Bhatkal Re-Emerges As The Finishing School of Terror

Bhatkal re-emerges as the finishing school of terror
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http://www.dailyo.in/opinion/bhatkal-re-emerges-as-the-finishing-school...
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POLITICS | SITREP | 3-minute read | 05-01-2015
GAURAV C SAWANT
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Was the Coast Guard chasing suspected terrorists or "poor innocent" drug
mafia on the high seas on the night of December 31, 2014? Defence Minister
Manohar Parrikar has weighed in, saying they were suspected terrorists, given
the nature of intelligence inputs, intercepts and suspicious movement of the
Pakistani boat in the Arabian sea.
Parrikar clarified the operation was mounted by Coast Guard based on
specific intelligence input and positive identification by a Coast Guard
Dornier aircraft. Subsequently a Coast Guard Inshore Patrol Vessel found the
movement of the Pakistani vessel suspicious loitering on high seas, with its
lights switched off, not responding to repeated Coast Guard calls to identify
itself and then the chase on the high seas.
Five unanswered questions that indicate the boat had suspected terrorists:
#1. Why didn't the sailors jettison the incriminating evidence? Top
ranking officials dealing with counter smuggling operations in the Arabian
Sea told Headlines Today that this is not how smugglers behave. Smugglers
immediately jettison incriminating evidence. "Such is the nature of the game
that smugglers immediate throw the incriminating cargo overboard. At 2,000
metres depth on the high seas, especially when the seas are choppy it is
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General Coast Guard said.
#2. Why didn't they identify themselves? The occupants of the suspect
Pakistani vessel were repeatedly told on loud hailers to identify themselves.
According to United Nations Convention on Laws of the Seas, all vessels when
stopped by the maritime security agencies are supposed to prepare for
boarding and examination of documents and cargo. But the suspect Pakistani
vessel tried to speed away, repeatedly attempting to dodge the Coast Guard
Inshore Patrol Vessel. Smugglers do not do that. Such is the nature of the
game that smugglers often do go to prison for a limited period of time but get
off without adequate evidence.
#3. Why did they set their boat on fire? Coast Guard officials find it
strange that the sailors on board the suspect vessel, when challenged, went
below deck and set the boat on fire. Smugglers do not burn their boat or
commit suicide when challenged by the Coast Guard. The occupants of the
Pakistani vessel did not want to be caught alive. The nature of their
conversation with their handlers and the fact that they preferred to end their
lives rather than be arrested points towards something far more sinister than
a smuggling operation gone awry.
#4. If they were smugglers, what was their cargo? Diesel and alcohol
smuggling is no longer lucrative and especially not on the high seas, 200
nautical miles from the coast line. The difference in prices of diesel in India
and Pakistan is less than Rs 3 per litre and a 10 metre boat does not carry
enough volume of diesel to make smuggling of diesel or even alcohol
profitable for the operation or worth the risk. Even if the consignment was of
drugs, dealers and peddlers are not likely to embrace "shahadat" for the loss
of one consignment. Reports also indicate that the Pakistani vessel took the
same route from Pakistan as was taken by the 10 Pakistani terrorists who
attacked India on 26/11.
#5. Even if they were smuggling arms, doesn't that make them
terrorists? And finally even if intelligence inputs did not give the entire
picture, smugglers are no innocents. Dawood Ibrahim was a smuggler used by
ISI to ferry explosives to Mumbai before the 1993 blasts that left 257 people
dead and over a thousand injured. Smugglers have been used by Pakistans
ISI to explore chinks in the coastal security armour. This time those who
dispatched the Pakistani vessel clearly bit more than they could chew.
#Porbandar blast
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HUMOUR | 0-minute read | 12-01-2015
P NARASIMHA
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#Vibrant Gujarat, #Mamata Banerjee, #Gujarat, #Anandiben Patel
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POLITICS | 3-minute read | 12-01-2015
TS SUDHIR
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All is clearly not well on the Karnataka coast. Especially with the port town of
Bhatkal in Uttara Kannada district once again showing up on the terror radar.
The town attained notoriety for having left an imprint in the world of jihadi
terror thanks to the exploits of the Bhatkal brothers - Yasin and Riyaz. Now if
the claims of the Bangalore police are anything to go by, the Bhatkal legacy
lives on through more foot soldiers.
Four men arrested last week have a Bhatkal connection, sending a shiver
down the khaki spine. Interestingly, this Indian Mujahideen module was put
under watch after a intel tip-off from the Andhra Pradesh police. After the
Church street blast in Bangalore on December 28, the police moved in for the
kill, presuming the module's hand in the blast. While it has not been to
establish a link between the two, it unearthed in the bargain, the module's
explosive CV.
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doctor who practices both in Bhatkal and Bangalore. Ideologically part of the
Indian Mujahideen since 2004, he received training in assembling a bomb in
2011 in Pakistan. Police sources claim he used the cover of visiting his in-laws
in Karachi, to meet his handlers across the LoC. He is allegedly the person
who supplied explosives to Indian Mujahideen operative Asadullah Akhtar
alias Haddi and Pakistani national Waqas alias Hasan (both now arrested) to
carry out the twin blasts in Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagar area in February 2013.
The police claim this module procured and supplied explosives, using hawala
channels to transfer money. Afaque procured the explosives from another
accused, Saddam Hussein, who arranged it for a price. Hussein is reportedly
not ideologically indoctrinated to the same extent as Afaque and has a
business-like approach to terror, almost like a paid mercenary.
That Dr Afaque was singing like a canary during the police interrogation was
obvious when based on his information, the police picked up Riyaz Sayeedi on
Saturday night when he was about to board a flight to Dubai from
Mangalore's Bajpe airport. But even as there is hope that the arrest of the four
men will help break the backbone of terror in this part of Karnataka, that may
not happen. That is because the IM ensures each module operates
independently of the other. One is not aware of the existence of the other
modules.
The fact that these sleeper cells managed to operate, keeping their head down,
is obvious from the reaction of their families. They insist that they have been
arrested only because of their postal address. Noor-ul-Nisa, Dr Afaque's
mother asks if travelling to the home of his in-laws in Pakistan is a crime.
Riyaz's sister Nafeesa says he works for a hardware company in Dubai. She
adds the police found nothing at their home, which the cops corroborate.
Cops in Karnataka believe both IM and SIMI modules are in different stages
of activity or inertia and that their targets would be towns in Maharashtra,
Goa, Hubli and Mangalore. What the arrests have done is to bring the heat
back to the investigation trail that had gone cold, with the sleuths unable to
establish how the explosives were sourced. Now with Afaque's arrest, the
police believes they are in a position to connect the dots.
#Bhatkal, #Indian Mujahideen, #Terrorism
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RAJEEV DHAVAN
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The attack on the Charlie Hebdo office, the killing of unarmed innocent and
the ensuing hostage crisis has excited trenchant controversy in India. One one
hand, Haji Yaqub Qureshi justified the attack and offered Rs 51 crore to the
killers (which we assume he has) inviting a police case against him. Qazi
Rashideen of Meerut responded with: There is no place for terrorists in
Islam.
Mani Shankar Aiyar called the Charlie Hebdo attacks a backlash against the
wanton attacks on Muslims. Sonia Gandhi is chastised for not correcting
Aiyar. Bhanu Mehta has an inconclusive argument which counsels
self-restraint, and liberal democracies not fighting bad guys to the end of the
earth. Rushdie defends the cartoons as "satire". All government leaders of
liberal democracies condemn the attack. Life will not be the same in France or
Europe. At the end of the hostage crisis, the attackers have won martyrdom
and huge publicity. Charlie Hebdo remains courageous to exercise its right of
free speech to provoke at will.
Martyrs
How are we left at the end of this controversy, which is actually the
beginning? First: there cannot be a right to kill. We live in a world where
"right to kill" has curious recognitions in peace and war. The last century
portrayed the worst killing machines of all time. The example of killing has
been set by the US and others. Arms producers become merchants of death,
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ambiguity in the Heller and McDonald cases (2008-10) over gun sales is
symptomatic. True moral indignation against killings has lost its edge
somewhere to become temporary and inconsequential. West Asia has been
pulverised by the US and by jihadi groups. Israel claims the right to kill at all
or any cost. We need a movement against the culture of killing. More so, the
innocent and children. Ironically, two non-involved persons killed in Paris
were Muslims Ahmed Mehrban and Mustapha Ourad. Nobody weeps, there
is only outrage. All become heroes. There is need for a moral campaign
against death merchants and guns. As technology advances, this becomes all
the more important. Look at "mad" people in the US killing kids in schools,
Khaps and terrorists killing in India, other groups elsewhere, "gun laws"
encourage killing machines Hollywood movies glorify killing as action. We
have become a world of "state" and "civil" terrorism, accepting (undertransient protest), killing as a way of life. The 21st century sports "state and
"private killings" with weapons of increasing sophistication.
The second issue relates to free speech. Let us be clear. Although gun-killing is
what an Oxford philosopher would call a "speech-act", there is no way that
killing is an exercise in free speech at all. No matter how provocative the free
speech of others or actions of the state is, there is no right to kill as a "speech
act", even if you feel retaliation justified. Cartoons and satire are a part of free
speech. I believe in near absolute speech but there are limits to it in terms of
its consequences. Consider Justice Holmes example of a person shouting
"fire" in a crowded theatre. Consequences matter.
Consequences
Who should limit the consequences when there is an anticipated or existing
clear and present danger? Life today has all the fragility of a tinder box. Who
will effect restraint? The speech maker? Societys demonstrations? The jihadi
or the terrorist? Or the state?
India has strong laws to prevent free speech against public order, obscenity
defamation, and affecting group sentiments, including religious believers. (On
the latter (Section 153(a) (provoking enmity) Section 295A (outraging or
insulting religious beliefs)).
The problem with Indian laws, as interpreted by the government and the
courts, is the total lack of balance in punishments.
For example, Satanic Verses, Laine on Shivaji, Doniger on Hinduism,
Sahmats Ramayana exhibition the list in endless, and is decided by vote
bank politics. This mindless use of state power undermines confidence in
state censorship. The silence of our politicians in the conversion controversies
was deafening.
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This takes us to self-censorship. The Danish and French cartoons went well
over the top. The motive was to ridicule Islam until it became as banal as
Catholicism. Or it was just perverse fun. In Islam, no pictorial representation
of the Prophet has been permitted for 15 centuries. And now we have
malevolent cartoons in what appears as a cartoon jihad against Islam? This
does not absolve killing as counter-jihad. I have seen ridiculous Danish
cartoons which, like the French, depict the Prophet as weird and that too as
an animal. No! No! No! No! No!
Third: how do you react to perverse speech? Certainly not by violence? Bhagat
Singh notwithstanding, Gandhis answer was clear: (i) speech for speech and
(ii) non-violent protests. The state, too, must permit this. The state must allow
non-violent protests, which it often clamps perversely.
Fourth: the Paris and Mumbai attacks were carried out by people prepared to
die for martyrdom and publicity. Those of the faith must tell them that this
route to be a martyr is not condonable. Evidently, India had information on
Mumbai way earlier but ignored it.
We have lost all moral sense of self-restraint and non-violence treating
"death" perfunctorily. God help us. We are losing our capacity to help
ourselves. Free speech is being debased.
#Freedom of Expression, #Paris Shooting, #Charlie Hebdo
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PIYUSH SRIVASTAVA
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The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawatis talisman seems to be

crumbling. Mayawati may remain a factor in UP politics and indeed the state
will remember her for the innumerable statues and memorials in Lucknow
and Noida. However, there can not be denying she faces serious problems.
The first problem Mayawati faces is infighting. Though disgruntled BSP
leaders have alleged in the past that she runs the party as her personal
fiefdom, it is for the first time that a Dalit leader has attacked the "Dalit Diva".
Jugul Kishore, a former Dalit leader of the BSP, who was suspended for antiparty activities has dubbed the former chief minister as a daulat ki beti
(daughter of wealth) instead of "Dalit ki beti" (daughter of a Dalit). Kishore
went on to allege that Mayawati demanded Rs 60 crore for a Rajya Sabha seat,
Rs one point five crore for an Assembly ticket and Rs 50 lakh on reserve
Assembly seats. He also claimed he has a diary which will expose Mayawatis
corrupt practices and has declared he will finish her politically.
Even a Dalit is supposed to cough up at least Rs 50 lakh for a ticket in
Mayawatis party. She has finished the BSP by collecting money in the name
of Dalit politics and the result is for everyone to see. While the party used to
be the third largest party in the country and the first in UP, it is now the third
party in the state, Kishore said.
But Mayawatis supporters allege that even Kishore is not totally free from
allegations of corruption. They say Kishore, in the name of Dalit politics, has
amassed wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income in the last
15 years. Kishore has two luxury cars, two houses in Lucknow and
Lakhimpur Kheri, a college in the name of his family members and over 100
acres of land. He is known for asking ticket-seekers: I have a vote bank for
you. What do you have to offer me in return? said a Mayawati loyalist.
Corruption claims against Kishore are not new. But so far, the needle of
suspicion is very much on the BSP supremo and her loyalists. A prime
example is the case of former family welfare and mining minister Babu Singh
Kushwaha, who is currently languishing in jail for the Rs 5,400 crore National
Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Critics claim Mayawati, as chief
minister of UP, had defended Kushwaha in 2007 and 2011 because he
allegedly gave her money from the scam.
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Dalit community remain fiercely loyal to her. But allegations of corruption are
denting her image and that of the partys. Kishore alleges that this lust for
money has blurred her political vision. Akhilesh Das, the partys former Rajya
Sabha member too has made similar allegations against her. He claims
Mayawati had demanded money from him to resend him to the Upper House.
It is not, just not money that governs Mayawati. An insider within the party,
gave a unique perspective into the way the BSP supremo worked: In 2008,
when the Congress government was in minority in Parliament on the issue of
India-US nuclear deal, Behenji had assigned the job of promoting herself as
the prime ministerial candidate to an IAS officer of the state. He added that
the said officer camped in Delhi for over a month, allegedly trying to lure MPs
to back Mayawati but had to return empty handed. Mayawatis PM dream was
further demolished by the Samajwadi Party (SP) president Mulayam Singh
Yadav, who ditched all his alternative front partners and sat in the lap of the
Congress to protect the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government from
falling.
Now the way Mayawatis own men are exposing her is a danger signal that she
will not be able to regain power in the state, at least in the near future.
Kishores and allegations by other former partymen have also ended her
ambitions of being prime minister. More worrying for the BSP supremo is
that she has already lost all her seats in the Lok Sabha and has only ten
members in the Rajya Sabha currently. In the UP Assembly, the BSP has only
80 legislators in of a House of 403.
Despite all this, Behenji still remains a force to be wary of. A senior BSP leader
reportedly advised to Kishore: Be careful of the wrath of Mayawati and her
followers.
Kishore clearly has heeded this advice. He has written a letter to home
minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday demanding Z category security as he
feels that his life is in danger. The fact that Mayawati can still instill such fear
is a sign that the Dalit leader is still a force to be reckoned with.
#Mulayam Singh Yadav, #UP, #BSP, #Mayawati
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1/14/2015 09:07
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VIKRAM JOHRI
@voharijikram
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Eerily, the Charlie Hebdo killings happened on the same day that a friend and
I had a discussion about the contents of my Facebook account. For those of
you who, in the slim chance, are not aware of this feature, Facebook provides
a cover photo option on the profile page, where users put up things that are
personal or meaningful to them.
My cover photos are generally images of male love, with two men embracing,
kissing, or just lying together in bed. I pick up these pictures from a film that I
have watched, or a website that I am reading, because they feel personal
and meaningful. When I watched Lilting, for example, I was so
consumed with the tenderness between Richard and Kai (Ben Whishaw and
Andrew Leung), that writing about it did not seem enough. I wanted to
consecrate it in some grander way, and for weeks, my Facebook cover was a
picture of the protagonists kissing.
For obvious reasons, some of my friends do not agree with my cover photos
subject matter. Not for any homophobic reasons but for proprietys sake. They
think these pictures take away from the seriousness they associate with me,
first as a person, but more pertinently, as a writer. They worry that I am
tarnishing my image with the pictures. I totally get that you are gay, but
when was the last time you saw someone put up pictures of straight people
making out on their profile? a friend asked me the other day, as we watched
news of the Charlie Hebdo massacre flash on TV (I will explain the connection
in a bit).
My friend has a point she does. I understand that the images are mildly
provocative even if there is no pornography involved. The current picture, for
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directions. I concede it can be disconcerting to log into Facebook, say, early

morning and be overwhelmed by the sight of too much entangled male skin, if
one is not into that sort of thing. Is that a good reason for me to stop posting
the pictures?
Why provoke, right? When some of my relatives started complaining to my
family about the photos, I was forced to consider if I should perhaps find a
middle ground between expressing myself in whatever way I deemed fit and
hewing to more conventional definitions of good taste (my immediate family,
to their credit, never bothered me). They were only photos after all, I told
myself, and were, at any rate, not a match on some of the stuff I was putting
out there emotive write-ups in which I freely explored elements of gay
identity that I found cute, difficult, or both. Why bother with a bunch of
photos?
But I kept coming across moments when a photo of two men would hold a
resonance that a 1,000-word article bawling with rhetoric could only hope to
achieve. One such moment happened as I watched the Italian gay web series
G&T on YouTube recently. Tommaso and Guilio are childhood buddies who
go through confusion, heartbreak and loss before discovering that they are,
after all, meant for one another. The two make for such a beautiful couple,
and not just because of their tortuous story. They are also really good-looking
and come together on screen in a delicate simulation of how I imagine a
perfect relationship to be. (I would like to say more, such as how desire
between men plays itself out, how it is feeds off not merely the physical, but
much more; but thats a topic for another piece.) There was no way I was
going to rest until I had, in some way, let the world know about Tommaso and
Guilio. So I picked up a picture of them nestling their necks and pasted it as
my Facebook cover picture.
Every gay man discovers his own way of locating himself in respect to his
sexuality after coming out (if he finds the time and space to come out, that is).
Sometimes this may involve overstepping conventional boundaries. It is only
natural. Gay men and women go through their early lives, through school and
college, in the hope of a real existence. If they are not being summarily
bullied, they are at least keeping their most intimate desires to themselves for
fear of ridicule and ostracism. When they gather the courage to finally come
out, they cannot but begin to see the world through their sexuality. They come
to wear it on their sleeve and rejoice in it as if it were a secret personal gift,
until they find themselves and settle into calmer waters.
My way of this celebration, among others, has been the Facebook pictures. Its
not even a political statement anymore Look here, I am gay. It was, at one
time, but my ship sailed a while ago and now I only post pictures of something
that really moves me.
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not so adamant about it, I may have eventually given up on the goddamn
thing out of sheer monotony. But now that I am assailed with questions of
respectability, I make it a point to double down on my efforts and refuse to
retire into the bunker. I dont think posting gay pictures puts me in a bucket
that strips me of my standing as a writer. If anything, my choice to post
whatever, melds with my choices as a writer to produce an all-encompassing
gay identity. Remember, provocation is (or was) only partly my aim.
Expression is another, and I dont see how I can resolve the conflict between
that and someones discomfort without compromising on either my idea of
propriety or theirs. To me, propriety is borne of love, or respect, or one of
those gentle, worth-aspiring for emotions. Propriety is personal and
malleable. And if it means I am going to get on some peoples wrong sides,
that is a choice I am happy to make.
As for the Charlie Hebdo link, I know the contexts are very different and there
is no comparison between the complexity of terror and my own niche
dilemma. But here it is. In the aftermath of the Paris massacre, Shekhar
Gupta wrote on this website that he agreed with the cartoonists right to
offend, even if he himself would not publish the cartoons in question. That is a
laudable aim but one that I find untenable. I dont think I can sit on the fence
and merely dip into the intellectual without getting my hands dirty, as it were.
If I am called upon to take sides, I prefer to have my skin in the game. I am
willing to earn the opprobrium that comes with putting (perhaps
inappropriate) pictures of men making out online, if that is the price I am
expected to pay for expressing myself.
#Paris Shooting, #Charlie Hebdo
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MONEY | 6-minute read | 11-01-2015
SANDEEP BAMZAI
@sandeep_bamzai
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You sell fear and panic and finally the public spectacle turns into a public
execution. The last few days have seen a global risk aversion to equities with a
former member of an exclusive club called PIGS Portugal, Italy, Greece and
Spain Greece once again lurching its way to a new crisis. The slayings at
Charlie Hebdo by Islamic gunmen and the resultant "Islamophobia" in France
is only going to accentuate the complexities in Europe.
Canadian political economist Daniel Drache reckons that Europe could well
be on the verge of a fresh crisis. The happenings in France over the last couple
of days have done nothing to change that feeling. A double whammy of weak
economies struggling to find their feet forming a combustible mixture with
deadly Islamic terror making its presence felt in Europe.
Drache in an interview to Don Pittis of CBC News said that there is a lot of
turmoil ahead and when you move to highly ideologised mentalities, then all
sorts of things can happen. When institutions fail to adapt or change, then
new policies and practices become possible in the crisis. Its a door opener and
a door closer. You can't go back, said Drache. What is of equal concern to
political and economic analysts in Europe is the rise of a radical Left party in
Greece, Syriza, that the research group Oxford Economics says is heading for
a decisive victory in the country's snap election which is about a fortnight
away.
Priority
Almost overnight, the term "Grexit", coined nearly three years ago as a
shorthand for Greece's departure from the Eurozone, is back in the news,
according to Pittis. Last week in an interview to the Financial Times, Syrian
leader Alexis Tsipras has said it will begin a crackdown on the country's
elite, the wealthy oligarchs who, among other things, control Greece's media.
The oligarchs are high on our agenda, George Stathakis, Syrizas economic
spokesman, told the paper. They will be a priority for action.
So, just when one thought that benign crude prices are going to have a
salutary effect on energy-dependent economies like China and India, "Grexit"
has returned to the lexicon to stoke the fires for the prophets of doom.
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the Western world. In fact, the reverse is true. I will tell you why. On
November 14, 2014, in an article entitled The Implications of $75 Oil for the
US Economy in its publication Daily Observations, the highly respected
hedge fund Bridgewater Associates, LP confirmed that lower oil prices will
have a negative impact on the economy. After an initial transitory positive
impact on GDP, the report explained that lower oil investment and production
would lead to a drag on real growth of zero point five per cent of GDP. The
firm noted that over the past few years, oil production and investment have
been adding about zero point five per cent to nominal GDP growth but that if
oil levels out at $75 per barrel, this would shift to something like negative zero
point seven per cent over the next year, creating a material hit to income
growth of one to one point five per cent. So, now we are looking at a triple
whammy effect which can continue to spook the markets: lower crude prices
(great news for India since every time the needle moves by a dollar
downwards, India saves Rs 8,000 cr on its oil pool account), Greeces exit
from the Eurozone, and the impact of Islamic terror on European nations.
External shocks are something that India needs to be wary of as it attempts to
begin its climb from the abyss of gloom. The other day, Bof A Merrill Lynch in
its latest oil update stated, We see a growing risk of WTI (West Texas
Intermediate) and Brent falling to $35 and $40 per barrel near-term to force
either non-OPEC (Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries)
producers or Saudi Arabia to cut. Saudi Arabias influential oil minister Ali
Al-Naimi has asserted that the kingdom the worlds largest exporter of
crude intends to persist with its current strategy of keeping its spigots open
to win back market share regardless of how much oil prices fall. Whether it
goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant, Al-Naimi said in an
interview with the Middle East Economic Survey in the last week of
December.
Consternation
The Telegraph of London believes that Al-Naimi will come under increasing
pressure from other members of the OPEC to row back on its current strategy
and agree to holding an emergency meeting of the cartel ahead of its next
scheduled gathering in the summer. Opinions differ among the 12 members of
OPEC over whether the decision to keep the groups quota of 30m barrels per
day (bpd) of crude unchanged in November was the correct course of action
given the risks this now poses to their economies. Saudis could blink too and
cut supplies, says Bof A Merrill Lynch in its report.
All of this is happening at a very crucial time in our economic turnaround
plan. The BJP has come to power on a development plank and already the
Sangh Parivars lunatic fringe has created consternation with its controversial
statements. Added to that on the ground, there appears to be an erosion in
Modis equity with the Ghar Wapsi programmes. This is the year of
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add ballast.
The government is clearly showing intent with a catalogue of ordinances,

unwilling to lie inert as the Opposition continues to impede the legislative
process. Finance minister Arun Jaitley has articulated the new strategic
imperative by saying that the Constitution provides for mechanisms to
continue with the decision-making process. Those instrumentalities, one
expects, will be utilised to the hilt.
Once the Delhi elections are out of the way sometime in mid-February, there
are no elections for the government till November 2015, when Bihar goes to
the polls. With the electoral calendar freed up, Modi has a huge window of
opportunity to ram reforms down our throats. There is another interesting
nugget of information which needs to be factored into the equation. Last year
almost Rs 97,000 crore came into equities, but debt flows have been
humungous as much as one point seven times equity and the FIIs are
betting on the impending rate cuts. Most analysts claim over the next 12 to 15
months, a 100 basis points of cuts in both the repo and reverse repo rates,
from seven per cent and six per cent respectively is anticipated.
Stimulate
India needs to stimulate its domestic demand, it has no choice. For that it
needs a softer interest rate regime, which boosts demand through greater
bank lending and investment. Unpalatable structural reform remains at the
very kernel of change and shock therapy needs to be administered to a nation,
which sadly has been deep in the arms of Morpheus for close to a decade. In
fact, we need something akin to Arun Shouries disinvestment programme, to
help shake us out of our stupor.
If India has to remain insulated as it did in 1997 when the East Asian
contagion ran riot or in 2008 when the Western economies fell off the cliff,
then it has to ring fence itself with self-administration of brutal reforms. It
will hurt, but then detox treatment is always painful. The question is do we
have the stomach for it?
#Charlie Hebdo, #Indian Economy, #Economic Reforms
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HUMOUR | 0-minute read | 12-01-2015
P NARASIMHA
@narsim1961
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#AAP, #Narendra Modi, #Arvind Kejriwal, #Delhi elections

this article.
1/14/2015 09:07
18 of 24

RAVINDRAN @1951ravi
P NARASIMHA @narsim1961
# Saffron sees others in Red .
Professional Cartoonist for past 30 years
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RAHUL SINGH
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It could be Indias most sensational murder mystery of 2015, even though the
alleged murder took place in the beginning of 2014. I am of course referring to
the tragic end of Sunanda Pushkar Tharoor, the beautiful wife of the
high-profile Indian member of Parliament and former minister, Shashi
Tharoor. After remaining inexplicably silent for a year, the Delhi Police chief
stunned the country by recently announcing that Sunanda had not committed
suicide, nor died from an accidental dose of drugs and alcohol, as had been
believed earlier, but had actually been done away with.
Why it took the Delhi Police a whole year to come to this startling conclusion
is baffling. Their explanation that India does not have a laboratory to test the
viscera in question for poison, sounds both lame and questionable. Even if
India does not have such a facility, why did it take a year to send the viscera
abroad and get back the reports? The police point to the 15 bruises on
Sunandas body and a puncture mark, to back their claim of violence and
poisoning bruises and a mark that were visible a year ago.
The timing of the police announcement is also suspect. It took place, with a
Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP)-dominated
government
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1/14/2015 09:07
19 of 24
was a Congress minister and also close to the partys president, Sonia Gandhi.
Is the police announcement connected with the change in government? It
would seem so: The Indian police and even the main investigation agency, the
Central Bureau of Intelligence (CBI), though they are meant to be immune
from political pressures, are notorious for bending towards whichever party is
in power. This could be the BJPs way of embarrassing Tharoor and the
Congress party.
Be that as it may, the needle of suspicion has fallen on Shashi Tharoor who, to
avoid media glare, fled to an Ayurvedic health spa in his home state of Kerala
(since then, he gave a brief press conference on January 9 evening).
Meanwhile, his detractors have been baying for his blood. I was on a TV show
the evening of the police announcement. The anchor of the show had already
made up his mind on Tharoors guilt, as had most of the panelists, which
included two women lawyer-activists. I could hardly get a word in, so worked
up was the anchor and the panelists against Tharoor.
At this point a personal disclosure is called for.
I have known Shashi Tharoor, on and off, since his college days. His uncle
(fathers brother), Tharoor Parameshwar, was the managing director of the
magazine of which I was the editor, the Readers Digest. In fact, Shashis
father, Chandran Tharoor, also worked for a short while with the Digest.
Shashi was an outstanding student who went to the USA for higher studies,
before joining the United Nations (U.N.). He rose in the U.N. to the second
highest rank and when the top job, that of secretary general, fell vacant, he
put up his candidacy, with the Indian government actively supporting it. Both
the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and Sonia Gandhi were said to
have had a soft corner for him.
Though Tharoor failed in his U.N. bid, he returned to India, joined politics,
with the Congress giving him a safe seat in Kerala, from where he was
elected to Parliament. He went on to become a minister. His undoing was his
involvement in the lucrative cricket IPL and his somewhat messy personal
life. He bought a stake in a cricket team and gave Sunanda, who had become
his girlfriend (both had been married twice before), sweat equity worth a
large sum in the team. His controversial cricket deal forced his resignation as
minister. Meanwhile, he married Sunanda, a head-strong lady and a
successful entrepreneur in Dubai. They became a very high-profile and
glamorous couple, constantly in the news.
Other women were clearly attracted to the handsome, intelligent and highly
articulate Shashi Tharoor. Pakistani socialite, Mehr Tarar, was one of them.
Sunanda discovered tweets and messages between the two that infuriated her.
Tharoors domestic help, Narain, whom the Delhi Police have been
questioning, has given
a new twist to the case. He has revealed that one
1/14/2015 09:07
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Narain also claimed that the couple had frequent fights and that Sunanda had
told Tharoor that he was finished, just before her death. Well-known
journalist Nalini Singh, a close friend of Sunanda, is also on record as saying
that Sunanda was planning to hold a press conference, the implication being
that she was going to expose her husband. Expose what? His supposed
infidelity, or something else?
So, was she murdered to keep her silent? And by whom? Apart from Tharoor,
who could be the other possible suspects? What would have been their
motives? The hotel in which she died has CCTV coverage of those who entered
and left her room. It should not be difficult to identify all those persons and
narrow down the suspects, if indeed she was murdered.
To me at least, these wild conspiracy theories dont wash and the most
plausible explanation for Sunandas death remains what the earlier autopsy
report showed: Suicide or accidental death. However, the Delhi Police think
otherwise and there is no doubt that many new and intriguing questions have
been raised. I suspect the final answer to the mystery will take quite a long
while to unfold.
#United Nations, #Congress, #BJP, #Shashi Tharoor

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Writer
RANBIR KHANNA @ranbir_k1

P ing judgement, when the matter is still under investigation,
is not fair.
RAHUL SINGH
Former Assistant Editor, Times of India; also Editor,
Reader's Digest and Sunday Observer
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1/14/2015 09:07
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PALASH KRISHNA MEHROTRA
@palashmehrotra
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How does one define terror? The best definition, to my mind, is in a book
published in 1901, a time when terrorism as we know it today, didnt exist.
Christopher Hitchens quotes from it in his memoir Hitch 22. It comes from
HFB Lynchs Armenia: Travels and Studies: Terror, the most abject terror,
is in the atmosphere about us a consuming passion, like that of jealousy a
haunting, exhausting spectre, which sits like a blight upon life. Such a settled
state of terror is one the most awful of human phenomena. The air holds
ghosts, all joy is dead; the sun is black, the mouth parched, the mind rent and
in tatters.
Terror
Over the last few weeks we have seen a spate of terror attacks, each one very
different from the other. There was the lone wolf attack in a Sydney cafe.
There was the unprecedented massacre of more than a hundred
schoolchildren in Pakistan. And then, most recently, the terror strike in Paris.
The horrific shooting at the offices of French satire magazine Charlie Hebdo
though is different from the usual. It was more than mere bloodshed. It was
an attack on something abstract, a treasured French value the freedom of
speech, which also includes the right to insult. The gunmen violently attacked
individuals who stood for and executed these values, every working day of
their lives. The French have a grand tradition of satire, and Charlie Hebdo
had its own glorious past. It was not just fundamentalist Islam that their
cartoonists lampooned. The Pope wasnt spared either. Neither were
governments around the world. Nor were homophobes and racists. The idea
being that there are no holy cows. Everything that should be sent up was sent
up. Behind the joke lies something very serious. Its about questioning and
critiquing the world around us. And doing so in as provocative a manner as
possible. You ruffle feathers, you ruffle feathers. There is no polite way of
going about it.
The freedom to mock is crucial to any vibrant democracy. From political
authoritarianism to religious bigotry, Charlie took on everything and
everybody. You might disagree with some of it. But you cant stop people from
expressing themselves. You certainly cannot kill them for doing so. On the
contrary, as Voltaire said: I do not agree with what you have to say, but Ill
defend to the death your right to say it.
1/14/2015 09:07
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The right to "say it" is what has been defended by tens of thousands of people
in Europe. The pen, pencil and paintbrush have become symbols of freedom.
In marches, people have held up the pen to show their solidarity with the dead
cartoonists. The pencil has featured prominently in the cartoons published in
the aftermath. One shows pencils raining down like missiles. Another one
shows two pencils crashing into the twin towers like aeroplanes.
What we need to grasp is that freedom of speech is absolute and total. The
right to offend and the right to insult is part of it. Its a cornerstone of
European and American society. You can take on one "offensive" cartoon
with, maybe, another cartoon, but never with the gun. In America, the First
Amendment guarantees the right to preach hatred. Words and images dont
kill anyone. Culture is all about debate and discussion, which, after all, is the
business of words.
Implications
What are the implications of this for us in India? For here, it is the opposite.
The right to insult is replaced with a hypocritical "right to respect". We dont
poke fun at anything. No other liberal democracy bans as many books as we
do. PILs are filed at will because the "sentiments" of an individual or
community are always "being hurt". There is no question of questioning the
orthodoxies of religion because we "respect all religions". As the cartoonist
Sudhir Tailang said, Its very difficult for a cartoonist living in this part of the
world to be able to freely express opinions on religion. This makes us a very
unquestioning society. We blindly and unthinkingly respect everyone and
everything. You respect your parents, your teachers, your elders, the boss.
You agree with everyone. At the same time we are also an extremely intolerant
society where demagogues deliver inflammatory speeches at will, but creative
people self-censor, or dont question anything at all in the first place. And its
not just about being humourless. As a society, we lack innovation, something
that Nandan Nilekani never tires of pointing out. Creativity stems from
irreverence, which we singularly lack. We might work more hours every week
than anybody else, but at the end of the day, we remain a nation of
underachievers.
You ask an average Indian why we are like this, and hell say: this is India.
What works in Europe and France doesnt work here. This is hardly an
argument. Its this very rigidity that prevents us from borrowing ideas and
values from other cultures. Its what prevents us from realising our dreams of
becoming a "world power". We need to realise that freedom of speech is about
the right to question. Its an absolute right that has to be protected at all costs.
Without it, no progress is possible.
1/14/2015 09:07
23 of 24

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Freelance journalist and author of The Butterfly Generation.
ART & CULTURE | 3-minute read | 11-01-2015
TS SUDHIR
@iamtssudhir
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It is a case of theatre owners and those who distributed Lingaa expecting

Rajinikanth to emulate his character in real life. In Lingaa, the king
Lingeswaran played by the Superstar, gives up his wealth and position to
ensure the people of his kingdom in pre-1947 India live safely after a dam is
constructed. Cut to 2014, when the distributors want Rajini to give up a part
of his wealth, to compensate for the losses they claim they have incurred.
The distributors contend that Lingaa that released on Rajini's birthday on
December 12, did not do the kind of super business the Superstar's films are
expected to. Not true, say those associated with the film. Lingaa was the
highest Tamil grosser of 2014, reportedly earning Rs 100 crore. The movie
made with a budget of Rs 120 crore reportedly sold its different rights for
about Rs 200 crore. The filmmakers therefore say, the complainants are
talking through their hat.
1/14/2015 09:07
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per cent revenue but realised only 30 per cent. Arguing that he put in money
banking on Rajinikanth, he wants the actor to compensate for the 70 per cent
loss. There are 200 other distributors and exhibitors who relate a similar story
and sat on a hunger strike in Chennai to appeal to the man in Poes Garden Rajinikanth.
Over the last three weeks or so, these distributors and exhibitors have been
asking Rajini to do what he did in 2002, when his Baba became a black sheep
at the box-office. Then Rajini had paid distributors who had lost money. Now
again the distributors say they invested in Lingaa only because the producer
Rockline Venkatesh and director KS Ravikumar had been identified to helm
this project by Rajini. Which is why they are telling Rajini, "Whatever the
revenue and what we have paid, adjust the money and refund."
While the two sides indulge in verbal volleys, there is a lesson in this for the
Tamil film industry. And for every other industry. That buyers need to take
responsibility for their decision. A film is not like a white good that promises a
particular quality. So if the showroom or online portal has delivered you a
defective branded mobile phone or an ill-fitting shirt, you can exchange it or
ask for a refund. But to expect every Rajinikanth film to be a money spinner
without looking at whether the script had sufficient punch in it, makes bad
investor sense. After all, even mutual funds proclaim that past performance is
no indication of how the fund may perform in the future.
At the same time, filmmakers too are guilty of over-hyping their product,
especially if it features someone like Rajini. The budgets are lavish and the
risk factor goes up manifold too. In this case, it has scalded the distributors
and theatre owners and burnt a hole in the carefully built-up superstar image
of Rajinikanth.
#Rajinikanth, #Lingaa
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POLITICS | SPORTS | LIFE | SCI-TECH | MONEY | HUMOUR | ART & CULTURE

POLITICS | SITREP | 3-minute read | 05-01-2015