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EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
An outrageous
penalty
he death sentence imposed on ve Indian
shermen by a Sri Lankan court for drug
trafficking has added an unfortunate dimension to relations between the two countries.
The issue has roiled Tamil Nadu, where it is being seen
as one more atrocity by Sri Lanka against the States
shing community. The Government of India has said
the shermen are innocent and plans to help them
appeal the sentence. The ve were arrested mid-sea in
the Palk Bay region in November 2011 and tried for
being in possession of heroin. Three Sri Lankans have
also been sentenced to death in the same case. Irrespective of the merits of the case, the sentence seems
unduly harsh, especially considering that the men had
no previous record of being involved in the narcotics
trade. Moreover, there is no instance of Sri Lanka
handing down this punishment in any other case of
drug trafficking over the last many years. In any case,
capital punishment for a drug offence goes against all
humane norms. While the two countries have a treaty
on transfer of prisoners under which an Indian serving
time in a Sri Lankan prison can be repatriated and
complete his sentence in an Indian jail and vice versa
it does not cover those sentenced to death, unless the
sentence is commuted. But there are still strong reasons to hope that Sri Lanka will not carry out the
sentence. For one, in keeping with its Buddhist traditions, the country has not carried out a judicial execution since 1976. For nearly three decades, though Sri
Lankan courts awarded the death penalty in many
cases, in every instance the sentence was commuted to
life imprisonment. In 2004, the country decided to
implement death sentences once again, but to date no
execution has taken place. A process of appeals is also
available to the shermen, rst in the Court of Appeals,
then the Supreme Court, and nally to the President,
who has the power of pardon.
While the nal outcome may well be positive, the
entire episode is a setback in other ways. First, it will
complicate efforts to nd an early resolution to the
issue of how shermen on both sides can live and
pursue their livelihoods without hurting each others
access to scarce marine resources. Secondly, with political and public passions in Tamil Nadu running high,
attitudes against Sri Lanka are certain to harden in the
State. In the past, hardline Sinhala ideologues and
politicians across the Palk Strait have fed off Tamil
Nadus anti-Sri Lanka sentiments. With Sri Lanka now
in its presidential election season, there is reason to be
concerned about the vitiated atmosphere. In the best
interests of both countries, the issue must not be turned into fodder for political mileage.
Making an estimate
The attention on the issue has created an
impression that all black money is being held
abroad. According to this writers estimates,
only 10 per cent of the black income generated annually accrues on foreign shores; 90 per
cent is in the country. The annual generation
of black income is 50 per cent of GDP or Rs.65
lakh crore. A part of it is consumed and the
rest is saved. A part of these savings is sent
abroad through hawala transactions, and on
mispricing of trade and illegal activities.
Thus, a bulk of black savings is in India and
not abroad.
The estimate by the Global Financial Integrity (GFI) of the illicit outow of funds from
Money is also moved via layering. So, idenThese are not deposits in Swiss banks. Out tifying who the real beneciary of an account
of the funds taken abroad, a part returns in is is difficult to gure out. For example, the
the form of round tripping. There are sever- LGT Bank in Liechtenstein list contained the
CARTOONSCAPE
Going beyond
disclosure
ondentiality in tax matters is both an essential part of due process in preliminary proceedings and a necessary ingredient for
international cooperation in curbing evasion.
However, it cannot be used as a pretext to avoid a
proper investigation into details that other countries
have shared with it. This is the message from the
Supreme Courts intervention that compelled the government to submit a list of 627 names in a sealed cover.
The court, in deference to the principle of condentiality on which international cooperation in tax evasion
issues is premised, has not made any disclosure but has
forwarded the names to the Special Investigation Team
appointed by it for a further probe. In hindsight, it may
appear a redundant exercise, as the government had
also submitted the same list to the SIT as early as in
June. However, it appears that insufficient progress
has been made since then, and the court is possibly
justied in believing that unless it monitored the probe
it may be delayed unduly. Chief Justice H.L. Dattu has
claried that the court would not have asked for the list
but for an application by the government seeking modication of earlier orders passed in the same matter.
Given the zeal shown by the Bharatiya Janata Party
in the run-up to the election in promising that it would
bring back fabulous sums of money parked in foreign
bank accounts, there was a legitimate expectation that
the authorities would aid the SIT in a quick and efficient probe. However, governance has its own limitations, and a better understanding of the condentiality
requirement has led to a more pragmatic approach to
the issue. The present regime is right in stressing on its
international obligations and not wanting to jeopardise
future cooperation on tax matters from various countries, which was the stand of the UPA government as
well. Apart from an inter-governmental agreement
with the U.S., India also plans to adopt a multilateral
agreement with 46 other countries. It hardly needs
iteration that nothing should be done to undermine
such efforts to put in place trans-border mechanisms
to curb evasion. For, the identication and prosecution
of all those who hold unaccounted money in overseas
accounts is more important than the immediate public
disclosure of some names. Meanwhile, it should not be
forgotten that not all black money is abroad. Much of it
is within the country, especially in sectors such as real
estate, higher education and mining. A recent report of
the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy
estimates that the black economy in India may constitute 75 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product. A raft of
policy measures and diligent monitoring are needed to
bring down this illegal edice.
CM
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Face-off
Global parallel
Some entities who were investigated are
reported to have admitted to income tax authorities that they had illegal accounts in
these banks but many denied being associated with these accounts in the hope that they
would work out a solution to their predicament using political settlement. It is then not
surprising that there has not been much
headway in investigating these accounts
since 2009.
That is the history of investigations in India. Cases are delayed and usually spoiled so
that prosecution is rare. Contrast this with
the Birkenfeld-UBS case in the United States.
Inspite of non-cooperation by the UBS Bank
and the threats by the Switzerland government, courts in the U.S. pressed ahead ignoring the argument of secrecy and
condentiality of information. UBS was
forced to admit wrongdoing, pay a ne of
$780 million and provide a list of 4,500 names
of U.S. citizens who had accounts with it.
Recently, Credit Suisse was also ned $2.5
billion for such fraud. Thus, investigation and
toughness paid off. In contrast, the Indian
government has been scoring a self-goal by
arguing against taking tough action, citing
secrecy and privacy.
Today the focus is on 653 names from the
two lists. But lakhs of rich and corrupt people
have their wealth stashed abroad and the government has not even taken the preliminary
steps to act against them. Finally, one of the
banks in question has been revealed to have
acted like a hawala operator. Other MNC and
private Indian banks also indulge in these
activities. Why has the government not initiated action against them and hawala operators? Why is the government not proactive
in analysing relevant data from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and Julian Assange? No wonder
the perception is that the government is stalling on unearthing Indian black money and
Ache Din is not around the corner.
(Arun Kumar is Sukhamoy Chakravarty
Chair Professor, Centre for Economic
Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru
University and the author of Indian
Economy since Independence: Persisting
Colonial Disruption.)
Quite a pinch
A physicians thoughts
I fail to understand how a reader
(Letters, Oct. 27) could conclude
that Dr. B.M. Hegde was ridiculing
medical science in his article
Unlearning to relearn... (Open
Page, Oct.26). Criticism is not
ridicule. And scepticism is at the
heart of good science. Peer review
and sharing of study data are
examples of essential scientic
practices that encourage criticism,
critical inquiry and re-evaluation of
scientic studies.
The letter writer wants that the
layman does not get the wrong
message, but I am afraid it is he who
has got the wrong message. John
Ioannidis, who Atlantic magazine
calls as one of the worlds foremost
experts on the credibility of medical
research, says that 90 per cent of
the information relied upon for
clinical decisions by doctors is
either wrong or misleading. And Dr.
Ioannidis has evidence. Dr. Ben
Goldacre, author of Bad Pharma,
puts it thus: We like to imagine that
medicine is based on evidence and
the results of fair tests. In reality,
those tests are often profoundly
awed. We like to imagine that
doctors are familiar with the
research literature, when in reality
much of it is hidden from them by
drug companies .
Good science need not fear harsh
words. Science is not a religion to be
taken on blind faith. Laymen like
Gregory Mendel contributed to
some of its signicant advances.
Science thrives on criticism and
review. As one science channel put
it, Question everything!
Tim Heineman,
Bangalore
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Mono-nationalisms
New countries tend to be more nationalistic than older ones, and South Asia is bubbling with the incipient patriotisms of its
newborn nation-states, all less than seven
decades old (other than Nepal, which goes
back a couple of centuries). Rather than
evolve through the historical push-and-pull
of power and politics, the countries were
defined amid the hurried manipulations of
the departing colonial. They were then required to construct their separate nationalisms, and the capital elites of India, Pakistan
and Ceylon were more than happy to fill the
shoes of Mountbatten.
There was and is the contradiction of trying to force-fit a demographically layered and
syncretistic subcontinent into the Westphalian nation-state, rather than devise workable formulae within that format. The new
nationalisms of South Asia tended towards
xenophobic and ultra, with a need to build
external enemies and foreign hands in order to manage schisms. The more diverse the
country, the more the need for centralised
Without the gumption to redefine the nation-state to South Asian specifications, the
path of least resistance all over South Asia
includes the call to rallying around the flag
and the outline (even if somewhat outdated)
of frontiers on the map, seeking to foist a
brittle definition of one religion as national
faith, and brandishing a slogan that should
have been abandoned long ago in liberal democracy my country right or wrong.
the barracks.
In each South Asian country, the no-go
areas of discourse are proliferating rather
than decreasing as the state establishments
deploy ultra-populism. In response, the intelligentsia cowers, the opinion-makers
are dehumanised as they take to weighing
what to say and what to leave unsaid.
In Sri Lanka, few dare challenge the Rajapaksa family autocracy, which is backed by
radical Buddhist clergy. In Myanmar, Aung
San Suu Kyi has quite easily succumbed to
Burman ultra-populism, failing to come to
the rescue of the Rohingya of Rakhine state.
In Pakistan, the Ahmadiyya community is
prohibited even as the charge of blasphemy is
used by the state authorities to target the
weakest citizens the tragedy of Asia Bibi
awaiting the hangman in Multan should be
CARTOONSCAPE
Voting procedures
and participation
he Republicans are striving to wrest control
of the Senate in the United States mid-term
elections on Tuesday. But there is a contentious battle raging, that could potentially disenfranchise thousands of voters, a not so good augury
for an otherwise vibrant democracy. Since 2010, all of
21 States have put in place voting restrictions, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. The Supreme
Court, by a narrow majority in 2013, delivered a verdict
that invalidated a clause in the 1965 Voting Rights Act
that requires States with a record of discrimination to
obtain federal clearance before changing electoral procedures. This is the same law that the court had upheld
in the past, the Congress renewed last in 2006 and
President George W. Bush assented to. To be sure, the
judges last year did not question that the risk of racial
discrimination in voting may still be real. Rather, they
would like remedial legislation to be rooted in the
countrys current circumstances as reflected in increased minority voter turnout in many States and the
two-term election of a first black President.
Against the backdrop of 2013 and ahead of the midterm polls, Republican-ruled states want to enforce
laws that they argue are intended to protect the integrity of the electoral process. These statutes require registered voters to bring some form of photo identification
to the polling stations. Some States have also reduced
the early voting period which was designed as a
measure to encourage and enhance participation
with an eye on reducing costs. Opponents have won
challenges in federal courts on the ground that these
laws disproportionately affect voters from minority
communities and that the degree of fraud may not
warrant stringent voting curbs. The Supreme Courts
two interim orders in October, to block the Wisconsin
voting law and allow that of Texas, have not clarified
the position. It may not seem unreasonable for voters
to be asked to present one of many photo identifications at the polls. But to deny voters who have already
registered for the franchise for want of any documentation militates against the spirit of a mature democracy.
This is a fundamental question for a country whose
core objectives in foreign policy remain the promotion
of democracy and the rule of law around the world.
These could well be some of the considerations before
Congress as and when it revisits this landmark legislation that goes back to the time of the civil rights movement. Republicans and Democrats should rise above
narrow partisan political interests to secure the protections for the countrys large minorities. Individual liberty, as well as equality, are at stake here. The world
will be watching as Washington votes on Tuesday.
CM
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everyones concern from Kathmandu to Kochi. In Bangladesh, you are liable to be labelled anti-national if you so much as
challenge the officially sanctioned number,
three million, for those killed during the 1971
Liberation War.
In Nepal, despite the longer history remains entrapped in schoolboy symbolisms,
such as the insistence that Buddha was born
in Nepal when no one is really challenging
the fact. But for all the high-volume patriotism, no one wants to raise uncomfortable
matters such as Nepali citizens formally
serving in foreign armies. A man who suggested secession of the Tarai-Madhes plains
has been charged with sedition, as if the national society is not strong enough to tackle
oral dissidence.
Shouting heads
The subcontinent has arrived very far from
where liberal democracy was supposed to
lead us. The rock-bottom of exhibitionist ultranationalist behaviour can actually be
found in the most democratic of us all, i.e.
India. For this, one has to merely follow the
shouting heads on New Delhis news channels. Egged on by the anchors, the appalling
bombast of the participants reaches peak
decibel when the talk turns to the South
Asian neighbours, Pakistan in particular.
(Significantly, an exceptional sobriety is reserved for all matters relating to the Peoples
Republic.)
The shouting heads refuse to exhibit any
empathy whatsoever for the tortured soul of
Pakistan, the countrys purpose merely to
serve as a receptacle for chest-thumping. India is presented as the wronged partner since
the time of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, and there
is little sensitivity shown for the Pakistani
citizen who suffers like no other in the subcontinent drone attacks, sectarian killings,
mafia murders, blasphemy laws, car bombs,
human bombs, assassination of leaders, activists and health workers, disappearances,
massive internal military offensives, and the
reign of military intelligence.
One is left wishing that the loud among
New Delhis commentariat would pause a
moment to consider how they compare with
counterparts in Pakistan, who risk life and
limb when they challenge the political outfits, the army, military intelligence, radical
clergy and militants of every kind. And they
do it in ground-level in Urdu, inviting that
much more danger than when protected by
the distance of English.
The absence of self-reflection at the national level in India on the critical issues of
due process, human rights and fundamental
freedoms is striking and worrisome. The
promise made to Kashmir inherent in Article
370 of the Constitution is pooh-poohed.
Irom Sharmilas hunger strike demanding
the repeal of AFSPA in Manipur has been
ignored now for nearly a decade-and-half (a
fast started 14 years ago yesterday, November 2.) Whether Afzal Guru got a fair trial
before his February 2013 execution for the
attack on Parliament was a subject that never
made it to national debate.
The anti-nuclear weaponisation agenda
does not get traction anywhere in India, other than a little bit in West Bengal. Increasingly, environmentalists are being pilloried, the
peoples movements ignored, trade unions
laughed at, and human rights groups and civil
liberties unions have never been more out of
fashion. It is an abysmal state of affairs when
a country that aspires to great power status
requires its citizens who want to organise
international conferences or seminars to
first get clearance from the Ministry of Home
Affairs.
All of South Asia needs to shake off ultranationalism and ultra-populism and restore
the dignity of our governance structures. India needs to do it quick, because what happens to India affects significantly more
people, within and without.
(Kanak Mani Dixit is a Kathmandu-based
writer and Editor of Himal Southasian
magazine.)
Warren Anderson
Beyond disclosure
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
State inputs
It is clear that where the leadership has
understood the potential of the programme,
every effort has been made to make it more
effective, and this is true across the political
spectrum. I can personally testify to the remarkable inputs that almost all State governments gave to the committee set up under my
chairmanship to reform the programme and
create MGNREGA 2.0, which helped to introduce a large number of new productivityenhancing works and build synergies between MGNREGA and agriculture.
This is not to say that the programme has
been an unqualied success. Indeed, every
effort needs to be made to reform MGNREGA, as the programme has been both a major
success and a huge failure. The best way to
reform such a programme is to study carefully the conditions that made it a success and
also to undertake a diagnostics of its failures,
so as to learn how best to x it. The NDA
government is rightly concerned with the
many failures of the programme in not being
able to generate more than 50 days of work
CARTOONSCAPE
Protecting
children in schools
xtremely disturbing incidents of sexual assault on children inside school premises have
been reported in quick succession from Bengaluru. Two cases were reported in the month
of October alone and at least nine such cases, including
extreme cases of rape, have been reported during this
year. The victims include a girl as young as three. While
media coverage may have led to increased reporting of
such incidents, it must be pointed out that attention
came to be focussed on the issue after cases were reported from upmarket English medium schools. There
is a fear that cases in schools catering to the poor may
not even come to light. Sexual abuse of children is not
restricted to schools and often goes unreported in several venues across the country. A comprehensive survey
conducted in 2007 by the Ministry of Women and Child
Development, Government of India, found that 53.22
per cent of over 12,000 children interviewed had faced
sexual abuse. The survey suggested that schools constitute a relatively safer environment and most abuses are
perpetrated by family members, including parents. Till
March this year, 400 cases have been registered under
the stringent Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012 (POCSO) and over 12,000 cases of rape
of children were registered in 2013 under Section 376 of
the IPC. These statistics underline the enormity of the
issue, which needs to be addressed in its entirety.
However, following the incidents in Bengaluru, the
public debate is over safety in schools. Improving safety
measures and xing vicarious responsibility on school
managements are important, but there are deeper concerns that need to be addressed. Even as the number of
schools are growing, there are hardly any systems to
verify the antecedents of staff members, and this has at
times let even habitual offenders come in close contact
with children. Schools need to scrutinise their teaching
and non-teaching staff more closely. Improving awareness over what constitutes sexual abuse as dened by
law is essential. It is also important to counsel parents
and teachers to actively encourage dialogue with children and make them aware of any dangers and report
such incidents. Even basic protocols on the time and
place of contact with a child by staff members are not
followed in most schools. Making the law enforcement
authorities more sensitive to dealing with such cases is
another major challenge, and often the psychological
impact of such cases on the victims, parents and other
children is not addressed seriously. These are issues
that need to be dealt with sternly and swiftly at the
national level. The concern is not just that these cases
have been reported in one city, but the fact that they
may be going unreported in several others.
CM
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per annum, in the poor quality of assets cre- 2,500 most backward blocks of the country is
ated, in the delays in payments to workers a step in the right direction.
and also in the inability of the really needy
areas of the country to take full advantage of Regional backwardness
the programme.
Chief Ministers have long emphasised the
need to understand Indias regional backInsights
wardness in terms of blocks rather than disAll of these problems need to be addressed. tricts. Many advanced districts in India hide
The best way to do so is to study where the pockets of backwardness and not all blocks in
programme has been able to deliver. I have in the so-called backward districts may be
mind the thousands of villages where water equally deprived. As Member, Planning Comharvesting structures have been created, agri- mission, I oversaw a remarkable exercise to
culture has improved, nearly 100 days of work rank Indias subdistricts in order of backhas been provided, distress migration has re- wardness. The importance of this exercise for
duced and women have been empowered. a programme like MGNREGA is that demand
MGNREGA is one programme where all this for work has been shown to be the highest in
has been rigorously documented by scholars these most backward subdistricts. Hence, the Wage-material ratio
from all over the world. This research also NDA government has correctly sought to foFinally, to the vexed question of the wagethrows up insights on the features that char- cus intensive participatory planning exercis- material ratio, which has been xed at 60:40
acterise locations where success has become es in the 2,500 most backward subdistricts under the programme. There is a notion that
it is this ratio that has led to the creation of
poor quality assets under the programme.
Where the State leadership has understood the potential of
That such a myth can endure in a country
with a rich tradition of earthen engineering,
the programme, every effort has been made to make it more
where water security was traditionally proeffective, and this is true across the political spectrum.
vided to millions of people through earthen
water harvesting structures, is a matter of
great sorrow. Each of these structures was
possible: one, availability of strong technical and also set up cluster facilitation teams designed in a truly location-specic manner,
support to the main implementing agency, there. These teams are multidisciplinary based on a deep understanding and study of
the gram panchayat; two, capacities to under- teams of professionals who will support gram local geology, soil types, topography and raintake decentralised planning exercises and panchayats in these 2,500 subdistricts to ef- fall patterns and based on intricate engineercreation of a robust shelf of works; three, fectively plan and implement MGNREGA. ing techniques, designed and perfected over
awareness among MGNREGA work-seekers The teams include social mobilisers who will centuries of practice, deeply grounded in rich,
of their entitlements and procedures under help generate greater awareness about the local, cultural traditions. It is real testimony
the programme; four, active and vibrant gram programme among work-seekers.
to how divided we have become as a nation
sabhas, which debate and decide the works to
This is an excellent example of learning that planners and policymakers, sitting in disbe undertaken and all procedures related to from the successes of MGNREGA and I am tant urban locations, show such deep ignothe programme; ve, open and effective social extremely optimistic that this reform will rance of our rich social, ecological and
audits that check corruption; six, accountable lead to more effective implementation of the cultural heritage, from which we have so
gram panchayats, where the leadership re- programme where the demand for it is the much to learn. They also seem completely
sponds to the legitimate demands and griev- greatest. What should not be done, however, oblivious that the 21st century is seeking to
ances of the people; and seven, a system that is to say that work-seekers in other areas of make a break with energy-heavy, fossil fuelensures timely payment of wages.
the country will not be provided work on based technologies and seeking to build with
A lot of what the NDA government is pro- demand. The very raison d'etre of MGNREGA green materials.
As a matter of fact, excellent earthen engiposing clearly reects a desire to learn from is that it is a legal guarantee for work. It is
these successes and merits strong support. undoubtedly true that the attempt to uni- neering work has been done under MGNREFor example, the proposal to focus on the versalise the programme in a top-down man- GA, where care was taken to learn from these
traditions and also to empower gram panchayats to understand the principles underlying this watershed approach. Changing the
wage-material ratio in a blanket fashion has
the inherent danger of converting this people-centred programme, into a contractormachinery driven one, which would further
weaken grass-roots democracy in India.
There is, however, a case to be made for
permitting greater exibility in this ratio in
certain parts of the country, where material
costs tend to be exorbitantly high: the Himalayan region, for instance, where transport
costs are steep, or deserts where long distances need to be traversed. In such regions,
lowering the wage-material ratio could actually enable more work to be provided under
MGNREGA. This has been a long-standing
demand of some States. Elsewhere, there is
abundant scope for individual works with a
lower wage-material ratio, because it is only
the average that needs to be 60:40. Many such
works were introduced into the programme
by my committee and are doing very well on
the ground. Thus, there is enough exibility
that has already been created. Doing more
than what is warranted by these legitimate
concerns, would be to compromise the fundamental power of the MGNREGA.
(Mihir Shah is a grass-roots activist who
has lived and worked for 25 years in the tribal
villages of Central India. From 2009 to 2014,
he was Member, Planning Commission,
Government of India.)
Terror at Wagah
Ultra-populism
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Bold gamble
in Tamil Nadu
n deciding to break away from the Congress in
Tamil Nadu, former Union Minister G.K. Vasan is
following the example that his father, G.K. Moopanar, set in 1996. But even if some of the personalities are the same, the circumstances are very different
18 years on. Mr. Moopanar formed the Tamil Maanila
Congress protesting against the party high commands
decision to ally with the AIADMK against the wishes of
large sections of the partys supporters in the State.
Inner-party democracy, functional autonomy for State
units, an anti-corruption crusade, all these were issues
that motivated Mr. Moopanar, a loyalist of the NehruGandhi family who found himself out of sync with the
Congress led by P.V. Narasimha Rao. Now, however, the
problem is that no alliance that would help it win even a
few seats is in sight for the Congress in Tamil Nadu. The
erosion of popular support for the party coincided with
the rise of a chauvinistic attitude on the Sri Lankan
Tamils issue after the decimation of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2009. Although the LTTE enjoyed
the support of only fringe groups in Tamil Nadu after the
assassination of Rajiv Gandhi in 1991, during the nal
phase of the war in Sri Lanka and later,the Congress-led
UPA government was accused of having supported the
Sri Lankan government to the detriment of the cause of
the Tamils in the island.
At the head of his own party, Mr. Vasan will have the
manoeuvrability to forge alliances with the other major
political players in the State. Discarding the perceived
problematic baggage of the Congress while retaining its
core support base, is the challenge before Mr. Vasan and
his supporters. Although the AIADMK does not seem all
that keen to piece together an alliance after having won
37 of the 39 Lok Sabha seats on its own, the DMK, which
drew a blank by going it alone, is in the process of
building a mega-alliance. The BJP, which put together a
third front with the DMDK, the MDMK and the PMK for
the Lok Sabha polls, is also looking for new allies, especially since the MDMK is likely to exit the alliance. Mr.
Moopanar resisted the temptation to ally with the BJP
during the rst two terms of the National Democratic
Alliance, even breaking the alliance with the DMK on
this very issue. Whether Mr. Vasan sticks to the same
stand based on the secular traditions of the Congress
remains to be seen. Unlike Mr. Moopanar, who took with
him almost the entire support base of the party, he will
have a tougher time winning friends and inuencing
people. Many senior members who were with the father
are not with the son now; and the political scene is more
crowded with the entry of the DMDK and the new push
by the BJP. While Mr. Vasans political options have
increased after his bold attempt to form a new party,
those are not by any means easy.
here is undeniable euphoria in Maharashtra and elsewhere in the country over the political arrival of
Devendra Fadnavis. Having a bubbly fortysomething on the countrys political
scene may not exactly be a novelty, but what is
striking is that Mr. Fadnavis comes with no
baggage that weighs down some others his age
already in the arena and who have professed
to make a difference. They either allowed
themselves to be sucked into the quagmire
that is Indian public life, or had not been
permitted to perform even though they
possessed the right pedigree for reasons
other than merit, by individuals or groups who
felt threatened.
The young and the old alike are both ecstatic about the young leader from Nagpur
and have been bowled over by the condence
he exudes and the promise he holds out in
transforming the polity in the whole of India,
especially in one of its more important States,
Maharashtra. Mr. Fadnavis must succeed if
we want to bring about a sea change in the
quality of our public administration. In our
view, having him as an example is something
that will denitely rub off on others who are
itching to serve the country selessly.
Politicisation of force
Mr. Fadnavis has the potential to alter the
destiny of Maharashtra, provided he works to
a plan. He should remain focussed on governance and not allow his energies to be dissipated in futile, controversial public
discourses that are easy meat for the Opposition and the media. These are days of high
expectations and no consumer of public service is willing to wait to be served. The new
Maharashtra Chief Minister no doubt has the
supreme advantage of age and a squeaky clean
image. This can however dissolve in no time if
he does not organise his priorities in an intelligent way or if he unwittingly gives elbow
room to the sharks around him.
One of his rst moves has been delightfully
heartwarming choosing to keep the Home
portfolio to himself. His predecessors had
bartered it away for dubious, external political
support that came with a tag. The recent history of the State is pockmarked by many unfortunate episodes, which had been the result
CARTOONSCAPE
CM
YK
Reforming MGNREGA
The article, How to reform and
how not to (Nov.4), sheds light on
various reforms needed to
strengthen the MGNREGA across
India. As India is a diverse country
in terms of resources and the
demand for labour, reforms should
be carried out in view of problems
that exist in a specic region rather
than reforming the programme
universally. The success of the
MGNREGA in various States shows
that any programme targeting the
rural poor can be implemented
successfully only with greater
political
commitment
and
empowering grass-roots level
institutions. In India, there is the
problem of disguised employment
in agriculture, and the MGNREGA
should be reorganised in order to
attract such unproductive labour
from agriculture into more
productive work in the rural areas.
It should not remain as an
employment-supply programme
producing unskilled labour. There
must be innovation so that labour
should learn some skills while
working. The MGNREGA can also
have a greater role to play in the
new agship programmes.
Balaji Akiri,
Hyderabad
widespread corruption and political manipulation that the force has been subjected to.
While this may not be very different from
what it is in many other police forces in the
country, in the case of Mumbai, more than the
rest of Maharashtra, the fall has been grievously steep, leading to unforgivable despondence all around.
Growth and
austerity
he austerity measures unrolled by the Finance
Ministry last week send out a clear signal that
all is not well with government nances; at
least, not yet. Though business sentiment has
improved noticeably and some key indicators point to a
pick-up in growth, government expenditure is running
well ahead of revenues, which have not grown at the
expected pace. Thus, the Finance Ministry has been
forced to order a cut in all discretionary spending; the
target is to prune expenditure, other than Plan-related,
by 10 per cent. The only exceptions are interest payments,
debt repayments, defence capital, salaries, pensions and
grants to States. These occupy a large proportion of nonPlan expenditure, which means that the savings might
not be much. Yet, the fact that the government deems this
necessary shows the seriousness of the problem that it
faces in keeping the scal decit in check. Indirect tax
collections have grown at just 5.8 per cent in the rst half
of this scal compared to the budgeted target of 25.8 per
cent. On the direct taxes front, refunds have eaten away
almost half of the incremental collections, which have
otherwise been on target. Adding to the governments
woes is the sharp rise in defence pensions due to the
implementation of the one-rank, one-pension scheme.
Outgo on this is expected to shoot up by 40 per cent, or
Rs.16,000 crore, this scal. Importantly, this was not
budgeted for fully.
It is not all gloom, though. The fall in global commodity
prices, notably of crude oil, and the freeing of diesel
prices, have given elbow room to the government in
pruning subsidies. The subsidy on cooking gas and kerosene, as also on fertilizers, will fall signicantly. Oil prices
are down by about a quarter since the time the new
government assumed office and look set for a subdued
phase, barring a rise in geopolitical tensions in the Middle
East. Meanwhile, the government should push forward
on disinvestment, receipts from which are budgeted at
Rs.58,425 crore this year. After an initial burst of activity
in September, action appears to have slowed down on this
front. The markets are on song now and this is the best
time to capitalise by offloading stakes in public sector
undertakings to retail investors. Experience shows that it
is not a great idea to push back the share-sale process
closer to the end of the scal. The spectrum auction,
expected in February 2015, is another big revenue sourcein-waiting. With 83 per cent of the scal decit already
reached by the end of September, the government will be
hard-pressed to keep the decit down to the target of 4.1
per cent of GDP for this scal. While austerity will help,
all possible avenues to boost revenues have to be explored
so that capital spending does not suffer.
of professional police leaders has been colossal. The authority to post even inspectors to
various police stations has been usurped by
the mandarins in Sachivalaya (State Secretariat), thereby emasculating the Commissioner
of Police and destroying the chain of command in a rigid hierarchy that the police is.
Worse still is the sale of prized eld jobs to the
highest bidders. There are incredible tales of
venality which would make even the most
brazen politician squirm in his seat. Things
havent changed despite there being many
sane and credible voices. Mr. Fadnavis has to
restore the primacy of police leadership if it
has to deliver. This applies especially to the
Mumbai Police Commissioner who should be
appointed on merit. In the recent past, some
of the appointments to the vital job have resulted in disastrous consequences. The Com-
Restoring credibility
The Central government has been rightly
highlighting the need to convert the country
into an investor-friendly nation by ensuring a
stable public order situation. This cannot happen if Indias nancial capital, Mumbai, remains a poorly policed city. A huge
investment in technology and processes is
called for. Mindless austerity here can cause
harm to police standards. Fortunately, there
are blueprints available to move things forward. These have remained essentially on paper. There is tremendous talent available
within the department to exploit state-of-theart technology which would sharpen police
service to aid victims of crime. What is needed
to improve the police image in the city is for
swifter professional response to calls for help
from citizens in distress and the efficient solving of crime and restoration of stolen property
to lawful owners. The Mumbai police have
done some creditable work to educate the
common man on how to protect himself from
crime. There is a case for expanding instruction to the community online as well as
through group meetings for citizens. If the
new government sends out the message that it
will not be statistical in assessing police performance, but would rather go by periodic
surveys of community opinion, we can hope to
see a free registration of crime, something
that would enhance public faith in the police.
A crime survey by a non-police agency of the
kind that exists in the United States and the
United Kingdom will greatly enhance the
credibility of the Mumbai police.
Tendulkars book
From the little nuggets of
information that have owed out
from Sachin Tendulkars yet-to-be
released autobiography, Playing It
My Way, it is evident that this is one
book that cricket acionados would
like to pick up in a hurry (Sport,
Nov. 4). The Little Masters attack
on Greg Chappell, his startling
disclosure that the coach plotted to
remove Rahul Dravid from his
captaincy before the 2007 Cricket
World Cup, and his confession that
he felt so scarred and
devastated by the Indian teams
ineptitude under his captaincy that
he wanted to completely move away
from the sport, are intriguing and
will make for compelling reading.
N.J. Ravi Chander,
Bengaluru
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
End of a
long wait
elhis long wait for an elected government is
likely to end soon with the dissolution of the
Assembly constituted last year. When Lt.
Governor Najeeb Jung, under pressure from
the Supreme Court, held discussions with political parties on forming a government, the end result was predictable: failure. Given the numbers in the House and
the proclivities of the parties, no group was likely to be
able to command a majority. What was inexplicable was
the reluctance to complete quickly the process of exhausting the possibilities of forming a government and
pave the way for fresh election. Without the Supreme
Courts questioning of the delay, on the basis of a petition from the Aam Aadmi Party, the political impasse
in Delhi might have continued for some more time.
Once the BJP came to power at the Centre, and it could
rule Delhi by proxy under Presidents Rule, the focus
seemed to have shifted from having an elected government in place to delaying a fresh election to the extent
possible. The political calculations of the BJP seemed to
have entered the Centres decision-making process on
this issue. Dissolution of the Assembly and the conduct
of polls were inevitable, but the inevitable was delayed
for political reasons rather than on the constitutional
question of determining if government-formation was
possible from out of the existing Assembly.
With the revision of electoral rolls already under way
in Delhi, and January 1, 2015 being the qualifying date
for the inclusion of new voters attaining the age of 18
years, the election to the Assembly is likely only early
next year. Although the elections to Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand are spread over ve phases and will
go on till December 20, Delhi cannot be clubbed with
them. The BJP did succeed in putting off the election
for some months, but the party will now need to concentrate on beating back the challenge of the AAP.
Despite its political histrionics, the AAP is a big player
in small arenas, and the BJP cannot expect an effortless
repeat of the Lok Sabha election results in the Assembly. Though the BJP is a clear favourite, with the AAP
being widely perceived as having run away from governing when given the opportunity, it would need to come
up with a viable model for cheaper and more efficient
delivery of services to the citizens of Delhi. The AAP
might not have fullled any of its promises during its 49
days in power, but the party did showcase its brand of
populism in that short period. With the Congress having ceded ground to both the BJP and the AAP, many of
the constituencies would see a straight contest. The
BJPs strategy may well be to run the election campaign
around larger issues with Prime Minister Narendra
Modi at its heart, rather than relate it to Delhi alone.
Two-pronged framework
Mr. Modis declarations while as the Chief
Minister of Gujarat, and later as a ferocious
campaigner, gave rise to some expectations
from him on how he would deal with the
world. Apart from his campaign speeches, he
has made two full-edged speeches on foreign
policy the Nani A. Palkhivala Memorial
lecture in Chennai on October 18, 2013, when
he was prime ministerial aspirant; and the
next, as Prime Minister, at the Council on
Foreign Relations in New York in September
2014. Though there isnt a Modi doctrine
articulated with that label, there is a discernible two-pronged strategic policy framework that he has sketched: a focus on the
neighbourhood and a pursuit of Indias economic interests.
Neither is particularly original. Manmohan
Singhs strategic policy also had these two
Neighbourhood ties
Some commentators have said that Mr.
Modi has a capacity to change from campaign mode to governance mode, as soon
as voting is over, and that he has always done
off to a good start at his swearing-in ceremony when he made sure that all South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) countries were represented. But recurrent Chinese incursions, and ceasere
violations on the Pakistan border have
trapped him. India suspended talks with Pakistan, and has the precondition that Pakistan will nd impossible to meet it must not
talk to Kashmiri separatists. On China, Mr.
Modi had to immediately balance his commerce rst policy with larger doses of rhetoric the day after he hosted President Xi
Jinping on the banks of the Sabarmati. One
can only hope that the BJP can overcome its
own past opposition to the Bangladesh border
pact and pass it in the next parliamentary
session.
The remarkable beginning in the neigh-
CARTOONSCAPE
CM
YK
of direct concern to India too. But the question that has been confronting Mr. Modis
predecessors has been the desirable and affordable extent of Indian involvement with
the U.S. in dealing with these concerns. There
can be complete convergence in strategic interests, but a divergence in priorities. The
mismatch between the priorities of the U.S.
and India are numerous, despite a conuence
of strategic interests. Dr. Singh or Mr. Modi,
no Prime Minister can overlook that. The
U.Ss own vacillating positions towards Iran,
Syria, Afghanistan, Myanmar, China and East
Asia in general in recent years only underscore the traditional Indian position that India cannot piggyback on the U.S to protect its
own interest. In any case, can India afford to
end up as the front line of the battles against
Islamism and China?
Added to this objective reality is Mr. Modis
strong Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)
upbringing that views both China and the U.S.
with suspicion. In stark contrast with Dr.
Singh who was ideologically an internationalist, Mr. Modi is a staunch nationalist, though
with commerce in blood, as he described
himself. Therefore, while Mr. Modi would be
looking for economic opportunities around
the world, he would be much more obsessed
than Dr. Singh about Indias autonomy and
pride as it played out in the World Trade
Organization. Therefore, those who read in
his severe anti-China rhetoric during the
election campaign a willingness to offer India
as a frontier against China had not given
enough attention to the RSS world view
China is a threat, but the U.S. cannot be trusted. World cannot have new blocs, everyone
is linked to everyone. It is a web. No single
power can dominate the world, Mr. Modi
had said at the Council on Foreign Relations.
It is not only his relations with the U.S., but
Mr Modis economy rst approach that will
also have to operate within the nationalist
contours of the RSS there can be 49 per
cent, but not 51 per cent foreign direct investment in defence.
A second aspect of the nationalist strategic
policy is the vision of Indias emergence as the
vishwa guru, a global thought leader. Mr. Modis speeches in the U.S., both at Madison
Square Garden and the Council on Foreign
Relations reected this imagination. When
Indians move the mouse, the world moves.
Making India militarily and economically
powerful to take up that project is Mr. Modis
dream. Within this framework, he places
himself as the 21st century Vivekananda
who introduced Hinduism to the world, on
his own terms. Indias uniqueness is associated with Hinduism. We were under slavery
for 1,000-1,200 years, Mr. Modi said at Madison Square Garden, counting all Muslim rulers of India as foreigners.
What is new
Look-ahead verdict
in Washington
arely do voters rally behind an outgoing Presidents party in United States midterm elections. It was no different on Tuesday. The
Republicans under George W. Bush in 2006
and Ronald Reagan in 1986 could not break this convention. When the Democrats deed history in the nal
years of Bill Clintons tenure, in 1998, it was only the
rst time since 1934 that a party the President represented had made major gains in Congress. The rousing
majority the Republicans have established in both
chambers of Congress after eight long years places the
Grand Old Party at a clear advantage in the run-up to
the 2016 presidential race. The interim presents the
GOP an opportunity to live down its obstructionist
image during President Obamas second term. This
would not only strengthen its own support base ahead
of the 2016 contest, but also create an environment that
investors would be eager to exploit in the current conducive economic climate. The seven gubernatorial positions the conservatives have clinched also creates the
platform for potential contenders to the White House,
with an evident business-friendly bent. So comprehensive was the Republican sweep that the overall balance
in the Senate race will no longer have to await the
December run-off in Louisiana. Still more spectacular
was the outcome in Georgia, where another potential
run-off was averted when Republican David Perdue
defeated Michelle Nunn. Not to mention the victory of
Republican Tom Cotton in Arkansas as the youngest
U.S. Senator in this, the centenary year of the practice of
electing all Senators by popular vote.
Throughout the campaign, the conservatives sought
to draw mileage from a not-so-steady decline in U.S.
unemployment and painted a gloomy picture of popular
apathy not uncommon to a midterm poll. But the real
reasons behind their spectacular showing could well be
the marginal role the radical Tea Party agenda played in
the campaign. Conversely, Democratic contenders by
and large kept a deliberate distance from Mr. Obama
during the campaign on account of his poor poll ratings.
The partys inability to project the relative health of the
economy and the popularity of the affordable health
care legislation undoubtedly proved costly. On the contrary, the Republican attacks on Obama care lost the
sting in the absence of a credible alternative on offer as
election date approached. They had until some months
back even canvassed for the repeal of the Affordable
Care Act. Relief from the Congressional logjam of recent years is key to sustaining the recovery. It is no less
critical to the political fortunes of the rival parties.
There is much Mr. Obama can accomplish in the next
two years; not in the least in the foreign policy arena.
Pentagon report
The proxy war being waged by
Pakistan to counter Indias superior
military is a cowardly act
(Pentagon puts Pak. in the dock,
Reforming MGNREGA
On the police
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Shooting from
behind AFSPA
wo teenaged Kashmiri boys are dead, and two
others are in hospital with critical injuries.
Soldiers at a checkpoint red at them, with
differing versions of how it unfolded. So it is
not a whodunit. Rather, the question is why they do it.
Why do soldiers patrolling civilian areas in Kashmir
shoot to kill, so easily? The answer, in ve letters, is
AFSPA. The immunity that the Army gets under the
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act gives it the impunity to use what should be the last option rst. AFPSA
allows soldiers to re upon or otherwise use force, even
to the causing of death against those violating the law;
it also says no prosecution, suit or other legal proceeding shall be instituted, except with the previous sanction of the Central Government. Had this protective
umbrella not been provided, it is possible to imagine
that the soldiers would have adopted less dire methods
to stop the car; perhaps they would have shot at the
tyres to immobilise the vehicle. Defence Minister Arun
Jaitley and the Army have promised a swift enquiry. But
as Kashmiris know only too well, justice is uncertain for
the victims. In the Pathribal case, for instance, the ve
Rashtriya Ries officers named by the CBI challenged
the charge sheet in the courts, and ultimately the Supreme Court upheld their case, directing the Army to
either permit prosecution or court-martial them. The
Army simply chose the latter option. In January, after
13 years of legal battles, the military court closed the
case against them, concluding that the evidence recorded could not establish a prima facie case against any
of the accused. The Jeevan Reddy Committee recommended AFSPA be repealed and some of its provisions
incorporated in other laws. Many in the civilian establishment see it as an obstacle to efforts to normalise the
disturbed areas where it is now in force and at least
want it amended. The Army dismisses all such suggestions. But Mondays incident makes it clear that AFSPA
cannot continue, certainly not in its present form.
The incident has created fresh unrest in the Valley,
already traumatised by the recent oods, in the run-up
to State Assembly elections. At the call of various factions of the separatist All Parties Hurriyat Conference,
the Valley shut down on Wednesday. The Hurriyat had
already called for a boycott of the elections, and the
killings of two underage civilians by the Army can only
strengthen their hand. But more worryingly, incidents
of this kind increase the sense of alienation in Kashmir
and provide new opportunities for militant groups from
across the border. Pakistans recent attempts to project
Indias poor rights record in Kashmir and to internationalise the territorial dispute have had little traction,
but every mistake by New Delhi can only aid its efforts.
Imbalance in housing
CARTOONSCAPE
Losing
its lustre
old has traditionally been a currency for adverse times, acting as a refuge for investors
and savers. It is seen as a safe store of value
that paper currencies can never be. The secular uptrend in the value of the precious commodity over
the last decade has only added to its lustre as a hedge
against ination. So, what does one do when gold prices
head south, with dire predictions of a further downside?
That is the predicament of fund managers, investors
and savers now with gold prices falling to their lowest
level since 2010 in what many see as the effective end of
a 12-year bull run in the commodity that saw its price
peak at $1,923 an ounce in 2011. The latest market price
of the precious metal at around $1,148 an ounce is about
40 per cent off that historic high. The rally in gold prices
really began during the global nancial crisis of 2008 as
investors sold stocks and rushed to hedge their bets
against major currencies such as the dollar and euro
which reected the trouble in their home economies.
Investors queued up to buy gold and other precious
metals-backed exchange traded funds which poured
their money into the commodity, driving its value upward. This, in turn, drove more people to the commodity as other asset classes turned weak, delivering
negative returns. In short, gold entered a virtuous cycle
which seems to be ending now.
Holdings in global gold exchange traded funds are at
ve-year lows, showing the extent of capital ight out of
the commodity. The immediate cause for the loss of
attraction was the decision of the U.S. Federal Reserve
to wind up its quantitative easing programme that
pumped in an estimated $4 trillion into the economy;
much of the money had found its way into commodity
and stock markets globally. With the American economy set on a revival path amid low-inationary expectations, the dollar has been strengthening in recent times,
leading to an outow of funds from commodities such
as gold and oil. Inationary expectations have reduced
thanks to the fall in oil prices which, in turn, has
prompted funds to move out of gold. There could be a
further period of weakness ahead for gold with the
Federal Reserve indicating an increase in interest rates
by mid-2015. Weak growth in China and the eurozones
troubles are seen as the only factors that can reverse the
trend. The fall is good news for India, which has seen a
rebound in gold imports after the Reserve Bank of India
partly loosened some of the controls it imposed last
year. The government now has the leeway for a further
loosening of controls or even a lowering of import duty,
which is a demand from the jewellery industry. However, whether this option is exercised or not will depend
on the rupees movement vis--vis the dollar.
CM
YK
Taliban's warning
Military history
Kashmir killings
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
The virtue of
inclusiveness
he new Maharashtra and Haryana Assemblies
have only 12 Muslim MLAs between them
and no Muslim Minister. The number of Muslim Ministers in nine major BJP-ruled States
thus remain just one. The non-BJP-ruled States do
better, the share of Muslim legislators and Ministers
being much closer to their share in the population, but
some Congress-ruled States like Uttarakhand too have
no Muslim Minister. On the back of a General Election
that swept the BJP to power but produced a Parliament
with the lowest proportion of Muslim MPs in over 50
years, this is cause for concern. Undoubtedly, this has
to do with the communalisation of political parties, but
it is also about the communalisation of voters. Under
the rst-past-the-post system, Muslims are now likely
to win only from constituencies with an unusually large
Muslim population. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,
the likelihood of a Muslim winning dropped, falling to
just 1 per cent in constituencies where Muslims formed
less than 20 per cent of the population. Political parties
breed and then react to this communalisation, responding by nominating ever fewer Muslims from constituencies where they are not in sufficient numbers for
reasons of winnability. Following the BJPs sweep in
Uttar Pradesh in May despite nominating no Muslim,
the Samajwadi Party, which has nominated more Muslim candidates than any other national party over the
last 50 years, reduced the number of tickets given to
Muslims in the recent by-elections in Uttar Pradesh.
But Muslims being in positions of power does not
necessarily ensure development outcomes for Muslims, the argument goes. However, the dignity of political representation and high office is not only a means to
an end; it is an end in itself too. Moreover, while
political representation is certainly not the only mode
of development, the Rajinder Sachar Committee Report recommended it as one of the solutions to the
disproportionate educational and economic backwardness of Muslims. The century-old ght of backward
class empowerment movements and political parties to
gain political representation in the southern States led
to a situation where backward classes in Tamil Nadu
and Kerala today have better development indicators
than upper castes have in some northern States; political empowerment matters. Some dismiss these ndings as a legitimate concern for a democracy,
subscribing to what the late Professor Iqbal Ansari
called a sort of political Darwinism. By this same
token, he wrote, concerns about the representation of
women in politics would be dismissed as sexism. Expecting the legislatures to represent its diversity more
fairly is not tokenism; its what inclusive democracy
truly looks like, as opposed to majoritarianism.
eports that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government intends to radically restructure the
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA)
have re-ignited public discussion on the
scheme. Since its launch, debate on MGNREGA has been synonymous with ideological
contestations on the role of the state and its
welfare functions. Inevitably, the contours of
the debate have been shrill, leaving little
space for an evidence-based discussion on the
shape that a re-designed MGNREGA should
take.
The rst and the most important question
that ought to be considered is: has the scheme
met its primary objective of guaranteeing employment to Indias poorest? The most intuitive way of answering this is by comparing
employment levels with poverty rates across
States.
If the scheme was well-targeted, households in poorer States would presumably demand more work and these States would
provide the largest share of employment.
However, on this metric, the data presents a
damning story. Accountability Initiatives
analysis found that in 2010-11, poorer States
such as Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal
and Madhya Pradesh, which together account
for 59 per cent of the countrys rural BPL
population, generated only 34 per cent of
employment through MGNREGA. On the
other hand, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu,
which house eight per cent of the BPL population, accounted for 23 per cent of the total
employment generated that year.
On participation
Other research studies also conrm that
poorer States are unable to provide employment. MGNREGA is designed as a self-targeting programme where participation is a
function of demand for work and the extent to
which this demand is actually met. Using National Sample Survey (NSS) data from 200910, economist Martin Ravallion and his colleagues examined participation through
precisely this lens.
Across India, 45 per cent of rural households wanted to work on the MGNREGA. Of
these 56 per cent received work. Put differently, 44 per cent of those who wanted work
were not given employment or, to use the
authors denition, were rationed out of the
CARTOONSCAPE
Not moving up
from third
coming together of regional parties has rarely, if ever, been a precursor to the emergence
of an alternative to national parties. But with
the decimation of the Congress in the 2014
Lok Sabha election, leaders of regional parties are hoping to ll the vacuum through a broad alliance. In terms
of electoral arithmetic, an alliance of the Samajwadi
Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Rashtriya Janata
Dal, the Indian National Lok Dal, and the Janata Dal
(Secular) does not increase by much the winning possibilities of any party. Other than the JD (U) and the RJD,
both strong in Bihar, these parties have roots and
support bases in different States, and therefore they
can make little or no contribution to one anothers
success. But a merger or a denitive alliance will allow
them to imagine themselves as providing a nationallevel alternative to both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Many of these parties have previously
aligned themselves with, or been a part of third front
coalitions supported by, the Congress or the BJP. Such
coalitions have appeared as disparate elements conjoined by political expediency and hunger for power,
without offering an alternative programme ideologically distinct from those of the BJP and the Congress.
If the new alliance in the making is to have credibility, the parties must rst show an ability to work
together in Parliament on important legislation and
issues of wider interest. A formal grouping at the national level that pulls in different directions in the
States will not have any political appeal. Such groupings, whether formed before an election or after an
election, have splintered as quickly as they came together. By denition, an alternative third front is possible only if the Congress and the BJP together get less
than half the total number of seats. That is an unlikely
scenario in the current political situation. While the
National Front that was in power between 1989 and
1990 was propped up by the BJP, the United Front that
ruled between 1996 and 1998 thrived on the support of
the Congress. Even the Janata Party, which was voted
to power in 1977, had as one of its components the Jan
Sangh, the previous avatar of the BJP. In the changed
political circumstances, neither the BJP nor the Congress can be expected to offer outside support to a
third front grouping. Even if the Janata parivar parties
manage to rope in other regional parties such as the
Telugu Desam and the AIADMK, and get the Left
parties too to support them, they can, in the near
future, only play the role of a strong opposition. That
they have been unable to shake off the tag of a third
front is in itself a comment on their political standing.
CM
YK
per-capita on MGNREGA, have higher vacancies, lower staff motivation with limited
technical capacities and are therefore unable
to meet the demands of the programme. This
will only be resolved by building the institutional capabilities of frontline administration
and local governments to deliver the scheme.
Of course there are serious problems of
corruption and weak implementation both in
poor and non-poor States. There is ample
evidence that the poor often receive less than
their share of wages, that payment is delayed
and that corruption in the use of materials in
MGRNEGA work sites is on the increase. But
the reform challenge this poses is one of govscheme. Importantly, demand for work was arashtra (63 per cent) and Orissa (51 per cent) ernance and this ought to be the focus of the
strongly correlated with poverty rates, but and far lower in Rajasthan (36 per cent), and debate on re-structuring MGNREGA.
actual employment was not. While demand Bihar (37 per cent). High participation of
for work in poorer States like Bihar and Uttar middle 40 per cent households could be ar- Delayed payments, corruption
Second, that self-targeting works suggests
Pradesh was high, richer States like Andhra gued to indicate poor targeting. However, the
Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were able to provide difference in consumption patterns of house- that in a country where the debate on identiholds in the lowest and middle deciles, partic- fying the poor is riddled with controversy,
more employment.
While low participation in poorer States is ularly in poorer States is as little as MGNREGAs self-targeting design may well
cause for serious concern, the analytical con- Rs.250-Rs.400 per month or Rs.8-13 per day. be the most effective way of ensuring that
sequences for the design of MGNREGA and Thus, many middle households are not that income support programmes reach those
its ability to reach the poorest can be com- much better off and are as vulnerable to who need it. Any restructuring ought to
pletely understood only by looking at who shocks as the poorest. Moreover, given the strengthen rather than weaken this self-targeting design. This is why the debate on
MGNREGA versus cash transfers, as it is curAny restructuring ought to strengthen rather than weaken
rently framed, simply misses the point. Whatthe arguments for and against cash
the self-targeting design of the rural employment guarantee ever
transfers, if cash transfers are to work, we
programme
rst need to know who Indias poor are and
how best to reach them two things over
which there is more controversy than
actually receives work under the programme. high participation of women (48 per cent in consensus.
It is in this context that the proposed
In other words, where employment is being 2009-10), it is likely that a signicant number
provided, do the benets of MGNREGA ac- of participants from the middle 40 per cent changes to tweak the wage-material ratio and
crue to those who need it? In its study, Ac- are women, who need extra income. Thus restrict the MGNREGA to backward regions
countability Initiative drew on the work of employment under MGNREGA is largely re- need to be discussed. Will the shift in the
wage-material ratio compromise self-targetRahul Pathak, a researcher, to answer this ceived by those who need it the most.
question. Using monthly per-capita houseThe work of Mr. Ravallion and his col- ing? Increasing the material component is
hold expenditure (MPCE) from the 2009-10 leagues reinforce this fact. They nd that ra- likely to result in an increase in the use of
NSS, Mr. Pathak examined participation tioning in the scheme does not discriminate machines thereby limiting the scope of emacross consumption deciles and compared against the poor. Demand for work is higher ploying unskilled labour. This may lead to
participation of the lowest 30 per cent (per- among the poor than among the non-poor. further rationing of work, especially in poorly
capita expenditure of up to Rs.657) with the And amongst those who demand work, the governed states. Moreover, given that there
middle 40 per cent (per capita expenditure poor are more likely to receive it than the are already leakages when it comes to the use
between Rs.657 and Rs.1058) and the top 30 non-poor. So the self-targeting mechanism of materials for worksites, greater use of maper cent. He found that the bulk of participant works.
terials will only enhance rather than reduce
households were nearly equally divided beTwo important conclusions emerge from corruption. The policy question therefore is
tween the lowest 30 per cent (which account- this discussion. First, the real implementa- whether the objective of building infrastruced for 40 per cent participants) and the tion failure in MGNREGA is that demand for ture and an employment guarantee can be
middle 40 per cent (accounting for another work does not translate in to actual employ- achieved through the same programme. And
42 per cent). Of course, there are inter-State ment in Indias poorer States. But this is less a if so, how best to design it?
variations. The quantum of participants from function of awed targeting design than of
An important argument being made in fathe lowest 30 per cent is highest in Mah- weak governance. Poorer States spend lower vour of changing the wage-material ratio is
that of ensuring exibility. No doubt, in a
country as large and varied as India, a onesize-ts-all centralised rule is a recipe for
failure. But if greater exibility is the objective then the restructuring ought to move
beyond just the wage-material issue to ensure
more effective devolution of powers to Panchayats so that they have real authority to
identify infrastructure works and plan for
MGNREGA expenditure, which today is determined almost entirely by the diktats of the
Indian government and the whims and fancies of the district magistrates.
Finally, MGNREGAs Achilles heel is weak
governance capacity. It is unclear how the
move to restrict the scheme to backward regions, that already have capacity constraints,
will solve this problem. Re-structuring
should rather focus on building the frontline
improving staff capacity and deepening local government involvement in delivering the
programme.
The good news is that MGNREGA has witnessed a proliferation of experiments, mostly
in better governed States, from creating improved nancial management systems to using technology-enabled banking solutions
like smart cards, social audits and building
grievance redressal systems. The focus must
now be on evaluating these experiments and
drawing lessons to improve administration in
the poorly governed States.
(Yamini Aiyar is a senior research fellow at
the Centre for Policy Research and Director
of the Accountability Initiative)
Indian imagination
Janata merger
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
An incomplete
process
hen in August 1961, the Soviet Union
erected a 13-foot-high wall through Berlin to halt the flow of millions of people
from the eastern part to the western part,
the German Democratic Republic (GDR) dubbed it a
barrier against fascism. It kept Germany divided for
the next 28 years. A wall is a hell of a lot better than a
war, was the initial, circumspect response from U.S.
President John F. Kennedy, who was also not unmindful of the economic repercussions for the Eastern
Bloc from mass emigration. At its 20th anniversary in
1981, Erich Honecker, the GDRs head of state, thundered that the wall may stand for another hundred
years. When the wall finally came crumbling down on
November 9, 1989, it was seen as symbolising the end of
the Cold War. It also conjured up images of the beginnings of a borderless world. Paradoxically, the freedom
supposedly restored for the peoples of Eastern Europe
on that fateful night 25 years ago seems to be in peril
even today. The current opposition to freedom of
movement within the member-states of the European
Union is targeted at the countries that were admitted
to the bloc only a decade ago. Compounding this is the
tide of nationalism and jingoism sweeping across the
continent. The bloodletting now witnessed on Europes borders stands in stark contrast to the nonviolent political transformation in Poland, Hungary,
Czechoslovakia and of course East Germany.
The western powers know full well that Russias
annexation of Crimea early this year and its backing to
rebel groups in Ukraine are not unrelated to the expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation to encompass the former Eastern Bloc countries. Moreover,
NATOs muscle-flexing vis--vis territories that have
long been part of Moscows sphere of influence does
not exactly strengthen economic interdependence between the regions, especially in the arena of energy
supplies. Similarly, the regime of economic sanctions,
which has inevitably triggered Russian retaliation and
produced a crippling effect on business interests at
home, is if anything a self-fulfilling proposition. Vladimir Putins recent utterances suggest that he may not
be in any great hurry to relent. Mikhail Gorbachevs
warning over the weekend of a world on the brink of
another Cold War must be heeded by the big powers as
the ceasefire in Ukraine stands in danger of unravelling. Perhaps more than at any time since the fall of the
wall, voices advocating Germanys leadership position
on the international stage are being heard loud and
clear. Maybe there is merit in this, not just in view of
the countrys economic clout, and German Chancellor
Angela Merkels deft diplomatic skills.
Civil-military relations
Take the Pathribal case. Five officers were
named in a Central Bureau of Investigation
(CBI) charge sheet for killing civilians in a
fake encounter. The Army and the government used AFSPA to stonewall and prevent
prosecution for years. Eventually under
pressure from the Supreme Court, the Army
agreed to try them by court-martial. Unsurprisingly, the court-martial found no evidence against the officers.
Whats more, despite widespread criticism, successive governments have been
loath to repeal the Act. Their reluctance is
directly proportional to the resistance from
the AFSPA. Senior military officers are on
record as stating that without AFSPA, the
Army cannot undertake counter-insurgency
operations. Such is the state of democratic
control and civilian supremacy over the
military.
Nehru was alert to these dangers even before he took over as Prime Minister. The
CARTOONSCAPE
Curbs on content
in cyberspace
acebook has disclosed that it restricted as
many as 4,960 items of content on the social
networking site in India in compliance with
official requests in the first half of 2014. The
significance of the figure does not lie in the mere fact
that it is the largest number of restrictions from a
single country during this period, or in the detail that
India ranks second only to the U.S. in the number of
requests for access to user data. The real and disturbing
significance lies in Facebooks disclosure that these
requests, primarily from law enforcement officials and
the countrys Computer Emergency Response Team,
were made under local laws prohibiting criticism of a
religion or the state. The number of requests for access to users jumped from 3,598 (covering 4,711 users/
accounts) in the previous six-month period to 4,559
(covering 5,958 users/accounts) in the first six months
of 2014. Half of the requests were complied with. It is
possible to argue in legal terms that the government
may seek such access to user data or request blocking of
content in exceptional circumstances. Article 19(2) of
the Constitution permits reasonable restrictions on
freedom of speech and expression, among other
grounds, in the interests of the sovereignty and integrity of India, the security of the State, public order,
decency or morality or in relation to contempt of court,
defamation or incitement to an offence.
Normally one would expect that any restriction on
free expression in cyberspace would be aimed at curbing potentially explosive remarks that are likely to
foment violence. It is indeed a bitter reality that social
media have sometimes been used to spread rumours
the ones that sparked an exodus from Bengaluru of
residents hailing from the northeastern States in 2012
being an example. However, the moot question is
whether it will be reasonable to use the principle to bar
all criticism of the state or religion. It cannot be forgotten that a book by the Indologist Wendy Doniger was
withdrawn and pulped because the publisher was
threatened with prosecution under Section 295-A of
the IPC, which makes deliberate and malicious acts
intended to outrage religious feelings a punishable
offence. Recently, a political activist was arrested for an
innocuous comment that implied that divine retribution was behind a cyclone that hit Visakhapatnam. If
the government is making thousands of requests either
for user data or blocking content, it should be transparent about the real nature of its requests. Only then will
it be possible for citizens to know if they fall squarely
within the constitutionally recognised reasonable restrictions, or if they amount to misuse of archaic laws.
CM
YK
Tinderbox again
It is unfortunate that the pain of
Partition has failed to make us
realise that communal acts only
lead to bloodshed and violence
(Trilokpuri, a tinderbox again,
Nov.8).
Humanity
has
to
understand that unless we dissolve
the rigid lines of religion and caste,
trivial issues will continue to cause
grievous hurt. This is the truth
behind
every
incident
of
communal tension.
Annapurna Garg,
Old Faridabad, Haryana
Kiss of Love
Armys admission
Unaccounted money
Powerless in Bihar
It is disheartening to know that
many people in Indian villages still
live without electricity (A Bihar
village in the dark for ages, Nov.9).
Chhoti Mahuli-Kachahri Tola
village in Darbhanga district in
Bihar is an example of the skewed
growth path pursued by India. How
can the government implement
flagship programmes like Digital
India and Jan Dhan Yojana
without providing basic amenities
like electricity? The newly
launched Sansad Adarsh Gram
Yojana should aim to develop such
villages so that people there can
participate in the growth process.
Balaji Akiri,
Hyderabad
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Addressing
competing demands
rime Minister Narendra Modis rst expansion
of his Council of Ministers has his unmistakable imprint, with some difficult allies rmly
put in their place and immigrants from other
parties rewarded. In his quest for as coalition-free a
government as possible, Mr. Modi evidently intends to
use the BJPs impressive electoral mandate to minimise
the role of tantrum-throwing partners. And so, the Shiv
Senas demand for a second Cabinet berth at the Centre
and key portfolios in the Maharashtra government in
exchange for its support were brushed aside, even as
Suresh Prabhu from that party, an administratively experienced if politically marginal leader, was inducted
into the BJP on Sunday morning and sworn in as Railway Minister hours later. Ex-Congress veteran Birendra
Singh, who joined the BJP before the Lok Sabha polls,
has been given not just Cabinet status but the key portfolios of rural development, panchayati raj, drinking
water and sanitation. Ram Kripal Yadav, who defeated
RJD boss Lalu Prasads daughter in Bihar on the BJP
symbol after being denied the RJD ticket is now a
Minister of State. Inderjit Singh Rao, who exchanged the
hand for the lotus before the elections, had become an
MoS with independent charge in the rst round itself.
The expansion also reects the fact that minimum
government does not always produce maximum governance: the government has acquired 21 fresh faces,
taking the strength of the Ministry to 66, as some overburdened senior Ministers have been relieved of additional responsibilities. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
has shed defence, Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad law, Shipping and Road Transport Minister
Nitin Gadkari rural development, and Environment
Minister Prakash Javadekar information and broadcasting. Of course, in acknowledgement of Mr. Jaitleys
status as Modi condant and his skills as a communicator, he will also steer the I&B Ministry. The choice of
new entrants also points to competing demands of inducting talent, increasing geographical and caste representation, and addressing the BJPs core Hindutva
constituency. If the entry of former Goa Chief Minister
Manohar Parrikar as Defence Minister, the Harvardeducated Jayant Sinha as MoS for nance and Mr. Prabhu mark infusion of talent, the Ministrys social composition has been enhanced four more Brahmins, three
of whom are in the Cabinet, two Jats to compensate for a
non-Jat Chief Minister in Haryana, and more OBCs and
Dalits. The only woman to be included, Niranjan Jyoti, is
a saffron-clad sadhvi. And the controversial Giriraj
Singh, a Bhoomihar from Bihar, had endeared himself to
the new dispensation when he declared that all those
who did not like Mr. Modi should just go to Pakistan.
Lines of inquiry
Listening carefully to the TV discussion,
one discerned two possible lines of inquiry.
The rst is obviously legal where questions
relating to the Supreme Courts instruction
and the governments reluctant compliance
with it, in the light of Indias treaty obligations, need to be examined in terms of the
rule of law. The other, interestingly, is cultural where the many meanings of the sealed
envelope, in our public discourse, needs detailing. Let me begin with the legal
dimension.
For a public discussion, there are four substantive aspects of the legal case that need to
be agged. The rst concerns the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of India. While
there are many ne issues of the law that will
be debated by scholars and practitioners of
international law, concerning treaty obligations and international bodies which have the
authority to adjudicate over them, we must
CARTOONSCAPE
Still plagued
by accidents
he Indian Navy continues to be accident-prone
after a brief respite. Last week, an auxiliary
ship sank off the Visakhapatnam coast. This
tragedy claimed the life of one sailor while four
personnel were deemed missing. This is the second
incident in a fortnight after INS Kora, a missile corvette,
was scraped by a merchant ship near Vizag and suffered
minor damage. After the latest incident, the Navy is left
with just one Torpedo Recovery Vessel. Since August 14
last year, when an onboard explosion sank INS Sindhurakshak, a Kilo-class submarine that was berthed in
Mumbai, there have been 15 accidents. In fact, an accident on another submarine, INS Sindhuratna, on February 26 cost the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral D.K.
Joshi, his job: he resigned owning moral responsibility.
The resignation caused a major shuffle in the Navys top
brass and the new chief, Admiral R.K. Dhowan, ordered
a review of procedures and later stated that the causes of
all the incidents had been thoroughly analysed. But the
trend has not been arrested, and now it seems the
lessons learnt were incomplete. The problem is acrossthe-board. Submarines, front-line warships and support
ships alike have suffered accidents. This suggests systemic lapses, be it in maintenance, acquiring spares or
non-adherence to standard operating procedures. Besides, it is essential to take note of Admiral Joshis
recent comments about his inability to take routine
maintenance and procurement decisions for his force.
This hints at bureaucratic overreach and a crisis of
condence between the bureaucracy and the military.
It is paradoxical that a Navy that is operating about
180 ships and inducting large modern platforms is
plagued by issues of maintenance and spares. In the
global context, this does not bode well for a force aspiring to be a blue-water Navy and to establish itself as a net
provider of security in the region. It is widely acknowledged that the Indian Navy is a pre-eminent force in the
Indian Ocean region. And many navies in the region are
looking to the Indian Navy for support and leadership. It
comes as no surprise that of late naval diplomacy has
become a major thrust area in New Delhis diplomatic
outreach and the Navy has been extending training and
maintenance support to many nations. A dubious safety
record at home will raise serious apprehensions in the
minds of other nations about the countrys credibility
and capacity. Whatever the reasons, these incidents are
unacceptable. Mere assurances of review and reorientation will not help maintain the Navys image as a professional force if such accidents keep happening. Precious
lives, expensive platforms as well as the larger credibility of the Navy and the nation are at stake. It is time for
some honest introspection and course-correction.
CM
YK
Now, 66-strong
Wigneswarans appeal
Corporal punishment
The third issue is whether the sealed envelope being handed over to the court meets
the requirements of the rule of law, to protect
the right to privacy of any individual, even
one who is accused. The Attorney General
seems to think there is no inconsistency in
the list being handed over, in a sealed envelope, from the government of Indias custody,
the party to the DTAA agreement, to the Supreme Court, which is a different institutional authority. As long as the envelope remains
sealed. But what if the court opened the
envelope? Would it amount to a breach of the
DTAA? The Attorney General seemed to imply that this would be so and argued that the
court should not open the envelope even
though it has possession of it. So while the
court has the names in a sealed envelope, and
can choose to know who they are by opening
the envelope, it chose to hand over the unopened envelope to the Special Investigation
Team (SIT) constituted by it to investigate
the black money case. Did the learned judges,
by this action, align the Indian law with
DTAA, thereby meeting both requirements of
the supremacy of Indias Supreme Court and
the protections to persons under DTAA?
This brings us to the fourth issue, the moral
and legal issue of the status of the data. Since
it was stolen data, and also data made available by a whistle-blower, can a constitutional
system use this data for prosecution? Is the
use of stolen data compatible with the rule of
law? Does the fact that the data was conrmed by the government of France change
its legal status as stolen data? Is this similar to
the doctrine of double effect in moral philosophy, where an action that causes harm is
permitted, as a side effect, if the primary
purpose of the action is to promote some good
end? Germany had to deal with this moral
conundrum when stolen data from a Swiss
bank, of German tax avoiders, was offered to
the German government for a price. The German government bought the stolen data.
Guarantee of impartiality
Now let me move to the other dimension,
the political culture of the sealed envelope.
The question of whether this is an Indian
ritual or a colonial legacy is for historians to
establish. For those of us who have worked on
government committees, the sealed envelope guarantees the impartiality of the process. I have been a member of the executive
committee of many universities and in many
meetings, almost routinely, a sealed envelope is placed before the committee and we
are informed that it contains the list of candidates, selected by a committee, for a professors position in a particular department. The
sealed envelope has been in the possession of
the registrar who, at the meeting, formally
seeks the permission of the vice-chancellor to
open it. This is given by a subtle nod. The
envelope is then held up, higher than the
table around which we are seated, as if to
place it in the light and thereby show the
members of the committee that the process is
both proper and condential. In some cases
the envelope is sealed with red wax. A little
ceremony of de-sealing the envelope then
takes place, an important ritual of impartiality. None among the committees members
even looks at the envelope. When was it
sealed? Who sealed it? Could it have been
done 20 minutes before the meeting, are
questions too embarrassing to be asked. The
opened envelope is not subjected to forensic
examination. We have seen the raised sealed
envelope. This is enough. Fairness is guaranteed. It meets the CAGs requirement. I asked
an eminent sociologist to give me his learned
opinion on the semiotic signicance of the
sealed envelope for our democratic polity. He
promised to give me his views in a sealed
envelope.
(Peter Ronald deSouza is Professor at the
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
The views expressed are personal.)
Sinking of a ship
Culinary choices
Kiss of Love
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
List of good
intentions
s many of his predecessors have done, Civil
Aviation Minister Ashok Gajapathi Raju has
unveiled another draft aviation policy, which
he hopes to implement by next year. It is more
of a broad statement of intent, without going into the
specifics. Mr. Raju has touched upon all the major issues
and problems faced by the sector, but has not exactly
come up with solutions. It may not be fair to expect the
Minister to just wave a magic wand and resolve all the
issues that have plagued the aviation sector over the
decades. But this is perhaps the best time for the NDA
government and Mr. Raju to take some bold initiatives
and address all the pending problems. New airlines are
coming into being and people are realising the benefits
of air travel, but there are several major obstacles for
the airlines to grow and be profitable. What takes the
cake is the announcement of yet another committee or
panel to look afresh at the future of Air India, which has
remained the countrys big white elephant for too long.
Something drastic needs to be done, and done quickly,
before crores of rupees of public money go down the
drain. Given its condition, there can be no suitors for a
strategic partnership, and listing it on the stock exchange may end up as a disaster. The government has to
make up its mind about privatisation, sooner than later.
The need of the hour remains the growth and development of airports. While Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad
and Bengaluru have shown the way on PPP models, the
Airports Authority of Indias (AAI) projects in Kolkata
and Chennai have been disasters. The Aviation Ministry
has to set this right and get a private partner to redeem
these airports, besides strengthening and developing
smaller airports for the existing and new airlines to
operate. The ravaged Visakhapatnam airport and a real
airport for Vijayawada must be at the top of his priorities. The AAI may be a profitable enterprise, but it
needs to be corporatised and restructured in order to
make it efficient. As far as the airlines are concerned,
the cost of Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) is the major
concern, as it contributes to over 40 per cent of the cost
of operations. The recent drop in global crude prices
and consequently of ATF provides some relief. But Mr.
Raju has to work with the Finance Ministry and the
State governments to rationalise taxes, basically VAT,
to reduce the burden. The advent of GST may solve this
problem, as and when it comes into being. Since the
Minister has promised to firm up the policy by January
and get it through the Cabinet, the civil aviation sector
as a whole hopes that he will work on the specifics and
come up with a time-bound, implementable framework
that will not only help all segments of the aviation
business but also protect the interests of passengers.
Receptivity to ideas
Immediately after Independence, we
might have expected India to suspect the motives of imperialist powers. But there was
actually no xenophobia at that time. Jawaharlal Nehrus receptivity to ideas from all quarters was phenomenal in its range and depth.
S. Gopal, Nehrus biographer, points out that
the socialist Nehru believed in the marketplace of ideas, not commodities. He invited a
number of intellectuals to be his interlocutors. Mahatma Gandhi had affirmed with
supreme confidence: I do not want my house
to be walled in on all sides and my windows to
be stuffed. I want the cultures of all lands to
be blown about my house as freely as possible.
But I refuse to be blown off my feet by any .
Sardar Patel, remembered as the Iron Man,
played a key role in safeguarding Indias
steel frame. He granted constitutional protection to all Indian Civil Service (ICS) officers who opted to serve independent India
(Article 314, repealed in 1972). In 1934, Nehru
Bold experiments
Paul Hoffman visited India in 1951, later
followed by Douglas Ensminger, a rural sociologist from the U.S. State Department,
Nehru sent them to visit a rural development
project in Etawah which he greatly admired.
This project was a brainchild of Horace
Holmes, an agricultural extension specialist,
and Albert Meyer, a city planner. Hoffmans
visit led to the Ford Foundation opening its
CARTOONSCAPE
The continuing
polio challenge
olio has bounced back with a vengeance in
Pakistan. Compared with 53 cases reported
during the period January to September last
year and 54 in 2012, there have been 174 cases
during the corresponding period this year. As on November 5, all of 235 cases have been recorded, the
highest-ever in the past 15 years; there were 558 cases in
1999. With a sharp spike in the numbers, Pakistan has
turned into a bigger polio reservoir, accounting for 80
per cent of the worlds cases. The Taliban militants role
in preventing nearly a quarter of a million children in
North Waziristan from being vaccinated against polio
over the last two years has marked a severe setback to
the country. The repercussions of a fake Hepatitis B
immunisation programme carried out by the Central
Intelligence Agency in Abbottabad in 2011 are also there
for everyone to see. If lack of trust in polio immunisation
efforts already existed in the community, the militants
exploited the fake programme to exacerbate distrust.
The exodus of virus-carriers from the region to the rest
of the country in June this year has greatly increased the
risk of transmission. But the good news is that none of
the regions remains inaccessible to health workers. Yet,
there is a monumental task ahead for the polio programme in Pakistan as no province is free of the disease;
even cities such as Karachi and Lahore have recorded a
few cases this year. The polio programme [in Pakistan]
is a disaster. It continues to flounder hopelessly, as its
virus flourishes, notes a recent report of the Independent Monitoring Board.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has just set an ambitious
goal of ridding the country of polio in six months. Aside
from collective action by all actors, there has to be an
immediate, transformative change in the polio programme for Pakistan to get anywhere near diseaseelimination. As November to May is a low-transmission
season the virus is the least active and the vaccine
most effective during this time a great opportunity
exists now to tame the virus. As the Type 1 virus spreads
quickly, is tenacious and is the most difficult to get rid of
epidemiologically, vaccination coverage should be 100
per cent; herd immunity is the least in India and Pakistan. It should also explore the option of giving at least
two polio shots to children in addition to the oral polio
drops. The double-vaccination strategy can greatly
boost immunity and reduce the number of oral drops
campaigns needed. With the Pakistan virus paralysing
children in Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq, the possibility of
it emerging in India is real. India, which has been poliofree for over three years, cannot lower its guard till such
time as polio is eliminated from Pakistan, Afghanistan
and Nigeria, the three polio-endemic countries.
CM
YK
Tainted Ministers
Anti-Malala day
No optimism
Good governance
The arguments advanced in the
article, In furtherance of good
governance (Oct.25), are flimsy
and must be refuted. T.C.A.
Srinivasavaradan, former Union
Home Secretary and an expert on
the Constitution, once said the
flexibility of the political system,
the sagacity of the political
leadership and its openness to
information from all quarters are
the key to good governance. A
bureaucrats ability to give
independent advice to the political
leadership is only one element in
this complex process. But the
Indian political system lost these
qualities long ago. For example, the
UPA government sought to address
the problem of Maoist violence on
the basis of advice by the IB, that it
constituted the greatest internal
security threat to the political
system, and ignored contrary advice
in the Planning Commissions
Expert
Group
report
on
Development
Challenges
in
Extremist-affected Areas (2008)
that reflected the collective wisdom
of 18 subject-matter specialists.
Unfortunately, the NDA does not
appear to have any intention to
revive or act on the report. In an
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Tarnished victory
in Maharashtra
head of its floor test in the Maharashtra Assembly, it was clear that the 13-day-old Devendra Fadnavis-led government would win
its vote of confidence, even though with 122
MLAs the BJP was 22 short of a majority. The 41member-strong Nationalist Congress Party had indicated from the start that it would abstain from voting,
an act that, by reducing the effective strength of the
House, would have ensured the BJP government a safe
passage. By the time voting day came, the NCP had gone
a step further in agreeing to vote for the government,
and that would have given it a margin of 19 votes. Yet, on
Wednesday the BJP chose to allow its victory to be
tarnished even undermined by refusing to agree to
a division, or an actual head-count: instead, despite
vociferous protests by members of the Congress and the
Shiv Sena, some of whom entered the well of the Assembly, the minority BJP government won its confidence motion through a voice vote. The question then
arises: if the BJP could have anyway won through actual
counting of heads, why would it opt for a voice vote, one
that has much less legitimacy, and that too at the very
start of a five-year term?
It is hard to believe that the BJP, buoyed by the
continuing popular sentiment in its favour, lacked the
confidence to go for an actual vote. More plausible is
that the BJP did not wish to be seen as taking support
from the NCP, a party that it targeted sharply not just
through the election campaign but in the years that it
was in the opposition, for gross acts of corruption. If the
NCP, that had presided over the Irrigation Ministry for
a decade, for instance, was seen as responsible for a
financial scandal that reportedly ran into thousands of
crores of rupees, forcing NCP leader Ajit Pawar to
resign from the post of Deputy Chief Minister, there
were other scams that NCP leaders such as Sunil Tatkare and Chhagan Bhujbal were accused of. For the BJP
to be seen now as taking support from a party that has
been so closely associated with graft in the name of
providing a stable government, its leaders possibly
felt, would cast a shadow over its promise of providing
good governance and a clean and transparent administration. But, in the weeks ahead, the Fadnavis government could find it hard focussing on the job at hand,
with the Sena accusing it of strangling democracy and
the Congress warning that it would not allow any business in the Assembly to be conducted till the government obtains a fresh trust vote, and threatening to bring
a no-confidence motion against newly-elected Speaker
Haribhau Bagade who overruled the demand for division. The new government may have to face a vote on
the Governors Address, for which it will have to marshal its forces again. Clearly, not a propitious beginning.
for fellowship and guidance, arrange his the vital necessity to apply it intelligently and
thoughts, and evolve his political creed undis- reasonably to the present and the future.
His vision was hardly ever trapped in the
turbed by external influences. This exercise
exclusivist, culturological mode; far from it; it
affected the whole gamut of his emotions.
was supremely inclusive and driven by a beIn enchantment of history
lief in the existence, even the necessity of
Jawaharlal Nehrus writings transmit the cultures constantly interacting with each
enthusiasm and animation he felt for the dis- other, of cultures working on and transformcipline of history. In fact, there is something ing the other and their own through a live
uncanny about the way in which a self-taught contact. In fact, he talked of a whole people
and amateur historian like him explored the becoming full of faith for a great cause, and
unbounded universe in full variety. True, his brought to the fore their treasures of knowlvision was far from settled, but it was being edge, learning, heroism and devotion. He
etched out in conjunction and in contention looked at the entire world with a fresh eye and
with other voices.
gave a balanced view of mans life on many
He lived in the enchantment of the ancient continents. His was a global view not an
and medieval histories of India, and sought to Asian view any more than it was a European
understand it in terms of the present and one.
even of the future to come. Why should there
be so much misery in the world? This ques- Understanding ideas
tion troubled him. Why do people argue and
With this eclectic approach, he called for
quarrel among themselves as a sect or a reli- breaking down national histories and con-
Writing to regenerate
Why did he write? Who did he write for? He
had no archives to consult; so he relied on his
recollections and on bits of information that
he could conceal. He disliked being called a
writer, and yet, armed with a varied experience of affairs, writing became a congenial
occupation. Sometimes he didnt write for
weeks, now and again he wrote daily. His
letters from jail represented his moods and
thoughts at the time of each event; they were
also his escapes from gaol.
He wrote to regenerate his generation, to
render them capable of following Gandhijis
non-violent satyagraha, and to put before
them the tangled web of current affairs in
Russia, Germany, England, America, Japan,
China, France, Spain, Italy and Central Europe. It was a tangled web no doubt, difficult
to unravel and difficult even to see as a whole.
Yet, he presented the many-coloured life of
other ages and countries, analysed the ebb
and flow of the old civilisations, and took up
ideas in their full flow. The superimposed
loneliness empowered him to turn to himself
CARTOONSCAPE
Needed,
a wider debate
he Gujarat governments new law making voting compulsory in local body elections will
surely attract judicial attention, as it expressly
raises the constitutional question whether citizens, qualified to be electors, can be compelled to vote
when they do not wish to. The idea of making voting
compulsory in response to declining voter turnout in
successive elections has been debated for many years,
but so far this country has not been able to make up its
mind on such a far-reaching measure. The principal
objection has always been that voting in a particular
way, or even refraining from voting, is a matter concerning the freedom of expression. Even though the right to
cast ones vote is only a statutory right, the Supreme
Court has recognised that the act of choosing one candidate over another falls under the freedom of expression
guaranteed in Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution. It is as
a complementary or auxiliary right flowing from this
fundamental right that it held that voters had a right to
know the background of candidates so that they can
exercise their right in an informed manner. Therefore,
there is little doubt that the Gujarat Local Authorities
Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2009 will impact on this fundamental right. Former Governor Kamla Beniwal had declined to give her assent and returned the 2009 Bill to
the Gujarat government for reconsideration in 2010 on
the same grounds, observing that forcing voters to vote
is against the principles of individual liberty.
The Gujarat Assembly adopted it again in March 2011.
Once again, Ms. Beniwal did not give her assent. It has
now received the assent of Governor O.P. Kohli. According to the statement of objects and reasons, due to
low turnout of voters to discharge their duty by exercising their right to vote, the true spirit of the will of the
people is not reflected in the electoral mandate. It says
that if a voter failed to vote for reasons other than those
permitted in the rules, he may be declared a defaulter
voter. However, the penalty has not been spelt out and
it may find a place only in rules to be framed in future.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party considers it a revolutionary measure, while the Congress has opposed it. The
amendment includes a provision to fix the reservation
for women in local bodies at 50 per cent, a provision that
nobody objects to. While Gujarat has the right to adopt
laws in tune with the aspirations of its own people,
legislation such as this with far-reaching consequences
is best adopted after evolving a wider consensus. As far
as general voting principles go, it is relevant to see what
Section 79(d) of the Representation of the People Act
says: that electoral right includes the right to vote or
refrain from voting at an election.
CM
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Botched procedures
dard textbook, but it still makes an impression of sustained intellectual power. Received
with a chorus of admiration, it has become
standard reading in India, Africa, Europe, and
the United States. Fenner Brockway (18881988), a friend of India and for many years
Secretary of the Independent Labour Party,
mentioned that his daughter learnt more
from Glimpses than any other history book
she had studied at school.
Written almost entirely in prison in the
1930s, it bears the mark of a passionate, albeit
humane, nationalism. Others have also put
pen to paper on their life and times, but the
biography glows with patriotic feelings.
There is no cover-up, and no concealment of
facts. As for the self, the influences are too
subtle, too diffused, to be easily identified or
measured. The author loved India tenderly,
and, in the words of Monod, to him that loved,
much may be forgiven.
Autobiographical confessions cannot be regarded as accurate descriptions of a consistent life, and yet Jawaharlal Nehrus
narrative is out of the ordinary precisely for
its tropes and figures of thought, without
which he would not have turned the real
events of life into a narrative and transform
them from a chronicle into a story.
The Discovery of India is a hymn to the
glories of India. He mapped the metaphysical
and philosophic approach to life, idealised
ancient India as a world apart, independent of
and superior to the rest of the civilisations,
toning down the barbarism of the caste system and throwing the warm colours of fancy
around his narrative. At the same time, with
his eyes set on Indias infinite charm, variety
and oneness he worked ceaselessly for a synthesis, drawing on the best, and breaking with
the worst. He consciously followed Gandhi
and Tagore in the direction of the universal.
Consequently,
India
appears
in
The Discovery as a space of ceaseless cultural
mixing, and in the past as a celebration of the
soiling effects of cultural miscegenation and
accretion.
10
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Targets that
endanger lives
t is at once sobering and shocking that the sterilisation procedures (laparoscopic tubectomy)
carried out on 83 women at a camp in Pendari
village of Chhattisgarhs Bilaspur district on November 8 ended up killing 11 women and leaving 69
others ill, some of them critically. In another such sterilisation camp held in Guarella in the same district on
November 10, one of the 56 women sterilised has died
and 12 remain in critical condition. Even as the precise
cause of the tragedies is being investigated, what is
abundantly clear is that the standard operating procedures were thrown to the winds. It is appalling that a
single doctor and a health worker carried out the procedures on all the women in both the camps. According to a
2008 document dealing with standard operating procedures for sterilisation services in such camps, a surgeon
can carry out no more than 30 tubectomies using three
laparoscopes on a given day. Even a team with additional
surgeons, support staff and instruments can at the most
conduct 50 procedures a day. Even if more than one
laparoscope was used, the detailed procedure of decontaminating and cleaning the laparoscope prior to disinfecting it for 20 minutes would have made it impossible
to conduct 83 procedures in less than five hours at
Pendari and 56 procedures at Guarella in such a short
time. It is an irony that though laparoscopic tubectomy
is a bloodless procedure, many women in the Pendari
camp went into haemorrhagic shock due to excessive
blood loss. Along with anaesthesia and drugs given to
women, the needle of suspicion points to sepsis arising
from the use of contaminated laparoscopes.
Sadly, rules will continue to be flouted and deaths will
be the order of the day as long as the lethal combination
of pressure to meet sterilisation targets, compensation amounts given to women and payment to doctors
on the basis of numbers, are in place. Making it worse is
the undivided attention the government has been giving
to sterilisation as a means of achieving by 2020 the
Millennium Development Goal on reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health. This
comes out clearly in a letter sent out on October 20, 2014
by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to the
Chief Ministers of 11 high focus States. The compensation and payment made to all the parties have been
increased for these States. Already, the number of sterilisation procedures carried out in India is disproportionately high compared with other family planning
measures such as the use of intrauterine devices. If the
accredited social health activists (ASHA) are under pressure to mobilise women for sterilisation, the increased
focus on the 11 States would mean that women in these
States are even less likely to be counselled and informed
of safer contraceptive methods to choose from.
Issue of scrutiny
The second is rigorous legal and constitutional scrutiny before law and policy formulation. The last few decades of governance in
India have demonstrated the growing importance of courts and quasi-judicial institutions. Today, more than ever before, every
law, policy, rule and regulation formulated
by governments and regulatory bodies is being increasingly subject to rigorous legal and
constitutional scrutiny. The typical govern-
CARTOONSCAPE
CM
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Sterilisation deaths
Emissions deal
Building linkages
The third aspect is in building linkages
among government agencies and academic
institutions. Public policy formulation has
been an exclusive domain of government
departments and agencies. Historically, anybody outside the government giving suggestions to people in government was not only
frowned upon but also strongly resisted.
Government agencies including ministries
in the Central government and departments
in the State government are woefully preoccupied with a range of day-to-day matters of
governance. Their capacity and ability to
think and reflect on sound public policymaking is minimal not because of any inherent
limitations of competence, but due to a lack
of time and attention, while dealing with the
sheer magnitude of bureaucratic procedures
of their own making. Under these circumstances, it can only help the government if it
develops strong and substantive linkages
with academic institutions, research centres
and independent experts. But for these linkages to be effective and meaningful, they
should be backed by significant changes in
the internal governance structures of government bodies. The advisory role that is
hitherto played by people outside the government should give way to a stronger and
executive role so that those providing advice
feel that their arguments and analysis will be
taken seriously and not be set aside after the
pretence of consultation leading to an empty
and sham exercise in the quest for legitimacy. Public policy should enable people to
speak truth to power.
Establishing centres
The fourth is in building public policy
schools and research centres. If there is one
specific area that is crying for reform, it is the
need to establish several world-class public
policy schools in India. Interdisciplinary
studies relating to public policy, both as an
academic programme as well as a research
programme leading to cutting edge, empirical and pioneering research in various fields
are absent in India. This void is particularly
felt in the humanities and social sciences
more than in sciences, medicine and engineering. Public policymaking in India,
whether it is about building roads, bridges,
airports, sea ports, or for that matter,
launching rockets and creating nuclear power stations requires not only well-trained
engineers and scientists, but also sociologists, anthropologists, lawyers and, most of
all, public policy practitioners who can ensure a consultative dialogue among all stakeholders,
including
government
representatives. The heart of a sound public
policy programme lies in the amalgamation
of qualitative and quantitative methods for
training professionals in public policy; a
study of economics and sociology, which is
critical to the understanding of social and
economic development; law, ethics and governance, which are relevant for examining
the institutions that are responsible for public policymaking and to what extent transparency
and
accountability
inform
policymaking.
The future of governance in India is bound
to become more complex leading to disputes
and disagreements over different visions of
growth and development. In responding to
these challenges, the urgent need is for public policy-based analyses in which every
stakeholder has a voice and where every
voice adds dimension and meaning to the
development discourse. The need for ensuring public policy effectiveness is essential to
achieve good governance. Otherwise, this
goal will remain elusive and our global competitiveness will further decline, as it has
been the case for many years.
(Prof. C. Raj Kumar, a Rhodes Scholar, is
the founding Vice-Chancellor of O.P. Jindal
Global University. E-mail: VC@jgu.edu.in)
Nehruvian legacy
Jawaharlal Nehru is a fine example
of a liberal, visionary and
progressive thinker (Nehru: The
writer, the historian, Nov.13).
However, the story of Indian
independence is of a collaborative
legacy, one in which every leader
contributed his mite. Political
parties must cease playing politics
over our national heroes.
Ashutosh Dalal,
New Delhi
Improving safety
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Security forces
held to account
he life sentence recommended by the General
Court Martial to five Army personnel of the 4
Rajputana Rifles a Colonel who was the commanding officer of his unit, a Captain and three
soldiers for staging a fake encounter in Kashmir has
come not a day too soon. The five were found guilty of
killing three innocent men on April 30, 2010 and passing
them off as Pakistani militants to collect cash rewards for
the encounter. Massive protests engulfed the Valley
after the killings, leading to the four-month long stonepelting agitation in which 120 more Kashmiris, mostly
teenagers and youth, were killed in street confrontations
with police and the paramilitary. After a police investigation, 11 persons, including a Colonel and two Majors, were
charge sheeted in a criminal court at Sopore. The Army
successfully stalled the proceedings before a trial court
and opted for a Court of Inquiry, which too arrived at the
same conclusion as the police. It was on the basis of the
CoI report, which was not made public, that the Army
ordered the court martial in December 2013. The proceedings began in January and ended in September, when
the court reserved orders. After the Pathribal experience,
in which the military court closed the case against the
accused Army personnel citing absence of evidence, the
court martial in the Macchil case ordered just a few days
later, did not inspire much hope that justice would be
done. But the punishment is certainly exemplary and will
hopefully serve as a deterrent against wrongdoing. The
sentence will take effect when it is confirmed by the
Northern Corps Commander, Lt. Gen. G.S. Hooda. Chief
Minister Omar Abdullah even called it a watershed
moment for Jammu and Kashmir.
At a time when the Valley is once again seething at the
killing of two young boys at the hands of soldiers, the
conviction and the sentencing shore up the image of the
Army as an institution that can hold its men accountable
through internal processes. The Army would build more
trust with the people of Kashmir if it also reopened the
Pathribal fake encounter case in which a Brigadier, a
Lieutenant Colonel, two Majors, and a Subedar of 7 Rashtriya Rifles were the accused. The justice done in the
Macchil case is certain to be held up as an example of why
there is no need to do away with the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act or the immunity clauses in it. But
the Army cannot portray itself as a fully accountable
institution so long as it takes shelter under the nonaccountability provisions of AFSPA, and puts itself outside the scrutiny of civilian courts. After all, it was only
the pressure of a mass civilian protest and a police charge
sheet pointing to clear evidence of crime that forced the
Armys hand and led to the initiation of action in the
Macchil case.
Harnessing science
Imagine a country which suffers two genocides, the Bengal Famine and Partition. Imagine a nation littered with refugees and the
bittersweet memories of displacement. Such
a nation could have turned melancholic, bitter, even tyrannical. Yet with all the violence,
India of the Nehruvian years had a touch of
innocence. Indians felt they had done the
impossible (win freedom) and now wanted to
repeat it. It was Nehru who gave India that
lightness of being, that childlike innocence
and yet that sophistication that came with a
civilisational confidence.
Nehru inspired a generation to hope and
believe. In fact, it was the first decades of
Independence that could be called the Indian
CARTOONSCAPE
Cometary
quest
fter a tense seven hours, there were high fives,
hugs and handshakes. Separating from the Rosetta mother craft, Philae made history on
Wednesday by becoming the first probe to
carry out a soft landing on a comet. But mission managers of the European Space Agency (ESA) have since
found to their dismay that the landing did not go as
planned. The probe appears to have come to rest on its
side, with one of its landing legs in the air, at the bottom
of a cliff. It is getting only a fraction of the sunlight its
solar arrays need to recharge batteries. Unless some
way is found to manoeuvre the lander into a better
position, it will not be able to continue functioning for
long. Touching down on Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was unquestionably challenging. This comet is
a two-lobed agglomeration of ice, dust and bits of rock
that some have likened to a rubber duck. Even identifying a suitable landing site on it was not easy. The
uncertainties inherent in an unguided descent without
active propulsion meant that the probe would come
down somewhere in a landing ellipse about one square
kilometre in size, which had to be free of big boulders,
crevasses and steep slopes that might imperil the
lander.
Just before Philae separated from Rosetta, it
emerged that a small thruster, which uses pressurised
gas to hold the lander down immediately on arrival on
the comets surface, would not be able to operate. Two
harpoons, which were to be fired on touchdown to
anchor the lander, also did not function. As a result,
given the comets negligible gravitational hold the
probe ended up bouncing twice before finally coming to
rest. The scientific team in charge of instruments on
Philae are now racing to collect as much data as they
can. Even before the landing took place, the plan was
that the landers primary science mission would last
only about two and a half days. The hope, however, was
that with enough sunlight to recharge its batteries,
scientific activities could carry on till March next year.
That extension of the landers science mission is now in
doubt. It was in August this year that Rosetta and
Philae, which left Earth ten years back, rendezvoused
with their cometary target. Rosetta will continue to
accompany the comet for the next year or so, keeping
watch over changes that occur as it heads towards the
Sun, swings around and starts its return journey towards Jupiter. The intense scientific scrutiny that Rosetta and Philae provide will further humankinds
understanding about the evolution of the solar system.
They might provide clues too about whether comets
brought water and organic molecules to Earth, creating
conditions for the emergence of life.
CM
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Sterilisation deaths
Destroying Nehru?
Institution building
Today, given the mediocrity of his epigone
and the autism of the Congress party, we
forget that the Nehruvian era was the great
period of institution building, where we initiated community development, celebrated
planning, built our great IITs, revitalised our
science laboratories. India could not have
been India without harvesting the achievement of the Nehruvian years.
I remember my old friend and teacher U.R.
Ananthamurthy. Before he died, he left behind a great manuscript, a testament, a manifesto. URA criticised the Nehruvian years but
he made a more critical point. Nehru might
have made mistakes but Narendra Modi is the
mistake that India might regret one day in its
angry backlash against the family. Nehru was
a classic. Our current regime is a footnote. It
can only become history if it destroys the
Nehruvian years.
Today, there is an epidemic of seminars,
conferences and newspaper articles about
125 years of Nehru. Writers will give Nehru
the good conduct certificates he does not
need and praise his concern for poverty and
his interest in science. The Congress is petty
enough not to invite Mr. Modi but pompously
invites guests from overseas. It is an un-Nehruvian act in its aesthetics and one must condemn it. Yet, what will be even more
depressing is the social science litany about a
man who gave us the poetics of a nation. In
our current politics, it is not memory and its
poignancy we are evoking. Our anniversaries
become dull timetables, empty acts of repetition. When the magic is gone, only an official
catechism remains. It is simpler to open a
book of photographs and travel down memory lane. I wish there was something simpler,
more abstract, a simple poem that caught the
magic of the man without shrinking it to nostalgia, because Nehru, our Nehru deserved
much more.
(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal
School of Government and Public Policy.)
An appeal to India
The Chief Minister of Sri Lankas
Northern
province,
C.V.
Wigneswarans appeal to India for a
positive role in the Sri Lankan Tamil
issue is timely (Nov. 14). Sri Lanka
appears to be outmanoeuvring India
at every stage and going back on its
promise to rehabilitate the Tamil
population. The current one-man
show in Sri Lanka as far as
governance is concerned might give
India limited space to work things
out. A broad-based and strong
Rohits record
On toilet coverage
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Ridding IPL
of its taint
he Supreme Courts disclosure of four names
among those investigated by the Justice Mukul Mudgal committee marks another step in
the excruciating process of cleaning up Indian cricket. The fact that the court chose to merely name
four officials and non-players without disclosing the
findings against them in the committees report has
contributed to considerable uncertainty. The Board of
Control for Cricket in India is due to elect a new
president, but the annual general meeting is being
delayed, presumably to give more time to N. Srinivasan, who has stepped aside from the office during the
pendency of the investigation, to get a clean chit before
seeking re-election. The court has hinted at misdemeanour on the part of the persons named, but has
also added that at the moment it cannot say anything
on whether Mr. Srinivasan can contest or seek a fresh
term without the issues raised in the report being
addressed. Any inference drawn from the disclosure of
names may be misleading unless the exact nature of the
misdemeanour found against them is also made
known. The Court has now given them an opportunity
to rebut the panels findings. Given the prolonged uncertainty over the outcome of the probe, which was
completed and the final report submitted to the court
some time ago, it would have been more desirable if the
findings were simultaneously revealed along with all
the names given by the panel in a sealed cover. Given
that the reputation of players is no more and no less
deserving of protection than that of non-players,
none of those under investigation should be shielded
from public scrutiny in open judicial proceedings.
The immediate consequence is that Mr. Srinivasan,
the president of the Indian cricket board who has
stepped aside from the functions associated with the
office, is in a spot. Mr. Srinivasan has all along been
maintaining that he has done no wrong and that there
is no investigation directed at him, as he cannot be held
responsible for the actions of his son-in-law Gurunath
Meiyappan, associated with the Chennai Super Kings.
It remains to be seen if there is any serious finding
against him. Ever since the reality of betting and spotfixing came to light in the 2013 edition of the Indian
Premier League, the cricket establishment has been
under a cloud. It reacted with denial and came up with
no credible mechanism to probe the affairs. The fact
that misdemeanour has been established against four
individuals Mr. Srinivasan, Mr. Meiyappan, Rajasthan Royals co-owner Raj Kundra and the IPLs chief
operating officer, Sundar Raman indicates that the
rot runs deep in IPL. Tainted hands need to be kept off
this highly popular tournament.
Demand-supply mismatch
With every decline, there were expectations that Saudi Arabia would play its traditional role as swing producer and cut
production; but this failed to happen. This
was surprising since almost all major oil producers have become dependent on high prices, with break-even levels usually over $90
per barrel to meet their ever-increasing fiscal obligations. The main explanation for
this situation is that world markets are flush
with supplies for which there are not enough
consumers. The global economic slowdown
is the principal culprit: with Chinas national
growth projected at around seven per cent
per year, increase in oil demand is negligible.
Europe is also not expected to contribute to
increased demand due to its sluggish growth.
The supply scenario is quite different. Not
only have the Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries (OPEC) members not
effected cuts in their production, additional
production has also come into the market
and Iran are known to be resilient and unlikely to compromise their established foreign policy positions only on account of
falling oil prices. In fact, the adverse circumstances are likely to encourage domestic tenacity and greater camaraderie between the
two beleaguered nations.
The other scenario sees a deliberate Saudi
attempt to retard the further development of
the shale oil industry in the U.S., which is
crucially dependent on high oil prices of
$80-90 per barrel to sustain production. Oil
analyst Edward McAllister has asserted that
Saudi Arabia has started a global price war
aimed at quickly denting U.S. oil output.
Analysts have pointed out that oil firms have
committed investments of over a trillion dolGrand strategy scenarios
lars in projects based on oil prices at $95 for
The unexpected fall in prices has triggered them to be viable.
two competing grand strategy scenarios.
However, while low prices may put mediOne scenario emerges from the impact of the um-term U.S. production in jeopardy, this is
The Gulf, with 25 per cent global production and 30 per cent
of global reserves, will remain at the heart of the worlds
energy security interests.
price falls on the economies of U.S. adversaries, Russia and Iran. The columnist Thomas
Friedman sounded triumphalist when, in
mid-October, he said he was seeing a global
oil war which had the U.S. and Saudi Arabia
arrayed against Russia and Iran. The latter
are crucially dependent on oil revenues and
will be seriously affected by low prices. It is
the fond hope of the proponents of this scenario that the economic pressures generated
by low prices would make them more accommodative in their engagements with western
interlocutors.
However, whatever the neo-cold warriors
in Washington may hope for, both Russia
CARTOONSCAPE
Bizarre verdict
reversed
ustice has finally been done. A few days ago, an
appeals court in LAquila, Italy, acquitted six
Italian scientists who were convicted of manslaughter and awarded a six-year jail term in
October 2012 for failing to communicate to the public
the risk of an earthquake striking LAquila. The scientists were part of the seven-member official risk commission. But the judges endorsed the conviction of
Bernardo De Bernardinis, the seventh member of the
commission and the then deputy head of Italys Civil
Protection Department, who communicated the message to the public; his jail sentence was reduced from six
to two years. On March 31, 2009, the seven members
assessed the risk of a killer quake striking LAquila. The
meeting was convened in the light of a small and medium-intensity earthquake swarm rocking the city and a
quake prediction by a laboratory technician based on
radon emission from the ground. During the meeting,
the scientists clearly raised the possibility of a major
quake rocking the city but never stated it with certainty. But Bernardinis message to the public was overtly
reassuring and not in line with the cautious assessment
by the scientists. A quake, 6.3 in magnitude, that struck
the city six days later, killed more than 300 people,
injured over 1,600 people and destroyed nearly 65,000
houses.
In a document on conviction reasoning, Judge Marco Billi, who had found the scientists guilty of manslaughter, had emphasised that he had not charged the
scientists for failing to predict the earthquake. He had
faulted them for their complete failure to properly
analyse the threat posed by the swarm. Worse, he
had charged them for not taking into account a paper
published in 1995 which stated that LAquila was certain to be struck by a major quake by 2015. As an
editorial in Nature in October 2009 put it, the verdict
was nothing but perverse and the sentence ludicrous. There is no scientific basis whatsoever for the
judges accusations. Not all major quakes have been
preceded by quake swarms and not all quake swarms
have been followed by a killer quake. Similarly, the 1983
forecast by the United States Geological Survey of a
quake, six in magnitude, between 1988 and 1993 in the
intensively studied Parkfield in California did not happen. The real problem was with the messaging. An
element of uncertainty should have definitely found a
place in the message, all the more because Italy is a
quake-prone country. For the same reason, the compulsion to take precautionary measures should have
been a matter of routine by all. More importantly, like
in Japan, all buildings should have met seismic safety
standards. Punishing the scientists for not doing the
impossible was nothing but bizarre.
CM
YK
Remembering Nehru
The article Poetics of a nation:
remembering Nehru (Nov. 15) was
delectable reading for a vast
number of Nehru admirers. It was a
fact that in his time, Jawaharlal
Nehru mesmerised the nation with
his
oft-repeated
words,
democracy,
socialism
and
secularism.
His personal charm was
irresistible. He gave a new direction
to several nascent republics of
those times. The Nehruvian era is
unforgettable.
G. Azeemoddin,
Anantapur
On turning 100
Nehrus
contributions
to
strengthen an infant India are
unquestionable. It is commendable
how Nehru wielded influence in
such a fragmented society. We can
criticise his policies but he left an
indelible mark as far as Indias
growth as a democracy was
concerned and which led to it being
called the Light of Asia.
Arvind Singh Chauhan,
Salooni, Himachal Pradesh
It is unfortunate that a visionless
NDA government is trying to run
down Nehru. That Nehru was a
world leader is a fact. Therefore, the
BJP must stop trying to embrace
him as the ideologies of the
Congress and the BJP are
incompatible. The BJP promotes
communalism
whereas
the
Congress is a secular party which
believes in the well-being of all the
communities.
Rahul Kumar,
New Delhi
As one who grew up during the
1950s and 1960s absolutely adoring
Chacha
Nehru,
it
was
heartwarming to read the article.
The writer has captured the
essence of the Nehruvian years
when he says, Nehru inspired a
generation to hope and believe. On
hearing
about
Kennedys
assassination, I vividly remember
thinking how such a barbaric act
would never happen in our land.
During the 1950s and early 1960s
we all felt that we as Indians were
special. I also agree with the writer
when he says that science was used
as an enzyme of development and
believed that the future belonged to
science or those who make friends
with science. The first decade after
Independence was indeed an
idealistic decade.
Gita Subramanian,
Bengaluru
Cometary quest
The landing of the robot probe
Philae lander on Comet 67P/
Churyumov-Gerasimenko is not
just a historic feat for the European
Space Agency but for humanity as
well (Nov. 16). The rendezvous has
come after a patient wait, and one
now looks forward to the analysis of
data that will give us more insights
into the origins of our solar system,
comet-water delivery theory,
extraterrestrials and the organic
evolution of life. Furthermore, the
mission could help equip us with
more information to deal with
other interstellar bodies. Deep
space exploration has indeed
become indispensable in the
understanding of our human
civilisation.
Ananda Chingangbam,
Itanagar, Arunachal Pradesh
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Trade facilitation
on track
he deal between India and the U.S. on the
contentious issue of public stockholdings of
foodgrains for security should put the global
trade negotiations back on track. The bilateral compromise provides the much-needed window to
save the multilateral Trade Facilitation Agreement
(TFA), a significant step in the history of the World
Trade Organization (WTO). The TFA, cleared at a WTO
ministerial meeting in Bali last year, is intended to
simplify customs rules, speed up the release of goods
from ports, and pare transaction costs. The Narendra
Modi-led BJP government refused to sign the TFA,
insisting on a permanent solution to the food subsidy
issue before signing it. The bone of contention is over a
WTO rule that caps subsidies to farmers at 10 per cent
of the total historical value of farm production. This
stipulation as is articulated at the WTO is seen to
undermine the responsibility of developing countries
to feed the poor. Not surprisingly, India and some
others have questioned the methodology of arriving at
such a subsidy cap. A peace clause in the WTO rules
does indeed provide a limited-year protection to India
and the like from legal challenges by member-nations
should they exceed the farm subsidy cap. What if the
farm subsidy concerns remained unaddressed once the
peace clause expires and member-nations are allowed
to legally challenge violations of the subsidy cap? Complaints based on rules limiting farm subsidy could
seriously hamper the governments ability to ensure
food stocking and supply for the poor. These fears were
behind the blocking of the TFA by the Modi government. Had the impasse continued, the beneficial provisions on trade facilitation would have been delayed too.
The deal with the U.S. now provides for an indefinite
peace clause until a permanent solution is found to the
farm subsidy issue. The deal is a reflection of the Modi
governments assertion of national interest while being
flexible on modalities. Once Indias stand and its concern over the implications for food security were explained clearly to the U.S., it came up with a reasonable
response. If at one stage India risked global isolation,
New Delhi did not insist on an immediate solution to
the food subsidy issue but agreed to an indefinite peace
clause. In all, it is a pact that enables the multilateral
trade negotiations to move forward. With this deal in
place, the TFA could become a reality. Of course, the
bilateral pact will have to be ratified by the WTO but
with the U.S. showing the way, other members would
find it acceptable. It underscores once again the dominance of the U.S. in a multilateral global forum even
while it is a recognition of Indias place in the global
economic environment.
Layering of roles
During a visit to Kashmir in September
2014, I found Sadbhavna schools set up by
the Indian military around the Line of Control (LoC) in villages like Dawar in Gurez
sector, which are poor and lack much infrastructure. In an attempt to win the
hearts and minds of people, by following
U.S. counterinsurgency doctrine, the Indian
Army had launched in the late 1990s Operation Sadbhavna (Goodwill) that is aimed at
Uniformed actors
The Indian state has had to invest heavily
in a security apparatus to facilitate incorporation and control of dissenting populations.
But how did the Indian state reach this
point? I argue here that a combination of
factors has precipitated garrison governance. India had to become a counterinsurgent state along with becoming an
independent democracy. Because the police
CARTOONSCAPE
Resolute policies
on children
n the 25th anniversary this week of the adoption of the United Nations Convention on the
Rights of the Child (CRC), is the world a
better place for children? It would be illadvised to seek shelter behind a simplistic yes or no
manner of response to the question, says a commemorative publication of UNICEF to mark this milestone.
The reduction in mortality rates in the under-five agegroup, by nearly 50 per cent, between 1990 and 2013
shows how much more can be achieved through resolute policies and concerted action. Greater recognition
of the importance of investment in early childhood
development over the lifespan and improvements in
the general standard of living have been critical to this
transformation. Yet, the proportion of children under
five years who live in low-income regions has increased
from 13 per cent in 1990 to 19 per cent in 2014. Clearly,
countries have to aggressively expand the public provision of primary health-care services to promote maternal care and free more children from malnutrition
and disease. Enrolment in early childhood education
nearly doubled between 1990 and 2012. Even so, fewer
than 50 per cent of those in the age group of 3-4 years in
many low and middle-income states are said to have
access to preschool programmes. Universal secondary
education is still a far cry in many parts of the world.
Recent studies have shown that children and other
vulnerable sections are hardest hit by macroeconomic
imbalances. UNICEF points out that progress to realise
the objectives of the CRC has stalled due to diminishing
aid flows in the wake of the financial crisis. Governments must therefore constantly strive to counter persistent disparities by expanding the resource base for
childrens welfare. Negotiations on the historic treaty,
back in the 1980s, were animated by concerns over child
abuse, adoption and the involvement of children in
armed conflict. These are no less troubling questions
today as nearly half the number of children in the
primary school age group who are out of school reside in
countries torn by civil strife. Moreover, says the United
Nations, child trafficking represents 27 per cent of
trafficking in humans and where two out of every three
victims are girls. In countries such as India, recourse to
the selective abortion of female foetuses represents the
most brutal violation of basic human dignity. Indeed,
human rights are inalienable and inviolable. However,
the respect due to persons depends equally on their
capacity to exercise and affirm their rights. The precarious situation of children is that they are not in a position to exert such a capacity and depend on the
protection from positive laws and healthy parenting.
Thus, the onus is on the state and society.
CM
YK
Rights violations
The formula for garrison governance is
rather simple boots on the ground combined with some feel-good handouts. This
obfuscates a larger architecture of oppression. Soldiers are still protected by the
Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA)
in Manipur and Jammu and Kashmir, which
has led to several reported incidents of human rights violations and sexual assault. The
landscape is dotted with armed soldiers and
the police; civilian movement is filtered and
controlled in shopping districts and government offices, curfews and crackdowns are
imposed at the slightest suggestion of dissent, and phone tapping is common. An Intelligence Bureau official stationed in
Kashmir told me that they were tapping 10
lakh phones in Kashmir alone by 2014. In the
last two decades, most Governors of Northeastern States have been former military
generals.
Even the police in places like Kashmir
have become more militarised. Assault rifles
have replaced traditional lathis, which are
now deemed insufficient for crowd control.
Alongside this, Special Police Officers are
being locally recruited, trained and deployed
in Kashmir. Visitors to certain States are
often visited by the special branch of the
State police, which can, at will, investigate
individuals and their intentions for being in
the State. Security forces routinely stop inter-State buses and local buses for spot
checks. Travelling in trains in the Northeast
means being willing to open up your baggage
to the officials of the Railway Protection
Force.
During election time, troop deployment
doubles across the Northeast. At a higher
level, General Officers Commanding (GOCs)
in these States have a high degree of power in
maintaining counterinsurgency strategy. As
reported by one bureaucrat deployed in Manipur in 2011, the GOC and the Chief Minister of Manipur often got into disagreements
about what needed to be done about the hill
tribes. Often the GOC won.
In spite of six decades of counterinsurgency, insurgencies in India have thrived. I have
personally counted at least 196 insurgent
groups since 1950 in India, many of which
are still active. It is clear that a strategy
meant to secure sovereignty has instead led
to a permanent state of exception in some
areas, where the character of governance
itself is at odds with democratic norms since
the power of elected representatives and bureaucrats is circumscribed by and enabled
only at the behest of soldiers. Some constitutional rights of people stand suspended under such governance because non-insurgent,
democratic political dissent has also come to
be seen as a form of anti-state activity. Under
such conditions, it is vital to reopen a debate
into Indias counterinsurgency strategies in
different areas and start thinking about political settlements to insurgencies.
(Vasundhara Sirnate is the Chief
Coordinator of Research at The Hindu
Centre for Politics and Public Policy.)
Mullaperiyar level
A Singapore model
Putins walkout
Hindu chaplain
While I agree with Pratima Dharms
view (Comment, Nov.17) that in
todays advanced scientific world
we must not believe too much in
mythologies, the fact is that Robert
Oppenheimer, regarded as the
father of the atomic bomb
referred to the Bhagavad Gita to
express his hopes and fears. He is
quoted as having thought of the
verse: Now I am become Death, the
destroyer of worlds.
Santhosh Mathew,
Puducherry
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
CARTOONSCAPE
CM
YK
One-sided
Getting them
back to school
survey commissioned by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, in September
shows that out of the estimated 20.41 crore
children in the age group of 6-13 in India, an
estimated 60.41 lakh (2.97 per cent) are out of school.
This proportion of out-of-school children is lower than
the figure of 4.28 per cent in 2009 and 6.94 per cent in
2006, a fact worthy of cheer. This study is indicative of
the fact that government-sponsored retention schemes
and policies have had some positive impact. Methodologically, the report conducts household surveys and broadly defines out-of-school as including all children who do
not attend school for more than 45 days in an academic
year. Had the report conducted a survey based on administrative records and defined out-of-school children
more narrowly, the results may have been significantly
different, perhaps far less optimistic. But the picture is
gloomy if we look more closely at the status of marginal
groups in this study. The survey reveals that a higher
percentage of female children (3.23 per cent) are out of
school than males (2.77 per cent); more children from
rural areas (3.13 per cent) are out of school than from
urban (2.54 per cent) areas. A staggering 4.43 per cent of
Muslim children, 4.7 per cent of Scheduled Tribes and
28.07 per cent of children with special needs are estimated to be out of school. Other surveys in the recent past
also concur with this data of identifying Scheduled
Castes, ST and Muslim children as constituting a major
chunk of the out-of-school children, and record a very
disproportionate progress in terms of bridging regional,
gender and rural/urban divides.
The report simplistically records poverty and academic disinterest as major reasons for dropping out of school.
Such analysis is where such studies fall short. As the
MHRD report Education for All of August 2014 shows,
too much emphasis is given to infrastructural reform,
providing transportation, books, uniforms, etc. Although
this is significant, the overarching insights from such a
study require policymakers to officially acknowledge the
prevalence of exclusionary practices in schools, so as to
address them directly. In such complex conditions, deploying an intersectional analysis can be a useful methodological tool of study, such as noting the
discrimination faced by a lower caste-rural-girl child in
school as against an upper caste-urban-boy child. The
school cannot be perceived as an instrumental sphere for
the potential labour force of a growing economy. Rather,
it is a space for community development, a learning
process that can potentially undermine caste and gender
prejudices by the mere fact of children sitting together
and sharing a common meal, increasing their self-worth.
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Arms and
the godman
ome godmen and religious cult leaders often
have an exaggerated sense of their own importance: they sometimes end up believing what
they tell their fanatic followers. In evading
arrest for days together by making his supporters create a ring of protection around him in his ashram, the
self-styled jagat guru Sant Rampal not only showed
utter disregard for the law of the land, but also supreme
confidence in his ability to keep law enforcers at bay.
Despite a court order calling for his arrest in a contempt case, the police struggled to get close to the
godman in his ashram in Hisar. Intent to avoid a violent
confrontation in the ashram, the police chose to play
the waiting game, without trying to force their way past
the crowd of Rampal supporters. But the water cannons, tear gas shells, and lathis of the police were met
with gunfire, Molotov cocktails and acid pouches of the
followers. Indeed, Sant Rampal seemed to be enjoying
being at the centre of all this attention. In his calculations, the longer the stand-off between his followers
and the police, the better it would be for his own
popularity. The clashes with the police were designed
to add inches to his larger-than-life image. Thus, instead of choosing the easier and more sensible option
of surrendering to the police, the Sant put at risk the
lives and limbs of his band of supporters.
Worryingly, five women and a child have died in the
ashram during the stand-off. While the cause of the
deaths is still under investigation, there is little doubt
that the use of a human shield by the godman had
unpleasant consequences. Fresh cases of waging war
against the state filed against him are not going to deter
the Sant or his group of blind followers who seem to
thrive on controversies. Sant Rampals rise to fame was
not that of the usual godman. Claiming to be an incarnation of Kabir, the mystic poet-saint of 15th century India, Rampal rose to fame not only by preaching,
but also by attacking other spiritual leaders and politicians and influential people. Indeed, his disdain for the
law and for those in power seems to be part of the
attraction for his followers. While the police did the
right thing by exercising care and restraint in pushing
back his supporters, the impression that the godman
could defy the court and the law indefinitely gained
ground. There could have been no resolution of the
stand-off without the arrest of Sant Rampal. There was
nothing to be gained by appealing to the Sant to see
reason, and a peaceful end to this confrontation could
never have been quick.
Minority rights
Today, the case for this has grown stronger,
with the RSS advancing a more de-brahmanised mode of Hinduisation, in the sense of
providing for leadership for individuals from
the Dalit-Bahujan communities. Here it is being argued that for Dalits, the difference be-
CARTOONSCAPE
Counting caste
in the census
stand-alone caste headcount may not normally be desirable in a country grappling
with the adverse consequences of social hierarchy and caste-based divisions. However,
in conjunction with socio-economic data, a caste census may yield quantifiable data that could be used to
evaluate measures such as caste-based reservation in
employment and education. In that sense, a caste-wise
enumeration of the population, both in the urban and
rural areas, may be useful in guiding policy. A recent
decision by the Supreme Court setting aside a direction from the Madras High Court to the authorities to
hold a caste-wise census, caused disquiet in States like
Tamil Nadu, where the demand for a caste census has
been strong. The verdict was seen by some as judicial
invalidation of the idea of a caste census. However, the
court verdict was limited to the question whether the
High Court was right in encroaching upon the policy
domain of the executive. Secondly, the Socio Economic and Caste Census (SECC) launched in 2011 to enumerate castes along with socio-economic data, is
progressing, and is likely to be completed soon. The
court had only held that it was a policy matter in the
realm of the executive. It may be recalled that the
court had in the past wanted to know the basis on
which reservation was fixed, as there is no precise data
on the extent of backwardness of any given caste. With
some States exceeding the 50 per cent limit on total
reservation fixed by the Supreme Court in the Indira
Sawhney case, the continuance of higher levels of
caste-based reservation may depend on the socio-economic data.
However, it is not clear why the Union government,
or the office of the Census Commissioner that had
appealed against the High Court direction to hold a
caste census, did not apprise the Supreme Court of the
fact that SECC 2011 is in progress. The governments
argument was limited to the point that any direction
on the manner in which the census is undertaken will
be tantamount to interference in policy matters. Perhaps, the government had gone on appeal only on the
principle that the decennial census should remain in
its present form and that the socio-economic caste
survey was just a one-off exercise. It is not yet clear
how the government proposes to use the caste data
collected by it. The outcome of SECC 2011 may well be
used to identify beneficiaries under various welfare
schemes, including those earmarked for availing facilities under food security schemes. It will be quite a
daunting task to match the socio-economic characteristics of a particular community with its numerical
strength. In whatever manner the details may be put to
use, India must continue to balance social justice with
the long-term objective of creating a caste-free society.
CM
YK
Ashram battle
Ebola in India
On Wahhabism
It has been mentioned in the Quran
La Iqrahafiddeen (2:256) Surah
Baqarah that there can be no
compulsion in religion. Irfan Habib
(Nov. 19) has rightly pointed out
that the Islamic State has left other
terrorist groups far behind in terms
of barbarism. Even the pre-Prophet
era of Jahiliya had not seen such
atrocities being committed. Despite
the differences, the Islamic world
needs to come together to counter
the threat being posed by the IS.
Syed Abbas Haider,
Meerut
The brand of Islam adopted and
forcibly being thrust on others by
self-proclaimed true Muslims is
far removed from the Islam
practised by Prophet Muhammad.
Islam means peace and the
Prophets life in Medina is a classic
example of how people of different
beliefs were united as one ummah,
or community. The Constitution of
Medina is the most important
written agreement forged for the
peaceful coexistence of all
communities inhabiting Medina
during that time. Social justice,
equality, compassion and mercy are
the hallmarks of Islam. Sadly, there
has been an unrelenting attack on
Dignity of labour
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
star-like reception in Australia has
been all over the media, and one of
the recent inspirational slogans he
echoed in Sydney was that he
admired the Australian ethos of
dignity of labour. When he
returns to India, he must effectively
implement the law against manual
scavenging in India. Indeed, there is
no dignity in such degrading
slavery. Human Rights Watch has
raised this issue in a 2014 report,
and the BBC, among other western
media outlets, has covered it. I also
find it ironical that Mr. Modi gave
this speech after unveiling
Mahatma Gandhis statue in
Brisbane. A first step to bringing
dignity to India's exploited and
demeaned
citizens
is
the
reappraisal of its past saints,
instead of erecting and worshipping
their idols.
Rajiv Thind,
Brisbane, Australia
Plastic menace
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Diplomacy
wins the day
he unconditional release by Sri Lanka of five
fishermen sentenced to death by a court in
that country on charges of drug smuggling is a
welcome development. Sri Lanka must be
commended for taking this large-hearted step. It is not
often that nations set aside their own laws and procedures, as well as domestic political considerations, to
make exceptions for nationals of another country; three
Sri Lankans convicted in the same case remain on death
row. It speaks volumes about the importance that Colombo attaches to its relations with New Delhi that all
five men are back in India. Further, they will not need to
undergo any more imprisonment in an Indian jail as
would have been required in a normal case of commutation of death sentence and repatriation under the transfer of prisoners agreement between the two countries.
Years of appeals to Islamabad from two Prime Ministers, family members and civil society could not
secure the release of Sarabjit Singh from the Kot Lakhpat jail in Pakistan. Several times Pakistan did come
close to letting him go, but in reality he was a hostage of
the bad relations between the two countries. He met a
cruel end in the jail at the hands of fellow-inmates who
brutally attacked him, inflicting injuries that killed him.
India spared no diplomatic effort to secure the release
of the five men from the Sri Lankan prison. The telephone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra
Modi and President Mahinda Rajapaksa capped days of
back channel persuasion by a number of emissaries.
While it is not clear what, if any, incentives New Delhi
offered in return, the resolution of the matter to Indias
satisfaction is a significant point in bilateral relations.
With the episode linked fundamentally to the issue of
encroachment by Indian fishermen in Sri Lankan waters, it should prompt both sides to redouble efforts for
a solution that will end the dispute between the two
fishing communities over sharing the Palk Bay regions
scarce marine resources. Beyond Sri Lanka, it should
not be a surprise if the happy ending to the issue brings
under scrutiny New Delhis own conduct in the case of
the Italian marines, which has been in limbo as the
government debates under what law they should be
charged. Further, with the release of the fishermen
setting the bar high for diplomatic interventions, demands are bound to grow for similar action in other
cases in which Indians abroad fall foul of the law. New
Delhi has a duty to safeguard the well-being of all its
citizens, wherever they might be, but it would also do
well to lay down the circumstance and the red lines
beyond which it would be unwise to interfere in the
legal systems of other countries.
ulation level health indicators are well below hospital beds to provide adequate coverage
those of other comparable countries.
even at the 2.50 per cent level mentioned earlier, it is imperative that the focus of immediate
Primary care with gatekeeping
attention should not be hospitals or more AIThe second element is the need to shift the IMS-like centres but well-designed and capafocus of attention from hospital-based care, to ble primary-care facilities so that patients can
primary care in terms of financing, devel- go there directly. Should they inadvertently
opment of infrastructure and usage. In order end up at hospitals for seeking such care, they
for India to achieve UHC, both in terms of must be directed back. Only this combination
financial feasibility as well as its well-being of improved-availability and mandatory-gategoals, it is clear that fewer than 2.50 per cent of keeping will start to reduce the excess demand
patients in any given year should need hospi- for hospital beds even as we gradually seek to
tal-based care. This implies that 97.5 per cent address the unmet needs for hospital beds in
of all conditions would need to be dealt with at deficient regions. Otherwise, we run the serithe primary-care level. UHC would therefore ous risk of this turning into a vicious cycle of
need substantial investments at the primary ever increasing demand for hospital beds, furlevel combined with a strong gatekeeping ther fuelled by an in-patient, insurance-led
CARTOONSCAPE
Of secret hoards
in tax havens
he gathering of the Group of 20 countries in
Brisbane over the past weekend was not without its share of lofty goal-setting on the big
questions of the day that usually marks such
summits. There are indications, however, of a realistic
chance that the world leaders would be able to match
their commitments with actions sooner than later. This
optimism stems from the increasing synergy between
Washington and Beijing, demonstrated in the climate
change deal they announced days before the Brisbane
summit. A case in point is the set of principles that the
G20 leaders agreed that would enable governments to
identify anonymous owners of shell companies and
trusts and facilitate cross-border exchange of information. Billions of dollars of illicit finances, mostly from
developing countries, are said to be parked in such
entities; sums that could be utilised to lift millions out
of poverty. Although these transparency principles
have been in the making from the G20 summit last year,
a final consensus emerged once Chinas concerns were
addressed to its satisfaction. While allowing public access to information on beneficial ownership is still not
part of the agenda, a readiness to track such data is a
modest beginning. The G20 leaders gave their assent to
the proposal put forth by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to limit the use of tax
havens, as cleared by OECD Finance Ministers earlier.
By contrast, the target of a 2 per cent increase in
overall output growth for the bloc within the next four
years with a promise to further liberalise trade, is perhaps more of an expression of pious intent. The risk of
another global recession, even if not of a magnitude
similar to the earlier one, is a refrain that is not infrequently heard these days. Underlying the United
States Treasury Secretarys comment of Europes lost
decade are probably differences over strategy. But the
European countries and the U.S. seem to have found
common cause to prevail upon major carbon-emitting countries to come up with credible commitments
to lower their CO2 emissions ahead of the global summit
in Paris late next year. For his part, President Barack
Obama pledged $3 billion to the United Nations-backed
Green Climate Fund to help poor countries cope with
the challenges of global warming. Large carbon emissions represent also a feature common to the U.S. and
Australia, Mr. Obama reportedly said, reflecting the
mood in the White House. The U.S. pledge was followed
by one from Japan. Leaders who would have preferred
to persist with a business-as-usual approach to the
matter may have found themselves isolated. Trite statements of politicians do not often inspire confidence in
their will to take matching actions. The G20 leaders
may be rewriting that old script.
CM
YK
End of a stand-off
financial protection strategy, leading eventually to continual and rapid increases in health
insurance premiums with no resultant improvements in health outcomes.
Covering everybody
Claim on Jesus
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Unprecedented
indictment
he good thing about the tenure of Ranjit Sinha
as Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation is that it is drawing to a close in the next
few days. And when he exits the countrys
premier agency, in which many have reposed faith for
the competent investigation of sensitive cases, he would
have contributed a substantial share to the erosion of its
credibility. From letting the Law Minister vet a status
report meant solely for the Supreme Court, to maintaining unauthorised contact with suspects under investigation, Mr. Sinha repeatedly let down his agency,
the dignity of his office and the cause of justice. The
Supreme Courts order directing him to keep away from
the investigation into the 2G spectrum cases is unprecedented. The charges relate to interference in the administration of justice, attempts to derail the investigation
from within, and arbitrary removal from a probe team
of officers deemed uncomfortable. Seeking to help
those accused of corruption and delaying the filing of
the charge sheet in the Aircel-Maxis case were among
the charges levelled against him by the NGO, Centre for
Public Interest Litigation. The Bench headed by Chief
Justice H.L. Dattu has found the charges prima facie
credible but, in the interest of protecting the agencys
reputation it has refrained from pronouncing a detailed
order. However, it is now for the government to ascertain the exact magnitude of Mr. Sinhas misdemeanours
and take appropriate disciplinary action.
The conventional narrative that the CBI is a caged
parrot, that is, an institution struggling to assert its
autonomy in the face of political pressure, was turned
on its head by Mr. Sinha. Under him, there were phases
when the agency appeared to be pliant by choice, willing
to serve causes other than justice. If at all considerable
progress was made in several matters, it was due to
judicial monitoring and prodding, the diligence of conscientious investigators and prosecutors, and the vigilance of activists. It was in the fitness of things that the
Supreme Court also recalled its earlier order seeking
the disclosure of the name of the whistle-blower who
brought out details of Mr. Sinhas residential visitors. It
rightly concurred with Anand Grover, Special Public
Prosecutor for the 2G case, that once information supplied by someone is deemed credible, there was no need
to disclose the informants identity. Mr. Sinhas exit,
which will be more propitious if advanced by a few days
by his resignation, will provide an opportunity to operationalise recent reforms relating to the CBI Directors
appointment contained in the Lokpal Act. But it cannot
be forgotten that law provides but the bare bones for
justice, and it is people who give it soul and substance.
Focus on development
Positive momentum generated by the visit
was sustained: the two governments signed a
Power Trade Agreement (PTA) while GMR
also concluded a Project Development Agreement (PDA) regarding a 900 MW hydel project on Upper Karnali. Much work needs to be
done on both before either can be operationalised, but their conclusion, after being held
up for years, showed that both governments
are keen to move forward. Out of the 28 sur-
Pokhara and Bhairahawa (to service Lumbini) are being planned. A new KathmanduTerai highway is being fast-tracked along
with the Kathmandu-Hetauda tunnel project.
Nepals Planning Commission has pointed
out that in order to graduate from a Least
Developed Country to a Developing Country by 2022, Nepal would need an investment
of nearly $100 billion in infrastructure, of
which more than two-thirds will have to come
from private sector and multilateral institutions. The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
and the International Finance Corporation
(IFC) plan to issue long-term bonds amounting to a billion dollars each in local currency
in order to provide greater depth to the capital market. There is talk about the need to
create a new financial institution to undertake infrastructure financing. While all the
CARTOONSCAPE
Modis challenge
Mr. Modi will face a tricky and polarised
political environment in Nepal this time. He
will have to draw a fine line in terms of remaining politically engaged with all groups
and yet keep the focus on the economic issues
where he can promise, and should ensure,
quick delivery. He will need to convey the
convergence of interests between the people
of the two countries while being generous to
Nepal. He will need to reassure Indias friends
without appearing to promote their interests.
He will need to go beyond what he said last
time and still expand on the positive sentiment generated in August. He will need to
adopt an open style of diplomacy so that, in a
break from the past, Nepali nationalism is not
reduced to anti-Indianism.
(Rakesh Sood, the Prime Ministers Special
Envoy
for
Disarmament
and
Non-Proliferation till May 2014, is a former
Ambassador
to
Nepal.
E-mail:
rakeshsood2001@yahoo.com)
Crime in the
name of honour
he deployment of honour is an intense form of
social control on women, a disciplining of the
body. Families, communities, gossiping neighbours snooping for acts of dishonour what
one wears, how one talks, evasions, embraces all
mapped out by that penetrating gaze. All these transgressions are met by the patriarchs voice with some
form of violence or the other. The more extreme forms of
transgression, such as inter-caste and inter-religious relationships, are met by the punishment of death. This
week, Bhavya, a college student in Delhi, Yadav by caste,
was strangled to death by her family for eloping with
Abhishek, a Punjabi. The Supreme Court has come down
heavily upon such crimes. In Krishna Master (2010), the
Bench observed that wiping out almost the whole family
on the flimsy ground of saving the honour of the family
would fall within the [principle of] rarest of rare cases
evolved by this court. The honourable judges may condemn it in an emphatic voice, yet this voice fades within
homes where the dictum, honour thy father, prevails.
A number of international laws including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination
against Women, specifically address honour crimes. The
Law Commission of India responded with the draft of a
Bill that prohibits social condemnation of such marriages, and proposed to reverse the presumption of innocence, treating the accused guilty until proven innocent.
However, the heart of the problem is in the conflict
between indefensible customary practice and state law.
At an academic conference in 2005, Sooraj Singh, the
pradhan of a khap in Haryana, remarked that the caste
panchayats enjoyed divine rights to adjudicate marriages. We cannot allow love marriages we do not recognise court marriages either. The challenge arises
because honour crimes stand at the confluence of competing spheres customary practices, criminal law and
international law. For instance, the Supreme Court, in
Lata Singh (2006), affirms the freedom to marry as per
individual choice, yet individuality and choice take
very different forms in customary practices wherein
choice may be less individual and more filial and even
communal. Caste complicates the issue further. Dr. Ambedkar endorsed inter-caste marriages on the basis of the
reasoning that it would end the feeling of caste and
separateness. These crimes in the name of honour have
been strongly condemned by the broader society, yet
they are rampant across the country. Much as people
may protest on the streets, within homes the curse of
honour persists and a culture of tolerance lets horrific
practices slip in, in the name of honour. Leaders across
different fields political, religious, social and of civil
society need to work to change the mindset that perpetrates prejudice.
CM
YK
Business in Australia
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Stepping out
of the shadows
t is rare that a single bilateral invitation conveys as
much as Prime Minister Modis invitation to U.S.
President Obama to be the chief guest at the Republic Day parade does. To begin with, the invitation corrects an anomaly, that has meant that
America is the only world power never to have had a
dignitary grace the occasion that Russian and Soviet
leaders, as well as leaders of France, the U.K., Japan and
China have, over 64 years. Secondly, the invitation signals that the India-U.S. relationship is now stepping out
of the shadows on all aspects of bilateral relations: economic, political and military. In the past 23 years since
India opened up its economy, trade with the U.S. has
grown by 1000 per cent, and according to gures given by
the Defence Minister in Parliament this August, the U.S.
is now Indias biggest defence supplier. Add to this the
deep people-to-people ties, built mainly by the more
than three million Indian-Americans in the U.S., and
thousands of students who graduate from American universities, and the visit will be what one diplomat described as an open and honest acknowledgement of the
relationships reality.
Thirdly, the invitation, and its acceptance by the
White House, signies a much larger move on the world
stage, a coming out of India and the U.S. with the ties
they now share. For the past few months, Mr. Modis
travels and public speeches have indicated a primacy to
the United States that previous governments had stopped shy of giving. Some of the hesitation was owed to an
unspoken suspicion of the U.S. felt in Indias establishment. It was this feeling of mistrust that guided much of
the criticism of Mr. Manmohan Singhs tenure during
negotiations over the India-U.S. civilian nuclear deal,
and spills over into issues of WTO and agricultural subsidies, as well as intellectual property rights. The concerns are also inuenced by historical relations: the
U.S.s support to Pakistan during the Bangladesh war, its
support of the Mujahideen and then the Taliban to defeat
the Soviet Union in the Afghanistan war, and its refusal
to take a position during the Kargil war. It would seem
both levels of concerns are now in the past, and put aside
by the Modi government as it embarks on a new course of
relations with the U.S., including engagements with its
strategic allies in the region, Japan and Australia. It may
be in reaction to these developments that two other
signicant moves have been seen in Indias neighbourhood the recent reachout by China to Sri Lanka, the
Maldives and Afghanistan, and by Russia to Pakistan
with a new defence cooperation agreement. Even as
India now prepares to celebrate its shared values with
the U.S., the larger meaning of President Obamas forthcoming visit has clearly not gone unnoticed.
A sombre outlook
India will have to underwrite the creation
of regional public goods for South Asians to
integrate. It can do so by facilitating optimal
utilisation of the regions natural resources,
building regional infrastructure, creating
connectivity within the region and with the
world with energy grids, cross-border
transport networks, coastal shipping, air
links, roads, railways and waterways, besides
ood and other natural disaster mitigation
and prevention measures. It can implement
trade facilitation measures, thereby lowering transaction costs and generating greater
regional investment and employment.
South Asian cooperation faces multiple
challenges. With about a quarter of the
worlds population spread over four per cent
of the global surface, South Asia constitutes
the worlds second least developed region
after Sub-Saharan Africa. Its per capita GDP,
in terms of purchasing power parity, is three
times below the global average. It has more
poor people than the rest of the world. There
is a dramatic disproportion between its population and share in global output and trade.
While the contiguity of countries constituting SAARC is complemented by cultural
commonalities and common terrain, temperament, and civilisational space, these
CARTOONSCAPE
CM
YK
Strengthening
care of the newborn
amil Nadu has come to realise in a most tragic
manner the high mortality risk faced by preterm babies (those born before 37 completed
weeks of gestation), and its unnished task of
saving these lives. Ofthe 13 neonates who diedrecentlyin district hospitals in Dharmapuri and Salem, ve
were preterm. Both preterm and low birth weight babies have died of the usual causes, such as respiratory
distress syndrome, intrauterine growth restriction,
birth asphyxia and sepsis. Incidentally, with 27.3 deaths
per 1,000 live births, the State has achieved the WHOs
Millennium Development Goal 4 of reducing the number of deaths in children younger than ve years, well
before the December 2015 deadline. It can further reduce the number of under-ve deaths by adopting a
two-pronged approach of bringing down the number of
babies born preterm and providing crucial care to such
babies during the most critical phase. There is a compulsion to adopt both measures simultaneously as birth
complications in preterm babies are among the leading
causes of neonatal (0-27 days) deaths. Of the estimated
15 million babies born preterm annually across the
world, over 3.6 million are in India; of them, over
3,00,000 die each year. Globally, one million preterm
babies die every year. According to an October 2014
study published in The Lancet, during 2013, for the rst
time, preterm birth complications became the leading
cause of death in children under ve, across the world.
Though there are several reasons for preterm delivery, the common, preventable causes are early induction of labour, teenage pregnancy, multiple
pregnancies, diabetes and high blood pressure. In a
commendable move in July 2013, the Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare authorised auxiliary nurse
midwives to administer a pre-referral dose of antenatal
corticosteroids to women and injectable antibiotics to
babies for suspected sepsis. Since immaturity of the
lungs is one of the main reasons for preterm baby
deaths, the steroid administered before delivery can
vastly improve lung maturity. Similarly, the Ministrys
focus on the well-proven and cost-effective kangaroo
mother care in health facilities and at home after discharge can greatly improve survival rates of preterm
and low birth weight babies. These measures can potentially save many preterm babies (32 to less than 37
weeks of gestation) even in the absence of expensive
incubators and ventilators. There is no reason why
Tamil Nadu cannot set these as standard health practices at all its public health centres and hospitals. The lives
of at least some of the 13 babies could probably have
been saved had the State already adopted them. These
deaths should prompt the government to act swiftly.
V. Hariharan,
Chennai
There is nothing wrong in striking
down German or any other foreign
language which only benets a
handful of people belonging to the
elite. English has already been given
an extreme edge over native tongues
in the name of being a medium of
instruction. It is time the HRD
Ministry wins the row over Sanskrit
taking precedence over German. If
there is no other go, let German or
any foreign language be included as a
third and optional language.
E.S. Chandrasekaran,
Chennai
Scavenging, sanitation
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Carlsen reigns
supreme again
ive-time world chess champion Viswanathan
Anands bid to regain the title was foiled in
Sochi, Russia, with a game to spare. The gifted
young Norwegian, Magnus Carlsen, produced a
result similar to the one seen in Chennai last year when
he dethroned the genial Indian in his own backyard. But
unlike the clash last November, the latest war of the
pieces for the crown was closely fought, with the valiant
Anand gaining praise from the chess world. He was far
more proactive in his approach and not intimidated by
the strongest player on the planet. Anand bounced back
immediately to avenge the defeat suffered in the second
game. There were times when he made Carlsen look
vulnerable if not outright beatable. The Norwegian did
admit to being inconsistent in the 12-game match that
he won after emerging stronger in the penultimate encounter. It was equally true that Anand had his chances
in Game 6 where he failed to capitalise on one of Carlsens rare blunders, and in Game 11 where he went for an
unequal exchange when he could have held the game
with careful play. Anands positive intent was hard to
miss, and Carlsen described the match as much tougher
than last time. He said: I am happy and relieved. Im
very happy with the way I pulled myself together.
Devastated after the loss of the title last year, Anand
earned the right to challenge Carlsen by winning the
Candidates tournament in March this year. He went on
to claim the prestigious Bilbao Masters title to show that
his form was far better than it was 12 months ago.
Carlsen, on the other hand, had been performing a shade
below his own lofty standards. Therefore, going by the
form of the two players, the match was expected to
provide much closer battles and it did. The decisive
difference between two of the nest players in the cerebral sport was Carlsens ability to deal with pressure and
complications better. It was not often that Carlsen yielded much ground, but whenever he did so, Anand failed to
cash in on the opportunity. At key moments, Carlsen
proved stronger than Anand. Though the difference
between the players performance was marginal,
Anands mistakes proved decisive while Carlsens lessthan-optimal moves went unpunished. To the 23-yearolds credit, he dealt with the game-turning moments
better than Anand did at age 44. If Carlsen thought
Anand ran him close till the end, the Indian was gracious
after the match. I have to admit Magnus was superior.
His nerves held up better. All things taken into account,
he just played better, said Anand. Whether the Indian
maestro will get another chance to challenge the Norwegian, remains to be seen. But age is certainly not on
Anands side.
Limitations
Since India constitutes 70 per cent or more
of SAARCs area and population, and has political conicts with all its neighbours, India
has to redene its role, from seeking reciprocity in bilateral relations, to being prepared to
go the extra mile in meeting the aspirations of
all other SAARC nations.
SAARC, regrettably, has yet to develop into
a conict-mediating or conict-resolving institution both on multilateral and bilateral
issues. It has succeeded however in evolving
as a forum and a framework but which does
not have the capacity to devise instruments
and techniques for consultations on bilateral
and multilateral political and security
problems.
This is because the SAARC Charter mandates that decisions, at all levels in SAARC, are
only of multilateral issues, and only those
issues are for inclusion in the agenda in a
SAARC summit meeting on the basis of unanimity. Article X(2) of the Charter, thus excludes bilateral and contentious issues from
the ambit of SAARC deliberations.
A shortcoming in the current situation is
that unlike Europe, SAARC is not an associ-
CARTOONSCAPE
For peace in
the Garo Hills
he Garo Hills region of Meghalaya has faced
turmoil for years with multiple militant
groups ghting what are essentially turf wars,
their eyes primarily on the spoils from the
extortion of coal mine operators. Among the 10 groups
at work, the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA),
less than ve years old, has been particularly brutal in
its actions. In the third such attack within a year targeting police personnel, GNLA militants killed two policemen in a blast in the South Garo Hills district last
week. The GNLAs patently unrealistic demand has
been for the creation of a separate state of Garoland.
The claim put forward by the GNLAs parent outt, the
Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), which was
born in 1995, and its splinter group, the ANVC (B), was
the creation of Achik Land, comprising the Garo Hills
region and parts of Assam. Eventually, they scaled it
down to the strengthening of the Garo Hills Autonomous District Council (GHADC). An agreement signed
in New Delhi on September 24 in the presence of Home
Minister Rajnath Singh and State Chief Minister Mukul
Sangma that the GNLA opposed has now laid the
ground for the disbanding by next month of the ANVC
and ANVC (B): the former had signed a tripartite ceasere agreement with the State and the Centre in 2004.
The latest agreement, which provides for enhanced
autonomy for an expanded GHADC elections to its
current number of 29 seats are due to take place early in
2015 goes some way in meeting regional aspirations.
Among other things, it seeks to ensure enhanced autonomy and powers for the body. The Centre has agreed to
extend a special package for the socio-economic and
educational development of the area and the rehabilitation of surrendering militants. But this represents
only partial progress, and nobody expects the low-intensity run of militancy to wind down so easily. Yet,
with one signicant chunk of militants out of the way,
based on a coordinated approach with and active support from the Centre the State should move vigorously
to deal decisively with the remaining terror-mongers in
a time-bound manner. Over the last few weeks, several
cadres belonging to different outts have either surrendered or been nabbed, following stepped-up operations
by the security forces. Putting down the militancy in
Meghalaya which has a 445-km boundary with Bangladesh with a rm yet sensitive hand should serve as
a strong message to all insurgent groups in northeastern India. This message should be that negotiations
over reasonable demands will be their only option. At
the same time, any nexus between politicians and militants to gain political mileage as has often been
alleged by some leaders should be rooted out, so
militancy gets no leeway in the sensitive region.
CM
YK
(Subsidies
will
leave
next
generation in debt, Nov.24). The
government can make a beginning
by withdrawing the LPG subsidy,
the next step being a review of the
system of providing a subsidy on
foodgrains being supplied through
fair price shops. The categorisation
of BPL and APL is fraught with
aws. People take very little from
these shops. What happens is that
what is unsold nds its way into the
market and sold in the form of grain
or powder at an inated price.
Corrective measures are inevitable
for the good of the country.
Vijaya Krishna Pillai G.,
Alappuzha
Jaitley on subsidies
Visa travails
INS Vikrant
Anand fumbles
ND-ND
10
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
CARTOONSCAPE
A far too
liberal Act?
he law pertaining to juvenile crimes has come
under the scanner yet again. Last week, a Supreme Court Bench comprising Mr. Justice
Dipak Misra and Mr. Justice U.U. Lalit described the punishment for juveniles committing serious crimes as being far too liberal and urged the
Attorney General to suggest that the government have a
relook at the Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of
Children) Act, 2000 (JJ Act). These comments arose in
the context of adjudicating a crime that was committed
24 years ago by an accused who is now about 40 years
old, and who has been appraised by the Supreme Court
as having been a juvenile aged 16 years while committing
the crime. Section 7A(ii) of the JJ Act states that if the
court finds a person to be a juvenile on the date of
commission of the offence, the case shall be immediately
sent to the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB). The judges
were of the opinion that if the accused, now a 40year-old man, were presented before the JJB, he would
be punished with an admonition or direction for
group counselling, which would be too liberal and
hence an exercise in futility and a travesty of justice.
There are three brief comments in response. First, the
constitutionality of the JJ Act insofar as it allows all
children to receive the benefits of the juvenile justice
system irrespective of the gravity of the offence has been
upheld by the Supreme Court in Salil Bali (2013) and
Subramanian Swamy (2014). Hence, the issue of amending the JJ Act at this point is a purely policy or legislative
issue, not warranting judicial intervention. Second, the
interpretation of Section 7A of the JJ Act was settled in
Jitendra Singh. Accordingly, cases such as this are to be
sent to the JJB as the appropriate authority. Moreover,
because judicial delays are common in our system, often
the accused is much older by the time he/she is presented before the JJB, leading to a peculiar situation which
no doubt needs to be resolved. But this too is a fault in
our institutional design rather than a gap in the JJ Act
per se. Third, there are several misconceptions about
the rate of juvenile crimes in India. For instance, Mr.
Justice Misra observed: In a population of 1,000, one
per cent may be juveniles who commit rape and murder.
But even this one per cent can be a menace. These
statistics seem grossly overestimated. The National
Crime Records Bureau report states that juvenile crimes
comprise only 1.2 per cent of the total number of crimes
in India, and that 65 per cent of them are propertyrelated crimes such as theft, while just about 5 to 8 per
cent constitute serious offences such as rape and murder. Although media reportage of juvenile crimes might
have increased, this may not mean that instances of
juvenile crime as a whole are in themselves increasing.
CM
YK
India-U.S. trade
$10-trillion economy
SAARC reforms
RTI appeals
Indigos trustee
Visa travails
Why foreigners (A Kafkaesque
bureaucracy, Nov.25)? How about
highlighting the experiences of the
common man who is compelled to
deal with our bureaucracy for
mundane matters of daily
existence? It could be something as
simple and routine as paying land
tax, matters connected with a
ration card, getting a name
changed, getting past a vehicle
checking squad even when you
have all the right papers with you,
getting or transferring a gas,
electricity or phone connection, or,
on a rare occasion, lodging a
complaint with the police. These
are all acts fraught with hurdles and
that ensure humiliation unless you
have one of those local diplomats
to help you out. When will we get a
government that will revamp our
atrociously
people-unfriendly
system?
S. Jagathsimhan,
Thiruvananthapuram
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
The demographic
challenge
he rhetoric on the capacity of countries to
reap the so-called demographic dividend cannot mask the more complex reality of a notso-young world in 2014, and non-uniform
patterns of growth. About a quarter of the worlds
population 1.8 billion is in the age-group of 10-24
years, according to the latest United Nations Population Fund report. In 1950, the proportion was higher, at almost a third of the global total, at 721 million.
The 10-24 age segment has thus declined overall, while
it has more than doubled in absolute terms during the
period. This means that in theory, people in this age
bracket, their number larger than Chinas population,
can hope to live longer, be better fed and educated, do
decent jobs and earn adequate incomes. In concrete
terms, this segment would swell the share of the working-age population those between 15 and 64 years
over the next few decades. But here is the catch. Nine
out of ten people, or 89 per cent, in the 10-24 age-group
live in less developed countries, says the UNFPA report. Most people who are alive today are below 30
years of age. In 17 states, 15 of them from sub-Saharan
Africa, one half of the population is under 18 years. One
in three girls in the developing world is married before
reaching 18, raising the risk of early and perhaps unintended motherhood among children and hampering
the realisation of their full potential. One in seven HIV
infections occur during adolescence.
According to the World Bank, last year there were
100 dependants (those below 15 years and above 64
years) for every 100 people in the working age in Angola. The ratio was even higher, at 103, for Chad; for other
states in the conict zones of sub-Saharan Africa, the
gures were in the 80s and more. Whereas Indias
age-dependency ratio has ranged in the 50s per 100
working population between 2010 and 2013, China has
stayed in the mid-30s during the corresponding period.
Indias higher ratio underscores the extent to which
social protection measures would have to be strengthened for both the components to ease their mutual
interdependence and enhance the quality of life.
Alongside measures to boost growth and attract multinational corporations in the manufacturing and services sectors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must take
up massive public-funded programmes in basic education, health care and vocational training, with a thrust
on building a clean economy. Only then could the
current younger age prole of the population prove
advantageous. The demographic dividend refers to the
potential among countries to increase economic
growth by taking advantage of the changing age structure in the population. Clearly, a great deal remains to
be done to realise this potential.
Neutrality of Afghanistan
Afghans espouse a strong culture and tradition of neutrality which their country enjoyed
between 1929 and 1978 and which includes
the period of World War II. At the Istanbul
meeting, Central Asian policy groups asserted
that the Shanghai Six the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia and
China, have been pledging for the last three
years at the SCO summit, their commitment
for a neutral Afghanistan. Point 7 of the Dushanbe Declaration of September 2014 notes:
Member states of SCO reiterate their support
for development of Afghanistan into a democratic, peaceful prosperous and neutral state.
In an interview with Afghan Tolo TV (March
18, 2012), Russias Foreign Minister Sergey
Lavrov said that his country supported Afghanistans neutrality.
The joint declaration will shortly have an
add-on: an Annexure on Enduring Neutrality.
Experts who have studied the Austrian and
Swiss models say that the neutrality of Afghanistan will mean de facto neutralisation of
Pakistan, and so the biggest obstacle in its
council of ministers, features of this document are likely to transfer from Track II to
Track I. An important ongoing search is to
nd and x a regional organisation into which
the envisaged regional framework can t.
Those available are the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), the
SCO, and the Istanbul Process, which is not an
organisation but has Track I institutions supporting it. The SCO, with its recurring pledges
to uphold Afghan neutrality, prima facie,
seems most suitable. At a future date, it could
be expected to take over regional responsibility from the West to transform Afghanistan
into a peaceful, prosperous, and possibly neutral state.
India and Pakistan are observers and are
expected to attain full membership of the SCO
in 2015. Afghanistan and Iran, also observers,
are likely to join in 2016. The SCO constitutes
the most effective regional organisation from
CARTOONSCAPE
Moving towards
consolidation
he announcement of the merger of ING Vysya
Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank could not
have come at a better time. With a pro-reform
BJP government at the Centre, expectations
are running high. Coming as it did at a time when
reform talk is getting louder, the proposal to amalgamate these two not-so-big but fairly well-run private
banks has raised expectations of a wider consolidation
in the Indian banking eld. Does this merger plan signal
the shape of things to come in the highly fragmented
banking industry? No doubt, the convergence of selfinterest was the initial trigger in this instance for the
eventual decision to merge. Nevertheless, the two
banks are also acutely aware of their limitations given
their size and restricted geographical presence. Once it
fructies, the merger will push the resultant bank to the
fourth slot in the private banks category. The merger
instantly offers the consolidated entity a larger customer and client base. Also, the larger entity will be in a
position to provide enhanced product offerings to its
constituents. This merger initiative is no less due to the
market dynamics which demand a large enough scale to
drive business efficiency in an intensely competitive
global environment. Viewed from this point of view, the
merger sets a whole new trend. The M&As (mergers and
acquisitions) that had occurred in this sphere since
2000 were mostly among unequal players, and were not
voluntary, to say the least. These two banks would do
well now to quickly resolve issues arising out of their
technological and cultural diversities to make the merger a meaningful value-creation exercise.
If consolidation is to be truly meaningful, public
sector banks (PSBs) must wake up to the reality now.
More often than not, they echo their political masters
preferences of the moment. Given that they dominate
the Indian banking eld, much of the NPA (non-performing assets) woes of the industry are the direct
consequence of the inherent inefficiency that seeps
across the entire PSB canvas. Not surprisingly, the PSBs
are under tremendous stress in terms of cost, governance and efficiency. Business and practical prudence
suggest that they should focus on service efficiency.
They have constraints aplenty in terms of cost structure, scale and governance culture. Since the government is the major shareholder, it requires more than
mere statement of intent from the political masters to
drive a larger consolidation in the Indian banking eld.
The unfolding scene on the global stage, increased regulatory requirements, stringent governance stipulations,
tighter provisioning norms and fresh competition have
all combined to force Indian banks to think of mergers.
CM
YK
Ferguson verdict
On godmen
Days before the Presidential summit, Afghanistan handed over in Beijing, a dozen suspected Uyghurs trained in Pakistan. Islamabad is
known to be advising Beijing to enlarge its
prole in Afghanistan, consider replacing the
U.S. and expelling India. On its part, China is
in dialogue with India over Afghanistan. Will
China show and not hide its strength or merely shadow-box in Afghanistan?
As part of a new political initiative at the
ministerial conference in Beijing, Premier Le
Keqiang suggested the formation of a peace
committee comprising regional countries to
include Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan (and
presumably led by China) to talk to the Afghanistan Taliban. The proposal was shot
down by Russia due to its policy of not talking
to terrorists. China follows a similar policy.
After China, Mr. Ghanis second visit outside was to Pakistan, not India. He has established a new High Peace Council led by an
uncle, Dr. Kouchai, and has, after talks with
the Sharifs Prime Minister Nawaz and Army Chief Raheel solicited their support in
engaging the Afghan Taliban to restart the
process of reconciliation and peace.
Besides neutrality, work on establishing the
Afghan-Pakistan Joint Special Commission is
likely to begin shortly. The breakthrough in an
India-Pakistan resumed dialogue could be expected from the ongoing SAARC summit. Evidently, Tracks I and II feed into each other.
Kiss of Love
Protecting biodiversity
About 3 per cent of Indias land area
is deemed as protected area in the
form of Project Tiger reserves or as
sanctuaries for other agship
species such as the grizzled squirrel,
the Nilgiri tahr and the lion tailed
macaque (Protecting biodiversity
with rigour, Nov.25). While the
habitat within these connes is
well-protected, poaching remains a
concern. Buffer forests contiguous
to protected areas are under
pressure. NGOs and the forest
department need to tap into
corporate social responsibility
funds to develop a healthy
conservation economy around
maintaining and restoring the
health of buffer forests. Buffer
forests also serve as vital migratory
corridors, ensuring that inbreeding
is limited. India also has vast
stretches of forests in prime
condition that do not come under
the denition of a wildlife reserve.
These include large swathes of
forests around the Western and
Eastern Ghats, the Vindhyas,
Uttarakhand,
Sikkim
and
Arunachal Pradesh. These forests
occupy a land mass much larger
than protected areas and need to be
protected at all costs. Protecting
our biodiversity is not just a nice
thing to do, but an imperative.
K. Anand,
Bengaluru
ND-ND
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
Racism and
law enforcement
grand jurys exoneration of Darren Wilson, the
white police officer who on August 9 shot dead
an unarmed teenager on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, sent shock waves across the
United States this week. The fact that 18-year-old Michael Brown died violently on the streets of the quiet St.
Louis suburb and no one will be held accountable for his
death has left Americans of all colours once again
searching their souls for answers. Some of them made
their anger known to the world. Thousands took to the
streets across major cities, braving the likelihood of yet
another heavy-handed crackdown by the police and the
National Guard. In Ferguson, the rage spilled over and
took an ugly turn as gunfire erupted across the night,
dozens of buildings and police cars were set ablaze, and
looters had a free run in parts of the city. President
Barack Obama reiterated his muted call for calm on all
sides, but had clearly not sensed the mood of collective
anguish that was engulfing the African-American community, or did not wish to confront the questions that
they were asking: why had a behind-closed-doors grand
jury that was 75 per cent white decided that there was no
probable cause to take the case to trial? Why was police
officers use of deadly force, especially against minorities, considered an acceptable practice?
The Brown-Wilson case holds up a mirror unto the
troubling state of race relations in America. First, it is
only the latest in a long list of flashpoints triggered by
law enforcement brutality towards unarmed AfricanAmericans, including the 2012 shooting of Trayvon Martin (17) and the videotaped 1991 beating of Rodney King,
both cases in which the accused officers were acquitted.
Second, it shows how public prosecutors or other government officials may manoeuvre juridical proceedings
in a manner that renders a plaintiff victory effectively
impossible. Since the verdict was announced, the St.
Louis County Prosecutor, Robert McCulloch, has come
under fire for his decision to use a grand jury in this
highly sensitive case, thus precluding a transparent and
exhaustive trial involving detailed cross-examination.
Third, the imprint of the racist stereotyping of AfricanAmericans amongst police officers, which was arguably
evident in the testimony of Mr. Wilson, has a wider echo
in terms of relatively higher incarceration rates. The
searing racism in the U.S. has often made it an uncomfortable place for minorities, as it was for Muslims, Sikhs
and even Hindus in the aftermath of the 9/11 terror
attacks. African-Americans of all backgrounds, however,
face a daily, ongoing threat to their lives and security,
given the toxic mix of historical prejudice and law enforcements gun culture.
CARTOONSCAPE
A matter
for concern
he death of Phil Hughes, three days before
what would have been his 26th birthday, has
left the cricketing world shattered. In an induced coma after being hit on the head by a
bouncer during a first-class Sheffield Shield match in
Sydney on Tuesday, the Australian batsman succumbed to his injuries on Thursday. All Sheffield
Shield matches in play were abandoned, as was the
second day of the Test between Pakistan and New
Zealand in Sharjah, offering a sense of how acutely the
tragedy was felt across the cricketing community. The
game, stripped of its relevance for the moment, had to
pause. Hughes was that rare modern-day cricketer, a
competitor genuinely liked rather than merely respected. Despite his prodigious rise from a banana farm in
New South Wales to the stardom of Test cricket
where, just 20, he made twin centuries in a famous win
in South Africa Hughes, by all accounts, retained an
unaffected, self-effacing air. The reactions that poured
in captured the shock of a people struggling to come to
terms with the freakishness of it all. As sports physician
Peter Larkins told The Australian, Its really a matter
of millimetres and the bad luck of the actual site of the
impact.
Its too early to estimate the effect of the incident on
crickets future. For the present, in the immediate
aftermath, everything else pales into insignificance.
But it has made the game and everyone who plays and
follows it more keenly aware of the very real danger the
cricket ball represents. So well-armoured and protected by modern gear made of new material does the
batsman and the close-in fielder appear these days that
fatalities on the field of play seem inconceivable. As
former England captain Michael Vaughan wrote in
The Telegraph (U.K.), With all the equipment and
protection we have nowadays I never felt that anything
drastic could happen to me. And for the most part,
protective equipment holds up very well and continues
to improve. But as helmet-maker Masuri admitted, last
years model, which Hughes was wearing, does not
offer as much protection to the back of the head and the
neck as their latest helmets. There will no doubt be a
review of helmet design and an increased emphasis on
helmets in junior cricket, welcome steps both. The
psychological aspect will be harder to address. Sean
Abbott, who delivered the ball to Hughes, has been
offered professional support and counselling by Cricket Australia, as have all others who have requested it.
But when Australia and India begin their Test series
next month, a series Hughes was a contender to play in,
what reaction will the first bouncer evoke? Cricket may
not be the carefree game again, even with new, space
age protective gear.
CM
YK
mises its corruption investigations of government officials. During the last decade, at least
four former Directors of the agency have been
given high-level government positions such as
appointments as State Governors. There is
criticism of the CBIs highhandedness and a
lack of sensitivity to a loss of reputation of
senior members of the bureaucracy against
whom it announced inquiries. There have also
been selective leaks to the media of material
gathered by the CBI in the course of
first of its two reports, submitted in 1963, the priate authority before any court takes investigation.
Santhanam Committee recommended the cognisance of an offence by a public servant is
creation of a Central Vigilance Commission a serious limitation. There have been long Lokpal and Lokayuktha
headed by a Central Vigilance Commissioner delays before sanction is accorded. The proviThe Santhanam Committee, in effect, rec(CVC) with considerable autonomy and status sion serves to protect public servants though a ommended that the CVC should also function
so as to consolidate the fragmented anti-cor- wrong has been committed because the sanc- as an ombudsman in India, taking cognisance
ruption work that was being performed by the tioning authority is normally a senior officer of cases of maladministration as well as corvarious ministries of the Union government. of the accused officer. A sanction after hav- ruption. The Government of India ruled out
In April 1963, the government set up the CBI ing been accorded can be challenged at the accepting this recommendation claiming that
to investigate not only cases of bribery and trial stage and cases have been discharged on the importance and urgency of providing macorruption, but also violations of Central fis- the basis that the sanctioning authority had chinery to look into the grievances of citizens
cal laws and serious crimes committed by or- not applied its mind while according sanction. against the administration and to ensure the
ganised gangs and thugs, besides collecting This provision goes beyond the protection of- just and fair exercise of administrative power
supporting intelligence, statistics of crime fered under the Code of Criminal Procedure, would require a separate agency. But no such
and conducting research to inform policy- 1973 (which only protects actions in discharge agency was created. It took a Gandhian-style
making. The CBI drew its power of investiga- of official duty).
movement led by Anna Hazare to put this
tion from the Delhi Special Police EstablishIt is desirable to remove prior sanction re- matter back on the policy agenda of Parliament Act, 1946. It has been reported that the quirement in cases where a public servant ment in 2011. During 2012, little was done
DSPE Act will be again amended to enable officer is caught red-handed. A time limit with the Lokpal Bill except for the proceedselection of the CBI Director by a body which should be prescribed for decisions sanction- ings of the Rajya Sabha committee. The Unitincludes the leader of the largest Opposition ing prosecution. However, the power of public ed Progressive Alliance (UPA) government,
led by the Congress Party, meanwhile lost
Assembly elections in Chhattisgarh, Delhi,
Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, forcing it to
Political and administrative expediency, not principles of
yield ground on the Lokpal Bill, accept all
good governance and the rule of law, rule the roost, regardless
amendments adopted by the Upper House,
and pass the Bill on December 17, 2013. The
of which set of political parties is in power.
Lokpal law came into force on January 16,
2014.
party in the Lok Sabha (as there is no Leader servants in India is vast and strong. Instead of
In brief, the Lokpal is empowered to inof the Opposition now) and also to specifically easing prior sanction requirements, an vestigate complaints against the Prime Minisstate that vacancies on the selection panel amendment Bill was tabled in Parliament in ter, other ministers, current and former
should not vitiate the selection.
August 2013 which increases the protection of legislators, government employees, employees of firms funded or controlled by the Cenpublic servants from prosecution.
Offences by public servants
The Supreme Court had earlier struck down tre, societies and trusts that collect public
The CVC was accorded statutory status in the single directive that had provided im- money, receive funds from foreign sources,
2003 only after a directive in the judgment of munity to senior civil servants from suo motu and have an income level above a certain
the Supreme Court in Vineet Narain v. Union action of the CBI. The government has re- threshold. Bodies creating endowments for or
of India. In September 2010, the CVC released stored this provision through statute and en- performing religious or charitable functions
the Draft National Anti-Corruption Strategy, trusted the authority of pre-inquiry scrutiny have been excluded from the Lokpals pura good document that deserves more atten- to the secretary of the administrative depart- view. Inquiries are to be completed within 60
tion than it has received. It contains a ment. This has diluted the powers of superin- days and investigation to be completed within
thoughtful critique of shortcomings in Indias tendence of the CVC and the CBI. There is a six months. The Lokpal shall order a probe
legislative framework. The CVC Act 2003 system of dual control over the CBI one only after hearing the public servant. Inquiry
gives the CVC powers to inquire into alleged exercised by the CVC in respect of corruption against the Prime Minister has to be held
offences committed by officials under the Pre- cases only, and the other by the Central gov- in-camera and approved by two-thirds of a full
vention of Corruption Act, 1988. The CVC ernment in respect of all its other work.
bench of the Lokpal. The Lokpal will exercise
does not have direct powers to investigate and
Administrative control of the CBI by the superintendence over the CBI in relation to
must depend on the CBI for that. The require- Central government makes it vulnerable to the cases referred by it. CBI officers investiment of obtaining prior sanction of an appro- the criticism that the agency often compro- gating cases referred by the Lokpal can be
transferred without its approval. The Lokpal
can initiate prosecution through its prosecution wing before the special court. Lokpalinitiated trials are to be completed within two
years. States are expected to set up Lokayuktas by law within 365 days and have the freedom to determine the powers and the
functions of the Lokayukta.
In its twilight hour, when its days were
ended, when according to Hegel, the owl of
Minerva spreads her wings and wisdom
dawns, the UPA government managed to enact legislation to partially protect whistleblowers, but none of the other complementary laws, which India is obligated to pass after
becoming party to the U.N. Convention
Against Corruption, has been enacted. The
present government does not seem to be in a
hurry to constitute the Lokpal and enact those
complementary anti-corruption laws, including the Judicial Standards and Accountability
Bill, 2010, the Citizens Charter and Grievance
Redressal Bill 2011, the Public Procurement
Bill, 2012, the Prevention of Corruption
(Amendment) Bill of 2013, and the Prevention
of Bribery of Foreign Public Officials and Officials of Public International Organizations
Bill, 2011. Maybe Prime Minister Narendra
Modi is a modern-day Tacitus who claimed:
The more corrupt the state, the more laws.
Sadly, our lot seems to be both the non-enactment of essential legislation and the non-enforcement of laws we already have.
(R. Sudarshan, a Rhodes Scholar, is Dean
and Professor, Jindal School of Government
and Public Policy, Sonipat.)
Changing priorities
Star turn
The sudden migration of actor and
former DMK campaigner Ms.
Kushboo to the Congress (Nov. 27)
is out of her necessity to be in the
public eye rather than out of any
commitment to the policies of the
Congress. Expediency is what has
dictated her move. What the
Congress needs at this juncture is
selfless/motivated lieutenants to
strengthen its roots in Tamil Nadu.
V.R. Athreyan,
Kumbakonam
EDITORIAL
NOIDA/DELHI
THE HINDU
The fading
SAARC initiative
n the past six months, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi has won praise for several foreign policy
initiatives. But across the world, it was Mr. Modis decision to invite the SAARC leaders to his
swearing-in ceremony that has stood out as a game
changer. While other international forays, to Japan,
the U.S. and Australia, and multilaterals such as BRICS,
essentially built on the previous governments efforts,
the SAARC invitation was completely Mr. Modis own
idea, and came when India was at a low ebb with all its
neighbours. It is then disappointing to see that just half
a year later, the SAARC moment has faded, and the
meeting between the South Asian leaders did not produce much more than a few face-saving agreements
forged at the last moment. While Nepal was the host of
the event, it had been hoped that Indias leadership
would squire the event to a more glorious outcome and
into a show of real solidarity. One factor adding to the
optimism ahead of the event was that along with Mr.
Modi, most of the leaders have been elected or reelected to office in the last two years, and carried their
countrys mandate if they agreed to bold measures to
achieve the 18th SAARC summits theme of regional
integration. India cannot possibly be blamed for the
fact that they did not do so, but it did not expend the
required extra effort for that either.
To begin with, Mr. Modi ignoring Nawaz Sharif as
the latter walked up to the podium during the inaugural
session, set an uncomfortable tone to the entire summit. India and Pakistan have many differences, and
Pakistan has much to answer for when it comes to
tackling terror, but the lack of basic pleasantries at the
inaugural session, when the two Prime Ministers came
face to face for the first time since May, effected a chill
that was not dispelled even after their very warm handshake at the closing session. Next, Chinas attempt to
enter the SAARC grouping was opposed successfully by
India, but not before differences between memberstates over the issue were exposed. India would do well
to counterpoise Chinas economic weight by engaging
its neighbours more deeply to formulate a consensus,
instead of being seen as obstructing a closer SAARCChina engagement. This is not unthinkable, as geographically and culturally India has more in common
with its SAARC neighbours than China can ever hope
to have. The truth is, India comes into its own on the
world stage when it carries the neighbourhood with it.
That is why Mr. Modis out-of-the box ideas of inviting
SAARC leaders or of a SAARC satellite are applauded
everywhere. Similarly, it will take creative thinking to
realise the dream projected by his own words when he
spoke at the summit, saying it is not enough to be close,
but SAARC countries need to be together too.
sudden death always has great pedagogical value. The death of Chaiti
Bai, a Baiga tribal woman, following
a botched tubectomy at a mass sterilisation camp in Chhattisgarh recently, can
improve our perspective on Indias history as
a modern nation. She was one of the 14 women
who gained momentary national attention after a State doctor had operated on them in
what is said to have been an unhygienic medical camp.
Mid-November, when the incident happened, also marks the birth anniversary of
Jawaharlal Nehru, and separately, the opening of New Delhis international trade fair.
Both events had special status this year. The
deaths of Chaiti Bai and other women at the
camp give us an opportunity to reflect on the
problems India faces in the pursuit of modernity and global status through rapid industrial progress.
To get an idea of this, one has to set out on a
three-hour car ride from the villages where
Chaiti Bai and the other young women lived,
to Bhilai, where one of the three gigantic steel
plants was set up by the new nation-state in
the 1950s with the help of friendly foreign
nations. It made eminent sense to set up a
modern industrial plant in this economically
backward area because a vast deposit of iron
ore lies under the earth here. The larger problem, however, is above the surface, and has
two parts: one, a dense forest, and two, a
substantial population of tribal people. Chaiti
Bai belonged to a small tribe known as the
Baiga. Performing a tubectomy on Chaiti Bai
was an illegal act because there is a ban on
carrying out a sterilisation on a Baiga. This is
one of the few civic attainments of this unique
tribe. Their numbers are declining, and the
Constitution of India protects every Scheduled Tribe from extinction.
Tribal knowledge
In Indias tribal world, the Baiga are renowned for their gift and depth of medical
knowledge, which includes their ancient tradition of healing with substances derived from
the plant world. How this knowledge is transferred to the young was the subject of research
CARTOONSCAPE
Discouraging
cigarette sales
he acceptance of a proposal to prohibit the
sale of cigarettes in the loose, and raise the
minimum age from 18 to 21 for the sale of
tobacco products, clearly reflects the Ministry of Health and Family Welfares steely determination to wage an all-out war against tobacco
consumption. These are commendable initiatives that
would go a long way in preventing children from taking
up cigarette-smoking and forcing existing users to quit.
Tax rates on tobacco products were increased steeply
in the last budget, and, beginning April 2015, graphic
pictorial warnings will statutorily occupy at least 85
per cent of the front and back of all tobacco packages.
Unlike in the developed countries, increasing the cost
of cigarettes by itself will, in most cases, fail to be a big
deterrent in India. They will continue to remain affordable to even young children and low-income individuals so long as cigarettes can be bought as single sticks.
The only way to make higher pricing impinge on consumption is by selling them in packets of 10 or 20; it will
make experimentation and initiation by children more
difficult. After all, the 15-24 year age group constitutes
over 27 per cent of consumers of tobacco (in all forms)
in India. The WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control prohibits the sale of cigarettes individually or in small packets as it increases affordability.
Though the FCTC prohibition is limited to minors,
there is no reason why its scope cannot be widened to
include others. India has done it before by going beyond the FCTC move and banning the sale of tobacco
products within a 100-metre radius of any educational
institution. Besides making cigarettes unaffordable,
the purpose of pictorial warnings will be served only
when smokers are compelled to buy them in packets. A
combination of higher prices and pictorial warnings is
bound to reduce tobacco consumption and the number
of users. Unfortunately, the Ministry has failed to go
the whole hog and confined its focus to cigarettes. So,
there is a real possibility of a sizeable number of youth
and low-income individuals turning to bidis and tobacco chewing. Bidis account for nearly 85 per cent of all
tobacco smoked in India, and 52-70 per cent of all bidis
sold are not taxed. Despite a ban on the sale of single
cigarettes being in place since 1999 in Mexico, compliance is poor. There is little chance that it will be any
different in India. Except in enclosed spaces, enforcement of the ban on smoking in public places is nearly
non-existent in India. This is the case too with the sale
of pan masala containing tobacco in most of the States
that have proscribed it. Prohibiting sale in loose quantities will come to naught without strict enforcement.
CM
YK
R.I.P. Hughes
commercial interests to take over. Areas designated as tribal are no exception to this
general trend. The paradox they represent in
the story of development is not radically different from what rural India in general represents. Indias aspiration to become a modern
nation presented a problem as soon as Constitution drafting began after the end of colonial
rule. The problem had to do with defining the
civic rights of tribes. Simply put, the question
was to decide the extent of rights tribes would
have on the forests they inhabited and used
freely for their livelihood. The question was
not unique to India, nor was the legal solution
India adopted unique.
It was decided that tribal people could not
claim sovereign right on forests and the minerals that lay underneath. The states sovereignty would extend to these resources, and in
return, so to say, the state would promise to
protect tribes and treat them as a privileged
category in welfare policies and provisions.
Had this privileged position of the tribes been
translated into action, it would have meant a
sophisticated system of education adjusted to
tribal cultures, languages and knowledge. It
would have meant differentiating among
tribes and equipping the system to handle
curricular and training details with specificity. As time went by, it became clear that the
state was going to remain colonial in its outlook and actions. Tribal areas did receive certain privileges but they were not sufficient to
protect tribal people from the aggressive
greed of developers and contractors. Soon
enough, the states resolve and sense of purpose got lost in a jungle of programmes and
demands. A stark instance of this process has
surfaced all over tribal regions. A recent one
was the trial inoculation of thousands of girls
studying in residential tribal schools in Andhra Pradesh against cervical cancer. Global
pharmaceutical interests had succeeded in
obtaining the State governments approval.
The State assumed that it could act on behalf
of the girls.
The medical disaster in Chhattisgarh shows
how helpless tribal people are. When Chhattisgarh was carved out of Madhya Pradesh and
Jharkhand from Bihar, it was assumed that
smaller States would focus more efficiently
and sensitively too on tribal issues. Fourteen years on, one has reasons to doubt the
thesis that smaller political and administrative units are necessarily better. On the contrary, the lack of perspective persists. And in
the context of tribal issues, it is not merely a
question of perspective. State players perceive
tribes through an ideological screen that
makes tribal life and culture look like an obstacle to modernisation.
In recent years, Chhattisgarh has also been
in the news for a State programme called Salwa Judum, launched to counter Maoism. Tens
of thousands of tribal people have been displaced into camps under this programme, perpetuating the cycle of violence and misery.
Political leaders and officers see it as a major
attempt to reorganise the balance of forces in
Chhattisgarh so as to prepare it for globalisation of the economy. But the region joined
the global economy a long time ago when the
export of iron ore began from the Bailadila
mines in Bastar to Japan.
In a lecture delivered nearly 30 years ago,
M.N. Buch, a former bureaucrat, showed the
audience pictures of the landscape around
these mines. His dire prediction that mining
on this scale would turn the dense forest into a
desert seemed reasonable. He was in despair
about the impact the untrammelled exploitation of natural resources would have on the
precarious life of tribes. The recent deaths of
Chaiti Bai and the other tribal women justify
Buchs ominous prediction and despair.
(Krishna Kumar is Professor of Education
at the University of Delhi and a former
Director of NCERT.)
Contours of prejudice
Ritual or slaughter?
It is unfortunate that despite global
appeals, Nepal went ahead with the
mass slaughter of animals and
birds at Gadhimai, in what is
described as the worlds largest
such exercise. The pictures one has
seen are blood-curdling.
Held every five years, the event
last time saw the sacrificial
slaughter of nearly 5,00,000
animals including water buffaloes,
pigs, goats, chickens, rats and
pigeons. Though it has been
defended as a ritual connected with
peoples faith, and that it could not
have been banned lest sentiments
were hurt, one needs to look at it
objectively. It is laudable that India
tried to do its bit by monitoring the
movement of animals from Bihar
and U.P. One is reminded of the
saying: From beasts we scorn as
soulless, In forest, field and den,
The cry goes up to witness, The
soullessness of men. And
Aurobindo said, Life is life
whether in a cat, or dog or man.
There is no difference there
between a cat or a man. The idea of
difference is a human conception
for mans own advantage. One can
also think of this: Deliberate
cruelty to our defenceless and
beautiful little cousins is surely one
of the meanest and most detestable
vices of which a human being can
be guilty.
Navamita Chatterjee,
Kohima
ND-ND