EDITORIAL SAMARTH: EDITORIAL 31.07.10

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Editorial

month julyy 31, edition 000585, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

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THE PIONEER

CAMERON CHARMS INDIA
RETURN OF THE CHEETAH
DHAKA FEELS HURT, DELHI TO BLAME - HIRANMAY KARLEKAR
CHASING MAYA IN PURSUIT OF GOD - AJIT BISHNOI
WIKILEAKS OR WIKIHYPE? - S RAJAGOPALAN
A DECADE OF LIES AND MURDERS - WILSON JOHN
PAKISTAN A DOUBLE DEALING NATION - TUNKU VARADARAJAN

THE TIMES OF INDIA

THE TAXMAN'S DAY OUT
BIG GOVERNMENT MUST GO - MINHAZ MERCHANT
IT'S A MATTER OF CHOICE
BEAUTY ISN'T SKIN-DEEP - RUDRONEEL GHOSH
PAK DUPLICITY RUNS OUT OF STEAM - DILEEP PADGAONKAR

HINDUSTAN TIMES

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT
THE RAINBOW PEOPLE - GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI
MUCH BIGGER THAN THE VIETNAM LEAK - PRATIK KANJILAL

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

MIZORAM'S SURPRISE
PROBLEM SETS
ENHANCED, ENDURING
THE POWER OF ONE - SHEKHAR GUPTA
THE DREAMLIFE OF CITIES - YOGINDER K. ALAGH
LEMONADE IN SINGLE MALT - SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI
CASTE IS NOT INVISIBLE - SHARAD YADAV
TOWN AND GOWN - MEETA SENGUPTA
THE PLACE THAT WILL TAKE YOU IN
PAKISTAN-OBFUSCATED KASHMIR - RUCHIKA TALWAR

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

ON PRICE RISE
BUILDING CITIES
INVESTMENT CONTINUES TO BOOM - MAHESH VYAS
THE SINGHS GET IT RIGHT AGAIN - MG ARUN
INDIAN STUDENTS PREFER THE UK - NIKHILA GILL

THE HINDU

A DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP
THE VOTE AND BEYOND
THE POLITICS OF TALIBAN RECONCILIATION - M.K. BHADRAKUMAR
UNEXAMINED DANGER OFF THE SHORES - SATYAJIT SARNA
GENDER WAR, YET TO BE WON - V.R. KRISHNA IYER
JULY IS DEADLIEST MONTH OF AFGHAN WAR FOR THE U.S.

THE ASIAN AGE

CAMERON, IN INDIA, SENDS RIGHT SIGNALS
TEMPORARY GAINS - FARRUKH DHONDY
PEACE WITH PAK, BUT WITH A BIG STICK- S.K. SINHA
IN BED WITH BRITAIN - SHOBHAA DE
THE MEDIOCRE CRAFTSMEN - KISHWAR DESAI

DNA

OUTSOURCE THE GAMES
VENKATESAN VEMBU
DREAMS OF BEAUTY IN THE SHANTIES - PATRALEKHA CHATTERJEE
I'M MERCENARY: I WROTE DAY OF THE JACKAL FOR MONEY: FREDERICK FORSYTH - VENKATESAN VEMBU

THE TRIBUNE

PYRRHIC VICTORY
RIGHT TO EDUCATION
THE LEGEND LIVES ON
EXTENSION FOR KAYANI - BY K. SUBRAHMANYAM
A PATCH OF PARADISE - BY VIJAI SINGH MANKOTIA
YOU NEED TWO TO MAKE - RAJSHREE SARDA
LOVE AAJ KAL - SAJLA CHAWLA

BUSINESS STANDARD

1951 redux - T n ninan
Rbi 1, subbarao - SURJIT S BHALLA
REVERSE EAST INDIA COMPANY - SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY
CITY DEVELOPMENT VIA DEVOLUTION - DEVANGSHU DATTA
A GENERATION GOT LEFT OUT - SUBIR ROY
INSIDE MYANMAR - FACT AND FICTION - V V
MAKING EUROPE WORK - JEAN PISANI-FERRY
THE STORY OF JADUI PANKH - GEETANJALI KRISHNA

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

CURRY MANTRA
TRY OUT SCHOOL VOUCHERS
IT'S A MIXED BAG
TON HAS MORE WEIGHT
FROM CONCEPTION TO INCEPTION - VITHAL C NADKARNI
WE MAKE SCIENCE FUN TO LEARN: ARVIND GUPTA - JAYASHREE BHOSALE
REVISIT SEBI'S CONSENT ORDERS - M R MAYYA

DECCAN CHRONICAL

CAMERON, IN INDIA, SENDS RIGHT SIGNALS
TEMPORARY GAINS - BY FARRUKH DHONDY
MID-CAREER HOLIDAY FOR TOP COPS
PEACE WITH PAK, BUT WITH A BIG STICK - BY S.K. SINHA
THE MEDIOCRE CRAFTSMEN - BY KISHWAR DESAI
IN BED WITH BRITAIN - BY SHOBHAA DE

THE STATESMAN

UNDER-EQUIPPED
GENDER CENSUS
LOSE SOME, WIN SOME
NUCLEAR COOPERATION

THE TELEGRAPH

STADIUM AS SYMBOL
INSTRUMENT OF THE SELF - RAMACHANDRA GUHA

DECCAN HERALD

ELITIST SELF-DELUSION
CONFIDENT SURGE
KICKING UP THE DUST - BY RAMAKRISHNA UPADHYA
KNOWN TURF: DAKU MORALITY - BY KHUSHWANT SINGH
NEIGHBOURLY VIBES - BY BHARATHI PRABHU

THE NEW YORK TIMES

A TOUGHER CAR SAFETY AGENCY
THE FIGHT OVER EDUCATION IN WASHINGTON
DETENTION AND THE DISABLED
FECKLESS AND CRUEL
LET'S MAKE IT REAL - BY GAIL COLLINS
OBAMA'S 'RACE' WAR - BY CHARLES M. BLOW
NO AFGHAN ALLY LEFT BEHIND - BY SEYMOUR TOPPING

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

'DEMOCRATIC SELF-GOVERNMENT' AND DECENTRALIZATION - CENGİZ AKTAR
BRITAIN IS GREAT, INDEED - MUSTAFA AKYOL
ANTI-TURKEY CLIMATE IN THE US CONGRESS - İLHAN TANIR
JAPANESE NO LONGER BUY BOTICELLI - GİLA BENMAYOR
WHAT DO AIDS ACTIVISTS WANT MORE MONEY FOR? - ROGER ENGLAND
A BIRD'S EYE VIEW - IT COSTS TOO MUCH - ADVENA AVIS
THE CORRIDOR - THE CHP'S NEW IDENTITY - GÖKSEL BOZKURT
WOMEN'S RIGHTS NGOS APPLAUD TURKISH PERFORMANCE AT UN - MERAL ÇİYAN ŞENERDİ
WOMEN'S RIGHTS NGOS APPLAUD TURKISH PERFORMANCE AT UN - MERAL ÇİYAN ŞENERDİ
WHAT A SECURE E-STATE? - YUSUF KANLI
PAINTING A MORE OPEN TURKEY - MARK VAN YETTER
A MULTICULTURAL RIDE IN NATURE - VISA REGULATIONS - SADETTİN ORHAN

I.THE NEWS

FLOODED OUT
EVEN KARZAI NOW
MANMOHAN'S DESIRE
WIKILEAKS OMINOUS FOR PAKISTAN - ARIF NIZAMI
ON PSYCHOPATHS
CHARLES FERNDALE
FADING ROMANCE - BABAR SATTAR
BJP PLUNGES TO A NEW LOW - PRAFUL BIDWAI
GOJRA - WASIM ARIF

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

ORCHESTRATED TIRADE AGAINST PAKISTAN
TASK BEFORE SARDAR ATTIQUE
ANOTHER RAMZAN GIFT OF THE GOVERNMENT
FIGHT WITH TALIBAN - HUSAIN HAQQANI
CAMERON: ROAD TO HAGUE - RIZWAN GHANI
BROUHAHA OVER GEN KAYANI'S EXTENSION - MOHAMMAD JAMIL
HILLARY CLINTON'S TERSE WORDS - BURHANUDDIN HASAN
CURBING YOUR ENTHUSIASM - PAUL KRUGMAN

THE INDEPENDENT

THE AUSTRALIAN

FRESH IDEAS NEEDED ON REFUGEES
AN EXHAUSTED BODY POLITIC FAILS THE NATIONAL INTEREST

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

IT TAKES A LOT MORE THAN JUST WHATEVER IT TAKES
DOES MY BUM LOOK DIFFERENTLY SIZED IN THIS?
POLICY BOASTS: THIS IS A KNIFE LAW
MELBOURNE'S IN THE NANNY STATE - OF BLISS

THE GUARDIAN

IAIN DUNCAN SMITH: QUESTION TIME
UNTHINKABLE? LIFE ON MARS
BOOK PUBLISHING: SCARY READING

THE JAPAN TIMES

MIYAZAKI CRISIS ALMOST OVER
A CALL FOR DEATH PENALTY DEBATE
BEIJING'S ASIA POWER PLAY - BY MICHAEL RICHARDSON

THE JAKARTA POST

PROTECTING CONSUMERS
STRUGGLING FOR LITERACY IN ENGLISH: VOICES FROM THE CLASSROOM - SETIONO SUGIHARTO
BETWEEN INFOTAINMENT, RAMADAN AND PUBLIC MIND - KHAIRIL AZHAR
GLOBAL HOMEWORK FOR RI - DEWI ANGGRAENI

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

CAMERON CHARMS INDIA

BUT SCEPTICISM REMAINS ABOUT UK'S RELEVANCE

In some respects, Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to India is the most successful ever undertaken by a British Prime Minister to this country in recent times. For plain-speaking — whether on terrorism and role of the Pakistani state, or on India's economic potential — public symbolism and an obvious individual motivation to enhance the bilateral relationship, Mr Cameron has had few peers in 10 Downing Street. In that sense, he has picked up the thread from Mr Tony Blair, the first Western leader to talk of India's growing economic weight and to invite it as a guest to meetings of the Group of Eight. Unfortunately, in the post-Blair era, ties suffered somewhat. Britain encountered a bruising internal debate on Iraq and the larger war on terror; the economic recession crippled it; and despite good intentions, Mr Gordon Brown simply lost his way. India was the victim of confused thinking in Whitehall in this period, particularly when a whippersnapper Foreign Secretary turned up only weeks after the November 26, 2008, terror strikes in Mumbai, to give India a remarkably crude and unsympathetic lecture on how it had invited the attack on itself. That visit — in a history of British diplomatic disasters, it would probably rank just below Neville Chamberlain's trip to Munich — had a far greater impact than the immediate. It not only convinced the Indian strategic establishment that Britain was an unreliable and unwilling partner in the larger battle against pan-Islamism, it also suggested Britain's global role was sharply contracting and the process had more or less become irreversible. Indeed, in a reckoning of bilateral interlocutors, Washington, DC, Beijing, Paris, even Singapore and Canberra, have begun to upstage London in recent years. This is a telling commentary on how Britain has 'let itself go'.

Mr Cameron's initiative to reinvent the equation with India has to be seen in this context. The recovery of Britain hinges upon its ability to put its economy back on the rails. Getting a slice of the India growth story will be an important parameter. Unlike the 1990s, it is not just a question of increasing British investment in India; the momentum has gone far beyond that. Today, Indian companies are significant investors in Britain, particularly in once-great but now decaying manufacturing companies. A combination of Indian entrepreneurship and component outsourcing can yet revive these declining brands. Tata Motors's purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover is a case in point. The second imperative is to make Britain attractive to skilled immigrants from India. London has a fair number of financial services professionals from India, but for the most part the rest of the country has not marketed itself to, for instance, Indian IT companies, which have set up facilities in even Ireland. There are also opportunities for British defence companies and universities in India, though here too they will find their American cousins ahead of the game. Finally, whether it is on terrorism or on any other international challenge, Mr Cameron's Government seems to find it important to establish Britain's credibility as an all-season friend and not one given to volatility in its approach to India. Too often in the past decades has Britain sought to second guess the United States and adopted a me-too policy on India. Consequently, India, realising this, has learnt to take Britain less seriously. There is a gap here that Mr Cameron needs to fill. The bells and whistles of his visit were chosen to do just that.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

RETURN OF THE CHEETAH

GOOD IDEA TO REVIVE SPECIES, BUT WILL IT WORK?

If all goes well, the cheetah will soon roam India forests once again. The Government and wildlife enthusiasts appear tremendously excited by the prospect, and understandably so. The fastest animal on Earth vanished from India some 40 years ago, and it is the only big cat that is missing from the Indian wildlife map — lions, tigers, leopards and snow leopards are all there. The fact that it derives its name from Sanskrit seems to have caught Minister for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh's imagination, but that's really inconsequential. What is important is the reintroduction of the cheetah in the wild will have a positive impact on the ecological life cycle. We are still some years away from achieving this goal since a huge amount of ground work needs to be done. Funds have to be sourced, sites need to be readied and villages located within the proposed reserved areas have to be relocated. The Government also needs to convince naysayers among wildlife activists who believe that it is unwise to import and re-introduce cheetahs when we are incapable of protecting our tigers from poachers. There are others who question the cost of undertaking the project — according to one estimate, the Government may have to spend Rs 300 crore in the first year towards the upkeep and maintenance of the proposed cheetah reserves. Critics argue that this money would be better spent in preserving existing wildlife species and protecting reserved forests.

Yet, it's a tantalising idea to bring home an animal that has long disappeared from our country. Viewed from this perspective, it is worth the effort and expenditure. Not only would a species be revived in India's wild, but also new reserves would be created. Together, they are bound to enthuse wildlife enthusiasts as well as generate greater awareness among the masses to preserve animal life in the wild. While it is true that the tiger conservation programme has faltered at various stages, it has succeeded in firmly keeping the issue of protecting big cats in the limelight. As a result, several projects for protecting tigers continue with commendable work despite heavy odds. Lessons have also been learnt that can be put to good use while re-introducing the cheetah. The project, as envisioned, is modest in scale, as it should be to begin with. Initially 18 cheetahs, sourced from West Asia (where north African cheetahs are bred), Iran, Namibia and South Africa will be introduced in the designated reserves at Kuno-Palpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Nauradehi Wildlife Sanctuary (in Madhya Pradesh) and Shahgarh Landscape at Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. Hopefully, these cheetahs will take to their new homes and multiply over the years. Whether nature allows that to happen, however, remains to be seen.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

DHAKA FEELS HURT, DELHI TO BLAME

HIRANMAY KARLEKAR

An article, published under the headline, "Have Bangladesh-India relations hit a snag?", in The Daily Star, one of Bangladesh's leading newspapers, on July 24, deserves some attention. The author, Mr Serajul Islam, a former diplomat, quoted his country's Commerce Minister as saying that an agreement on the removal of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, arrived at between India and Bangladesh during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's state visit to India, had not been implemented though six months had passed. Mr Islam had further said that the Minister had "criticised the bureaucrats on either side for things not having moved the way they should have". He added that Bangladesh's Foreign Minister, who had earlier spoken eloquently about the success of Sheikh Hasina's visit and the paradigm shift in India-Bangladesh relations it portended, did not comment before media about the Commerce Minister's statement. This and the Foreign Ministry's silence "has surprised many who are following Bangladesh-India relations and left them guessing about what is exactly happening".

Mr Islam's article reflects the concern felt by an increasingly large number of Bangladeshis over their country's relations with India, which are not progressing as they should. Dhaka, they feel, has done more than its share, particularly in addressing New Delhi's security concerns. Its pro-active role in curbing the activities of rebels active in north-eastern India operating out of its territory has landed in India's custody such militants as Arabinda Rajkhowa of the ULFA and Ranjan Daimari of the NDFB. Bangladesh has also come down hard on Islamist terrorists acting against India from its soil. Among those detained are Mufti Obaidullah of the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba, an Indian national who had fled to Bangladesh in June 1995, and LeT organiser and Indian national Maulana Mansur Ali. Also arrested are Daud Merchant, a close associate of Daud Ibrahim, and his associate, Zahid Sheikh — both Indian nationals.

Needless to say, Sheikh Hasina has been severely attacked by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of Begum Khaleda Zia and fundamentalist Islamists gathered around the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh who had turned Bangladesh into a major launching pad of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism inside India. They have been accusing Sheikh Hasina of selling out to India. In an article in The Daily Star shortly after Sheikh Hasina's visit to India in January 2010, Mr Reaz Rahman, a former Foreign Secretary of Bangladesh and an important BNP functionary, had observed that her trip was a failure. She had received little, conceded much.

It is not that India has not done anything. But the credit of $1 billion it has provided for the development of Bangladesh's power sector will take time to show results. Its offer of providing 250 MW of power to Bangladesh will require the linking of the power grids of the two countries through the construction of a 100-km long transmission line for actualisation. The sharing of the waters of Ganga and Teesta will also take time to sort out. Hence the importance of progress in areas where results will be relatively quick. Redressing Bangladesh's heavily adverse balance of trade with India by facilitating Bangladeshi exports to this country is one such area. Regrettably, despite promises, very little has been done here since Sheikh Hasina's visit. Even more so is the total lack of progress in respect of the flyover which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sheikh Hasina had agreed to be constructed at Teen Bigha enclave. The functioning of the Joint Working Groups on border disputes and trade have been such that they might not have existed at all. The SAARC group on infrastructure, which is supposed to meet every six months, has reportedly not met in the last two years.

One can hardly blame the Bangladeshis for feeling chagrined. Some doubtless argue that Bangladesh has not provided transit to Indian goods to north-eastern India through its territory; nor has it agreed to sell natural gas to — nor stanched the flow of illegal immigrants into — this country. On the first two, progress will take time. As to illegal immigration, the main threat to India relates to its security. The porous border, which permits easy crossings, is used by Islamist terrorists to come over from Bangladesh. Poor border management complicates matters. Sheikh Hasina's strong steps against terrorist organisations like Harkat-ul-Jihadi-al-Islami Bangladesh and Jamaat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh, as well as organisations like the LeT, promises to take out the most contentious issue out of the immigration debate. The important point is that the crackdown must continue, which will not if she loses the 2014 parliamentary election and the pathologically anti-India BNP-Jamaat-led coalition returns to power. India needs to ensure that this does not happen and Sheikh Hasina and the Awami League remain in power after 2014. It must rest its relations with Bangladesh not on the basis of loss and gain, but on its strategic vision of South Asia anchored to its security compulsions.

The year 2014 is going to be critical, and not merely because of the election in Bangladesh. President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan told a one-day international conference in Kabul on July 20, 2010, "I remain determined that our Afghan national security forces will be responsible for all military and law enforcement operations throughout our country by 2014." It is also the year in which parliamentary election is due in India and serious consequences will follow if these do not produce a strong and stable Union Government and the strategic environment deteriorates sharply.

Mr Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's Secretary-General, no doubt told the Kabul conference that "conditions, not calendars" would shape the transition to Afghan-led security and "Our mission will end only when... the Afghans are able to maintain security on their own." But given the way things are going, one cannnot rule out the possibility of the US and Nato countries withdrawing from Afghanistan following a face-saving agreement which paves the way for a Taliban take-over. Once this happens, Pakistan will unleash an unprecedented wave of terrorism against India, spearheaded by the jihadi groups it has been nursing and backed by its entire military might enhanced by the massive aid it is receiving from the US. It is easy to imagine what will happen if a hostile Bangladesh with Begum Zia as Prime Minister ensures that India has a troubled eastern border.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

CHASING MAYA IN PURSUIT OF GOD

AJIT BISHNOI

A verse in Bhagavad Gita runs thus. "Out of thousands of men, hardly anyone strives for perfection. Out of those striving yogis, too, hardly anyone knows me in essence." When I first read this verse, I was surprised. It is the second part of the verse that sparked doubts in my mind. Why would hardly anyone from among those taking the trouble to attempt linking with god know him in reality?

I have subsequently realised why. God is a repository of riches — both material and spiritual. We approach him seeking either or both. However, what does practically everyone want? Material riches, of course, owing to maya — illusion that overpowers all. How else can one explain spiritualists also seeking what an ordinary man seeks? Spiritualists, too, seek fame, wealth, comforts, attention, rewards and power. Additionally, they seek the status of being worshipped by disciples and a large following.

In doing so, they fail to realise the spiritual aspects of god. Maya is prominent even in the matter of one's body; one remains attached to it, even though liberation is actually being free of it. It is an unbelievable contradiction for most spiritualists, a fatal flaw in their approach.

We seek god for four reasons, when in trouble, when seeking material benefits, when one is inquisitive about god, and when one is cognisant of god (verse #7.16). Obviously, the last pertains to the category of greatest beneficiaries. Once someone has had a taste of the resulting bliss, he or she is likely to continue pursuing the connection with god and not get sidetracked by material attractions. (verse #2.59)

We have two choices — to seek material gains and remain in perpetual bondage to the cycle of birth and death or seek god in the true sense and be free of this cycle. For those who choose the latter, there is an additional advantage — that of feeling liberated even while alive. But those who choose this path are rare because the gains begin to appear only after a long time. No wonder, practically all take the other route. Their illusion is overpowering but the fact remains that you cannot know god if you try linking with him only for material purposes.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

WIKILEAKS OR WIKIHYPE?

NATIONS OFTEN HAVE CONFRONTATIONS WITH "THE TRUTH", BUT INVARIABLY END UP DOING NOTHING WITH THEM. THIS WEEK AMERICA HIT SUCH A CROSSROADS.

S RAJAGOPALAN

Who is Julian Assange? Many would have asked until last Sunday, when the soft-spoken Australian made a bold statement that has shaken America's corridors of power. A former computer programmer, a convicted hacker and a sometimes journalist, the 39-year-old put out some 92,000 classified United States military documents relating to the war in Afghanistan on the whistleblower website that he founded four years ago — WikiLeaks.

Airing the material pertaining to the 2004-09 phase of the ongoing war has startled and infuriated the White House and the Pentagon alike. For the record, however, the authorities have downplayed the import of the expose. President Barack Obama was dismissive: "The fact is these documents don't reveal any issues that haven't already informed our public debate on Afghanistan." But he added he was concerned that the disclosures could potentially jeopardise individuals or operations.

Assange does not agree with Obama or other functionaries of his administration about the significance of the leaked material. He for one believes that what he has brought to light is comparable to the Pentagon Papers saga of the 1970s, when contributor Daniel Ellsberg turned over the top-secret analysis of the US's unpopular involvement in the Vietnam War to the New York Times and later to the Washington Post. Assange for his part opted to hand over the Afghan war logs to three different media outlets — NYT, Britain's Guardian and Germany's

Der Spiegel — with instructions not to report on them till July 25, when he would post the 92,000 odd documents on the WikiLeaks website.

Ellsberg himself has a word of praise for Assange, saying the young Australian "is serving our (American) democracy and serving our rule of law precisely by challenging the secrecy regulations, which are not laws in most cases, in this country".

Whatever the contention of the US authorities over the worth of the disclosures, the expose has strongly vindicated India's long-held stand on the machinations of Pakistan's notorious Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). The war logs have vividly brought out the ISI's covert support to the Taliban, despite Islamabad receiving billions of dollars from the United States to help crush the Taliban-al-Qaeda combine's insurgency. More than 180 intelligence files in the war logs are said to detail accusations that the ISI has been supplying, arming and training the insurgency since at least 2004. Although the ISI's shenanigans have been chronicled in the past, here they are contained in field reports from US troops. Washington just cannot pretend to be looking the other way.

The leaked documents are mostly reports written by soldiers and intelligence officers from the field, describing lethal military actions, intelligence information, reports of meetings with political figures and related details. The Pentagon says the disclosure has put the lives of Afghan informants at risk and threatens to undermine intelligence work in the war-torn nation. Afghan President Hamid Karzai too feels the same way. Assange argues that no one has been harmed, yet concedes: "Should anyone come to harm of course that would be a matter of deep regret — our goal is justice to innocents, not to harm them." He says he has delayed the release of about 15,000 reports "as part of a harm minimisation process demanded by our source". He, however, proposes to release them as well after further review, with occasional redactions.

More than the contents themselves, the debate that is currently raging in the US is on whether WikiLeaks should have brought the documents to the public domain and whether NYT should have collaborated with "a stateless organisation" and done the reporting. A war of sorts has also broken out with rivals, who were bypassed by Assange. Washington Post, for one, lost little time to run down the disclosure. In an editorial, titled "Wikihype". It carped: "Though it may represent one of the most voluminous leaks of classified military information in US history, the release by WikiLeaks of 92,000 reports on the war in Afghanistan hardly merits any hype offered by the website's founder." Anne Applebaum, a Post columnist, followed it by commenting: "They give newspapers a chance to pretend they've got scoops. The documents might even help bring in advertising revenue." Assange retorted: "I assume a Washington Post bias simply because they didn't have access to the great big scoop."

NYT offers its own explanation on its website. "Overall these documents amount to a real-time history of the war reported from one important vantage point — that of the soldiers and officers actually doing the fighting and reconstruction….(NYT) spent about a month mining the data for disclosures and patterns, verifying and cross-checking with other information sources, and preparing the articles that are published today. Deciding whether to publish secret information is always difficult, and after weighing the risks and public interest, we sometimes chose not to publish. But there are times when the information is of significant public interest, and this is one of those times. The documents illuminate the extraordinary difficulty of what the United States and its allies have undertaken in a way that other accounts have not."

Whatever they may add up to, one thing WikiLeaks looks set to achieve is to sharpen the polarisation among the pro and anti-war groups in America. Though the leaked material largely relates to predecessor George W Bush's White House years, President Obama knows he would have to convince Congress and the people at large that his war strategy remains on track. With the mid-term Congressional elections just three months away, he has to be mindful of any political fallout. Curiously enough, the Republicans, opposed to a hasty pullout from Afghanistan, are more forthright in their criticism of Assange, who remains a strong opponent of wars.

As the Obama administration grapples with what the WikiLeaks maverick has thrust on its lap, Assange himself is savouring his moment in the spotlight. The man who ostensibly does not have a permanent address and is so much on the move that he is "living in airports these days" says that the one place that he should not be going to right now is the US.

-- The writer is Washington correspondent, The Pioneer

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THE PIONEER

OPED

A DECADE OF LIES AND MURDERS

WILSON JOHN

The biggest ever leak of military documents — will it lead to course correction? Quite a question given the layers of dubious pragmatism at the basis of the US-Pakistan relationship. Besides, how do you wake up somebody pretending to sleep?

What does the 90,000-plus classified documents on Afghan War show? Two things are the most obvious-the Americans have lost the script in the Hindu Kush and that Pakistan has emerged as a full-fledged terrorist State, supporting and sustaining terrorist groups that are capable of carrying out worst kinds of nightmarish attacks in any parts of the world today.

Even a cursory reading of some of the relevant documents can reveal that the US lost the war in Afghanistan when it decided to make Pakistan first its 'strategic ally', then its 'non-Nato ally' to hunt Osama bin Laden and his deputies. President George Bush, blinded by his own vision of being a swashbuckling General of the B-Grade Westerns, found a partner in the roguishly charming Pervez Musharraf, who spoke the right words and did all that could be wrong. Musharraf played to the galleries in Washington and elsewhere in the western world, charmed his way to the treasuries and back home talked peace with terrorists, helped them to find a sanctuary in Waziristan and nearby tribal areas along the Durand Line. The leaked classified documents from the battlefield during Musharraf's tenure (2003-2006) showed how desperate the men and officers of the US military were in keeping up the charade played by their President and his advisors in the White House. When Musharraf and his Generals, including Kayani, were being hosted and feted in the White House, their proxies were raining death on the American soldiers.

An obvious inference that ought to be drawn by the American public is that their government funded the terrorist sponsors who were fighting the sons, brothers and husbands of ordinary American families to keep the flag flying in a distant land. In many ways, the leaked documents showed how criminally dim-witted the leaders in Washington were in courting the enemy's chief sponsor. Perhaps, for the public, the only way to compensate the losses they suffered in the past decade is to try, most of all, President Pervez Musharraf, as a war criminal. He is singularly responsible for creating and sustaining the bigger terrorist sanctuary in the world within his country. He is not only responsible for the death of several hundreds American soldiers but also that of Pakistani soldiers who were pushed into the battlefield unprepared.

The world must act on the damning evidence provided by these documents about Pakistan's terrorist intentions and activities which are clearly detrimental to peace and stability of the world. Documents after documents reveal how Pakistan and its military not only supported the terrorist groups but also guided, armed and provoked them to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and India. This is not the first time that such revelations have come about but unlike in the past the sheer volume of evidence makes it impossible to deny and affirms Pakistan's role in endangering the world.

The US must declare Pakistan a terrorist State. There have been occasions in the past when the US government came close to making such a declaration but shied away from it due to the powerful lobby groups employed by Pakistan. Such a step is now imperative to protect the US homeland from terrorist attacks originating from Pakistan. Pakistan's terrorist leanings are not only a threat to the US but to the entire world. By supporting terrorist groups like the Taliban and al-Qaeda and its various allies and proxies, Pakistan has created a global syndicate of terror that is not easy to dismantle or contain. The world will pay for the follies committed by successive US governments.

One of the most alarming bits of information hidden in the leaked documents is the interest shown by the Taliban to acquire a radioactive material to configure bombs. One of the commanders, the document showed, had succeeded in locating a possible seller of uranium in Lahore; the deal fell through on price.

The document dated July 23, 2008, (when General Ashfaq Kayani was the chief), said one "Dr Mohammad" was quite keen on making chemically-enhanced munitions for the Taliban to fight the US forces in Afghanistan. The Taliban also was interested in procuring uranium for this purpose. The document said: "The uranium was allegedly available from an unspecified factory in Lahore, Punjab province, Pakistan, at a cost of approximately 35,000 Pakistani rupees for ten grams. ($538.)" The said 'Dr' had reportedly learnt his nuclear skills from AQ Khan. This group had several members from Pakistan's tribal areas who were aligned with a radical Sunni group, Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), which was instrumental in helping the Taliban-al-Qaeda elements to escape and find shelter in Pakistan when the US began bombing their hideouts following the September 11 attack. This single document is enough to show how dangerous a country Pakistan has become under the leadership of Musharraf first and then Kayani.

Another ominous inference that become obvious from the documents is the role played by General Kayani in supporting and sustaining groups inimical to the US-led forces in Afghanistan. The Obama administration's courting of Kayani is therefore littered with perils both known and unknown. The Obama-Kayani relationship is no different from that of Bush-Musharraf nexus in running a disastrous global war on terror. The Obama-Kayani duo's disastrous Af-Pak war has been so effectively exposed by the documents made public of Wikileaks. The references to ISI in hundreds of documents point to the role played by Kayani as the ISI chief. He promoted anti-US forces led by terrorist syndicates run by Jalaluddin Haqqani and Gulbudin Hekmatyr.

The Haqqani clan is instrumental in killing more American soldiers than any other terrorist group in Afghanitan. The Haqqanis are the protégé of Pakistan Army and are protected by Kayani and ISI chief Shuja Pasha, both of whom managed to wrangle extensions with the help of the Americans from a weak-kneed, divided political leadership in Islamabad. Kayani's refusal to part ways with terrorist groups like Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) reveals his mindset and the dangers such policies could pose to region, and more importantly to the US. Kayani wants the Americans to leave Afghanistan for his military to lord over the Afghans, a delusion riven with enormous dangers.

Since the Afghans, even Pashtuns, have no lost for Pakistanis whom they consider as `Punjabis`, Kayani and his men can at best trigger only a bloody civil war to keep not only India but rest of the world from Afghanistan, creating in the process a much bigger terrorist sanctuary or `emirate` than his predecessor, Musharraf, carved out of the tribal areas.

The leaked documents are a foretaste of grave dangers created by a blundering American policy in Afghanistan and its dependence on the terrorist-sponsor State, Pakistan, to bail it out of a lost war.

-- The writer is vice-president, Observer Research Foundation, author and columnist

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THE PIONEER

OPED

PAKISTAN A DOUBLE DEALING NATION

TUNKU VARADARAJAN

The United States must demand that Pakistan state unequivocally whether it is "with us or against us". For nearly a decade now, their caveat-linked policy has cost America untold harm, billions of dollars and hundreds of dead citizens.

The latest gaudy gush from WikiLeaks will leave the White House, the Pentagon, and the State Department soggy and irritable for many days. But one aspect of the leak-that concerning Pakistan's brazenly unstinting support for the insurgency in Afghanistan — should be news to absolutely no one.

In fact, one might say that the one good thing to come out of this latest leak —a thing so good that it is worth the "collateral damage" to the US from everything else — is that it could spell the end of Pakistan's repulsive double game. This is a game in which that country takes billions of dollars of our aid money (money paid, in part, in taxes by the kin of American soldiers killed by the Taliban) and then blithely, devilishly, mendaciously stabs us in the back by arming, protecting, financing, hiding, and advising the same forces against whom this country is at war. We pay them money so that they can help our enemies kill us.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, is essentially a decent man. He has, by instinct and by inclination, no truck with the malign men in khaki who run Pakistan's Army. But watch him over the next few days as he contorts himself before the press, prevaricating, offering us canned lies, nuggets of tergiversation scripted in Islamabad. Don't buy a word of it. And if the White House does buy from him, be sure to read the subtext of the purchase agreement. Above all, be skeptical —aggressively skeptical.

We are now at a crossroads with Pakistan, a point at which we need to pull out old words from the Bush playbook. It is time to state to them — to state, in particular, to Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kiyani, the Pakistan Army's chief of staff — that Pakistan is either with us, or against us. There can be no caveats, no exit clauses, no fine print, no weasely handwringing about Pakistan's need to retain "strategic balance" in Afghanistan.

Much of the latest involvement in the Afghan insurgency by the ISI —Pakistan's military intelligence — happened on Gen Kayani's watch, when he was the head of the ISI. That very same man, Kayani, whose agency lovingly breastfed the Taliban, and who was later elevated to chief of army staff, has just been granted a three-year extension by Pakistan's civilian government. It boggles the mind that this duplicitous underminer of the U.S. war effort is now General David Petraeus' direct interlocutor. Petraeus will need to navigate a labyrinth of misinformation and half-truths, accompanied by typically unctuous protestations that Pakistan is doing everything it can to help us in the war against al-Qaeda. (Readers will not have missed Hillary Cinton's tart remarks, last week, in which she said on television that "someone" in the Pakistan government must, surely, know where Osama bin Laden is.)

My sense is that the latest leaks will have broad repercussions of an ungovernable variety. But of one result I'd like to be certain: that the White House will now read the riot act to Pakistan, squeezing hard, if need be— and I mean this somewhat metaphorically — on the double-dealing epaulettes of Gen Kayani. Pakistan is either with us, or against us. Right now, as I see things —leaks and all — it is resoundingly, irrefutably against us.

With permission from The Daily Beast

The author is a columnist

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

THE TAXMAN'S DAY OUT

Read my lips, pay your taxes. The next time income tax-wallahs say that, we mustn't sulk. For, taxmen aren't merely monochromatic bureaucrats bent on burning holes in pockets. Several of them have just participated in art exhibitions and travelling workshops to fete a momentous occasion: 150 years of India's I-T department! They've displayed their dabblings, drawings, paintings and sculptures, alongside the works of art professionals. The aim? To 'paint' income tax that source of universal fear and grumbling in a new, people-friendly light. Surely a feat for the Great Masters.

Surprise, surprise: taxmen can give full-time artists a run for their taxable money. Was that why some full-timers had churlish misgivings about whether income tax could be beautified for an inflation-hit public? In the event, they supported the taxman's message: if bitter medicine's good for health and cabbage soup's good for the soul, tax is good for both plus the country. Amen.

Sans taxmen's services, Indians could hardly see taxpayer-fuelled growth and development. That they also see taxpayer-funded free lunches for netas and babus is another matter. Now, sharpened aesthetic sense will help tax decriers appreciate one symbolically loaded painting: a bull - representing growth driven by a taxman in a humble dhoti. Where but in art is there licence to put cart (taxes) before horse (wealth creation)? Another artist portrays taxmen as bees collecting honey for the greater good of the community. See? It's not just about the money, honey.

Tax guys elsewhere haven't been exempted from image problems, which they've never thought of fixing as creatively as our boys. A US humorist once said that he knows it's tax time whenever he looks at documents that make no sense no matter how many beers he's guzzled. Another had advice for people fretting about the audits of the formidable Internal Revenue Service: avoid showing "a red flag", that is, any leftover money in bank accounts after paying taxes! Did similar disgruntlement provoke non-payment of certain taxes in the past by no less than the current US treasury secretary? Not that it stopped him from getting hired to promote Obama's Tax Americana.

Back here, our taxmen haven't betted on art alone to reach out to citizens. Two highest taxpaying film stars pitched in, to appear in a documentary tracing the long way taxation has come. For the I-T department, it's been a happy way too, given last fiscal year's whopping Rs 3,80,000 crore mop-up. Who knows, with the PR coup of taxmen-turned-Picassos getting back-patted by Bollywood biggies, direct tax revenue may well shoot up, answering the deficit-saddled FM's prayers.

Only, to get returns on a true image makeover, shouldn't our netas expedite that model tax code that's supposed to usher in lower, compliance-friendly taxes, simpler rules and reduced scope for litigation? Or will our tryst with tax reform for direct or indirect taxes take another 150 years? If yes, let's redraw that picture and make it a bullock cart, not bull, driven by a dhoti-clad taxman. If no, cheers to less taxing times.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TOP ARTICLE

BIG GOVERNMENT MUST GO

MINHAZ MERCHANT

Rising food and fuel prices hurt us, literally, where we live. But the real cause of India's chronic double-digit inflation, largely ignored in the current debate, lies elsewhere: wasteful government expenditure. The central government's fiscal profligacy with annual expenditure nearly 50 per cent higher than annual revenue rather than decontrolled fuel prices, as the opposition erroneously believes, is the principal reason for runaway inflation.

Big Government rarely makes for Good Government. Kanti Bajpai has rightly pointed out in these pages that India is underserved with just 5,000 IAS and 670 IFS officers. Like a pyramid, India's bureaucracy has a narrow tip and a bloated base: the number of people employed by the central government, according to the last census conducted in March 2001, was 38.76 lakh. That's 683 federal employees for every IFS/IAS officer. A bottom-heavy government is one of India's biggest inflationary burdens.

Figures tell the tale. In 2010-11, total government expenditure is projected at Rs 11.09 lakh crore. Barely noticed in the minutiae of the mid-year fiscal review is the breakdown of targeted expenditure. Nearly 38 per cent (Rs 4.19 lakh crore) of total government expenditure this year will be spent by the government on itself - salaries and overheads for its overstaffed ministries. Another 22 per cent (Rs 2.49 lakh crore) is kept aside for interest payments to service the government's huge accumulated debt. Around 10 per cent (Rs 1.16 lakh crore) will be spent on subsidies, much of it siphoned off by complicit district officials.

Now do the maths. The government will spend 70 per cent of its total annual expenditure this year on itself, interest and subsidies. The remaining 30 per cent (around Rs 3.30 lakh crore) goes into defence, social services, pensions and yes just 2 per cent (Rs 22,154 crore) on police services. Worryingly, a mere Rs 1,50,000 crore (14 per cent) will be used to build productive capital assets, including infrastructure.

On the revenue side, individual and corporate taxpayers contribute Rs 4.23 lakh crore. Excise, customs and service tax accounts for another Rs 3.15 lakh crore, totalling Rs 7.38 lakh crore. That leaves a fiscal gap, after transfer of receipts to the states and other adjustments, of Rs 3.45 lakh crore the money the government borrows from the market to keep itself going. That, along with a failed agricultural policy and public distribution system, is the root cause of high food inflation in India.

Clearly, unproductive costs must come down and expenditure on productive assets must rise. The government's total domestic and external debt is Rs 34 lakh crore. It can halve this with calibrated PSU stake sales. The value of the government's shareholding in 48 listed PSUs at current market prices is over Rs 18 lakh crore. Selling 51 per cent of this shareholding to institutions through a structured auction process over the next four years of the UPA government, braving the misconceived ideological opposition of a coalition partner, would slice India's external debt by nearly a third, save interest costs of Rs 85,000 crore a year (by retiring expensive old debt) and make PSUs more efficient. The government's remaining stake in these PSUs would, as a result of improved efficiencies, rise in market value, allowing the staggered future sale of another 15 per cent of the government's balance shareholding (while still retaining a veto-carrying 26 per cent minority stake). This would more than halve India's debt (excluding pension and provident funds) and shave permanently nearly Rs 1.20 lakh crore off annual interest costs a third of the projected fiscal deficit of 5.50 per cent.

Trimming expenditure (currently Rs 4.19 lakh crore) on overstaffed government departments by just 15 per cent would save over Rs 60,000 crore. Cutting wasteful subsidies, routinely appropriated by middlemen, out of a total subsidy bill of Rs 1.16 lakh crore could save the government another Rs 45,000 crore a total cost reduction of Rs 1,05,000 crore a year. Thus, the permanent annual saving in interest payments, subsidies and government overheads would amount to Rs 2.25 lakh crore.

That still leaves an annual fiscal gap of around Rs 1.25 lakh crore. This can be tackled from the revenue side. The new Direct Tax Code (DTC), to come into force on April 1, 2011, should increase tax compliance and along with the fine-tuned goods and services tax (GST) raise gross tax revenues from the current Rs 7.47 lakh crore to Rs 9 lakh crore over the next two years. Only 3 per cent of Indians (34 million) today pay taxes and our tax-GDP ratio hovers around a low 11 per cent. Both will increase under a sensible, simplified DTC and GST. The extra revenue will take India's budget into sustainable surplus for the first time in decades bringing with it low long-term inflation.

Indians have a right to ensure their money is spent wisely. In the US, scrutiny of public finances is continuous and rigorous. In India, the scrutiny lasts 48 hours during and after each annual budget. Such lack of accountability can make finance ministers complacent.

Detailed planning for the next budget will begin after the monsoon session of Parliament. The wise and experienced finance minister that he is, Pranab Mukherjee has the opportunity in the remaining four years of this government to make India a budget-surplus country and leave a lasting legacy of both high growth and low inflation.

The writer is an author and chairman of a media group.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TIMES VIEW

IT'S A MATTER OF CHOICE

The website, BeautifulPeople.com, launched in 2002 in Denmark and now with a presence in 190 countries, purports to be only for beautiful people. Photographs of potential members are voted upon by existing ones to determine if they should get membership. This website has now expanded into providing potential parents having difficulty conceiving with a fertility forum where they can search for attractive sperm and egg donors in order to raise their chances of having a beautiful baby. Predictably, there has been criticism. Yet, it is all a matter of choice. Those who think this website seems to be fetishising beauty too much can simply ignore it; to those for whom physical attractiveness is important, it is a useful resource.

This quest for the perfect child is nothing new. All one has to do is read the papers or look at the number of popular books on the issue to realise how the idea of conceiving a physically and mentally gifted child has become a cottage industry today. Studies and articles tout everything from expecting mothers listening to classical music to reading stories aloud to living a rigidly prescribed physical lifestyle. And if these methods are considered acceptable if not for everyone, it would be somewhat disingenuous to ignore that principle of choice and criticise parents who expend the same effort on ensuring their babies are beautiful as well.

Beauty, physical and spiritual, has been an aspirational ideal down centuries. In society, attractiveness can be an essential attribute for some, for others it may not matter. Someone's love of beauty may even extend to the children she hopes to have. What the website concerned does is bring together people who prioritise beauty highly. Given that a response to its services is entirely voluntary with no compulsion involved, people need not read sinister designs into it.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COUNTER VIEW

BEAUTY ISN'T SKIN-DEEP

RUDRONEEL GHOSH

There is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to look beautiful or be in the company of beautiful people. But when beauty is treated as a label for a superior class, it isn't as acceptable. This is precisely what the people behind a beauty-promoting website are guilty of with their launch of a fertility forum. It is one thing to create a platform for so-called good-looking individuals to meet and socialise, even though beauty itself is a highly subjective concept. But to actually provide, according to the website, a "charitable service" to those wanting 'beautiful' babies is nothing short of a brand of narcissism reminiscent of many a discredited regime's advocacy of eugenics.

For, the idea behind the fertility forum appears to be that beautiful people are genetically superior, which is not unlike the Aryan supremacy theory which believed that white, blue-eyed, blonde-haired people with sharp features were genetically superior to all other races and ethnicities. Other cultures have had their theories. History bears testimony to the miseries that this sort of prejudice spawns. There is a fine line that separates appreciating beautiful people and treating them as better than others. That line should never be crossed.

Beauty-promoting websites like the one in question are encouraging a morally bankrupt trend that focuses on the superficial. After all, how does one categorise someone as beautiful and others as ugly? It is a reflection of our extreme materialistic culture that some people are actually thinking along those lines. And if allowed to continue, it could have serious repercussions on our society as a whole and create a deplorable source of discrimination. To counter this we should celebrate the spiritual aspect of beauty and refrain from trying to create a universal standard for the same. The website in question needs to be denounced.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TALKING TERMS

PAK DUPLICITY RUNS OUT OF STEAM

DILEEP PADGAONKAR

The leakage of a staggering number of secret US military documents about the war in Afghanistan is, first and foremost, a triumph of the new media over the big guns of the traditional Fourth Estate. The mastermind of the biggest journalistic coup in American intelligence history is WikiLeaks, a whistle-blower website run on a shoestring budget. To its founder, Julian Assange, goes the singular credit for putting in the shade the last major leak of this nature the publication in June 1971 of the Pentagon Papers, an official account of the blunders of successive US administrations in the conduct of the war in Vietnam. Those blunders eventually led to America's messy and humiliating exit from Indochina.

The whistle-blower in this case was Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst at the Pentagon, who, after turning into a bitter opponent of the war, purloined the document and passed it on to The New York Times and The Washington Post. Where Assange has surpassed Ellsberg's feat is in the devastating blow he has dealt to America's spooks. Consider the sheer scale of the material he was able to put together on his website: more than 90,000 intelligence reports that provide minute details of how and why the war in Afghanistan went horribly wrong between January 2004 and December 2009. In substance they reveal that the Bush administration, and later the Obama administration, exaggerated the success of the US-led troops, minimised the strength of the Taliban and generally failed to make public the loss of civilian lives in the theatre of operations.

The disclosures are significant on another count. They confirm, often with dramatic precision, the duplicitous role of the Pakistani army in the protracted turmoil in Afghanistan. For years all the stakeholders in this beleaguered country were aware that the army, and especially its intelligence wing, ran with the Taliban hare and hunted, or so it claimed, that very Taliban with the American hound. But the generals in the GHQ in Rawalpindi, smug in their conviction that Pakistan's cooperation was indispensable to stabilise the situation in Afghanistan, would deny every allegation of double-crossing with a straight face, point to the ever increasing number of casualties in their own ranks and, as a just recompense for these 'sacrifices', seek, and swiftly obtain, billions of dollars in aid and the most advanced weaponry.

True to style, Islamabad has rubbished the WikiLeaks disclosures from end to end in the absolute certainty that Pakistan will be able to brazen out this controversy just as it had brazened out other revelations of double-dealings. Now, however, things could become exceedingly difficult for the American president and, by extension, for Islamabad should the US Congress ask why the administration kept it in the dark about Pakistan's dubious role in Afghanistan when it was called upon to approve a massive package of military and economic assistance to that country. Why did it keep mum when it knew all along that Pakistan had used American taxpayers' money to kill American soldiers and destabilise the government of Hamid Karzai, America's chosen

man in Kabul?

Unless the US administration answers these questions in a transparent manner, resentment against the president, both in Congress and in public opinion at large, is certain to escalate. At that point, Obama will have no option but to warn the Pakistani army that if it does not mend its ways the 'strategic partnership' between the two countries will come under intolerable strain. The choices he exercises in the weeks ahead are bound to lead to new power equations within Pakistan and in the region as a whole.

This prospect presents India with an opportunity to cast aside its pusillanimous approach to talks with Pakistan. It needs to put terrorism where it firmly belongs: at the very core of bilateral relations. It needs to make it loud and clear to Islamabad that it will safeguard its legitimate interests in Afghanistan. And it needs to send an unequivocal message to the GHQ in Rawalpindi that no amount of nuclear sabre-rattling on, say, Kashmir or the water issue, will wash if New Delhi is obliged to explore other means to make its point. We must not repeat the post-Bangladesh fiasco in Shimla when Indira Gandhi fell victim to Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's perfidious guile.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

OUR TAKE

SOUTHERN DISCOMFORT

The monsoon session of Parliament has brought with it a sinking sensation for the Congress as it finds itself increasingly unable to keep its head above the water. News that the Telangana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS), which is fighting for a separate state in Andhra Pradesh, has swept 11 of 12 seats in the assembly by-polls makes it all the more difficult for the Congress to swim against the tide.

The government had managed to put the divisive Telangana issue on the backburner last year by first promising statehood and then referring the matter to the Srikrishna Commission. Any hopes that the demand had dissipated are disproved by this election. Humiliatingly, the Pradesh Congress Committee chief who had projected himself as a possible chief ministerial candidate lost overwhelmingly in Nizamabad.

In addition to the Telangana sentiment re-emerging stronger than before, the late chief minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy's son Jaganmohan Reddy seems to be thumbing his nose at the all-powerful Congress high command with his just-concluded consolation yatra with the veiled threat of breaking away from the party.

The only comfort that the Congress can draw from the situation is that though he has been drawing large crowds, political leaders have shied away from openly supporting him. But the demand to accommodate him at the Centre prior to giving him the chief ministership of the state is strong. All this means that the Congress's vote share in this politically crucial state has dropped and issues which will come to haunt it later have got a fresh lease of life. Had the party installed a more charismatic CM in the wake of the death of the popular YSR, it might have been able to contain the crisis better.

But Mr Rosaiah is reluctant to even stay on in the job. This lays the field wide open for aspirants like Mr Reddy who feel that they have a better claim to the chair.

The indecision in the government and the Congress appears to have divided the state on both the Telangana issue and that of leadership. The Srikrishna Commission members rushing to the state now amounts to bolting the stable door after the horse has fled. It is clear that people are not willing to abide by decisions taken by a commission on Telangana. If the agitation flares up again, and there is no reason to believe it will not, it spells untold hardship to people in the state. The Congress should look for a lifeline unless it wants to slowly sink under the weight of these problems.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

COLUMN

THE RAINBOW PEOPLE

GOPALKRISHNA GANDHI

A friend from Delhi, on a rare visit to Chennai, was calling and we were engaged in pleasant talk when the doorbell rang. Two self-assured women in silk stood at the entrance with long sheets of paper in their hands.

"We are from the census department," they said in a mix of excellent Tamil and effective enough English. "Can we ask some questions?"

I was torn. Here we were, my caller and I, having a much longed-for chat on nothing and everything over steaming coffee, and here were two enumerators on serious professional duty. I could either ask my friend to forgive the intrusion or ask the count-takers to return later. I chose to let my friend bear the interruption.

"Name, sir?"

I spelt it out for them, apologising for its length. "How many in the family, sir?"

"Just my wife and I."

"Your Mrs' name, sir?"

"She is out at the moment," I said, giving my wife's name.

"Father's name?"

I spelt it out again.

"Do you not want my mother's name?" I asked, "that is equally or even more important".

"Yes, sir, we want that also."

There was no need to spell that one. Who does not know 'Lakshmi'?

"Sir," she then asked in Tamil, "you have a car?"

"Ille," I replied.

"Two-wheeler?"

"Ille".

"Bicycle?"

"Ille, it is many years since I cycled".

"Okay, sir," she said reassuringly and moved on with the questionnaire.

"Profession?"

"Pensioner".

This was noted in a small square on the sheet.

"Department?"

No wonder, I thought, our Upanishads have a Prasnopanishad, the Upanishad of Questions but no Uttaropanishad giving us the answers.

"Retired from the IAS".

Further questions followed about my "academic qualifications". Whether this millionth respondent is literate, a school-finalist, graduate and so on would be an understandable Census curiosity. But the subjects of his under-graduate and post-graduate study? Surely, that is a redundancy? Reminding myself that the enumerator was only asking what she had been told to ask, I volunteered: "English Literature".

The session went on for a while but the 'question of questions' did not come. From the moment the queries began I was expecting the big question about my caste to be posed and readying myself for a likely answer. But no, nothing was asked.

Being the child of a mixed caste marriage, I was unsure as to what, if anything at all, I should say if asked "Are you SC, OBC…?" The question did not come.

Returning to my friend with admiration for the gargantuan exercise that the Census of India is but also relief at the ending of the question-and-answer session, I told him about the missing question. "That issue has been frozen for now," he reminded me.

Would the caste query have taken us back to what we had ceased to think about? But then, who are the 'we' we are talking about? 'Out there' in the villages, caste has not been forgotten. And so…

Besides, censuses are not just about fixing numbers. They are tools to shape policy, and who can deny that social backwardness in India must be weighed against numbers if it is to be tackled?

Predictable thoughts, these were, and they proceeded on predictable lines.

The mixed-caste puzzle did not, however, leave my thoughts. The 'mix' is not just of castes. There are the offspring of parents from different religious backgrounds, Hindu-Muslim, Hindu-Christian, Hindu-Sikh, Hindu-Jaina, Hindu-Parsi, Hindu-non-Hindu Scheduled Tribe and even of different nationalities, half-Indian and half-European or half-Japanese, or half-American (though not, it must be said, so many half-Indian and half-African). Where do all these rainbow people fit? Does the architecture of caste have a home, a room, even a verandah for them? Probably there is a Shastraic text somewhere which accommodates them. I am not aware of one.

I spoke some days later about this to a valued friend, the distinguished social anthropologist, Professor Andre Beteille. "Tell me," I asked, "if the question about my caste had been posed to me, what should I have said to the two enumerators?"

"You could of course have declined to respond to that question," he replied, "but if you wanted to respond, you would've had to say that as your father was a bania and your mother a brahmin, the Dharmashastra of Manu makes you a…"

Professor Beteille, whose mother was a Bengali Brahmin and his father French, then said, "you see in Manu's scheme, I would be a…"

Traditional rules of marriage in India, Professor Beteille has explained elsewhere, are changing and the sanctions behind the concepts of 'anuloma' and 'pratiloma' are now virtually obsolete. The younger generation in Hindu society is unlikely to have even heard of the phrases. But by custom an 'upper caste' Indian can marry and have children from a woman of a 'lower' caste without jeopardising caste. Not so, if the reverse happens. 'Out there', where Manu speaks and the laws are undecided or unverifiable, custom prevails and khap panchayats are called upon to turn the greys of life into the black or white of social authority. Caste identities with their not-so-subtle gender axis, entrench male superiority in the name of caste.

Those from a 'clear' caste line will, therefore, wrestle — and enjoy wrestling — with the issue of whether the caste question in Census 2011 is a progressive or a regressive step. They will know the answer they are entitled to give. But for one of mixed parentage I have in mind, the issue becomes more complicated. It is not about answering or not answering the controversial question. It is about finding the right answer, even if to keep it to oneself. It is also about positioning oneself in India's male-female discourse.

Is that a serious enough issue? After all how many children of such mixed marriages would there be in our country? Several million, I should imagine. 'Several' is no quantification. The truth can drown in that description, like the man who sank in the swimming pool's deep end because he went by its average depth. To find out with any accuracy, the size of India's 'mixed-parentage' puzzle in a post-Manu sense, however, the question: "Would you like to mention your caste status… SC, OBC..." would have to be accompanied by a sub-question: "or TC…?"

Trans-caste, trans-community, trans-creed, trans-creation?

Gopalkrishna Gandhi is a former administrator, diplomat and governor.

The views expressed by the author are personal

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

MUCH BIGGER THAN THE VIETNAM LEAK

PRATIK KANJILAL

Last weekend, WikiLeaks.org published its gold edition — the 'Afghan War Diary', a collection of 91,000 documents snitched from US military networks. They reveal that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) maintains an assassination squad, that collateral damage is seriously under-reported, that Pakistan helps the US with one hand and the Taliban with the other, that the Inter-Services Intelligence ordered the 2008 bombing of the Indian embassy in Kabul and paid blood money for the killing of Indian contractors in Afghanistan.

Amazing stuff, but isn't it common knowledge? It can amaze only if it is expedient to feign amazement. And so an amazed US State Department gave India a self-righteous 'heads up' on the developments and clamoured for Pakistan to act on 26/11. Pakistan was urbanely amazed that anyone could suspect it of chicanery. And a small army of retired colonels who surfaced to harrumph about security breaches and data theft was amazed at the idea that media leaks could change the course of a war.

Actually, they were right. The Afghan war is on an unalterable trajectory. The only difference that the leaks can make is to precipitate troop withdrawal by depriving President Obama of support for the war. Otherwise, they can only force the players to make polite noises and keep up appearances, such as giving India a "heads up", ironically alerting us to the validity of our own allegations about Pakistan using militants as instruments of foreign policy.

But the diary does confirm our worst suspicions, and we can now hazard the trajectory of the war. It was already clear that the US would withdraw at some time because Washington's war is on terrorism, not Afghanistan. After the leaks, it is equally clear that the US cannot wipe out the Afghan Taliban, fairly strong adversaries who can win by surviving, like cockroaches survive holocaust. And if Pakistan is maintaining unofficial links with them, it knows that after Uncle Sam goes home, the Taliban will control Afghanistan. It's certainly a heads up for India, but it's not the one so kindly proffered by the US.

WikiLeaks has published only a portion of the damaging material at its disposal. It's a developing story, so it's a good idea to understand this whistleblower network.

It's a Cold War-style dead drop, a point where anyone can leave information anonymously, which is then made public on the web. It is a mysteriously reclusive but otherwise regular international organisation based in Sweden and Iceland. It's front man, Julian Assange, affects an air of fugitive victimhood which the media loves but which harms professional perceptions of the validity of his work.

But there is nothing mysterious about him. He is an Australian hacker with a libertarian ethic who has 31 charges against him. That looks like serial carelessness but let's not be judgmental because with WikiLeaks, he has broken new ground.

Its revelations are being compared with the Pentagon Papers, a secret study of the Vietnam War leaked in 1971, but that's like comparing Stilton with processed cheese. The Pentagon Papers provided pre-digested analysis. WikiLeaks.org gives you a whiff of the stink of war — raw logs straight from the military's data churn. To understand a dirty war steered by spin doctors, it's prescribed reading.

Pratik Kanjilal is publisher of The Little Magazine

The views expressed by the author are personal.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

MIZORAM'S SURPRISE

Mizoram's upset win over Kerala in the pre-quarter final stage of the 64th Santosh Trophy is a tale of hope within the larger tale of wishful longing and disappointment that's been the trajectory of Indian football. Ever since the Fifa world rankings were created in 1992, India's best rank has been 100 — in 1993, the first year of the published rankings. India, currently No 132, fell to a low of 157 in 2006 and are 126 on average.

Notwithstanding the cynics, the door to a footballing future had never closed for India. If internationally, India haven't moved much upwards, Indian national football's geography has changed significantly, if not unrecognisably. And that's not just a story of nurturing raw talent or of the training provided by the Tata or SAIL academies. It's also a tale of how our club and inter-state/service football leagues have seen new champions. Bengal, Punjab and Kerala no more monopolise Indian football than do East Bengal and Mohun Bagan. The Northeast, where football is indeed cared about, threw up a Santosh Trophy champion in Manipur in 2002-03. Now, Mizoram has made it to the quarter final league.

Such changes, even ruptures, are good for Indian football. Especially when we note that Mizoram, which has excellent talent, has no footballing infrastructure — not even "a single proper football ground" as the team manager has said — and depends on financial assistance from the state government and the training provided by the academies. This success was long awaited, and Mizoram will now hope to emulate Manipur. If India are to re-emerge as a serious footballing nation, investment in infrastructure and academies will be imperative, along with full-scale professionalism and player exposure to international standards. However, spreading out the domestic success and discovering talents across the country is news of renewed possibility.

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INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

PROBLEM SETS

The Congress sealed its own fate, perhaps, when it decided to ride the choppy Telangana wave last year. An issue that is tangled up with the very creation of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, it has been taken up by parties like the Telangana Rashtra Samithi — but the Congress, seeking insta-credibility, announced separate statehood for Telangana last December. Later, it tied itself up in knots trying to sort out the ensuing chaos in the absence of a real reorganisation mechanism. Its Telangana failure is now writ large, as it has been significantly bruised in the by-polls to 12 assembly constituencies in the area, while the TRS, which derives all its strength from the statehood cause, is expected to comfortably win most of the seats. Tellingly enough, the Congress state president, D. Srinivas, was beaten by a 12,600 vote margin from the Nizamabad (urban) constituency. With TRS support, the BJP candidate, Y. Lakshminarayana, sailed through.

The Congress depends heavily on Andhra, which hauled in 29 seats for UPA-I and 33 for UPA-II. After YSR's death, however, the party has been floundering from crisis to crisis. It has visibly failed to contain the Jagan problem, and faces the possibility of the state unit turning on itself. By taking on an insufficiently understood issue like Telangana, it has undercut its previous pan-Andhra talk. And with this loss to the TRS, it has demonstrated how easily a flammable cause can be converted into political opportunity. Both the TDP and Jagan have raised the emotional pitch, and may yet hurt the Congress further.

The TRS has no issues weaving in and out of political formations, so long as it manages to be the loudest and most unremitting voice speaking for Telangana. Just last year, it made the latest in a series of political flips — after joining the third front's grand alliance, it went back to announce it was going with the NDA. The party had been severely diminished in both state and national elections. Now, if they find themselves rejuvenated, that has much to do with the Congress's self-destruction in the state.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ENHANCED, ENDURING

British prime ministers possess a flair for naming their governments' bilateral ties and David Cameron has chosen to speak of an "enhanced and enduring" relationship with India. As he well might. Leading the largest prime ministerial delegation to India since 1947, on what he called a "jobs mission" to rustle up business for British industry, Cameron in the most high-voltage manner righted the tenor of India-British engagement. In comments that predictably drew protests from Islamabad and unexpectedly also ruffled the London intelligentsia and opposition, he warned Pakistan on "promoting terror in any way in India, in Afghanistan or anywhere else in the world". To his credit, his candour endured in engagements beyond Bangalore, where the remarks were first made. He stuck by them in New Delhi. And in the sense that Cameron got India interested simply by understanding its concerns, the visit can be termed British diplomacy's George W. Bush moment.

Fact-checked any which way, there would appear to be nothing exceptionable in Cameron's statements on Pakistan. He said he wanted to see a "strong, steady, democratic Pakistan", but that equally it could not be allowed to "look both ways" on promoting terrorism. The barrage of criticism he's attracted back home reveals the clutter of misrepresentation he has cut through. Shadow Foreign Secretary, and globetrotter-in-chief in Gordon Brown's government, David Miliband has seized upon Cameron's words. Asking him to mind the difference between straight-talking and being a loud mouth, Miliband holds that Cameron tells "half the story" — and misses the death toll in Pakistan on account of terrorism. It is not just that the British refusal to separate terrorism against Pakistan from the terrorism encouraged by its establishment has always belied the facts. But, as exemplified by Miliband's own dealings as foreign secretary, the British elite's condescending attitude towards India has manifested in a certain negativity. The urge to patronise, as it were, has been fed by lectures on how India should rectify itself, never mind the reality. This background explains the scant build-up in this country to Cameron's visit and then the spontaneous appreciation of his refreshing candour.

However, countries do not reorient foreign relations for the fleeting thrills of popular appreciation — they do it on the basis of a reading of the national interest. Terrorism with roots in Pakistan is a worry for Britain, as Brown too publicly acknowledged. Stating it as it is on Pakistan "looking both ways" on terrorism is a meaningful start not just in rooting Indo-British ties in concrete realities. It can also be the start for purposeful diplomacy to the good of India, Britain and Pakistan.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE POWER OF ONE

SHEKHAR GUPTA

Last Saturday, I found myself at an unusual sort of book release. This was the launch, at India Habitat Centre, of The Cobra Dancer, written by veteran Andhra journalist Devipriya. It is the somewhat curiously titled biography of former and legendary Central Election Commission observer K.J. Rao, who will always be remembered for giving us the cleanest elections in Lalu's Bihar. Of course, Rao has also become a very familiar face to us in the capital, as a member of the Supreme Court-appointed team of commissioners to oversee the demolition and sealing of encroachments and illegal constructions in the capital.

This event was different not only because it was so unlike the usual Page 3-type book release with celebs, cheese and wine. The audience was mostly Rao's current and former colleagues, many senior citizens and some activists. There was almost no national or even local media. The only cameras I spotted were from some Telugu TV channels. But there was some wisdom dispensed in that IHC hall that morning, and a reassuring takeaway as the speakers, with the exception of this writer, were all people who have built fame and admiration in not just leading our greatest institutions, but also developing them into the brands we feel so proud of: former Chief Justice of India J.S. Verma, former Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh and S.Y. Quraishi, who now moves into the top job at Nirvachan Sadan. It was something that Justice Verma said, while explaining the challenge of institution-building, that should get us all thinking. An institution can rise to its true strength, and truly play the role the founding fathers mandated for it, only if it is led by a person "who has no past, and no expectation (of any reward) from anybody in the future".

Someone who has no past and no greed for anything in the future? Simple enough, you might think. But it isn't as simple as that. It is tough enough to find many people with nothing to hide in their pasts, so they are not prone to blackmail, or pressured by IOUs conceded. People who can judge a case, run an election, prosecute a criminal politician, investigate a corrupt bureaucrat effectively and fairly. But where do you find someone who, in addition to this, would be willing to retire quietly into obscurity? Our system is much too brutal and clever to let such rare people rise anywhere close to the top. That is why it is only providentially, rather than by choice, that one such is put in charge of an institution. And then the institution changes, and rises to its true power.

How many of our institutions do we really feel proud of today? That we trust fully to protect our constitutional rights and liberty? Your count will not go beyond two, the Supreme Court and the Election Commission. In both cases, we were fortunate that just a couple of remarkable people came to lead them at some crucial junctures of our history. Justice Verma himself picked up the thread from the great judges of the seventies, a remarkable handful led by late Justice H.R. Khanna in a cruel and crucial decade for our democracy, to raise the Supreme Court to its true constitutional power, respect and glory. Verma then also took the weight of the same moral authority to the National Human Rights Commission. T.N. Seshan showed the country — and the Election Commission itself — the power that the Constitution had intended to grant it but that his predecessors had never used, in the mistaken belief that they were merely another department of the government. The EC was fortunate again to get an even more formidable — and not a fraction as controversial or idiosyncratic — chief in J.M. Lyngdoh, who took its reputation and credibility even higher, burying a tradition of state-sponsored rigging and terror threats in Kashmir and defying Narendra Modi's loaded "James Michael Lyngdoh" chants to hold another election in Gujarat on his own terms. Between the two of them, they built Brand EC to such a level that even the frailties of the odd lesser successor have not been able to dent it. Seshan himself failed to pass the second part of Justice Verma's test, by his delusional quest for Rashtrapati Bhavan. But to his credit, he had taken the image of the institution so high that the only stature his hubris damaged was his own. Of course, EC was fortunate that Lyngdoh, one of our sharpest and cleanest civil servants, followed soon in his wake. EC then survived many controversies and shenanigans, and at least one CEC who completely flunked the Verma test. Forget going into retired obscurity, he cadged a Rajya Sabha membership on a party ticket and then a ministry so insignificant that the only reason he is noticed is because of his unseemly turf wars with Suresh Kalmadi and a fellow Gill, of the Indian Hockey Federation.

Today nobody dares to mess with either the EC or the SC. One can still countermand an election in Bihar or Kashmir and the other can set the CBI on the Sohrabuddin case. Both have survived sabotage, subterfuge, allurements and vilification by the political class. All because a few, just a few, good men came to lead these at some providential moments of time.

Can you imagine how much stronger we would have felt as a nation if just two other institutions, the CBI and the CVC, had also been similarly fortunate? The sad fact is that the Supreme Court has repeatedly enhanced the powers and autonomy for both these institutions and the law places the CBI under the CVC's superintendence, to give one autonomy and the other investigative muscle.

But neither has been blessed with a leader who would be willing to embrace this power of institutional autonomy. Instead, an entire succession of our CBI directors have only made news through rotten controversies, and have spent their tenures "fixing" cases politically, one way or the other. As for our CVCs, do you remember the names of any? They have been so ineffectual, such non-entities, and so inadequate for the job that their office has mostly been reduced to a post office where claimants for public sector jobs and their lobbyists or rivals write endless complaints against each other and ensure that these are duly leaked.

A clean-up of the CBI is probably too much to ask for in today's political climate. But maybe, with some luck, if only we could get a strong and wise CVC. A formidable chief justice has taken over the Supreme Court. A CEC, Navin Chawla, has retired today after a distinguished tenure and he has been succeeded by S.Y. Quraishi. Both have worked together to enhance the EC's reputation over the past five years. And as that gathering last Saturday morning showed, this city still has many people who will risk their lives and future interests for as little as Rs 12,000 a month (which is all that K.J. Rao was paid when he cleaned up the Bihar election) and leave a brilliant legacy behind. The challenge is to find and empower them. Just a few of them. You cannot make a better investment than that for India's sake.

sg@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE DREAMLIFE OF CITIES

YOGINDER K. ALAGH

Great poets make your imagination fly. Cities of bricks and concrete develop a soul from them. Umashankar Joshi, whose birth centenary is being celebrated now, was an institution in Ahmedabad — when you were with him, he created a world of imagination and harmony. Ordinary events found a dream-like beauty and significance.

Ahmedabad in the late '60s was a city full of intellectual life. It was industrialising. When the rest of India was cursing capitalism, Ahmedabad's textile seths built petro-chemical empires, emerging from the P.C. Mahalanobis socialist dream, in what was called the joint sector. Cooperatives and NGOs were also expanding. There was, of course, a communal riot in 1969. And yet, the city had an intellectual soul.

Its economists were on a different train, however — western Indian socialists were respected. D.T. Lakdawala, V.M. Dandekar and M.L. Dantwala passionately believed in egalitarian objectives but were always savvy about markets and the strategic instruments to achieve them. Nitin Desai once described it as the practical market socialism of western India. But the real outlier was B.R. Shenoy, who built a school in Ahmedabad, castigating those who never made money. His world was unfashionable as the country moved to the left, but he had a hardcore following.

The world of Ahmedabad was not only chai and khaman in the homes of the dons and journalists or tomato soup and ice cream in the Ellisbridge Havmor. It was that of western Indian Gandhian values and socialism confronting Shenoy's acolytes. Lakdawala worked in Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Dantwala would come occasionally. Nirhu Desai was editing Gujarat Samachar, which one felt compelled to read before the English newspapers. All of them, and people like S.V. Desai and Yashwant Shukla, were openly contemptuous of the metropolises.

Umashankar Joshi and my architect-friend Balkrishna Doshi would elevate life, from the limited world of journalists, economists, those who had been jailed by the imperial power (like Dantwala and Gandhian and Congress socialists) to the peace of trees and forests and the sound of falling raindrops. In the fiery world of economics and capitalism and markets and even Gandhian socialism, there was always conflict. Joshi and Doshi, however, found peace and harmony in the lasting world of Gandhi. Doshi would plant a cluster of trees in a house, and the world and humanity were at peace. Umashankarbhai would take you there with his chaste Gujarati verse, and create another world.

I once travelled with him in the region where western Rajasthan melts into northeastern Gujarat. The moon was full, and its light over the sand created an ethereal effect as the train chugged through little village platforms. It is the same experience as in the stretches of the cold Mongolian desert, or Ladakh, or the dark clouds, winds and waves in Helsinki harbour or in Swedish fjords at night. It was an experience never to be forgotten. The poet wanted to go into the forest without a bhumiya (guide). For the time you spent with him, only this world of beauty was real. If you have lived it once, you are never the same again.

Like all poets, he was not practical. Indira Gandhi nominated him to the Rajya Sabha but he would take his idealised politics seriously and intervene in parliamentary debates. He would also criticise all and sundry. He was politely told that nominated members are not political but intellectual contributors to the debates. They cannot even vote. But Umashankarbhai was not deterred. When a great man with a limited idea intervenes in the lives of ordinary beings with unalloyed gold, there can be problems because practical men use alloyed gold, and indeed, the alloy gives it strength. As the dean of the first school of linguistics at Gujarat University, and later its vice chancellor, he put in all his might in replacing English with the mother tongue, with the logic that you can only be creative in this first language. Two generations were lost and it has been reversed only now, with Gujarati youngsters now overwhelming the higher civil services, chartered accountancy and other national exams from where they were long exiled.

It was a different world. We are now richer, materially more prosperous, but perhaps poorer. With the mindless violence and disrespect for social authority, narrow hatred and criminalisation (in spite of the imported goodies and instant soul masala from the wired global village), there is no time for the men who want to go to the forest and look for the stars without a bhumiya. Space for someone like Umashankar Joshi, in this canned skill-based education and communication world, could give us the peace of the forests, the stars and sand dunes.

The writer, a former Union minister, is chairman, Institute of Rural Management, Anand

express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

LEMONADE IN SINGLE MALT

SAUBHIK CHAKRABARTI

Something must be wrong, the NDTV anchor said, I have never seen the two of you (Mani Shankar Aiyar and, as NDTV described him, a senior journalist sympathetic to the BJP) agree so much. Something was wrong. Not what the anchor said. And not what's usually wrong with news TV chats. Our talk TV is mostly a prime time reminder of our primordial selves — you hear noise, fervent pleas and extravagant denunciations, you sense that everyone involved has a blind belief that there's a higher being, even though he or she frequently can't set things right (the anchor).

That wasn't the case here at all. The NDTV anchor, Aiyar and the journalist with BJP sympathies (let's shorten that to BJPJ) were in, how do I put this, 'we-are-in-the-living-room-having-a-nice-natter' mode. You could almost smell the single malt (you can substitute this with a fine beverage of your choice). Now, there's nothing wrong with that. A nice, even tempered chat on prime time can do a power of good to news TV. I would rather watch news TV and entertain the illusion that I can smell single malt than think, as I usually have to, man, they must have all had spiked masala chai.

On that count, one must raise the tumbler to the anchor, Aiyar and the BJPJ — good show, chaps. But then, why the persistent feeling that something was wrong, as if someone had added lemonade to your single malt? It wasn't because Aiyar and the BJPJ had a chuckle or two that great poetry is lost on Suresh Kalmadi. This is a free country and if some men in public life feel a warm glow that they can appositely quote TS Eliot in the context of sports administration, we must let them.

The lemonade in the single malt was this: NDTV never quite asked whether elegantly articulated non-arguments, from Aiyar and the BJPJ, are of any real value as a response to the undoubtedly sloppy execution of an ongoing public project. The anchor asked the right question of Aiyar: granted all the things that are wrong with CWG preparation, isn't expressing happiness at the prospect of failure a bit over the top? Aiyar said that's up to the anchor, who is the commentator, to decide.

Nope. That's for Aiyar to explain. Ask him again, gently and nicely, quote a great poet if you have to, but ask him was he OTT or not? NDTV didn't. The BJPJ said he wouldn't be happy if the games were botched, but that his problem was that Delhi is dug up in so many places and that CWG is one of those events that has alienated the local population. Having set out that premise, the BJPJ concluded that he had nothing but fulsome praise for what Aiyar had said. NDTV seemed fairly content with that, too.

But one moment, gentlemen. As we understood the BJPJ, he doesn't want the games botched but how lovely it would have been if all the construction had been executed better, and the locals were oh-so-excited. Fair enough. But if you say that, should you say Aiyar was fundamentally wrong or should you say Aiyar made a cracking good substantive point? Where's the logic if you choose the second alternative, as the BJPJ did?

Let's laugh at Kalmadi, but let's not just laugh, even if, as Aiyar said, he (Aiyar) has wit and the BJPJ has a sense of humour. Wit and a sense of humour are in short supply on news TV. But so are solid arguments. The presence of the first can't hide the absence of the second. Not even if you can quote Eliot, or appreciate Eliot being quoted.

The BJPJ also said his problem was the spending on CWG is a waste of scarce resources. Oh! So he then agrees with Aiyar, does he? Or was he saying that it is the fact that Delhi hasn't been rendered prettier that marks out the spending as wasteful? What was he saying? What was Aiyar saying when he said as sports minister he had tried to create a different organizational structure for CWG construction — that it wasn't the games per se that he had a problem with? Why did NDTV not find any of this odd?

Even if you don't have wit, a sense of humour and you think Eliot is a name of housing project in Noida, you can figure out CWG prep work is in a shambles. That was more or less the only real point that emerged from the NDTV chat.

He's a man of god, Aiyar said of the BJPJ, and added, so am I. If he's anti-national, said the BJPJ of Aiyar, we are all anti-nationals now. Witty, witty. But I wasn't looking for god or the true meaning of nationalism that evening when I watched the NDTV chat. I was looking for a little logic. And I was looking for NDTV to step in when that was in short supply.

Thankfully, as is always the case, there's single malt to dilute your disappointment.

saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

CASTE IS NOT INVISIBLE

SHARAD YADAV

An unnecessary debate is going on over a possible caste census in India. Those opposing it claim that it will promote casteism, and that is why it is not desirable. One very interesting fact about this opposition, though, is that almost all of those who do oppose it belong to some dominant class of society that has been a beneficiary of the caste system. They may claim that they are against this caste system, and want it to wither away; but the problem is caste will not wither away merely from wishful thinking. We have to take many actions against it. Yet, oddly, those opposing the caste census are not coming out with any solution to end the menace of caste.

While the government is yet to take a formal decision about the caste census, we are witnessing another kind of caste menace in India's largest state by population. Some parents in Uttar Pradesh have not been allowing their children to go to school, because Dalit cooks have been appointed to prepare mid-day meals. This is a clear case of the practice of untouchability, where parents do not want their children to eat food made by so-called untouchables. This incident has exposed the claims of those who say that the caste system has weakened in India and that untouchability is fast turning into a thing of the past.

It is interesting to see that those who oppose the caste census are silent over happenings in UP. All those writers and columnists who have been creating a lot of heat over the caste census have no words when the ugly face of the caste system becomes visible in the country's most populous province. And this kind of caste reaction happens in other parts of the country too: we have received news that students have been withdrawn from schools for this reason elsewhere, as well. The difference is that in UP, we witness this on a large scale, because almost all of its schools have got Dalit cooks.

Our Constitution has abolished untouchability. Sixty years have passed since its adoption, but we still face a situation where parents won't even allow their children to go to school because the meal they will have there may be prepared by Dalit cooks.

We cannot ignore incidents like this by saying that these are minor things, mere exceptions. In fact, the opposition to Dalits cooking mid-day meals is widespread, and the state government is under pressure to change its policy of keeping Dalit cooks in schools — and, reportedly, has already diluted this policy in certain areas.

Our political class should take a serious view of these happenings. Our Constitution-framers had thought that the caste system and untouchability would lose its relevance in independent India: that is why political reservations for scheduled castes and tribes were provided only for 10 years. They had thought that after 10 years, untouchability would have become a thing of the past.

Whenever political reservations for SCs and STs are extended for a further decade, a great hue and cry is raised by certain elements in our society. They say: it was only for 10 years, why are we extending it? They fail to understand that our Constitution-framers' expectations that caste would lose its sting after 10 years proved wrong.

Those who are against the caste census say that it will promote casteism, that the era of casteism is over, and those who are demanding caste census are trying to reintroduce it. My question is: if casteism is over, then why are people forcing their children to boycott classes?

The facts are otherwise. Sixty years after of the adoption of our egalitarian Constitution, we have yet to free our society of caste discrimination. Only we are to be blamed for it. We have ignored the caste reality of this country; we have ignored the fact that we should give special attention to the abolition of caste-based disparities and discriminations. We just shy away from talking about caste. Indeed, we did not conduct caste censuses, only because we do not want to talk about caste publicly.

Caste is a disease our society suffers from, one we cannot get rid of by suppressing. The fight against it has been on for centuries. Saints like Kabir, Ravidas, Peepa and others had launched a campaign against it. Guru Nanak fought it in the best-organised manner. Yet our society still has this disease. Because caste is not merely a social disease, but also an instrument of rule in the hands of the powerful ruling class.

Caste is a political institution and so it has to be removed using political power, but as politicians in power, we try to evade questions of caste as far as possible. That is why there is no caste census. We do not study caste; so there is no institution solely devoted to the study of caste. No university in our country even has a specialised department of caste studies.

Yet casteism pervades each and every institution of our society and polity. These incidents in Uttar Pradesh are just the latest example, and are only a modest form of the casteism practised in India. In fact, it is being practised even in the most cruel of forms beyond our sight, and those who have been victims of discrimination know this.

I see only one difference between those in the villages who do not allow their children to eat school meals

cooked by Dalits, and those in our cities who oppose talking about, and conducting censuses of, caste. The rural

people who practise untouchabilty are a bit honest, while those who are against the caste census are totally intellectually dishonest.

The writer is an MP and president of the JD(U)

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

TOWN AND GOWN

MEETA SENGUPTA

Our higher education institutions are in trouble. A few thousand of them churn out half a million graduates every year, operating on a larger scale than in most other places. But many of these graduates are rated as unemployable without further training, the blame for which is squarely set on the shoulders of the universities. Recent work from the Confederation of Indian Industries estimated that only between 40 and 50 per cent of graduates and diploma holders are employable, on average.

This is not merely a crisis of scale, nor is this just a story of ineffectual behemoths. The truth is that India's universities are suffering through a deep and fundamental identity crisis. This is a case of irrelevance, of lost purpose and one of misdirected effort.

Academic higher education is designed for intellectual life, not for employability. Professional and vocational education are both clearly designed to create direct economic value in an economy — hence employability. When higher education institutions seek to deliver employability while retaining academic structures, they find themselves at a loss. Such institutions need to today make a choice between academic and professional structures. They each need to know clearly where they are headed. The trauma of rocking between academia and vocational education is damaging our ability to deliver any sensible education to our students.

Consider management education. Managing resources is a skill, not a science, and as such does not require an academic degree. It falls in the same category as other professional qualifications such as accountancy, law and, dare I say, medicine. In terms of pedagogy required, management education is closer to vocational training which is learnt by doing — rather than merely reading up on precedent or literature in the area. A sad (though perhaps necessary, at the time) effort to glamorise management education saw it classified as higher education. This might not have damaged management education, but its success has led to a near-identity crisis in higher education institutions.

The questions I hear from educators in universities range from the issue of teaching qualifications, to purpose, to employability, to values and ethics. What I do not hear is the question of value addition. I hear discussions on quality and have yet to see a single native measure of this quality. In this lies the rub: employability of candidates is a key target of professional education, which implies metrics and measurement of the target, and all systems must be geared to that. Higher education that is academic is geared to creating people who will think and create a better world — which implies that they must have depth of knowledge and the freedom to explore. This is the antithesis of a metric-oriented pedagogy.

Is it not possible for an academic university to deliver on both professional and academic value? Of course it is, but it must be designed for that purpose. In spite of the conflict in pedagogy, there is much synergy between the resources required for both types of education. The problem is that, in seeking credibility from academic models, institutions tend to replicate them in areas of professional education. This will naturally confuse the purpose and process of teaching and learning. More importantly, the expectations from teachers and learners are diametrically opposed to each other.

The structures and practices in our universities are frequently called antiquated. While that is often undeniable, these institutions carry a host of burdens. From political interference to a lack of transparency in operations to a sluggish and restrictive legal system, they are trapped in a quagmire that is not all of their own making.

Sadly, even students have contributed to the downfall of universities. We often choose courses not because we are passionate about the subject but because we think of them as "prestigious". Many who would prosper in vocations and professions tend to go through three years of academic conditioning. This skews the demand for courses and the clearing system delivers faulty results. Once within an institution, one's lack of aptitude and interest skews the learning process.

With their supply structure confused as to its purpose, demand skewed due to societal mores and pressures and their governance processes sadly manipulated, is it a wonder that our universities are floundering?

The ones that are doing well, or are seeking to introduce new ways of doing things, are also unable to manage their stakeholders. The University of Delhi recently tried to introduce the semester system, which admittedly does have some advantages — but met with strong opposition from within. An attempt has been made to make undergraduate degrees more flexible by allowing students to pick and choose units of equivalent value from across various traditional disciplines. This liberal approach is yet to find a significant response.

To prosper, our higher education institutions need greater clarity of purpose and process. They are all trying too hard to be everything for everybody.

The writer is an education strategist

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE PLACE THAT WILL TAKE YOU IN

Now about to circle back to London after 30 years, I've been thinking about my family's odyssey. We lose sight of the long arc of things in the rapid ricocheting of modern life. This is just one story among many, with its measure of joy and tragedy, and I recount these events not because I find anything exceptional in them but rather because I believe the pain of displacement amounts to a modern pathology.

I'll begin in South Africa, where I recently went to the Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of Johannesburg. It was a perfect winter's morning on the high plateau, still and luminous. On a wall, beneath pines, there is a plaque inscribed to the memory of my mother, who was born there in 1929.

In Africa, it is your forefathers' graves that identify your land. On that principle, it seems right that my mother be remembered in Johannesburg. Her parents are buried in that cemetery, as is her grandfather. I have a photo of him, chin jutting, suit impeccably pressed, in full tycoon pose; a South African Henry Ford.

Fortunes come and go. His went, which is another story. Well before that happened, my mother enjoyed the fruits of his entrepreneurship. Then love of a young doctor, my father, lifted her from that comfortable cocoon into the cold and the rationing of post-war London.

She made the best of it. Uprooting is hard. The surface current of her English life appeared smooth at times, but in the depths the tug of African sun and light never abated. She abhorred the damp. Hers was the land of avocado trees and dry heat. In her latter years she spent more time in South Africa. It was her soul's home, another reason for putting the plaque there rather than in London.

Where is home? For Robert Frost, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, / They have to take you in." It's "Something you somehow haven't to deserve."

My mother knew South Africa would always take her in.

You can live somewhere for decades and still in your heart it's no more than an encampment, a place for the night, detached from collective destiny. Across the world today millions are bivouacked, dreaming of return. The inverse is also true: home can sink its roots in little time, as if in a revelation. But that is rarer than lingering exile.

I myself have wandered and found at last a home in New York. It's the place that will take me in.

Standing in the cool air of that Johannesburg cemetery beside the grave of my great-grandfather Isaac, who left Lithuania as a boy for South Africa, I wondered at our restlessness and at the depressive family gene transposed across continents. I wondered at the bonds of the heart, the bones of forefathers and the beauty of the world.

And now I move on again to Europe to continue this column from there. For me, it is also a return to something deep and unresolved. Reading James Salter's haunting novel A Sport and a Pastime, full of the twinned formality and sensuality of France, I encountered this passage: "Life is composed of certain basic elements," he says. "Of course, there are a lot of impurities, that's what's misleading. ...What I'm saying may sound mystical, but in everybody, Ame, in all of us, there's the desire to find those elements somehow ..."

Technology is wondrous but also multiplies the "impurities." In the end we must go back to the things — birth, death, love and beauty — that spoke to me on that South African plateau. And we must each discover and render the elemental in our own lives.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

PAKISTAN-OBFUSCATED KASHMIR

RUCHIKA TALWAR

This week saw Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan take over as "PM" of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir. The area, which Palistan calls Azad Jammu and Kashmir or AJK, has since its 2006 elections been in a state of political crisis.

Dawn reported on July 26: "Just 30 hours before the vote on a no-confidence motion against PM Raja Farooq Haider, a faction of the ruling Muslim Conference which moved the motion claimed that 18 of 24 cabinet members had resigned... the AJK Assembly speaker, who is supporting the PM, said he hadn't received any resignation... He called a session of the assembly for a vote. It will be the third time the assembly will vote on a no-confidence motion since its election in 2006... Former PM Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, who had been voted out in January last year, has been nominated again as the Leader of the House. A spokesman for Sardar Attique, who is spearheading the move against the PM (of his own party), claimed to have the support required..." The incumbent "PM" tendered his resignation on July 27. According to Daily Times, he accused the federal government of "conspiring against him." The ISI is a guiding force behind this move, suggests a report in The News: "Haider, while talking to this correspondent... admitted to having met General Ahmad Shuja Pasha, DG ISI but said people had created an impression he was an anti-state person and he met Pasha to clarify his position. 'I convinced the general and at the end of the meeting, Pasha said that after listening to your views I have found you a patriotic person,' the AJK PM said."

Tension over extension

General Ashfaq Kayani's three-year extension has raised eyebrows within Pakistan as well. Quoting PM Yousaf Gilani, a report in Dawn on July 26 stated: "Dispelling a perception that the extension to General Kayani would help the PPP government complete its five-year term, he said he drew his strength from parliament and there had never been a 'threat' to the government from any quarter. Granting extension was an administrative decision which didn't require consultation with political parties. 'However, I called Mr Nawaz Sharif two hours before my address to the nation but his son told me he was travelling.' " The News reported PMLN didn't accept this explanation: "Nawaz Sharif is concerned over the PM's attempt to contact him only two hours before announcing the extension... Discussion on crucial matters... takes place not only days but months before... The PM had phoned Nawaz just to inform him..."

The PPP clarified its stance, according to Daily Times on July 27: "Information and Broadcasting minister Qamar Zaman Kaira said the government was not bound to consult the opposition on every issue. 'It is the present government which has started consulting the opposition on important national issues,' he said." When quizzed by reporters, Sharif dodged the issue and employed Faiz Ahmed Faiz's famous couplet, reported Daily Times on July 28: "Aur bhi gham hein zamaney main mohabbat kay siva..."

Open secrets out

WikiLeaks has put Pakistan on the defensive, report newspapers. Dawn reported on July 27: "the ISI lashed out against the reports... calling the accusations malicious and unsubstantiated... Pakistan's foreign ministry spokesman denounced the reports as 'skewed' and inconsistent with realities on the ground..." Daily Times quoted PM Gilani as saying at a function: "Pakistan harbours no aggressive designs against any state, but was determined to defend its territorial integrity and sovereignty."

Killer weather

The weather played villain in Pakistan this week, as the country saw its worst aviation accident. The News reported on July 28: "Islamabad woke up to a beautiful heavenly monsoon morning with heavy rains and dark clouds rolling over the Margalla hills. But within one fateful moment, it stood transformed into a heart-wrenching hell as an Airblue passenger jet slammed into the Margalla hills... killing all 152 on board." Torrential rains in Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan have claimed over 200 lives so far, reported Daily Times on July 28.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

ON PRICE RISE

Food inflation has finally come down to single digits, recording 9.67% for the week ended July 17, down from 12.47% a week earlier. But that isn't likely to offer the government much relief in the immediate short run with the Opposition continuing to mount pressure in (or should we say outside) Parliament. The decline in inflation doesn't, of course, mean that food prices have fallen; in any case much of the decline can be explained by the base effect. So there continues to be a serious problem of persistently high food prices. Unfortunately, neither the government nor the Opposition seem to have the political will to propose the structural reforms that are essential to combat the problem of rising food prices over the medium term. The Opposition has been vociferous about the government's inability to tackle food prices but is the Opposition willing to propose and back reform measures that can actually alleviate the problem?

One of the most important reform measures that can help dampen food prices, in particular, is enabling the extension of big retail, particularly FDI in retail, which will help cut out the many commission-gobbling intermediaries between the farmer and the final consumer. The UPA government has unfortunately blown hot and cold on retail FDI, but the Opposition (Left and BJP) has arguably done worse by staunchly opposing FDI in retail. The Left, of course, is caught in an ideological bind and the BJP is apparently in sympathy with kirana store owners, even though all available evidence suggests that there will be no wiping away of their businesses should FDI in retail be allowed. The Opposition hasn't exactly been forthcoming on other reform measures either. No one has raised serious questions about the government's decisions to continuously raise the MSP of key crops, something that may be contributing to higher consumer prices. No one is effectively criticising the wasteful public distribution system and calling for its complete reform or indeed abolition, something we have argued in favour of in these columns. There will be limited dividend for the Opposition if it simply continues to stall parliamentary proceedings on the issue of price rise without actually presenting convincing policy solutions for the same. Tactically, the Opposition, particularly the market-friendly BJP, may be missing a chance to lay down the gauntlet to the government on carrying out serious agricultural reforms. If the BJP were willing to support radical reform, the UPA would have fewer excuses for its inaction.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

BUILDING CITIES

Everyone recognises that India's economic growth will be accompanied by further, more intense urbanisation. Currently, our cities generate almost 70% of the country's taxes and they will become even more critical resource centres in the near future. Before we zoom in on how antiquated government architectures continue to stymie urban infrastructure projects, let's underline that such projects are not without positive impact on agricultural incomes and rural development. After all, when cities' ability to satisfactorily absorb agriculture's labour surplus increases, it incentivises mechanisation and other kinds of farm productivity enhancement. Given that Indian cities have been really lackadaisical about preparing for the existing rural influx, there is legitimate cause to worry when one looks at the projections for urban expansion. Analysts suggest that while it took 40 years for the urban population to rise by 230 million, the next 250 million will be added in just half the time—with 40% of India's population expected to live in cities by 2030. In theory, our policymakers have embraced everything from community-sensitive approaches and systemic development of run-down areas to non-parochial adoption of sensible ideas. In practice, we have a whole different story. Consider the monsoon woes that spring up with torturous monotony every year. Instead of celebrating the rains, the people of Delhi and Mumbai find themselves entrapped in an ancient quagmire of flooded streets, clogged drains and short circuits. The traffic jams, of course, seem worse every year. If the country's political and financial capitals are thus logjammed, one can only imagine the condition of smaller urban centres.

The Commonwealth Games, however scorned in certain pockets, have given the capital a significant facelift. Some question the need for new pavements, others complain that the chief minister has mutated into a drains inspector. But nobody can deny that this is a city at work, what with new flyovers, expressways, stadiums, public utilities and so on. But projects remain entrapped in a bureaucratic maze extending from the MCD and NDMC to the DDA and PWD. We grant that the Games are the first major international sporting event to be held in the capital in 27 years—they are also the world's third-largest multi-discipline sports adventure. But Delhi deserves infrastructure development on an ongoing basis. Crunching up projects into an abbreviated time frame is a second-order option at best. To be fair, the Metro success story has shown that urban infrastructure projects can be delivered by Indian managers within budget and as per schedule. If this means chopping off the entrenched bureaucracy's umbilical cord, few would shed tears.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

INVESTMENT CONTINUES TO BOOM

MAHESH VYAS

The latest data from CMIE's CapEx database indicates that investments into fresh capacities continue to boom. During the quarter ended June 2010, the CapEx database recorded 900 new project announcements to invest Rs 5.8 lakh crore.

Statistically, this is the second largest amount of fresh investments proposed in a quarter. The highest fresh investment proposals were made in the quarter ended March 2009 when Gujarat held its 'Vibrant Gujarat' show. Total fresh investment proposals in that quarter peaked at Rs 8.8 lakh crore. Of this, the show had attracted fresh investment proposals worth Rs 3.6 lakh crore. However, most of these were mere announcements and have not made much progress. Thus, net of the Vibrant Gujarat's Rs 3.6 lakh crore, the new investments attracted during the March 2009 quarter was Rs 5.2 lakh crore.

The June 2010 quarter's fresh investments spike is also influenced partly by the Global Investors' Meet organised by the Karnataka government during this quarter, which claims that the meet attracted investments worth a whopping Rs 5 lakh crore. However, details are available only for projects worth Rs 86,731 crore. Net of these, the fresh investments in the June 2010 quarter was an impressive Rs 5 lakh crore. This compares well with the earlier peak in March 2009 as well as with the average fresh investment of Rs 3.5 lakh crore per quarter in the preceding four quarters. This is a good indication that the investments boom continues to soar and corporates feel confident of the sustainability of the growth in demand.

Corporate sales and profits are expected to grow well in the coming four quarters. Growth is expected to be robust in sales, initially. Growth in profits is expected to accelerate in the last two quarters of the current fiscal year. Profit margins have hovered around 8% and are expected to remain at these levels. Evidently, at these profit margin levels, corporate India is enthusiastic about investing.

The boom in investment proposals since 2004 is bearing fruit in fresh capacities being added to the order of Rs 6.5 lakh crore in 2010-11. This is much higher than the Rs 3.7 lakh crore worth of project commissionings recorded in 2009-10, which was higher than the Rs 2.9 lakh crore in 2008-09 and the Rs 2.3 lakh crore in 2007-08. The total value of projects commissioned in 2009-10, currently at Rs 3.7 lakh crore, is expected to go up to Rs 4 lakh crore as new data becomes available.

Various projects that were in the initial proposal stages or that were suspended in the 2008 crisis have revived. Anecdotal evidence point towards an acceleration in the pace of implementation of investment projects. The CapEx database shows that investments worth more than Rs 10 lakh crore will be commissioned in 2011-12. But we expect this number to decline substantially as often claims regarding commissioning that are more than 12 months into the future are subject to a lot of revision. Nevertheless, even after discounting for such revisions, it is apparent that the current investment boom is likely to continue for a few more years. It is likely that investments worth Rs 8 lakh crore or more will be commissioned in each of the coming three years.

The sustained interest of corporate India in announcing new investment projects indicates that the boom may sustain itself a lot longer than just the next three years. The current investment boom is driven largely by domestic consumption demand. In the coming 2-3 years, if the global economy recovers fully, it will only strengthen this boom in India. The downside risks are limited.

A global financial crisis in 2008 followed by a drought in 2009 did not stop this investment juggernaut; it is unlikely that a hike in interest rates would.

The commissioning of fresh projects is expected to push up capacities in a number of industries. The electricity sector is expected to see a capacity addition of 16,144 mw in 2010-11. The sector has never seen such a huge increase in capacity. Other industries are—steel (15.5 million tonnes), aluminium (1.3 million tonnes), cement (41.7 million tonnes) and hotel (22,672 rooms).

This substantial increase in new capacities should reflect in the official gross fixed capital formation growth estimates. Real gross fixed capital formation had increased by 7.2% in 2009-10. We expect this to accelerate to 12% in 2010-11 and then to revert to the 15% growth that it had clocked before the 2008-09 crisis.

Interestingly, the differences between official statistics and independent statistics continue to intrigue. In 2008-09, according to official statistics real gross fixed capital formation growth fell sharply to 4% compared to a 15% per annum growth recorded in the preceding three years.

However, the annual accounts of over 8,000 non-finance companies show that the nominal growth in gross fixed assets accelerated to 19% in 2008-09 after having grown by around 14% in the preceding three years. Even after adjusting for inflation, the difference in direction and quantum is intriguing. If we believe the official statistics, then investments growth had collapsed in 2008-09. If we use independent statistics as seen in CMIE's Prowess and CapEx databases, then investments were not impacted by the 2008-09 global financial crisis.

—The author heads the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

THE SINGHS GET IT RIGHT AGAIN

MG ARUN

When brothers Malvinder and Shivinder Singh, promoters of Fortis Healthcare, exited the race for Singapore healthcare chain Parkway Holdings, they pocketed a cool Rs 399 crore. The exit reminded one of a similar deal the Tatas struck with Coca-Cola in May 2007, when Tata Sons and Tata Tea sold their 30% stake in Energy Brands to the

US beverage major and made a profit of $523 million (around Rs 2,144 crore) on the deal. The Tatas executed the deal within a year of acquiring Energy Brands's Glacéau in August 2006, while the Singh brothers carried the Parkway deal through in less than four months. Tata made use of an irresistible offer from Coke, using the money to retire a part of Tata Tea's debt and acquire other beverage companies abroad. The Singhs' decision, however, was driven by a surprise move by the Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah to acquire shares of Parkway at a price 6% higher than Fortis paid.

In both cases, it is sheer business sense that prevailed. One could say, the Singhs have been consistent in ensuring their heads ruled their hearts. They sold family silver Ranbaxy to Japan's Daiichi Sankyo in June 2008, at a time when the generic play was being heavily impacted by stiff competition in the developed markets. The Indian company was also under stress from a slew of patent suits in the US. The Tatas, in contrast, persisted in their bid to acquire Corus in January 2007 for $12 billion, and won it in a bidding war with Brazilian steel maker CSN. Corus and its European operations continue to be a drag on Tata Steel, despite the firm taking stiff cost control measures, including mothballing a plant in the UK.

The Piramals also recently joined the Singhs and the Tatas to prove that in tough business times, an opportunity to cash out of a business should not be missed. The sale of Piramal Healthcare's domestic formulations business to Abbott Laboratories will look justified, if one considers the value of the deal, pegged at nine times sales. At Rs 17,000 crore, the offer was too good for the Piramals to resist. Sterlite's Anil Agarwal also showed restraint and business acumen when he backed out of a June 2008 deal to buy the operating assets of US-based Asarco for $2.6 billion. Agarwal put forward a new bid, with changes in certain components of the earlier bid, citing the melting down in metal prices, but eventually lost out to Grupo México, which won the bid, backed by a US court. The tussle between Sterlite and Asarco landed up in court, but Agarwal must be relieved that he did not overpay and face the prospect of a demand glut and falling metal prices.

The Reddys of Dr Reddy's Laboratories were not so lucky. They bought Germany's Betapharm in February 2006 for 480 million euros, only to find the company run into a string of troubles as the high-margin branded generics market turned into a low-margin volume play, with the introduction of government reforms. For the first time since then, the Reddys have now said the unit is turning around and making cash profits. But the 4-year wait had been agonising.

The Singhs have already said they will still keep up their hunt for more assets abroad, but what baffles experts like Navroz Mahudawala of Candle Partners is the whole rationale behind an overseas acquisition in the healthcare space.

While acquisitions within the home turf will accord synergies of operations and scale, managing an acquisition in the global space will be quite a challenge. Experts see the healthcare segment as a highly localised industry. There is little synergy to be realised through an overseas buy. When the Singhs announced the Parkway stake buy this March, eyebrows were already being raised about the price they paid. Now, they say the group has between $800-900 million in cash and a well-established line of credit, so it may not be long before they zoom in on another company. Shareholders, who gave a thumbs-up to the brothers when they exited Parkway, may not be happy with yet another overseas adventure. In August last year when Fortis acquired 10 hospitals from debt-ridden Wockhardt for around Rs 900 crore, it was hailed as a great move since it gave Fortis, largely restricted to the northern part of India, a pan-India presence, apart from providing operating synergies.

In healthcare, what really matters is building up credible operations over a longer period of time and creating a very strong local footprint. The Singhs have the wherewithal and the energy to take this forward, but they need to focus heavily on improving their existing domestic operations rather than jumping all too soon on to the global bandwagon.

—mg.arun@expressindia.com

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

INDIAN STUDENTS PREFER THE UK

NIKHILA GILL

The UK has, after years, upstaged the US as a preferred destination for Indian students. The data on visas issued for the academic year starting the fall of 2010 shows that the US issued 32,000 student visas, a figure almost doubled by the UK consulate that issued 57,500 visas for new student entrants. These numbers signify a change since 2009 when the US had more new students (34,000) compared to the UK (27,000). This change of preference has come about despite the hotly debated proposal for a cap on non-EU immigration into the UK and stricter visa rules. On a side note, Downing Street will consult New Delhi on this a subject, a result of what David Cameron described a 'spirit of humility' towards India. David Willetts, UK's minister for universities and science, also downplayed the effects of the new policies saying that the move only seeks to ensure the delivery of high quality education to international students and eliminate exploitation of foreign students by non-accredited universities.

The UK's international education and skills sector generates 28 billion pounds annually, of which international education is worth over 5 billion pounds. Contributing to this sector are 40,000 Indian students enrolled in higher education courses in the UK in 2009, the second largest international student community after China. However, although the

UK is growing in eminence, the US still has the largest number of Indian students enrolled in its higher education institutions at over 1,00,000.

Besides its relatively shorter (and therefore less expensive) programmes and flights back home, there is another important issue that probably contributes to Indian students' preference of the UK over the US. The UK allows international students to work in off-campus jobs as opposed to the US, where students are restricted to working on-campus and vie for a limited number of jobs. This is an important consideration since a large number of Indian students need a job to support them through their time at university.

As far as reverse migration is concerned, there are only 500 British students in India, a number that David Cameron wants to see increase, with more collaboration in research. And such collaborative efforts may just be what India is looking for—a helping hand for India's bid to increase innovation on its shores.

—feedit@expressindia.com

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

A DEEPENING RELATIONSHIP

Writing on his blog before his 2006 visit to India while he was Leader of the Opposition in the British Parliament, David Cameron said he was going for "a simple reason: India matters so much in the modern world …Our relationship with India goes deep. But I think it can and should go deeper … I think it's time for Britain and India to forge a new special relationship for the twenty-first century." Visiting India again this week, this time as Prime Minister, Mr. Cameron went all out to prove his determination to make those words come true. It is no secret that the recession-hit United Kingdom is eyeing India primarily through an economic lens. On his two-city tour, Mr. Cameron made a strong pitch for improving bilateral trade and investment, particularly for India to relax rules on foreign direct investment in legal services, banking and insurance, and in defence manufacturing. Although the joint statement was short on specific economic commitments, both countries agreed to "substantially increase trade and significantly increase investment," and find ways to double it in the next five years. But the British delegation had at least one substantial achievement to celebrate — the clinching of the Rs.5,100 crore deal to supply Hawk trainer jets to the Indian Air Force and Navy. The document notes the "opportunities for wide-ranging cooperation" in the nuclear field after the signing earlier this year of the U.K.-India Civil Nuclear Cooperation Declaration. The Indian interest in attracting foreign investment in infrastructure development was reflected in the joint statement, with both countries agreeing to explore how best to go about this.

With Mr. Cameron determined to woo India, both sides seemed to have deliberately avoided speaking on difficult bilateral issues publicly. If New Delhi reiterated its reservation on the British cap on immigration, it did so quietly. While there has been no change in substantive positions, the atmospherics this time were far better than during the final years of the Labour government under Gordon Brown when David Miliband's tone and comments, particularly on Kashmir, had not been received well. Prime Minister Cameron was careful not to mention the Kashmir issue at all. Unsurprisingly, his candid statements on terrorism emanating from Pakistan against India, Afghanistan, and the other parts of the world, have endeared him to Indians. That the same statements have caused outrage in Pakistan — casting a shadow over President Asif Ali Zardari's visit to the U.K. next week — and come under criticism in Britain, where Mr. Cameron has been attacked for antagonising Islamabad, only goes to show that in diplomacy, you cannot please all the people all the time.

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

THE VOTE AND BEYOND

Quite understandably, the Telangana Rashtra Samiti is portraying the results of the 12 Assembly by-elections in Andhra Pradesh as a referendum in favour of a separate Telangana State. The party won all the 11 seats it contested; the twelfth went to the Bharatiya Janata Party with which it had an understanding. After all, the by-elections were a direct fall-out of the Telangana issue with the sitting MLAs — 10 belonging to the TRS, one to the BJP and another to the Telugu Desam Party— resigning in protest at what they saw as a delay on the part of the Centre in carving out a new State. Statehood was indeed the dominant issue right through the campaign, and the TRS won all its seats with huge margins, a marked improvement over its performance in the general elections just a year ago. Its chief, K. Chandrashekhar Rao, who spearheaded the Statehood agitation by undertaking an indefinite fast last year, must be feeling vindicated. Both the Congress and the TDP, which have been equivocal on the Statehood issue, received a drubbing. Indeed, in a high stakes contest for the Congress, the party's State president, D. Srinivas, lost to the BJP candidate in the Nizamabad Urban constituency. The TDP, apart from conceding one seat to the TRS, lost its deposit in several constituencies, finishing a poor third. A pro-Statehood sentiment was clearly in evidence in all the constituencies that went to polls.

However, with the Srikrishna Committee now seized of the Statehood issue in all its aspects, Mr. Rao must resist the temptation to capitalise on the popular mood to fall back on his brand of political brinkmanship. The issue concerns the whole of Andhra Pradesh, and any decision on dividing the State will have to be taken on the basis of a broad consensus after due deliberations on its social, economic, and political implications. Although popular support for a separate State seems to have increased considerably within Telangana, too much must not be read into the poll outcome. The 12 constituencies were in any case the core base of the TRS and the Telangana movement. But the by-elections should force a serious rethink within the Congress and the TDP. The two parties, whose political base is spread across the State, have spoken in different voices at different times and at different places. Instead of seeking to tap parochial sentiments, political parties must take a reasoned, long-term view of this complex issue. While the TRS might be emboldened by the results, the proper course for the party will be to await the report of the Srikrishna Committee.

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THE HINDU

LEADER PAGE ARTICLES

THE POLITICS OF TALIBAN RECONCILIATION

THE ONUS IS ON THE GENERALS IN RAWALPINDI TO EFFECT THE HARDCORE TALIBAN LEADERSHIP'S RECONCILIATION AND, AS A QUID PRO QUO, WASHINGTON RECOGNISES PAKISTAN'S "LEGITIMATE INTERESTS" IN AFGHANISTAN.

M.K. BHADRAKUMAR

A battle-hardened Soviet journalist told me in a convivial conversation in Moscow circa 1989 that he wished to metamorphose into a fly and perch on Unter den Linden, Berlin's grandest boulevard — as in a Franz Kafka novel. Mikhail Gorbachev had just arrived in East Berlin on October 7 as the guest of honour at the gala parade to celebrate 40 years of communist rule in East Germany. By then, he had become communism's leading agnostic. My good friend's journalistic instinct was to eavesdrop on Mr. Gorbachev's improbable conversation with his East German counterpart, Erich Honecker. Mr. Gorbachev's hard-hitting message, overshadowing East Germany's birthday celebrations, was "life punishes those who come too late." Indeed, Mr. Honecker was forced to step down 11 days later, the Berlin Wall was breached on November 9 and, within a year, the German Democratic Republic was no more.

Diplomatic engagements can be deceptive. The politics of reconciliation with the Taliban has all along been deceptive — and remains so. Indian journalists interpreted that the visiting U.S. Special Representative, Richard Holbrooke, ruled out the participation by the dreaded "Haqqani network" in the Taliban leadership in any Kabul set-up. Yet, he merely said he could not countenance circumstances under which the Haqqanis will become amenable to reconciliation — that is, it is up to the U.S.' sub-contractors in Rawalpindi, the Pakistani military leadership, to show otherwise.

Yet, a day later, the U.S. administration added another son of Jalaluddin Haqqani to its blacklist of Afghan fugitives. On the contrary, only three days earlier, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was asked, while on a visit to Islamabad, about the Haqqanis, she refused to be drawn into the minefield. Indeed, on an earlier visit to Islamabad, Mr. Holbrooke's own reaction to a query whether there could be any reconciliation between Haqqani and Afghan President Hamid Karzai was: "Who knows?" At the Kabul conference on Afghanistan last week, Ms Clinton repeated the mantra: "We are also closely following the efforts to reintegrate insurgents who are ready for peace. There have been positive steps since last month's consultative peace jirga [in Kabul]. President Karzai's decree establishing the Afghan peace and reintegration programme has created a useful framework, but progress will depend on whether insurgents wish to be reintegrated and reconciled by renouncing violence and the al-Qaeda, and agreeing to abide by the constitution and the laws of Afghanistan."

Clearly, the onus is on the generals in Rawalpindi to effect the hardcore Taliban leadership's reconciliation and as a quid pro quo, Washington recognises Pakistan's "legitimate interests" in Afghanistan and regards its military as "essential" to bring stability to the Afghan region — and accordingly, renders substantial aid to that country. Which is why, as Mr. Holbrooke underlined with a touch of unintended irony in New Delhi, "Improved U.S-Pakistan relations are not bad for India." Another aspect of the U.S. doublespeak is that Washington is helpless about what transpires between Mr. Karzai and the Pakistani military leadership regarding the Taliban's reconciliation. This incredible alibi enables Washington to distance itself publicly from the Pakistani military's ongoing efforts to mediate a reconciliation agreement with both the Haqqani and the Gulbuddin Hekmatyar groups, which are on the U.S. "wanted" lists. Are we to believe that when the ISI diligently goes about identifying who among the Taliban leadership are "reconcilable" enough to be brought into the loop, the Americans and the British — their spy engines et al — are simply standing back and watching? This charade is wearing thin.

The chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen (who came alongside Mr. Holbrooke to Delhi last week), would like India to focus on its military-to-military cooperation with America and, of course, to work hard with the U.S. to counter China's "assertive … territorial claims [and] aggressive approach to the near-sea areas recently." His demarche buttresses Mr. Holbrooke's advice that India should not needlessly worry about the future of Afghanistan, where New Delhi too would have a role to play. Interestingly, Mr. Mullen suggested that India's priority should be to work with the U.S. to contain alleged Chinese expansionism, which he claimed was a shared concern. Mr. Holbrooke and Mr. Mullen's demarche makes sense. India, after all, belongs to the Pentagon's Pacific Command, whereas Pakistan falls under the Central Command.

The U.S. isn't quite the helpless onlooker at the ISI's subsoil manoeuvrings to reconcile the Taliban. Mr. Holbrooke travelled to New York on July 6 specifically with the mission of negotiating the removal of select Taliban members from the U.N. anti-terror blacklist. In effect, he acted as a facilitator for the Pakistani military, which insists that dropping the Taliban from a list of individuals targeted with travel and financial sanctions is a first step to convince it to end its insurgency and strike a peace deal with Mr. Karzai. Of course, Mr. Holbrooke's mission was frustrated, thanks to stalling by Russia, which maintains that there is insufficient evidence to remove the Taliban from the U.N. list. In effect, the Russian Foreign Ministry snubbed Mr. Holbrooke's mission. In a forceful lengthy statement, Moscow said: "According to our estimates the military-political situation in Afghanistan so far unfortunately does not offer an objective basis for a positive review… In this regard, we have serious misgivings about the attempts of the Afghan leadership, with the backing of representatives from a number of western states, to foster talks with Taliban leaders and build a mechanism of 'national reconciliation' on this basis."

It added: "We continue to insist that the possible pinpointed and careful work on the return to civilian life of repentant Taliban members should under no circumstances be substituted by a campaign to rehabilitate the Taliban as a whole and by the revival of a spirit of tolerance towards the terrorist ideology preached by the Taliban, which opens the possibility of its leaders' return to power and the restoration of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Even more, we are against the use for these political purposes of the procedures of the sanctions regime approved by UNSCR 1267 (1999)." Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reiterated Moscow's stance in his statement at the Kabul conference.

Like an avalanche, U.S. officials, past and present, are descending on New Delhi. Washington's angst is palpable. It is apprehensive that India might join hands with Russia and Iran — and China — in putting roadblocks on the path in which the U.S-British-Pakistani caravan is travelling. Where is the caravan headed for? It is heading toward an El Dorado where bloodshed ceases in Afghanistan so that the western troops can stay in that country in peace and tranquillity ad infinitum. Mr. Karzai speaks of the end of foreign military presence in Afghanistan in 2014, whereas the U.S. and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation think differently. NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen wrote some time ago: "Our mission will end when — but only when — the Afghans are able to maintain security on their own … Afghanistan will need the continued support of the international community, including NATO. It is important we send a clear message of long-term commitment … To underline this commitment, I believe that NATO should develop a long-term cooperation agreement with the Afghan government."

India needs to have foresight and clarity of mind. At stake are not only Afghanistan's neutrality but the region's long-term security environment. Mr. Lavrov has made it clear that Russia opposes the open-ended western military presence in Afghanistan. The U.S. is constructing a sprawling $100- million military base near Mazar-i-Sharif, which needs to be operational the latest by early 2012. Hundreds of millions of dollars are being spent to build new military facilities in Afghanistan so that the GI can maintain his familiar lifestyle as in Okinawa, Subic Bay or Yongsan. The new base in Mazar-i-Sharif is a key link in the "string of pearls" along the soft underbelly of Russia and China that the U.S. is tenaciously kneading in the Central Asian region — military facilities and "lily-pads" alike. The U.S. diplomacy is astutely tapping into the visceral fears of the Central Asian countries over a militant Islamist upsurge in the region in the aftermath of the Taliban reconciliation, which will be interpreted by jihadis all over — North Caucasus, Ferghana, Xinjiang or Kashmir — as the defeat of a superpower in the Hindu Kush.

Meanwhile, the recent Afghan-Pakistan transit agreement, brokered by Washington, brings dramatically close to realisation the U.S.' Great Central Asia strategy. Russia has invited Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan for a summit in Sochi in August. Mr. Holbrooke and Mr. Mullen have come at a most crucial juncture in regional politics — to mollify India over the Pakistani role in the geopolitics and persuade it to integrate into the U.S. regional strategies. The last thing Washington wants is a resuscitation of anti-Taliban resistance in Afghanistan. A fly buzzing around Vijay Chowk could easily tell that the politics of Taliban reconciliation is getting to be very serious.

(The writer is a former diplomat.)

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

UNEXAMINED DANGER OFF THE SHORES

CRISIS MANAGEMENT TOOLS ARE NO SUBSTITUTE FOR PREPARED PREVENTIVE ACTION, WHICH HAS BEEN FOUND WANTING IN THE CASE OF SEVERAL OFF-SHORE OIL RIGS IN INDIAN WATERS.

SATYAJIT SARNA

In April this year, a BP oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded, caught fire and collapsed, killing eleven people and triggering an oil spill on a scale not experienced since the Exxon Valdez spill in1989. The full impact of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, including its catastrophic effect on the marine environment, the fishing industry and regional tourism will only be fully evident in the years to come but it would be reasonable to believe that in its wake, governments across the world would be carefully re-examining the drilling operations off their own shores.

In the post-catastrophe examination of Deepwater Horizon from a regulatory perspective, the blame has fallen squarely on the weakness of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) process in the United States in that it did not require a "worst case scenario" analysis. Any major project in India requires an EIA; that is, a focused and extensive examination of the possible environmental effects of any activity in the terms of the EIA Notification issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forests in 2006. All offshore oil and gas activities which were set up after the notification automatically fall into Category A set out in the Notification; that is, they require an environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests based on the recommendations of a Central Environmental Appraisal Committee. A series of Right to Information applications filed by this writer to determine how closely the environmental impact of India's offshore petroleum installations have been examined revealed disturbing results, including on the manner in which these responses are given.

Ironically, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, whom one would have expected to be most concerned, responded to an RTI query regarding the possibility of oil and gas pollution in Indian waters with a bland statement that the matter had been disposed of in the Ministry and that the relevant authority was the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons, falling under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

The response to an appropriate RTI query from the Directorate General of Hydrocarbons was more revealing. It indicated that there are 36 offshore installations falling within India's Exclusive Economic Zone that have been installed in or prior to 2006. Of the 36 installations, 25 fall in the richer oilfields in our western waters. ONGC is the joint venture partner in most of these blocks, and the major international commercial players include RIL, Niko Resources, Cairn and Hardy. The oldest of these is in the Panna Mukta field off the western coast, set up in 1986.

Logically speaking, the older an installation, the more likely it is to use outdated technology or to suffer from the wear, tear and strain inflicted by ocean waves and currents. However, since the EIA Notification only came into effect on September 14, 2006, only the six most modern installations are covered in its ambit. The other 30 offshore installations have not been subjected to the same environmental scrutiny. This fact raises the serious question — if these installations are not covered by the EIA Notification, then has a thorough environmental examination been done by any authority at all?

The Ministry of Petroleum has issued the Petroleum (Safety in Offshore Operations) Rules, 2008. However, these Rules are broadly worded injunctions to conduct operations in a safe manner and to immediately notify the government in case of an accident or "release of hydrocarbon or other noxious substances whereby safety of…marine environment is likely to be endangered." The rules impose no specific environmental conditions at all and their effect is largely to close the stable door after the horse has bolted.

The Oil Industry Safety Directorate (OISD) is the authority for all offshore drilling operations. Before an installation may commence operations, the OISD must give its consent to operate and also conduct safety audits on installations. When queried through an RTI application about the lack of environmental assessments for installations prior to 2006, the OISD denied responsibility, implicitly kicking the ball back at the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

Most critically, even where these rules and procedures exist, their objective is confined to the safety of people and installations, and not the environment. While the limited objective is honourable in itself, it does not substitute for the elaborate and holistic environmental survey that a complete EIA provides for.

The problem is exacerbated by the attitude of some of the parties involved. A query directed at ONGC as to the number, nature and location of their installations was answered with the cryptic "Confidential and cannot be shared". The Directorate General of Hydrocarbons was happy to provide the same information in detail, which leads one to wonder how confidential it was in the first place and on what basis the determination is made that a citizen of India may be denied information which another arm of the government freely provides.

The most important rule in environmental law and jurisprudence is the precautionary principle, which may be stated broadly to say that one need not wait for definite proof of a danger to justify guarding against the risk. The genesis of the EIA mechanism is this understanding that an audit of the environmental risk associated with each project needs to take place before any danger is given an opportunity to arise. The reason that the approach espoused by environmental law is so cautious and forward looking is that, while environmental disasters are unlikely, they are also catastrophic in scale when they do take place. While ONGC and the OISD have their own oil spill units and the Coast Guard is mandated to tackle any danger that may arise, these are crisis management tools and no substitute for prepared preventive action by the government.

Moreover, India is also a party, since 1995, to the Law of the Seas Convention of 1982. Articles 204, 206 and 208 of this Convention cast a duty on the state-party to prevent pollution and assess the risk of any potentially polluting activities, and provide that such rules, practices and procedures may be no less stringent than international standards. Besides our own interest, there remains upon us an international obligation to prevent and monitor any threat to our marine environment.

What emerges from this RTI investigation is a worrying pattern of abdication of responsibility and duty. If the Directorate of Hydrocarbons, the Oil Industrial Safety Directorate, the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas or the Ministry of Environment and Forests are not, collectively or individually, responsible for the environmental assessment and compliance of 30 oil and gas installations, then who is? Surely the presence of a possible danger is justification for a full investigation and audit by the most qualified Ministry. This lacuna in regulation and preparedness in an exceedingly sensitive area calls for urgent redress. A good first step would be for the Ministry of Environment and Forests to frame a set of rules providing for a comprehensive survey and audit of the offshore installations that predate the 2006 EIA Notification. Preventive action should be the mantra. Ex-post facto legalistic justifications sound abysmally weak in the face of ecological disasters and their devastating impact, as is evident from the happenings in the Gulf of Mexico.

(Satyajit Sarna is a lawyer at the Delhi High Court. He may be contacted at satyajit.sarna@gmail.com)

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THE HINDU

NEWS ANALYSIS

GENDER WAR, YET TO BE WON

THE MOVE TO CREATE A U.N. ENTITY FOR GENDER EQUALITY AND THE EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN, NAMED U.N. WOMEN, IS A MAJOR STRIDE FOR HUMANKIND.

V.R. KRISHNA IYER

Whether you believe in god or not, every effect must have a cause. Out of nothing, nothing comes: ex nihilo nihil fit. Any creation must have a creator: call him Brahman, God, Allah the Merciful... God is everywhere and in everything. As the philosopher Arthur Young said, god sleeps in the mineral, wakes in the vegetable, walks in the animal, flies in the bird and thinks in man. This critical awareness is unique to human beings, gives them the power to identify themselves with creativity and universal consciousness. Call it omnipresent infinity through absolute power present universally and ubiquitously. The vedic seer's universal vision of existence does not discriminate.

Walt Whitman wrote: "… [A] leaf of grass is no less than the journey work of the stars. And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren, and the tree toad is a chef-d'oeuvre for the highest, And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven." Indeed, the deepest waters and the summit skies are made sublime by the same divine wonder.

Jesus described this infinite wonder the kingdom of god and made it the universal truth: "The Kingdom of God is within you," he told humanity. The upanishads called it Advaita Brahman. Islam stands for peace, purity, submission. Every human being finds a celestial essence in cosmic brotherhood, whatever his or her religion. So he is all-merciful. The vedic vision is absolute unity in creation. Brahman is not plurality of gods but one god — Advaita.

So, whatever be your religion we have but one god, the awakened over the supreme wonder as the Buddha. The Buddha did not preach. God believed in truth and non-violence — the Enlightened One, a Hindu avatar. So I am a Brahmin, a spark of Brahman. Thus I am a Christian with Jesus' vision, and also Islam's single brotherhood credo. This profound unitary global glory is the foundation of Indian constitutional-cultural-theological secularism. Ignorant of this deeper spiritual core, those who set off religious acrimony and communalism forget the quintessence of secularism. Vulgar religious rivalry violates sublime secularism.

We discriminate between man and woman and consider the latter to be inferior. No man is born without a woman. There are some biological differences but they do not warrant basic discrimination. Man, woman and child are humanity in unity.

This sublime, supreme truth of divinity has led the United Nations to found a gender wonder. It seeks to give a stronger voice to the notionally illusory weaker sex. They are equal in terms of their potency. The queen on the throne is no less than the king can be. Indira Gandhi was as powerful as her father was before her. So too the spiritual-temporal jurisprudence of peer sex power.

The U.N General Assembly on July 2, 2010 voted unanimously to create a U.N. Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women, named U.N. Women (UNW). The new entity is meant to accelerate progress in meeting the needs of women and girls worldwide. It aims to create a new vibrant ethos, a valiant instrument to accelerate gender equality and women's empowerment, bring to a close discriminatory disparity, according to a U.N. statement. UNW brings four U.N bodies dealing with gender issues under one umbrella. It is meant to be an egalitarian organ.

With the creation of UNW, the egalitarian gender jurisprudence is affirmed unanimously. Hopefully, a grand transformation is under way now that it has come into being. A man or a woman can be vibrantly one. But, give woman nuclear weapons, and she will bomb as terribly as a man will.

Every faculty in the cerebral power is equal across genders. But this militant equality has yet to become a social reality. Indian culture accepts the wealthy and the 'illthy', the rich and the indigent, equally in its epics. Egalite is writ large in constitutional print. Currently in Indian politics a few women are right at the top, such as Sonia Gandhi and Mayawati. But in Parliament, the judiciary and the executive, or in the professions, have women gained gender equality? It is a war yet to be won.

The U.N. resolution has called for the appointment of an Under-Secretary-General to head the UNW, and the establishment of an executive board to provide intergovernmental support to and supervision of its operation. All public institutions must aid this process.

This move must be radically supported by every country. India should not lag behind. It is a shame that the Indian Parliament does not yet have one-third composition of women members. In the judiciary, too, women are obscure. India should have at least a third of all judges coming from the humblest among women. Then social justice will become gentler, more compassionate and real.

Equal roles

Women are not domestic slaves to be sold for a dowry and beaten up by alcoholic husbands. They are equal and eligible to wield public power. Women can be economically independent and be the guardians of minor children under the law.

More women should come into the police department, for one. They are generally less corrupt and harsh than many of their male counterparts, less violent in handling persons in custody, kinder to women offenders and juveniles. We need more police women in high positions, just as we need successful women District Collectors, Chief Secretaries and Chief Justices.

Women, awake, arise and make every political party include equal gender justice as a policy in their manifesto. In the matter of C.B. Muthamma, who was the first woman to join the Indian Foreign Service, I had condemned statutory gender discrimination resorted to by the Union government.

A women's code to deal with special requirements for gender development calls for special institutions. The right to be born healthy must be guarded for the girl. In education, sports, conjugal life, maternal facilities, old age maintenance, the law has to show special concern. This writer once presented a fair and comprehensive women's code, prepared by a committee appointed by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. But there has been no legislation in this regard yet. Public pressure is needed to make the code a law. India has promises to keep for gender justice. A Ministry for gender justice is essential.

UNICEF made me chairman of a committee to prepare a children's code since the Government of India had failed to produce a statute under the International Children's Convention. Margaret Alva, a Minister under Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao, appointed me chairman of a panel to prepare a report on the maladies facing women kept in custody. In both these cases the committees drafted exemplary codes and presented them to the Central government. But the story ended there: the reports were not implemented.

Many gender-oriented reforms in jurisprudence were recommended by the Kerala Law Reforms Commission, of which this writer was the Chairman. The Bills are progressive and will transform society if implemented. But there has not been any movement on this front.

The unanimous U.N resolution for the creation of the UNW was a great day for world womanhood, indeed all of humankind. All thinking persons will greet the decision. Gender power will gain strength as humanity becomes aware that sans mother there is no man. When I advocate the development of womanhood I really argue for the cause of humanity as a whole.

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THE HINDU

JULY IS DEADLIEST MONTH OF AFGHAN WAR FOR THE U.S.

Three U.S. troops died in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the death toll for July to at least 63 and surpassing the previous month's record as the deadliest for American forces in the nearly nine-year-old war.

The three died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan the day before, a NATO statement said on Friday. It gave no nationalities, but U.S. officials said all three were Americans. U.S. and NATO commanders had warned casualties would rise as the international military force ramps up the war against the Taliban, especially in their southern strongholds in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. President Barack Obama ordered 30,000 reinforcements to Afghanistan last December in a bid to turn back a resurgent Taliban.

The tally of 63 American deaths in July is based on military reports compiled by The Associated Press. June had been the deadliest month for both the U.S. and the overall NATO-led force. A total of 104 international service members died last month, including 60 Americans.

— AP

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

CAMERON, IN INDIA, SENDS RIGHT SIGNALS

The British leader's visit has been a huge publicity success, with Mr Cameron making the right social and political pitch in both Bengaluru and New Delhi, not to mention his ability to be one of the boys wherever he went. He didn't lecture. He didn't go on village safaris. He just let people think he was being himself. That's a quality people like in a leader. Perhaps the Prime Minister could conduct himself in the manner he did because he was able to facilitate the £700 million agreement between BAE-Rolls Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics to purchase 57 more Hawk trainer jets. This is a big boost to British manufacturing in bad times. But the importance of Mr Cameron's visit will be judged by going beyond trade. His sharp criticism of Pakistan on the terrorism issue, and later statement that he stood by what he had said, would earn the new British leader bonus points in India. No Western leader has spoken with such frankness on the subject of Pakistan from Indian soil. The Americans have typically equivocated. The other Europeans are not as culturally and historically tuned to the subcontinent as Britain is. So, somewhere it matters, and what Mr Cameron had to say stung Islamabad into almost cancelling President Asif Ali Zardari's proposed visit to London in early August. It is too early to say if British policy toward Pakistan is changing in any basic way, but many will hope London looks at Islamabad on merit. It has to make a considered judgment whether pandering to Pakistan would really be of help in containing or eliminating the prospects of future terrorist strikes in Britain.

On his three-day trip, Mr Cameron led a team of as many as six Cabinet ministers, including the foreign secretary, chancellor of the exchequer and business minister, besides top corporate executives and culture and art heavyweights. It is said there hasn't been a larger British trade delegation "in living memory", or a larger top-level delegation since the end of the Raj. The focus of the visit was clearly trade "and jobs", as the British leader noted. If that's the case — and Britain does need to recover from going from fourth to 18th place as the source of India's imports — then Mr Cameron's trip would carry greater meaning if he is able to attend to the key question of permitting Indian entrepreneurs, professionals and students from purposeful residence in Britain. Slashing non-EU immigration from next year would probably hurt deserving Indians more than people from any other country. Britain is pitching for trade in civil nuclear energy, banking, insurance and legal services. All of these will naturally have to be negotiated. But Mr Cameron has begun on a positive note.

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

TEMPORARY GAINS

FARRUKH DHONDY

"No help your sermons now —

The one blue stretches.

No consequence the solemn vow —

The faces of the wretches..."

From Cadences by Bachchoo

"Many a good hanging prevents a bad marriage", says the Clown in Twelfth Night and, if one ignores the ribald double entendre, we may take that as the extreme Elizabethan measure to prevent mismatches. In India there are less severe remedies — the horoscopes or caste credentials don't agree, there are congenital idiocies in the contracting family... etc. We rarely resort to the rope.

In my family, a generation and more ago, when a marriage was mooted, senior female members were despatched to examine the credentials of the suitor and his or her family.

Now Britain has sent a "special relationship" delegation to India led by Prime Minister David Cameron, the Chancellor of the Exchequer and other ministerial and business worthies. They are talking imports and exports with capitalists, trade political influence and diplomatic leanings for real rupees with ministers and will come away with a special relationship.

As with the talks that precede an arranged marriage the two parties must understand each other and assess each other's strengths and predilections. All this will no doubt happen in the bilaterals. It's an opportunity and event of such importance that I am tempted to assume the role, not of a negotiating aunt — I wasn't invited — but a third cousin thrice removed who stands on the periphery and plays either the bad fairy at christening or Cassandra on the walls warning against Brits bearing gifts.

Before I assume such a role I ought, in fairness to the reader, make two confessions. A Conservative politician of the old school, one Norman Tebbit, formulated a "cricket test" to ascertain the loyalties of immigrants. When the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is playing a Test against Pakistan, for which side does the Bradford boy with Mirpuri ancestry cheer? I apply this useful cricket test to myself whenever the MCC is playing India and inevitably find that I cheer for the side that's winning. If the Indian team are bowled out in the first innings for 33 runs, I am distinctly for our MCC boys and Queen and country. If, however, the Indian XI stages a recovery and bowls the MCC out for even less, my allegiance switches to Mother India, land of my birth — "chak de…" etc.

My second confession is that I am not a Tory or a Lib-Dem. Most immigrants except the millionaires, and the aspirant foolish who think they may become millionaires, vote Labour because through the ages the Labour Party has professed to represent the poor, and being poor we support it even realising that the likes of Tony Blair are for Tony and Mrs Blair rather than for us starving masses.

Declarations over, let me get on with my reservations about the Indo-Brit "special relationship" visit. With the instability, volatility and even nasty ambition of several countries around India, such a relationship is most desirable.

But with whom is the relationship to be established?

The present coalition government of Britain is desperate to prove to Britain's people and the world, its stability. If it makes changes, passes laws, signs treaties whose substance has then to be made flesh, it has to inspire faith in its continuity. One would hardly negotiate trade deals with Mussolini while the population was beginning to drape ropes across the lamp posts. That was why the visits of the last British foreign secretary David Milliband achieved very little.

Perhaps nothing like that is about to happen to Mr Cameron, but there are now reports of a little bit of spinning and weaving of rope-fabric going on in remote parts of the Liberal-Democratic kingdom of Nicholas Clegg, deputy Prime Minister and coalition slipper-carrier.

Mr Clegg and the seniors of the Liberal Democratic Party joined the coalition either through a miscalculation that even the dumbest of political minds (yes, Here I Stand!) could have computed and warned them about, or they went for it out of sheer greed for the trappings of temporary office.

Their party has long made constitutional reform of Britain's voting system its central aspiration and policy. They argue that the first-past-the-post system of electing members of Parliament leaves the people who vote for the minority without a voice in a democracy. As a very simplified example, suppose in a two-party system a Tory won the seat by one vote in every constituency. There would then be no Opposition in the House and half the voting population, maybe more if the numbers in each constituency differed, would not be represented. Lib-Dems want the system reformed so that actual numbers of votes translate into seats in Parliament.
There are several systems of vote transfer and preference which can, to one extent or another, achieve this end.
To tempt the Lib-Dems into a coalition, the Tories offered them inconsequential or bound-to-be-unpopular jobs in Cabinet and a referendum on a system of voting which could make the vote fairer. It wasn't quite the system the Lib-Dems had formulated, but their leadership represented it to their party as the Holy Grail which could lead them to the paradise of parliamentary power. Several Lib-Dems, senior and junior, got a distinct whiff of the rat: The promise was not for a change to the system but for a referendum asking the public whether they want it. Even if the public says "yes", the system has to pass into law and it is certain that most Tories and all of Labour won't vote for such a bill. The Lords will almost certainly reject it.

Then the spinning and weaving of ropes in the Lib-Dem kingdom will progress from a cottage industry into production-line manufacture and Lib-Dems will start testing the strength of the nearest lampposts.
Then will they denounce every budget cut the coalition and their leaders instituted this year and they will trumpet their policy of favouring complete membership of the European Union and death to the Tories' opposition to it. The coalition will fall apart.

This doesn't mean that Labour will win the election next June and that we may finally have a Prime Minister called Balls. Mr Cameron could still make it all on his own and the Lib-Dems fall into the sewer, the yellow-leaf.

But for now, as we classically educated poor say, caveat emptor. Can the delegation that set out this week, this new East India Coalition Company, deliver on the deals it makes in Delhi?

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

PEACE WITH PAK, BUT WITH A BIG STICK

S.K. SINHA

The recent Indo-Pak talks fiasco has understandably agitated the nation across political divides. We need not blame Pakistan for what happened or for the intemperate language of Pakistan foreign minister S.M. Qureshi. We need to blame ourselves for daydreaming for anything better. We seem to have been obsessed with Mungeri Lal's dreams in pursuit of good relations with Pakistan at all costs.

The origin and history of Pakistan has been of relentless hostility towards India. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the architect of Pakistan, had grandiose plans of reviving a new Mughal Empire in India. He not only wanted Pakistan to comprise the Muslim majority provinces in the West and the East, but also wanted a 1,000-mile corridor connecting the two wings passing through the well-known Muslim cultural centres of Delhi, Lucknow and Patna. Besides, he put forward the legal argument that the Princely States had entered into a treaty with Britain acknowledging the latter as the paramount power. After British withdrawal, those treaties would lapse and paramountcy should revert to the rulers of those states. They should decide the future of their state, in terms of opting for either India or Pakistan. Jinnah had his eyes on Hyderabad, hoping to secure the largest Princely State in India — the size of France. He even tried to lure the rulers of Jodhpur and Jaisalmer to join Pakistan. As for Kashmir, he was confident about geography and demography favouring Pakistan and that Kashmir would fall like a ripe plum into Pakistan's lap. The British were willing to oblige. The Indian Independence Act of 1947, passed by the British Parliament, catered for the provinces to be allocated to the two dominions on the basis of religion and the Princely States on the basis of the decisions of their rulers.

Maharaja Hari Singh's decision to accede to India was perfectly legal. It also had moral sanction with Sheikh Abdullah, the state's tallest political leader with the maximum following, endorsing it. Kashmir being a part of India is something totally unacceptable to Pakistan. They call Kashmir the core issue and say until it is resolved there can be no peace on the subcontinent. They have, to an extent, succeeded in putting this across to the international community, particularly the US. The fact is that this issue is not the disease, but only its symptom. Even if it were to be resolved on Pakistan's terms, it would only whet Pakistan's appetite for bigger gains. In the context of Al Qaeda's international jihad, and of other such terrorist organisations, jihadi victory in Kashmir would be a step towards establishing a caliphate. There is little realisation of this internationally.
Before Partition, Jinnah had thundered that he would see India divided or destroyed. His grandiose vision of a new Mughal Empire floundered. He could get only a moth-eaten Pakistan. Within weeks of Independence, he unleashed a tribal invasion under Pakistan Army leadership to annex Kashmir. Successive military invasions by Pakistan — 1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999 — failed. From 1989 Pakistan started cross-border terrorism but that has been largely contained. Jihadi terrorism has spread to various cities in the rest of India. 26/11 was the mother of all terrorist attacks. The military, which rules the roost in Pakistan under a facade of civilian rule, considers the terrorist outfits as strategic assets. With increasing realisation in the US that the war in Afghanistan is not winnable, and the US planning to exit with honour, Pakistan is now well placed to pursue its strategic goals in Afghanistan and at the same time continue targeting Kashmir and settle the issue on its own terms. For the last three years Pakistan and its supporters in Kashmir have been trying to whip up a mass movement in the Valley to break away from India. In 2008 it was the Amarnath controversy, based on totally false and absurd propaganda of India changing the demography of the Valley like Israel had done in Palestine. The communal card was played to the hilt. In 2009, the accidental drowning of two women in Shopian was projected as a case of rape and killing by the security forces to create an anti-India frenzy. A CBI investigation brought out the conspiracy and those guilty of fabricating false evidence are now on trial. This year emotions have been aroused against the security forces at the deaths of some "innocent" stone-pelting young boys. The PDP has been hand-in-glove with the organisers of these three successive mass movements. It is significant that the stone-pelting operation, with support from across the border, was organised on the eve of the recent Indo-Pak talks in Islamabad.

Pakistan has a long history of violating written agreements. It violated the Standstill Agreement and invaded Kashmir in October 1947, the Ceasefire Agreement and launched the 1965 war, the Shimla Accord and started cross-border terrorism, and the Lahore Declaration with the Kargil intrusion. In 2004, Gen. Pervez Musharraf gave a commitment that Pakistani territory would not be allowed to be used for terrorist action against India, but that continued abated. Pakistan has always denied its hand in acts of aggression against India but subsequently the lie has got exposed by its own people and from overwhelming evidence. Maj. Gen. Akbar Khan's book, Raiders Over Kashmir, gave details of the Pakistan Army's involvement in the 1947 war; Gen. Mohammad Musa's book, My Vision, showed how Pakistan launched the 1965 war; Gen. Musharraf's book, In The Line of Fire, throws light on the intrusion in Kargil. Pakistan's stand that there is no cross-border terrorism in Kashmir and that it is an ongoing freedom movement was given the lie by a former ISI chief, Lt. Gen. Javed Ashraf Qazi, in Pakistan's National Assembly. In the case of 26/11, it has been the same story with evidence from Ajmal Kasab and David Headley blowing the lid off. But Pakistan yet drags its feet on taking action.
The story is no better in terms of observing civilised behaviour and diplomatic norms. Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto talked of a thousand-year war and referred to Swaran Singh at the UN as an "Indian dog". Musharraf's breakfast press conference at Agra violated democratic norms. On the eve of foreign secretary-level talks, Mr Qureshi, in a speech at Multan, said Pakistan was not on its knees asking for talks, it was India that had done so. Mr Qureshi's recent barbs against Mr Krishna and India have been reprehensible.

India has always pursued a peaceful foreign policy. This can only be done from a position of military strength. Ashoka the Great had nearly a million-strong standing army. We learnt a lesson in 1962 — that peace cannot be pursued from a position of military weakness. Pakistan has been involved in the nuclear blackmarket and is the epicentre of international terrorism. It is both a rogue and a terrorist state. Libya, for doing much less, had been declared a terrorist state. No doubt India must ardently pursue a policy of peace with Pakistan, but this must be done from a position of military strength, and not under external pressure. We should not be seen as a soft state chasing illusions.

The author, a retired lieutenant-general, wasVice-Chief of Army Staff and has served as governor of Assam and Jammu and Kashmir.

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

IN BED WITH BRITAIN

SHOBHAA DE

goes, his references to national icons and symbols (Shah Rukh Khan, Sachin, curry, lingo) during his Bengaluru lecture for 2,000 techies, won him several extra brownie points. Mr Cameron is a smart cookie and it really was high time the British figured out how the cookie crumbles in India. A steamy Indo-British romance is heavily in the air. So far, we are reasonably pleased with the suitor's efforts. Mr Cameron is on a mission to woo us — and we aren't being bashful or coy, either. In these crass and nakedly commercial times, nobody should shy away from discussing lolly. In fact, it should be the number one item on the agenda — money. How much are we going to make after getting into bed with Britain? I'm all for a pre-nup. That's the bottomline, everything else is secondary. Once those dirty filthy commercial details are taken care of, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh can also praise Lady Gaga, Elton John and their cricket captain. But he must never ever make the mistake of praising British food or else the world will know he is lying. P.R. giri Bandgala… and it sure looks like Mr Cameron is ready to wear one. What better way to woo those restless natives. All for a good cause, of course! As photo-ops go, his "namastey" in Bengaluru made a few front pages. As good British Prime Minister David Cameron is hip, hot and sexy. A little like that other perennial British pin-up — Elizabeth Hurley. What fun! They can be conveniently bracketed in the "same same but different" category given their India connections. Hurley is married to Mr

Courtship rituals vary, but Mr Cameron and his band of merry men (well, mostly… there were very few saucy lassies on his team of 90), stayed with a fairly traditional, even predictable script. The mood was "Hawk-ish" — the Rs 5,200 crore deal for advanced jet trainers is in the bag. There were several other "farmaishes" on the British wish list — from UK law firms interested in setting up shop in India, to British banks and supermarket players like Tesco getting down to serious business here. Let's do a little sing along folks, "All I want is a deal somewhere… far away from this cold nightmare… oh, wouldn't it be loverly"? This two-day visit — let's call it a quickie — spells (and smells of) just one thing — cash. But at least there is no fake attempt at making the whirlwind trip sound like anything other than what it is — a shopping jamboree.

the local politicians present. The Mumbai crowd is so much more blasé and cosmopolitan — the guy can relax and have a great time". gherao Mr Cameron's crack team is packed with cuties, too. George Osborne whizzed through Mumbai, all bright eyed and bushy tailed, despite his hysterical schedule. As always, Mumbai's unchallenged power couple, Parmesh and Adi Godrej, pulled out all the stops and showed the visitors what the megawatt Mumbai magic is all about at a marvellously structured dinner party for 60 of their closest and dearest friends — other industrialists, Bollywood stars, fashionistas, socialites, writers, professionals. It was a dazzling line up of the city's best and brightest, to say nothing of the hottest. Since the dishy under-40 Chancellor of the Exchequer was the star invitee, Mumbai sat up and took notice, giving him the sort of "bhav" generally reserved for Bollywood royalty and nobody else. An invitee who had flown in from Delhi especially for the soiree commented wryly, "Thank God for Adi and Parmesh. Thank God George's first impressions of India will be formed at an evening like this, rather than at a stuffy Delhi dinner, where guests often ignore the visiting chief guest andDilliwalla observed, while he braced himself for round two of partying in the capital the following night. in sight, as the behenji believes this priceless necklace belongs to him or her — as it indeed does. Members of Georges' team were caught ogling the lovely ladies present. The lucky visitors had the chance to feast on enough eye candy to give them a bellyache for weeks. Gorgeous men and women floated around dressed in the most eye-popping couture. A mega industrialist's beautiful wife was sporting a whopper of a diamond (not less than 40 carats)… and oh-so-casually at that (over a classic black dress). Everywhere one turned, there was red hot glamour (starting with the hostess dressed in a figure hugging red Herve Leger). Mercifully, there wasn't a Mumbaikar Well, given that gallons of Dom were generously flowing and the dinner table was laden with baked crab and salmon, it must have been very difficult for Georgie Boy to concentrate on biz talk or even believe he was indeed in India. How many times did he pinch himself that night? The enticing stretch of the glittering Queen's Necklace glittered wickedly beyond the tranquil infinity pool of the Godrej mansion. Ironic! The Queen (Victoria) to whom this "necklace" was dedicated was the Empress of British India at the time! And now everyWell, the Big Boys from Britain have successfully pulled off a charm initiative. As a seasoned legal eagle who attended a cruelly timed (7 am) breakfast meeting with Osborne, the morning after the night before, commented, "He made all the right noises and kept repeating, 'We are here to learn'… that's a good place to start". You bet! Especially when you forget to add, "We are here to sell…" Let us watch how it goes once the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and the National Stock Exchange (NSE), make it official.

It is payback time, buddies. We know how to drive hard bargains and squeeze the testicles of trading partners when needed. Your time begins now — tick, tick, tick, tock. The mouse ran up the clock. Big Ben and Rajabai Tower are the new BFFs in town.

Oye, Lucky, Oye!!

— Readers can send feedback towww.shobhaade.blogspot.com

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

THE MEDIOCRE CRAFTSMEN

KISHWAR DESAI

Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to India was in the news in the UK, but only because of his remarks on Pakistan. So what happened to the 90-strong entourage? This was enough for at least one large all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood extravaganza scene, complete with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh humming "Singh is King… Singh is King… Singh is King". Apart from cruel cartoons showing Cameron as a slumdog begging for alms from a millionaire Singh, Mr Cameron's India visit has only created a media impact following his remarks that Pakistan must not look "both ways". Perhaps in such an old historic relationship it would take a very large earthquake to generate headline grabbing moments. Or could it also be that in state visits, most people would ask "But what's in it for me?" and lose interest.

Perhaps security problems, i.e., terrorism emanating out of Pakistan, are issues which do concern all of us and therefore become essential grist for the media mill. And what could generate more fear and excitement than the thought of an angered Pakistan? But believe me, this is simply untrue. In the world of David Cameron, who is the world's most optimistic Prime Minister, it is possible to be a friend of both, India and Pakistan. And I can assure you that when the Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari visits UK early next month, he will have the time of his life at Chequers, Mr Cameron's country home. All this gnashing of teeth and mock anger at Mr Cameron's statements will be history, but the so-called anti-Pakistan remarks will have pleased the Indians hugely.

It has been a clever move because it has completely distracted everyone from the other big elephant in the room: the issue of the immigration cap on non-EU (European Union) workers, which for some reason is exercising Indian industry and the Indian government. However, this should not be allowed to become an emotive issue — because in reality it barely affects the relationship between the two countries. There is a strong and thriving diaspora in the UK which is quite capable of looking after its own self interests, and the Indian government should not fall into the trap of pandering to businessmen who feel that they can, by importing cheap Indian labour, somehow make a quick buck. After all, if you invest in another country you should be quite prepared to employ local talent and expertise, and not be so obsessed with carrying your Indian chefs and masala makers with you. Nor is the Indian professional so bereft of opportunities that he or she has to come to Britain.

UK and, in fact, London has a large and comfortable Asian presence, and certainly, we have taken over most of the service counters in almost every large department store or shopping mall. We are in the National Health Service and are employed in most corporations. We are already well represented here, and there is no need to feel that the immigration cap is a racist backlash. It is an internal problem of the British government which is struggling to deal with recession and the huge bill of social services and should not be misread as a policy to exclude.

In fact, even those of Indian origin who live here, do state that this is after all an island, and there is no sense in permitting the quality of the local services to deteriorate because they simply cannot take the pressure of more migrants. There is an equal worry about EU migrants — but they cannot be prevented from coming as the EU permits free movement between its member countries. Remember this is a highly subsidised welfare society — with free medicare and excellent public services. Part of the joy of living here is the fact that, as yet, the country's scarce resources have not been stretched to the point of breaking down completely. If policies of open immigration continue then the fear is that perhaps one day London will be as overcrowded as Delhi — with chronic shortages of water and electricity, and huge mountains of garbage everywhere.

Next week I will be in Delhi, and already a new electricity inverter is being installed in my home because of the frequent outages. This summer we have been calling water tankers and I have no doubt that when I reach, if it is raining, the roads around the house will be flooded. Those who raise their voices against "immigration caps" must look around India's capital and see what happens when uncontrolled migration takes place. The free movement of people between countries is an idyllic thought — but perhaps phasing the migration over time may be a more pragmatic move.

MEANWHILE, ANOTHER stalwart bites the dust. I always wondered how long it would take to happen… After all, be honest, how many people do you know have admitted over a quiet drink in a noisy bar (where they cannot possibly be overheard) that they have picked up a Salman Rushdie book and been unable to complete it? However, they always add, rolling their eyes and with gritted teeth, "But he writes so well… one day I must finish it". And so the years fly by. And many Rushdie books pile up unread.

However, now finally the real reason may have been revealed. Sir Salman Rushdie has been named, among other literary leading lights, by the former Weidenfield professor of comparative literature at Oxford University, Gabriel Josipovici, as "profoundly disappointing".

He adds that "You feel Rushdie's just showing off rather than giving a sense of genuine exploration". Sacrilege! will be the united scream which goes up around the world of Rushdie worshippers. But wait, Professor Josipovici has not spared Ian McEwan or Martin Amis either in an interview to the Guardian newspaper. About those writers, such as Ian McEwan who have graduated from the University of East Anglia's creative writing course, he says, "They all tell stories in a way that is well crafted , but that is the most depressing aspect of it — a careful craft which seems to me to be hollow".

And, shock and horror, he has included hamara Noble Prize-wallah V.S. Naipaul in the list. He says that while Guerillas, the 1975 story written by Naipaul is "exquisitely crafted" it was one "to which we certainly would not want to return". So those of you who were trying to complete reading it for the 66th time, put it away, there is absolutely no point. Prof Josipovici has spoken.

And now the debate has been joined by Park Honan, emeritus professor of English and American literature at Leeds University, who blames the electronic media for the decline of literature. "We are becoming superficial", he says. Becoming superficial? Wake up, profs, we are superficial.

Now, let me grab my iPhone and download my abbreviated audio-version of Alice in Wonderland…

n The writer can be contacted at

kishwardesai@yahoo.com

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DNA

EDITORIAL

OUTSOURCE THE GAMES

VENKATESAN VEMBU

The news that the construction of stadiums and hotels for the Delhi Commonwealth Games is horribly behind schedule has justifiably given rise to much existential angst. It now appears more than a little likely that Games visitors will have to stay in tent cities in the absence of adequate accommodation options.

As if all this wasn't embarrassing enough, Mani Shankar Aiyar, the killjoy spoilsport, is conducting Varuna japa yagnas to propitiate the rain god into rendering the Games a washout.

Isn't there any way out of what is certain to be a colossal loss of face for us - and simultaneously keep everyone happy? Oddly enough, there is.

By a curious alignment of circumstances, Britain — whose prime minister David Cameron came calling asking for Indian investments to revive the down-and-out UK economy — is hosting the 2012 Olympic Games in London. And because the Brits have forsaken the limitless joys of bureaucratic red tape they gifted us, the London Olympic stadiums are in a rather more advanced state of preparedness than our own Games infrastructure is. So, here's the deal.

Let's outsource the Commonwealth Games to London and have them host it on our behalf without our having to pay them a penny.

Here's how it would work: for the entire duration of the Games, London will be rechristened 'New Delhi' and vice-versa, and the new 'New Delhi' will see the Games through, down to the last detail. Again, during the Games, all Brits will invoke distinctive Indianisms in their speech — such as "Your good name?" and "Mind it!"

Why, you might ask, would the British agree to this lunacy? There are many compelling reasons why they should (and likely will) embrace it. First and foremost, it's the Commonwealth Games — hello! — so they would be doing it for "Queen and country". Second, they get a chance to stress-test their overall Olympics preparedness in somewhat exacting real-life circumstances.

Third, and most important, the goodwill they generate with us by hosting the Commonwealth Games on our behalf could grease the tracks for the Indian investments they seek in their economy.

And they really have nothing to lose: these are the same chaps who sailed the seas to colonise us, braved death and disease, tolerated the heat and the dust, and learnt (thanks to Hobson-Jobson) to say "There was a banker" when they wanted doors shut! Now, they just have to pretend to be us for a fortnight without leaving the comfort of their home. What could be easier than that? As for us, our incomplete stadiums won't go entirely for waste either. We could always hand them over to Mani Shankar Aiyar for him to perform his Varuna yagnas. God knows we need the rains.

It's a winning proposition for everyone, mind it! Now, let the Blighty Games begin...

URL of the article: http://www.dnaindia.com/opinion/column_outsource-the-games_1416803-all

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DNA

MAIN ARTICLE

DREAMS OF BEAUTY IN THE SHANTIES

PATRALEKHA CHATTERJEE

At five in the morning, 17-year-old Sonia steps out of her shack, walks down her lane past the garbage and the gutter, and hops on to a bus. Half an hour later, she is in another world — inside a South Delhi middle-class home where she washes the dishes, scrubs and mops the floor. The chores are repeated in three more houses.

'Dull' pretty much describes Sonia's life unless you meet her in her other avatar — that of an aspiring beautician. Here, inside a room in a vocational training centre, Sonia is one of the many young shanty dwellers, learning skills that could unlock the door to her dream world. It is a class on beauty culture run by Deepalaya, an NGO, working with families classified as BPL — below the poverty line.

Beauty and BPL may not seem an obvious fit. But to Sonia and the

young girls picking up tweezing tips for perfect eyebrows, hair treatment, or the secrets of bridal make-up, beauty is the passport to mobility. Sonia dropped out of school after the fourth grade to look after her siblings. Her father is a cook, her mother is a housemaid. Both work seven days a week to feed the family of seven. Earlier, girls like Sonia with no money and little education would have had little to hope for. But today, things are changing rapidly even in shantytown India.

Girls from the shanties are as fired by the dream of looking good as their counterparts in middle-class neighbourhoods or the urban elite who live in gated communities. Where there is no clean water or toilets, should there be talk about waxing and tweezing? What is the role of beauty in the lives of those denied the basics? There is no easy answer.

In her best-selling book, The Beauty Myth, author Naomi Wolf argued that images of beauty - found on television and in advertisements, women's magazines, and pornography — are detrimental to women, as well as to the men who love them. Wolf was referring toAmerican culture when she asserted that concept of "beauty" as projected in the popular culture is a weapon used to make women feel badly about themselves.

One wonders whatWolf might say were she to visit Sonia's home and then observe her as she experiments with 'party make-up' during her beauty class.

Simranjeet Kaur, Sonia's instructor, says makeover tricks offer wonderful entry points to people who urgently seek change.

"These girls are surrounded by dirt and filth. When they come here, we first talk about the importance of cleanliness and hygiene. Then we tell them how every woman can be beautiful. The message has a profound impact. You can see the changes within weeks. When they go back home, they have a heightened sense of beauty, and they try to make their home and surroundings more appealing in little ways".

The girls cannot afford expensive toiletries, points out Kaur. But in the class, they learn about beauty on a budget and how to turn kitchen leftovers like scrapings of potatoes, papayas, tomatoes and cucumber into beauty aids.

Many of the girls who are now enrolled in the beautician's course faced stiff parental opposition at the start. "Deepalaya staff had to mount a full-fledged campaign to win over the family and community elders. The first girl who came from the shanties where Sonia lives paved the way for the others. Today, there is a queue to join the course." says Pradeep Kumar, who manages Deepalaya's vocational training centre.

Like so many other industries, the beauty industry is short of trained staff, a scenario which energises Sonia's class of aspiring beauticians. Jobs in parlours are easy to come by. With experience and some capital, one can establish one's own salon or even go freelance, paying home visits.

Sonia's dream resonates across shanties the world over. The global economy may be in deep crisis but the beauty business is roaring in emerging economies. India's slums and Brazil's favellas are choc-a-bloc with tiny cosmetic stores and beauty salons. For those who live here, the triumph of style over substance is not an evil. It offers hope to a better life.

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DNA

INTERVIEW

I'M MERCENARY: I WROTE DAY OF THE JACKAL FOR MONEY: FREDERICK FORSYTH

VENKATESAN VEMBU

For four decades now, British author Frederick Forsyth has kept adrenaline levels of millions of his readers pumped up with his pulsating spy thrillers and breathless, best-selling narratives of political assassinations.

His first novel, The Day of the Jackal, which he says he wrote "for the money" when he was down and out in London, became a cult classic and, later, a film under Fred Zinneman's direction, with Edward Fox starring as the hitman hired to assassinate French statesman Charles de Gaulle. Since then, Forsyth, banging away on his typewriter, has churned out 11 novels — besides short story collections and works of non-fiction. DNA recently caught up with the 71-year-old storyteller at the Hong Kong Book Fair, where he'd come to promote his latest thriller, The Cobra, about international cocaine cartels.

How was The Jackal born?

As a young man, I hadn't the slightest intention of becoming a novelist. When I was a kid, I had only one overweening ambition, and it derived from the fact that when I was a two-year-old, I remember staring up at what seemed like silver fish whirling and twirling in the sky, leaving contrails of white vapour. I was watching the Battle of Britain and in my tiny little baby way, I wanted to be a pilot.

Growing up, I remained consumed by the ambition to fly. I rebuffed all attempts to send me to university and joined the RAF. Still later, I had a second ambition: to see the world, and so I became a foreign correspondent for a newspaper and then Reuters, and travelled the world, until finally, 40 years ago, I found myself back in London from an African war, broke, without a job. That's when I wrote The Day of the Jackal.

What drives you to write?

I'm slightly mercenary: I write for the money. I feel no compulsion to write. If somebody said 'You're not going to write another word of fiction as long as you live', it wouldn't matter a damn. But today, I'd say that if you want to make money, you shouldn't write a novel.

Why's that?

For a person trying to make himself reasonably wealthy, writing a novel is probably the most unlikely, hazardous and slow method. Forty years ago, I didn't know that. Everybody I knew said I was out of my mind, that the chances of my getting published were 1 in 1,000, and even if I were published, I'd probably sell 50 copies. I was just too dim to take their advice.

In every publishing house, eyes glaze over at the arrival of an unsolicited manuscript from a no-name author. They're all bundled up and sent back, almost all of them unread. If you want to make money, you're better off being, say, a bond trader — not a writer of novels.

Do you need a quiet place to think and write in?

In the early stage of thinking up a plot, I can be anywhere: on a fishing boat in the tropics or walking the dogs — and thinking, When my son was a toddler, he once asked me what I was doing, and I said Iwas working. And he said, "You were not working, you were staring at the wall." And I said, sternly: "That is work!"

The only time I need quiet is when I am physically writing. I've a farm, and I've converted the upper floor of the barn into a writing room. There I sit and type: 10 pages a day for 50 days. But there's been at least a year or more of meticulous preparation before I hit the first keys.

You do it the old-fashioned way, on a typewriter?

I don't have a computer, never wanted one. I'm constantly asked why I don't use a word processor. But there are two charming young ladies at the publisher's, who take my miserable offering and turn out an impeccable manuscript. Why should I deprive them of their job?

Until last month, when we heard of a Russian spy ring in the US, espionage seemed to be going out of fashion. Is it?

There was a belief that around 1991, when the Soviet Union was dismembered, that the KGB had also been abolished. But it wasn't: it was simply broken up into its various divisions, and renamed. The first chief directorate of the foreign espionage division was renamed the SVR. It still conducts espionage operations outside Russia against all of us. In that sense, it wasn't a surprise that some Russian spy sleepers had been discovered in America. The surprise was in how ineffective they were: they'd just about penetrated the golf club! But the rest of it goes on: we do it, they do it. There's been a slight reorientation towards combating Islamic fundamentalism, which is perceived to be a major threat. But the amount of espionage we carry out against Russia is probably not much less than it used to be — and vice-versa.

How big is China on the espionage scale? May we expect a Forsyth thriller set in China?

My first visit to Hong Kong was in 1978. My host was the British head of station, and he took me to a Chinese restaurant, run by a father and two sons, all 6 feet 2 inches tall. In the end, when I offered my compliments on a wonderful meal, I was told, "See, that's the Peking intelligence service!" I said, "I thought they were our enemies." My host said: "Good god, no! They're our friends. The Russians are our enemies!"So, we never really had an awful lot of antagonism towards Beijing, and where it suited us to cooperate, we did. I don't think it's changed much. We've common threats, and in the same way that my enemy's enemy is my friend, we cooperate on, for instance, Islamic fundamentalism.

How involved were you with the screenplay of the films based on your novels?

I learnt early on that the least desired person anywhere near a film set is the book's author. Directors have their own ideas, and they don't want to be told by an author: "I didn't say that." You have to make up your mind if someone comes up to you and says "Here's a cheque, take it or leave it, but if you take it, don't interfere in the making of the film." You might go in on the film's opening night, curious about what you'll see. It will probably be a disappointment, but never mind. One must go back to Liberace's aphorism: when he was rebuked for the levity of his music, he said, "I know, which is why I cry all the way to the bank!".

\Did you ever feel under pressure to 'sex up' your thrillers?

When I wrote Jackal, I thought — because I knew nothing about writing — I was supposed to put sex scenes in. And I did; it was awful because it was unlikely and not very stimulating. My publisher said, "Well, keep them in, but don't do it again." I haven't put sex into any of my other novels, and it doesn't seem to have done any harm to the sales whatsoever.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

PYRRHIC VICTORY

TRS WIN NO REFERENDUM ON TELANGANA

FRIDAY'S spectacular victory of the Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) candidates in the by-elections to 12 seats in the Andhra Pradesh State Assembly was not entirely unexpected. The by-elections were necessitated by the resignation of all 10 legislators of the TRS and one each of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on the issue of a separate Telangana state early this year. Undoubtedly, the results are a big blow for the ruling Congress and the TDP. The defeat of Andhra Pradesh Congress President D. Srinivas from Nizamabad Urban at the hands of BJP candidate Lakshminarayana is all the more humiliating. For Mr Srinivas, who has lost the elections for the second time in a row, it was a do-or-die battle. He not only fancied himself as a future Chief Minister but also counted on a win here as a step towards fulfilling that ambition. For the Congress, the results are a major setback because it has failed to make inroads into TRS strongholds and reduce its political base to lead the pro-Telangana movement.

TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu, who was optimistic of winning at least half a dozen seats, also received a drubbing. He had virtually no poll plank till the second week of July. The Babhli dam construction project did come to his party's rescue. However, his campaign against Maharashtra over the issue did not cut ice with the electorate even though the dam is perceived to affect the flow of water to the Sriram Sagar project — the lifeline of six Telangana districts.

The TRS camp is entitled to celebrate its victory. However, it would be erroneous for one to dub the election results as a referendum in favour of a separate Telangana state. It can at best be described as a pyrrhic victory. Its leader, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, and others would do well to tread with caution and act responsibly over Telangana. While the Justice Srikrishna Commission is seized of the matter, any decision on Telangana should be taken only after a calm and cool examination of the problem. Clearly, the Centre cannot be forced to take any decision through violence, intimidation and pressure tactics. Andhra Pradesh had to pay a very high price during the prolonged agitation in the state over Telangana. Wise counsel should prevail over all political parties in dealing with the issue.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

RIGHT TO EDUCATION

LOGJAM REMOVED, MUCH REMAINS TO BE DONE

THE Centre has taken a positive step to break the logjam that bedevilled the implementation of the Right to Education (RTE) Act. At the root of it all are the funds needed to implement the Act. The RTE followed the pattern of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, in which the ratio between the Centre and states is 55-45. Some states, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, among others, had called upon the Centre to take on a greater share of the cost of the RTE implementation. The Centre has agreed and the expenditure finance committee approved an additional Rs 60,000 crore. The total expenditure slated for ensuring compulsory education to all children up to class VIII is expected to be Rs 2,31,000 crore over five years.

It might sound like a lot, but clearly, India, which boasts of vast human resources, needs to educate its population and it is a shame that more than six decades after Independence, a vast number of Indians do not even have the ability to read and write. Social uplift can only be meaningful in an environment where each child is educated, and is helped to achieve his or her potential.

Education plays a major part in the development of a child. While it is widely acknowledged that primary education lays the foundation of a child's future, it is this very sector that is the weakest and most ignored. There is a major shortage of infrastructure, including qualified and dedicated teachers, which needs to be addressed forthwith. Also, schoolteachers deserve far better salaries, but along with that should come accountability and a mechanism for regular monitoring. At the same time, poverty-stricken parents should be encouraged to send their children to schools rather than to work and supplement the family income. The government, society and indeed, every citizen must do his or her bit to ensure a bright future for India's children. Only then will the Act, which was passed by Parliament in August 2009 and came into force on April 1, 2010, achieve its laudable objective.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

THE LEGEND LIVES ON

SHIV BATALVI'S APPEAL UNDIMINISHED

POLITICIANS may have their own reasons to celebrate the birth anniversary of Shiv Batalvi, but Punjab's most loved poet had died without the then government offering him proper treatment in his last days. His wife and well-wishers did their bit, but Shiv left hospital to die in his in-laws' house at Kiri Mangial in Gurdaspur district in neglect. Shiv Batalvi (1937-73) lived and flourished in an era dominated by progressive writers, who wrote about rural poverty, discrimination, inequality and exploitation. In fact, Shiv was criticised for his "excessive romanticism" and "lack of social consciousness". His critics included Punjabi poets Paash, Dr Jagtar and Amarjit Chandan.

Part of the criticism stemmed from envy. Shiv Batalvi was a rage among the young and the young at heart. When this melancholic handsome poet sang his own poems on stage, he got wild applause. None in Punjabi literature has received such mass adulation. The craze for his songs has only increased with time and with the easy availability of cassettes of his songs sung, among others, by Mahendra Kapoor (Ek kudi jida naa muhabbat), Jagjit Singh (Eh mera geet kise na gana) and Asa Singh Mastana (Mainu tera shabab lai baitha). If generations of Punjabis have adored Shiv Batalvi, it is because his poetic creations have touched universal human emotions — longing for love, separation from the beloved, pain of living and a romantic obsession with death. He died when he was just 36.

His major work, an epic-like play in verse, Loonan, for which he got the Sahitya Academy Award in 1967, gives a new identity to Loonan's character. In the mythical folklore of Pooran Bhagat, Loonan is condemned as lustful and wicked. But Shiv has portrayed her as a victim of patriarchal society. He has rewritten the folk tale from a woman's point of view. These days when khaps are hounding young lovers for having partners of their choice, Shiv Batalvi has a special appeal and relevance.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

EXTENSION FOR KAYANI

WILL THE PAK ARMY CHIEF FOLLOW OBAMA?

BY K. SUBRAHMANYAM

IN its 63 years of independent existence, Pakistan has had 14 Army chiefs. The first two were Britishers. Of the other 12, five had either two tenures or were Army chiefs for longer durations. Generals Ayub Khan, Mohammed Musa and now Kayani have had two tenures sanctioned by superior authority, democratic or otherwise.

Three Generals had one tenure. They were Generals Tikka Khan, Aslam Beg and Abdul Waheed Kakkar. Two dictator Army chiefs, Generals Zia-ul-Haq and Musharraf remained as army chiefs for 11 and nine years respectively. In four cases, the incumbents could not complete the tenure. General Yahya Khan resigned after losing the Bangladesh war. General Gul Hasan was forced to resign after being accused of Bonapatism by Z.A. Bhutto, the President. General Asif Nawaz died in office under mysterious circumstances. Jahangir Karamat voluntarily tendered his resignation when accused of impropriety by Prime Minister Nawaz Shariff.

The Pakistan Army prides itself on its discipline. The story of betrayals, however, begins with Ayub Khan overthrowing his long-term patron Iskander Mirza. Yahya Khan toppled his benefactor, Ayub Khan. The charge against Gul Hasan was Bonapartism. Zia-ul-Haq turned on his patron Z.A.Bhutto.

The widely believed version of Zia's death is that he was assassinated by disaffected army personnel. General Musharaff deposed the Prime Minister who selected him superseding his senior. Kayani had no compunction in joining with the civilian politicians and packing home the man who made him the Army chief.

This tendency to turn against one's benefactor is not confined to the Pakistani military only. Z.A.Bhutto owed his meteoric rise to Ayub Khan. He helped to bring him down. Benazir Bhutto made Farooq Leghari the President. He sacked her in 1996. Once General Zia explained to an Indian Editor that in Islam, according to his interpretation, it did not matter how a ruler came to power, but he must implement the Shariah. The Pakistani politico-strategic culture displays a distinct loyalty-deficit among majority of politicians and generals.

In Pakistan, though there is an Election Commission, the ultimate control over the elections vests in the Army which conducts it. One General explained that the voting in Pakistan has always been free. It is at the counting stage that angels intervened. The counting was usually rigged. And this came out clearly at the time Musharaff stood for elections for the first time.

One of Kayani's qualifications for extension was he held the second free and fair elections in the entire history of Pakistan. The first was held under General Yahya Khan in 1970 when the Inter-Services Intelligence predicted a hung National Assembly. Contrary to the prediction the election returned Mujibur Rahman as a clear majority leader. The Army would not accept that verdict, leading to the civil war which resulted in the emergence of Bangladesh.

This time, since Kayani was one of the architects of the Musharaff-Benazir reconciliation deal, presumably, the ISI assessment was a victory in the polls for Benazir's Pakistan People's Party, especially after her assassination. Therefore, there was perhaps no problem in the Army in conducting a free and fair election.

Kayani earned his popularity by enabling the return of the sacked Chief Justice and other judges and quietly showing the door to Musharaff to vacate the presidency and exit. In Pakistan, there is a very apt description of the state of their politics. Either the General is standing behind the chair or actually sitting on the chair. General Kayani has been a far more sophisticated person than the brash commando, Musharaff, he succeeded.

He has left the day-to-day governance to the politicians and got them to face all the unpopularity and disaffection arising out of misgovernance. He has kept in his hands the reins of real power by keeping the veto on defence, foreign affairs and intelligence fields. He has clearly demonstrated that he is in change in several ways. Prior to the strategic dialogue with the US, he summoned all concerned civilian Secretaries to the General Headquarters and finalised the agenda for the dialogue.

On her two visits to Islamabad, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spent more time talking to the Army Chief than to any other minister including the Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister. In the Washington strategic dialogue, Foreign Minister Quereshi was only the nominal head and the Pakistani delegation was, in fact, headed by the Army Chief. The US Administration accepted that reality.

Though the Pakistan civilian government moved the UN Security Council to appoint a panel to investigate the circumstances of Benazir murder, it was compelled to protest against the criticism of the panel against the establishment (Army) and the Intelligence Services (ISI) in particular. The Army Chief and the corps commanders were critical of the provisions of Kerry-Lugar legislation on aid to Pakistan and US rushed Senator John Kerry, the author of the legislation and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to mollify the Army leadership.

The Wikileaks covering 90,000 documents over a period of five years have clearly exposed the double game played by Pakistan Army during the period 2004-09 when pretending to cooperate with US, the Pakistan Army had been financing, equipping, sharing intelligence with and providing logistic support for the Afghan and Pakistani Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Haqqani Faction and other Jehadi groups.

From 2005 to 2008, General Kayani was the Director-General of ISI and then Army Chief. In fact, he was the person who executed the policy of double dealing with the US for the last five years. The Prime Minister of Pakistan has extended his tenure to ensure continuity of policy and direction for the counter-terrorism operation launched by the Army after 2009 when the Tehrik-e-Taliban-Pakistan (TTP) turned rogue and launched terrorist attacks on Army and intelligence installations.

Though the US has been urging the Pakistani Army to launch attacks on all terrorist groups, the Pakistan Army has not complied with the US request. US officials have told their Legislatures Intelligence Committees that the Pakistan Army considered some of the terrorist groups as their strategic assets against India and to hedge their bets in the post-US withdrawal phase in Afghanistan.

In those circumstances, extension of tenure for Kayani is a direct rebuff of President Obama strategy to disrupt, dismantle and defeat the five terrorist groups having safe havens in Pakistan and hitherto shielded and nurtured by the Pakistani Army and ISI. After the leaks, US Vice-President Biden said that the problems Wikileaks described within Pakistan's Intelligence Services were being dealt with and things were changing.

The next few weeks will reveal to the world whether General Kayani will fall in line with Obama strategy or continue to pursue his double-dealing game with the US.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

A PATCH OF PARADISE

BY VIJAI SINGH MANKOTIA

DURING my military career one of the most memorable postings that I had was in the enchanting Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan at Thimphu. It came as a windfall. After a dozen-odd years of service in the army a certain restlessness had taken hold of me and I felt a sense of drift and stagnation. Thus it was that I decided to put in my papers and seek voluntary pre-mature retirement.

It was the beginning of the seventies decade. The legendary General Sam Manekshaw, later to be elevated as independent India's first Field Marshal, was the Army Chief. Most likely it had been mentioned to him about my putting in my papers.

One fine day out of the blue came orders of my assignment with the Royal Bhutan Army headquarters at Thimphu, along with that of two others. It appeared that some sensitive issues had cropped up and Sam had flown to Thimphu for a one-to-one discussion with His Majesty the King. Not much later this posting followed.

Just before leaving for Bhutan I was lucky to meet the Chief at an informal function. 'This assignment may help change your mind about quitting the Army,' he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "Even though Bhutan is next door nevertheless it's a foreign country. Acquit yourself with dignity and don't be naughty. Bhutan is out of this world, believe you me".

Verily it was. Bhutan's beauty and splendour defied imagination. A patch of paradise if ever there was. We spent perhaps a little over four years, my wife and our two little children, adapting with ease to the extremely friendly people and the overwhelmingly hospitable environment.

The Chief of the Royal Bhutan Army was a person of outstanding merit, imbibing great human values and we were privileged to be accepted in the highest circles of Bhutan's hierarchy and nobility with His Majesty the King himself extending his generosity and graciousness, much cherished by us to this way.

We were witness to history as His Majesty Jigme Singye Wangchuck was crowned King of Bhutan on his coming of age in 1974. His father had been a great visionary, a steadfast and a trusted friend of India who ushered in far-reaching social and economic reforms, a legacy followed to this day even by the new King, maintaining their commitment to providing to the people of Bhutan an enlightened and pro-democracy monarchy.

My tenure, already overstretched with extensions, was coming to an end. The snow-covered mountains, the lush green forests, the crystal clear waters of the lakes and the rivers running through the fertile valley's of Paro, Ha, Punakha, Tashiganw and Thimphu itself would be difficult to part from. So content were the peace loving inhabitants and so rich their heritage, their tradition, custom, culture, religious belief and faith. In the corridors of power in Thimphu there was a hint of a suggestion that if I so chose I would be welcome to stay on in any capacity suitable to my status.

"Is it true what I hear?" very discreetly inquired the Indian Ambassador to Bhutan, a highly distinguished and a seasoned diplomat. "If it were Sir, and you were in my place, what would your decision be?" I queried wanting to seek sage advise. He pondered for a while and then articulated succinctly: "You are the best judge," he said.

"These people here in Thimphu, particularly those who matter, have for all intents and purposes taken to you in a big way and what is more they trust you implicitly. But the decision to my mind must hinge delicately on just one factor. Would you rather enjoy the right of unfettered freedom that democracy bestows on you in your country or accept the laws, the customs and the way of life in a monarchy, wise and benign even as it may be".

Many are the years that have rolled by. The SAARC summit at Thimphu recreated images and memories came rushing back. Saying farewell to Thimphu was not easy. But then the very essence of Buddhism is the acceptance of the philosophy of impermanence. I still hear the mountain breeze murmur songs of divine invocation and picture the countless prayer flags flutter against the backdrop of exquisitely structured monasteries and clear blue skies.

Thank you Field Marshal, for affording me an opportunity that enrichened our lives. Thank you Bhutan, for the patch of paradise and the immensurable moments of happiness and bliss that shall last forever. And last but not the least, thank you Mr Ambassador Sir, for your words of infinite wisdom that brought to me the realisation of the gift of freedom.

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

YOU NEED TWO TO MAKE

A MARRIAGE WORK

YOUNG AND PROFESSIONAL WORKING COUPLES ARE FINDING IT DIFFICULT TO SAVE THEIR MARRIAGES. DINK (DOUBLE INCOME NO KIDS) ENABLES THEM TO SPLURGE BUT CONTRARY TO EXPECTATIONS, MANY OF THEM DO NOT LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. THEY COMPLAIN OF BEING OVERWORKED AND HAVE LITTLE TIME FOR THEMSELVES.
RAJSHREE SARDA

WHEN a woman goes out to work, it can throw many an organised households in turmoil. The most frequent trouble occurring in the family of a working couple stems from the man allowing his job to come first over everything else. His wife, who has to cope with the pressures of her own job, is then expected to take the sole responsibility of the family. She begins to feel resentful and he thinks that she wants too much, which unfortunately he has not been trained to either expect or give.

If he cannot dominate, he withdraws. Love for men means handing over the pay packets and having the final word in a relationship. Instead of sharing responsibility equally, they start grieving about lost authority, all the while feeling inadequate and vulnerable to an adolescent notion of love that cripples the emotional equilibrium that a woman is dreaming about.

Husbands of working women should be mindful of the fact that all this is new to us. We do not have the models handed down over centuries of cultural process. It is only in the relatively recent past that women have taken to jobs in a big way. Most of us would not allow a job to wreck the family and the men need to understand that a job bolsters a woman's self esteem, which in turn would make her more adept at handling situations at home and challenges outside. When I started working once my children were a little older, I did it because my inner happiness depended on it. I knew the time had come to take myself seriously, to treat myself as a person of worth and that meant being financially independent.

Working women are more likely to have had mothers who were employed when they were children than women in traditional marriages. Years ago, if someone's mother was working, her daughter wanted to be a housewife because she felt she missed her mother's all-too-essential presence at home. Now women's roles are emerging differently with new commitments and interest in career. Women are not content to play the second fiddle and are seeking a better deal for themselves at home and outside.

I meet a lot of people who are struggling to maintain this delicate balance. In my capacity as a counsellor, I outlined solutions for two couples who were facing a crisis that threatened to rip apart their family life. With time and a sustained conscious effort, these couples were able to overcome their differences with a little bit of understanding and mutual respect for each other's feelings. They made a deliberate attempt to put the other before oneself on some occasions and this yielded positive results, stimulating a sense of harmony.

CASE STUDY-I

Arvind (name changed) says: "I encouraged her to work, and suddenly she is an expert on everything. I did not marry a libber nine years ago and if she wants to wear the pants, I am certainly not going to take that."

Neha (name changed) agrees she has changed. "I just want to have some say. My opinion is respected at work and it is hard to play the little girl at home. Any time I offer an opinion, he gets upset. I love him, but I am a responsible adult and he must understand that. The least he can do is hear me out," she says.

Arvind is threatened since his judgment and authority are being questioned. He wonders if his function has thus far been to take decisions, what will his role be now? Is he still a man by his own definition?

Arvind was made to get in touch with his fear of becoming redundant and the anger and insecurity it produced. Neha was also asked to get in touch with her feelings. They had to have a frank discussion and were told not to use words like "you act" or "you do" for it would lead to a breakdown of communication. Instead of saying "you treat me like a little girl", she could say, "there are times when I feel I am being treated like a little girl". The same message, but less inflammatory. It does not matter who is right. The attitude has to be: this is the problem at hand and we have to deal with it together.

It is not always a woman's job that upsets a family's routine. What happens when the husband's job suddenly places new demands on this routine?

CASE STUDY-II

A couple preached sharing of income and parenting responsibilities, but when it came to a crunch situation, there was furore in the house.

Amrita (name changed) says they had the system worked down pat. "He would run the children to school on some days and we would take turns with parent-teacher meetings, doctor's appointments, etc. It was working well until Manoj's (name changed) boss decided that he needed to travel. He must do that if he has to head his zone, but my life is hell when he is away. Work piles up and I get frantic. My social life is zero and I resent being stuck with all of it alone," she complains.

I helped them discover insights to alleviate guilt and blame. They sought outside help to make adjustments with childcare, alternative work schedule or relocation assistance. Amrita had to reassess her priorities. Too often we have arrangements that fit our current situation and we forget to change them when the situation alters. I suggested that they make alterations in their life and when her husband travels, she must set up a reward system for herself. Do something that made her look forward to days when he was away. She started playing bridge, which she had given up after the arrival of her children. She started pampering herself and kept a full-time maid. She invited friends to play at home so that she didn't need extra help with children. Manoj requested his boss for an assistant. He still works hard, but the guilt and exhaustion are gone and the children look forward to seeing him before they go to bed.

All relationship problems can be worked out, but both partners have to be committed to rearranging their priorities.

The writer is a psychologist

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

LOVE AAJ KAL

LOVING WITHOUT PASSION IS LIKE PLAYING A PIANO AT A COMFORTABLE MIDDLE KEY AND NEVER KNOWING THE CRESCENDO AND THE ECSTASY OF IT ALL

SAJLA CHAWLA

THE striking thing about the movie Love Aaj Kal was the idea of a break-up party and the woman's eyes lighting up at the novelty of it. Cinema mirrors society. It would be difficult for Generation Y to understand the dark depression of Devdas or Romeo-Juliet and Heer-Ranjha, for whom love was an eternal pact never to be forsaken. Today, a heartache wouldn't translate into copious tears and bouts of drunkenness. Are we heading toward a numb society where individuals so objectifythemselves and love is dispensable? Perhaps, the logic is what could be more liberating than to celebrate one's lack of ability to make a relationship work and proudly accept it. The youth sees relationships as just another success or failure story — like a career, an exam or a hobby class. There is always another opportunity. There is ample choice. A relationship is of consequence only if it satisfies well-defined needs. The idea of suffering for the sake of love is dwindling. Where is the passion gone? To put the heart and soul into a relationship is surely more gratifying than to love in pieces. It is like playing a piano at a comfortable middle key and never knowing the crescendo and the ecstasy of it all.Materialism has so crept into our lives that we often do not draw a line between things and people. Things are disposable and on easy offer at malls. The youth conveniently gives up on past connections and moves on to the new, more useful ones. This utilitarian culture sometimes unconsciously extends to relationships too. We are now less tolerant of our parents, spouses and partners.In the end it is our choice whether we are content to love in a manner that is tepid and sustains only due to social pressure or children; or walk away when the going gets tough; or give it all and accept a person with all the constraints. The former is at best a compromise. The latter is like the blood that flows in one's veins; strong, passionate and zestful – the elixir of life itself.

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

NOT ALL IS LOST

In the West, people love and marry, here we marry and love. Despite the claims that India is going the western way, the young brigade still believes in this sacred union even though it is true that it has become easier to walk out of a relationship and even a marriage. But the percentage is miniscule and insignificant going by the diversity that we have in our country.

— Manoj Godara, married a year ago

The meaning of relationships has changed. Trust that formed the basis of a relationship is now diminishing. This holds true of all relationships be it husband and wife or father and daughter. Everyday we hear shocking reports of a man raping his niece, husband killing his wife, wife hiring professional killers to eliminate her husband for property, etc. It is time we take steps to reclaim faith in relations.

— Manju Sharma, married for two decades, coordinator Hansraj Public School, Panchkula

Earlier, a man and a woman would try to adapt themselves to the needs of each other. But now the definition of marriage or even a steady relationship has completely changed. Being a single parent, single or a divorcee is not a stigma any more. People do not want to adjust in any relationship beyond a certain level. The altered equations have adversely affected the family. It has become easier to walk out of a marriage.

— Prof Rajesh Gill, dept of sociology, Panjab University

As told to Smriti Sharma Vasudeva

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COLUMN

1951 redux

With only weeks to go before commonwealth games, construction deadlines have been missed, budgets have multiplied 10-fold and corruption is rampant

T n ninan

A sports extravaganza is supposed to be a "coming out" party for the host country. Tokyo hosted the Olympic Games in 1964, timing it with the introduction of that new wonder of the world, the Shinkansen (the "bullet trains"), to announce Japan's rebirth from the ashes of 1945. Seoul, after three decades of rapid economic growth, hosted the Olympics in 1988 with the same objective, as did Beijing in 2008. All three countries also primed their athletes to bring in record hauls of medals, so that the statement to the rest of the world was made on the track and field too, not just in the act of playing host. In contrast, Athens hosted the 2004 Olympics, 108 years after it hosted the first of the modern Olympiads — but it was a last-minute mess. You could have predicted that a corruption-ridden, public sector-dominated, disorganised Greece was headed for the crisis that has now overtaken it.

India hosted the first Asian Games, held in 1951 over eight days with 11 participating countries. The Games had been scheduled for 1950, but postponed because (you guessed it!) the new National Stadium was not ready in time. Still, India came second in the medals tally, even bagging the football gold. The country hosted the Asiad again in 1982; this was a double-coming out party because Rajiv Gandhi as a debutant politician chose a successful organisation of the Asiad as his personal launch pad. In the event, the preparations were behind schedule and in the usual mess (incomplete flyovers, a stadium with suspect design specs, hotels meant for the Games not built, etc.); in desperation, the government turned to Jagmohan, who took charge and delivered what became a successful Games. Indira Gandhi told a relieved country that this meant that India could "do it".

Now, 28 years later, it would seem that we still can't "do it" properly. With only weeks to go before the curtains go up on the Commonwealth Games, all construction deadlines have been missed, budgets have multiplied an unbelievable 10-fold and more, and corruption is rampant. Far from a confident statement of national ability, the run-up to the Games testifies to the breakdown of the government system. If you want to understand why immunisation levels in the country have come down instead of going up, why Bangladesh is overtaking India on one social indicator after another, why 85 per cent of government programme money is mis-spent, and why Maoism is spreading, simply look at what has unfolded in broad daylight in the national Capital.

It may still fall into place at the last minute, as Sheila Dikshit has been promising for two years — as though that is how it is meant to be; and the event may yet pass off as smoothly as the 1982 Asiad did (the alternative is too horrific to imagine). Delhiites will get an expanded metro network as a present for having been subjected to a sustained civic mess, but they will also have to live with higher taxes to pay for the corruption and bloated budgets. The pity is that, as coming-out parties go, the Delhi Commonwealth Games will always be compared with the organisational efficiency of Beijing 2008. One positive fallout: China-India comparisons will be made less frequently at booster-ist Indian talk shops.

Half a century ago, Galbraith called India a "functioning anarchy". Today the functioning part seems to be in the private sector, while anarchy typifies the government. And so, the Central Vigilance Commission and other hound dogs can be expected to provide plenty of post-Games sport; but it seems too much to hope that Suresh Kalmadi will not be seen or heard from again.

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COLUMN

RBI 1, SUBBARAO 0

UNFORTUNATELY, WITH RBI, HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF AS BOTH FARCE AND TRAGEDY MUCH TOO OFTEN

SURJIT S BHALLA

For a moment, it looked like Indian monetary policy-making would step out into the modern world. The job of monetary policy is to be forward-looking, to anticipate future possibilities, rather than practise "rear window" economics. And, as financial and product markets around the world globalise and integrate, so should monetary policy divine not only what is happening and will likely happen in India, but also infer the same about the economies of the western world and that of our competitors in Asia. Very likely, this is what D Subbarao had in mind when he joined RBI as governor in September 2008.

That is what all governors have had in mind. But RBI is an old institution, all puns intended. It still believes that monetary policy means controlling the quantity of money, like the good old days of planning. And it still believes, unique among modern central banks, in looking at inflation through the prism of the wholesale price index (WPI). And it still believes that the best inference about the future course of growth and inflation is via use of headline year-on-year (y-o-y) movements in industrial production and wholesale prices.

And these two indicators are screaming — tighten. So are most of the analysts, commentators, and investment banks' research departments. The "market" demands, nay dictates, a tightening, and reminiscent of Greenspan, RBI readily obliges. The simple point is that a central banks like RBI should act as a leader — ample evidence is that it continues to act as a dutiful market follower. What the above evidence indicates is that Dr Subbarao has given in to the slavish market followers — always late to do the right thing, and consequently, almost never right on time. (Click hre for table)

The table illustrates the folly of RBI, and now Dr Subbarao. The first two rows in the table illustrate how we do policy. In the US, no one has been caught napping, or defining inflation via the US equivalent of the WPI, the producer price index (PPI). The deficiencies of this index for inferences about generalised inflation are well-known outside of India; nevertheless, even this deficient index can yield inferences if used with delicate care.

What the US PPI (not seasonally adjusted) shows is that inflation has been high in the US, and extremely volatile. It was in double digits in the first nine months of 2008, then collapsed into deep negative territory post-Lehman for the next 12 months, and then bounced back to nearly a 9 per cent level in March 2010. In June 2010, the y-o-y PPI for the US was rising at a 5.4 per cent rate. What is the actual inflation in the US? Going by the GDP deflator (or the CPI), inflation has been running at close to a 1 per cent rate.

Now a similar calculation for India. Almost identical pattern to the US, for both the WPI and the GDP deflator! There is a difference in the level of inflation — in the US it is close to 1 per cent, in India it is close to 4.5 per cent.

Three-month seasonally adjusted annualised rates (3SAAR) data for the US and India show a similar pattern. What is noteworthy is that, as of June 2010, 3SAAR WPI inflation in India is running at a 3.3 per cent rate. And yet an anonymous but true-blooded senior RBI official is clamouring for raising rates even more because his analysis (sic?) suggests that we have runaway inflation in India. S/he can peruse these data at leisure, but the story of misconception and misguidedness at the highest policy levels in India will not change.

The effects of this misguided policy are clearly seen in the data on industrial production. The bounceback from the post-Lehman decline (quite noticeable in the US as well!) was interpreted by our monetary masters as over-heating. So, the great unwinding started — we have to get back to normal and raise real rates up and back to the "normal" 2008 levels. While the rest of the world is talking of a new normal of lower growth and even lower inflation, our conventional-wisdom (CW — an abbreviation shared by the clueless in wonderland types) analysts want to get back to nominal interest rates of 2008! A year (in)famous for the highest oil price of $147, the highest euro price $1.60, the highest food prices, and the highest practically any price you can think of. And that is the pre-Lehman "normal" our experts are advocating!

It is advisable to look carefully at the three-month SAAR data. Our policy-makers' expectation of 8-9 per cent GDP growth was predicated on industrial production growth at near double-digit levels. As we bask in the glory of y-o-y double-digit industrial growth, note that for the last six months, January-June 2010 (June y-o-y industrial growth estimated by Oxus to be close to 8.5 per cent), such growth has only been around a 1.5 per cent annualised rate. Recall a near-identical train wreck in pre-Lehman 2008 India. We used the same misguided y-o-y WPI (and food!) inflation numbers to tighten furiously in 2007-08, and brought industrial growth down to zero per cent in August 2008 — that is before the Lehman September. Unfortunately, with RBI, history repeats itself as both farce and tragedy much too often.

What we have had in India is food inflation, an inflation which is not attributable to monetary policy but entirely to gross mismanagement at the Centre. The correction of that does not entail a tightening of monetary policy. What RBI possibly doesn't realise is that it is falling into the well-laid trap by the central government. As food inflation falls because of good weather and/or less bad-bad food policy, the Centre will claim credit. And as growth falters because of bad-bad monetary policy, the Centre can point fingers at RBI — don't ask us, look at the misguided RBI.

The author is chairman of Oxus Investments, an emerging market advisory and fund management firm. Please visitwww.oxusinvestments.com for an archive of articles etc.; comments welcome at: surjit.bhalla@oxusinvestments.com

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BUSINESS STANDARD

OPINION

REVERSE EAST INDIA COMPANY

CAN CAMERON EXPLAIN HOW INDIAN ENTERPRISES IN BRITAIN WILL HELP INDIA'S ECONOMY?

SUNANDA K DATTA-RAY

I was taken aback by David Cameron's claim that Indian businesses employ 90,000 people in Britain. It seemed an exaggeration. But, then, I began counting, and the figure soon appeared to be a gross underestimate.

Indian restaurants alone (10,000 in 2003 according to one count) must absorb that number and more unless, of course, Britain's prime minister is splitting legal hairs. But if he counts the restaurateurs as Bangladeshi, so must the food be. You try telling that to the Brit bent on his chicken tikka masala. Or change Madras vindaloo on the menu to Mymensingh vindaloo!

In fact, the curry pioneer — Sake Dean Mahomet whose weatherbeaten grave I discovered in Brighton — was more Bihari than Bengali. Sheikh Din Mohammed, to restore his real name, who launched the Hindostanee Coffee House in London in 1809, came from Patna.

But Cameron doesn't want settlers. He wants expats. Not Swraj Paul's Caparo but Tata's Corus and Mittal's Arcelor. He wants the East India Company process reversed. But could he explain to his hosts how the expansion of Indian enterprises in Britain, or any other foreign country, helps India's economy?

Oh, afternoon tea at Fortnum and Mason must have been additionally thrilling for the very few Indian glitterati who knew that the "Queen's Grocer" was Indian. Baroda's flamboyant Maharaja Pratapsinhrao Gaekwad owned the shop until 1951. But splurging on a Fortnum's hamper didn't put a paise into any pocket in India. Neither does riding a Jaguar or Rover create jobs here except perhaps if the chauffeur is Indian. As for Arcelor, try telling adivasis not to join the Maoists because we own the world's biggest steel mill.

So, why should Indians invest there? The British corporations and managing agencies that flowered in Calcutta were altogether different. The bosses were British. The products they sold were made or developed in Britain. Whatever they earned went back to Britain even though, sometimes, Indians provided the money to launch these undertakings. It doesn't take a distinguished economist like Manmohan Singh to know that Indian companies in Britain are as irrelevant for India's growth as Mohamed Al-Fayed's Harrods was for Egypt's.

This matters more than the Cameron's commitment to curb what amounts to non-white immigration. Whatever one thinks of that, a country that aspires to superpower glory should be ashamed to send construction workers to Singapore and Malaysia, labourers to the Gulf, professionals to the US and people of all categories to Britain. Their need to seek a living abroad underlines the failure of the Indian state. Instead of accusing the Cameron government of racism, self-respecting Indians should try to ensure there are no reasons for the flight of manpower.

What New Delhi wants are British endorsement of its Security Council ambition, nuclear status and stand against Pakistan. Cameron promised the first; despite half-promises, Britain's position on the other two will always remain dodgy. Remember the time when Churchill, lunching at Buckingham Palace, bowed to George VI and his consort and boomed, "I believe that this is the first time I have had the honour to be invited to luncheon by their Majesties the King and Queen of Pakistan"? Modern strategy and American priority reinforce historical sentiment.

What Cameron wants — especially after a dramatic fall in Indian imports from Britain — is our burgeoning market. He also seeks a share of India's defence (the Hawks got the trip off to a flying start) and infrastructure spending. Hence soothing talk of a "special relationship" with Britain the "junior partner". But pragmatism must contend with prejudice. Outsourcing may not be as controversial for Cameron as for Barack Obama but is nevertheless problematic. I was going to call railway inquiries in London once when an elderly Englishwoman burst out, forgetting who she was addressing, "Don't! You'll find yourself talking to Bangalore or Bombay or heaven knows where. They won't know a thing and you won't understand a word they say!"

Presumably, Cameron didn't ruffle feathers by calling the prime minister "Manmohan" and the finance minister "Pranab". But those who accused David Miliband (now hoping to one day take over Cameron's job) of impertinence should remember that the problem is that the British are floundering in unaccustomed modernity. Otherwise, would Tony Blair's father who wrote to congratulate his son in 1997 and signed himself "your loving Pa" receive a stiff acknowledgement addressed to "Mr L Pa"?

Much can be forgiven a nation that, having lost an empire, hasn't — adapting Dean Acheson — found its bearings. Like India, Old Blighty bumbles along.

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

CITY DEVELOPMENT VIA DEVOLUTION

DEVANGSHU DATTA

Some Arab tour agencies tout "Mumbai Monsoon" packages as adventure tourism, which is a fair description. For someone who has never seen rain, a standard-issue Mumbai downpour is a life-changing experience. Factoring in the epic Mumbai commutes, spending time in the western metro could indeed be considered the 21st century's equivalent of the legendary Victorian expeditions into Darkest Africa.

Even for diehard Kolkatans like yours truly, for whom rain and flooding hold few terrors, Mumbai in the monsoons is trying. The options, if you must travel, are grim. One possibility is to hang from a train with the rain slashing down, risking decapitation, or horrific injury. The other is to allocate an hour plus for every 5 km, if you choose to move by road.

This may make Mumbai an exotic destination for tourists with time to spare. It is less entertaining for the 12 million-odd, who brave it on a daily basis. The Mumbai commute is not a pleasant experience, even in winter. The travel time may be marginally less but the traveller usually arrives bathed in sweat, shaken, stirred and jolted by an uneven ride.

This is because Mumbai's infrastructure sucks. The roads and expressways could be more accurately described as moonscapes. The drainage system is appalling. So is telecom connectivity, especially during the monsoons, when dropped calls exceed completed ones.

This is not because the city is short of money. It generates a disproportionately high percentage of tax revenues. Many of the folks hanging out of First Class compartments, and queueing up for cabs at the Bandra Kurla Complex, earn six-figure salaries. Ludicrous land prices suggest that the Mumbaikar has higher per capita than the New Yorker.

However, the wealth of Mumbai's citizens doesn't translate into better infrastructure. It never will, and there is not much they can do about it. This is because of the gerrymandering inherent in Indian electoral politics. In India, the rural vote counts for much more than urban votes.

The revenues of Mumbai are controlled by politicians, whose constituencies lie deep in the Maharashtra hinterland. Using that money to improve living conditions in Mumbai would do nothing to help them win re-election. So, beyond taking their turn at the feeding trough, they see no necessity to overhaul city infrastructure. Nor can the Mumbai municipal agencies raise debt by issuing bonds or securitising their own revenues because the city is tied to a state with poor finances.

Mumbai is an extreme example. But all of urban India suffers from the same problem. Infrastructure is uniformly poor, ranging to terrible. Urban revenues are controlled and allocated by politicians, who have little interest in the urban landscape.

At the same time, more and more people are migrating to urban areas. So, the pressure on existing infrastructure is increasing. The cities attract people because they offer more income opportunities. In turn, those people generate more revenues for cities.

The only way to improve urban infrastructure is devolution of power to local authorities. The British model does seem to work to a large extent with city councils raising and spending their budgets. The Americans do something similar and the mayor of major cities are big wheels.

Devolution makes local authorities more powerful as well as more answerable to locals. Oddly, India's politicians have seen the utility of devolution when it comes to panchayats. It's also worked well in the city-state of Delhi, where the state government empowered residents' associations through bhagidari.

If some version of devolution isn't implemented soon in major cities, we may see a situation where India has well-administered villages with small populations, while most people live in anarchic, urban slums. Paradoxically, the city-dwellers will have more money but they'll have a lot less in the way of amenities.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

A GENERATION GOT LEFT OUT

MAKE ENOUGH AT THE PEAK OF YOUR CAREER, SO THAT THERE NEED BE NO SYSTEMATIC EFFORT TO EARN THEREAFTER

SUBIR ROY

When my father retired at the age of 58 four decades ago, he did so fully, in mind and body, and stepped onto a new life thereafter. The sedentary life of a judge, coming abruptly after a youth spent in good part on the cricket field and tennis court, had taken its toll. Diabetes and high blood pressure had arrived too.

Post-retirement, he spent a happy decade and more discharging his new dual responsibilities — that of a key figure in the management of his guruji's ashram and within the family that of a punctilious grandfather. He was able to do all this without undue financial worries because of his government pension that survived even after his departure as family pension for my mother. Significantly, she had more pocket money in her last days than ever before in her long life of struggling to run a family on a subordinate judge's pay, courtesy the revision in pension rates after every pay commission's award.

When my father needed higher medical consultation, he walked over to the state-run SSKM Hospital near our South Kolkata home and sat across the table of some senior specialist (once a judge sahib always a judge sahib) in his chamber and had his consultation done free. When my mother had to be operated upon a couple of times, a competent specialist in the same hospital performed the task and my mother stayed at the Woodburn ward which was for the so-called VIPs.

She complained about the bathroom which had a broken bathtub which no one would remove but was well treated by the nurses. Her own sweet nature saw to that. We never thought of taking either of them to a speciality, posh private hospital because they were not the rage then as they are now and also because we knew they were beyond our means.

I was born at home with my grandmother in attendance but our son was born at a distinctive private hospital, Woodlands, the bill paid by the provident fund money that I withdrew when I changed jobs. I wouldn't have been able to do that at today's charges. For most of their school life, our children went to school by car and their performance in school was enormously helped by costly private tuition.

But the biggest generational change became clear once they completed college. They did not have a fraction of the concern about finding a decent job that my generation was burdened with at a similar stage in our lives. My children's prime concern was finding out what they really wanted to do for which experimentation and directional change were par for the course. Our daughter is in her second job and still not so sure what she wishes to do with her life. Our son, after changing disciplines, knows what he wants to do but is far from being able to consider his career successfully launched.

How neatly our generation fell in between these two! I began life as a journalist but had to yield to intense family pressure when I landed a prized nationalised bank job. On joining I found that over half my batch was made up of people, some of them till lately college lecturers, who were there simply because there were so few other decent jobs. In my father's time, the middle class sailed into decent jobs much more easily and its perception of what was decent was also far more modest.

But change caught up with my generation soon. The media exploded after the Emergency and thereafter arrived the new genre of business journalism as the corporate sector came riding the coat-tails of the slow liberalisation that began in the 80s. Those who took the plunge like me, changing security for doing a fun thing, had few regrets. Media salaries were ahead of the curve, compared to public sector pay.

But there is one aspect that I forgot to take care of, or to be honest, wilfully ignored — the small matter of a pension which had kept my parents going. Now that I have retired, reality has caught up with me in an even bigger way. My father at that juncture in his life was physically and mentally ready to take a window-side seat in the bus. I am not. I don't feel like a grandfather, either in mind or body, and I am far from turning religious.

These days when I advise youngsters, I carefully spell out the one-third rule. Spend a third of your life skilling yourself, the next third earning all that you will need for the rest of your life and then the last third in doing what you like to do without, and this is vital, having to bother about where the upkeep will come from. In sum, make enough at the peak of your career, which should not stretch into your 50s, so that there need be no systematic effort to earn thereafter. Then you can do what you have always longed to do but couldn't afford to, like writing a novel or taking up mountaineering or simply seeing the world at leisure.

So, my generation got left out in the middle. It is ready to start living life anew at 60 but Indian earnings in the 80s and 90s weren't good enough to allow the crucial financial cushion to be created to enable that. We should be worried but life's too good to be ruined by the frown on the face of your accountant. The romantic notion of a journalist who always lives for the day dies hard.

subirkroy@gmail.com

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

INSIDE MYANMAR - FACT AND FICTION

V V

It is now a well-accepted fact that almost all our categories — politics and economy, state and society, feudalism and capitalism — have been conceptualised primarily on the basis of western historical experience. Too often these generalisations rest on the belief that the West occupies the normative starting position for constructing general knowledge. If you accept this proposition, then how much do you accept of western reportage of Third World societies, particularly those that are not too open like North Korea, Iran, several Arab states, and so on? And closer home, of Myanmar (formerly Burma ) that has been closed to western observers especially since San Suu Kyi, its Opposition leader, has been incarcerated by the military junta? Not very much, because what passes off as facts are really so much hearsay, fopped off by jaundiced observers.

Emma Larkin's Everything is Broken: A Tale of Catastrophe in Burma (Granta Books, Special Indian Price, Rs 599) is reportage from the frontlines (Larkin is the nom de plume of an American living in Bangkok). It shows all the tell-tale signs of western reporting, ill-equipped (how many know the language, demography or even the geography?) to understand the complex societies that they venture to write about.

It is a common journalistic ploy that when hard facts are scarce, you use a peg to hang your story on. The peg here is the devastating Cyclone Nargis that hit the Irrawady delta in May 2008 when an estimated 100,000 people lost their lives. (The whole region, including Bangladesh and the Andhra west coast, is particularly prone to cyclones.) The military junta that has governed the country since April 1992 is reported to have refused all outside help from the UN, countless NGOs, and even the American navy. Emma Larkin, who was fortunate to have got a visa in the aftermath of the catastrophe, set out to find out why isolated regimes are so paranoid about letting in outsiders to help rehabilitate broken lives. Is it fears of subversion, or prejudice or even superstition of what the foreign devils may bring?

With very little data available and all official sources clamped up, Larkin falls back on bazaar gossip of which there is plenty to pick on, depending on which side of the political fence you are on. But the one that sticks is that the generals are a superstitious lot who don't do anything without consulting soothsayers. Larkin tells the story of the wife of General Than Shwe, "the senior general" who went for a nocturnal walk around Myanmar's holiest pagoda with a dog and a pig on a leash: in Burmese mythology, the dog symbolises Monday and the pig Wednesday, and since Suu Kyi was born on a Tuesday, she would always be powerless. This is all mumbo-jumbo but it is a known fact that dictators hanging on to power by the skin of their teeth do believe in the stars to guide their destinies. (Incidentally, General Than Shwe, the military ruler currently on a five-day visit to India has begun by visiting the Mahabodhi temple to invoke the blessings of Lord Buddha for the success of his mission.)

Larkin is free to pick and choose her "facts" but she believes that given the importance the military rulers give to soothsayers, it wouldn't be surprising if it was their advice that blocked foreign aid from reaching the victims of the cyclone. If this isn't bizarre enough, she goes further (supported by another Burmese rumour that went around at the time) to say that since Than Shwe saw himself as an incarnation of ancient kings ordained by the Gods above, he couldn't be bothered how "his slaves" were doing: "Their death or hardships is not his concern."

This again is peculiar logic because the General for whatever he is couldn't have remained in power for over 15 years now if he was also not a compassionate Buddhist, or at least perceived to be one. The problem with this book is that when you replace hard facts with motivations, (many dictators in history have done this to remain in power), which is what Larkin does to pan out her story, you don't really get to know much of this complex and diverse country. Myanmar is much more than Yangon, Mandalay, and the few small towns along the Irrawady, with the northern half cut off by ethnic tribes that have resisted integration with the rest of the country. In any case, the mountainous terrain and dense forests ensure that no central authority imposed its will.

So, how much do we get to know the country? If you take gossip and rumour as the truth, there would be something to talk about, but you can bet it will be far from the real condition. Even we, especially those in the North-East states that have an open border with Myanmar with regular trade on a daily basis, know precious little about what goes on behind the scenes. If you want to know the pulse of the country, you would do better to read George Orwell's Burmese Days and his essay Shooting an Elephant that tell you more in a smaller compass.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

MAKING EUROPE WORK

SHOULD EUROPE EMBRACE FISCAL FEDERALISM TO STRENGTHEN THE EUROZONE AND RESTORE INVESTOR CONFIDENCE?

JEAN PISANI-FERRY

It is an old debate, but tensions within the euro area have revived it: can a monetary union survive without some form of fiscal federalism? This issue is of persistent concern for investors worldwide. Holders of European government bonds believed that they knew what they had bought. Sure, there was no such thing as a eurozone sovereign security. But German, French, Spanish, and even Greek bonds all carried roughly the same interest rate, so they were deemed equivalent.

Investors now recognise that they did not really understand what these bonds represented — that is, the institutional construct behind the European currency. And if the global financial crisis has taught us anything, it is this: when you do not understand a financial product, you should not buy it. But if investors actually take that lesson to heart, the European crisis will be far from over. So, should Europe embrace fiscal federalism in order to strengthen the eurozone and restore investor confidence? The problem is that fiscal federalism means different things to different people.

Americans think they know what it is: a central government with a large budget (about 20 per cent of GDP), whose macroeconomic role is to carry out counter-cyclical spending and taxation, as most US states are constitutionally committed to some sort of balanced budget. This was clearly true in the case of the stimulus programme launched in 2009, which included federal transfers to the states to sustain state-level fiscal spending. Similarly, when a state such as Michigan is hit by recession in its key economic sector (the auto industry), Washington collects less federal tax but maintains — if not increases — local spending, which partially offsets the shock to state income.

Economically, therefore, the federal budget cushions regional shocks automatically through discretionary action and stabilising transfers to the states. Politically, it embodies solidarity and thus helps cement the union.

If this is what is meant by federalism, it is better for the European Union (EU) to forget about it. The EU budget amounts to about 1 per cent of GDP, just one-fortieth of total public expenditure. No one, not even diehard European integrationists, imagines that it can reach 5 per cent of GDP (it is more likely to decrease). But even a 5 per cent-of-GDP budget would be insufficient to play a meaningful macroeconomic role.

A second solution is what can be called "distributive federalism". The goal is not to absorb shocks but to reduce income gaps across regions. In Germany, tax revenues are redistributed between the Länder. This is another form of solidarity, which also exists in the EU, where regional development funds are allocated to poorer regions to foster catch-up growth. These transfers are significant for poor countries: about ¤300 per person for Greece and Portugal every year from 2000 to 2006. Europe, in this respect, is not qualitatively different from the US.

These transfers have accelerated convergence when put to good use (for example, in several Spanish provinces), but have been ineffective when wasted (as in Greece). This feeds doubts about solidarity's usefulness. Germans, who since reunification in 1990 know what they are talking about when it comes to such transfers, do not want to hear about a Europe where rich regions would permanently finance pockets of under-development. They are not alone in this.

What, then? Conceptually, the eurozone must include solidarity with countries facing hardship, because this is what unites and gives strength to the whole — but without the heavy machinery of a federal budget or a permanent increase in transfers. It needs some sort of mutual insurance, or what could be termed "insurance-based federalism".

This is what inspired the decision taken in May to create the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), by which assistance can be provided, jointly with the International Monetary Fund, to partner countries in times of crisis. It is also what inspired the European Central Bank to launch an asset-purchase programme, which has been used to buy Greek and Portuguese government bonds.

But the uproar caused by these decisions reinforces, rather than dispels, doubts. In Germany, many consider the EFSF a breach of the fundamental principle that EU governments cannot be bailed-out by their partners. And the transformation of the central bank into a quasi-fiscal agent (because if Greek debt is restructured, the ECB will record losses) is regarded with horror, as it violates the separation between money and public finances.

Instead, it is claimed, eurozone members should have been allowed to default. No matter that the public debt of the average US state is less than 0.5 per cent of total US GDP, compared to 5 per cent in the eurozone, which implies that the financial impact of a eurozone sovereign default would be much stronger. And no matter that there is no prohibition on the purchase of government bonds on the secondary market: the Rubicon has been crossed, and the Germans are nervous.

So, there is no agreement yet to make the EFSF permanent, and it has been designed to be as un-federal as possible. When it comes to ECB purchases of government bonds, no one understands exactly for how long and for what purpose the new weapon is to be used — which reduces its effectiveness. Meanwhile, proposals for pre-adoption assessment of national budgets by the EU have attracted criticism in France and elsewhere, which serves as a reminder of the distance there is between calls for coordination and actual acceptance of its implications.

The Europeans have begun to assemble the bricks for a new building, but without having agreed on its size and design. For the time being, they rather give the impression to have thrown sandbags in disorder in an attempt to stop a wave. This may make sceptics the very people European policy makers wanted to convince. It is time to accept that those who finance EU governments through purchasing their bonds are entitled to ask inconvenient questions, and to expect clear answers.

The author is director of Bruegel, the EU economic and policy think tank based in Brussels, professor of economics at Université Paris-Dauphine, and a member of the french prime minister's Council of Economic Analysis

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

THE STORY OF JADUI PANKH

GEETANJALI KRISHNA

The atmosphere was tense. While this was no India-Pakistan cricket match, the Inter-Basti 20:20 championship trophy was to be one of the most important T20 cricket matches ever played. The trophy? A mixer-grinder. Given the intensity of rivalry between the two teams, the Man of the Match trophy should have been a Mercedes. It was, in fact, a bicycle — far more useful to a slum kid than a fancy imported car could ever be. The captains of the warring cricket teams came forward for the toss. The spectators watched with bated breath. The umpire looked for a coin in one pocket, but it was empty. Then, he put his hand in his other pocket. That was empty too!

I was watching "Cricket Match", one of the stories told in Jadui Pankh — a film about a street kid, Guru, who sets out to make a film with just Rs 101. His movie comprises seven engrossing tales told by children like him. The first story was of Raju and Kaju, two street magicians who foil the nefarious plans of terrorists. "Jadui Pankh", after which the film is named, was about a magical peacock feather that a young boy, Ali, finds…. And yet another, "Netaji", was the story of Durga who fights her evil uncle who wants to sell her off, with the help of her naari sena (women's army).

The stories were barely 20-odd minutes long. Although they were set in slums, their tone was light-hearted, almost frothy in feel. "We've all seen films about slums that dwell upon the filth, poverty and often desperate struggles to survive there," said Nitin Das who'd made Jadui Pankh. Such films, Nitin believed, often achieved the opposite of what they set out to do. "Instead of drawing more people like you and I to offer our time, creativity and resources to people in slums, they foster a fear that a slum is too dirty a place to visit…," said he.

Instead, Nitin focused on the fact that although these slum children are poor in monetary terms, they're very rich in emotions, friendships and talent. "ThroughJadui Pankh, I wanted to tell urban, educated viewers that interacting with slum children could be an enriching experience for them too," said he, adding, "I wanted to show viewers that even in the darkest times and difficult situations, one can find happiness, friendship and hope…."

This maverick filmmaker has an interesting past. An IIM Lucknow alumnus, he soon realised that corporate life wasn't for him. "I just hated black leather shoes!" he quipped. Instead, he did a filmmaking course in New York and on returning, began volunteering with some Mumbai NGOs. "Six mad, creative months of theatre workshops with the kids in slums, and I realised they were a goldmine of talent! Hence, the idea of Jadui Pankh was born."

Nitin received a couple of corporate sponsorships from Nokia, Deutsche Bank, HDFC and others — enough to cover the cost of the film. Instead of going through the usual marketing channels, he decided to market the film exclusively online, on a pay-per-download basis. "Fifty per cent of the profits from this film shall be used to support children in vulnerable situations," said he, "and I hope it does its bit in showing people like us that slums too can be interesting places!"

Jadui Pankh has been selected for the Munich International Film fest, and the Leeds UK film fest. But Nitin wants more — "I really want my film to go mainstream, maybe on children's TV channels — but they've not shown any interest yet," he rued.

Maybe what he needs is a wave of the Jadui Pankh…

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

CURRY MANTRA

The notion that British Prime Minister David Cameron was looking to curry favour with a resurgent India has been in the air ever since he took office. To that extent, the simple fare at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's dinner — reportedly comprising chicken curry, roti and mango kulfi — should have filled Mr Cameron's heart with joy, if not his stomach.

It was a previous British government that declared chicken tikka masala to be the national dish, but the honest, ghar-ka-khana served to Cameron instead of some fancy-schmancy creation by a celebrity chef, could be deemed proof of Britain's renewed special relationship with India.

Homestyle food, after all, is for family; guests have to be dazzled. The lack of fanfare could also be a reiteration of the fact that India now takes on the world on its own terms. Time was when we meekly stood by as curry houses in Britain passed off ruthlessly-mangled Korma, Madras and Vindaloo as Indian food, graded thus only for their chilli-powder content. No longer.

Not only has the Bangladeshi hand in the criminal subversion of curry in Britain been exposed, genuine Indian chefs there have taken our desi cuisine to justified Michelin-starred heights. It would soup up Indo-British bilateral relations if Mr Cameron also highlights this difference between sub-continental neighbours, on the lines of his Pakistan admonition.

Meanwhile, in India, we are also no longer willing to swallow whatever the west dishes out. Hence, the world can now taste a new, compelling repast too: Paneer bruschetta and keema pizza, aloo-tikki burgers and masala fried chicken, not to mention gobi Manchurian and chilli fish. Though mutual bans on importing of foodstuff precludes his carrying a hamper back, Mr Cameron could consider encouraging his compatriots to also follow the Indian ethos that spawned these tasty innovations and much more: Adopt and adapt.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

TRY OUT SCHOOL VOUCHERS

School vouchers should be an integral part of the Centre's plans to implement the Right to Education (RTE). For the state to spend gargantuan amounts on school education is fine, but to insist that the delivery too would be by the state is meaningless.

Surveys have shown that government teachers are absent from their schools and children cannot do simple arithmetic or write small paragraphs after years of schooling. Reforms in governance are, therefore, a must. Designing a market in which schools would compete to attract students carrying school vouchers would complement administrative steps to improve governance and quality in the school system.

Once students have choice, they would vote with their feet, and schools without children should be closed down. Awareness of such a terminal destiny should help concentrate the minds of teachers who play hookey.

A voucher can surely be a tool to change the way governments fund education of the poor. However, no one size fits all as global experiments on school vouchers have shown mixed results. Countries such as the US, Sweden, Denmark and Italy saw an improvement in the quality of education and more competition among public and private schools. In the Netherlands, however, vouchers led to ethnic segregation and had no significant impact on the achievement levels of students. And, in England, it did not trigger competition among schools.

The success (or failure) will largely depend on the design of the scheme. Now, state governments led by Delhi, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are experimenting with school vouchers, taking a page from School Choice, launched by the Centre for Civil Society in Delhi.

An assessment of the Delhi project on vouchers, covering 408 students, showed that a majority of the beneficiaries switched over from government to private schools. Parents were happy the learning progress of their children, the teachers and the standard of discipline. The RTE provides a huge opportunity for other states to foster public private partnership in education, along with fundamental reforms in governance.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

IT'S A MIXED BAG

Infosys Technologies disappointed with its April-June 2010 quarter performance, with its profit growth declining 2.4% from a year ago. But this time, the performance of the IT bellwether did not exactly presage a trend. Its peers TCS and Wipro surprised the street while HCL Tech's performance was in line with market expectation.

TCS saw its post-tax profits climb 24.3%, from a year ago, and Wipro reported a 31% rise in its net income from IT services, despite pressures from an appreciating currency. HCL Tech's net income grew a modest 3.7%. But the growth in client additions, net increase in staff hiring and the 10-20 % salary increases indicate the outsourcing business is gradually returning to normal.

Of course, it has not returned to the days of heady growth experienced till the financial crisis hit the globe, and may not either anytime in the foreseeable future. For, there is increased pressure in countries such as the US to keep jobs at home and the sovereign credit crisis in the southern European countries would weigh on the performance on the outsourcing companies. These along with the currency fluctuation can spell trouble. Europe is the second-largest market for Indian software companies: it accounted for about 20% of Infosys revenues, 28% of TCS, 25% of Wipro and 26% of HCL.

The domestic market account for a small portion of the software majors' revenues; in the instance of Infosys, income from domestic business was as low as 1.7%.

Even as the global environment remains uncertain and pricing pressures persist, seeking opportunities in the domestic market will stand the companies in good stead. E-governance in particular presents a great opportunity, and the unique ID project is only one such projects.

The government has rolled out or intends to roll out extensive IT infrastructure for the new pension scheme, a national treasury management agency, the tax information network, and goods and services tax, all of which would be software intensive. The big four should not only seek partnership with the government to roll out these projects, but should put some of their brightest people on the task. India too deserves to benefit from its software prowess.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

TON HAS MORE WEIGHT

How do you define century on debut? Imagine someone is selected as a No. 6 batsman and in his first Test, the first five batsmen rattle up a huge score and the innings is declared. The team wins by an innings and, hence, no second innings. So he does not bat at all. In the next Test, he scores a century. Is this a century on debut? Wisden, with whom I raised this query, has said no. But if this is correct, then are centuries scored in the second innings of a debut Test logically a century on debut? After all, he has already batted in the first innings. Next, how to count centuries. Today, double and triple hundreds are counted as one century although they are far more difficult to score. Ask Tendulkar himself. If double centuries are counted as two centuries and triple as three, then the order of batsmen may change.

In the entire history of Test cricket, there have been about 2,000 centuries, 200 double centuries and about 20 triple centuries. Thus, it is 10 times more difficult to score a double century and 100 times more difficult to score a triple century. If these weights were used, the order of batsmen will change dramatically. Bradman, I think, will still be on top. When we claim that some Nobel prize winners were Indians, why not give Ranji and Pataudi their due?

T R Ramaswami,

Mumbai, July 30

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

FROM CONCEPTION TO INCEPTION

VITHAL C NADKARNI

Last night, your columnist dreamt of a spoonbill. The beautiful white bird with sulphur crest and liquid brown eyes was being held and repeatedly caressed by a bright-faced Muslim child in a vast grey mangrove filled of unseen menace. Was this an example of dream invasion? For, this writer could clearly trace the images to that morning's front page anchor in The Times of India about the parlous state of Mumbai's hills and dales and mangroves. Dream invasion and extraction is the big idea too in Christopher Nolan's Inception. Leonardo DiCaprio is the protagonist skilled in the art of 'extracting' information from sleeping subjects. He and his crew invade into the skull cinema of drugged subjects and infiltrate their subconscious. Their job is to snoop around in the palace of your dreams like stealth Ninjas of nightly natter.

Further embellishment might serve as a spoiler. Suffice it to say the idea is not to plan a heist but rather to implant a twist or an idea. For, as the protagonist intones ponderously, a single idea can transform the entire world. That leads naturally into the layered world of dreams within dreams, something with which readers of classics such as Gunadhya's Ocean of the Rivers of Stories (Brihat-Katha-Sarita-Sagara) and that philosophical

tour de force, Yoga-Vasistha, have long been familiar.

The world of action within action yields vertiginous sequences of simultaneous murther and mayhem. The physics and pyrotechnics of one level are explosively influenced by what is happening at stories (pun intended) above as well as below. When the hero is, for instance, dunked in a bath tub to wake him up, a flash flood hits him in the dream world! The key element in the context of Yoga-Vasistha is recognition (Pratijna), whether of the great illusion or an individual's own 'true' identity.

"The twist that the Yoga-Vasistha adds is that you cannot wake from the dream, because it may be someone else's dream," writes Indologist Wendy Doniger in her alternative history, The Hindus. "Release means staying asleep but being aware that you are dreaming."

This is also the message of many myths in which kings, beginning with Indra, become enlightened, wish to awaken -that is, renounce material life -but must be persuaded to renounce even this wish to renounce, to remain engaged in life with the caveat that all this is one great illusion.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

WE MAKE SCIENCE FUN TO LEARN: ARVIND GUPTA

JAYASHREE BHOSALE

Six small magnets, an old slipper and a pencil. That is all it takes to make a toy that explains magnetic levitation, the principle on which Maglev trains run. This was also the toy that set a young girl on her path to recognition, that came in the form of a minor planet being named after her.

She had played with this toy, made from scrap, like many others at the Muktanagan Vigyan Shodhik (MVS), the Children's Science Centre at Pune's Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics (IUCAA). Arvind Gupta, who heads the Children's Science Centre, has a self-imposed mission in life: Give a happy childhood to children to have a peaceful society.

The MVS office is crammed with toys like a water sprinkler made using straw, an electric motor made using a 1.5-volt battery, a pump to inflate balloons and toys made using old newspapers, pins, nails, empty water bottles, cycle tubes, CDs and other scrap. It is a treasure trove for a child to know how things work.

Mr Gupta graduated from IIT-Kanpur, with a degree in electrical engineering, and had a short stint at Telco (now Tata Motors) in Pune. He then decided to work and make science fun for school children. "Children develop a distaste for science due to the sophisticated instruments in school laboratories," he said.

These toys make children feel that science can be easy to learn. He shows some geometrical shapes that have been made using matchsticks and valve tubes from a bicycle. This model easily explains that a triangle is the most rigid geometrical shape. This ease of teaching is perhaps the reason Mr Gupta became a popular personality for a generation of children who watched his science programmes on national television.

To take science teaching aids to every child in the world, the four-member MVS photographs the toy-making process using a simple household camera and uploads the clip on the web in several languages. Diagrams and text are also used to explain the making of the toy. Mr Gupta trusts the professionals in the system and the power of the digital world to popularise the beauty and simplicity of science.

Digitisation and knowledge-sharing are the core principles of his work. A CD priced at Rs 12, containing 1,000 books, 5,000 photos and 150 one-minute films, is distributed to thousands of schools and teachers. With the government encouraging the use of computers in all schools, Mr Gupta is hopeful that the CDs will reach children in the remote parts of the country. He has translated 70 scientific books in the last 30 years and put

more than 2,000 books on his website.

For those who do not have access to computers, Mr Gupta has brought out low priced books on science for children. He has written more than a dozen books on low-cost science activities and toy-making. One of his books, Matchstick Models and Other Experiments, published in 1987, has been translated in 13 Indian languages and has sold over half a million copies.

Mr Gupta has broadened the scope of his educational work beyond making innovative teaching aids and writing books for children. He has collected classic books on education and children's literature from across the world. Most of these books are about the experiments done in every nook and corner of the world to make learning and schooling a happy experience. "We need a variety (of schools)," he says.

"In our country, we have the second-largest pool of scientists, but there is not much original research to our credit. We need to have creative people for original research. And only those who have a happy childhood can becomes individuals who have their own minds and who can think creatively," he said.

Totto-Chan: The Little Girl at the Window is a Japanese book, that he brought to India and its Marathi translation is available for a modest price. "The irony is that one will not get these low-priced books in any of the shops in Pune, considered a centre of education, because the bookseller's margins are very low on such low-priced books. The situation in the smaller towns is far worse," he said.

According to him, more than 70% of the research in the world focuses on defence equipment. "If we want to have a peaceful society, then we have to give a happy childhood to our children."

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

REVISIT SEBI'S CONSENT ORDERS

M R MAYYA

A debatable point is whether the procedure evolved by Sebi for settling various kinds of enforcement actions through consent orders wherein parties neither admit nor deny the guilt, is proper at all. Can ends of justice be met by payment, particularly for such serious offences like price manipulation, creation of artificial market, insider trading, manipulation of financial results, etc?

Consent order scheme was introduced in April 2007 with a view to clearing the huge backlog of cases without much delay through an alternative route of dispute resolution.

Of the 1,591 applications received for consent terms since 2007, 744 applications were disposed of by passing consent terms as on September 30, 2009, with a collection of Rs 66.53 crore, including disgorgement, settlement and legal charges. Apartment from consent charges, some cases included debarment from dealing in securities market and suspension of certificates of registration for different periods.

The consent order scheme, not surprisingly, has progressively been becoming popular with the offenders. In fact, in 2008-09 , the number of applications filed for consent orders rose sharply to 666 from 81 in the previous year, with disposal of 428 applications being disposed of and 236 applications being rejected.

It is true that the terms for consent orders offered by an affected party are scrutinised by an internal committee of Sebi and placed before a high-powered advisory committee headed by a former judge of a high court and based on its recommendations, a panel of two wholetime members of Sebi takes a decision whether to accept the terms so offered for consent orders. This is aimed at ensuring that serious offences warranting penal action do not go unpunished.

While the intention of the scheme was to expedite disposal of minor cases, avoiding the long-drawn litigation process, many high-profile cases involving serious offences are opting for consent terms. Even cases pending before the Supreme Court and Securities Appellate Tribunal and other designated courts are being settled by consent orders.

Cases involving serious offences such as manipulation of prices, IPO manipulation, etc, affecting adversely the interests of the investors are settled by consent terms. Quite a few cases involving manipulation of market prices are reportedly settled for relatively-small amounts compared to the gravity of the offences. Even some of the habitual offenders are reported to be taking undue advantage of the scheme.

In the recent notorious case of Satyam Computers involving a fraud of over Rs 8,000 crore, its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, have filed an application for consent order to explore and bring to a close the issues they have with the market regulator as a fallout of the scam.

While the bulk of consent orders are detailed and speaking orders spelling out the allegations against the applications, several others are rather sketchy and the public are not able to comprehend what the allegations are.

Undoubtedly, the scheme of consent orders is well-intentioned: Not to drag on relatively-minor offences and to bring to a close as early as possible all such cases. But when the scheme is utilised by unscrupulous elements involved in serious offences and, willy-nilly, the regulator agrees to settle such cases by consent orders, the deterrence that is required gets diluted. This is not to doubt the integrity and bonafides of those who administer these matters.

The scheme can, at best, be utilised where technical or procedural lapses are involved. The scheme can also be put in operation where disputes between two identities are involved like between a broker or a sub-broker and their clients. The consent order scheme should, at any rate, not be resorted to where market as a whole is involved, such as manipulation, artificial market, IPO scam, fraud, etc.

The system has been borrowed from the US where the Securities and Exchange Commission settles a large number of administrative and civil cases by consent orders. Even in the US, there have been several serious cases where the consent order scheme was resorted to.

It is pertinent to note in this correction that in the UK, Financial Services Authority (F&A) has evolved from October 2005 a discount scheme for financial penalties in appropriate cases for early settlement. If a settlement between the Regulatory Decision Committee (RDC) of FSA and the persons concerned arrive at the amount of financial penalties, a discount is applied on this amount varying from 30% in the case of an early settlement, 20% for settlement up to the expiry of the period for making written representation to the RDC, and 10% up to the issue of the decision notice.

In FSA terms, a settled case is one where the regulatory outcome — in terms of regulatory breaches and sanctions to be imposed — has been accepted by the firm or individual concerned. The FSA does not specifically adopt the no admission-no-denial concept as adopted by the SEC in US. Infractions of law cannot be made a tradable commodity, nor can be used as reservoir for mobilisation of funds. It is only a guilty regulatee who agrees for a settlement.

For facilitating early settlement, we can adopt the UK model of a discount scheme with perhaps higher rates of discount going even up to 75% of the penalty amount depending on the stage of settlement and seriousness of the case. The conviction should, however, remain.

The consent order system, therefore, calls for a review to consider whether the scheme can be improved upon to make it foolproof or whether the scheme needs to be abandoned so that offenders of law do not go unpunished. A public debate may be held on the findings of the review before a decision is taken.

(The author is former executive director of the Bombay Stock Exchange)

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

CAMERON, IN INDIA, SENDS RIGHT SIGNALS

The empire has faded. In the decades since Indian independence and decolonisation, Britain has leaned across the Atlantic toward the United States in search of economic and political consolidation. In more recent times, with the emergence of the European Union, the British inclination has been to combine its American relationship with solicitousness for Europe. However, with even the powerful European economies as well as the US recording at best moderate growth rates over the years, it has been natural for London to pay more attention to India which not so long ago was viewed as "an exotic basket case". But that was then. With the recent near collapse of the international financial system, and the Indian economy still making a stab at a nine per cent rate of growth, there was little question that Prime Minister David Cameron would seek to lay the "foundations for an enhanced relationship" with this country, to use his words before he began his three-day India visit earlier this week. The British leader's visit has been a huge publicity success, with Mr Cameron making the right social and political pitch in both Bengaluru and New Delhi, not to mention his ability to be one of the boys wherever he went. He didn't lecture. He didn't go on village safaris. He just let people think he was being himself. That's a quality people like in a leader. Perhaps the Prime Minister could conduct himself in the manner he did because he was able to facilitate the £700 million agreement between BAE-Rolls Royce and Hindustan Aeronautics to purchase 57 more Hawk trainer jets. This is a big boost to British manufacturing in bad times. But the importance of Mr Cameron's visit will be judged by going beyond trade. His sharp criticism of Pakistan on the terrorism issue, and later statement that he stood by what he had said, would earn the new British leader bonus points in India. No Western leader has spoken with such frankness on the subject of Pakistan from Indian soil. What Mr Cameron had to say stung Islamabad into almost cancelling President Asif Ali Zardari's proposed visit to London in early August. It is too early to say if British policy toward Pakistan is changing in any basic way, but many will hope London looks at Islamabad on merit. On his trip, Mr Cameron led a team of as many as six Cabinet ministers, including the foreign secretary, chancellor of the exchequer and business minister, besides top corporate executives and culture and art heavyweights. It is said there hasn't been a larger British trade delegation "in living memory", or a larger top-level delegation since the end of the Raj. The focus of the visit was clearly trade "and jobs", as the British leader noted. If that's the case then Mr Cameron's trip would carry greater meaning if he is able to attend to the key question of permitting Indian entrepreneurs, professionals and students from purposeful residence in Britain. Slashing non-EU immigration from next year would probably hurt deserving Indians more than people from any other country. Britain is pitching for trade in civil nuclear energy, banking, insurance and legal services. All of these will naturally have to be negotiated. But Mr Cameron has begun on a positive note.

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DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

TEMPORARY GAINS

BY FARRUKH DHONDY

"No help your sermons now —

The one blue stretches.

No consequence the solemn vow —

The faces of the wretches..."

From Cadences by Bachchoo

In my family, a generation and more ago, when a marriage was mooted, senior female members were despatched to examine the credentials of the suitor and his or her family.

But with whom is the relationship to be established?

There are several systems of vote transfer and preference which can, to one extent or another, achieve this end.

To tempt the Lib-Dems into a coalition, the Tories offered them inconsequential or bound-to-be-unpopular jobs in Cabinet and a referendum on a system of voting which could make the vote fairer. It wasn't quite the system the Lib-Dems had formulated, but their leadership represented it to their party as the Holy Grail which could lead them to the paradise of parliamentary power. Several Lib-Dems, senior and junior, got a distinct whiff of the rat: The promise was not for a change to the system but for a referendum asking the public whether they want it. Even if the public says "yes", the system has to pass into law and it is certain that most Tories and all of Labour won't vote for such a bill. The Lords will almost certainly reject it.

Then the spinning and weaving of ropes in the Lib-Dem kingdom will progress from a cottage i

EDITORIAL SAMARTH

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Saturday, July 31, 2010

EDITORIAL 31.07.10