The Hindu Editorial Pages

October 2014

www.jobsalerts.in

EDITORIAL

10

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

A return to social science

T
Shiv Visvanathan

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014

The chosen one

in Tamil Nadu
amil Nadu enters a new phase of governance
with O. Panneerselvam being sworn in as head
of the government under exceptional circumstances following the conviction of Chief Minister Jayalalithaa in a disproportionate assets case.
Other than the changes necessitated by the absence of
Ms. Jayalalithaa, his Cabinet is essentially the same
with the Ministers retaining the portfolios they held
previously. Policies and programmes will likewise see
continuity, and the government will largely be run in
the name of Ms. Jayalalithaa by Mr. Panneerselvam.
But the very fact that real power is no longer with the
Chief Minister, but with a person convicted in a corruption case, could have a telling effect on the way the
government is run. And if Ms. Jayalalithaa remains in
prison for some length of time, matters will be more
complicated for Mr. Panneerselvam and his government. Important issues will likely be referred to her,
and she will, in effect, emerge as an extra-constitutional
authority running the government via remote control.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Panneerselvam, who had served
as Chief Minister for over ve months in 2001-02 after
the Supreme Court quashed Ms. Jayalalithaas appointment as Chief Minister, was chosen more for his loyalty
than for his administrative acumen or seniority in the
party hierarchy. During his previous stint, Ms. Jayalalithaa, who was acquitted in the Tansi land deal case
(that led to her electoral disqualication) a couple of
months after she was forced to demit office, was available for constant consultations. If Ms. Jayalalithaa is
not out of prison soon enough, Mr. Panneerselvam will
verily be clueless when confronted with politically sensitive issues.
How quickly the judicial process decides on the issues of suspension of sentence or stay of the conviction
itself will be critical and Mr. Panneerselvams second
term could well last longer than his rst. The very
structure of the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam does not allow for a strong second line
of leadership, and the party and the government will
necessarily look up to Ms. Jayalalithaa for guidance. If
governance is not to suffer, Ms. Jayalalithaa will have to
nd a way where her advisory role could take on an
official status. In the unusual circumstances in the
State, remote control without a formal role will affect
the administration of the State. In the last few days
since the conviction, many of the Ministers have spent
more time in Bangalore than in their own offices. What
Ms. Jayalalithaa needs now is legal help, not political
support, which she has in plenty, going by the recent
Lok Sabha election results. The Ministers would serve
her cause better by concentrating on governance than
in organising political protests.

here are moments in history where

talent clusters in little pockets to
produce a new excitement around
knowledge. One senses a wonderful
sparkle about scholarship, a sense of excitement and gossip which spreads all over. All
one needs is a few books, a caf, a lawn and a
few scholars committed to chewing on an idea.
Ones sense of the world changes as we watch
them play with an idea. What then grows is
not just an idea, but a group of friends, a
community, and a commons of insights which
attracts people from all over. I remember one
such place used to be the wonderful group
Rajni Kothari built in Delhi in the 1970s and
the 1980s. Rajni is now almost forgotten but
his ideas are still relevant to the problems of
today.
This is an era which has seen the literal
death of the Congress, the end of the Planning
Commission, the rise of new majoritarianism,
the decline of the great social moments; yet,
one cannot think of one article or one book
which captures this world adequately. Adding
insult to intellectual injury, we have a whole
array of diasporic intellectuals whose ideas of
India are literally embarrassing. Their pastiche of nostalgia, didacticism and post-modernity adds little to the study of everyday
issues. There have been a few exceptions to
this dismal scene. One thinks of Ashis Nandy
or U.R. Ananthamurthy. Both realised that the
worlds they were critiquing and celebrating
were disappearing before them. It is at these
moments that one misses the magic of Rajni
and his conversations on politics.

Studying democracy
The house that Rajni built was a bungalow
with a few lawns. At lunch every day, the lawns
housed an array of chairs, and scholars came,
ate and talked. They discussed politics but
what they celebrated was democracy, and democracy in all its variants was something all
its scholars were committed to. Studying democracy became a ritual game, where experiment followed experiment. Rajni led the
group, coming in largely at lunch time, clutching scraps of paper; many were old envelopes
on which he jotted notes. Others would walk
in. What one ate for lunch was incidental.
What one talked about at lunchtime shaped

CARTOONSCAPE

A policy of
status quo
he Reserve Bank of Indias (RBI) decision to
maintain status quo on interest rates is on
expected lines. The overall environment is uncertain as yet with domestic economic recovery being uneven and with an upside risk to ination
from food prices consequent to a decient monsoon. The
near-term signs are favourable for a dip in headline
ination thanks to the sustained fall in global oil prices
that have been passed on to consumers by the government, and the relative stability in the foreign exchange
markets. The medium-term picture, though, is still hazy
with a number of unknown variables, and the RBI is
obviously not willing to risk its projection of 6 per cent
ination by January 2016 going astray. It is clear that the
central bank will do whatever is necessary to ensure that
the line is not crossed. The current account decit is
projected to remain well under control though non-oil,
non-gold imports in the April-August period have risen
to the highest level since March 2013. With credit growth
remaining well below deposit growth and the impact of
the government expenditure programme kicking in, liquidity has not been a problem in the market. The policy
stance, therefore, appears to be one of caution tinged
with optimism on the short-term economic variables.
What should be a cause for worry though is the sluggishness in credit offtake which is forcing banks to lower
deposit rates, in turn affecting senior citizens who live off
interest income. State Bank of India recently cut rates on
some tenors to maintain its margins and it is likely that
other banks will follow suit. The RBI has also maintained
its projection of 5.5 per cent growth in GDP for this scal
while pointing out that growth could slow down mildly
in the second and third quarters before picking up pace
again in the fourth. With the picture on agriculture not
very clear at the moment and industrial output dipping
in July after a good show in the couple of months preceding that, the central banks caution on growth prospects
is understandable. Going forward, the critical determinant of the sustenance of the recovery would be resumption of investment activity. Forget new projects, even if
the stalled ones resume in right earnest there would be a
positive impetus to growth. The fall in oil prices which
has wiped out under-recovery in diesel has given the
government much-needed elbow room in managing the
scal decit. If the disinvestment programme proceeds
apace and at this point in time it does appear to be
doing so then there is room for justiable optimism on
the government meeting the challenging target of a 4.1
per cent scal decit this year. Of course, these data will
be critical inputs for the RBI to reverse direction on the
rate cycle.

CM
YK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2014

added a mystique to economists like Sukhamoy Chakraborty, Sen and K.N. Raj. Delhi
School was the Mecca and Marxism or some
variant of socialism, the dominant ideology of
most intellectuals. I remember Rajni handling
overbearing Marxists with aplomb. But more
than that, what Rajni and his group tried to
show was that the categories of each discipline
created a captive mind. More than ideology,
dominant classications became the iron cagthe ideas of a generation.
change. His search for different ways of think- es of the era.
Rajni brought his sense of Gujarati entre- ing about governance created the journal
preneurship to ideas. He triggered election Alternatives, which he founded along with For a reinvention
studies inviting political scientists like Myron Dick Falk and Saul Mendlovitz. The scholarThis thinking added to the pluralism of soWiener, Robert Dahl and Karl Deutsch to In- ship on security demystied security as some- cial science in many ways. It challenged the
dia. But politics was more than elections. Raj- thing constructed by experts. It transformed hegemony of economics and the dominance of
ni and his colleagues realised that social the discourse into an open-ended demand for Marxism as a dominant intellectual percepscience needed new experiments, new ways of peoples security, where peace was something tion. It showed that the university, ironically,
thinking. He created the China Group so that demanded by a people than as a consequence was not always the source of original theory.
China could be studied as the relevant other. of security. Behind the technicality of all this People resisting the regime or the social
He encouraged Future studies which was the scholarship, Rajni chaired an oral tradition, a movements helped invent more understandone place where dissenting intellectuals from classic adda of politics at lunch time, which ings of the political than our sedate universiEastern Europe could gather safely. The fu- made politics come alive.
ties still living off old textbooks on political
Politics, for Rajni, represented the most theory. One was like a collection of heresies,
ture was treated as a different country that
Stalinist regimes of that time need not be open of systems. Education was elitist, the the other a catechism, a collection of orthoparanoid about. He introduced a voluntary bureaucracy a club; only politics introduced doxies that the church or the party could be
group called Lokayan which became a site for new forces and new ideas with exciting regu- fond of. Yet, there was something human
a range of grass-root imaginations. Lokayan larity. It was only in the political domain that about the process, where alcohol and laughter
often added to the celebration of social science. What gave power to the group was that it
behaved like a commons and yet tolerated
As a society, we need new mindsets to create a new style
individuality and difference. Rajnis was the
of social science, a thinking which can revive the dullness of
one institute which openly resisted the Emergency. Everyone, from the gardener and the
public policy and the hysterical triteness of social change.
chowkidar to the academic fellow, was party
to the decision-making. It became the benchwent beyond the logic of expertise, the arro- the elite, our second-hand elite with its rst- mark for a later era. As the community aged, it
gance of intellectuals to listen to the experi- hand pretensions, could not remain knowl- became a dull imitation of itself, idiosyncratic
ences of ordinary people. In many ways, the edge-proof about the changes modern democ- in parts but without realising it was banalising
creativity of the network lay not in its origi- racy was creating.
itself. What I will do is to summarise the
nality but in its ability to listen, adopt, mix and
insights it offers as a fable.
Pluralism of social science
rework points of insight.
This exploration of the social sciences reThe Emergency destroyed many of the old examined a whole glossary of concepts like
Rajni helped seed the Peoples Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL) to create a tradition of hegemonies as a generation of social move- development, the non-party process, volunon-the-spot investigations to investigate the ments challenged planned development, in- tarism, human security, decolonising knowlviolence of the state. PUCL-PUDR (Peoples terrogated the accepted categories of science edge and sustainability. Whatever the
Union for Democratic Rights) produced the and questioned the validity of economics as a temporary excitement of a concept, all were
classic report on the 1984 riots Who are the form of expertise. Rajni and his group were at validated by the democratic impetus and deguilty? PUCL which was civil societys the forefront of this bandwagon of ideas which mocracy in turn was interrogated and nepresence in every major moment of violence, dulled the economists halo and returned a tuned according to fresh redenitions; as polinvestigating, chronicling the fate of the vic- sense of everydayness and complexity to de- icy gets confused with politics and think tanks
tim has sadly almost disappeared today. mocracy. I must point out that this was not pretend they are democratic instruments. The
One of the ironies we face is the vulnerability easy to achieve. Economics was the dominant social sciences have declined as part of the
of civil society institutions as generations social science and the aura around planning imagination of the university. The subject has
been appropriated by security agencies, think
tanks and marketing outts which substitute
their current interests for democracy. What
we need today is a Futures unit among nongovernment organisations to challenge the
think tanks as a technocratic imagination. We
need to rip through the sanitised picturesqueness of the Human Development Report and
unravel the nature of violence today. We need
to show the creative power of the informal
economy rather than treat it as a space to be
colonised. Our critique of science needs to be
extended to a full-edged critique of science
in relation to a non-Promethean world. We
need to collaborate with the ideas of scholars
like Gustavo Esteva or Boas Santos who have
emphasised the move from liberation to
emancipation; where the victim confronts his
roots in future oppression. All this would have
been done in a non-Utopian way where everydayness, irony and laughter add a touch of
scepticism to this work. All this would have
been done without nostalgia.
We need a new heuristics for social science,
a new attempt to invent a sociological imagination. As a society, we need new mindsets to
create a new style of social science, a thinking
which can revive the dullness of public policy
and the hysterical triteness of social change.
Only such a heuristics can reinvent democracy from clich to a new sense of community.
(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal
School of Government and Public Policy.)

The social sciences have declined as part of

the imagination of the university. The subject has
been appropriated by security agencies,
think tanks and marketing outfits which substitute
their current interests for democracy

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

judiciary. There are several political
leaders who have gone scot-free as
Prime Minister Narendra Modis far as corruption is concerned. We
power pitch to American CEOs, on need to know what really happens
the untapped potential of Indias to them now.
D.V. Raghavan,
growth
opportunities,
is
Bangalore
remarkable (Sept. 30). But to make
it a reality, India has to ensure longterm
energy
security
and
infrastructure growth backed by This refers to the article, Obama,
stable government policies as far as the serial interventionist, (Sept.
labour rules, tax and legal 30). What is the difference between
structures are concerned. The most U.S. President Barack Obama and
important aspect in this is energy, jihadists, if he too makes a mockery
without which it would be next to of international law every time he
impossible to realise the Make in enables U.S. troops to invade
India concept. There also has to be foreign soil on the excuse of making
the world terror-free? Prime
world-class roads.
J.R.D. Rajakumar, Minister Narendra Modi rightly
Chennai said that there is no good or bad
terrorism. Rather than being an
interventionist, Mr. Obama should
The judgment convicting Ms. push for a collective global effort in
Jayalalithaa and her aides in the curbing terror. It should not be
disproportionate assets case should difficult to enable a dialogue
be an eye-opener to all politicians in between all Islamic nations and the
India (3,000 acres marked for various extremist factions.
Yogesh Devgun,
seizure, Sept. 30). Though the
Patiala
adage justice delayed is justice
denied is appropriate in this case,
everyone has to agree that the The Obama administration should
judgment should have come much understand and realise the fact that
earlier people largely forgot unbridled intervention in the
about the case while Ms. Middle East will only act as oxygen
Jayalalithaa appeared to have to groups like the IS. Just as
realised her mistakes. However, the extremist forces have been brutal,
fact is that zero corruption is an one can say that U.S.-led forces have
impossible task to achieve in India. also committed numerous human
This is also the time to expedite rights violations.
Arshid J.S.,
cases against everyone in the
New Delhi
political spectrum accused of graft.
T. Radhakrishna,
Bangalore The article reminded me of what
Derrick Jensen says in the rst
The verdict has come after 18 years volume titled The Problem of
and the judiciary is equally to blame Civilization of his book, Endgame:
for the delay. In these years, the There are many causes of the
people had twice punished Ms. cultures violence. There is the fact
Jayalalithaa
electorally.
She that those who make political
appeared to have learnt her lessons decisions that guide this culture are
and was quick to roll out good more interested in increasing their
governance by initiating many own personal power and the power
welfare measures in Tamil Nadu. of the state than they are in human
She has faced double punishment and
non-human
well-being.
in the hands of the public and by the [I]magine if an American

Power pitch to CEOs

The interventionist

Jayalalithaa case

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
president decided tomorrow that
the U.S. would no longer allow
corporations to take oil from any
region where the people themselves
(not the government) did not want
to relinquish it. The same would
hold for metals, sh, meat, wood.
Everything The point is that the
only people t to be President are
those who can institute policies that
value economic production over
life. A sane and humane person
would not and could not last in that
position.
Sukumaran C.V.,
Palakkad
The U.S.s declaration to take on IS
is half-baked and will only result in
the mushrooming of more terror
groups. Be it Afghanistan, Libya,
Syria or Iraq, former U.S.-trained
rebels are now turning out to be its
own hydra-headed foes. The need of
the hour is to push for
comprehensive
international
action backed by the U.N. Security
Council. There should be no U.S.led proxy plan.
P. Venkatesh,
Hyderabad

Calm on the frontier

The steps being taken to initiate the
withdrawal of forces from the
India-China boundary after the
recent posturing (Editorial, Sept.
30) is welcome and will add a new
dimension to the furthering of
better ties between the two
countries.
Mercifully,
what
happened did not lead to bloodshed.
Both countries are developing fast
and need to have cordial ties with
each other. The initiative must be
towards constant peace.
Prosenjit Haldar,
Chennai

On Islam
The statement that the Islamic
mindset remains awkwardly out of
step with historical progress and
therefore with modern times is a
painful fact (Islam and its

interpretations, Sept. 30). It is

even more painful that Islam, a
religion which preaches tolerance
and coexistence, has unfortunately
become synonymous with hate and
intolerance. Every religion has its
quota of evils. With changing times,
it should undergo a process of selfpurication. Hinduism fought
social evils such as restrictions on
temple entry, child marriage, sati
and untouchability. Similarly, Islam
has to ward off evils. Progressive
personalities in the community can
lead the way in this.
V.R. Krishnan,
Chennai
The writers analysis was searingly
honest and his courage to take the
bull by the horns is commendable,
especially in a matter of faith, where
emotions coloured by the identity
hubris often take the forefront. If
adherents and think-tanks of all
faiths chose to follow truth in a
dispassionate manner, much of the
misunderstandings and violence
will perhaps be averted.
Philip Malayil,
Bangalore
The writers arguments are a bit
ambiguous. Talibanisation and
forms of extremism such as the rise
of the IS have no legitimate backing.
The only point where one is in
agreement with him is that Islamic
scholars have much work to do in
helping clear the false propaganda
that prevails. Terrorism is
inhumane.
Mohammed Nafeel T.,
Kozhikode
Going by my basic understanding of
Islam learnt in school, I found it
puzzling everytime misguided
individuals unleashed acts of terror
in the name of religion and felled
innocents. Terrorism has also
become a weapon in the hands of
our neighbour, even being used as
an instrument of diplomacy.
Islamic clerics across the world

should come together and work

with a single mind to interpret the
meaning of jihad in its true spirit.
M. Phani Kiran,
Vijayawada
There is no religion that is
interfered
with,
tinkered,
misunderstood,
misquoted,
misrepresented, misinterpreted,
disgured and blamed as Islam is,
though it is a religion of peace,
tolerance, sacrice, equality, love,
brotherhood, justice and promotes
peaceful coexistence. One should
read the Koran, Hadiths and Sunah
as a whole to understand Islam in its
totality. Islam never promotes,
instigates, exhorts or encourages
violence,
fundamentalism,
extremism or radicalism of any
kind. The jihad pronounced and
propagated by Islamists has to be
condemned as it goes against the
very tenets of Islam. The seeds of
terrorism were sown by western
agencies to serve their agenda in
regions of interest to them. They
are responsible for the rise of alQaeda, the Taliban and the IS.
M.Y. Shariff,
Chennai

Reel life portrayal

It is a fact that in lms today, some
of the strong female protagonist
characterisation depicted by great
directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal
Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan,
may never nd a place in the script
(Will reel life be the role model for
real life? Sept.30). Now, there is a
sudden decline in the portrayal of
meaningful
female
characterisation. For this, directors
are to blame. In the rush to cash in
on the glamour element, the real
genius that lies within a capable
actress is often overlooked. In many
of our TV serials, women are often
depicted as scheming, wicked and as
symbols of abject evil. Women must
protest this sort of characterisation.
K. Vijayan,
Avalookunnu, Kerala
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

12

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Dangers of imperious impatience

A
Sanjay Hegde

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014

Deepening
relationship
fter a hectic, often frenetic ve days in the
United States, it is time to take stock of the
achievements of Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit. To begin with, the welcome he received, both in New York and in Washington, has rmly
closed the door on a most awkward situation in bilateral
ties: that of India voting in a leader proscribed by the U.S.
Mr. Modi has been received at every level in the U.S., and
if the Obama administration didnt revoke the visa order,
the gesture of President Obama right at the end to accompany Mr. Modi to the Martin Luther King Memorial
came as a poignant signal that the U.S. genuinely wants
to move ahead with Indias newly elected leader. Secondly, U.S. business, clearly disaffected by the difficulties
they face in doing business with India, have also signalled
its desire to renew investments. The fact that the two
countries issued a vision document, the two leaders
penned a joint op-ed, and then came out with a comprehensive 3,500-word Joint Statement, speaks volumes for
the breadth of discussions between them in a short
period. Yet, while the three documents contain all the
parts of the relationship, they fail to convey the whole.
On issues where the countries agree, such as defence
and energy, they show only incremental progress, without any big announcements. On issues where the countries differ, like the nuclear deal, trade and WTO, they
seem to have deferred negotiations, indicating that no
progress was made in resolving them. In that context,
even the renewal of the strategic partnership, and reference to joint and concerted efforts to dismantle terror
groups including al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e Taiba, Jaish-eMohammad, the D-Company, and the Haqqanis do not
indicate any particularly new action or formulation. The
statements seem most opaque when it comes to spelling
out a shared worldview for India and the U.S.: while
referring obliquely to Chinas aggression in the South
China Sea, global crises like the situations in Iraq and
Syria, and cooperation in Afghanistan, and a confounding, long reference to North Korea (DPRK), they list no
action or step that the two countries hope to take together. And while both sides made it clear ahead of the talks
that the U.S. would request, and India would discuss, the
possibility of joining the anti-ISIS coalition, there is
silence on where those discussions led. On all fronts of
the comprehensive dialogue, that is, eight issues including energy, health, space, womens empowerment,
trade, skills, strategy and security, Mr. Modis visit successfully brought India-U.S. ties, that were faltering for a
few years, back on track. But in order to reach the nish
line, Mr. Modi and Mr. Obama will need a clearer enunciation of their shared vision for the road ahead.

Afghanistans
change of guard
he new President of Afghanistan, Ashraff Ghani, and Abdullah Abdullah, the countrys chief
executive officer a new post that is to evolve
into a prime ministership in two years have
their work cut out. Their swearing-in was billed as the
rst peaceful transition of power in Afghanistans history, but there is little peace. Two suicide attacks in Kabul
claimed seven lives on Wednesday; a suicide bomber
struck near Kabul airport on the day of the swearing-in;
and, just a week ago the Taliban, more condent as U.S
and NATO troops withdraw, launched a erce assault
not far from the capital, in Ghazni province. The peace
process that began under the presidency of Hamid Karzai has stalled. The Taliban want to rule Afghanistan;
they are hardly interested in negotiating power-sharing
deals to participate in a government they consider imposed by the West. The main challenge before Mr. Ghani, a former World Bank executive and one-time
Finance Minister in the Karzai government, is nothing
less than to ensure peace in a country with a raging
insurgency, repair an economy that is dependent on
international aid, even as he crafts a foreign policy that
has to take into account the demands of half a dozen
regional powers, including Pakistan, and countries beyond. Mr. Karzai, eager towards the end of his term to
get rid of the pro-West tag that was attached to him, had
been reluctant to sign an agreement allowing some U.S.
troops to stay on after the drawdown by end-2014. Mr.
Ghani has quickly drawn the line under the previous
government among his rst actions as President was
to ink the long pending Bilateral Security Agreement
and Status of Forces Agreement.
Compounding the difficulties is the tenuous political
agreement between Mr. Ghani and Mr. Abdullah that
ended the post-election deadlock. Mr. Abdullah had
refused to accept his defeat in the presidential run-off
against Mr. Ghani, accusing him of electoral fraud. After
nearly six months of bitter negotiations, Mr. Ghani
agreed to share power with Mr. Abdullah in a U.S.brokered deal that has brought together two leaders of
opposed ethnicities Mr. Ghani is Pashtun while Mr.
Abdullah is Tajik. New Delhi, which was rightly wary of
Mr. Karzais overtures to the Taliban, must support and
encourage Afghanistans new leadership, but in truth it
is Pakistan, with its continuing lifeline to the Taliban,
which holds the key to the stability and survival of the
new political arrangement. That in turn is crucial to
achieving long-term peace in Afghanistan and ensuring
the regions security. Unfortunately, both will be elusive
until Pakistan, especially its security establishment, is
able to draw the right lessons from its own pathetic
internal security situation to realise that an unstable
Afghanistan goes against its own interests.

CM
YK

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2014

fter her conviction on September

27, former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaas bail application
came up for hearing on September
30 before the High Court of Karnataka. It was
adjourned by the vacation bench of the Bangalore High Court to October 7 so that the
regular bench may hear it when the court
resumes functioning after the vacation.
Her lawyers moved the Chief Justice to
advance the hearing to October 1. The same
vacation judge reiterated her earlier order of
listing it on October 6. Some lawyers, who
may or may not be appearing in the matter,
now have taken it upon themselves to stage a
protest on the premises of the High Court of
Karnataka. Television news channels have
been showing her supporters vehemently
condemning the tardiness of the process by
which their leader has been ordered to remain behind bars pending hearing of her appeal. Members of the lm fraternity have also
come out in support of her, after she was
convicted. Dark hints have been thrown
about that somehow Karnataka and its government are complicit in ensuring payback
for the hitherto uneasy relationship with Tamil Nadu over the question of sharing Cauvery waters.

Transfer of cases
It is pertinent to note that the State of
Karnataka has never sought any role in this
prosecution. It was the Supreme Court that
transferred the prosecution of Ms. Jayalalithaa in 2003, when a fair trial did not seem
possible in Tamil Nadu. The Supreme Court
had similarly transferred the cases of M.K.
Azhagiri, son of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
leader M. Karunanidhi, and Jayendra Saraswathi, the seer of Kanchi Kamakoti Peetham,

Celebrities and their lawyers need to guard against

excesses. When imprisoned, celebrities need
to persuade their fans not to turn fanatic; any
breakdown in law and order would only further
postpone the bail hearing

straint, not competitive breast beating. A person sentenced to four years imprisonment on
charges of corruption cannot command the
legal system to take her case out of turn. From
prime minister to policeman, from cobbler to
caliph, the gaze of law falls equally on everyone. However high may you be, the law is
always above you.
Issue of bail
The Supreme Court attracted tremendous
The present custody of Ms. Jayalalithaa criticism in the 1980s when the then Chief
and her co-accused Sasikala Natarajan, V. Justice E.S. Venkatramaiah was woken up at
Sudhakaran and J. Elavarasi in Bangalore midnight and he proceeded to grant bail to
outside Tamil Nadu. In recent times, it transferred the Gujarat riot cases and some cases
involving Amit Shah from Gujarat to Maharashtra. The transfer of Jayalalithaas case to
Karnataka can be ascribed to no one but to
the Supreme Courts effort to secure a fair
trial.

From prime minister to policeman, from cobbler to caliph,

the gaze of law falls equally on everyone. However high may
you be, the law is always above you.
central prison is a painful but necessary burden imposed upon Karnataka by judicial diktat. In private conversations, officials
involved in Karnatakas administration say
that a speedy grant of bail pending appeal
would not be unwelcome. However, the administration neither directs nor controls the
judiciary. It is duty bound to faithfully execute every verdict until interdicted by a superior court.
For the moment, the shrillness of her supporters will not help Ms. Jayalalithaas cause.
For her well-wishers, this is the time for re-

industrialist L.M. Thapar. Thapar had been

arrested on the basis of a Reserve Bank of
India complaint that several companies run
by him had violated the Foreign Exchange
Regulation Act (FERA). However, the court
received praise when it recently stepped in at
2 a.m. to prevent the possible execution of
Surinder Kohli, who was convicted for the
Nithari murders. While judges do have judicial powers to act beyond normal court hours,
they can be persuaded to act thus only in
cases of extreme urgency.
Given the current situation in which Ms.

CARTOONSCAPE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

deeds and even more doses of
advice to the new Chief Minister on
The joint op-ed article written by how to focus on governance (Oct. 1).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and The media need to go slow and
U.S. President Barack Obama remember that the leader and her
(Oct.1) is a historic one. It makes it government together form the best
clear that strengthening of relations model of governance India has ever
between two of the worlds top had. The endorsement by the
democratic countries will ensure a people of the State of her style of
better world. With a strategic and functioning is proof of this.
T.M. Renganathan,
transparent agenda, India can
Srirangam
aspire to reach greater heights. The
voices of approval expressed by the
Indian-American
community Ms. Jayalalithaas arrest marks the
reects the general feeling about nal curtain on an 18-year-old case.
Though the rule of law forms the
Mr. Modi high expectations.
T.V. Nageswara Rao, cornerstone of Indias Constitution,
Visakhapatnam the way the arrest was carried out,
after a considerable length of time,
Hum saath saath sounds ne in is awed. The delay could have been
theory, but saath saath is ideal avoided. Ms. Jayalalithaa as Chief
only when there is common Minister
made
tremendous
interest. The next step must be to contributions towards the welfare
ensure that the ongoing Make in and development of the State.
Revathy C.R.,
India campaign benets from this
Thrissur
partnership.
Mahesh Kapasi,
New Delhi After the verdict was pronounced in
Bangalore,
prominent
media
The positive outcomes of the outlets went into overdrive using
meeting should take ties between unwarranted sobriquets to describe
the two countries to the next level. the plight of Ms. Jayalalithaa. Some
The support of the U.S. is vital to the even played on the word jail. This
development of several sectors of was denitely unacceptable and
the Indian economy. This meeting tarnished her image and popularity.
will also act as a gateway to build One cannot write her off.
T. Raju,
consensus on various issues where
Secunderabad
both countries are not on the same
page. The commitment of both
countries
towards
ghting It was amusing to read the report,
terrorism is laudable as they face Film fraternity in solidarity
grim threats from various terrorist (some editions, Oct.1), on members
groups. The agreement on taking of the Tamil lm world holding a
forward the civil nuclear deal and day-long fast in Chennai to protest
cooperation in renewable energy is the arrest of Ms. Jayalalithaa and
the judgment. A court order should
laudable.
Balaji Akiri, be challenged only in the
Hyderabad appropriate appellate court; no
demonstration
is
of
any
The last few days have been only consequence. The event was
about the Modi visit and the reach nothing more than an example of
of
the
inuential
Indian sycophancy, widely prevalent in
community. Having said that, one cinema-obsessed Tamil Nadu. One
must not forget that India is still waits for the day when the average
home to large numbers of the poor. Tamil is freed from the clutches of
The much- touted growth story has cinema.
Israel K. Mani,
yet to touch the poor.
Himanshu Agarwal,
Wellington, Nilgiris
New Delhi
By holding demonstrations, fasting
and even indulging in sporadic
The past few days have seen daily violence, what do the people
doses of unwarranted advice to Ms. responsible want to express? One
Jayalalithaa, judgment on her past cannot go against a fair judgment

The joint article

Jayalalithaa case

Jayalalithaa is, she has in her favour not only

her gender, age and illness, but also the fact
that an appeals court cannot possibly speedily hear and dispose of a gargantuan judgment
of 1,136 pages.
An appeals court may also in the back of its
mind, consider the human cost of her continued incarceration and the frenzied supporters who unnecessarily harm themselves and
others. Already several incidents of her supporters resorting to suicide or indulging in
acts of violence or protests have been reported from parts of Tamil Nadu.
But even though a court granting bail might
consider all the preceding factors, it is also
bound to consider the message that a speedy
release is likely to convey. When bail under
the Prevention of Corruption Act is routinely
denied in cases where the sentence period is
six months and the bribe amount is Rs.500, a
hasty release in this case may be viewed with
suspicion. So her lawyers will have to work
hard at emphasising the positive and diminishing the negative aspects of her case.
A court can only be persuaded to grant bail;
it cannot be coerced or overawed into doing
so. The rst rule of oral advocacy is Go where
the judge wants you to go. When the vacation
judge had shown her reluctance to have the
matter heard out of turn, the persistence with
which the lawyer sought advancement only
came across as obdurate.

Patience pays
In such situations, it would only be wise to
wait out a few more days. Suffering when
patiently borne has its own persuasive effect.
On the other hand, an impetuous, imperious
impatience with procedures can irk those
who are charged with judging the case.
I have often thought that Sanjay Dutts fate
was sealed when his lawyers, in 1993, approached the Supreme Courts vacation
bench when Justice Jeevan Reddy was on it.
He was a stern judge, of a leftist orientation
and not someone who would countenance
laxity of any kind. His continued presence on
the case saw almost all of Mr. Dutts plausible
defences at the trial being destroyed by premature disclosure at an interlocutory stage in
the Supreme Court.
Celebrities and their lawyers need to guard
against excesses. A lawyers rule, like that of a
physician, must be rst do no harm. Lawyers, for fabulous fees or otherwise, must not
be rushed into ling petitions and applications that cannot realistically be granted. Celebrities also need to guard against their
celebrity status working against them. Lastly,
they need to persuade their fans not to turn
fanatic. Any breakdown in law and order
might only cause a further postponement of
the hearing.
As far as the case of Ms. Jayalalithaas imprisonment is concerned, the question is not
whether bail will be granted or not. More
accurately, it is a question of when it would be
granted and on what terms. If the appeals
court has some inkling about the time frame
when the appeal can be nally heard, that will
possibly be the decisive factor in its interlocutory decision on bail.
To all those who anxiously await developments in this case, Hamlet can provide
some answers: If it be now, tis not to come; if
it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not
now, yet it will come: the readiness is all.
(Sanjay Hegde is a Supreme Court lawyer.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
and these people must remember
that all are equal before the law.
P. Mukuntharajan, Economist Esther Duo (Oct. 1) is
Chennai right in laying stress on the need for
randomised control trials and the
advantages in testing the efficiency
of various schemes. The failure of
The Editorial (Oct.1) is a timely well-devised
schemes
and
reminder to all supporters of Ms. programmes falling apart can be
Jayalalithaa to refrain from attributed to there being a lack of
continuing with their protests, courage and also political will.
political or otherwise. Their actions
The fact that well-laid policies
are an indicator of the prevalence of and schemes have been successful
sycophancy than it being an in certain States and have failed in
expression of political anger. Such others
should
not
deter
acts include the protest by lm policymakers. The right to
actors and advocates criticising the education has not yielded the
judiciary. The people of the State expected results, while the Public
must now support the new Chief Distribution System needs to be
Minister.
revised further in order for it to be
A.S. Raj, more efficient. This can be possible
Bangalore only if people are themselves made
accountable.
It is quite unfortunate that Ms.
Balasubramaniam Pavani,
Jayalalithaa has so far not made an
Secunderabad
appeal to the people of the State to
remain
calm
and
extend
cooperation to members of her In times like these, when social
Cabinet. Will the Tamil Nadu structures are changing rapidly, a
government now start to function need to study the social sciences
arises (A return to social sciences,
like UPA-II?
S. Anantharaj Abraham, Oct.1). As a student of sociology I
Chennai can say that most of the studies we
refer to are that of Rajni Kothari,
How Mr. Panneerselvam, who is Guha, etc. There seems to be a
considerably constrained when paucity of new thinkers and new
compared to Ms. Jayalalithaa both studies in the Indian context
in terms of experience and (especially eld studies). It should
administrative acumen, will now be done not with an eye on
function will be interesting to see. inuencing policy, but with an
Granting her an advisory role also interest about what has changed in
will send out the wrong signals as it society. Are the current political
will only make it clear that changes symbolic of demographic
corruption is acceptable. If a person changes or a result of economic
has done a wrong deed, he or she stagnation or something else? I did
must be willing to accept its dire not agree with the writers way of
consequences. The verdict is a calling the ideas of diasporic
lesson for the younger generation.
intellectuals as embarrassing.
Nithya G. Nair, What is embarrassing for one may
Thiruvanathapuram be deep for someone else. Isnt that
the beauty of the social sciences? To
One can think of a parallel example say that a new heuristics can
in
the
Ramayana.
Mr. reinvent democracy into a new
Panneerselvam would do well to sense of community seems fartake a leaf out of the epic, ensure an fetched.
Sweety Gupta,
able administration and make
New Delhi
decisions on his own and
collectively rather than repeatedly
travelling to Bangalore. That Ms. Being an academician and an
Jayalalithaa refused to meet him, institution-builder, Rajni Kothari
asking
him
to
focus
on laid the foundation of the Centre of
Study of Developing Societies
administration should be his cue.
P. Guruprasad, which
then
introduced
Chennai methodologies that helped in

Duflo interview

The chosen one

Social sciences

evolving political science as a

discipline of social science in India.
Universities the world over use his
seminal text, The Congress System,
as a bible for studying Indias party
system.
However, as the writer points
out, the present generation appears
to be continuously engaged in
erasing his memory. In some cases,
in universities in north India, Rajni
Kothari is often introduced to
students as a lady intellectual!
Arvind Kumar,
New Delhi

Brindavan at 50
October 1, 1964 was the day when
Brindavan Express was introduced.
It completed the 358-km journey in
ve hours with stops at Katpadi and
Jolarpet. It was the favourite of
families, the working class and
students alike. It has seen engine
changes from diesel to diesel/
electric with a changeover at
Jolarpet which was then electric.
The number of stops increased. It
was then ironically classied as
being superfast. It had rst class,
later replaced by air-conditioned
chair car, but now has only second
class coaches with the introduction
of the double decker train. The
oldest staff member serving in the
catering unit in my memory was
Srinivasan who joined as a
youngster and worked till past
2000. He was known for his familiar
smile.
George Vergese,
Chennai

Bibi Prakash Kaur

The last surviving sister of Bhagat
Singh, Bibi Prakash Kaur, 93, who
lived with her son Rupinder Singh
in Toronto, Canada, passed away on
Bhagat Singhs birth anniversary,
September 28. Hours before she
died, Aam Aadmi Party activists in
Canada visited her, though she was
in no condition to respond. She had
been bedridden for the last seven
years. Her husband Harbans Singh
died more than a decade ago. Bibi
Prakash Kaur was in the news
during the days of terror in Punjab,
when she fought for justice after her
daughters brother-in-law was
killed in an encounter; the case
became an issue in Punjab.
Professor Chaman Lal,
Bathinda
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014

Gandhi, morality and political legitimacy

Ananya Vajpeyi

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2014

The message
behind the broom
n launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or
Clean India Mission, on Gandhi Jayanthi day,
Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to highlight the importance his administration attached
to both sanitation and Mahatma Gandhi. Mr. Modi was
evidently carrying forward the message in his Independence Day address on the need for more toilets in
schools, and for Indias villages and towns to be free of
dirt. But the high-prole launch of the mission on
October 2 had its own meaning. Mr. Modi wanted to
link his campaign to the toilet-cleaning ritual in Gandhis ashrams, to emphasise that the seemingly demeaning, menial work was of great import in
nation-building. The noise surrounding the launch of
the mission was intended to draw in all Indians to the
cleanliness drive: everyone was expected to devote two
hours a week to cleaning their surroundings. Surely,
the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been successful as an
event in increasing public awareness of the importance
of sanitation. The imagery of the Prime Minister taking
time off to wield the broom in central Delhi might be of
some effect in some areas for some time. But if Mr.
Modi was hoping for mass participation in a cleanliness
drive that would keep India perpetually clean, public
policy must go far beyond symbolism.
If Indias villages and towns are to be dirt-free, what
is required is not the involvement of each and every
citizen for two hours every week in the clean-up. While
that would lend a Gandhian touch of personal involvement, it would surely be a colossal waste of productive
hours of skilled personnel. It is one thing to involve
political leaders, industrialists and celebrities in
sweeping the streets to raise general awareness on
sanitation, and quite another to expect every working
adult to put in two hours a week in cleaning. True,
without the cooperation of citizens, it would be impossible for any government or civic body to ensure clean
streets and public places. But this is not the same as
requiring everyone in the workforce to engage in actual
cleaning. Efforts must be made to de-stigmatise the act
of cleaning, and the participation of citizens in large
numbers in a mass cleaning exercise, even if as a oneoff or annual event, will have a positive effect. The
government may not be able to do everything, but
voluntarism cannot be a substitute for strengthening
civic infrastructure. For ensuring cleanliness and hygiene and improving solid waste management, Indias
civic bodies will need to be at the centre of the Clean
India Campaign. The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan will have
to be a sustainable programme, and its success ought
not to depend on the hours each citizen puts in to
sweep streets. A lot can be done to further the ideal of
cleanliness without wielding the broom.

very October 2, for the past 66 years,

Indians have reected on the legacy
of Mohandas Gandhi, born on this
day in 1869, and killed on January
30 in 1948. This moment of reection has
sometimes gone by in a haze of indifference,
at other times sparked deep criticisms of the
aws and contradictions in Gandhis thought,
and on yet other occasions has been observed
as a day of ahimsa, non-violence. This year
after the general election and the victory of
the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Gandhi
Jayanthi feels like a poignant crossroads.
Young Indians seem not to have any particular attachment to Gandhian ideals like
ahimsa, swaraj and satyagraha.

Is Gandhi still relevant?

Prime Ministers Narendra Modis invocations of the Mahatmas name are frequent,
but not always convincing: Gandhi is either
diminished into a parochial Gujarati gure, or
reduced to a formula and a clich. In the
current administrations rhetoric, Gandhi is
not the fountainhead of modern Indias political selfhood but rather a mere icon to be
monumentalised and trivialised in one go.
Why just Gandhi, it could be Swami Vivekananda who is trotted out one day, Sardar Patel
another day, and Babasaheb Ambedkar when
his name happens to suit a given purpose. The
particularities of the beliefs and ideas of each
of these individuals, and their very different,
often incommensurable contributions in the
making of modern India, are of no relevance
in an atmosphere of illiterate nationalistic
jingoism and complete ideological vacuity.
But like with any thinker of such enormous
and lasting inuence, Gandhis repertoire of
ideas turns out to be more surprising and
more resilient than we might realise after
many decades of having him be a part of our
default political furniture.
If ideas like non-violent sovereignty, the
dignity of the poor, the power of truth, and
the difficult practices of moral courage are
not fashionable today, there is nevertheless a
key lesson Gandhi taught us, that remains as
relevant in our own time as it was during the
British Raj. This is the lesson about the true
sources of political legitimacy, and how to
recognise them, no matter what the outer
garb of sovereign power or the architecture of
a state.
Gandhi showed Indians and the world that
the ultimate legitimacy in politics comes not
from brute force, not from the state apparatus, and not even from mechanisms of political participation, electoral choice and
representative self-government. All of these
are limited, and all of them are fallible. The
popular mandate of Hitler did not make Nazi
rule legitimate. The benign despotism of the
British in India did not make colonial rule
legitimate. Totalitarianism that enters riding
on the coat-tails of democracy, or imperial-

While true political legitimacy has to be premised

on popular will, on the desire for
self-determination, and on the capacities and
capabilities of a government, it resides in a more
subtle quality that has to do with the inherent
morality of any structure of power that purports to
rule a people in their name and for their own good
ism that seems bent over with the self-inicted burden of delivering benighted natives
from their ignorance and backwardness
neither of these forms attains legitimacy
merely because it is successful in capturing
power on the basis of professed good
intentions.
True political legitimacy has to be premised on popular will, on the desire for selfdetermination, and on the capacities and capabilities of a government, for sure. But in the
end it exceeds and transcends all of these
factors, and resides elsewhere, in a more subtle quality that has to do with the inherent
morality of any structure of power that purports to rule a people in their name and for
their own good.

Lessons from a flood

An illustration from recent events: the devastating oods in Jammu and Kashmir in
early September were on the face of it a sign of
climate change, environmental calamity and
the inadequacy of early warning and disaster

ground support to the agencies most involved

in search, rescue and relief operations for the
rst few days the Indian armed forces, the
National Disaster Response Force, and the
informal and spontaneously arisen Kashmiri
citizens groups that worked tirelessly in almost every neighbourhood in the deluged
State capital, Srinagar.
But these multiple failures of the local government in the face of the biggest natural
disaster that the State has ever seen, are only
premised on its already low credibility based
on a track record of an indifferent administration, weak and faltering alliances, and the
inability to put pressure on the Indian and
Pakistani governments to resolve their longrunning disputes and take concrete steps to
break the perpetual political deadlock of
Kashmir. The truth is that the oods only
provided an alibi for a State government that
has barely functioned for its entire term in
office. That Chief Minister Omar Abdullahs
National Conference (NC) was elected to
power is a g leaf that scarcely covers how

Like with any thinker of such enormous and lasting inuence,

Gandhis repertoire of ideas turns out to be more surprising and
resilient than we might realise.

management systems. But as the weeks have

passed, with houses still submerged; telephone, television, radio and Internet services
still down; roads, bridges and highways in a
shambles, and government infrastructure unable to come back up to provide even a hint of
civic normalcy, it becomes clear that the real
crisis in the Valley is a crisis of political
legitimacy.
The State government has next to no legitimacy because it failed so completely to warn
and evacuate citizens as the waters of the
Jhelum began to rise to dangerous levels after
unusually heavy rains; it failed to re-establish
a basic quorum of ministers, legislators, bureaucrats, police officers and municipal
workers who could operate out of private
homes or makeshift offices while the governments own buildings were under water; it
failed to marshal, collect and distribute relief
supplies that were pouring in from all parts of
India and the world at the Srinagar airport;
and it failed to provide a modicum of on-the-

much the party and its leadership is disliked

and mistrusted by the people of Jammu and
Kashmir, who knew well before the oods
that theirs was a government mostly missing
in action.
After the oods, even the pretence of law
and order, of administrative control, of the
delivery of basic services to the citizenry, disappeared entirely. Given that State elections
stand to be postponed from December 2014
to next summer, there is no reason to expect
that the abysmal standard of governance will
suddenly be raised now. Persistent ood conditions and their aftermath, a looming winter,
an impending durbar move to Jammu, and,
very possibly, a spell of Governors Rule make
it unlikely that the very politicians and administrators who abandoned their people will
belatedly rise to the occasion and do later on
what they ought to have done for the past
month.
There are at least two positions on the
electoral process as a route to political legiti-

CARTOONSCAPE

The distance to
disarmament
he commemoration of the rst International
Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear
Weapons on September 26 was a moment for
introspection. The Cold War is behind us and
it is nearly 70 years since the catastrophe in Hiroshima
and Nagasaki. Yet, why are nuclear arms the most
contentious of all Weapons of Mass Destruction, and
nuclear disarmament as distant as ever? The answers
are not far to seek. The 1966 Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty remains on date the only agreement to prevent
the spread of these weapons outside the original ve
nuclear weapons states. But then, there are more countries today that aunt these terrible weapons as a
symbol of military might and many more that are
perhaps perilously close to their acquisition. This bleak
history is a commentary on the discrimination inherent in the NPT. The treaty privileges the status quo; it
obliges non-nuclear weapons states not to acquire nuclear weapons, without concomitant guarantees on disarmament from the Nuclear Weapons States (NWSs).
The 1996 Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
aims to prohibit all tests and explosions. A potentially
crucial deal, it has yet to come into force because not all
of the 44 countries with nuclear power reactors would
ratify it. The big players in Asias geopolitics including
India have kept out of it, as has Washington.
Formal negotiations to nalise a Fissile Material
Cut-off Treaty have not commenced in all these decades. At issue has been the question whether such a
deal should cover existing or future stockpiles of plutonium and highly enriched uranium needed to produce
nuclear weapons. The refusal of many non-aligned
countries to sign up to a deal that would exclude current stocks from its purview, in effect preserving the
hegemony of the NWSs, seem unexceptionable. The
2010 New START (strategic arms reduction treaty)
limits the U.S. and Russia to 1,550 strategic nuclear
warheads deployed on 700 strategic delivery systems.
This is the most current legally binding and veriable
bilateral arms control accord between Washington and
Moscow. Meanwhile, the ve nuclear weapons free
zones in different regions across the globe have not
been backed by unconditional assurances by the original ve NWSs not to use force. Against this overall
backdrop, the recent global ban on chemical and biological weapons other categories of WMDs offers
the hope of securing a similar abolition in relation to
nuclear weapons at some time in the future. Efforts at
the UN Conference on Disarmament towards the conclusion of a treaty may be long-drawn. But the stakes
for world peace were never greater than they are today.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

seen a line of VIPs heading to Raj
Ghat to offer oral tributes, is an
The launch of the Clean India/ excellent initiative. There is no
Swachh Bharat campaign by none doubt that unless this becomes a
other than Prime Minister peoples movement, nothing can be
Narendra Modi is something that achieved. Every Indian should
has been long overdue (Oct. 2). Of realise that cleanliness is next to
greater importance though is the godliness.
S.N. Srinivasan,
need to change the mindset of the
Bangalore
average citizen, who thinks that
cleaning public spaces is somebody
Such a massive campaign should
elses work.
Abhishek Kumar Srivastava, have an impact on the community,
New Delhi but how long will it last? Cleanliness
is a 24x7 programme that needs to
The lack of attention towards be monitored constantly. One needs
ensuring clean water, sanitation and to look carefully at the campaign in
hygiene is what has resulted in India Singapore,
which
is
highly
having an extremely low level of successful as any person who errs is
human
development.
The dealt with sternly. Civic authorities
cleanliness campaign should be in India should not ght shy of
extended to include health care too. following the same rules.
Rais Akhtar,
P.M. Gopalan,
Aligarh
Chennai

For Clean India

macy in the State, especially in the Valley.

Members and leaders of mainstream political
parties like the NC and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) participate in State elections, enter into alliances with national
parties like the Congress and the BJP, and
form and run the State government if elected
to power. Others like the Hurriyat leadership
and their supporters do not participate in
elections. Their contention is that Jammu
and Kashmir is essentially not like any other
State of the Indian union, and should not
proceed as though it were exactly that, until
such time as the overarching dispute about
the status of Kashmir is settled in national
and international fora.
The terrible predicament of the people of
the State is that they have to choose between
on the one hand, leaders who do participate in
Indian electoral democracy and try to provide
at least a semblance of representative selfgovernment, howsoever interim its character
but then make a mess of their regime. On
the other hand, there are leaders who dont
participate electorally at all, but dont have
the leverage to actually restate the problem
and restart to the process of multilateral dialogue and conict resolution from scratch.
Its a lose-lose bind. The oods only press
home the reality that its a pathetic choice
between a leadership that cant govern in fact
and one that wont govern on principle.
In a situation of extreme crisis, like a natural disaster, this dilemma stops being abstract and becomes all too real. Neither a
helpless Chief Minister wringing his hands on
the Indian media sans his cell phone and his
secretariat, nor a popular separatist personally delivering water and food to hundreds of
stranded residents of his locality in Srinagar
in a small makeshift boat, can present a viable
answer to the question that has hovered over
the Himalaya since Partition: Who really
commands political legitimacy in Kashmir?

Over and above democracy

It has been suggested that what Gandhi has
to give to Kashmir is the usual message
non-violence. Militants should put down
their weapons, fundamentalists should embrace their neighbours and everyone who has
lived through the conict should renounce
anger and vengeance to chart a new path to
freedom. But in fact the real relevance of
Gandhi to Kashmir and more so in light of
the oods, which have washed away all existing structures of authority, such as they were
is to table once more the question of political legitimacy.
How is political legitimacy in Jammu and
Kashmir to be earned? Who can demonstrate
having it? From rebuilding Srinagar after the
devastation, to repatriating Pandits, to putting in place enduring systems of environmental management, to demilitarisation, to
resuming talks with Pakistan, to tackling corruption, to instituting processes of rehabilitation, justice and reconciliation for all those
affected by 25 years of war what needs to be
done, and who will do it?
Gandhis achievement in forcing a subcontinent and later an empire to re-examine the
very foundations of sovereignty urgently
needs recalling. Not only have the oods in
Kashmir left an entire regional population
without any kind of government, whether
popular or unpopular, but down south, in
Tamil Nadu, another electorally powerful and
massively admired leader, Ms. Jayalalithaa,
has had to forfeit her mandate in the face of
corruption allegations. Her democratically
ratied legitimacy is nevertheless not sufficient to protect her from criminal charges in a
court of law. And at the centre, a majority win
for Mr. Modi and the BJP still leaves open the
question of who this government really
speaks for, who it represents and sees itself as
representing, and who gets left out of its
ambit.
The writing is on the wall: in a fractured
democracy like India, numbers alone do not
tell the whole or the true story of legitimate
rule. Legitimacy has to be earned the hard
way, through good governance, transparency,
probity, lawfulness, justice, inclusivity and
the capacity to demonstrate, both every day
and in a crisis, that a government really is not
just by and of, but also for the people.
(Ananya Vajpeyi is the author of Righteous
Republic: The Political Foundations of
Modern India.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
It is a shame that a proactive Prime
Minister has to instruct us on how to
go about a cleanliness drive, spoonfeeding us on basic issues such as
community hygiene. It remains to
be seen whether this will sustain
itself in the long run. Most Indians
are good at cleaning their
surroundings and then, equally
adept at dumping the refuse. After
that everything is forgotten, which
brings me to the next issue. What
solutions do our politicians have for
the safe and scientic disposal of
garbage? In Bangalore, for instance,
garbage disposal in landlls is
turning out to be a major issue.
Finally, has anyone thought about
the plight of thousands of manual
scavengers whose health and safety
most of us are the least bothered
about, while they go about the most
inhuman task ever?
Sandeep Raghunath,
Bangalore

impatience, Oct. 2). Intimidatory

tactics will certainly harm their
interests. In this case that involved
Ms. Jayalalithaa and her associates,
party cadres must remember that
the case was prolonged for 18 years.
Therefore, how can bail be granted
within two days? They must ponder
over the legal procedures observed
in the past, especially in corruption
cases that involved political
luminaries. Finally, they must
remember that the law treats
cobbler and caliph alike.
N. Ramkumar,
Chidambaram

clear that the government will not

permit protests and other forms of
disruption to normal life. The
persistence of various forms of
protests will only mar the
reputation of their leader. Suffering,
when patiently borne, has its own
persuasive effect and the cadre must
learn to be patient.
R. Sridharan,
Chennai

Gold for Mary Kom

By becoming the rst Indian boxer

to clinch a gold at the Asian Games,
Mary Kom has shown that amid
many setbacks and barriers, women
The writer has the right words of can achieve greatness.
advice to those people in Tamil
K. Geetha,
Nadu who may be over-reacting to
Coimbatore
the conviction of their leader. They
are only weakening her position. Coming from a humble background
Such a politically motivated and a remote northeastern location,
reaction also proves that corruption Mary Kom has achieved something
even at the highest level is of no truly unbelievable. Let us hope this
This is a campaign that needs the Gandhi Jayanthi seems to have been
consequence to the average citizen, will motivate many more women to
wholehearted support of every the ideal day to launch such a The Prime Minister could have done and more than the values and break the shackles that bind them
Indian. With the government being programme, especially in Mr. this differently, by directing all MPs standing of the country it is the and bring laurels to the nation and
a facilitator, the scheme should not Modis scheme of things given the and MLAs to declare their personal glory and mass appeal of to themselves.
Srinath Mahesh,
be allowed to lose pace devoting showman that he is, and one who constituencies swachh by next the person in question that matters.
Chennai
100 hours a year is ideal. Everyone revels in media publicity. This one- October 2 and by utilising their It is equally unfortunate that the
should be ready to do community day photo-op for Mr. Modi is not constituency funds for this.
State government appears to be
Philip C. Chacko, looking the other way.
While Indias performance at the
service and help contribute to the going to clean up India in one stroke.
Bangalore
J.V. Carvalho, Asian Games in Incheon has been
overall cleanliness of the nation.
It would have been a tting tribute
V. Padmanabhan, to the Mahatma had Mr. Modi
Chennai patchy, Marys victory surpasses
Bangalore launched a campaign to ban manual
every other achievement. One has to
scavenging. He could have also The writer has rightly pointed out It is only natural that loyalists and admire Magnicent Mary for her
The campaign is something that launched a campaign to clean up the airs political parties sport in the cadres of the AIADMK will be grit and determination in achieving
would have been dear to Mahatma politics.
trying to arrogate to themselves the upset over the verdict. Tamil Nadu excellence.
M. Phani Kiran, right to inuence a court judgment Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam
R. Prabhu Raj,
Gandhi. Mr. Modis campaign, on an
Vijayawada (Dangers
Chennai
occasion that would have normally
of
imperious and other Ministers should make it

Imperious impatience

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

10

KOLKATA

THE HINDU

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

Taking ties beyond the Beltway

Jayant Prasad

MONDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2014

For clarity on
Hong Kong
ong Kong has been rocked by a spate of student-led protests that have swept across the
citys sensitive nancial, administrative and
shopping hubs. The agitation has sharply
brought into focus the one country-two systems policy
that dened Hong Kongs transition from an erstwhile
British colony to a Special Administrative Region (SAR)
of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC). The protesters
are clamouring for full democracy, that includes open
nomination of candidates for the post of Chief Executive
(CE) of the territory in the elections scheduled for 2017.
Their protests have acquired a sharp and emotive edge
after Beijing was accused of reneging on its commitment
to premise the entire electoral process from 2017 on
universal suffrage, including the choice of candidates for
Hong Kongs highest office.
The high-prole protests that could, if they get prolonged, threaten Hong Kongs status as one of Asias
premier nancial centres need to be analysed in their
fuller context. During the entire period of British rule
a full 155 years following the Opium Wars democratic
advancement in the territory was minimal. Post-1997
under Chinese sovereignty, the democratic reform process has begun to take shape, based on the Basic Law
adopted by China in 1990. Under its terms, the CE would
be elected by universal suffrage in 2017; but a committee
would also be formed that would supervise nominations.
While the agitating students, seeking unconditional democracy, may be unhappy with this law, the accusation
that Beijing has reneged on its legal obligations is entirely awed. It is highly unlikely that despite the considerable force of the social media at their command and
the sizeable mobilisation on the streets, the protesters
will manage to persuade Beijing to change its mind on
the fundamentals of its one country-two systems policy, which allows the people of Hong Kong to retain their
distinctive legal and political system. Yet, Beijing may
seriously consider addressing other aspects of alienation in Hong Kong, including the dislocation of identity
because mainlanders, prospering from Chinas economic boom, establish businesses in Hong Kong, elbowing
out sections of the locally entrenched elite from their
vantage positions. Besides, skyrocketing property prices
are causing people, in some cases, to spend nearly 70 per
cent of their incomes on mortgage payments, dimming
hope for a bright future, especially among young people.
While it may be inclined to stick to its guns, a betterrepresented nominating committee, not shy of either
holding extensive consultations or allowing more openminded candidates to enter the electoral fray, may serve
the immediate purpose of correcting the democratic
imbalances that have been exposed by the protests.

rime Minister Narendra Modis visit

to the United States has to be measured against the principal challenge
he faced: how to engage with an already preoccupied partner.
He overcame this challenge by interacting
with a much broader American audience than
any of his predecessors. A very special feature
of his visit was his determination to open new
doors in the U.S. and take the relationship
beyond the beltway in Washington DC. All
previous Summit level U.S. visits by Indian
leaders featured a mandatory speech at a
think tank, interaction with a few Congressional leaders, and a meeting each with businessmen and the Indian community. The
public diplomacy effort this time included
multiple energetic exchanges with business
and industry leaders, the Indian-American
community, and U.S. lawmakers, surpassing
all previous efforts.
U.S President Barack Obama commented
about Mr. Modis rock-star performance at
the Madison Square Garden arena. Far from
being just a tamasha, the spectacle mobilised the Indian community across the U.S. and
imparted to them a sense of pride and hope.
Several Congressmen and Senators were present at the event, including some who have
been critical of India on IT visas and compulsory licensing. These lawmakers saw at
rst hand the size, scale and connectedness of
the Indian-American community to India, as
also Mr. Modis crowd-pulling power. The
message that this community is now a force
whose expectations cannot be ignored, including for better India-U.S. ties, is a positive
asset.

Future contours
While engaging new audiences, Mr. Modi
did not ignore his host, with whom he established an excellent entente, overcoming the
negative overhang of visa-denial since 2002.
Moreover, he did not use the visit for inventorying deliverables, but to convey to all
his interlocutors, within and outside the U.S.
government, Indias aspirations for the future
contours of the relationship. Much of this is
encapsulated within the Joint Statement, the
joint editorial by the two leaders published on
the website of The Washington Post, and the
Vision Statement of the India-U.S. Strategic
Partnership cleverly captioned by a new
mantra: Chalein Saath Saath: Forward together we go. Such a vision could help in
taking steps towards its progressive
concretion.
This visit has gone some way in changing
the atmospherics of the bilateral relationship.

CARTOONSCAPE

a constructive force in Asia and the world.

India needs U.S. investments and technology.
The U.S. needs Indian markets and skilled
service providers. The gap between promise
and performance of the two countries lies in
the mutual timidity of their governments in
treading the path signposted after considerable effort. Roadblocks need to be removed by
resolving differences, for which both sides
must sit and talk.
The renewal of the 2005 Framework for the
It has convinced many in the U.S. strategic With added tensions in Ukraine and the East India-U.S. Defense Relationship is a reminder
decision-making community of Indias com- and South China Seas, the environment for that in the 10 years of its operation, nothing
mitment to forge an enduring partnership rebuilding India-U.S. relations has become whatsoever was done to increase opportuniwith the U.S., as also Indias ability to think on even more complex.
ties for technology transfer, collaboration, coa big scale about its own global role, in which
Mr. Obama has concentrated more power production, and research and development.
India-U.S. ties could nd a new energy.
in his hands than any other American Presi- Indias contingent and reactive defence poldent, making him one of the most centralising icy, including on procurement, compromises
The American context
Presidents ever. His successive National Secu- security and is a drain on national resources.
Believing his predecessor had overexposed rity Advisors, James Jones, Tom Donilon and India has stepped up buying of U.S. weapons;
the U.S. globally, Mr. Obama has tried reca- Susan Rice, did not have independent opin- but has not so far co-developed or built them.
librating foreign policy, with diminished de- ions. Only Mr. Donilon among them had a
Similarly, the absence of energetic pursuit
pendence on military power. The 2008 U.S. sense of the strategic nature of India-U.S. re- of U.S. support for a reformed UN Security
National Intelligence Council (NIC) report lations, in which none of the NSAs was in- Council with India as a permanent member,
announced a multipolar world and predicted vested. Indians reciprocated with similar and the U.S. resolve to continue work tothat U.S. power was fated to wane. This coinci- laissez-faire. Mr. Obamas visit to India in wards Indias phased entry into the Nuclear
ded with the 2008 economic slowdown. Mr. November 2010, when he welcomed Indias Suppliers Group (NSG), the Missile TechnolObamas principal policy imperative has been emergence as a major regional and global ogy Control Regime (MTCR), the Wassenaar
to rebalance U.S. foreign and security policy in power and affirmed U.S. interest in Indias Arrangement and the Australia Group alorder to guide the U.S. towards graceful rise, its economic prosperity, and its security, most exactly the same words used when Mr.
did not lead to an upgraded relationship. In- Obama had visited India in 2010 persuade
decline.
many Indians that inaction on these commitments might be a sign of equivocation.
The message that the Indian-American community is now a
Mr. Modi was well briefed in addressing
of contention, including climate change
force whose expectations cannot be ignored, including for better areas
and World Trade Organization (WTO) issues,
India-U.S. ties, is a positive asset.
indeed, a range of bread-and-butter issues of
concern to both countries on which equitable
solutions must be explored. In his self-conThree main initiatives of Mr. Obama out- deed, there was a marked regression since dent interactions on these, he showed his
stretched hand to Iran, strategic reassurance then.
hand on what gives and what does not.
to China, and reset for Russia each founOn agricultural subsidies, he put across that
dered. These also involved downplaying rela- The unfinished agenda
a large and populous country like India needs
Is good chemistry between the two leaders exibility to take care of food security, rural
tions with traditional and prospective
partners, including serious neglect of India in cause to celebrate? Not by itself. The diver- employment, and livelihood concerns
the early part of the Obama presidency. Other gences in outlook that come from the geostra- through continued domestic support. At the
challenges to U.S. diplomacy have multiplied tegic placement of India and the U.S., their joint press brieng with Mr. Obama, he made
historic and social evolution, and economic public advocacy for continued openness and
manifold since then.
The National Security Agency (NSA) reve- asymmetry do not make it easy to work to- ease of access for Indian services companies
lations hurt U.S. credibility with its partners. gether.
in the U.S. market.
Moreover, tending the full spectrum relaLong-established U.S. ascendancy in the ChiA contact group was set up for the full imna-Russia-U.S. triangular relationship passed tionship between them, spanning counter- plementation of the India-U.S. civil nuclear
to China. Mr. Obama announced the strategic terrorism, cybersecurity, defence, energy, en- cooperation agreement, as also an annual
defeat of al-Qaeda, the same way Mr. George tertainment, education, nance, science and high-level Intellectual Property (IP) Working
W. Bush had announced success in Iraq, but technology, trade and tourism, besides guid- Group, with an appropriate decision-makthe rise of the Islamic State shows that Isla- ance from the leadership, requires consider- ing mandate as part of the Trade Policy Fomists are arguably stronger and more spread able investment of time and skills, rum. Mr. Modi deected pressure to give up
out than at any other time in history. Relative conspicuous by its absence.
on Indias pro-public health patent protection
neglect, fear of over-commitment, and waging
What India and the U.S. need to do together policy that enables the supply of high-quality,
the wrong wars with the wrong local partners is clear; they simply have been unable to do it. life-saving medicines worldwide. When pharhave led to the crises in Iraq and Syria and the The areas of strategic convergence are known. ma sector CEOs spoke of their apprehensions
resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. A growing, pluralistic and democratic India is about Indias intellectual property rights
(IPR) regime, he reportedly told them that
India needed affordable medicines, and that
their rms needed to devote the right energy to R&D for new drug development, not
just by changing the formulation of a drug to
sustain a patent, but by inventing things that
make a difference to mankind.

Narendra Modis U.S. visit has restored a degree

of condence to a neglected relationship,
preparing the ground for a lift to bilateral ties,
while ensuring that India and the U.S. get on with
operationalising what they can from their
multilayered agenda

Looking ahead
At the very least, this visit restored a degree
of condence to a neglected relationship. It
has prepared the ground for a lift to bilateral
ties, while ensuring in the meanwhile that
India and the U.S. get on with operationalising
what they can from our multilayered agenda,
bridging differences on managing the global
commons, resolving bilateral roadblocks on
commercial exchanges and investments,
building cooperation in science and technology and defence production, and forging a
closer strategic partnership in the Indo-Pacific region.
Notwithstanding shared values and interests, the real traction in India-U.S. relations
lies ahead, perhaps with a new U.S. President
just over two years away, as India begins to
realise its economic potential and augments
all aspects of what the Chinese describe as
comprehensive national power.
(Jayant Prasad has served as Indias
Ambassador to Afghanistan, Algeria, Nepal,
and the U.N. Conference on Disarmament and
currently is a Non-Resident Fellow at the
Center for the Advanced Study of India,
University of Pennsylvania.)

The truth behind

encounters
aking impartial investigations into killings
in police encounters constitutes an area of
governance that is quite delicate and controversial. The police version often gains
traction in the media, and support from the ruling party
and the administration often helps a cover-up. On the
other hand, the gunning down of dreaded criminals or
extremists in genuine exchanges of re may also be
questioned by interested parties. This is the backdrop in
which the state has supported the armed forces with
special laws to grant them immunity from prosecution
in specied areas, mostly those hit by conict or insurgency. The recent Supreme Court verdict laying
down detailed guidelines on how the police and administration should respond to a death in an alleged encounter, seeks to put in place a proper mechanism that will
set at rest all doubt and speculation about the incident.
The rst requirement being an independent and impartial investigation, the court has now laid down a standard procedure, which will operate in addition to
existing provisions in the Code of Criminal Procedure
(CrPC) relating to unnatural deaths. Section 176 of the
CrPC already provides for an enquiry by a judicial magistrate in such cases. Other guidelines cover investigations by the CID or a police station from another
station-house, establishing the victims identity, preservation of evidence on the spot, preparation of a rough
sketch of the scene, recovery of ngerprints, videography of the autopsy, and informing the next of kin of
the deceased at the earliest. Holding the magisterial
enquiry and keeping the National Human Rights Commission informed are other requirements. As a general
rule, the court has asked the State governments to send a
report once in six months (January 15 and July 15 every
year) on all incidents of death in police ring, in a
prescribed format.
Ending impunity and ensuring impartiality in probes
subsequent to death at the hands of the police are easier
said than achieved in some conict-hit regions. As the
Supreme Court itself has pointed out, one cannot be
oblivious to the fact that the police in India have to
perform a delicate task, especially wherever extremism
and organised crime have taken strong roots. However,
it has also noted that even such criminals must be dealt
with by the police in an efficient and effective manner
and brought to justice by following the rule of law. The
Courts guidelines are by and large practicable, but it
requires political will and an alert civil society to ensure
their implementation. A scientic, well-documented investigation that results in a decisive nding, which the
law now demands, is not beyond the capability of a
modern police force.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Patna stampede
We seem to be getting news of
stampedes and deaths of people
during festivities on a regular basis
(Political blame game over
stampede, Oct.5 and Stampede at
Ram Leela kills 32, Oct. 4). Are
government officials not aware of
these incidents? Why havent they
learnt any lessons from the past?
Not accepting mistakes of the past
will have consequences for the
future. The Patna District Collector
must take responsibility for this
incident.
P. Ravichandran,
Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu
Thestampede is yet another
example of the governments lack of
preparedness
in
crowd
management. It has been reported
that it took more than three hours to
send the injured to hospitals: this
shows the deep aws in disaster
management
preparedness.
Concrete steps should be taken to
avoid such incidents. First, there
should be more gates to ensure swift
entry and exit of people in a moment
of crisis. The gates should slide,
providing more space to people.
Second, the crowd should be
monitored. If it swells beyond
capacity then this should be
conveyed to the relevant authorities
so that they can be on alert. Third,
most often in cases of this nature,
the women and children seem to
bear the brunt. They should be
specially monitored.
Kundan Kumar,
Dhanbad, Jharkhand

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Indian polity and directs us to reexamine the so-called and wellThe thought behind the Swachh publicised strengths of Indian
Bharath campaign is truly democracy. Although numbers
commendable (Editorial, Oct. 4). occupy an important place in a
But it is not just the lack of civic democracy, they hardly reect
sense but rather the lack of a proper realities in society. We must
garbage collection and disposal acknowledge
that
political
system even in the metropolitan legitimacy has to be earned and that
cities that is responsible for the this can only be done by means of
mess you see everywhere. Garbage is good governance.
Pramod Gouri,
often dumped by the roadside
Rohtak
because landlls and dumping yards
are insufficient. Recycling has to be
encouraged on a large scale and A real democracy is one where
administrative reforms ushered in popular demands are ltered
to develop a more efficient door-to- through the sieve of responsible
door garbage collection system if we judgment. Timeless Gandhian
moral standards will always come in
are really to bring about a change.
N. Chetana Reddy, handy when decisions are made in
Hyderabad the public sphere. The political class
and the bureaucracy should
I am 79 and I can recall clearly how understand the importance of
during British rule, the roads were Gandhian principles and apply
being cleaned every day. Those who them.
Divyank Singh,
used streets as a public convenience
Bhopal
were ned. Cattle were not allowed
to roam about. After Independence,
we seem to have forgotten many of There has always been a difference
the good things the British taught in the convention and practice of a
us. We break many of the laws of the particular ideology. The celebration
land with impunity. I hope Mr. of the birth anniversary of a
Modis appeal will have some effect. visionary leader, for instance, has
R. Chandrasekaran, become more of a ritualistic affair
Chennai and nothing more than a
pretentious display of political
power. While Gandhiji talked about
truth, ahimsa, religious tolerance,
The writer has raised a pertinent self-struggle and suffering, the
question of the day in her article, current political structure appears
Gandhi, morality and political to be motivated only by false
legitimacy (Oct. 4). The question of promises at each stage.
Sahil Garg,
political legitimacy compels us to
Sirsa, Haryana
ponder over the duality of the

Swachh Bharath

Political legitimacy

Telecast row
By giving his approval to
Doordarshans live telecast of
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief
Mohan Bhagwats address, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi has
removed the mask of inclusiveness
worn by him temporarily before and
after the election (Mohan
Bhagawat,
Modi
in
Dasara
bonhomie, Oct. 4). The mutual
paeans of praise exchanged between
Mr. Bhagwat and Mr. Modi through
television and social media have
demonstrated the bonding and
synergy between the RSS chief and
the Prime Minister. How the
government-funded
public
broadcaster, Doordarshan, could
serve as the mouthpiece of the
Sangh Parivar is a question that
cannot really go unanswered.
Doordarshans explanation cuts no
ice. The sad part is that it has wider
implications for the countrys
continued existence as a secular
democracy.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

even come up? Why doesnt Yesudas

just cover his eyes if he feels
troubled by women wearing
jeans?
Jasmeet Kaur,
Ludhiana

Yesudas remarks cannot be

dismissed as an example of mere
ignorance. It raises serious
questions on womens freedom and
identity and has critical gender
dimensions.The idea that women
should be pure and modest
reinforces gender stereotypes.
Denying freedom of choice is the
rst step towards justication of
sexual crimes. Blaming the victim
shifts the focus from the offender to
the victim by attacking her privacy
and liberty in dangerous ways.
Thulasi K. Raj,
Pune
What Yesudas has said about
womens attire is nothing new and
echoes what several others have said
before. When such an opinion
comes from a person of his stature it
should be taken in the right spirit.
Instead, the media went into
overdrive and tried to condemn his
conduct as social policing by a
Noted singer Yesudass comment misogynist. His advice was to all.
shows backward thinking (Yesudas Most people who are launching a
stirs controversy, Oct. 4). It is tirade against him must be in
unbelievable that we are still agreement with him in private.
ghting against the notion that it is a Yesudas is neither a male chauvinist
womans fault whenever she is nor a misogynist as alleged by his
teased, harassed or raped. The rising virulent critics. He has always
number of assaults on women was expressed high regard for women.
never about what they wore. When Youngsters do not lose anything by
there are also cases of children and paying heed to such advice.
K.R. Unnithan,
the elderly being molested, how can
Chennai
the subject of what a woman wears

Remark on attire

CA-X

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

Investigating the investigators

R.K. Raghavan and D. Sivanandhan

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2014

Some memorable
moments
gold medal in hockey in the Asian Games is
always a great moment to cherish, rare that it
has been since the sport was introduced in the
Games in 1958. Indias triumph in the 17th
edition of the Games in Incheon, Korea, only its third,
at the expense of eight-time champion Pakistan,
should once again revive interest in the national game
that had plunged to an all-time low at the London
Olympic Games only two years ago. The victory in the
nal in the tiebreaker against its neighbour helped
India cap a successful second-week campaign after it
had stuttered embarrassingly even behind a few islandnations at the beginning. The coaching staff in hockey,
who might have faced the axe had there been a failure,
should be retained now as India prepares for the Rio
Olympics, for which it has automatically qualied as
the Asian Games champion. Hockey apart, there were
gold medals for India in athletics, kabaddi, tennis, archery, shooting, squash, boxing and wrestling. But the
eventual medals tally of 57 including 11 gold, fell short
of expectations. The eighth place on the medals table,
compared to the sixth four years ago, has put India
almost back where it was in Doha in 2006 when the
country had 53 medals including 10 gold. There were of
course quite a few memorable moments for India,
besides hockey, not least of all the iconic Manipuri
boxer M.C. Mary Koms maiden title in the Games, and
the runaway victory for the womens relay team.
China expectedly topped the medals tally with 342
including 151 gold, no matter that its domination was
slightly eroded. That India came behind countries such
as North Korea and Thailand should once again bring
the focus onto our near-stagnating sports standards.
With meagre resources, inadequate infrastructure,
limited foreign exposure and a constant tussle between
the national sports federations and the government,
Olympic sport in the country has continued to struggle.
The Sports Authority of India did well to prevent the
Indian Olympic Association (IOA) from elding a jumbo-sized contingent including 662 athletes, but even in
the pruned list of 516 competitors there were dozens of
also-rans, who predictably failed. If it could be any
consolation, the rest of South Asia put together managed only a dozen medals including two gold medals in
cricket, a sport where the BCCI stubbornly refused to
eld a team. Prioritisation of sports disciplines should
be the key area for the government to focus on, instead
of spreading its resources thin. It should spell out its
policy and selection criteria to the IOA at least a year
ahead of such games so as to avoid the kind of controversy that forced some of the athletes to approach the
courts to gain clearance for their Korean sojourn.

he Supreme Courts guidelines on

how to regulate so-called encounters between the police and crime
suspects have come not a day too
soon. According to its directions, every death
at police hands in such encounters must be
independently investigated and no officer be
rewarded for gallantry unless such investigation has established his bona de response to
criminal activity in a difficult situation, and
which left him with no option but to use force
against an established criminal. The reference here is to so-called encounter experts
in every police force who are often wrongly
decorated for dubious killings.
The courts directions further say that
each death should be probed by the State
Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or
a team from a police station other than the
one involved in the encounter. The report
would then go to a magistrate for further
scrutiny. The law would take its own course
thereafter, if any illegality was unearthed by
the magisterial inquiry.

Possible trickledown effect

The Supreme Courts prescriptions do not
lay down any revolutionary approach to the
problem. At least two other High Courts
Andhra Pradesh and Bombay have acted in
the past to enforce similar restrictions on
police employment of force under dubious
circumstances. Way back in the late 1970s,
the National Police Commission had recommended that every death in police custody
should be subjected to a magisterial inquiry.
Unfortunately, this was not accepted by the
Central and State governments.
In the latest instance, the Supreme Court
was responding to a Public-Interest Litigation (PIL) led by the Peoples Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL), a non-governmental
organisation (NGO) which had alleged that in
Mumbai alone, between 1995 and 1997, there
were 99 encounters involving the city police,

Those who are enlightened in the police should

welcome the proposed judicial scrutiny of
encounters, rather than look at it as being one
more unreasonable fetter on police discretion in
an area of field operations that could dilute their
effectiveness
resulting in the death of 135 people. Perceptions on the subject may differ widely between the police, human rights activists and
the common man. Fundamental however is a
shared belief in the rule of law, without which
no democracy like ours can ever function. It
is again the majesty of law that permits the
Supreme Court to intervene effectively in a
sensitive issue such as police killings of individuals and lay down how an instance of
apparent police overstepping of the law
should be handled. This is why all of us need
to bow down to the wisdom of the just laid
down judicial dictum that no encounter

thing. A possible fallout of the court ruling, at

least among a section of policemen at the
grass-roots level, could be greater transparency and circumspection in matters such as
illegal or off-the-record custody in police
lock-ups, something that has traditionally
brought odium to the Indian Police. A police
officer wanting to do the right thing but who
is being harassed by supervisory ranks or the
political executive can now cite this ruling
and take the bold stand that whatever he did
was likely to be subjected to a subsequent
judicial probe, and sticking to the path of
virtue as embodied by law was therefore

A police officer wanting to do the right thing can now cite

this ruling and take the bold stand that whatever he did was
likely to be subjected to a subsequent judicial probe.
death in the hands of the police should go
uninvestigated. Enlightened police leaders
should wholeheartedly welcome the proposed judicial scrutiny of encounters, rather
than take the stand that this is one more
unreasonable fetter on police discretion in
an area of eld operations that could dilute
their effectiveness. They must recognise how
such a legalistic stand prescribed by the Supreme Court here could actually confer on
them the benet of a trickledown effect on
other areas of police routine as well, ones in
which they are under great unethical pressure from different quarters to do the wrong

preferable to action not prescribed by law.

Factors and balanced view

In this, there is a fundamental question
that has to be answered in the context of the
latest ruling by the court. Why do encounters take place at all in the rst instance? Are
we right in looking upon every police officer
who has been arraigned in the past for a few
fake encounters as a maniac baying for
blood? We concede that we do have encounters that are fake and contrived. In many of
them, the policemen involved do successfully
cover up their downright recklessness or vin-

CARTOONSCAPE

Tragic toll of
negligence
he notoriety that India seems to have acquired
over the decades for deadly stampedes, has
once again been brought into focus. It should
be a no-brainer to state the importance of
efficient risk-mapping, crowd management and foolproof security arrangements wherever people congregate in large numbers in a country of a billion-plus
people. Yet, tragedy after deadly tragedy at such venues,
mostly at religious events, has become a continuing
story. The loss of 33 lives in the latest stampede during
Dasara ceremonies at Patnas Gandhi Maidan is but one
more in the cavalcade. Given that it was an annual event
that typically attracted lakhs of people, the lack of
preparedness on the part of the administrative machinery is prima facie clear. Some accounts spoke of how,
amazingly, only two of the 11 gates at the sprawling
public grounds were kept open as the crowd was dispersing. Dusk had fallen and there was a power failure
to boot. Sections of the crowd seemingly panicked over
rumours of a snapped overhead power line. It was less
than two years ago, during Chhath Puja celebrations in
another part of Patna, that 21 people were killed in a
stampede after a makeshift bridge collapsed. And it was
a year ago, in October 2013, that a stampede in Madhya
Pradesh left more than 110 people dead.
Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had just left
after watching the epic re-enactment of the triumph of
good over evil when the stampede occurred, was insensitive enough to tell a television channel that the
crowds were also to blame for such incidents. Surprisingly, the Chief Minister went on to say, post-facto, that
there should be more entry and exit points in the
ground. Such imprudence apart, the spate of statements that have come from the political class over the
weekend has shown nothing but a proclivity to indulge
in a blame-game. That will hardly serve the public
interest. Given the frequency of and the toll from such
incidents, the Central government should advise States
to put in place a mandatory security protocol to handle
all large-scale crowd situations. Disaster preparedness
has in recent years emerged as an area of priority, but in
the case of known danger zones there does not seem to
be a matching realisation that security arrangements to
pre-empt tragedies are essential. Managing and regulating large crowds and avoiding overcrowding should
be key elements of the strategy. Effective communication and security systems should serve to ensure that
panic does not lead to uncontrolled crowd surges. In the
process of facilitating VVIP movement, the safety of the
common person should not get short shrift. The nation
cannot afford to go from one tragedy to another with
lessons not learnt, and accountability not xed.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Modi and Gujarat
MNS leader Raj Thackeray has
spoken the truth about Narendra
Modi being more the Prime
Minister of Gujarat than of India
(Now, Raj attacks Modi, Oct.6). In
the months Mr. Modi has been in
office, there has appeared a bias in
favour of the State of Gujarat. The
projection of Sardar Patel in the
Budget and the allocation of funds
for his statue, the outrageously
expensive bullet train with a
Gujarat angle, and the reception for
the Chinese President in Gujarat
are examples. Mr. Modis recent
U.S. visit too saw deals in nonconventional
energy
and
investments aimed at Gujarat. In
the list of airports to be upgraded,
Ahmedabad gures prominently.
Most of the development appears to
be for Gujarat, while lectures are for
the rest of India.
Keluchandra Menon,
Kochi

technological levels is huge.

Saurabh Srivastava,
New Delhi

Scotland on Kashmir?

The article (A Scotland on

Kashmir, Oct. 6) left me surprised
as it was bereft of any basic
rationale. How can Kashmiris living
in Scotland vote if there is a
plebiscite in Kashmir? If he is
making a pitch for a plebiscite in
Kashmir, he must remember that it
has many angles. The U.N.
Resolution No 47 on Kashmir dates
back to 1948. Though it was India
which went to the UN Security
Council for a complete withdrawal
of Pakistani forces from the State,
Pakistan did not abide by the UN
resolution in creating conditions
set forth in the resolution. The new
generation in India hardly knows
that
Pakistan
constantly
underplays the precondition in the
resolution that Pakistan is to
withdraw all its forces from
Kashmir ahead of any plebiscite. In
Ties between India and the U.S., any case, the UN Resolution has
earlier in a mire, have now been rendered itself irrelevant as the
revived (Taking ties beyond the ground situation has changed over
Beltway, Oct. 6). Though there are 66 years. Finally, the statements
no deliverables as of now, about symbols and undergarments
signicant incremental progress was in bad taste.
has been made this time. Prime
N.V. Nair,
Minister Narendra Modi, unlike his
Kochi
predecessors, has been able to reach
out to new audiences and make a The question we should be asking
difference, assuring them of ourselves is whether Jammu and
reforming policy and processes. The Kashmir is really a part of India.
takeaway for the U.S. is access to the Merely depicting the map of India
huge and untapped Indian market. with a complete outline of Jammu
What works in Indias favour is the and Kashmir does not change the
presence of a huge Indian- ground reality. The way Kashmiris
American population.
have been left to fend for
Prerna Sethi, themselves after the recent oods is
New Delhi an example of our sheer neglect of
the region.
Mr. Modis visit to the U.S. and the
Rahul Yadav,
way it was received shows the
Tiruchi
Indian-American community has
high expectations from him in elds I agree with the writer that
of growth and development. Given Kashmiris should have a say in their
Indias growing inuence, the U.S. future, thought his arguments in
cannot afford to neglect this favour of this are not so convincing.
relationship. The scope for First, Scotland and Quebec are
cooperation at the economic and different economically, politically,

India-U.S. ties

dictiveness, or their own indiscretion. Many

sceptics in society believe this dim view of
police encounters to be true.
There is also a charitable view that policemen indulge in such reprehensible activity only because of the glaring inadequacies
of the criminal law of the land. There is conviction among many police officers that if a
dangerous criminal responsible for many violent crimes has to be neutralised swiftly and
society be saved from him, then the only way
out is to kill him; this, rather than go through
the labyrinth of the law that requires an arrest, interrogation, charge sheet and court
trial, all of which could take several years
during which time a court could also set him
free from custody even as he is facing trial.
Such a shortcut is actually very appealing to
many eld officers as well as some members
of the community who themselves have been
at the receiving end and expect quick relief
from criminal acts. This is analogous to the
demand that during interrogation, the police
should liberally use the third degree on crime
suspects taken into custody. It is well known
that such a clamour is often voiced by even
responsible members of the society who had
been burgled and lost valuable property.
When this is the case, we should not be
surprised at the recklessness of some investigating officers, under pressure from those
above in the hierarchy and who are desperately looking for quick results. We should
also remember that it is not as if only crime
suspects are victims of encounters. A large
number of policemen have also lost their
lives in such encounters, especially in the
naxalite areas. Therefore, we need to take a
balanced view of factors that lead to the police using questionable methods in handling
difficult eld situations.

Respect for dignity

We welcome the Supreme Court directive
for an inquiry into every police encounter
that leads to human killings. We are conscious of the fact that we could be assailed by
some in the Indian Police as being too idealistic and impractical. We do not claim that
the new procedure to check police excesses is
going to put an end to police manipulation or
recklessness for all time. This is especially
because magisterial inquiries are often an
eyewash and are dictated by the political executive as well as by senior members of the
bureaucracy at the formers instance. In our
view they do not pack the quantum of deterrence or credibility needed to bring about a
sea-change in the police psyche. The incidence of police misconduct of this genre may
show a decline to start with. In course of time
however, a few unscrupulous police leaders
could prevail upon their subordinates to resort to encounters as a way to tone down
public criticism whenever there is a rising
crime wave. This is inevitable in a large police
organisation like in India where professionalism is rapidly yielding place to expediency
of the times.
Good conduct cannot be engendered only
through deterrence and punishment arising
out of judicial prescriptions. What is needed
is the slow and studied cultivation of a respect for human dignity. This is unfortunately now a scarce commodity in the Indian
Police sometimes even in the higher echelons. Political and police enlightenment
should go hand in hand if we are to witness
civilised police conduct.
(Dr. R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI
Director and D. Sivanandhan is a former
Commissioner of Police, Mumbai and former
DGP, Maharashtra.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
culturally,
historically
and
demographically when compared
with Kashmir. They do not face
insurgency of any kind, nor is any
part of their territory under foreign
control. In development terms,
both regions have among the
highest HDI in the world. Hence the
argument of comparison with these
regions doesnt stand scrutiny.
Second, the parade and other
ways to celebrate our culture and
nationalism can hardly be counted
as jingoism. As a relatively young
nation, we are undergoing
consolidation. We need time to
build and maintain the feeling of
brotherhood. Finally, how many of
us would like to see something that
we hold in such high regard being
kicked around in a football eld or
being worn as underwear?
Ashish Abhishek Gautam,
Ghaziabad
Although I partly agree with the
view of there being an excessive
reverence for national symbols, it
must be remembered that it is these
symbols that bring a common
nationality in India. A referendum
in Kashmir will only trigger a rush
for more referendums across India.
Instead, the government should
push for development in Jammu
and Kashmir and work towards
integrating the people with the rest
of India.
Ayushman Saini,
Greater Noida

School holiday issue

Ever since the conviction of Ms.
Jayalalithaa, routine life in the
State has come to a standstill
causing great inconvenience to all.
Almost
all
government
organisations and unions are on
protest demanding the release of
their leader and expressing
displeasure over the judgment.
That educational institutions very
nearly joined the bandwagon [in the
planned protest on October 7 where
over 4,500 private schools and
about 170 private engineering
colleges in Tamil Nadu would have
closed on Tuesday in support of Ms.

Jayalalithaa, but since scaled down]

is disheartening and also ridiculous.
Meenakshi Pattabiraman,
Madurai

regressive society and women have

to ght for their rights.
Sudha Dixit,
New Delhi

Remark on attire

The statement is outrageous. It is

said he is not a citizen of India, but
of a country where people hardly
wear any clothing. Why didnt he air
his views there? He may be a
versatile artiste, but it does not give
him the licence to make an
outrageous remark. He must
withdraw
it
and
apologise
immediately.
M.T. Thomas,
It is indeed disturbing to nd
Peruva, Kerala
Yesudas melliuous voice turning
hoarse at the sight of women clad in Yesudas is an Indian and one who is
jeans. Celebrities must take care familiar with western culture and
not to voice their outdated views. its repercussions. He has a
The fact is that it is dirty commerce fundamental right to air his views.
that exploits womens bodies. The As a senior citizen, he knows what is
rightful progress of society depends right and wrong for the younger
not on unchangeable slavery but on generation. Those protesting his
should
try
and
simple freedoms with self- statement
responsibility guided by scientic understand Indian culture and
human values.
reasoning.
Victor Frank A.,
T. Narayanan Nair,
Chennai
Chennai
The comment by singer K.J.
Yesudas (Oct.4), on what women
should not wear is a poignant
reminder
that
womens
empowerment is still a long way
away. One should be able to tolerate
various freedoms.
Akshay Viswanathan,
Thiruvananthapuram

We women wear jeans for comfort

and not to show off. The sari is the
most provocative outt we have in
India and leaves nothing to the
imagination. This is why Punjabis
prefer wearing the salwar-kameez.
Does not a pair of jeans cover the
body in a decent way?
I have seen men getting
distracted even at the sight of
burqa-clad women. It is all in the
mind. I would also like to tell the
noted singer that there are many
women who do not like the way men
look and what they wear. Their
facial hair is distracting and
intimidating. Certain attire like
shorts
and
the
lungi
is
inappropriate, uncouth and vulgar.
Whenever there is a case of
molestation, there are many who
blame it on the attire the woman
was wearing. If so, how does it
explain the rape of three-year-old
or even an 80-year-old lady or even
a disabled or a mentally unstable
woman? The fact is that India is a

Women just as in the case of men

must be discriminate about what
they wear, mindful of the occasion
and place. Clinging leggings in an
office or in a temple are out of place.
So too is a body-hugging T-shirt. To
rule out having a dress code in the
name of personal freedom is
unacceptable. That is what
vociferous womens activists seem
to do. Yesudas is entitled to his
opinion.
C.G. Rishikesh,
Chennai
I am unaware of any study having
been done to establish any
correlation between changing dress
patterns of women and increasing
crime rates, but one cannot dispute
the fact that in the past, a graceful
woman commanded respect from
all. It remains a mystery why some
women seem to want to dress in an
inappropriate manner.
V.K. Naageswaran,
Chennai
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014

A steel frame for clinical trials

Ranjit Roy Chaudhury and
Arghya Sengupta

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 2014

Save
the ceasefire
t should be a matter of concern at the highest
level in India and Pakistan that what were sporadic incidents of ceasere violations at the Line
of Control (LoC) and the International Border
(IB) have now escalated to such an extent that there is
imminent danger of regressing to the bad old days
before the truce came into effect in 2003, when the two
sides used to exchange artillery re daily, causing casualties among both uniformed personnel and civilians,
and inltration by militants into Jammu and Kashmir
was at its highest. In the rst seven days of this month
alone, there were 11 instances of shelling that left ve
civilians dead, making a mockery of the 11-year-old
ceasere. Indeed, it can now be legitimately asked if the
situation at the LoC still qualies to be called a ceasere. The ring is not restricted to the LoC; it has
affected even the IB, which Pakistan has not accepted
fully and continues to call a working boundary. Mondays incident of shelling from across the border that
claimed the ve civilian lives was in Arnia, an inhabited
area on the outskirts of Jammu. Pakistan also claims to
have suffered civilian casualties on its side from unprovoked ring by India. It has become all too clear in
recent months that the mechanisms that the two countries have put in place to deal with ceasere violations
provisions for meetings between eld commanders
and a hotline between the two Directors-General of
Military Operations have not succeeded in calming
tensions at the LoC.
Rather, both sides need to restart the dialogue process urgently, instead of routinely pronouncing the willingness to do so without taking the necessary steps
forward, and sometimes even backtracking. In the
now-suspended composite dialogue format, the two
Defence Secretaries met every year and took stock of
the truce, among other matters. Such a meeting would
be timely now, as it would help tamp down tensions and
put in place a viable system to ensure that the ceasere
does not break down altogether. New Delhi must call
for the talks without delay. It is true that Pakistan
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is too embroiled in political difficulties to take decisions on India, but Pakistans
new Defence Secretary, like his predecessor, is a retired
Lieutenant-General who is said to be close to the Army
chief. It is only at the table that India can bring up the
concern that truce violations are a cover for militant
inltration from Pakistan-controlled territory. More
importantly, it is only by talking to Pakistan that India
can ensure that the question of saving the truce, and all
other issues between the two countries, remains strictly between them.

Issues of
surrogacy
ith a range of alternative medical solutions
to childlessness becoming available, surrogacy has emerged as one route for many
couples. While some countries have
banned the practice, commercial gestational surrogacy,
in which a woman is paid to have a baby to whom she has
no genetic link, has caught on in countries such as
Mexico and India. After the rst surrogate delivery in
India in June 1994, India has steadily emerged as an
international destination. Relatively inexpensive medical facilities, know-how in reproductive technology,
and the availability of women, largely from poor socioeconomic situations and who are willing to take up the
task, have aided the growth. Today there are thousands
of clinics in India that offer such services. From what
was generally conned to close relatives or friends in
altruistic mode, the network has become extended, with
payment of money to surrogate mothers becoming the
norm. Services are even being advertised. Such commercialisation of motherhood has raised ethical, philosophical, and social questions and raised fears of the
exploitation of women as baby-producers, and the possibility of selective breeding. In several instances, complications have arisen regarding the interests and rights of
the surrogate mother, child, and intending parents. Yet,
there are no clear legal provisions in place yet. The
Indian Council of Medical Research in 2005 issued guidelines for the accreditation, supervision and regulation
of surrogacy clinics, but those remain on paper. An
expert committee drafted the Assisted Reproductive
Technologies (Regulation) Bill, 2010.
The Union government is now set to table in Parliament the Assisted Reproductive Technologies (Regulation) Bill 2013. Letting single parents and foreign
nationals to have children through surrogates in India is
one issue in focus. The question relating to the citizenship of children born through an Indian surrogate and
claimed by a foreign couple is one outstanding issue.
Unscrupulous or mismanaged agencies could wreak havoc with lives. Many surrogacy agencies claim they are
offering a legitimate service but in truth they operate in
a grey area. The absence of appropriate legal provisions
to ensure that surrogate mothers, who often enter into
loosely drafted agreements with commissioning parents, do not become vulnerable is a serious issue. Right
now, the surrogate mother could nd herself with a child
she did not plan for, should the clients change their
mind. On the other hand, the big worry of the intending
parents would be that the baby may not be handed over
to them. A comprehensive regulatory framework and
binding legal provisions could bring order to the eld,
but the larger moral question whether human reproduction should be commercialised would still remain.

CM
YK

n recent months, the quest for a safer,

more transparent clinical trials regime
has found new momentum. Fourteen
notications in July 2014, governing
various aspects pertaining to a clinical trial
ranging from placebo-controlled trials to
compensation awards have been notied.
Further, the Central Drugs Standard Control
Organization (CDSCO) has proposed a forward-looking IT-enabled information system
that will ensure transparency and protect the
interests of trial subjects.
These developments are important steps
for the clinical trials regime in India to satisfy
the three principles laid down by the Supreme
Court for approving trials assessment of
risk versus benet to patients, need for innovation vis--vis existing therapeutic option
and the unmet medical needs in the country.
But for satisfying these standards, much more
remains to be done. The entire regulatory
framework pertaining to clinical trials needs
to be overhauled and a clear, coherent and
succinct set of stand-alone rules needs to be
introduced for this purpose. This will not only
ensure adherence to the principles laid down
by the Supreme Court but also give impetus to
the clinical trials industry in India, currently
languishing due to an uncertain regulatory
environment.

Accreditation and ethics

There are three key changes that are essential if the clinical trials regime in India is to be
put on a rm foundation instituting a structured accreditation process accrediting investigators, trial sites and ethics committees,
making ethics committees function effectively and ensuring diligent adherence to guidelines concerning informed consent from trial
subjects. Each of these three aspects has been
studied closely by the committee headed by
one of us, the Ranjit Roy Chaudhury Committee, with detailed recommendations provided.
Accreditation must become the centrepiece
of a new clinical trials regime founded on the

CARTOONSCAPE

The regulatory framework on clinical trials needs

a coherent set of stand-alone rules. This will not
only ensure adherence to the principles laid down
by the Supreme Court but also give impetus to
the clinical trials industry in India, currently
languishing due to an uncertain regulatory
environment
principle of patient safety. Accreditation ensures adherence to certain quality standards
thereby instilling condence not only in patients who will be trial subjects but equally in
the industry, which is responsible for conducting the trials. Thus, principal investigators of trials should be accredited depending
on their qualications, experience and training; trial sites should be accredited on the
basis of infrastructure, personnel and systems; nally, institute ethics committees
must be accredited keeping in mind the experience of their members and the standard operating processes for review which are used.

shoddy or such processes themselves were

absent. In an Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) publication, the independence
of ethics committees and conict of interest
questions were highlighted. To correct this, it
is not only essential that ethics committees
are accredited but also develop standard operating procedures that are capable of effective
implementation. To follow such procedures,
members of ethics committees need to undergo high-quality mandatory training. This re- Towards a new order
Culpability in this matter is still an open
quires a combination of men and women of
wisdom and experience and training proto- question that might require judicial intervencols that are succinct and geared towards en- tion. However, at this stage, it is clear that the
episode demonstrates the lack of effective
protocols to ensure that informed consent is
truly on the basis of relevant information and
Accreditation must become the centrepiece of a new clinical
the lack of clear methods to ascertain the
trials regime founded on the principle of patient safety.
taking of such consent. This has been partially
offset by CDSCO which issued draft guidelines earlier this year on audio-visual recordGuidelines in this regard have been prepared suring safe and effective trials where all norms ing of informed consent process in clinical
recently by an expert committee; these must are strictly followed.
trial. This mandates audio-visual recording
be implemented post-haste. If this is done,
A key positive spin-off of accredited ethics and safe storage of the taking of informed
India would be the rst country anywhere in committees would be to prevent conicts of consent from trial subjects. This is a welcome
the world to institute such a structured proc- interest. The Ranjit Roy Chaudhury Expert move. However it is imperative to keep in
ess of accreditation.
Committee Report pointed out gross malprac- mind the privacy of patients who might not
tices and unscrupulous decisions in clinical wish to be recorded. Thus, it is recommended
Conflicts of interest and consent
trials caused owing to ethics committee mem- that such recording should be mandatory subAccreditation of ethics committees is an bers having an interest in the trial itself. To ject only to waiver by the trial patient or the
especially central element towards making offset this, a key facet of accreditation would ethics committee, keeping in mind the equally
such committees effective custodians of the be a strict adherence to nding independent signicant principle of patient privacy.
safety and probity of all clinical trials. Several persons to serve on ethics committees. This
Not only is the substance of the changes
cases of casualties in clinical trials have can be achieved by a combination of rando- mentioned signicant, but equally the form it
emerged in the past few years, where compli- mised allocation of experts to particular eth- takes. Best practices worldwide demonstrate
ance with standard operating processes were ics
committees
together
with
a that having a succinct, stand-alone set of rules
governing clinical trials promotes transparency and increases certainty. Currently, the
legal architecture governing clinical trials is
complex with several facets governed by the
Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945, a slew of
notications thereunder, and some facets regulated by the proposed Drugs and Cosmetics
(Amendment) Bill, 2013, pending in the Rajya
Sabha.
It is essential that the recommended reforms together with any other changes proposed by CDSCO are brought under a
consolidated umbrella of rules governing clinical trials. This will give the clinical trials industry the necessary certainty to undertake
trials in India with condence. The benets
for India in terms of development of new
drugs, employment generation in the clinical
trials industry and ensuring a safe environment for its citizens desirous of participating
in clinical trials would be tremendous. Most
crucially, it would demonstrate the seriousness that the government attaches to effective
public health systems and scientic progress,
two goals of a well-functioning clinical trials
regime that must also become the pillars on
which modern India is built.
(Ranjit Roy Chaudhury was Chairman of
the Expert Committee to formulate policy,
Guidelines, SOPs for approval of new drugs
and clinical trials and banning of drugs.
Arghya Sengupta is Research Director, Vidhi
Centre for Legal Policy.)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Border shelling
The
seemingly
orchestrated
bonhomie between Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and his Pakistan
counterpart Nawaz Sharif during
Mr. Modis swearing-in ceremony
has gradually evaporated. That
Pakistan wants to engage in hostile
acts is clear (Five civilians killed
in heavy Pakistan shelling, Oct. 7).
The fact that innocent, unarmed
civilians have been felled should
lead the NDA government to act.
These incidents prove that Mr.
Sharif is either not sincere about
normalising relations with India or
is incapable of reining in his army.
S.K. Choudhury,
Bangalore
Pakistan has proved once again
that it is not a trustworthy country.
Repeated ceasere violations and
the killing of innocent people are
both uncalled for, inhuman and
barbaric. When Mr. Modi was
sworn in as Prime Minister, the
bonhomie between him and Mr.
Sharif made us feel that there will
be peace. How much control does
Mr. Sharif really have over his
trigger-happy army?
T. Anand Raj,
Chennai

Encounter killings
While the Supreme Courts
decision on investigating custodial
killings is laudable, it must not
build unnecessary pressure on the
working
of
the
police
(Investigating the investigators,
Oct. 7). The hands of policemen
should not be tied in the name of
protecting the human rights of
people who are often hardcore and
deadly criminals. One must
remember that policemen are also
human beings and their rights
count as well.
Tabish Naqvi,
Patiala
Regulations such as the Supreme
Courts recent directives do
contribute to the system of checks
and balances that keep our society
aoat. The lucid analysis of the

supplementary check by the accrediting body.

A hybrid process, part-automatic with a supplementary human element, would not only
ensure independence of the ethics committee
in fact, but also create a positive perception of
such independence in the minds of trial
subjects.
Such a positive perception of the independence of ethics committees, it is believed,
would become a key facet of securing informed consent of trial subjects. The need for
informed consent was a key norm that was
recently found by the United States Office for
Human Research Protections (OHRP) to be
outed in a cervical cancer study funded by
the U.S. National Cancer Institute and the Bill
& Melinda Gates Foundation. Till April 2014,
254 women in unscreened control groups in
these trials have died. The OHRP determined
that insufficient information was provided in
order for these and other women to give informed consent to participate in the trial.

courts guidelines was interesting

with the writers analysing various
perspectives on the issue including
the one of police overstepping the
law. But who decides what the
ideal dividing line is between
violence and human rights? As
George Orwell said, People sleep
peaceably in their beds at night
only because rough men stand
ready to do violence on their
behalf.
Salini Johnson,
New Delhi

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
sensitisation of the police forces.
India must also ratify the UN
Convention against Torture.
Ankit Garg,
Ghaziabad

The writers are judicious in saying

that probing these death instances
will not curb the freedom of the
police force, but would help
enhance the trust of the citizens in
the signicant institution of the
police. It would certainly help
establish the rule of law in practice.
Moreover, diligent cognisance of
As has been said, this is an the killing of police personnel in
opportunity
to
improve these encounters shows the
professionalism and transparency balance of views expressed.
in the functioning of the police.
Pramod Gouri,
Rohtak
However, they seem to have
ignored the elephant in the room
subservience of the police to the
ruling political class which The article, A Scotland on
happens to be the root cause of Kashmir (Oct. 6), seems to have
lawless behaviour by the police. been written in haste without
Even 66 years after Independence, lending due credence and
Indian policemen are still trapped weightage to the facts and
in the colonial mindset of circumstances relating to the
protecting
the
ruler
and Kashmir issue. Let there be no
subjugating the ruled. All parties doubt that national identity and
are complicit in torpedoing the national integration can never be
Supreme Courts well-intentioned compromised and signicantly
attempt to nudge the States into supersede religious identity. While
approving the Model Police Act in we need to address the genuine
2006.
In
well-functioning aspirations of Kashmiris within
democracies, the judiciary is the ambit of our sovereignty and
viewed as the last resort to interests, we cannot remain mere
adjudicate on police lawlessness. It spectators to the subversive
is the job of independent statutory activities of militants and intrusion
authorities like the Police by Pakistan. Kashmiris should also
Complaints
Authority
to be more forthcoming in integrating
investigate the investigators and themselves with mainstream
curb reckless conduct by the men India. Continuing to alienate
in uniform. The danger of trying to themselves and toeing the line of
convert the Supreme Court into a Pakistan is unfortunate.
R. Ramanathan,
rst-stop watchdog to oversee the
Coimbatore
functioning of the governments
institutions and functionaries is
that it detracts public attention The article was an audacious one,
from the slack implementation of drawing a thin line between an
Indians chauvinism and his love
reforms by the political class.
V.N. Mukundarajan, for his country. We Indians do take
Thiruvananthapuram a lot of pride in being called Indians
but terming it as collective
The Supreme Court has once again insecurity is unacceptable.
come forward in defence of
Praneet Kumar,
Ranchi
Fundamental Rights. The need of
the hour is to develop a proper
notions
of
work culture and ensure the Pseudo-patriotic
training,
orientation
and nationalism based on our collective

Scotland on Kashmir?

insecurity and anxiety led J.

Krishnamurti to declare that
nationalism is a disease, and it can
never bring about world unity. We
cannot attain health through
disease; we must rst free
ourselves from the disease. There
is no denying that poverty in India
and Pakistan is shocking. Funds
which can uplift the poor are
diverted towards strengthening
our defence-preparedness on
account of never-ending hostility.
It is possible to solve the Kashmir
problem if we approach it with an
open mind and without getting
bogged down by rhetoric such as
Kashmir is an irrevocable part of
India. There is nothing wrong in
involving neutral international
observers and representatives of
the UN in those discussions. A right
and just solution in tune with the
wishes
and
aspirations
of
Kashmiris will naturally emerge
from those discussions.
S.P. Asokan,
Chennai
The Kashmiri people are a part of
India. As they have the same
individual and private liberties as
those in the rest of India, why do
we need to talk about the need for a
referendum?
The
average
Kashmiri does not really want a
referendum but yearns for good
educational
institutions,
employment, infrastructure and
comprehensive health services.
Anand Kumar Singh,
Chitrakoot, Rajasthan

the overall medals tally and the fact

that India has much to learn from
China should show that we still
have miles to go.
Sagar Tom,
Kottayam
That India, with a population of a
little over 1.25 billion, could end its
campaign with only 11 gold medals
shows that something is seriously
lacking somewhere. The overall
lacklustre performance only points
to a lack of sync between coaches,
sports
managers
and
sportspersons. The Sarita Devi
episode shows that Indian
sportspersons need psychological
strength. There also has to be
concrete action to help ready our
sportspersons on the right lines in
order to enable them to take on the
worlds best in future events.
R. Sampath,
Chennai

Money in black
Corruption in society, right from
peon to prime minister, is easy to
perceive but difficult to measure
(Sunday Anchor page, Oct. 5). It
is astonishing that black money has
reached the level of 75 per cent of
GDP. Recent incidents where highprole politicians have been
convicted, expose the quantum of
corruption. It also shows the
ineffectiveness of our laws, lawenforcing agencies, administrative
set-up and, nally, the judiciary.
What is needed are reforms at all
levels of the administration and the
judiciary by ensuring transparency
and accountability. Reforming our
beleaguered education system with
an emphasis on ethical values
should provide a much-needed
fence against immoral activities.
P. Venkatesh,
Hyderabad

The issue of Kashmir is more than

just
about
preserving
the
territorial integrity of the nation.
Much of what has happened is
because of political insincerity.
The idea of a referendum, though,
is thought-provoking, especially at
a time when the Valley is
Right-minded Indians must start
experiencing great trauma.
Kanikka Sersia, an exclusive movement without
New Delhi any party affiliation and ideology
to go after corrupt politicians and
officials. There was some promise
The stunning victories, of Mary on this front but nothing seems to
Kom and the Indian hockey team, have come of it.
Sivagami Thirunavukarasu,
have
left
Indians
dazzled
Chennai
(Editorial, Oct. 7). But the fall in

Asian Games

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014

Politics without opposition

Ajay Gudavarthy and
Sudhir Kumar Suthar

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2014

Corruption and
the courts
f there is a larger message in the Karnataka High
Courts refusal to grant bail to former Tamil Nadu
Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, it is that the judiciary will treat corruption among public servants
with greater seriousness than ever before. In normal
circumstances, an appeal against a four-year prison
term by a person who is not expected to ee from justice
may have been admitted as a matter of course and the
sentence suspended without much ado. However, in the
light of Supreme Court decisions describing corruption
as a violation of human rights that leads to systematic
economic crimes, and a serious malady undermining
the very health of the polity, the High Court has chosen
to place corruption cases on a different footing altogether. It cites a ruling that says a convicted public
servant should be deemed to be corrupt until exonerated by the appellate court. And it also says suspension of
sentence should not be an automatic event, but a relief
that should be granted only if adequate grounds exist.
The grant of post-conviction bail, undoubtedly, is not
the same as one given in the pre-trial stage, when there
is a presumption of innocence. In addition, early disposal of the appeal may be offered as an alternative to
interim relief. It is in this backdrop that Justice A.V.
Chandrashekara has chosen to overrule the Special
Public Prosecutors stand that conditional bail may be
granted to Ms. Jayalalithaa and others, and hold that
there were no grounds for granting any relief. It is
indeed a major setback for Ms. Jayalalithaa, who will
have to move the Supreme Court for immediate relief.
In terms of corruption jurisprudence, the judges
order is in tune with the spirit of a series of Supreme
Court verdicts. In recent times, the apex court has
removed the protection from immediate disqualication enjoyed by convicted legislators, xed a time-limit
for grant of sanction for prosecution of public servants,
directed early completion of trials involving lawmakers
and struck down discriminatory provisions that required government clearance for investigating cases
involving bureaucrats above a certain rank. The High
Court has also shown itself to be immune to the political
clamour for Ms. Jayalalithaas release in Tamil Nadu.
Workers and supporters of the ruling All India Anna
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had their reasons for
publicly demonstrating loyalty to and sympathy for Ms.
Jayalalithaa, but incidents of violence and protests that
inconvenience the general populace will do nothing at
all to help her legal battle, and, instead, could hurt her
politically in the long run. Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam, who made an earnest appeal for calm, should
ensure that the limits of democratic protest are observed and law and order is maintained.

he new political dispensation is

caught between two visible political
discourses that do not look compatible at the moment but the political
experiment to nd a middle ground that obliterates the tension between them is on. The
conict is between development and governance on the one hand and communalism on
the other, where the former is ostensibly universal and all-inclusive, while the latter is divisive, discriminatory and sectarian.
The possible way to balance this is to browbeat the religious minorities in terms of their
claims to an independent cultural identity and
visible religious practices; thus the announcement by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
(RSS) chief that all Indians are Hindus or
Narendra Modis refusal to wear the skullcap,
while making appeals to Muslims and attempts to reach out to them to be a part of the
new development agenda. Therefore, it is important to claim that Muslims in Gujarat are
better off than under any other government
that claims to be secular. This resonates with
the slogan that the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) went to the polls with Sabka Saath
Sabka Vikas.

Onus on minorities
Cultural subjugation is sought to be made
good through economic integration. This
trade-off also lays the onus on Muslims to
carry out internal reforms within their community to be eligible to be a part of the modern
education and economic opportunities available due to ongoing market reforms and efficient governance. Here the claims to a
separate cultural identity begin to look out of
place since it can be very easily perceived not
only as anti-development but also as antinational in its refusal to get integrated,
thereby becoming obstructionist to modern
development.
This further leads to the BJPs claims that
while it is prepared to integrate the religious
minorities, it is they who are unprepared to do

In the new political mode, the universalism and

integrative capacity of the development discourse
sits well with the homogenisation of the cultural
sphere, and therefore with the project of radical
Hinduisation
so. If there is tension between communities or
between the discourse of the government and
the minority community, the blame can
squarely be laid on the latter. In this new
mode, the universalism and integrative capacity of the development discourse sits well with
the homogenisation of the cultural sphere,
and therefore with the project of radical Hinduisation. Further, secular discourse here signifying protective policies and social welfare
schemes for specic communities can easily
be made to look like appeasement and unsustainable doles, in place of an efficient and
robust economy. Secularism is therefore an
outmoded discourse of the Nehruvian era that

political parties, including the Left parties.

Representation trumps all other forms of pursuing social justice. It is to further this very
mode of pursuing a new kind of politics that
Mr. Bhagwat has recently and for the rst time
publicly supported the policy of reservations
for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled
Tribes at an event in Delhi marked by the
release of three volumes on the history of
three Scheduled Castes that included the Balmikis, the Khatiks and the Charmakars.

Equality is alien
These volumes have been authored by Vijay
Sonkar Shastri, a Dalit and a former MLA with

Secular discourse, signifying protective policies and social

welfare schemes for specific communities, can easily be made
to look like appeasement.

holds back economic advancement.

This logic however does not or cannot be
limited to the religious minorities but needs
to necessarily be inclusive of the Other Backward Classes (OBC), Dalits and also tribals. In
only such an inclusion can the discourse look
universal and all encompassing. It is in order
to make this adjustment that the BJP has to
reach out to OBCs, Dalits and tribals. It is this
project which is visible in the anointment of
Mr. Modi as the prime ministerial candidate
of the BJP, signifying a process of the Bahujanisation of the Hindu right-wing party. The
BJP, as is widely believed, is the rst party to
have taken upon itself to make an OBC the
Prime Minister, unlike all other mainstream

the BJP from Uttar Pradesh. They broadly

make the claim that there was no untouchability in the Vedic ages and it was a later day
practice that came into existence with the
Muslim invaders. The volumes further
claim that while the Khatiks were originally
Brahmins, the Balmikis and the Charmakars
were Khastriyas. Since these were the warrior
communities which refused to convert to Islam, they were assigned menial jobs such as
scavenging, dealing with leather and sweeping. Some of them were prisoners of war who
were forced to do manual work and forcefully
segregated from the rest of the society, and
thereby introduced to the hitherto unknown
practice of untouchability.

New opportunities
While development and governance promise to be inclusive of everyone including the
tribals and also Muslims even if they are
reminded against brandishing their religious
symbols as that alone is arguably the cause of
communal tensions a de-Brahmanised Hinduisation that talks of Samarastha is sought to
be inclusive of all caste groups.
The recent shift in leadership in the BJP is a
pointer to this, and undoubtedly presents new
opportunities to the caste groups that were
perhaps kept at some distance in the past by
the BJP that was known as the Brahmin-Bania
party. It was in this context that Dalit-Bahujan scholar Kancha Ilaiah, in a recent interview, remarked that if Modi starts the
liberation of backward classes, castes and
tribes, he can become a cult-gure for backwards and can be comparable to Abraham
Lincoln. With no effective imagination outside modern development and growth, and
little reason to have effective opposition to a
more representative and de-Brahmanised
Hindusim pursued by the BJP-RSS combine,
there is a clear possibility of moving towards a
new kind of politics without opposition. There
is no doubt that the current dispensation is
being reasonable in expecting itself to be playing a long innings.
(Ajay Gudavarthy and Sudhir Kumar
Suthar are Assistant Professors at the Centre
for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University, New Delhi.)

CARTOONSCAPE

Keeping Ebola
at bay
oncerns over Ebola have escalated after the
United States and Spain reported their rst
cases of the disease diagnosed within their
borders. A traveller from Liberia, a West African nation where the disease is rampant, was found to be
harbouring the disease-causing virus several days after
arriving in Dallas. In the case of Spain, a hospital nurse
involved in the care of a sick priest repatriated from
Sierra Leone, another West African nation where the
outbreak is continuing, has caught the virus. Given Ebolas sinister reputation, there have been strident demands in the U.S., including from Congress, for measures
to reduce the risk of infection being brought into the
country. In response, American officials have said that
measures to screen arriving airline passengers would be
put in place. (India has already introduced such arrival
screening.) As it is, countries where Ebola transmission
is ongoing are expected to carry out exit screening of all
persons departing from their airports, seaports and major land crossings. Using temperature monitoring systems and a questionnaire, the three West African nations
of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, which are the worstaffected, have checked about 36,000 airline passengers
in the past two months. Only 74 of them had fever and
three displayed other worrisome symptoms, but none of
those individuals turned out to have Ebola, say U.S.
health officials. It remains to be seen if screening passengers on arrival will actually reduce of risk of the virus
getting in. Those infected can take between two and 21
days to show symptoms of the disease, and, as happened
with the Liberian who was diagnosed in Dallas, that may
not occur before they set out on their journey.
The Obama administration has refused to entertain
ideas of blocking the entry of those coming from the
affected countries. If the U.S. were to adopt such a seemingly extreme step, other nations would doubtless follow
suit. As it is, the outbreak has been a colossal calamity for
three of the worlds poorest nations, requiring a massive
international response to the resulting humanitarian
crisis. Isolating those countries for any extended period
will only add to their hardship and hamper the ongoing
international efforts to provide assistance. India and
other countries untouched by Ebola must, however, be
ready with response plans should an infected person
turn up on their shores. The ability to quickly diagnose
and isolate such cases, ensure rigorous infection control
in healthcare settings, and track down and monitor an
infected individuals contacts are essential. Nigeria and
Senegal, West African countries that saw imported cases,
were able to stop the virus from spiralling out of control.
Good planning holds the key to getting the better of
Ebola.

CM
YK

The volume on Charmakars claims that the

word chamar is an Arabic word, denoting
those dealing with leather work. It was with
the advent of the British, colonial rule and the
process of codication, that the practice of
untouchability against the depressed classes
came to be rigid. The volumes make a further
claim that Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism
are all variants of Hinduism; therefore, there
were no forced conversions in any of these
religions; in fact, even Brahmins willingly
converted to these forms of practising Hinduism. The volumes make a further plea to
write a more detailed history of the tribals also
(which the RSS has already taken up). As these
were the communities that also resisted attempts at conversion but were unable to resist
the might of the Muslim invaders, they
chose to run away into the forests in order to
protect themselves. It is these Hindu communities that began to inhabit forests that are the
tribes of today and who have been deprived of
the benets of modern development.
The volumes suggest an interesting way out
of the current logjam. They argue that the idea
of equality is alien to our culture as it promotes antagonism, and what our civilisation is
based on is cultural diversity. Therefore, what
we need is not equality Samantha, but Samarastha social harmony. The volumes further suggest that by repeatedly referring to
certain castes as being Dalits, we only further
reinforce their demeaned status. Instead, we
need to look at the history of how they have
come to be one and pull them out. Therefore,
we need to preserve our cultural and community differences but also ght against untouchability, resonating the Gandhian
strategy (which partly explains the newfound
love of the current dispensation for Gandhi).
We also need to celebrate the glorious legends
of/in each of the castes in order to restore to
them their original pride in Hindu society.
These volumes clearly reect a move towards
a de-Brahmanising of the Hindu religion by
nding a place of pride for Dalit castes, while
blaming the Muslim rulers and not the Hindu
sacred scripts or ritual hierarchy or other
Brahmanical practices.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cases of VIPs being punished
increases my respect for the law.
Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam The rejection of the bail plea proves
has appealed for calm in Tamil Nadu consistency in judicial proceedings.
Balasubramaniam Pavani,
(Oct. 8), but all AIADMK cadres
Secunderabad
need to understand that everyone is
equal before the law. Their tallest
leader has been found guilty and The judiciary has sent out a strong
they must learn to be patient as she message that wrongdoers cannot
escape from the law. Prime Minister
has to face due process.
Yogita Sharma, Narendra
Modis
astonishing
Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh silence over the judgment exposes
the dubious nature of the BJP in
By refusing to grant bail to Ms. handling corruption. One cannot
Jayalalithaa and her associates, the forget the way in which it welcomed
Karnataka High Court has made it the conviction of Lalu Prasad and
clear that it cannot be cowed down Suresh Kalmadi. I also feel that
by protests and pressure tactics by school syllabi must now have a
the AIADMK and its supporters. chapter on corruption. It should
Judges and courts will never be prole all these prominent cases;
guided by the emotions of the man young minds must be made aware of
on the street. While the denial of bail the evils of corruption.
M. Phani Kiran,
can be termed as a setback for Ms.
Vijayawada
Jayalalithaa, none can deny the fact
that there are ample legal avenues
open to her to prove her innocence. The argument that Ms. Jayalalithaa
What was disheartening was the is a very inuential person and that
sight of some AIADMK cadres, in it might not be possible to secure her
the guise of expressing solidarity for serving the sentence once she is
with their leader, attempting to released on bail, is a striking
testimony on the state of affairs in
malign the judiciary.
M. Jeyaram, our judiciary and the rule of law.
Sholavandan, Tamil Nadu Everybody knows that inuential
persons use political power to evade
At last corruption seems to have prison terms even after nal
become a bad word and a new conviction. Sudden onset of
horizon is visible. In this the ailments is unique to VIP criminals
judiciary needs to be encouraged. It upon conviction. This leader has no
must come up with new procedures moral authority to feel that any
to deal swiftly with public gures injustice has been caused due to an
facing corruption charges.
adjournment of the consideration of
Kiran Raj G.G., the bail application as she knows of
New Delhi the different and imsy grounds on
which she herself delayed the
The verdict is no surprise at all for investigation
and
judicial
those of us who have taken care to go proceedings. As stated in the
through the full judgment. It Editorial page article (Oct.2),
appears that the accused and her celebrities and their lawyers need
associates are powerful and to guard against excesses.
P.R.V. Raja,
inuential and the judge associated
Pandalam, Kerala
with the case has put in painstaking
and
meticulous
efforts
in
examining, discussing and analysing That bail was refused on the
the case from all angles in order to grounds that it amounts to a human
come to a fair and unbiased nal rights violation is interesting. The
same concern was not raised when
decision.
M.R. Srinivasan, bail was granted to politicians who
Singapore were held responsible for unbridled

Jayalalithaa bail plea

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
corruption in cases like the
Commonwealth Games, the 2G
scam and the fodder scam. The
proceedings make it clear that this is
a conspiracy to undermine
AIADMK rule in its bastion of Tamil
Nadu. This is the only party which
has consecutively won both State
and parliamentary polls on its own
steam. Its successes appear to have
rankled many.
Anandasubramanian C.P.,
Amstelveen, Netherlands

support among the lower strata.

cutting across religion, caste and
language. The common man should
wish that Ms. Jayalalithaa ghts the
legal battle patiently.
T. Krishnan,
Chennai

conrms Pakistans attitude of

hatred. There is an urgent need for
officials on both sides to hold peace
talks. People need peace.
Gowhar Naz,
Lolab Valley, Kashmir

The decision appears to be

unconstitutional and truly in
contravention of the United Nations
Declaration on Human Rights of
the constitutional right of a citizen
to justice; a fair and speedy trial
What would amount to the judicial before an impartial judiciary. Ms.
harassment of Ms. Jayalalithaa and Jayalalithaa has the mandate of the
her associates borders also on people of Tamil Nadu and this must
violation of basic human rights. Any be taken into account.
George Isaac,
legal decision has to be based on
Kottayam
both the law and facts. The case has
also to be seen in the context of the
circumstances that propelled her It is evident that there are deliberate
into politics, her struggles and her lapses in a case involving a popular
contribution to politics, society and mass leader, defying all logic and
development. Merely pointing a comprehension. It only adds
nger at her in the so-called strength to the suspicion that there
disproportionate assets case is not is strong vendetta at work against
her and all her avenues to rightful
a mature stance.
Dharmalingam Venugopal, legal remedy are being closed.
Kotagiri, Nilgiris
K. Ramachandran,
Chennai
In my view, the common judicial
principle should be bail and not jail,
until the case is disposed of nally. There are two bitter truths in
Since the legal option of appealing to Pakistans affairs. One, the military
a higher court exists, there is every regime has always derailed the
possibility that the decision may be functioning of democratically
overturned. The consideration of elected governments, and two, most
her case in the higher courts and its of the people attempting a shot at
nal disposal may take years. If she power have the support of the Army
is acquitted, how can one justify and (Editorial, Oct 8). It is evident that
make amends for the term she Mr. Nawaz Sharif has no control
spends in jail? An enormous over the Army. Younger leaders like
injustice
would
have
been Bilawal Bhutto are too immature to
committed and an irreparable loss understand that maintaining the
would have been inicted. There is status quo over Kashmir is like
an urgent need to dispose of this strengthening the Pakistan Armys
stand on the issue even more.
case in the Supreme Court.
S.N. Srinivasan,
Ankit Khurana,
Bangalore
New Delhi

In the wake of increased clinical

deaths in India, regulations on the
lines suggested in the article, A
steel frame for clinical trials (Oct.
8), are necessary. Together with
amendments in the Drugs and
Cosmetics Act, making it mandatory
for the principal investigator of the
pharma company to reveal the
contract between the subject and
the company to the DGCI, it will
help usher in an era of transparency.
The issue of adequate compensation
for victims needs to be addressed.
Arun Vijayan,
Thiruvananthapuram

Border ring

While the elite in Tamil Nadu may

be indifferent, as they are largely
insulated from political happenings,
large-scale resentment is evident in
the lower strata of society. One
should note that Ms. Jayalalithaa
enjoys formidable and unparalleled

Clinical trials

Looking at jugaad
It was indeed domestic innovation
that was behind Indias successful
Mars Orbiter Mission (Getting to
Mars through jugaad, Oct.8). In
fact, the term jugaad reminded me
of my stay at Bhuj in the Kutch
district of Gujarat between 1993 and
1998. I had a branded radio of Indian
make which ran on three battery
cells. However, the cells would leak
and melt in the summer heat in this
hot and dry district. To solve this
problem, I took it to an electrician,
who promptly drilled a hole on the
side, did the required wiring and
inserted a socket. I could then play
the radio with an eliminator.
R.M. Chauhan,
Bangalore

Success through jugaad is uncertain.

If one jugaad fails, we Indians try
something new our intrinsic
capability. MOMs success is
certainly an example of our
It is a fact that Pakistani troops innovative style of getting work
often resort to unrestrained ring, done. However, it should not be a
especially near the border villages, substitute for hard work, dedication
which only adds to the fear of and sincerity, which did play a more
residents. The recent trend of important role in the Mars mission.
Mani Agarwal,
avoiding the traditional exchange of
Agra
sweets along the Wagah border also
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

For a place on the world stage

P
Arun Kumar

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014

Brightness
at night
his years Nobel Prize for physics awarded to
Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya
University in Japan and Shuji Nakamura of
the University of California at Santa Barbara,
goes beyond recognising their invention that is of
greatest benet to mankind. It bettingly rewards
them for their perseverance and tenacity and for daring
to challenge established truths. With red and green
light emitting diodes (LEDs) already available, there
were feverish efforts by many industries and institutions across the world to invent a blue LED; a combination of red, green and blue produces white light. But
there were almost insurmountable challenges that had
to be overcome, and most scientists dropped out of the
race midway. The rst major practical difficulty to be
overcome was growing high-quality gallium nitride
crystals using a suitable substrate. Dr. Akasaki and Dr.
Amano, who worked as a team, and Dr. Nakamura used
diverse approaches to achieve this. The duo nally
tasted success in 1986 even as others moved on to
different materials; Dr. Nakamura produced it four
years later. Since the gallium nitride crystal is by default
n-type layer with a surplus of electrons, the laureates
had to create a p-type layer (holes that are electrondecient). Working against all odds, the two teams
nally succeeded in creating the p-type layer and hence
a blue LED. They also created heterojunctions with
multiple layers to improve the efficiency of blue LED.
If the arrival of brighter uorescent lamps in the 20th
century reduced electricity consumption compared
with tungsten lamps, the advent of compact uorescent
lamps led to a further substantial drop in electricity
consumption. However, LED technology has made all
the other lamp technologies redundant with the superior brightness per wattage that it offers; the white light
produced by LED has become a game-changer in lighting technology. Unlike the other lighting options, where
a certain proportion of the electricity is converted into
heat and is wasted, LED technology allows for direct
conversion of all electricity into light, thereby increasing efficiency. With nearly 20 to 30 per cent of electricity worldwide being used for lighting, the widespread
use of LEDs will lead to signicant gains. Besides being
energy-efficient, LEDs are environment-friendly as no
mercury is used to make them. Currently, blue LED is
used to produce red and green light by exciting phosphor. But dynamic control of colour composition can be
achieved by using LEDs of all the three colours; this may
happen in the future. In about two decades after blue
LED came into being, it has revolutionised white light
production. It remains to be seen if any another pathbreaking technology can ever displace the LED.

rime Minister Narendra Modi,

while campaigning in Mumbai recently, declared that India has arrived on the world stage. Election
rhetoric apart, what does it imply? We have
been on the world stage but are not treated
as equals. So, the question is this: after Mr.
Modi has become the Prime Minister, are we
now being treated as equals? Mr. Modis visit
to Japan and the United States, and the visits
by the Chinese President and the Australian
Prime Minister to India, would suggest that
India is being wooed by the major world
economic powers. The Mars Orbiter Mission
signies Indias growing space prowess,
though the credit for that goes to the United
Progressive Alliance.

What are we getting?

Japan has offered India $35 billion of investments in the next ve years and China,
$20 billion. This includes a Japanese offer of
a bullet train between Ahmedabad and
Mumbai and a Chinese offer of cheaper and
faster trains. Australia has proposed the supply of nuclear material and investments,
while the U.S. has promised investment in
defence production and cooperation in defence ties and energy. There have been offers
as well of teaming up with Indian cities to
make them clean and hi-tech, which would
help full Mr. Modis dream of creating 100
new/smart cities. That all this is happening
in the rst 120 days of Mr. Modi having taken
over is creditable.
The importance of the Modi visit to Japan
can be gauged by the fact that the Japanese
Prime Minister accompanied him during
much of his programme there. The Chinese
President landed in Ahmedabad and went
sightseeing with Mr. Modi. In the U.S., there
was a grand welcome by the Indian-American community and where Mr. Modis
speech in Madison Square Garden was a
grand show. He met the CEOs of some of the
biggest U.S. companies and got commitments for further investments in India.
There was movement on jointly ghting terrorism in South Asia. Collaboration between
some key Indian and U.S. institutions of
higher learning has been proposed. The U.S.
is also to help India in its ght against poverty and cleaning up its cities.
These promises need to be balanced with

India seems to be happy to get from the big

economic powers things such as surplus capital,
technology, trains, cleanliness, education and so
on. This also spells its weakness 67 years after
Independence. We rejoice at getting the basics
from others while giving in return our best minds
and yoga
reality such as the Japanese refusal to relent
on the nuclear issue till India signs the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The
Chinese committed much less investment
than was expected given the rapidly rising
trade with them, and which is skewed in
their favour. It is not yet clear how the commitments to more balanced trade would
work. The dampener was the confrontation
between Chinese and Indian troops at Aksai
Chin a few days before the arrival of the
Chinese President in India and which continued much after. The Chinese also did not
resolve the problems India faces in the production of oil in the South China Sea.
The biggest surprises were in the U.S. No
big ticket investments were immediately announced. As the largest world economy, the

U.S. has supported some of the worst regimes in the world since the Second World
War. Does Mr. Modi care much about it? He
ruled Gujarat with an iron hand. In recent
election campaigns, the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) has gone about polarising voters. Ending policy paralysis should not mean
that a Prime Minister has to be autocratic
and marginalise his entire cabinet. There
were disastrous consequences when Indira
Gandhi centralised power in the Prime Ministers Office.
A Prime Minister who is active and takes
charge of situations does not necessarily
lead to the building of a strong democracy.
That requires the poor and the marginalised
to be empowered politically, socially and economically. Yes, it is necessary to boost the

India has a large population but does that imply a large

demand which could be attractive to international capital?
U.S. could invest more in India but this trend
may not reverse any time soon. It did not
commit to supporting India on the food security issue in the World Trade Organization
(WTO). Perhaps Indias reluctance to join
the ght against IS is a major reason for why
the U.S. did not commit to more.

The three Ds on offer

What is India offering in return for what it
is getting? Mr. Modi mentioned it in the U.N.
General Assembly; he referred to it again at
Madison Square Garden in the form of the
three Ds Democracy, Demographic dividend and Demand. Is this a big deal for
any of the countries under reference?
China hardly practices democracy internally and the western alliance, headed by the

CARTOONSCAPE

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Border tensions
The incessant ring along the
border in the Samba region of
Jammu (Oct. 9) shows that the
relationship between India and
Pakistan remains tense regardless
of the stance that leaders of both
the countries take in public. All
positive sentiments that owed
with the arrival of Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif in May, seem to have
been lost. Irresponsible statements
of politicians like Bilawal Bhutto
are adding fuel to re.
Sushant Roshan,
New Delhi

India. Much of what he says now

seems to be empty rhetoric.
Seema Kothari,
New Delhi

The practice of some Indian

television channels to invite
experts from Pakistan, such as
former envoys, political analysts
and military personnel, to panel
discussions
appears
to
be
backring. One expects fair and
balanced views. However, the
opportunity is being used to give
vent to their frustration, using
unparliamentary language and
criticising India. Those who anchor
the shows do not seem to be in
Pakistan has invested a lot of time, control of the situation. They must
money and energy on Kashmir and be blanked out from any further
one can be sure that by backing out participation.
M. Swaminathan,
now it will invite retaliation from
Chennai
within the establishment there.
The Army will lose its signicance if
the Kashmir issue is solved.
Attacking the border and sending It was disturbing to read the article,
in terrorists have always been time- Politics without opposition (Oct.
tested tactics to divert attention 9). It was not Muslim invaders who
from internal turmoil, and Pakistan introduced untouchability; rather,
is leaving no stone unturned in untouchability has been practised
order to disrupt the peace in India. since the Vedic period. There has
Yogesh Devgun, also been a rise in communal
Patiala tensions
and
discrimination
against the lower castes ever since
It is a tragedy that when Kashmir the BJP came to power.
on both sides of the border is
Rahul Chimurkar,
New Delhi
suffering in the aftermath of
unprecedented oods, Pakistan is
on a course of misadventure. The With the BJP government in
focus in both countries should be power, the so-called fringe
elements are making a bold attempt
on rebuilding and not shelling.
Sunil Gupta, to represent mainstream society. A
Kolkata majoritarian agenda is being
imposed on the country in a
Prime Minister Narendra Modi clandestine manner by projecting
does not seem to be paying this as being a nationalist and proattention to the crisis on the development ideology. The slogan
border. During his election of unity in diversity is fast fading,
campaign, he tore into the UPA and and attempts are on to portray any
promised to give us a stronger diversity as a sign of being anti-

New political mode

investment climate in the country but it

need not be anti-poor or anti-worker or anti
farmer. Mr. Modis economic programme is
largely pro-business despite the announcement of the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana. Thus, the democratic credentials of the
new government are weak.
The idea of building 100 new cities would
mean the draining of resources from the
existing 8,000 towns and 6.5 lakh villages or
more and which are already in poor shape.
The creation of a bullet train service can only
be at the expense of the existing and troubled railway network. The Make in India
programme is targeted at big industry
though there is talk of Micro, Small and
Medium Enterprises (MSME). This would
adversely impact employment generation by

An unsustainable
course
he precipitous decline in the population of
wild animals should serve as a clear warning
to humanity that it is living beyond its means.
The Worldwide Fund for Nature and the Zoological Society of London recently reported that the
number of wild creatures on earth has plunged to half
of what it was four decades ago; in the case of some
classes of animals, the loss is staggeringly high. Turtle
populations, for instance, are estimated to have declined by 80 per cent. It is the developing world that
should be particularly concerned at the data on animal
populations: habitat degradation, pollution, and unsustainable extraction of natural resources in the
emerging economies are robbing them of biodiversity
that is essential for human well-being. Impacts of climate change pose a new threat to ora and fauna in
these countries. Signicantly, some of these nations
are also the biodiversity hotspots that harbour an extraordinarily large number of species new ones continue to be discovered every year even as old ones
disappear. These trends show that vital needs such as
fresh water, clean air and benign climate patterns are
threatened, and there is a need for urgent action.
Governments in the global north and south must
commit themselves to the full implementation of treaties and conventions on protection of wild animals and
habitats if the erosion is to be stemmed. They can
achieve this partly by strengthening the Convention on
Biological Diversity which has, under the Aichi targets,
resolved to increase the protected areas of the world
from 13 per cent to 17 per cent of land by 2020 and to
prevent the further loss of known threatened species.
At the same time, restraints would have to be placed on
commercial extraction of marine resources such as
sh, to give depleted stocks time to regenerate. It is
evident that with every passing decade, the capacity to
trawl the seas on an industrial scale and harvest a wide
variety of species is outpacing the natural cycle for
rebuilding their stocks. More sustainable methods to
grow food on land and in captive areas have to replace
the unbridled exploitation of nature. There is hope that
good conservation strategies will stem or even reverse
the 40 per cent declines witnessed in key wild animal
populations. The challenge is very real for India as it
struggles with habitat loss and rising demand for energy and natural resources. It must resist the temptation
to open up its last remaining forests and wetlands to
commercial exploitation and encroachment if it is to
safeguard ecosystem services such as water and food.
The emphasis should be on restoration of habitat and
an end to pollution through strict enforcement of environmental and forest laws.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 10, 2014

displacing the small-scale sector and that

could aggravate the already acute problem of
unemployment. The democratic content of
these and other programmes is weak at best.
The demographic dividend can only be
realised if we have highly trained and surplus
manpower. Unfortunately, training in our
schools/colleges is by and large poor as the
Annual Status of Education Reports (ASER)
testify. Up to 40 per cent of academic positions are vacant in Central universities, the
Indian Institutes of Technology and medical
colleges, which reects a paucity of good
teachers. Unfortunately, of the people we
train, a majority of the best go abroad. Which
advanced nation exports its best students?
We have a large population but does that
imply a large demand which could be attractive to international capital? Indias current
per capita income is $1,500 which is only 4
per cent of that in the advanced countries.
Thus, the average demand generated by an
individual is small. India produces only 3 per
cent of world GDP, implying a small market
size. Since a majority of Indians are below
the $2 per capita per day line, their demand
is for cheap, low-quality products which the
multinational corporations of the advanced
nations cannot cater to. It is only if we are
able to raise our people substantially above
poverty that India can begin to offer demand to the advanced nations.

A one-way relationship
We seem to be happy to get from the big
economic powers things such as surplus capital, technology, trains, cleanliness, education and so on. This also spells our weakness
67 years after Independence. We rejoice at
getting the basics from others while giving in
return our best minds and yoga. Did the
Japanese or the Americans or the Chinese
ask how much we will invest in their countries? Are we giving them some form of technology that they do not have? We are
offering them our manpower for which we
have to ask the U.S. for more H1B visas and
more liberal conditions for exporting our
manpower.
Forty-ve years ago, we introduced the
Rajdhani train service but have hardly
speeded up our other train services since
then; in the meantime, China has introduced
fast trains. Why has our Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) programme not fructied since
it was conceived in the 1970s? Why have we
not been able to make a nuclear submarine?
Our mission to Mars is admittedly a success
but it has come 50 years after the rst interplanetary missions. The more than 40 missions to Mars have laid the ground for our
successful mission. Remember, in the 1960s
there were no microchips or the massive
computing power that exists today. So, it is
an achievement but we need to be circumspect about it.
Why are we so focussed on getting foreign
investments when foreign direct investment
(FDI) is only 2 per cent of GDP? Our internal
investment is 28 per cent of GDP and that is
what has dramatically come down since its
peak in 2008. It needs to be revived while
foreign investment can only make a marginal difference to growth. Given the sluggish
growth in Japan and the U.S., they are looking for markets and that is why they are
offering investment in order to increase
their exports to India. Is it in our interests to
offer them our markets? If we keep aggravating social divisions and diverting our energies, can we become strong? Clearly, we lack
a long-term strategy.
In conclusion, it is not that India has not
been on the world stage but its relationship
with other major economic powers has
largely been one-way given that it has had
little to offer due to its internal weaknesses.
These need to be addressed urgently.
(Arun Kumar is Sukhamoy Chakravarty
Chair Professor, Centre for Economic
Studies and Planning, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
national. Though the idea of
development is an inclusive one, we
cannot forget that communal
harmony is a prerequisite for
material progress.
Kiran Jose,
Pala, Kerala

The spread of Ebola shows that the

international community has let go
of an opportunity to deal with an
evolving
health
emergency.
Isolating the affected countries is
no solution and will only aggravate
the situation. It is only when the
outbreak is controlled in West
Africa that we can breathe easy.
Indian epidemiologists and other
medical personnel must be
deployed to keep the disease under
check.
Ankit Garg,
Ghaziabad

Without electricity

Talking of political will in

connection with electrication and
providing electricity, it is evident
that in the so-called VVIP
constituencies, power-cuts are
unheard of (Electried, but
Like many Indians who had
without electricity, Oct. 7). Also,
initially opposed Mr. Modi
during the election season, power
becoming the Prime Minister, I
cuts vanish irrespective of peak
have eventually warmed up to his
demand, only to return in the next
efficient and effective leadership.
season with a vengeance. Another
However, I am worried by the
fact is that there are innumerable
increasing promotion of India as an
neglected areas where electricity
exclusively Hindu country and
for a few hours is considered
culture. We hear about Mr. Modis Professor Peter Piot, Director of sufficient.
This
widespread
Hindu religious fasts, and talk of all the London School of Hygiene and disparity needs to be bridged and
of us having Hindu DNA, when Tropical Medicine, was in the team the temptation to announce
science tells us we all have human of researchers that rst discovered freebies in this area needs to be
DNA originating in Africa. In Ebola in 1976. When he was asked phased out in a rational manner.
addition to all this, Doordarshan recently by The Guardian whether Losses in distribution and
broadcasts live, a speech by the RSS Ebola will become a pandemic, he transmission need to be efficiently
leader. Whatever happened to said: I am more worried about the checked.
Aatish Sharma,
Indias secularism enshrined in the many people from India who work
Mohali
Constitution? There is no point in in trade or industry in West Africa.
having a Swachh (clean) India, if It would only take one of them to
Indians are not Swatantra (free). become infected, travel to India to In Gulbarga city in northern
To echo Rabindranath Tagores visit relatives during the viruss Karnataka, power cuts are more the
words, let India awake to a new incubation period, and then, once norm than the exception. This is
heaven of freedom where the mind he becomes sick, go to a public especially so in summer when the
is without fear and the head is held hospital there. Doctors and nurses temperature there typically rises to
high, regardless of ones caste, in India, too, often dont wear 45oC-47oC. Peaceful sleep is only a
religion and social status as protective gloves. They would dream. If this is the situation in a
immediately become infected and city, one can imagine how it is in
determined by birth and gender.
Rajiv Thind, spread the virus. It is doubtful rural areas.
Gadha Madhav,
Brisbane, Australia whether India is equipped to
Thiruvananthapuram
combat the Ebola threat.
Titus Sankaramangalam,
While banning visitors from EbolaTiruvalla, Kerala Mahatma Gandhi had stated that
hit countries is not a good idea
an empowered India is one with
(Editorial, Oct. 9), authorities in It is not too late for the government self-reliant villages. With power
India must not lower their vigil. along with experts in epidemic outages which often run to 12 hours
There has to be a massive control to control the spread of the in the villages, one can imagine how
awareness campaign within India disease. Given the way we function rural households are. Unchecked
to let the masses get to know about in India, measures to create electricity usage for agriculture is a
the basics about the deadly awareness about the disease must practice that must be dispensed
start immediately and in earnest.
infection.
with immediately.
Mohd Younis,
Manini Makabo,
Vishnu Gunneri,
Pulwama, Jammu and Kashmir
Bangalore
New Delhi

Ebolas march

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014

Private cleanliness amid public squalor

Gautam Bhatia

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2014

Public funds
and image-building
he use of government advertising as a tool for
political propaganda, especially during election time, has been a key concern in many
democracies. Given the role of the state in
India as a controller of the fortunes of many publications dependent on advertising revenue, it is inevitable that in the name of disseminating information
about government performance and programmes,
many a regime makes use of official advertising to drive
home politically loaded messages, focus on personalities and give the impression that huge allocations of
budgetary resources and framing of policies and
schemes are solely because of particular leaders. The
lack of guidelines relating to the content of government
advertisements works against the public interest in
two ways: rstly, public funds could be misused by
releasing information and announcements in a politically partisan way so that the gains of publicity rebound
to the ruling party or a reigning leader; secondly, the
generous use of advertisements as an incentive to select media houses in return for favourable coverage.
While in normal circumstances ruling parties tend to
use advertising as a site for self-glorication, in the
run-up to elections it could be a form of electioneering
that is free of cost. The Supreme Court, which appointed a three-member committee last April to frame appropriate guidelines, will soon consider the panels
report. As an institution that has been keeping a close
watch on the purity of the election process, the court is
making a serious effort to ensure that public funds are
not used for partisan ends.
In its short but meaningful report, the panel, comprising jurist N.R. Madhava Menon, former Lok Sabha
Secretary-General T.K. Viswanathan, and senior advocate Ranjit Kumar, has recommended that advertisement material be objective and not directed at
promoting the ruling partys interests. The recommended guidelines bar lapses in political neutrality and
the projection of a positive impression of the party in
power or negative impression of those critical of the
government. The panel has counselled against mentioning the party in power by name and attacks against
the views of the opposition. It seeks to prohibit party
symbols, logos or ags, or any links to websites of
political parties and politicians. The panel disfavours
use of government advertising aimed at favourable
coverage for the party or person in power. If these
guidelines are accepted by the Supreme Court and laid
down as law, they could serve as effective curbs on the
misuse of the governments advertisement machinery.
That day will mark one more step in preventing the
misuse of public office for partisan ends, as well as in
protecting the purity of the electoral process.

fter my sisters death some years

ago, I had carried her ashes for immersion in the Kosi river, an insignicant mountain tributary of
the Ganga. I wanted an unsullied bit of water
for a religious ceremony, and so chose a secluded stretch of the river in Uttarakhand
near Ranikhet. But despite the remoteness,
the water and its sand bed was littered with
plastic, toothpaste tubes and instant noodle
packets. And as the ceremony progressed, I
noticed upstream from us a group of men
defecating and chatting on the river rocks.
It is no secret that India has the largest
number of people defecating in the open,
even when a toilet is available. Whether a
rivulet along a sloped hillside in a pristine
Himalayan valley, a river coursing through a
city, or indeed along a coastal beach, water is
as much an invitation to drink as it is to
excrement. Even the Ganga functions at two
levels: as religious sanctuary and Indias
largest open air sewer.

To succeed, the Prime Ministers Swachh Bharat

initiative needs a local civic dimension, wherein
cities create their own plans within the larger
framework of the mission. Without it, the
programme will remain nothing but a grand
political scheme

problem of waste, it is hard to believe that the hi as the most desirable city among the Indian
mission can be anything more than a symbol- low performers.) Chief among the criterion of
ic act.
liveability was health and sanitation, though
Moreover, the Indian public has innite other related conditions such as infrastructolerance for hackneyed political gestures ture, parks and accessibility were also spelled
planting saplings, visiting Rajghat, laying out.
foundation stones, conducting pujas for newly built yovers. Swachh Bharat too, say Attitude to public life
critics, will only remain aoat in the big cities,
Indian cities took a beating on the most
till such time as the Prime Ministers greater rudimentary aspects of survival, and were
interest in business matters relegates it to the classied more as unplanned spontaneous
dung heap. The projects farcical dimension slums than functioning towns, with some of
can already be seen in the surprise inspec- the highest recorded levels of toxic waste, and
tions of government offices, and the large consequently, physical sickness. Incidents of
Behind Clean India
quantum of brooms and dustbins ordered by asthma and lung infection linked directly to
Wherever you go in city or countryside bureaucrats and ministers, some depart- pollution were steadily on the rise. In most
plastic bags, tetra paks and tin cans mar the
landscape. In slum areas and industrial townships, rivulets of slime snake along mud teneIn most countries, public health and sanitation are taken for
ments. In cities, garbage overwhelms all
granted
and fall squarely on urban administration.
sightlines (I recently saw a group of Japanese
tourists photographing ragpickers foraging in
raw sewage, next to the monument they had
come to see). Just as the Mughals had deco- ments going into direct competition with metros it was stated as 12 times the national
rated gateways around their settlements, en- each other by issuing instruction handbooks average, and almost a third of the population
trances to Indian towns today are rife with a on cleanliness.
suffered some form of respiratory illness; the
new 21st century sign of welcome: mountains
survey also gave damning gures on waterLiveability
index
of trash. As humans, pigs and vultures battle
borne diseases, and reduced eyesight, imamong the waste, there hangs over most placThat the Prime Minister of a country needs paired mental acuity and shorter lifespans.
es, a perpetual stench of decay and death.
to intervene on an issue as basic as public
In most countries, public health and sanFor Prime Minister Narendra Modis health is of course the rst serious admission itation are taken for granted and fall squarely
Clean India campaign, a Rs.2 lakh crore that the problem is way out of hand. On the on urban administration. So basic are norms
expenditure is envisaged by the government world stage, India is already acknowledged as of healthy urban living around the world, they
to clean the country by October 2, 2019, a date one of the dirtiest and least liveable countries rarely ever make it as news items. Only in
to be celebrated as the 150th birth anniver- in the world. In a recent survey of the live- India do routine municipal issues assume nasary of Mahatma Gandhi. Part of the money is ability index of 150 world cities, Delhi, Mum- tional importance. Blocked drains during
intended for drinking water and sanitation bai and other Indian metros were all listed monsoons, road repair, malarial and dengue
programmes and the rest for the physical below 130, only ahead of some West African outbreaks, raw sewage on sidewalks, children
clean up of Indian cities. But, so acute is the cities. (Ironically, the same survey listed Del- stuck in wells, open manholes, fallen trees

CARTOONSCAPE

Bringing clarity to
online retailing
he recent big billion day mega sale offer by
online retailer Flipkart saw a virtual stampede in cyberspace, and elicited angry posts
on social media by irate shoppers. The massive customer response no doubt helped Flipkart hit
the 24-hour sales target inside of 10 hours. With frustrated online buyers giving vent to their ire on social
networks, Flipkart founders came out to issue a public
apology for the technical glitches and also for their
failure to anticipate the discount sale-induced rush
into their site, which crashed several times on sale day.
Predictably, the Flipkart sales asco has renewed the
demand for regulation of online retailers. Discounts
are not peculiar to the online trade, though. Festival
season-eve extravagant offers are only to be expected,
and usually done either to liquidate stocks or create
brand awareness. Flipkart and similar online retailers
have adopted a marketplace model, where they play the
role of a facilitator by providing platforms for sale. In
their cases, such offers appear to be intended to buy
sales. Gross merchandise value (GMV) is a key to the
valuation of any e-commerce site. How the massive
customer discontent impacts GMV run rate in the
coming days and valuation for Flipkart is for the founders to gure out. On the face of it, such competitive
price-cuts benet consumers. On a larger canvas, however, these can have serious repercussions not just for
the overall health of industries across the value chain
but also for society as a whole.
The Flipkart sale experience has raised the issue of
how sustainable huge discounts, at times even below
cost, can be and how widespread their reach is. It has,
not surprisingly, brought the focus yet again sharply on
the need to develop a retail ecosystem that prospers
without disturbing the social bre. Consumers need to
be wary of such practices as marking prices up and then
offering large discounts. Purely from this point of view,
one needs to examine the business of retail as it exists
today, and as it is set to evolve in the context of the
increasing propensity among modern youth to make
their purchases online. A host of issues related to retail
from deep discounts to taxation and investments,
among others must be addressed in a composite way
so that the retail experience fosters a healthy ecosystem, which rewards all stakeholders suitably and fosters a culture of healthy competition. More than
anything else, retail needs an industry tag. That will
help dene the ground rules, and demarcate the operational areas for trade. Surely, this will go a long way in
bringing a sense of clarity, fairness and responsibility
among players across the entire retail canvas.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

amiable relations seem to be within
reach, Pakistan suddenly reaches
Every Indian must be proud that out for the destruct button. One
Kailash Satyarthi is the joint winner hopes that a solution is found soon.
of the Nobel Peace Prize for his
Shemeela Sasikumar,
exemplary work in upholding the
Thrissur
rights of children. While the world
has acknowledged his greatness and It is clear that ceasere agreements
awarded him the coveted prize, one hold no value. A pre-emptive attack
wonders what kind of focus the or war is never going to solve the
national media gave to his work over border problem; it will cause only
the last few decades till the time of bloodshed, leading to tears, pain and
his being awarded the Peace Prize. vengeance. Neither will the
One wishes the media also focusses independence of Kashmir bring
their attention on positive aspects about any change. Leaders are
taking place within India.
meant to make changes for the wellC.J. Rose, being of the populace who believe in
Chennai them. Thus, the Modi government
should not only try to change the
The irony couldnt be starker; India economic shape of India, but also try
and Pakistan are engaged in an to bring peace to the Kashmir
episode of escalating border Valley. If Narendra Modi aims to
tensions and two eminent citizens become the agent of change people
from either nation win the most dreamt of, he should act in a new
coveted prize for peace! One way a path-breaking one.
Hemanth Sreekumar,
hopes that the laureates take the
Bangalore
initiative to spread peace and that
the political leadership in both
countries step up efforts to stop the Is Pakistan insecure after Mr. Modi
bloodshed. One also celebrates the was received with open arms in the
fact that children and their future U.S. and after he hit it off with the
Japanese and Chinese leaders? It is
are the focus of this years prize.
Vivek George, clear that the Pakistan Army wants
Mavelikara, Kerala to keep the Kashmir cauldron on the
boil to assert its supremacy over the
civilian establishment. In this
This refers to the report, Modi, murky scenario, it would be a tall
Jaitley warn Pakistan (Oct. 10). order to expect India to exercise
Whichever the government at the restraint and stoically bear repeated
Centre, it acts with the same kind of ceasere violations.
ourish in articulating an empty
Nalini Vijayaraghavan,
proclamation that we will ght
Thiruvananthapuram
back and give a betting reply to
Pakistan. Such heroic words are not There has to be a permanent
the armour; instead, there must be solution as villages close to the
instant action to quell shelling. With border are quickly turning into
repeated ceasere violations from ghost
towns.
The
Army
Pakistans side, it is time India ghts commanders as well as the DGMOs
back and puts an end to the grim should use the hot line to prevent
situation.
needless ring. There is no
N. Visveswaran, substitute for meaningful dialogue
Chennai between the two sides. The Modi
government should desist from
Pakistan seems determined to sabre-rattling to show its tough
aggravate the situation. Peace talks stand vis--vis Pakistan.
D.B.N. Murthy,
have been held between the two
countries but to no avail. When
Bangalore

Peace Nobel

Ceasefire violations

and collapsing buildings are all signs of a

disintegrating collective life. When municipal
authorities fail to oversee ordinary maintenance and are incapable of undertaking decisions on day-to-day governance, the city
becomes a nightmare of incompetence and
failed ideas, regressing quickly into anarchy
a battleground so scarred that the rich can
only isolate themselves into private compounds, creating their own insular lives unrelated to the city; the poor are left to their
own devices, living in the ruin and seeking
business opportunity in the squalor and clutter. The Prime Ministers cleanliness campaign is merely the fallout of complete
municipal collapse.
While credit is certainly due to Mr. Modi
for initiating the much needed push to make
the country a physically healthier place, the
larger thrust of the nationwide mission needs
to take into account other ideas that indirectly contribute to civic grime. Cars physically
choke city space, parking on sidewalks, covering up and clogging drainage systems;
building materials for private construction
are allowed to pile up on roads, parks are
shuttered, security threatened. Cleanliness is
only a small fraction of the larger aspect of
urban liveability; if the Prime Ministers mission is to succeed it must tackle the dangers of
increasing urban densities, issues of public
safety, misuse of public land for private use,
encroachments, aspects of public transport
and limits to car ownership, the removal of
gated communities; and most of all, the Indian attitude to public life itself: the perpetuation of private cleanliness amid public
squalor.

Individual routes to cleanliness

The campaign therefore must endorse a
larger movement to improving the quality of
life. If that requires serious imposition of
urban limits and restrictions, so be it. Around
the world, municipalities have created innovative ways to tackle their very local situations Bangkok with waste management,
Kampala with urban farming, London with
congestion tax, Madrid and Barcelona with
controlled pedestrianisation, Copenhagen
with cycling tracks, Singapore with prohibitive litter nes. Within all these individual
methods however, every city accepts the ideals on peoples safety, active public life, social
tolerance, environmental friendliness, proximity to nature, affordable education and
medical care and encouraging business
opportunities.
Should Indian cities then similarly discover their own individual routes to cleanliness
and hygiene, the way Surat did some years
ago? To reduce congestion, should Delhi tax
cars parked on public roads at night, or as
compensation, offer them as night shelter for
the homeless? Should Chennai and Mumbai
residents be ned for commuting long distances and adding to pollution? Indeed
should citizens who own no vehicles be allowed to travel free on public transport?
What then of private homes and offices that
have a larger than average carbon footprint;
should the affluent directly subsidise housing
for the poor? The answers may lead to an
altogether new form for the Indian city.
Obviously, to succeed, the Prime Ministers
initiative needs a local civic dimension,
wherein cities create their own plans within
the larger framework of the Swachh mission. Without it, the farce may become all-out
satire: bureaucrats will continue to sweep
their own offices with requisitioned brooms,
and Clean India will remain nothing but a
grand political scheme.
(Gautam Bhatia is a Delhi-based architect
and sculptor.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
lack things that are basic to
developed nations. We are giving
One has to look at the way India our best minds to them, but failing
chose to adopt its Five Year Plans to attract them with world-class
and planned the development of its facilities. They know that until our
economy in a different way (For a nation takes measures to control the
place on the world stage, Oct. 10). population, things will keep getting
The process of development is worse and all major issues like
gradual. One must remember that unemployment, poverty, and a lack
even up to 1991, the U.S. was not a of basic amenities will exist.
superpower.
Lavi Gulia,
New Delhi
Shivaraj Gunaki,
New Delhi
The article is a barometer of the
The writer has painted a cautious actual state of affairs, to which many
picture amid the euphoria over the Indians have become indifferent.
working of the hyperactive Indian reforms are clearly being
Narendra Modi-led government. spun around FDI. The recent
While one appreciates the call to agitation by civil service aspirants
reset our priorities and invest in over an aptitude test paper exposes
indigenous capabilities given our the value, utility and character of
demographic dividend, Mr. Modis Indian education. India desperately
pitch for a revival of the yearns for ground-breaking reforms
manufacturing sector has been in education.
glossed over. Rather than lamenting
Sumanth Dontharaju,
over the past, we must chart an
Hyderabad
inclusive development model which
has a proper mix of both foreign
investment and technology and with In accusing the BJP-RSS combine of
opportunities for entrepreneurship. trying to appropriate the legacy of
Aatish Sharma, our revered freedom ghters, the
Mohali writer reveals a rather parochial
outlook where Gandhi, Nehru and
Every country exports what is its Patel are brand-names to be invoked
best and is in demand in the exclusively for Congress campaigns
international market. If developed and in naming programmes
countries are interested in our best launched by Congress-led coalitions
battleground
for
minds and yoga, what is wrong with (History,
that? Talented minds that are politics, Oct.10). He seems to
driven by ambition will always ow ignore almost 130 years in which the
to where the ambience is Congress was transformed from
supportive. The writer should being a national platform for the
remember that the Indian market is freedom struggle to becoming
quite attractive to multinational another party of the present day.
corporations. Most of them have set
Devroop Mitra,
up their manufacturing base either
Kolkata
directly or through joint ventures.
With the Make in India Subramanian Swamy has attacked
programme and the impetus to FDI almost every historian. India is
in defence and railways, it will pluralistic,
inclusive
and
become better in the near future.
multicultural, our greatest strength.
L. Swaminathan, In our modern society, there can
Chennai always be several interpretations of
history. At no stage has there been
One wishes the writer had cited an attempt to underplay the great
solutions also. We rejoice at getting contributions of Pandit Jawaharlal
the basics from others because we Nehru in Indian history, as Mr.

India on world stage

History and politics

Digvijaya Singh alleges. Nehrus

Glimpses of World History still
remains one of the most remarkable
books ever written. He was a
visionary architect who drafted the
blueprint for shaping Indias future.
C.V. Venugopalan,
Palakkad
The usurping of national icons
happens because there are no such
tall leaders in the RSS-BJP combine.
However, the attitude of the
Congress in considering Nehru and
Patel as its private property shows
the Congresss desperation for
survival. It is also a fact that
socialists have completely ignored
the contributions of Savarkar.
Jayesh Gajre,
Bangalore

IMF on reforms
The IMF insisting on reforms in the
Indian labour market reects the
rather reckless attitude of the
institution (Oct. 10). The entire
world is aware of how labour
reforms made against the backdrop
of globalisation have created a
chaotic situation in many a country.
Not a week passes without some
form or other of agitation by
workers. Such reforms are
essentially predatory in nature.
Recommending such steps to be
taken in India will only hamper the
vibrant
and
result-oriented
movement of the working class, and
put the countrys growth in pause
mode.
A.G. Rajmohan,
Anantapur

On M.V. Kamath
M.V. Kamath left an indelible mark
in ink not only with his
contributions to numerous papers
but also as a writer of over 50 books
(Oct. 10). He loved and lived for
writing, never compromising on
journalistic ethics. His books,
Gandhi A Spiritual Journey and A
Reporter At Large, are classics to be
read by every budding journalist.
R.R. Gandikota,
Kakinada
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

For public health as political priority

H
Sujatha Rao

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014

Childhood, peace
and development
he Nobel Peace prize for 2014 has been awarded to two South Asian activists in the eld of
child rights, Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi. The rst is a thoughtful and fearless
teenager who, despite deadly opposition, lit a path to
learning and liberation for girls in Pakistan. The second
is a 60-year old campaigner from India who has worked
to liberate children from the shackles of compulsory
labour and bondage. In choosing them, the Nobel Committee may appear to have chosen unusually. Malala is,
at 17, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize winner ever, and
Mr. Satyarthi a relatively unknown name outside the
region and his eld of work. However, the Committees
choice has been hailed as both bold and necessary. It has
sought to underscore a crucial but widely disregarded
prerequisite for development and peace in our times,
namely, the responsibility of nations to provide the
means of formal education, leisure, safety, and care for
all children. As this years citation says, It is a prerequisite for peaceful global development that the rights of
children and young people be respected. In conictridden areas in particular, the violation of children
leads to the continuation of violence from generation to
generation. Growing up in the Swat Valley of Pakistan
under the brute rule of religious bigots opposed to
education for girls, Malala grasped the link between
school education and particularly education for girls
and larger social change early in life. How an outspoken child fought a public campaign for the right to
education, surviving even an attempt on her life, is well
known. She continues to lead the battle for girls education from her current location in Birmingham in the
United Kingdom.
Mr. Satyarthi, a founder of Bachpan Bachao Andolan
(Save Childhood Campaign), has led the rescue of over
78,500 children from bondage. He gave shape to the
Global March Against Child Labour, a coalition of national campaign groups. He too sees education as the
key instrument for the liberation of children from poverty, exploitation and neglect. In his pioneering work
on child labour and school education in India, the late
political scientist Myron Weiner wrote: Modern states
regard education as a legal duty, not merely a right:
parents are required to send their children to school,
children are required to attend school, and the state is
obliged to enforce compulsory education ... This is not
the view held in India. Primary education is not compulsory, nor is child labour illegal. The Nobel Peace
Prize this year recognises the crucial links among child
rights, labour, and school education and, in doing so,
recognises one of the most fundamental prerequisites
of a better tomorrow for millions of children
everywhere.

ow does Prime Minister Narendra

Modis focus on population,
health and subjects like public
hygiene, the facilitation of toilets
and ensuring preventive health through yoga
t in with his party, the Bharatiya Janata
Partys manifesto; one which promises a National Health Assurance (NHA) mission,
with its aim of providing cashless hospitalisation in order to reduce out-of-pocket expenses? Why do these concerns seem
contradictory? Does pursuing one necessarily hurt the other? These are legitimate questions and concerns. This must be looked at in
a global context where there is discussion on
Universal Health Coverage (or National
Health Assurance) widening inequity in the
short and medium term.
In seeking the maximisation of the health
and well-being of every individual, the NHA
subsumes the essentiality of access to those
elements that constitute the foundation of
good health tap water (where conveyance
of contamination is reduced by 99 per cent), a
toilet and sewerage system, environmental
hygiene, nutrition and basic primary care
and in the process, reduce 90 per cent of all
morbidities and a substantial proportion of
mortality. Evidence of efforts in the United
Kingdom to contain tuberculosis by ensuring
better housing and nutrition, the successful
eradication by India of guinea worm infestation using improved water systems, or eradicating polio through improved sanitation
and universal immunisation are some useful
reminders of the interconnectivity between
disease and environment, and between public health and clinical science.

Addressing inter-State disparities

In India, public health has been severely
neglected with about 44 per cent of the population having access to tap water and toilets,
42 per cent of children being malnourished
and a majority of people being treated by
quacks. Setting right these issues requires an
expenditure of an estimated Rs.10.7 lakh
crore (recurring and non-recurring) against
which the 12th Plan has allocated Rs.3.8 lakh
crore. The most challenging of these is in
bridging inter-State disparities, with 70 per
cent of this investment required by the
northern States that have restricted scal
space, three quarters of the disease burden
(preventable with effective primary health
care) and weak implementation capacity,
making inadequate funding not the only constraint. For example, in Bihar, 2.5 per cent of
its rural population has access to tap water,

CARTOONSCAPE

Caste, clan and

compromise
or the Bharatiya Janata Party, the stakes in this
weeks Assembly elections in Haryana are considerably lower than in the case of Maharashtra. Haryana is smaller both in terms of size and
population, and by way of resources and revenue. And,
the risks in a strategy of ghting the elections without a
major ally are conceivably lower too. Unlike in Maharashtra, the BJP does not have to compete with a former
ally for the same ideological space. While the break with
its long-time ally, the Shiv Sena, in Maharashtra is certain to leave festering wounds that might not heal quickly, the end of the alliance with the Haryana Janhit
Congress is of no great political import. The alliance in
Haryana was more opportunistic in nature, forged as it
was on the basis of vote-bank arithmetic than on the
strength of a common, long-term ideological vision or
political programme. The challenge for the BJP now is to
build on its Lok Sabha success when it projected itself
as a viable alternative to the Congress at the national
level and emerge ahead of the others in an election
fought more on local issues, caste affinities, and clan
loyalties. Until now, the BJP had been content to ally
with regional parties that traced their ideological roots to
the Congress, such as the Indian National Lok Dal, the
Haryana Vikas Party and the Haryana Janhit Congress.
For the rst time, the saffron party, boosted by its successes in the Lok Sabha election, seems to be in a position
to make a strong pitch for power on its own in Haryana.
The politics of religion might not work in Haryana, but
the BJP is banking not on the appeal of its Hindutva
ideology but on the failure of the politics of caste and clan
that seems to drive the INLD, the HJC and the Haryana
Jan Chetna Party. Given the fragmented nature of the
Haryana polity, where regional satraps hold sway in their
own geographical efdoms, the BJP might have to factor
in a situation where it falls short of a majority in the
90-member Assembly. Unlike in a Lok Sabha election, in
the lower democratic tiers, caste and clan could play a
more decisive role. The saffron party cannot afford to be
as averse to a post-poll tie-up as it was to a pre-poll
alliance with the HJC. The go-it-alone strategy that the
BJP adopted in Maharashtra and Haryana is part of its
long-term ambition to make greater inroads in States
where it had been dependent on allies so far. But after the
elections, if the results so require, the party might be
more than willing to make the necessary compromises in
the interests of immediate power. With the Congress still
in disarray, and INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala back in
jail to serve the remainder of his sentence in a corruption
case, the BJP might be the biggest beneciary in the
rst-past-the-post electoral system.

CM
YK

MONDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2014

Third, the primary health-care system that

the earlier Telugu Desam Party government
had accorded high priority to has all but collapsed. Among 19 major States, Andhra Pradesh incurred the lowest expenditure of
Central grants (National Rural Health Mission and disease control programmes) as
proportional to its total health spending during 2011; 16 per cent against 31 and 28 percentages by Maharashtra and Karnataka
respectively and the only State to slash its
primary care budgets from 53 per cent to 46
23 per cent of its people to toilets and a households offers interesting insights. While per cent and allocate just 9 per cent for secbattered primary care system. Should such a it showed an overall reduction in out-of- ondary care down from 12 per cent during
State then invest in providing these basic pocket expenditure and increased hospital- 2007-12. In comparison, RAS was provided
services or in buying expensive care from isation, it had limited impact in reducing 23 per cent of the health budget for less than 1
private hospitals through insurance? What impoverishment or indebtedness among the per cent of the population (not necessarily
are the moral and ethical imperatives that two lowest quintile groups. For example, poor) or 11.3 per cent of total hospitalisation.
while per capita expenditures for inpatient In the absence of cost containment measures
must guide State action?
treatment nearly trebled from Rs.391 in 2004 and generous pricing, costs are likely to escaThe Andhra Pradesh experience
to Rs.1,083 (2012) for the poorest quintile, it late further, impinging on the scal space of
In this regard, a review of the impact of the was down to Rs.1,174 from Rs.1,819 for the the two new States of Telangana and Andhra
Rajiv Aarogyasri Health Insurance Scheme fourth quintile group. Likewise, while the Pradesh. RAS reimbursement rates, say for
(RAS) in former Andhra Pradesh is illustra- proportion of those incurring catastrophic hysterectomy, laparoscopy, appendectomy
tive of how the State consciously chose to expenditures more than doubled from 1.1 per or coronary bypass are higher when comabandon primary care for universal coverage cent to 2.8 per cent and 1.2 per cent to 3.4 per pared to other schemes in the country. Prices
of a select set of tertiary and secondary care cent for the two lowest quintiles, the richer set through negotiations with private hospiquintiles faced reductions. Such wide dis- tals by committees without professionals
conditions.
In 2007, RAS, a State sponsored health parities are attributed to the concentration like chartered accountants, health econoinsurance scheme (covering 85 per cent of of half the accredited hospitals in seven dis- mists or systematic unit costing methodologies can only be arbitrary. Further,
package rates provide scope for gaming the
system. In the absence of standards to meaScaling-up the National Rural Health Missions efforts
sure quality and regulations to control proto revive the primary health-care system would be far cheaper
vider behaviour and fraud, perverse
and more sustainable than buying care from private
incentives are created, as reected in unnecessary diagnostics, procedures and surgeries.
hospitals.
RAS was a bold initiative to address the
problem of impoverishment that has been
the population, with sum assured of Rs.1.5 tricts (towns) resulting in an inequitable dis- partially addressed. Contrary to Tamil Nadu,
per family for cashless treatment in 486 hos- tribution of and gross deciencies in the which witnessed a 10 per cent shift in inpitals involving 938 procedures) was supply side, making access difficult and un- stitutional deliveries from private to public
launched to provide risk protection against affordable for those residing in backward sector, the increase in Andhra Pradesh is in
catastrophic illnesses that have the poten- districts.
the private sector, resulting in huge borrowtial to wipe out a lifetime savings of poor
ings. Access to social determinants and the
families. The justication was that there Impact on poor
substantial load of preventable diseases like
was effective demand for treatment for nonSecond, 49 per cent of reimbursement was diarrhoea, TB, sexually transmitted diseases
communicable and chronic diseases, low in- for cardiac, cancer and kidney failure (38 per and HIV, are bouncing back due to policy
vestment in public hospitals and a burgeon- cent of patients or 0.5 per cent of popula- neglect and mismanagement and continue to
ing private sector, unaffordable to most.
tion), while the two bottom quintiles suf- be issues requiring attention.
RAS was perceived to be a popular pro- fered impoverishment, premature mortality
gramme. But there is a thin line between and disability due to lower respiratory in- Policy corrections
perception and reality. Several commenta- fections, diarrhoeal diseases, tuberculosis
The Andhra Pradesh story shows that lestors have critiqued it as having boosted the (TB), ischemic heart diseases and malaria sons need to be learnt in order to reboot
revenue streams of private corporate hospi- conditions eminently preventable and treat- health policy along a more sustainable path.
tals without necessarily reducing health ex- able with effective primary care.
Scaling-up the NRHMs efforts to revive the
penditures or improving health outcomes.
Besides, partaking RAS benets implies primary health-care system; incentivising
While there are no systematic evaluations forced hospitalisation for outpatient care, in- lifestyle changes; universalising access to soto assess the impact of RAS, a recently con- creasing the risk of hospital acquired infec- cial determinants; revamping and embedducted household survey in Andhra Pradesh tions and higher indirect expenditures that ding the primary care system within the
by Access International covering 8,623 the poor cannot bear.
community; increasing investments in public sector hospitals, along with improving incentive structures, employing requisite staff
and upgrading infrastructure would be far
cheaper and more sustainable than buying
care from private hospitals for services that
are available in the public hospitals at a third
of the price. Private care must supplement,
not substitute public care. Finally, in order to
ensure patient well-being and value for money, standard treatment protocols and guidelines need to be developed; costing of
procedures undertaken, monitoring systems
for quality such as rates of survival, hospital
acquired infections and readmissions developed and regulations enforced alongside establishment of grievance redress systems,
with fair compensation and penalties against
malpractice.
A systemic reform of the health sector in
order to achieve the three principal objectives of equity, efficiency and quality is long
overdue. This will require skilful political
management and stakeholder negotiations.
Governments at the national and State levels
need to give up rhetoric and knee-jerk responses as substitutes for real action. Instead, they need to make interventions
intelligently, decisively and strategically to
ensure that solving one problem does not
give rise to another. They also need to stay
focussed on doing the simple things right in
the rst instance so that disparities reduce
and the poor reap the benets in real terms.
(Sujatha Rao was Health Secretary in the
Government of India.)

A systemic reform of the health sector in order

to meet the key objectives of equity, efficiency and
quality is long overdue. In this, the Central and
State governments need to make interventions
intelligently, decisively and strategically so that
the poor reap the benefits

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Nobel Peace prize
The decision to award this years
Nobel Peace Prize to Kailash
Satyarthi and Malala Yousafzai was
very wise and timely (India, Pak.
crusaders share Nobel, Oct.11).
With tensions persisting along the
India-Pakistan border, the decision
has sent out the right message to the
masses. Conventional rivals India
and Pakistan have been brought
together beautifully through an
award, that too for humanitarian
causes. It has been proven that
humanity has got broader meanings
and cannot be conned to class,
caste, age, sex, religion, nationality
or ethnicity. Its a master stroke by
the Nobel Committee.
AnamikaS. Nair,
Shillong
Kailash Satyarthis excellent work
has nally been recognised at the
highest level, in stark contrast to
what is happening in India where
we are busy awarding the Padma
awards to those who strive for their
individual excellence, of course
with some exceptions. Is it not a
shame not to recognise the seless
service of people like Mr. Satyarthi?
Mohd.Thayyab,
Hyderabad
The Norwegian Nobel Prize
Committee has made the right
decision in awarding the Peace
Prize to Malala and Mr. Satyarthi.
This is a proud moment for
Pakistan and India. No doubt, it will
boost the child rights movement all
over the world. What is most
impressive in Malalas statements
on sharing the prize was her hope

that the Prime Ministers of both

countries would participate in the
Nobel Prize ceremony in December.
C.A.C. Murugappan,
Kothamangalam, Tamil Nadu
Pakistani troops should learn from
the Nobel Committees decision
on the one hand a citizen of their
country is contributing to peace in
the world while on the other they
are killing people and destroying
efforts for peace. It is a great
decision by the Nobel Committee to
present the award jointly and try to
bridge the gap between the two
nations.
Yogita Sharma,
Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh
How grossly the state undervalues
its committed and valued global
citizen is reected in the fact that
the nomination of Mr. Satyarthi for
this coveted and respected prize
was made by members of the
European Parliament and not the
Indian government. One is sure that
the
media
and
political
opportunists will bask in his glory
and try to associate their names
with the prize. We must talk
substance instead of indulging in
symbolism and tokenism.
Mukul Anand,
New Delhi
The award is a recognition for
Indian human rights NGOs who
have been working quietly as the
fth pillar of Indian democracy and
battling against the odds. This is
also a reminder for Indian and
Pakistani political establishments
that the bigger enemies both of
them face are poverty, exploitation

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
and persecution. This is also an
opportunity for the Indian media to
have a relook at its priorities and
look beyond praising pseudopolitical idols and their suspect
ideologies.
Jeevan D.,
Thiruvananthapuram

History and politics

This refers to the two articles by
Subramanian Swamy and Digivijaya
Singh, History, a battleground for
politics (Oct.10) and History and
the nationalist project (Oct.11). I
urge them both to speak the truth
and not play with the publics
emotions. They should unearth
history which is backed by facts
rather than presenting their own
viewpoints. Mr. Swamy should have
spoken
about
Savarkars
contributions to the country and
Mr.
Singh
about
Nehrus
contributions.
Gadde Vannurusaheb,
Proddatur, Andhra Pradesh

to the real sons of the soil.

Samarjit Mishra,
New Delhi

Clean sweep

As a way of life, the Swachh Bharat

Abhiyan sanitation programme is a
welcome
initiative
(Sunday
Anchor page, Oct. 12). At the same
Mr. Satyarthi winning the prize is a
time, it exposes the failure of
proud moment for all Indians. But
various schemes like the Central
the fact is that hardly anyone knew
Rural Sanitation Programme and
who he was. He has not even been
the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan in
awarded a Padma! Why didnt the
achieving the desired sanitation
media nd the time to cover his
targets. It is this past experience
marvellous work earlier? There are
that
reminds
us
of
the
bound to be many more Kailash
ineffectiveness
of
sanitation
Satyarthis in the country who are
schemes. The Swachh scheme
devoting their whole lives for
must lay emphasis on householdothers, but have never got any
level participation.
P. Venkatesu,
encouragement, appreciation or Mr. Swamy has touched upon many
delicate issues in his writing.
Hyderabad
attention.
Kapil Dev Surira, Gandhijis
perception
about
Kannur, Kerala Nehrus lack of leadership and
decision-making powers forced him The picture headlined Past comes
to appoint Sardar Patel as Deputy knocking (Oct.12), of a postman in
This refers to the report, Modi Prime Minister even though there Bangalore dressed in the uniform of
seems to forget that he is Indias was no such post mentioned in the yore, was good. The Department of
PM (Oct. 12), where senior Constitution. That Nehru did not Posts will always be remembered
Congress leader P. Chidambaram give any orders to the Indian Army for how it envelops the entire
has taken exception to Prime till the Chinese had intruded deep nation with its ubiquitous presence
Minister Narendra Modis alleged into Indian territory shows his lack delivering letters to loved ones,
comments on the state of affairs in of astuteness. Patel is a true legend mail for our soldiers on the border,
Maharashtra. It is amusing to hear and a person to be admired.
news for a job-seeker or even
Chinmay Jain, handing over money orders to the
such a comment from a former
New Delhi elderly. There are instances of
Minister who is known to be
balanced. He should know that Mr.
postmen in remote areas going to
Modi worked from the grassroots The Indian National Congress, the extent of reading out letters to
and has many achievements to which fought for independence, was people who are illiterate or visually
show. He does inspire. The a national movement, not a political challenged. One remembers Pankaj
Congress must introspect on how it party. Its members were patriots Udhass evergreen melody Chitthi
mismanaged governance for over 10 who had the national interest above Ayee Hai. As far as India Post is
years when it had the golden any personal greed. Merely making concerned, it is India Post Hum
a balance sheet of leaders and Sab Ka Dost.
opportunity to do things well.
V.S. Ganeshan, dividing them in terms of their
T.S. Karthik,
Bangalore loyalty would amount to disrespect
Chennai

Postal week

PM of Gujarat

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

A gamble after calculations

N
Varghese K. George

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014

The art
of memory
he world outside France wondered who Patrick Modiano was after the French author
was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature last
week. The 69-year-old author, who is wellknown in France, a country where he has been often
compared to Marcel Proust, has been largely unknown
to non-French readers. This is because despite having
written more than 30 novels and childrens books and
screenplays, few of his works have been translated into
English. But, as the Swedish Academys previous Permanent Secretary, Horace Engdahl, once said: The
purpose of the prize is to make them [writers] famous,
not to tap them when they are famous. Mr. Modianos
work has stemmed mostly from the complexities of his
childhood. His father was an Italian Jew who did not
wear the yellow star when Jews were being deported,
and instead came closer to organised crime gangs with
ties to the Gestapo. His mother was a Flemish actress
whose heart, as the writer once described, was so cold
that it made her lapdog leap through the window to
death. The French writer Clemence Boulouque told
The New Yorker: Modiano has returned again and
again to the same themes: the pull of the past, the
threat of disappearance, the blurring of moral boundaries, the dark side of the soul. As for writing, as Mr.
Modiano put it, Its something natural, its something
thats part of my life.
In his writing career spanning almost 50 years, Mr.
Modiano has shunned publicity and the media limelight, and like many of his works, has remained a
mysterious character to his readers. This has led to the
origin of the French term modianesque, used to describe a mysterious person or situation. In some of his
interviews the writer has suggested that writing is not
something that brings pleasure to him but is more of a
burden from which he cannot set himself free. He
compares it to driving in fog when one doesnt know
where one is going, but nevertheless one has to go on.
Mr. Modianos work often deals with his Jewish origin
and the period of Occupation. In a 2010 interview to
France Today, Mr. Modiano said: After each novel, I
have the impression that I have cleared it all away but
I know Ill come back over and over again to tiny
details, little things that are a part of what I am. In the
end, we are all determined by the place and the time in
which we were born. It is this quality that the Nobel
Prize committee recognised, describing it as the art of
memory with which he has evoked the most ungraspable human destinies and uncovered the life-world of
the occupation. Unlike the detective Guy Roland in his
best-known work, Missing Person, Mr. Modiano
doesnt have the luxury of losing his memory. But even
if it had, he would always attempt to nd it.

a praant-waad, na jati-waad,
na bhasha-waad; sirf aur sirf
vikas-waad, vikas-waad, vikas-waad, has been a tagline
Prime Minister Narendra Modi invariably delivered at a higher pitch, in 26 rallies across
Maharashtra over the last 10 days. Say no to
regionalism, caste and linguistic politics; let
us only have politics of development, development, development.
Aided by his close lieutenant and party
president Amit Shah, Mr. Modi has been out
to change Indian politics. By breaking the alliance with the oldest ally of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena, the
Modi-Shah combine has taken a huge risk
neither blame, nor glory would be shared with
anyone else.
The gamble was based on some good political calculations. The educated people are all
with Mr. Modi. It is stupid of the Congress to
say that he has not done anything in ve
months. I will wait for three years before I say
whether Mr. Modi has delivered or not, said
Chandrakant Raskar, 60-year-old owner of a
motorcycle garage in Saswad, a village near
Baramati, the hometown of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar. Mr.
Raskar, however, is planning to vote for the
Sena candidate in his constituency, where he
says the BJPs candidate is weak. Even many
Sena voters such as Mr. Raskar trust Mr. Modi. He will investigate and send Congress,
NCP leaders to jail.

A Modi focus
Mr. Modi has done everything right so far.
His popularity remains intact, says Suhas
Palshikar, professor of political science, Pune
University.
Realising this, the Thackeray cousins
Shiv Sena (SS) chief Uddhav and Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena (MNS) Raj have focussed
their campaign almost entirely on Mr. Modi,
trying to portray the BJPs Maharashtra project as a Gujarati conspiracy to take control of
the State and reminiscent of the Mughal invasion of the Maratha kingdom in the 17th
century. Mr. Modis tagline, in tune with the
pan-Indian narrative that he has been cre-

Amid the confusing campaigns by rival parties,

Narendra Modi has been able to consolidate
a vote base for the BJP in Maharashtra, mobilising
enough majoritarian sentiment without making
any controversial statements and promising
instant development
ating, is an emphatic rebuttal of SS-MNS politics. There is a strong middle class among the
Marathis and Mr. Modi is more appealing to
them than any Marathi sentiment, says Prof.
Palshikar.
Pitching one linguistic group against another will not have any pan-Maharashtra appeal in any case, points out Sudheendra
Kulkarni, political analyst and Chairman, Observer Research Foundation, Mumbai.

Appeal to Marathi pride

But Mr. Modi himself is aware of Marathi
pride as an electoral factor and has appealed
to Marathi sentiments by invoking symbols
and memories that the region is associated
with. The BJPs big push is also backed up by

The idea of a multi-cornered

restricted to sound bites.

the maturing of a project of canvassing the

backward caste population known as the
Madhav formula, in which Malis, Dhangars
and Vanjaris, three prominent Other Backward Classes (OBC) communities, were mobilised. Gopinath Munde, a Vanjari, had
emerged as a pan-Maharashtra leader in the
process; despite his demise recently, the process continues to galvanise the BJP. In all his
speeches, Mr. Modi paid tributes to Mr.
Munde.
Pushed to a corner, Uddhav Thackeray has
shown an aggressive streak through the campaign, which is a sign of hope for the Shiv Sena.
His predominantly young audience unlike
Mr. Modis that comprises a mix of all age
groups watches the leader with some curiosity and possibly a tad of scepticism, as a

CARTOONSCAPE

CM
YK

Marathi sentiments, anti-incumbency is no

longer the primary determinant of peoples
decision, says Sanjay Nirupam, Congress
spokesperson. Mr. Modi is possibly more a
liability than an asset for the BJP in Maharashtra.
The Congresss strategy is to keep its voter
base intact, which, if it happens, can give the
party some relief in a situation of a multicornered contest. But this calculation is based
on the assumption that there is no signicant
anti-incumbency in the State, which is certainly not the case. The only thing working for
the Congress is the fact that splitting with the
NCP has helped the party recover some
ground, aided by the perception that former
Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan is an honest
person, and the enthusiasm generated among
the cadres by the decision to contest alone.
But Mr. Chavans honest but ineffective tag
is akin to the image that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had before the Lok Sabha
election.

picture of his son Aditya Thackeray and then

his father and Shiv Sena founder Bala Saheb
ash on the screen behind him. In Pune city
last week, he concluded his speech by invoking Bala Saheb. You love me not because I am
Uddhav, but because I am Uddhav Balasaheb
Thackeray, he said as the crowd clapped in
approval. But his entire plan to moderate the
Shiv Sena has been ruined, as he tries hard to
challenge the BJPs Hindutva credentials.
The BJP has compromised Hindutva. But we
havent, he repeats. The projection of his
24-year-old son as successor reinforces the
narrative that Mr. Modi has woven all other The Shah-Modi campaign
Amid these self-doubting parties and their
parties are corrupt and dynastic. Cousin Raj is
not having an easy time as he echoes Uddhav confusing campaigns, Mr. Modi has been able
Thackeray in his speeches. Why is Mr. Modi to consolidate a vote base for the BJP, mobilising enough majoritarian sentiment without
making any controversial statements, projectcontest in Maharashtra may be
ing his tough cop image and promising instant
development, in his characteristic sharp campaign. At a rally in Pimpri near Pune, and
before his arrival, a recorded speech of Mr.
starting a bullet train between Mumbai and Modi narrated the killing of terrorist Ishrat
Ahmedabad? Why not to Chennai, Delhi or Jahan by the effective Gujarat police. LatKolkata? he asked a rally in the suburbs of er, stressing the importance of a single party
Mumbai last week. From an outt that grew majority, he said: When I went to the U.S.,
by abusing Hindi-speakers, and which shared everyone was forced to listen because I am a
the legacy of the Senas campaign against Prime Minister with the complete mandate of
South Indians, this did not sound particularly the people. Now, I have no excuse to make for
appealing. Mr. Modi has also rammed home not delivering. I will deliver and when I seek
the point that the Sena outts have been your votes in 2019, I will count my achievements to you Who says change cannot hapextortionists.
pen? Change has already begun to happen.
Congress strategy
Mr. Amit Shah, who has himself addressed
While the Thackerays are fanning regional, 18 rallies, has been micromanaging the eleclinguistic emotionalism, the Congress is com- tion with 55 coordinators senior leaders of
forted by the fact that its 15-year rule, in the party such as Union Minister for Petalliance with the NCP, is less of a discussion roleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradpoint. With the Sena and MNS focussing on han and Bhupinder Yadav put in charge of a
the drawbacks of the BJP and trying to rake up cluster of 5 to 8 Assembly constituencies each.
Under them are placed 280 Assembly segment
level coordinators, mostly from outside the
State. The entire BJP machinery that micromanaged the highly successful Uttar Pradesh
parliamentary campaign has been supplanted
to Maharashtra.
The handicap of the BJP is that there is no
State level leader who commands a wide appeal. But then no party has it, says Mr.
Kulkarni.

Multi-cornered?
Unaware of the differentiated anti-incumbency that affects him more than the Congress, NCP leader Ajit Pawar evidently
overplayed his hand, by deciding to go it alone.
The public sentiment against the NCP is at
play. The Thackeray cousins are peddling the
regional-linguistic card with limited impact,
and in any case, both cannot have the same
plank for a long time into the future. The MNS
and the NCP are ghting hard to postpone
their extinction, and the NCP, with its deeprooted network of mofussil interest groups
that sustains it, may be more successful than
the MNS in achieving that.
With two parties the NCP and the Congress facing strong anti-incumbency, and
two others the SS and the MNS struggling
to offer any positive narrative, Mr. Modi
comes across as the only messenger of hope.
That is likely to ensure that the idea of a
multi-cornered contest in Maharashtra may
be restricted to sound bites. The BJPs edge
over the others is not easy to miss in Maharashtra.
varghese.g@thehindu.co.in

The freedom
to marry
he move from decriminalising homosexuality
to granting legal status to gay marriages may
seem a simple and logical step. After all, the
quintessentially liberal principle is that all
people ought to be treated with equal respect and without discrimination in every matter. This dictum would
apply equally to the question of marital preferences as
with sexual orientation. But contemporary history tells
a more complex story. The United States Supreme
Court last week gave assent to same-sex marriages in
ve States. It did so by declining to hear challenges to
earlier appeals to court rulings. Since the relevant circuit courts also have jurisdiction in six more States, the
latest decision is in effect expected to allow marriages
among homosexuals in a majority of States 30 of
them. This seeming surge in political and judicial support is a far cry from the situation that existed just a
decade ago. Thirteen States amended their constitutions in 2004 to ban same-sex marriages, reacting to
Massachusettss move to allow them. They were echoing the spirit of the 1996 federal Defense of Marriage
Act, which dened the institution of marriage as a union
between man and woman. It further authorised States
that banned such marriages to withhold recognition to
gay couples from other States where this was legal.
But then, two Supreme Court rulings last year repudiated the view that a world where gays and lesbians
were wedlocked was an affront to heterosexual marriages a view that was espoused by social conservatives and religious groups. In one ruling it struck down
the 1996 legal provisions as being unconstitutional and
violative of the Fifth Amendment protection of individual liberty, and denial of equal benets to same-sex
couples. In the other, the court nullied the ban on gay
marriages in California, which, incidentally, was the
rst State to overturn the ban on inter-racial marriages
in 1948. A number of States have since lifted the ban on
same-sex marriages, including the ve States that have
now won the courts backing. Globally, 17 countries
predominantly European ones, besides two from Latin
America have ended the exclusion of same-sex couples from marriages and consequent social and legal
benets. While The Netherlands was the rst to do so in
2001, Britain, France and Brazil amended their laws
suitably last year. Icelands Johanna Sigurdardottir was
the worlds rst openly lesbian Prime Minister, between 2009 and 2013, and was the countrys longestserving member of Parliament. Freedom and equality,
it is fairly obvious, eventually and inexorably lead to a
gender-neutral stance on many social questions that
may have been settled by convention in the past.

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Cyclone Hudhud
Cyclone Hudhud may have been
marginally less ferocious than the
1999 super cyclone, but the point is
that the authorities seem to have
learnt their lessons (Hudhud
leaves trail of destruction, Oct. 13),
ensuring that thousands living on
the eastern coast were swiftly
evacuated to safer places. Unlike in
the past, large-scale tragedy
appears to have been averted;
infrastructure, though, will have to
be rebuilt.
Gone are the days when we used
to throw our hands up in the face of
natural disasters. Thanks to the
advancement
of
scientic
knowledge, we know that disasters
are natural phenomena built into
planetary life. The fact that Odisha
is extending all help to Andhra
Pradesh is welcome.
G. David Milton,
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Nobel for Peace

This refers to the report Pak.
Taliban criticises Nobel for Malala
(Oct. 12). This is certainly the right
time for the Taliban to change its
fanatical attitude. It must be proud
of Malala for representing the
country on a global platform. It
should efface its extreme thoughts
and walk in the golden footprints of
Malala.
V. Nagaraju,
Ongole
News of Kailash Satyarthi having
been chosen as a joint awardee of
the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize brings a
moment of great joy and pride to
every Indian. It was more of a
pleasant surprise as many of us are
not familiar with his name. How the
media failed to highlight the
yeoman service being rendered by
this activist is a mystery. The credit
goes to the European Parliament
for due recognition of this august

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Andolan has been active in

factories, brick kilns and carpetmaking workshops where children
and their indebted parents often
pledge themselves to work for
decades in return for short-term
There is no doubt that it is a loans. He has rescued and
moment of joy and pride for all of us rehabilitated thousands. When
that the Nobel Peace prize has been such great work has been done to
awarded to an Indian. But what is uphold the dignity of children, it is
sad is that the Indian government indeed a moment to introspect why
lags behind in recognising such inspirational souls are relegated to
people. The prole of Mr. Satyarthi the background.
Neeraj Babu C.,
shows that he was awarded the
Mumbai
Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights
Award by the U.S. way back in 1995;
there was not even a Padma from
our own government. Is this the The tug-of-war between the
importance we accord to human Congress and the BJP as to who is
the real precursor of Gandhijis
rights?
Prasanth Balantrapu, legacy is evident in the two articles,
Tiruchi History a battleground for politics
(Oct. 10) and History and the
Kailash Satyarthi won the race as a nationalist project (Oct.11). That
dark horse, surprising most Nehru was pragmatic and at times
Indians. He deserves full applause. overambitious is well-known. The
On the other hand, Malala is a global new government taking the
personality as she stood up to the initiative in nding all gures in
Taliban. As for Mr. Satyarthi, it is history a place in the contemporary
unfortunate that there has been no Indian scene will be a welcome step.
Ravi Mannethu,
prominence or publicity for his
Pullad, Kerala
work. It is gratifying that Europe
could spot him and make a detailed
study of his work. The statements I am one of those born just after
by Mr. Satyarthi after winning the Independence and one of those fed
Prize show his humility. Malala too on history largely written by British
and Nehru-era historians. Till I
retains the innocence of a cherub.
K.R. Unnithan, read certain articles and books by
Chennai nationalist authors, I had believed
that it was largely Nehruvian
Mr. Satyarthis moment of glory leaders
who
fought
for
shows the unfair manner in which Independence and played a major
our civilian awards are given. The role in shaping Indias destiny. The
government does not shy away from fact is that people are slowly
awarding the Padma to those who opening their eyes to the real
court controversy. The government history. I also dont agree with
needs to ponder over why the Subramanian Swamy that books
Padmas seem to be more loyalty written by Nehruvian historians
awards than a recognition of merit. should be burnt. Real history should
K.B. Dessai, be written by patriotic people. The
Margao, Goa truth cannot be suppressed for long.
Basavaraj Modi,
Kailash Satyarthis Bachpan Bachao
Gulbarga
personality among us and for
nominating him for the award. One
is also struck by his humility.
G. Charumathi,
Chennai

History and politics

Dr. Swamy might be right in saying

that there is a political conspiracy as
far as the teaching of history is
concerned. The time has come to
reframe the school curriculum to
teach correct history.
R.K. Pandey,
New Delhi

Dr. Swamys article tries to

characterise any struggle against
anyone who was not Hindu as a
freedom or independence
struggle, and a clear inkling of the
right-wing agenda of rewriting
history. The rise of intolerance and
fundamentalism in all their shades
starts from the basic principles that
It is accepted that Jawaharlal Dr. Swamy espouses.
Nehru stands tall among all Prime
Rahul Menon,
New Delhi
Ministers despite his failures,
including Kashmir and China. We
do not know what was in the mind Historical facts must be studied
of Gandhiji when he focussed on with reference to political and
Nehru despite the overwhelming social circumstances. Dr. Swamy
support Vallabhbhai Patel had. In does not mention the role of the
this, it is the maturity and wisdom right wing in escalating communal
of Patel that stands out; he tensions. He also does not mention
continued to function despite being its role in opposing social and
relegated. Dr. Swamy should political reforms such as child
remember that the Congress has marriage, sati pratha and widow
had more intellectuals in it than in remarriage by various reformers,
any other national party. Nehru which it did in the name of
himself was a great writer and noted preserving culture. It also distanced
for his scientic temper. Who can itself from movements such as the
forget stalwarts such as Rajaji, Quit India Movement. His rhetoric
Pattabhi Sitaramayya, K.M. Munshi has more political than academic
and C.R. Doss? Do present-day overtones.
Vasu Vatsyayan,
Congressmen even know of
Lucknow
Sitaramayyas The History of the
Indian National Congress, running
to 600-odd pages? While it is
essential to update history, this can
be done without casting aspersions The Indian Super League event,
with its aim of lifting the standard of
on freedom ghters.
R. Krishnamurthy, football in India, is a move that
Coimbatore sends out hope (Oct. 13). It will help
open doors for Indian players to
The hijacking of Sardar Patel as a perform in European league events
representative
of
rightist and improve Indias ranking.
nationalists
is
absurd
and Though ISL has been compelled to
irrational. Nehru and Patel were utilise the services of cricketpoliticians
who
worked
in players and lm-stars to promote
congruence and not against each the game, it must steer clear of the
other. The denigration of Nehru temptation to run the show as a
reveals a lack of understanding of business, like the IPL.
his contributions towards laying
Instead, the prots earned can be
the foundation for an edice of used to set up advanced coaching
development, progress, scientic and training football centres to
temper and pluralism.
nurture talent.
Arjun Phillips,
K.C. Iqbal Vavad,
New Delhi
Kozhikode

A new ISL dawn

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

10

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Doctrine of graduated escalation

T
Brahma Chellaney

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

Rebuilding
Visakhapatnam
he level of preparedness and the response by
the Andhra Pradesh and Central governments,
along with their agencies, in the face of the
severe cyclonic storm Hudhud that ravaged
Visakhapatnam on Sunday, have been commendable,
and show that the lessons from previous natural calamities have indeed been learnt. Odisha was spared to a
large extent, while the port city of Vizag bore the brunt
of the cyclone. The airport, the naval establishments,
roads, power lines, and the entire infrastructure of this
garden city stand testimony to the massive scale of
destruction. The disaster management teams, along
with the Navy and other agencies, prepared the ground
before the cyclone made landfall by evacuating about
two lakh people living in vulnerable areas along the
coast. And, after the storm crossed the coast, rescue and
relief operations began. It is going to take a few weeks to
get the basic infrastructure back in place. Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu rushed to review the situation,
and Prime Minister Narendra Modi made an aerial survey of both States on Tuesday. Mr. Naidu has asked for
an ad hoc interim assistance of Rs.2,000 crore and Mr.
Modi has offered Rs.1,000 crore for immediate relief.
Ensuring the availability of essential commodities, provision of drinking water and milk, and early resumption
of power supply must remain urgent priorities.
The Andhra Pradesh-Odisha coastline has always remained vulnerable to high-intensity cyclones and natural calamities. The Bay of Bengal itself has been among
the most frequented areas for severe cyclones, and Hudhud is the 75th such to hit the Andhra coast since 1871.
With the evolution of the National Policy on Disaster
Management and the creation of special teams to manage such disasters, India has clearly succeeded in vastly
reducing the number of casualties over the years. But
there is no way the damage could have been minimised.
Neighbouring States have offered relief to get the power
lines back on track and the Prime Minister should provide much-needed relief to Andhra Pradesh to overcome
the havoc. The newly bifurcated State has already been
seeking special category status to be eligible for substantial grants from the Centre to build a new capital
and infrastructure. Mr. Naidu will do well to get foreign
investors and the private sector to build a new airport
for Visakhapatnam, where the badly mauled airport is
under the Navys control and has not exactly been an
asset to aid the development of this port city. The major
National and State highways have suffered extensive
damage and have to be relaid to their original standards.
Given the massive number of trees felled by the cyclone,
the authorities need to get the greenery back in place. It
will be a major challenge to rebuild Visakhapatnam and
its environs.

he India-Pakistan peace process

has produced a lot of process over
the decades but no peace. While India is a vibrant, buoyant nation, Pakistan remains a notion in search of a national
identity. Yet, given Pakistans foundational
loathing of India, many among Pakistani strategic elites still pine for Indias unravelling or
at least Balkanisation.
In this light, the Pakistani military has
again escalated border tensions with India.
Since the deadly 2008 Mumbai attacks it
scripted, it has initiated intermittent exchanges of re along the Line of Control
(LoC), including this summer and then in recent days. This months artillery exchanges
along the LoC were unusual in terms of their
ferocity and the sudden eruption in violence,
resulting in the highest single-day death toll in
over a decade.

Difficult road to peace

In provoking a second series of ring duels
along the LoC since Prime Minister Narendra
Modi took office, the Pakistani military establishment which includes the rogue InterServices Intelligence (ISI) was doing more
than using gunre as cover to allow Pakistantrained militants to inltrate into India. It was
also testing the resolve of Indias new government while simultaneously undermining Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and
derailing any prospect of a rapprochement
with India.
Every time a Pakistani leader wishes to
build better ties with New Delhi, his effort is
undermined by the military masterminding a
serious cross-border attack or terror strike.
Indeed, it was during Mr. Sharifs previous
stint in office that a major Indian peace initiative as symbolised by then Prime Minister
Atal Bihari Vajpayees bus diplomacy collapsed spectacularly, with the bus itself getting hijacked allegorically to Kargil, triggering
a war. This has served as a cautionary lesson
on how the pursuit of peace can lead to war
when one sides military is not answerable to
the civilian government.
The Pakistani military actually sought to
test Mr. Modi soon after he won the national
election. On the eve of his inauguration, ISIbacked militants stormed the Indian consulate in Afghanistans western city of Herat. The
Pakistani plan was to take some Indians hostage and bring India under siege just as Mr.
Modi took office. The plan, however, went
awry as Indian security guards at the consul-

Narendra Modis cautious, measured start has

masked his discreet gradualism. Border and other
provocations are moulding his policy approach,
founded on the premise that preventing hostile
actions hinges on Indias capacity and political will
to impose deterrent costs as a response
ate heroically killed all the attackers.
The U.S. blamed the Herat attack on the
same ISI front organisation it held responsible for the 2008 Mumbai strikes the Lashkare-Taiba (LeT). The LeTs leader, Haz Saeed,
remains the Pakistani militarys darling, with
his public life mocking Americas $10-million
bounty on his head and the U.N.s inclusion of
him on a terrorist list.
The daring attack in Herat, 1,000 kilometres from Pakistan, must have had the ISIs
nod. The ISIs S branch tasked specically
with aiding and abetting acts of terrorism in
India and Afghanistan handles the LeT, the
Jalaluddin Haqqani network and other terror
organisations. This shows that the ISI is itself
a terrorist entity.
The ISI is searching for new tools and methods to bleed India. In this context, is this

groups. In fact, Pakistans descent into a jihadist dungeon occurred not under civilian rule
but under two military dictators one (Zia
ul-Haq) who nurtured and let loose jihadist
forces, and another (Pervez Musharraf) who
took his country to the very edge of the
precipice.
Another reminder is that India-Pakistan relations will be shaped largely by Pakistans
internal dynamics, especially its civil-military
relations. Although it is in Indias interest to
help strengthen Pakistani civilian institutions, Pakistans civil society remains too
weak to inuence the direction of ties with
India. In the absence of a structural correction
to Pakistans historically skewed civil-military power equation, a peace dialogue with
India only encourages the Pakistani military
to carry out cross-border shootings, ambush-

A peace dialogue between India and Pakistan only

encourages the Pakistani military to carry out cross-border
shootings, ambushes and acts of terror.
fountainhead of transnational terror now using Osama bin Ladens close associate, Ayman
Zawahiri? The aging Zawahri, who U.S. officials say is hiding in Pakistan, announced the
formation of an Indian branch of al-Qaeda in a
videotaped message released early last month.
The 55-minute video, in which Zawahiri
threatens terrorist strikes across India, indicates that he is not holed up in some mountain cave but ensconced in a safe house, as bin
Laden was.

Pakistans internal dynamics

The ISIs war by terror is a reminder that
the scourge of cross-border terrorism emanates more from Pakistans whisky-sipping
generals than its rosary-holding mullahs. The
real jihadists are the self-styled secular generals, who have reared the forces of jihad and
fathered the LeT, the Taliban and other terror

es and acts of terror.

Mr. Modi and Mr. Sharif come from the
political right and enjoy parliamentary majority. Both are business-oriented and eager to
revive agging economic growth at home. Yet
the expectations raised by Mr. Sharifs presence at Mr. Modis inauguration proved false
because they failed to factor in the role of a
powerful, meddling third party the Pakistani military, which holds virtual veto power
over any fundamental change to the IndiaPakistan dynamic. This party is simply not
ready to allow better bilateral relations because that will undermine its extraordinary
power and privilege in Pakistan.
It is not an accident that this months border provocations by Pakistani forces followed
a power struggle in Pakistan that culminated
with Mr. Sharifs wings being clipped and the
military reasserting authority in foreign pol-

CARTOONSCAPE

Morales and his

moral compass
he 60 per cent mandate that President Evo
Morales received on Sunday for a third term is
remarkably bigger than the rst one 54 per
cent that he got in 2005. That is a measure of
the continuing popular disenchantment with the economic policies of the 1990s. The latest verdict also gives
a sense of the fervour with which Bolivias rst President
of indigenous descent has delivered on his welfarist
redistributive agenda for nearly a decade in one of the
poorest countries of South America. The aggressive nationalisation of the Andean countrys natural wealth has
constituted the backbone of Moraless economic triumph. The size of Bolivias economy has tripled in recent years and it is expected to emerge as the regions
fastest growing state this year. Higher wages and cash
transfers to the elderly and children that have characterised the Morales era undoubtedly lent substance to the
Presidents rhetoric on anti-capitalism and anti-imperialism. However, there is growing concern that the commodities boom of the last decade may soon fade away as
in the case of the other countries of the region. The
government has said that a massive programme of industrialisation would be ushered in to boost growth and
generate jobs. This may be the right strategy for La Paz
to adopt, given that the current share of investment is
just about 19 per cent of Bolivias GDP. A shift away from
the heavy reliance on natural gas as a source of investment would be appropriate in view of the shale gas
explorations in the U.S. and countries in Latin America.
On the political front, Bolivia seems to t into a
familiar pattern of Latin American leaders serving successive terms in office. Brazils Workers Party, in power
since 2002, is seeking another term for President Dilma
Rousseff not to mention other examples in the region.
The phenomenon of political parties centred on the
personalities of strong leaders, who in turn obtain popular backing during elections, is natural in countries
where democratic rule of law is a relatively recent experience. Their ways may sometimes raise concerns about
constitutional checks and balances. For instance, Bolivias Constitutional Court last year cleared Mr. Moraless bid to run for a third term. It reasoned that an
existing provision allowing an incumbent President one
re-election was amended in his rst term and that a
presidential term is computed from the time of the
adoption of the new Constitution. His voters evidently
did not question such an interpretation on Sunday. Its
macro-economic policies have constituted the main
source of the stability of the Morales regime. Democratic accountability and an investment-friendly climate
may be the key to his future success.

CM
YK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

After Hudhud
There is not much that one can do as
far as tackling Natures fury is
concerned, apart from stepping up
support to and relief for those who
bear its brunt (Oct. 14). When we
compare what the IMD did in 1999
and now for Hudhud, the difference
is obvious. Efforts by the NDRF and
the Central and State governments
have contributed much to reducing
mortality.
Yogesh Devgun,
Patiala
Instead of getting demoralised over
the damage caused, the authorities
must look at this as an opportunity
to reconstruct and restart the
process of development in a more
tenable mode, using high-level
technology. The Chief Minister of
the new State must make
appropriate plans while planning
for the new capital in the KrishnaGuntur districts, a cyclone
vulnerable area.
Gopisetty Manohar,
New Delhi
The approximately 970-kilometre
coastline of Andhra Pradesh is both
its asset and liability. Planners in
the new State need to consider
habitation and crop patterns and
the location of industry in the
region in such a manner that
cyclones do not materially impact
assets. One needs to learn lessons
from Japan, which is industrially
advanced despite being very
earthquake-prone.
D.V.S.V. Subbarao,
Kakinada

traders selling goods at exorbitant

rates should spur the authorities
into initiating action against such
people.
Vikram Sundaramurthy,
Chennai
The main difference in the handling
of the ood situation in Jammu and
Kashmir and the impact of Hudhud
is that for the cyclone, the
government got an early warning
and was able to monitor the
situation. In contrast, in Kashmir,
no such data was available to
monitor the rise in water levels.
Floods remain a perennial problem
in many a northern and
northeastern State. Therefore, the
government needs to explore the
use of the latest technology in ood
management.
Sushant Roshan,
New Delhi
Of late, the hand and acts of god
have caused immense damage to life
and property in India. The most
common among these are oods
and cyclones. The National Disaster
Response Force (NDRF) needs to
upgrade its skills in drawing up an
effective plan to handle different
types of natural calamities with
proper coordination with citizens
and NGOs. State governments also
need to provide life support packs
for people that include rations such
as drinking water, milk and readyto-eat food that can last 10 to 15
days. Crucial road links need to be
made all-weather- capable.
M.N. Krishna,
Hyderabad

It is a relief that the cyclone did not

That some people are capitalising cause mass casualties and good to
on the calamity is sad. Reports of note that the IMD has come of age

icy. Mr. Sharif has emerged as a diminished

gure and the main loser from a crisis triggered by street protests that were tacitly
backed by the army and the ISI. With the
military back in the driving seat without staging an overt coup, Pakistans democratic transition has again been disrupted.
Such has been Mr. Sharifs weakening that
he not only had little say in the recent appointment of the new ISI chief, but also his
government, at the behest of the military, has
sought to re-internationalise the Kashmir issue. The intensity of ceasere violations indeed was designed to help shine an
international spotlight on Kashmir and also
demonstrate as to who is in charge of Pakistans foreign policy.

Mortar-for-bullet response
Mr. Modis cautious, measured start has
masked his discreet gradualism. Border and
other provocations are moulding his policy
approach, founded on the premise that preventing hostile actions hinges on Indias capacity and political will to impose deterrent
costs in response to any aggression. In Mr.
Modis policy of graduated escalation, pressure on the adversary begins at low levels and
then progressively increases in response to
the targets continued provocations and
aggression.
There was no Indian reprisal to the Herat
attack, and Indias response to the summertime border shootings was circumspect. But,
in keeping with the doctrine of graduated escalation, this months Pakistani machine-gun
re along the LoC brought a heavy response,
including retaliation with 81-mm mortars,
which have a range of up to ve kilometres.
Mr. Modi wasnt exaggerating when he said
publicly, Pakistan has been taught a betting
lesson.
The mortar-for-bullet response suggests
that Indias policy of appeasement since 2003
is officially over. Indeed, to underscore that
times have changed, the Modi government
was quick to scrap Foreign Secretary-level
talks in August after the Pakistani High Commissioner in New Delhi deantly met Kashmiri secessionists. For Islamabad, meeting
Pakistan-backed Kashmiri separatists was
business as usual, but for Mr. Modis government, such interaction was simply
unacceptable.
Mr. Modi is showing he is no Vajpayee,
whose roller-coaster policy on Pakistan traversed through Lahore, Kargil, Kandahar,
Agra, Parliament House and Islamabad, inviting only greater cross-border terrorism.
And Mr. Modi is clearly no Manmohan Singh,
whose peace-at-any-price approach was
founded on the naive belief that the only alternative to do nothing in response to terror is
to go to war. So, whether it was the Mumbai
attacks or a border savagery, such as a captured Indian soldiers beheading, Dr. Singh
responded by doing nothing.
The real choice was never between persisting with a weak-kneed policy and risking an
all-out war. Indeed, that was a false, immoral
choice that undermined the credibility of Indias own nuclear deterrent and emboldened
the foe to step up aggression.
The Modi government, by building a range
of options, including to neuter Pakistans nuclear blackmail, is indicating that Pakistani
aggression will attract increasing costs. If the
ISI is planning new attacks in India, with the
intent to fob them off as the work of al-Qaedas supposed new India franchise, it can be
sure that it will invite an Indian response
imposing serious costs on the entire Pakistani
security establishment.
Mr. Modi is clearly signalling that Indias
response to the Pakistani strategy to inict
death by a thousand cuts will no longer be
survival by a thousand bandages, but punitive
so as to bolster deterrence and mend conduct.
Given that the do nothing approach allowed
India to be continually gored, prudent gradualism has been a long time coming.
(Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and
the author, most recently, of Water, Peace,
and War.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
in being able to predict the path and
intensity of cyclones without being
dependent on any western agencies.
But the persistent hesitancy of the
government in putting up a
permanent
cyclone-proof
infrastructure on our eastern coast
is evident. It has been established
that October-November is the
season of cyclones and there has
been no attempt at securing our
infrastructure assets.
Tanaka D. Anand,
Mysore

should go in for state funding of

elections as the rst step towards
good governance in Maharashtra
and elsewhere.
Parthasarathy Sen,
New Delhi

world, which will now be

researched, analysed and read by
millions.
Ajay Mathew Jose,
Hyderabad

Public health

Patrick Modiano is the 15th French

writer to win the Nobel for
literature. Le Monde has editorially
commented thus: At a time of
rampant French-bashing, Mr.
Modianos
achievement
was
something of an indication for a
country where Nobel Prizes in
literature ow liberally than oil.
The words of Horace Engdahl, of
the Academy, has the answer: that
the purpose is not to tap them
when they are famous; a pointer to
why Indias Kailash Satyarthi was
also chosen. Nobel Prizes are not
necessarily lifetime achievement
awards.
C.V. Venugopalan,
Palakkad

The issues on health raised by

Sujatha Rao (For public health as
political priority, Oct. 13), as also
by Soumya Swaminathan and
Chapal Mehra (Fighting Indias
silent epidemic, Oct. 13) must be
the cornerstone of any health policy
It is clear that there has been if we are to deal with the burden of
extensive damage; the picture of the disease and overcome the healthairport in a shambles is an example. care crisis that vast sections of the
The impact of the cyclone could population in India face. Improving
have been diminished had coastal basic conditions to promote health
mangrove forests not been cleared. this includes access to safe water,
There are reports that Vizag has lost sanitation and nutrition and
much of its green cover. There has strengthening systems for the
to be a plan now to restore the green public provisioning of health are
cover on a war-footing. Restoring time-tested formulae for better
mangroves should be the nucleus of health. Ms. Raos recommendation
this scheme.
for revamping and embedding the
D.K. Mishra, primary health care system within
New Delhi the community requires an
interdisciplinary orientation that
can lead to the development of
In the multi-cornered contest in innovative
approaches
for
Maharashtra there could be community empowerment through
surprises (A gamble after a
community-centred
public
calculations, Oct. 14). As far as the service system.
Ritu Priya,
Sena is concerned, the person to
New Delhi
watch for is Aditya Thackeray and
the extent to which he is able to
garner votes from the youth. The
Congress has to deal with the anti- The Nobel committees decision to
incumbency factor even though award Patrick Modiano the top
Prithviraj Chavan is honest to the prize in literature is an encouraging
core, while the NCP has to factor in sign for writers who write in
corruption and apathy towards regional languages (Editorial, Oct.
14). In choosing Mr. Modiano, the
farmer distress.
Mr. Modi has pan-Indian appeal. committee has presented a writer
If the BJP wins these elections and his works, hitherto unheard of
comfortably, the Prime Minister outside his home country to the

Maharashtra election

Nobel for Literature

Tharoor dropped
The inability to exercise the
freedom of speech in one of the
oldest
political
parties
is
unbecoming
of
its
stature
(Tharoor dropped as Congress
spokesperson,
Oct.14).
The
Congress must rise above politics
and not force its line on members of
the
party.
The
spirit
of
bipartisanship is a great feature of
good democracies and India has
stood the test of the time in this
regard. The Clean India campaign
is a small step in changing the basic
mindset of our people. The party
needs to focus on its role as a
responsible Opposition and not
mindlessly criticise every move
made by the Modi government.
Adarsh Ladda,
New Delhi
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014

The economic consequences of Nehru

Pulapre Balakrishnan

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2014

Taming
monopolies
t is usually not easy for laymen to appreciate the
work that fetches the Nobel Prize in Economics
or, for that matter, the relevance of such work in
everyday life. It is not so this time, with the
award going to French economist Jean Tirole, the second Frenchman to win a Nobel this year the other
being Patrick Modiano who got the Literature Nobel.
Mr. Tiroles body of work deals with the interesting and
complex subject of regulating monopolies or, as a Nobel official put it so well, it is about taming powerful
rms. The subject has immediate resonance in todays
world where government monopolies in areas such as
electricity and transport are being dismantled and
privatised and new monopolies are establishing themselves in sectors such as information technology and
the Internet. Before Mr. Tirole came up with research
using game theory and contract theory that aid regulation in situations of asymmetric information between regulators and the regulated, simple methods
were used to regulate monopolies. Capping prices and
prohibiting cooperation between competitors in the
same market were two such methods used, but Mr.
Tirole proved that they were not always effective and in
some instances caused more harm than good. Price
caps, for instance, can force dominant rms to cut
costs, which is good but they could in the process lead
to excessive prots for the rm, which is not so good.
Mr. Tirole published a paper in 2006 jointly with
Jean-Charles Rochet that dealt with the interesting
subject of two-sided markets that has direct relevance to todays buzzing world of e-commerce. These
markets bring together buyers and sellers on a platform they own, enable interaction between the two and
charge both sides. Amazon and Flipkart are good examples. Or for that matter, taxi aggregator rms such as
Ola Cabs or Uber. Mr. Tiroles work showed that the
platforms often favour one side to attract the other. For
instance, deep discounts on e-commerce platforms are
used to drag in buyers and in the process bring in more
vendors who pay the platform for its services. Regulators often do not understand the practices due to
asymmetry of information. Mr. Tiroles work is also
important in the context of todays Google-world
where the Internet giant strides like a colossus in the
search domain and regulators are struggling to understand Googles strategies and then gure out ways and
means to regulate it. This years Economics Nobel is
remarkable not just because it is the rst time since
1999 that an American does not gure in it but also
because the Committee has picked a work that has
practical value.

call to burn history books has upped

the ante as the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru approaches. The trouble with history though
is that it would be prudent for us to rst learn
its lessons lest we end up repeating our mistakes. As Nehru was Indias longest serving
Prime Minister, and both triumph as well as
tragedy had accompanied his tenure, this is a
t occasion for a public debate on what had
been attempted in the Nehru era and the extent of its success. I must per force conne
myself to the economics. This, though would
serve as a corrective to the tendency of political historians to most often concentrate on
the other aspects of his leadership. For instance, Sarvepalli Gopals noted three-volume
biography bestows a single chapter on Nehrus economic policy. However, reading
through the speeches of Nehru, we nd that
the economy had remained his continuing
preoccupation even amidst the debates on social policy in the Lok Sabha and on decolonisation in the United Nations. Reading them is in
any case advisable, as strongly held positions
on the economy in the Nehru era have often
been crowded in by ideological predilection
when they have not been clouded over by
ignorance.

Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy
The objective of the economic policy in the
1950s was to raise per capita income in the
country via industrialisation. The vehicle for
this was the Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy, the
decision on this having been taken as early as
1938 by the National Planning Committee of
the Congress constituted by Subhas Chandra
Bose during his all-too-brief and ill-fated
presidentship of the party. The committee
was chaired by Nehru. The cornerstone of the
strategy was to build machines as fast as possible as capital goods were seen as a basic
input in all lines of production. While a mathematical model devised by Prasanta Chandra
Mahalanobis had lent a formal status to the
strategy, it was the so-called plan frame that
had guided the allocation of spending. In retrospect, the allocation of investment across
lines of production in the Second Five-Year
Plan was quite balanced with attention given
also to infrastructure, the building of which

While the failure to initiate a programme of

building the capabilities of a majority of Indians is
a moral failure, we would be missing the larger
perspective if we do not recognise the economic
signicance of the short Nehru era in the long haul
of Indias history
given the state of the economy then the
public sector alone would have initiated.
The Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy had criticised even at the outset. I shall discuss two of
the criticisms at this stage and turn to a third
at a later stage. Thus, Vakil and Brahmananda
argued that the Mahalanobis model neglected
wage goods, being those consumed by workers
who were the majority of the country. While
important per se, in practical terms, this criticism turned out to be somewhat academic as
the plan frame as opposed to the model
had given due importance to agriculture. In
fact, the Green Revolution which is dated
from the late 1960s cannot entirely be divorced from the attention paid to agriculture
in the Nehru era. The Grow More Food campaign and the trials in the countrys extended

that had not been rescinded. Investment licensing though was a central element in planning in India and Shenoy was right in
identifying it as such.

An economy quickened
As the maxim the proof of the pudding lies
in the eating must apply most closely to matters economic, the Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy can be considered only as good as its
outcome. It had aimed to raise the rate of
growth of the economy. With the distance that
half a century affords us and the aid of superior statistical methods, we are now in the position to see that its early success was nothing
short of spectacular. Depending upon your
source, per capita income in India had either
declined or stagnated during the period 1900-

The acceleration of growth achieved in the 1950s has not

been exceeded since. Also, India grew faster than China in the
Nehru era.

agricultural research network both contributed to it. Next, B.R. Shenoy had famously
dissented from his fellow economists by querying the use of controls as part of the planning process. Shenoys is a well-known
position in economic theory that the allocative efficiency of the competitive marketmechanism cannot be improved upon. While
this is a useful corrective to ham-handed government intervention, it was known even by
the 1950s that a free market need not necessarily take the economy to the next level. The
Pax Britannica had been a time of free markets, though coated with political repression,
and this had not helped India much during the
two centuries since Plassey. Moreover, many
of the extant controls were wartime controls

47. Over 1950-65, its growth was approximately 1.7 per cent. Indias economy, which
was no more than a colonial enclave for more
than two centuries, had been quickened. It is
made out that this quickening achieved in the
1950s was no great shakes as the initial level of
income was low and a given increase in it
would register a higher rate of growth than at
a later stage in the progression. This confounds statistical description with economic
assessment. It is a widely recognised feature
of economic growth that every increase in
wealth makes the next step that much easier
to take due to increasing returns to scale. The
principle works both ways, rendering the revival of an economy trapped at a low level of
income that much more difficult. It is worth

CARTOONSCAPE

Behavioural
change critical
hat high toilet coverage without concomitant
utilisation of the facilities at a very high level
and washing hands with soap will not bring
about a reduction in diarrhoeal episodes and
worm infestation, or any improvement in nutrition and
growth, has been clearly brought out in a study undertaken in rural Odisha. The study involved about 4,600
households from 50 villages grouped in an intervention
arm and about 4,900 households from 50 villages in a
control group; there were nearly 25,000 individuals in
each group. The coverage of toilets shot up from 9 per
cent to 63 per cent among those in the intervention
arm within 18 months, compared with an increase from
8 to 12 per cent in the control villages. Eleven of the 50
villages in the intervention arm had toilet coverage of
50 per cent and above; only two villages in the control
group had coverage that was this high. Despite usage at
the household level in the intervention arm being 84
per cent for women and 79 for men and children, it
translated to only about 50 per cent at the community
level. As a result, in both the arms the number of
children below ve years who were affected by diarrhoea was nearly the same. There was no difference in
worm infestation rates or any improvement in nutrition or growth rates, either. There was no decrease in
faecal contamination of water or any signicant drop in
contamination of the hands of individuals.
The results of the trial should serve as a painful
reminder that emphasis on high toilet coverage without ensuring very high usage will not lead to improvement in health indicators. After all, the only way to
reduce the overwhelming load of diarrhoeal and other
pathogenic bacteria in the environment and improve
health indicators is to refrain from shedding such bacteria in the environment. The timing of the results is
perfect. The government recently rolled out its ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission with the aim of ensuring a
toilet in every Indian household by the end of 2019; an
earlier programme primarily targeted families that
were below the poverty line. Building toilets is the
necessary but easier part; bringing about behavioural
change is the more daunting challenge. This is amply
reected in the study, done in accordance with the
governments earlier programme. The Mission should
not remain a mere infrastructure-centred programme
but should give equal priority to creating awareness of
the benets of toilet usage through a massive campaign. On paper, the top priority of the Mission is to
improve toilet usage by bringing about behavioural
change. There is also a provision to monitor usage. It
is important that such ideals get translated into discernible actions and results on the ground.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Rebuilding Vizag
Natures fury is not within mans
control (Oct. 15). Yet, learning a
thing or two from past episodes,
the State government did take
precautionary measures right
from the moment a red alert was
sounded. Though mortality has
been low, the destruction caused is
massive. Let us remember that
Hiroshima and Nagasaki were
rebuilt after being razed to the
ground by atom bombs and that
Japan is a vibrant country today
despite facing perennial threats
from volcanoes, earthquakes and
cyclones. Through public-private
participation, India too can meet
the challenges of nature and march
ahead.
K.D. Viswanaathan,
Coimbatore

Neglect of primary education

Even though we now have reason to believe
that the mechanism of long-term growth that
remains to this day, which is that of cumulative causation, had been ignited by the Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy, the strategy itself
was incomplete. This is best understood by
reference to the Asian Development Model as
it had played out in the economies of east Asia.
These economies had pursued more or less
the same strategy as India in that the state
fostered industrialisation. But a glaring difference marks the Indian experience. This was
the absence of a serious effort to build human
capabilities via education and training. In the
east this had taken the form of a spreading of
schooling, vocational training and engineering education. In India, on the other hand,
public spending on education had turned towards technical education at the tertiary level
too early on. The slow spread of schooling
ensured that the growth of productivity in the
farm and the factory remained far too slow.
Now the pace of poverty reduction also remained slow, and, via positive feedback,
slowed the expansion of demand needed for
faster growth of the economy.
It is intriguing that the issue of schooling
did not gure majorly among Indias planners,
especially as it was a part of Gandhis Constructive Programme. This had not gone unnoticed even at that time. B.V. Krishnamurthi,
then at Bombay University, had pointed out
that the priorities of the Second Five-Year
Plan undergirded by the Mahalanobis model
were skewed. He castigated it for a bias toward
river-valley projects, reected in the paltry
sums allocated to education. But it was the
argument advanced by him for why spending
on schooling matters that was prescient. He
argued that education would enable Indians
to attend to their livelihood themselves without relying on the government, thus lightening the economic burden of the latter,
presumably leaving it to build more capital
goods in the long run as envisaged in the
Mahalanobis model. But this was not to be,
with enormous consequences for not only the
economy but also the effectiveness of democracy in India.
While the failure to initiate a programme of
building the capabilities of the overwhelming
majority of our people is a moral failure of
colossal proportions, we would be missing the
wood for the trees if we do not recognise the
economic signicance of the short Nehru era
in the long haul of Indias history. It was pathbreaking in that a moribund economy had
been quickened. This would have been the
precondition for most changes in a country
with unacceptably low levels of per capita
income. It is yet to be demonstrated how this
could have been achieved in the absence of the
economic strategy navigated through a democratic polity by Jawaharlal Nehru.
(Pulapre Balakrishnan can be reached
through www.pulaprebalakrishnan.in)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

pay close attention to its impact on other essential commodities. The

low-lying areas and factor this into authorities should rein in any
attempt at proteering.
development plans.
Urvashi Yadav,
Shajimon Purushothaman,
New Delhi
Cherthala, Kerala
It will denitely be a huge
challenge
to
restore
the
infrastructure of the garden city
which will demand large-scale
deployment of labour and funds.
The cyclone shows that disaster
management efforts need to be
honed.
Kanishka Pathak,
Dhanbad, Jharkhand

stating in the context that the acceleration of

growth achieved in the 1950s has not been
exceeded since. Also, that India grew faster
than China in the Nehru era.
So if the Nehru-Mahalanobis strategy had
led to such a good start, why were the early
gains not sustained? The loss of an early vitality in the economy had to do partly with political economy and partly with a aw in the
strategy itself. The death of Nehru created a
crisis of leadership in the Congress Party
which was communicated to the polity. It took
almost a decade-and-a-half for stability to be
restored. The instability impacted the governance of the public sector, and public investment which had been the engine of growth
since the early 1950s slowed. Additionally, the
private corporate sector, which contrary to
conventional wisdom had ourished under
Nehru, was initially repressed by Indira Gandhi. Private investment collapsed. This held
back the acceleration of economic growth.

Yesterday it was Srinagar. Today it

is Visakhapatnam. And its the
same tendency everywhere
opportunism
when
calamity
strikes. Proteers must be stopped
and
punished
under
the
Preventive Detention Act. The
government alone cannot go about
the task of rebuilding the city. The
need is for the creation of a force
that assists people in a calamity;
retired people must be at its helm.
The supply of essential items must
be channelled through civil
defence
personnel
and
distribution made against a
digitally supported document such
as Aadhar.
Y. Penchala Reddy,
Hyderabad

As the east coast of India is

vulnerable to cyclones, long-term
measures need to be taken from
the environmental point of view.
Climate change is leading to an
increase in the number of
cyclones. For that, mangroves that
As Indias second largest port by were cleared to facilitate prawn
volume of cargo handled on the farms need to be restored. Green
eastern coast, Visakhapatnam shelter beds will always mitigate
needs to think ahead in facing the impact of a cyclone.
Praveen Nalluri,
potential disasters. Hudhud has
left behind a trail of destruction; it
Vijayawada For the sheer number of people
has also highlighted many grey
using the Indian Railways and the
areas that need special and Though man is said to have innite number of trains that operate
immediate attention. Vizag is a faculties, all his powers pale into every day, the generation of
low-lying city and this must be insignicance when he encounters garbage is mind-boggling (For a
taken into account while planning the calamities of Nature. Restoring Swachh Bharatiya Rail, Oct.15).
to rebuild it. The unique infrastructure facilities and even Dirty coaches, smelly toilets and
topography of the port city with the steel plant will prove to be a an indifferent attitude towards
its hills was thought to give huge challenge. The Chandrababu cleanliness have become the bane
natural protection against storms, Naidu government must work in of our Railways. The public must
but Hudhud has shown this to be tandem with the Centre to revive help the government-run giant by
untrue. Planners must now look at the cyclone-hit city. What though observing discipline in enforcing
restoring the citys green cover and the eld be lost, all is not lost, garbage disposal.
focus on tree species that can should be the slogan.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
withstand natural fury.
Meenakshi Pattabiraman,
Tiruchi
R. Sampath,
Madurai
The lack of cleanliness has
Chennai
India is surrounded on three sides multiple dimensions. One can
From the oods in Uttarakhand, by water and will be subject to blame the Railways for its
Kashmir, the northeast and now natures fury periodically. The inefficiency, but the problems it
the cyclone in South India, the urgent need in the aftermath of faces are massive. There has to be a
effects of climate change are Hudhud is to ensure the supply of well-thought-out strategy in
evident. Planners in India need to power, potable water, milk and which the participation of all must

Swachh Bharatiya rail

be ensured. Private investment

needs to be encouraged by the
Railways. Coaches must have
dustbins placed in the right
locations.
Rahul Yadav,
Tiruchi
Some of the remedies suggested
are for the long term and require
heavy nancial outow. Also, there
must be efforts to involve the
departments concerned. Some
years ago the Railways introduced
a Service Improvement Group
that functioned at all zonal levels.
The station manager was the group
leader who ensured overall
cleanliness and passenger comfort
that included checking whether
fans and lights in compartments
worked. As there was higher-level
supervision, the scheme was a
success. But like many good things,
it was abandoned without notice.
M.K.B. Nambiar,
Mahe
It is time the Indian Railways
adopted state-of-the-art train
maintenance centres. At the same
time, passengers must also be
thoughtful and cooperate in
helping the Railways.
Aziz Luna,
Chandigarh
Cleanliness has to start from the
consumer. The fact is that a huge
amount of litter is contributed by
the travelling public, who must
ensure that garbage is not thrown
on the platforms and on to tracks.
Severe nes could be deterrents,
but who is to monitor this?
Cleanliness within a train is the
responsibility of the Railways and
it must see to it that an agency
entrusted with the job does it
efficiently.
G. Ramachandran,
Thiruvananthapuram

Vedic Maths
The articles, Nothing Vedic in
Vedic Maths (Sept. 3) and
Everything Vedic in Vedic
Maths (Oct. 15) should make us
take a second look at our Vedic
sutras. Since time immemorial, the
Vedas have provided immense
knowledge to aid cutting-edge
innovations
P. Venkatesu,
Hyderabad
Professor James Glovers article
makes some general statements
and does not appear to deal with
the basic issues raised. He accepts
that Vedic Mathematics does not
form part of a body of work, which
is
currently
accepted
as
constituting the Vedas. Arguing
that they may be considered part
of Vedic literature in the future is
being neither here nor there.
The core issue is that Vedic
Mathematics, as it is commonly
understood, deals with shortcuts
in computation with numbers.
Mathematics has gone far beyond
the original disciplines of
arithmetic, algebra and geometry.
Vedic Mathematics deals only with
number computations, which is
just a small part of arithmetic.
Number computations can and
have been mechanised and
computerised. Students should
spend more time with other topics
which develop their logical and
critical thinking. All shortcuts in
computation take advantage of
certain patterns and structures in
numbers. This way, Vedic
Mathematics is no different from
Trachtenberg Speed Mathematics
procedures. If this is Indianising
education, then it is an extremely
short-sighted view of both
education and Indianising.
S. Sundaram,
Chennai
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

The limits of autonomy

A
T.T. Ram Mohan

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014

Turning out
to vote
igh turnouts are becoming more frequent
and very widespread in Indian elections.
That the record turnout in the 2014 Lok
Sabha election was no aberration is becoming evident with the Haryana Assembly election reporting its highest-ever polling percentage and
Maharashtra improving on its 2009 turnout gures.
Whether the increased voter participation is on account of a desire for change at the national and State
levels, or civil society movements on corruption and
other social issues are having a spillover effect on
voters political involvement is not clear, but recent
elections have drawn more enthusiastic electors to the
polling booths. The awareness campaign of the Election Commission together with vigorous campaigning
by candidates and political parties aided by greater
access to polling booths, easier process of voting and
shorter queues have all added up to a high voter turnout. Also, 2014 added more young adults to the electoral rolls, in both absolute and percentage terms, than at
any time before. Those between 18 and 19 years now
constitute 2.88 per cent of the total electorate as
against a mere 0.75 per cent ve years ago. Both political disenchantment and economic contentment can
keep people away from voting. In Indias case, disenchantment seems to have been overcome, and contentment is yet to be.
Like at the Centre at the time of the Lok Sabha
election, the Congress carried the burden of incumbency into the Maharashtra and Haryana Assembly
polls. Both States had voted heavily in favour of the
Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha election, and
despite the political realignments there is no evidence
of a radical change in the ground situation. All exit polls
mark out the BJP as the single largest party, if not the
outright winner, in both Maharashtra and Haryana.
Although the BJP and the Shiv Sena parted ways acrimoniously, a post-poll tie-up should still be possible if
only because the Shiv Sena would rather have a share of
the pie than nothing at all. Any refusal to support the
BJP would also mean that the partys lone Minister at
the Centre, Anant Geete, would have to quit. In any
case, the BJP can count on the support of some of the
smaller parties, including the Maharashtra Navnirman
Sena led by Raj Thackeray, which is waiting to take the
place of the Sena as the preferred ally of the BJP. In
Haryana too, the BJP can count on the support of the
smaller players in the event of the party falling short of
a majority. But even if it emerges as the single largest
party, the BJPs decision to go it alone in both States
would be vindicated only if it is able to repeat its
pre-poll no-nonsense approach in seat negotiations, in
post-poll bargaining on power-sharing.

t a symposium in Switzerland in
May this year, Reserve Bank of India
(RBI) Governor Raghuram Rajan
told his audience, The government
can re me, but the government doesnt set
the monetary policy ultimately the interest
rate that is set is set by me.
All indications are that the position is set to
change. Setting the interest rate will soon
cease to be the prerogative of the RBI Governor. Its hard to resist the feeling that the
RBIs actions over the past year will have
contributed to the changes that are
imminent.
In the present scheme of things, the RBI
Governor consults his four Deputy Governors. There is a Technical Advisory Committee on Monetary Policy with ve external
members that provides advice. The Governor
listens to bank chiefs and economists. But the
nal call on interest rates is that of the Governor alone.
In the past, RBI Governors did not think it
necessary to trumpet the fact. They thought it
more politic to emphasise that decisions on
interest rates were made after due consultation with the government.

RBI autonomy
Discretion is warranted because the RBIs
autonomy is not sanctioned by statute. The
RBI can only be as autonomous as the government wants it to be. Over the years, as the RBI
established a track record of performance,
governments have found it sensible to confer
a large degree of autonomy on the RBI. Governors, in turn, have understood that having
the political authority on board, to the extent
possible, was crucial.
This informal arrangement is poised to end
soon. The government wants to put in place a
formal mechanism that will circumscribe the
RBIs role in monetary policy. Sections of the
political class and the bureaucracy were never too happy with the autonomy the RBI has
enjoyed. Their hands may well have been
strengthened by the RBIs actions over the
past year. In particular, the RBIs attempt to
insulate ination targeting from government
inuence and its zeal for ination targeting

Over the years, as the RBI established a track

record of performance, governments have found it
sensible to confer the bank a large degree of
autonomy. Governors have also understood that
having the political authority on board was crucial.
This informal arrangement is poised to end soon
itself appear to have backred.
In March 2013, the Financial Sector Legislative Reforms Commission (FSLRC) headed
by Justice B.N. Srikrishna proposed the creation of a Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)
for deciding monetary policy. The MPC
would comprise the Governor, one Deputy
Governor and ve external members appointed by the government, of whom two would be
appointed in consultation with the RBI Governor. One representative of the government
would be present but would have no voting
rights. The United Progressive Alliance
(UPA) government did not act on this propos-

January 2015, 6 per cent for January 2016 and

thereafter a target of 4 per cent with a band of
plus or minus 2 per cent.
The intention was clear. Not only would
the RBI set an ination target on its own, the
MPC that would be mandated to achieve the
target would be constituted entirely by the
RBI. The government would have no role in
the matter. To have expected any government
to accept these proposals required more than
ordinary naivete.
In the period since, the RBI has gone on to
act on the Patel committees ination targets
with a zeal that many in the business commu-

Like the global war on terror, the RBIs targeting a CPI

ination rate of 6 per cent threatens to turn into a
never-ending pursuit of an ever-moving adversary.

al. It was, perhaps, best countered through a nity must nd disquieting (although few are
quiet dialogue with the government.
willing to say so). At a conference in Mumbai
last month, industrialist Y.K. Modi told the
Targeting inflation
RBI Governor that he needed to reduce the
Instead, in January 2014, the RBI came up interest rate by at least 200 basis points.
with the report of a committee headed by There was a ripple of laughter in the room.
Deputy Governor Urjit Patel. The committee One was not sure whether it was because the
proposed an MPC with three internal mem- members of the business world found the
bers (the RBI Governor and the Deputy Gov- suggestion unreasonable or because they
ernor and executive director in charge of thought it had no chance of being accepted.
monetary policy) and two full-time external
The RBI has kept the repo rate unchanged
members who would be appointed by the RBI. at 8 per cent since January 2014. CPI ination
The Patel committee contended that in- has declined in recent weeks to below 8 per
ation targeting should be the primary ob- cent, which is the RBIs target for January
jective of the RBI, that is, the RBI should have 2015. The RBI, however, refuses to consider a
a clearly-dened number for ination that rate cut until it is convinced that it will meet
monetary policy must target. It then proceed- its target of 6 per cent for January 2016.
ed to spell out the ination targets: consumer
This could prove a tall order. Oil prices
price index (CPI) ination of 8 per cent for have tumbled because global economic

CARTOONSCAPE

A commendable
effort
ndias Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), with
the consummate ease that has become the rockets hallmark, placed the third Indian Regional
Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) spacecraft
into orbit in the early hours of Thursday. Over the years,
the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has
steadily enhanced the capabilities of this rocket, which
was originally developed to put remote sensing satellites
into orbits so that it could carry heavier satellites than
before, inject them into orbit with greater accuracy and
take on a range of missions including launching the
lunar probe, Chandrayaan-1, as well as the Mars Orbiter
Mission. Its record of 27 consecutive successful ights is
a tribute to the meticulous preparations and attention to
every tiny detail that goes on behind the scenes before
each launch. Indeed, the latest launch was postponed by
almost a week in order to attend to a technical glitch that
had cropped up.
The IRNSS constellation will give India guaranteed
access to what has become a critical service in the
present day navigation satellite signals. Americas
Global Positioning System (GPS), with worldwide coverage, is the leader in the eld. Russia, for its part,
established a similar capability with the Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS). But others worry
about becoming wholly dependent on them for a service
that is vital for military operations as well as in many
civilian sectors. Europe is therefore in the process of
putting its own constellation of Galileo navigation satellites in place. China is likewise creating the BeiDou
Navigation Satellite System; a regional service has already been launched and it intends to achieve global
coverage by around 2020. Using its seven satellites, the
IRNSS system will beam accurate navigation signals
over India and up to 1,500 km from its borders. Three of
those satellites have already been launched and ISRO
plans to have the remaining satellites in place by the
middle of next year. By adding four more satellites, India
has the option to extend the area covered by its navigation system. Meanwhile, ISROs Space Applications
Centre in Ahmedabad has undertaken the development
of receivers that can utilise the IRNSS signals and is also
helping industry do the same. Early trials using these
receivers are going to get under way. Efforts are also
going into chipsets for portable devices that will utilise
those signals. A market assessment carried out by a
well-known consultancy company indicates that there is
potentially a huge market available in the subcontinent.
Turning this potential into reality is going to be a challenge, and ISRO will necessarily have to play a leadership role here.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Assembly elections

Rebuilding Vizag

Most people in India have noted

that Narendra Modi is proving to be
the countrys most active Prime
Minister to date. If exit polls are to
be believed, the trends in the
Haryana and Maharashtra elections
will show that the Modi magic still
prevails.
Hansraj Bhat,
Mumbai

Cyclone Hudhud has battered

coastal Andhra Pradesh and parts of
Odisha (Priority to restore power,
supply essentials in Vizag, Oct. 16).
Men and material have been rushed
to the affected areas. In all this, it is
unfortunate
that
Telangana
appears to be maintaining a stony
silence. Why has there been no
word of empathy?
Sachin Patnaik,
Bangalore

Could we be witnessing great

change in Maharashtra and
Haryana? Those who waxed
eloquent about an abating Modi
wave after the BJP suffered
electoral reverses in U.P., Rajasthan
and Karnataka might have to eat
their
words
after
the
announcement of the results on
Sunday.
While Modi critics might well
play up an anti-incumbency wave, it
has to be accepted that the Prime
Ministers charisma remains intact.
Large-scale
corruption
in
Maharashtra and suspect land deals
in Haryana may have made the
BJPs job that much easier. As far as
Maharashtra is concerned, the BJP
is likely to vanquish the two Senas
and the Nationalist Congress Party.
C.V. Aravind,
Bangalore
The record voter turnout in
Haryana and reasonably high
polling in Maharashtra (Oct. 16) are
heartening and augurs well for a
democracy like ours. If exit polls are
to be believed, the dice is loaded
against the Congress. The BJP
appears to be rapidly gaining
ground under Mr. Modi, as the BJP
and its policies and programmes
appear to have struck the right
chord with voters. The writing on
the wall is for all to see. It seems to
be clear that voters are no longer
interested in the Grand Old Party.
N.J. Ravi Chander,
Bangalore

The near-destruction of the Vizag

airport raises questions. Chennai
too is a coastal city that is
occasionally hit by cyclones. Its
airport terminal building is mostly
built of metal and glass. Arent
weather conditions and suitability
of
materials
taken
into
consideration while building such
facilities? If expensive and fancy
constructions cannot last even a
decade, it will be a shame.
C.G. Rishikesh,
Chennai

Oil prices

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2014

growth has been poor. However, supply

shocks, such as disruptions in the Middle East
or in Ukraine, could quickly reverse the fall.
Foreign funds have exited markets in emerging markets including India on expectations
of a rate hike in the U.S. This has caused the
rupee to depreciate which, in turn, gives an
upward push to ination.
A signicant part of ination in India is
structural in character and it arises from
shortages of supply. Food ination is an everpresent threat given that nearly 50 per cent of
the weight in the CPI is accounted for by food
items. As wages rise with economic growth, a
rise in the ination rate is to be expected.
Growing nancial inclusion, which results in
greater monetisation of the economy, also
tends to fuel ination.
For these reasons, the Economic Survey of
2010-11 had judged that wholesale price ination of around 5 per cent was inescapable.
This would translate into CPI ination of 7-8
per cent. Like the global war on terror, the
RBIs targeting a CPI ination rate of 6 per
cent threatens to turn into a never-ending
pursuit of an ever-moving adversary.

Rate cut
Not lowering interest rates risks derailing
the incipient recovery in the Indian economy.
We need a revival in investment to ensure an
early return to a growth rate of over 7 per
cent. The RBI Governor has argued that a cut
in interest rates will not make much of a
difference to investment because it does not
reduce the cost of funds signicantly. This is
true but an interest rate cut could still provide
a stimulus to the economy.
A rate cut would lead to an increase in the
value of government bonds held by banks.
This would enhance bank capital and make
banks more willing to lend. It would boost
cash ows at highly indebted companies and
enable them to access both loans and equity.
Thus, a rate cut could stimulate both the
demand for credit and the supply of credit.
Market rates already show signs of softening. Several banks have cut deposit rates in
recent weeks. The RBI annual report (201213) shows that the weighted average lending
rate on fresh loans has been trending down
since September 2013. In keeping policy rates
xed, the RBI risks falling behind the curve.
The new government has thus far been
circumspect in its dealings with an RBI Governor of international stature. However, it
was unrealistic to have expected a government keen to revive the economy not to react
to the RBIs initiatives on monetary policy.
The reaction has not been long in coming.
The government is said to be planning an
eight-member MPC dominated by ve external members, as proposed by the FSLRC.
The concession is that the RBI Governor will
have a say in the selection of all external
members along with the government and one
outside expert. The ination target will be set
by the government or require its endorsement. These measures will amount to a dilution of the autonomy the RBI has had in
formulating monetary policy. They may also
limit the exibility the RBI has to respond to
external shocks.
In an economy such as ours, it is entirely
legitimate for the political authority to want a
say on ination and interest rates as these
impact the lives of people more critically than
in a high-income economy. Through a process of consultation and persuasion, RBI governors had managed to keep the government
on their side even while exercising substantial autonomy. Any attempt to change the
situation to the advantage of the RBI was
bound to invite a response from the government. Sure enough, the Empire has struck
back.
(T.T. Ram Mohan is professor at IIM
Ahmedabad.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
prices. In a country where the price
of oil impacts the prices of other
goods and services, some relief is
essential.
P.O. Koshy,
Hyderabad

Minster laid the foundation for

growth, followed much later by P.V.
Narasimha Rao in the 1990s who
gave momentum to this growth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi is
now working towards roping in the
superpowers for further growth. In
a democracy like India, unlike a
The economic vision of the totalitarian regime, growth will be
Nehruvian era (The economic in stages and steps. Any attempt by
consequences of Nehru, Oct.16) anyone to distort history will not be
was one where Nehru succeeded in fair.
C.P. Chandra Das,
laying a lasting foundation for
Arlington, U.S.
systematic
and
consistent
economic development. That it
brought about a sea change to the
devastated state of the economy
during the initial years of The article, For a tree on every
independent India was evident. eld boundary (Oct. 16), sheds
Nehru could give an impetus to light on the importance of treeeconomic growth through his bold based farming in mitigating
vision
of
industrialisation, greenhouse gases and climate
infrastructure development and change for which solutions are
being widely debated on the world
inception of new technology.
Pramod Gouri, stage. It will be a win-win situation
Rohtak for every person who is involved in
agroforestry
as
it
has
Professor Balakrishnan seems to multidimensional benets. The
glorify Nehru, as has been the burden cannot rest entirely on the
tradition in India. Any failure has farmer for taking up agroforestry as
been attributed to Mahalanobis it involves an element of risk;
(criticised for his trickle-down farmers in India already face a grim
approach) and all successes were of situation due to various factors.
Nehru (whose socialist philosophy While taking up agroforestry, a
was associated with Mahalanobis farmer
needs
technological
economic theory). The lack of a support, access to credit, political
vision to develop the capabilities of support and, primarily, the support
Indians was not simply moral of his community.
failure, but an economic one as
India has a meagre percentage of
well that threw India backwards. Its land area with tree cover (as
effect was not visible immediately, different from forest cover) which
but India paid a cumulative price should be increased. Agroforestry
for this in 1991 when it was virtually would be a simple and innovative
declared bankrupt. There is a need way to deal with the problems
to look at history not from a arising due to anthropogenic
subjective Nehruvian stance, but an activities and unforeseen weather
objective economic point of view.
events.
Sweety Gupta,
Balaji Akiri,
New Delhi
Hyderabad

Nehru and economics

Agro-forestry

Oil prices have recorded their

biggest daily fall in more than three
years (Global oil prices in free fall
after production glut, Oct. 16).
There is now much bargaining and
hard-selling between the oilproducing nations which will
eventually benet the rest of the
world reeling under the impact of
skyrocketing prices. It also raises
speculation that this development
could mark the beginning of the end
of OPECs monopoly of prices. In
future, there could be a paradigm
shift in pricing towards the U.S. and
Canada which have abundant shale
deposits and also perhaps Russia,
which has plenty of crude oil.
Nalini Vijayaraghavan,
Thiruvananthapuram The rst Prime Ministers
contribution to the growth of India I appreciate the writers view that
Despite the fall in oil prices, the can never be sidelined. Rome was we need to focus on the Indian
government has hardly reduced not built in a day. The rst Prime Railways too in the ongoing Swacch

Swachh Bharatiya rail

Bharat Abhiyan programme (For a

Swachh Bharatiya Rail, Oct.15).
However, I disagree with his view
that this is the right opportunity
to address the issue of cleanliness
on the Railways premises. Rather,
it is high time this is corrected.
The Railways should shed their old
ways of working in silos and adopt
creative ways. Else, this too will be a
missed opportunity to get its house
in order.
Rahul Gautam,
Agra
It is my privilege to litter, your
duty to clean is the general
perception of those who use the
Indian Railways. Some system has
to be evolved to charge the user the
cost of cleaning compartments,
especially the reserved and airconditioned compartments. The
Railways should also go in for a
higher degree of mechanisation to
clean platforms and trains rather
than depend on labour. There has to
be a system in place, or else even the
much-talked-about bullet trains
may not be neat and clean.
G. Kesavan,
Madurai

Corporate response
The article, Poor response to PMs
call on toilets (Oct. 16), indicates
how responsible the Indian
corporate sector is in fullling its
social responsibilities. To build
16,009 units when 2,44,934
government schools are in need of
toilets is a sluggish response.
Corporate giants such as the Tatas,
the Birlas, the Ambanis and the
Adanis and who appear to support
the Prime Ministers ideas must
take up one of Mr. Modis dream
projects and implement it before
August 15, 2015. Business czars
need to be a bit more humane
towards society in general and
millions of students in particular.
Raveendran K.N. Nair,
Pullad, Kerala
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

A line without ceasefires

T
Ashok K. Mehta

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014

Some relief for

Jayalalithaa
he logic of granting bail post-conviction and
pending appeal is that were the appellate
court to overturn the verdict, an innocent
person who is not expected to ee justice
would have been kept in prison unfairly during the
period of hearing of the appeal. The Supreme Court,
while granting interim bail to former Tamil Nadu Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa, has also made the point about the
speedy disposal of the appeal and taken care to obtain
an assurance that she would not seek adjournment of
her appeal in the Karnataka High Court. The apex court
also required the High Court to dispose of the appeal
within three months, again underscoring the importance of speedy redress. Indeed, Chief Justice H.L.
Dattu specically referred to the past conduct of Ms.
Jayalalithaa in prolonging the trial for 18 years. Evidently, the court did not want to be seen as being lenient
on an issue of corruption involving public servants
while allowing her bail. This was especially so since the
High Court, while denying her bail, had cited the Supreme Courts own observations, in a different context,
of corruption as a violation of human rights. The grant
of bail was not meant to take away from the seriousness
of the charges for which she was convicted by the trial
court. Now that the trial is over, the question of inuencing witnesses or tampering with the evidence did not
arise, and bail suggested itself, especially in the context
of the Special Public Prosecutor, Bhavani Singh, not
having raised any objection in the High Court.
While bail is no doubt a matter of great relief for Ms.
Jayalalithaa, this is but one step in the long haul ahead.
The legal battle is far from over, and one way she can
return as Chief Minister is with the High Court staying
her conviction an unlikely prospect in the immediate
future. Actually, her best chance for a quick return to
public office would be not through a stay of conviction,
but via a reversal of her conviction on appeal in the High
Court. Once back in Chennai, Ms. Jayalalithaa can be
expected to take on an advisory role for the AIADMK
government and restore some of its lost energy. Although the law and order situation did not spiral out of
control in Tamil Nadu during protests against her conviction, the administration seemed paralysed by Ms.
Jayalalithaas legal troubles. She must desist from functioning as an extra-constitutional authority interfering
in the administration, and instead nd for herself a role
as an interface between the party and the government
in policy formulations. Chief Minister O. Panneerselvam quite clearly is looking for political guidance from
his party leader, and Ms. Jayalalithaa can surely help
without breaching the bounds of constitutional
propriety.

he deadly exchange of re at the

border over 10 days this month has
ended or at least is on pause till the
next round of Pakistani trigger-happiness. The Line of Control (LoC) is animated
by what veterans who have spent most of
their salad days manning posts astride it call
its local dynamics. On October 10, just
around the time when the ring was petering
out, an ebullient Prime Minister Narendra
Modi thundered at an election rally: Pakistan has got a betting lesson. They will not
dare to repeat it. Our jawans have shut their
mouth.
He may have spoken too soon as he does
not understand the dynamics that activate
the LoC. One more ceasere violation is
round the corner! But he got right his forecast
on October 8, Air Force Day, while speaking
to reporters that soon everything will be
all right. While this episode of ring may
have ended, all will not be alright till the
Pakistan Army has decided it is alright, and
some day, return to observing the ceasere
agreement of November 2003.

The Modi governments ability to deal with

Pakistan and China will be no different from what
previous governments have done. The military
balance with Pakistan does not permit action that
amounts to a deterrent and a betting response to
ceasere violations since India has not developed
the wherewithal and political will for it
servers Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), derecognised by India after the
Simla Agreement which focussed on bilateralism. Article 4(ii) of the Simla Agreement
reads: the LoC resulting from the cease re
of 17 December shall be respected without
prejudice to the recognised position of either
side. Neither side will alter it unilaterally irrespective of differences and refrain from
threat or use of force in violation of this line.

Maintaining strategic parity

Pakistan should stop ceasere violations

now and understand the reality: that times
have changed in India, said Union Home
Minister Rajnath Singh. This is reminiscent
of the days after Indias nuclear tests in 1998
when leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) asked Pakistan to lay off Kashmir. Even
before those threats could register, Islamabad carried out its tit-for-tat nuclear tests. No
one should forget that Pakistan will eat grass
in order to maintain strategic parity with India. It is this sacred mission for which it will
sup with the devil if required. China, the United States and the Islamic world, notably Saudi
Arabia, will not let Pakistan go down especially after it acquired nuclear weapons. The
common refrain from BJP leaders including

Clearly, IEDs being laid was synchronised

with scuppering Pakistan National Security
Advisor Sartaj Azizs peace overtures to India,
Violations and reasons
starting October 4, when he said that PakisCeasere violations occur cyclically and tan wanted peace with India. This cycle of
are often premeditated but are invariably
linked to keeping the LoC hot and alive in
India must get used to ceasefire violations, as the Pakistan
order to internationalise the Kashmir issue.
Feuding local commanders, testing the metArmy
will use the LoC as a punching bag to express its rage
tle of opposing new battalions on the LoC,
and defiance against its government as well as India.
tit-for-tat tactical responses, aiding inltration and maintaining moral ascendency
across the Line are the usual reasons for exchanges of re. This is frequently accompa- ring was conned to small arms and heavy Mr. Modi is: this is a new government ... we
nied from the Pakistan side by Border Action mortars only no artillery reecting that have come to power with 282 seats ... the
Teams (BAT) laying ambushes, planting im- neither side wanted to escalate the conict. world now recognises India. Still, India can
provised explosive devices (IED) and raiding TV commentators went overboard talking neither make the Pakistan Army stop vioposts. In 2013 for example, the accent was on about war when there was not an iota of a lating the ceasere agreement nor give it a
actions by border action teams; this year it is chance for it. When the ring had caused betting deterrent response.
on laying IEDs. Additional reasons for the considerable damage to life some killed and
The ground reality is that even with 404
ring started by Pakistani Rangers are: derail- many wounded on both sides and the law of seats, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had to
ing the peace process, fouling up the atmo- diminishing returns had set in, Pakistan seek a meeting with President Gen Zia-ulsphere before the Assembly elections in chose to stop/suspend the ring. It had Haq in the 1980s to defuse the India-initiated
Jammu and Kashmir and, last but not the achieved its immediate objectives of interna- Operation Brass Tacks. India does not posleast, testing Mr. Modi.
tionalising Kashmir and souring the ambi- sess decisive conventional military superiorNine times out of ten, it is the autonomous ence for talks. The unintended consequences ity to calibrate its military response to
Pakistan military that initiates the ring of the episodic ring are that they will help ceasere violations in a manner that will imthough there is no way to ascertain this in the the Modi government in the Assembly pose unaffordable costs. This is precisely
absence of the United Nations Military Ob- elections.
what Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley

CARTOONSCAPE

Challenge to
mainstream parties
aybe not much should be made of a rsttime entry to the Westminster Parliament
by a party that was until recently seen as
being on the political fringe. Even so, the
by-election win last week by the U.K. Independence
Party (Ukip) of Nigel Farage says something about the
surge in support for the far-right anti-European Union
(EU) parties beyond the May 2014 elections to the European Parliament. Equally, it marks an important moment in the steady undermining of the political centre in
Britain by the mainstream parties a space that is
increasingly occupied by anti-immigrant and anti-EU
forces. As with Marine Le Pens far-right National Front
in France and the Danish Peoples Party in Denmark,
Ukip emerged on top in Britain, capturing 24 seats in the
Strasbourg legislature and 27.5 per cent of the vote.
Other radical right-wing parties also managed to pull
their weight, ranking third in Finland, Austria, The
Netherlands and Greece. Germanys anti-euro party,
launched in 2013, won seats in the EU Parliament; it also
has a presence in three German states. Now, the former
Conservative Member of Parliament, Douglas Carswell,
clinched the Clacton-on-Sea win for Ukip, and the party
came a menacingly close second in a Greater Manchester seat against the Labour party. A third by-election
may be called soon, following another defection by a
Conservative. The outcome is a pointer to the political
uncertainties ahead of the countrys next general elections some 200 days away.
The latest results have triggered intense speculation
on whether it is the Tories or Labour that would be hurt
the most by a further consolidation of Ukip at the hustings. Mr. Farage is already trumpeting the outcome as a
sign that his party is the real alternative the voters crave
for. Having abandoned their traditional right-wing position for a hardline anti-immigrant and anti-EU stance
over the years, the Conservatives are faced with Ukip
wooing the same constituency. The loudest voices right
through their current term with the Liberal Democrats
have been those of the Tory back-benchers. They have
pushed Prime Minister David Cameron to the point of
promising an in or out referendum on Britains membership of the European Union. Earlier in 2009, he led
the British Conservatives out of the centre-right bloc
the European Peoples Party in the European Parliament. It is quite a contrast to the view spelt out by the
Conservative Prime Minister Winston Churchill, when
he invoked the idea of a united states of Europe in his
famous 1946 University of Zurich speech. The general
drift of things is not in a direction Britains businesses
would be happy with. Labour in election mode is not
likely to engage the forces hostile to integration.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Labour reforms
The unveiling of multiple measures
for workers to better their
conditions, and for employers to
improve ease of doing business and
running
enterprises
while
expanding government support for
training workers (PM rolls out
labour reforms, Oct. 17), is a
positive development. The aim of
imparting skills to people, thus
making them employable and selfreliant, and cutting red-tape by
making processes simpler for
businesses to thrive, is laudable.
Vikram Sundaramurthy,
Chennai

threatened to do and the course is fraught

with the danger of escalation. Sixty-seven
years after the rst Kashmir war, the LoC is
more or less where it was then, merely undergoing a change of nomenclature from ceasere line to line of control and registering
millions of ceasere violations.
The stark reality on the limits on the use of
force and the costs of an unsettled Line of
Control and the Line of Actual Control (LAC)
was illustrated vividly during the historic visit
of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Despite Mr.
Modis event managerial, oratorial skills and
personal chemistry with Mr. Xi, the Peoples
Liberation Army (PLA) staged unprecedented border intrusions at Demchok and Chumar, coinciding with its leaders visit. No high
prole visit has ever taken place even as an
intrusion is in place. What is more, it was
defused only a week after President Xi had
departed. Not only did President Xi brush
aside Mr. Modis call to clarify the LAC, but
even had the gall to say that such incidents
will happen as LAC is not demarcated but
such incidents can be controlled due to border mechanisms to maintain peace and
tranquillity.
The Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Dalbir Singh,
was right in not allowing the tactical responses to rings on the working boundary
and LoC to blow up the strategic cover of
political engagement. Indian politicians do
not understand the games that are played on
the LoC and the tit-for-tat score scratching
that goes on. No one is entirely innocent but
both sides blame the other for starting the
ring.

Deterrence
Pakistan has been restrained by the U.S.
from unleashing its Punjabi Taliban like the
Lashkar-e-Taiba to stage cross-border, Mumbai-like or smaller scale attacks in India. The
last two big strikes were in 2001 against Parliament and Mumbai in 2008 with a sevenyear gap. The withdrawal of U.S. troops from
Afghanistan this year end will give the Pakistan-aided Afghan Taliban and the Haqqanis a
leg up. This will also be seen as an opportunity
for the third major strike in India sometime
in 2015. New Delhi should not be distracted
by this low-level diversion and instead focus
on the next big one and how to deter it. At the
same time, it must take abundant precautions
to pre-empt any uprising in Kashmir.
The Modi governments ability to deal with
Pakistan and China will be no different from
what previous governments have done. There
maybe some cosmetic changes but essentially, the military balance with Pakistan does
not permit the exercising of the kind of plausible and deniable punitive action that
amounts to a deterrent and a betting response since we have not developed the skills,
wherewithal and political will for it. Instead,
it is about enacting tough rhetoric: disproportionate response, no ag meetings, no talks by
the Directors General of Military Operations
(DGMO) and no dialogue till Pakistan stops
ring.
India must get used to ceasere violations,
as the Pakistan Army will use the LoC as a
punching bag to express its rage and deance
against its government as well as India. The
rules of engagement were changed after the
attack on Mumbai. The Modi government has
only articulated its position more sharply but
wants a dialogue process to restart. The National Security Committee of Pakistan met
last week and has repeated its desire for
peace. Kathmandu, the venue of the South
Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) next month is the ideal place to
announce a resumption of the dialogue process, invoking the spirit of SAARC that Mr.
Modi has infused right from day one of his
inaugural.
(Gen. Ashok K. Mehta is the convener of
the India-Pakistan Track 2 Dubai dialogue
and Convener, Afghanistan Policy Group.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

maintain large bureaucracies to do to employers. Such fears and

the job. Without labour reform, anxieties must be addressed before
India is doomed to suffer jobless ushering in far-reaching changes.
growth.
D.B.N. Murthy,
Bangalore
F.A. Sulthanbi,
Madurai

The government has already

approved changes in three key
labour laws, that is, the Factories
Act 1948, the Apprentices Act 1961
and the Labour Laws (Exemption
from Furnishing Returns and
Maintaining Registers by Certain
Establishments) Act 1988. In this
context, the Modi government must
end inspection raj and create a
durable
system
to
remove
impediments in the economic
Ease of doing business is what the system.
country needs to promote
C. Koshy John,
industries and businesses. In turn,
Pune
this will generate employment to
those who are unemployed, and in In India, the labour force is still
their thousands. Simplifying all exploited due to its ignorance,
and
backwardness.
those procedures for the entry of illiteracy
businesses and industry into the Employers take advantage of these
country is a necessity. At the same weaknesses. Most existing laws
time, the government must play a pertaining to labour do not t into
key role in strengthening employer- the present-day context, as we live
employee relations by supporting in a competitive and dynamic
bilateralism in every industry and world. Therefore, these types of
business. Ultimately, it is the reforms will be useful for the labour
workforce that has to ensure fraternity. Enhancing the statutory
wage limit for Employees Provident
results.
Katuru Durga Prasad Rao, Fund contributions from Rs.6,500
Rajahmundry to Rs.15,000 will be good for
workers.
The pro-labour reforms must help
S.A. Viswanathan,
get rid of the bane of inspectorChennai
raj. If changes are legislated as
planned, a critical roadblock to The reforms are most welcome.
more employment generation will However, any reform that upsets
have been removed. Indias micro, the present system should
small and medium enterprises necessarily be brought about only
sector comprises some 36 million after discussions with all those
units, providing employment to 81 concerned and after taking them
million people. This is a along. For instance, industryrevolutionary step, for what it does friendly changes in labour laws have
is to create a separate and simpler alarmed labour unions, which fear
compliance ecosystem for small that it would amount to curtailing
entrepreneurs who cannot afford to their rights and allowing a free hand

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2014

Hate crimes

This refers to the reports, Two

Naga youth attacked in Gurgaon
and Attack on Manipuri student:
Rajnath talks to Siddaramaiah
(both Oct. 17). The incidents of a
Manipuri student and his friends
being attacked in Bangalore for not
knowing Kannada, and of two
northeastern
students
being
attacked by over a dozen people at
Sikanderpur village, deserve the
severest form of condemnation. We
in India vehemently talk about
apartheid in other countries and
denounce it in unequivocal terms
but look the other way when it
comes to hate crimes being
perpetrated here. Attacking the
non-local populace is simply
unacceptable in a plural and
civilised society.
H.P. Murali,
Bangalore
It is shocking to learn of the way in
which the people of our own
country are treated in Karnataka
just because they are non-locals. If
this trend continues, there is a grave
danger of India getting fragmented.
When will this kind of hatred and
racial discrimination end? The
government must take strong steps
to quell such evil symptoms.
I am surprised that the
Government of Karnataka has not
taken any viable steps or action to
condemn the atrocity. Even now, it
is not too late to tender an apology
to those who have been affected.
Language has become a dividing
issue between different people. It is
a persons choice to choose the
language of his liking. We have the
experience of languages being

thrust upon us even in education.

Let children study in whatever
language they are comfortable with.
Even the Chinese are now learning
English. So, why should we isolate
ourselves?
Habibullah Badsha,
Chennai

RBI autonomy
In the article, The limits of
autonomy (Oct. 17), the writer has
failed to acknowledge that in India,
formal industries are only a fraction
of the total demography. In a
country with more than 50 per cent
of the population engaged in
agriculture and over 90 per cent in
the unorganised sector, wont a rate
reduction
inevitably
cause
ination? In a capitalistic economy
like the U.S., increased growth may
offset price hikes. But in India,
growth will be enjoyed by a few
while the burden falls on many. As a
result, growth will happen, but the
gulf between the haves and the
have-nots will be further enhanced.
Also, the RBI Governor appears to
have a better understanding of and
sensitivity to the welfare concept in
economics than the popularly
elected government is.
Harikrishnan D.,
Thiruvananthapuram
In reality, when markets are less
than perfect it is difficult to know
what the contemporary ination
rate should be, given the prevailing
macroeconomic fundamentals. The
control of ination has been the
exclusive domain of the RBI, it
being involved with market/
business/economic research and
forecasting. The current move of
ination-targeting
by
the
government will mean a diminished
role for the RBI as a professional
authority. In any case, targeting
ination should not end up being a
bone of contention in political

versus professional terms between

the RBI and the government.
Rather, there must be balanced and
combined efforts by both the RBI
and the Centre. In arriving at an
ination rate, the ination-adjusted
real rate must also be safeguarded
in order to maintain real returns on
the xed income instruments.
Venkatesh N. Muttur,
Hubli

Unrecognised
We proclaim ourselves to be an
economic superpower yet gloss
over the heart-rending sight of
streetchildren ghting off stray
dogs while searching for leftovers at
garbage heaps (Hero or persona
non grata? Oct. 17). And
surprisingly, when there is
someone among us who tries to
empower such children, we ignore
them. Humanity is and will always
be of great value for society. One
wishes Kailash Satyarthi greater
fame and success.
Raj Kamal Vatsa,
New Delhi
For most Indians, Kailash Satyarthi
became a hero overnight. But his
work remained unnoticed for
decades. Why so? The reasons for
our apathy are not far to seek.The
environment and the attitude of the
people are the main reasons.
Millions live below the poverty line.
Children are then sent out to work.
Punitive action against employers
who practise child labour will not
help. Efforts should be made to
improve the nancial standing of
poor families.
The article also throws up a moot
point is all work by children to be
termed child labour? When
children work in a particular trade,
can they not be treated as
apprentices?
K. Rajendran,
Chennai
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Costs of ignoring hunger

O
S. Mahendra Dev

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

Confirming its
dominance
n winning the Haryana Assembly election, and
emerging as the single largest party by far in
Maharashtra, the Bharatiya Janata Party has
demonstrated the ability to expand its support
base at the expense of its principal rival at the national
level, the Congress. From ghting elections on an antiCongress platform, the BJP now seems to be in a position to encroach on the national political space occupied
by the Congress. The go-it-alone strategy worked for the
BJP in more ways than one. The Congress, which headed
the governments in both Maharashtra and Haryana, is
not even the second largest party in either of these
States. Clearly, the BJP was able to splinter the opposition votes, marginalising the Congress further in the
process. In the Lok Sabha election, the BJP adopted a
low-risk strategy of tying up with traditional allies like
the Shiv Sena and the Akali Dal, and reviving seatsharing agreements with parties such as the Telugu
Desam. If electoral pacts with the Janata Dal (United) in
Bihar and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu did not materialise, this was not
for want of effort from the BJPs side. Now, however,
after a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha, the party is
less risk-averse. The strategy to ght without major
allies seems to have paid off very well, though in Maharashtra, where it fell short of a majority, the party might
want to revive its ties with the Shiv Sena. With the
Nationalist Congress Party offering unconditional support, the BJP knows the limits of the Senas bargaining
positions. Indeed, the Sena must be regretting it wasnt
more accommodative toward the BJP during the seat
negotiations. In its desperation to see its pramukh Uddhav Thackeray as chief minister, the Sena was unable to
read the minds of either the BJP leaders or the voters.
However, every election will see a political churning,
and the BJP cannot expect the opposition, whether in
Maharashtra or in Haryana or in any other State, to
remain divided. In Haryana, the party won on the
strength of about one-third of the votes; in Maharashtra,
the vote share was even lower. Now that it has replaced
the Congress as the party to beat, the BJP cannot but be
wary of the consolidation of opposition votes. What the
elections have done for the BJP is increase its ability to
dictate terms with prospective allies, not lower its dependence on alliances. The BJP has every reason to be
happy about having pushed the Congress to the third
place in the two States. But the real challenge for the
party is to remain the pole star in a unipolar polity, to
grow without bringing the other parties together. That is
extremely difficult, not just at the all-India level, but
even in any State in India.

ne of the disappointments in the

post-reform period in India has
been the slow progress in the reduction of malnutrition, especially
with reference to the underweight among
children. In fact, the rate of change in the
percentage of underweight children has been
negligible in the period 1998-99 to 2005-06;
the only two points of data in recent years on
undernutrition from the National Family
Health Survey (NFHS)-II and -III. In this
phase, the proportion of underweight children in the age group 0-3 years declined only
marginally from 47 per cent to 46 per cent.
The reduction in malnutrition among children has been very slow when compared to
rapid economic growth in the post-reform
period. International studies show that the
rate of decline in child undernutrition tends
to be around half the rate of growth of per
capita GDP. As Angus Deaton and Jean Drze
have said in an article on nutrition, in Indias
case, per capita GDP of about 4.2 per cent
during 1990 and 2005 was expected to reduce
malnutrition by about 2.1 per cent per annum
or 27 per cent during this period. Compared
to this, the decline in malnutrition among
children was only 10 per cent.

Economic growth and nutrition

However, the 2014 Global Hunger Index
report of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) shows considerable
improvement in Indias hunger index and in
the percentage of underweight children
from 24.2 in 2005 to 17.8 in 2014 an increase of 6.4 points. Also, out of 76 countries,
Indias rank improved by around 8 points,
from 63 to 55. While India is no longer in the
category of alarming cases, its hunger status is still classied in the category of serious. This improvement is attributable
mainly to a reduction in the percentage of
underweight children, from 43.5 per cent in
2005-06 (NFHS-III) to 30.7 per cent in 201314 (a survey conducted by the Ministry of
Women and Child Development with support
from UNICEF). This shows a remarkable reduction of 13 percentage points in eight years
during 2005-06 to 2013-14. However, the latest survey is a source of encouragement regarding the reduction in undernutrition. One
has to wait for a year more for the ndings of
NFHS-IV.
The IFPRI report attributes the reduction
in undernutrition to the expansion and improvement of several programmes that have
targeted a mix of the direct and indirect causes of undernutrition. These programmes and

Ignoring hunger and malnutrition will have

signicant costs to any countrys development.
Nutrition improvement has both intrinsic and
instrumental value
policies are: an expansion in Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS); the launch of
the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM);
the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA); reforms in several States in the Public
Distribution System (PDS) and targeted efforts at the State level like the Maharashtra
nutrition mission. In addition, improvements
in sanitation and drinking water might have
also helped in enhancing nutrition.
The report should have also discussed the
impact of economic growth on nutrition. It is
known that India focusses on a twin-track
policy of economic growth and direct universal and targeted programmes for a reduction in poverty and an improvement in social
indicators. India had a high economic growth
of 9 per cent per annum during 2005-06 to
2008-09, which helped in an increase in taxGDP ratio and an allocation of higher expenditure to the social sector. Similarly, India
also had a higher agriculture growth rate of 4

reduction in malnutrition. Post-2005, the development agenda at the global level has,
among other things, been focussing on the
elimination of hunger and malnutrition. The
UN Secretary General recently announced
meeting the challenge of Zero Hunger to
be achieved by 2025. One of the elements in
this challenge is to ensure zero stunted children in less than two years. If this is to be
achieved at the global level, then progress in
India is important.
Inspite of signicant progress in the last
eight years, a lot of work has to be done in
order to reduce malnutrition in India. This
also poses challenges at the global level because gures released by UNICEF show that
in 2011, 55 million out of 102 million underweight children under ve in the world or
54 per cent of the global total live in India.
Similarly, 62 million out of 166 million stunted children of the world are from India (37
per cent). In other words, one out of two
underweight children and two out of ve

The reduction in malnutrition among children has been very

slow when compared to rapid economic growth in the
post-reform period.

per cent per annum during the 11th Plan period (2007-12). This too must have helped in
raising nutrition. At this point, one may ask a
valid question: we had six per cent growth
during the period 1992-93 to 2005-06 but
why was there no signicant decline in malnutrition? It may be noted that there was a
decline in malnutrition during 1992-93 to
1998-99 but there was stagnation in nutrition
status during 1998-99 to 2005-06. During this
phase as well, economic growth and agricultural growth were relatively low.

Goal of Zero Hunger

As the IFPRI report suggests, the expansion and increase in the efficiency of the direct programmes have helped in reducing
undernutrition during 2005-06 to 2013-14.
However, it is fair to say that economic
growth that includes high agricultural growth
and direct programmes has been a responsible factor in the recent nding of a signicant

stunted children are in India. It is true that

with recent progress, the absolute numbers of
children with malnutrition will come down.
It is known that a reduction in malnutrition needs the application of a multi-pronged
strategy. The determinants of malnutrition
are agriculture, health, womens empowerment including maternal and child care practices, ensuring sanitation, enabling safe
drinking water, and activating social protection programmes and nutrition education
apart from economic growth, as mentioned
earlier. The evidence so far shows that malnutrition can be reduced by enhancing womens
health, promoting gender equality and ensuring the empowerment of women including
female education. Gender equality and the
well-being of children go hand in hand. The
rights of women and children are mutually
reinforcing. Gender empowerment is relatively better in Africa. Although poverty and
other numbers are higher in South Asia, Afri-

CARTOONSCAPE

Disclosure
and DLF
he order of stock market regulator, Securities
and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on DLF,
banning the company and six top executives,
including its founder chairman from the capital markets for a period of three years, is notable for
two reasons. First, the quantum of the punishment is
by far among the strongest that the market watchdog
has handed out for a transgression of this kind. The real
estate giant was found guilty of suppressing material
information about its subsidiaries in the prospectus
that it issued at the time of going public in June 2007.
The company had de-subsidiarised companies that it
owned through sham transactions in order to not reveal the legal cases that they were ghting over the land
bank that they owned. At least three such subsidiaries
were proved to have been sold to the wives of some of
its top managers; these buyers were housewives and
were not in business, and the company even arranged
loans through a bank, which incidentally was a lead
manager to the issue, in order to help them fund the
share purchase. SEBI has held that despite the change
in ownership sham as it was the subsidiaries were
still managed by the same executives who managed
them before the ownership changed and the authorised
bank signatories were the same as were the registered
office and the auditors.
The second notable aspect of the SEBI order, which
DLF has challenged in the Securities Appellate Tribunal, is the prolonged period of time between the actual
offence and the verdict now. DLF went public in 2007,
and even before its offer had opened for subscription,
the complainant in this case, Mr. Kimsuk Krishna Sinha, had brought the transgression to SEBIs notice
which the regulator failed to take seriously. Eventually,
Mr. Sinha went to court which directed SEBI to investigate the complaint. Had SEBI acted expeditiously
in the rst instance, the money of thousands of small
investors would have been saved. As it happened, the
stock which was offered at Rs.525 a share now trades at
barely a fth of that price. With DLF, which is saddled
with Rs.19,000 crore of loans, now prevented from
accessing the markets, it will be tough going for the
company and its shareholders who could see a further
erosion of value. It is also surprising that the regulator
has overlooked the role played by merchant bankers. It
is curious indeed as to how the suppression of a material fact went unnoticed in their due diligence exercise.
Interestingly, even the lead manager to the issue who
was found to have lent money to nance the sham
transaction of de-subsidiarisation has not attracted a
penalty from SEBI. Welcome as this order is, it is clear
that there is still some way to go before market regulation becomes effective and timely.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Overwhelming victory
The results of the Assembly
elections in Maharashtra and
Haryana have once again proved
that people are aspiring for change.
After the Lok Sabha election, this is
another jolt to the Congress which
was in power in the two States. Its
high time the Congress introspects
over its alliances and how it is
dealing with issues such as
corruption or the public outcry
over misgovernance. It also needs
to make substantial changes in its
political structure in a way that
accommodates the sentiments of
its supporters and grassroots
workers.
Finally, it is evident that the
Modi wave, which began before the
general election, has not faded.
Therefore, the Congress needs to
strategise and make wise decisions
before it is reduced to becoming a
regional party. Although the
results show that it is not an
absolute majority for any single
party, for the BJP, this victory is
overwhelming and very promising
which it should welcome with
humility and respect.
Manzar Imam,
New Delhi

Some relief
The Supreme Courts grant of bail
to Ms. Jayalalithaa (Jayalalithaa
back home, Oct. 19) has provided a
window of opportunity to her to
prove her innocence. More
importantly, her return to Chennai
will restore much-needed stability
to governance. It is imperative that
the AIADMK leader becomes the

bridge between the party and the

government. Her rich experience
in governance will provide vital
political guidance to Chief
Minister O. Panneerselvam.
J. Anantha Padmanabhan,
Tiruchi
The granting of bail to Ms.
Jayalalithaa shows the loopholes in
our judicial system which are
exploited in cases that involve
those who are high prole. When
even 18 years was insufficient and
could not prepare and help her
case, how can paperwork of any
sort now save her within the
deadline stipulated?
Bhupender Singh,
New Delhi
The
submission
by
Ms.
Jayalalithas counsel that this is a
case in which the entire country
has some considerations needs
elaboration. Though he has
withdrawn the submission, can he
or someone throw light on what
these considerations are?
K.P.M. Perrumahl,
Coimbatore

U-turn on black money

The governments U-turn on the
issue of black money (Black
money: U-turn by NDA, Oct. 18),
and the stoic silence of other
individuals who were vociferous
before the Lok Sabha election on
the issue, shows the political game
being played by them on gullible
voters. Such a vote-catching
strategy does not augur well for our
democracy in view of the fact that a
true democracy is the outcome of

MONDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2014

ca had a lesser percentage of children under

nutrition than South Asia because of better
womens status.

Agriculture and nutrition

Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis
on the linkages between agriculture and nutrition, which can be improved by three entry
points. The rst of these is in ensuring inclusiveness and equity in agriculture that can
be achieved by increasing agricultural productivity in rainfed and resource-poor areas.
This in turn will help raise the productivity
and income of small and marginal farmers.
The bulk of the rural poor, as well as small and
marginal farmers, live in such resource-poor
areas, where undernutrition is largely prevalent. The second is in policies to diversify diet
in order to improve micronutrients and the
third is in having agricultural policies to empower women. In all this, it must not be
forgotten that climate change poses a major
challenge to agriculture.
This year is the International Year of Family Farming; it needs to be noted that Dr. M.S.
Swaminathan has often mentioned the importance of family farming in offering an effective and an economic solution to ensuring
that every person has access to nutritious
food. Biofortication is one way of having access to micronutrients. According to Prof.
Swaminathan, we should also help promote
naturally biofortied crops such as sweet potato, moringa (drumsticks), bread fruit and
various berries which are rich in micronutrients such as iron, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin C.
The importance of sanitation and safe
drinking water in reducing malnutrition is
well known. Therefore, ensuring improvements in sanitation is urgently needed as it is
a big predictor of malnutrition.
It is heartening to see that social protection
programmes have helped in improving nutrition. Further, the strengthening of social protection programmes like ICDS, PDS, mid-day
meal schemes and MGNREGA are needed to
achieve nutrition security. Although delivery
systems have improved in programmes like
PDS, the leakages are still high.
A recent survey of women and child welfare
does not give us the numbers at the State
level. This must be noted as gures for 200506 show that the proportion of children who
are underweight is high in States such as
Madhya Pradesh (60.3 per cent), Jharkhand
(59.2 per cent), Bihar (59 per cent), Chhattisgarh (52 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (47.3 per
cent). Therefore, there is a need to focus on
these States.
The consequences of undernutrition are
well known. Stunting and undernutrition are
the main contributing factors for child mortality, disability and disease. There are also
the harmful effects of an inadequate intake of
specic micronutrients essential for brain development and the nervous system. For example, iron deciency is known to affect a
childs performance in school. In short, hidden hunger has to be reduced.
In conclusion, it has to be recognised that
ignoring hunger and malnutrition will have
signicant costs to any countrys development. Nutrition improvement has both intrinsic and instrumental value. Some
estimates indicate that there is a 2 to 3 per
cent GDP loss due to low productivity. The
returns to investments in food and nutrition
are quite high. Every dollar spent on interventions to reduce stunting is estimated to
generate about $20-$30 in economic returns.
The government should understand the intrinsic value to people and instrumental value
of nutrition in terms of GDP gain and returns
to investment. Countries like China, Brazil
and Vietnam have been successful in reducing malnutrition. Evidence of recent success
shows that India is also capable of reducing
undernutrition. Therefore, some urgency
needs to be shown by the government and
others concerned in order to eliminate hunger and malnutrition particularly among children and women.
(S. Mahendra Dev is the director and
vice-chancellor of the Indira Gandhi
Institute of Development Research in
Mumbai.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
the exercise of franchise by voters provocations, is to pursue dialogue.
who repose their trust in parties
K.D.Viswanaathan,
and candidates for fullment of
Coimbatore
electoral promises made.
Ranjit Kumar Paul, India must adopt the carrot and
New Delhi stick approach while still pursuing
dialogue. Both countries share a
The BJP government has given all history and which in turn will
of us a shock by citing the sanctity dictate their future. There has to be
of treaties. This was the same a relentless pursuit of peace.
answer given by the UPA. Does this
Shrey Chandraker,
not amount to a breach of trust?
New Delhi
Nellai Thirumalairajan,
aberrations
and
Chennai Ceasere
encroachment by inltrators into
The way the case has turned India
being
supported
by
dictates that a PIL must now be Pakistans Army is a known fact. If
led in the Supreme Court by we do not have the ammunition or
NGOs to ensure that justice is done the military capability to counter
to millions of honest taxpayers. Pakistans aggressive activity, then
How can we forget the election we must talk, and talk to avoid a
speeches of Prime Minister war. At the same time, let us not
Narendra Modi who promised to forget the supreme sacrices
reduce the burden of income tax by (being) made by the Indian Army.
getting back black money? What is
V.V. Nair,
disheartening is our continued
Manipal
inability to nd solutions to our
socio-economic problems within a Pakistan should get the message,
democratic set-up.
especially after the announcement
M.V. Nagavender Rao, of the Nobel Peace prize, that this is
Hyderabad the age of diplomacy and not one of
disrupting peace. The role of the
Pakistan Army in getting the
The views expressed by Gen. Ashok civilian government to carry out its
K. Mehta in his article A line ugly acts must be curbed. The
without ceaseres (Oct 18) were developing economies of the two
forthright and unbiased. It was countries can hardly support
enlightening to get to know about wasteful military operations. As
the factors behind the ceasere Prime Minister Narendra Modi has
violations and what holds India rightly said, this is the Asian
back. However, the article also century and the two neighbours
made one ponder over the need for should work sincerely towards
both countries to pursue peace and realising this dream.
ensure friendly relations. The sole
Shirinam Kashyap,
way out, despite constant
Noida

Line of no control

Green-rated buildings
The article Green-rated buildings
not keeping their promise, says
CSE report (Oct. 11) misses the
mark. The debate over building
performance is not new. The U.S.
Green Building Council, of which I
am the COO, spends much time
educating people that buildings are
complex systems and that
performance is impacted by many
things from the systems installed,
to the people using the building
and human behaviour.
The LEED green building
programme has redened how we
think about our buildings. LEED
buildings cost less to operate and
reduce power and water bills by as
much as 40 per cent. Making
unscientic claims about building
performance without careful
analysis
undermines
the
signicant efforts India has
undertaken to remain relevant and
competitive in todays global
economy.
Businesses
and
organisations in India and
worldwide use LEED to increase
their building efficiency, attract
and retain top talent, and invest in
emerging technologies. LEED is a
mark of quality, used by 62,000
buildings in 150+ countries. And,
green building is ourishing here
in India. In fact, India is one of the
largest markets for LEED in the
world. Infosys, Tata, ITC and many
others embrace LEED for their
sustainability
agendas.
We
welcome a debate, but lets not
make unscientic claims.
Mahesh Ramanujam,
Washington DC
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Lessons from mutiny on the bounty

I
Peter Ronald deSouza

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

Fuelling
reform
t was a long-awaited reform measure but when
the Narendra Modi government eventually deregulated diesel pricing on Saturday, the timing,
in the backdrop of falling global oil prices, was
just perfect. With oil companies wiping off the underrecoveries on diesel and going into surplus, the government could sweet-coat what is essentially a bitter pill
with a cut in retail price of the transportation fuel.
While consumers may rejoice over the benet now, they
need to be conscious of the fact that when the wheel of
global oil prices turns into an up-cycle once again, the
domestic retail price of diesel will go up. That is also
when the governments commitment to the reform
measure will be tested. In a deregulated regime, oil
companies will adjust diesel prices at periodic intervals
to reect the prevailing international price of oil, just as
they do now in the case of petrol. This is as it should be.
Subsidies, including on diesel, have been exerting tremendous pressure on government nances, leading to a
widening scal decit. The 2014-15 Budget had projected a subsidy burden of Rs.2,46,000 crore, of which
petroleum subsidy accounted for Rs.63,500 crore.
Thanks to falling oil prices in the last few months and
deregulation of diesel now, the petroleum subsidy is
expected to be substantially lower than the budgeted
level, thus easing the burden on the sc.
The Modi government has also done well in deciding
to deposit the subsidy on cooking gas directly into the
bank accounts of consumers. The government should
do the same for kerosene subsidy as well given that
leakages are the highest there, but only after ensuring
that no deserving recipient is left out. The new Jan
Dhan accounts could be used for this purpose. With
petroleum subsidies now being addressed, the focus
should shift to reducing fertilizer subsidy, which is
about the same quantum as that on petroleum. Meanwhile, in the other major announcement on Saturday,
the government nally addressed the contentious issue
of domestic gas pricing which has been hanging in the
balance since the start of this year. The formula has
been tweaked to curtail the increase envisaged under
the Rangarajan formula by over two-thirds thus containing the nal base price to $5.61 per million metric
British thermal unit. The government has done well in
granting a premium to gas produced in ultra-deep water, deep-water and technologically challenging areas as
production costs will be high but the ne print that
provides details on premium calculation has to be read
closely before a nal assessment is made. The point,
ultimately, is to balance the interests of consumers who
desire the cheapest price, and of producers who would
want their costs covered fully and topped by a decent
margin.

n the Financial Times of October 8, the

columnist Shawn Donnan, reported that
the World Bank was facing an internal
mutiny. Yes, the word mutiny was
used. The professional staff were apparently
angry about several issues, a deep discontent,
because of which the rebellion had been brewing over many days. The key issue was the
restructuring exercise being undertaken by
the President, Jim Yong Kim, to save, through
both the elimination of benets to staff on
mission and also through possible lay-offs, the
sum of $400 million. The restructuring exercise, staff felt, was deeply awed both procedurally and substantively. The columnist
reported some members saying that this
thing [restructuring] is affecting everything.
We cant do business. We dont have the
budget. Its a mess, ... Another staff member
complained that nickel and diming on travel
budgets was causing travelling staff to have to
pay for their own breakfasts. Its really small
beer, she said. Has anyone ever thought
about the impact of these changes on staff
morale?

Resistance against restructuring

To assuage their feelings, before the semiannual meeting of the Bank and International
Monetary Fund (IMF) with Finance Ministers and Central Bankers of member countries, President Jim Yong Kim had to
hurriedly convene a town hall meeting with
the staff to discuss their concerns. The issues
that was fuelling their anger were: (i) the costcutting exercise which meant that items of
expenditure that they had been accustomed
to, such as a paid for breakfast, were being
withdrawn, (ii) the secrecy and opacity of the
whole exercise i.e., appointment of consultants, payment of bonus to the senior management, hiring of new senior managers, etc, (iii)
the award of a scarce skills premium of
$94,000 as bonus, over and above his salary of
$3,79,000, to the Chief Financial Officer who
was carrying out the exercise, and (iv) to the
appointment and payment of the huge sum of
$12.5 million to external consultants such as
McKinsey, Deloitte, and Booz Allen for advice
on how to restructure a development Bank, as
reported in the Economic Times of October
15, 2014.
For those of us from the Global South, who
not only receive but also have to follow the
advice of the Bretton Woods twins, on how to
restructure our economies and change our
policies, this episode has four very interesting
lessons. The recommendations of the World
Bank/IMF are presented to us, the people of

CARTOONSCAPE

Loosening tobaccos
deadly grip
few months after steeply increasing taxes on
tobacco products, the government has come up
with another much-needed measure to contain
tobacco consumption. Thanks to a recent
amendment to the Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules of 2008, pictorial
warnings are all set to achieve the desired results. Beginning April 1, 2015, all tobacco products will carry a pictorial warning and text message that occupy at least 85 per
cent of the front and back of a package. The pictorial
warning alone will take up 60 per cent of the space and
the written message the remaining 25 per cent. With this
change, India will catapult itself to the No.1 position in
the world, alongside Thailand, on the international ranking based on the area dedicated to the warning. Aside
from more than doubling the statutory warning area on a
package from 40 to 85 per cent, both sides of a package
will carry the warning; currently, it is displayed only on
one side. In contrast to the completely ineffectual pictorial warnings now being used on cigarette packets and
chewing tobacco pouches, the chosen images can at once
shock and educate consumers of the risks of tobacco use.
By also mandating that images be rotated every 12
months, the government has ensured that India follows
the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control
labelling requirements in letter and spirit. Incidentally,
the pictorial warning that is currently being used has
remained the same since December 2010 with just one
rotation after it was introduced on May 31, 2009.
The use of pictorial warnings turns the power of packaging on its head from building and reinforcing a
brand, packages become a vehicle for increasing awareness about tobaccos health risks. It is proven beyond
doubt that the use of graphic images along with written
messages has the potential to signicantly deter people
from taking up the habit and also prompt existing users
to cut the amount of tobacco consumed and even quit
smoking. Tobacco companies are well aware of the power
the pictorial warning wields and how much it could affect
their bottom line. They may well, on grounds of the
health of the industry and the livelihood of the workers,
seek to get the government to dilute the amendment.
After all, the industry had successfully gone through the
process before; it had persuaded the previous government to backtrack on nearly every provision till the
warnings became ineffectual. How well the government
resists such pressure will show how determined it is to
win the war against tobacco. Since one million people in
India die each year because of tobacco use, the government should not sacrice proven and obvious health
benets at the altar of commercial advantage.

CM
YK

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2014

protesting? Did Greece and Portugal and Ireland and Argentina have the protest option?
The interesting lesson from this episode is
that restructuring produces pain and distress
to the many while it rewards the few especially those tasked with implementing it. These
few have access to political and intellectual
power. They control the methods adopted of
public justication which produces a discourse that the restructuring is necessary and
will benet the whole. The few get rewarded
while the many pay the price in the restructhe South, as scientic, objective, necessary, live lives lled with anxiety about illness, un- turing in many countries of the global south.
fair, and in the best interests of the countries employment, etc., because they work for lawhere they are to be implemented. The World bour contractors who do not provide any such Neo-liberal triumph
Bank is the repository of the most author- benets, the anger of the World Bank profesThe third aspect is the use of consultants.
itative knowledge on development. It annual- sional staff who, because of the restructuring, This is the most disappointing and alarming
ly publishes the agship World Development have to pay for their breakfast is a little aspect of the episode. For an institution such
Report (WDR), the rst of which in 1978 was difficult to understand. The restructuring ex- as the World Bank, whose main rationale is
titled Prospects for Growth and Alleviation ercise of economies in the global south has that it is a knowledge institution about how to
of Poverty. Every year since 1978, it ags produced an underclass whose livelihood in- promote development, to now implicitly deimportant themes for development with the security has increased exponentially. The mu- clare that it does not have the knowledge re2013 WDR being on Jobs and restructuring tiny at the World Bank appears somewhat quired to restructure itself is a severe
required to align them with the new economy. paradoxical. Not only is the exercise person- admission of the weakness of its knowledge
The 2015 WDR is on Mind and Culture and ally dishonest, given the rebellion when the base and skill sets. How does it then prepare a
the World Bank website reports the central policy is applied at home, but it is also in- road map to restructure economies when resargument as being that policy design that tellectually dishonest when read against the tructuring an institution is innitely easier
takes into account psychological and cultural 2015 WDR. Is this the modern performance of than restructuring the economy of a country?
factors will achieve development goals faster. the mutiny on the bounty?
Restructuring an institution can draw on the
This is scholarly knowledge and is used by
interdisciplinary knowledge of the WDR 2015
many university classrooms as part of re- Control by the few
such as best practice, graduated approaches,
quired reading. This is what positions the
The second aspect is the process adopted in evidenced-based policies, results-based manWorld Bank as a premier knowledge institu- the internal restructuring. The Reuters and agement, measuring and monitoring, etc. (all
tion on development. Then why is the rebel- FT reports tell us that the common complaint the keywords of the World Bank itself), to
achieve the result of a better, leaner, more
efficient, and fair institution. But the decision
to hire outside consultants, paying a whopWhat is alarming is the message that development thinking
ping fee of $12.5 million, shows that the World
Bank does not either believe in its own capawill, from now on, be done and propagated by the big global
bility, or worse doesnt have this capability.
consultancies.
What is alarming is the message that development thinking will, from now on, be done
and propagated by the big global consultanlion episode so signicant? There are four of the staff is that the many aspects of the cies. Is the World Bank announcing that
aspects of that which merit discussion.
restructuring exercise, initiated by the presi- henceforth even its development knowledge
The rst is the resistance against the res- dent, were non-transparent. There was an will be outsourced? As reported in the
tructuring medicine. This is the same med- opacity to the process. For example, questions Economic Times, one of the protesters said,
icine used by the World Bank against the rest such as the following needed to be asked. What do they know about development and
of the world. The restructuring exercise, What was the method followed to give the the complexities of what we do? Indeed, what
which has eliminated jobs within the public CFO a scarce skills premium of $94,000 do they know? But if we see the economic
sector, whether this be in government or in over and above his salary? Was the work done policy institutions of many countries, we will
the support services required by any public outside the normal duty of the CFO? How did see a seamless movement of personnel beinstitution, such as of subordinate adminis- the president decide on who qualies for a tween global consultancies and central banks.
trative staff, has produced an underclass of scarce skills premium and how many per- Our own development thinking has been outworkers, who, although they are still needed, sons have qualied for this bonus? These were sourced to neo-liberal knowledge institutions,
have been deprived of the welfare and security questions asked at the town hall meeting. If such as global consultancies, ratings agencies
benets that the permanent staff enjoys and the scarce skills premium was based on and investment banks. We can see this takewere benets that had been won by a long sound management principles, why did the over of knowledge production in the area of
history of working class struggles. So, when CFO agree to forego the bonus after the up- economic policy, the triumph of the neo-libersecurity guards, drivers, mess workers, roar? These are good questions and lead one al frame, even in India. Look at the key players
sweepers, the class IV workers, have now to to wonder if countries have the same option of of our economic policymaking. The World
Bank has now given its stamp of approval to
this trend. The recolonisation of the Indian
mind and the policy discourse is near
complete.
The fourth aspect of this troubling episode
is the use of words to legitimise the action. In
the last few months of the Indian public debate, we have come to see the power of words
and the social power the purveyors of these
words acquire. The word makes the world.
Tagore argued for this philosophical position
that language constructs reality, that we see
the beauty of the world through our language,
and that outside language there is no beauty.
Controlling the word, the Bank decides to
reward its CFO with a large bonus, while it is
reducing the nancial package of its other
employees; it deploys the justication for this
decision as a scare skills premium. The CFO
gets the additional money because he has
scarce skills. The investment Bank fraternity
has to be rewarded with huge bonuses because
they have scarce skills. Wall Street is built on
this justication. This is capitalisms masterstroke of controlling perception, controlling
the public discourse by controlling words. We
accept the differentials because we are made
to believe it is a scarce skills premium to be
paid for our own good. Sometimes a typographical error brings out the truth much better. By mistake I typed it as scare skills
premium. It is.
(Peter Ronald deSouza is Professor at the
Centre for the Study of Developing Societies.
The views expressed are personal.)

The recommendations of the World Bank/IMF

are presented to us, the people of the South, as
scientific, objective, necessary, fair, and in the best
interests of the countries where they are to be
implemented. This is why the rebellion episode by
the bank staff to its restructuring is so significant

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Election results
The BJP has secured a credible
victory in the Maharashtra and
Haryana elections, humiliating the
Congress which appears to be on the
wane even in the most progressive
States (Editorial; Solo strategy pays
off for BJP; A historic win in
Haryana despite restraints, all Oct.
20). The BJPs gamble in
Maharashtra, of going it alone, is a
decision that has proved to be
successful. Had it teamed up with
Shiv Sena, this combination could
have bagged more seats.
However, in the end, the people of
both States have reposed their faith
in the BJP and in Narendra Modi.
K. Chellappan,
Chennai

appears to be rudderless and

clueless on how to contain the Modi
juggernaut.
C. Suresh,
Thrissur

The BJP is continuing its steady

dominance,
consolidating
its
position even further ever since the
results of the Lok Sabha election.
What we are witnessing is a
refreshing change from the coalition
brand of politics, where the
dominant party has always lived in
fear of being pulled down by its
allies. The responsibility now before
the BJP is huge with even greater
expectations in ensuring that the
aspirations of all Indians are met.
Every step of the party will now be
watched and it should resist the
temptation
of
becoming
One must give credit to the BJP for complacent.
demonstrating its ability to expand
Balasubramaniam Pavani,
Secunderabad
its base in Maharashtra, especially
at the cost of the Shiv Sena, and its
willingness to take risks. However, The arrogance of regional parties
the partys vote share is not quite has been tamed (A shocking
attering. To have said that the BJP message for the Shiv Sena, INLD,
is appearing to encroach on the Oct. 20). The BJP president appears
Congress-dominated
national to be doing his job well. Regional
political scene was a bit parties must realise that they have
uncharitable as it does suggest that to work towards furthering national
the BJP does not belong to the interests. One hopes that the good
national political scene. This is very showing of the BJP will usher in
better development.
untrue.
I.S. Kanthimathinathan,
Gowtham Thommandra,
Tirunelveli
Bangalore

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
hurdles before welfare initiatives.
With the BJP at the centre and
having gained power in crucial
States, decisions to streamline the
economy and other initiatives can
be carried out without hindrance
from regional parties. The mandate
for the BJP is an endorsement of
hope for a better tomorrow.
Aijaz Hussain Malik,
Baramulla, J&K
The Congress appears to be a
sinking ship. After its disastrous
performances in the Lok Sabha and
these crucial Assembly elections the
party seems rudderless (We accept
the verdict: Rahul, Oct. 20). Its
spokespersons appear to be clueless.
The party is clearly listless.
K. Ramachandran,
Chennai
Those who rejoice in the victory of
the BJP in Haryana and
Maharashtra fail to note that in
Maharashtra even after several
campaigns by Mr. Modi, the
Congress has bettered its tally. So it
goes to show that despite Mr. Modis
best efforts, it is still not an all out
BJP victory. The Prime Minister
must realise that there have to be
heightened efforts to shore up the
Indian economy and provide muchneeded jobs to millions who are
banking on his promises.
A.Thirugnanasambantham,
Coimbatore

have been shadowing us ever since

Independence. Even though India is
one of fastest growing economies,
the fruits of this growth have yet to
be enjoyed by all sections. India has
to immediately move towards
inclusive growth which takes
human development indices into
consideration along with economic
growth. The fact is that the country
has been struggling to reach the
targets
of
the
Millenium
Development Goals.
Balaji Akiri,
Hyderabad

SEBI move

Blaming the government and the

authorities concerned for the plight
of millions of Indians still living in
poverty and dying of hunger is not
the solution. Every one of us is
equally responsible. There must be
citizen-backed initiatives at the
local level to ensure the
empowerment of people.
Ramit Chennithala,
Thiruvananthapuram

Getting cyber ready

That India has been removed from

the category of alarming hunger to
the serious hunger category is a
positive development but the
negatives are that 5.5 crore
underweight children are still
underweight and 6.2 crore children
stunted mainly on account of micronutrient deciency. In addition to
enhancing food production through
family farming, there must be an
The election results point to the The resounding success of the BJP,
emphasis on zero food wastage. The
steady decline of the Congress and in Maharashtra especially, is to be
big challenge for India is also in
the rising dominance of the BJP as a noted. First, it shows that people India cannot leverage the advantage population management, as with
true national party. The Modi wave want good governance and are not of its demographic dividend if it population increase, the hunger
has still not subsided and appears to swayed by rhetoric. Second, it continues to ignore the problems of graph must not rise at any cost.
V. Rajagopal,
be eating into the grand old partys heralds the end of hard bargaining hunger and malnutrition (Costs of
Tirupati
territory. The Opposition as a whole politically where factions can create ignoring hunger, Oct. 20), which

Fighting hunger

SEBIs reluctance to act on time on

the complaint/grievance regarding
transgression by DLF is what led to
gullible investors facing a hard time
(Editorial, Oct. 20). Its belated act of
redress is akin to bolting the stable
door after the horse has bolted. The
banks connivance in the DLF issue
is startling. What is the remedy
when the fence itself aids and abets
the eating of crops which it is
expected to protect?
C.G. Kuriakose,
Malippara, Kerala
Prime Minister Narendra Modis
call to be prepared for cyber wars is
timely (Cyber domination crucial,
Modi tells commanders, Oct. 18).
India must now rethink its strategy
and take an active role in the new
science of cyber wars which has
undergone far-reaching changes in
the 21st century. It is no longer
about face-to-face human combat.
From
state-sponsored
cyber
attacks,
autonomous
robotic
weapons, drones and other
technologies, wars are being fought
with machines that are backed by
sophisticated software. Robotic
technologies will increasingly play a
signicant role having taken over
jobs that require precision and
repetition. Terrorists would love to
control all critical systems from
oil and gas facilities, electricity
transmission to nancial networks
and it is fascinating that one can
use software to cripple a nation to
the core.
H.N. Ramakrishna,
Bangalore
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

The craft of survival

P
Shiv Visvanathan

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

Moving fast on coal

allocations
he Centre has done well in moving quickly to
clean up the mess in the coal sector following
the Supreme Courts cancellation of the allotment of 214 blocks. The cancelled blocks will
be reallotted through an e-auction and an ordinance
will be promulgated shortly to facilitate the transfer of
the mining land from existing owners to the new ones
who emerge successful from the auction. The most
interesting part of the ordinance relates to the enabling
provision in it that will allow the government to allot
coal mines to private companies for commercial exploitation. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley would not
term it as denationalisation of the coal industry and
held out the assurance that the interests of Coal India
would be protected. Yet, the fact is that the enabling
provision confers powers that can be exercised when
the need arises. India, which has 301 billion tonnes of
coal reserves among the highest in the world
imported 174 million tonnes last year, spending $20
billion of precious foreign exchange largely because of
the limitations that monopoly producer Coal India has
in increasing its output. Allowing private players into
commercial mining of coal will not only fetch muchneeded investment, including FDI, but also help increase production to meet the countrys needs. Of
course, the caveats to this are that it should be done
after due regulatory safeguards are built in and the
impact on the environment is taken into account.
Meanwhile, the government has protected the interests of State and Central utilities by assuring them of
allotments outside of the bidding process. While an
e-auction will lead to transparency, it is most likely that
it will also push up acquisition costs for successful
bidders. This is especially because some of them are
already operating downstream projects such as cement, steel and power plants and will be keen to reacquire the mines that they have forfeited by the apex
court order. While these companies will be allowed to
bid in the e-auction, they will not get the right of rst
refusal over the mines that they are already operating,
which is the right thing to do. The higher mine acquisition costs could push up prices for consumers unless
the availability of coal increases simultaneously. The
tricky part of the e-auction exercise will be in the
valuation of the land and assets of the forfeited owners
which will be done by a committee. This could turn out
to be contentious and needs to be handled with utmost
transparency. The Centre also needs to be commended
for passing on the proceeds from the auction to the
States where the mines are located. Thus, States such
as Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh and Odisha
will get a much-needed revenue boost.

A balancing of
interests
he range of measures Prime Minister Narendra Modi passionately spelt out at the Pandit
Deendayal Upadhyay Shramev Jayate programme on labour reforms reads like a road
map to his Independence Day invitation to multinational corporations to Make in India. The most signicant
of them all is the move to simplify the cumbrous current
inspection processes, including by allowing enterprises
the convenience of self-certication of documents. The
random inspection process that is to be set in motion is
expected at one stroke to cut through administrative red
tape involving some 1,800 labour inspectors. Indeed, the
removal of arcane procedural hurdles could curb rampant corruption and improve overall efficiency. But this
is a bold policy shift for a country where a culture of
industrial safety is woefully lacking. The system of inspections should be effective and should ensure that the
protection of thousands of human lives is not compromised in any manner. The 2007 Minneapolis bridge
collapse in the United States, the res at Bangladeshs
garment units and the December 1984 gas leakage in
Bhopal were all linked to a greater or lesser degree to the
lack of proper inspections.
The digitisation of data on thousands of rms to
facilitate a single-window system of compliance with
various labour and social security laws is a laudable
initiative. In particular, the friendly provident fund facility to unfreeze a whopping Rs. 27,000 crore of hardearned savings and the portability of PF account numbers across employers is a reform long overdue. These
conveniences are consistent with the welcome increase
in the Employees Pension Scheme (EPS-95)up to
Rs.1,000 from the earlier Rs.300 announced in the
Union Budget. It is another matter that the Bharatiya
Janata Party had canvassed for an enhancement of the
pension to Rs.3,000 prior to the last Lok Sabha election.
Evidently, the politically sensitive nature of these labour
reform measures even within the BJP-affiliated trade
union bodies was not lost on Mr. Modi. Only a few
months ago, the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh opposed the
Rajasthan Governments amendments to the Contract
Labour Act that sought to create exibility for employers. Thus, Mr. Modis announcements were carefully
couched in a conciliatory and accommodating tone that
the new measures would be no less benecial to workers.
If protracted delays of the past to obtain clearances hurt
productivity, they also caused an adverse impact on the
interests of the workforce. Mr. Modis plan to draft a
band of technology ambassadors to showcase the quality
of existing vocational training programmes in India is
well-conceived. There is no gainsaying the need for
more such institutions.

CM
YK

rotest today is more than a dramatic

performance, an act of deance or
even a demand for justice. It has to
be a reective act, sensitive to past
and future. Protest, especially when it concerns livelihoods, has to understand connectivity, especially the linkages between life, life
worlds, lifestyle, life cycle and life chances.
Battling for ways of life demands that one
understands the full nature of politics and
bureaucracy. One is penning these lines not
out of some sociological pomposity but from
listening about a recent protest by handloom
weavers at Gajendragad, the epicentre of
weaving in Karnataka. The town is an old
Chalukyan site and was once the centre of the
Vijaynagar empire. Today, it represents a different battle. If one draws a circle with a 30
kilometre radius, almost all the handloom
communities of Karnataka would be included
in this space.

Government policy is killing handlooms through

malign neglect. As a result, the power loom is
invading the handloom industry, creating a whole
set of spurious products which is altering the
identity and integrity of the industry

It was a few days after the protest. Prasan- cerned about it and wished to protect handna was relaxing, reading Dashiell Hammetts looms. They included a list of 23 items which
The Thin Man. A one-time student of IIT could not be produced by the mills. These
Kanpur, he is a graduate of the National items included colour woven fabric, and saris
School of Drama. For six years he was in- and dhotis with borders and blankets. It was
volved with Samudaya, a political theatre this act that the Central government was surgroup. As he talked about theatre, one saw reptitiously undermining. Prasanna pointed
weaving and theatre as the two strands of his out that all it took was a few backstage alterlife.
ations to undermine a life-giving framework.
He talked of his mentor, Fritz Berkowitz,
who was director of Max Muller Bhavan. Altering an identity
Prasannas comments pointed to a folklore
Fritz was a great inuence. I remember he
enacted Bertolt Brechts The Caucasian distinction between pathways and conways
Chalk Circle with tamasha actresses without in policy. A pathway is policy with ethical
Policy as threat
knowing a word of the local language. Yet, it content. It is life giving, while a conway unThe battle over handlooms is a complex was a hit. He added sadly, Politics destroyed dermines livelihoods by destroying the ethone. At one level, the government constructs Fritz. He was an East German, who did won- ical content of a legislation.
it as a sunset industry which keeps eating up
subsidies. Yet, as practitioners show, handKhadi has a halo, a touch of the sacred, even the pious,
looms can be the fabric of the future. Handloom workers, they claim, do not need
while handloom is seen as every day.
charity. All they want is dignity and a clarity
about norms, and a sincerity of government
Conways in the handloom industry operate
intentions. Unfortunately, handlooms are be- ders for theatre in India, and was looking
ing destroyed by the Sakunis of governance, forward to changes in his country. When the through classicatory tricks which blur difwhen policy itself can become an act of Berlin Wall fell, he went back to his country. ferences between power loom and handloom
deviousness.
But the West Germans surrounded him with while pretending to be protective. One way is
The recent protests in Karnataka sought to a cloud of suspicion and virtually obliterated to change the denition of what constitutes
emphasise this. At a concrete level, it was an him. Berkowitz died broken-hearted. Fritz handloom. A handloom remains a handloom
objection to the Karnataka governments de- Berkowitzs story almost seemed a prelude to as long as three processes including the pulley
and the shuttle are hand operated. All one has
cision to handover the production of school the handloom drama.
to do is meddle with this list and declare that
uniforms to the power sector. What looks to
any process where at least one of these procbe a simple bureaucratic act, an innocuous Politics of classification
Prasanna explained that handlooms in In- esses is hand operated is a handloom induswelfare measure, now threatens the livelidia suffered from a classicatory politics. At try. With this Trojan horse of a manoeuvre,
hood of the handloom community.
Leading the protest against the govern- the root of it is the Handlooms (Reservation even power looms become handlooms. Severments decision are institutions like Dastakar of Articles for Production) Act, 1985, a legisla- al consequences then follow.
First, power looms can claim contracts
and non-governmental organisations (NGO) tive act that goes back to the colonial era, to
like Desi. I also met Prasanna who helps a 1905. The mills for cotton were threatening subsidies previously limited to handlooms.
the weaver and even the British were con- The allocation of school uniforms to power
rural womens collective called Charaka.

CARTOONSCAPE

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Haryana, the Congress has paid the
price for permitting corruption and
The cabinet recommendation to e- ineffective governance. Mr. Modi
auction cancelled coal blocks must now use these mandates to
(Govt. to e-auction coal mines, full the aspirations of the common
Oct. 21) is the right step towards man.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
ensuring transparency and the fastChennai
tracking of reforms. The erratic and
alleged corrupt manner in which
the coal block policy was dealt with Rather than wait for Mr. Modi to
by the UPA government was a blot. commit blunders a very unlikely
Abhisheck S.A., proposition the Congress must
Navi Mumbai take steps to energise the party
cadre and the grass-root worker.
One hopes that all private end-users What is terrible is the highare allowed to participate in the commands intolerance of plainauction. This is because there is a speaking partymen and its
danger of many of the present disinclination
to
accept
allottees of the cancelled blocks responsibility for the defeats. It
who are end-users taking part, should now focus its attention on
trying to form a cartel and Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand,
manipulating things to get back and in retaining power in
their cancelled blocks. They might Karnataka and Assam. For that to
also have an edge over new players, happen, the lead must come from
having had a head start in the earlier the top.
Ganapathi Bhat,
illegal allotment. The e-auction
Akola, Maharashtra
move might increase revenue but
the end result could be the
increased cost of coal production.
J.F. Dawson, The deregulation of fuel prices is a
Chennai bold and forward-looking step by
the Modi government (Editorial,
Wont this policy push up the prices Oct.21).
The
conducive
of power, cement and steel as coal environment of lower Brent crude
blocks will be allocated to the prices in the international market
highest bidder? Also, the provision may have been the trigger. The
of the clause, which allows the deregulation of petroleum products
entire revenue from e-auctions to implies the reduction in nancing
go to the State government where the subsidies bill that could contain
the mine is located, can create the scal decit. Will there now be a
regional disparities. Hence, the mechanism to ensure the lowering
Centre must allocate a greater of essential commodities?
N. Sadhasiva Reddy,
percentage of direct and indirect tax
Bangalore
revenues to States that do not
possess coal mines.
S. Ramakrishnasayee, The step is a welcome change when
Ranipet compared to vacillation by the
earlier government. Then, holding
back reforms was only resulting in
While it is laudable that the people chaos. Now, with its comfortable
of Haryana and Maharashtra have majority, the Modi government
voted decisively, it is the should be able to move forward and
Maharashtra result that is ensure that the cost of essential
particularly heartening, where the commodities is under check.
G. Ramachandran,
Senas have been cut to size (Oct. 21).
Thiruvananthapuram
In voting for the BJP, the electorate
has expressed its disappointment
with the Congress and the divisiveminded Senas. By losing power in The rebellion in the World Bank

E-auction of mines

Fuelling reform

Election results

World Bank woes

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2014

looms under the Vidya Vikas scheme is one

example. But such an insidious politics goes
beyond classication.
Our governments perceive the handloom
industry to be pitiable, and dene it as a
sunset industry unable to deliver large orders.
The trick is to place large orders with the
handloom industry at the last minute. For
example, orders are given as late as December
or January to supply 35,000 uniforms in 15
days. This ultimatum creates the escape
clause for the power looms to take over.
Government policy kills handlooms through
malign neglect. As a result, the power loom
invades the handloom industry. This creates
a whole set of spurious products which alter
the identity and integrity of the industry.
Prasanna added that many power loom products add defects to prove their authenticity
as handlooms.
The members of the All-India Federation
of Handloom Organisations objected to the
governments strategy. They went on a padayatra, a 254-km walk across three districts
in North Karnataka. Prasanna explained that
these organisations were not trade unions,
but were buffer groups between weaver and
market, merely seeking to enforce the Handloom Reservation Act. He added that with the
Vidya Vikas scheme for uniforms, the handloom weaver was at least assured of 250 days
of work.
While reecting on his protest, he made
three other observations. He pointed out that
apart from Dastkar and his organisation, they
were very few NGOs in the handloom industry. Oddly, it was a result of the problem
inadvertently created by Mahatma Gandhi.

Niche for khadi

Gandhi carved out khadi from handlooms.
As a result, Gandhians perpetuated a brahminic distinction between khadi and handlooms, which left the handloom weaver
neither here nor there. In both khadi and
handloom, while the weaving is common, the
spinning is separate. Yet, khadi is handled by
the Khadi and Village Industries Commission, and handlooms by the textile industry.
Khadi has a halo, a touch of the sacred, even
the pious, while handloom is seen as every
day.
However, Prasanna added, one learns from
Gandhi. Gandhi was shrewd enough to realise
that it was the middle-class consumer who
could protect handlooms. The middle class
has the surplus, and the patronage to sustain
it. Prasanna was shrewd enough to realise
that the weaver was too vulnerable to be at
the forefront of the battle.
He made a second point. He claimed that
the handloom industry was not a sunset industry. Its members were not an endangered
community. India has more handlooms than
the rest of the world. Handloom, he said, is
the fabric of the future. All the weavers needed is clarity, dignity and honesty and the consumer to recognise his responsibility in
sustaining this world. The consumer has a
right to authentic fabric, but he has to be a
trustee of such a world. Sustainability is eventually about trusteeship.
He added that handlooms have their own
goddess of weaving in Bhimamma. There are
mathas in Gadag district, where the priests
are married women. Here, the offering to the
god is always a cotton sari and the prasad
given, a bundle of yarn.
One hopes that the goddess will be benign
and turn handlooms into the fabric of the
future.
(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal
School of Government and Public Policy.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
might be seen as an enunciation of
the enormous resistance coming
across the world to the
restructuring policies imposed by
the Bank on developing nations
(Lessons from mutiny on the
bounty, Oct. 21). Though, one
cannot expect the bank to
relinquish its neo-liberal agenda, it
is essential that it has an honest
review of its policies. The
implications of these policies that
are being imposed for the past three
decades worldwide may be seen in
light of this discontent within the
organisation.
Pramod Gouri,
Rohtak, Haryana
The steady diet of bitter pills that
the mean-spirited, economic hitmen of the World Bank prescribed
for the working populace of many a
nation, is a move now returning
home to roost as the ghosts of
economic horrors past. The
lessons for India from this episode
is quite clear. The pro-growth neoliberalism that is endlessly chanted
by our economic advisers and
recycled from the World Bank/IMF
is foretelling. The writer is on the
mark when he says that economic
advisers represent policies that are
like the recolonisation of the
Indian mind. As a nation, buyer
beware should be our watchword.
G. Parameswaran,
Coimbatore
When the bank is looked at with
awe, as an institution of super
knowledge and governance, what
was the need of appointing a
consultant like McKinsey and with
a humongous fee for a restructuring
exercise? And why a fabulous
bonanza for the CFO for scarce
skills for doing his normal work? If
this is what happens to people in the
most affluent country, what
happens to the poor is anyones
guess.
One always thought the World
Bank to be a role model as an
employer. The article shows that
the banks reputation is at stake.
Mani Payikkattu,
Kochi

Curbing tobacco use

The move to have a pictorial
warning and a text message on
tobacco products (Editorial, Oct.
21) is welcome and will educate the
user on the long term and grave
risks of using them. One hopes that
this will lead to a Tobacco-free
India one day.
Joy Stefina Arockiam,
Ramnad, Tamil Nadu
India, a fast developing country
with the second largest population
and manpower, can ill-afford to lose
one million precious lives each year,
as the statistics indicate. Of course,
it is not possible to wipe out the use
of tobacco products and their use
and sale overnight; millions will
lose their jobs. However, it is
necessary to secure salubrious
health for all by discouraging and
eliminating the use of tobacco in
phases. It is known that nicotine is a
toxic agent. It is also a fact that
nicotine particles do not escape
with the smoke but get embedded
on soft surfaces like clothes and
curtains and cause harm till nal
disappearance due to evaporation
a process that could take days.
R. Sampath,
Chennai
The government should make these
warning signs mandatory for all
shops as most youngsters are
known to buy a cigarette or two
rather than go in for a pack. The
government must examine banning
the sale of single cigarettes.
Harshit Bansal,
New Delhi
The pictorial warning will have a
salutary psychological impact. It
must be done in such a way that it
becomes embarrassing for the user
to display such a pack in his
translucent shirt pocket. The
government must resist pressure by
tobacco companies to dilute the
amendment, which is not an
unfounded apprehension given past
experience.
Ayyasseri Raveendranath,
Aranmula, Kerala

Many smokers buy cigarettes in the

loose. Chewable tobacco products
come in packages that are small.
Hence, the pictorial warnings may
have a message but authorities need
to understand the limitations of this
approach.
Varad Seshadri,
Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.

Confer Bharat Ratna

The real intention of BJP leader
Subramanian Swamy in asking
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to
confer the Bharat Ratna on Sri
Lankan
President
Mahinda
Rajapaksa appears to be to annoy
the political leaders and the people
of Tamil Nadu (Oct. 21) Dr. Swamy
must realise that in doing so, he has
made the Bharat Ratna, the highest
civilian award of India, a subject/
object of mockery. His move
deserves to be condemned.
S. Kannaki Nathan,
Sullurpeta, Andhra Pradesh
Though this is a personal appeal by
Dr. Swamy, it shows that in India,
there are no limits to the freedom of
speech. Let us not bring dishonour
to the Bharat Ratna. Sri Lankas
Tamil population is not Indian and
it is up to the Sri Lankan
Government to take steps to protect
its people and let them live in peace.
The LTTE is no longer a threat and
even Europe appears to be watering
down its position as far as this outt
is concerned. It is best that Dr.
Swamy takes steps to ensure that
Indian shermen can sh in peace
in territorial waters.
Rajakumar Arulanandam,
Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu
While there is no denying the fact
that the Rajapaksa government rid
the island nation of the LTTE, Dr.
Swamy cannot ignore the fact of
there being widespread allegations
of gross human rights violations
towards the fag end of hostilities.
Dr. Swamys suggestion is bound to
stir up a hornets nest in Tamil
Nadu.
C.V. Aravind Nair,
Bangalore
ND-ND

10

EDITORIAL

CHENNAI

THE HINDU

Interpretation of international law

T
Suhrith Parthasarathy

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

The tasks of
governance
t is not often that a rst-time legislator gets to be
Chief Minister. In Haryana, Manohar Lal Khattar was chosen by the Bharatiya Janata Party for
the top job not for his legislative experience or
administrative expertise, but for his organisational
skill and political savvy. Mr. Khattar joined the BJP
from the ranks of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh,
where he was an active pracharak, and was put in
charge of the partys affairs in several States in the last
two decades. In Haryana, his inputs went into the BJPs
making and breaking of alliances with some of the
regional parties the Haryana Vikas Party, the Indian
National Lok Dal and the Haryana Janhit Congress.
With every new alliance the BJP grew stronger, until in
the latest Assembly election it found the condence to
ght on its own. At least some of the credit for the
partys growth in the State at the expense of its allies
should go to Mr. Khattar. In many ways, this is a reward
for Mr. Khattar, a form of recognition for his efforts to
overcome the BJPs weaknesses in Haryana. It is also
an expression of gratitude by the Narendra Modi-Amit
Shah team to Mr. Khattar for his having worked closely
with them. Mr. Modi was himself an organisation man
before he became Chief Minister of Gujarat, and he
would have seen Mr. Khattar as embodying some of his
own abilities that go beyond mere tact and rhetoric.
In choosing Mr. Khattar over other aspirants, the
BJP also signalled that it was not getting into the game
of playing the Jat card in Haryana. Jats constitute a
dominant caste group in the State, and large sections of
them now form the backbone of the Indian National
Lok Dal led by Om Prakash Chautala, which nished
second behind the BJP. But for the BJP, as for the
Congress, the support base is more diverse, and the
choice of Mr. Khattar reects this fact. As is the normal
practice in the BJP, the candidature was proposed and
endorsed by the principal rivals for the Chief Ministers
post. While State party chief Ram Bilas Sharma proposed his name, Captain Abhimanyu was among those
who seconded the proposal. Mr. Khattar will now have
to shift his focus to governance from political manoeuvres. Haryana is a small State, but the challenges for the
new government are formidable. Food security, employment opportunities, rural development and prevention of female foeticide are issues that cry out for
attention more than cow slaughter or free pilgrimages, which too gured in the BJPs election manifesto.
Mr. Khattar in office is soon going to realise that expanding the support base as an Opposition party is
easier than consolidating it as a ruling party. After the
smooth takeover, he must focus on governance and
meeting the expectations behind the mandate.

he United States supposed grand

strategy to thwart the rampaging Islamic State (IS) is seemingly in a
shambles. Reports indicate that IS
has not only foiled the U.S.-led attacks thus
far, but has also perpetrated massive defeats
on the Iraqi army. Whats more, the Syrian
rebel coalitions that were working closest
with the U.S. are also apparently beginning to
turn against America.
The attacks in Syria against IS an extremist Sunni organisation and Khorasan a
mysterious, and far lesser known, network
began in the middle of September through a
series of carefully planned air strikes; they
were, to illustrate the magnitude of the assaults, the largest single operation by the U.S.
military since NATOs intervention in Libya
in 2011.

Invoking Article 51
The on-going acts of aggression on Syrian
territory, by many accounts, might only be
the tip of the iceberg. The consequence, however, of a prolonged battle, analysts say, could
backre miserably on the U.S. It could, for
instance, further strengthen the militantly
oppressive regime of the Syrian President,
Bashar al-Assad. But, all of these practicalities apart, what has been most telling about
the American attacks, are the almost-mundane inevitability of them all. As the journalist Glenn Greenwald observed, it seems
Empires bomb who they want, when they
want, for whatever reason.
Officially, although it seems to matter so
little, the U.S. has sought to justify its attacks
by invoking Article 51 of the United Nations
Charter. States must be able to defend themselves, in accordance with the inherent right
of individual and collective self-defense
when, as is the case here, the government of
the State where the threat is located is unwilling or unable to prevent the use of its
territory for such attacks, wrote U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power in a letter
to the U.N. Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon.
The Syrian regime has shown that it cannot
and will not confront these safe-havens effectively itself. Accordingly, the United States
has initiated necessary and proportionate
military actions in Syria in order to eliminate
the ongoing [IS] threat to Iraq .
While the attacks against IS have been
sought to be justied as an act in exercise of
collective self-defence of Iraq, the legal justication offered for strikes on Khorasan is
different: those strikes are a response to what

CARTOONSCAPE

For an
inclusive pitch
ope Francis famously asked last year: If a
person is gay and has goodwill, who am I to
judge? Last week, it almost looked like the
Catholic Church, led by the rst Pope in a
thousand years from outside Europe, was set to make a
bold transition, or at least make a beginning in that
direction. The Church seemed set to change its views on
homosexual acts, which it used to consider intrinsically disordered. A new Vatican document indeed acknowledged that homosexuals had gifts and qualities
to offer. Then it raised a rhetorical question, whether
the Church could accept gay people and recognise the
positive aspects of same-sex couples. It also displayed a
merciful tone towards Catholics in irregular situations such as cohabitation of heterosexual couples who
are either unmarried or have had only a civil marriage.
Although it was essentially a working paper presented
before a Synod in Vatican City, it was prepared by a
group hand-picked by the Pope, and the Synod itself was
specially called by him. Given the reactions that the
move quickly evoked from among Church conservatives, it was clearly way too early to conclude if this
indeed would mark a breakthrough: one of the critics
spoke of betrayal of Catholic parents. Although the
document used less judgmental and more compassionate prose than ever seen earlier, it did not signal any
change in the Churchs doctrinal stand on homosexual
acts or gay marriage. The bishops nal report that came
at the conclusion of the Synod did water down some of
the progressive ideas and language, but it will remain
the topic of reection among Catholics across the world
ahead of a more denitive Synod in 2015.
Meanwhile, other vital questions, such as those relating to the Churchs stand on contraception, abortion
and even priestly celibacy in the context of a rash of
paedophilia charges against clergymen in different
countries, remain. The issue of giving adequate opportunities to women in the Church is another fractious
issue. While ruling out womens ordination, Pope Francis has been quietly insisting on, and prevailing upon his
key functionaries, to appoint more women to positions
of inuence within the Vatican, in turn paving the way
for the trend to catch on across the hierarchy. He has
also sent out clear signals that the Church should grapple with its bugbears rather than seek to sweep them
under the carpet. It appears to be the case that a battle is
raging for the soul of the Catholic Church. The question
is whether the values of progressive liberalism should
not guide the Church today, for the Christian faith is not
all about moral perfection but about mercy and redemption. Pope Francis is going to prove how immensely difficult it is to walk in the shoes of the sherman.

CM
YK

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 24, 2014

Maintaining a workable international legal order

requires the most powerful countries to set the
correct precedent. If the U.S. is indeed justified in
using force in Syria, then it ought to offer a legally
tenable defence for its participation in the conflict

Ms. Power described as terrorist threats that

The International Court of Justice (ICJ), as
[Khorasan] pose to the United States and our Kevin Jon Heller, a professor of criminal law
partners and allies.
at The School of Oriental and African Studies
(SOAS), London, has pointed out, has taken a
Treaty and customary law
staunch view on the subject; it has held that
The international law on the use of force by Article 51 of the U.N. Charter permits acts in
states is governed both by treaty the U.N. self-defence against non-state actors (such as
charter, to which the U.S. is a founding signa- IS and Khorasan) only in limited circumtory and customary law. The latter is a set stances. In both Nicaragua v. the United
of rules that acquire binding status by virtue States (1986) and the Advisory Opinion in the
of extensive practice by a number of states case of the Palestinian Wall (2004), the ICJ
acting out of a sense of obligation over a ruled that an action is justiable under Artisustained period of time. In this case, Ms. cle 51 only where the non-state actors armed
Powers statements might look like legal jus- attacks are attributable, in one way or anothtications, but, in fact, they are almost com- er, to the state whose territorial integrity is
pletely shorn of reasonable basis under both being infracted. In this case, therefore, the
U.S. will have to show that the acts of ISIS,
treaty and customary law.
Insofar as treaty law is concerned, Article and Khorasan, are attributable either expli2(4) of the U.N. Charter states that members citly or implicitly to the Syrian
Illegalities
shall refrain in their international relations government.
Third, and possibly most frighteningly, as
Americas purported justication for the
from the threat or use of force against the
Mr. Greenwald has reported, it isnt merely
the fact that the U.S. has failed to show any
International law may not have changed as much as to
evidence of an imminent attack on its homeland, which is worrying. It is that the Khorajustify attacks against non-state actors purely because the host
san Group, that the U.S. originally referenced,
state is unwilling or unable to quell such an actor.
might well be a gment of its imagination.
Thus far, America has failed to display any
proof that the Khorasan actually exists.
To make matters worse, the White House
territorial integrity or political independence attacks, owing from Ms. Powers letter, howof any state . Therefore, any armed attack ever involves no such analysis. Instead, it has also conrmed that a standard that Presiby a state in a foreign territory is prohibited merely states that because Syria is unwilling dent Obama announced as part of a supposed
or unable it doesnt tell us which to U.S. drone policy, which would see the coununless otherwise permitted by the charter.
Article 51 of the U.N. Charter represents prevent the use of its territory for attacks by try launch drone strikes only when there was
the general exception to this rule. It preserves IS and Khorasan, the U.S. is justied in in- a near certainty that there would be no
civilian casualties, would not apply to air
every nation-states inherent right of indi- voking its collective right of self-defence.
strikes against IS.
vidual or collective self-defence if an armed
Unwilling
test
Just as it failed to do with Russias military
attack occurs against a Member of the United
The problems with such an explanation are intervention in Ukraine earlier this year, it is
Nations, until the Security Council intervenes. Provided however that any such re- various. First, the unwilling or unable test quite clear that the international law against
sponse ought to be immediately reported to that the U.S. seeks to invoke, as much as it the use of armed force embodied in Article
would like us to believe otherwise, has no 2(4) of the U.N. Charter has fallen short of
the Security Council.
Here, given that the Assad government has valid basis in international law. It neither constraining, or even as much as dening, the
offered no express authorisation to the U.S., nds any mention in Article 51 nor has it been ongoing attacks by the U.S. in Syria. It is
the attacks are, without question, in violation accepted by a sufficient number of nation- possible that most civilised nations consider
of Syrias sovereignty. Therefore, the aggres- states for it to acquire the status of customary the American attacks as legitimate and necessors ought to necessarily look towards the law. As Prof. Heller has observed, interna- sary, even if illegal. But, if that were the case,
exceptions to the prohibited use of force un- tional law has evolved tremendously since shouldnt such illegality matter more when it
der the U.N. Charter in justifying their 9/11, but it may not have changed as much as assaults the very foundation of our internato justify attacks against non-state actors tional legal order? And do not these attacks
actions.
further negate any semblance of legitimacy
that international law still enjoys? Sovereignty, once upon a time, used to be inviolable.
If the lack of a global uproar against the
American intervention in Syria represents a
tacit acceptance of the necessity for these
attacks, the question still remains: why is
international law so weak as to be incapable
of producing a lawfully tailored solution to
counter the Islamic States most gruesome
threats, including a potential genocide of
Yazidis?
Asking these questions at a time such as
this might appear, to some, imprudent. But it
is important for countries that often seek to
occupy a moral high ground when other countries indulge in illegal military interventions
to set good examples. Maintaining a workable
international legal order requires the most
powerful countries to set the correct precedent; if the U.S. is indeed justied in using
force in Syria, then it ought to offer a legally
tenable defence for its participation in the
conict.
When Barack Obama assumed office as the
U.S. President, many believed that his administration would correct the policies of the
disastrous Bush regime. But the Obama administration might well have created far
more dangerous dogmas, as its vacuous defence of the attacks on Syrian soil shows. If
countries treat these justications by the U.S.
as edicts, the already parlous state of international law could suffer far greater dents.
(Suhrith Parthasarathy is an advocate in
the Madras High Court.)

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

India meet its coal supply needs,
reduce imports and save on foreign
The move by Prime Minister currency. But the most important
Narendra Modi (Modi to spend thing is that the government needs
Diwali in ood-hit Srinagar, to strengthen the environmental
Oct.22) is a gimmick and it has been regulatory framework in order to
done with an eye on the coming reduce the environmental impact
Assembly elections. If Mr. Modi of the commercial mining of coal
was really interested in sharing the blocks.
Reyasat Ali,
burden and misery of the oodNew Delhi
affected people, he should have
gone to the northeast, where
devastating oods have caused It is ironic that despite having one
greater loss than what has occurred of the largest reserves in the world,
in Kashmir. Even the media have the country is unable to produce
ignored the plight of the northeast. coal in sufficient quantity or
S.K. Khosla, quality. As the country depends
Chandigarh largely on thermal power, the
supply of quality coal is essential.
The decision by Mr. Modi to visit Perhaps
denationalisation
the Siachen Glacier as well is concomitant with a complete
welcome. This is a place of extreme overhaul of the coal sector may
climatic conditions and where the bear fruit. While natural resources
Indian Army is battling the odds to should reach all people in the
help ensure our territorial nation, the money must not be
integrity. Our brave soldiers there pocketed by a few.
H.P. Murali,
dont get to enjoy a Sunday off or
Bangalore
celebrate a holiday or a festival. On
duty thousands of miles away from
their families, their only concern is High bidding may lead to higher
to defend our land from those tariff. However, in the long run, the
cunning enemies. Mr. Modis visit price of coal will come down as a
result of competition by private
will help boost their morale.
Arun Kumar A., players. Their involvement will
Chennai eventually increase output as there
will be a renewed emphasis on
administrative efficiency.
The move to e-auction coal blocks
Amit Kumar Gond,
within a proper regulatory
New Delhi
framework will facilitate openness
and boost the condence of private The move is denitely a step
players and investors (Editorial, towards the denationalisation of
Moving fast on coal allocations, coal mines. The emphasis should
Oct. 22). The commercial nature of have been on a further
mining will lead to the maximum consolidation of the public sector.
production of coal which will help The fact is that the greed of the

Srinagar visit

e-auction of mines

purely because the host state is unwilling or

unable to quell such an actor.
Second, even if one were to assume that the
unwilling or unable test has acquired legal
imprimatur, the attacks by the U.S. in Syrian
territory remain on imsy ground. Syria has
offered no explicit consent for such attacks,
and has certainly not stated that it is either
unwilling or unable to counter the threat of
IS. Quite to the contrary, the Syrian Foreign
Minister, Walid al-Muallem, who is also the
countrys Deputy Prime Minister, has said,
Any strike which is not coordinated with the
[Syrian] government will be considered as
aggression. In furtherance of the same statement, Mr. al-Muallem told the U.N. General
Assembly that the attacks by the international community must be within the frame of
full respect of national sovereignty and in
conformity with international conventions.
These statements, as are self-evident, are expressions neither of unwillingness nor inability. As the French President, Franois
Hollande, put it at a press conference following the U.S.s initial air strikes in Syria: Were
very concerned with the aspects of international law. Weve been called in by the Iraqis;
were not called on in Syria.

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
private sector in making prots will
jeopardise the environment and
the safety of mine workers.
Gopal S.,
Kakinada

Craft of survival
The greatest disservice liberal
opinion can do to the handloom
sector is to romanticise the
occupation
without
offering
workable suggestions to improve
the lives of artisans (The craft of
survival, Oct. 22). It is not a story
about the pygmy handloom versus
the mighty powerloom. It is
basically a livelihood issue. The
handlooms need market access
with tools to reach out to the wider
population rather than depending
on
seasonal
and
arbitrary
government-mandated sales. It is a
myth that technology is costly and
will corrupt all home-based
industries.
V.N. Mukundarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram

In an era of globalisation where the

demand for nished products is
growing by leaps and bounds, there
is an urgent need to upgrade our
textile industry and increase
production. In Karnatakas case,
under the Vidya Vikas scheme, the
decision to use powerlooms will
ensure speedy delivery of school
uniforms. The skilled workforce in
the handloom industry can be used
to bring about a revolution.
Jiten Patnaik,
New Delhi

sector. The pragmatic thing would

be to make it compulsory for all
government employees including
teaching staff at all levels to wear
handloom or khadi at least once a
week. The simplicity of such an
attire may help inuence children.
I still remember my primary
schoolteachers, in the 1980s, who
used to come to school on all days in
white khadi.
Jijesh A.,
Kannur

The ambiguity perpetuated by

policymakers by putting handloom
under the Textile Ministry and on a
par with the mill and power loom
sector is a clear indication of the
intent of the state. If you are
unclear as to what handloom is, the
job of securing the interests of the
sector remains bleak. It is not an
exaggeration to state that 70 per
cent of what is sold in our markets
as
handloom
are
actually
powerloom
products.
That
handloom has a brand name and
special value in the market can be
established by this single fact.
However, the powers-that-be have
no intention or interest whatsoever
to make a distinction between
handloom from imitations. In spite
of ve decades of continuous
neglect, the sector supports 44 lakh
weaver-families even today. It is
the responsibility of civil society to
ensure the proper implementation
of the Handloom Reservation Act.
B. Syama Sundari,
Secunderabad

In his characteristic style, Prof.

Philip Altbach has analysed the
inherent limitations in an Indiaspecic ranking of universities
(Getting real about rankings,
Oct.22). While the need for an
India-specic ranking needs no
overemphasis, the process cannot
be a riddle wrapped in a mystery
inside an enigma. Beginning from
the
drawing
board,
the
representation has to be allencompassing and not just
restricted to the IITs and Central
universities which are already
obsessed with achievements that
are grossly disproportionate to the
type of support they receive from
the Central government. To
calibrate
rankings
and
to
accommodate all real-time issues,
the exercise needs to include
private universities, autonomous
institutions, reputed research
agencies
and
an
industry
association to ensure that the
ranking is free from inherent bias.
Otherwise, the Russian experience
will be Indian as well.
S. Vaidhyasubramaniam,
Thanjavur

Even khadi, which may have

something of a halo, is losing its
charm due to neglect. The khadi
movement was meant to spread
awareness about self-reliance and
freedom
from
imports.
Unfortunately we have neglected
the two key themes of Mahatma
Gandhi prohibition and khadi.
The khadi movement was truly our
rst Make in India project. It
needs to be revived and
encouraged. Both khadi and the
handloom industry are industries
which
need
our
sustained
protection.
S.A. Srinivasa Sarma, Only government intervention can
Hyderabad revive the handloom and khadi

University rankings

CH-CH

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

In furtherance of good governance

T
R.K. Raghavan

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2014

Terror
in Ottawa
anada is no stranger to terrorism. Unprecedented as the attack on its Parliament building might appear it has even been described
as the end of Canadas innocence the
country has had long experience of terrorism, from well
before any other Western nation. In 1970, the Quebec
Liberation Front kidnapped a British diplomat and the
Canadian Labour Minister in a two-month-long episode that saw Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau send the
army into Quebec and suspend civil liberties. The year
before, FLQ had set off a powerful bomb at the Montreal
Stock Exchange. In 1985, an Air India plane that took off
from Montreal exploded mid-air, killing all 329 people
on board, most of them Canadian citizens of Indian
origin. Canadian investigators held the Canada-based
Khalistani group Babbar Khalsa responsible. The gun
attack on the House of Commons, in which a lone
gunman slipped into the thinly guarded Parliament
building and opened re after killing a guard at the
nearby war memorial, recalled the incident in which a
deranged soldier killed three people in the Quebec National Assembly in 1984. Though the motives of the
gunman, who was shot dead by a Parliament official, are
not clear, Canada is understandably nervous, particularly as only two days before the latest attack two
soldiers were run over near Montreal one of them
died by a man driving a vehicle who investigators
suspected to be a jihadi inspired by the Islamic State.
Links are being drawn to the Canadian Parliament vote
earlier this month to participate in the United Statesled military campaign against the IS in Iraq and Syria,
but there is no evidence yet that there was a larger
conspiracy behind either of the incidents.
It is inevitable that Canada will now become more
security conscious. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has
described Wednesdays incident as a terrorist act and
pledged that the country would not be intimidated.
Speaking in Parliament a day after the attack, Mr. Harper called for a tougher anti-terrorism law. In fact, new
legislation giving more powers, including for preventive
detention of terror suspects, to the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service, was already on the anvil and was to
be introduced on the day of the attack. It appears the
government might now make all efforts to fast-track
this. In countries that live under the shadow of terrorism, including home-grown terror, citizens know only
too well that anti-terror measures usually involve the
curtailment of individual freedoms. As well, it is all too
easy for such measures to turn into a security backlash
against members of one community. It is in everyones
interests that Canada, which has a large immigrant
population, including a large Muslim population, ensures a measured and sensitive response.

he right to judicial remedies is a

constitutional right of the subjects
Employees of the State cannot
become members of a different
class to whom such right is not available.
Justice J. Chelameswar and Justice A.K. Sikri of the Supreme Court of India (September
22, 2014) in Vijay Shankar Pandey vs Union
of India and Another.
Amid the din raised over the case involving
the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader J. Jayalalithaa, an
important and recent ruling by the Supreme
Court of India in an entirely different domain
has gone virtually unnoticed. This judgment
was in the cause of good public administration, a sector vital to economic development. The message that the top court
possibly wanted to send through its order
was that an honest civil servant can bank on
the Court if blatant injustice has been done
to him or her by an unfair executive.

Black money case

The judgment possibly took cognisance of
the fact that over the years, the Indian bureaucracy has become a spineless structure
that cannot stand up to unethical pressures
by the Executive or the moneyed in society,
thereby belying the worthy dream of Sardar
Vallabhbhai Patel, free Indias rst Home
Minister. It was the doughty Sardars vision
and resoluteness that ensured that efforts in
some quarters in post-Independence India
to abolish the centrally recruited and overseen All India Services did not succeed. The
nation has greatly beneted from the continuance of the Indian Administrative Service
(IAS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS) in
particular. Certain events since 1975, viz., the
period post-Emergency, have however been
the cause for dismay among those who have
been looking for a professional, honest and
independent civil service that would bolster
an equally dedicated political class. It is
against this backdrop that one should analyse the recent Supreme Court decision.
It all began in 2010 when V.S. Pandey, a
senior IAS officer, Uttar Pradesh cadre,
joined hands with Julio Ribeiro, the former
police chief, and a few others, under the auspices of a non-governmental organisationstyled India Rejuvenation Initiative (IRI), to

Civil servant independence in the country is

at best nominal. Nonconformity even to
spurn whimsical and arbitrary directives
received from above is widely recognised as
a very risky proposition
le a writ petition on the need to ferret out
black money owned by Indians and stashed
abroad. The petition culminated in the Supreme Court decision (2011) known as Ram
Jethmalani and Others vs the Union of India.
Reacting to this, Pandey was served a charge
sheet by the U.P. government on ve counts
for alleged violation of four clauses of the All
India Services (Conduct) Rules, 1968.

Charges, exoneration
The gravamen of the charge against Pandey was that, in being a co-signatory to the
said writ petition by Ribeiro and others, he
had endorsed an affidavit by one Jasbeer
Singh that was critical of some senior officers
of the Government of India (mainly from the
Enforcement Directorate). The charge sheet
added that in not having obtained the gov-

ernments permission before joining the said

NGO and deposing in an inquiry where the
Central and State governments were likely to
be criticised, he had violated the conduct
rules.
An enquiry officer appointed to look into
the charges against Pandey exonerated him
of all the charges on August 30, 2012.
Strangely, a copy of this report of exoneration was not served on Pandey. On September 9, 2012, a selection committee that was
considering cases of IAS officers in U.P. for
promotion to the super timescale ignored
Pandeys case, although he had been exonerated and was eligible for promotion. The
committees decision was in a sealed cover, a
usual practice in respect of officers against
whom disciplinary action was pending.
Worse was to follow. The enquiry officers
nding was rejected by the U.P. government

CARTOONSCAPE

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Modi's visit to J&K
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
spending Diwali in Kashmir is a
milestone (Rs.745-cr. aid for J&K,
Oct. 24). His visit to Siachen
(Diwali sweets for jawans, Oct.
24) and conveying to our soldiers
that India stands shoulder-toshoulder with them, reminds one of
the quote: Kind words can be short
and easy to speak, but their echoes
are truly endless.
A.J. Rangarajan,
Chennai

on September 26, 2012, on the ground that

his report was cursory and that he had failed
to properly investigate all relevant facts. The
State government went on to invoke the Public Servants (Inquiries) Act, 1850 and appoint
a two-member committee to look once more
into the charges against Pandey. Signicantly, the State governments action came on the
same day as the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) dismissing Pandeys appeal
seeking his promotion. Following this, Pandey went to the Supreme Court on a writ that
was recently disposed of by a bench comprising Justices Chelameswar and Sikri in favour
of Pandey. In doing so, the judges made some
comments on what was palpably an act of
rancour and vindictiveness by the government. What was striking about this remarkable judicial order was the thoroughness with

In many States, public servant morale is at its nadir.

Ebola and lessons

from Nigeria
n late July this year, the international airport in
the bustling Nigerian metropolis of Lagos received an extremely unwelcome visitor. A man
from Liberia, a West African nation where Ebola
is rampant, had been caring for his sister when she came
down with the disease. Refusing to stay in quarantine, he
had taken a ight out of the country and brought the
deadly virus to Africas largest city, a major air, sea and
land hub in the region. In Lagos, with a population size
similar to that of Mumbai and a large slum population,
there was the frightening possibility of the virus spiralling out of control. The citys dense population and
overburdened infrastructure create an environment
where diseases can be easily transmitted and transmission sustained, commented a journal paper on the
outbreak that ensued. The potential for a dangerous
conagration increased when a close contact of the
Liberian man secretly slipped out of quarantine and
went off to seek medical treatment in Port Harcourt,
Nigerias oil hub. The doctor who treated him died of
Ebola later and was found to have had an alarming
number of high-risk contacts with various people. Yet,
thanks to the rapidity with which the Nigerian government acted, the virus has been snuffed out. Nigeria is
now free of Ebola virus transmission, the World Health
Organization declared categorically on October 20.
Nigerias resounding success comes as a useful antidote to the fear evoked by the desperate situation in the
West African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone where Ebola is still out of control. Africas most
populous nation has now shown that even when a traveller brings the disease in, developing countries can,
with quick and decisive steps, stamp out the virus. As has
been demonstrated in Ebola outbreaks that occurred in
earlier years, the key lies in swiftly identifying and
isolating infected persons, tracking down all their close
contacts and meticulously monitoring those individuals
for signs of infection. Nigeria utilised trained personnel,
technology and management methods put in place to
control polio outbreaks, to trace contacts and look for
Ebola cases. Altogether, nearly 900 contacts were located. It is worth noting that ultimately the country reported only 19 conrmed cases, many of the victims
healthcare workers, several of whom acquired the virus
from the Liberian man before he was diagnosed with
Ebola. Seven of the conrmed cases died, giving the
Nigerian outbreak a case fatality rate of 40 per cent,
substantially lower than the 70 per cent estimated for
the ongoing outbreaks in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra
Leone. Other nations, including India, must learn from
Nigerias achievement.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 2014

actions on this front have been

disappointing. In this time, a major
chunk of the money may have
become untraceable. Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley has shocked
many by taking shelter under the
Double Tax Avoidance Agreement.
DTAA is only meant to protect legal
account holders from paying tax in
countries of their domicile and
birth. Money in numbered
accounts is ill-gotten and
unaccounted for, and those holders
deserve no leniency.
N. Ramamurthy,
Chennai

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
The Supreme Court has said
corruption is a serious issue and
must be dealt with an iron hand.
Why is the government then busy
nding ways to evade its
responsibility to act sternly? The
subject of black money is the
mother of all corruption issues.
D.V.G. Sankararao,
Nellimarla, Andhra Pradesh

Relatives and court

One of the reasons honest taxpaying

citizens voted for the BJP was
because they believed it would
bring to light the names of the those
who have stashed away ill-gotten
money
in
Switzerland,
Liechtenstein, Dubai, Mauritius
and the Bahamas. It is unfortunate
that the BJP is now playing games.
In this day and age of electronic
bank transactions, the money trail
may well have gone cold. The BJP is
bound to lose face if it delays taking
action in this issue.
J. Baby Harline,
Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu

People are unable to decipher the

import of loaded statements that
the BJP and the Congress are
hurling at each other. Mr. Jaitleys
remark that the disclosure of black
money holders will embarrass the
Congress is abbergasting. Any
selective leakage of names will
only show that the BJP is hiding
something. The Prime Minister and
The BJP fought and won the general his Cabinet must remember that
election using corruption and black they took oath of office by uttering
money as principal planks (Row the words without fear or favour.
G. David Milton,
over black money remark,Oct. 24),
Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu
but in the past ve months its

The article once again highlights

the relevance of the legal aphorism
that justice should not only be done
but it must also be seen to be done.
The mere appearance of bias is
enough to invalidate a judgment.
Despite the Advocates Act, 1961, the
delay on the part of the Bar Council
of India to frame rules so that no
lawyer can practise in a court where
any of his relatives functions as a
judge is disappointing. In the
absence of a legal bar, it would be
better on the part of legal
professionals to operate the moral

The visits will send out a strong

message to the international
community, especially Pakistan,
that Kashmir is very much a part of
India. It is gestures like these that
will help bring the marginalised
State into the mainstream. While
there are some who dismiss Mr.
Modis move as a political gimmick,
the truth is that it is a moralebooster for Kashmiris and Indian
soldiers.
Subhaga Ann Varghese,
Thiruvananthapuram

Row over black money

The need for support

This landmark judicial order comes at a

which the bench demolished each averment time when, in my view, an intimidated civil
service needs support. In many States, public
against Pandey.
servant morale is at its nadir and it requires
Upholding an individuals right
the oxygen of an unequivocal imprimatur
First, the Court held that since Pandey from the highest court of the land that would
never disputed the charges made against help to halt the hands of a meddling political
him, there were no facts to be investigated by class. Nothing else would bring about at least
the enquiry officer. Second, relying on the a marginal improvement to what is an undecision (1971) of the Supreme Court in K.R. deniably appalling situation. Wide publicity
Deb vs Collector of Central Excise, Shillong, to its salient features would go a long way in
the bench held that a second inquiry against reinstilling courage into large sections of the
Pandey was untenable. There could at best be bureaucracy which is baulking in fear of rea further inquiry, but not a second one on the prisal for its legitimate actions and has been
same facts. And, in the Pandey case, the facts coerced into condemnable passivity.
were such that a further inquiry was hardly
Civil servant independence in the country
warranted. As regards violation of a stip- is at best nominal. Nonconformity even to
ulation of the All India Services (Conduct) spurn whimsical and arbitrary directives reRules that an officer could not depose before ceived from above is widely recognised as a
an individual, or committee or any other au- very risky proposition. Signs of deance are
thority without the sanction of the govern- fraught with such serious consequences that
even the most courageous civil servant
thinks many times over before turning down
even a palpably unethical and illegal direction. The few mavericks who display a semblance of remonstrance are heavily penalised
so as to deter potential dissenters. It is this
sordid state of affairs that convinces me that
Justices Chelameshwar and Sikri will have to
be hailed for coming squarely to the rescue of
a hapless senior official of the U.P. government for his alleged intransigence.
I view the judgment as bold and imaginative. It sends out a strong signal that the
honest and upright civil servant can depend
on the higher judiciary for unequivocal support. Wide publicity to the facts of the case
and details of the judgment is a must.
I am not pleading here for a total licence to
honest civil servants to do whatever they
want or indulge in intemperate criticism of a
constitutionally installed government. What
is required is a freedom to speak their minds
in furtherance of good governance. I am happy that Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his
rst meeting with the Secretaries to the
Union Government exhorted exactly this and
made himself available to hear them, especially when they were at loggerheads with
their Ministers. There cannot be a better way
to get the best out of each government official
whatever be his status in the hierarchy. The
Prime Ministers Office has again to be complimented for issuing a directive to the bureaucracy that it should not act on oral
instructions. I am condent that this stand
would greatly promote transparency and
honesty in governance.
(R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director.)

The writer appears to have missed

something in his article, Father,
son and the holy Court (Oct. 24).
Individuals across the world and
who hold public office behave
almost the same way in some
situations while acting or reacting
in some other way in another
setting. Here, the real question is
whether a judge can act impartially
in deciding a case in which an
arguing counsel is a close relative.
A judge cannot is the answer if the
universal human trait is to lose
ones balance and sense of fair play.
Yes, he or she can act impartially
is the other answer if it involves
men and women of merit, integrity
and maturity.
R. Veera Raghavan,
Chennai

Mr. Modis generous outreach

gesture to the people of Kashmir is
to be appreciated. However, there
will be the inevitable comparisons.
He must focus on the northeast and
Visakhapatnam also as the
elements have hit/devastated both
places. Infrastructure needs to be
restored there on a war-footing.
Rajesh Pedagadi,
Visakhapatnam

ment, the bench held that joining in

averments made in a writ petition before a
court was equivalent to taking part in a judicial process for which no citizen needed to
get the governments nod. An individuals
fundamental right did not get diminished
just because he was a member of the civil
service.
The two judges were categorical that this
was a clear case of harassment of a hapless
civil servant. (The purpose behind the proceedings appears calculated to harass the appellant since he dared to point out certain
aspects of mal administration ... The whole
attempt appears to be to suppress any probe
into the question of black money. A part of
the strategy to intimidate not only the appellant but also to send a signal to others who
might dare in future to expose any mal administration.) They did not also fail to notice that while the government chose to
proceed against Pandey, it ignored the action
of another official, Jasbeer Singh, who had
led an additional affidavit that was critical
of the government. The bench allowed Pandeys petition and went beyond, to award him
the costs involved. In doing so it said, The
requirement of (a) democratic republic is
that every action of the State is to be informed with reason. State is not a hierarchy
of regressively genuecting coterie of
bureaucracy.

bar by themselves. What is morally

wrong cannot be legally right..
R.K. Jacob,
Palayamkottai, Tamil Nadu
I have pondered over the various
examples placed, wondering which
one of them would make the nation
wake up. The Bar Council of India
must look into this issue
immediately. Undoubtedly, our
faith in the judiciary must be
safeguarded by making suitable
amendments to the rules framed.
The issue relates to the conscience
of the person concerned.
M. Xavier,
Vallioor, Tamil Nadu
The rule of law that all are equal
before
the
court,
cannot
substantiate the argument in this
topic. In this context, the natural
law, blood is thicker than water, is
to be remembered; it is obvious that
there will be favouritism. The fact is
also that when compared to the
older
generation,
the
next
generation is often found wanting
as far as values of professional
ethics and moral integrity apply.
Anup Darshan P.,
Thiruvananthapuram

Atrocity in school

school. And in between these two

cases are reports from across India
of children being harassed by
teachers. Unfortunately our laws
and regulations have adequate
loopholes for offenders/criminals
to escape. In most schools, the
administration drags its feet on the
formation of a PTA, but is quick to
remind parents about fee hikes and
payment dues. There is hardly any
process involved in many of these
so-called international schools
that encourages the democratic
participation of students and
parents in school-related activities.
Saswati Paik,
Bangalore

Brave, brilliant
Benjamin C. Bradlee, the former
Executive Editor of Washington
Post, will be remembered for his key
role in the downfall of President
Richard Nixon (Oct.24). The
Watergate
scandal
brought
investigative journalism into its
element and egged on many a
journalist to test uncharted waters.
Bradlee was easily the pioneer of
intrepid investigative journalism.
Scribes like him are brave warriors.
C.G. Kuriakose,
Kothamangalam, Kerala

The New York Times article should

be an eye-opener to younger
journalists. Bradlee proved right
the adage that the pen is mightier
than the sword. It will be no
exaggeration to say he is the father
of investigative journalism. He did
send his reporters through walls to
bring back stories some of which
revealed the true course of U.S.
history and some of which actually
altered it.
Yet another case of child
C.A.C. Murugappan,
molestation in an international
Kothamangalam, Tamil Nadu
It is a shame that cases of even small
children becoming victims of
molestation are on the rise (Sexual
assault: criminal case to be led
against school, Oct.24). The case in
Bangalore proves that rapists have
no fear of the law. One only hopes
the child is able to recover and is not
scarred for life.
Bhagwan Thadani,
Mumbai

ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Inequalities and the Ebola crisis

T
Nissim Mannathukkaren

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014

Another round
of elections
ashmir is still recovering from the devastation of the recent oods; the State and Central governments are still involved in relief
and rehabilitation operations. But extraordinary as these circumstances are in the Valley, deferring the Assembly election in Jammu and Kashmir
was never an option before the Election Commission.
Any postponement of the election process would only
have added a political dimension to the administrative
crisis in the State, stretching further the already
strained capabilities of the National Conference government. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah appeared to
have been motivated by the rationale of his own political survival when he mooted the deferring of the election in order to better deal with the ood crisis. In view
of security considerations militancy in Kashmir and
Maoism in Jharkhand the polls are spread over ve
phases beginning November 25 and ending on December 20. As in the Lok Sabha election, in J&K, the Peoples Democratic Party is expected to eat into the vote
share of the National Conference, and the Bharatiya
Janata Party may again raid the Congress strongholds.
The break-up of the NC-Congress alliance is of little
consequence, and the interest in the election is whether
the Congress would win enough seats to remain a player
for power in the post-election scenario. The PDP and
the Congress have been partners in government before,
and in the event of a fractured mandate in J&K, another
political churning is quite likely.
In Jharkhand, the question is whether the BJP will be
able to repeat its performance in the Lok Sabha election
and get a majority of its own. After having won 12 of the
14 Lok Sabha seats, the BJP is the overwhelming favourite. Although the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha is at present in alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya
Janata Dal, the three parties might go their separate
ways in the Assembly election. Differences over seat
sharing aside, the parties are by no means natural allies.
Jharkhand has seen several combinations of parties in
power, and the JMM, especially, has shown a readiness
to make friends with any party for the sake of sharing
power. The Congress and the RJD have stakes in Bihar
too, but the national party might see little merit in
playing the role of a junior partner in a JMM-led coalition in a low-stakes election. For the BJP, it is important to keep up the winning momentum. Under the
leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP is
now a centralised organisation. Just as he and his core
team take credit for every success, they will be conscious that the blame for a defeat too will lie on them
alone. But that seems to be a situation very much to the
liking of Mr. Modi who is not averse to risk-taking.

he principle upon which the ght

against disease should be based is
the creation of a robust body; but
not the creation of a robust body by
the artistic work of a doctor upon a weak
organism; rather, the creation of a robust
body with the work of the whole collectivity,
upon the entire social collectivity. Che
Guevara
The photograph in August this year, of a
very weak, 10-year-old Saah Exco, suspected
of having contracted Ebola, sitting naked on a
bucket and ghting to stay alive while residents of a slum in Monrovia, Liberia, milled
around him, terried of helping him, might
go on to win Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Moore another prize. But thats
irrelevant in what is unfolding as a devastating tragedy in Africa. Moores and others
pictures can only show us a glimpse of that
tragedy. They do not show that Excos mother and brother had died earlier, or that he
himself would die later.
The popular media in America and the rest
of the western world, which, until recently,
was busy dealing with the horrors of beheadings perpetrated by medieval barbarians,
and other horrors in the form of nude photographs of celebrities being leaked online on
a daily basis, was suddenly forced to confront
another horror. One that was silently brewing for many months in those parts of the
world which appear in the western consciousness only through Hollywood blockbusters. And this it was forced to do so only
once the rst Ebola death happened on
American soil.

Global apathy
Nevertheless, the response to the crisis has
been on expected lines. The entire discourse
surrounding Ebola in the West is about quarantining itself against those poor Africans
entering our space, bringing deadly viruses
with them. Look at the discussion surrounding Thomas Duncan, the Liberian man, the
rst person to be diagnosed with Ebola in
America, in September. Social media was rife
with opinion that he had deliberately come to
America to infect others. The state authorities in America, before his death, were even
considering ling criminal charges against
him for intentionally exposing the public to
the virus! Airports in North America have
begun screening passengers travelling from
affected areas and the governments are on
high alert for any eventuality.
Of course, it is only natural that people are
concerned about their own safety and lives.
But what is shocking is that the concern for

The response to Ebola, which has killed nearly

5,000 Africans but only two western citizens,
cannot be colour coded anymore. For the future,
we cannot but raise questions about the structural
inequalities that prevent accessible health care for
the global poor, and societies that eliminate these
inequalities

ones own self is also accompanied by a complete apathy towards the distant other. Otherwise, how can we explain the response to
what the World Health Organization (WHO)
calls the unparalleled health crisis in modern times? Canadian journalist Geoffrey
York who has covered wars and disasters,
from the Gulf War to tsunamis, reported
from Liberia that nothing is quite like Ebola, a feeling reinforced by photographs:
stricken mothers slumped on pavements
with their infants on their laps, the dead lying
on roads, people pleading with health workers to touch the bodies of their loved ones.

Piecemeal solutions
These gut-wrenching pictures resemble
nothing short of a scene of a war-ravaged
zone, except that the tragic difference here,
unprecedentedly, is that one cannot even
help the dying or grieve for the dead. Yet, the

World Bank president will save lives, they

will not eliminate the root causes that produce periodic crises.

Worlds apart
Inequalities are at the heart of the Ebola
crisis. Ebolas are produced in a world in
which the United States spends $8,362 annually per person on health while Eritrea
(Africa) spends $12. It is the same world in
which the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries which constitute a mere 18 per cent of
the worlds population spend 84 per cent of
the total money spent on health in the world.
Thus, unsurprisingly, 95 per cent of tuberculosis deaths and 99 per cent of maternal
mortality are in the developing world.
And these inequalities are not only between the developed and the developing
worlds, but also exist within the developed

The response of developing nations such as India, China, and

Brazil all of which want Africa as a business partner has
not been any better than that of the West.
international community has only failed miserably, as the World Bank president would
admit. The reported response of developing
nations like India, China, and Brazil all of
which want Africa as a business partner
has not been any better than that of the West
either (the shining exception has been that of
the tiny nation of Cuba, contributing, as in all
global health crises, far beyond its means).
The overriding concern with protecting
oneself, other than producing an apathetic
response, has also led to the prescribing of
piecemeal solutions which will only perpetuate such tragedies in the future while hiding
serious questions about the root cause of the
crisis structural inequalities in global
health. While solutions like a global health
fund for emergencies prescribed by the

world as the health indicators of African

Americans and indigenous people in North
America show. In the city of London, it is
estimated that while travelling on the tube
eastwards from Westminster, each tube station signies the loss of approximately one
year of life expectancy.
It is not an accident that Ebolas epicentre
is in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. They
are some of the poorest countries in the
world with a history of wars and conicts,
and of collapsing or dysfunctional health systems. Liberia has only 51 doctors to serve 4.2
million people and Sierra Leone, 136 for six
million.
Inequalities mark every step of the current
outbreak. Questions are being asked about
the initial tardy hospital treatment given to

CARTOONSCAPE

A Herculean
challenge
he process of relief and rehabilitation in the
devastated north coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Srikakulam and Vizianagaram in
Andhra Pradesh has just begun. The challenges seem huge. Even the extent of damage from cyclone
Hudhud, which knocked out the region two weeks ago
has not been fully assessed. Prime Minister Narendra
Modi made an aerial survey, visited the ravaged port
city of Visakhapatnam and announced an interim relief
of Rs.1,000 crore. Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu camped in Vizag for the rst few days to
ensure that rescue and relief operations were launched
swiftly. He has ensured that within three days, power
supply was restored in Vizag city. The neighbouring
towns too got back their supply within a week. By
October 31, power supply should be fully functional in
the affected areas. Temporary shelters have been provided to lakhs of people rendered homeless. Essential
commodities were rushed, and free rations distributed.
Considering the extent of devastation, caused entirely
by natures fury, the people have also been very understanding. But their patience cannot be taken for granted. The rehabilitation process has to move forward to
tackle the major problems of housing and livelihood,
and both these challenges cannot be easily overcome.
Mr. Naidu has appealed to the people, philanthropists and corporate India to contribute generously to
this massive exercise to rebuild not just Vizag, but also
the entire region that still remains vulnerable to cyclones. Given the fact that Andhra Pradesh faces a huge
revenue decit of about Rs.16,000 crore, and still suffers from the pangs of what he calls unscientic bifurcation, rehabilitation has to be a multi-pronged effort.
The Centre, State, trade and industry, and philanthropy
including from the expatriate community should
join hands to make this happen. Rehabilitation should
look at housing, infrastructure, restoration of livelihood, attending to the damage to industrial infrastructure especially the major public sector undertakings
in and around Vizag and create durable assets. The
funds will have to be used to create infrastructure that
can stand up to such severe cyclones so that these
exercises do not become a recurring feature. The assessment of damage to the PSUs such as the steel plant,
and to the naval facilities has been completed, and the
Central and State authorities are taking up the unenviable task of evaluating the devastation caused to the
agriculture sector. Compensation to farmers and a
time-bound plan to restore the livelihood of both farmers and sher folk demand priority. The Northeast
monsoon has just begun and the government has to be
watchful to prevent any further calamity in this region.

CM
YK

MONDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

brazenly chose to ignore the
circular, whereas children were at
The role of the media is undeniably the helm in creating awareness by
vital in helping to popularise the circulating cards and meeting
plans and schemes of the adults to pass on the message.
Raju Umamaheswar,
government (Modi lauds media
Coimbatore
role in Swachh Bharat campaign,
Oct. 26). It is human nature to
expect eulogy and accept attery. I like whatever Mr. Modi has been
Hence, the encomiums of the Prime saying and doing after coming to
Minister should make the media power. The Clean India campaign
work with even greater enthusiasm is one idea. However, all his good
in helping propagate a noble cause work will come to naught if our
in enabling a clean India. The population keeps galloping. This is a
analogy of pens turning into subject on which his silence is
brooms to sweep away the dirt puzzling. His views on this must be
should also be used to sweep away known.
Mathew Gainneos,
corruption and poverty.
Meenakshi Pattabiraman,
Thiruvananthapuram
Madurai

PM on Swachh Bharat

Good governance

The report immediately brought to

my mind the frustration of seeing
the humongous amount of debris as
an
aftermath
of
Diwali
celebrations. As the electronic
media has shown, this seems to
have been a problem all across India
and raises the question on whether
we are really sincere about ensuring
the success of the Clean Indian
campaign. This Diwali was a classic
example of how the age-old dictum
prevention is better than cure
would have worked. The authorities
could have imposed heavy taxes on
the sale of crackers and penalised
those who indulged in celebrations
that
resulted
in
gross
environmental pollution.
In Coimbatore, residents in my
area achieved almost near success
by exhorting everyone to gather at a
common ground to celebrate
Diwali. Paradoxically, a few adults

The Supreme Courts judgment, in

Vijay Shankar Pandey vs Union of
India and Another (In furtherance
of good governance, Oct. 25), is
sure to boost the morale of honest
civil servants. The probity of civil
servants will ensure the welfare of
the country. There are numerous
examples where the victimisation
of the bureaucracy has created
havoc.
Srinath Rao P.,
New Delhi
We have not only inherited the
British civil service but also British
rules and regulations. With a few
exceptions, most civil servants at
the Central and State levels are
neither effective nor efficient
enough to function as an auxiliary
agency of the political executive of a
democratic system. This is mainly
due to the practice of British-made

Duncan and whether his race and class had

anything to do with it here was an African
man without medical insurance seeking
emergency medical help in the most privatised and corporatised medical system in
the West. That his nine-day treatment cost
$5,00,000 (Rs.3 crore) should tell us something about the state of global health care.
When American missionaries Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol were infected with
Ebola in Liberia, the American government
had them airlifted isolated in an aeromedical biological containment system
and had them successfully treated in the U.S.
Contrast this with the 22-year-old Liberian
woman and nurse-in-training, Fatu Kekula,
who was forced to look after four of her
Ebola-stricken family members at home using trash bags as protective gear after hospitals turned her away.
While a patient brought from Africa to a
state-of-the-art facility in Germany was
treated in an isolation ward equipped with
three different air locks (even when Ebola is
not believed to be transmitted by air) and by
doctors and nurses wearing hazmat suits
with their own oxygen supplies, the efforts to
quarantine the West Point slum in Monrovia
failed completely, after it erupted in riots.
Order and planning mark the western intervention, but chaos reigns in the centre of
the outbreak. If an entire building near Paris
was cordoned off and quarantined on the
mere suspicion of a person having Ebola-like
symptoms, in Liberia, the police had to re at
a mob which had closed down an isolation
ward and even looted contaminated material
as they believed Ebola to be a hoax.

Focus on priorities
Such conditions of absolute deprivation
and desperation are fawned by socio-economic inequalities. Is it not astonishing that
a deadly virus like Ebola does not have a cure
despite the fact that it has been around for 40
years? The answer lies, as the WHO DirectorGeneral emphasises, in the fact that diseases
that afflict only some poorer and darker nations of the world are not a priority for the
global pharmaceutical industry. The latters
market is a $300-billion behemoth of which a
third is controlled by 10 drug companies only
six in the U.S. and four in Europe.
Ebola also raises serious questions about
the priorities of the global super powers.
America has until now seen Ebola only as a
potential weapon of bioterror. It has already
spent $1.1 billion in the military campaign
against IS (a monster produced by American
imperialism), while the Ebola outbreak
which requires at least $1 billion has got a
third of it in actual paid donations from all
the nations. Again, this is unsurprising, considering that the annual world military expenditure is $1.75 trillion while its health
expenditure is only $6.5 trillion.
Under globalisation, the empire also unwittingly strikes back. Thus the epicentre of
the latest Ebola outbreak lies in the former
French colonies, posing new threats to its
former colonial master, France, by people
travelling to it from them. Similarly, Duncan
grew up next to a colony of leprosy patients,
ed Liberia during the civil war, lived in refugee camps across Africa and nally brought
Ebola to America. Such are the ironies of our
deeply divided but interconnected world.
In the immediate, the response to Ebola,
which has killed 4,922 Africans but only two
western citizens, cannot be colour coded
anymore. For the future, we cannot but raise
questions about the structural inequalities
that prevent accessible health care for the
global poor, and societies that eliminate
these inequalities. Do questions such as why
does it cost $1 billion to develop a drug in
America, while Cuba achieves the same
health indicators as America by spending 40
times less on health, and what makes all
celebrities and others across the globe, who
only a month ago were dumping ice buckets
on their heads, raising $100 million for the
ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, turn silent as Ebola continues to surge ahead have answers?
(Nissim Mannathukkaren is with
Dalhousie University, Canada. E-mail:
nmannathukkaren@dal.ca)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
administrative norms. Max Webers
civil service neutrality was
replaced
by
a
committed
bureaucracy in the 1970s, as civil
servants were considered to be a
stumbling block in a nations
development. Almost all the
multimillion rupee scams in recent
times point to a link between a
corrupt political executive and an
equally corrupt if not intimidated
higher bureaucracy. Bureaucrats
should not compete with each other
in pleasing the political executive.
The political executive takes a
decision on the basis of inputs from
the permanent executive or the
bureaucracy. Bureaucrats must
take decisions keeping in mind the
poorest of the poor Indian.
Suresh Rangarajan,
Thiruvananthapuram

On MGNREGA
The article Ending destitution and
distress (Oct. 25) reminded me of
the book Everybody Loves a Good
Drought. Brinda Karats analysis
shows how the very concept of
MGNREGA, intended to empower
the rural poor, is now being
morphed to help corporate bigwigs.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
needs to understand that while
MGNREGA catapulted the UPA
back to power, a half-hearted
approach to it later was what led to
the UPAs subsequent downfall.
S. Sultan Mohiddin,
Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh

Iran hanging

It is regrettable that the Iranian

government did not care to listen to
international appeals to stay the
The writer cannot be oblivious to death sentence on Reyhaneh
the provisions of the conduct rules Jabbari (Iranian hanging draws
for government servants in which condemnation, International page,
all powers are vested with the Oct. 26). It seems to be clear that the
disciplinary authority; government lady was not given a fair trial.
servants are allowed minimal Awarding her life imprisonment
liberty. A cursory reading of the All could have been thought of. It
India Service (Conduct Rules) 1968 appears to be a dark era for
is enough to make it clear that a Iranians. Is there no human touch
government servant, whatsoever in the country?
J.P. Reddy,
his rank, has a pitiable plight with
Nalgonda, Telangana
no powers even to murmur as far as
his authoritarian boss is concerned.
Despite the judgment, not even a
handful of government servants The fact is that the Indian economy
will have the courage, the patience became a service-oriented economy
and the wherewithal to defy the without achieving industrialisation
government and then righteously in full (Enter the Lion Sunday
pursue their cases all the way up to Anchor page, Oct. 26). Therefore,
the much championed Make In
the Supreme Court.
G. Bazul Ashhab, India initiative, aiming at
Coimbatore enhancing Indias manufacturing

Enter the lion

prowess, is a welcome step. The

steps that the Modi government has
taken such as rolling out the red
carpet for the corporate world,
focussing on youth and labour
reforms are sure ways to gradually
build the Make in India brand.
P. Venkatesu,
Hyderabad

A physicians thoughts
It was sad to read an article that was
one-sided (Unlearning to relearn: a
physicians thoughts, Open Page,
Oct.26). One agrees that science is
not perfect and medical science is
an evolving eld but there is no
point in ridiculing medical science.
The writer is a practitioner of the
art, has held many positions, as
faculty, chancellor, etc and is what
he is today because of medical
science. How can he forget its
invaluable contributions to human
kind in the form of vaccines and
helping increase the average
lifespan? In my view, the profusion
of quotes in the article did not help
prove his points. Medical science is
a vibrant eld and where there is a
huge amount of research going on.
The least we can do is to ensure that
the layman does not get the wrong
message. The way new diseases are
springing up shows that basic
research in understanding how a
cell works and how it functions is
essential. Likewise, there is
correction going on in the eld of
pathogenesis and in understanding
disease mechanisms. When one
faces ill-health, it is medical science
that is the saviour.
Mohan,
Bangalore
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014

Civilian supremacy and defence reforms

Happymon Jacob

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2014

The return of
Ms. Rousseff
n more ways than one, the re-election of Brazils
President Dilma Rousseff for a second consecutive term in Sundays dramatic run-off represents a replay of the political script in Latin
America. The narrative is one where the regions heads
of state usually hold office for successive spells, at
times even beyond the stipulated two terms, by means
of tinkering with the Constitution. Yet that does not
tell the full story of an electorate that is easily forgiving
of their leaders. For the repeated massive electoral
mandates equally conrm popular faith in the stewardship of the regions leftist parties, despite the economic challenges facing these countries. The term
anti-incumbency seems almost alien to the Latin
American lexicon. The verdict received by Ms. Rousseff
for another four years would appear above all to be a
measure of the popularity of the social protection programmes of the centre-left Workers party during its
12-year rule. Such a reading is borne out by the response from Brazils vocal and impatient middle classes, who rallied behind the two opposition candidates
right through the poll campaign.
During the rst-round poll on October 6, it was the
popular environmentalist Marina Silva who consistently deed predictions of a surge in support for the
incumbent. It was her eventual elimination that pitchforked Acio Neves of the centrist Brazilian Social
Democracy party never in the reckoning until then
into the race. Similarly in the run-off, Mr. Neves came
within three percentage points of the winning margin.
Evidently, the ripples that Ms. Rousseffs party felt in
the run-up to the polls over corruption scandals in the
big state oil reneries did little to dent the partys
pro-poor image. Nor was the state of the economy in
recession enough to sway voters away. Brazil, as with
other countries of the region, may have nearly reached
the end of the commodities boom of recent years. The
President has, in her second term, some deft balancing
to do to retain the support of her political constituency,
while formulating policies to ensure macro-economic
stability. A new beginning could well be in the offing.
During the campaign and after her victory, Ms. Rousseff has acknowledged egregious wrongdoing in the
state-owned Petrobras, where she had for a time served
as a director. Greater transparency could further enhance Brazils growing global economic and political
clout. Latin American leaders have emerged as robust
champions of democracy with a strong egalitarian
thrust. They could do more to safeguard these values.
The best of intentions may not justify the erosion of
basic institutions.

rime Minister Narendra Modi

should appoint a defence minister
a full-time one and demonstrate a
great deal of administrative acumen
and political will if he is serious about his
declared intent to strengthen Indias national
security and defence preparedness. Indeed,
the absence of a full-time defence minister is
merely symptomatic of a larger set of serious
structural problems being faced by the countrys higher defence management today,
which is in urgent need of innovative reforms
and radical restructuring. Mr. Modis address
to the Combined Commanders Conference in
New Delhi on October 17 found no mention of
structural reforms in higher defence management whereas his predecessor did mention it
from time to time even though the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government had
sidestepped implementing the crucial
reforms.
The disturbing reality today is that in the
absence of a full-time defence minister and by
not introducing defence reforms, it is the civilian bureaucracy having generalist IAS
officers whose expertise in defence matters is
questionable that has a major say in the
countrys defence planning and decisionmaking. This needs to change.

India should not wait for another crisis to

recognise the pressing need for higher defence
reforms. There are sufficient studies, reports and
recommendations that the government can
depend on while planning the restructuring
process. It can also consider an Act of Parliament
to offset the existing resistance to defence reforms
Committee on Security in February this year
after the government sat on it for no less
than one-and-a-half years, but it was too late
by then as the UPA government felt that it
should not take key national security decisions in its nal days in office. Its now the
turn of the NDA government to act.

Key issues

One of the key issues that should be addressed by the Modi government is the GoMs
recommendation to appoint a ve-star military officer to serve as the Chief of Defence
Staff (CDS) who then will be the single-point
military adviser to the government. The CDS
will chair the meetings of the Chiefs of Staff
Committee (CoSC) and smoothen the process
of military planning, streamlining budgetary
requisitions and effecting coordination beCommittee recommendations
tween the three services. This proposal was
The demand for reforms in Indias higher earlier shot down by the MoD as it feared that
defence management is a long-standing one a super general would bypass the civilian
and has grown in strength ever since the Kargil Review Committee (KRC) recommended a
number of reforms. In 2000, the then NationIt is the civilian bureaucracy
al Democratic Alliance (NDA) government
countrys
defence planning and
appointed a Group of Ministers (GoM), with
change.
four task forces on intelligence reforms, internal security, border management, and
higher defence management, to review the
countrys defence preparedness in the light of bureaucracy in defence decision-making.
the KRCs recommendations. Many of the There has also been opposition to the idea
recommendations made by the GoM were from within the military, by the Indian Air
only partially implemented. And the most Force (IAF). The Chandra committee, being
important one, of creating the post of Chief of cognisant of the bureaucratic opposition to
Defence Staff (CDS), was ignored.
the CDS proposal, watered down the authorAs a result, it has been widely perceived ity of the CDS and instead recommended the
over the past decade or so that the countrys creation of a four-star permanent chairman
defence sector needs further restructuring. of the CoSC. According to reports, this chairIn response, the UPA government appointed man, to be appointed on a two-year tenure on
a task force on national security under the a rotational basis among the three services,
chairmanship of Mr. Naresh Chandra in 2011; will not only coordinate various inter-service
it submitted its report a year later. Although issues but will also be in charge of the counclassied, some of its content has been leaked trys tri-Service Commands: the Strategic
to the press. Many of its recommendations Forces Command (SFC) dealing with Indias
were not to the liking of the Ministry of De- nuclear forces and the Andaman and Nicobar
fence (MoD) and the Defence Minister. As a Command (ANC). This too was put on the
result, the UPA government lost an opportu- back burner after opposition from the MoD.
nity to introduce crucial reforms. The report
Another issue is the creation of tri-service
was to have been taken up by the Cabinet theatre commands. While the future of war-

fare lies in joint planning and operations, the

Indian defence establishment has ignored it.
As a result, the countrys defence planning is
deeply reective of service-specic strengths,
weaknesses and visions. Issues that should be
addressed jointly by all three services are
hardly ever the priority of any of the services.
Without a common leader, each service chief
tends to be the spokesman of his own service.
The primary concern is about a protection of
autonomous turfs, and not in promoting
jointness as it is bound to challenge claims of
autonomy. The IAFs opposition to the establishment of tri-service theatre commands is
one such example.

Building expertise
The other area of concern is the absence of
synergy among the various arms of the state
dealing with defence and national security:
the armed forces, the MoD, the Ministry of
External Affairs and the Defence Research

that has a major say in the

decision-making. This needs to

and Development Organisation (DRDO). An

attempt at synergy was made in 1986 when
the Directorate General of Defence Planning
Staff (DGDPS) was formed, but it never got
anywhere because civilian officers were not
keen on working in the DGDPS which functioned under the CoSC. Post-Kargil, the KRC
report had proposed the integration of the
armed forces headquarters with the MoD, as
doing so would have led to more cohesion in
the countrys defence planning. Instead, the
government created the Integrated Defence
Staff (IDS) run by three-star officers and
with hardly any role in the defence decisionmaking. It does not full any of the intended
purposes. In June this year, Union Defence
Minister Arun Jaitley laid the foundation
stone of the IDS building in New Delhi. He
emphasised the need to develop synergy between the services to achieve optimum force

CARTOONSCAPE

Bold proposals
on climate deal
he bold proposals that form the European
Unions (EU) new climate deal set the tone for
the best bargain for a global agreement in
Paris next year. The decision to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40 per cent by 2030 is
ambitious in comparison with the 8 per cent reductions
on a 1990 baseline under the Kyoto Protocol. The EU
was the lone participant from among the industrialised
nations. Last weeks move follows through on the offer
made at the 2013 Warsaw United Nations Conference
on Climate Change where countries agreed to make
voluntary GHG emissions curbs in a post-Kyoto scenario. The mainstay of the overall EU strategy would be
the much-touted emissions trading system (ETS). It
currently covers over 11,000 power and industrial
plants and airlines and about 45 per cent of the total
GHG emissions within the bloc. Sectors within the ETS
would contribute 43 per cent reductions and those
outside 30 per cent by 2030. Other decisions include
non-binding commitments to raise the share of renewable sources to 27 per cent in the total energy consumption and an equal proportion to the deployment of
energy efficient technologies. The EU deal is subject to
similar commitments that may be made by other countries at the Paris summit next year.
With some national capitals from Poland to Portugal
pleading special circumstances and others pushing to
expand caps into new sectors, the deal was signicant
for the distance covered than what remains to be done.
The European Trade Union Confederation, which represents about 60 million workers, has criticised the
targets as too low, that potentially could take away a
million jobs created in a low-carbon economy. At the
same time, with an eye on the 2015 climate summit, the
Prince of Waless Corporate Leaders Group backed by
over 50 companies representing 4.5 million employees
worldwide have advocated a robust EU climate and
energy policy. This is a sign of convergence of interest
between industry and employee bodies that would be
crucial to clinch a global pact in Paris. The record of the
Kyoto Protocol shows that countries with a pre-existing high technology base did not achieve the highest
emissions reductions, perhaps in view of their lock-in
effects. It was the transitional economies of the states
of the former Soviet Union that registered impressive
reductions. Here may be a lesson for emerging economies such as India to make strategic decisions with an
eye on opportunities for the future. The failure of the
Copenhagen 2009 summit would undoubtedly temper
expectations among EU leaders about a global deal. But
Washington has travelled some distance since then and
climate sceptics are on the back foot these days. There
is thus real potential for progress.

CM
YK

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Modi and NDA MPs

Bardhaman blast

Prime Minister Narendra Modis

meeting with and advice to 400-odd
NDA MPs on Sunday (Modi
marshals NDA MPs, Oct. 27) to
take his governments pro-poor
initiatives to the people has sent out
a strong message that the
government is not just pro-rich or
pro-corporate. That he was concise
and selective in dealing with
burning issues and highlighted the
scope for administrative, legal,
judicial, electoral and police
reforms is welcome. No initiative
has been taken so far for inclusive
development as well as good
governance, and to ensure
minimum
government
and
maximum governance as promised
during the election campaign. Mr.
Modi missed the opportunity to
advise the MPs on wide-ranging
issues of priority ahead of the
winter session of Parliament.
M.Y. Shariff,
Chennai

Whenever there is a debate on

terror, we blame Pakistan for
destabilising the region by
exporting jihad from its soil. But
from now we should start blaming
ourselves too (NSA sees large
network behind Bardhaman blast,
Oct. 27). NSA Adviser Ajit Dovals
observations are embarrassing and
reveal lapses by the West Bengal
government. The government must
take steps to curb terror activities
across West Bengal before it
spreads across the region. Let us not
get to a stage where Presidents
Rule has to be imposed. India
should offer all support to
Bangladesh. Combating terror must
be a shared concern within SAARC.
Saidatta Gampa,
Siddipet, Telangana

I found it ironic that Mr. Modi

asked the MPs to take his pro-poor
initiatives proactively to the people.
How does he intend to do this when
he is cutting budgetary allocation to
the UPAs pro-poor agship
programme, MGNREGA? Mr. Modi
needs to show that he is practising
things that he preaches.
Rakesh R.V.,
Thiruvananthapuram

After a brief period of peace, the

east and the northeast appear to be
witnessing a rise in extremist
activities. It is unsettling that there
is an attempt to create trouble in
neighbouring Bangladesh. We
should note that it was largely due
to the political situation and the
goodwill of the Awami League that
fringe extremists were curbed. This
is the time to prove to Bangladesh
that we treat it seriously. Let us not
create another hostile state in the
neighbourhood.
Tanaka D. Anand,
Mysore

application. But the IDS, Mr. Jaitley should

know, is a stillborn institution and cannot
contribute to synergy among the forces.
The GoM and Chandra committee reports
strongly recommended the posting of military officers to important posts in the MoD
to improve defence planning. Generalist IAS
officers who spend one or two years in the
MoD are unlikely to understand the highly
complex nature of defence issues and strategic planning. This is the result of an unhealthy
tendency in the government to prioritise routine administrative management over strategic planning based on specialised domain
knowledge. It is time the government realised
the need for specialised knowledge and expertise in the MoD. This can be taken care of
by encouraging civilian officers to build expertise in strategic affairs and involving the
services in strategic decision-making.

Standing committee reports

It is not as if politicians are unaware of
what ails Indias higher defence structures.
Various defence related parliamentary standing committee reports have not only supported reforms but have often expressed
displeasure over the lack of their implementation by the MoD. In 2007, one such report,
on the CDS, said that the Government
should take the GoMs recommendations as
well as this Committees concern in this matter seriously and take the nal decision on
CDS at the earliest.
In 2009, another standing committee on
defence (SCD) said that it is of the considered view that the creation of an additional
post of Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) to act as
Chairman of the CoSC is essential to ensure
optimum level of jointness among the different wings of the Armed Forces and to provide
single-point military advice to the Government. Parliamentary committees have also
been critical of the Defence Ministrys unwillingness to implement the required reforms. The second SCD report of the 15th Lok
Sabha said: Merely writing letters even from
the level of the Defence Minister is not sufficient. There is an urgent need to use the
various fora of interaction with the leaders of
the political parties The Committee expects
the Ministry to take the effective steps as
suggested above so that the institution of CDS
is set up expeditiously.
The Defence Ministrys favourite excuse
for not carrying out defence reforms is that
there is no political or inter-service consensus on what shape the reforms should take.
The reality is that it has never been serious
about creating such a political consensus, and
it will remain a pipe dream. The lack of interservice agreement on defence reforms is not
difficult to overcome. Today, there is clear
consensus among the services on the issue of
the CDS even though such consensus has still
to be arrived at on the issue of tri-service
commands.
The other excuse is that keeping the military out of decision-making strengthens civilian supremacy over the armed forces, a
awed argument for a number of reasons.
One, while civilian supremacy should imply
the supremacy of the political leadership, in
India it translates into the overlordship of the
civil services over the armed forces given that
political bosses hardly have any time to manage defence related issues. As a result, the
defence secretary, a generalist IAS officer, is
the one who advises the minister on defence
issues besides managing the armed forces.
Second, since generalist bureaucrats in the
Defence Ministry are not experts in the defence sector, they are either reluctant to carry
out reforms whose importance they dont understand, or actively obstruct them fearing
the loss of the authority they have traditionally enjoyed. Creating a special cadre of defence
specialists is one way to overcome this
problem.
India should not wait for another crisis to
recognise, all over again, the need for higher
defence reforms. There are already sufficient
studies, reports and recommendations that
the government can depend on while planning the restructuring process. The government could also consider an Act of Parliament
to offset the existing resistance to defence
reforms.
(Happymon Jacob teaches at the School of
International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru
University,
New
Delhi.
E-mail:
happymon@gmail.com)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
No country in the world can
effectively immunise its citizens
The chilling facts in the article, against Ebola unless it is contained
Inequalities and the Ebola crisis everywhere. One also has to praise
(Oct. 27), have exposed the the efforts by tiny Cuba that itself is
inhuman face of the West which coping with natural disasters and
appears to be more interested in nancial constraints. A robust
barricading its citizens. It was medical system, good medical
shocking to know of the dark side to education and a preventive,
health-care
prot-oriented
pharmaceutical community-based
giants. The only country that approach are what will ultimately
deserves praise is Cuba, which is help people remain healthy.
Ankit Garg,
working quietly and efficiently.
Ghaziabad
S. Sultan Mohiddin,
Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh
The article highlights the point of
Professor Nissim Mannathukaren growing insensitivity often being
has highlighted the real concerns of the
baggage
of
deepening
the West. Is globalisation a inequality. The West in particular
phenomenon to be cherished? If must realise that epidemics like
efforts can be made to form a these have the potential to slow
coalition against terrorism, why not down an already sluggish global
a similar step on a critical health economy. It appears the world has
issue such as Ebola?
not learnt lessons from the 2002-03
Babar Ali Chagatta, outbreak of SARS or the 2009-10
Jammu outbreak of H1N1. In todays
instantly
connected
world,
Celebrities dousing themselves universal health care should be
with buckets of ice-cold water made a priority. India, being a
brings little comfort to the victims pharmaceutical production hub,
of Ebola and in aiding efforts to should take a lead role in helping
quell the disease that is tormenting contain this epidemic.
Tarun Mishra,
Africa. All leading nations must
Salt Lake City, Utah
work with the Ebola-affected
countries and bring to them the best
in medical aid and care. It is strange The article not only highlighted the
that a disease that has raged on for shocking extent to which Ebola has
spread but also global apathy
over 40 years still has no cure.
N. Visveswaran, towards a serious health crisis. The
Chennai health care sector and the

Ebola and faultlines

pharmaceutical industry appear to

be focussed only on making prots,
with their research and innovation
concerned only with diseases that
relate
to
rich
populations.
Controlling Ebola shows the need
for a strong and basic health
infrastructure.
Deepak Kumar,
Bhiwani, Haryana

The Nambiar files

This refers to the report, Files
speak of Bose deputys espionage
acts (International page, Oct. 26),
about Arathil Candeth Narayan
Nambiar being a Soviet spy, as
gathered from les now declassied
by the British government. My
question is this: why does the
Indian media need a prod only from
the West to wake up to a certain
reality? In 2011, Purabi Roy in her
book The Search for Netaji: New
Findings disclosed this (source, the
JMCI) and other such startling
pieces of information. Published by
Purple Peacock Books, this book
has material from primary sources.
One of the reasons why I, as the
publisher, decided to publish the
book was that this and other
information accessed by the author
with great difficulty belongs to all
Indians. It is our right to know. The
media need to ferret out
information lying under the cloak of
classication.
Ketaki Dutt-Paul,
Kolkata
ND-ND

10

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Interpreting the Indonesian mandate

T
Sudhir T. Devare

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014

A positive
move
oosting the nations defence preparedness, the
Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) has cleared a set of much-delayed defence deals, worth
Rs.78,000 crore. In line with the Make in
India mantra, the focus was on indigenisation in addressing critical equipment shortages. The Navy can
heave a sigh of relief with the sanction for six new
conventional stealth submarines under Project 75I, all
to be built in a single shipyard in India. At Rs.50,000
crore, this will be the largest-ever domestic ship-building contract. A committee set up by the DAC will identify the eligible shipyard from among ve public sector
and two private shipyards within eight weeks for issuing a Request for Proposal (RFP). Project 75I was promulgated under the ambitious 30-year submarine
construction plan, approved by the Cabinet in 1999 to
build 24 conventional submarines. But not a single
submarine has been inducted till date and the induction
of Scorpene submarines has been repeatedly delayed.
In another signicant decision, the government has
decided to go ahead with acquiring Israeli-built Spike
Anti-Tank Guided Missiles, a third-generation reand-forget system, to equip the infantry with 300-plus
launchers and 8,000-plus missiles, along with transfer
of technology worth Rs.3,200 crore. This effectively
nixes the U.S. offer of producing the Javelin in India and
further co-development of fourth-generation Javelin
for use by the armies of both countries. Given that the
U.S. lobbied hard with New Delhi, this is sure to cause
heartburn in Washington. Both the systems have been
extensively eld-tested by the Indian Army, and opting
for Spike is a pragmatic decision to save time and money
as the acquisition had already been delayed by two
years. If things go as per plan, the deadline of the Army
to induct the new missiles by 2017 should be met. In all,
about 40,000 missiles are required to equip the Armys
382 infantry battalions and 44 mechanised regiments.
The decision not to go ahead with the Javelin also
reects concerns relating to the extent of technology
transfer by the U.S. In contrast, Israel has a long record
of being a trusted partner. The co-development would
also have meant an end to the indigenous Nag ATGM
project. The Midget submarines for the Navy will boost
the capacity of marine commandos to undertake special
missions behind enemy lines, and likewise the other
deals represent signicant capacity additions. The decision is without doubt a positive movement with respect
to the urgently needed modernisation of the three services. For this there is an immediate need to reform the
procurement process, which after several revisions is
still cumbersome and opaque. The real test is to ensure
timely completion of the process in a transparent manner, adhering to the set deadlines.

he inauguration last week, on October 20, 2014, of the third directly

elected President of Indonesia, Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, marks a watershed development in the
political landscape of Indonesia. The event
saw for the rst time in decades spontaneous
jubilation by thousands of common people
for their new who belongs to us President
who in turn gave a call to drivers, trishaw
pullers, shermen, vendors, among others to
rally behind him to build a stronger, prosperous Indonesia. The inauguration was attended by leaders from Singapore, Malaysia,
Brunei and the U.S Secretary of State, John
Kerry. In a signicant move, President Widodo in the rst meeting with his new Cabinet,
has directed them to full his vision and mission, and not of the individual ministries.
This peaceful and constitutional transfer of
power from a former general to a commoner
also signies how far Indonesia has travelled
in a short span of 16 years, from a military-run
totalitarian regime to a full-edged democracy, the third largest in the world. This phenomenal transition, in which the Indonesian
media and civil society played a major role
does not, however, seem to have captured
enough imagination even within Asia. For
India, which is separated from Indonesia by
less than 100 nautical miles from the Nicobar
Islands, the changes in this vast neighbouring
country have profound implications. Indeed,
the relationship between the two countries
can be termed as one of the oldest, going back
to millennia encompassing maritime tradition, and religious, cultural, linguistic, literary exchanges.

Domestic challenges
President Widodos victory in the keenly
contested (the margin was six per cent of
vote) direct election in July against Prabowo
Subianto, a former general and Soehartos
son-in-law, was unprecedented. It was challenged by Mr. Prabowo and declared valid by
the Constitutional Court only a few weeks
ago. Mr. Widodos win is thus not without a
major domestic challenge. Mr. Prabowo who
has stitched together a strong opposition,
known as the Red and White (KMP) coalition in Parliament following the elections last
April, had remained deant and only last
week offered to cooperate. His unexpected
presence at the Inauguration to greet the new
President and the latters reference in his
speech to Mr. Prabowo as my best friend are
seen as generous gestures towards reconciliation. With 67 per cent Parliament members

Joko Widodos electoral victory signies how far

Indonesia has travelled in a short span from
a military-run totalitarian regime to a full-edged
democracy. This transition, in which the
Indonesian media and civil society played
a major role, does not, however, seem to have
captured enough imagination even within Asia
in the KMP coalition, Mr. Widodo faces a
hostile opposition which has already garnered key parliamentary posts and abolished
the system of direct elections, the very reform
which had enabled Mr. Widodo to rise to the
top, rst as a Mayor of Solo, then as Governor
of Jakarta and now as the President. Much
will now depend on whether Jokowi, with his
direct and condent approach to the people
and persuasion skills, can win over an adequate number of opposition members in Parliament to his side.

behind the 2002 and 2005 Bali bombings, had

called for his followers to lend support to IS.
An unknown number of Indonesians have
reportedly travelled to West Asia to join IS.
More than 200 people from Southeast Asia
are estimated to have gone to Syria and Iraq
to ght for it. Before his swearing-in, Mr.
Widodo had said that he would lay stress on
taking religious, cultural and security approaches to curb ISs inuence on Indonesian
terror groups. During his visit to Jakarta for
the inauguration of the new President, John
Kerry sought more help from Southeast Asian
Rise of IS
leaders in the U.S- led effort against IS. India,
The new Indonesian Presidents priorities too is severely affected and deeply concerned
are expected to be domestic, with the econo- by the rise of IS in West Asia where India has
my being the topmost. On the social front, the huge stakes, human and material.
concern over the rise of Islamic fundamentalism has occupied attention at the highest lev- ASEAN as priority
In the eld of foreign policy, Indonesia has
el in recent years. Radicalism spurred by
extremist religious teachings has been the taken several useful initiatives in recent
primary challenge for the national resil- years, which has raised its prole as a regional
ience programme and counter-terrorism power. Its effort through shuttle diplomacy
campaign. Even though the Islamic parties towards securing Association of Southeast

India should welcome this new emphasis of Indonesia on the

maritime dimension.

scored over 30 per cent vote in the parliamentary elections last April, it is signicant
that none of them has called for Indonesia to
become an Islamic state or for the implementation of sharia law. Their focus, like that
of other national parties, is on education, cost
of living, health care, good governance and
the tolerant and pluralistic nature of the Indonesian society under the Pancasila constitution remains their principal objective.
The recent developments in West Asia with
the rise of terror activities of the Islamic State
(IS) have their repercussions in Indonesia,
the biggest Muslim country in the world. Former President Yudhoyono had warned that
Indonesians should avoid thinking that IS is a
distant threat. Abu Bakar Bashir, the former
spiritual head of Jemaah Islamiyah, the group

Asian Nations (ASEAN) unity in the wake of

differences over the South China Sea issue at
the Phnom Penh Foreign Ministers meeting
in 2012 was one such example. Under the new
President too, Indonesias priority is expected to be ASEAN. In the next concentric circle
lie some major powers such as China, Japan,
India and Australia with which Indonesia has
extensive ties. Indonesias proposal for an
Indo-Pacic Treaty ts well with its engagement with other regional players in developing the security architecture in the
Asia-Pacic. Bordering on three crucial choke
points, namely the Malacca, Sunda and Lombok Straits, Indonesia is in an excellent position to contribute to this architecture.
How India-Indonesia relations would
shape up in the new political dispensations in

CARTOONSCAPE

Going by
medical evidence
he reaction of the Governors of New York and
New Jersey to the Ebola threat reects their
lack of understanding of the nature of the
disease, and utter disregard for the need to
institute well-thought-out public health policies that
are based on sound medical advice and clear evidence.
In a knee-jerk reaction, both the Governors on October
24 made it mandatory to quarantine for 21 days even
asymptomatic people returning from the three Ebolastricken West African countries if they had come in
direct contact with people suffering from Ebola. Illinois
soon followed suit. As a result, an American nurse
returning from Sierra Leone was placed under quarantine. The policy was hurriedly introduced after Craig
Spencer, a New York-based doctor who had treated
patients in Guinea, tested positive for Ebola. Facing a
barrage of criticism and an uproar, the Governors revised the policy in less than 72 hours to allow asymptomatic people to be quarantined at home for 21 days with
twice-daily monitoring; those being monitored will be
allowed to interact with family and friends. Despite the
revision, the policy remains more restrictive than the
requirements put out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Beginning October 27, the
CDCs updated guidance requires direct and active
monitoring by public health officials once a day along
with follow-up monitoring over phone for a period of 21
days for all travellers returning from the three diseasehit countries. It also calls for restricted public activities
and restricted long-distance travel, but there is not a
word on quarantining asymptomatic persons.
Unlike airborne diseases such as u and tuberculosis,
people can get infected by the virus only when they
come in direct contact with the body uids of an Ebola
patient. Infected people remain free of symptoms and
do not transmit the virus during the incubation period
of two to 21 days. It is obvious that the panic-stricken
Governors went overboard with their policy that had no
scientic basis whatsoever. The direct fallout of their
irrational policy would have led to a further reduction
in the number of health workers volunteering to tackle
the outbreak in the three African countries. Already the
number of health workers volunteering to work in these
countries is disproportionately small compared with
the magnitude of the problem. While monitoring must
be a top priority, allaying the fears of people by creating
more awareness should be given equal importance. The
U.S. has much to learn from the way Nigeria handled the
Ebola situation and rid itself of the disease recently. A
massive awareness programme along with tracking and
surveillance was the way Nigeria tackled the situation.

CM
YK

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Black money & names
The issue of ferreting out the
names of those who hold black
money has been on cards for the
last many years (Black money,
govt. names industrialists, Oct.
28). While the efforts of the
government to convert black
money into white are laudable, the
fact is that with the passage of time,
there is every chance of the
recipients and account-holders
escaping.
The report reminded me of the
time when in February 2013, there
was a disclosure of there being
crores of black money in foreign
banks. I sent an application under
the RTI to the Prime Ministers
office asking what action was being
taken. The reply came after a while:
No action was taken.
T.V. Nageswara Rao,
Visakhapatnam

The reluctance of the government

to disclose the full list of those
under the scanner is quite clear.
The unsavoury fact is that most of
our political parties are recipients
of donations from these dubious
persons (Timblo donated to BJP,
Cong. Oct.28).
Vijaya Krishna Pillai G.,
Alappuzha
Divulging three names is like two
minutes of an action scene in a
blockbuster lm. Where are the big
sh? When black money was one of
the planks of the governments
election campaign, it should not
vacillate on the issue.
Diwakar Tiwari,
Satna, Madhya Pradesh

Since no politician has been

included in the list, those who have
been questioning the integrity of
our leaders should hang their
heads in shame. In fact, we must
It is really intriguing why the consider ourselves lucky that we
administration, irrespective of its are being ruled by honest persons!
P.G. Menon,
political leanings, is dilly-dallying
Chennai
on the issue of black money. Vague
and curious alibis that the
fundamental right for privacy and The rst list is the equivalent of
the Double Taxation Avoidance announcing the names of players of
Agreement are holding back a B team in a sporting event. The
attempts to bring back the money government must play fair and
are totally unconvincing. If that be reveal the full list. We want to
the case, can the government admit know who scored the maximum
that all those foreign bank account- marks in accumulating wealth.
A.P. Thiruvadi,
holders come under the purview of
Chennai
DTAA?
Further,
will
the
administration concede that the
privacy clause under Article 21 Revealing the names of three
applies to everyone including black account-holders is a small step
towards fullling the promise to
money hoarders in India?
Haridasan Mathilakath, reveal more. But the government is
Kochi still indulging in an act of

both countries can be a very important question and calls for immediate discussion at the
highest levels.
The coincidence of several issues in the
recent elections in India and Indonesia could
not be more striking. Both Prime Minister
Narendra Modi and President Widodo come
from humble economic backgrounds, without
any military or elite family connection. While
Mr. Modi was a tea vendor in his childhood,
Mr. Widodo was a small-time furniture entrepreneur who grew up in a slum in Solo in
central Java. Both are outsiders to their capitals. Mr. Modi as a stump orator in Hindi and
Mr. Widodo in his impromptu visits to and
talks with common people have won their
hearts, a feat not seen before in both countries. Their victories have raised enormous
hope and great expectations across their
countries. The mandates received by them
also appear quite similar to root out corruption and bring transparency, good governance and employment.

Ties with India

Indonesia has played and continues to play
an important part in our Look East policy.
India-Indonesia relations have expanded signicantly in recent years with several high
level visits and trade and economic exchanges. Indonesia has emerged critical for
Indias coal imports and entrepreneurs from
India are making investments in Indonesias
coal, oil and gas and mining sectors. The level
of overall bilateral engagement is however
still far below the potential for the countries,
which are two of Asias largest emerging
economies, long-time partners in their struggle for independence, champions of the philosophy of non-alignment and, above all,
democracies with young populations poised
to play a major role not only in Asia but
beyond. Sharing of mutual experiences in the
democratic governance of these vast nations
can itself be a very useful exercise in cooperation and understanding. Through this, the
two largest countries in South and Southeast
Asia can become pillars of stability and security in Asia.
Among a number of elds which can be
identied for close interaction are defence,
maritime security, counter-terrorism, the environment, education, economic cooperation
through investments on both sides, culture
and arts, technology including IT, space and
nuclear power, etc. The list can be a long and
impressive one.
During his inauguration speech, President
Widodo underlined the need for Indonesia to
focus on its maritime heritage. He reminded
the people that the future of their archipelagic nation lay with the seas, adding that the old
slogan At sea, we are triumphant (In Sanskrit, Jalaseva Jayamahe) needed to be revived. In India, we should welcome this new
emphasis of Indonesia on the maritime dimension. For centuries the two countries
were bound to each other by maritime trade
and cultural contact across the oceans. Hinduism, Buddhism and later Islam went from
India to Indonesia by sea, as also textiles from
Gujarat and the Coromandel coast while spices travelled from Indonesia by the maritime
route.
Today, India and Indonesia can cooperate
in a host of maritime matters such as disaster
relief, anti-piracy, coastal security against human or drug trafficking, resource and climate
research, port construction and naval ship
production. Indonesia, as the next Chairman
of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC), can play a
very constructive role in this eld along with
India, Australia and other countries of Asia
and Africa.
In November, President Widodo and Prime
Minister Modi will be attending the G-20
summit in Australia and the East Asian Summit in Myanmar. Their personal rapport
would no doubt create a new stage for the
revival of the ancient but enduring relationship and to take it to a higher level.
(Sudhir T. Devare, former Secretary, MEA,
and Ambassador to Indonesia, is Ram Sathe
Chair Professor at Symbiosis International
University, Pune and Noida.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
obfuscation and prevarication by
not disclosing the big names,
probably of politicians, who might
have looted our wealth in collusion
with officials. Let us not mock the
rst step towards cleansing the
Augean stables.
Lakshman Ramamoorthy,
Mumbai

The military coexisting with a

civilian bureaucracy is something
to be admired as it has resulted in
the robust existence of our
democracy. As far as operations are
concerned, our armed forces enjoy
autonomy and are a source of great
pride across the nation. The need is
to train bureaucrats so that they
are aware of all procedures,
Without appropriate legal back-up, functions and operational aspects
the move to reveal names might of matters that are military.
Dablu Singh,
backre on the Indian government.
Buxar, Bihar
Some countries might just
stonewall on the issue once the
government is seen to have Even years after becoming a
violated its obligations and Republic, we are not fully prepared
commitments
to
foreign to ght a war. The bureaucratic ego
governments in this regard. The to prove that it is superior to the
best option would be to negotiate armed forces will continue unless
with tax havens and impose tax per the requirement of accountability
annum on Indian account-holders. is thrust upon bureaucrats. Every
This will generate additional bureaucrat must spend a minimum
of three months with the armed
income.
Geethu Issac, forces to understand the basic
Thiruvananthapuram needs of the armed forces before
they assume office in the MoD.
V.V. Nair,
Manipal
Time and again, our defence forces
have delivered results whenever
there has been a challenge to our India should avoid prolonged
national
security
(Civilian experimentation in this sector and
supremacy and defence reforms, usher in reforms quickly. A
Oct. 28). This has been done in combination of bureaucratic
and
complicated
spite of the pitfalls in our structure lethargy
of higher defence management. procedures is what has weakened
The appointment of a Chief of the Indian military.
Vishakha Rohella,
Defence Staff and aligning the
New Delhi
defence forces properly with the
Ministry of Defence are two
urgently required steps. But
politicians are wary of taking a call The outcome in the presidential
as they are unsure of the results election in Brazil has once again
that any tinkering might result in. conrmed that Latin America is in
N.V. Nair, the throes of change (Editorial, and
Ernakulam International page, Oct. 28). Ms.

Defence reforms

Dilma Rousseff, again

Rousseffs re-election is a
signicant development. Her win
should strengthen the activities of
BRICS. She must implement the
existing
social
protection
programmes more effectively.
V.V.K. Suresh,
Guntur
It appears that Latin America has
great faith in the leftist parties. The
social protection programmes of
the centre-left Workers Party in
Brazil have the support of the
majority in Brazil. The middleclass voters have been clear in their
choice. India should draw
inspiration from Latin Americas
democratic
experiences,
as
democracy and a strong egalitarian
thrust can go hand in hand.
Thomas Edmunds,
Chennai

Health sector reforms

Engaging the private and public
sectors in the health care eld
(Reforming the health care
sector, Oct. 27) must explore the
possibility
of
fostering
a
complementary role to each other.
Making health a state subject has
led to variable rather than uniform
access to health care as a result of
regional State differences. There
has to be a dialogue to lower the
high walls of distrust. The platform
for this must debate costs, delivery
mechanisms, efficiency levels,
partnership-building and client
identication. Right now, the
delivery systems in the public and
private sector are polarised.
Ajit Yadav,
Chennai
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Old repressions, new tyrannies

S
Shiv Visvanathan

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014

Tough talk
as tactic
fter having striven hard to emerge as the single
largest party in Maharashtra, the Bharatiya
Janata Party seems intent on preserving its
newly gained advantage vis--vis former ally
Shiv Sena: the party is continuing with the tough posture
it adopted during the pre-election seat-sharing talks.
The go-it-alone tactic for the Assembly election was
nalised as part of a long-term strategy, and the BJP is in
no mood to surrender its lead over other parties, especially the Shiv Sena. Excessive concessions in terms of
ministerial berths would have nullied the gains from
the success of the gamble the party took in contesting
the election without a major ally. The BJP could not
afford to be seen as bowing to pressures from its allies.
One of the reasons why the Congress came across as
weak and ineffectual during the United Progressive Alliances years in power was the unreasonable pressure
exerted by its allies on the government. Evidently, the
BJP does not want to repeat the same mistakes, especially when it has a majority of its own in the Lok Sabha.
The tough talk with allies was also a message to the
electorate: the party would not give in to unreasonable
demands of allies for the sake of power. With the Nationalist Congress Party offering unconditional support, the
BJP had the luxury of driving a hard bargain with the
Sena. Of course, sooner or later the NCP too would
demand its price for the support, but for now the BJP is
hoping to play the Sena against the NCP.
When Devendra Fadnavis takes oath as Chief Minister on Friday, he will still have to balance the Sena and
the NCP with some help from the BJPs national leadership. The NCP, which was part of the previous government led by the Congress, and which was attacked by the
BJP during the campaign as corrupt, is unlikely to be
accommodated in the Ministry. A weakened and chastised Sena, shorn of its pretensions to being the biggest
party in Maharashtra, is what the BJP is hoping to
accommodate in its government. But the very fact that
the BJP is going ahead and staking claim to form the
government without tying up an agreement with the
Sena, shows the partys new-found condence. But unlike the BJP-led government at the Centre, the Fadnavis
government will have only limited room for manoeuvre,
dependent as it is on the support of other parties.
Whether as opponent or ally, the Sena is not easy to deal
with. Mr. Fadnavis would do well to concentrate on the
growth and development plank, giving a boost to commerce and industry, leaving the political management to
the party leadership. That is the best way to skirt contentious issues such as statehood for Vidarbha, on which
the BJP deliberately maintains an ambiguous stand.

ometimes after a days work is over,

when the TV is switched off and
newspapers lie forgotten, one sits
quietly and rethinks, reviewing the
day in the minds eye. This ritual is a very
powerful form of editorialising. One is no
longer a spectator because one is now evaluating and judging news, exploring deeper
connections and long-range consequences.
The immediacy of rst impressions gives way
to the greyness of connectivities, and kneejerk optimism to anxiety of an unarticulated
kind.
I feel this particularly when I watch Narendra Modi as a person and as a phenomenon. There is a celebration around the man,
an expectation, a sense of anticipation of the
future. Every word he re-coins or popularises,
from development to governance, sounds aspirational. One is hopeful about his programmes on punctuality, cleanliness, of
reforming that colonial attic we call Indian
law. Yet, viewed as backstage, as a narrative,
as an emerging discourse, Mr. Modi appears
to unleash a backlog of fears and repressions
which, when combined with the violence of
the new, frightens me.

Majoritarian definitions of the world can

articulate old repressions, once illegitimate, into
new tyrannies. Narendra Modi has acquired an
electoral majority but this new majority seeks
a redress of old scores
creating a more dened intolerance for
minorities.
This situation has explosive possibilities.
Michael Mann, in a classic study of Africa, has
shown that instabilities of electoral democracy have led to genocide, where one side decides that electoralism is fragile and opts for
exterminism. One tries to eliminate rather
than subdue the opponent. The opponent
from rival becomes the enemy to be
eliminated.

No plural space

To the logic of electoral democracy, one has

to add the whole baggage of Hindu-Muslim
relationships. Today, many a Muslim does
not feel to be a part of India; he feels electoral
majorities are detrimental to him. This creates a quality of suspicion and paranoia where
neither side recognises the possibility of fairSecularism and the majority
ness in the other. Take the Kashmir ood.
Fear is not always specic but it does not The Indian Army did remarkable work and
become less real because of that. Ten years yet separatists treated it as an army of occuago, one was concerned about his now whitewashed role in the Gujarat riots; today, one
Mr. Modi, the majority feels,
worries about a deeper scenario of violence. I
have six connected reasons of why I fear Mr.
hypocrisy
of secularism.
Modi. This essay is about what the philosopher Hans Jonas would call a heuristics of
fear about Mr. Modi. Heuristics, as Jonas pation. The Kashmiri Pandits, who for years
pointed out, can point us to the unsayable, suffered in silence, now lash out at the Indian
liberals for sidelining them. Suddenly there is
even the as yet unimaginable.
One has to admit that ones earlier sureties no open, plural space to look at suffering or
about democracy might be wrong. Democracy injustice. India is being haunted by pre-empstill works for me but I sense electoral democ- tive scripts. In the wake of the defeat of the
racy can turn pathological. Majoritarian de- Congress, India has suddenly woken up to a
nitions of the world can articulate old huge number of suppressed histories. One
repressions, once illegitimate, into new tyr- has to ask whether what the army did to the
annies. Mr. Modi has acquired an electoral Kashmiris or to Manipur was right for a civmajority but this new majority seeks a redress ilised society. Did we carry out mini-Vietof old scores. This majority feels that years of nams in the name of security and the nation
appeasement have spoilt minorities and it state? This rise of the new regime confronts
now wants a redress on its terms. For dec- us with two sets of problems. First, the miades, the silent majority had to suppress its norities feel deeply suspicious of the electoral
sense of religion, folklore to adjust to a secu- logic of victory. Second, marginal groups
lar modernist space. Today, it treats those which had little role in Delhi are asking what
categories with contempt. Mr. Modi, the ma- their future is in the new Modi mainstream.
jority feels, has liberated India from the hy- What does development offer these various
pocrisy of secularism. At these moments, the groups? Neither margin nor minority is part
majority voices the need to reassert itself, of the mainstream group and development on

its own may have little to make them aspirational. Aspiration needs faith in the frame,
politically and economically, and we have little to offer to these groups.

Acts of depoliticisation
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) through
its acts of appropriation and rewriting history
is turning history into a fragile object. Every
emerging party has a right to challenge history to redress old wrongs but rewriting can
become sinister. One sees it in the sanitisation of Mahatma Gandhi.
Gandhi was a great dissenter, a subversive
mind, who challenged modernity to dream
the dream of alternative societies. The BJP
and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS),
both of which are modernising, nationalist
groups, never felt at home with him. Now in
power, the BJP is seeking to make Gandhi
more digestible. The BJPs modernisation
schemes, especially its emphasis on security,
would be antithetical to Gandhi. They there-

has liberated India from the

fore seek to domesticate him by reducing him
to a fragment, to little discourses about drainage, sanitation and cleanliness. Gandhi is reduced to textbook civics and social work, to a
civics without ethics or politics. It is one of
the most profound acts of depoliticisation.
Gandhi, as the little dream of the Aam Aadmi
Party (AAP) temporarily showed, can outshadow the BJP. In domesticating Gandhi
into its framework of governance, the BJP is
settling scores with its great opponent, by
reducing him to a little social worker. At a
deeper level, it does not see that jihad is incompatible with satyagraha.
One can understand this better when one
watches the BJPs semiotics of security and
the strongman. In seeking to create an inationary idea of Sardar Patel, a statue bigger
than the Statue of Liberty is being installed. It
is prussianising the Indian state, creating a
machismo around governance and security

CARTOONSCAPE

A new bank
for Asia
little more than a year after it was broached, a
new multilateral bank in Asia the Asian
Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)
was born last week in Beijing, signalling in the
process the failure of hectic lobbying by the United
States against the move. The bank has 21 signatorycountries, with India being the only major backer apart
from China; the rest are the smaller economies of Asia.
The event was not without its share of drama as Australia, Indonesia and South Korea pulled out apparently
under pressure from the U.S. Yet, it may not have been
easy for them, as statements from some of their diplomats show. The three countries, which have extensive
trade dealings with China, seem to be still torn between
safeguarding their relations with the Asian giant and
not displeasing the U.S. It should surprise no one if
they decide to take the plunge after watching from the
sidelines how the bank develops. The AIIB, along with
the other new China-based institution, the BRICS
Bank, represents the rst major challenge to the U.S.led global economic order and the 70-year uncontested
reign of the Bretton Woods twins. In a way, the IMF
and the World Bank have only themselves to blame if
they nd their dominance under threat, because the
seeds of the new bank sprouted from either their inability or unwillingness, or both, to meet the growing
funding needs of Asia.
As per the Asian Development Banks (ADB) assessment, Asia needs on an average $800 billion of investment in infrastructure annually between now and
2020. Against this, the ADB, dominated by Japan
which is also a founding member, lends no more than
$10 billion a year for infrastructure. With the American-dominated World Bank and the Europe-led IMF
also remaining hamstrung, the need for a multilateral
body to nance the growth region of the world was real.
The ADB has been cautious in its comments, and understandably so; it can do with support for infrastructure lending, yet needs to safeguard its turf. India, with
its participation, has lent heft to the AIIB, which would
otherwise have been seen as a Chinese bank backed by
membership from lightweight countries of the region.
India, which will be the second largest shareholder in
the bank, should work with China to ensure that best
practices are followed in projects for procurement and
materials and in terms of labour and environmental
standards. While there is without doubt a geo-political
angle to the founding of the bank which is natural,
given that the economic balance of power is shifting to
Asia care should be taken to ensure that it does not
become the driving factor in the banks functioning.
The bank should do what it has been founded for
fund Asias infrastructure.

CM
YK

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

instance, the spoils of the 2G scam
cannot be in Swiss bank accounts
The topmost temple of justice in in the names of people we suspect!
the country has rekindled the hope
A.N. Lakshmanan,
of retrieving the much-talkedBangalore
about stash of black money (SC
orders govt. to submit all black It is vastly amusing that the
money names today, Oct 29). The electronic media seem to be in a
court has rightly pulled up the tizzy over a few names. Can we
government over its vacillation. It believe that the guilty number
is time the government realised the less than 1,000? Do 627 bank
gravity of the situation and tackled accounts hold the $1-trillion that
we are often told is the quantum of
this social malaise.
Deepak Garg, Indias black money? For a country
Bellary where it is widely believed that
virtually every rich or powerful
I always wonder what the position person is a crook, as being crooked
of this country would be were it not is sewn into the national ethos,
for timely interventions by the should not the list run into a
Supreme Court. We have a right to thousand pages or more? Should it
know who the people responsible not contain the names of some of
for our plight are.
the most revered and fawned upon
T. Anand Raj, across the political, business,
Chennai bureaucratic, showbiz, sports, and
arts communities? Those who are
The black money chase under way, said to be account-holders must be
prodded along by the process of amused. Let us remember that not
judicial
monitoring,
seems one person in all the names and
destined to be an exercise in futility numbers in the Jain diaries case of
in terms of getting the money back. the 1990s was convicted.
Kapil Kitchlu,
The accounts would have been
Bangalore
closed and the money trail gone
cold. Unless we have instant access
to information on Indian account- The Congress need not be
holders abroad and transactions delighted by the way the Supreme
therein, complete cooperation Court has pulled up the Modi
from all foreign banks and the government. The government has
power to get these accounts frozen at least attempted to nd the
on request, the outcome of names. In contrast, the UPA
attempts may be limited to the government was quite adept at
revelation of names, causing concealing the names.
A. Srikantaiah,
embarrassment to the accountBangalore
holders, providing ammunition to
the sensation-hungry media and
satisfying national curiosity. These As someone who does not have a
accounts represent only a fraction grounding in economics or the
of the ill-gotten wealth. There are intricacies of the law of the land, I
more complex avenues such as am unable to appreciate the
front companies in tax havens. For sentiment which indicts those

Account-holders' list

which was antithetical to Gandhi. Gandhi was

a strong leader but whose content of leadership came from an ethics of conviction. He
did not need the paraphernalia of the state to
create a strong leadership. The BJPs depoliticising of leadership and its gargantuan-ising
of Sardar Patel has to be seen as part of the
false myths it is creating. The strength of
Sardar lay in curbing his ego and working
with Nehru. The BJP does not have the
strength to show such leadership. Gandhi and
the giant of Bardoli are empty hoardings to
the BJP. Let me emphasise that it is the depoliticisation of history, the dwarng of
Gandhi into boy scout virtues, that makes the
BJP both appear virtuous while it eats into
the power of alternative imaginations which
can threaten its legitimacy.

Need for dominance

The BJP talks of governance as if it is a new
magic of management and yet its sense of
governance clashes with its sense of democracy. Democracy is a network of citizenship,
entitlements and institutions and while the
BJP talks about laws, it does not seem clear
about 1) federalism and 2) about the plurality
of party systems in a democracy. Its need for
dominance is becoming a need for one-party
dominance, an RSS dream of one party dominating the next decades like the Congress
once did. This can be dangerous to democracy
as it stands, when Opposition parties are
weak or internally divisive. The party system
needs to survive with alternatives. This, the
BJP impetus to dominance is seeking to stem.
The BJP, unlike the Congress, has never been
a collection of coalitions. Therefore, the trend
to uniformity is potent. We face two dangers.
Our institutions, federal or party-wise, have
few brakes to offer. Dissent has simultaneously become sedition, minimising any sense
of opposition. This trend to a uniformitarian
India needs to be desperately resisted.
While most parties are in disarray, the
media seem to have lined up quietly behind
Mr. Modi. This reects the faith of corporate
groups which are household names, in his
pro-liberal reforms. It also reects the growing control of a few corporations of the media.
As a result, when Mr. Modi and Arvind Subramanian announce their labour reforms, the
corporations wax enthusiastic but almost no
one reports the silence of the trade unions.
The silence of the media that is so often talked
about is of two types. There is rst the distance of the regime from journalists who cannot thrive without the previous regimes
climate of gossip and speculation about power and policy. There is also both an absence of
debate and dissent in the media. Its corporate
bosses prefer the new climate of consensus
but one has to ask if this is real. How long will
it take for silences to rip open and reveal
power of dissent? Between the RSS, the corporations, the new Hindu Right, a cultural
attening is happening. Initially it looked like
an upsurge but now one senses the attening
of cultural idiosyncrasy and the growing intolerance to any difference or dissent.
Finally, one has to look at the India beyond
and realise that the diaspora, like the Hindu
majority, had been repressed. It felt that the
image of India was as weak, dirty, third world,
as a sibling which did not display the diasporas sense of culture and hard work. Now with
Mr. Modi, the diaspora is exing its muscles
in India and abroad. The event at Madison
Square Garden was a signal that the diaspora
is ready to back Mr. Modi and play his dictatorial double. A certain idea of India has become
dominant, and in many ways it is pretentious
in its inclusiveness. Yet, as one draws a scenario of such forces a nationalist diaspora, a
weak party system, a silent media, a majoritarian democracy, a vulnerable minority
one realises that democracy faces threats
from within. The question is whether India
has the imagination to sense the ironies and
paradoxes it is currently creating and combating them in the future.
(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at Jindal
School of Government and Public Policy.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
holding accounts in certain banks
abroad. Of course, the government
should worry about its agreements
with foreign states and the right to
privacy of all individuals, including
those holding foreign accounts. It
will be fair to term those accounts
as holding black money only after
a legal investigation and not before
or even during the exercise. Much
of the criticism in this case reeks of
a feeling of moral superiority and
appears intended to drive
attention away from the issue of an
exploitative and inegalitarian
economic order within the nation
itself.
Firoz Ahmad,
New Delhi

Enter, Fadnavis
The election of Devendra Fadnavis
as the leader of the Maharashtra
BJP Legislature Party is the rst
step towards the formation of a
BJP-led
government
in
Maharashtra. There are bound to
be hurdles placed in his path as the
Shiv Sena is now playing hardball
and the NCP has revealed its
opportunistic stance in the nonetoo-clear picture of political
groupings in the State. One only
hopes the BJP is able to provide a
corruption-free and transparent
administration.
Maharashtra
deserves a good deal after decades
of maladministration as it is a State
that has tremendous potential.
V. Padmanabhan,
Bangalore

The Delhi impasse

After the huge expenditure
incurred in conducting the election
(SC raps Centre for Delhi govt.
impasse, Oct. 29), the stalemate
caused by the Centre and the

Lieutenant Governor in particular

by delaying the formation of the
Delhi Assembly is unacceptable. It
is natural that the Supreme Court
has expressed its anger. The people
of Delhi have voted and they should
not be taken for a ride. How can the
Delhi Assembly be non-functional?
It is unfortunate that the Supreme
Court has to make interventions in
almost every issue. What are our
elected representatives actually
doing?
Balasubramaniam Pavani,
Secunderabad

Scientific claims
With the international media in
general admiration of Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modis
patronage of science, it is
unfortunate now that his Office is
facing criticism for supporting the
view that cosmetic surgery and
reproductive genetics were used in
India thousands of years ago, as
The Guardian reported on Oct. 28.
It is a great gift to be able to
imagine and foresee futuristic
technologies, and if Valmiki or
Vyasa had imagined cosmetic
surgery or reproductive genetics,
one can be justiably proud of that.
However, oral or written records of
their imagination alone will not
constitute proof that such
technologies were available in
ancient India. If, in the future,
scientists in India or China create
sleek personal transporters, can
the West claim that such
transporters were available in their
nations in the late 20th century by
citing Harry Potter novels or the
cartoon
series
Futurama?
Witches on brooms, magic carpets
and
ying
chariots,
have
constituted European, Arabian and

Indian folklore for millennia, but

surely we cant argue that mankind
mastered aviation before the dawn
of the 20th century.
The claim of priority in science
(for instance, of J.C. Boses over
Guglielmo Marconi) is tricky
business. For it to be credible and
internationally accepted would
take decades of research, evidencegathering and publications in peerreviewed journals and conference
presentations;
Professor
S.
Ranganathan, the late Professor
T.R. Anantharaman and coworkers took decades to establish
Indias metallurgical heritage
through the Wootz File project at
the Indian Institute of Science and
Anantharamans excellent books
on this subject. It is tempting to
make tall and unsubstantiated
claims about a glorious scientic
past, but this will not only make us
the laughing stock, but undermine
systematic efforts to gain belated
international recognition for
genuine, historical examples of
scientic achievements in India.
If our objective is to inspire
young minds to achieve and sustain
excellence in science, technology
and medicine, this could be better
achieved perhaps by looking at
modern-day
examples,
from
Sundar Pichai to Venkatraman
Ramakrishnan,
and
from
Chandrayaan to the Mars Orbiter
Mission. Or even better, remind
ourselves of outstanding Indian
scientists in the recent past, from
S.N. Bose, G.N. Ramachandran and
U.N. Brahmachari to Yellapragada
Subbarow who thoroughly
deserved greater recognition than
we bestowed on them when they
lived.
Dr. S.S. Vasan,
Puducherry
ND-ND

EDITORIAL

10

NOIDA/DELHI

THE HINDU

Behind Indias Pakistan quandary

P
Sharat Sabharwal

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

Ending the
impasse in Delhi
ith the Supreme Court setting a deadline
for Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung to exhaust
the possibilities of forming a government
in Delhi, the political impasse in the National Capital Territory is bound to end soon. After
Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal stepped down
as Chief Minister in February, the Assembly was kept
in suspended animation without any immediate prospect of a popular government being put in place. The
BJP was unable to form a government, and the AAP was
unwilling to do so with outside support from the Congress; the end result was that there was no forward
movement in the efforts to have an elected government
in Delhi. While the AAP was impatient for a fresh
election, apprehensive as it was of attempts by the BJP
to win over its MLAs, the BJP, having failed to get the
numbers, seemed to be waiting to get the timing right
for a fresh election. Quite rightly, the Supreme Court
noted that Presidents Rule could not go on forever
with the Assembly in suspended animation.
Given the numbers in the Delhi Assembly, it is unlikely that Mr. Jungs efforts to ensure the formation of
a government would yield any result. The BJP is unlikely to get offers of outside support, and even a minority government headed by the party seems a remote
possibility. Understandably, many of the BJPs MLAs
do not want another election so soon. Going by the
results of the Lok Sabha election, the BJP as a party is
likely to do well if an election were to be held any time
soon. But not all the MLAs are looking forward to
spending more time and money to retain the seats they
won just a year ago. Now that by-elections to three
constituencies have been called by the Election Commission, the BJP would ideally like to wait for the
results before ruling out the possibility of forming a
government. But with the Supreme Court beginning to
show impatience, a fresh election may have to be held
sooner than later. The AAP, which during its 49 days in
power took quite a few populist measures, must be
hoping the voters still retain some goodwill for the
party. If it failed to repeat its Assembly election success
in the Lok Sabha election, this was because voters felt it
did not stay the course and took the exit door at the rst
opportunity. In pushing for a fresh election before the
Supreme Court, the AAP must be calculating that the
voters would give it another chance. Delhi was supposed to be its launch pad for a national foray, but after
having failed miserably in the Lok Sabha election, and
having stayed away from both the Maharashtra and
Haryana Assembly elections, the AAP seems to have
whittled down its ambitions. The party will have to get
its Delhi act right rst, before it does anything else.

akistans annual ritual of raising the

Kashmir issue and the outdated U.N.
resolutions at the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) has been followed by
similar statements in Pakistan, including by
the Chief of Army Staff, Raheel Sharif. Young
Bilawal Bhutto has vowed to wrest every inch
of Kashmir from India! The National Assembly has called for a diplomatic offensive. Pakistans desire to internationalise the Kashmir
issue has been mentioned as one of the plausible reasons for the recent ceasere violations
by it.
Left to Pakistan, the Kashmir issue would
never go off the international radar screen.
However, Pakistans efforts to internationalise it cannot succeed in the face of a mature
Indian response. For starters, the international scenario has completely changed from
the days when Pakistans theatrics on Kashmir attracted international attention. India
has come a long way since then. Above all,
Pakistan is not the same, both in its capacity to
mobilise international opinion and the priorities of its people.

Manifestos and Kashmir issue

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League (N)s
manifesto for the May 2013 election in Pakistan contained the following paragraph on
Kashmir: Special efforts will be made to resolve the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, in
accordance with the provisions of the relevant
UN resolutions and the 1999 Lahore Accord
and in consonance with the aspirations of the
people of the territory for their inherent right
of self-determination. Signicantly, this paragraph found a place in a three-page chapter
on foreign policy and national security, beginning at page 80 of the 103-page document,
with the rst 79 pages devoted to bread-andbutter issues such as economic revival, energy
security, agriculture and food security, a new
framework for social change, democratic governance, science and technology, the employment challenge, speedy justice, etc.
The chapter began by acknowledging that
Pakistan was at war within and isolated
abroad, its independence and sovereignty
stood compromised, its economic weaknesses
were forcing it to go around with a begging
bowl in hand; while foreign states undertook
unilateral strikes on its territory, non-state

Faced with Pakistans ring across the LoC, India

has no option but to respond. However, in general,
more subtle strategies to contain and counter
threats from Pakistan would be in the countrys
interest
actors used it as a sanctuary to pursue their
own agendas, oblivious to Pakistans interests
and the countrys social, economic and political schisms were creating grave misgivings
even in the minds of its friends. It noted that
Pakistan is located at an important junction of
South Asia, West Asia and Central Asia.
Therefore, it could be a bridge between the
energy-rich Central Asia and Iran on the one
side and energy-decit countries like China
and India on the other and could also become
a ourishing transit economy as the shortest
land route from western China to the Arabian
Sea, while linking India with Afghanistan and
the Central Asian Republics. The paragraph
on Kashmir gured at s.no.viii among the policy objectives listed in this chapter. It was
preceded and succeeded by others such as
establishing cordial and cooperative ties with

progress on the others. Without prejudice to

the UN Security Council Resolutions, we support open and safe borders at the Line of
Control [LoC] to socially unite the Kashmiri
people. We note that India and China have a
border dispute and yet enjoy tension free
relations.

Ties with India

This did not imply that Pakistans major
parties were about to jettison the Kashmir
issue. Far from it. However, since political
parties trim the sails of their manifestos to the
winds of public opinion, the two manifestos
were a good indicator of the priorities of the
Pakistani people and the issues agitating their
mind. To be sure, a civil or military leader in
Pakistan can still whip up short-term hysteria
on Kashmir, especially in periods of tension

Indias growing power ought to be felt by its adversaries and

not aunted.

Pakistans neighbours, making foreign policy

formulation the sole preserve of elected representatives, making sure that all civil and
military institutions, including those dealing
with security and/or intelligence matters act
as per the directives of the federal government, and according special importance to
promotion of external trade, etc.
The manifesto of the other major party, the
Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) had similar prioritisation with the rst 60 out of 74 pages
devoted to empowerment for all, inclusive and
equitable growth, infrastructure and a new
social contract, etc. However, the following
reference gured on page 73: We support the
rights of the Kashmiri people and during our
current government we initiated and continued to pursue a dialogue process agenda with
India, including on Kashmir. We will not allow
lack of progress on one agenda to impede

with India. But in a reection of the public

mood, India was not an issue of even marginal
consequence in determining the choices of
voters in the May 2013 election. The manifestos were unusual in their candour and content
and a departure from the inuential security
state narrative, which ranks confronting enemy India over the welfare and progress of the
Pakistani people. However, what has transpired after the 2013 election is extraordinarily usual for Pakistan and India-Pakistan
relations.
Soon after the election, the Pakistani media
reported that the then Chief of Army Staff,
Gen. Kayani, had advised the Prime Ministerelect, Nawaz Sharif, to go slow on relations
with India. Subsequently, the killing of ve
Indian soldiers in a Pakistani ambush at the
LoC in the Poonch sector in August 2013 put
paid to the efforts of the United Progressive

CARTOONSCAPE

Giving new life

to Aadhaar
he imperatives of governance have a tendency
to make political parties think differently
once they are in power and revisit earlier
misgivings. Nothing illustrates this better
than the Narendra Modi governments decision to go
ahead with the Aadhaar scheme aimed at giving
unique identication numbers to residents. The Bharatiya Janata Party had on some occasions in the past
voiced its reservations about the viability and desirability of the scheme and questioned the legal basis of
the Unique Identication Authority of India (UIDAI)
set up by the previous United Progressive Alliance
regime. Many had questioned the lack of statutory
basis for the project, voiced concern over the security
implications of the possible enrolment of non-citizens,
and argued that collecting biometric data without enabling legal provisions violated constitutional rights.
However, the Modi regime views the scheme as a possible means to meet its own policy goals. It appears to
have come round to the view that having a unique
identication number may improve efficiency and targeted delivery of services. The Home Ministry has in a
letter to the States come out in support of the Aadhaar
scheme, saying it is a sound way of authenticating
beneciaries of government schemes and services.
The NDA government is now targeting universal
coverage of the entire country under the Aadhaar project by June 2015. Latest statistics show that as many as
70 crore Aadhaar numbers have been issued, making it
the worlds largest biometric database, and that over 50
crore people are yet to be covered. The government will
have to reckon with multiple challenges before it can
translate its policy goal of using authentic identication as the driving force behind delivery of benets and
services. The scheme is under challenge before the
Supreme Court, and by an interim order the government has been restrained from making Aadhaar numbers mandatory for availing any benet or service. To
overcome the judicial challenge, the government needs
to put in place a sound legal framework. This requires
provisions for digital identity protection and steps to
ensure that different kinds of personal, demographic
and biometric data are truly disaggregated and do not
fall cumulatively in the wrong hands transnational
databases, for instance. Secondly, the physical process
of enrolling people with both demographic and biometric data remains cumbersome, and it needs to be
made simpler and more accessible. Thirdly, the government must always preserve alternative means of identifying individuals and verifying their addresses so that
a particular form of identication does not become
restrictive or mandatory.

CM
YK

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 31, 2014

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

List of account-holders
After the rst and bold step of
identifying Indians holding money
abroad, (627 names on list; SIT
probe is next, Oct. 30), the next
step must be to dene how to curb
black money. This could be done by
marking certain indicators
owning more than one house,
possessing expensive bikes and
cars; donating huge amounts of
money to religious places;
maintaining club memberships,
and so on. There must also be steps
like
monitoring
high-value
currency
transactions.
Such
transactions
must
require
supplying PAN card information.
Datta Shivane,
Hyderabad

the agitations by Anna Hazare,

Arvind Kejriwal and Baba Ramdev
over the issue of black money.
Bidyut Kumar Chatterjee,
Faridabad

The issue is more serious than it

being just a case of tax-evasion per
se. Such an understanding of the
issue, in effect, dilutes the
seriousness of ill-gotten wealth
being deposited abroad. What is
crucial is to not only quantify the
amounts of tax evaded but also trace
the legitimacy or otherwise of the
sources of acquisition of such
money clandestinely deposited in
foreign banks. One can create
wealth through business or
transactions authorised by the law
and yet evade tax thereon. It is the
criminality aspect that assumes
There could be thousands of even greater signicance for the
Indians and NRIs with bank country and needs to be identied
accounts in foreign countries and for suitable action.
S.K. Choudhury,
where most of the money in them
Bangalore
could be pure white and where all
transactions are legal. Rather than
look for a foreign hand, the more
important battle against black Shiv Visvanathan has rightly said
money is best waged at home. that we have a silent media now
Unless it is generated at home, (Old repressions, new tyrannies,
unaccounted money cannot be Oct. 30). Maybe it has something to
transferred outside the country. do with media bosses. If pluralism is
Moderate tax rates and simpler tax undermined, democracy will really
laws can mitigate the temptation to be in danger. Consensus is different
evade tax. Money transactions from uniformity in thought. When
should be principally routed there is scope for divergent views in
through banks. The governments a democracy, where is the need for
prosecution mechanism also needs the government to rewrite history
to strengthened and made taint- at all? The views of a party elected to
power with only 31 per cent of the
free.
C.V. Venugopalan, votes polled need not be considered
Palakkad to be those of the entire nation.
Gnana. Surabhi Mani,
Madurai
After the governments threat
drama of embarrassment being
caused to the Congress if the list One cannot be dismissive of the
was revealed, nothing much seems writers well-founded anxieties
the
inviolability
of
to have happened. Most of us are about
only amused by the tall electoral secularism; pluralism and the right
promises made by the NDA in the to dissent that constitute the very
run-up to the general election and ethos of our democracy. While Mr.

New tyrannies

Alliance (UPA) government to revive the

peace process with the Nawaz Sharif government. During the visit of Mr. Sharifs brother,
Shahbaz Sharif to India in December 2013, it
was decided to take the trade agenda forward,
with India agreeing to give signicantly improved market access to Pakistani products in
return for Pakistan moving to a non-discriminatory market access regime (euphemism for
Most Favoured Nation). However, Pakistan
baulked at the eleventh hour, reportedly because of opposition by the army and the reluctance of the Nawaz government to clinch such
an important deal with the outgoing Indian
government on the eve of elections. Whatever
the reason, Pakistan has failed to seal the
trade deal, widely acknowledged by its top
economists and businessmen to be in its interest, in spite of the positive attitude of the
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government on the issue. The promise generated by
Mr. Nawaz Sharifs visit to India for Prime
Minister Narendra Modis swearing-in in May
2014 was cut short by the meeting of the
Pakistan envoy with the Hurriyat leaders.
From recent events, it appears that the security state paradigm, which is revisionist not
only regarding accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India, but also Indias leading role in
South Asia and beyond, is on the ascendant
again in Pakistan. Pakistans adversarial posture towards India has entailed heavy costs
for us and signicantly heavier costs for the
smaller Pakistani economy. The gap between
the two economies is growing. Therefore, sustenance of this posture by Pakistan would
imply increasing detriment to its economy
and the well-being of its people who, more
than Kashmir, crave better governance and
economic opportunities. The imperatives underlying the candour and constructive ideas in
the manifestos mentioned remain unchanged.
Therefore, it would be wrong to assume that
the thinking underpinning those ideas has
vanished or should count for nothing in our
policy formulation.

Countering threats
Pakistani provocations, not entirely missing in periods of dialogue, tend to increase in
its absence. Some are attempts to infuse life
into its agging Kashmir cause and drag us
into verbal duels in the international arena,
but have no impact on the ground situation.
These, therefore, deserve cursory dismissal.
References to Kashmir at the U.N. and the
Pakistan-inspired hackneyed resolutions by
the Organization of Islamic Cooperation
(OIC) are some examples. We did well in responding to the Pakistani reference to Jammu
and Kashmir at the UNGA at the level of a
First Secretary, while offering, in Mr. Modis
speech, dialogue without the shadow of terror.
There are, on the other hand, provocations
which impact the ground situation adversely
for us. These include Pakistans continued
harbouring of anti-India terror groups, inltration of terrorists across the LoC and attempts to destabilise the situation in Jammu
and Kashmir and other parts of India. Such
efforts need to be thwarted resolutely. Faced
with Pakistans ring across the LoC, we have
no option but to respond. However, in general,
more subtle strategies to contain and counter
threats from Pakistan would be in our
interest.
Finally, the jingoistic and threatening rhetoric in a section of our media in response to
each provocation from Pakistan does us no
good. Our growing power ought to be felt by
our adversaries and not aunted. Threatening
language tends to drive a signicant number
in Pakistan, who think constructively of relations with India, into the arms of the security
state proponents.
(Sharat
Sabharwal,
former
High
Commissioner to Pakistan, is the Central
Information Commissioner. The views
expressed are personal.)

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full

postal address and the full name or the name with initials.
Modis leadership qualities such as
inspiring talk, perseverance and
commitment to principles dear to
him cannot be gainsaid, he would do
well to remember that his partys
rise to power was aided no less by
the infamy of the UPA dispensation
that had become a byword for
prevarication,
purposelessness,
scams and skulduggery. The
national disillusionment with such
an administration was what made
for a landslide victory for the BJP in
the parliamentary elections.
Therefore, the decimation of the
Congress at the hustings does not
mean secularism and pluralism
have
rendered
themselves
meaningless and irrelevant. In the
name of calling the Congress partys
bluff of minority-appeasement and
unassertiveness, Mr. Modi should
desist from playing to the gallery of
Hindutva forces.
S. Balu,
Madurai

number
of
people.
Prof.
Visvanathans apprehensions are
much too premature.
U. Atreya Sarma,
Secunderabad

Shiv Visvanathan has brought out

the angst prevailing in the minds of
sensitive people towards the Modi
government and his hype. Mr. Modi
must be applauded for bringing in
fresh air into moribund politics
with newer ideas of governance
centring on innovation, aspirations,
awakening the civic responsibilities
for a better and cleaner country and
carving out a foreign policy with
friendship to all countries without
sacricing the interests of India. It
was well-nigh unthinkable that a
provincial leader can attain such
heights as he is at today. His
leadership is exemplary given the
weak Opposition parties. However,
when one goes for deeper
connections, ones apprehensions
cannot be given short shrift and
It is the growing charisma of Mr. must be seriously given attention by
Modi that has prompted the writer Mr. Modi himself to make our
to nd minute faults. Mr. Modi is democracy strong.
Parthasarathy Sen,
clearly on a mission, and he is not
New Delhi
going to add a communal avour to
it. Recent electoral mandates show
that people are happy with Mr.
The humble background of
Modi being in office.
Akshy Sridhar, President Joko Widodo of
Chennai Indonesia should help him
establish a rapport with Prime
If the present government is to Minister
Narendra
Modi
continue the same old policies of (Interpreting the Indonesian
previous UPA governments, then mandate, Oct. 29) and take
where is the need for electoral bilateral relations to the next level.
change at all? Reluctant to accept India must explore the full
this reality, Shiv Visvanathan has potential of bilateral trade and
come up with a whole new theory economic activities with Indonesia.
P. Venkatesu,
based on a tissue of imaginary
Hyderabad
apprehensions. In the nal analysis,
he has failed to offer any approach
by which the government can The electoral victory of President
satisfy every citizen. Any authentic Widodo is a positive factor which
and
responsible
democratic will drive the Indonesian economy
government aims to strive for the to stability and growth in the years
overall welfare of the maximum to come. As it is an emerging

Indonesian mandate

economy, there is scope for strong

economic growth with India.
Utkarsh Rajvanshi,
Haridwar, Uttarakhand
That the largest Muslim country in
the world is also the third largest
democratic nation is a marvel. That
extreme tendencies have been put
aside to work towards democracy is
an eye-opener. Indonesians need
good governance, education and
proper health care systems. Mr.
Widodo must work towards
realising Indonesias full potential.
M. Manideep Reddy,
Karimnagar, Telangana

Schools in danger
The article, Schools in grave
danger (Oct. 28), is on the mark
except for the critical omission of
the topic of language. Why is it
always omitted in such articles?
Please note that in practically all
so-called developed countries,
education through high school and
usually through basic college, is in
the peoples language. This is why
the modernisation process has
spread more rapidly and evenly
through whole populations, as in
China, Japan, Korea, and in the 26
or so official languages in Europe.
In contrast, in South Asia, most of
Africa, the countries of the former
Soviet Union and the Philippines,
the modernisation process has been
slow and uneven. Where are the
creative and culture-adapted peerreviewed scientic articles in Tamil
or in Marathi, or even Hindi?
Since Independence, why didnt
India follow the successful
European model, where all
education except for advanced
academics must be in the peoples
language and where anyone
nishing academic high school
must have knowledge of two other
languages?
C. Maloney,
Kodaikanal
ND-ND