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LIST OF NEWSPAPERS COVERED

DECCAN HERALD

ECONOMIC TIMES

FINANCIAL EXPRESS

HINDU

HINDUSTAN TIMES

INDIAN EXPRESS

PIONEER

STATESMAN

TELEGRAPH

TRIBUNE

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CONTENTS

AGRICULTURE 3-7

AWARDS 8-11

CIVIL SERVICE 12-24

COMPUTERS 25-26

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT 27-28

EDUCATION 29-39

FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS 40-41

LIBRARIES 42

PARLIAMNENT 43-47

POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT 48-58

PRESIDENTS 59-60

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AGRICULTURE

TELEGRAPH, AUG 1, 2017Getting to know villagers- Farmers' woes may not originate in the expected sources

Ashok V. Desai

 Though extremely unstable, agricultural growth has far outpaced population growth in recent years; the supply of agricultural goods per head has risen. The proportion of population dependent on agriculture has been falling; so goods produced per agricultural family have been rising even faster. Yet there is news every so often of farmers killing themselves or burning buses. Are they too demanding? Are their expectations outrunning their fortunes?

According to the National Sample Survey, there were 156 million families in villages in 2013; 90 million were doing farming. In other words, less than three rural families out of five were actually farming. The proportion was just 27 per cent in Kerala, 35 per cent in Tamil Nadu, and 41 per cent in Andhra Pradesh; over a half of the villagers in these southern states were doing something else. In Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, on the other hand, over 70 per cent of villagers were farmers.

Almost 32 per cent had less than an acre of land; another 35 per cent had one to 2.5 acres. Only a third had a landholding exceeding 2.5 acres. Not surprisingly, only 48 per cent of rural income came from farming. Another 12 per cent came from business, and 12 per cent came from farm animals - mainly selling milk, meat or animals. Almost a third - 32 per cent - was wages. Only those families with more than 2.5 acres got more than a half of their income from farming. Those who had virtually no land earned 60 per cent of their income from wages, and got a quarter of their income from their animals. It is not common for farmers to engage in non-agricultural business; only about 10 per cent do it. But their proportion goes up to 15 per cent in Odisha, 18 per cent in West Bengal and 25 per cent in Kerala. Farmers in Kerala and Tamil Nadu who indulge in business earn over Rs 10,000 a month - almost twice what the average farmer earns. Bigger farms earn more from business, but smaller farmers' profit margins are higher.

×The richer states have fewer cardholders under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act: the proportion was three per cent in Haryana, 13 per cent in Punjab and 29 per cent in Gujarat. But it was 22 per cent in Bihar and 25 per cent in UP, which are hardly rich, and over 70 per cent in Tamil Nadu and Telangana, which are hardly poor. It was 38 per cent for the landless, 29 per cent for those with more than 10 acres, and over 40 per cent for the classes in the middle. The two bottom consumption deciles had more than a half of the farmers with MGNREGA cards, the highest decile had 31 per cent; all the classes in the middle had 40-50 per cent cardholders. The cards are poorly correlated with poverty.

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The size of the family was seven in the poorest decile, and went down to 3.8 in the richest decile; the poor lived in joint families, no doubt to save on accommodation costs. The sex ratio went down from 1,044 to 936 per thousand: the correlation was not perfect, but female infanticide was clearly positively related to income, maybe because the rich could afford it or knew how to get it.

All farmers who could, invested to increase their earnings, but what they invested in varied. Landless farmers spent two-thirds of their investment on livestock and poultry; those with an acre or less spent 48 per cent. Those with five acres or more spent roughly a half on machinery and implements. Investment in non-farm business was close to 20 per cent amongst those with an acre or less, and less than 10 per cent amongst those with more than an acre. Farmers leave business to traders and other non-farmers; few combine farming and business.

Seeds cost 10-15 per cent of output - more in Gujarat, Rajasthan and Maharashtra because land yields are lower. Almost a half of farm expenses in Kerala are wages; landowners find it profitable to work in towns or in Dubai and hire workers to look after plantations or farms. In West Bengal, wages are 35 per cent of costs; there too, it is common for landowners to work in Calcutta and hire workers to do the farming. Leasing land is common in Punjab, where it accounts for 26 per cent of the costs. In neighbouring Haryana it is 12 per cent. Surprisingly, it is 20 per cent in Andhra; it apparently has many absentee farmers. Elsewhere it is negligible.

Milk is the major commercial product, accounting for 68 per cent of animal wallahs' income, going up to 92 per cent in Punjab and 95 per cent in Haryana and Gujarat. But in Assam, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Odisha, breeding animals for sale is their main use; it is also important in Kerala and Maharashtra.

The notion that indebtedness is a curse of small farmers is mistaken; the larger the farm, the more likely is the farmer to be indebted. Less than a half of farmers with under 2.5 acres are indebted, against over three-quarters of farmers with over five acres. Borrowing is more common in the south. The proportion of indebted farmers is 93 per cent in Andhra, 89 per cent in Telangana, 83 per cent in Tamil Nadu and 77 per cent in Karnataka and Kerala; it is low in 'backward' states like Assam (17 per cent), Jharkhand (29 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (37 per cent).

Where agriculture is commercialized, farmers borrow for their businesses. The average debt was high in Kerala (Rs 2,136), Andhra (Rs 1,234), Punjab (Rs 1,195) and Tamil Nadu (Rs 1,159). Surprisingly, three-fifths of the money came from banks, cooperative societies and governments; only a quarter came from moneylenders, and another 3 per cent from traders or shopkeepers. A tenth came from friends and relatives. Big farmers are more likely to borrow from banks and cooperatives; small and landless farmers are more likely to borrow from moneylenders and 'informal' lenders such as friends and relatives. Successive governments have made banks go into villages and lend to farmers. But banks are least willing to lend to bad risks such as poor farmers, who still have to go to moneylenders. Interestingly, banks give loans more easily against agricultural or non-agricultural business or a pension; a moneylender is more likely to lend against a prospective remittance, or a job or livestock.

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Farmers spend a lot - 15-20 per cent of their costs - on manure and fertilizer, and close to 10 per cent on pesticides, weedicides and so on. Irrigation costs very little - usually 2-4 per cent. The landless pay out more than 10 per cent of their income on leasing land. Renting animals is uncommon. The biggest cost is of human labour: it can come to 20 per cent of income or more. Even the landless employ workers to get the most out of the land they lease.

So my impression is that farmers are managing. But farming is a risky business with wildly fluctuating sale and purchase prices. The right finance for risk-taking is equity; but farmers cannot - or do not - incorporate themselves. So they often get into trouble. Some burn buses; others burn themselves.

STATESMAN, AUG 2, 2017Moneylenders still rule India's rural economyMoin Qazi

While the government is set to forgive billions of dollars of loans of Indian farmers, the truly distressed among them will have no respite from misery. They owe money to moneylenders whereas the government waiver applies only to formal credit.

Almost every farmer in India’s massive rural swathes is tethered, in one way or another, to the sahukar, the Indian variety of the moneylender, the ubiquitous, ravenous loan shark.

For centuries, moneylenders have monopolised rural Indian credit markets. Families have lost land and assets, farmers have been asked to forfeit jewellery of their wives or to prostitute them to pay off debts, and, when all else has failed, they have tied the noose to end their misery.

An inescapable cycle of debt continues to grip rural India, particularly its farming class. Yet the public image of menacing debt collectors does not reflect the actual plight of India’s three million farmers. The rapacious moneylender, who plugs the huge gaps in credit supply in a hassle-free process, is an inalienable part of a rural family.

He is the first port of call in a distress situation, and is also the man they can turn to in times of need. For most villagers there is no life without him. Moneylenders have been around for generations, but their business has boomed ever since India’s economic priorities shifted, with globalisation, from agriculture to industry. An ancient Indian proverb has it: a village can be formed wherever there come together “a river, a priest, and a moneylender”.

According to the All-India Debt and Investment Survey 2012, nearly 48 per cent farmers across the country took loans from informal sources such as moneylenders and landlords. The number had risen from 36 per cent in 1991 and 43 per cent in 2001. Moneylenders provided 69.7 per cent of total rural credit in 1951. This fell to 16.9 per cent in 1981 before climbing up again.

The latest survey shows that among farmers who owned land parcels smaller than 0.1 hectares, 85 per cent had pending loans from such informal finance sources. While these small farmers

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pay exorbitant interest, affluent farmers get subsidised credit. The government’s interest subvention (subsidy) scheme for farmers provides credit at subsidised interest rate of seven per cent and for prompt repayers at four per cent.

With institutional credit drying up for farmers, local sharks have taken the place of banks. They charge an arm and a leg and are creating a debt-trap for farmers who rely on crop success — and prayers — for loan repayments. But a suicide does not absolve the rest of the family from paying back a loan. Unlike a bank loan, which is squared by the government’s waiver package, the moneylender’s loan has to be atoned by the distraught family. Farmers borrow from moneylenders at insane rates of interest.

The peasants hope for a better yield in times to come but this never happens, and they find themselves in a debt trap. Unable to pay the interest, let alone the principal, they borrow more to get onto a treadmill recklessly driven by the cruel moneylenders who are no better than sharks.

Shylock demanded only a pound of flesh. But the moneylenders bay for blood. Crushing debts are pushing farmers into the darkest of pits. A current of dread runs through the country’s suicide-ravaged farmlands as their debts pass from husband to widow, from father to children. Most villages are locked into a bond with village moneylenders — an intimate bond, and sometimes a menacing one.

Popular cinema and classic literature tell many pathos-filled narratives of India’s poor caught in that karmic cycle of poverty. Those stories inevitably end in tragedy. Farmers who fall into the moneylending trap find themselves locked in a white-knuckle gamble, juggling everlarger loans at usurious interest rates, in the hope that someday a bumper harvest will allow them to clear their debts — so they can take out new ones.

This pattern has left a trail of human wreckage. The authors of a landmark study of the system of credit and household indebtedness published by the Reserve Bank of India in the early 1950s, the All-India Rural Credit Survey, scrutinised the role and operations of the moneylender, who then enjoyed a dominant position as a source of finance. They did so on the premise that, in India, agricultural credit presented a “two-fold problem of inadequacy and unsuitability”.

They envisaged only a minor place for him in their proposed solution, which took the form of a system of cooperatives covering all villages: “The moneylender can be allotted no part in the scheme (of cooperatives)… It would be a complete reversal of the policies we have been advocating… when the whole object of… that structure is to provide a positive institutional alternative to the moneylender himself, something which will compete with him, remove him from the forefront and put him in his place.”

The authors of the survey did not, of course, lay out a formal model of India’s rural credit system as it then existed, nor did they provide a formal analysis of the effects of introducing a system of cooperatives upon its workings. Despite legions of committees and reports that have outlined ways of replacing moneylenders through stepping up institutional credit, the moneylender still remains the backbone of the rural financial system. It is a bitter truth, which we have to swallow.

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The picture, which Nobel laureate Gunnar Myrdal presented in his Asian Drama, almost five decades ago remains unchanged despite gigantic efforts from both the private and public sector in bringing large swathes of people into the folds of formal finance.

“When the moneylender sees that he can benefit from the default of a debtor he becomes an enemy of the village economy,” Myrdal wrote. “By charging exorbitant interest rates or by inducing the peasant to accept larger credits than he can manage the moneylender can hasten the process by which the peasant is dispossessed.”

(The writer is a Nagpur-based scholar. He can be reached at [email protected])

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AWARDS

TELEGRAPH, AUG 3, 2017Down with the Nobel Prize- Suppressing free speech is ultimately dangerous for the State

Sukanta Chaudhuri

As a loyal Indian citizen, I propose that the government should ban our countrymen from

accepting the Nobel Prize. The decree would not raise a furore, as hardly anyone would be

affected. Those impressed by the award try every means to jack up the minute number of

recipients in this land of 1.3 billion people. They include persons of Indian extraction but

located abroad, starting with Har Gobind Khorana, as well as those of foreign extraction

relocated here, like Mother Teresa. But since Rabindranath Tagore and C.V. Raman, only one-

and-a-half Indians qualify on both counts. Kailash Satyarthi lives and works in India. Amartya

Sen teaches in the United States of America, but holds an Indian passport and spends much

time here.

Some might say Satyarthi's award was a disgrace. He was honoured for his service to the cause

of dispossessed childhood. By drawing international attention to the millions of Indian children

illegally employed, often in conditions of virtual slavery, he gravely tarnished India's image

abroad. Worse still, he harmed the business interests that every government must protect to

advance the economy. A piece of metal from Sweden is poor compensation for such disservice

to our growth and reputation. It says much for our tolerance that the man lives unharmed in

Delhi. That's another problem with the Nobel Prize: it grants the awardees an unwarranted

immunity.

Amartya Sen had a better press to start with. He has held high positions at Oxford, Cambridge

and Harvard, names held in awe by educated Indians, his fellow Bengalis in particular. His

brand of welfare economics, stressing social justice and human well-being, matched the

principles which earlier Indian governments professed to uphold. All this naturally puts him out

of accord with the current dispensation. For the first time in his life, Sen is being drawn into

direct political controversies. It says much for his tolerance that instead of following the NRI

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escape route, he still spends so much time in India and involves himself in Indian matters.

But there is a limit to what the State can take. It is bad enough that Sen should voice criticism

on his visits and be reported in the local press. But if he says anything less than adulatory in a

documentary film to be touted round the world, the censor board (I call it that because that's

what it is) must intervene. This newspaper has printed the offensive utterances in question,

presumably without breaking the law. Wildly stronger words are bandied daily and abundantly

in the media. One is thus genuinely puzzled by the censors' stand. I would exhort the director,

Suman Ghosh, to reconsider his decision not to release the film with cuts and beeps. Let him

rather do so, with a message that he is obeying the censors. As a prominent actor observed in

this connection, words resonate the louder if they are silenced.

×

To seek a rational explanation for the censors' diktat is to grant it an intellectual respectability it

does not merit. It does not even smack of honest-to-god high-handedness; rather, the overkill of

insecure flunkies handling a tricky brief they scarcely understand. It is possible, though

unlikely, that by the time this article appears, their astuter overlords might reverse the decision.

That cannot lessen our concern about the latter's deeper design which underlay that decision in

the first place.

Over this incident at least, Sen may not quite suffer the verbal lynching inflicted on another

eminent academic, Partha Chatterjee, for an article on military action in Kashmir. Chatterjee

expressed himself strongly, and some might soberly contest his views. The fact remains that he

is one of India's foremost political scientists, with an international reputation - just the kind of

expert whose views on the nation's gravest political crisis should most be sought. We ignore his

words at our peril.

That is the peril into which we are rushing headlong. Scholars and thinkers are easily dismissed

or vilified: they have neither power nor mass appeal, nor even much nuisance value. The

common man, grappling with starkly basic issues and uncomplicated values, hardly registers

their presence. He is untouched by debates on free speech and credible opposition: if you take

away his rights in this respect, he might never find out, for he has no hope of being heard on

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things that matter to him. The removal of four words from a film script is as remote to him as a

sunstorm on Mars. If he hears of it, he might well opine that these frivolous drones deserve no

better, and pledge support to the government that puts them on notice. He would be joined by

the less foresighted section (that is, the majority) of the privileged classes.

It is this overt irrelevance and widespread suspicion of the intellectual that fascistic

governments exploit to win popular support. So do most governments everywhere, but then

most governments have something of the fascistic in their composition. It is so much easier to

bend the nation to your will if you can muffle those tiresome voices carping when you go

wrong, or muttering how things could be done better. (They are often wrong themselves, as the

naïver ones will tell you.) If you actually go wrong, no one then need find out. But once in a

while - almost inevitably, sooner or later - things go quite horribly wrong. When that happens,

the public that cheered you for driving out those eggheads might come to curse you, and you

might repent having placed your trust in woollyheads instead. If - heaven forbid - India suffers

a nuclear attack, our leaders would not wish to entrust their safety to bunkers lined with

cowdung, as Rajasthan's education minister would have recommended. I wish I were as certain

they would not consign common citizens to such facilities.

That is the most frightening result of suppressing the freedom of speech. It harms human

dignity and self-respect; it impedes the growth of new ideas; but most basically, it prevents any

ideas at all from guiding the conduct of the State. A mindlessly administered State is unlikely

to be well administered. As the outcome starts to show, the rulers' only recourse is to keep their

subjects in the dark: not to let them know what is happening, let alone think about it. The signs

are all too evident. Censorship of the Amartya Sen documentary is a high-profile but trivial

example, almost a piece of comic relief. The tragedy surrounding it is being played out on

many stages.

Above all, it is occupying centre-stage where the mind should most be without fear and the

head held high - in the sphere of education. Driven by a narrow agenda of economically

rewarding skills, increasingly cut off from the productive research to sustain it, it is now

suffering a last, possibly fatal blow, the suppression and surveillance of thought. I would not

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have judged the fabric of our nation so weak, so vulnerable to every stray idea, if our neo-

patriotic rulers had not asserted it so doggedly.

The resilient Indian intellect, nurtured by millennia of thought and inquiry, is fighting hard for

survival, but fighting heavy odds. But it's all to the good. We are removing the risk of

producing another Nobel laureate in the next hundred years.

The author is Professor Emeritus, Jadavpur University

CIVIL SERVICE

HINDU, AUG 7, 2017IFS body writes to Haryana CM against senior IAS officer

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Ashok Kumar

Seeks disciplinary action for ‘abusing, pressurising’ juniors

Days after two Indian Forest Service (IFS) officers in Haryana government wrote to their

seniors accusing the Additional Chief Secretary, Forest and Wildlife, of abusing them and

putting pressure on them in the Bharti land case, the IFS Association has come out in

support of the duo and sought action against the senior IAS officer.

In a letter to Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, the association’s secretary

general S.P. Yadav has sought “appropriate legal and disciplinary action against ACS,

Forest and Wildlife, S.K. Gulati”.

The letter, dated August 3, has also referred to the allegations made by Deputy Conservator

of Forests, Faridabad, Renjitha and Conservator of Forests, Wildlife, Panchkula, M.L.

Rajvanshi against Mr. Gulati.

“The officers have represented against the misbehaviour and use of unparliamentary/

abusive language by Mr. Gulati, which is highly deplorable and having adverse effect on the

morale of IFS officers while discharging their official duties and responsibilities,” the letter

read.

Continuous pressure

Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Yadav said that the case in question was brazen and blatant

violation of Forest Acts and the honest officers who did not fall in line were being

pressurised. He said that he had sent the letter to the Chief Minister by speed post, but so far

there was no response, not even an acknowledgement.

Ms. Renjitha, in her letter addressed to the CM, as well as the association, had accused Mr.

Gulati of putting “continuous pressure” in the discharge of her statutory functions in power

vested in her under Punjab Land Preservation Act (PLPA), 1900. “I was abused with words

like ‘bloody fool’, being ‘crooked’ etc. by Mr. Gulati over the phone. I was also told that I

would not be ‘spared’ and ‘would be made to pay’,” read the letter written by Ms. Renjitha,

dated July 5.

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Mr. Rajvanshi had written to the IFS Association on July 23 accusing Mr. Gulati of abusing

him on several occasions and claimed that he was being targeted because he belonged to an

underprivileged social group.

More allegations

Another officer, Conservator of Forests (Wildlife, Gurugram) Vinod Kumar, accused him of

putting pressure on him to consider areas marked as open/dense scrub or scattered wooded

trees in the Survey of India map as non-forest and allegedly threatening him with suspension

and serious consequences if he did not comply with his directions on the Bharti land case.

ECONOMIC TIMES, AUG 7, 2017No need for govt employees to visit bank to start pension: Government

NEW DELHI: There is no need for central government employees to visit banks to start pension

as their copy of the Pension Payment Order (PPO) will be handed over to them at the time of

retirement, the Personnel Ministry has said. Citing existing rules in this regard, the ministry, in a

recent order issued to all central government departments, has said, "The pensioner is no longer

required to visit the bank to activate the first payment of pension." The rules also provide for an

undertaking to be submitted by the retiring government servants or pensioners to the disbursing

banks before the commencement of their pensions. After ascertaining that the bank's copy (of

PPO) has been dispatched by the Central Pension Accounting Office, the pensioner's copy is to

be handed over to him at the time of retirement along with other retirement dues, the order said.

An employee posted at a location away from the head of office, or who for any other reasons

feels that it would be more convenient to him to obtain his copy of the PPO from the bank, may

inform the head of office of his option in writing while submitting his pension papers, it said. In

the recent past, many instances have come to the notice wherein the pensioner's copy of the PPO

had not been handed over to him/her and instead had been sent to the bank and was lost in transit

sometimes, thereby causing hardship to the pensioner, the order issued on August 1, said. In

view of these, all ministries/departments are once again requested to strictly follow the procedure

henceforth and hand over the copy of the PPO to the pensioner at the time of retirement along

with other retirement dues, except if the pensioner specifically requests for delivering his/her

copy of the PPO through the bank, it said. There are about 48 lakh central government

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employees and about 53 lakh pensioners. The pension gets delayed either due to the delay in

receipt of intimation by the pensioner that relevant papers have reached the bank or because of

delay on the part of the pensioner in approaching the bank for submission of undertaking, the

personnel ministry had said in one of its earlier orders.

TELEGRAPH, AUG 4, 2017Mismatch lens on civil service subjects

Basant Kumar Mohanty

New Delhi, Aug. 3: Engineering and geography may have something in common, after all. A potential civil servant, for example.

Civil servants must be graduates but over half of those who crack the exam for the country's most sought-after job appear for the gruelling test in subjects they did not study while doing their graduation, the government revealed today.

Minister of state for personnel and Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh today said the Union Public Service Commission, which holds the three-tier test, allowed 48 optional subjects in the main exam. "But the statistics point out that none or only in a very few (subjects the) number of candidates actually take up the subject of their graduation as an optional subject," Singh told the Rajya Sabha.

He cited this year's results, saying among the 175 candidates who made it, 96 were engineers. "(But) more than 50 per cent of them have opted for subjects like public administration; (and) subjects like geography and... sociology."

Singh was replying to a question from BJP leader Subramanian Swamy who wanted to know if the government was planning to allow students to take ayurveda as an optional subject.Singh said the ministry of ayurveda,yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy (AYUSH) and the department of personnel and training had received proposals for inclusion of ayurveda as a subject. The matter was under consideration, he said, adding that students graduating in ayurveda were not barred from taking the test in other subjects.

The civil service exams comprise a preliminary test, which candidates have to clear to sit for the main examination, and a final selection interview for those who crack the main exam.

For the main exam, candidates have to choose one subject apart from appearing for common papers like general studies and essays.

A candidate who cleared the test last year told The Telegraph that subjects like engineering, science or medicine were vast while those like public administration or sociology allowed a student to prepare by following four to five books. "The curriculum is limited for humanities subjects. It is graduation curriculum. There is a lot of material available on these subjects.

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Preparation in these subjects also helps in general studies," the candidate said.

Singh said that in the 1970s and 1980s, there had been a hue and cry about not having medicine as an optional subject. Medical science was later introduced. Today, not even 10 per cent of doctors who appear for the exam opt for medical science as an optional subject.

"Again, they go in for general subjects, maybe because they are habitual crackers, they are skilled in cracking the exam and they feel that they could do more scoring whereas medical science is a vast subject," Singh said.

"It is not absolutely correct to draw a co-relation between the subject of option which a candidate has selected and the subject in which a candidate has actually graduated," the minister added.

Singh hinted at possible changes in the upper age limit for appearing for the test. The cut-offs now are 47 for persons with disabilities, 32 for the general category with a ceiling of six attempts, 37 for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes with unlimited attempts and 35 for the other backward classes who get nine chances.

"When you have the entry happening at such a point, the superannuation also happens earlier. Certainly, this requires consideration," Singh said.

A government-appointed committee has submitted its report on overall reforms, including the age limit.

HINDU, AUG 4, 2017Maharashtra IAS officer removed from postAlok Deshpande

He faces allegations of corruption and kidnapping

A day after The Hindu reported that the State government knew about allegations of

corruption — and even kidnapping — against IAS officer Radheshyam Mopalwar since

December 2016, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced his removal from the post of

vice-chairman and managing director of the Maharashtra State Road Development

Corporation (MSRDC), until the inquiry against him is completed.

The Opposition, however, said Mr. Mopalwar should be suspended or sacked.

On Thursday, Leader of the Opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe-Patil mentioned The

Hindu report in the Assembly, which listed the communications sent by different agencies to

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the government seeking a report on allegations of corruption and amassing assets

disproportionate to his income against Mr. Mopalwar.

Mr. Vikhe-Patil said, “The letters show that a number of investigative agencies are seeking a

probe against Mr. Mopalwar. The government is shielding the officer despite having known

this fact since December 2016. We demand his immediate ouster and will not let the House

function until our demands are met.”

The Assembly had to be adjourned four times in a span of one-and-a-half hours after the

Opposition continued making the demand. This resulted in an altercation between

Opposition and ruling party members, who had raised the issue of child trafficking in Latur

district.

With the deadlock continuing, Mr. Fadnavis announced Mr. Mopalwar’s removal. “We had

announced that an inquiry would be conducted against him within one month. We are

committed to transparency. The government has decided to remove Mr. Mopalwar from his

post until the inquiry is over,” the CM said.

‘Judicial probe needed’

Former Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan, while speaking to reporters outside the Assembly,

demanded a judicial probe into the matter.

Nationalist Congress Party leader Ajit Pawar said the Home Ministry under Mr. Fadnavis

had asked the police to conduct a Crime Branch inquiry against Mr. Mopalwar in a case of

alleged kidnapping and robbing of one Satish Mangle. “The government was aware about

the allegations against Mr. Mopalwar. The CM should explain the reasons for awarding him

such an important post at the MSRDC,” Mr. Pawar said.

The Hindu had reported on Thursday that despite communications from as high up as the

Prime Minister’s Office, and including Central ministries, the Income Tax Department and

the CBI; the government has seemingly ignored requests and reminders to probe the

allegations against Mr. Mopalwar.

FINANCIAL EXPRESS, AUG 3, 2017Reforming the civil services is one of the last vestiges of our colonial legacy

Reforming the civil services—one of the last vestiges of our colonial legacy

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By: guest and Hardayal Singh

The Department of Personnel has been tasked with the responsibility of designing a scheme for lateral entry into the government at the level of deputy secretary, director and joint secretary.

By: Hardayal Singh & Shareen Joshi

India’s higher civil service faces a conundrum: youthful job-seekers, especially those coming

from coming from smaller towns and cities and rural areas, revere it. Last year’s preliminary

exam screened more than a million aspirants for 980 vacancies. Yet, the system is also frequently

blamed for being inefficient, corrupt, inward-looking and out of touch. In a Planning

Commission paper, Arvind Panagariya regrets that the reforms of 1992 left this “mother of all

monopolies” untouched. A 2012 study ranks the Indian bureaucracy as the worst in Asia. A

World Bank assessment similarly shows a deteriorating rank from 35th in 1996, to 46th in 2014.

The reform of this institution has now become necessary. The Department of Personnel has been

tasked with the responsibility of designing a scheme for lateral entry into the government at the

level of deputy secretary, director and joint secretary. The rationale is simple. Outside experts

with fresh ideas, specialised skills and better work practices could generate internal competition

and improve organisational performance. Though the idea is very much in the national interest, it

is unpopular within certain sections of the civil service. The current system is after all, largely a

colonial legacy, based on the Northcote–Trevelyan Report of 1854, built on the premise that a

well-educated liberal arts graduate, recruited on merit, is capable of occupying any position in

the government. The British founded their home civil service on this principle; and later, created

the Indian Civil Service on identical lines.

British accounts of colonial history seem to support this idea. Philip Woodruff’s “Men who

Ruled India” for example, provides many examples of outstanding civil servants of the days of

the Raj. When it came to the maintenance of law and order and the collection of land revenue for

the empire, the system worked well. After World War II, however, administrative systems world

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over came under pressure, as public management became increasingly complex. Administrators

now had to implement economic development programmes, and expand services in health,

education, agriculture and other areas. In India, they are also required to lead multi-disciplinary

teams that supervise functioning of banks, regulate the environment, advise on macro-economic

policies, represent the country at the WTO, negotiate tax treaties, coordinate centre-state

financial relations, etc. The establishment of new development and poverty alleviation programs,

and the emergence of the bottom-up system of Panchayati Raj have further complicated the

administrator’s role.

In the UK, some of the tension between bureaucrats and technocrats was captured well by Sir CP

Snow in a celebrated essay entitled “Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution”. The besieged

role of the generalist administrator was also at the heart of the Fulton Committee Report (1967),

which proposed reforms that led to the abolition of the superior status of the general

administrator and the creation of a unified civil service. At present, lateral entry to civil service is

common in the UK and many other countries like the US, Australia, Belgium, New Zealand and

Netherlands

In India, the Second Administrative Reforms Commission and the Sixth Pay Commission

suggested bringing in outside experts from the academia, private sector and NGOs.

The civil service, however, has remained unreformed. Entrenched vested interests have

prevailed. Critics point out that guaranteed promotions and protection from penal action have

made its members increasingly unaccountable, unresponsive, and walled off from the society

they pledged to serve. This is a far cry from the model which Max Weber, one of the first

modern sociologists to study bureaucracy, eulogised. None of this is surprising, of course.

Bureaucracies, according to William Niskanen, an American economist, are hierarchies that are

not subject to market discipline. Internal competition through practices such as lateral hiring

could perhaps help to surmount this innate problem. Recent experience provides some

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reassurance. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Vijay Kelkar, Arvind Subramanian, Arun Maira, Prakash

Tandon, Lovraj Kumar and V Krishnamuthy and others entered the civil service laterally and

have contributed handsomely. The experience of other countries also confirms that easy

movement in and out of the civil service has many benefits.

The path forward is clear. Joint secretary and above, every position should have a detailed job

description with clearly defined responsibilities, goals and accountabilities. It should as far as

possible be open to both insiders as well as outsiders who possess the requisite domain

knowledge and experience. Transparent systems of performance review should also be

implemented. The proposed reform should be good news for civil servants. This is a chance to

improve and become more relevant in modern India. It may be even better news for stressed

students of the next preliminary exam. The message to them is clear: if you aren’t one of the

fortunate 0.1% who are selected this time, go and build your skills elsewhere, for you may have

your chance later.

Singh was chief commissioner, I-T and ombudsman to the I-T department, Mumbai. Joshi  is

assistant professor, international development, Georgetown University

TELEGRAPH, AUG 2, 2017

IAS and IPS grapple with officer shortage

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Indian Administrative Service posts lying vacant in Bengal: 99 Indian Police Service vacancies in the state: 87

Bengal ranks second to Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in the country, on IPS vacancies and third to Bihar and Uttar Pradesh on IAS vacancies, according to figures available with the Union home ministry.

According to the data, there are 938 vacancies across the country in the IPS cadre and 1,470 in the IAS category.

Junior home minister Kiren Rijiju today informed Parliament that there are 3,905 IPS officers in the country against the sanctioned strength of 4,843. Data compiled by the department of

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personnel and training (DoPT) show there are 4,926 IAS officers in India against the authorised strength of 6,396.

The Union home ministry is the cadre-controlling authority of the IPS while the DoPT, which reports to the Prime Minister's Office, is in charge of the IAS flock.A Bengal-cadre IPS officer on central deputation termed the shortages in the elite services a "major national issue".

"Bengal is grappling with a severe shortage of IAS and IPS officers and that could cripple or slow down the state's development," the officer told The Telegraph.

At 113, Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of vacancies in the IPS cadre, followed by Bengal (87), Odisha (79), Karnataka (72) and Bihar (43). In the IAS category, Bihar tops the list with 128 vacancies, followed by Uttar Pradesh (115) and Bengal (99).

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Rijiju today said the number of sanctioned posts in the IPS category depends on the functional requirement of a particular cadre.

"As per rule 4 (2) of IPS cadre rules 1954, the Centre at the interval of every five years reviews the strength and composition of each such cadre in consultation with the state governments concerned and reviews the authorised strength of the IPS for each cadre," the reply said.

Rijiju said that to fill up the vacancies in the IPS cadre, the batch size of direct recruits had been increased from 88 to 103 in 2005, to 130 in 2008, and to 150 in 2009.

"Efforts are also being made to expedite the process of appointments to the Indian Police Service by promotion from state police service," the minister's reply stated.

DoPT sources said the Centre had increased the annual intake of IAS officers to 182 over the past four years.

"Besides promoting officers from the state police service, the Centre is planning to induct 70-80 IPS officers annually from the paramilitary forces through a competitive examination," a senior home ministry official said.

The cadre strength review is done by the Centre every five years.

"However, a state can always write to the Centre seeking a mid-term review to increase its IAS and IPS cadre strength," the official said.

He pointed out that litigations were also contributing to the increasing vacancies, with disgruntled state services officers challenging the elevation of their colleagues to all-India services.

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"There are so many cases and litigations relating to the seniority of state civil services officers, halting the process of filling up vacancies," the official said.

Sources said a committee set up by the Centre had recommended several measures to arrest the growing shortage of IPS officers in its report.

The panel had also highlighted low intake of direct recruits over several years, resulting in staggering shortage of officers, unscientific process of fixing cadre strength and low frequency of cadre reviews.

"The committee has suggested a revamp of the cadre-review process to make it more realistic, scientific and expeditious. It said the reviews should be done every two years instead of five," another official said.

Recently, a parliamentary standing committee expressed concern over the perpetual shortage of IAS officers and said all efforts should be made to fill up the vacancies. It said the vacancies were affecting governance.

"Persistent shortage of IAS officers ultimately affects governance in the country," the committee had said in the report submitted before Parliament.

Sources in the Bengal government said that apart from the shortage of IAS and IPS officers in Bengal, another problem was the administration's reluctance to release officers for central deputation.

Having officers on central deputation gives a state additional leverage in getting projects sanctioned and development funds released.

Bengal has 195 IAS officers in the rank of additional district magistrates and above, of which it should have released 40 per cent for central deputation according to convention.

However, the government released seven instead of 78, sources said.

"Initially, when Mamata Banerjee took over as chief minister, she wanted more officers to work for the state because of the shortage.... Now, she is reluctant to release IAS officers because she does not want them to work for BJP-ruled Centre," an official said.

In the IPS category, the Bengal government should have released 30 per cent of its officers, but freed less than half of that, the sources said.

TELEGRAPH, AUG 2, 2017State tops IAS vacancy list

Imran Ahmed Siddiqui

New Delhi, Aug. 1: Bihar has the most number of vacancies in the elite Indian Administrative

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Service cadre and also has a substantial shortage of Indian Police Service officers.

According to figures available with the department of personnel and training (DoPT), a total of 1,470 posts of IAS officers are lying vacant across the country. Bihar tops the list with 128 vacancies followed by Uttar Pradesh (115) and West Bengal (99).

Likewise, a total of 938 posts of IPS officers are vacant countrywide. Bihar is placed fifth after Uttar Pradesh, Bengal, Odisha and Karnataka.

Junior home minister Kiren Rijiju today informed Parliament that there are 3,905 IPS officers in the country as against their total sanctioned strength of 4,843. Similarly, a data compiled by DoPT show there are 4,926 IAS officers in the country against their total authorised strength of 6,396.

The highest number of vacancies of IPS officers are in Uttar Pradesh (113) followed by Bengal (87), Odisha (79), Karnataka (72) and Bihar (43).The Union home ministry is the cadre controlling authority of the IPS. DoPT, which reports to the Prime Minister's Office, is in charge of the IAS cadre.

Terming the shortage as a big "national issue", a senior home ministry official said: "Bihar is grappling with a severe shortage of IAS and IPS officers and that could cripple or slow down the state's development."

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha today, Rijiju said the number of sanctioned posts of IPS depends on functional requirement of a particular cadre. "As per rule 4 (2) of IPS cadre rules 1954, the Centre at the interval of every five years reviews the strength and composition of each such cadre in consultation with the state governments concerned and reviews the authorized strength of the IPS for each cadre," he said.

Rijiju said that to fill up the vacancies of IPS officers, the batch size (direct recruit) was increased from 88 to 103 in 2005, then to 130 in 2008 and to 150 in 2009.

"Efforts are also being made to expedite the process of appointments to the Indian Police Service by promotion from the state police service," the junior home minister said.

Sources in the DoPT said the Centre had also increased the annual intake of IAS officers to 182 during the last four years.

"Besides promotion from the state police service, the Centre is also planning to induct 70-80 IPS officers annually from paramilitary forces through a competitive examination to fill up the growing number of vacancies," said a senior home ministry official.

"However, a state can always write to the Centre seeking a mid-term review to increase its cadre strength both in IAS and IPS categories," the official added.

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Sources said a committee set up by the Centre in its report had recommended several measures to arrest the growing shortage of IPS officers, among them lessening the period of cadre review from five years to two.

ECONOMIC TIMES, AUG 1, 2017NITI Aayog to create flexi pool of 100 officers, advisors to share work load of PMO

NEW DELHI: NITI Aayog is firming up recruitment rules that will help the government's think

tank to create a flexi pool of advisors, research officers and economic officers to tackle the rising

workload from the Prime Minister's Office. The think tank, conceived by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi as replacement for the Planning Commission of Nehruvian era, proposes to hire

staff on deputation as well as contract at attractive pay packages, officials said. The Sindhushree

Khullar-led task force on restructuring NITI Aayog secretariat had in 2015 suggested three

divisions under the Aayog's chief executive. These include the Team India hub (TIH), a flexi

pool and a Knowledge and Innovation Hub (KIH). While the Aayog constituted the TIH and the

KIH through an order dated August 14, 2015, there has been no progress in constituting the flexi

pool since then because the recruitment rules have not been finalised, thus limiting the

institution's capacity to take on new assignments owing to the paucity of workforce. The Aayog

will now create a flexi pool of nearly 100 experts at the rank of advisors, deputy advisors, joint

advisors, senior advisors, senior research officers and economic officers, who can be either hired

on deputation or can be a direct recruitment on contract. These include 19 posts for joint or

deputy advisors, seven posts for advisors and senior advisors, four economic officers and 44

senior research officers. The salary of economic advisors will vary from Rs 44,900 to Rs 1.42

lakh a month for experts on deputation and would be a consolidated amount of Rs 85,000 for

officers on contract. The salary for senior research officers would range from Rs 67,700 to Rs

2.08 lakh (deputation) and Rs 1.25 lakh for professionals hired on contract. The joint or deputy

advisors would be paid in the range of Rs 1.23 lakh to Rs 2.15 lakh (deputation) and Rs 2.2 lakh

on contract while the advisors could be paid between Rs 1.44 lakh to Rs 2.18 lakh (deputation)

and Rs 2.65 lakh (contract), and the senior advisors could fetch between Rs 1.82 lakh and Rs

2.24 lakh (deputation), and Rs 3.30 lakh if hired on contract. "Officers appointed on contract

basis would not be entitled to residential accommodation, official transport, leave encashment or

any other allowances as admissible to a regular government employee," the recruitment rules,

2017 said. The Aayog has sought comments from all stakeholders on Flexi Pool Recruitment

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Rules, 2017 within 30 days, following which it will notify the rules and begin hiring experts to

strengthen its workforce.

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COMPUTERS

BUSINESS LINE, AUG 2, 2017Cyber security is now mainstream businessVISHAL SALVIThe world is still largely unaware of the steps it should take to build optimal defence systems against ransomware attacks

End it With proper security in place SWEvil/shutterstock.com

The past three months were a watershed period for cyber security. Wanna Cry and then Petya hit the world like cyber tsunamis and left behind significant business impact and business loss. Could these attacks have been prevented? First, let’s understand some aspects of these attacks.

In almost two decades in the field of cyber security, I have never witnessed the widespread electronic and mainstream media coverage that was received by the recent ransomware attacks. It almost became national news. This is one of the positive outcomes of any major cyber attack. It reminds us of how exposed we are to these risks and underlines the need for building a robust cyber defence for individuals as well as corporations.

Painful experience

Unfortunately, those caught in the middle of the storm are able to understand it more profoundly than the observers. While there was unprecedented large-scale impact due to the recent ransomware, it was minuscule compared to the computer infrastructure of the world. Which means that the majority of individuals and organisations would continue to remain unaware of the need for steps they should take to build an optimal cyber defence against cyber threats. That is the biggest bane of the cyber security industry and profession.

The second observation is that the organisations that were impacted are building and strengthening controls around the risks of the recent ransomware attacks. That is important, but when you build cyber defence, you should consider all the possible risks to your business and build a security programme that works on mitigating these risks comprehensively. The one thing that these recent attacks have taught us is that cyber security is now a mainstream business activity. How many more attacks and devastating impacts does the world have to suffer before we realise this and start integrating cyber security into business strategy? Crypto algorithms and encryption has always been the foundation of the cyber security world. There have been progressive advancements in these algorithms so as to protect the confidentiality of information. The threat actors have flipped this notion on its head by encrypting information either to demand ransom or just cause devastation. So what was meant to protect confidential information is being used to deny availability of the same information. This is a dangerous trend, especially in a climate of technology innovation.

So far, the thumb rule has been that you innovate and when your mission or project is successful, you fix the risks. The notion of ‘secure by design’ was loosely implemented. However, given what we are witnessing now, ‘secure by design’ is a fundamental requirement. For example, the

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IT fraternity has never been able to address the issue of complete visibility of the IT landscape and ensuring that it is patched on a real-time basis. This has now become a basic hygiene and zero tolerance aspect of IT management. Organisations that have not yet invested in comprehensive cyber defence expose their businesses to risk.

While cyber threat materialises only through contact, the openness and connectedness of the internet makes contact more likely. Hence, although a large number of organisations were exposed to the ransomware, they were not impacted. Industries that are heavily regulated for cyber security controls have been far less impacted than those without strong and mature regulations. Organisations with comprehensive and robust implementation of security have been able to claim a victory, but resting on those laurels would be a mistake. They were not impacted because they have a strong patch management process, have invested in threat intelligence platforms, have built a strong cyber defence centre, have real-time query capability to review status and vulnerabilities in their IT landscape, have built advance threat/malware management capabilities to identify zero day attacks, constantly review their entry points to that network, have built some level of network segmentation and have a strong and tested incident management system.

Cyber security calls for a focused and fresh look at how to secure your business from cyber attacks.

The writer is the chief information security officer at Infosys

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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT

DECCAN HERALD, AUG 2, 2017Panagariya quits Niti AayogAnnapurna Singh×

Niti Aayog vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya Tuesday resigned from his post citing expiry of his leave from the New York's Columbia University as the reason.

A top economic adviser to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Panagariya headed the Centre's policy think tank since January 2015 and his tenure was co-terminus with the term of the NDA government.

The 64-year-old, who has been credited with working towards bringing in competitive and cooperative federalism in the country, will continue to be at Niti Aayog tll August 31.

“I didn't get leave extension from the Columbia University and that is why requested the Prime Minister to relieve me at the end of this months,” Panagariya told reporters after his resignation.

Sources in the government said the Prime Minister has accepted his resignation. Niti Aayog, or the National Institution for Transforming India, replaced the Nehruvian era Planning Commission in 2014 and Panagariya was its first vice-chairman. 

The Aayog was set up by an executive order with the Prime Minister as chairman, a full-time vice president and four permanent members but the fourth member could not be appointed as yet.

Governing Council, a key body of Niti Aayog comprising all chief ministers of states as its members met only three times in the past over three years. The first two meetings were held in 2015.

But the last Governing Council meeting which was held in April was an important one as in that the Niti Aayog gave a 15-year Vision Document to the Prime Minister to accelerate country's economic development and also presented 300 specific action points to achieve the goal.

In a short period of around two-an-a-half years, the Niti Aayog came under attack from within the BJP for its alleged pro-corporate approach to development. The Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an RSS body recently went on record saying "Niti Aayog is committed to a powerful corporate lobby functioning in the country and not to the weaker sections of the society”. It also suggested that the government re-think whether or not to keep such a “defective institution” in the name of a 'think tank. The BMS had also levelled charges of the Aayog being an anti-labour face to the government in its national conference recently.

Speculation was about a reshuffle in the Niti Aayog after continuous attacks of job-less

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economic growth marred the end of government's three-year tenure in May this year. Panagariya's successor will be announced in due course.

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EDUCATION

INDIAN EXPRESS, AUG 4, 2017HRD-Finance tussle stalls pay hike for college, varsity faculty

The proposed pay hike for teachers is estimated to cost the Union government Rs 1,400 crore

annually. On the other hand, the collective additional expenditure of state governments will

come to Rs 16,800 crore.

The Union government’s much-awaited announcement on pay hike for university and college

teachers is caught in a disagreement between two ministries, sources have said. The Finance

Ministry, it is learnt, is not in favour of sharing the additional financial burden of the state

governments, as reflected in HRD Ministry’s cabinet note which proposes a salary increase of

about 20 per cent for nearly eight lakh teachers working in all Centre- and state-run educational

institutions.

The proposed pay hike for teachers is estimated to cost the Union government Rs 1,400 crore

annually. On the other hand, the collective additional expenditure of state governments will

come to Rs 16,800 crore. The HRD Ministry has suggested that the Union government bear half

of the states’ additional financial burden for the first three years. This works out to an additional

expenditure of about Rs 25,000 crore for the Centre over three years.

The Finance Ministry feels that state governments, and not the Centre, should foot the entire

salary bill for teachers in state-run institutions and its unhappiness over HRD’s proposed sharing

ratio seems to have stalled the Cabinet’s approval which was expected last month. Meetings

between representatives of HRD and Finance Ministries on this issue have been inconclusive,

said sources.

The pay hike was decided upon by the HRD Ministry based on recommendations of University

Grants Commission’s Pay Review Committee, which submitted its report to the ministry in

February. The ministry accepted the panel’s suggestion to revise a teacher’s starting salary

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package by a multiplier of 2.72 for professor and above and a multiplier of 2.67 for assistant

professor and above.

The last salary hike for university and college teachers was implemented in 2006 based on

suggestions of the Sixth Pay Commission. At that time, the Union government had funded

almost 80 per cent of the states’ additional expenditure, on account of increased salaries, for the

first five years.

INDIAN EXPRESS, AUG 4, 2017Dyal Singh (Evening) becomes day college: Building where classes are being held illegal, claims day college head

On July 3, he wrote to the DU Pro Vice Chancellor saying that the set back area was “crucial for

access of the college by emergency services”, and that “construction is being carried out in

violation of approved layout and building plans”.Written by Aranya Shankar 

With the Delhi University Executive Council giving its nod to the conversion of Dyal Singh

(Evening) College into a morning one, the college has been holding classes for first-year students

from an under-construction building. However, DSC (Morning) has alleged that the construction

was illegal and raised safety concerns. Both the evening and morning colleges function from the

same campus.

The DSC (Morning) principal, I S Bakshi, had written to the evening college principal saying the

construction was in violation of building plans. However, the DSC (Evening) Principal, Pawan K

Sharma, said all approvals were in place. On June 9, Bakshi wrote to Sharma saying, “With

reference to your mention of few temporary rooms at the earmarked site, it is to apprise that the

site in question is part of mandatory 12-metre wide rear set back, and land earmarked for

playground by Land & Development Office, Urban Development Ministry, and the college

layout and building plans have been approved by SDMC… accordingly.”

On July 3, he wrote to the DU Pro Vice Chancellor saying that the set back area was “crucial for

access of the college by emergency services”, and that “construction is being carried out in

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violation of approved layout and building plans”. P K Parihar, a geography teacher of DSC

(Morning), said, “It is an illegal structure. Even if it was legal, till the time you get a fitness

certificate you cannot open it to public. They’re calling it a semi-permanent structure, but pucca

material is being used for the same.”

Students and teachers of DSC (Evening), however, seemed more perturbed with the noise than

safety. On Thursday, students struggled to listen in class due to noise from construction activity

taking place above. Shifa, a first-year student, said, “We can’t sit in the last row because we

can’t hear the teacher. On days when we come late and have to sit at the back, it is difficult to

hear anything.”

Alka Tyagi, an English teacher, said, “The part where construction is taking place is separate

from where classes are being held, so it’s not unsafe. But the noise is definitely a problem.”

Sharma, however, said construction was complete and “only finishing work like painting is

going on”. “… This is a semi-permanent structure, there is nothing illegal about it. Once the

permanent structure is complete, we’ll demolish it. Semi-permanent structures don’t need

approval from MCD and other bodies. Then, porta cabins and bamboo rooms which exist in the

college should also be called illegal,” he said.

He added, “…The area has been properly cordoned off, and guards are there to ensure students

don’t stray into the nearby area where construction is happening. Such rumours are being spread

to stop the conversion of DSC into a morning college.” DSC (Evening) had first floated the idea

to function as a day college in August 2015. DU then set up a five-member inspection committee

which gave its approval in its meeting on February 14 this year. However, the staff council of

DSC (Morning) opposed the move and alleged that Bakshi didn’t grant approval to the

conversion. The first cut-off at Dyal Singh College (evening) was between 87 and 95 per cent for

different courses.

TRIBUNE, AUG 4, 2017Of private varsities and public goodGS Bedi

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Leaving higher education at the mercy of market forces has far-reaching implications. As per the recent National Employability Report, 75 per cent of our graduates are unemployable. This is a far more serious situation than not being “in the top 200”.

EDUCATION is the alchemy that can take India to its next golden age”, said the outgoing President, Pranab Mukherjee during his farewell address to the nation. True. After all, it was the universities where the great ideas of liberty, tolerance and constitutional governments took root along with the scientific research and development which ultimately led to the enlightenment and prosperity of Europe.

 Yet, the way we are experimenting with our higher education system, it can happen otherwise. In our quest to improve the Gross Enrolment in the country, we let the private universities and institutes mushroom indiscriminately. Today, these account for over 60 per cent of total institutes in the country.    

The quality of higher education has taken a severe hit with the advent of private universities. Barring a few, they are struggling for survival. To survive, they have adopted a simple modus operandi: lure the students with the promise of degrees without going through the rigour of attendance and passing the examinations.

A typical case study of the journey of a student through the portals of a private university may be instructive for policy makers framing the new education policy. A private university runs a B.Tech programme that has not been approved by the  All-India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).  But it does not matter. The university has the convenient alibi that it has been constituted by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and it has nothing to do with the AICTE.  Analysing it, one finds the university may not even have been inspected by the UGC even after five years of its operation even though it has been conferring  degrees year after year. It is hoped that Ministry of Human Resource Development and Niti Aayog's proposal to merge the UGC and the AICTE into a single authority, the Higher Education Empowerment Regulation Agency (HEERA) will end such fraudulent practices. 

Another example: A student seeks admission to a  B.Tech programme.  The criteria as laid down by the Regulatory Commission for admission to B.Tech programmes is a valid score in the JEE (mains) examination. It does not specify the cut-off score. Since it does not do so, the private university admits the student even if he has a “zero” score in the JEE examination — a mockery of the admission criteria. The particular  program me in which the student has taken admission may have only “one” student, that is he himself.  Optimal size, be it of a class or the university, is

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an important attribute of higher education as the students learn from each other. Their personality and leadership qualities develop only in groups.       The Yash Pal Committee had specially laid emphasis on the optimal size of the university in its report on “Renovation and Rejuvenation of Higher Education”. Whereas autonomy is a blessing for a public university like that of the Panjab University, it is a license  for  unethical practices for a private university.     Most states do not have regulatory authorities for private educational institutes. Even the states where there is one like Himachal Pradesh, it is without a chairman/chairperson for the last more than one-and-a-half year making it ineffective. 

 The result of this license is that  the teacher in a private university who teaches the subject sets the question paper and evaluates the answer script.  In the absence of an “external university audit system”, there is a conspiracy of silence between the student, teacher and the Vice-Chancellor as to how much of syllabus has been covered or how many right answers the students have given.  

The two pillars of quality of education are good faculty and infrastructure. Both are missing in case of the private universities.  Private universities exploit faculty members by paying them low salaries and overloading them with a large number of courses. Some of them pay a salary even lower than that of a peon in a government high school. As regards infrastructure, some of them do not have sports grounds and hostel facilities. 

To make the provision of a hostel, they have converted cabins of the faculty into hostel rooms. With two beds in a small 8ft x 8 ft cabin, it is more like a jail cell than a hostel. Curriculum of the various programmes is not upgraded in accordance with the skill sets required for industry. This is a double whammy. In the first place, it produces unemployable youth. Second, irrelevant research is of no use to the manufacturing sector which generates jobs. 

The root cause of the poor quality of education at private universities is absence of leadership at the Vice Chancellors' level. Old retired and re-retired persons are employed as Vice Chancellors. They neither have any ability nor independence to run the university effectively. Only the owners call the shots. It is from one such private university that the student gets his degree certificate at the end of the programme but he remains unemployable. As per the recent National Employability Report, 75 per cent of our graduates are unemployable.  

This is a far more serious situation than “not being in top 200”. Setting up elite institutions like IIT will not solve our problems. Radical reforms are required at the bottom of pyramids.on war footing.  Education is far too serious a business to be left to the vagaries of market forces.  The government must step in fast and announce a much-needed new education policy. Unfortunately,

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our squeaks about educational reforms are lost in the din of “Make-in India, Stand -up India, Start-up India, Skill-India” and so on. Ironically, the success of all these depends upon the quality of higher education. 

There is a need for the government to operate in a public-private partnership mode with the viable private universities.  For this, the government will have to increase its budgetary provision for education to at least more than 5 per cent of the GDP.  As an interim measure, the private universities which have not been able to gain traction with respect the optimal size for the last five years must be wound up or merged to form a bigger university which is financially viable both in the short and the long term.

The UGC scheme of Credit Transfer must be used effectively to co-opt the experienced professional and administrators from the industry to function as Vice Chancellors or Registrars by considering their experience for certain number of years  in the industry as  equivalent to Ph.D. The state government must order an academic audit of all the private universities immediately and close down the ones not up to the mark. At the same time, each state must have a functional private education regulatory authority which should oversee all the aspects of teaching, examination and certification. 

Implementing the educational reforms as recommended by the Prof Yash Pal Committee in letter and spirit will be a fitting tribute to an eminent educationist.

The writer is a freelance writer on educational matters

DECCAN HERALD, AUG 3, 2017Cabinet nod to scrapping of no-detention policy till Class VIII

It also gave its nod to the Human Resource Development ministry's plan of creating 20 world-class institutions in the country. DH file image for representation.

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the scrapping of the no-detention policy in schools till Class VIII.

It also gave its nod to the Human Resource Development ministry’s plan of creating 20 world-class institutions in the country.

An enabling provision will be made in the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Amendment Bill which will allow states to detain students in Class V and Class VIII if they fail in the year-end exam.

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However, the students will have to be given a second chance to improve via an examination before they are detained. The bill will now be placed in Parliament for approval.

Under the present provision of RTE Act, students are promoted automatically to higher classes till class 8. This is one of the key components of the RTE Act which came into force on April 1, 2010.

The Union Cabinet, which had deferred its decision in June, about the creation of 20 world-class institutions in the country, also approved it on Wednesday.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in February passed a new set of regulations to set up 10 world-class institutions in the public sector and as many in the private sector.

Of the 20 universities, first proposed in this year’s budget, the 10 state-supported institutions are expected to receive public funding of up to Rs 500 crore each.

An Expenditure Finance Committee note seeking Rs 5,000 crore for these institutions was moved. The institutes can be existing or greenfield (the latter for private institutions).

HRD’s separate rules — UGC (Declaration of Government Educational Institutions as World Class Institutions) Guidelines — allow these institutes to fix their own fees for foreign students and decide salaries for foreign faculty, as well as the freedom to choose admission procedures. Existing universities don’t have such freedom and are guided by the detailed UGC rules.

  

STATESMAN, AUG 2, 2017Manish Sisodia asks CAG to audit 28 DU colleges

A day after scrapping funds to the 28 Delhi University colleges, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday wrote to the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) asking for an audit of these colleges after receiving complaints of corruption against them.

Sisodia in a series of tweets alleged that with no governing bodies, the 28 colleges need a CAG audit, as there are complaints of corruption.

"Have written to CAG asking for comprehensive audit of 28 Delhi government funded colleges, as I h've received many complaints of corruption," Sisodia tweeted.

"28 colleges need CAG audit as there are complaints of corruption; with no Governing bodies for 10 months, there's been no oversight," he said.

On 31July, Sisodia ordered to freeze funds of 28 Delhi University colleges ~ who are wholly or partially funded by the Delhi government~ following the varsity's failure to appoint governing bodies for over 10 months.

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Sisodia, who holds education and finance portfolios, also posted a letter from BJP MP Udit Raj on his Twitter handle, complaining of alleged irregularities in appointments to government funded colleges.

"Hv also got a complaint from @Dr_Uditraj on irregularities in appointments in a govt funded college. This is proof of what's going on in DU," Sisodia said.

"What BJP leaders and its devotees have to say about the corruption issue raised by Udit ji in DU colleges," he added.

On 14 February 2017, Delhi University had sent a panel of names to Delhi government following which the Directorate of Higher Education, had sent the governing body list in 6 March, for approval by Executive Council (EC). However, it was sent back by the Vice Chancellor's office after two months on the pretext of, that the list is in tabular form.  On 11 May, the Delhi government returned the list in the correct format. However, since then, the Delhi University is yet to take any decision to finalise the governing bodies.

STATESMAN, AUG 2, 2017Title of thesis

Jawaharlal Nehru University, which was set up in the early 1970s as a front-ranking institution of liberal education, has announced a decision that is disingenuous in the extreme, one that verges on linguistic chauvinism. Students who have crafted their dissertations ~ M Phil and Ph D ~ have been stumped with the directive that makes it mandatory to write the title of their thesis in Hindi.

This is preposterous to say the least. No reason has been proffered either by the university authorities or the HRD ministry, which under the BJP has been keen on transforming JNU from a "red bastion" to a saffronite turf. Small wonder that the move, which takes a bow in the direction of the cow belt, has been binned by the students as a form of "severe harassment" that reinforces the intolerance of a different point of view.

Considerably inconvenienced are those research scholars who can neither speak Hindi nor write the language. After years of scholarly rigour, they are now said to be desperately looking for people, both on campus and beyond, to write the titles.

If indeed the benchmark of a university's standing is the quality of research, the absurdity inherent in the decision is bound to deter students from pursuing their doctoral studies at JNU. The net result, therefore, could be deeply unfortunate. A central university draws students from all over the country, the striking feature being the regional representation on the campus.

Hence the weightage to all provincial languages. Yet the new embroidery in Hindi is mandatory. For a thesis written in English and capped with a Hindi title, the contrived incongruity can be breathless and not least when the dissertation is sent abroad for another round of evaluation by

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external examiners. A more startling instance of academic vacuity, indeed a bizarre expression of the two-language formula, will be hard to imagine.

On closer reflection, the imposition of Hindi at JNU is a double whammy for the rarefied academic circuit as well as students. It reinforces a recent circular that envisaged the Hindi translation of titles in the library, prior to the indexing of books. It is no disrespect to the national language to aver that teachers and the taught will have to grapple with a stark disconnect between the book and the title, as mentioned in the index card.

Whether it is the title of a thesis or the name of a book on science, it can be almost impossible to devise a Hindi equivalent. The impact can even be hilarious were it not for the profound implications for the raison d'etre of any university ~ the advancement of learning. JNU ought not to be reduced to a laughing stock.

HINDUSTAN TIMES, AUG 1, 2017Delhi govt stops funding of 28 DU colleges, Sisodia says can’t allow corruption

Delhi University colleges funded by Arvind Kejriwal-led government get the money in four instalments. Colleges say they will start feeling an impact by November if the stand-off continues

Heena Kausar 

The Delhi government has stopped grants to 28 Delhi University colleges funded by it on

account of the university not forming governing bodies for the last 10 months.

Twelve out of the 28 colleges are fully funded by the government and 16 are partially funded.

The government had asked Delhi University to form governing bodies before making any

appointments.

The university is currently in the process of hiring permanent faculty.

“I can not allow unchecked corruption and irregularities to be sustained on Delhi govt funds in

the name of Education. The sequence of events from Sept 2016 seems to indicate a deliberate

and malafied attempt to delay formation of gov bodies by DU,” deputy chief minister Manish

Sisodia said in a series of tweets on Monday.

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Colleges dependent entirely on funding from the government will find it hard to function after

being cut off.

“Everything from payment of salaries to teaching and non-teaching staff to payment of

electricity bill is done through Delhi government’s funds. If we don’t get the funds the college

will have to stop,” said SK Garg, principal Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, which is fully

funded by the government.

Twitter Ads info and privacy

However, DU officials said there won’t be any immediate impact on any of these colleges.

“We receive funds of about Rs24-25 crores in four instalments — July, November, January, and

March. We have already received the first instalment, so there won’t be any immediate impact

and the matter will hopefully be resolved in a few weeks,” Garg said.

Dean of Colleges Devesh K Sinha said they have written a letter to the government on Monday

assuring them that the governing bodies will be formed within a week or two.

“The executive council had raised certain objections to the nominations. We are supposed to

have a variety of experts in the body but the government, for instance, had recommended five

educationists to one college. However, we are in the process and soon the bodies will be

formed,” Sinha said.

He said that the government’s main concern is that the governing bodies should be formed

before the appointments. “Anyway the appointments are not happening before September so

there is time,” he said.

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Twelve DU colleges are fully funded by the Delhi government, including Shaheed Raj Guru

College, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya College, Maharaja Agarsen College, Shaheed Sukhdev College

of Business Studies.

Sixteen DU colleges are partially funded by the Delhi government, including Gargi College,

Kamla Nehru College, Shivaji College and Delhi College of Arts & Commerce.

In June, the government had asked colleges to not go ahead with faculty appointments till college

governing bodies are formed and had also threatened to withhold funds to college in case of non-

compliance.

The government has asked the University to “duly constitute” the governing bodies, which will

include five members nominated by the government, before making any appointments.

DU colleges have been advertising vacant faculty positions following a High Court order.

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FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS

HINDUSTAN TIMES, AUG 1, 2017SBI cuts interest rate on savings deposit, 90% of customers to be hit hard

Accounts with a balance of Rs 1 crore or less will earn 3.5% per annum effective July 31, while those above Rs 1 crore will continue to earn 4% per annum.

State Bank of India, the country’s largest lender, on Monday introduced a two-tier interest rate

structure for its savings bank accounts, reducing interest rates for most of its depositors.

Accounts with a balance of Rs 1 crore or less will earn 3.5% per annum effective July 31, while

those above Rs 1 crore will continue to earn 4% per annum, the bank said in a statement.

About 90% of SBI’s savings accounts have balances under Rs 1 crore.

“The decline in rate of inflation and high real interest rates are the primary considerations

warranting a revision,” SBI said.

The revision would enable the bank to maintain its Marginal Cost of funds-based Lending Rate

(MCLR) at existing rates, the lender added.

The bank’s overnight MCLR rate, effective July 1, currently stands at 7.75%.

Shares of the bank spiked after the announcement, climbing as much as 4.75%.

The Reserve Bank of India is expected to cut interest rates when it meets on Wednesday, a

Reuters poll showed, responding to an inflation rate running well below target, which had eased

to its slowest pace in over five years in June.

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“We expect the policy committee to lower its natural bias to be cautious and lower policy rates

by 25 bps this week,” said DBS Group Research in a note.

“Investors are always interested in rate cuts and have been expecting a rate cut for quite some

time now,” said Sunil Sharma, chief investment officer at Sanctum Wealth Management.

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LIBRARIES

PIONEER, AUG 3, 2017CM GIVES RS 2L TO MUSKAN TO HAVE HER OWN LIBRARY4

5

Muskan Ahirwar, a fifth class student will now have a pucca library of her own. She was running a library in her kachha house in Durganagar slum in the capital. She has started her library with 25 educational books in 2016 which has gradually grown and now accommodates about 1000 books.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan honoured Muskan at his residence and granted Rs2 lakh assistance fund. He assured her that very soon she will own a one-room pucca library. An overwhelmed Muskan said that now nothing can stop her and the other slum children from moving ahead. Mamaji and his Government is with them and now they have to work hard.

Muskan is a student of Glorious Higher Secondary School, Jehangirabad and her elder sister Neha is a 9th standard student of Tatya Tope Higher Secondary School. Her younger brother, studies in Muskan’s school in 4th standard. Akash is in first standard. Her uncle Rakesh Kumar helps in the house. He is engaged in centering work. Muskan’s father Manohar Ahirwar was also engaged in the same work but he passed away on July 7.

Says Muskan, “Papa used to say do something big, Study hard. She herself wants to be a doctor.”

Muskan told that the library is open from 5 pm -7 pm. Nearly 20-25 children come to the library. They have to sit on a mat. A few children take the books home and return it later. “I ask questions related to the books and if the children give proper answer, I know they have read them. I have a register to maintain all accounts,” says Muskan.

 The Chief Minister said that if girls like Muskan are extended support by the whole society, it won’t be long before the conditions change. Government will extend all possible support.

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PARLIAMENT

HINDU, AUG 4, 2017Restoring Parliament’s primacyVinod BhanuA Parliamentary Budget Office would help MPs provide effective oversight

In India, establishing a Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) is a due concern. A PBO is an

independent and impartial body linked directly to Parliament that provides technical and

objective analysis of Budgets and public finance to the House and its committees. As ‘the

guardian of the public purse’, Parliament must play a greater role in budgetary governance.

Its core functions include Budget approval, scrutiny of its implementation, and holding the

government to account. However, Parliament lacks the capability to perform such functions

effectively. The result is often an arbitrary taxation policy, burgeoning fiscal deficit, and an

inequitable allocation of public resources.

Greater budgetary oversight

Multiple indicators suggest that executive-led budgetary governance has not been successful

in India. The unequal distribution of public resources is a prevalent issue. Despite high

economic growth, India suffers from inexcusable income inequality, poverty,

unemployment, malnourished children, preventable diseases, systemic corruption, and

underinvestment in key social services such as health and education.

Budgets can be seen as ‘contracts between citizens and the state’ or as ‘treaties among

citizens negotiated through politics’. Indian political economy literature fails to adequately

address the role of Parliament and State legislatures in public finance management. The role

of Parliament and State legislatures in budgetary decision-making and oversight is far from

satisfactory; it is meaningful to have a well thought-out legislative-executive balance of

power in budgetary governance.

The Indian Parliament is a Budget-approving body contributing to budgetary matters in the

following notable ways: presentation of the Budget; scrutiny of the demands for grants of

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various ministries; debate; consideration and approval of the Budget. To carry out these

functions effectively, Parliament requires institutional, analytical and technical competence.

Some have argued that a ‘Budget-approving’ Parliament does not require a functioning

PBO. This argument, although common, is unsound. When Parliament is a Budget-

approving body, its members must be well-informed for a legitimate approving process.

Establishing a PBO within Parliament is undoubtedly necessary. It is an instrument for

addressing bias towards spending and deficits and, more significantly, for enhancing fiscal

discipline and promoting accountability. Further, it can generate quality public debate on

Budget policy and public finance, enabling parliamentarians to engage meaningfully in the

Budget process.

There is a growing trend among legislatures, particularly within the OECD countries to

establish specialised Budget research units. Traditionally, independent budgetary units are

more common in developed countries, but many developing countries are now establishing

such entities; for example: Benin, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, Morocco, the Philippines,

Uganda, Nigeria, Liberia, Thailand, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. The other functioning PBOs

are in countries such as the U.S., Canada, Australia, Austria, South Korea, Italy, and

Mexico. There are PBOs established in subnational legislatures, such as California, Ontario,

Scotland, and New South Wales. Additionally, New York City has a well-functioning

Independent Budget Office (IBO).

Role of a PBO

The majority of PBOs have four core functions: independent and objective economic

forecasts; baseline estimate survey; analysing the executive’s Budget proposal; and

providing medium- to long-term analysis. Costing is standard practice for many PBOs.

Budgets generally start with an economic forecast. A PBO can present either its own

independent forecast or it can validate the government’s, providing an objective analysis on

the official forecast.

A PBO can perform other tasks depending on its mandate, resources and requirements of

parliamentarians or committees. These may include general economic analysis, tax analysis,

long-term analysis, options for spending cuts, outlining a budgetary framework that reflects

priorities of the nation, bespoke policy briefs.

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A PBO is different from general parliamentary research services and information wings. It

also differs from finance committees and the Public Accounts Committee. A PBO is

comprised of independent and specialised staff, such as Budget analysts, economists, public

finance experts. The PBO must be non-partisan, independent and mandated to serve all

parliamentarians. Furthermore, the core functions of the PBO should be codified in law. Its

output, and the methods by which those outputs are prepared, must be transparent,

accessible and understandable.

Onus on parliamentarians

Parliamentary scrutiny of public finance is an important aspect of governmental

accountability. There is a legitimate democratic need in this country to strengthen the

capacity of Parliament and its members. An unprecedented change has taken place in the

way citizens view the government’s stewardship of taxpayer resources. This demands a

consideration of global standards and best practices to promote financial and budgetary

transparency.

Parliamentarians have a role in establishing the PBO. As representatives of the people, they

can help improve Budget policies by providing inputs on public needs and priorities.

Similarly, a PBO can ensure that parliamentarians are well-informed to perform their

budgetary and oversight functions effectively. A PBO in Parliament will have a positive

impact on the House’s ability to carry out budgetary oversight and fiscal decision-making.

However, this will not be an easy task. It is likely to attract opposition from the bureaucracy

as any aspect of strengthening Parliament (or State legislatures) has always been unwelcome

and met with less consideration from the executive. Parliament, with its long-standing

traditions of non-partisan legislative services to MPs in India, will find more favourable

consensus among all parties for the proposal to establish a PBO. However, establishing the

PBO in India will require unremitting political will and public support.

Vinod Bhanu is Director, Centre for Legislative Research and Advocacy, New Delhi

STATESMAN, AUG 1, 2017Cult of the VIPRaghu Dayal

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Consider the paradox. Prime Minister Narendra Modi exhorted his party MPs from Uttar Pradesh last week to give up the mindset of lal batti, specifically to be humble, shun any notion of hierarchy, and freely mingle with the common man. In parallel, the UP government directed all District Magistrates to earmark separate lanes for MLAs, MLCs and MPs at toll plazas, including national highways. And as per the Central government notification, no road toll can be charged from them.

 The Modi sarkar’s fiat against the lal-neel batti on vehicles of the privileged with effect from 1 May 2017 signalled the intent to strike a major blow to the VIP cult that has afflicted nation’s psyche, as the Prime Minister observed in his mann-ki-baat radio broadcast. The obvious reaction of the “VIP” beneficiaries across almost the entire political and bureaucratic spectrum would convince Mr Modi that the country will not rid itself of the pernicious virus anytime soon. Even the spartan Mamata Banerjee has with alacrity designed a substitute by way of flags that will flutter on state government vehicles. This will signal to aam aadmi to be aware of the occupant’s position and thus make way for the high and mighty VIP/VVIP being ferried in the vehicles.

Recently, a UP MLA was involved in a spat with a woman police officer on duty. Be it a neta or a babu, the VIP considers himself to be superior to the common folk, and are ever so intent on asserting their supremacy as representatives of mai baap sarkar. The idea is to extract the maximum from the system. Jettisoned in the process are the ideals of the nascent republic when Union Ministers, pre-eminently Rafi Ahmad Kidwai, would queue up incognito in a post office in order to assess the shortcomings in services and travails of the people.

As Modi himself perceived, elimination of the red beacon by itself may not free the system from the VIP culture. Trust the ingenuity and audacity of our netas and babus who had craftily manoeuvred to leverage a clause and rule in the Motor Vehicles Act about “signalling appliances” to arrogate to themselves a class distinction. They now ferret myriad specious arguments and raise the bogey of security and speed required in their movement to justify an exemption from the order. There are already overtures to explore jugaads to circumvent the ban, for example, by fitting siren/hooter on the vehicle. The Prime Minister has adopted an unequivocal stand, and the Government must in no case dilute or dither. At least the BJP governments in states and legislators must set an example.

Whether it is the overwhelming urge of a lal batti on the vehicle, the shining beacon of arrogance and authority that has been extended even to the family, or the licence to jump the queue in general, to extort a special treatment, the malignant VIP virus has spread unchecked. Carrying his own bag is beneath dignity for a neta or a babu. Privileges and perquisites to legislators and government are as often as not far in excess of salary. Isn’t there a case for doing away with vestiges of feudalism like huge residential bungalows, cavalcades of cars, servant quarters, retinue of personal staff, bungalow peons? The Government at the Centre and in the States may pay a composite remuneration to most of the public servants and legislators as in most countries as well as in global business and industry, in the United Nations and other similar world bodies.

Since Independence, the lifestyles of people in power or position have changed dramatically. Pre-1947, we had the pomp and circumstance of the British Raj (excusable in a sense as they had

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an empire to rule and a corresponding message to send down to the ruled) and the grandiose panoply of the Maharajas and Nawabs (understandable but not excusable). The lure of an easy, extravagant and sybaritic lifestyle has captivated the privileged. Today, austerity, frugality, and thrift are considered old-fashioned.

It is no surprise that Members of Parliament find it infra dig to travel by air in “cattle class”, obsessed with demand for automatic upgradation to business class in public as well as private carriers, ever so voracious for sumptuous meals, besides “protocol” ~ a euphemism for being received and pampered like the maharajas. Ministers are ever so eager to pander to their ego and play the Santa Claus.

Profligacy in public life runs counter to the country’s democratic ethos. Mahatma Gandhi derived immense moral power, awe and respect despite an austere lifestyle. As Rabindramath Tagore once explained, “Gandhiji sat at the threshold of the huts of the thousands of dispossessed, dressed like one of their own.

He spoke to them in their own language.” His countrywide travels by train and in the lowest class helped him to identify himself with the masses. Austerity in public life was the identity benchmark.

What is austerity? Let us examine what austerity does not entail. It does not mean having your car fitted with a flashing light and a wailing siren. It is not jumping queues, nor whisking the privileged away from the essential security drill at airport. It does not imply audacious adulation so often splashed in newspaper advertisements at huge public cost.

It is not about Ministers, Governors and leaders with a vast retinue of hangers-on and a battery of officials in tow, spending public money on travel, entertainment, extravagance in renovation of offices and bungalows, and ever newer models of cars. It is no austerity to get narcissistic and vainly erect monuments. On the other hand, austerity does not imply stark puritanism. Austerity is certainly no sanctimonious hypocrisy. An austere lifestyle demonstrates an abiding identity with aam aadmi.

President Pranab Mukherjee hailed our Parliament as a temple of democracy. Do our MPs ever reflect on why the former President’s allusion led to widespread public derision? Recall how the other day several Members of Parliament zealously avowed to secure their special status instead of strongly condemning the despicable ruckus created by their colleague only because he had to travel in the economy class on a short air flight from Pune to Delhi.

Despite the high decibel pledges of our netas committed to the idea of an inclusive and egalitarian India, they remain obsessed with the urge to derive the maximum for themselves. They chant, “all men are equal”, but want to be more equal than the others. The Modi government has been raising people’s expectations of achchhe din in a  swachchh, new India. It has a long, arduous journey ahead to make it happen.

The writer is Senior Fellow, Asian Institute of Transport Development, and former CMD, Container Corporation of India.

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POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT

TELEGRAPH, AUG 2, 2017Sharif has Abbasi elected PM

Islamabad, Aug 1 (Reuters): Pakistani lawmakers on Tuesday elected former petroleum minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi as the country's new prime minister, replacing ousted veteran leader Nawaz Sharif.

Sharif's ruling Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz party used its majority in the National Assembly to install Abbasi, after the Supreme Court last week ordered Nawaz Sharif disqualified from office over failure to disclose a source of income.

Abassi's tenure is expected to be short, as Sharif has earmarked his brother Shahbaz as the successor once he becomes eligible.

Shahbaz, now the chief minister of the vast Punjab priovince, needs to win a parliamentary by-election before other lawmakers can elect him as prime minister. 

TRIBUNE, AUG 1, 2017The verdict & unseen hand of GeneralsVivek Katju

Pakistan's superior courts have often commented on difficulties in legally applying ideals of conduct to concrete cases. The qualities of leadership are rooted in the Islamic concept of righteous rulers, so no politcal party has amended these. Nawaz Sharif’s case proves vagaries of litigation but is there a whiff of politics too?

Vivek Katju

AS Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif resigned on July 28 after the Supreme Court decision in the Panama Papers case, memories, two decades old, of his success in hounding out Sajjad Ali Shah from the office of Chief Justice of Pakistan would have come back. He may well have wondered what the world had come to when he had no alternative but bow to a decision based on one technical ground taken through a controversial judicial procedure. 

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Back in 1997, Nawaz Sharif exercised such control over the country that for the "insult" of the Chief Justice summoning him in person to answer charges of contempt of court he had allowed zealous supporters to storm its premises, split the Bench, which by majority declared that Shah's appointment, by then three years old, as illegal ab initio and sent their Chief packing.  All through, the army Chief Ge. Jehangir Karamat had not stirred. But that was then. This time the bisaat was totally different, except in one aspect: if Sajjad Ali Shah was a "political" judge, the whiff of politics comes from the present judgment too. 

The Panama Papers became public in April 2016. They revealed that Nawaz Sharif's children — daughter Maryam who is being groomed for politics and businessmen sons Hussain and Hassan who live outside Pakistan — owned off- shore companies and lucrative properties abroad. These included four apartments in London's posh Park Lane. For many in Pakistan, these revelations only established what was suspected all along, that Nawaz Sharif had sent abroad his ill-gotten wealth acquired from business and misuse of office. The Panama Papers provided the opposition, especially Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, an opportunity to corner Nawaz Sharif. Between April and August 2016, Nawaz Sharif's attempts to appoint commissions to investigate these charges failed. The government and the opposition could not agree on the terms of reference of a commission and Pakistan's Chief Justice also refused to nominate judges to any commission which in law would be "toothless". Finally, Imran Khan filed a case seeking the Supreme Court to declare Nawaz Sharif unfit to be a Member of the National Assembly ( hence, Prime Minister) as he did not meet the tests prescribed in Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution. Most constitutions and peoples' representation laws prescribe conditions relating to nationality, age, residence, health, absence of criminal convictions by courts, and in some cases that a person should not be in debt. Seldom do they venture into the domain of character. This was also the case with the Pakistan constitution till General Zia-ul-Haq amended Article 62 and introduced a character test. Art. 62 (1) (f) now requires Members of Parliament to be, "sagacious, righteous, non-profligate, honest and ameen". Pakistan's superior courts have commented many times on the difficulties in legally applying these ideals of conduct to concrete cases. However, as these qualities of leadership are rooted in the Islamic concept of righteous rulers no political party has taken the initiative to amend it. Gradually case law seems to be developing to apply them narrowly such as in cases of wrong declaration on nomination forms for elections. The courts refrain from entering into an MP's personal conduct.

Imran Khan asserted that the Panama Papers revealed that Nawaz Sharif owned properties abroad, including the Park Lane flats, and been dishonest to not disclose them in his nomination form. He further alleged that in his speeches to the nation and parliament after the Panama

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Leaks, he had prevaricated and contradicted himself, thus falling short of the qualities mentioned in Art. 62. The Court heard the matter for over two months. It decided, as noted by Justice Khosa who led the five-judge bench, "to focus mainly, but not exclusively, on the properties relevant to Respondent No.1 (Nawaz Sharif) and his children which were revealed in the Panama Papers". By a majority of 3-2, it decided that the Panama Papers did not conclusively establish that Nawaz Sharif was the owner of these properties and therefore a Supreme Court monitored probe was required through a Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to establish facts. 

Surprisingly, the JIT included ISI and MI officers thereby involving the army which assured the nation that it will fulfil the mandate conferred by the Court. Though the majority and the dissenting judges agreed that Nawaz Sharif and his children's claims were contradictory and deliberately confusing and incomplete,the two dissenting judges found these sufficient to disqualify him the majority three did not reach this conclusion. Strangely, the minority two inferred that while a person could  be sent to jail after establishing his guilt through a regular trial, disqualification in terms of Art 62 could be done through a lower standard. The Supreme Court Chief Justice appointed a bench of three judges who had given the majority judgement to monitor the JIT probe. The JIT gave its report on July 10 and the three-judge bench heard arguments about its tenability for a week. In violation of procedural norms, the original five-judge bench met to pronounce the judgment. The dissenting two thus had no opportunity to hear arguments on the report and yet they considered it fit as obviously did the Chief Justice that in a matter relating to the Prime Minister standard procedure could be short-circuited. 

Now comes the strangest part. On the issues in the Panama Papers on which the JIT extensively reported, the majority three did not obviously concur with the dissenting two and did not find the report sufficient to disqualify Nawaz Sharif.  However, as the JIT found the family guilty of misrepresentation and fabricating documents, the five unanimously ordered the National Accountability Bureau to launch corruption cases against all. In a move which can only be called dubious, the five took note of Nawaz Sharif's chairmanship of FZE Capital, his son's company in Dubai (which did not figure in the Panama Papers)  and held that while he did not draw any emoluments they were nevertheless his assets. This may be technically so. They held that as he had not declared them in his nomination form in the 2013 election, he was dishonest and fell short of the requirements of Art 62. No real opportunity was given to him to defend himself. The judges clearly forgot that justice has to be manifestly done. It brings no credit to the Supreme Court and can only spread speculation of bias and the unseen hand of the Generals. 

The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs.

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TELEGRAPH, AUG 5, 2017Ten years of change- Is India becoming more democratic or less?

Politics and Play - Ramachandra Guha

In 2007, on the 60th anniversary of the country's independence, I described India as a 'fifty-fifty' democracy. By this I did not mean that exactly 50 per cent of India was democratic, while exactly 50 per cent was not. Rather, the phrase (borrowed from a line uttered by the immortal comic actor, Johnny Walker) was meant to signify that, in spite of the regular holding of free elections, there remained deep deficiencies in the functioning of our public institutions. Our courts, our civil services, our police, our schools and hospitals, even our Parliament, were shot through with inefficiency and corruption.

On the 15th of this month, India will mark 70 years of political freedom. How has the country progressed in the past decade? Has it become more democratic, or less?

India is a large, massively populated, and staggeringly diverse country. The questions posed in the preceding paragraph can scarcely be answered in a straightforward or unambiguous manner. This column, therefore, adopts a disaggregated approach, by focusing in turn on politics, society, and economics.

In the past decade, the health of our political democracy has slipped further. Elections are still free and fair, but the cost of contesting them has gone up enormously. There is no level playing field; rather, the candidate or party with the most money usually has the best chance of winning. A large proportion of members of parliament and members of the legislative assembly have criminal records.

In 2017, as in 2007, our police are corrupt and occasionally brutal. Our state-run schools and hospitals are largely dysfunctional. Political interference has further undermined our colleges and universities, and even reached the Reserve Bank of India. Our courts are overburdened, our judges prone to sensationalism and overreach. The income tax department and the Central Bureau of Investigation increasingly serve as instruments of the ruling party.India's democracy is further weakened by the growth of authoritarian tendencies among the political class. The Congress has long been run by a single family. So are some regional parties, while others (such as the Trinamul Congress and the Biju Janata Dal) are run by a single individual. More alarmingly, what is now India's dominant (and sole national) party has seen the rapid whittling down of inner-party democracy. Two individuals closely control the Bharatiya Janata Party's workings, with Narendra Modi and Amit Shah being to their party now what Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi were to the Congress in the 1970s. The BJP under Modi and Shah is constructing a High Command culture of its own, by taming and undermining previously independent chief ministers as the Congress of Indira and Sanjay once did.

The rise of authoritarian leaders has led to increasing attacks on the press, at the Centre as well as in the states. Mamata Banerjee can be as vengeful as Modi or Shah are when dealing with newspapers or television channels which criticize their government's policies. While independent journalists are harassed and intimidated, reporters and anchors who support the ruling party or its politicians are encouraged and even funded. Meanwhile, the resources of the

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State are misused to promote the Cult of the Great Leader through advertising campaigns conducted at the expense of the taxpayer.

When judged through the lens of politics and public institutions, Indian democracy is distinctly sub-optimal. Our parties, our press, our schools, hospitals, courts and law enforcement agencies, and our Parliament too, compare poorly with similar institutions in western Europe or North America. Indeed, they probably function worse now than they did 10 or 20 years ago.

The French anthropologist, Louis Dumont, famously described Indians (and Hindus in particular) as 'Homo Hierarchicus'. The characterization was not unfair. For the caste system is the most sophisticated, as well as the most diabolical, system of social exclusion and discrimination ever invented by humans. Notably, Indians have discriminated as harshly on lines of gender as of caste, with both Hinduism and Islam elevating men to a position of permanent superiority over women.

By advocating the abolition of Untouchability, and according women the same rights as men, the Indian Constitution radically challenged these twin axes of social discrimination. In the six-and-a-half decades since the Constitution was adopted, the progress towards caste and gender equality has been slow and halting, but by no means invisible. In the past decade, the pace of change may, in fact, have slightly accelerated. As the country urbanizes, and more Indians migrate to other parts of the country for education or for jobs, there is a steady delinking of caste from occupation, as well as of family from marriage. Young Indians are freer than before to follow a profession other than that followed by their father or grandfather. They are freer than before to choose a romantic partner other than one chosen for them by their father or grandfather.

India remains a deeply hierarchical society. Our democracy is disfigured by the persistence of inhumane practices such as manual scavenging. However, while hierarchy remains, the form and substance of this hierarchy is being increasingly challenged. Inspired by the example and legacy of the great B.R. Ambedkar, Dalits across India have educated, agitated and organized themselves for social and political action. So have women, albeit in smaller numbers, and more episodically. The rising self-consciousness and self-assertion of these two historically disadvantaged groups have provoked an upper-caste and patriarchal backlash, with a wave of attacks on Dalits in villages and on women in villages as well as in towns. Yet this backlash itself demonstrates the steady undermining of social hierarchies in independent India. Dalits and women are still exploited and suppressed, but they are arguably less exploited and suppressed than at any other time in India's history. That Dalits and women now more actively stand up for their democratic rights has provoked anger and hostility among the upper-caste men who have traditionally oppressed them.

Dalits and women have made modest progress in recent years. On the other hand, two other social groups are perhaps more vulnerable than they were 10 or 20 years ago. These are Muslims and tribals. The insecurity of India's largest religious minority has increased with the rising tide of Hindutva bigotry fuelled by the BJP, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, and the Bajrang Dal. Tribals are even less represented in politics and the professions than Muslims, and economically worse off as well. In the heyday of State-led

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industrialization, adivasis lost their lands, homes, forests and livelihoods to public sector dams, mines and factories; now they lose them to dams, mines and factories owned by private companies. One statistic says it all: while they are 8 per cent of India's population, adivasis constitute a staggering 40 per cent of those displaced by mega projects.

Adivasis are the principal victims of India's economic liberalization. On the other side, this liberalization has benefited tens of millions of non-tribal Indians, by lifting them out of poverty, and generating better paying as well as more productive jobs. Of particular note is the widening social base of Indian entrepreneurship. Once, this sector was dominated by family firms run by Jains, Banias, and Parsis. Now, farming castes such as Gounders and Marathas produce successful entrepreneurs; as do elite Brahmins and subaltern Dalits, the first previously hostile to business, the latter previously excluded from it.

The cities of southern and western India - Pune, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and the like - are abuzz with new businesses, large and small, innovative and risk-taking, founded by Indians of all ages and social backgrounds. The benefits of this entrepreneurial energy and vision percolate to other parts of the country, via taxes and subsidies, and remittances sent home by migrants. There remain substantial inequalities within and between states, and within cities such as Mumbai and Bengaluru. On the whole, however, the steady economic growth of the past decades has freed millions of Indians from destitution, and given them greater security and dignity.

Is India more democratic than it was 10 years ago? Or is it less democratic? The answer is neither one or the other, but perhaps both. While the quality of political democracy may have degraded in the past decade, social and economic democracy has somewhat deepened. We remain where we were in 2007; a flawed and imperfect, so to say, 'fifty-fifty' democracy. The Republic of India is by no means a Hindu Pakistan, but the violence in everyday life and the corrosion of our public institutions mean that maybe, at the same time, we are some distance short of being a South Asian Canada.

TELEGRAPH, AUG 6, 2017Beyond minorities- Rethinking secular politics

Mukul Kesavan

The success of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the general elections of 2014 and subsequent state elections, particularly the election in Uttar Pradesh earlier this year, will, sooner or later, force its opponents to revisit the first principles of their politics. The BJP, led by Narendra Modi, aims for a nation state where minority citizens are politically neutered; not a minority- mukt nation but a minority-mute nation. This aim is consistent with the formal processes of democracy as the elections in UP demonstrated. The BJP won a massive majority of seats in the largest provincial legislature in India without nominating a Muslim candidate and then raised a monk to the post of chief minister. To target and marginalize a substantial Muslim minority in India's biggest state and still win absolute power is an extraordinary and ominous political achievement that electorally, at least, vindicates the BJP's strategy of Hindu

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consolidation.

More precisely, the BJP's success demonstrates that in a parliamentary democracy with a first-past-the-post system, it is possible to mobilize a winning plurality of votes on the strength of Hindutvavadi mobilization. One of the founding premises of political pluralism in India has been that diversity - linguistic, social, economic - prevents the consolidation of religious communities into political blocs. The BJP's success in UP seems to make the point that it isn't necessary to consolidate all Hindus to achieve political power. Where the nominal religious majority is large enough, a party like the BJP can carve a political majority out of, say, half its votes. Very crudely, if we take Hindus to constitute roughly 80 per cent of the Indian population, half of this 80 per cent will yield 40 per cent of the vote, which is what the BJP and its allies received in 2014, the basis of the National Democratic Alliance's lower House majority.

This column will look at a particular critique of 'secularist' politics that has begun to emerge in a scattered way in the wake of electoral defeat and examine its implications. For want of a better term, this tendency might be described as the argument for an anti-identitarian secular politics.

The premise of this critique is that the point of a secular politics ought to be the creation of political majorities that aren't founded on the principle of religious community. It follows from this that people and parties that describe themselves as secular must strive to find political constituencies defined by economic, ethical or linguistic solidarities. They should not pick their battles if they can help it around issues centred on faith communities. This critique sees the emphasis on pluralism in desi secularism as a fatal distraction from the main project of classical secularism, the protection of individual freedom.×According to this argument, secularism in contemporary India has shrunk to one of its subsidiary functions: minority protection. The safeguarding of minorities should be a part of any secular politics, but it can't be its reason for being. The protection of minorities should be derived from larger positions on citizenship and the rights it implies. Otherwise secularism stops being a guide to political action.

The defence of minorities should only emerge as a byproduct of larger political battles fought over individual rights or more general positions about caste and class, language or and region; not in terms of the protection of minorities and 'their' rights. So this critique would have it that it's reasonable to ask for backward Muslim communities to be included in the roster of communities described as OBCs but provocative to ask for 'Muslim' reservation because the former claim is based on backwardness and the latter on religious identity.

This critique argues that casting minorities as victims rhetorically amounts to casting the majority as the oppressor; this is not a good battle to pick regardless of how you apportion blame and virtue, oppression and victimhood. Also, secularists who consistently argue that the idea of a politically realized Hindu community is a majoritarian fiction should be careful about invoking 'the majority' when they argue for the protection of minorities. A vulnerable minority doesn't imply a malevolent majority, but careless secular rhetoric is prone to this sort of

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slippage.

How would adopting this critique help the secular cause? The argument here is that it would save secularists from the temptations of a promiscuous pluralism. So it would inoculate them against alliances with explicitly community-based parties like the Muslim League in Kerala or the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen. The AIMIM is the paradigmatic case; a secularist who finds himself making a case for it has lost his way. Even if he reads the AIMIM's limited success as a symptom of beleaguerment amongst a section of Muslims, he needs to distinguish between empathy ('I can see why') and endorsement ('I can make common cause with it'). Empathy is a useful exercise because it helps us put ourselves in someone else's shoes, but in the case of sectarian parties it ought to stop there; for a secularist, those boots aren't made for walking.

Similarly, the anti-identitarian rule of thumb would forewarn us that the explicit wooing of Muslim communities by political leaders like Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee makes them unreliable allies in the struggle against the BJP. The symbolism of patronage being extended by way of stipends and grants to imams and madrasas will, sooner or later, create a backlash that will deliver these regions to the BJP.

So far, this critique of contemporary anti-majoritarian politics seems to advocate a defensive secularism, trying to guard its flanks against the charge of pandering in the hope of creating common cause over issues like unemployment, agricultural stagnation, fundamental rights, the struggle against corruption and so on. Those who advocate this position point to the inability of avowedly secularist parties to stop the onward electoral march of the BJP as proof positive of the failure of the old pluralist politics.

It's possible to argue that the two political figures that came closest to creating an oppositional imagination that appealed to the electorate were Arvind Kejriwal and Nitish Kumar, both of whom, at various times, spoke up against the dangers of Hindutvavadipolitics without ever making this stance the theme song of their politics, unlike, say, Lalu Prasad or Mamata Banerjee. Both used the idea of a crusade against corruption as their political calling card and won significant electoral victories. Their use of secular rhetoric was instrumental; their opposition to the BJP's majoritarianism seemed strategic rather than a constant principle that limited their room for manoeuvre.

It can be argued that it was precisely this flexibility that allowed them to win victories that a more dogmatic adherence to secular principle might have prevented. It's hard, though, to see either Nitish Kumar or Arvind Kejriwal as the pioneers of a new secular politics given their subsequent careers.

The other difficulty with this otherwise unexceptionable critique of desi pluralism is that it is so anxiously premised on the need to avoid the perils of 'pandering' and the danger of a Hindu 'backlash' that it seems almost to imply that majoritarian success is a consequence of such pandering. In other words, it suggests that majoritarian politics was historically built on minority assertiveness and secular excess. This is so close to the Hindutvavadi position that it is in some danger of collapsing into it.

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Also, it isn't historically the case that willed secular blindness to race or religious community disarms majoritarian resentment or helps integrate minorities. Laïcité, France's ongoing experiment with community-blind secularism, sometimes seems like an exercise in republican perverseness. A strict follower of the principles of anti-identitarian secularism would have to distance himself from, for example, the 'Black Lives Matter' campaign because to single out the lives of black people is to devalue the worth of all individual lives. To refuse to acknowledge the specificity of discrimination at particular moments - the shooting of black people by US policemen or the lynching of Muslims by Hindu vigilantes - is to dissolve politics into ahistorical abstraction.

There is something precious about secularists tiptoeing around religious community at precisely the time when the principal force in Indian politics, the BJP, is giving the goal of a Hindu rashtra its undivided attention. A democratic State should abide by norms that prevent a religious community, or a party acting in its name, from monopolizing the culture and politics of a nation and its institutions. It is salutary and right to insist that secularism is more than the defence of minorities, but a secular politics nervous of calling out bigotry for fear of the electoral cost, doesn't deserve the name.

TRIBUNE, AUG 3, 2017Tales from two PunjabsKC SinghOld rulers, new challengesKC Singh

TWO events affecting the chief ministers in the two Punjabs on the opposite side of the Indo-Pakistan border remind one of William Wordsworth’s The Solitary Reaper: “For old, unhappy, far-off things; And battles long ago”. One was the passing away of the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh's mother and the last recognised Maharani of Patiala, Rajmata Mohinder Kaur nee Mehtab Kaur. The other is Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s ouster in Pakistan on the vacuous ground of his conduct lacking “ameen” and “sadiq”, words implying undefined piety, inserted in the Pakistani constitution by the late President Zia-ul-Haq from Islamic jurisprudence, simply because he concealed the unpaid chairmanship of a free trade zone company in Dubai. Nawaz is likely to be replaced by his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the current Chief Minister of Pakistani Punjab. Both events have provenance that merits recalling.

The Rajmata was married at 16 and became the Maharani of Patiala a year later, on the death of her colourful father-in-law, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh. She has now left amidst all the pomp that the mother of the current ruler of Punjab, not just Patiala, automatically begets. Both my family and that of my wife flourished under the last two rulers of the Patiala state. My wife's grandfather, Lt-Gen Balwant Singh, rose to head the Patiala state forces before retiring in 1948.

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My grandfather, Capt Waryam Singh, was In-charge of Deodi i.e. comptroller of household in the 1920s, serving a young Bhupinder Singh.

My debt to Patiala is thus indirect and distant, although the past, bits of which one learnt in one’s youth, is worth recalling. This is also a way of condoling for those who are neither friends of Captain Sahib nor courtiers, and yet are more than passing acquaintances; protocol and inaccessibility rule out a personal visit. The first wife of Maharaja Yadavindra Singh was Rajkumari Hem Prabha Devi of Saraikela, now in Orissa, from the family of Singhdeos. She passed away unheralded in 2014, aged 101. The stated reason for the Crown Prince remarrying was the first marriage being issueless. Actually the truth is more complex.

Alongside the freedom movement agitation began in states run by local rulers for greater political rights and civil liberties. The Panjab Riyasti Praja Mandal was formed in 1928, aligning itself with the national All India States People’s Conference. The initiative in Punjab came from Akali workers, self-confident after succeeding at gurdwara reform. At their first meeting at Mansa on July 17, 1928, they appointed Seva Singh Thikrivala as president. In 1929 they produced a report titled “Indictment of Patiala” against Maharaja Bhupinder Singh and sent it to the Viceroy. Despite this the Maharaja, as the sitting Chancellor of the Chamber of Princes was the sole representative of rulers at the Round Table Conference in November 1930. The Praja Mandal stepped up the agitation and Thikrivala, who had been once released, was jailed again in 1933, where he died in 1935.

The father of the Rajamata, Harchand Singh Jaijee, was a close aide of Thikrivala. That is why despite the family belonging to Patiala, the Rajmata was born at Ludhiana, a part of British India and out of Maharaja Patiala's reach. In 1936 Patiala state signed an agreement with Akali leader Master Tara Singh, splitting the Praja Mandal movement. The marriage of Sardar Jaijee’s daughter to the heir apparent Yadavindra Singh in 1938 thus tied into this appeasing of Sikh sentiments. In fact, stories circulated that Akali leaders wanted the future ruler of Patiala to marry in a Sikh family so as to beget genuine Sikh heirs. Ironically, having got their wish in the birth of Capt Amarinder Singh, Akalis now discover that he has become their main Congress challenger in Punjab, as the Bluestar taint does not stick on him.

Thus Captain Singh inherited both a regal lineage through his father but also a republican and Akali tradition through his mother. As an inheritor of this fusion it was not surprising he walked away from the Congress in 1984 over the Army entering the Golden Temple during Operation Bluestar. I remember as Deputy Secretary to President Zail Singh in 1984, when PM Indira Gandhi's office was desperately trying to locate and dissuade Captain Sahib the argument in

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Rashtrapati Bhavan was that his maternal Jaijee family had incited Captain Singh. The Rajmata herself showed the same streak when throwing her lot with the Morarji Desai Congress, due to her rumoured friendship with Asoka Mehta, one of the founders of the trade union movement and INTUC.  Thus the Rajmata's death closes this chapter of Indian and Punjab history where she bridged the divide between effete royalty and Sikh and republican traditions, as indeed the conflict within the Congress between its past freedom movement camaraderie and subservience to one family.

In Pakistan it is again a concerted attempt by the military and its allies like Imran Khan to end Nawaz Sharif's attempt to perpetuate family rule. Shahbaz, I have on authority of a former aide to the then PM Nawaz Sharif, was in the PM's house in 1999 when Nawaz decided to sack the Army chief, Gen Perevz Musharraf, during an official visit to Sri Lanka. General Musharraf indirectly confirmed this recently saying he thought Shahbaz was his friend. Nawaz’s family had convinced him that Shahbaz and Musharraf were plotting against him. So he never consulted his own brother before his foolish move. Shahbaz is obviously more acceptable to the military than Nawaz's daughter, Mariam, who was the designated heir. He also has had working relations with Jehadi outfits, having used the carrot and the stick to control them in Punjab. There will be continuity and change, the nature of which will determine Indo-Pak relations. 

Similarly, the Modi government is not only impaling Lalu Yadav but his entire line of heirs with money laundering charges. Corruption, money-laundering, Panama Papers, benami deals are the new weapons which those in power in the subcontinent are using to corner political rivals and their families. But like the Akalis in Punjab, the BJP may find that clearing the cluttered Opposition leadership stable may actually open space for new leaders who could become the real challenge. The BJP and the Pakistani Army must remember the Chinese curse: “May all your wishes come true”. 

The writer is a former Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs

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PRESIDENTS

HINDU, AUG 7, 2017Vice-President Naidu

He has to rely on his tact and temperamentin his new role as an apolitical elder

As Vice-President, M. Venkaiah Naidu brings to the office his long years of experience as

Parliamentary Affairs Minister, built on an amiable personality that has won him friends

cutting across party divides. His election was no surprise given the numbers in Parliament,

and the contest was something of a non-starter despite Gopalkrishna Gandhi’s attempt to

portray it as an ideological face-off. That Mr. Naidu did not give much room for raising the

profile of the battle for the office of the Vice-President is reflective of his tact and

temperament, qualities that will stand him in good stead in his primary job as the Chairman

of the Rajya Sabha. He can be expected to take on the ceremonial and diplomatic duties of

the Vice-President, which are akin to those of the President, with minimum fuss. The

Bharatiya Janata Party zeroed in on him for more than one reason. He is the most prominent

face of the BJP in the south, having previously served as the national president of the party.

Although Karnataka, and not his home State of Andhra Pradesh, is the first and only State in

the south to vote the BJP to power, Mr. Naidu was in many ways the symbol of the party’s

foray into the south.

Left to himself, Mr. Naidu would probably have chosen to continue in active politics, and

not take on this constitutional post. He was the BJP’s go-to person for making allies in the

south. He developed a good equation with K. Chandrasekhar Rao in Telangana, N.

Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh and Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu. By all accounts, Mr.

Naidu relished his political role in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana as much as his ministerial

role at the Centre. But given the BJP’s new-found majority in the Lok Sabha, and its

ambitious plan to expand its own base in the south beyond Karnataka, party president Amit

Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi may have felt less need for Mr. Naidu’s ally-

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making abilities. But, even if the BJP leadership does not miss him in Andhra Pradesh and

Telangana, Mr. Modi will still have a hole to fill in his Cabinet. Some of the senior ministers

such as Arun Jaitley hold more than one important portfolio, and losing another senior hand

will surely have an effect on the representativeness and balance of the Council of Ministers.

Already Mr. Modi has lost the services of Manohar Parrikar, who moved to Goa as Chief

Minister after relinquishing his job as Defence Minister. As for Mr. Naidu, he could well be

the BJP’s choice for the next President. The Shah-Modi team is known for making long-

term plans, and it cannot be ruled out that they made the choice with an eye on Rashtrapati

Bhavan in 2022.

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