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TheIndian EXPRESS
www.indianexpress.com

NEW DELHI l MONDAY l APRIL 9 l 2012

The Indian EXPRESS

BECAUSE THE TRUTH INVOLVES US ALL

OR once, a high political encounter between the leaders of India and Pakistan went according to script. Sundays lunch meeting in Delhi between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the visiting Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seems to have set the stage for an early and productive visit by the former to Islamabad. Having revived with great tenacity the peace process that went into a coma after the 2008 Mumbai attack, Singh and Zardari surprised the world this month by organising a diplomatic opportunity for their engagement. Zardari expressed the wish to make a private visit to Ajmer Sharif, and Singh seized on it to host the luncheon meeting. Delhi and Islamabad said this was not a summit for intense negotiations and ringing declarations. The limited purpose was to identify a few areas of agreement and set a date for Singhs visit to Pakistan. The lull in cross-border attacks and Zardaris bold liberalisation of Pakistans trade policy towards India provided the positive political context. The PM has been insisting that he would visit Pakistan only if substantive agreements were in hand. The announcement that the PM would indeed travel to Pakistan soon suggests the two leaders have agreed on some broad outcomes

The real test for Singh and Zardari begins now, there are spoilers on either side
from the visit. Senior officials from both sides will now sit down to translate the political understanding into specific agreements. So far so good. The real test for Singh and Zardari, however, begins now. There are enough spoilers on either side to limit the possibilities. The army, the militant groups and Zardaris countless political opponents in Pakistan come readily to mind. The conservative elements in the Congress, the BJP and the habitual hawks in Delhis bureaucratic establishment have always demurred at Singhs penchant for normalising ties with Pakistan. Yet it is not difficult to visualise a solid trade agenda for Singhs visit to Pakistan that promotes economic integration. Singh and Zardari, however, will find the big political issues a lot trickier. India wants progress in bringing the Mumbai plotters to book and, more broadly, on dismantling Pakistans terror infrastructure, issues on which Zardari has limited room for manoeuvre. Pakistan, in turn, wants a grand political gesture on Kashmir-related issues, especially the Siachen dispute that Singh might find it hard to deliver. Whatever the undeclared political understanding between Singh and Zardari might be, they must demonstrate real leadership in the coming weeks to rally domestic political support.

Beginning Sunday

EVEN years ago, when the quota regime in the global textile market was dismantled, India was seen as one of the biggest potential gainers, along with China. As a report in this newspaper showed, India is losing the plot, especially in high-value apparel exports to the US and EU. Vietnam has surged ahead in terms of supplies to the US. Indonesia, not in the top-five list three years ago, is snapping at Indias heels; so is Bangladesh. In fact, in the EU market, India is a distant fourth in terms of supplies, and clocked lower growth than Bangladesh and Pakistan. Ironically, this when Chinas hold over these developed markets is loosening. And when India unlike Bangladesh or Vietnam has the advantage of having a domestic presence across the entire raw material base of cotton and man-made fibres. This should have helped its exporters emerge competitive. Instead, India is increasingly being relegated to the position of a supplier of intermediate products to the new textile tigers Vietnam, Indonesia and Bangladesh. This is cause for con-

Stalled labour reform, knee-jerk policy responses ensure India loses ground to the new textile tigers
cern given that the textiles and clothing industry is the largest employer after the agriculture sector. And if its not able to compete, it will continue to cede space abdicated by China to more nimble, aggressive regional players. While matching wages in Bangladesh or infrastructure in China may not be easy for India, competitiveness of this industry can be improved by unshackling it from constraints imposed by the government. Stalled reform in labour laws has ensured inflexibility in hiring, a key reason why the industry remains fragmented. This has resulted in artificial hurdles in the way of plans by firms to scale up operations. Frequent knee-jerk interventions in the raw material market such as the recent ban on cotton exports imposed by the commerce ministry, which was later withdrawn distort the market. And, of course, support infrastructure, such as power supply, roads and ports, is stuck in policy freeze. There are signs that Western economies are showing signs of a pick-up, but the capability of the Indian textile industry to take advantage of this is in serious doubt.

Disturbing yarn

OMEONE asked me, Justice Katju, you say you wish to keep away from controversies, but why is it that controversies keep chasing you? I replied that while it is true that I wish to be uncontroversial, I have a great defect: I cannot remain silent when I see my country going downhill. Even if others are deaf and dumb, I am not. So I will speak out. As Faiz said: Bol ki lab azad hain tere/ Bol zubaan ab tak teri hai. In our shastras it is written: Satyam bruyat, priyam bruyat, na bruyat satyam apriyam. It means, Speak the truth, speak the pleasant, but do not speak the unpleasant truth. I wish to rectify this. The countrys situation today requires that we say Bruyat satyam apriyam, i.e. Speak the unpleasant truth. When I said that 90 per cent Indians are fools I spoke an unpleasant truth. The truth is that the minds of 90 per cent Indians are full of casteism, communalism, superstition. Consider the following: First, when our people go to vote in elections, 90 per cent vote on the basis of caste or community, not the merits of the candidate. That is why Phoolan Devi, a known dacoit-cum-murderer, was elected to Parliament because she belonged to a backward caste that had a large number of voters in that constituency. Vote banks are on the basis of caste and community, which are manipulated by unscrupulous politicians and others. Second, 90 per cent Indians believe in astrology, which is pure superstition and humbug. Even a little common sense tells us that the movements of stars and planets have nothing to do with our lives. Yet, TV channels showing astrology have high TRP ratings. Third, cricket has been turned into a religion by our corporatised media, and most people lap it up like opium. The real problems facing 80 per cent of the people are socio-economic poverty, unemployment, malnourishment, price rise, lack of healthcare, education, housing etc. But the media sidelines or minimises these real issues, and gives the impression that the real issues are the lives of film stars, fashion, cricket, etc. When Rahul Dravid retired, the media depicted it as a great misfortune for the country, and when Sachin Tendulkar scored his 100th cen-

The 90%
MARKANDEY KATJU
tury it was depicted as a great achievement for India. Day after day, the media kept harping on this, whereas the issues of a quarter of a million farmers suicides and 47 per cent Indian children being malnourished were sidelined. Fourth, I had criticised the media hype around Dev Anands death at a time when 47 farmers in India were committing suicide on an average every day for the last 15 years. A section of the media attacked me for doing so, but I reiterate that I see no justification for the high publicity given by the media to this event for several days. In my opinion, Dev Anands films transported the minds of poor people to a world of make-believe, like a hill station where Dev Anand was romancing some girl. This gave relief for a couple of hours to the viewers from their lives of drudgery. Such films, to my

LETTER OF THE WEEK AWARD

pointed. They will have to be given salaries, offices, staff, etc. Considering the low level of morality prevailing in India, we can be fairly certain that most of them will become blackmailers. It will create a parallel bureaucracy, which in one stroke will double the corruption in the country. And who will guard these Praetorian Guards? A body of Super Lokpals? All this was not rationally analysed. Instead, the hysterical mob that gathered in Jantar Mantar and Ramlila grounds in Delhi thought that corruption would be ended by shouting Bharat Mata ki Jai and Inquilab Zindabad. It is time Indians woke up to all this. When I called 90 per cent of them fools my intention was not to harm them, rather it was just the contrary. I want to see Indians prosper, I want poverty and unemployment abolished, I want the standard of living of the 80 per cent poor Indians to rise so that they get decent lives. But this is possible when their mindset changes, when their minds are rid of casteism, communalism and superstition, and they become scientific and modern. By being modern, I do not mean wearing a nice suit or a beautiful sari or skirt. Being modern means having a modern mind, which means a rational mind, a logical mind, a questioning mind, a scientific mind. At one time, India led the world in science and technology (see my article Sanskrit as a language of Science on kgfindia.com). That was because our scientific ancestors, like Aryabhata, Brahmagupta, Sushruta, Charaka etc, questioned everything. However, we subsequently took the unscientific path of superstition and empty ritual, which has led us to disaster. Today we are far behind the West in science and technology. The worst thing in life is poverty, and 80 per cent of our people are poor. To abolish poverty, we need to spread the scientific outlook to every nook and corner of our country. It is only then that India will shine. And until that happens, the vast majority of our people will continue to be taken for a ride. The writer, a former judge of the Supreme Court, is chairman of the Press Council
express@expressindia.com

The unpleasant truth: 90 per cent of Indians are fools

Antony stirred up the Roman mob, which went around seeking revenge on the conspirators. One of the conspirators was named Cinna. The mob caught hold of another man, also named Cinna, who protested that he was Cinna the poet and not Cinna the conspirator. Despite his protests, the mob said, tear him for his bad verses, and lynched him. The Jan Lokpal Bill 2011 defines an act of corruption as punishable under Chapter IX of the Indian Penal Code or under the Prevention of Corruption Act vide Section 2(e). Section 6(a) of the bill says the Lokpal will exercise superintendence over investigation of acts of corruption, and section 6(c) empowers the Lokpal to punish acts of corruption after giving a hearing. Section 6(e) authorises the Lokpal to initiate prosecution, and section 6(f) authorises

To encourage quality reader intervention The Indian Express offers the Letter of the Week Award. The letter adjudged the best for the week is published every Saturday. Letters may be e-mailed to editpage @expressindia.com or sent to The Indian Express, 9&10, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg, New Delhi -110002. Letter writers should mention their postal address and phone number. The winner receives books worth Rs 1,000.

EDITOR
THIS refers to A civil servants role model (IE, April 4). When I joined the Bihar cadre in 1977, as assistant superintendent of police, I called on P Appu, .S. then chief secretary, Bihar. I still remember the meeting vividly. Appu did not talk about working hard, being honest etc. It was assumed that if you are an IPS officer, you are all that. He said: Remember to take your one month earned leave every year; 58 is the biggest equaliser (the retirement age then) and that you occupy only three inches of space on the succession board. When Karpoori Thakur, then chief minister of Bihar, decided to appoint Appu as chief secretary, Appu reportedly told Thakur that he had two conditions. First, he must not be called after 6 pm unless there was an emergency. Second, if he sends a file about an officer, his recommendation must be accepted. We were told Thakur promised to do that. I was, therefore, not surprised when Appu, as the director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, submitted his resignation after he found Giani Zail Singh, by following a reformatory approach, was trying to scuttle his report against an IAS trainee who had misbehaved with a lady colleague. Rakesh Jaruhar Special DG, Central Zone, CRPF, Kolkata YOUR sensational report The January night Raisina Hill was spooked: Two key Army units moved towards Delhi without notifying Govt (IE, April 4) seemed bizarre. If it was an implicit coup attempt by rogue units, and not a routine training exercise, as claimed by the army, why would they turn back when ordered from Delhi? And then to link it with the filing of the army chiefs date of birth petition in the apex court appears highly mischievous. M. Ratan New Delhi

Letters to the

On principle

The worst thing in life is poverty, and 80 per cent of our people are poor. To abolish poverty, we need to spread the scientific outlook. Only then will India shine.
mind, serve no social purpose, but act instead like a drug or alcohol to send the viewer temporarily from his miserable existence to a beautiful world of tinsel. Finally, during the recent Anna Hazare agitation in Delhi, the media hyped the event as a solution to the problem of corruption. In reality it was, as Shakespeare said in Macbeth, ...a tale/ Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,/ Signifying nothing. (In an earlier piece in this paper, Recreating Frankensteins monster, IE, March 31, I had said, The Lokpal Bill will create a parallel bureaucracy, which will turn into Frankensteins monster.) At that time, if anyone had raised any logical questions, he would have been denounced as a gaddar or deshdrohi. The people who collected at Jantar Mantar or the Ramlila grounds displayed a mob mentality that has been accurately described by Shakespeare in Julius Caesar. After Caesars murder, Mark him to ensure proper prosecution. Section 6(i)(j) authorises him to receive complaints. Section 2(c) of the Prevention of Corruption Act defines a public servant very widely. It includes not only government servants but also a host of other categories, such as employees of a local body, judges, certain office-bearers of some cooperative societies, officials of Service Commission or Board, and vice chancellors and teachers in universities. As pointed out in Recreating Frankensteins monster, there are about 55 lakh government employees (13 lakh in the Railways alone). There will be several lakhs more in other categories coming under the definition of public servant according to the Prevention of Corruption Act. Obviously, one person cannot supervise and decide on presumably millions of complaints pouring in against them. Hence, thousands of Lokpals, maybe 50,000 or more, will have to be ap-

Fact and fiction

C. RAJA MOHAN
S it receives Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al Thani on Monday, Delhi would not want to miss the second opportunity to lay the foundation for a sound and lasting partnership with Qatar that has acquired an outsized geopolitical weight in the Middle East and beyond. Travelling to Doha in November 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared Indias intent to elevate the bilateral relationship with Qatar to the strategic level. From energy security to defence exchanges and the promotion of mutual investments to counter-terror cooperation, Singh and Qatars Emir Hamad had outlined an expansive framework for bilateral engagement. Three and a half years later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Delhi, in general, and the UPA government, in particular, has a problem delivering on agreements signed at high-level summits. Add to that Indias structural problem of engaging the Middle East. Unlike Indias Look East policy, Indias outreach to the Persian Gulf and the Middle East tends to be episodic. Not surprisingly, sustaining high-level political visits to Qatar has been a problem for Delhi. Qatar, in turn, has been basking in the glory of an activist, some have called it adventurous, foreign policy. Sending troops

India should elevate its bilateral relationship with Qatar

into Libya against Gaddafi, leading an Arab coalition against Syrias Bashar al-Assad, and bringing the Taliban out from the cold, Qatars international profile has dramatically risen. Yet, its relationship with India has remained well below potential. Despite Delhi and Doha looking past each other, India and Qatars need for each other continues to grow. Qatar, which has the worlds third largest natural gas reserves after Russia and Iran, and India, one of the biggest importers of natural gas, are condemned to cooperate. Indias demand for natural gas, like fracking for producing natural gas from shale deposits have transformed the supply situation. Traditional importers like the US are investing massively in the exploitation of domestic shale deposits. There is talk of US becoming a net exporter of natural gas in the not too distant future. The unfolding changes in the distribution of natural gas production make it imperative for India and Qatar to work out a new set of agreements on volumes and pricing of gas supplies. In 2008, India and Qatar recognised new opportunities for promotion of investments in each porates have been tardy in establishing a credible presence in the emirate. Singh and Hamad have their task cut out in facilitating an integration of the two economies. In 2008, PM and Hamad agreed to deepen defence cooperation, especially in the maritime domain. While the notion of India as a regional security provider has grown, Indias ponderous defence establishment has been unable to respond to the demands for security assistance from Qatar. In the years since the PM travelled to Doha, the political situation in the Persian Gulf and the Middle East has evolved beyond imagination. As new forces rise from the wreckage of the Arab Spring, Qatar has put itself at the centre of the current disorder in the Middle East. Doha has also injected itself into Afghanistan by promoting a dialogue between the Taliban and the West as the US begins to withdraw its military forces by 2014. If Delhi aspires for any political influence in our turbulent western neighbourhood, Doha is one of the important places to focus on. Qatar, in turn, has every reason to look east towards India as an important element in its economic future and the regional balance. The writer is a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation
express@expressindia.com

A Doha round

ERES Googles latest, bravest piece of whimsy yet a clunky pair of glasses that will annotate your entire field of vision, provide weather, maps, contacts, alerts and more. Though the project is far from being physically rolled out, it seems there will be some kind of retinal tracking mechanism that will act like a touchpad, though you can also speak directly to it. Of course, Project Glass is partly wish-fulfillment it gazes into a world where Google is centrally and seamlessly fitted into our lives and partly a reminder of Googles cosmic ambitions, unmatched by any of its competitors. Its the companys first step into the world of augmented reality and wearable computing, one that has been dreamt of in science fiction, laboured over in laboratories, seriously awaited since the 1990s but one that never seemed so immediate until now, as a work-

Are Googles augmented reality glasses inevitable? Or would you rather just look straight?
ing, mass-produced Google gadget. Of course, Project Glass vision may have put some people off the idea of immersive computing for good: the prospect of living with all that visual clutter, a profusion of icons and popups, isnt entirely appealing. Many have also pointed to the too-good-to-be-true absence of ads in Googles demo video. Either way, wearable computing is the natural next frontier. Its not hard to wrap our heads around the concept after all, were already physically hooked up to information systems, to artificial extensions and aids. Augmented reality applications are already being tried out for the military, for surgeons and game designers. Project Glass hasnt envisioned anything creepier than a hands-free smartphone, so far. And until Googles developers give us a little more to look at, we can have fun imagining the possibilities.

Seeing the future

A special relationship with Doha would be a critical element of any Indian strategy on energy security.
which is the cleanest of all the fossil fuels, is rapidly ballooning. For all the interest in fanciful, overland pipeline projects, importing liquefied natural gas through seaborne tankers from nearby Qatar remains one of the most attractive options for India. Trade in natural gas is built around stable long-term arrangements. A special relationship with Doha would be a critical element of any Indian strategy on energy security. Meanwhile, the changing nature of the global natural gas market makes India central to Qatars demand security. The discovery of additional natural gas reserves and the use of new technologies others industries. Sitting on massive petro dollar surpluses, Qatar offered to consider making substantive investments in Indian infrastructure and other sectors. But there has been little movement since then. Meanwhile, as the UPA government sent out anti-business signals and dampened the international investor confidence, the emirate has been focused on acquiring assets in the West. While businesses from the rest of the world are queuing up in Doha to participate in many mega projects the Olympics in 2020 and the football World Cup in 2022, for example Indian cor-

for courageous journalism. It will certainly help our civil and political system to review their relationship with the armed forces and to take steps to ensure the prevalence of democracy in India. Abid Siraj New Delhi
THIS refers to Maid to order (IE, April 6). The Dwarka case is not a first in domestic help abuse. Child labour exploitation is also a major challenge for India. Domestic workers lack political representation. Such enslavement and torture must be met with exemplary punishment. Mohit Chander Jalandhar I REFER to Suffering Judges (IE, April 3) under Delhi Confidential. It is mentioned some judges are suffering from the daily thoughts of a retired judge. The word suffering reminds me of a joke about employees writing leave applications. They were told to start their letters with As I was suffering from. One such letter began: As I was suffering from my brothers wedding! K. Venkatesan Pune

THANK YOU, Indian Express,

New order

Long suffering

WORDLY WISE
Benjamin Franklin

Love your neighbour; yet dont pull down your hedge

NOTHER attempt by the settlers to bend the law in the West tempt of court and undermining the authority of the military commander Bank to their extremist ideology failed on Wednesday, and the defence minister... Netanyahu must demand his party with the evacuation of the so-called Machpela House. and coalition colleagues choose between the rule of law and the The eviction came after Defence Minister Ehud Barak and Attoradvance of peace on one hand, and encouraging criminal activity ney General Yehuda Weinstein told Prime Minister Benjamin PRINTLINE and perpetuating the conflict with the Palestinians on the other. Netanyahu that delaying the execution of the Civil Administrations eviction order could ignite the area, in addition to constituting conFrom a leader in Haaretz, Tel Aviv

Might is not right