Honest Admissison

Today's papers carry a news item that the Hon'bleAP High Court pulled up the Labour Commissioner for stating on affidavit that the Prevention of Child Labour Act is faulty and unimplementable. It is the duty of the Hon'ble Court to ensure compliance to the letter and spirit all legitimate laws duly enacted by the Parliament.

Was the official recaltriant? Was he refusing to implement an Act framed and passed by the collective wisdom of the law makers? After reading the entire report, I feel that the official has been merely candid in his opinion on the implementability of the law at the ground level.

The affidavit, on behalf of the Labour Commissioner, could not have been filed without the clearance of the Law Department. The Hon'ble Court have taken the correct course in asking the government to clarify whether it is indeed its stand.
Now let us see what the government has to say. The reasons mentioned by the Commissioner in the affidavit as reported are:

1) The entire Act itself was faulty as it had no purview to look into the issue of children employed in Factories.

2) Officials facing resistance from the public when they raid shops and hotels.

3) Production of bogus age certificates.

4) Lack of witnesses to book employers.

5) Evasion of the Act on technical grounds.

Now the moot question is whether this Act and similar other Acts, which are made with good intenteions but remain only on paper, are to be reviewed in the light of the ground reality, present socio-economic and law & order situation prevailing in the country or insist on implementation with an iron hand. What sort of system is required to ensure the safety of the officials. Though it is cruel, for myself I feel that we may be snatching the bread from a child's mouth if we ask it to desist from labouring without providing alternative succour.

Despite the level of corruption that prevails in the administrative setup and consequent negative image, there are honest officials who throw up their hands sometimes instead of going through mere motions.

Hon'ble Court will find an answer and give due directives to all concerned.

...ponder

Stretching to ludicrous lengths

I have no quarrel with the demand for separate Telangana. In another blog, I had lamented that this did not happen earlier. But the movement is being taken from the serious to the ludicrous. KCR's statement that 'Telengana' is different from 'Telugu' and his objections to the statues on the tank bund are the latest example. Any student of etymology will know that a language spawns local dialects due to the local practices, interaction with other languages, influence of court language, migration to and from other linquistic areas, etc. But, these are only dialects (Maandaleekamulu) and cannot aspire for language status. The Telugu spoken in Tirupati for example may be subtly different from the one spoken in Srikakulam and vice-versa but it cannot be a reason to them different languages.

There had been a raging controversy a few decades earlier whether Potana belonged to Ontimitta in Rayalaeema or Orugallu in Telangana. This was due to a sense of possessiveness and belonging and not due to rejection.

Everyone knows that earswhile state Hyderabad was ruled for long by various muslim dynasties and not only the court language was Urdu but the medium of instruction was Urdu. There was a keen competitiveness amongst the feudal hindus to curry favour with the ruling class due to which they started imitating them in dress and language. Also since the State, at that time, consisted of Kannada and Maratha speaking areas, it was a melting pot which all in synergy resulted in evolving a hybrid localised dialect which cannot be called a language.

Let us divide the state peacefully and amicably; but let us not divide the people. I have a ffew specific questions:

a) Why the demand for a separate state is confined only to that area which merged into Andhra Pradesh? Why TRS is not demanding all areas which constituted the earstwhile Hyderabad State?

b) If Telugu and Telangana are different, who are the icons of Telangana before the advent of British and Muslims?

c) What is the answer to the concept of Trilinga Desa? Is that also a conspiracy of Coastal Andhras?

d) Are there any examples for medevial literature in Telangana.

e) Why there is total rejection of the idea of separate Telangana State from the Muslims of Hyderabad? What is the stand of MIM on this?

f) Hyderabad is full of UP-ites, Biharis, Rajasthanis, Tamils, Gujatatis. What will be done with them?

g) In which party was KCR belonging to when the statues were being erected and for how many more years he was in that party? Did he object then?

Labelling people like Prakasam, CR Reddy, Veereslingam, Pratapa Reddy as belonging to a particular region is nothing short of blasphemy. They belong to the whole nation. Like-wise Molla Ramayanamu, Vemana Satakamu,Potana Bhagavatamu sre national heritage. Anything to the contrary is pettiness.

Speach is silver; silence is golden!

...Ponder

IN SEARCH OF AN IDENTITY

It is a foregone conclusion that Telengana State will be formed and the announcement may just precede elections.

It will be worthwhile to create Rayalaseema also simultaneously to spare thte people of a similar demand and trauma later.

Language is no bonding factor and Andhra Pradesh, the first state to be created on linquistic basis, has proved the fallacy.

Actually separate Andhra should have been created in the early seventies but for the perfidity of then Andhra congress leaders, massive CRPF deployment and putting down the movement with a heavy hand and the sleight of hand of Indira Gandhi through the 6-point formula which effectively put a seal of approval against the emotional integration of the three regions.

Now Andhra will have to search for a Capital again. May be a make-shift tent capital initially before a place is decided. There is likely to be another emotional split between the 'toorpu (east)' for Visakhapatnam and 'Padamara (West)' for Vijayawada.
Land sharks and contractor mafia will be the biggest gainers.

There will be another seat of government, another Raj Bhavan, another High Court, etc.etc. which may ease the unemployment problem faced by politicians,administrators, etc.

When Andhra Pradesh was formed it lost not only Madras but everything else like industries, jobs, revenue, educational institutions. History will repeat itself. The truncated state will have to start from scratch.

The new state can even have a new name 'Endrakaya Pradesamu' - crab state.

...ponder

Expediency

At one time or the other we all face situations where expediency overrules propriety. For some, this is after the turmoil of dilemma and others without any qualms.

This is only human. Politicians are also humans who behave in inhuman ways. So their expediency overtakes propriety is a habit and without batting of eyelids.

Karuna's 'Tamilness' over rules his 'Indianness' notwithstanding his obligation to uphold the constitution. Rajiv's widow's 'politics' overrule her tragedy despite her earlier tantrums over ATR on various commissisons' reports, specifically against Karuna in particular, and DMK, in general. Jayanti Natarajan's job of 'defending the UPA' overrules her memories of 'identifying Rajiv Ghandhi just by his shoe'. Deve Gowda's need to 'keep the Congress away' overrules his 'Secularism'. BJP's greed for power overrules the 'perfidity of Deve Gowda'.

That is the way of of our supremos! They are the 'Bharata Bhagya Vidhaatas'. Jai Hind

...ponder