-: Re: [rti4empowerment] Prime Minister's interaction with selected journalists

Dhirendraji,

What is right??
Blaming the servant or Blaming the master.
The master controls the servant and not the other way around.
So, if the servant is not performing, the master has the right to
fire him from service. This right means that the master is responsible
for the servants performance.

In law, there is a term called Vicarious Liability.

A master is vicariously liable for the tort of his servant,

This is know as vicarious liability in tort.

Master and Servant [Authority by relation]

A master is liable for the tort committed by his servant while acting in the
course of his employment. The servant, of course, is also liable; their liability
is joint and several.

A master is liable not only for the acts which have been committed by the
servant, but also for acts done by him which are not specifically authorized,
in the course of his employment. The basis of the rule has been variously
stated: on the maxim Respondeat Superior (Let the principal be liable) or
on the maxim Qui facit per alium facit per se (he who does an act through
another is deemed to do it himself).

The master is liable even though the servant acted against the express
instructions, for the benefit of his master, so long as the servant acted
in the course of employment.

In Century Insurance Co. Ltd. v. Northern Ireland Road Transport Board
(1942) A.C. 509, the director of a petrol lorry, while transferring petrol from
the lorry to an underground tank at a garage, struck a match in order to
light a cigarette and then threw it, still alight on the floor. An explosion
and a fire ensued. The House of Lords held his employers liable for the
damage caused, for he did the act in the course of carrying out his task
of delivering petrol; it was an unauthorized way of doing what he was
employed to do.

I posted a forward about Vikram Betaal and Manmohan Raja
a few days back. The article clearly shows that just being a good
guy is not enough if a wrong was committed and known but overlooked
either deliberately or otherwise.

Manmohan Singh may not be the only one to be blamed, but by being
a willing passive participant, isn't he guilty of a greater wrong as his
intergrity was (ab)used to shield the perpetratos for long

With best wishes,
from

Rahul,

(bruntno1@yahoo.com

Cybugle@yahoo.com)

Owner/Moderator - The CYBUGLE & 60seconds
Co-Moderator - TRADESMART

--- On Tue, 2/22/11, Dhirendra Krishna <dhirendra.krishna@yahoo.com> wrote:

From: Dhirendra Krishna <dhirendra.krishna@yahoo.com>
Subject: [rti4empowerment] Prime Minister's interaction with selected journalists
To: rti4empowerment@yahoogroups.com
Date: Tuesday, February 22, 2011, 2:03 AM

Friends,

Letter from former Additional Secretary Cabinet Secretariat to the Prime Minister, is reproduced below. It expresses anguish at prevailing corruption and poor governance. But is it correct to blaim only one individuals for it ?

Dr Manmohan Singh has impeccable credential and personnel integrity. Persons around him, who are expected to support him in governance, are to be blamed for the rot that has set in.Citizens are not willing to tolerate poor governance and corruption, as vividly evident from rapid fall of Governments in Tunisia and Egypt; the unrest in several other countries in middle east shows similar "unrest", arising from discontent.

This is a wake-up call for ALL governments, including Government of India and the State Governments.

Dhirendra Krishna

....................................................................
Dear Mr.Prime Minister,

Like millions of ordinary Indians, I too watched from the beginning till the end your televised interaction with selected journalists from the electronic media on February 16,2011.

You had never spoken to us, the ordinary people of India, on the various scams which have rocked the country one after another since August last year. Our only source of information has been the media.

As the citizens of this country who put your party in power, we had a right to expect that you will talk to us and explain to us what is the truth and how you intend arresting and reversing the rot that has set in and the continuing decline in the credibility and image of India as a result of the stories of these scams .

These stories---whether correct wholly or only partly--- have brought out one thing loud and clear--- the ineptitude and incompetence of your Government, the poor supervision which seems to prevail in many Ministries and offices, including the Prime Minister's Office, and the insensitivity of many senior members of your Cabinet to public concerns over these alleged scams.

Corruption is nothing new, but the magnitude of it as seen since you came to power has been highly disturbing . What is new is the ineptitude, the incompetence and the lack of supervision which seem to prevail since you came to power--- the like of which one had not seen under any other Prime Minister of India since we became independent in 1947.

You try to blame your difficulties and embarrassments on your having to run a coalition. You are not the first Prime Minister having to run the country at the head of a coalition. V.P.Singh, Chandrasekhar, Deve Gowda, Inder Gujral and Atal Behari Vajpayee headed coalitions too. Despite this, they gave us a government which worked as a team and which did not pull in different directions. I can't recall any instance under the previous coalitions where a Minister repeatedly circumvented the instructions of the Prime Minister, without fearing the consequences of his action.

All the previous Prime Ministers, who headed coalition Cabinets, made it clear to their political associates who the boss was and who would take important decisions. They never tolerated anyone who sought to circumvent their instructions. They never let their political allies dictate terms to them.

This is the first time we are seeing a Prime Minister, who tries to earn not the confidence of the people by projecting himself as a strong leader who will not tolerate any nonsense from his coalition partners, but the pity of the people by projecting himself as a helpless leader, who has nothing but to do what his coalition partners ask him to do.

We watched in utter amazement for one hour on February 16 not the rallying cry of a leader, who has realised the magnitude of the rot and who is determined to set it right whatever be the consequences to his position as the Prime Minister, but an exercise in self-pity of a leader who is at the mercy of his coalition partners and does not have the courage to call them to order.

This was the first time we had an opportunity of listening to you on the State of the country in the light of these scams. We were looking forward not to excuses and pretexts to explain away the sins of commission and omission of your government, but to a bold re-assertion of your leadership as the Prime Minister of this great country, who has the courage to face the people of this country in their eyes and reassure them: Thus far and no further.

I have no doubt in my mind that many right-thinking people of India, like me, must have felt ashamed and enraged as they saw the Prime Minister of this country giving out one excuse after another for not being able to govern effectively and for not being able to prevent blatantly wrong decisions and corruption.

You let us down badly, Mr Prime Minister. You let us down badly.

Warm regards,
Yours sincerely,

B.Raman,
Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi

PS: What a fall was there, my countryman