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People of Pakistan
Against a Monster
The numbing Peshawar attack must lead to change
Even by the grisly standards of the Tehreek e Taliban Pakistan (TTP), whose actions have been so extreme the
public flogging of a girl in the Swat area some years ago,
for example that even the Pakistan army has been
forced to launch a long-running campaign against them,
the attack on a school in Peshawar is something of a new
high in its horror, and despicable cowardliness. A body
count of well over hundred, most of them children, is
something that will shock the whole world even as horrors of war and strife seem to have achieved such a normality, such an everyday-quality, that ever-descending
and deepening spirals of violence seem to be no more
than ordinary bumps on a road well-traversed.
The TTP has apparently taken responsibility. The perverse logic, it seems, is that since drone strikes kill innocents, so will they. There could well be an argument about
the morality of those drone strikes, but none whatsoever
on deliberately, wilfully seeking to slaughter children in
their schools. India must stand in absolute sympathy with the people of
Pakistan in this time of numbing grief. That said, this attack poses another
question: will it galvanise Pakistani
society to, first, turn against elements
within who either advocate a soft approach towards the TTP or act as virtual defenders usually by citing adages about western
imperialism? And, two, will a new resolve amongst the
people make it clear to sections of the military establishment who still believe in the idea of good-versus-bad Taliban and seek strategy in using these latter elements
in Afghanistan or India that they need to change?
Pakistan is a society deeply divided, if not plain confused, about its role, its being, its destiny. Massive doses
of religious obscurantism, army rule and political mismanagement by a self-serving, utterly corrupt feudal elite adds to the mess. Its people, at root not much different
from others inhabiting the subcontinent, deserve better.
If horrors like Peshawar are to have any meaning, it should be the aam aadmi of Pakistan finally saying enough, and demanding deep, wholesale change.

CURSOR

The enemy is not always the other, we can create this otherness within ourselves

Trouble with Frankenstein

ers, almost anything can be attacked
to create a devastating statement.
Killing children by the hundred, the
Taliban say they want to let Pakistan
know the pain they feel when their
own children are killed.

Innocence No Bar
The cause is more important than
mere lives. The most depraved violence cannot stain the purity of the
here but for the grace of cause, no river of blood can douse its
God go I. Quibble over bright flame. Six million Jews were a
chance or God, but the sen- small sacrifice for achieving the putiment cannot be any dif- rity of the Aryan race. As were two
ferent anywhere in todays million Cambodians for the glory of
world. What happened at a school in Pol Pots revolution.
In Indias own tradition, it is perfePakistan on Tuesday or at a Sydney
restaurant on Monday can happen in ctly right to kill your kinsmen, teachers and cousins and slaughter ordiany part of the world, anytime.
We can try to prevent it, but a lone nary soldiers for 18 continuous days
deviant with no organisational link- to create a land of wailing orphans
age to terror can do the damage. and women who have lost their hus- Taliban /tlibn/ (noun), word origin: Plural of Arabic talib student
Blameless blood would flow and the band, father, brother, son or lover, beslaughterers of the innocent would cause one must do ones duty, what- was ground into the sand as the sup- itself have persuaded Islamabad to
erpowers waged their cold war thro- attack the Taliban. The Taliban are
themselves be cut down. Loss and ever the consequence.
Men, with the capacity to form ugh proxies in the region and Israels striking back, in a display of callous
sorrow would give way to anger and
bitterness. Terror sows the seeds of and follow abstract ideals regardless emergence as a communal, oppressi- cruelty meant to warn India and Afhatred and reaps a bumper harvest. of consequences and the ability to ve state produced Palestine as a run- ghanistan, besides Islamabad.
India must enhance its levels of viIn destroying its victims, it creates it- convert everyday technology into ning narrative of the Wests oppresself anew. Unless politics steps in to weapons of destruction, can today sion of Muslims. Pakistans desire to gilance, intelligence gathering and
absorb faraway grievances, organise build strategic capacity for offence policing. More importantly, New Debreak the cycle, decisively.
In the era of globalisation, affiniti- and raise resources across borders, beyond its size and capability tied in lhi must starve jihadi ideology of its
es and affiliations transcend borders and kill without count or remorse at neatly with the US plan to use Islam- oxygen, justification. Right now, the
and personal experience. For a Beng- the altar of their cause. It is in this ic indignation to oust the Soviets ruling dispensation in Delhi is, with
aluru youth in a cushy job, the suffer- context that ordinary people have to from Afghanistan. The Taliban and its aggressive advocacy of an antiing of civil war in Syria and Iraq can organise their lives in the pursuit of al Qaeda emerged from this quest minority agenda, doling out that oxand have survived, even after the ygen by the invigorating tonne.
transmute into sectarian rage that happiness. The question is, how?
All parties must condemn jihadi
The easy part is the mechanics of West succeeded in its quest.
finds articulate expression through
outfits and violence, with the clarity
an anonymous social media identity, vigilance and operations to prevent
and conviction with which the Indiwhich inspires malcontents in Brita- and put down. The tougher part is For a Just Community
in and Belgium to volunteer for jihad establishing a just community with Frankenstein discovered that the an Union Muslim League condemnin West Asia. A lone-wolf attack in unhindered communication and co- monster he created could turn on ed the Islamic State in Parliament on
Canada inspires someone in Sydney. nstant dialogue within, to identify him. In the novel, the monster disap- Tuesday. Any attempt to curry MusDispersed, everyday technology and resolve genuine grievances and pears into the dark, after performing lim favour by supporting violence
lends itself to terror. A car is a means peel away the layers of subjectivity his dose of mayhem. In the case of performed in the name of Muslims
the jihadi ideology and outfits it has would harm the community and
of transport, unless it is used to ram that dress up deemed grievances.
Terror in the name of Islam is a re- spawned, there is no such luck. They strengthen those who wish them ill.
a crowd of the enemy. Fuel stations,
In the era of globalisation, help
mass transport systems, office tow- ality. Modernity in Islams heartland are on the rampage, beyond the conand intelligence can be shared acrotrol of their presumptive handlers.
Pakistan is the biggest sponsor ss borders, just as terror and hatred
and backer of religion-based terror. are. India must reach out, in cooperaThere has to be unambiguous, non-partisan
They use it against India and to wan- tion as much as in vigilance, includgle concessions from the West. Some ing to Islamabad.
condemnation of terror attacks and of acts of
daring acts of autonomous aggressiinjustice that terrorists use to justify their crimes
on by jihadi outfits against Pakistan tk.arun@timesgroup.com

The kurta-clad hero once took on

dacoits. Now it can be terrorists

Why We Desperately
Need Bahadur Back
Celebrating someones 38th birth anniversary is not common practice, especially if that someone no longer exists.
But theres no reason why we shouldnt raise our glasses of
thandai and wish Bahadur Singh, known to a certain vintage of Indians simply as Bahadur, a happy birth-month. Created by artist-writer Abid Surti in December 1976, Bahadur
was a curious figure: a force of good working for the Establishment the Naagrik Suraksha Dal (Citizens Protection
Force) at a time when popular culture was celebrating the
anti-hero taking on the Establishment. With his rifle and
martial arts chops, he fought the national menace of his
times: dacoits of the Chambal Valley (also the incubator of
our most famous villain, Gabbar Singh).
What marks Bahadur out from any other comic book hero
is that he was Indian and not cute or funny. In his flaming saffron kurta (no colour politics, please), he was a young Ravi
Shastri-meets-Arvind Kejriwal 1.0 who made honesty bundled with flying fists cool. He lived in with Bela, his girlfriend,
who joined in the fights and wore a kurta-bell bottoms combo that remains fashion gold standard today. Dacoits have
given way to terrorists. At 38, and with a readership hungry
for a desi comic book hero without knowing it, Bahadur
must be at the top of his game. Bring him back.

Blinkers Off

Mobile Landscape
25.7
20.6
13.8

Among the top 10 mobile phone companies

worldwide, five are Chinese now. Their combined
market share is almost 17%, Gartners data for
the third quarter show. And Apple is closing in on
second-ranked Nokia. Indias Micromax is placed
10th with sales of more than 10 million units in Q3
Worldwide mobile phone vendor share, Q3, 2014, %
Q3 market share

Wealth and
children are
the adornment
of life.

2013

Salam

2014

4.2
3.6
3

The Koran

3.5

3.5
2.9

2.9

3.3

3 3
2.2
1.5

0.8
Samsung Nokia

Apple

LG

Huawei

TCL

Xiaomi Lenovo

ZTE Micromax Others

Worldwide mobile phone sales in the third quarter of 2014 totalled

455.8 million units, nearly the same as the year-ago period.
Smartphone sales were 301 million units, up 20%

I think so is not an
answer I expect from my
most trusted Yes-man

Citings

COAL MINES BILL

Dont Dig Us Into a Corner

Ashok Sreenivas
Following the cancellation of all captive coal block allocations, the government had to act fast to ensure that
about 74 blocks that are either producing or close to production are dealt
with before March 31, 2015, so as to not
impede production from these blocks.
Accordingly, it first promulgated an
ordinance in October and got the Coal
Mines (Special Provisions) Bill based
on the ordinance passed in the Lok
Sabha last week.
As expected, the Bill provides the
framework for auctioning or allotting
the cancelled coal blocks. Unfortunately, in its eagerness to pass the Bill
and send out a signal that it is keen on
reform, the government may be setting the stage for an uncertain and potentially litigious future, when ambiguities in the coal allocation policy
have already resulted in many ongoing suits.
Clauses 4(2) and 5(1) of the Bill contain provisions that permit coal
mining for any purpose that may be
stated in the mining lease granted. It
also seeks to amend the Coal Mines
(Nationalisation) Act and the Mines
and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act similarly. This effectively
permits commercial mining simply
by allowing it in the mining licence
given to a block holder. Commercial
mining may be a valid option for consideration. But introducing it in such
an off-hand manner ignores many
crucial related issues such as pricing
and regulation.
Given that about 80 million households do not have access to electricity,
lack of clarity regarding pricing is
ingenuous since coal contributes
about 70% of the countrys electricity and about half the cost of supply-

ing such electricity is coal price. Silence on the regulatory and oversight
mechanisms is also a concern given
the not-so-successful experience
from the oil and gas sector in spite of
greater thought having gone into the
design of its privatisation regime.
Notwithstanding the ministers
statement that this government does
not intend to introduce commercial
mining, it is a little disconcerting
even coal exports could be permitted
by merely issuing an appropriate
mining lease without having to consult Parliament.
The Bill allows coal blocks to be allotted to power generators that have
won tariff-based bids. This could be
another slippery issue. Would the
competitively discovered tariffs of
such power generators be revisited,
since producing coal from captive
mines would be cheaper? Would state
electricity regulators realistically
have the powers or capacity to deal
with these issues? Would it encourage
those who lost the tariff-based bids to
pursue litigation, since captive block
auctions were not available at the
time of bidding? Similarly, complications could also arise from the provision permitting those already having

Take your time, think this through

Change is beautiful, it keeps

you moving. But old religions
are against change, they preach permanent things. And
there is nothing that is permanent except change, because
anything permanent becomes
dead. If you are permanently
in heaven, heaven will turn
into hell. The very idea of permanence is non-existential.
The old religions have tried
to create a contented man. But
disobedience is something very essential for every human
being in becoming an individual. Not disobedience for disobediences sake but when
you see something irrational
being imposed upon you, and
you go on obeying it, you are
going against yourself.
You are destroying your
humanity, you
are murdering your individuality. You
are becoming
a slave. Obedience is beautiful if it is in harmony with
you, with your understanding, with nature. But disobedience is also beautiful.
Today, in India, if rains are
not coming, then all over the
country, yagnas are arranged.
Out of hundreds of yagnas, rituals, sometimes rains come,
and they say, Look! The Vedas are still significant, they
are not outdated! Existence still listens to the prayers. But
out of hundreds of rituals,
90% of the time, rains are not
going to happen.
Indias religions are the most
ancient religions. But not a
single revolution has happened here, and it has been suffering for thousands of years.
It is just a test of your faith.
Once you have passed through
the test, all joy is yours.

Chat Room

Welcoming
the Lima Pact

8.4
4

Outgrowing
the Past

38.2
35.8

9.5
6.7

Spiritual Atheist

OSHO

T K Arun

Why Capital is Now

Voting With its Feet
For nearly a year, Indias equities soared in anticipation of Narendra Modi leading a decisive government that would speed
up policy, investments and earnings growth. But as an analysis in this paper, published on Tuesday, said, we could be headed for a bubble. One way to measure whether stocks or indices
are reasonably valued, is to calculate the ratio between the
price of a share and the earnings associated with each. When
this P/E ratio soars above its long-term average, it indicates a
speculative bubble, since prices are rising faster than profit
growth. The P/E ratio of the 100 largest companies is just over
19, close to its long-term value. Earnings growth is still sluggish. Four years ago, the mid-cap P/E ratio was around 20, almost equal to the large-cap average. But
today, worryingly, at more than 37, it is
near-double the ratio of the giants.
Events of Tuesday indicate that the bubble has been pricked across market segments. In one trading session, the Sensex
and Nifty, indices of our most valuable 30
and 50 companies, respectively, collapsed
nearly 2%. Mid-caps fell 3%. This is not a one-day blip. The Modi regime has completed six months in office. Today, the biggest stocks are 8% off their six-month peak, and mid-caps down
a little more than 7%. The pessimism is gathering momentum: most of the losses have been incurred in the last 30 days.
In markets, tis a quick swing from boom to gloom. Theres
little sign of minimum government, maximum governance,
make in India has not been followed up by meaningful reform. After six months in power, the government has not managed to unclog a single bottleneck that blocked new investments or boosted demand in sectors with excess capacity. The
fiscal situation is grim, the current account deficit is swelling.
Is it a surprise that capital is voting with its feet?

THE ECONOMIC TIMES | MUMBAI | WEDNESDAY | 17 DECEMBER 2014

Source: Gartner

18 

coal linkages to bid for coal blocks.

Thus, on the one hand, the bill could
set up a fertile ground for disputes
and complications. On the other
hand, by focusing exclusively on coal
block auctions, it ignores critical issues such as low productivity, poor accountability for coal supply, poor social and environmental record,
labour safety and rights in a dangerous work environment, law and order
problems and an institutional vacuum to deal with these issues.
Reforms need to be carefully designed based on extensive consultations with other crucial sectors such
as power, land, environment and law
and order. Reforms should also pay attention to institutional structures
and processes, which are typically
blind spots of Indian governance. In
short, the current crisis should be
used as an opportunity to comprehensively overhaul a much neglected sector, rather than just dealing with the
immediate issue of coal block auctions.
Note that the only real urgency is
with respect to the 74 blocks. So, immediate legislative or executive action could focus only on these blocks,
which is easily done by scrapping Section 30 and Schedule IV of the bill,
and perhaps by removing references
to Schedule I mines. Simultaneously,
the government could either form a
committee of experts or request the
concerned parliamentary Standing
committee to draft a roadmap for the
coal sector.
The committee should follow a
transparent and highly participative
process, and could have the necessary
bills drafted by, say, the monsoon session of 2015. This will present the
country with an opportunity to have
an effective, efficient and responsible
coal sector. The Bill is likely to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha soon. One
hopes these issues get sufficient attention there before it becomes an
Act.
The writer is senior research fellow,
Prayas Energy Group, Pune

Future
Strategy
RICHARD DOBBS ET AL

Change is hard. Social scientists and behavioural economists find that we human beings
are biased toward the status
quo and resist changing our
assumptions and approaches
even in the face of evidence.
In 1988, William Samuelson
and Richard Zeckhauser, economists at Boston University
and Harvard, respectively, highlighted a case in which the
West German government needed to relocate a small town
to mine the lignite that lay beneath. The authorities suggested many options for the new
town, but its citizens chose a
plan extraordinarily like the
serpentine layout of the old
town a layout that had evolved over centuries without
(conscious) rhyme or reason.
Strategy needs to include a
firms immediate tactics and
ongoing improvements.
Research by our colleagues
showed that during 1990-2010,
US companies almost always
allocated resources on the basis of past, rather than future,
opportunities. Even during
the 2009 global recession. Yet,
companies most active in resource allocation achieved an
average of 30% higher annual
returns to shareholders compared with the least active.
The period ahead should
raise the rewards for moving
with agility and speed as digitisation blurs boundaries between industries and competition in emerging markets heats
up. It would be easy, though, to
become frozen by the magnitude of the changes under way
or to tackle them on the basis
of outdated intuition.
From Management intuition for
the next 50 years

The Lima climate-change

pact, reached after a protracted negotiation among UN members, is welcome (Progress
at Lima, Albeit Subliminal,
ET, Dec 16). The fact that the
developed world has now agreed to common but differentiated responsibilities is a shot
in the arm for the developing
world, and should be attributed to their sustained diplomatic efforts to make the deal
more equitable. Climate change is a man-made disaster. It is
hoped the world community
stands united and unleashes
concerted action to mitigate
climate change without delay.
M JEYARAM
Sholavandan

God, Religion,
Karma, Rapes
How are the above connected?
First, conversions. Why the
din only when conversions
take place from Hinduism to
any other religion, and not
vice versa? This is secularism, along with socialist, introduced into the Constitution
during emergency, with the
opposition in
jail. Conversions prove one
point: there is
no God, or rather, all religion-based Gods
are a myth.
How can man,
a mere mortal, throw an omnipotent God away and adopt
another? And all religions are
man-made and need Gods to
hold their pants up. Conversions and the din they raise also
prove that religion and politics are intertwined.
The non-existence of God is
also evidenced in the IPC, where there are laws against sacrilege and blasphemy. Does
God file an FIR? What Godly
power of attorney does the
state have to frame such a law?
And if there is a God, then let
him punish me when I die. The
IPC acknowledges there is no
God and the establishment
mafia knows this and, so, has
usurped this right as an instrument of political and social
control. So, if there is a God
and there is karma, then all
rapes and murders are a consequence of this karma. Right?
Surely, the victims have done
something in their past lives
and are now paying the penalty? So why blame the perpetrators? Their actions are written on their palms, forehead,
etc, by the uparwallah. No?
T R RAMASWAMI
Mumbai
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