28 Monday, December 26, 2005 SPIN DOCTOR FOR CIVIL SOCIETY The Times of India, New Delhi

Questions That Are Not Asked

A THOUGHT FOR TODAY CONVERSATIONS WITH READERS
We had no choice but to act to protect the integrity Jester Forever
of this citadel of our democratic way of life.
This refers to ‘Lalu’s Theory: MNCs
MANMOHAN SINGH behind RJD defeat’ (Dec 18). So he
Parliamentarians silent At this point, Rajya Sabha chairman 12.39% of the House. The presence of has again succeeded in making

Regaining Trust on systemic crisis

Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said there was no
need to respond to Suri’s query.
Singh’s response must have caught the
member off-guard. Only a couple of months
Parliament expels 11 MPs By LAKSHMI IYER earlier — in December 2002 — the Treasury
benches had quietly encouraged Suri to laud
for accepting bribe The debate in Parliament over the cash- the NDA government’s disinvestment policy
for-query scam has chosen to skirt the crucial as part of his maiden speech in the House.
some very high-profile captains of industry
as members has perhaps made the Parliament
take a lenient view on the conflict of
interest question.
foolish statements. In his 15-year
regime, Lalu has pushed Bihar 30
years back. Lalu will be renowned
for his contribution to Bihar and
Corporate czars are attached to consulta- the list includes lack of infrastruc-
tive committees of the ministries of their ture and also its sheer neglect,
choice, attachments that enable them to besides, of course, criminalisation
access information about government

W
E welcome the Parliament’s decision to expel
the 11 MPs who were filmed while accepting
money to raise questions in the House. They
betrayed the trust of the voters when they
agreed to encash a parliamentary privilege. They have lost
the moral right to represent the people who elected them.
However, it is painful to see that a consensus has eluded the
political class on the issue. When the scam first played
out on TV screens, everyone agreed that the dignity of
Parliament has been lowered and exemplary punishment
should be meted out to the corrupt MPs. This positive
response was too good to last. First, the BJP representative
in the House panel set up to investigate the scam raised
procedural issues to oppose the suggestion to expel the MPs.
On Friday, the party staged a walkout from Parliament
when the expulsion motion was put to vote. Worse, party
leader L K Advani pleaded for the MPs, six of them from the
BJP, and argued that the cash-for-question incident was not
a case of corruption but mere stupidity on the part of the
MPs. For a party that once sought to exploit public anger at
corruption in high places as a political issue, Advani’s
stance is bad ethically and tactically. Perhaps rattled by the
quick response from the House and the precedent it sets,
many MPs, cutting across party lines, are raising caste and
class bogeys to subvert a debate on ethics in politics. They
should realise that corruption has no class or caste bias.
The House had done well not to heed the demand that the
issue be decided in courts. If the primacy and independence
of the legislature is to be maintained, the Parliament should
show the courage to discipline its errant members. The
expulsions on Friday indicate that the House is worthy of
the trust of the people. The debate should not end here. The
misuse of question hour and other parliamentary
privileges go beyond the 11 MPs who have been exposed and
punished. That is the reason why the tainted men complain
that they are victims. Victims they are not, but their
complaint is genuine. It is in the best interests of our
democracy that institutional checks are put in place to
curtail abuse of legislative powers and privileges. Public
trust is central to the survival of democratic institutions.
Political parties should take the lead in building that trust.
issue of how House questions — 250 of which
are asked in a day — are generated. MPs have
overlooked two issues which lie at the core of
the decay of Parliament as an institution:
The manner in which questions are raised
and the vested interest of the
MPs involved. Their response to
the expulsion of the 11 tainted
MPs exposes their cynicism:
What purpose would the move
serve, when norms have been
completely subverted, they
argue. Will they do anything to
clean up the mess?
In 2003, there was a mild
flutter in the Rajya Sabha dur-
ing Question Hour. No, it was
not over a sting operation or
some spy camera that had been
at work. The matter was over
what otherwise seemed like
an innocuous supplementary
question put by independent
member (Uttar Pradesh) Lalit
Suri. A prominent Delhi-based
hotelier, Suri wanted to know
from then finance minister
Jaswant Singh if there was a proposal from
the Centre to direct the states to impose a
uniform luxury tax on the hotel industry.
Instead of giving a reply right away, Singh
embarked on educating Suri, then a newly-
elected member, on how to conduct himself
inside the House. “The convention of the
House is, where there is a conflict of interest,
the honourable member shall not, on that
particular subject, make an inquiry inside the
House. As the honourable member knows it,
he is a prominent hotelier, I would say there-
fore that a question relating to the industry
would under normal circumstances fall in the
category of conflict of interest. However, now
that the honourable member has asked it I
shall endeavour to respond to it”.
The chair allowed him to share his personal
experience; he had then just acquired a
public sector hotel in Bangalore. It bothered
no one, except provoking some protests from
the Left benches.
The Parliament has not been consistent in
dealing with issues of propriety and conflict of
interest. Both the Houses have an Ethics Com-
mittee and a Code of Conduct, but it is only the
Rajya Sabha that has institutionalised its
Ethics Committee. A year ago, it made the
committee part of its Rules of Procedure. The
changing occupational profile of the members
is also believed to be contributing to systemic
inconsistencies in the institution.
According to a 2002 Rajya Sabha study, after
political and social workers and lawyers,
businessmen/industrialists constitute the
third largest group in the House. In 1952, 28
members were in business and industry,
comprising 13.14% of the members and in
2002 the number went up to 30 constituting
decisions in their business area.
The network of question brokers, who prey
upon first-term MPs to co-opt them into their
system, does not operate in isolation. It pro-
vides that vital link between the commercial
interest groups, the Parliament
secretariat staff and officials in
various ministries. The MP is the
only visible last link in whose
name the question is finally
raised in the Parliament.
When the cash-for-query scam
hit the headlines, most MPs were
more embarrassed than shocked.
According to Trinamul Congress
MP (Rajya Sabha) Dinesh Trive-
di, “What we have seen thanks to
the media has been going on for
years. It is a well entrenched
system. Don’t tell me Presiding
Officers do not know about it”.
The proof of complicity of the
entire secretariat is that only a
few MPs are allowed to ask ques-
tions and even put supplemen-
taries. “If your question has to be
listed in the starred question cat-
egory — that is, come up for oral answers —
the kind of effort you have to make in the Par-
liament secretariat is amazing. I have stopped
asking questions because of this. The drawing
of lots for questions is all eyewash. When I
was in the Rajya Sabha I had even tried to
raise the issue on the floor of the House”, says
Kolkata North-East MP Mohammed Salim.
A handful of MPs, however, do not have
problems with expulsion of the tainted.
However, as former Lok Sabha secretary-
general Subhash Kashyap says, “Punitive
action against erring MPs may not help the
Parliament rid it of its deep-rooted malaise. It
needs path-breaking parliamentary reforms to
put the House in order. The Presiding Officers
only have to will it”.
of politics, kidnappings and mur-
ders. People’s woes are many:
irregular or non-existent electricity
supply and unemployment. Laluji,
please stop fooling the people. Let
the state grow a bit now.
—Ajay Kumar, Ahmedabad
From timesofindia.com
No Crutches
The reservation of seats for
minorities in institutions is the
most retrograde decision taken
by our political masters which
our poor brothers are bearing,
without knowing the implica-
tions, for the last five decades.
Their will to succeed in life has
been snatched and crutches are
handed over.
Devendra Kumar
Name That MP
The news of the sting operation
‘Operation Duryodhan’ regarding
‘Money for Question’ involving 11
MPs was a front-page story for most
newspapers. So Operation Cobra.com
clarified on the television that ano-
ther MP was approached, but he had
refused to take money. Why was the
name of that MP not disclosed? Or
is no one interested? The one who
refused to take money sets a good
example and should be hailed. Are we
interested only in negative stories?
—Ashish Asthavadi, via e-mail
Letters to this column should be addressed to Letters c/o
Edit page Editor, The Times of India, 7, Bahadur Shah Zafar
Marg, New Delhi-110002. email:edit@timesgroup.com

Fraud Science
South Korean cloning “expert”
found faking results
prestigious journal Science called his work
T HE
“path-breaking” and published him twice in March 2004
and June 2005. Time magazine featured his work on the
cover in November. The New York Times commented that
some observers hailed his breakthroughs as worthy of a
Nobel prize. But over the weekend Hwang Woo Suk, hyped as
a hero in South Korea for his dazzling work in stem cell
research and cloning, discovered his new-found inter-
national reputation in tatters. The reason: He had been
faking his data all along while taking the whole scientific
world for a huge ride. The downfall began on the low note of
an ethical lapse when Suk admitted his lab had accepted
human egg donations from two of its own researchers. This
was followed by the far more serious allegation from a
colleague that he had fabricated some of his key research re-
sults. Suk retorted by saying his remaining work would ulti-
mately exonerate him. But, alas, on Friday a Seoul National
University investigative panel declared he had intentionally
fabricated all the relevant data. With that ended — at least
temporarily — the dramatic idea of harvesting stem cells by
cloning the DNA of sick people, so they could turn the cells
into tissue that genetically matches a patient, without
recourse to anti-rejection drugs used in organ transplants.
So how did one fraudster manage to fool everybody in the
scientific community, including thousands of researchers
in the same field doing work along similar lines? The
answer is, increasingly competitive, cutting-edge and
non-country-specific research being conducted all over has
resulted in such an explosion of scientific projects that
the mechanism of policing them has become increasingly
problematic. Typically, there should be a safety net of peer
reviews and a referee system for publishing new work and
a process of independent replication by outside scientists
to validate the actual data. This, however, exists only in a
handful of countries and is either non-existent or toothless
in others. Consequently, unchecked, exaggerated or
patently false claims often find an easy entry into
prestigious publications. Unless inflexible quality control
safeguards are introduced immediately and strictly
enforced at all international levels, we can only expect more
fraudulent papers such as Woo Suk’s to continue to stain the
reputation and integrity of the whole field.
The party will survive the setback
R AJ Thackeray, nephew of Shiv Sena
supremo Bal Thackeray, has left the
party in a huff. Thackeray senior has
chosen his son Uddhav, who at once seems
too urbane to take to street corner invec-
tive, to succeed him. Raj is considered an
organisation man, having helped the party
expand its geographical and social base.
Will he take a major slice of the cadre along
with him and sink the party’s
fortunes? The second does not
necessarily follow from the first.
The recent electoral reverses
TIMES
suffered by the Sena are no reason
to write it off. The party is a
product of social forces that are here to stay.
Political parties go through periods of
internal crisis but manage to overcome
them if they are able to protect their social
base. The Congress went through a dismal
period after the fall of the P V Narasimha
Rao government, but since the social forces
it represented had not disappeared, it made
a comeback. Leaders are not the life and
death of established political parties like the
Congress and the BJP. Social and economic
Frosty Christmas in Britain
By RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL
London: Beware the English sense of
humour. In this season of jollity, the
mirth is bitter and devastating when it
comes to Christmas 2005. Christmas,
we are warned, is in danger of
being “cancelled” on the orders of
the politically correct guardians of
community relations.
Christmas, cautions the high priest
of Anglican Christianity, is severely at
risk of being turned into just another
secular mid-winter festival in officially
multicultural Britain. They say the
Christian faithful are reduced to being
allowed no more than a chilly excuse
Bal Thackeray’s nephe w, Raj, breaks with the Shiv Sena
The Sena is over the hill
conditions will continue to provide space for
moderate as well as hardline politics. W ORDhas gone round that Bal Thackeray,
Maharashtra’s wannabe Chhatrapati
Rane romped home, while the Sena candi-
date lost his deposit. Clearly the Sena tiger
Those who wonder at how Shiv Sena
emerged as a major political force — with
Shivaji who never goes out without doesn’t bite any more. All that is going for it
sunglasses, is actually Dhritarashtra. now is Balasaheb’s ineffectual son Uddhav.
its Marathi chauvinism and Hindu funda- Dhritarashtra was blind, Thackeray is Will Raj, an effective orator and organiser,
mentalism — in a modern, industrialised reported to have cataract (which explains the be able to found a party that will resurrect the
state overlook a basic fact: That revivalism sunglasses). Like Dhritarashtra, Thacker- spirit of the old Sena? Perish the thought. As
is a product of modern society, a response ay’s poor vision extends to his politics. The Heraclitus observed, one can’t step into the
to the social and cultural alienation it Shiv Sena’s nuisance value is undeniable. same river twice — 2006 is not the same as
produces. Maharashtra has But having proclaimed them- 1966. Not only has the Sena been
moved beyond lathe machines to selves the tigers of Maharashtra softened by its stint in power,
IT-enabled services, in the process
creating more spaces for the Sena
politics their fate is fast approach-
ing that of their jungle brethren,
COUNTER when it developed a stake in the
market economy, but with Mum-
VIEW to step into. The economically and poached by all and sundry and VIEW bai’s growth Marathis have dwin-
culturally disempowered at the confined to a few reserve forests. dled to a mere 28% of the city’s
SWAGATO GANGULY
fringes of this new economy could take to Consider their record. Having population. This means a Marathi-
the Sena, in Maharashtra and beyond. been a potent opposition force for long in first campaign won’t cut much ice even in the
How will Uddhav take the party ahead? Maharashtra politics, the Shiv Sena won Sena’s stronghold. Could the new party then
Like Vajpayee, he can choose to mumble power in 1995. They held it for a term, after revisit Hindutva? But that kills the Sena’s
inanities while the party goes about its which they have been successively rejected unique selling point and makes it part of a
business, maintaining old patronage by voters. Meanwhile, Thackeray lost his tired old game with many competitors in the
networks and building upon them. The satraps steadily — Chhagan Bhujbal, field. Ayodhya may have stoked passions in
future for aggressive parties in this time Narayan Rane, now his nephew Raj. During 1992, but in today’s globalising India trying to
and age lies in this two-track approach: the last by-elections in Malvan, a traditional locate Ram’s true birthplace amidst the ruins
With Uddhav blowing hard and soft, people Sena base, the ageing Sena chief personally of a demolished mosque looks, frankly, silly.
will be more impressed than confounded. campaigned to ensure Rane’s defeat. But For the Sena, it’s over bar the shouting.
Santa Claus brings Cheer,
Christmas season it can remember
Britain is gripped by a fever India
Hope, Love and Charity
sweated through back in the 1990s. Boxing Day By P VENKATESH
Pique at being upstaged by minority Christmas wasn’t a time The jingling of bells an- gold into the man’s house
faiths (Diwali marked at the Houses of of fun for all: The Victo- nounces the onset of the festive through an open window. This
Parliament) is understandable, but rians threw themselves Christmas and New Year sea- provided for the eldest daugh-
there is little to explain the sudden into charitable works son. It also marks the arrival ter, and she was married.
mania for a uniquely Anglo-Saxon of that special messenger of After a little while, he threw
with enthusiasm, giving
form of ‘cultural nationalism’ remi- merriment and the harbinger in another heap of gold for the
Christmas boxes;
niscent of L K Advani’s appeal to the of joy known fondly the world second daughter. A few days
presents of food and
Hindu nation to recall a sense of self. over as Santa Claus. later, he doubled the mass of
money to all the deserv-
Even so, the ghost of Ebenezer Santa Claus encourages us gold and threw it into the
ing poor of the parish,
Scrooge is being held to walk again, he to rediscover the child within house to take care of the third
who famously, if fictitiously, once usually on the day after us and to approach all things daughter’s marriage. The hap-
declared that “every idiot who goes Christmas. This is how in life with the spirit of py father, wishing to know his
about with ‘Merry Christmas’ on his December 26 came to be innocence. The name Santa benefactor, ran after Nicholas
lips should be boiled with his own known as Boxing Day. It Claus is derived from the and recognised him. However,

Missing in Action to have credit cards at the ready and
have a ‘blast’. They’re taking the
Christ out of Christmas,
Britain is being told. Take
By MANJUL BAJAJ
the peril lightly, but only at
A recent news item bemoans the lack of women in the
listing of the world’s top 15 corporate leaders. Why the
surprise? Are corporate women any more missing in action
your peril.
The famed English
sense of humour is striv-
than women musicians, scientists or artists? Each field has ing to make light of an
several token female representatives but it is largely a man’s existential problem, cen-
world out there. As per a study, only 3% of “the most illustri- tral we are told by Angli-
ous figures of history” have been women. And many of these canism’s papal authority,
females entered the records in part by birthright or marriage. the Archbishop of Canter-
In science, less than 1% of those who gained eminence were bury, to the very soul and
women. Names like Marie Curie and Barbara McClintock are identity of the British nation. Here is
but drops in a sea of male scientists. Music also suffers from one instance of the lighter side of life,
a lack of women. For every slightly famous woman composer as retold by Britain’s grimly humor-
there are dozens of more famous men. Nor have there been ous majority Christian community. A
any supremely great women artists. There are no female man walks into a famous London
equivalents for Michelangelo or bookstore looking for a copy of The
Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Picasso or
Matisse, or even Andy Warhol.
The explanation for this distressing
BRIEF Bible for his children. After an
unsuccessful hunt he asks the shop-
girl why there is no Christian tome
social phenomenon is not very far. In
fact, come home with me this minute
CASE with the word of God on the shelves.
“Oh”, is the artless answer, “they’ve
and I’ll show you. It goes like this: Our family driver is been cleared away to make room for
miffed. Can’t go grocery shopping at such short notice, there the Christmas stock”.
is the carpool duty to be done first. But the housekeeper is QED, say unamused churchmen
insistent — she needs something otherwise the cook can’t get and increasingly unsmiling non-
the lunch done on time. The children’s nanny is having an churchgoers alike, Christmas is under
emotional outburst. And as for the lady of the house she is threat. Another crusade must be
trying hard to distance herself from this commotion — she launched, this time, to save Britain’s
fancies herself a writer and needs her space. And before you lead faith from death by a thousand
conclude that I’m the latest Page 3 diva in search of a creative darting stabs at political correctness.
makeover, perish the thought. Just your average modern Christmas must be made safe from the
woman playing multiple roles in a world of multiplying vaguely left-of-centre aim of pleasing
demands and a scam called multitasking. The truth of the the minute islands of minorities
matter is this: As long as the world continues to applaud spread thinly across this green and
women for their multitasking abilities don’t expect chart- pleasant land.
busting performances in other fields. There is a simple So the Christian backlash begins,
choice to be made between multitasking and excellence. with fateful resonance for a continent
Women must get rid of the If-I-haven’t-dusted-the-furniture- looking to take the lead from Europe’s
and-made-the-beds-do-I-have-the-right-to-begin-carving? first officially multicultural country.
syndrome if they wish to stand up and be counted. In the middle of the frostiest
pudding, and buried with a stake of
holly in his heart”. Anguished English
historical memory
revived, of the anti-Christ-
mas edicts issued by
the puritanical Oliver
Cromwell in 1647.
The evidence for cur-
rent alarm is slender, even
if it makes for startling
newscopy. Yes, some
English town authorities
have renamed the tradi-
tional Christmas lights
“celebrity” lights. Yes, a few others
have followed in American foot-
steps by christening Christmas trees
“holiday trees”. Nativity scenes and
the ubiquitous manger is increasingly
absent from Christmas cards.
The sense of siege is unescapable,
even though this small island is hardly
overrun by immigrants — it has a mere
7.5% black and coloured immigrant
minority, most of whom are not Chris-
tian. Unsurprisingly, the net curtains
of gentrified Middle England are
twitching madly over the non-Christ-
ian minority’s attempt, allegedly to
shut itself off from the beauty of the
liturgy and the serenity of church
music. Britain has rather late in the
day remembered that it is Christian at
bottom and that even its Parliament
begins each day with Anglican prayers.
Britain still rolls up its sidewalks on
Christmas eve and remains closed for
business right through to Boxing Day.
Despite declining church attendance,
the ritual of festivity remains sacro-
sanct. An orgy of eating and drinking
ensues. Traditionally-resonant family
rows occur up and down the land. All is
as should be. Merry Christmas.
is also the day on which
churches open the boxes
is of money and goods for
the poor donated by
parishioners.
From the Internet
✥
Remember, if Christmas
isn’t found in your
heart, you won’t find
it under a tree.
Charlotte Carpenter
✥
This is the message
of Christmas: “We
are never alone”.
Taylor Caldwell
✥
Blessed is the season
that engages the whole
world in a conspiracy
of love.
Hamilton W Mabie
✥
My idea of Christmas,
whether old-fashioned
or modern, is very
simple: loving others.
Come to think of it, why
do we have to wait for
Christmas to do that?
Bob Hope
✥ white beard denotes wealth of
A cheerful giver does
not count the cost of
what he gives. His heart
is set on pleasing and
cheering him to whom
the gift is given.
Julian of Norwich
Dutch Saint Nicholas or Saint Nicholas requested the
Sinter Klaas. Another one of nobleman not to mention this
his many names is Kriss to anyone as long as the man
Kingle from the lived. Santa Claus
German word ‘Christ- exemplified the true
kindl’ meaning the
Christ child. Santa
is depicted wearing
spirit of charity.
The word ‘Santa’ is
an anagram for the
bishop’s robes, riding word ‘Satan’. Satan
through the streets, symbolises greed,
distributing sweets to THE disorder, disobedi-
children and accom- SPEAKING ence and pain. As the
panied at times by an evil serpent, Satan
elf called Black Peter
TREE enticed Adam and
whose job was to whip Eve to commit the original sin
naughty children. Santa of eating the forbidden fruit
Claus is the patron saint of in the Garden of Eden. Santa
children. He would defend is what Satan is not: a symbol
poor children. He visits on of selfless service and kind-
Christmas Eve, entering houses ness. On the one hand, Santa
through chimneys to leave carries a bag of gifts to spread
presents under the Christmas abundance and prosperity. On
tree and in the stockings of all the other, he holds the leash
good children, and exiting that reins in eight reindeers.
through the fireplace. He is in control of the seven
Santa Claus inspires humi- deadly sins: pride, avarice,
lity. His loving eyes reflect his lust, anger, gluttony, envy
concern for humanity. His and sloth. The eighth rein-
spectacles, worn low on his deer signifies immortality. He
nose, signify that he is not rides a sleigh bound sky-
viewing the world through wards, implying that heavenly
the narrow domain of percep- uplift or spiritual progress is
tions. The dense and snow- the true goal of man.
Santa Claus reminds us that
wisdom matched by a purity miracles can happen, and that
of purpose. His large red generosity is a virtue to be
gown symbolises energy and practised. He is a reinforce-
dedication. He appears as a ment of the goodness that is
fun-loving person. inherent in all human beings.
Once a poor nobleman — So, the next time a child
unable to arrange for the asks you whether Santa Claus
marriage of his three daugh- really exists, you know what
ters — became dejected. to say.
Nicholas threw a purse of http://spirituality.indiatimes.com