Vol. 15 Issue 08 Pages 52 MaRCH 2014 PHaalguna (VIjaya) PRICe ̀ 25

www.aseema.net.in

Timely WarningThe Electorate Must

Take Heed of It

Drug Patents

Gas Price hike India, US on collision course

IN THIS ISSUE

History Haunts Congress

President’s Timely WarningThe Electorate Must Take Note of It

Post-Election GovernmentToo many formidable problems in store

Telangana State at last!Pall of Gloom over Seemandhra

Drug PatentsIndia, US on collision course

It happened thirty years ago: Operation Blue Star which was aimed at flushing out the militants from the Golden Temple. But its echo is yet to subside. 6

18

Dikshit corneredCorruption charge against the three-time CM

12

21

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10

Perils of a Third Front

Srinivasan at BCCI

Will a Third Front be a solution to the country’s economic and political woes? The answer is clearly ‘No’ because each party in the proposed Third Front has its own narrow, regional agenda and each of them owes its existence to its populist policies.

Now, the New Power Centre of Cricket

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IN THIS ISSUE

Transcending Boundaries

Catholic Church rattledUN report condemns clerics’ child abuse

Gas Price hike Tension in the Air; big guns in the dock

World Commemorates Vivekananda’s

150h birth anniversary

Adoption of child Personal, religious considerations no bar

A Please-all BudgetBut Will It Stimulate Growth?

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34

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6 MARCH 2014

‘Operation Blue Star’ & the UK connection

History Haunts Congress• RajuShanbhag

It has been thirty years since theraidontheGoldenTemplein1984,code namedOperation Blue Star,

was launchedby the IndianGovern-ment.

Now there isnews that theBritishgovernmentheadedbyMrs.MargaretThatcherhadprovidedmilitaryguid-ancetotheIndianGovernmentabouttheraids.NotonlydidtheBritishGov-ernment knowabout the raid, but italsogavesomestrategictipswhich,accordingtothegovernment,had“alimitedimpact.”

Following the revelation, Sikhgroups in India have demanded anapology from theUKanddemandedthat the Indian Government declas-sifyallthedocumentsrelatedtothisallegedconspiracybetweenthegov-ernmentsofthetwocountries.

OperationBlueStarwasconductedonJune3–8,1984.Itwasorderedbythe then Prime Minister Indira Gan-

dhi.TheoperationwasconductedtoflushoutJarnailSinghBhindranwale,theleaderoftheSikhdissidents,andhisarmedfollowersfromtheHarman-dir Sahib inAmritsar, Punjab. It hadtwo components: Operation Metal,confined to the Harmandir Sahibcomplex,andOperationShop,whichraided the Punjabi countryside tocaptureanysuspects.Followingthis,OperationWoodrosewaslaunchedtothoroughlyscan thePunjabcountry-side.ItwascarriedoutbytheIndianArmywithtanks,artillery,helicoptersandarmouredvehicles.

Although the Indian army and thegovernmentwere successful in theirmission to weed out the militantsfrom the Golden Temple, OperationBlueStarcausedawaveofrepercus-sionsthatarestillfeltinthecountry.Prime Minister Indira Gandhi wasassassinatedbyherownSikhbody-guard.TherewasabacklashagainsttheSikhsfromsomemembersoftherulingCongressParty.

It happened thirty years ago: Operation Blue Star which was aimed at flushing out the militants from the Golden Temple. But its echo is yet to subside. Now a report from the UK says that the Indian Government had sought British advice on the operation and this has angered the Sikh community. The British “assistance” was strictly advisory; no British military equipment was used or supplied. And yet there lingers an uneasy feeling about the whole affair and the general opinion seems to be that Britain should not have come in the picture at all.

7MARCH 2014

ButwhydidBritaingetinvolvedinthis? Well, the UK government hadbeenadvisingtheIndianGovernmenton issues including militancy. Therehad been previous UK military con-tactsin1982withtheIndianCounter-TerrorismUnit(the“SpecialGroup”).

ButitwaswellbeforethesituationatSriHarmandirSahibbecamecriti-cal,andinvolveddifferentpersonnel.

Thedocuments suggest thiswas inresponse to an urgent request fromtheIndianIntelligenceCo-ordinatorforexpertmilitaryadviceonIndiancontin-gencyplansforpotentialactionagainstthose occupying the temple complex.The recommendation and decision toagreetothisrequestwerebasedonad-vicefromtheBritishHighCommissionthat itwouldbegood for thebilateralrelationship,whereas a refusalwouldnotbeunderstoodbytheIndianPrimeMinister,MrsGandhi.

There isnoevidence in thefiles,orfromdiscussionwithofficialsinvolvedat the time, thatother formsofassis-tance for theoperation–for example,equipment or tactical intelligence –wereprovidedfortheIndianoperation.Theredoesappeartohavebeensomeinternal UK military consideration,immediately after the UK military ad-viser’s visit to India,ofwhether toof-fertrainingforthepotentialoperation,if requestedby the Indianauthorities,andifagreedbyUKMinisters.ButthereisnoevidencethatanyIndianrequestwasmade, or thatministerial permis-sionwaseversought.

According to reports, the BritishGovernmentsuggestedthatthistypeofoperationshouldonlybeput intoeffect as a last resort. Beyond this,itmadenocommentonthetimingofany potential future operation. TheadvicegiventotheIndianauthorities

identified sufficient number of heli-coptersand the capability todeploytroops by helicopter, as critical re-quirementsforthisapproach.TheUKadvicealsofocusedoncommandandcontrolarrangements,andnight-timeco-ordinationofparamilitarywithIn-dianSpecialGroup forces. Theover-alltone,butnotdetail,ofthisreportwasreflectedintheformalFCOreportbacktothePrimeMinister’soffice.

Recent Indian media reports sug-gest theoperationalplandevelopedby the Indian interlocutorsof theUKmilitary adviser was called “Sun-down”,andfocusedondetainingJar-nail Singh Bhindranwale occupyingSriHarmandirSahib.Thereisnomen-tion of “Operation Sundown” in UKfiles. According to UK military staff,thereweresignificantdifferencesbe-tweentheactualJuneoperation,andtheadvicefromtheUKmilitaryofficer

inFebruary.Inparticular,theelementofsurprisewasnotattheheartoftheoperation,thereportsclaim.

Irrespectiveof the intentionof thethenUKGovernment, the Sikh com-munity has reacted with anger andasenseofbetrayal.Theheadof theSikhCouncilintheUK,GurmelSingh,said he was “shocked and disap-pointed” at reports that the govern-mentofMargaretThatchermayhavebeen involved. LabourMP TomWat-son,whoseWestBromwichconstitu-encyhasmanySikhs,hasdemandedthattheForeignOfficereleasefurtherpapersaboutanyBritishrole.

TheUKGovernment should imme-diately release the documents relat-ingtothiswholechainofevents.ThatwillalsohelptheSikhcommunitytouncover some hidden truths aboutthattragicevent.

The UK ConnectionItseemsUKisconstantlybeingpulledintothechainofeventsofthe1984raids,withorwithoutitsconsent.Apartfromitsallegedinvolve-

mentinthiswholeaffair,in2013,thecountryalsowitnessedanattackonLtGenKuldeepSinghBrar,wholedtheIndianArmy’sassaultin1984ontheGoldenTempleinAmritsar.

LtGenBrarwasinLondononaholidaywithhiswifeMeena,avisitthecoupleregularlymade.Therehavebeenmanyattemptsonhislifesince1984andseveralextremistSikhwebsiteshadhimlistedastheirnumberonetarget.ThejuryatSouthwarkCrownCourtweretoldbyLtGenBrar:“(OperationBlueStar)wasn’tcarriedoutagainst theSikhcommunitybutagainstthemilitantswhohadbeencarryingoutalotofkillings.”

Hisattackers-MandeepSinghSandhu,34,Birmingham,andDilbagSingh,36 - fromLondonwere just childrenwhenOperationBlueStartook place. Twomembers of Dilbag Singh’s family had beenmissingsince1984--hisfatherandbrother,whowereinthetemplecomplexatthetimeoftheIndianArmy’soperation.

8 MARCH 2014

• NarayanAmmachchi

A“Third Front” is like a sea-sonal flower that grows onlyduring the election season.

Whentheelectioncomescloser, theflowerbloomsbutwithersawayonceit isover. Inearly2009,aboutnineregional political outfits cobbled to-gether a coalition and even stagedanelectionrallyinTumkur,acitynearBangalore.Butaweeklater,theydis-appeared.

Inthiselectionyear,theThirdFronthas once again come into life. Thistime,itismadeof11disparatepoliti-calgroupsholding17%ofparliamen-taryseats.

The Third Front has a history offailure. Its founders are well awarethat they cannot forma governmentwithout support from either BJP orCongress. Yet they promise the vot-ersmoon. Theyalsoknow that theirpoliticalagenda feedsona rangeofregionalissuesandtheycannotruna

governmentthatcanbringjusticeforthewholenation.

Worse still, the Third Front is asymbol of instability, it never com-pletedfullfiveyeartermeverytimeitformedthegovernmentinDelhi.Theylaunched the government in chaosandendedinchaos.

The Third Front formed the gov-ernment twice –– once led by DeveGowdaandthenby IKGujral–withthe support of Congress, the partythey had fought against in the elec-tion.TheCongresstoppledtheDeveGowda government, complainingthattheintelligenceagencywasspy-

Perils of a Third FrontProblems will only get aggravated

Will a Third Front be a solution to the country’s economic and political woes? The answer is clearly ‘No’ because each party in the proposed Third Front has its own narrow, regional agenda and each of them owes its existence to its populist policies. Unless they adopt a national perspective, a Third Front, if at all it forms a government, would be a national disaster and will plunge the country into economic and political chaos.

9MARCH 2014

ingonitspresidentSeetaramKesari.Gujrat’s government lasted barelya few months, but it had alreadycaused enough damage: the econo-my collapsed, stockmarket crashedandinvestorsfled.

ThosetryingtoformtheThirdFrontwere with either the Congress ortheBJPand their ideologyneverdif-feredfromthemajorpoliticalparties.Moreover, as their political agendafeedsona rangeof regional issues,they cannot run a government thathas to care for the interests of thewholenation.

The11regionalpartiesthatformedanelectoralalliancethismonthhold92seatsandclaimtobeofferinganalternative to Congress and the BJP.TheyincludetheCommunistPartyofIndia, the Communist Party of India(Marxist),JanataDal(United),Sama-jwadi Party, Biju Janata Dal and theAll IndiaAnnaDravidaMunnetraKa-zhagam(AIADMK).

TheTrinamulCongresscannotbeapartofthecoalitionaslongasthereareleftparties,itsmainrivalsinWestBengal.Similarly, LaluYadavcannotjoin hands with it because there isNitish Kumar’s JDU, which snatchedpowerfromLaluinBihar.AndMaya-vati cannot shake hands with theThirdFrontasithasitsrivalSamaja-vadiParty.

Therefore, Mamata Banerjee hasnow formed a new coalition andcalled it the Federal Front, which ismadeupofMayawatioftheBahujanSamajParty(BSP),NaveenPatnaikoftheBijuJanataDal(BJD)andahand-fulofsmallergroupings.

NeitherNitish,norDeveGowda,norSP, nor the Left is answering ques-tionsoverwhowillbecometheprimeministeriftheyareelectedtopower.That’sofcourseadifficultquestiontotheFederalFrontaswell.Here,every-bodyisaleaderinhis/herownrightandeachofthemaspirestobecometheprimeminister.

The biggest flaw with the ThirdFront is that ithas toomanybossesand none of them has control overhistonguewhatsoever.Astheycom-mentandteasetheirallies,thecoali-tion weakens and falls apart like asandcastle.

On February 13, apre-poll surveyby TimesNowandC-Voterpredictedthatregionalpartiescouldsecureasmany as 215 seats in the 545-mem-ber Parliament, with the BJP underprimeministerialcandidateNarendraModi emerging as the largest partywith202.

InaninterviewgiventoBloomberg,Birla Group’s executive chairmanJayaramansaidthataThirdFrontgov-ernment at this juncturewouldbe adisaster.

“Most members of this so-calledThird Front government are partiesthat believe in populist measures,and most of them are against eco-nomic liberalisation,” he said. TheSamajwadi and AIADMK have pur-sued populist policies such as loanwaiversanddolingoutfreelaptops.

International ratings agency Stan-dard and Poor’s warned in Novem-berthattheratingmaybecuttojunkstatus unless the election leads toa government capable of reviving

growth. If the ratings are cut, thatmay make borrowing still costlierfor Indians and plunge the rupee tofurtherlows.

So what worries analysts now isthatregionalpartiesthatmakeuptheThird Front lack a national perspec-tiveandhavenoeconomicagendatospeakof.

10 MARCH 2014

Theanti-corruptioncelloftheIn-ternationalCricketCouncil (ICC)mayhaveinitiatedaninvestiga-

tionagainsthim;hisson-in-lawmighthavebeentrappedinneck-deeptrou-bleregardinghisroleinmatchfixingscandal. But make no mistake, N.Srinivasanstillcallstheshotsinthecricketingworld. Case or no case, itseems thatSrinivasanseemsall setto rule BCCI, and thereby the worldcricket,foratleastsomemoretime.

Cricket has long ceased to be agentleman’s game. It’s now a sportbeing played formoney, bigmoney.Inaworldwheremoneymakingtwen-ty-20’s are more eagerly marketedand promoted by cricket bodies,Srinivasan’s riseas themostpower-fulmaninworldcrickethasbeenme-teoric.

Srinivasan is the son of T. S. Na-rayanaswami, co-founder of India

Cements. Being born in a rich andpowerful family, he always enjoyedpositions of power in his father’scompany. He was introduced tocricketadministrationbyformerBCCIpresidentA.C.Muthiah.Hewas theSecretaryof theBCCIbeforebecom-ingthecurrentPresident,takingoverthereinsfromShashankManohar,in2011. His company, India Cements,owns Indian Premier League (IPL)franchise teamChennaiSuperKingsand he is the president of the TamilNaduCricketAssociation.Srinivasanis also President of the Tamil NaduGolf Federation and the All IndiaChessFederation.

Hisriseinworldcrickethasbeenriddled with controversies. Un-til September 2008, BCCI regula-tion, Clause 6.2.4, stated that “noadministrator of BCCI could havehad,directlyorindirectly,anycom-

Srinivasan at BCCI Now, the New Power Centre of Cricket

N Srinivasan, who was in the glare of publicity recently regarding his alleged role in match fixing scandal, is again in the news -- this time as the head of BCCI. Now he will be the man who will steer the IPL and his word will be the law. He has been able to convince ICC about a new plan that would improve the financial conditions of all the member nations through lucrative deals. This has received solid support from Cricket Australia (CA) Chairman Wally Edwards and England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) chief Giles Clarke.

11MARCH 2014

mercial interest in the matches orevents conducted by the cricketboard”. Later, after the start of IPLin 2008, the clause was amendedtogiveunfavourablebenefittoBCCImembers in such a way that theycanownstakesintheIPLfranchise.Srinivasanlaterwentontobecomethe owner of Chennai Super Kings.ThecaseagainstSrinivasanonthegroundsofconflictofinterestisstillpendingintheSupremeCourt.

In2013,underthemassiveIndianPremier League spot fixing contro-versy, Srinivasan’s son-in-law Gu-runathMeiyappanwas arrested bythe Mumbai Police, charged withinvolvement in heavy betting andtrading inside information tobook-ies. Srinivasan resigned after in-tense media pressure. On October8,2013,theSupremeCourtallowedSrinivasan to take charge as BCCIPresident.

OnFebruary10,2014,areportsub-mittedbytheretiredHighCourtChiefJusticeMukulMudgal-ledcommittee,indictedMeiyappanforillegalbettingand passing on sensitive informa-tion tobookiesduring IPL2013. The170-pagereportalsostatedthatIndia

Cementswas liable forMeiyappan’sactions and that the Chennai SuperKings franchise was in violation ofthe franchiseagreement,whichmayresultintheterminationoftheIndianPremierLeaguefranchise.

But in spiteof all theallegationsand media glare, Srinivasan hasmade itbig in thecricketingworld.Recently, he was able to convinceICC about a new plan which, hesaid, “would improve the financialconditions of all the member na-tions through lucrative deals.” Hegotsolidsupport fromCricketAus-tralia(CA)ChairmanWallyEdwardsand England and Wales CricketBoard(ECB)chiefGilesClarke.

So, according to this new restruc-turingplan,Srinivasanwillbethenewpresidentof ICCfromJuly2014.Thisnew structure also givesmore pow-erstoBCCIinmattersrelatedtoworldcricket. This is only natural, asBCCIcontributes more than 80% of therevenue to ICC. Srinivasan will nowbecometheICCchairmanforthenexttwoyearsandthereformedstructurenow officially makes him the mostpowerfulmaninworldcricket.

AsBCCIpresident,Srinivasanwas

alwayssupportedbytheworld’srich-estandmostinfluentialcricketbody.Now,thechangesintheICCwillmakeIndiaevenmorepowerfulfinanciallyandwithin theworldorganization. Italsomeansthathewillhavethelastword on most matters, home andaway.

Srinivasan as the ICC chairman,withEdwardsandClarkebyhissideas heads of the newly-formed Ex-ecutiveCommitteeandFinanceandCommercialAffairs (F&CA)Commit-tee respectively, can now dictatetermsinallICCevents.WiththeFu-tureToursProgramme(FTP)becom-ing a bilateral affair from the nextrights cycle, he as the BCCI chief,will alsobe inaposition tohaveasayonbroadcastdealsforthebilat-eralassignments.

Srinivasan’splanforICCmainlyin-volvesearningmoremoneyforeverymember team; it has nothing to dowith improving thegameorbringingaboutanyradicalchangesinthewaythegameisplayed.

Onedoesnotneedto try toohardtounderstandwhichwaythegameisgoing.

How IPL Earns MoneyIPL,Srinivasan’sbrainchild,isthebiggestmoneyspinnerinworldcricket.Manyplayershaveopenly

statedthattheyhadneverseenthekindofmoneythatisbeingofferedtotheminIPL.Interna-tionalschedulesaremodifiedatwilltoaccommodatetheIPLschedule.

Buthowdofran-chisesinIPLmakemoney?Herearesomeways:(1) Thefranchise

sellstheteamtovariouscompaniesforadvertisementsandpromotion.Allplayersdotheadforthesecom-

panieswithouttakinganymoney.Themoneywhichispaidbycompaniesforadgoestothefranchise.

(2) Noplayermayignorethedirectionoftheirfran-chiseforadvertisementsandpromotion.

(3) TheplayersofallIPLteamsarenotallowedtodoanyadorpromotionwithoutthepermissionoftheirfranchiseduringtheIPLmatches.

(4) Thefranchiseearnsmoneyfromticketsalesatthestadium.ThenetprofitisdistributedamongthefranchisesandtheIPL.

(5) ThefranchisesearnmoneyfromtelevisionrightsoftheIPLcricketmatch.

(6) FranchiseofIPLteamearnsfromtheadinsta-diumground.

(7) Franchisesselltheirsharestosomeotherinves-torinhighvalue.Thenewinvestorbecomespartoffranchiseandtakessharesintheprofitofthefranchise.

12 MARCH 2014

• GangadharSharma

Like Suresh Kalmadi, Sheila Dik-shit,three-timeChiefMinisterofDelhi,isalsointroubledwaters.

She has been accused of causing alossofRs.30croretothegovernmentbyimportingelectricbulbsatexorbi-tantrates.

TheComptrollerandAuditorGener-al(CAG),whoauditedtheaccountsoftheDelhistreetlightproject,saysthemanwhowonthecontracttosupplythebulbsmusthave‘madeakilling’.

Therewasnoreasontoimportthebulbsinthefirstplace,saystheCAG.Interestingly,theCAGsays,thewatt-ageandluxlevelofthebulbsareakintothoseusedelsewhereinthecoun-

try.More interestingly, thedecision to

import luminous bulbs came up fordiscussionsuddenly,outofnowhere.And the government took the deci-sioninnotime.

It all happened in 2010,when thegovernment was preparing the cityfortheCommonwealthGames.

ThoughtheCAGsmeltthescandalinitsauditthefollowingyear,Dikshitdidnotbother toorderan investiga-tion.Nor did she issue a convincingreplytotheallegationofcorruption.

But the Kejriwal government or-deredaninvestigationjustafewdaysbeforeitcollapsed.TheinvestigatingagencyhasfiledanFIR,whichclearlyindictsDikshit.

Not only CAG, even the PM-ap-

It is now Sheila Dikshit’s turn to be in the dock. She has been blamed

for importing thousands of electric bulbs for the Commonwealth Games

at high prices while they were all available within the country. There seem to be other skeletons in

the cupboard, which are coming out one after

another. On a directive from the now-defunct

Aam Aadmi government the Delhi police has filed

an FIR and it is to been seen how Dikshit will

face this challenge to her political career.

Dikshit corneredCorruption charge against the three-time CM

13MARCH 2014

pointed Shunglu Committee hadexpressed concern at the personalinterest Dikshit took in importingelectricbulbs.

VK Shunglu, a former CAG em-ployee,writesinhisreportthat“thewhole method of awarding work toSpaceAge Switch Gear LTD smeltcriminalconspiracy.”

Little is known about the Space-Age Switch Gear, which was in factdisqualifiedfromsupplyinganythingto the government. It later importedthousandsofbulbs fromDubaipay-ingthousandsofrupeesperpiece.

Inher reply,Dikshitsaid thatvari-ous government agencies – like thePublicWorksDepartment(PWD),theDelhi Development Authority (DDA)andtheMunicipalCorporation(MCD)– were involved in the streetlightsand streetscaping projects in therun-uptotheCommonwealthGames.Andshewentonsayingalldecisionsrelatedtotheinfrastructuredevelop-mentweretakenbytheCabinet.

ButCAGsaidtheaccountbooksre-lating to the Commonwealth Gameswere confusing and it was hard tofigure out who is responsible forwhichcrime.CAGcouldnottracetheoriginal documents for nearly 30percent of the account books itaudited.

Dikshit can now feel relieved, be-cause the Aam Aadmi Party govern-mentcollapsedbeforeitcouldpasstheJan Lokpal Bill. Had it been enforced,Dikshit would have already been be-hindbars.Sheisfacingseveralcorrup-tioncharges.Initsreportfor2011-2012,CAG has laid blame at her doorstepsfor the Rs.645-crore loss suffered bythe government agencies suchas theDelhi Power Company. The electricitydistributor is gasping for breath,withitsfinanceinthedoldrums.

Chain of AllegationsDikshitwas also accused of fund-

ingpoliticaladvertisementswiththemoney released to her governmentfor carrying out developmental pro-grammes such as Rajiv Ratan AwasYojana.DelhiLokayuktadroppedthis

investigation halfway through with-outgivinganygenuinereason.

It was alleged that Dikshit spentmorethanthreecrorerupeesonpo-litical advertisements. Another alle-gationsheisfacingisaboutthenum-ber of flats her government built forthe urban poor. The Lokayukta saidfiguresmentionedinthegovernmentdocumentsdonotmatchwiththeac-tualnumberofflatsconstructed.

She shocked the world when shesaid ‘It’s okay” in a speech to paytributes to the girl who died in Sin-gapore hospital week after she wasgangrapedinDelhi.

On November 2009, Dikshit cameunder criticism for granting parole

to Manu Sharma, accused of mur-dering Jessica Lal. Media reportedthathehasbeenvisitingnightclubsinDelhiwhileonparole.Dikshitde-fendedherdecisiontosigntheparolepapers, declaring nothing “illegalor unlawful” was done in extendingthebenefittotheprisoner.TheDelhiHigh Court said that she had givenpreferential treatment to Sharma ingrantingparolewhileneglectingsuchpleasbythe“poor”peoplelanguish-ing in jail foryears.Askedaboutthehighcourt’scriticismofthedecision,Dikshit justifiedherposition, saying“whatever files I receive, they comethroughproperchannels.”

14 MARCH 2014

• Dr.ASuryaPrakash

ThePresident’s speech on occa-sionsliketheIndependenceDayandtheRepublicDayisseenby

peopleas somethingof a ritual that

the Rashtrapati performs year afteryear. This is so becausewhat domi-nates these speeches is dull, unin-spiringprosepackedwithofficialeseand platitudes. Far from connectingwiththepeople,thesespeechesonly

end up emphasising the disconnectbetweentheHeadofStatewholivesin his grand palace which majesti-callyoverlooks theRajpath,and theAamAadmi(thecommonman).

But,PresidentPranabMukherjee’s

President’s Timely WarningThe Electorate Must Take Note of It

Those who seek the trust of voters must promise only what is possible. Government is not a charity shop. Populist anarchy cannot be a substitute for governance. False promises lead to disillusionment, which gives birth to rage, and that rage has one legitimate target: those in power”.

These words of President Pranab Mukherjee addressed to the nation on the Republic Day have struck a chord with the people of the country, for never before has a President spoken on behalf of the Aam Aadmi this way. It has come from the bottom of his heart because of the disturbing trend of aberrations in our democratic system and all-pervasive corruption.

15MARCH 2014

address to the nation this RepublicDaywasdistinct.Ithadthestampofa person who has rich political andadministrative experience, is deeplyworried about India’s welfare anddemocratic well-being and has noqualmsaboutcallingaspadeaspade.More importantly, it was stronglyrootedinthecountry’scontemporarysocial,politicalandeconomicreality,was non-partisan and contained averystrongmessageforthecountry’selectorswhohavetomakeanallim-portantdecisioninMay,2014.

As stated earlier, every one ofMr.Mukherjee’s predecessors hasdeliveredthesecustomaryspeechesthat are religiously broadcast by AllIndia Radio and Doordarshan, butfew,ifany,haveeverhadthecouragetospeakonbehalfofthepeopleandto honestly reflect the mood of thenation,evenifitmeanshurtingthein-cumbentgovernmentorthecoalitionofpartiesthatarecurrentlyinpower.TheRashtrapatishowedthathehadhisfingeronthepulseofthepeopleandwasawareofthegrowingsenseofhopelessnessamongthecitizenrywhenhesaid,“Wedofeelangryandrightly so, when we see our demo-cratic institutions being weakenedby complacency and incompetence.If we hear sometimes an anthem of

despairfromthestreet,itisbecausethepeoplefeelthatasacredtrustisbeingviolated.”Hethenturnedtotheonebig issue troublingall Indians–corruption–andspokeonbehalfofevery citizen when he said, “If Indi-ans are enraged, it is because theyarewitnessingcorruptionandwasteofnationalresources.Ifgovernmentsdonotremovetheseflaws,voterswillremovegovernments.”

That the President had chosento speak his mind became obviouswhenhetalkedofthedangerousriseinhypocrisy inpublic life.Obviouslyreferring to the reckless promisesthatpoliticiansmakeinordertogar-nervotesandtheterribleimplications

thatthesepromisedfreebieshaveontheeconomyandthefinancesofgov-ernments, he said that elections donot give any person “the licence toflirtwithillusions”.‘‘Thosewhoseekthetrustofvotersmustpromiseonlywhatispossible.Governmentisnotacharityshop.Populistanarchycannotbeasubstituteforgovernance.Falsepromises lead to disillusionment,which gives birth to rage, and thatragehasonelegitimatetarget:thoseinpower.’’

ThePresidenthaswarnedthatthisrage will abate only when govern-ments deliver and that those in of-fice must eliminate the trust deficitbetween themand thepeople. They

16 MARCH 2014

mustalsounderstandthateveryelec-tioncomeswithawarningsign:“Per-formorPerish”..

Never before has a President cau-tioned politicians about the conse-quences of public rage as he hasdone in his recent address. Thoughmanyfeelthathisreferenceto“popu-list anarchy” is particularly directed

at theAamAadmiParty, itwouldbeunfairtothinkthatthePresidentop-eratesonsuchasmallcanvass.Ob-viously, thePresident is troubledbythetacticsoftheDelhiChiefMinister,whoprefersstreetagitationstoade-centday’sworkattheSecretariat.Buttherearemanyotherpoliticianswhohaveinfringedage-oldrulesofgover-nanceinthiscountry.Onehastoonlylookat the recklesspopulismof theManmohanSinghGovernmentattheCentreortheAkhileshYadavGovern-mentinUttarPradeshortheSiddara-

maiahGovernmentinKarnatakatore-alisethattheAAPisonlythenewkidon the block. There are older,muchseasonedplayerswhohavetakentothis dangerous path to garner votesandbroughtaboutterribleeconomicconsequencesforthenation.

Further, never before has a Presi-dentdisplayedsuchbluntnessinan-

alysing a contemporarypolitical situation in thecountry. Mr.Mukherjee,it would appear, hasdone this because ofseveral reasons. First,he is deeply disturbedbythesloth, inefficiencyand corruption that isnowall-pervasiveand isnow clearly eating intothevitalsofthecountry’sdemocratic system; Sec-ond, unlike many of hispredecessors who readout speeches draftedor approved by the gov-ernment of the day, thePresident has chosen to

speakonbehalfofthepeople,ratherthanonbehalfof “his”government;Third, going by the overall tone andcontent of the speech, it is obviousthat thePresident is troubledby theprospects of yet another fractiousmandateand its implications for thenation and for the survival of thedemocratic system itself. Therefore,hehaschosentherightoccasion,justthreemonthsprior to theLokSabhapoll,towarnallcitizensoftheconse-quencesofa fracturedmandateandappealedtothemtovoteforstability.

ThatthePresidentisdistressedbythe prospect of political instabilityisobviouswhenhesays thecomingelectionisamomentousone.Itisnotjust another year and another elec-tion.Hesays“2014isaprecipicemo-ment inourhistory.Wemust re-dis-coverthatsenseofnationalpurposeandpatriotism,whichliftsthenationaboveandacrosstheabyss”.Hehasalso spoken about the urgent needtoprovidejobsandopportunitiesforthe youth.But saysa fracturedgov-ernmentwhichishostagetowhimsi-calopportunistswillbean“unhappyeventuality”.Hewarns that in 2014,such an eventuality could be “cata-strophic”. Therefore, he tells everyvoter:Don’tletIndiadown.

By saying all this, the Rashtrapatihas echoed the concerns of 1.3 bil-lioncitizens,andshownthatheisintouchwith the Aam Aadmi and thathe will speak hismind on behalf oftheAamAadmi, irrespectiveofwhatit does to a few individuals holdingpublic offices. He has sound advicefor the electorate as well. He says,democracy is like thephysicianwhohealshimself. Ithas the“marvelousabilitytoself-correct”andtherefore,2014“mustbecomeayearofhealingafter the fractured and contentiouspolitics of the last few years”. Oneonly hopes the electorate will valuethe sage counsel of Mr.MukherjeenextMayandgiveIndia“mukti”fromthe unstable and corrupt politics ofthelastdecade

(Dr. Surya Prakash is Distinguished Fellow, VIF)

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18 MARCH 2014

• DrMNBuch

TowardstheendofMay2014,In-diawillhaveanewgovernmentandanewPrimeMinister.Inhis

speechontheeveoftheRepublicDay2014, the Presidentmade three sig-nificant remarks which every Indianmustbearinmind.Hewarnedagainstwhathe referred to as “populist an-archy”. He also said that a politicalpartyandagovernmentmustprom-iseonlythatwhichitcandeliver.ThePresident’s third comment was thatthepeopleof Indiashouldvotesen-sibly so that the new government isstableand can take thosedecisionswhichleadthecountryonthepathofdevelopment.

IconsiderShriPranabMukherjee’sadvicetothenationtobeofessencebecause today we are witnessing adisastrous competitive populism inwhich every party is vying with theothertomakeannouncementswhich,

if actually implemented, would pau-perise the whole country, make usbankruptandthusmakethegovern-ment totally incapable of providingeven the minimum services to thepeople. Almost as a continuation ofimmediateexpediencyand irrespon-sible populism is the plethora ofpromises made by the political par-ties to the electorate, raising expec-tationsand,onfailuretodeliver,won-deringwhy the people are annoyed.Suchwildpromisesactuallyretardallprogressbecause theycreateacon-flict between that which is possibleand the impossible which has beenpromised,preventthedrawingupofarationalscheduleofpriorities,mak-ing it impossible to takepolicydeci-sionsand,becauseofclashof inter-ests, result in spasmodic, knee-jerkimplementation and, in the ultimateanalysis, a paralysis of government.Asacorollary to this is the fact thatthe uncertainty of the situation pre-

ventsacoalescenceofparties,afrac-tured mandate and the emergenceof small interest groups which workagainstthenationalinterest.ThishasbeenthesituationinIndiaeversincePVNarasimhaRao lost the electionand we entered an era of unstablecoalitions where immediate localinterests completely overwhelmedthenationalinterest.ThatiswhythePresident’sspeechontheeveoftheRepublicDaywasaclarioncalltothenationtoreturntoreasonandeschewdivisivepolitics.

Problem of fragmented verdict

The new government will face for-midable problemswhen it comes topower.Will themandate be clear orwill it be so fragmented that therewillbedifficultyinformingagovern-ment which can work? This issue isextremelyimportant,becauseafrac-

Post-Election GovernmentToo many formidable problems in store

Now that the general election is not far behind, the political parties are bound to make all sorts of promises to the electorate, most of which they will not be able to deliver and even if they do, it will at the cost of the exchequer. This will only further erode our economic base, says the author. He lists the various challenges the new government will have to face in the energy sector, irrigation and infrastructure and makes a strong case for a strong, corruption-free government.

19MARCH 2014

turedverdictforcesthePresidentintoa corner where he has to appoint aPrimeMinisterandaskhimtoformagovernment.WhomshouldthePresi-dent invite when there is no clearmajority?MypersonalviewisthatweneedsomeamendmentstoourCon-stitution to deal with a contingencywhich has now become almost anorminIndia.Oneamendmentwouldbe that insuchacase thePresidentshouldsummontheHouse,laydowntheparametersandthenasktheas-sembled members who should beinvited to form the government. Theassembled members should be de-privedofallmeansofexternalcom-munication, should be held incom-municado and not allowed to meetany outsider. The members shouldremain so locked up till they arrive

at a consensus on who should beappointedPrimeMinister.ThePrimeMinisterwould thenbea consensuscandidate.

A fewmore amendments are alsoneeded. A motion of no-confidenceshould not be allowed to bemovedforthefirsttwoyearsofthefive-yeartermofthelegislature.Anofficialbill,ifdefeatedinParliament,shouldnotbedeemed tobeavoteofno-confi-denceduring this two-yearperiod. If

thebudgetisdefeated,thentheprevi-ousyear’sbudgetshouldbedeemedto be the current year’s budget sothatgovernmentdoesnotcometoahalt. Thiswouldensure that there isanadequatevoteonaccount toper-mitgovernmenttofunctionnormally,thoughnonewschemesorinitiativescouldbelaunched.Thetwo-yearmor-atorium on a vote of no-confidenceissuggestedsothatthegovernmenthas at least this period to stabilizeitself and win the continuous confi-dence of the House. If, thereafter, agovernment does not stabilize, thenthe government in a state must beconductedforthebalanceofthefive-yearperiod,whichisthefulllifespanof the House, through President’srule. At the Centre, there can be noPresident’s rule; government for the

balance period should be through acaretaker government, but which isempowered to takeall thedecisionswhich a fully elected government iscompetent to take. This will deterfrequent elections,make it possibleto hold elections simultaneously forParliament and state legislaturesand,perhaps,forcethepartiestobe-comemoreresponsibleandthusob-viateboththePresident’sruleandaprolongedcaretakergovernment.

Focus on secondary sectorFromthetimewhentheNarasimha

RaoGovernmentstarteddismantlingexcessive control of the state overthe economy, India had a welcomesurge of growth and development.Normally growth is judged by therateofGDPgrowthandthiswasrea-sonablyhealthy for several years. Infact, afterChinawehad thehighestrateofgrowthgloballyandthisgaveusandtheworldafalsefeelingofIn-diaat lastbreaking throughthebar-riers which inhibited growth. Whatwe failed toappreciatewas thatourgrowth was very heavily based onthe strength of the tertiary sector,which itself is tied to the global de-mand for such services. Informationtechnology-basedgrowthiswhatwepromoted,buttherewasnosimulta-neousincreaseinthesize,efficiencyandtheproductivityofthesecondarysector.Bycontrast,Chinavigorouslypursued the secondary sector routeto development and in the processbuilt up a huge manufacturing sec-torwhichhasfloodedtheworldwithgoodsandheavily tiltedthebalanceof trade in China’s favour. BecausegoodsbecomeobsoleteveryquicklyChina has also invested adequatelyin research, development and inno-vation. Therefore, the new govern-mentwillhave thechallengeofhowtobuildthesecondarysectorinIndiaso that manufacturing becomes themainemployerand thusencouragesskilldevelopment.Itisthesecondarysectorwhichprovides themaximumemploymentinlongterm.

SixtypercentofthelandareaofIn-diaisarablecomparedwithonly10%ofChina.Ourinflationisnotsomuchmanufactured commodity driven asit is agriculture produce driven. TheGreenRevolutionprovedthatwecanproduce enough to feedour people.But we have never leveraged theenormous potential of agricultureand horticulture to give us produc-tion levels which will give adequatefoodstuffatlowerprices,whileatthesame time become the rawmaterialfor agro industrieswhichaddvalue,

20 MARCH 2014

gainfullyabsorbthesurpluses,passmoneybacktotheproducerthroughbulk purchase and value addition,provide employment in agriculture,transportation, agro industry andan enormous service sector whichthroughbanking,technologyandma-chinery inputs, extension services,gives knowledge of scientific agri-culture and financial support whichwould bring exponential increasein productivity, while creating vastnumberofjobsinthesecondaryandtertiary sector which supports agri-culture. How to achieve the goal ofusing agriculture to bring prosperityto India, especially rural India, willbe the real challengewhich thenewgovernmentwill have to face. In theprocess thegovernmentwillhave totakeagood,objective lookatpopu-list schemes, including subsidies,employment programswhich do notcreate permanent assets and gim-mickry which is aimed at vote bankpoliticsratherthantheneedtobringprosperitytotheruralpeople.

Social sector needs rejuvenation

The social sector is a curious andparadoxicalone.Howcanonebuildagoodinstituteoftechnology,scienceeducationand research, informationtechnologyorbusinessmanagementonafoundationofschoolswhichim-part no education whatsoever? Howcanwebuildanall-India instituteofmedical sciencesorasuperspecial-ty hospital whose foundations andwhosefeedersaretheextremelymis-erableprimaryhealthcentres?

The energy sector, irrigation andconstruction of infrastructure ofroads,railwaylines,airportsetc.,thebuildingofadequatecivicinfrastruc-tureincludingwatersupply,drainageand sewerage present major chal-lenges, but in order to achieve suc-cess there one needs good govern-ment.Goodgovernmentmeanslaws,rulesand regulationswhichhaveastheir objective the service and wel-fareofcitizens.Thisisastrueofregu-latory legislationas it isofdevelop-

ment legislation. Good governmentmeansdecisivenessindecisionmak-ing, a strong will to ensure efficientadministration which delivers goodgovernment and a system wherebydecisionmakingandimplementationaresoopenthatcitizenparticipationbecomes easy. Law and order, theprotection of human rights, greaterproductivity, more gainful jobs andequityindistributionareallapartofgovernance and efficiency in thesesectors isessential forgoodgovern-ment.

Corruptionhasbecomeamajoris-sueinIndiaandtheAamAadmiPartyhas come out in favour of a strongmeasureofprobityandsimplicity inpublic life. People in Delhi have re-spondedfavourablytothepossibilityof the newparty tackling corruptionandbringinggovernancetothedoorstepof citizens so that they cangettheir just dues. Unfortunately, thisparty is not facing up to the other

challengesposedinthispaper,partlybecause it did not anticipate that itwouldcome topowerandpartlybe-cause it is still in an anti-establish-mentagitationmould.

Politics, unfortunately, has frag-mented society on lines of religion,caste,class,region,language,ethnicgroupsandevensubgroups.Theuseofcasteorreligiontoappealtovoterstovoteenmasseforaparticularpar-ty, the arousing of base religious orsimilarpassions,theviolencethusin-stigatedareallaspectsofcommunal-ism.Weshall thenhave tocarry thedefinition of communalism beyondHinduvsMuslimandviewalldivisivepolitics as communal and fissipa-rous. Thepresentdanger to secular-ismcannotbefacedunlessweacceptthismuchwiderdefinitionofcommu-nalismandthengirduptocontrolit.Whynotmake2014theyearinwhichIndiareallyfaceduptothemenaceofallcommunalismandthenmovedto-wardsatrulysecularrepublic?

Fortheelectionsof2014whatonewants toknow fromallpoliticalpar-ties is how they will go about thebusinessofgovernance,keepingtheabovechallengesinmind.I,forone,amsickofpoliticalrhetoric.Canwe,for a change, get politicians talk ra-tionallyandwithhorsesenseandtellushowtheywilltacklethequestionsofgovernmentinsuchawaythatthePresident’sadvicebecomesthekey-stoneofourfuturepolitics?

(Dr Buch is Dean, Centre for Gover-nance and Political Studies, VIF)

21MARCH 2014

• ShankarJayasimha

ThecreationofTelanganahasleftseveralheavyweightsstrugglingtoprotecttheirpoliticalcareerin

AndhraPradesh.KiranKumarReddyhas quit the Congress and resignedasthechiefministerandsomeothersalsohaveresignedfromtheCongressPartyaltogether.

Parliament has just passed thestate bifurcation bill aimed at carv-ingoutTelangana,whichwillbecomethe29thstateoftheIndianRepublic.Seemandhra politicians did all theycouldtostallthebillbuttonoavail.On Thursday, February 13, the LokSabhawitnessedunprecedentedun-rulyscenessuchasanMPfromSee-mandhra using pepper spray in thehallowedchamberofParliament.Itisallegedthatoneofthemevenwield-edaknife! Littledid theyknow thattheCongressPartyhadalargerstakeridingon theplan togive statehoodtoTelangana.

WiththeLokSabhaelectionsloom-ing, the Congress was desperate toregainitspopularitycorrodedbytheYSRCongress.Itpushedthebifurca-tionbillthroughParliamentinahurry,because failing to give statehood toTelanganawasnotanoption for thenational political party threatenedby JaganReddy. Jaganhas launchedhisownpoliticaloutfit tocash inonthe popularity of his late father YSRReddy,whodiedinahelicoptercrash

fiveyearsago.Thepromisetoprovidestatehood

helped the Congress win 29 parlia-mentary seats in the last generalelection.Yet,thethenthelocalCon-gress leaders did not think that Hy-derabad,thecapitalcitywhereeverypoliticianownsrealestate,toowouldgotoTelangana.Theysensedtheef-fectofnewstateonlywhentheUnionCabinetdisclosedthelegislativepro-

posal it was tablingbefore Parliament inNovember last year.Soon they instigatedpeopletoriseagainstthe plan to split thestate.

Frankly speaking,those who opposethe creation of Telan-ganahavenogenuinereason to make theirpoint.While the localCongress leaders areworried about safe-guarding their wealthand political career,the party’s centralleaderswerebusyde-visingplanstoprotectthe party in AndhraPradesh.

The Congress wassure of losing all theseats in Telanganahad it failed to havethe bifurcation bill

passed.Theadventofthenewstatedivides the large state of AndhraPradeshintomini-strongholdsofdif-ferentpoliticalfactions,leavinglittleor no room for the national politicalpartiestofacetheelectionalone.

WhenthebillwastabledinParlia-ment,TDPleaderChandrababuNaidupleadedwithNarendraModitomakesure that the legislative proposalwasdefeated.ButtheBJPstucktoits

Telangana State at last!Pall of Gloom over Seemandhra

The Congress was sure of losing all the seats in Telangana had it failed to have the bifurcation bill passed. The advent of the new state

divides the large state of Andhra Pradesh into mini- strongholds of different political factions, leaving little or no room for the national

political parties to face the election alone.

22 MARCH 2014

standofsupportingthecreationofanewstate. For the BJP, alliance with Naidu’sTDPisvitalinputtingNarendraModiontotheprimeminister’schair.AnangryNaidumaynowgowiththeThirdFront,choosingtoplaya spoilsport rather thanagentle-man’sgame.

Someanalysts sayNaiduwill strike analliancewiththeBJP,becauseheisawareofModi’s growing popularity in Andhra’shinterland.MorethanModi,Naiduneedsto align himself with a national party todealwiththegrowingthreatofJaganRed-dy’sYSRCongress.

TheclearwinneristheCongress,whichmightgobbleall the17seatsup forgrabinTelangana.But itwill facefiercebattleinSeemandhra,wherefivepoliticaloutfitsneedtofightoverwhatisleftofadividedstate.

Kiran Reddy, who quit the Congress,is talking of floating his own politicaloutfit, taking with him all his formercabinetcolleagues.Thatmeans,theCon-gress may have to face a lone battle inSeemandhra. It knows well that what itloses in Seemandhra canbemadeup inTelangana.

HomeMinisterSushilkumarShindehassaidthegovernmentmayannounceaspe-cial financial package for Seemandhra,which is set to lose Hyderabad, the citythatisthemainsourceofrevenueforthegovernment.

The Telangana party’s ChandrasekharaRao is the happiest man today, becausetimehascome forhim tomake themostof thepolitical capital hemade from theprotestoverthestatehood.

Demanding equal rights, they ‘killed’ themselvesPerchedontheDeccanPlateau,Telanganaisthelargestofthethree

regionsofAndhraPradesh,covering41.47%ofthelargestate.In-cludingHyderabad, itwill account fornearlyhalf thepopulationofAndhraand76percentofthestate’srevenue.ThecityofHyderabadaloneaccountsfor50percentofthestate’srevenue.HyderabadwillsoonbedeclaredaUnionterritory,whichisthemostworryingfactorformostofthepoliticiansintoday’sAndhraPradesh.

Thereareallegationsthatalltheseyears,fundsallocatedtoTelan-ganawerenever spent.Worsestill, a largemajorityofgovernmentofficialsworkinginHyderabadarefromtheSeemandhraregion.NowtheyallmayhavetoshifttoVishakhapatnam,whichwillbethecapi-talcityofSeemandhra.

Reportssayasmanyas300peoplekilledthemselves(16byself-immolation)demandingmorepoliticalcontrolforthelocalsinTelan-gana. Given the TelanganaMartyr Families’ Forum directory, therehavebeen904suicidesinAndhraPradeshfromNovember2009toFebruary2013.

Pepper sprayer quits politics MinutesafterthelowerHousepassedthebifurcationbill,senior

congress leader Lagadapati Rajagopal resigned from politics.Hewasoustedfromthepartytheweekbeforeforsprayingpepperonhisparliamentarycolleagues.

“I’mhurt as Telugu-speakingpeople aredividednow. It is a sadday.Ihavelostinterestinpolitics,”hetoldmediapersonsinfrontofParliament.

Its 53-year-oldMP from Vijayawada is one the richestMPs fromAndhraPradesh.HiswealthexceedsRs.299crore,according tohisownassetsandliabilityreportsubmittedtotheElectionCommission.HisopponentshaveoftensaidthatheisworriedabouthisrealestateassetsinHyderabad.

23MARCH 2014

24 MARCH 2014

• RajuShanbhag

The bilateral relations betweenIndiaandUSreachedanewlow,whentheIndiandiplomat,Devy-

ani Khobragade, was arrested andstrip-searched by US officials. TheIndiangovernmentretaliatedwithanuncharacteristic grit and took manyactionsagainstUSdiplomatsinIndiathatwereseenasanactofrevenge.

ButitseemstheUnitedStatesisinno hurry to straighten the wrinklesin its relationswith India. In fact, itrecentlyannouncedthatitwouldan-nounce a trade enforcement actionlinkedtoIndia.Accordingtomediare-ports, theUSgovernmenthas comeunder growing pressure to react toperceivedintellectualpropertyrightsabuses by the Indian drug compa-nies.

These companies are not held ingoodlightbythepolicymakersintheUS.Infact,IndiaisontheUSgovern-ment’s Priority Watch List for coun-tries whose practices on protecting

intellectualpropertyshouldbemoni-tored closely. The US Chamber ofCommerce has insisted that the USgovernmentpileuppressureonIndiaover intellectual property rights, amove thatcouldhelpprevent Indiancompaniesfromproducingcheapge-nericversionsofmedicinesstillunderpatentprotection.

ItseemstheUnitedStates iscom-ing at Indiawith all guns firing. TheUS International Trade Commissionrecently held ameeting to look intoIndian tradeand investmentpractic-es. InasubmissiontotheUSTR,theChamberofCommerceaskedthatIn-diabeclassifiedasaPriorityForeignCountry,a taggiven to theworstof-

fenderswhen it comes toprotectingintellectual property and one thatcould trigger trade sanctions. Othertrade groups, including those repre-sentingthepharmaceuticalandman-ufacturingindustries,echoedthecallforatougherstanceonIndia.

Incidentally,manyseethisasanef-fortbytheUStogainabiggershareinthe evolving Indian pharma market.USdrugcompanieshaveahugemar-ketinIndiaandthecompetitionfromlocaldrugcompanies,whomanufac-turecheaperalternativesusing localcomponents,istough.Infact,thebigbrother is trying to dictate terms ineveryfield.Thetwocountriesarealsosparringovereverythingfromexportof shrimps that pit the fishermen ofKerala versus those of Louisiana, totheimportofsteelpipes.

While organisations such as Doc-torsWithoutBordershavesupportedIndia in its effort to produce cheapmedicines for the world’s poor withmodest improvements in IPR, theprofit mongering drug companies in

Drug PatentsIndia, US on collision courseIndia and the US, the two great democracies, are sparring over issues that are apparently innocuous, but in the long run they might cause serious problems if not resolved amicably. No sooner has the dust raised by the Khobragade episode settled down than the US has stated that it would announce a trade enforcement action in retaliation for perceived intellectual property rights abuses by the Indian drug companies. It seems Uncle Sam is peeved by the rapid strides being made by the Indian pharma industry, which is posing a threat to the big drug companies in the US.

25MARCH 2014

theUSaren’thappy.Theyalsoseemtobethreatenedbytherapidstridesmade by India’s generic drug indus-try,which they feel, threatensWest-ernadvances.Asaresult,theUSgov-ernment, pressured by the lobbyingtacticsofgiantdrugcompanies,hastakenmanyactionsagainsttheIndiandrugcompaniesoperatingintheUS.Recently, Washington has crackeddownonIndia-basedpharmamajorssuch as Ranbaxy for sloppy produc-tionprocedures,amongotherthings.

GenericdrugsproducedinIndiaposeathreattotheUSdrugmakers.Thesedrugs are the cheaper alternatives tocostlier medicines and will help thepoor to have access to quality healthcare. The Indian government has al-ways been in favour of generic drugsthat are accessible to all rather thanleaving them at themercy of few bigpharma companies. Recently, Swissdrug maker Roche was asked by theIndian government to give up its pat-entonbreast-cancerdrugHerceptin.InMarch2012,thegovernmentissueditsfirst“compulsorylicence”forakidney-cancerdrugmadebyBayerAG.Acom-pulsory licence allows firms to makegeneric copies of drugs supposedlystillprotectedbypatents inexchangefor a licensing fee set by the govern-ment.Later thatyear, thegovernmentrevoked Pfizer’s patent on Sutent,which treats gastrointestinal tumorsand advanced kidney cancer. In early2013,theSupremeCourtdeniedpatentprotectionforGlivec,whichisusedtotreatleukemia.

TheSupremeCourtstatedthatthedelivery format did not constitute alegitimate innovation. Protected bymultiple US patents, Gleevec costsmore than Rs. 46,50,000 a year inIndia. While Novartis charges aboutRs.19,22,000ayear,thegenericver-sionlegalisedbyIndia’shighestcourtcostsaroundRs.1,30,200,whichisamorereasonableamount foracoun-trywhere the annual capital incomeisaboutRs.86,800.

To date, India has issued compul-sory licences or revoked patents foreight advancedpharmaceuticals. In-diaproducesalmost40%of generic

drugsandover-the-counterproducts.It is the biggest foreign supplier ofmedicine to theUS, and is a criticalproducer of affordable medicine forthe world. India’s generic industry,however, has cut into theprofits forPfizerandotherUSdrugcompanies.

What the US is conveniently over-lookingisthefactthateverycountryhastherighttotakestepstoincreaseaccess to medicines and implementapatentsystemin linewith itspub-lichealthneeds.Competitionamonggeneric drug manufacturers in Indiahas also effectively brought downthe price of medicines for HIV, tu-berculosis and cancer bymore than90%.AffordableIndiangenericshavesavednotjustmillionsofdollars,butmillionsoflivesoverthepastdecadewithorganizationslikeDoctorswith-outBordersbuying80%of itsmedi-

cinesandexpandingtreatmenttodif-ferentpartsoftheworld.

Ofcourse,thedrugcompaniesthatmanufacturenumerousdrugsshouldprofit from their innovations. Other-wise,therewillnotbeanyinnovationleft in thefieldofmedicine.But theprofit should not take precedenceover saving lives in an underdevel-opedcountry.TheIndiangovernmentis not stealing these patents. Thegeneric drugmakerwill still have topayalicencefeetotheoriginaldrugmaker. The fact that companies likeRocheandBayerAGarestilloperat-inginIndiadespitetheseallegedpat-entviolationsshowsthattheyarestillmakingprofits.

And with that, they will also becontributingtosavingvaluablelives,which is why drugs are invented inthefirstplace.

The Solar Power RowAmerica’s grouse against flourishing Indian economy is not restricted

to just the pharma field. Recently, America threatened that it wouldtakeIndiatotheWorldTradeOrganizationtogainabiggerfootholdforUSmanufacturersinitsfast-growingsolarproductsmarket,addinganotherir-ritanttoanalreadystrainedrelationship.USTradeRepresentativeMichaelFormansaidmakingIndiansolardevelopersuselocallymadeequipmentdiscriminatedagainstUSproducersandcouldhinderthespreadofsolarpower. It isthesecondtimeinayearthatWashingtonhassoughtacon-sultationattheWTO-thefirststageinadisputeprocessthatcanleadtosanctions-overIndia’sJawaharlalNehruNationalSolarMission.

Initsdefense,IndiahasaskedWashingtontojustifyitsownincentivesofferedtoUScompaniesthatuselocallabourandproductsinrenewableenergyandwaterprojects.Indiahasargueditssolarpoliciesarelegalun-der theWTOgovernment procurement rules that permit countries to ex-emptprojectsfromnon-discriminationobligations.

Thereare14pastorcurrentWorldTradeOrganisationcasesbetweenIn-diaandtheUnitedStates,whosebilateraltradeingoodsmeasured$63.7billionlastyear,notincludingthelatestcase.

Hacking Hinduism Like Butter With a Knife

Anything goes when it comes to defaming Hinduism. And when a voice of dissent is raised, the so-called intellectuals and scholars are there to cry foul! The book by Wendy Doniger on Hinduism has gross misrepresentations and is aimed at creating communal discord in the country, and yet some of our scholars say that the withdrawal of her book is suppression of freedom of speech. They forget the fact that freedom has its limitations and, if not exercised with restraint, it will cause serious harm to society as well as to the body politic.

28 MARCH 2014

• RajuShanbhag

Wendy Doniger, whosebook,‘TheHindus:AnAlternative History,’publishedby Penguin

India,hasbeenwithdrawnbythepublishers voluntarily. ShikshaBachao Andolan Samiti, a Delhi-based group took the publisher,Penguin India, to court. Penguinwas quick to see itsmistake andhasagreed towithdraw thebookfrommarket inthecourseofnextsixmonths.

Additional district judge Bal-want Rai Bansal was hearingthe civil suit filed in 2011 by Di-nanath Batra, convener of Shik-shaBachaoAndolan, throughhiscounselMonikaArora.Alongwithhim,therewerefiveotherpetition-ers, including ex-IFS officer O PGupta,andSharvanKumar,presi-dent,SwamiVivekanandaMedicalMission. According to Mr. Batra,“there are gross misrepresenta-tions and printing mistakes inthebook—themostoffensiveofwhichistoeraseKashmirfromtheIndianterritoryevenbetween600and1600CE,longbeforeeventheexistenceofPakistan.

In spite of the factual misrep-resentations and the voluntarywithdrawalofthebookbythepub-lisher, the so-called intellectualsin the country have again kickedup a storm over “suppression offreedomofexpression”.HistorianRamachandraGuhacalledthede-cision “deeply disappointing” onTwitter.RuralDevelopmentMinis-ter JairamRameshcalledShikshaBachao Andolan “some Taliban-typeoutfit”thatis“distortinganddestroying our liberal traditions.”Academic Jyotirmaya Sharma,who has published two bookswith Penguin, and journalist andauthor Siddharth Varadrajan saidthey are outraged at the leadingpublishinghousecapitulatingbe-forea fringeoutfitcalledShiksha

BachaoAndolan.But all those who sided with

WendyDoniger gleefully overlookthe fact that the complaint wasnotagainstWendyDoniger’sfree-domofspeech;butitwasagainstfactual errors andmisrepresenta-tions.Andyes,whethertheyagreeornot,evenHindushavetherightto defend their religion againstmisrepresentations.

The false claims in the bookstartfromthecoverpageitself.Tostartwith,thebookfalselyclaimsthattheimageonthejacketofthebookwasfromatempleinPuriinOdisha.Makingfalseclaimstosellabook,thattooonthecoverofthebook,isanunethicalpractice.

It’s also ironical that althoughWendy Doniger is busy decry-ing her victimhood in India, backhome,shehasdonatedmoneytoa group in which important lead-ers were members of the racistorganizationKuKluxKlan.Anon-line search also shows that shefigures in a discussion thread on“stormfront”, a website run byneo-Nazis, and onemember sug-gests using her works to belittleIndians.Besides,thenow-defunctMicrosoft Encarta pulled her arti-cleonHinduismafterinvestigatingcomplaints that the article had aracisttone.

In 1990, she wrote, “The au-thors of the Rig Veda, the invad-ing Indo-Aryans, highly valuedtheir freedom and abhorred anyconstraint.” She now denies theAryaninvasioninhermorerecentpublications.WendyalsodoesnotprovidepropercitationsaboutherviewsontheAryaninvasiontheo-ry.ShecitessomepersonnamedMartin West without mentioningthe contribution of Hindus activeontheinternetindemolishingthetheory.

BeforedishingoutadviceonfreespeechtoIndians,WendyDonigerwoulddowelltocheckthestatusinherowncountry.Americanuni-versities,particularly thehumani-tiesdepartments,haveaverypoorrecordwhenitcomestoprotectingfree-speech rights and opposingracism.Notlongago,formerCom-merce Minister Dr. SubramanianSwamywasprevented fromoffer-inghiscourseatHarvardUniversi-tyafterDianaEck,aWhiteprofes-sor,organizedacampaigntoousthim in response to an article Dr.SwamywroteinanIndiannewspa-perarticulatinghisviewsonfight-ingterrorismandremovingfrictionbetweenHindusandMuslims.SheorganizednoeffortthatkeptIrishpoet Tom Paulin out of HarvardUniversity when he was invited

29MARCH 2014

to the university after articulatingmuchstrongerstatementssuchascallingforthegenocideofJews.

Wendy even claims that someHinduswouldwanttogetChristiansandMuslimsoutofIndiabasedonthe argument that the Vedic peo-pleoriginated in India.Again, shedoes not care to tell from whereshe got her ‘facts.’ Clearly, this isheropiniondisguisedasafactandinacommunallysensitivecountry,dishingout suchopinionswithoutpropercitationsisnotonlyunethi-cal,butalsoplainillegal.

The likes of Siddharth Varadra-janandRamachandraGuha,cham-pioning Wendy’s cause have alsooverlooked the fact that she hasthistendencytopresentherimagi-naryfictionsasfactsandevenas-signingdatestothem!Considerthefollowingsentencesfromherbook,“When Jesus appeared to him ina vision that night, Thomas said,

‘Whithersoeverthouwilt,ourLord,sendme;onlytoIndiaIwillnotgo.’Jesus nevertheless eventually in-denturedhim,fortwentypiecesofsilver, toan Indianmerchant,whotook him towork in the palace ofthe ruler of Gandhara, sometimebetween19and45CE.”

Notice how Wendy presents acooked up encounter betweenThomas and Jesus as a fact and

even assigns a date to this al-leged encounter!Onewould thinkthat such a childish piece of writ-ing would not invite any seriousconsideration from any sensibleperson. But the ‘scholars’ inIndia areup in armsagainstwhatthey call violation of freedomof speech. They are supportingabook thatshouldnothavebeenpublishedatall.

PenguinBooks Indiabelieves,andhasalwaysbelieved, inevery indi-vidual’srighttofreedomofthoughtandexpression,arightexplicitlycodifiedintheIndianConstitution.ThiscommitmentinformsPenguin’s

approach to publishing in every territory of theworld, andwe have neverbeenshyabouttestingthatcommitment incourtwhenappropriate.At thesametime,apublishingcompanyhasthesameobligationasanyotherorga-nizationtorespectthelawsofthelandinwhichitoperates,howeverintoler-antandrestrictivethoselawsmaybe.Wealsohaveamoralresponsibilitytoprotectouremployeesagainstthreatsandharassmentwherewecan.

Thesettlementreachedthisweekbringstoacloseafouryearlegalpro-cessinwhichPenguinhasdefendedthepublicationoftheIndianeditionof“TheHindus”byWendyDoniger.Wehavepublished, in succession,hard-cover,paperbackande-bookeditionsof the title. InternationaleditionsofthebookremainavailablephysicallyanddigitallytoIndianreaderswhostillwishtopurchaseit.

Westandbyouroriginaldecisiontopublish“TheHindus”,justaswestandbythedecisiontopublishotherbooksthatweknowmaycauseoffencetosomesegmentsofourreadership.Webelieve,however,thattheIndianPenalCode,andinparticularSection295Aofthatcode,willmakeitincreasinglydifficult for any Indian publisher to uphold international standards of freeexpressionwithoutdeliberatelyplacingitselfoutsidethelaw.

Thisis,webelieve,anissueofgreatsignificancenotjustfortheprotectionofcreativefreedomsinIndiabutalsoforthedefenceoffundamentalhumanrights.

Penguin’s complete

statement

30 MARCH 2014

UN report condemns clerics’ child abuse

Catholic Church rattled

It’sareportthatisboundtoshaketherootsofChristianity.TheUnit-ed Nations committee that inves-

tigated the allegations of child sexabuse by the clergies and holymenassociated with the Vatican has re-leaseditsreport;andtosaythatthereport is not exactly complimentarywillbeahugeunderstatement.

IfonelooksatthehistoryoftheVat-ican,practisingcelibacyhasn’tbeenaneasy task for theVaticanpriests.Inanenvironmentthatstrictlyforbidsanyinteractionwiththeoppositesex,manypriestsreportedlyresorttohei-nouscrimeslikechildsexabuse.Allover the world, Christian churchesand their followers have come outwith stories that have accused themembers of the church of sexualabusesonunsuspectingchildren.

Initsreport,theUNpanelhascon-demned the church policies whichtacitly allowed the clergymen to in-dulgeinsexualabuseofchildrenandcalled for immediatedismissalofallthose who had committed or weresuspected of the crime. The reportissoscathingthatitalmostcallsthe

Vatican a rogue state and calls tomenditsways.

And there is a reasonwhy theUNpanel has talked so strongly abouttheattitudeoftheVaticanaboutthiswhole matter. Throughout its longand prosperous history, the Vaticanhasbeenaccusedofsidingwithsin-

Catholic priests are forbidden to marry; they must practise celibacy. But in practice, this injunction has been overturned by reports of child abuse by some of the priests, which have come to the notice of the United Nations. The Vatican has been evasive on this issue; it has not taken any drastic step to stop this practice. The result is that child abuse still continues unnoticed and unreported in most cases.

32 MARCH 2014

ful clergymenwhen it came to childsexabuse.Therewerereportsofmat-tersbeingsweptunderthecarpetandthe Vatican and its powerful alliesbullying thehaplessvictims intoun-wanted compromises. For centuries,itseemedtoanoutsideobserverthattheVaticanwasperhapsmore inter-ested in safeguarding its religiousempire than helping the victims ofsexualabuse.

SoiftheVaticanisnotinterested in taking ac-tionagainstpedophileslurkingwithinitsranks,why is the United Na-tions keeping quiet?That’s mainly becausethe Vatican is a self-governed state and isnot answerable to theUnited Nations. Thepolitics of Vatican Citytakesplace inanabso-lute elective monarchy,inwhichtheheadoftheRoman Catholic Church

takespower.ThePopeexercisesprin-cipal legislative, executive and judi-cial power over the State of VaticanCity (anentitydistinct fromtheHolySee), which is a rare case of a non-hereditarymonarchy.

Vatican City is currently the onlywidelyrecognisedindependentstatethathasnotbecomeamemberoftheUnitedNations.TheHolySee,which

isdistinctfromtheVaticanCityState,haspermanentobserver statuswithalltherightsofafullmemberexceptforavoteintheUNGeneralAssembly.But this religious autocracy grantedtotheVaticanhasledtomanycrimes,and their ultimate suppression bytheChurchwhentheperpetratorsofthesecrimesaresomeoftheirown.

In fact, far from being a transpar-ent, holy place, Vaticanseemed to have trans-formeditselfintoamyste-rious abode with hiddensecretsandbafflingprac-tices. In 2012, the Ital-ian media broke a storywhere a mole who alleg-edlyworkedintheVaticanforthan20yearsrevealedsome startling practicesinsidetheVatican.

Thewhistle-blowersaidthe Vatican is a placewhere “you can commitmurder and then disap-pear into the void” – a

33MARCH 2014

reference to amurky scandal in theSwissGuard in 1998,when a youngsoldier shot dead the corps’ com-mander and wife before apparentlycommittingsuicide.

ThemotherofCedricTornay,23,theallegedassassin,hasneveracceptedthat her son would have committedsuicideandhascalledonPopeBene-dictXVI,84,toreopenthecase,amidspeculationthattherealkillerofthethreemayneverhavebeencaught.

Apart from the above mentionedcrimes,childabusecaseshavedealtabloodyblowtoVatican’simageoverthe last few decades. These casesinvolveaseriesofallegations,inves-tigations, trials and convictions of

child sexual abuse crimes commit-tedbytheCatholicpriests,nunsandmembersoftheRomanCatholicorderagainst children as young as threeyearsoldwith themajoritybetweentheagesof11and14.

Thesecaseshaveresultedincrimi-nalprosecutionsof theabusersandcivil law suits against the church’sdioceses and parishes. Many of thecases span several decades andare brought forward years after theabuse occurred. Cases have alsobeenbroughtagainstmembersoftheCatholichierarchywhodidnotreportsexabuseallegationstothelegalau-thorities.

Ithasbeenshownthattheydeliber-

atelymovedsexuallyabusiveprieststo other parishes where the abusesometimes continued. This has ledtoanumberoffraudcaseswheretheChurchhasbeenaccusedofmislead-ingvictimsbydeliberatelyrelocatingpriests accused of abuse instead ofremovingthemfromtheirpositions

The UN report says the Vatican“hasnotacknowledgedtheextentofthecrimescommitted,hasnottakenthe necessary measures to addresscases of child sexual abuse and toprotect children, and has adoptedpoliciesandpracticeswhichhaveledto the continuation of the abuse bytheperpetratorswithimpunity.”

In recentyears, theVaticanseemsto have woken up about the crimescommitted against the children andthedamagethesecasesarecausingtoitsimageallovertheworld. Inre-cent years, three popes have force-fully condemned the clerical abuseof children. John Paul II denouncedit as “appalling sin” and outright“crime.”BenedictXVIpromisedtoridthechurchofsuch“filth.”AndFrancishasordered theVaticanprosecutorsand bishops to “act decisively” tomakesurethatminorsareprotectedand abusers are held to account.The Church’s moral witness as wellas itscredibility is ridingon this,hewarned.

Unsuspecting Children Fall Easy PreyRomanCatholicsaretaughtfromearlychildhoodto

respectpriestsandtobelieve inwhat theprieststell themaboutGodand religion.Paedophilepriestscan easily abuse this position. For example, Alexan-derBedeWalshwasconvictedofserioussexassaultsagainstboys.OnechildabusevictimsaidWalshgavehimalcohol,toldhimthatdrinkingitwouldgethimtoheaven;anotherbelievedabusewasthehandofgodtouchinghim.Another,ateenageratthetime,claimsabusebyWalshdrovehimtoattemptsuicide.

Walsh, who was convicted in 2004 over computerindecency, was allowed to work at Roman Catholicpremiseswithinyardsofaplaygroup.This is far less

seriousthantheabuseallegationsabove,butithap-pened in 2009 and 2010 despite promises from thechurch that they wouldmend their ways.Walsh hasbeensentenced to22years inprison.Heandotherstookadvantageof theorphans.Onemandemandedcompensation.

Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier, of South Africa, de-scribespaedophiliaas“illness,notacriminalcondi-tion”andclaimstheabusersshouldbetreatedratherthanpunished. The cardinal saysdoctors should ex-aminethechildabusers.Treatmentaswellaspunish-mentiscommoninliberalcountriesforillnessesthatleadtocrime.

34 MARCH 2014

Isthisapopulistagenda?Anauda-ciousgameplantowinmorevotesinthecominggeneralelection?Or

isitthelastresortofanhonestpoli-tician toweedout corruption that isdeep rooted in the political veins ofourcountry?Thedebateison,asthenowdefunctKejriwalgovernmentfa-mously directed its anti-corruptionbranchtofileanFIRagainstOilMin-isterVeerappaMoily,formerOilMin-isterMurliDeora,RelianceIndustriesLtdbossMukeshAmbaniandformerdirector-general hydrocarbons V KSibalunderthePreventionofCorrup-tionActforhatchinga“conspiracy”todoublegaspricesinordertobenefit,inthemain,RIL.

The subsequent political devel-opments in the capital and ArvindKejriwal’s political hara-kiri mighthavetakenthesheenoutoftheanti-corruption charges levelled by theKejriwalgovernment.Buttheissueofcorruptioninthefueldomainisstillahighlyrelevantone.

According to Kejriwal, gas priceswould be doubled from April 1 dueto the alleged “active collusion”between RIL and some Central min-

isters. In case this price hike is al-lowed,itwouldhaveacascadingef-fect on transport, domestic gas andelectricity prices, thus affecting thecommonman.TheimpactofthehikewouldcostthecountryaminimumofRs54,500croreeveryyear.Also,ac-cording to Kejriwal, the Central gov-ernment had allowed RIL tomake afuture windfall profit of Rs 1.2 lakhcrorebygold-platingitsproject.

To Kejriwal’s credit, he has raisedsome disturbing questions. To startwith,thedecisiontohikethegaspricefromtheexisting$4.2(Rs262.25)per

mmbtu (one million British thermalunit) to$8.4 (Rs524.20)permmbtuwillmakegasprices in India amongthehighest in theworld.Also, therehavebeennoattemptstodecidethecostofproductionindependentlyandaccurately. The government is hellbentonfixingthegaspriceindollarswhentheentiredomesticproductionis consumed internally. The fluctua-tion indollar ratewill only lead toafurtherincreaseingasprices.

AAPhas charged theUPAGovern-ment with collusion with RIL. In itsstatement, it alleges that theCentre

Gas Price hike Tension in the Air; big guns in the dock

It is a showdown which will be keenly watched by every one -- the gas price controversy that the now-defunct Kejriwal government has raked up. Kejriwal has charged Oil Minister Veerappa Moily, former Oil Minister Murli Deora and former director-general hydrocarbons V K Sibal with collusion with Reliance Industries Ltd boss Mukesh Ambani to double the gas price to benefit RIL. He has stated that if the gas price hike is allowed, it would make transport, domestic gas prices and power tariff higher. The impact of the hike would be a minimum of Rs 54,500 crore every year, he has said.

35MARCH 2014

tooknoactionagainstRILfor itsde-liberate drop in production and ig-noredtheCAGreportandthethenso-licitorgeneral’sopinion(inMay2012)and, on the contrary, accepted RIL’sdemand for doubling the gas pricefromApril1thisyear.

The AAP government said thateven if the Centre’s argument thatnew prices would bring in more in-vestment inexploration isaccepted,thereisnojustificationforraisingthepricesfromexistingfields.“TheCen-tralgovernment (particularly thePe-troleumMinistry) has connivedwithRIL tohelp itmakewindfallprofitatthecostofthecommonman,”itsaid.

Kejriwal claimed that the cost ofproductionof gas is less than$2.34per mmbtu. “The fact that RIL hadsigned long-term agreements withNTPCandRNRL for supplyinggasatthat rate for17yearswouldshowsitwasmakingprofitsatthatprice.RIL’spartner NIKO has a 25-year contractwith the Bangladesh government tosupplygasattherateof$2.34/mmb-tu,”hesaid.

ButKejriwal’s reference toBangla-desh,wherethegasissoldathalftheprice compared to India, has someproblems.ThepriceinBangladeshisinmillioncubicfeet.UndertheIndiansystemofmeasuringgasvolumesbymmbtu,thepriceworksoutat$2.04and $0.8 per cubic metre. Block 9isanon-landfield thatwasgiven to

Niko years agowithout bidding.On-land fields require less time and in-vestmenttoexploreanddevelopthandeepwaterblockssuchasKG-D6,offtheAndhracoast.

Experts also claim that Bangla-desh’s state-run explorers have lostthe financial capacity to invest, ex-ploreorexpandduetoyearsofsub-optimal pricing. Many of the majorinternational investors have exitedfromBangladeshinrecentyears.OnesuchcompanywasTullow,which re-centlysoldout30%intheveryBlock9toKrisEnergyofSingapore.

OnOctober 1 last year, Australia’sSantosshutoffpermanentlytheonlyoffshore field in Bangladesh due to“uncommercial” level of production,indicating a link between price andviability. Bangladesh’s last round ofofferingsinApril2013toodidnotgodownwell. This has forced the gov-ernmenttosuspendbiddingofdeep-water blocks and move to sweetenthe terms for shallow and on-landblocks. As a last-ditch measure thegovernmentrecentlyraisedpricesby18%,withannual2% increase in in-digenousgasprice.

Nodoubt,Kejriwal’saudaciousat-tempthasitsownpitfalls.Butithasalsothrownupsomevalidquestionsabout the way gas prices are gov-erned inour country.High level cor-ruptionandanadamantgovernmentthat is unwilling to approach the

problem from another angle are themajor culprits in this issue. At leastKejriwalhasrakedupanimportantis-sue,howeverimpudentitmayseem.

How Gas Prices Are Fixed?

There are multiple pricingmechanisms in India for

natural gas. This can be di-vided into two categories,namely, APM Gas (Adminis-teredPricingMechanism)andNon-APMGas.Thereisdiffer-entialpricingfordifferentsec-tors.Subsidisedsectorssuchaspowerandfertilizergetrel-atively lessprices thanothersectors. Also, region specificpricing exists with North-Eastern states getting gas atrelatively lower prices thantheotherpartsofthecountry.

Before 1987, gas priceswere fixed by the ONGC andOil India Ltd. But from Janu-ary-end1987thegovernmentbegan regulating the pricesonacost-plusbasis.Thelastrevision under this so-calledadministered price mecha-nismwaseffectiveJuly2005.When the government beganbiddingoutoilandgasblocksunder the New ExplorationandLicensingPolicy(NELP),itopted for market determinedratesforgas.

In2006thefirstcontroversybegan when Reliance Indus-tries invited bids from usersandarrivedatapriceof$4.32permillionmetricBritishther-malunits.Thematterwasre-ferredtoanempoweredgroupofministersheadedbyPranabMukherjee,whichagreedonapriceof$4.20aunitaftersug-gestingafewchangestoRIL’sformula, including elementstodoawaywithvolatility.

36 MARCH 2014

World Commemorates Vivekananda’s

150h birth anniversary

The 150th Birth Anniversary

of Swami Vivekananda was

celebrated all over the world,

especially in India. A review of the year-long

celebrations and recording

its impact on the next generation is a worthwhile exercise. Here

is a special report on the official efforts by the Centre

of Ramakrishna Math and

Ramakrishna Mission.

37MARCH 2014

• M.K.Sridharan

Swami Vivekananda’s 150thbirthanniversarycelebrationsthroughout the world were

unprecedented in recent history.Various organizations were in theforefront independentlyheraldingaseriesofprogrammesforthemass-es.Theofficialcelebrations,ledbyRamakrishna Mutt, could reach anestimated 50 lakh people in Indiaalone with a whopping budget ofRs.100crore.

Relevance of Vivekananda’s teachings

SwamiVivekanandaheldeduca-tionas thebasisofhumandevel-opment and evolution. Education,according to him, is a means tomaterial prosperity, the basis toculturalpreservationandspiritualevolution.Educationshouldmakea person morally and culturallysensitiveandawareoftheculturalunity underlying the diversity inIndiaand the rich legacy thatshebears for theworld. Thus,SwamiVivekanandaisrelevanttodayandthepopulationneeds tobeawareof Vivekananda and the ideas hepropounded. This is the rationalefor the various projects and pro-grammes that the RamakrishnaMath and the Ramakrishna Mis-sion introduced during the fouryear-long celebration of SwamiVivekananda’s150thbirthanniver-sarybetween2010and2014.

Preparations by Government of India

ANationalCommitteebytheGov-ernment of India, under the chair-manship of the Prime Minister, Dr.ManmohanSingh,signaledtheGov-ernment’s decision to commemo-rate Swami Vivekananda’s 150thbirthanniversary.Themeetingcon-venedonMay20,2010inNewDelhifocusedonsixareas.

1. VivekanandaasanIconfortheYouth

2.Vivekananda&Nationalcon-sciousness

3.Vivekananda’srelevanceinthe21stcentury;

4.Hisservicetothepoorandservicetomankind

5. Highlighthiscontributiontogenderissues

6.Vivekananda’sinterestinsci-enceANationalImplementationCom-

mittee was constituted under theChairmanshipof the then FinanceMinister, Sri Pranab Mukherjee,to implement thedecisionsof theNational Committee by chalkingout programmes and activitiesfor commemorating Swami Vive-kananda’s150thbirthanniversary.

Specifically, the Government of

Indiasoughttorenewinterest,par-ticularly among the youth, in val-ues,thoughtsandidealsofSwamiVivekananda to whom educationwastheprimarymeansofrebuild-ingtheNation.

Preparations by the Ramakrishna Mutt

The Ramakrishna Math and Ra-makrishnaMission,Belur,hadcon-ceivedaproposalforthecelebration

of150thbirthanniversaryofSwamiVivekananda. This proposal wasendorsedbytheNationalcommitteeand was accepted by the NationalImplementation Committee. It hadanestimatedoutlayofRs.100croreforthefollowingactivitiestobeun-dertakenoveraperiodoffouryearsbetween2010-2014.

Estimated Cost of ActivitiesPublications in Print Media Rs 6.00 crore

Publication in Electronic Media Rs 9.80 crore

Youth Programmes Rs 28.50 crore

Cultural Programmes Rs 5.07 crore

Special Service Activities Rs 48.63 crore

Central office/ contingencies Rs 2.00 crore

38 MARCH 2014

Operational structureIn order to implement plans to

commemoratethe150thBirthanni-versaryofSwamiVivekananda,theHeadquarters of the RamakrishnaMath and Ramakrishna Missionconstituted two Central ExecutiveCommittees—A and B. The Gen-eralSecretaryof theRamakrishnaMath and Ramakrishna Missionwas the Chairman of both. Boththe Committees included monksoftheRamakrishnaOrderandalsoseveraldistinguishedcitizensandaredirectedbyaCoordinator.Un-der eachCentral Committee therewere five Sub-committees. EachSub-committeehasaConvenor toorganizeitsactivities.

Central Executive Committee ‘A’deals with Central Government-funded projects. It has five sub-committees which cover: i) PrintMedia, ii) Electronic Media, iii)YouthProgrammesiv)CulturalAc-tivitiesand,v)ServiceActivities.

Central Committee ‘B’, dealswith projects undertaken inde-pendently by Ramakrishna MathandRamakrishnaMissionwithoutGovernment funding. It has fivesub-committees which cover: i)Celebrations, ii) Publication andPublicity,iii)SeminarsandConfer-ences, iv) YouthServiceActivitiesand,v)BhavPrachar.

A Year long Celebrations (2013-2014) to commemorate the 150thbirth anniversary of Swami Vive-kananda included various wel-fare projects benefitting Chidren,Womenand thepoor. Apart frommajor long-term welfare projects,several other cultural and spiri-tual programs were organizedas part of the 150th Celebra-tions such as National YouthConventions, Seminars on socialand spiritual themes, Inter-reli-giousconferences,ExhibitionsandVideo showson the life ofSwamiVivekananda.

Activities Conducted through Central Executive Committee (A) Service Activities

Among the components of theCentral Executive Committee A,four important long term serviceprojects were taken up. Gadad-har Abhuyudaya Prakalpa (GAP),an integrated children welfareproject was implemented in 23states.Whileabout150GAPunitswereplanned,about174GAPunitswereoperationalattheendoftheproject. Each GAP unit included100 children aged between 5 and12yearsold. Thenumberofben-eficiaries is 17,994 including 1085non-schoolgoingchildren.

VivekanandaSwasthyaParishevaPrakalpa (VSPP) focusing on bothchildren and mother’s health aim-ingat remedying childmalnutritionwas implemented in 126 selectedareasacross22states. EachVSPPunithad100pre-natalwomen,post-natalwomenandchildrenagedbe-tween0-12 years. Totalnumberofbeneficiariesis13,629.

Sarada Palli Vikas Prakalpa(SPVP) aimed at the welfare andempowermentofWomenwashelp-ful to1619womenthrougha totalof10unitsworkingineightstates.Swami Akhandananda SevaPrakalpa (SASP) serving margin-alizedpeoplehasreachedto1135beneficiaries ina totalof 10unitsfunctioningin6states.

Cultural ActivitiesCulture is the life blood of any

nation. It isabroadandcompos-ite term in which religion is animportant ingredient. But therearemisconceptionsabout religionandtoeducatepeopletodevelopa harmonious approach towardsreligion, seminars, intra-faith andinterfaithdialoguewereorganizedbytheRamakrishnaMission.Statelevel seminars on “Religious Har-

mony” were conducted in eightstatesvizTamilnadu,WestBengal,Uttarakhand,Tripura,Odisha,Ma-harashtra, Jharkhand and Gujaratwith835,775,525,750,500,150,925,and350peopleparticipatingrespectively. In9states (Uttara-khand, Meghalaya, West Bengal,Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Odhisha,Ma-harashtra,Karnataka,Andamaan),interfaithdialoguewereorganized.Morethan7000peopleparticipat-ed in the interfaith dialogues. Infivestates(UttaraPradesh,Jammuand Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, AndhraPradesh, Jharkhand), conferenceson “Unity inDiversity”wereheld.Morethan11000peopleparticipat-ed in theconferences. More than80speakersspokeintheseconfer-ences.

Regional level conferences onTribal and Folk culturewere orga-nized in Chaatisghar, MeghalayaandKerala.InChattishgarhregion-al conference, 2500 participantsincluding949delegatesfromtribal& folk communities represented5states viz. Madhya Pradesh, Odi-sha,Maharastra, Andhra Pradesh& Jharkhand. In Meghalaya re-gionalconference,1862delegatesof 50 types of tribes represented7 sisters States viz., ArunachalPradesh, Assam, Manipur, Naga-land, Mizoram, Meghalaya andTripura.IntheKeralaregionalcon-ference,877delegatesof23typesof tribes and cults representedAndhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu andKarnataka.

Youth ProgrammesTherewasaspecialfocusonthe

youthintheyearlongcelebrationsas the futureofanationdependson the dreams and aspirations ofitsyouth.About10YouthCounsel-lingCellsweresetupinthestatesof Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Ker-ala, Meghalaya, Odhisha, UttaraPradesh, West Bengal and Maha-rashtra. These counselling cells

39MARCH 2014

arecalledtheSwamiVivekanandaCounselling & Positive ThinkingCentres for the youth in CollegesandUniversities.Aseriesofyouthcamps and youth conventionswere organized throughout thecountrytoexposetheyoungergen-erationstothemessageofSwamiVivekananda. A National YouthConvention was organized by theNarainpur Center in Chhattisgarhfrom13thto15thJune2013.Therewere 4600 participants including25speakersand400observers.

Regional level youth conven-tions were organized at:(i) Jam-shedpurwith2,850delegatesfromJharkhand, Bihar, Odisha, Chhat-tishgarh & West Bengal; (ii) Ra-jkotwith2831delegatesetc.fromRajasthan, Maharastra, Andhra

Pradesh&Chattishgarh(iii)Coim-batorewith 1500delegates in the1stphasefromTailNadu.Thetotalnumber of participants comes to7181

State-level youth conventionsor camps were conducted by thecentres of the Ramakrishna MathandRamakrishnaMissionatPune(Participants-1500 students), Co-imbatore[Mission](1147students),Trivandrum (about 500 students),Cherrapunjee (3864 studentsfrom 133 institutions), Vadodara(1,900 students from 50 institu-tions), Kalady (1200 students),PuriMission(1000 selected out of13,500 students from districts),VivekanandaUniversity(3600del-egates fromBengal in 1stphase),Indore (5100 delegates from dis-

trict level & state level), Manga-lorewith1800delegatesselectedfrom 13250 district level camps),Khetriwith6500youthdelegatesindistrictlevelcamps),RanchiMora-badi: 2263 (District level campscontd.)

Several competitions were or-ganized for the youth along withconventions.Regionallevelyouthcompetitions were held in NewDelhi (Participants2, 697 fromDelhi, Hariyana, Dehradun, U.P.),Lucknow (Participants 2,376 fromU.P., Madhya Pradesh, Uttara-khand), Ranchi (Participants-235from Jharkhand, Bihar &Chattish-garh).TotalParticipants:5308.

State Level competitions wereheld at Vijayawada (Participants-36,251), Pune (Participants-205),

40 MARCH 2014

Trivandrum (Participants-220),Cherrapunjee(Participants-3,864),Chennai Math (Participants-1,40,000), Bhuvaneshwar (Par-ticipants-14,972), Vadodara (Par-ticipants1,412CollegeStudents&54,840 School Students), Kalady(Participants-470), Puri Mission(Total Participants in two times-4112). Jharkhand (4000students)TotalParticipants:1,60,346.

Value EducationEfforts were made to provide

value education to the masses,especiallyamongstudents. ASus-tained Graded Value EducationProgrammes (SGVEP) was initiatedwhichincludedType–AprogrammeconductedinclassroomsandType– B programme in the Non-formalformat. Class room based valueeducationwas implemented in769schoolsbelongingto16states.To-tally 1,20,888 students were pro-vide value education through2693units Non-formal value educationwas taken up in 239 institutionsacross 14 states and about 18000students were benefitted through395centers.Atotalof2023teachershavebeentrainedtillnowtoconducttheValueEducationClasses.

Readingmaterialsupportingthevalue education was provided byprintingtextbooksforgradedvalueeducation from class five to nine.A total of 2, 59, 639 textbookswere printed in ten major Indianlanguagesindifferentprintingcen-ters. For non-formal education, atotalof15,90,972bookshavebeenprintedwith 183different titles infive languages under the Non-for-malValueEducationProgrammes.

Value Education for Profession-als was organized by Lucknow,Sargachi, Ponnempet, Vivekanan-da University, and Mangalore.Value Education for Parents areorganized in Contai, BaranagarMission, Puri Mission, Madurai,Salem,Bhubaneswar,Thrissur,Ka-

ladyandCherrapunjee.

Print and Electronic media

Electronic and print media areimportant means through whichvalues are imparted to differentsectionsofsociety.AudioDVDson‘PersonalityDevelopment’ (Part-1)and‘EducationasViewedbySwa-mi Vivekananda’ in English, Hindi&Bengaliwerecompleted.

About 11,97,500 copies of the

Life and Teachings of Swami Vi-vekananda was printed in over20 languages (viz. English, Hindi,Bengali, Telugu, Tamil, Marathi,Malayalam,Gujarati,Odia,Kanna-da,Tulu,Konkani,Mythli,Kokbor-ak,Adi,Nepali,Sanskrit,Manipuri,Santhali, Urdu, Assamese, Pun-jabi).About13,25,500copiesof17titlesonSwamiVivekanandawereprinted in 10 languages (viz. Eng-lish,Hindi,Bengali,Telugu,Tamil,Marathi,Malayalam,Gujarati,OdiaandKannada).

Similarly, about 57000 copiesofPictorialStoriesofSwamiVive-kananda were made available inEnglish,Kannada,Bengali, Telugulanguages. 1,200 sets of The Cul-tural Heritage of India (Leatherbound) in8 volumes,Great Lead-ers of India 5 Titles in English &Telugu Languages, Life & Teach-ings of Swami Vivekananda intwoforeignlanguagesinGermany& Jhulo (South Africa) were alsoprinted.

Other activitiesIn a number of states in India,

Swami Vivekananda Ratha Yatrawasconducted.InsomestateslikeWest Bengal and Tamil Nadu thisRatha Yatra was conducted in allthe districts of the states. RathaYatra has had the effect ofmobi-lizingagreatgroundswellofsup-port.

The inaugural function of theSwamiji’s 150th birth anniversarycelebration was organized by theMinistry of Culture, Governmentof India, at Rashtrapati Bhavan,NewDelhi,on12January2013.SriPranabMukherjee,PresidentofIn-dia,andmanyotherdignitariesat-tendedthefunctionandaddressedthe gathering. CommemorativecoinsofRs.5andRs.150denomi-nations and four postage stamps(one of Rs. 20 and three of Rs. 5denominations) were released ontheoccasion.

41MARCH 2014

SERVICE PROJECTS TAKEN UP DURING 150TH YEARGADADHAR ABHYUDAYA PRAKALPA (GAP) This is an integrated children’s welfare projectwhich aims at the physical, mental and intellec-tual development of children. It selects childrenunder the poverty line in both urban and ruralareas and: i) serves them with nutritious food, ii)monitors their health and fitness through healthcheckups, iii) provides basic training in healthand hygiene, iv) supplies basic necessities likestationaries and toiletries. Mental and intellectualdevelopmentisalsofosteredthroughdrama,music,chanting, painting, lives of great men and women,coachingetc.

VIVEKANANDA SWASTHYA PARISHEVA PRAKALPA (VSPP)Thisisachildren’sandmother’shealthprojectwhichaimsat remedyingchildmalnutrition.Children,pre-natal and post natal mothers from underprivilegedfamilies in city slums and rural areas are providedpreventiveandcurativemedicalcare,andhealthandvalueeducation.

SARADA PALLI VIKAS PRAKALPAThisprojectaimsat thewelfare,educationandem-

powerment of women. It focuseson providing self-developmentopportunities to women disre-garded,neglectedandtormentedby societyand family. It includesmotivating and goal orientatingwomen,providingnonformaledu-cation, creatingawarenessabout

healthyhabits,foodanddrinkingwaterandtryingtoincreasetheirdisposableincomesthroughindividualandcollectivemeans.

SWAMI AKHANDANANDA SEVA PRAKALPAThisprojectservesmarginalizedpeoplein10pocketsofpoverty(5incityslumsand5invillages).Servicetakes the formofmotivating andgoal orienting themarginalizedpeoplebyprovidingnon-formaleduca-tion,basicknowledgeabouthealth,hygiene,sanita-tion,basichealthcareservices,organizingself-helpgroups,andfinancingstartupinitiatives.

SriPranabMukherjee,Presidentof India, also inaugurated theRa-makrishnaMathandRamakrishnaMission’s celebrationofSwamiji’s150thBirthAnniversaryatSwami-ji’sAncestralHouse,Kolkata,on18January 2013. SriM K Narayanan,Governor of West Bengal, amongothers attended the celebrationsandaddressedthegathering.

As a sequel to the above func-tion, a one-day programme, high-lighting the “Relevance and Sig-nificanceoftheLife,MessageandWorkofSwamiVivekanandainthePresent-day World” was held atBelurMath.ReveredPresidentMa-haraj,ReveredSwamisSmaranan-andaji and Prabhanandaji, Vice-Presidents, Mamata Banerjee,ChiefMinisterofWestBengal,andtheGeneralSecretaryspokeinthedifferent sessions. Nearly 15,000people, including monks, nuns,delegates and invitees, attendedtheprogramme.

The University Grants Commis-

sion (UGC) and the Central Boardof Secondary Education (CBSE),New Delhi, also commemoratedthe Swamiji’s birth anniversary.The Central Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE)awarded theVi-vekananda School of ExcellenceAwardsto40schools,includingsixofourschoolsaffiliatedtoCBSE.

Calcutta Tramways Company(CTC) launched two trams: (1) Vi-vekTirtha,anexhibitiontramdis-playingletters,pictures,speechesandbiographyofSwamiji,and,(2)Parivrajakapassengertramdeco-ratedwiththepicturesandquota-tionsofSwamiji.

On the Gretz centre’s initiative,the UNESCO organized a specialprogrammeat itsheadquarters inParisonOctober7jointlywiththeEmbassy of India and the Perma-nentDelegationof India toUNES-CO.TheDirectorGeneralofUNES-CO, IndianAmbassador toFrance,andseveralotherdignitariesgavespeechesonthethemeTheUniver-

salMessageofSwamiVivekanan-da. Besides, a panel discussionwas held in which distinguishedpeoplefromdifferentwalksoflifetookpart.

Celebrations by other organizations

SwamiVivekananda’s150thbirthcentenarywascelebratedbymanyotherorganizationsinsideandout-side India. Thereweremore thanadozenwebsitessupportingtheseinitiativesandmanysocialwebsitepages.

Political parties, and social or-ganizations carried the messageofVivekanandathroughtheirplat-formsinthecelebrationyear.Theextentofcelebrationinthesociety,sustained by people, was wideanddeep.Asystematicdocumen-tationofeffortsfromallquartersistheneedofthehour.

42 MARCH 2014

Adoption of child Personal, religious considerations no bar

AsthecountrypushesforaUni-form Civil Code, the SupremeCourthasdeliveredalandmark

decision.Ithasruledthatpersonalorreligiousconsiderationscannot stopaMuslim individual fromadoptingachild.With this,manyobserversbe-lieve that Indiahasmovedone stepcloser to the much needed UniformCivilCode.

Islamicviewsonadoptionareusu-allydifferentfromthoseinnon-Mus-lim countries. Islam allows raising achildwhoisnotone’sgeneticchild.Itevenencourages theadoptionofor-phans.But thechildcannotbecomeatruechildofthe“adoptive”parents.

InIslam,anadoptedchildisnamedafterthebiological,notadoptive,fa-ther.Thechild isalsoanon-Ashramto members of the adoptive family.AMahram isanunmarriageablekin.Thus many scholars consider it isforbidden by Islamic law to adopt achild.Theadoptivechildcanbecomea Mahram to his adopted family ifheor she isbreast-fedby theadop-tive mother before the age of two.Therecanalsobeconfusionbetweena child thathasbeenorphanedandonewhohasbeenabandonedbutispresumedtohavelivingparents.

AccordingtotheSupremeCourt,aMuslim will have to go through thesecularJuvenileJustice(CareandPro-tectionofChildren)Actroutetoadoptachild.Thecourtwasgivinga judg-ment on a PIL by Shabnam Hashminineyearsback.Hashmihadmovedtheapexcourtin2005aftershewastold that she only had guardianshiprights over a one-year-old girl shehadbroughthomefromanadoptionhome. From now she can treat thegirl, now 17 years old, like her owndaughter.

“A Muslim was always free to ex-

ercisehis option either to adhere tothepersonal lawprohibitionagainstadoptionorchoosetheJJActroutetotakeachild intohis/her family,” thebenchsaid,adding,“Tous,theActisasmallstepinreachingthegoalen-shrinedinArticle44oftheConstitu-tion.”

Article 44 says, “The State shallendeavour to secure for the citizensaUniformCivil Code throughout theterritory of India.” The bench said,“The vision contemplated in Article44of theConstitution, that isaUni-form Civil Code, is a goal yet to befullyreached.”

Butnoteveryoneishappywiththisruling.TheAllIndiaMuslimPersonalLaw Board (AIMPLB) had registereditsprotestagainstthePIL,termingitacovertattempt toslip inauniformcodebythebackdoorwhichwouldin-fringetheShariatlaw.

TheboardtookthereligiousroutetoargueitscaseandclaimedthatIslam

The Supreme Court judgment on adoption of child by a Muslim individual is significant as it will give momentum to the country’s move towards a Uniform Civil Code visualised in the Indian Constitution. Although it has been opposed by some Muslim religious bodies, the verdict is an important step that will encourage many people to adopt orphans who number over 12 million in India.

43MARCH 2014

Police in Uttar Pradesh have atlasttrackeddownthestolenbuf-

faloes of Minister Azam Khan. Hun-dreds of police officers, armed withsniffer dogs, were sent in search ofsevenbuffaloesthatwentmissingattheminister’sRampurfarmhouse.

The story of the stolen buffaloesgivesapeekintothewaygovernmentis run the country’s most populousstate. According to The Times of In-dia,minutes after they learnt of thetheft, a large battalion of police of-ficersrushedtothevillageandnoneother than the district police chief,Sadhna Goswami, came forward toleadtheinvestigation.

Soon,theysetuphigh-levelsearchteams,armingeachteamwithhalfadozen sniffer dogs. Senior adminis-trationofficialswerealso reportedlypartoftheteams.

Three police officers, who never

thought buffaloes could be stolen,aretodayfacingsuspensionforwhatthe government says “dereliction ofduty.”

StatetourismMinisterOmPrakashSinghdefendedthesuspension,say-ing that the government can decidewhomtopromoteandwhomtosus-pend.Khan, in themeanwhile,wentabroadonastudy trip. Thegovern-mentlaterdisclosedthatseveralmin-isters had gone overseas on studytrips, and Khan was on his way tostudyingwastemanagement.

Theseincidentsarejustanexampleof abuse of power in Uttar Pradesh,whereSamajawadiPartyisinpower.

didnotrecognizeanadoptedchildtobetreatedonaparwithabiologicalchild.Ittriedtoinvokethe‘Kafla’sys-temunderIslamandarguedthateventheUnitedNation’sConventionoftheRightsofChildrecognizeditasanal-ternative to child care contemplatedundertheJJAct.

ThecourtunderscoredthattheActdidnotmandateanycompulsion foradopting children and that “sucha person is always free to adopt orchoosenottodosoand,instead,fol-lowwhathe comprehends tobe thedictatesofthepersonal lawapplica-bletohim.”It,however,turneddownthe plea for declaring the right of achild tobeadoptedand the right ofaparenttoadoptafundamentalrightunder the Constitution saying thatsuchorder cannotbepassedat thisstageinviewofconflictingpracticesandbeliefs.

Itishearteningtoseethatthehigh-est powers in India are looking tomovetowardsapplyingthesamelaw

to every citizen, irrespective of his/her cast or creed. It also refused toconsider theKafla systemof Islamiclawunderthiscase.Itstated,“Atthecost of repetition, we would like tosay that an optional legislation thatdoesnotcontainanunavoidableim-perativecannotbestultifiedbyprin-ciplesofpersonallawwhich,howev-er,wouldalways continue to governanypersonwhochoosestososubmithimselfuntilsuchtimethatthevisionofaUniformCivilCodeisachieved.”

Earlier, only Hindus (and otherbreakaway religions like Buddhists,Jains and Sikhs) were allowed toproperly adopt minors. Non-Hinduscouldonlyactasguardiansorfosterparents, both of which restrict thechild’s right to inherit. However, thegovernment had given non-Hindusfull rights toadoptalmost adecadeago.ButmanyMuslimorganizationsfeltthattheSharialawdoesn’trecog-nizeadoptionandtheissueremainedshroudedinconfusion.

Experts hope that this ruling willbring about fresh hope for about 12million orphans in the country. Theadoption rate in India is abysmalwithonlyabout4,000childrenfind-ingnewfamilieseachyear.Thereareover 12millionorphaned children inIndia.

Buffalo Politics in Uttar Pradesh

How the law affects other religious communitiesThe law will not only affect

Muslimsbutalsoothercom-munities like Parsis and Chris-tians.In1998,theMumbaiHighCourt had said that the Parsicommunity does not have therighttoadoptchildren.

Even though the previousadoption law did not includeChristians,thedeputysecretarygeneral of the Catholic Bish-ops’ConferenceofIndia(CBCI),Father Joseph Chinnayyan hasstated to the media that thejudgment won’t change muchforChristians.HesaidChristian-ity permits adoption and theyfollow the law of the land. So,whichever countries Christiansarein,theyfollowthatcountry’slawonadoption.

44 MARCH 2014

The Finance Minister has pre-sented vote on account withsopsthatareaimedatgarnering

votefortherulingpartyinthecominggeneralelections,butthisthrowsupanimportantissue:Willitcontributetoeconomicgrowth?True, it isnotageneral budget, but still the way inwhich the financeminister has cho-sentocutexciseratesandofferother

concessionsdonotaugurwellfortheeconomy.Thegrowthprojectedat5%of theGDPremainsadistantdream;fiscaldeficitisjustabouttheprojec-tionsinthelastbudget,butnotuptothe expectationsHe has announceda 10-point plan to make the budgetpalatable to all sections of society.Under thisplan, theexciseon smallautomobiles,two-wheelersandcom-mercial vehicles have been reducedfrom12%to8%.Dutiesonrefrigera-tors, air-conditioners, TV sets, vacu-umcleaners,dishwashers,washingmachinesandlaptopshavealsobeenreduced. Duty on mobile phoneshasbeen reducedby6%. The long-standingdemandofthearmedforcesfor “One-rank, one-pension” has atlastgotthegovernmentnod.Thiswillbenefitlakhsofarmypersonnel.

Userscanexpectadropincomput-erpriceswiththecutinexcisedutiesfrom 12% to 10%. The result would

But Will It Stimulate Growth?The manufacturing sector has slowed down; interest rates are high and inflation, though a tad lower than expected, is bound to go north with the tapering of supplies, especially food items, with the onset of summer. There is no incentive for fresh investments and India Inc’s call for a rate cut has fallen on deaf ears. Under the circumstances, the state of the economy continues to be fragile, say the economists.

A Please-all Budget

45MARCH 2014

beareductionofRs.600inthepriceofaPCcostingRs.30,000.Mr.Chid-ambaramannouncedthreeindustrialcorridors–Chennai-Bangalore,Ban-galore-MumbaiandAmritsar-Kolkata-- and also a Rs.200-crore venturecapital fund for Dalit entrepreneurs.The 10% surcharge on the super-rich will continue. The governmentwillraiseRs.4.57lakhcrorefromtheopenmarket. Nirbhaya Fundwill re-ceiveadditionalRs.1,000crore. ThiswillraisethetotalfundsavailableforthisschemetoRs.2,000crore.

On the macro-economic front,there are some faint signals of re-vival. Wholesale price index (WPI)hascomedown,butindustrialoutputhasshrunk.The8-monthlowof5%inWPI in Januarywasdriven largelybycheapervegetables.AccordingtothelatestdatareleasedbytheCommerceand Industry Ministry, WPI stood at5.05%inJanuaryagainst6.16%inthepreviousmonthand7.1%inthecorre-spondingmonthofthepreviousyear.Food inflation that stood at double-digits slowed to 8.8% year-on-year.Accordingtoeconomists,thecomingmonthsarelikelytowitnessafurthereasingof inflationdueto largersup-ply of winter fruits and vegetablesnextmonth.

But chances of a cut in interestrates despite the easing of inflationseemtobedimastheRBIwouldliketo exercise extreme caution, lest aknee-jerk reaction should trigger in-flation.IndiaInc,however,isinsistingoncheaperloanstostimulateinvest-ment and economic growth. Accord-ing to economist Rohini Malkani ofCitigroup,bankersexpecttheratestoremainhigher,givenRBI’santi-infla-tionbias.

As for industrial output, the newsisfarfrombeingcheerful.Theoutputshrunk for the thirdmonth in a rowinDecember, according to the latestdata released by the Central Statis-tics Office (CSO). The data showedthattheindustrialoutputfellby1.6%in December, 2013, compared withadeclineof0.6%intheyearearlier.The manufacturing sector accountsforover75%ofindustrialproduction.

High interest rates, stubborn infla-tionandhigh inputcostshavebeenexertingtremendouspressureonthe

industrial sector besides policy de-lays and tardy investments. But thesilverliningisthatretailinflationhasslowed toa two-year lowof8.8% inJanuaryagainst9.9%inDecember.

Overall,thegrowthoftheeconomyhasshrunktoadecadelowof4.5%in2012-13. It isestimatedthatin2013-14thegrowthwillbe4.9%althoughtheFinanceMinisterhassetaslightlyhigher target of 5-5.5% in his previ-ousbudget speech. The farmsectorisestimatedtogrowat4.6%in2013-14. This sector accounts for 14% ofthe GDP. This is a piece of cheerfulnewsbecausethefarmgrowthinthepreviousyearwasjust1.4%.Thustherural economy will witness a boomandrevivalofdemand.Butthemainworryofthegovernmentisthemanu-facturingsectorwhichisexpectedtodeclineby0.2% in thecurrentfiscalagainsta1.1%expansionin2012-13.Economists attribute this to policydelaysandslowdownininvestmentsduetovariousfactors.

46 MARCH 2014

Death of Female on Campus Spurs Debate in Saudi Arabia

ThedeathofanailingwomanstudentataSaudiuniversityhasstirredupacontroversyonsocial

media after an ambulance was denied access un-dertheconservativeMuslimkingdom’ssegregationlaws.AmnaBawazeer,24,diedofaheartattackinthe compound of the social sciences faculty of Ri-yadh’sKingSaudUniversity.

Localmediasaidmedicsinanambulancewerede-niedaccessbecausetheywerenotaccompaniedbya“mahram”,alegalguardianormalememberofherfamily.AngryfemalestudentshavegoneonTwittertoblamefacultyofficialsforBawazeer’sdeath.

But the university’s administration hit back in astatement to stress that the student had sufferedfromaheartcondition fromtheageof4.Shediedofaheartattack,despitethebesteffortsofthefac-ulty’sowninfirmarytosaveherlife.

HerdeathsparkedadebateonTwitterbySaudiswho created a hashtag to talk about the incident.Many Saudi citizens said the kingdom’s strictlyenforced rules governing the segregation of thesexesweretoblameforthedelayinhelpingBawa-zeer.SaudiArabia followsa strict interpretationofIslam.Sexesaresegregated inschoolsandalmostall Saudi universities. Women also have separateseatingareasandoftenseparateentrancesin“fam-ily”sectionsof restaurantsandcafeswheresinglemalesarenotallowed.Thekingdom’stopclerichaswarnedagainstthemixingofthegenders,sayingitposesathreattofemalechastityandsociety.

In2002,afirebrokeoutatagirl’sschoolinMec-ca,killing15students.Rightsgroups reported thatthereligiouspolicewouldnotallowthegirls toes-capebecausetheywerenotwearingheadscarvesor“abayas”,atraditionallooseblackcloakthatcoversthefemalebodyfromtheneckdown.

RSS Says Aseemanand Interview is Fake

TheRashtriyaSwayamsevakSangh(RSS)hasde-nieditsinvolvementinanyterrorstrikefollowing

allegationslevelledagainstitschiefMohanBhagwatbyterroraccusedSwamiAseemanand.

RSShasstatedthatthis isapoliticalconspiracy.Aseemanand has clarified he never said this. RSSsaidonehadtoconsiderthetimingofthestatementbyAseemanand.

RSSsaid it condemns thisattempt tobringbackthe false allegations. Such allegations were madeearliertodefametheRSSleadershipbuttheywereprovedwrong,RSSsaid.

Aseemanand, in the court and outside, deniedmaking such statements. Questions arise on theauthenticity of the interview. The timing of the in-terviewpoints to apolitical conspiracy.SwamiAs-eemanand,accusedintheblasts in theSamjhautaExpress (February2007),HyderabadMeccaMasjid(May2007) andAjmerDargah (October2007), hasclaimedthatRSSchiefMohanBhagwathad“sanc-tioned”theattacks.

47MARCH 2014

A report in The Caravanmagazine quoted Asee-manandassaying thatBhagwat, thenRSSgeneralsecretary, told him that the blasts should not belinkedtotheSangh.”AseemanandtoldTheCaravanthatBhagwatsaidoftheviolence,‘Itisveryimpor-tantthatitbedone.ButyoushouldnotlinkittotheSangh’,” said a press release issuedby themaga-zine.

RSShasevensaidthat lawyerswillbeconsultedfor the legal actionand itwill beannouncedat anappropriate time. Caravan says its reporter inter-viewed63-year-oldAseemanand in theAmbala Jailin Haryana four times over two years. Jail officialshavelaunchedanenquirytodeterminehowandwhythereporterwasgivenaccesstohim.

Aseemanandwasarrestedin2010forhisallegedcomplicityinterrorstrikesbetween2006and2008thatincludedthebombingoftheSamjhautaExpressin2007. Nearly70peoplewerekilledon the trainwhichwasheadedfromDelhitoLahoreinPakistan.The charges against him includemurder and sedi-tion.

Army Chief Cautions on Bangladeshi Infiltration

While the Indian government still likes to claimthat there hasn’t been large-scale illegal mi-

grationfromBangladeshinrecentyears,armychiefGeneral Bikram Singh begs to differ. He recentlycalledthisamatterof“graveconcern”andathreattonationalsecurity.

Accordingtohim,theproblemofillegalmigrationfromBangladeshhasledtodemographicchangesinthenorth-east.Ithasalsocreatedgraveinternalse-curitychallengesinAssam.HealsosaidtheforceshadreceivedalotofhelpfromthecurrentpoliticaldispensationinBangladeshbutresponsibilityneed-edtobefixedontheissueofillegalmigration.

SinghalsocamedownheavilyonPakistanforin-dulging in record ceasefire violations last year. Ac-cordingtohim,the2003ceasefirewasholdinggood,butlastyearhasseenanincreaseinviolations.ItisbeingdonewithanagendatohypeterrorintheVal-leytomaintainarmypresence.

Singhwarnedthataslongasthenexusbetween

thestatepolity (inPakistan)and terroroutfits likeLeT continuedand it kept gettingfinancial supportinaninstitutionalmanner,theforcesshouldbepre-paredforalleventualities.

Singhalso raisedconcernabout formermilitantsfromKashmirreturningtotheValleythroughNepalunder the state’s rehabilitation policy. Use of theNepal route by former Kashmiri militants to comebacktotheValleyisacauseforconcern.Thoughitappears theyhavemelloweddown, the fear is thattheycouldformsleepercellsandcarryoutterrorac-tivities.

He also lamented partial implementation of therecommendationsof thegroupofministers formedinthewakeoftheKargilreviewcommitteereportin2000.Thepanelhadsuggestedchanges in these-curityapparatus,includingsynergyofstakeholders,dedicated resources for border management, en-hancing of combat power of the forces, synergy ofintelligenceagenciesandthemantraof“oneborder,one force”whichasked forallactiveborders tobeundertheoperationalcontrolofthearmy.

Egypt Accuses Islamist Group of Forming ‘Military Wing’

Egypt has accused that theMuslimBrotherhoodhas created a military wing to attack security

forces.AccordingtoEgypt,thisisamovewhichhasthepotential to increasepressureon thegroupal-readyfacingamassivecrackdown.

Recently,thecountry’sInteriorMinistry’sspokes-man appeared on television and announced thatthemilitary unit had been discovered, and named

48 MARCH 2014

12peoplewhohesaidweremembers.He claimedthegrouphadshotdeadfivepolicemenlastmonthin the province of Beni Suef. Egyptian authoritieshave been acting tough on the Brotherhood sincearmychiefFieldMarshalAbdelFattahal-SisioustedIslamistPresidentMohamedMursiinJulylastyear.

Ithasbeenbrandedaterroristgroup,andsecurityforceshavekilledabout1,000ofitsmembersinthestreets. The Muslim Brotherhood, which says it isopposedtoviolence,accusesSisiofstagingacoupandunderminingdemocracy.State televisionairedwhat it said was a confession by one the militarywing’smembers.

He recalledmeeting aman who he said had of-feredtoteachhimandothershowtouseweapons.Human rightsgroupsaccuse thearmy-backedgov-ernment of widespread human rights abuses andstiflingdissent.

Groups supporting the deposed president Mo-hammadMorsihavetakenuptheresponsibilityfornumerousattacksinCairo.TheyhaveusedMolotovcocktails and homemade grenades against policevehiclesandtroopbarracksinthecity.Veryrecently,major incidents have included a jihadist attack onanEgyptianmilitaryhelicopter inSinai. IthasalsoincludedafatalcarbombinginCairo.Whileagroupsupportingal-Qaedahas claimed responsibility formostoftheattacks,newgroupsbelievedtobeMus-limBrotherhoodsupportershaveturnedtoviolenceaswell.

Bothsecular-mindedgroupsandtheMorsi’sMus-limBrotherhoodhavecomedownheavilyonthecur-rentmilitaryadministrationforintimidatingopposi-

tionvoices.Theregime,ledbyarmychiefandlikelypresidential candidate Field Marshal Abdel Fattahel-Sisi,hassystematicallyjailedjournalistsandop-positionleadersandattackeddemonstrators.

Bangladesh Court Orders Compensation for Hindus

ABangladesh court has ordered the Bangladeshgovernment topaymore thanTaka4.34millionas compensation to Hindu families who were at-tackedforanallegedblasphemouspostonapopu-larsocialnetworkingsite.

InNovember lastyear,someunidentifiedmiscre-ants vandalised 29 houses, 10 shops and seventemples at BonogramBazar in Pabnadistrict. Thiswas perceived to be a revenge attack after allega-tions that a boy from the Hindu minority made ablasphemouspostaboutProphetMohammedonaFaceBookpage.

ThegovernmentwasaskedbyaHighCourtbenchofJusticesQuaziReza-UlHoqueandABMAltafHos-sain to pay compensationwithin threeweeks. Thebenchfurtherdirectedthepolicetoarrestthosere-sponsiblefortheattacks.ThegovernmentwillhavetopayTaka4.34million($1=Taka78)ascompensa-tionasassessedbyaninvestigationcommittee,RoywasquotedassayingbymasscirculationTheDailyStarnewspaper.

FollowinganearlierdirectivefromthecourtinNo-vember,authoritiesformedaprobebodytoassessthedamagecausedby theattacks.Thecommitteeconcluded thatpropertyworth Tk4.34millionwasdamaged in theattacks,Roy said.After examining

49MARCH 2014

thereport,thecourtpassedtheorder,hesaid.Overtheyears,followersoftheradicalIslamicpar-

ty Jamaat-e-Islamihave launchedattacks inHindu-dominated regions such as Pabnaor Jagannathpurin theweeks leadingup to theelectionbecauseofthe residents’ religionandbecause theyalmostallsupporttheAwamiLeague,themainlysecularparty.

In Natore a Hindu farmer was stabbed to death,hiswiferapedandthehousesofhisrelativeswereburnt. Bloggerswho criticise themixingof politicsandreligion ingovernmentwerealsomadetargetsofattacksbyradicalIslamists.

Pakistan Awards Death Sentence for Blasphemy

AcourtinthePakistanicityofRawalpindihassen-tenceda70-year-oldBritishman todeathafter

convicting him of blasphemy. Muhammad Asgharwasarrestedin2010afterwritingletterstovariouspeopleclaimingtobeaprophet.

Hislawyersclaimedleniency,statinghehasahis-toryofmental illness.Thiswasrejectedbyamedi-calpanel.Pakistan’smuchdebatedblasphemylawscarryapotentialdeathsentenceforanyonedeemedtohaveinsultedIslam.

Numerousrecentcaseshaveevokedinternationalconcern about the application of these laws. As-ghar,whoisfromEdinburgh,Scotland,wasaccusedofwriting letters topoliceofficersclaiming tobeaprophet.HeissaidtohavelivedinPakistanformanyyears.

His lawyer was forcibly removed from the casebythejudge.Theproceedingswerecarriedoutbe-hindcloseddoors.Hislawyerwilllaunchanappealagainst theverdict.Higher courts inPakistanhavebeenknowntooverturnblasphemyverdictshandeddown in lower courts because of insufficient evi-dence.

Asgharhasbeendiagnosedasaparanoidschizo-phrenic and had treatment at the Royal VictoriaHospital inEdinburgh,but thecourtdidnotaccepthismedicalreportsfromtheUK.Hehasbeeninjailsincehisarrest in2010andhislawyersayshehasalsotriedtotakehisownlifeinjailononeoccasion.CorrespondentssayAsgharisunlikelytobeexecut-

edasPakistanhashadadefactomoratoriumonthedeath penalty since 2008. Hewas also ordered topayasubstantialfinebythecourt.

AScottishgovernmentspokesmansaidtheywere“concerned”about thecase.SeniorUKForeignOf-fice Minister Baroness Warsi said British officialswereprovidingconsularsupporttoAsghar.

The legalcharityReprievehasurged theUKgov-ernmenttotakeimmediatestepstoprotectAsghar,adding thathehasa longanddocumentedhistoryofpsychologicalill-healthandneedsconstantcare.

15th Lok Sabha: the worst performer ever

The15th LokSabhasessionhasended,butana-lysts say that its performance was the worst

ever in thehistoryofpost-independent India.Overthepast five years, all it couldpasswas 165bills,including those related to statehood for TelanganaandLokpal,while72billswerependingbeforeitatthetimethesessionended.Nowallofthemwillgowasteasthenewmembersareelectedintheupcom-inggeneralelections.

One of the bills -- the Indian Medical Council(Amendment) Bill -- remains stuck in the UpperHouseforthelast35years.AbillregardingthelanddisputewithBangladeshisalsopendingbeforetheRajyaSabha.

According to PRS Legislative Research, 39 billslapsedattheendofthe14thLokSabha,43afterthe13thLokSabhaand20attheendoftheshort-lived12thLokSabha,whileonlyseveneachlapsedafterthefirstandsecondLokSabha.

ThefifthLokSabhawasthemostenterprisingasitpassed482bills,whilethe12thLokSabhapassedonly56bills.

.TheHRMinistryalone,accordingtoTheTimesof

50 MARCH 2014

India, has 13 legislative proposals pending beforeParliament.Oneof thebillswasaimedatpersuad-inguniversitiestofacilitateresearchinitspremises.

Also pending are he Judicial Appointments Com-missionBillandthe120thConstitutionAmendmentBill,whichisdesignedtoreplacethecollegiumsys-temofappointmentofjudges.

Bhagat Singh’s birthplace as heritage site

Pakistan has unveiled plans to preserve the be-longings of legendary freedom fighter Bhagat

Singh and turn his birthplace in Faisalabad into aheritagesite.

BhagatSingh’shouse inBangayvillage isoneofthe 45 historical buildings the district administra-tionisplanningtopreserve,reportsPakistanipaper‘NewsInternational’.

ThenewscomesalmostayearafterPakistantalk-edofnamingaroadjunctioninLahoreafterBhagatSingh,whowashangedtodeathbyBritishofficersinthenearbyprison.

Faisalabad’s district coordination officer (DCO)Noorul Amin Mengal, who visited Bhagat Singh’shouse,has constituted the LyallpurHeritage Foun-dationtoresearchandpreservethesite.

Bangaywasalso thenativevillageofphilanthro-pistSirGangaRam,reportsHindustanTimes.“Ban-gay is a typical central Punjab village, surroundedbywheatandsugarcanefields,”WaqarGillani,staffreporterofTheNewsInternational,wroteinanemailtoHT.

ThehousewhereBhagatSinghwasborncontainssomeofhisfamily’sbelongings,includinghismoth-er’sspinningwheel;abigcopperparaat (kneadingtray),twowoodentrunksandaheavyclosetofsteel.Theitemsoccupythetworoomsofhisnowalmostreconstructedhouse,whichiscurrentlyownedbyanadvocateMuhammadIqbalVirk.

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