LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

INDIAN EXPRESS

PIONEER

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TRIBUNE

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CONTENTS

BACKWARD CLASSES 3-4

CIVIL SERVICE 5-9

CRIME 10-13

DIGITAL ELECTRONICS 14-15

EDUCATION 16-17

ELECTIONS 18-20

ENVIROMNEMT 21-23

FAMINES 24-26

HEALTH SERVICES 27

HISTORY 28-30

INDUSTRY AND STATES 31-33

JUDICIARY 34-38

LOCAL GOVERNMENT 39-40

PRESIDENTS 41-46

PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM 47-48

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 49-51

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BACKWARD CLASSES

FINANCIAL EXPRESS, MAY 9, 2017If reservations are bad, those in promotions are worseBringing in legislation to bypass SC criterion in the Nagraj judgement unfortunate - where will this stop?

Given that reservations go against the principle of merit, and even the Constitution did not

envisage reservations for SC/ST for as long as 70 years—OBC reservations were not part of the

Constitution but were brought in via the Mandal report—it is unfortunate the NDA government

continues to push for quotas. If it wasn’t bad enough that the government bestows special

privileges for SC/ST/OBC when it comes to admissions in colleges and jobs in the government, a

quota for promotions is the worst form of vote-bank politics—after all, if SC/ST/OBC cannot

even get promoted on the basis of their merit, at what stage will the quotas stop? Over time, the

courts have tried to put limits to the use of quotas for promotion—in March 2016, in response to

a PIL, the Supreme Court had ruled that SC/ST candidate could not ‘claim quotas as a right in

government job promotions’, building upon a judgment given in M Nagaraj in 2006.

Soon after the SC ruling in March, however, the government set up a committee in the

department of personnel and training (DoPT) to come up with suggestions on how to retain the

quota in promotions. While it is not clear how the government proposes to deal with the legal

aspects and whether it will push for overhauling the law altogether, the committee has reportedly

favoured reservations in promotion “for equal opportunity and inclusive growth”. While the

UPA regime was also of the same view, that cannot exonerate the present government which is

also reportedly hoping to ease the rules.

In December 2012, the Rajya Sabha passed the Constitution (117th Amendment) Bill which

effectively sought to substitute the present Article 16(4a). In the Nagaraj case, while upholding

the law on quotas in promotions, SC had said that the state was not bound to make reservations

for SC/ST in the matter of promotions and that 16 (4a) was merely an enabling provision to be

used subject to certain conditions—these included showing backwardness, inadequacy of

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representation and proof that overall administrative efficiency was not compromised. Since it

was difficult to collect data to prove these criterion were being met—and various judgments

went against the government due to this inability—the UPA sought to fix this by the 117th

Amendment to the Constitution and got it passed in the Rajya Sabha.

Curiously, the NDA government hasn’t chosen to introduce this Bill in the Lok Sabha where it

enjoys a clear majority—one possibility is that it feels the constitutional amendment doesn’t

fully cover all the criterion raised by the Nagaraj ruling. It would be unfortunate if the

government succeeds in changing the law to bypass SC’s safeguards. Indeed, in the Indra

Sawhney case in 1992, the apex court had said quotas in promotion were ‘ultra vires’ of the

Constitution—it, however, allowed these to continue for five years, but before this expired, the

government had changed the law to make it legal. With general category students and job-

seekers getting a raw deal already with the reservation quota at a high 50%, it is patently unfair

they should also be at a disadvantage when it comes to promotions. With this kind of

government pampering, it is not surprising even prosperous groups, from the Jats to the Patels,

are looking to be included in the reserved category. Instead of being wound down, the principles

of reservations are being ratcheted up.

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CIVIL SERVICE

TRIBUNE, MAY 12, 2017No sanctioned post, no posting, orders govtEmployees illegally deployed with VIPs won’t get salaryAman Sood

The Punjab Government has banned the posting and transfer of officials at places where there are no sanctioned posts.

In a recent order, the Finance Department has told all heads of departments, divisional commissioners, deputy commissioners and the judiciary that “no salary will be payable to such employees”, including cops illegally deployed with VIPs.

In several government departments, officials have allegedly been using their political links to stay on in the same district or handle similar work despite a transfer. In the Rural Development and Panchayats Department, some peon-grade officials are exercising the powers of block development officers after being given temporary charge against non-existent posts. In the Police Department, some officials are posted against dummy posts “to ensure that they stay near their home town” or “with a particular officer”.

“No administrative department will employ/adopt the process of transferring an officer/official along with one’s post to any other place where such a post does not exist,” reads the order dated May 9.

“If any staff is already deployed, proper rationalisation may be carried out within a month,” the order says.

It also states that cops posted on non-sanctioned posts or as security guards with VIPs “without orders” will face the music. “Security assessment of individuals may be reviewed and withdrawn/reduced, wherever possible,” says the latest order, adding that the Finance Department is deputing teams for the audit of manpower in various departments and “controlling officers will be held accountable” for any violation.

Recently, the state government had withdrawn over 3,000 gunmen deployed with self-styled VIPs and posted them on field duty in the districts.

TELEGRAPH, MAY 11, 2017SC boost to officer who dared mafia

Patna, May 10: The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to consider the plea of a

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Bihar IAS officer that he be released from his parent cadre owing to what he said was threat to his life and violation of his fundamental rights.

The officer, Jitendra Gupta of the 2013 batch, had been wrongly accused of bribery and jailed after he had taken on the "entry mafia" - a powerful lobby of truckers who avoid paying state taxes - last year.

Gupta, who has since been exonerated of all charges, had filed a writ in the apex court, asking for a change of cadre and demanded "exemplary" monetary compensation for damages and defamation and action against those who violated the law.

The Supreme Court bench of Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel and Justice Uday Umesh Lalit accepted the writ filed by Gupta and passed an order yesterday directing the Union government "to look into his grievance and take appropriate action... within three months".

×"We have seen the grievance of the petitioner of being implicated in the criminal case which was quashed. It has been submitted that IAS Officers Association gave a memorandum in support of the petitioner.

"In these circumstances, the representation of the petitioner has to be considered by the concerned administrative authorities.

"We direct respondent No.1 (the Union government) to look into the grievance of the petitioner and take such appropriate action as may be considered appropriate within three months from today," the bench said.

The 35-year-old officer has opted for Haryana as his first choice of cadre.

"I feel relieved after the Supreme Court order. I have already submitted my representation to the department of personnel and training in this regard as I perceive threat to my life from the powerful entry mafia, which connived with vigilance authorities and implicated me in a false case because I was acting against it on government orders. I just hope the Bihar government provides a 'no-objection certificate' soon to facilitate my cadre change," Gupta told The Telegraph.

Gupta's counsel in the apex court, Sachin Datta, said: "The very fact that the SC entertained the writ under Article 32 of the Constitution, which enshrines provisions under which individuals can seek redress for the violation of their fundamental rights, doesn't show the state government in good light. The matter is not foreclosed and we will see what action the Union government finally takes."

Legal sources said the Bihar government can file an appeal against the Supreme Court order before a larger bench. But a senior general administration department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Gupta would have to be released from the cadre. "We will have to release the officer in question because stopping him after the SC order would be tantamount to

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his harassment," he said.

Gupta was arrested by a team of the Vigilance Investigation Bureau on bribery charges on July 13, 2016, while he was serving as the sub-divisional officer at Mohania in Kaimur district. The raiding team had shown recovery of Rs 80,000 cash from Gupta's driver as proof of their allegations.

The action against the officer came after he had exposed the nexus of the "entry mafia" with the police to facilitate the entry of overloaded trucks and goods carriers without proper permits and papers into Bihar, inflicting a huge loss of revenue to the state.

Patna High Court had quashed the case against Gupta on October 28 last year and exonerated him of all charges. The Bihar government also withdrew the charges vide a letter dated April 21, 2017.

INDIAN EXPRESS, MAY 11, 2017Gujarat to give 4 per cent dearness allowance to govt employees, pensionersMore than 8.20 lakh employees of the government, panchayats and pensioners will benefit from the decision.

In a move that will cause financial burden of Rs 930 crore on state exchequer, the Gujarat Government on Wednesday declared to give a total 4 per cent dearness allowance— two installments— to the employees of the state government, panchayats and pensioners from July 1, 2016.

More than 8.20 lakh employees of the government, panchayats and pensioners will benefit from the decision.

Deputy Chief Minister Nitin Patel announced the decision after it got an approval from the state cabinet in its meeting on Wednesday.

Patel said that as per the recommendations of the Central Government, after implementing the Seventh Pay Commission, the government has decided to give 2 per cent dearness allowance from July 1, 2016 to December 31, 2016. At the same time, it has also been decided to give 4 per cent dearness allowance from January 1, 2017 to the aforementioned employees and pensioners.

“The arrears for the said period will be given to the employees and pensioners in their salary of the current month. And this will cause a total financial burden of Rs 930 crore, including the arrears, on the state government in the current year. For the rest of the years, the increase in dearness allowance will cause annual financial burden of Rs 465 crore,” Patel said.

In Gujarat, there are a total 1,85,575 state government employees and 2,08,771 panchayat employees and 4,26,418 pensioners.

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TELEGRAPH, MAY 11, 2017

Bengal officer to be defence secretary

Sanjay Mitra

New Delhi, May 10: The Centre today appointed former Bengal chief secretary Sanjay Mitra as the next defence secretary of the country.

The appointments committee of the cabinet approved the decision. Mitra will assume charge on May 24 when the incumbent defence secretary, G. Mohan Kumar, retires.

Till then, Mitra will function as an officer on special duty in the defence ministry, said an order from the department of personnel and training.

×Mitra, a 1982-batch Bengal cadre IAS officer, is at present secretary in the ministry of road transport and highways. He will get a fixed tenure of two years as defence secretary.

Mitra had returned to Bengal in July 2011 after seven years in the Prime Minister's Office during the tenure of Manmohan Singh and was Bengal's health secretary before replacing Samar Ghosh as chief secretary in September 2012.

Among other officers, the Centre today appointed Leena Nair - a 1982-batch IAS officer of the Tamil Nadu cadre - as secretary, ministry of tribal affairs. She was earlier secretary, ministry of women and child development.

Anant Kumar Singh, a 1984-batch IAS officer of the Uttar Pradesh cadre, will be the new secretary in the textiles ministry in place of Rashmi Verma, who has been moved to the ministry of tourism as secretary.

PIONEER, MAY 9, 2017SUB-COMMITTEE TO STUDY RETIREMENT AGE IN HARYANA

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Haryana Government’s sub-committee, constituted to study the different aspects for raising the retirement age of its employees from 58 to 60 years, has sought detailed information from the Chief Secretary’s office about all categories of posts in the state.

The sub-committee headed by Finance Minister Capt. Abhimanyu held its first meeting on Monday.

Capt. Abhimanyu, while talking to the mediapersons after the meeting said, we would seek the Chief Minister’s approval to enhance the term of Committee upto June 30, which was constituted for a period of one month on February 17 this year.

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He said that next meeting of the committee would be held on May 24.

The Minister said that the committee has asked the Chief Secretary DS Dhesi to provide detailed information about all categories of posts from group A to D including category-wise authorized strength, filled up and going to be vacant upto December 31, 2017.

Capt Abhimanyu said that there are about one lakh vacancies in different departments in the state and about 15,000 employees are retired every year which cause adverse impact on functioning of the departments.

The government had already decided to increase the retirement age of doctors’ upto 65 years. The retirement age of group D employees, blind, physically challenged and Judicial Officers is 60 years. In addition, State Awardees in Education Department were also being allowed to continue till the age of 60 years, he added.

The sub-committee was constituted in February to study the possibility of increasing the retirement age of government employees to 60 years from 58 years. Other members in the committee included Health Minister Anil Vij and Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Krishan Kumar Bedi.

While the panel was supposed to submit its report within a month, the first meeting was held on Monday only.  Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment Krishan Kumar Bedi and Chief Secretary attended the meeting. 

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CRIME

HINDU, MAY 15, 2017Clamping down on crimeR.K. Raghavan

The police’s perception of public safety and their own role is changing, but too slowly

The Nirbhaya ruling on May 5, where the Supreme Court confirmed the death penalty for

four of the accused in the gang rape and murder case of a paramedical student in Delhi in

2012, is also an occasion to examine certain fundamental assumptions about policing. This

takes into account protests after the incident that squarely blamed the Delhi Police for its

failure to protect the victim. It is debatable whether the police alone were blameworthy here.

Both the state and community at large have a role in shaping public safety, especially that of

women and children.

A reading of Kautilya’s Arthashastra will help one understand the genesis of the state and

how it needed to legitimise its authority through the evolution of the police as we know it

today. The creation in 1829 of the Metropolitan Police in London and the setting up of a

similar organisation in New York and other large cities in the U.S. paved the way for

organising the police in many western democracies and for our own police forces set up by

the British in the early 1900s. The focus of law enforcement was initially on disciplining

unruly elements disturbing public peace rather than on hunting for criminals depriving

others of their life and property. Crime was petty in those days, not requiring any

sophisticated methods of investigation and detection. Now, it is not only widespread and

violent but also sophisticated with the abundant use of technology. A fallout is rising fear in

a community, especially among elders, women and children. It is my conviction that the

police force must address this fear in a focussed manner. It is my lament that many

unenlightened governments in our country do not evaluate police performance by this

yardstick. Police pliability to serve political ends rates higher in their agenda.

A trust deficit

What does the common man expect of the police? Several surveys point to a demand for

protection of life more than guarding individual property. With the phenomenal expansion

of the geographic area to be policed and the mind-boggling increase in the number of lives

to be guarded, the Indian police, more than in many western democracies, have been

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stretched and outnumbered. There are only about 140 policemen per 100,000 people, a very

poor ratio when compared to other modern democracies.

The strongest criticism against the police is of their preoccupation with the problems of the

political party in power and those of the rich and famous. This resonates with the dictum

that all are equal (in a constitutional democracy), but some are more equal than the others.

This is why the 10,000-odd police stations in the country are shunned by the better-off

sections, who prefer organising themselves to ward off threats or buy safety services from

other sources. The phenomenal rise in private security agencies accounts for the growing

lack of trust in the state police. This is a shameful but real state of affairs in most of India.

Lessons from abroad

What is the way out? Drawing lessons from elsewhere in the world is not beneath the

dignity of the Indian police. Learning in public administration is a recognised healthy

exercise the world over. I am not for a moment suggesting that this is not happening at

present. I am only pleading for a greater readiness to sink our egos and borrow from the best

practices of foreign police organisations.

Two recent happenings — one each in the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and

the Metropolitan Police, London (Met) — come to mind readily. Under its legendary

Commissioner, Bill Bratton, more than a decade ago, the NYPD instituted a COMPSTAT

(short for COMPuter STATistics) programme, that analysed crime with the help of

computers, identified crime hotspots and took preventive action, such as intensified

patrolling. Police commanders in New York were made to report to the commissioner each

week explaining how they were tackling crime in their jurisdictions. This mechanism not

only brought about greater attention to crime in the field but also enhanced police

accountability at the grass-root level.

The NYPD has recently gone beyond COMPSTAT by hiring a reputed private agency to

survey public opinion on police performance. Focussed questions over mobile phones and

the responses obtained look at how to fill visible gaps in policing. The effectiveness of this

unique tool will depend on how forthcoming and honest the respondents are. Variants of this

have indeed been tried in a few of our cities by some smart police leaders. We have not

heard enough about their outcome to comment on their utility.

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Contrary to popular belief, London is now a high-crime city. There is not only public

concern over looming terrorist threats but also over youth crime. There are at least three or

more stabbings a day carried out by teenagers. Although guns have made a recent entry, it is

crime using sharp and small knives that is fuelling anxiety. The Met has launched a major

campaign against street crime that involves frisking and seizure of knives — a visible,

street-level operation that has enhanced security perceptions. The use of large manpower has

been the hallmark of this operation. Physical checks of youth in the streets has added an

element of deterrence. This is analogous to the ‘stop and frisk’ practice of the NYPD, whose

focus on the non-white population has often drawn flak, especially from African-Americans.

Mr. Bratton and his successors have had to tone down the exercise. This is a real danger that

the police face while working for greater public safety. Any overzealousness is liable to

make the police a villain. Given the high corruption among the police in India, procedures

such as ‘stop and frisk’ carry the risk of greater public harassment and dishonesty at the

cutting-edge levels.

Some hope in India

In my view, there are at least two features which offer a glimmer of hope for community

safety in India. The first is the availability of a corps of leadership in the form of technically

savvy young Indian Police Service officers who have a stake in working closely with the

community to carry out experiments in the field to upgrade safety at minimum cost to the

government. They can borrow from several studies under the rubric of ‘evidence-based

policing’.

The second is the spread of Internet use at all levels of the police. An offshoot is the use of

social media in day-to-day policing. Information on crime incidents and criminals is as a

matter of course conveyed to the public in many urban centres with encouraging results.

Citizens are also encouraged to report crime through email or over social media. This

practice gives no option for the police but to act without fail and swiftly. The participation

of the print and visual media in this dialogue gives further fillip to the exercise of sensitising

the police to the community demand for safety through police processes.

The police’s perception of public safety and their own role here is changing, but only

slowly. Many of us are impatient over the pace at which it is happening. We must realise

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that the Indian police is a behemoth and will respond faster only if there is constant pressure

exerted on it by well-organised community leaders and the media.

R.K. Raghavan is a former CBI Director, and Member, International Advisory Board,

Institute of Criminology, Cambridge University, U.K.

 

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DIGITAL ELECTRONICS

PIONEER, MAY 11, 2017IT+ Indian Talent= India Tomorrow: PM

As the Supreme Court turned a new chapter in the digital age on Wednesday by launching a computerised case management system, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged the judiciary to make a shift to digital technology saying it was effective, easy, economical and environment-friendly. He even devised an equation to describe Information Technology (IT).

“IT + IT = IT stands for Information Technology + Indian Talent = India Tomorrow,” he said, speaking at the launch of the SC Integrated Case Management Information System (ICMIS) at Vigyan Bhawan.  

The new system converts and stores in digital format all records filed in the Supreme Court, enabling litigants to track their cases online.  Lauding the SC on achieving this historic milestone, the Prime Minister said, “To make new India, change is essential.”

Linking the development with the Government’s big push to realise the Digital India dream, Modi urged the judiciary to change its mindset and make a shift to digital technology.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) JS Khehar said the new system will usher in transparency, ensure a paperless judicial regime and prevent chances of manipulation of records.  At present, advocates in the SC are allowed to e-file their cases. But the new system will be far different, the CJI explained stating that the litigant will be required to file only the “grounds of appeal” against the High Court order and the case number. The remaining documents (High Court judgment, affidavits filed by either parties) will get electronically transferred to the SC.

“This system cannot be breached. A system where the documents cannot be manipulated, a system where the records are there for keeps,” the CJI said, indicating that the new system will be in place from July 3, the day when the SC will reopen after a summer break.

“I propose to take this system to all the 24 High Courts and then to all the district courts. This means a litigant will file one case only in his lifetime, insofar as the paper book is concerned,” the CJI said.

The apex court’s decision to cut short its vacation and work on holidays received appreciation from the Prime Minister. He said, “The country is changing. We are working during holidays. Such a move will restore the public’s faith in the judiciary.”

Modi also appealed to the legal fraternity present to make the “Pro Bono” electronic interface introduced by the Union Law Ministry a success by registering with it. Referring to the change that India was witnessing, Modi said, “On my request, lakhs of citizens gave up their LPG subsidy and gynaecologists agreed to treat poor pregnant women on the ninth of every month.”

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He urged the lawyer community to assist the Government’s attempt to provide free and effective legal aid to underprivileged litigants.

Adding another dimension to the need for digitalization, the PM said a paperless regime was eco-friendly as it would save millions of litres of water and thousands of trees. This money can in turn be used to build homes for the poor and construct new schools, he said.

 The point was well taken by another SC judge J Chelameswar, who said that every case filed in the SC consumes a huge quantity of paper and such a step will reduce the damage caused to the environment.  He also criticized the “mindset” of the judiciary to adopt change, wondering why the SC complex was still reluctant to have a Wi-Fi facility over security concerns when the United States Department of Defence at Pentagon could work with Wi-Fi.

Besides tracking of a case online, the CJI said the ICMIS will also allow litigants to calculate the court fees and know the amount to be paid. If there is delay in filing of a case, the new system will show of how many days was the delay and what should be the application. “This system tells your client, the day process (notice) is served upon the other party, the day the case is taken up, the days on which various orders are passed, thus ensuring great transparency,” the CJI said.

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EDUCATION

HINDU, MAY 9, 2017DU teachers to protest outside V-C office todayTyagi failed to meet us to discuss concerns, says DUTATeachers of Delhi University have called for a protest outside the Vice-Chancellor’s office

on Tuesday demanding that he meet them regarding “continuous onslaught on their service

conditions”.

Several attempts

The protest has been called by the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA), which

alleged that V-C Yogesh Tyagi had failed to meet them to discuss the concerns of teachers

despite several attempts over the past 10 months.

“This is completely unacceptable. In no university of repute can the head of the institution

consistently refuse to meet the elected representatives of teachers. We will not leave till our

office-bearers are able to meet the V-C,” said DUTA president Nandita Narain.

‘No promotions’

Stating that DUTA had written to the V-C seeking an appointment any time after 6 p.m. on

Tuesday, Ms. Narain said they would be forced to spend the entire night at his office gates if

he refuses to meet them.

The teachers alleged that “no appointments, no promotions and no pension have been

granted for the past several years by the increasingly authoritarian, corrupt and vindictive

governance”.

DUTA claimed that its office-bearers aren’t permitted to enter beyond the iron gates of the

Vice Regal Lodge even to register a request for an appointment at the reception.

“Not only is the DUTA not given any appointment, in a break from long-standing

convention even elected members of the Academic Council and Executive Council haven’t

been included in any of the university committees,” the teachers alleged.

This is completely unacceptable. In no university of repute can the head of the institution

consistently refuse to meet the elected representatives of teachers

Nandita Narain

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ECONOMIC TIMES, MAY 9, 2017Modi government may bring ordinance to empower 15 IITs to issue degreesBy Anubhuti Vishnoi

NEW DELHI: The government is planning an ordinance to immediately give degree-granting powers to 15 Indian Institutes Technology (IITs) set up on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, sources aware of the development told ET.

The emergency move — coming just a month after it introduced the IIT Bill in the Lok Sabha — is being made because five such IITs have their first batch of students passing out this year and they would be unable to get their degrees in the absence of the legislation.

The human resource development ministry has already moved the ordinance proposal to the law ministry, the sources said. After the law ministry clears it, the ordinance will be taken to the Cabinet and then to the President for approval. Once it's in effect, the ordinance would enable hundreds of students at IITs in Vadodara, Kota, Chittoor, Guwahati and Tiruchirappalli to get their degrees this year itself.

The HRD ministry did not respond to ET queries on the issue as of press time on Monday.

Of the 20 IITs planned to be established on PPP mode, 15 are already functional. There has been a lot of pressure since last year to address the issue as job prospects of hundreds of students will be affected in the absence of a proper degree. However, the bill was held up last year amid differences between PMO and HRD ministry over the level of autonomy to the institutes and the need to expedite the legislation, sources said.

HRD minister Prakash Javadekar soon after taking over charge had decided on an alternative course of action to address this issue at the earliest. On PMO's suggestion to ensure timely granting of degrees, the ministry asked the IITs to apply for a deemed to be university status from the University Grants Commission.

The deemed university status also accords degree granting powers to an institute. This proposal, however, could not take off because most IITs do not meet the criteria for deemed to be universities.

Ultimately, Cabinet approval was sought for moving the full- fledged IIT Bill in March this year and it was introduced in Lok Sabha last month. But, the legislative pace clearly could not keep up with the academic calendar. Hence, it has now been decided — amid mounting student pressure — to take the ordinance route, sources said.

The bill introduced in Lok Sabha seeks to declare the 15 IITs on PPP mode as 'Institutions of national Importance' with powers to award degrees. This will entitle them to use the nomenclature of Bachelor of Technology (BTech) or Master of Technology (MTech) or PhD degree.

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ELECTIONS

TELEGRAPH, MAY 15, 2015The EVM conundrum- The Election Commission must allay growing concerns

Manini Chatterjee

For those of us fortunate enough to have covered Parliament from a ringside seat for decades, one of the most heart-warming spectacles in India's "temple of democracy" is the first day of a freshly constituted Lok Sabha after a long drawn-out, and invariably bitter, election campaign.

Even diehard cynics cannot remain unmoved by the optics. The men and women who once sat smugly in the treasury benches to the right of the Speaker's chair are now seen - their ranks depleted, their egos chastened - to the left. And those who shouted incessantly from the Opposition benches for the previous five years cannot contain their joy at moving to new seats across the aisle.

The leaders on this day are a picture of grace. Old timers will recall how much V.P. Singh was hated by his erstwhile colleagues when he "betrayed" his party and leader in 1987 to walk out of the Congress and lead a campaign that ended in the ouster of Rajiv Gandhi in the elections of December 1989. But when V.P. Singh became prime minister as the head of the wobbly National Front, Rajiv Gandhi greeted him without any visible rancour from his new perch on the other side of Lok Sabha.

He was not an exception. That same graciousness was shown to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his colleagues when they assumed power in the late 1990s by their opponents in Parliament; just as the BJP had to accept - albeit a little grudgingly - the presence of Sonia Gandhi in the front row of the government benches after their shock defeat in 2004.

×This smooth transition of power after every election, witnessed in Parliament as well as in the state assemblies, is one of the greatest strengths of India's democracy and so much in contrast to other developing countries where victors often send their defeated adversaries into exile or prison, or an embittered Opposition chooses to boycott elections altogether.

And the singular reason this takes place with such nonchalant ease in India is the collective faith in the country's free and fair elections. The use of money power and muscle power, the old charges against "booth capturing" or "scientific rigging" notwithstanding, Indian elections were largely fair and, more important, seen to be fair by both participants and observers. The Election Commission's stature too - as an independent and autonomous institution that does a commendable job in conducting the most extensive and elaborate electoral exercise in the world - grew enormously over time.

It is in light of this long and cherished tradition that the growing chorus against the use of electronic voting machines must be seen, and must worry us. On the face of it, the anger against

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the EVMs and the charge that they are "tampered" with can be dismissed as the plaintive cry of losers who refuse to accept their defeat. After all, EVMs were first used nearly 20 years ago in the assembly elections in Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh in 1998, and began to be used nationwide from 2004 onwards. Although Opposition parties often expressed misgivings about the "fool-proof" nature of the new technology, and the Bharatiya Janata Party spokesman, G.V.L Narasimha Rao, in his earlier avatar as a psephologist even wrote a book against its use, the Opposition to it remained muted.

That is no longer the case. More and more political parties are now questioning election results, and even the courts are paying heed to their misgivings. Since the BJP is on a winning spree, it is the only party right now that has not asked for a modification of EVMs or for the return to the good old ballot paper, but it was the party's vocal member, Subramanian Swamy, who secured a landmark Supreme Court judgment on the issue.

In its 2013 judgment, the Supreme Court - echoing the demand of political parties made at a meeting convened by the EC in October 2010 - held that a paper trail was an "indispensable requirement of free and fair elections". The apex court ordered the government to provide the EC the requisite funds to acquire VVPAT or voter-verified paper audit trail machines for every election booth.

After sustained pressure from the EC, the Union cabinet finally gave its approval for the procurement of VVPAT units only last month, sanctioning funds for it over the next two general budgets in order to enable its use throughout the country in the 2019 general elections.

The government note explained that the VVPAT would function like a printer to be attached to the ballot unit and kept inside the voting compartment. When the voter pressed the button against the name of the candidate of his choice on the EVM (or ballot unit), the VVPAT unit would generate a paper slip containing the name, serial number and symbol of the chosen candidate. The voter can see the slip through "a screened window where it stays for seven seconds, and then it automatically gets cut and falls down into a sealed drop box."

At an all-party meeting on May 12 that lasted over eight hours, the EC agreed to paper record every vote registered in every EVM in every booth, and also agreed to count a certain proportion of the VVPAT slips as a matter of course. As of now, the paper slips were stored for five years and were counted only if a court ordered the EC to do so in light of a complaint.

However, while VVPATs may provide an additional layer of security, the distrust towards EVMs is unlikely to go away. It may even deepen if politicians and activists take up the EC's "challenge" and succeed in showing that the machine can be tampered with - as an Aam Aadmi Party member of the legislative assembly demonstrated on a dummy machine in the Delhi assembly last week.

This distrust stems from two reasons. First, there is an instinctive aversion to technology that is simple to operate and yet difficult to comprehend. An average voter or even the average political worker does not understand the technology behind the EVMs and therefore will always be apprehensive that it can be tampered with by "experts" or by powerful behind-the-scenes agents.

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The second unstated reason is a deep suspicion of the ruling party and, particularly, the Modi-Shah electoral machine. The Modi government's totalizing zeal coupled with its fetish for technological tools (such as the ramming down of Aadhaar way beyond its original purpose or the concerted push towards digital payments) makes political parties much more fearful of the possibility of mass scale misuse of EVMs today than in earlier elections.

That is why it is imperative that the EC intervene more vigorously and assure the Indian electorate that it will do everything it can to assuage these fears. And if misgivings persist, the EC should not rule out a return to the ballot paper - a practice still followed in most major democracies in the West, many of whom discontinued the use of EVMs after similar fears of misuse surfaced.

But if dismissing complaints against EVMs by defeated candidates is dangerous for democracy, the new tendency of political leaders - be it Mayavati or Harish Rawat or Arvind Kejriwal - to blame their defeat solely on EVMs borders on the delusional. The challenge before the political class today is to strike a nuanced balance between these two extremes

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ENVIRONMENT

DECCAN HERALD, MAY 9, 2017Boiling destiny- India must take urgent action against climate change

Ashok V. Desai

Last September, I wrote that the troubles Syria is going through may well be due to climate change - specifically, to a decline in rainfall that has made agriculture less viable and forced people to move out of villages into towns. Unskilled young men, who might have plucked oranges earlier, have migrated to Aleppo and taken to looting and stealing - activities that the West has honoured with the label of terrorism but which are what workless youth indulge in in many lawless countries.

Climate change is universal; how will it affect India? India's climate has already been changing for the worse, and it has been documented by many scientists. They have various explanations. Massimo Bollasina and his colleagues from the programme in atmospheric and oceanic sciences in Princeton, in an article in Science in 2011, attributed the drying up of India to aerosols - particles in the air. The particles are mostly soot and the ash of combustibles and ammonium sulphate, but also include condensation trails left behind by jet planes in flight. They obstruct heat absorbed by land during the day from escaping back into the atmosphere at night. This effect is increased by humidity; aerosols that rise into the air catch the humidity around them and form droplets, which increases their size and hence their obstruction of nocturnal radiation. Bollasina et al give high marks to aerosols for the weakening of the monsoon over India.

In 2014, Nature published a letter from Deepti Singh and her colleagues in the department of environment earth system science in Stanford University. They plotted precipitation (which is what climatologists call rainfall plus snowfall) in central India between 1950 and 2010 and found a distinct declining trend; it had also become more unstable. Extreme wet spells became less frequent after 1980; extreme dry spells became more frequent. Water from extreme wet spells can flow off; but there is no way the deficiency in comfort from extreme dry spells can be made up.

How did this weakening of the monsoon affect land use? This question was taken up in a report by Supantha Paul of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, and his colleagues in Nature of August 2016. They gave a map of soil cover in 1987 (they chose to call it land use and land cover). Almost all of India was then what they call woody savannah - it was covered with shrubs that were too short and sparse to be called forest. The only large areas that were not savannah were croplands in the Gangetic valley and barren or sparsely vegetated land or shrub-covered land in Rajasthan and northern Kashmir. The northeast had some areas covered with deciduous or evergreen forest; otherwise woods were largely absent.

×In the 2005 map, most of the woody savannah south of the Gangetic valley was marked as

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agricultural land. Not that it was not agricultural in 1987; either the scientists had changed the term or the first map was done in fallow season and the second in crop season. Evergreen forest had spread in the northeast; this was the scientists' term for the spread of tea gardens. But the biggest change was that much of Tamil Nadu and southern Andhra Pradesh had become urban. There was similar urbanization, though on a smaller scale, northeast of Bombay and east of Ahmedabad. The leaf area index - that is, the proportion of area covered by leaves - had fallen 10-20 per cent in most of the peninsula. Precipitation had fallen all over the Northeast, Gangetic plain, southern peninsula and the western ghats region. The fall in precipitation due to the change in land use was greatest in the northern peninsula, stretching from Gujarat across Madhya Pradesh to West Bengal, and along the western ghats.

The shrubs in woody savannah have long lives, whereas crops are removed within months. So shrubs have deeper roots than crops; they can draw water from greater depths, and can therefore transpire more water. Hence the conversion of woody savannah to crops has reduced evapotranspiration - the release of water vapour into the air. Evapotranspiration adds to the moisture in the air, and it comes back down to earth as rain if the humidity is high enough. So conversion from savannah to crops has been a factor in the reduction of rainfall.

Rains cool land; air above cooling land flows down and out into surrounding dry, hot areas, which heat it up and then it rises. Thus, precipitation leads to winds. The frequency of low-level winds has gone down in the past three decades. The reduction in winds makes hot places hotter. The areas where temperatures have gone up most are in the western peninsula, across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.

So, the future is already upon us. Global warming was supposed to hit us some years from now; actually, it has been with us for three decades. It was supposed to be due to rising concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Maybe it was due to aerosols. It was supposed to be global warming. What we do have is India warming; and sitting in India, it feels the same. Hitherto, governments of the world have been coming together to plan coordinated action - in the UN framework convention on climate change in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, in Kyoto in 1997, in Bali in 2007, in Copenhagen in 2009, in Cancún in 2010, in Durban in 2011, in many other attractive resorts - and failing to act together. India has been one of the main saboteurs of coordinated action; it argues that its greenhouse gas emissions till now are a small proportion of the total and that it should be allowed to continue polluting, while other countries point out that emissions are emissions - they are just as harmful whoever is responsible for them.

It is immaterial which side one takes in this conflict. The point is that India is suffering already, and even if it thinks the rest of the world is guilty, it ought to take action to help itself. It must be in two directions. One is to economize on water and to ameliorate local shortages. Transporting water in trucks from existing lakes and ponds is an expensive solution and will get costlier as fuel becomes costly; what is necessary is getting rainwater into the ground as fast as possible and minimizing evapotranspiration. The other is to find cheaper ways of heat amelioration. Water coolers, replaced long ago by air conditioners, will make a comeback if the government lets electricity be priced at cost. Le Corbusier invented sunbreakers to keep his buildings in India cool. They were a good invention, which has been carried forward by architects across the world. Now we need another Le Corbusier, who would bring another burst

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of cooling inventions. He might well start with a nineteenth-century British experiment in India - residence below the ground. With luck, most Indians may be living underground half a century from now, hardly noticing the searing heat outside. To tempt them to leave their caves, the ground above should be covered with trees and bushes that would keep it cool with evapotranspiration, and whose roots would take rainwater underground before it evaporates.

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FAMINES

STATESMAN, MAY 8, 2017Targeted reforms needed to tackle droughtSriroop Chaudhuri, Harnoor Kaur

Nothing has drilled deeper to the core of global policy meets over human developmental issues in recent times than the ramified adversities of climate change on lives and lands. Anomalous temperature bumps to drastic declines in precipitation, flash floods to untimely hurricanes, polar ice melting to urban heat islands, climate change are no more just tea-table gossip. But amongst all its manifestations, it is probably drought, or rather the unpredictable recurrence of droughts, that has made climate change a potboiler.

Long-term global precipitation records and streamflow estimates clearly indicate increasing trend in aridity around the world since the 1950s with escalating drought risk. Recent report of Central Water Commission (CWC, 2016) echoes the same for the nation showing that about 60- 70 per cent Indian landmass is under drought. This translates into appalling threats to the irrigation and potable water sector, crops, soils, livestock, forest cover, food supply and every imaginable entity that feeds into human livelihood indices.

The CWC provides detailed accounts of live storage information of 91 groundwater reservoirs across the country, integrating information about their storage position, rainfall and various other data types. During 2015-16, drought was declared in some 18 states including Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Haryana (northern region; underlain by six reservoirs), AP, Karnataka, Telengana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu (southern region; 31 reservoirs), UP, MP, Uttarakhand, and Chhattisgarh (central region; 12 reservoirs), Jharkhand, Odisha, WB and Tripura (eastern region; 15 reservoirs) and Gujarat and Maharashtra (western region; 27 reservoirs). In Karnataka and UP, drought was declared for both kharif and rabi seasons.

Largely, drought is caused by rainfall patterns and rather temporal deficits therein. During 2015, national rainfall deficit (compared to the long-period-average; LPA) was around 14.5 per cent as compared to about 12 per cent in 2013 and about 11 per cent in 2012, which indicates progressive drop in annual rainfall over time leading to rise in drought intensity. The north and west regions show the highest deficits (17 per cent from the LPA) while the east records the lowest (8 per cent) in the country.

It is probably the southern region, with about 15 per cent rainfall deficit from the LPA, which presents the most harrowing view of the groundwater drought in the country. At the end on the monsoon season (30 September 2015), the storage available in the region (17.59 BCM) as well as in individual states (AP, Karnataka, Telengana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) was less than that of 2014 (36.59 BCM). It was also substantially lower than the decadal average (41.72 BCM). Among the states, Karnataka appears to have suffered the maximum impact with live storage dropping from over 20 BCM as decadal average to about 11 BCM in 2015 (30 September).

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North Karnataka had a 20% deficit in rainfall. In Telengana the deficit ranged between 25 and 29 per cent. In Tamil Nadu the deficit went up to 84 per cent (as of 20 April 2016). Presently there is about 12 per cent deficit in annual rainfall in India with about 30 per cent of the landmass under deficit.

Depletions in groundwater reservoirs have also been noted in the western region (Gujarat and Maharashtra). Decadal average in live storage in this region has dropped from 22.52 to 16.83 BCM in 2015, mostly owing to shrinkage in the reservoirs underlying Maharashtra (11.68 to 6.67 BCM in 2015). In Maharashtra, the rainfall deficit was estimated at around 40 per cent in 2015.

More than 3,200 farmers committed suicide in Maharashtra alone in 2015, largely owing to acute water scarcity, unprecedented crop losses and soaring debt burdens. It was the highest in the state since 2001. According to Rajya Sabha reports (4 March 2014), it equates to about nine deaths daily and between 2014 and 2015, this figure jumped by about 18 per cent. In Karnataka farmer suicides rose from about 300 in 2014 to over 1300 in 2015. Overall, farmer-suicides spiked by about 42 per cent in the country between 2014 and 2015 due to worsening drought situations and resultant debacles in the agrarian economy.

All these figures indicate that drought is real. But the fundamental problem is that drought is an elusive phenomenon as it can take so many forms, ranging from environmental, hydrological, to agricultural drought (farmer suicides are largely ascribed to the latter two categories). It is often difficult to tell the categories apart as one frequently leads to the other. Moreover, it is difficult to mark the exact onset of drought or draw timelines around it; often the effects are felt well after it is thought to be over. To make things worse, there is hardly a consistent method to quantify drought devoid of subjective bias. This is mostly because the parameters involved - soil moisture, evapotranspiration, temperature - are not only spatially heterogeneous but largely autoregressive over time as well.

The CWC report provides a good overview of the nationwide drought scenario. However, it does little to shed light on methods used to estimate drought. Neither does it deal much with drought intensity or its projected duration. Also lacking is information on corresponding declines in groundwater-levels or changes in surface water flow parameters. These aspects deserve critical consideration and perhaps the research community across the nation should be invited to look into the specifics. That is to say, allowing them grant money to carry out region-specific research to help the authorities refine their methods.

At the end of monsoon in 2015, available live storage in 91 reservoirs stood at 95.7 BCM against a total live capacity of about 157.8 BCM. At the same time in 2014, available live storage was 124.6 BCM. In 2013, it was a little over 137 BCM, which shows how the nation’s reservoirs are being depleted over short spells, needing urgent management actions. It appears from the CWC report that drought has already taken a big bite out of the nation’s fresh groundwater reserves. The question is: how to halt it? Is it only rainfall deficits or also unleashed groundwater drafting that is aggravating the drought scenario?

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Undoubtedly it is a riddle that calls for public-private collaboration in a transparent institutional framework with lucid provisions for adequate R&D. For example, research is needed to understand how ‘groundwater drought’ affects the base flow to streams and how it propagates through complex hydrological systems at varying spatial and temporal scales. There is urgent need to devise/implement consistent drought indices that can be applied to different observation sites, in different reservoirs, incorporating different hydrometeorological aspects of drought.

It is commendable to note that the government has put in place various action plans to bolster the irrigation sector. But what really calls for attention is targeted policy reform and enforceable laws to regulate groundwater abstraction which is no lesser a cause of depletion than rainfall deficit. Without it, hopes of rejuvenating an already-endangered system and making good years of sustained damage seem overambitious.

The writers are respectively assistant professor at OP Jindal Global University (and assistant director, Centre for Environment, Sustainability and Human Development) and a first-year student at Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities.

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HEALTH SERVICES

ECONOMIC TIMES, MAY 15, 2017For CGHS Tieup, Pvt Hospitals may Have to Display No Of C-Sec Deliveries

Private hospitals may soon be forced to display on their premises the number of cesarean

deliveries conducted by them in order to be empanelled under the Central Government Health

Scheme (CGHS).

A senior CGHS official said under a new process to be completed within a month, hospitals

seeking to be empanelled by CGHS, which is under the ministry of health and family welfare,

may have to publicly display the number of such deliveries.

A new agreement between the government and hospitals will also have a provision for punitive

measures -including being dropped from the empanelled list -if the hospitals do not fall into line.

“Under the existing memorandum, we have asked all hospitals to voluntarily put out this

information. However, when we launch the new empanelment process, it will be made

mandatory,“ the senior CGHS official said.

He said that with this move, the government wanted to raise awareness about cesarean deliveries

and help would-be parents decide on their choice of hospital for a delivery.

“It's a great step by the government and will help expose the unscrupulous use of this technique

during child birth.Often, in hospitals, the relatives are told about fetal distress or maternal health

risk to force them into giving consent for a c-section.

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HISTORY

STATESMAN, MAY 12, 2017Gandhi and New Politicsby Subrata Mukherjee    

After returning from South Africa, Mahatma Gandhi let it be known that he intended to stay

permanently in India. He attended the 1916 Congress session in Lucknow. Although he was well

known in India because of his activities in South Africa, he did not play any significant role in

the session. Nevertheless, a very important development took place. A poor peasant from Bihar

came to the session in search of someone to take up the cause of the peasantry in Champaran.

The peasants were exploited for years by the British plantation owners. At that juncture, Gandhi

knew little about Champaran. After listening to their pathetic situation, he took up their cause.

He went to Champaran, recruited some bright young lawyers, drew up a plan for Satyagraha and

organised the Satyagrahis.

Champaran was, according to EMS Namboodiripad, “the first mass struggle which Gandhi led in

India”. Almost immediately, he achieved considerable success. The grievances of the peasants

were redressed and the bulk of the extortion money that was collected from them was returned.

But Gandhi did not stop at this. He went further and initiated the first village improvement

programme that included sanitation, cleanliness and health care. These constructive and long-

term programmes were not very successful. But the importance of Champaran was not confined

to the alleviation of the miseries of the poor peasants or the successes and failures of long-term

programmes. Its importance was in the emergence of Gandhi as the new force in Indian politics.

His unprecedented success and his use of a new technique made him an instant national hero.

The importance of Champaran can be assessed in four spheres. First, the Indian intelligentsia was

well informed about Gandhi’s success in South Africa which was greeted with public acclaim.

However, South Africa was far from India and since his return in 1915, the Mahatma had

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maintained a low profile. Not much notice was taken of his ashram on the banks of the Sabarmati

river and his somewhat unconventional ideas. But Champaran demonstrated what Gandhi could

do.

Second, the achievement at Champaran was Gandhi’s personal triumph. He did it alone,

demonstrating self-reliance and thus achieved remarkable results. Third, his method of

organising the movement earned wide publicity and was a striking departure from the earlier

praxis of the Congress. “It had been a practical achievement,” remarked Moon, “brought about in

quite a novel manner. The systematic onthe-spot surveys, the transparent readiness to face

imprisonment it was all so different from the endless talk and high-standing resolutions of the

stock Indian politicians”. Fourth, to many, the action-oriented Gandhi offered an alternative to

terror tactics of the revolutionary nationalists and an ineffective Congress. Apart from these

significant achievements, the importance of the agrarian movement in Champaran and the

subsequent Kheda Satyagraha movement of 1918 was that Gandhi dealt with specific economic

problems of the poor and successfully tested the Satyagraha techniques for the first time in India.

In Ahmedabad, the dispute was over wages. The mill owners offered an increase of 20 per cent

and the workers, led by the sister of the mill owner and subsequently by Gandhi, wanted a 35 per

cent hike. Gandhi agreed to lead the workers on the clear understanding that they would adhere

to the following stipulations: (1) not to resort to violence at any given time; (2) not to molest

blacklegs at any time; (3) not to depend on alms at any time and (4) to remain firm for the entire

period of the strike and during this period, earn their bread by honest labour. Maintenance of

peace and self-respect were the other two principles that Gandhi emphasised.

It was not an easy struggle. The strict stipulations that prohibited any form of charity and the

stupendous task of providing alternative jobs to thousands of people had demoralised the

workers after two weeks. To restore their morale, Gandhi resorted to a fast for the first time in

the name of Satyagraha. Immediately after this dramatic act, an agreement was reached through

arbitration and to the satisfaction of the workers. Arbitration was an important instrument for

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eliminating ill-feelings among the parties after the strike. The agitation, according to BR Nanda,

“was a turning point in the labour-employer relations in Ahmedabad”.

Like his efforts in Champaran, Gandhi was not only interested in a short-term settlement but also

initiated several long-term constructive programmes. Because of the strike, one of the Gandhian

trade unions, the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association was formed, and it exists even today.

The Association was set up to implement the Gandhian concept of the relationship of employer

and employee. It was meant to be much more than a mere trade union, with its library, hospital,

school, recreation centres, banks, and newspapers, patterned after the Social Democratic Party

(SPD) in Germany. The Ahmedabad model differed from the one adopted in Champaran in two

ways: (1) it was conducted well within the Indian community while in Champaran it was against

the British plantation owners; and (2) it was conducted in one of the most industrialised areas of

the country, while Champaran was an obscure rural area.

Gandhi’s successful leadership in Champaran and Ahmedabad was of enormous importance,

opening a new phase in Indian politics. Within a few months, he convincingly demonstrated his

ability to lead both the rural and the urban masses. By coincidence, rather than by design, the

Mahatma entered the Indian political scene when people were looking for change. He was the

leader who could bring about large-scale social change, an urgent imperative. Gandhi’s actions

in Champaran and Ahmedabad led to the beginning of new politics in India. It assumed greater

importance in the early 1920s with the beginning of the non-cooperation movement, the first

nationwide struggle for independence. Gandhi provided not only the leadership but the means for

effectively organising the freedom movement and for establishing a new order based on

Sarvodaya, the welfare of all. The Gandhian era began with the struggles in Champaran and

Ahmedabad , notably the effective use of the techniques of non-violent Satyagraha.

The writer is former Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Delhi

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INDUSTRY AND STATES

STATESMAN, MAY 8, 2017Towards vibrant BengalSubhabrata Dutta

The recent third edition of the Global Business Summit in Kolkata registered total investment proposals amounting to Rs.2,35,200 crore. The Chief Minister urged the captains of industry to consider her as “their family member” and to come to the state and join the “Bengal Family”, according to a report in this newspaper on 21 January.

Mamata Banerjee's attempt to woo industrialists for investment is laudable enough. Despite subsidies and the huge payment of interest, West Bengal has progressed under the present Government in the parameters of basic requirements, such as clean drinking water, adequate food, health services, sanitation, literacy and housing. The present dispensation has provided better governance through the removal of delays and corruption and distribution of digital ration cards. In order to provide employment, the government is wooing industrialists and is even depending on them for a bailout.

Unemployment is increasing rapidly in Asian and European countries. Within Asia, the unemployment growth rate is gradually rising due to the burgeoning population. The USA has an unemployment ratio of about 7.7 per cent, England 7.8 per cent, Spain 1.2 per cent, Germany 13.3 per cent, Bangladesh 4.5 per cent, Pakistan 5.6 per cent. In India the unemployment growth rate is 9.5 per cent. According to the National Sample Survey Report 2011, the unemployment ratio is growing without any solution. The report reveals that West Bengal with a population of more than 9 crore has an unemployment ratio of 40.7 per cent, while in Assam with a population of more than 3 crore the ratio is 12.7 per cent. Several million young people are entering the job market every year.

Industrialisation alone cannot solve the problem. Instead of heavy industries, Gandhiji wanted to promote small rural industries as a remedy to unemployment. West Bengal has to depend on cottage and rural microindustries and resources for providing employment. China with a population of 134 crore can provide employment to 96 per cent of its population. There exists a vast potential in the cottage and rural resources where more than 75 per cent of the state’s population lives. The Mahatma listed a number of village industries that could be promoted, notably khadi production, dairy development, beekeeping, and ghani oil production.

The khadi and village industries, the handloom and handicraft sectors have significant potential to generate vast employment. Since 2003, the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Rural Industrialisation has been providing technology and management inputs to increase employment in rural areas and identify new areas and opportunities. Moreover, Rural Industries Service Centers have been providing infrastructural support and services to enhance production, skill development and market promotion. In West Bengal, there are many registered khadi and village industries which can create vast employment opportunities. The handloom sector already employs several lakh weavers and ancillary workers. The government should strengthen the weavers’ service centres by installing modern machinery and with suitable financial and

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infrastructural support. The handicrafts sector employs a large number of people . Fairs are organised with the objective of promoting the market for various articles made by the artisans. The fairs are trying to provide need-based interventions for holistic and sustainable development of the handicraft sector. Awareness among producers and customers has to be created on all aspects of products, schemes and procedural aspects including formulation of economically viable and bankable projects to avail credit and subsidy easily. This sector also needs proper attention and skill development to make it sustainable and profitable.

The fisheries in West Bengal can be another important economic activity, geared to generate huge employment in rural areas. This sector has a varied resource potential to create job opportunities. The vibrancy of this sector can be visualised by the manifold increase that India achieved in fish production. The increasing growth rate of fish production has placed the country in the forefront of global pisciculture. West Bengal has many tanks and ponds which are seldom used for fish culture. A community effort to establish a productive venture in the use of these water bodies as a communitybased activity can be economically viable. The main objective of community-based fish-farming is to enhance production from rural village ponds. The involvement of self-help groups regardless of sex and age will be an effective tool for implementing scientific pisciculture programmes not only in their village but also in the neighbouring areas. Some blocks in Birbhum district have achieved success. The self-help groups play a vital role not only in the production and processing but also in marketing of fish and fishery products. Fish can also play an important role in improving food security and nutrition levels as an indispensable source of micro-nutrients.

Bee-keeping can also generate income in the villages. “Apiculture”, using the indigenous bee, has gained popularity in Punjab, Haryana, Bihar and West Bengal. Bee-keeping provides employment to the rural folk in collecting, processing and marketing of honey, beehive products etc. Moreover, it has an important role in maintaining plants and bio-diversity, thereby protecting environmental stability. With the use of modern collection and storage, bee-keeping equipment, honey-processing plants and bottling technology, the export market can be utilised. Indian honey has a vibrant export market in the USA, UK, Germany, Japan, and France.

Animal-based industries have a multi-dimensional potential. The livestock sector has been recognised as a vital source of income and employment. Apart from income generation and job creation, this sector can supply milk, meat and eggs as a rich source of protein, thereby contributing to food and nutritional security. West Bengal is gifted with a remarkably large variety of animal wealth. At present, there are 12 recognised breeds of the cow, three types of buffaloes, 12 kinds of sheep and goats, two kinds of pigs, 12 types of poultry. The 19th livestock census was carried out in 2012 and it covered all states and Union Territories, encompassing all villages and towns.

Different systems have been adopted by the farmers of the state for rearing animals. Among them, mixed livestock farming and organised livestock farming are very popular, cost effective and productive. If the state government adopts suitable measures to improve the animalbased industries, it can address the challenges and problems faced by the farmers, thus changing the unemployment scenario.

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This sector should get uppermost priority, compared with industrialisation. Provisions for infrastructural facilities, awareness for scientific animal management, credit facilities for animal owners, environmental pollution, and market facilities are essential. Amul provides a classic example of the dairy which is one of the highest contributors to the country’s economy. Rashtriya Gokul Mission, a nationwide scheme, launched in July 2014 should be vigorously implemented for promoting conservation and development of indigenous breeds of the cow in a focused and scientific manner.

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JUDICIARY

TRIBUNE, MAY 15, 2017

Jadhav case: the road not takenMK BhadrakumarICJ verdicts not binding on any country

IN the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, the government’s decision to approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague instead of proceeding further along the “back-channel” route to Murree is a fateful one. Murree is much closer to Islamabad than The Hague which is so far away, figuratively and literally. The “back-channel” diplomacy by steel magnate Sajjan Jindal on April 27 was an imaginative move. Jindal’s meeting with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif might not have been productive, but it appears to have been substantive. Last Wednesday, Sharif’s adviser on foreign affairs, Sartaj Aziz, hinted that if India showed interest, Pakistan would look into the possibility of a meeting between the two prime ministers on the sidelines of the SCO summit meeting in Astana on June 8-9. These are positive vibes.

Therefore, the ICJ being operationalised at this point after a political route was quietly opened a few weeks earlier remains incomprehensible. This sort of zigzagging conveys a poor impression of crisis management. The Indian media, quoting “a top source”, have us believe that the government took recourse to the ICJ route after receiving inputs from the Mission in Islamabad and taking into account the pressure building up in India to do something to get justice for “son of India” Jadhav. It is an ingenuous explanation that passes the buck to bureaucrats.

The efficacy of the ICJ route is debatable and it can only be justified as a public relations exercise by the government to rally domestic opinion. The ICJ is an exotic and esoteric institution whose decisions are not enforceable. All member countries of the UN can file cases with the ICJ and argue cases without being obliged to pay heed to its verdicts. Curiously, member countries have the freedom to inform the UN Secretary-General the specific categories of issues where they shall not be bound by ICJ verdicts. Simply put, the ICJ’s workings are of interest mainly to diplomats and academics.

Take the celebrated case of the so-called “Iran hostages”, when in the heat of the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the Iranian revolutionaries occupied the American Embassy in Tehran and the consulates at Tabriz and Shiraz and detained their diplomatic and consular staff in Tehran and two more US citizens. Iran refused to take part in the ICJ proceedings following the complaint filed by the US in March 1980. Tehran maintained that the ICJ could not, and should

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not, take cognizance of the case. The ICJ nonetheless upheld the US petition and in its judgment of May 24, 1980, said Iran had violated its obligations to the US under international conventions in force between the two countries as well as under long-established rules of general international law and “must immediately take all steps to redress the situation…must immediately terminate the unlawful detention” of the US personnel. But Tehran simply ignored the ruling. The American hostages were finally released as a unilateral step by Iran on January 20, 1981, coinciding with the inaugural of Ronald Reagan as President — possibly, as per a tacit understanding. The curious part is that although the US filed the case against Iran, the ICJ’s decisions are not enforceable in US courts, and the US is not required to submit to the ICJ’s jurisdiction in any given case.

Suffice to say, a false triumphalist narrative has appeared that the ICJ has issued a “stay” order. Whereas, in reality, the ICJ has far from determined even on its jurisdiction in the contentious case. Incredibly enough, to add to the confusion, while approaching the ICJ in the matter, India was apparently in the dark that several weeks ago, on March 29, Pakistan had already informed the UN, invoking Article 36 of the ICJ Charter that its jurisdiction shall not apply to: a) “disputes relating to questions which fall essentially within the domestic jurisdiction” of Pakistan; b) “disputes relating to or connected with any aspect of hostilities, armed conflicts, individual or collective self-defence or the discharge of any functions pursuant to any decision or recommendation of international bodies, the deployment of armed forces abroad, as well as action relating and ancillary thereto in which Pakistan is, has been or may in future be involved”; and, c) “all matters related to the national security” Pakistan.

Alas, we probably didn’t even know that the horse had bolted away when our bright IFS officers apparently came up with the tantalising idea of locking it up in the ICJ stable. All this brings us back to the hypothesis that the government took the case to the ICJ largely because of the optics involved. Simply put, the ruling party’s “core constituency” had to be appeased. However, the heart of the matter is that India has approached the primary judicial branch of the UN for a third-party intervention in an India-Pakistan issue when the bilateral route exists.  

Conceivably, Pakistan too must be in some dilemma over Jadhav. The execution of the “son of India” will be like slamming the door shut and throwing the key away on dialogue with India for a foreseeable future, while on the other hand, the Pakistani leadership also cannot afford to show leniency toward a “terrorist” who allegedly undermined their national security. The bottom line is that the Murree route is the only viable route today.

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Therefore, why the government lost nerve remains a puzzle. Does the government regard the ICJ as a court of appeal against Jadhav’s death penalty? If so, it is a deeply flawed estimation. Simply put, the ICJ has no jurisdiction to sit on judgment over facts adjudicated in a criminal trial in any country. Having mustered the political courage to open a back channel, the government should go on the political path. Pakistan seeks talks with India. Its expectation was that once the state election in UP got over, the BJP would have no more compulsions to do grandstanding, and that in turn would give space to the government to resume talks.

The heart of the matter is that the Jadhav affair can be handled only through a candid political exchange at the highest level to be followed up with the resumption of talks with Pakistan to discuss a range of issues. For that to happen, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to take the call. It takes two to tango and Islamabad has signalled its receptiveness to the idea. True, the grave crisis in J&K will be Modi’s Achilles’ heel and his “core constituency” might feel let down. But then, make no mistake: Jadhav’s life hangs in the balance. And the government is tempting fate.

The writer is a former Ambassador

STATESMAN, MAY 15, 2017L'Affaire KarnanSam Rajappa

An idle mind, it is said, is the devil’s workshop. Justice CS Karnan, a Judge of the Madras High Court, was transferred to the Calcutta High Court as punishment for his unconventional behaviour and kept idle without any judicial work. As such, he posed no threat to administration of justice. Instead of letting him complete the remaining one month of his term as Judge of the High Court and retire, a hurriedly constituted seven-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court has stirred a hornet’s nest by convicting him of contempt of court without a trial and sentenced him to six months of imprisonment.

The Bench observed, “We are of the unanimous view that Justice CS Karnan committed contempt of court … If we do not send him to jail, there will be a blemish that the Supreme Court has condoned the contempt committed by a judge” and thereby set a dangerous precedent of removing inconvenient judges. The Bench ruled, “Since the incident of contempt includes public statements and publication of orders made by the contemnor, which were highlighted by the electronic and print media, we are of the view that no further statements made by him should be published hereafter.”

Section 13 of the Contempt of Court Act says, “Notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, no court shall impose a sentence under this Act for a contempt of court unless it is satisfied that the contempt is of such nature that it substantially interferes, or tends to substantially interfere with the due course of justice.” The gag order reminds the media

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of the dark days beginning 25 June 1975 when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi imposed Press censorship.

Justice Karnan’s lawyer, Mathew Nadumpara, wanted to move a petition in the Supreme Court seeking suspension of the six-month jail sentence, but was unable to get authorisation for filing the petition from any advocate-on-record. Nedumpara told Chief Justice of India JS Khehar that he was unable to file the writ petition under Article 32 of the Constitution challenging the contempt proceedings and the jail sentence of Karnan in the Supreme Court Registry, but not a single advocate-on-record wanted to get involved. “My Lord, all are afraid of you,” Nedumpara said. Cases in the Supreme Court can be filed only through an advocate-on-record. Counsel for Karnan contended that the petitioner is a judge of the Calcutta High Court which is not under any disciplinary jurisdiction of either the CJI or the seven-judge Bench constituted by the CJI in this case.

The Contempt of Courts Act was a cathartic jurisprudence which belonged to the Dark Ages, the era of inquisition and torture, distinct from the classical Roman law which constitutes the foundation of modern jurisprudence. The CJI refused to receive Karnan’s petition and asked Nedumpara to approach the Registry. Under Article 20 (2) of the Constitution, “No person shall be prosecuted and punished for the same offence more than once. The Supreme Court had already punished Justice Karnan twice: first on 8 February by issuing a notice directing him to refrain from handling any judicial or administrative work and on 1 May restrained all courts, tribunals, commissions or authorities from taking cognizance of any orders passed by him (Karnan) after 8 February.

On 9 May, the Supreme Court created history by convicting and sentencing a fellow judge for the first time since independence, and that too without a trial. The following day he left Kolkata for Chennai and held a press conference at the Chepauk government guest house. Meanwhile, a crack West Bengal police team led by DGP Surajit Kar Purkayastha and ADGP (Armed Reserve) Ranvir Kumar landed in Chennai and held consultations with the Tamil Nadu DGP TK Rajendran and Chennai Police Commissioner Karan Singa. Joined by another police team from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, a hunt was launched to secure the arrest of unarmed Justice Karnan, a sitting judge of the Calcutta High Court. It strains one’s credulity that such a high powered police force from three states could not track down Karnan in Chennai within a matter of hours while his lawyer had no difficulty visiting the ‘fugitive’ in the city to obtain his signature on the vakalatnama before a notary public to file a petition in the Supreme Court. On day one the Bengal team visited Srikalahasti, a pilgrim centre in Andhra Pradesh, and returned with divine blessings, while another team went to Tada on the Andhra-Tamil Nadu border made into a popular picnic spot because of the ample liquor shops that came up during the brief period the late MG Ramachandran experimented with total prohibition in Tamil Nadu.

On the same day Karnan was sentenced, a two-judge Bench of the Supreme Court held another person, liquor baron Vijay Mallya, guilty of contempt of court, but the proceedings before the Bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit did not receive the publicity Justice Karnan got. Unlike the larger Bench headed by the CJI which dispensed instant punishment to Justice Karnan, the smaller Bench gave Mallya ample time to appear in person in court on 10 July and make his submissions before pronouncing any punishment. The incongruity of the differential treatment

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might have escaped the notice of their Lordships, but not Justice Karnan for whom it is yet another instance of humiliation heaped on him for being a Dalit.

Born in a humble Dalit family in a remote village in Cuddalore district of Tamil Nadu, Karnan’s father was a school headmaster. On his own admission, Karnan failed in the sixth and eighth standards, PUC, BSc and BL examinations. Nevertheless, he completed his bachelor in law degree from Madras Law College in 1983 and got himself enrolled as an advocate the same year.

By 2001, he became a booth-level election agent of the AIADMK which put his career on a rapid growth path. In September 2008, he found himself among 14 selected by the Madras High Court collegium comprising Chief Justice AK Ganguly and Justices PR Mishra and SJ Mukhopadhaya. Before the 14 names reached the Supreme Court collegium headed by CJI KG Balakrishnan, Justice Sathasivam wrote a letter of recommendation saying Karnan belonged to the Dalit community and was well versed in all branches of law. Justice Markandey Katju endorsed all the 14 names to be appointed as judges of the Madras High Court. This is how the collegiums system works.

There is no doubt the behaviour of Justice Karnan was not in keeping with the dignity of the higher judiciary. As Judge of the Madras High Court, he had passed strictures against the Chief Justice. When he was transferred to the Calcutta High Court, he issued an order staying his own transfer.

If the Supreme Court had any doubt about Justice Karnan’s mental health, its 9 May order needs re-examination. Apparently, what irked the Honourable Supreme Court was Justice Karnan’s 23 January letter to the CJI with copies to the President of India and the Prime Minister, leveling serious charges of corruption against fellow judges, including a few from the Supreme Court, and seeking an inquiry into them. It may be recalled that Shanthi Bhushan, Union Law Minister in the government of Morarji Desai, also leveled similar charges against a few Supreme Court judges. No action was taken against him. Justice Karnan named the corrupt judges in the flock and offered to prove his allegations. He even challenged them to prove him wrong.

The named persons in the higher judiciary could have sued Justice Karnan for civil and criminal defamation. But none took up the challenge. Instead, the CJI took up the cudgels and landed Justice Karnan in his current predicament. He is determined to fight it out. The Supreme Court instead of following the procedure laid down in Article 124 (4) of the Constitution to remove an errant judge, as it did in the case of Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta High Court, took upon itself to punish Justice Karnan. The soap opera continues.

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LOCAL GOVERNMENT

HINDUSTAN TIMES, MAY 13, 2017Preeti Aggarwal to be North Delhi Municipal Corporation mayor, Vijay Bhagat her deputy

BJP councillor from Rohini, Preeti Aggarwal, who filed nomination for the post of mayor of North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is likely to be elected unopposed on May 18. Vijay Kumar Bhagat, who won from the Swami Sharda Nand Colony ward on a BJP ticket, was also the only candidate to file nomination for the post of deputy mayor in the north corporation.

Abhinav Rajput 

BJP councillor from Rohini, Preeti Aggarwal, who filed nomination for the post of mayor of

North Delhi Municipal Corporation on Thursday, is likely to be elected unopposed on May 18.

With candidates of no other political party filing nominations for the post on the last day, the

mayoral elections on May 18 now remains a formality.

The BJP has won 181 out of 270 seats in the recently concluded civic body elections that was

conducted on April 23.

Vijay Kumar Bhagat, who won from the Swami Sharda Nand Colony ward on a BJP ticket, was

also the only candidate to file nomination for the post of deputy mayor in the north corporation.

Aggarwal, whose first test as a mayor would be to contain the spread of mosquito-borne diseases

in Delhi, said, “My goal is to ensure 3S in the corporation— Swacchata, Shiksha and Swasth,

(cleanliness, education and health) in North Delhi areas.”

“We are already running awareness campaigns in corporation schools and meetings have been

held with sanitation workers, during which they were asked to undertake cleanliness drives on a

larger scale,” she said.

Tilakraj Kataria from Shalimar Bagh (south) filed nomination for the post of chairman of

standing committee and Ramesh Kumar Valmiki from East Patel Nagar filed his nomination for

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vice chairman of standing committee. Besides, BJP councillors Jai Prakash, Jayendra Dabas,

Aadesh Kumar Gupta have also filed their nominations for members of standing committee.

The north corporation will elect its mayor, deputy mayor and six members of standing committee

on May 18, out of which the mayor, deputy mayor and four standing committee members will be

from the BJP and once each from the Congress and the AAP.

Seema Tahira from Congress and Vikas Goel from AAP have filed nominations for the post of

members of standing committee.

The last day for filing of nominations for south and east corporations is Friday with mayoral

election for south being schedueld on May 19 and for east on May 22.

The three Corporations —South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), East Delhi Municipal

Corporation (EDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporation—will have female mayors as the

seat is reserved for women candidates as per the Delhi Municipal Act.

Sources in the BJP said that the party wants to take care of both caste and regional arithmetic

while choosing a mayor. Since the north corporation seat has gone to a member of the baniya

community, a poorvanchali face could be preferred in east Delhi and a Jat or Punjabi in south

Delhi.

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PRESIDENTS

TRIBUNE, MAY 9, 2017France gets a PresidentStemming the right-wing tide

It was the Dutch who showed the way. In March, Dutch voters put anti-Islam and anti-EU candidate Geert Wilders in his place with just 13.5 per cent of the votes. And now Emmanuel Macron has shown that the extreme right’s victory march, with Donald Trump’s win as the apogee, can be decisively halted. Macron was an unlikely candidate. Till a year back, he was not even among the frontrunners. That may have been a blessing because after five years of a highly mediocre socialist presidency, the occupancy of Elysee Palace belonged to the right. It was fortuitous that Macron carried no anti-incumbency baggage of his ideological predecessors. All the socialist big guns fell by the wayside.

At the same time, this is not the time to exult. For the first time, a far right candidate in France has polled more than 30 per cent of the votes. The killing of 129 in a Parisian theatre, the murder of 86 in the Nice truck attack, and intermittent unrest in banlieues (suburbs) of the big cities had convinced a big chunk of the French voters to consider an alternative to the traditional politician. Macron’s challenger Marine Le Pen and her father had for long been offering an anti-immigration platform. Quite a few seem to have succumbed to their siren call. And Macron will still need to consolidate his party’s position in next month’s parliamentary elections if he hopes to govern with some authority and assurance. 

Because France is not the US, this was not a surprise result. Macron was strongly tipped to win ever since he squared off against Le Pen for the final run-off. This is because French manufacturing did not fall off the cliff as in the US and the social security net ensures that those marginalised by globalisation or circumstances of their birth are not left to flounder. The European project suddenly does not look all that besieged. And Germany may continue its love-fest with Ms Angela Merkel. In the end we may say quel soulagement or what a relief.

TRIBUNE, MAY 8, 2017Looking for a new President...Lt Gen Bhopinder Singh (Retd)And the defender of the Constitution

THE 13th and the incumbent President of India, Pranab Mukherjee, completes his term on July 25, and the grand estate on the Raisina Hill, Rashtrapati Bhavan, will subsequently witness the swearing in of the 14th President of India (not including the terms of acting President of India, VV Giri, Mohammad Hidayatullah and Basappa Danappa Jatti). While the terms of the President

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are renewable for another five years, the only President to have been reelected for a second term was Dr Rajendra Prasad or ‘Desh Ratna’. It is to his credit that the office of the President has institutionalised a certain culture of non-partisanship, statesmanship and apolitical conduct (the exceptional cases of presidential pusillanimity have thankfully been rare). Even though Dr Prasad had a political colossus in Jawaharlal Nehru as the PM, the first President set the precedent for independent opinions that could be expressed, even if they varied from those of the ‘parent’ political party or its leadership to whom the President owed his appointment through indirect election. The expression and style of presidential expression, dissent or intervention since then has varied with various incumbents — from the openly expressive form during the tenure of Dr Prasad, confrontationist tenor during Dr Zail Singh or even the more intellectually sober form during Dr KR Narayanan’s tenure. 

The ‘First Citizen’ of India is more than a constitutional necessity or even more than the profound role of a ‘conscience keeper’ of the nation. In today’s politically fragmented India, it is a functional position of practicality to protect and valourise India’s commitments to its foundational values. The evolving narrative of Indian politics has ensured that the principal role of the President as the defender of the hallowed Constitution, has acquired more interventionist and activist conventions. The principal of ‘equality of rights’ is shaped by the Indian Constitution that is intrinsically non-discriminatory, irrespective of any socio-religious-economic divides, hence the President who takes the unique oath to ‘preserve, protect and defend the Constitution’ (unlike the PM and others who ‘swear allegiance to the Constitution’), the answerability of the presidential position is only to the holy book of the Constitution and its citizens, thus the former President APJ Abdul Kalam modelled himself as the ‘People’s President’.    

The process of selection entailing the combined votes of the electoral college consisting of the members from both houses of Parliament, legislative assemblies of all states and from Puducherry and Delhi, renders the final process and outcome to be a political choice or decision. To think otherwise would be naive, as all previous selections have been reflective of the strength of the ruling dispensations of the times. With the recent state elections delivering a strong verdict in favour of the ruling BJP party at the Centre, the choice for the 14th President would essentially be the predominant choice of the ruling dispensation. To go for a political person, an apolitical appointee or even a party ideologue is the legitimate prerogative of political parties, as long as the subsequent conduct of the presidential appointee reflects the constitutional correctness and probity, without any subsequent political biases or subjectivity. 

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Often the selection process of the candidates is subjected to the topical posturings that are rooted in attempts to symbolically integrate the myriad diversities of India. The affixations of ‘the first Dalit President’, ‘the first Sikh President’, ‘the first woman President’ are societal nomenclatures in a show of societal assimilation and posturing to garner the moral acquiescence for the candidates, initially. However, to confine individuals to these nomenclatures often does injustice to their subsequent contributions e.g. KR Narayanan was not just the first Dalit President of India, he was arguably the most erudite, upright and dignified crusader in Rashtrapati Bhavan. His compelling conduct and heightened sense of constitutional propriety reintroduced the concept of ‘working President’, albeit in a characteristically sensitive way, without threatening the democratic instincts of the system. The phenomenon of ‘rubber stamp’ President was given a quiet burial, with him constantly innovating, improvising and pushing the envelope of presidential concerns. To remember his tenure as only that of the first Dalit President would be grossly inadequate. That said, presidential selections afford a powerful signal of ‘composite India’ and offers the opportunity to showcase India’s aspirations and commitments towards equality of opportunities to the highest office of the land.

The Presidents can enforce a huge moral weight on any government through the judicious exercise of ‘intervention’, even if technically and ultimately the President is bound by ‘the advise of the government’. Similarly, the President seeking expert ‘consultation’ on a contentious point is as powerful a message of reconsideration for the government of the day as, say, implied in the ‘return of the unsigned file’. It loads the public imagination with a gentle, yet contrarian query. Even presidential speeches carry messages and sentiments that convey far deeper meaning than the literal sense. KR Narayanan’s famous banquet speech in honour of US President Bill Clinton was a subtle rebuke to the US’s hegemonistic instincts when he stated, “the fact that the world is a global village does not mean that it will be run by one village headman”, in a classic ode to his diplomatic finesse and gravitas. 

Rumour mills have already started with the names ranging from those of certain prominent people from the ideological fount of the BJP, corporate czars with a certain line of thinking, members from the geriatric ‘Margdarshak Mandal’, to even other senior governmental functionaries who represent the social diversities of India. The reality is, beyond a point, the previous political antecedents of the nominees are less important, than the subsequent will to behove and distinguish oneself with the requisite constitutional propriety and sobriety, whilst in chair. While opinions on the performance of the previous presidential tenures varies, rarely can any of the Presidents in the last 40-odd years be accused of any overt political bias during their tenure. Today, India is a deeply polarised society with extreme positions acquiring prominence,

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preference and political beneficence. Equally, the politics are mirroring the said churn and it is imperative that the next ‘conscience keeper’ can reign in  regressive tendencies with the constitutional and moral powers bestowed on the chair. There is no dearth of talent or suitability to choose from, yet the choice of the 14th President of India will prove the government’s commitment to plurality, inclusivity and independence of ‘institutions’. 

The writer was a Military Secretary to President KR Narayanan

HINDUSTAN TIMES, MAY 8, 2017Planning for presidential election is no indication of a larger political alliance

Political pundits as well as many politicians have touted the upcoming presidential poll as the stepping stone of a UPA-like Opposition bloc against the formidable NDA. The unity among different Opposition parties in the presidential poll in July looks a distinct possibility but there is no guarantee that it will lead to a broader anti-NDA coalition. The Opposition parties will face several roadblocks before it can reach such an alliance.

Saubhadra Chatterji 

For some Opposition leaders and political observers, this year’s Presidential poll is the ladder to

a UPA-like Opposition bloc in 2019.

This is nothing but high hopes. Political unity in the Presidential polls is no guarantee card for an

electoral alliance or even a post-poll pact.

APJ Abdul Kalam was elected as President with support from all parties except the Left parties,

which fielded Lakshmi Sahgal as its candidate. The fragile unity between Kalam supporters

shattered soon and after two years, the left supported the Congress to keep the Atal Behari

Vajpayee-led BJP—which proposed Kalam’s name—out of power.

Last month, JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav told reporters “A joint candidate will be the beginning

of the coming together of Opposition parties against the BJP.” But when CPI(M) general

secretary Sitaram Yechury went to seek support from Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik, he

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emphasised that he has come only in the context of the Presidential poll and not any political

alliance.

“Any such formation can happen later. For now, we are only talking about the presidential

polls,” Yechury told HT from Bhubaneswar on Thursday. The communist leader understands

that linking poll pact with unity over Presidential candidate can also be counter-productive.

For, the post of the President is considered to be above politics. And it is this particular notion

that paves ground for political rivals to keep aside their reservations and ideology to join hands.

In the past, CPI(M) and its arch rivals have voted for the same Presidential candidate (Pranab

Mukherjee), BJP’s biggest ally Shiv Sena has ignored the NDA’s candidate Bhairon Singh

Shekhawat to support Congress leader Pratibha Patil in the 2007 election just because she

belonged to Maharashtra, Sena’s home state. The vote for the top office has always seen such

permutations and combination in political arithmetic which perhaps would not be possible in any

other election.

The rules of the President poll are also framed in such a way that all voters, in this case MPs and

MLAs, also have a chance to opt for a second preference. In other words, after they mark their

first vote for their preferred candidate, they also keep the rival candidate as the second

preference. And if no one can reach a majority in a multi corner contest, the second preference

votes are counted. In other words, a candidate can win an election with the help of rival votes.

For an electoral alliance, more political calculations come into play. All political parties aim to

expand its footprint, win more seats and secure a seat of power. The presidential election

camaraderie has little scope there. Do we really hope that BSP and SP, Trinamool and Left will

come together to fight the poll or be a part of the coalition?

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In the process to form a large anti-BJP coalition, the parties also need to address the issue of the

leadership. Who’ll be the Prime Minister of the coalition, if it comes to power? In the history of

Indian politics, coalitions after coalitions have collapsed over the issue of leadership with all

partners aspiring for a bigger role. The experiments of Janata parivar has time and again showed

that the question of leadership and individual aspirations can switch off the oxygen supply when

the coalition is in critical condition.

Let the Opposition parties think about the presidential poll, not alliances.

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PUBLIC DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM

TRIBUNE, MAY 11, 2017From July 1, draw ration from any fair price shopRation cards to be linked with Aadhaar-based biometric identification

A new beginning Every fair price shop will have PoS device with connectivity to Aadhaar-based biometric

identification of beneficiaries. The automated system will help root out corruption from PDS and benefit nearly 30 lakh poor

families and 1.30 crore beneficiaries. The system will capture every transaction in the fair price shop and also provides SMS alerts in

Hindi to the beneficiary. There are nearly 9,300 fair price shops and 82 per cent of the total ration cards have been linked

to Aadhaar.SATISH SETH

From July 1, public distribution system (PDS) consumers will be able to draw their ration from any depot in any part of the state.

This will be made possible by automation of all fair price shops (FPS) which has already been successfully launched in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Hisar, Bhiwani and Panchkula districts from May 1. Consumers in these districts can draw their ration from any depot.

Minister of State for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Karan Dev Kamboj stated this while presiding over a meeting of senior officers of the department and representatives of the Panchayati Raj Institutes (PRIs) in Kurukshetra today.

“The FPS automation has been initiated to bring transparency in the PDS and prevent corruption at ration depots,” he said, adding that under the system, all ration cards would be linked with Aadhaar and the consumer would be able to get his ration from any depot in any part of the state.

Besides, the consumers would also get SMS alerts in Hindi on their registered mobile numbers. They would be able to get information related to transportation of grains and their arrival at depots through SMS while sitting at home, he said.

Kamboj said the initiative was part of the IT solution involving provisioning of point of sale (PoS) device at every fair price shop with connectivity to ensure Aadhaar-based biometric identification of the beneficiaries.

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Sources said there were about 9,300 fair price shops in the state and these would be equipped with PoS devices. The automated system would benefit nearly 30 lakh poor families and 1.30 crore beneficiaries in the state, said an official.

Kamboj said the PoS device was integrated with the Aadhaar database and e-PDS which captures every transaction in the fair price shop on a real-time basis.

Additional Chief Secretary SS Prasad said 82 per cent of the total ration cards had been linked to the Aadhaar under the Aadhaar seeding of the targeted public distribution system.

He urged the PRI members to motivate people to furnish required details to bring efficiency and transparency in the PDS.

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SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

TRIBUNE, MAY 13, 2017A Modi show that wasn’tSandeep Dikshit

South Asia satellite — a case of too little, too lateIDEALLY, Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have hoped that last week’s launch of the South Asia satellite had the trappings of the ceremony on May 26, 2014, in the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan when, for the first time, most SAARC heads of government came for the swearing-in of an Indian Prime Minister. 

Contrary to the media buildup, the India-funded and built South Asian satellite might have come too late in the day. The neighbours, with no exception, are wary of South Block’s foreign policy currently supervised by a medley comprising dyed-in-the-wool diplomats, kin of high officials in the Modi government and nominated individuals from the RSS.

On the technical side as well, the satellite has too few frills in its antennas to encourage the South Asian heads to once again head to Delhi for a joint photo session with Prime Minister Modi. The satellite’s limited technical specifications (equipped only with Ku band transponders that are good for videos and photos) are further weighed down by the absence of freedom to download whenever or whatever they want to because India is yet to put up satellite ground stations on their respective soils. 

This means the countries will have to request ISRO for specific images and video feeds. Or the participating countries must work out a sharing protocol with ISRO. This is much like their existing arrangements with commercial satellite companies offering similar services except that the partnership of South Asian countries with ISRO is free of cost but may bring bureaucratic red tape in its wake.

The satellite is being touted as a Narendra Modi initiative. Facts tell a slightly different story. It began as a UPA project after the country’s external intelligence agency, Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), sounded a series of warnings in late 2012 about the inroads being made into the South Asian space segment by China. If anything, the UPA should be faulted for letting time slip by after the Joint Intelligence Committee weighed the issue in February 2013 and urged ISRO to accelerate its marketing and persuasion efforts. Chinese space companies have started setting up offices in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, the two SAARC countries (besides Pakistan) that are likely to be big consumers of satellite services.

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Pundits have drawn attention to the geopolitical symbolism of this project in which Pakistan is the only sour note. In other words, they are indirectly admitting that the satellite might not be of much help to the SAARC countries. But its launch does display a unity of purpose in space that has eluded the South Asian neighbours on the ground despite Narendra Modi’s best efforts. India’s pan South Asia barrier-free road travel project first ran aground on Pakistan’s refusal to buy into it. Islamabad’s opposition inadvertently excluded another SAARC member, Afghanistan, from the project because all terrestrial links from India (as well as Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan) must go through Pakistan. When Narendra Modi tried to push through the truncated SAARC Motor Vehicles Agreement — renamed BBIN (Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal) — eternally-loyal Bhutan jumped the ship. Its Parliament refused to endorse the BBIN agreement on the grounds that unruly Indians with their badly maintained vehicles and poor driving skills will cause havoc and pollution on their serene roads. 

Another major country, Sri Lanka, will also have limited use of the South Asian satellite’s offerings because China has made substantial inroads and is well poised to be Colombo’s premier partner in the space segment. Bangladesh too is unwilling to be tied to the Indian coat-tail in cutting edge areas — nuclear plant, submarines, as also space.

This leaves just Bhutan and Maldives who will substantially gain from the satellite but will be modest users. Even Afghanistan currently utilises an old Indian satellite with assistance from the French.

Why hasn’t ISRO, which rewrote the world record for simultaneously launching the maximum number of satellites in one go and sent the cheapest-ever mission to Mars, unable to make breakthroughs like the Chinese companies? Is the much-vaunted ISRO expertise concentrated in a narrow segment? 

The reason may lie in the aftershocks of the Antrix-Devas affair. The former is the marketing arm of ISRO and it has to pay heavy penalties to the private company Devas for backing out of a joint venture. The government cancelled the Antrix-Devas contract after the Comptroller and Auditor General found a number of procedural violations. The controversy even claimed the scalp of the then ISRO chairman, Madhavan Nair.

ISRO now stands in danger of losing its global preeminent position of being the most cost-effective launcher of micro satellites as Chinese start-up companies are already actively scouring the world for opportunities. ISRO is likely to be attractive only to customers who have security issues with Chinese companies. This means the Western block, and they too have existing tieups for the large satellites where ISRO still has no capability. 

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The problem lies in the Modi government’s inability to come up with a revamped Satellite Communications Policy to replace the 20-year-old version that has licence-permit raj written all over it. Three years after it took power, there is no word whether the BJP government is interested in taking a look at the draft policy left behind by the UPA government. The Chinese are snapping at ISRO’s heels and data rates for satellite communication in India is many times costlier than the tariffs in the US. The time to bite the bullet may well pass India by.

From a national security perspective too, India is yet to integrate different policies for space communication, security and remote sensing. The Prime Minister has often spoken of an integrated space in all aspects of policy making. The Joint Doctrine of the armed forces is an example of deeds following words. But it is easier for governments to make the armed forces do its bidding than breaking down walls between civilian departments.

That is why South Block is still struggling with an integrated transport policy. But India cannot afford to allow its various users of space to work in silos when the worldwide trend is of integration. 

The neighbourhood policy is also in disarray. The accent on Hindutva might have made neighbours with a different religious disposition wary of their domestic audience perceiving them as being in too close an Indian embrace. What could have been an occasion to highlight pan-South Asianism has turned out to be a missed opportunity. 

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