.... the brain is not a vessel to be filled,
It is something to be IGNITED

BURNING BRAIN NEWSLETTER - July 2006

Setbacks against public interest

The last 30 days seem to be ruled by evil spirits. It was a period where good initiatives were overtaken by devilish powers working against public interest. Three of the recent news made me very sad. The first one was the proposed broadcast bill, the second was the decision of the government to amend the “Right to Information Act 2005” and the third one was the decision of the government to postpone the notification of the new tobacco control rules by a couple of months. I am sure the first bad move to curtail the freedom of expression to a large extend by the poorly drafted broadcast bill shall be well fought by the powerful media lobby so we can leave it for the time being. My present concern is about the other two setbacks. 

While people were still struggling to get information from the “tough nuts” in the bureaucracy after the enforcement of the “Right to Information Act 2005,” the government thought of bringing an amendment. Everyone was expecting amendment and new rules to help overcome the bottlenecks and denial of information on flimsy grounds but what came in was a rude shock. It was announced that the cabinet wants to deprive people of the right to obtain copies of noting from the files.  

I personally found the bureaucracy to be very happy with this move. Demonstrably, as the very next day I went to a department in Chandigarh Administration to inspect a file pertaining to an ill thought out public project putting thousands of Crores of public resources at stake, I was told that copies of documents containing “Official noting” wouldn’t be provided to me. Quite a proactive step by a lethargic bureaucracy to implement even proposed laws, just because it suits them.  

The government is literally bent upon killing the Act. It seems that exposure of the administrative inefficiency and unsheathing of the arbitrary and brazen attitude of our bureaucracy with RTI Act as a tool is proving too much for the government. Selfish interests are once again proving to be heavier than democratic values. 

A few bureaucrats seem to weigh more than the voice of a billion people. Who says there is democracy? This appears to be Kleptocracy turning into real Kakistrocracy. Whom do we rely on; all the political parties are mute spectators and tacitly supporting the proposed death-warrants of the RTI Act. It appears to be a long drawn battle yet again.

The other initiative by the “Health Minister” prohibiting the depiction of tobacco products in movies and other mass media also seems to have taken a downward dive. After years of research and forceful scientific study the health ministry realized that the movies were creating a very positive and favourable impression on children and young minds about tobacco consumption. It was found that millions of future adults were at the risk of loosing their lives because the entertainment industry was selling addiction. Based on these scientific facts and supported by an energetic Health Minister Dr. Ramadoss, a landmark decision was taken that tobacco be taken out from the mass-media. It was concluded that “Vehicle of entertainment (movies, etc.) can not be allowed to become vehicles of death.” Armed with this conviction the rules prohibiting depiction of tobacco in movies along with plugging of lot of other loop holes in the Tobacco Act were notified about an year back (August 1, 2005).  

The strength of the proposed movies notification can be gauged from the fact that solely because of India’s stand to ban tobacco depiction in movies and mass-media, the Health Minister (Representing Government of India at the conference) got five minutes standing ovation at the “World conference on tobacco or health” in Washington on July 13^th this year. It was an unequivocal support from the world. 

But unfortunately ever since a few people are able to create enough influence so as to override the welfare of one billion people. The notification which was to come into effect a year back has again been postponed as on August 1, 2006 against the interest of a billion people. Millions more will loose their life because there are selfish interests working to make an additional fistful of money. This decision to postpone the notification is one of the most unfortunate decisions. If this initiative on tobacco is lost in India; it shall have global ramifications and will prove to be a very big setback for tobacco control around the world. Again, despite being a democracy, a few rich people are proving to be more powerful than a billion. 

The tobacco industry is waiting for this health minister to go because it is felt that once Dr. Ramadoss is gone, it would be easier to bury this remarkable initiative. The tobacco industry is also creating direct and indirect pressure on the government to dilute the initiative. It is now well known that the tobacco company ITC Limited had openly paid a sum of over Rs. 4.6 crores to 18 political parties having representation in the parliament in 2005. It was not love for Indian democracy but a bribe to allow the tobacco industry to kill more people; they successfully made our parliamentarians happy accomplices in this mass murder.  

Please raise your voice and come openly to support public interest and welfare. Gossiping in the drawing room may not be enough anymore.

Yours,
Hemant Goswami
Chairperson,
Burning Brain Society

Report from the “13th World Conference on Tobacco or Health” held at Washington

Dr. Amartya Sen, the Indian economist and Nobel laureate started his talk as a keynote speaker on the topic “World of smoking guns.” Differentiating “Cigarettes” from “Guns,” he remarked that in case of “Guns” the smoke comes out only after the gun fires and kills but in case of “Cigarettes” the smoke comes out first and then it kills. “Cancer kills smoking,” Dr. Sen, an ex-smoker and a cancer survivor appeared to be sure of.

Being an economist, Dr. Amartya Sen emphasised that people forwarding the logic that tobacco helps government earn revenue was not a good idea. He said that on the contrary, “It’s a silly idea to earn revenue out of tobacco sales.” He further pointed out that the argument of smoking being an issue of personal liberty was also not a valid point as smoking also has enormous social cost and affects the lives of others too. Adding to it he questioned that if a tobacco user lays claim on public health care then how valid was his claim of a personal choice because personal choice does not exist in isolation.

There was a whole session on the “End game of tobacco” and it was discussed that buying off of tobacco industry and nationalisation or taking up of tobacco industry by the governments was a possible and practical way to finish the tobacco menace within a reasonable time frame. There was a great deal of support on the idea of nationalisation of the tobacco industry with an intention to finish the tobacco menace.

The leaders at the conference also agreed to make the case that a country’s investment in solving the cancer problem is an investment in the health of the population and therefore an investment in the economic health of the country. Professor David Khayat, president, L’Instuit National du Cancer, France, said that “This was a unique opportunity for a diverse set of world leaders to come together to discuss and commit themselves to a set of actions.”

Dr. John R. Seffrin, the president of American Cancer Society pointed out that Cancer will kill more people in the world this year than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. By 2020, the number of new cancer cases worldwide will grow to 15 million and the number of deaths will double to as many as 12 million. An estimated 70 percent of these deaths will occur in developing countries, which are least prepared to address their growing cancer burdens. The only consumer product proven to kill more than half of its regular users, tobacco will be responsible for 4.9 million deaths worldwide this year alone. If left unchecked, tobacco use will kill more than one billion people in this century, the worst case of avoidable loss of life in world history.

According to the “2nd edition of tobacco Atlas” released at the conference an estimated 1.25 billion men and women currently smoke cigarettes, and more than half of them will die from the habit. Cancer Atlas with comprehensive cancer statistics was also released during the World Cancer Conference.

The conference also saw the Indian Government’s Ministry of Health & Family Welfare bag the prestigious Luther Terry Award for showing leadership in tobacco control initiatives. The health minister Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss received the award on behalf of the Indian Government. Earlier giving a presentation on initiatives taken by India to break the association of tobacco and movies Dr. Ramadoss was given a standing ovation by delegates from over 150 countries to express support to the movies initiative.

Dr. Ramadoss was asked during the Luther Terry press conference about the possibility of the Indian government taking over the tobacco industry to control tobacco death toll to which the Minister replied that there were no immediate possibilities but quickly added that, “Yes you never know considering the scary magnitude of the future death toll, governments may think on such a possibility in future.”

There is something Indian can learn from Ireland (The other recipient of Luther Terry Award) and that is compliance to the legislation. The Deputy Prime Minister of Ireland Mary Harney said that, compliance was 95%, and over 80% of smokers support the ban on smoke free public places. Harney pointed out that a number of smokers have actually quit smoking because of the ban.

India has now a greater responsibility to turn the legislation pages into action as the next world conference (The14th World Conference on Tobacco or Health) shall be held in Mumbai, India in 2009 and the world looks up to India for leadership in tobacco control.

The 13th World Tobacco Conference and the World Cancer Conference saw over 7000 delegates congregate from over 150 countries of the world at Washington making it one of the biggest conferences of the recent times.

Presentations from the World Conference
 

Download presentations slides from the presentations given at the World Conference on Tobacco or Health 2006 at Washington.

Presentation on "Association Tobacco with Bravery and its Impact on Youth"

Download from http://gallery.globalink.org/d/14234-1/tobacco_bravery.pdf

Presentation on "Tobacco in Movies and Impact on Youth"

Download from http://gallery.globalink.org/d/14236-1/tobacco_movies.pdf

An Article by Magsaysay award winner Arvind Kejriwal

The functioning of the Central Information Commission (CIC) is slowly becoming a matter of serious concern amongst RTI applicants all over the country.

There are broadly three types of problems being faced by the people in their interface with the Commission. The first and most important is the extremely slow functioning (or almost non-functioning) of the Commission. The Chief Information Commissioner, Wajahat Habibullah himself admitted in an interview that his first priority was to bring the Commission to a state of functioning.

Let me share some statistics. As on 1st May 2006, there were more than 900 cases received at the Commission. Out of these, less than 80 cases had been disposed of. So, on an average, one Commissioner disposes of three cases in one month. As against this, the Chairperson of the PGC, which is the appellate authority under the Delhi RTI Act disposed of roughly 500 cases in the last 10 months i.e. 50 cases every month. She works alone and she works only two days a week. A High Court judge hears more than 40 cases every day.

As a result, the cases at the CIC are piling up. In the last month, the Commission received 10 cases every day but disposed of less than one case a day. Thus nine additional cases were added every day to the number of cases pending before the Commission. Already, there is a waitlist of more than three to four months i.e. if you file your case today, it may not be before four months that the first hearing is fixed in your case.

I am aware of several people, who filed complaints and appeals with the Commission in the last few months and have not received any response so far, not even an acknowledgement. They are simply at a loss – what should they do next? How long should they wait before sending a reminder to the Commission?

Then, your records are not safe at the Commission. In the past, there have been several incidents, when the Commission lost the papers of appellants. So, the people are not sure whether their cases are safe at the Commission and are under process or not.

If the Commission cannot put its own house in order and if the Commission cannot ensure that they dispose of every case within a month, do they have the moral authority to impose a penalty on a PIO (Principal Information Officer) who does not provide information within 30 days?

The more serious concern is that the Commission does not seem to share this sense of urgency. The Commission functions in typical bureaucratic style. A Commissioner hears a case, when it is put up to him by the staff. The entire Commission seems to be in the firm grip of the lower bureaucracy.

The second problem is the non-implementation of the penalty clause. The Act says that the Commission shall impose a penalty, if any official violates any provision of the Act. It does not use the word "may". The job of the Commission is to decide two things - whether there was a delay and whether there was a reasonable cause for the delay.

If these two elements exist, the Commissioners are under a statutory duty to impose a penalty. In several cases heard by the Commission so far, the Commissioners have refused to impose penalties despite strong cases against the PIOs. For instance, in one case, it was proved that information was not provided in time and the CPIO admitted his guilt. Still, no penalty was imposed. The CIC observed:
"Since the complaint has been amicably settled and since this is the first complaint in the case of the Survey of India, no penalty is imposed."

This is strange. The RTI Act does not have any provision for such amicable settlement of cases or for non-imposition of cases if it were a first violation.

During hearings, whenever the appellant insists on imposition of penalties, the following arguments have been given against imposing penalties:

1 Aapko information chahiye ya aap penalty lagana chahte hain? Jab PIO info dene ko tayyar hain to penalty ki baat chodiye. (Do you want the information or do you want a penalty imposed? When the PIO is willing to give you the information, then why don’t you forget about the penalty.)

It is like if some thief stole my goods. When caught by the police, he returns all the stolen goods. When produced before a judge, imagine if the judge said," Now since you have got back your goods, why are you insisting on any punishment being awarded to the thief?"

2. Humen kisise yudh nahin karna. Sabko milkar desh sudharna hai. (We are not here to wage war against anyone. All of us should work together to save the nation.)

I don't understand how the Commissioners can be so naïve as to expect the PIOs to part with the information which would expose their misdeeds. I wonder what would happen if the judges also started taking similar views in all criminals cases presented before them.

3. "Our job is to act as a bridge between the government and the applicant."
I am afraid the Commissioners have not even understood their job. They are judges - quasi-judicial authorities. Their job is not of negotiator or interlocutor. Not providing correct information in time is an offence under an Act of Parliament. The Commission has been given a job, to penalise an officer for every violation of the Act.

The third problem is that the Commissioners do not have any knowledge about judicial processes. They are openly violating the principles of natural justice in almost every case.

You just need to peruse the orders at CIC's website.

One of the Commissioners is in the habit of passing orders simply on the basis of the appellant's petition without giving any opportunity to any party whatsoever. Another Commissioner regularly calls the PIO but never considers it appropriate to call the appellant. The arguments put forward by the PIO either in writing or during hearing are never communicated to the appellant, thus violating principles of natural justice. Out of 85 orders on their website, no opportunity of being heard was given in 41 cases.

The RTI Act has created a historic opportunity. The hopes of the people from this law are very high. If the CIC continues to function in this manner, as they are functioning presently the hopes of the people will be shattered.

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The World AIDS Conference
                                                               Report by Hemant Goswami

The XVI International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2006) is all set to commence from August 13 2006 at Totanto, Canada. The AIDS 2006 Conference theme, Time to Deliver, underscores the continued urgency in bringing effective HIV prevention and treatment strategies to communities the world over. Twenty-five years after the first reports of what was later to be known as AIDS appeared in the CDC’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, the magnitude of this epidemic demands increased accountability from all stakeholders to fulfill their commitments, be they financial, programmatic or political.

While additional resources and continued scientific research are critical to an effective global response, the theme recognises that the scientific knowledge and tools to prevent new infections and prolong life among those living with HIV/AIDS already exist, even in the poorest settings. The challenge at hand is to garner the resources and the collective will to translate that knowledge and experience into broadly available HIV treatment and prevention programs.

AIDS 2006 will bring together the movement of people responding to the HIV/AIDS epidemic to share their lessons and together stake out the road ahead. In doing this, the Conference directly affects the lives of those living with and affected by HIV/AIDS. AIDS 2006 is a catalyst for change.

The gathering will offer over 400 sessions, meetings and workshops featuring important scientific advances and discussion of current policy issues among political, scientific and community leaders and others on the frontlines of the epidemic. An estimated 20,000 participants are expected to attend the biennial conference, to be held in Toronto, Canada from 13-18 August 2006.

The opening programme will feature a keynote address by Bill and Melinda Gates, Co-Chairs of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. “We are extremely pleased to have such esteemed partners as we gather in Toronto to discuss the latest research findings and chart a path towards ending the AIDS pandemic.

As a follow up to the United Nations’ recent Special Session on AIDS, AIDS 2006 will provide an opportunity for delegates to explore how best to monitor progress toward universal access and ensure accountability moving forward. The programme emphasizes evidence-based approaches that have been shown to prevent HIV and proven strategies that offer practical solutions to the enormous challenges of scaling up access to treatment and care.

The clever moves by GPI
Sucks lives but believe in blood donation

How many remember that the Bollywood cine star Priety Zinta got a "Red & White Bravery Award" in 2003 for giving a press interview. She now has agreed for a bigger role; a brand ambassador for Godfrey Phillips, the tobacco company. This time the tobacco company Godfrey Phillips India Ltd. is trying to be sure that they will succeed in avoiding all the finer legal traps and so they are now promoting a series of new event by the name of "Godfrey Phillips Bravery Blood Donation Drive." A nationwide drive which will reach your town soon.

With stars like Priety and philanthropic mission of "Blood Donation" they are sure to make a lot of news and develop a positive image; what do you think should be done? Do you think that the long pending requirement of clarification regarding considering the use of the trade name/company name of tobacco companies in the category of indirect advertisement should be now done as an emergency measure? Should such brazen attempts to circumvent the law by the likes of ITC and GPI and promote its tobacco products in guise be severely punished? Do send us your answers, they will help us plan our strategy.

It may be taken note of that Godfrey Phillips had to sacrifice the GPI logo (used on all cigarette packs) from its bravery awards after we protested and made it an issue three years back; but now in the newly founded Godfrey Phillips Bravery Blood Donation Drive is again using a similar logo, as is on it's cigarette packs.

It's a rejuvenated Godfrey Phillips campaign in the light of government inaction to the bravery award initiative. This campaign has been started with the intention to provide a new lease of life for GPI. If the Government of India and the State Governments prefers to turn a nelson eye to this too, the tobacco company is likely to succeed. You can be very sure of a lot of VVIP involvement in this too.

Is the government planning to take some action or is happy just with the printed legislation? Can someone answer this?
 

Become a vigilant citizen; Participate in the Citizens Report project

It appears that the unaccounted actions and arbitrary decisions of many government officials are going to face some real challenge ahead and may become a thing of the past. Burning Brain Society (BBS) and Society for Prevention of Crime & Corruption along with the support of many other national and international organisations has decided to use the Right to Information Act to bring out a citizen’s report on the functioning of various departments of the government.

Announcing this new project today, Mr. Hemant Goswami, chairperson of BBS revealed that beginning May 2006, every month at least one government department shall be thoroughly scanned, scrutinized and evaluated for its public functioning. An annual report on the overall health and functioning of the Administration shall also be brought out at the end of every year. The citizen’s report shall be freely available on the internet, published in associate newspapers and in book form. Mr. Hemant further revealed that the entire effort of preparation of the citizen’s report shall be totally done by public spirited volunteers.

Lamenting the recent arbitrary decisions by the administrations like the one on public transport, mushrooming of the liquor vends, proposal of a film city and amusement park, etc. Goswami said, “The bureaucracy is taking the general public for a ride and has become totally unaccountable and insensitive to the public sentiment which needs to be changed.”

The departments which are initially planned to come under the BBS citizen’s report are Law & Justice, Police, Education, Tourism, Sports, Health, IT, Municipal Corporation, Labour, Housing, Civic facilities and such other department providing citizens services.
BBS has also invited organisations and concerned citizens to volunteer for the project. Those interested can call 0172-5165555 or e-mail at info(at)burningbrain.org.  

Join BBS

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You can support us in a number of ways. You can join the crusade, provide financial resources, contribute in cash or kind, donate resources, volunteer and be a contributing person.

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Burning Brain Society
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