OMH Council Kohima

Tip of the iceberg W hen the Nagaland Lokayukta accorded sanction for prosecution of a retired commissioner and secretary of the Tourism department on allegations that the former bureaucrat had back dated the appointments of tourist officers and tourist assistants during 2018 when the Model Code of Conduct was in place; there was mixed reactions to the development. Largely many welcomed the Lokayukta’s action as it sent a strong message that that even a retired high ranking government servant cannot escape the long arm of the law. The other side, as ventilated by the opposition NPF welcomed the move, and hoped the Lokayukta will also deal with corruption effectively but asked whether the Lokayukta will use the same yardstick on earlier cases and not be driven purely by political vendetta. Close on the heels of the matter being highlighted in the media, the Nagaland Public Rights Awareness and Action Forum (NPRAA F) while welcoming the Lokayukta’s move threw a challenge to take suo moto notice of its press statement over the appointments of Tourist Officers under deputation in the Tourism department. NPRAA F threw the gauntlet at the Lokayukta to take suo moto notice of allegations of irregularities as contained in its press release on the above. In the press release, NPRAA F also alleged that the appointments were made when the Model Code of Conduct came into force in December-February 2008. What could be understood from the press release was that one of those appointed as Tourist Officer, was a graduate teacher on deputation then absorbed in the Tourism department without the post being routed through NPSC. What is more, the NPRAA F alleged that the appointments were post dated from the date of appointments in 2006 and 2008 to August 5,2010. It was also alleged that the regularisation of the appointments were done without mandatory sanction from the P&AR department. It is now incumbent upon the Lokayukta to take cognisance of the allegations made by NPRAA F and ascertain the facts. It is also expected that the Lokayukta will make public the findings of the allegations since NPRAA F has brought the issue to public domain. With regard to appointments in the government, it may be recalled that backdoor appointments have been rampant for decades. Over the years, the services of those appointed through backdoor to posts that had no sanction from the government were eventually regularised. This newspaper had carried a series of reports on backdoor appointments that had led to over employment in the government. According to official sources, the ‘excess’ number of employees in Nagaland is around 70,000; which is 50% of around 1,40,000 government employees. The figure of ‘excess’ employment is based on the recommendation of the 13th Finance Commission that the salary component ought to be well within 35% of the budget. However the figure of excess number of employees continued to rise from around 40,000 to 50,000 and now to 70,000. In 2011-12, the total number of state government employees was 1,10,038 which leapfrogged to 1,20,819 by 2012-13, revealing an increase of 10,781 employees appointed within a year. By 2013-14. Further it was also revealed that another 4791 employees were appointed taking the figure to 1,25,309 serving employees during the same period. Certainly if the Lokayukta takes the call, it would be a herculean task to end the irregularity and illegality of backdoor appointments.

Daily Devotion

Spiritual Dejection We were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened. —Luke 24:21 Every fact that the disciples stated was right, but the conclusions they drew from those facts were wrong. Anything that has even a hint of dejection spiritually is always wrong. If I am depressed or burdened, I am to blame, not God or anyone else. Dejection stems from one of two sources— I have either satisfied a lust or I have not had it satisfied. In either case, dejection is the result. Lust means “I must have it at once.” Spiritual lust causes me to demand an answer from God, instead of seeking God Himself who gives the answer. What have I been hoping or trusting God would do? Is today “the third day” and He has still not done what I expected? Am I therefore justified in being dejected and in blaming God? Whenever we insist that God should give us an answer to prayer we are off track. The purpose of prayer is that we get ahold of God, not of the answer. It is impossible to be well physically and to be dejected, because dejection is a sign of sickness. This is also true spiritually. Dejection spiritually is wrong, and we are always to blame for it. We look for visions from heaven and for earth-shaking events to see God’s power. Even the fact that we are dejected is proof that we do this. Yet we never realize that all the time God is at work in our everyday events and in the people around us. If we will only obey, and do the task that He has placed closest to us, we will see Him. One of the most amazing revelations of God comes to us when we learn that it is in the everyday things of life that we realize the magnificent deity of Jesus Christ.

Finance Minister rose to present the Union Budget 2020-21. 30 Lakh Crore Expenditure Budget is tabled in the parliament for India’s aspiration towards economic development for its caring society. The government has committed various schemes for improvement in the quality of life.

The budget has estimated nominal growth of GDP at 10% while the said macroeconomic indicator kept falling from 8.2% (16-17) to 7.2% (17-18), 6.8% (18-19), 5% (19-20). India is still the 5th largest economy in the world in terms of GDP at current US $ Trillion after US, China, Japan and Germany. It has initiated structural reforms in GST to abolish multiple taxes and bring uniformity.

But our economy slows down despite those tracking progress in numbers. Incidentally there was nation-wide 2 days strike on the budget day for want of pay revision by 12 Lakh Public Sector Bank (PSB) employees. Has the government overlooked them as human and compassionate? On the other hand New Delhi is in the process of implementing one nation one pay day and is looking at uniform minimum wage across sectors which will safeguard better livelihood of workers. Bank employees are often accountable for small mistakes. Should there be incentive for high risk job? Every Cashier in a bank faces lose out cash at the counter often due to cash handling mistakes. Shouldn’t they be protected?

Indian Banks’ Association is entrusted under the Chief Labour Commissioner for Bipartite wage settlement that takes place every five years. The 11th Bipartite for which negotiation is currently on that is due from November 1, 2017. Performance-Linked Incentives (PLI) or variable pay is set to become the buzzword for PSB employees. It is well-accepted across industries including private banks, but not in public sector banks. The series of talks have continuously been failed and there is strike happening. They go to road and even loss salary for a strike to protect economic safeguard. From time to time Govt cautioned employees to not to go flash strike for being in the public utility sector.

The banking sector has made it possible for India’s unique leadership in digital revolution globally. The seamless delivery to citizens electronically by the service industry helps to improve infrastructure for social security schemes. From Demonitization to PMJDY banks make the country digitally empowered for inclusive growth. Information Technology and Electronic Fund Transfer have emerged as the twin pillars of modern banking development.

Besides Payment Banks for alternative channel after Internet and Mobile Banking, banks have been the primary source of funding for the infrastructure sector. The Global Financial Crisis 2007-08 has hit our country too but banking in India has displayed the ability to recover from recession faster than US or any other developed country. Does India surely move ahead with its vision to become an economic powerhouse in the next decade?

Despite all good works are done, the government kept a long silence over the issues of wage revision. The profit by PSBs is shared to RBI/Government.

At the same time banks are responsible if incur loss. Nirav Modi scripted largest bank scam while Vijay Mallya used Kingfisher Airlines to launder siphoning of funds. The top thirty defaulters’ accounts are for one-third of gross NPAs worth Rs 9.49 lakh crore. Banks have to open Zero Balance Account as per government guidelines of Financial Inclusion despite there are a cost for maintenance. To boost business, Govt directs banks for loans without security.

Funds are given to industry as country needs to prosper at government direction but there is NPA. Should defaulters name be public and declare loan defaulters criminal for wasting public money? RBI/ Government must compel NPA defaulters to return money/asset. Now the amalgamations of PSBs (OBC, PNB and UBI), (Allahabad and Indian) and (BoB, Vijaya and Dena) are in the process. There must have provisions to safeguard the rights of workers.

So far IBA has offered 12.25% wage hike as adequate but United Forum of Bank Unions, the umbrella organisation of nine leading bank associations did not agree. Their demand is for 20% wage hike on Pay Slip Component.

The unions are also demanding merger of Special Allowance with Basic Pay, scrapping of NPS, updating of pension, implementation of family pension and allocation of staff welfare fund based on operating profit. IBA tactfully added the Performance Linked Incentive (2.74%) and five days Additional Encashment of Leave (1.37%) with Payslip Component (12.25%) totalling 16.36% (12.25%+1.37%+2.74%). Few banks already offer rewards and incentives for individual employees based on their performance on certain business parameters. But the new structure would be based on performance of banks. When the world is moving towards 4-day workweek, Indian bankers are still fighting for 5 day banking where IBA denied it for the sack of tough times of economy. On the other hand RBI, DFS, CVC, NCLT, Ministry and other Central/State Dept are working in 5 day week. Are they not serious for country’s economy slowdown? Neighbouring Bangladesh follows five day working.

Many organizations in Europe are cutting work weeks though not wages from 36 hours (5 days) to 28 hours (4 days) to reduce burnout and make workers happier, productive and committed to employers. France implemented a reduction of working hours (less than 35 hours) almost 20 years ago to create better work-life balance for the nation.

Leading today’s trend is the Netherlands, where the average weekly working time is about 29 hours, the lowest of any industrialized nation. Can India’s think tanks be truly effective? Should bankers go for regulated working hours? Kamal Baruah Has Govt overlooked Bipartite Settlement?

Make allowance for poetic license, but the mood that the protest movement against CAA, NRC, NPR has maintained this past month would have thrilled the stalwarts of the Progressive Writers’ Movement of which Majrooh Sultanpuri and Faiz Ahmad Faiz were key figures. In fact, Faiz’s poem ‘Hum Dekhenge’, has clearly become the movement’s signature song. By singing the Kannada version at the Bengaluru Town Hall, M.D. Pallavi may well have inaugurated a trend in cultural commerce. Faiz in Maithili, Bhojpuri has percolated down to villages and hamlets.

Since the movement has kept political parties at a distance, it is becoming possible for diverse elements of civil society to embrace it. Even the most conservative groups have accorded hospitality to Faiz. The dominant song at a social event of High Court judges, which I attended was ‘Hum Dekhenge’. No movement on this scale has so spontaneously spread across the length and breadth of the country.

That the unprovoked police attack on students huddled over their books at the Jamia Library ignited the agitation is common knowledge. How the videography and transmission of live visuals of the brutality disturbed the nation has a small story attached to it. It was entirely the imagination of Anwar Jamal Kidwai who, as Vice Chancellor, inaugurated the Institute of Mass Communications at Jamia in 1982. Bollywood, theatre, Doordarshan and countless of channels were all manned substantially by students trained at Jamia. Since the Institute of Mass Communications is the university’s flagship, students across the campus are familiar with its students and, by association, with videography. This explains the high quality footage of the events of Jamia which fired the nation’s imagination.

There has always existed a shade of uninstitutionalized apartheid, a wariness in visiting colonies and ghettos across communal lines. Every year during Ramadan I face, not resistance, but a lazy reluctance from friends to visit Jama Masjid to share the festive atmosphere. I have so far failed. For one ‘sehri’ or the meal at dawn after which the fasting begins, I personally ferried Swami Agnivesh and Lord Meghnad Desai.

At the other end of New Delhi, the image of Batla House near Jamia has been sketched on our minds by the electronic media as a combat zone where encounters take place. To correct that image, visit the nearby Shaheen Bagh today.

Breaking down the apartheid of the mind has been a singular achievement of the televised nationwide protests led by students and youth. Another stereotype the protests have shattered is an image of cloistered Indian women, those in hijab and the ones in more cosmopolitan gear. Indeed, a heartwarming fact has been the leadership provided by women -- articulate, dignified and focused. Standing upright for the National anthem mornings and evenings at Shaheen Bagh, and reading the Preamble to the Constitution like they had erstwhile read a religious texts -- all of this is exhilarating, particularly after a depressing 2019.

The secularism this movement promises has on its visage a refreshing sincerity, compared to the stale, withered tokenism of recent decades. The secularism of a common struggle and aspirations is what India’s first war of independence had set into motion in 1857.

With the British in control, the freedom movement never quite rediscovered that �lan. Post Partition, a pall hung over the practice of secularism -- a situation promoted and exploited by politicians. The current youth movement transcends gender, community, caste and language. It is defined by its simplicity, absence of pretense, and hypocrisy. It stands out like a lotus in a pond of murky politics.

The lotus must retain its pristine purity. The movement must remain aloof from the discredited political formations. Only then will it gather momentum. The critical mass will then grow. The movement’s demands, because they are honest, have already caused politicians to ponder. Look, how protection of democracy and the Constitution have become the centre piece of all discourse.

Since all social and economic strata are joining the movement, a resounding call for social justice is unlikely to invite a caste/class backlash. The movement will have to be sensitive to that call. Sectarian nationalism will have to slowly give way to what Tilak and Maulana Hasrat Mohani meant by ‘Swaraj’ which embodied a notion of ‘sovereignty’ which had a powerful anti imperial thrust. Since the initial tussle has been with a formation committed to a unitary system, the idea of federalism will automatically creep into a renewed idea of India as protests grow.

The Sangh Parivar must be baffled by the upsurge. The RSS-BJP combine completely mixed up religious fervour with communalism. Religious fervour was mollified once the Supreme Court permitted the construction of the Ram temple. In a sense, the bird that laid the saffron egg was dead.

The Modi-Shah duet are under all sorts of pressure. The Congress Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh, Bhupesh Baghel has, in an interview to to a TV channel, set the cat among the pigeons: the contradictory statements on, say, the NRC are a function of a growing divide between Modi and Shah, he says. Uddhav Thackeray, meanwhile, has compared police action in JNU and Jamia with the November 25, 2008 terrorist attack on Mumbai.

The BJP will, of course, extract comfort from the opposition disarray. A coherent opposition is only possible if the Congress house ever acquires some order. This can only happen if the party leadership takes courage in its hands and holds elections to all key posts. A fixation on the Gandhi parivar will remain a huge road block to opposition unity. The opposition, sandwiched between a weakening BJP and a growing youth movement, will seek salvation in the regions. Federalism will be strengthened, which is just as well.

Saeed Naqvi (saeednaqvi@hotmail. com) IA NS New idea of India: Secularism of common aspirations takes shape

Reader’s note: Articles or letters published in any of the columns do not reflect the view of this newspaper nor that of the Editor in any manner. Reader’s Post Pan-Naga Hoho: Its relevance Sir,

Nagas have a myriad of organizations, associations, forums all in the name of unity but in reality, the more unions, organizations we have the more divisive we become. It is because the interest of group overwhelms the common.

Mention maybe made of all 16 tribal organisations of Nagaland, 40 plus Nagas outside Nagaland, western, eastern, southern, northern of the same tribes, CNTC, NTC, TPO, ENPO, etc. etc., the so call civil societies. Now think of the political groups-NSCN (I-M), NSCN (K), NSCN (R), NSCN (U), NNC (Accordist, Non-Accordist) etc., all in the name of freedom and liberty.

Numerous service and students, youth, women associations, contractors, suppliers, business, ward, colony associations, GB federation, and so on and so forth.

Now after more than half a century of turmoil and struggle, a flicker of hope for solution is seen at the end of the tunnel and the citizens are happy but to our dismay some “Rhetorics” are trying their best to hinder and blot out the inking of the final solution by imaginary and abstract appreciations.

Shiloh Kath, Burma Camp, Dimapur. T he pristine and serene topography mesmerizes any nature lover who visits Nagaland from outside. The cordial hospitality of the ever welcoming Naga people will elevate them even more.

However, one weird thing would always stick into the minds of those: the uneasy silence of the vast hilly greenery. Yes, till the recent past, bird calls were scarcely heard in the dark & deep jungles here.

All the wildlife including the birds had been disappearing sharply from the jungles of Nagaland due to the rampant, uncontrolled hunting and poaching. No wildlife protection act had been capable to keep them alive. Even some sophisticated people are still seen arguably justifying hunting in the name of customary tradition till today.

But of course, to our good fortune, the situation is changing otherwise slowly, underway. A handful of young, educated Nagas are coming out desperately to save the wildlife. Some village councils are also prohibiting hunting in their jurisdiction in support of them. Community conservation is consolidating gradually.

Visible results are in progression. The iconic con- servation story of amur red falcon of Doyang, Wokha and bat conservation of Mimi village, Kiphire are the proud testimony of such developments.

At this juncture, I must appreciate personally the relentless, silent but lone efforts of Dr. Chijamo Kikon at Patkai Christian College campus, Chümoukedima, who is a die-heart naturalist. Due to his persistent care, a visible fraction of the new Campus, Patkai has been turning into a naturally unbounded aviary where birds can be seen flocking and singing freely in good numbers. I myself have witnessed birds like spotted dove, common myna, tree pie, drongo, cuckoo, golden oriole, shrike, chestnut-tailed starling etc., during the last few months in Patkai campus. These birds could be hardly seen before.

Already, a significant number of tree sparrows, warblers, tits, munias, red vented bulbuls, wagtails, water hens, magpie robins, sunbirds, pond heron, kingfishers etc., are proliferating here in the campus for quite some time.

The lucky one can even hear the calls of the mountain eagles and red junglefowls also sometimes on the hilltop adjacent to the campus. I was a proficient bird shooter during my early young-hood which eventually turned me into a birdlover in the course of time. My personal experience taught me that birdwatching (Ornithology) is an enormously fantastic hobby which inculcates in one’s mind, a lasting sense of jubilation. However, difficult to resist, everyone should avoid bush-meat on the other hand, as it is a well-known career of the germs of many diseases. Moreover, birds are the indispensable parts of the Mother Nature whose healthy population signifies the well being of the environment too.

I appeal to the government of Nagaland to impose an umbrella ban on air-gun and gaming culture at the earliest. If requires, stringent laws should be enforced.

The civil society organizations including the church bodies also have a lot to do in this regard collectively. The student community should also get involved into, to spread the consciousness among the masses. I hope all the wildlife and birds will reappear soon in this beautiful paradise. Ranjan Das Patkai Campus, Chumukedima- Seithekema May the wildlife and birds reappear