Feudal Pakistan

•Fali S. Nariman’s — as a sequel to Shekhar Gupta’s exquisite piece ‘Junta versus Janata’ — and his reference to Churchill’s take on democracy being the worst system of government except all those ‘other’ systems leads me, in the context of our sub-continent, to quote Thomas Jefferson’s words, “Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just.” In the context of the current feudal charade in Pakistan, this is what an old Royal Navy colleague had to say, “No thinking person can assume that the ‘Atlantic’ style of democracy will ever work in Pakistan, given the importance of the army there.”

— Mukund B. Kunte

New Delhi

Get NAC back

• The National Advisory Council (NAC) was constituted soon after the formation of the UPA government in May 2004. The NAC, an extra-government and non-official body, was set up to monitor the implementation of the CMP. With UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi heading it, the NAC was more powerful than any union ministry or department. The NAC issued periodic press releases regarding the agenda and minutes of its meetings and the progress made on the CMP. It deserves credit for the timely enactment of the Right To Information Act and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. But since February 2006, the NAC has become defunct, perhaps due to the exit of Sonia Gandhi over the office of profit controversy. Now when the post of NAC chairperson has been included in the schedule appended to the Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Act, 1959, by an amendment Act of 2006, thus granting it immunity from disqualification, why does this office remain vacant? The NAC should either be abolished or it should play a pivotal role in implementing the UPA’s promises.

... contd.