LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

ASIAN AGE

BUSINESS LINE

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TIMES OF INDIA

TRIBUNE

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CONTENTS

CIVIL SERVICE 3-4

DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION 5

EDUCATION 6-18

ELECTIONS 19-23

EMINENT PERSONALITIES 24-26

EMPLOYMENT 27-30

FINANCE 31

INSURANCE 32

INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS 33-35

LIBRARIES 36

MINORITY GROUPS 37-39

NONRESIDENT INDIANS 40

POLICE 41-42

POLITICAL PARTIES 43-44

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 45-51

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CIVIL SERVICE

ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 18, 2017Reshuffle: President’s Private Secretary Rajneesh appointed Joint Secretary in Commerce Ministry

Rajneesh, a 1997-batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, has been appointed to the new post till October next year

NEW DELHI: President Pranab Mukherjee's Private Secretary Rajneesh has been appointed as Joint Secretary in the Department of Commerce as part of senior-level bureaucratic reshuffle effected by the government.

As many as 12 officers have been appointed in various ministries. Of these, seven have been appointed as Joint Secretary and the rest as Additional Secretary.

Rajneesh, a 1997-batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, has been appointed to the new post till October next year, when he completes maximum of seven-year central deputation tenure, an order issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) said.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has approved premature repatriation of IAS officer Umang Narula, Chairman and Managing Director of India Tourism Development Corporation, to his cadre state Jammu and Kashmir.

Those appointed as Additional Secretaries include Madhya Pradesh-cadre IAS officer Anil Kumar Jain, who was working as Adviser in Niti Aayog. He has been appointed Additional Secretary in the same organisation.

Atul Chaturvedi, JS in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, has been made Additional Secretary in the same department. Saraswati Prasad, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, will be Additional Secretary and Financial Adviser in the Steel Ministry, it said.

Santosh A Mathew, who is known for working hard to promote the central government's e-governance programme, has been moved from the Department of Rural Development as Chairperson, National Council for Technical Education.

Satbir Bedi, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Human Resource Development, will be Member Secretary, National Commission for Women.

Senior IAS officers Pradip Kumar Tripathi and V Radha have been appointed as Joint Secretary in DoPT and the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation respectively, the order said.

Sanjay Kumar Rakesh and Ajay Tirkey have been appointed as JS in the Ministry of Electronics

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and Information Technology, and the Department of School Education and Literacy respectively.

Rabindra Kumar Karna has been named as Additional Financial Adviser and Joint Secretary in the Defence Ministry.

ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 19, 2017Senior IAS officer K Narasimha sacked for non-performance

He has been sacked for alleged non-performance and also due to corruption charges against him,

they said. The action came after a departmental review of the officer's service allegedly found

him unfit for the job.

NEW DELHI: After two IPS officers, it was the turn of a senior IAS officer to get sacked on

grounds of non-performance, in a rare action taken by the government in 'public interest'. K

Narasimha, a 1991 batch IAS officer of Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and Union Territories

(AGMUT) cadre, was served with a 'premature retirement' order without any notice.

The Appointments Committee of Cabinet approved the decision under Rule 16 (3) of All India

Services (Death-Cum-Retirement Benefits) Rules-1958 and allowed him to get three months pay

and allowances in lieu of notice, official sources said. He has been sacked for alleged

nonperformance and also due to corruption charges against him, they said. The action came after

a departmental review of the officer's service allegedly found him unfit for the job.

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DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION

BUSINESS LINE JAN 20, 2017Boost to e-governance: NIC to upgrade 150 district offices3-day national meeton grassrootinformatics begins

The government said on Thursday that it would enhance the infrastructure of District NIC

(National Informatics Centre) offices to international standards. As a pilot project, 150 district

NIC offices will be upgraded during 2017-18, while the rest will follow soon.

NIC is the government’s nodal website for ICT infrastructure to support e-Governance services,

products and solutions designed to address e-Governance initiatives.

Meet on informatics

NIC launched the National Meet on Grassroot Informatics, showcasing its various initiatives on

Thursday. Setting up of ICT infrastructure and product development process, along with various

awareness campaigns on digital payment systems encompassing DBT, PFMS, cashless payment

and Aadhaar are showcased in the three-day event. Minister of IT and Law & Justice Ravi

Shankar Prasad said on the occasion, “NIC is the technological bridge of India and is best placed

to lead the way for a Digital India that the Prime Minister envisaged. NIC must adopt a

transformative approach to make a difference at the grassroots level.”

The Minister said NIC should connect with the Common Service Centres (CSCs), who have

successfully provided training on digital payment systems to over 1.96 crore rural citizens and

6.15 lakh merchants. Prasad wanted the ministry to develop a training module for NIC officials

to keep pace with the evolving technologies.

Awards for officials

He also announced the introduction of annual awards for the DIOs of the NIC for taking up

exemplary innovative approach. The top three best innovators will get a reward of Rs. 2

lakh, Rs. 1 lakh and Rs. 50,000 respectively, he added.

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NIC has also introduced two new portals, District Collector’s Dashboard and NIC Service Desk.

EDUCATION

ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 19, 2017Smriti Irani told DU not to reveal her educational qualification: SOL

In her affidavit for April, 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Irani had said she completed her BA in 1996

from DU

NEW DELHI: Amid the row over her educational qualification, Union Minister Smriti Irani had

asked the Delhi University not to disclose it to an RTI applicant, the School of Open Learning

has told the Central Information Commission.

The Commission has now directed the School of Open Learning (SoL) to produce before it all

the records related to educational details of Irani, Union Textile Minister.

A fresh show cause notice has been issued to the Central Public Information Officer of DU for

having failed to produce the records before the Commission as directed.

Irani's degrees have been caught in a row after a petitioner alleged she had given contradictory

information in her affidavits filed before contesting elections in 2004, 2011 and 2014.

In her affidavit for April, 2004 Lok Sabha polls, Irani had said she completed her BA in 1996

from DU (School of Correspondence as SoL was then called), whereas in another affidavit of

July 11, 2011 to contest Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat, she said her highest educational

qualification was B.Com Part I, a petitioner had alleged in a city court.

The matter was dismissed by the court on the ground that considerable time had lapsed in filing

the complaint.

The issue is, however, still alive before the Central Information Commission where an applicant

had filed an appeal, saying he was not given information about Irani's educational qualification

by the SoL.

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During a hearing, SoL's Central Public Information Officer O P Tanwar said considering that it

was a third party information he had consulted Irani about the disclosure.

"In her response (she) raised objection against (sic) disclosure and requested the public authority

not to reveal her educational qualification. The CPIO pleaded that information sought was given

by the former HRD Minister in fiduciary capacity and hence could not be divulged as per Section

8(1)(e)," Information Commissioner Sridhar Acharyulu said in his order.

Although Chief Information Commissioner R K Mathur has divested Acharyulu of the Human

Resource Development Ministry portfolio, two days after he ordered disclosure of records of the

degree course of BA, 1978, the year in which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is said to have

passed from Delhi University, he will continue to adjudicate matters in which he has already

issued notices and is finalising orders.

The petitioner had sought to know from the School of Open Learning whether the Minister had

obtained BA degree in 1996 and passed B Com Part I in 1994 from Delhi University.

He had also asked for photocopies of her hall ticket and mark sheets, besides admission form

with enrollment number, in case she enrolled herself for the course but did not obtain the degree.

The petitioner sought to know if the Union Minister was enrolled with the University in 2013

why did she not take any examination.

The SoL cited two exemption clauses--personal information and fiduciary information-- under

the RTI Act to deny the information.

The petitioner filed a complaint and asked the CIC to institute an inquiry into "unjustifiable and

illegal" denial of information sought by him.

"The question before the Commission is whether the appellant is asking (for) information which

is given by the student (Ms Smriti Irani) to the School of Open Learning or whether School of

Open Learning has given the degree to its student...," Acharyulu said.

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He said to find answers it was necessary to verify the records.

"The Commission summons the concerned records and directs O P Tanwar to produce registers

and records containing details of educational qualifications accorded to the student which were

sought by the applicant," the Information Commissioner had said in his order.

He also asked SoL as to in how many cases it has refused to give degree related information

under the RTI Act in the year 2016.

The the transparency panel had yesterday directed the Central Board of Secondary Examination

to allow inspection of class 10th and 12th school Irani, rejecting CBSE's contention that it

constituted "personal information".

HINDU, JAN 23, 2017JNU proposes sharing resources with institutes

: To promote high quality research in higher educational institutions, the Jawaharlal Nehru University has proposed an initiative called Jawaharlal Nehru University Inter-Institution Research Cluster (JIRC) that will be hosted and administered at JNU.

V-C’s meeting

The proposal has come after a brainstorming session held recently by Vice-Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar that was attended by heads and nominees of various research institutes.

The institutes included IIT-Delhi, Safdarjung Hosital, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Indian Council of Medical Research, National Institute of Plant Genome Research, among others. The participants agreed that the cluster would be formed once a Memorandum of Understanding is signed by all member-institutes.

The Cluster seeks to impart training and research in cutting-edge areas and sharing of resources among its member institutes/departments. Researchers will have free access to resources of the member-institutes. The representatives in a statement said that a mechanism will be evolved to sustain and promote the JIRC's financial implications, responsibilities and viabilities as well as administrative framework.

Optimum use

They felt that the optimum use of JIRC's infrastructure will include teaching, training, and credit-sharing. “Teachers and scientists from the member-institutes will be encouraged to teach and supervise among various institutes,” the representatives of participating institutes decided.

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It was also proposed to hold workshops and seminars to enhance and promote research and develop novel courses involving faculty drawn from the cluster.

The members will be able to share available e-resources like journal subscriptions, books libraries and research infrastructure.

The institutes included IIT-Delhi, Safdarjung Hosital and Indian Councilof Medical Research

ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 23, 2017Govt sets rules for 20 'World Class Institutes'By Anubhuti Vishnoi The regulations will also clearly say that UGC regulations will not be applicable in most part to these 20 institutes.

NEW DELHI: The much debated and discussed ‘World Class Institutes’ will now drop the nomenclature altogether. The Prakash Javadekar led Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry is learnt to have finalised on the regulations to set up 20 ‘world class institutes’- deciding to name them as ‘Institutes of Eminence’ instead.

ET has learnt that the ministry has also agreed to bring down corpus amount requirement significantly for private institutes from the originally proposed Rs 500 crore to just about Rs 60 crore, pull down enrolment requirements to 15,000 students and keep Faculty-Student ratio at 1:20 to start with. The regulations will also clearly say that UGC regulations will not be applicable in most part to these 20 institutes.

The changes to the Regulations have been made following the feedback the ministry received on them after they were put in the public domain.

Finance minister Arun Jaitley had announced in the 2016 budget that “enabling regulatory architecture will be provided to 10 public and 10 private institutions to emerge as world-class teaching and research institutions”.

The draft regulations for these were called the ‘UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as World Class Institutions) Guidelines, 2016’. However, there was consensus in the HRD ministry after public consultation that terming the institutes as ‘world class’ was not the best or even apt description.

While description like Institutes of excellence and possible use of the term National were considered, finally, it was agreed to rename them as ‘Institutes of Eminence’, sources told ET.

One of the key changes, however, is in the corpus fund requirement. It was originally proposed

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that a private institute must have a corpus of Rs 500 crore to be eligible to be declared a world class institute. However, after the PMO’s intervention, this was said to be reworked to keep it at Rs 200 crore instead. Now, ET has learnt, the HRD ministry has brought this down to just Rs 60 crore- to be raised to Rs 150 crore in ten years’ time. It is argued that corpus fund is also read as locked up money, so there may not be enough rationale for prescribing such a high amount be kept inactive.

The draft regulations had also said that the institutions must ensure a 1:10 faculty-student ratio, enroll 20,000 students in 15 years.These criteria now stand revised with a proposals instead to start with 1:20 Faculty Student ratio, to be improved to 1:10 in five years’ times and a total enrolment of 15,000 students in 15 years.

The regulations have seen rounds of discussions and considerable friction between the HRD ministry and the PMO with the latter pushing for a highly liberalized regulatory regime free of UGC controls. It is expected that the HRD ministry will be able to take the proposal to Cabinet in April-May and notify them in June this year. Once Cabinet approval comes through, an Empowered Experts Committee will be appointed to conduct the screening process for the aspiring institutes which will be able to apply wit5hing 90 days of notification.

ET View

Raise The Bar Across Institutions

World class universities or institutions of eminence cannot be built overnight or legislated into existence. Instead of a few of giving a few institutions the administrative space and financial leeway, the government and the country would have been better served if the focus were on enabling all higher education institutions to improve their systems and offerings . You can’t have excellence in a sea of mediocrity

STATESMAN, JAN 18, 2017

Delhi University mulling entrance test for UG admissions

Representational image (Photo: Getty Images)Delhi University, which usually begins its undergraduate admissions by May end, is mulling to start the process two months in advance and admit students through an entrance test rather than the traditional cut-offs.

The proposals, however, are in a nascent stage and will be part of the suggestions made by the Standing Committee on Admissions to the Vice Chancellor.

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While the admissions may begin by March end, around two months in advance, they will close around the same time as before.

"The preponement of the schedule is only aimed at providing a bigger window to candidates for completing the registration process. However, the application will be completed as per the earlier schedule only as the form will be complete only after the board results have been announced," a senior university official said.

"The traditional cut-offs based on marks of Class XII may no longer be the sole criteria for admissions in DU. An entrance test is being considered. However, modalities like whether it should be subjective or objective, the admissions should be solely on basis of entrance test or have a certain weightage for board marks, are yet to be discussed," the official added.

The admissions committee will make the recommendations to the Vice Chancellor following which they will be placed before the statutory bodies- Academic Council (AC) and Executive Council (EC) before being incorporated into the admission policy for the upcoming session.

The varsity had last year moved online for the undergraduate admission process. After registering themselves on DU's admission portal, the students are required to upload "self-attested and scanned" copies of their documents after following the mentioned instructions and then make the payment online.

After the announcement of the cut-off list, the students have to log into their registered account and see the courses and colleges in which their percentage figures in the cut-off list, select the desired combination and then take a printout of the admission form.

TIMES OF INDIA, JAN 17, 2017Delhi University panel rejects ad hoc teacher’s nomination

New Delhi: The Delhi University's scrutiny committee rejected the nomination of Sachidanand

Jha for the post of member of the executive council (EC) claiming that an ad hoc teacher cannot

fight the elections.

The decision of the committee has been opposed by several teachers. Abha Dev Habib, EC

member, said that the committee did not give any substantive reason for the rejection.

"Ad hoc teachers have always voted in the elections as their names are there in the electoral rolls.

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But this was the first time that an ad hoc wanted to fight the elections, but they are not allowing

it," she said.

Jha, teaching at Rajdhani College, has been an ad hoc teacher for the last eight years. He said

that he had recently written a piece in a newspaper, which might have prompted the decision.

"I was the first candidate to file the nomination papers and they did not object to that," he said.

The DU Teacher's Association (DUTA) condemned the committee decision and termed it

"illegal".

"This decision violates Statute 5 of the Delhi University Act," said a statement by the teachers'

association.

Jha claimed that "the committee could not produce a single argument or reference to any statute

in justification of their stand."The EC elections are scheduled to be held on February 9.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, JAN 18, 2017The NCERT’s tweaking of learning outcomes is not exactly child friendly

Among the things that a child in Class 8 is going to be asked is if she can file a first information report (FIR)? We presume that a child in that class will not be required to go to a police station unaccompanied and file an FIR; so this is an odd learning outcome to say the least.

Making learning interesting and enjoyable — that should be the main criteria for any

educationist or educational organisation when it comes to setting frameworks for children. No

one can fault the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for not

trying, but it seems to suffer from a distinct disconnect from what children really need in the

learning outcomes it has prepared to assess them. Among the things that a child in Class 8 is

going to be asked is if she can file a first information report (FIR). We presume that a child in

that class will not be required to go to a police station unaccompanied and file an FIR; so this is

an odd learning outcome to say the least. Another is whether the child can locate her

parliamentary constituency on a map or name the local MP.

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Now this is fine as far as general knowledge goes, but a child who does not vote is not really

required to know these facts. A child in Class 4 should be able to read subtitles on TV, titles of

books, news headlines and advertisements. Again, this cannot be a substitute for teaching the

child reading in the classroom. Reading advertising lines is not a skill that a child of that age

should be asked to acquire. The other suggestions are whether the child can read train timetables,

a task which defeats even adults at times and how to locate places on a map.

These draft learning outcomes, if implemented, could hold the difference between the child

progressing to the next class. Draft learning outcomes for each class have been developed for

languages — Hindi, English and Urdu, mathematics, environmental studies, science, and social

science. Mercifully, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has made the draft public

for suggestions and comments till the end of the month. These outcomes may be included in the

Right to Education (RTE) too. The NCERT goes further and asks children to discuss the Rajya

Sabha TV show Samvidhan and watch movies like Gandhi, Sardar and Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar.

While these are undoubtedly educational pursuits, none of them sound particularly child friendly.

The draft seems to have been written purely based on theoretical notions of what children ought

to know. There is nothing in it which could spark interest in the child or make learning more

interactive or joyful. Hopefully, the public will come up with suggestions that are more

appropriate for the child and which will engage her in a more sustained manner. This way the

NCERT could reframe its draft to serve children better, which should be at the heart of any

learning outcome.

ASIAN AGE, JAN 16, 2017Delhi: School rejects applications’ of parents with more than two kids

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The clause is also applicable for teaching positions at the schools. Candidates with more than two children cannot apply for job.

New Delhi: In a unconventional move, a prominent Delhi school has barred parents having more than two kids from seeking admission for their wards, in an attempt to motivate people to have fewer children.

Salwan School in West Delhi's Rajendra Nagar has mentioned this condition in registration forms issued by its two branches- Salwan Montessori and GD Salwan.

"Parents having more than two children, including whose admission is sought, need not apply," the form read.

The clause is also applicable for teaching positions at the schools. Candidates with more than two children cannot apply for job.

According to Sushil Salwan, Chairman of the Salwan Group, "The regulation has been put keeping in mind the increasing population in the country. This is our way of contributing to the issue by motivating people to have lesser children."

Delhi government had last year issued guidelines abolishing arbitrary criteria such as parent's education, their profession, age, oral test and interview. However, the rider imposed by Salwan school is not mentioned in the list.

Nursery admissions began on January 2 with the process for 298 private schools and EWS and DG categories commencing from January 10.

The application process for the first category will conclude on January 23 while for the remaining two categories will end on January 31.

The first list will be displayed on February 28 and subsequent lists will come out on March 15 and 31.

HINDU, JAN 18, 2017NCERT sets goals for elementary classesTanu KulkarniMHRD invites suggestions on draft document

Can a child in Class 1 associate words with pictures or recognise letters and sounds in the

English alphabet? Can a child in Class 3 read simple maps? Would a child in Class 8 be

able to fill a First Information Report (FIR) form?

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These are some of the expected learning outcomes and suggested pedagogic practices

developed by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to

define minimal learning levels, grade-wise, in elementary classes.

The Ministry of of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is mulling including a set of

defined learning outcomes as part of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory

Education (RTE) Act, 2009. Once this is done, students of all schools – government, aided

and private – will have to adhere to these guidelines in measuring learning outcomes.

A document titled ‘Learning Outcomes at Elementary Stage’ has a list of grade-wise

learning outcomes in Hindi, English, Urdu, Mathematics, Environmental Studies, Science

and Social Science. The document states that the learning outcomes will “provide the

checkpoints that are measurable in a qualitative or quantitative manner to assess the

progress of a child as per the expected holistic learning for the overall development of a

child.” Moreover, it is aimed at helping bridge regional disparities.

TELEGRAPH, JAN 20, 2017JNU to cut teachers' pay for strike

Pheroze L. Vincent

New Delhi, Jan. 19: The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration is set to crack down on teachers who are protesting against gag orders and changes in admission and recruitment rules.

The JNU teachers' association struck work on Tuesday after five teachers were warned against addressing protests.

Today, registrar Pramod Kumar issued a notice to teachers, saying: "Under the principle of 'No Work, No Pay' such faculty member(s) who had participated in the strike would not be paid pay and allowances for the day of the strike. It is proposed to take action against those faculty members who participated in the strike on 17.1.2017 under the provisions of FR 17(a) along with all its attendant consequences."

FR 17(a) of Central Civil Services (Leave) Rules, 1972, lays down that for any employee who is "absent unauthorisedly or deserts the post, the period of such absence shall be deemed to cause an interruption or break in service of the employee". This would imply loss in seniority and promotions.

Nandita Narain, president of the Federation of Central University Teachers' Associations, said

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Central Civil Services Rules do not apply to universities "as our service conditions are different".

"Certain rules are applied when a university does not have rules for the same. This does not include disciplinary provisions like 17A," she said.

Vikas Bajpai of JNU's Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health said the "No work, no pay" principle was "absolutely inapplicable". "Even in the past teachers have made up for the loss of studies on account of strikes and agitations by taking extra classes. This has never been applied in JNU before as the university has its own rules."

HINDU, JAN 20, 2017Dismantling admission process would change essence of JNU, say teachers

×

×

Speaking on the second day of the five-day protest lecture series in Jawaharlal Nehru

University, alumni from the 1970s reminisced about the progressive admission policy of the

university.

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Sohail Hashmi and Madhu Prasad, both JNU alumni, explained how the university stood

for social justice during admissions via the deprivation points system, reservation policy,

and student observers who were present for the interviews.

They said that the admission policy had been fought for and implemented by JNU Student

Union led by Prakash Karat as its president (1972-73). They outlined how the policy had

been “destroyed by JNU administration” for a while after a crackdown in 1983.

‘Tried to reason with V-C’

JNU Teachers’ Association office-bearers said that they tried to reason with the Vice-

Chancellor in a meeting held recently on the same issue. They said that they told the V-C

that JNU’s admission policy is unique because it not only gives reservation, but also awards

deprivation points to candidates from backward districts, higher points for women from

SC/ST/OBC/PD and backward districts and to women in general.

“To dismantle this admission policy in the name of UGC notification would change the

very essence of the university,” they said.

‘UGC rules mandatory’

The office-bearers of JNUTA pointed out that the UGC notification gives us a lot of scope

to retain JNU's own system and that the notification in no way suggests that deprivation

point cannot be applied after the two-stage entrance. The university administration,

however, said that they had discussed the matter with the UGC chairman who made it clear

that new UCG regulations were mandatory

The five-day protest-lecture series on ‘Democracy and Social Justice: Access and Equality’,

organised by the JNU Teachers' Association, had begun on Wednesday on the campus at

Freedom Square. The other speakers on the second day were Anita Ghai from Ambedkar

University who spoke on ‘Disability and Social Justice’ and Pradeep Shinde from JNU who

spoke on ‘Invisibilising the invisibles: the quest for social justice in India’.

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The series will continue on Friday at 4 p.m. with a talk by Tanweer Fazal on ‘Minorityism

or minority rights: Sachar Committee, Muslims and the question of social justice’ and

Yogendra Yadav on ‘UGX, university autonomy and social justice’. The lectures will be

followed by a Dastangoi performance.

STATESMAN, JAN 16, 2017Panel recommends reservation for girl students in IITs

A panel has recommended reservation for girl students in IITs to address the issue of slump in the number of female students entering the prestigious institutes.

The committee is learnt to have suggested creating up to 20 per cent supernumerary seats for girls out of the total number of seats.

The recommendation of the committee will be taken up in the meeting of the joint admission board (JAB) for a final decision, which will decide whether the reservation will come in effect from this year or from 2018.

Concerned by the slump in number of girl students entering IITs, the JAB has set up a sub-committee under the chairmanship of professor Timothy Gonsalves to find ways to rectify the situation in the institutes.

The number of seats for male candidates will not be affected and this will help IITs achieve the 1 lakh target by 2020. Also, only candidates who have already qualified in JEE-Advanced will be considered.

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ELECTIONS

TRIBUNE, JAN 19, 2017Simultaneous polls against spirit of federalismRajindar Sachar

It is constitutionally not possible to hold simultaneous polls to the Lok Sabha and state assemblies. At best Modi can dissolve the Lok Sabha and the assemblies in the BJP-ruled states to have simultaneous elections.Simultaneous polls give an unfair advantage to national parties as against state parties.

Prime Minister Modi has for the last six months kept a continuous refrain for holding Lok Sabha and state assembly polls simultaneously and the supposed advantages that would flow from it. As was to be expected, a number of newspapers and persons are picking up this matter. It is unfortunate that the Election Commission of India and Niti Aayog should have gone along with this suggestion without even the minimum constitutional requirement of a public debate, and more unforgivably, without a discussion of the issue with other major political parties and the state governments. In order to have a worthwhile debate, it is necessary to know the legal and factual situation at present. 

The present life of the Lok Sabha expires in May 2019. Modi’s repeated emphasis on simultaneous polls is actuated by the realisation that the mood of exhilaration that he was able to create in the 2014 parliamentary poll is diminishing very fast. The UPA regime (2004–2014) had seen so many scandals, both financial and administrative, that people were unhappy with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh because of the domination of the Gandhi family. The exposure by the Supreme Court of the telecom and coal scandals had made the BJP task easier. By itself, the BJP under a leader other than Modi (helped fully by the RSS) might not have done that well. But Modi had created an illusion of a strong and honest government in Gujarat that people were willing to ignore or even forget one of the worst periods under Modi, namely the state-supported mass slaughter of Muslims in 2001. Such was the communal passion aroused by the RSS that the country which was already disgusted with corruption and inefficiency of the UPA government and also heightened by the split amongst the various political parties that Modi romped home with an overwhelming majority in the Lok Sabha with just 31% of the votes — of course greatly helped and boosted by corporate funding.

That illusion has now been exposed. Even ardent supporters of Modi now do not place a hundred per cent bet on Modi winning the Lok Sabha poll in 2019 — that is why the effort of Modi to work out a strategy so as to keep his rivals caught up with state assembly polls so as not to put up a combined pressure on him in the Lok Sabha poll.

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But this strategy of Modi is not constitutionally permissible. After the Emergency, the Constitution (44th Amendment) has provided in Article 83 and Article 172 that the Lok Sabha and state legislatures shall continue for five years from the date of their first meeting and no longer. Thus the factual situation at present is that it is constitutionally not possible to hold simultaneous polls in May 2019.

This is because it would require an extension of the terms of the state assemblies of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan (by five months), of Mizoram (by six months) and of Karnataka (by 12 months), which is constitutionally not possible. Of course, the terms of the assemblies of the BJP-ruled states could be curtailed in Haryana and Maharashtra (by five months) and Jharkhand (by seven month) but Delhi would not agree to it. 

Five states, including Punjab and UP, are set for fresh elections. Obviously no one can expect Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal and Kerala to agree to simultaneous polls unless opposition parties approve of the move. Assam can go to the polls in 2019 though its assembly’s term is until 2021, but will Modi agree to curtail its term? The BJP has for the first time come to power in Assam. 

The non-BJP states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal, where the term of the assemblies expirers in 2021, will never agree to the proposal. The Central Government whose term expires in 2019 cannot continue thereafter without holding fresh elections by May 2019. 

If, however, Modi is so keen on holding simultaneous polls he can hold these with some states by dissolving the Lok Sabha and the assemblies in the BJP-ruled states. If Modi is not willing, why is he trying to cover his government’s failures by conjuring up these illusory, undemocratic solutions? 

A greater principle of democracy is involved in holding simultaneous polls to Parliament and state assemblies unless by fortuitous circumstances the five-year periods of the Lok Sabha and state assemblies happen to coincide on their own. This contrived situation being brought up by Modi has very dangerous implications and is against the basic structure of our Constitution. 

According to Article 1(1), India is a Union of states, which means a federation of states. Our Constitution empowers the Central Government to legislate exclusively on certain subjects in the List-I in the Seventh Schedule. The states alone can legislate on subjects under the list-1I.  Both the Centre and the states can legislate on subjects mentioned in the List-III. The state list includes very important subjects like agriculture and law and order on which the Centre has no jurisdiction. Obviously, voters have different priorities when voting for state assemblies and

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Parliament. In the Delhi laws Act the Supreme Court of India (1951) specifically held, “The state legislature under our Constitution is not a delegate of the Union Parliament. Both legislatures derive powers from the same Constitution. Within its appointed sphere, the state legislature has plenary powers”. 

Modi wants to deny this strategic advantage of states and weaken decentralisation, which is the core of our constitutional jurisprudence.  

Examples of the US and European countries would show that it is constitutionally recognised that the priorities and interests of a state in day-to-day governance are emphasised differently. Thus in the US a rather extreme position prevails that the law and medical degrees of one state are not even recognised in the rest of the states. As far elections, they have different laws in each state. They have separate laws for elections to the President’s office, the Senate and the House of Representatives and also different laws for various states. Of course, this is an extreme example borne possibly of history of the US which had witnessed a civil war. 

We wisely did not go that far. Also, the priorities of the Centre and the states are different. The sooner Modi relinquishes this idea of simultaneous polls the better. This gives an unfair advantage to national parties as against state parties and distorts the sentiment of voters that a government be close to the people of the area concerned.

The writer is a former Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court

BUSINESS LINE, JAN 17, 2017Akhilesh wins Round One, bags ‘cycle’ symbolPoll panel ruling could be a setback for Mulayam, who vows to fight son if needed

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav scored a major victory on Monday against his father and Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav by gaining control over the party’s election symbol, the cycle, a day before the process of electioneering formally starts in the State.

The Election Commission (EC), which has been hearing the factions headed by Akhilesh and Mulayam, allocated the symbol to the son. The Akhilesh-led faction is SP, and is hence entitled to use the election symbol, it ruled.

“Terms of para 15 of the Symbols Order, the Commission hereby answers the Issue, N. 2, by holding that the group led by Akhilesh Yadav is the Samajwadi Party and is entitled to use its name and its reserved symbol `bicycle’ for the purposes of the Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order, 1968,” said the EC in an order signed by Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi, and Election Commissioners OP Rawat and AK Joti.

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This formalises Akhilesh’s anointment as SP chief and reduces Mulayam to a mere faction leader. Moreover, it authorises the CM to go ahead and seal an alliance with the Congress and the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), a move that he had been pushing to make without making much headway because of opposition from his father.

In an interview to BusinessLine last month, Akhilesh had said: “I am confident of getting a majority. But if we had a grand alliance, we would cross 300 seats. It is up to Netaji to decide on such matters.”

Change of guard

After getting the party symbol, the 43-year-old Chief Minister visited his father. The move was designed to soften the blow after his supporters stuck his nameplate outside the SP chief’s office in Lucknow on Monday morning, signifying the change of guard in the party.

Mulayam, on his part, accused Akhilesh of being “anti-Muslim” and declared that he would “fight against my son” if he did not follow his advice. He also hinted that he would move court if the EC decided against his claim for the party’s election symbol.

The two factions had presented supporting evidence to the EC for their claim over the party symbol. Akhilesh’s faction had claimed he had the support of two-thirds of the party while Mulayam claimed he was still the party chief. Akhilesh had removed Mulayam from the party chief’s post in a convention held in Lucknow on January 1. Mulayam called the move illegal and moved EC to stake claim over the party symbol.

Continuing his opposition to his son, Mulayam told a meeting of the party workers in Lucknow on Monday that Akhilesh refuses to listen to him and has a “negative” approach towards Muslims. Many workers in the party meeting turned emotional and appealed to Mulayam to “save the party”. Mulayam, however, blamed Akhilesh for the split and said: “If he does not listen to me, I will fight against him.”

However, there is no possibility of the father contesting against the son, as Akhilesh is a member of the UP’s legislative council and is not contesting the Assembly elections.

Also, now that Akhilesh has won the war over the party symbol, his support among the party workers is only expected to grow. Already, in their meeting with Mulayam on Monday morning, a lot of workers were seen appealing to him to “bless” his son. Some workers even interrupted him and called for a truce.

“What can I do, he (Akhilesh) is not ready to listen to me. I had called him in the morning but he did not turn up. Whatever I tell him, he conveys to Ramgopal (Yadav). He is my son but he is working for my opponents,” Mulayam told the workers.

Made sacrifices

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“I have made a lot of sacrifices for the party. He is not listening to me… He has sacked a number of ministers including a woman. Senior ministers were sacked without any reasons,” he added.

Mulayam’s stress on his Muslim voters in his interaction with party workers on Monday morning is indicative of the unease in the SP over its traditional voter base shifting to the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which has already announced its candidates. The BSP has decided to give ticket to 97 Muslims out of the total 403 seats and is clearly hoping to wean the community, which constitutes about 19-21 per cent of the population, away from the SP.

The districts going to polls in the first phase in UP are Shamli, Muzaffarnagar, Baghpat, Meerut, Ghaziabad, Gautam Buddha Nagar, Hapur, Bulanshahr, Aligarh, Mathura, Hathras, Agra, Firozabad, Etah and Kasganj.

(This article was published in the Business Line print edition dated January 17, 2017)

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EMINENT PERSONALITIES

TELEGRAPH, JAN 16, 2017Disappearing Gandhi- Modi as Mahatma?

Mukul Kesavan

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi has been a totem for half a century and more. His ideas, even when he was alive, were seen by his peers and protégés as impractical pieties. It is appropriate that the tokenism that surrounds his legacy was taken to its absurd conclusion last week when the Khadi and Village Industries Commission published a calendar that featured a photograph of Narendra Modi sitting at a charkha. The picture provoked hysteria among liberals who read it as an act of insolent appropriation. They were right, but it's more interesting than that.

Like all successful politicians, Modi tries to control and manage the way in which he is pictorially represented. His formally posed portraits come in two main flavours: Piercing Gravitas and Smiling Visage. Piercing Gravitas comes naturally to him: Delhi was papered with huge, pharaonic portraits of the unsmiling Leader in the run up to the Delhi elections. It's hard to know whether the Bharatiya Janata Party's rout in Delhi has anything to do with it, but since then we've seen more pictures of Modi smiling, more retail politician than Ramesses II. The trouble with the smiling pictures is that the prime minister can do impassive, combative and triumphal superbly, but kindliness and benevolence hardly at all. There is a portrait of him with his shoulders slightly turned in an orange kurta and brown Nehru jacket, grinning; it leaves the viewer with the uneasy feeling that the Leader has the goods on him.

To return to the calendar picture, it's worth noticing that there is a double-appropriation afoot. Modi isn't just standing in for Gandhi, the Nehru jacket reminds us that he is also the BJP's sartorial answer to Jawaharlal. The basic elements of their wardrobes are similar: kurta, waistcoat and churidar pyjamas. The difference lies in the gorgeous colourfulness that Modi brings to his clothes that transforms them into coordinated outfits. Nehru's khadi waistcoats are a generic off-white or beige; Modi's are all the colours of the rainbow.

There is a sharp fit and finish to Modi - the neat cuffs on his kurtas, the snugness of those pastel waistcoats - that leaves Nehru looking almost plain. Also there is a fullness to the present prime minister's aspect, which helps his tailors achieve that bespoke upholstered look that Nehru wholly lacks. The one obvious difference is that Nehru used to wear achkans and Modi doesn't. Even the achkans were monochromatic; Nehru's tailor, P.K. Vaish, told the Wall Street Journal that he wore them only in black, white, cream and grey. The one touch of colour used to be supplied by the red rose in his buttonhole. In an interesting inversion, Modi sports a black-and-white plastic lotus in election season.

It isn't hard to find online photographs of Nehru at a charkha. There's one of him in Life magazine, spinning alone in a room on one of those flat portable charkhas that used to be fairly common in middle-class homes in the early decades of Independence. There's another picture, taken by the great photojournalist Homai Vyarawalla, which has him cross-legged at the charkha in full formal rig - topi, achkan, churidar - drawing out the thread and looking, like

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Modi, entirely unpersuaded by what he was doing. It's fair to say that this was as much a photo-op as the picture that graces the KVIC's calendar.

There are amusing differences, though. Modi isn't sitting cross-legged. He's sitting on a white block and the charkha is perched on another white block in front of him. It's hard to tell in the published picture because of the front-on angle. In Vyarawalla's photograph, Nehru is pictured surrounded by people less than an arm's length from him. Modi sits in the centre of a large room, on a raised platform, with the women spinners to whom he has donated charkhas sitting at a respectful distance on the carpeted floor. It isn't as if Modi can't sit cross-legged; he is famously the prime minister who led the nation through a yoga class. The reason he isn't cross-legged is that he is there as a patron, as the benign leader bearing gifts, and the dignity of his office demands elevation.

There is a self-consciousness to Modi that is actorly in its intensity. There is a video of the event in Ludhiana where the KVIC photograph was taken, from which it's evident that the camera doesn't just happen to be there; the whole event is staged for the camera. There are grateful women spinning in the background and there are framed photographs of the prime minister on the wall behind them looking benignly at the real Mr Modi in the foreground, working the charkha and dignifying the whole business of khadi with his presence.

Modi, like Nehru, photographs well. But they are very different subjects. Here is Vyarawalla on Nehru: "Panditji (Jawaharlal Nehru) was very photogenic. He had different moods and was very active, so that made it possible to get good pictures of him. He always pretended as if no photographers were around. He didn't mind if he was taking a nap and you took his picture. He would wake up and give you a smile. There were others who would flare up and ask for the film. He was not like that..."

I think it's fair to say that Modi is unlikely to be caught off-guard with a photographer around.

Was the replacement of Gandhi by Modi the thin end of the wedge, one step in the BJP's tireless bid to rewrite the history of Indian nationalism? More likely it was the sangh parivar seeing what it could get away with, in much the same way as it tried in the first year of Modi's government to replace Christmas Day with Good Governance Day, where the nativity of Jesus Christ was overwritten by the momentous birthdays of Madan Mohan Malaviya and Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Ever since Modi took office in 2014, the BJP's gut feelings on a whole range of issues have been sub-contracted to party functionaries and junior ministers who give voice to opinions that might sound unseemly in the mouths of the BJP's senior leadership.

On the matter of the KVIC photograph, Haryana's health minister, Anil Vij, took guard and hit the ball out of the park. Modi, he declared, was a much bigger "brand" than Gandhi. Gandhi's association with khadi had drowned the khadi industry. In much the same way, Gandhi's portrait on rupee notes had led to the devolution of the currency. Asked why the BJP government persisted with Gandhi's image on currency notes, he assured the reporter that "gradually, he will be removed from the notes".

Ignore the pro forma protests and disavowals issued by BJP spokespersons as also Vij's

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contrition. Gandhi is an albatross that the BJP has to wear around its neck for expedient reasons. But it doesn't have to like it. Vij declared that his views on Gandhi were his personal opinions. He's right; contempt for Gandhi is the personal opinion of most members of the sangh parivar. How could it not be: the man went on and on about ahimsa? It isn't hard to foretell a future when the BJP feels confident enough for this mass of personal opinions to morph into a party position and then Gandhi might well disappear from our currency notes.

I notice that the new notes issued post-demonetization have Gandhi's image on one side and Gandhi's spectacles, now the emblem of Modi's Clean India campaign, on the other. In Milan Kundera's great satirical novel, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, a communist apparatchik gives his boss his hat to keep his head warm just before a group photograph is taken. Afterwards the apparatchik falls out of favour and is disappeared both from real life and, via airbrushing, from the group photograph. The only thing that remains of him is the hat on his boss's head. If things go well for Modi and his party, there will come a time when all that remains of the Mahatma on our folding money are his spectacles.

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EMPLOYMENT

HINDU, JAN 17, 2017Vagaries of the job market

The mismatch between the number of people who annually reach working age and the

availability of jobs has been a matter of constant concern globally during the better part of

the period since the global financial crisis of the last decade. The International Labour

Organisation’s latest forecast that a few more millions are set to join the pool of the jobless

during this year and the next, is in line with its own previous estimates. In any case, with

the growth in global gross domestic product registering a six-year low in 2016, expectations

of generation of new jobs were always going to be low. But a no-less-serious concern in the

‘World Employment and Social Outlook 2017’ pertains to the stubborn challenge of

reducing the extent of vulnerability that currently affects about 42 per cent of the total

working population. This concern refers to lack of access to contributory social protection

schemes among the self-employed and allied categories, unlike their counterparts in the

wage-earning and salaried classes. The former segment accounts for nearly 50 per cent of

workers in the emerging economies and 80 per cent in developing countries. The hardships

faced by these 1.4 billion working people will become more apparent when seen in the

backdrop of either the absence of strong welfare legislation or its effective enforcement in a

majority of these countries. It is no surprise that besides Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia

has been the most affected by such volatile conditions.

To be sure, the overall share of these vulnerable workers dropped from 46 per cent of total

employment in 2015 to 42 per cent in 2016. But the latest report projects only a mere 0.2

percentage point rate of reduction through 2017-18. In comparison, it says the proportion of

the population in jobs characterised by vulnerability declined by an average annual rate of

0.5 percentage points in the previous decade. As a result of the relatively slow reversal rates

in more recent years, these numbers are projected to increase globally by 11 million a year.

The other implication of an increase in the number of people facing vulnerable working

conditions is the real danger this poses of a slowdown in reducing the incidence of working

poverty. It is this celebrated rise in income levels in the lowest rungs of the population that

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lent the current phase of globalisation the social and political legitimacy, a phase that has

otherwise posed the risks of economic dislocation and unprecedented mass migration. The

challenge for policymakers worldwide is to ensure that incomes do not fall below the levels

of basic subsistence as the world marches towards the poverty reduction targets under the

2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

TRIBUNE, JAN 16, 2017Can three new all India services do the trick?Satpal Singh

The problems in the areas in education, judicial and management systems points to the need for a radical change in the recruiting system. Three new all-India services for these sectors might ensure they render their services in a judicious way.Article 309 of Indian Constitution discusses the recruitment of all India services and conditions of the services of persons serving the union and the state - subject to provisions of the Constitution. Acts of the appropriate legislature may regulate the recruitment and conditions of the services and posts in connection with affairs of the union or any state. Provided that it should be competent for the President or such person as he may direct in the case of services post in connection with the affairs of the Union; and Governor of a state or such person as he may direct in the case of services and post in connection with the affairs of the state, to make the rules regulating the recruitment; and the any rules so made shall have effect subject to provision of any such act; but the time has come to make a considerable improvement in this Act to keep the interlopers at arm’s length. 

With regard to the provision for all India Judicial Services (AIJS), it is felt that this is necessary in the interest of efficiency of the subordinate judiciary. This proposal was considered in the Law Ministry conference held in 1960; where a strong opinion was expressed for and against the said proposal. The proposal was accordingly shelved. It appears that the Chief Justice Conferences held in 1961, 1963 & 1965 forwarded these recommendations; but when the views of the state Government and High Courts were sought, there was a difference of opinion. In this context, more than half of the states and High Courts opposed the proposal. This matter was again considered by the Law Commission in its 116th report (Submitted in November 1986), which still has ample scope for due re-consideration for this report; the mentioned pit-falls are amendable in accordance with changing scenario.

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Though a proposal to introduce an all India Judicial service was put forward several times; there were three objections: (a) Inadequate knowledge of regional language would corrode judicial efficiency in pronouncing judgments due to inadequate understanding of people and evidence; (b) the promotional avenues of the members of the state judiciaries would be severely curtailed causing heart burning to those who have already entered the services and manning of the state judiciary services would be adversely affected; and (c) erosion of control of the High Courts over the subordinate judiciary would be impair the independence of the judiciary.  In order to chalk out these problematic areas, a special ‘Brain-storming session’ is required to find out a judicious solution for these problematic areas.  

With regarding to an All India Education Service, it has been observed that there are a sizeable number of UGC recognised private universities which are selling their degrees. Whenever these fake degree holders compete with the genuine candidates; they are sometimes short listed and the genuine candidates are often eliminated by the State Public Service Commission. As far as the quality of education is concerned; there are many instances where appointments of college and university teachers are based on merely political vested interests rather than any consideration of merit. It has been noticed that students who have averaged 36 per cent in their academic life have been appointed university teachers and subsequently become even the vice chancellor of the university.

In this context, it has also been observed that university teachers are not in a position to clear even the basic concepts of their respective subjects in most of states. In this context, there is another instance which indicates the ‘height of despotism’ when a university teacher was merely appointed with vested political interest. He was completely blank in his teaching subject; as a result of this, he has never taken a class during his 20 years of service. When he faced severe criticism from different pressure groups; he took ‘voluntary retirement’ from his service. How can such teachers build the future of the country?

The ‘All India Management System’ is also very essential to ameliorating the functioning of the public sector which has been developed during different successive planning periods of India. In this context, various reports say, “except few, most of the public sector undertakings have failed to achieve their desired results.” It is because of a considerable numbers of pitfalls in the prevailing ‘management systems’ in the changing scenario. Till now, there has been a monopoly of the IAS people; as chief of the public sector enterprises, who come on deputation for three years. During these three years, most of the IAS officials are not in a position to make out the functioning and its implications in accordance with changing scenario. They should be replaced by the management professional recruited through an all India competitive examination.

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Hence, it becomes imperative to introduce three all India services; including All India Judicial Services; All India Education Services and All India Management Services, so that all these services may conform with the changing scenario of India.

(The writer is a free-lance columnist and Executive Director of Rohtak-based NGO Vikas Path)

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FINANCE

DECCAN HERALD, JAN 19, 2017Centre to present Budget on Feb 1

The government has decided to go ahead with its plan of presenting the Union Budget for 2017-18 on February 1, despite opposition from several quarters.

However, there will be no announcements specific to five states – Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur – where elections will be held from February 4.

“The Budget presentation on February 1 is a done deal. We will not make any specific announcement for poll-bound states,” a top official said.

The Centre has advanced the presentation of the Budget to February 1 from the usual practice of presenting it on the last working day of February. 

The Opposition had recently made a representation to the Election Commission urging it to ask the Centre to postpone the Budget till polls were over. The Opposition charged that the Budget may be used to woo voters in poll-bound states.

The government has maintained that the Union Budget is an annual constitutional exercise covering the entire country and not just a few states.

In a reply to the commission, the government is understood to have said that advancing the Budget presentation was necessary as it would ensure allocations from April 1, the beginning of the new fiscal.

A plea is also pending in the apex court seeking postponement of Budget presentation to March in view of the elections. The court is likely to hear the petition on Friday. The Budget session will commence on January 31.

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INSURANCE

TELEGRAPH, JAN 16, 2017Trump vows 'insurance for everybody' in replacing Obamacare

Washington, Jan.16 (Reuters): US President-elect Donald Trump aims to replace Obamacare with a plan that would envisage ”insurance for everybody,” he said in an interview with the Washington Post published on Sunday night.

Trump did not give the newspaper specifics about his proposals to replace Democratic President Barack Obama's signature health insurance law, but said the plan was nearly finished and he was ready to unveil it alongside the leaders of the Republican-controlled Congress. The Republican president-elect takes office on Friday.

”It's very much formulated down to the final strokes. We haven't put it in quite yet but we're going to be doing it soon,” Trump told the Post, adding he was waiting for his nominee for health and human services secretary, Tom Price, to be confirmed.

The plan, he said, would include “lower numbers, much lower deductibles,” without elaborating.

”We're going to have insurance for everybody,” Trump said. ”There was a philosophy in some circles that if you can't pay for it, you don't get it. That's not going to happen with us.”

Trump was also quoted as saying in the interview that he would target pharmaceutical companies over drug pricing and insist they negotiate directly with the Medicare and Medicaid government health plans for the elderly and poor.

US House Republicans won passage on Friday of a measure starting the process of dismantling the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, despite concerns about not having a ready replacement and the potential financial cost of repealing the law.

With the vote, Republicans began delivering on their promise to end Obamacare, also a campaign pledge of Trump, who has called the program a “disaster.”

The law, which expanded health coverage to some 20 million people, has been plagued by increases in insurance premiums and deductibles and by some large insurers leaving the system.

Republicans have called Obamacare federal government overreach and have sought to undermine it in Congress and the courts since it was passed by Democratic majorities in the House and Senate in 2010.

Democrats say Obamacare has allowed growing numbers of Americans to get medical insurance and helped slow the rise in healthcare spending.

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INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

TELEGRAPH, JAN 19, 2017The new world order- Foreign policy under Donald Trump

Krishnan Srinivasan

Donald Trump's election was a shock to those who rely on mainstream media and television talking heads, and revealed the fears of the underprivileged about economic inequality and living standards being eroded by globalization, unmanaged immigration and outsourcing. Most of the media continue to be hostile, accusing Trump and his advisors of xenophobia, homophobia, racism, nepotism, misogyny and anti-Islamism. Trump's actions as a political outsider will attract greater critical scrutiny than any previous president, but he will be in the White House with a Republican Congress and with the opportunity to implement some of his campaign pledges.

The outcry against this 'wrong result' in the most powerful democracy is in line with Washington not acknowledging election outcomes in Algeria, Egypt and Gaza, while Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, regime change and support to Saudis bombing civilians in Yemen are counter-evidence of any claim that universal values guide US policies.

The adverse reaction to Trump is reminiscent of Ronald Reagan's election as president in 1980, the 'cowboy' accused of being an ignorant cold warrior. Barack Obama, on the contrary, appeared an uber-cool leader and swiftly received the Nobel Peace Prize, but his initiatives on Cuba, Iran and health care are under threat, and, despite hyper-activism in favour of Hillary Clinton's candidature, he failed to consolidate his party, allowing his nominee to be defeated by a political novice.

Given Trump's inconsistencies and contradictions, predictions on his foreign policy are speculative. It can generally be assumed that domestic policy will be prioritized over foreign affairs and bilateralism over multilateralism, especially in trade issues. Both the Trans-Pacific Partnership, designed specifically to exclude China, and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership with Europe are dead in the water. But Trump knows that American prosperity is based on free trade, and despite campaign rhetoric, all-out protectionism seems unlikely.

Reactions from most Western governments indicate unease with Trump leading the world's only military superpower on which they base their security. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, chose to lecture Trump on common values like democracy, freedom and respect for law which will not go down well in Trump Tower. France's president, François Hollande, said, "I also urge vigilance because of statements made by Donald Trump," but Hollande is yesterday's man with a few months left in office. Responses elsewhere and in Asia are more cautious. Vladimir Putin says, "we understand that it will be a difficult path but we are ready to do everything to return [US-Russian] relations to the trajectory of development." The Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe, claimed Trump is someone "in whom I can have great confidence"; China's Xi Jinping told Trump that "facts have shown that cooperation is the only

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correct choice" for the United States of America and China, and Narendra Modi expressed appreciation for "the friendship you have articulated towards India during your campaign."

This divergence is not surprising; it reflects the non-Western world view that the US should eschew regime change, nation-building, isolationism and interventionism, which reached their peak under George W. Bush and were continued more modestly by Obama, who took office during the financial crisis created by the US. He discerned that the world was changing and US domination was a thing of the past, but indulged in high-minded value judgements on Brexit, Ukraine, Pacific Ocean disputes and West Asia. Trump says things that Obama did not: isolationism is at large in the US, which must focus on its own interests. While force is not ruled out, it will not be for ideological reasons. Trump is much less interested in the Old World though his mother is of Scottish and his father of German origin. His apparently open mind about the utility of alliances like the Nato and working with Russia can reduce tensions world-wide and move international politics towards a more polycentric order. Neither Russia nor China seeks confrontation with the US, which is a foreign policy priority for both. So they will welcome a strong dose of realism in US affairs.

Trump's success has been acclaimed in anti-Establishment circles, like the French presidential candidate, Marine Le Pen, the Dutch politician, Geert Wilders, and the Italian Five Star Movement, while the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, sees in Trump an opening to improve relations with the US. He is not the only pro-West leader in Asia who realizes that China is the engine of future economic growth in South and Southeast Asia. This applies to Thailand, Malaysia, South Korea and, to a lesser extent, Australia.

Whether Trump is able to generate a change in current world issues is, nevertheless, an open question. Obama has attempted to nobble Trump's foreign and environmental agenda through last-ditch actions involving UN resolutions, sanctions, prohibitions and probes. US-China relations will be complicated; military tensions may ease, while economic ties face strain. Riding on their paranoia about Putin, the Europeans are nervous when various countries, like Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria and Moldova express sympathy for Russia. The Conservative, François Fillon, now leading the race to be the next French president, backs closer ties with Moscow. If Trump wants an early diplomatic success, resetting the bilateral relationship with Russia is the obvious answer.

The longer the conflict in Afghanistan continues, the greater the danger of Daesh entering the Indian subcontinent. Trump's approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan becomes very important; if he decides that a negotiated settlement between the Taliban and Kabul is the right approach, and there seems to be no other, a total US pull-out will be the price to pay. Since one aspect of that presence was for the Americans to keep an eye on Pakistan's nuclear weapons, India will be disadvantaged. New Delhi must not count on Trump's distrust of Islam to incline the US against Pakistan, which has shown a remarkable ability to make itself indispensable to Washington irrespective of the circumstances, and the China-financed One Belt One Road to Gwadar port has attracted the attention of Iran, Russia and the Central Asian countries.

India must build rapidly on the favourable signals that Trump has shown so that the future inclines to its benefit. The discovery of the potential of friendship with India is not new for

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Washington. Since the Kargil war, the US has recognized the importance of India as a market and strategic partner. It is the country with which the US conducts the largest number of joint military exercises, and the American defence secretary, Ashton Carter, met more times with his Indian counterpart than with any other overseas minister. This is quite extraordinary for India, which takes pride in strategic autonomy. India is in a 'sweet spot', with a healthy economy and is a welcome prospective partner for all foreign countries. But for all the good work done by Modi in foreign affairs, he is mistaken in relying on the US in dealing with Pakistan and China. The adversarial approach by India towards the two neighbours is the wrong approach. War with either or both is suicidal, and diplomacy must always leave the door open for acceptable compromises. Besides, the US cannot be relied upon in any conflict. Nor can the US allies in the Indo-Pacific.

There are anti-Americans and countless Americans who fervently hope that Trump will be a disaster; that he will bring chaos to the US and the world. An objective view suggests that Trump's presidency means much more for the US domestically than abroad. The US military, civil and political establishments have no intention of abandoning the Bush-Clinton-Bush agenda of global domination, as the overdose of Russophobia propagated by the outgoing Obama administration has shown. So the world is in great flux, more than at any time since the end of the Cold War, with many imponderables and shifting alliances in all continents. It will require a very cool head and steady nerves to steer a course in these turbulent waters. New Delhi must brace itself for the challenge.

The author is a former foreign secretary of India

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LIBRARIES

ASIAN AGE, JAN 16, 2017Book returned to library after hundred yearsJohnson found the 1909 book, by F. Hopkinson Smith, in an old steamer trunk in 1996.

 The woman passed away a week before the due date (Photo: AP)

San Francisco: A book of short stories titled "Forty Minutes Late" has been returned to a San Francisco library - 100 years late.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bay Area resident Webb Johnson returned the book Friday. There was no fine.

Johnson's great grandmother had checked it out from the city's old Fillmore branch in 1917. She passed away a week before the due date, and the Fillmore branch is no longer around.

Johnson found the 1909 book, by F. Hopkinson Smith, in an old steamer trunk in 1996. He assumed the library wouldn't want it back, but a recently announced "fine forgiveness program" that runs through Feb. 14 inspired him to return it.Head city librarian Luis Herrera said the library was glad to, finally, get the book.

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MINORITY GROUPS

ECONOMIC TIMES, JAN 17, 2017Group of secretaries recommends VC funding for minoritiesBy Anubhuti Vishnoi,

A VC fund has been proposed to cover backward castes, STs and minorities, just like for SCs.

NEW DELHI: Venture capital funding for minorities and deprived classes, an increased maintenance amount for senior citizens, freeing up top educational institutes from the UGC regime and a 3% mandatory job reservation for sportspersons are among key recommendations made to the PM last week by a group of secretaries for the social sector. ET details the fine print that PM Modi delved into last week:

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AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

A VC fund has been proposed to cover backward castes, STs and minorities, just like for SCs. Senior citizens would be issued an Aadhaar-based smart card with credit card, debit card and health details. Other benefits suggested are ensuring a uniform retirement age across state governments, airlines and insurance companies and an amendment to Section 9(2) of the Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act, 2007, to increase maintenance amount from the current Rs 10,000.

SPORTS

The group has recommended identifying 15 target disciplines for Asian Games and Commonwealth Games and 4-6 disciplines for the 2024 Olympics. By 2028 Olympics, India must be aiming at top 10 performances, it was recommended. The group has proposed making yoga and sports compulsory in schools. The group has suggested that sports should be moved from being a state subject to the concurrent list. The group has suggested exploring options like online sports betting funding as in UK besides industry funding and CSR fund.

EDUCATION

Besides bringing in the English language, identifying learning outcomes at school, resource consolidation and a major overhaul of the UGC have been recommended for the education sector. In a clear indictment of the UGC, it has been suggested that top ranking institutions be ‘unfettered from “UGC’s stringent regulatory framework’. It is even recommended that institutions with top level NAAC accreditation and among the top 500 of global academic rankings of top 100 of India’s ranking framework should only be assessed through selfreporting and external peer review.

CULTURE

The call on culture is to focus on new and young artistes. It has been recommended that government scheme assistance of same artistes should be discontinued after a definite period instead of continuing year after year. The group of secretaries has also suggested prize money based cultural competitions.

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NON-RESIDENT INDIANS

DECCAN HERALD, JAN 17, 2017Pravasi Divas should have substance

The annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas has been more a glitzy get-together, with fanfare and high-profile participation, of Indians living abroad and persons of Indian origin than an occasion for useful and productive engagement between the diaspora and the parent country. This year’s event, which concluded in Bengaluru last week, was also not very different. The symbolism of such an event has some value, but the symbol should also have substance. The idea behind holding the Pravasi Divas has been to encourage the participation of Indians living abroad in the country’s development, recognise their excellence in various fields and address their problems at governmental and other levels. The Bengaluru event also had high-profile participation from the President and the prime minister both of whom highlighted different aspects of the Pravasi situation and the country’s need to relate to it positively. But at the end of the Divas, there was nothing much to show. 

President Pranab Mukherjee pointed out the concerns and lack of job security of Indians working in Gulf countries and some other countries. Many of them, who enrich the national exchequer with remittances, find no support when they lose their jobs and come back. The government should more proactively engage with foreign governments to ensure that their employment policies do not hurt or discriminate against Indians. Prime Minter Narendra Modi made a welcome announcement that strict penal measures would be taken against recruitment agencies which cheat job aspirants. There are many who lose their money in their dealings with such agencies or are exploited by them or by foreign employers. The prime minister also announced a plan to impart skill training under the Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojna to those who wanted to go abroad for jobs. These intentions and promises will help only if there is action to support them. Past record in the matter is not very encouraging. 

Modi said that investments by Pravasi Indians would be considered as domestic investments. However, investments by NRIs or others will pick up only when there is greater ease of doing business in the country. Even without active investments, pravasis support the economy in a major way with their remittances. Many Indians hold high positions in their professions, do well in business and are generally well educated and wield influence in their adopted countries. They are also visible and numerous in many countries. Most of them have good will for the motherland. This resource has not been well utilised by the country. So the country’s engagement with its diaspora should go beyond three-day melas and address its genuine problems and make use of possibilities. 

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POLICE

HINDU, JAN 18, 2017Compulsory exit for 2 IPS officers

In a rare move, the Appointments Committee of Cabinet (ACC) gave the go-ahead to

compulsorily retire two IPS officers for “no performance”.

The two IPS officers, Mayank Sheel Chohan, a 1998-batch officer of AGMUT cadre and

Raj Kumar Dewangan, a 1992-batch IPS officer from Chattisgarh cadre, were issued the

orders on January 5. “This Ministry [Home] in exercise of the powers conferred by sub-rule

3 of Rule 16 of the All-India Services rules 1958, has premature retired Mr. Mayank Sheel

Chohan and Mr. Raj Kumar Dewangan in public interest after the approval of

Appointments Committee of the Cabinet,” the order issued by Home Ministry said.

Mr. Dewangan was posted as the Inspector General of Home Guards in Raipur. He was also

overlooked for promotion earlier this month.

Mr. Dewangan had faced a departmental inquiry in a case of robbery in 1998 when he was

posted as Superintendent of Police of the State’s Janjgir Chapa district. A police inspector

under him was arrested in the case, and Mr. Dewangan was also placed under suspension.

He has not been given any important posting in the State since.

Mr. Chohan was posted as SP vigilance in Arunachal Pradesh in 2012. An official said he

was also accused of “staging” his own abduction.

“The decision to compulsorily retire an officer is taken in consultation with the State

government. We were apprised of the poor service record of the two officers, and the

proposal was sent to the ACC for approval. The officer has to be given a three-month notice

or three-month pay and allowances in lieu of such notice,” he said.

ASIAN AGE, JAN 20, 2017Delhi’s Police Commissioner Alok Verma is new CBI chiefPRAMOD KUMARNew Delhi: Delhi police commissioner Alok Kumar Verma has been appointed director of the country’s premier investigating agency, the Central Bureau of Investigation. The post of director CBI was lying vacant for over a month following Anil Sinha’s retirement on December 2.

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Currently Rakesh Asthana, a Gujarat-cadre IPS officer of 1984 batch, is holding additional charge of director CBI.

This newspaper had first reported on December 26, 2016, that Mr Verma was the front-runner for the post. Mr Verma is the second Delhi police commissioner to become director CBI after Raja Vijay Karan.   

Mr Verma’s name was cleared by a three-member selection panel headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and comprising Chief Justice of India Jagdish Singh Khehar and Congress leader in Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge.

CJI Kharge is understood to have recorded his dissent note on Mr Verma’s name during the meeting of the selection committee held on January 16, on the ground that the officer had never served in CBI.

Mr Verma made it to the top post in the premier investigating agency pipping a number of contenders, including director general of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Krishna Choudhary, director general of the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB) Archana Ramasundram and Maharashtra’s director general of police S.C. Mathur.

“The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has approved the appointment of Verma as the new CBI director. His appointment will be for a period of two years from the date of assumption of charge of his office,” said the press release issued by the department of personnel and training.

Mr Verma, 59, a 1979 batch IPS officer of Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram and Union Territories (AGMUT) cadre, took over as Delhi police commissioner on February 29, 2016.

Mr Verma, 59, who belongs to Delhi, has worked in various positions with Delhi police, in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Puducherry, Mizoram and in the Intelligence Bureau. Before being appointed Delhi’s police commissioner, he was director general of Tihar prisons here. Mr Verma is the 27th director (including two acting chiefs) of the CBI.

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POLITICAL PARTIES

DECCAN HERALD, JAN 23, 2017BJP manifesto promises land to Dalits, houses to poor in Punjab

BJP today promised a slew of populist schemes in its manifesto for Punjab Assembly poll like providing sugar and ghee at low prices, houses to the poor, land to Dalits and backwards, besides assuring Rs five lakh assistance to the families affected by militancy.

Union Minister Arun Jaitley while releasing the document here said BJP's manifesto is particularly aimed at improving the social infrastructure in Punjab, even as he slammed Congress for its policies which he alleged paved way for militancy in Punjab in 1980s and termed its 2002-2007 tenure in power as "most dishonest and corrupt".

Noting that the SAD-BJP government in Punjab is already running atta-dal scheme, BJP manifesto has promised providing 2 kg ghee for Rs 25 per kilo and 5 kg sugar at Rs 10 a kilo to the blue card holders in the state.

In its 16-page manifesto, BJP has assured a house to every poor family besides promising a 5-8 marla plot of land to Dalits and those belonging to backward class. The SAD ally has also promised a job to at least one member from each family.

BJP manifesto has also announced Rs five lakh in financial assistance to the families which were affected by militancy in Punjab. It also talks of setting up of a 'Farmers Income Commission' which will provide an assistance of Rs 10 lakh to the families of traders or farmers in the event of their sudden death.

On the education front, the manifesto assures making free the studies of girls till PhD level.

It also talks of implementing the seventh pay commission, raising to 60 years the age of retirement, setting up of five PGIs, group housing for journalists, among others.

"The state government, with the help of the Centre, has made adequate investments in the physical infrastructure in Punjab, but investing in the social infrastructure is the need of the hour, something which the BJP manifesto has focused on," he said.

He said the Centre has taken steps to alleviate poverty which include demonetisation, digitisation and JAM (mobile and Aadhaar-based Jan Dhan bank accounts) and these measures will have mid-term and long-term benefits. "With these measures, the leakages in the pro-poor facilities will be removed," he claimed.

Jaitley, earlier in the day, blamed previous Congress governments for its polices which he,

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without taking the party's name, said led to militancy in 1980s in Punjab and took the state back in time.TELEGRAPH. JAN 22, 2017Akhilesh releases Samajwadi Party manifesto; Mulayam, Shivpal stay away

Lucknow, Jan. 22 (PTI): The ruling Samajwadi Party on Sunday released its manifesto for the Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections,  promising free laptops, a fund for farmers and a model village scheme among other things. 

Mulayam Singh Yadav,  the party's founder and Akhilesh's father,  stayed away, as did Mulayam's brother Shivpal. The two lost a battle with the Akhilesh camp over the party and its symbol.

Akhilesh,riding on the crest of “kaam bolta hai” (work speaks) slogan, announced schemes which prioritise development of the state.

The manifesto announced distribution of laptops, Kanya Vidya Dhan, Samajwadi Pension, laying of Purvanchal Expressway, and establishing Janeshwar Mishra model villages besides improving helplines for police and women.

He said the model villages in the name of Janeshwar Mishra would be a tribute to the Samajwadi leader on his death anniversary on Sunday.

Akhilesh, in his new role as the Samajwadi Party national president, directed all candidates to prepare a road map for development of their respective Assembly constituencies.

A highlight of the manifesto was Samajwadi Kisan Kosh for farmers to purchase seeds and fertilisers, perhaps to match the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Bima Yojana.

When Mulayam and Shivpal, did not turn up,  senior SP leader Azam Khan rushed to the SP patriarch's bungalow to bring him to the event. But even then Mulayam did not grace the occasion where senior party leaders and Dimple Yadav, lawmaker and wife of Akhilesh were present.

In an impassioned appeal to the electorate to vote SP back to power, Akhilesh said, “We got support on 2012 manifesto, we also fulfilled promises made in it.”

”The manifesto is a 'sankalp' (promise) to form future government. It's clear that we all want to form Samajwadi Party government. If you work for 5 years, you will get government of five years,” he said.

Akhilesh asked party workers to go to the masses and make them aware of the schemes implemented by his government during the past five years. ”A lot of work has been done in a big way. We have to work more in future. I tried for the past five years not to leave path of socialism and also ensure balanced development to improve rural economics,” he said. 

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 POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

STATESMAN, JAN 16, 2017Why Indian democracy fails to make the gradeDebasish Bhattacharyya

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)

presented the first ever Global Parliamentary Report (GPR) in 2012 and the next report -

scheduled for 2016 - is expected any time soon. While GPR 2012 examined the changing nature

of parliamentary representation, the soon-to-be-released GPR will reportedly look at how

effective parliament is in carrying out its constitutional role to hold government to account. It’s

highly unlikely that the forthcoming report will have any reflections on what had happened in the

recently-concluded winter session of the Indian Parliament.

In any case, the record of legislative business of winter session is not worth mentioning; making

it one of the least productive sessions in the last 15 years. On the demonetisation issue in the

month-long session, according to PRS Legislative Research, less than 1 per cent of the 330

questions listed for Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha were answered orally. And, it was

somehow better in Lok Sabha where 11 per cen of the questions could be answered orally.

However, none of the 19 Bills listed at the beginning of the session for consideration and passage

could be passed.

GPR 2012 with extensive inputs from 73 parliaments across the world and 663 randomly

selected parliamentarians highlighted the ways in which parliaments around the world are

responding to public expectations. The report noted “Parliaments in most parts of the world

appear to appreciate the need to find ways of improving public perceptions of the institution and

are implementing a range of initiatives designed to enhance the relationship between parliaments

and voters. These tend to be characterized by a desire to make the institution open, transparent

and inclusive of public opinion while simultaneously increasing popular understanding and

appreciation of parliament’s role.”

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Against this background, questions about our takeaways from the report emerge. Also how

significant is India's unflinching commitment to democracy. While India with its enormous

cultural diversity is recognized as the largest democracy of the world, the country fares poorly

when it comes to accountability and responsiveness to public concerns and service and delivery

to meet citizens’ needs. How then can our Parliament encourage those 190 countries that have

some form of functioning parliamentary institution, accounting for over 46,000 representatives.

The question also arises as to whether power of democracy is only limited to holding elections

without caring for legislative output and efficiency? These questions not only seem pertinent but

also seek attention of a wider audience.

Chakshu Roy, heading the outreach team at PRS Legislative Research that tracks the functioning

of the Indian parliament, displays profound understanding of legislative process as he writes,

“Both houses of Parliament have a committee each to scrutinise rules made by the government

under different laws. These general purpose committees neither have the bandwidth nor the

technical expertise to examine different rules and regulations… Political parties will have to

introspect about their roles in our parliamentary system. The institution of Parliament will have

to rethink its legislative processes. In the absence of these, Parliament will become a mere rubber

stamp for government laws.”

Let’s come back to currency demonetisation that dominated public discussion as also captured

huge media space and prime time coverage. The particular issue came into focus at a time when

the NDA government is half way through its tenure. While many hailed cancellation of high-

denomination notes as a revolutionary step, scores of eminent economists, consultants and

commentators denounced the sudden move as India erupted in cash chaos.

The severe criticism of demonitisation encompasses a whole range of issues that primarily

centered on the approaches adopted by the government. These include the social and economic

impact a majority of the country’s population; particularly those associated with agriculture,

small industries and the informal sectors.

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As of now, it’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi vs. the entire opposition barring a few.

Interestingly, a few steadfast opponents of Modi’s policies praised the intent of the reform

measure but faulted it for poor execution. Be that as it may, it’s too early to assume the step

would lead to economic catastrophe, as it's made out to be by some.

Prior to the US presidential election, New York Times columnist Paul Krugman unequivocally

insisted that a Trump victory would lead to a stock market collapse and investors who relied on

his insights lost large amounts of money. People might well agree or disagree with the political

standpoint on any given issue, but tend to agree that real changes take time and any change worth

fighting for is worth a long-term commitment. Gone are the days when political leadership used

to make the people live in a make-believe world. Now it’s the same people who prefer an

informed debate on unsavoury truths over parliamentary disruption. It’s the same people who are

painfully aware of the problems and acknowledge the difficulty arising out of bold reform

measures. In today's time, as social networks and 24 x7 media have become a key part of the

political landscape, people can easily identify those who are but deeply wedded to the idea of

mere rhetorical bluster and political grandstanding.

As the fate of demonetisation drive is poised between failure and success, the opposition could

have made full use of the parliamentary session with the focus on accelerating the pace of

transparency.. It could have helped the united opposition of national and regional parties sway

public opinion to their side over time, especially because while Indians know that major

opposition parties are accused of corruption, the BJP also is not without its share of blemishes.

As the Modi government failed to ‘walk the talk’ on multiple fronts to recover black money both

from India and abroad, the opposition could have taken the government to task on several anti-

corruption related issues like – delay in appointing Lokpal, operationalising a robust

Whistleblowers Protection Act, generation of black money as also the deeper issue of tax

evasion, and a stronger Prevention of Corruption Act (Amendment) Bill 2013. Transparency in

political funding and minimising poll expenditure is also a major issue that the Election

Commission had broached.

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The opposition could also have punctured government’s heightened focus on boosting digital

transactions when the country figures poorly in the global cyber stakes (96th in terms of

download speed and 105th in terms of average bandwidth availability). The country is also

vulnerable to cyber-attacks.

Instead, sadly, it was all about disrupting functioning of both the Houses. It was all about shying

away from articulating national interests unambiguously and evolving appropriate strategies.

Demonetisation may or may not be the effective mode of spreading the anti-corruption message,

but what is important is building a narrative of success in anti-corruption reforms that enjoys

cross-party support.

Our inability lies here. As the winter session ended in chaos, we lost yet another opportunity to

send a strong message through parliamentary intervention against corruption. We failed to

rediscover the virtues that underpin democracy. The only exception was perhaps an MP from

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) who returned part of his salary and daily allowance proportional to the

time lost in the Lok Sabha due to disruptions.

As the country continues to face enormous challenges it can’t afford to lose scheduled hours for

parliamentary business. It’s time our MLAs and MPs turned the searchlight inwards and

examined their acts. If they do so, the country can expect Global Parliamentary Report 2020 to

mention something good about the political culture and parliamentary standards of the world’s

largest democracy.

STATESMAN, JAN 16, 2017Brand AkhileshBhopinder Singh

The ongoing tussle in the Yadav household at Kalidas Marg, Lucknow, is more than the simple

narrative of a father-son fight for leadership and assertion. It is testimony to the inevitable winds

of change, from the foundational ‘Samajwadi’ moorings to the necessity of appealing to the Uttar

Pradesh of 2017. Over the years, much water has flown down the Gomti cutting through the city

of Nawabs and there is a waning ideological connect of the electorate to the symbolism of the

Ram Manohar Lohia inspired ‘socialist society’ envisaged by Mulayam Singh Yadav. A certain

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tension of spirits has engulfed and divided the two warring factions, and willy-nilly, the

overwhelming public perception is that of an old guard hell-bent on perpetuating yesteryear

policies versus the youthful alternative of the same principle. It is not just the socio-economic

evolution and churn that is defining the party’s fault lines, as there is also a vortex of palace

intrigue, replete with competing internal ambitions, that is tearing apart the carefully cultivated

formula of the provincial success of the Samajwadi Party. 

The Australia-educated Chief Minister, Akhilesh Yadav, has been trying to contemporize the

winning formula beyond the familiar calculus of the ‘MY’ factor (Muslim and Yadav combine or

the ‘Mullah Mulayam’ legacy), courting of dubious strongmen and the assorted array of crony

capitalists, power brokers and satrap bureaucrats who have traditionally held sway in Lucknow.

The party’s ‘Hindi’ overdrive has taken a backseat in recent times with ‘development’ emerging

as the principal leitmotif of the incumbent Chief Minister ~ the sheer optics of free laptops

instead of the usual freebies has an embedded message of a generational shift (15 lakh laptops

were distributed to intermediate students). Flagship projects like the Lucknow Metro, IT City,

international standard sports stadium, Gomti beautification and the new state highways are

proffered as symbols of modern and effective governance. This carefully charted change of

course had to withstand multiple rebukes from within, with Mulayam Singh Yadav himself

warning Akhilesh to “perform or perish”, and the Chief Minister gently tip-toeing and side-

stepping the frequent lashings with a politically correct “Netaji is the leader of the party and can

express his displeasure if he is not satisfied with the performance of the government”.

The apparent civility in the father-son conduct barely concealed the more pertinent and

irreconcilable differences on critical matters like portfolios for ministers, ticket-disbursement and

the appointment of chosen bureaucrats. The fuse would snap between the two groups with each

teasing and testing the political might of the other. The impending state election of 2017 has

blown the lid off the simplistic stand of ‘internal family matters’, to a full-blown and decisive

winner-takes-all confrontation between the two groups.

Undoubtedly, Mulayam Singh Yadav has singularly carved the space, relevance and formula of

this winning electoral outfit since its inception in 1992, but a new reality and set of aspirations

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loom on the Gangetic plains. The cruel tides of time had similarly relegated the geriatric guard of

the BJP to the confines of the ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, as the need arose within the new

dispensation to assert its new order, rules and outlook. The passing of the baton has been

relatively gradual and consensually deliberate in other parties like the Congress, National

Conference, etc. However, wherever there has been an extended ‘family’ angularity to leadership

options (as opposed to a single claimant), the accompanying tussle has been a lot more vexatious

e.g. Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (uneasy truce between the Stalin and Alagiri factions), Akali

Dal (with cousin and one-time confidante Manpreet Badal breaking away), Shiv Sena (again,

with cousin and supposed heir-apparent, Raj Thackeray breaking away).

The wily party-bearers, law makers and ticket-aspirants are quick to notice the shifting sands and

are struggling to reconcile themselves to the reality of Mulayam Singh Yadav’s role in single-

handedly propping up the party and the concerned individuals themselves, yet, recognising the

need to throw their political weight behind the group that is ‘packaged’ in keeping with the

times, even if it means going against the creator of the initial movement. When it comes to pass,

‘family disputes’ reach a stage of inevitable irreconcilability and the break-ups (despite some

meek and half-hearted efforts to deny them) are usually more permanent, conclusive and sought-

after by the dominant stakeholders involved. The larger spectrum of the electorate also reads the

writing on the wall and usually ignores the romance and emotionality of the pain in a reluctant

generational shift.

The bogey of ‘youth’ in Indian politics has ensured that it is not necessarily a guarantee towards

any fundamental change from the previous styles of veteran leaders. Much was expected from

Mehbooba Mufti, Omar Abdullah, Ashok Chavan and Agatha Sangma but they could not

establish a perceptible difference or impression of positive change in governance style. Akhilesh

follows in the footsteps of a rare ‘youth’ success in Naveen Patnaik (took over as Chief Minister

aged 54), who overcame his political hesitation and initial inability to speak the local language

by persisting doggedly and sensitively, to ensure that the transition and evolution was widely

accepted by the initially tentative electorate. Akhilesh’s invoking of a “tough decision” to

“protect the ones you love”, and thereby justifying his elevation to the supremacy of the

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Samajwadi Party, belies the obvious confidence that he senses from the mood of the

overwhelming cadre and is therefore more brazen in settling the dispute in his absolute favour.

Whatever be the reasons or compulsions for Mulayam Singh Yadav to support his brother

Shivpal Yadav over his own son, Akhilesh has deftly moved away to a new public position

wherein he would be spared the expected taints and accusations of individual culpability that are

sure to fly as the fight gets more personal and dirty. The Samajwadi Party brand has slowly

evolved to brand Akhilesh Yadav.

However, with the recurring images of a warring clan dominating the state headlines and the

recent show of strength at the huge BJP rally in Lucknow coupled with the relatively stable vote

bank of BSP, the timing for Akhilesh’s coronation could not have been worse. A possible tie-up

with the Congress (already alluded to by him) could statistically keep him in the fray for the state

elections, though as far as the party is concerned, the die is almost cast. Samajwadi Party cadres

who owe their political existence and positions to the old guard are caught between honouring

the past and securing their future. In circa 2017, the head rules over the heart.

(The writer is Lt Gen PVSM, AVSM (Retd), Former Lt Governor of Andman and Nicobar Island

and Puducherry)

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