CMYK

ND-ND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

10 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 1, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The history of India’s socialist parties — from

which the various Janata Parivar entities

emerged — is one of splits and mergers. If in

the past its leaders, opinionated, fractious,

colourful and intensely political as they are, lined up

behind Congress rebels to form Central governments

in 1977 and 1989, some of them also boosted the num-

bers of BJP-led NDA governments in 1999 and 2014. In

1996, when the minority H.D. Deve Gowda-led United

Front government came into being, it was ideologically

more cohesive, but the Congress that had backed it

soon withdrew support. Over the years, the Janata

Parivar parties drifted from their ideological moorings

in socialism to seek identity politics.They stayed afloat,

especially in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, capturing the

space vacated by the Congress, and addressing the

aspirations of the numerically substantial backward

castes. In last year’s general election, the BJP (that had

been quicker off the mark than the Congress in taking

note of the aspirational OBCs back in the early 1990s,

launching its “social engineering” experiment) wiped

out the Janata Parivar parties in both the Hindi-belt

States, taking away a major chunk of the OBC and Dalit

votes that had sustained them for over two decades.

The trigger for the current moves towards a merger

of six Janata Parivar parties, especially the Janata Dal

(United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal located in Bihar

and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, is the fear of

extinction. Assembly elections are due this year in

JD(U)-ruled Bihar and in 2017 in Uttar Pradesh where

the SP is in power. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the

three parties touched their lowest mark in two decades:

the JD(U) and the RJD together won just six of Bihar’s

40 seats, and the SP a paltry five of Uttar Pradesh’s 80

seats. The other three parties are the Indian National

Lok Dal, the Janata Dal (Secular) and the Samajwadi

Janata Party. Today, as they move to merge under the

leadership of the SP’s Mulayam Singh Yadav, having set

themselves the task of doing so by April 20 when the

second half of Parliament’s budget session commences,

their first electoral test ahead will be in Bihar. If the

merger takes place, the impact will be felt first on the

streets with the anti-Land Bill agitation and then inside

Parliament: the party will start with 15 MPs in the Lok

Sabha and 30 in the Rajya Sabha. But though Nitish

Kumar retains some appeal, the rest of its leadership,

especially Mr. Mulayam Singh, Mr. Deve Gowda, the

RJD’s Lalu Prasad and the INLD’s Om Prakash Chauta-

la are jaded practitioners of dynastic politics. To re-

main relevant and grow, these parties, an important

part of India’s political history, need to adapt to the

times — for there is more to politics than mere

arithmetic.

Fearing extinction

If there are any doubts about a globaldouble standard when it comes to WestAsia, then the reaction to the bombingof Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its part-

ners will put them to rest. Here is a situation,where fighter jets of a Saudi-led coalition arepounding the capital of another country, Sa-na'a, without seeking any internationalmandate, and there is absolute silence fromthose who should object.

Leaders in Washington, London, Paris andBerlin have not appealed to the United Na-tions nor have they asked for an end to thebombing of civilians in an effort to stop theadvance of rebels. Despite the question ofsovereignty — of more than 100 air raids inwhich dozens of civilians have died in thecapital, human rights violations and even thebasic worry of these raids helping al-Qaedaand the self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) inYemen — there has been not one word ofcensure from them. In fact, Washington isbacking the strikes, France and the UnitedKingdom are giving them “all possible” tech-nical help, and Egypt, Turkey and even Pa-kistan plan to help with the “groundoffensive” to back the Yemeni President,Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi, against Houthirebels.

For Western introspection

For those who say this is a justified attackto support a legitimate ruler, stop, think andrewind to 2012-2013, when the Syrian Presi-dent, Bashar al-Assad, faced the most diffi-cult pressure from armed Free Syrian Armyfighters and Jabhat Al-Nasrah rebels (IStook control later). What would have beenthe Western reaction had Iran sent jets intoAleppo, Homs and Hama to back its ally, Mr.Assad? Wouldn’t these countries have set upa counter-attack within 24 hours, or at leastconvened the UN Security Council for aRight to Protect (R2P) mandate to do so?

The rank duality in dealing with the sit-uation in Yemen is not just the subject ofsome hand-wringing; it is the single largestreason why the war against IS and even itssuccessor organisations will be unwinnablefor these countries. Despite 3,000 air strikesby a United States-led coalition of 62 coun-tries that began operations last August tocounter IS, IS continues to control morethan an estimated 55,000 square kilometresof area in Iraq and Syria. That IS is an evilterror group displaying unprecedented bru-tality is undoubtable. That it is a threat toevery country in the world should be obviousfrom the way the group has targeted everynationality: beheading American, British,

Japanese and Egyptian citizens alike, burn-ing alive a Jordanian national, and broad-casting its terror worldwide in the mostbestial way. It poses the biggest threat to thenext generation as well, recruiting a recordnumber of child soldiers, and training chil-dren as young as five to kill. If the coalition,which represents nearly a third of the world,which has the resolve, the firepower, and theexperience of fighting terror groups in everypart of the world, is unable to counter such agroup, deep and searching questions must beasked about why that is.

Down to logistics

To begin with, there is a basic problem oflogistics. Despite the most sophisticateddrones and surveillance of the region, an airstrike on an IS target is ineffective withoutan accompanying ground force in place.Even if the U.S. and its coalition are able to

strengthen Iraqi armed forces to conductground operations, it is meaningless untilthey are also able to enlist Syrian armedforces to launch a pincer-like action on thegroup that straddles both countries. Withoutthe ground forces, all victories over IS terri-tory are, essentially, pyrrhic. This was evi-dent in the Syrian town of Kobane along theTurkish border where the U.S. Alliancedrove IS out in September 2014 after twoweeks of sustained bombing and 600 strikes.As journalists were allowed into the city,their cameras bore out the tragic truth: allthat was left of IS-controlled areas was a vastwasteland. The reason that the U.S. coalitionhas been unable to engage the Syrian regimefor help on the ground is of course the reasonwhy it ignored the rise of IS in the first place.The West’s preoccupation with the removalof Mr. Assad and the funding and arming of

the groups that opposed him since 2011 ledto complete surprise at the rapidity withwhich IS fighters have taken over Syrian andIraqi towns. In October last year, U.S. Presi-dent Barack Obama finally conceded thatunderestimating IS’s rise had been a major“intelligence failure.” But it was more thanthat. It was the determined effort to ensurethat “Assad must go” that led the Westernand West Asian countries ranged against Mr.Assad to ignore his warnings about the na-ture of the fighters his army was battling. Asa result, and in another example of the dou-ble standard, the 62-member coalition nowroutinely bombs areas that it wanted to stopMr. Assad’s forces from bombing.

Misreading the Arab Spring

The other flaw with the West’s strategy isthe pursuance of regime change, focussed onone leader as the single purpose of its wars in

West Asia. Recent history should havetaught the U.S., the U.K. and others that theremoval of Saddam Hussein and MuammarQadhafi haven’t been the end of the conflict;they have merely marked the beginning of amore diabolical and deadly version of theconflict. Hanging Saddam and lynching Qad-hafi hasn’t led to peace in Iraq and Libya, norwould the possible ouster of Mr. Assad dothat. Instead, it has led to an erosion of whatwere once “secular” regimes, where minor-ities and women enjoyed a higher positionthan they do in other countries of the Arabworld.

Another blunder has been the misreadingof the “Arab Spring” by the West. Whilemany of the crowds that poured into Arabcapitals, from Tunis to Damascus and Sa-na'a, demanded democracy and positivechange, many just wanted regime change.

Democracy is better effected through theballot box than it is through the crowding ofmain squares, which is a powerful image, buta misleading representation of the “people’swill”. “We no longer refer to it as the ArabSpring,” admitted a senior NATO militaryofficial at the “Brussels Forum” conferencelast week, where trans-Atlantic discussionson IS were held. “It is now seen as the Arabuprising instead,” he concluded. Interesting-ly, the countries in the West that rejoiced atthe thought of democracy in the countries ofthe so-called Spring missed the most signif-icant point: all the countries that saw theirleadership change — Egypt, Syria, Libya, Ye-men — were republics, whereas none of theeight monarchies — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait,Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, the Emirates, Jordanand Morocco — were destabilised.

This skew, particularly towards the Sunnimonarchies of Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jor-dan, who are more focussed on fighting the“Shi’a crescent” of Iranian influence in theregion, has led to another problem. The Westhas turned a blind eye, and even assistedthese countries in the funding, training andarming of Sunni extremist groups to carryout attacks in Syria. They have been doingthis by trying to draw a fine line between thegroups they support — including the FreeSyrian Army and Jabhat Al-Nasrah — andwith IS. Anyone who sees the distinctionsbetween the groups has to only read theaccount of the American journalist, TheoPadnos (now Peter Theo Curtis), who wastaken hostage in Syria in 2012 and finallyreleased by al-Qaeda in August 2014 in a dealbrokered by Qatar. Padnos was handed overfrom one group to another in Syria, andfound few differences between them. Whenhe asked why his well-armed captors trainedin Jordan by U.S. marines were holding anAmerican hostage despite promises theywould only target Assad’s regime, they an-swered: “Yes, we lied.” If it is naivety thatallows the U.S., France, and the U.K. to con-tinue to enlist their Arab allies in the war onterror and hope they will cut off finances andoil revenues to al-Qaeda and IS, despite evi-dence that they play both sides of the war, itis a very costly innocence that the world haspaid for.

Joining IS

Finally, there is a need for introspectioninside Europe, the U.S., and even Australia,which have seen growing numbers of theircitizens get through Turkey to join IS. Whilethe brutality of the Assad regime and eco-nomic distress in the region have beenblamed for the thousands of Arab youth tak-ing up arms for IS, what explains the hun-dreds of citizens joining it from the U.K.,France and the U.S.? According to the U.S.National Counterterrorism Center, 3,400 ofthe 20,000 IS foreign fighters are from West-ern countries. Why are British and Frenchgirls becoming jihadi brides, schoolboys andyoung doctors learning to kill, and teenageAmericans travelling all the way just to joinIS ranks? Could it be that in the early years ofa push for regime change and sanctionsagainst Syria, Western governments them-selves promoted the propaganda against Mr.Assad’s government, allowing many of theirMuslim citizens to think they had not justreligious but national sanction to join thewar?

Significantly, some of the West’s actionsare now being rethought. While concludinganother round of P5+1 talks with Iran in theSwiss town of Lausanne last week, the U.S.Secretary of State, John Kerry, suggestedthat the U.S. is now open to talks with Mr.Assad if need be. “If he is ready to have aserious negotiation about the implementa-tion of Geneva I (2012 agreement), ofcourse,” he said. “What we’re pushing for isto get him to come and do that,” he added, inan interview to CBS.

But talks will only solve part of the prob-lem in West Asia. If the West genuinelywants to fight terror and promote a peacefulfuture for the region, it will also have toconfront its selective silence and dual stan-dard on the serious challenges that threatenthe region today.

suhasini.h@thehindu.co.in

The West and its flawed anti-IS strategyIf the West genuinely wants to fight terror andpromote a peaceful future in the troubled WestAsia region, it will have to confront its selectivesilence and dual standard on the seriouschallenges that threaten the region today; talkswill only solve part of the problem

Suhasini Haidar

“The West missed the most significant point of the ‘Arab

Spring’: all the countries that saw their leadership change wererepublics, whereas none of the monarchies were destabilised.

”

Reviving the CongressThe report, “Rally against land Billto be Rahul’s comeback show”(March 31), shows the Congress’splan to bank on populist resistanceto land acquisition in order to gainpolitical mileage. The party aims toaddress the issue of consent in theBill, but nowhere is it supportinglegislation that prevents theindiscriminate acquisition of landor envisaging a solution to equitabledevelopment in the nation.Theconsent clause is itself contentiousgiven that the common man doesnot have the commercial or thesocial acumen to make a decision.

Vikram Sundaramurthy,Chennai

It is time the top leadership of theCongress took a call on whether itneeds a reluctant leader at its helmat a time when the party is at themost critical juncture in its history.Despite its worst performance,electorally, in May 2014, no one canwrite off the relevance of the grandold party in Indian polity. Itshistory shows numerous instancesof electoral defeats and comebacks.But this time round, it has not yetshown any indication of a revivaland is wasting an opportunity tohave the government on the mat onissues that the Opposition andsocial groups both within andoutside Parliament are resisting.The government of the day hasshown that in its mind, onlycorporates and big businessesmatter and that the impact on theenvironment, the rural economy

and a coexistence of all social andeconomic groups are irrelevant.One only hopes that in thisinstance, the Congress vice-president stays the course.

C.K. Saseendran,Bengaluru

Search for SaraswatiThe report, “Excavation to begin insearch of Saraswati,” (March 31), iswelcome as it could help resolveproblems of water scarcity and alsoflooding in the region. There is alsopotential to sustain and improve lifealong the banks of this river if it isrevived. Now for the pertinentquestion. Is the ‘finding andexcavation’ based on any scientifictheory or is it just hypothetical?Article 51A(h) talks about the need“to develop the scientific temper,humanism and the spirit of inquiryand reform”. Has this been appliedin this instance? One needs moreevidence in favour of such a riverespecially as the Haryanagovernment is planning it as amongthe biggest projects to beundertaken in the area.

Faiyyaz Shaikh,Pune

Only in IndiaWhat American Peace CorpsVolunteer Donald Camp hasdescribed in his article, “It happensonly in India” (May 31), issomething that has been happeningin India and still continues. Itreminded me of my days in a smalltown in central Travancore, as astudent, and as a Hindu. A group ofus, schoolmates, used to halt before

the icon of Virgin Mary in front of achapel on the way to the exam hallto pray and sometimes to light acandle. In the school run by aChristian missionary, students usedto attend the prayer session beforeclass began and even participate infestivals at the chapel.

It must be said that somechurches have adopted some of thesymbolism from Hinduism. TheHindu-style nilavilakku or bronzeoil lamps, temple-style goldenflagstaffs and sandalwood paste areexamples. People lived in perfectharmony. Things have changed somuch since then.

K.R. Unnithan,Chennai

Safer skiesIt is unfortunate that the co-pilot ofthe Germanwings flight was allowedto fly given his condition (Editorial,March 30). In this connection,mention must be made of the tough,initial and periodic, physical andpsychological tests administered bythe Indian Railways to all itslocopilots. A physical examinationonce a year (in some cases, once insix months), a rigid eye test and apsychometric test are a must. Thereis also a “breathalyser” test beforethe journey. No driver can consumealcohol within eight hours prior towork. When the railways are socareful, aviation experts shoulddesign a better system to improvesafety standards.

J. Eden Alexander,Thanjavur

The problems the co-pilot is said to

have had (“Alps crash: co-pilot wasclassified as ‘suicidal’,”‘International’ page, March 31)reminds me an incident in myprofessional life, as anophthalmologist. Years ago, mypatient, a State road transport busdriver, came to me with a complaintof extreme vision problems. I foundan eye to be totally defective, andwith no cure. Given the nature of hisjob, I was in dilemma whether ornot to inform the transportauthorities or honour theunderstanding of confidentialitybetween patient and doctor. I knewsome of the higher-ups in thetransport department was able toensure that the patient wastransferred to another departmentand without affecting his salary. Inthe case of the German airline, onewishes that there had been apsychiatrist who could haveinformed the management of theproblems the pilot wasexperiencing. The tragedy couldhave been avoided.

Dr. S.V. Malghan,Vijayapura, Karnataka

On AmaravathiI am a citizen of Andhra Pradeshand pained that the new capital ofAndhra Pradesh might be located inthe highly fertile and agriculturalarea of Guntur district (“Andhra’scapital to be named Amaravathi,”March 24).

Land here yields three to fourfood crops in a year. These includerice, cotton, chilli and tobacco. It isno exaggeration to say that farmerscultivate gold here. The area is in a

stabilised ayacut of the Krishna. Itis said that 35,000 acres ofagricultural land will be acquiredfor the capital which is bound toclaim very fertile agricultural land.In the quest to create an artificialasset, the new capital, why should anatural asset be destroyed? Thecase is an example why fertile landanywhere in this country must beprotected at all costs. Besides this,there are thousands of migrantworkers making a livelihood in thearea. One would also like toquestion the wisdom of tappingSingapore’s expertise in developinga capital as it is a country whereagriculture is alien. Thedevelopment is a gross violation ofenvironmental laws.

K. Venkateswarlu,Chennai

Weather watchThe reintroduction of the weatherreport column is a welcomedevelopment. Ever since I came toChennai 25 years ago, the featurehas been useful. I used to send data,on forecasts and the monthlyrainfall average to my father, backin Gujarat, to help him plan hisfarming activities. One wishes thatthe data on rainfall is also restored.

R.G. Patel,Chennai

It is a happy moment that theweather report has come back as‘Weather Watch’. My long wait isover and The Hindu is nowcomplete.

Kumar Pal G.,Coonoor, The Nilgiris

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the fullpostal address and the full name or the name with initials.

For a country starved of successes at the indi-

vidual level in world sport, Saina Nehwal’s

feat of becoming the first Indian woman shut-

tler to reach the No.1 position in the world is a

stupendous achievement. The 25-year-old Nehwal — a

resident of Hyderabad — achieved this mark during the

course of the 2015 India Open Super Series badminton

tournament, after defeating the reigning world cham-

pion, the Spaniard Carolina Marin, in the semi-finals.

Nehwal eventually won, defeating former world cham-

pion Ratchanok Intanon of Indonesia. Amidst the col-

lective disappointment in the cricket-mad country

following India’s loss to Australia in the World Cup,

Nehwal’s mark has offered a moment of immense pride

and delight for Indian sports-lovers. Very few Indians

have reached the pinnacle of individual sports. In bad-

minton, only Prakash Padukone had reached the No.1

mark, more than three decades ago. Nehwal now occu-

pies a distinguished position in Indian sport along with

achievers such as chess grandmaster Viswanathan

Anand and boxer Mary Kom, both of whom reached the

top positions in the respective individual sports.

Nehwal’s ascent was aided by the fact that the reign-

ing Olympic badminton champion, Li Xuerui from Chi-

na, sustained an injury and has played sparingly in the

past few months. It is Nehwal’s persistent competitive-

ness that has allowed her to remain in the top echelons

of her sport, and helped her reach the summit at an

opportune time. She had won five major tournaments

since 2014 — the Indian Open Grand Prix twice, the

Australian Super Series and the China Open in 2014,

and the India Super Series in 2015. Credit must also go

to Nehwal’s coaches over the years, who include Dro-

nacharya award winner Syed Arif, badminton legend

Pullela Gopichand and the present coach Vimal Ku-

mar, who is also a former Indian champion. As with

other Indian sportspersons — Viswanathan Anand in

particular — Nehwal’s success could spur other Indians

to take a liking to that sport and inspire them to seek

competitive pursuits. The lack of adequate sporting

infrastructure, the general absence of a sporting cul-

ture, and the domination of cricket in media coverage

of sports in the country have meant that Indian

achievements in individual sports are few and far be-

tween. Here is hoping that such triumphs as Nehwal’s

are not flashes in the pan but the start of a trend of

strong competitiveness among individual sportsper-

sons, at least in badminton. The victory of male shut-

tler K. Srikanth in the same tournament — which lifted

his world ranking to No.4 — suggests there is indeed

something strong brewing in Indian badminton.

Numero Uno

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

8 THE HINDU THURSDAY, APRIL 2, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The legal process in India can be needlessly

tortuous and complicated. Nothing exempli-

fies this more than the Babri Masjid demoli-

tion case in which pre-trial proceedings are

bogged down in technicalities even though 22 years

have elapsed since the structure at Ayodhya was

brought down by Hindu chauvinists on a quest for

medieval revenge, demanding in its stead a Ram temple.

The Central Bureau of Investigation filed a joint charge

sheet in respect of various offences that took place on

December 6, 1992 but the higher judiciary is still grap-

pling with the question whether the principal actors

who planned the demolition and unleashed tens of

thousands of kar sevaks on the 16th century mosque

ought to be tried for criminal conspiracy. The Supreme

Court has sought the response of former BJP president

L.K. Advani and others in a fresh petition that wants

them to be tried for conspiracy to demolish the mosque

at Ayodhya. The CBI has been given time to explain the

delay in pursuing its appeal against an Allahabad High

Court order of May 20, 2010, discharging Mr. Advani,

Bal Thackeray and others. The CBI filed its appeal over

three years ago, but this is on a fresh plea by Haji

Mahboob Ahmad, a petitioner in the original dispute,

expressing fears that the CBI may not make adequate

efforts to pursue the case as the BJP is now in power.

The apprehension may not be misplaced as the agen-

cy did not include Section 120B (conspiracy) of the IPC

while filing a supplementary charge sheet in 2003,

when the BJP headed the Central government. At that

time, the High Court had quashed an Uttar Pradesh

government notification transferring to Lucknow a case

pertaining to those who instigated the demolition. The

U.P. government had failed to issue a fresh notification

to rectify the infirmity in the earlier one, while the CBI

used the opportunity to file a charge sheet that invoked

only provisions relating to rioting, provoking enmity

between religious groups and acting against national

integration. Many in the party’s old guard were promi-

nent participants in the communal frenzy that brought

down the mosque. However, representing a new dis-

pensation and backed by a new generation, the Na-

rendra Modi government does have an opportunity to

expedite the legal process. Rather than letting the case

lapse into irrelevance, the CBI should seek to convince

the court to order a quick and complete criminal trial. It

is not enough if the case comes up from time to time as a

news story without recording any progress. After all,

the legacy of communal bitterness as a result of the

demolition remains, and there can never be closure to

the collective hurt India suffered, without the curators

of the abominable crime being brought to justice.

A case that brooksno further delay

Philosopher and poet George San-tayana once said, those who don’tremember history are condemnedto repeat it. But Santayana was no

historian. Making historical parallels is afraught exercise. How far do we take thecomparisons between history and the pre-sent? And, most importantly, why do we un-dertake the exercise in the first place? TheAam Aadmi Party today — at least till thestage before the recent internal squabbles —was best placed to potentially take over thecentre-left-liberal space in Indian politicsthat was so fully occupied by the Congress forso many decades. At one level, it is quiteridiculous to compare a party created in 2012with one founded in 1885. It is to the AAP’scredit that we can even contemplate suchcomparisons. But to a historian who remainsas concerned with the present and future ofIndian politics as to its past, the historicalparallels between 1935 and the present aretoo glaring to ignore. I am referring here tothe differences that arose within the IndianNational Congress in the wake of the promul-gation of the Government of India Act, 1935,by the colonial government.

A transformation

The split between some of the foundingmembers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) hasdrawn its share of historical comparisons inthe commentariat. But these are perhaps notthe right ones. Rather than comparing thismoment with the Mahatma Gandhi-SubhashChandra Bose split, or even the JawaharlalNehru-Purushottam Das Tandon dispute, weshould be looking at one of the most impor-tant, but often overlooked, dates in modernIndian history: 1935.

The differences in 1935 were resolvedwithout a split in the party. Yet, the changesinitiated changed the character of the partyforever. The Congress’s decision to partici-pate in the elections following the 1935 Acttransformed it from an oppositional move-ment to a party that exercised real politicalpower. From being the chief opponents ofthe British Raj, the Congress, after 1935, be-came an organisation that behaved more andmore like the Raj. Are we witnessing thebeginnings of a comparable change within

the AAP? For the first time ever, the 1935 Actoffered the opportunity for elected membersof Provincial Legislative Assemblies to exer-cise real power in colonial India. Now, elect-ed members of provincial assemblies wouldnot be outnumbered by appointees of thecolonial government. It was quite possiblefor an individual who had recently been thevictim of a police lathi charge to become acabinet minister and be in charge of the po-lice force at whose mercy he or she had beenjust a few months earlier. However, the Con-gress under the leadership of Nehru and Ma-hatma Gandhi, was committed to the idealsof non-cooperation and civil disobedience.From 1929, the party outlined complete in-

dependence, purna swaraj, as its politicalgoal. Idealists in the party, including Nehru,wanted to reject the terms of the 1935 Act,calling it “a new charter of slavery”. Power,they argued, ultimately remained with thecolonial state, and Bose saw it simply as a newway for the British to retain their power inIndia.

Idealists versus pragmatists

However, the pragmatists among the partyleadership disagreed. In their opinion, therewas a great deal to be achieved by participa-ting in the elections, not the least of whichwas real access to the levers of power. Verysurprisingly, Gandhiji, despite his commit-ment to non-cooperation, chose not to come

out in support of the Left. His silence en-sured the victory of the pragmatists.

There are many ways to understand thesplit within the AAP. No doubt, personalequations, suspicions, personality clashes,and the like have all contributed to the dramain the AAP we have seen over the last fewweeks. Nor is there any doubt that we canalso see this as a battle between the idealistsand the pragmatists in the party. The ideal-ists wanted the party to stay true to its statedgoals. They were upset when they learntabout back room deals between the AAP’sleaders and the Congress to form a non-BJPgovernment in Delhi. They wanted contin-ued and close scrutiny of donations to the

party. They wanted the AAP to remain aparty with a difference. And, they had a point.But then, so do the pragmatists in the AAP.To stop the Modi juggernaut, they argue,pragmatic steps needed to be taken. They hadto make deals. They had to bring in provenelection-winners to represent the party inthe polls. They could not afford to scrutiniseeach and every donation that came to theparty at a time when funds were desperatelyneeded to fight the good and necessary fight.We are still better than the mainstream par-ties, they rightly argue. We are still a party ofdifference, they say. Perhaps so. But here iswhere some interesting historical parallelsmight be useful.

Once the pragmatists in the Congress par-

ty won the internal battle after 1935, theparty as a whole was committed to participa-ting in the elections of 1937. We know theresult. It was a huge and somewhat unexpect-ed victory for the Congress. In the short run,it seemed the pragmatists were right. TheCongress formed governments in initiallyseven and later eight of the 11 provinces ofBritish India. There was undoubtedly a peri-od of euphoria following the electoral victo-ry, for instance, at seeing the tricolour nowlegitimately hoisted on government build-ings. Hundreds of Congress volunteers hadsuffered beatings and bullets in their effortsto do that just a few years before this date.But the people and the polity soon had to paya price for this pragmatism. To “prove” theircredentials as effective providers of “goodgovernance”, Congress ministries made useof colonial laws of sedition to shut down freespeech. The Congress governments werepraised by imperialists for their commitmentto “law and order”. The same Congress thathad hesitated even to participate in the elec-tions and form governments was, within ayear, engineering what Sumit Sarkar de-scribes as “sordid assembly manoeuvres andfloor crossings” to form a government in As-sam. In their second term in office in 1946,Congress functionaries played a significantrole in undermining the General Strike calledfor in Bombay to support the mutiny amongthe Indian ratings of the Royal Indian Navy.The road to dark places is often paved withgood pragmatism.

The ‘what ifs’

The pragmatism that drove the Congressto participate in the elections and form gov-ernments in 1937, also led to the break-upbetween the Congress and the MuslimLeague. The rejection of a coalition with theLeague in United Provinces after the elec-tions was typical of the arrogance of the prag-matic victors. These reverses also made theLeague recognise the unviability of contest-ing the Congress in all-India elections. Theirstrength, they realised, would at best remainin provinces. A series of events transformedthe goal of provincial autonomy into the de-mand and realisation of Pakistan over thenext decade. History is about what happened,rather than what might have happened. But afew historians can help contemplate the“what ifs” of history. What if the idealists hadwon their battle within the Congress in 1935?What if Gandhiji had supported their effortsto persist in not cooperating with the coloni-al governments and institutions? “What ifs”are not history, but that alternative vision isnot one we can afford to abandon altogether.Rather than a commitment to victory in elec-toral politics, and consequent minorities andmajorities, might we have seen a differentsort of polity altogether, perhaps one with adifferent and more inclusive space for minor-ities? Perhaps so.

The pragmatists have clearly won the dayin the battle within the AAP today. But whatdo Arvind Kejriwal and his group wish toachieve with that pragmatism? The vision ofthe Congress pragmatists of 1935 led them,12 years later, to take over the power that theRaj transferred to them. By that time, theidealists too had been co-opted into the sys-tems of power. In some eyes, the Congresspragmatists were the greatest architects ofits political success. Others might prefer tocommemorate 1935 as the beginning of theend of the dream of a different India, thedeath knell of an alternative polity and ideol-ogy that would transcend the traps of mod-ern politics. Eighty years on, do ArvindKejriwal and his men have the ability, theforesight, and the historical sense to tread apath different from their historical fore-bears? And, even more important, do theywant to?

(Sanjay Joshi is a Professor of History atNorthern Arizona University, U.S.)

The AAP and the 1935 parallelTo some, the vision of the Congress pragmatists of1935 is what eventually led it to its politicalsuccess. Decades later, do Arvind Kejriwal and hismen have the ability, the foresight, and thehistorical sense to tread a path different from theirhistorical forebears? And, even more important,do they want to?

Sanjay Joshi

“The Congress’s decision to participate in the elections

following the 1935 Act transformed it from an oppositionalmovement to a party that exercised real political power.

”

Passing GUJCOCIt is unfortunate that the GujaratControl of Terrorism andOrganised Crime Bill, 2015(GUJCOC) was passed by theGujarat Assembly amid fierceopposition from the Congress(“Gujarat anti-terror Bill passedfinally,” April 1). There is nodenying the fact that existing lawsare adequate to tackle terror inGujarat — as well as in the rest ofIndia — notwithstanding theState’s vulnerable coastline and amushrooming of crime syndicateswith transborder operations.Given the dismal track record of asimilar draconian law, TADA,which was ‘misused’ to silence andrein in the Opposition, this lawcould also be used in a similarmanner.

P.K. Varadarajan,Chennai

One fears that the Bill will be usedto unleash terror. The fact thatconfessions made before the policewill be admissible in court iscertain to lead to an increase in thenumber of fake cases. Theminorities are bound to feel evenmore insecure now. There is also adanger of it being misused to settlepersonal scores. Empowering thepolice to tap telephonicconversations is against the “rightto privacy” which is derived froman expanded scope of Article 21.

Navneet Goel,Kanpur

China-India tiesEven though diplomats are trainedin the art of diplomacy, it is evidentthat Chinese Ambassador to IndiaLe Yucheng’s words are not inconformity with the ground reality(“‘Building ties for the 21stcentury’,” April 1). China is India’snatural partner and vice versa.

However, this natural partnershiplacks trust and, as we all know, norelationship can be substantiveand fruitful without trust. TheChinese civil and militaryorganisations are deeply involvedin building strategic projects in thePakistan-Occupied-Kashmirregion in the garb of economicdevelopment, despite being wellaware of the fact that it is disputedterritory. China does not enjoy“strategic relations” with most ofits neighbours and currently is inthe business of buying friendshipthrough its economic might. Indiaalways needs to be cautious in itsapproach towards China even if itstops doing things that affectIndia’s national security interests.

Gaurav Singhal,New Delhi

Babri Masjid caseThe Supreme Court notice seekingthe responses of BJP leader L.K.Advani and 19 others on a petitionthat sought their trial on charges ofconspiracy to demolish the BabriMasjid reaffirms the stand takenby the CBI earlier (April 1). It is alsoa paradox that no one hasexamined the role of theNarasimha Rao government whichperhaps paved the way for thedemolition which took place due toa series of lapses. There needs to bea fresh investigation into the role ofthis government and the BJPleaders in question.

B. Prabha,Varkala, Kerala

Learn in KannadaI wholeheartedly support the moveby the Karnataka governmentwhich makes the teaching ofKannada mandatory in Karnatakaschools (April 1). I wish every Statein India does this with respect tonative tongues. Indian languagesare in no way inferior to English

and our heritage should not be lostdue to short-sightedconsiderations. One of the reasonswhy we are not as creative inscience and technology as theChinese and the Japanese are, isbecause we are rootless and try tothrive on a borrowed language.This is also perhaps the single mostimportant obstacle in getting thepoor and the marginalised into themainstream. India needs topreserve its rich cultural andlinguistic diversity. It is tragic tosee urban children speak only inEnglish. The average Indian has afantastic ability to learn severallanguages and this must beencouraged.

M.V. Nadkarni,Bengaluru

A few CBSE schools in Bengaluruare getting away without includingKannada as a second or a thirdlanguage choice. Even native,Kannada-speaking children inthese schools, who would ideallywant to learn Kannada, are beingforced to take up Hindi as thesecond language and Sanskrit orFrench as third language choices.This amounts to a gross violation ofthe rights of Kannada-speakingstudents in their own State. Anentire generation of such studentsis passing out every year with noknowledge of the mother tongue.

Geetha Rao,Bengaluru

The West and ISIn a blind urge to secure itsinfluence over West Asia and its oil,the West will end up burning itsfingers as the Saudi Arabian-ledstrikes in Yemen will onlyempower extremist groups like theIS, al-Qaeda and the Shia militias(“The West and its flawed anti-ISstrategy,” April 1). Shia-Sunnirhetoric in Iraq and Syria has done

nothing but to aid and abet theseextremist groups either by drivingoverzealous and immatureyoungsters into their arms or bycreating a bitter environment inthese societies. It is time worldleaders, more so in the West,realise that extremism can berooted out only when they stopmeddling in the internal affairs inWest Asia and dividing people andcommunities to further their ownagendas.

Syed Abdur Rahman,Hyderabad

The war in Yemen is Version 2.0 ofthe decade of madness unleashedby the West and its allies in theMENA and FATA regions. Thereare at least two parallels to drawupon from past mistakes and if notheeded, the results could be asdrastic if not worse. First, theterrain of Yemen is very similar tothat of Afghanistan thus allowingenough ground for the Houthis tolead a war of attrition. Second, ifthe persecution of Sunnis inBaghdad resulted in the IS, thesizeable number of Shia rebelscould mirror this in Sana'a. It isalso clear that the U.S is intent onkeeping the Saudi monarchy in itsgood books. It is ironic thatWashington has been providingmonetary aid to Yemen for years tofight the al-Qaeda, yet supports thestrikes in Yemen which is helpingAQIS, an arm of the al-Qaeda. Itspeaks volumes about the “doublestandard”.

Shashank Jain,New Delhi

Tobacco and warningsThis refers to the governmentbacktracking on increasingpictorial warnings highlighting thedangers of tobacco consumption(“Govt. backtracks on pictorialwarnings,” April 1). A landmark

decision, which was evenacclaimed internationally, shouldnot have met this fate. India wouldhave been the only country withthe largest percentage of pictorialwarnings on tobacco products. It issaid that some members of aparliamentary panel played amajor role in keeping the decisionon hold, allegedly taken aftermeeting with tobacco lobbyrepresentatives. The subsequentclaim that there is no Indian surveyreport to prove that tobaccoconsumption leads to cancer ispreposterous. Doesn’t the panelbelieve the report by the Ministryof Health which suggests that75,000 to 80,000 new cases of oralcancers are reported every year inthe country and that tobacco hasbeen found to play a causative rolein most of these cases? Thereasoning, of the pictorialwarnings having an “adverseimpact” on the livelihood of peopleinvolved in the tobacco industry, isshaky.

Manoj Parashar,Ghaziabad

As someone who has been greatlyaffected by passive smoking, it isupsetting that the government istaking regressive steps on curbingtobacco consumption. Passivesmoking is a hazard in most metrocities and in my case, results insevere respiratory distress. I find itdifficult to ask those responsible tostop. I think it’s a right for most ofus to want clean air. How doesanyone have the right to pollute airwith substances that have 400toxins and 43 carcinogeniccompounds? I think the mostimportant group in any policyformulation regarding theconsumption of tobacco would andshould be citizens like me.

Chaitanya M. Deshmane,New Delhi

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the fullpostal address and the full name or the name with initials.

India’s efforts to curb the growth of tobacco con-

sumption have suffered a severe blow, with the

Centre deferring its own rule requiring packag-

ing of tobacco products to have enlarged picto-

rial warnings from April 1. Regrettably, Union Health

Minister J.P. Nadda has turned the clock back by ac-

cepting the untenable logic of the Parliamentary Com-

mittee on Subordinate Legislation that the issue

should be decided after consulting industry stakehold-

ers. Under the amended Cigarettes and Other Tobacco

Products (Packaging and Labelling) Rules, 2008, tobac-

co products were required to carry stark images of

diseases caused by the substance across 85 per cent of

the package area, against the current 40 per cent, to act

as deterrents. This forward-looking move is consistent

with India’s obligations under the World Health Orga-

nization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Con-

trol. Moreover, there is a vast body of evidence showing

that pictorial warnings have more impact than text.

Images of harm prompt smokers to strongly think of

giving up the habit, and deter young people from using

tobacco. This is particularly true of low and middle

income countries, including India, where such warn-

ings can influence behaviour among the less-educated.

The chairman of the parliamentary committee, the

BJP MP, Dilip Gandhi, sought to defend its stand on

bigger pictorial warnings, saying there are no India-

specific studies linking cancer to tobacco use. Such a

view flies in the face of well-documented epidemiolog-

ical research, and has understandably been ridiculed by

the medical community which is battling the challenge

of cancer and other diseases linked to tobacco. In fact,

the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in its publi-

cation titled ‘Report on Tobacco Control in India’,

reported even a decade ago various studies highlighting

the health risks. More recent data show that regular

smokers have a threefold higher risk of death compared

to similarly placed non-smokers, leading to the loss of a

whole decade of life. Equally, cessation of smoking and

other forms of consumption leads to a significant in-

crease in longevity. The debate on tobacco’s ill-effects

has long ended, and countries with enlightened public

health policies are focussing on tighter control mea-

sures using a combination of high taxes, a ban on

advertising, cessation support and changes to packag-

ing rules. Australia has gone beyond pictorial warnings

and introduced plain packaging that eliminates brand

recognition. India cannot afford to abandon its pro-

gress on tobacco control and reverse course on control

measures. Pressure from various lobbies must be firm-

ly resisted and the new regulations on expanded picto-

rial warnings implemented without delay.

A retrograde move

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2015

8 THE HINDU FRIDAY, APRIL 3, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The Gujarat Control of Terrorism and Orga-

nised Crime (GCTOC) Bill 2015 carries dis-

turbing echoes of draconian anti-terror laws

such as the Terrorist and Disruptive Activ-

ities (Prevention) Act (TADA) and the Prevention of

Terrorism Act (POTA). Both were considered failed

experiments that led to gross abuse. More specifically,

the Bill seems to be modelled on the provisions of the

Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCO-

CA) that was implemented in 1999 and continues to be

in force today. In fact, since 2002 it has also been in

force in Delhi after the police insisted that such a law

was needed as ‘organised crime has no limits’. The

common thread running through all these controver-

sial pieces of legislation is the notion that regular proc-

ess, as outlined by the Code of Criminal Procedure, is

not enough to deal with a changed internal security

situation. GCTOC is therefore the latest chapter in a

long-running search to find an ‘ideal’ anti-terror law,

but like its earlier versions it raises important ques-

tions about the lines the state crosses in its attempts to

fight crime and terror. GCTOC, like MCOCA, allows

confessions secured in police custody to be admitted as

evidence in courts, a disturbing provision that is tanta-

mount to legitimising custodial torture. Similarly, it

allows the custody of an accused for 180 days rather

than the 90 days provided under normal law. The most

troubling aspect of MCOCA has been the way it enables

the police to sidestep rigorous investigation. It has

been used as a charge in all manner of cases ranging

from real estate deals, prostitution and match-fixing, as

the police seek to stack the odds in their favour in order

to secure a conviction. This practice has repeatedly met

with censure from the courts and there is no guarantee

that GCTOC won’t go down the same path.

The debate around GCTOC in the coming days will

most likely take a political hue. When the UPA govern-

ment first rejected Gujarat’s attempts to pass an anti-

terror law the then Chief Minister Narendra Modi

claimed that he was only presenting a ‘xerox copy’ of

MCOCA. The UPA argued that the Gujarat law was at

variance with its policy on terror laws as articulated in

the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act. The new gov-

ernment may well have a different national policy.

After all, permission for MCOCA was given under the

last NDA government. A more useful debate though, is

on the manner in which these special laws are created.

TADA came into being during the years of the Punjab

militancy and POTA after the Parliament attack of

2001, and the genesis of MCOCA was from the Mumbai

serial blasts of 1993. Knee-jerk reactions lead to severe

laws. The focus should rather be on better resources

and training for investigators who can continue to

work under the existing Code of Criminal Procedure,

which is already comprehensive in scope.

Ominous legislation T

he government of India has decidedto honour the memory of formerPrime Minister P.V. NarasimhaRao, more than a decade after his

passing away, with a memorial in the nation-al capital. New Delhi has streets named afterall and sundry, from conquerors to council-lors, and at least three members of PV’sCouncil of Ministers (Arjun Singh, Madhav-rao Scindia and Rajesh Pilot) each have astreet named after them, but not PV.

While PV’s loyal Finance Minister, Man-mohan Singh, respectfully paid tribute tohim every year during his prime minister-ship, his government was neither able tobuild a memorial nor award PV the nation’shighest honour for his contribution to eco-nomic and foreign policy. Interestingly, themove to honour PV has come from non-Con-gress political leaders of Andhra Pradesh andTelangana.

Architect in his right

There are two ways of viewing this issue.One is to say that since successive govern-ments have honoured other former PrimeMinisters and senior political figures in acertain way, by naming streets, institutionsor localities after them in the national cap-ital, PV also deserves a similar honour. Evenhis critics would agree that the charges theylevel against him for various acts of omissionand commission are no more than what couldbe levelled against many political leaderswhose memory has nevertheless been hon-oured in one way or another by the nationalgovernment.

However, this constitutes a weak line ofdefence. PV deserves more. He provided po-litical leadership to a nation adrift at a partic-ularly difficult moment in recent history. Hemay not have been the “architect” of post-Nehruvian economic policy, since the newturn in economic policy began in the 1980s,but he demonstrated greater political cour-

age in advocating and leading it than hispredecessor Rajiv Gandhi. He was, withoutdoubt, the “architect” of India’s post-ColdWar foreign policy.

That many of us have forgotten PV’s con-tribution to economic liberalisation under-taken in 1991 came through vividly to me at apublic lecture in, of all places, Hyderabad. Myaudience of business leaders and managersrecalled without hesitation the names of theMinisters of Finance (Manmohan Singh) andCommerce (P. Chidambaram) of the time butwere nonplussed when asked to name theIndustries Minister of the day.

Setting off reforms

Long before the Finance Minister man-aged to get the fisc under control and theCommerce Minister managed to bring In-

dia’s tax rates and tariffs down to “ASEANlevels”, it was PV, as Industries Minister, whosigned off on the famous “Industrial PolicyStatement” of July 24, 1991, that ended In-dia’s infamous “Licence Permit Quota Raj”.Indeed, the most radical policy action takenin 1991, if one were to discount the July 1991devaluation as an inevitability, was the del-icensing decision taken by PV as IndustriesMinister. The trio, of PV, his principal secre-tary, A.N. Verma, and the Economic Advisorin the Industries Ministry, Rakesh Mohan,were responsible for that bold move.

With hindsight, one understands why PV

first reached out to Dr. I.G. Patel, a formerGovernor of the Reserve Bank of India, andinvited him to join his Council of Ministers asIndia’s Finance Minister. Dr. Patel had fa-mously authored an essay in the 1980s callingfor “a bonfire of controls”. It was only whenDr. Patel declined the offer, opting instead togo into retirement and live in his modesthome in Baroda, that PV turned to Dr. Singh.But, it was PV who took the all-importantdecision to strike a match and light the bon-fire that Dr. Patel had called for.

PV went beyond merely liberating Indianenterprise from bureaucratic controls. Hecelebrated the rise of Indian business by be-ing the only Prime Minister to award a Bha-rat Ratna to a business leader, when henamed J.R.D. Tata to that honour in 1992.When these facts are recounted, I am often

asked why the media refers to the economicpolicies of the current government in NewDelhi as “Modinomics” while referring toPV’s policies as “Manmohanomics”!

The middle way

It is worth recalling that when the policyinitiatives of 1991-92 came under attack, notjust from the Left and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) but also from within the Con-gress, it was PV who convened an All IndiaCongress Committee (AICC) session at Tiru-pati and personally defended them in hispresidential address. Titled ‘The Tasks

Ahead’, PV’s address outlined his approach toeconomic reform and policy, which he named‘The Middle Way’.

Long before British sociologist AnthonyGiddens provided legitimacy to the policiesof British Prime Minister Tony Blair with hisespousal of ‘The Third Way’, a mixture ofThatcherite liberalism with traditional La-bour welfarism, and academic seminars wereheld on the idea, PV defined ‘The Middle Wayin economic policy thus: “In the past tenmonths, our Government has initiated far-reaching industrial, fiscal and financial re-forms… Simultaneously, we have also takenmeasures to mitigate any hardship likely tobe caused in the process. We propose to con-tinue, in fact increase, the thrust of our em-ployment, poverty alleviation and welfareprogrammes… these are two parallel andcomplementary programmes. Between thetwo of them, all sections of the people arecovered, at all levels of the social pyramid,with particular emphasis on the base of thepyramid… the dynamic leadership and clearvoice of the Congress are needed for theupliftment of the oppressed, even while wecarry out reforms in the economy as awhole.”

This formulation captures the essence ofwhat policymakers in India and abroad havesince called “inclusive growth”. Under pres-sure from Western economists and their In-dian pupils to opt for “Big Bang” reforms, à laMargaret Thatcher in Britain and Boris Yelt-sin in Russia, PV opted for the ‘Middle Way’,telling Michel Camdessus, the managing di-rector of the International Monetary Fundthat he would do whatever it takes to boostinvestment and economic growth in Indiabut do nothing that would put even oneworker out of employment. Narasimhanom-ics, if one may so dub The Middle Way, wasnot “neo-liberal”, an epithet that the Lefthurls at Manmohanomics.

Look East and West

But 1991 was not just about a new turn inIndia’s economic policy. In fact, the turn inforeign policy was equally radical. It was PVwho authored India’s ‘Look East Policy’, re-aching out not just to Singapore and South-East Asia, but also to Japan and South Korea.PV was the first Indian Prime Minister tovisit Seoul. His visit triggered a surge in Ko-rean investments into India, making Koreanbrands a familiar sight in middle class house-holds. PV also overturned India’s West Asiapolicy by establishing diplomatic relationswith Israel. In doing so, he ensured Indiaretained good relations with both Iran andthe Gulf nations. This was classic non-align-ment at work in West Asia. PV also reachedout to both the United States and China andto all of India’s neighbours. Assisted by hisable and clever Foreign Secretary, J.N. Dixit,PV crafted Indian foreign policy for the post-Cold War era — a policy that has stood thetest of time.

We have now been told by former PrimeMinister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s confidanteand press secretary Ashok Tandon that it wasPV who encouraged Mr. Vajpayee to conductnuclear tests in 1996, passing him a chit atMr. Vajpayee’s swearing-in ceremony atRashtrapati Bhavan that said, “now is thetime to accomplish my unfinished task”. PVhad tried unsuccessfully to conduct thesetests and the fact that he did not have to saymore about what that task was in that chit toMr. Vajpayee suggests that he may well havekept Mr. Vajpayee in the loop. PV was aconsensual leader who befriended all, reac-hed out to all.

PV had his failings. Which Prime Ministerdid not? He made his mistakes. Which leaderwould not? But none of his failings and hismistakes were such that he did not deserveeven a street named after him in this nationalcapital of tombs and tablets.

(Sanjaya Baru is Honorary Senior Fellow,Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, andthe author of The Accidental Prime Minister:The Making and Unmaking of ManmohanSingh.)

Narasimhanomics and the middle wayP.V. Narasimha Rao provided political leadershipto a nation adrift at a particularly difficult momentin recent history. He may not have been the‘architect’ of post-Nehruvian economic policy, buthe demonstrated greater political courage inadvocating and leading it than his predecessor. Hewas also, without doubt, the ‘architect’ of India’spost-Cold War foreign policy

“PV went beyond merely liberating Indian enterprise from

bureaucratic controls. He celebrated the rise of Indian businessby being the only Prime Minister to award a Bharat Ratna to abusiness leader...

”

Order stayedThe auction of some coal blocksappears to be fetching theexchequer more than Rs.2 lakhcrore and the government may endup getting Rs.15 lakh crore in totalfor all blocks (“SC stays trial courtorder summoning Manmohan,”April 2). The revenue from thespectrum auction is also likely to bea very healthy figure, vindicatingthe estimation of losses by the CAG.It is clear that the whimsicaldecisions by the UPA in these areasare what bled the exchequer and ledto a loss of credibility both withinIndia and internationally. The pointI wish to make is that since all thesecases and the trials under theexisting law are proving to be time-consuming, the BJP governmentshould have a “NationalAccountability Commission” whichwill deal with such scams and speedup legal proceedings.

N. Ramamurthy,Chennai

There is still hope that the legalsystem works (“ED attachesMarans’ assets,” April 2). Thoughsuch actions have been taken afterso much time, one hopes that thetruth will prevail. It also shows whythe DMK, when it was a part andparcel of the UPA, insisted onrunning certain ministries likeTelecommunication and Shipping.

A.G. Rajmohan,Anantapur

It may only spell temporaryreprieve for Dr. Manmohan Singhand the others, but the pointsargued by their counsels before thecourt raise very pertinent questionsabout invoking criminal laws

against executive decisions at thehighest levels, especially in theabsence of any “whiff” of quid proquo. In this case, the PrimeMinister, who was in charge of thecoal portfolio, approved allocationof certain coal blocks to a companyon reconsideration of thecompany’s representation solidlyand understandably backed by theState Chief Minister. This by itself,by no stretch of imagination, shouldbe construed or seen as thedecision-makers and thebeneficiary having entered into anact of criminal conspiracy. Evenworse is the levelling of a moregrave charge of “breach of trust” bya public servant. The top court mustnow spell out binding guidelines forthe subordinate court on initiatingcriminal proceedings against apublic servant for what may later beheld as wrong decisions thoughthere is no trace of mala fide intent.

S.K. Choudhury,Bengaluru

AAP and 1935 parallelUnlike the idealists of the pre-independent Indian NationalCongress, the ideologues of the AAPdo not want their party to shunpower (“The AAP and the 1935parallel,” April 2). They only wantthe party to practise what itpreached — to adhere totransparency and accountability asthe party’s abiding values. The ‘endjustifies the means’ approach ofArvind Kejriwal and his followersmay appear as an unavoidableexercise in the party’s quest to seekand retain political power. Butcompromise-making tends tobecome a habit with itspractitioners once its results havebeen found to be effective in

achieving short-term goals. A leaderloses his/her ability to introspectand indulge in a bit of self-criticismwhen he/she surrounds himself/herself with sycophants. This waswhat happened to Indira Gandhiwhen she purged the party ofdissidents.

V.N. Mukundarajan,Thiruvananthapuram

On GovernorsThe writer of the article,“Governors and guidelines” (April2), fails to realise that theconvention of resigning from thepost of Governor with every changein government will not solve thepurpose of strengthening thisoffice. It would only and clearlypoliticise the office of the Governoras the incumbent would alwaysenjoy political patronage.This mayfurther undermine the way tocooperative federalism especially ifgovernments at both the Centre andState are from different parties. Asolution to this lies in appointing aneutral and an eminent personality.

Abhinav Sharma,Ludhiana

In the initial years of appointmentsof Governors, the choices werelargely unexceptional and fell onpersons who had served the countrywith distinction in one walk of lifeor the other. Yet, most of theseappointments went to veterans ofthe political party in office at theCentre, thereby inviting the slycomment that the office of theGovernor is/was being used to putretiring politicians to pasture. Thequest should be to have the bestperson available for the post.

T.V. Jayaprakash,Palakkad

Personal attacksIt is astonishing that some in thepolitical class continue to makedeeply insulting personal attacksagainst other political leaders(“Amit Shah cautions Giriraj,” April2). In this case, the new episode ofbitterness expressed by some in theBJP over the Congress presidentand her “skin colour” isunpardonable. Mr. Modi mustrealise that his mandate is also fordiscipline, decorum, dignity andmutual respect, something some ofhis party members appear to lack.

J.P. Reddy,Nalgonda, Telangana

The terrible remarks deserve to becondemned. What is worse, theyhave ended up offending Nigeria, agood friend of India. Though mostin Mr. Modi’s cabinet areexperienced and sensible, thepresence of certain individualsdiminishes the aura around the rest.These individuals do not seem to becontributing anything to Mr. Modi’sstated goal of development andgood governance.

Manoj Parashar,Ghaziabad

For more substanceThe video, by a celebrity, tiltstowards personal choices which donot in any way provide for theempowerment of women in general(“Wanted: less style, moresubstance,” April 2). In a countrywhere a large number of womenstill have to deal with basic issues offreedom, the video takes a myopicview of what freedom is and can domore damage to a real cause. Iwould have expected real issues tobeing addressed by the team that

put together this video, as it hascome up with great stuff earlier.

Nirranjan Desai,Secunderabad

The kind of feminism beingpromoted through a short film is animported western concept that doesnot find resonance in Indiansociety. While women’sempowerment is the mostcherished goal we must all strive toachieve earnestly, should we ignorethe means? Some of the bizarremessages will only end up chokingmarital relationships and even leadto sexual anarchy. Moreover, thisconcept of feminism doesn’t placean emphasis on women’s equalitybut on her dominance in decision-making .

Anoop Suri,New Delhi

What the video does is that it sendsout the idea that women are islandsand they can live independently ofmen. Sadly, this is not whatfeminists want. Feminists advocateequality, not superiority, of womenand most definitely, not inferiorityof men. This video completelynegates men and does not addresswhat it is to be a team player indifferent units — in a relationship orin a family. Instead, it drives homethe point that a woman can makeany choice she wants withoutconsidering what implications itwill have on other people. A womanhas the right to choose the kind oflife she wants to live, but when herlife is connected to another person,she might have to discuss it withthem and take a call. The videodoesn’t seem to believe in this.

Sarayu Sankar,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the fullpostal address and the full name or the name with initials.

It is just six months after the devastating floods of

September 2014, but the residents of the Kash-

mir Valley have again been spending sleepless

nights, scared that water would overwhelm their

homes and lives. Though the levels in the Jhelum have

fallen from the recent high, the clear and present dan-

ger that the river poses to the Valley’s residents has not

abated. The unseasonal rain has once again put people

at risk, even as agriculture and tourism face nature’s

onslaught. And it is not as if the problem is restricted to

the Valley — the Jammu-Srinagar highway remains

shut following landslips and the Army averted a major

disaster in Zanskar following one. All this points to a

single conclusion: that this strategic region is hugely

vulnerable, something that bears little repetition given

what happened in September 2014. It is ironic that the

State government had just submitted a Rs.44,000-

crore rehabilitation package for the deluge of 2014, in

which nearly 300 people died. The State’s summer

capital had turned into a large lake in 2014, leaving the

government and the administration as helpless specta-

tors. Much has been written about how with unplanned

urbanisation drainage channels have been choked in

the Valley, creating the potential for large-scale flood-

ing following prolonged spells of rain. In the absence of

proper drainage systems, it is more than likely that the

flood threat will remain. There has also been massive

siltation of lakes, with many wetlands lost forever. All

this information and more was hammered home in the

wake of last year’s catastrophe, but the real question is:

have the lessons been learnt? Are the State and Central

governments better prepared today than they were last

time? Will they be able to tackle the varied natural-

humanitarian disasters that may lie ahead?

A Central Minister was sent from Delhi to study the

situation, and one can only hope there is better prep-

aration all round. It is fortuitous that the Centre and

the State are on the same page with a BJP-PDP coali-

tion government in power. According to Union Minis-

ter of State Jitendra Singh, the Indian Space Research

Organisation was collecting detailed data on the pre-

vailing situation, which were being shared with other

agencies. The Army, the National Disaster Response

Force, the police and the civil administration all need

to work in tandem. At the same time, unplanned and

unchecked urbanisation needs to be curbed firmly if

the region and its people are to be sheltered from the

threat of repeated floods. Our urban development

strategies need to take a different, sustainable course.

Sleepless inKashmir

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

8 THE HINDU SATURDAY, APRIL 4, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The joint comprehensive plan of action

(JCPOA) on Iran’s nuclear programme an-

nounced by Iran and the EU 3+3 (the United

Kingdom, France, Germany along with China,

Russia and the United States) in Lausanne, Switzerland,

is a significant breakthrough that will have long-lasting

implications globally. The possible reward for Iran’s

promised steps, namely ramping down its uranium en-

richment capabilities and stockpiles of enriched urani-

um, reducing the number of centrifuges, allowing for

thorough inspections by the International Atomic En-

ergy Agency and giving up nuclear reprocessing is the

lifting of the tough sanctions regime against the coun-

try. That the 18-month-long negotiations between the

various parties finally bore fruit had much to do with

the fact that Iran’s current regime is headed by a prag-

matist in President Hassan Rouhani who was elected in

2013 on the premise of bringing about an entente with

the West, among others. The determination of U.S.

President Barack Obama to reverse the rigid stance of

his more conservative predecessor, George W. Bush,

over repairing ties with Iran and bringing about an

agreement over the latter’s nuclear programme had also

helped. Mr. Obama managed to overcome the stiff op-

position to the deal from the right-wing Republican

Party in the U.S., which had become politically stronger

over the past year.

Iran has always maintained that its nuclear pro-

gramme was meant only for peaceful purposes and that

as a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,

it was entitled to enrichment of uranium for energy

generation. But the unrelenting pressure from the West

in the past decade, including recurring talk of open

hostility from the U.S. and Israel, had led to defiance

from the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad-led regime. Iran went

on to expand its nuclear programme by furthering en-

richment capabilities and building clandestine nuclear

facilities. These actions had invited sanctions from not

only the U.S. and the EU, but the UN as well, which had

hurt Iran economically and also made it difficult for

countries such as India to engage in trade with the

country. India’s imports from Iran — particularly pet-

roleum products — had been severely curtailed due to

the sanctions. The nuclear agreement with Iran should

also help ease the long-standing hostile ties between the

U.S. and Iran eventually helping to change at least some

equations in the conflict-ridden West Asian region. Can

Iran’s changed relationship with the U.S. persuade Sau-

di Arabia and other Arab countries to bring a halt to the

Sunni-Shia hostilities that have threatened to destabil-

ise the region? The possibilities following this break-

through are indeed high.

Breakthrough on Iran

The Gujarat Control of Terrorismand Organised Crime (GCTOC)Bill, which was passed by the Guj-arat Legislative Assembly on

March 31, 2015, is now a reality and thereactions have been on predictable lines.The Bill, interestingly, is in its fourth ‘avatar’— the earlier versions having been rejectedby the President of India in 2004, 2008 and2009 respectively — and will now be sent toRashtrapati Bhavan for presidential assent.While parties other than the Bharatiya Jana-ta Party (BJP) have been crying foul sayingthat the Bill is politically motivated and cansubvert the freedoms guaranteed by theConstitution, the BJP, on the other hand,has been trying to hard sell it as being theright step forward in fighting terrorism andorganised crime more seriously than before,and at a time when these threats loom largeover all of us.

Prime objections

The Bill’s detractors point to at least fourprovisions which they say will promote po-lice tyranny and the abuse of the law in orderto settle political scores especially using rul-ing party-driven law enforcement. In theireyes, the most obnoxious of these is the em-powerment of an investigating agency tocontinue with the investigation for 180 days,as against the permitted 90 days under theCode of Criminal Procedure (Cr.P.C). In thisperiod, the accused may or may not be injudicial custody. Police custody is normallyfor very short periods and with a magist-rate’s permission. However, this has to beconsidered in conjunction with the desig-nation by the Bill of all offences underGCTOC as being non-bailable. The term“non-bailable” itself does not mean no bail atall but that “bail” is not automatic, and has tobe given by the appropriate magistrate orjudge after being convinced of the groundson which it is being sought. The second fea-ture of GCTOC that has drawn ire is the onethat makes confessions made to senior po-lice officers — of the rank of Superintendentof Police and above — admissible in evi-dence, something analogous to a provision inthe infamous and now extinct Terrorist andDisruptive Activities (Prevention) Act (TA-DA) and the Prevention of Terrorism Act

(POTA). The Indian Evidence Act makesconfessions before the police inadmissible inevidence, except when they lead directly tothe discovery of a fact that is material to theoffence under investigation. Activists feelthat the new sanctity accorded to confes-sions made to law enforcement by an ac-cused will be grossly abused, and confessionswill be extracted by the police under duressand torture.

The next provision that those who cherishindividual privacy are up in arms against isthe Bill’s authorisation of interception oftelephonic conversations and their admis-sibility in evidence. The criticism is in tunewith the perception that government agen-cies indulge in snooping all the time. What

the critics forget is that the normal proce-dure, of the police obtaining the Home Sec-retary’s permission, has still to be observedunder GCTOC.

Security concerns

The last objection is with regard to Section25 of the Bill that makes the governmentimmune from any legal action for “anythingwhich is in good faith done or intended to bedone in pursuance of this Act.” There is anx-iety that the Executive will exploit this sec-tion and become less accountable to the lawfor its commissions and omissions.

We would not like to take the position thata law such as the one Gujarat is now steering

will carry such a lot of deterrence as to liq-uidate all terrorism forever. Extravagantclaims would be downright dishonest andhypocritical. At the same time, we believethat to portray GCTOC as being wholly dia-bolical and a mere tool to serve the rulingdispensation’s political ends is being unfairand preposterous. Such reckless thinking ig-nores two relevant facts. First, GCTOC repli-cates what has stood the test of time — 15years — in Maharashtra. Second, criticism ofthe proposed Gujarat legislation grievouslymisreads what is happening all over theworld in the form of mindless savageryspearheaded by the Islamic State of Iraq andSyria (ISIS). The terror organisation hasscaled new heights of barbarism and vio-

lence, and is luring youth from all over theworld, including India, to join its ranks. IfIndia remains relatively untouched by itsinfluence, it is only because the Muslim com-munity has held steadfast to its values. Theabsence of any major incursion by IS intoIndia is also a tribute to the alert state of ourintelligence agencies, especially the Intelli-gence Bureau, and the responses of policeformations at grass-roots level. However, weare not sanguine that this comforting scenewill remain so in the years to come. There isactually everything to indicate that the sit-uation could change for the worse with alittle more instigation from our hostileneighbours and more audacity and desper-

ation by undetected sleeper cells on our soilwhich Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) and outfits like the Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT) and the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JEM)nurse and fund from across the border. It isthis hard reality that makes us uneasy andpersuades us to commend GCTOC as a wel-come move.

Not new

We should also take into account thatGCTOC is not new and copies what a fewother nations battling terrorism have done.The Patriot Act of 2001, which came as aswift response to 9/11 from United StatesPresident George W. Bush and the whole ofU.S. polity acting in unison, was roundlycriticised by many in that country as also thejudiciary. Therefore, it had to undergo manychanges in order to make it more acceptableto a cross section of American society. If theU.S. has remained reasonably free from ter-rorist machinations, an obvious reason is theability of that country’s law enforcementagencies to act firmly, and sometimes ruth-lessly, even at the cost of alienating influen-tial segments of the human rightscommunity, both at home and abroad. It isour belief that the Gujarat Bill, if and when itbecomes an Act, will undergo many suchcourse corrections egged on by the judiciaryand the many social watchdogs which havestood out for their vigilance.

The Gujarat Bill borrows heavily from itsparallel in Maharashtra, the MaharashtraControl of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA),1999, with the difference that, in the latter,there is no reference to terrorism. In fact,the legal sanction and respectability thatMCOCA has acquired over the years explainsthe spurt in much similar State legislation.Karnataka and New Delhi are examples thatcome to mind.

Safeguards

Under MCOCA and GCTOC, there are sev-eral safeguards for the citizen, prime amongthem being the stipulation that the permis-sion of a Deputy Inspector General of Police(DIG)/Additional Commissioner of Police(ACP) is required for registering a case. Also,the investigating officer will have to be of therank of Deputy Superintendent (DSP). Thepermission of an Additional Director Gener-al of Police (ADGP) is required for chargesheeting an accused before a court. A heart-ening feature of MCOCA is that, amongthose charged under it till now, only a smallnumber is from the minority communities.The Dharmadhikari Committee, which wasappointed by the Maharashtra governmentto go into the working of MCOCA, found nomajor shortcomings or criticism that woulddetract from the merits of the Act. Facts suchas there being an average of about 40 casesregistered annually and about 6-7 personsarrested in each case, especially in a largeState like Maharashtra, are testimony to thefact that the use of MCOCA has been ex-tremely selective and not indiscriminate aswas the case with TADA or POTA. If theGujarat Police pattern themselves after theirMaharashtra counterparts, half the battleagainst those who oppose GCTOC will havebeen won.

Being situated on the border with Pakis-tan, Gujarat has every reason to protect itselfas well as it can, and the new piece of legisla-tion fits into the scheme of things in theState. In the final analysis, while GCTOC isdefinitely not a perfect work of art, it certain-ly deserves to be viewed as a piece that wouldhone itself over the years in the hands ofthose in authority who are level-headed andwho uphold order and peace in society astheir principal concerns.

(Dr. R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director and D. Sivanandhan is a formerCommissioner of Police of Mumbai and a former DGP of Maharashtra.)

An anti-terror law that can be fine-tuned To make a claim or take the position that an anti-terror law such as the one Gujarat is nowsteering will eliminate terror would be dishonestand hypocritical. At the same time, to portrayGCTOC as being diabolical and a tool to serve theruling dispensation’s political ends would also beunfair and preposterous

R.K. Raghavan and D. Sivanandhan

“It is our belief that the Gujarat Bill, if and when it becomes

an Act, will undergo course corrections egged on by thejudiciary and the many social watchdogs.

”

Modi to banksPrime Minister Narendra Modi’sremarks at an RBI conference tomark the bank’s 80th anniversary(“Lend to the poor: Modi tellsbanks,” April 3) give rise to thefeeling that banks in India aregenerally anti-farmer and anti-poor. This is in contrast to thefacts. All banks, especially publicsector banks, mandatorily lend 40per cent of aggregate credit to thepriority sector which includescategories such as agriculture,micro- and small enterprises,education, housing — andaccording to RBI directives. Veryoften, these targets are met bybanks. The non-availability ofelectricity, water, an absence ofmodern agricultural techniquesand an indiscriminate waiver offarm loans are some of the factorslargely responsible for agrariandistress and farmer suicides. And,it is the political class and notbanks that are responsible for thesorry plight of the farm sector.

Bhanamma Aravinda Bai,Hyderabad

The Prime Minister’s call to banksis surprising. Banks are run withstakeholders’ and depositors’money. Banks are also notcharitable institutions and have toshow profits, pay salaries to staff/officers and also pay taxes to thegovernment. In this Budget, thegovernment has not extendedsignificant relief to the farm sector.Is the Prime Minister aware thatfarmers are in need of 24-hourpower supply, warehouse andtransport facilities and also a fairsystem in the open market withoutthe aid of agents andintermediaries to dispose ofagriculture produce? Thegovernment must not make banks,especially public sector banks, bear

the brunt of faulty economicpolicies.

Jagdip H. Vaishnav,Mumbai

CAG on Gujarat modelThe observations by theComptroller and Auditor-Generalof India that the much fetedGujarat model may have flaws,especially as far as social indicatorsgo, has come as a surprise (April 3).Can one surmise then thatNarendra Modi as Chief Ministerthree times in a row did nothingmuch? The question then is whywas such an exaggerated picturepresented to voters in general inthe run-up to the 2014 election?

Rameeza A. Rasheed,Chennai

A forgotten PMIt is a matter of shame that a leaderwho backed nuclear testing,ushered in liberal reforms andplayed a pivotal role in a Look EastPolicy has not been given a place inhistory (“Narsimhanomics and themiddle way,” April 3). He was avisionary who had a clean image.The only blot on his primeministership was the demolition ofthe Babri Masjid, which was notbrought out by the writer.

Sunil Yadav,Noida

The article was an incisive andobjective piece of writing on thelegacy of P.V. Narasimha Rao, thePrime Minister of India. But one ofthe most significant incidents thathappened during his tenure wasthe demolition of the Babri Masjidand it is intriguing that the writerchose to ignore it. The countrywould like to know why he refusedto take any action to protect thehistorical monument despitewarnings by many leadersincluding, it was said, Jyoti Basu,

Chief Minister of West Bengal, whohad written to him cautioningabout possible vandalism bykarsevaks and urging him to sendin the Army to save the structure.

V.M. Mohanraj,Bengaluru

When P.V. Narasimha Rao becamePrime Minister, I recollect K.K.Katyal writing that a ‘munshi’ ofthe Nehru-Gandhi household hadbecome the PM. He was just that.The so-called reforms he startedhave been nothing else but adisaster which has resulted, amongother things, in a record number offarmer suicides. If only NarasimhaRao had prevented the demolitionof the Babri Masjid he could havebecome a historic leader worthy ofnot just a tablet or a tomb but theBharat Ratna.

Baikadi Suryanarayana Rao,Bengaluru

Farmers and reformsThe statistical details in the article,“Missing the big, bleak picture”(April 3), are what make clear theoddities faced by agriculturists thatdiscourage them from pursuingtheir profession. I am a farmerfrom a rainfed village in TamilNadu and find that stretches of dryland in neighbouring villages havealready been appropriated byrealtors at throwaway prices.MGNREGA helps poor farmers toan extent but unless basicagricultural needs are madeavailable in an inexpensive way,farming is bound to become aneglected profession. There mustbe a countrywide survey thatidentifies arable land as well as themineral content of barren landbefore acquiring land for industrialuse. This will pave the way for thesmooth passage of the land Bill.

B. Gurumurthy,Madurai

As a farmer hailing from the Deltadistrict of Tamil Nadu, I back theweight and authenticity of everyword in the article. It is not theacquisition of his land that hurts afarmer more but the unviable anduneconomical avocation which heis engaged in. Given a choice, mostfarmers will be only too willing tostop farming and look for anothervocation in urban areas. Ifgovernments do not address thereal issues faced by farmers, theday is not far off when the ruraleconomy will be doomed beyondredemption. There has to be frankdiscussion of the long-standing illsthat afflict the farmer community.The Land Acquisition Bill is moreabout political gains.

S.Vembu,Thathuvancheri, Tamil Nadu

Wikipedia’s successThe death of EncyclopediaBritannica is not a vindication ofthe rise of Wikipedia (“The webapp that made information free,”April 3). For decades, the well-researched, professionalencyclopedia has been anauthentic source of informationand was good source material forboth a school essay as well as aparliamentary debate. However,with the evolution of the Internetand the expansion of informationaccess, checks for authenticityhave been compromised. In hisbook, The Cult of the Amateur,media commentator Andrew Keenwrites: “Look at Wikipedia, theinternet’s largest cathedral ofknowledge. Unlike editors at aprofessional encyclopedia like theBritannica, the identity of thevolunteer editors on Wikipedia isunknown… Wikipedia’s editorsembrace and revel in thecommonness of their knowledge.But as the adage goes, a littleknowledge is a dangerous thing.

Because on Wikipedia, two plustwo sometimes does equal five.”

The growth of open source andthe spread of Web 2.0 has ensuredthat ‘social media’ became trulysocial. But no matter howdemocratic Web 2.0 appears, itslawless landscape leaves usersexposed to all kinds ofmanipulations and abuses andWikipedia is not isolated from themalaise. The Internet age hasspawned the unbridled growth ofthe ‘hearsay’ writers masqueradingas ‘journalists’ and ‘authors’causing the spread ofmisinformation. Whereinformation is knowledge, easyaccess to half-baked information ismisinterpreted and falseknowledge is passed off as‘acceptable’. While it isunderstandable that vigilance canrein in vandals, can it curtail thelarge-scale recording ofunprofessional content that isbeing bartered, sold and given awayfree in a Wikipedia dominatedsphere? Internet information isfree but not sacrosanct.

Venkatesh Parthasarathy,Hyderabad

I understood the idea and the spiritbehind the article — to celebratethe growth and rise of Wikipedia —but to have it almost write-off theBritannica was not fair. Britannicafeeds voracious GK enthusiastswith its ‘Know for Sure’ quizzes,eBooks, the amazing BritannicaSchool and other digital learningresources. Britannica’s online team is alsoenabling the heritage brand tooccupy a niche in the globaleducational arena. It might not allbe ‘free information’ but it is asvibrant and as authentic as ever.Can Wikipedia claim this? 

Garima Capoor,Agra

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the fullpostal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Should the Internet be touched? That’s one way

to summarise the twenty questions the Tele-

com Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has

asked the public in a recent consultation paper.

Most questions pertain to whether the hitherto unreg-

ulated over-the-top services, typically apps such as

Skype and Facebook that ride on telecom networks,

need regulation. Views have also been sought regarding

net neutrality, the principle of data equality that has

over the years ensured the Internet remained a level

playing ground. TRAI will eventually take a call on

whether India has to change its approach to Internet

regulation. But isn’t the Internet perfect the way it is?

Apparently not. At least that is what telecom compa-

nies believe. After spending billions of dollars in setting

up infrastructure and bringing themselves under regu-

latory scrutiny, telecom companies can’t bear the fact

that numerous applications ride on their networks for

free. Some of the apps have millions of subscribers and

command valuations of billions of dollars. Some like

Skype and WhatsApp compete head on with the voice

and messaging offerings of the telcos, who to be fair

also need money to invest in building networks. Still,

what’s not to be forgotten is that the telcos do benefit

from the apps that piggyback on them. More app usage

means more data consumed and more money inflow.

Whether telcos are really aggrieved or not is debatable.

Even if they are, violating the core principle govern-

ing the Internet will be a disastrous way of delivering

justice. For, the licence to violate net neutrality will

mean telcos could now be in a position to ensure some

sites are served faster than others. It could also mean it

becomes costlier to use certain applications. Most im-

portantly, it could endanger the very feature of the

Internet that has over the years made it possible for

countless start-ups, right from the Googles to the Flip-

karts, to dream and act big. It’s well acknowledged that

the Internet has disrupted the world of business like no

other technology has in recent decades. It has helped

start-ups with hardly any capital and clout to still make

a mark. So by rejecting net neutrality, which will enable

telcos to play the gatekeeper to a valuable resource, we

will be shutting the door on the entrepreneurial aspira-

tions of millions. That’s because the only way for them

to compete with the big moneyed Internet players

would be to match their spends to make the Internet

work for them. The absence of net neutrality will defi-

nitely benefit the telcos while at the same time harming

the market by unleashing monopolistic tendencies.

Telcos don’t want to be dumb pipes that agnostically

transfer data. The cost of their ambition will be the loss

of the Internet’s openness.

The importanceof net neutrality

CARTOONSCAPE

Political functionaries in India are known to

take party and personal loyalties to the ex-

treme, offering blind support to leaders who

face grave allegations of misdemeanour or

corruption. But once elected to high public office, polit-

ical representatives ought not to make pre-emptive

comments about the outcome of corruption or other

criminal cases or on the guilt or innocence of those

involved in such cases. There is thus no justification or

excuse for Tamil Nadu Chief Minister O. Panneersel-

vam to have made the remarks he did in the State

Assembly on the appeal by his party general secretary,

former chief minister Jayalalithaa, against her convic-

tion under the Prevention of Corruption Act. The Kar-

nataka High Court has concluded its hearing in the case

and has reserved its verdict; the Supreme Court has

fixed a mid-April deadline for the appeal to be disposed

of. At this juncture, it is unfortunate and regrettable

that a Chief Minister should use the floor of the Legisla-

tive Assembly to assert his belief that his party leader

will be declared innocent and will be back to lead the

government. Mr. Panneerselvam’s reply to the debate

on the budget bordered on sycophancy as he compared

Ms. Jayalalithaa to Joan of Arc and the Rani of Jhansi.

While a judge in the higher judiciary in a neighbouring

State is unlikely to be influenced by such propaganda,

this will no doubt be seen as a coarse attempt to influ-

ence public opinion by projecting her popularity as

something that outweighs any hint of culpability. In

the context of the orchestrated protests and adminis-

trative stasis that marked the early days of his regime

following Ms. Jayalalithaa’s conviction on September

27 last year, his statements carry an ominous weight.

In the six months since Ms. Jayalalithaa was un-

seated, Mr. Panneerselvam has given the impression

that he is not a full-fledged Chief Minister but one

holding the post as an interim measure until Ms. Jaya-

lalithaa is cleared by the higher courts. While it is his

personal choice to work out of his office as Finance

Minister even after becoming the Chief Minister, there

is little justification for using formal occasions such as

the Republic Day parade earlier this year for promoting

his predecessor’s image as the real force controlling the

administration. Every department had floats that fea-

tured Ms. Jayalalithaa’s photographs and achieve-

ments, portraying her as a looming omnipresence over

the State government. Major decisions have been kept

pending in anticipation of her return to power, a clear

example being the inexplicable delay in inaugurating

the Chennai Metro Rail project. While this may earn

him some brownie points from a party leadership that

is prone to encourage sycophancy, it ill-behoves a con-

stitutional functionary to demonstrate party loyalty to

the detriment of governance and public interest.

When loyaltytrumps governance

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

On secularismThe concerns raised by some judgeson the way “secularism is beingtinkered with” (April 5) have to beseen in the broader context ofrecent attempts to tamper with‘secularism’ in India. This“tinkering” that Justice KurianJoseph has referred to would alsoinclude the subtle attempt todebate the removal of the word“secular” from the Preamble, the‘Ghar Vapsi’ propaganda of right-wing forces and related attempts tobring in an anti-conversion law, aswell as the spate of attacks onchurches — acts that have rattledthe minorities. As the upholder ofindividual and community rights,the judiciary has to ensure‘fairness’ and ‘equal respect’ to daysthat are dear to religions. Holding ajudges’ meet on Good Friday evenafter objections from some judgesshows a lack of sensitivity andrespect for the religious feelings ofsome judges. Such controversiespoint to even our highestinstitutions being ‘unsecular’ and issomething which should beavoided.

Amritpal Singh,New Delhi

It is disappointing that theSupreme Court has been drawninto a controversy. Chief JusticeH.L. Dattu is within his rights tohold a conference on a generalholiday for the sake of convenience.

Since higher courts had a two-dayweekend break — Saturday andSunday — seminars andconferences were held on thesedays. As Good Friday was a holiday,it gave the people concerned theextended space needed to hold animportant conference and spreadacross three days. Even the U.S.works on Good Friday and I wonderwhy the learned judge in questionhad to go public with his grouseknowing full well that thecontroversial nature of the issuewould have negative andfrightening implications for thejudiciary. Attributing motives tothe CJI’s moves is painful.

Ganapathi Bhat,Akola, Maharashtra

It did not behove the stature andstatus of a Supreme Court Judge tocry foul over the holding of theChief Justices’ Conference overGood Friday weekend. To expressanguish openly on this issue andgiving it religious overtones wasfar-fetched. In the U.S., where 95per cent of the people professChristianity, Good Friday, like anyother day, was a working day.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath,Aranmula, Kerala

Pictorial warningsThe fact that tobacco lobbyists stillneed evidence to prove that tobaccoconsumption has deleterioushealth effects seems strangeespecially when much of the

advanced world has reached a stagewhere banning smoking there willbe almost complete (“Tobaccolobby exercising power: Cong.” and“‘We will take a responsibledecision’,” both April 5). Theargument that pictorial warningswould eventually lead todiscouraging tobacco use whichwould then have an adverse impacton the livelihood of people involvedin the tobacco industry seems to bejust an exercise in fooling thepeople. It all boils down to theimportance of revenue.

Sukhmit Kaur,Mohali, Punjab

Tobacco consumption is hazardousand there are numerous studies toprove this. Policy makers have tobite the bullet and make statutorywarnings clear. Steps such asincreasing pictorial warnings andsales tax must be thought of todiscourage people from smoking.The importance of the family as asocial unit is still intact in India.Therefore, there must be emotionalappeals using the media to makepeople think twice beforeconsuming tobacco products.

Faiyyaj Shaikh,Pune

Old but not goldIt was John Updike who said: “Eachday, we wake slightly altered, andthe person we were yesterday isdead”. Growing numbers of the old

are not a burden or a threat tosociety but is a development thatshows that they need services andsupport systems to ensure that theyage in a better way and where theinequalities are reduced (‘SundayAnchor’ page, April 5). The travailsthat senior citizens have to bear intheir twilight years is heart-rending. There is much hype onhow we should care about theelderly but there seems to be littleaction. Not all are blessed withincome in the form of pensions andmany survive on the little interestthat comes by way of savings.

In old age, there is also theattendant problem of the risingcost of health care. I would suggestthat the government exemptseniors who are at least 65 yearsand above from the rigours oftaxation and extend liberal benefitsto make old age comfortable. Thearticles show that India has still along way to go in offering servicesto the elderly in a way that mirrorthose in the West.

H.N. Ramakrishna,Bengaluru

The increasingly sad plight of thesenior citizen in India was an eye-opener. In a country like Indiaknown to be the melting pot of allethical and moral values, such anissue makes it all the morepoignant. It is ironical that unlikeother middle income countries,India still does not have a non-contributory universal social

scheme for the elderly. Basheer Misbahi,

Malappuram, Kerala

The elderly are the “makers” of theIndia that we see today and it is theduty of the government to respecttheir sacrifice and contribution inbuilding our society. Old-agepensions in many States are nomore than Rs.1,000. The country’ssearch for revenue streams in orderto create basic infrastructureshould not lead to a completeexclusion of the elderly and theircare. The policy of inclusivedevelopment calls for greaterfunding in social sector schemes forthe elderly. There can be a‘National Pension Scheme fund’ tofund old age pensions.

Gaurav Singhal,New Delhi

Lessons about lifeThe report on Pepsico CEO IndraNooyi’s convocation address to theclass of 2015 at IIM-Calcutta wasthought-provoking (“‘I still call mymother 2-3 times a day’,” April 5).Her exhortation to them ‘to learn,earn and return’ and to always stayhumble is timely advice especiallywhen families are increasinglybecoming nuclear and the conceptof old age homes is catching on. Ms.Nooyi’s move to ask the students togive their parents a round ofapplause was indeed thoughtful.

V. Rajagopalan,Chennai

Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

India is a country full of paradoxes. Theelite in the country are forward-look-ing; they emphasise the need for reskilling but they conduct all this with

backward-looking institutions. An acute ob-server once said: “we want to be [a] knowl-edge economy without reflecting on thedemands of [a] knowledge society. As a re-sult, we lack the institutions to be system-atically innovative and our policies seemshort run and erratic. We are being out-fought and out-thought in the realm ofknowledge and policy, while confusing rhet-orical victories for real time gains.”

In fact, our new regime talks of the demiseof the Planning Commission as a feather inits cap. It conflates the existence of the Plan-ning Commission with the ideology of theprevious regime and treats it merely as apolicy issue. Today, our medical and our en-vironmental policies, for example, are in ashambles, and yet there are no relevantspaces to debate them. We are a tangled,regulatory society without being “socialist”in terms of justice, which we set out to be.

Confusion over distinctions

Let’s face it. Our knowledge society doesnot differentiate between information andknowledge. Knowledge is embodied, epis-temic, and has tacit elements. By confusinginformation and knowledge, we lack criticalthinking, the metalanguages and the heuris-tics that go into the definition of knowledge.Central to such confusion is Sam Pitroda’sKnowledge Commission report of 2006which equated the knowledge revolution tothe information revolution and confusedtechnology with epistemology.

In fact, the elite in India do not realise thatof the four revolutions of the 20th century,in Quantum physics, Genetics, in Linguisticsand in Knowledge, the last two bypassed us.The profound Linguistic revolution had noimpact in India despite the fact that an ex-ceptional linguist like Ferdinand de Saus-sure was a professor of Sanskrit at Geneva inthe same period. While the footprints of theQuantum revolution appeared in India wellafter World War II, the knowledge revolu-tion led by Gregory Bateson, Thomas Kuhnand Claude Levi Strauss never excited us.

Contemporary India, in that sense, wasnever sensitive to the genealogies of knowl-edge. We boasted of the Planning Commis-sion and the Knowledge Commission, of theD.S. Kothari Commission but saw educationand knowledge in instrumental terms. Toadd to our problems, we misread the man-

agerial revolution and the debates on gov-ernance and democracy. We revamped a fewcommerce departments and believed thatwe had reinvented management. But our In-dian Institutes of Management (IIM) hadlittle research sensitivity. We consumedknowledge but we rarely added creatively tothe stockpile. India became a consumer ofknowledge rather than a translator or aninventor of knowledge systems.

Knowledge and power

This background is necessary to under-stand the new relations between knowledgeand power. Linking the two is the field calledpolicy. It also creates two kinds of intellec-tuals, the policy intellectual and the publicintellectual.

The distinction is critical. The policy in-tellectual serves as an extension of the state.He/she is more a product of think tanks, ofgroups which strictly cater to policy inter-ests of the state or of corporations. A publicintellectual is a figure who provides a wide-ranging critique of policy, and looks morecreatively at the relation between knowledgeand power. A knowledge society needs both

sets of intellectuals. The late SukhamoyChakravarty, the economist, was a great pol-icy intellectual. Ashis Nandy, Rajni Kothariand U.R. Ananthamurthy belong to the cate-gory of public intellectuals. The policy in-tellectual usually takes his expertise forgranted. The public intellectual questionsthe nature of expertise, probing deeper intothe ethics and genealogy of ideas. In thepost-liberalisation period, India has hadmore policy than public intellectuals withthink tanks like the Centre for Policy Re-search and the Observer Research Founda-tion dominating the scene.

The think tanks and their attempts to for-mulate policy raise the whole question of therelation between knowledge and the publicsphere. Policy formulation has not really ar-ticulated the views of the public sphere. Infact, the first challenges to policy came fromthe social movements, and from civil society

which identified policy and experts as mereextensions to the state. The movements thatgrew around the Bhopal gas tragedy, theNarmada dam; the narratives of displace-ment and dispossession raised deep ques-tions about policy and expertise, and aboutthe public consumption of policy. Govern-ance is now seen no longer as a statist exer-cise and the question of governmentalityinvolves civil society articulating new episte-mologies, notions of citizenship, ideas aboutthe democratisation of knowledge and theassessment of public policy impacts. Gov-ernance has become tied to democracy, withthe public sphere becoming crucial and pub-lic policy a critical field.

Field of the future

Public policy is not its impoverished,mechanistic cousin, Public Administration.Jawaharlal Nehru started the Indian Insti-tute of Public Administration on the basis ofthe Paul Appleby report. Public policy be-came that empty space between manage-ment and public administration. It had adifferent texture and different require-ments. Management schools in India have

never succeeded in establishing a successfulschool of public policy as all efforts havebecome annexes of departments of econom-ics.

Public administration is more a monu-ment to the bureaucratic ego in India than toadministrative reflexivity. As experiments,public policy has never succeeded, and yettoday is a fast growing field with new depart-ments at various institutions and universi-ties. So far, it is a case of necessity notgenerating adequate inventiveness in our in-stitutions. Yet, public policy is one of thefields of the future, linking as it does, newnotions of empowerment in democracy withnew ideas of knowledge in policy.

What makes public policy exciting, pro-tean and potentially inventive is the contest-ed nature of the public sphere. It is anchoredin a diversity of perspectives which challeng-es the dominance of one subject. For exam-

ple, economics, which was almost acanonical discipline, now realises that it con-fronts a new commons of social scienceswhich sees its sense of measure as inade-quate to understand freedom or suffering.The new developments in feminism, culturalstudies, future studies and science studieshave added an increasing plurality to thefields of knowledge. Today, the relation be-tween the ‘expert’ and the ‘citizen’ haschanged and new forms of knowledge haveto be considered. One sees this particularlyin the development of ecological policy.

Nature which was once taken for grantedor seen as passive in the realm of knowledgeis now becoming a part of the social contract.The problems of climate change, and theenergy crisis have revealed that science andeconomics are inadequate to answer ques-tions related to ecology. Revolutions in ecol-ogy show that panarchy, complexity and riskhad created a non-Promethean sciencewhere policy is merely prudent and precau-tionary. The subject of ethics has made a bigreturn into the making of these disciplines. Asubject-wise understanding in terms of theold hierarchies of knowledge is inadequatefor policy. We are looking for new modes ofknowledge which are intercultural, interdis-ciplinary and holistic. The emphasis is nowon emergence rather than certainty.

New demands of democracy

These revolutions in knowledge have beencatalysed by the new demands of democracy.Democracy is no more a passive exercise ofcitizenship reduced only to the exercise ofperiodic elections. Today, democracy ismore proactive. The citizen knows more anddemands more. She is ready to challenge thedominance of the expert. She senses that heractive role is required to sustain a society.The public sphere today is more dynamicand contested.

One senses the excitement and the choic-es before India in the issues confronting us.In the 1950s, India treated nuclear energy assacrosanct. Today, the fishermen of Kudan-kulam in Tamil Nadu, and the tribals andvillagers in Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Guj-arat are challenging the location of nuclearplants and even the feasibility of nuclearenergy.

One sees similar debate on the future ofbiotechnology, for example on the need forGenetically Modified (GM) crops. For thefirst time, one saw an Environment Ministerinvite all stakeholders to a debate when in2010, Mr. Jairam Ramesh of the Congresscalled for public consultations on the releaseof Bt brinjal. It was wonderful to watch thepublic sphere debating public policy onbiotechnology.

The recent debates around growth, devel-opment and the fate of forests and the futureof mining have also raised issues that publicpolicy must answer. The new generation hasto ask itself whether nature has rights: forexample does a mountain have legal stand-ing? When a tribal says that when a moun-tain dies, a myth dies, how does one translatehis language into the dialects of policy? Re-cently, there was a report on the death of awaterfall. How does one analyse the death ofa ‘myth’ through costs and benefits? Is awaterfall only about cusecs of water?

Similarly, the city raises its own seedbedof questions around the informal economy,the future of waste, issues of violence — all ofwhich confront the policymaker. Ethics, sci-ence, suffering and philosophy cannot beignored in any debate today. A student has toreach into the best of the academe to answerthe new challenges to citizenship. One has todream of futures in realistic terms goingbeyond the simplicity of smart cities to askwhat urban space and urban imaginationare.

Today, at a time when the university is incrisis, and the relevance of academics is inquestion, subjects such as public policy canrevitalise the university, intensify the de-bates around intellectual life and show thatthe life of the public mind has new challeng-es. A subject like public policy is an invita-tion to construct a feasible future. It will beinteresting to see how many Indians acceptits challenge and construct the dream of adifferent India.

(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at JindalSchool of Government and Public Policy.)

A new public policy for a new IndiaWhat makes public policy exciting and potentiallyinventive is the contested nature of the publicsphere. It is anchored in a diversity of perspectiveswhich challenges the dominance of one subject

Shiv Visvanathan

Recently, there was a report on the death of a waterfall. How

does one analyse the death of a ‘myth’ through costs and

benefits? Is a waterfall only about cusecs of water?

Bharatiya Janata Party Minister and MP Giriraj

Singh’s comment — that had Rajiv Gandhi

married a Nigerian woman the Congress

would not have accepted her leadership — was

one more xenophobic attempt to denigrate Sonia Gand-

hi, suggesting that she possessed no quality other than

the colour of her skin to make her eligible for such a

role. But in his choice of example he revealed an Indian

reality: our obsession with fair skin. If Mr. Singh’s racist

remarks were uttered in Bihar, almost simultaneously

his BJP colleague, Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parse-

kar, told striking nurses that they should not sit in the

sun to protest as that would darken their skins, reduc-

ing their chances of securing husbands. Unlike Mr.

Singh who was making a nasty political point, Mr. Par-

sekar was possibly just being facetious. But the two

statements taken together only reinforce existing ster-

eotypes created by matrimonial advertisements that

seek fair-skinned brides and the range of lotions that

promise to make you fair and lovely — or fair and

handsome — to improve your prospects both in the

marriage and job markets. Ironically, this is in a country

where dark-skinned women have been extolled in epic

and verse: the Mahabharata, referring to Draupadi,

dwells on her “velvet skin” that is “dark”. In the 20th

century, Tagore’s “Krishnakali” is a paean to another

dark-skinned beauty: “Ah, you call her dark; let that be,

her black gazelle eyes I have seen.”

Evidently, these two men who belong to a party that

claims to be familiar with Indian mythology and culture

need to be educated. Worse, as holders of high office —

Mr. Singh is a Central Minister, Mr. Parsekar runs a

State — they have forgotten that they are role models. In

Mr. Singh’s case, he has not just offended the Congress

which has demanded that he be sacked, but also the

Nigerians who have registered their protest and de-

manded an apology for his “unacceptable” comment.

But this controversy goes beyond colour — it reflects the

cheapening national discourse on women at a time

when issues ranging from women’s security to their

share in political decision-making have taken centre

stage. Indeed, the hostility of male lawmakers over the

years to progressive legislation concerning women —

ranging from reservation for them in legislatures to

measures to protect them from sexual harassment —

has not abated. As women get educated and demand

their space and independence, the men, including our

MPs and MLAs, are clearly not keeping pace. If India is

to achieve superpower status, it must make women

equal partners in this country’s progress.

Cheaptalk

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015

8 THE HINDU MONDAY, APRIL 6, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

CMYK

ND-ND

TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015

8 THE HINDU TUESDAY, APRIL 7, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

In the last one year the Bharatiya Janata Party has

experienced both exciting highs and depressing

lows. From being seen as a party that was pro-

growth and pro-reforms, the BJP is now strug-

gling to fight off the perception that it is anti-poor and

anti-farmer. The dividing line was always thin, and now

it has definitively been crossed. After the spectacular

victory in the Lok Sabha election in May last, the party

did extremely well in Assembly elections that followed

in 2014. But it tripped in the Delhi election and is now

struggling to contain rising opposition to the changes it

has proposed in the Land Bill. The national executive

meeting of the party in Bengaluru was thus an opportu-

nity to reassess its own performance in government

and identify the reasons for both its successes and

failures. Unmistakably, the honeymoon period for the

Narendra Modi government is well and truly over: new

promises are not enough to retain support when old

ones have not been kept. The challenge for Prime

Minister Modi and BJP president Amit Shah was to

devise a strategy to retain the support of an increasing-

ly impatient core group of the party with the Hindutva

cultural nationalist project as the agenda, and to live up

to the expectations of the new converts who were

hoping the government would deliver on the promise

of jobs and growth and better living standards.

Between the Lok Sabha victory and the Delhi loss,

the BJP tied up with the Peoples Democratic Party in

J&K, agreeing to status quos and compromises on

issues such as Article 370 that have alienated its sup-

porters in the rest of the country. Also, on several

occasions Mr. Modi and his senior Ministers had to

intervene to rein in some of the fringe elements and

junior Ministers who were indulging in hate speech

and communally divisive propaganda. All these did not

go down very well with the core Hindutva elements in

the party and the government, who were hoping to

have a free run as the BJP had a majority on its own.

And, while the government intended the changes to the

Land Bill as pro-business measures, these were viewed

as efforts to marginalise the rural poor and the small

farmer. The national executive was thus focussed on

correcting the perceptions through closer coordination

between the party and the government. Party forums

are important sources of feedback and assessment for

any government. But like the government, the BJP too

seems to have lost touch with the people on some

crucial issues. The national executive seems to have

identified the problem. The solution, however, does not

lie in a propaganda blitzkrieg but in performance.

Perception andperformance

The signing of the “Joint Compre-hensive Plan of Action regardingIran’s Nuclear Programme” lastweek, between Iran and P5+1, is the

first definitive step on a road that will be longand tortuous but carries profound implica-tions for the West Asian region as a whole. Itinitiates a thaw in regional political equa-tions that have remained frozen since the1979 Islamic Revolution when relations be-tween the United States and Iran ruptured.During the last 18 months, it had becomeclear that within the P5+1, the principal ne-gotiator was the U.S. and it sometimes faceddifficulties in keeping its Western partnersin line. In 2003-04, the E-3 (the UnitedKingdom, France and Germany) had comeclose to a deal that would have constrainedIran’s nuclear programme earlier, but itcould not materialise because the U.S. wasnot at the table.

Israeli and Saudi concerns

Both Saudi Arabia and Israel, key U.S. al-lies in the region are upset and tried to scut-tle the deal, but the Obama administrationwas resolute in pursuing the negotiations.On March 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benja-min Netanyahu addressed the U.S. Congressin an unprecedented example of politicaltheatre to criticise the deal even as he facedan uncertain re-election in his country afortnight later.

Mr. Netanyahu claimed that the deal“would not block but pave the way” in fur-thering Iran’s nuclear ambitions and calledfor more sanctions against Iran. U.S. Presi-dent Barack Obama, who had declined toreceive Mr. Netanyahu during his Washing-ton trip, dismissed the speech as “offering noviable alternative to the current negotia-tions”. Mr. Netanyahu’s address was fol-lowed by an open letter — signed by 47 U.S.senators and addressed to the Iranian lead-ership — cautioning against signing any dealthat would not be approved by the Congress.While Mr. Obama’s task of convincing theCongress about the merits of a deal with Iranwas hard enough, Mr. Netanyahu’s speechand the consequent heightened polarisationonly rendered it harder.

The U.S. kept the Saudi leadership briefedabout the negotiations but Saudi apprehen-sions remain. Hints have been dropped thatSaudi Arabia — and possibly other Sunnimajority states such as Egypt and Turkey —will demand the same rights of accessing andretaining uranium enrichment technology

as provided to Iran, a suggestion that makesthe Western non-proliferation lobby highlynervous. It is no secret that the Pakistaninuclear programme was funded with gener-ous Saudi support and Pakistan Prime Min-ister Nawaz Sharif’s recent visit to thatcountry promptly led to speculation that Pa-kistan was being told that the time was com-ing when it may have to make good on itsnuclear debts.

U.S. rationale and Iranian stakes

Mr. Obama’s consistent position has beenthat the U.S. will do whatever it takes (aeuphemism that covers military means) toprevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weap-on. The rationale for the talks is that in thelast decade, Iran has slowly built up its capa-bilities and in the absence of any deal, Irancan move rapidly to develop a nuclear weap-on capability. In November 2013, when Iranagreed to freeze its programme and engage

in negotiations, it was reported to have abreakout time of three months — in threemonths, Iran would have sufficient, high en-riched uranium (20-25 kg) to produce onebomb. Further, the likelihood of a successfulair strike against the underground facility atFordow constructed during the last decadewas remote.

The Stuxnet cyber attack had slowedIran’s enrichment programme, but sincethen Iran had strengthened its cyber capa-bilities, both defensive and offensive. Thechanging political dynamics in Iraq and theemergence of new jihadi forces in the after-math of the Arab Spring necessitated a freshregional approach. Political support for sus-taining enhanced sanctions on Iran waseroding and Iranian President Hassan Rou-hani’s election offered a window of politicalopportunity. The U.S. responded with a newpolicy — a freeze on an Iranian nuclear

build-up, an elimination of certain capabil-ities thereby increasing the breakout time toa year or more, a tighter inspection regime todetect any clandestine activity, accompa-nied by a phased removal of nuclear-relatedsanctions — all this based on the assumptionthat if this could be sustained for a decade ormore, it would lead to a gradual moderationin Iran’s behaviour.

For Iran and Mr. Rouhani, the stakes arehigh. Iran’s regional influence has grownwith the U.S. exits from Iraq and Afghanistanbut the low oil prices coupled with the eco-nomic sanctions are hurting. Mr. Rouhanihad handled the nuclear negotiations a dec-ade ago and enjoys a degree of credibility butspace for any manoeuvre is limited and tim-ing is critical.

A failure in the talks means that Mr. Rou-hani will not win the 2016 Majlis elections.While Iranian Supreme Leader AyatollahKhamenei has given his blessings for the

talks, the hardliners feel that now is not thetime for compromises. More important, thehardliners do not want the deal to signify amovement towards a normalisation of tieswith the U.S. but want its scope limited toensuring sanctions relief. According tothem, Mr. Netanyahu’s re-election and anObama approaching the end of his tenure isnot a combination that can deliver.

The hardliners have already ensured theelection of Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi asChairman of the Assembly of Expertsagainst former Iranian President AkbarHashemi Rafsanjani, widely seen as a mod-erate and a Rouhani supporter. The Assemb-ly is an important body that guides theSupreme Leader and also chooses his succes-sor. Its eight-year term ends in 2016 andalignments are under way for the new As-sembly because the Supreme Leader is over75 and, reportedly, somewhat frail.

Mr. Netanyahu’s surprise victory in hisre-election last month will raise the brink-manship in the coming months when thenegotiators seek to hammer out the tech-nical details by June 30. His position is thatIran must be stopped from having any capa-bility that permits it to become a thresholdnuclear weapon state because the Iranianregime cannot be trusted. Its nuclear in-frastructure must be dismantled, sanctionstightened and only a new regime in Iran willmoderate its revolutionary ideology. At thisstage, any sanctions relief will be used byIran to further destabilise the region. How-ever, Mr. Netanyahu’s extreme rhetorictroubles a significant section of the Israeliswho believe that such an approach jeopar-dises U.S.-Israel relations by introducing anelement of polarisation in what has so farbeen the U.S.’s unconditional and bipartisansupport to Israel.

Former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, togeth-er with a number of former generals, havestated that a military option against Iraniannuclear facilities is unviable and the U.S. andIsrael have to work together to manageIran’s transition towards moderating itsposture. They are concerned that the U.S.has dropped the linkage between Iran’s re-quirement of low enrichment uranium andthe number of centrifuges needed by con-ceding Iran’s intrinsic right to enrichmentbut are still prepared to live with a limitedfrozen capacity provided there is a strength-ened inspection regime that guarantees anabsence of any clandestine activity.

Nuts and bolts of deal

The framework announced on April 2 lim-its Iran to operating only 5,060 centrifugesof the old variety for 10 years, places a re-striction of 3.67 per cent enrichment for 15years and reduces the 10,000 kg stockpile ofenriched uranium to 300 kg. No fissile mate-rial can be introduced into the secure facilityat Fordow for the next 15 years while theheavy water research reactor at Arak will bemodified so that it does not produce anyweapons grade plutonium. Its existing coreas well as any subsequent spent fuel will beshipped out of the country. Most significantis the opening up of the supply chain thatsupports Iran’s nuclear programme to in-ternational accounting and inspection, re-strictions on centrifuge research,development and manufacturing units, anduranium mines and mills, which will remainin place for 25 years. There remain someproblem areas to be ironed out over the nextthree months — a dispute resolution mecha-nism, measures to resolve concerns aboutearlier military aspects of its programmepossibly at Parchin which Iran has kept outof bounds, establishing a dedicated procure-ment channel and, finally, a phasing out ofthe sanctions regime. Only nuclear-relatedsanctions will be eased while other sanctionspertaining to ballistic missile activity, ter-rorism and human rights issues will remainin place. Mr. Obama’s authority to waiveCongressionally-mandated sanctions mayface a challenge at home, though his author-ity for implementing an Executive Agree-ment is considerable.

The agreed framework meets the test of agood deal. It closes Iran’s route to nuclearweapons, constrains elements of its pro-gramme that generate concern for a decadeand more, deters breakout by introducingstringent monitoring, and helps build confi-dence by phasing out sanctions. Most impor-tantly, diplomacy has achieved more thanwhat a military strike could have achieved.U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Ira-nian Foreign Minister Mohammad JavadZarif’s skills to manage a tricky process de-spite the disbelievers, in evidence over the 19rounds of talks spread over 18 months, andMr. Obama and Mr. Rouhani’s sense of con-viction and political leadership will be ontest in the coming months as they seek toembed the nuclear deal in a broader regionalstrategy against the backdrop of increasingvolatility and nervous allies.

(Rakesh Sood, a former Ambassador, was the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Disarmament and Non-Proliferation till May 2014. E-mail:rakeshsood2001@yahoo.com)

A Persian handshake with promiseThe signing of the ‘Joint Comprehensive Plan ofAction’ on Iran’s nuclear programme meets thetest of a good deal. It closes Iran’s route to nuclearweapons, introduces stringent monitoring, and builds confidence by phasing out sanctions

Rakesh Sood

Barack Obama and Hassan Rouhani’s sense of conviction and

political leadership will be on test as they seek to embed the

nuclear deal in a broader regional strategy against the

backdrop of increasing volatility and nervous allies.

Modi to judiciaryPrime Minister Narendra Modi’sadvice to the judiciary on how itmust play its role is ill-advised(“Guard against 5-star activists:PM,” April 6). Has it not occurred tohim that even though differentjudges have different approaches tocases, they have to be judged by therightness of their rulings? Is it safeto surmise that the “5-star”activists referred to are theindefatigable defenders of humanrights who have fought hard forvictims of violence, oppression andtyranny?

Whether Mr. Modi likes it or not,the judiciary cannot be madeamenable to the executive. A cosyrelationship between the executiveand the judiciary is the last thing agood democracy needs.

G. David Milton,Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

When the principle-driven politicsof the pre-Independence era hasnow taken the shape of profit-driven politics with the support of a“yes master” bureaucracy, it is allthe more essential that thejudiciary plays its role only byproving its adherence to theprinciples under the Constitutionof India. The Prime Minister’sconcern about “perception-driven”judgments often orchestrated by“five-star” activists will only raisequestions about the independentmind of the judiciary.

Victor Frank A.,Chennai

It was wrong on the part of thePrime Minister to have cast whatamounts to a slur on the judiciary.The judiciary does not getinfluenced by “five-star activists”.However, what he is right about ison there being too many tribunalsand that they are eating financialresources. It is unfortunate that theSupreme Court has not agreed tothe idea of there being regionalbenches of the Supreme Court; ifdone, it would be of great help tothe judiciary and the public. Thepoor and those in need of legal aidcannot afford to go all the way toDelhi for redress of theirgrievances. I would also agree withMr. Modi when he says that thependency of cases is unnecessaryand that archaic laws hold up courtproceedings. The judiciary and thegovernment must refrain fromcriticising each other.

Habibullah Badsha,Chennai

Loyalty and governanceThough statements made by TamilNadu Chief Minister O.Panneerselvam on AIADMKgeneral secretary and former ChiefMinister Ms. Jayalalithaa mayappear absurd to a neutral observer(Editorial, April 6), Mr.Panneerselvam has only echoed thesentiments of most people in theState. Like it or not, the widespreadperception is that Ms. Jayalalithaahas done a lot of good for TamilNadu and that under herleadership, there have beennumerous advances in many

sectors. It may be farfetched to saythat statements made on the floorof the Assembly will influence thejudgment. To attribute a motive tothe delay of the inauguration ofChennai Metro is also unfair. Iremember reading a news itemwhich said that the railway safetycommissioner has still to give aclearance certificate.

K. Sivasubramanian,Chennai

Governance by proxy is thepredominant culture. Have weforgotten the examples of RabriDevi as Bihar Chief Minister whowas remote-controlled by LaluPrasad? Uttar Pradesh is ruled byboth father and son. And the leastsaid about the UPA regime thebetter. At least Mr. Panneerselvamhas been honest enough to admitthat he is holding fort for a while.

M.K.B. Nambiar,Mahe

Developments in Tamil Nadu eversince Ms. Jayalalithaa began to facelegal problems are a pointer to abuilding up of pressure on thejudiciary to come out with afavourable verdict. There is not asingle day without the performanceof yagams and poojas by AIADMKcadres praying for a favourablejudgment. There are also full pageadvertisements by different Statedepartments on achievements byMs. Jayalalithaa, a move whichshould be questioned by thejudiciary and the ElectionCommission, as this amounts to the

use of public revenue for a privatecampaign.

S.S. Dharmarajan,Coimbatore

Cheap talkWhy blame our MPs and MLAs?The Indian mentality is one that islargely fascinated with the idea of“fairness” (Editorial, April 6). Even60 years after Independence, “GoriChamdi Maibaap” is somethingthat has not left our minds.

Sajal Manchanda,New Delhi

Women and jihadRadicalisation has done immensedamage to the tenets and nobleteachings of religion (“Groomingwomen for jihad,” April 6). Theactivities that jihadists indulge inare what further damage thefoundation of religious tenets anddefeat their purpose — which is toclearly streamline our thoughts anddeeds towards loftier purposes andhigher goals. The West needs to bevigilant in ensuring that youngpeople do not fall prey to suchundesirable temptations.

R. Ramanathan,Coimbatore

It is alarming that the IS is nowcasting its net wider by groomingwomen in aid of its heinousatrocities. According to the BritishQuilliam Foundation, once underthe IS fold, women are banned fromhaving a formal education and haveto only think about starting a home.The West can prevent much of

what is happening by trying tobetter integrate its Muslimcommunities into the mainstream.

Thahira Hamid,Kondotty, Kerala

From the archivesThe snippet, “Drinking amongwomen” (“From the Archives,”April 3), on the conclusions of asurvey of drinking habits in Delhiduring 1964-65 being placed on thetable of the Lok Sabha, was an eye-opener. That it said “thoughdrinking may safely be presumed tobe largely a male phenomenon inIndia... there was no interestingdifference” between upper classwomen drinkers and womendrinkers from the slums wasinteresting. Times have clearlychanged through half-a-century.Interestingly, the Kerala HighCourt Order of March 31, 2015,makes a differentiation betweenrich and poor drinkers in as far as itprevents bar facilities for the latter.Democracy is about proportionalequality among all but here it looksas though the rich enjoy extra-constitutional minority rights fordrinking! For ordinary souls, ifliquor is poison, it would be so forthe rich and the poor. Or, is itassumed that the rich are richenough to afford greatercompensatory health care throughtheir money power? Or, is it furtherassumed that those below “five stargrade” are the ones responsible forfamily and social problems?

P.R.V. Raja,Pandalam, Kerala

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The smooth efficiency of Operation Rahat, once

it got under way, is the latest example of how

India’s response systems are at their best

when they are put to the test. In a matter of

days, the Navy, the Air Force, and Air India were able to

rescue thousands of Indians from the heart of Yemen’s

war-zone, in an effort coordinated by the Ministry of

External Affairs. This has been done under trying con-

ditions, navigating around Saudi Arabian air strikes and

negotiating clearances, Houthi firepower, and even al-

Qaeda fighters in several areas. The fact that the evac-

uation was controlled from a third country, Djibouti,

where the government’s envoy, General (retd.) V.K.

Singh, is based, is a matter of credit to diplomacy and

the goodwill enjoyed by India in the region. The govern-

ment has shown magnanimity by rescuing non-Indians

of about 17 nationalities, including Pakistan, a gesture

reciprocated by Pakistani forces. However, there is a

sense of déjà vu with the Yemen operation that high-

lights the challenges faced by Indians across West Asia

post the Arab Spring. This was seen in Libya and later in

Iraq, and is now visible in Yemen. The government

needs to reflect on these before the next crisis hits a

region that employs more than six million Indians, as

they become vulnerable to such recurrent crises.

As in previous evacuations, the need to launch a

perilous operation at high cost has come about because

Indians based in Yemen refused to heed government

advisories issued since January 2015 to leave the coun-

try. The reasons for staying back are largely economic:

many Indians would brave personal harm and keep

their jobs there rather than risk returning to a tenuous

future in India. In some situations, the problem is that

their employers hold their passports and wages. The

Indian government must negotiate better working con-

ditions for expatriates. If we can coordinate evacuation

efforts with Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal,

what stops the government from uniting SAARC coun-

tries to negotiate collectively for their expatriates who

form a large chunk of the labour force in West Asia? It is

also necessary to review the early warning systems to

anticipate a crisis quickly, and to ensure early departure

for Indians from war-zones. In Yemen, as with Iraq,

Libya, Lebanon and other such situations, Indians have

not been harmed by either side in conflicts because of a

perceived neutrality on the part of India. It is worrying

to note, therefore, that in his conversation with Saudi

King Salman bin Abdul Aziz, Prime Minister Narendra

Modi expressed a wish for an “early restoration of peace

and stability [in Yemen] under [King Salman’s] lead-

ership”. Until there is a UN mandate for the external

intervention in Yemen, it will serve India’s citizens

better if the government retains its impartiality on

events in the region, which is riven with fault-lines.

Just intime

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

8 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The Centre’s move to provide real time data on

air quality in some of India’s bigger cities

brings policy focus to a key social determinant

of health. The National Air Quality Index

launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a work in

progress, as the quality of data from some cities remains

weak, monitoring stations are not fully equipped and

the standards set for pollutants fall short of World

Health Organization recommendations. In the case of

Particulate Matter measuring less than 2.5 microm-

eters in diameter — among the more hazardous pollu-

tants — the WHO has a recommended average level of

10 micrograms per cubic metre, and an interim target of

40mcg/m3. By contrast, India’s tolerance limit for a

“good” rating for fine particulates is 50. The air people

breathe in many cities is very unhealthy, the values for

respirable particulate matter far exceeding even the lax

threshold. The public health consequences of this ne-

glect of pollution by governments are the premature

deaths of over 620,000 people each year, ill-health for

thousands, and loss of economic productivity. Clearly,

the business-as-usual approach is proving too costly.

Poor air quality is linked to specific areas of activity —

a sharp rise in motorisation, particularly involving the

use of diesel as fuel, coal burning, and construction

work, to name a few. As the global experience shows,

escalating pollution levels accompany heightened eco-

nomic activity, but an informed policy response reduces

the progression. That is the challenge before Prime

Minister Modi: to make wealthy polluters pay, and

expand green alternatives for all through attractive

incentives. A supportive framework is vital to achieving

the lifestyle change that Mr. Modi advocates as a solu-

tion. In Delhi, rated by some surveys as having the

world’s worst air quality, the Metro rail network is

growing, but so is the use of personal cars. Yet, the

government is not disincentivising their use through

congestion charging, which would also generate much-

needed funds for the growth of modern bus and rail

systems; the existence of a National Urban Transport

Policy has not made a difference either. The National

Green Tribunal has ordered that diesel vehicles over 10

years old not ply on Delhi roads. This is a positive

measure, but those affected should get a reasonable

opportunity to make alternative arrangements. The

government has also failed to grasp the potential of

bicycles as a clean mobility solution, and cities are

hostile to their users. Coal burning for power gener-

ation can be reduced if rooftop solar power is promoted

through a national scheme. U.S. cities are leasing out to

homes solar panels. It is such smart solutions that can

dramatically improve the air in urban India, without

affecting the high quality of life that citizens aspire for.

For some fresh air

When the former Chief of ArmyStaff, and now Union Ministerof state for External Affairs,Gen V.K. Singh, tweeted the

words “duty” and “disgust” which were re-portedly linked to his attending the PakistanNational Day function last month at the Pa-kistan High Commission in New Delhi, andwhere leaders of the Hurriyat Conferencewere also present, it created controversy.But these words may come to represent thestate of India-Pakistan relations under theNational Democratic Alliance (NDA) gov-ernment which seeks to present a more mus-cular foreign and security policy, and onethat is different from that of the previousUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA) govern-ment. While the engagement with Pakistanwas resumed during the South Asian Associ-ation for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)meet in Nepal last year, the inevitable flip-flop over reviving the dialogue with ourneighbour culminated in this embarrassingepisode — of the tweets.

The ball is now in Pakistan’s court sincePrime Minister Narendra Modi, in his letterto Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif onthe National Day, noted that talks could be-gin only if held in an atmosphere free ofterror and violence. This is déjà vu. Why didthe government send Foreign Secretary S.Jaishankar to Islamabad this year and notannounce the resumption of talks?

It could be that the Pakistan Army Chief,Gen. Raheel Sharif, has no intention of delin-king terrorism from dialogue as it serves as apressure point; its dividend is low-cost andhigh-yield. The series of cross-border at-tacks in March and April in Jammu weredesigned to keep the Kashmir disturbancesalive, the Punjabi Taliban busy and the Indi-an establishment on the hop.

Combating terrorism

The attacks coincided with a government-inspired Track-II conference on counter ter-rorism, in March 2015 and held in Jaipur,where the best Indian and internationalminds were to discuss the subject. UnionHome Minister Rajnath Singh, National Se-curity Advisor Ajit K. Doval and Chief Minis-ter of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje spoke.Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu andUnion Defence Minister Manohar Parrikarwere busy because of a train accident and the

terror strikes in Jammu. The fidayeen at-tacks, which happened on the first two daysof the conference, were a direct response tothe predictable Pakistan-bashing not just bythe usual suspects but also a number ofAmerican and Pakistani participants whofeature in Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelli-gence’s (ISI) Red Book

Mr. Doval made light of American andWestern efforts in combating terrorism. Hisquestion: 14 years [after 9/11] and $5.3 tril-lion later, was the world a safer place? Healso remarked that the costs did not matchthe results. The interventions in Afghan-istan, Iraq, Libya and the Arab Spring havespawned a new set of jihadi non-state play-ers, prime among them being the IslamicState (IS). The approach by the United Statesto terrorism has moderated with time. U.S.President George W. Bush began the inter-national campaign against terror by an-nouncing the Global War On Terrorism(GWOT), replacing the word “crusade” thathad crept in. In 2004, it was replaced with

the term “US Military Engagement/Com-mitment Overseas” as it sounded politicallycorrect. In February this year, the U.S.’sglossary on military terminology added aninnocuous new acronym — CVE or Counter-ing Violent Extremism. It was introduced byU.S. President Barack Obama at a meeting inFebruary this year at the White House in thepresence of representatives of the 60-coun-try coalition involved in rolling back the IS’sprogress. Here he made four points: remainunwavering in the fight against terrorist or-ganisations; confront warped ideologies; ad-dress political and economic grievances thatterrorists exploit, and respect all faiths. Thisis the first holistic enunciation of a policycountering terrorism/violent extremismand outcomes will depend on how compre-hensively the policy is interpreted and im-plemented by different countries.

Experts are divided on the way in whichterrorism is used as a tool to promote ideol-ogy and faith. A minority view is that vio-lence has not worked. While it is at its peaktoday and will continue on this trajectory, itis destined to decline. Some analysts believethat the IS genie is out of the bottle and ishere to stay; it is not a spontaneous move-ment but a planned organisation assembledfrom the spillover of the wars in Afghanistanand Iraq, the intervention in Libya and thewar in Syria. Others feel that the IS is notsustainable and while it will expand, it willquickly disintegrate. But most agree that thisis a war within Islam — the Muslim/Arabworld — exacerbated by the Shia-Sunni sec-tarian strife driven by both geopolitics andpowerful sects. In the end, the IS will failbecause a majority of Muslims will have re-jected it.

Pakistan’s terror campaign

While the jury is out on whether the in-ternational politico-military campaign

against terrorism is succeeding or not, oneplace where cross-border terrorism and vio-lence seem to have worked is Jammu andKashmir — which is at least the perception ofthe Pakistan military establishment. Infil-tration and cross-border terrorism havebeen the operational credo of the jihadis andthe Pakistan Army; from 1947 to this day,they have not ceased, and employ all thetactics including those used in every warfought with India.

Pakistan had revitalised these tacticsthrough its two-pronged offensives in Pun-jab and Jammu and Kashmir in the late1980s. While the Punjab police succeeded incrushing Khalistani terrorism, insurgencyand terrorism have made gains in Jammuand Kashmir without any deterrent re-sponse. Instead, in the mid-1990s, New Del-hi did something inscrutable. It quietly

dismantled its deep assets inside Pakistanand offered it along with other SAARC na-tions, non-reciprocal concessions.

The Pakistan Army’s calibrated oper-ations inside Jammu and Kashmir going un-punished are a visible measure of the successof cross-border terrorism which was con-fined to the geographical limits of the State.This had emboldened the ISI to cross thisred line which resulted in the terror attackson Parliament in 2001 and in Mumbai in2008. In turn, India’s limited response in2001 had a temporary but sobering effect oncross-border terror as Gen. Pervez Mushar-raf — as long as he was in command — keptthe ISI on a leash. But there have been gainsfrom the full-scale Indian mobilisationcalled Operation Parakrama. It led to a cea-sefire on the Line of Control (LoC) in 2003and a marked reduction in infiltration andcross-border terror, but it was not the end ofit. The attack by the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT)on Mumbai elicited zero Indian responseeven after crucial evidence was provided bythe lone surviving gunman, Ajmal Kasab.

Cross-border terrorism has served Pakis-tan well to compensate for its lack of conven-tional military equivalence with India. It hasprogressively lowered its nuclear thresholdto deter an Indian riposte to an iconic terrorattack. In short, Pakistan is waging its proxywar under a nuclear overhang.

Indian response

How has India fared in countering infil-tration and cross-border terror? It has dealtwith the challenge in a way that is purelydefensive. The concept of adopting offensivemethods or active defence/forward defencehas figured only in discussions in think tanksand not in the war rooms of military head-quarters. Reacting passively with defencesbased on Magino Line-like ditch-cum-bundson the international border and fencing onthe LoC only reflects the lack of political will.Even during the Kargil war, the LoC re-mained sacrosanct though there was a heavycost in terms of a loss of lives. Because offencing, the Indian Army congratulates itselffor reducing infiltration, from a torrent to atrickle, and containing cross-border terror-ism. The terrorist population inside Jammuand Kashmir has shrunk from a figure of3,000 to 300. Still, the ISI retains the capac-ity to despatch fidayeens at a time and placeof its choosing in Jammu and Kashmir asdemonstrated by the twin terrorist attacksin Jammu in March. Speaking in New Delhion the subject of the challenges to nationalsecurity at the Growth Net seminar recently,Mr. Doval said: “We want to deal with Pakis-tan in a way which is fair, correct, transpar-ent and which is not bending to any of thepressure tactics or the blackmailing or thethinking that nuclear threshold will prob-ably leave India with no option but to acceptthe covert war as a reality to which they don'thave any response.”

Gen. Sharif is likely to continue pressingIndia in Jammu and Kashmir. The PakistanArmy sees its low-cost, high-gain strategy asvery successful and will not abandon it till itis forced to, for acquiescing to India’s he-gemony will be an admission of defeat. It willnever accept a subordinate position to India,and therefore, continue its quest for parityeven if it has to eat humble pie. One of itscrown jewels and a proponent of cross-bor-der terror, the LeT, is on a leash. The self-acclaimed, muscular NDA government nowfaces a twin dilemma: how to resume thebilateral dialogue in an atmosphere free ofterrorism and violence and the perennial‘how to respond to the next big terroristattack’. The answers are obvious: resumedialogue immediately and make Pakistanpay, militarily and diplomatically, and withcompound interest, for fostering cross-bor-der terrorism. The password is political will.

(Gen. Ashok Kumar Mehta is foundermember of India’s Defence Planning Staff,now the Integrated Defence Staff.)

For an iron fist in a velvet glove The NDA government needs to summon thepolitical will to resume the India-Pakistandialogue immediately and make Pakistan pay,militarily and diplomatically, for fostering terror

Ashok K. Mehta

While the jury is out on whether the global campaign against

terror is succeeding or not, one place where cross-border

terror seems to have worked is Jammu and Kashmir.

Mapping air qualityThe government’s move to put outreal time data about the level of airpollutants (“Govt. moves to clearthe air,” April 7), by launching theNational Air Quality Index (AQI),is a major and long overdue steptowards raising public awarenesson pollution. But there are teethingproblems. I had to spend quite a lotof time on the Internet getting tothe website. If the government isserious about raising publicawareness, it should havepublicised the url of the site. Also,it is not enough talking about airpollution. Is there acomprehensive plan on how totackle rising pollution in our cities?

Akshit Sharma,Chandigarh

It is a shock that in the datacaptured in the first week of April,the AQI of Bengaluru, the fabledGarden City, is 310, which is verypoor and perhaps the worst scorefor any Indian city. The city hasbecome quite a melting pot with itsmoderate climate, employmentopportunities in the softwaresector, urban comforts and goodeducational facilities being themain draws. However, the colossal build-up ofparticulate matter can beattributed to increasingconstruction activity andunchecked emission from growingtraffic. The number of vehicles onthe roads is far more than what thecity’s infrastructure can handle.While the AQI may providepollution data, how does thegovernment plan going aboutimposing stringent measures toimprove air quality?

Dennyson Rockey,Bengaluru

A WHO pollution study onceranked New Delhi as the mostpolluted Indian city with thepotential to have the situationbecome even more critical. Thetask before the government now isto tap the National Green Tribunalwhich must come up with morepragmatic policies. There must betougher environmental laws. Butwill there be the political will tomake all this work?

Abid Baba,Baramulla, J&K

The AQI is a welcome but belatedfirst step that should at least helpmake a diagnosis of the problem.One also hopes that the NDAgovernment now realises theimportance of environmentallysustainable growth which is nolonger a choice but a necessity.

Nivedita Dwivedi,Navi Mumbai

India is one of the most pollutedcountries in terms of air quality,with 13 out of the 20 most pollutedcities being in this country. Apartfrom non-existent emissionstandards, which contribute to theproblem, one also has the industryaround the infrastructure sectorreleasing large amounts ofparticulate matter. It is importantto find people-centric solutions.For this, India needs global help.

Navneet Goel,Kanpur

The Iran dealWhile it will be incorrect toquestion the “intent” of the U.S.and the “trustworthiness” of Iraneven before the ink has dried on theIran nuclear deal (“A Persianhandshake with promise,” April 7),certain facts will be hard to write-off. The deal has given a legitimacy

to the Iranian nuclear programme.Will it not pave the way for otherregimes to demand similar rights?Iran could be suppressed becauseits estrangement does not hurtwestern interests, but will the U.S.be willing to go after Saudi Arabiaand Israel if they further their ownnuclear ambitions? What willhappen if Iran backtracks? Will itbe used as an opportunity to wagewar against Iran just like “havingbio-weapons” was the pretext toinvade Iraq?

The point is that the West is stillnot ready to accept that the basicproblem in the region stems from alack of  strong dispute redressmechanisms and the perception ofthe U.S.  being too close to a chosenfew even if they do wrong. Whilethe balance of power and thesalience of security can’t be wishedaway, many should be optimisticthat sunny days lie ahead for Iran.Meanwhile, India should rejoiceover the triumph of patientdiplomacy and the upcomingeconomic opportunities.

Shashank Jain, New Delhi

‘Five-star’ commentThat Prime Minister NarendraModi was able to diplomaticallytell the judiciary to guard against‘5-star’ activists must beappreciated. Therefore, it issurprising that activists andlawyers are now raising objectionsto the comments (April 7). Wasthere anything wrong in what Mr.Modi said? As someone who hasexperienced the workings of thejudiciary, from the local munsif-magistrate level to the SupremeCourt, for about 40 years, I supportwhat Mr. Modi has cautioned thejudiciary about. Many a time, thereappears to be an ivory tower-like

culture that surrounds thejudiciary. Rather than terming theadvice as an encroachment onjudicial space, the judiciary mustfocus on delivering a fair standardof justice and one which does notspare vested and private interests.

George John,Dehradun

Anti-terror lawThe article on the Gujarat Controlof Terrorism and Organised CrimeBill (“An anti-terror law that can befine-tuned,” April 4) has come atthe right time and is sure to helpcounter negative opinion. I amsure that people will understandthe necessity of such a law in aborder State. It has become thenorm for the Opposition parties inmost States to criticise every moveby the government, and which doesnot augur well for a healthydemocracy.

Akshy Sridhar,Chennai

Though R.K. Raghavan and D.Sivanandhan have taken pains tojustify the creation of the GCTOCBill, it is surprising that as officialsassociated with law and order andinvestigation, they did not touchupon the dismal failure of ourinternal and external intelligenceapparatus. One can take a leaf outof the book of America following9/11. There isn’t a need for moreBills. What India needs is to takesteps to drastically strengthen itsintelligence network.

G.M. Rama Rao,Visakhapatnam

Good SamaritanThe brave and righteous act byJustice M. Jeyapaul of the Punjaband Haryana High Court, of savinga girl from drowning in the Sukhna

lake is exemplary. (April 7). Thejudge has shown courage andreinforced and upheld our faith inhumanity doing good things. Hissecurity officer is also worthpraising for assisting the judge insaving the girl. Not only this, thejudge’s greater move of extendingmonetary support to the girl’sfamily to help support her studiesis a philanthropic act rarely seen.

Santosh Kumar Das,Durgapur, West Bengal

As memorialThe report, “R.K. Narayan’s houseto become memorial,” (April 4),filled me with pleasure. I wish todraw the attention of thegovernment of Tamil Nadu to dosomething similar to save“Swagatham”, the house where Rt.Hon’ble V.S. Srinivasa Sastri livedfor many years till he breathed hislast. Srinivasa Sastri was noted forhis mesmerising speeches inEnglish which fetched him thesobriquet ‘Silver Tongue Sastri’. Solong as English remains theprimary language ofcommunication in the world onecannot forget Sastri for hisextraordinary erudition. The greatpatriot sent missives to many apersonality between 1905 and1946; these letters have beenpublished in three parts. Hisaddress at the League of Nationshas been included as a paper in oneof the American universities.

It was following celebrations tomark his 60th year, in the presenceof Maharaja of Mysore in 1929, thatthe chief guest, Rajah SirAnnamalai Chettiar, donated“Swagatham”. It will be befitting tohis memory if this house can besaved.

Mani Natraajan,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Less than a fortnight after the World Cup was

beamed from across the seas from Australia

and New Zealand, cricket will now be served in

short, potent doses in India as the Indian Pre-

mier League (IPL) looms into view. Following the glitter

and glitz of Tuesday’s opening ceremony in Kolkata’s

Salt Lake stadium, most players will have to sever their

emotional links with the World Cup and embrace the

Twenty20 league. Four years ago, after India won the

World Cup, Virat Kohli revealed that it took a week for

the players to get used to the acoustics and rhythms of

the subsequent IPL tournament. The league’s eighth

edition, which starts with Wednesday’s game between

defending champion Kolkata Knight Riders and Mum-

bai Indians at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens, will go on to

complete a circle as the final, the 60th match, will be

held at the same venue on May 24. As the IPL series

hurtles across the country, 12 grounds will play host to it.

As always, the latest version will see established players

and domestic rookies vying for their share of the spot-

light, while retired legends Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting

and Jacques Kallis guide Rajasthan Royals, Mumbai

Indians and Knight Riders respectively.

The tournament has forever been steeped in contro-

versies related to match-fixing, conflicts of interest, and

so on. Yet, the hype-mongers had worked furiously to

spin a feel-good yarn over the last few months, and even

the World Cup was appropriated. Franchises were quick

to praise their players’ exploits in the World Cup. The

Rajasthan Royals played up Australia’s Steven Smith

and James Faulkner, while Royal Challengers Bangalore

lauded Mitchell Starc. In the franchises’ Twitter feeds,

the Australian shade of the talented trio was made to

lose sheen compared to club colours. Some feverish

commentators would like us to believe this is the great-

est show on earth. But the reality, as Dravid sagely

pointed out a few years ago, is that the IPL is a domestic

tournament with an international flavour. On the other

hand, the money involved is huge and it does thrust a few

unknown players into the limelight, as it did Chennai

Super Kings’ Shadab Jakati in the past; and as it is

expected to do in the case of Knight Riders’s mystery

spinner K.C. Cariappa. Through the efforts of the Su-

preme Court, the IPL has seemingly moved on from the

pestilence of 2013 when spot-fixing and betting allega-

tions caused a 14 per cent dip in television viewership.

That tumult is less now, as stringent corrective mea-

sures are in place. Will cricket-lovers, satiated with the

World Cup fare, have the enthusiasm to follow the eight

teams for 47 days? After all, the IPL, like mangoes and

movies, has become intrinsic to the Indian summer.

It’s show time, yet again

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

8 THE HINDU THURSDAY, APRIL 9, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The killing of 20 woodcutters, who were appar-

ently linked to a red sanders smuggling mafia,

by the Anti-Smuggling Taskforce of Andhra

Pradesh raises disturbing questions about po-

lice accountability and disproportionate use of force.

The woodcutters when asked to surrender by the task-

force are reported to have thrown sickles and stones at

the police personnel. The “random shots” fired in “self-

defence” by the taskforce in near-darkness killed 20 of

the about 100 woodcutters at two sites in the Seshacha-

lam forest. Just a few days ago, the Deputy Inspector

General of Police, M. Kantha Rao, had sought the per-

mission of the State government to open fire on those

smuggling red sanders. Evidently, the clearance for

opening fire came from the very top and the decision to

shoot to kill was taken with the full knowledge that

there would be protection for the police personnel

against prosecution. That two different groups of the

taskforce ended up firing at the woodcutters in differ-

ent parts of the forest at about the same time is deeply

troubling and suspicious. The taskforce personnel

were unable to arrest any of the other woodcutters.

Also, other than those shot dead no woodcutter is

known to have suffered injuries. And, none of the police

personnel had any serious injury that could have lent

credence to the claim of their having fired in self-

defence. Woodcutters are only a small part of the well-

networked tree-felling mafia, which enjoys the support

of rich smugglers and powerful politicians. Not surpris-

ingly, political parties in Tamil Nadu, the home-State

of the woodcutters, and civil rights organisations sus-

pect a deeper conspiracy and have sought a probe into

the whole episode.

The Seshachalam forest killing seems to be only a

symptom of a deeper malaise. In neighbouring Te-

langana, the police gunned down five terror case under-

trials who were being taken to court, the apparent

provocation being that one of them had snatched a gun

and opened fire at the accompanying police party. That

all the five should be shot dead because of the danger

posed by one of them is baffling. Indeed, it is difficult

not to see these deaths in the context of the attacks on

policemen by two activists of the Students Islamic

Movement of India, who were later shot dead by the

police in Nalgonda. While the police have every right to

protect themselves in the course of the discharge of

their duties, they cannot be allowed to take on the role

of judge and executioner. Unless there is an impartial

investigation into all these killings, the people’s trust in

the police and the criminal justice delivery system

would be badly shaken.

Violence in lawenforcement

To many, the exchange of letters be-tween Justice Kurian Joseph of theSupreme Court and the Chief Jus-tice of India (CJI), H.L. Dattu,

might seem a trivial issue. But was it reallyso? Justice Joseph had recently expressedanguish at the way secularism was beingtinkered with, objecting to a meeting of StateChief Justices on Good Friday and EasterSunday, since these were national holidaysand also days of prayer for the Christiancommunity, in a letter addressed to the CJI.Justice Joseph had also gone to Kerala toattend Easter services. Hence, it was inap-propriate, he argued, to hold the meeting onthese days.

Justice Dattu’s viewpoint was clear in hisown response when he wrote, “The questionthat I have to ask myself, perhaps I can’t askyou, is whether it is institutional interest orindividual interest that one should give pref-erence to. As far as I am concerned I wouldgive priority to the former and not to thelatter…” Was this merely yet another publiccontroversy, created by an overly sensitivejudge, which could best have been resolvedin private chambers? To those constitution-al watchers who have followed the contro-versy in the media, and in the exchanges inopen court, when the plea of an advocate toreschedule the conference was turned downby the CJI, this option of a private resolutionwas clearly unavailable. In this exchange ofletters, several issues of public import havebeen raised and these merit a public dis-cussion particularly since the issues havebeen articulated by high constitutional func-tionaries. Some of them require deep reflec-tion while others can be more easilyaddressed.

Holidays and productivity

Let me begin with the easier ones. First,even in the United States, the courts work onGood Friday, and hence the angle of religioussensitivity appears overstated. The appro-priate response to this objection is not toinquire whether the courts work on religiousholidays but whether they work on nationalholidays. Justice Joseph should have fi-nessed the point about religious holidayswhich are also national holidays. In the U.S.,the courts do not work on national holidays.Good Friday is not a federal holiday in the

U.S. whereas Christmas is. It is the wisdomof any state to determine which days aregoing to be its national holidays. Once thislist is prepared, all institutions are closed onthose days. For example, in the U.S., thebirthday of Martin Luther King Jr. and Co-lumbus Day are federal holidays. India hasprepared its own list of national holidays,which are gazetted, and which must be ob-served. Good Friday is a gazetted holiday.People may work on these days but only doso voluntarily and not compulsorily. Hence,the issue is not about religious holidays butabout national holidays.

Second, the objection that we have toomany national holidays is a valid one. Thisaffects our national productivity. Therefore,some argue that the CJI must be commend-ed for working on a holiday, rather thanbeing criticised for suggesting so. If, for argu-ment’s sake, we overlook the “national holi-

day” point, discussed earlier, and look onlyat the “too many holidays” point, then thistoo can be easily met. Abolish all nationalholidays except Independence Day, Repub-lic Day and Gandhi Jayanti. All religious andregional holidays should instead be placedon a list of restricted holidays and these canbe made available to any individual who canchoose any five. A month’s notice should begiven for holidays that are to be taken so thatthe work of the organisation concerned doesnot suffer.

Third, senior officials are always requiredto be on call 24X7, and must come whensummoned by constitutional authoritiesThis rules out their being absent on nationalholidays if summoned to work. While thismay be true for judges and secretaries to theGovernment of India, are subordinate staffalso bound by such a duty, to attend work onnational holidays, if called by their bosses?Can they refuse to attend office on the

grounds that their right to leisure would bedenied if they were ordered to come to work?Are they being coerced into coming to work?Will they be punished for insubordination ifthey remain absent? What are the rights ofsubordinate staff in the Supreme Court whohave to make all the arrangements for con-ferences, for instance? Is the Court a specialcase unlike other public institutions? Theseare questions that have not so far appearedon the radar of public discussion, since theyconcern subordinates, but are no less rele-vant to our constitutional discussion ofrights. We need to discuss them.

Rights of the individual

Fourth, let me bypass the issue of tamper-ing with the secular fabric and instead com-ment only on the solution offered by the CJIto the judge. The CJI had asked the judge tobring his family to Delhi and in this way,

meet both his personal and his institutionalduties. This shows a lack of understanding ofthe meaning of the religious day for the judgeconcerned. The nature of the religious obli-gation made it impossible for the judge to doboth. In other words, the CJI’s understand-ing of what religious days mean for the prac-tising citizen is limiting. Considering thatthe court exercises its authority legitimatelywhen it intervenes in religious affairs,(which it has the supreme authority to do) itis clear that the silos of the mind withinwhich we normally live, and within whicheven justices of the higher judiciary seem tolive, must be breached. The National Judi-cial Academy in Bhopal must conduct anannual training programme on the meaningof religious-national holidays for all judgesof the higher courts. This will perhaps helpthe avoidance of such comments. I wouldalso want to explore (i) the binary betweenthe individual and the institution, as pre-

sented in the CJI’s letter, and (ii) the priorityhe has given to the institution over the indi-vidual. How should one read his statementthat he would give “institutional interest pri-ority over individual interest”? As stated, itappears to reverse the foundational philoso-phy of the Constitution according to whichthe individual is regarded as the basic unit ofthe Constitution. The statement reversesthe priority of the individual over the in-stitution or the collective that emerged inthe Constitutional Assembly debates be-tween 1946 and 1950. The Chairman of thedrafting committee, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, ar-gued as much when he rejected the Gand-hian idea of the nation based on the village asthe basic unit since, for him, the individualwas the basic unit of our constitutional or-der. The village was, for Dr. Ambedkar, “asink of localism and a den of ignorance”. Itwas a place of tyranny. Larger collectives, asbasic units, he believed, had the potential forsuch tyranny and hence could not constitutethe basic unit of the Constitution. Such col-lectives could be a village, an organisation, oran institution. In any conflict between theindividual and the collective, the individualmust triumph. Indian jurisprudence hasevolved on this assumption. That is how therights discourse has developed and evenwhen there is a clash between individual andgroup rights, the rights of the individualcome out on top, as should be the case.

The individual vs. the institution

From the CJI’s statement, the followingquestion needs to be asked. If in the situationwhere the interests of the collective are giv-en priority over the interests of the individu-al, must the individual always submit to iteven when she disagrees with it and thinksthat it violates a principle that she holdsdear? Since the collective has priority, theanswer is clear: the individual must submit.This is a troubling conclusion particularlywhen such decision-making is not participa-tory. Further, even if we were to couch such adecision in utilitarian terms, i.e., it leads tothe greater benefit of the greater number, orit is based on the majority principle, it wouldstill be tyrannical since it would impinge onthe individual’s freedom. In contemporaryphilosophy, Ronald Dworkin’s principle of“rights as trumps” has been pronounced tosafeguard these rights of the individualagainst possible tyranny. That is why weneed to inquire what the CJI meant. Did hereally mean that he would give priority to theinstitution over the individual? There ismuch at stake in his answer.

Having discussed the “priority” issue, letme now turn my attention to the “binary”issue that also emerges from the corre-spondence. There are only two possibilitieson offer here (i) the individual versus theinstitution, and (ii) the individual along withthe institution. The CJI recognises both op-tions. The first has been rejected in our dis-cussion of priority. Hence, we now turn tothe second that seeks to align the interests ofthe individual with that of the institution.Such alignment, however, cannot be deter-mined by the power of the institution overthe individual i.e., subordinating the inter-ests of the individual to it as entailed by the“bring your family to Delhi” suggestion. Itmust constitute a compromise of interestswhere the minimum adjustment is willingly(not sullenly) made by the individual to ac-commodate the interests of the institution.The institution, in fact, has to make the grea-ter adjustment. Does this imply that the CJIshould consider shifting the date of the con-ference to another date in the summer calen-dar of the courts with options of dates beinggiven to all attendees? Perhaps. This is howit is normally done in important meetingswhen one wants maximum participation.Such accommodation is necessary to build aculture of trust and confidence so essentialfor the successful working of any institution.

(Peter Ronald deSouza is Professor at theCentre for the Study of Developing Societies.The views expressed are personal.)

Holidays on holy days?In the exchange of letters between the ChiefJustice of India and a fellow judge on the subjectof secularism, several issues of import have beenraised which merit a public discussion

Peter Ronald deSouza

Indian jurisprudence has evolved on the assumption that when

there is a clash between individual and group rights, the rights

of the individual come out on top.

Tirupati encounterAs one who has held an extensivecampaign to reduce the childmortality rate in the Jawadhu hillsfor nearly four months in 2013-14— it came down from 25 to 7 thatyear — I know the area fairly well.It involved my extensive touring ofthe hilly areas which made merealise that the area lacks medicalfacilities. The other issue is acuteunemployment among tribal youthwhich could have been tackledafter imparting vocational trainingto them. In the absence of both, it isnot surprising that these youthwho live in areas bordering theSeshachalam forests, inTiruvannamalai, Vellore andTiruvallur districts, are lured byred sanders smugglers. Myconclusion is based on authenticinformation from the police inTamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.Viewed in this context, it isimportant that Tamil Nadu beginsjob-oriented small industriesschemes in these areas.

Coming to the main issue, of themindless violence of the Andhrapolice, where 20 woodcutters weregunned down by the RedsandersAnti-Smuggling Taskforce in theSeshachalam forests (April 8), thisis my own perception based on mymore than three-and-a-halfdecades in police service — I wasDGP, Tamil Nadu. I understandthat the Andhra Police did not takethe border State police intoconfidence in making a properverification of the antecedents ofthe woodcutters before resortingto firing — the practice forgenerations. The usual reasonsbeing cited is that the Andhrapolice acted only in self-defence or

that the victims had countrybombs/explosives — reasons thatare too naive. The red sanderssmuggling operations arecontrolled by powerful elementsand the best way to control them isfor the Andhra police to have anintensive intelligence programme.In this they can seek the help of theTamil Nadu police.

Further, it wouldn’t have beendifficult for the Andhra Police, withall their might and weaponry, tohave surrounded the woodcutters,made them surrender andinterrogated them to get the realnames. The act, which amounts to a‘mowing down’ of the woodcutters,is inhuman. I hope there isadequate compensation to thefamilies apart from ordering ajudicial inquiry.

V. Vaikunth,Chennai

The incident cannot be justified onany ground. Although there havebeen attempts to control redsanders smuggling, the Statemachinery in Andhra Pradesh hasnot succeeded in this because of aninadequate number of checkpointsat the borders. There are reportsthat the smuggling is driven by theinternational mafia. In order toprevent such incidents, greatercoordination between the Statesthat share borders with AndhraPradesh, proper checks using evendrone surveillance technology andelectronic barriers may be needed.

G. Sri Divya,Narsipatnam, Andhra Pradesh

Even though there can be nodispute that the woodcutters weredoing something illegal, the claimthat the special force resorted to

such an extreme step as they wereattacked with stones and sickleslacks credibility. It is also not clearwhy the taskforce did not take aimat the woodcutters below the knee.Instead of swooping down on thepoor woodcutters, the taskforceshould have identified the kingpinswho are sure to have politicalconnections and taken actionagainst them.

S. Srinivasan,Chennai

Are we living in a civilised countryruled by law? The massacre shocksthe conscience of the country. Asan act of deliberate savagery andmalignant insanity, it will not beenough if the proximate killers arepunished. The higher-ups in thepolice and the government willhave to find credible answers. Theyshould also explain why it is thatwhile tonnes of minerals and otherstate resources are illegally minedand smuggled out under politicaland state patronage, pettywoodcutters must get inhumanlyexecuted.

Anita Lakshmanan,Bengaluru

Air quality indexWhile it is great that thegovernment has initiated aNational Air Quality Index, it isalso paramount that India makeshaste in implementing preventivemeasures as well. The average manin urban India does not need suchan index to understand that the airhe breathes is unhealthy (“Govt.moves to clear the air,” April 8).Government and local authoritiesshould collaborate to developstandardised and stringentpollution control measures to curb

peak pollution levels similar to theadministrative controlsestablished in China and France.

As we move towards greaterindustrialisation for economicgrowth, employment and‘development’, we are alsoshooting ourselves in the foot bydestroying the environment withpolicies and standards that lackteeth.

Similar to this initiative, the BJPgovernment should also call foraction in the completion of theNational Chemical Policy whichwas initiated by the Congress.India is the only country of itsleague not to have a nationalchemical policy or chemicalinventory system to monitor theimport, export and disposal ofchemicals. Without this policy, weare blind to the amount of chemicalpollutants being vaporised into theair and dispersed into soil andwater ecologies.

Ramaseshu Botu,Yellamathota, Andhra Pradesh

The Christian ethic…I was five when my parents sent meto school, a Christian missionaryschool, then in a nondescriptvillage near Thrissur (“Conflictbetween two rights,” April 8). Mymother sent me to the ‘SundayClasses’ at the school and MathaiMaster, the headmaster andpastor, taught me: “The Lord is myshepherd, I shall not have want.” Ihave never looked back. That wasmy spiritual driving force.Borrowing and sharing customsand cultural norms betweenMathai Master, a devout Christian,and we, Hindu Brahmins, was quitecommon. During festivals, hewould bring the church gaslight

(Petromax) to light up our house.He would chip in with craft paper-made decorations for the “BommaiKolu” during Navaratri andpromptly, on the Ninth Day , wouldbring his wife, Rosy and show herwith pride the pieces he had“contributed” to decorate. Theprasadam for that day wouldinvariably be kolappam, a typicalChristian dish that Rosy made withpainstaking care to omit eggs fromthe recipe. Fortunately, I did not“end up strengthened in myoriginal faith or sceptical ofreligion altogether”. I remainedwhere I was.

C.V. Venugopalan,Palakkad

Does IPL score?The eighth edition of the IndianPremier League has justcommenced with all its pageantry,even as the betting and spot-fixingscandals of the game’s sixth editionthat sullied the BCCI’s image to thehilt, have yet to be resolved. It was abit disappointing that the Editorial(April 8) was not so forceful incriticising this aspect.

More than the scandals, whatpains one is the way in which theinvestigation is moving at a snail’space. Like many, I am a passionateadmirer of the beautiful game ofcricket, but am averse to the IPL asit has robbed the game of itssanctity. Should cricket be reducedto a level where fans are treated tosuch undignified, distastefulexhibitions on the field? It is sadthat frenzied fans will go to anyextent to watch the game as long asthe organisers will do anything tolure them.

R. Sivakumar,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

In the face of virtual non-cooperation from

banks, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has de-

cided to maintain the status quo in policy rates,

in the first bimonthly Monetary Policy State-

ment for 2015-16. The “heads I win, tails you lose”

attitude of the banks has not really gone down well

with the RBI and also the fiscal bosses. The Raghuram

Rajan-led RBI appears to have taken a tough stance. It

has every justification to do so. Since the beginning of

2015, the RBI has cut policy rates by 50 basis points in

two doses of 25 points each, and that too outside the

usual policy cycle. On both occasions the banks had

chosen to look the other way without effecting similar

cuts in lending rates. They refused to pass on the

benefits to customers. This time around when the RBI

kept the rate unchanged, some leading banks such as

SBI, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and others have reluc-

tantly come forward to cut lending rates, albeit only

marginally. It is difficult to fathom the logic behind

their behaviour — of the blatant refusal to cut rates

earlier and opting for a voluntary reduction in lending

rates now. Governor Rajan has time and again referred

to the lag in rate cut transmission. Often in the past,

banks acted with alacrity in passing on rate hikes to

borrowers. When transmitting rate cuts, however,

they have taken their own sweet time. Rather, they

have used rate cuts to shore up their bottom line. Thus,

the twin cuts in rates only served the banks whose

collective NPAs (non-performing assets) were a cause

for considerable anxiety. With variable loan rates be-

coming the norm in the banking sphere, the refusal to

reset lending rates in line with the RBI policy rate is

indeed hurting the cause of borrowers, especially of

the retail kind.

The recalcitrant attitude of banks has, predictably,

forced the RBI to push for a marginal cost of funds-

based computation of their base rate. At the moment,

there is no uniformity in the way banks calculate their

base rate. They use a combination — of average cost,

marginal cost and blended cost of funds — to arrive at

their base rate. The RBI feels that marginal cost of

funds — which is pegged on the incremental cost of

deposits — will reflect the policy rate change better.

This is a key takeaway from the so-called “no action”

statement of the RBI on Tuesday. With the RBI taking

a no-nonsense stand and indicating that any future

rate cut will hinge on the pace at which banks passed

on the benefits of rate cuts to borrowers, the onus is

now on the banking industry to deliver. Banks must do

business and be profitable and not strive to be profit-

able by denying benefits to the borrowers.

Seeking reaction by no action

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015

8 THE HINDU FRIDAY, APRIL 10, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The return of Pandits to Kashmir is integral to

any solution to the Kashmir dispute, but the

proposal to create enclaves for them in the

Valley is a misconceived element of tokenism

that would do great harm and no good. Indeed, by

pushing the idea of separate zones for Pandits, the

Bharatiya Janata Party is in effect abdicating the re-

sponsibility of the government it heads at the Centre

and of the government it is part of in Jammu and

Kashmir, in restoring normality to the conflict-torn

Valley. Without ensuring a peaceful climate for Mus-

lims and Pandits to live together in Kashmir, creating

clusters for Pandits would amount to little more than

further dividing the State on religious lines. While

religious polarisation might work for the parties in

government, the BJP and the Peoples Democratic Par-

ty, it could have disastrous consequences for efforts to

find a negotiated settlement to the Kashmir dispute

taking into account the concerns of all stakeholders.

Although Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed has

now denied any move to create a “separate homeland”

for Pandits, there is little doubt that the idea initially

found favour among leaders of both the BJP and the

PDP. The two parties were the biggest beneficiaries of

the polarisation on religious lines seen in the recent

State Assembly election, and their leaders must have

calculated that the proposal for separate zones could

only accentuate the existing communal divides. For the

BJP, this was a solution that would have had a reso-

nance for its political constituency in the rest of India,

and the party must have been hoping to sell it as a big

step forward to resettle Hindu Pandits in Kashmir. In

the PDP’s eyes, any effort by the BJP to mobilise

Hindus politically in Jammu could lead to a consoli-

dation of the Muslim vote in its favour in the Valley.

Had it not been for voices of protest from leaders of

both the Muslim and Pandit communities, the proposal

might have gone through. Kashmiri separatist leaders

who sought to draw parallels between the enclaves and

Israeli settlements in Palestine were surely overreac-

ting, but there was little doubt that the proposal would

only have worsened the situation for both Muslims and

Pandits. After all, Pandits are longing to return to their

native land, and not to specially created clusters away

from their original homes. Unless they are able to

return to their roots, their own places before the forced

migration, homecoming would hold no significance.

Their longing is for their homeland, for their old lives

and livelihoods, and not for any parcelled piece of space

in Kashmir. If the BJP’s leaders have not realised this,

they have misdiagnosed the problems of the Pandits.

Forced migrationand homecoming

At a time when successful, negotiatedoutcomes to any intractable inter-national dispute have become a rar-ity, the understanding reached

between Iran and the E3+3 (France, Germa-ny and the United Kingdom + China, theRussian Federation and the United States) isa remarkable achievement. A result of politi-cal resolve and deft negotiations, the nucleardeal is set to end over three-and-a-half dec-ades of unremitting hostility between Iranand the U.S.

The announced framework restrainsIran’s nuclear programme; it does not elim-inate it. It allows Iran access to nuclear ener-gy for exclusively peaceful purposes and acomprehensive release from all sanctions.The spontaneous street celebrations acrossIranian cities testified its people’s supportfor an agreement that will reconnect Iranwith the world.

Key parameters

The details of the agreement currently be-ing drafted will be spelt out by the end ofJune in the Joint Comprehensive Plan ofAction (JCPOA). The framework outlinesthat limits will be placed on Iran’s enrich-ment capacity, level and stockpiles over thenext 10 to 15 years. Iran will maintain noother enrichment facility except the one atNatanz, where it will use only its 6,104 first-generation centrifuges (less than a third oftheir existing number). Iran’s undergroundand fortified facility at Fordow, which theU.S. initially wanted to scrap and seal, will beconverted into a nuclear physics and tech-nology centre.

Iran was building a 40MW heavy waterreactor in Arak, fuelled by natural uraniumand estimated to produce nine kilogrammesof weapons-grade plutonium annuallyshould Iran acquire reprocessing technologyto separate plutonium from the spent fuel.The redesigned Arak plant will ensure it doesnot produce plutonium. There will be no re-processing, and the spent fuel will beexported.

By providing the International Atomic En-ergy Agency (IAEA) enhanced access to itsnuclear facilities, including full life cycle“cradle to coffin” monitoring of nuclear ma-terials and components, Iran has establishedits bona fides about abjuring from the acqui-sition of nuclear weapons in the foreseeablefuture. In return, Iran shall have access tointernational cooperation for civilian nucle-

ar energy, including the supply of power andresearch reactors.

Iran’s greatest immediate gain will be thesimultaneous termination of the sanctionslevied by the six Iran-specific Security Coun-cil resolutions as soon as it implements itscommitments. Also slated to go are the addi-tional sanctions imposed by the U.S., the Eu-ropean Union and some others, which hadcrippled Iran’s international market accessand economy and disrupted its energy, ship-ping, transportation and financial sectors. Ifthe Congress does not revoke these sanc-tions, U.S. President Barack Obama mightuse his waiver authority to free Iran of theireffect.

Changing regional landscape

Iran has gained strategic space, even dom-inance, in its western periphery, over the lastdozen years as the unintended beneficiary ofthe U.S. intervention in Iraq. With its abun-

dant natural and human resources freedfrom the burdens of sanctions, Iran’s econo-my will be unfettered and its potential un-locked. As a consequence, Iran will becomemore self-assured in its interactions with theworld.

With mutual enemy images slowly fading— many in the U.S. had regarded Iran as thecore of the “axis of evil” and the clergy in Iranhad branded the U.S. as “The Great Satan” —the reconfigured U.S.-Iran ties will inevitablyrestructure the security architecture of theGulf and the West Asian region. The U.S. willlean on Iran to seek its cooperation in con-tending with a host of challenges in Iran’scontiguity, primarily the combat againstDaesh in Iraq and Syria, the war in Yemen,and the struggle to establish peace and stabil-isation of Afghanistan.

Iran’s geostrategic location makes it anintrinsic part of India’s security and econom-ic space. A stronger and more globally in-

tegrated Iran will be an asset for India. Indiahad rightly disregarded the “Statement ofPolicy” attached to the 2006 Hyde Act en-joining India “to sanction and contain Iran”for its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.Despite critics of India within the U.S. estab-lishment using this as a litmus test for India-U.S. relations, India rejected sanctions notmandated by the Security Council.

Implications for India

Iran shares its borders with Afghanistanand Pakistan, which contain Islamist terror-ist groups that act against both India andIran. These include the Jundullah, the Lash-kar-e-Taiba, and the Haqqani network, inturn associated with the al-Qaeda, the Tali-ban, and even the Pakistan Army. India andIran, therefore, have a consonance of inter-ests in supporting the stabilisation of Af-ghanistan. The history of their associationgoes back to the support they together ex-

tended to Commander Ahmad Shah Mas-soud when he was combating the Taliban.Like India, Iran is constructively invested inAfghanistan and can play a much more signif-icant role there as it gains strength in thepost-sanctions period.

India and Iran are poised to ink an inter-governmental agreement on the Chabaharport, where India is investing, in the firstphase, a modest amount of $85 million toequip two of its existing berths for containerand multipurpose cargo shipments meant forAfghanistan. India’s footprint in Chabaharwill initially be light and its investment canbe stepped up as its cargo potential increases.

For decades, India has been exploring con-nectivity options for Afghanistan, CentralAsia, and Russia by the overland routethrough Iran. Due to lack of a better availableoption, Indian exporters have begun usingthe dedicated Chinese facility for exports toCentral Asia at the Lianyungang port — this

is connected by what China calls its “unin-terrupted rail link” to Almaty, along thealignment of the “New Eurasian LandBridge”, part of its “One Belt One Road” ini-tiative. Iran’s Bandar Abbas port, conceivedas the hub for the International North-SouthTransport Corridor (INSTC), remains, nev-ertheless, the shortest and most economicalroute from India to Central Asia, Russia andEurope.

India, Iran and Russia originally signed theINSTC Convention in December 2000, andnine more countries have since joined it. Dryruns conducted last July from the NhavaSheva port in Maharashtra on two traderoutes, one to Astrakhan in Russia, via Ban-dar Abbas and Amirabad, and another to Ba-ku in Azerbaijan, via Bandar Abbas andAstara, show that these can reduce shipmentcosts by $2,500 per 15 tons of cargo. Indiamust seize the opportunity to operationalisethe INSTC by working with Iran and otherinterested stakeholders.

Energy security

As the country holding the world’s fourthlargest oil and the second largest natural gasreserves, Iran complements India, currentlythe world’s fourth-largest consumer and netimporter of petroleum products. Iran slippedfrom the second to the seventh largest sourceof crude oil imports to India between 2008-09 (21.81 million metric tons) and 2012-13(13.14 million metric tons). With indigenousproduction flat at less than a million barrelsper day (bbl/d), India’s oil demand is expect-ed to more than double from its present lev-els to 8.2 bbl/d by 2040. McKinsey predictsthat by 2030, India will have a primary ener-gy import dependence of 51 per cent, com-pared to one and 20 per cent for the U.S. andChina.

As India’s most proximate oil exportingcountry, Iran’s role in India’s energy securityremains important. The oversupply and low-er prices of oil and gas make India equallyvaluable to Iran as an assured, long-termbuyer. India could take a fresh look at theprospects of a gas pipeline or liquefied nat-ural gas (LNG) imports from Iran, as alsoinvesting in downstream projects for petro-chemicals and gas-based urea plants in Iran.Indian firms need to be more nimble-footedto deal with Western competitors rushing toIran, as also with Iranian partners adept atdriving a hard bargain.

India-Iran defence cooperation could begiven greater content through a Joint Work-ing Group on defence. This was never set up,though envisioned under a forward-lookingIndia-Iran defence memorandum of under-standing (MoU) concluded in 2001. Besidesongoing training and port calls, India couldextend its support for hydrography and moreintense naval interactions. The establishedtradition of exchanges between the NationalSecurity Councils and Advisors of the twosides could prove useful in this context.

A congruence of regional interests doesnot by itself translate into upgraded strategicrelations between India and Iran. It will re-quire patience and persistence — traits pos-sessed by Iranian negotiators in amplemeasure.

Curiously, the key challenge to India willbe similar to that which confronts the U.S.and other global and regional powers — howto nurture a relationship with a resurgentIran, without adversely affecting ties withthe Arab-Gulf countries led by Saudi Arabia,and Israel. “The trick,” says a senior Indianofficial, “is to balance on a three-legged stool— with different sized legs”.

India has important equities in Arab-Gulfcountries. Collectively, they are home to al-most seven million Indians, the largestsource of India’s imports, including energysupplies, its second largest export destina-tion, and a growing source of remittances andinvestments. India will have to demonstrateits diplomatic dexterity in managing this dif-ficult balancing act as it rebuilds its relationswith Iran.

(Jayant Prasad, a former diplomat, is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Researchand Information System for DevelopingCountries, New Delhi, Non-Resident Fellowat the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, and Advisor at the Delhi Policy Group.)

Iran deal spells good tidings for IndiaThe Iran nuclear deal ends Tehran’s globalisolation, in turn freeing its abundant natural andhuman resources from the burdens of sanctions.As a consequence, a stronger and more globallyintegrated Iran will be an asset for India

Jayant Prasad

A congruence of regional interests does not by itself translate

into upgraded strategic relations between India and Iran.

It will require patience and persistence.

Forest killingAfter the encounter in theSeshachalam forests, practicalsteps have to be evolved. The focusmust be on prevention of smugglingwhich calls for a better strategy andmust include the following:collection of data of the realsmugglers and their networkswhich includes properties andvehicles; surveillance of transportbeing used to drop off labour at theentry and exit points of the forests,stock points of wood and crossingpoints; a data base of allwoodcutters previously arrestedand their interrogation reports;training and equipping police andforest staff with proper weapons,night vision equipment and a publicaddress system to warn cutters andsmugglers before resorting tofiring; making it mandatory for allred sanders sales to have a validgovernment permit with everytransaction; identifying, inconsultation with the Indian Navy,sea routes being used to smugglethe wood; counselling tribals on therisks involved in smuggling, and,finally, having a designated court totry all cases of smuggling on a fast-track basis.

Nallipogu Chandra Mouly,Visakhapatnam

I differ with the views in theEditorial and Mr. Vaikunth’s letter(both April 9), on the Tirupatiencounter. There has been a one-sided presentation of the facts and

no expression of empathy for forestofficials, often caught between thepolice and smuggler gangs. Themedia in Andhra Pradesh reportsthat the Andhra Pradesh STF DIGtold the Tamil Nadu police aboutthe “shoot at sight orders” againstred sanders smugglers having beenapproved by the State governmentand advising them to curbwoodcutters from Tamil Nadufrom entering the Seshachalamforests. But Tamil Nadu seems tohave failed. Also, whenwoodcutters attack forest andpolice personnel, how do the policesurround and arrest them, as Mr.Vaikunth says? A tonne of redsanders wood is valued at aboutRs.1.5 crore, so one can imaginehow much the country has beenlosing to smugglers.

Maradapu Srinivasa Rao,Vizianagaram

Holidays and holy daysThe controversy relating to theChief Justice of India’s decision tohold a conference on a weekendconsidered holy for Christians isamusing (“Holidays on holy days?”April 9). If one takes a look at theHindu calendar, there are at least100 days that a devout Hindu wouldconsider “holy”. While thegovernment makes a list of themost important of them (10-15days), the private sector furtherrestricts them to about five days.People are able to manage thesituation, with no complaints. Isuspect that vested interests are at

play in whipping up controversiesover such trivial matters just tobring disrepute to the BJPgovernment.

Neelakantan T.K.,Chennai

The article was sensible as it aptlyreviewed the contentious issue thathas revealed the wide gaps in thetop judiciary. Though the judiciary,like every citizen, has rights too andcan express its personal opinion,one expects it to stand apart when itcomes to official functioning — theweekend meet was not a privatefunction. However, the dates couldhave been chosen carefully to avoidconflict, a sort of washing of dirtylinen in public and it taking onunnecessary religious overtones.

Suddapalli Bhaskara Rao,Muscat, Oman

Operation RaahatThe swift manner in which theIndian government has carried outthe evacuation of Indian nationalsand others under Operation Raahat(“Op Raahat: air operations for onemore day,” April 9, and theEditorial, April 7) speaks volumesof our capabilities to handle suchemergency situations, the highlevel and grade of India’s diplomacyand a commentary on the goodwillthat India enjoys in West Asia.However, with our experiences inLibya and Iraq, we should haveanticipated the events in Yemen.From now on, we need to have an‘active approach’ with credible,

early warning systems in place.Simultaneously, we also need to usediplomacy and pressure tactics toensure better working and wageconditions for our expatriates; aunited front by SAARC on this issuewill help address their concernsregarding their tenuous future,with support schemes that givethem monetary help andalternative work. This would givethem the confidence to returnhome much before trouble knockson their doors.

Amritpal Singh,New Delhi

Official use of wordThe Law Commission’srecommendation to remove theword “leper” is welcome (April 8).In 2014, India had the largestnumber of new leprosy casesglobally, i.e. 58 per cent. Most ofthose affected are children. Eventhe National Leprosy EradicationProgramme has seen a rise in thenumber of persons affected. Lawslike the Prevention of Begging Actare discriminatory towards personswho have the disease. It’s time thelaw undergoes modifications to liveup to the concept of social justice.

Madhusree Guha,Kolkata

India-Pak. dialogueWhy do we always need a terroristattack or a sight of a beheadedsoldier to wake us up from ourslumber? The world calls Pakistan afailed state, but in reality, it is we

who have failed ourselves (“For aniron fist in a velvet glove,” April 8).We have failed to keep separatistand pro-Pakistan lobbies in check,to improve our intelligencearchitecture, to upgrade our bordermanagement architecture and tomodernise our security forces. Thewriter is right in saying that “Thepassword is political will”. The sumtotal of all lives of soldiers andcivilians we have lost to cross-border terrorism will be equivalentto that sustained in conventionalwar. The fact is that we are beingmade to bleed slowly.

Gaurav Singhal,New Delhi

On IPL 8.0

Will cricket lovers, satiated withWorld Cup fare, have theenthusiasm to follow the eightteams in the IPL for 45 days? Theanswer is no. There is an overdoseof T20 leagues around the worldand the IPL is nowhere near what itwas in the first few years — asrapidly falling TRPs every yearshow. For example, if one comparesthe opening ceremony with theones held in the initial years, one isbound to notice a perceptible dropin quality. I often used to wait forweeks for the IPL to commence, butthis year, the spark is missing. As apurist cricket fan, I feel the IPL willslowly lose its shine. The declinehas probably begun.

Arpit Agrawal,Roorkee

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

There seems to be no limit to brutality for

al-Shabaab, the Somali jihadi group. In what

is estimated as the 17th attack in the last three

years in Kenya, 148 people, mostly students,

were mercilessly mowed down by the group’s militants

on the Garissa University campus in eastern Kenya, not

far from the border with Somalia. The motive for this

latest atrocity is difficult to fathom. While the jihadists

claim it was in retaliation for Kenya’s military in-

tervention in Somalia, the deliberate targeting of non-

Muslims in these attacks raises some questions. Is

al-Shabaab trying to foment religious strife in Kenya

(where there is a substantial Muslim population in a

largely Christian country), or is this yet another action

by a weakening group to assert its strength as a jihadi

outfit affiliated to al-Qaeda? The attack was reminis-

cent of the killings at the Westgate mall in Nairobi in

2013. The Kenyan government managed to handle the

repercussions of that tragedy by projecting a face of

unity and not allowing the attacks to descend into

sectarian turmoil. But in a country that is riven by

disparities, the resilience seen thus far will be put to

severe test following the Garissa tragedy, coming as it

does on top of a series of other incidents since 2013.

Al-Shabaab’s recent actions — which are not limited

to those in Kenya — cannot be seen in isolation from

the situation in Somalia. A tattered country that has

faced civil war and strife for more than two decades

now, Somalia has been a breeding ground for groups

such as al-Shabaab which grew out of the youthful

sections of radical Islamic organisations like the Islam-

ic Courts Union (ICU). Ironically, in the mid-2000s the

ICU had provided some semblance of order — even if

motivated by theocratic concerns — in a country that

had suffered warlordism and lawlessness since 1991

when a civil war began. An Ethiopian invasion in 2007

which defeated the ICU spawned the guerrilla forces of

al-Shabaab, which consolidated power in the

late-2000s and soon imposed harsh laws in areas under

their control. The UN-approved African Union Mission

in Somalia (AMISOM) which included military forces

from Kenya, helped take on the repressive al-Shabaab

in 2012, but the latter has since then again turned into a

guerrilla group engaged in indiscriminate violence

both within and outside Somalia. Of late, AMISOM has

registered some major successes in driving out al-Sha-

baab forces from its remaining strongholds. This could

explain al-Shabaab’s desperate actions in Kenya and

Uganda (which is also part of AMISOM). Kenya needs

to redouble its efforts as part of AMISOM in Somalia,

even as it strives to avoid any reprisals against its own

Muslim community.

Roots of terrorin Kenya

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2015

10 THE HINDU SATURDAY, APRIL 11, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The conviction of B. Ramalinga Raju, the dis-

graced former chairman of Satyam Computer

Services Ltd., B. Rama Raju, his brother and

managing director, and some associates, clos-

es a chapter on India’s biggest corporate fraud to date.

In a way, the black sheep in the booming information

technology industry have at last been nailed for their

crimes. The accused were sentenced to a seven-year

prison term for fudging accounts and inflating profits;

for cheating investors and breaching the trust of thou-

sands of shareholders; evading taxes and paying addi-

tional taxes at another point to justify the fictitious

revenues they could not otherwise account for. These

were not merely violations of law; the illegal actions

brought corporate India, and its lynchpin, the informa-

tion technology sector, under a dark cloud. It is there-

fore commendable that the meticulous work of

investigators and judicial officers brought closure to a

challenging trial that involved a voluminous amount of

documents and electronic evidence. In the end, Mr.

Raju received little sympathy despite admitting to the

corporate fraud, which resulted in the abrupt fall of the

$2 billion Satyam empire, which he announced through

an e-mail to his colleagues, the Securities and Exchange

Board of India and the stock exchanges. His actions

clearly were motivated by the fact that the scale of the

fraud was too big to sustain. Later, though, Mr. Raju

sought to disown his admission and disputed the fact

that he had written the e-mail that detailed the graft and

fraud. Clearly, his attempt at deception failed.

The manner in which Mr. Raju sank from being the

poster boy of the country’s software industry to a con-

vict in a cheating case holds a lesson or two for the rest

of the country in handling wealth, power and ambition.

As a remand prisoner, he sought relief from the rigours

of prison life by spending in a hospital much of a nearly

two-and-a-half year stint in judicial custody. The seven-

year jail term and the Rs.5.5 crore fine imposed on the

Raju brothers is just punishment, though some would

say it is too lenient considering the scale of the fraud. As

for the others sentenced along with him, it is not often

that auditors are held accountable for aiding and abet-

ting fraud and forgery. The positive outcome of the

Satyam story is that today there are greater initiatives

to promote scrupulous and clean corporate governance

— which inexplicably collapsed in this particular com-

pany — and better accounting standards. Thankfully,

the industry survived the shock of the January 7, 2009,

admission by Mr. Raju, and its aftermath, and what was

then a modest $50 billion industry is now looking at

revenues worth $146 billion in 2015.

Just punishment

Riding a roller coaster will likely beeasier than tracking the develop-ments within the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). The

avalanche of exposés, letter bombs and stingoperations has brought out so much dirt thatthere is no real way to judge who is right andwho is wrong.

Yet, two months after Mr. Kejriwal’s epicconquest of Delhi, it is the rebel duo of Yo-gendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan whoappear to have won the perception war.

Mr. Kejriwal twice won the battle of num-bers — in the February 7, 2015 Delhi As-sembly election and then at the March 28National Council (NC) meeting of the AAP.The NC voted 247 to 10 to oust Mr. Yadavand Mr. Bhushan from the AAP’s nationalexecutive.

Divide within

Paradoxically, however, Mr. Kejriwal losteven as he won. In their own way, Mr. Yadavand Mr. Bhushan have outwitted the AAPconvener by positioning themselves as theonly upholders of principles in a partyfounded with idealism but now fixated onwinning by any means. This narrative, whichhas enormous urban appeal, has split theparty as it has the voters. Indeed, the twomen, at least for now, have created a riftbetween Mr. Kejriwal’s steadfastly strongunderclass support and the educated stratathat intermittently joined the core. In thelatter group’s perspective, Mr. Yadav andMr. Bhushan constituted a reassuring, stabi-lising presence in the eager beaver, often-times rash, AAP.

Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan have alwayscome across as intelligent, patient and rea-sonable, especially on television, where theaverage party spokesperson screams ratherthan speaks. Add to this their already consid-erable professional reputations — one a re-puted social scientist and the other anactivist lawyer — and it was clear that in anyconflict within the AAP, they had a betterchance of being heard by the media and themiddle class.

Take the NC meeting. The two menemerged from it, looking harried and done

in, which immediately set them up as the fallguys. Mr. Kejriwal’s supporters by contrastseemed uncouth, all brawn and no brain. Mr.Yadav and Mr. Bhushan alleged rowdyismand violence at the NC, charges which weremade entirely believable by the lack of trans-parency in the meeting’s conduct. Mr. Yadavsaid he was silenced at the NC, folded hispalms and apologised to the people: “Believeme, this is not the party I wanted.” TV lappedup the drama.

The Kejriwal faction did not bother toweigh in with its own version. Mr. Kejriwalleft after his inaugural speech, and his teamcarried on, unmindful of the commotionoutside. To those outside, this conveyed anarrogance completely at odds with the dis-arming projection of the AAP before theelection.

Sense of betrayal

There is a sense of betrayal among theAAP’s more educated voters, deepened bythe daily leaks of accusatory letters. Mr. Ya-

dav and Mr. Bhushan have both written toMr. Kejriwal, charging him with being a con-trol freak and jettisoning the party’s found-ing principles; worse, they have said this wasa character trait with Mr. Kejriwal, citingmany instances, among them Mr. Kejriwal’shabitual disregard of internal decision-mak-ing bodies; his attempts to form a govern-ment with the Congress, post the AAP’s LokSabha debacle; his insistence on awardingthe party ticket to defectors and people ofdisrepute; and his refusal to allow autonomyto State units.

Most media opinion has tended to support

Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan, projectingthem as ideologues too sophisticated tomatch the goonish, brat pack led by Mr.Kejriwal. This battle has been cast as onebetween strongly ethical, almost otherworldly, ideologues and practitioners of op-portunistic politics. And this spin has beenso voraciously consumed that it has almostbecome the definitive story to tell: The manwho swept Delhi off its feet is now like anyother Machiavellian fixer, defeating his ene-mies by stealth and ruling over his clan withan iron fist.

Internal contradictions

Unfortunately, this is an oversimplifica-tion of a fight that is far more layered andcomplex than suggested by the immediatecircumstances. Mr. Yadav was the party ide-ologue but by no means did he advocatepristine, pure politics. He has an under-standing of realpolitik drawn from years ofstudying elections. And the pragmatism thathas been attributed to Mr. Kejriwal was orig-

inally articulated by Mr. Yadav. Indeed, itwas Mr. Yadav who positioned the AAP as apost-ideological party geared to finding solu-tions and delivering results. A report in theBusiness Standard (January 9, 2014) quotedhim as saying: “We are neither socialists norcapitalists. We are a pragmatic, problemsolving party.”

Consider another contradiction. Mr. Ya-dav believes in fighting every election where-as Mr. Kejriwal advocates caution. On Mr.Yadav’s suggestion, the AAP contested 400plus Lok Sabha seats, and earned the sobri-quet, Zamanat Zapt Party (deposit forfeiting

party). Mr. Yadav himself fought from Gur-gaon, when as a psephologist, he would havebeen of greater help in an overseer’s role. Onthe campaign trail, it was evident that theaffable and very polite Mr. Yadav was cuttingno ice with the voters. In the event, he camefourth in Gurgaon with his vote share at adismal seven per cent. The AAP itself wasrouted in Haryana, belying its publicised im-age as “destination-next”.

The Haryana debacle was a warning thatthe AAP needed more preparation beforetrying its luck in the October 2014 Assemblyelection. But Mr. Yadav and the State unitwere set on fighting the election. In the end,the State unit passed a resolution saying itdid not want to fight the election without theAAP’s central leadership on board. Mr. Ya-dav told ANI that Mr. Kejriwal hadn’t “ve-toed” the idea of contesting but it was theState unit “which is saying that unless theparty chief is with us we do not want tocontest.”

In other words, the AAP’s Haryana unitexpected Mr. Kejriwal to campaign in theState, diverting his attention from Delhi. Anautonomous State unit asking to depend onthe national leader is a strange definition ofautonomy. Worse still, Mr. Kejriwal was be-ing asked to prioritise a “low yield” State likeHaryana over a potentially winning Statelike Delhi at a critical time.

Questions for both sides

There are many omissions of procedurewhere Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan havebeen equal participants. L'affaire SomnathBharti — involving a January 2014 vigilanteraid on African women — sent waves of re-vulsion in Delhi. Mr. Yadav cleared Mr.Bharti, then Law Minister, of any wrong-doing, promising that the party would act onany adverse inquiry finding. The correctcourse of action would have been to ask Mr.Bharti to step down pending the inquiry re-port. As it happened, the report found himguilty. Many twists and turns later, the Delhipolice are currently awaiting sanction forMr. Bharti’s prosecution.

As in 2014, so too in 2013, there weredefectors and “tainted” candidates in theDelhi election fray. Candidates were import-ed from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)and the Congress, and there were strongvolunteer protests in the case of one candi-date, Desh Raj Raghav. The AAP’s 2013 ticketdistribution committee, which included Mr.Yadav and Mr. Bhushan, overruled the iratevolunteers. Journalists ran stories on the“tainted” candidates of 2013, asking signif-icantly: Is winning everything for Kejriwal?A woman MLA, whose candidature was op-posed by Mr. Bhushan this time, was alsocleared by the 2013 selection committee.

Team Kejriwal has a lot to answer for: thesacking of the internal Lokpal, Admiral(retd.) L. Ramdas, opacity in decision-mak-ing and encouraging a coterie culture, and soforth.

But the rebels have to answer questionstoo. In a March 2014 interview to The Hindu,Mr. Yadav said he and Mr. Bhushan wereclear that Mr. Modi was the AAP’s mainopposition. Is it not possible that Mr. Kej-riwal was prompted by the same compulsion— to secure Delhi against Mr. Modi — to seekan alliance with the Congress, post the AAP’sLok Sabha rout?

Procedures and principles cannot operatein a vacuum, and Mr. Yadav, the advocate ofpragmatic, solution-based politics, ought toknow this better than anyone else.

Mr. Yadav and Mr. Bhushan have not hadone word of praise for Mr. Kejriwal’s super-human Delhi performance. Nor have they,even once, censured Mr. Shanti Bhushan fornearly destroying the AAP on election eve. Inany other party, this would have invited in-stant disciplinary action.

(Vidya Subrahmaniam is Senior Fellow atThe Hindu Centre for Politics and PublicPolicy. E-mail: vidya.s@thehindu.co.in)

Nobody is clean in this ugly warIn the conflict within the AAP, the battle has beencast as one between strongly ethical ideologuesand practitioners of opportunistic politics.Unfortunately, this is an oversimplification of a fight far more layered and complex

Vidya Subrahmaniam

Procedures and principles cannot operate in a vacuum, and

Yogendra Yadav, the advocate of pragmatic, solution-based

politics, ought to know this better than anyone else.

A homecomingIt’s been 20 years since the exodusof Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir,yet, the wounds are still raw intheir minds. (Editorial, April 10).Therefore, the protests by vestedinterests in Kashmir against aseparate zone for Pandits is justdrama. Who are these groups to setthe terms and conditions for theirreturn? While what would be idealis for Pandits to reintegratethemselves within the largercommunity, it isn’t pragmatic inthe current circumstances as thereis a huge trust deficit betweenPandits and the rest.

Kumar Gaurav,New Delhi

The Kashmiri Pandits are moreinterested in going back to theirroots and in regaining their lostidentity or Kashmiriyat. Anemotional and cultural integrationwith their land is what they arelooking for. The proposed andseparate enclaves for them wouldonly isolate them further and evenstrengthen the reprehensibleactions of separatists.Unfortunately, the rehabilitationof Pandits is driven by bipolarconsiderations. The ruling party atthe Centre aims to get a foothold inthe Valley and is driving the ideawith political considerations inmind. What is needed is animpartial appreciation of theconcerns to solve the issue onceand for all.

Haridasan Rajan,Bengaluru

The proposal to create separatezones for Kashmiri Pandits is onestep towards a process ofghettoisation and carries with itthe danger of developing a

communal flavour. I only hope thattheir homecoming doesn’t turn outto be a bitter experience for them.

Maria George,Thrissur

Satyam scam verdictSo, B. Ramalinga Raju, the formerchief of Satyam Computer ServicesLtd., who overstated his company’sassets and in turn ended upshocking India Inc., is back in jail(“Raju gets 7 years for Rs.7,000-cr.fraud,” April 10). This bringsclosure to India’s biggest corporateaccounting fraud case. In its time,the Satyam scam raised severalquestions about corporategovernance and the sanctity of theauditing process. Raju’s was theperfect rags-to-riches story thatinspired a generation of buddingentrepreneurs until it soured. Butwhen it got exposed, it brought thecredibility of the Indian corporatesector to its lowest ebb in the era ofliberalisation. That it has taken sixyears for the judiciary to give itsverdict is a shocking commentaryon the Indian legal system just asthe manner in which the fraud wasperpetrated is a reflection of theappalling laxity in our regulatoryframework at that point. Howstrong or weak the regulators oftoday are will be known only whenanother major fraud rocks thecountry.

J. Akshobhya,Mysuru

No tear will be shed for the plightand predicament of the formerSatyam chief. The initial joyride ofMr. Raju, who took stakeholdersand government watchdogs for aride, and which later turned into aturbulent tiger ride — his ownwords — has lessons for all. I wouldalso like to comment on his plea to

take into account his“praiseworthy” acts of socialservice and philanthropy. Socialservice is not a licence to overlookearlier unethical acts. A personwho is truly service-minded willnever do anything anti-social. Theconviction must come as a warningto India Inc. that however mightyand otherwise benevolent onemight be, gaming with public trustis unpardonable.

Sivamani Vasudevan,Chennai

This is a scam involving thousandsof crores of public money in theform of investments. When viewedagainst this, the quantum of fineand punishment imposed on Mr.Raju and others and their jail termwould appear to be a ‘flea bite’. Thereal issue is on whether investorswill get justice. The verdict willhave meaning only when allpersons involved are brought tobook.

M. Somasekhar Prasad,Badvel, Andhra Pradesh

While it is heartening that thejudiciary is beginning to take aserious view of criminal offences,the point to be noted is thatjudgments, as in this case, getdiluted when the case drags on foryears. With the passage of time andfading memory, the severity of thecrime committed by the accusedgets diluted. Sensitive cases such asthis one must be taken up byspecial fast track courts andverdicts pronounced within a fewmonths.

Tharcius S. Fernando,Chennai

Over-invoicing, no provision fordoubtful recoveries, over-capitalisation of assets, asset

revaluation and window-dressingof accounts are the areas that needto be examined thoroughly. In thiscase, the accountability of auditorsand the board of directors has to befixed. Similar to RBI monitoringfor banks and CAG audits forgovernment companies, thegovernment has to give more teethto the Serious Fraud InvestigationOffice to function as the apex bodyin curbing corporate frauds.

S. Balasubramanian,Chennai

Iran dealThe Iran-E3+3 nuclear deal has thepotential to be the next successstory in international cooperationafter the Montreal Protocol (“Irandeal spells good tidings for India,”April 10). It has the potential torepair frayed relations betweenIran and the U.S.; at the same time,the political matrix in West Asiawill undergo a dramatic change.With Iran’s possible reintegrationinto the world market, it can nowplay a major role in solving theYemeni crisis. As far as India isconcerned, it can repay its dues toIran which have been kept inabeyance due to harsh economicsanctions. The short-term loss forIndia will be that it no longermakes oil payments to Iran inIndian rupees. At the same time,the Iran-Pakistan-India pipelinehas got a fresh lease of life. Theperennial game spoiler could bethe reimposition of sanctionsshould hardliners in the U.S. andIran reject the deal.

Akshay Viswanathan,Thiruvananthapuram

There would have been a heavy tollin terms of millions of lives andbillions of dollars following amilitary intervention in Iran had

diplomacy not emerged victorious.But a closer look suggests the dealwill merely delay the onset of‘nuclear winters’. The lifting ofsanctions will ensure a resurgentIran; an economically strongerIran will be perceived as a strongerthreat to Sunni regimes and theywill only find more reasons toaccelerate their proxy wars. Iran’seconomic health will boost its ownproxies like the Houthis, pro-Assadfighters and the Hezbollah. In theheat of proxy battles, the salienceof security will set off an arms race.For want of stronger deterrents,Israel’s doubtful nuclear statusalong with the Saudi’s financialpower will leave Iran with nooption but to covertly or overtlystrive for a nuclear weapon. This isnot to say that the deal is aproblem. Instead, the deal is toolittle a solution. Anything short ofdeclaring the whole region as‘nuclear free’ itself, is merelydeferring the inevitable. What theworld needs is for the U.S. to playthe honest broker.

Shashank Jain,New Delhi

Yemen evacuationThe world may have praised Indiafor its efforts in rescuing foreignnationals (“Evacuation fromYemen continues,” April 10), butwhat seems to have been missed isPakistan’s humanitarian gesture ofrescuing Indians from Yemen, amove that undoubtedly meritsunqualified approval and highestpraise. Such confidence-buildingsteps will go a long way in bridgingthe trust deficit between the twoneighbours created due tosenseless and mutual suspicionand unfounded enmity.

Bharat Singh,Jodhpur

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The diagnosis and treatment of leprosy, or Han-

sen’s Disease, is now considered easier and

more effective than ever before. Since 1983,

the disease is curable with multidrug therapy.

MDT was successfully assimilated into India’s health

programmes, leading to a reduction in the overall rate of

leprosy incidence in the country. But since 2005 the rate

of decline has slowed. As of 2014, India still accounts for

58 per cent of all new leprosy cases in the world. During

2013-14 alone, 1.27 lakh new cases were detected in

India. It is in this context that one hopes the Law

Commission of India’s 256th Report, ‘Eliminating Dis-

crimination against Persons Affected by Leprosy’, will

initiate a new chapter in India’s fight against leprosy.

The report is critical of the failures of our health pro-

gramme, especially since 2005, in dealing with leprosy

eradication. Its recommendations clearly draw from the

constitutional values of dignity, equality and freedoms.

The Law Commission recognises India’s international

obligations arising out of the UN General Assembly

Resolution on the Elimination of Discrimination against

Persons affected by Leprosy, 2010, as well as its obliga-

tions under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons

with Disabilities, 2007. Sensitivity to social stigma

against persons suffering from leprosy is a theme under-

lying the document.

The focus of the report is on how several of the laws

are themselves discriminatory, needing amendment or

repeal. For instance, the Life Insurance Corporation

Act, 1956 contains discriminatory provisions wherein

higher premium rates are charged from persons affected

by leprosy due to a supposedly higher risk to their lives.

There are several personal laws such as the Hindu Mar-

riage Act, 1955 and the Dissolution of Muslim Marriages

Act, 1939 that are also discriminatory, mistaking leprosy

as an ‘incurable and virulent disease’. Even the Persons

with Disabilities Act, 1995 does not include all categories

of persons affected by leprosy within its purview, deny-

ing them special privileges under the law. The report

recommends non-discriminatory laws and affirmative

action, for their greater integration into employment

and educational institutions. But some recommenda-

tions may be termed controversial. The report suggests

that persons living in colonies for leprosy patients need

to be granted ownership title to property in their posses-

sion. But these colonies are also sites of discrimination

that leave its residents segregated and isolated from the

rest of the community. Ensuring the assimilation of the

850 colonies for leprosy patients in India will be a

complex task involving an engagement that goes beyond

acknowledging ownership rights. But overall, the Com-

mission's recommendations are forward-looking and

progressive. They must be implemented soonest.

Rekindling the fightagainst leprosy

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015

8 THE HINDU MONDAY, APRIL 13, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The decision of the Lahore High Court to re-

lease Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki ur

Rehman Lakhvi from detention was not sur-

prising considering that he had already been

granted bail by an anti-terrorism court in December.

The Pakistan state has, since the terror attacks in

Peshawar in the same period last year, sought to convey

a sudden urge to undo the earlier faux pas of granting

Lakhvi bail, and contested it. Yet prosecutors failed to

mount a proper case, arguing for Lakhvi’s detention

only on the issue of “maintenance of public order”.

Without a clear-cut case built by prosecutors on charg-

es of engaging in terrorism, it was always a matter of

when Lakhvi would be released rather than if. The

Indian authorities had marshalled pages of evidence

showing the role Lakhvi had played as a controller of

the terrorists who attacked Mumbai on November 26,

2008. Apart from audio tapes and transcripts showing

his involvement, the testimony of U.S. citizen David

Headley who had done reconnaissance in Mumbai be-

fore the attacks, and confessions by the captured ter-

rorist Ajmal Kasab were also made available to

Pakistan. That these were not properly used to build a

case against Lakhvi suggests the laxity and hypocrisy of

the Pakistani state. The poor prosecution effort was

compounded by witness and judge intimidation. The

still-unsolved assassination of special prosecutor

Chaudhury Zulfiqar Ali in May 2013 also affected it.

Of late, Pakistan’s state establishment has pursued a

dual policy towards jihadists operating from its soil.

While the security establishment has taken on extre-

mists belonging to the Tehreek-e-Taliban in the coun-

try’s west, considering them “enemies of the state”, and

military courts have been set up to prosecute them, the

forces that had indulged in cross-border terrorism in

India have been protected and treated with kid gloves.

The duplicitous attitude towards terror has already

hurt the country as the Peshawar attacks revealed. For

years, the coziness between sections of the Pakistan

security establishment and the jihadists had allowed a

culture of impunity to build up in the country, leading

to the death of several civilians, bomb attacks, and

assassination of leaders. The hope that the return to

democracy since former President and army chief Per-

vez Musharraf was deposed could help change the

status quo and bring about greater civilian control over

the security establishment, has been belied thus far.

The resumption of diplomatic engagement at the high-

est levels has also failed to secure justice for the victims

of the 26/11 atrocities. It is inevitable that the current

approach toward the jihadists focussed on India will

also hurt the Pakistani nation-state in the long run.

Unacceptabledecision

Sometimes when you get up in themorning and reach for the newspa-per wondering what the world has instore, you occasionally savour a mo-

ment which is more heart-warming thanhaving a cup of coffee. I just read a reportabout Maryam Asif Siddiqui, a 12-year-oldschool student in Mumbai, having stood firstin the “Gita Champions League” contest,where the participants were tested on theirknowledge and understanding of the Bhaga-vad Gita. It was not the fact that she is aMuslim but her reverence for all religionsand the wisdom of religions that warmedone’s heart.

Such news is a perfect counter to the vit-riol of Giriraj Singh, a Union Minister, whowas in the limelight recently for his contro-versial and racist remarks on Congress pres-ident Sonia Gandhi. The contrast betweenSingh and Siddiqui is deep. One celebratesdifference while the other seeks to subjugateit. One throbs with intelligence while theother breathes mediocrity.

Today, Christians are being targeted but ifanyone is stereotyping Hinduism, it is theRashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) andthe Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Their Hin-dutva is a sign of envy, of a mediocrity thatwants to imitate the West.

A sense of siege

People like Mr. Singh create and leavebehind a trail of anxiety where the minor-ities feel pressure on themselves to realisetheir identity. This became especially poi-gnant in two instances; the first, in an essay/article by former police officer and diplomatJulio Ribeiro, and the second, in an inter-view of Indian political psychologist, socialtheorist, and critic Ashis Nandy. Both areChristians but what is interesting is thatboth are true Indians, not in a nationalistsense, but as a part of the culture. Ribeiro isproud of being a Christian and Indian and hiscareer as an officer. It is his Christianity thathas made him a part of India and made himaware that Christianity in India is older thanit is in the West. But now he claims, “com-munities were being targeted, a sense ofsiege affects a peaceful people”.

Both Ribeiro and Nandy express the confi-

dence of a community which does not seeitself as a minority. It feels it is a part ofIndia’s pluralistic culture, where identitiesare many, and affiliations open-ended. Ri-beiro wonders what his Indianness meanswhen his Christianity is being threatened.Earlier, being Christian and Indian was nev-er contradictory to each other.

Challenge to democracy

While the BJP may have shattered Ribei-ro’s confidence, it still has not dented AshisNandy’s. He sees it as representing the low-est common denominator of democracy.Nandy is proud of Kolkata and he knows thathis city will never harass Christians. He seesit in the logic of its culture and his pride isnot so much in his ‘Christian Identity’ but inhis syncretic Calcuttan past which cele-brates the multiverse called the city.

Nandy has an additional advantage. WhileRibeiro sees society within the categories oflaw and order, Nandy’s sensibilities tell himthat most Indians believe in a panoply ofdisorderly things. Hindus attend church ser-vices, Muslims are custodians of temples andour culture oozes with this syncretism. FromSaadat Hasan Manto’s Bombay Talkies tothe Bollywood of the 21st century, a churchwas part of the everydayness of an Indian.

Watching Ribeiro, Nandy and Maryam,one realises that majoritarianism is a chal-lenge to democracy. The codes of the twosystems are different. In one, citizenship islegal, culture is syncretic and politics demo-cratic.

For example, as a person, one celebratedthe greatness of one’s neighbourhood ofidentities. As a Hindu, I loved Christian fes-tivals and enjoyed Sikh langars. My plural-ism made me more Hindu. Yet, by contrast,

the BJP’s Hindutva now makes our cultureuniform, politics, majoritarian and citizen-ship, a matter of loyalties. Citizenship inHindutva’s vision is reduced to a conditionalstatus. The former celebrates the politics ofdifference, the other can think only in im-poverished absolutes.

Listening to these debates, I realise thatthe BJP government suffers from a failure ofimagination at several levels. First it speakslike corporate companies. It speaks a lan-guage where one hears more about the Ada-nis and the Ambanis and little about ruralissues .

Second, it shows a preference for the Indi-an abroad than the resident Indian becausethe latter is capable of reworking identitieswhile the diaspora has limited choices.Third, in the inclusive vision, culture is allabout the availability of alternatives, while

for Hindutva , it is about a space that needs tobe policed. Deep down, the BJP has only onemonolithic and monotheistic god, the nationstate .

The glue that binds us

Ribeiro makes this point subtly; that Hin-duism is a belief, while Hindutva is an ideol-ogy. Belief, especially religious beliefs, areprotean, while ideology is procrustean (en-forcing uniformity). Religion can be syncret-ic while ideology is restrictive. Thisdifference, he realises, is vital as ordinaryHindus celebrate his presence. They see himas a first-rate officer and honour him.

For Nandy, Hinduism is manifold, whilethe RSS preaches about one nation, onestate, one culture, one religion. It is a formu-la for encouraging mediocrity. Nandy isequally clear that Christianity does not needconversion.

This logic becomes clearer in a story re-counted by writer and intellectual U.R.Ananthamurthy, another icon who Mr. Giri-raj Singh hated. UR recounts the story of anArab intellectual being perplexed by notingthat his community has one language, onereligion but 22 states, while India has dozensof languages, myriad religions but is stillunited as a single nation. It is our simi-larities, and not our differences, that haveglued us together.

There is a difference in what I call thepolitics of anxiety and identity. Ribeiro andNandy are confident of their selves. GirirajSingh on the other hand uses identity tocomplain about history. Mr Singh, in tryingto explain his comment on the Congresspresident, reveals that he has no self-confi-dence. Nandy and Ribeiro are happy to be inIndia while Singh is unhappy with ‘his India’.Even his majoritarian confidence is in fact acolonial one which does not know how todeal with someone who is of foreign origin.

In fact, what is ironic is the critique ofRibeiro’s fears by Jagdish Bhagwati, Profes-sor at Columbia University in an article re-cently. Bhagwati begins with a list of thepeople who are close to Christianity in hisfamily. Yet, when faced with majoritarianviolence and policing, there is little to choosebetween Bhagwati and the illiberal Mr.Singh. Both seem to wish away the violenceof the time by creating apologies for thegovernment. In fact, the question one mustask is what is it that Prime Minister Na-rendra Modi adds to Indians abroad that alarge part of the diaspora treats him as theequivalent of a cultural testosterone shot? Itis as if the nationalist bluster of Mr. Modicompensates for their sense of inferiorityand their embarrassment about India’sdeficiencies.

Self-confident cultures

Despite their reading of the situation,Nandy and Ribeiro make a fascinating pair.What they find intriguing is the fact that themajority behaves like a minority even now.In fact, one must comment on Union Trans-port Minister Nitin Gadkari’s interesting re-sponse when he said he felt “very sad” afterreading Ribeiro’s article about his growinginsecurity as a Christian in India. Gadkariassures Ribeiro that he is an icon and a rolemodel for the country. He is also virtuallytelling Ribeiro that he has passed the loyaltytest, adding that it is the Opposition that iscreating such misperceptions.

India’s minorities, especially Sikh, Chris-tian and Parsi, have been self-confident cul-tures. As Ribeiro remarks, many of themhave punched far above their numericalweight, in achievements versus their pop-ulation. One does not have to create a who’swho of those from these cultures to createtestimonials for them.

Our religious communities need no certif-icates. Many of them have a confidence thatmany in the majority lack. Nandy goes on toclaim that there is a Hindu within him butwhich does not make him less Christian. Infact, his statement reminds me of the DalaiLama’s wisdom.

Listening to U.S. President George Bushonce, the Dalai Lama commented: “Hebrings out the Muslim in me.” Beyond em-pathy for Islam, what the Dalai Lama wasclaiming was that President Bush’s beha-viour, his treatment of Islam and the Muslimwas unfair, untrue and almost barbaric. Sim-ilarly, listening to Mr. Singh brings out theChristian, the Muslim and the Buddhist inme, without making me less Hindu. That tome is the beauty of India that no Hindutvaenvy can destroy. Being all and yet being oneis what makes me Indian. No Bajrang Dal orVishwa Hindu Parishad can deprive me ofthis confidence. I do not need their Aadharcards of identity to testify to my Indianness,and that is enough for me.

(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at JindalSchool of Government and Public Policy.)

An Indianness that needs no AadharIndia’s minorities have been self-confidentcultures. Many of them have punched far abovetheir numerical weight, in terms of achievementsversus their population. They do not needcertificates, especially from the majority

Shiv Visvanathan

Being all and yet being one is what makes me Indian. No

Bajrang Dal or VHP can deprive me of this confidence.

CPI(M) and revivalCPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury isright when he says that retrievingthe party’s organisational strengththrough mass mobilisation is vitalfor the CPI(M) to remain relevant(April 12). Whether it is an erosionof faith in the communist ideologywhere voters are concerned, or thelack of astute leadership anddirection from the highest echelonsthat is the raison d’e^tre for thedismal performance of thecommunist parties in general andthe CPI(M) in particular at thehustings, what is imperative is theneed for soul-searching by topleaders, and perhaps a completeoverhaul in terms of strategy. It isno exaggeration to say that the CPI(M) is like a rudderless boat in astormy sea with its space havingbeen invaded by several otherparties, notably the BJP and theTMC. Any effort at mobilisation ofsupport especially from theworking class, which has alwaysbeen the backbone of thecommunist movement, has beenconspicuous in its absence.

C.V. Aravind,Bengaluru

The protracted reasons thattriggered the debacle of theseemingly invincible red fort of theCPI(M) in West Bengal can beidentified as the result of the topleadership being out of touch withreality, a state of indecisiveness,and also corruption and nepotismat the lower levels. In a country likeIndia, where the vast majority ishaunted by poverty, illiteracy,hunger, communal strife, casteism,economic disparity, genderinjustice and so on, the impact ofthe communist movements cannotbe underestimated in any way.

There is no alternative to thecommunist parties. It was the LeftFront that reined in the UPA whenit began to adopt an anti-peoplestance on many an occasion. Now,when crucial issues like price rise,corruption, a corporate-friendlyeconomy and communalism loomlarge over India, it is only a strongLeft that can be the cause of hopefor poor Indians.

Buddhadev Nandi,Bishnupur, West Bengal

It is interesting to read Mr.Yechury’s comments at a timewhen the Russians and all ofEastern Europe which was undercommunist rule are in the throes ofchaos. In India, neither WestBengal nor Kerala can claim to haveachieved any progress undercommunist rule. The fact that mostBengalis have to travel out of theState for medical care says muchabout something as basic as thestate of health care in the State. InKerala, acres of cultivable land islying fallow because communistcadres do not allow any cultivation.No industry wants to set up shop inKerala for fear of labour trouble.There are many more examples.Mr. Yechury and the rest of the Leftleadership need to understand theground reality.

Sheela Chandrachudan,Bengaluru

The vanishing image of the CPI(M)and other Left parties across Indiacan be attributed to their irrelevantand unclear policies. They claim tobe the champions of the people butin fact end up being anti-people. Ican think of examples where theseparties project the rich andcorporates as villains. Do they everthink of the aspirations of thecommon man who also wishes to

grow big and become rich? Blindopposition to the U.S. also goesagainst the desire of most Indianstudents to head for the U.S. to abetter life and education. Is it thenany surprise that the Left is fading?

K. Manasa Sanvi,Srikalahasti

If any political party wants tosurvive, it must change with thetimes and live up to ever-changingaspirations of the people. It is a factthat the Left as a whole has failed tothink in this direction. Theseparties failed to gauge the mood ofthe people and are diminishingacross the country. What peoplewant is good governance instead offiery speeches and agitations.People are no longer swayed bystrikes and protests. Unless theLeft sheds its blinkered vision andintrospects honestly, its revivalappears to be difficult.

Kshirasagara Balaji Rao,Hyderabad

Snooping rowThe reports, “Bhagat Singh’s kinsay they were snopped on,” (April12) and “Slugfest over IB snoopingon Bose’s kin” (April 11) could pushthe mainline party to the wall. Thebeleaguered Congress is bound tofind itself red-faced after thestartling revelations. Facts in theclassified dossier can neither betailored nor changed and soCongress leaders will have to comeup with better explanations andclarifications instead of attributingmotives.

H.P. Murali,Bengaluru

The alleged snooping is notsurprising given the culture in theCongress party. During the darkdays of the Emergency, even the

phone lines of Indira Gandhi’scabinet colleagues were allegedlyplaced under surveillance by RAW.During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as thePrime Minister, senior Congressleader Kamalapati Tripathi’s letter,which apparently criticised theCWC’s style of functioning, wasintercepted and made public. It issaid that this happened after ordersfrom the PMO.

Arun Malankar,Mumbai

Rafale dealThe surprise announcement, onFriday, April 10, of purchasing 36Rafale fighter aircraft, may havebeen called a setback for the ‘Makein India’ pitch, but instead, oneshould look at it as a positivedevelopment (April 12). It couldpave the way for gradualtechnology transfer and helping‘Make in India’ componentsacquire world-class standards.What is lacking in India now is alack of expertise and theentrepreneurial capability ofhandling such a sophisticatedproject. One hopes that with propertraining and an understanding offoreign technology, this ‘setback’can be got over and help make Indiaindependent technologically.

N. Visveswaran,Chennai

‘Gods in chains’I wish the Supreme Court comesout soon with a judgment that banselephants from being used intemples — for the sake of thevoiceless beasts (“Gods in chains:SC to decide on plea to banelephants in temples,” April 12).The temple authorities, who areeither helpless or indifferent, donot take note of what amounts toacts of torture that the elephants

are subjected to. It is a commonsight to see mahouts taking out theelephants early in the morning andmaking them stand at the doors tothe temple till afternoon. In thename of ‘blessing devotees’, theelephants are forced to lift theirtrunks at least 500 times a daywhich causes untold suffering tothe animals. In the evening too, onefinds the elephants being taken tothe areas around the temple to beg,and which essentially repeats whatwas done in the morning. Thisapart, the animals are oftenchained on stone floors whichcauses stress. One often sees theelephants shifting their weightfrom leg to leg unable to bear thestrain of standing for a long time.No amount of ‘rest andrejuvenation’ can save theelephants from the torture theyundergo the rest of the year. Theanimals can be handed over to zooauthorities to spend a peaceful life.

Ganesh Subramanian,Chennai

Window to the pastIt is definitely a matter of concernthat our museums are in a state ofneglect (“Sunday Anchor page –“Because museums matter,” April12). During my school days, a visitto the nearest museum was aregular and annual affair; it helpedmake lessons easier to understandand would enthuse us to knowmore about our ancestral past apartfrom educating us on varioushistorical happenings. In this Iremember the wonders that a visitto the Salar Jung Museum inHyderabad and the one inPudukkottai did to us. Museumvisits must be made an integral partof the academic curriculum.

A.G. Rajmohan,Anantapur

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

It seemed interesting that on the eve of Prime

Minister Narendra Modi’s departure for France,

the Indian and French governments issued simi-

lar statements on the prospects of an agreement

on the purchase of the Rafale aircraft: that no single deal

should be allowed to overshadow the Prime Minister’s

visit. Indeed, India-France relations are much bigger

than any one contract; they represent the cultural affin-

ity and historic relations between two vibrant democra-

cies. The items on the Prime Minister’s agenda reflected

the range of commonalities — from the preservation of

ancient architecture to the development of Puducherry

and Chandigarh as smart cities; from the construction

of semi-high-speed railway lines to cooperation on a

space mission to Mars; from discussing anti-terror

training to tackling climate change through renewable

technologies and a robust nuclear partnership. The

economic aspect of the relationship has been ignored

for too long. Although more than a thousand French

companies have a total investment of about $20 billion

in India, bilateral trade is worth just $8 billion. While all

this deserved attention, it was disappointing that the

Prime Minister put the spotlight back on defence ties by

making a surprise announcement on the purchase of 36

Rafale aircraft as the highlight of his talks with Presi-

dent François Hollande. If the outright purchase was a

crucial military necessity, it could have been discussed a

few weeks before or after the visit, as a political push for

the deal was secondary to the technical specifications

and delivery requirements. Moreover, the deal, which

involves purchasing products off the shelf abroad, de-

tracts from Mr. Modi’s “Make in India” initiative.

The breakthrough on the Areva nuclear equipment

deal, on the other hand, shows the positive outcome of

Mr. Modi’s and Mr. Hollande’s political push, combined

with a “Make in India” twist. As in the case of Indo-U.S.

nuclear negotiations, Mr. Modi and Mr. Hollande decid-

ed to clear the logjam by splitting the problem into

different silos — allowing for separate mechanisms for

the pricing issues and for the technical and legal as-

pects. The supplementary deal involving Areva and

L&T producing heavy forging metal casing for nuclear

reactors is an important step in localising some of the

expensive parts. During his visit to Canada, where he

hopes to sign a deal for uranium supplies, Mr. Modi

means to take forward his plan to increase nuclear

energy production. Given this objective, it may be use-

ful for him to round off the visit by discussing his

nuclear energy plans in Germany as well, which is now

winding down on nuclear power but is at the cutting

edge of nuclear safety research for the European Pres-

surised Reactors that are being considered for India.

Rafale and beyond

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015

8 THE HINDU TUESDAY, APRIL 14, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

Political scientist, economist, jurist, social re-

former, architect of India’s Constitution, and a

leader of men: Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, a multifa-

ceted personality with varied interests, defies

attempts at classification and categorisation. But with

his singular drive for the uplift of the poor and the

weaker sections, he became an inspirational figure dur-

ing his lifetime and a national icon in the decades

thence. Not surprisingly, despite his later differences

with the Congress, and his opposition to the politics of

social hate and communal divides, Ambedkar is now

sought to be appropriated by both the Congress and the

BJP as part of their political mobilisation strategies.

The two parties have planned year-long celebrations to

mark his 125th birth anniversary year beginning today.

While the Congress’s claim to the Ambedkar legacy,

though disputed, is nothing new, the BJP’s decision to

mark the anniversary with elaborate events marks a

change in its approach to his life and work. However,

instead of projecting the change in approach as a change

in its own attitude to Ambedkar, the BJP and its ide-

ological fount, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, seem

to be intent on a selective reading of Ambedkar as a

Hindu nationalist. His conversion to Buddhism in 1956,

and his opposition to the oppressive caste hierarchy in

Hinduism do not seem to have mattered for the RSS,

whose joint secretary Krishna Gopal has brought out a

booklet highlighting the supposed affinities between

Ambedkar and Hindu nationalism such as his opposi-

tion to the theory of Aryan invasion, and to conversion

to Islam.

Central to the attempts to appropriate Ambedkar’s

political legacy is the consolidation of Dalit votes. Dalit

representative parties such as the Republican Party of

India have entered into alliances with the BJP, but the

focus of the BJP now seems to be to enlist Dalits directly

into the party. Memorials, statues and commemorative

volumes on his life and work are evidently part of this

effort. For the Congress, the Ambedkar birth anni-

versary events are meant to stem the erosion in its

support base among Dalit groups. That the political

contestation for Ambedkar’s legacy has gained an added

edge now is proof of the success of the efforts at orga-

nising Dalits as a political force. But none of this adds up

to providing greater space for Ambedkar’s views on

social justice and social democracy in the Indian polity.

Sadly, while there is a growing reverence for Ambedkar

among the political class, and a greater recognition of

his contribution to nation-building, his ideas have not

found ready acceptance. In this, he is one with Mahat-

ma Gandhi — someone who is admired, but whose views

are hardly adhered to.

Admiration sansadherence

On the 125th birth anniversary ofDr. B.R. Ambedkar, on April 14,India still finds itself unable toinduct him into the pantheon of

greats unquestioningly. His statue, with itsubiquitous electric blue suit, may be a com-mon sight at bus stands, bastis and universi-ties, but it hardly brings out the fact that hislife is one that was overshadowed by iconog-raphy and idolatry. We forget that Ambedkarwas one of modern India’s first great eco-nomic thinkers, its constitutional draftsmanand its first law minister who ensured thecodification of Hindu law.

Assimilating Dr. Ambedkar into the na-tional pantheon of the freedom struggle isdifficult because his life was one of steadyaccretion of ideas, of making a stand onrights and of standing up to social wrongs.His biggest fights were with fellow Indiansand not with foreign rulers. He led no sa-tyagraha against the British, he led no marchon Delhi, he broke no repressive law to courtarrest for it. In fact, his father and ancestorshad willingly served in the British Army evenin the days of the East India Company. Hehimself served as a member of the Viceroy’sExecutive Council. His often stated view wasthat British rule had come as a liberator forthe depressed classes. Despite all this, he wasin agreement with the nationalists, that In-dia must be ruled by Indians.

In a corner

His status in the national pantheon, wherehe occupies a corner all by himself, andslightly apart from the nationalist heroes ofindependence, is somewhat like his status inschool. He once wrote: “I knew that I was anuntouchable, and that untouchables weresubjected to certain indignities and discrim-inations. For instance, I knew that in theschool I could not sit in the midst of myclassmates according to my rank [in classperformance], but that I was to sit in a cornerby myself.”

This separateness was to lead him to as-sert in more than one instance, that thedepressed classes he represented, were notto be counted among the Hindus. He fa-mously chose to separately represent thedepressed classes at the Round Table Con-ference in the 1930s, where Gandhiji wassent as the sole representative of the Con-gress. Having secured a separate electoratefor the depressed classes, he had to give it upin the face of a fasting Mahatma, whose

death he did not want ascribed to those out-side the pale of varnashrama dharma. Afterthis, the Poona Pact of 1932 ensured a grea-ter number of seats for the depressed classes,but it was within a common Hindu electo-rate. Ambedkar never was sure that he hadsecured a fair bargain.

He never fully forgave Gandhiji for thepressure exerted on him. He told his follow-ers, “There have been many mahatmas inIndia whose sole object was to remove un-touchability and to elevate and absorb thedepressed classes, but everyone has failed intheir mission. Mahatmas have come, mahat-mas have gone but the untouchables haveremained as untouchables.” Ambedkar toldDalits: “You must abolish your slavery your-selves. Do not depend for its abolition upongod or a superman. ...We must shape ourcourse ourselves and by ourselves.”

A fight for rights

The question of whether the depressedclasses were to be counted among Hindus orseparately, continued to be relevant espe-cially when the country was going to be par-

titioned on religious lines. There were someDalit leaders like B. Shyam Sunder, who vo-ciferously said: “We are not Hindus, we havenothing to do with the Hindu caste system,yet we have been included among them bythem and for them.” With the support of theNizam of Hyderabad and Master Tara Singhof the Akalis, Shyam Sunder launched theDalit-Muslim unity movement and urged hispeople to join hands with Muslims.

The imminent arrival of Independencesaw a constituent assembly being elected todraw up a constitution for the new nation.Dr. Ambedkar was first elected to the as-sembly from an undivided Bengal. Becausehe lacked the requisite support in his homeprovince of Bombay, he was forced to seekelection from Bengal, a province he was un-familiar with. Throughout the 1940s, Am-bedkar and the Congress clashed over issuesof the rights and the representation of the

depressed classes. Ambedkar was a critic ofthe party’s positions on many an issue,which he believed were inimical to Dalit in-terests. Therefore, Sardar Patel personallydirected the Bombay Congress to selectstrong Dalit candidates who could defeat Dr.Ambedkar’s nominees. Despite the politics,once in the Constituent Assembly, Ambed-kar worked closely with his Congress col-leagues in formulating and drafting theConstitution.

Consequent to the announcement of Par-tition, fresh elections had to be held for onlythe seats from West Bengal. Dr. Ambedkarwould not have possibly been elected again.At this stage he was co-opted by the Con-gress, into the seat vacated by M.R. Jayakarfrom Bombay. Dr. Rajendra Prasad wrote toB.G. Kher, then Prime Minister of Bombayand said: “Apart from any other consider-ation we have found Dr. Ambedkar’s workboth in Constituent Assembly and the vari-ous committees to which he was appointedto be of such an order as to require that weshould not be deprived of his services. As youknow, he was elected from Bengal and after

the division of the province he was ceased tobe a member of the Constituent Assemblycommencing from the 14th July 1947 and itis therefore necessary that he should beelected immediately.” Even Sardar Patelstepped in to persuade both Kher and G.P.Mavalankar, who was otherwise slated to fillin the vacancy caused by Jayakar.

It is against these adverse circumstances,that we must evaluate Ambedkar’s achieve-ments in the Constituent Assembly. Hewalked a tightrope, between securing a mod-ern society for all Indians and ensuring thata modern state stabilised around a constitu-tional architecture of social change. Gran-ville Austin has rightly described the IndianConstitution drafted by Ambedkar as “firstand foremost a social document. ... The ma-jority of India’s constitutional provisions areeither directly arrived at furthering the aimof social revolution or attempt to foster this

revolution by establishing conditions neces-sary for its achievement.”

Making a mark

The Constituent Assembly was the hal-lowed ground from which Ambedkar madehis most lasting contribution to all people ofindependent India, Dalit, savarna and non-Hindu alike. As chairman of the draftingcommittee, it was his interventions in thedebates of the assembly that were soon tobecome definitive expositions on the intentof the framers. He also joined Nehru’s cabi-net as the first Law Minister of independentIndia.

He explained to the Assembly, “On the26th January 1950, we are going to enter intoa life of contradictions. In politics we willhave equality and in social and economic lifewe will have inequality. In politics we will berecognising the principle of one-man-one-vote and one-vote-one-value. In our socialand economic life, we shall by reason of oursocial and economic structure, continue todeny the principle of one-man-one-value.How long shall we continue to live this life ofcontradictions? How long shall we continueto deny equality in our social and economiclife? If we continue to deny it for long, we willdo so only by putting our political democracyin peril….”

Despite his insistence on individual liber-ties being enshrined as fundamental rights,Ambedkar was a realist as to their worth asguarantees. He said: “The prevalent view isthat once the rights are enacted in law thenthey are safeguarded. This again is an un-warranted assumption. As experienceproves, rights are protected not by law but bysocial and moral conscience of the society.”

Political battles

Ambedkar’s constitution was barely fin-ished and adopted, when he plunged intopiloting the Hindu Code Bill. There was op-position from the President of India, Dr.Rajendra Prasad, as well as a host of Con-gressmen like Pattabhi Sitaramayya, butAmbedkar kept pushing for the passage ofthe Act, by the Constituent Assembly, whichfunctioned as an interim parliament. Nehruwas advised by Rajagopala Ayyangar andothers that it was better to wait till after thegeneral election of 1952. When it becameapparent that the bill was going to be de-ferred, Ambedkar resigned in protest fromthe cabinet in September 1951. The HinduCode Bill finally came about in 1956.

In 1952, in independent India’s first gen-eral election, he was defeated from the Bom-bay North Constituency by a Dalit from theCongress. Though he was elected to the Ra-jya Sabha immediately thereafter, he made asecond attempt in 1954 to enter the LokSabha through a by-election for the Bhanda-ra seat. He failed again.

His political battles and his voracious ca-pacity for intellectual work began affectinghis health. His spirit to fight on and his spiri-tual quest though continued undaunted. Inthe 1930s, his first wife, Ramabai, who wasdying, had asked him to take her to Pand-harpur on a pilgrimage. The entry of un-touchables was barred there. He thenpromised to build a new Pandharpur outsideHinduism.

After her passing, he declared at Yeola in1935: “I was born a Hindu, I had no choice.But I will not die a Hindu because I do have achoice.” In the twilight of his life, on October14, 1956, two months before his death, he leftHinduism to become a Buddhist. His Brah-min-born second wife and nearly six lakh ofhis followers followed suit.

As he lay down for the night on December5, 1956, Dr. Ambedkar had by his side, thepreface to his latest book, The Buddha andhis Dhamma. He wanted to work on it but itwas not to be. The book was published post-humously as Babasaheb, never woke up andmoved into history on December 6, 1956.

How do we remember Ambedkar? He gavethe nation a constitution that has endured,he forced it to look shamefaced at its ownsocial inequities, and he gave the most op-pressed Indians, the hope of a better nationto come. He may not have been a hero of thewar of Indian independence, but he is thehero who built an independent India. It istime that we cease to keep him ‘slightlyapart’.

(Sanjay Hegde is a Supreme Courtlawyer.)

A nation builder’s pride of place How do we remember B.R. Ambedkar? He maynot have been a hero of the war of Indianindependence, but he is the hero who built anindependent India

Sanjay Hegde

B.R. Ambedkar walked a tightrope, between securing a modern

society for all Indians and ensuring that a modern state

stabilised around a constitutional architecture of social change.

An IndiannessShiv Visvanathan’s article (“AnIndianness that needs no Aadhar,”April 13) is an amazing exposition;an unbiased and courageousattempt to articulate the realities.The article candidly brought out thedestructive undercurrent of thetrumpeting of nationalism byHinduvta forces. Not taking note ofthis and permitting suchhappenings will only be detrimentalto our future. Pseudo right-wingforces are out to destroy thecomposite culture that most of uscherish.

In this, the silence of PrimeMinister is an endorsement of thebehaviour of these forces and couldbe a pointer to his hidden agenda.

S. Ramamurthy,Chennai

The article stands testimony towhat Gandhiji told Louis Fischer,his biographer. Fischer reveals thatwhen he arrived at SewagramAshram in May 1942 to spend aweek with him, he noticed there was“only one decoration on the mudwalls of his hut: a black and whiteprint of Jesus Christ with theinscription ‘He is our peace.’ Heasked Gandhiji about it, whoreplied, “I am a Christian and aHindu and a Moslem and a Jew....Looking at all religions with anequal eye, we would not only not

hesitate but would think it our dutyto blend into our faith everyacceptable feature of other faiths.”India minus secular assurance willonly become a regressive state.

E.S. Chandrasekaran,Chennai

The article portrays a myopic visionof majoritarianism; one that islimited by a community’s allegiancetoward a particular religious belief.In the present time,majoritarianism throughout thecountry is in the pursuance of acommon solution that wouldaddress common challenges. Thismajoritarian view clearly believesthat matters of faith are anindividual’s choice and not theprerogative of any political party.

Devendra Vijay,New Delhi

The loose statements made bycertain Union Ministers have beenused as an opportunity to scale-upthe untold apprehensions of theminorities. It is not sectarian,religious ideologies that unite Indiaand give it its identity. The myriadhues of differences have played avital role in this. The people whoencourage a religious polarisationhave only ended up exposed theirshortcomings. The mark of anIndian is not only the religion towhich he belongs but also the wayhe is brought up in a culture which

encourages mutual respect thatstretches beyond the humansphere. The myopic view of a fewcannot drain the sap of“Indianness” from a true Indian.

Lalitha Joseph,Kottarakara, Kerala

A Left revivalCPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury(April 12) sounds more realisticthan the present moribundleadership of the CPI(M). In asecular and liberal democracy likeIndia, Left-oriented parties haverelevance. Unfortunately, theIndian communists, with theirunrealistic policies, have failed toutilise the opportunities providedto them by the people. Even aftermore than three decades of Left-ledpower in West Bengal, the Stateremains as backward as any of theBIMARU States. If Kerala hasachieved better socio-economicindex, it is not just because of thecommunist governments, butbecause of the realistic politicalacumen of the people to elect theUDF and the LDF for alternateterms.

If the CPI(M) wants to recoverand regain its relevance in Indianpolitics, people like Mr. Yechurywill have to take over the reins andlead the party with pragmaticpolicies.

K.V. Ravindran,Payyanur, Kerala

Net neutralityNet neutrality is the basic right ofevery individual as it gives themchoice to access (“AIB pitches forNet neutrality,” April 13). In oneway it represents freedom ofexpression, which is the bedrock ofIndian democracy. I think the realreason behind the efforts of mobileservice providers to take away netneutrality is that they face stiffcompetition from some start-upswhich provide voice calls and SMSto their users free of cost.Innovation on the Internet iscapturing the space of mobile phoneservice providers and in turn theseservice providers are taking awaythe online freedom of their users.Introducing red tape and ‘licenceraj’ on the net would only bedetrimental to India’s progress.

Balaji Akiri,Hyderabad

One needs to give space to bothsides of the story. On the one hand itis reasonable for telecom operatorsto cry foul at applications usingtheir infrastructure only to offerthem competition while on theother, creating bias on the net willonly end up creating a hostileenvironment for start-ups anddefinitely draw flak from people‘acclimatised’ to services providedby such apps. One can only imaginethe chaos if the Internet was altered

this way, but one cannot simplyignore the loss caused to telecomcompanies. Using the SMS is on thedecline as voice calling is verypopular. Though I don’t see thisposing an immediate threat to thetraditional way of making a call, itmight prove troublesome in thefuture for telecom firms.

Gaurav Sehgal,Dehradun

The debate on net neutrality is adisguised debate on the principle ofa free market. It is often seen thatcorporate giants raise the principleof free market and competitionwhenever it suits their interest anddistort the very principle when ithurts them. The issue of “netneutrality” is a case in point. It istrue that disruptive technologieslike OTT services do hurt theinterests of traditional players, butthe invisible hand of the free marketshould prevail so that technologicalspace is allowed to evolve to its fullpotential; more so, because it servesthe interests of the customer. As faras telecom companies areconcerned, even if they lose voicecall and text message volumes, theyare free to recover their costs andinvestments in infrastructure byraising data charges across theboard, instead of selectivelycharging a few applications.

Taranjot Singh,Ludhiana

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The recent Shreya Singhal judgment of the

Supreme Court that struck down Section 66A

of the Information Technology Act, 2000 as

unconstitutional, has opened up pathways for

wider and more nuanced debates on free speech in

India. Now under judicial scrutiny are Section 499 and

500 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860, pertaining to

criminal defamation. During the hearing on a batch of

petitions challenging the constitutionality of these

provisions, the Supreme Court has issued notice to the

government. The petitions contend that Sections 499

and 500 of the IPC travel beyond the restrictions en-

shrined in Article 19(2), thus constricting free speech

beyond reasonable limits. The Hindu had in 2003 filed

a writ petition in the Supreme Court challenging the

vires of Section 499, inter alia on grounds that it vio-

lated the freedom of press guaranteed under Article

19(1)(a). As the law stands, defamation is both a civil

wrong and a criminal offence. In a civil action, a person

may be sued for monetary compensation while a crimi-

nal wrong can invite imprisonment up to two years.

With the former being an effective enough remedy, the

latter needs to be repealed. Under Article 19(2), free

speech can be curtailed only by way of reasonable

restrictions. Such a restriction must not be arbitrary or

excessive, and the impairment of freedom must be ‘as

little as possible’. But criminal prosecution in India can

be incredibly harassing and intimidating, and have a

chilling effect, thus being an ‘unreasonable’ restriction.

The government has sought a report from the Law

Commission of India on the issue. A joint consultation

paper published by the LCI in September 2014 notes

that the respondents “overwhelmingly expressed dis-

satisfaction with the present state of defamation law”.

Considering the need to repeal Section 499, it acknowl-

edged that criminal defamation laws violated interna-

tional norms, and that the penalty of incarceration up

to two years was clearly disproportionate. The recent

history of defamation laws is riddled with misuse by

politicians and corporations to silence the media, activ-

ists and criticisms. The spate of defamation cases filed

during the 2014 Lok Sabha election is evidence of this.

Defamatory acts that may harm public order are cov-

ered by Sections 124, 153 and 153A, and so criminal

defamation does not serve any overarching public in-

terest. Even though Section 499 provides safeguards by

means of exceptions, the threat of criminal prosecution

is in itself unreasonable and excessive. This is not to say

that defamation must not be discouraged. But decrimi-

nalising it will bring the IPC in accord with Article

19(2), ensuring that the means used to discourage defa-

mation do not end up damping legitimate criticism.

State of criminaldefamation

CARTOONSCAPE

The Islamist terror network hasgrown into a hydra-headed phe-nomenon. This has consequencesfar beyond the current arc of ter-

rorist violence, which for the moment is con-fined to the regions of Asia and North Africa.But countries like India are already feelingthe heat. Hence, counterterrorism agenciesshould not be lulled into complacency byassertions that India and Indian Muslimsare insulated from, and therefore unlikely tobe affected by, the new virus.

Like other viruses, this one too has severalvariants. The core theology remains the Sau-di theologian, Abdul Wahab’s doctrinaireteachings, combined with the Egyptian Mus-lim Brotherhood icon, Syed Qutub’s nihil-istic fanaticism. Previously, a liberal dose ofSalafism had contributed to the lethal vio-lence that characterised 20th century ter-rorism. Now, it is the advent of a new radicalIslamist breed that is committed to the su-premacy of faith, and a belief in exclusionistIslamic puritanism, that is likely to result in21st century terrorism being rememberedfor the savagery it practices.

Newer and older outfits

The current levels of violence should notbe regarded as a transient phenomenon. Itmight be recalled that in late 2013, Americanembassies in West Asia had to close downdue to a realistic terror threat from the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).Russia had to face terror attacks in quicksuccession in the run-up to the 2014 WinterOlympics in Sochi. Ever since the “Cauca-sian Caliphate” came into existence someyears ago, Russia has witnessed multiple at-tacks including 50 suicide attacks. Today,there are increasing numbers of ethnic jiha-di outfits, – consisting mainly of recent con-verts to Islam, who are in a position to supply“more and more fighters” for the cause.

The situation is getting more complicatedby the day. Even as newer outfits such as theIslamic State (IS) and the Jabhat-al-Nusra inSyria/Iraq are gaining ground by adoptingmore violent methods and techniques, olderoutfits are reinventing themselves and be-coming more sanguinary; 18th century ideol-ogies not only drive the IS/al-Nusra, but alsothe different affiliates of the al-Qaeda such

as the Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula(AQAP), the Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Magh-reb (AQIM), Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab.For example, in terms of lethality, the AQAPhas eclipsed the original al-Qaeda. Atrocitiescommitted by the IS are described by theUnited Nations as “beyond inhumane”. Ear-lier distinctions between “infidels” and “be-lievers” (including those belonging to otherAbrahamic religions are becoming blurred.Nearer home, the Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) inPakistan is reportedly preparing for anotherdevastating attack on Indian targets. In Af-ghanistan, the Haqqani network continuesto plan attacks on Indian missions.

Mindless violence

The recent series of barbaric attacks, fromPakistan to Australia to Europe to North

Africa, confirm that “mindless” violence re-mains the staple of most groups. In Novem-ber 2014, a suicide bomber belonging to theTehrik-e Taliban Pakistan (TTP) killed 60Pakistanis on the Wagah border. In Decem-ber, TTP was behind the killing of over 140people which included 132 children at anarmy school in Peshawar. Three personswere killed in a terrorist attack in Sydney inmid-December 2014. And in January 2015, agroup of terrorists in Paris massacred 12people at the office of the French satiricalmagazine, Charlie Hebdo; in this case, eachof the targets was identified by name.

Africa too has not been spared and is wit-nessing a resurgence in jihadi-linked vio-lence. In September 2013, the Somali-basedAl-Shabaab claimed responsibility for thekilling of 67 people in a shopping mall inNairobi. In January this year, the Boko Ha-ram carried out the “deadliest massacre” in

its history, reportedly killing over 2,000 peo-ple in attacks on Baga and surroundingtowns, in Nigeria. In April, in Kenya, al-Shabaab gunmen killed 147 students (mainlyChristians) following a siege at the GarisaUniversity College campus.

Yemen has become a major staging postfor many al-Qaeda programmed actions. Theintense Shia-Sunni conflict in Yemen pro-vides many opportunities for unbridled sav-agery. For example, on March 21, in Sana'a,four suicide bombers blew themselves upduring Friday prayers at two Shia mosques,killing at least 137 people and injuring 350others. Southern Yemen has emerged as akey centre for the AQAP, from where it hasplanned several attacks on Western targets,and is said to be planning several more. Ye-men today is an embodiment of a “failed

State”, which provides facilities for terroristoutfits of different persuasions to engage interrorist violence.

Dramatic shift

However, it is the emergence of the IS thathas brought about a dramatic shift in thetopology of terrorism. Terrorism now pos-sesses a virtual state of its own. It holds wideswathes of territory. It is flush with funds,and is fed by an ever increasing number ofbattle-hungry fighters. Educated SunniMuslims from across the world are respon-ding to the call of the IS, inspired by theirleader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s vision of anIslamic State based on ancient Islamic histo-ry. The central themes are “hijra” (migra-tion) and “bay’ah” (allegiance). A heady mixof regional warfare and Islamist fundamen-talism and the call to establish new “ties ofbrotherhood”, are proving irresistible for the

“Muslim faithful”. This is all a prelude to thefinal battle that will come later.

The IS is exploiting the tragic circum-stances of Syria and Iraq to enlarge the areaof its Caliphate. It already claims Yemen’sSana'a province as a part of its Sunni Caliph-ate. The Islamic State of Khorasan includesAfghanistan, Pakistan and parts of North-west India including Gujarat. Jordan, Ku-wait and Lebanon are all to be included in anenlarged Islamic Caliphate. As its coffersgrow — estimated to be well over $5 billion asof now — the IS is apparently seeking higherstakes.

Grooming and recruitment

Coordination and affinities between jiha-di movements across Asia and North Africaare also growing. For example, the IS is seek-ing allegiance from like-minded terror out-fits across the region. The Boko Haram hasalready pledged its allegiance. The IS is nowadvising Boko Haram on how to achieve ter-ritorial gains and metamorphose from aguerrilla movement into a force capable ofholding on to its gains.

In the battle for the jihadi mind-space, theIS clearly has gained the upper hand at themoment. Using social media and other In-ternet-linked methodologies, it has beenable to lure recruits in sizeable numbersfrom across the world. It has sought to por-tray itself as a “way of life” and has glam-ourised its movement as one seekingspiritual purity. Thousands of educatedMuslims, including women, have thus beeninveigled into joining the IS. Counterterror-ism agencies — especially in the West — havebeen unable to stem the tide of individualsvolunteering to join the IS-led war for Islam-ic liberation. Reliable Western estimatessuggest that almost 27 per cent of all Mus-lims in the West are inclined towards the IS;40 per cent of all foreign fighters in Syria/Iraq are from the West.

Grooming women for jihad has becomeone of the more successful ventures under-taken by the IS. Plots referred to as “TrojanHorse” have also been unearthed in theWest, which are aimed at altering the char-acter of teaching in schools and making themfall in line with the Islamic faith. This ishelping to swell the ranks of pro-IS “stay-at-home radicals”. The intention appears to beto employ the latter for “lone wolf” attacks inmajor urban cities, far removed from thescene of today’s fighting in North Africa andWest Asia. Hence, this could lead to manymore incidents across the globe on the pat-tern of the beheading of the British soldier,Lee James Rigby, in 2013, and the shootingof the Canadian Corporal, Nathan Cirillo, in2014.

India cannot expect that it will remaininsulated from the current mania that isafflicting even countries with a much small-er population of educated Muslims. Instanc-es have already come to light of theradicalisation of Indian Muslims, and theirnumbers are growing. Known cases, such asthose of Mehdi Biswas, arrested after a Twit-ter handle supporting the IS was traced tohim; Arif Majeed, who is said to have had astint with IS; and Salman Moinuddin, whowas arrested at Hyderabad airport, are onlythe tip of the iceberg. These examples aresymptomatic of a growing global phenom-enon where the digital footprints of IS prose-lytisers are subverting the thoughts and thebeliefs of educated Muslim youth. It wouldbe a mistake to believe that with the IndianMujahidin having been routed, the situationin India remains normal. The radical Isla-mist movement in India must be seen as anintegral part of the global phenomenon of anew ‘über-Wahhabi’ model of Islam. At onelevel, this employs outfits such as the IS towean away educated Muslim youth to theIslamic cause. At the other, it has helped tocreate new affiliates leading to new terroristfranchises, several of which are splintergroups from the erstwhile al-Qaeda network.

(M.K. Narayanan is a former National Security Advisor and former Governor ofWest Bengal.)

A savage new world of terrorismCounterterrorism agencies should not be lulledinto complacency by assertions that India isinsulated from, and therefore unlikely to beaffected by, the growing virus of radical terrorism

Terrorism now possesses a virtual state of its own — the

Islamic State. The IS is flush with funds, and is fed by an ever

increasing number of battle-hungry and educated Sunni Muslims

from across the world...

M.K. Narayanan

CMYK

ND-ND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015

10 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

By its own admission, the Communist Party of

India (Maoist) is a flailing force, unable to

alter its status from that of a guerrilla group;

with its potency on the wane, it is nowhere

near its stated goals, which it seeks to achieve by means

of a “revolution”. Nearly a decade after Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh termed the Maoist movement In-

dia’s greatest internal security threat, it remains a

marginal force engaged in sporadic acts of violence

principally in India’s tribal belt and limited mainly to

the dense forests of Chhattisgarh — where its top lead-

ership is believed to be holed up — and to Jharkhand,

Odisha and Maharashtra. They admit that they have

little presence beyond these areas and that they are

unable to bring their influence to or build support in

urban areas. Political and mobilisational work is largely

absent and their primary pursuit has been reduced to

insurgency. What then explains the recent spurt of

violent acts by Maoists, killing and injuring men of the

Central Reserve Police Force, the Border Security

Force and the police in the Bastar region of Chhattis-

garh? Are these simply acts of desperation by a weak-

ening force that is seeking to reassure its own cadre of

its “potency” despite the organisational setbacks and

loss of strike power?

The war against Maoists and their attempts at retal-

iation have formed a familiar pattern over the past few

years. Their actions are increasingly part of a futile war

against the Indian state that has resulted only in rising

casualties and interminable harm to the tribals whose

interests they purportedly seek to represent. As the

paramilitary and security forces in Chhattisgarh have

gradually sought to retain “control” over Maoist

strongholds, and their operations have resulted in the

incarceration and death of several Maoist leaders, the

rebels have reacted with sporadic “counter-offen-

sives”, mostly ambushes. These are common in the

summer months when they waylay and kill security

personnel. This in turn invites the state to prolong its

military campaigns and use strong-arm methods to

“cleanse” villages. Perhaps the Maoists think this is a

viable strategy, a way to “expose the nature of the

state”, which would help them mobilise and enlist

more adherents to their “cause”. But the futility of their

violent pursuit is only becoming clearer by the day as

there has been no upturn in support for them following

the actions of the state. Their drive has only brought

growing woes to the tribal people. The state may be

able to withstand setbacks and continue to deploy

more forces for the task. But governments both at the

Centre and in the States must realise that there has to

be another way out — going beyond a purely militaristic

and bloody solution.

Fighting a futile war

‘100% Maharashtrian’Though none disputes the right ofwriter Shobhaa De to hold opinionson matters of her choice, she shouldalso learn to respect the freedom ofan elected State government tolegislate and bring in laws (April14). Reckless tweeting bycelebrities does cause tempers torun high, more so when the issuetweeted concerns actions of a partyknown to sensationalise mattersheld close to its heart.

Journalistic heroism should bediscrete so as not to stir upcontroversies. Many States haverestrictive laws on linguisticpreferences related to motionpicture exhibition and also inmatters concerning the medium ofeducation and communicationchannels with the masses. If theMaharashtra government choosesto encourage the screening ofMarathi films in the State, one mayfeel irked but one cannot be bitterabout it and vent on public forumsand social media. Ms. De could haveavoided the situation leading to anissuance of privilege notice by theMaharashtra Assembly. She may benoted for being forthright and firmbut she is not on a strong wicketthis time around.

Sivamani Vasudevan,Chennai

Future Rafale dealsThe decision by the Indiangovernment to purchase 36 Rafalefighters in a “flyaway condition”may have cut the red tape (“FutureRafale deals will be direct, saysParrikar,” April 14) and might havebrought some cheer to the IAF, butit also raises the larger issue about

our medium- and long-termpolicies on defence procurement.Unlike the earlier deadlockednegotiations for 126 Rafales, thepresent deal neither involves atransfer of technology norintellectual property whichdeprives HAL of any technologybenefit and makes our dependenceon the French company for all post-sale/delivery maintenanceincluding the supply of spares allthe more greater. This should be amatter of deep concern. With thisstep also impacting the catchy“Make in India” campaign, theprivate sector, which was assuredof a greater role by the presentgovernment in the defence sector,may also have valid reason to bedisappointed now.

S.K. Choudhury,Bengaluru

Someone should tell the PrimeMinister that this aircraft wascreated and launched in the market15 years ago. Until now, France hasnot been able to sell even a singleaircraft to the world. It was innegotiations with Brazil and Perufor a sale but both countriesbacktracked. There are manyreasons for this commercial flop: itshigh cost and near obsoletetechnology. President Hollandemust be celebrating his success!

Santhosh Veranani,Puducherry

The government’s move ispragmatic. It simply made no sensein sticking to the original dealconsidering that the cost of theproject had escalated to over $20billion from its original cost of $12billion, when the tender was first

floated in 2007. Besides, the dealhad run into rough weather, withthe French company refusing totake “full responsibility” for theover 100 fighters to bemanufactured by HAL underlicence at Bengaluru. One hopesthat government-to-governmentdeals will now prove to be agamechanger.

N.J. Ravi Chander,Bengaluru

On ‘encounters’The article on human rights, byKalpana Kannabiran (“Somethingis rotten in the States of…”, April 13)seemed to be one-sided. Where arethe so-called human rights activistswhen security personnel werecornered in a Maoist attack? TheNalgonda and Seshachalam casesare being judged on the basis of amedia trial by rights activists. Noone knows what exactly happenedon the ground. Until the inquiriesare complete, they should restrainthemselves from passingjudgements.

Swayambhu Mishra,Pokhariput, Odisha

I found the article to be biased anddeviating from the core issue. Itpresents the police to be trigger-happy in general and completelyignores their plight. It should alsotake into account that every act ofmass violence is a reflection ofinequality, poverty, illiteracy,mistrust and anger embedded inour society. What we need is not thealienation of the police from themasses but for there to be opencommunication and cooperation.

Manas Ranjan Behera,Kharagpur

An IndiannessThe focus of the article, “AnIndianness that needs no Aadhar”(April 14), seems to be on theperceived anti-minority policy ofthe BJP.

The writer has to be remindedthat the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 didnot happen under a BJPgovernment and that inter-casteclashes in many parts of thecountry have been a frequentphenomenon irrespective of whichpolitical party is in power. Thespate of recent incidents could havethe backing of fringe elements whomay not be acting at the behest ofthe BJP.

Vikram Sundaramurthy,Chennai

We will have to eschew the Singhsand live with the Nandys and that isthe essence of Indianness. Irecollect my grandmother tellingme that she was taught Carnaticmusic by a music teacher who was aChristian. Yousef Ali Kecheri, thepoet and lyricist who passed awayrecently was a scholar in Sanskrit.In the erstwhile Travancoreuniversity, students withMalayalam as the second languagewere to study a prescribed chapterfrom the Adhyatma Ramayanam, inorder to appreciate the language ofthe poet Ezhuthachan and thevalues of life enshrined therein. Itwas taught by professors of allreligions. All this is in contrast towhat would happen now if the Gitawas proposed to be prescribed forschools; a spar would ensue sayingit is a violation of secularism.

K.R. Unnithan,Chennai

Reviving the LeftThe letters on the comments byCPI(M) leader Sitharam Yechury,on reviving the party, wereinteresting. There is no doubt thatthe CPI(M) should rediscover itselfurgently. However it is factuallyincorrect,as one letter writer did, tosay that Kerala has not achievedany progress under communistrule. If Kerala ranks high in socialindicators, it is in no small measuredue to the influence of communistideology in the State. Judging theperformance of communist-ledgovernments in Kerala will ofcourse depend on one’s perceptionof what constitutes development.

Manohar Alembath,Kannur

The interview with Mr. Yechury(April 12) did not spell out anyconcrete steps to bring theCommunist Party of India(Marxist) closer to the hearts of thepeople, especially the poor and themiddle classes. The working class isthe backbone of any communistmovement. Unfortunately, inIndia, the Left is divided and losingstrength. The trade unions are alsonot diligent in keeping a check onthe government. The party shouldstrengthen its labour wings in allsectors as a first step towards massmobilisation. Also, there is nostatesman of the stature ofSankaraiah, E.M.S., or HarkishanSingh Surjeet. The current politicalscenario is now different.Communism is not against growthand development but for inclusivedevelopment.

C.R. Ananthanarayanan,Bengaluru

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Whether it is the vada pav protest by its

activists against Shobhaa De or the pro-

vocative article penned by its MP Sanjay

Raut urging disenfranchisement of Mus-

lims, the Shiv Sena seems to be returning to an intoler-

ant form of Marathi chauvinistic politics. But the Sena

is not alone with this brand of politics: Raj Thackeray’s

Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) is also a claimant

for the same political space, and the Bharatiya Janata

Party’s Maharashtra unit is doing its best to be seen as

the foremost champion of Marathi language and cul-

ture. The Devendra Fadnavis government’s “diktat” to

multiplexes to allot prime-time slots for Marathi cine-

ma, its lobbying for classical language status for Ma-

rathi, and the celebration of the Jnanpith for writer

Bhalchandra Nemade are all part of the BJP’s efforts to

be seen as an alternative, not only to the Congress but

also to the Sena. Without doubt, the Sena was feeling

the build-up of pressure from its rivals and its allies in

equal measure. After the demise of founder Bal Thacke-

ray, the Sena was on the threshold of a defining change:

many predicted that the party would collapse after

Thackeray, or would split vertically with a section join-

ing the more strident MNS. But the soft-spoken Uddhav

Thackeray held the party together with his aggressive

leadership style, and toured the State extensively before

the Assembly election, connecting with its own mass

base and stressing on the core issues that have tradi-

tionally defined the party. The Sena was thus able to

hold its own against a resurgent BJP, which was riding

the crest of a Modi wave.

But, despite the recent successes of its proven chau-

vinistic methods, there is a strong churn within the Shiv

Sena as Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aaditya emerges as a

forceful leader. Aaditya has been propagating a certain

development agenda, and talking of expanding the Shiv

Sena nationally. His campaign against destruction of

green cover at the Aarey Milk Colony for a Metro pro-

ject and his call for greater participation of citizens in

the Mumbai Development Plan played a role in Chief

Minister Fadnavis staying the implementation of these

projects. As Aaditya assumes a greater role in the party

and a line of second-generation Sena leaders takes

charge, the Sena should shed its old skin and embrace

the change within. Otherwise, the party would find it

difficult to manage its relations with the BJP, its part-

ner in government both at the Centre and in the State.

And, in its efforts to continue to appeal to its old support

base, the party might fail to win any new converts from

among the youthful middle class of Maharashtra.

Will the Sena shed its skin?

CARTOONSCAPE

CMYK

ND-ND

THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015

8 THE HINDU THURSDAY, APRIL 16, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The IMF’s forecast that India’s growth will

overtake China’s this calendar year and the

next is cause for neither surprise nor eu-

phoria. China is deliberately cooling off, after

more than two decades of high growth. Meanwhile,

India’s purported shift away from consumption-driven

growth towards investment is expected to generate the

conditions for sustained high growth. But the ‘ele-

phant’ has a long way to go before it can catch up with

the ‘dragon’. China’s compounded annual growth rate

was over 10 per cent between 1990 and 2013, while the

best that India achieved was about 9 per cent, between

2003 and 2009. China’s double-digit growth helped it

emerge as the world’s manufacturing hub and enabled

it to bring about major reduction in poverty levels,

besides ensuring a far higher level of literacy and better

health and living standards than India’s. India needs to

grow at 7 to 8 per cent for at least a decade to create jobs

for the 12 million people entering the market each year

and generate resources to improve physical and social

infrastructure. A quarter of India’s households have no

electricity, whereas China has full coverage. India’s

literacy level at 74 per cent is way below China’s 95 per

cent: India’s so-called ‘demographic dividend’ is thus in

question. India’s infant mortality rate of 43 per thou-

sand live births is thrice that of China’s. And, China’s

per capita income, at about $3,500, is more than three

times India’s levels. India will not be able to sustain its

investment thrust and reach China’s levels unless its

present savings rate, at about 30 per cent of GDP,

against China’s 51 per cent, improves. India must boost

household savings by improving employment and fi-

nancial inclusion, and keep inflation in check. A policy

environment that encourages ‘Make in India’ can help.

Yet, in trying to become a manufacturing hub, it is

important for India to learn from China’s experience.

China’s investment-to-consumption transition (or

from exports to domestic demand) has been prompted

by a prolonged slump in the advanced economies. But

the shift is proving slow and painful because of a manu-

facturing model that has relied on keeping wage costs

unduly low. A domestic demand impulse would entail a

shift towards high-value, high-wage manufacture, as in

Japan. China’s investment in human capital and scien-

tific research is what works here. The second cause for

the government not pushing growth aggressively is a

real estate bubble that needs to be deflated slowly. And

finally, China can no more afford to ignore the envi-

ronmental effects of unbridled industrialisation. Its air

and water pollution levels are alarming. India shares

many of China’s vulnerabilities, but not its strengths. It

should lift domestic demand, go for a ‘growth-plus’

approach – and, above all, not be swayed by those who

reduce development to a game of numbers.

A tale of twocountries

Ambedkar’s legacyThe overnight enthusiasm ofparties of every hue to lay claim toB.R. Ambedkar’s legacy reflectstheir quicksilver political strategy(“With eye on Dalit votes, partiesline up to celebrate Ambedkar,”April 15). Given that “Babasaheb”was a strong critic of the existingcaste hierarchy in Hindu societyand who even criticised eliteHindus for their discriminationagainst Dalits, one finds it hard toaccept that even some in the rightwing are trying to stake a claim. It iswell known that the Congresssupported a strong Dalit candidatefrom the Bombay constituency toensure Ambedkar’s defeat. Dalitelectorate is wise enough to knowthe distinction betweenappeasement politics and genuinepolitics.

Bhanu Shekhar,New Delhi

Present day politics isopportunistic. Every party that hassuddenly rediscovered Ambedkarhas never found, nor will, find thecourage to adopt his values.Ambedkar envisioned a societywithout caste but politics todaydoes not allow caste to fade away;Ambedkar lay emphasis on socialand economic equality but partiestoday are least concerned about

this. He was also a man of ideals,while today’s generation ofpoliticians forgets its words thenext minute. Instead of trying tocash in on the values of Ambedkar,politicians must imbibe and adopthis values in deed.

Badal Jain,Jalgaon, Maharashtra

While there are numerous reportson countrywide celebrations ofAmbedkar’s 124th birthanniversary, there is no mention ofhow he suffered as a youth. Heencountered prejudice after joiningElphinstone College, Bombay, in1908, as the first “untouchable”student. Even 45 years later,Ambedkar felt deeply humiliatedwhen he recounted, rathertearfully, to my father, N.L Ahmad,who was the Principal ofElphinstone College, that fellowstudents refused to mix with him oreven talk to him. Ambedkar wasinvited in the early 1950s to be thechief guest at the annual day of thecollege when he recalled this andhis early student days.

Jawid Laiq,New Delhi

Growing terror arcThe fears expressed by the writer(“A savage new world of terrorism,”April 15), about Indian Muslimsfalling into the trap of extremist

Islam are not unfounded. In timeswhen even educated people areunable to stay aloof from suchissues, it doesn’t require much of animagination to know how easy itwould be to indoctrinate the lesserprivileged and uneducatedsections. The careless commentsmade by some political parties willonly aid this process. Moreover,with the penetration of socialmedia to almost every level, itbecomes even easier for this tohappen. One only hopes that thepolitical class continues to exhibittrust and confidence in IndianMuslims.

Shagufta Arshi,Deoria, Uttar Pradesh

Though the writer has pointed outthat the core theology remains theSaudi theologian, Abdul Wahab’sdoctrinaire teachings, he appears tohave missed a point. Abdul Wahab’steachings became popular as areaction to European colonialism.The colonies became independentnations after World War II andWahhabism went into dormancy. Itwas the U.S. that awakened thedormant Wahhabism to fightagainst the Soviet Union under thebanners of the Mujaheddin firstand the al-Qaeda later. While the“IS is exploiting the tragiccircumstances of Syria and Iraq toenlarge the area of its Caliphate”,

we cannot ignore that the “tragiccircumstances of Syria and Iraq”were created by the U.S. and itsWestern allies. Another point isrelevant here. The IS phenomenonand Islamic terrorism are religious-political problems. Comparing itwith a “viral infection” will onlycreate more acrimony in the mindsof the innocent and peace-lovingbelievers.

N.M. Mohammed Ali,Thiruvananthapuram

The writer’s take on terrorism is ablatant example of fear-mongeringand wide generalisations in hisreferences to the internationalMuslim community which is adiverse, heterogenous group. Itpoints, yet again, to the media’seagerness to tar an entirecommunity. While it is true that theIS and its subsidiaries are a horriblemanifestation of Islam and anabhorrence that needs to bequelled, the simplistic allegationsof the writer do nothing to analysethe motivations of thesemovements. Instead, his piece isone more in the long line of articlesperpetuating Huntington’s ‘Clashof the Civilizations’ theory. Hisresearch is severely compromised ifall he has is “reliable westernestimates” that suggest that“almost 27 per cent of all Muslimsin the West are inclined toward the

IS”. Why add to the discriminationagainst a minority community,which in India, is already battlingwith a hostile government at theCentre? Most young Muslims inIndia and the rest of the world wantto go about their lives peacefully,devoid of conflict and violence.

Shazia Andaleeb,Chennai

Net neutralityIn the present times, it can be verywell said that the “Internet isfreedom” as it has the tendency tomake a person believe that nothingin this world is beyond his/herscope of achieving it. Now thebigger question ahead of us is this:are we free enough? What liesahead of us is how, as a democracy,we fight for our rights asconsumers. Life in India today iscontradictory.

On one hand we have a visionarygovernment focussing on a “Makein India”, and on the other we havetelecom and e-commerce giantswho envision a competition-freemarket by scraping net neutralityand trying to have it set up as aroadblock against new start-ups.TRAI needs for every citizen tosupport net neutrality. We need toexpress our views and save theInternet.

Seshan Iyer,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

It is no surprise to see online retailer Flipkart

pulling out of Airtel Zero, the controversial plan

offered by India’s leading telecom provider Bhar-

ti Airtel to provide its subscribers free access to

select websites. Flipkart had to contain the fallout after

Airtel Zero was severely criticised by the proponents of

Net neutrality, the principle that all Internet traffic has

to be treated equally. The e-retailer faced a severe

backlash on social media over its decision to join Airtel,

and even had its app down-rated on app stores by

die-hard Net neutrality advocates. For all the pro-Net

neutrality utterances it makes now — ironically, Airtel

also does so — what is still a surprise is what made it join

the platform in the first place. Flipkart did so dis-

regarding the wave of support for Net neutrality that

has been sweeping across India following the recent

publication of a consultation paper on it by the Telecom

Regulatory Authority of India. Politicians, celebrities

and the common person alike have joined the cause. Did

it not occur to Flipkart that its own success until now

could not have been possible but for an open Internet?

Was it pushed into such a deal by private equity in-

vestors who have pumped in a few billion dollars into

the business in recent years? Or was it emboldened by

the relative silence of Net neutrality supporters on a

similar scheme, which goes by the name of internet.org?

Facebook introduced internet.org a few months ago

to subscribers of Reliance Communications. Airtel Zero

and internet.org are very similar schemes. Airtel would

know; it is Facebook’s partner in Africa. The only differ-

ence is in positioning. Internet.org is presented as an

attempt to make the Internet available to those who

don’t have access to it. There is no denying that many in

India still do not have Web access. But the actors in

internet.org are all commercial enterprises, as they are

in Airtel Zero. The list includes Facebook, Reliance

Communications, and many of the nearly three dozen

Indian content and news sites, some of which have been

vocal in their support for Net neutrality. Many of their

business models are based on their ability to accumu-

late bigger audiences and more readers. Such free plans,

also called zero-rating plans wherein the subscriber

gets access to select sites, are deemed to be against Net

neutrality and banned in countries such as Chile. What-

ever made it join Airtel Zero in the first place, Flipkart is

now making the right redemption noises, leaving Airtel

in the lurch. The dramatic pullback has given support-

ers of Net neutrality more ammunition, much more

than would have been the case had Flipkart not decided

to join Airtel Zero in the first place.

Blow for Netneutrality

CARTOONSCAPE

The debate over the moves by theCentral and the Jammu and Kash-mir governments to resettle Kash-miri Pandits in Kashmir is one that

will only bring pain to any well-wisher of theState. To understand this, one has to go backin time, when the second half of the 1980ssaw Kashmir spiral out of control, gripped byviolence, suspicion and dread. What had be-gun as an ethnic conflict was soon imparted areligious colour by Pakistan’s Inter-ServicesIntelligence (ISI). The Pandits, a Hindu mi-nority in the Kashmir Valley, were targetedby the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front(JKLF), even though the organisation hadsought to build on the original secular foun-dations of the National Conference, and bythe Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, a secessionist out-fit, which sparked their exodus. By 2008,their population, as assessed by the Kash-miri Pandit Sangharsh Samiti (KPSS), wasreduced to 651 families from 75,343 familieson January 1, 1990. Nearly 70,000 familiesfled in the turmoil of 1990-92, and eventhough the violence was brought under con-trol, most of the remaining families leftthereafter.

Years of turmoil

By 1990 — I was Special Commissioner,Anantnag, in South Kashmir then — the pub-lic had ceased to visit government offices.But in early March, several hundred peoplefrom the Nai Basti neighbourhood went tothe Special Commissioner’s office in Khan-nabal demanding to see me. Because of thedisturbed circumstances, I had set up officeand residence in the rest house in the districtheadquarters. Mohammad Syed Shah, gen-erally known as Syed Shah, the brother of theseparatist leader, Shabbir Shah, and MuslimUnited Front (MUF) member of the dis-solved State Assembly, demanded to knowwhy Pandits were leaving en masse and inturn why the administration was doing noth-ing about it. Mr. Shah accused the adminis-tration of encouraging the migration so thatthe Army would be left free to unleash itsheavy artillery on all habitations.

When I asked the delegation if it believedthat I would be party to such a plan, this wastheir response: ‘I had been kept in the dark,while they were privy to “secret” informa-tion’.

That the Pandits were apprehensive washardly surprising, I said. Places of worship,like the one in Anantnag, where the majoritywent, were being used to issue threats tothem over loudspeakers. I learnt later thatthese inflammatory sermons, and their re-verberating public applause, were audio re-cordings circulated to mosques to be playedover loudspeakers at prayer time. LocalMuslims needed to reassure the Pandits of

their safety, I said. The administrationwould provide security whenever a threat tothe Pandits was anticipated, but how effec-tive it would all be would depend on un-stinted public support, given that theresidences of the Pandits were scattered.The gathering concurred and dispersed.

I requested State Governor Jagmohanthat he appeal to the Pandits, in a telecast,that they stay on in Kashmir, and assurethem of their safety on the basis of the assur-ances of the Anantnag residents. Unfortu-nately, the only announcement to this effectwas that “refugee” camps were being set upin every district, and Pandits who felt threat-ened could move to them rather than leavethe Valley. Pandits in service who felt threat-ened were free to leave their stations; theywould continue to be paid their salaries. Irelate this story because the present flurry ofallegations brings a sense of déjà vu. ThePandits — more than 1,20,000 in the early1980s — numbered about 7,000 in the Kash-mir Valley, in 2005.

Talk of a return

There has been much talk of the return ofKashmiri “migrants” to their homes in the

Valley ever since an elected governmenttook office in the State in 1996. The sep-aratist leaders, Mirwaiz Omar Farooq andShabbir Shah, have repeatedly asked theKashmiri migrants to return. But every timethe issue would be raised at the nationallevel, Pandits in the Valley would be attackedbrutally and the issue would be put on theback burner.

Any talk, therefore, of their return willcontinue to be pointless unless those livingin the Valley are secure, physically and eco-nomically. By 2003, the Pandits were scat-tered across 270 neighbourhoods in townsand villages. They soon formed a non-gov-ernmental organisation, the Hindu WelfareSociety, which attempted to document thelocations and requirements of their breth-ren. This body managed to stop another exo-dus after 23 Pandits were killed in Nadimargvillage in early 2003. At the time, the de-mands of the Valley Pandits were simple: ahouse in a secure locality and jobs for 500

men and women. They were grateful forMuslim support and the main reason fortheir staying back was also the need to pur-sue a livelihood. Their only complaint: offi-cial apathy to their plight. Although the StateChief Secretary in 2005-2006, Vijay Bakaya,also a Pandit, was willing to lend them a ear,the State administration remainedunresponsive.

Data and reality

On June 21, 2008, on a visit to Srinagar, Imet three large groups of Pandits who hadstayed on in the Valley; two were from twogroups of the Hindu Welfare Society, Kash-mir (which had split by this time), and thethird, from the KPSS. I had called for themeeting to urge them to come together toplace their requirements before the govern-ment rather than pursue separate roadmaps.

I was presented an interim census reportby the KPSS, and financed by members of thePandit diaspora, covering 62 mohallas ofAnantnag, Bandipore, Baramulla, Budgam,Ganderbal, Kulgam, Kupwara, Pulwama,Shopian and Srinagar, as well as a consoli-dated survey of land. The conclusions, al-

though subject to reverification, werealarming. The number of Pandits in the Val-ley was just 3,000. While there was somerecord of buildings having been occupied bythe security forces — houses for which theowners were receiving rent — there was noconsolidated record of land and property ofthis group, which was of justiciable “munsif’quality. There was no record of the proper-ties attached to temples, those encroachedupon, those leased out, or under occupation.The groups came up with varying data onunemployed youth, as their job prospectswas a primary concern. On another occasion,they had spoken of children castigating par-ents for having stayed back in Kashmir. Sad-ly, I learnt that there were about 150 familiesin the outlying areas who faced penury.However, these numbers were not an undulycumbersome figure as far as their employ-ment potential in the State services in theValley was concerned. I received a final list,of 200 young men and women, from the

Hindu Welfare Society in April 2010.Let’s get back to the present. In a reply to a

question asked recently in Parliament, theUnion Minister of State for Home Affairs,Kiren Rijiju, said that the Centre had an-nounced a package of Rs.1,618.40 crore in2008 for the return and rehabilitation ofmigrant Kashmiri families, which included agrant for the purchase or construction ofhouses, renovation of damaged or dilapidat-ed houses, construction of transit accommo-dation, and cash relief and employment.“The package is being implemented by theJammu and Kashmir government and tillnow, one family has returned to the valleyavailing the benefit of Rs.7.5 lakh for con-struction of house,” Mr. Rijiju had said in awritten reply.

Further, as many as 1,474 State govern-ment jobs had been provided to newly ap-pointed migrant youths who stayed in newlyconstructed 1,010 transit accommodationsin south, east and north Kashmir.

Central package

In reply to another question, Mr. Rijijusaid that at present, 60,452 families of Kash-miri migrants were registered in the coun-try, of whom 38,119 were in Jammu, 19,338in Delhi and 1,995 families in other States.Migrants mainly comprised Kashmiri Pan-dits and Sikhs.

This is the culmination of the Prime Min-ister’s successive packages for the rehabil-itation of Kashmiri Pandits, announced in2004 and 2008. Along with ID cards beinggiven to the migrants, these steps havebrought them much needed recognition. Inthe first of these packages, 5,242 two-roomtenements were constructed in Jammu, and200 at Sheikhpora in Budgam district of theValley. Of these 200 flats, initially construct-ed for migrants from the Valley, 31 have beenallotted to local migrants within the Valley,including Pandits. But it didn’t meet withsuccess as Sheikhpora is not near the town.

This was acknowledged by Mufti Moham-mad Sayeed in his last tenure as Chief Minis-ter, when he said that there would no longerbe communally exclusive townships. Itdoesn’t require much imagination to realisethat apart from the danger of ghettoisation,such a step would render the Pandit commu-nity vulnerable. But the present initiative,while building on the earlier ones, seems tohave been arrived at without consultationwith the community.

Even in the unlikely event of the Panditsresolving to return, the numbers provided byMr. Rijiju would scarcely overwhelm theValley. However, what would those return-ing do? What does one do to earn a living? In2012, as Chairman, National Institute ofTechnology (NIT), Srinagar, I had visitedJammu to request migrant teachers and staffto return to Srinagar, where the NIT hadbeen headed by a Pandit. All of them rejectedthe idea.

Looking ahead

The answer lies in going much further.What I told my Kashmiri interlocutors fromNai Basti, Anantnag, in 1990, still holds true.The ground situation in the Valley may notreflect a threat to returning Pandits, but it isthe responsibility of Kashmiris within theValley to reassure those returning of theirwelcome. There can be no quibbling overthis.

There has been a long-standing demandfor a Minorities Commission in the Statealong the lines of the National Commissionfor Minorities (NCM), and supported by atleast two past Chairpersons of the NCM,including myself. The State government hasbeen receptive but little has been done. Thisalone will not encourage the return of mi-grants.

In the long term, a meaningful plan for theState must include foreign direct investmentand development in the form of the much-talked about smart cities, which can be thenew townships. This will encourage youngKashmiris, many of whom have achieved ex-cellence in their chosen fields, to invest andthink of a new life in Kashmir, providinglivelihoods and living space to others.

As peace returns in large measure to Kash-mir, is it not time that it joins the rest of thecountry in marching ahead and in usheringin the economic revolution that all Indianslook forward to?

(Wajahat Habibullah is the author of MyKashmir: The Dying of the Light.)

Return to a lost paradise?Even though the ground situation in the KashmirValley may not reflect a threat to KashmiriPandits who choose to return, it is theresponsibility of Kashmiris within the Valley toreassure those returning of their welcome

Wajahat Habibullah

There has been a long-standing demand for a Minorities

Commission in the State along the lines of the National

Commission for Minorities

CMYK

ND-ND

FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015

8 THE HINDU FRIDAY, APRIL 17, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The split verdict by a two-judge Bench of the

Supreme Court on the appointment of a Spe-

cial Public Prosecutor is likely to further de-

lay the disposal of the appeal filed by former

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa and three oth-

ers against their conviction for corruption. For Ms.

Jayalalithaa, who is keen on a clean chit well ahead of

next year’s Assembly elections, any delay will be un-

welcome. The court being divided on the validity of the

appointment of G. Bhavani Singh as SPP is not by itself

a matter of concern, as it can be resolved by a three-

judge Bench; the development has thrown up the possi-

bility of the entire hearing in the Karnataka High Court

— which had concluded with the verdict remaining

reserved — being required to be repeated. The Bench

had allowed the appeal hearing to go on while it was

deliberating on Mr. Singh’s appointment. It was clear

that any order invalidating Mr. Singh’s appointment

would automatically mean the matter would have to be

heard afresh. That prospect still exists, as a three-judge

Bench could well agree with Justice Madan B. Lokur’s

ruling against Mr. Singh’s appointment. A simpler

course would have been to stay the High Court hearing

until the prosecutor’s status was resolved. Also, the

Karnataka government and the intervener, DMK gen-

eral secretary K. Anbazhagan, could have obtained an

early clarification from the Supreme Court on who

would represent the prosecution in the High Court.

The issue was agitated by Mr. Anbazhagan in the

High Court, first before a single judge and later a

Division Bench, and it finally landed up in the Supreme

Court. The legal position was always clear: that once a

case is transferred from one State to another, the trans-

feree State alone is competent to appoint the prosecu-

tor. Yet, Mr. Singh began to represent the prosecution

in the appeal based on an order passed by the Tamil

Nadu government. Karnataka took the stand that its

role had ended with the conduct of the trial, and that it

did not take steps to consult the Chief Justice of the

High Court and appoint a prosecutor for the appeal.

However, a High Court Bench said Mr. Singh was

entitled to be the prosecutor as Section 301 of the CrPC

says a prosecutor appointed for a case could appear

without written authority in other proceedings arising

out of it. Justice R. Banumathi accepted this view and

upheld Mr. Singh’s appearance, but Mr. Justice Lokur

did not. The outcome of the proceedings before a larger

bench will determine whether the High Court will have

to re-hear the appeal or pass its verdict straight away.

The public cannot be blamed if there is an impression

that the judiciary itself is only muddling its way

through a tangle created over the years.

Yet another twist

Flag incidentThat the Pakistan flag was raisedon Indian soil at a rally in Srinagareven as there is a general defianceand unwillingness by the Jammuand Kashmir government to actagainst the open anti-India movesby separatist elements is bothshameful and shocking (“Pakistanflag raised at J&K rally”, April 16).Such an act, which amounts toopen sedition, is unacceptable andunpardonable. It is hard to believethat the Chief Minister would nothave known about what was totranspire at the rally. What issurprising is that the BJP is rathernonchalant. Will it now rethink itsalliance with the PDP in the State?

K.R. Srinivasan,Secunderabad

One must recall that when the BJPtried to unfurl the Indian tricolouron January 26, 2011 at Srinagar’sLal Chowk, it was thwarted by thedistrict administration! The openchallenge to the Indian state mustbe put down firmly especially whenone realises that so many bravemen of our armed forces havesacrificed their lives in the last 20years to bring down insurgency inthe State.

Kangayam R. Narasimhan,Chennai

The happenings at the rally are aclear indication that the StateChief Minister is gettingemboldened by the day certain thatthere will be no action against hisgovernment despite clearprovocations. In fact, all those whotook part in the Srinagar rally mustbe arrested and booked for treason.The BJP must show some spine

and come out of the coalition lest itbe accused of clinging to power atthe cost of the nation’s pride.

Vijay Dabade,Secunderabad

Finally, a ParivarThe coming together of the JanataParivar as a merged ‘unit” (April16) will not appeal to the commonman. The original Janata Party ledby JP was for a noble cause andbased on a constructive andprogressive agenda; it was againstatrocities committed during theEmergency, and dynastic rule.Here we see the same mistakesbeing perpetrated by so-calledJanata units in Uttar Pradesh,Karnataka and Bihar wheredynastic politics is the rule ofthumb. We have never seendevelopment or programmes toalleviate poverty in the Statesconcerned. What one sees insteadis misrule and the division ofpeople on the lines of caste andreligion. These parties shouldrealise their follies and offer cleanand corruption-free rule.

Haragopal,Hyderabad

The Parivar appears to be arepetition of the mistake theCongress made in the 2014 generalelection. Here, the unificationappears to be around the soleobjective of dethroning the BJP-led government. The aim of theCongress was to make NarendraModi its sole target; the result isthere for all to see. Let the socialistconglomerate not make the samemistake and lose whatever supportbase it has left in the cow belt.

Vineet Phadtare,Mumbai

A homecomingIt is indeed a funny idea to have aseparate colony for the KashmiriPandits to return to and stay inJammu and Kashmir (“Return to alost paradise?” April 16). Thepermanent solution lies in creatinga congenial atmosphere for theirreturn and by assuring the locals oftheir share of employment andeconomic opportunities. Building“colonies” may be a tokenprogramme but it does not alter thestatus of isolation for the Pandits.

A.G. Rajmohan,Anantapur

The Pandits were given threechoices by the terrorists — to leaveKashmir, to convert to Islam or bekilled. It is no surprise then thatthe hapless community abandonedhome and hearth, and left for otherparts of the country. The trustbetween the Pandits and Muslims,built over centuries, was shattered.

Regaining this love and lost trustmust be the goal, but which will bedifficult if there is a separateenclave for them. The return of thenatives should not remain a pipedream.

M.K.B. Nambiar,Mahe

The idea of separate clusters is agood one. If the Pandits arescattered over the Valley, it willinvite attacks once again.

Separate and gated community-type clusters with adequatesecurity is a must till such time asthe Pandits find it comfortable toreintegrate themselves into themainstream.

K. Venkatesh,Hyderabad

‘Make in India’The recent deal with France to buy36 Rafale fighter aircraft is noachievement. The deal dilutes the‘Make in India’ mission whichcould have been made possible in anumber of ways. Six aircraft couldhave been purchased from Francewith the remainder assembled byHAL after its engineers weresuitably trained in France in allaspects of its design, engineeringand testing. French experts shouldhave been deputed to India tooversee all aspects. I cite this assuch a methodology was used byBHEL Bhopal, when in the 1960s, itordered 21 2000/1600/1000/800HP 8-pole synchronous inductionmotors for cement mills.Jawaharlal Nehru had the vision toset up BHEL Bhopal with Britishhelp, BHEL Hardwar with Russianhelp and BHEL Hyderabad withCzechoslovakian help to makeproducts with our Indian inputs.

S.N. Agrawal,Bengaluru

Nehru and historyThe way in which Prime MinisterJawaharlal Nehru is being attackedappears to be part of the largerdesign to defame him in a selectiveand concerted manner. Those whohave lived through his times wouldremember the extent of esteemand affection people had for him.The manner in which he is beingridiculed, as a villain, withreference to history and on chargesof “snooping”, appear to be with aneye to belittling his role in thefreedom movement. Hisstewardship of the country, frompost-Partition infancy onwards,when the foundations of all-round

development were laid, is nowbeing projected as insignificant.The way he has been attacked bythe family of Subhas Chandra Boseis distressing. Panditji was aniconic figure next only to MahatmaGandhi and we have by choicestrayed far from their path oftolerance and civility. I fear theremay soon be a time when historybooks will be rewritten and onemay find Nehru being referred to injust a paragraph. It is imperative tobring into the public domain, factsabout Partition, Kashmir, theHenderson Brooks report on theIndo-China war, and mostcertainly, the declassification of allfiles on Subhas Chandra Bose.

Vinay Narain,New Delhi

Operation RahatPeacetime exploits by the armedforces seldom receive the attentionthey deserve from the media.Thepolitical establishment canlegitimately pat itself on the backfor organising the massiveevacuation of Indians from war-hit Yemen. At the same time, themen who carried out the riskyoperations braving heavy odds andthreats — the valiant personnel ofthe Indian Navy — deserve thenation’s gratitude for a job welldone. The report, “The night thattested the Navy” (April 13), fills avoid in media coverage of the story.Operation Rahat not only testedthe operational preparedness ofthe Navy. The rescue missiondemonstrated that the Indian Navycan be counted upon to fulfil thestrategic responsibilities that thenation has placed on them.

V.N. Mukundarajan,Thiruvananthapuram

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

On April 12, Hillary Clinton moved one step

closer to becoming the first-ever woman

President of the United States. The 2016 elec-

tion will be her second presidential run. To

succeed this time she will have to eschew the theme of

“inevitability” that had crept into her bruising primaries

battle against Barack Obama in 2008, and that ultimate-

ly sank her campaign. The former First Lady was off to a

quick start in her campaign video and came out swinging

for the fences as a would-be “champion of everyday

Americans”. The implied focus on the welfare of the

middle class is a throwback to liberal Democratic values

and poses a challenge to Republican Party free-marke-

teers. It may also reflect her intention to separate her

record from that of the incumbent Mr. Obama; this was

mostly evident in her comment that “the cards are still

stacked” against the common person. Ms. Clinton is

indeed a different beast to the President, although pun-

dits predict she will borrow elements of campaign de-

sign from her former boss, and indeed the social media

strategies employed so ably by Team Modi in 2013-14.

Buttressing her nuts-and-bolts approach to campaign

management, she can be expected to project her deep

understanding of the paralysed politics of Washington,

and be unapologetic about her political pedigree.

But will all this be enough? And if it is, will she reshape

the American story to fit better into a turbulent world?

The Republican Party is not throwing up any inspiring

leaders. Among the hopefuls, Jeb Bush has the clout of

his last name but not much else. Ted Cruz is considered

to be a fringe candidate, even among Republican heavy-

weights. Marco Rubio has passable charisma and an

important connection to the Latino community, but he

would flounder if he went toe-to-toe against a much

more experienced Ms. Clinton. Though her entry into

the Oval Office is far from being a certainty as of now, the

greater challenge for her may be knowing what to do

once she gets there. She was, after all, leading the Obama

action that fumbled through the Arab Spring. Would she

do it differently a second time? The rise of Islamic State

will certainly dominate the attention of the next POTUS.

She also promised, in a 2010 speech, that the adminis-

tration would think “smart power” and focus on multi-

lateralism, regional architectures and broad-strategic

engagements with countries such as India, Russia and

China. Clearly that dream didn’t materialise. On domes-

tic policy , however, the Obama years offer hope. Just as

he tackled the inequities of the health-care system head-

on, Ms. Clinton could do much to close the gender pay

gap, tackle America’s rape crisis, and upgrade its educa-

tion system to help the millennials thrive in the work-

force. That, and much more. Her time is now.

CandidateHillary

CARTOONSCAPE

Our universities are changing. Nev-er has the pace of change been thisfast, nor the protests this loud. Onthe rare occasion that the media

take notice, the discussion usually focusseson whether or not due procedure has beenfollowed. Given our authoritarian powerstructures, it is as important to ask whetheradequate thought has gone into the initiationof the changes.

Teachers of the University of Delhi areespecially familiar with changes; the recentspate began with the introduction of the se-mester system in undergraduate teaching in2011. Although there are certain serious lo-gistical issues involved, there is nothing in-herently wrong with teaching in a semestermode. What is problematic is when the in-troduction of the system is done in a mannerin which little attention is paid to the contentof semester courses. Unfortunately, thesecourses were created by snipping the existingannual courses in half, sometimes badly.Why? There was no time to reflect on curric-ular or pedagogic issues.

An impact across India

More recently, we saw even more radicalchanges with the introduction of the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) inthe University of Delhi. There is nothing in-herently good or bad about a four-year BAprogramme. A great deal hinges on the qual-ity of the courses that form the programme.Of course, questions can be asked aboutwhether a single university in the countrycan move to a four-year system and the im-plications of an additional year’s education ina country where many students find it diffi-cult to pay even the highly subsidised fees.Anyhow, the programme was introduced in2013, again without adequate time to thinkseriously about curricular or pedagogic is-sues. And then, in the summer of 2014, it wasjust as suddenly withdrawn.

The University of Delhi is still reeling un-der the impact of all these changes, but whatis now on the cards is something even moreworrying; something that will affect not onebut all Indian universities. A communiquéfrom the University Grants Commission(UGC) dated November 14, 2014, gives cer-tain directives that were apparently dis-cussed at a retreat of the vice chancellors of

Central universities on September 12 and 13,2014; these were subsequently approved bythe Ministry of Human Resource Develop-ment. The directives require that all uni-versities follow a Choice Based CreditSystem (CBCS) from 2015 onwards. We aretold that the aim is to provide choice to stu-dents within an institution as well as “seam-less mobility across institutions” in India andabroad by adopting a “cafeteria approach”.These guidelines are apparently supposed toapply to all undergraduate and postgraduatelevel degree, diploma and certificate pro-grammes being run by Central, State anddeemed universities in India. Once again:such sweeping change, so little thought.

Affecting autonomy

There would have been no problem if thenew system only involved giving studentsgrades instead of marks. However, it gives an

all-India scale of conversion of marks intogrades which does not take into account thefact that there are radical differences be-tween the “standard” in different collegesand universities. But even this is only a smallpart of a larger package that has very seriousimplications for the autonomy of universitiesand the quality of university educationacross the country.

All universities are to have a uniformstructure of syllabi. There will be “core”courses, “compulsory foundation” courses,and “elective foundation courses” that “arevalue-based and are aimed at man-makingeducation”. This seems to be the FYUP in anew three-year, all-India garb. In the newsystem, in at least half of the core courses, theassessment will be based on examinations in

which external examiners will set and markthe papers. The new system will also have animpact on PhD programmes. Theses must beevaluated by external as well as internal ex-aminers. In the University of Delhi, whileundergraduate examination papers are cur-rently marked by teachers from across theuniversity, postgraduate assessment is donewithin the departments. In the History De-partment, we currently have three externalexaminers for PhD theses. The new diktat isset to change all this.

No say in courses

It gets worse. It is now clear that the newsystem also aims at introducing uniform syl-labi across universities in the country. Thewebsite of the UGC displays model under-graduate syllabi for various subjects, fromwhich only minimal deviation will be permit-ted. It does not specify where these syllabi

have come from. The History syllabus on theUGC website happens to be the syllabus ofthe University of Delhi, with a mishmash ofelements drawn from the old FYUP syllabus.This is the “chosen one” which will presum-ably be imposed on universities all over thecountry.

This is not in the least bit flattering. Innormal times, the process of syllabus revi-sion in our University has involved wide-ranging consultation and discussion amongall the teachers involved. It takes time —sometimes too much — but it is worth it. Forexample, the MA History syllabus was re-vised a few years ago, and the History Depart-ment has recently initiated a revision of itsBA syllabi, because teachers are convincedthat these syllabi need to be changed and

improved. Now it seems that we need notbother. Our old courses, with which we aredissatisfied, will continue and will be im-posed not only on us, but on other universi-ties in the country. In the best universities inthe world, postgraduate courses representcutting-edge approaches and research, andare tailored to the research expertise of itsteachers. The uniqueness of the profiles ofdepartments and universities rests, to a greatextent, on this. But this will no longer bepossible, will not be allowed, in our universi-ties. We teachers will no longer have a role indesigning the courses that we teach.

The changes that are envisaged in the newsystem are much more far-reaching in scopeand scale than the recently jettisoned FYUP.But in both cases, we see an attempt to bringabout radical change in a hasty manner with-out adequate thought about the rationale andlogistics, and even less time devoted to whatmatters the most — the actual content ofcourses. Many universities have already fall-en in line and have embraced the ChoiceBased Credit System, and others will nodoubt follow suit. Instead of uniform excel-lence, the result will be uniform mediocrityand a lowering of the academic standards ofour best institutions. Given the enormouslogistical problems involved in introducingtoo much change too fast, it could also in-volve a break down of our university system.

European parallel

A few months ago, while in IIT Gandhina-gar (Ahmedabad), I met a Portuguese profes-sor. In the course of our conversation, he toldme that ever since the initiation of the Bolog-na Process, academic standards had declinedand teaching was becoming increasinglymeaningless. He talked about the lack of rec-ognition given to solid academic work, teach-ers scrambling to collect “points” forpromotion, and random students walking inand out of his classes. I recognised with shockthe very changes that successive govern-ments have been trying to introduce in ourown universities. The university as cafeteriacame alive. Were we simply dealing with acase of copycat “reforms”? In that professor’sexpression of demoralisation, I recognisedthe feeling of despair that many Indian uni-versity teachers who have served their in-stitutions for many decades currently feel.Some of the talented younger teachers aremoving to private universities, but this is notan option that many senior teachers, withstrong ties of commitment to their institu-tions, would like to consider.

There is much that is wrong and rigidabout our universities, much that needs to beimproved, and it is very difficult to bringabout meaningful change. So it is easy topresent those who are initiating the recentchanges as impatient visionaries trying toreform a decrepit system. And it is easy todismiss the protesters as a group of disgrun-tled old fogeys who don’t want to keep pacewith the times. A cynical view that has beendoing the rounds for some time in universitycircles is that the so-called “reforms” are apart of a government strategy to destroy theCentral universities so that private universi-ties can flourish. One may not buy this argu-ment, but there is just too much evidence toshow that nobody in the higher echelons ofpower is thinking seriously about the qualityof higher education. Otherwise, it shouldhave been obvious that what is important isnot the canteen (suitably Indianising the po-tent metaphor) but the food that it serves.

The fate of our universities is too impor-tant to be left to the whims of individualmandarins, ministers or vice chancellors. Itis time that an Education Commission con-sisting of experienced and respected aca-demics and educationists was set up to takestock of the state of our universities and toseriously deliberate on what needs to be doneto improve the quality of education that theyimpart. But is anyone listening and does any-one care?

(Upinder Singh is Professor, Departmentof History, University of Delhi.)

Decline by degreesThe fate of our universities is too important to beleft to the whims of mandarins, ministers or vice chancellors. An education commission mustbe set up to take stock of the state of ouruniversities and their quality of education

Upinder Singh

Many universities have embraced the Choice Based Credit

System. Instead of uniform excellence, the result will be

uniform mediocrity and a lowering of the academic standards

of our best institutions.

CMYK

ND-ND

SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2015

8 THE HINDU SATURDAY, APRIL 18, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The arrest of the Kashmir separatist leader

Masarat Alam Bhat within six weeks of his

release from jail shows an early collapse of the

‘healing touch’ policy adopted by the Jammu

and Kashmir government led by the Peoples Democrat-

ic Party soon after coming to power. Mr. Alam was a

known troublemaker with the potential to instigate

violence, and little thought seemed to have gone into

the decision to let him walk free from jail after more

than four years in detention. At a rally to be addressed

by Hurriyat chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in Srina-

gar, Mr. Alam was at the head of a group of youths

shouting anti-India slogans and waving the Pakistan

flag, forcing the government to first place him under

house arrest and later take him into custody. That the

PDP and its partner in government, the Bharatiya Jana-

ta Party, were divided on how to deal with Mr. Alam was

evident from the start. Not only did the PDP fail to

consult the BJP on the issue, it appears to have under-

estimated the sinister consequences of releasing Mr.

Alam without wresting any kind of assurances from

him. If Mr. Alam’s release last month embarrassed the

BJP, his arrest now is an acceptance of failure by the

PDP, which was at pains to stress that while the released

person had a history of involvement with stone-pelting

he had never wielded a gun.

If political considerations weighed heavily in the de-

cision to release Mr. Alam, matters of practical policing

seemed to have forced the government’s hand in order-

ing his rearrest. Other than giving the hardliners in the

Kashmir dispute an opportunity to regroup, the release

and rearrest episode appears to have achieved little.

The Kashmir issue is not any closer to a solution. Politi-

cally, both the PDP and the BJP will be seen as having

bungled in this case. In a State torn by violence, flag-

waving and sloganeering might seem minor crimes, but

the Jammu and Kashmir government cannot be seen as

ignoring the anti-national implications of Mr. Alam’s

waving the Pakistan flag in the Valley. If the govern-

ment does not clamp down on this symbolic defiance, it

will only embolden the separatist forces. Political au-

tonomy for Kashmir will have to be negotiated within

the framework of India’s sovereignty, and the crack-

down following the waving of the Pakistani flag is a clear

statement of intent and purpose from both the State

and Central governments. The Masarat Alam release

and rearrest fiasco was an avoidable political miscalcu-

lation. Nothing must be allowed to undermine the cred-

ibility of a genuine political initiative from the Mufti

Sayeed administration, which should pick up the

threads of the earlier dialogue between New Delhi and

Srinagar on proposals for more autonomy for the State.

Waving the wrong flag

Rahul’s returnCongress leader Rahul Gandhi mayhave brought his nearly two-month-long mysterious “soul-searching sabbatical” to an end,and with his tottering party hopingin turn that the re-energised youngman will now lead the party withgreater vigour and skills (April 17).While the issues pending beforethe Congress will have to bedecided by the mother and sonteam, one thing is certain. InRahul’s absence, Sonia Gandhi hasshown that she can still galvanisepolitical forces against the Modigovernment. The way she led themarch to Rashtrapati Bhavanagainst the Land Acquisitionordinance and also rallied roundformer Prime Minister ManmohanSingh when Coalgate cropped upagain shows that Rahul has muchto learn.

J. Akshay,Bengaluru

What is the Congress celebratingfor? It is Sonia Gandhi who is thereal face of the Congress andcapable of cobbling together acredible front that can take on theBJP-led NDA government, now onshaky ground because of actsagainst the minorities and anti-farmer policies. If Rahul’s loyaliststry to impose his leadership on theparty, one can be certain of deeptrouble.

T. Raju,Secunderabad

Decline by degreesAs a student who experienced the“cafeteria system” of education fortwo years (“Decline by degrees”,April 17), I strongly believe thatthis system is an inappropriate fitfor our university educationsystem. It demands that thestudent apply a particular learningmethodology that should havepreceded postgraduation and onewhich needs the use of a strongfoundation in concepts. However,

it enables a student to focus on aparticular area and study it in-depth. Unless our educationsystem, from primary levelonwards, is focussed on thispattern of learning, students willfind the going to be tough.

Baquir Sadar,Hyderabad

The article is a vivid portrayal ofthe need to raise academicstandards in our universities. Asthe writer says, if the curriculumand syllabi for postgraduateprogrammes and course workneeded for the PhD scholars areframed taking into considerationthe specialisation of the teachersand the expertise that needs to bedeveloped in developing areas, itwill truly create centres ofexcellence in our universities.Programmes like ‘Make in India’will become a reality only if thehigher education system, the corefabric of a developing nation, isgiven its due and innovation andcreativity are emphasised.

M. Subbiah,Chennai

The article vividly explains thepredicament of universities withregard to the rapid changes beingbrought in the system. Changes areinevitable and essential forprogress but must come after awell-thought analysis of groundrealities. The education system is avital social indicator and the basisof our future. Any rapid change willlead to confusion. The need of thehour is to constitute a rainbowcommittee with people fromdiverse backgrounds to study thesystem and then recommendreforms suited to Indian needs.

Preeti Sharma,Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh

It is surprising to see eminentacademics coming out against theimplementation of the semestersystem only now, even when it wasfully implemented in other

universities including those inKerala for some years now. It hasspelt disaster in institutions withmediocre infrastructure andfaculty and has compelled studentsto cram for examinationsconducted every six months. Theunscientific classification ofsubjects into semester moduleswithout taking into accountstudent workload and the timeneeded to build up a knowledgebase on various subjects has onlyhelped to churn out a generation ofstudents without any concept oridea worth calling their own. Thismakes them suitable only for lowpaid intellectual jobs rather thanenabling them to become thoughtleaders.

Jeevan Dinesan,Thiruvananthapuram

Search for SaraswatiThe relationship between religionand myth depends on the nature ofthe myth; at the same time, allreligious stories are not myths(“Searching for Saraswati”, April17). The saffron parties appear tobe unnecessarily mixing upmythology with science. TheTriveni Sangam is a myth althoughHindu philosophers revere it. Asimilar confluence of rivers isbelieved to exist and revered at“Kooduthurai” in Bhavani, TamilNadu, where the rivers, Bhavaniand Cauvery, are said to be inconfluence with the mythical andinvisible river, Amirtha.

C.R. Ananthanarayanan,Bengaluru

The Haryana government’s plansto rediscover or recreate theSaraswati river are surprising. Theissue of the Saraswati’s location is acontentious one and the time hascome to shift the focus from tryingto justify an idea in religious textsto one that is based on reality.There are thousands of people whoare deprived of clean, drinkingwater and the priority of thegovernment should be to provide

them with such water instead ofwasting money on an excavationwhich may not yield any dividends.

Tabish Naqvi,Patiala, Punjab

Historian Irfan Habib’s thoughtson the Saraswati are well known.Michel Danino has written ascholarly book, The Lost River, inwhich the evidence for the river isvery clearly put forward. In Prof.Habib’s article, the irony is that thecartoon, which shows an ostrichburying its head in the sand, issomething that applies equally to“our eminent historians”. Theriver’s existence will cause themythical Aryan invasion theory towhich our historians are clingingonto, to crumble and also provethat the edifice of our country’sgreatness stands as a greatcontinuing civilisation for the last5,000 years at least. Hence, it isunderstandable that there isresistance on the part of historians,evident in the tone of mockery inthe article. The existence of theriver will at least give the countryand its youth a reason to bejustifiably proud of our ancientculture and heritage, which“eminent historians” do not wantto happen for reasons best knownto them.

Pingali Gopal,Warangal, Telangana

Nuclear energy talkThe tall claims being made by thegovernment on a potential energyevolution that is centred aroundthe use of nuclear energy, whileusing renewable energy as a token,is unfortunate (“Nuclear energyturns saffron”, April 17). The ironyis that in all the countries toured byPrime Minister Narendra Modithis time, there has been no strongemphasis on renewables. All theheadlines and articles revolvearound a “nuclear revolution”alone. Even with Germany, apioneer in the innovative use ofrenewable energy, we seem to have

missed the opportunity anddiverted our emphasis to all otherareas of cooperation.

The future does not lie in nuclearenergy anymore, whose risks havebeen well understood by almost alldeveloped countries now, andwhich have compelled them toswitch to the sustainable pathinstead. In the process, they wouldlike to pass on their outdatedtechnologies to desperate,developing countries such as ours.As a tall leader, Mr. Modi has thecapacity as well as the resources totake India on the road lesstravelled by, and one which willbring about sustainabledevelopment and even make it asource of inspiration globally.

Urvashi Yadav,New Delhi

Gujarat parallelThe attempts to rehabilitate theKashmiri Pandits who weredisplaced from Jammu andKashmir in the places where theyonce resided is a welcome step andone which was made clear in theerudite article by WajahatHabibullah, “Return to a lostparadise?” (April 16). However, Iwould like to know his response tothe state of Muslims who facedtrauma and displacement duringthe Gujarat riots in 2002. There isno concrete data on the numbers ofthose displaced and the housesdestroyed. A lone battle is beingfought by Teesta Seetalvad,secretary of the Citizens for Justiceand Peace, an organisation that isfacing numerous hurdles. TheMuslim community too should beallotted houses and rehabilitatedwith honour. It is the duty of thegovernment to ensure this. India’stolerant Constitution hasprovisions that ensure that allshould be treated equal. I wouldlike Mr. Habibullah to write aboutGujarat and push for justice andrehabilitation of the victims.

Habibullah Badsha,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.The coming together of six different elements

of the erstwhile Janata Dal in the form of a

new party, more than 20 years after splitting

away, marks a political development of some

significance. The decision to unite springs from their

abysmally poor performance in the last general election

and the need therefore to consolidate — or perish.

Nevertheless, this formation will pose a challenge to the

BJP in those very States from where the party won a

bulk of its Lok Sabha seats: Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.

Not just that, even though these parties separately were

regarded as regional parties, the new formation will

have the status and appearance of a national party,

something that only the BJP, the Congress and to some

extent the Left parties currently have. Indeed, so en-

thused was Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh

Yadav after being elected president of the new party

that he reminded journalists that whenever elements of

the Janata Parivar have united they have ruled at the

Centre, whether it was in 1989 under V.P. Singh or in

1996 under H.D. Deve Gowda. The yet-unnamed party

is in power in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and has a signif-

icant presence in Haryana and Karnataka. In the Rajya

Sabha it will be the third largest party with 30 MPs,

behind only the Congress and the BJP. In the Lok Sabha

its 15 MPs will make the party the eighth largest.

But after over five months of negotiations – and with

Assembly polls in Bihar barely half a year away – the

party still does not have a name, flag, symbol, policy

document or organisational structure: so the reunion is

not without its problems. The prime movers, the Janata

Dal (United) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal, which will

have to square up to a resurgent BJP in Bihar this year,

face an impending identity crisis. An agreement had

been virtually reached on accepting the SP’s symbol, the

bicycle, and a new name, the Samajwadi Janata Dal. But

former Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi, who

quit the JD(U) to form his own party, and Pappu Yadav,

RJD MP-turned-renegade, have staked claim to the

symbols and flags of their original parties should they

become available. This could jeopardise the new party’s

chances in Bihar, where the RJD’s ‘lantern’ and the

JD(U)’s ‘arrow’ have alternately held sway since 1990.

But these issues will be overcome, just as the new party

has decided on a federal structure that will give the

State satraps sway in their areas of influence. It remains

to be seen whether these leaders, known for their indi-

vidualism, have learned the lessons of history. But the

arithmetic — of consolidating the power of the OBCs

who constitute over half the population, most of whom

were lured away by Narendra Modi, a member of the

OBC himself — could work in the new party’s favour.

Janata convergence

CARTOONSCAPE

In 2009, when the Norwegian NobelCommittee decided that the NobelPeace Prize was to be awarded to U.S.President Barack Obama “for his ex-

traordinary efforts to strengthen interna-tional diplomacy and cooperation betweenpeoples”, and within the first year of hiselection as the American President, no one,not even the recipient himself, thought thathe deserved it. “There was a sense of surpriseand even shock,… a belief that the award waspremature, a disservice and a political liabil-ity,” said a Washington Post commentator.The Chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Com-mittee, Thorbjørn Jagland, himself, deniedthe charitable suggestion that the award wasin anticipation of Mr. Obama living up to hispromise. “We have not given the prize forwhat may happen in the future. We areawarding Obama for what he has done in thepast year,” he said.

Among the accomplishments of the NobelLaureate which were enumerated by the No-bel Committee were his Cairo speech to re-ach out to the Muslim world, and his Praguespeech, which announced his commitmentto a nuclear weapon-free world and his ini-tiatives on climate change. But none of thesewill match his recent, path-breaking movestowards Myanmar, Cuba and Iran. All Amer-ican soldiers have not come home from Af-ghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere, but the imageof the United States today is of a restrainedand reasonable power, and not of a DonQuixote tilting at windmills. Mr. Obama isnow looking more like a Nobel Laureate thanhe did in 2009.

The lifting of sanctions against Myanmareven before democracy was restored was aconcession to the military junta there. Thedramatic handshake and subsequent meet-ing with President Raúl Castro of Cuba inPanama, recently, is indeed historic. OnIran, Mr. Obama is taking major risks, havingto battle not only with Iran, but also with

Israel, Saudi Arabia and his own Congress.No other American President has taken somany initiatives with global implications in ashort time. All the deals are not done, buteach of these could lead to the ending ofsome festering conflicts and to greater eco-nomic benefits to the U.S. and others.

Mr. Obama seems to have come to realisewhat Winston Churchill knew a long timeago: “To jaw-jaw is always better than war-war.” The new Obama doctrine is that en-gagement combined with addressing coreneeds is more useful than sanctions. Break-ing isolationist policies for strategic advan-tage is the new approach of the Obamaadministration. With its immense power

and resources, the U.S. can afford to takesome calculated risks. It can also retrace itssteps if its partners fail to abide by theircommitments or adopt inimical postures.Increasing strategic depth by making con-cessions even while keeping options open isa refreshingly novel idea that Mr. Obama hasput in place.

Iran nuclear deal

Among his new initiatives, striking a dealwith Iran over its nuclear programme hasbeen the riskiest. Given the nature of theIranian regime and the volatility of its neigh-bourhood, there is no guarantee that the dealwill be implemented. The Iran nuclear dealis still a framework and there is many a slipbetween the cup and the lip. Mr. Obama

himself admits that the deal is fraught withrisks for the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia.The fact sheets and statements by the twosides are contradictory and the chances ofreconciling them before the end of June thisyear are by no means assured.

Something most fundamental to theframework like the period for which the re-strictions imposed by the agreement will lastis still unclear. The U.S. mentions 15 years,while the Iranian figure is 10 years. The pro-vision relating to the shipping out of low-enriched uranium, leaving only 300 to 500kg on Iran’s soil, and even about the destina-tion of the shipment, are vague. Some yearsago, Brazil had worked out a similar arrange-

ment, which was disowned by both the U.S.and Iran. It is also not clear how Iran wouldbe prevented from reconverting any remain-ing enriched uranium. Converting the facil-ity in Fordow into a research laboratory wasa painful decision for Iran. But, with theinfrastructure preserved there, the tempta-tion to go back to its original mission willremain.

The monitoring mechanism will be thehardest nut to crack when the deal is final-ised. The deep distrust between the twocountries will not disappear in a hurry andthe intrusive monitoring, which goes beyondthe provisions of the Additional Protocolthat Iran had accepted a long time ago, willbe hard to put in place. The InternationalAtomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reports are

replete with instances of its inspectors beingturned away from sensitive installations.The devil in the details of the monitoringmechanism will raise its head throughoutthe period of restrictions on Iran’s nuclearactivities. The selling point of the deal for theIranians is that the nuclear infrastructurewill remain intact and that the “break out”period for Iran, now two months, has beenextended only to one year for the next 15years. Iran will zealously guard this capa-bility, with its attendant effects onmonitoring.

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Kha-menei’s accusations recently, about the Oba-ma administration “lying and havingdeceptive and devilish intentions” may be totoughen Iran’s bargaining position in thenext two months, but his insistence that allsanctions must be lifted as soon as the agree-ment is signed is most unrealistic.

Mr. Obama will not be in a position to giveany such guarantee, given the position of theCongress. Moreover, there is no intention onhis part to remove the sanctions relating tohuman rights and terrorism. Since Iran’ssole motivation for the deal is to get thecrippling sanctions lifted, this may well bethe biggest hurdle in its finalisation andimplementation.

A reconnection with Cuba

The U.S. has nothing to lose by normalis-ing relations with Cuba. Cuban immigrantsin the U.S., who want to see the Cuban re-gime crushed, drove American policy so far.The Cuba policy had isolated the U.S. in itsown backyard. By winning Cuba back, theU.S. may win back some of its lost influencein Latin America. Congressmen of Cubanorigin were the greatest proponents of theblockade because of their personal animos-ity towards Fidel Castro. Cuba has not been athreat to the U.S. for quite sometime. Eventhe U.S.’s allies were not with it in the case ofthe Cuban blockade. Cuban cigars and rumcame to the U.S. through other countries. Infact, Cuba had maintained contact with theU.S. at fairly high levels through its ‘CubanInterests Section’ in the Swiss Embassy inWashington to deal basically with the Cubanimmigrants. Some Cuban diplomats wereproducts of Ivy League universities andspoke American English like natives. Nor-malisation of relations with Cuba was longoverdue and it is likely to succeed soonerthan the two sides seem to expect in theirstatements in Panama.

Calculated risk on Myanmar

The U.S.’s decision to make up with thejunta in Myanmar may appear insignificant,but given the special position of China inMyanmar, it was a calculated risk. In theshort term, Myanmar has brought economicbenefits for the U.S. and Myanmar’s owndesire to diversify its international relationshas presented a window of opportunity. Therisk is that the junta may not change itscolour and the U.S. may be compelled toreverse its policy in Myanmar.

The new Obama Doctrine has alreadybrought in changes, considered unlikelyeven a few months ago. Nobel Peace prizeshave been awarded in the past for less spec-tacular successes in foreign policy. Theaward of the Nobel Peace Prize to Obama in2009 may have been premature, but today,the decision of the Nobel committee appearsvindicated.

(T.P. Sreenivasan was the Governor for India of the IAEA from 2001 to 2004. He isthe Director General of the Kerala International Centre and the executive headof the Kerala State Higher EducationCouncil.)

Obama’s Nobel no longer undeservedNone of the accomplishments of Barack Obamawhich were enumerated by the Nobel Committeein 2009 in awarding him the Nobel Peace Prizewill match his recent, path-breaking movestowards Myanmar, Cuba and Iran

T.P. Sreenivasan

The new Obama Doctrine has already brought in global

changes, considered unlikely even a few months ago.

CMYK

ND-ND

MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015

8 THE HINDU MONDAY, APRIL 20, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The election of Sitaram Yechury as the general

secretary of the Communist Party of India

(Marxist) was seen as the inevitable elevation

of a prominent and familiar leading figure

representing the Left in the parliamentary arena. The

62-year-old Mr. Yechury was widely seen as the auto-

matic choice in the normal course. But oddly enough,

until the last moment the election to the key office in

the CPI(M) was shrouded in uncertainty. This was

because of a strong competing bid by the dominant

faction of the Kerala unit led by Pinarayi Vijayan, which

complicated matters until the very end. Ten years older

than the outgoing general secretary Prakash Karat, S.

Ramachandran Pillai could hardly have been the person

to win for the CPI(M) new recruits among India’s

youthful, expanding salaried middle-class, and the

move found little support from other States. Quite un-

like in 2005 when Mr. Karat was elected general secre-

tary, the change of guard in the CPI(M) this time does

not mark a generational shift. However, the change is no

less significant for that reason. Although of the same

generation, Mr. Karat and Mr. Yechury have come to

represent very different strands of thought in the party.

Mr. Karat is more ideological in his approach, a theorist

reluctant to compromise on core issues even when the

party enters into electoral seat adjustments with oth-

ers. Mr. Yechury believes in greater cooperation and

coordination with other secular-democratic parties and

in building a more broad-based front to deal with

changing ground realities and the growing threats to

secularism. An approach that is more accommodative

to other parties, based on the recognition of the CPI

(M)’s own weaknesses in many parts of the country, is

therefore likely. A shift towards the adoption of a native

model of socialism, situated in Indian conditions, is a

distinct possibility under Mr. Yechury’s stewardship.

The biggest challenge for the CPI(M) under Mr. Ye-

chury is recovering lost ground in West Bengal, where

both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP are on the

ascendant. Mistakes in Singur and Nandigram were

compounded by the failure to see the growing threat

from the BJP. The CPI(M) has been successful in bring-

ing left and democratic forces together on a joint pro-

gramme in States where it has had a strong presence.

Now the challenge is to help build a democratic, secular

coalition in other States and at the national level. To

this end, the party would have to reassess its attitude to

the Congress, traditionally a rival in States where it has

been in power — Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. Mr.

Yechury can be expected to formulate a pragmatic

change in the attitude of the CPI(M) to allow it to play a

part in the States where it is a contender for power and

at the all-India level, as a binding force for not only the

Left parties but also for secular and regional parties.

Promising change in CPI(M)

Jaitley interviewIt is interesting that in hisinterview to The Hindu (April 19),Union Finance Minister ArunJaitley has acknowledged theexistence of a “a few distractions”.His admission that “irresponsiblestatements of some individuals”and the “alleged attacks onchurches” fetched India a bad nameglobally must be noted by all.Development and religiousintolerance by the majority religioncannot be alternately yoked by thegovernment. Separation of religionand the state should be the mantraof nations striving for growth andgovernance.

Shanthi Bhaskar,Tiruchi

Mr. Jaitley’s statement thatindividuals causing damage to thestanding of the presentgovernment being “seriouslycautioned” is a hearteningdevelopment. The presentgovernment’s focus on the welfareplans for all people and onindustrialisation and the creationof urban-like facilities in the ruralareas may be commendable, but itcannot ignore the damage beingcaused by unwarranted, unsecularacts.

Meenakshi Pattabiraman,Madurai

Beyond the land BillRather than focus all its attentionon the dangers lurking in the Landacquisition Bill, the Congress musttake up the issue of agriculture assuch (“‘Congress will put up aunited front’,” April 19). Thebiggest problem farmers face is theunpredictable weather andunseasonal rain over the last few

weeks which has resulted inenormous crop loss output in manyStates of North India. Given such asituation, farmers may even bewilling to leave farming activities ifthey find jobs in the cities. Theremay be schemes for farmers, butthe portion of farmers who benefitfrom these is less than a tenth of thetotal farmer population. Therefore,the primary focus should be onreviving the rural economy.Debating the clauses of the landacquisition Bill can come later.

Deepali Sandhu,Chandigarh

Maoist movementOver the last few years, the largermobility of defence personnel inthe so-called Maoist belt and anincrease in the number of militaryestablishments in taking on themovement are no doubt the movesthat have changed the face of thecat-and-mouse game being playedbetween the Maoists and thegovernment (‘Sunday Anchor’ page– “The rebels strike back”, April 19).No doubt the number of Maoistattacks has come down a great deal,but this does not advocate anincrease in the number ofpolicemen as the sole reasonbehind this success. What hasadded to the success of governmentinitiatives is awareness amongtribal people along with thedwindling leadership of the rebels.It should not be forgotten that inthe name of Maoist attacks, localelements take undue advantage ofthe situation and create amisleading picture of the gravity ofthe problem.

Apart from militaryinterventions, the governmentneeds to address the basic issuesfacing tribals in the areas of healthcare, education and livelihood

issues in order to win their trustand support. At a time when theso-called “revolutionarymovement” is losing its sheen, thegovernment needs to cash in on thisopportunity by coming up withinclusive development policies andminimising the gaps incommunication.

Bhanu Shekhar,New Delhi

The articles analyse some of thereasons for the heavy casualtiesbeing incurred by the police andeven highlight the version of theMaoists. But they fail to highlightthe root cause of the problem ofinsurgency. If “feudalism” is citedas a reason for the evolution of therevolutionary groups, taking uparms is definitely not a justificationto achieve their goals. A lack ofdevelopment also cannot be ajustification. The country has seendevelopment in manyunderdeveloped pockets of thecountry largely because the peoplehere participated in the democraticprocesses. The intellectuals of thecountry should prevail upon theseideologists and try to bring theminto the mainstream ofdevelopment.

N. Ramakrishnan,Chennai

Princess-activistThe review of the book on Sophia,granddaughter of Maharaja RanjitSingh, prompts me to write thisletter (‘Book Review’ – “Theprincess turned activist”, April 19).The details about her life such asher being active in thesociopolitical arena in England, herstruggles to ensure therehabilitation of Indian Laskarsand her taking up the cause ofsuffrage for women in her country

of birth raises many questions,prime among them being why didSophia not get any recognition inIndia? How was an illustriousheroine struggling in Englandallowed to remain in oblivion byour freedom fighters andpoliticians? Isn’t she a person fit forrecognition by India?

K. Rajendran,Chennai

The surprise NobelistU.S. President Barack Obamadeserves recognition beyond justthe Nobel Peace prize for thesimple reason that he restoredhumanity’s faith in dreams nomatter what the colour of aperson’s skin or background (April18). The coveted prize wasconferred on him for the potentialto strengthen internationaldiplomacy as well help him in hisconcerted efforts to fostercooperation among people. Hisjourney to the Oval office is nolesser than Martin L. King’s marchfor equality in its impact.

Ankit Amartya,New Delhi

Apart from his moves discussed inthe article, I would also like to addthat clear signs of Mr. Obama’sefforts to move forward with peacewere visible in the overseas visits ofU.S. Vice President Joe Biden andSecretary of State Hillary Clintonto strengthen cooperation withRussia and Europe soon after Mr.Obama became President in 2009.

M.M. Nampoothiry,Alappuzha

Post-Gujarat realityThe writer (“Time to forge a post-Gujarat reality”, April 18) wantsMuslims to be pragmatic and make

compromises without gettinganything in return because a) “theyhave no other option”, b) “Mr. Modiis here to stay” and c) “RSS remote-controlled governments are likelyto become a more frequent featureof our political landscape.” Whatare Muslims doing now if they arenot being pragmatic? They are onlyseeking justice and equality ascitizens of this country. Not a daypasses without their loyalty beingquestioned by some Hindutvaideologue or other. Calls for theirdisenfranchisement and forciblesterilisation go unchallenged by theauthorities. Is it the writer’s casethat “weaker sides”, such asMuslims and Christians, shouldrealise the futility of their strugglesagainst stigmatisation because theyare not likely to succeed “given theprevailing public mood” in thecountry?

A. Faizur Rahman,Chennai

Patel statueIs a Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue(“Green clearances ignored forPatel statue project: activists”,April 19) the need of the hour? When the monolithic leader standstall in India’s history,spending crores of money on hisstatue does not augur well with the‘nation first’ policy of PrimeMinister Narendra Modi. TheGreen Bench might have someissues with the environmentalclearances for the statue, but the‘People’s Bench’ — the ultimatestrength of democracy — is by andlarge definitely not interested inhaving our coffers drained to erecta statue that is not representativeof a personality who towers aboveus all even otherwise. 

K. Pradeep,      Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Acommittee set up by the Union government to

look into the provisions of the Official Secrets

Act, 1923 (OSA) in light of the Right to In-

formation Act, 2005, had its first meeting re-

cently. This marks a step in making a transition from a

secrecy regime towards open and transparent govern-

ance. Although the move is currently entangled in spe-

cific controversies over declassifying files relating to

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, its broader and long-term

implications are of enormous significance. The legal

position is clear. Whenever there is a conflict between

the two laws, the provisions of the RTI Act override

those of the OSA. Section 22 of the RTI Act states that its

provisions will have effect notwithstanding anything

that is inconsistent with them in the OSA. Similarly,

under Section 8(2) of the RTI Act a public authority may

allow access to information covered under the OSA, “if

the public interest in disclosure outweighs the harm to

the protected interests”. It is the interpretation of ‘pub-

lic interest’ that is the challenge. National security laws

should balance the need to ensure state sovereignty with

principles of transparency and accountability.

The draconian OSA was enacted in 1923 by the British

rulers under very different political circumstances, and

it was amended post-Independence, perpetuating the

insulation of the government from public scrutiny. The

statute has provisions that are too broad and vague,

often leaving room for arbitrariness. For instance, under

Section 2(8)(d) of the Act defining a “prohibited place”,

“any railway, road, way or channel or other means of

communication by land or water…” can be notified by

the Central government as a ‘prohibited place’. Section 3

provides for penalty for spying to be imposed on anyone

who is even found in the ‘vicinity’ of a prohibited place.

Unsurprisingly, the law has been misused time and

again. V.K. Singh, who wrote a book detailing instances

of corruption, nepotism and negligence within the Re-

search and Analysis Wing, was charged with an offence

under the OSA. The court had to intervene, granting the

retired General anticipatory bail based on the finding

that nothing in the book put any national secret in

jeopardy. Dr. B.K. Subbarao, a former Navy Captain, was

put in the lock-up for months on charges of violating the

OSA. The Bombay High Court found his prosecution to

be fraudulent. Secrecy in government operations is nec-

essary, but it has to be limited by absolute necessity,

keeping the confidentiality strictly time-bound. As part

of the review, the Home Secretary will take inputs from

security agencies; to make the process more representa-

tive, civil society should also be included in the dialogue.

The secrecy regime

CARTOONSCAPE

Ihave been an unabashed admirer of

Mr. N. Chandrababu Naidu especiallywith his accomplishments as ChiefMinister of undivided Andhra Pradesh

(AP) previously. Why? He succeeded in es-tablishing AP as a progressive, informationand technology-oriented, modern educa-tional hub. He was motivated in his endeav-ours, perhaps prompted by the prominenceBengaluru was getting in this regard. In thisconnection, he had travelled far and wide tosummits and meetings to attract powerfulentrepreneurs and companies. The GDPwhich was Rs.1,700 billion at that time dur-ing his tenure in the undivided AP, around1999 (data from the EPW Research Founda-tion) is about Rs.4,574 billion now, from2014. It cannot be denied that much of thiswas due to Mr. Naidu’s exertions. Above all,he had instilled in the people of AP a sense ofbelonging and pride in the State; he madethem believe that AP was and is destined togreat heights. Unfortunately, his presentpreoccupation with the subject of capitaldevelopment in present day Andhra Pra-desh, to be called Amaravathi, in the regionbetween Vijayawada and Guntur, appears tobe dragging him down.

Farmer dispossession

The expert committee appointed by theHome Ministry under the Andhra PradeshReorganisation Act, 2014, and which I hadthe honour to chair, stated in its terms ofreference that fertile, agricultural landsshould not be touched as far as possible. Letme explain this. The entire Vijayawada-Gun-tur-Tenali-Mangalagiri (VGTM) area is re-garded as the rice bowl of AP; for that matter,it is, without doubt, one of India’s importantgranaries. Now, to take away 30,000 acres ofland from the Thullur, Tadepalli and Manga-lagiri mandals which are double crop andtriple crop yielding areas and which will re-sult in the dispossession of farmers there fortemporary financial gains is an example ofshort-sighted policy. Some farmers may ofcourse see this as a windfall, spending themonetary compensation on material goods,fancy automobiles and houses. Separately,commercial outlets are dependent on con-

sumer support. In such a situation, it is un-likely that this scale of consumer supportwill be available in the short run, of five to 10years, to support the kind of developmentthat one is seeking. The northern part ofThullur is reported to being earmarked toplay a key role in the functioning of thecapital city. Yet, the fact is that there is nomaster plan available for the so-called cap-ital city. Nothing is available online — forexample even on the AP website — making itimpossible to have an idea of what is beingplanned where.

Infrastructure development

Another point I wish to highlight is thesubject of soil preparation work especially inan area which has a high water table. In a

related way, consolidation, road infrastruc-ture and various other items of infrastruc-ture will take a long time to develop andbuild, even assuming that some land is madeavailable. In the 100 or more new townsIndia built since Independence, and this in-cludes Chandigarh, Bhubaneshwar, GandhiNagar and the ‘steel towns’ of Bokaro, Dur-gapur and Rourkela, it took nearly seven toeight years to have the basic infrastructurein place and this was just for the setting up ofone or two major industries and entrepre-neurial needs! Therefore, the claim that inAP, all these can be done within a span of fiveyears is a gross exaggeration.

The expert committee had pointed outrepeatedly that the most serious challenge

before AP is to create more than three lakhjobs a year and with significantly higher pro-ductivity. These jobs do not seem to be insight. Towns which have been battered bythe recent cyclone need to be rebuilt. Impor-tant facilities such as the High Court, and assuggested by the expert committee, have tobe located there. These will give some boostto AP.

It is welcome that in Chittoor and Tirupa-ti, medical and some educational facilitiesare beginning to be set up, mainly with thehelp of private sector enterprise. But weshould not forget that Chittoor and Tirupatidraw their strengths from being near theborder with Tamil Nadu rather than Hyd-erabad. Also, in all the talk about Tirupatiand Chittoor having the potential to be ma-

jor educational and health centres, there hasbeen no mention of the potential of Rayala-seema. This is unfortunate. Also, when talkaround the subject of the capital appears torecognise a shift of financial capital as well tothe VGTM area, one can be quite certain thatprotests will erupt. The committee has re-peatedly said that the most important chal-lenge facing Mr. Naidu, and which he shouldresolve with his political acumen as soon aspossible, is the need for him to look at bal-anced development as the Chief Minister ofAndhra Pradesh and not just of the VGTMarea.

The Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act,2014 gave both AP and Telangana a timeframe of 10 years to share Hyderabad as a

common capital. The committee made anumber of recommendations on how thistime could be utilised. I am not holding analibi for the committee; committees havebeen set up in the country before; some oftheir recommendations have been acceptedwhile some have been rejected. So, it doesnot matter whether the recommendations ofthis committee are accepted or not; whatmatters is the future of Andhra. There is stilltime for Mr. Naidu to retrace his steps.

Land pooling

The Act gives ample time for Mr. Naidu toconcentrate on the larger issues that con-front AP rather than be bogged down by theissue of land for the capital. The companiesbased in Singapore and which are workingon the master plan for the new capital arereported to be seeking 3,000 acres outsidethe capital territory but inside the VGTMarea.

Singapore-based entrepreneurs are saidto be holding or trying to get hold of signif-icant land parcels in several parts includingChina. That may well be their policy, but inthis case, in AP, the point I wish to make isthat whatever goes to Singapore’s land quotacomes from agricultural land parcels. Apartfrom those directly affected by the capitalproject, there are millions of householdsthat have no direct and indirect independentagricultural land or income in this area. Giv-en the volatilities in the global economy, it ispractically impossible to guarantee the secu-rity and the well-being of these families.Funding for the construction of the Statecapital and its maintenance will have to bemobilised through international financing;the Central government has already indicat-ed the limitations of what it can extend to APtowards this.

It is reported that land holders who ac-count for an area of about 32,000 acres haveagreed to surrender their land and acceptland pooling. At the same time, there are alsoreports of growing resistance to the plan insome areas alongside the right bank of theKrishna river. What AP is trying to do is verydifferent to land pooling attempted else-where in the country and with varying suc-cess. It should be recognised that the successof the Gujarat land pooling plan, which isoften mentioned in this context, took placein dense urban areas where the negotiationshad a touch of realism. Plans were publishedrepeatedly in a bid to seek consent and it wasclear what the authorities intended and whatthe land holders would be getting.

Infrastructure promotion

AP will become a better-knit geographicand economic entity if Mr. Naidu spends thenext few years concentrating on some of thevery important projects including those inwhich the Central Government’s supporthas been assured such as the coastal corri-dor, a gas pipeline and its transmission toRayalaseema, the Nadikudi-Kalahasti rail-way line, and development of some of therailway lines east to west. This will also buildup the political strength of Mr. Naidu acrossthe State.

Every political capital requires politicalsupport. But in this case, the fact is that thatkind of political support is not available forthe capital city project in the State as awhole. AP has a history of being guided foryears with the help of a number of able andexperienced administrative officers. If onlyMr. Naidu can utilise their talent to reorga-nise some of the priorities before the State atleast for the next few years! The point is notabout some landmark capital city which maycome about later. What is important rightnow is the nearly suicidal move to mortgageAP’s political energy and financial resourcesto this capital project.

(K.C. Sivaramakrishnan, Chairman of theCentre for Policy Research, was chairman ofthe Government of India appointed ‘ExpertCommittee on AP capital’.)

Eye on capital, loss in visionThe Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014gives ample time for N. Chandrababu Naidu toconcentrate on the larger issues that confrontAndhra Pradesh rather than be bogged down bythe issue of land for the capital, which seems to bethe case now

K.C. Sivaramakrishnan

The success of the Gujarat land pooling plan, which is often

mentioned in the context of the new Andhra State and its

capital, took place in dense urban areas where the

negotiations had a touch of realism.

CMYK

ND-ND

TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015

8 THE HINDU TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

Whether or not it was timed for Rahul Gand-

hi’s return from a nearly two-month sab-

batical, the huge rally in Delhi on Sunday

against the land acquisition legislation

seems to have primed the Congress for the role of a more

active opposition. Although farmers’ groups and civil

society organisations gave the protest its initial mo-

mentum, the Congress is now firmly at the centre of it

all, piling up pressure on the Narendra Modi govern-

ment to drop some of the more contentious clauses in

the legislation. What the government initially tried to

sell as a more rational and practical version of the

legislation originally conceived by the previous Con-

gress-led UPA government, is now being branded as an

“anti-farmer” and “anti-poor” piece of work designed to

please corporate houses. Whatever the government’s

explanation for the changes sought to be made to the

earlier land legislation, the sense of the farmers and the

rural poor is that they are being short-changed to please

the industry lobby. If the Congress is able to channel

some of this resentment into its own fight against the

Modi government, it could well mark the beginning of a

reversal in the party’s fortunes.

If Mr. Gandhi hogged the limelight at the rally, it was

on account of his having just returned from a long “leave

of absence” from the political arena. Party president

Sonia Gandhi was very much at the heart of the rally,

letting the government know that the party would stand

with the farmers on this issue. One of the worries for the

old guard in the Congress is whether a greater role for

Mr. Gandhi would perforce mean a reduced role for Ms.

Gandhi. That Rahul was joined by Ms. Gandhi and for-

mer Prime Minister Manmohan Singh must have been a

matter of some comfort to those leaders who have been

arguing that Ms. Gandhi should continue to head the

party for some more time. Mr. Gandhi, who had at times

given the impression that he was a reluctant politician,

dispelled any misgivings his supporters might have had

about his ill-timed absence. With a frontal attack on

Prime Minister Modi, he made it clear that the hiatus

was not in any sense a running away from the scene of

the battle, but truly an attempt at reflection and reas-

sessment of his and his party’s role in the context of the

heavy defeat in last year’s Lok Sabha election and the

subsequent Assembly elections in several States. If the

Congress is to retrieve lost ground, then it must contin-

ue to take up livelihood issues such as the land legisla-

tion. Without a vigilant opposition, the government

might never get a chance to rectify its mistakes. The

Modi government’s land legislation might end up as a big

boost for the Congress in the opposition space, and for

Mr. Gandhi within the Congress.

Return of Rahul

New CPI(M) chiefAs the fifth general secretary of theCPI(M), Sitaram Yechury faces thetough task of arresting the party’sdecline and leading it to a path ofgrowth (“Yechury is new CPI(M)chief”, April 20). Ordinarily, theLeft should be treated as a force indecline in politics, bothinternationally as well asdomestically. But it is to the creditof the Indian communists thateven when the ideology wasshrinking in the West, pragmaticleaders like Harkishen SinghSurjeet ensured that the party hadnot just the ability to remainrelevant, but also be a part ofgovernment. The Left’s problems,in being dogmatic, became clear inthe way in which SomnathChatterjee was treated for nottoeing the party line on the nuclearissue.

The wheels of fortune haveturned and with Sitaram Yechurynow the new man, one is sure thathis qualities as a politicalnegotiator will prove to bevaluable.

J.S. Acharya,Hyderabad

The development heralds adynamic change at a testing timefor the CPI(M). With an erosion ofits popularity in West Bengal,Kerala and a meagre presence inthe western part of India, he willnow have to rebuild the party byfocussing on core areas whichaffect the poor. Since India ismarching towards rapid economicprogress, the CPI(M) shouldbecome a partner in the endeavourfor an equitable distribution ofnatural wealth. The party mustabandon moth-eaten ideals of anotiose socialism and a blindopposition to traditional values ofthose who belong to the majorityreligion.

Instead, it must introspect onthe failure to enlist the support ofoppressed and law-abidingcitizens. It must also play aconstructive role in eliminatingcorruption in public life andrestoring probity in politics.

K. Chellappan,Chennai

A credible face like SitaramYechury was the best choice for thepost. But a bed of thorns awaitshim. The popularity graph of theLeft has been on a decline and theLeft movement which had a strongpresence in most States haseroded. Mr. Yechury will have toponder over the reasons for arejection of the Left’s ideology. Inthis age of globalisation andeconomic liberalisation, the Left’spet terms such as ‘bourgeois’, ‘classconflict’ and ‘neoliberalism’ areanachronisms. His assertion of aunity of Left and democratic forcesprovides a ray of hope for the Left.

Manoj Parashar,Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

In the choice of Sitaram Yechury,one has a popular and goodstrategist, and one of the besttheoreticians. Nobody will doubthis erudition, knowledge and senseof reality. A vocal parliamentarianwho speaks without fear or favour,he understands the youth and theirproblems.

In a country where there isabundant poverty andbackwardness, communism is theonly solution before us and the CPI(M) should be able to reinventitself by adjusting its ideology tocontemporary needs. Capitalismhas not exhausted itspotentialities. The party shouldhave its independent posturewithout succumbing to the fruits ofpower. One wishes him well.

Parthasarathy Sen,New Delhi

On AmaravathiA key takeaway from the article,“Eye on capital, loss in vision”(April 20), is the mistrust ourpoliticians seem to have inindigenous talent. Despite theclamour around ‘Make In India’,we still fail to scrutinise our biastowards all things “foreign”. Themaster plan for the AndhraPradesh capital is proposed to bedesigned by architects andplanners in Singapore. Why wereIndian architects and planners,who will have a better and morein-depth understanding of thefactors influencing our Indian wayof living, not invited? Context-based planning involves variousother issues other than planningfor fancy high-rise structures. Acustomised Indian design, whichreflects new Indian aspirations,would definitely have helped giveAP a new start.

Urvashi Yadav,New Delhi

The writer has dwelt elaborately onthe need to reject the VGTM areaas the new capital in his capacity ashaving been the chair of the ‘ExpertCommittee on AP Capital’. Helaments the potential loss of30,000 acres of fertile land, evensaying that it can threaten Indianfood security. AP has an area ofmore than 1,60,000 square km orabout four crore acres. This is for acapital of five crore people and notfor some industrial complex. Itdoes not cause food insecurity. Theright or wrong in the selection of anarea as the capital is best left to thepeople, political leaders and highlytalented technocrats. The writer’ssermonising was uncalled for.

Konuri Jayakumar,Guntur, Andhra Pradesh

One hopes that Mr. ChandrababuNaidu takes into account the

writer’s views in the larger interestof AP. Though it is not wrong tozero in on this stretch of land forcapital formation, it should not beat the cost of ignoring issues oflivelihood, human developmentand infrastructure development ofthe entire State. In an era ofgrowing food insecurity, givingaway large chunks of very fertileland for the construction of a hugeconcrete jungle is certainly not abright idea.

D.V.G. Sankararao,Vizianagaram, Andhra Pradesh

Kisan rallyThe farmer’s rally, more therelaunch vehicle for Rahul Gandhi,seems to have gone off well (“Modirepaying corporates: Rahul”, April20). Let’s be fair to Rahul; he isneither a great orator nor aneffective communicator, but hetalks straight to the point and hashis ways of putting across his viewpoints.

The two-month-long “layoff”has certainly rekindled people’scuriosity about him. The land Billhas now given Mr. Gandhi aplatform to take on thegovernment in Parliament. Heshould now walk the talk and musttake an active role in the LokSabha. The ruling party will ofcourse try to dislodge him using thecontroversial Robert Vadra landdeal but Rahul should not shy awayfrom tackling ticklish issues. It’salmost now or never for both Rahuland the Congress.

Ganapathi Bhat,Akola, Maharashtra

The land Bill is pro-industrialistand farmers have every right to beconcerned about their land beingtaken over for profiteering. TheBJP-led NDA government claimedthat it is ‘kisan friendly’ but itsactions show otherwise. A largesection of farmers are already

facing a host of problems and thegovernment must help them.

Joel Baby Johnson,Chengannur, Kerala

History and politicsIt is a rude shock that theneutrality and independence ofhistorical studies in India are beingeroded by some powerful lobbies inour country (“Historian rues‘right-wing’ turn at ICHR”, April20). Why should we remain mutespectators? The resignation of theChief Editor of Indian HistoricalReview is no doubt the high pointin the protest against evil designs.Unless scholarly and right-thinking persons unite and carryon the struggle, the chaining ofhistory may soon be complete.

A. Dasgupta,Kolkata

Ever since the Modi governmenthas come to power, left-leaningscholars appear to be feelingideological isolation. The anxietyover a right-wing turn in academiaespecially in history highlightstheir frustration. So what if historyis written from the point of view ofthe right and if it is in accordancewith accepted scientificmethodology at the same time?Left wingers can counter thesehistorians over the issue ofobjectivity and not on the basis ofideologies and their affiliations toorganisations like the RSS, towhich they are averse.

There must be a place for everypoint of view in academia. Thosescholars who are fighting theseideological battles are one-sided intheir approach as there are stillmany reputed universities in Indiathat are well-known nurseries ofthe Left. Why aren’t there anyobjections to this?

Anoop Suri,New Delhi

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The hasty and perfunctory manner in which

new requirements were sought to be included

in the income tax return forms from the as-

sessment year 2015-16 does not augur well for

hassle-free tax administration. Thankfully, the reve-

nue authorities made a quick retreat after Finance

Minister Arun Jaitley ordered a review, but the overall

impression is that tax authorities are constantly trying

to introduce new forms of practical difficulties in the

name of improving tax administration, widening the

tax base and unearthing black money. The latest chang-

es sprung on the public required assessees to disclose

all instances of foreign travel during the previous year,

the countries visited and expenses incurred from one’s

own sources by resident Indians in the course of such

travel. In addition, the forms asked for disclosures on

the number of bank accounts held by an individual at

any time in the previous fiscal, including those that

were closed, along with details of the banks, IFSC code

and joint account holders, if any. On the face of it, there

may be nothing wrong in seeking such disclosures.

Many people do park undisclosed sums in additional

bank accounts and incur expenditure during foreign

travel, and encouraging such disclosures would indeed

enable the taxman to keep an eye on the possible

involvement of unaccounted money. However, existing

provisions and procedures enable the tax authorities to

monitor such activities, and all that such new measures

will achieve is a needless increase in paperwork.

For instance, know-your-customer norms ensure

that every bank account is linked to a Permanent Ac-

count Number, and interest accruing in such accounts

is easily traceable. Similarly, immigration authorities

do have a record of foreign trips, and passport entries

can be used to verify the travel details of anyone under

scrutiny. It may not be easy for everyone to maintain

separate accounts of expenditure incurred from per-

sonal sources and spending made on their behalf by

companies or others sponsoring foreign trips. The in-

come tax authorities often argue that the existing tax

base is inadequate and enhanced forms of scrutiny are

required to enable more people to be brought under the

tax scanner. For a country with as large a population as

India’s, the number of assessees is obviously too low.

However, the moot question is whether it is wise to

introduce measures that will make it difficult to file tax

returns and discourage potential assessees from enter-

ing the tax net voluntarily. The government’s efforts to

curb and unearth unaccounted money require wide

public support, but at the same time the authorities

should not do anything that may deter people from

making the shift from evasion mode to tax compliance.

Disclosures anddisincentives

CARTOONSCAPE

The 2015 Review of the Non Prolifer-ation Treaty (NPT) will take placein New York from April 27 to May22 and the process is expected to be

stormy and contentious. The event markssome significant anniversaries of conflict: the100th — of the use of chemical weapons inYpres, Belgium; the 70th — of the bombingsof Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and the 20th — ofthe indefinite extension of the NPT. A newset of geopolitical drivers will work the agen-das of nuclear and non-nuclear members ofthe Treaty.

Coming into force in 1970, the Treaty hasbeen subjected to numerous pulls and pres-sures which have left the dream of nucleardisarmament unattained and the purpose ofpreventing proliferation defeated. The lastreview, in 2010, followed the complete fail-ure of the 2005 Review conference, as a con-sequence of serious disagreements whichhad emerged over a decade. The desire ofnon-nuclear states to see better progress ondisarmament by the Nuclear Weapons States(NWS) will figure as before. The discourse onthe humanitarian impact of nuclear weaponshas given a new shape to the NPT debate.

Humanitarian impact

The NWS have not been enthused by ei-ther of these two concepts. Relations amongthe NWS after Russian actions in Ukrainewill have a substantial impact on the confer-ence. Moscow’s rhetoric and responses haveled to a rethink on the role and relevance ofnuclear deterrence, even among the non-nu-clear states of eastern Europe. As if this is notenough, the situation in West Asia will loomlarge since it involves the uncertainties ofIran, Israel, Syria and the Islamic State (IS)in particular and the rest of the Arab world ingeneral. In comparison, the nuclear shenani-gans of North Korea which were once viewedas a major global danger, would remain amarginal issue.

The NPT Review Conference in 2010 builta hard-fought consensus based on more than60 action points spread over three broad ar-eas. These three “pillars” were nuclear dis-armament, non-proliferation and peaceful

uses of nuclear energy. West Asia figuredlarge, which primarily meant finding a way toa nuclear-free zone, which in turn meantaddressing the issue of Israel’s nuclear weap-ons. This has now been much muddied byIran’s own nuclear programme which in turncould now be resolved if the Joint Compre-hensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between theP5+1 (the United States, the United King-dom, Germany, France, Russia, and China,facilitated by the European Union) and Irancomes to fruition. Three preparatory com-mittee (Prepcom) meetings have been held

so far to prepare an agenda or work plan forthe 2015 Review Conference next week. Rec-onciling the wide range of views of 190-mem-ber states has never been easy.Consequently, various consensus drafts havebeen attempted and what emerges as theagreed agenda for the conference remains tobe seen. The three pillars are in themselvescomplex and intractable as examined hereon.

Discussing disarmament

Nuclear disarmament is possibly the eas-iest issue on the table, more so because thereis no solution possible or even conceivable.As a result, a formulaic approach is likely toget used in which non-nuclear weapon statesdeplore the NWS’s lack of progress on reduc-ing their arsenals and making good on prom-ises made in the past. On their part, the NWSwill reaffirm their commitment to disarma-ment, but point to the strategic security sce-

nario to justify the incremental and slowprogress so far. This will be contested strong-ly at the conference. The discourse on thehumanitarian dangers, from the use, deliber-ate or accidental, of nuclear weapons eitherby states or non-state actors, has gatheredstrength. This requires, from the NWS, grea-ter transparency and tangible steps on nucle-ar security. U.S. President Barack Obama hasled the initiative on nuclear security throughinternational conferences, which have yield-ed more statements of intentions than spe-cific actions. This will coalesce the

non-nuclear states into a large bloc demand-ing tangible action from the NWS. Theywould seek time bound progress on the longpromised consultative process among theNWS.

Shifts in West Asia

West Asia has undergone significant shiftsof power and capabilities since the 2010 con-ference. Mixed outcomes of the Arab Spring,the ongoing struggle for power within andamong the states of the region, and the emer-gence of the IS have made West Asia a regionof uncertainties. Progress on the Middle EastConference, agreed upon in 2010, has been ata glacial pace. Israel has shown no inclinationto either join the conference or otherwise.Iranian obduracy — or strategic skill — inholding out against sanctions and other pres-sures had led to a situation where the U.S.turned towards a solution which favoured a

postponed Iranian nuclear weapons capabil-ity, instead of an immediate cessation ofweapons capacity building.

An agreement flowing from the JCPOAthat provides for the lifting of sanctions onIran (which has agreed to a stringent regimeof nuclear regulation) will change altogetherthe balance of strategic strength in the re-gion. Israel has serious objections to this planand its Prime Minister Benjamin Netanya-hu’s recent statements suggest no loweringin its hard stance on the issue. The NuclearWeapons Free Zone in West Asia will have tobe worked on wholly new parameters, whoseshape and content remain unclear. The con-ference next week will thus provide a plat-form for a lively, if not hostile,conglomeration of protagonists and antag-onists. Whether it leads to clarity or confu-sion on West Asia remains to be seen.

Developments in Ukraine

Events in the Ukraine have had a far-reac-hing impact in many fields, all of which have abearing on the imminent NPT Review. Rus-sian-U.S. strategic arms control equationshave reached their nadir. Russia is unwillingto engage in negotiations on bilateral armsreductions. Its annexation of Crimea, its con-tinuing support to dissidents in Ukraine, andthe reactions to it in Europe and from theU.S., will make it more difficult than ever forthe Obama administration to even contem-plate unilateral reductions. It is useful toremember that Ukraine gave up nuclearweapons from its territory after the SovietUnion collapsed, only to face a Russian-di-rected conflict threatening to dismember it.On its part, Russia is witnessing a narrative ofresurgence in the face of containment andsanctions by the West. A “reset” of U.S.-Rus-sia relations does not seem likely in the fore-seeable future. The first casualty in thisstand-off will be nuclear proliferation anddisarmament.

South Asia’s two states with nuclear weap-ons are also steadily improving their strate-gic capabilities of nuclear warheads, missilesand submarines. Pakistan continues to assertits new found capability in tactical nuclearweapons, as a counter to Indian conventionalmilitary capabilities. This is viewed as anoth-er form of proliferation by Western nuclearmandarins, whose best solution is confinedto advising New Delhi on restraint in dealingwith Pakistan.

The NPT Review 2015 will be held in astrategic scenario not very dissimilar to theCold War antagonism of the 1980s. The glueof a globalised world economy and the pros-pect of a world without conflicts among de-veloped states have been replaced byseemingly implacable positions. The situa-tion is made explosive by the arrival on thescene of new forces of terror and coercion inand around states whose efforts had led tothe signing and sustaining of the NPT overthe decades. An idea of the straitjacket ofideas which drives the NPT can be had fromthe resolution passed in the UN last year.This had demanded that India and othernon-signatories to the NPT join the Treaty asNon Nuclear Weapons States. India hadrightly rejected the resolution which ignoresthe ground realities. Therefore, expectationsare not high for the Review Conference andthere are competing definitions about whatwill constitute success in New York. The fu-ture of the NPT seems uncertain, and thebest outcome of the Review Conference maybe another extension to the agreed actionplans of the past, even as the Treaty has failedto either stop nuclear proliferation or en-courage disarmament

(V.R. Raghavan was Commissioner on theWeapons of Mass Destruction Commission,and Advisor to the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferationand Disarmament.)

No frisson in talks over fissionThe 2015 Review of the Non Proliferation Treatyis a process expected to be stormy and contentiousdue to a new set of geopolitical drivers. Yet again,it could leave the dream of nuclear disarmamentunattained and the purpose of preventingproliferation defeated

V.R. Raghavan

The conference will provide a platform for a lively, if not

hostile, conglomeration of protagonists and antagonists.

Whether it leads to clarity or confusion on West Asia remains

to be seen.

CMYK

ND-ND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

8 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 22, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

History, they say, is always written by the win-

ners. But could this be by even winners of

elections? So it would seem from the work-

ings of India’s premier institute of historical

research and funding, the Indian Council of Historical

Research, which sees a reshuffle of people and priorities

every time there is a regime-change in New Delhi. Senior

historian and former Chairman of the ICHR, Sabyasachi

Bhattacharya, who recently resigned as the Chief Editor

of Indian Historical Review, the ICHR journal, has deliv-

ered a sharp indictment of the competencies within the

ICHR in its present avatar after a new family of histori-

ans was appointed by the present government. He said:

“I doubt whether you would find instances of persons,

nominated by the government in power, regarding their

position pro tem as a franchise to fantasise about histo-

ry.” The comments of this reputed historian reinforce

the concerns that many professional historians have

warned of, namely, the dressing up of myth and religious

belief as history. This can be seen in the priorities set by

the ICHR Chairman, Y. Sudershana Rao, who is from the

Akhil Bharatiya Itihas Sankalan Yojana, affiliated to the

Sangh Parivar. Professor Rao has directed the focus of

the ICHR to the Vedic age, which is certainly no less

important than any other period. But surely this has to

be subject to rigorous tools of historical analysis and

verification. What is, however, striking in this focus is

the express intent to establish a “golden age” and the

superior antecedents of Hinduism. This is a standpoint

the Chairman summarised in a presentation at a recent

international seminar thus: “Indian history is set with

[a] higher goal for which our sages delved deep into the

remote past.” It is perhaps for the first time since its

establishment that the prestigious ICHR Foundation

Day lecture was delivered by a non-historian, a certain

David Frawley, whose Facebook page describes him as

“a western born teacher or guru in the Vedic tradition”.

The discipline of history, in India and elsewhere, has

been enriched by different and competing interpreta-

tions because they are premised on well-established

standards and practices of the historical method, what

the historian Eric Hobsbawm once described as the

“absolutely central distinction between establishable

fact and fiction”. The problem in the ICHR today, as

Professor Bhattacharya’s comments suggest, are serious

precisely because of attempts to render factual evidence

irrelevant. The Bharatiya Janata Party established a

questionable record with regard to rewriting history

textbooks during its first stint in power at the Centre. Its

current efforts highlight the dangers of which many

historians have warned: the replacement of history as

social science, by “history” as fantasy and myth.

History asmythology?

Rahul’s returnThough Rahul Gandhi has finallymade an attempt to take part inanimated debates in Parliament,his use of the term ‘suit-boot kisarkar’ to describe the BJP-ledNDA government does not suit hisstature (April 21). Since thecomment was directed at PrimeMinister Narendra Modi, itamounts to a “personal attack”. Inhis long term as the Prime Minister,Jawaharlal Nehru never made suchuncharitable and personalcomments. Even Indira Gandhi andRajiv Gandhi were careful aboutwhat they said and were able to useword power in an effective way.One can be witty and causticwithout getting personal.

M. Somasekhar Prasad,Badvel, Andhra Pradesh

Even the staunchest critic of RahulGandhi has to be gracious enoughto acknowledge that his fieryspeech on the floor of Lok Sabha, onthe plight of farmers, did put theBJP leadership on the backfoot.Peppered with occasional humourand with digs at the rulingdispensation for its failure todeliver on its tall promises, theyoung Gandhi left his listenersspellbound, something thedemoralised party workers of theCongress have been anxiouslywaiting for. He seems to haverecovered from the ridicule he hasbeen subjected to. But Rahul mustalso realise that a solitary speechlike this will not sustain hisacceptability as an effective leader

both within and outside the party,unless he is prepared to undergo atotal transformation into someonepassionately involved in lifting theparty’s fallen fortunes. He mayhave reinvented himself, but hemust now sustain his engagementwith the masses on a regular basis.

S.K. Choudhury,Bengaluru

The flashy comeback of Rahul asthe hero of the plough and thepeasant will come as a whiff of freshair to the desperate Congress. Buthis allegation, namely that theruling party owes its success at thehustings to corporate barons, isuncharitable as history will showhim that his party, the Congress,‘patted the rich and tapped thepoor’ since Independence whichdrew flak from even leaders likeRajaji. Has he forgotten the farmersuicides? Media surveys haveshown that at least three-fourths offarmers opt for alternative jobs tokeep hunger at bay. However,Rahul breaking his oppressivesilence and speaking out adds awelcome dimension to his stature.

K. Panchapagesan,Bengaluru

NPT reviewIt is futile to expect anyconsiderable change in the NPT’sarchitecture (“No frisson in talksover fission”, April 21).Discrepancies are still the essenceof this treaty. The nuclearapartheid between NuclearWeapon States and non-NWS isgrowing, as evident from the

coercive diplomacy of the West andNorth Korea alike. The provisionsof the IAEA have over time provedto be inadequate. Horizontalproliferation may have been slowedbut it is definitely moving in an odddirection. A nuclear black market,terrorist outfits and rogue nationsare imminent threats that cast ashadow over the goal of non-proliferation. Countries like Indiahave proved that it’s not in the“words” of treaties that nationsreadily adhere to but in the will ofnations to do so.

Shashank Jain,New Delhi

AP capitalN. Chandrababu Naidu is on theverge of committing anotherhistoric blunder by investingheavily in the capital region of acash-strapped Andhra Pradesh(“Eye on capital, loss in vision”,April 20). As the writer points out,taking away fertile tracts of land,which are largely double and triplecrop-yielding, will crush those whoare agriculture dependent. The12th Five Year Plan unequivocallystates the need for adequate policyattention to smaller cities and peri-urban areas which are on the rise asopposed to large “mission cities”.Political motives appear to haveclouded the vision of Mr. Naidu andit is still not too late to rollback hisunpopular decision ofconcentrating foreign capital in onearea, Vijayawada, Guntur, Tenali,Mangalagiri.

Vishnu Gunneri,Srikalahasthi, Andhra Pradesh

The views expressed in the articleare nothing but a part of thecontents of the report of thecommittee headed by the writer.His contentions that fertileagricultural land is being damagedmay be true but it is inevitable. Theplanned location for the newcapital is unmatched with itsexcellent road and rail connectivityand no political party shouldchallenge this aspect. I was bornand brought up in a village on theeastern bank of Vasishta Godavariin Konaseema. The very fertile landhere yielded coconut, paddy,banana and other crops. About half-a-century ago, the life of a farmerwith a five-acre holding was farbetter than that of a governmentgazetted officer. Now, agrariandistress is forcing him to sell hisland for a pittance and migrate tothe city. Land-owners are beingmisled by vested interests.

A.R.K. Raju,Nellore

The government seems to havedisregarded the expert committee’srecommendation to locate the newcapital at Donakonda in Prakasamdistrict where large swathes ofgovernment-owned dry-lands areavailable. Further, the concept of a“mega” capital-city is outdated.Across the globe, many suchmammoth-sized capital cities arebecoming “unlivable” andunsustainable due to thepopulation pressure on limitedresources. Modern day, urban-planning now looks at “small butsmart cities”. The Naidu

government could think of such aconcept of having a small, smartcapital city to carry out onlyadministrative activities, anddecentralised development tohandle commercial activities.

Premsai Srinivas Amudhala,Tirupati

On JayakanthanJayakanthan’s contribution toTamil cinema is oftenovershadowed by his literaryoeuvre (April 9). He ensured ameaningful interaction betweenliterature and the world of cinema.While a number of his stories havebeen made into films, the two filmshe directed, based on his ownstories, have stood out in Tamil filmhistory. These two, “The One Likeyou/Unnai Pol Oruvan (1965) and“For Whom Did he Cry?/Yarukkaka Azhuthan?” (1966) areexamples of rare instances when awriter himself made a film based onhis own literary work. Otherexamples I can think of in India areM.T. Vasudevan who directed“Nirmalyam” (1973) and Bengalifilm-maker Buddha Dev Das Guptaand his “Kalpursh” (2005). Thecinematographer for “YarukkakaAzhuthan” was the redoubtableNimai Ghosh who made deft use oflighting to emphasise emotions.Jayakanthan recorded hisinteractions with Tamil cinema inthe book, A Writer’s forays intoCinema (Oru IlakiyavathiyinCinema Anubavangal), providinginsights for students of film history.

S. Theodore Baskaran,Bengaluru

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

After a five-year-long process, the European

Commission has announced a formal investi-

gation into claims of unfair practices resorted

to by Google. The allegation is that the compa-

ny has abused its dominant position in the ‘market for

internet search services’ in Europe. One of the chief

accusations relates to the working of comparison shop-

ping in Google. ‘Comparison shopping products’ allow

consumers to search online shopping websites and

compare prices among vendors. The EC’s preliminary

investigations found systematic favourable treatment

being given to Google Shopping, its own comparison

shopping product, by presenting the service more

prominently than rival services. This artificially moves

traffic among websites in a manner that is potentially

detrimental to consumers and stifles innovation. Goo-

gle is also being accused of anti-competitive behaviour

in relation to its Android operating system, hindering

developers from freely working on Android, meant to be

an open-source system. The potential for “abuse of

[the] dominant position” is high in Europe as Google

has an over 90 per cent share in the online search

business here. If the Commission is able to take its

move to fruition, the fine could potentially be up to 10

per cent of Google’s annual revenue, or about €6 billion.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission had also con-

ducted antitrust investigations concerning Google, but

the company agreed to make certain changes in its

manner of operation and the investigation was ulti-

mately settled with no formal complaint being made.

The Competition Commission of India has found Goo-

gle to be in a “dominant position” in the market for

online search advertising. The CCI is investigating

whether Google is abusing this position. In India, com-

plaints have been filed over alleged discriminatory

practices in its search advertising services. These in-

volve the manipulation of search algorithms in such a

manner that Google promotes its own search partners

by mixing the results of its vertical partners with its

generic, horizontal web search results. For instance,

Google’s vertical search partners such as YouTube,

Google News and Google Maps will appear predom-

inantly, irrespective of whether it is a generic horizontal

search or it is the most popular or relevant result.

Another complaint was that Google’s User Safety and

AdWords Policy was arbitrary, vague and one-sided,

letting it terminate advertisement campaigns. Google

undoubtedly has come to have a major influence on a

large section of the global population. There is a clear

case today to argue that Google should make its policies

more transparent. But given the confidentiality issues

at stake, this is unlikely to happen in the near future.

Google under the lens

CARTOONSCAPE

The elevation of Sitaram Yechury tothe post of general secretary of theCommunist Party of India (Marx-ist) is at a time when the party (and

other forces of the Left) are in dire need ofnew direction and inspiration. The new lead-ership of the CPI(M) will be carrying a diffi-cult burden to revive the prospects of adepleted Left and support from a largelysceptical electorate. The 21st Party Congressof the CPI(M) was held at a time when theparty had registered new electoral lows —even in its strongholds — and is, perhaps, atits weakest political position since its in-ception in 1964. This is in stark contrast tothe period when Mr. Yechury’s predecessor,Prakash Karat, took on the role of generalsecretary 10 years ago. Incidentally, bothleaders cut their teeth in student politics atJawaharlal Nehru University and are ex-presidents of the JNU Students Union.

Within a year after Mr. Karat became thefirst general secretary who wasn’t a founder-member in 2005, the party was at its stron-gest parliamentary position. The Left parties,combined, had more than 60 MPs in the LokSabha, in power in their strongholds and ini-tially leveraged these positions adroitly toinfluence policy in welfarist directions, asthey extended support to the Congress-ledUnited Progressive Alliance (UPA). At thecentre, the Left managed to punch above itsweight and even steered a few landmark piec-es of legislation such as the Forest Rights Actand the National Rural Employment Guar-antee Act. It is another matter that the partycould not utilise these “achievements” totranslate into support, bogged down as it wasby events that had hampered it in its strong-holds. It must also be said that tactical blun-ders — such as withdrawing support to theUPA over the nuclear deal at a wrong junc-ture — did not help it either.

Decline in strongholds

In the States where the Left was in power,especially West Bengal and Kerala, troublesof varying kinds began to brew only monthsafter its coming to or retaining power. Buoy-ed by a strong mandate that was won on theslogan of industrialisation, the Left Frontgovernment sought to pursue “big ticket”projects in a hurry. The “reform zeal” of thethen West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb

Bhattacharjee was contrasted with the “ob-structionist” emphasis of the CPI(M)’s cen-tral leadership. There seemed a disconnectbetween what the party was preaching at theCentre — the fight against “neoliberalism” —and what the West Bengal government wasseeking to do in the State — fostering capital-ist development through incentivisation.Much has been written about the land acqui-sition issue that hastened the government’sdownfall in the State and this need not berepeated. But the victory in 2006 in WestBengal had also papered over serious issueswith the Left Front and in particular theCPI(M)’s rule in the State. The party had,over its long tenure, turned into a machinethat combined a set of progressive leaderswith others who were willing to get their

hands dirty in electoral mobilisation, issuingcontracts, and “managing” support. Overtime, a large set of self-seekers had found aplace in the party — that seemingly was goingto be in power for a long time — and it wasthis set of careerists at the middle and lowerrungs of the party who defected to the oppo-sition at the first instance of the Left Frontlosing power.

The image of the party, as a pro-poor force,had also taken a beating following the Nan-digram and Singur incidents and a wholesaledefection of the rural support base to theTrinamool ensued. Since 2009, the LeftFront has only seen a cascading decline invote shares at every level of elections. Thiswas partially because the CPI(M) could notmobilise enough support as an oppositionalforce against the Trinamool Congress due toa moribund leadership that had little experi-ence being out of power. And the latter had

taken the strong-arm, violent tactics of voterand candidate intimidation to even greaterheights. It will not be an exaggeration to saythat the once mighty CPI(M) in West Bengalis in a shambles, and the Bharatiya JanataParty (BJP) is emerging as a stronger opposi-tion force to the Trinamool Congress. In Ker-ala, on the other hand, the CPI(M) and itsallies have managed to retain a steady sup-port base, but a long-standing saga of faction-alism and reliance on an overly-militantleadership from North Kerala has contrib-uted to dents in its image and restricted itsprospective growth. All said, the CPI(M)’sjourney to relevance as a major nationalforce will depend on how it manages to over-come the hurdles it has posed for itself in itsstrongholds in Kerala and West Bengal.

The State units of the CPI(M) have beenloath to admit these frailties, let alone workupon them. The party leadership in WestBengal has insisted that the break in rela-tions with the Congress at the centre (overthe nuclear deal) was the main reason for thedrastic loss of support for the party. This lazyexcuse had allowed it to imagine that mereelectoral rearrangement — a joint coalitionwith the Congress against the Trinamool —would be enough for revival. Combined withthe rise of the BJP and the party’s orga-nisational tepidity, it is not a surprise as towhy the CPI(M) continues to flounder in theState despite the Trinamool government’sunfavourable image.

Lack of a positive voice

Yet, the decline in the fortunes of the CPI(M) and the Left as a whole since 2005 is notmerely due to parochial factors. The Central

leadership had emphasised the need to growin other parts of the country particularly inNorth India. But the lack of an adequateorganisation, or enough imagination to for-mulate specific strategies of mobilisationthat are relevant to these areas, has resultedin the further enfeeblement of its presence.

The CPI(M) has been forever late in tryingto innovate its political tactics to reach out toa changing India. The emphasis on “nega-tion” — resistance, obstruction and depend-ence upon statism — has not helped fulfil itsaims to set an alternative agenda. The Leftparties will be better off seeking to promotean alternative agenda of comprehensive, wel-fare-driven growth, by emphasising univer-sal health care, social security and statesupport and struggling for them rather thanonly offering resistance to the model of de-velopment espoused by the BJP and even theCongress. There are exceptions of course, inthe manner in which the party has taken upissues of the marginalised in proactive ways— such as the Tamil Nadu UntouchabilityEradication Front for example. But largely,despite espousing progressive and even Left-liberal values (for example, the CPI(M) is thefirst party to openly take a position againstcapital punishment and its legislators were atthe forefront of the Section 66A annulmentdiscourse), it is seen as a party that does notstand for something, but is only opposed tomany things. This is especially so among theyouth and the middle classes. The latter inparticular and the CPI(M) seem to share amutual derision, even if the party’s leader-ship mostly comprises leaders from the verysame section.

Even the urban poor, a humongous cate-gory that should be the ideal constituency forthe Left, seems to have been bypassed by it.The Left’s emphasis on mobilisational tacticsbeing limited to the workplace — organisingthe poor as labourers, craftsmen, public sec-tor employees, etc, rather than urban resi-dents who lack amenities, access to essentialsupplies and who live precariously due toinflation and job insecurity — is another fac-tor that has limited its reach. The urban poorprefer to be mobilised by sectional and pa-tronage-dispensing parties because of thelack of an alternative. The electoral successof the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Delhi — byreaching out to the urban poor as a mobilis-ing category through the distinct lack of sec-tional appeals related to caste or region —perhaps holds some lessons for the Left par-ties. Of course, the AAP’s organisational fail-ures are a reason why it has not matured as aprogressive political party but that is notgermane to the discussion here. India’s Leftparties can also look up to the influences ofthe “new left forces” in Latin America andEurope, where the rise of radical Left partieshas been aided by new strategies of mobil-isation and organisational building.

Left unity

The easy claim made by critics for theweakness of the Left in India is that the goalsthat it espouses — socialism and comprehen-sive welfare driven economics — are passé.This is not true. While the Left parties havecertainly declined, social movements havepushed for and achieved the implementationof welfare policies that do not flow from theneoliberal form of development. Left partiesin Latin America have sought to rethink so-cialism as a process rather than a stage ofdevelopment and have formed united frontswith social movements to bring about sub-stantial changes in the economy, with largepublic support.

Mr. Yechury’s remarks after his promotionsuggest that the CPI(M) will look to reviveorganisationally and is seeking to renew itssupport base, even while venturing to formprogrammatic (and even electoral) allianceswith secular and like-minded parties to takeon its primary enemy, the BJP. One hopesthat the CPI(M) realises that without a stron-ger emphasis on Left unity and engagementwith social movements to set a positive, pro-gressive agenda, mere electoral allianceswith regional parties and programmatic tie-ups with the Congress will prove to be afruitless exercise for the party.

srinivasan.vr@thehindu.co.in

An elevation to lift the Left?The new CPI(M) general secretary, Sitaram Yechury, must realise that mere electoralalliances with regional parties will prove to be afruitless exercise without a stronger emphasis onLeft unity and engagement with social movements

Srinivasan Ramani

India’s Left parties can look up to the influences of the ‘new

left forces’ in Latin America and Europe, where the rise of

radical Left parties has been aided by new strategies of

mobilisation and organisational building.

CMYK

ND-ND

THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015

8 THE HINDU THURSDAY, APRIL 23, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

President Xi Jinping’s visit to Pakistan needs to

be seen as a game changer. With studied delib-

eration and precision, the Chinese have util-

ised the presidential visit to alter the facts on

the ground. At the heart of Mr. Xi’s trip was the formal

inauguration of the China-Pakistan Economic Corri-

dor (CPEC). The ambitious project, with implications

far beyond the economic, would absorb investments up

to $45 billion over the next 15 years. It would establish

transportation and energy infrastructure and do the

groundwork for a number of industrial parks and smart

cities, fuelling Chinese hopes — if terrorism en route

can be contained — of turning Pakistan into a new tiger

economy in Asia. By committing to pour billions of

dollars into infrastructure development over the years,

China appears to have stolen a march over the U.S. and

emerged as Pakistan’s unrivalled external partner. Chi-

na’s golden run in Pakistan implies a significant muta-

tion of the regional balance of power in South Asia and

Afghanistan. Through the corridor from Kashgar, in

China’s restive Xinjiang province, to Gwadar, Beijing

will find a point of access in the Indian Ocean at the

virtual tri-junction of South Asia, West Asia and Africa.

The development of the CPEC is not necessarily bad

for India or the region. On the contrary, Pakistan’s

young people who find meaningful work in the projects

are unlikely to enter the jihad factories. India should

also welcome the impending joint initiative by China

and Pakistan to curtail terror groups along the corridor

and in Afghanistan, provided the two countries are able

to steer clear of an exclusionary agenda, limiting In-

dia’s legitimate interests in Kabul. In any case, it is

imperative that Afghanistan is revisited in the New

Delhi-Beijing strategic dialogue following President

Xi’s visit. So should be the proposed export of eight

Chinese submarines to Pakistan. Indian security plan-

ners may not be unduly perturbed by the sale, but any

attempt by Pakistan to convert the submarines — that

can be done only with Chinese help — as platforms for a

nuclear second-strike capability must be recorded as a

red line. President Xi’s visit signals the emergence of

new geopolitical realities, calling for India adjusting

itself to an emerging multipolar world. As Prime Minis-

ter Narendra Modi heads to China next month, he thus

faces a rapidly evolving geopolitical landscape in South

Asia and Afghanistan. India has not done too badly in

partnering China in the evolving global financial archi-

tecture, underscored by the Asian Infrastructure In-

vestment Bank, the BRICS-led New Development

Bank, and the pursuit of membership of the Shanghai

Cooperation Organisation. India’s interests may be

well-served if it dons the role of a cooperative balancing

force by pursuing independent engagement with the

U.S., Japan and ASEAN, even as it deepens ties with

Beijing, based on maturity, realism and mutual benefit.

A friendcomes calling

Lift for the Left?Sitaram Yechury’s elevation as CPI(M) general secretary is indeed an‘elevation to lift the Left’ (April 22).In him, the party has found acharismatic and pragmatic leader tolead it in these troubled times. Inorder to tackle right-wing forces, allliberal secular democratic partiesmust work together and Mr.Yechury’s elevation augurs well inthis regard.

However, the difficult task beforethe new general secretary is inbecoming acceptable to the youth inthis era of globalisation andliberalisation and in presentingthem an alternative strategy thatcaters to the needs of the workingclass and the middle classes. Failingto gauge the aspirations of the risingmiddle class will prove to be anobstacle.

Kiran Jose,Kadanad, Kerala

The article has analysed well theups and downs of the Left. Theabsence of a mass leader like JyotiBasu apart from blind opposition toFDI and economic reforms havebeen its stumbling blocks towinning over the youngergeneration. The Communist partieshave often been viewed as obstaclesto investment and industrialisation,increasingly becoming the primefactor in judging the success of anygovernment. Even though the CPI(M)’s social policy of secularism isunquestionable as it is the onlyparty never to make compromiseswith its secularist stand, it mustrealise that economic policies arebecoming equally important.

N. Sadhasiva Reddy,Bengaluru

The writer rightly gives credit forthe struggles led by the Left againstcaste oppression in Tamil Nadu.However, it was disappointing thatthe big gains made by the informalsector workers of Kerala, led by theLeft, and the Sengupta Committeereport of 2007 on the unorganisedsector being inspired by thesestruggles, did not find mention. Hedid not analyse the experiences ofLeft-ruled States as well.

K. Vijayachandran,Kochi

Ministry of magic tricksIt was refreshing to read William J.Lockhart’s article, “The Ministry ofMagivc Tricks” (April 22). Canindustrial profits compensate forsevere environmental degradation?Industrialisation may spell a betterlife for people in the long run, but atwhat cost to the environment? Canit reverse habitat loss, populationresettlement, air and waterpollution? Climate change onaccount of global warming andozone layer depletion are wellknown. Development needs to besustainable and which accordsimportance to the environment.

Ankit Galgat,Panipat, Haryana

Google under the lensGoogle (Editorial, April 22), overthe past two decades, has become somuch of a household name thatO.U.P. has added ‘Google’ as a verbin the Oxford English Dictionary.The numbers showing Google’sdominant share of the worldwideInternet search engine market canmake competitor products such asBing or Yahoo! Search sink intooblivion. Monopoly is, in manycases, the result of the natural

success of a business and should notalways be treated as a transgression.Google, in all fairness, should beallowed to earn revenue from itsadvertising campaign programme,‘Adwords’, by displaying paid ads onits web pages. But the predominantdisplay of search results from itsown partners at the top of thesearch results page is opaque/unknown to the user, and istherefore unjust. Such misuse of itsmonopoly as a search enginejuggernaut should be checked. At atime when net-neutrality is the talkof the town, Google should play bythe rules.

Sujith George,Thiruvananthapuram

Amaravathi as capitalK.C. Sivaramakrishnan’s article,“Eye on capital, loss in vision”,(April 20) is yet another example ofhow the political masters of Indiaare hell-bent on divesting poor andhapless farmers of fertile land. Thatmore than 30,000 acres of fertileland could give way to the making ofa capital is the expression of a mostvulgar dream of a man known to be avisionary. The day is not far offwhen the rice bowl of India willhave to buy rice from other States.

George Alexander,Chennai

The huge amounts likely to be paidto farmers as compensation for lostland are sure to be wasted onluxuries in next to no time; oneforesees farmers who are tillers andcrop producers being at a loss andbecoming a burden to their familiesand society in a few years. We usedto admire the technocrat in Mr.Naidu but what one sees now is achanged person. Water and land are

non-negotiables and their use mustbe thought about wisely.

Rajyalakshmi Telikicherla,Hyderabad

Utilising verdure for so-calledinfrastructure development isnothing but state-sponsoredvandalism. A state which has afeeble economic base requires amodest scale of operations thatbalances development and welfare.It is a fact that there are tracts oflands which are not agriculturally asrich as ones marked for the capital.

In addition, it is to be understoodthat the move seems to be anotherexample of a centralisation ofactivity in a limited area in spite ofinstitutions being proposed to beestablished at different places in theState. If such a thing was to be done,it will lead to more fissiparousactivity in the State which is not atall a healthy proposition in thelarger interests of AP.

Ram Chandra Kalluri,Vijayawada

The ‘conversion’ of agriculturalland to other uses such as prawnand fish ponds has been going on forthe last two decades in the Krishnaand Godavari deltas; the extent iseven greater in the Krishna delta.While this may not have impactedfood production, it has polluted thewater table. More than the loss of30,000 acres being a loss foragriculture, there needs to beconcern over the status of theformer land owners once the capitalis constructed. The land convertedto fish ponds in the deltas could bereclaimed and given to them ascompensation for their‘contribution’ to Amaravathi.

When completed, the Polavaram

dam will ensure the cultivation ofnearly eight lakh acres. Here,parcels of 5,000 acres each can beused for intensive cultivation bycreating mini-reservoirs/tanks.The only drawback as far asAmaravthi is concerned is possiblewaterlogging on account of theKondaveeti vagu. The waters of thevagu have to be diverted as adrinking water source. In any area,there will be both pros and cons.and one has to be pragmatic.

K.V. Subba Rao,Hyderabad

NIOS and exam hurdleThe National Institute of OpenSchooling (NIOS), under the HRDMinistry, Government of India, wascreated, among other things, toprovide an alternative scheme ofstudies to the State Boards and theCBSE. While regular schools offerCBSE and State Boards, there are no‘regular’ schools that offer the NIOSsyllabi. The NIOS is taken up bystudents who face learningdisabilities and find the going toughin ‘regular’ schools. Under theNIOS, a textbook of around 300pages and with 25 lessons has beenprescribed which makes the job ofscoring marks even more difficult.With no regular schools and trainedteachers, the problem becomeseven more acute for open schoollearners. The question paper offersonly a negligible eight per cent forobjective type questions, with therest requiring descriptive answers.There is no choice and all questionsare compulsory. Even University-level exams offer choices in theirquestion papers.

P.H. Das,Chennai

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The passing away of Australia’s Phil Hughes

last November after being hit on the head by a

short ball, left the cricket world distraught

and acutely aware of the very real dangers of

playing the game. The death this week of 20-year-old

Ankit Keshri in Kolkata was a tragic reminder of life’s

inherent frailty even when engaged in a non-contact

sport considered reasonably safe. The former captain

of the Bengal under-19 team had collided with a team-

mate while attempting to take a catch during a Cricket

Association of Bengal (CAB) Division-I match between

East Bengal and Bhowanipore. He had stopped breath-

ing briefly and was rushed to hospital where he died of

cardiac arrest. Collision between fielders going for the

same catch isn’t uncommon on a cricket field. Former

Australian captain Steve Waugh and fast-bowler Jason

Gillespie once had to be airlifted to hospital during a

Test match in Sri Lanka after a tangle that left the

former with a broken nose and the latter with a frac-

tured shin. There have been other injuries and near-

misses. But Keshri, like Hughes, was a victim of freak-

ish misfortune; the cricket community is attempting to

come to terms with the apparent randomness of it all.

How the incident affects the game — or indeed if it

does — remains to be seen. After Hughes’s death, crick-

et appeared to briefly grapple with its relevance and

paused to mourn. Although the game eventually moved

on, as it inevitably must, there were signs right through

the Australian summer that Hughes will not be forgot-

ten. A significant development was the review of pro-

tective equipment: the modern-day batsman and

close-in fielder had seemed so well-armoured that fa-

talities on the field of play appeared inconceivable, but

the accident forced equipment manufacturers and

cricketers to innovate and evolve; during the recent

World Cup, helmet designs that better protected the

back of the head and the neck were seen. An increased

emphasis on helmets in junior cricket was expected.

Anecdotal evidence suggests this is the case. The psy-

chological aspect was attended to as well, with Cricket

Australia offering its cricketers professional support

and counselling. Sean Abbott, who delivered the ball to

Hughes, returned to cricket and is currently involved in

the Indian Premier League. The Board of Control for

Cricket in India must be similarly considerate and

proactive. It has asked the CAB to investigate whether

Keshri’s death was the result of negligence or lack of

facilities. It must ensure that the State units follow the

appropriate medical protocols in all domestic matches

under their purview to make cricket a safer game.

Lessons from the field

CARTOONSCAPE

Politics has a strange way of makingyou rethink ideas and stereotypesby merely juxtaposing events. Justas one finishes typecasting persons

and parties and feels smug about such judg-ments, politics delivers a series of googliesforcing a rethink. Last Sunday, one saw sucha juxtaposition of events when three leadersaddressed mass meetings. The triad ofspeeches included one by Rahul Gandhi whowas returning from his sabbatical and ad-dressing a kisan rally. In the second, SitaramYechury was taking over as the general sec-retary of the Communist Party of India(Marxist) from his more tacitum predeces-sor, Prakash Karat. Finally, Prime MinisterNarendra Modi was addressing a rally ofBharatiya Janata Party (BJP) workers afterhis return from Canada.

Foil to the other

None of the three speeches was by itselfexceptional. But each of the trio, and thentogether, created a conversation as if threehit movies had been introduced on the sameday. The first surprise was that of Mr. Modi.He looked almost reluctant to be in Indiaafter the highs experienced after visiting Eu-rope and Canada. In all his overseas visits, itis clear that Non Resident Indians (NRIs)dote on his nationalism and his alleged effi-ciency while he revels in their success andtheir enthusiasm for him. After the excitingNRI engagements, India almost seems banaland disappointing to him, one could say. Mr.Modi, in his speech, seemed to complainabout the Indian gene that discourages anapproval of authority. The native Indian, un-like his counterpart abroad, is a determinedcontrarian. Worse, the Opposition seemedto have stolen Mr. Modi’s punch lines. Hisvoice had more of a bully’s humour and healmost sounded like yesterday’s newspaper.

In contrast, Sitaram Yechury sounded hu-man, relaxed, even casual. As visual appear-ances go, the careful grooming of Mr. Modiwas not for him. Mr. Yechury almost lookedlike an absent-minded boy scout being asked

to take over his party. He presented aclenched fist which lacked a dramatic touch.This gesture was informal, almost absent-minded, as if he was flagging down an auto.Yet, one realised why he is the human face ofthe party. He sounded almost matter of fact.The CPI(M) tried to create a sense of dramabut the performance on the podium ap-peared almost listless.

While Mr. Yechury enacted his leadershiprole, I looked at how Rahul addressed thekisan rally. For once he was coherent, sen-tences flowed into each other; now, he seemsready to be a leader. Senior Congressmensmiled with content that their “slow” neph-ew had blossomed at last. The realists knew

that he has years to go but at least for the 22minutes he spoke, his spirit of leadershipseemed willing.

Each leader enacted a characteristic scriptwhich acted as a perfect foil to the other. Mr.Modi began, didactic as ever, realising thathis party has been slipping while he wasplaying to audiences abroad; the BJP is nowlosing initiative and is being seen as anti-poor and anti-farmer. Mr. Modi has begun tosound like a speaker at a FICCI meeting andwhen he declaims that his party has beenpro-poor, he sounds hollow. The charisma isgone. The poor do not interest him. He pro-jects them as a Congress conspiracy. Now,Mr. Modi wants to talk of the second stage ofdevelopment; of his exploits and negotia-

tions abroad. He wants to tell his aspiringmasses that his negotiations with Franceand Canada have enabled him to access nu-clear energy. He sounds like Father Christ-mas but the audience is not convinced.

Rahul worked hard in presenting a pro-poor Congress, listing out the party’s at-tempts to waive rural debt, and remember-ing how he had promised to fight for them.He contrasted this with Mr. Modi repayinghis electoral debt to the capitalists by sellingland. He talked of the tribals from Niyamgiri,Odisha, as his little fiefdom, and cited how400 of them swore to him that if they losttheir land, they would become naxalites. Ra-hul seems more alive, almost grateful for the

land issue. What began as a morsel of anissue might turn out to be the crystal seed ofa Congress revival. Rahul attacked Mr. Modiwith ease contrasting the indifference of theBJP to the Congress’s attempt to side withthe farmer.

Reinventing a party

I was watching the show with Kiran Ma-jumdar Shaw of Biocon who detected a deepimmaturity in the Congress. She claimedthat in being a pro-farmer, pro-tribal, Rahulsounded anti-development. For a corporateleader, there is no greater heresy. She endedby saying that the Land Acquisition Actneeds to be read and understood. Suddenlyone realises that what one has on hand is a

major class battle.It is here that the CPI(M) was in the lime-

light. In his acceptance speech, Mr. Yechurywas relaxed, uttering a few happy lines inTelugu and Hindi. His ease of language was afoil to Rahul’s, and his relaxed sense of lead-ership, a dramatic contrast to Mr. Modi’s.Whether it is the Congress party’s masses orthe CPI(M)’s classes, both seem ready tobattle the aspiring generation of Mr. Modi.

There was a vestige of scientism in Mr.Yechury’s speech. He talked of the objectivesituation and referred to the BJP as a com-munal party enacting the neo-liberal agenda.He accused the BJP of confusing historywith mythology, of being anti-scientific. Likemost Marxists, he appealed to history, claim-ing that history is on his side, inviting theCPI(M) to enter into battle with the BJP.Yet, he was so amiable that one was not quitesure whether he was delivering a lecture ontable manners or on class war.

One wished that there was less certitudeand more doubt. He talked of his comradesdying in West Bengal due to the TrinamoolCongress’s aggressive and violent ways.There was no moment of reflection, or ofguilt that this culture of violence was initi-ated by the CPI(M) when in power. Thepersonality of the man dominated the mo-ment. With the entry of Mr. Yechury, evenpeople critical of the CPI(M) felt that “acchedin aagaye hai” (good times are here). In hisspeech, he did not have to strain for effectlike Mr. Modi or Rahul had to. It was clearthat the CPI(M) has found a leader who canreinvent the party of the future. However,his claim that socialism is the way for thefuture sounds happily old-fashioned.

One needs to contrast the atmosphere ofthe three speeches. The CPI(M) oozed asense of solidarity. The Congress looked atits potential leader avuncularly. There was asense of hope, and of modest expectation. Onthe other hand, the BJP atmosphere wassurly. Mr. Modi was almost disappointedwith India and he told his cadres to workhard and ignore ‘the games of the media’.This response reminded one of sour grapes.The man who was, hitherto, the darling ofthe media, suddenly felt that things are notthe same. One could sense unease beneaththe superficial calm in his party. He realisesthat the BJP faces an uphill battle in Biharand that his party has messed up the script inJammu and Kashmir.

A hollowness

Even as the detached spectator preparesthe report cards of the three men — awardingan ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ to Mr. Yechury, Rahul and Mr.Modi respectively — there is an unmistak-able sense of dread. One wants to join in thecelebration of the prospect of revival of theCPI(M) and the Congress but there is clearlya degree of hollowness around this politicalexercise. One wonders whether the threeparties can offer much to address the ongo-ing crises in agriculture, the way to revivethe economy and open and good governance.All three thrive on old categories and havelittle sense of the future. There has neverbeen a time where political ideas in the pub-lic sphere have lagged so far behind the im-peratives of institution building. It is astrange time for India, what a friend called “aconspiracy of mediocrity and hysteria”. Atthis moment, a touch of civility almost seemslike a moment of genius.

Each party seems to take the poor as apretext for politics and yet is absent-mindedabout them. The Congress has a seasonalinterest in the issues of the farmer. The CPI(M) has for long ignored issues related tomarginal groups and instead focussed onlyon organised labour. The BJP prefers themiddle class and finds the poor an obstacle todevelopment. One is almost desperate andwants to say “stop the train, I want to getoff”. One faces a desperation, where the cri-sis of faith is so deep, that even a few morselsof hope make one grateful.

(Shiv Visvanathan is a professor at JindalSchool of Government and Public Policy.)

Three speeches, three futuresLast Sunday, Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi andSitaram Yechury all put in very differentperformances, each insisting that they representthe people. Each party seemed to take the poor asa pretext for politics, yet is absent-minded abouttheir real concerns

Shiv Visvanathan

The Congress has a seasonal interest in the issues of the

farmer. The CPI(M) has for long ignored issues related to

marginal groups ... and the BJP prefers the middle class and

finds the poor an obstacle to development.

CMYK

ND-ND

FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015

8 THE HINDU FRIDAY, APRIL 24, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

It is unfortunate that the government seems de-

termined to introduce legal provisions to ensure

that children between the ages of 16 and 18 are

tried as adults if they commit heinous offences

such as murder and rape. Ever since a juvenile offender

was given a ‘light’ sentence in the Delhi gang rape case

of 2012 under the existing child-friendly laws, there has

been a clamour to treat juveniles involved in heinous

crimes as adults. A fresh Juvenile Justice (Care and

Protection of Children) Bill introduced in the Lok Sab-

ha last year contained clauses that many child rights

activists and groups disapproved of. A Standing Com-

mittee of Parliament recommended a review and recon-

sideration of all clauses that sought to carve out an

exception for children in the 16-18 age group and sub-

ject them to the rigours of regular criminal procedure.

However, the amended Bill now cleared by the Cabinet

retains the clause that provides that when a heinous

crime is committed by one in this age group, the Juve-

nile Justice Board will assess whether the crime has

been committed as a ‘child’ or as an ‘adult’. The trial

would take place on the basis of this assessment. The

present framework classifies offences as petty, serious

and heinous and treats each category under a different

process. The government claims that since this assess-

ment will be done with the help of psychologists and

social experts, the rights of the juvenile would be pro-

tected. It remains to be seen if enough numbers of such

professionals would be available across the country to

make this work.

It should not be forgotten that making children face

an adult criminal court would mar the prospect of their

rehabilitation. The Supreme Court has not seen any

special reason to amend the present juvenile law. Nor

did the Justice J.S. Verma Committee, which made far-

reaching recommendations on the legal framework for

treating sexual offences, suggest such changes. The gov-

ernment should stick by the U.N. Convention on the

Rights of the Child, which treats everyone up to 18 as a

child. To the government's credit, it has held some

consultations with stakeholders before finalising its

latest draft. It has heeded the Parliamentary Commit-

tee’s objection to Clause 7, and dropped the arbitrary

provision that a person who had committed an offence

when aged between 16 and 18 but was apprehended only

after crossing the age of 21 would be treated and tried as

an adult. However, this is not enough. The government

would do well to drop its attempt to have a differential

system for those involved in ‘heinous offences’. Instead,

it should pursue the other forward-looking aspects of

the bill, which has welcome features for the care and

protection of children that can help them significantly

through provisions such as those for foster homes and a

better-regulated adoption mechanism.

Unequal scales for juveniles

Suicide at rallyThe incident at the AAP rally inDelhi, where a farmer, GajendraSingh, committed suicide, is causefor distress (“Horror of farmsuicide visits Delhi,” April 23).What is worse is that politicalparties have lost no time to ignitethe issue. The farmer’s purportedsuicide note does not appear tomention the land acquisitionordinance, which in turn raisesmany questions. Though a residentin faraway Rajasthan, how did hedecide to go to Delhi on the day ofthe rally? This aspect needs to beinvestigated. Farmers have to livewith natural calamities. If ourquibbling politicians are genuinelyinterested in farmer welfare, theymust debate the issue inParliament and work out an all-India strategy that providesfarmers an additional avocation.

K.R. Unnithan,Chennai

It is terrible that a person was ableto end his life in front of a largegathering and that no one could doanything about it. Rather than itbeing described as a ‘shame on AAPand the Delhi Police’, I think it’s ashame on humanity. It does notmatter whether he was a farmer ora labourer. He was a human andshould have lived.

Girijesh Pandey,New Delhi

The ‘idealism’ of the Aam AadmiParty stands demolished. Howcould these so-called sympathisersof farmers continue with the rallyeven though a horrendous incidenttook place? They cannot feigninnocence.

Sweety Gupta,New Delhi

The incident is a pointer to the deepcrisis that has engulfed the agrariansector and that political parties arenow trying to make political capitalout of it. There must be relief forfarmers in general immediately.Forget the tweets. Does anyonecare about the poor Indian farmer?

Varshdeep Singh Chahal,Patiala, Punjab

Changes in juvenile lawThe proposed amendments to theJuvenile Justice Act that wouldallow juveniles between 16 and 18years to be considered adults incases of heinous crime is a well-thought-out step (April 23). Thestep of pre-assessment sieving bythe Juvenile Justice Board todetermine whether a juvenile is tobe treated as a ‘child’ or an ‘adult’ isa pragmatic safeguard. Thisamendment is also in conformitywith The Child Labour Act wherechildren above 16 years are beyondits pale.

Ayyasseri Raveendranath,Aranmula, Kerala

Once juveniles are treated likeadults before the law, there willalways be the lurking fear that suchoffenders too will be torturedmercilessly in the name of‘interrogation’ by the police.Therefore, abundant caution mustbe taken to ensure that juvenilesare not subject to extreme methodsin order to ‘extract a confession’.There must be a panel ofpsychologists, social workers,sociologists and medicalprofessionals to ensure that thepolice find an alternative method tothe present archaic way ofextracting confessions. Also, onceconvicted, juvenile offendersshould not be lodged in the samecell as adult criminals. Theamendment needs careful, properand exhaustive scrutiny.

M.V. Nahusharaj,Bengaluru

Three futuresIn Shiv Visvanathan’s succinctanalysis of the speeches made byNarendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi andSitaram Yechury, it is Mr. Modiwho clearly appears to be a manunder siege due to hisgovernment’s undue haste in tryingto push through the LandAcquisition Bill and the increasingperception among the masses of theBJP being anti-farmer (“Threespeeches, three futures,” April 23).Rahul Gandhi has dispelled thepopular impression of being a

reluctant campaigner and hasdisplayed some effort in taking onthe government. Mr. Yechury hasan unenviable task of galvanisingthe Left movement and it remainsto be seen whether he will succeedin his mission.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,Tiruchi

The writer appears to be anoptimist in trying to predict a seachange in the Left with theelevation of Sitaram Yechury in theCPI(M). The party lost the script along time ago. With the newgeneration moving away from Leftideology, one wonders what Mr.Yechury can do.

Duggaraju Srinivasa Rao,Vijayawada

Poverty still thrives in India andsustainable economic developmentis still elusive. The speeches thewriter alludes to do not matter atall. What matters now is whetherthe three parties concerned aretaking steps to guide the Indianpeople to a better future. At thesame time, one has to be fair andgive the Central government timeand a chance to improve things overthe next four years.

Shemeela Sasikumar, Thrissur   

ClarificationThe report, “Yechury is new CPI(M) chief” (April 20), on the

elevation of Sitaram Yechury as thenew general secretary of the CPI(M), had, in its last paragraph, areference to Kairali TV, which iscontrary to the facts. The sentencesaid: “Within hours, the party’sMalayalam television channelKairali broke the news that Mr.Pillai had withdrawn from the racejust before the CC [CentralCommitee] election.” People,Kairali’s news channel, had put outthe news on the CPI(M) Congressincluding the election of theGeneral Secretary. It merely said“Sitaram Yechury is likely to be theGeneral Secretary” towards the endof the CC meeting, and which wasupdated later after theannouncement.

The depiction of Kairali as “a CPI(M) channel” is contrary to thefacts. Kairali is owned byMalayalam CommunicationsLimited which is a public limitedcompany and where there are morethan two lakh shareholders fromdifferent political parties. Thisincludes the Rajya Sabha MP(Muslim League), Abdul Wahab,who is one of the founder directorsand promoters of the company.Even those opposed to Leftideology do not depict Kairali as aparty channel.

N.P. Chandrasekharan,Director (News)

Malayalam CommunicationsLimited,

Thiruvananthapuram

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

With the expulsion from its ranks of foun-

der-members Yogendra Yadav and Prash-

ant Bhushan, the Aam Aadmi Party would

seem to have put an end, at least for now,

to a bitter internal battle that has taken much of the

gloss off its historic victory in the Delhi Assembly elec-

tions of February 2015. The party now says its focus

would be on the governance of Delhi while it takes a

‘dynamic’ call with regard to contesting elections in

other States. This may be a simple statement but it

reveals much about the nature of the party’s ambitions.

A significant part of its internal battle may have been a

clash of egos and personalities, but if one were to identi-

fy an ideological thread, it is this: Mr. Yadav and Mr.

Bhushan wanted the AAP to quickly seize the initiative

to build a national presence. They argued that in order

to do this the party should formulate a position on

several matters of national import. Mr. Kejriwal, on the

other hand, wanted to focus his energies on ridding

Delhi of corruption and ensuring better delivery of

services to its citizenry. This, to him, is a form of politics

in itself where ideology has no part. Given the way the

cards have fallen, the future of the AAP now rests on Mr.

Kejriwal’s performance as Chief Minister of Delhi.

It cannot be denied, however, that in the process of

being engineered to suit Mr. Kejriwal’s wishes the party

has lost much. As an immediate example, think of how

much it would have benefited from having Mr. Yadav or

Mr. Bhushan as its spokespersons articulating views to

its advantage after a farmer committed suicide at a rally

organised by it in New Delhi on April 22. As it was, its

current lead spokesperson Ashutosh had to publicly

apologise after making some bizarre and insensitive

remarks. Further, the AAP has lost its appeal as a party

that could accommodate a variety of opinions and voic-

es. Internal differences within political parties may be

nothing new. But when was the last time a political

party actually expelled its own senior members rather

than accommodate them? Even until a few months ago

such things may not have mattered to it as the AAP

seemed to be building up its image as the only party that

could take on the BJP. However, it now faces the pros-

pect of the Congress, along with the Left parties and the

Janata Parivar, building up strength and presence with

their agitations against the land acquisition bill. By the

time the AAP is able to market the Kejriwal model of

governance it may well have lost a lot of ground. In

order to avoid that prospect, it needs to devote at least a

part of its focus to a discourse on national issues. The

AAP thus stands at a crossroads today.

AAP ata crossroads

CARTOONSCAPE

On a visit to Afghanistan in Febru-ary 2014, it looked as though rela-tions between India andAfghanistan were on a high. Rela-

tions were set to get into a new pace, withIndia committing to projects as part of thetotal package of $2 billion for developmentaid and to a request from Afghanistan forhelicopters. The helicopters, three upgraded‘Cheetals’ from Hindustan Aeronautics Lim-ited, were to be delivered “soon”.

“Soon” has meant more than a year later.The helicopters will now be handed overwhen Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghanivisits New Delhi on April 27. But the Af-ghanistan they will land in has changed vastlyin the past year, and their impact may not beas deeply felt as when they were needed ayear ago. What has changed? New govern-ments in New Delhi and Kabul are the mostvisible change; so have Afghanistan’s region-al equations with Pakistan, Iran, and China,especially since its President, Hamid Karzai,demitted office.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi pre-pares to welcome Mr. Ghani, it is this change,rather than past years of goodwill, that will bethe most important determinant of the fu-ture course of India-Afghanistan relations.

Turnaround with Pakistan

Mr. Ghani’s turnaround with Pakistan isprobably the most dramatic shift in Kabul’sforeign policy. From the moment he assumedoffice, he has shunned making any commentson Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) support to the Taliban and Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) insurgents in the way Mr. Karzaihad, and has pursued closer ties on the mil-itary front. He has invited Pakistan’s ArmyChief General Raheel Sharif, the ISI Chief, Lt.General Rizwan Akhtar, and two corps com-manders to Kabul. He went to Pakistan inNovember, visiting the Army General Head-quarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi. Mr. Ghaniagreed to send the first batch of six officers toAbbottabad for training in February thisyear. The Peshawar school massacre in De-cember 2014 and the Kabul embassy attackmight have brought the two countries closer,evident in their sharing information on theterror groups responsible. The other part tothis closeness comes from Mr. Ghani’s desireto restart talks with the Taliban. Much willdepend on how much Pakistan delivers interms of persuading senior Taliban leaders to

appear for talks, even while curbing attacksby the groups under its control inAfghanistan.

Engagement with China, Iran

Talks with the Taliban have changed thenature of Afghanistan’s engagement withChina as well. China has traditionally stayedaway from playing an overt role in the in-ternal political process of countries it investsin. Yet, in February this year, its ForeignMinister, Wang Yi, announced at a press con-ference in Islamabad that China was “readyto play a constructive role” and would “pro-vide necessary facilitation at any time if it isrequired by various parties in Afghanistan.”What he didn’t say then, but which is wellknown, is that Beijing has already hosted ateam headed by the leader of the Taliban’spolitical office in Qatar, Qari Din Moham-

mad, to discuss the way forward. The Talibanvisit came a month after Mr. Ghani had beento Beijing, in October 2014, and issued a pub-lic invitation for talks to the Taliban when ata press conference with the Chinese Presi-dent, Xi Jinping. Around the same time, asenior Minister in the Ghani cabinet visitedIndia and his message to the Indian govern-ment was clear; “For peace in Afghanistan,we need a handle on the Taliban, for whichwe need a handle on Pakistan, for which weneed China.”

For China, the move to reach out is clearlydriven by Mr. Xi’s desire to clear the path toCentral Asia with his Silk Route “One Belt,One Road” initiative, spanning cities fromXian to Venice. The project — which involveshundreds of billions of dollars to be spent oninfrastructure along the route from China to

Europe — envisages Afghanistan as an in-vestment hub, while also securing energysupplies for China’s burgeoning needs. Mr.Xi is making it known that he is willing tospend, and spend big on the venture, alongwith a more modest “Maritime Silk Route”initiative. His announcement of a $46 billionplan to build an economic corridor throughPakistan to the Gwadar port, and which theChinese will manage, is in line with that. Hisplan to link Afghanistan to Pakistan throughhighways, and new railway lines will alsoboost more trade along the route. Simultane-ously, the Chinese outlay of $40 billion in theSilk Route Fund will strengthen Afghantransport and trade links with Central Asiancountries.

Finally, in the discussion on Afghanistan’sneighbourhood, there is Iran, a country nowpoised on the brink of big changes. The P5+1

(the United States, United Kingdom, Germa-ny, France, Russia, and China, facilitated bythe European Union) agreement to work on adeal over Iran’s nuclear programme by June30 opens up many possibilities for Afghan-istan, which had a go-slow at several pointson trade with Tehran because of sanctions bythe United States. There is no doubt that theeconomic landscape of Afghanistan willchange with the development of trade routesthrough Iran and Pakistan.

A role for India

Where does India fit in in all this? Has Mr.Ghani spoken with his feet, by travelling toChina on his first state visit, in October 2014,and later to Pakistan, in November, leavingIndia to much later, after a visit to the U.S. inMarch 2015? Does India risk being left out of

the loop when it comes to strategy, trade anddevelopment with Afghanistan? This in achanging region where the U.S.’s influence isreceding, China’s influence is rising, Pakistanis more powerful, and Iran is showing thepotential to be the economic powerhouse inits neighbourhood? The answer: not neces-sarily. But as Mr. Ghani comes to New Delhi,it is necessary to recognise the contours ofthis changing world as well as build a newdynamism into the India-Afghanistanrelationship.

Negative impulses

To begin with, policymakers in New Delhiwill have to acknowledge that three essen-tially negative impulses have dogged most ofthe moves made over the past few years.These are: manoeuvres against Pakistan’sterror threat; measures cutting trade withIran because of U.S. sanctions; and movescountering China’s rise in theneighbourhood.

The decision to refuse Afghanistan’s de-mands of military transport and combat as-sistance was essentially driven by India’snervousness over Pakistan’s reaction, and at-tacks by the LeT on Indian nationals. Even-tually, Afghanistan’s government gave upwaiting, and Mr. Ghani withdrew the re-quests, made by Mr. Karzai in 2012-13. WhileIndia may still not wish to accede to theAfghan plea for lethal weaponry and combatassistance on the ground, it is necessary thatthe government moves quickly on other re-quests for helicopters, jeeps, and plans for anacademy to train security forces in Kabul.The delivery of the Cheetal helicopters in afew days could be the signal that India isfinally ready to do much more. At the sametime, Mr. Modi may have to accept the inevi-tability of a dialogue with Pakistan on coop-erating on transit trade with Afghanistan.This would strengthen Mr. Ghani’s requestto the Pakistan Commerce Minister, Khur-ram Dastgir Khan, to include India in theAfghanistan-Pakistan Transit and TradeAgreement (APTTA) in talks this month.

Second, the delays in the alternate routethrough Iran’s Chabahar port can be attri-buted to U.S. pressure against deals withIran. Putting off work on this route will ig-nore Indian sacrifices already made in orderto build the Zaranj-Delaram highway on theAfghanistan side. It is imperative that Indiamakes good on its promise to quickly refur-bish the Iranian port, and re-establishes fulltrade relations with Iran in order to have ahead-start on the new trade route to Afghan-istan, that will no doubt emerge as a conse-quence of the P5+1 agreement with Iran.

Third, the government’s opposition toChina’s Silk Route initiative in the neigh-bourhood should be revisited. If China iswilling to invest in the region’s infrastruc-ture, this is something India can also benefitfrom, by developing its own trade relationswith each of the countries along the Silk andMaritime Silk Routes. India’s influence overits neighbours, be it in the South Asian Asso-ciation for Regional Cooperation (SAARC)region or in the Indian Ocean region hasalways been in a historical and cultural con-text, and involving a large-heartedness insharing its resources with its neighbours. In-dia must extend its generosity of spirit byencouraging its neighbours to benefit fromChinese prosperity, while “being the Un-Chi-na” itself and reaching out in ways Chinacan’t. Mr. Modi’s visit to the Seychelles,Mauritius and Sri Lanka, in March 2015, un-derlined just what this engagement couldlook like.

Afghanistan has shown that it values rela-tions with India, even as it essays the newopportunities in its own neighbourhood, andMr. Ghani’s visit will be a chance to reposeconfidence in those ties. In his inaugural ad-dress, Mr. Ghani outlined his country’s “five-circle foreign policy”: relations with neigh-bours, Asian countries, the Islamic world,donor countries and international institu-tions. As one of its most reliable donors — asthe architect of development projects asprominent as the Parliament, highways andthe Salma dam, a provider of health and edu-cation to lakhs of Afghans, and as a strategicpartner with a long history of shared cultureand faith — India already has a big place inthe Afghan heart. Now, it can well occupy asignificant part of each of these circles.

suhasini.h@thehindu.co.in

In step with Ghani’s AfghanistanAs India prepares to welcome AfghanistanPresident Ashraf Ghani, it must recognise thatpolitical changes and new regional equations,rather than past years of goodwill, will be the mostimportant determinants of the future course ofIndia-Afghanistan relations

Suhasini Haidar

It is imperative that India makes good on its promise to

quickly refurbish the Iranian port, and re-establishes full trade

relations with Iran in order to have a head-start on the new

trade route to Afghanistan…

CMYK

ND-ND

SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2015

8 THE HINDU SATURDAY, APRIL 25, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The pangs of creating a new mechanism to

make appointments to the higher judiciary

are already being felt. The National Judicial

Appointments Commission Act has been no-

tified, but the NJAC is yet to be fully constituted. It

requires only the appointment of two eminent persons

to complete the six-member body; the other four mem-

bers are the Chief Justice of India, two senior-most

judges of the Supreme Court and the Union Law Minis-

ter. But there is uncertainty over the appointment of

new judges in the High Courts and the Supreme Court

as a Constitution Bench is hearing a challenge to the

law. The Union government notified the NJAC Act this

week and effectively ended the primacy enjoyed by the

judiciary for the last two decades in the matter of

appointments to the Supreme Court and High Courts.

However, under some prodding from the Constitution

Bench, it has agreed that the NJAC, which is expected

to be constituted before May 11, would not appoint new

judges until the validity of the law is decided. There is

understandable anxiety on the part of the court over

who would take care of immediate issues. For instance,

the terms of office of several additional judges in the

High Courts could end before the Constitution Bench

decided on the validity of the Act. Justice J.S. Khehar

who heads the Bench has noted that it would be embar-

rassing if fresh appointments were made now and

eventually the NJAC was declared invalid.

The via media suggested is that the government

could move quickly to appoint the two eminent persons

and constitute the body so that it could extend the

terms of additional judges or confirm them as perma-

nent ones, thereby avoiding a situation in which their

tenure comes to an abrupt end merely for want of a

mechanism to decide on their continuance. And the

NJAC would make no fresh appointments during the

pendency of the proceedings. While this may be an

interim arrangement, there is little doubt that the

situation should not be allowed to prolong. For the

time being it is imperative that the judiciary and the

executive cooperate with each other and avoid undue

delays in filling up vacancies while the questions of law

are being settled. As such, a less substantive issue had

cropped up. As two senior-most judges besides the

Chief Justice will be members of the NJAC, a question

was raised whether judges who are likely to be part of

the Commission, both in the present and in the future,

should recuse from the hearing. This has since been

tackled. Such preliminary issues should not deflect

attention from the real question whether the new

mechanism impinges on the independence of the judi-

ciary, or delay an authoritative pronouncement on it.

A solution thatbrooks no delay

Farmer’s suicideAs the government fumbles forsolutions to the agrarian crisis, afarmer’s suicide in central Delhihas exposed the dark side of apolitical class eager to scorebrownie points. What hashappened in recent weeks is thatanger over crop failures must havecoalesced with the politics over theland acquisition issue. Mostfarmers who turned up for the rallymay not have had a clue about theland acquisition debate but wereprobably more distressed aboutcrop losses. Thousands of farmershave taken their lives, all this awayfrom the glare of the media andhave remained incognito due to theostrichlike attitude of theleadership. A poor monsoon thisyear, as predicted, will only add tofarmers’ woes. It is time theCentral and State governments,irrespective of party affiliations,worked together to provide reliefto farmers.

P. Arihant,Secunderabad

The danger in making the issue ofagrarian distress a political footballis that it deflects attention fromacute farm distress and its causes.Farm distress is a direct corollaryof the neglect of the agriculturalsector by successive governments.The rise in the incidence of farmersuicides cannot be seen in isolationfrom the incumbent government’shalf-hearted implementation ofentitlement programmes and itscut in agricultural subsidies. Theimplementation ofrecommendations in the M.S.Swaminathan Report (NationalCommission on Farmers) would

have certainly averted the agrariancrisis we are now faced with.

G. David Milton,Maruthancode, Tamil Nadu

Politicians often, and inexplicablyso, appear indifferent to publicanger. But even in context, it issurprising that the political class asa whole has failed to gauge theextent of our disgust at theirstatements and actions thatensued in the wake of GajendraSingh’s passing. His tragic deathreminds me of the film, ‘PeepliLive’. I am shocked and ashamed.

Meghana A.,NSW, Australia

The blame game has begun; thereare comments from top authoritiesand, not to forget thecompensation amount. It’s timeour politicians take really concretesteps to improve the lot of farmers.The real compensation would be inthe form of effective policies suchas a special economic package forthe farmer community.

Alka Meher,Raipur, Chhattisgarh

The farmer cannot obviously beleft to fend for himself and the needis for political parties to deliberateconstructively on the matter andsuggest specific and feasiblesupport measures and strategies.Bringing in a class angle into thisdifficult issue, accusing the BJP ofbeing anti-poor and anti-farmer,and then agitating for it to bediscredited are nationallydestabilising and irresponsible.

A.N. Lakshmanan,Bengaluru

The depiction (“Cartoonscape”,

April 24) spoke volumes about aworsening of social and politicalvalues in India. Our politicians talkonly about smart cities but never asingle word about “smart farming”.It was Gandhiji who said that ‘Indialives in her villages’. Today’spolitician appears intent ondestroying villages and turningfarmers to labourers.

Poduri Krishnakumari,Hyderabad

AAP at a crossroadsThe expulsion of Yogendra Yadavand Prashant Bhushan from theAAP’s primary membership hasimpoverished the party anddemonstrated the leadership’sintolerance to dissent andcriticism (Editorial, April 24).

Though the AAP was born out ofan anti-corruption campaign, theevents show that it needs toposition itself as a mainstreampolitical outfit with a broadervision. With the exit of articulatespokespersons, the party’s politicalfortunes hinge on good governanceby Arvind Kejriwal. The handlingof the farmer’s suicide in Delhispeaks poorly about thefunctioning of the Delhiadministration.

P.K. Varadarajan,Chennai

In step with KabulAfghanistan can carry outmanoeuvres with Pakistan andChina and India can have noquarrel with that (“In step withGhani’s Afghanistan,” April 24).Though there may be an increasedChinese presence in the regionbecause of the Silk Route, andwhich may look ominous to India,New Delhi should not get

flabbergasted. It must try and makebest use of the upgrade ininfrastructure development thiswill result in. The only fear couldbe that of radical elements gettingout of hand. It would be mostwelcome if all four countries cantame the Taliban.

K. Rajendran,Chennai

The Ghani visit will be a test forIndian diplomacy and it’simperative that New Delhiestablishes its priorities quickly.Whether it is about strengtheningour relations with our ‘natural’partner Afghanistan or curbingChina’s rise in our ‘strategic’neighbourhood or curtailingPakistan’s growing hold overKabul, it all boils down to theeconomic equation and the Talibanfactor. Most of the mess inAfghanistan stems from disputesamong and grievances of tribalfactions; in this, Iran holds the keyas mediator while India can be thefacilitator. India’s acknowledgeddemocratic standing and itsinstitutions can help in arebuilding of Afghanistan. Third,the perception of India inAfghanistan is good and Indiawould be far better than othercountries in accommodating localsentiments. India should take upthe challenge of competing withChina rather than keeping itselfout from grand initiatives in theregion.

Shashank Jain,New Delhi

Smart citiesThe article, “What makes citiesreally smart” (April 24), hasworkable ideas. It also highlights

the state of administration in Indiawhich lacks an understanding ofwhat can be done even with limitedresources. A focus ontransportation, e-governance andeasy land titling will go a long wayin mitigating the current misery.

Samaga Dattatri,Bengaluru

World Bank data shows thataround 32 per cent of India’spopulation is urban based with therest living in villages. While theBJP-led NDA government hasunveiled an ambitious ‘Smart City’programme, it seems to beoverlooking giving impetus tomaking villages also smart on thelines of the concept put forth byPresident A.P.J. Abdul Kalamcalled Providing Urban Amenitiesin Rural Areas (PURA). From anenvironmental point of view, the‘Smart City’ programme will helpreduce pollution levels in cities.

Anurag Kamal,Thiruvananthapuram

Focussing on e-governance, landtitling, and transportation aspriorities for converting cities intosmart cities will not be enough.First, the use of plastic and othernon-biodegradable material is onthe rise and waste managementwill become a huge challenge.Second, many cities face an acuteshortage of power. Third,streamlining water supply to poorurbanities is a must. Hence, water,energy and waste managementsystems, the basic infrastructuralnecessities in addition totransportation should be a part ofany conversion agenda.

Varad Seshadri,Sunnyvale, CA, U.S.

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

In contrast to last year, the initial outlook for the

southwest monsoon looks hardly promising. Ac-

cording to the first-stage forecast issued on April

22 by the India Meteorological Department, the

southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall is likely to be 93

per cent of the long-period average with a margin of

error of 5 per cent. For the June-September season,

both the deficient (less than 90 per cent of long-period

average, or LPA) and below-normal (between 90 and

96 per cent of the long-period average) categories have

a nearly equal probability of 33 and 35 per cent respec-

tively. The forecast probability of both deficient and

below-normal categories is double the climatological

probability, which is based on how the monsoon fared

in previous years. While the chances of excess rainfall

occurring are non-existent, initial indications are that

the monsoon this year will be subnormal or deficient.

However, the initial forecast made in April cannot be

the basis for arriving at any firm conclusions; at best, it

may serve as a pointer. For instance, as seen last year

the El Niño conditions over the Pacific did not develop

into a phenomenon that was strong enough to retard

the southwest monsoon over the country and fizzled

out swiftly. Of late, El Niño characteristics seem to

change quickly. Hence, a true picture will emerge only

by the end of May or in early June. The June forecasts

will also be more comprehensive in terms of monthly

rainfall over the country and seasonal rainfall over the

four regions.

The El Niño conditions currently prevailing over the

Pacific Ocean are stronger compared with last year.

These have been particularly notable in the central

Pacific Ocean. An increase of 0.5° C in the sea surface

temperature has been recorded in the Pacific region,

and in all likelihood the warming will increase and

mature during the monsoon period. These have already

been factored in to arrive at 93 per cent of the LPA with

a margin of error of 5 per cent. A strong El Niño can

play an important role, but it is just one of the factors

that could affect rainfall. As witnessed in 1997, a posi-

tive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) has the potential to

largely offset the adverse influence of even a strong El

Niño and ensure above-average rains across India.

Though slightly negative IOD conditions are now in-

dicated, these can be largely ignored. Unlike in the case

of El Niño, the IOD prediction is far from good; the

Indian Ocean processes and how they develop are not

quite well understood. Hence, the initial indications

are that the IOD may neither support the impact of El

Niño nor neutralise it. As in the case of El Niño, a better

picture of the IOD will emerge only from the next

round of the forecast.

Monsoon concerns

CARTOONSCAPE

The current debate on the land law isimportant because it affords us achance to reflect more deeply onthe nature of India’s development

process and the experience of democracy fora majority of our citizens. I see the 2013 landlaw as part of a response — highly belated inmy view — to the perception of millions ofour people that while India’s economy wasbooming over the last two decades, theywere not part of the growth story.

Indeed, many people feel that develop-ment has happened at their cost. Officialestimates place the number of people dis-placed due to development projects sinceIndependence at 60 million, less than a thirdof whom have been properly resettled. Mostof the displaced are the assetless rural poor,marginal farmers, poor fisherfolk and quarryworkers. Around 40 per cent of them areAdivasis and 20 per cent Dalits. Official sta-tistics testify that on all indicators of devel-opment, Dalits and Adivasis have been theworst off groups. Already at the bottom ofthe development pyramid, being deprived oftheir land and livelihoods has completelypauperised them, forcing many to move andlive in subhuman conditions in our metros.The last two decades have also seen unprece-dented agrarian distress, with more than twolakh farmers committing suicide, as per theNational Crime Records Bureau. This issomething that had never happened beforein Indian history.

A sense of hurt

It is in this backdrop that we need tounderstand the heightened sensitivities andpalpable anger over forcible land acquisi-tion. Given that 90 per cent of our coal, morethan 50 per cent of most minerals, and pro-spective dam sites are mainly in Adivasi re-gions, there has been, and is likely to be,continuing tension over issues of land acqui-sition. Through these tensions, not only hasa question mark been placed over our devel-opment strategy, the delicate fabric of Indi-an democracy has become terribly frayed atthe edges. In the remote Adivasi heartlandsof India, people feel such a deep and abidingsense of hurt, alienation and cynicism thatthey have allowed themselves to be help-lessly drawn into a terrible vortex of violence

and counter-violence, even when they knowin their heart of hearts that it will lead totheir own destruction.

The 2013 land law tried to reach out tothese people, by undoing a draconian coloni-al Act more suited to a 19th century empirethan to a 21st century vibrant democracy. Atthe heart of the 2013 law was the provision ofseeking the consent of those whose landswere to be acquired and of caring for thosewhose livelihoods would be destroyed in theprocess. Undoing these provisions is a vir-tual resurrection of undiluted powers of“eminent domain”, which the 1894 law con-ferred on the state.

Listening to the farmer

I do not dispute the fact that there can bemany situations where land is needed for adevelopment project that could actually

benefit those whose lands are being ac-quired. What could be the possible harm inseeking the prior, informed consent of thesepeople, after making the effort of explainingto them how they would stand to benefit?There are those who argue that farmerswould be better off giving up farming. In-deed, they say farmers do not want to farmany more. Why would these farmers con-ceivably say no if we were to propose moreattractive and tangible alternative options tothem in return for their land? Is it not forfarmers to assess whether the project willactually be of benefit to them and whetherthe recompense offered to them is a fairbargain? And allow them to be parties inworking out what could be regarded as a fairdeal for all? But all this will happen only if we

are willing to talk to farmers and listen tothem, who, I dare say, based on my experi-ence of listening to them for 25 years, have agreat deal to teach us.

Importance of SIA

This is the essence of Social Impact As-sessment (SIA), which was again at the heartof the 2013 law. SIA is an instrument meantto assess the positive and negative impacts ofthe project and also to assess whether theobjectives of the proposed project could notbe achieved in some other manner, especial-ly by acquiring significantly less fertile, mul-ti-cropped land, a crucial requirement ofnational food security. When we look back atthe history of land acquisition in India, wefind it riddled with instances of far too muchland being acquired and not being put to use.Just one look at the huge amounts of unused

land in possession of many of our universi-ties today would make you see the point. Andas a recent study by the Comptroller andAuditor General (CAG) reveals, of the over60,000 hectares of land acquired for SpecialEconomic Zones (SEZs), from 2006 to 2013,around 53 per cent has not been put to anyuse. Just because it was possible to bullyuninformed village people, we continued todo so.

SIA is an attempt to check these kinds ofmalpractices. It is also a way of making surethat land acquisition is not an easy way forthe real estate mafia to make a quick buck inthe name of development. The CAG studyfound many instances of land acquired atrates much below the market value beingdiverted to private builders in urban areas

for commercial exploitation after denotifica-tion. The 2013 Act provided for the return ofunused land to the original owner in caseswhere the land has not been used for thepurposes for which it was acquired withinfive years. This is a key provision that shouldbe retained.

SIA is an attempt to restore the decliningfaith in the democratic process, by reachingout to those who believe all decisions affect-ing their lives are made in distant, uncaringcorridors of power, leaving them withoutany say. Incidentally, SIA is also best prac-tice in development projects across theworld. The 2013 law was a belated attempt tocatch up with what other nations have beendoing for long. Doing away with SIA woulddestroy a very powerful means of what isglobally termed “conflict prevention”, a va-riety of activities aimed at anticipating andaverting the outbreak of conflict.

Many people are rightly concerned aboutthe slow pace of decision-making in devel-opment projects. They wish to do away withdemocracy-building, consent-seeking proc-esses. But repeated experience shows thatthe attempt to push through projects with-out the consent of local people only results inmassive delays, costing huge sums of moneyto the project developer. For an enlightenedcapitalist, it would be far more sensible andexpeditious to conduct business in a peace-ful, consensual atmosphere, rather than be-ing repeatedly prevented from functioningdue to endless strife and conflict. The 2013law has proposed a time-bound SIA, whichcould be a powerful means of conflict pre-vention by taking local communities onboard and making them integral partners indevelopment. There are many instances ofthis across the world, as also in India.

Need for debate

The enactment of the 2013 law was a realstruggle, with many, across partisan divides,fiercely opposing it. A key role in its passagewas played by Parliament, which instilledthe law with necessary balance. The extraor-dinary leadership provided by the presentSpeaker of the Lok Sabha was crucial in see-ing the Act through with complete unanimi-ty. Her sagacity and consensus-buildingskills, as Chair of the Parliamentary Stand-ing Committee, helped reconcile conflictingarguments into a seamless whole.

It is the very same spirit that the nationseeks today from Parliament, for balanceand compromise are the hallmarks of a de-mocracy. This has not been an empty debate.All sides have had powerful points to make.All the concerns being expressed are genuinenational concerns. The country needs indus-trialisation and urbanisation. But their spe-cific forms need to be debated. Surely, wecannot continue with a pattern of industrythat yields so few jobs, and one that has sucha large ecological, especially water, foot-print. We also cannot be excited by the urbannightmares that our cities are today. Thedebate on the land law is a great occasion tomove the dialogue forward on these key na-tional agendas. If we want to acquire the landof farmers to serve larger goals, surely theprojects in which they are embodied mustnot be of the kinds that repeat the mistakesof the past. The people of this country, whoare being asked to make sacrifices for thelarger national good, must know and be con-vinced that what they give up will indeedserve a meaningful “public purpose” and notinvolve the injustices and malpractices ofthe past. That is why the consent and SIAclauses need to be retained in the land lawthat Parliament eventually passes. Let us notreduce it to a National Democratic Alliance(NDA) vs. United Progressive Alliance(UPA) issue. Let us hope Parliament will riseabove narrow partisan politics and seize thisopportunity to provide an appropriate re-sponse to the utterly tragic suicide of Gajendra Singh.

(Mihir Shah has lived and worked with theAdivasis of central India for the last 25years.)

Land, development and democracy India cannot continue with a pattern of industrythat yields so few jobs but has such a largeecological footprint. Neither can it be excited bythe urban nightmares that its cities are today. Theland law debate must be the occasion to talk aboutthese key national agendas

Mihir Shah

When we look back at the history of land acquisition in

India, we find it riddled with instances of far too much

land being acquired and not put to use.

CMYK

ND-ND

MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015

8 THE HINDU MONDAY, APRIL 27, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan found her-

self in the eye of the storm last week after she

delivered two almost identical rulings on con-

secutive days expunging jibes targeting Prime

Minister Narendra Modi. A heated debate followed,

with an enraged Opposition unitedly questioning her

on Thursday on whatever was “unparliamentary” in

Aam Aadmi Party MP Bhagwant Mann’s remark that

ending farmers’ suicides and the agrarian crisis would

require more than a ‘Mann Ki Baat’, in a reference to

Mr. Modi’s monthly radio broadcast. In the end, Ms.

Mahajan was forced to retreat, saying she did not object

to criticism of the Prime Minister — she just wished to

emphasise that every issue should not be “politicised”.

She agreed to examine the records, saying that if the

context permitted such a comment, she would restore

it. That has since been done, and Mr. Mann’s words are

now part of the parliamentary record. Earlier she ac-

knowledged that she had repeatedly told MPs it was

wrong to refer to the Prime Minister in every dis-

cussion. On Wednesday, a remark by Congress MP K.C.

Venugopal on Mr. Modi during a discussion on attacks

on minorities had invited expunction by Ms. Mahajan.

In the 11 months since the Modi government came to

power, the growing tension between Ms. Mahajan and

the Opposition has been palpable, with many MPs ex-

pressing their dismay — if informally — at what they

describe as the “partisan” attitude of the Chair. There

have been occasions when Ms. Mahajan has directed

the switching off of microphones mid-speech; her in-

vocation of “Om Shanti” after obituary references has

invited comment. But on Thursday it all exploded in the

House in the full glare of the television cameras. In a

parliamentary democracy the Speaker’s role is well-

defined: once elected, she is expected to detach herself

from government activity to run the House impartially.

The Rules characterise the Speaker as “the true guardi-

an of the traditions of parliamentary democracy”,

stressing that her decisions are “final and binding and

ordinarily cannot be questioned, challenged or crit-

icised”. While giving “adequate opportunities to all sec-

tions of the House to ventilate their views”, she must

“preserve the dignity of the House”. Mr. Modi is neither

the first Prime Minister — nor will he be the last — to

face Opposition fire in Parliament. Since Independence

every Prime Minister has faced criticism. This was true

also of Nehru, who enjoyed an absolute majority and

enormous public esteem. Dr. Manmohan Singh, who

was regularly pilloried in Parliament, would, like all his

predecessors, defend himself. Mr. Modi, who has posi-

tioned himself as a strong leader, does not need the

protection of the Chair. As for the Speaker, she must not

just be just, she must be seen to do justice.

Parliamentunbound

Nepal quakeGoing by the visuals in the media, itis clear that old and dilapidatedbuildings in Kathmandu have beena factor in the growing toll (“1,500killed in Nepal quake”, April 26).With rescue operations proving tobe a tall order given themountainous terrain, one hopesthat the authorities and reliefteams are able to act quickly. TheIndian government deserves praisefor rushing to the rescue of Nepal inrecord time.

N.J. Ravi Chander,Bengaluru

India has done well to rush to theassistance of Nepal, though a fewStates in our country have alsobeen affected but to a lesser extent.It does not have to be reiteratedthat Nepal will need massiveinternational assistance for a longtime in order to achieve asemblance of normalcy.

D.B.N. Murthy,Bengaluru

The disturbing scenes on televisionshow that despite advances intechnology, we still lack the abilityto predict an earthquake. This mustbe contrasted with the way in whichwe are able to take measures daysbefore a cyclone makes landfall.One hopes that there is direction inthis field so that countless lives canbe saved.

Syed Nissar,Hyderabad

Man has no control over Nature’sfury, but in times of such calamitieswe can do our best. India’s efforts inrushing its NDRF team withinhours of the tragedy and startingrescue operations even beforeNepal declared a nationalemergency is laudable.

After our swift action in Yemen,the way we have acted when Nepalis facing deep distress iscommendable. Steps such as areduction in call charges bytelecom operators will certainlybring relief.

Ravindranathan T.,Chennai

UNESCO oversees themaintenance of several heritagemonuments and structures all overthe world. Perhaps the time hascome for the UN, after due survey,to put out an advisory on thecondition of such heritagebuildings for entry by tourists.Perhaps, this was not done in thecase of the 19th century Dharaharatower in Kathmandu, which hasresulted in tragedy.

A.S. Adikkesavan,Chennai

Now is the occasion to prepare forthe future. With experts nowpredicting a greater frequency ofsuch natural events, the time hascome to take all possible measuresto minimise such shocks. A majorsafeguard is to follow rules andregulations in the construction ofhouses and office buildings. Fire

safety norms must also be in place.The rules must be tightened inearthquake-prone zones, especiallyin the National Capital Region.Safety measures must be givenwide publicity.

Mahesh Kapasi,New Delhi

I have just returned from Nepalafter flying to Kathmandu on April22 on a pilgrimage to places inNepal and Tibet and with sweetmemories of the warmth,hospitality and the great humilityof the Nepali people. Marvelling atnature’s bounty and benevolencebestowed upon the charmingHimalayan kingdom, I travelledfrom Kathmandu to Pokhara andbeyond up to Muktinath, which Inow learn is not very far from theepicentre of the deadly quake.Though not an expert, I was a bitalarmed by the sight of denseforests bearing traces of freshlandslides at frequent intervals.That India is reaching out to Nepalto extend it succour in this hour ofdistress is a great relief. I stillremember the innocent faces ofNepalis in the rural heartland and Ifeel strongly for them. I hope theycan overcome this tragedy.

Sivamani Vasudevan,Chennai

As a foreign national who wasevacuated by India during therecent meltdown in Yemen, I wishto express my deep appreciation ofthe manner in which India is fast

turning out to be a friend in deed inits immediate neighbourhood. Thatthe country is able to swiftly workout the logistics involved to providequick relief to those in distress is asign of confidence in what a greatcountry is capable of. India hasonce again been able to reach out,this time to tiny Nepal in itsmoment of great distress and I amsure it will “try its best to wipe thetears of the people of Nepal” as theIndian Prime Minister NarendraModi has just said.

Felipa Tomas,Madrid, Spain

No room for dissentThe brutal killing ofactivist Sabeen Mahmud (April 26)who had been constantly raisingher voice against rights violationsin Balochistan, leaves no one indoubt that Pakistan is a state that isunsafe for anyone who holds adissenting view.

It is a matter of shame that manyof these killers go unpunishedthanks to shoddy investigationsthat lead nowhere. One has torespect the memory of activistslike Sabeen who continue toespouse causes dear to themdespite being full aware that theirlives hang by a slender thread. InIndia too, human rights violationstake place and RTI activists andrationalists have paid the price fordaring to cross swords with the richand the powerful. But in Pakistan,such killings are a routine affair anddo not even merit much attention

in the media or in governmentcircles.

 C.V. Aravind,

Bengaluru

Medicine warsAs a libertarian, I believe peopleshould have the freedom to chooseany form of medical treatment tocater to their health (‘SundayAnchor’ page – ‘Medicine wars’,April 26). But it is the moral duty ofthe people in power to identifymedical practices which are notvalidated by scientific methods anddiscourage them. ‘Thousand yearsold’ is not a sufficient condition toaccept a practice as right andethical. Irrespective of whether theindividual or the disease is treated,a particular medical practiceshould perform better than aplacebo in a double blind study toqualify as a valid medical practice.Otherwise it is a pseudo-medicalpractice. Even though I ampersonally against pseudo-medicalpractices, prohibiting them withimmediate effect will cause moreharm than good. The livelihood of alarge number of people isdependent upon these practices. Itis imperative to stop public fundingfor education and research inpseudoscience to discourage itspractice. The apathy shown bydoctors practising modernmedicine is a reason why peopleseek out alternative medicine.

S. Balasubramanian,Tiruchi

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

The conviction of former Egyptian President

Mohammad Morsy and his co-defendants by

an Egyptian court last week is the first of

several verdicts expected in four major crimi-

nal cases brought against the leaders of the Muslim

Brotherhood (the Ikhwan), which was ousted following

the 2013 military coup. Morsy was sentenced to 20

years in prison for inciting riots against protestors

outside the presidential palace in December 2012. The

protestors were agitating against an order by the Presi-

dent that allowed him to avoid judicial oversight for

actions until a new constitutional charter was put in

place. There has not been much sympathy for Morsy

and his fellow-detainees. The Muslim Brotherhood’s

sectarian attempts while in government to radically

restructure Egypt’s institutions on Islamist lines had

also resulted in protests in 2013 by liberals and secular-

minded people. This had ultimately paved the way for

the military re-establishing control, with some liberals

supporting the move then. Yet, this was unmistakably a

coup that overthrew a legitimately elected govern-

ment. The Freedom and Justice Party affiliated to the

Brotherhood had, after all, won the parliamentary and

presidential elections held in 2011 and 2012. Since

coming to power, the new military government led by

General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of the Supreme Council of

the Armed Forces has sought to persecute the move-

ment, slapping case after case on its leaders.

The bulk of those killed during the December 2012

protests were members of the Brotherhood, and it is

unclear what happened during that round. It would

appear that the cases against Morsy and his associates

are politically motivated and meant to get back at the

Brotherhood, which had used the post-Arab Spring

protests to consolidate itself. Mr. Sisi’s regime is now

reminiscent of the Hosni Mubarak dictatorship. The

persecution is not limited to the Brotherhood; even the

liberals and secular-minded sections of the population

that were part of the Spring protests are at the receiv-

ing end. There is a clampdown on the media and a

crackdown on all dissent. Egypt meanwhile continues

to receive military aid from the West and allies such as

Saudi Arabia, and it has restored its domestic and

foreign policy on lines that existed prior to the Brother-

hood’s ascent to power. The Brotherhood’s brief reign

in power was problematic. But utilising the opportuni-

ty provided by popular protests to revert to a dictator-

ship has negated all that was achieved during the 2011

‘Revolution’. Egypt is thus back to square one, and faces

an additional problem that could hurt it in the long run

— an indignant Brotherhood reeling under repression.

Rollback of the Spring

CARTOONSCAPE

The Afghanistan President, Dr. Ash-raf Ghani, will be in India thisweek, beginning today, on his firstofficial visit here. There has been

speculation about the fact that he is visitingNew Delhi after having made, ever since as-suming office in late September 2014, twovisits in the region, namely to China (Octo-ber 2014) and also to Pakistan (November2014), and then to the United Kingdom (De-cember 2014), Saudi Arabia (March 2015),and the United States (March 2015). There-fore, this delay sends out its own messageabout a reprioritisation in Afghanistan’s for-eign policy calculus about relations with In-dia. It marks a sharp contrast to the kind ofwarmth that his predecessor, Hamid Karzai,displayed towards India and the comfort lev-els that he enjoyed with the Indian lead-ership, cutting across party lines.

Afghanistan’s first Strategic PartnershipAgreement was signed with India in 2011 andwas supported across the board in the Af-ghan Parliament at the time of ratification.While Dr. Ghani is no stranger to India, thistime around he will be under scrutiny forwhat he says about how he visualises India-Afghanistan relations and, equally, whatquestions he chooses to sidestep. He will dowell to keep in mind that he is engaging witha new Indian leadership which has adopted amore robust and active foreign policy pos-ture and displayed no anxiety about the factthat he waited for six months before visitingNew Delhi.

Trajectory of violence

Incidentally, Mr. Karzai also had his shareof ups and downs with India. In the earlyyears, he tried hard to build relations withPakistan, confident that the U.S. would backhim in this effort but became disillusionedwhen he discovered that it had no stomachfor reining Pakistan in, even after realisingthat the growing Taliban insurgency had itsroots across the border. The first Presiden-tial election in Afghanistan in 2004 passedoff peacefully because U.S. President GeorgeBush had virtually read out the riot act toGeneral Pervez Musharraf, ensuring Pakis-tan’s cooperation in controlling the border.But after October 2005, when the parlia-mentary elections were over, it was as if a taphad been turned on with the number of sui-cide attacks and improvised explosive device(IED) blasts skyrocketing. Between 2001and October 2005, there had been four sui-cide attacks in Afghanistan; the figure jump-

ed to 15 during the last quarter of 2005. AsGen. Musharraf candidly acknowledged inan interview a couple of months ago, Pakis-tan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) wassupporting the Taliban in its efforts to desta-bilise Mr. Karzai’s government. Such wasGen. Musharraf’s paranoia about India’s rolein Afghanistan that he once told Mr. Karzaiduring an official meeting that India wasrunning more than 25 consulates in Afghan-istan! Gen. Musharraf, and subsequently for-mer Chief of Army Staff Gen. Ashfaq Kayani,would demand evidence from Afghanistanevery time Mr. Karzai complained about theactivities of the Quetta and Peshawar shurasor the Haqqani group (led by Hussain Haq-qani); a charade that only ended after Osamabin Laden was killed in Abbottabad in 2011.

Internal pressures

As violence levels rose in Afghanistan, sodid Western casualties. Gradually, the na-ture of the Pakistan Army’s double game

became apparent, but by this time, Westerncountries had lost the appetite for their Af-ghan engagement and were seeking an exit.Mr. Karzai foresaw this as early as 2007. Healso realised that this would leave Afghan-istan at the mercy of the ISI’s manipulationsand concluded that he had to engage theTaliban in a peace process. Initially, the U.S.was opposed to the idea but Mr. Karzai wentahead with the setting up of the High PeaceCouncil in 2010. He persuaded former Af-ghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani tochair it. The Council did not achieve muchand the following year, Rabbani was killed ina Taliban suicide attack. Mr. Karzai wantedto control the peace process, and through theCouncil tried to wean away some of the Tali-ban commanders, but the ISI strangleholdproved to be too strong. Eventually, whenthe U.S. put its weight behind opening the

Taliban office in Doha, Qatar, to promotereconciliation, it came to the same conclu-sion and the process has remained stillborn.

Unlike his predecessor, Dr. Ghani is moreof a technocrat rather than a politician. AsFinance Minister during President Karzai’sfirst term, Dr. Ghani conceptualised the Na-tional Solidarity Programme (NSP), a localcommunity-led development programme.Incidentally, this highly successful schemewas ably implemented by Mohammad HanifAtmar who is now Dr. Ghani’s National Se-curity Adviser. Unlike Mr. Karzai who couldspend hours interacting closely with triballeaders, Dr. Ghani is more at home withpolicy wonks, graphs and power point dis-plays and hardly tolerates dissent. Second,he is a man in a hurry. He knows that hiselection was a contested one. His legitimacyrests on the tenuous compromise of a Na-tional Unity Government, backed by theU.S.’s heavy diplomatic lifting, with presi-dential candidate Dr. Abdullah Abdullah re-

luctantly accepting the newly created post ofa Chief Executive Officer. On September 21,2014, the Independent Election Commis-sion of Afghanistan had merely announcedthe end of the election process and declaredDr. Ghani the President but voting resultswere withheld with no mention being madeabout the internationally monitored com-prehensive audit of all the ballots. Powersharing between the President and the CEOhas not happened leading to strains withinthe political system and delaying cabinet for-mation and crucial administrative appoint-ments. This is why both leaders undertook ajoint visit to the U.S. last month. Dr. Ghanialso realises that the U.S. is headed for elec-tions in 2016 and while he was able to per-suade U.S. President Barack Obama tomaintain the current U.S. troop presence ofnearly 10,000 till end-2016, there is uncer-

tainty about the U.S. and Western role andcommitment, post-2016.

Dr. Ghani is under pressure to conclude apeace process with the Taliban and get someinvestment into the Afghan economy so thateconomic growth, which has declined fromnine per cent annually, during the last dec-ade, to two per cent is resumed. He is all tooaware of Pakistan’s ability to play the role of“spoiler” and has tried hard to start on aclean slate with Pakistan. To demonstratehis goodwill, he made it a point to call onGen. Raheel Sharif at the General Headquar-ters in Rawalpindi, in 2014, in a notabledeparture from protocol. In December lastyear, Latif Mehsud, a senior Tehreek-e-Tali-ban Pakistan (TTP) commander, who washeld in Bagram, Afghanistan, was handedover to the Pakistani authorities. TTP infil-tration across the Durand Line has beenblocked by strengthening Afghan Army de-ployments in provinces like Kunar and Nu-ristan. Also, for the first time, six Afghancadets are training at the Pakistan MilitaryAcademy at Kakul. But, so far, there is littleto show for it. The Taliban has launched thespring offensive by declaring its ‘OperationAzm’. A deadly suicide attack in Jalalabad,Pakistan, claimed more than 30 civilian liveson April 18. On April 10, an Afghan Armyoutpost in Badakhshan was overrun by mil-itants who beheaded eight soldiers. The bru-tality has led to speculation about whetherthese incidents might be the handiwork ofthe Islamic State (IS) making forays into theAfghan theatre or by yet another militantgroup incubated in the AfPak nursery undera different name.

Looking to China

In addition to wooing the Pakistan Army,Dr. Ghani is also trying to get China to investin Afghanistan’s reconstruction. Given theuncertainty about sustained Western finan-cial support, if the Chinese can be tempted toinvest as part of the “One Belt, One Road”initiative, it could even generate pressure onthe ISI to enable a meaningful peace processwith the Taliban to move forward. The an-nouncements made during Chinese Presi-dent Xi Jinping’s recent visit to Pakistan, inApril, about projects worth $46 billion beinglaunched around the China-Pakistan Eco-nomic Corridor, coupled with Gen. Sharif’sstatement that a dedicated division could beraised to ensure security for the Chinese-aided projects would have sounded encou-raging to Dr. Ghani.

Engaging with India

India need not feel unduly concernedabout Dr. Ghani testing his Pakistan-Chinaproject. This does not diminish the wealth ofgoodwill built up over the past decade withall sections of the Afghan community cov-ering countrywide economic cooperationprojects, infrastructure, health, nutrition,institution building, human resource devel-opment and industry. This cooperationshould be expanded provided security ismanaged. Dr. Ghani’s desire not to purchasemilitary hardware from India is not a rebuff,for India’s capabilities to provide lethal mil-itary hardware are extremely limited. In-stead, we should urge Dr. Ghani to use hisinfluence to open up transit through Pakis-tan for India-Afghan trade so that Afghanfarmers can rediscover their traditionalmarkets for fruit and dry fruits. Today, theAfghan Pakistan Transit and Trade Agree-ment (APTTA) is seen as a barrier because ofdelays at the borders, restrictions on vehi-cles, and Afghan trucks having to returnempty as they are barred from picking upIndian goods! At the same time, India needsto accelerate the expansion of the Chabaharport on the Iranian coast which provides analternative route to Afghanistan and CentralAsia.

Even as Dr. Ghani clears the air about hisagenda, India should wish him well, for as aproud Pashtun, and as a proud Afghan, heunderstands that India is a strategic partnerbecause we share the same vision — of astable, united, independent and democraticAfghanistan where all its ethnic groups liveand prosper together.

(Rakesh Sood is a former diplomat whohas served as Ambassador to Afghanistan.E-mail: rakeshsood2001@yahoo.com)

Changed variables, same equation Though no stranger to India, Ashraf Ghani willnow be under scrutiny for what he says about howhe visualises India-Afghanistan relations. He willbe engaging with a new Indian leadership that hasdisplayed no anxiety about the fact that he waitedfor six months before visiting New Delhi

Rakesh Sood

India should urge Ashraf Ghani to use his influence to open up

transit through Pakistan for trade so that Afghan farmers can

rediscover their traditional markets for fruit and dry fruits.

CMYK

ND-ND

TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015

8 THE HINDU TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

The devastating impact of the earthquake in

Nepal, measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale,

could have been mitigated if there was some

preparedness for the tragedy beforehand.

More than 3,800 people in that country and around 40

people in India are reported to have lost their lives

while thousands more are injured. Nepalis were fore-

warned about the possibility of a major earthquake, as

the country was located on a geological fault line where

tectonic plates were constantly on the move below the

earth’s surface. The process was expected to release

pent-up energy any time following these intense tec-

tonic shifts. Expectedly and unfortunately, nature’s

unleashed fury has resulted in a colossal tragedy, espe-

cially in the Kathmandu valley, while there is little

news about those affected closer to the epicentre in

Lamjung district in the hilly tracts of interior Nepal.

Of the many natural disasters, earthquakes are the

most difficult to predict; some experts suggest that it is

even impossible to do so. The best of earthquake warn-

ing systems, such as the ones installed in Japan, are

only capable of warning regional centres about the

possible impact of ongoing earthquakes. Yet, there are

ways of mitigating disasters — building structures that

are relatively quake-resistant, preparing for evacuation

by constructing centres specifically for the purpose,

and sensitising the public about quakes and their dev-

astating impact. Is it such an impossible task to remain

prepared, knowing full well that seismic zones are

prone to frequent quakes? Japan, which is a country

prone to regular earthquakes, has shown the way on

disaster mitigation and preparedness. Unfortunately,

in the congested urban settings of developing countries

these steps are difficult to implement. Now the need is

to help Nepal find its feet in providing relief and reha-

bilitation to the quake survivors as they brace for more

aftershocks, rain and landslips. In this regard, the ala-

crity of the Indian government, among others, in send-

ing aid to Nepal, and the prompt effort in evacuating

Indian citizens are commendable. With governance in

Nepal still seemingly a fragile structure given that the

Constituent Assembly is yet to conclude its exercises

because of the fractious political process, the central-

isation of resources in the Kathmandu valley has not

helped the government. It would have been better off

delegating responsibilities to local government struc-

tures, which have been absent for more than a decade

in the country. It will be terribly unfortunate if the

lessons of this yet-unfolding tragedy are not properly

learnt. Meanwhile, our hearts go out to the Nepali

people. It is imperative that the flow of international

aid be stepped up to help restore the battered Hima-

layan state.

Himalayan disaster

Nepal earthquakeThe tragedy in Nepal once againraises the issue of the state ofdisaster preparedness in SouthAsia. Events across the last decadeshow that SE Asia is becomingvulnerable to natural disasters(April 27). In crises, it is verydifficult for one government andcountry alone to put together itsresources. Thus, SAARC andASEAN could have a joint disasterresponse team on standby at alltimes.

Govind Singh Yadav,New Delhi

The government deserves praisefor the speed and agility with whichit has rescued Indian nationals. Byextending quick relief to Nepal,following an equally challengingmission in Yemen, India has shownthe world that it is a force to reckonwith whether it is a case of war ordisaster.

Jayanthy Maniam,Navi Mumbai

That the airlift of Indians fromstrife-torn Yemen by thegovernment was not given its dueby the media was a legitimate pointmade by a Union Minister. Thiswas belatedly made up by themedia later. But in the case ofNepal, there seems to be needlessovercorrection. The stories ofstranded Indians returning arenow threatening to overshadowthe main purpose of this mission —that of assisting a friend andneighbour in its gravest hours ofdistress. The residents of Nepalneed as much attention, if notmore, as an Indian visitor seems tobe getting. The government andthe media need to be moresensitive to this aspect and keep in

mind the larger image of atraditionally, benevolent nationthat India has always been.

R. Narayanan,Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh

Some of the headlines in theelectronic and print media are odd.I came across one example —“Kannadigas in quake-hit Nepalmoved to safety” — that wasprominent and found it shockingthat in such a tragic time, we find itcomforting to be told that“Kannadigas” are safe. What aboutthe countless others who are aliveand suffering? Don’t they countenough to be mentioned in thesame light? Such appeasement is inbad taste.

Sumita C.,Bengaluru

Parliament unboundYesterday, a Union Minister whowas talking about the progressmade in extending relief to Nepal,kept bringing in the PrimeMinister’s name every fewminutes. Spokespersons of theruling party and governmentappear to be creating theimpression that it is the PM andPM alone responsible for everydevelopment in the party andGovernment. Hence if theOpposition are critical ofgovernance being too ‘PM-centric’,they cannot be blamed (Editorial,April 27).

A strong Prime Minister likeNarendra Modi does not requirethe support of the Speaker topresent his case. It is theOpposition which needs theSpeaker’s help so that their voicesare not stifled by the brute majorityof the ruling benches.

C.K. Saseendran,Bengaluru

Whether with Legislature orgovernment, a tolerance to dissentis in the basics of democracy. TheSpeaker may have theresponsibility to help thegovernment run its business, butshielding the ruling party includingthe Prime Minister from criticismcannot be her worry. In a situationwhere “Modi’s writ runs thecountry”, it is only natural thatevery issue is centred around thePrime Minister. Criticism is a partof making ‘concrete suggestions’on issues concerning differentsections of Indians.

P.R.V. Raja,Pandalam, Kerala

The Opposition’s grievance isunjustified. The Speaker hasconsistently tried to inculcate anelement of sensibility into everydebate in the Lok Sabha. Whilecriticism of the Prime Minister iswelcome, it should not be the solefocus of discussion. All MPs havebeen elected not merely as politicalagents, but also to represent thepeople of their constituencies. TheOpposition is only showing its bentof mind by showering her withcriticism just because they havenot had a proactive Speaker in thepast.

Aparna Abhimanyu,New Delhi 

Juvenile Justice BillMember of Parliament KanimozhiKarunanidhi has tried using everyweapon in her arsenal, frominvoking neuroscience andpsychology to making an emotionalappeal, but for what (“A bill forjuvenile injustice:, April 27)? Whycall such children kids when theydon’t act like one? Politicisingevery issue under the sun does notsuit our politicians. Moving away

from her textbook arguments, therespected MP needs to understandthat neither economic norphysiological hormonal oremotional changes can justifyheinous crimes. In supporting theperpetrators of crime, she seems tocompletely forget the victim. Withthe conviction rate in rape casesalready abysmally low, this Billprovides a ray of hope. It has comeafter years of hard work on the partof the government as well as NGOs.Can we allow all the dharnas, thecandlelight vigils, the protestmarches to go in vain over pettypolitics?

Maanya Gupta,New Delhi

While Ms. Kanimozhi’s concernsmay be valid, she seems to paint arosy picture of juvenile centresacross the country which isentirely untrue. An article,“Juvenile homes are hellholes, saysreport on child rape”, says thatyoung inmates are subject tosexual violence and other forms ofabuse in centres across the States.How can we expect young mindsthat emerge out of suchinstitutions to be entirelyreformed and not to indulge infurther crime as a result ofvengeance or any other extremeemotion?

Hema Abhimanyu,New Delhi

Medicine warsRichard Dawkins, Professor of thePublic Understanding of Science atOxford, defines alternativemedicine as a “... set of practiceswhich cannot be tested, refuse tobe tested, or consistently fail tests.If a healing technique isdemonstrated to have curativeproperties in properly controlled

double-blind trials, it ceases to bealternative. It simply... becomesmedicine.” There is only medicinethat has been adequately testedand medicine that has not,medicine that works and medicinethat may or may not work. There isno alternative medicine (‘SundayAnchor’ page – Medicine wars’,April 26). The claim thatalternative systems treat thepatient as a whole and not thedisease is pure eyewash. Take thecase of fever. Even after years andcenturies of existence, there is nodrug in any of the alternativemedical systems that can be givenin a metered dose to bring downfever in a predictable manner.

The greatest achievement ofmodern medicine is not vaccines orantibiotics, but the development ofthe “double blind study” to seewhether a drug really works for anillness or has only a placebo effect.

Dr. Titus John,Tiruvalla, Kerala

I have been following thehomoeopathic system of medicinefrom childhood. Unfortunately, nopatient approaches homoeopathyin the initial stages of diseaseprevention. Unless one takes amedication, how does one get toknow its efficacy? Just because youdo not find anything in lab tests,can you immediately call itpseudoscience? If a system ofmedicine does not give someoneany relief, why will he continue tofollow it for years? I feel the plan todiscredit the alternative system ofmedicine is being promoted byvested interests. The systems ofalternative medicine will alwayssurvive in this country forgenerations to come.

G. Vivekananda,Secunderabad

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Everything else can wait but agriculture can-

not, said Jawaharlal Nehru. This should have

been the talisman for India’s progress. Yet,

successive governments have failed to accord

agriculture the priority it deserves. The tragic suicide

of a farmer during an Aam Aadmi Party rally in New

Delhi has brought to the fore the agrarian crisis facing

India. Official records reveal that more than 2.96 lakh

farmers have ended their lives over the last two dec-

ades. This year has been particularly bad because of

damage to the rabi crop caused by rain and hailstorms.

Extensive damage to cash crops and horticulture has

brought even some prosperous farmers to the brink of

ruin. Despite the adverse impact of climate change,

non-remunerative prices, lack of adequate irrigation

facilities, absence of assured income and paucity of

crop insurance, Indian farmers have brought the coun-

try up to the ranks of the top global producers of rice,

wheat, vegetables, fruits and milk. Some 85 per cent of

India’s farmers are small and marginal, and 65 per cent

of farming is rain-fed. But high input costs, low returns,

the consequent inability to repay farm loans, and gen-

eral neglect have made agriculture unviable for the

small and marginal farmer. Government spending here

has dwindled over the years to 14.7 per cent, and the

private sector has demurred, citing lack of rural in-

frastructure and modernisation.

For all its assertions, the Narendra Modi govern-

ment has yet to come up with a clear strategy on this

front. Barely a few months in power, it came up with

some controversial amendments to the 2013 Land Ac-

quisition Act, doing away with the provisions for ob-

taining consent from landowners and for social impact

assessment ahead of acquisition. The government’s

insistence that the changes would facilitate ease of

business and speed up its development agenda has not

convinced the Opposition parties. Its handling of the

impact of unseasonal rain on farmers, slippages in

keeping its promise to raise the support price for major

crops, and tardy payments to sugarcane growers have

given rise to a perception that the government is not

farmer-friendly. A majority of farmers are in the

clutches of private moneylenders who double up as

sellers of seeds, fertilizers and other inputs. A failed

crop pushes growers into deeper debt, from which it is

not easy to escape. The forecast of a deficient south-

west monsoon for the second year in a row adds to the

worries. In such a situation, the Central government

must display political will and come up with urgent

measures that will bring the promised “achche din” to

farmers. Leaving the task to the States won’t help.

Challenge ofagrarian distress

CARTOONSCAPE

Google the acronym “IBSA” and youwill get news about the Interna-tional Blind Sports Federationand the Illinois Baptist State Asso-

ciation. When was the last time you heardabout the other IBSA? At the time of itslaunch a decade ago, IBSA was referred to asthe coming together of the “biggest democ-racies” of Asia, Latin America and Africa —India, Brazil and South Africa. In his addressat IBSA’s first summit in Brasilia, in Septem-ber 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singhsaid, “The idea of IBSA is without prece-dent.” Today, the Indian Foreign Minister istrying hard to find a meeting date convenientto all to host a pre-summit meeting; the nextsummit is scheduled to be held in New Delhilater this year.

The rise of BRICS

IBSA was visualised as the coming togeth-er of three great democracies of the devel-oping world, all three, multi-ethnic,multi-religious, multicultural, committed tothe rule of law in international affairs andthe strengthening of multilateral institu-tions. IBSA, its founding heads of govern-ment said, would not just be a trilateralgathering of officials; it would also facilitatethe coming together of businesses and civilsocieties in these three democracies.

Launched with much fanfare and promise,as an association of developing country de-mocracies that believe they have a right toclaim permanent membership of the UnitedNations Security Council (UNSC), IBSA hasbeen overshadowed over the past few yearsby that other acronym without an adjective,BRICS. Launched by Russia and repeatedlyinjected with life by China, BRICS hasmoved beyond ritual to claim for itself thestatus of being a counterpoint to the Groupof Seven (G7). Cleverly manipulated by Rus-sia and China, and with India adding purposeto it with its sponsorship of the idea of aBRICS New Development Bank, the summitof the five-nation BRICS gets 6,40,000search results on Google, compared to the88,200 results for an IBSA summit.

But the issue is not about such trivial dif-ferences. The fact is that the political lead-

ership of both Russia and China have showngreater commitment to the idea of BRICS,and pushing their anti-West agenda throughit, than have the political leadership of Bra-zil, India and South Africa to IBSA, and to itspro-democracy agenda. IBSA observers —and there are not too many of them around —believe that China has been successfully in-fluencing South Africa’s current leadershipto ignore IBSA and pay more attention toBRICS.

UNSC link

However, to be sure, in a world wherecountries have multiple interests and loyal-ties, most are members of several and agrowing number of associations. Indeed,

many countries have become members ofassociations that often have conflicting ob-jectives. In a globe where no one wants to beleft out of any new group, the proliferation ofgroups has crowded the travel itinerary offoreign ministers. It’s like New Delhi’s elitewho seek membership of all available clubsbut have no time for any, given their hecticprofessional and personal life. Nations toojoin many associations, after a fashion, andend up paying little attention to most.

Something like this fashion victimhoodhas befallen IBSA. Its government leadersare so busy at home and with other summitsthat they have no time for IBSA. One reasonfor this is that the compelling shared ob-

jective that brought IBSA into being a decadeago, namely UNSC restructuring and mem-bership, seems to have become less compell-ing. Countries aspiring for UNSC reform andrestructuring and for permanent member-ship seem to have given up all hope ofchange.

Reviving IBSA

Interestingly, though, there seems to be achange in India’s stance on this score. PrimeMinister Narendra Modi signalled a renew-ed commitment to the goal of UNSC mem-bership when he told an audience in Parisearlier this month that permanent member-ship of the UNSC is “India’s right”, and notjust a favour it begs for. Are Brazil and South

Africa also ready to assert this right?The argument that since the world’s sta-

tus quo powers are only paying lip service toUNSC reform and expansion and will notallow any change, the IBSA must give upstaking their claim is ridiculous. The UNgovernance system, as indeed that of all thepost-Second World War multilateral institu-tions, has become moribund. The bankrupt-cy of the UNSC is all too visible in its inabilityto deter unilateral action by powerful coun-tries. So, if the UNSC had failed to preventaction by the United States in Iraq, it failedto thwart Russian action in Crimea and Sau-di Arabia’s bombing of Yemen. Against thisbackdrop, the voice of the three great de-

mocracies of the developing world wouldcarry weight, if properly and appropriatelyarticulated. But IBSA need not be aboutUNSC alone. The three countries have somecommon security concerns. Drug trafficking,money laundering and terrorism is one such.Maritime security is another. Just as theworld has sought stability and the rule of lawin the Indo-Pacific region, IBSA could artic-ulate the need for maritime peace, stabilityand the rule of law in the Indian Ocean andthe South Atlantic. If Brazil dominates theSouth Atlantic and India dominates the In-dian Ocean, South Africa shares a coastlinewith both oceans.

As the dominant power of what can becalled the Indo-Atlantic region, Brazil, Indiaand South Africa can come forward with amaritime doctrine for the region based oninternational law and democratic principles.Maritime security, freedom of navigation,climate change and energy security could bethe common agenda that IBSA can pursue,adding meat to the trio’s skeletal structure.

While distance acts as a disincentive inBrazil-India relations, the structure of theireconomies is such that there is great comple-mentarity. Brazil has a high land-man ratio,with ample natural resources on a per capitabasis, and India has a low land-man ratio,and is resource poor on a per capita basis.This creates synergy. Equally, Brazil and In-dia can work together to build a strongermanufacturing base, with untapped poten-tial in defence manufacturing. The potentialfor India-South Africa business relations re-mains high and not fully tapped.

As ‘East-West’ bridge

Beyond the potential for deeper and widerbilateral economic relations, IBSA haveshared political concerns. While all threeemerging powers feel equally frustrated bythe West’s unwillingness to yield space inglobal governance, they also have a sharedconcern in China’s growing influence intheir own individual neighbourhoods. If In-dia worries about China’s rising profile inSouth Asia, Brazil worries about China’sgrowing clout in Latin America, and SouthAfrica finds its influence in Africa recedingas more of its neighbours turn to China.

Thus, both on account of their inability toget the G7 and the P-5 (five permanent mem-bers of the UN Security Council) to raisetheir stake in global governance, and on ac-count of the challenge they face within theirown neighbourhood from China’s growingeconomic presence, IBSA have a substantial,shared, meaningful agenda to chalk out andpursue. The problem is that not many in thethree capitals are paying any attention tothese issues.

Also, recall the fact that while the interna-tional community responded with alacrity tothe Trans-Atlantic financial crisis of 2008-09 and elevated the G20 into a summit levelforum of developing and developed econo-mies, the G20 have since been riven by dif-ferences between the G7 and BRICS. Whilesome portray the G7 vs BRICS interplay as a“North-South” divide, the fact is that IBSAare today the real representatives of theSouth on most multilateral economic issuesand on subjects pertaining to globalgovernance.

Rather than being content with member-ship of BRICS, there is a case for IBSA — theIndo-Atlantic powers — to step up their in-teractions in dealing with both the countriesof the North Atlantic and the rising powersof Eurasia, and arrive at a shared strategicperspective on a range of global issues. Ascountries of the “South”, and given theirshared concerns, IBSA could in fact act as abridge between the “West” and the “East”, soto speak.

(Sanjaya Baru is Director for Geo-economics and Strategy, InternationalInstitute for Strategic Studies, and HonorarySenior Fellow, Centre for Policy Studies,New Delhi.)

The bricks to rebuild IBSAIBSA need not be about the UN Security Councilalone. Apart from common security concerns thatIndia, South Africa and Brazil share, IBSA couldarticulate the need for maritime peace, stabilityand the rule of law in the Indian Ocean and the South Atlantic

Sanjaya Baru

Brazil and India can work together to build a stronger

manufacturing base, with untapped potential in defence

manufacturing. The potential for India-South Africa business

relations remains high and not fully tapped.

CMYK

ND-ND

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015

8 THE HINDU WEDNESDAY, APRIL 29, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

Three conclusions may be drawn from the Su-

preme Court ruling that the Tamil Nadu gov-

ernment did not have the jurisdiction to

appoint a Special Public Prosecutor to handle

the appeals filed by former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa.

First, it reflects poorly on the State government, which

displayed what the court called “anxiety” to ensure

representation for the prosecution when her bail appli-

cation came up for hearing immediately after her con-

viction in a Bengaluru Special Court in September last

year. Secondly, the Tamil Nadu and Karnataka govern-

ments demonstrated inexcusable ignorance of the legal

position that once a case was transferred from one State

to another, the transferring State loses jurisdiction to

pursue it further. This position had been underscored

by the Supreme Court only a few years ago. Thirdly, the

Supreme Court continues to lay emphasis on the purity

of the criminal process in corruption cases and will not

countenance attempts to derail the process. Fears that

the disposal of the appeals made in the Karnataka High

Court by Ms. Jayalalithaa and her three associates

against their four-year jail term would be delayed have

been allayed, as the three-judge Bench headed by Jus-

tice Dipak Misra has ruled out a de novo hearing. It has

also clarified that Section 301 of the CrPC (which says a

Special Prosecutor appointed for a ‘case’ may appear

without written authority in any court) does not mean

that a person appointed as prosecutor in a district court

could also appear before a high court in the same case.

The Karnataka government has now brought back

B.V. Acharya, who had earlier vigorously prosecuted the

case but was forced to resign, to represent it while filing

its submissions before the High Court. It will be seen as

a legal setback to Ms. Jayalalithaa mainly because she

and her lawyers gave the impression that they wanted

Mr. Bhavani Singh to be the prosecutor in the appellate

stage too. They ought to have known that no court

would allow the accused to choose the counsel for the

prosecution. As a result, the court has asked the High

Court to disregard Mr. Singh’s written submissions, if

any. The Supreme Court’s reminder to the High Court

that corruption has a “corroding effect”, that it is the

duty of an appellate judge to scrutinise objectively the

evidence on record in its entirety and that his reasoning

ought to be “resolutely expressed”, may cause some

anxiety to the defence as to whether there is any implic-

it direction to the High Court to decide the matter in a

particular manner. However, a look at the context

would show that the Supreme Court is doing no such

thing. Rather, it is only reinforcing its view that want of

proper assistance from one side need not affect the

outcome if the appellate judge is sufficiently objective

and avoids weakness and vacillation.

Lessons froma verdict

Himalayan quakeI am currently in Kathmandu and ithas been terrible not because of mypersonal situation, but because Ican see the suffering of the peopleand have also been hearing aboutthe stories of the victims. Althoughthere are countless people dead anddying in Kathmandu city, it is in themountainous regions that there isreal suffering. There are stories ofovercrowded hospitals, with evenspirit being used to sanitise openwounds and people being left in thecorridors until hospital staff canattend to them. Before the quakestruck, I had recently returnedfrom a spiritual retreat in Yolmo, aremote mountain valley. I haveheard from people I have met sincethe quake that whole villages havebeen laid to waste, food is runningout and water is contaminated. Afriend of mine has been makingtrips into the Yolmo Valley, as far asshe can get, which is only to themouth of the valley. Although sheonly has first aid training, she ispractically acting as a doctor. In allthis, it is moving to see the stoicresourcefulness and patience of theNepali people.

Tom Greensmith,Camp: Kathmandu

India is said to be home tothousands of the super rich and theupper middle class, a class ofsociety in which each can easilycontribute a lakh of rupees toNepal. The governments of Nepaland India alone cannot solve theproblems. Prime MinisterNarendra Modi should appeal tothe rich to come forward with theircontributions, in cash and kind.

K.S. Krishnamurthy,Bengaluru

One’s heart goes out to thethousands of Nepalis who have losttheir lives and property, whichshows that there is a huge taskahead of rebuilding infrastructure.All this calls for massive monetaryassistance. Perhaps the cricketersfrom India and from across theglobe, currently playing in theIndian Premier League, shouldcome forward and make generousdonations from their hefty matchfees.

R. Sivakumar,Chennai

The evacuation of over 2,400Indians by the Indian Air Force,while impressive, contributes littleby way of relief to the devastatedcountry. To put it bluntly, pleasure-seeking Indian tourists have onlycaused a drain of considerablegovernment resources, time andattention. Considering the scale ofdestruction, massive andmultisided relief, rehabilitationand reconstruction work remain tobe undertaken; it is obvious that thegreatest share of the work and thelongest engagement in it will fall toIndia in view of its close multi-tiered relationship with Nepal andthe long-bordered geography. Indiashould consider this as its owncalamity and throw itself into reliefwork on a war footing.

There must be a spirit of totalidentification and all politicalparties and sections of the publicshould strengthen the hands of thegovernment.

A.N. Lakshmanan,Bengaluru

I did my schooling in Kathmanduwhere I spent the first 20 years ofmy life. I cherish memories andemotions attached to many of the

heritages sites. Those were the dayswhen every evening, a group of usused to explore the precincts ofmany of the structures. The visualsof many of these temples, nowrubble, break me. There is no doubtthat Nepal will stand again but itrequires strong and continuoussupport of the people of India.

Imran Ahmad,New Delhi

The disaster in Nepal, after thefloods in Uttarakhand, is anotherwake-up call for India to rethink its“one size fits all” model of urbandevelopment (“Watching a citycrumble”, April 28). There is agrowing tendency to transposemodels that are workable in theplains to the hills by building bigcomplexes, dams and multi-storiedtowers.

The consequences are evident inthe fragile, disaster-proneHimalayas. Disasters cannot beaverted, but with much planningcan be mitigated to reduce theirimpact. This event raises thequestion how far India is equippedto tackle such disasters and whatchanges are to be made to planningin order to customise them tospecific geographical conditions.

Thileeban C.,Hyderabad

Juvenile justiceIf neuroscientists have found thatthe prefrontal lobe in the humanbrain... is fully developed only bythe age of 25 years, then can wehave the cut-off age for definingwho a juvenile is as 25 years (“A billfor juvenile injustice”, April 27)?Why then just 18 years? Publicmemory stands riveted by heart-rending examples like a juvenilerapist who murdered a six-year girl

and then openly threatened to dothe same to her younger sister. Apragmatic view would lead us to theconclusion that if child prodigiesare a reality, so are juvenilecriminals. Just like nobody evertreats prodigies as children as fartheir brain development isconcerned, or considers themunnatural enough to put themthrough course-correction to makethem ‘normal’ again, juvenilecriminals too should be treated asadults, based on the intensity andheinousness of the crime theycommit.

Ramakrishnan K.S.,Chennai

Ms. Kanimozhi’s call to stop theJuvenile Justice (Care andProtection Bill) Bill in its tracksmerits serious consideration by ourlawmakers. The argument that theseriousness of a crime is a reflectionof mental maturity is too specious.As studies have shown, juvenilesaccused of rape crimes hailpredominantly from the lowerstrata of the society, and as such oursystem is as much responsible.There is a greater chance ofreformation of juveniles comingout from juvenile homes.

J. Anantha Padmanabhan,Tiruchi

Ms. Kanimozhi may agree thatthere is vast difference in theunderstanding of children duringour or her time and those today.Today, information, good and bad,is just a click away from them andthey mature quite early in age. It isvery easy to be a champion ofjuvenile rights sitting at home.Think of parents of girls who havebeen brutally raped and murdered.India and the U.S. ratified the UN’s

juvenile justice laws a quarter of acentury ago. But in the U.S., even a14-year-old undergoes punishmentlike imprisonment depending onthe nature of crime committed. It istime the juvenile justice system isamended and where punishment isequal to the nature of the crime.

M.P. Yadav,Hyderabad

Medicine warsMedicine outside the mainstreamgoes by many names —naturopathy, complementary,alternative and integrativemedicine, homoeopathy, ayurveda— and not taught in medical schoolsor offered by traditional medicaldoctors (April 26). The truth is thatalternative medicine has becomemainstream. Hospitals, at least inthe U.S., have long accepted thatwhat they do to treat and heal“involves more than justmedications and procedures,” asNancy Foster, vice president forquality and patient safety at theAmerican Hospital Association,recently said. “It is about using allof the art and science of medicine torestore the patient as fully aspossible.” People want natural,safer remedies. Many big hospitalsoffer services like meditation andyoga. Some medical schools, if notin India but outside the country,teach their medical students aboutalternative medicine.

One of the biggest problems inhealth care is that the big pharmacompanies have tremendousinfluence over the way medicine ispractised and they operate strictlyon profitmaking principles.Alternative medicine lacks thisclout.

H.N. Ramakrishna,Bengaluru

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

“To be liberal and outspoken in the Pakistan

of today is tantamount to painting a tar-

get in the middle of your forehead,” said

one newspaper in Pakistan, about the

killing of Sabeen Mahmud, activist and owner of a

Karachi coffee-house, who was gunned down at a traffic

light as she drove home. Ms. Mahmud’s killing didn’t

come without warning, however. Each time a journalist

or activist is killed in Pakistan it is a warning to others to

hold off speaking on issues that are inconvenient to its

religious and extremist establishment inside and out-

side power. The attack by gunmen on Geo TV anchor

Hamid Mir in Karachi a year ago came after threats

were issued over his reports on extrajudicial killings in

Balochistan. The killing of journalist Saleem Shahzad in

2011 followed his article about radicalisation within the

military, and the killing of journalist Raza Rumi’s driver

in an attack where he himself escaped came after Mr.

Rumi’s TV programmes against the killing of religious

minorities over blasphemy charges were aired. Ms. Sa-

been, who had crossed swords with these groups, had

been sent a threat letter just a week prior to her killing

for her decision to hold a discussion on human rights

violations in Balochistan at her coffee-house. The mess-

age is as brutal as the bullets pumped into the two: if you

want to remain alive in Pakistan, stay away from crit-

icising its powerful religious terrorist groups and their

patrons within the government and the military. Ms.

Mahmud may not have been a journalist in the tradi-

tional sense of the term, but her widely acclaimed ef-

forts for free speech and online popularity made her as

dangerous to those groups as any of the others targeted.

In 2012, UNESCO named Pakistan the second most

dangerous place for journalists, and the Committee to

Protect Journalists has criticised the government for

lack of progress in handling attacks against the media.

What makes Ms. Mahmud’s killing truly ironic is that

it comes at a time when Pakistan has launched a Nation-

al Action Plan to counter terrorism and extremism, and

weeks after the Army launched operations to counter

crime and violence in Karachi. Both efforts seem to ring

hollow when an unarmed woman and her mother can be

surrounded at a busy traffic intersection and shot mul-

tiple times in cold blood. As the outcry against Pakis-

tan’s establishment over the killing mounted, the

services, ISPR, put out an unusual statement condemn-

ing the killing and promising a full inquiry. As journal-

ists and activists who gathered to mourn yet another

member of their tribe said, this is fitting, as even if they

weren’t responsible for the killing, it is hard to believe

“the all powerful intelligence can’t find out who is.”

Regressive message

CARTOONSCAPE

The long anticipated deceleration inthe rate of the growth of China’seconomy is under way. Even thenormally conservative World Bank

and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)are confirming that its growth is slowingdown and is likely to fall below seven percent. Even those analysts who had forecast adeceleration in its growth were unsure aboutwhen exactly the slowdown would start.

In the 2000s, I had estimated that China’sgrowth would decelerate below eight percent, around the middle of the decade begin-ning 2010. The global financial crisis of 2008sharply raised the probability that the slow-down would occur within the following dec-ade despite risky efforts by China to prop upgrowth.

In contrast, India was forecast to achieveits potential growth rate of about eight percent, given its export-import neutral growthmodel. The surprise in India’s case was thesharp slowdown from 2011-12, largely attri-buted to complacency and domestic policymistakes. However, despite these mistakes,India’s growth rate from 2002-03 to 2013-14was among the 10 highest in the world (usingthe old data series). Though the correction ofthese mistakes may no longer be enough torestore growth to earlier levels, India can andmust restore growth to the average ratesachieved earlier. Again, this has been recog-nised by both the World Bank and the IMF.These two developments taken together,imply that India’s trend growth rate is poisedto exceed that of China’s in the next fewdecades.

Closing the GDP gap

This will start the long, slow process ofclosing the GDP gap with China, which was1.4 times India's real GDP (in absolutes) in2013. There is a common tendency to confuserelative levels of GDP with growth rates, so itis important to understand that China’s realGDP measured at purchasing power parity in2011 international dollars is now 2.4 timesthat of India.

The two economies were almost equal atthe end of the 1980s (China was 1.1 times thatof India in 1990). During this period, itsgrowth averaged 9.9 per cent per annum, 3.4per cent points faster than India’s 6.5 percent average. Even if the growth gap wasinverted (i.e. became -3.4 per cent), it would

take double the time (i.e. 30 years) to closethe GDP gap as it took to open it.

Growth slowdown

The basic theory and empirics of growthshow that fast growing economies like Japan,South Korea, Singapore and Thailand, whichgrew fast when they were at low or middleincome levels of per capita GDP, maintainedgrowth at high levels for one to two decadesand then slowed down as their per capitaGDP approached that of the (lower end) highincome economies. In the case of China, thesurprise was that it maintained an averagegrowth of 10 per cent for 30 years, despitereaching middle income levels of per capitaGDP about a decade ago. Many analysts who

had been proved wrong in the 1990s, in theirpredictions of a China growth slowdown, be-came much more cautious. Those of us whowere willing to take a reputational risk havebeen proved right, as China’s economyslowed below eight per cent in 2012 and isnow predicted to slow below seven per centby the multilateral institutions.

The global financial crisis ensured that thegrowth of world trade would slow sharplybelow the very high growth seen in the previ-ous decade, aided by a correction of the bub-ble-like growth seen prior to the crisis. Thismeant that China’s (net) export-investmentmodel was no longer sustainable and wouldproduce slower growth in the 2010s. To delaythis slowdown, China pumped large amountsof debt into the economy, with the officialdebt-GDP ratio rising from 55.2 per cent in2008 to 88.1 per cent in 2013, an averageincrease of 6.6 per cent points of GDP perannum. Analysts have estimated that the

debt in the shadow banking system may haveincreased by an equivalent amount, rising todangerously risky levels. Based on a histor-ical experience of such debt bubbles, someanalysts predict that this bubble is likely toburst and reduce China’s growth rate to thethree to four per cent levels. Analysts, whohave greater confidence in the ability of theChinese Communist party to manage an eco-nomic crisis, nevertheless, predict a deceler-ation of the trend rate of growth to a range offive to seven per cent.

Comparing growth rates

Based on World Bank “World Develop-ment Indicators” data till 2013 (till whichyear the GDP base for 2004-05 was fully

available), we can compare the growth ratesof China and India. A plot of these ratesshows that the growth rate difference hasbeen narrowing since 1990, due to a gradualdeceleration of China and a stronger acceler-ation of India. Underlying this narrowinggrowth difference are variables that are driv-ers of or correlated with GDP growth andproductivity. These include foreign direct in-vestment (FDI) and exports, which are in-dicators of competitiveness, and imports,which reflect openness. The difference be-tween China and India’s FDI-GDP ratio hasbeen on a declining trend, from about 3.5 percent of GDP in 1990 to a little over two percent of GDP in 2013, suggesting slow butsteady progress in attracting technology andrisk capital, with a milder decline in China’sattractiveness. The difference between Chi-na’s and India’s export-GDP ratio, which waseight per cent in 1990, averaged 18 per centduring 2005 to 2007 before narrowing rap-

idly to about one per cent in 2013, indicatingthat India’s exports have held up to the globaldecline in world trade much more effectivelythan China’s. The difference between Chi-na’s and India’s import-GDP, which fluctu-ated around an average of 7.1 per cent pointsbetween 1990 and 2007 declined dramat-ically to -5.2 per cent by 2011-13, indicatingthat the Indian economy is now significantlymore open than China’s.

Forecasting Indian growth

Analysis and forecasting of Indian growthhas been confounded by the appearance of anew GDP series (2011 base) which has madesome fundamental changes in methodologyand data sources. As this new series providesless than three years of growth data, it isimpossible to estimate the underlying trendgrowth rate (using this series). After the mid-year 2014 Budget, I had said: “The measurestaken in the budget will be sufficient to in-crease growth by about 1 per cent point overthe last year’s 4.7% to 5.7%. Actualization ofsome of the measures indicated in the budgetwill however be necessary to raise growth tothe 6.5 to 7% range in 2015-16.” Given thatthe average growth rate as per the new data isabout one per cent point above that, using thenew data, a projected growth rate of 7.5 percent to eight per cent is quite conservative.This seems to be the reasoning underlyingthe World Bank’s and IMF’s projections forIndia’s growth in 2015 and 2016.

The Central Statistical Organisation (CSO)has projected a growth rate of 7.4 per cent for2014-15 and a growth acceleration to eightper cent in 2015-16. which would not be wild-ly optimistic. However, as many observershave pointed out, high frequency data such asthe Index of Industrial Production (IIP) formanufacturing, quarterly results for compa-nies, and tax revenues from excise and corpo-rate income tax do not appear consistentwith these high growth levels. I had arguedthat the global financial crisis and the conse-quent global demand recession and excesscapacity have affected not only the export-led Chinese economy, but also the globallyconnected and competitive corporate sectorof India (http://goo.gl/r2sdYi). Thus, postthe global financial crisis, the Globally Con-nected and Competitive (GCC) corporationswill lag overall recovery, instead of leading it,as they did in 2002-03 to 2007-08. Thus, allindicators connected with these companies,such as IIP, corporate profits, corporate andexcise tax revenue would also lag the GDPrecovery.

Based on the theory and empirical evi-dence provided by high growth economies,some analysts had predicted, since the2000s, a slowing down of the Chinese econo-my during the decade of the 2010s to a rate ofgrowth below that of India (http://goo.gl/3iHrdH). By making the export-in-vestment-led strategy of development un-viable, the global financial crises made thishighly likely if not inevitable. It was alsoassumed in the forecasts that the Indian gov-ernment would continue to carry out theminimum reforms necessary to maintain In-dia’s growth rate at an average of the previ-ous decade. Because the Indian governmentwas complacent and made policy mistakesbetween 2010 and 2012, the Indian economyfaltered seriously. Some of the momentumhas been restored after the corrections in-troduced in the last two years. However, asustained growth of 8 to 8.5 per cent over thenext few decades requires implementation ofthe reform agenda even though continuingsensitivity to shocks can derail growth giventhat the world environment is far from con-ducive to sustained high growth. If this isdone, we should expect to see India growingfaster than China and beginning to close thewide gap that has opened between the percapita GDP of the two countries.

(Arvind Virmani, a former Executive Director, IMF, is Mentor, Public Policy &Economics, to the Federation of IndianChambers of Commerce and Industry.)

Tracking two growth storiesFor India, achieving a sustained growth of 8 to 8.5per cent over the next few decades requirespushing the reform agenda. If done, it can expectto grow faster than China and close the gap thathas opened between the per capita GDP of the two countries

Arvind Virmani

Those of us who were willing to take a reputational risk have

been proved right, as China’s economy slowed below eight per

cent in 2012 and is now predicted to slow below seven per

cent by the multilateral institutions.

CMYK

ND-ND

THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

8 THE HINDU THURSDAY, APRIL 30, 2015

NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

With unseasonal rain laying waste vast ar-

eas under the rabi crop in north India

earlier this year and the threat of a defi-

cient monsoon looming, the Mahatma

Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee

Scheme could act as a real salve for distressed farm

workers and labourers. The World Bank’s brief state-

ment on the scheme on Tuesday to this effect, as part of

its latest India Development Update, concurs with re-

cent empirical research that has revealed that the

MGNREGS has acted as an effective substitute in the

absence of crop and weather insurance to poor farm

households in some States lately. The National Demo-

cratic Alliance government would do well to heed this

timely suggestion from the World Bank, which has

released a volume on the scheme based on research

done in 2009 and 2010. The Bank goes on to say that

the MGNREGS can be a better-targeted scheme than

even a cash transfer programme. Yet, reports reveal

that there is much unmet demand for labour provided

under the MGNREGS over the past year, due to poor

implementation by some State governments and a gen-

eral apathy shown by the NDA regime since last year.

This is evident in the reduced outlays for the scheme

(as acknowledged by the Finance Minister, yet ad-

dressed only with a promise of additional budgetary

support subject to the availability of revenues), and

delays in transfer of monies to State governments

which has led to tardy wage payments. All this has

resulted in an unresponsive set of conditions that has

not encouraged demand for labour provided under the

scheme. The government’s effort to identify the poorer

districts for higher allocations has only seemed to cur-

tail demand in the other districts, which number much

higher. The MGNREGS is a demand-driven scheme,

but the fact that it requires adequate conditions for its

effective implementation is self-evident.

The laxity in the implementation of the scheme over

the past year has meant a reduction in the number of

workdays as compared to previous years. There are

certainly a number of improvements that are required

to be made. These include better and more productive

asset-creation through work done, improved adminis-

trative management, provision of information to and

sensitisation of the public as the World Bank also

points out, and checking leakages. But the fact that the

MGNREGS has provided succour to India’s poorest

sections in rural areas is something that has been

acknowledged and acclaimed, as the World Bank state-

ment also shows. Considering that the benefits of the

scheme outweigh the drawbacks, it would be an act of

poverty if the government does not utilise the

MGNREGS to bring relief during a time of significant

agrarian distress in a number of States.

MGNREGS asinsurance

Turf war?When international efforts are onin full swing to undertake rescue,relief and rehabilitation operationsin Nepal, the possibility of therebeing politics in all this is upsetting(“No turf war with India on relief,clarifies China”, April 29). Let thetwo neighbours not even try torecreate the Cold War mentality ofthe U.S. and then USSR, by playingdirty politics and posingthemselves as being the onlysaviours of humanity. Naturaldisasters are often the glue thatbinds and stirs humanity intoaction. Even though there has beena denial, that there is no politics, letIndia and China participate in theenormous humanitarian task withan Olympic spirit where winning isonly secondary and registeringpresence in the “integration ofnations” is primary.

Victor Frank A.,Chennai

That China has set aside all itsgeopolitical differences with Indiaand is teaming with us in the reliefand rescue work is gratifying. Thetask of rebuilding Nepal is astrenuous one that requires theconcerted will of people across theworld and the coordination ofworld leaders. There is no doubt

that the rehabilitation of victimsshould be done on a war-footing.

N. Visveswaran,Chennai

The remark by Nepal’s Ambassadorto India that the assurance of helpfrom India is like a blank cheque istouching. The overwhelming loveand support by India to Nepal in atime of great trauma, is an exampleof true humanity. Philanthropyfrom abroad must also beappreciated.

A.J. Rangarajan,Chennai

It is evident that there is greatsuffering in Nepal. With Indiaplaying the role of a guardian, theremust be an emphasis on ensuringthe supply of essentialcommodities on a war footing. It isunpardonable that there isprofiteering in this moment —there are reports of a packet ofbiscuits selling for Rs.500 and awater bottle for Rs.450. With somuch of food grain not being put togood use in India, is there no way itcan be sent to Nepal?

J.P. Reddy,Nalgonda, Telangana

Two growth storiesEconomics is one discipline whereexperts always agree to disagree

(“Tracking two growth stories”,April 29). The “I-told-you-so”reminiscences about China’sdeclining economic growth addlittle to the ongoing debate aboutthe manufacturing-leddevelopmental model proposed bythe government. Even if Indiagrows at 10 per cent, the benefitsare not going to reach all at thebottom of the pyramid. One wouldbe happy if India’s social outcomescan overtake that of China’s.Economic growth, by itself, cannotensure human development. Theunsatisfactory social outcomes ofIndia’s own ‘eight plus’ growth ratein the past are enough to debunkthe specious metaphor “a risingtide lifts all boats”. The governmentmust spend more on the socialsector, especially in education,health, low-cost housing andsanitation so that the fruits ofgrowth are distributed in anequitable manner.

V.N. Mukundarajan,Thiruvananthapuram

Comparing the growth of Chinaand India cannot be just amechanical affair. China adoptedcertain systems under a reformsformula not just blindly but withenough modifications that suitedthe country.

Moreover, timing was another

important factor. In the case ofIndia, reforms being implementedmay provide results in terms ofGDP but simultaneous growth so asto bridge the gap between thosewho are affluent and poor isunlikely. Incidentally, China hasacknowledged the growing numberof billionaires but is also trying toensure that there is equitablegrowth.

A.G. Rajmohan,Anantapur

Rebuilding IBSAIBSA and BRICS have a nearsimilar agenda (“The bricks torebuild IBSA”, April 28). But BRICSholds great economic potential aswell as bigger political clout ininternational affairs. It is nosurprise then that Brazil and SouthAfrica will gravitate more towardsBRICS to maximise their interests.So, IBSA is unlikely to surpassBRICS in near future. Next, it is afallacy to believe that IBSA wouldcollectively neutralise growingChinese influence in theirrespective neighbourhoods,because their economies are still onthe path of recovery and requirestronger partnership with China toprosper.

Perhaps, the three nations cantogether harness the enormousbargaining potential of BRICS to

secure permanent membership inthe UNSC.

Premsai Srinivas Amudhala,Tirupati

Medicine warsIt is not adequately wellunderstood that Ayurveda has beentraditionally strict about medicaltherapies being evidence-based(April 26). The classic of Charaka,in fact, marks the switch from faith-based therapeutics to its evidence-based variant. Medical anecdotesgraduating into evidence aftercareful deliberations by experts isthe cornerstone of clinicalmedicine in Ayurveda. At least half-a-dozen such conferences ofexperts have been recorded in theCharaka Samhita. For reasons thatare obvious, this evidence cannotbe called “hard” by contemporarystandards. But, to dismiss it asbeing untested altogether would beutterly unscientific. Whatpolicymakers need to look at is toharden this evidence-base throughcarefully conducted trials. ThatAyurvedic therapies cannot besubjected to scientific trials is anargument that betrays a clear lackof understanding of the way thisancient science has beenconstructed.

Dr. G.L. Krishna,Bengaluru

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Letters emailed to letters@thehindu.co.in must carry the full postal address and the full name or the name with initials.

Local body elections rarely if ever command

wider national attention. But in West Bengal,

the elections to civic bodies this time were of

more than local interest, for a variety of rea-

sons. While the Trinamool Congress, some of whose

leaders are under investigation for their reported in-

volvement in financial scams, was seeking a popular

vote of confidence, the Bharatiya Janata Party was

hoping to supplant the Left parties as the principal

opposition in the State. In the event, the BJP could not

wrest control of a single civic body, while the Trina-

mool, winning 71 of the 92 civic bodies, improved on its

2010 performance. The Trinamool’s good performance

was less of a surprise than the BJP’s poor showing.

After the defeat of the Left Front government, the

Communist Party of India (Marxist) had yielded

ground to both the Trinamool Congress and the BJP,

raising visions of a polarisation of votes that could have

marginalised both the Left Front and the Congress. But

the BJP evidently could not live up to its initial prom-

ise. Whether or not local factors came into play and

damaged its prospects is not clear, but the BJP can take

little comfort in its failure to win a single civic body

outright. For the Trinamool Congress, a bigger win

than in 2010 was as important as winning itself. By

bettering its performance, the party can now with some

justification claim that a majority of the people believe

that political motives were at the heart of the cases

foisted on its leaders.

Despite finishing second, the Left Front could have

found little cheer in the results. Yet, in the context of its

rapid decline from a party that ruled West Bengal

continuously for 34 years to an organisation fighting

hard to retain even its traditional support base, the

CPI(M) could have done far worse than finishing a poor

second. In a State where the negative vote is an impor-

tant component of electoral politics, the party could

ill-afford to lose its status as the principal opposition to

the Trinamool. Just as a good chunk of the traditional

Trinamool voters are oriented against the Left parties,

the Left Front too can hope to gain from any dis-

enchantment with the Trinamool so long as it occupies

the Opposition space. Any failure to retain the second

spot would have meant further erosion in the base of

the Left, strengthening the BJP. This is no turnaround

in the fortunes of the Left parties, but the very fact that

the BJP could not make significant gains is some conso-

lation for the war-weary Left Front. The battle was for

the second place, and the BJP has lost it.

The importance offinishing second

CARTOONSCAPE

The earthquake in Nepal has joltedthe world. According to initial esti-mations by the United Nations,eight million people in 39 districts

have been affected. Of them, over two millionpeople live in 11 severely affected districts.Ninety per cent of the houses there have been“flattened”. Heritage buildings are now rub-ble, thousands are homeless, many have lostlivestock, and have little food. On behalf of allJapanese citizens, I extend my heartfelt con-dolences and prayers to those who have losttheir lives, their families and those affected. Ihope international help is able to ensure rap-id rehabilitation and reconstruction.

I recollect how Nepal and India were quickto support Japan when it faced a similarsituation in 2011, during the Tohoku tsunamiwhere more than 20,000 people died.

Japan falls in a seismically active regionand earthquakes are a part of life. Japaneseseismologists and engineers are alwaysworking on solutions to mitigate the loss anddamage caused by earthquakes. Most diffi-culties stem from the fact that the occur-rence of major earthquakes spans intervalsthat are generally longer than the averagelifespan of citizens. And memory is short.There is a saying here: “When danger passes,even god is forgotten.” For example, memo-ries of the 2011 tsunami have long passed.Therefore, the question is: how long will youremember a disaster? And how do you passon the lessons learnt? In this article, I wouldlike to address this issue and look at whatneeds to be done, from the point of view ofsomeone who lives in a seismic zone.

Earthquake forecasting

An earthquake is a sudden violent shakingof the ground, typically causing great de-struction, as a result of volcanic action ormovements deep within the earth’s crust.The Nepal quake resulted from a collisionbetween the Indian crustal block and theEurasian continent. Geophysicists know thatthe entire Indian subcontinent is being dri-ven slowly but surely beneath Nepal at aspeed of five centimetres a year. This gener-ates a five-metre contraction over a centuryand results in silent stress build-up in theinner crustal rock. An earthquake occurswhen stress accumulation reaches criticalpoint. Over millions of years, the squeezinghas crushed the Himalayas, raising moun-tains and triggering earthquakes on a regularbasis. This will continue. This dynamic proc-ess will also induce stress accumulation inIndia. The Gujarat earthquake of 2001 was aresult of this process. This shows that a quakeis sure to occur in future.

Like Japan, Nepal is also located in one ofthe most seismic active zones. “An earth-quake repeats itself”, which is a Japanese

proverb, is apt here as well. Earthquake fore-casting is a kind of historical science. If youcan find documentation of a quake in ancientliterature or legend, that place is bound to beearthquake prone. I pose this question next:do you know the earthquake history of yourregion? But let me not be an alarmist. TheIndia Meteorological Department keepstrack of all this. However, I suppose mostpeople don’t know. It is perfectly natural thatpeople do not worry about such things; it’sthe same in Japan as well. As scientists, wetry to create awareness about earthquakerisk in the form of public lectures, massmedia campaigns, science shows and govern-mental meetings. Therefore, “risk recogni-tion” is the first step towards disastermitigation.

In Nepal, researchers did track activeearthquake history and issued warningsabout a possible and destructive quake. Forexample, my colleague visited Nepal fre-quently to research strong ground shaking tohelp in disaster mitigation studies. Earth-

quake science still does not have a tool forimminent earthquake prediction. Therefore,being prepared for one is a crucial, and, often,the only step for disaster mitigation.

Disaster and public policy

In an earthquake, most of the damage iscaused by collapsing buildings. In Nepal,most victims died this way. This is a majorproblem confronting architects. Recent ar-chitectural developments, however, allow forthe construction of quake-resistant build-ings, but such construction is more expen-sive than an ordinary building. Therefore,cost-effective solutions are also a challenge.

The Japanese believe and agree that anti-disaster investments are lifesavers. If the In-dian government makes a public investmentin this area, it should first come to some sortof social agreement in disaster mitigation.The role of the mass media is also importantbecause it plays a key role in creating aware-ness about disaster preparedness. This mustbe emphasised. We must remember that it is

people and commercial companies that areinvolved in construction and not the govern-ment. So, disaster mitigation cannot achieveoptimal results unless there is understandingand cooperation. The media should alsohighlight the benefits of public and commer-cial investments.

Japanese anti-quake construction tech-nology places a premium on high perform-ance. Hence, what is suitable for Japaneseconditions may not work elsewhere, in termsof applicability and cost. I suppose the exportof such technology may not solve problemselsewhere. Therefore, the Government of In-dia must develop an anti-disaster technologythat suits Indian construction andconditions.

Risk evaluation and management

Disaster mitigation measures also requirerisk evaluation for rural and urban areas. Inhigh-risk regions, there must be public in-vestment. Policymakers in India must look atthose parts of the country that have high

quake potential. Records show that the west-ern, coastal and northern regions are at highrisk. Another important factor is “occurrencefrequency and probability”. Shorter intervalsbetween quakes indicate a high probability.At the same time, longer intervals also pro-duce high probability. An evaluation of thesefactors will give one the basic informationrequired. I would also like to add that earth-quake research can’t operate on a commer-cial basis, so government funding is a mustfor scientific investigation.

The Japanese government operates theHeadquarters for Earthquake Research Pro-motion based on Special Measure Law onEarthquake Disaster Prevention. Its directoris a minister and its committees consist ofgovernment officers, governors, professorsand researchers. The most important role ofthis special inter-ministry organisation is topublish probabilistic seismic hazard maps re-sulting from probability evaluation of earth-quake occurrences. It also conducts unifiednational earthquake research — as geological

surveys, earthquake monitoring and com-puter modelling. The results from all theseprojects produce the probability of earth-quake occurrences. For instance, its researchhas shown that a strong shaking probabilityfor the Tokyo Metropolitan area for next 30years exceeds 80 per cent.

Earthquake risk is defined in the followingway — multiplication of earthquake magni-tude, probability and social fragility. Scien-tific data can only estimate magnitude andprobability. This shows that if a place is “veryfragile”, even a small earthquake can result indisaster. “High fragility” is the state of beingunprepared by having non-quake-resistantconstruction. Mankind has no control overthe magnitude and probability of a quake butarchitectural engineering can help reducethe fragility. Japanese quake-resistant houseand building compliance is now about 80 percent.

Response and supporting technology

In a quake, the survival time of someonewho is buried is 72 hours. Therefore, rapidinitial rescue is crucial. Who does the rescuethen? The fire department? The police? Themilitary? In a quake, one must be able tothink of how to survive and escape. This is theexperience in Japan. What if help is inade-quate?

A real-time earthquake observation sys-tem should support the quick start of a res-cue. In Japan, any seismic activity of morethan ‘5+’ intensity automatically activatesgovernmental response. There is surveil-lance by self-defence forces, a disaster coun-termeasure preparation office startsworking, and a medical assistance team is onstandby. For any smooth operation, there hasto be a drill. So, disaster prevention agenciesand governments frequently conduct allkinds of training and simulate situations. Buteven the best trained rescue operation re-quires lead time to access sites.

In Japan, a real-time Earthquake EarlyWarning (EEW) is in operation. If a quake isin the sea, the speed of an earthquake wave isabout 8 km per second, which is slower thanan electric signal. If the epicentre is awayfrom one’s location, an electric signal reachesfaster than the shake that gives the lead timebefore the quake arrives. An EEW alert isautomatically triggered whenever any seis-mometer detects a seismic signal. There arealerts to the public through the media andthe Internet. Trains, elevators and industrialmachines are stopped automatically.

These examples show how earthquakemonitoring data might help decrease the im-pact of a disaster. However, for the full im-pact of such a system, there needs to be a highratio of anti-quake construction. How doesone minimise the chances of being buriedalive? The point is that government invest-ment in anti-quake construction takes prece-dence over a modern alert system.

The annual disaster prevention drill in Ja-panese schools also plays an important role.Students are taught to hide below their desksin a quake. In their syllabus, they learn aboutnatural disasters, disaster history, and haz-ard mapping.

Importance of legislation

Legislation also plays a most importantrole in disaster mitigation. The Japanesegovernment has amended the Building Stan-dard Law at regular intervals to reflect theadvances in science and technology, and thelessons learnt from the last earthquake thatoccurred. The present version requires thatnew constructions should not be damaged ina medium earthquake and must not collapsein a large earthquake. These stringent mea-sures have successfully reduced human tollin recent quakes. There is also a programmeof tax incentives for anti-quake construction,that has enabled a higher ratio of anti-quakeconstructions in Japan. Therefore, economicincentives are also required to achieve actuallaw implementation.

With a proper legal system in place, newconstructions will be better adapted for highseismic activity. We should try to develop alegal system, especially a Building StandardLaw for earthquake disaster mitigation. An-other countermeasure against quake disasteris a city planning policy and advance recon-struction policies. I believe these insightsbased on actual disaster experiences in Japanwill go a long way to help save precious lives.

(Hiroaki Takahashi is Associate Professorof Seismology, Institute of Seismology andVolcanology, Hokkaido University, Japan.)

Japan and quake preparednessA robust disaster management programme whichincludes various aspects of mitigating after-effects,sensitisation of the public, warning systems, andarchitectural changes resulting in quake-resistantbuildings has characterised Japan’s earthquakepreparedness

Hiroaki Takahashi

Japanese anti-quake construction technology places a premium

on high performance. Hence, what is suitable for Japanese

conditions may not work elsewhere, in terms of applicability

and cost, necessitating indigenisation.