies of networking with bureaucrats and ministers. Today,even the awardees seldom feel proud of earning it. In my opinion, no more than 30 Padma Shris,10 Padma Bhushans and 5 Padma Vibhushans should be conferred in any year. The PM can transparently nominate members of Padma awards selection committee,whose nominations would be forwarded to a group of ministers. A second alternative is to vest in the presidential secretariat with the complete powers to confer these awards. The secretariat has enough staff and time throughout the year to take nominations from various ministries and state governments,and then vet these nominations before preparing the final list and sending it to PMO for approval. This will enhance transparency.
Low commission
The unsavoury spat between Chief Election Commissioner Gopalaswamy and his deputy Navin Chawla comes as a sad blow to the prestige of this constitutional institution. How the CECs letter to the president about Navin Chawla was known to media even before it reached Rashtrapati Bhawan is a moot question. I dont hold any brief for Navin Chawla. Still,CEC Gopalaswamy has crossed all limits,labeling trivial charges upon Chawla of leaking information out to political parties from a toilet. Everyone knows that even if an end-decision is known to a political party,it cannot prevent autonomous functioning of the election commission. On the other hand,fingers are now pointing to Gopalaswamy for the decision to advance HP elections,which seemed to have benefited BJP. Similarly, Karnataka elections were declared even before voter lists were finalised. Various phases of J&K elections were scheduled deliberately to help BJP in the Jammu region. There are accusations that as ex-member of the delimitation commission in Gujarat,Gopalaswamy routinely attended all meetings and helped BJP secure many seats. Gopalaswamy was home secretary during the Gujarat riots and the NDA subsequently appointed him election commissioner.
Funds crunchers
I believe it is high time that chairmen of all public sector banks take a stand and pull up the bureaucratic machinery below them. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had initiated some bold economic steps in the last two months. Reserve Bank had reduced PLR and CRR to leave more money with the banks,which could be lent to people and companies to kick start economic activity and boost demand. Under normal circumstances,these steps would have flooded the market with liquidity. The unlikely obstruction has come from junior officers of banks; who refuse to shed their archaic,anti-lending mindset. There are cases when even the chairmans directive could not move the machinery below him and disbursal of funds has been held up for months. Clearly,it is time for the chairmen to wield a stick.
The writer is a Congress MP in Rajya Sabha
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