EDIT 6 HYDERABAD TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2015 RTI works where legislature fails TUESDAY 24 FEBRUARY 2015 VOL. 4 | NO. 220 G Elusive Oscars I ndians have been cinema-crazy long before th any given time or place, more Indians see films, in a score of languages, than they follow cricket, any other sport or activity. It’s a century-old affair. That many of the winners of the 89th US Academy Awards, popularly called Oscars, announced on Monday, including ‘Birdman’ and ‘Whiplash’, are currently being shown in many of the Indian cities, unlike in Indian filmmakers the last century when one waited for long, is draw their inspiration an indication of the deep interest that Hollywood has in India, a huge market and a talent from Hollywood – quite pool, and vice versa. unabashedly. Indeed, The animated discourse in the run-up to the Oscars in the mainstream and social media is no other country can another indication of the deep interest Indiboast of its thriving ans take in Hollywood. Besides the epics, the and the Mahabharata, and a vast indigenous versions, Ramayana and varied literature in different languages, popularly named Indian filmmakers draw their inspiration Hollywood – quite unabashedly. Indeed, “Bollywood”, from no other country can boast of its thriving in“Tollywood,” digenous versions, popularly named “Bolly“Tollywood,” “Mollywood” et al. “Mollywood” et al wood”, India makes over a thousand films annually, which is twice that of Hollywood. The provision of 100 per cent FDI has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign enterprises. And yet, Indians, unlike others, have held their own, refusing to be swamped by Hollywood’s ‘invasion’. Foreign cinema is adapted, even absorbed, something akin to how past military invasions were met. Indians have not won too many Oscars, though, considering their output. Mehboob Khan’s “Mother India” and Aamir Khan’s “Lagaan’ lost out after winning nominations. Not many knew Mehboob’s India and cricket the way Aamir played. For the rest, Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ and Robert Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionnaire” with Indian winners including Bhanu Athaiya (costumes), Gulzar (lyric “Jai Ho”), A R Rahman (musical score) and Resul Pokutty (sound editing) are undoubtedly remarkable, but they are like winning mixed doubles in a game. When it comes to the Oscars, there is no denying the ‘inadequacies’ in Indiamade films. This is despite the fast-improving technology and ambitions of many an actor and film maker to covet an Oscar. A successful and growing outreach to a global market that is gradually growing beyond the huge diaspora has also not helped enough. At the end of the day, millions have to be spent to make out a case for the Best Foreign Language Film category. There is politics in Oscars. And there are American and White Man’s prejudices. Past favourites have included East Europeans (as against Moscow), Taiwanese (to spite China) and those who jump the barbed wire fencing from Iran, Turkey – any place where ‘freedom is in peril.” By and large, Oscar door ast, or a Bridge too Far for Indians. A film maker of Satyajit Ray’s caliber, feted in Europe, had to wait to get a “lifetime’s achievement” Oscar in his sickbed. EDITOR: PROF K NAGESHWAR ood governance cannot happen just like that. Where indiscipline, dishonesty and lethargy are rulMadabhushi ing the roost, Sridhar there can be no governance at all. People in government do not perform because they are not questioned by anybody. Top officers have to review the work of subordinates. If they are also lethargic, subordinates feel they need not work. If a Cabinet Minister does not question the officers of the ministry concerned, the government does not perform in that department. The Minister has to be considered as failed. When a Legislative Assembly or the Parliament meetings go on, secretariat and ministries will be working overtime. One can see the lights burning at midnight. The reason is they have to prepare answers to the questions raised by the members. There is no time limit to answer the questions asked by the legislative members. When the sessions are convened, the questions received by that time will be placed in sequence; those questions will be sent to the department concerned for information. The secretary or principal secretary has to compile the correct and complete answer in writing and prepare additional information for possible supplementary questions. As they cannot expect all questions that might arise, they are supposed to be ready on every aspect of the subject about which the member sought to know. The principal secretary has to brief the Minister about the answer to be given. A team of officers from the department will sit in the officer’s gallery near the Minister while the members are raising questions. As the session goes on the officers will be sending slips with bits and pieces of information relevant to the supplementary questions to the Minister, so that he gives accurate information to the House. This is the real accountability of the Government to the members of Legislative Assembly. The Minister cannot mislead as that amounts to disrespect. A dynamic legislator is expected to ask for the people. It is pathetic that some MPs were thrown out of House for taking bribe to ask questions on behalf of certain corporate houses. Question hour is thus most important aspect of legislative democracy. The Right to Information Act 2005 provides for the right to seek information by the public. It states under Section 8(1) (j) that the information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. This is a very significant provision. Some argue that this proviso enables a public authority to refuse to reveal information which is personal or provisional or does not have any relation with public. It cannot be. This is so general in its character that it cannot be confined to be exemption for information relating to privacy. Reasonable understanding of this law as explained in the Preamble leads us to infer that it is general and thus information that can be given to Parliament shall be given to all Not only this, the members can raise an issue of urgent matter in the zero hour. The house leaves one hour without scheduling anything, so that members can bring certain serious problems of immediate importance to the notice of the Government. A very serious issue can be taken on priority adjourning all the scheduled items of agenda, which is called ‘adjournment motion’. This is again, for compelling the government to give answers. Besides this there is ‘call attention motion’ where the members call the attention of the rulers on a specific issue. There will be several debates on scheduled subjects or demands or budgetary aspects, at the end of which the Minister is expected to answer or declare or clarify. These are all the powers of the representatives to ask on behalf of the people who elected them. No confidence motion, if moved, gives a lot of scope for questioning the wrongful policies of the government. Apart from this there will be Parliamentary Standing Committees which study working of particular ministries and give reports which INBOX ects. It is also necessary to come to an understanding with the Government of Andhra Pradesh for the welfare of the state and its people. Last but not the least, the Telangana government should work in tandem with the media to find projects and needs of immediate public importance and focus on saving the farmers from committing suicides. Raghu bhushan Eranki, 13-113, Venkatagiri, Hukumpeta, Rajahmundry Congress needs fresh blood C ongrats to The Hans India photographer for capturing the mood of Congress party on the faces of its state leaders. This refers to the front page photograph of Congress leaders in on February 21. Boredom, frustration and dejection are writ large on their faces. The ex-PCC chief Srinivas was lost in his own thoughts, while Jana Reddy was yawning and VH was in deep sleep oblivious to the world. All this at the anniversary celebrations of the passage of the AP State Reorganization Bill in Parliament. The funny photograph reveals anything other than celebration. Congress party has to shed its old baggage and inject young blood, if it hopes for any revival. The old leaders represent all that is ill with the party. It is turning out to be a party devoid of effective leadership and poor membership. Vinay Bhushan, B 1-1- 380/ 38, Ashok Nagar Extn, Hyderabad-20 Amusing T he photograph of the triumvirate of Congress party published in the frontpage of Hans India (Feb. 21) is amusing. It would KCR seeking to suppress media T elangana Chief Minister KCR’s idea of imposing restrictions on media is nothing but his expression of inconvenience to find his rule of law in bad shape. Media never hesitates to pinpoint politicians’ gimmicks which go against the welfare of the people and the same may not be digested by the leaders and their followers. A politician should always be able to take both positive and negative criticism in his own stride to succeed in politics. KCR began his rule, imposing sanctions on a section of media indirectly with the support of master cable operators in the region of have been appropriate to caption it with the famous saying, ' Arise, awake and stop not till the goal is reached.’ D V Sankara Rao, Chikkadapalli, Hyderabad. Telangana. Now once again he expresses his in tolerance against the section of press. Many politicians including Indira Gandhi who tried to put media to test got unforgettable lessons in the history. We cannot expect KCR being a leader of movements to underestimate the media role in democracy. So long as media supports a leader, they tend to praise the role of media, and once they are in power they start finding fault with the same media if it exposes them. Hope KCR who has a strong popularity as Telangana leader would focus on short-term projects which will immediately stop the suicides of farmers, while making plans for long term proj- Derailment of development T he article ‘Derailing growth Engine’ (Feb 20) calls for comprehensive deliberations on the functioning of our governments, more particularly National Development Council, Finance Commission, NITI Aayog etc. As experienced earlier, the plans and proposals of our various policy-making bodies were not successful as far as implementation is concerned. Not only in respect of Railways, several projects relating to other departments (power, industries, irrigation etc) also could not be completed in time, thus leaving every scope for vast increase in the construction cost of respective projects. This is mainly due to the changing priorities of successive governments from time to time. Normally, every government gives priority to take up their own selected schemes & projects, keeping aside the ongoing projects which were started by its predecessor governments. This causes inordinate delay in completion of the ongoing projects. The article has rightly dealt with several railway projects, which were undoubtedly derailed, due to change in governments from time to time. There may be a constitutional provision stating that all the projects, which were started by previous government and already incurred huge amounts, must be continued by the successive governments also. Thus, the sanctity of NDC, Finance Commission, Planning Commission etc (now, the name may be NITI Aayog) is lost, because there is no continuity in plans, policies and schemes. This sort of tendency, based on politi- would form basis of recommendations for changes in law or lead to amendments in the enactments. The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) will audit the expenditure of departments and find out the discrepancies, violation of norms and irregularities. Their objections have to be reviewed by the Public Accounts Committee, headed by the member of the Opposition who further give specific recommendations. Any defiance in responding to the members can be viewed as ‘disrespect’ or ‘contempt’ of the House and breach of privilege, which might even lead to imprisonment for a brief period. Almost every step or phase of proceedings of House fetches important information from the government. On behalf of people, they exercise their right to information by compelling the officers or minister on the deterrence of action under breach of privilege. If the proceedings in Parliament or Legislative House is disturbed, disrupted or totally cancelled for any reason, the information prepared would be left in the files while Minis- Email: [email protected] cal likes and dislikes, is causing the expenditure to multiply year by year. T V Nageswara Rao, Vinayakanagar, Visakhapatnam Plastic waste Imran Vs Kejriwal The much praised and admired ‘Muffler man of Delhi,’ Arvind Kejriwal, has become the Chief Minister of Delhi with the help of his broom stick symbol in the recent elections in Delhi state. Likewise, the playboy cricketer-turnedpolitician Imran Khan is aiming at perfecting dharna politics to become the "Muffler man of Pakistan.” Both have challenged the traditional politics. It is really admiring to learn that both the leaders took up anti-corruption movements to hit the headlines in the press. Already Imran Khan achieved name and fame by building a multi-speciality cancer hospital, besides leading Pakistan to 1992 World Cup in cricket. Banda Nageswara Rao, Hariprasadnagar, Chirala Telugu cries for attention C ters and officers would heave of sigh of relief as the ‘difficulty’ is passed off without happening! This is the most disturbing aspect. The Right to Information Act 2005 has provided the right to seek information held by the public authority. This law specifically stated under Section 8(1) (j) the proviso: provided that the information which cannot be denied to Parliament or a State Legislature shall not be denied to any person. This is a very significant provision. Some argue that this is proviso only for (j) which enables authority to deny the information which is personal or provisional or does not have any relation with public. It cannot be. This is so general in its character that it cannot be confined to be the exemption for information relating to privacy. Reasonable understanding of this law as explained in the preamble leads us to inference that it is general and thus information that can be given to Parliament shall be given to persons. Whether it is budget session or any other session, during the process of meetings of Assembly or Parliament, huge information from the public offices will be coming out to reach the people’s representatives. The media will be reporting numerous news items about questions and answers about the functioning of various departments. Unfortunately, now-adays the sessions have become the battle fields for political parties to show off their ‘concern’ for the people. Because of that newspapers write and TV channels talk about the abuses and unreasonable allegations. People are losing to know the information about governance. The right of people’s access to information assumes significance in this backdrop and the proviso in Section 8 comes to rescue of the people. A vibrant citizen has to ask for information for the public purpose. It is not meant to seek personal information or to settle individual grievance. It may not be wrong to seek redressal of a grievance, but it is not right even. System of the governance within it should include the mechanism to redress grievance of the people. In the absence of an effective mechanism to solve the day to day problems of the people or the problems created by negligent or irresponsible functioning of the public employees, the citizen is compelled to seek information about ‘action taken’ on the petition he made about a problem. The RTI should be used for improving the governance and to make the government, department and MLAs or MPs accountable. orporate schools and managements are neglecting Telugu and discourage the Telugu people to speak their mother tongue. In Vijayawada, our honourable minister Venkaiah Naidu also eulogized the language. But who neglected Telugu? Venkaiah Naidu established an English Medium School at Venkatachalam In Nellore district. The Chief Editor of a prominent daily runs Telugu magazines including for children. Both are wonderful magzines. But he runs an English medium school. Add to this trend, top officials from other States speak only English and do not encourage Telugu. Officials from our own state and politicians speak highly of Telugu only on certain days and pay lip service. All other days, they encourage English language only. Actually mother tongue learning is essential for every child. It helps them learn and understand basics and concepts easily. So both Telugu governments should take steps to introduce Telugu medium at least up to VI class. K Ranga Rao, TGT, Khammam . near and dear. It is also a feather in the cap of Modi who went out of his way to make this miracle happen. I am sure all the Christian minorities in the country do heave a sigh of relief and remember Modi in their prayers. M Somasekhar Prasad, Lecturer in English (Retd), Sumitranagar, Badvel, AP-516227 India puts up brilliant show O I t is shocking to note that plastic waste has been increasing gradually in oceans, which affects marine life as well as human beings. The matter of concern is that India is in the 12th position among the 192 coastal countries in contribution of this menace. Full ban on plastic use must be implemented by the government and fines may be imposed on people using plastic bags so that the use of plastic will be decreased. Also the shopkeepers must not sell plastic bags to the people and they must not be lucrative in nature. K Aravind Naik, Sainik School, Korukonda, Vizianagaram. India secures release of priest T he release of the Indian priest from the captivity of Taliban is one of the happiest events happened to us this year. Securing the release of Alexis Premkumar from the hardcore Taliban is no mean achievement of Modi's government. This event also speaks a lot about the skill and clout of our diplomats and their staff who left no stone unturned and made valiant efforts for long months that culminated inthe safe release of the priest. It goes without saying that there must also be some divine intervention somewhere, thanks to the prayers of Alexis and his ur Indian team certainly deserves a pat on their back for winning the crucial game against strong proteas. This is really a big win necessary to consolidate our position in the Group. The collective attitude of Indian players are appreciated, with the solid contribution from Dhawan and Kohil without losing early wickets, except initial hiccup of losing Rohit Sharma. Though South Africans are strong in batting, bowling & fielding , the proteas are stifled by meticulous bowling by Indians. Let India remember the bitter loss of a World Cup match against Bangladesh; they must perform to their best ability to remain victorious in the group. Rama Krishna M, D.No. 2-15-1, Venkata Nagar, Kakianda-3 Act firmly against fraudulent firms G ullible people are falling prey to fraudulent practices of some private chit and financial companies and other white collar offenders , the latest being AgriGold and Abhaya (The Hans India, 22nd February). RBI as the apex authority should clamp down on such frauds and educate people against such nefarious schemes. The RBI should set up a competent authority to look into functioning and financing of such companies and verify if all rules are complied with. The acts of law enforcement should be amended in such a draconian manner as to deter recurrence of such frauds. M Janardhan Rao, 24-17-43, Durgapuram 4th Cross, Vijayawada.
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