VOLUME 33 NUMBER 14 JULY 09-22, 2016 ISSN 0970-1710 WWW.FRONTLINE.

IN

JU DIC I A R Y C O V ER S T O RY AR CHAE OLOG Y

A Harappan industrial
Brexit shock site in Rajasthan 67
The Leave verdict in the United King- LI TE R A TUR E
dom has spotlighted the despair and An anthology of
Tamil short stories 92
anger of its working class that have their ‘Charming style’ 93
origins in the multiple burdens succes-
Lawyers on the warpath
in Telangana 36 sive governments imposed on it. 4
SP OT L I G H T

‘Sankalpamum
Sambavamum’ 95
More than inspiring 96

TR I BUTE
Tamil Nadu: Money Rajinder Puri’s world 99
power in elections 40
Interviews: LE G I S LA TI ON
Anbumani Ramadoss, Geospatial Bill:
PMK leader 48 Mapping under scanner 103
Thol. Thirumavalavan, Controlling the freely
VCK leader 50 available data 106
Money mindset 52
RELA T ED S T O RI ES C ON TR OVE R S Y
INSTI T UT I O N S Targeting Teesta Setelvad 124
Raghuram Rajan, Interview: Paul Mason, Labour Party member 8
victim of a tirade 53 Revolt against hegemony of finance 11 CRIME
What next for E.U.? 15 Daylight murders
INDIA & U. S . in Chennai 126
Impact on “emerging markets” 19
The secret accord 55 It is event management
Diplomatic fiasco Wake-up call for India? 23
now 128
over NSG 60 Immigrant factor 25
Grim future 29
WOR L D A F F A I R S THI S FOR TN I G HT 112
Short-term pain 31
Failed gamble 33 S CI E N CE N OTE BOOK 122
Datacard: Bumpy road ahead 120
BOOKS 83

LE TTE R S 130

Colombia’s historic On the Cover

peace accord 62 The flags of the U.K. and the E.U.
United States: COVER DESIGN:T.S. VIJAYANANDAN
End of exceptionalism 65 PHOTOGRAPHS: MATT CARDY/GETTY IMAGES
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JULY 22, 2016 . FRONTLINE 3

 COVER STORY

BREXIT SHOCK
The Leave verdict in the United Kingdom has spotlighted the despair and
anger of its working class that have their origins in the multiple burdens
successive governments imposed on it. But the deeper meaning of the vote
that was informed by a campaign of fearmongering and disinformation is
unclear. B Y PARVATHI MENON I N L O N D O N

I N L O N D O N , as the results of the referendum were coming in.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 4

 AT A POLITICAL RALLY IN LONDON A FEW DAYS
after the referendum of June 23, which saw the United
Kingdom take the momentous step of breaking its 43-
year historical association with the European Union, a
speaker described the post-Brexit mayhem as “our world
turned upside down”.
That indeed is what happened. In the shock vote that
the electorate delivered, 52 per cent voted to leave the
E.U. and 48 per cent to remain. The result stood Britain,
its economy and its politics, on its head.
The results also opened up a vista of uncertainties for
the country. This was a referendum announced by Prime
Minister David Cameron on the smug assumption that
the vote would uphold the status quo. A few months of an
unedifying campaign based on fear-mongering and
myth-manufacturing preceded the vote. Then came the
course-changing result that no one quite expected, and,
finally, the deluge that left upheaval, disarray and un-
preparedness in its wake.
Brexit’s reverberations have gone beyond the borders
P RI M E M I N I S TE R
David Cameron speaks
to the media on June 28
during an E.U. summit in
Brussels.
ANDREW TESTA/NYT
5 FRONTLINE .
of the U.K. and into neighbouring Europe. It is being felt
in Commonwealth countries, former colonies of Britain,
from whose shores migrants have come in waves into the
U.K. over the last 50 years. And across the Atlantic, in the
United States, the Brexit message has fed into the anti-
immigration election rhetoric of the Republican presi-
dential nominee Donald Trump.
In Britain itself, the Brexit verdict has spotlighted the
despair and anger of the working classes that have been
forced to shoulder the multiple burdens that successive
governments imposed on them. Thatcherite deindus-
trialisation and privatisation first threw them out of se-
cure jobs and into uncertain and low-paying
employment. Then came the recession of 2008, which
again they bore the brunt of. Finally, in the post-reces-
sion period of recovery, they were hit yet again by auster-
ity economics. It took Brexit to reveal the deep schism
between the majority of the people, in terms of their
experiences and aspirations, and the Westminster
consensus.
JOHN THYS/AFP
JULY 22, 2016
relative levels of pay in an area do matter for how people For example, the Labour Party and trade unions had
voted. “Areas that voted to leave the E.U. weren’t those their own platform, Labour for Remain. “Another Eu-
that did badly in recent years, but areas in which people rope is Possible” was yet another distinct group of Re-
simply earn less. Contrast, for example, a leave vote of 76 mainers comprising a non-party but broadly progressive
per cent in Boston (the local authority with the lowest pay platform of groups and individuals that included the
of all last year) to a leave vote of 31 per cent in Richmond- Green Party. On the Leave side, a small section of trade
upon-Thames (the highest paid area),” he notes. unions carved out their own identity, calling themselves
(www.resolutionfoundation.org/media/blog/the-refer- Lexit, or the Left for Brexit. Isolated from all in the Leave
endum-living-standards-and-inequality/) camp stood “Grassroots Out”, the campaign forum set up
Qualitative accounts only by the UKIP leader Nigel Far-
enhance the picture of change. age.
Writing for The Guardian, Mike A multiplicity of campaign
Carter, who walked from Liver- groups divided by irreconcilable
pool to London, a distance of political differences but on the
340 miles (547 kilometres), ad- same side resulted in a blast of
mits that the result did not even mixed-messaging and spurious
remotely surprise him. He walk- claims on both sides, especially
ed in the footsteps of People’s by the official platforms. Re-
March for Jobs, comprising over main spokespersons offered dire
300 unemployed men and predictions, including the possi-
women, his father one of them, bility of a Third World War if
who did the same walk 35 years Britain voted Leave. The Leave
ago. Carter’s journey took him groups sneered at these “fear-
through “wastelands of industri- mongering tactics” but them-
al decay” and through towns and selves made claims based on

cities where pubs and local
shops were boarded up and real
estate sharks from the south
were moving in for the kill, buy-
ing up properties put up for sale,
“building property portfolios in
the poverty, as if this was one
giant fire sale”.
“Leave” posters were every-
where, he noted, but there was
not a single one for “Remain”.
He observed the ubiquitous be-
tting shops, next door to each of
which is a pawnbroker or payday
lender. The answers he received
to his ‘in’ or ‘out’ questions—“we
have been left behind”, “politic-
ians don’t care”, “immigration is
ruining the country”—made the
same point of poverty and
neglect.
THE CAMPAIGN
The most significant aspect of
NEIL HALL/REUTERS
misleading and often fudged da-
ta. A Commons Treasury Select
Committee came down heavily
on “the arms race of ever more
lurid claims and
counterclaims”.
J EREM Y C O RB Y N , Labour Party leader, Most dangerous and vitiat-
speaks on immigration and moving on after the ing of all, however, was the anti-
referendum, in central London on June 25. immigrant and racist UKIP
campaign. The party warned of
an immigrant deluge into Bri-
tain if it stayed in the E.U. It
said, once Turkey joined the
E.U., Britain would be overrun
by Turkish “criminals”; increas-
ing immigration would put pres-
sure on schools, the National
Health Service (NHS) and hous-
ing; jobs of British workers
would be “stolen” by immigrants
on low wages; the refugee flow
into Europe would flood the
U.K.; and so on. For an electo-
rate deeply disgruntled with
ERIC VIDAL/REUTERS

the referendum campaign lay in Westminster, the “take back

the political stratification within
the Remain and Leave camps.
Both had “official” campaign or-
ganisations—Remain with “Bri-
tain Stronger in Europe” led by
David Cameron, and Leave with
“Vote Leave” led by Boris John-
son. However, many groups did
not join the official campaigns.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
N I GEL F A RA GE, leader of the pro-“Leave”
UKIP, at a plenary session of the European
Parliament on the Brexit outcome, in Brussels
on June 28.
7
control of our borders” slogan
proved an easy message to in-
ternalise.
The murder, by a hard-right
fanatic, of the young and up-
coming Labour Member of Par-
liament Jo Fox in her
constituency of Bately and Spen
during the campaign must be
seen in the light of the toxic atmosphere created by the
UKIP. Her shocking death acted as a sudden dampener
and introduced a degree of introspection into the cam-
paign—alas too late as the damage had been done. On the
morning of her death, the UKIP released a campaign
poster that hit the depths of hate. Under the heading
Breaking Out, a photograph showed long lines of weary
Syrian immigrants at a border crossing. The poster was
withdrawn under pressure from political parties, but it
had already made the point. Immigration as an issue to
leave the E.U. appeared to have won the day over the
economic argument that focussed on the impact an exit
would have on jobs and economic prosperity.
The referendum results showed that the Leave senti-
‘It wasn’t us who
destroyed the U.K.’
Interview with Paul Mason, Labour Party
member, journalist and film-maker.
BY P A R V A T H I M E N O N
PAUL MASON, a leading British journalist, commen-
tator, film-maker and Labour Party member, spoke to
Frontline at Parliament Square on the sidelines of a
10,000-strong demonstration held in support of Jere-
my Corbyn even as the meeting to debate a no-confi-
dence motion by the Labour Parliamentary Party was
underway in Westminster.
How would you respond to criticism of Jeremy
Corbyn’s leadership, including that he sabotaged the
Remain campaign because he is a closet Eurosceptic?
Our first problem was that we knew that the conser-
vative Right in British politics wanted us to front a
fundamentally dishonest campaign. That is the
campaign the official Remain campaign ran, full
of lies, full of fear tactics. Because we knew our
own people, we knew they wouldn’t buy it. We
wanted to persuade working-class people in
small towns that they should remain and re-
form the E.U. [European Union]. You don’t do
that by a slick, suited campaign, and you don’t
do it by insulting their intelligence. Jeremy Cor-
byn fought his own campaign; he didn’t sabotage
the other campaign, because we were acutely aware
that the Tories would have loved it for Remain to win,
and we take all the flak for our own members. That was
the difference. So the accusations of sabotage could
be the other way, although we are not into accus-
ing anyone. We want to focus on the big
picture, which is the dire situation for
our country, when it has got no gov-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
ment had overwhelmed Britain. But for London, Scot-
land and Northern Ireland, the rest of the U.K. voted to
exit the E.U. England voted strongly for Brexit, by 53.4
per cent to 46.6 per cent, as did Wales, with Leave getting
52.5 per cent of the vote and Remain 47.5 per cent.
Scotland backed Remain by 62 per cent to 38 per
cent, while 55.8 per cent in Northern Ireland voted Re-
main and 44.2 per cent Leave.
The referendum turnout was 71.8 per cent, with more
than 30 million people voting. It was the highest turnout
in a U.K.-wide vote since the 1992 general election.
The referendum left the major political parties, Con-
servative and Labour, bruised by infighting over party
leadership. This has particularly damaged Labour, the
ernment and a massive economic crisis.
Did the Labour Party, Corbyn included, not see the
depth of the anti-Westminster sentiment behind the
Leave vote?
We knew it, we understood it. The problem is that
even when you understand it, it is difficult to do stuff
with people who are being bombarded every day with
racist propaganda by the newspapers. We are a mass
party of 400,000 people, but we still don’t have enough
people to go into every pub, every workplace, every
workers’ club and say: “This is wrong.” We don’t have
that kind of strength—yet. So we knew what was going
on. What surprised me though, and what I think swung
it for Leave, was not what you might call small town,
xenophobic people, because cities like Leicester, Shef-
field and Birmingham, with large South Asian minor-
ities, voted Leave. We think 30 per cent of South Asian
people voted to leave. They too are sometimes driven by
migration, because it is the Asian taxi driver against the
Uber driver. We now find that the race to the bottom
affects everybody. We, of course, need to find progres-
sive and humane answers to the question
of immigration. And remember, we
didn’t even ask for a referendum; we
didn’t want it, it wasn’t us who de-
stroyed Britain’s relationship with
Europe, and it wasn’t us who de-
stroyed the U.K.—because that is
the next thing that is going to hap-
pen.
Corbyn has said that poverty and
low public investment in
backward areas were the reasons
people voted Leave.
8

TH E E UR O PE A N PA R LI A M EN T in session in Strasbourg, France. A file picture.
re-elected, it would be near impossible for him to func-
tion given that two-thirds of the parliamentary party
have vowed not to work with him.
The referendum has exposed the unpreparedness of
the Leave campaign to handle the post-Brexit negotia-
tions with the E.U. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty allows
an E.U. member to opt out voluntarily. The countdown to
a full exit begins after Article 50 is triggered and will take
two years. The present government has held back from
doing this partly because of the leadership vacuum cre-
ated by Cameron’s resignation planned for September
and partly because it has no plan. Britain is desperate for
access to the European free market, but without the
underlying condition of free border movement, a de-
mand that has received a resounding no from other E.U.
member states. In the stern words of European Council
Chairman Donald Tusk: “It’s not single market a la
carte.”
LACK OF CREDIBLE PLAN
The lack of a credible plan on Britain’s negotiating stance
with the E.U. even in the official Leave camp left observ-
ers stunned. Former First Minister of Scotland and lead-
er of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Alex Salmond
was quick to expose this flaw. In the Scottish Referendum
of 2014, the SNP prepared a detailed vision of an inde-
pendent Scotland with supporting plans in a 600-page
white paper. The party had even prepared a contingency
plan on the immediate steps they would take on the day
of the referendum results, if the country voted for inde-
pendence. There is no such preparation in evidence here.
The divorce with the E.U., therefore, promises to be a
protracted affair, during which time the U.K. will enjoy
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
FREDERICK FLORIN/AFP
none of the rights or financial support accruing to an E.U.
member. There is little on the table domestically to fill the
vacuum.
There are other imponderables. The SNP in Scotland,
which voted to Remain, has raised the possibility of a
second independence referendum, arguing that the re-
sult has given it the mandate to negotiate its own settle-
ment with the E.U. The First Minister of Scotland Nicola
Sturgeon, a consummate politician, lost no time in going
to Brussels and meeting E.U. leaders to negotiate what
she calls the “protection of Scotland’s interests”. If she
does not make headway in pushing her case for the
accommodation of Scotland in some form at the E.U.
table, she will then press her case for a fresh independ-
ence referendum, which she is optimistic she will win.
Rebottling the genie is not an option for Britain. Of
course, Brexit can be turned into an opportunity given
the right vision in addressing the causes that lie behind
what the Labour MP Diane Abbott called “the roar of
rage against Westminster”. In the meanwhile, the ex-
treme end of the Leave spectrum has unleashed political
forces that can undermine any forward progress. Britain
with its history of migration and multiculturalism has
seen racist outbreaks in the past. Junctures of transition
and social discontent of the kind the country is experi-
encing now are times when backward-looking social
forces see opportunities to revitalise themselves. Since
the referendum there have been a spate of hate crimes
against minority groups by Far-Right activists. Racist
attitudes seeping into communities are an even more
potent danger that can set back even the most progres-
sive of national agendas. This is surely the biggest chal-
lenge that a post-Brexit Britain faces. 첸
10
 COVER STORY
A stone at a
hornets’ nest
The revolt of the British working class against the hegemony of finance
will undermine the confidence of capitalists and also encourage other
countries to follow the British example. B Y PRABHAT PATNAIK
THE VOTE FOR “BREXIT” REPRESENTS
essentially an un-self-conscious revolt by the British peo-
ple against the hegemony of finance capital. Indeed, since
63 per cent of Labour voters reportedly voted for “Brexit”,
and the Labour Party, despite years of Blairism, contin-
ues to derive its voting strength substantially from the
working class, it would be no exaggeration to call the
“Brexit” vote a working class revolt against the hegemony
of globalised finance capital. It occurred not just as a
protest against the fallout of this hegemony in the form of
crisis and unemployment, and not just as a counter to
finance capital’s project of overcoming all (so-called)
“isolationism”, but also in the face of a massive campaign
that finance had unleashed against “Brexit”. And it defied
not just German finance capital but British finance cap-
ital as well, based in the City of London.
The City had worked assiduously for a “remain” ver-
dict, not just because of its general predilection for “glob-
alism”, but also specifically because of its apprehension
that Britain’s opting out of the European Union would
allow Frankfurt to move ahead of London as the financial
centre of Europe. It had always been staunchly pro-
Europe: it had been instrumental in pushing Britain into
Europe, and also in getting rid of Margaret Thatcher as
Prime Minister when she started expressing anti-Europe
sentiments. Indeed, a bewildered Margaret Thatcher,
when she was forced to resign, had reportedly remarked:
“I have never lost a general election; I have never lost a
vote of confidence in the House of Commons; I have
never lost an election for the Tory Party leadership; and
yet I am no longer Prime Minister!” She had obviously
not reckoned with the City’s immense manipulative pow-
ers. But even these came to naught in the E.U. referen-
dum, partly because it underestimated the opposition to
E.U., but above all because the British working people
remained steadfast in their opposition despite intimi-
dation and blackmail. The outcome of the hegemony of
11
globalised finance, in the form of neoliberal policies that
brought crisis and unemployment, increasing inequality
and absolute poverty, and cuts in the Welfare State,
especially in the National Health Service, proved too
much for them to swallow.
A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
The tragedy, however, is that the Left and the Centre-Left
(in particular the Labour Party), with the exception of a
small group (the “Lexit”), completely ignored the senti-
ment of the working class which they claim to represent
and opposed “Brexit”, leaving the field open for racist and
ultra-right elements like the U.K. Independent Party
(UKIP) of Nigel Farage, and a group of Tories including
the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to emerge
as the champions of people’s anger. Not surprisingly, a
racist and anti-immigrant hue got imparted to the “Brex-
it” campaign, and this very fact was then used ironically
to justify a “remain” vote; but the racist and anti-im-
migrant hue was itself a result of the abandoning of the
working people by those who should have been leading
them, namely the Left and the Centre-Left. The position
of the Left and the Centre-Left thus became a self-fulfill-
ing prophecy: they did not support “Brexit” because it
invoked anti-immigrant feelings; but it invoked such
feelings precisely because they did not support it.
And in the process they ignored the real grievances,
whose roots they knew, of the working people. They could
have explained to those who were influenced by the
anti-immigration rhetoric that the problem lay not so
much in immigration as in the hegemony of globalised
finance capital, which has perpetuated and intensified
the crisis because of its insistence upon “austerity”, that
is, upon drastic cuts in public spending, adversely affect-
ing employment and incomes. Bringing this fact home to
the working people would have made their un-self-con-
scious revolt against the hegemony of finance into a
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
self-conscious revolt, giving it a greater degree of coher-
ence; but it required recognising the depth of the people’s
grievance, which sadly the Left and the Centre-Left did
not do. Slavoj Zizek, the Slovenian Marxist philosopher,
has talked of the “false consciousness” underlying the
Brexit vote; but to the extent it was there, even such “false
consciousness”, as Georg Lukacs had once pointed out,
also has an element of “truth” in it. The Left, sadly, did not
look for this “truth.”
BASIC CONTRADICTION IN E.U.
The Left’s ambivalence towards the E.U. derives from a
basic contradiction in the E.U. itself. While it does repre-
sent a transcendence of the “nationalism” and “national
conflicts” that had plunged Europe into two devastating
world wars, this transcendence has occurred within the
context of a hegemony of globalised finance capital. The
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
P UBLI C S E CTOR W OR KE R S went on strike across
Britain on July 10, 2014, in dispute with the government over
working conditions including pension and pay. Here, striking
workers protesting in Trafalgar Square in central London.
Left, while welcoming the former, has naturally been
opposed to the latter; but it has believed that this contra-
diction could be overcome through democratic struggles
within a united Europe. This assumption, however, is
wrong, as has been most recently shown by the example
of Greece. Syriza (Coalition of Radical Left) had proceed-
ed precisely on the basis of this assumption, namely that
it could appeal successfully to the democratic tendency
within the E.U. to provide financial accommodation to
Greece without imposing “austerity”, that is, to thwart
the agenda of finance capital to saddle Greece with “aus-
terity”. Indeed, so confident had it been about succeeding
12

STEFAN WERMUTH/REUTERS
in this effort that it did not even have a “fallback” option.
And in the event it had to capitulate miserably before
finance capital, accepting an extraordinarily harsh and
humiliating “austerity” package devised by Wolfgang
Schauble, the German Finance Minister.
The Greek experience should have been an eye-open-
er for the Left, but alas, it was not. While the Left sees the
need for replacing the current E.U. by an alternative E.U.
that would not be in thraldom to globalised finance,
especially its German constituent, a major chunk of it
believes that this transition can occur within the current
E.U. itself, that it does not require any delinking from the
current E.U. (to be followed at some later date by a
“relinking” when the hegemony of finance has been suc-
cessfully undermined through such delinking). The fact,
in short, that the struggle against finance can, and, in
certain circumstances when there is an upsurge among
13
the working people in a particular country, must, spill
over into a delinking from the E.U. itself as it is currently
constituted, has never been recognised by significant
sections of the Left. With social democracy, even in its
post-Blairite phase, pusillanimously tailing finance (to
avoid any “serious disruptions in the economy”), with the
Communist Left yet to recover from its shock in the
aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union and to work
out its identity in a post-Leninist conjuncture, and with
the sundry “New Left” formations accepting the wrong
assumption just mentioned, the Left has generally been
incapacitated for playing any leadership role. The fact
that the British workers nonetheless went ahead with
“Brexit” is testimony to their intrepidity.
HARD TIMES AHEAD
The coming days are going to be extremely difficult for
them. One of the main instruments used by finance
capital to prevent any delinking from its prevailing ar-
rangements is the instilling of fear over the consequences
that would follow any such delinking, and precisely for
those very people who dare to delink. This is no idle
threat; it is, indeed, very real. Capital flight, the inability
to manage the balance of payments, a collapse of the
currency, and a consequent acceleration of inflation con-
stitute the obvious sequence of events; and all of them hit
the working people. If measures of fiscal and monetary
contraction are adopted to counter this sequence, then
the unemployment rate rises, so that the working people
become even worse off than they were when they rebelled
against the hegemony of finance. In addition to all this,
there are at least three other factors that would make
things worse in the case of Britain.
The first is the fact that the British economy has
already been facing a serious current account deficit even
before the “Brexit” vote. For 2015 as a whole, Britain’s
current account deficit was 5.2 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP), which is the highest among the
countries of the developed world; for the fourth quarter
of 2015 alone, the figure was 7 per cent of the GDP which
is a peacetime record for that country. Capital inflows on
a scale large enough to finance such a deficit are not easy
to come by. If in addition there is capital flight or even a
drying up of capital inflows because of uncertainties in
the wake of “Brexit” or of a declining pound (that makes
speculators postpone bringing money into the U.K.),
then the problem becomes more acute. The second is the
“bloody-mindedness” of finance capital which would be
reluctant to “bail out” a Britain that has opted to leave the
E.U., both as punishment and also for preventing a “dom-
ino effect”. And the third has been already discussed,
namely the lack of the leadership role that needed to be
exercised by the forces of the Left and the Centre-Left,
forces that should have been sympathetic to the working
class opting for “Brexit”. The Nigel Farages or the Boris
Johnsons of the world can scarcely be expected to lead the
working class against finance capital; they would in fact
be waiting to be wooed by finance capital to prevent
“Brexit” from developing further as a revolt against the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

GERALD PENNY/AP
M A R G A R E T T H A T C H ER was forced to step down
as Prime Minister in 1990 after she started expressing
anti-Europe sentiments.
hegemony of finance. They would in short be perfectly
willing to compromise the essence of “Brexit” by accept-
ing super-“austerity” packages at the expense of the peo-
ple for “stabilising” the economy, even while intensifying
their racist or anti-immigration agendas. The difficulties
facing the British people while coping with the fallout of
the revolt against the hegemony of finance must not
therefore be underestimated.
Spokesmen of finance are highlighting these very
difficulties to draw the conclusion that the “Brexit” vote
was wrong. The point, however, is not that the people,
because of the transitional difficulties associated with
revolting against the hegemony of finance, should re-
main stuck forever in the crisis and poverty and unem-
ployment which such hegemony engenders; the point is
that those who uphold the interests of the people, the
forces of the Left, must come to their aid at this juncture.
WHAT THE LEFT SHOULD DO
The Labour Party, which currently has a left-wing leader
in Jeremy Corbyn, must commit itself to implementing
the Brexit verdict (even David Cameron has done that),
ask for immediate fresh general elections, and approach
the electorate with a credible new programme of ending
“austerity”, of tying up with other Left formations in
Europe like Podemos which are on the verge of power
(despite the latest election results), of arranging to fi-
nance the current account deficit in the near future in a
manner that does not entail “austerity”, and of simultane-
ously taking steps to curtail this deficit through direct
measures if necessary.
The current drift in the Parliamentary Labour Party,
however, is in an exactly opposite direction: to remove
Jeremy Corbyn from leadership for not having cam-
paigned sufficiently vigorously against “Brexit” and to
“undo the damage” done by the referendum verdict. But
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
Corbyn enjoys the overwhelming support of the trade
unions and the rank and file of the Labour Party and
must use that support to ensure that the British working
class is not betrayed in its revolt against globalised fi-
nance. Indeed, given the context of the world capitalist
crisis, a condition for preventing the ascendancy of fascist
parties in Europe is that the Left must shake off the
hegemony of finance over its own mindset, be sensitive to
the grievances of the working class, and not shirk delin-
king from globalised finance because of the difficulties of
transition, since such shirking would only mean a per-
petuation of the crisis for the people.
The basic point here is that, notwithstanding all
brave claims to the contrary, the current world capitalist
crisis is nowhere near ending. It is a protracted crisis
from which there is no visible exit. All crises create condi-
tions for the growth of fascism, and the present one is no
exception. Hence, unless the Left presents an alternative
agenda to the status quo, an agenda that in the present
context must mean a transcending of the hegemony of
globalised finance and of the era of “neoliberal capital-
ism” that it has unleashed on the world, fascist elements
are likely to gain ascendancy. It is significant that when-
ever such an alternative agenda has been presented, the
people have responded to it with enthusiasm. The obvi-
ous example is the United States, where Bernie Sanders,
a self-confessed socialist, has drawn substantial mass
support with his programme of confronting Wall Street,
support that is even larger than what Donald Trump has
drawn with his right-wing rhetoric.
NO RETURN TO STATUS QUO ANTE
No matter what happens in Britain, the British vote to
leave the E.U. will have two crucial implications for the
capitalist world. One, it will aggravate the crisis of world
capitalism, which constitutes the underlying reason for
this vote in the first place. The fact that the working class
in Britain, one of the most powerful capitalist countries,
can revolt against the hegemony of globalised finance,
will certainly undermine the “state of confidence” of cap-
italists, thwarting all prospects for the emergence of
“exuberant expectations” in the foreseeable future; and
since asset-price “bubbles”, based on such expectations,
are the main sources of booms under neoliberal capital-
ism, the puncturing of such “exuberance” will aggravate
the crisis. Two, this very fact will further encourage other
countries to follow the example of the British, and this
will happen even if the transitional difficulties of the
British economy prove to be quite formidable. Remain-
ing stuck in a crisis, in short, will henceforth be unaccept-
able to the working people. Now that the first stone has
been directed against the hornets’ nest, getting back to
status quo ante will prove quite impossible. And since the
current period of globalisation has been characterised
above all by the globalisation of finance, as the revolt
against globalised finance gathers momentum, it will set
in motion a process of unravelling of the phenomenon of
globalisation itself, at least in the form in which it has
existed so far. 첸
14
 COVER STORY

What next for E.U.?

It will be tragic indeed if the European Union collapses under the weight
of its own contradictions only to yield to the petty and xenophobic forms
of national neoliberalism that are currently the most forceful alternative to
neoliberal economic integration. B Y JAYATI GHOSH

EVEN BEFORE THE RESULT OF THE UNITED
Kingdom referendum came, the European Union was
facing a crisis of popular legitimacy. The result, especially
in England and Wales, was certainly driven by the fear of
increased immigration, irresponsibly whipped up by xe-
nophobic right-wing leaders who now appear uncertain
themselves of what to do with the outcome. But it was as
much a cry of pain and protest from working communi-
ties that have been damaged and hollowed out by three
decades of neoliberal economic policies. And this is why
the concerns of greater popular resonance across other
countries in the E.U.—and the idea that this could simply
be the first domino to fall—are absolutely valid. So the
bloc as a whole now faces an existential crisis of an
entirely different order, and its survival hinges on how its
rulers choose to confront it.
HOW THE UNION WAS FORMED
A little history is in order first. The formation of the union
itself, from its genesis in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, was

THE HINDU ARCHIVES

VOTIN G PA PE R S are handed to the Deputy Speaker after a vote on the Maastricht Treaty in the U.K. House of Commons in
London. The exercise saw the House approve an amendment relating to the composition of the European Community for the
regions by a 314-292 vote.

15 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

large still prosperous societies. All these are indeed not
common only to Europe but are felt in many other parts
of the world as a result of economic policies favouring the
rich and large capital and suppressing the rights and
aspirations of ordinary people on the grounds that “there
is no alternative”.
In this context, the E.U. decision to accept (relatively
few, around a million) refugee migrants from war-torn
regions of West Asia—mostly tragic victims of instability
in the region resulting from wars entered into by the
governments of the U.S. and the E.U. themselves—was in
some ways the final straw. In some countries like the
U.K., there was already resentment at the entry of E.U.
citizens from eastern Europe, who were seen to be driving
up house rents and lowering wages. But the possibility of
particularly Muslim immigration that was cynically used
by the Leave campaign in Britain is also a major element
of the public response in many other countries like
PETER MUHLY/AFP
SU P PO R T E R S O F T H E C A M P A I GN against the Lisbon
Treaty during the count of the ballots at the Royal Dublin
Society in Dublin on June 13, 2008. The vote was against the
treaty by 53.8 per cent, but Ireland was made to vote again
until a more satisfactory result was obtained.
17
France and even Germany, where other people, rather
than corporate capital, are seen as the threat.
ALIENATION AND INTOLERANCE
So the tragedy is that growing alienation of many people
who have become the victims of financial globalisation
has also left them unable to pick on their real enemy.
Instead, the tendency has been to pick on others, who are
equally or even more the victims but can be isolated and
made into scapegoats because of some apparent differ-
ences, particularly recent migrants fleeing either enor-
mous physical threats or economic hardship. The vote in
both England and Wales indicates and further strength-
ens an increasingly unpleasant right-wing surge across
Europe, in which “nationalism” is little more than a fig
leaf for open or suppressed racism and intolerance to
ethnic/cultural differences.
Of course, the alacrity with which other European
leaders have said that the Leave vote in the U.K. must be
respected is somewhat surprising. It is worth noting that
the E.U. so far has not been particularly responsive to the
voice of the popular will, typically forcing people to bend
rather than the other way around, even when there have
been significant democratic pressures within member
countries against its mandates. Consider just a few exam-
ples. In Denmark, 51.7 per cent of voters wanted to reject
the Maastricht Treaty in 1992, but the country was made
to vote again until the treaty was passed by an even
smaller majority. In 2002, the E.U. Constitution was
rejected by 54.9 per cent of French voters and 61.5 per
cent of Dutch voters, but these results were simply ig-
nored and the Lisbon Treaty was put in place. In 2008,
Ireland voted against the Lisbon Treaty by 53.8 per cent,
but was made to vote again until a more satisfactory
result was obtained. In 2015, 61.3 per cent of Greek
voters—an overwhelming majority—voted against the
austerity programme of the E.U., but this too was reject-
ed. At that time, the president of the European Commis-
sion, Jean-Claude Juncker, even said, “There can be no
democratic choice against the European treaties.”
So what is so different about this British referendum?
To begin with, it comes from a very important— many
would say crucial—member of the Union, albeit one that
has always had a rather difficult relationship with the
body. In the E.U., Britain has always been a bit of the
tetchy uncle at extended family gatherings, complaining
about the facilities and the cacophony of the younger
children present and grudging the occasional present he
is expected to give. The country did not join the eurozone
(to its own great advantage) and has fussed about the
payments it has to make as well as the regulations for
labour and welfare that it has been forced to introduce.
Governments in the U.K. have always contained Eu-
rosceptic voices, especially in the Conservative Party. But
it is nonetheless a large and important economy, with a
significant geopolitical presence, even if that is largely the
legacy of history.
Second, ignoring democratic expression at this point
of time in Europe is fraught with greater risk. There is
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

KAMIL ZIHNIOGLU/AP
M A R I N E L E PE N , French Far-Right leader who hopes
to win the next presidential election in 2017, commented
the day after the Brexit result was announced that the
E.U. had “become a prison of peoples”.
already a significant movement against immigration and
against the E.U., driven again by anger, despair and
frustration at economic trends, that is growing across
different member countries. If a clear result in this refer-
endum is blatantly denied (despite the best intentions of
those working to have a second referendum) or leads to a
delayed and watered-down response without Britain ac-
tually leaving the E.U., this will fuel an even greater
right-wing response and further strengthen this move-
ment. Then the right-wing surge has the potential to
become a veritable tsunami across Europe.
FORCES OF THE RIGHT GLEEFUL
Some of this is already evident in the open glee of Far
Right nationalist forces in response to the U.K. referen-
dum. The day after the result, Marine Le Pen of the
anti-immigration National Front in France, who hopes
to win the next presidential election in 2017, wrote: “The
European Union has become a prison of peoples. Each of
the 28 countries that constitute it has slowly lost its
democratic prerogatives to commissions and councils
with no popular mandate. Every nation in the union has
had to apply laws it did not want for itself. Member
nations no longer determine their own budgets. They are
called upon to open their borders against their will.
Countries in the eurozone face an even less enviable
situation. In the name of ideology, different economies
are forced to adopt the same currency, even if doing so
bleeds them dry. It’s a modern version of the Procrustean
bed, and the people no longer have a say…. We have tried
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
to deny the existence of sovereign nations. It’s only nat-
ural that they would not allow being denied.”
In Italy, with the rise of the Eurosceptic Five Star
movement which recently won important mayoral elec-
tions in Rome and Turin, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is
under pressure because of implementation of neoliberal
austerity policies. On June 29, the E.U. rejected his plan
to provide public support for banks with large non-
performing loans, and he may not survive a referendum
in October on sweeping constitutional reforms.
Ironically, Far-Right anti-E.U. movements are on the
ascendant even in supposedly economically successful
countries. Geert Wilders, leader of the anti-immigrant
Party for Freedom in the Netherlands, tweeted: “Hurray
for the British! Now it’s our turn!” In Germany, the
Alternative for Germany began as an anti-euro party but
is now more openly anti-immigrant and anti-Islam. It
now has seats in eight of Germany’s 16 State assemblies
and is expected to win seats in the national parliament,
the Bundestag, in the elections next year. In Austria, the
candidate of the right-wing Freedom Party almost won
in the presidential election, with just under 50 per cent of
the vote.
WHITHER E.U.?
So which way will the E.U. go now? The immediate
response appears to be a closing of ranks and circling of
the wagons, with strict terms applied to the U.K. as
punishment and also deterrence to other would-be leav-
ers. But stronger political union with much greater feder-
al powers no longer seems to be on the table. Instead,
there are also likely to be calls for greater flexibility with
respect to both economic policies and migration. Donald
Tusk, the Polish President of the European Council, has
already warned that ordinary European citizens do not
share the enthusiasm of some of their leaders for “a
utopia of Europe without nation states, a utopia of Eu-
rope without conflicting interests and ambitions, a uto-
pia of Europe imposing its own values on the external
world, a utopia of Euro-Asian unity”. It is likely that there
is much less political appetite for greater integration, for
example in a banking union, and this will make other
forms of economic union even less effective, especially in
countries experiencing continued economic difficulties
and consequent social unrest.
The E.U. as it exists today is unstable and probably
unsustainable. But it will be tragic indeed if it collapses
under the weight of its own contradictions only to yield to
the petty and xenophobic forms of national neoliberalism
that are currently the most forceful alternative to neolib-
eral economic integration. What Europe and the world
require is more internationalist alternatives based on
popular sovereignty, solidarity, the improvement of
workers’ conditions and the rights of citizens. Sadly, at
this time there are only very few voices making such
demands. 첸
Datacard: Bumpy road ahead, page 120
18
 COVER STORY

Disruption on cards
Britain’s exit from the E.U. could disrupt world trade and jeopardise the
process of pulling the global economy out of recession. B Y C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR

JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG

BR ITI S H one-pound sterling coins in an arranged photograph in Guildford, U.K., on June 13.

BRITAIN HAS VOTED TO LEAVE THE EUROPEAN
Union (E.U.). The managers of global capitalism now
have their hands full addressing the fallout of Brexit even
as their efforts to manage the aftershocks of the crisis of
2008 remain unsuccessful. It does not help that Brexit
immediately affects the E.U., where the legacy of the
earlier crisis has been the worst. In fact, the churning
within the E.U. is partly the result of the persisting crisis
in parts of the region. And it is there that the next crisis is
likely to unfold first.
But as recent history has repeatedly made clear, in a
globally integrated world no crisis remains confined to
one region. If Britain’s departure from the E.U. worsens
the crisis in Europe, it will also, to different degrees,
affect the rest of the world, including the so-called
“emerging markets” such as India. That could worsen the
depressed conditions confronting the current world
economy. So, preventing Brexit from precipitating an-
other crisis that could convert the Great Recession into a
Great Depression is the task before these managers. The
problem is, they know neither what Brexit will do nor
what needs to be done, whatever adverse effect it may
have. Moreover, governments across the globe are
weighed down by “stimulus fatigue”, or the burden of
stimulating a recovery while remaining committed to a
neoliberal fiscal and monetary policy framework. They
are ill-prepared to deal with one more potential obstacle
to that recovery.
There are, of course, reasons to hope that the Brexit
vote, if not reversed as even many “Leave” campaigners

19 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

hope it will be, will not be as harmful as the initial
collapse of global markets and the pound suggested.
According to some experts, since the United Kingdom
accounts for just 3.9 per cent of the global GDP, the exit
of this small island economy from the E.U. club of 28
could do little damage to the rest of the integrated world
economy. The problem is what happens after exit to the
remaining 27 and their neighbours. The erstwhile 28
E.U. members plus Iceland, Norway and Switzerland
account for around a quarter of global output.
There is adequate reason to believe that Brexit’s real
economy effects in the U.K. will be significant. A recent
paper by Nicholas Crafts of the University of Warwick
(“The Growth Effects of EU Membership for the UK: A
Review of the Evidence”, Department of Economics
Working Paper Series No. 280, March 2016) estimates
that the effects of enhanced trade that flowed from E.U.
membership resulted in an annual gain (relative to being
a part of the European Free Trade Agreement) of 10 per
cent of GDP, which was much higher than the “member-
SPENCER PLATT/AFP
ship cost” of 1.5 per cent, in the form of a net budgetary
contribution and the net costs of common regulation.
Estimates of these kinds are controversial. But, as
Crafts notes, growth in real GDP per person in the U.K.
has been quite creditable since 1973 when it joined the
E.U. Thus, during the period between 1973 and 1995, real
GDP per person rose as fast in the U.K. as it did in
Germany (West), almost as fast as in the United States market in the U.K. shrinking as well as less easy to access.
and faster than in France. Moreover, during the 1995- In fact, faced with its own problems flowing from its “new
2007 period, real GDP per head grew in the U.K. at a pace nationalism”, the U.K. may seek to turn protectionist. On
faster than it did in France, Germany and the U.S. In the the other hand, as banks and firms from the U.K. are
2007-14 period, which coincides with the post-crisis forced to close some or all of their operations in R27,
years, growth stagnated in the U.K., was negative in business could be disrupted in these countries with as yet
France, less than 1 percentage point in Germany and half unforeseen consequences. Those adversely affected
a percentage point in the U.S. E.U. membership has not would look to greater policy space to address their own
harmed the U.K. and possibly benefited it substantially problems. Pressure from Germany and a few others to
so that a flagging economy began to show a degree of remain open to trade with the rest of the world would
dynamism. An exit will directly harm the U.K. meet with opposition from those not benefiting from
A part of whatever loss is suffered could possibly be such trade or even from trade within the E.U. The result
recouped after new arrangements are put in place. But could be a desire for “independence” that the Right in
that will take time as an agreement will have to be struck Europe would definitely exploit. And the German Chan-
with the 27 remaining members of the E.U., with the cellor’s softer and accommodative position on the refu-
many countries with whom E.U. had special trade deals gee issue may not help. Brexit could prove infectious.
that applied to the U.K. as a member as well, and to the Finally, if all is not well in terms of growth in Europe
remaining members of the World Trade Organisation and the U.K., which together constitute a quarter of the
(WTO), since the U.K. as a separate country has not world market, the real economy in the U.S. and the better
made essential commitments with respect to its trade in performing economies in Asia, Latin America and Africa
goods and services. New benefits, if any, will be slow in would be adversely affected as well. Any slowdown in
coming and are uncertain, especially with respect to world trade will affect all economies. The dollar is likely
trade with the E.U., since it was the U.K. that chose to to strengthen as investors in Europe flee to safer dollar-
leave. But even the U.S. government is not happy with the denominated assets, reducing the competitiveness of
referendum decision and President Barack Obama has American exports. Similar effects, even if on a smaller
won many enemies in the U.K. with his statement that scale, would bedevil Japan, which has been fighting a
Britain would be “at the back of the queue” among those long recession. And emerging markets, including China
seeking a trade deal with the U.S. and India, which had earlier shown some signs of being
The problem is that the U.K.’s decision will badly “decoupled” from the world system, have already been hit
damage a crisis-ridden Europe as well. To start with, the by the persisting crisis in Europe and the absence of
best performing nation within the “Remaining 27” (R27, recovery elsewhere. The fallout of Brexit can only damage
for short), Germany, will possibly find an important them further.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 20
TR A DE R S O N T H E F LO O R of the New York Stock
Exchange soon after the U.K. referendum result was
announced. The Dow Jones industrial average quickly fell
nearly 500 points on the news, with markets around the
globe plunging.
These consequences of Brexit raise the important
question: Why did 52 per cent of those voters who turned
up to vote in the U.K. referendum (72 per cent of those
eligible) choose “Leave”? From the points of view of
finance and industry, the U.K. seemed to have the best
deal within the E.U. For example, while it did have to
open its borders to workers choosing to move from other
members of the union, it was protected by exception from
having to meet common labour standards that most
members had accepted. Membership also gave firms
located in London, which has been the growth pole in the
U.K., access to a “passport” to undertake business in the
rest of the common market. Industrial firms located in
the U.K. had full access to the single common market.
Some other sections benefited too. For example, British
universities starved of public funding could attract a
large number of fee-paying students and their faculty had
access to much-needed research funding from the com-
mon E.U. budget for that purpose.
The problem clearly was that much of the middle
class and almost all of labour did not really benefit from
the arrangement. The inflation-adjusted earnings of
many of them have stagnated and jobs, for the young in
particular, are more difficult to come by. Official figures
on the average weekly earnings of employees show that
real earnings fell after the financial crisis until mid 2014.
21
While earnings have risen since, they have not yet re-
gained pre-crisis levels. In other words, workers were
severely hit by the 2008-09 crisis precipitated by the
speculative activities of finance, but were not bailed out,
while banks and financial firms were. Since the activities
of the banks have increased hugely under globalisation,
the anger of workers at their worsened status was direct-
ed at corporate-driven globalisation and the common
European “market”. This made them fodder for cynical
right-wing propaganda that the jobs and resources that
migrants “stole” explained their condition. So, while mi-
gration and even the refugee inflow were not a major
problem for the U.K., it was a useful instrument for many
of the politicians involved. Those campaigning for Brexit
used it to the hilt. Prime Minister David Cameron told
E.U. leaders that the Remain-backers would not have
lost the vote and that Brexit could have been avoided if
E.U. leaders had given him a freer hand to control
migration.
This blame game and the associated debate is un-
likely to go away, but will wane as the effects of Brexit on
the U.K., the E.U. and the world unravel and demand the
attention of world leaders. The immediate effect is, of
course, deep uncertainty. Will Brexit actually occur and if
so, what will be the nature of the U.K.’s relationship with
the E.U.? Will Scotland and Northern Ireland, which
voted to remain in the E.U., stay in the U.K.? Will indus-
try in the U.K., whether British or foreign-owned, remain
competitive after Brexit? Will London lose its pre-emi-
nent position as a global financial centre once financial
firms located there have lost their passports to trade in
the E.U. market and settle those trades? How far will the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
effects in the E.U. impact the rest of the global economy,
including the U.S. and the more successful emerging
markets such as China and India? How will this change
the correlation of economic power in the world
economy?
It was uncertainty of this kind that was responsible
for the collapse of the pound and of equity markets
worldwide in the immediate aftermath of the Brexit vote.
Decline in stock prices as investors shifted out of equity to
safer assets wiped out $2 trillion in stock value across
markets on June 24. While the collapse of equity markets
was attributed in part to algorithmic trading, human
intervention to redress machine overreaction did not
make much of a difference. At the end of the next trading
day (June 27), the loss in stock value was placed at $3
trillion. According to Financial Times, the S&P Global
Broad Market index (the BMI) had fallen by close to 6.9
per cent, which was the worst two-day decline since the
financial crisis in 2008 and the 12th worst on record.
Obviously this collapse was not confined to the U.K.
and Europe, but affected the U.S., other developed coun-
tries and the emerging markets as well. The benchmark
index for U.S. stocks, the S&P 500, experienced its third
worst two-day fall on record, losing 5.4 per cent or close
to $1 trillion. Developed country equity markets as a
group lost $2.8 trillion in value and emerging markets
lost $179 billion over those two days. The much lower
figure for equity markets partly reflects their much small-
er market capitalisation.
MARKET VOLATILITY
It is indeed true that stock markets tend to be much more
volatile when shocks like the Brexit vote generate ex-
treme uncertainty. But the extreme volatility they are
experiencing does point to the fact that financial markets
would be an important focus of the Brexit fallout and act
as important transmission mechanisms in the spread of
the crisis to markets and countries outside of the U.K.
and the E.U. Not surprisingly, bank stocks took severe
and much stronger hits during the post-Brexit collapse.
This financial uncertainty will be strengthened by the
fact that London and New York are the leading financial
centres of the world. In fact, a set of rankings compiled by
the Z/Yen group in September 2015 suggested that Lon-
don had overtaken New York as the world’s most compet-
itive financial centre.
Rankings aside, London’s attraction lies in the access
that firms located there have to the European Economic
Area (EEA) under the “passporting” option that allows
firms established in one EEA state to undertake business
in another. This can be done by setting up a branch in
another state, by exercising the “branch passport” option,
or by offering cross-border advisory and other services by
exercising the “services passport” option.
The strength that “passporting” and light-touch regu-
lation gave London made it an important hub for fi-
nancial transactions within the E.U. According to
Reuters, more than three-quarters of the business con-
ducted in capital markets across the E.U. happens in
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
Britain. As a result, about 417,000 people are employed
by banks in Britain and there are an estimated 1.8 million
others offering related financial and professional ser-
vices. Leveraging those strengths and exploiting other
factors (for example, working hours in London overlap
with those in Hong Kong, Singapore and Tokyo), the city
has been offering financial services to clients across a
highly globalised world. Brexit not only puts under threat
thousands of jobs in the city, with direct implications for
economic activity, but will also disrupt a leading hub of
global finance. What that disruption would mean is an-
other source of uncertainty.
For “emerging markets” that have been drawn into
this globalised financial whirl and are the locations for
substantial sums of legacy investments in financial as-
sets, uncertainty could precipitate capital flight. Even
before Brexit, capital had been flowing out of these econ-
omies because of the uncertainty over U.S. interest rate
policy, for example. Increased outflow after Brexit could
precipitate financial, currency and real economy crises,
as they have repeatedly done in developing countries
since the early 1980s.
This danger is aggravated by the likelihood of a pro-
tectionist response in the developed economies to any
further deterioration of an already bad economic sit-
uation. It must be noted that both the 2008 financial
crisis and Brexit have been outcomes of developments
within the developed countries, though they have had or
will have repercussions elsewhere.
One consequence of these developments and the in-
equalising responses to them is disillusionment within
the developed economies with finance, globalisation and
the elite nexus of business and politicians that sustains
the framework that precipitates periodic crises.
This has given space to politicians like Marine Le Pen
in France and Donald Trump in the U.S. who are avow-
edly protectionist and whose aim is to win the support of
the majority disillusioned with globalisation and its
consequences.
It hardly bears repeating that these leaders are by no
means against the corporate interests that have deter-
mined the direction that global integration or even in-
tegration within Europe has taken. The fact that
globalisation is corporate-driven has meant that restruc-
turing the E.U. and the global order (to make them more
inclusive) and negotiating a coordinated effort to pull
economies out of recession has proved impossible.
So, if the crisis intensifies, protectionism or retreating
from excessive integration with the rest of the world may
be the only way to go. Whatever the long-term implica-
tions of this, it could, in the short run, disrupt world trade
and trigger beggar-thy-neighbour responses wherein-
 one country attempts to fix its economic problems by
means that tend to worsen those problems of other coun-
tries. Combined with all the other effects that the Brexit
vote may have on a world still steeped in recession, the
task of preventing the Great Recession from turning into
a 21st century version of the Great Depression may well
prove difficult. 첸
22
 COVER STORY

Wake-up call?
While the overall negative impact of Brexit on India will be short-lived,
Indian investments must deal professionally with Europe without always
looking at it through the British prism. B Y SHIV MUKHERJEE

A STORY IS TOLD OF A NEW INTERNATIONAL
Monetary Fund (IMF) Director who swears to transform
the institution into something the world admires, a real
force for development, world peace and prosperity. He
begins by sacking all the advisers he inherited and em-
barks on a head-hunting exercise for new blood that
shares his vision. The job description includes an essen-
tial qualification: applicants must have one hand only. As
he explains to the bemused head-hunting company, “I
am sick and tired of economists who answer every ques-
tion with ‘on the one hand, blah, blah, blah, and on the
other hand, blah, blah, blah….’ So I want one-handed
economists.”
Fortunately for us, as far as the impact of Brexit on
India is concerned, we have been spared this two-handed
doublespeak. Going by the reports of all manner of ex-
perts, business persons and government representatives,
both in India and abroad, the broad conclusion is that the
overall negative impact will be short-lived, and marginal,
though the impact may vary in different sectors depend-
GEOFF CADDICK/AFP
BR I TI S H P R I M E M I N I S TE R David Cameron signing the
visitors’ book at the Jaguar Land Rover factory, owned by
Tata Motors, in Solihull in central England on June 22.
ing on their differing vulnerability and exposure to global
trends.
The somewhat surprising convergence of views be-
tween our government’s financial czars and the eggheads
who usually suffer from the affliction of the apocryphal
IMF Director, and even more interestingly by our busi-
nessmen and industrialists, are based on the following:
The fundamentals of our economy are strong. We are
the fastest-growing economy in the world with a growth
rate of 7.6 per cent, and even if the fallout of Brexit does
its worst, we should still grow at 7.3 per cent, and still be
the fastest-growing economy in the world. The fiscal
deficit and revenue deficit are thoroughly under control,
as is inflation. (The minor consideration that the vast
majority of our population, reeling under the price of dal
and tomatoes, knows nothing about these fundamentals

23 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016


PTI
C .S. V E R M A , Steel Authority of India Chairman, and
Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal,
signing an MoU in London in May 2015.
and cares even less, should not worry us…. Seriously, the
calm reaction of the government, the Reserve Bank of
India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of
India (SEBI), as well as the captains of industry, sends
out reassuring signals that augur well for a similar calm
and stability in the economy.)
India’s foreign exchange reserves are at a healthy
$365 billion, which would allow our central bank to
inject whatever liquidity is needed to counter volatility.
There may be a small outflow of investments, as investors
in this situation tend to withdraw money from emerging
markets and switch to the safe haven of the world’s
currency, the dollar, followed by the yen. But even this
should be temporary, as the dust stirred up by the initial
shock settles down, as shown by the quick recovery of the
Indian stock market from its 1,000-point fall immediate-
ly after the result.
The slew of reforms just announced by the govern-
ment will also counteract the Brexit fallout, given that
India remains what the World Bank President Jim Yong
Kim on June 30 called the “one bright spot” in a gloomy
global economy. We withstood the financial tsunami of
2008 reasonably well, and that was a crisis immeasurably
more dangerous than this one. The rupee will slide a bit,
but that will arguably help our sluggish exports, make
imports more expensive, and help our trade balance,
especially with the United Kingdom where the sterling
pound will slide even more.
There is time to plan, to prepare, and the space to
manoeuvre. Things legally remain the same at least for
the next two years, as the new British Prime Minister
tries desperately to retain access to the single market,
while trying to opt out of the obligations to allow free
movement of people—something which is not going to be
conceded by the European Union (E.U.), as signals from
the remaining 27 membercountries seem to indicate.
What happens to India if the moves towards copycat
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
referendums in a number of other countries become a
reality? Certainly, the right wing in the E.U. has been
strengthened by the impact of the millions of refugees
pouring into Europe from West Asia, Turkey having
already blackmailed the E.U. into agreeing to a visa-free
regime for Turks, and refugees from Africa showing no
signs of a let-up. Xenophobia and incipient racism are
rising, and are more brazen. Will the liberals prevail?
Will Europe manage to stick to its commitment to plural-
ism and its loudly tom-tommed image of a humane union
dedicated to human rights?
Britain has failed the test; will the E.U. go the same
way? We can only wait and watch, and as in much of what
happens in international affairs, deal with situations as
they arise.
Finally, the debate on investments and the Indian
companies in the U.K.
India is the third largest investor in the U.K., with
about 800 companies established there.
The depressing fact is that saving the top 15 or 20
companies, the rest (or at least most of them) are trading
companies or shell companies, whose main aim is squir-
relling away money from India, through under-invoicing
and over-invoicing, and stashing it abroad, some of it to
engage in business abroad with ready access to cash,
without having to bother about the Indian bureaucratic
requirements, and the rest of it to be sent back to India as
laundered investments. Consider that if the U.K. is the
third largest investor in India, the top two are Mauritius
and Singapore.
Investments through these routes will not stop
—their motivation and causes are immune to the state of
the U.K. economy.
Additionally, the companies from India that have a
presence in the U.K. are British companies legally, which
pay taxes to Britain, not to India. They create jobs for the
British, not for Indians, except for a few people in the top
management. All that India gets is remittances of profits.
And these are not substantial, because Indian invest-
ments are either trading companies or manufacturing
acquired through mergers and acquisitions, with no
transfer of original Indian technology giving them a
return on royalties.
This whole business of the U.K. being our gateway to
Europe is overstated. First, it might even be a silver
lining, forcing lazy Indian businesses to deal profession-
ally with Europe without always looking at it through the
British prism. They should use this as an opportunity, not
a threat. And the Indian government should make it very
clear that all that these companies can expect from it is
sympathy, and nothing else.
“Make in India” is an objective that should resonate a
hundredfold more with our own companies, rather than
foreign ones. If this energises our government to speed
up and widen reforms that enable Indian industry to do
so, we might, sometime in the near future, look upon
Brexit as a welcome wake-up call. 첸
Shiv Mukherjee is a former High Commissioner to the
United Kingdom.
24
 COVER STORY

Immigrant factor
The refugee influx, triggered by wars imposed by the West on Libya and
Syria, is one of the reasons for Brexit and the call for national referendums
on E.U. membership in other European countries. B Y JOHN CHERIAN

PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP

A KEY ISSUE THAT PROMPTED THE BREXIT
vote was immigration. The right-wing United Kingdom
Independence Party (UKIP), led by Nigel Farage, the
leading proponent of Brexit, circulated a colourful poster
with the title “Breaking Point” showing hordes of refu-
gees looking like Arabs and Asians jostling to get into the
U.K., just before the British people cast their votes in the
June 23 European Union (E.U.) referendum. After the
results of the referendum were announced, there were
incidents of racial abuse, mostly against people from
eastern Europe. This correspondent, who was in London
during the Brexit campaign, could see first hand the
emotions at play on issues relating to immigration. In-
terestingly, from available data, most British citizens of
Asian and African origin also voted for Brexit. They, too,
M I G R AN TS W ALK P A S T a graffiti reading “London my
dream” written on a tent, at the “Jungle” camp for migrants
and refugees in Calais, France, on June 24, a day after
Britain voted to leave the E.U.
were not happy with the fact that many of the low-paying
and unskilled jobs were being taken by newcomers from
the new E.U.-member states from eastern Europe.
Right now the racist anger may be directed at Poles,
Bulgarians, Romanians and other East Europeans but it
is only a matter of time before non-white citizens, too,
face discrimination as the British economy faces a melt-
down. The British media, which played a key role in the
pro-Brexit campaign, focussed on “lazy” East Europeans
and Greeks, “scary” refugees and “Brussels bureaucrats”.

25 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

Forty-seven per cent of those who voted for Brexit were of and Britain. The waves of refugees heading for Europe
the view that immigration had proved detrimental to the first started coming through Libya, after the brutal over-
British economy. However, Britain’s National Institute throw of Muammar Qaddafi. The Libyan leader, had at
of Economic and Social Research provided statistics the prompting of the E.U. and Italy, drastically curtailed
showing that immigrants had actually boosted the coun- the movement of economic migrants from sub-Saharan
try’s gross domestic product and lowered the cost of the Africa. During his long rule, only a trickle of migrants was
National Health Services. able to make the dangerous sea crossing to Italy. Cam-
eron and his ideological soulmate at the time, Nicolas
FAR TOO MANY IMMIGRANTS Sarkozy, the then President of France, had led the cam-
Many prominent mediapersons were seen on television paign for regime change in Libya in 2011. The United
channels opining that the U.K. had “too many immi- States, to use President Barack Obama’s term, preferred
grants” and that it was advisable to keep a close watch on to “lead from behind” at the insistence of his two North
immigrants from Muslim countries. Prime Minister Da- Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies, France and
vid Cameron has on several occasions made comments Britain. Obama has indirectly blamed Cameron and Sar-
against threats to British society posed by a growing kozy for the Libya misadventure.
immigrant community. Surprisingly, the Dalai Lama, Obama, however, allowed his Secretary of State at the
during a recent visit to Germany, told a German newspa- time, Hillary Clinton, to take a hands-on role in Libya,
per that “Germany cannot become an Arab land”. Pan- using the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and British
dering to growing anti-immigrant feelings in Germany, MI6 to distribute the large amounts of sophisticated
the Tibetan leader said that there were far too many arms Qaddafi had accumulated to rebels in Syria who
immigrants in Europe. In 2015, more than 300,000 later metamorphosed into groups such as the al-Nusra
refugees crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Thousands Front and the Daesh. The consequences were there for all
have died in the perilous crossings. The preferred desti- to see. Syria and Iraq were devastated, with a significant
nation for the refugees was Germany. section of the population having no other option but to
The U.K. is among the countries that have accepted flee or be killed. Many of them naturally looked for refuge
the least number of refugees. The few who have managed in Europe. But the U.K. and France, the two European
to get in have been deprived of their rights for welfare countries most involved in the wars in Libya and Syria,
benefits. The British newspapers, which revelled in sto-
ries about crimes committed by a few asylum-seekers,
portrayed the refugees streaming into Europe as a threat
to the British way of life and said that they would
“swamp” the country. One of the main talking points of
the pro-Brexit campaigners was that staying in the E.U.
would lead to an influx of immigrants from Turkey into
Britain. All the top Brexit campaigners, including Farage
and Boris Johnson, repeated this falsehood. The Remain
campaign was not far behind. Hillary Benn, sacked in the
end of June from Labour’s shadow cabinet, had argued
that the U.K. should remain in the E.U. to block any
possibilities of Turkey becoming an E.U. member.
Germany and France, two powerhouses in the E.U.,
have made it clear on several occasions that there was no
question of admitting the Muslim-majority country with
a population of over 75 million into the E.U., which is
essentially a club comprising Christian countries. Ad-
mitting Turkey into the E.U. would change the pop-
ulation demographic of the E.U. German Chancellor
Angela Merkel had held out the bait of visa-free travel for
Turkish citizens within the E.U. provided the govern-
ment in Ankara stemmed the refugee flow into Europe
from West Asia.
In fact, it was the refugee influx, triggered by wars
PETROS GIANNAKOURIS/AP

imposed by the West on Libya and Syria, that gave a fillip

to right-wing and racist parties all over mainland Europe

VOL U N T E E R S H E L P migrants and refugees on a dinghy

as they arrive at the shore of the north-eastern Greek
island of Lesbos on March 20, after crossing the Aegean
Sea from Turkey.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 26
were also the most unwelcoming to refugees. No lessons
have been apparently learnt. In the U.K., both the Leave
campaign and the Remain campaign had reiterated their
strong support for NATO, which is currently ratcheting
up tensions along Russia’s borders. If Ukraine once again
plunges into a war, the refugee problem will be further
accentuated.
The E.U. has been callous in its response to the
horrors unleashed by recent NATO wars, beginning with
the Balkans in the late 1990s and the invasion of Iraq. In
fact, the E.U. has been central to NATO’s military pro-
gramme. It is not a coincidence that the headquarters of
both the groupings are located in Brussels. The fear that
the NATO alliance may crumble along with the unravel-
ling of the E.U. is a cause for concern in Washington. This
was the main reason why Obama campaigned forcefully
for the U.K. staying in the E.U.
Britain has been the U.S.’ strongest ally and has
played a key role on its behalf in Europe. Britain has been
described as the U.S.’ “Trojan horse inside the E.U.”. It is
the only leading European country to blindly support all
the military adventures of the U.S. in West Asia and
elsewhere. France and Germany had criticised the Amer-
ican invasion of Iraq in 2003.
With Britain’s departure from the E.U., the foreign
policy of the E.U. could see some changes. Statements
from French and German Foreign Ministers indicate
27
that the two countries are not enamoured of the NATO
build-up along Russia’s borders. Many E.U. members
feel that NATO should have instead focussed on the
cross-Mediterranean threats to European security. The
migration crisis could have been blunted and a key factor
for Brexit thus neutralised.
It is the nexus between the U.S., NATO and the E.U.
that is responsible for the refugee crisis in Europe. NA-
TO’s wars in West Asia and Ukraine triggered the refugee
crisis, which has affected all E.U. countries. Twenty-two
E.U. members are members of the NATO military alli-
ance. Mainly because of the refugee crisis, many of the
left- and right-wing parties in Europe have become vocal
in their criticism of the close ties between the E.U. and
the U.S. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the Far Right
National Front party, who is currently leading in the polls
in France, wants the country to distance itself from NA-
TO. Left-wing politicians in Germany have criticised
NATO’s recent moves against Russia. The German For-
eign Minister, Frank Walter-Steinmeir, even accused
NATO of “warmongering” against Russia.
After Brexit, the U.K.’s Foreign Secretary, Phillip
Hammond, said the “Kremlin will be happy with the
results”. During the campaign, Cameron, resorting to
vicious scare tactics having racial overtones, had stated
that a “leave” vote would make it harder “to combat
Russian aggression” and would make both Russian Presi-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

FR E N C H G E N D A R MES stand guard during the eviction of
around 200 Syrian refugees from a camp site in Calais,
northern France, on September 21, 2015.
dent Vladimir Putin and Islamic State’s emir Abu Bakr
al-Baghdadi very happy.
Much of the vote for Brexit came from the British
middle class and the working class. The “Leave” vote has
been described by many left-wing commentators as a
vote “to withdraw” from the U.S. model of neoliberalism
which has been ruining Europe. George Soros, the billio-
naire investor who wants the E.U. to remain in place,
noted in his recent Project Syndicate article that “ten-
sions among member states have reached a breaking
point, not only over refugees, but also as a result of
exceptional strains between creditor and debtor states
within the eurozone”.
FRENCH EXIT
In many European countries, right-wing parties that are
growing fast in popularity, mainly because of the migrant
crisis, are demanding national referendums on E.U.
membership. Marine Le Pen, whose party is expected to
get more than 40 per cent of the votes in the first round of
national elections to be held next year, has been among
the most vocal supporters of a French exit from the E.U.
Right-wing leaders in Hungary, Poland and Slovakia are
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
AFP
openly hostile to immigrants. Hungarian President Vik-
tor Orban has announced that he will hold a referendum
on the refugee issue. Hungary is against the quota for
refugees that each E.U. country has to accept. The Slova-
kian government had initially stated that it would not
accept any Muslim refugees. Another openly anti-im-
migrant party, the Northern League in Italy, has been
calling for a referendum. In Greece, the Golden Dawn
Party, which is openly racist, has emerged as the coun-
try’s third biggest party.
Meanwhile, left-wing parties such as Podemos in
Spain that have come up in the wake of the E.U.’s auster-
ity-driven policies will also be more critical of the E.U.’s
policies. After the Brexit vote, Spain has renewed its
demand for the return of Gibraltar, which is situated on
the Spanish mainland. The small enclave has been under
British occupation since the 18th century. The U.K. could
also lose E.U. support for its continued occupation of the
Malvinas (Falklands). Britain and Argentina had fought
a war over the island in the 1980s. Spain, however, could
meet the fate that many have predicted for the U.K. If a
centre-left coalition comes to power in Madrid, it will in
all probability allow referendums on independence to be
held in Catalonia and the Basque country. The anti-
establishment Five Star Movement, which has a good
chance of coming to power in Italy when elections are
held next year, is also a Eurosceptical party. 첸
28

COVER STORY
Grim future
The decision to leave the E.U. holds few economic advantages for Britain
and has only served to create political turmoil in the country. B Y VIJAY PRASHAD
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
travelled to London prior to the Brexit referendum to
lend support to the “Remain” campaign. He warned
Britain that a vote to leave the European Union (E.U.)
would entail great economic hardship; Britain would go
to the “back of the queue” in trade agreements and would
suffer as a consequence, he said. Talk of a United King-
dom-United States trade agreement to compensate for
any losses from Europe was not to be given fuel.
“I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down
the line there might be a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement, but
it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus
is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to
29
U. S . P R E S I D E N T
B AR A C K OB AM A and
German Chancellor
Angela Merkel inspect a
military guard of honour
in Hanover on April 24,
TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP
when they met for
bilateral talks.
get a trade agreement done,” he said. What Obama has in
mind is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Part-
nership (TTIP), a companion of the Transpacific Part-
nership, both of which are mega trade deals that would
cement flagging U.S. power on both flanks of Eurasia.
The TTIP, Obama’s flagship European policy, will
end up liberalising about 30 per cent of world trade. Part
of the impetus for this deal is to secure agreements within
the West, which it has a hard time pushing through the
World Trade Organisation (WTO). China’s economic
growth continues to rattle Western powers, with the U.S.
hoping that the TTIP and the Transpacific Partnership
will put it in a favourable position vis-a-vis the Chinese
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
and to a lesser extent the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa) nations. It is clear that for
the White House the priority is the TTIP as well as the
expansion and strengthening of the North Atlantic Trea-
ty Organisation (NATO) military alliance. These are the
main aspects of U.S. investment in Europe. Britain’s
tantrum around the E.U. has served only to complicate
what should have been a simple consolidation of Atlantic
power.
Obama had warned Britain
that a vote to leave the
European Union would entail
great economic hardship.
Britain’s relationship with the U.S. is more emotional
than economic. These two “cousins” do not have as robust
an economic link as might be imagined. Britain is not
even in the top five of the U.S.’ trading partners: it has
stood seventh for three years now, behind China, Canada,
Mexico, Japan, Germany and South Korea. The E.U. as a
whole does five times as much trade with the U.S. as
Britain. There is no question that when it comes to trade,
the E.U. is far more important to the U.S. than Britain.
Exports to the U.K. from the U.S. amount to just over
13 per cent of U.S. economic output, which is not negli-
gible. However, for the U.K., the U.S. is essential as its
exports to the latter amount to about 30 per cent of its
output. This imbalance suggests that the U.K. will seek
some kind of arrangement with the U.S. if and when it
goes ahead with its Brexit plans.
MOOD ‘HORRID’
A U.S.-based banking executive who works for one of the
major banks said that the mood in the offices in London
and in New York was “horrid”. There is a grim prognosis
for the future of London as the centre of the trade in
currencies (including the euro). Already, there have been
rumours that major U.S. banks in London will transfer
their currency desks to Frankfurt or even Paris. This
might lead to the loss of tens of thousands of jobs from the
banking sector.
Since Brexit may not actually happen for two to three
years, there is no precipitate reason to shift the oper-
ations now. The denials came quickly so as to settle a
turbulent market. Sterling lost a great deal of its value,
falling to 1985 levels. Conversations about shifts in ad-
dress did nothing to bring stability to the markets. That is
the reason why bankers hastily avoided such talk. It does
not mean that it will not happen.
“They shot themselves in the foot,” said the banker,
when asked about what he thought of the Brexit vote.
“They thought it would feel good, but it won’t.”
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
But, in the end, he did not seem particularly unhappy
about the outcome. Whether he has to fly from New York
to Paris or to London is irrelevant. Money is there to be
made, loyalties of language are irrelevant. London can-
not count on the American banks to stand with it. The
TTIP and the currency markets make the E.U. a far better
prospect than Britain.
An analyst from the research department of Goldman
Sachs said that he was unsure if British voters had been
sufficiently apprised of how Brexit would fail to kick-start
manufacturing in Britain. One of the typical thoughts is
that devaluation of a currency would allow for exports to
be cheaper, therefore enabling the country to develop its
industrial base to take advantage of lower prices.
However, given the integration of the world economy
through the “global commodity chain”, industrial con-
cerns must also import large amounts of raw materials
and partly finished goods for their production. This
means that a devalued currency will make these materi-
als more expensive and raise the prices of the goods made
for exports. When sterling fell in the 2000s as a result of
the global credit crunch, it had almost no impact on
manufacturing in Britain. “There will be little improve-
ment of industrial production with the enforced deval-
uation. I don’t think the pro-Brexit people had thought
enough about the global commodity chain. Their eco-
nomics is out of date,” the analyst said.
A few days after the Brexit vote, U.S. Republican
presidential candidate Donald Trump arrived in Scot-
land. He congratulated the U.K. on its vote to leave the
E.U. Trump is sympathetic to the bilious rhetoric against
immigrants that marked a great deal of the pro-Brexit
campaigning. The detritus of neoliberal economic policy,
namely the deindustrialisation of middle England, found
currency in the debate around immigration. Immigrants
became the scapegoat for unemployment, against all
evidence. This is a politics that appeals to Trump. How-
ever, he made these comments in Scotland, which voted
overwhelmingly to remain in the E.U. Trump was pillo-
ried on Twitter and in the Scottish media. The ruling
Scottish National Party has committed itself to a multi-
cultural Scotland, with an eye on its own membership in
Europe. Trump’s brand of anti-immigrant politics plays
poorly among the Scottish nationalists, although it is
echoed south of the Hadrian’s Wall.
With the Brexit vote now in, Obama and Republican
leader Paul Ryan have both suggested the need for a
special dispensation for the U.K. Ryan wants the U.S.
and the U.K. to frame a new trade deal.
Obama is more circumspect; the TTIP is the priority.
He has urged Britain to follow Norway and become a
“non-member state” of the E.U. If this happens, “the
average person is not going to notice a big change”,
Obama said.
In other words, as far as economic and military policy
go, there is going to be no change. What the Brexit vote
has done, rather, is to create political turmoil within
Britain and send a sharply discordant message to im-
migrants in the old colonial metropole. 첸
30
 COVER STORY

Short-term pain
Notwithstanding the painful restructuring of ties with Europe, in
the short run China is likely to benefit from the extra elbow room for
strategic manoeuvre that it is likely to acquire on the global stage
in the aftermath of Brexit. B Y ATUL ANEJA IN B E IJIN G

IT MAY APPEAR TO BE BAD NEWS AT FIRST,

but after the storm stirred by Brexit weakens and some
calm is restored, China may look differently at the imme-
diate pain that it is expected to suffer on account of
Britain’s unexpected divorce from the European Union
(E.U.). In fact, China may soon be inclined to conclude
that the seismic event that is redefining Europe, if not the
globe, could give way to solid opportunities, which Beij-
ing could avail itself of and emerge stronger in the Eur-
asian backyard.
That, of course, is possible if the pragmatic Chinese
quickly absorb the Brexit shock, which is forcing Beijing
to shed its London-centred approach for weaving greater
influence in Europe.
But what are the immediate costs that China will have
to bear on account of the astonishing Brexit vote?
At the outset, it is possible that the hefty Chinese
investment in the United Kingdom could fall under some
risk, though much would depend on the outcome of the
negotiations that London would undertake with the E.U.
That process is likely to take a couple of years, despite
signals from Brussels that it is in a hurry to knife out
Britain from the E.U.
According to some estimates, Chinese companies
have invested close to $16.6 billion in a 15-year period
starting from 2000. They have acquired high visibility by
REUTERS

holding stakes in some of the defining British commer-

cial enterprises, including the London Taxi Company,
Heathrow Airport and Manchester Airport. Top Chinese
THE P R OD UC TI ON LI N E at the London Taxi
hi-tech and Internet firms such as Huawei and Tencent
Company in Coventry, central England. The company
Holdings have set up research and development centres
restarted production in 2013 after the business was
there.
saved by the Chinese carmaker Geely.
Second, China’s symbolically significant and image-
changing investments such as the Hinkley Point nuclear
projects could now enter the grey zone. Even before other parts of the globe by showcasing its atomic heft in
Brexit, the project’s escalating costs was persuading lead the heart of Europe will suffer a severe setback.
developer Électricité de France to pull out from the Third, with Britain out of the E.U., China’s access to
project. If this flagship enterprise fails to materialise, the markets of continental Europe could be difficult.
China’s plans to expand its nuclear energy footprint in Already fears are being expressed that the E.U. minus

31 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

Britain could turn more protectionist, undermining
trade with China. Consequently, Chinese companies that
have set up shop in the U.K. may fail to get tariff-free
access to the wider European market.
But in the long run, there are opportunities to consid-
er, which if used may far outweigh the current clutch of
difficulties that China is encountering on account of its
fundamental and unexpected readjustment with Europe.
For instance, it has become amply clear that “class”
played a major role in bolstering the “leave” camp. This is
an inference which, once internalised, could trigger new
thinking, opening new doors of opportunities for China
in Britain as well as in other parts of the West.
The unequal distribution of the fruits of globalisation
has had palpable social consequences in large parts of
Britain. While it has created a wealthy globe-trotting
five-star elite that routinely frequents London, New
York, Singapore and Dubai, it has also created a new
impoverished underclass.
In an insightful article tantalisingly titled “From
Brexit to Trump?”, Jonathan Freedland broadly profiles
people—the so-called “losers” of globalisation—who vot-
ed in droves to force a Brexit on the E.U. “Leavers were to
be found—though not exclusively—among those who are
poor, either out of work or in what are universally derided
as ‘crap jobs’: answering the phones in call-centres or
stacking shelves in warehouses, on insecure ‘zero-hours’
contracts without benefits. They live in towns, rather
than more cosmopolitan cities, often in the shadow of
shuttered factories or closed mines, in places that are
rundown, if not outright derelict. This is the England that
has been left behind, a match for those parts of the
American rust-belt that have rallied to [Donald]
Trump.”
Following its accession to the World Trade Orga-
nisation (WTO) in 2001, many of the manufacturing jobs
in a variety of sectors moved to China, the so-called
workshop of the world.
But a new moment has arisen where China can be-
come the locomotive of Britain’s reindustrialisation.
With wages at home rising, and conventional exports
plummeting, China has a great chance of shedding some
of its “overcapacity” to retrigger industrialisation in the
U.K.’s rust belt and beyond.
CHINESE INVESTMENT OVERSEAS
Already the Chinese have offered a glimpse of what can
be done to rekindle first rate manufacturing in the Eur-
asian supercontinent under the “Belt-and-Road” connec-
tivity template. In an article in Ippreview.com, titled
“How concerned should China be about Brexit?”, the
author Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim points to recent examples
of China’s success in planting heavy industry abroad. For
instance, in Malaysia, China has invested around $3
billion in a special economic zone that has been fused
with an industrial park in Qinzhou, China.
The Great Stone Industrial Park in Belarus is another
shining example of successful Chinese investment over-
seas. Indeed, China has set up a string of factories in
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
South Carolina in the United States. In the post-Brexit
scenario, “A concerted effort by China to establish indus-
trial parks and to invest in heavy industry in the U.K.,
Europe, and the U.S. could meet the popular demand in
the West for the return of manufacturing jobs, generate
popular goodwill for China, and help reduce industrial
overcapacity in the Chinese economy,” observes Alvin
Cheng-Hin Lim.
There are also major benefits to be realised in the
geostrategic arena. For instance, before Brexit, France
proposed sending E.U. naval patrols to defend “freedom
of navigation” in the South China Sea. But with the
post-Brexit mood in Europe turning inwards, coupled
with the possible ascendancy of nationalist parties, which
in any case have been calling for the E.U.’s de facto
demise, these grandiose schemes are likely to go up in
smoke.
Also what happens to the North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganisation (NATO), which has been twinned with the
distressed E.U.? Here Russia, China’s top ally, is expected
to gain big time. Any dissonance within the architecture
of NATO, which was recently threatening to move ever-
closer to the Russian borders, would bolster Moscow and
its Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) project. So long as
the West remains a common threat—in China’s case the
threat is posed in the Asia-Pacific by U.S.’ “pivot to
Asia”—Beijing and Moscow are likely to fuse the EEU
and President Xi Jinping’s Belt-and-Road plan along the
Eurasian economic corridor.
Even with the West posing less of a danger in the
future after Brexit, the Eurasian connectivity undertak-
ing under the Belt-and-Road plan is important as a
building block for transitioning China’s economy. The
initiative promises a new channel for Chinese exports of
its excess manufacturing capacity into industrial parks,
cyber cities, railways and highways along what has also
been called the New Silk Road.
Some commentators are of the view that following
Brexit, Germany is likely to emerge as a major player in
the Eurasian Great Game. With Britain out of the pic-
ture, Germany will share the main burden of sustaining
the E.U. The extra responsibility is likely to push Germa-
ny to seek Chinese support, especially for infrastructure
projects in Eastern and Central Europe. Consequently,
Brexit can provide a powerful impulse to Germany and
its eastern neighbourhood to cooperate with China along
the Belt and Road.
Brexit, therefore, has the potential of breaching the
Atlantic Alliance, on account of Europe’s increasing
reliance on Asia, especially China, to enter a new cycle
of revival. In turn, with Eurasia as the core, and the
influence of the U.S. waning, the chance of the emer-
gence of a multipolar world—which has been for long
China’s geostrategic dream—is brighter than ever be-
fore. Notwithstanding the painful restructuring of ties
with Europe, in the short run China is likely to benefit
from the extra elbow room for strategic manoeuvre
that it is likely to acquire on the global stage in the
aftermath of Brexit. 첸
32
 COVER STORY

Failed gamble
Brexit is a perfect case study of how referendums offer binary choices
and reflect the people’s frustrations, without factoring in uncertainties
and complications. B Y SHIV MUKHERJEE

CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS

WOR K E R S C O UN T I N G V O T ES after polling stations closed, in Glasgow, Scotland, on June 23.

“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.”
—Yeats.
IT BEGAN AS DAVID CAMERON’S PLAN TO
quell factionalism within his party, where groups have
been at loggerheads for decades over “Project Europe”, by
extracting some concessions from the European Union
(E.U.) in early February such as a cap on welfare to
immigrants and flexibility on the European operations of
London’s financial institutions and then calling a nation-
al referendum to vote “aye” or “nay” on staying within the
E.U. The outcome was supposed to be the proverbial
“sure thing”, silencing the critics, but the gamble failed to
the surprise of virtually the whole world. Britain voted to
leave, 52 per cent to 48 per cent.
Perhaps Cameron should have remembered the
words of Robert Burns: The best-laid plans of mice and
men, go oft awry. And the ghost of the great Scottish poet
must be smiling as a furious Scotland, which voted 68 per
cent to “remain”, threatens to negotiate its own deal with
the E.U., if necessary by leaving the United Kingdom,
through another referendum for an independent
Scotland.
This was the U.K.’s second referendum on Europe,
the first in 1975 concerning the European Common Mar-
ket (ECM). Prime Minister Harold Wilson called for a

33 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

referendum for exactly the same reason as Cameron. The
U.K. voted to stay in, with a majority vote of 67 per cent.
Interestingly, immigration played a part in that referen-
dum too, but not immigration into the U.K., at that time
the “sick man of Europe”, but emigration from the U.K. to
Europe.
As the expansion took place from the ECM (6) to the
European Economic Community (9) to the E.U. (28), the
U.K. was always an a la carte member—part of the single
market but out of the eurozone as well as the Schengen
regime, which guarantees visa-free travel within the E.U.
I do not want to add to the ocean of analysis that has
inundated the world on what is certainly one of the
seminal events of the post-War world. However, beyond
the obvious economic, political and social implications of
the vote for the U.K., Europe, and indeed the world, the
campaigns and the result throw up much wider and
long-term issues such as referendums as a tool of express-
ing the “general will” of the people; populism versus
liberalism; and facts versus perception. Brexit offers an
illuminating and irresistible opportunity to focus on
these existential issues.
Referendums have existed in one form or the other
ever since there have been the rulers and the ruled.
The arguments in favour are the following: If democ-
racy is our goal, then important issues affecting them
should best be voted on by the people as a whole, or at
least all who are eligible to vote. This is direct democracy,
unsullied by vested interests, party politics with its back-
room deals and horse-trading. It lets the voters decide on
controversial issues where the elected representatives are
unable or unwilling to take a call, or when they are stuck
procedurally. It minimises the nasty role of lobbyists and
money power. It addresses the frustrations of the people
and produces a clear result. It counters voter apathy and
increases their awareness of the issues that confront
them. Significantly, no referendum has ever been
rejected.
Against, we have the following:
First, it undermines the role of the elected repre-
sentatives. Logistics apart, the parliamentary system,
with people being ruled by representatives they elect for a
term, allows citizens to dismiss governments after their
term if they are dissatisfied. It is not only far more
practical but includes, most importantly, the checks and
balances that are an intrinsic part of political parties in an
elected parliament. The people can vote in a referendum
with no real stake in the outcome. You cannot elect a new
“people” if the outcome is a mess but you can vote out a
governing party and replace it with a new one. And
because parties and their elected members want, above
all, to stay in power, their approach would be far less
casual than the man on the street.
Second, voters are usually not well informed about
issues, especially complex ones. The assertion that a ref-
erendum is “purer” because it comes straight from the
people and is without contamination by lobbyists and
vested interests is incorrect; there is just as much politics
in a referendum, and more, if you add the all-pervasive
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
social media. Bias of various kinds is the rule, not the
exception.
Third, a referendum reflects the people’s present
frustrations and priorities; the resulting uncertainties
and complications are almost never a factor.
Fourth, a referendum always gives the people a stark,
binary choice: pick “yes” or “no”. In a vast majority of
issues, the choice is hardly that simple.
Finally, no matter how bizarre the outcome, it is
irreversible. Even if rejection is legally possible, the near-
mystic virtue of the general will is such that it is impos-
sible to contest.
Brexit is a perfect case study. The argument in favour
does not hold water. Cameron cynically gambled his
country’s future against his unopposed leadership of his
party, and lost. The country pays the cost. Parliament was
not facing a logjam; it was his party that was deeply
divided. Lobbying and vested interests were very much in
evidence. The result was clear, as it has to be in an
either-or case but has muddied the future. News of sec-
ond thoughts among those who voted “Leave” started
appearing within hours of the result.
The arguments against seem valid. It did undermine
Parliament where an overwhelming majority was in fa-
vour of remaining in the E.U. The voters were ill-in-
formed and unable to distinguish facts from lies and
propaganda and voted their prejudices. They had no
knowledge of the consequences. And the harm they did,
and harm it was, is irreversible.
Just like the death sentence, the referendum should
not be banned but used in the “rarest of rare” cases; for
the rest, in a democracy, it is better to stick to the elected
legislature and a parliamentary system subject to judicial
review. Parliament, with all its problems, is a safer bet
than an angry, emotion-driven populace.
POPULISM VS LIBERALISM
As the Dutch political scientist Cas Mudde wrote in 2015,
“populism” is an ideology that considers society to be
ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antag-
onistic groups: “the pure people” and the “corrupt elite”.
Populists reject opposition, or the existence of differing
views in society. The people’s voice is supreme, and thus
any dissent belongs to the corrupt elite. For the populists,
liberals are elitists—a front for special interests. The call
is for “returning power to the people”, or, in the case of
Brexit, “we want our country back”.
While liberalism sounds more attractive, with its re-
spect for diversity and civil liberties, there is some truth
in populist accusations that procedures are devised by
liberals to create a political elite that distances itself from
issues that agitate people and centralises power. It is also
true that populist campaigns force discussions on issues
that are important to the people but which the elite want
to gloss over.
Populism has more energy, it shouts its messages
louder. In a campaign, it is the blunt instrument. It
manages almost always to set the agenda. In Brexit, the
populists responded to the fears of the citizenry on the
34

AT THE PO L L O K S H I ELD S Primary School polling station in Glasgow on June 23.
jobs-immigration nexus and made it the central issue,
and the genuine economic arguments of the liberals
failed to turn the tide.
The lesson from this affair is that the masses, even in
highly educated and developed societies, respond to pop-
ulist messages. To counter populism is going to be a very
long haul.
FACTS AND PERCEPTION
In most political campaigns, the first casualty is the truth.
Brexit proved this incontrovertibly. Here are just a few
examples of the lies the voters were subjected to un-
relentingly: The U.K. pays 350 million pounds a week to
the E.U. (It pays less than half this amount and also gets a
rebate. The many billions it gets through tariff-free trade
with a single market is ignored, and this is now coming
back to haunt the country.)
The U.K. is the highest, or among the three highest,
contributors to the E.U. budget. (It is the fourth, after
Germany, France and Italy.)
Some 60 per cent of laws in the U.K. are passed by the
E.U., by the European Commission, the super bureau-
crats of Brussels. (The Commission cannot make laws. It
can only propose them, apart from proposals made by
member states. Laws are debated and passed by the
European Council, where every member country has a
vote, and endorsed by the European Parliament, which
has elected members from every member state. Research
shows that over a period of time, the U.K. supported 95
35
JEFF J MITCHELL/GETTY IMAGES
per cent of proposed laws, abstained on 3 per cent and
opposed 2 per cent.)
People think 15 per cent of the population are im-
migrants, or 10.5 million. Those for “Leave” said 20 per
cent, those who wanted to “Remain” said 10 per cent.
(The correct figure is 3.5 million, or 5 per cent.)
The fat cats in the E.U. spend 27 million pounds on
administration. (The correct figure is six million
pounds.)
All this in an educated, rich and developed society.
The truth may make you free, but in election campaigns
worldwide, Brexit being no exception, it may not win you
the majority vote.
In the U.K., populism, with its single-minded focus
on immigration, with the subtexts of job losses and post-
ers of swarms of Poles, blacks and West Asian refugees
entering Britain, putting intolerable pressure on the wel-
fare state’s services and opening the door to terrorists,
prevailed over the largely economic arguments of those
for “Remain”.
Xenophobia, bigotry, racism and scapegoating the
E.U. through a tissue of lies and scaremongering, with a
sugar-coating of nostalgia for a time when the sun never
set on the British empire, narrowly won the day. David
Cameron asked for it, putting party interests first in a
gamble, and he got it. 첸
Shiv Mukherjee is a former High Commissioner
to the United Kingdom.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 JUDICIARY

Divided house
Judges in Telangana resort to the unprecedented act of public
protest as they feel they have been short-changed by the
process of allocation of judicial officers to the two States after
the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. B Y K U N A L S H A N K A R

ON June 13, dramatic scenes
were witnessed outside the Chief
Justice’s chambers within the pre-
cincts of the High Court in Hydera-
bad. Lawyers, coming together
under the aegis of the Telangana Ad-
vocates Joint Action Committee
(TAJAC), openly questioned the
manner in which the High Court
sought to distribute lower judicial
service officers between Telangana
and Andhra Pradesh. They even cast
aspersions on the integrity of the
Acting Chief Justice, Dilip Babasa-
heb Bhosale.
The cause for this heartburning
is a May 3 “provisional allocation” list
of lower judicial officers—junior and
senior judges and district judges
—between the two newly formed
States. Telangana judicial officers
say the High Court has violated its
own guidelines in the division proc-
ess in order to accommodate the
preferences of Andhra Pradesh offi-
cers, who have overwhelmingly opt-
ed to be placed in Telangana in view
of better chances for promotion.
It all began with a circular issued
by the High Court on January 12
seeking judicial officers to send in
their choice of where they would like
to be placed. The circular, apart from
giving a deadline, urged confiden-
tiality.
On February 26, however, the
Registrar General issued another cir-
cular under the title “Guidelines for
exercising option by the judicial offi-
cers for bifurcation of the Subordi-
nate Judiciary”. This circular spelt
out a “procedure for allocation”, giv-
ing seniority and nativity as the main
K.V.S. GIRI
J U S T I C E D I LI P B AB AS AHE B B HOS A LE , Acting Chief Justice of the
Hyderabad High Court.
criteria for placements. It stated that
officers who chose to work in their
native State as declared while enter-
ing service would be accommodated
first. And those who were non-native
would be accommodated “subject to
availability of vacancies”. A “Revised
Option Form” was enclosed with this
circular as the “last chance” to state
one’s preference. Excess officers
from either State would be appoint-
ed based on vacancies “at the dis-
cretion of the Chief Justice”.
Judicial officers under the re-
cently formed Telangana Judges’ As-
sociation (TJA) saw a bias in the
manner in which these preferences
were sought and in the final list re-
leased on May 3. None of the judicial
officers Frontline spoke to wished to
be identified for fear of reprisals and
as judges are expected to maintain a
distance from the media.
United Andhra Pradesh had
about 900 judicial officers and the
Supreme Court, in an order dated
December 10, 2015, wanted them di-
vided in the 60:40 ratio between
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.
This was preceded by a protracted
legal battle in the Supreme Court
over the efficacy of dividing the lower
judiciary while the High Court re-
mained common for the two States.
The 2014 Andhra Pradesh Reorga-
M EM B ERS of the TAJAC protesting at
the High Court on March 11.
37
NAGARA GOPAL
nisation Act stipulates a common
High Court for the two States until
the constitution of a new High Court
for the residuary Andhra Pradesh
State. The case, filed by a now-retired
Metropolitan Sessions Judge from
Hyderabad in May 2014, even before
the State’s reorganisation could take
effect on June 2, had halted the And-
hra Pradesh High Court’s decision to
divide the lower judiciary.
PROTEST MARCH
Things have come to such a pass now
that members of the TJA, which
claims a membership of about 200,
marched to the Raj Bhavan on June
26 seeking Governor E.S.L. Nara-
simhan’s intervention in the matter.
“We did not hold placards, nor did
we shout any slogans. It was a silent
march to the Governor, as he is the
final appointing authority for the
subordinate judiciary,” a member of
the TJA said. The protest, although
only symbolic, sent shock waves
throughout the judicial system. The
next day, Chief Justice Bhosale sus-
pended the president and the secre-
tary of the association. Another nine
judges were suspended the next day.
The Constitution vests adminis-
trative authority almost solely with
the High Court for the State under its
jurisdiction but allows consultative
roles for the government and the
Governor. Several leading lawyers
Frontline spoke to said that this was
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

P R OT E S T I N G A D V O C A T ES who were detained at the Police Training Centre
in Hyderabad on June 29.
indeed a rare, if not an unpreceden-
ted, act of rebellion by the judicial
officers.
DISPROPORTIONATE
REPRESENTATION
A petition submitted by the TJA to
the Chief Justice claimed: “As
against the Telangana State District
Judge cadre strength of 94, 95 offi-
cers have been allocated. And out of
the 95 officers allocated to Telanga-
na, 46 are natives of Andhra Pra-
desh. As against 140 District Judge
cadre posts in Andhra Pradesh, only
110 officers have been allocated,
leaving 30 vacancies. From this it is
clear that even though there are 30
vacancies of District Judge posts in
Andhra Pradesh, 46 officers from
Andhra Pradesh are allocated to Te-
langana.” It is claimed that this pat-
tern is repeated for the positions of
junior and senior civil judges as well.
“Thus, in all, 134 judicial officers of
various cadres belonging to Andhra
Pradesh are allocated to Telangana,
leaving 100 vacancies in Andhra Pra-
desh,” claimed the petition.
Even officers who are natives of
Andhra Pradesh acknowledge the
overwhelming presence of cadre
from their region in the lower judi-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
G. RAMAKRISHNA
ciary in Telangana. A senior officer
posted in Hyderabad said: “That is
not because of reservation, but be-
cause of merit. There is an exam for
entry into the judicial service. Any-
body from any State can apply. So,
when you can have someone from
Karnataka or Tamil Nadu working
here, then why not Andhra?”
Indeed, the examination is open
to everyone, but is administered by
the High Court in the areas under its
jurisdiction as and when vacancies
arise. The examinations are usually
conducted under service rules de-
signed by each State, in this case the
Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Ser-
vice Rules of 2007. Entry is only
through two positions: Junior Civil
Judge and District Judge. Law grad-
uates straight out of college are eligi-
ble to take the Junior Civil Judge
examination. An earlier rule which
stipulated a minimum of three years
of practice before one could take the
examination was done away with in
2007. Lawyers need seven years of
practice to be eligible to take the ex-
amination for District Judges. Appli-
cants are aware that arguments in
the courts and even case files can be
in the local language. This restricts
applicants to those who are compe-
38
tent in one or more of the regional
languages. It is only in the High
Courts and the Supreme Court that
all case files and arguments have to
be in English.
At present, the Hyderabad High
Court has only 25 sitting judges,
while the sanctioned strength is 61.
Eighteen of them are from Andhra
Pradesh and three are from Telanga-
na. The remaining four, including
the Chief Justice, are from other
States.
‘ARBITRARY’ ALLOCATION
Telangana lawyers and judicial offi-
cers cite several reasons for the “ar-
bitrariness” in the allocation process.
Gandra Mohan Rao, president of the
Telangana High Court Advocates’
Association which spearheads the
lawyers’ protests, claimed that a dif-
ference of opinion “between judges
of the five-member advisory commit-
tee headed by the Chief Justice, with
two members each from Andhra and
Telangana”, constituted to deal with
the division was one of the reasons.
He said a vertical split between the
four judges in choosing nativity over
an officer’s preference of placement
and the Chief Justice’s reluctance to
cast his vote in the matter led to the
question being referred to the Full
Court, with all the 25 judges taking
part in the process. According to Mo-
han Rao, this led to the decision to
consider an officer’s preference of
placement as the criterion as Andhra
judges were in an overwhelming
majority.
Telangana officers also point to
the practice of choosing one-third of
the judges from the judicial services
and two-thirds from the Bar for ap-
pointment as High Court judges as
another factor for so many judges
from the Andhra cadre opting for
Telangana. The self-appointment
process, as laid down by the 1998
Three Judges Case which led to the
setting up of collegiums in all the
High Courts and the Supreme Court
by convention, fills two-thirds of the
vacancies with lawyers practising at
the courts concerned and one-third
from the officers of the lower judi-
ciary under their jurisdiction. A
60:40 division of the 61 judges of the
Hyderabad High Court means that tervention, and so has Telangana’s was Ramesh S. Garg, who was ap-
36 would be allotted for Andhra and Chief Minister. pointed Acting Chief Justice. I ap-
24 for Telangana. This leaves Telan- These cracks have only widened peared before him,” said Anand
gana with eight judges to be filled over the past two years. Lawyers and Mohan Mathur, who was Madhya
from the subordinate judiciary (one- academics who actively participated Pradesh’s Advocate General between
third of its allotted 24), of which only in the Telangana Statehood agitation 1980 and 1989. Mathur said a new
one is currently serving. Positions of lent a degree of legitimacy to the de- High Court building was built seven
judges lying vacant across India’s mand between 2009 and 2013. But years later, following A.K. Patta-
High Courts have not been filled af- now they feel short-changed as the naik’s proposal after he became the
ter the Supreme Court invalidated bifurcation of the judiciary and pos- Chief Justice in 2005.
the 2015 National Judicial Appoint- sible job opportunities and promo- Judicial officers in Uttar Pradesh
ments Commission Act, which was tions for them have not been and Bihar mirrored the apprehen-
meant to replace the collegium adequately addressed by the Andhra sions of their counterparts in Mad-
system. Pradesh Reorganisation Act. But the hya Pradesh. They perceived
A senior Sessions Judge in Hydera- State government seems proactive, transfers to the new States as dead-
bad said a way out could be to ap- with Telangana Chief Minister Kal- end jobs. “Everybody thought of a
point more Telangana judges to the vakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao even posting at Nainital [where Uttarak-
High Court directly from the Bar, creating a Rs.100 crore “Welfare hand’s High Court is located] as a
leaving the lower judi- Fund” for lawyers punishment posting. It was much
cial vacancies to those and offering a sepa- later that they realised the opportu-
from Andhra Pradesh. rate building to nities for promotions after being ab-
“This would protect at house the Andhra sorbed into a new State,” said
least the seniority in Pradesh High Court Akhilesh Kalra, who practises at the
service,” he said. But in Hyderabad while Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad
senior advocate L. the new one gets High Court. Kalra said: “Those who
Ravichander, who built at Amaravati. would have retired here as Addition-
practises at the Hyd- Many in the legal al District Judges, who would have
erabad High Court fraternity point to never even thought that they would
KUNAL SHANKAR

and who has thrown the peculiar situa- become District Judges, went on to
his weight behind the tion of Andhra Pra- become Supreme Court judges.” Kal-
Telangana officers, desh’s bifurcation as ra feels that it is this hindsight gained
says: “One of the main one of the causes. from earlier bifurcations that has led
reasons for the de- The formation of to such a bitter fight between judicial
mand for separate GA N D RA M O H A N RA O , three new States in officers in Andhra Pradesh and
Statehood was more president of the Telangana 2000 (Chhattisgarh Telangana.
jobs for people from High Court Advocates’ from Madhya Pra-
here. Therefore, why Association. desh, Jharkhand CONTINUING STALEMATE
not fill vacancies in from Bihar, and Ut- Back in Hyderabad the stalemate
Telangana with people from here? tarakhand from Uttar Pradesh) did continues. Telangana judicial offi-
The excess Andhra officers could be not witness such acrimony in the di- cers are demanding that the High
accommodated in their State with vision of their bureaucracy or judi- Court rescind the provisional alloca-
the creation of more posts. After all, ciary. That could be because the tion and recast it, keeping nativity as
the backlog of cases is massive and capital remained with the residuary the main criterion for placement.
India has one of the lowest litigant to State. In the case of Jharkhand, a The allocations have not come into
judicial officers ratios. Such appoint- Ranchi Bench of the Patna High force.
ments could at least address this Court was already functioning and it The five-member committee
anomaly in the interim.” was converted into the new State’s headed by the Chief Justice is expect-
High Court. ed to address the grievances of offi-
LAWYERS’ BOYCOTT There is also the fact that in the cers regarding their allocations.
All this has paralysed the functioning case of earlier divisions, the judiciary Meanwhile, Andhra judicial officers
of the judiciary in Telangana’s 10 dis- was bifurcated along with other ser- and lawyers demand that Chief Min-
tricts for more than a month, with vices all at once. Take, for instance, ister N. Chandrababu Naidu expe-
lawyers boycotting court proceed- the case of Chhattisgarh, which was dite the establishment of the High
ings. TJA members have decided to born on November 1, 2000. Its High Court. When Naidu has been able to
go on “mass leave” on June 28 and Court at Bilaspur began functioning build a temporary secretariat for the
29, exposing fissures within the judi- on the very same day out of a govern- government, building an interim ac-
ciary. TAJAC has even petitioned the ment high school. “The only judge commodation for the High Court,
Union Law Minister, D.V. Sadanan- from the Madhya Pradesh High they feel, should not be too
da Gowda, seeking the Centre’s in- Court who was willing to relocate difficult. 첸

39 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

E. LAKSHMI NARAYANAN

SPOTLIGHT

WE PAY, YOU VOTE

Over the years, Tamil Nadu’s politicians have refined the method
of bribing voters. A close scrutiny of the May 2016 Assembly election
by Frontline finds that the two major Dravidian parties distribute
money in an organised, business-like fashion and in an atmosphere
of mutual trust. B Y R . K . R A D H A K R I S H N A N

IF you are a voter in Tamil Nadu, your vote has a
price, depending on your constituency and the ruthless-
ness of the electoral battle. The price ranged from Rs.100
to Rs.1,500 in the 2016 Legislative Assembly election
held on May 16.
An investigation reveals that while most of the six
constituencies of Kanyakumari district remained by and
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
large free from the cash-for-vote menace, almost all the
other 228 constituencies in the State witnessed large-
scale, organised distribution of cash to voters.
Gone are the days of targeted vote buying, a phenom-
enon that goes back to the 1962 Legislative Assembly
election in which C.N. Annadurai was defeated. Aware
that money was being distributed to ensure his defeat,
40
 A. MURALITHARAN
C A SH T O T A L L I N G R S . 2 . 8 5 C RO RE seized by the Srirangam Tahsildar in Tiruchi on March 11. (Left) Unaccounted cash
worth Rs.13.77 lakh seized by election officials from a motorist near Mamangam in Salem on March 28.

the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) founder-
leader, who went on to become Chief Minister five years
later, even made it a point to speak about it and appealed
to people not to take money.
Later on, certain sections of voters were targeted for
vote buying. Dalit colonies, minority groups, labourers
and party cadre were given cash for their votes just ahead
of the voting day. This continued until 2009, when the
DMK, enthused by the cash-for-votes experiment in Kar-
nataka in 2007, came up with the “Tirumangalam for-
mula”. Money was allegedly distributed across the
constituency in Madurai district which had a byelection
that year, in the first recorded case of mass voter bribing.
The age of mass cash distribution had arrived in Tamil
Nadu.
A total of 3,776 candidates, including 975 from recog-
nised national and State political parties, were in the fray
for the 234 seats this time. There were 66,007 polling
stations. The State had single-day polling on May 16, and
the votes were counted on May 19. The findings of three
independent analysts who were closely following the
election across the State for different reasons and had set
up teams at district headquarters and other places, in-
terviews with voters and representatives of all political
parties, and first information reports (FIRs) filed by the
police and officials of the Election Commission (E.C.)
prove that large-scale money distribution took place be-
fore the election.
The investigation, which began in January, found
that money or gifts were distributed to voters by prospec-
tive candidates. The E.C. had not begun monitoring the
election at that stage as the model code of conduct had
not come into force. Gifts were given to winners of “ko-
lam” (traditional floor drawings) competitions for wom-
en, festival-eve competitions for men, women and
children, and cricket, volleyball, kabbadi and even foot-
ball tournaments for men. This correspondent is aware of
a prospective candidate stocking 1.5 lakh sarees in his

Series This is the first part of a two-part article.

41 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

TR IB A L W O ME N waiting for a leader with “aarti” plates
at Chinna Iluppur in Pachamalai Hills in Tiruchi district on
December 29, 2015. Women offering “aarti” are paid and
the number of aarti plate-bearers has been increasing
every election.
constituency, which, according to one person involved in
the “operation”, were distributed after the competitions.
“The distribution of gifts began in January itself when
there was no model code,” said a person who was involved
in and handled the distribution of multiple products such
as kitchen ware, sportswear and sports goods. “The list
[of gift items] is endless and depends on what people
want,” he said. Organised distribution of cash was done
only just ahead of the election. In some areas, there was
only a single “infusion” of cash; in others voters were
given cash at least twice.
As many as 101 FIRs were filed by the police and E.C.
officials in 98 constituencies on May 10, 11 and 12. None
of the FIRs related to violence or any other untoward
incident. Almost all of them related to bribing of voters
with cash, coupons, gift items and alcohol (see table).
In 40 cases recorded on these dates, representatives
of both the ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam (AIADMK) and the main opposition DMK
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
were caught red-handed distributing money to voters.
The E.C. seized unaccounted cash amounting to
Rs.105 crore, of which Rs.47 crore was returned after
relevant documents were produced. The remaining mon-
ey is said to have been meant for distribution to voters. By
all accounts, the cash seized by the flying squads of the
E.C. was only the tip of the iceberg.
“There are ways of circumventing the Election Com-
mission officials even if they are somewhere in the vicin-
ity,” said a candidate who won the election. “My men will
not wear party colours; there will be no indication as to
which party they represent. Besides, if an individual is
not carrying a huge amount of money, the officials can’t
do much,” he said.
THE ART OF BRIBING
Dr Anbumani Ramadoss, who was the Pattali Makkal
Katchi’s (PMK) chief ministerial candidate, said: “Both
the AIADMK and the DMK have mastered the art of
bribing voters by methodically reaching money to every
single voter across the State. The votes that we received
came despite this” (see interview).
Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader Thol.
Thirumavalavan said: “I lost by a minuscule margin [87
votes]. It’s heartening to note that despite the huge
42

A. MURALITHARAN
amount of money that my opponents distributed, I gar-
nered so many votes.” Thirumavalavan contested from
Kattumannarkoil (see interview).
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s T.K. Rang-
arajan said: “Parties and candidates see an election more
as an investment that gets them fabulous returns. You
pay [someone high in the party hierarchy] to get a seat,
and you pay to get votes.”
The exhaustive study carried out by this correspond-
ent in the run-up to the election and after May 16 pro-
vides abundant proof that candidates of leading political
parties directly bribed voters in almost all the constitu-
encies. The names of smaller parties—such as the Maru-
malarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (MDMK), the
PMK and the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam
(DMDK)—did crop up in an odd constituency during the
study.
Anbumani refuted allegations that local-level PMK
leaders distributed money in view of the civic body elec-
tions which are coming up in October. According to one
political source, Rs.300 was paid in the name of the
MDMK in some pockets of Madurai South constituency.
The MDMK candidate, M. Bhoominathan, polled only
19,443 votes and lost his deposit. The AIADMK’s S.S.
Saravanan was elected from the constituency with
43
62,683 votes. This correspondent has confirmation from
multiple sources in the AIADMK, the DMK, the PMK,
the VCK, the MDMK, the DMDK, and the Left parties,
and independent observers and journalists that in the
majority of the constituencies, Rs.100 or more was paid
for a vote by people claiming to belong to the DMK, and
Rs.250 or more by people claiming to belong to the
AIADMK.
“This was the amount [per vote] that the parties gave
the candidates. It was up to the candidates to pay more if
they so willed,” a defeated candidate belonging to a non-
Dravidian political party said.
One major political party, for instance, drew up three
lists. The ‘A’ list contained names of candidates who
could fend for themselves and hence did not need money
infusion from the party headquarters (according to two
sources fairly high up in the party hierarchy, 60 names
figured in this category); those in the ‘B’ list needed some
support; and those in the ‘C’ list were candidates whom
the party felt it “must support”. Not only the ability of the
candidate to spend money but also how he/she got the
party ticket mattered, given that there are several power
centres in the party.
Its rival gave out a flat amount to its candidates to
cover about 70 per cent of the voters in all the constitu-
encies at the rate of Rs.250 per vote, four different sourc-
es confirmed. Its distribution machinery was far more
organised and the cash reached the voter without pilfer-
age, an independent observer said.
Did voters hesitate to take money? Did they vote for
the party that paid them? A taxi driver in Tambaram
constituency in Kancheepuram district said: “My land-
lord took my mother to a place where the local councillor
was distributing cash. There, my mother’s name was
verified against the electoral roll, and when she pointed
to my name on the list, she was given Rs.400 at the rate of
Rs.200 for two votes.”
Did he feel bad about taking money to vote?
“What is wrong in taking a paltry Rs.400? After all,
this is the money they looted from the people,” he said.
The driver said although he took money from one
Dravidian party, he voted for its prime rival.
In Tiruchi West, a voter told this correspondent that a
person claiming to be from the DMK gave her Rs.200
and another group claiming to be from the AIADMK
gave her Rs.250. “We have two voters in our house, so we
got Rs.900 from the two parties,” she told this corre-
spondent in the presence of an independent witness.
“I took money from both the parties and voted for
‘Amma’ [Jayalalithaa, AIADMK supremo and now the
Chief Minister],” she said.
“The money was distributed in the night around 10 or
11 p.m. Members of both the parties came around that
time only. All of us [in the street] got money,” she said.
Was she not scared when people came calling around
midnight? “I wasn’t scared as I knew they were coming to
distribute money,” she said.
Conversations with voters across Tamil Nadu re-
vealed similar stories, from at least 50 constituencies,
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 44

Source: Tamil Nadu Police and Election Commission officials.
detailing specifics of how much money at least a handful
of voters in each of these constituencies received.
Ramesh Babu, the CPI(M)’s Parangipettai union sec-
retary, had an interesting story to share. “We caught hold
of an AIADMK worker and handed him over to the police
because he was distributing money in Puduchatram vil-
lage [in Chidambaram constituency]. But the police let
him off with an admonishment for distributing money
during the day,” he said.
What was even more perplexing was that the Para-
ngipettai police made it clear to both the AIADMK and
the DMK that there should be no trouble in the area. So,
following a gentleman’s agreement, one party decided to
distribute money between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Pu-
duchatram while the other distributed cash from 9 p.m.
to 10 p.m. This was aided often by mysterious power cuts.
Ramesh Babu said that in fact people of Puducha-
tram began to look forward to power cuts. “If there was
no power cut, it meant that they won’t get money.”
In Chidambaram, the DMK gave each voter Rs.250
while the AIADMK gave between Rs.300 and Rs.500
depending on the area, he said. K. Balakrishnan of the
CPI(M) got 24,226 votes. The party holds this up as an
indication that not everyone who took money voted for
the party that paid it.
In Tirunelveli and Thuthukudi, candidates of the
prominent political parties spent anywhere between Rs.2
crore and Rs.5 crore, a well-informed political analyst
said. Both the major Dravidian parties had “appointed” a
person in charge of every 100 voters. The head of a Dalit
hamlet near Valliyoor in Radhapuram constituency said:
“A few days before the election, employees of an entrepre-
neur distributed Rs.200 to every voter in our village
around 10:30 p.m. seeking our votes for a candidate.
Before dawn, cadres of the other main party landed in the
village and distributed Rs.250 for every vote. Maybe
someone from our village informed the other main par-
ty.”
AIADMK cadres admitted to a trusted source of this
correspondent that they did receive funds towards elec-
tion expenses and that they used them judiciously to
ensure the victory of the party candidate in Radhapuram.
Sensing that the gypsies of Valliyoor might support
the DMK candidate in the Radhapuram constituency,
the rival candidate’s agent visited the gypsy colony along
with party cadres and collected the booth slips from them
saying that he would return the slips on the eve of polling
along with cash. Attracted by the offer, two gypsy leaders
collected the booth slips from their people and handed
them over to the candidate’s agent.
On hearing about this, the Sub-Collector of Cheran-
mahadevi, V. Vishnu, instructed his staff to ensure that
the agent returned the booth slips to the gypsies immedi-
ately and threatened to put the man behind bars. Left
with no option, the agent returned the slips to the gyp-
sies. The gypsies did not take cash from any party.
In Kunnam in Perambalur district, the same money
distribution template was followed. “Both the DMK and
the AIADMK have perfected the art of reaching money to

45 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

voters two days before polling in a systematic and orga-
nised way,” said J. Mohamed Shanavas, a VCK function-
ary popularly known as “Aloor” Shanavas.
“Even the PMK candidate distributed Rs.200 here in
some pockets after a television channel’s opinion poll
showed him to be leading,” said Shanavas, who secured
19,853 votes. The AIADMK’s R.T. Ramachandran won
the seat with 78,218 votes.
In Tiruchengode, both the AIADMK and DMK can-
didates distributed money, a source who watched the
election there from up-close alleged. The AIADMK gave
Rs.500 and the DMK Rs.300 per vote, the source said.
“Both the parties covered about 70 per cent of the
weaker sections. There was a gentleman’s agreement
between the candidates and supporters of both the par-
ties that they would carry on the money distribution work
without disturbing each other’s schedule and also with-
out interfering in each other’s work,” he added.
As the majority of the cadre of both the parties be-
longed to the dominant community and have common
business interests, money distribution was done without
stepping on each other’s toes.
In Paramathi-Velur, there was no conflict between
the cadre of both the major parties as they went about
distributing Rs.300 for every vote in many pockets, said a
senior journalist who witnessed the distribution in one
village. They followed the same gentleman’s agreement
in the neighbouring Tiruchendur constituency. Here,
too, both the parties distributed money to about 70 per
cent of the voters.
In Thousand Lights constituency in Chennai, though
coupons were allegedly distributed on behalf of the
AIADMK candidate, these were not “honoured”, said an
“affected” party. A similar complaint surfaced from My-
lapore constituency, also in Chennai, where the
AIADMK candidate won. In Anna Nagar constituency in
Chennai, the DMK candidate claimed that he had man-
aged to confiscate some of these hologram-laden tokens.
How much is the cost of a vote, asks Gauthama
Sanna, VCK joint general secretary, in his publicly shared
Facebook post at 11:57 p.m. on June 10. He provides the
answer: “Dalit Rs.300, Mukkulathar Rs.5,000. Others
Rs.1,000.” According to him, this was the case in Bodi
and Tirupathur. The Dravidian parties have divided the
demography caste wise and have understood how to
purchase votes. “Today, no honest person can contest an
election and hope to get 1,000 votes. No amount of good
work matters,” said a top politician, who did not want to
be named.
Explaining how the bribing “scheme” worked, a can-
didate who lost the election said that there were three
levels at which money got added to the distribution
“kitty”—the party, the candidate and local body repre-
sentatives. Because of this pooling of money, even in the
same constituency voters in different localities got differ-
ent amounts. For instance, in Vanur constituency, one
candidate, realising that his rival was distributing
Rs.250, began giving Rs.300 for every vote, a reliable
source said.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
Local body representatives keenly participated in the
May 16 Assembly election because local body elections
are due in October. In “rich” local bodies, such as those in
Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts, the money con-
tributed by local body representatives is mind-boggling.
In one instance, Rs.1,000 was given to every voter, said a
source. This was cross-checked and confirmed with a
second independent source.
“This is a kind of pre-booking. They tell the voters
ahead that the local body elections are coming up, and
began canvassing during the Assembly election,” a senior
politician said.
In some pockets, the money distribution took a com-
munal turn. In one constituency, the AIADMK candi-
date made a donation to a local mosque. A candidate in
the constituency put the donation at Rs.5 lakh.
Besides appeasing community and caste leaders, can-
didates also “buy out” influential local-level leaders from
other political parties for the duration of the election. A
powerful secretary of a political party in charge of a unit
of a panchayat union is given up to Rs.2 lakh and a less
powerful one is given Rs.50,000.
Stashing away huge sums of money comes with at-
tendant risks. In Karur, most of the money meant for
distribution was stocked in a candidate’s house. Revenue
investigation officials raided the house and began a
search. But it did not occur to them to first secure the
entire premises before launching the search. They as-
sumed that the money would be in the main building. But
a major portion of it was stored in the servant’s quarters,
two politicians with first-hand knowledge of the raid
said.
There was everything in the servant’s quarters:
counting machines, envelopes, the voters’ list, and details
of which party functionary the money had to be sent to.
The moment the handler inside the quarters realised
that the people inside the candidate’s residence were E.C.
officials, he managed to pack all the material kept inside
the quarters, including a few crores of rupees in cash, into
gunny bags and throw them across the massive perimeter
fence. He then called up a local contact and asked him to
move the sacks.
But the most intriguing story came from Attur in
Dindigul district. Multiple accounts, cutting across party
lines and from independent observers, point out that the
money distribution and poll expenses happened on the
largest scale in this constituency. Both candidates are
said to have spent about 100 times over and above the
limit set by the E.C. It is intriguing that only a small
amount of money was seized in this constituency.
THE FINE ART OF DISTRIBUTION
“I want to know if my rival is distributing, how much he is
distributing, how many times he is distributing, where all
he is distributing and at what time he is distributing,”
said a candidate who got elected.
This information was critical to a candidate’s re-
sponse to the situation, he added. According to several
candidates and mid-level leaders of political parties,
46

AIADM K S UPPO R T E R S at an election campaign in Perambur in Chennai on April 19.
where a candidate has stored the money in a constituency
is an open secret. This correspondent is aware of one such
instance—the candidate of a main Dravidian party
shared all the locations of his money stash with his arch
rival. “This actually prevents the rival from sneaking to
the E.C. or other officials about the money stash,” said a
party veteran. He confirmed that this sharing of in-
formation appeared to be the new norm among the main
rivals. In this case this correspondent is aware that the
information was not shared with anyone, including the
E.C.
A former Member of the Legislative Assembly said
the money was not necessarily moved from the party
headquarters in Chennai to the constituencies.
“The money is usually taken from a local business-
man or trader if there is an additional need in a constitu-
ency. This money is paid back, sometimes with interest, a
few months after the results are declared,” he said.
Another method is to move the money ahead, some-
times six months ahead of an election. This is to circum-
vent the E.C.’s watchdogs.
Money distribution is a fine art. The candidate is
under the care of a paguthi (area) secretary. If the equa-
tion between the two works, the money distribution will
47
B. JOTHI RAMALINGAM
go on like clockwork. This correspondent is aware of
places where excellent coordination existed and where
there was zero coordination. In one zero coordination
metropolitan constituency, the candidate, a first-timer
brought in his loyalists, did the mapping of the constitu-
ency on his own and handled the distribution. To make
local-level leaders aware of his prowess, he even played
back a conversation between his main rival and the rival’s
main agent, one surprised middle-level leader told this
correspondent.
There are up to five “circle” secretaries under the area
secretary (depending on the size of the constituency).
Each secretary has a few trusted (five to eight) lieutenants
under him. These lieutenants, or foot soldiers, are the
most important link in the chain. The entire constituency
is mapped and divided into “handlable” segments of
50-60 houses. Each of the trusted lieutenants is roughly
in charge of two or three streets in a constituency. It is
their responsibility to distribute the cash to each individ-
ual and return the unused money.
“I was given a total of Rs.1.4 lakh for distribution. My
target was to cover two streets in my constituency. It was
Rs.1,000 for every household,” said a local leader.
This is not the only expenditure for a candidate. He
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 ‘Defeated by money power’
Interview with Anbumani Ramadoss, PMK leader. B Y R . K . R A D H A K R I S H N A N
IN the run-up to the Assembly election in May, former
Union Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss was one of the
most visible politicians in Tamil Nadu. Soon after the
Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) named him as its chief
ministerial candidate, posters appeared all over the
State detailing Anbumani’s plans and vision for the
State. The PMK, which had donned the role of a shadow
government for about two decades, declared it was
ready to lead the State.
In an exclusive interview after the election, Anbu-
mani told Frontline that money power defeated him
and his party.
Excerpts:
You have been talking about money distribution for
votes across all the 234 constituencies. What specific
information does the PMK have to support the
allegation that money was
distributed?
I can go back to the previous elec-
tion [2011] when the AIADMK gave
Rs.200 each to all the voters in all the
constituencies. Earlier, if a constitu-
ency had 2.5 lakh voters, the party
would give money to one lakh or
75,000 voters. This time, the
AIADMK paid two lakh voters, that
is, 80 per cent of the voters. Both the
DMK and the AIADMK distributed
money. Former DMK Ministers gave
Rs.1,000 for every vote. That was the
standard across [the State].
AIADMK Ministers spent Rs.2,000
for every vote. This was their strategy.
spends on publicity work and engages booth agents
needed on election and counting days. He also takes care
of the expenses of religious festivals, sports meets and any
event that happens in his constituency.
A close associate of a candidate from a southern
district said: “One day it was quite funny but very busi-
ness-like. The DMK was distributing money on this side
of the road, and the AIADMK was distributing it on the
other side of the road.”
What about the E.C.’s flying squads? He said party
men received advance information from an insider about
the flying squads’ raid. Besides, on the day money distri-
bution was taking place, they had nothing to worry. The
officials were taken care of, he said. “Six Indian Revenue
Service officers were not to be seen. I made enquires and
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
The thumb rule in this election was that those who gave
Rs.1,000 for a vote won by about 40,000-50,000 votes;
those who gave Rs.500 per vote won by about 20,000-
30,000 votes; and those who gave Rs.250 to Rs.300 per
vote won by about 10,000.
The AIADMK has always given Rs.50 or Rs.100
more than the DMK. In Tiruvarur, the DMK gave
Rs.1,000 per vote; in R.K. Nagar, the AIADMK distrib-
uted Rs.1,000. In Kolathur, the DMK gave Rs.5,000 per
family. So, all the leaders bribed the voters of Tamil
Nadu. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, only the
AIADMK distributed money. This time both the parties
gave money and split the seats between them.
The PMK decided not to bribe the voter, instead the
party held huge rallies and meetings all over the State.
It is alleged that although the PMK headquarters and
the party’s candidates did not
distribute cash, the party’s local body
representatives gave money in some
places.
Can you prove this? We do not
have money to give and our policy is
not to bribe the voter. On May 14, all
the 232 party candidates took an oath
that we would not bribe voters. When
I met the Chief Election Commission-
er in New Delhi, he told me: “We have
got information that your party did
not distribute money and you have
done a clean election.” And then he
R. RAVINDRAN
congratulated me. I think the DMK
spent Rs.6,000 crore and the
AIADMK spent nearly Rs.10,000
learnt that they were in Poovar [resort],” he added.
However, it was not always that easy to distribute
cash. “We get a maximum of 10 minutes in a hamlet,” said
a top politician, who did not want to be named. “It’s get in
and get out. We have the money in neat covers [enve-
lopes], with the candidate’s name or symbol on it. It is
handed over to a local handler, and he takes care of the
hamlet,” he added.
“Cash was distributed in corporate style,” said a sym-
pathiser of a party, who has helped in the distribution of
multiple items to voters.
“You can look at it like this. It was done with one head
of operations and some others in the capacity of manag-
ers, assistant managers and team leaders who were re-
sponsible for channelling money to the voters,” he added.
48
crore for this election, of which 80 to 90 per cent was
spent on bribing voters. The AIADMK was not seen to
be campaigning. For instance, at one point of time [in
my constituency], the DMK’s expenditure [submitted
to the E.C.] was Rs.18 lakh, our expenditure was Rs.14
lakh. The AIADMK’s expenditure was Rs.2 lakh. Be-
cause they did not hold any public meetings, no cam-
paigning; the candidate alone was seen going around.
We, on the contrary, were going around campaigning.
The DMK was also doing that.
The AIADMK’s strategy was to send four people to a
village. These people would stay there till evening and
get details such as who is a DMK sympathiser, who will
vote on community lines, and who is a neutral voter.
They did this for 15 days. They did micro-level planning
of voters, and worked out how much money should be
given and who the money should be given to. For every
25 voters, they appointed one person. That person had
Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000 in his pocket. They became
active only in the last two days of the election. Their
modus operandi was two persons would first go with
AIADMK handbills to canvass votes; one person would
follow them; he would give the money. Nobody could
catch them because they did not carry a large amount of
money. We caught four of them. We handed them over
to the police. In Dharmapuri alone, 27 first information
reports [FIRs] were filed against the DMK and the
AIADMK. One AIADMK cadre was found with more
than Rs.2 lakh. But no action was taken. An FIR was
filed, that is all.
So, in your view, people voted for the party that gave
them more money?
People voted for the person who gave them more. In
my constituency, [M.K.] Stalin [DMK treasurer, who
led the party in the election] made sure I lost. He sees
me as a future threat. Their aim appears to be to tell the
people that even the chief ministerial candidate [of the
PMK] lost.
My party candidates told me that in all the constitu-
In his experience, there were only a few cases of
people rejecting the money. “Even a teacher with an
MPhil degree was willing to take the money as it would
come of use to buy groceries,” he said.
There are two types of money distribution. One, when
women come forward to perform aarti (a traditional
welcome with garlands and lamps) to a candidate, and
two, through direct distribution. While a few candidates
and representatives of political parties insist that dis-
tributing money post-aarti is not immoral, some of them
agree that bribery is not right. Even the aarti offerings
has reached menacing proportions, with many house-
holds even pushing their children to offer the aarti to a
candidate because they get paid. After the elections, the
aarti is performed to the winning candidate by burning
encies voters were bribed. The DMK, for instance, tar-
geted my stronghold.
For instance, if I got 900 votes in a village in the Lok
Sabha election, this election I got only 350 votes or 400
votes. The remaining 500 got split between the DMK
and the AIADMK. Families which had earlier voted en
masse for me now cast a few votes in favour of the DMK
or the AIADMK. That is why I lost. I got 58,000 votes. I
should have got at least 75,000 votes. That margin was
taken away by money.
This is what happened across the State. The Elec-
tion Commission was completely ineffective. In Arava-
kuruchi, the election was postponed [at that time, later
the notification was rescinded] because Rs.5,000 was
distributed [to each voter]. In my constituency, initially
Rs.500 was given. So the election will be postponed
only if Rs.5,000 is given? Rs.500 is not money? If the
E.C. could postpone polling in Aravakuruchi, then it
could postpone election in all the other constituencies
as well. I gave a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer
of Tamil Nadu and sent a copy to the CEC.
Is it possible to control money distribution?
It is definitely possible. We said some changes have
to be made. The E.C. should ask for a taped video from
party leaders where they insist that their party men
should not pay money, and voters should not take mon-
ey for votes. They should make it clear that both giving
and taking money for votes are punishable offences. A
candidate found distributing money should be disqual-
ified and not allowed to contest the next two elections.
Even after he wins, if he is found to have distributed
money, he should be disqualified. If the E.C. has this
power, then it will put fear into the minds of candidates.
If a party is found distributing money in, say, 10
constituencies, it should be disqualified, derecognised
and its election symbol withdrawn. See, giving money is
not a secret. If you are distributing it among 1,000
people, you can do it secretly. But you are giving to two
lakh people. This cannot be a secret.
camphor in a plate filled with vermillion-coloured water.
This is shown to the candidate in close proximity, and is
an age-old custom to ward off the evil eye.
“In each village the number of aarti–plate bearers
have increased exponentially with each election,” said a
candidate of a main political party.
“In the 1990s, for instance, there used to be 10-15
aartis at a spot. Now, there are no fewer than 50. When
the model code of conduct is in force, a video camera
team follows the candidate and so, the candidate will not
distribute money. The distribution takes place after the
candidate leaves the spot,” the main agent of a candidate
said.
How much would a candidate or a political party have
spent on the purchase of votes?
49 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 “I spent at least Rs.10 crore,” said a defeated candi-
date.
A candidate who won said he only spent about Rs.5
crore. A third candidate gave some more details, which
left this correspondent a little dazed about the logistics
this exercise would involve: “Rs.500 each for 1.2 lakh
voters.” That adds up to Rs.6 crore. Candidates of both
the main Dravidian parties keep a close watch on each
other’s plans.
‘Near-total bribery’
Interview with Thol. Thirumavalavan,
VCK leader. BY R . K . R A D H A K R I S H N A N
APART from the massive distribution of cash for votes,
the May 2016 election to the Tamil Nadu Legislative
Assembly will be remembered for the formation of a
third alternative force, the People’s Welfare Front
(PWF). Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (VCK) leader
Thol. Thirumavalavan was the catalyst for this nascent
experiment, which brought together Vaiko’s Maruma-
larchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, the Communist
Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist),
and G.K. Vasan’s Tamil Maanila Congress. Vijaya-
kanth’s Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam also lent
its weight to the alliance, making the combine, at least
on paper, a formidable alternative to the Big Two, the
All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(AIADMK) and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK). Thirumavalavan told Frontline in an interview
that the PWF secured a shockingly low percentage of
votes because it did not distribute cash for votes. Ex-
cerpts:
Is there any proof to the claim that money was
distributed across the 234 constituencies? Specifically,
what was the scene in Kattumannarkoil from where
you contested?
It was done in the open. People in many localities in
my constituency told us that they were paid but they
would vote for me. During my campaign in the 200
villages in the constituency, I told voters that “the DMK
and the AIADMK will bribe you but don’t fall for the
money. Vote for the ring symbol [allotted to the VCK]”.
I couldn’t tell them not to take the money. We do not
have the capacity to distribute cash.
I told them “the VCK fights for your rights and
hence please don’t get cheated by the big Dravidian
parties whose main aim is to ensure that Vijayakanth
lost in Ulundurpet and Thirumavalavan in Kattuman-
narkoil”. My information is that more than Rs.30 crore
was spent in Ulundurpet and more than Rs.15 crore in
Kattumannarkoil to defeat us. I warned people to be
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
Antaridoss, the MDMK’s candidate in Avadi constit-
uency, said: “I have contested six times so far. Three times
in the Avadi municipal elections and three times in the
Assembly elections. I have lost all these elections. I have
lost hope in these elections. The rival candidates were
bribing the voters and the Election Commission just
looked on,” he said.
Leaders of the PMK, the VCK, the CPI(M) and the
MDMK, in separate conversations with this correspond-
vigilant and not let their votes be split. But in every
village between 50 and 100 votes were spilt.
Was money the only deciding factor in the election?
Did people vote for the person from whom they took
the money?
I got 48,363 votes. I can’t say that the 48,363 voters
did not take money from anyone. They may have taken
money, but they voted for me. Not everyone will vote
because they took money. But in a colony [the Dalit
settlement of a village] if 100 votes are split it means
that these 100 people voted for a person they took
money from.
The first information we got was that the AIADMK
did not distribute money to 100 per cent of the people.
The party had already listed out people who would vote
for them. In each and every village, they do this map-
ping of party sympathisers. They then come up with a
list of people who voted according to the circumstances.
Both the AIADMK and the DMK do this kind of map-
ping. No other party does this kind of work. They visit
each and every village with the voters’ list and make a
list of who favours which party. The two parties started
this work a year ago.
Most other parties only check who in the voters’ list
is dead or has gone out of station. Only the AIADMK
and the DMK have a list of who will vote for whom. At
the end of this exercise, they are in a position to estab-
lish the confirmed votes for each party. In the 2011
Assembly election and in the 2009 Lok Sabha election,
they paid only their sympathisers. In some constitu-
encies, for instance, if there were 1.75 lakh voters, they
paid only one lakh voters to confirm the candidate’s
victory. It was not necessary to pay all the 1.75 lakh
voters. It is only this time that 100 per cent of the voters
were bribed.
By both the parties?
Yes, both the parties. They had a good understand-
ing between themselves. If one party distributed money
during the day, the other party would distribute in the
night in order to avoid unnecessary incidents.
The first information I received was that the
AIADMK was distributing only to confirmed AIADMK
voters. This was to ensure that their votes did not split.
In my constituency, the Congress contested as part of
50
ent, said the E.C. hardly took any action even when there
were complaints.
Anbumani Ramadoss said: “There was no barricade
or check post from Pennagaram [from where he contest-
ed] to Dharmapuri for three days before the election and
not a single vehicular checkpoint from Dharmapuri to
Chennai a day before the election.”
This assertion is not without basis. This correspond-
ent travelled from Chennai to Palakkad (Kerala) on the
the DMK alliance. They [the DMK and
the Congress] distributed money to orga-
nised community groups, including Ja-
maats and caste groups. This was the
initial information. But in reality, each
and every house received money; the
AIADMK has given money to DMK sup-
porters and the DMK has given to
[known] AIADMK supporters. Both the
parties have given cash to 100 per cent of
the households in my constituency.
There is information that the amount varied from one
pocket to another.
I was told that voters in urban areas were given
Rs.500. In villages, I was told by people who received
money that the DMK paid Rs.250 and the AIADMK
Rs.300. This is our proof. Even VCK supporters have
told me that they received money.
They distributed money even after knowing that
they are VCK supporters. Earlier, this was not the case.
If a party knew for certain that a particular house
belonged to the cadre of a rival party, they would not
give money. This election was different. VCK workers
were also given money. We managed this number of
votes after surmounting all these.
The reason for the mass distribution of cash is that
in the previous elections, there was no credible force
against the DMK and the AIADMK. But when Vijaya-
kanth joined the PWF, both the DMK and the
AIADMK got scared that this would become a big force.
They wanted to make sure that we didn’t grow at any
cost. That is why they paid 100 per cent of the people.
That is why there was such an understanding between
the AIADMK and the DMK, an understanding that did
not exist before.
If a voter takes Rs.200 from a candidate and Rs.300
from another, who will he or she vote for?
I asked the voters the same question in the last
election too. See, both the parties have given money to
households. If there are five votes in a household, three
will vote for the DMK and two for the AIADMK. [A
VCK supporter interrupts to say that this is what hap-
pened in her mother’s house.] Or, if there were six votes
in a house, four voted for me and two for the AIADMK
evening of April 26 via Vellore, Dharmapuri, Thoppur,
Mettur Dam and Coimbatore, covering a distance of over
550 kilometres.
The vehicle was stopped only once, at around 1 a.m.
on April 27 at Kallipatti near Satyamangalam. This cor-
respondent did not see any mobile squad on the entire
stretch except near Coimbatore city and at the Walayar
check post on the Kerala-Tamil Nadu border.
Frontline studied the issue in some depth during the
or the Congress. I tried to explain to the
people that this was a multi-cornered fight
and so I might win by a narrow margin. “If
you vote for the other parties because you
have taken money from them, I will lose by
a narrow margin,” I told the voters.
The situation today is that without money
L. SRINIVASAN
power, you cannot exist in electoral
politics. Where does that leave political
parties like yours?
There is a need for electoral reforms.
Can an election be fought with the Rs.28 lakh
prescribed by the E.C.?
That’s what they have decided. My question is was
only Rs.28 lakh spent in R.K. Nagar? The drawings, the
handbills and other publicity material used in the con-
stituency will cost several lakhs of rupees. The bias of
the E.C. comes to the fore. I have asked for a review of
the statement of expenditure for R.K. Nagar. The E.C.
must take selected constituencies, the star constitu-
encies, and compare the statements of expenditure the
candidates have submitted with its own investigation
and arrive at a conclusion.
Are you asking for a forensic audit?
Yes, I am asking for an audit. If the E.C. audits their
expenditure, it can annul their victories. How come the
E.C. takes the statement of expenditure at face value
and declares a candidate winner? Elections are the
fountainhead of corruption. In order to eliminate cor-
ruption, the first step is to curb electoral malpractices.
It is calculated that the AIADMK and the DMK
have spent Rs.3,000 crore each on this election over the
past two years. The DMK’s [expenditure] began from
the time of the Namakku Naame journey [pre-election
tour by DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin] to the counting of
votes. Was this money collected from party members?
Did party workers collect money from the people of the
State? Who gave them this cash? Who gave them dona-
tions? Why would someone give a donation if there is no
benefit for them? The Rs.3,000 crore the two parties
spent is an investment. The AIADMK has taken the
entire State for a tender [bid] for Rs.3,000 crore. This is
not a government.
51 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 Money mindset a time when a booth-level worker’s job was to ensure
that every voter in the locality turned up to vote. Now,
his main job is to make sure that the money reaches
THE limit of Rs.28 lakh set for a candidate’s election voters. This change in his role is also responsible for
expenditure is unrealistic, says a former Member of corruption among party workers.”
the Legislative Assembly in Tamil Nadu. The Election Several candidates this correspondent spoke to
Commission (E.C.), he says, is aware of this. “There is a highlighted the change in the mindset of cadres.
minimum of 200 booths in a constituency. At the rate “If you do not give them money, they will not work.
of 10 persons in a booth’s area, this alone amounts to Your family has to pull its weight. Then, you have to
2,000 people working in a constituency for a candi- pay every single party worker,” a candidate’s relative
date. Gone are the days when a candidate would work said.
in the morning, go home for lunch and come back for Asked if this held true for all parties, Viduthalai
the evening party work. Now, food has to be provided Chiruthaigal Katchi leader J. Mohamed “Aloor” Sha-
most certainly for all the 2,000 people for a period of navas, who contested and lost the recent election from
25 days [which is the minimum number of days spec- Kunnam (Perambalur district), said this was as big a
ified for campaigning]. This entails an additional ex- problem as bribing voters.
penditure of at least Rs.200 a person a day, the “Candidates are forced to pay the booth agents,
minimum amount that a party worker expects from party workers who paint election graffiti, and those
the candidate,” the former MLA said. who do the propaganda. The whole culture is chang-
So the minimum amount required to keep the ing and even big leaders are not an exception. Every-
“force” on the ground would work out to Rs.1 crore one has to pay for everything. There is no way all these
(that is, 2,000 cadre x Rs.200 x 25 days), expenses can be met within the ceiling
way above the cap set by the E.C. set by the E.C.,” he said.
The shift from policy-driven and One candidate said he borrowed
principled campaigning to money-dri- more than Rs.4 crore just for this pur-
ven campaigning is primarily because pose. For him, the money for distribu-
the candidates’ political masters are tion among voters came from the party.
keen to purchase votes, conversations Two other candidates said they were
with lower-level cadre across political forced to shell out much more than what
parties show. was actually distributed to voters be-
For his part, the booth-level worker cause of pilferage at various levels. “If I
A. MURALITHARAN

tries to wangle his share. “If the candi- want to reach 80 per cent of the voters, I
date can spend so much to get votes, he will have to pay for 90 per cent of the
should be able to pay us too,” said a voters,” one candidate said.
booth-level worker. This correspondent However professionally managed
is aware of several cadre-level workers the campaign, there was bound to be
who refused to campaign or shifted loy- J . M O H AM E D pilferage, another candidate said. The
alties because there were no monetary S H A N A V AS of the VCK, norm is that 10 per cent of the money
benefits. who contested from gets lost at multiple levels.
A former councillor said: “There was Kunnam constituency. R.K. Radhakrishnan

2014 Lok Sabha election, when, according to multiple
accounts, almost 70 per cent of Tamil Nadu voters were
bribed. This correspondent has followed the votes-for-
cash phenomenon right from the 1996 Assembly elec-
tion, when the menace was restricted to a few pockets in
the State.
IMPACT ON THE CANDIDATE
Where does such unsustainable expenditure leave the
candidate or the MLA?
“Life is very difficult,” said an MLA. “The loans have
to be repaid. Lifestyle has to be maintained. There is
another election coming in 2019 [Lok Sabha]. Wonder
what we will do,” he said. While those who lent money
were generally understanding, the problem for most
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
leaders, regardless of whether they won or lost, is main-
taining the lifestyle. They are expected to be part of all
local functions, contribute financially to every single
event that happens in the constituency—be it wedding,
coming of age, death, birth, festivals or anything else.
And, they are also expected to be present at all these
functions.
An elected candidate thus invariably spends more
than a defeated candidate. “An MLA has to spend any-
thing from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh a month to maintain
his relationship with his base in the constituency,” said an
advocate identified with a political party. This is not true
of the Left or Dalit parties.
By winning, and not being part of the power struc-
ture, many MLAs in Tamil Nadu face a dark reality. 첸
52

Victim of tirade
Raghuram Rajan’s exit following a fusillade from Subramanian Swamy
raises questions about the government’s approach to key issues.
A LOOSE cannon does not usu-
ally have a target, but Bharatiya Ja-
nata Party Member of Parliament
Subramanian Swamy found his
when he aggressively sought the
ouster of the Governor of the Reserve
Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan. The
cannon fired thrice since May; in
three missives to the Prime Minister,
and in comments to the media, Swa-
my mixed innuendo with slurs on
Rajan’s “patriotic” credentials and
demanded his immediate sacking.
He also found fault with Rajan’s
handling of the economy, especially
the “high” interest rates that were
hurting Indian industry. In doing
this he was seeking to make common
cause with not only the extreme
right-wing within his own party but
also with sections of industry that are
irked by a rule-bound policy regime
Rajan was committed to. Critics of
the government’s policy have said
that the rule-bound regime he has
been pursuing is rooted in economic
orthodoxy, which vests too much in
monetary policy instruments, but
that is another matter.
Even as Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi and Finance Minister Arun
Jaitley watched silently, refusing to
rein in the loose cannon, speculation
mounted in the media and the mar-
kets on whether Rajan would contin-
ue after the conclusion of his current
term in September. Rajan could not
have been blamed if he presumed
that his time was up at the helm. On
June 18, the RBI Governor, a former
chief economist at the International
Monetary Fund, announced that he
was not available for a second term.
INSTITUTIONS
BY V . S R I D H A R
RA GH U RA M R AJ A N .
In a letter addressed to the RBI staff,
he said he was going back to acade-
mia. Rajan is the first RBI Governor
since 1992 not to seek a second term.
By the time Prime Minister Modi
spoke with some clarity on the issue
for the first time, on June 27, the
damage had been done. Forty days
after Swamy’s first salvo, Modi, in an
interview with a news channel,
obliquely rebuked Swamy by decry-
ing the resort to “publicity stunts”.
He also issued a certificate of Rajan
being “no less patriotic than any of
us”.
A MAN WITH HIS OWN IDEAS
What explains the long silence and
the refusal to rein in Swamy and his
tirade against the RBI Governor?
Part of the explanation surely has to
do with Rajan’s quick-witted repar-
tees to some of the government’s pol-
icy proposals, among them Modi’s
pet project, “Make in India”. Rajan
pointed out that a global economy hit
by recession was hardly conducive to
an export-led growth strategy. In-
stead, he suggested that a “Make for
53
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP
India” strategy based on using the
demand potential within the country
would be a more worthwhile pursuit.
Later, when the Finance Minis-
try floated a proposal to establish a
single bank that would take over the
bad loans in the banking system—a
“Bad Bank”, as the media called
it—Rajan thought the idea to be a
dangerous one from a systemic point
of view. He pointed to the moral haz-
ards in such a proposal and suggest-
ed a more aggressive clean-up of
bank balance sheets.
Rajan also countered the idea,
floated by Chief Economic Adviser
Arvind Subramanian, that the RBI’s
reserves could be used for recapita-
lising the banks. His response after
the Dadri lynching, in which a man
was killed for having allegedly con-
sumed beef, was telling. Speaking
from a purely liberal perspective, he
articulated the idea that economic
liberalism was incompatible with in-
tolerance, bigotry, prejudice and
hate. All this indicated that Rajan
was unlike many who had held his
post earlier and was always unafraid
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
to speak his mind. More importantly,
Swamy’s utterances against Rajan,
notably his accusation that Rajan has
“wilfully” and “deliberately attempt-
ed to wreck the Indian economy”,
reflect the angst among sections of
Indian industry that the single-
minded pursuit of inflation targeting
using high interest rates had doused
the possibilities of an industrial
recovery.
It is true that Rajan’s quest to
rein in inflation at all costs has placed
overwhelming importance on mone-
tary policy tools, especially interest
rates. But Swamy’s accusation that
Rajan has wrecked the economy as a
result misses some vital facts. First,
Rajan is hardly the first RBI chief to
do this; successive governments,
most notably those headed by Man-
mohan Singh, had surrendered all
other policy tools in exchange for
monetary policy instruments. This
was done in the guise of allowing the
central bank a measure of “inde-
pendence”, as if economic policy
ought to remain in the realm of tech-
nocrats without being accountable
politically in any way.
The second aspect that is missed
in this tirade against Rajan pertains
to the fact that Indian banks, partic-
ularly those in the public sector, have
been burdened by the massive build-
up of non-performing assets in their
portfolio. It is true that Rajan’s ag-
gressive pursuit of cleaning up bank
balance sheets has resulted in accel-
erated provisioning of these banks,
which hit their profitability and led
to a spectacular collapse of their
share prices earlier this year.
However, to blame him for this is
surely self-serving advice, especially
when it is articulated by the Indian
corporate sector, which is primarily
responsible for the burgeoning prob-
lem of bad loans.
Vijay Mallya may symbolise the
rogue borrower, but he is hardly the
only one who has caused grief to the
banks. Several other industrial
groups—especially those operating
in the infrastructure and steel indus-
tries—owe much more to the banks.
Among them is the Gujarat-
based Adani Group, which has out-
standing loans that are several mul-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
tiples of what Mallya owes. There is
consensus in industry that banks
have turned extremely risk-averse
for two main reasons. First, the ac-
celerated provisioning norms that
Rajan introduced made lending that
much more difficult. Second, be-
cause the provisioning affected prof-
itability, they became even more
risk-averse. This has obviously af-
fected banks’ interest margins—the
difference between what they pay de-
positors and what they earn from
lending operations. Seen in this con-
text, Swamy’s call for a reduction in
interest rates is at best illogical; at
worst, it is nothing but an espousal of
what self-seeking industrial interests
want after putting Indian banks in
danger.
OBSESSION WITH INFLATION
Of course, this is not to say that Rajan
is diametrically opposed to economic
orthodoxy in the matter of economic
policy. It is just that he believes that
inflation targeting is critically impor-
tant for macroeconomic stability,
even if it means using a consumer
price index that is far removed from
the reality of peoples’ lives. For ex-
ample, the index is constructed in
such a way that the weightage for
food articles is very low.
It is also important to recognise
that Rajan became a darling of the
Indian media and the markets pre-
cisely because of this fixation with
inflation.
After all, those who rely primarily
on assets to earn incomes fear in-
flation like the plague because they
see it as eating into their returns; in
contrast, workers also fear inflation
but they are ready to tolerate it in
moderation if they can find jobs. Ra-
jan’s other supposed sin, the acceler-
ated clean-up of bank balance sheets,
can also be explained by his own vi-
sion for Indian banking.
He sees this as a way of making
banks “healthy” so that they can be
made more “competitive” and “effi-
cient”, euphemisms for their eventu-
al privatisation. This is because he,
like everyone else, recognises that
the public sector banks cannot be put
on the anvil in their current state.
The Finance Ministry and the
54
RBI were also at loggerheads over
the composition of the Monetary
Policy Committee, which will be en-
trusted with the task of determining
monetary policy and the inflation
target. The government, seeking the
upper hand, wanted a say in deter-
mining the policy targets, but Rajan
was reportedly in favour of retaining
the central bank’s independence in
this matter.
On June 27, the government no-
tified the rules determining the com-
position of the six-member
committee, which ensures that the
government will have a significant
say in the matter but the casting vote
in the event of a tie would vest with
the RBI Governor. Meanwhile, the
government has announced a short-
list of four contenders to replace Ra-
jan—RBI Deputy Governor Urjit
Patel, former Deputy Governors Ra-
kesh Mohan and Subir Gokarn, and
State Bank of India Chairperson
Arundhati Bhattacharya. Rajan’s de-
parture from the RBI is not based on
any key disagreement over the
course of economic policy. Nor does
the manner of his departure indicate
any ideological differences. But it
does reflect the mindset and ap-
proach of the Modi government.
First, it reveals a serious discom-
fort with anyone with a modicum of a
liberal approach, in economic mat-
ters or otherwise. Second, Modi’s
long silence in the face of the relent-
less tirade against Rajan shows that
the political authority is willing to let
fly loose cannons to attack inconve-
nient targets. The third aspect of the
Rajan affair is that the government is
willing to remove any obstacle in or-
der to appease Indian corporate
interests.
In hindsight, Swamy may well
not have been a loose cannon. In-
stead, the Rajan affair may well be
one more instance in which doubles-
peak from within the Sangh Parivar,
combined with silence at the helm at
crucial junctures in the episode, may
have been used to obtain a result that
the government wished for anyway.
If that were to be true, it would be in
keeping with the mode of govern-
ance that has been the hallmark of
the Modi sarkar. 첸
 INDIA & U.S.

THE SECRET
ACCORD
What are the terms of the deal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi
concluded with President Barack Obama and what do they mean for
the country? Modi should explain. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I

THE government of India owes a
clear duty to the nation to publish the
secret agreement it concluded with
the United States, along with other
agreements, when Prime Minister
Narendra Modi met President Ba-
rack Obama in Washington, D.C., on
June 7. The published agreements
were long in the making. Earlier,
U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter
settled an understanding with De-
fence Minister Manohar Parrikar on
three “foundation agreements” in
New Delhi on April 12. One of them
was to conclude a Logistics Exchange
Memorandum of Agreement (LE-
MOA) “in the coming months”.
The very next day, on April 13,
The Hindu published a news report
from New Delhi and Washington
which pointedly asked: “Is there a
behind-the-door deal that we don’t
know about? The current deal seems
pretty one-sided and the Narendra
Modi government wouldn’t have
taken it if they didn’t see the worth. It
begs the question if there is a behind-

PTI

DE FEN C E M I N I S T E R M A N O H A R P A RRI K A R and U.S. Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter at a joint press conference at
South Block in New Delhi on April 12, the day they sealed an understanding on three agreements, including the LEMOA.
55 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
the-door deal. If yes, what is it? Is it
worth it? And more importantly,
when a new U.S. government is elect-
ed to power in November will it still
uphold it?” The fears proved to be
well founded. The Hindu’s Special
Correspondent reported from Wash-
ington, D.C., after the Modi-Obama
summit on the basis of an author-
itative briefing: “According to a se-
nior Obama administration official,
a significant achievement of Mr Mo-
di’s visit is the finalisation of a docu-
ment on the shared strategy of both
countries in Asia-Pacific. The official
said this document—kept confiden-
tial— outlines a joint strategy to deal
with specific situations that could
emerge in the Asia-Pacific region in
the future” (The Hindu; June 9,
2016).
WHY THE PAEANS OF PRAISE
This is nothing but a treaty of alli-
ance in which the important clause
on the casus foederis is spelt out. “Ca-
sus foederis is an act or event that
involves the clauses of a treaty of alli-
ance” (Chas. W. Freeman Jr; The
Diplomat’s Dictionary, U.S. Insti-
tute of Press, 2006; page 40). The
correspondent had company in
Washington, D.C. Chidananad Raj-
ghata’s report from there confirmed
The Hindu’s report completely on all
the details. “The mysterious road
map: Aside from designating India
as a major military partner, U.S. offi-
cials also said Obama and Modi had
‘completed a road map’ describing
‘what we will be doing together to
achieve that leader’s vision’. They
mysteriously insisted that the road
map would not be disseminated but
indicated broadly that it advanced
the ‘joint strategic vision’ of the two
countries in Asia-Pacific and Indian
Ocean into specific actions” (The
Times of India; June 10, 2016; em-
phasis added, throughout). Note that
what the “senior Obama administra-
tion official” said was reported in di-
rect quotes.
This explains the paeans of praise
for Modi and the various character-
isations of the secret deal. Without it,
the leaders’ joint statement and press
briefing amount to nothing. The se-
cret deal is aimed at China. What “an
administration official” told the
Press Trust of India (PTI) a day earli-
er makes that abundantly clear. The
Times of India reported on June 8:
“There were clear indications on
Tuesday [June 7] that Washington
and New Delhi won’t allow China’s
unbridled domination in Asia-Pacif-
ic; there has to be a place for all.
Ahead of the meeting, the Obama
administration made it known that
the U.S. is ‘committed’ to help India
build its defence capabilities until it
can be the ‘net provider of security’ in
Asia, regardless of whether or not
there is a formal U.S.-India alliance.
‘There is a recognition that as India
grows and develops, the capacity to
protect its interests, not just in the
immediate region but broadly
throughout Asia-Pacific, particularly
in the Indian Ocean region, it is in
the U.S. interest to build India that
capacity until it can truly be the net
provider of security,’ an administra-
tion official told PTI ahead of the
Modi-Obama talks.”
Seven points deserve note. First,
the U.S. official felt emboldened by
the progress already achieved to say
what he did ahead of the talks and he
did so in direct quotes. Secondly, the
secret accord was in lieu of a formal
treaty of alliance which requires, un-
der the U.S. Constitution, ratifica-
tion by the Senate; but it in effect
amounts to a treaty, bypassing the
Senate. Thirdly, the accord does not
enjoy domestic support in its jetti-
soning of non-alignment. Fourthly,
it is concluded with a lame-duck ad-
ministration. Hillary Clinton or Do-
nald Trump might take a different
view. Fifthly, it does not reckon with
the reality that the U.S. views India
as its footman in its own fight with
China. Sixthly, if “it is in the U.S.
interest to build India”, will it allow
India to diverge from the U.S. line at
any given point? Seventhly, where
does it leave India in its relations
with its immediate neighbour China
and what impact will it have on the
DU R IN G I N D I A ’ S J O I N T
military exercise, called
Malabar, with the United
States and Japan, off Japan’s
southernmost island of
Okinawa, on June 15.
BOBUHIRO KUBO/REUTERS
talks on the boundary dispute? Last-
ly, will the U.S. be satisfied with this,
or seek a yet tighter embrace?
Only the secret deal explains the
applause from the U.S. side. If As-
sistant Secretary of State for South
and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal
hails it because it “overcomes the
hesitations of history”, it is because it
rejects India’s historic commitment
to non-alignment by which Atal Bi-
hari Vajpayee swore as Minister for
External Affairs (1977-79) and as
Prime Minister (1998-2004). Anja
Manuel, who worked in the State De-
partment and was involved in the
talks on the civil nuclear deal with
India, told Mandira Nayar: “Now,
when I talk to Indian officials they
see China similar to how we in the
U.S. see it. So, the new alignment
between India and the U.S. is be-
cause both are looking over their
shoulders at Beijing. This is a posi-
tive development, but we must en-
sure that we are clear and consistent
with Beijing about where the lines
are” (The Week; June 19, 2016).
Another patronising pat on In-
dia’s back as “a great ally”. This is
from Paul Ryan, Speaker of the
House of Representatives. What had
Modi done to earn such unpreceden-
ted, extravagant praise? One voice is
ominous. It suggests that the U.S.
will, like Oliver Twist, “ask for more”.
John McCain, Chairman of the Sen-
ate Armed Services Committee, told
CNN: “India must begin acting like a
close partner and ally. Despite the
growing closeness, it is no secret that
frustration continues to exist in
many areas, both defence and non-
defence.” He added that the U.S. ex-
pected a lot from its partners and
allies, including joint patrolling, sig-
nificant contributions to armed con-
flicts, and a strict adherence to
human rights, among other things”
(The Times of India; June 9, 2016).
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARMED
CONFLICTS?
Does this spell India’s “contributions
to armed conflicts” initiated in the
past and the ones to be initiated by
the U.S. in future? Remember, Vaj-
payee as Prime Minister flatly re-
fused to send Indian troops to Iraq in
57
2003. The Lok Sabha passed a reso-
lution in his support. He told the
Communist Party of India (CPI)
leader A.B. Bardhan, “Comrade, zor
zor se bolo” (Comrade proclaim your
opposition louder and louder). But
there was a school of hawks, com-
prising defence “experts” and retired
diplomats, who mindlessly support-
ed dispatch of Indian troops as a pro-
jection of India’s power to jump onto
the American bandwagon. India’s
name would have been mud in Iraq
had they prevailed. Meanwhile, In-
dia is participating in a joint naval
exercise with the U.S. and Japan
close to islands contested by China.
India’s Navy said, on June 10, that
“the primary aim of this exercise is to
increase interoperability among the
three navies and develop common
understanding of procedures for
maritime security operations”.
Reuters’ understanding of In-
dia’s move will be widely shared. “For
India, the gathering is a chance to
put on a show of force close to Chi-
na’s eastern seaboard and signal its
displeasure at increased Chinese na-
val activity in the Indian Ocean”
(Hindustan Times; June 16, 2016)
—as if India could not have increased
its own naval activity in the Indian
Ocean.
THE DECEPTION IN LEMOA
Talking of which brings out the de-
ception in the deal on the LEMOA.
The reciprocity it provides is spu-
rious. The U.S. will have free access
to the bases on Indian soil. To which
U.S. base can India possibly have ac-
cess except the one on Diego Garcia
in the Indian Ocean, whose removal
India agitated against for long?
Demilitarisation of the ocean was the
issue. There is another aspect. The
natives were expelled and relocated.
India, which consistently spoke up
against colonialism, will now be-
come an accomplice to a leading co-
lonial power.
The allies’ interests do not coinci-
de; on several areas they diverge.
One is reminded of the U.S.-Pakis-
tan alliance of 1954, which was os-
tensibly directed against the Soviet
Union. The U.S. is pursuing a two-
pronged policy towards China—con-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
tainment and dialogue. When it suits
its interests, it will jilt the Indian ally,
as it did to Japan after the 1972 rap-
prochement with China.
Modi has a duty to explain to the
President and to the nation when
Parliament meets for the monsoon
session. When did he hold a press
conference in the two years since he
became Prime Minister? He has a lot
to account for on his domestic and
foreign policies.
NAM, A CAPACITY TO JUDGE
FREELY
The sordid deal with the U.S. should
prompt questions of a fundamental
nature on India’s foreign policy. A
country’s foreign policy is shaped by
its image of the world and its image
of itself in such a world. Nehru’s pol-
icy was nationalistic to a fault. It
comprised four elements—indepen-
dence of manoeuvre; patronage over
the neighbours, bar China; leader-
ship in Asia; and a voice in world
affairs. He was no romanticist or ide-
alist. He was governed entirely by the
national interest.
On assuming office as Vice Presi-
dent of the Interim Government and
member in charge of External Affairs
in 1946, Nehru laid down at a histor-
ic press conference, on September
27, his foreign policy in these terms:
“India will follow an independent
policy keeping away from the power
politics of groups aligned one against
another.” He reiterated this in the
first foreign affairs debate in the
Constituent Assembly on December
4, 1947, adding, however, that if war
came and a choice had to be made,
“we are going to join the side which is
to our interest”.
A government functioned for the
good of the country, he said, and the
ultimate aim of foreign policy was to
find out what was most advanta-
geous to one’s own country: “We pro-
pose to look after India’s interest in
the context of world cooperation and
world peace insofar as world peace
can be preserved.”
Several features of these pro-
nouncements strike one immediate-
ly on reading them today. The
humility of tone and the unambi-
tious approach are clear. He did not
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
propound this policy as a dogma for
the entire Afro-Asian world to fol-
low, as he was to later, but simply as
one that suited India best. Most con-
spicuous was the accent on the coun-
try’s self-interest, as distinct from
any ideology, and on independence
to pursue that interest as India
deemed fit. These factors are very
relevant today, and a non-alignment
that is inspired by such an approach
still has its validity notwithstanding
the changed circumstances.
At a press conference on Novem-
ber 12, 1948, Nehru began with a
disclaimer and ended with an asser-
tion. “I rather deprecate talking
about India’s leadership in Asia or
anywhere. I do not like this business
of leadership, but the fact is, whether
it is leadership or not, various mat-
ters like the geographical position of
India, the resources of India, the big-
ness of India, the potential of India,
etc. etc. make India by far the easiest
meeting ground of all the East,
South, West Asian countries. In a
matter connected with the economy,
South, West or East Asia is keeping
some kind of defence and thus India
becomes a pivot of it; it is so situat-
ed.” On December 2, 1948, he told
Congress president Pattabhi Sitara-
mayya: “Inevitably India is becom-
ing the focal point of many activities
in Asia.” In this he failed. But the
patronising attitude towards smaller
neighbours persists to this day.
Non-alignment meant no more
or no less than a capacity to be able to
judge freely. To Nehru’s four ele-
ments, time added two more—pride
in economic revival and military
power. A sixth was added by domes-
tic politics—the Hindutva hue, in
which Modi revels.
Nehru had no illusions about the
Soviet Union or China. He refused to
China is the next-door neighbour. The
U.S. is far away, though militarily far
superior. Economically, it is China that
is on the rise.
58
enter into an alliance with the U.S. as
time rolled by because he knew he
would earn the hostility of the Soviet
Union and China, particularly the
latter. He kept his views to himself
and confided only in his officials, as
the record shows. China is the next-
door neighbour. The U.S. is far away,
though militarily far superior. Eco-
nomically, it is China that is on the
rise.
THE CHINA FACTOR
But even as Chief Minister of Gujarat
and before he became Prime Minis-
ter in May 2014, Narendra Modi
gave the country the benefit of his
enormous expertise in foreign af-
fairs, hitherto kept secret, when he
declared, on February 22, 2014:
“China should stop its expansion pol-
icy.” He also recalled the 1962 war.
The oration was delivered at Pasigh-
at in Arunachal Pradesh (The Times
of India; February 23, 2014). What-
ever be China’s stance in South East
Asia, it has followed a friendly policy
towards India to the point that it has
retreated from its former support to
Pakistan on the U.N. resolutions on
Kashmir to support for the Shimla
process. There are areas where it
cannot yield—the boundary west of
the Karakoram Pass. It had declared
its refusal to discuss this with India
as far back as in April 1960. Nor can
one expect it to cancel its boundary
agreement with Pakistan of March 2,
1963. It rests squarely on the British
Note to China dated March 18, 1899,
as varied by Curzon in India’s favour
in 1905. Pakistan did not cede but
acquired 750 square miles of admin-
istered territory, a fact acknowl-
edged by every foreign scholar.
In 1959-60, China very much
preferred non-aligned India to the
U.S. ally Pakistan. China’s Ambassa-
dor to India, Pan Tsu-Li, warned In-
dia, on May 18, 1959, that neither
country could afford contests on two
fronts—China with India and the
U.S.; and India with Pakistan and
China. He was scolded.
On July 1, 1954, Nehru unilater-
ally decided that old official maps,
which showed the boundary from
the trijunction of Afghanistan-In-
dia-China to the trijunction of India-
China-Nepal as “undefined”, should
be replaced by ones that showed a
clear line which was not to be nego-
tiated. It is this map that is the basis
for laws that would imprison any
who question it. Rebuffed in April
1960, China accepted Pakistan’s pro-
posal for boundary talks after ignor-
ing it for a year. This is where the
“romanticist” and “idealist” Nehru
brought us.
1959 REPEATS ITSELF
We are now, in 2016, precisely at the
crossroads we faced in 1959 when we
took the wrong road. India under
Modi seems bent on traversing that
road with the U.S.’ encouragement;
avowedly to keep China at bay. A
dangerous move in response to an
imaginary, or at least exaggerated,
menace. India is strong enough mili-
tarily to ward off a Chinese attack
—of which there is no danger. China
is content with what it has. Indian
diplomacy is too inept to prise open
the deadlock which it is in its in-
terests to resolve.
The urge for an alliance with the
U.S. is inexplicable in terms of the
national interest. It is explicable only
in terms of the same ideological fac-
tor that led Modi to call China expan-
sionist.
It has roots as old as the Bharati-
ya Janata Party’s (BJP) ancestor, the
Jana Sangh. Its biographer Craig
Baxter recorded: “In 1965, the Jana
Sangh continued to hold that the ‘ol-
dest and largest’ democracies in the
world must pull together. [Balraj]
Madhok in his Jullundur presiden-
tial address again expressed this
view: ‘mutual interests of India and
U.S.A., apart from their common at-
tachment to the democratic way of
life, point to closer relations between
them in the days to come’. In the
early days of the party, none of the
top leadership had visited the United
States, but this was changed when
Vajpayee was given a Leader Grant
under the Education Exchange pro-
gramme to observe the 1960 Amer-
ican presidential elections. [K.R.]
Malkani visited the United States as
a Niemen Fellow at Harvard Uni-
versity and, after the 1962 Indian
general elections both [Deen Dayal]
Upadhyaya and Madhok toured the
United States privately. …
“A Jana Sangh supporter who is
an alumnus of the RSS [Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh] and a close
associate of Madhok, Ram Swarup
Sabharwal, acts in New Delhi both as
a publicist for Israel and as a resident
agent of the Asian Peoples’ Anti-
Communist League. At functions ar-
ranged by Sabharwal, in either of his
two capacities, the gathering invar-
iably includes a number of Jana
Sanghis and RSS members. A num-
ber of Jana Sanghis have visited Is-
rael, Taiwan, South Korea, and
South Vietnam as have several mem-
bers of the Swatantra Party, PSP
[Praja Socialist Party], and, more re-
cently, a few Congressmen. Sabhar-
wal often arranges the financing for
these trips. The Jana Sangh is the
only party in India, with the excep-
tion of some Swatantra leaders,
which gives a measure of support to
the American actions in Vietnam. Its
stand on Israel is to some extent a
reaction against the Muslim neigh-
bours and enemies of Israel and
probably not insignificantly due to
Sabharwal’s publicity. On the other
hand the party looks askance at Pa-
kistan’s allies in CENTO [The Cen-
tral Treaty Organisation] and
Regional Cooperation for Develop-
ment (RCD), Turkey and Iran. The
question of overseas Indians per-
vades the Jana Sangh view toward
both Burma and Ceylon. Toward Ne-
pal the Jana Sangh takes a step-fa-
therly stance which is not much
appreciated by the Nepalese. Seeing
Afghanistan as a potential enemy of
Pakistan, the party gives lip service to
a separate Pukhtoonistan, but can-
not forget that the Khyber, if not the
Hindu Kush, was once the boundary
of the Hindu empire.”
59
The RSS organ Organiser had an
article entitled “Thumbs up for
Trump” (June 12, 2016). It said: “So-
cial media trends have been suggesti-
ng that the third largest ethnic group
in the U.S., of Bharatiyas, is generally
in favour of Trump. Till the last elec-
tion in 2012, almost 65 per cent of
the Bharatiyas in the U.S. were vot-
ers for the Democrats, according to a
study. In contrast, a shift this time is
quite discernible. Such political sup-
port by the Bharatiyas for the Grand
Old Party (GOP) is being seen for the
first time in the U.S. electoral history.
“Significantly, Trump supporters
are mostly Hindus and many of them
have been quite vocal on the social
media. One such page on Facebook is
‘Hindus for Trump’. Its description
says: ‘American Hindus are model
citizens, educated and industrious.
They want a responsible nation
where Americans are both safe and
free.’” Trump is shown as Lord Vish-
nu, sitting on what looks like a lotus
with “Om” inscribed at its centre.
“Another major development is
the formation of a Political Action
Committee (PAC), formed by some
leading Bharatiya-Americans to
raise financial and electoral support
for Trump, called ‘Indian-Americans
For Trump 2016,’ the first of its kind.
It was registered as a PAC on 21 Ja-
nuary 2016 with the Federal Election
Commission. It said in a statement,
‘The officers of the Indian-Ameri-
cans for Trump 2016 urge all Amer-
icans to join in the effort and support
Donald Trump in his endeavour to
make America great again by elect-
ing him the next President of the
USA.’
“By and large, the Bharatiyas
have welcomed Trump’s policies on
illegal immigration and economy be-
sides his firm stand against Islamic
terrorism.”
This reflects the BJP’s self-per-
ception and its world view. But to get
a correct view of the U.S. with which
Modi has dragged India into a secret
alliance read Simon Jenkins’ book A
Mission Accomplished? 첸
“Modi’s U.S. ally”, page 88.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 INDIA & U.S.

Diplomatic fiasco
Though India is trying to blame China for the failure of its bid to join
the NSG, it is clear that the United States had led the Indian
government up the garden path. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N

IT is now evident that the Indian

government was led up the garden
path on the Nuclear Suppliers Group
(NSG) membership issue. The Indi-
an diplomatic corps and Prime Min-
ister Narendra Modi expended much
time and energy in staking a claim
for NSG membership. Modi made
NSG membership look like India’s
foremost foreign policy priority. Be-
fore the NSG plenary in Seoul on
June 23-24, he hurriedly scheduled
visits to Mexico, Switzerland and Uz-
bekistan to solicit support for India’s
NSG bid. Foreign Secretary S. Jaish-
ankar made an unscheduled visit to

PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/AP

Beijing in late June to speak to senior
Chinese officials. External Affairs
Minister Sushma Swaraj, apparently
in a last-ditch effort to persuade Beij-
ing, said that New Delhi was not op-
posed to the inclusion of Pakistan in
the elite grouping.
Pakistan put in a bid to join the
NSG in May. It has been arguing that
its exclusion from the NSG is dis-
criminatory and will lead to a nuclear
arms race in the Indian subconti-
nent. However, its eleventh-hour bid
was seen mainly as an attempt to
stymie India’s chances. Modi, during
his visit to Tashkent for the Shanghai
Cooperation Organisation (SCO)
conference, requested Chinese Presi-
dent Xi Jinping to put aside his
country’s objections to India’s entry
in the NSG and sought a “fair and
objective assessment”.
The National Democratic Alli-
ance (NDA) government had obvi-
ously miscalculated, thinking that it
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
P RI M E M I N I S TE R N A R E N D R A M OD I with U.S. President Barack Obama
before their meeting in the White House on June 7.
could ride piggyback on U.S. support ar test. That test initially rattled the
to gain entry into the NSG. Since international community. India’s
2010, the Obama administration has “peaceful nuclear explosion” showed
been supporting India’s NSG bid. that a nuclear bomb could be made
China objected at the outset on the by using nuclear materials trans-
grounds that the nuclear club was ferred from third countries for
open only to signatories to the Nucle- peaceful purposes. The NSG was set
ar Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). up with the goal of limiting nuclear
China was also unhappy with the arms proliferation. Its main job is the
special “country specific” waiver In- protection of sensitive materials that
dia was given by the NSG in 2008, can foster nuclear weapons develop-
but it went along with the consensus. ment. Guidelines to the NSG, pub-
The NSG is a 48-nation club formed lished by the International Atomic
in 1974, following India’s first nucle- Energy Agency (IAEA) in 1978, were
60
meant to ensure that the nuclear
trade for peaceful purposes did not
pave the way for the proliferation of
nuclear weapons. Membership to the
elite club is conditional on adherence
to the NPT; admission is also on the
basis of consensus among member
states.
Apart from China, nine other
member states, including Brazil and
Turkey, objected to India’s entry. Ire-
land and New Zealand were of the
view that the criteria regarding the
admission of non-NPT states should
be discussed before the question of
India’s membership was addressed.
Among the states that opposed In-
dia’s entry were a few which had ear-
lier pledged support to India’s bid.
There was criticism that India had
not fulfilled the commitments it
made when it got the 2008 waiver. It
had not signed the Comprehensive
Test Ban Treaty or separated its mil-
itary and civilian reactors.
Pakistan claims that India runs
the largest unsafeguarded nuclear
programme with a fissile production
capacity 7.7 times greater than its
own. However, according to reports
based on studies by U.S. think tanks,
Pakistan has accumulated more nu-
clear weapons. According to one re-
port, Pakistan is currently producing
20 nuclear warheads a year com-
pared with India’s five.
Pakistan has been demanding
that its case for admission into the
NSG should be “fairly and simulta-
neously” considered along with that
of India at least for the sake of “stra-
tegic stability” in the region. Some
U.S. lawmakers have been critical
about India’s NSG bid. An editorial
in The New York Times said that In-
dia “has not accepted legally binding
commitments to pursue disarma-
ment negotiations, halt the produc-
tion of fissile materials for nuclear
weapons and not test nuclear weap-
ons”.
Admission to the NSG would
have helped India expand its nuclear
power generation and also enter the
export market in the coming years.
The 2008 NSG waiver does provide
India the potential to engage in civil-
ian nuclear trade with other coun-
tries. India has already signed
agreements with many countries, in-
cluding the U.S., France, Russia, Ka-
zakhstan and Australia. Many
Indian commentators are wondering
why the NDA government had to
stake its prestige for a seat on the
high table when it already had many
of the privileges enjoyed by NSG
member states. As an NSG member
state, India would of course have
been a party to the decision-making
process and would eventually have
the ability to sell nuclear equipment.
Inclusion in the NSG will give India
access to advanced nuclear technol-
ogy.
M.R. Srinivasan, former Chair-
man of the Indian Atomic Energy
Commission, is among those who
have been critical of the govern-
ment’s handling of the issue. He said
that the government’s move was “un-
necessary and ill-advised”, stressing
that the 2008 waiver allowed India
to have nuclear commerce with ad-
vanced countries. Yashwant Sinha,
who was External Affairs Minister in
the previous NDA government, said
that India showed “too much keen-
ness and desperation” to secure NSG
membership. He was of the opinion
that India “stands to lose, not gain”
by becoming a member. The Left and
the Congress have also been scathing
in their criticism.
THE CHINA ANGLE
The Indian government is trying to
blame China for its latest diplomatic
fiasco. Before the NSG meeting in
Seoul in late June, the Chinese For-
eign Office spokesperson stated that
the inclusion of non-NPT signatories
was not on the agenda and added
that opinion within the NSG was di-
vided on the question of admitting
non-NPT signatories. China also
views the U.S.’ support for India’s
NSG bid as part of its strategy to
enhance India’s “nuclear deterrence
capability” against China.
Since coming to power, Prime
Minister Modi has given India’s for-
eign policy an even more pro-West-
ern tilt. On foreign tours, Modi has
talked of China’s expansionist pol-
icies. On the South China Sea issue,
he has opted to take a position
against China. After the Prime Min-
61
ister’s latest visit to Washington in
June, a joint statement was issued
outlining plans to further expand
U.S.-India military cooperation
across the Indian Ocean and Asia-
Pacific regions.
In recent months, India seems to
have gone overboard in its attempts
to irk China. The issuance of visas to
Uighur dissidents who are on Inter-
pol’s wanted list, the announcement
that Brahmos missiles were being of-
fered to Vietnam and other regional
adversaries of China in the Asia Pa-
cific region, and joint naval exercises
with the U.S. and Japan in areas near
South China Sea are some illustra-
tions. The Indian government, ac-
cording to many observers, has been
taken for a ride on the NSG issue by
the U.S. For the record, the Obama
administration is still insisting that
India could enter the NSG by the end
of the year, but as the events of this
year’s plenary revealed, there are a
few more hurdles to be negotiated
before India becomes an NSG
member.
But the disappointment at Seoul
has been compensated for to an ex-
tent by India’s entry into the 34-
member Missile Technology Control
Regime (MTCR). The U.S., once
again, has been India’s main backer.
Italy had stalled India’s entry into
the MTCR owing to the diplomatic
stalemate over the two Italian Navy
marines. Now with both of them
back home, Italy withdrew its ob-
jections. The MTCR, too, operated
on the basis of consensus. Entry into
the MTCR will allow India to market
its short-range missiles in the inter-
national market and to acquire high-
end missile technology. India, as is
well known by now, is keen to market
its Brahmos missiles, which it jointly
produces with Russia.
The Brahmos’ range officially is
below 300 km. MTCR rules prohibit
export of missiles beyond that range.
MTCR membership, officials hope,
will persuade the U.S. to offer its sur-
veillance drones such as the Predator
Drones for sale to India. China is not
an MTCR member. Its request for
membership was rejected in 2004 on
the grounds that it was helping
North Korea’s missile programme.첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 WORLD AFFAIRS

HISTORIC ACCORD FERNANDO VERGARA/AP

A TE A R FUL W OM AN
in Bogota, Colombia,
watches a live broadcast
of the signing ceremony
of the peace accord in
Havana on June 23.

Colombia’s long-running war ends after 52 years, and

the country’s future now hinges on the government’s
promises to enact land reforms and permit rebels to
participate in politics. BY JOHN CHERIAN
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 62

THE SIGNING OF A DRAFT PEACE ACCORD
between the government of Colombia and the country’s
main rebel grouping, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia (FARC), in Havana on June 23 heralds the end
of the longest-running civil war in Latin America. The
signing of the agreement to end the 52-year-old war,
which has claimed more than 220,000 lives, was wit-
nessed by Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and
FARC leader Rodrigo Londono Echeverri, known by his
nom de guerre Commandante Timochenko, and took
place in the presence of Cuban President Raul Castro.
Millions of Colombians were displaced by the long-run-
ning conflict. The accord will be formalised by a ceasefire
agreement in July to coincide with the country’s national
day.
The final ceasefire accord, according to Santos, will be
signed on Colombian soil. FARC fighters will demobilise
and be relocated to 23 zones and eight base camps in
rural areas. The FARC will surrender its weapons to
United Nations monitors and its fighters have been told
to disarm within six months after the signing of the peace
treaty.
The accord, signed in Havana, will ensure that the
FARC is allowed to transition to a legitimate political
party by the Colombian government. An attempt by the
FARC and other leftist groups in 1985 to enter main-
stream politics after an understanding with the govern-
ment was sabotaged by the Colombian political
establishment. Their attempts to participate in the coun-
try’s politics by forming a party called the Patriotic Union
(U.P.) were successfully foiled by a campaign of violence
and assassinations. More than a thousand U.P. members
were gunned down.
The current Colombian government has given the
assurance that history will not repeat itself. It has said
63
DESMOND BOYLAN/AP
C OLOM BI AN P R E S I D E N T Juan Manuel Santos (left) and
FARC commander Timoleon Jimenez during the signing of
the ceasefire in Havana on June 23, in the presence of
Cuban President Raul Castro (centre).
that it will ensure the participation of FARC leaders in
the country’s politics with guarantees of protection. The
government has also said that it will speedily pass sweep-
ing land reform laws and crack down on drug trafficking.
Both sides had, in earlier negotiations, agreed to the
setting up of a tribunal to investigate and prosecute
crimes committed by all the parties involved in the long-
running conflict. Colombian judges “with limited back-
ing from international legal experts” will decide the cases.
The FARC has described the tribunal as a “peace court”.
From available indications, something similar to the
South African “Truth and Reconciliation Commission”
will be implemented. FARC leaders will most likely not
have to go to jail. Those admitting to illegal acts in a
timely fashion will have to do “community service” for
periods up to seven years. Others who do not will be tried
by the tribunal and could be sentenced to lengthy prison
terms. Those fighting on the government’s side will also
not be exempt from the jurisdiction of the tribunal. Dur-
ing 2002-08, the Colombian military killed 3,000 in-
nocent workers and peasants claiming that they were
FARC fighters. Army officers and soldiers were rewarded
for exterminating the alleged FARC fighters in what is
known as the “False Positive Case” in Colombia.
The Special Jurisdiction for Peace that will be set up
after the final peace accord is initialled “requires the
participation of all those who directly or indirectly took
part in the armed conflict, including agents of the state”.
Timochenko said last year that his fighters were willing to
take responsibility for their actions “during the period of
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP
COL O MB I A N S celebrate in downtown Bogota on
June 23 after the government and the FARC signed the
ceasefire, ending Latin Ame’ica's longest civil war.
resistance”. Cuba and Norway are the two guarantors of
the peace accord. Also present at the ceremony in Havana
were U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Venezuelan
President Nicolas Maduro and Chilean President Mi-
chelle Bachelet. The United States had sent a top State
Department official to witness the historic occasion. The
peace talks received a fillip after the Obama adminis-
tration gave its support last year. U.S. Secretary of State
John Kerry met with a FARC delegation when he accom-
panied President Barack Obama on his state visit to Cuba
earlier this year. Kerry was quick to issue a statement
expressing the American government’s happiness over
the agreement between the Colombian government and
the FARC.
Thousands of people in the Colombian capital, Bogo-
ta, who had assembled on the streets to watch the sign-
ing, were seen loudly clapping and cheering the
announcement of the ceasefire. “Colombia got used to
living in conflict. We don’t have even the slightest memo-
ries of what it means to live in peace,” Santos told the
media in Havana. He stressed that a “new chapter has
opened” for his country, “one that brings peace and gives
our children the possibility of not reviving history”.
Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had
played a key role in convincing the FARC leadership to
start peace talks with the government in 2012. Santos has
pledged to hold a national plebiscite on the peace deal.
From available indications, the peace deal has met with
widespread approval. “We’re getting closer to the end of
armed conflict than at any time during the last five
decades,” Raul Castro said. “The decision of the two sides
represents a decisive step forward. The peace process
cannot turn back.”
Left-wing parties and civil society groups have wel-
comed the imminent dawning of peace in their home-
land. Parties like the left-wing Democratic Pole have
been vocal supporters of the peace process. There are
only a few significant holdouts opposing the peace accord
in Colombia. One of them is Santos’ immediate prede-
cessor as President, Alviro Uribe, who now heads a new
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
right-wing party of his own. Uribe had thwarted Chavez’s
earlier attempts to broker a peace accord between the
government and the two major left-wing guerilla forces,
the FARC and the smaller National Liberation Army
(ELN). During his two terms as President, Uribe used
billions of dollars in American military aid to fight the
FARC and the ELN, while at the same time propping up
rapacious right-wing paramilitary groups.
Santos was the Defence Minister during most of
Uribe’s term in office and it was under his stewardship of
the Defence Ministry that the Colombian armed forces
dealt the FARC some significant blows. American help
under “Plan Colombia”, started during the Clinton ad-
ministration, played a key role in the advances made by
the Colombian military. The U.S. has provided more than
$10 billion in weapons and military training under this
plan. In the 2014 presidential elections, Uribe supported
the candidature of Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, whose main
plank was that he would discard peace talks and instead
opt for an all-out war against the FARC. He was roundly
defeated by Santos, who was running for his second and
last term in office. Santos had already initiated peace
talks with the FARC in his first term. The government has
also entered into talks with the ELN, which has around
2,000 fighters.
Many top leaders of the FARC were eliminated in the
last decade. Their top commander for many decades,
Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda Velez, died in 2008. The
FARC, however, proved to be a resilient force and contin-
ued to exert influence over a vast swathe of the country
and hold the allegiance of a significant section of the
peasantry and the working class. The FARC developed as
the armed wing of the Communist Party of Colombia in
1964. The country continues to be under the control of an
oligarchic elite which mainly remains unreconciled to
agrarian reforms. “As in many Latin American countries,
we can find the seeds of present-day social inequality and
strife in the concentration of Colombia’s land and re-
sources under the control of a tiny minority, matched by
the progressive dispossession of the majority of the peo-
ple, which originated with colonialism in the 16th centu-
ry,” explains the historian Jasmin Hristov in Blood and
Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia.
Dan Kovalik, Professor of International Human
Rights at the University of Pittsburgh, has said that most
of the killings in recent years are the work of right-wing
paramilitary groups working in cahoots with the govern-
ment. He notes that human rights groups have consis-
tently concluded that the “lion’s share of human rights
violations” during the worst years of violence was the
handiwork of these forces. The Colombian state has one
of the worst human rights records in Latin America.
Under the terms of the peace accord, the FARC fight-
ers and the armed forces will now have to cooperate to
keep the peace. “The Colombian armed forces that grew
enormously during the war are now called to play an
important role in peace. They were our adversaries, but
going forward, they will be our allies,” Timochenko de-
clared in Havana. 첸
64

WORLD AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES
End of exceptionalism
The U.S. does not have the economic or political power to thrust its agenda
on a multipolar world and this is not because, as Donald Trump claims, of
the policies of Barack Obama. B Y V I J A Y P R A S HAD
ON JUNE 22, FRANCE’S OUTSPOKEN
ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, said:
“The next President will face a multipolar world where
the U.S. will be the main but not the only power. Realism
is the only possible agenda.” It is unusual for such a close
ally of the U.S. to make this statement. After all, it has
been one of the pillars of the U.S.’ self-identification that
it is the major force in the world. Political leaders in the
U.S. routinely speak of the country as the greatest in the
world, the only country with truly global ambitions and
with global reach. U.S. military bases litter the continents
of the world, and U.S. warships move from ocean to
ocean, bearing terrifying arsenals. When the Union of
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed in 1991, it
became self-evident that the U.S. was the sole remaining
superpower. Unipolarity defined the world order. So
what is it that makes the French ambassador speak of a
multipolar world?
Araud is not alone in his realism. Some years ago,
former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger alerted
the political elite against its belligerent rhetoric about
China. In his 2011 book On China, Kissinger wrote of the
need for the U.S. and China to form a partnership which
would be “essential to global stability and peace”. Con-
Letter from America
65
CAROLYN KASTER/AP
frontations over the shipping lanes in the South China
Sea and disputes over currency manipulation danger-
ously flirt with the language of war. “Relations between
China and the United States need not—and should not
—become a zero-sum game,” wrote Kissinger. China had
become too important for the U.S. to indulge in Cold War
theatrics. It was far more important, Kissinger noted, for
the two powers to come to an understanding on how to
confront global imbalances—whether economic or
political.
The Republican nominee for President, Donald
Trump, not known for his political sobriety, is running on
a campaign slogan that admits to today’s reality. “Make
America Great Again!” says the slogan, which acknowl-
edges the weaknesses of the U.S. at this present time. At
least Trump admits to this, although he hastily suggests
that somehow his presidency, miraculously, will trans-
form the vulnerabilities of the U.S. into strengths. Trump
blames the presidency of Barack Obama for the collapse
of the country’s strength. He condenses the right-wing
( TOP ) LE AD E R S OF THE G 7 at the summit of the
grouping in Ise, Japan, on May 26. The Western alliance
system has been disrupted by the rise of China.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
antipathy to Obama in his belief that it is Obama who has
brought the U.S. into disrepute. Racism feeds into this
rhetoric, but so does masculinity. Obama is too dark and
too feminine to keep the U.S. great. It requires the ma-
chismo of Trump to do the job. What Trump does not see,
but what Araud and Kissinger recognise, is that the
current weakness of the U.S. is not somehow because of
the policies of Obama.
Trump would like to channel Ronald Reagan, who
said during his presidency in the 1980s: “Let’s reject the
nonsense that America is doomed to decline, the world is
sliding toward disaster no matter what we do.” But Re-
agan came to power in a different era. Then the USSR
had been deeply weakened by economic crises, China had
not yet emerged as a serious economic powerhouse and
few other “rivals” threatened American supremacy. Re-
agan could afford to junk the “false prophets of decline”.
The U.S. could take advantage of its financial power to
reshape world affairs in its image. But times have
changed. No longer does the U.S. have the economic and
political power to thrust its “tremendous heritage of
idealism” (as Reagan put it in 1981) onto the world. It is
not the U.S. culture and character that produced its
supremacy in the 1980s. It is not enough, as Trump does,
to lean on culture and character for another thrust to-
wards world leadership.
Reagan could pillory President Jimmy Carter, a soft-
spoken Democrat, for the weakness of the U.S. Machis-
mo came easily to Reagan. He had played enough cow-
boys in the movies. Obama is not Carter. He has been
President for eight years, during which he has found that
U.S. power has been depleted. What has led to this
“decline of America”?
First, the great social process of globalisation allowed
U.S. firms to move their production sites around the
world. The “global commodity chain” provided benefits
to the owners of ideas and capital. This “1 per cent”, as the
Occupy movement called them, was able to earn fero-
cious returns on investment, while the workers of the
U.S. found themselves unemployed, underemployed and
certainly underpaid. Income inequality increased and
access to basic social goods declined for the bulk of
society. Bank credit allowed the workers to take enor-
mous loans so as to manufacture a life along the grain of
the American Dream. What these workers received was
not “credit” but “debt”—debt rates on home mortgages,
credit card, and college tuition rose astronomically. The
bursting of the home mortgage balloon in 2007 set off the
global credit crisis, which is one of the great indicators of
the fragility of U.S. power.
Second, at the same time as the U.S. struggled with its
financial crisis and its military overextensions in Af-
ghanistan and Iraq, the Western alliance system frayed.
The most important emergence, under the shadow of the
Western alliance system, was the rapid growth of the
German economy, which essentially absorbed major
gains from European unity. German banks dominated
the continent, as German firms took advantage of labour
costs and its technological advancement to make the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
most of the common market. Southern Europe, from
Portugal to Greece, suffered from the German success.
European unity was threatened by this disparity.
At the same time, France made a dash to reclaim its
central role amongst its old colonies, particularly in Afri-
ca. French military intervention in West Africa came
alongside attempts to undermine the growth of a new
African currency, the Afric. It was Araud, after all, who
persuaded U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to pur-
sue the war against Libya in 2011. Meanwhile, the United
Kingdom wheezed itself into isolation from the Europe-
an Union, as the Conservatives became churlish about
the utility of Brussels. Brexit indicates the end of “Eu-
ropean unity” as a dream, a major partner of the U.S. The
old Western alliance system—the G7 and NATO—might
well become collateral damage in this debate around
“Europe” and in the rise of the old European imperial
powers towards illusions of greatness.
Third, as Europe implodes, China’s rise seems se-
cured by a crafty new relationship with a defensive Rus-
sia. The attempt by the West to encage both Russia and
China seems to have failed. Europe’s gambit in Ukraine
will fall apart as its own energy needs imperil a reconsid-
eration of the sanctions against Russia. Meanwhile, on
the eastern flank, China’s economic dominance has bro-
ken into the Western alliance system, with countries
from Japan to Australia eager for trade with China rather
than to remain as ramparts for a Western military pro-
ject. Economic and military arrangements between Rus-
sia and China seem to increase as each month goes by.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s (SCO) expan-
sion into becoming a major Asian bloc, now including
India and Pakistan, is an indicator of regionalism that
has kept the West out. The Community of Latin Amer-
ican and Caribbean States (CELAC), created in 2010,
pioneered this approach, since it actively saw itself as an
alternative to the Organisation of American States,
which was a U.S.-driven regional body. Both the SCO and
CELAC have kept the U.S. and its major allies outside
their decision-making process. It is a sign of the emer-
gence of global multipolarity.
Raised on a diet of “American exceptionalism”, the
U.S. public was unprepared for the compromises essen-
tial to Obama’s presidency. The deal with Iran and the
inability to pursue regime change in Syria are two graph-
ic indications of Obama’s sobriety. The Russian interven-
tion in Syria, the first major one since the Soviet entry
into Afghanistan and the Cuban entry into Angola, dem-
onstrated the limitations of U.S. power. In February, two
aid workers corralled U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry
at a meeting in Istanbul. They wanted to know why the
U.S. had not been more robust against the government of
Bashar al-Assad. Kerry, irritated, replied: “What do you
want me to do? Go to war with Russia?” These are
important questions, a measure of the reality faced by the
Obama team. A frazzled West and a defensive Russia-
China alliance provide a new balance to the world order.
The days of cowboy diplomacy are long gone. That is
what Gérard Araud implies with his message. 첸
66
 ARCHEAOLOGY

AN AE R I A L V I E W
of the Harappan
industrial site of
4MSR near Binjor in
Rajasthan.

A Harappan export
processing zone
Excavations at the 4MSR site near Binjor in Rajasthan
reveal an exclusive industrial production centre belonging
to the Early Harappan and Mature Harappan phases.
By T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
ASI

67 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

 AS far as Harappan sites go, it is the odd one out. The
settlement had no fortification walls, no streets cutting at
right angles, no citadel where the ruling elite lived, no
middle town which housed the residences of traders and
craftsmen and no warehouse—features that characterise
Harappan settlements. Instead, it had all the trappings of
a small, rural industrial production centre. This Harap-
pan site, named 4MSR, is near Binjor village in Surat-
garh district of Rajasthan and is believed to be 5,000
years old. It lasted for more than 1,100 years through
what is called the Early Harappan (3000-2600 BCE) and
the Mature Harappan (2600-1900 BCE) phases. It had
no Late Harappan (1900-1500 BCE) phase.
Why Harappans abandoned the site at the peak of the
Mature Harappan phase is not clear. Experts believe it
could either be because of floods or because the land
became arid. The site was situated between the two
channels of the Ghaggar river.
The furnaces, hearths and structures made of mud
bricks discovered in the 12 trenches dug by the Archae-
ological Survey of India (ASI) from January to March in a
big mound surrounded by wheat fields at 4MSR were
ample proof of a factory site with multipurpose work-
shops. The ash in the furnaces looked fresh 4,000 years
after the site was abandoned!
One of the furnaces stood out for the ingenuity of its
design. It had a platform for the smith to sit and blow the
fire burning in a pit a short distance away. A tuyere (a
tube or pipe through which air is blown into a furnace)
ran through the earth from a scooped out depression, in
which one end of the blower rested, to the firepit. Arti-
sans sat here to smelt gold and copper from the ore and
cast them into ingots. An anvil lay in another trench.
Adjacent to the furnaces were hearths, which were
circular, oval or yoni-shaped, where craftsmen made
exquisitely finished products in gold, such as earrings,
beads, spacers and pendant frames, or stuff like rings,
bangles, chisels, needles, fish hooks and spearheads in
copper. A rare artefact unearthed from one of the trench-
es was a copper stylus with a thin gold foil wrapped
around one end of it.
Beads in different shapes and designs made out of
semi-precious stones such as carnelian, lapis lazuli, jas-
per, agate, steatite and amazonite were also produced in
these workshops. Bangles and rings were made out of
seashells and terracotta too. The assemblage of ceramic
ware—S-shaped jars, perforated jars, storage pots, gob-
lets, beakers, and black and redware—at 4MSR shows
that the potters of the Early Harappan period were a
creative lot.
Most of the artefacts, especially the beads, the copper
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA

ware and the gold ornaments, were traded in other Ha-

rappan sites. The weights, small and big, made from

TH IS PH O T O G R A PH , taken from a drone, shows the “key

trench”, the main trenches on the mound, the grave of Peer
Baba (which stands separately on the mound) and a
concrete tank with water (partly seen) to irrigate the
wheat fields that surround the mound at 4MSR.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 68
69 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
chert stone and seashells bear testimony to the long-
distance trade links of the Harappans at 4MSR.

RURAL SETTLEMENT
“The usual plan of a Harappan settlement, which had a
citadel, a middle town, a lower town and fortifications, is
not traced here. This was a rural settlement,” said Sanjay
Manjul, the director of the excavation at 4MSR. Manjul
is the Director of the Institute of Archaeology, New
Delhi, ASI’s academic wing, which offers a two-year
postgraduate diploma in archaeology. It has been con-
ducting the excavations at 4MSR jointly with the Excava-
tion Branch-II of the ASI at Purana Qila, New Delhi.
Students of Santiniketan, Kolkata; and Kumaon Uni-
versity, Uttarakhand; and the staff of the archaeology
departments of Telangana and Assam also formed part of
the excavation team.
Each of the 12 trenches dug in the second season this
year measures 10 x 10 metres and has four quadrants of
varying depths. “This site is important,” Manjul said, “to
get a complete picture of the Harappan period and to
understand the process of urbanisation at that time.
Without studying a rural settlement, one cannot under-
stand an urban settlement.”

‘A UNIQUE SITE’
R.S. Bisht, former Joint Director General, ASI, called it “a
unique site” which “exclusively had a cluster of work-
shops for industrial activity right at the beginning of the
pre-Harappan [also known as Early Harappan] period”.
Bisht, who led 13 seasons of excavation of Harappan sites
at Dholavira in Gujarat from 1990 to 2005, visited 4MSR
both last year and this year.
He observed that 4MSR had “so many factories” and
said: “I could not notice any street system. There were no
lanes either. I saw so many fireplaces for the first time in a
Harappan settlement.”
One other thing that fascinated Bisht was the discov-
ery of a cluster of eight weights made out of banded chert
stone, seashells (three) and sandstone. They weighed
0.25 grams, 0.46 g, 0.76 g, 2.26 g, 6.95 g, 13.68 g, 27.5 g
and 52.10 g. The general ratio of the weights was 1:2. “So
far, Dholavira is the only site which has yielded so many
shell weights. It has not been reported from any other site
that the Harappans were also using shell weights. But
Binjor now has three shell weights,” he said.
Shubha Mazumdar, Deputy Superintending Archae-
ologist, Excavation Branch-II, ASI, said the importance
of the site lay in its workshops. “The Harappans, depend-
ing on their capacity and economic conditions, built
these kinds of workshops. They made finished products
here and exported them to other sites,” he said.
The ASI team also discovered a large quantity of
terracotta and shell bangles with ornamentation from
the site. Some of them were of the conjoined variety, that
V. VEDACHALAM

is, twin bangles. “They were all made in hearths. In the

bigger hearths, we found a lot of disc-shaped or trian-

P L A T F O R MS made of mud bricks, at varying levels.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 70

71 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
PHOTOGRAPHS: V. VEDACHALAM
gular terracotta cakes,” Manjul said. Among the artefacts
found at 4MSR, three stand out: a seal-cum-pendant
made out of steatite with engravings of animals on both
sides; a terracotta seal with three Harappan signs; and a
terracotta figurine with a beak-like nose, hairdo, banded
ornaments, and holes around the neck, which might have
been for the inlay of semi-precious stones.
The seal-cum-pendant belongs to the Early Harap-
pan phase. Carved on one side of it are a frog and a deer
with horns. The other side has a mongoose, a dog and,
perhaps, a goat. One cannot but admire the dexterity of
the craftsman who carved the animals on both sides of
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
CI R C ULA R and yoni-shaped (foreground) hearths in a
trench. In the furnaces, Harappan artisans made beads,
copper products and gold ornaments. (Right) Platforms
made of mud bricks, and oval- and circular-shaped hearths.
the thin seal, 2.3 cm x 2.2 cm, without damaging it. “You
can wear it as an amulet or a pendant. It is basically an
amulet-seal without a script,” said Manjul.
Bisht said the discovery of this kind of steatite pen-
dant from the pre-Harappan level was interesting. “It
does not appear to be a seal. It appears to be a token, a
kind of pendant. I doubt whether such a pendant has
72
been reported from any site so far,” he said. It has a
knob-like projection and a hole for a cord to pass
through, which is unusual. “What is also unique is the
depiction of five animals,” Bisht said.
K. Rajan, Professor of History, Pondicherry Uni-
versity, and an accomplished field archaeologist, called
his visit to 4MSR in March “one of the most rewarding
academic experiences”. The 4MSR excavation was im-
portant on several counts, he said. Generally attention
was paid to big Harappan sites such as Kalibangan,
Dholavira, Rakhigarhi and others, he said. “We hardly
concentrate on small settlements to understand the in-
73
tricacies involved in the urbanisation of the Indus Valley
civilisation. That way, Binjor is a unique Harappan set-
tlement that provides the much-needed data on feeding
[distribution] centres,” Rajan said.
SIMILARITIES, DIFFERENCES
In what ways are this year’s excavation different from the
one last year which yielded a vast assemblage of painted
ceramic ware from the Early Harappan period? A Harap-
pan seal, thousands of beads made from semi-precious
stones, a gold ornament, hundreds of disc- and trian-
gular-shaped terracotta cakes, a fire altar and the skele-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 AN I N G E N I O US L Y B U I LT F U RN A C E
with a platform (right) for the smith to sit
and blow the fire burning in a pit in front
of it. Air from the blower resting in a
depression abutting the platform ran
through an underground pipe to the
firepit. The molten metal collected in the
hearth was cast by artisans into ingots.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 74

 V. VEDACHALAM

75 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

PHOTOGRAPHS: ASI

A TE R R ACOTTA S E AL with three

Harappan signs showing two human figures
on both sides of a jar with a double handle. It
A R AR E S E A L - C UM- P EN D A N T , made of steatite, found in the “key belongs to the Mature Harappan period.
trench” at 4MSR. On one side (photograph at right) are engravings of
figures of a dog, a mongoose and, perhaps, a goat. On the other side are
the figures of a frog and a deer. The pendant belongs to the Early
Harappan period (3000-2600 BCE). The pendant, with a knob-like
projection at the top, had a hole too for a cord to pass through so that it
could be worn around the neck.

“I could not notice any street system

[at 4MSR].... I saw so many fireplaces
for the first time in a Harappan
A TE R R A C OTTA TOP .
settlement,” said R.S. Bisht, former
Joint Director General, ASI.

A T ERRA C O T T A
H U M A N F I GU RI N E
with a beak-like nose
and holes around the
neck. The holes may
have been for the inlay
of semi-precious
stones.

A T ERRA C O T T A animal
figure.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 76

A H AMME R , C H I S E L A N D S P EA RH EA D made out of copper found in the trenches.

A C O PPE R S T YLU S with a gold foil at S EV E R A L G OLD BI TS found in A C OP P E R R I N G .

one end, and gold ornaments. the workshops.

77 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

 V. VEDACHALAM
TE R RA C O T T A C A K E S of different shapes found in the trenches. While the disc-shaped cakes were used to maintain the
temperature in hearths, the triangular- and the rectangular-shaped ones were used for decoration and flooring.

ton of a woman were found in the excavation at 4MSR in

2015 (“Harappan surprise”, Frontline, April 17, 2015).
“It was a limited excavation last year to know the
cultural sequence and the nature of the site, the catch-
ment area of nearby Late Harappan sites, and the sites
that belonged to the painted greyware [PGW] culture
and the black and redware [BRW] culture. These sites
are situated all around 4MSR,” said Manjul. This year,
the ASI team tried to understand the settlement pattern
of the Harappans, and the horizontal plan of each stage of
the Early Harappan and the Mature Harappan periods.
So trenches were laid across the mound in the east-west
and north-south directions.
The excavation last year, though limited in scale,
prompted the ASI staff to assume that 4MSR was a
factory site with several workshops. “This year’s excava-

A DAB B E R used by Harappan potters to smoothen out the

surfaces of pots or jars they made. To this day, potters
everywhere, be it in villages in Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or Gujarat, use the same kind of
ASI

dabber. The tradition has continued for 5,000 years.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 78
 V. VEDACHALAM

H U ND R E D S O F iddli-shaped terracotta cakes have been found at 4MSR during the excavations in 2015 and 2016.

79 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

 V. VEDACHALAM
FOU R O F A S E R I E S O F C I RC U LA R H EA RT H S . The hearths, the furnaces and the artefacts confirm that 4MSR was a
Harappan industrial site.

V. VEDACHALAM

A SMA L L T A N K made with wedge-shaped burnt bricks and the channel that carried water into it. The tank measured
130 cm x 130 cm on the outside. Harappan craftsmen used the water in the tank mainly for cooling the beads they made.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 80
tion confirmed that 4MSR was indeed a factory site and
the horizontal excavation revealed the plan of these mul-
tipurpose workshops with their furnaces, a series of
hearths of different shapes and sizes and an anvil,” Man-
jul said.
“A lot of urban sites have been excavated. But rural,
camp or factory sites have hardly been excavated in the
Harappan context. This excavation has revealed a lot of
furnaces, hearths and an anvil along with the raw materi-
als that the artisans used in their workshops. So this site
is important to understand a rural Harappan settlement.
It came up sometime during the period of other Harap-
pan sites such as Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Baror and

ASI
Banawali,” he said.
S A N J AY M A N J UL (second from left), director of the
excavation at 4MSR, and his team members with a pot
INGENIOUS DESIGN
discovered from the site.
The multipurpose workshop complex had within it a
small square tank ingeniously designed with wedge-
shaped bricks to store water. In many Harappan sites,
while structures such as platforms and residential houses
were built with rectangular mud bricks (bricks made of
clay and dried in the sun), the well was built with wedge-
shaped burnt bricks. Bricks baked in kilns at a high
temperature did not break easily. The tank in this case
was made of two layers of wedge-shaped burnt bricks,
with the floor level measuring 80 cm x 80 cm and the
outer wall of the tank measuring 130 cm x 130 cm. Water
reached the tank through a small channel on the floor.
“Water is sprinkled on the beads which get heated up
when craftsmen drill holes in them. Besides, water is
V. VEDACHALAM

used for kneading the clay for the terracotta products and
while bending products,” Shubha Mazumdar said.
Some platforms at the site were separated by a gap of
170 cm. “It can be a corridor or a passage. It can be a
separation of one house from the other,” said Mazumdar. A S TUD E N T of the Institute of Archaeology, ASI,
Some workshops had small residential houses situated New Delhi, brushing a perfectly made pot.
adjacent to them.
The rubble dumped on the mound by the Army after
Partition in 1947 and later by villagers helped preserve
the Harappan exotica for many years. But farmers have
cut the sloping sides of the mound to reclaim more area
for wheat cultivation. Worse, a concrete tank used for
irrigation now stands close to the mound.

LAYERS OF HISTORY
The trenches dug in the mound have seven layers, each
layer revealing the history of a particular period. The top
two layers form the rubble heap. Layers three and four,
below them, are associated with the Mature Harappan
V. VEDACHALAM

period. “Layer four signifies the peak period of the Ma-

ture Harappan phase. Layer three depicts the end of the
Mature Harappan phase. There is no Late Harappan
phase here,” said Mazumdar. Layer five forms the transi-
tional phase between the Early Harappan phase and the
Mature Harappan phase. Vestiges of the Early Harappan
period are found in layers six and seven.
The trenches yielded a spectacular variety of pottery
assemblage of the Mature Harappan period. They in-
clude S-shaped jars, perforated jars, goblets, dish-on-
A S OAK J A R , with a terracotta pipe leading to it. Waste
water produced after activities such as cooling of beads
while drilling holes in them or washing of vessels and
clothes was let into the soak jar. In Harappan
settlements, these soak jars were often placed just
outside the house, in drains on the street.

81 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016


stand, cooking vessels, redware, black and redware, black
on redware and greyware.
The layers belonging to the Early Harappan phase
yielded dish-on-stand, a variety of goblets, beakers, pot-
tery with bichrome paintings and some shards with poly-
chrome designs. Toy carts and animal figures, especially
those of bulls, were recovered from here. “The total cul-
tural deposits of the site would be more than five metres,”
said Manjul.
Importantly, the ASI staff excavated what they call “a
key trench” among the wheat fields, about 30 metres
from where the slope of the mound ends. “The original
mound would have extended beyond this key trench. The
key trench was excavated to identify the original extent of
the mound and unearth the cultural deposits there,” said
V.P. Yathees Kumar, assistant archaeologist, ASI.
The ASI team dug this trench up to 11 layers. The
villagers and the Army had disturbed the top six layers.
So the top 80 cm did not yield any cultural deposit. The
sixth layer yielded Early Harappan pottery. The rim of
Early Harappan pottery was thin or featureless. That is, it
did not turn inwards or outwards. The rim carried
paintings.
The key trench did not reveal any structural activity
after the eighth layer. It was in the eighth layer that the
ASI staff found the steatite seal-cum-pendant which car-
ried the engravings of animals on both sides.
There were indications in the 10th and 11th layers
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
V. VEDACHALAM
A FUR N ACE CON TA I N I N G A S H in an industrial shed.
The ash looked fresh in the furnace that was perhaps last
used 4,500 years ago.
that a flood had occurred. “This is river sand from the
Ghaggar,” said Yathees Kumar, scooping out sand from
the 11th level.
There was “abundant evidence” of the abandonment
of the site, and the ASI staff noticed flood deposits in the
“key trench” in at least two stages, during the Early
Harappan and the Mature Harappan phases, Manjul
said. “The reason may be floods or a dry phase, which we
will determine after the scientific analysis of the sedi-
ments,” he said.
The botanical remains from the trench will be sent to
the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany, Lucknow, to
find out what forced the Harappans to abandon the site
after its Mature Harappan phase. The faunal remains are
being studied by a multidisciplinary team from the Dec-
can College Post-Graduate and Research Institute in
Pune, which is excavating the Harappan site at Rak-
higarhi, and other institutions to understand the climatic
conditions that prevailed at the site during its Early
Harappan and Mature Harappan phases. “As a whole,
the site shows the various stages of the Early Harappan
and Mature Harappan periods. Mud-brick structures to
house multipurpose workshops-cum-residential quar-
ters were found there,” Manjul said. 첸
82
 BOOKS in review
Europe’s troubles
A shrewd economist makes sharp observations on globalised capital
gone mad, largely in Europe. B Y C . T . K U R I E N
T HOMAS PIKETTY
rose to global fame in
2014 when the English
translation of his Capital
in the Twenty First Centu-
ry came out that year
(Frontline, November 28,
2014). Between April and
end of that year, the book
had become a bestseller,
overtaking even the be-
stsellers in the fiction
category.
Unlike that heavily da-
ta-based and rigorously
analytical magnum opus,
the French economist’s lat-
est book, Chronicles On
Our Troubled Times, is an
easy read. It consists of
some 50 newspaper arti-
cles published between
September 2008 and No-
vember 2015 with a preface
of 11 pages.
The pieces, says the au-
thor, “represent one social
scientist’s effort to under-
stand and analyse the day-
to-day world, to get in-
volved in the public
debate; an attempt to rec-
oncile the rigours and re-
sponsibilities of
scholarship with those of
citizenship”.
How one wishes that
more saintly savants, espe-
cially those in India,
climbed down from their
distant secure towers.
For Indian readers, the
specifics of the pieces,
practically all of them deal-
ing with the 2008-09 fi-
nancial meltdown in the
United States and its con-
tinuing impact on Europe,
may appear to be some-
what distant, both in space
and in theme. But the run-
ning theme, says the au-
thor, is “globalised capital
gone mad”. Which part of
the world can escape from
the consequences of that
madness?
UNITED STATES
OF EUROPE
Europe has its special
problems, though. One of
them is its size. While ge-
ographically it covers the
major part of an entire con-
tinent, demographically it
is small. The population of
the European Union
(E.U.) in 2015 was 510 mil-
lion. While that is larger
than that of the U.S., it is a
poor second to India with a
population of 1,200 mil-
83
Chronicles On Our
Troubled Times
By Thomas Piketty
Translated from the
French and
annotated by Seth
Ackerman
Penguin Random
House India, 2016
Pages: 181
Price: Rs.699
lion and China, with an
even larger population.
Considering that the U.S. is
a superpower from an eco-
nomic perspective and In-
dia and China are rapidly
growing economies, the
E.U. does not have much to
boast about. Even worse,
while the U.S. bounced
back fairly soon after the
meltdown, the E.U.’s trou-
bles are continuing and
would appear to be far from
being resolved.
The E.U., launched in
some sense to counter the
smallness of individual
members, has other prob-
lems, too, which arise from
the very nature of the union
and became embarrassing-
ly evident when it started
facing specific issues.
When the question of the
external value of the euro
became an issue, each one
of the 17 central banks of
the member-countries had
a position of its own. Nor
was it an isolated issue.
Soon it was the question of
public (sovereign) debts.
When in two of the mem-
ber-countries (Italy and
Greece) the sovereign debt
issue became one of con-
troversies, Germany and
France could not resist the
urge to render friendly ad-
vice.
Piketty puts it tersely:
“A single currency with
seventeen different public
debts and twenty-seven
different tax policies that
are mainly trying to siphon
tax receipts from their
neighbours does not work.
But to unify public debts
and institute a budget and
tax union, Europe’s politi-
cal architecture must be
fundamentally revised.”
And, “A single currency
with eighteen different
public debts on which mar-
kets can freely speculate, as
well as eighteen different
tax and social systems in
unfettered competition
with one another, does not
work and will not work.”
Halfway house solutions
are neither economically
sound nor politically feasi-
ble.
A United States of Eu-
rope is the only option, af-
firms Piketty.
There are harsher in-
dictments also. Here is
one: “To pick up a few bil-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
lion in exports, we’re now
willing to sell anything to
anyone. We’re willing to
become a tax haven, to
have oligarchs and multi-
nationals paying less in
taxes than the middle and
working classes, to ally
with rather unprogressive
oil emirates just to get a
few crumbs for our football
teams. And conversely,
we’re subjected to the law
of the big countries-
…which use the weight of
their justice systems to im-
pose record fines and ar-
bitrary decisions pretty
much everywhere in the
world….”
Surely, these are not
JOHN THYS/AFP

the problems of the E.U.

alone. They are symptoms
to be seen in many parts of
the world arising from the
unplanned and uncoordi-
nated “globalisation” of
economies, while in the
political sphere “might is
right” is the rule.
HYPER INEQUALITY
Those who are familiar
with Piketty’s Capital will
recall his famous equation,
r>g, where ‘r’ is the rate of
return to capital and ‘g’ the
growth rate, which he used
as the basis of his main
theme, the growing in-
equality of incomes and
wealth practically all over
the world especially since
the 1980s.
He holds the view that
the disparity between in-
come and wealth will grow
in the 21st century giving
further disproportional
weight to wealth as finan-
cial transactions are, and
increasingly will be, dom-
inated by the wealthy.
There will be resistance to
progressive taxation as it is
considered to be a hin-
drance to “growth”. Thus,
what is in store is “hyper-
inequality” resulting from
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
E. U . F I N A N C E M I N I S T E R S at an Ecofin meeting in Luxembourg on June 17 to discuss
the issues of tax fraud, banking union and a controversial financial transactions levy.
what he calls “patrimonial
capitalism”, wealth accru-
ing to families that are al-
ready wealthy. This has a
long history in Europe, but
ironically in the U.S.,
which was founded in
large part as an antithesis
to this social evil, it is now
becoming quite pro-
nounced.
Piketty’s considered
opinion is that the opacity
of finance and the growing
concentration of wealth
are challenges for the
whole world.
Another matter dis-
cussed in these pieces,
which will be of special in-
terest to economists, is
that of the measurement of
national income. There are
two standard measures,
gross domestic product
(GDP) and net national in-
come (NNI). The two are
used in national income
accounting in most parts
of the world. Although the
84
former refers to product
and the latter to income,
both are stated unavoida-
bly in value terms. Howev-
er, there is a critical
difference between the
two. Apart from the fact
that the GDP is inclusive of
depreciation of capital
(hence is “gross”), it is a
measure of what is pro-
duced in the country con-
cerned (hence “domestic”),
not taking into account the
flow of profits between
countries.
It means, for instance,
that while output may in-
crease in a country heavily
dependent on foreign cap-
ital (which is the basis of
calculations of “growth”),
its income may go down
after the profits of the for-
eign companies are repa-
triated.
Similarly, since avoid-
ance of double taxation
(the taxation of the same
income by two countries)
is an internationally ac-
cepted practice, profits can
fairly easily be transferred
to tax havens without pay-
ing taxes in the host coun-
try.
It is well known that
Luxembourg, a member of
the E.U., is such a tax
haven that allows (encour-
ages?) multinational cor-
porations working in other
parts of the E.U. to set up
their subsidiaries on its
soil enabling what has
come to be known as “Lux-
Leaks”. It does not take
much effort to figure out
who the beneficiaries are.
This slim volume, thus,
consists of the observa-
tions of a sharp and
shrewd economist about
the happenings largely in
Europe, but which are rep-
licated or have their equiv-
alents in other parts of the
world increasingly ruled
by the might of free-flow-
ing capital. 첸
 BOOKS in review
Troubled state
The collection of essays portrays Pakistan, a state
which has been never short of challenges, from
every conceivable angle. B Y Z I Y A U S S A L A M
A LITTLE over 20 years
ago, a dilettante of
Shahjahanabad in Delhi
decided to air his thoughts
about Mohammad Ali Jin-
nah at an informal gather-
ing. Demolishing all
notions of the founding fa-
ther of Pakistan being a de-
vout Muslim, he called
Jinnah a nominal Muslim
and went on to expand on
his alleged fascination for
pork, his scant knowledge
of Islamic prayers, and so
on. It all seemed a shade
too much to take as he also
talked about Jinnah’s resi-
dence on Aurangazeb
Road in New Delhi in the
days preceding Partition.
Although many people
walked out pretty agitated,
the old man had certainly
sown the seeds of doubts in
many a mind. However, as
time went by and tempers
cooled, one realised that
Jinnah was indeed a suave
man who was happier in
specially crafted business
suits and silk ties than sal-
war-kameez. It was only
when the demand for a
separate state of Pakistan
was made that he took a
leaf out of Mahatma Gand-
hi’s book and started dress-
ing like the common
man—in sherwanis and
pyjamas. It was a shrewd
makeover from a man who
knew the pulse of the peo-
ple. His sartorial, and pos-
sibly, religious journey was
symbolic of the journey the
state he founded was to un-
dertake.
Dubbed a “theocratic
state” by some, a “garrison
state” by others, as Chris-
tophe Jaffrelot alludes to in
his introduction to Pakis-
tan at the Crossroads, and
a “terror state” by many in
the media, Pakistan has
been at the crossroads long
enough to make infinity in-
telligible. The state seems
worn down by the unend-
ing identity crisis it is faced
with.
Pakistan has never
been short of challenges. A
state formed by the parti-
tion of the subcontinent,
Pakistan has faced more
adversities than a lone tree
in a desert. In the east, it is
85
Pakistan at the
Crossroads
Domestic
Dynamics and
External
Pressures
Edited by
Christophe
Jaffrelot
Random House
India
Pages: 358
Price: Rs.699
confronted with a perpetu-
al challenge from India and
in the north-west, the in-
creasing disturbance in Af-
ghanistan. Within,
Pakistan has to reckon with
the Baluchistan crisis as al-
so the rise of radical Isla-
mist movements. There is
then, of course, its military,
which never hesitates to
play a key role in national
politics. So, what does Pa-
kistan do?
A sovereign country,
strategically located in
close proximity to China
and Russia and providing
the doorway to West Asia,
Pakistan has been reduced
to a “client state” through a
combination of twist of fate
and failed domestic poli-
tics. This blow is occasion-
ally softened with the
description of Pakistan as a
“pivotal state”. Not all the
problems of the country
are of its own making.
FEAR OF
ENCIRCLEMENT
Pakistan’s relations with
India suffered from a trust
deficit from the very begin-
ning. No wonder Jinnah
chafed at Akhand Bharat,
an idea that was voiced in
the run-up to and follow-
ing Partition, and believed
that the Indian National
Congress had not quite ac-
cepted the idea of Pakistan.
He wrote: “The Con-
gress has accepted the pre-
sent Settlements with
mental reservations. They
now proclaim their deter-
mination to restore the
unity of India as soon as
possible. With that deter-
mination they will natural-
ly be regarded as avowed
Enemies of Pakistan-State
working for its overthrow.”
General Ayub Khan
warned: “India’s attitude
continued to be one of un-
mitigated hostility. Her
aim was to cripple us at
birth.”
On its west, Afghanis-
tan refused to recognise
the Durand Line as the in-
ternational border. Inci-
dentally, Afghanistan,
whose name many take in
the same breath as Pakis-
tan, was the only country to
oppose Pakistan’s entry in-
to the United Nations. And
thus, the “fear of encircle-
ment” was complete, Jaf-
frelot says.
The collection of essays
draws from two conferenc-
es organised at Columbia
University, United States.
It seeks to present Pakistan
from every conceivable
point of view. It offers
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

P R IM E M I N I S T E R Nawaz Sharif arrives with Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif at
the Prime Minister House in Islamabad on January 13 for a high-level meeting.
width of vision but not al-
ways the profundity to go
with it.
Right from its birth in
1947 to the present, it has
continued to be a troubled
state and this has made it a
fighter throughout its ex-
istence. With not-so-cor-
dial neighbours all around
and the upsurge of com-
munism, Jinnah sold Pa-
kistan to the U.S. as a
geographically pivotal
state in its fight against the
Soviet Union. The U.S.
took a while to come
around, but it did concur
“when the Cold War un-
leashed itself in Korea. It
then recognised Pakistan
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
as one of its regional bro-
kers in charge of contain-
ing communism in Asia.
This security-based rap-
prochement was made
easier by the rise to power
of two ex-armymen,
Dwight D. Eisenhower
and Ayub Khan, the for-
mer having no real prob-
lem with the latter’s coup
in 1958.” However, a rela-
tionship built on mutual
interest can hardly be du-
rable. Interests change and
so do relationships.
The Pakistan-U.S.
partnership underwent
similar ebbs and troughs
before finally the enhanced
Soviet interest in Afghan-
86
AFP
istan resulted in the Pakis-
tan Army being offered
billions of dollars besides
military support by the
U.S. The partnership was
to culminate in Pakistan
joining the U.S. in its war
against terror in the wake
of the 9/11 attacks on New
York’s twin towers. The re-
newed partnership served
the immediate interests of
Pakistan, but India was
left squirming. All along,
China had been a less ap-
preciated, but no less use-
ful, ally of Pakistan, using
its insecurity and hostility
vis-a-vis India to cultivate
it for an engagement with
the U.S. As mentioned in
the introduction of the
book, when Henry Kissin-
ger secretly travelled to
China to prepare for Ri-
chard Nixon’s visit, he left
from Pakistan, accompa-
nied by high-ranking Pa-
kistani officers. Of course,
China and Pakistan
swapped territory in Kash-
mir, much to India’s
dismay.
INTERNAL THREATS
Interestingly, Pakistan’s
story is not only about ally-
ing itself with countries to
maintain a semblance of
order in the turbulent sub-
continent. It is as much
about the internal dynam-
ics of the country, its keen
military, the Baluchistan
challenge and a police
force called upon to handle
Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA).
In the essay titled “In-
ternal Security Issues in
Pakistan”, Hassan Abbas
says: “In Pakistan, an un-
derstaffed and under-
equipped police force is in-
creasingly called on to
manage rising insecurity
and militant violence, and
quite predictably the po-
lice performance has been
far from satisfactory…. For
many years, Pakistan has
been engaged in battling a
hydra-headed insurgency
in FATA and parts of the
Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
Province, formerly known
as the North West Frontier
Province. An expanding
terrorist campaign target-
ing Pakistan’s major cities
is inextricably linked to
this insurgency. The grow-
ing number of suicide at-
tacks across Pakistan
underscores the dangerous
nature of the crisis. From
2002 to 2006, the total
number of suicide attacks
in Pakistan was twenty-
one while over the next five
years, the total number
rose to 279…. Pakistan has
reportedly suffered close to
50,000 casualties in the
war on terror so far.”
Pakistan’s politicians
are no less deserving of at-
tention. Mohammed Wa-
seem, in his essay titled
“The Operational Dynam-
ics of Political Parties in
Pakistan”, gives a fairly
clear picture of this dy-
namics. Politics in Pakis-
tan, unlike in India, has
largely been a pursuit of
the elite, with most of the
leaders hailing from
wealthy backgrounds.
They are often foreign-
educated gentry with no
direct link with the poverty
and illiteracy of the mass-
es. Tokenism prevails in
the quest for democracy,
like organising a march to
Data Durbar or to Parlia-
ment to protest against
certain actions of the gov-
ernment. Interestingly,
despite their none-too-
comfortable past, politics
and military are often on
the same page with respect
to foreign affairs.
Philip Oldenburg
makes astute observations.
He writes: “The political
landscape of Pakistan has
always had a prominent
place for its judiciary, and
particularly the Supreme
Court. The emergence of a
judicially active court led
by Chief Justice Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry
and then the exhilarating
2007-09 Lawyers’ Move-
ment seemed to mark a
watershed in the Supreme
Court’s role, from junior
partner to the military and
bureaucracy in times of
crisis, to an institution au-
tonomously exercising
power. Indeed, it can be ar-
gued that ‘had it not been
for the revival of the rule of
law and for a mechanism
to enforce constitutional
limits on power abuse by
elected officials (in 2008-
13)’, democracy would not
have survived in Pakistan.”
ECONOMIC FRONT
In the section on Pakis-
tan’s economy, Shahid
Javed Burki and Adnan
Naseemullah paint a dis-
concerting picture. Noth-
ing much has worked for
Pakistan on the economic
front.
To quote the authors:
“Pakistan’s economy—wh-
ich has been struggling
with fiscal deficits, high in-
flation, declining dollar re-
serves, and the drying up of
foreign direct or portfolio
investment that could fi-
nance current account def-
icits—continues to depend
on external support. In
September 2013, the In-
ternational Monetary
Fund (IMF) approved a
three-year conditional ex-
tended facility loan of $6.6
billion to Islamabad. The
IMF programme was sup-
plemented in March 2014
by a $1.5 billion loan from
Saudi Arabia—not to say
anything about the resil-
ient American aid.”
No wonder, Pakistan is
called the sick man of
South Asia—Bangladesh’s
growth rate is twice that of
Pakistan.
It all seems so gloomy,
but this gloom stems from
the foundation of Pakis-
“The current trend in
Pakistan where civilian
power is no more than a
facade does not augur well
for the future of India-
Pakistan relationship.”
87
tan. Burki and Naseemul-
lah point out: “When
Pakistan achieved inde-
pendence, it did not have
the capacities of a func-
tioning state. That was not
the case for India, which
could simply take over cen-
tral institutions from the
British Raj. They inherited
a well developed capital
city, a well staffed central
government, a central
bank and a treasury to
handle government’s fi-
nance. The British left for-
eign exchange reserves to
the partitioned states, 17
per cent of which were to
be given to Pakistan as its
share of these ‘sterling bal-
ances’. Yet none of these
were immediately availa-
ble to Pakistan. It had to
create a new state out of
nothing…. Compounding
this problem was the arriv-
al of eight million refugees
from India while six mil-
lion Hindus and Sikhs
emigrated to India.”
When the country’s
first Finance Minister ar-
rived at his office in Ka-
rachi, he famously found a
single table and a chair.
So, where does the so-
lution lie? The solution can
be found in some of the ac-
tions of Jinnah. For in-
stance, do as Jinnah did:
forge new allies, look with-
in. Then follow Ayub
Khan’s development dec-
ades of the 1960s. And, im-
portantly, be comfortable
in one’s own skin. Remem-
ber, Jinnah gave up his
business suits for the sher-
wani. Pakistan, too, might
have to stop looking at the
West and capitalise on its
strategic location for trade
rather than balance of
power.
Historically, it is a loca-
tion that yielded great divi-
dends in the world of
business. As for its rela-
tionship with India, it is
likely to be the same: some
appeasement, some skir-
mishes, a little conciliation
and some crises. This posi-
tion is unlikely to change
as long the military con-
fiscates power in Pakistan
and real democracy does
not take root.
The book concludes:
“Short of the establish-
ment of a real democracy
in Pakistan wherein civil-
ians would exercise real
control over the military,
any long-term rapproche-
ment with India will re-
main elusive. The current
trend in Pakistan where ci-
vilian power is no more
than a facade does not au-
gur well for the future of
India-Pakistan
relationship.”
The book provides no
easy answers. The contrib-
utors to the collection open
a new window and let the
reader take in the view and
come to his or her own
conclusions. An open-end-
ed approach serves well for
a work of this nature.
As for Jaffrelot’s invol-
vement with the project, to
borrow Ghalib words, the
book is the body, his words
its soul. His essay carries
more weight than many
others put together. If the
book makes for impressive
reading, credit has to be
given to its editor. Jaffrelot
even makes crossroads in-
teresting. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 BOOKS in review
Modi’s U.S. ally
The Modi government seems to be flattered because
the U.S. has chosen India as its foot soldier in its
confrontations with China and Russia. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I
“T he end of the Cold
War with the Soviet
Union left Western gov-
ernments seeking a new
sense of purpose on the
world stage. They found it
in the profession of the po-
liceman. They concerned
themselves with countries
that had, in their view, of-
fended international peace
and order and also stan-
dards of good behaviour
towards their own peoples.
This intervention moved
from that of charitable aid
and exhortation to eco-
nomic sanction and, even-
tually, military aggression.
The turn of the 21st centu-
ry has come to be known as
the age of intervention
—humanitarian, liberal,
neoconservative or neoim-
perial according to taste.
The targets were almost all
small Muslim states,” Si-
mon Jenkins writes. He is
no crusader or campaign-
er, but a cool-headed pro-
fessional journalist.
Afghanistan, Iraq and Li-
bya were destroyed; so also
Syria.
This book is a most in-
structive collection of his
writings in The Times
(London) and The Guardi-
an from 1999 to 2014. His
beat is mostly London
though he has visited some
of the places in question,
such as Serbia, Iraq, Af-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
ghanistan, Pakistan, the
[Persian] Gulf, Lebanon
and Syria, apart from fre-
quent trips to America. He
freely admits to error on
some occasions. Each arti-
cle has a comment with the
benefit of hindsight.
The United States
which the journalist de-
scribes lives up to its cri-
tique by President Barack
Obama’s favourite political
philosopher, the Reverend
Reinhold Niebuhr, who
wrote in 1958: “The Amer-
ican nation has become
strangely enamoured with
military might.”
The dissolution of the
Soviet Union in 1991 and
the end of the Cold War did
not diminish the enchant-
ment. It saw, instead, a
88
Mission
Accomplished?
The Crisis of
International
Intervention
By Simon Jenkins
I.B. Tauris
Pages:195
Price: £9.99
surge of triumphalism and
militarism. The New York
Times of March 8, 1992,
carried a revealing report
by the noted correspondent
Patrick E. Tyler. The ad-
ministration was working
on a new version of the “De-
fence Policy Guidance”, a
classified paper rewritten
every two years. The 1992
version was the first one
since the Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics (USSR)
collapsed in December
1991. It was leaked. The
draft document said: “In
the Middle East and South-
west Asia, our overall ob-
jective is to remain the
predominant outside pow-
er in the region and pre-
serve U.S. and Western
access to the region’s oil.”
In Western Europe and
East Asia as well as the
Middle East (West Asia),
the goal of American policy
should be “to prevent any
hostile power from dom-
inating a region whose re-
sources would, under
consolidated control, be
sufficient to generate glob-
al power”. It suggested the
possibility of bringing the
new states of Central and
Eastern Europe into the
European Union, and of
giving them new security
commitments from the
U.S. that would protect
them from an attack by
Russia.
The part of the draft
which attracted the most
notice was its suggestion
that the U.S. should work
actively to block the emer-
gence of any potential
competitor to its power.
The language seemed to
apply to Japan, Germany
or a united Europe, and to
China and Russia. It said
the U.S. should discourage
the “advanced industrial
nations” from challenging
the U.S.’ leadership, in part
by taking these countries’
interests into account and
also through unmatchable
military strength. It sug-
gested that competition
with Japan and Germany
should be confined to eco-
nomics; the U.S. should
make sure it had no mil-
itary rivals.
The White House tacti-
cally distanced itself from
the leaked Pentagon docu-
ment. So, for that matter,
did Paul Wolfowitz (then
Undersecretary of Defence
for Policy). Dick Cheney
(then Secretary of De-
fence) approved of it.
James Mann, in Rise of
the Vulcans, writes: “The

P R IM E M I N I S T E R M O D I addressing a joint session of the U.S. Congress on June 8.
draft suggested that the
main purpose of American
military power was to pre-
serve America’s role as a
superpower and to block
countries like Japan and
Germany from equalling
the United States.
“Two months later
Pentagon officials in-
formed reporters that the
document had been recast
in such a way that it was
dramatically different
from the original. Officials
suggested to reporters that
the original draft had been
toned down. The Pentagon
had ‘abandoned’ the idea
that its strategy should be
to block the emergence of a
rival to American military
supremacy, reported one
Pentagon correspondent.
“However, the revised
vision of American strate-
gy contained most of the
same ideas as the origi-
nal.… The final version
didn’t talk about stopping
allies from emerging as ri-
vals. But it said the United
States should ‘preclude
any hostile power from
dominating a region crit-
ical to our interest.’ Pre-
sumably any nation that
came to rival American
power could be deemed
potentially ‘hostile’ if its
policies weren’t aligned
with those of the United
States.” (James Mann,
Rise of the Vulcans, Pen-
guin, 2004, pages 210-
212; a magisterial book
which documents the aspi-
rations, intrigues and pol-
icies of the school of
strategists that had
emerged. Vulcan was the
Roman god of fire).
The Vulcans repre-
sented a mood and an atti-
tude that spawned an
atmosphere in the nation
and facilitated their reci-
pes to be carried out.
James Mann writes: “Dur-
ing the 35 years from 1968
to 2003 the Vulcans re-
flected the moods and be-
liefs of America as a
whole… one that pursued
unchallengeable military
strength for the United
States. Many Americans
disagreed with them, but
not enough to dislodge
them from power for long.
When the Vulcans dealt
with the world, they were a
stand-in for America: its
government, its national
security establishment, its
political beliefs and
choices.
“The question re-
mained whether the ven-
ture into Iraq in 2003
89
that began in the two dec-
ades before 1989 and con-
tinued for at least 15 years
afterward. It was the story
of the pursuit of unrivalled
American power, the story
of the rise of the Vulcans.”
Behind those 35 years lay a
certain tradition and it
MARK WILSON/GETTY IMAGES/AFP
continued after 2003, as
James Mann notes.
Prof. John J. Mear-
sheimer of the University
of Chicago recalls: “The
United States, it should be
emphasised, did not be-
come a hegemon in the
Western Hemisphere by
accident. When it gained
marked the point where its independence in 1783,
history turned once again. it was a weak country com-
Did it represent the outer prised of 13 states running
limits of the expansion of up and down the Atlantic
American power and ide- seaboard. Over the course
als? From the perspective of the next 115 years,
of the Vulcans themselves, American policy-makers
it clearly did not; they por- worked unrelentingly in
trayed Iraq as merely a way pursuit of regional hegem-
station on the road toward ony. They expanded Amer-
democratising the entire ica’s boundaries from the
Middle East. Atlantic to the Pacific
“There was no question Ocean as part of a policy
that the Vulcans’ venture commonly referred to as
into Iraq grew out of their ‘Manifest Destiny’. Indeed
previous 35 years of think- the United States was an
ing about America’s role in expansionist power of the
the world. It represented a first order. Henry Cabot
final step in the transfer of Lodge put the point well
ideas that the Vulcans had when he noted that the
formed during the Cold U.S. had a record of con-
War into a post-Cold War quest, colonisation, and
world—the ideas that the territorial expansion un-
United States should em- equalled by any people in
phasise military strength, the 19th century. Or I
should spread its ideals might add the 20th centu-
and should not accommo- ry” (The Chinese Journal of
date other centres of International Politics,
power. Volume 3, 2010, pages
“Over the past few 381-396). The U.S. has
years modern historians been at war for 14 of the 21
have drawn a picture of years since the Cold War
world events in which one ended. This was written in
era, the Cold War, ended in 2010, before the attack on
1989 and a new era, the Libya in 2011.
post-Cold War, started Prof. Mearsheimer be-
then. But hidden within longs to the small band of
this picture, there lay an- scholars who are prepared
other, entirely different to consider the other side’s
historical narrative, one viewpoint, such as Stephen
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
Walt and Andrew J. Ba-
cevich. India can boast of
very few such, whether on
China or Pakistan. Most
are paperback pocket edi-
tions of the Vulcans; small
in vision and slender in
knowledge.
This is what Mear-
sheimer wrote of China
specifically: “Why would
China feel safe with U.S.
forces deployed on its
doorstep? Following the
logic of the Monroe Doc-
trine, would not China’s
security be better served by
pushing the American mil-
itary out of the Asia-Pacific
region? Why should we ex-
pect China to act any dif-
ferently than the United
States over the course of its
history? Are they more
principled than the Amer-
icans? More ethical? Are
they less nationalistic than
the Americans? Less con-
cerned about their surviv-
al? They are none of these
things, of course, which is
why China is likely to im-
itate the United States and
attempt to become a re-
gional hegemon.
“And what is the likely
American response if Chi-
na attempts to dominate
Asia? It is crystal clear
from the historical record
that the United States does
not tolerate peer compet-
itors. As it demonstrated
over the course of the 20th
century, it is determined to
remain the world’s only re-
gional hegemon. There-
fore, the United States can
be expected to go to great
lengths to contain China
and ultimately weaken it to
the point where it is no
longer a threat to rule the
roost in Asia. In essence,
the United States is likely
to act toward China similar
to the way it behaved to-
ward the Soviet Union
during the Cold War”
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
—and still does. Witness
North Atlantic Treaty Or-
ganisation’s (NATO) ex-
pansion to the borders of
Russia. The Economist
quoted a Chinese admiral
who likened the American
Navy to a man with a crim-
inal record “wandering
just outside the gate of a
family home” (March 13,
2009). Not long ago, India
objected to the presence of
the great powers’ navies in
the Indian Ocean.
ONGOING PROJECT
This is where Simon Jen-
kins’ work acquires rele-
vance. It demonstrates
convincingly that the U.S.’
march to its “Manifest
Destiny” is very much on.
9/11 was, as Zbigniew
Brzezinski said, an act of
terrorism by Osama bin
Laden, not an act of ag-
gression by the state of Af-
ghanistan. The Vice
Chancellor of Oxford Uni-
versity, Louise Richard-
son, holds the same view.
It was a case of “over-reac-
tion” by the U.S.
Simon Jenkins’ spon-
taneous comments are re-
alistic. 9/11 is his starting
point. “It is a human disas-
ter, an outrage, an atrocity,
an unleashing of the mad-
ness of which the world
will never be rid. But it is
not politically significant.
It does not tilt the balance
of world power one inch. It
is not an act of war. Amer-
ica’s leadership of the West
is not diminished by it. The
cause of democracy is not
damaged, unless we
choose to let it be dam-
aged. Maturity lies in
learning to live, and some-
times die, with the
madmen.
“The events of 9/11 saw
an outpouring of sympathy
for America that is hard to-
day to recall. Messages of
90
support came from almost
every country on earth, in-
cluding Russia and China,
excluding only such sworn
foes as Iraq and Afghan-
istan. The PLO [Palestine
Liberation Organisation]
leader, Yasser Arafat, gave
blood for the people of
New York. All the world
claimed ‘to be American’.
Even the Taliban leader-
ship was so shocked as to
summon a loya jirga (trib-
al conclave) to discuss
what to do about their al-
Qaeda guests in the Tora
Bora Mountains. Many
younger leaders were re-
ported to have pressed for
them to leave. They were
now ‘unwelcome guests’.”
In issue was an agreed
tribunal. “Intelligence in-
dicated that this might
happen [the handover of
bin Laden] but would take
time. American opinion
was disinclined to wait.”
He might have written
particularly of George W.
Bush and Dick Cheney.
The bombing began on
October 7, 2001. “The fall
of Kabul put the city, and
notionally the country, un-
der a U.N. ‘transitional ad-
ministration’. An
interview with a former Af-
ghan diplomat in London
convinced me that the Ta-
liban had been sufficiently
split on hosting bin Laden
that it needed only time to
spring him. Indeed he told
me bin Laden was already
a dead man for the murder
of the Tajik leader, Shah
Massoud.
“A post-9/11 loya jirga
at Kandahar saw younger
Taliban commanders
(some in contact with
Americans since the
1990s) furious at their
leader Mullah Omar con-
tinuing to give hospitality
to bin Laden and his alien
Arabs. They secured a re-
quest, unenforced, that he
leaves. (Lucy Morgan Ed-
wards, The Afghan Solu-
tion, Bacteria, 2011.) As it
was, America and Britain
‘took ownership’ of a dis-
tant foreign state. As in
Bosnia and Kosovo, the
age of intervention had led
from military victory to
military occupation to de
facto political
responsibility.”
INDIA’S REACTION
What was India’s reaction?
The Bharatiya Janata Par-
ty (BJP) government’s
Foreign Minister, Jaswant
Singh, instantly offered
bases to the U.S., which it
had not sought, to sideline
Pakistan. The U.S. pre-
ferred Pakistan.
After Afghanistan
came Iraq in 2003. The
New York Times dropped
the column by one of the
most astute analysts, Wil-
liam Pfaff. Today, that war
is not deplored because it
was a criminal aggression,
but because it is a failed
adventure. Iraq lies broken
and ruined.
Libya followed in 2011,
with Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton as the
strongest advocate of in-
tervention, as she was of
the view to attack Iraq in
2003. The U.N. Security
Council Resolution 1973
was agreed to by the Rus-
sians because it did not au-
thorise a military
intervention. It was cheat-
ed, as was Muammar Gad-
dafi, who had renounced
his nuclear weapons.
North Korea learnt the
lesson.
The author writes:
“The NATO pledge that
there would be no foreign
troops on the ground was
mendacious. From the
moment air power failed to
achieve the undeclared
goal of Tripoli’s surrender,
the pledge was broken.
NATO ground troops were
extensively deployed in Li-
bya, the distinction be-
tween overt and covert
forces being spurious.
‘Special’ soldiers are still
soldiers. Close air support
is also identical in tactical
effect to ground artillery,
as deployed in the final as-
sault on the Gaddafi
compound.
“Britain claimed it was
not taking sides in a for-
eign civil war. It clearly
was. The rescue of Bengha-
zi mutated, as did the Iraq
venture, into a wider war
to remove a regime no
longer to Britain’s liking.
Aid of every sort was given
to the rebels, from political
and diplomatic support to
training, logistics and bat-
tlefield leadership in the
attack on Tripoli.
“Throughout the cam-
paign, the British govern-
ment has said it is ‘for the
Libyan people to decide
their own fate’ and its in-
volvement would end once
a tyrant had departed the
scene. That was naive. Bri-
tain has, with NATO, most
emphatically decided the
fate of the Libyan people.
It has brought anarchy in
the place of order, hoping
that anarchy will be brief.
It cannot disown the
consequences.…”
In a late comment he
adds: “In September Cam-
eron paid a ‘victory’ visit to
Benghazi, but he did not
dare set foot in Tripoli
which by then was already
too unsafe for any Western
leader. They could no more
walk the streets in ‘liber-
ated’ Baghdad. He had left
Libya to the mercy of the
triumphant rebels and the
result was chaos. Over the
following two years, bru-
talities worthy of Gaddafi
“Two decades of
intervention had delivered
seven wars, two in Iraq,
two in former Yugoslavia,
one each in Afghanistan,
Sierra Leone and Libya.”
were reported. Oil produc-
tion slumped and Tripoli
soon became a no-go area
for outsiders. By the sum-
mer of 2014, the British
embassy had to close. Li-
bya was no longer on the
interventionist’s map. It
was no longer news.”
On August 30, 2013,
the House of Commons
snubbed Prime Minister
David Cameron by refus-
ing him the vote to sanc-
tion the bombing of Syria.
“Two decades of interven-
tion had delivered seven
wars, two in Iraq, two in
former Yugoslavia, one
each in Afghanistan, Sierra
Leone and Libya. Two of
these, in Afghanistan and
Iraq, were more protracted
than any seen in the 20th
century. Few lessons were
learned from each. Inva-
sions were planned but not
occupations, which were
often chaotic. The world’s
most powerful armies
found themselves hum-
bled by the world’s most
primitive. The expense was
colossal, some $3-4 trillion
on one estimate, the bene-
fits largely elusive. At the
end there was a ghost of
democracy in Afghanistan
and Iraq, but little stabil-
ity, peace or prosperity.
None of the ‘victorious
powers’ dared walk the
streets in the capitals they
claimed to have freed from
oppression.
“The invading powers,
91
heavily militaristic in char-
acter, proved good at re-
gime destroying but not at
regime building. Rival de-
fence and diplomatic
agencies found it hard to
plan strategies for occupa-
tion, and thus hard to
know when success had
been achieved and when it
was time to depart. They
could not ‘cut and run’. The
motto was ‘The job must be
finished’, if only to atone
for the rising number of
war dead.”
This is not a report on a
recent disease but a diag-
nosis of a deeply en-
trenched malady which is
inherent in the American
polity. This is why it rejects
equal partnership not only
with Russia but also with
Western Europe. Does In-
dia stand a chance?
ALTERNATIVE COURSE
The best course for all is to
devise a world order that
rests on accord and thus
acquires legitimacy and
stability. This is a task wor-
thy of India. It cannot play
its part if it compromises
its independence to be-
come America’s foot sol-
dier in its confrontation
with China and, not un-
likely, with Russia. This is
precisely the role which
the U.S. has chosen to as-
sign to a flattered Modi
government. U.S. Defence
Secretary Ash Carter told
the Council on Foreign Re-
lations in New York on
April 8, 2016: “Militarily,
the Department of De-
fence is operationalising
the next phase of the reba-
lance, and cementing it for
the long term. We are en-
hancing America’s force
posture throughout this vi-
tally important region to
continue playing a pivotal
role from the sea, in the air,
and under the water, as
well as to make our posture
more geographically dis-
tributed, operationally re-
silient, and politically
sustainable. To do so, we
continue to bring the best
people and platforms for-
ward to the Asia Pacific
—not only increasing the
number of U.S. military
personnel in the region,
part of some 365,000 as-
signed to the Asia-Pacific
today, but also sending
and stationing some of our
most advanced capabili-
ties there.”
In New Delhi, he of-
fered sops to India’s chau-
vinists on April 10, 2016.
The U.S. has a “whole glob-
al agenda with India. Its
relationship with Pakistan
was focussed on Afghan-
istan and terrorism.” No
wonder Narendra Modi
and his cohorts find the of-
fered embrace irresistible.
One must repeat the
questions: What is the
character of this ally?
What is the nature of the
world order and can we
contribute to its reform by
forging alliances or by in-
dependent action in
friendship with all—the
U.S. and China, included?
Meanwhile, the Modi
government must dis-
charge its duty to Parlia-
ment and the nation by
publishing the sordid, se-
cret accord with the Unit-
ed States of America. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 LITERATURE
Such a long journey
The anthology, remarkably inclusive and cohesive at once, is testimony
to the abundant creativity found in regional languages such as Tamil.
BY A . S . P A N N E E R S E L V A N
AN anthology of 88 Tamil
short stories in translation,
spanning nine decades between
1913 and 2000, provides an
unique insight into Tamil socie-
ty, its politics, people, culture
and diversity, and its transition
from an essentially rural exist-
ence during the late colonial pe-
riod to its present urban reality
in a globalised environment.
Classical Tamil literature
had a neat demarcation—agam
(interior) and puram (exterior),
where agam dealt with the inte-
rior or the mindscape of lovers
and their relationships while
puram dealt with social issues,
governance, war and justice.
For nearly two millennia, the
dominant form of literature in
Tamil was poetry. It was the
language’s engagement with
colonialism that produced its
prose, which also marked the complex, multilayered
transformation of a region ruled by chieftains and local
rulers into an administrative unit called Madras Presi-
dency and eventually the State of Tamil Nadu. The ad-
vent of prose in Tamil played three crucial roles: it
democratised the society, gave the people a language to
deal with their everyday challenges and blurred the line
between agam and puram, leading to an intricate in-
terplay between these two categories.
Theories about all beginnings are contested, and the
beginning of the Tamil short story is no different. Ac-
cording to some Tamil academic scholars, the first set of
short stories in prose was written by the Italian Jesuit
priest Constanzo Beschi, popularly known as Veerama-
munivar. His collection of stories, Paramarthaguruvin
Kathai (The Adventures of Guru Paramartha), publish-
ed as early as 1728, is known for parable-like renditions of
tales that effortlessly fused theological inquiry, moral
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
derelictions and elements of the
absurd in its narration. Howev-
er, literary scholars feel that this
was just a beginning of prose
writing in Tamil and that these
stories are in reality re-render-
ings of the Fables by the 17th
century French fabulist Jean de
La Fontaine. Their argument
gains credence from the fact
that though the first Tamil nov-
el, Prathapa Mudaliar Char-
ithram, was written in 1857,
there was no short work of fic-
tion in Tamil until the begin-
ning of the 20th century.
Dilip Kumar and Subashree
Krishnaswamy’s anthology, The
Tamil Story, starts from the pe-
riod when the short story, both
as a form as well as a socio-
political tool, was firmly estab-
lished. The early anti-colonial
struggle, the fight for women’s
rights, the role of nascent media (especially magazine
journalism), caste discrimination, and the urge to be a
part of emerging modernity that promised an egalitarian
future were the markers of the early short stories in
Tamil.
Dilip Kumar is identified as the anthology’s editor
and Subashree Krishnaswamy as the translator of these
stories. However, a closer reading reveals that it is an
organic collaborative effort that attempts to sew the mul-
tiple strands into a tapestry, which captures the vibrancy
of this classical language’s journey from a strict, gram-
marian-driven written tradition to a new form of narra-
tives that instilled the wonders of oral tradition into its
prose. While Dilip Kumar and Subashree Krishnaswamy
recognise that three stalwarts, Subramania Bharathi, Va.
Ve.Su. Aiyar and Aa. Madhavaiah, are the pioneers of this
genre of writing, they have managed to locate other fine
stories from that period to establish the fact that the short
92

‘Charming style’
IT was in the mid 1980s, when I was working with
Cre-A Publications, that I first came across Expecta-
tion and the Event by Ammani Ammal. We had com-
missioned Chitti and Sivapathasundaram to trace the
history of the Tamil short story and they turned in a
well-researched, comprehensive manuscript. They
had elaborated on the significance of this story by
excerpting a few paragraphs from it. I was struck by
the charming style and the fluidity of the prose.
Almost 25 years later, when this book took shape,
it was one of the first stories I decided to hunt down; so
deep was the impression it had made on me. At the
U.V. Swaminatha Iyer Library, I found the issue of
Viveka Bodhini that featured the story. But the beige
pages of the magazine were brittle, crumbling under
my hands. Luckily, the librarian, a lover of books, was
convinced of the importance of the project. He gra-
ciously allowed me to photocopy the story, for which I
am eternally grateful.
This remarkable story, a truly pioneering effort,
definitely had a hand in shaping the Tamil short story.
It is unique in more ways than one. Conforming to the
idea of the modern short story, it picks up a single
crisis and treats it with great precision. But by struc-
turing it like a parable, it cleverly retains the vast
passage of time within the story, overturning the ideal
or prescribed norm of the short story. In the last
couple of paragraphs, it suddenly and spontaneously
departs from the conventionalities of narration and
locates the story in a contemporary time frame and
social context. The organic fusion of all these elements
into a seamless whole reveals the deft hand of a writer
who had clearly mastered the form.
According the right chronological position to this
story was of utmost importance. That it became a
springboard for revisiting the origins of the Tamil
short story was a happy coincidence.
Dilip Kumar, Editor, The Tamil Story

story form took its own root in the lan- providing a sense of cohesion to the
guage and that its practitioners not on- collection. The compilers had to take
ly mastered the art of storytelling but into account three distinct political tra-
also tweaked the language to represent jectories and two opposing ideas of
the new needs of a society in the throes what constitutes art in creative writing.
of momentous change. The three political trajectories, broadly
Those stories are Sankalpamum speaking, are the nationalistic stream
Sambavamum (1913) by Ammani Am- inspired by the experiments in Bengali
mal (on page 95), Subbayyar (1921) by language, the Left’s social realism
Selvakesavarayar and Moondril Edhu largely inspired by the Russian masters
(1924) by V. Visalakshiammal. and the Self-Respect Movement’s de-
The anthologists have tried to be as sire to retain the wellsprings of the lin-
inclusive as possible to offer a glimpse guistic identity against the tide of
of the richness of the new literary form homogenisation that flowed from Indi-
in Tamil. “We set ourselves three vital an nationalism. The ideas contesting
principles to attain the larger objective for supremacy were “art for art’s sake”
of this collection and guide us through and “art for social and economic
the selection. First, apart from all the C O N S T A N Z O B E S C HI . He change”.
conventional elements of the short sto- was popularly known as Dilip Kumar and Subashree Krish-
ry, we wanted the selected pieces to Veeramamunivar. naswamy have managed to navigate
possess a very strong sense of ‘story’, so these choppy waters rather well. They
that they would survive the conflict of nuances between have chosen stories from iconic writers representing each
languages during the process of translation. Second, we of these streams. One can quibble about their various
decided to choose stories that reflected diverse geograph- choices. Another set of editors may have selected some
ical, professional and social backdrops that are a compos- other stories of each of the authors represented in the
ite of Tamil life and ethos. Finally, the commitment of the anthology. They may have even chosen a different set of
writer to the form of the short story and to the truthful authors. For instance, C.N. Annadurai and T.K. Sriniva-
narration of the depicted experience was crucial. These san represent the Dravidian movement in this anthology.
parameters instilled clarity of vision in the work at hand,” Some may feel that S.S. Thennarasu and M. Karunanidhi
says Dilip Kumar. should have been included.
One avid reader of contemporary Tamil literature felt
TO BE INCLUSIVE AND COHESIVE that the stories of Konangi and Poomani featured in the
While the objective to be inclusive in the selection of book reflect their early styles and do not capture their
stories is commendable, it also poses the challenges of later experiments with form, language and narrative

93 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016


VA. V E . S U. A I YA R . A . M A D H A V A I A H.
styles. In this context, Dilip Kumar’s explanation of the
selection criteria seems fair. He says: “Our collection tries
to be as representative as possible, primarily focussing on
literary achievements that stand the test of time. But we
have taken care not to overlook some of the cherished
pieces of popular writing. Popular writings in Tamil,
always distinct, attempt to discuss and expose topical
conflicts and human folly in a way that never breaks any
convention nor hurts any tradition.”
The anthologists also point out that they had to leave
out some of their favourite writers and their stories be-
cause those stories were not amenable to translation. “I
kept these important things in mind when I finally chose
a story: one, the story had to have a universal appeal,
despite its unique cultural specificities. But that doesn’t
mean that we settled for simpler stories. A challenging
text which would prod me to bring out the beauty of the
source language in English was what we looked for. It
was also vital that the translated text retained almost all
the nuances and the natural flow of the original, over-
coming the inevitable losses that happen during any
process of translation.
“A few translations had to be abandoned since they
did not stand up to scrutiny after translation. Some
stories hinged totally on local dialect, while a few were
riddled with too many linguistic impossibilities, which,
when elaborated upon within the text, made the reading
experience cumbersome and laborious. Besides, a few
stories that resonated strongly among readers in Tamil
quite simply did not work with readers of the translation.
Including such stories would have shown the authors in
poor light,” says Subashree Krishnaswamy.
What makes this anthology ring true to Tamil ears is
that it has retained the quaintness of certain usages and
refused to smoothen the linguistic rough edges to sound
right for an essentially English reader. “We were con-
scious that the essence of the original must be retained.
We wanted the intonations of Tamil to come
through—the slang, the idiomatic usage, and even the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
C. N . AN N A D UR AI .
swear words, if possible. We would like the readers to
experience the Tamil culture, the Tamil language. We
have taken great care to retain the authors’ distinctly
diverse voices from different regions, strata and times.
We hope that the reader can perceptively sift the ironic
gaze from the comic and the metaphysical. We also hope
this text, a different avatar from the original, will usher in
a new readership for the writers and introduce to the
readers an entirely fresh world,” says Subashree
Krishnaswamy.
The translators have used kinship terms unapologet-
ically in many places, and this not only retains the essence
of Tamil but also draws our sensibilities to its fluid syntax
in the spoken form, which is the basis for most of the
stories. The free use of Tamil words somehow seamlessly
merge with the narrative, and the context provides the
meaning. For readers who find it difficult to understand
what a particular word means in English, there is an
extensive glossary at the end where every non-English
word is explained. This anthology becomes a great read-
ing experience because it refrains from that annoying
habit of adding footnotes and endnotes for almost every
sentence that have a culture specificity.
In a larger sense, this anthology is an act of repudia-
tion of the claims made by Salman Rushdie when he
co-edited The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-
1997. Rushdie’s claim was: “The prose writing—both
fiction and non-fiction—created in this period by Indian
writers working in English is proving to be a stronger and
more important body of work than most of what has been
produced in the eighteen ‘recognised’ languages of India,
the so-called ‘vernacular languages’, during the same
time; and, indeed, this new, and still burgeoning, ‘Indo-
Anglian’ literature represents perhaps the most valuable
contribution India has yet made to the world of books.”
None of the Tamil stories are second to any of the
“Indo-Anglian” stories included in Rushdie’s volume.
This speaks volumes for the abundance of creativity in
Indian languages. 첸
94

More than inspiring
I SETTLED in to read this story, an indulgent smile
very much on display. After all, Expectation and the
Event began much like a parable and was written at a
time when the short story as a genre had barely reared
its head. I expected the author to deliver a banal
homily with a grandmotherly air, as if addressing a
brood of children. But the intelligent and unexpected
end jolted me out of my complacency and sharply
reminded me of the enormity of the task at hand.
Though the language of this nuanced story was
reflective of the period, it had the lucidity and preci-
sion of modern prose. Ammani Ammal was sure of her
craft, judiciously structuring her sentences to suit the
tenor of modern storytelling. Here is a graphic de-
scription—an assembly line of perfect thinking, if you
will—which even a talented writer of today would be
hard put to better: “First they chopped it into bits,
then pushed it into the grinding machine along with
the others, pounded and squeezed all the juice out of
its body to make it into mush, torturing it in ever so
many ways, before finally turning it into paper.”
The writing was peppered with words not much in
use these days and a few of them were Sanskritised, in
keeping with the times. For example, “himsai” and
“prasiddhi”. But they were not hard to decipher, and
lent a certain old-world charm to the writing.
aren’t suitable enough to be put for such use. They will
use you to make paper.”
“What is paper?” asked the tree to the weaver birds
who were flying here and there on its branches. “We don’t
know. We’ll ask the sparrows.”
The sparrows said what they knew: “Paper is the
white thing on which people write and read. Earlier they
were making it with rags. Nowadays because trees are so
easily available, they are making it with trees.”
“O, people will read me, is it?” enquired the tree
eagerly. “Yes,” they replied. The tree lay spellbound, its
happiness knowing no bounds. Aware that there was
little reason to be so joyful, the sparrows cautioned:
“Ayyo, wait for a minute. They are going to turn you into
newsprint, not paper for a book.”
“Whatever it is, they will write only interesting, good
things on me, isn’t it?” said the tree. “Perhaps,” said the
sparrows. “But, generally, they don’t always write good
things.” A few men then came to drag away the tree. Poor
thing, the tree went through such ordeals. First they
chopped it into bits, then pushed it into the grinding
machine along with the others, pounded and squeezed all
the juice out of its body to make it into mush, torturing it
in ever so many ways, before finally turning it into paper.
What was the point in having such thoughts while under-
going such torment? And what use thinking of days of
pleasant sunshine in the sloping hills of the forest, when
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
With trees, birds and squirrels tossing quips back
and forth, the writing at first revealed a certain fresh-
ness and innocence, tinged with a sense of fun. But
with the clever insertions of advertisements and head-
lines, the author naturalised the story, firmly putting it
in the Tamil context. This not only evoked the times
but also lent credibility to the story. (Even after a
hundred years, the attitude of newspapers and ad-
vertisements has not changed—‘Man dies climbing
tree’, ‘Yogi living on air’, ‘Sparrow virility potion’, ‘Nov-
el hair remover’.)
In the end, we realise that all this takes place in a
classroom and the author neatly turns the story on its
head, forcing the reader to take children seriously.
Intertwining so many elements effortlessly and seam-
lessly, the author reveals a high degree of sophisti-
cation, surely the hallmark of a successful modern
story. While building the story in English brick by
brick, I always kept this larger picture in mind and
inched towards it. The story, as an organic whole,
readily fell into place.
Curiously enough, the English title was given by
the author herself, printed as a subtitle. It is to our
immense regret that we could not get any details about
the author. We do not know who she was, only that she
was immensely talented. A good writer always goads a
translator into giving her best. Ammani Ammal more
than inspired me.
Subashree Krishnaswamy, Translator
birds cooed in the branches and children scampered
about in the shade and when you proudly watched them
all? “I never imagined the world would be like this,”
mused the tree aloud. The other trees, also turned into
paper, concurred in one voice: “Whatever has been said
of the world is all highly exaggerated.”
Then they wound the tree into a roll, five miles long,
and loaded it into a ship. There, poor thing, it suffered
from ailments such as seasickness for a week. A fierce
wind blew over its head. When they heard the noise, all
the trees that were turned into paper sighed about the
days spent so pleasantly in the forest, when they had so
fearlessly braved the winds. Our casuarina tree (turned
into paper) had the misfortune to be piled at the bottom
of the mast of the ship.
Not only that, the mast also happened to be its old
friend. The mast told the tree with satisfaction and pride:
Why, the life of a newspaper
is just one single day.... A
mast, on the other hand, is
of use for several years.
96
ILLUSTRATION: K.G. RANGARAJAN

97
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

“There is no greater life than being a mast. Under the
sunshine during the day and under the stars and the
moon at night, we take people and goods to new-new
countries, see so many ports—I can’t tell you how much
use we are to the world.”
The tree started to cry. “Are you telling me that a mast
is as important as a newspaper?”
The mast shook with laughter. “Well, this is what I
like. Why, the life of a newspaper is just one single day;
it’s of no use at all even the very next day. A mast, on the
other hand, is of use for several years. O, I forgot another
thing. Sometimes the captain of the ship leans against it.
Just imagine how proud it feels.”
The tree was engulfed in immeasurable sorrow. On
reaching the port, the rolls of paper were unloaded on the
shore. In the end, it reached the godown of the city’s
newspaper. It would have been so breezy in the forest; it
was so different being shut inside the airless godown.
Every roll of paper that lay in the room lamented with
great sorrow. One night, our tree (the paper) was taken to
the printing place, where under the press, unable to
breathe, it lost consciousness. When it came to in the
morning, it found letters imprinted on its body. What the
sparrows had said had come true. What was printed on it
were advertisements with crude illustrations—‘Fragrant
snuff’, ‘Sparrow virility potion’, ‘Hypnotic aromatic to-
bacco’, ‘Sixteen expensive things for a rupee’, ‘Novel hair
remover’, and things such as ‘Broad-daylight Murder in
Chinglepet’, ‘Man Dies Climbing Tree’, ‘Trains Collide’,
‘Yogi Living on Air’, ‘Flying Baby’, etcetera. There was not
a single thought-provoking word to be seen.
Oh! Even the all-knowing Lord of the Serpents, Ad-
hiseshan himself, wouldn’t be able to express how sad the
tree was when it came to know what was printed on it; it
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
A P HOTOCOP Y
of the original
text from
“Viveka Bodhini”
magazine (1913).
bemoaned the fact that it hadn’t become a mast. It took a
vow that if only it could somehow escape from this pre-
dicament, it would never let its mind wander. But ayyo, it
was all over. Then the tree and others like it were cut up,
folded, and bundled off in the early-morning cold to be
sold in the railway station. A man bought it for half an
anna, read the entire contents, announced that there was
nothing worthwhile in it, and flung it under his seat.
Another man picked it up, read it, and on the way back
home when he bought some fish, he wrapped them in it.
Stinking of fish, it spent the entire night thinking about
life in the forest. The next day, when the stove didn’t light
up, the maid flung the fish wrapping into the fire. In a
minute it was burnt— “busss…”
Forgetting that it was a story that they read, the
students pondered on both the joys that the tree could
have experienced and the turmoil it was subjected to in
reality.
The teacher who was considered a great enemy and
nicknamed ‘Teacher Never-to-Die’ asked: “What is the
moral of the story?” “Man proposes, god disposes”, or
“You can’t beat fate” or some such grandiloquent philo-
sophical statements were what he expected from the
children. But one boy, whose mind was still on the story,
uttered: “The moral is, these wretched newspapers
should be banned!”
Taken aback by the unusual response, the teacher
didn’t know what to say. Just because he was a young boy,
we shouldn’t presume that he answered in jest. More-
over, we elders are tortured daily by many such newspa-
pers which give us error-ridden information, poorly
printed on shabby, dirty paper, yielding nothing in return
for the effort we put in. Shouldn’t we then endorse this
view? 첸
98

Comic art for
serious people
Rajinder Puri (1934-2015) was the mascot of the morally upright
Indian cartoon. His incisive mind lent a sense of truth to every
contemporary political issue. He redefined the cartoon as a public
service as a recent exhibition of his works showed. B Y R I Z I O Y O H A N N A N R A J
AN encounter with any public
history will reveal how political pow-
ers, irrespective of ideology and loca-
tion, have led the common people, at
various points in time, to believe that
their wisdom as a community is di-
rectly linked to the quantum and
depth of suffering they are capable of
enduring. Thus has the tragic been
established over ages as the most ef-
fective legionnaire of the philosophi-
cal. As a tragic consequence of this
construction, the comic has often
been pushed to the peripheries of the
political state, and a great distance is
constantly made up between the can-
ons of the government and the hu-
morous expressions of the comic
artist. Histories have conspired to
identify and brand the comic as the
aberrant, which at its worst could
serve the benign role of the chief
court jester and at its best might just
be expelled on charges ranging from
sedition to insanity. Needless to say,
comic philosophers themselves have
contributed to the unbridled success
of this authoritarian strategy the
world over—with their rare detach-
ment, they would simply laugh at the
murky politics of the day and never
organise themselves against it as a
counter political voice.
Rarely has there been a political
establishment that sought to learn
the truth of the human condition as
TRIBUTE
VIPIN CHANDRAN
RA J I N D ER P U R I , a 2007 picture.
pursued and expressed by a comic
philosopher. But, there has hardly
been a comic thinker, too, political
enough to draw an unambiguous line
to establish comic philosophy as a
carrier of a moment’s truth.
And, that is where Rajinder Pu-
ri’s calling as a cartoonist and a polit-
ical columnist becomes starkly
different from that of his contempo-
raries. On the one hand, with the raw
power of his drawing and his savage
satire, he reduced the epistemolog-
ical distance between the fields of the
political activist and the comic artist.
99
On the other, with his vision fixed on
justice, and his cartoon-making
process paralleling the building of a
moral argument, he established the
methodological kinship between
philosophy and cartoon art and
proved that the comic philosopher is
for real, here and now.
Rajinder Puri (1934-2015) was
the mascot of the morally upright
Indian cartoon. Looking every issue
in the eye without fear or favour, Puri
made a non-negotiable space out of
his satirical line. His incisive mind
lent a sense of truth to every contem-
porary political issue. His probing
lines, uncluttered frames and witty
commentary never let our attention
shift from the idea and practice of
justice in our times. He redefined the
cartoon as a public service.
In his column “Bull’s Eye” in the
October 21, 2002, issue of Outlook,
he wrote: “‘Seven months have
passed, we still haven’t got the truth
about Godhra,’ I said. ‘Wait for seven
years,’ a lawyer advised me. ‘Remem-
ber the mass cremations in Punjab?
Remember J.S. Khalra? More than
seven years have passed. Have we got
the truth?’” Puri’s lines remind us
that the truth is still not found—it is
an unidentified, putrefying corpse ly-
ing on the rail track, exposed, dis-
owned, disturbing us with a
grotesque vision of the stinking state
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
of affairs we are part of, urging us to
do something about it, awakening
the political subject in every passer-
by. We sense growing frustration in
his lines, but there is also a strong
undercurrent of hope about knowing
the truth. He lays the question of
truth out there, leaving open the pos-
sibility of its just resolution. Some-
day, someone may come by, and do
the recognising act….
While Puri’s artistic method re-
minds one of Honore Daumier’s ex-
ploration of the myriad possibilities
of line in the expression of ideas and
emotions, his quest for truth imme-
diately takes one to Jonathan Swift’s
fierce satire. “Swiftian Satire”, a re-
cent exhibition of Puri’s cartoons in
New Delhi (India International Cen-
tre Annexe, May 3-10), revealed this
twin-edged reality of the late cartoo-
nist’s relentless pursuit of social and
political justice through his work.
Curated by Partha Chatterjee and
Arvinder Singh, the show featured a
fine selection sourced from the Neh-
ru Memorial Museum, K. Sriniva-
san’s personal collection and Puri’s
books.
Chatterjee reports how during
conversations over tea the cartoonist
would occasionally allow his friends
a peek into his personal memory and
share some sights and scenes from
the time he was working with The
Manchester Guardian and The Glas-
gow Herald. It seems Puri had, in an
unguarded moment, confessed to
having seen the art of the classical
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
and modern European masters while
in England despite his avowed dis-
like for high art. It was during this
time that he met Ronald Searle, Osb-
ert Lancaster, Gerald Anthony
Scarfe and others. The change in Pu-
ri’s drawing style between his mid
1960s’ pocket cartoon “What a Life!”
in The Hindustan Times and his lat-
er cartoons showing directness of
line and purpose does not escape
one’s notice. One sees the thinner
lines and almost Laxman-like satire
in “What a Life!” undergoing a tre-
mendous transformation.
It may be valid to connect the
quick development of his uninhib-
ited craft in handling the grotesque
with his early acquaintance with the
originals of the medieval Dutch mas-
ter Hieronymus Bosch and the early
20th century German cartoonist and
painter George Grosz. Perhaps, these
encounters only accelerated the in-
evitable home-finding process for a
cartoonist who, at the impression-
able age of 13, had passed through
the horrors of his country’s partition.
Puri came to Delhi with his fam-
ily from Karachi, and Partition and
its utter ruin of human life and trust
were to mark him for life, as an indi-
vidual and as a cartoonist. Later, he
came in contact with the socialist
Ram Manohar Lohia, and like the
latter became sceptical of the Con-
gress party’s intentions and capacity
to rule India fairly. This scepticism
continued through the first decades
of Independence and was reaffirmed
100
during the Emergency. In an essay in
his book India: The Wasted Years,
1969-1975, Puri wrote: “The govern-
ment is becoming the common ene-
my, and the police is a common
target of public wrath.” In a cartoon
featuring Indira Gandhi, he strikes
hard at her about the restrictions im-
posed on the press and creative art-
ists.
The 18-month Emergency, de-
clared in June 1975, and the resul-
tant frustration with the political
rottenness around prompted Puri to
try direct political action. He became
the founder-secretary of the Janata
Party, which defeated the Congress
in the following national elections.
But he soon found that the newly
built party was also becoming a
hotbed of intrigue as the greed of the
politicians clashed with their own
stated mission of public service. Not
surprisingly, the Janata Party split
and out of it emerged entities such as
the Janata Dal, the Lok Dal and the
Bharatiya Janata Party. Puri worked
briefly with the labour cell of the BJP
but quickly realised that it was not
for him. In 1988, he decided to leave
organised politics and continued to
crusade until the very end for social
and political justice for every citizen.
PURITY OF PURPOSE
Puri’s work has since remained both
the symbol and the field of his politi-
cal commitment, which was touched
by a purity of purpose and stayed free
of partisan considerations. Counter-
ing the insubstantial, imitative and
insecure establishment, he ceaseless-
ly renewed his matter and method
through experiments ranging from
political activism to the use of tech-
nology and colours in his cartoon-
scape. “Swiftian Satire” showed the
scale and variety of Puri’s political
art. In his punches, the acuity of Abu
Abraham and O.V. Vijayan and the
homely wit of R.K. Laxman and
Shankar (Kesava Shankar Pillai)
synchronise. His vision, ideals and
craft together exemplified the proce-
dural affinity between philosophy
and caricature, and his work re-
vealed the paradigmatic connect be-
tween these modes of understanding
life. What links his philosophical vi-
sion of justice and his cartoon is their
common proclivity to identify and
highlight the extraordinary that is
hidden in the ordinary, thus power-
fully projecting a supranormal per-
spective of a certain object, thereby
subverting its “normal” reception.
This method of extricating a distinc-
tive truth from the chaos around at
once elevates the humdrum world
view of the man on the street and
sublimates the elitist distance of-
fered by irony-making wordsmiths.
Paradoxically, experimenting
and renewing himself despite the im-
pression of reticence and reserve that
he gave us, he thought it was not too
late for him to start using the com-
puter, and once at it, he started ex-
ploring in his unique way the graphic
possibilities the digital world of-
fered. From the beginning of his ca-
reer, he had also been keenly
interested in international politics,
thus not limiting his inquires to the
Indian political space. From Richard
Nixon to Barack Obama, his brush
followed United States Presidents,
too—from the black-and-white peri-
od through to the new digital revolu-
tions enabling convenient glocal
connections.
As Chatterjee said, to create new
expressions and movements for his
constant experiments with truth, Pu-
ri drew from a variety of forms. He
responded keenly to Hindustani mu-
sic, both vocal and instrumental. His
P U RI ’ S P O C K E T C AR TOON
“What a Life!” from “The Hindustan
Times” of January 1, 1966.
101
friends recalled with relish some of
the “music” stories he would relate to
them in his lighter moments. His
love for the khayal singing of Ustad
Chhote Ghulam Ali Khan, who
hailed from Kasur (now in Pakistan)
like his illustrious senior Ustad Bade
Ghulam Ali Khan, was integrally
connected to his concern for the un-
derserved. Making a connection with
the larger world of human expres-
sions, Puri informed his work not
only with his knowledge of politics
and art but also of cinema, music and
sports—football, tennis and boxing.
Puri’s disillusionment with and
anger towards Indian politicians
were remarkably captured in his
weekly column on December 13,
1999, five years after the demolition
of the Babri Masjid: “Last week’s
grand bash in Mulayam’s house to
celebrate his son’s wedding provided
some indication. The leaders all
made peace while the people were
getting killed.” Puri held that politic-
ians could not be exempted from the
accountability for the slaughter of in-
nocents and the looting of the Indian
nation and its natural resources, and
he hit at them all, regardless of their
affiliations. For us, even after his
passing, his work emerges as a re-
lentless monitor of democracy, re-
minding us of the power of simple
lines and words, of the historical up-
risings of the common people against
repressive regimes. In his last piece,
which appeared on October 13, 2014,
in The Statesman, he wrote of a Modi
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 mukt (Modi-free) Bharat. It is his
disenchantment with the political
world that surrounded him that
made Puri look back at Gandhi so
poignantly in one of the essays in
India: The Wasted Years: “It is trag-
ic that since Independence a gener-
ation has been brought up in India
on tales of Gandhi the man, and has
been denied access to Gandhi the
revolutionary. The man was killed
by his enemies, and the revolution-
ary has been buried by his follow-
ers....’’
Puri’s life and works, like Gand-
hi’s, were an earnest experiment
with truth. At this juncture, a sud-
den twist of memory takes one to
Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Be-
ing Earnest: A Trivial Comedy for
Serious People, where Jack tells
Gwendolen: “Gwendolen, it is a ter-
rible thing for a man to find out sud-
denly that all his life he has been
speaking nothing but the truth. Can
you forgive me?”
One is starkly reminded here of
that curious thread which connects
the most courageous and the most
fearful: a keen awareness of their le-
thal locations. Shaping opposite re-
sponses to the same dreadful
context, one becomes the original,
and the other, a mirror image. And,
Puri was an original, almost terrify-
ingly earnest. His life as a cartoonist
had indeed been about the impor-
tance of being earnest, about the
need to go beyond appearances and
arrive at the truth of the historical
moment, and it perhaps presents a
rare comedy for serious people but
certainly not a trivial one. It first
etches for onlookers the most unique
features of its objects of concern, in-
stantly revealing their philosophical
truth, and then, in the most contem-
porary manner, puts together its
comic body. The Indian cartoon
world without Rajinder Puri looks
almost identical to the cartoon he
had done on Jawaharlal Nehru’s
death: “The Void”. 첸
Rizio Yohannan Raj is a bilingual
writer, educationist and governance
thinker. She is the founder and executive
director of LILA Foundation for
Translocal Initiatives, a cultural think-
space based in Delhi.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 102

 LEGISLATION

Mapping under scanner

The proposed Geospatial Information Regulation Bill, which seeks to
make graphic depiction and sharing of geographic coordinates of India
obtained through aerial platforms a punishable offence, draws
widespread criticism. B Y D I VYA TR I VE D I

K.R. DEEPAK

THE Geospatial Information
Regulation Bill, 2016, which has
been put up for discussion in the
public domain by the Ministry of
Home Affairs, may severely impact
on the utilitarian values of informa-
tion technology, which mobile phone
users have taken for granted. For in-
stance, seemingly harmless acts such
as clicking the picture of a landscape
from an airborne aircraft’s window
seat and posting it on Instagram or
sharing it on WhatsApp, may be-
come punishable offence if prior per-
mission is not obtained for the same.
T H E GH A T road leading to Dharamsala and Mcleodganj in Himachal Pradesh.
Clicking an aerial picture of a landscape may become a punishable offence.
Geospatial information, accord- photos referenced to a co-ordinate
ing to the Bill, means “geospatial im- system and having attributes”. A per-
agery or data acquired through space son found to have stored such images
or aerial platforms such as satellite, on a device or in print may face a fine
aircrafts, airships, balloons, un- of up to Rs.100 crore, or a seven-year
manned aerial vehicles, including prison term, unless otherwise per-
value addition; or graphical or digital mitted. The punishment for taking a
data depicting natural or man-made picture is disproportionate to the “of-
physical features, phenomenon or fence” when compared with, say, the
boundaries of the earth or any in- punishment for sexual harassment,
formation related thereto, including which is up to three years of impris-
surveys, charts, maps, terrestrial onment. This Bill, if enacted, will be
103 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
retrospective in nature, which means
that all those who have already com-
mitted the “act” of clicking or storing
or printing such images need to
queue up before an authority to ob-
tain a licence in order to avoid crimi-
nal proceedings. It is not clear how
the government proposes to monitor
each and every smartphone or device
with an inbuilt GPS (Global Posi-
tioning System). What is also not
clear is the Central government’s
larger agenda: whether it wants to
integrate technology with the lives of
people or restrict its capabilities. It is
not clear how the Digital India
dream that Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi keeps talking about is to be
achieved if such a regressive legisla-
tion is passed.
At this stage, the proposed law
also seems to be at odds with busi-
nesses using location-specific infor-
mation, which have become a part of
the daily lives of many Indians. Mo-
bile applications that need a
GPS—from food delivery platforms
to cab services—rely heavily on ge-
ospatial data. Many applications that
allow online train/bus/flight ticket
booking use location-specific data.
What triggered the proposed leg-
islation was the depiction of Jammu
and Kashmir as part of Pakistan and
Arunachal Pradesh as part of China
in some social networking sites. With
this in mind, the Bill aims to regulate
acquisition, dissemination, publica-
tion and distribution of geospatial
information that is likely to affect the
security, sovereignty and integrity of
India. The Mumbai terror attack of
November 26, 2008, is repeatedly
recalled in defence of the Bill. There
is no gainsaying the importance of
protecting sensitive information to
safeguard the country and its citizens
against acts of terrorism. But, iron-
ically, the Bill penalises the citizen as
it applies to citizens of India outside
India, persons in the service of the
government, wherever they may be,
and persons on ships and aircraft,
registered in India, wherever they
may be. Interestingly, the Bill does
not include non-Indians in its ambit,
who may misuse spatial data to harm
the nation’s security and sovereignty.
They are free to acquire, disseminate,
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
publish or distribute information
without any restriction whatsoever.
The Bill is also at odds with the
National Geospatial Policy (NGP),
2016. “Taking into consideration the
increasing growth of the use of Ge-
ospatial Data, Products, Services and
Solutions (GDPSS)”, the compre-
hensive NGP was promulgated in
April “to empower people through
geospatial technologies”. The NGP
says: “The wide availability of satel-
lite data and digital forms of map
information through networks has
rendered the erstwhile policies of re-
stricting map information to citizens
obsolete in many countries. The
mass markets for spatial information
has become a reality and this trend is
likely to grow.” The policy is applica-
ble to geospatial data-based prod-
ucts, solutions and services offered
by governments, private organisa-
tions, non-governmental organisa-
tions and individuals. According to
the policy, all geospatial data, prod-
ucts, solutions and services will be
categorised as restricted, unrestrict-
ed and open on the basis of features
and not on the basis of their geog-
raphy.
It is pertinent to note that map-
making and distribution of maps in
India have always been regulated by
the Survey of India, which had the
sole right to draw maps. The restric-
tions were never implemented strin-
gently. According to the NGP: “The
National Map Policy, 2005, defines
the scope, distribution and access of
digital Survey of India topographic
maps to user groups without jeopar-
dising national security.”
Unlike the proposed legislation,
the National Map Policy does not
have a blanket order but specifies
that wrong borders and sensitive ar-
eas should not be shown on maps. It
does not place many restrictions on
the use of open series maps (as op-
posed to defence series maps) that
otherwise conform to the provisions
of the National Map Policy, which
can be used by anybody to overlay
spatial data on the map.
The Civil Aviation Requirement,
2012, according to the NGP, “details
procedures for issuance of flight
clearances for agencies undertaking
104
aerial photography, geophysical sur-
veys, cloud seeding, etc”. The Remote
Sensing Data Policy (2001 & 2011)
defines “the distribution process of
satellite images to different category
of users”. The National Data Sharing
and Accessibility Policy, 2012, pro-
vides “an enabling provision and
platform for proactive and open ac-
cess to the data generated through
public funds available with various
departments or organisations of the
Government of India”.
Legal experts fear that if the pro-
visions regulating map-making and
sharing are enforced, innovative
map-making technologies and loca-
tion-based services that drive peo-
ple’s lives today will be badly
affected.
SUBMISSIONS ON THE BILL
The government has received several
submissions, including sharp criti-
cisms, on the draft Bill. The Vidhi
Centre for Legal Policy has submit-
ted that the Bill placed serious ob-
structions in the path of independent
environmental research and in-
formed and effective public partici-
pation in environmental
decision-making. Arguing that the
right to access information and to
participate in environmental deci-
sion-making are integral compo-
nents of the right to environment
upheld by the Supreme Court under
Article 21 of the Constitution, and
also affirmed by the High Courts, the
National Green Tribunal and the
Central Information Commission
have demanded that the Bill be with-
drawn, or at the very least, that the
use of geospatial information for the
purposes of participation in environ-
mental decision-making be exempt-
ed from its provisions.
The digital and telecom resource
centre, Medianama, has suggested
that the Bill be renamed the Sensi-
tive Geospatial Information Regula-
tion Bill and that its scope be limited
to the depiction of information
deemed sensitive from the perspec-
tive of national security. It said: “Giv-
en that the devices and services...
would generate billions of location
data points every second, it is im-
practical and impossible for any se-

TH E T E R R A I N O N the outskirts of New Delhi.
curity vetting agency to track this
data.” It wanted a clear definition of
national security. “This Bill should
not be applicable to those who use
geospatial information or have noth-
ing to do with the depiction of maps.
It should be applicable only to map-
ping companies for their depiction of
mapping data, and for the data that
they themselves [and not users] rep-
resent on a map, as well as how map-
ping companies represent data
within India. As intermediaries, they
can’t be responsible for data that us-
ers generate. As explained above, us-
ers cannot be held responsible for
data they inadvertently generate,” it
said.
According to the Internet De-
mocracy Project, the Bill will be di-
sastrous for businesses,
communities and individuals. “A
range of non-commercial applica-
tions of Geographic Information
Systems will be hit. Humanitarian
efforts have been revolutionised in
the aftermath of the availability of
high-quality satellite imagery. This
has led to the mapping of areas after
earthquakes and floods hit areas
such as Nepal and Chennai [Tamil
K.R. DEEPAK
Nadu], and enabled volunteers to
provide information about the con-
dition of roads and the availability of
relief. These cases of use would not
have been possible with the current
Bill. By covering practically any vi-
sual representation of information
about coordinates in its ambit, the
Bill will impede several academic us-
es of maps in fields such as architec-
ture,” it said.
The Internet Democracy Project
has pointed out that the Bill dispro-
portionately affected many margin-
alised sections—such as persons
with disabilities (PWDs) and forest-
dwelling communities—for whom
mapping has been a crucial tool in
recording and using information
about their surroundings and for de-
manding their rights. “Maps are an
integral part of assistive devices, and
help PWDs commute and find their
offices, homes, places of recreation,
etc. By regulating map use, the gov-
ernment is essentially pushing the
situation of PWDs back by 20 years,
putting PWDs back at the mercy of
strangers on the street. [Similarly]
rights over homestead land that have
been occupied for generations were
105
not recognised before the passage of
the Scheduled Tribes and Other Tra-
ditional Forest Dwellers (Recogni-
tion of Forest Rights) Act in 2006.
The procedure provided in the hard-
won Forest Rights Act [FRA], which
recognises claims to forest areas by
communities who have resided there
for generations, relies on mapping as
one of the core evidences. The in-
troduction of the Bill poses a big
question on the claims process pro-
vided for in the FRA, as acquisition
of geospatial information by any per-
son is illegal under the proposed Bill.
The broad definition of “geospatial
information” draws within its sweep
hand-drawn maps that include nat-
ural features and landmarks refer-
enced to a coordinate system. The
definition also includes the acquisi-
tion and use of GPS information.
Both of these mapping techniques
are widely used in the process of fil-
ing individual and community forest
rights claims.”
PAKISTAN’S OBJECTION
Objections to the Bill came from an
unusual quarter: Pakistan. A stake-
holder, Pakistan raised concerns
with the United Nations Secretary-
General and the President of the
U.N. Security Council over the de-
piction of Jammu and Kashmir as
part of Indian territory, which, ac-
cording to it, is factually incorrect
and legally untenable. It called upon
the U.N. to uphold the Security
Council resolutions and urged India
to stop acts that violated internation-
al laws. India hit back by saying that
the Bill was an internal matter and
that Pakistan had no locus standi in
the matter.
External Affairs Ministry spokes-
person Vikas Swarup said: “The pro-
posed Bill is an entirely internal
legislative matter of India, since the
whole of the State of Jammu and
Kashmir is an integral part of India.
Pakistan or any other party has no
locus standi in the matter. The gov-
ernment firmly rejects Pakistan’s re-
peated and increasing attempts to
impose on the international commu-
nity matters that India has always
been open to address bilaterally with
Pakistan.” 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

How to control freely
available data
The draft Geospatial Information Regulation Bill defies logic at a time
when digital technology is ubiquitous and geospatial information about
any part of the world is freely available to anyone with an Internet
connection. B Y R . R A M A C H A N D R A N
THE draft Geospatial Informa-
tion Regulation Bill (GIRB), intro-
duced in Parliament and released
online to the public on May 4 for
comments, is perhaps one of the
most anachronistic pieces of legisla-
tion that the government has come
out with.
Article 3 of the Bill says:
“(1) Save as otherwise provided in
this Act, rules or regulations made
thereunder, or with the general or
special permission of the Security
Vetting Authority, no person shall
acquire geospatial imagery or data
including value addition of any part
of India either through any space or
aerial platforms such as satellite, air-
crafts, airships, balloons, unmanned
aerial vehicles or terrestrial vehicles,
or any other means whatsoever.
“(2) Every person who has al-
ready acquired any geospatial imag-
ery or data of any part of India…
including value addition prior to
coming of this Act into effect, shall
within one year from the commence-
ment of this Act, make an application
along with requisite fees to the Secu-
rity Vetting Authority for retaining
such geospatial information and
grant of licence thereof.”
Violations of these will attract
heavy penalties, which can vary from
Rs.1 crore to Rs.100 crore and/or im-
prisonment up to a period of seven
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
LEGISLATION
years. The Bill is highly authoritarian
and heavy-handed in tone and its
whole emphasis is on licensing, secu-
rity vetting and penalising, and there
is absolutely nothing in it about facil-
itating access to and usage of geospa-
tial information that is of importance
to the public, to business and for de-
velopment in general. Contrast this
with the corresponding Chinese Act,
which says in its Article 11: “Basic
surveying and mapping is a public
welfare undertaking” (emphasis
added). This intent is completely ab-
sent in the Indian Bill.
At a time and age when digital
technology is ubiquitous and “geos-
patial information” about any part of
the world is available freely to any-
one with Internet connectivity to
download even on a mobile phone
and such information is increasingly
becoming part of our daily lives (the
next time you call a radio taxi, re-
member that it uses a GPS-enabled
device), the Bill defies logic.
What does geospatial informa-
tion or data mean? The phrase refers
to data that have a geographic com-
ponent to them, that is, data that
have geographic information tagged
to them, say in the form of coor-
dinates, an address, a city name, or
any other locational attribute. Ge-
ospatial technology refers to technol-
ogy used to acquire, manipulate and
106
store such geographic information.
Such information can be provided in
the form of (digital) maps, remote-
sensed data, data gathered through
the use of the Global Positioning Sys-
tem (GPS) and geographically refer-
enced satellite imagery.
The geospatial information sys-
tem (GIS), an industry that has
grown rapidly in the last couple of
decades, is a computer-based system
capable of assembling, storing, ma-
nipulating and displaying different
kinds of geo-referenced information,
and analysing the same to provide
solutions for decision-making in de-
velopmental and infrastructure pro-
jects, land use, urban development,
construction activities, water supply,
irrigation, rural electricity supply
and highway development and pro-
viding public utility services, such as
communication networks, drainage
systems, roads, public transport and
traffic regulation.
Geospatial data is also an impor-
tant component of scientific research
and industrial activity relating to ge-
ological formations, landslips, tec-
tonic studies, mineral and oil
explorations, and coastal and ocean-
ographic studies. For such applica-
tions, usually, large-scale
topographic maps (1:50,000 and
larger) are needed. With the advent
of the GIS, the demand for geospatial
 (of different kinds) whose sole gener-
ator and repository was the Survey of
India (SOI).
According to the dispensation
that prevailed until 2005—when the
new National Map Policy (NMP)
was announced—maps were cate-
gorised as “restricted” and “unre-
stricted”, the latter covering only
about 40 per cent of the area of the
country and that too at scales less
than 1:250,000. The restricted area
included all the land within 50 km of
the country’s boundary. All digital
data, irrespective of the region and
scale, was restricted. Getting access
to the restricted data involved a cum-
bersome process of authorisation by
a Joint Secretary-level official, fol-
lowed by a vetting process by security
agencies to ensure that the so-called
Vital/Vulnerable Areas (VAs) and
Vital/Vulnerable Points (VPs) were
removed from the maps, which could
take months.

OLD MINDSET
The SOI, given its origins primarily
for military operations during the
British days, continued to be largely
under the control of the military and
THE HINDU ARCHIVES

was until recently invariably headed

by a senior Army official. This had
the unfortunate legacy that maps
were viewed mainly from a defence
and security perspective rather than
a science and technology perspec-
G OOGL E E A R T H provides extremely detailed maps that are far more
tive. This resulted in a continuing
accurate than the SOI’s largest scale topographic maps. Here, an April 2006
policy emanating from the Ministry
IRS satellite image of 5.8 m resolution (top) of the Dalmia mines showing a
of Defence (MoD) to restrict and
verdant expanse. In the March 2010 Google Earth image of 60 cm resolution
withhold geospatial data available
(below), the area is seen ravaged by mining.
with the SOI from widespread dis-
semination and easy access and use,
information from industry and the Science and Technology (DST) in particularly maps on a large scale
scientific community has grown. April is in complete contrast, both in and those pertaining to areas
So much for the government’s spirit and in content, to the GIRB. deemed sensitive, despite it being
call for “Digital India”, which does The Bill is actually a reversal of brought under the DST in the 1970s
not seem to have reached the Minis- the slow opening up of public access as a scientific organisation. The Bill
try of Home Affairs (MHA), the orig- to such data, hitherto highly restrict- is a clear demonstration of that old
inator of the draft GIRB. Besides ed, that was evident at the turn of the mindset prevailing even though the
media reports and commentaries on century under the increasing impact very concept of a security threat has
the GIRB, the government is likely to of developments in satellite remote changed completely with newer
have received submissions critical of sensing, the Internet, Web-based forms of threats emerging.
it from all stakeholders, in particular open availability of geospatial infor- Given the progress of GIS tech-
the GIS industry community, the mation and the advent of the GPS. It nology in the 1990s and its immense
most affected user community. It is is actually a massive throwback to potential, restrictions on access to
interesting to note that the National the 1970s and 1980s when geospatial topographic maps that serve as base
Geospatial Policy (NGP-2016) information existed predominantly data on which to build a GIS applica-
brought out by the Department of in the form of analogue printed maps tion proved to be a massive road-

107 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

block in the growth of this industry
in India despite the country’s appar-
ent strength in the information tech-
nology sector and its fast-growing
GIS community, both in academia
and in business.
Following widespread criticism
about the lack of an enabling envi-
ronment for the growth of GIS activ-
ity in the country, for the first time
nine agencies other than the SOI
were identified (see an MoD order of
July 13, 1998) to engage with private
agencies under memorandums of
understanding to provide access to
restricted digital SOI data for work
relating to specific government pro-
jects on a “need to share” basis. But
many companies found it too cum-
bersome and time-consuming to get
registered, enter into an agreement
and finally get the required data after
vetting by the MoD. They preferred
not to do any business with the gov-
ernment. In any case, this system did
not last for long as technology was
advancing rapidly.
With the availability of GPS sig-
nals in the unscrambled mode, dif-
ferential GPS (dGPS) as it is called,
in the public domain at the turn of
the century, the very paradigm of
mapping and cartography changed.
Agencies could create a map at large
enough scales using satellite imagery
of appropriate resolution combined
with terrestrial coordinate determi-
nation using the GPS. The American
private remote-sensing satellite
IKONOS, launched in January
2000, began to openly sell imagery at
1 m resolution, which could be used
to produce maps at 1:10,000 scale.
It may be noted that before IKO-
NOS, the Indian Space Research Or-
ganisation’s (ISRO) IRS satellite was
providing the highest-resolution im-
ages in the world at 5.8 m resolution.
ISRO evolved its Remote Sensing
Data Policy in 2001 (RSDP-2001),
which allowed open access to all re-
mote-sensed data up to 5.8 m resolu-
tion and restricted access for
government agencies to data up to 1
m resolution. The SOI, unfortunate-
ly, did not exploit these enabling pro-
visions to produce maps in any
systematic manner.
However, such satellite imagery-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
based maps began to be available on-
line from different agencies for a
price, which the GIS community was
beginning to use. But there was a
problem with this approach. To ob-
tain the correct orientation of the
map and depiction of relief (or eleva-
tion), these satellite images had to be
corrected for geometric distortion
caused by the tilt of the satellite rela-
tive to the data plane and their cor-
rect orientation had to be fixed on the
basis of ground truth. This geometric
correction, known technically as or-
thorectification, requires appropri-
ate digital elevation models (DEMs)
and/or positional data of what are
called ground control points (GCPs)
from existing topographic maps at
the required scale. But accurate GCP
data are held confidential by the SOI.
Even when restricted toposheets
were released for project-specific
use, GCP data were not given.
Moreover, the reference frame
used for “geocoding” (defining the
coordinates of) the SOI maps is the
datum called the Everest Ellipsoid,
the local ellipsoid that fits best the
curvature of the spheroidal shape of
the earth in the Indian region. The
centre of this ellipsoid does not, how-
ever, coincide with the centre of the
earth; it is removed by about a kilo-
metre. In other words, it is not a
geocentric system but serves the pur-
pose of geocoding of maps of the re-
gion reasonably well, and thus the
SOI toposheets are also geocoded on
Everest. Similarly, other countries
have other datums that are best suit-
ed to their regions of the world. So
coordinates measured on one datum
would be shifted with respect to co-
ordinates measured on any other.
GLOBAL REFERENCE FRAME
However, in the last decades of the
20th century, countries have begun
to adopt a global reference frame
that does not change from country to
country. It is called the World Geo-
detic System 1984 (WGS-84) and
was evolved in the United States. Al-
though it is meant to fit the North
American region better than the rest
of the world, being geocentric, it has
come to be used as the global coor-
dinate system. All satellite naviga-
108
tion and imagery, coordinate
measurements made using the GPS,
and other similar aids used for the
Global Navigation Satellite System
(GNSS) are based on WGS-84. Thus,
the positional coordinates that are
read off GPS instruments, which are
on WGS-84, and those on satellite-
derived maps would be shifted rela-
tive to the corresponding coordi-
nates on an SOI map. Depending on
the location, this shift could vary
from a few metres to even hundreds
of metres when the two are com-
pared.
To go from one datum to anoth-
er, one needs to use a set of trans-
formation parameters which are
arrived at by knowing the coordi-
nates of a large set of GCPs across the
country in both the datums. But such
an exercise can be undertaken only
by a large agency such as the SOI.
And, indeed, the SOI had undertak-
en this exercise by measuring the
GPS-based coordinates of the set of
GCPs it used for its maps and evolved
the transformation parameters for
the entire country. But these, too,
have been held confidential by the
SOI, thus denying the GIS commu-
nity the geospatial data it needed.
Given the constraints arising
from security considerations in ac-
cessing the geospatial data of the In-
dian region from the SOI, in 2000
the DST mooted the idea of creating
a National Spatial Data Infrastruc-
ture (NSDI) to serve as a single-win-
dow agency to meet the needs of all
the stakeholders of geospatial data,
in particular the GIS community
(Frontline, October 27, 2000). A
task force constituted to recommend
the modalities of establishing such a
unit, inter alia, recommended that
the SOI should come out with two
series of maps, one for the use of
defence and security agencies and
the other for civilian use, with the
latter being based on WGS-84. This
recommendation had the MoD’s ap-
proval (Frontline, August 26, 2005)
and formed the basis of the NMP of
2005.
Even as the SOI was engaged in
this exercise from around 2000 on-
wards, technology was advancing
much too rapidly for the agency,
whose Plan budget then was around
Rs.4 crore, to keep pace with. The
dGPS receivers were becoming more
and more compact and could be car-
ried around with ease to measure co-
ordinates in the region of interest. If
all worldwide geospatial data are mi-
grated on to WGS-84, notwithstand-
ing the significant error that could be
there in absolute positional accuracy
of a particular location, the relative
accuracy, say in the distance between
two points, can be made more and
more precise by repeated measure-
ments of the coordinates of these two
points using dGPS receivers. And
this made life extremely easy for a
GIS industry that was finding it
tough to get any large-scale digital
toposheet from the SOI. Moreover,
imagery from satellites with sub-
metre resolution capability was be-
coming available openly, which
could be used for scales larger than
1:10,000.
NATIONAL MAP POLICY
The stated objectives of the NMP are
“To provide, maintain and allow ac-
cess and make available the National
Topographic Database (NTDB) of
the SOI conforming to national stan-
dards” and “To promote the use of
geospatial knowledge and intelli-
gence through partnerships and oth-
er mechanisms by all sections of the
society…”. In accordance with the
earlier decision, it also enunciated
the creation of two series of maps: (a)
Defence series maps (DSMs), which
are (analogue and digital) topo-
graphic maps (on both Everest and
WGS-84) that will remain classified
under the control of the MoD; and
(b) open series maps (OSMs), to sup-
port developmental activities in the
country, which will be on WGS-84
only. OSMs (both in analogue and
digital form) will have no civil/mil-
itary VAs and VPs shown and will be
“unrestricted” after a one-time clear-
ance from the MoD.
The SOI has also issued guide-
lines on access by user agencies, dis-
semination/sharing of OSMs
amongst user agencies with or with-
out value addition, publication (both
in hard form and on the Web with or
without GIS database), and so on.
While there have been criticisms of
the NMP and the guidelines as well-
—for example, the maps will have no
contours/height information and the
requirement of registration of the us-
er for larger than 1:1 million scale
maps—it definitely marked an atti-
tudinal change towards liberalising
access. “From the perspective of
those who had written it, the govern-
ment was opening up; in fact, it was
very consoling,” observed Manosi
Lahiri, a GIS expert and the CEO of
ML Mapinfo, New Delhi. “I tried sev-
eral times to register but could not.
Actually, it was not a map policy for
India; it was a map policy for the
SOI. It was, like, safeguarding its
own property,” she added.
But, more pertinently, even today
the scale of the OSMs remains at
1:50,000, which, while good enough
for several applications, including
city guides, is just not good enough
for GIS applications, she pointed
out. “While 1:50K is the basic, you
need larger scales if you are cutting
an irrigation channel or building a
check dam or a housing colony,” she
said. But, according to DST sources,
the SOI to date has been able to gen-
erate 1:25K maps only for about 40
per cent of the country’s area even
though conversion of 60 per cent (to
WGS-84) has been completed. To-
day, for example, a typical front-
ranking Indian GIS company makes
maps of scale up to 1:2,500 on the
basis of freely available satellite im-
agery.
Meanwhile, consistent with the
provisions of the Remote Sensing
Data Policy of 2001, the National
Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), a
society under the Department of
Space (DOS), also began to generate
maps using its satellite imagery (of
5.8 m resolution), the SOI’s GCP da-
ta on Everest (available to it as it is a
government agency) and its own
GPS measurements of the same
GCPs on WGS-84. As regards the
security aspect, the NRSA obtained
shape files of VAs/VPs from the SOI
and used them to remove VAs/VPs
from its maps.
According to ISRO sources, this
led to some turf wars between the
NRSA and the SOI, with the latter
109
questioning the legitimacy of the for-
mer to make maps as the NRSA was
not even a government department.
This was one of the reasons why the
NRSA was made into a centre under
ISRO in 2008. Now the National Re-
mote Sensing Centre (NRSC) gener-
ates maps consistent with the
updated RSDP-2011, which allows
open availability of satellite data up
to 1 m resolution. This translates to
1:25K topographic maps and 1:10K
thematic maps. While thematic
maps are available to the public, top-
ographic maps are only for govern-
ment use. Once Cartosat-3, with
sub-metre resolution capability, is
launched, ISRO/the NRSC should
be able to provide maps of 1:5,000
scale.
From the GIS community per-
spective, there were some issues with
the RSDP-2011 as well when it came
to sourcing high-resolution satellite
imagery (of ISRO or others) from the
NRSC. The policy mandates that all
high-resolution images (1 m and
less) be acquired only through the
NRSC and after clearance by the
High Resolution Image Clearance
Committee (HRC). There were two
problems with this: one, this could
not be enforced because these imag-
es could be sourced online; and, two,
the HRC took an inordinately long
time to approve requests for data.
“You go to Dubai or Singapore and
you can get these at a much cheaper
rate and without the hassles of the
HRC,” said a former NRSA official.
“In fact, you can order them through
agents who have shops just next to
the NRSC itself. Why would they
come to the NRSC at all?” he asked.
THEN CAME GOOGLE EARTH
It was around this time that Google
Earth started to make its worldwide
maps available to anybody online.
Sourcing geospatial data from mul-
tiple sources, including satellites
with sub-metre resolution imagery
and crowdsourcing of GCP data and
ground truth information through
open public campaigns such as “Ma-
pathon” and “MapThyNeighbour-
hood”, Google Earth was providing
extremely detailed maps, with VAs
and VPs, and these were far more
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
accurate than the SOI’s largest scale
topographic maps. Today, the best
resolution imagery and maps are
available to the GIS community from
Google Earth. So why would anyone
go to the SOI?
This was a big jolt to the Indian
establishment, particularly the secu-
rity agencies. Of particular concern
was the wrong depiction of the coun-
try’s international boundaries by big
geospatial portals such as Google.
While this was a legitimate concern,
the Indian government could do
nothing about it. According to a
source in the Department of Elec-
tronics and Information Technology
(DEITY), the government tried talk-
ing to Google, who basically said
“nothing doing”.
Google would come down to us-
ing maps used by the United Na-
tions, but even that was not
acceptable because U.N. maps show
the borders with China and Pakistan
as disputed. Moreover, all the data
on India that Google generates is lo-
cated in some server in the U.S. be-
cause India is not able to provide
Google and the like the digital in-
frastructure to locate their servers
(including the Cloud) in the country,
said the source.
Google’s argument was, “You
provide the correct map at the re-
quired scale and we will use it.” But
therein lies the rub. The SOI did not
have data at scales larger than 1:50K
or at best 1:25K when Google Earth
was making available maps at
1:5,000 scale or even less. Also, from
the security perspective, it was a
catch-22 situation; the SOI could ob-
viously not provide Google shape
files like it did for the NRSA for it to
remove the VAs/VPs from its online
imagery and maps. According to the
DEITY source, Google was even pre-
pared to use the NRSC data, provid-
ed it had 20 cm resolution data, but
ISRO’s IRS system does not yet have
that capability.
One could ask how China was
able to make Google listen to it. Chi-
na had got its act together by about
2002 or so. It could force Google on
its terms once it had all large-scale
geospatial data on WGS-84, which it
could ask Google to use. The same
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
were also available to all Chinese
stakeholders, the GIS industry in
particular. The problem in India,
thus, was the failure on the part of
the SOI to be able to widely dissemi-
nate security-vetted and updated
maps of sufficiently large scale (both
analogue and digital) in time—2005
was already too late—with the cor-
rect international boundaries.
“The geospatial market should
have been flooded,” said Manosi La-
hiri. “You tie yourself in knots by say-
ing that I cannot distribute digital
data. If you just put the international
boundaries acceptable to you in dif-
ferent scales, including the ground
scale, then it is easier for you to say to
Google or whoever that I am not go-
ing to accept anything else except
this,” she said.
GEOSPATIAL INFORMATION
POLICY
A reliable DST source said the de-
partment had proposed updating the
SOI infrastructure so that it would be
able to generate 1:10,000 scale maps
for the entire country with support
from ISRO/the NRSC, consistent
with RSDP-2011. The estimated cost
of doing this was about Rs.1,800
crore and this was included in the
Twelfth Plan (2012-17) outlay of
Rs.3,000 crore for a National Ge-
ospatial Information System
(NGIS). But, to date, the total bud-
geted outlay for the SOI has been to
the tune of Rs.1,300 crore (including
a Plan component of about Rs.150
crore) only.
Following inter-ministerial dis-
cussions in 2010-11, the DST was en-
trusted with the task of drawing up a
policy document and a draft Bill. The
DST was not too keen on taking up
the latter part but finally agreed to at
a meeting of the Committee of Secre-
taries in 2011. Around the same time,
the DST gave the National Institute
of Advanced Studies (NIAS), Benga-
luru, the responsibility of preparing a
report that could be the basis for in-
puts towards a geospatial policy
framework. The report, titled “Per-
spectives for a National GI Policy (in-
cluding a National GI Policy Draft)”,
came out in November 2012.
“The DST was not in favour of a
110
Bill on any matter that did not flow
from a coherent policy. Hence, the
department was not in favour of a
stand-alone Geospatial Data Regu-
latory Bill,” the DST source said.
“The DST wanted to enunciate a
sound and consistent policy towards
public access to high-resolution open
series maps,” the source said. Follow-
ing the NIAS report, the DST came
out with a draft Bill called “Vetting
Imageries and Geological Informa-
tion for Licensing (VIGIL)”. “But this
did not seem acceptable to the MHA
and the MoD because, for some rea-
son, nothing happened for three
years,” the DST source said.
But events such as the Pathankot
attack seem to have shaken the secu-
rity agencies, and they seem to have
come out with the Bill in haste in an
act of desperation. “If NGIS, the pol-
icy [NGP-2016] and the Bill are
made coherent with each other and
converted into a complementing
support system, it would be valuable.
What we are seeing is that the Bill
and the policy are being issued at the
same time, with the Bill outweighing
defence considerations over the use
of geospatial products for develop-
mental needs,” said the DST source.
But, according to a very reliable GIS
industry source who works closely
with the defence establishment, the
defence services themselves rely on
external agencies to generate large-
scale maps based on high-resolution
satellite data. Apparently, they share
SOI’s topographic data with these
agencies for orthorectification pur-
poses. If that indeed is true, then the
Bill is highly hypocritical.
DIVERGENCE OF VIEWS
This divergence of views on geospa-
tial data is now patently evident, with
the DST espousing a more liberal
policy and the MHA and MoD taking
a hardened position as reflected in
the released draft. The DST’s per-
spective, in fact, was reflected in its
National Data Sharing and Access
Policy of 2012 itself—which called
for all government departments to
categorise the respective data hold-
ings into a “negative list” and an
“open access list” so that the latter
could be made available freely to all

A P P - B A S E D T A X I S E RV I C ES make use of the GPS.
—and in NGP-2016 as well. In the
Bill, three basic issues have been
clubbed together, and its impact on
each one needs to be discussed sep-
arately: (a) Depiction of the interna-
tional boundary of India; (b) the
internal security of the country in
terms of protecting VAs and VPs
from external threats; and (c) geos-
patial information of a non-sensitive
nature that the general user commu-
nity needs.
As Manosi Lahiri said, the first
has nothing to do with geospatial in-
formation. It is a political decision.
“There are disputed areas on the bor-
ders. But that’s not my business as a
user. So many countries have dis-
puted boundaries. What we believe is
our territory must be correctly
shown. And that has nothing to do
with the second either, which is in-
ternal security. So why penalise the
user?”
Major General R. Sivakumar, the
former CEO of the NSDI, said,
wrong depictions of territorial
boundaries of the country can be
dealt with under Sections 397/401
and 482 of the Code of Criminal Pro-
cedure, 1973, and Section 2(2) of the
Criminal Law Amendment (Amend-
ing) Act, 1990, which stipulates a
penalty of imprisonment up to six
months. But it has never been im-
posed, though many a time such
cases are reported both in printed
maps and on the Web. “The govern-
ment has been debating these issues
for over a decade and felt that a de-
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
terrent punishment would ensure
compliance. However, the present
draft Bill makes all actions relating
to locational information illegal un-
less vetted,” said Sivakumar.
GOVERNMENT FRUSTRATION
The security part is really a reflection
of the frustration the government
feels for not being able to control the
level of detail that is being seen all
over the world. “Whatever rules it
makes apply to India and its citizens.
So, in other words, the government is
doing exactly the same thing as it has
always done: Holding back informa-
tion from its own people at our in-
stitutions, including security
institutions that will not see these
VAs/VPs. While we don’t know what
these VAs/VPs are, which probably
are constantly changing, the same
can be seen by anybody overseas. But
I have to admit that it is a difficult
situation for the security agencies,”
said Manosi Lahiri.
“The global opening of mapping
at the micro level and making it
available to everyone for free has had
a lot of impact on defence and securi-
ty agencies. But much of it could
probably have been prevented if you
had kept pace with technology and
acted in time. The security probably
is already compromised because the
VAs and VPs are visible to anyone
overseas downloading a high-resolu-
tion image from some satellite, not
necessarily Google,” said a former IS-
RO official.
111
As regards the geospatial part (c),
the conundrums concerning the GIS
community have already been dis-
cussed above. In particular, what
happens to usage of geospatial in-
formation by researchers and stu-
dents in academia? Purely from the
heavy penal provisions of the Bill,
one can say that it appears to be
aimed at someone like Google, but
the innocent millions routinely using
geospatial information that is freely
available to everyone around the
world could end up becoming the
unintended targets.
“If the chief provision of the Bill is
accepted, acquisition of data through
satellites even for innocent purposes
like using Google maps in cars may
become illegal,” said B.K. Srivastava,
a former General Manager of Survey
and Cartography of the Airports Au-
thority of India and now an aviation
consultant. More pertinently, Srivas-
tava, who uses geospatial informa-
tion to provide aviation safety
solutions, pointed out that the Bill’s
provision would make acquisition of
satellite data through GPS/dGPS,
etc., for the safety of aircraft oper-
ations illegal and this would be detri-
mental to aircraft safety.
Realistically speaking, therefore,
from the three perspectives of terri-
torial integrity, internal security and
dissemination of geospatial informa-
tion, the Bill, as it stands, is not im-
plementable. But, given the
jingoistic outlook of the ruling par-
ty’s parliamentarians, the Bill may
become an Act tomorrow.
As a GIS observer put it: “The
irony of it would be extreme when, as
we move towards ‘Digital India’,
some innocent and honest Indian us-
ing a smartphone GIS app would be
caught by the local police and hauled
up because somebody down there in-
terpreted the Act and determined
that the person was a violator of the
Geospatial Information Regulation
Act. But one only hopes that prag-
matism and wisdom prevail and the
inconsistencies between the policy,
the Bill and the NGIS are addressed
convincingly and a realistic balance
is struck between security consider-
ations and geospatial information
needs for development.” 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 It’s just not fashion
nift chairmanship

AS news of the former Poonam Mahajan and V.

India cricketer Chetan Sathyabama.
Chauhan’s Contrary to what
appointment as Gangwar said, Chauhan, a
Chairman of the long-time Bharatiya
National Institute of Janata Party (BJP) leader
Fashion Technology with two terms as a Lok
trickled in, a seasoned Sabha member, has never
media analyst said: shown the slightest
“As a youngster I used interest in anything other
to pray for Chetan than the affairs of the

SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Chauhan. Every time he Delhi and District Cricket
neared his 100, I would Association (DDCA). He
pray to God to help him was said to be the man
complete his century. supporting Arun Jaitley in
Today, though, I pray for the latter’s no-holds-
the students of NIFT and barred fight with fellow
their future.” (Incidentally, party leader Kirti Azad.
CHE TAN C HA UHAN , the newly appointed Chairman of
Chauhan retired from Test Chauhan’s elevation to
the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
cricket without a century NIFT is being seen as a
to his name.) reward for his loyalty to
Textiles Minister Jaitley. Soon after the Chauhan himself claimed printing press. “I will give
Santosh Gangwar gave announcement, Azad saw that he would divide his 20 per cent of my time to
Chauhan a vote of a silver lining in the whole time between his new my business, 20 per cent
confidence and pleaded affair, quipping: “I hope responsibilities, the DDCA to NIFT and the rest to the
with the media to give him now he will spend less (where he is the vice DDCA,” he said, sparking
“at least three months” to time in the DDCA.” chairman) and his own off a series of tweets
prove his worth. “Chauhan
has a fair idea of fashion
as he is widely travelled,”
Gangwar said. “The NIFT
board has 11 members
belonging to different
walks of life, including
businessmen and
designers,” he added.
The board includes
Sunil Sethi, president of
the Fashion Design
Council of India; Ruby
Yadav, a former Miss Asia;
Balkrishan Goenka,
chairman of the Welspun
Group; and P.K. Gupta,
chairman of the Sharda
Group of Institutions and
NAGARA GOPAL

chancellor of Sharda
University. There are three
lawmakers too: Rajya
Sabha member Kanimozhi
and Lok Sabha members S T U D EN T S O F N I F T at a handloom unit in Hyderabad.

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 112

 How to hide a drought
disaster response
WHILE issuing a series of
directions to the Central and
State governments to provide
drought relief to affected people
in 12 States, before breaking for
the summer vacation in May,
Justice Madan B. Lokur of the
Supreme Court quoted
Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak,
as having said: “The problem is
not lack of resources or
capability, but the lack of will.”
Justice Lokur and Justice N.V.
Ramana on the bench, after hearing
the petitioner in the case, Swaraj
Abhiyan, (S.A.) a non-governmental
organisation, and the State and
Central governments, wondered why
Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana were
hesitant to even acknowledge a
possible drought-like situation or a
drought by not disclosing full facts
about the prevailing conditions in
these States.
On August 1, the Supreme Court
is due to review to what extent the
State and Central governments have
complied with its directions. In May,
the court found that 10 out of 29
States had declared a drought, in 234
districts, representing more than
one-third of the districts and one-
fourth of the population of the
country. Following the pressure,
Gujarat declared drought in some
districts of the State.
The court found that in October
2015, several districts in Gujarat,
Haryana and Bihar were facing
drought to varying degrees, yet
governments there were in denial
mode. Treating drought as a disaster,
the Supreme Court directed the
Centre to constitute a National
Disaster Response Force within six
months, with an appropriate and
regular cadre strength. So far not
even the preliminary steps have been
taken to comply with this directive.
The Lokur-Ramana bench
directed the Centre to establish a
National Disaster Mitigation Fund
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
within three months from May 11.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley
questioned the wisdom of this order
of the court in the Rajya Sabha during
the Budget session.
The court’s direction to formulate
at the earliest a national plan for risk
assessment, risk management and
crisis management in respect of a
disaster was partly complied with by
the Centre when it made the draft
plan public.
The bench directed the Centre to
revise the Draft Management Manual
(DMM) of 2009 on or before December
31, 2016, to take into account new
factors so that the elbow room
available to each State not to declare
a drought even though it exists was
minimised. The Centre has not taken
any steps so far to revise the DMM or
initiate a dialogue with civil society to
revise it suitably.
The bench directed the Secretary
in the Department of Agriculture,
Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, in
the Ministry of Agriculture, to meet
the Chief Secretaries of Haryana,
Bihar and Gujarat within a week from
May 11 to persuade the State
governments concerned to declare a
drought in whichever district, taluka,
tehsil or block it was found
warranted. The bench also suggested
to the Secretary to consider
convening a meeting of the national
executive of the National Disaster
Management Authority (NDMA) to
issue directions to these States to
treat drought as a disaster.
Swaraj Abhiyan noted that the
Secretary did convene a meeting of
Chief Secretaries of the three States,
but its outcome was not known.
Besides, no meeting of the national
executive of the NDMA has been
convened by the Secretary.
The bench made it clear that in
drought-declared areas, no
household should be denied
foodgrains as required under the
National Food Security Act on the
114
M I G R ATOR Y FLA M I N G OE S at
the Nalsarovar Bird Sanctuary about
70 km from Ahmedabad. They are
staying back longer because fish are
easy to find as the water level falls
owing to drought conditions.
grounds that the household did not
have a ration card. An appropriate
identification or proof of residence
that was acceptable to the State
government should do, the bench
said.
Although the court directed
provision of midday meals to
schoolchildren during the summer
vacation in the drought-declared
areas, it has not been complied with
in spirit, with the State governments
issuing orders very late, when the
schools were opening. The S.A.
alleged that Haryana, Maharashtra,
Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar served
no meals to schoolchildren during the
vacation, and in rest of the drought-
declared States, it was irregular.
The S.A., in association with other
people’s movements such as the Ekta
Parishad, the Jal Biradari and the
National Alliance of People’s
Movements, organised a Jal-Hal
yatra from Latur to Mahoba (May 21 to
31). Similar yatras were organised in
Telangana (June 2 to 4) and from

Iconic photo studio closes
west bengal
FOR more than 170
years, Bourne & 1980s, recalls the day the
Shepherd, one of the
oldest functioning
photography studios in
the world, witnessed
and chronicled the
changing times and
the unfolding of history not
just in Kolkata but all over
India. It was one of the few
repositories of visual
documentation of the
passage of time, and an
important source of
reference for historians
and artistes, writers and
film-makers, and
researchers and dress-
designers. In June, the
studio shut down, bringing
to an end an institution that
had contributed to
spreading images of
Kolkata in its various
stages of evolution all over
the world. Many of these
pictures are preserved and
displayed in places like the
National Portrait Gallery in
London, the Smithsonian
Museums in the United
States, and the Cambridge
University Library in the
United Kingdom.
Not only did it capture
and preserve history, the
studio was a part of history
itself, as many great
figures of Indian history,
including Rabindranath
Tagore, often frequented
the place. Satyajit Ray had a
long and deeply personal
relationship with the
studio. According to his
son, Sandip Ray, whenever
Satyajit Ray made a “period
film” he went to Bourne &
Shepherd to consult its
archives. “It was a Ray told Frontline. Satyajit
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
T H E B O U RN E & S H E P HE R D studio in Kolkata.
relationship that went back
many years. My father
would go there for
reference work and [he
went there] while making
period films like
“Charulata” (1964),
“Satranj ke Khiladi” (1977),
etc. One big advantage at
Bourne & Shepherd was
that its classification of
photographs was just
magnificent, and whatever
my father wanted to see,
whether negatives or glass
plates, would be provided
for him instantly. He
depended a lot on Bourne &
Shepherd for visual
reference, particularly for
costumes and jewellery of
a particular period,” Sandip
116
Ghosh, who worked closely
with Satyajit Ray and was
associated with Bourne &
Shepherd since the early
fire broke out in the
building. “It was Manikda
[Satyajit Ray’s nickname]
who called in the morning
around 8 a.m. and told me
to go there quickly. He was
apprehensive because he
knew all my negatives were
kept there. I rushed to the
studio, and, fortunately for
me, my negatives were safe
as the fire had broken out
on the fourth floor and my
stuff was on the third
floor,” Ghosh told
Frontline. Business had
become slow over the
years and only a limited
ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY
work came its way, but the
closure still came as a big
blow to the octogenarian
photographer. “I am in
despair,” he said. “That
such an institution should
close down means a
chapter in the world of
Ray also had a deep photography is coming to
interest in old Kolkata and an end,” said Ghosh.
the Raj period, which would What made Bourne &
often draw him to Bourne & Shepherd such an
Shepherd. “In those days, it invaluable source of
was the National Library reference was the huge
and Bourne & Shepherd range of subjects it covered
that he mainly visited,” said and preserved. The
Sandip Ray. internationally acclaimed
In 1991, a fire destroyed film-maker Buddhadeb
the archives of the studio. Dasgupta discovered this
Sandip Ray remembers when making a
that his father was documentary many years
absolutely devastated by ago. “The film I was doing
the news. “He was quite ill was on the folk/traditional
at that time, and when he form of art and how it had
got to know of the fire he inspired the great painters
was just heartbroken. We of modern India. I do not
still have all the amazing think many people are
prints we got from the aware of the excellent
studio,” said Sandip Ray. collection of pictures
The legendary Bourne & Shepherd had
photographer Nemai amassed on paintings and

Cabinet reshuffle and dissent
karnataka
CHIEF MINISTER
Siddaramaiah’s
Cabinet reshuffle on
June 19—in which he
dropped 14 Ministers
and inducted 13 new
faces in his 33-
member
Ministry—resulted in an
unprecedented backlash
from supporters of
leaders who were dropped
and of those who failed to
get in. Many even
questioned
Siddaramaiah’s right to
drop them and joined the
chorus of those who
wanted the Congress high
command to replace him.
All this left many in
and outside the party to
wonder if the exercise that
has been a long time
coming would damage the
Congress’ chances in the
May 2018 Assembly
election. Siddaramaiah
said to his Cabinet
colleagues that the
reshuffle was in the
“interest of the party” and
was “needed if there was
to be an effective Cabinet”.
Speaking to Frontline,
senior colleagues of
Siddaramaiah said that
since there was no scope
for any expansion (the
Cabinet already had the
maximum permissible
number of Ministers) the
Chief Minister had no
option but to drop some
Ministers to accommodate
new ones. They were
angry that he neither
consulted any of the them
(senior Ministers) nor took
those who were being
dropped into confidence.
Said a senior Minister:
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
“Siddaramaiah forgot that members. The reshuffle
in a democracy there is was meant to prepare the
collective leadership. He is party for the May 2018
the first among equals. He Assembly election by
did not even have the removing non-perfoming
courtesy to inform those Ministers and appeasing
who were dropped. caste, sectarian and
Instead, he sent the political considerations.
resignations directly to the Siddaramaiah, a
Raj Bhavan and then went backward class leader
about inducting new faces. from Karnataka’s deep
He probably misjudged the south, himself made it to
fact that even the most the top post by virtue of
inefficient of his Ministers the fact that none of the
had their bastions of newly elected Congress
political support, both in legislators in May 2013
their communities and in matched his political
their constituencies.” stature, experience and
Added another Minister: popularity. It was a job he
“Increasingly, he is not coveted since 2005 when
bothered about democracy he left the Janata Dal
and does what he wants. (Secular) and migrated to
the Congress a year later.
Many old Congressmen,
among them mainly
former Chief Minister S.M.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Krishna, still doubt his
Congress credentials to be
Chief Minister.
Said a former
Minister: “He never
mingles with party
C H I EF M I N I S T ER
workers and is always
Siddaramaiah.
surrounded by his own
He is trying to curb henchmen and sycophants
dissidence through money most of whom are ‘friends’
power and offers of who joined the Congress
postings…. He is paving along with him. He has no
the way for the exit of the ‘Congress culture’ or
Congress from commitment to the party.
Karnataka.” It is well known that he
The aftermath of the came to the Congress only
latest reshuffle, which has to become the Chief
also seen the elevation of Minister.”
a few from Minister of Many Congressmen
State to Cabinet rank, are also critical of the
dampened the euphoria Chief Minister for
following the Congress’ promoting the interests of
unexpected gain of a third his Kuruba (shepherd)
seat in the Rajya Sabha caste (which has been
elections with the help of given an extra berth in the
rebel Janata Dal (Secular) reshuffle) over all others
118
and propagating a
personality cult. Besides
this is his perceived
arbitrariness in decision-
making and in promoting
himself through his pet
“Alpa Sankhyata,
Hindulida, and Dalit”, or
Ahinda (an acronym for a
federation of Dalits,
backward castes, and
minorities), coalition he
helped launch in July
2006.
This penchant for
Ahinda, his critics say, has
landed the Congress in
trouble, with non-Ahinda
communities, mainly the
Lingayats and the
Vokkaligas (the two most
politically and
economically powerful
communities in the State),
deserting the Congress for
the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP). They point to this as
the reason for the BJP
winning a sizeable number
of seats in Mysuru and
Chamarajanagar districts.
The recast team has
sought to highlight the
Congress’ commitment to
be the messiah of Dalits
and Other Backward
Classes (OBCs) even while
promoting the interests of
the Lingayats. The
Congress projection of
Siddaramaiah in the State
and Mallikarjuna Kharge
(a Dalit) at the Centre
resonates this philosophy,
as does Siddaramaiah’s
reshuffle, which reflects
the altered caste and
community equations;
there are now nine OBCs,
five Dalits and seven
Lingayats in the Ministry.
The major loser is the
State’s other dominant
community, the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 120
A ‘nano’ drum
RESEARCHERS in the Tata
Institute of Fundamental
Research (TIFR), Mumbai,
have demonstrated the abil-
ity to manipulate the vibra-
tions of a drum of
nanometre-scale thickness,
which would be the world’s
smallest and most versatile
drum. This work, according
to a TIFR press release, has
implications in improving
the sensitivity of small de-
tectors of mass, very impor-
tant in detecting the mass of
small molecules like virus-
es. This also opens the door
to probing exciting new as-
pects of fundamental
physics.
The work, done by John
Matthew and his associates,
made use of graphene, a
one-atom thick wonder ma-
terial, to fabricate drums
that have highly tunable me-
chanical frequencies and
coupling between various
modes. Coupling between
the modes was shown to be
controllable, which led to
the creation of new, hybrid
modes and, further, allowed
amplification of the vibra-
tions. The work has been
published in a recent issue
of the journal Nature
Nanotechnology,
The experiment consist-
ed of studying the mechani-
cal vibrational modes, or
“notes”, similar to a musical
drum. The small size of the
drum (diameter 0.003 mm,
or 30 times smaller than the
diameter of human hair)
gave rise to high frequencies
of vibration for the “nano
drum” in the range of 100
megahertz (100 million
times/second). The work
showed that the notes of
these drums could be con-
trolled by making use of an
electrical force that bends,
or strains, the drum. The
bending of the drum also
caused different modes of
the drum to interact with
each other. “Using this in-
teraction we can now show
that energy can be trans-
ferred between the modes,
leading to the creation of
new ‘notes’ in the drum,”
says Mandar Deshmukh, un-
der whose supervision this
work was carried out. The
rate of energy transfer could
be precisely controlled by
electrical signals that mod-
ulate the coupling. The work,
in addition, made use of the
mechanical mode coupling

Paris agreement and

climate change
PLEDGES made for the Paris agreement on
climate change last winter would lead to
global temperature rise of 2.6 to 3.1°C by
the end of the century, according to a new
analysis published in the journal Nature. In
fact, the entire carbon budget for limiting
warming to below 2°C would be emitted by
2030, according to the study led by Joeri
Rogelj of the International Institute for Ap-
plied Systems Analysis (IIASA).
The 2°C target aimed to limit future
climate change to an average temperature
increase of below 2°C above pre-industrial
levels, as research suggested that this
could help avoid some of the most danger-
ous consequences of climate change. The
target was agreed upon by 190 countries at
the Cancun climate meeting in 2010. In
Paris last December, countries strength- GLO B A L greenhouse gas emissions as implied by INDCs compared with
ened this target by requiring temperatures no-policy baseline, current-policy and 2 °C scenarios.
to be limited to “well below” 2°C and, fur-
thermore, agreed that they should strive to limit temper- researchers assumed that emission reduction efforts
ature rise even further to 1.5°C, as some studies suggest would be continued at the same level of effort after 2030.
that even 2°C warming would lead to unacceptable impact, Based on these projections, and using a variety of different
particularly in vulnerable countries such as island nations models, they estimated that median global temperatures
and least-developed countries. would reach 2.6 to 3.1°C by 2100. The researchers also
The new study provides an in-depth analysis of the examined what additional measures would be necessary
pledges countries submitted at the Paris climate meeting in after 2030 to limit future temperature rise to 2°C or 1.5°C in
December, the Intended Nationally Determined Contribu- 2100.
tions (INDCs) as they are called. In order to assess what Niklas Höhne, a researcher at the New Climate Institute
would happen after the pledge period ends in 2030, the in Germany and Wageningen University who worked on the

FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 122

NANOTECHNOLOGY / CLIMATE CHANGE / GAS EXPLORATION
NANOELECTRONICS GROUP, TIFR MUMBAI
sound from the drum. At low
temperatures, the high me-
chanical frequencies would
allow studies of energy
transfer of a quantum me-
chanical nature between the
notes, says the press re-
lease. The coupling between
various notes of the drum
could also be engineered to
A R TIS T ' S impression of work as mechanical logic
two coupled, vibrational circuits and lead to improve-
modes of a graphene drum. ments in quantum informa-
tion processing. The ability
to manipulate the energy to amplify the mechanical
lost to the environment and motion will also help im-
demonstrated amplification prove the sensitivity of sen-
of the vibrational motion, sors based on nanoscale
equivalent to an increase in drums.
study, says: “To go the rest of the way, we would need to
assume much more stringent action after 2030, which leads
to emissions reductions of about 3 to 4 per cent a year
globally. But in practice, switching to such stringent reduc-
tion right after 2030 would be challenging, and require time.”
The study also provides a careful analysis of the un-
certainties surrounding future emissions and temperature
targets. For one thing, the emissions reductions from the
INDCs remain uncertain, since the INDCs themselves are not
consistently framed, and some of the pledges include condi-
tional statements, making implementation of emissions re-
ductions contingent on receiving funding from others.
Comparing the possible emission levels that the INDCs could
imply, the researchers found a range of uncertainties of six
billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or roughly the entire emis-
sions of the United States in the year 2012.
The other major uncertainty lies in how much temper-
atures will rise in response to various emission levels. For
this reason, temperature targets are often interpreted in
terms of probabilities, with the aim to have a 66 per cent
likelihood of keeping temperature to below 2°C above pre-
industrial levels. The study also found that the same INDCs
would only avoid 2.9-3.4°C of warming with a 66 per cent
chance and 3.5-4.2°C of warming with 90 per cent chance
until 2100.
Harald Winkler, a researcher at the Energy Research
Centre in South Africa, also worked on the article. He says:
“While some uncertainties, like the temperature response
uncertainty, are virtually irreducible over the coming years,
uncertainties about what the INDCs add up to in terms of
emissions are not. Immediate future work should therefore
focus on a better understanding of what the INDCs mean and
how they link to other socio-economic objectives, including
the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.”
123
Huge Helium reserves
in Tanzania
A NEW approach to gas exploration has discovered a
huge helium gas field, which could address the in-
creasingly critical shortage of this vital yet rare ele-
ment. Helium is critical to many things we take for
granted, including MRI scanners in medicine, weld-
ing, industrial leak detection and nuclear energy.
However, known reserves are quickly running out.
Until now helium has never been found intentionally,
only accidentally discovered in small quantities dur-
ing oil and gas drilling.
Now, a research group from Oxford and Durham
Universities, working with Helium One, a helium ex-
ploration company headquartered in Norway, has
developed a new exploration approach. The first use
of this method has resulted in the discovery of a
world-class helium gas field in Tanzania.
Diveena Danabalan of Durham University, who
was involved in the research, said: “We show that
volcanoes in the Rift play an important role in the
formation of viable helium reserves. Volcanic activity
likely provides the heat necessary to release the
helium accumulated in ancient crustal rocks.” Within
the Tanzanian East African Rift Valley, volcanoes
have released helium from ancient deep rocks and
have trapped this helium in shallower gas fields.
“However, if gas traps are located too close to a
given volcano, they run the risk of helium being heav-
ily diluted by volcanic gases such as carbon dioxide,
just as we see in thermal springs from the region. We
are now working to identify the ‘goldilocks-zone’
between the ancient crust and the modern volcanoes
where the balance between helium release and vol-
canic dilution is ‘just right’,” said Danabalan.
Chris Ballentine of the University of Oxford, who
was also associated with the project, said: “We sam-
pled the helium gas (and nitrogen) just bubbling out
of the ground in the Tanzanian East African Rift val-
ley. By combining our understanding of helium ge-
ochemistry with seismic images of gas trapping
structures, independent experts have calculated a
probable resource of 54 Billion ft3 [1 ft3 = 0.03 m3] in
just one part of the rift valley. This is enough to fill
over 1.2 million medical MRI scanners….This is a
game changer for the future security of society’s
helium needs.” Pete Barry, also of the University of
Oxford, who sampled the gases, said: “We can apply
this same strategy to other parts of the world with a
similar geological history to find new helium
resources.”
Stories compiled by R. Ramachandran
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 CONTROVERSY

Taint and thwart

The Home Ministry order cancelling the FCRA registration of Teesta
Setalvad’s trust will further hinder her work for Gujarat riot victims.
BY A N U P A M A K A T A K A M

ON June 16, the Ministry of Teesta Setalvad told Frontline: SCPPL towards its agreed monthly
Home Affairs (MHA) issued an or- “It is an old story which you also have share of shared actual expenses in-
der cancelling the Foreign Contribu- been following. We have been fight- curred on office/furniture and fix-
tion (Regulation) Act, 2010, (FCRA) ing this for two years. This decision tures/office equipment/staff. No
registration of the Sabrang Trust, of was pre-decided. When Javed went part of this amount was paid to Tees-
which the chief trustees are the activ- for the hearing, it was over in seven to ta Setalvad or Javed Anand, and no
ist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, 10 minutes. This is nothing but a rent has ever been charged to any
Javed Anand. The order means that vilification campaign to malign and trust or entity for use of office space
the Sabrang Trust will not be able to defame.” The Sabrang Trust works by Teesta Setalvad’s parents, as
receive foreign funding anymore. on issues relating to communal har- alleged.
The Ministry’s order said that the mony. The choking of funds effected The MHA order says that the
FCRA registration was being can- by the MHA order will hinder its NGO did not obtain the mandatory
celled because of monetary irregular- work, particularly its work with the government permission before uti-
ities detected in the Sabrang Trust’s victims of the 2002 violence in Guj- lising over 50 per cent of foreign con-
transactions and also that the orga- arat. tributions for administrative
nisation’s responses to the charges expenditure. Teesta Setalvad’s press
had been carefully examined. It said ACCUSATIONS AND REBUTTAL release had contended that its ad-
that the trust had spent Rs.50 lakh The MHA has listed six FCRA vio- ministrative expenses for 2010-11
for Sabrang Communications & lations by the Sabrang Trust. Teesta and 2011-12, the check period, were
Publishing Pvt Limited (SCPPL), of Setalvad and her team have said they well below the permissible 50 per
which Teesta Setalvad and Javed have already refuted each one of the cent limit. She says that the MHA
Anand are directors, co-editors, charges. In a press release of October has collated project-related expenses
printers and publishers. “By this ac- 2015, Teesta Setalvad’s defence team incurred in furtherance of the ob-
tion, the NGO [non-governmental said in the 2015 release that the jectives of the trust with adminis-
organisation] has not only unau- transfer of Rs.50 lakh (between trative expenses. The FCRA, 2010,
thorisedly utilised the foreign contri- 2006-07 and 2013-14) was “pay- clearly states that expenses directly
bution for the purposes of an ment” by the Sabrang Trust to related to project execution are not to
unregistered entity but also that en- be included in administrative ex-
tity being a self-owned media and penses, the trust says.
publication company, utilised that The order stated that the inspec-
amount for activities totally prohib- tion of records showed that the chief
ited by FCRA,” the order added. trustees Teesta Setalvad and Javed
The trust responded to the order Anand also work as directors, co-edi-
with a statement, saying: “The Trust- tors, printers and publishers in
ees regret to note that today’s order SCPPL, which publishes a magazine
of the Home Ministry is simply a called Communalism Combat. Both
mechanical reiteration of the very entities function from the same
S HA NK ER CHAK R AV ARTY

same allegations made earlier, in to- premises, utilising staff, in-

tal disregard to the detailed and rea- frastructure and other re-
soned explanations and arguments sources interchangeably.
put forward by the Trust. Sabrang
Trust will actively explore all legal TE E S TA S E TALVA D ,
options to challenge the order.” a file photograph.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 124
This violates Section 3 and 7, 8 (1) (a)
of the FCRA, 2010. The organisa-
tion’s position is that though the Sa-
brang Trust, the association that had
been granted registration under
FCRA, was prohibited from publish-
ing or acting as correspondent, co-
lumnist, editor, and so on, there was
no restriction or prohibition on any
of its board members or office-bear-
ers from acting as publishers, editors
and printers of a registered newspa-
per run by some other independent
legal entity.
Another MHA allegation is that
the Sabrang Trust made direct pay-
ments of approximately Rs.12 lakh
from its FCRA-designated account
to CitiBank and Union Bank of India
to meet liabilities on credit cards be-
longing to Teesta Setalvad and Javed
Anand respectively. The activist cou-
ple and other Sabrang Trust mem-
bers say that these are “false and
baseless allegations”.
A member of a lawyers’ group in
Mumbai suggested that the order
probably reflected the government’s
frustration at the way the activist
couple had been protected from ar-
rest by the country’s judicial system:
“The Supreme Court has been ex-
tending from time to time protection
to Setalvad and Anand from arrest
and custodial interrogation, sought
by the CBI [Central Bureau of In-
vestigation], on the grounds that it
was not required if the accused sub-
mitted all the required documents in
connection with allegations of finan-
cial irregularities to the investiga-
tors. The cancellation of the FCRA
registration of the Sabrang Trust,
therefore, has been argued by some
to have been the result of the govern-
ment’s frustration with the contin-
ued protection from arrest of the
couple by the Supreme Court.”
TEESTA SETALVAD’S STORY
The MHA order is damaging to the
reputation of not only the Sabrang
Trust but also Teesta Setalvad, who
has been at the forefront of the pro-
tracted and intense legal battles
seeking justice to the victims of the
2002 communal violence in Gujarat.
Along with Zakia Jafri, whose hus-
band, Ehsan Jafri, was killed in the
Gulberg Society massacre, she has
also been seeking a criminal trial
against Prime Minister Narendra
Modi.
In early 2012, the Sabrang Trust
and the Committee for Justice and
Peace (CJP, also led by Teesta Se-
talvad) mooted the idea of building a
memorial museum within the Gul-
berg Society compound. To raise
funds for the project, the team held
an “Art for Humanity” auction, for
which over 80 well-known Indian
contemporary artists donated their
works. The CJP earned over Rs.1
crore from the exhibition.
If Teesta Setalvad’s campaign for
riot survivors rattled certain sec-
tions, an opportunity to discredit her
and her work seemed to present itself
when Rais Khan, a former CJP em-
ployee and Gulberg Society carnage
survivor, filed a first information re-
port (FIR) in January 2014 with the
Ahmedabad city crime branch alleg-
ing that the organisation misused
funds collected in the name of pro-
viding relief and legal help to riot
victims. There is a view that Rais
Khan was set up to discredit Teesta
Setalvad.
After Rais Khan’s FIR was filed,
the activist couple and their orga-
nisations faced repeated harassment
at the hands of the police in Gujarat.
They were forced into repeated court
appearances; bank accounts were
frozen; there were inspections by
law-enforcement agencies; they
were required to produce a lot of pa-
perwork. In 2015, the CBI tried to get
Teesta Setalvad arrested, but she was
able to get bail.
Soon after Modi became Prime
Minister, FCRA regulations with re-
gard to NGO funds were amended.
Not long after that, the Intelligence
Bureau (I.B.) drew up a watch list of
NGOs that might be threatening
“national security” or engaging in
“anti-national” activities. Teesta Se-
talvad’s organisations did not feature
in the list, but the FCRA rules seem
to have eventually got her.
If Teesta Setalvad has been fac-
ing harassment in the last couple of
years, crackdowns on NGOs started
in 2013 with Greenpeace, the Na-
tional Alliance of Anti-Nuclear
125
Movements (NAAM) and the Peo-
ple’s movement Against Nuclear En-
ergy (PMANE) facing accusations of
engaging in anti-national activities
or movements threatening national
security. The activists Priya Pillai of
Greenpeace and S.P. Udayakumar of
the PMANE were hounded by the
government for their involvement in
the anti-coal mines and nuclear pow-
er campaigns.
Earlier this month, the MHA
cancelled the licence of Lawyer’s Col-
lective, which is led by former Addi-
tional Solicitor General Indira
Jaising. Informed sources say other
NGOs are also under scrutiny. The
Ford Foundation, which funds
NGOs, was listed in the infamous
I.B. “watch list”.
Apparently, it came under scruti-
ny for jeopardising “national inter-
ests”. However, the label was
removed from the organisation in
June this year.
CRACKDOWNS PART OF A
LARGER PLAN?
Rights groups, prominent activists
and NGOs say that the government
led by the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) is trying to keep corporate In-
dia happy. The crackdown against
NGOs is part of that larger plan.
Anyone who crosses the path of cor-
porate entities will clearly pay a
price.
In April 2014, just before the
general election that returned Modi
as the Prime Minister, the well-
known columnist and Gujarat com-
mentator Aakar Patel warned: “Like
all tyrants, Modi has a fundamental-
ly primitive view of criticism. Those
who oppose him, write against what
he says and does, are enemies and he
must fix them before they harm him.
They should watch out.”
In the same piece, he commented
on Teesta Setalvad: “She is a genuine
heroine who is being slowly mar-
tyred and tortured by Modi, as a dis-
interested nation looks elsewhere.
This is the sort of third-rate pettiness
Modi likes descending to because as
a nation we allow him to. This con-
stant mischief from Modi keeps Se-
talvad away from the work Modi is
afraid of.” 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
 CRIME

Crime capital
A series of murders in Tamil Nadu in June, including that of a young
woman on a railway platform in Chennai, shatters the State’s image as a
“garden of peace”. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N

ON April 9, at a public meeting at

the Island Grounds in Chennai,
which signalled the start of her cam-
paign for election to the Assembly
held in May, Chief Minister Jayala-
lithaa said: “Law and order is main-
tained very well [in Chennai, Tamil
Nadu’s capital]. Chennai is a very
safe city. Of all the cities in India,
Chennai is the safest city. It is not my
argument that Chennai is particular-
ly a safe city for women, an all-India
survey says so. A study by the Centre
says this.” In the same speech, she

claimed that “my reign [from 2011 to
2016] was the golden age for
women”.
In the Assembly election held on
May 16, the All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), of
which Jayalalithaa is the general sec-
retary, was voted to power for anoth-
er five-year term. She became Chief
Minister again on May 23. Within 40
days of her taking over as Chief Min-
ister, a series of murders, targeting
women, convulsed Chennai. Earlier,
on May 8, Rohini Premkumari, an
oncologist, was found murdered in
her home in Egmore in the heart of
Chennai. The assailants had hit her
on the head with an iron rod.
It was a week of bloodshed from
June 19 to 26, with numerous mur-
ders taking place in Chennai and Ti-
runelveli and Tuticorin districts.
Most of the victims were women.
From June 22 to 26, seven women
were murdered, six of them in Chen-
nai and the seventh in Tirunelveli
district. Besides, a young woman
committed suicide in Salem after a
morphed picture of hers was posted
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
T H E B O D Y O F S W ATHI being carried away from the Nungambakkam
railway station on June 24.
on her Facebook wall. However,
what caught the national attention
was the brutal murder of 24-year-old
S. Swathi, a software engineer em-
ployed in Infosys, around 6.45 a.m.
on the platform of the Nungambak-
kam railway station in Chennai on
June 24.
About 15 minutes earlier, her fa-
ther, K. Santhanagopalakrishnan,
had dropped her at the railway sta-
tion on his two-wheeler. Swathi was
waiting on the platform to catch an
electric train to travel to her office
located at Mahindra World City in
Paranur, when the assailant swung a
specially made weapon at her from
behind. Reports said that as she lay
writhing on the platform, nobody
came to her help. Her body lay there
till 9 a.m. Her handbag lay near her
body. The police, who arrived at the
railway station around 9 a.m., reco-
vered her identity card from the bag.
126
R. RAGU
A constable knocked on the family’s
flat located on South Gangai Amman
Kovil Street, Choolaimedu, near the
Nungambakkam railway station. It
was heartrending to see her father
Santhanagopalakrishnan break
down on seeing his daughter’s body
lying on the platform.
The police achieved a break-
through on July 1 night when they
zeroed in on 22-year-old P. Ram-
kumar, who was hiding in the back-
yard of his house at Panpozhi village
near Meenakshipuram,  about 60
km from Tirunelveli town.  After
committing the murder on June 24,
he had gone home where his parents
lived and never stepped out. When
the police surrounded his home at 11
p.m., he tried to commit suicide by
slashing his throat with a knife. He
was rushed to the government hospi-
tal at Tenkasi town and later shifted
to the Government Medical College
Hospital at Tirunelveli. Ramkumar
is a graduate engineer who complet-
ed his B.E. from an engineering col-
lege at Alankulam in Tirunelveli
district. He came to Chennai looking
for a job and was staying in a lodge on
Eighth Street, Sourashtra Nagar,
close to Swathi’s house. Informed
police sources said the motive for the
murder was unrequited love.
However, T.K. Rajendran, Com-
missioner of Police, Chennai, who
addressed a press conference on July
2, said “the motive behind the crime
will be known during the investiga-
tion”. When a reporter asked him
whether the crime was
committed “out of pas-
sion”, he reiterated that
the motive would un-
ravel only during the
investigation. “There is
no other accused,” he
asserted.
Answering ques-
tions on how the police
were able to apprehend
Ramkumar, Rajendran S . S W A T H I .
said: “Our teams were
able to zero-in on him after a thor-
ough investigation. Our teams
fanned out in Choolaimedu and
Nungambakkam and on the Infosys
campus.”  People not only from
across Tamil Nadu but also from oth-
er States provided information to the
police. Swathi’s parents cooperated
with them.  him checking his hands for injuries,
A lot of footage from several
CCTV cameras was studied. Thou-
sands of phone calls made in the
Choolaimedu area before and after
the crime was committed were ana-
lysed.
The killer was aware that her fa-
ther dropped her near the station
every day around 6.30 a.m., when the
station is not usually crowded. She
always sat on a particular bench on
platform number 2 because the
women’s compartment of electric
trains would halt opposite it. Close to
the bench is a telephone booth.
There is a railway catering stall, a
shop selling newspapers, and anoth-
er stall, all situated in a row near the
phone booth. On the fateful day,
Swathi was perhaps sitting on the
bench. She saw somebody move be-
hind her, and as she turned back to
look, the assailant hit her on her right
jaw, neck and head with his ma-
chete-like weapon. He then sprinted
down the platform towards Kodam-
bakkam side, ran along the railway
track for about 50 metres and threw
the weapon near three white-painted
pillar boxes installed for signalling.
He then scaled a wall along the Rail-
way Border Road, which runs paral-
lel to the track. But he cut his hand on
the glass pieces embedded on the top
of the wall and disappeared. The po-
lice found bloodstains on the wall.
An important clue to his identity
emerged when it was dis-
covered that a closed cir-
cuit camera installed by a
private firm, which is lo-
cated on Railway Border
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Road and offers various
courses, had captured
pictures of the assailant
walking along the road
with his backpack before
he reached the railway
station and committed
the murder. He was wear-
ing dark trousers and a checked shirt
and was walking along the com-
pound wall abutting the railway
track. More footage of his, after he
committed the crime, became avail-
able from cameras installed in a
house on Seventh Cross Street, Sou-
rashtra Nagar. The footage shows
probably sustained when he scaled
the compound wall. The footage
shows him entering Eighth Cross
Street and disappearing.
Swathi’s murder shook Chennai,
especially women. It took place in
daylight on an open railway platform
where at least a few dozen people
would have been waiting to catch
their trains. But, as her father told
reporters, nobody came to her res-
cue. Nobody chased the assailant ei-
ther. Nobody bothered to inform the
police about the crime or call the
ambulance (it was learnt later that
the police reportedly received two
phone calls about the crime). A po-
lice officer said: “People just watched
the injured girl bleeding and writh-
ing in pain till the police arrived at
the spot. Many who saw the girl
127
bleeding to death took a train and
escaped” (Daily Thanthi DT Next,
June 26). Her body was not covered
for a long time after the incident. “So
many trains would have passed by on
both the platforms and yet no one
came forward to cover the body till a
senior police official arrived at 9
a.m.,” said Swathi’s uncle K. Govin-
daraj (The Hindu, June 26, 2016).
Again, on June 24, four women
belonging to one family were mur-
dered in the heart of Chennai. Chin-
naraj, a 35-year-old man, murdered
his wife, Pandiammal (38), and her
three daughters from her previous
marriage, in their cramped home on
Muthu Street in Royapettah, close to
the Royapettah police station. Chin-
naraj clubbed them to death with an
iron rod and stayed with the bodies
for two days in the closed house. He
strangled the youngest daughter, a
schoolgirl, with the wire of an electric
iron. Raja Bahadur, the houseowner,
alerted the police after a stench start-
ed emanating from the house. The
police found Chinnaraj sleeping on
the Marina beach, behind the Light
House. He had parked his scooter
nearby and that gave him away.
Chinnaraj told the police that after
he committed the four murders, he
wanted to drown himself in the Bay
of Bengal but did not have the cour-
age to do so.
LACK OF COORDINATION
Even as anger swept through Chen-
nai over Swathi’s and a string of other
bloody murders, the Government
Railway Police (GRP) and the Chen-
nai city police were at loggerheads as
to who should investigate Swathi’s
murder because it took place on a
railway platform. A top police official
reportedly told an English newspa-
per that although railway stations
did not fall under the jurisdiction of
the city police, he had offered help to
the GRP in investigating the crime.
Indeed, reports in various news-
papers about the lack of coordination
between the Chennai city police and
the GRP bothered a Division Bench
comprising Justice S. Nagamuthu
and V. Bharathidasan of the Madras
High Court so much that on June 27
the two judges, suo motu, summoned
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
the Public Prosecutor, S. Shanmuga-
velayutham, and asked him to sub-
mit the details of such discord, if any,
to the court. They gave the police two
days to crack the crime. “If we feel
that there is any slackening in the
probe even after two days, we will
take suo motu proceedings with per-
mission from the Chief Justice,” they
said. They slammed the police for
letting Swathi’s body lie uncovered
on the platform for two hours. They
asked the Public Prosecutor: “Where
were your police officers? Even a
It is event management now
IF the recent murders of the Right
to Information (RTI) activist Pa-
rasmal Javantraj, and the advo-
cates C. Murugan and Akhilnath,
which took place during daytime in
Chennai in June are any indication,
the practice of hiring professional
killers has come to stay in Tamil
Nadu. Killing people for a fee has
become “a fine art”, with “event
managers” choreographing the en-
tire event to the last detail, includ-
ing sketching the escape routes and
providing vehicles to the killers to
flee, informed police sources say.
According to them, when a per-
son wants to do away with, say, a
business rival, he hires a killer or an
organised gang of killers. The pro-
fessional killer or the gang “sketch-
es a plan of action”, quietly stalk the
quarry, “assess the situation” and
decide where it is easy to take out
the target. Even dry runs are done.
The heads of the gangs provide new
mobile phones to the killers. After
the murder, the killers throw away
the phones after removing the SIM
card. Waiting vehicles pick up the
killers after they finish their job,
and the killers are provided securi-
ty. Even fake ambulances are sent
to pick up the killers who would be
dropped off in other States, police
sources say.
After the killing of Swathi,
when the police, conducting vehi-
cle checks on June 26, tried to stop
a car on South Usman Road in T.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
dead person has got a right to dignity
under the Constitution. Why was the
girl’s body lying like an exhibit for
more than two hours? It speaks vol-
umes. Why should it take so much of
time to complete the formalities?”
In the afternoon, the Public Pros-
ecutor informed the judges that the
Director General of Police had trans-
ferred the case from the GRP to the
city police and that a team, headed by
K.P.S. Devaraj, Assistant Commis-
sioner of Police, Nungambakkam,
had been formed to crack the crime.
Nagar, it sped off. The police
chased and intercepted it and took
into custody six members of a gang
led by C.D. Mani who were in the
car. The six men were Vettrivel,
Jaiganesh, Ganesan, Sekar, Ma-
heswaran and Panchatcharam. Ex-
cept Sekar and Panchatcharam,
who are in their 30s, the others are
in their 20s.
Each gang has its own “style
and method” of killing, the sources
say. Weapons are specially made
for committing murders. For in-
stance, the sickle-like weapon with
a long, curved blade and a long
handle, used in killing Swathi, was
a specially made weapon called
“kodukku” for committing mur-
ders.
Disputes over sharing of money
or property have led to murders. “It
is division of money among family
members that lead to the largest
number of murders,” says a police
source. Hired professional killers
are mostly used to murder people
belonging to a rival community in
communal clashes. “They often dis-
appear after they do their jobs and
the [Police] Department will not
be able to take action against
them,” says the source.
Professional killers were en-
gaged to murder the RTI activist
and financier, Parasmal Javantraj.
A gang killed him on June 6 in the
daytime on Bakers’ Street, Peria-
met, a busy locality near Central
128
He denied that there was a lack of
coordination between the GRP and
the city police. Later, eight teams
were assigned to the case.
The Madras High Court put the
State government on notice again
the next day when Justice N. Kiru-
bakaran raised 15 questions in a let-
ter that he wrote to the Chief Justice
of the Madras High Court, Sanjay
Kishan Kaul, and wanted the gov-
ernment to respond to them. In the
letter, he wanted the High Court to
take up, suo motu, a public interest
Railway Station. Javantraj was
fighting a battle against illegal con-
structions in the area. He filed a
right to information inquiry about
an apartment complex which
should have had only three floors
but had six. A day prior to his mur-
der, 46-year-old advocate C. Muru-
gan was murdered in Trustpuram,
Kodambakkam. His wife, who re-
portedly was in an illicit affair with
another man, hired three profes-
sional killers to kill him.
The police suspect that hired
killers were again used to take out
the 34-year-old advocate, Akhil-
nath, on June 16 at Puzhal, about
30 km from Chennai. Informed
sources said he was killed because
he reportedly misbehaved with a
colleague’s wife.
A four-year-long whodunit sur-
rounds the murder of K.N. Rama-
jeyam in Tiruchi on March 29,
2012. A gang of professional killers
abducted him when he went for his
morning walk and brutally mur-
dered him. He is the younger
brother of K.N. Nehru, Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam legislator
and former Minister. Ramajeyam
was into several businesses, includ-
ing the export of granite, quarrying
and real estate. He was an accused
in a couple of cases of land-grab-
bing. It is a mystery why the police
are unable to arrest the murderers
in this case.
T.S. Subramanian
litigation (PIL) petition on the issue.
His questions related to the non-in-
stallation of CCTV cameras in im-
portant and strategic locations such
as bus stands, railway stations, hos-
pitals, shopping malls, beach roads
and so on; the failure to provide suf-
ficient funds to set up CCTV cameras
with modern, integrated control
rooms; police vacancies that have
not been filled up; and the need for
the Railway Ministry to provide
compensation for Swathi’s family.
The absence of a CCTV camera at the
Nungambakkam railway station
rankled Justice Kirubakaran so
much that he said that Swathi died
like an orphan in the midst of a so-
called “civilised society”. Why should
the Union Home Ministry not direct
all the States to pass a legislation
such as the Andhra Pradesh Public
Safety (Measures) Enforcement Act,
2013, compelling private establish-
ments to install CCTV cameras on
the streets, he asked.
The first Bench of Chief Justice
Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan is-
sued notices to the Union and State
governments and posted further
hearing in the case to August 4.
From all accounts, Swathi was a
good-natured person always willing
to help others. Her sister, S. Nithya,
narrated how Swathi waded through
knee-deep water during the floods in
Chennai in December 2015 to dis-
tribute food packets in nearby areas
which were affected by the floods
(The Hindu, June 26, 2016). She fin-
ished her schooling from Good Shep-
herd Matriculation Higher
Secondary School, Nungambakkam,
and graduated in Computer Science
and Technology from Dhanalakshmi
College of Engineering, Tambaram,
about 28 km from Chennai. She
joined Infosys in July 2014 and un-
derwent training on its Mysore cam-
pus before being posted at the
Infosys office at the Mahindra World
City campus, about 45 km from
Nungambakkam.
GROUNDSWELL OF ANGER
The series of murders in Chennai,
Tirunelveli and Tuticorin caused a
groundswell of anger against the rul-
ing establishment and led to a feeling
P . RA M K U M A R , the accused in
the Swathi murder case, at the
Tenkasi government hospital.
of insecurity among women, espe-
cially those who travel in trains. Peo-
ple spontaneously mourned Swathi’s
death by lighting candles near the
bench where she was killed. They put
up posters with the question, “Are we
deaf and dumb?”, a pointed query
directed at the inaction of people
who were present on the platform
and their failure to attend to Swathi’s
body. More candlelight vigils were
organised in different parts of Chen-
nai to pay tributes to Swathi.
Murders, incidents of chain-
snatching, robberies and burglaries
have become the norm in Chennai
since 2011, tarnishing its image as a
safe city for women. As a wag sarcas-
tically said: “If “Madras (Chennai)
was known as the medical capital of
India, it has now become the murder
capital.”
Political parties did not fail to
repeatedly highlight the numerous
murders and robberies that have tak-
en place since Jayalalithaa took of-
fice in 2011. In a statement issued on
April 9, M. Karunanidhi, president
of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
(DMK) and former Chief Minister,
said that 9,948 murders and one lakh
robberies and thefts had taken place
in Tamil Nadu during Jayalalithaa’s
rule from 2011 to the end of 2015.
“Seven murders and 70 robberies are
taking place every day in Tamil Na-
du. The situation is so bad that not a
129
day passes without murders and rob-
beries. Crimes against women have
spiked. In the past three years, 2,335
women have been subjected to sexual
violence. More than 20,000 crimes
have been committed against wom-
en,” said Karunanidhi in the state-
ment. He quoted a report from the
Bureau of Police Research and De-
velopment to point out that Tamil
Nadu, of all the States in India, saw
the highest number of agitations. In
the last four and a half years, 21,232
demonstrations/agitations had tak-
en place in the State, he said, quoting
the report.
The series of murders led politic-
ians to take jibes at Jayalalithaa’s
claim that “Tamil Nadu is a garden of
peace”. M.K. Stalin, DMK treasurer
and Leader of the Opposition in the
Assembly, met Swathi’s parents in
their home. Stalin, who listed the
number of murders that had taken
place in Chennai and its suburbs
from May 2016, alleged that Chennai
was transforming into “a metropolis
of murders”.
S. Ramadoss, founder, Pattali
Makkal Katchi, asserted that it was
“an irrefutable truth that the atroc-
ities of mercenary killer gangs had
increased manifold in Tamil Nadu”.
The law and order situation in the
State had worsened within a month
of the AIADMK returning to power,
he said. Four advocates had been
murdered in Chennai in the past
three weeks and six women had been
killed in a single day (June 24), Ra-
madoss said.
Members of the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), led by its State president
Tamilisai Soundararajan, held a
demonstration in Chennai to con-
demn Swathi’s murder and to protest
against the worsening law and order
situation in the city. “The law and
order situation has deteriorated in
Tamil Nadu,” Tamilisai Soundarara-
jan said.
She alleged that “a culture of pro-
fessional killings” had gripped the
State. “Neither the Chief Minister
nor her representatives met Swathi’s
family. It is painful that the Chief
Minister has not even issued a state-
ment condemning Swathi’s murder,”
she said. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016

Schooling
SUCCESSIVE governments at the Centre
and the States have tinkered with the
education system without seeing beyond
their noses (Cover Story, July 8). While
the number of educational facilities has
inarguably increased, learning out-
comes and social equity have taken a
back seat. Private players in the educa-
tion sector are having a field day charging
exorbitant fees and collecting “compul-
sory donations”, which make these in-
stitutions out of bounds for the
economically deprived.
AYYASSERI RAVEENDRANATH
ARANMULA, KERALA
THE “school topper” drama in Bihar is a
matter of grave concern. Such incidents
portray the Indian education system in a
negative light. The Cover Story was time-
ly. One needs to ponder seriously why the
education system is failing and why such
scams happen. Major changes must be
made to the current education policy as
soon as possible. For example, an educa-
tion system based on the CBSE/ICSE pat-
tern could be adopted for the entire
country. One can only hope that such a
move would help provide quality educa-
tion for all sections of Indians.
NEERAJ KUMAR JHA
HARIHARPUR, BIHAR
IN a landmark judgment in 2015, the Al-
lahabad High Court ruled that all State
government employees should send
their children to primary schools under
the State education board or face penal-
ties. The court saw this as a way to en-
sure that these schools were given
priority over elite or semi-elite schools.
In this connection, it should be stated
that people with low incomes are falling
into the trap of admitting their children in
private English-medium schools. The
Right to Education Act has failed to
achieve its objectives.
The light at the end of the tunnel
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
LETTERS
seems to be the student protests in na-
tionally reputed institutions such as JNU
against the implementation of the Hindu
fundamentalist agenda.
S. MURALI
VELLORE, TAMIL NADU
WE should welcome the recommenda-
tions of the panel on the New Education
Policy. Playing politics inside and outside
educational institutions does not solve
problems, rather it aggravates them.
S.R. DEVAPRAKASH
TUMAKURU, KARNATAKA
THIS is with reference to the article on
schoolchildren being punished for not
paying attention in class by having burn-
ing camphor put on them by a teacher
(“Fortnight”, “‘Camphor treatment’ in
primary school”, July 8). If children live
with criticism, they learn to condemn.
Similarly, if they live in shame, they learn
guilt; if they live in hostility, they learn to
fight; and if they live with ridicule, they
learn only shyness. Further, schoolchil-
dren get tired because they have to carry
school bags full of books. This can be
avoided if the use of loose papers are
encouraged in all schools. These can be
filed safely once the children return from
school. Children will be less tired and be
able to pay attention in class.
Similar to the Railways’ slogan of “less
luggage, more comfort”, school author-
ities should follow the slogan of “less
books, more knowledge” and also “less
punishment, more encouragement”.
A.J. RANGARAJAN
CHENNAI
Gujarat pogrom
THE book “Gujarat Files” authored by the
intrepid writer Rana Ayyub is an excel-
lent piece of investigative journalism
(“On the trail of the real culprits”, July 8).
In light of the recent judgment on Gul-
berg Society massacre case and the in-
sights provided in this book, aspects of
the Gujarat riots and Amit Shah’s role in
encounter killings need a fresh look. Not
surprisingly, the book is not available in
Ahmedabad or elsewhere in Gujarat.
N.C. SREEDHARAN
KANNUR, KERALA
Censor board
THE Bombay High Court’s ruling in the
case relating to the film “Udta Punjab” is
welcome (“On a cutting spree”, July 8).
The ruling was a slap in the face of CBFC
Chairman Pahlaj Nihalani for acting like
a one-man army trying to curb creativity.
130
The court’s ruling sets a good precedent
and is a stark reminder to the CBFC that
its job is to certify films and categorise
them, not censor them.
K.R. SRINIVASAN
SECUNDERABAD, TELANGANA
NOW that the Bombay High Court has
cleared “Udta Punjab” with just one cut,
should not Nihalani, who had recom-
mended as many as 86 cuts in the movie,
resign? At a time when the content of
movies made in India is maturing and
many movies are being made with clear-
cut messages for society, the censor
board should not be a tool of the Central
government.
BAL GOVIND
NOIDA, UTTAR PRADESH
Crime
THE death of more than 20 people after
violence in Mathura over land
encroachment is tragic (“Deadly devotion”,
July 8). Land-grabbers, whether poor or
rich, are lawbreakers and must be evicted.
The government often plays vote-bank
politics and regularises unauthorised
colonies, which only encourages more
encroachment.
M. KUMAR
NEW DELHI
Protest
IT is good that many eminent writers
called for a boycott of the Jaipur
Literature Festival in London as it was
sponsored by Vedanta, a company with a
dubious role in human and
environmental tragedies in India, Africa
and Australia (“The hurt runs deep”,
June 24). Hansda Shekar has first-hand
knowledge of the devastation caused by
this mining company to the Dongria
Kondh tribal community in Niyamgiri,
Odisha. Vedanta’s reply that it has
adequately compensated and
rehabilitated the displaced tribal people
is not convincing.
One knows that displaced people
mostly end up as migrant labourers in
cities and lead a miserable life. Hansda is
right when he says that writers should
step down from their ivory towers and
come out in the open to protest injustices
done to the weaker sections of society.
P. VIJAYAKUMAR
MADURAI, TAMIL NADU
ANNOUNCEMENT
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