Katie HolmesDreams of skating | Charge sheet filed against Saif PaGe 7

Divya DelhiNEW DELHI | www.divyadelhi.com | E-mail: info@divyadelhi.com | DEcEmbEr 24, 2012 | PagE 12 | VoL. 1 No. 3 | ` 5 |

NatIoNaL ENgLIsH WEEkLy

God says goodbye to ODIsSachin has announced retirement from one-day cricket | PaGe 11

DDDaring & Dynamic

Banking Amendment: boon or bane? Reports Bhumika BhargavPaGe 10

BusIness & ecOnOmy

Is Indian customer really a king? Third Eye By Harish Barthwal PaGe 5

can politicians prove.....Reports Rajesh ChauhanPaGe 3

nATIOn Op-eD

IndIa

justIcedemands

The recent gang rape in Delhi has sent ripples

across the country. Protests are reported from across the country demanding justice for the victim. A report by Novita Singh says that the gory crime has not only angered India but raised some questions which need to be answered if India wants to remove tag of ‘the worst place to be a woman’ from her fore-head. PAge 2

PhoTo by Arush bhATT

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 20122 LEaD story

Novita SiNgh

INDIA: The rare and gory gang rape of a 23-year-old paramedical student in a moving bus in the heart of the national capital has not only angered India but raised some questions which need to be answered if India wants to remove tag of ‘the worst place to be a woman’ from her forehead.

As Delhi continued to lead the unprec-edented countrywide protests against Delhi gang rape, a three-year-old girl was raped in a play-school in West Delhi by the husband of school owner. What does this show? It shows the general per-ception in India that “you can get away no matter what crime you do”. This perception is a direct challenge for the governments, judiciary, police and other

law enforcement agencies. But, the people must understand that

nation of self-centred citizens seldom

makes history. “Men abuse

women in every society, but few males do it with

as much impunity, violence and regu-

larity as the Indian male,” observed col-

umnist Samar Halarnkar after the gang rape. What

is it that makes this country as a global poll of experts in

June 2012 suggested, “…the worst place to be a woman.” In-

dia ranked below Saudi Arabia in the poll, a country that recently al-

lowed its women to drive. But what is that makes the world’s largest democ-

racy the most unsafe place for women?To name few, crimes against women

range from rape, homicide for dowry, molestation, trafficking. The Hindu re-ported this week that the number of rape cases in Tumkur district in Karnatka is on an increase and that many go unreg-istered because of the vague tradition of attaching the family’s honour to the girl. The same day The Times of India reported that rape cases against teenage girls in Mumbai rose by 29% this year.

The recent gang rape in Delhi has

sent ripples across the country. Protests are reported from across the country. In Delhi, It wasn’t just India Gate - protest-ers breached the Rashtrapati Bhavan, the Delhi Chief Minister’s residence was picketed and at 10 Janpath, Sonia Gan-dhi’s residence, people were detained.

The very same week there were in-stances of rape and other crimes reported in other parts of the country. A crime in an urban space receives more attention because of the urban presence of news organizations and the urban tech savvy breed of people that are constantly ex-pressing themselves over the social net-working sites that gives an issue interna-tional audience.

What is evident is that irrespective of the geographical location, safety of women is an issue in this country. As of October 2012, as many as 963 rape cases await trial in six districts of Delhi. First-post India reports, “Delaying tactics by the defence, adjournments on frivolous grounds, insensitive public prosecutors and overburdened courts, say criminal lawyers, are some of the reasons why rape cases carry on for years without any hope of justice.”

But, what is also important to look into is that what gets qualified as a rape case. Rape as a criminal act falls under Section 376 of the Indian Penal Code which is punishable through life impris-onment. An act of forcible penetration carried out by one or more people com-bined with assault is described as rape. However, there are instances where the law has been misappropriated to accuse an individual for a crime not committed. For instance, it has been observed that certain women indulge in consensual cohabitation and then later file charges of rape against their sexual partners, if their relations go awry or if they want to take revenge. The police and courts also sense ‘foul play’ as soon as such cases come before them, but such ‘misuse of laws’ also blocks the prospects of the justice for real rape victim. As India is about to make rape a gender neutral offence, it is high time the government ensures that the ‘betrayal’ shouldn’t be treated at par with rape.

However, the ground reality remains that rape as an offence is on the rise along with the host of other crimes against women. Women in India are unsafe and the issue is only worsening with time. National Crime Records Bu-reau in India records a hike of 7.1 % in crimes against women between 2010 and 2011 – a total number of 228,650 crimes against women. But there can be various speculations behind the reason for the same but more than everything it has to do with the status of women in this country.

Few months back, an article in The Guardian said that as per the report of the International Center for Research on Women, 45% of Indian women are married before the age of 18 and a re-search from Unicef in 2012 found that 52% of adolescent women think its jus-tifiable for a man to raise his hand on a woman and 57% of adolescent men feel the same. Over the past three decades 12 million girls have been aborted because of the preference of a male child. In es-sence, this country suffers from a suffo-cative patriarchal air.

Various solutions have been debated and deliberated over for decades to hin-der the crime against women. Various

amendments to law, various national level organizations and various non-government organizations too have over the years tried to find a solution to it. Alternate perception based campaigns like Blank Noise and Slut Walk too have tried to do their part by bringing out the rape and molested victims out in the open. However, things don’t look better but just the contrary.

Suggestions ranging from anarchy for the system to capital punishment and chemical castration for the offenders have been offered. It’s a general belief that if the punishment is stricter then the perpetrators of crime will fear and not commit a certain crime. But, it has been found that even harsher punishment doesn’t stop individuals from commit-ting crimes. Moreover, punishment becomes meaningless when it is late. But, the general rage that is sweeping across the nation only sees a population that is confused and angry and wants to feel safe. Many fear sending their own daughters, sisters and friends alone at any point in the day for the sheer safety concern. But then does restricting the mobility of an individual and creating fear solve anything in the whole equa-tion. If not then where does the answer lie?

The answer to it lies in everything - from our schools to our media, from our laws to our governance. But, more than anything it lies in our upbringing. We are the preachers, perpetrators and the audi-ence of the best kind of hypocrisy. We worship goddesses but aggrandize only our male gods in public forums. Woman as an entity is never an isolate figure but an extension of her male counterpart–be it our literature or religion, and if she is in isolation then she better be a warrior goddess or a movie star. From our re-gressive television, dailies and stereo-typical advertisements to our need to re-serve seats for women along with senior citizens and handicapped in our public transport – everything reeks of hypoc-risy. The issue can never be resolved because we are always curbing the problem, never curing it. We want our girls to be educated but not liberal. We teach them to talk but not to question. Which is why, it is not about whether we were one of the first nations to have a female prime minister or had a female president in the last term. It is about if we can see our girls and women exer-cising their right to choose, to live free from societal obligations and to voice as much as she wants without branding her as a prostitute. It is about our mentality, about our understanding of women and their space. It is about acknowledging that “she” is not just a mother, wife, sis-ter and a daughter but an individual. It is about understanding that every time we teach our children about women’s space in a conventional framework, we are perpetrating the chain of thought – the chain of thought that leads our women to be treated as objects, that contributes to them and their presence being under-stood as only to fulfill the demands of the opposite gender. And yes, we must teach our boys something better – teach them to understand women, teach them to hear their wives and daughters and teach them to not look at them as sheer objects but more than anything we as a society need to be learning a lot and working on it together.

‘Rare’rape raises Qs

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 2012 3NatIoN

N e W DeLhI: A 23-year-old bubbling girl is raped by a barbar-ic gang

of monsters in a moving bus and thrown out of the bus along with her beaten friend, in the national capital. The girl battles for her life in a hospital and despite being unable to speak, she questions first thing to her parents in writing: have they (rap-ists) been caught? ‘They should be punished” she wrote other day. And fi-nally, “I want to live”. The gory rape saga rages India, and Delhi becomes the epicenter of the coun-trywide protests.

Angered citizens, main-ly young girls and boys, came out on streets and walked towards homes of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, President Pranab Mukherjee, Delhi Chief Minster Sheila Dikshit, and headquarters of Delhi Police. While Sheila Dik-shit, the longest serving chief minister of Delhi, has tried to save her skin in providing security to the women by saying that “Delhi Police is not under Delhi Government”.

Congress President Sonia Gandhi has done her bit by meeting the protestors twice and assuring them of suit-able and prompt justice to the horrendous rape victim, who continues to be critical and doctors are subjecting her to various tests at the time of filing of this report.

“We are subjecting her to all examinations and procedures. She contin-ues to be critical,” Dr B D Athani, Medical Super-intendent of Safdurjung Hospital, told PTI on Sun-day.

Doctors had said on Sat-urday that the rape victim is psychologically “com-posed and optimistic” about her future and has started communicating.

Congress’ youth icon and prime minister in waiting, Rahul Gandhi and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh have not done what they were supposed to do.

Manmohan Singh should have addressed the raged nation that the gov-ernment would come down severely on the wrongdo-ers. Instead, he met only with women MPs on the issue and assured them of justice to the rape victim.

Rahul Gandhi is sur-prisingly absent from the scene. Have his advisors warned him of the imagi-

nary danger of going in front of angered protes-tors?

Even politically, this was the chance for Rahul

to connect chord with the youth of this country. But, he has missed the chance. Even if he comes into the scene, it will be considered

too little, too late.Politicians have also

taken back stage after de-livering emotional speech-es in the parliament. Home

Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde is has disappeared from the scene as though such horrific rapes are nor-mal in India.

At the time of filing this report, a major develop-ment indicated that Delhi Rape Protest may also die down like earlier spontane-ous mass movements: the peaceful protest at India Gate turned violent! Delhi Police say it is the hooli-gans who have taken cen-tre stage and are molesting girls and attacking police and Rapid Action Force. Eyewitnesses tell a differ-ent story. An eyewitness, AGhambhir, wrote on his blog (http://crispybabelf-ish.blogspot.in/2012/12/images-from-india-gate-when-protest.html) that it was RAF being violent without any provocation. “While I was there, I was tear-gassed thrice and hit with a Lathi once. All four

of these incidents were without any violent provo-cation from the protesters. The RAF would appear in hundreds every hour or so and Lathi charge the public, provoked or other-wise,” he writes.

It was also alleged that the Akhil Bharati-ya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Baharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and the Na-tional Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, tried to hijack the sponta-neous and peaceful mass movement.

Though the protestors have been chased away by the police from the VIP areas and other sites like India gate, but they have given a message to the VIPs: we know you are hypocrites. Now the ques-tion is: can politicians prove protestors wrong?

Can politicians prove protestors wrong?

Nikhil Kharoo @nkharoo: “Gangrape victim in the ICU has spoken more words than PM in last 3 days..!!” - Forwarded message by a friend.” #DelhiProtests

aanchalsethi @aanchalsethi: “its sad we live in a de-mocracy where we want our leaders to speak. but all they do is close doors while the nation protests.”

shadan @shadanmd: “A mass protest of this nature needs to be dealt politically and through dialogue...not by enforcing administrative measures.” #delhiprotests

Prakash Sharma @Prakash_Sharma: “NSUI should be boycotted by all students for its attempt to politicize #DelhiProtests”.

PHOTOS By ARUSH BHATT

TwITTerATI

By Rajesh Chauhan

India is raged over the grue-some rape of a 23-year-old medical student in national

capital. Currently the media is reporting about the outrage over the gang-rape but how long will it last? Till perhaps something else newsy turns up and perhaps until the next such or worst happens. It is also a fact that this is not the first time and the last time that a minor girl or a major girl has been raped. Leave apart strangers, over the years there have been cases of fathers, step-fathers / uncles / grand fathers, neigh-bours coming from differ-ent classes and religions in different countries, raping the ones who trust them the most. If that has happened over the generations, how can this be stopped? Or, can it ever be stopped?

Without going into the towering task of providing a consensus answer to these questions, it is high time that at

least our assemblies and parlia-ment shut doors for the crimi-nals. At least political parties come out in open and pledge that they won’t field even al-leged criminals as their party candidates. Because, with the political parties trying to garner public sympathy over the Delhi gang rape (and perhaps votes in the next election), they have over the years acted like Ma-

hatma Gandhi’s three monkeys when it comes to fielding their candidates.

A report by Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) has once again highlighted the double-standards of the politi-cal parties. It reveals that since 2007, political parties gave tickets to 27 rape accused to fight in state elections. The re-port stated that political parties had also given tickets to 260 men who were charged with other crimes against women, including molestation. Six MLAs have declared that they have charges of rape against themselves in their sworn affidavits submitted with the Election Commission of India at the time of their election. Of these six MLAs with declared rape cases, three are from Sam-ajwadi Party namely Sribhag-wan Sharma, Anoop Sanda and Manoj Kumar Paras from Uttar Pradesh, one from BSP namely Mohd. Aleem Khan from Uttar

Pradesh, one of BJP namely Jethabhai G.Ahir from Gu-jarat and one of TDP namely Kandikunta Venkata Prasad from Andhra Pradesh. Thirty-six other MLAs have declared that they have other charges of crimes against women such as outraging the modesty of a woman, assault, insulting the modesty of a woman etc.

Out of the 260 candidates who declared that they have been charged with crimes against women, 72 are inde-pendent candidates, 24 have been given tickets by the BJP, 26 candidates have been given tickets by the Congress, 16 have been given tickets by the SP and 18 have been given tickets by BSP.

It is unfortunate that election law only bars those convicted from contesting, but those fac-ing criminal charges, no matter how heinous, face no such impediment. With the current judicial and political system in

India one can easily guess how hard it is to prove ‘powerful accused’ guilty.

But, then shall society keep quiet? No. It is high time that India takes a pledge that no criminal finds place in state assemblies or parliament. Time is ripe to force the political parties to drop those candidates who have been convicted or accused of rape and sexual assaults. The voters should take a pledge that they won’t vote for even honest candidates of those parties which even field one candidate of a criminal background.

mAIn TOKI

The law doesn’t even define eve-teasing in proper terms. So how do we

expect to punish culprits and give justice to the victim’s when the very term isn’t even defined? We do have some laws but they just seem for namesake and are toothless.

1. Section 298 (A) and (B) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sentences a man found guilty of making a girl or woman the target of obscene gestures, remarks, songs or recitation to a maximum jail sentence of three months. Section 292 of the IPC also clearly spells out that showing pornographic or obscene pictures, books or slips to a woman or girl draws a fine of Rs. 2000 with two years of rigorous imprisonment for the first offender.

2. For repeated offence there is a fine of Rs.5000 with five years imprisonment imposed. Under Section 509 of the IPC, obscene gestures, indecent body language and acidic comments directed at any woman or girl or exhibits any such object or intrudes upon the privacy of woman carries a penalty of simple imprisonment for one year or a fine or both.

3. Under Section 354 , Who-ever assaults or uses criminal force on any woman, intend-ing to outrage or knowing it to be likely that he will thereby outrage her modesty, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years,

or with fine or with both.We live in a time where the

eve teasers roam about in multi million cars, use high-tech gad-gets and stab people in the public who resist eve-teasing (yes its true. Read Keenan case for details) and the fine amount still remains Rs 2000-Rs 5000 with the jail term being 3 months, how hopelessly impractical is that?

We are so busy deciding laws which take control of our personal lives (Sec 399) that we don’t have time to think about problems as serious as Eve teas-ing which poses danger on each and every women stepping out of the house. There is a serious need to revamp the law on eve teasing beginning with actually defining it.

We can go on discussing the laws and the flaws, giving opinions, holding candle light marches, forming NGO’s but the question remains is anyone lis-tening? Does it matter to the high and mighty that our women live without the protection of black commando’s and are subject to harsh reality of the situation?

Is anyone bothered that when a daughter goes out of the house for tuition or dance classes, her parents don’t get relief till she is back home safe and sound without being harassed, when a women goes out to work and is working late shift the only thought that goes on in her mind is how to reach home safely. We have failed so miserably to protect our women and yet we sit and formulate laws to “protect” our country. Irony!

The online consum-ers all over the world were shocked when

they heard that Instagram, the mobile-application company which allows participants to share photos, was planning to sell their photographs to the advertisers.

Instagram on December 17 said that that it has the perpetu-al right to sell users’ photo-graphs without payment or notification, a dramatic policy shift that quickly sparked a public outcry. But, after the netizens cried foul, Instagram instantly changed its tone.

Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom published a new blog post detailing the service’s updated stance on content ownership and privacy:

“Going forward, rather than obtain permission from you to introduce possible advertis-ing products we have not yet developed, we are going to take the time to complete our plans, and then come back to our users and explain how we would like for our advertising business to work.

you also had deep concerns about whether under our new terms, Instagram had any plans to sell your content. I want to be really clear: Instagram has

no intention of selling your photos, and we never did. We don’t own your photos – you do.”

To help clear confusion, Instagram lets you compare the old TOS with the updated one. Most of it is legalese, but the key thing to note is that Instagram still exercises the right to license your photos in any way it sees fit, but not sell them and take your right to claim ownership. More info is also available in the service’s official privacy policy.

For those that don’t know, Instagram was recently bought by Facebook, and the photo-based social network has start-ed investigating plans to mon-etize. The location metadata associated with photos you share on Instagram is valuable, and Instagram has the right to share what it knows about you (including pictures of your latte art, sunsets, kids, etc.) with potential advertisers. This is no different than the way Facebook or Google works. In fact, there’s probably less personal info to be gleaned from Instagram than, say, your Google account.

If you’re really that scared about the future of Instagram, you can download your photos and close your account for good.

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 20124 EDItorIaL

Time to send criminals where they belong to

Law doesn’t define eve-teasing

in proper terms

Future of Instagram

Editor-in-Chiefrajesh Chauhaneditorinchief@divyadelhi.com

Editorhardeep singh bedieditor@divyadelhi.comjournalist001@gmail.com

Designerssanjeev KumarManoj singh rana

Printed, published and owned by Rajesh Chauhan. Published at BG-6/305B, Paschim Vihar, Delhi- 110063. Printed at Divya Offset Printers, B-1422, New Ahsok Nagar, Mayur Vihar, Delhi-10096.F2 (d-3) Press/2012

Letter to the readers

We have launched Divya Delhi, a National English

Weekly with a tagline ‘Dar-ing and Dynamic’, on the occasion of World Human Rights Day, 2012.

With this, we have exer-cised our right of speaking up for the Nation, You and as well as for Ourself.

Now, the ball is in your court as it is your turn to Act. If You are happy, good for You and we wish You re-main happy forever.

However, if You are con-cerned about the state of affairs affecting Our na-tion,

Your city, Your colony, Others, You and Your fam-ily then kindly Act: Contact Us!

For, we are looking for people who React when something goes wrong but don’t Act in the absence of a right tool and platform.

We are also looking for thinkers, scholars, aca-demicians, professionals, students, bureaucrats, vi-sionary politicians etcetera to provide us opportunity to work with themselves to meet Our Motto of contrib-uting in the larger interest of the India and World.

We also require report-ers, trainee reporters, copy-editors and photo journal-ists to work with us.

EditoR

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 2012 5oP-ED

Is Indian customer really a king?

Not too long ago, buyers had little or no choices

in almost all branded goods and services. For example, among cooking oil there was only (hydro-genated) Dalda or Rath, in breads it was Britannia or Modern, in cars there was Ambassador or Fiat, in cycles Atlas or Hero, in cigarettes Panama, Cavanders, Charminar or Passing Show, in bathing soaps Lux and Lifebuoy, in the name of detergent only Surf for long (the term remained synony-mous with any washing powder for decades), ditto with ‘Xerox’ – people often said, get 2 copies Xeroxed) and so on. The dealer usu-ally sold out whatever he produced or supplied. As such the manufacturer and all those in supply chain were real ‘Kings’.

Shrewd and discernible as businessmen are – one big reason why they stay in business – they best know how to extract money from the gull-ible consumers, reason enough they can sell a comb to a bald man. yes, people continue to procure many things they don’t need and ever use either.

yet when the con-cept of consumer rights came to fore, it was the business class itself to cash on it. The slogan, ‘Customer is the King’ is,

ironically, their creation. Acclaimed far and loud and highlighted in com-pany announcements the slogan ostensibly shows that they highly value the consumer, his require-ments and sentiments. In real terms, it is since being used as a strategy with sufficient measure of success to keep the existing and forthcoming customers in receptive mode so that profits keep on rolling.

Consumer is actually the king in United States where 70 percent of the country’s growth is from the service industry but not in India where product and service options are limited. For meals, you hardly have the traditional dal fry on most highways but dal makhani instead since, by input of Rs. 2 or 3 for butter, you can be charged Rs. 15 or 20 extra. Similarly, tea from many restaurants is being phased out. What mat-ters more to the dealer is per customer margin than what the customer needs and looks for. For basic requirements, we are living in an ambience of monopoly markets – water supply, electric-ity, railways with tariffs and terms set under parliamentary or legis-lature Acts. There are no alternatives, and the issue of consumer rights hardly has any relevance in such areas. As for items beyond government purview, the compa-nies proclaim that they conduct extensive R&D to understand the precise needs of the consumers like what pharmaceutical companies supposedly do for drugs – initially it is on mice, dogs, monkeys

etc. and then on humans in various locations over a length of time. Still, routine bans now on one drug, then on another, in the wake of their having demonstrated serious ef-fect on health only speaks of the type and the way R&D was done before its launch.

The planners, presum-ably in league with the manufacturing lobby, tell us that with people spending more on what-ever, the economy surges forward. This philosophy is in perfect sync with what the business wants. So, the customers are being indoctrinated to believe that to stay with time they need to have more and more acquisi-tion, consume (read pur-chase) more and more. Adverting and marketing campaigns are so devised as to placate the popular sentiments. The popular TV channels, newspa-pers, radio stations and celebrities tell us to keep buying irrespective of its implications on our health and environment.

With degradation in moral values all around, no business unit has com-punction in compromis-ing with ethical values and norms – you may be appalled and some of us may quit buying ‘tasty’

noodles, etc. from our favourite food corner after we know the how the water for cooking is arranged or utensils are cleaned. The plight of customer is no better with the well known names. In all market deals the terms & conditions of sale are invariably loaded in favour of the dealer so that despite all logic and sense, the clauses – whenever ambiguous – shall be interpreted in a way that the buyer has to bear the brunt.

The movement of Consumer Rights began in the US with former President John F. Ken-nedy who noted that “If a consumer is offered in-ferior products, if prices are exorbitant, if drugs are unsafe or worthless, if the consumer is unable to choose on an informed basis, then his dollar is wasted, his health and safety may be threatened, and national interest suffers.” Equating civil rights of consumer with national interest, he propounded basic rights: the right to safety against the marketing of goods hazardous to health or life; the right to choose with access to a variety of products and services at competitive prices; the right to information

for protection against fraudulent, deceitful or misleading information, advertising, labelling, or other practices; the right to be heard in a forum. To these was added the right to consumer educa-tion by later President Gerald Ford. For protect-ing consumer interests at world level, the Consum-ers International (CI), the umbrella body, for 240 organisations in over 100 countries, expanded the charter of consumers rights contained in the US Bill.

In India, to safeguard consumer interests in pre-Independence era we had Indian Penal Code, Agricultural Production, Grading and Marketing Act 1937, Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940; later, headway was made with Monopolies and Re-strictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act and in 1986. The Consumer Protection Act that was amended in 1993 clearing the way for 3-tier consumer courts at union, state and district levels known as the Dis-trict Consumer Dispute Redressal Forum, State Consumer Disputes Re-dressal Commission and the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Com-mission besides forma-tion of Consumer Welfare Fund. For redressing stock-related grievances of the consumers, Securi-ties and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) was es-tablished in 1992. To help the aggrieved in matters of telephony and power sector, the Telecom-munication Regulatory Authority of India and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission were formed in 1997 and 1998. Many of the other

issues protecting the in-terests of consumers are covered under acts like Indian Contract Act, Sale of Goods Act, the Es-sential Commodities Act, the Prevention of Food Adulteration Act. Another laudable initiative in pro-tecting consumer interest, applauded worldwide, is the framing of the Standards of Weights and Measures Act.

As on date, there is a separate ministry or department of consumer affairs at centre and in every state. However, what turns out each time is that the consumer loses the battle vis-à-vis giant industrial units. A major collective strategy adopted by consumers has been the boycott policy under which the consum-ers avoid the products of the designated company if it is not in public interest. But such a move neces-sitates solidarity on the parts of consumers. We hope, in times to come this strategy gathers momemtum.

In India, the aware-ness is very low about the pro-consumer laws and provisions such as The Essential Commodity Act, Drug and Cosmetic Act, regulations about preven-tion of food adulteration, display of price, etc.

In India, National Con-sumer Rights Day is ob-served on 24 December to endorse solidarity with the national consumer movement and provid-ing better protection of consumers’ interests. Consumer Protection Act is considered as the Magna Carta for pro-tecting consumer rights through establishment of advisory and adjudication authorities.

abhay SiNgh KuShwaha

Reservation in Pro-motion is violation of a ‘basic feature of the Constitution’ viz. hu-man dignity. Preamble lays down, inter alia, that the Constitution aims at “FRATERNITy assur-ing the DIGNITy of the Individual……….” Con-stitution contains several other provisions to en-sure dignity of man. It is plain enough that super-session of a meritorious senior public servant by a non-meritorious junior person, for no better rea-son than that he belongs to SC/ST class, cuts at

the concept of FRATER-NITy within the Service as well as DIGNITy of the superior individual.

India is also a signatory of Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 and several international covenants which ensure human dignity. Violation of such international com-mitments is betrayal of faith in solemn promises made for good of human race. What for human rights organizations are established in all parts of India?

The concept of 20% cap on reservation in pro-motions also is unconsti-tutional and constitutes

infringement of powers of the Executive. It is un-constitutional because it infringes equality clause. If 10 promotion posts are open for posting of SC/ST, posting of only 2 and leaving out 8 unfilled on account of the cap is irra-tional having no nexus to the objective sought to be achieved by reservation. The executive cannot be forced to keep 8 posts va-cant – it would certainly hamper good administra-tion.

Today, reservation in promotions is sought; tomorrow reservation in Super Time Scale or in Deputation posts will be

demanded. Next will be the stage for OBCs to demand promotion-reser-vation. Samajwadi Party has already demanded reservation for Muslims. India has been suffer-ing from brain drain for a long time; that drain will be accelerated. So, as time passes, we are going to be a nation of 3rd rate administrators! Can the nation afford this – espe-cially in the face of funda-mental duty under Article 51A of the Constitution to ensure excellence in all walks of life?

Today, Parliament and all Legislatures have sub-stantial number of mem-

bers who have criminal/corrupt background; As-sociation for Democratic Reforms has been issuing detailed data in support for several years. The law-makers are not at all keen to decriminalize these au-gust institutions because Section 8(4) of Repre-sentation of People Act 1951 protects them from being disqualified – that, indeed, is an incentive for lawless elements to con-test elections. The result is that a very large num-ber of members would be such whose wards cannot qualify for public services or make their mark while in public service; reserva-

tion provides backdoor entry for such elements; hence they very keen to ensure that reservation in all possible spheres is en-sured.

It is high time the na-tion stands up as one man to oppose any reservation in any form; citizens must stop voting in favour of candidates who demand reservation of any kind – Lok Sabha Elections in 2014 will give needed opportunity to build the nation on principles of Justice, Equality and Fra-ternity with human Dig-nity.

(Author is a Supreme Court lawyer)

HAriSH BArtHwAl

THIrD eye

Reservation in promotion violates human dignity

Customer & brands

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 20126 ENtErtaINmENt

Mumbai Police December 20 filed charge

sheet against actor Saif Ali Khan for allegedly as-saulting an NRI business-man February this year. Two of Saif’s friends — Bilal Amrohi and actress Amrita Arora’s husband Shakeel Ladak — have also been named in the charge sheet.

The incident occurred when Saif, Kareena Kapoor and some others were at the Wasabi Res-taurant at the Taj Mahal Hotel.

Disturbed by their ruckus, NRI businessman Iqbal Sharma requested them to keep their voices down. However, this en-raged Saif, who allegedly punched Sharma, break-ing his nose. Ladak also allegedly hit Sharma’s father-in-law Raman Pa-tel. Later, Sharma lodged a complaint against Saif at Colaba police station.

Saif was was arrested on Feb 22 with Amrohi and Ladak for assaulting NRI businessman Iqbal Sharma. They were later released on bail.

Charge sheet filed against Saif

Riya Sen smooches a girl!Trust Riya Sen to always

surprise you! After being part of various controver-

sies, Riya was spotted kissing a girl at a Mumbai nightclub last week, reports Mid-Day.

The paper says that the iden-tity of the young woman is not known. Incidentally this is not the first time that Miss Sen has been caught on the wrong foot. Earlier too her leaked MMS video with Ashmit Patel had created quite a controversy. A industry insider says, `Recently her name popped up in regards to a rave party that was busted. However, the petite actress strongly denied having links with the organiser of the party. There was buzz that she was also involved in some hanky-panky with author Salman Rushdie.

Salman Khan is back in full form once again with his

‘Chulbul Pandey’ avatar in Dabang 2. Go watch Dabangg 2 keeping the fact in mind that it’s a Salman Khan movie and make your Christmas Holiday merrier.

Director Arbaz Khan’s film is about Chulbul Pan-dey who moves to Kanpur and straightaway gets into tough-conflict with crimi-nal cum politician Baccha Bhaiyya (Prakash Raj), who has two brother’s named Chunni (Nikitin Dheer) and Gainda (Deep-ak Dobriyal).

A volcano erupts and a battle takes place between Chulbul Pandey and Bachcha Bhaiyya when Chulbul Pandey kills Gainda.

It’s a treat to watch both Salman Khan and Prakash Raj together once again after Wanted. Salman Khan as usual is the best. He takes off his shirt, Flexes his muscles, Fights the Villian and Flirts with Sonakshi,

Sonakshi Sinha is charming and spicy as Rajjo. The songs in the film are already a rage with Kareena Kapoor’s ‘Fevicol Se’ becoming an all-time chartbuster.

Dabang 2 to cheer you

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 2012 7 ENtErtaINmENt

India’s 12-year-long dry run at the Miss Universe continued with Shilpa Singh losing out in the finals of the

2012 beauty pageant. The 23-year-old Bihar-born girl

entered the top 16 of the Miss Universe competition being held at Planet Holly-wood casino on the Las Vegas Strip, but failed to enter the top 10 slot.

shilpa singh loses miss universe title

Katie Holmes dreams of

skatingKatie Holmes has taken to hitting the lesser

known rinks in the Big Apple early and late, so she can avoid the crowds and the skilled

skaters.The former Dawson’s Creek star explains, “I like

to go ice-skating... I like Chelsea Piers. Rockefeller Center (rink) scares me because there’s so many people.

“I’m not good at all and I’m mad about it because I’ll go and I’ll think, ‘Today, I’m gonna be really good...’ but the last time I was skating I just kind of held on to the side and I would have to, like, scoot little kids outta the way, like, ‘Excuse me... I can’t let go (or) I’ll fall’.

“So what started to happen is the people that work at the rink that do all the fancy everything, they just kept giving me their cards... and I got about 10, so I try to go in secret at very small rinks.”

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 20128 IN FocUs

NeW DeLhI: Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy, one of the torchbearers against black money, surprisingly didn’t react on the latest GFI report.

The report is much needed ammunition to lambast UPA government but Swamy didn’t use it. Instead, he was busy cursing UPA, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Elec-tronic Voting Machines, Indian Express Editor Shekhar Gupta etcetera on Twitter. Is it because of Twitter he didn’t notice GFI report, Or, is he really not seri-ous about the issue and talks about it for mere publicity.

The last time he spoke about black money was probably in November this year when he had accused Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal of being a pessimist over black money. Kejriwal had alleged that Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Burmans of Dabur, Congress MP Annu Tandon etcetera had depos-ited black money in multinational HSBC Bank’s Geneva Branch.

NeW DeLhI: Swamy Ramdev, another cru-sader against black money, also didn’t react af-ter the GFI report was released. However, a day before the GFI report was released, Ramdev in Lucknow bashed the Congress over black mon-ey and urged people to defeat Congress in 2014 elections. Ramdev also claimed that the funds that would come in by way of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail was just a fraction of the black money stashed abroad.

Ramdev since long has maintained that FDI is a tool to convert black money into white.

In an interview to The Times of India on De-cember 16, Ramdev once again maintained that “FDI will only help tax evaders launder money back to the country by round-tripping, giving it a legitimacy cover of FDI”.

In fact, this charge also has been accepted by the UPA government.

The May 2012 White Paper on Black Mon-ey admits that black money is coming to India through FDI and Promissory Notes.

In section “Has Money Transferred abroad illicitly Returned?” the paper says that FDI sta-tistics show that black money stashed abroad by Indians is coming back to India via Mauritius and Singapore routes.

“As per data released by the Department of In-dustrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), from April 2000 to March 2011 F D I from Mauri-tius is 41.80 per cent of the entire FDI received by I n d i a … t h a t the two topmost sources of the cumulative inflows from April 2000 to March 2011 are Mauritius (41.80 per cent) and Singapore (9.17 per cent). Mauritius and Singapore with their

small economies cannot be the sources of such huge investments and it is apparent that the in-vestments are routed through these jurisdictions for avoidance of taxes and/or for concealing the identities from the revenue authorities of the ulti-mate investors, many of whom could actually be Indian residents, who have invested in their own companies, though a process known as round tripping,” says the White Paper.

It further says that “investment in the Indian Stock Market through PNs is another way in which the black money generated by Indians is re-invested in India”.

It is notable that the paper was prepared by the government after pressure was mounted on it from various quarters so its main focus was to cut the amount of stashed black money abroad and treat the issue as mere tax evasion. But, the Supreme Court on January 19, 2011 had de-scribed black money stashed away abroad by Indians as “pure and simple theft of national money” and questioned the Centre’s approach to tackling this menace and retrieving the huge amount kept in foreign banks.

After issuing the White Paper seven months back, there is no action from the government. For example, the paper said that all financial offences should be tried through fast-track special courts. The Ministry of Law may have to take up this issue on priority and make ar-rangements for setting u p fast-track courts all over the country in a time-bound

manner. But, has it been done?

Therefore it can be said that India lacks po-litical will to deal with the black money menace.

White

NeW DeLhI: There is no hue and cry in India over the issue of black money at a time when a Washington based research and advocacy organ iza t ion

has highlighted flow of illicit money from India.

Global Financial Integrity (GFI) released its latest report “Illicit Financial Flows from De-veloping Countries: 2001-2010” on December 17 which said that Indian tax evaders managed to send around black money worth $123 billion out of country in a decade. The report says that the Indian economy suffered $1.6 billion in illicit financial out-flows in 2010. The term, illicit financial flows, pertains to the cross-border movement of money that is illegally earned, transferred, or uti-lized.

As per the report, India is ranked as the decade’s 8th largest victim of illicit capital flight behind China, Mexico, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Russia, the Philip-pines, and Nigeria. The report exhorts Indian policymakers to make curbing the ongoing out-flow of black money their prior-ity number one.

The report found that all devel-oping and emerging economies suffered $858.8 billion in illicit outflows in 2010, just below the all-time high of $871.3 billion set in 2008-the year preceding the global financial crisis.

“While progress has been made in recent years, India con-tinues to lose a large amount of wealth in illicit financial out-flows,” said GFI Director Ray-mond Baker.

“Much focus has been paid in the media on recovering the Indian black money that has already been lost,” he said sug-gesting policymakers should in-stead make curtailing the ongoing outflow of money priority number one.

“ $ 1 2 3

billion is a massive amount of money for the Indian economy to lose,” said Dev Kar, GFI lead economist and co-author of the report with GFI economist Sarah

Frei-tas.

“It has very real consequences for Indian citizens. This is more

than $100 billion dollars which could have been used to invest in education, healthcare, and upgrade the nation’s infrastruc-ture,” he said.

The new GFI study also esti-mates between 2001 and 2010 the developing world lost a total of $5.86 trillion to illicit out-flows.

The $858.8 billion of il-licit outflows lost to all

developing coun-tries in 2010 is

a significant uptick from

2009, which saw developing na-

tions lose $776.0 billion.Trade mispricing was found to

account for an average of 80.1% of cumulative illicit flows from

developing countries over the period 2001-2010, down from its high in 2004 when it accounted for 86.1%. It remains the major channel for the transfer of illicit capital from all regions except MENA (Middle East and North Africa), where it accounted for 37% of total outflows over the decade.

The report further notes that “illicit transfers of the proceeds of corruption, bribery, theft, and kickbacks, accounting on aver-age for 19.9% of illicit outflows over the decade, are on the rise as a percentage of total illicit fi-nancial outflows”.

GFI advocated that world leaders increase the transparen-cy in the international financial system as a means to curtail the

illicit flow of money.A Nov 2010 GFI report, “The Drivers and Dynam-ics of Illicit Financial Flows from India: 1948-2008,” found that the In-dian economy lost $462 billion to illicit finan-cial outflows from 1948 through 2008. Howev-er, the UPA government

thinks that estimates of GFI and for that matter In-

ternational Monetary Fund (IMF) are incomplete.A White Paper released by

the Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in May 2012 coun-ters that “…although the esti-mates of illicit outflows outside India made by the IMF and GFI gives useful insights, they are incomplete and further studies are required to get a correct es-timate”.

`

Where is Swamy?

transparency tipsGovt admits FDI is mostly black money• Addressing the problems

posed by anonymous shell companies, foun-dations, and trusts by requiring confirmation of beneficial owner-ship in all banking and securities accounts, and demanding that informa-tion on the true, human owner of all corporations, trusts, and foundations be disclosed upon forma-tion and be available to law enforcement;

• Reforming customs and trade protocols to detect and curtail trade mispric-ing;

• Requiring the country-by-country reporting of sales, profits and taxes paid by multinational corporations;

• Requiring the automatic cross-border exchange of tax information on personal and business accounts;

• Harmonizing predicate offenses under anti-money laundering laws across all Financial Ac-tion Task force cooper-ating countries; and

• Ensuring that the anti-money laundering regulations already on the books are strongly enforced.

and

A new report exhorts Indian policymakers to make curbing the ongoing outflow of black money their

priority number one

$BlackBy haRdeep singh Bedi

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 2012 9IN FocUs

hardeep SiNgh bedi

NEW DELHI: Narendra Modi retained Gujarat by scoring a hat-trick on Thursday (December 20) after the results of the state assem-bly elections were declared by the Election Commission. With this; his race to 7, Racecourse Road has started, whether his oppo-nents like it or not.

In Gujarat, which Modi has ruled since 2001, the BJP bagged 115 seats, two short of its 117 tally of 2007. A bruised Congress took 61 seats, two more than what it got five years ago. The Gujarat Parivartan Party of Modi baiter Keshubhai Patel was humbled -- it got just two seats including his own.

The Gujarat Assembly results have now set the tone for 2014 General Elections. Modi’s hat trick is likely to block UPA’s hat trick at Centre as he is likely to be projected as BJP’s Prime Ministe-rial candidate

Though the top BJP leadership is evading Modi for PM question now, but the moot question is: does the BJP have any other op-tion? A close scrutiny of the cur-rent leadership of the BJP and op-tions available to it, the answer to the above question is No.

Barring senior BJP leader Lal Krishan Advani, the party has two leaders of importance: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, Sush-ma Swaraj and Leader of Oppo-sion in Rajya Sabha, Arun Jaitley. But, both of them lack charisma of Modi.

While Swaraj is considered as fierce orator and effective leader, Jaitley is known for his back-door strategies. The former has won di-rect elections and the latter hasn’t. Jaitley, a Rajya Sabha MP, him-self has often accepted in the off the record chats that “I’m leader of classes not of masses”.

Swaraj is party’s women face. But, as a leader she is not able to challenge Congress President Sonia Gandhi in a direct election battle. In 1999, the BJP had field-ed Swaraj against Sonia Gandhi in the Bellary Parliamentary Con-stituency in a dramatic way to en-sure Congress President’s defeat,

but Sonia beat Swaraj comfort-ably. Sushma, who along with another erstwhile BJP firebrand leader Uma Bharti had opposed Sonia Gandhi’s Prime Minister-ship in 2004, still lacks an upper hand over Sonia who single hand-edly led Congress into straight victories in 2004 and 2009 gen-eral elections.

Senior BJP leader Lal Kris-han Advani was projected as National Democratic Alliance (NDA) prime ministerial candi-date in 2009 general elections but couldn’t lead the coaltion to the victory. So, it is very unlikely that he would like to try his luck once again in 2014 as a PM in Wait-ing. Under these circumstances, the BJP is probably left with no choice but to project Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate in 2014 not only to stop Congress led United Progressive Alliance’s hat-trick, but also to improve its total tally in Lok Sabha.

But, for BJP this will not be an

easy decision to make as the Ja-nata Dal (United), its senior rul-ing partner in Bihar and one of the major parties of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), will oppose Modi’s projection as PM candidate. JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is a known opponent of Modi. Dur-ing the last assembly elections in Bihar, Nitish had even opposed Modi’s campaigning fearing that it could anger his party’s Mus-lim voters. Nitish has clearly said JD(U) will not accept Modi’s pro-jection as PM, and in the absence of Advani, Bihar Chief Minister would like to named as NDA’s PM Candidate in 2014.

However the relations between the coalition partners in Bihar have been strained. Growing un-easiness with alliance with the JD(U) prompted Bihar BJP presi-dent C.P. Thakur to announce that the BJP will contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2014. He made a detailed presentation to the top

leadership of the party at the Surajkund meeting in September this year.

Moreover, if JD (U) severs ties with NDA, Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress may join hands with NDA as it is at log-gerheads with Congress.

Modi himself has made up his mind to now bat for Delhi. After winning Guajrat, he addressed victory rally in Hindi instead of Gujarati to ensure that what he spoke was properly understood by larger audience across India.

Terming Gujarat win as a win of Maa Bharti (Mother India), he said the BJP’s victory was “a victory for every Indian, whether they are in Assam or Kerala or Jammu and Kashmir”.

That Modi himself is acutely conscious of his communal tag is evident from his strenuous efforts in the last five years to divert at-tention from the 2002 riots to his role in developing the state’s in-dustries and infrastructure.

Therefore, he didn’t forget to mention Gujarat’s development during his rule.

“Development won today,” he thundered, repeatedly drawing cheers and wild clapping. “There was a thinking in our politics that good economics is bad politics. It was as if good governance did not suit our politics.” He quickly added that the people of the coun-try too needed good governance and economic development of the kind seen in Gujarat.

He has been lucky that he grows stronger after a personal-ized attack is launched against him. As said in his post-results speech that “the more muck you throw at me, the more the lotus shall bloom. If Modi is projected as PM candidate, the Congress will be in dilemma on how to at-tack Modi. If nothing disastrous happens during Modi’s rule till 2014, the Congress will be left with no choice to highlight Mo-di’s communal image in order to woo Muslim voters. Modi would not only love Congress’ attack but use it to consolidate Hindu voters who have been disillusioned by the BJP’s “image makeover” ex-periments.

Pm In waItIng

rss ka haath haIdd NewS deSK

The saffron brigade led by the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) is also happy with Gujarat outcome. Not only because Modi has scored a hat-trick but also that he hasn’t become so towering that he won’t need “RSS ka Haath” in his journey to Delhi.

The Parivar would not have wanted him to be humili-ated, but they would not have wanted him to win so big that everyone else does not count. The actual results are what the Sangh Parivar may be okay with. They will now seek to make sure Modi compromises with them and his detractors so that he does not want to watch his back when he moves to Delhi. And it seems, Modi has also learnt the lesson. After winning Gujarat thrice, he went to meet his staunch opponent Keshubhai Patel to call a truce and seek his blessings for the

journey ahead.All the senior state leaders

were on the dais to celebrate the occasion with him but the presence of senior RSS func-tionary, V Satish was perhaps even more meaningful.

Given the conflicting com-mand structure in the BJP at the central party headquarters and the belief as perpetuated by the RSS that decision-making in the party, at least of this level, will be made at the ideological fountainheads in Nagpur, Modi is aware that his imminent shift to Delhi for a bigger national role has to hit many awkward speed breakers, mostly without any visible signs, and he would definitely need RSS ka haath on his back.

should himachal make congress happy? NeW DeLhI: Riding an anti-in-cumbency wave and staving off corruption charges against its veteran leader Virb-hadra Singh, Congress wrested power from BJP in Himachal Pradesh with a wafer-thin majority of 36 in the 68-member Assembly.

The Congress, which couldn’t de-throne Narendra Modi in Gujarat, drew some solace after the results were declared for all the 68 Assembly seats. The Congress expressed happiness over the Himachal results.

Party leaders contended the results showed that people were not angry with the United Progressive Alliance (UPA).

Congress leaders said the results in Himachal Pradesh were a reply to the BJP campaign against the UPA government on price rise and its economic policy decisions.They said decision to cap put a cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders was taken days before the Himachal Pradesh elections and the BJP attempted to capitalise on the issue. They said the party had wrested a state from the BJP.

“At the national level, people have endorsed the UPA. Results of Himachal Pradesh clearly indicate people are not angry with UPA,” Congress general sec-retary B.K. Hariprasad told IANS.

However, a political observer said that the Congress shouldn’t Himachal Pradesh win as a prized trophy. For, the State has a history of not repeating the government since 1977. That means the BJP, in any case, had to go out of power.

Modi’s Race to Racecourse starts

InsHOrT

lAir India continues to be in loss

New Delhi: India’ major carrier, Air India’s fi-nancial woes continues when it registered a net loss of Rs 404 crore every month between the pe-riod of March-October 2012.

An audit of the airline’s books depicted the cash inflow of Rs 1,348 crore per month, while the outflow due to high fuel cost was Rs 1,752 crore, resulting to the shortage of cash.

A worried Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh suggested few measures to the Air India manage-ment to cut the losses.

The minister asked Air India to go into min-ute operational details to cut the costs, including those incurred on overseas offices, salaries, fuel and office expenses.

He also told the management to explore pos-sibility of operating to Bali and Istanbul on the newly acquired Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

lModi’s victory elates biz leaders

NeW DeLhI: Narendra Modi’s thumping vic-tory in Gujarat elections has elated the business leaders.

Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) presi-dent Adi Godrej said Modi’s being in office again would further boost investors’ confidence in the state and provide political stability.

“Modi’s hat trick victory is a resounding en-dorsement of his leadership and his success in economic devel-opment in Guja-rat,” said Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, chairman and managing director

of Biocon Limited.“Gujarat has voted for development,’ said Raj-

kumar Dhoot, president, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham).

Dhoot said heavy investments are flowing into Gujarat because Modi has adopted industry-friendly policies and improved basic infrastruc-ture and governance.

lRevision of fares for Delhi Metro delayed

NeW DeLhI: The revision of fares for Delhi Metro train services is likely to be delayed. Min-ister of State for Urban Development Deepa Dasmunsi told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the Fare Fixation Committee has not been constituted so far and he refused to give an exact date for the same.

It is notable that the Delhi Metro Rail Corpora-tion (DMRC) had requested the government to set up the Fare Fixation Committee.

Delhi Metro last increased its fares in Novem-ber 2009. The minimum fare was increased from Rs.6 to Rs.8 and the maximum from Rs.22 to Rs 30. That was the third time Delhi Metro had re-vised fares since it began operations in 2002.

The Delhi Metro normally makes over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carry-ing around 1.8 million passengers on weekdays.

NeW DeLhI: The Parliament has passed the Banking Laws (Ammend-ment) bill 2012 de-spite the opposition from Left Parties and bank unions of the country. The bill, which was

passed by the Lok Sabha on De-cember 18 and by the Rajya Sabha on December 20, will become law once President Pranab Mukherjee signs it.

While the government is term-ing the amendment bill to a boon for the banking sector as well as for the Indians, the Public Sector bank employees are seeing it as a threat to their bread and butter. But, for the time being the main question, will it be a boon or bane, remains unan-swered.

The government has its list of justifications for providing entry of the foreign banks and Indian private sector into the Indian banking sector where more than 1.2 billion people are without bank accounts. The ea-gerness of the corporate world could be gauged from the fact that Reliance and Religare are already gearing up for their banking foray even before the final guidelines are released by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

Finance Minister P. Chidambaram told the Parliament that the modified legislation would help create “world size” banks in India.

“We need more banks. yes, we are opening new branches, but that’s not enough... We need two-three world-size banks,” said Chidambaram, adding the new regulation would help achieve this objective.

The main opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) threw its weight behind the bill after the government dropped a clause al-lowing banks to trade commodities futures amid fears it could lead to risky, speculative trading.

The new regulation gives power to the RBI to frame the guidelines and issue new bank licences. The bank-ing bill will give the RBI greater reg-ulatory oversight over local banks and the ability to overrule boards when the banks are facing financial difficulties.

The RBI had demanded more oversight as a precondition to is-suing new banking licences. The bill will further amplify business from outside as foreign banks will be permitted to convert their Indian operations into local subsidiaries or transfer shareholding to a holding company of the bank without pay-ing stamp duty whereas under cur-rent laws, foreign banks such as Citi Bank and Standard Chartered have to pay 20-30 percent tax as capital gains and stamp duty when transfer-ring the branch to a new legal entity under the current laws.

The banking bill will increase shareholders’ voting rights to 26 percent from 10 percent in private sector banks, making investment more attractive to foreign players. The bill also enables the government to raise voting rights in state banks such as the State Bank of India to 10

percent from just 1 percent now, ac-ceding partially to foreign investors’ demands to have more say in Indian banking.

On the other hand, four bank unions-All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA), Bank Em-ployees Federation of India (BEFI), All India Bank Officers’ Associa-tion (AIBOA) and National Union of Bank Employees (NUBE) - have led the strike across India against the decision of the union government to pass Banking Law Amendments. They have vowed to continue their agitation even if the bill is cleared by the Parliament.

Unions feel the entry of more pri-vate banks is detrimental as public money deposited in the banks can be misused for the benefit of few corpo-rate honchos and not for the general public.

The bank unions also fear that the increase in the voting rights will give the corporate houses to get control over 24 old-generation private sec-tor banks.

The union leaders allege that the Congress led UPA government is determined to sell off whatever stake the government had in the economy to corporate and multi national inter-ests.

However, the common Indians are not ready to buy bank employees’ point of view. The internet is abuzz with the comments of common Indi-ans who feel that the bank employ-ees are protesting the new banking amendments because new law will bring in competition and they will have to really do their duty as they don’t want to serve customers like the private banks do.

A union leader admitted that of course the customer service in a gov-ernment owned bank may not be at par with a private bank but common Indians should keep one important point in mind that their money in a PSU bank is always safe and secure.

“In all the capitalist countries that have followed liberalised private sector model, banks have crumbled and collapsed. In the US, for in-stance, hundreds of banks/financial institutions have vanished, including so-called giants such as AIG, Leh-man Brothers, Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae, and so on,” argues C. H. Ven-katachalam, General Secretary, All India Bank Employees Association, in an article in The Hindu.

“Taxpayers’ money was pumped in to bail out these institutions. It was a virtual public takeover and regula-

tions are being tightened,” says Ven-katachalam.

An exclusive report by Reuters in August this year said that U.S. regu-lators directed five of the country’s biggest banks, including Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Group Inc, to develop plans for stav-ing off collapse if they faced seri-ous problems, emphasizing that the banks could not count on govern-ment help.

“Five years after the financial cri-sis, concerns remain about whether blow-ups at big banks could lead to another round of taxpayer bailouts. Trading losses have cost JPMorgan nearly $6 billion so far, and scandals such as the alleged rigging of an in-ternational interest rate benchmark have only highlighted the risks lurk-ing inside big banks,” said Reuters report.

If this the state of affairs of private banks in the US then India should have not shown haste in amending banking laws to handover Indian banking sector to the private play-ers. One should also remember that private banking is mainly meant for private profit. When profit matters other priorities, like consumer and country interests, become mean-ingless. Whereas the idea behind the nationalization of banks was to serve the large social purposes and the banks were supposed to sub-serve national priorities and objectives, such as rapid growth in agriculture, small industries and ex-ports, raising of employment levels, encouragement of new entrepre-neurs and the development of the backward areas.

Though the PSU banks failed to perform up to the mark but still they are a better bet in comparison with the private banks which have been marred in different controversies, like charging higher rate of interest, and levying hidden charges on borrowers. Had the government been serious, it could have found ways and means to make PSU banks more competitive.

There are plenty of complaints filed in the consumer court against private Indian banks.

Given the fact that most PSU banks have huge resources and fi-nancial assets, handing over them to the private players, even with tight control, could prove fatal for the Indian banking sector. Mayer Am-schel Rothschild observation “Give me control of a nation’s money and I care not who makes the laws” says too much. Is anybody listening?

Banking Amendment: boon or bane?

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24 201210 bUsINEss & EcoNomy

By Bhumika BhaRgav

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 2012 11sPorts

‘GOD’ sAysGOODBye

TO ODIs

dd SportS deSK

NeW DeLhI: The God of Cricket, Sachin Ramesh Ten-dulkar, on Sunday (December 23, 2012) said goodbye to the One Day International Cricket matches. With this, his 23-year-old glorious ODI career comes to an end during which he made numerous bating records. He goes out after amassing 18,426 runs in 463 one-dayers, at an average of 44.83. It is notable that Tendulkar had bid adieu to Twenty20 after playing just one game in 2006. He will now remain active in only the Test Cricket arena.

“I have decided to retire from the One-Day format of the game. I feel blessed to have fulfilled the dream of being part of a World Cup wining Indian team. The preparatory process to defend the World Cup in 2015 should begin early and in right earnest,” the 39-year-old said in a statement re-leased by the BCCI today.

“I would like to wish the team all the very best for the future. I am eternally grateful to all my well wishers for their uncondi-tional support and love over the years,” he added.

Tendulkar, considered the most complete batsman in modern cricket and one who was consid-ered next only to the legendary Sir Donald Bradman, finishes an illustrious career in the 50-over format, having played 463 ODIs, scored 18,426 runs and made 49 centuries, each of them a world record. Out of 49 centuries, he scored a double hundred, the first in this form of the game. His last ODI was against Pakistan in Dha-ka during the Asia Cup, where he made a half-century in India’s victory. Interestingly, Tendulkar made his ODI debut against Paki-stan way back in 1989 and he is quitting the scene just ahead of another series against the arch-

rivals. Tendulkar made his ODI debut on his first international tour, in 1989, against Pakistan in Gujranwala, where he got a duck. He scored his first half-century in his ninth ODI and made an im-mediate impact when promoted to open the batting in 1994, in an ODI against New Zealand in Auckland, where he smashed 82 in 49 balls. His first century took 79 ODIs to arrive but he kept pil-ing them on with remarkable con-sistency.

Some of the batting highlights in his ODI career include back-to-back hundreds against Australia in 1998 in a triangular tournament in Sharjah, finishing as the highest run-getter in the 2003 World Cup in South Africa, and becoming the first batsman to score a dou-ble-century in the ODI format, against South Africa in February 2010. His last ODI hundred came in the Asia Cup in Bangladesh in March this year -- a feat that completed an unprecedented 100 international tons. Tendulkar also has a mammoth tally of 96 ODI 50s to his credit.

The brightest moment of his ODI career came last year when he finally became part of a World Cup winning Indian team after five previous appearances.

Tendulkar’s overall tally of runs is unlikely to be matched anytime soon given that the distant second-best in the list, former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, has already retired from the game with 13,704 runs under his belt. Sri Lanka’s retired great Sanath Jayasuriya occupies the third spot in the overall chart with 13,430 runs. Be-sides his batting,

Te n d u l k a r took 154 wickets in ODIs.

DIVYA DELHI | New Delhi | December 24, 201212 PotPoUrrI

NeW DeLhI: Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar released a collection of poems written by Jacob Isaac, an Indian living in South Africa.

The collection, “Sense of Enigma” was released at the Speaker’s Chamber in Parlia-ment House. Deputy Chairper-son of the Rajya Sabha Mr. P. J. Kurian accepted the first copy.

Baiju Chalakkal, director of Media House, the book’s pub-lisher, while welcoming the audience and introducing the book, said that the poems are on the psychology and philosophy of life. They take “a closer look at issues in its minutest details and present them from a new angle, he said.

While releasing the book, Meira Kumar asked to resist a “tendency to keep poets away from society.”They should be part of social thinking and plan-

ning,” Kumar said.A few other writers and jour-

nalists joined the function at which Kumar also appreciated

Isaac for bringing laurels to In-dia through his poems both in English and Malayalam.

Kurian said the “enigmatic”

poems are inspirational and lauded the author who received Excellence in Poetry award at the World Poets’ Congress, Lerissa,

Greece in 2011 organized by United Poets Lauriates interna-tional USA. Isaac now lives and works in Pretoria, South Africa.

MuMbAI: Talented dancer and actress Shakti Mohan launched her dance calendar, Nritya Shakti 2013, with the legendary and renowned Kathak Dancer Sitara Devi as the chief guest. Conceptualized around the idea of ‘Dancing with The Gods’, Shakti is seen in six differ-ent avatars from our Hindu mythology. Friends Kritika Kamra, Additi Gupta, Aibgail Jain, Kunwar Amarjeet Singh, Chang, along with the Dil Dosti Dance gang were seen cheering for Shakti at the event. Terrence Lewis walked in late but was overheard saying he was coming directly from the airport but couldn’t miss his student Shakti’s launch. Besides the unveiling of the calendar, the three Mohan sisters also launched their music video ‘Move’ which is composed by Neeti, writ-ten and directed by Mukti and stars Shakti.

Meira Kumar releases ‘Sense of Enigma’

Shakti Mohan launches dance calendar

NeW DeLhI: Dr. Shobha Vijender, Municipal Councilor of Ward no-50 took initiative to organize a Clean-liness March starting from District Park, Sector-14, Rohini and covered almost entire area of Sector-9 in-cluding D D.A.Market, D.C.Chowk etcetera. Hundreds of people from all walks of the society mainly con-sisting of teachers, students of se-nior secondary school, volunteers and residents of Ward no-50 partici-pated.

Dr. Shobha Vijender, while ad-dressing the public March, said that the programme is the best model of Public Private Partnership (PPP). She said the main motive behind this initiative was to generate aware-ness and developing an essence of responsibility among the residents of the ward.

The street play with sanitation theme was staged at District Park Sector-9, D.C.Chowk and Mahara-na Pratap Community Centre.

The street plays were performed by the team of Ramky Foundation, G.D.Goenka School and V.S.P.K. School.

Dr. Shobha Vijender organises cleanliness drive