Freedom First

Summary

This is issue No. 312 of Freedom First (November 1978), a monthly journal of liberal ideas edited by S. V. Raju and Geeta Doctor, published by the Democratic Research Service in Bombay. In its 27th year of publication, the issue opens with S. P. Kotwal, retired Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and former Lokayukta of Maharashtra, delivering a detailed critique of the Lokpal Bill, 1977, arguing that its exclusion of civil servants and secretaries from the ombudsman’s jurisdiction guts the institution’s purpose while its inclusion of legislators is unprecedented and unworkable. The regular “Of Cabbages and Kings” column carries commentary (by SVR and GD) on the Chikmagalur by-election contest between Indira Gandhi and Veerendra Patil, on the Sanjay Chhopra/Billa case and rising urban crime, and on India’s China and Middle East foreign policy stances following the Camp David accord. Other contributions include D. B. Karnik’s account of a Yuvak Kranti Dal training camp at the Leslie Sawhney Centre in Devlali; a reprinted James Cameron piece on tourists in London; R. C. Cooper on Singapore’s car-taxation and urban transport philosophy; a book review of Nandini Joshi’s The Challenge of Poverty; a World News section on the tenth anniversary of the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia and post-Camp-David Middle East tensions; a reprinted item on Khmer Rouge Cambodia; Shankar Ranganathan’s essay (based on an All India Radio talk) on the necessity of forest conservation in India; and the closing “With Many Voices” page of quotations from the contemporary press.

Essays

The Lokpal Bill, 1977

By S. P. Kotwal

S. P. Kotwal, a retired Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court and former Lokayukta of Maharashtra, examines the Lokpal Bill, 1977, tracing the history of ombudsman legislation in India from the 1966 Bill through the 1968 Joint Select Committee report to the 1971 and 1977 versions. He argues that the central, unbroken thread across all earlier drafts and the Administrative Reforms Commission’s own report was that both ministers and secretaries to government would fall within the Lokpal’s jurisdiction, since the secretary alone bears permanent, traceable responsibility for departmental orders. The 1977 Bill breaks with this history by dropping secretaries and civil servants from its ambit while newly and unprecedentedly including Members of Parliament and state legislators (potentially over 5,000 individuals) as though they, not the permanent bureaucracy, were the source of administrative corruption. Kotwal also flags the Rs. 1,000 pre-complaint deposit as a de facto bar to poor complainants, criticizes the absence of any provision protecting the Lokpal or complainants from retaliatory action and contempt-style proceedings, and contrasts the diminished status given to the Lokpal’s office compared with the 1966 Bill (which equated it with the Chief Justice of India). He concludes that the Bill, after twelve years of gestation, still fails to meet the public demand for a serious anti-corruption remedy.

• Traces the Lokpal Bill’s lineage from the 1966 draft through the 1968 Bill (No. 51 of 1968), its Joint Select Committee report of March 1969, the 1971 Bill (No. 111), and the 1977 Bill.
• Argues every prior version, and the A.R.C. report itself, deliberately included secretaries/civil servants within the Lokpal’s jurisdiction because they are the traceable, permanent authors of administrative orders.
• Criticizes the 1977 Bill’s novel inclusion of Members of Parliament and state legislators (potentially 5,217 individuals) as against the historical focus on ministers and civil servants.
• Flags the Rs. 1,000 deposit requirement in clause 2(3) as a practical bar for poor complainants and calls for it to be scrapped or substantially reduced.
• Notes the Bill gives no protection to the Lokpal or complainants against contempt actions or a ‘trial by the press’, unlike the summary-punishment powers given to High Court/Supreme Court judges.
• Observes that the 1977 Bill downgrades the Lokpal’s status compared to the 1966 Bill, which had accorded him the status of the Chief Justice of India.
• Concludes that after twelve years of legislative effort the Bill still does not meet the public’s demand for a genuine anti-corruption remedy.

Of Cabbages & Kings

By GD

The regular ‘Of Cabbages and Kings’ column, prefaced by a Lewis Carroll epigraph, gathers several short unsigned or initialed pieces. In ‘Chikmagalur — A Second Miscalculation?’ (signed SVR), the columnist analyses Indira Gandhi’s decision to contest the Chikmagalur by-election against Janata’s Veerendra Patil, arguing she chose a ‘safe’ southern seat insulated from Emergency-era backlash, and speculates that overkill in anti-Gandhi campaigning could backfire the way attacks on Krishna Menon once helped him in 1962. ‘Two Worlds’ (signed GD) reflects on the Billa case and the media’s glamorization of the dacoit Gabbar-turned-advertising-icon, connecting rising, casually accepted urban crime and indifference to a widening gap between the privileged and the vulnerable in Indian cities. ‘Our Foreign Policy is Our Business’ (signed SVR) rebuts ‘progressive’ criticism of Foreign Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s China outreach and defends the Janata government’s efforts to normalise Sino-Indian relations as well as its cautious, non-partisan reaction to the Camp David accord. ‘Mud in Your Tea’ (signed GD) is a satirical piece mocking Minister George Fernandes’s proposal to serve railway tea in disposable mud pots, extending the idea into a mock-serious meditation on ‘Stone Age economics’ and simplicity of wants.

• SVR piece analyses the Chikmagalur by-election, framing it as Indira Gandhi’s attempt to secure a ‘safe’ parliamentary seat away from Emergency-tainted northern constituencies.
• Warns that excessive anti-Gandhi campaigning (‘backlash of the overkill’) could replicate the sympathy effect that helped Krishna Menon defeat Kripalani in the 1962 North Bombay contest.
• GD’s ‘Two Worlds’ piece uses the Billa dacoit case and a Sholay-inspired biscuit advertisement to argue that violence and crime have become normalized entertainment even as ordinary urban insecurity (theft, unsafe roads) goes unaddressed.
• SVR’s ‘Our Foreign Policy is Our Business’ defends Vajpayee’s China visit and criticizes ‘progressive’/Soviet-aligned press criticism of the Janata government’s foreign policy, while welcoming the Camp David accord despite Vajpayee’s reservations.
• GD’s ‘Mud in Your Tea’ satirizes George Fernandes’s mud-pot tea proposal for Indian Railways, extending it into an ironic commentary on austerity, employment creation, and ‘Stone Age economics’.
• Column overall models Freedom First’s editorial voice: skeptical of both Congress and its ‘progressive’ critics, supportive of the Janata government’s more liberal foreign-policy instincts, and alert to declining civic order.

Our Foreign Policy is Our Business / Camp David Accord / Mud in Your Tea

By SVR / GD

D. B. Karnik recounts a training programme for members of the Yuvak Kranti Dal (Yukrand), a Maharashtra-based group of revolutionary but non-violent socialist youth, held from 26–29 August at the Leslie Sawhney Centre for Democracy in Devlali. He traces Yukrand’s origins to 1962, following the Chinese invasion, as an offshoot of the Socialist party and Rashtra Seva Dal committed to direct social and political action, distinguished from establishment socialists by its impatience with compromise. Karnik describes the group’s professed philosophy of Marxist class struggle combined with a commitment to non-violence inspired by Martin Luther King (whose ‘We Shall Overcome’ the trainees sang), and notes that discussions at the camp were dominated by anger over caste atrocities, particularly recent events in Marathwada, with participants reciting poems by the Dalit poet Subash Thorat warning of impending social upheaval if oppression continued.

• Describes the Leslie Sawhney Centre’s democracy-training camps, which bring together trade unionists, social workers, journalists, politicians and women’s-movement activists.
• Traces Yukrand’s founding to 1962 in reaction to the Chinese invasion and youth frustration with the socialist establishment’s inactivity.
• Notes Yukrand combines Marxist class-struggle rhetoric with an explicit commitment to non-violent resistance modeled on Martin Luther King.
• Reports that caste atrocities in Marathwada dominated camp discussions, provoking strong reactions from Dalit participants.
• Quotes the Dalit poet Subash Thorat’s poem warning of a coming ‘holocaust’ if oppression is not addressed.
• Characterizes camp participants as a mix of students, trade unionists, entrepreneurs and full-time Yukrand workers, described as sober, disciplined and forward-looking.

Yukrand as I Saw and Felt

By D. B. Karnik

A reprint of James Cameron’s column from The Times (London, 7 August 1978), a wry meditation on Londoners’ ambivalence toward tourists, who are simultaneously an economic asset and a source of exasperation. Cameron recounts playwright John Osborne’s bitter piece urging Londoners to be rude to tourists, gently mocks Osborne’s over-reaction, and confesses his own irrational prejudices against wealthy Arab visitors around Kensington, comparing the sentiment to earlier anti-Jewish snobbery in the same neighbourhoods in the 1920s-30s. The piece closes with an anecdote of a German tourist mistaking Cameron for a local and asking directions to ‘Hyde Park’, which turns out to be BBC slang for Broadcasting House. It is followed by a short reader’s letter, ‘Two Delegations A Day’ by Sadananda Mukerjee (Times of India, 9 September 1978), noting that 401 official Indian government delegations went abroad between August 1977 and January 1978 at a cost of Rs. 69,78,181.

• Cameron’s reprinted Times of London piece explores Londoners’ contradictory attitudes to tourism as both economic boon and social nuisance.
• References John Osborne’s polemic urging Londoners to be deliberately unwelcoming to visitors, and finds it an over-reaction.
• Cameron admits to unconscious prejudice against wealthy Arab visitors in London, drawing a parallel to interwar-era snobbery toward Jewish residents.
• Closing anecdote plays on ‘Hyde Park’ being insider slang for BBC Broadcasting House.
• Accompanying short item by Sadananda Mukerjee criticizes the cost and frequency (401 delegations, Rs 69.78 lakh) of official Indian government delegations travelling abroad in 1977-78.

Going to Acton Green?

By James Cameron

R. C. Cooper examines the philosophy behind Singapore’s 1978 budget and its long-running policy of taxing private car ownership heavily to discourage congestion and promote mass transit, framing this within Singapore’s stated goal since 1954 of a ‘more just and equal society’. He details reduced personal income tax rates alongside steep increases in driving-licence fees, car registration fees and other motoring costs, along with non-fiscal measures such as reserved bus lanes, staggered work hours, car pooling and land-use planning that mixes commercial and residential development to reduce commuting pressure on the Central Business District. Cooper frames Singapore’s approach as a deliberate policy question — ‘are we building a nation for cars or for ourselves — the people?’ — and contrasts it with the more haphazard treatment of urban transport policy elsewhere, describing a discernible international trend toward taxing consumption over income to achieve social-justice objectives.

• Describes Singapore’s stated economic and social philosophy since 1954 emphasizing a just, equal society and full economic participation.
• Reports the 1978 budget’s mix of reduced personal income tax and sharply raised car-related fees (licence fees doubled; registration fees up 25-125%).
• Cites the Minister of State for Communications’ concern that lower income tax could tempt motorists back into cars from buses.
• Details non-fiscal measures: reserved bus lanes, staggered work hours, car pooling, area licensing, and mixed-use urban planning to reduce commuting pressure.
• Frames Singapore’s transport policy as prioritizing people and public transit over private car ownership given land scarcity.
• Notes a broader international trend of shifting tax emphasis from income to consumption in pursuit of social-justice goals.

Two Delegations A Day

By Sadananda Mukerjee

V. Krishna Moorthy reviews Nandini Joshi’s monograph The Challenge of Poverty: The Developing Countries in the New International Order (Arnold Heinemann, 1978), which argues that persistent absolute poverty in developing countries — affecting an estimated 800 million people — is a multi-dimensional problem spanning technology, entrepreneurship, food production and population growth, and cannot be solved through piecemeal remedies. The review summarises Joshi’s call for a new global economic order in which advanced nations take on fundamental responsibility for restructuring trade, investment and market access to benefit poorer countries, and praises the book, published under the Birla Institute of Scientific Research’s Economic Research Division, as a useful call to policymakers on both sides of the North-South divide.

• Reviews Nandini Joshi’s The Challenge of Poverty (Arnold Heinemann, 1978, 110 pages, Rs. 25).
• Summarises Joshi’s estimate that roughly 800 million people live in absolute poverty in developing countries.
• Outlines Joshi’s five-part framing of the poverty problem: technological, entrepreneurial/managerial, food, investment, and population dimensions.
• Notes Joshi’s call for a new international economic order restructuring trade, investment and market access in favour of developing nations.
• Cites the World Bank’s 1978 World Development Report on the limited poverty-reduction impact of the 1950-1975 growth period.
• Reviewer credits the Birla Institute of Scientific Research’s Economic Research Division for publishing the monograph.

A Nation for Cars or People

By R. C. Cooper

The ‘World News’ section reprints two editorials. The first, from The Times (London, 19 August 1978), marks the tenth anniversary of the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia, arguing the 1968 reforms represented a genuine internal party attempt at liberalization crushed by external force, and that a decade of subsequent repression has left the country’s intellectual and cultural life devastated, the population estranged from Moscow, and the situation ultimately unsustainable. The second, from the Swiss Press Review (25 September 1978), assesses the aftermath of the Camp David accord, warning that the Soviet Union and its allies retain destabilizing capacity in Lebanon (via the PLO) and Iran, and that a successful Soviet effort to undermine the Shah’s regime would jeopardize the gains of Camp David and risk direct US-Soviet confrontation.

• Marks the tenth anniversary (August 1978) of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, per a Times of London editorial.
• Argues the 1968 Prague Spring reforms were an internally generated, party-led liberalization effort, unlike Hungary’s 1956 armed uprising.
• Describes the post-invasion purge of nearly half a million party members and the ‘wholly laid waste’ state of Czechoslovak intellectual and cultural life a decade on.
• Concludes Soviet occupation has left Czechoslovakia ‘universally hated’ and the situation ultimately unsustainable.
• Second item (Swiss Press Review) frames Lebanon and Iran as the two Middle East arenas where Soviet-backed instability could still threaten the Camp David gains.
• Warns that a successful Soviet effort to destabilize the Shah’s Iran could trigger direct Soviet-US confrontation.

Book Review: The Challenge of Poverty: The Developing Countries in the New International Order, by Nandini Joshi

By V. Krishna Moorthy

A short reprinted item from UPI (Washington, 6 August 1978) describes Khmer Rouge Cambodia’s decreed ‘mating periods’ during which young men and women may meet romantically without reprisal, while a ‘love affair’ outside those periods is treated as a crime, sometimes punished by death. Drawing on U.S. Congressman John Anderson’s release of embassy interviews with Cambodian refugees in Bangkok and a March 1977 State Department report, the piece recounts eyewitness testimony of the brutal treatment of a couple discovered in an unauthorised relationship, estimates that as many as 1.2 million of Cambodia’s roughly 8 million people may have died since the fall of Phnom Penh, and quotes a former hospital worker describing the Khmer Rouge’s suspicion of anyone associated with the prior regime or educated classes.

• UPI report (6 August 1978) on the Khmer Rouge’s decreed ‘mating periods’ and criminalization of romantic relationships outside them.
• Cites Rep. John Anderson’s release of U.S. Embassy interviews with Cambodian refugees in Bangkok.
• Describes an eyewitness account of a couple beaten and forced to watch each other suffer after being discovered in an unauthorised relationship.
• Cites private scholarly estimates that up to 1.2 million of Cambodia’s ~8 million people died in the post-1975 bloodbath.
• Quotes a 38-year-old former hospital worker describing Khmer Rouge suspicion of ‘third graders’ as ‘dangerous intellectuals’ and depopulated villages (‘The country is empty’).

World News (The Continuing Occupation of Czechoslovakia; After Camp David; Cambodian’s Prescribe ‘Mating Period’)

Shankar Ranganathan, in an essay adapted from an All India Radio talk, argues that forests are essential to India’s ecological and economic survival, citing Plato’s ancient observations on deforestation in Attica alongside India’s own tradition of conservation-consciousness under Ashoka and the Mughals. He laments that modern India neglects and destroys its forests through thoughtless land clearance and short-term political incentives, warning that at current deforestation rates none will remain within thirty years, and details the many ecological services forests provide (erosion control, oxygen production, flood and drought mitigation, timber, wildlife habitat, tourism revenue). Drawing on the example of the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps under Franklin Roosevelt during the Depression, which employed millions of young men in reforestation and conservation work, Ranganathan calls for India to adopt a similar large-scale reforestation and employment programme, citing his own booklet ‘Will India Become Another Sahara?’ and various Indian and international conservation organisations working toward this goal.

• Opens with Plato’s 2,400-year-old account of deforestation and erosion in Attica as a historical parallel to India’s situation.
• Notes India’s own historical conservation consciousness under Ashoka, and references to nature in Valmiki’s and Kalidasa’s epics.
• Warns that at the current rate of clearance, India’s forests (officially 22% of land area) could disappear within thirty years.
• Details forests’ ecological functions: erosion control, oxygen production, carbon absorption, flood/drought mitigation, and economic value in timber, tourism and employment.
• Cites the U.S. Civilian Conservation Corps (1930s, under Franklin Roosevelt) as a model: over 3 billion trees planted, a million miles of road built, employing millions of young men.
• References his own earlier booklet ‘Will India Become Another Sahara?’ distributed to Indian officials and international conservation bodies.
• Lists Indian organisations engaged in conservation: Bombay Natural History Society, Friends of the Trees, Society for Clean Cities, World Wildlife Fund, Society for Clean Environment, Rotary International, Lions Clubs, and Gujarat’s reforestation programme.
• Calls on readers to plant and tend at least one seedling a year as a personal contribution to conservation.

Forests are Vital for Our Survival

By Shankar Ranganathan

The closing ‘With Many Voices’ page, prefaced by a Tennyson epigraph, is a compilation of short quotations culled from the contemporary press (The Times, The Economist, The Observer, Herald Tribune, Indian Express, Times of India, and others, dated August-September 1978) on subjects ranging from the Camp David accord and Mrs. Bandaranaike’s nepotism to Morarji Desai’s teetotal cabinet, the Shah of Iran, and the Moscow Olympics boycott question over Shcharansky and Ginzburg. The page also carries the Freedom First subscription form (annual subscription Rs. 10.00, care of Democratic Research Service, Maneckji Wadia Bldg., Bombay) and the publication’s colophon: published by J. R. Patel, Associate Editor, at 127 M. Gandhi Road, Bombay, and printed at States’ People Press, Ghoga Street, Fort, Bombay.

• Compilation of press quotations dated August-September 1978 from The Times, The Economist, The Observer, Herald Tribune, Indian Express, Times of India and Time magazine.
• Includes quotations on the Camp David accord, Mrs Bandaranaike’s nepotism compared to Sanjay Gandhi’s mother, and Ernest Bevin’s classic definition of freedom.
• Quotes Chief Justice Y. V. Chandrachud on special courts having ‘a martial law flavour’.
• Quotes Rajmohan Gandhi comparing treatment of Jayaprakash Narayan’s spirit to what the Emergency did to his body.
• Includes a quote questioning whether the Moscow Olympics should be cancelled unless Shcharansky and Ginzburg are released.
• Carries the Freedom First subscription form and the issue’s publication colophon (J. R. Patel, Associate Editor; States’ People Press, Bombay).

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