winner takes all - indiafirstepaper.com takes all as the bjd wins the battle of bijepur decisively,...

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1 MARCH 2018` 30

RNI REGD NO. ORIENG/2004/13647VOLUME 14, ISSUE 01 | FORTNIGHTLY

INDIAFIRSTS P E A K S Y O U R M I N D

RAISING THE BARStepped up its game for public

benefit on many fronts over thepast few months, the Naveen

Patnaik government has made BJDa more formidable political force

than ever before in Odisha

WINNERTAKES ALL

As the BJD wins the battle of Bijepur decisively, reasserting chiefminister Naveen Patnaik’s status as Odisha’s favourite politician byfar, a vanquished BJP is left with a bruised ego and a tainted image

THE GREAT INDIANBANK ROBBERY How billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi plugged intolong-existing loopholes in state-run financialfirms to drain Rs11,800 crores out of taxpayers’pockets into his coffers

BREAKING POINTAs a disgruntled Telugu Desam Party standson the brink of breaking away from the NDA,the BJP keeps sending mixed signals

TREADING ON THIN ICE After completing three yearsin power, the Aam Aadmi Party is back under thenational spotlight – but for all the wrong reasons

IF20180301

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Since returning to power at the Centre nearlyfour years ago, the Bharatiya Janata Party hasproven many times, for better or worse, that it

is well capable of taking somestrong stands and putting intoaction some audaciously ambi-tious plans whenever it hasdeemed correct to do so.Conducting surgical strikes on

terrorist camps across the Line ofControl in Pakistan and keepingthe Chinese army from bullyingBhutan in the Doklam standoffare just a few instances in whichthe BJP government demon-strated New Delhi’s newfoundtenacity to its neighbours.A similar strong posturing was

on display most recently duringCanadian Prime Minister JustinTrudeau’s eight-day state visit toIndia last month. Thanks to Canada being per-

ceived as being soft on its resi-dent Sikh separatists who wantan independent Khalistan carvedout of Punjab, many political ob-servers noted, the Modi govern-

ment gave Trudeau the cold shoulder during the initialpart of his visit. Prime Minister Modi was not there toreceive him at the New Delhi airport, as is customaryin India for a leader of Trudeau’s stature. Nor did Modiaccompany him to Gujarat as he does to other worldleaders. It was only on the fifth day of the Canadianpremier’s visit that Prime Minister Modi tweeted hiswelcome message. After the two leaders exchanged a hug during the

ceremonial reception at the Rashtrapati Bhawan,everything looked hunky-dory and talks of bilateralcooperation for mutual benefit became order of theday. Yet, while issuing a joint statement besideTrudeau, Modi made it clear in no uncertain termsthat no nation should allow its soil to be used for terroragainst others. And Trudeau had to respond with a re-assurance to that effect.Some observers have been of the opinion that the

Modi government was too harsh on Trudeau, but thereis little denying that this government, through itsdiplomatic resoluteness, has helped India move closerto its rightful position in the international community.Just as there is no denying now that while the gov-

ernment’s decision on demonetisation and Goods andServices Tax may have been well intentioned, as partof the much-needed big bang reforms for our econ-omy, the implementation of those decisions was farfrom ideal.Not long after liquor baron Vijay Mallya fled from

the shores of India, leaving behind his Kingfisher Air-lines grounded with a default of 9,000 crores, a biggerbomb blew in the face of the government and the na-tion as diamantaire Nirav Modi did just the same afterdefrauding the Punjab National Bank, very much apublic sector undertaking, of over 12,000 crore.The Modi government has been quick to react, al-

ready having taken a few steps to ensure that suchscams never afflict the nation again, but it could havecaught the PNB fraud case earlier had it put in placethe necessary measures right after the Mallya case it-

self. Anyway, better late than never.

Whether another such debilitatingscam will hit us depends onwhether, how and how fast the re-formatory steps – the missing (oroverlooked) checks and balances –are implemented.On the political front, the BJP

government seems to have theright mix of formulas for dealingwith other political entities –whether it be with allies or rivals.While it has very cleverly kept theAam Aadmi Party government incheck in the national capital, theBJP has also managed so far to re-tain an increasingly disgruntledTelegu Desam Party within the foldof the NDA. However, if the Bijepurbypoll results are any indication,the saffron party is far from crack-ing the code of Odisha – whichseems to be an impregnable bas-tion of the Biju Janata Dal. n

1 MARCH 2018 INDIA FIRST 3

FROM

THE E

DITOR

’S DE

SK“The BJP government seems to have theright mix of formulas for dealing with otherpolitical entities – whether it be with alliesor rivals. However, if the Bijepur bypollresults are any indication, the saffron partyis far from cracking the code of Odisha –which seems to be an impregnable bastionof the Biju Janata Dal”

By SUNJOY HANSEditor-in-Chief

STRONG, BUT NOT PERFECT

4 INDIA FIRST 1 MARCH 2018

CONTENTS

32BUSINESS

ATTENTION TORETAILOffline expansion mayjust hold the key to thegrowth of thesmartphone industry inIndia

08COVERSTORY

As the BJD wins the battle of Bijepur decisively,reasserting chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s statusas Odisha’s favourite politician by far, a vanquishedBJP is left with a bruised ego and a tainted image

PANGOLINS INPERILWhile the scalyanteaters are beingpoached to extinction,the government seemsto be looking the otherway

33WILDLIFE

IT’S ALL TOOCRYPTICWhile the governmentrefuses to recognisecryptocurrencies aslegal lender and likensBitcoins to Ponzischemes, stakeholdersare still vouching forthe future of virtualcurrencies

A FRAYING KNOTThe PDP-BJP alliancein Jammu and Kashmirseems to be becomingincreasingly tenuous inthe face of recent terrorattacks

30POLITICS

INDIAFIRSTEditor-in-Chief Sunjoy Hans[email : [email protected]]

Consulting Editor Pankaj Kumar

Associate Editor Siddhartha Tripathy

Senior Special Correspondent Kabita Dash

General Manager Bimal Ku. Bhanjdeo

Legal Advisors Yasobant Das

Orissa Correspondent H.K. Rath (Bapun)

Delhi Correspondent Samita Chaudhary

Special Correspondents Tarun Khanduja,Ashok Mehta

Production Head Debabrata Mishra

Assistant Art Director Prabhakar Hota

General Manager Finance Niranjan Das

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RNI Regd No. ORIENG/2004/13647Volume 14, Issue 01, 1 March 2018, Fortnightly

email : [email protected]

S P E A K S Y O U R M I N D

36FINANCE

WINNER TAKES ALL


In a nutshell

‘Beering’ the BruntDays after Manohar Parrikar's

comment about his fear of girlsdrinking beer went viral and inspiredthe #GirlsWhoDrinkBeer on socialmedia, a Delhi-based novelist has putout an open invite for a beer date withthe Goa Chief Minister. Kota Neelima inan open letter to Parrikar recently wrotethat she along with like-minded menand women will be turning up in Goa onMarch 5, to share a beer with him at hisoffice or residence, in a bid to "drivehome a point against patriarchal no-tions in politics and democratic gover-nance". The Goa Chief Minister duringan interaction with students had earlierlast month said: "I have begun to fearnow, because even the girls have started

drinking beer. So [the] barrier of that tol-erance limit is being crossed ... Not all ofthem". The comment had triggered con-troversy with women posting photo-graphs of them drinking beer along with#GirlsWhoDrinkBeer. Parrikar, in hisfirst clarification on the issue, said thathe had actually expressed concern andnot fear and that he was not against any-one who drank beer. n

No Suitable SuitorsOdisha Chief Minister Naveen Pat-

naik has once again rubbishedspeculations of the ruling Biju JanataDal (BJD) striking an alliance with theBharatiya Janata Party (BJP). "That is notcorrect. We remain equidistant from theBJP as well as the Congress," the Chief

Minister told mediapersons after re-turning from Delhi. The meeting be-tween Patnaik and Prime MinisterNarendra Modi in Delhi had triggeredspeculations that the two leaders mighthave discussed on a possible allianceahead of the 2019 polls. "During my visitto Delhi, I met the Prime Minister andpresented a copy of the book The TallMan Biju Patnaik," said the Chief Min-ister. He also rubbished media specula-tions that the BJD would play a pivotalrole in national politics in the comingdays. "BJD is concentrating on its goodwork for Odisha," he added. Patnaik alsodismissed talks of opposition leader

Gone for a Toss APunjab Minister who tossed himself into a controversy by flipping a

coin to decide on posting of one of the two lecturers at a state poly-technic has justified the method involved and blamed a section of themedia. A video showing Technical Education Minister Charanjit SinghChanni tossing the coin in the presence of candidates had gone viral onsocial media. The toss was recorded when the Minister called 37 lecturersin mechanical stream, recruited through the Punjab Public Service Com-mission, for giving them their posting orders. Justifying the method headopted to select the candidate, Singh maintained that it was for the firsttime vis-a-vis the Technical Education Department that posting stationsfor newly selected lecturers were allotted in a "transparent manner as pertheir choice". n


Narasingha Mishra joining the BJD, asdid Bhupinder Singh. n

Tailored Controversy Aday after the opposition Congress

legislators in the Assam legislativeAssembly demanded removal of actressPriyanka Chopra as the brand ambassa-dor of Assam tourism, State TourismMinister Himanta Biswa Sarma came toher rescue and said that a section of theCongress legislators are trying to getcheap publicity out of the issue. Con-gress legislators recently raised objec-tions during the ongoing session of theAssam legislative assembly to a photo-graph of the Bollywood star in 'minimalclothes' as featured in a calendar of theAssam Tourism Development Corpora-tion (ATDC) and demanded that she beremoved as the brand ambassador ofAssam tourism. Priyanka, who was ap-pointed by the Assam government asthe brand ambassador of AssamTourism, has drawn severe criticism asthe film star remained silent even as theworst ever floods hit the state last year.

The "Quantico" star was also in a con-troversy for referring to Sikkim as an in-surgency hit state while the fact remainsthat Sikkim is the most peaceful state inthe northeast region. n

Bihar’s Shoe-Stoppers Ahead of the Class 10 examina-

tions, the Bihar School Examina-tion Board (BSEB) has directed studentsto sit in exams while wearing slippers orflip-flops and not shoes along withsocks. "There is nothing new in this

order to students appearing in Class 10exams from February 21. It is a usualpractice in other examinations held inthe state. The board decided to adoptthe practice from this year," BSEB Chair-man Anand Kishore said. Nearly 17.70lakh students will sit for the Class 10exams at 1,426 centres across the statefrom February 21 to 28. Nearly 1,000 stu-

dents were penalised for cheating dur-ing the Class 12 exams that concludedrecently. According to BSEB officials, theannual examinations this year were fairand mass cheating is a thing of the pastin Bihar. Last year, the Class 12 Artsstream topper was a 42-year-old man,who was later arrested for on the chargeof faking his age to take the exams. n

Mending FencesPunjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh on February 21 met visiting

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Amritsar. Besides theTrudeau-Amarinder meeting, which was highly uncertain, the other high-light was the Chief Minister meeting Canadian Defence Minister HarjitSingh Sajjan, who was born in Punjab's Hoshiarpur district and is the firstSikh to handle the defence portfolio of a western country. Amarinder hadfamously refused to meet the Canadian Defence Minister in April 2017during the latter's visit to the state and even dubbed him and other min-isters of Punjab-origin in the Trudeau government as "Khalistani sympa-thisers". In 2016, Amarinder had shot off an angry letter to Trudeau,protesting against the Canadian government's denial of permission forhis interactive meetings with Punjabis in the cities of Toronto and Van-couver. He was forced to cancel his political rallies following objectionsraised by Sikh hardliners with the Canadian government. n


POLITICALLY INCORRECT

A fortnightly update on the faux pas of the movers and shakers of Indian politics

“And now, we aredependent upon the northIndians and this is whatthey do. They are notbothered about Goa. Theywould like to recreate aHaryana in Goa"

Goa's Agriculture MinisterVijai Sardesai

“The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is not amilitary organisation, but we have disciplinelike the military. If the country requires andthe country's Constitution allows, the RSS isready to fight on the borders against theenemy”

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief MohanBhagwat at a meeting of the organisation inMuzaffarpur.

“Enough is enough now,ban them for their onlycrime, that is being aPakistani. Let we Indianswear our hearts on oursleeves and let our heartsbeat in salutation of thesacrifice of our bravehearts”

Singer-turned-Unionminister Babul Supriyo onPakistani singers featuringin Bollywood films.


Cover Story

WINNERTAKES ALL

As the BJD wins the battle of Bijepur decisively,reasserting chief minister Naveen Patnaik’s status asOdisha’s favourite politician by far, a vanquished BJP is

left with a bruised ego and a tainted image

Saroj Mishra

In yet another proof of Naveen Pat-naik-led Biju Janata Dal’s (BJD)electoral invincibility, the party

has won the high-stakes Bijepur assem-bly by-poll by a margin of nearly 42,000votes.Party candidate Rita Sahu, widow of

former Congress MLA Subal Sahu,polled 1,02,871 votes against 60,938 ofBJP’s Ashok Panigrahi, a BJD turncoat.Congress candidate Pranay Sahu, whocould manage just 10,274 votes, lost hisdeposit.The bye-election was a prestige issue

for the three major parties, especiallythe BJP and BJD which, political punditsbelieve, would battle it out for the tophonours in 2019 unless the NDA govern-ment decides to advance the generalelections. Although state BJP leaderssought to put up a brave face seekingsolace in the fact that the party’s votes inBijepur had doubled compared to 2014assembly elections when it had polled30,000 votes, there was no denying thedisappointment at the loss.The defeat, coming in the backdrop of

BJP president Amit Shah’s much-hypedMission 120 for Odisha which has 147assembly seats, is bound to hurt theparty as it would demoralize partycadres preparing for the general elec-tions. The party, which had mounted ahigh-voltage and often bitter campaign

against chief minister Naveen Patnaik,was also hopeful of doing well as it hadgot around 90,000 votes in Bijepur in thelast panchayat elections.However, its calculations appear to

have gone completely wrong. Union pe-troleum and natural gas minister Dhar-mendra Pradhan, who led the BJPcampaign from the front, said that thelessons from Bijepur would stand theparty in good stead in 2019. “What is im-portant is that we have got 60, 000 votesthis time,” he added. What seems to have worked against

the BJP were the twin incidents of shoehurling at chief minister Naveen Patnaikwhile he was campaigning in the con-stituency on February 20, and the attackon Subrat Singh, brother of minister ofstate for labour Sushant Singh, and histhree aides at Banabira three days later,which led to a death (more on thatlater).The violence that triggered a war of

words between BJP and BJD queered thepitch for the saffron party with popularanger against it rising. Chief ministerNaveen Patnaik hinted at this in histweet that said: “Humbled by love &trust of the people of #Bijepur for giving@bjd_Odisha a massive victory. BJDlives in the hearts of the people of#Odisha. Our people are peace lovingand have rejected the politics of hatred


Rita Sahu, widow of former Congress MLA, Subal Sahu (Left)

and violence.” Former minister Atanu Sabyasachi

Nayak, who campaigned extensively inBijepur, said the huge margin of victoryreflected people’s faith in Naveen’s lead-ership and the good work of his party.“People have rejected the politics of ha-tred. They know that our chief ministerbelieves in hard work,” said Nayak. The result has come as a big blow to

the faction-ridden state Congress, withPradesh Congress Committee (PCC)president Prasad Harichandan, whoseresignation the dissidents were de-manding, putting in his papers. A senior Congress leader said the

party had paid the price for the inordi-nate delay in candidate selection whichaffected its campaign. “We campaignedfor a very short period compared to BJPand BJD. We should all own up respon-sibility for the debacle,” he said.That Bijepur by-poll, billed as the

biggest battle before the general elec-tions, was a prestige issue for the state’sthree major parties was obvious fromthe high-voltage and the often acrimo-nious campaign.Seen as the dress rehearsal for 2019,

the bye-election was the last opportu-nity for the major parties to test their re-spective strengths before staking theirclaim for the throne of Odisha. No won-der BJD and BJP, the top contenders, en-gaged in long bouts of recriminations

during the campaign. Leading the BJD campaign was chief

minister Naveen Patnaik himself. Hemoved around the constituency withparty candidate Rita Sahu in tow evok-ing the sympathy of the voters. Unfazedby the shoe-throwing incident at one ofhis public meetings he also sought voteson the development plank.Leading the BJP charge, union minis-

ter Dharmendra Pradhan accused min-ister of state for labour Sushant Singhthe chief minister’s point man in Bi-jepur, of unleashing a reign of terror inthe constituency. He also pointed fin-gers at some senior bureaucrats allegingthat they were trying to help the rulingparty. The union minister’s blistering dia-

tribe drew an immediate retort from theBJD with its senior leader and RajyaSabha member Prasanna Acharya slam-ming Pradhan for making allegationsagainst a state minister without suffi-cient proof. “If they have proof againsthim let them inform the Election Com-mission,” challenged Acharya.The bitter war of words between BJP

and BJD and the flurry of complaintslodged by them with the Election Com-mission saw some key officials beingtransferred from Bargarh district, thelast to go being the Padampur Sub-Divi-sional Police Officer (SDPO) who the BJPaccused of foisting false cases against its

workers.While recrimination, especially be-

tween BJP and BJD, was the dominantfeature of the high-decibel campaign inBijepur, both the parties also sought todazzle the voters by deploying film starswho held road shows and public meet-ings. If the BJD threw into the campaignactors-turned-politicians Anubhav Mo-hanty, Siddhant Mohapatra and AkashDas Nayak, the BJP’s star power wasboosted by well-known Odia actors Ma-hashweta, Aparajita, Mihir and SritamDas.While the BJP’s campaign saw several

union ministers, including Smriti Irani,Ram Kripal Yadav, Giriraj Singh, Dhar-mendra Pradhan and Jual Oram (the lasttwo hailing from Odisha), address pub-lic meetings in the constituency, the rul-ing party’s star attraction was chiefminister Naveen Patnaik who, ably as-sisted by younger leaders like AtanuSabyasachi Nayak, played both develop-ment and the sympathy cards as he heldroad shows and addressed meetingswith party candidate Rita Sahu for com-pany.Within hours of the campaign draw-

ing to an end, tension reached a flash-point in Bijepur with minister of statefor labour Sushant Singh’s brother, Sub-rat Singh, and three of his aides sustain-ing grievous injuries in an attack. The vehicle of Subrat was intercepted


BJD workers celebrate the party's win in Bijepur by-election, at the party office in Bhubaneswar.

by miscreants near Banabira chowkunder Sohela block of Bargarh district.The miscreants, who thrashed Subratand his aides, also damaged the vehicleby throwing stones and firing bullets atit. Badly injured Subrat and his associ-ates were rushed to the Veer SurendraSai Institute of Medical Sciences and Re-search (VIMSAR) at Burla by the police.Later Subrat’s driver, Dileswar Sahu,succumbed to his injuries at a hospitalin Cuttack.Sources said that Subrat and his col-

leagues had been to Banabira chowk onhearing that some BJP workers were try-ing to woo voters by distributing money.They were attacked by around 40 mis-creants who were carrying firearms. Briefing the media, a senior police of-

ficer said police had arrested three per-sons in connection with the incident,including one who had unsuccessfullycontested the last Zilla Parishad electionin Bargarh district. He said some crimi-nal elements from neighbouring Chhat-tisgarh were also involved in theincident. While the police, who refrained from

taking names, said members of one po-litical group had attacked another, theincident triggered an immediate blamegame with ruling BJD alleging that therewas a conspiracy by BJP to disrupt the

Bijepur by-poll. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik con-

demned the attack saying there was noplace for violence in democracy. “Thepeople of Odisha are peace loving. Istrongly condemn this cowardly act,”said Naveen even as a BJD delegationled by Rajya Sabha member PrasannaAcharya submitted a memorandum toBargarh collector alleging that there wasa conspiracy to disrupt peace during theelection. A BJD delegation led by minis-ter Surya Narayan Patro also met thechief electoral officer in Bhubaneswarand demanded arrest of the culprits inthe attack on Subrat. On the other hand, senior BJP leader

and union minister Dharmendra Prad-han sought to put the blame for violenceat the doorstep of BJP. His party MLAPradeep Purohit also accused the rulingparty of making baseless allegationsagainst BJP without verifying facts. The constituency with around 2.21

lakh voters had 155 of its 281 pollingbooths marked “critical”. A day beforepolling CRPF and BSF along with thestate police had conducted flag marchesin some of the sensitive areas. The ad-ministration, aware of the sensitive na-ture of the by-poll, had constituted 12squads, half of which were flying squads,to ensure smooth polling. As many as

five companies of CRPF and BSF and 36platoons of Odisha State Armed Police(OSAP) were on duty in the super-sensi-tive constituency on the polling day.The polling was by and large incident

free, fortunately, the only major aberra-tion being the removal of a presiding of-ficer midway through voting for tryingto influence people to cast their ballotsin favour of a particular party. Chiefelectoral officer Surendra Kumar saidthat presiding officer of booth No-193,Bahadur Sahu, a teacher of ThikarpalliUpper Primary School, was removedafter preliminary inquiry found him ask-ing voters to favour a particular candi-date. Sahu was also placed undersuspension.

The keen interest of voters in the by-poll was obvious from the fact that theconstituency recorded 82 percentpolling. Three static surveillance teamswere deployed, around 50 video cam-eras were installed in polling booths,and web casting was done on eightbooths. By winning the Bijepur seat with a

thumping margin, BJD chief ministerNaveen Patnaik has once again provedthat there is no alternative to him inOdisha. His opponents may find theTINA factor galling, but they can do littleabout it at the moment. n


The Nirav Modi case -- which involvesa sum considerably higher than theVijay Mallya default of Rs 9,000 crore– has come when Indian banks aregrappling with swelling non-performing assets.


His sparkling diamond jewellery wasflaunted across international red car-pets by celebrities such as Kate Winslet,

Viola Davis, Priyanka Chopra and DeepikaPadukone, but billionaire designer Nirav Modi al-ways said that he was passionate about pinningIndian jewellery on the global luxury map. How-ever, recent days have seen Nirav Modi put Indiain the centre of a US$1.8 billion financial fraud thatwas allegedly conducted through foreign banksacross the world. Modi has been accused of conniving with em-

ployees of Punjab National Bank (PNB), the coun-try’s second-largest state-owned bank, and raisingmillions of dollars from banks outside India afterobtaining fake letters of undertaking (LoU) fromPNB.

MODI OPERANDIThe scam surfaced when officials of Nirav Modi

and Mehul Choksi groups approached the PNB'sBrady House Branch in January this year to seekLoU for making payments to suppliers. The prac-tice of illegally issuing LoUs and Foreign Letter ofCredit (FLCs) and then rolling them over to favourNirav Modi and Mehul Choksi groups started in2008 and continued till these were discovered inJanuary this year when the new PNB officials de-manded margin money to issue the LoUs. PNB’s Gokulnath Shetty who retired last May

was allegedly assisting the diamond tycoons inconducting the country’s biggest financial fraud. It has been learnt that PNB officials used to take

percentage commissions in lieu of issuing lettersof undertaking and foreign letters of credit to dia-mond czar Nirav Modi and his partner MehulChoksi and their firms.According to CBI sources, the arrested bank of-

ficials during interrogation disclosed that for everyLoU, a percentage of the amount was fixed de-pending upon the amount to be sanctioned.The commission collected from the client was

then distributed between all employees of PNB in-volved in the scam, the sources said. "There is clear criminal connivance of the group

companies of Nirav Modi and Gitanjali Gems withour branch official and also, apparently, with offi-cials of overseas branches of Indian banks," thePNB said in a detailed note sent to 30 Indian na-tionalized banks, a private bank and a foreignbank.The PNB note said "the suspected fraud had

been carried out by the perpetrators in collusionwith the staff" at its Brady House Branch in Fort insouth Mumbai.The PNB said that on examination of SWIFT (in-

ternational payment network) trail, it was foundthat a junior level branch official had unautho-rizedly and fraudulently issued LoUs on behalf ofsome companies belonging to billionaire diamondtrader Nirav Modi to avail buyers' credit from for-eign branches of various Indian banks. The companies were: Solar Exports, Stellar Dia-

monds and Diamond R Us, which only had Cur-rent Accounts and did not enjoy the privilege ofany fund/non-fund based limits with the branch."None of the transactions were routed through

the CBS System, thus avoiding early detection offraudulent activity," the PNB's mail said. CBS is thecore banking solution system which tracks alltransactions.Worse, the PNB said, the same modus operandi

was used by the unidentified PNB official in otherdiamond majors like Gitanjali Gems Pvt. Ltd, be-longing to Mehul Choksi, Gitanjali Gems, Gili Indiaand Nakshatra, for issuing similar LoUs and For-

Cover Story

The GreatIndian Bank

Robbery How billionaire jeweller Nirav Modi plugged into long-existing

loopholes in state-run financial firms to drain around Rs12,000 croresout of taxpayers’ pockets into his coffers


eign Letter of Credit (FLCs).However, these companies enjoyed

credit facilities under the fund-based/non-fund based schemes of PNB.In the case of FLCs, the bank's prelim-

inary investigations made the stunningrevelation that while issuing FLCs ofsmaller amounts by SWIFT, the transac-tion was routed through the CBS but"subsequently, amendments were madein these FLCs by substantially enhanc-ing the amount of FLC and transmittedthrough SWIFT, without routing theseenhancements through CBS," said thePNB letter.Later, the official would convey via

SWIFT the acceptance of bills for the fullamount of the FLC to the overseas nego-tiating branch, said the PNB, clearlyhinting at a possible major exposure ofother banks in the fraud.

GREAT ESCAPESoon after the scam surfaced, a Cen-

tral Bureau of Investigation (CBI) look-out notice was issued against thejeweller and his associates but by thenthey had already escaped from India.According to sources, the notice was

issued against Modi along with his wifeAmi, brother Nishal Modi and MehulChoksi on January 31. The circular wasissued to all airports, ports and exitpoints to stop them from escaping. While Nirav and his brother Nishal, a

Belgian citizen, left India on January 1,his wife Ami, a US citizen, and Choksileft on January 6, all before the CBI re-ceived a complaint from the PNB onJanuary 29.

Three weeks later Nirav Modi wasposing with Prime Minister NarendraModi in a group photograph of corpo-rate chieftains at the annual economicforum in Davos, Switzerland -- just sixdays before the scam was first reportedby the bank, much to the embarrass-ment of the BJP government.It has also been reported that some

time in 2017, Nirav Modi’s family – wifeand two daughters (along with theirthree dogs) – left Mumbai to shift to NewYork. The son had already been sent to a

private school in London. Nirav Modi’s personal financial

wealth, according to Forbes, is around$1.6 billion (or a little over Rs 11,000crore, coincidentally the same amountthat PNB appears to be missing). In 2013-14, he made the Forbes

world’s billionaires list – ranking 1,067globally and 46 in India in 2016.Before the scam surfaced, Modi had

also changed his status from resident In-dian to Non-Resident Indian. The man-ner of Modi’s escape, reminiscent ofbeer baron Vijay Mallya’s run to Britainnot too long ago, suggests that he knewthe scam would become public and thelaw would soon catch up with him. The CBI has booked Nirav Modi, his

brother Nishal Modi, wife Ami Modi andModi’s maternal uncle Mehul Choksi --partners of Diamond R US, Solar Ex-ports, Stellar Diamonds – for commit-ting the offence of cheating the bankand causing a "wrongful loss". At least10 PNB employees have been placedunder suspension.Nirav’s brother Nishal is married to

Isheta Salgaocar, the neice of Anil andMukesh Ambani. The Chief FinancialOfficer of Nirav Modi's firm Firestar isVipul Ambani, son of Dhirubhai Am-bani's younger brother Natubhai Am-bani.It is learnt that Modi - whose opera-

tions are spread across Europe, the US,Middle East and Far East besides India -has written to PNB and other banks thathe would return their outstanding dues.The latest case -- which involves a

sum considerably higher than the VijayMallya default of around Rs 9,000 crore-- comes at a time when the Indianbanking system is already grapplingwith swelling non-performing assets.

BRUISED BANKS An Indiaspend report estimated that,

in 2016 and 2017, more than 5,200 “will-ful defaulters” owed public-sector banksabout $8.65 billion, a figure that exceeds

Soon after his suspensionby the BCCI for moneylaundering, IPL founderand architect Lalit Modi wasextended “humanitarian as-sistance” with emergencypapers for travel in June2015 to London where he isnow based.

Vijay Mallya of KingfisherAirlines, who defraudedstate-run banks of Rs 9,000crore, fled the country onMarch 1, 2016, breezingthrough immigration withease. That too after a look-out notice was issued forMallya on October 16, 2015which was surprisinglyamended a month later, onNovember 24, 2015.

Arms dealer Sanjay Bhan-dari, who is believed to bethe key player in the Au-gusta deal and whom theModi government allegedwas linked to Robert Vadraafter income tax authoritiesclaimed to have found anemail chain linking the two,slipped out of the country inDecember two years ago.

Jatin Mehta's WinsomeGroup owes Indian banksRs 6,800 crore. Mehta andhis wife reportedly becamecitizens of St Kitts and Nevisin 2013-14, just after the de-faults began. India does nothave an extradition treatywith St Kitts.

BILLIONAIRES ON THE RUN

“The PNB's fraudulenttransactions should act as astrong trigger for thegovernment for reducing itsstake to less than 50 per centin the banks which should thenbe allowed to work on the linesof private sector lenders with afull sense of accountability totheir shareholders protectinginterest of depositors”


the country’s expenditure on agricultureand farmer welfare.On February 22, the CBI arrested Ro-

tomac pen company owner VikramKothari and his son Rahul on charges ofcheating a consortium of banks of Rs3,695 crore (including interest) by si-phoning off loans sanctioned to hiscompany for procurement of wheat andother goods for export.The agency filed the FIR after getting

a complaint against Kothari, his wifeSadhana and son Rahul, from the Bankof Baroda. Kothari is the Chairman andManaging Director of Rotomac while hiswife and son are Directors.Kothari had obtained Rs 2,919 crore

from Bank of India (Rs 754.77 crore),Bank of Baroda (Rs 456.63 crore), IndianOverseas Bank (Rs 771.07 crore), UnionBank of India (Rs 458.95 crore), Alla-habad Bank (Rs 330.68 crore), Bank ofMaharashtra (Rs 49.82 crore) and Orien-tal Bank of Commerce (Rs 97.47 crore). Kothari, his wife, son, firm Rotomac,

some unidentified bank officials andprivate persons were booked on chargesof criminal conspiracy, cheating and for-gery under the Indian Penal Code andPrevention of Corruption Act. State-run Allahabad Bank said it has

an exposure of Rs 516.79 crore to debt-laden Rotomac group as on January endand the lender has the required provi-sion for the same as per RBI norms.According to a regulatory filing, the

bank said it has an outstanding of Rs43.09 crore to Rotomac Exim Pvt Ltd asa sole banker, Rs 314.56 crore to Ro-

tomac Global as multiple banking lend-ing and Rs 159.14 crore to Rotomac Ex-ports as a consortium arrangement withBank of India as a lead banker.These three accounts constitute Rs

516.79 crore of outstanding exposure ason January 31, 2018.Another shocking case is that of Jatin

Mehta, the promoter of Winsome Dia-monds, which owes Indian banks awhopping Rs 7,000 crore. In list of thosedeclared wilful defaulters by banks, Win-some Diamonds is ranked No.2. -- just arung below liquor baron Vijay Mallyawho has a cumulative outstanding of Rs9,000 crore.Mehta and wife have fled the country

and taken citizenship in St Kitts andNevis, with which India has no extradi-tion treaty. They gave up their Indian cit-izenship in 2013-2014. The governmentof the dual-island nation in theCaribbean has a "citizenship by invest-ment" programme which has attractedseveral foreign nationals from across theworld to the tax haven.The couple is currently based in

Dubai and London but travel widely be-tween Singapore, London, Europe andthe US and maintain Swiss bank ac-counts.

Mehta's Winsome Group attractedtrouble with repayment of bank loans inMarch 2013. In October that year, thecompany and its promoter were de-clared willful defaulters and the loansdeclared as non-performing assets. The CBI took up the case in 2014.

Like Nirav Modi, Mehta is also a well-connected businessman. His son, Suraj,is married to Krupa, the daughter of thebrother of Gautam Adani, known to beclose to senior BJP leaders.

BANKING REFORMS Government-run banks cannot place

the entire blame on defaulters for engi-neering billion-dollar scams withoutlooking within and answering toughquestions on their own disintegratedsystems which allow bank officials to ex-ecute frauds and go undetected for solong. It is no exaggeration that India's pub-

lic sector banks are facing the biggestever credibility crisis with the govern-ment constantly stepping in to clear upcolossal bad loans by infusing billions oftaxpayers' money. It is the honest Indianthat is footing the bill for billionairefraudsters and carelessly operated gov-ernment banks. It is not possible for a handful of bank

employees to commit a fraud on thisscale without the knowledge of other of-ficials. No single branch deputy man-ager or even senior has the power or thecapacity to give a green signal to suchlarge sums of money. No bank will leaveitself so vulnerable without pressurefrom outside sources.Industry chamber Assocham believes

that the government should surrenderits majority control of banks, whichshould be allowed to function like pri-vate sector lenders."The PNB's fraudulent transactions

The Punjab National Bank\'s (PNB) Brady House branch in Mumbai. The amount of fraudulent transactions by Nirav Modi’s companies is equivalent to eight times Punjab National Bank’s netincome of Rs 1,320 crore ($206 million).


worth Rs 11,300 crore should act as astrong trigger for the government for re-ducing its stake to less than 50 per centin the banks which should then be al-lowed to work on the lines of private sec-tor lenders with a full sense ofaccountability to their shareholders pro-tecting interest of depositors," As-socham said."The public sector banks (PSBs), iron-

ically, are slipping from one crisis to theother and there is a limit the govern-ment can keep bailing them out at thecost of taxpayers' money, even if it is theprincipal shareholder in these lenders,"it said."Once the government equity in the

banks is reduced below 50 per cent,there would be much more autonomyalong with accountability and responsi-bility of the senior management," As-socham said."The boards should then be truly

taking the policy decisions while theCEOs would run the banks with fullauthority, coupled with the commen-surate responsibility, instead of look-ing towards the bureaucrats fordirections," it added.

PRIVATE CALLAssocham Secretary General D.S.

Rawat in a statement urged the ReserveBank of India (RBI) to take the lead to"engage with the industry in findingways to do clean business in the entirefinancial sector, be it the public sector orprivate sector banks or even the non-

banking finance companies."In this regard, Chief Economic Advi-

sor (CEA) Arvind Subramaniam has alsoadvocated more private participation inpublic sector banks.Subramaniam said while the govern-

ment was going for recapitalisation ofpublic sector banks, the scrutiny, moni-toring and disciplined deployment mustbe ensured only through greater privateparticipation in banks.According to him, there should be less

public lending to private sector and themode to achieve that is to have higherprivate participation in the banking sec-tor. He said more privatisation could bethe way forward since there was noguarantee that better governance rec-ommendations of banks, instead of pri-vatisation, would be implementedeffectively.One of the key reasons for Bharatiya

Janata Party’s victory against the Con-gress in 2014 was its campaign to uprootcorruption from Indian soil. With NiravModi’s escape, this is the second timesince BJP came to power that a famousbillionaire has ducked the country’slegal system right under the noses of au-thorities. How the government reacts tothis banking crisis will decide its ownbankability in the next elections.As India First went to press, the gov-

ernment set a deadline of 15 days forpublic sector banks to examine all non-performing assets above Rs 50 crore forpossible fraud and to identify opera-tional and technical gaps.

Announcing this through the FinanceMinistry's Twitter handle, FinancialServices Secretary Rajeev Kumar alsosaid that Executive Directors and ChiefTechnological Officers of the PSBs haveto prepare a blueprint for combating in-creasing risks."Fifteen-day deadline for PSBs to take

preemptive action and identifygaps/Weaknesses to gear up for risingOps and Tech risks; To learn from bestpractices and pinpoint strategies includ-ing tech solutions; Clear accountabilityof senior functionaries," Kumartweeted.The Ministry has also directed gov-

ernment-owned banks' Managing Di-rectors to examine if there are anyviolations of law on money launderingand the Foreign Exchange ManagementAct, Kumar said."PSB MDs directed to detect bank

frauds and consequential wilful defaultin time and refer cases to CBI. To exam-ine all NPA accounts > Rs 50Cr for pos-sible fraud. Involve ED/DRI forPMLA/FEMA/EXIM violations if any,"he said in a separate tweet.This is an encouraging start, even if

a long overdue measure. At a timewhen lakhs of Indian farmers aredriven to suicide simply because theyare unable to pay back small loans, itis tragic that well-connected billion-aires are milking Indian banks dry andcontinue to live in the lap of luxury inforeign shores. And that too, at thecountry’s expense. n

Congress workers burn effigies of Nirav Modi, Vijay Mallya and Lalit Modi during a demonstration in Kolkata.


Cover Story

BREAKINGPOINT

As a disgruntled Telugu Desam Party stands on the brink of breakingaway from the NDA, the BJP keeps sending mixed signals


Political alliances are typicallyforged on a give-and-take basis,whether it be overt or covert.

In the summer of 2014, when the Tel-ugu Desam Party returned to the Na-tional Democratic Alliance after adecade of parting ways with it, it haddone so with the firm belief and re-peated assurance that the BharatiyaJanata Party would provide all the heal-ing touch promised from the Centre toAndhra Pradesh after the state was leftbleeding from its bifurcation during theCongress-led United Progressive Al-liance regime.Over the past nearly four years the

bleeding seems to have continued andthe alliance is increasingly showing allthe signs of an unhappy marriage.The TDP had already dropped hints

last year that its patience with the Cen-tre was growing thin. The party’s MPshad met Prime Minister Modi on the lastday of the winter session to submit hima memorandum.On January 12, after a long gap of one-

and-a-half years, Andhra Pradesh ChiefMinister N. Chandrababu Naidu calledon Prime Minister Narendra Modi todiscuss those unfulfilled promisesunder the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisa-tion Act and submit another 17-pagememorandum.In the one-hour meeting, Naidu urged

Prime Minister Modi to take immediatesteps towards addressing his state’s longpending demands keeping in view thenext year's simultaneous elections tothe Lok Sabha and Andhra state assem-bly.Naidu urged the Centre to immedi-

ately sanction Rs 58,000 crore requiredfor the Polavaram project. He also re-minded Prime Minister Modi to ensurethat sufficient funds were allocated inthe central budget for development ofthe new state capital Amaravati.

RAISING POINTSIn the meeting the TDP supremo is

also said to have asked Prime MinisterModi to take urgent steps to increase thenumber of seats in the Andhra state as-sembly from 175 to 225 as committed inthe Reorganisation Act.He also brought to Modi's notice that

the state was yet to receive Rs 3,000crore from the Centre towards the ex-penditure incurred so far on Polavaramproject. He sought release of the money.Naidu reiterated that the Centre shouldtotally fund the cost of the project,which has been declared a nationalproject. While announcing special package in

lieu for the special status in 2016, Union

Finance Minister Arun Jaitely had de-clared that the entire expenditure of theproject would be borne by the Centre.Naidu sought to remind Prime Minis-

ter Modi that as Andhra Pradesh suf-fered huge losses due to bifurcation ofthe state and face financial problems asa result, a further delay in fulfilling thecommitments given in the Act wouldcompound the current problems.As the state has to receive Rs.20,010

crore from Centre in the form of Exter-nally Aided Projects (EAPs) under thespecial package, Naidu urged Modi toprovide the funding assistance as cen-tral grant from National Bank for Agri-culture and Rural Development(NABARD) instead of loans through ex-ternal funding agencies.It seemed as if Naidu either returned

from that meeting dissatisfied or did notget a prompt enough reassurance fromPrime Minister Modi’s office. Because, five days later the TDP pres-

ident said the state government coulddrag the Centre to the Supreme Court inorder to get justice."We are not asking for any extra

favours. We are demanding what is due

to us under Andhra Pradesh Reorgani-sation Act. We want the Centre to do thehandholding and provide level playingfield till the state achieves parity withothers. If required, we will go to theSupreme Court on one or two issues,"he said at a conference of district collec-tors and other officials in Amravati.Naidu’s remarks came a day after NITI

Ayog Vice Chairman Rajiv Kumar'sstatement in Amaravati that AndhraPradesh was a fast growing economyand would not need much of help fromthe Centre. Naidu was also upset withhis Telangana counterpart K. Chan-drasekhar Rao's statement that AndhraPradesh was no comparison to Telan-gana.

SEEKING JUSTICEStating that Andhra Pradesh had the

lowest per capita income in the southwith a difference of Rs 35,000 with thenearest competitor, Naidu said this wasnot because of the mistake of people butdue to the unscientific decision of theUPA who split the state in 2014.He said five crore people suffered as

the then rulers did not do "equal justice"

Presiden Ram Nath Kovind during a meeting of the leaders of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Vijayawada.


by compensating the state for the loss ofHyderabad to Telangana.He said in the last three and half years,

the state had improved but had not re-covered from the loss. "If we have to re-cover there are only two options. Wehave to work hard or the Centre has todo the hand holding to undo the injus-tice."Naidu also reacted to Chandrasekhar

Rao's allegation that rulers from Andhradestroyed Hyderabad. "I developed Telangana and Hyder-

abad for the benefit of Telugu people.Those making such comments shouldsee what was Hyderabad before 1995and what was it afterwards," said Naidu,who served as the Chief Minister of un-divided state from 1995 to 2004.Nothing much changed in the days

leading up to the unveiling of the UnionBudget last month either. If anything,things got worse.The state leaders of the BJP had been

increasingly vociferous against the TDPon various issues. Some of them haveeven indicated that they were ready towork with the opposition YSR CongressParty.

Reacting for the first time to such crit-icism, Naidu said it was for the BJP'scentral leadership to control them. Talk-ing to reporters, the TDP chief said hewas adhering to coalition "dharma" byreining in his party leaders from reactingto their statements. "Because of coali-tion dharma, we are keeping quiet," saidNaidu."If they don't want us, we will do the

'namaskaram' and chart our owncourse," remarked Naidu.Naidu's remarks also came close on

the heels of YSR Congress Party chief Y.S.Jaganmohan Reddy's statement that hewould support the BJP if AndhraPradesh was given special status.

CALLING FOULIt did not seem like the BJP was listen-

ing. After Finance Minister Arun Jaitleyfinished his near-two-hour-long UnionBudget speech on the first day of Febru-ary, TDP was left fuming. The party ex-pressed its unhappiness with BJP-ledNDA government for the "raw deal"meted out to the state in the UnionBudget 2018-19.Naidu, at a meeting with his party

leaders, voiced his disappointment overlack of any allocations for the state tofulfill the commitments made in AndhraPradesh Reorganisation Act. Naidu methis cabinet colleagues and party leadersto discuss the "injustice" meted out tothe state.Cabinet minister S. Chandramohan

Reddy told reporters after the meetingthat they will convey their dissatisfac-tion to the Centre and the party leadersauthorized Naidu to take an appropriatedecision.He said the TDP had been waiting for

four years for the BJP to help the statecome out of the difficult situation cre-ated by its division. Party leader andUnion Minister of State for Science andTechnology Y. Sujana Chowdhary saidthat the budget has let down the peopleof Andhra Pradesh.Chowdhary told reporters in New

Delhi that the budget should have madeallocations for Polavaram project, devel-opment of new state capital Amaravati,the Visakhapatnam Metro Project andthe Visakhapatnam Railway Zone. Hesaid there were no allocations for majorrailway projects in the state.

NO GIVING INStating that there will be no compro-

mise on the state's interests, he said thefuture course of action would be de-cided by Chandrababu Naidu. Party MP Rammohan Naidu said they

were even ready to resign for the sake ofthe state.The next day, party sources revealed,

Chief Minister Naidu decided with otherTDP leaders to mount pressure on theBJP over the issue. A nearly three-hour-long meeting

which ended at 8.30 p.m., discussed indetail the meagre allocations made tothe state in the budget despite repeateddemands for last four years to fulfill thecommitments made at the time of thestate's division.Naidu noted that compared to the

northern states, the budget allocationsfor the southern states were meagre. Hesaid among the southern states, AndhraPradesh has the lowest revenues and hehad been demanding the Centre tohandhold the state till it comes up at parwith other states.The meeting felt that the Centre ig-

nored the demands for release of fundsunder special assistance measure an-nounced last year in lieu of special cat-egory status, allocation for Polavaramproject and financial assistance for de-velopment of state capital Amaravati.The ministers were of the view that

the Centre should have at least sanc-


tioned Metro project for Visakhapat-nam.Soon, the TDP decided to raise the

issue in Parliament.At the party’s Parliamentary Board

meeting in Amravati on February 4,Naidu said TDP would begin its fight byraising the issue in Parliament, sourcesrevealed. The TDP chief said the party'snext course of action would depend onthe response of the Modi government.The Board discussed in detail the

Union Budget and the Centre's failure toaddress the pending issues of the state.Some TDP leaders suggested that boththe central ministers of the TDP shouldquit to put pressure on the BJP. Naidu,however, said the party should first raisethe issue in Parliament.TDP leader and Union Minister of

State for Science and Technology Y. Su-jana Chowdhary told reporters that forthe TDP the state's interests were moreimportant than the alliance with the BJP.

DIDI'S BACKINGThe next day it found instant support

from another powerful regional party:The Trinamool Congress.West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata

Banerjee extended her support toAndhra Pradesh's ruling party, sayingshe would support any state which wasfacing neglect from the centre just likeher Bengal. "West Bengal is facing themaximum deprivation and neglectunder the present (National DemocraticAlliance) regime at the centre (led by theBJP). You can't browbeat the Trinamoolby treating Bengal in a step-motherlyway."And it is for similar reasons that

Andhra Pradesh has also becomevocal. I have been told that the TeluguDesam Party would leave the NDA be-cause of the way Andhra Pradesh isbeing deprived by the Centre. "I wouldlike to extend my backing to AndhraPradesh. I am with Andhra Pradesh. Iam with all states who are being de-prived, just like us," Banerjee said,while addressing a rally of the youthand student wings of the TrinamoolCongress in Siliguri.Banerjee's overtures to the TDP is

being seen in the light of her constantemphasis on forging alliance of regionalparties, which she had christened Fed-eral Front in the past."I still feel, parties which have

strength in a particular state, shouldfight (the BJP) there with all its strength.There should be one is to one (fight).This is what I feel. Again in some areas,there is need for adjustments and re-ad-justments. If this is done properly, this

(BJP led National Democratic Alliance)government will not be in saddle at thecentre after the 2019 elections," she hadsaid a few days earlier.On February 6, the Modi government

finally responded officially to TDP’s con-cerns by assuring the Parliament that itwas committed to honour promises asper the Andhra Pradesh ReorganisationAct of 2014 and said it was working on aformula to release funds soon under aspecial package to the state.The assurance came from the Finance

Minister himself in both the houses topacify agitating members of the TDP, theYSR Congress and the Congress fromAndhra Pradesh who had been Theseprotesting for two days over what theytermed "non- implementation" of thereorganisation Act."I have been fully sympathising and

trying to make sure that every part of theAct and commitments made by the cen-tral government are honoured. The cen-tral government fully stands by it,"Jaitley said in the Rajya Sabha.

FM CHANNEL"I think a solution by which an

amount can be given through an alter-native mechanism is being worked out,"

he added.Jaitley said the Andhra Pradesh Fi-

nance Secretary will hold discussionswith the Union Expenditure Secretary inNew Delhi shortly to work out assistancefor the state from externally-aided proj-ects."One particular issue is of how the

amount -- in view of the special status -- has to be paid. This, we had an-nounced. This will be given and the statehas requested for it," he said.Explaining the matter, Jaitley said ex-

ternally-aided projects are approved byexternal agencies like the Japan Interna-tional Cooperation Agency and theWorld Bank and it takes time."So, the Chief Minister (N. Chan-

drababu Naidu) has written to me toseek its funding from NABARD (Na-tional Bank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment). But once it is fundedfrom NABARD, it creates a problem withregard to addition to fiscal deficit be-cause in that case the borrowing spaceof the state itself would be contracted,"he said.The Union Minister said the Centre

had already provided Rs 3,900 crore toAndhra Pradesh as revenue deficit afterits bifurcation. Jaitley later gave a similar

TDP General Secretary Nara Lokesh during a programme in Vijayawada.


statement in the lower house.But Andhra Pradesh was far from con-

vinced. On February 7, authorities in the

state had to tighten the security inview of the shutdown called by the Leftparties to protest the injustice metedout to the state in the Union Budget2018-19.The Communist Party of India, the

Communist Party of India-Marxist andseveral other smaller parties called forthe shutdown. YSR Congress and Con-gress backed the shutdown call, too.The ruling TDP also called for protests

across the state to express solidaritywith its MPs, who had been trying tostall the proceedings in both the Housesof Parliament to demand justice to thestate.The government declared holiday for

schools as a precautionary measure. Po-lice made elaborate security arrange-ments to prevent any untowardincident.Director General of Police M.

Malakondaiah directed Superintend-ents of Police in all districts to take allmeasures to maintain law and order.The officials in districts were asked totake precautionary measures to protect

public property and also keep a tightvigil.The police chief said additional forces

were deployed in sensitive areas.The TDP continued its protest in Par-

liament. The party MPs raised slogansduring Prime Minister Narendra Modi'sspeech, demanding justice for the state.

KEEPING AT ITEarlier, TDP president and Andhra

Pradesh Chief Minister N. ChandrababuNaidu asked his party MPs to continuethe protest till a categorical announce-ment from the Centre. TDP sources re-vealed that though Union MinistersRajnath Singh and Ananth Kumar spoketo Naidu over phone, urging to advisehis MPs to cooperate during the PrimeMinister's speech, Naidu made it clearthat the protest would continue.Ten days later, the Chief Minister

stepped up the protest by ruling out anycompromise on the state's interests anddeclaring that he was ready to make"any sacrifice".Naidu alleged that while the Congress

did "injustice" to Andhra Pradesh by di-viding the state in an unscientific man-ner, the BJP had not undone thatinjustice even after three-and-half years.

"The Prime Minister and the centralMinisters should undo the injustice.They should ensure that our sentimentsare not hurt. This is the issue of self-re-spect of five crore Telugu people," hetold a public meeting at Narsaropet inGuntur district.This is the first time that Naidu pub-

licly targeted the BJP and appealed topeople to rally behind the state govern-ment.With 15 MPs in the Lok Sabha, Telugu

Desam Party (TDP) is the second biggestpartner in BJP-led National DemocraticAlliance government.The TDP chief said during the last

three-and-half years he visited Delhi 29times to bring the injustices to the no-tice of the Centre and to demand that allcommitments be fulfilled but justicewas not done.

ENOUGH'S ENOUGH"When the last Budget also did injus-

tice, there was no way we could havekept quiet," he said referring to the TDPprotests in Parliament during the firstleg of the Budget Session. He vowed tocontinue to put pressure on the Centretill it fulfils all commitments made in theAct and handholds the state till it comeson par with other southern states.The TDP MPs have already an-

nounced that they would continue theirprotest when the Budget Session recom-mences from March 5.During his speech, Naidu repeatedly

said he was demanding justice on behalfof five crore people of the state who areangry. Referring to statements by someBJP leaders that the Centre had ex-tended all assistance, the Chief Ministersaid he was ready for a debate on theissue.Naidu also asserted that the states too

have sovereign powers. He took excep-tion to the demand by some BJP leadersto furnish accounts (utilisation certifi-cates) for the funds released by the Cen-tre so far. "The Centre and states havetheir own sovereignty. The state is an-swerable to Assembly and the Centre toParliament. It's not correct to ask thestate to furnish accounts," he said.The TDP boss has firmly placed the

ball in BJP’s court. Unless the Modi gov-ernment plays it right soon enough now,a parting of the ways once again will beinevitable. If that happens the TDP willhave a tough time making AndhraPradesh shine without any Centralhandholding. As for the BJP, it will havelost a key ally and some credibility as adependable friend, which may not be adesirable development ahead of 2019general elections. n


Cover Story

TREADING ON THIN ICE

After completing three years in power, the Aam Aadmi Party isback under the national spotlight – but for all the wrong reasons


The Aam Aadmi Party has comea long way from the time it waslaunched over half a decade

ago. Having completed three years in of-

fice on February 14 this year, the AAPgovernment in New Delhi has undoubt-edly done much better than the firsttime, when it came to power in 2013only to quit it in unwise haste after 49days over the Jan Lokpal Bill. Despite committing what was widely

deemed as political suicide, AAP bossArvind Kejriwal survived to fight anotherday. He went back to the drawing board,

realised his mistake, expressed repen-tance for that, and returned stronger of-fering a better deal to Delhiites (freewater and low-cost electricity, amongother things) to finally earn anotherchance to serve them. This second life for AAP also came

about due to two other important fac-tors. First, Delhiites had not forgottentheir disappointment with the perform-ance of the corruption-tainted Congressgovernment both at the Centre and inDelhi. And second, the Bharatiya JanataParty’s strategy to woe Delhi was woe-fully flawed, what with the party not en-gaging local leaders, not having a CMface till the last minute, and constantlyindulging in a negative political cam-paign which looked particularly bad vis-a-vis the AAP’s positive,development-focused one.Since then the AAP has governed

Delhi on a trial-and-error basis, evolvingaccordingly by the year, as it must underthe shadow of the BJP-led Centre. Many

political observers recently noted howKejriwal over the past one year had beenrefraining from making personal attackson his bitterest political rival – noneother than Prime Minister NarendraModi.On his Twitter account, which has

some 13 million followers, the Delhi CMdid not type Modi even once in the past11 months – a stark contrast to 2016when Modi’s name found mention 124times mostly in a derisive context. Manyanalysts and political leaders have notedthat the practice of not mentioningModi began after AAP's election lossesin Punjab, Goa, Delhi civic polls and aby-election from Rajouri Garden lastyear."It (attacking Modi) was not taking us

anywhere and we decided to ratherfocus on governance," a senior AAPleader said on the condition ofanonymity. AAP Chief spokesperson Saurabh

Bharadwaj attributed the shift to "agood communication system (that)keeps reinventing itself" and the partyfollows that idea. "Initially peoplewanted to know why works in Delhiwere not being done and we had to ex-plain to them in the first two years. Nowpeople understand that LG is not allow-ing many works and files go throughhim," Bharadwaj said.Even when tempers between the cen-

tral government and Delhi governmentran high over disqualification of 20 AAPMLAs in January this year, with AAPclaiming its lawmakers were disquali-fied at the behest of the BJP governmentat the Centre, Kejriwal did not utter a

word against the Prime Minister.When addressing an event in the na-

tional capital to mark the third anniver-sary of the AAP government, theKejriwal rattled out his administration’sfuture plans for Delhi – from buildingroads and drains in unauthorisedcolonies, to setting up 900 Mohalla Clin-ics, to implementing free WiFi all over, tolandscaping for greener roads andcleaner air – to make the city a better,more liveable place. He also listed his government’s

achievements over the past three yearsin the education and energy sectors. He even accused the Central govern-

ment of stalling his administration’s de-velopment works in Delhi, going so faras to say that he could prove his claim ifhe had access to the Centre’s files. Four days later, when the Punjab Na-

tional Bank fraud case shocked the na-tion, Kejriwal stated that people votedfor the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elec-tions as they wanted a change from theCongress, but the BJP only too “forwardthe scams" initiated during the previousregime."A man duping a bank of Rs 11,000

crore flees the country. It is not a coinci-dence. Many agencies are surely in-volved in this … It can't be possiblewithout getting a green flag from thetop. People on top (positions) in thecentral government are involved," hesaid referring to designer jeweller NiravModi who defrauded the public sectorbank of US$1.8 billion.But not a word came out against

Prime Minister Modi.Yet, as if it was in the stars for the party

Aam Aadmi Party MLA Amanatullah Khan being taken to be produced at Tees Hazari Court in connection with alleged attack on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, in New Delhi.


to face trouble on the MLA front thisyear, the AAP found itself mired in an-other major controversy two days later.A controversy that would do little goodto, if not harm, the party’s politicalstanding.On February 20, Delhi Chief Secretary

Anshu Prakash alleged that he was hit bytwo AAP MLAs in a meeting at ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal's residence,triggering a major row that also saw themanhandling of Environment MinisterImran Hussain and another AAP leaderby a crowd inside the Secretariat in NewDelhi.The BJP and the Congress attacked

the AAP based on the Chief Secretary'sallegations, with the BJP demanding Ke-jriwal's resignation and the Congressasking for the AAP chief's apology. The AAP hit back by stating that the

Chief Secretary was making false allega-tions and said he was working at the"behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)". Deputy Chief Minister ManishSisodia termed Prakash's allegations"baseless" and said that "it is his(Prakash) version of the story". The Home Ministry sought a report

from Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal onthe alleged assault on the Chief Secre-tary and Home Minister Rajnath Singhsaid he was "deeply pained" by the de-velopment. AAP sources said that the February 19

night's meeting had turned into a veryheated argument, but said that the ChiefSecretary was not attacked. Prakash alleged the next day that he

was hit by AAP MLA Amanatullah Khanand another party MLA, whom he couldidentify, in front of the Chief Minister atKejriwal's residence the prvious night,where he was called for a meeting. In a police complaint filed, Prakash

said: "Amanatullah Khan, MLA, and theperson/MLA on my left side, whom Ican identify, without any provocationfrom my side, starting hitting and as-saulting me and threw several blowswith fists on my head and temple." The meeting was attended by Kejri-

wal, Manish Sisodia and 11 MLAs, ac-cording to the complaint. Meanwhile, later that day, the Delhi

Environment Minister was manhandledby a crowd which gathered outside thedoor of a lift inside the Delhi Secretariatand his Assistant Personal Secretary wasbeaten up, according to multiple videoclips from the Secretariat. In one of the videos, his Assistant Per-

sonal Secretary could be seen beingmanhandled by the crowd near the liftdoor. In the same video, Hussain wasseen being manhandled by the crowd

and later taken to safety by staff, as theviolent crowd tried to reach him. In another video, Hussain was seen

trapped inside the same lift with the vi-olent crowd shouting and many askinghim to come out. A person standing atthe lift door was seen holding off thecrowd from barging inside by force andsecuring the Minister. AAP leader Ashish Khetan alleged that

he was also manhandled by the samecrowd shouting "BJP zindabad" and"maaro maaro" and claimed that theDelhi Police did not try to intervene. Khetan said that the Secretariat was

supposed to be a "high-security zone"and alleged that the Delhi Police did notdo anything when the mob tried to at-tack him and later Hussain. "Underwhose instructions did this happen?Who instigated them?" he asked whileaddressing the media. Khetan and Hus-sain filed separate police complaints onthe assaults. The Chief Secretary in his police com-

plaint said that he was called for a meet-ing around midnight on Monday on the"difficulty in release of certain TV adver-tisements relating to completion ofthree years of the government of Delhi".Prakash said he was taken to a room andone of the MLAs closed the door. He wasseated on a three-seater sofa betweenKhan and another MLA, whom he couldidentify. "The MLAs started shouting at me

and abused me while blaming me andthe bureaucracy for not doing enoughfor the publicity of the government," thecomplaint said. Prakash said that he was attacked

after this without any provocation."With difficulty I was able to leave theroom and get into my official car andleave the CM residence," the Chief Sec-retary said. "None of the persons pres-ent in the room made any effort to saveme."But the AAP said that the meeting at

Kejriwal's residence was on the "faultyimplementation" of Aadhaar that "de-prived about 2.5 lakh families of ration"and not on advertisements. The partysaid that the Chief Secretary refused toanswer questions, saying he was not an-swerable to MLAs or the Chief Ministerbut only to the Lt Governor. "He evenused foul language against some MLAsand left without answering any ques-tions," the AAP said in a statement. Meanwhile, IAS Association Secretary

Manisha Saxena, after a meeting withthe Lt Governor and Prakash, termedthe attack as a "planned criminal con-spiracy" against the top bureaucrat inDelhi.At the same time elsewhere, AAP's

Ambedkar Nagar MLA Ajay Dutt filed apolice complaint against Prakash formaking "casteist remarks" during theFebruary 19 night's meeting at Kejri-wal's residence.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers during "Kisan Nyay Sammelan".


Delhi Police Chief Spokesperson De-pendra Pathak said that the police hasfiled separate FIRs based on Prakash'sand Hussain's complaints. On February 21, a Delhi court sent

two AAP MLAs – Amanatullah Khan andPrakash Jarwal – who were arrested oncharges of assaulting Delhi Chief Secre-tary Anshu Prakash -- in judicial cus-tody.Medical examination reports on

Wednesday revealed injuries both onthe Chief Secretary and the Minister'saide. The Chief Secretary paid a visit to the

Prime Minister's Office that evening, butdid not brief on what transpired in themeeting at the PMO. In the evening of that day, the senior

officer did not turn up for a Delhi As-sembly committee meeting which AAPChief Spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwajsaid was "contempt of Assembly" andthe committee was thinking of initiating"contempt proceedings" in the matter. Bharadwaj said the Chief Secretary

and two other IAS officers did not turnup because of an IAS Association's deci-sion on February 20 that officers will notmeet or talk on phone with the ChiefMinister or his Ministers or party MLAstill Kejriwal apologised and took actionon the alleged assault.Informed sources said that as far as

they knew, the IAS officers did not haveany meetings at all with Delhi Ministers

as per their decision. The Chief Secretary's medical exami-

nation revealed "mild swelling behindboth ears" and "bruise over lower lip".The report termed the nature of injuries"simple" and the weapon used as"blunt". Meanwhile, the ministerial aide's

medical report shared by a Delhi gov-ernment spokesperson revealed "multi-ple bruises seen all over back, linear inshape".Speaking about the Chief Secretary's

absence in the Assembly meeting,Bharadwaj said: "The Committee mem-bers feel that against all these peopleand against IAS Association leaders,contempt proceedings have to be takenup. The committee has not taken a deci-sion yet, but will think about it."The MLA said that the Chief Secretary

was supposed to come for the meetingat 5 p.m., but he and two other IAS offi-cers did not turn up despite the panelwaiting for them till 6.15 p.m. Earlier in the day, Kejriwal's adviser

V.K. Jain was questioned at the CivilLines police station and let off. The nextday the Delhi Police submitted Jain'sstatement at a city court, which said thatJain had gone to the washroom duringthe meeting and as he came out he sawthe two AAP MLAs "physically assault-ing" the Chief Secretary. According to the statement, Jain also

saw that the Chief Secretary's spectacles

had fallen to the ground and the ChiefSecretary picked them up and left theroom. The statement was recordedunder Section 161 of the CrPC, whichmeans that it was recorded in front ofthe police and not a magistrate. Sourcessaid that Jain later recorded his state-ment in front of a magistrate under sec-tion 164 of the CrPC."The statement under section 164 was

later recorded with the magistrate infront a camera, without the presence ofpolice. In that statement also he (Jain)has said that he saw the two MLAs phys-ically assaulting the Chief Secretary," apolice officer privy to the case told IANS. The officer said that the statement

under section 164 has also been submit-ted to the court. The AAP defended by stating that Jain

had initially told police that he did notwitness any assault and police hasthreatened Jain to change his statement.The change in Jain's statement that theAAP was referring to was from a "ques-tion and answer" with Jain recorded bypolice after questioning him onWednesday. According to a copy of the February 21

"question and answer" recorded by po-lice, when asked whether Jain saw theChief Secretary being manhandled, hereplied that he had gone to the wash-room in between the meeting and hecould not say what happened duringthat time. "By putting pressure on him (Jain)

throughout the day and by threateninghim, police has forced him to change hisstatement," AAP MP Sanjay Singh toldthe media. Singh said that the whole issue was a

conspiracy to "bring down the Delhigovernment" and to "defame the AAP"."How is it that the same Jain who em-phatically said yesterday that he wit-nessed no assault during the entire timethat he was present there has nowclaimed otherwise?" he asked. Singh stated that that AAP MLAs were

being arrested over an alleged assault ofwhich there was no proof. "But on theother hand, despite there being videofootage of officials assaulting Delhi Cab-inet Minister Imran Hussain, there is noaction taken against the guilty by theDelhi Police," the AAP MP pointed out. The court on February 22 sent the two

AAP MLAs, arrested on charges of as-saulting the Chief Secretary, to judicialcustody for 14 days. Meanwhile, scores of Delhi govern-

ment employees across the city ob-served a five-minute silence outsidetheir respective offices as a protestagainst the alleged assault on the Chief


Secretary.The IAS Association said that officers

would continue the protest every day,till steps were taken to "ensure safetyand dignity" of government staff in thecity.The next day, police searched the res-

idence of the Delhi Chief Minister forCCTV footage of an alleged assault onChief Secretary Anshu Prakash by twoAAP MLAs, sparking an angry reactionfrom Kejriwal who hit out at the centralgovernment daring it if a similar raidwould be conducted at BJP PresidentAmit Shah's house in Judge B.H. Loya'sdeath case.Delhi Police said it had given prior in-

formation to the Chief Minister aboutthe searches. The AAP denied it, termingthe action as "police raj" and "police kidadagiri" after over 45 policemen andwomen surrounded Kejriwal's resi-dence. Additional Deputy Commis-sioner of Police Harendra Kumar Singhsaid police found no cameras in thedrawing room where the Chief Secretarywas allegedly assaulted. Seven out of the21 CCTV cameras in the house, he said,were not functioning.He said police will study the move-

ment of people before and after the in-cident by analysing footage from CCTVcameras outside the drawing room andin the corridor."The timing on cameras in the house

was running behind by 40 minutes 43seconds," Singh said, adding those re-sponsible for maintenance of the CCTVcameras were questioned.A forensic team was also present to

collect evidence of the alleged assault.They are examining why seven cameras

were non-functional.Police officials said they would decide

if they needed to question the ChiefMinister and his deputy Manish Sisodiawho were present on that night of as-sault.Singh said CCTV footage was sought a

day after the incident but there was noresponse from the Chief Minister'shouse forcing police to conduct thesearch operation.Kejriwal told reporters outside his res-

idence that he was "happy that the in-vestigation is taking place" but daredthe central government if probe agen-cies can muster the "courage to ques-tion Amit Shah" in the Judge Loya deathcase."To investigate two alleged slaps, the

police search a Chief Minister's house.Doesn't Judge Loya's murder merit aninterrogation," Kejriwal tweeted, refer-ring to the judge who died of a heart at-tack in December 2014 at a time he washandling the Sohrabuddin case in whichShah was an accused.Addressing a rally later, Kejriwal al-

leged that the central government washampering the development work andfiles related to electricity and water sup-ply in the city were stuck with bureau-crats. In the same rally, AAP MLA NareshBalyan justified the assault on the ChiefSecretary, saying anyone obstructing thework for the common man deserved abeating.Meanwhile, a Delhi court dismissed

the bail pleas of Khan and Jarwal. Met-ropolitan Magistrate Shefali BarnalaTondon also refused to give their cus-tody to Police saying there was no newground for custodial interrogation.

AAP leader Sanjay Singh said the partywould hold protests against the "dicta-torship" of the Narendra Modi-led BJPgovernment at the centre.Hitting back at the AAP, the BJP said

"anarchist" Kejriwal had created a "Con-stitutional crisis" in the capital. Kejriwalalso met Lt Governor Anil Baijal andasked for his intervention as bureau-crats had stopped meeting or talking tothe Chief Minister, his ministers orMLAs."Officers not attending meetings for

the last three days. Governance suffer-ing...LG assured he will take all steps toensure officers start functioning nor-mally... All of us need to work togetherfor betterment of Delhi," Kejriwal said. Meanwhile, Baijal "strongly" con-

demned the incident and advised the"elected government to take steps to re-move mistrust with government em-ployees so that development of Delhi isnot affected".Earlier in the day, the IAS association

met Minister of State in the Prime Min-ister's Office Jitendra Singh, demandingclear guidelines for functioning of theadministration. "We should give them awork-friendly environment. We shouldbe able to get the best out of our officersand we must enable them to perform tothe best of their performance in the in-terest of the nation," Jitendra Singh saidafter meeting the IAS delegation.Being in power yet powerless in many

aspects, the AAP government hasstepped into its fourth year of gover-nance on an ominous note. It sure hascome a long way, but if it does not treadwith enough caution from here on,Team Kejriwal may not go too far. n

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) workers stage a demonstration.


Bureaucratic Buzz

SS Deswal, a 1984-batch IPS officer of Haryana cadre, hasbeen appointed as Special DG (Operations) in the BSF.

K Sunil Emmanuel, a 2003-batch IPS officer of UP cadre,as joined the NSG as DIG (Adminsistration).SN Srivastava, a 1985-batch IPS officer of Uttarakhand

cadre, has moved from Jammu and Kashmir to the CRPFheadquarters.VS Kaumudi, a 1986-batch IPS officer of Andhra Pradesh

cadre, has moved from the CRPF headquarters to theWaestern Zone as Additional DG.

HOME AND AWAYSameer Shukla, a 2005-batch

IAS officer currently serving in hishome cadre of Karnataka cadre asCommissioner at Employmentand Training, has been appointedas Private Secretary (DS rank) toUnion Steel Minister Ch. BirenderSingh. His tenure will end withthe minister’s. Shukla was also theacting Executive Director of Kar-nataka Examinations Authority(KEA).

Rajeev Kapoor, 1983-batch IAS officer serving asUnion Secretary, Department of Chemicals and Petro-chemicals, will be repatriated to his home cadre of UttarPradesh. Laterally shifted from Ministry of New & Renew-able Energy to the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers lastJune, Kapoor is set to retire by the end of this year.Ravi M

Parmar, a1 9 9 2 - b a t c hIAS officer ofBihar cadre,will be return-ing to hishome cadreafter serving asChairman ofKandla PortTrust (KPT)

S o l a n k iVishal Vas-ant, servinguntil now asSecretary atthe Chief Min-ister's secre-tariat inDispur, Assam,has gone ondeputation toMaharastra fora period ofthree years.Vasant is a2005-batch IASofficer fromAssam-Megha-laya cadre.

Ms Veena KumariVerma, a 2000-batch IRTSofficer, shall get no centraldeputation for the next half a

decade after failing to join asChief Vigilance Officer in theCentral Board of SecondaryEducation.

LOOKING UPSuresh Pentakota, a

2000-batch IRAS officer, hasbeen appointed as Directorin the Department of Invest-ment & Public Asset Man-agement.N K Santoshi, a 1992-

batch ISS officer serving asDeputy Director General,M/o Labour and Employ-ment, has been given an ad-ditional charge of the post of

CVO, Employees State Insur-ance Corporation (ESIC),Delhi for a period of threemonths. Dr VB Ramanamurthy,

D Nalini Mohan, SanjayGupta and Anil KumarMohan, all 1987-batch IFSofficers, have been pro-moted to the grade of Princi-pal Chief Conservator ofForest in Andhra Pradesh.

BY THE BOOK

COPS ON MOVE


Odisha Chief minister NaveenPatnaik’s image as a sensitiveleader keen to develop the

state has received a boost with his moveto seek feedback on governance throughvarious channels.While ruling BJD leaders provide him

regular inputs from their areas on thegovernment’s developmental initiatives,now he has also tuned up the bureau-cracy for the same purpose. He has putthe “babus” on the job and the secre-taries of various departments havecome up with their reports highlightingwhat the government needs to do tofine-tune developmental initiatives infields such as health, education andrural electrification. The secretaries visited the districts

last November to see the working of gov-ernment schemes. Some of them havecome up with corrective suggestions likethe need to fill the vacancies of doctorsand streamline the distribution of med-icines under the Nirmaya scheme. For example, one of the secretaries re-

vealed in his report that some importantdrugs were out of stock and supply ofpaediatric cough syrups and antibioticsyrups was erratic in Deogarh district.He also pointed to the poor quality ofeducation in schools. Yet another bureaucrat during her

visit to Ganjam district found ambigui-ties in the maintenance of stocks underNiramaya in the district headquarterhospital. A senior officer visited Subarn-pur district and found that beneficiariesof some of the government schemeswere not able to get medical benefitsdue to software problems. Yet anotherdiscovered that percentage of coverageof beneficiaries under Health Insurancescheme was low and there was impropermonitoring of stock position under Nir-maya in Bhadrak and Dhenkanal dis-tricts. Similar discrepancies were also found

by a senior secretary level officer duringhis tour to Jagatsinghpur district. Apartfrom detecting loopholes in schemeslike e-Nirmaya and Janani Surakshya Yo-jana he also found that hospitals did nothave fully automated drug distributioncounters. While one of the mandarins found

that there was acute malnutritionamong children in Malkangiri district,another who visited Jharsuguda district,saw primary school children sitting onthe floor and many other problemsplaguing the education system. In fact, education seems to be one of

the key areas needing improvement,noted one of the bureaucrats. Ruralelectrification has also emerged as an

State

RAISINGTHE BARStepped up its game for public benefit on many frontsover the past few months, the Naveen Patnaikgovernment has made BJD a more formidable politicalforce than ever before in Odisha

Saroj Mishra


area of concern in the backward Bolan-gir district with electrification backlog of2015-16 yet to be cleared.Meanwhile in yet another clever move

the state government has earmarked Rs450 crore to raise and make functional avolunteer force called Biju Yuva Bahini.Active and spirited youths in the agegroup of 15 to 35 will part of the force.In the first year, the state government

has earmarked Rs 50 crore out of its al-located budget of Rs 192.73 crore for thefirst year, Rs 128.88 crore in the secondand 128.88 crore for the third year.Youths with experience and interest insocial service and other constructive ac-tivities will be given preference in thevolunteer force.Around 8000 “Biju Yuva Vahinis” will

be formed in 6800 gram panchayats and113 urban local bodies of the state thataims to make the youth connect pro-grammes more sustainable and far-reaching covering around four lakhyouths.One-time assistance of Rs 15,000 will

be given to 7,000 youth clubs under theexisting sub-scheme of assistance toyouth clubs under umbrella of “Biju

Yuva Sashaktikaran Yojana”. Under theprogramme, there will be state-level ori-entation programme for the youth andsuch programmes will also be organizedat the block level.However, the Opposition has smelt

politics in the move. “The ruling BJD isscared of facing 2019 polls. That's thereason why it is building up its youthfront through this move by spendingfrom the state exchequer" said a Con-gress leader. A BJP leader said, "They areworried about the rising popularity ofthe BJP.”However, a senior leader of the ruling

Biju Janata Dal said, “Politics should notbe read into this official drive to raise avolunteer force to serve Odisha. A sec-tion of people are trying to lend politicalcolour to whatever we do. People agedbetween 15 years and 35 are being in-volved in this. Can a boy of 15 cast hisvote for us?” The leader said that the ob-jective was to mobilize the youth for agood cause.At the same time the government is

paying due attention to the develop-ment of the tourism sector which hastremendous employment potential.

Many eco-tourism destinations of thestate will get a new makeover during thecurrent year with the government keento increase tourist footfall by showcas-ing its natural wealth.As many as 30 such spots in 22 dis-

tricts are being developed jointly by for-est and environment and tourismdepartments. While forest and environ-ment department is creating the neces-sary infrastructure for tourists at theseplaces tourism department will be re-sponsible for publicity.Officials of forest and environment

department said that infrastructure de-velopment work is in an advanced stageat several places where tourism officialswill put up signage and distribute otherpublicity material. “It is the first jointventure of the two departments and weare hoping for the best possible results,”said an official requesting anonymity. Among the major sites the govern-

ment is focusing on is Mangalajodi onthe banks of the Chilika lake which isknown for the migratory birds that visitthe area in winter. Mangaljodi, whichdraws a large number of bird-watchersevery year, lacked good infrastructurebut now steps are being taken to con-struct at least a dozen rooms, watchtow-ers and nature trails at the site.More significantly, efforts are being

made to turn former bird poachers inthe area into their saviours by creatingawareness among them about the needto protect the avians which come to themake from various parts of Asia andeven beyond. “Motivating the poachersis important because they know how thebird are killed. With their help we canmotivate others and save the birds,” saida forest official.Among other eco-tourism sites that

would receive the government’s attentionwith focus on infrastructure developmentare Barakhandia and Dhodrokusumunder the Hirakud wildlife division, Ku-mari and Jamuani the under Baripadawildlife division, Deras and Godibariunder the Chandaka wildlife division andTarava and Chhotkei under the Satkosiawildlife division.Green activist, Shashi Kant Mishra

lauded the government’s venture hop-ing that it would promote tourism in abig way. “ Odisha’s natural wealth is phe-nomenal. What we lacked was properinfrastructure to attract tourists. Thisproject has come at the right time to ad-dress the problem,” said Mishra.With such initiatives the popularity of

the chief minister and his government isbound to grow. There is no reason whyhe should not win the next polls with aconvincing margin. n


As security forces battled mili-tants in both Srinagar andJammu, Chief Minister

Mehbooba Mufti reiterated that a dia-logue between India and Pakistan stillremained the only way out for lastingpeace in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).While her ruling alliance partners in theBJP advocate a hardline approach andwant to tell Pakistan that enough isenough, Mehbooba has consistently fol-lowed the peace approach.Accepting that she would come under

strong criticism for her comments dur-ing television news channel debates, theChief Minister posted on her twitterpage: "Dialogue with Pakistan is neces-sary if we are to end bloodshed.""I know I will be labelled anti-national

by news anchors tonight but that does-n't matter. The people of J&K are suffer-ing. We have to talk because war is notan option."A war of attrition has already started

between the two ruling alliance part-ners, the Peoples Democratic Party(PDP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP).BJP legislators recently strongly

protested against the PDP's silence onthe pro-Pakistan rant by opposition Na-tional Conference MLA MuhammadAkbar Lone. Lone had ruffled many afeather by shouting pro-Pakistan slo-gans inside the state assembly early lastmonth.Defiantly, Lone maintained his stance

when confronted by the media oversuch an embarrassing stand by a main-stream lawmaker. BJP legislators havedemanded that an FIR be lodged againstthe MLA for his anti-national standwithin the state assembly.The relations between the two ideo-

logically opposite ruling partners in J&Khave never been on an even keel. ThePDP politically remains Valley-centricfrom where the majority of Mehbooba's28 MLAs won in the 2014 elections.All the 26 MLAs of the BJP were

elected from the Jammu region as theparty could not win a single seat in theMuslim-majority Valley.PDP founder and former Chief Minis-

ter, the late Mufti Muhammad Sayeed,who forged the present alliance with theBJP, called it a meeting of the South Poleand North Pole.After unending ceasefire violations by

Pakistan on the Line of Control (LoC)and the International Border (IB), mili-tants have stepped up suicide attackseven before Kashmir's tourism seasonstarts this year.On February 10, heavily armed mili-

tants of the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM)

Politics

A FRAYING KNOTThe PDP-BJP alliance in Jammu and Kashmir seems tobe becoming increasingly tenuous in the face of recent

terror attacks

outfit stormed a highly fortified armycamp in Jammu city. Five soldiers and acivilian were killed and 10, including sixwomen and children, were injured inthis terror attack. After killing three ter-rorists, the army said on February 12 afourth surviving terrorist is still hidinginside the camp.Even before the Jammu anti-terror

operation could end, two militants ofthe Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) outfit tried toenter a CRPF camp in Srinagar city, butwere prevented by an alert sentry whosaw them moving suspiciously outsidethe camp in the wee hours of February12.A fierce encounter was under way be-

tween the security forces and these mil-itants who later entered a nearbyunder-construction multi-storeyed

building. One CRPF jawan was killed inthis gunfight while a constable of theSpecial Operations Group (SOG) of statepolice, fighting alongside the CRPF, wascritically injured.As tensions on the border and the hin-

terland start mounting, the hardline ap-proach adopted by the BJP and theso-called soft-pedalling by the PDPcould become mutually uncomfortablefor the two ruling partners in the notvery distant future.State assembly elections are sched-

uled towards the end of 2020 as the termof the state assembly in J&K is six yearsagainst five in the country's other states.If the present ruling alliance lasts its

full six-year term, the dictum that poli-tics is the art of the possible would beproved right. n


For the last half of the 20th cen-tury, the United States was theworld's beacon for democracy

and economic development and Indiawas a laggard. These roles are reversingas the end of the second decade of the21st century approaches.India is becoming a beacon and the

US is becoming a flashlight. In largepart, this is a consequence of leadership.India has a leader in Prime Minister

Narendra Modi who is pursuing the fu-ture. The US has a leader in DonaldTrump who is pursuing the past. Presi-dent Trump is emphasising individual-ism and isolationism. Prime MinisterModi is stressing engagement and ex-pansionism.Freedom House, in its annual report

titled "Freedom in the World 2018" re-leased in January, noted that "A long listof troubling developments contributedto the global decline of democracy, butperhaps most striking was the acceler-ating withdrawal of the United Statesfrom its historical commitment to pro-moting and supporting democracy."The report's aggregate Freedom Score

rating (aggregate score) for the US in2017 was 86 out of 100 points. Its aggre-gate score for India was 77. This showsthat, overall, on the dimensions beingmeasured, the US scores higher. But itsscore has dropped substantially from 94in 2008.Today the majority of the countries

that rate 90 and above on their aggregatescores are older and smaller. They donot have the size or stature to assumethe international democratic leadershipmantle if America under the Trump Ad-ministration relinquishes it.India does. In the last part of 2017, as

Prime Minister Modi called for moredemocratic processes and participationin India's political parties, it appearsthat he may encourage the country tostep forward to take on that obligation.Time will tell how this plays out. What

is certain, at this point, based uponModi's opening address at the DavosWord Economic Forum on January 23, isthat the Prime Minister is using India'sdemocracy as a selling point and puttingthe country centre stage in terms of itsown economic growth and promotionof international cooperation.In his Davos remarks, Modi stressed

that India is the "largest democracy onplanet Earth" and provided a litany ofthe enormous opportunities for compa-nies to invest in "inclusive economic de-velopment". He also struck a strongfree-trade, globalisation note while call-ing for international unity to address theissues of climate change, terrorism and

International

IF THE CROWN FITSModi’s India seems ready to take over the mantle of

international democratic leadership from Trump’s America

protectionism.Modi didn't directly say that India is

open for business. But his message,throughout his comments, was that it is.Trump, on the other hand, in his clos-

ing address at Davos, stated explicitlythat "America is open for business..."But the implicit message, throughouthis comments, was that it is not.At various points during his speech,

Trump asserted: "As President, I will al-ways put America first..."; "The UnitedStates will no longer turn a blind eye tounfair economic practices..."; "My ad-ministration is proud to have led his-toric efforts... to de-nuke the Koreanpeninsula".According to press reports, Trump's

speech was fairly well received while hestayed on script. Trump was, however,booed when he answered a questionafter concluding his prepared remarksby declaring, "...it wasn't until I becamea politician that I realised how nasty,how mean, how vicious and how fakethe press can be."Therein lies the rub. Even in a setting

where President Trump was trying topresent his more cooperative side, hisinherent combative nature and self-cen-tred perspective came though. By con-trast, Prime Minister Modi wascollaborative and ecumenical in his

presentation of self and India. This wasmost evident when he concluded hisspeech by observing:"If you want wealth with wellness,

work in India; if you want peace withprosperity, live in India; if you wanthealth with whole life, be in India. Andour promise is that your agenda will bepart of our destiny. We both will have ashared and successful future."To sum up: Trump's nationalistic

communication to the world at Davoswas, "My way or no highway." Modi'swas, "Our way is the skyway."America's retrenchment under Trump

leaves a leadership vacuum in the world.India under Modi appears poised to fillthat vacuum.What stands out and is differentiating

about Modi is his espousing a positive andconstructive agenda in terms of world in-volvement. There is no assurance exactlywhere India will conclude its journey toworld leadership. It can, however, bestated unequivocally near the beginningof 2018 that India is on the right trajectoryand climbing upward.It can be stated with equal certainty

that the US is not. It is on a glide pathheaded downward. This is true becausethose who live in the past and retreatfrom the playing field are restrictingtheir future. n


Are all smartphones in Indiasold online? Not really. This issomething which should come

as a surprise to the cyber-savvy buyersof gadgets and gizmos.A study from Google, published in

2012 but still relevant, says that 70 percent of Indians decide about the brandand variant during an online search be-fore going to a retail store.Although the study was done in major

cities and would have sampled a fewpeople researching online before goingshopping offline, both the parameters –the number of people researching on-line as well as coming prepared withtheir choices – must have gone up con-siderably by now, especially for a cate-gory like smartphones.Smartphone sales haven't crossed 40

per cent through online channels in anyof the best seasons so far in the country.There are still limitations to onlinechannels in India.ROPO (Research Online Purchase Of-

fline) is no alien concept to the smart-phone industry. This is an establishedtrend how smartphones are purchasedacross the globe, including in India.In 2017, one of the key focus areas for

all emerging smartphone brands hasbeen to expand offline (the latest exam-ple being Xiaomi which has a great on-line presence but is now trying to makeinroads into the offline segment).With smartphone purchases being

mostly replacement or upgrades in na-ture, exposure to online research has in-creased, making ROPO impact evenstronger in India.In such a scenario, will the massive of-

fline expansion plans help smartphonemanufacturers?The biggest challenge in the offline

space would be to mirror the exact on-line availability of models. Online is justa catalogue, be it Flipkart or Amazon,and with a robust logistics back-end, aperson can choose any model, variantand colour and that will be delivered asper the shipping policy, irrespective ofwhich warehouse the online seller has todeliver from.This is not going to be the case in of-

fline. There are going to be situations,especially when a brand has severalvariants in specifications and colours,where the particular model and variantfor which a buyer visits the store maynot be available.ROPO could efficiently be taken care

of by handful of brands like Apple,Google and OnePlus, where the usersare evolved, models and variants arefew, and inventory can be exactlymapped offline.

Business

ATTENTION TO RETAILOffline expansion may just hold the key to the growth

of the smartphone industry in India

For other mass-market brands, it'sgoing to be challenging. This becomeseven more significant in a case wherebuyers tend to be impatient and wouldnot want to visit the store again till theretailer arranges for the desired modeland variant.Streamlining the lag between avail-

ability of a new launch throughout thelength and breadth of the country via of-fline is also going to be challenging tomatch the online expectations. This mayeventually lead to a different connota-tion of ROPO with regard to the Indiamarket – Recce Offline Purchase Online.What usually stops someone re-

searching online from clicking that 'Buy'button would be an interesting researchto undertake.As offline expands, should the online

players like Flipkart and Amazon beworried? To a certain extent, because thebrand that was so far enticing people topurchase online with discounts andother offers would not tell buyers to visitstores.

Creating smartphone experiencezones also won't help much because itwouldn't make sense for someone to ex-perience a smartphone offline and thenbuy it online.What are the options for e-tailers like

Flipkart and Amazon?What they and others could do is to

take the showcase right to the doorsteps.A prospective buyer can select a fewmodels that are in his/her zone of con-sideration.The delivery boy could be doubled up

as a brand in-store promoter, answeringqueries from the buyer. For more tech-nical queries, a video call could be initi-ated with the technical sales executives.Once the buyer is fully convinced, he orshe may purchase the smartphone.A single channel won't work for any

brand. It has to be an omni-channel ap-proach that is going to bring sales. How-ever, as ROPO is triggering expansioninto offline, the online mediums alsohave to look into reasons why the finalcall is not made in the cyber domain. n


Although on the verge of extinc-tion, pangolins or scalyanteaters – among the most

traded animals in the world that hasnow found a local market in India – areyet to catch the attention of the Uniongovernment.With the Environment Ministry keep-

ing its eyes shut to the crisis, saying theanimal was "not yet threatened" or call-ing it a "state-subject", poaching andtrading of pangolins has grown into anorganised wildlife crime, being carriedout by the same syndicates that are in-volved in tiger poaching, according toexperts. Reports show that at least 6,000 pan-

golins have been slaughtered in Indiasince 2009 for their expensive scales,which are sold for their so-called aphro-disiac properties, though this aspect isyet to be proven scientifically. In just over a month, till February 11

this year, at least five individual cases ofpoaching of the Indian pangolin havecome to light, with about 13 kg of scalesseized, estimated to be harvested bykilling 14 to 26 animals.The Union Environment Ministry,

though, still considers it too early to act."It is not something that is going ex-

tinct. We (Centre) take up protection ofspecies which are threatened. Pangolinis not threatened yet," said DirectorGeneral of Forests in the EnvironmentMinistry, Siddhant Das, adding, "it's astate subject." He also said that so far the Centre has

no plans for its conservation.However, experts and records dis-

agree. India is home to two of the eightpangolin species found across Asia andAfrica – the Indian pangolin and Chi-nese pangolin. According to the International Union

for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), thePangolin is enlisted in "red-list", withthe Indian pangolin listed as "endan-gered" and the Chinese pangolin listed"critically endangered" – a step behind"extinction".Pangolin is a mammal with ants as its

primary prey. Its tongue is longer thanits body to help it catch as many as20,000 ants per day. The species isthreatened mainly due to its scale, madeof keratin – like human nails. According to a senior ministry official,

demand for pangolin scales are largelyin south Asian countries. However, re-cent investigations have shown thatIndia is emerging as a new market. "We have got indications that they are

also being consumed locally in India –partly for medicinal purposes and partlyfor superstition," said Dr Saket Badola,

Wildlife

Pangolins in PerilWhile the scaly anteaters are being poached to

extinction, the government seems to be looking theother way

Head of Traffic-India, a wildlife trademonitoring network and part of WWF.In some parts of the country, pangolin

meat is also consumed as a delicacy, headded. Among the parts of the animalwhich have been seized recently, mosthas been meat. "Countries which havetaken up studies show that their popu-lation is dropping, mostly due to poach-ing," Badola said."There is a huge network working –

maximum seizures were from borderarea of Manipur and ports of TamilNadu," Badola said.Realising the threat, the Convention

on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),an international agreement betweengovernments, listed pangolin under Ap-pendix-I in October 2016, barring itstrade across the globe. In India too, thespecies is listed in Schedule-I of theWildlife (Protection) Act 1972.In India, it is currently the most

poached animal, with central India --Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra --emerging as the the most preferredpoaching grounds. According to Wildlife Protection Soci-

ety of India (WPSI), out of five poaching

cases in 2018, two were from Balaghat,Madhya Pradesh, of about 7 kg of scales.Among these cases was one where localsmugglers -- including a government of-ficial -- offered to sell 12 kg of scales forRs 50,000 a kg. Only 5 kg of the scalescould be seized by authorities, though."It’s now an organised wildlife crime

and it's time to get serious," Tito Josephfrom WPSI said.In 2016, there were a total 22 cases of

seizures, included the three biggest onesso far – 123 kg of scales in May, 93 kg inJune from Mizoram and 86 kg at NewDelhi Railway station, seized by a CBIteam. Four people were arrested inDelhi, all of whom are out on bail now. According to eminent scientist Dr Y.V.

Jhala from the Wildlife Institute of India(WII), there is "not a single study" on thehabitat, behaviour or population esti-mate of the pangolin.Officials tracking pangolin poaching

say they lack resources to tackle theproblem. "We had to refer the recentcase (of poaching) to the Special TaskForce since we have very limited re-sources to tackle the syndicate involvedlocally," a Madhya Pradesh forest officialtold IANS on condition of anonymity. n


One of the five pillars of Islam,"zakat" is mandatory charityfor every well-to-do Muslim.

And Hyderabad Zakat and CharitableTrust (HZCT) has shown how this oblig-atory form of charity can be channelisedto bring change in society through edu-cation.With this noble goal, the 25-year-old

organisation has been using "zakat" topull the community out of illiteracy andtoday more than 24,000 students studyin its 106 schools.The trust made a humble beginning

in 1992 when Ghiasuddin Babukhan, areputed businessman and philanthro-pist of the city, with some friends andother like-minded people came togetherto pool their "zakat" for education. "Itstarted with total 'zakat' of just Rs 11lakh," recalled HZCT chairmanBabukhan.With a firm belief in "empowerment

through education and freedomthrough knowledge", Babukhan and hisfriends formed a network of schools forpoor, mostly in remote villages.Though these Urdu-medium schools

were taken over by the governmentunder the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, thetrust continues to monitor their func-tioning, appoint teachers, distribute freeuniforms and books.What started with a total "zakat" of

just Rs 11 lakh has now expanded to anannual budget of Rs 12 crore and hastouched the lives of over a million peo-ple in the last two-and-a-half decades,including poor students, orphans andwidows in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh,Maharashtra and Karnataka.Every Muslim whose assets reached

"nisab" or minimum value (the currentmarket price of 60.65 tolas of silver) hasto pay 2.5 per cent annual Islamic tax onhis wealth."People donate without any hassle. I

don't know 99 percent of the donors. Ihave never met them. We have ensuredtotal transparency. No questions areasked except positive feedback from thedonors. Some people come personallyto donate huge amounts," saidBabukhan."I don't know whether there is any

trust of this size and calibre in India," headded.HZCT runs its activities professionally

as it has 40 dedicated volunteers and awell-paid, full-time staff. It ensurestransparency by publishing annual re-ports for the donors. Education ac-counts for over 70 percent of the trust'sspending of Rs 107 crore since its incep-tion.The trust is spending more than Rs 2.5

Education

To Trustin Zakat An organisation in Hyderabad has demonstrated howan ancient Islamic tradition could be effectively used toempower through education


crore on schools alone and this includessalaries, uniforms, and "Gems of the Na-tion" cash awards of Rs 10,000 each togirl students who secure 9.3 GPA orabove in the 10th Grade.What is interesting about these

schools is 70 percent of the students aregirls. The pass percentage is 92 againstthe average of 57 in government-runschools."Our schools are a success story, not

because I am handling it, but becauseAllah is handling it. For other worksthere can be several hurdles, but nobodycan stop us in the area of education," hesaid."More than 200,000 students have so

far passed out of our schools and manyhave become professionals like doctorsand engineers," said Babukhan.In 1996, the Foundation for Economic

and Education Development (FEED)was formed to run the institutes estab-lished by the trust. FEED set up the Hy-derabad Institute of Excellence (HIE) in2013 to hone the skills of meritoriousstudents from poor and needy familiesto groom them as leaders with a strong

sense of dignity, integrity, love for thecountry, and deep religious values.Spread over 120 acres at Vikarabad

near Hyderabad, this residential schoolboasts of world-class amenities andstate-of-the-art infrastructure, provid-ing education from 6th to 12th Grade.About 50 per cent of the students at HIEare on annual scholarship of Rs 2 lakheach.It also prepares students for various

competitive exams like IIT-JEE Mainsand Advanced, National Eligibility cumEntrance Test (NEET), Birla Institute ofTechnology Science Aptitude Test (BIT-SAT), and entrance exams to JawaharlalInstitute of Postgraduate Medical Edu-cation and Research (JIPMER) and theNational Defence Academy. In 2017, Hy-derabad Institute of Excellence had 100percent results in the Intermediate (12thGrade) with 13 students scoring above98 per cent marks."The results over the last four years

have been excellent as many studentsgot admissions to reputed colleges indifferent parts of the country and alsointo IITs and NITs," said Babukhan, who

believes that the environment plays animportant role in creating leaders.The education programmes of the

trust have so far benefited about 378,000students. It now plans to focus on edu-cation of orphans.The trust is providing financial aid to

10,000 orphans for education fromschool level to professional courses.This year it disbursed Rs 1.60 crore for

an orphan scholarship programme. Italso spent Rs 1.70 crore for distributionof foodgrain, Iftar packs and clothesduring Ramadan to about 4,000 widowsand orphans and also for distribution of"zabiha" meat.Other works undertaken by HZCT in-

clude relief activities during the Gujaratriots and earthquake, and the Kashmirearthquake and floods.In 2016-17, HZCT spent Rs 5.57 crore

on scholarships for professionalcourses, orphans and physically handi-capped, Rs 1.75 crore on welfareschemes like feeding the poor, Rs 0.25crore on remarriage of young widows,and Rs 0.12 crore on drinking water andborewells. n


They went through a shockingdecline recently. Bitcoin, theleader in cryptocurrencies, fell

from its high of under US$20,000 inmid-December to around US$6,000 invalue in less than two months.It has recovered somewhat since then,

but the world of cryptocurrencies hasbeen shaken up like never before. Yet itsmajor stakeholders are still convincedthat the virtual currencies, which are notlinked to any authority or central bank,are here to stay.The price graph of Bitcoins last year

went up considerably, leading people tobelieve that it would be a one-sidedmarket phenomenon, says Ajeet Khu-rana, Head of Blockchain and Cryp-tocurrency Committee of the Internetand Mobile Association of India. "Nowthat there has been a price correction, itdefinitely shows maturing of the ecosys-tem," he said in an interview.Maturing or shaken up for good? Fi-

nance Minister Arun Jaitley in his 2018Budget speech earlier this month hadsaid that cryptocurrencies were no legaltender and the government discouragedits use. He also said it would not allow itsuse for illegal activities."The government has said it is not a

legal tender and it cannot be used forany digital payment. We will alwaysagree with government directives. Weare hopeful that with increase in aware-

ness, misunderstanding among peoplewill fade," Khurana said.Cryptocurrencies are "mined"

through blockchain technology andmassive computing power, which keepsa record of all transactions within itsstructure, available publicly. It is neithercontrolled, nor endorsed, by centralbankers – except for Japan, where it hasseen some legal acceptance.The market cap of all such currencies

has fallen from more than US$800 bil-lion at its height to less than half at pres-ent. In India, an estimated five millionpeople have invested in such currencieswhich are stored digitally.Industry stakeholders are now keep-

ing their fingers crossed as they arehopeful that the Indian governmentwould chalk out some sort of a frame-work for the cryptocurrency market byMarch this year. A committee set up bythe government to look into issues relat-ing to cryptocurrencies is expected tosubmit its report next month.According to Khurana, many in-

vestors do not know enough about thecurrencies and the Internet and MobileAssociation of India (IAMAI) panel ismaking efforts to increase awareness. "Asignificant number of participants donot have enough knowledge about cryp-tocurrencies. We keep sending caution-ary notes in articles and video format inthe public domain on a regular basis,"

he added.On December 29 last year, the Indian

government had sounded an alarm cau-tioning investors in cryptocurrencies,comparing them to "Ponzi schemes".The Finance Ministry statement hadsaid that as virtual currencies were notbacked by assets, their prices were en-tirely a matter of speculation."Consumers need to be alert and ex-

tremely cautious as to avoid gettingtrapped in such Ponzi schemes... Theprice of Bitcoin and other VCs (virtualcurencies), therefore, is entirely a mat-ter of mere speculation resulting inspurt and volatility in their prices.There is a real and heightened risk ofinvestment bubble of the type seen inPonzi schemes," the statement hadsaid.Cryptocurrency stakeholders are

hopeful, though, that the government'sguidelines by March could infuse a newlease of life. "It has survived several joltsalong its way. Despite the jolts, it contin-ued to exist. Around 2014-15, the non-tech participants with significant riskappetite started showing interest in it,"Khurana said.For now, it's Caveat Emptor – buyer

beware. But as in many get-rich-quickschemes, the early entrants have madehuge gains, luring several others to putin their money into this new virtualworld of overwhelming promise. n

Finance

IT’S ALL TOO CRYPTICWhile the government refuses to recognise cryptocurrencies as legallender and likens Bitcoins to Ponzi schemes, stakeholders are still

vouching for the future of virtual currencies


Quality agriculture commodi-ties that have remained unno-ticed by the outside world are

set to foray into the international mar-kets as the government wants to tap un-explored areas to boost exports andensure better returns for their farmers."Our plan is to tap the areas where the

quality of vegetables and fruits is worthexporting but farmers do not have re-

Agriculture

Better ReturnsMany hitherto untapped fruit and vegetable growersare set to benefit from the government’s ambitious

export targets

quired markets. Even if farmers get ad-ditional Rs 1 per kg, it means a lot tothem," said Agricultural and ProcessedFood Products Export DevelopmentAuthority (APEDA) Chairman D.K.Singh.Thus, chillies from Varanasi, chinia

bananas from Bihar, mandarin orangefrom Arunachal Pradesh, pineapplefrom Tripura and banana from Akola ofthe Vidarbha region are currently on theAPEDA's list.Singh said the successful air-transport

of 1.5 tonnes of chillis from Varanasi toDubai last December had providedfarmers assured market and better re-turns in addition to encouraging the ex-port authority to expand the scope ofthe move."Farmers from Varanasi are happy as

they earned about Rs 100 more perquintal. The exported chilly was issueda health certificate and so it was well-ac-cepted in Dubai. In Arunachal Pradesh,mandarin oranges are sold for just 10paise per kg in the local markets, whichmeans farmers can earn far more

through exports," Singh said.Once regular exports from such unex-

plored areas start, it will boost the localeconomy and create employmentthrough allied activities such as trans-portation and warehousing, he added.At present, Maharashtra and Gujarat

dominate the export space as they haveproper post-harvest management facil-ities and strong transport connectivity –and farmers are well aware of the bene-fits, the Chairman said."In other states, the local govern-

ments are more focused on inputs suchas seeds, fertiliser and crop output. Theyneed to focus on creating post-harvestmanagement facilities such as packag-ing, grading and sorting," he said.Singh said the APEDA was in discus-

sions with the states for creating such fa-cilities."We need vegetables or fruits of the

same size, same colour and uniformshape for export. We are sensitising thestate governments on this. We have ascheme where the central governmenttakes care of 40 per cent of funds re-

quired to build such infrastructure," hesaidThere are challenges before the

APEDA to make transporting export-ori-ented commodities from areas withpoor connectivity with the twin objec-tives of cost-effectiveness and fast deliv-ery.If APEDA uses air transport for fast de-

livery to ensure that the freshness re-mains intact, it adds substantially to thefinal cost – thus making commoditiesvulnerable in the cost-competitiveglobal market.Transportation through the sea-route

will keep the final cost affordable, butthere are chances of fruits and vegeta-bles rotting as the travel time is quitelong – about five-seven days in the caseof Dubai.Dubai is a major importer of fruits

and vegetables from India and is alsostepping up its activities as a distribu-tion hub to other Gulf countries.It accounted for 17 per cent of India's

exports of vegetables and 27 per cent offruits during April-December 2017. n


The popular community kitchen– better known as the "langar" –of gurdwaras in northern India

is feeling the pinch of the GST regimethat came into force seven months ago.The cash-rich Shiromani Gurdwara

Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), whichmanages gurdwaras, or Sikh shrines,across Punjab, Haryana and HimachalPradesh, has claimed that the Goodsand Services Tax (GST) is putting anextra burden on its finances in runningthe free food service.At the Golden Temple complex, which

is home to the holiest of Sikh shrines,the Harmandir Sahib, the SGPC claimsto have paid nearly Rs 2 crore as GST.The Golden Temple complex provides

over 100,000 people free food on week-ends and other rush days. On normaldays, over 50,000 people partake langarserved selflessly at the complex to peo-ple from various religions, cultures,castes, countries and gender.The community kitchen, which serves

completely vegetarian food, at the com-plex is one of the largest such in theworld."The SGPC has paid Rs 2 crore as GST,

while purchasing ration for langar andparshad, ever since the new tax regimecame into force last year. From July 1,2017, to January 31, 2018, we have paidRs 2 crore as GST on purchase of differ-ent items required in the langar at theGolden Temple," SGPC spokespersonDiljit Singh Bedi said.Hundreds of tonnes of wheat flour,

desi ghee, pulses, vegetables, milk, sugarand rice are used, along with millions oflitres of water, annually at the GoldenTemple complex and other gurdwaras toprepare langar.The SGPC, which has written to Prime

Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Min-ister Arun Jaitley and the GST Council inthe past, continues to fight to get GSTexemption on the purchase of raw ma-terial that it has to procure.SGPC officials say that gurdwaras

across the country could be serving freefood to nearly 10 million people on adaily basis.The SGPC is also upset with Jaitley's

recent statement that "no GST has beenimposed on the food served in langarsin the various gurdwaras".SGPC president Gobind Singh Lon-

gowal recently took exception to thestatement."The statement is far from the truth

and facts. GST is being charged on thepurchase of langar items," Longowalpointed out in Amritsar."GST is levied on only products that

are sold. Food in gurdwaras is distrib-

Religion

No Langar AsEconomical

How the Goods and Services Tax is said to be hurtingthe prime charitable cause of gurudwaras

uted free, so there is no question of levy-ing GST. There is no GST on atta or rice,if somebody says that I am buying gheefor temple," Jaitley was recently quotedas saying.The "One Nation One Tax" regime

under the newly-introduced GST, as perthe SGPC estimates, is going to put anextra burden of over Rs 10 crore on thissocio-religious activity at the GoldenTemple complex in Amritsar and othergurdwaras.The SGPC, the mini-parliament of the

Sikh religion that manages Sikh shrines,which has an over Rs 1,100-crore annualbudget, wants the GST Council and thecentral government to exempt pur-chases made for the langar sewa fromGST. Various items procured for the lan-gar fall in different tax slabs rangingfrom five to 18 per cent.Besides the Golden Temple, the SGPC

runs the langar service in other famousSikh shrines like Takht Keshgarh Sahibin Anandpur Sahib (where the modern-day Khalsa Panth was established onApril 13, 1699, by Guru Gobind Singh),Takht Damdama Sahib at Talwandi Saboin Bathinda district and scores of othergurdwaras under it.The langar Sewa is a socio-religious

activity that is part of the Sikh religiousethos from the time of the first Sikh

Guru, Nanak Dev (1469-1539). It wasstarted to emphasise equality in societyregardless of religion, caste, colour andcreed. The langar service is funded fromdonations made by people at the gurd-waras."The SGPC spends around Rs 75 crore

to purchase desi ghee, sugar and pulses.Now, it will have to bear a financial bur-den of Rs 10 crore on these purchases asthey come under the 5 to 18 per centGST bracket," Union Food ProcessingMinister Harsimrat Kaur Badal wrote toJaitely last year, seeking exemption fromthe GST Act for all purchases made bythe SGPC for langar sewa.The GST Act provides for exempting

eligible institutions/businesses but onlyon the GST Council's recommendation.After being initiated by Guru Nanak

Dev, the Guru ka Langar tradition wasfully established by the third Sikh Guru,Amar Dass. It is said that even Mughalemperor Akbar once came and partooklangar among the ordinary people.Hundreds of people volunteer on a

daily basis at the Golden Temple com-plex and other gurdwaras to prepare andserve food and wash used utensils at thelangars. The volunteers include scores ofwomen and children as well. People par-take langar while sitting on the floor inthe langar halls of gurdwaras. n


Movie Review

There is something to be said infavour of the spoken word inthe movies, or the dialogue as

its known. When sharply written, thesewords can embrace the characters inlayers of unvarnished molten gold.Sure enough the repartees in "Sonu

Ke Titu Ki Sweety" (SKTKS) just roll offthe characters' tongues making themsound sassy and sombre even whenthey are being mean and vicious just be-cause it suits the script's purposes.And God knows, this film needs no ex-

cuse to let the words flow. So full marksto co-writer Rahul Mody and Luv Ranjanfor investing the vivacious proceedingswith a verbal gusto that I found to bemore sparkling in wit and insinuationsthan the dialogues in any recent film.SKTKS is the story of the eponymous

Titu (Sunny Singh, suitably equani-mous) who is a bit of a rich spoilt dullardmithaiwala's son who falls in love withevery human being in a skirt, the shorterthe better. It takes Titu's BFF Sonu(Kar-tik Aryan) to rescue Titu from his disas-trous relationship crises time after time.At one point in the slyly silken story-

telling Kartik's Sonu tells the manipula-

tive gold digger a story of what he did toa boy in the classroom as a child whenthat boy troubled Titu.Clearly this a bromance of extraordi-

nary intensity and Kartik and SunnySingh specially the former, plays thebrothers-born-from-different-motherswith a ferocious fidelity never allowinggay insinuations colour their cama-raderie. Luv Ranjan is very clear in hisreading of 'bromantic' relationships.The woman is often a gold-digging ma-nipulative scheming bitch.Nushrat Bharucha plays the part with

relish. It's her ongoing game of oneup-manship with Kartik Aryan's Sonu thatgives a thundering heft to the plot, liftingeven the sagging episodes (like the pre-marriage bachelor party in Amsterdamwhich stretches into a blingy binge) to azestful place filled with sexy sounds andseductive images of from privilegedhomes where no one has to botherabout anything except the next holidayabroad. Luv Ranjan is terrific at shootingfamily dynamics during festive times.The wedding-time negotiations, back-biting and meal/alcohol consumptionoccupy a major part of narrative. There

is a kind of compelling clarity to the wayRanjan pins down the inner workings ofrelationships in joint families about tocome together through a marital al-liance.Of course it helps that character ac-

tors from Alok Nath (abandoning hisbovine image to play a wickedly irrever-ent grandfather) to Pritam Jaiswal (as anannoyingly efficient house help who ismanipulated out of the household) addcharacter to every scene they occupy. Indeed this is not so much a triangle

as a wreck-tangle with every supportingactor egging on the central conflictamong a two men who just can't stoploving one another and a woman, whowill tear them apart at any cost.Nushrat Bharucha's deftly enacted

Sweety admits at one point she is not theheroine but the villain. So does she gether hero or does she get her comeup-pance? The answer my friend, is blowingin the wink.Tongue lodged firmly in cheek, Luv

Ranjan's bromance-versus-romancetale has enough bite to make it one ofthe most invigorating rom-coms in re-cent times. n

'Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety': Luv Ranjan'swreck-tangle is wickedly funny

Subhash K. Jha

Film: "Sonu Ke Titu Ki Sweety"; Director: Luv Ranjan; Cast: Kartik Aryan, NushratBharucha, Sunny Singh; Rating: ****


Bollywood

Parineeti startshooting for'NamasteyEngland'Actors Parineeti Chopra and Arjun

Kapoor started shooting for theirupcoming film "Namastey England" hereon Friday.Parineeti shared a photograph of the

film's clapboard and tweeted: "'NamasteEngland'! Can't control my excitement.Arjun Kapoor, Sanjana Batra, Arti Nayarand Ashni Shah (producers)."Arjun shared the same image and

wrote: "'Namastey England'! Here. We.Go!"This will be the third time Arjun and

Parineeti will be seen working together.The two have previously worked in"Ishaqzaade" and have just wrapped upfilmmaker Dibaker Banerji's "SandeepAur Pinky Faraar". "Namastey England", directed by

filmmaker Vipul Shah, will be shot inthe serene locations of Punjab andCanada. n

Priyanka Chopratired of ‘beingfabulous'Actress Priyanka Chopra says being fabulous is not

an easy job, and found a "pillow" in her "Quantico"co-star Marlee Matlin.Priyanka expressed her views about the Academy

Award-winning actress Matlin while sharing some mo-ments from the sets on Instagram. "So Marlee Matlin is an incredible (Academy Award win-

ning) actress but she truly, may be an even better pillow.#BeingFabulousIsExhausting," Priyanka posted as a cap-tion to an image in which she can be seen resting her headon Matlin's lap. Priyanka is shooting for the third season of American

drama series "Quantico". She is seen as Alex Parrish in theshow. She also teased her fans about what's in store with pho-

tographs of a funeral scene. "And then he said.. I hate to see you go... but I love to

watch you leave.. #dayatwork." The show also stars Russell Tovey, Alan Powell and Blair

Underwood. n

1 MARCH 2018 INDIA FIRST 41INDIA FIRST 41

Hollywood

ArianaGrande pullsout of BritAwardsSinger Ariana Grande pulled out of

2018 Brit Awards at the last mo-ment leaving organisers frantic.The star was set to perform an emo-

tional tribute here at the O2 Arena onWednesday night, for the victims of theManchester terror attack which dis-rupted her concert in May last year. Butafter agreeing to take part, her team no-tified organisers at the last moment, thatshe couldn't make it, reportsmirror.co.uk."Ariana fell ill and was going to come

in spite of that, but was ordered by herdoctor to not fly," said a source close tostar. "It was utter chaos when the call came

in that Ariana couldn't do it. It's raceagainst time to get someone to do whatis very much the centrepiece of the en-tire show," added the source. After the tragedy, Grande had organ-

ised the "One Love" concert, with a line-up that included bands Take That andColdplay.This month the singer's manager told

how the singer cried for days and felt"every name" of the victims. n

Victoria Beckhamfinds it difficult tojuggle tour with kidsSinger-turned-fashion designer Victoria Beckham says it is not possible to

go on a tour like the much-talked about Spice Girls one and also take careof her four children at the same time.Beckham will also be making her first appearance on the London Fashion

Week calendar next season to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the brand."It will be nice to come home to celebrate. I'm from London, my family lives

in London, and I've never shown here so it will be really fun to do somethingdifferent. I think there's a good energy in London. I'm very proud to be British,"she told hollywoodreporter.com. She is about to start scouting for a show venue and promises "lots of sur-

prises" during the year as it builds up to September.Speaking on Spice Girls tour or new album, she said: "For us, girl power is a

strong powerful message. We want to protect the legacy and how do we passthat message on to future generations?""We never said that was about touring or about creating new music, or even

about the five of us together. I love spending time with the girls and we all feelthe same about passing that positive message on. Never has it been more rel-evant and needed than now.""It's not possible to go on tour and do that, I'll tell you that much. When you

are a working mum, my schedule has to be really looked after to make sure Ican spin all these plates," she added. n


Book Review

What do a paraplegic artist seeking to in-spire others to rise above their disabili-ties, a social media star who sought to

flaunt her sexuality as a form of protest, and a po-liceman trying to solve a horrific crime with no com-plainants or witnesses, have in common? They arefacets of a country that rarely make headlines (or doso distorted), but are equally relevant to its repre-sentation.More so when the country in question is Pakistan,

widely perceived as an unstable nation, wracked byterrorism, stifled by its military'sheavy hand and beset by a plethoraof challenges. While images ofbearded, unconscionably viciousterrorists moving out of the bad-lands to cities to massacre innocentbystanders, or defence top brasstrying to augment their own powerand wealth make for compellingstories, they are just a part of a real-ity -- unfortunately a major part,but a part nevertheless.There are stories of a country be-

yond this -- of uncommonly com-mon people, or nameless victims ofregressive and violent patriarchy orsocial and religious pressure, butalso of hopes, aspirations and love,of crimes, oppression and betrayal,and more. And then there is the curious love-haterelationship with its bigger, eastern neighbour.This is what Pakistani journalist Mehr Tarar de-

picts in this book, contending that "no country isbigger than its reality, or merely the sum total of itsflaws".But admitting Pakistan happens to be more

known for its "dark side" and "stereotyped in huesof extremism, militancy and terrorism", the free-lance columnist and Daily Times former op-ed edi-tor notes it is struggling to "rebrand itself"."What I have tried to portray in this book is what

I, an ordinary Pakistani, see of my country: A flawedyet dynamic state, faltering yet hopeful, stumblingyet focussed on a future in which people will be ableto live decent lives, and trying to make the best ofwhat they can to provide a stable today and astronger tomorrow to its next generation," she says.But, for all that, Tarar does not seek to whitewash

any aspect of Pakistan.Divided into five thematic sections, the first, "Re-

ligious Persecution and Other Discontents", beginswith the issue of blasphemy whose victims span

Punjab Governor Salman Taseer to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa varsity student Mashal Khan, andprovides considerable insights into the religiousmindset that fosters it and the colonial-era laws thatfacilitate it.Tarar then takes up a shocking murder of a young

girl in a village in Abbottabad district and thedogged police work that solved what was essentiallya "blind case", and then deals with the phenomenonand tragedy of Fauzia Azeem aka Qandeel Baloch,who is proved to be much more that the social

media phenomenon she is remem-bered as."The Pakistan You Do Not Know"

starts with an equally unsettlingstory of a Pakistani girl in Canada,but hits a lighter patch with a dis-course on friends, fashion and foodand other high society matters, anddeals with the travails of a singlemother the author is. It also show-cases a heartbreaking tale of a lovestory gone wrong -- for the woman,of course -- and also looks atwomen's depiction in popular TVshows. "Remarkable Pakistanis" show-

cases a remarkable artist, a re-doubtable educationist and ahigh-profile kidnapping victim,

who provides a nuanced difference between the Tal-iban and Al Qaeda, while "Family and Friends" hasmore personal accounts about her mother, her rela-tionship with her teenaged son and so on.Finally, "The Indian Connection" covers a visit to

Delhi's most famous Sufi shrine, a "love" affair withAmitabh Bachchan and a fairly even-handed ac-count of troubled bilateral ties and what can, andshould, be done.A personal but perceptive look at the other Pak-

istan beyond the "mullah-jihadi-army" focus whicheffectively dehumanises the great mass of its people,Tarar goes to show them at their best and worst, asgood and evil, but as people. Replete with referencesto and comparisons with India, it also contains aneloquent warning for Indians against the dangerouspaths their country and society could find them-selves on if they continue following a misguided andoutmoded concept of tradition, customs and hon-our. As Tarar shows, these are morasses it is difficult to

extricate ourselves for generations altogether, if atall. n

The other Pakistan: People beyondmedia and popular perceptions

Vikas Datta

Title: Do We Not Bleed?: Reflections of a 21-st Century Pakistani; Author:Mehr Tarar; Publisher: Aleph Book Company; Pages: 240; Price: Rs 599


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