EDITORIAL SAMARTH: EDITORIAL 24.08.11

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Editorial

month august 24, edition 000818, collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

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THE PIONEER

BACK TO UNHAPPY PAST
NO PLEASURE IN CRUELTY
DEATH STALKS KARACHI - MANVENDRA SINGH
PM BAILS OUT PAKISTAN - SATISH CHANDRA
THE FALL OF GADDAFI - SHADI HAMID
THIS MONTH, 20 YEARS AGO, IN USSR
A PROTEST THAT DEFIES LOGIC AND REASON

THE TIMES OF INDIA

SPRING IN LIBYA
HARD QUESTIONS
UNSTEADY AT THE TOP - ARVIND PANAGARIYA
'THERE IS A REAL SENSE OF DESPAIR IN AFGHANISTAN RIGHT NOW' - SAMEER ARSHAD
BEYOND ANNA'S INDIA - JUG SURAIYA

HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE COLONEL'S BEEN CASHIERED
FIT FOR THE BENCH
THEY LOVE PARLIAMENT - AMARESH MISRA
THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS - MEENAKSHI GANGULY
A DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS - RAMACHANDRA GUHA

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

MORE, NOT LESS
INSTRUMENTS OF POWER
RUDDERLESS, ADRIFT
DR SINGH, BREAK THIS STANDOFF - J. S. VERMA
TRIPOLI'S CHALLENGE - ALIA ALLANA
YES, THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE – ANJALI BHARDWAJ
THE PEOPLE AND THE LAWMAKERS - NIRAJA GOPAL JAYAL
SOMEONE HAD TO STAND UP
VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS - JAITHIRTH RAO

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

INDIA INC'S FOREX EXPOSURE
S&P DOWNGRADES ITSELF
BUY-BACKS POINT TO GROWING CONFIDENCE
AMERICAN CRISIS, ASIAN CONCERNS - MADAN SABNAVIS

THE HINDU

THE PRICE OF NATO HELP
ALL THAT GLITTERS
ISSUES OF PARENTHOOD AT AN OLDER AGE
POONGOTHAI ALADI ARUNA
FOR OBAMA, A MOMENT TO SAVOUR - MARK LANDLER
MESSIANISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY - PRABHAT PATNAIK
THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST SATYAGRAHAS, THEN AND NOW - ERA SEZHIYAN

THE ASIAN AGE

CONFUSION REIGNS AMID LIBYA MESS
ANNA'S FAST: TOO LEGITIMATE TO QUIT - INDER MALHOTRA
TEAM ANNA'S SAFFRON SLIP - S. NIHAL SINGH
RICE, RIGHTS AND NUCLEAR DREAMS - SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

DAILY EXCELSIOR

BRAZEN FAVOURITISM
TRYST WITH MILITANTS
WHY INDIA NEEDS A STRONG LOKPAL? - PROF. DR. K.L. BHATIA
WHEN POWER OUTSTRIPS ABILITY - BY M.J. AKBAR
DEAR FRIENDLY RAINS....! - BY GURMEET SINGH BEKRAAR
KASHMIR RAIL ROAD PROJECTINDIA FAR BEHIND CHINA - BY R. N. MALHOTRA

THE TRIBUNE

THERMAL PLANT CLOSURE
TAKEOVER OF TRIPOLI
SHAMEFUL SURRENDER
STRAINS IN SINO-PAK TIES - BY HARSH V. PANT
STATUS UPDATE - BY VIVEK ATRAY
WHO WINS FROM GADDAFI'S LOSS - PATRICK COCKBURN
SCRAMBLE FOR A STAKE IN THE NEW LIBYA - RUPERT CORNWELL

MUMBAI MIRROR

KAREENA, HEROINE NUMBER ONE

BUSINESS STANDARD

WEST SIDE STORY
HALFWAY HOUSE
COUNTERING CHINA'S ECONOMIC DOMINANCE - ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN
WHERE ARE THE CONGRESS LEADERS? - A K BHATTACHARYA
EXCESS OF SUNLIGHT - M J ANTONY
DOING MORE WITH LESS - LAVEESH BHANDARI

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

ELEMENTARY, WATSON!
ENDGAME IN LIBYA
JUSTICE DENIED!
ON A HISTORICAL PARALLEL
POTENTIAL OF MASS MOVEMENTS - C P BHAMBHRI
WILL AN EDUCATION COMMISSION HELP? - DEEPAK PENTAL

BUSINESS LINE

A TSUNAMI IN THE MAKING
RANABIR RAY CHOUDHURY
WATER CONFLICTS
THE ROCKSTAR AND HIS 'AVAAZ' - P.T. JYOTHI DATTA
NO NEED TO FEAR FDI IN RETAIL - K.T. CHACKO
DROUGHT AND FOOD SECURITY OPTIONS - SHASHANKA BHIDE
THE RISE OF MIDDLE INDIA - N.R. KRISHNAN
GOVT SHOULD BOW TO PEOPLE'S WILL - B.S.RAGHAVAN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

ANNA'S FAST: TOO LEGITIMATE TO QUIT
DIVORCE CAN BE FATTENING
CONFUSION REIGNS AMID LIBYA MESS
SATYAGRAHI, ASK THYSELF
TEAM ANNA'S SAFFRON SLIP

THE STATESMAN

JUDICIAL HEARTBURN
WOUNDED WARRIORS
THE BORROWER'S TERMS
SOCIETY & CORRUPTION - BY ATUL KUMAR
GOING THE DINOSAUR WAY?
UN SEEKS PROBE INTO ABDUCTION, KILLING OF PAKISTANI SCRIBES
100 YEARS AGO TODAY
THE CALCUTTA IMPROVEMENT BILL

THE TELEGRAPH

INACTIVITY TRAP
ENEMY WITHIN
USEFUL SPECTACLE
RIDE WITH THE TIDE

DECCAN HERALD

GADHAFI GONE
WHAT A FALL!
LET'S LOOK WITHIN - BY AKBER AYUB

OHERALDO

THE GOVT'S HEALTH IS MORE WORRYING THAN ANNA'S
WHO'S GOAN WHERE?
FREDERICK NORONHA

HAARETZ

IMPROPER CENSORSHIP
IT'S A GOOD THING FOR ISRAEL THAT HAMAS EXISTS - BY ZVI BAR'EL
ONLY DEATH WILL RELEASE THEM FROM POWER - BY AMIR OREN
SOCIAL CHANGE IN ISRAEL WILL TAKE TIME - BY NA'AMA SHEFFI
ISRAEL'S LEFT NOW HAS A CHANCE TO AWAKEN THE PUBLIC - BY AMIRA HASS

THE NEW YORK TIMES

ADDRESSING THE JUSTICE GAP
THEY'RE IN THE BACK ROOM
THE STRAUSS-KAHN CASE
AN AMERICAN SONGBOOK - BY LAWRENCE DOWNES
A PLEDGE TO END FRATERNITY HAZING - BY DAVID J. SKORTON
LIBYA'S BLOODY ROAD TO FREEDOM - BY AZZA KAMEL MAGHUR
OBAMA, TIGER, GOLF AND POLITICS - BY THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
FOOD'S NEW FOOT SOLDIERS - BY MARK BITTMAN

TIMES FREE PRESS

THE VOTER-ID CARD SCAM
OBAMA, GOP HOPEFULS ON JOBS
NEW PROTECTIONS FOR AIR TRAVELERS
SUPPORT FOR LOW SPENDING, LOW TAXES
RECESSION? RECOVERY? STAGNATION?

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

TENSION RISES ACROSS THE MEDITERRANEAN
THE FALL OF TRIPOLI
TURKEY, IRAN AT ODDS OVER SYRIA
WHY 'FREE KURDISTAN' MIGHT NOT BE FREE
WHY GOLDA MEIR WAS RIGHT
WHO DID THE CRISIS IN GREECE BENEFIT?
A LA CARTE, A LA SYRIA - VERDA ÖZER

THE NEWS

THE GREAT FALL
GRAVES IN KASHMIR
ELECTORAL PRACTICES
WATCHING SILENTLY FROM BLOOD-SOAKED SIDELINES - MOHAMMAD MALICK
CORRUPTION VS THE JUDICIARY - ABID HASAN
FATA REFORMS: TOO LITTLE TOO LATE - SALEEM SAFI
CONFUSING THE CONFUSED - IQBAL JAFAR
BREWING ECONOMIC CRISIS - DR MALEEHA LODHI
INDIA'S SECOND COMING - TANVIR AHMAD KHAN

PAKISTAN OBSERVER

KARACHI-I: RISING ACCUSING FINGERS AGAINST RULING PARTIES
KARACHI-II: SUICIDAL CULTURE OF STRIKES
KARACHI-III: PLEASE PLEASE PRIORITISE THIS SUO MOTU NOTICE
THE UN AND ITS IDEALS! - KHALID SALEEM
BREIVIK'S IDEOLOGY THREATENS CHRISTIANITY - LT COL ZAHEERUL HASSAN (R)
MOTHER OF FAITHFUL HAZRAT AYESHA (RA) — 23 - SIRAJUDDIN AZIZ
WHILE PRESENTING PAKISTANI PERSPECTIVE - SOBIA HANIF
LIGHTER SHADE OF NATO FADING STILL - GEORGE WILL

THE AUSTRALIYAN

NOW FOR THE HARD PART IN LIBYA
HICKS SHINES IN BLIGH'S PARALLEL LITERARY UNIVERSE
RAISE YOUR HALF-CHARGED GLASSES

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

BLACK HOLE OF CHINESE LAW
TRANSPORT'S TRICKY ROUNDABOUT
WHY WE STILL NEED TO MAKE THINGS: TO SURVIVE
ANOTHER STRIKE AGAINST JUSTICE

THE GUARDIAN

DOMINIQUE STRAUSS-KAHN: LEFT WITHOUT HONOUR
FOREIGN POLICY: INTERVENTION AFTER LIBYA
IN PRAISE OF ... SECOND CHOICES

THE JAKARTA POST

1. SAVING THE BEST FOR LAST

2. VIEW POINT: SNATCHING DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY - JULIA SURYAKUSUMA

3. LONDON RIOTS WAKE-UP CALL FOR WELFARE STATES - HARRY BHASKARA

4. THE US DEBT CRISIS: LOWER US CREDIT RATING AND ITS DISCONTENT - BERLY MARTAWARDAYA

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

BACK TO UNHAPPY PAST

FUTURE LOOKS GRIM FOR WEST ASIA

As relations between Egypt and Israel continue to sour with each passing day, so does the situation in West Asia where the fragile peace of the past few years seems to be yielding space to renewed violence. It was obvious to all except the naïve and the ill-informed that the Muslim Brotherhood and its foot soldiers masquerading as pro-democracy protesters in Egypt would sooner or later force Cairo to abandon the peace treaty that Anwar Sadat signed with Israel and for which he paid with his life. Sadat's successor, Mr Hosni Mubarak, upheld the Oslo Accords which not only ensured peace between Egypt and Israel but also contributed to Arab regimes giving up their instinctive hostility towards the Jewish state. In many ways, the peace agreements between Israel and Egypt, as also between Israel and Jordan, helped keep belligerent elements among Palestinian groups in check while disallowing Islamists the space they have always craved for. But all that now appears to belong to the past with the interim Government in Egypt electing to appease the increasingly vocal Islamists clamouring for a return to Nasser's era when the Arabs were at perpetual war with Israel and lost much more than they ever gained. The 'Lotus Revolution' which was touted as a movement to usher liberal democracy in an enlightened Egypt has turned out to be nothing more than a well-choreographed show by the Ikhwan to first dislodge the established regime and then manoeuvre themselves into a position from where they can dictate policy and programme. There is nothing subtle about this: The manner in which a mob of Islamists attacked the Embassy of Israel in Cairo as the police watched from the margins indicates the direction in which Egypt is moving. The Military Council is either unwilling to act or simply lacks the authority to enforce the writ of the state, or what remains of it.

There is a problem with this rapid unravelling of the peace agreement between Egypt and Israel, and that is essentially about the repercussions this is bound to have in the region. It will embolden Islamists in Jordan who are conniving against King Abdullah and aspire to seize power in the Hashemite Kingdom. It is only a matter of time before the clamour grows louder in Jordan that it too should repudiate its peace accord with Israel. Meanwhile, Hamas has called off its truce with Israel, and resumed murderous attacks on Israeli civilians. Malcontents in the West Bank are itching to follow suit. The rise of rabble-rousers across Arabia is bound to see the anti-Israel sentiments amplified which, in turn, will cause Tel Aviv to feel that is under siege and cannot afford to take chances. That is bad news for all countries and people in West Asia and beyond. A cycle of violence will benefit neither the Arabs nor the Israelis; it will prove disastrous for the Palestinians. What makes the situation particularly fraught with danger is Shia Iran making common cause with Sunni Ikhwan to isolate and target Israel. In the scenario that is emerging, not only are Israelis threatened but also those Arabs who do not wish to return to the past and believe that wisdom lies in looking ahead and moving towards a lasting solution to a dispute that has festered for far too long. This is where the international community must step in and play a positive role.

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THE PIONEER

EDITORIAL

NO PLEASURE IN CRUELTY

ABUSE OF CATTLE MUST STOP IMMEDIATELY

While animal rights activists welcomed the decision of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest to ban the use of bulls for entertainment purposes earlier this month that effectively scuttled plans to revive the controversial tradition of Indian-style bullfighting in Goa, recent reports of large-scale bovine cruelty point to the urgency with which authorities must address the issue of animals that are used for work purposes across the length and breadth of the country. For a country that considers its cattle sacred and its killing sacrilegious, India sure treats the bovine with shocking cruelty. In a recent report, leading animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals detailed several cruel practices that are routinely adopted by cattle-owners who either have little knowledge of animal welfare or are plain insensitive to their plight in a bid to increase their own profits. PETA's report on how cows, oxen and buffaloes are branded using either a very hot or extremely cold iron to allow for easy individual recognition in a process that causes excruciating pain, of how sharp wires and metal rods are frequently jabbed into the necks of these gentle beasts to bring them under control, and how young calves are yanked by passing a thick rope through their nose has had many writhing in unease and rightly so. In India's still largely agricultural, developing economy, cattle forms an important element that literally drives our growth machine. Their rampant abuse is thus a shameful reflection of a cycle of endless greed perpetuated by extreme poverty that has only led to widespread ignorance and bred human insensitivity towards animals. A shocking example of this is the practice of hitching animals of different sizes or two different species to a single cart. This almost invariably leads to both animals being severely injured. What makes matters worse is that often the owners are not even aware of the ill-effects of such practices that nevertheless inflict tremendous pain and suffering on the animal. Then, as they begin to suffer from 'lameness' or arthritis, the animals' affected muscles, bones or joints are treated with red hot iron rods or with chemicals such as mercury iodide or copper sulphate to scald the area without any anaesthesia.

And these only form part of the problem. The equally cruel manner in which cattle in India is traded and even slaughtered is another story that has already brought us international condemnation. Yet all of this is despite the fact that India has laws that prohibit the unrestricted killing of cattle, laws that protect their young and their females. Unfortunately, there is nobody to ensure that greedy masters do not exploit their bovine stock at work.

This is a gaping hole that needs to be plugged at the soonest.

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THE PIONEER

COLUMN

DEATH STALKS KARACHI

MANVENDRA SINGH

The vicious cycle of violence in which the residents of Karachi find themselves trapped does not portend well for democracy in Pakistan.

We need to take action now; otherwise it will be too late and someone else would come to play their role," the Prime Minster said. In the wake of the Anna Hazare groundswell this sounded like a toughened, wary and decisive Manmohan Singh. Reeling under a popular onslaught for the last several days, it seemed the Prime Minister had decided on being, well, decisive. Shaking off the tag of a man not in control of his office, he seemed to want to demonstrate action. And show control is with him. Except that it wasn't him saying these words and it wasn't him demonstrating resolve.

It was, in fact, the Prime Minister of Pakistan attempting to show resolve and solve a problem that confronts the Governments of Sindh and his own. And it is the problem of Karachi, reeling as it is under the murderous onslaught of various shadowy players and their masters in high places. Even as parts of the port city are painted, literally, in red, political authorities seem incapable of checking the cycle of violence repeating itself. The federal Government, and their partymen in power in Sindh, appear to have abdicated responsibility for the fate of their citizens who are dying by the dozens every day.

July in Karachi is known for its stuffy monsoon weather — humid, hot, sultry and every unbearable climatic thought. But July 2011 in Karachi will also be remembered for its cycle of killings. For when the month passed the number of people killed in retaliatory violence had crossed 300, making Karachi by far the bloodiest city in the world. Even as sporadic incidents continued into August, the levels were lower. Until the killing of a former Pakistan People's Party parliamentarian, Waja Karim Dad, as he broke his day-long fast last Wednesday. This provoked a further round of killings that have continued unabated.

After a particularly vicious weekend, the Muttahida Qaumi Movement called for a 'day of mourning' on Tuesday. It is shutters-down in Karachi, totally. The MQM chief, Mr Altaf Hussein, made the call from London where he lives in exile. And it was implemented with a firmness far in excess to what the Prime Minister has been able to execute, Pakistani or Indian. This is obviously because of the sufferings that the people of Karachi are being made to endure every day. In this case it seems that the MQM has also been at the receiving end. Organisations like the MQM don't call for days of mourning if most victims are not their own. But a victim is a victim, and there have been scores since the killing of Waja Karim Dad. The list of dead has gone up with each passing day. Last Wednesday it was 13, followed by 31 on Thursday, another 27 on Friday, 10 on Saturday, 11 on Sunday and 13 on Monday. Over a hundred dead in less then a week.

Karachi is now the world's largest Pakhtun city. The rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan and their impact on the border areas of Pakistan caused much dislocation to the people there. Even as lives were to be altered to the whims of millenarian mullahs, the arrival of 'war on terror' caused much physical dislocation of families. Livelihoods were disrupted and economic opportunities dwindled. As is the wont everywhere in the world, people headed to the city that had the most money, in this case Karachi. The Pakhtun migrants are relatively recent, but they alter carefully cultivated political spaces. Even as they continue to arrive daily, it is this demographic change that threatens the MQM's monopoly over local politics that it has long exercised. Having been accustomed to reigning supreme over Karachi, the MQM sees its domination under threat because of politics and demographics. The migration of Urdu-speaking people caused the first demographic — and political — upheaval in Karachi. Sindhis lost their domination with the arrival of these migrants. There were cycles of violence, extremely bloody too. But the cost of those bouts of ethno-inflicted bloodletting remained localised. The current cycles of violence, however, have a deeper impact on Pakistan as a country, rather than simply being a localised Karachi/Sindh issue.

Karachi is today a microcosm of Pakistan besides being its largest city in an economically unviable and abnormal manner. It draws residents from across the Pakistani landscape and countryside. Far lesser in numbers to the Pakhtun, there is still a significant Baloch population that is emerging in Karachi. So when bullets extract their toll in Karachi, the impact may not simply be on a local graveyard, but on the interiors of Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab and the Khyber-Pakhtunwa Provinces. The passage of the bodies from the mortuary to the grave also brings seeds of further hatred, revenge and loathing for perceived ethnic killers. And perceptions are terribly stubborn in breaking down. Mr Manmohan Singh may well have learned his first lessons on that score in his contest with a fasting Anna Hazare.

There is an element of class to the victims of violence in Karachi. Most, but not all, tend to be from the poorer ghettoised parts of the city. This is true of most foot soldiers of gangs anywhere the mafia exists. And it seems certain that a large part of the violence is on account of turf wars between established and emerging gangs. In the ladder of money-making activities, gangs operate at every level, differentiated by sophistication of dealings and the method of talking, bulletd or words. Much like elsewhere, but magnified manifold because of the peculiarities of Karachi politics and politicos. Each political party in Karachi seems to have card-carrying and gun-carrying members — the latter doing what the former are not able to achieve or are incapable of doing.

So, in the bizarre political dance the MQM and the PPP play out over power-sharing, coalition politics, local governance, et al, they continue to entertain people willing to play that contest through the bullet rather than waiting for the ballot. This has dangerous portends for Pakistan, as it would for any society. But more so in Pakistan where there is an Army waiting in the shadows to make its move. Buffeted since the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a cantonment town, the Pakistani Army has been on the ropes of popular ire and contempt. But as politicians remain unwilling to rein in their gun-carrying cadre, the same popular ire may well be transformed into a people's 'request' to the Army to intervene. Thus beginning, yet again, another round of democracy be damned.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

PM BAILS OUT PAKISTAN

SATISH CHANDRA

To compensate Pakistan for the losses caused by the flood last year, the European Council offered it tariff concession on 75 items. India had opposed it on the ground that it would hurt the interest of our exporters. The Prime Minister's decision to reverse India's position has not only comes as a surprise but also shows he is soft on Pakistan

According to a recent newspaper report, the Prime Minister has "ordered officials to withdraw India's official opposition at the World Trade Organisation to a concessional trade package offered by the European Union to Pakistan."

It may be recalled that in September 2010, the European Council approved tariff concessions on 75 items with a view to compensate Pakistan for the losses caused by the floods. The total worth of the items exported under these tariff lines including mainly textile products is estimated at $1.03 billion and the average tariff on these items is 8.86 per cent. Under the EU proposal, the tariff would be reduced to zero for a period of three years.

India has so far been opposing this move on the grounds that if the EU wished to provide aid to Pakistan it was free to do so but it should not do so by way of trade or tariff concessions. This would be a dangerous precedent undermining the principles of free trade. Moreover, it did not constitute aid but was simply in the nature of trade diversion which would hurt the interests of other exporters.

Speaking more bluntly Mr DK Nair, Secretary General, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, has argued that "By adopting the 'trade for aid' approach for assistance, EU has effectively transferred the burden of such assistance to the other countries like India, exporting these products to the European markets. Instead of absorbing additional imports from Pakistan, the zero duty access will only substitute imports from other countries like India with imports from Pakistan."

The Prime Minister's reversal of the Indian position on this issue is yet another indicator of how soft he is on Pakistan despite the latter's continued pursuit of policies blatantly inimical towards India such as the export of terror to India, the printing of fake Indian currency, the holding of joint exercises with China on the Rajasthan border, etc. Other instances of the Prime Minister's unnecessarily accommodative stance towards Pakistan were his dalliance with General Pervez Musharraf for a final settlement of Jammu & Kashmir on lines in clear violation of Parliament's joint resolution of February 1994 on this issue, the acceptance of a joint anti-terror mechanism, the resumption of a comprehensive dialogue with Pakistan despite the fact that it has not brought to book the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, etc.

In the instant case the Prime Minister's going soft on Pakistan will impinge adversely on our textile exports, our textile manufacturers, and those employed in the textile sector.

A case could be made for making such a sacrifice if there was a reasonable chance of Pakistan accepting our friendship. Regrettably, the innumerable concessions, as briefly listed below, made by India in an effort to befriend Pakistan have not been reciprocated and, in fact, only served to encourage the latter's intransigence towards us.

Some of these may be enumerated as follows:

· Payment of Rs 75 crores to Pakistan on account of division of assets of undivided; Rs 20 crores were paid in August 1947 and balance of Rs 55 crores in January 1948 even as Pakistan was attacking India;

· Non pursuit of its claims vis-a-vis Pakistan for non payment of the latter's partition debt of Rs 300 crores;

· Conclusion in 1960 of the Indus Waters Treaty under which India, though it had 40 per cent of the catchment area, agreed to an allocation of only 20 per cent of the flows of the Indus Waters. In addition, it agreed to pay Pakistan over 62 million pounds sterling for building replacement canals, reservoirs, etc.

· Following Pakistan's defeat in 1971 India, rather than imposing a settlement upon it, chose to negotiate an agreement with it at Simla in 1972 for across the board normalisation of relations. In the process India returned the 5386 square miles of Pakistani territory captured by it in Sind (5000 square miles) and Punjab (386 square miles) without exacting any quid pro quo;

· India obtained "the concurrence of Bangladesh" for the return of the nearly 92000 Pakistani prisoners of war held by it under the joint India-Bangladesh Command without asking for anything in return;

· India facilitated Pakistan's entry into NAM in 1979 and re-entry into the Commonwealth in 1989;

· India has for years been unilaterally according Pakistan most favoured nation treatment.

It is conventional wisdom that those who do heed the lessons of history are condemned to relive them. Pakistan has repeatedly spurned India's hand of friendship. Accordingly, we should desist from making any concessions to Pakistan particularly when these impinge adversely on the livelihood and well being of our people. There is certainly no call for our leaders to make our textile industry a sacrificial lamb in their agenda of appeasing Pakistan.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

THE FALL OF GADDAFI

SHADI HAMID

Arab rulers cannot afford to ignore the message from Tripoli

It's odd, but not necessarily surprising, that critics of the Libya intervention were calling it any number of things: Mistake, quagmire, dangerous, an Iraq repeat, and so on. It is odd because the ultimate outcome — the rebels winning and Col Gaddafi falling — never seemed much in doubt. It was a matter of when, not if. For both better and worse, Libya confirms the reality that the role of external actors (in this case, the United States and Europe) can still be decisive in the Arab struggle for freedom.

We should always tread carefully with counterfactuals. But it is difficult to deny that the alternative to doing something — doing nothing — would almost certainly have led to a bloody, tragic massacre in Benghazi and other pockets of rebel resistance. Libya would have likely been held up as one of the great tragedies of Western neglect or outright subversion, on par with Iran in 1953 or Algeria and Iraq in the early 1990s. When you have the ability to act, doing nothing is no longer a neutral position.

To be sure, this is not a time for settling scores. But it is a time for arguing for the utility, necessity, and morality of a doctrine — the Responsibility to Protect — that seemed, to its opponents, increasingly discredited. Another reality — again, for both better and worse — is that the United States remains something of an "indispensable nation," a notion increasingly in disrepute. Without American support, however belated, the responsibility to protect would have remained mere rhetoric and posturing. The Nato intervention would not have happened.

That said, we should be careful not to overstate the strategic benefits of US President Barack Obama's chosen course of action the past six months. Foreign Policy's Blake Hounshell argues that the administration's strategy of "leading from behind" now "seems utterly vindicated". It is unclear why this would be so. If anything, it could be argued, as I did in March, that Mr Obama's excessive caution made a bad situation even worse. If the US and the international community had intervened sooner — rather than at the very last moment when rebels were making their final stand — Col Gaddafi would have fallen sooner and without such loss of life and destruction.

This, lest we forget, is how the rebels themselves saw the situation in March. They were literally begging the United States to take action. When their calls were met with silence, Iman Bughaigis, spokeswoman for the rebels, fumed that "(The West) has lost any credibility." In a veiled but obvious reference to the fence-sitters, she continued, "I am not crying out of weakness... But we will never forget the people who stood with us and the people who betrayed us."

With the Obama Administration dragging its feet, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe conceded that it was perhaps too late for military intervention. In other words, what seems like such a success now was then very much in doubt. Even after Nato stepped in, the complaints continued; Nato could do more but wasn't, rebel officials argued, in part due to US insistence on "letting others lead". There was also an (understandable) reticence on the part of the Obama Administration and its allies to more pro-actively arm and train Libyan rebel forces. But such hesitation, however prudent, came at a cost.

Finally, it is worth nothing that one of the rationales for the Libya intervention — that it would have a powerful demonstration effect across the Arab world — is being vindicated (after being much maligned by Daniel Larison and others critics of the war). In the face of overwhelming repression in Syria and Bahrain and setbacks in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen, Arabs needed a victory. There was a growing sense that the euphoria on February 11 — the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down — was rather premature. It was. But, now, all across the region, protesters and revolutionaries are once again emboldened, reminded that the unlikely is still possible. They are warning their own stubborn leaders — Mr Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Mr Ali Abdullah Saleh in Yemen — that they are next. Today, then, the region's revolutionaries face their own daunting struggles with more momentum and more hope. That is no small thing. Neither is the new-found freedom of millions of Libyans, who will now have the opportunity, for the first time, to rebuild their shattered nation on their own terms.

The writer is the Director of Research, Brookings Doha Center, Fellow, Saban Center for Middle East Policy. He focuses on Islamist political parties and democratic reform in the Middle East. ***************************************

THE PIONEER

OPED

THIS MONTH, 20 YEARS AGO, IN USSR

SEVERAL REASONS COALESCED TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE FALL OF THE COMMUNIST ENTERPRISE CALLED THE SOVIET EMPIRE, WRITES ALEXANDER RAHR

There were three main stages, in my view, in the process that resulted in the end of the communist Soviet Union in 1991. The first one was the non-signing of the treaty to create a new confederation in June 1991 — the Novo-Ogaryovo process. This practically represented the end of the Soviet Union, because afterwards, the individual republics did not even want to loosely maintain any kind of common structure with Moscow.

Then came the Putsch in August, which was the last attempt on the part of the hard-liners. And then there was December 1991 when the leaders of the three Slavic states met in Belarus — the most important republics in the Soviet Union, the core of the Russian empire — and decided that they didn't want to preserve the common state. From my point of view, the August Putsch was only a part of dramatic developments which started in the 1980s.

The popular resistance to the Putsch played a huge role in the unfolding of events. There are two different stories of the Putsch that are told. One story is through the understanding of contemporary Russians. The other is that of direct observers and witnesses who were around in those days and remember. In my view, the August Putsch was like a real revolution in Russia, but the goal to maintain Communism was lost.

Economically, the Soviet Union was a disaster. The majority of Russian people, and also people from elsewhere in the Soviet Union, felt the need for change, and so they were very much disillusioned and frustrated with the putschists. The hardliners wanted to turn everything back to some kind of old rule. There was no chance for them. They lost all kinds of support from within society, and this broke their backbone. In my view, this was their first mistake: They misjudged the mood of society, which emerged after years of Perestroika as self-assured people who were not afraid to say what they saw. Journalists played a very important role, an honest and courageous one.

This was a huge revolution in Russia. Russia freed itself from Communism, like other nations in Eastern Europe also did at the time in many ways. But of course, the historical fact that Russia freed itself from communism is not present in today's historical discourse in Russia, or in the mindset of the Russian elite. This was something historical, it was a great achievement, something that was deeply important for the future development of Russia.

This, to me, is quite shocking. Russia had a lot of achievements in the 20th century. One was, of course, the victory over Nazi Germany in 1945, the victory and the defeat of the totalitarian ideology. The defeat of this hostile ideology was a huge achievement, and is seen today by Russian people as such.

But the 1990s showed that the reforms were being done wrong, and Russia did not have any serious or sincere help from the West with these reforms. There were just too many problems. And because the reforms in the 1990s went wrong in so many ways, Russians have very negative feelings towards the August Putsch and the year 1991, which they see not as the day when they were freed from Communism, but on the contrary, the time when they began 10 years of nightmare and economic catastrophes. This is very sad, because it ignores the fact that Russia achieved something wonderful by gaining freedom by itself, without the help of anyone else. I think that Russia today does not identify with the ideals of Perestroika and the struggle to get rid of Communism in 1991.

The lessons of the August Putsch of 1991 and the events surrounding it are something that we see today in many other countries. We see them today in Syria, we see developments in Tunisia, we have seen them in Ukraine, we have seen protests and demonstrations against the Government and against the current order in several other countries. Those who are in power must understand that in the 21st Century things are completely different. People everywhere in the world will strive for change and for their own rights and for a better economic living.

The Governments of Europe, in many parts of Asia, of course in America, and in Latin America, have to understand in the future that if their people are not happy, if there is economic hardship, social hardship, then people will take to the streets and organise these movements. The Internet has opened communication, allowing people to organise themselves very quickly, to provide global information about what is happening in a demonstration or protest movement.

Through new communication networks, small demonstrations can receive immediate support and solidarity from other groups, from other circles and from other important organisations. The best lesson that Russian leaders today must understand is this. They must have a grasp on the situation and an understanding of what the people want, their fears, their will and so on.

The writer is the Director, Berthold-Beitz-Zentrum, German Council on Foreign Relation for RIA Novosti.

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THE PIONEER

OPED

A PROTEST THAT DEFIES LOGIC AND REASON

THE REAL OBJECTIVE OF ANNA'S AGITATION IS YET TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY THOSE WHO HAVE JOINED HIS MOVEMENT , WRITES SAT PAL

Conceived and propagated by Mahatma Gandhi, our country has for long now know the weapon of non-violence which has dislodged the world's the mightiest powers. This very methodology has even received recognition at the international level. A number of 'non-violent weapons' have been utilised by many social and political groups to achieve the objectives of the Satyagraha that they initiated.

Let us now discuss the various forms of non-violent satyagraha. These include dharnas or sit-ins, strikes, public demonstrations, fasts popularly known as anshans or bhookh hartals, indefinite fasts, fast unto deaths or amaran annshans. It is worthwhile to note that the intention behind undertaking the fast must be a noble one and not derogatory to any common cause.

There have been instances in the past where incidents of adopting such means to get fulfilled the demands by the authorities. The non-violent agitations were being dealt with mercilessly during the British regime. Under the satyagrah, the agitators are not supposed to retaliate in any form. There has been a long history of the fast untill death. It may be recalled that Sri Prkasham in Andhra Pradesh, Sardar Darshan Singh Pheruman in Punjab and recently Sant Nigmanand in Utrakhand lost their lives during their sit in indefinite hunger strike undertaken by them on different causes.

The recent fasts undertaken by Baba Ramdev and Anna Hazare drew attention of one and all. The story of Baba Ramdev has been termed as an unfortunate though Anna Hazare has been able to generate more and more heat out of his well-planned gandhian agitation. The people has started using Annagiri as a term after Gandhigiri being used after the success of a film starring Sanjay Dutt.

Since Anna Hazare has shifted his field of operation from Maharashtra to New Delhi, all the fasts undertaken by him, including one-day fast at Rajghat, have attracted masses and been able to ignite a spirit of nationalism across the country. Despite large crowds, well-coined slogans, long marches, peaceful demonstrations and so-called discipline shown by the participants, the mere objective of the movement is yet to be disseminated correctly and injected into the hearts and the minds of the people who has been following the crowd like bhed chaal.

The showdown between Team Anna and the Government is bound to reach the peak though both the parties seems to keen on an early settlement as Team Anna might be aware that it will be too difficult to hold the crowd in fact for a longer duration and the Government will never want it to see it prolonged and might try to end this so-called civilised protest as early as possible since Parliament session is on.

The very issue of the Jan Lok Pal Bill and corruption is not so easy to be resolved with a magic wand. It looks that both the parties have already realised this hard fact and would like to reach some face-saving agreement. Any how the youth who came out in support of Team Anna has no objective other than being part of a movement which has been converted into a mela and a festival to rejoice together to become the centre of attraction.

A sea of Gandhi caps and undignified display of the Tricolour is not being liked by those intellectuals who take the Constitution and freedom movement in high esteem. Any how Ann-shun ie not taking food or Ann by Anna Hazare has become the top story in the news world.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

SPRING IN LIBYA

The Arab Spring is close to notching up another notable success, with the imminent demise of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's dictatorial regime in Libya. In a lighting push, rebel forces have breached Gaddafi's seat of power in Tripoli. Backed by Nato air support, the achievement is significant in light of the loose, disparate composition of the rebel militias. Six months since Libya was plunged into civil war, this is the first time anti-Gaddafi forces definitely have the upper hand.

Gaddafi's downfall, when confirmed, would mark a historic moment for the Arab world. Decades of repression have created a groundswell of anger and frustration, finding outlet today in demands for political freedom and regime change. The pro-democracy wave has reached a tipping point and regimes still holding out, such as that of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, would do well to read the writing on the wall. At this rate 2011 could turn out for the Arab world what 1989 was for eastern Europe - the year when, following Poland's lead (comparable to Tunisia's in the Arab case) communist regimes started coming unstuck all over the Soviet bloc.

As the battle for Tripoli rages, the rebels must prepare for a post-Gaddafi Libya. Undoing 42 years of autocratic rule and building democratic institutions from the ground up won't be easy. The umbrella Transitional National Council (TNC), representing the rebel political leadership, needs to take along all stakeholders. But as the recent assassination of the rebel military chief, Abdul Fattah Younes, supposedly by an extremist rebel faction proved, the insurgents are far from a monolith. Given the ethnic and tribal diversity in Libya, knitting together a new patchwork of nationhood would be no mean task. The first priority of the TNC should be to prevent revenge killings and establish the rule of law. As the Iraq experience informs us, any move to systematically purge those who were seen to be working for the Gaddafi regime will be fodder for sectarian strife. A new Libya must be built on the principles of inclusion and reconciliation.

Libya and other Arab nations in the throes of transition need significant support from the international community in the rebuilding process. India too must not shy away from its responsibility. For a start it needs to discard its habitual foreign policy timidity and recognise the TNC as the legitimate transitional government of Libya. The TNC insists it wants an electoral democracy in Libya, and Gaddafi was no friend of India. Given India's stake in the Arab world and also that Arab democratisation is in India's long-term geopolitical interest, this ought to be an easy call.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

HARD QUESTIONS

The way India's Test series from hell ended was a foregone conclusion. More galling than the all-too familiar collapse to England, which saw the last six wickets falling for 21 runs, and far more so than Sachin Tendulkar's missed hundredth century - it was almost an irrelevance by that point - is that the mismatch between the two teams had shown up as far back as the second Test of the series. Hysteria and witch-hunts are entirely counterproductive. But hard questions cannot be postponed any longer. A good look at the structural problems faced by the Indian team is necessary. What we have seen here is no aberration; it is the comeuppance of decisions taken by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) over the past few years.

M S Dhoni and his men must shoulder a portion of the blame, of course. If the plaudits have been theirs, they must own the criticism as well. Loss of form can be countenanced. What cannot is the utter lack of stomach for a fight that all of them save Praveen Kumar and the magnificent Rahul Dravid have shown. The BCCI, of course, hasn't made their job any easier; far from it. Where is the long-term planning and man-management needed to ensure that the players are focussed and injury-free? Where are the structures to groom the young talent necessary for replacing ageing titans? Where are the pace reserves and the batsmen with the grit to battle it out in the "space of the mind", as Dravid put it? It's time the BCCI looked beyond making money and tried to answer these questions. Otherwise, the money may soon stop coming in as well.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

TOP STORY

UNSTEADY AT THE TOP

ARVIND PANAGARIYA

Judging by even our modest standards, governance at the top has taken a nosedive during the United Progressive Alliance's (UPA) rule. Some of this can perhaps be blamed on the specific actors involved. But there is a deeper structural explanation for it: the vesting of true power to govern outside the government, in the Congress high command. UPA rule has been the longest in our history that this phenomenon has played out. In all previous such episodes, either the executive successfully wrested power back from the external authority or it fell.

Thus, the first time the organisational wing of the Congress seized effective power was immediately following the death of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Known as the Syndicate, the organisational wing successfully kept the heavyweight Morarji Desai at bay and installed the more amicable Lal Bahadur Shastri as prime minister. But once the victory in the 1965 India-Pakistan war had turned him into a natio-nal hero, Shastri began to assert his independence. The battle between him and the Syndicate was already brewing when he unexpectedly died in January 1966.

Following Shastri, the Syndicate once again opted for the lightweight Indira Gandhi in preference to Desai. For almost four years, while the Syndicate and Indira remained locked in an unannounced battle for authority, policymaking suffered. In the end, soon after the July 1969 All India Congress Committee session, Indira broke loose of the "bosses" and went on to launch an era of true hyperactivity in both domestic and foreign policy arenas.

The country witnessed seve-ral episodes of outside entities exercising effective power in the decade from 1989 to 1998. In each case, the executive tried to assert its authority and lost power. Thus, Prime Minister V P Singh, who came to the helm in 1989, was dependent on the Bharatiya Janata Party for his survival. When he asserted his authority on the Mandal-Ayodhya issues, the BJP pulled the rug from under his feet. Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar succeeded Singh and suffered the same fate at the hands of the Congress. Subsequently, from 1996 to 1998, the governments of H D Deve Gowda and I K Gujral fell victim to the same phenomenon.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who succeeded Gujral, broke the trend. Early in his tenure, the Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) tried to restrain him from pursuing a reformist agenda. As a seasoned politician, Vajpayee knew that being the only moderate BJP leader accep-table to all coalition partners, he was in a unique position. Therefore, he offered to resign. The SJM quickly folded and Vajpayee went on to implement major reforms leading to the growth acceleration we currently enjoy.

The experience under the UPA has been altogether different. With the power centre residing outside, it has managed to survive a full seven years. Sonia Gandhi's decision to place a technocrat and former bureaucrat has proved masterly: lacking both a power base and political ambition, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has worked amicably with her while she retains the ultimate power.

But this has not been without cost. At her National Advisory Council (NAC), Sonia has been an easy target of NGO capture. While with their "on-the-ground" knowledge, these latter can be very effective at bringing to notice issues of importance, drafting legislative Bills is neither their mandate nor their expertise. Yet, that is what they now do at the NAC. For her part, Sonia is at ease with the quick fixes for the poor they propose, often invol-ving ever-rising expenditures.

But this is a slippery slope. On the one hand, the taste of drafting the country's laws has whetted civil society's appetite leading it to ask for more and more, culminating recently in something even Sonia cannot deliver: a Lokpal with the autho-rity to investigate all including her! On the other hand, the government has lost the moral authority to question the legitimacy of the NGOs to write legislation. Thus, when the prime minister accused Anna Hazare of shortchanging the parliamentary process by drafting the Jan Lokpal Bill, opposition leader Arun Jaitley was quick to point out that the NAC, which wrote Bills for the government, too had civil society activists in it.

But the greatest harm from this power structure has come from the prime minister losing the authority to govern while remaining answerable for the lapses of his government as well as the party. Because the Cong-ress high command cuts the deals with coalition partners and effectively makes decisions on cabinet appointments, it remains the object of the latter's loyalty. As a result, we have seen ministers getting away without reprimand even after criticising government policies in a foreign country. And since fund-raising for the party too is done at the behest of the high command, ministers often bypass the prime minister on major decisions, further weakening the institution.

Ironically, when scandals break out or civil society groups begin clamouring for more than what the government can deliver, it is the prime minister rather than the Congress high command that must answer! While the prime minister struggles, few have asked where the Cong-ress high command stands on the Lokpal issue. What the endgame of this agitation is going to be is anybody's guess.

The writer is a professor at Columbia University.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

Q&A

'THERE IS A REAL SENSE OF DESPAIR IN AFGHANISTAN RIGHT NOW'

SAMEER ARSHAD

The US-led war in Afghanistan targeting the Taliban allowed India to help with reconstruction. New Delhi is the fifth largest donor to Afghanistan, providing $750 million in humanitarian assistance. With America now beginning a phased withdrawal of troops, Kabul-based Sylvana Q Sinha of the United States Institute of Peace spoke to Sameer Arshad about Afghanistan's prospects - and India's stakes:

What work do you do in Afghanistan?
I work in Kabul on rule of law issues including transition, traditional dispute resolution and constitutional interpretation. We work closely with the government of Afghanistan and the donor community, especially the US embassy.

What does America's phased withdrawal of troops mean to India's interests?
It is absolutely in India's interest for a sustainable peace to be achieved in Afghanistan. All politics is local and all geopolitics is regional. If the US withdrawal leads to the instability that many Afghans are expecting, there will be an opening for an alliance to emerge between Tehran, Islamabad and Kabul.

This would certainly threa-ten India's regional political and economic influence - not to mention its security.

The US has acknowledged it's been in talks with the Taliban. Does that impact Indian interests?
The best-case scenario for India would be a stable Afghan state where the Taliban's role is minimised. A stable Afghan state that can provide the rule of law to its people will threaten Pakistan's regional influence there. The current negotiations going on with the Taliban are happening behind closed doors. It is totally unclear what is being traded - it would serve India well to try and better understand the nature of these negotiations, and what the expected endgame will look like, so it can influence that outcome.

The scenario seems a throwback to post-Cold War Afghanistan, when the international community abandoned the country - seeing it emerge later as a terror haven. Isn't it vital for the global community to safeguard Afghanistan?
America and Nato powers are focussed on leaving Afghanistan; they will not necessarily suffer the consequences as immediately or directly if a stable peace is not achieved - India will. If New Delhi can have a better understanding of the ongoing negotiations, perhaps it can influence others in the region, such as the UAE, to become engaged. If other regional powers are more involved, it'll certainly increase the chances of a more successful negotiated solution.

Also, India and others in the international community must play a key role in forcing the Afghan government to involve civil society in any negotiations. It's well-documented that the inclusion of civil society in any negotiated settlement is a key precondition to a sustainable peace. The Afghan government has for the past 10 years marginalised civil society as much as it can. The international community and the Americans in particular have tolerated that under the guise that everything should be Afghan-led. But if a sustainable peace is desired, civil society must be able to influence the negotiations.

How do ordinary Afghans envision their future today?
There is a real sense of despair in Afghanistan right now. Most Afghans I have spoken with seem to think this is one of the lowest points in their country's history for at least 30 years.

I think this comes from the sense that without the presence of international troops, things are likely to degenerate quickly into civil war and chaos. The Taliban may or may not be victorious - though most Afghans I have spoken with think the Taliban probably will win a civil war - but either way, things are expected to get worse before they get better.

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THE TIMES OF INDIA

BEYOND ANNA'S INDIA

JUG SURAIYA

Is Anna India, as Kiran Bedi has claimed? An unfortunate remark, which echoed the Emergency mantra: India is Indira, and Indira is India. However, for his million-plus following, which is apparently growing every day, Anna is indeed India, an India emerging victorious from the deadly quicksand of corruption. But there are those who would disagree with Anna's India with its single-point anti-corruption agenda. And those in disagreement needn't necessarily belong to the Congress party or to the government, whose monumental mishandling of the situation is a case study in how not to contain a political crisis.

Several civil society representatives and social activists, including Aruna Roy, while expressing sympathy with Hazare's cause have decried his methods as being undemocratic, in that they challenge the authority of Parliament and, in doing so, undermine the Constitution, on which the republic is founded. Constitutional niceties apart, the anti-corruption movement has been stigmatised as being 'casteist' by a number of dalit leaders and other champions of marginalised communities, like the adivasis.

The BJP's politically motivated espousal of the anti-corruption crusade is only part of the reason for dalit unease. Though like everyone else in India, they too are affected directly or indirectly by rampant graft in their daily lives, for dalits and tribals the most baneful C word is not corruption but caste, and the often vicious oppression that it continues to engender. The dalit's bible is the Constitution, whose chief apostle was Ambedkar, the great emancipator. Anything which is seen to question the supremacy of constitutional law is for such communities the gravest threat of all. Author and activist Pinki Virani cites the words of Ambedkar: "When there was no way left for constitutional methods for achieving economic and social objectives, there was a great deal of justification for unconstitutional methods. But where constitutional methods are open, there can be no justification for these unconstitutional methods. These methods are nothing but the Grammar of Anarchy and the sooner they are abandoned, the better for us."

For very different reasons, the northeast in general, and Manipur in particular, has also not been swept up in the anti-corruption fervour. In Manipur, and other parts of northeast India, the hateful C word is not corruption but conflict. Here, as in Kashmir on the other side of the country, the grammar of anarchy is only too evident as innocent civilians remain caught in a murderous crossfire between secessionary forces and the unleashed might of the state, particularly as manifested by the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) which empowers defence personnel to open fire upon, "even to the causing of death", any person "acting in contravention of any law or order for the time being in force in the disturbed area prohibiting the assembly of five or more persons". Furthermore, under AFSPA, any person can be arrested without a warrant, on the mere suspicion that he is about to commit an infringement of regulations. Victims of AFSPA cannot seek redressal under law, because the Act immunises enforcement agencies from prosecution for any action committed in discharging their duties.

Remote from the media glare surrounding Anna's fast, 38-year-old Irom Sharmila has been waging a similar but unsung battle against the state-sanctioned licence to kill since November 2, 2000 when 10 unarmed Manipuri villagers were gunned down by troops in pursuit of militants. Sharmila has been fasting for over a decade for the repeal of AFSPA, in Manipur and elsewhere, and is being force-fed by nasal drip in an Imphal hospital, far from Anna's India.

The greased palm of corruption does indeed pose a dire threat to our democracy. But no more so – some would say much less so – than centuries of caste oppression or conflicts which involve the use of legally sanctioned murder.

Anna is India? Perhaps. But there are other, more grievously imperilled Indias that lie beyond the spotlit domain of Anna and his followers.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE COLONEL'S BEEN CASHIERED

The battle for Tripoli may continue for a few more days, but the war for Libya is coming to a close. There is now little doubt that the brutal and unpredictable regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi is now in its death throes. That Gaddafi, a person who combined a love for

comical acts of showmanship and a cold-blooded support for stray terrorist activities, could have ruled Libya for 41 years without serious challenge is a testament to the political rot that has been the hallmark of the modern Arab world. But the uneasiness which many developing countries, India included, had about Western military intervention in an internal rebellion is a reminder of the difficulty of drawing a line between sovereignty and humanitarian intervention.

Libya will be the first regime to topple in what can be called the second phase of the so-called Arab Spring or the jasmine revolutions. The fall of the regimes of Egypt and Tunisia was comparatively non-controversial. The revolts that broke out were clearly popular and homegrown. The violence proved limited and the regimes short-lived once the militaries of both countries declined to fire on their own people. Libya, Syria and, to some degree, Yemen were the second wave of regimes to see their people turn against them. But these were always going to be bloodier affairs. Their societies were more tribal in nature, their armies less professional. Syria continues to be wracked with civil war because the military has stood steadfastly with President Bashar al-Assad. Libya saw its military split. And Yemen's polity has all but fragmented into a half-dozen armed factions. There are strong ethical arguments for intervening in a conflict like Libya's. One, a protracted bloodbath would radicalise the opposition, pushing them into Islamicist or terrorist hands. Two, a regime like Gaddafi's had a record of almost uninterrupted trouble-making for the past few decades. His was a rogue State whose mischief was held back only by its size. Third, and arguably the most important reason for intervention, was that the fact that the Arab world had become the least democratised region of the world was a key reason for its being the source of so many of the world's more perverse ideologies and most twisted political challenges. The majority of Libyans were opposed to Gaddafi so it made sense to boost the Arab Spring forward by giving his regime a little push.

However, it is a fine line between helping a popular uprising and being an imperialist busybody. The West itself split over intervention in Libya. If the rebels succeed in putting together a genuinely representative government they will ex post facto legitimise intervention. But it is unlikely that future countries will provide so clear cut a case. Which is why it still remains a truism that violations of sovereignty should remain the rarest of rare cases and carry the approval stamp of legitimate multilateral organisations.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE PUNDIT

FIT FOR THE BENCH

There are two ways in which one can look at the 0-4 loss of India in England: one, that England was a far better cricketing team in every department of the game and deserved drubbing Dhoni's drummerboys; two, that the Indian team displayed fantastically bad cricket somehow perhaps believing that reputation is the key to winning matches. No, we won't go down the route of bemoaning the level of fitness in the Indian team. And the excuse of RP Singh being plucked from the reserve bench all of a sudden and without the requisite training may cut ice in the Delhi Gymkhana Club where folks talk about cricket basically to avoid exchanging notes about their old, knobbly knees.

When Sachin Tendulkar's 100th international century, awaited back home by the media like a 30-year-old still waiting to pop his cherry, becomes an occasion more important than saving matches, we can understand how, as Arundhati Roy forgot to mention, the Anna Hazare agitation made us forget about the real important things in life. The shove from the top Test spot by a top-notch side without overt stars but with a solid team isn't the real cause for humiliation. What is profoundly embarrassing — and cricket if not taken profoundly is really, as an ignorant Yank once said, baseball on valium — is the speed and the ease with which Dhoni and Co crumbled.

To take succour in the perception that England trounced India because of injuries in the visiting team and/or a lack of will is laughable. A team of 11 is a world-class bunch if they put up a strong fight against an excellent team. With the drubbing, we now see Team India for what it is: a bunch of grapes. We'll see how serious our motley crew of ligaments, elbows, thighs and joints and floundering wills are about getting up from the mat to play. As for England, congratulations! And do pass the dregs of the bubbly if something's left.

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THEY LOVE PARLIAMENT

AMARESH MISRA

Till a chubby, fragile, 74-year-old man reminded India of the power of mass movements, several myths about political action had become established facts. The media today would like to see itself as the harbinger of the revival of the Indian street. But this same media, over the past two decades was painting an entirely different picture before people.

Political leaders with a bureaucratic-technocratic-economist-managerial mindset were encouraged by all parties — especially the Congress and the BJP. This led to the latter's defeat in 2004 and the now the Congress stands at a crucial crossroads. The greatest tragedy of the Congress has been that party managers did not allow hard-boiled, real-world Indian politics, with its pro-poor policies, to prosper. Effectively, Congress managers have been smothering their own baby.

This alliance mentioned earlier fails to understand mass dynamics. For instance, it has failed to see that the past 20 years of economic reforms have also created a new desire for political reforms. In the pre-liberalisation era, Indian society, following the mixed economy logic, was plagued more by nepotism -— by a sifarish (facilitation), rather than a rishvat (bribe) culture. Barring the top layer of the establishment, money as such did not play such a big part earlier. In the post-liberalisation era, the amount of money pumped into the economy increased ten-fold, leading to plenty of scope for crony capitalism — and corruption became directly related to capital generation.

Somewhere down the road, the line between politics and business, politicians and criminals, became blurred. Politics was seen increasingly as consisting of money-media-muscle power. The concept of 'masses' and mass power in the political equation disappeared.

Which has led to people not buying the logic that Parliament is distinguished enough to be the sole forum to frame the laws of the land. Frankly, the Anna Hazare movement shows that the Indian people's trust in Parliament is tenuous. This is very much a constitutional-democratic, rather than an 'anti-democratic' or an 'anti-constitutional' urge.

The truth is that democracy for many is too important to be left only in the hands of Parliament. That the Indian Parliament has a serious trust deficit for most people is something that shouldn't be denied. The agitation for the Jan Lokpal Bill is just a strand of a larger response to this crisis.

( Amaresh Misra is convener, Anti-Communal Front, Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee )

The views expressed by the author are personal

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE ROAD TO DAMASCUS

MEENAKSHI GANGULY

There have been protests in Syria since March and after 41 years of repressive one-party rule, things seem to be coming to a pass. The movement for democracy has been sparked partly by the developments in Tunisia and Egypt and now, in Libya. Unfortunately the government of Bashar al-Assad has chosen to respond with force, security forces killing nearly 2,000 already, arresting thousands and torturing many in custody. Despite government repression, the protests have escalated throughout the country, with increasing demands for justice.

On August 18, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillai asked the UN Security Council (UNSC) to refer Syria to the Inter-national Criminal Court for the investigation of alleged atrocities against anti-government protestors. A report by her office found "a pattern of human rights violations that constitutes widespread or systematic attacks against the civilian population, which may amount to crimes against humanity." Just before Pillai's deposition, US President Barack Obama and the European Union had recommended sanctions and called on Assad to step down. Obama said the Syrian president's "calls for dialogue and reform have rung hollow while he is imprisoning, torturing, and slaughtering his own people."

The Syrian government's response was a predictably fierce denial. The UNSC's past sanctions against Iraq and its recent involvement in Libya have made more than a few countries wary about its possible role in Syria. It is, therefore, crucial for emerging powers, particularly those that claim to speak for the less powerful, to comprehend fully the situation on the ground in Syria.

India, traditionally, shies away from any public comment on events unfolding in another country. With India worried about protecting its own sovereignty and anxious about any criticism of its actions in Jammu and Kashmir or in its anti-Maoist operations, the idea is to offer that same reticence to other States that it would like for itself.

However, as an emerging power, India now occupies a significant place in global diplomacy — or, at any rate, should. In fact, when Syrian vice foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad visited India recently, he sought diplomatic support. India publicly encouraged his government to exercise restraint and "abjure violence".

Together with Brazil and South Africa, India initially resisted efforts to raise Syria's crackdown at the UNSC, largely motivated by concerns over Nato action in Libya and because New Delhi accepted Damascus' claims that the violence was provoked by armed groups. However, soon after India took over the rotating presidency of the UNSC on August 3, the council issued a statement unanimously condemning the Damascus for "widespread violations of human rights and the use of force against civilians".

Later in August, India, Brazil and South Africa ('IBSA') sent a delegation to Syria. The aim was to encourage the Syrian government to exercise restraint and to initiate talks with the opposition. In a public statement after the visit, IBSA said that the delegation had "called for an immediate end to all violence" and recommended "respect for human rights and international human rights law". Unfortunately, Damascus has refused to heed any such demands from the international community.

The Syrian government intensified its crackdown and continued to refuse access to a human rights fact-finding team mandated by the UN Human Rights Council. Damascus also promptly conveyed a misleading portrayal of the IBSA delegation, having the Syrian State news agency report that the delegation agreed there was a "campaign targeting Syria in the UNSC," and opposed any interference in Syria's internal affairs.

Faced with such defiance, India will have to make choices. Several governments from the region have already expressed their dismay with Syria's actions. Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Tunisia have recalled their ambassadors to Syria. The Human Rights Council scheduled an emergency meeting for August 22 after 24 countries, including all four Arab members, Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, joined the European initiative to convene the meeting. A resolution was passed, but India chose to abstain, claiming that it prefers dialogue.

This is a pity. India presently holds membership both at the UNSC and at the Human Rights Council. Its silence on Syria is becoming deafening. To avoid being labelled an eternal fence-sitter and a democracy that shies away from human rights protections abroad, India should urgently join in international efforts to escalate pressure on the Syrian government. It should take the lead.

( Meenakshi Ganguly is South Asia director, Human Rights Watch )

The views expressed by the author are personal

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HINDUSTAN TIMES

A DIFFERENTIAL CALCULUS

RAMACHANDRA GUHA

Some commentators have compared the struggle led by Anna Hazare with the movement against corruption led by Jayaprakash Narayan in the 1970s. A man of integrity and courage, a social worker who has eschewed the loaves and fishes of office, a septuagenarian who has emerged out of semi-retirement to take on an unfeeling government — thus JP then, and thus Anna now.

Superficially, the comparison of Anna to JP is flattering — to Hazare at any rate. But let us look more closely at how Jayaprakash Narayan's movement unfolded. JP's papers are housed in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi. These papers are worth revisiting in light of the struggle of which Anna has become the symbol and the mascot.

Once a hero of the Quit India Movement, then a founder of the Socialist Party, Jayaprakash Narayan abandoned politics for social work in the 1950s. Two decades later, he returned to politics at the invitation of students disenchanted with corruption in Bihar. At first, JP focused attention on his own state; then, much as Hazare has now done, his struggle moved outwards to embrace the whole of India.

In the late summer of 1974, as his movement was gathering ground, JP went to Vellore for a surgical operation. While he was recovering, his associate Acharya Ramamurti kept him up-to-date with the struggle. Ramamurti's communications, note, with some alarm, the entry of a political party into a professedly "apolitical" movement. While JP was away, wrote his colleague, "the leadership of the movement at least at local levels, is passing into the hands of the Jana Sangh". Ramamurti also worried that "the common man has yet to be educated into the ways and values of our movement, whose appeal to him continues to be more negative than constructive".

After some weeks in hospital JP returned to Bihar. In September 1974, he invited his friend RK Patil to come observe the situation at first-hand. Patil was in his own way a considerable figure, who had quit the Indian Civil Service to join the freedom struggle, and later worked in rural development in Maharashtra. He now travelled through Bihar, speaking to a cross-section of JP's supporters and critics, and to many bystanders as well.

On his return to Nagpur, Patil wrote JP a long letter with his impressions. He appreciated "the tremendous popular enthusiasm generated by the movement". However, he deplored its disparaging of political parties in particular and constitutional democracy in general. As a man of intelligence and principle, Patil was "well aware of the patent drawbacks of the Government presided over by Indira Gandhi". But he did not think it "wise to substitute for the law of 'Government by Discussion', the law of 'Government by Public Street Opinion'". Patil reminded JP that "there is no other way of ascertaining the general opinion of the people in a Nation-State, except through free and fair elections".

The materials of history thus suggest that the parallels between JP and Anna are less comforting than we might suppose. Front organisations of the Jana Sangh's successor, the BJP, are now playing an increasingly active role in 'India against corruption'. While Anna cannot be blamed for the infiltration of his movement by partisan interests, he certainly stands guilty, as did JP, of suggesting that the street — or the maidan — should have a greater say in political decision-making than a freely elected Parliament.

Such are the parallels in the realm of civil society. What then, of the other side? The main difference here is that while the prime minister of JP's day, Indira Gandhi, was excessively arrogant, the present prime minister is excessively timid. Despite his personal honesty, Manmohan Singh is complicit in the colossal corruption promoted by the ministers in his government. Further, he is guilty of a lack of faith in the procedures of constitutional democracy. His decision not to stand for a Lok Sabha seat does not violate the Constitution in law, but does so in spirit. Because of his unwillingness to face the electorate, his claim to defend the primacy of Parliament lacks conviction.

An arrogant politician can be chastened by defeat — as happened with Indira Gandhi in 1977. But it is hard to believe, based on his recent record, that Singh can act boldly now to recover the reputation of his government. By not sacking Suresh Kalmadi after the media revelations of his misdeeds, by not sacking

A Raja as soon as the information on the spectrum scandal was sent to his office, by sanctioning an election alliance in Tamil Nadu with the heavily tainted DMK, by refusing to rein in loose-tongued Congress ministers — in these and other ways, the prime minister has contributed to a widespread public revulsion against his regime. It is time that Singh made way for a younger man or woman, for someone who has greater political courage, and who is a member of the Lok Sabha rather than the Rajya Sabha. As things stand, with every passing day in office his reputation declines further. So, more worryingly, does the credibility of constitutional democracy itself.

To restore faith in the constitutional process some heads must roll in government. But serious introspection must take place within what passes for 'civil society' as well. The movement led by Anna Hazare has focused sharp attention on the corruption of our political class. However, the task now is not to further polarise State and society, but to find democratic and transparent ways of making politicians more efficient and less venal.

The scholar and public servant Gopalkrishna Gandhi recently observed that the arteries of constitutional democracy have become clogged, contaminated by years of abuse and disuse. One needs, he said, a bypass surgery to restore the heart to its proper functioning. The image is striking, and apposite. The current movement against corruption may come to constitute such a bypass, so long as it does not claim to be the heart itself..

( Ramachandra Guha is the author of India After Gandhi: The History of the World's Largest Democracy )

The views expressed by the author are personal

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

MORE, NOT LESS

The anger against corruption that drives some in urban India to the streets must be properly understood. It follows the investigation and prosecution of several high officials of state, and the sums that they allegedly cost the exchequer were widely disseminated as being astronomically high. It is easy for some, therefore, to lazily blame the 20-year reform process. Where, but for reforms, this argument runs, would so much money have existed in order to be purloined, anyway? The hollowness of this argument barely needs to be expanded upon. Further, it fundamentally misunderstands the causes and nature of the anger on the streets, and therefore lays us open to suggesting solutions that will not, in the least, help the underlying problem. The cause of this discontent is the present government's consistent neglect of urban India, and the consequent sense of disconnection from politics and policy that some in our towns feel. Part of the spark was an awareness of continued crony capitalism; it was aggravated by the thousand little pin-pricks of the continued presence of an indifferent, sometimes grasping, state in people's daily lives.

It is precisely those pin-pricks, the petty humiliations and tyrannies of the licence-quota raj, that the reforms process was supposed to remove. It was not just about increasing India's growth rate, so as to finally address the basic needs of the abjectly poor. It was about bringing about a degree of dignity in a citizen's interaction with the state. It is a similar quest for dignity that motivates many of those who have gathered at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi, and the government's solution should be more reform, not a further slowdown. It is fortunate that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, at the golden jubilee of the Indian Institute of Management-Calcutta, made it clear that any diversion from the path of reform would be a grave error. We cannot but agree that what is needed is a "comprehensive restructuring" of government procedures, and reform in the speed and independence of trials for corruption.

More, and quicker reform, not less, is how, in the medium- to long-term, urban discontent must be addressed. UPA 2, however, has been tardy and neglectful of the reform agenda. Dr Singh's words have, once again, reassured; but he must speak more often, and his government must be seen to be desirous of cleaning up its act — and also of being more quick-moving and responsive than it has been hitherto.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

INSTRUMENTS OF POWER

Andhra Pradesh politics has been roiled again, this time by a CBI report that takes on Jaganmohan Reddy, and also names his late father and the Congress's former mainstay in the state, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy. Twenty-six MLAs and two MPs have resigned, claiming they could not take the insult to their departed leader. They have written a blistering letter to the Congress, and its seeming commitment to erasing YSR's image from the hearts of the people, dropping his welfare schemes, even trying to brand him as criminal.

Their accusations are at least partly true — the Congress has tried its best to deny and disavow YSR's legacy, perhaps because that idea can be easily exploited by his son, Jagan. Instead of making a bid for YSR's memory and carrying on his strategies (his famous padayatras and welfare schemes, his co-opting of the opposition), the Congress has relied on people like Chiranjeevi to counter his charisma and question his integrity.

There is another, troubling aspect to this drama: the claim that this FIR is "motivated", that the CBI is again acting as the tool of a vindictive Congress. The CBI, our premier investigative agency, certainly has a sorry history of political pliability. The Congress, because of its long years at the Centre and its past disregard for the independence of such critical institutions, cannot escape the blame for this perception. Despite the 1997 Supreme Court judgment that reminded it of its mandate and its autonomy, the CBI has been the government's little helper — it has appeared to oblige the Congress over Ottavio Quattrochhi and the BJP over the Babri riots, it has conveniently retracted its own assessments over and over again. It has now got to the point that any accused person, from Mayawati to Jaganmohan Reddy, can blithely shrug off the CBI's charges as political vendetta. This situation corrodes the credibility of our public investigators, it also hurts the Congress. Allowing the CBI to be scrupulously independent is a political essential for the government. Which is why the recent decision to keep the CBI out of RTI scrutiny, for instance, makes little sense.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

RUDDERLESS, ADRIFT

Recent events have a surreal quality — how could the sphere of legitimate and serious politics cede so much space, so rapidly, to this brigade of righteously aggrieved people?

Regrettable as this turn of events is, UPA 2 has only itself to blame. It has failed to speak up forcefully for its own arguments, whether with opposition parties, allies, or even an extra-parliamentary caucus like the NAC, and it has been strangely weak-willed in pushing the legislative agenda. By exposing its vulnerabilities, it practically invited this "civil society" insurgency. The trouble, after all, began with the government's first capitulation — inviting Team Anna to a joint drafting committee for the Lokpal bill, but not the opposition. The government broke with established process and enlarged Team Anna's aura then by choosing it as a stand-in for all of civil society. And after the negotiation went off the rails, the government then turned around and announced that Anna Hazare's agitation encroached on the legitimate role of Parliament. This episode has been nothing but a straightforward crisis of statesmanship, as the opposition was quick to point out. It is an instructive study in what happens when the government slacks on law-making, and undermines Parliament with its own lack of direction. UPA 2 has displayed neither the courage of conviction to stick to its stands nor the ability to work at legislative compromise, to soften the opposition in the interest of getting critical bills moving. The last two sessions were largely thrown away, holding up crucial legislation intended to directly take on some aspects of this ongoing discontent.

There is little denying that the void left by Parliament in the last few months, and a lack of administrative quick-thinking, has contributed to a sense of disillusionment among certain constituencies. It is the government's own lack of mindful application, even on small, doable reforms, that has been exploited by Hazare and his supporters. Even though there are several bills in the works meant to do away with discretion and take on official corruption — the public procurement bill and the judicial accountability bill, among others — there is no sense that the government is throwing its girth behind any of its initiatives in Parliament. As the opposition rightly pointed out in a recent debate, it is the government's lack of statecraft that is now costing it so dearly.

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

DR SINGH, BREAK THIS STANDOFF

J. S. VERMA

I write this letter with some hesitation about a matter of great national significance, succumbing to the constant pressure of many eminent citizens with the background of considerable public service and experience of governance at the highest level. Naturally, they are disturbed as I am, as you must be most of all, by the urgent need to prevent the clear and present danger of the prevailing unrest crossing a Rubicon, by taking steps to end the imbroglio.

As the head of the government, you alone can, and have to, perform this onerous task. With the commitment of "We, the People of India" to a democratic polity, I am sure, the people also clamour for a peaceful solution.

The nation is focused on the urgent need to combat corruption at all levels, which most affects the common man in every aspect of daily life. The demonstration of their anger on the streets is sufficient evidence that remedial measures cannot be delayed. The rule of law, which is the bedrock of democracy, is in peril. No referendum is needed to know that the nation is unanimous on the necessity of taking prompt remedial measures, which is the prime responsibility of the government, to be discharged with the aid of citizens doing their duty. The people's participatory role in governance is the justification for the public outcry against corruption and the inordinate delay in taking remedial steps.

The prime need of your government, therefore, is to convince the people of the government's equal commitment on this behalf. This can be done only by you, and none else! The malaise of a lack of political will and an erosion of individual rectitude, which is the foundation of national character, has to be arrested and reversed. This, too, can be done only by you!

Anna Hazare has rendered yeoman national service by mobilising public anger against corruption, and by identifying the causes of the malaise that needs to be cured. The next important step now is to decide on the way forward, and to move in that direction. Not merely curative or punitive, but preventive measures also have to be taken. Obviously, this can be done only in a congenial environment, with the government engaging with all sections of civil society, and donning a thinking cap. It is the government's responsibility to create this environment by gaining the confidence of all of civil society.

No one has, rightly, doubted that the final act of enacting legislation has to be performed by the legislature; and then the law has to be faithfully implemented by the executive under constant public gaze and judicial scrutiny. This is, undoubtedly, our constitutional scheme, to which everyone is committed.

What is the way forward now, at this stage?

It is unnecessary, in this context, to reiterate my views on some of the contentious issues relating to the jurisdiction of the proposed Lokpal and the contents of the existing drafts of the bill. Substantially, they are already in the public domain. I confine this letter to my suggestions for your consideration about the way forward. These suggestions have crystallised after due reflection, and also consideration of the responses of some equally concerned eminent citizens. These are stated hereafter.

Mr Prime Minister, after your government constituted a joint committee with a few members of the civil society to draft the Lokpal bill, the logical corollary of that decision has to be accepted. This means that the views of the entire civil society must be presented by your government, along with the government's draft, to Parliament for consideration during the debate on the bill. In an "inclusive" democracy, which undoubtedly our republican democracy is, every section of civil society, and every individual, has a participatory role in governance, including policy-making. The demand of Anna Hazare to send to Parliament the draft bill prepared by his team cannot, therefore, be denied. This I say, notwithstanding my differences with some points in that draft, and the mode of his protest.

This procedure has to be equally applied to the views and drafts of other sections of civil society, including individuals, if any, offering any serious suggestions. I am also of the view that the government needs to hold a few national consultations to give all sections of civil society an opportunity to participate in the exercise by offering their views for due consideration during the debate in Parliament. This exercise must be performed within a reasonable time.

Accordingly, the drafts already prepared by sections of civil society and in the public domain, namely, those by the Anna Hazare team, the Aruna Roy team and the Jayaprakash Narayan team may be presented to Parliament as the first step in this direction, to end the imbroglio. The additional views, offered in national consultations, can follow. This is the logical corollary of your government's decision to involve civil society in the preparation of the draft Lokpal bill. Having commenced that process, it cannot be arrested midway or after part performance.

May I also suggest, in all humility, that this plan of action (if approved by you) needs to be conveyed by you directly to the nation in a broadcast through the active 24x7 media, which is busy these days disseminating information only on this issue, for its due impact.

The writer is a former Chief Justice of India
express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

TRIPOLI'S CHALLENGE

ALIA ALLANA

For a brief moment, the fog of war cleared. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, bearded and ecstatic, waved to the people near a Tripoli hotel. Supporters circled him, some carrying placards of the Brother Leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who had gone into hiding. Less than 48 hours before that, the rebels had jubilantly announced that they had captured Saif, who was once the heir apparent to Gaddafi. In Libya, six months after the launch of Operation Odyssey Dawn, there is much confusion and speculation in the air, amid gunfire.

"Nobody knows what's going on," said Mohammed Sarjiani, a Gaddafi aide, in a phone conversation. The Colonel could be anywhere, he said, but Gaddafi could fight and those loyal to him would keep fighting — despite the rebels' successes.

What began on March 13 reached a critical moment less than a week ago when the eastern town of Zawiyah, a mere 46 km from the capital, fell to the rebels. Zawiyah is crucial: it is the only guaranteed source of gasoline for Tripoli and Gaddafi's supporters. Its fall and the flight of government soldiers paved the way for the rebels' entry into Tripoli.

The National Transitional Council (NTC), the government-in-waiting, sent out, perhaps a little hastily, mass text messages: "We congratulate the Libyan people for the fall of Muammar Gaddafi. Long live free Libya." This, when the government spokesperson, holed up in the Hotel Rixos, claimed that the eccentric leader still commanded 65,000 soldiers. France, the torchbearer of this operation, offered words of celebration and Paris as the location for the Friends of Libya meeting that would discuss reconstruction of a country wrecked by six months of civil war and 42 years of Gaddafi rule. In several Libyan embassies, the NTC flag was hoisted.

But where is Gaddafi? His last public appearance was in May but since then a stream of audio messages has been flowing out. In the past few days, these have picked up pace. "Pick up your weapons," he asked his supporters as Tripoli came under attack on August 15. Less than 14 hours later, another message came through, this time for tribal leaders to join the fight against the rebels and finally in the penultimate address for the night, he asked, enraged, "If Tripoli was to burn like Baghdad, why would you allow this to happen?"

Yet he remains ominously absent from public view. Some postulate he is on the run, attempting to cross over to Algeria; there are reports of South African planes that may or may not fly him out; he could hide in Malta or Venezuela. There are rumours that he's in the Libyan Desert.

Here is what we do know: as the rebels crossed into Tripoli at an astonishing speed, they were aided by an intensification of the air campaign, with Nato strike missions attacking key targets. This was decisive in shifting the balance. Britain and France played a role on the ground in training and arming the rebels who soldiered forward. This not only gobbled up Libya's military infrastructure but also rendered the Colonel's forces weak and unable to move or re-supply.

But are celebrations and the news of the fall of Tripoli premature? Most foreign correspondents are still in lockdown in the Libyan capital, except perhaps for Sky News's Alex Crawford who is riding with the rebels in Tripoli. So information coming out has been spotty and scattered. And the course of the battle, of the endgame, is far from clear.

Here is what we do know. Whatever the outcome of the war, the NTC will face tremendous challenges in uniting the rebels. First, there is the question of the eastern tribes. Gaddafi has favoured the western tribes and suppressed the eastern tribes. How will the NTC, a largely eastern outfit, bring the remainder of the tribes into its fold? Though the NTC is made up of West-leaning intellectuals, businessmen and the odd Islamist, how will the outfit unite a country that has no public institutions, no experience at the ballot box and no political parties?

Further, Gaddafi, a master manipulator, kept his power by agreements with the Megraha and Warfalla tribes. These tribes, located in the east and the south, have remained loyal to him, and have already extracted their revenge. Then there are tribes, like the Gaddafa, that were recipients of his patronage. How will the new government, the NTC, rebalance the distribution of power?

In the videos coming from Benghazi, men in plainclothes fought in the most violent of the Arab Spring in Libya. The question is, will they wear one uniform when the sole target of their anger is eliminated?

express@expressindia.com

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

YES, THERE IS AN ALTERNATIVE

ANJALI BHARDWAJ

There are two broad governance issues that concern every citizen in this country today: corruption at different levels in the government, and grievances arising from the government's poor functioning. The last few months have seen an outpouring of emotions related to these issues. It is amply clear that the people of India want no one to be above the law; everyone, irrespective of the position they hold, should be accountable. Equally, citizens want their day-to-day grievances related to the government addressed in an effective, time-bound manner.

Recent events have undoubtedly put these two issues at the centre of public debate, and forced the political class to pay attention. Now, however, is the time for reasoned debate. A rational solution needs to be evolved to address these challenges.

As the Parliament debates the Lokpal bill, we very strongly believe that two principles must inform all discussions on the matter. First, too much power and responsibility must not be concentrated in any one institution — power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The corruption we see today is a result of unaccountable and unchecked power. Therefore, the institution set up to tackle corruption must itself have a proper system of checks and balances, to ensure that it is accountable to the people of the country. Rather than setting up a single "super"-institution which deals with all problems — corruption at high levels, corruption in the middle- and lower-level bureaucracy, judicial corruption and public grievances — multiple institutions, adequately empowered, must be set up to look into each of these issues. Second, existing institutions and laws must be strengthened to enable them to tackle corruption effectively, and to protect those who blow the whistle on corrupt practices. If democratic institutions falter or weaken, there is no alternative to repairing and strengthening them. Failure to address the problems in existing structures will result in transferring the same problems into any new institution that may be set up.

In our view, an Anti-Corruption Lokpal, equipped and empowered to deal with big-ticket corruption at the state and the central level, covering all elected representatives (including the prime minister, but with certain safeguards), senior bureaucrats and all co-accused is critically required. This body would investigate and prosecute everyone involved in large scams like the 2G, CWG, Taj Corridor and Adarsh affairs that rocked the nation in recent times.

For mid-level and lower bureaucracy, the existing institution of the Central Vigilance Commission must be empowered to effectively deal with all cases of corruption. This would entail removing bottlenecks — like the "single directive" and the lack of adequate resources — which have so far impeded its effective functioning. Parallel state vigilance commissions at the state level would also have to be set up.

The judiciary must be made accountable to an independent, autonomous institution. The Constitution provides for the independence of the judiciary. What is needed, in our opinion, is an independent

National Judicial Commission to look into all cases of corruption and misconduct related to the judiciary at all levels — from the lower judiciary to judges of the Supreme Court. The Judicial Accountability and Standards Bill, currently with the parliamentary standing committee, needs to be substantially amended and strengthened to ensure its effectiveness.

Whistleblowers must be offered protection under all these institutions through an effective Whistleblowers Protection bill. This can be achieved by suitably amending and strengthening the "public interest disclosure" bill currently before Parliament.

One issue that impacts every citizen of this country is the lack of an effective mechanism to deal with everyday grievances — non-receipt of pensions, poor delivery of rations, broken roads, non-availability of adequate water, poor sanitation and drainage etc. Effective grievance redress requires a decentralised system, equipped to deal with grievances in a time-bound manner. There is an urgent need to draw on successful grievance redress mechanisms where they exist (like in NREGA) and evolve an appropriate legislation to set up an independent institution empowered to effectively redress public grievances.

India is a huge country, and the problems we seek to address are complex. No single quick-fix legislation, no single all-powerful institution is likely to deliver us the clean, vibrant, participatory democracy to which we aspire. A well-thought out, considered and informed solution, in line with the basic structure of our Constitution, will have to be evolved through a process of public consultation and debate.

Parliament too cannot take any shortcuts. It has to provide a genuine platform for discussion in line with its constitutional role. It has to invite comments from across the country before passing the legislation.

India Against Corruption's lack of faith and belief in the parliamentary process may be an expression of angst against its ineffectiveness. But to bypass it would be self-defeating for the people of India. Our experience with the Right to Information and NREGA legislations shows that the standing committee can be an extremely useful platform, where the legislations can be discussed, debated and strengthened.

The RTI bill which was introduced in Parliament was an extremely watered-down and weak version of what civil society activists had drafted and proposed. However, groups from all over the country, including the NCPRI, petitioned the parliamentary standing committee, and debated the legislation clause by clause.

Eventually, Parliament took on board most of the suggestions of the standing committee — and finally made 153 amendments to the bill, passing one of the most progressive right to information access legislations across the world. The movement which finally led to the passage of the RTI Act, provides an insightful example of how civil society can agitate and work towards a strong pro-people legislation. without compromising or demeaning parliamentary, democratic processes.

Roy and Bhardwaj are members of the National Campaign for Peoples' Right to Information (NCPRI)

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

THE PEOPLE AND THE LAWMAKERS

NIRAJA GOPAL JAYAL

The wonders of civil society as the spontaneous expression of the will of the people stand revealed to us in all the glory of the Anna Hazare Roadshow (AHR), claiming a mantle of legitimacy superior to that of any institution in the country.

There are two dangerous implications of privileging such "real" expressions of the people's will over that expressed through what is being rubbished as a phony democracy. First, anybody who can queer the pitch sufficiently, assisted by the media, can present themselves as the authentic representatives of the people's will. This is not just procedurally dubious; it is also alarmingly vulnerable to being misused by any demagogue who can tap into popular outrage, seduce the media into providing round-the-clock coverage in a mutually beneficial embrace, and exploit social networking to whip up a cyber-frenzy — blurring the difference between the numbers of those on Twitter and those on the streets.

The second problem is more intractable: if we allow civil society (or any segment of it, however well-intentioned) to dictate the law to Parliament today, on what grounds do we deny the same privilege to others tomorrow — corporate lobbies, for example? The Niira Radia issue confirmed what everybody knows: that just because lobbying in India is unregulated and unacknowledged doesn't mean that it does not exist, and that companies have sophisticated ways of influencing public policy in areas that affect their interests. They do this through direct pressure on the executive, but they do it also by influencing legislative opinion, sponsoring parliamentary questions, and even openly and egregiously weighing in on the government.

If civil society is given the legitimate prerogative of formulating the law, are there any principled arguments that can be used to deter industry bodies from demanding the same? Do we not undercut the very grounds on which we could deplore an inordinate influence of capital over law and policy? On what basis will we then be able to delegitimise the power of one (capital) as we legitimise the influence of the other (civil society)? What tests of representativeness can possibly be applied to either? As both claim to speak in the name of the collective good — one for the prosperity, and the other for the welfare, of citizens — how and by whom might such representational claims be arbitrated?

The advocates of civil society of course argue that theirs is the true voice of the people, but the evidence for this claim — the household referendum that was conducted by the AHR — makes one despair, and even contemplate Brecht's sardonic advice to dissolve the people and elect another. The other justification they offer is that if the National Advisory Council with its civil society membership can formulate law, why not civil society that is not government-sponsored? But the NAC is not a civil society organisation. It is more like a quasi-government think-tank, such as many governments across the world have instituted in the practice of "network governance", typically entailing the participation of handpicked elements of civil society.

The other side of this valourisation of civil society is the conviction that the state is inherently repressive, nothing but concentrated evil. By incarcerating Anna Hazare, Dr Manmohan Singh's government has provided not just the AHR and its admirers, but also others distrustful of the state with just the stick they craved to beat it. It is hardly surprising that a prominent item in the ten-point charter of measures against corruption proposed by a leading national daily is reducing the role of the state in the lives of citizens to the absolute minimum. This may be music to corporate ears as well as to some in civil society — but maybe someone should ask the poor whether they too wish to dispense with the state?

It was the inexplicable foolishness of the Central government in arresting Anna Hazare that led to the events of the past week getting hyper-constructed as an adversarial issue with the government pitted against civil society. The real parties to this dispute, however, are not government and civil society, but Parliament and civil society. Over the past week, while opposition MPs have rightly spoken in defence of civil liberties, the right to dissent and freedom of protest, they have been oddly reluctant to assert their own constitutional prerogative to legislate. This may be because few parties are free of the taint themselves and because the credibility deficit involves the entire political class.

This self-denial is perhaps inadvertently blessed by the argument of a senior journalist that Parliament is the author of the law in only the most technical and banal sense, that it is the Constitution rather than Parliament that is supreme, and that history is replete with examples of people being the real makers of the law. This in turn can only be rhetorically true, for the supremacy of the Constitution is normative, rather than practical; and popular movements are not generally engaged in the nitty-gritty of drafting laws, which can be the only analogy that applies in the current context.

To oppose the AHR and the Jan Lokpal bill is not tantamount to endorsing corruption, or to being any less outraged by it than the next person. Our disappointment with our frequently under-performing legislators cannot mean that we discredit Parliament as a worthless institution. Giving civil society overweening power over our lives must not be allowed to become a recipe for weakening government and strengthening the market.

It is paradoxical that the issue that led to the unravelling of the most scandalous corruption in the highest of places — the Radia tapes followed by the 2G scam — is the very issue that has energised this purportedly massive upsurge of civil society. The supreme irony is that to give in to the demands of the AHR would be tantamount to opening the doors to legalising the very forms of influence on which Hazare is so generously staking his life.

The writer is a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

SOMEONE HAD TO STAND UP

VOICE OF THE PEOPLE

Your observation that "in its seven years in power, the Congress shunned the urban middle classes so much it has even stopped being on talking terms with them", hits the nail on its head. India though 65 years old, is still a young country — with even much younger people who are confronted in their everyday lives with harassment of greedy minions of governments and local authorities. And they are now fed up — fed up to the teeth!

The present agitation — whatever the views of the five "holy cows" — is not about which of the two bills should be accepted and passed, but an expression of anguish that nothing concrete has been done or implemented by the government of the day, particularly by the Congress-led government at the Centre. This is a great tragedy. An instance in point is the 12-year-old 166th Indian Law Commission Report (1999), which not only recommended the confiscation of properties of those who had been proven to be corrupt, but had also drafted a detailed bill, which had only to be adopted in Parliament and made into law. Sadly and significantly, neither the NDA government (in its five years of "glory") nor its successor UPA 1 (another five years) nor even UPA 2, have even thought of introducing this ready-to-enact bill! Protestations are many, but the will is lacking, and the lay public has now caught on.

If the agitation of the very recent past has taught us anything it is that no government, whether at the Centre or in the states, can ignore the voice of the people — neither at election time nor even between elections. This is a good thing, more pragmatic than Jayaprakash Narayan's solution of a right to recall: the watchword of today is the right to effectively (but peacefully) protest the ineptitude of those who govern us, and so compel a change. It will come.

—Fali Nariman, eminent jurist

Middle class vote

While I agree with your views, I would like to add two minor points. The UPA mandate of 2009 was as much to do with the fact that the middle class was frustrated with the Left parties and the fact that there was no meaningful option in the opposition. I think a lot of people voted for the Congress from urban India due to a lack of options. Also, coming out of the global meltdown, India's recovery was creditable and the Congress got the benefit from urban (middle class) India.

On education, starting with Arjun Singh as HRD minister, it has been one disaster after another. Even today the number of vacant/ under-utilised schools of the government are enormous. There is no focus on teacher reforms to make sure that government schools are made efficient — alternatively, they must work on a PPP model that is acceptable. The RTE act will create huge social discord in its present form and reduce further capacity for middle-class India. While FSA etc, will become a problem down the line, just getting existing government schools to fill up can be a start. In addition, working with two shifts can also be a model to be pursued to ensure fixed asset utilisation.

—Ashish Bharat Ram, Managing director, SRF Ltd

Accountability now!

I think that all of India, not just the middle class, is fed up of politician obscurantist doublespeak and the smokescreens that politicians create to serve their own monetary and other self-interests, which they clearly do illegally. I believe the rot started from the top and continues to be led from the top. Ministers and chief ministers, and prime ministers and leaders of political parties directly, indirectly, or by turning a blind eye, demand and build corruption into the system by instructing compliant bureaucrats to collect funds for election war chests. Turning a blind eye when this is happening has the same effect as doing it yourself. In the quest to create huge banks for political power, national assets are grabbed by the political class, and policy tilts in favour of those who contribute the most in cash or kind to votes. Hence criminals and leaders who can deliver votes by any means are valued and rewarded by politicians and also end up in state and national legislatures.

The power so amassed in the last 50-60 years has been so great that all redressal systems have been either silenced or made dysfunctional.And where do we find ourselves? Every aspect of our life has been spoilt by corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and officials.

Let me tell you what I encounter during a typical day in my super-privileged life. I wake up to breathe polluted air. The milk in my tea is toxic with antibiotics and hormones injected to cows. The fruit and vegetables I eat have toxic levels of pesticides. I don't know how much of the morning paper I read has paid-for news. If I take my car out, I'm driving through craters. If I walk, there are no footpaths I can safely walk on.

I'm stuck in traffic for hours because for decades there has been stunted vision and minimal implementation of any infrastructure plan for this great megapolis I live in. The water that I get in my tap is transported by a tanker because the government can't give us 24-hour water supply in an area where there is abundant rainfall. The water that the government does supply is contaminated as in my ward, where the chief minister lives, the sewage pipe leaks into the water supply pipe. Throughout the year, there are puddles in the city where mosquitos breed.

I have a simple open-and-shut breach of contract case pending in the high court for years and I have no idea when I will get justice. There is no accountability in our country and justice eludes us all. Anna Hazare is insisting that the corrupt, at all levels, be brought to book. And this is what I buy into. I want the loot to stop. When this happens, parliamentary democracy will work as intended. And I believe that every Indian wants this, not just the middle class because corruption has affected every socio-economic strata of our society.

In my view, the politicians will make another monumental blunder if they see this as a limited movement of one class of society. Anna is what he is because he is not corrupt, because he is fighting for a cause greater than himself, because he is an incorruptible nationalist who walks his talk and this is why he appeals to all, no matter how rich or poor they are.

—Kavita Khanna, Mumbai-based lawyer

India has changed

I normally agree with your views, but not this time.

The PM is the CEO of the country. For over four decades now, our PMs have, for one reason or another, appointed persons to their cabinets who they and the country know to be crooked. This has the unintended effect of making the PMs complicit. In the instant case, the very original government appointee list to the Lokpal panel says it all. It is as if Al Capone were to find place in a temperance committee. I feel not just exploited and disdained, I feel as if my government has slapped me in the face.

All pompous talk of the majesty of our institutions and the supremacy of Parliament is pulling wool over our eyes. Our institutions have long since been hollowed out and eaten up by corruption. What we see of these institutions is just the shell.

I have deliberately used strong language to express a raw emotion. Because in my interaction with scores of people, deep within, I have found this to be the only raw emotion that is driving the movement. It is a feeling of a personal affront.

Why now, why not earlier, is a harder question to answer. This may not be unrelated to the winds of change sweeping across North Africa and West Asia. Maybe, over time, we became used to being exploited, and are only now recovering some of our lost self-respect. Maybe it is an idea whose time has come. Maybe it was just waiting to happen, and required ordinary folks like Hazare and Kejriwal to stand up and say boo.

To me, the details of the Jan Lokpal draft matter less. Someone had to stand up, someone has! In civilisational terms, that is an inflexion point of far greater long-term import. India will not be the same again.

— Sanjeev Aga, Mumbai-based commentator

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THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS

JAITHIRTH RAO

My daughter has introduced me to a new word: "fremdschamen". Its origin is German or Dutch; there are two dots (an umlaut) above the "a". It means being embarrassed and ashamed on account of the behaviour of others, especially that of friends. I cannot say that I am friendly with the present government of India, but on occasion I have had cordial feelings towards them. Over the past several months, they have been repeatedly embarrassing me. I experience fremdschamen!

Everyone in the telecom industry says that the 2G licence and spectrum allocations were a scandal, and this fact was universally known. But not to our government. And they expect us to believe that! Things got worse as events unfolded. The government fought the 2G revelations to the bitter end, postponing resignations and investigative action until they were forced into it reluctantly — oh so reluctantly, kicking and screaming. Instead of thanking the Comptroller and Auditor General for defending the fisc (in which activity he is supposed to be an ally and supporter of our government, which too is supposed to defend the fisc), they have gone out of their way to attack the CAG, claiming with alarming disingenuousness that the loss to the state was "zero", drawing attention to the leaks of reports rather than responding to the substance of the reports and so on. Even the prime minister took umbrage to the fact that, unlike his predecessors, the current CAG holds press conferences. But that is because in the past, governments reacted constructively to the CAG's reports.

I have written earlier as to how a distinguished finance minister of Punjab, Dr Gopichand Bhargava, thanked the CAG's department for being a "partner" of the government in protecting the state's finances. Dr Singh: your government would do well to imitate Dr Bhargava. The present government is also spreading the story of so-called judicial overreach without having the grace to concede that but for such "overreach", the 2G and the cash-for-votes scandals were moving towards quiet burial through delay. This shameless focus on attacking constitutional institutions on matters of "procedure" and ignoring the shocking "content" of the issues erodes the government's credibility again and again. The CAG would much prefer a co-operative government which shares its files with him promptly, and the Supreme Court would much prefer it if the CBI investigated fairly and speedily on its own without judges having to prod that worthy institution! It is out of a feeling of extreme fremdschamen that the CAG goes to the press, or that the Supreme Court monitors CBI investigations in detail.

On the CVC matter my fremdschamen is intense. Here was a committee of three including the prime minister, the finance minister and the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha; the committee was given three names; there could have been unanimity on two of the three names. The two ministers insist on going with the third name by majority vote. They do not look at enough documents. For a government given to endless dilatoriness on vital issues that affect the country, suddenly the CVC decision has got to be made hastily, in defiance of a written dissent from the opposition leader. And when the matter goes to court, the government ties itself up in comical knots. No graceful exit is contemplated. The Supreme Court is literally without any choice but to nullify the CVC appointment — a case not of judicial overreach but of judicial anguish! Citizens are left with that taut feeling of fremdschamen as we contemplate our government's cussedness and ineptitude.

And talking of ineptitude, what does one make of l'affaire Hazare? The government chose not to include opposition parliamentarians in the joint committee along with the ministers and Anna's nominees. Now the government is stuck with opprobrium rather than credit in how it handled this melodramatic committee. Why bother to go through the motions of a joint committee, if the government is going to submit only its version — which is so much at variance with the inputs not only from Anna's folks, but from the members of the government's own darling NAC?

The government's bill is a travesty, an insult to our intelligence. The Lokpal is to investigate public officials, not NGOs. If you want to regulate NGOs and bring transparency to their operations, by all means do so with a separate law and an independent regulator like Sebi. Why try to slip these provisions into the Lokpal bill by sleight of hand? The Lokpal is supposed to protect whistleblowers; the government bill seems to be designed to harass whistleblowers. Who is kidding whom?

Many have considerable reservations about Hazare's demands, and his operating style. But the government wanted to make sure that all people who might have been in the anti-Hazare camp should in fact become his ardent supporters! The government therefore decided to violate his civil liberties. He was asked to comply with nonsensical conditions for his rally which the Congress party would never have agreed to for itself. When he justifiably refused, he was arrested. I started thinking about the Rowlatt Act, and others started thinking about the events of 1975. To its credit (and this is the first time during this long sequence of events, I did not feel any fremdschamen), the government avoided the ruthless responses of Indira Gandhi and the cruel tactics of General Dyer. The government backtracked — and let me assure you, Dr Singh, this is not a sign of weakness as some around you may be telling you. This is a sign of statesmanship and good sense.

In the perilous days ahead, Dr Singh, I hope that you are guided by a spirit which does not assume that your opponents in constitutional institutions, politics or civil society lack patriotism. Your government needs to work with all these groups dealing with the "content" of issues and not hide behind procedural technicalities.

The writer is an entrepreneur

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

INDIA INC'S FOREX EXPOSURE

With India Inc's forex exposure rising to $437bn at the end of December 2010, compared to the country's total forex reserves of $279bn, it's tempting to feel the situation is getting out of control. For one, companies with a substantial global presence could end up earning less due to exchange fluctuations—think Bharti Airtel in some quarters, for instance. In other cases, if the rupee depreciates, India Inc could end up with higher debt-

service obligations than it has bargained for. Indeed, the fact that several companies are facing redemption pressure on their FCCB borrowings does seem to reinforce this impression. This view is unnecessarily alarmist.

For one, of the total liabilities, the equity component is up to 52.5% now, up from 45% in December 2008. Since investors would face a considerable capital loss in case of sudden withdrawals, a higher proportion of equity investments is a good thing. Two, while India Inc's forex liabilities have gone up by around $80bn

between 2008 and 2010 (from $362bn to $437bn), the assets have gone up by a similar amount (from $333bn to $407.5bn). Though India Inc is keen to be allowed to borrow more from abroad—interest rates are lower and the rupee is expected to appreciate in the long run—RBI is right in being cautious about forex exposure since any sharp fluctuations in exchange rates can cause a problem.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

S&P DOWNGRADES ITSELF

Though S&P insiders are putting out the view that the decision of its president Deven Sharma to step down was in the works for the past six months—after S&P owner McGraw-Hill split its data, pricing and analytics division from the ratings one, this left Sharma with much less to do—it's difficult to believe the US government's pressure had no role. Indeed, it is difficult to reconcile this explanation with the fact that, on Monday, two of McGraw-Hill's shareholders had a meeting with company officials and said the rating firm needed a "well-known independent oversight figure to help manage increasingly complex global regulatory landscape and improve dialogue with investors, regulators and the public". The two investors, hedge fund Jana Partners LLC and the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan collectively own 5.6% of McGraw-Hill and would naturally be worried about the statements coming out of the US government after the downgrade—given that McGraw-Hill has been buying back part of its shares for many months now to please investors, this would suggest it would pay great heed to such suggestions by large investor groups.

It is true, as US Treasury secretary Tim Geithner said after the downgrade, that S&P had got its maths wrong—it got the US 2021 debt projections wrong by $2 trillion, or 8%. It is also true, as others have pointed out, that given the dollar's status as the global reserve currency, the US is unlikely to default on loans. But what triggered S&P's fears was the fact that a significant number of US politicians actually wanted a default to take place and, two, at 99% of GDP, the US debt burden was getting oppressive, especially in the face of a slowing in US growth for a protracted period of time. Indeed, as FE columnist K Vaidya Nathan pointed out using US government data (http://www.financialexpress.com/news/column-the-big-gaap-in-us-debt-numbers/829649/), the actual US debt is more like $52 trillion once you take into account the shortfall in the funding for Medicare and Social Security, among others—that's more than three times the publicly cited figure. So, the technicalities of reserve currencies aside, or the absurdity that countries in Europe that are in worse shape have a higher rating than the US, the fact is the US is not in great financial shape and this is what the downgrade reflected.

S&P, of course, is not the only one trying to sell the story that Sharma's stepping down after the US downgrade was a coincidence, the US government has been doing much the same. Soon after the downgrade, reports surfaced saying both the SEC and the Justice Department in the US were investigating S&P—while the former was looking to see if the downgrade information had been leaked beforehand, the latter was examining the process of rating mortgage-backed securities that had triggered the 2008 financial crisis. All the while, the US government made it appear the actions were unconnected. Given the timing, it does appear Sharma has been sacrificed in the hope of lenient treatment from the US authorities. S&P has just downgraded itself.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

BUY-BACKS POINT TO GROWING CONFIDENCE

Telis Demos & Robin Wigglesworth

Signs of a faltering global economic recovery have rattled markets, sending the FTSE All World index down 19% from its May peaks. But one ray of light could be corporate buy-backs, which are still picking up pace from the lows set in early 2009.

More US companies are set to buy back shares this month than in any month since the peak in 2007, according to Biryani Associates. Companies in Europe and the UK have also stepped up buy-back programmes, according to Thomson Reuters data.

In recent weeks, companies including AOL, brewer Molson Coors and retailer Lowes have announced plans to buy back their own shares.

While it may be a welcome signal of confidence that companies are willing to splash out valuable cash on their own shares, the return to buy-back levels last seen in 2007—just months before worries about the global financial system became a full-blown credit crunch—raises important questions: are companies good judges of the value of their own shares, and what does the current spate of buy-backs indicate?

A company's shares tend to rise in the six months after a company's buy-back announcement, according to Allen Michel, a finance professor at Boston University, by an average of 2-4% more than they would otherwise.

Buy-backs are carried out for many reasons—such as to give to executives who are exercising their stock options or to appease activist shareholders—and on balance investors usually welcome the signal of confidence and the improved financial metrics that a lower share count entails.

The record for the broader market is more complex, says David Ikenberry, dean of the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado and a long-time buy-backs researcher.

He points to pick-ups in buy-backs following the 1987 stock market crash in the US, and the mini-crashes that followed in 1991 and 1992 as periods when companies seemed to time the market correctly.

But Howard Silverblatt, who tracks buy-backs for Standard and Poor's, notes that buying was strong during the entire bull run from 2004 to 2007.

"That period was marked by the actions of investors who bid up stocks from issues that did buy-backs. This 'reward' pushed companies to buy more stock. As with all such circles, all was well, as long as all went well," he says.

Directors' deals—or trading by company senior executives—has been a more mixed indicator. While such 'insider buying' was at historic highs in early 2008, just as the crisis began, insider selling was also strong during those periods. "You sell stock for many reasons, but you buy for only one: to make money," says Lawrence Creatura, a fund manager at Federated. "Insider purchases can be meaningful, but it depends on the pattern of that individual's behaviour in the past, and their existing positions."

Worryingly, company directors still appear to be cautious. Although the buy-to-sell ratio in terms of volume has spiked this month in the US, the UK and Europe, in most cases company insiders remain net sellers of shares in terms of value, according to Directors' Deals, a data provider.

In the US, insiders have offloaded $3.5bn of shares already this month, less than half the amount in July but far outstripping $725m of purchases, says Directors Deals. In Europe, insider sales have shrunk to 465m euros ($668m) this month, down from 2.5bn euros in July, but still outpacing 346m euros of buy orders.

Fund managers point out that many company directors are paid in shares, and sales will therefore very often be outpaced by purchases. However, the amount of sell orders still indicate that insiders aren't entirely confident about the future.

In any case, not all investors celebrate share buy-backs, and remain sceptical of insiders' ability to time market turns. Income investors, for example, prefer steady, predictable dividend growth, and many others prefer companies conserve their cash for longer-term value creation such as investments and acquisitions, or to fortify their balance sheets against uncertain economic times.

"If companies have a genuinely inefficient balance sheet with lots of cash and very little debt then buybacks are fine, but I would prefer companies to keep robust, flexible balance sheets," says James Laing, deputy head of UK and European equities at Aberdeen Asset Management.

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THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

AMERICAN CRISIS, ASIAN CONCERNS
MADAN SABNAVIS

The protests by Anna Hazare come at a time when the world economy is also battling a credibility issue, with a global slowdown being conjectured for the current year. One thought that hits us is whether or not these protests will have any wider ramifications for our economy. The global slowdown has evoked a mixed response with arguments being on both sides, with a distinct tilt towards a neutral situation for us. How about the current political and social unrest? Will it upset the clichéd apple cart?

There are two aspects to this protest. The first is whether or not foreign investment will be affected, and the other is whether the domestic economy will witness a backlash. The protests so far are more political in nature, which, at its exaggerated best, has probably some traces of the scent of the jasmine backlash in Tunisia, Egypt and the rest. Hopefully, it does appear that it will remain confined to demonstrations with the more affluent sections of society also using this opportunity to be seen with the rest. The interesting conjecture here is its implications for the economy.

Growth in the economy is driven by three sectors: agriculture, industry and services. Agricultural output is impervious to what happens in Delhi as long as the pricing policy is correct and the FCI is in action. Therefore, there should be no concern from this quarter. Industry is more worried about interest rates, demand and policies. Currently, the concern is that interest rates will drive back consumerism and investment, which is not good news. RBI is evidently looking at inflation to consider interest rate decisions. Therefore, there should be no impact of such demonstrations. Policies are of course important for industry and this is where there can be concern because important discussion time is being used up on the governance issue rather than economic affairs. There are important policies on pension reforms, insurance, FDI in retail, and so on, which will obviously miss the bus as Parliament time is diverted to Ramlila grounds.

There are two ways of looking at it. A more cynical view is that these policies have been on the agenda anyway for long without really derailing growth and hence should not matter. While this is true to the extent that immediate prospects may not be affected, further deferment of such issues will come in the way of future progress. This is so because once Bills are held back, it takes a long time to get them back on the discussion table. One can recollect the infamous FCRA amendment, which has been pending since 2003 and has not seriously been discussed as sessions close and the papers have

to be reintroduced. Therefore, definitely in the medium run, growth will be held back as long as there is a status quo on the policy approach, which is not desirable.

The services sector is a dominant one, with around 45% of its output coming from the unorganised segment, which is largely insulated from any such thought-based revolution. The rest of the sector will be driven by the normal course unless there are any disruptions physically, which, though not expected, cannot be ruled out. We have seen that events like strikes or blockages of transport take their impact on the movement of goods and people, which eventually affects certain sectors like transportation or tourism. But, assuming that the movements will be largely peaceful, as this is the core of the ideology here, disruptions should be minimal.

This then turns attention to foreign investors. Here, again, there is a pragmatic way of looking at things. India has not really been anywhere close to high on the World Bank's chart of doing business and remains in a static state—notwithstanding economic reforms—when it comes to other morality and governance indices used globally. This, in a way, is a comfort because a peaceful relentless move against such issues should not stop foreign investment from coming in. Portfolio investors will still prefer to look at the future growth convictions in the Indian economy, which is strong even today in a world that is sliding down the grease pole. With strong growth numbers still expected in such adversity from India, it remains an attractive market for all purposes.

Foreign direct investment, on the other hand, has been coming in good numbers this year, and evidently the

opportunities that exist are an ex post vindication of the economy's prospects. Gross inflows have been $13.4bn in the first quarter as against $5.7bn last year. Therefore, foreign perception of Indian markets should remain unaltered here. In fact, governance standards would definitely improve in the aftermath of what is happening today.

Hence, it may be concluded that it should be business as usual except for some further delays in discussing Bills that anyway do not solicit broad consensus. Our economy is fairly mature and resilient to such occurrences and there is an inherent strength that has been displayed in the working of the economy. Our policymakers have been pursuing policies quite independently with a single-minded focus—be it RBI, finance ministry or Planning Commission. We have seen that even a change of government with different ideologies has not derailed the broader vision or growth path. Quite clearly, Ramlila or any other venue should not come in the way.

The author is chief economist, CARE Ratings. These are his personal views

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

THE PRICE OF NATO HELP

The brutal 42-year-old dictatorship of Muammar al-Qadhafi is close to collapse and his own whereabouts are unknown. But the confusion over the Libyan situation cannot obscure the problems caused by the military intervention of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato). Heavy fighting continues in and around the capital, Tripoli, with Nato giving heavy bombing and shelling support to the rebel body, the Transitional National Council (TNC); and atrocities by both sides have been reported. This is, in large part, the outcome of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 — which bars landings by foreign forces but allows member states to use "all necessary means" (diplomatic terminology for military action) to ensure Libyan compliance with the Resolution. Humanitarian intervention as conceived by the United States, the United Kingdom, and France under cover of the U.N. has meant using highly advanced weaponry in helping the TNC, which includes militant Islamists of the sort who have been fighting Nato and other western forces in Iraq and Afghanistan for a decade, to bring about violent regime change. This western commitment to regime change, which could not have been achieved without Nato bombing, amounts to a total U-turn from the time, barely a year ago, when the same leaders were making much of Mr. Qadhafi in order to win access to Libya's substantial oilfields.

The entire rebellion and the Nato campaign are riddled with inconsistencies. Western proponents initially claimed the campaign would be over in days. It has lasted six months, is yet to end, and has cost the U.S. alone more than a billion dollars. Secondly, there are severe tensions among the TNC's three main factions; it is still not known who murdered the rebels' top officer, General Abdel Fattah Younes. Furthermore, many leaders among Libya's 140 tribes, including longstanding Qadhafi supporters, will want office in the new order. Above all, the western powers will almost certainly exact a heavy price for supporting the uprising. Their demands are likely to include — as they did in Iraq — preferential, if not monopoly, access for western oil corporations. It is no coincidence that as reports emerged of the rebel advance on Tripoli, the price of Brent Crude fell 1.7 per cent to $106.8 per barrel in futures trading. There are also likely to be lucrative contracts for western companies to rebuild Libyan cities; and the European Union members of Nato may want the new government to impose tight controls on Libyan migration to the EU. In effect, the U.S., Britain, and France, with help from Italy, have used the U.N. and Nato to bring about regime change and pull off a gigantic oil-grab.

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THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

ALL THAT GLITTERS

Amidst all the chaos and uncertainty that engulfed the global financial markets, ordinary investors and governments alike turned to the sanctuary of gold. That response is not uncommon: during the previous crises — for example, the global financial meltdown of 2008 — gold benefited as equity stock prices sank. However, even after normalcy returned and stocks rallied, the price of gold did not fall back as one would expect. It seems likely that investors, traumatised by the crisis, were not fully convinced of the sustainability of the recovery and continued to keep a part of their money in recession-proof assets, of which gold ranks very high. That, however, cannot explain the phenomenal worldwide demand for gold in recent weeks and the consequent spike in its prices. Setting new records practically every day, gold touched an all-time high of $1,900 an ounce on Tuesday as investors, spooked by the prospect of a return to recession, sought out safety in the precious metal. Gold prices have more than doubled since the recession began in 2007. They have risen by 19 per cent since June when the eurozone debt crisis grew in intensity and threatened to spill over into its stronger economies.

Economic uncertainty has always added lustre to gold in the eyes of investors, and in recent weeks there has been no shortage of unsettling developments. The downgrade of the U.S. sovereign debt, after its politicians nearly drove the country to the brink of a default, was one significant upheaval. And by the close of last week came reports that pointed to a sharp economic slowdown in the developed countries. While gold has always won the vote of investors seeking safety from turbulent financial markets, the sharp rise in prices has now brought on a new set of buyers, those who take high risks for quick returns. Demand has come from yet another direction: Central banks in developing countries are switching their currency reserves to gold. Purchases by the world's central banks more than quadrupled during April-June this year over that a year ago. In India and some other countries gold is, of course, much more than an investment opportunity or a currency substitute. Ahead of the festival season, the demand from the jewellery industry has risen to unprecedented levels. Investment opportunities in gold and gold-backed instruments have been expanding in the country. Some non-banking finance companies in Kerala have seen an explosive growth in gold loan business. But, as this much-sought-after metal bounces along another volatile phase, the gold loan boom points to the risks ahead as much as to the potential.

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THE HINDU

ISSUES OF PARENTHOOD AT AN OLDER AGE

POONGOTHAI ALADI ARUNA

A couple of weeks ago, there was wide coverage in the print media about a successful pregnancy outcome in a 60-year-old woman in a fertility clinic in Tamil Nadu. The triumph of technology over natural barriers, be it in the field of medicine, science, environment and so on, undoubtedly gives a sense of achievement and satisfaction to all scientists, especially when such innovations are productive to mankind. However, every invention has its pros and cons, and it is more so in the field of fertility medicine as it involves complex human relationships. The picture of a 60-year-old mother holding a newborn conceived from a donor oocyte does raise a few concerns.

In India, nearly 15 per cent of all married couples in the child-bearing age (about 15 million of them) are infertile, and the management of the condition ranges from sex education, weight loss and medication to advanced assisted reproductive techniques (ART). The rapid evolution of newer technologies in assisted reproduction has given an opportunity for older women to achieve motherhood, but this has also spawned new ethical concerns. Parenthood at an older age is not just a medical issue but a complex, psycho-social issue. The rates of medical and surgical complications are much higher in older women both during fertility treatment and pregnancy. The maternal mortality rate in pregnant women who are 45 and above is high because complications such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, haemorrhage, pre-term delivery, stillbirth, and caesarean section delivery are three to four times more among them than among younger counterparts.

Guidelines; adoption

The second issue is the use of donor oocytes in ART. The average life expectancy of an Indian is 64.4 years: among men it is 63 years and among women it is 66 years. This fact points to the risk of a child born to parents beyond a certain age becoming orphaned. Studies have revealed that the incidence of growth retardation, learning disabilities and behavioural disorders is higher in children following the death of their mothers, or their being orphaned during early childhood. The Central Adoption and Resource Agency based in New Delhi has set down clear guidelines on the age limit for adoptive parents and adopted children. In order to be able to adopt a child less than one year in age, the composite age of the adoptive parents should be 90 years and neither parent must be older than 45. The parents' age is relaxed in accordance with the age of the child — for a one-year-old it should be 46 years, for a two-year-old it should be 47 years, and so on, with the upper age limit of the child being 12 years and that of the parents 55. Fertility clinics should discuss and encourage adoption among older women instead of exposing them to serious risks involved both during treatment and pregnancy. Therefore, a public debate is required to create awareness about the ethical issues involved.

Draft on ART

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, working with a group of experts, formulated a draft on assisted reproductive techniques in 2010. It is comprehensive with effective guidelines and protocols that would enable standardised, qualitative safe practice methods within the legal framework. However, a consensus has to be created on issues such as the upper age limit for fertility treatment, donor anonymity, the rights of the child, guidelines on publicity and advertising, and the availability of health insurance. The draft suggests that the disclosure of the donor's identity to the recipient couple or individual or to anyone else be made a punishable offence.

In the United Kingdom, the Human Fertility and Embryology Authority (HEFA) created under an Act in 1990, removed the donor anonymity clause in 2005. This was based on the rationale that at the age of 18 a person has the right to know about the origin of his or her birth. The cultural values and attitudes in India may be different from those in the U.K. However, the formation of social attitudes is an evolutionary process. Therefore, two decades from now donor anonymity may well become unnecessary.

Need for a central repository

In order to equip ourselves for the future, the creation of a central repository of information on all donors should be considered. HEFA does not allow women above 45 years of age to be recipients of donor oocytes. The American Society of Reproductive Medicine recommends a thorough medical examination and a high-risk obstetric consultation for all women above 45 years of age receiving donor oocytes. And, in order to undergo ART they need to get cleared by a peer review committee.

At present the number of donor oocyte recipients may be only a few thousands in India. But an increase in female literacy could encourage women to focus on their careers, use methods of contraception on a wider scale, and marry late. These factors could alter the reproductive epidemiology in India as in the western world. The optimum child-bearing period is between 20 and 35 years, and nearly 85 per cent of the women in this group will conceive naturally. Difficulty to conceive and the risk of miscarriage increase after 35 years of age. The success rate of live births following in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment even for women below 35 years of age is 31 per cent, and this rate drops to less than five per cent in women over 42 years of age. Therefore, it is important to create awareness among the public on the issues surrounding late motherhood.

Article 16 of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948) indicates that "men and women of full age, without limits due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to found a family." India is no longer in the league of poor nations, yet it is a country of paradoxes: it has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world and a very high incidence of infertility. Therefore, there is an urgent need to take a wider consensus on the draft on assisted reproductive techniques and to convert it into a cohesive regulatory Act for the ethical implementation of ART. The fundamental aim of such an Act should be to ensure that the basic human right "to found a family" should be achieved by voluntary means, and not through coercion, or the wilful display of the wide array of newer reproductive choices that are available.

( The author, a practising obstetrician and gynaecologist, is a former Tamil Nadu Minister. E-mail: poongothaibalaji@yahoo.com )

A public debate is required to create awareness of the ethical issues involved in fertility treatment procedures.

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THE HINDU

FOR OBAMA, A MOMENT TO SAVOUR

MARK LANDLER

President Obama was a reluctant warrior in Libya, drawn into the rebel uprising over the warnings of his Pentagon chief and his own qualms about getting the United States entangled in yet another war in the Muslim world.

Now that the rebels have seized most of Tripoli and driven Col. Muammar el-Gadhafi into hiding, Mr. Obama claimed a victory for his much-doubted strategy. But that victory is tinged by the same uncertainties that made the President so wary of getting involved in the first place.

With Colonel Gadhafi's loyalists still fighting in pockets, the United States and its allies are confronting a chaotic, potentially treacherous transition. They must help Libya's new rulers — people they did not know six months ago — set up a functioning, credible government in a country divided by tribal conflicts and a dearth of state institutions.

Mr. Obama acknowledged those hurdles, interrupting his vacation here to praise the rebel advances, even as the fighting continued and the whereabouts of Colonel Gadhafi remained a mystery.

"Your courage and character have been unbreakable in the face of a tyrant," the President said in a sombre seven-minute address. He urged the Libyan Transitional National Council, which the United States recently recognised as the country's legitimate government, to pursue a peaceful, inclusive transition to democracy.

"True justice will not come from reprisals and violence," Mr. Obama said. "It will come from reconciliation and a Libya that allows its citizens to determine their own destiny."

"In that effort," he added, "the United States will be a friend and a partner."

Unlike Egypt, Tunisia

That could be difficult long-term partnership, analysts said. Unlike Egypt or Tunisia, which had established institutions to smooth the transition from long-time dictators, Colonel Gadhafi's "revolution" — essentially a four-decade-long cult of personality — has left little for a new government to build on.

"They are basically starting from scratch," said Steven A. Cook, a senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. "Now will really be the test for the United States, because there are a lot of centrifugal forces that could pull this apart."

Republicans who had criticised Mr. Obama's handling of Libya, including the presidential candidates Mitt Romney and Jon M. Huntsman Jr., were more muted on Monday, with Mr. Romney shifting attention from the military campaign to the need to extradite those behind the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103.

While the President's tone was determinedly not triumphal, his aides insisted that the weekend's events had vindicated his strategy — heading off mass killings in the eastern city of Benghazi, marshalling a broad coalition to press Colonel Gadhafi, giving the Libyan opposition time to take root and plan a transition, and, above all, limiting American involvement. "All of this was done without putting a single U.S. troop on the ground," Mr. Obama noted.

Even now, though, he appeared less personally invested in Libya than he has in other big issues. Though he spoke to his National Security Council and to Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain before his remarks, he went right back to his vacation, playing basketball with aides. (Mr. Cameron cancelled his holiday to hold meetings in London.)

A wary approach

At first, the President's wary approach seemed to satisfy no one — hawks in Congress who called for boots on the ground, doves who demanded a pullout and foreign policy experts who warned of a quagmire. Those doubts only deepened as the NATO military campaign that Mr. Obama had suggested would last weeks dragged into months.

On Monday, administration officials argued that six months was not long in the context of Colonel Gadhafi's 42-year reign, and that the coalition was critically important in sustaining pressure on him. "This was a unique operation in that the U.S. wasn't left to bear the bulk of the burden itself," said Benjamin J. Rhodes, a Deputy National Security Adviser. "The burden was spread effectively wide that we were more than able to sustain the pressure for six months, and frankly, would have been able to for many more months to come."

For all that, Mr. Obama seems unlikely to get much political pay-off from the events in Libya. Part of the reason stems from his multilateral approach — very different, for example, from the commando raid he ordered on Osama bin Laden. That gave him a measurable bounce in the polls, though it, too, proved fleeting as anxieties about the economy crept back.

Nor is it likely to improve his relations with Republicans in Congress. Two Republican hawks — Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — said Mr. Obama did not deserve credit because the operation had taken too long. They attributed that "to the failure of the United States to employ the full weight of our airpower."

On Monday, those who supported the campaign — largely Democrats — offered tempered encouragement, urging the United States to step up its involvement in Libya. But several Democrats also called for the focus to turn to Pam Am Flight 103.

"The release of al-Megrahi was a total miscarriage of justice," said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, referring to Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi, one of the convicted masterminds of the bombing, who was released by Britain and returned to Libya.

"Seeing him participate in good health at a pro-Gadhafi rally recently was another slap in the face not just for the families of the Lockerbie victims, but for all Americans," she said.

Mr. Obama paid homage to those victims, as well as other Americans who had been killed by Libyan-sponsored terrorism. That subtly reinforced another point: on this President's watch, another violent strongman who vexed Washington for many years was gone.

While officials said they did not expect that to help the President in the polls especially, it could help him counter a narrative that often dogs Democratic Presidents in elections.

"It helps lock in and solidify the idea that he's the guy who keeps us safe," one senior official said. "Reagan targeted Gadhafi; George W. Bush targeted Bin Laden; Obama has done both." ( Jennifer Steinhauer contributed reporting from Washington .) — © New York Times News Service

It seems unlikely that he will get much political pay-off from the events in Libya.

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THE HINDU

MESSIANISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

PRABHAT PATNAIK

The Central government's flip-flops on Anna Hazare are obvious: it went from abusing him (through the Congress spokesperson) for sheltering corruption, to extolling him for his idealism; from arresting him, without any justification, and getting him remanded to judicial custody for a week, to releasing him within a few hours. But the Anna group's flip-flops are no less striking: it moves from "we-have-a-democratic-right-to-protest-and-place-our-views-in-public," which is an unexceptionable proposition, to "Anna-will-keep-fasting-until-his-bill-is-adopted-or-amended-with-his-permission," which amounts to holding a gun to the head of the Centre, and by implication of Parliament, and dictating that the bill it has produced must be passed, or else mayhem will follow. The government's flip-flops are indicative of incompetence; the Anna group's flip-flops arise because of the compulsions of a particular style of politics on which it is embarked, which can be called "messianism" and which is fundamentally anti-democratic. The fact that it is striking a chord among the people, if at all it is (one cannot entirely trust the media on this), should be a source of serious concern, for it underscores the pre-modernity of our society and the shallowness of the roots of our democracy.

Democracy essentially means a subject role for the people in shaping the affairs of society. They not only elect representatives periodically to the legislature, but intervene actively through protests, strikes, meetings, and demonstrations to convey their mood to the elected representatives. There being no single mood, freedom of expression ensures that different moods have a chance to be expressed, provided the manner of doing so takes the debate forward instead of foreclosing it. For all this to happen, people have to be properly informed. The role of public meetings where leaders explain issues, and of media reports, articles, and discussions, is to ensure that they are. The whole exercise is meant to promote the subject role of the people, and the leaders are facilitators. Even charismatic leaders do not substitute themselves for the people; they are charismatic because the people, in acquiring information to play their subject role, trust what they say.

Messianism substitutes the collective subject, the people, by an individual subject, the messiah. The people may participate in large numbers, and with great enthusiasm and support, in the activities undertaken by the messiah, as they are doing reportedly at Anna Hazare's fast at the Ramlila grounds, but they do so as spectators . The action is of the messiah; the people are only enthusiastic and partisan supporters and cheerleaders. If at all they ever undertake any action on the side, this is entirely at the messiah's bidding, its ethics, rationale and legitimacy never explained to them (no need is felt for doing so); whenever they march they march only in support of the messiah, not for specific demands that they have internalised and feel passionately about. When they gather at the Ramlila grounds, for instance, the occasion is not used to enlighten them, to bring home to them the nuances of the differences between the government's Lokpal Bill and the Jan Lokpal Bill, so that they could act with discrimination and understanding. On the contrary, the idea is to whip up enthusiasm among them without enlightening them, through the use of meaningless hyperbole like "the government's bill is meant not for the prevention but for the promotion of corruption", and "Anna is India and India is Anna". If the venue was one where discussions, debates, and informative speeches were taking place, the matter would be different, but those alas have no place in the political activity around messianism.

Informative speeches have been the traditional staple of political activity in India. Maulana Bhashani, a popular peasant leader in what is now Bangladesh, used to give marathon speeches that were interrupted when people went home for lunch or dinner, or even for a night's rest, and resumed when they re-assembled afterwards; and the speeches contained much information about everything, not just politics but even crop-sowing practices and the best means of irrigation. A speech was virtually a set of classes; it had an educative role. I myself have heard election speeches in West Bengal by the inimitable Jyoti Basu, and also others. The speeches were based on solid homework, and conveyed information and argument to the audience. They also sought to rebut what was being said by the opponents, and hence carried forward a debate in public. Political activity of this kind assumed a subject role of the people and prepared them for it; it was quintessentially democratic . Messianic political activity does no such thing; it quintessentially creates a spectacle , not just for the audience but above all for the TV cameras upon whose presence it is crucially dependent.

I am not concerned here with whether the Jan Lokpal Bill is the best piece of legislation on the subject; nor am I concerned with the possible RSS links of the Anna campaign. These issues, though important, are not germane to my argument. My concern is with the "dumbing down" of the people that messianic political activity entails: "leave things to Anna but do come to cheer him." Just as in a potboiler Hindi film the hero single-handedly does all the fighting required to rid the locale of villainous elements, messianic activity leaves all the fighting, that is, the subject role, to the messiah. The people stand around with sympathy, and cheer. When the Anna group announces that he will take up issues like land reforms, corporate land grab, and commercialisation of education, once his fight against corruption is over, one almost feels that Shekhar Kapoor's "Mr. India" has finally arrived on the scene! The problem, however, is that "Mr. India" is a negation of democracy; and relying upon "Mr. India", like relying upon the arrival of an incarnation of Vishnu to cleanse the world of evil, is a throwback to our pre-modernity. It is not just an admission of a state of powerlessness of the people that may prevail at the moment; it reinforces that powerlessness.

Messianism is fundamentally anti-democratic because it is complicit in this objectification of the people, this self-fulfilling portrayal of them as dumb objects that need a messiah. When the Anna group uses the term "people" as a substitute for itself (referring to its own bill as "the people's bill," its own views as the "people's views"), it is implicitly carrying out a conceptual coup d'etat , namely, that messianism is democracy! But quite apart from the fact that the messiah is not elected by the people, a point made by many, there is the basic point that nobody, whether elected or not, can substitute for the people in a democracy.

This presumption, however, explains the flip-flops made by the Anna group. If Anna is the people, then democracy, where the people are supreme, demands that his version of the bill must be accepted over any other version, including what the parliamentary Standing Committee may come to formulate. The people's supremacy over Parliament entails ipso facto Anna's supremacy over Parliament. Messianism necessarily implies an "Anna's-bill-has-got-to-be-adopted" position. Members of Anna's group, many of whom have been associated for long with people's causes, may have occasional discomfort with this messianic position, and may retreat to a "we-are-only-exercising-our-democratic-rights" stance; but since they do not repudiate the messianic position, they perforce come back to the "Anna-is-the-people-and-hence-supreme" stance. To accept that Anna's version of the bill is only one of many possible versions, which the final bill could draw upon, amounts to seeing Anna as one among equals, and not as the messiah, that is, to an abandonment of messianism; the Anna group is loath to do this. "Negotiations" with the government therefore come to mean negotiations to make it accept Anna's version; "compromise" comes to mean a compromise that makes Anna's version final.

It may be asked: if the people prefer "messianism" to "democracy," then what is wrong with it? Those thronging the Ramlila grounds or marching in support of Anna in the metros are not necessarily "the people" of the country, and it is dangerous to take the two as identical. Besides, even if a majority of the people genuinely wish at a particular time to elevate a messiah over Parliament, this is no reason to alter the constitutional order, just as a majority wishing to abandon secularism at a particular time is no reason to do so. The Constitution is the social contract upon which the Indian state is founded, and it cannot be overturned by the wishes of a majority at a particular time. If perchance the government accepts messianism out of expediency, it would be violating the spirit of the Constitution and undermining democracy. Besides, any such licence will make multiple (quasi-religious) messiahs sprout, who would compete and collude, as oligopolists do in the markets for goods, to keep people in thralldom.

(Prabhat Patnaik recently retired from the Sukhamoy Chakravarty Chair at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.)

The substitution of one man for the people, and the reduction of the people's role merely to being supporters and cheerleaders for one man's actions, is antithetical to democracy.

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THE HINDU

THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST SATYAGRAHAS, THEN AND NOW

ERA SEZHIYAN

The term 'satyagraha' ( satya is truth, and agraha is firmness) was coined by Gandhiji to designate his struggle of 'passive resistance.' He initiated it in South Africa during his agitations from 1894 onwards against the oppressive British regime there.

As president of the Congress in 1924, Gandhiji transformed the party into a fighting organisation, and launched several satyagraha agitations to involve people in constructive programmes.

The Calcutta Session of the party (in December 1928) gave an ultimatum to the British government that unless Dominion status was given to India by December 31, 1929, the Congress would launch a Civil Disobedience Movement. When no favourable response was received, at midnight on December 31, 1929, the Indian National Congress issued the Declaration of Independence, or Purna Swaraj . The party's Working Committee gave Gandhiji the responsibility to launch the first act of civil disobedience.

Salt satyagraha

Gandhiji chose to begin with a satyagraha against the Salt Tax imposed by the British. The Salt Act of 1882 gave the British the monopoly on the manufacture of, and collection of tax on, salt. Several leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress president at that time, had felt that there were more important issues to be taken up as a part of the demand for full independence. But Gandhiji felt that the salt tax was a richly symbolic choice since salt was something that was used by nearly everyone in India. He believed that the protest would dramatise the demand for Purna Swaraj in a way that would be meaningful to even the least Indian.

On March 2, 1930, Gandhji wrote to Lord Irwin, the Viceroy, offering to stop the march if 11 demands were met, including a reduction in land revenue assessments, an end to the enormous exploitation of the people, and the misuse of public funds by the British. Gandhiji added: "If my letter makes no appeal to your heart, on the eleventh day of this month I shall proceed with such co-workers of the Ashram as I can take, to disregard the provisions of the Salt Laws. As the Independence Movement is essentially for the poorest in the land, the beginning will be made with this evil tax."

The Viceroy's reply simply expressed the opinion that Gandhiji was "contemplating a course of action which is clearly bound to involve violation of the law and danger to the public peace."

Gandhiji selected the first batch of 78 satyagrahis, all members of the Sabarmati Ashram. On March 6, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel set out to make arrangements in the villages and regions through which the Dandi March would pass. On March 7, Sardar Patel was arrested as he was about to address villagers at Kheda; he was sentenced for three months. There was speculation that Gandhiji and the satyagrahis too might be arrested.

On March 12, at 6.30 a.m., Gandhiji started off with his satyagrahis on the Dandi March. After covering 241 miles in 24 days, they reached Dandi on April 5. A large number of journalists from India and abroad had camped there. For them, Gandhiji wrote a short note: "I want world sympathy in this battle of Right against Might — Dandi, M.K. Gandhi." ( see reproduction )

On the morning of April 12, Gandhiji raised a lump of salt in his hand and declared: "With this, I am shaking the foundation of the British Empire." He then boiled it in sea water, producing salt illegally. Gandhiji's satyagraha became a mass satyagraha throughout India.

Then, the government resorted to repressive laws. Jawaharlal Nehru was arrested on April 14, and was sentenced to six months' imprisonment under the Salt Act. On April 28, C. Rajagopalachari was arrested, to be sentenced to six months' rigorous imprisonment after he and his satyagrahis entered the Coromandel coast at Vedaranyam.

While these leaders were being arrested, Gandhiji was going to other places near Dandi to defy the salt law. The climax of the campaign came when Gandhiji was arrested on May 4, 1930. He was resting at the Karadi Camp three miles from Dandi. At midnight, the District Magistrate, along with several police officers armed with pistols and 30 policemen bearing rifles, entered the room. Gandhiji asked about the charges under which he was being arrested. The Magistrate said it was under Regulation 28 of 1927 which allowed imprisonment without trial. At 1.20 a.m. the police put him in a lorry on the way to Yerwada Jail in Poona.

Gandhiji's arrest and internment led to hartals and strikes across in India, and there were sympathetic demonstrations all over the world.

On May 12, a second batch of satyagrahis led by Abbas Tyabji was arrested. On May 21, Sarojini Naidu and Manilal Gandhi were arrested; some 2,500 satyagrahis being led by them were beaten ruthlessly by 500 policemen commanded by British officers. In this action, four persons were killed; more than 300 persons were hospitalised with severe injuries. Still the satyagrahis observed absolute non-violence and discipline.

Reports on Gandhiji's campaign during the Dandi March appeared each day in 1,350 newspapers across the world. Time magazine declared him Man of the Year, commenting on his march to the sea "to defy Britain's salt tax as some New Englanders once defied the British tea tax."

The Press Ordinance promulgated by the Irwin regime caused 67 Indian newspapers and 55 printing presses to be shut down. Over 80,000 Indians were jailed without trial under the Salt Law.

The civil disobedience movement continued until early 1931. The rest is part of the political history of India — from the Gandhi-Irwin Pact leading to the Second Round Table Conference, to the Quit India Movement, and the emergence of independent India.

The Salt Satyagraha challenged the very existence of the British regime in India. Sir Charles Innes, who was a provincial Governor, wrote thus about the events of 1930 struggle: "England can hold India only by consent. We cannot rule it by sword."

It is true that the 1930 Salt Satyagraha was not successful with respect to many of its aims and demands. However, it was a historic turning point: thereafter every political move on the part of the Congress was to assert Purna Swaraj as the basic demand.

Hazare's satyagraha

The events that marked the supreme authority of the British regime in India — and the stupid atrocities committed by it — are now being blatantly followed by the United Progressive Alliance government.

Anna Hazare's movement has become a symbolic protest against the most corrupted government of free India. At least, Lord Irwin's government arrested Gandhiji under a primitive Salt Act after the event. The high lords of the UPA government, living in the ivory towers of power and authority, sent the police to arrest a person who was planning to observe a peaceful agitation — without rhyme or reason. It was a mockery of governance to arrest a person in the morning and to order him to go out 12 hours later.

While Gandhiji invited openly the press in India and abroad to support his 'battle for Right against Might,' the UPA government, creating crisis after crisis, blames the media for every discord that is created.

Demand for ombudsman

During the Lok Sabha Debates on Demands for Grants of the Ministry of Law on April 3, 1963, Law Minister A.K. Sen said on the demand for an Ombudsman in India that it was a matter for the Prime Minister to decide. However, he observed: "In this country, my own view is that to make it effective, a constitutional provision should be made, as of the Election Commissioner or of the Comptroller and Auditor General. I think that if you really want to set up an effective organisation like Ombudsman with over-riding powers and spreading over the entire field of governmental activity, you will have to give him some constitutional position."

The Lokpal Bill was introduced in May 1968. When it was considered on August 13, 1969 in the Lok Sabha, S.M. Joshi said: "Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru speaking at the AICC at Jaipur on 3 November 1963 said that the system of Ombudsman fascinated him; for the Ombudsman had overall authority to deal with charges even against the Prime Minister and confidence of all."

As far as I know, that is the only remark on the subject recorded in Parliament Debates. None from the government side contradicted that statement.

While it is desirable to establish Lokpal as a constitutional authority, I feel that the government and the civil society team should come around to some sort of a bill. Hitherto the members of the public who have been supporting Anna Hazare have been non-violent and disciplined. In the event of a critical situation arising, things could turn ugly. After some time, amendments could be brought in to make the legisaltion more effective.

If UPA-II is certain of the support of Parliament and the people to its position on the issue, let it go to the electorate, or conduct a referendum on the specific issue of the Lokpal Bill.

( Era Sezhiyan is an eminent parliamentarian and author .)

The events that marked the supreme authority of the British regime in India are now being blatantly followed by the United Progressive Alliance government. But time is running out.

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THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

CONFUSION REIGNS AMID LIBYA MESS

Recent events in Libya have been confusing. Three days ago US President Barack Obama gave the impression to the world through a publicised statement that the 42-year-old control of Col. Muammar Gaddafi had all but ended as the rebels fighting him these recent months with heavy Western support had virtually wrested the capital, Tripoli, from forces loyal to the dictator. This clearly appears not to be the case so far. While Col. Gaddafi is said to be traceless, his loyalist forces have by no means surrendered. His son and presumed successor, Seif-al-Islam Gaddafi, was thought to have been taken into custody by the rebels, but he surfaced on Tuesday at a luxury hotel in Tripoli along with many international correspondents.
Indeed, some apprehension is now being voiced in Washington and London that Col. Gaddafi may well strategise to lure the rebel forces into Tripoli while shifting to another theatre within the country to open a new military front. Should that materialise, it would signal that the West had placed too great a trust in a disorganised anti-Gaddafi coalition riven with dissensions, and provide a setback to diplomatic and military efforts concentrated by the United States, France and Britain with the support of leading governments in the Arab world. In Iraq, it may be recalled, a greedy and deceitful anti-Saddam Hussein politician, fattened on CIA money, had all but lured US forces into commencing military operations.
The West worries about long-term violence and disorder in Libya if the rebels' Transitional National Council led by Mustafa Abdel-Jalil is able to end Col. Gaddafi's hold but is unable to restrain rebel fighters from inflicting revenge on pro-Gaddafi military units and tribes and ethnic groups that have stood by his side. Should this happen, prolonged chaos in Libya is assured, and this is exactly the opposite of what the Western triumvirate seek to achieve. Western nations extol all rebels they support anywhere as the epitome of democracy. Repeatedly this has been seen to be a propaganda line to legitimise the decisions they have endorsed. The fears are that this may be coming true in Libya as well.
The surprise is that Col. Gaddafi has held out so long in spite of a Western-imposed naval blockade and international sanctions. Reports suggest that his forces are in some disarray and may only be depleting. A cusp moment such as this calls for wariness and sagacity on the part of those who have choreographed the rebels' political, diplomatic and military moves with the aid of the United Nations. The greed to capture Libya's oil supplies must be kept on hold.

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

ANNA'S FAST: TOO LEGITIMATE TO QUIT

INDER MALHOTRA

At this stage of Anna Hazare's fast it is unnecessary to discuss the monumental folly of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in first arresting him and then abjectly surrendering to him. To draw attention to his and Team Anna's manifest obduracy would be equally pointless. Their demand that only their heavily flawed Jan Lokpal Bill should be passed by a certain date, and no other version of it, is totally unacceptable.
How the current confrontation between him — which has touched a raw nerve in the country and has drawn huge support from the urban youth — and the government would end is immaterial to my present theme: Whether fasts, finite or indefinite, currently denounced as "blackmail" or attempts to "dictate" to elected institutions, have any legitimacy.
Incidentally, such fasts, whether for political or social ends, aren't and have never been absent from the Indian scene even after the tryst with destiny. To give only one of countless examples, Potti Sriramlu starved himself to death in 1953. This virtually forced Jawaharlal Nehru to separate Andhra from what was then the multi-lingual state of Madras and is now Tamil Nadu. Fifty-six years later, the fast of the Telangana Rashtriya Samithi leader, K. Chandrashekhar Rao, drove Union home minister P. Chidambaram to announce that the "process for the formation of Telangana state had been set into motion," only to backtrack later. In between, before "Punjabi suba" was conceded in 1966, Darshan Singh Pheruman had fasted for precisely this cause. The then authorities in Amritsar had handled both the fast and its explosive aftermath with exemplary skill.
Medha Patkar has been fasting all the time of which little notice is taken because her demands are usually local and she fasts far away from the national capital. Shortly after Mr Hazare's first fast in April, an obscure swami in Uttrakhand gave up his life while fasting against illegal mining; New Delhi did not bat an eyelid.
In distant Manipur, a brave lady, Irom Sharmila, has been on hunger strike for 10 long years, demanding a repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, and nobody is bothered because the police periodically force-feeds her.
The difference this time around is that "Fast Anna" has created an enormous storm across the country against rampant corruption. "Generation Y" is up in arms. The Lokpal Bill doesn't matter; Anna's personality does not matter. The man and the moment seem to be made for each other, and the bumbling government knows not what to do.
Despite this backdrop, I have always believed that in the public life of independent and democratic India, there is no place for fasts for political ends even if there is no law banning them. Since everyone embarking on a fast harks back to the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi — Mr Hazare's supporters have gone overboard and are calling him "second Gandhi" — the argument of those of us opposed to fasts used to be that the Father of the Nation had used this weapon against an alien and colonial government. There is no justification for wielding it against a duly elected and easily replaceable government. Deeper thought and some research reveal, however, that the reality is different.
According to Gopal Gandhi, a grandson of the Mahatma and a former civil servant, diplomat and governor, his grandfather fasted on 30 different occasions. One-third of these were directed against no one other than himself. These were occasions for "atonement" or "self-purification". Another one-third of the fasts were meant to influence the attitudes of Indian society or parts of it.
For instance, in 1918, the Mahatma went on an indefinite fast because mill-owners of Ahmedabad had declared a lockout against the striking mill workers. Within 48 hours of the beginning of the fast, the mill-owners scurried to lift the lockout.
A profoundly important fast in this genre he undertook in 1930 was to persuade the Harijans (as the Dalits were then called), led by Bhimrao Ambedkar, to give up separate electorates for them offered by the British. The Mahatma argued that this would vivisect each of the half-a-million villages of the country. Ambedkar agreed and settled for reservation of seats in legislatures.
The remaining one-third was meant for "pressurising" (some said "coercing") the British government. These succeeded some time and didn't at other times. During the last of these in 1943, at the Agha Khan Palace in Poona where he was detained, the Viceroy had made arrangements for Mahatma's funeral. But he lived to perform a miracle by his fast in Calcutta in the aftermath of the Great Calcutta Killings. In three days flat, the one-man army of Gandhi put an end to the mad frenzy and mindless slaughter.
What knocks the bottom off my case to differentiate between an alien and a national government is that the first Indian to go on a fast in the heart of Delhi against the government of Nehru and Sardar Patel was none other than the Mahatma. His two lieutenants had refused to transfer to Pakistan `55 crore this country was bound to give it under the Partition Agreement. Their argument that the money couldn't be handed over while the first Kashmir War (1947-48) was on. On the second day of the fast, the cash was sent to Karachi post-haste.

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

TEAM ANNA'S SAFFRON SLIP

S. NIHAL SINGH

It is time to disentangle the various strands that go to make up the Anna Hazare phenomenon. The Maharashtrian peasant leader is riding on the crest of a wave of frustrations and aspirations driving the middle class and other sections, and his main theme of busting corruption has struck a chord with vast sections of the population. Second, there are no two views on the maladroit moves of the government and the Congress Party in coping with Mr Hazare's second fast. Third, the Anna team, drunk on
its own success, has taken up unreasonable positions and is indulging in a new form of arrogance.
Indeed, the surprise is that the form of public diplomacy the team has adopted has left the government far behind in the information war. It has used social sites to great effect, was ready with video clips of Mr Hazare's homilies after his arrest, a stupid act, and getting the former policewoman, Kiran Bedi, to film him on a mobile camera while he was refusing to leave the Tihar jail, later linking it to television channels. But it is a sign of the new arrogance the team has developed that Ms Bedi harked back to the slogan of the hated Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975 to amend the slogan "Indira is India and India is Indira" to "Anna is India and India is Anna". Another sign of intolerance is the totally unrealistic deadline given to Parliament to pass their version of the Lokpal Bill.
It is clear that Mr Hazare's Jan Lokpal (ombudsman) Bill, as opposed to the government's Lokpal Bill initially introduced in Parliament, will be a disaster for the Indian system of parliamentary democracy if passed in its present form. It would institute a hydra-headed monster of a panel of men and women who would sail above every form of democratic governance on the assumption that they are demi-gods immune from the temptations of the flesh.
The proposals of social activist Aruna Roy make more sense in their methodology of tackling corruption, but thus far Team Anna is not listening, convinced of the irrevocable righteousness of its own panacea seemingly set in stone. There will conceivably be retreats from this impossible position in the days to come, but Mr Hazare and his team must adopt a posture of some humility in suggesting curbs on the evil of corruption that has spread to every aspect of life.
There are, of course, wider aspects of the Anna phenomenon that will leave a mark on the Indian political system. The declamation that it represents a "second independence movement" can be dismissed as populist propaganda. An attempt to link this movement to other movements concerning land acquisition and industrialisation seems a tentative testing of waters.
But the Anna phenomenon will need all its wisdom to guard against being hijacked by the BJP, its mentor the RSS and the various affiliates of the Sangh Parivar such as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which has already indulged in depredations in its efforts to force schools to close on a particular day.
Judging by the slogans being raised by the supporters of Mr Hazare's movement, a pro-Hindu and an implied anti-Muslim (and anti-minorities) tinge is already becoming apparent. It is no secret that the BJP is desperately seeking to return to power at the Centre after two successive defeats, but it is a new BJP under the thumb of its mentor, the RSS, which is setting the agenda for the party and the country. The Sangh Parivar is obviously hoping that the Anna phenomenon will do for it what the incendiary Ayodhya movement did for it to catapult it into power in New Delhi.
The political undercurrents swirling around the Anna phenomenon are a handicap to the spirit of hope the movement initially brought about, gathering a motley crew of a newly empowered middle class and other frustrated and aspiring sections of the population. In a sense, the youth are asserting themselves in a political culture in which wisdom is equated with age and the so-called Young Turks are in their forties and fifties. A beginning has been made in inducting the princelings — men and women related to established leaders and political families — but it is thus far a timid beginning.
What of the future? A government in drift is not in the best position to impose its agenda and the official version of the Lokpal Bill is found wanting in several respects. What remains to be seen is how and when the Anna team will dismount from its own hobbyhorse of the Jan Lokpal Bill or nothing. The Manmohan Singh government has been forced to show greater flexibility and many formulations are in the air to resolve the crisis.
Both the Anna team and the country will pay a heavy price for a contest of wills, if taken beyond a point. In India, a disinterested soul spurning power and pelf for achieving his objectives has an abiding appeal. But an artificial propaganda barrage calling Anna Hazare "a second Gandhi" or "a second JP (Jayaprakash Narayan who led the movement that unseated the Congress Party for the first time in New Delhi)" is doing as
much harm to Mr Hazare as it does to the memory of two exceptional leaders.
Having won the first round, Mr Hazare should show maturity and humility in gathering the fruits of a new era of hope he has set in motion. In a sense, that has been the easier part. His real test lies in the future in guiding the thrust of his movement towards a new system that makes corruption subject to effective laws and an implementation mechanism to punish offenders not in a spirit of vengeance but in rendering justice to the abused, particularly those belonging to the poorer sections. Both the government and civil society must use their reserves of wisdom to take advantage of a new beginning to make the country a better place to live in.

S. Nihal Singh can be contacted at snihalsingh@gmail.com

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THE ASIAN AGE

OPINION

RICE, RIGHTS AND NUCLEAR DREAMS

SHANKARI SUNDARARAMAN

In early August two important developments took place in Burma, which at first glance seem unconnected but are, in fact, intrinsically linked to where Burma may be headed in the years to come. The first was US' appointment of a special envoy to Burma who would have the rank of ambassador, and the second was Burma's rice agreement with North Korea, which is based on a barter deal. Both these incidents signal a clear shift in terms of how the international community views and will engage with Burma.
The rice agreement may not seem significant but underlying the deal is the Burmese government's growing demand for nuclear technology. While Burma claims that it seeks nuclear know-how for peaceful purposes, the country's continued isolation and its close ties with North Korea (whose clandestine nuclear programme is already a cause for
worry), are likely to trigger reactions among the nuclear nations.
For North Korea the rice deal is a lifeline the country's reclusive political elite desperately needs. With changing dynamics in the region, North Korea is keen to be free of its dependence on China. Importing rice from Burma will give North Korean leaders more flexibility and also address the issue of severe food shortage.
Since 2007, isolated and impoverished Burma and North Korea have been entering into deals for closer cooperation. As two countries which have been shunned by the international community, their interdependence grew and is now becoming a cause for concern. In fact, Burma's isolation had made the junta very paranoid towards most countries, except China and North Korea. But with regional countries now trying to ensure that Burma does not go the North Korea route, this is changing.
The appointment of a special envoy to Burma, Derek Mitchell, who will officially coordinate the US and Burma's relations, is an important shift in America's policy towards Burma. For a country that has for decades followed a policy of stridently calling for sanctions against Burma, this is a huge step forward. The Clinton and Bush regimes followed the sanctions policy against Burma to little positive effect. It only pushed Burma closer to China.
The Obama administration has taken a different stand. While the US' earlier sanctions policy had the objective of regime change, the current policy under Obama is to push the process of political reforms.
The changed US position became evident as early as 2009, even though it took more than two years for concrete action. This change became possible after the Burmese government expressed willingness to effect political reforms.
The Obama administration has spoken of "pragmatic engagement" with Burma, an approach based on a principled combination of sanctions and engagement. But given the lost ground as a result of sanctions, the US needs to be flexible and open. It must be willing to accommodate Burma's political class and seek reform in a slow and sustained manner. The first step towards this should be normalisation of ties.
The preconditions for normalisation of ties are the issues of political prisoners, human rights violations and Burma's adherence to the UN non-proliferation requirements. The possibility of Burma going down North Korea's nuclear route is worrisome. Intense isolation leaves few friends and dependence on recalcitrant states like North Korea only pushes a country backwards.
Given the US' strong non-proliferation agenda, the nuclear technology issue will be a critical factor in pushing engagement. And political reforms and human rights may indeed become the camouflage under which hard security decisions are encouraged. To achieve this, the US will have to learn to balance on the fault-lines evident in the region, including hard-line posturing by China and its allies.
With Asean still playing a significant diplomatic role in maintaining regional peace through its informal approach, the tug of war on Burma will be crucial for the region. Given that the US has made significant headway in its policy shift, it would, perhaps, be best to let Burma be the Asean chair in 2014. The pace of political reform in Burma is painfully slow, but its engagement with the international community can act as a catalyst. The willingness of the Burmese government to be more open to international engagement, and therefore act responsibly when holding the Asean chair, may be the most effective restraining order
possible.

Dr Shankari Sundararaman is an associate professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the School of International Studies, JNU

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

BRAZEN FAVOURITISM

Stiff opposition to the common seniority move by medicos from both Kashmir and Jammu regions has brought under focus subtle nuances of favouritism in the most sensitive services namely medical services. While the Valley-based medicos argue that the move was aimed at "favouring certain blue-eyed doctors", their Jammu counterparts say it was being done at the instance of a handful of clever and influential junior faculty members, who are trying backdoor entry into their home institutions where they could otherwise not got selected." Government's move to frame a common seniority list of doctors working in Government Medical Colleges in Srinagar and Jammu regions seems to have been made by a handful of influential persons connected to bureaucracy-ministry nexus to help their favourites get adjusted at locations of their choice. It is rather unbelievable that a Government should be functioning more in hegemonic manner than a democracy in which major decisions have to be taken collectively and not individually. When the career of thousands of medicos is involved, it is indefensible on the part of the Government to treat the issue as a private and kitchen-cabinet subject for arbitration. To recapitulate part of the background of this cynical move, it has to be reminded that to prevent de-recognition of medical colleges in the State the then State Government in 2007 had separated the seniority of the two colleges after careful discussion on the issue. This decision had put an end to the practice of litigation to which affected doctors were forced to resort in order to protect their rights. It stopped transferring the faculty from one GMC to another as none from Jammu wanted to go to Srinagar and vice versa for various reasons. The doctors hailed this step because transferring them from GMC in Jammu to GMC in Kashmir could cut both ways; it could be a special favour in some cases but at the same time a punitive step against unwanted others. The present coalition Government wants to reverse the decision of the then Government run by the Congress-led coalition. How come that Congress being the coalition partner of NC-led government now does not object to reversing a decision it had taken after due consideration in 2007?
Explaining the motivation behind the entire episode the President of Medical Teachers Association said that the common seniority is being drafted "at the instance of a handful of clever and influential junior faculty members, who are trying backdoor entry into their home institutions where they could otherwise not get selected. All of them had taken a conscious decision of applying through the J&K Public Service Commission for the vacant posts in these institutions. Some of them also took advantage of the reservation in particular institutions to get selected. This is how the Government is interested in making things complicated for the doctors and for it also. The consequences of a motivated action of the government should not be too difficult to visualize. The MTA has already hinted at the drastic response it might contemplate in case the Government persists with its motivated decision, a classical example of brazen favouritism. Therefore we would suggest the government not to precipitate matters but let status quo be maintained. If there are any genuine cases where transfer is desired on purely humanitarian grounds, the Government can find a way out. But generalization will cause great complicacy especially at a time when security and other issues have conditioned entire society in the region. Doctors should not be forced to take an extreme reactionary step like going on strike because it is the common man, the poor man, who is made to suffer by the Government that claims to be building a welfare state.

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

TRYST WITH MILITANTS

State Police have a glorious record of fighting terrorists in the State ever since armed insurgency surged in 1990. They have been performing a very difficult and dangerous job of taking on the terrorists who are much better armed in terms of sophisticated weaponry and training. Many policemen have attained martyrdom while defending the State and essaying for return of normalcy. They have been able to establish efficient surveillance and gather intelligence about the movement and hideouts of the terrorists who sneak in clandestinely. In the process our policemen and officers have received updated training in combating armed terrorism. Besides that, the State police have been put to another crucial test of containing the protesting mobs or stone throwing youth in large numbers. The police have met these challenges not as an oppressive but as a defensive force. Police have also given exemplary proof of cooperating with the security forces in containing armed insurgency. We know that among various tactics pressed into service by the terrorists and their mentors one is to malign the police and bring baseless charges against them of violation of human rights of the civilian population. In most of such cases, no charges leveled against the police have been proved. But cases of default have not been let go without punishment.
Having said that, we must make mention of the sacrifices the police have been making and the precious lives they have laid down in defending the country. Those who laid down their lives are all local policemen and officers most of them gunned down by mercenaries from across the border. The attacks of the adversaries on policemen and police stations have been frequent and fierce. This can have adverse effect on the morale of the police which the terrorists want to break. Thus we have some cases where either out of fear or because of some specific motivation some of the policemen have deserted their battalions and absconded along with guns and ammunition. In some cases, the absconding policemen have joined hands with the terrorists but were captured while fighting side by side with them. In a very recent case two Special Police Officers (SPOs) and an Ex-SPO were among four absconders apprehended by the police on Monday along with four AK rifles. They had fled away on 9th August along with their weapons. Earlier also such instances have happened. Having been caught alive, the law will take its natural course. But the point that we would wish to make is, first, no generalization has to be made of disloyalty of police force in the light of a couple of unsavoury incidents. And second, the police authorities should demonstrate more care and caution while make recruitment of fresh candidates in the police ranks. New and old both should be kept under close watch on their movements and ideological reach. This might necessitate inception of a watchdog mechanism over the police recruits for some reasonable time. Tryst with militancy has to be foiled at the very outset.

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

WHY INDIA NEEDS A STRONG LOKPAL?

PROF. DR. K.L. BHATIA

Lokpal is Devnagri language word of Scandinavian expression Ombudsman and Common Law terminology Parliamentary Commissioner, which when established cleansed the corrupt and maladministration ridden societies that eventually made those societies the developed societies of the world. These developed societies in the globe were not angels and free from the deceases of corruption, maladministration, abuse of office, nepotism, arbitrariness, bias, prejudices, favouritism, and fiefdom. They, too, were the victims of New Despotism. They suffered from 'power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely'. Sweden (1809), Finland (1919), Denmark (1953), Norway (1963), New Zealand (1962), England (1966), Australia (1976), etc. have adopted this institution with the basic idea to control effectively the activities of, and prevent abuses by, public officials after it came to be realised that the existing procedures and mechanism for the purposes were hardly adequate and efficacious. The institution in these countries very strongly helped to redress individual grievances arising out of bad administration caused by corruption and corruptive practices. It was realised that it were not eccentric to observe that if there was more administration, there would be more maladministration, officialdom, fiefdom and corruption.
The societies that continue to perpetuate their survival in-office with the aid and AID of bad governance and corruption continue to exist with titles of developing and least developing countries in the world. The reasons and examples are not far to seek.
India realised the need of the institution of Lokpal as far back as 1960s with the introduction of the proposal by a jurist Dr. L.M. Singhvi at the Jaipur Congress session. The Administrative Reforms Commission in its report of 20 October 1966 advocated the adoption of a strong Ombudsman, because it felt it's imperative need since there was a widespread public suspicion of administrative corruption which has very much undermined public confidence in the administration and had extensively corroded its moral authority as well as image. The redressal of citizens' grievances through Lokpal will strengthen the hands of the government in administering the laws of the land, its policies without fear or favour, affection or ill-will and enable it to go up in public faith, confidence and image without which development would not be possible. The institution would be the genesis of good governance. The model suggested by the Commission was considered by the Lok Sabha but it somehow could not be carried out for the reasons best known to the politicians in office or out of office. However, the successive attempts to enact the Lokpal law in 1971, 1977, 1989, etc. proved abortive because of the 'soft State' attitude to the imminent issue. Be that as it may, the need for a strong system of Lokpal is inasmuch as imminent to meet the challenges of corruption in all walks of life as it existed earlier.
The present movement against corruption and bad administration of the "WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA" led by Anna Hazare is about an uneasy feeling where the process of departmental decision making is entirely closed to outside scrutiny, injustice might be done for which no redress --- political or administrative or legal --- is possible. In this context the present movement of the WE THE PEOPLE OF INDIA is to improve the supervision of the administration at all levels, be that the governmental or private or education or hospital or corporate or all that adversely affect the citizens' life, liberty and dignity. Lokpal or Citizens' Defender or Peoples' Watchdog or Protector of Little man shall be known as a modern institution in the annals of administration to protecting the life, liberty and dignity of the Little man against the Big Government, her actions as well as deeds.
With diffidence, modesty and humility it is submitted that first of all India should now be a 'hard State' to the successful sustainability of democracy. Second, the Lokpal should include all public functionaries within its purview including the Prime Minister of the country without any exception. Law is the King of Kings; none is above law howsoever one high or low may be. Nation is first and then the individual. Third, all public institutions, either governmental or private or corporate, must be brought within the purview of the Lokpal, because corruption and bad administration is ubiquitous. Fourth, judiciary, too, should be under the scrutiny of Lokpal by making an additional Lokpal who should be responsible for "Judicial Accountability". Defence and law enforcement agencies should also be considered bringing them under the purview of Lokpal by creating an additional Lokpal. It means a multi pronged Lokpal is needed with multi pronged strategies. There is no denying the fact that it is the prerogative of the Parliament of India to enact the law in this perspective, but there should be no obsession to ignore the public opinion or conscientious public sentiments. The Parliamentarians should look at the movement not with a 'blame-game' gloss, since the public opinion is against the vile man. The Parliamentarians should take note of the prophetic words of Dr. Rajendra Prased : "... India needs today nothing more than a set of honest men who will have the interest of the country before them. It requires men of strong character, men of vision, men who will not sacrifice the interests of the country at large. ... Let us launch on this new enterprise with confidence, with truth and non-violence and above all with heart within and God over head". Let us move from degeneration to regeneration of anew renaissance of having a strong Lokpal, lest we may have to sing in melancholy:
"Khola Kafas To Taqate Parwaz Hi Nahin
Bulbul Tere Nasib Ko Sayyad Kya Kare"

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

WHEN POWER OUTSTRIPS ABILITY

BY M.J. AKBAR

The eloquence of Jawaharlal Nehru at the approach of the midnight hour of 15 August 1947 was so magnificent that it has overwhelmed the contributions of other great Indians to that memorable evening, a landmark in the history of democracy and its institutions. Sixty four years later, let us also hear the member from United Provinces, the philosopher-academician and later President, Dr Sarvapalli Radhakrishna. He rejoiced in this wondrous achievement but cautioned about dangers ahead.
He demolished the culture of blame, the favourite alibi of Indians. "Others," he said, meaning the British, "were able to play on our weakness because we had them." The weaknesses that lay ahead were equally dangerous: "When power outstrips ability, we will fall on evil days." If this precept alone were made part of the oath of office, it might have a salutary effect - on those capable of understanding it. Dr Radhakrishnan warned that a venal ruling class might turn a dream into a nightmare: "Unless we destroy corruption in high places, root out every trace of nepotism, love of power, profiteering and black-marketing which have spoiled the good name of this great country..." Corruption and nepotism have become the bookends of Indian governance.
The genius of democracy lies in its ability to offer renewal at a time of despond. That is what Anna Hazare, unknown yesterday and unforgettable today, has promised the children who will shape India's tomorrow. When a ruling party descends to abuse against a simple man and the rhapsodic popular movement he has inspired, then it has sunk to an irrational nadir.
Piloo Mody, thou shouldst be living at this hour! Or, at the very least, we should be able to recall this wonderful Parliamentarian of the 1970s, the last time we had nationwide rage against a Government whose power had outstripped its ability. It is a cliche to call someone larger than life; and the phrase is not merely physical. Piloo had a boom that echoing incessantly through the corridors of power, and a wit that reduced any ivory tower to a bamboo hut. These days a Congress spokesman like Rashid Alvi seems a bit reluctant to use "CIA", but in the 1970s CIA was the public apotheosis of evil. Anyone who dared to question the majesty of Congress was immediately driven into that seventh circle of hell. That is where the Alvis of 1974 banished as fine a patriot as Jaya Prakash Narayan, leader of the people at another high point of anger. When CIA was considered insufficient condemnation, they added the "RSS" tag, as if that became condemnation beyond redemption.
Nothing terrorises an autocratic Government more than laughter. Piloo Mody knew how to laugh. One day, he came to the Lok Sabha wearing a large badge that said, "I am a CIA agent". The government never recovered. Since there is no Piloo Mody around now, the children manning Anna's barricades have made laughter their primary weapon. If the Government is not worried by Anna Hazare, it should be seriously apprehensive about the sarcastic, pointed and sometimes hilarious slogans bursting around him. The icons of the Congress might believe that they can distance themselves from the tirades of their silly spokesmen. That is an illusion. People know that a spokesperson is a puppet.
Anger is concentrating against the triumvirate of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Dr Manmohan Singh although Mrs Gandhi is abroad for medical reasons, Rahul Gandhi is visible only at judicious moments and Dr Singh uses silence as tactical weapon. Anna Hazare has become a symbol in exactly the manner Jaya Prakash was in 1974. The specifics of his demands are less important than the fact that he is making them.
The Big Three mobilised against Anna, Lion Chidambaram and Tigers Kapil Sibal and Salman Khurshid, opened their offensive with a send-him-to-jail roar that shook every television station and made the more compliant ones tremble with excitement. Within 24 hours the three resembled Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire cat, whose broad fixed grin vanished in stages. A more competent government would have accepted Anna's initial demand, placed his draft for a Lokpal bill in Parliament, and let the long process of legislation take over. This would have also expanded ownership of the official response to all political parties, instead of making it a largely Congress enterprise. But the Big Three decided to be potent, making their current impotence even more abject. If public anger is now focused on Congress, the party has only itself to blame.
There is one slogan eerily reminiscent of JP's movement in 1974: "Yeh andar ki baat hai, police hamare saath hai [The inside story is that the police are with us]". Forty years ago, this was condemned as treason. The world has moved on from such plastic prescriptions. This is not about CIA or RSS. Corruption is neither a foreign agent nor a partisan force. It is an evil that the prescient Dr Radhakrishnan foresaw on 15 August 1947.

DEAR FRIENDLY RAINS....!

BY GURMEET SINGH BEKRAAR

The sky thundered and I wondered what was it upto. Before I could crack my brains it roared to its crescendo and lo! tiny drops of water came pouring down. I peeped out of my window, jumped out of the bed and scampered towards the verandah. The familiar smell suffused in the ambience and a whiff of chilled air came filtering through the rain droplets. A cool sensation stirred up in me tempting me to wallow in the pluvial grandeur.
The monsoon has set in and so has the expectations. The hot June has just passed by but to come to remind of its scorching days, it still spring flutters in the mind. How would I forget when my water cooler blew blazing air into the room discarding disloyally its dutiful principles. The electricity played truant like we did in our school days. Time has its own way of taking revenge, so they say.
Before I forget the fretful days of searing June-the rains outside fall in cats and dogs. Temptation bears upon me and before I undress myself- the chip of the same block-my offspring Harry takes the lead and splurges on the rains like a maniac. Thumping his feet in slosh, mimicry printed on his cherubic face he signals me to share the rare. And it is not long when my scrawny legs begin gyrating to the tunes of bucketing down rains. We dad and son, keep on prancing and dancing until my ''bitter'' half in her incorrigible tone yells at me from inside ....Halt!.....and there we are surrendering to the command, back under the roof.
Familiar tangy fumes of Pakoras emanate from the kitchen and diffuse in the air to our nostrils. Globules of viscous saliva dribble down our lips. It is not late when my Shrimati barges in the room with a tray decorated with the expected. I glance gleefully at the rains, feeling now the cool temperature overpowering me. The fan overhead, in the reversal of roles spins spewing chilly air. The setting is perfected when a steaming cup of tea fills the slot. My son smiles sagaciously, I too wag my head in rapture.
Allergy to rains, however, remains many a person's persistent phobia. Lacking aesthetic sense they always curse heavens for His untimely outburst which destroys their jogging schedules and outdoor engagements, some are too timid to face the ''Almighty's tears''. And the one of this kind bumped into me the other day out in the market.The bumpkin checked in under my umbrella uninvited while it was drizzling. He flung freely a plethora of abuses at the taciturn rains. The rain Gods were perhaps angered. They tumbled down more vigorously. The chirpy friend of mine took hold of the stick of the umbrella and shoved me partially out in the showers. Half of my body was flushed with diagonally falling downpour.
Yet I never curse the rains. For they are my friends...friends to be shared, to be felt, to be devoured. O, my friend, come down from the heaven and embrace me in your open arms every moment, every day. Please do not delay...listen....hey !!!

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DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

KASHMIR RAIL ROAD PROJECTINDIA FAR BEHIND CHINA

BY R. N. MALHOTRA

Nearly quarter of a century after work began on the project aimed at integrating the revolt-torn territory and bolstering the supply route for troops deployed there, barely a quarter of the 345-km (215-mile) Kashmir track has been laid.
Tunnels collapsed, funds dried up and, faced with the challenge of laying tracks over the 11,000 foot (3,352 metre) Pir Panjal range, railway officials and geologists bickered over the route, with some saying it was just too risky.
The proposed train, which will run not far from the heavily militarised border with Pakistan, has also faced threats from militants fighting Indian rule in the disputed region, with engineers kidnapped in the early days of the project.
China's rail system has been plagued by scandal. A bullet train crash in July killed 40 people and triggered a freeze on new rail project approvals, but the country managed to build the 1,140-km (710-mile) Qinghai-Tibet line, which crosses permanently frozen ground and climbs to more than 5,000 metres above sea level, in five years flat.
It has also built bitumen roads throughout its side of the frontier, making it easier for Chinese troops to move around-and mass there, if confrontation ever escalates. Indians have long fretted about the economic advantages that China gains from its infrastructure expertise. But the tale of India's hardships in building the railway line also shows how China's mastery of infrastructure could matter in the territorial disputes that still dog relations.
Both train networks, China's running far to the north and India's hundreds of miles away in the southern reaches of the Himalayas, reflect the desire to tighten political and economic links with their two restive regions-the Tibet Autonomous region in China's case and Kashmir for India. But they would also form a key element of military plans to move men and armour in the forbidding region in a time of conflict.
Should India-China relations ever deteriorate to the verge of military confrontation and if riots in Tibet erupt, the People's Liberation Army's mountain brigades can rapidly deploy to the region. Railway and road construction have been China's Himalayan strategy for decades.
"China outstrips India in at least three respects: the ability to execute large and complex projects; rapid implementation; and-importantly-the foresight to embark upon these projects for economic and strategic purposes," said Shashank Joshi, at London's Royal United Services Institute, who has written extensively on India-China ties. He also said China was also more proficient at concealing its failures because of its closed political system and excellent information management.
On the other hand, India hasn't yet determined its priorities in the region, which shares borders with both Pakistan and China. "India has to decide what it wants to be. If integrating Kashmir is a top national priority, then the project should have moved on a war footing long ago," said one visibly exasperated military commander in Kashmir.
Here in the lower stretch of the line, workers are struggling to build tunnels through soft mountains to bring the track from the railhead in Udhampur, 25 km away. Of the seven they built over the past four years, one has collapsed and the other is seeping water. Now engineers have gone back to the drawing board to figure out an alternative route.
"That is the way the project has been undertaken. You tunnel and then you find it is not holding. You then try and skirt around it like a bypass surgery," said Chehat Ram, chief administrative officer of Northern Railway.
This is only the first of the tough stretches of the network that will run through some of the world's most spectacular mountains and gorges, offering an alternative to the single highway that connects Kashmir and is vulnerable to bad weather.
Bigger challenges lie further down the track, including building the world's tallest single-span bridge over the river Chenab at an elevation of 387 metres (1,270 feet), higher than the Eiffel Tower at 324 metres.
Across the valley floor are signs of the struggle to build a network that even the country's former British rulers gave up on after briefly considering it in 1898 because of the forbidding and often uninhabitable terrain.
A tunnel built into a cliff edge has been abandoned near Tikri in the lower section; at another place work has been stopped after workers found that the section in the hills they had blasted and drilled through had become waterlogged.
The train station built at Katra in anticipation of the line is looking worn out, with paint peeling off and moss growing on the building, two years after it was completed. Local herdsmen leave their ponies to graze in the grounds around the eerily empty building.
"People have lost their land, there are no jobs and there is no train," said Lal Chand, a herdsman. The deadline for completion of the project was August 2007, but it has been pushed back to 2017, and even that is seen as an optimistic assessment. Cost estimates have jumped, from 45.5 billion rupees ($1.0 billion) in 2002 to 195.6 billion today.
China, meanwhile, began work last year to build a rail spur that will connect the Tibetan capital of Lhasa with Shigatse, the monastery town that is the seat of the Panchen Lama, the second-most powerful figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Joshi said China was in a position to bring far greater resources to public sector investment than India. For instance, Indian investment in railways in 2010 was about $9-10 billion. In China, it was $118 billion.
"If the Chinese had to build the Kashmir track, they'd do it faster and better than the Indians - but it might still fail, and they'd plough much more into it. For the hard-hatted men tasked with building the railway line, comparisons with China don't sit easily. "These mountains are full of surprises. Normally you would survey one to two kilometres and then, based on the results, extrapolate the geological pattern for the rest of the stretch, but here it changes every 50 metres," said chief engineer L. Prakash.
Most of the line runs either through tunnels totalling 109 km (68 miles), the longest of which is 11.4 km (7.1 miles), or across more than 780 bridges, many of which span deep gorges.
"The comparison with the Tibet railway is overstated. The Tibet line is largely flat, only 10 per cent passes through mountainous terrain and the rest is through plateau," said Northern Railway's Ram.
"It is not to belittle the challenges they faced. To build a network at that altitude and with those kinds of weather conditions is creditable. But the comparison doesn't stand. They had to do a lot less tunnelling, far fewer bridges." (INAV)

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EDITORIAL

THERMAL PLANT CLOSURE

MORE TO IT THAN MEETS THE EYE

After spending Rs 550 crore on the renovation of the Bathinda thermal plant between 2001 and 2006 the Punjab government has decided to dismantle it. If the reason for the plant's closure is environmental pollution, as has been reported in the media, then the government may have to shut all other government-run thermal plants in the state too. According to the latest CAG report, all thermal plants in Punjab violate air/water pollution norms and operate without the consent of the Punjab Pollution Control Board. The coal-run thermal plants belch out fly ash, which is toxic and causes respiratory and eye troubles.

If the people of the area feel relieved by reports of thermal plant closure, their relief may be short-lived. Apart from the existing two thermal plants four more are being set up within a 50-km radius of Bathinda. The town is set to meet the fate of Uttar Pradesh's Singrauli, which has five thermal plants and fly ash released by them has made fertile land unfit for cultivation. Even if the private firms setting up the thermal plants in Punjab are forced to strictly follow the anti-pollution norms, which is unlikely given the flexible ways of governance, the concentration of so many thermal plants in such a small area is ill-advised.

In its zeal to nurture Bathinda, represented in the Lok Sabha by Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the myopic Badal family ruling the state keeps announcing projects for the area regardless of their long-term consequences. Clean energy sources are paid little attention, while private firms are handed over power projects without competitive bidding and disregarding the adverse effects on the environment. The viability of such plants is also in doubt. Due to shortage, coal prices are climbing and imports have become inevitable. As global oil prices soar and the cost of coal transportation escalates, will the power produced by private thermal plants be affordable to consumers? Will the state have to subsidise it? Experts need to discuss these issues.

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THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

TAKEOVER OF TRIPOLI

LIBYA FREE FROM GADDAFI'S RULE

It seems almost certain that the 42-year-old reign of Col Moammar Gaddafi in Libya has come to an end. The dictator is no longer in control of even the country's capital, Tripoli. There are different stories making rounds about his sudden departure from his palace in Tripoli. Rebel forces, with the backing of NATO air strikes, have captured most parts of Tripoli. The rebellion against the Gaddafi regime that began nearly six months ago has finally brought about the much desired regime change in this oil-rich North African nation. The fight by the rebel forces earlier appeared to be disorganised and not strong enough to bring down the dictatorship. But with large-scale defections from the government's forces, the rebels have now surprised everybody, though pockets of resistance from Gaddafi-loyalists still remain.

Col Gaddafi's son Saif Al-Islam, who had emerged as the real ruler after the rebellion broke out, is making claims in desperation. The rebels are receiving congratulatory messages from different Western capitals. Many Arab governments have also hailed the takeover of Tripoli by the anti-Gaddafi forces. Even the Arab League chief, Nabil Al-Arabi, extended his support for the efforts to capture power by the rebel organization, the National Transitional Council. Wherever Colonel Gaddafi is hiding, he should at least now accept the will of the people and call it quits. The problem, however, with him is that he has been so power-drunk all these years that he has never bothered about what people think of his rule.

The Arab Spring that has resulted in the dethronement of another Arab dictator — after Algeria and Egypt — poses a fresh challenge for Libya. How to run the country's affairs during the transition period — from now till a democratically elected government is formed — is going to be a difficult task. Rebel leader Mustafa Abdel Jalil is being promoted by the West as the man who can be given the command of the new government. But that may not be as easy as it appears. More claimants for the top job in Libya may emerge soon. There is no democratic culture in the region. The West and the rest of the world must come to the rescue of the Libyans in their hour of crisis.

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THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

SHAMEFUL SURRENDER

BCCI HAS LET DOWN INDIAN CRICKET

In sports, defeats are routine, with somebody or the other bound to lose. But it is the competitiveness, the fighting spirit and the never-say-die attitude that draw spectators, reveal character and display skills. An improbable victory snatched from the jaws of defeat or losses by narrow margins stop hearts or fill them with unbounded joy. But the Indian cricket team's abject surrender to England in the Tests, barring the defiance by Rahul Dravid, showed neither talent nor temperament nor displayed any application or attitude. The comprehensive defeats in all the four Test matches, the first series defeat for Mahendra Singh Dhoni as skipper, also signalled the first whitewash for the Indian team in the last 11 years. Outplayed in all departments of the game, the Indian team and the Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI) have, however, shown no inclination so far to own up responsibility for the pathetic show. Dhoni's own alibi have ranged from poor luck to injuries to 'too much cricket' while the BCCI is yet to utter a single word of remorse for precipitating the most humiliating series loss in recent years.

The Indian cricket fans will undoubtedly forget the nightmare of the Test matches if India were to win the ODI ( One Day International) series that follows. But nothing can absolve the BCCI and our 'crorepati cricketers' of unprofessional conduct . While the English team is openly discussing how their pre-series planning against the Indian team paid them rich dividends, the Indian team on the field has looked bereft of ideas. Many of them appeared unconcerned about the basics of the game and many an Indian fan would have flinched to see the Nawab of Nazafgarh standing at short mid-on with his hands in his pockets as the bowler approached the crease. Getting into the Tests with a solitary practice match and arriving in England barely a week before the series, the Indian team was clearly unprepared and unfit.

Sacking coaches and dropping players are the easiest options. But the BCCI is required to make both short-term and mid-term changes in its priorities and planning. It can make a beginning by identifying and grooming different sets of cricketers for the different versions of the game.

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THE TRIBUNE

ARTICLE

STRAINS IN SINO-PAK TIES

AN OPPORTUNITY FOR INDIA

BY HARSH V. PANT

In an unusual outburst, China has for the first time publicly blamed Pakistan for the trouble in its Xinjiang province where around 20 people were killed in a flare-up a few days back. Even as the ISI chief, Lt.-Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, was visiting China, the state-run Xinhua news agency lost no time in declaring that "initial probe has shown that the heads of the group had learned skills of making explosives and firearms in overseas camps of the terrorist group East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) in Pakistan before entering Xinjiang to organise terrorist activities." It was a stinging indictment of an "all-weather friend" and the world duly took note of it.

China launched a major crackdown against Uighur Muslim separatists after massive riots in Xinjiang in 2009 between Han Chinese and minority Uighurs that resulted in the killing of almost 200 people in the region's capital, Urumqi. Xinjiang, China's Central Asian frontier bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Russia, has been a hot-bed of ethnic conflict and a sometimes violent separatist movement by Uighurs, who argue that they have been marginalised in their own land with the heavy influx of Han Chinese in the region. The Uighurs remain economically disadvantaged, suffering a long systematic policy of repression at the hands of the Chinese government. The fundamental causes of Uighur disaffection remain domestic and the tag of terrorism is merely employed by the Chinese government to provide a cover for their harsh policies.

Beijing has been pressing Pakistan to get a handle on ETIM militants for some time now, but so far it had refrained from raking this issue publicly. After all, Pakistan is a close ally of China and the two share a relationship that has been described as "higher than mountains and deeper than oceans."

Pakistan enjoys a multifaceted and deep-rooted relationship with China underpinned by mutual trust and confidence. Islamabad has prioritised close ties with China, and Beijing has provided extensive economic, military and technical assistance to Pakistan over the years. In fact, Pakistan enabled China to cultivate ties with the West, particularly the US, in the early 1970s, as Pakistan was the conduit for the then-US National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger's landmark secret visit to China in 1971 and was instrumental in bringing China closer to the larger Muslim world.

Over the years China has emerged as Pakistan's largest defence supplier. The Pakistani nuclear weapons programme is essentially an extension of the Chinese one. This is perhaps the only case where a nuclear weapon state has given weapons-grade fissile material — as well as a bomb design — to a non-nuclear weapon state. China was perhaps the only major power that openly voiced support for Pakistan after Osama bin Laden's assassination in May by publicly affirming that "Pakistan has made huge sacrifices and an important contribution to the international fight against terrorism, that its independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity must be respected, and that the international community should understand and support Pakistan's efforts to maintain domestic stability and to realise economic and social development." It is an openly stated Chinese policy that it would like to be an "all-weather strategic partner" of Pakistan.

To underscore its commitment, China has agreed, more recently, to provide Pakistan with 50 new JF-17 Thunder multi-role jets under a co-production agreement, even as negotiations continue for more fighter aircraft, including those with stealth technology. Despite this, Pakistan wanted more from China — underscored by its expressed desire to have China take over the operation of Gwadar port in the Arabian Sea, west of Karachi, in which China has invested heavily in recent years and which serves as an important role in the projection of China's naval prowess in the region. Two weeks after the Abbotabad raid that killed Bin Laden, the Pakistani Prime Minister was in China during which Pakistan's Defence Minister suggested that the port could be upgraded to a naval base for Chinese use. China, however, immediately rejected this offer, not wanting to antagonise the US and India with the formal establishment of a base in Pakistan.

It is in this context that China's latest public criticism of Pakistan should be viewed. China has for long not been sympathetic to the Indian concerns about the export of terrorism and extremism from the jihadist infrastructure in Pakistan, fully aided and abetted by the Pakistani state. Beijing did all it could to prevent the United Nations Security Council from declaring the Jamaat-ud-Dawa and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LET) as terrorist organisations. It was forced to change its position only after the terrorist attacks in Mumbai in November 2008.

Today, the strategic realities in Af-Pak are undergoing a rapid change. China has a huge stake in the stability of the region, not only because it would like to use the economic opportunities in Afghanistan and the larger Central Asian region but also because the dangers of emboldened radical Islamists are as severe for Beijing as they are for New Delhi. Since ethnic rioting in 2009 in Xinjiang, Beijing has been especially wary of radical Islam filtering in from the Central Asian nations and Pakistan and Afghanistan. Amid worries about the potential destabilising influence of Pakistani militants on its Muslim minority in Xinjiang, China has started taking a harder line against Pakistan.

This presents a unique opportunity to India to make a case to China that building a moderate Pakistan is as much in Chinese interest as it is in India's. This will also test China's true intentions towards India. Recent Chinese posturing on elections in Arunachal Pradesh and revelations that China might have been behind the biggest global cyber attacks that targeted India along with a host of other nations point to trouble ahead for Sino-Indian ties. But the deteriorating regional security environment and the rising tide of Islamist radicalism might just force Beijing to change its course towards India. There is no harm in making one last try.

The writer teaches at King's College, London.

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

STATUS UPDATE

BY VIVEK ATRAY

In current times life has been reduced to the level of a status update. Unless one constantly lets people know where one is and what one is up to, one could become totally irrelevant.

Thus the propensity of regulars on websites like Facebook to keep updating friends about their whereabouts (at times falsely) and their activities (mostly falsely) by the hour, or even by the minute. The level of these updates is often so outlandish that unsuspecting visitors to the site could come across a status like 'having a bath right now' and be suitably shocked.

'Out for golgappas' is an update that one saw recently, and one wondered what kinds of people eat golgappas in these risky monsoon days, while secretly feeling jealous of those who have the gumption to do so.

Others are more imaginative. 'Going for a movie alone…does anyone want to join me?' a young lad posted on his account recently, thereby drawing responses by the dozen from pretty-young-things who ended up having a cat-fight on the comments page before long. The boy seemed so much in demand that the house watched with bated breath as to who would win the argument. The lad himself seemed at a loss as to which contestant to choose as his date and maintained a discreet silence. No one knows whether and with whom he finally went for the film.

Some 'updaters' have great presence of mind, such as a journalist friend from Delhi who often comes up with imaginative updates and links them to the hot news of the day. He recently posted an update with a picture of his sumptuous breakfast spread, stating that while many people were going on fasts these days, he had absolutely no intention of joining them.

One middle-aged newcomer on Facebook got a rude shock last week when he updated his personal profile details and Facebook promptly declared that he was 'now married'. He has been the subject of much mirth and leg-pulling since then, with friends wondering why he'd got married again and how their 'bhabhi' of two decades was taking it!

Offline too, the demand for an update is compelling. Husbands, for example, have to update their better halves about their whereabouts a dozen times a day!

The walkers club at one of the parks has a rather drastic viewpoint. Most of its members are senior citizens and they have a hearty laugh at what the world has come to. They take life with a pinch of salt and even mock death itself. When they do not see a regular walker for a few days they wonder where he is. On such occasions one can even hear them remark: 'We didn't see his picture in the obit column either!'

Updating all and sundry on a regular basis is thus vital nowadays, else we may as well not exist!

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

WHO WINS FROM GADDAFI'S LOSS

PRECEDENTS IN AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ ARE NOT ENCOURAGING AND SERVE AS A WARNING

PATRICK COCKBURN

The civil war in Libya went on longer than expected, but the fall of Tripoli came faster than was forecast. As in Kabul in 2001 and Baghdad in 2003, there was no last-ditch stand by the defeated regime, whose supporters appear to have melted away once they saw that defeat was inevitable.

While it is clear Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has lost power, it is not certain who has gained it. The anti-regime militiamen that are now streaming into the capital were united by a common enemy, but not much else. The Transitional National Council (TNC) in Benghazi, already recognised by so many foreign states as the legitimate government of Libya, is of dubious legitimacy and authority.

There is another problem in ending the war. It has never been a straight trial of strength between two groups of Libyans because of the decisive role of Nato air strikes.

The insurgents themselves admit that without the air war waged on their behalf — with 7,459 air strikes on pro-Gaddafi targets — they would be dead or in flight. The question, therefore, remains open as to how the rebels can peaceably convert their foreign-assisted victory on the battlefield into a stable peace acceptable to all parties in Libya.

Precedents in Afghanistan and Iraq are not encouraging and serve as a warning. The anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan won military success thanks, as in Libya, to foreign air support.

They then used this temporary predominance arrogantly and disastrously to establish a regime weighted against the Pashtun community.

In Iraq, the Americans — over-confident after the easy defeat of Saddam Hussein — dissolved the Iraqi army and excluded former members of the Baath party from jobs and power, giving them little choice but to fight.

Most Iraqis were glad to see the end of Saddam Hussein, but the struggle to replace him almost destroyed the country.

Will the same thing happen in Libya? In Tripoli, as in most oil states, the government provides most jobs and many Libyans did well under the old regime. How will they now pay for being on the losing side?

The air was thick on Monday with calls from the TNC for their fighters to avoid acts of retaliation. But it was only last month that the TNC's commander-in-chief was murdered in some obscure and unexplained act of revenge.

The rebel cabinet was dissolved, and has not been reconstituted, because of its failure to investigate the killing. The TNC has produced guidelines for ruling the country post-Gaddafi, which is intended to ensure that law and order should be maintained, people fed and public services continued.

It is far too early to know if this is a piece of foreign-inspired wishful thinking or will have some beneficial effect on developments.

The Libyan government was a ramshackle organisation at the best of times, so any faltering in its effectiveness may not be too noticeable at first. But many of those celebrating in the streets of Tripoli and cheering the advancing rebel columns will expect their lives to get better, and will be disappointed if this does
not happen.

Foreign powers will probably push for steps towards forming a constituent assembly of some sort to give the new government legitimacy.

It will need to create institutions which Colonel Gaddafi largely abolished and replaced with supposedly democratic committees that, in effect, policed his quirky one-man rule. This will not be easily done.

Long-term opponents of the regime will find it difficult to share the spoils of victory with those who turned their coats at the last minute.

Some groups have been empowered by the war itself, such as the long-marginalised Berbers from the mountains south-west of Tripoli, who put together the most combat-effective militia. They will want their contribution to be recognised in any new distribution of power.

Libya does have several advantages over Afghanistan and Iraq. It is not a country with a large and desperate part of the population destitute and living on the margins of malnutrition. It does not have the same blood-soaked recent history as Afghanistan and Iraq.

For all the demonisation of Colonel Gaddafi over the last six months, his one-man rule never came near rivalling that of Saddam Hussein for savagery.

In Afghanistan and Iraq, the outside powers reacted to military success by overplaying their hands. They treated their opponents vindictively and assumed they had been defeated never to rise again. They convinced themselves that their local allies were more representative and effective than they really were.

It is in the heady moment of victory that the ingredients are created which produce future disasters. —The Independent

Out with the old, in with the new
The rebels
Leaders

Mustafa Abdul Jalil: The former regime justice minister switched sides after seeing regime forces kill protesters. As head of the rebel leadership he faces a daunting task.

Mahmoud Jibril: The diplomatic chief is seen as someone with whom the overseas leaders can do business. He has visited Brussels to discuss post-war relations with EU.

Abdul-Hafiz Ghoga: The deputy leader of the council and a former Benghazi human rights lawyer who represented families of prisoners killed at a Tripoli jail 15 years ago.

The Gaddafi regime
Muammar Gaddafi

After 42 years in power, Muammar Gaddafi was never likely to go quietly. As rebel forces moved into Tripoli, he issued a final plea to his supporters to rally to his cause.

Saif al-Islam: Once seen as the likely successor, he played an increasingly prominent role during the uprising. He now faces charges of crimes against humanity.

Khamis: Youngest son and military leader, ran a tank-led rearguard action to defend the leader's compound. Recent reports suggested his body had been found.

Mohammed: The second son, with al-Saadi, to be detained by rebels, although last night he was reported missing. He tried to distance himself from the regime.

Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi: The Prime Minister was recently reported to be on Tunisian Island of Djerba. Why, and even if, he was there remained a mystery.

Abdullah al-Senussi: Intelligence chief who also faces war crimes charges. Last seen at the weekend blaming West for the destruction. Reports, unconfirmed, said he may have also died.

Nassr al-Mabrouk Abdullah: The former interior minister slipped into Egypt to become the highest profile defector since ex-foreign minister Moussa Koussa.

Potential troubles ahead
A strong State

During his 42 years in charge, Muammar Gaddafi kept a tight grip on the political system and created an "institutional wasteland" says Middle East expert Professor Fawaz Gerges. The rebal leadership has been riven by its own disputes, including between the two most prominent military chiefs. One, Fatah Younes, was killed in murky circumstances in July, prompting the break-up of the rebel cabinet because of its failure to investigate properly.

The Islamists

Ideological differences exist between nationalists and Islamists in the anti-Gaddafi camp. Western intelligence officials reportedly expressed alarm about the rise of Islamism within the rebel leadership. Some fear that militant Islamists could exploit the security vacuum. The regime tried to exploit a split by saying it had stuck a deal with the Islamists to attack the other rebels, and that militants were behind the Younes killing.

Region/Tribes

With the destruction of the state, tribes and regional power-brokers have key roles to play in post-Gaddafi Libya. However, rebels in Misrata, the country's third city, have already refused to take orders from the Benghazi-based rebel leadership. And long-marginalised Berbers who swept down from the Nafusa mountains to take strongholds west of the capital will want their role recognised. Will the new institutions be strong enough to adjudicate disputes?

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THE TRIBUNE

OPED

SCRAMBLE FOR A STAKE IN THE NEW LIBYA

RUPERT CORNWELL

THE WORLD'S leading powers yesterday were scrambling to prevent the violent overthrow of the Gaddafi regime from descending into chaos, even as they to be handed out by a new government in Tripoli.

Last night Western diplomats had a host of concerns, ranging from how Colonel Muammar Gaddafi should be dealt with to post-revolution security and whether the rebel alliance, represented by the Transitional National Council (TNC), would hold together now that its immediate and unifying goal has been achieved.

The TNC, said President Obama, should avoid civilian casualties and pursue a transition to democracy that was "just and inclusive" for all of the people of Libya. A season of conflict, he said, "must lead to one of peace".

In London, David Cameron warned of "undoubtedly difficult days ahead" but said that ordinary Libyans were "closer to their dream of a better future".

But signs of disagreement over the fate of Colonel Gaddafi were an early hint of possible problems. Ban Ki-Moon, the United Nations secretary general, insisted that all UN member countries (of which Libya is one) should comply with the decisions of the International Criminal Court. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for Colonel Gaddafi, his son Saif al-Islam, and Abdullah al-Senussi, his head of intelligence — who was last night reported dead — for crimes against humanity. But the rebels, who have captured Saif and possibly two other Gaddafi sons, indicated that they should face trial in Libya, before a Libyan court. Later, Saif escaped.

Similar tensions may emerge over a transitional role for the UN as a new government is installed. While some Western countries might favour such a step, Mansour Saif al-Nasr, the rebel movement's spokesman in Paris, ruled out suggestions that a UN force should provide security on the ground, as well as humanitarian aid in the coming weeks.

Some of these issues could be settled at an international meeting next week of the Western "contact" powers on Libya, to be attended by top TNC figures, announced by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, which along with Britain led the Nato air support operations for the rebels.

Hardly less pressing is the reconstruction effort that will be needed after months of fighting that has caused considerable infrastructure damage and reduced the flow of oil from Libya, the world's 12th largest exporter, to a trickle. Resources will be available — the World Bank says it will quickly resume involvement with Libya, while Britain and Germany were among countries promising to unfreeze tens of billions of dollars in assets held by the old regime, to help a new government to establish order and revive the economy.

Italy, Libya's former colonial power and largest trading partner, has meanwhile sent a team to the rebels' "capital" of Benghazi to work on plans to restore oil and natural gas production to pre-war levels. The Italian energy group ENI is the largest foreign producer in Libya.

But international competition to secure a foothold in the new Libya is likely to be intense, involving not only the traditional industrial powers but also China, which has already moved to bolster its oil and raw material supplies in deals with other African countries.

—The Independent

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MUMBAI MIRROR

EDITORIAL

KAREENA, HEROINE NUMBER ONE

IN HER HEAD, OF COURSE, SHE HAS ALWAYS BEEN TOP OF THE TREE

After all that hullabaloo over pregnancy clauses and breach of contract, it now appears that Aishwarya Rai's impending motherhood is a miraculous stroke of luck for filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar. He might be reshooting his film following a forced delay and hiatus, but the new actress aboard the film could not be better cast – even if she's charging a bomb. In fact, that dramatically large payday merely strengthens her case for being the best woman for the job.

Not just does Kareena Kapoor become India's highest paid actress with a paycheck substantially larger than her peers for the upcoming Heroine, but she has negotiated her way into a significant profit-sharing deal with UTV. This makes her the first Indian actress to do so – only the Khan triumvirate and, occasionally, Akshay Kumar, it is heard – ask for a cut of the proceeds. Reportedly being paid Rs 6.4 crore straight-up plus profits, means Bebo will be pocketing quite a phenomenal chunk of change, even if the film only does moderately well.
Clear the throne, seat-warmer, Kapoor's back where she belongs.

Or, at least, where she believes she belongs: which really is more than half the battle won. Kareena sauntered into Bollywood as if she was meant to take over, a natural successor to a legacy her illustrious khandaan left her. Wrapped in a self-contained perpection of entitlement might not be the healthiest or sanest approach to life, but – if and only if – you have shoulders big enough to support a delusion that large, you indeed believe in your own magic and, abracadabra, you're it.

Over the years, Kareena has indeed honed herself as an actress, but that's not at all uncommon: in an industry tragically starved of fresh on-screen talent, most youngsters learn on the job. What Kareena brought to the mix was extreme confidence, albeit perhaps coming from misguidedly premature conviction of being the best in the biz even without knowing the biz. That cocksure superstar swagger, mostly seen in the men of the megastar species, coupled with her often-ethereal looks, made for a woman positively committed to glamour. And the thicker she poured it on, the better she worked it.
She's a star in the same way as, say, Salman Khan: constantly larger than life, hits and flops holding little sway on the public perception or star value, and someone who owns the room and is visibly proud of doing so. Her screen presence is extraordinary, and while Sallu's given up even pretending to try at acting, she's a very capable performer indeed. It's just that her strengths as an actress – spontaneity, candour, vulnerability, expressiveness – all often get overshadowed by the way she blossoms under the spotlight. I'd suspect she doesn't mind at all, so long as the hoardings look gorgeous enough. And, naturally, large enough.

Fitting, then, that Khan plays Bodyguard to her next week. And even more appropriate that Bhandarkar, who titles movies with an awe-inspiring lack of ingenuity – labelling them in a word or so to indicate just what facet of the obvious stereotype he will next exploit – has Kareena as his Heroine.

RAJA SEN

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COLUMN

WEST SIDE STORY

REALISM MUST SHAPE INDIA'S RESPONSE TO EVENTS IN WANA

With all the domestic preoccupations this week, few in India are paying attention to momentous developments in West Asia and North Africa (WANA). With the siege of Tripoli by rebel forces, aided by European powers, the bell tolls for Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. In Syria, the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) initiative to prevent a Libya-like attack and secure political change through peaceful means is now facing new obstacles. Having ensured a change of regime in Libya, after Egypt, the West may well focus on Syria. India has had long-standing good relations with Libya and Syria, but neither is of great strategic importance to India today. Rather, the Arab nations of the Gulf, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Gulf states, matter more for India from a purely economic (oil and remittances) as well as a strategic perspective. This part of the Arab world remains relatively stable for now.

India also has important strategic relations with Israel, a country that must now behave with greater maturity given that the regional balance may be shifting in its favour. Libya is not an important source of oil for India, but people-to-people relations between India and Libya have remained good and strong and the Indian government must move quickly to ensure that good relations are established with the new regime in Tripoli. China has been fleet-footed, since its dependence on Libyan oil is higher than India's. A spokesman of the Chinese Foreign Office said on Tuesday, "The Chinese side respects the choice of the Libyan people." India has maintained silence till now. Libya accounts for about 2.2 per cent of global crude oil production, while Syria's share is just about 0.5 per cent. Libya is the 11th largest source of oil imports into China but is an insignificant supplier to India with a share of just about 0.5 per cent in Indian crude oil imports. India has diversified its oil import sources in recent months, buying more from Venezuela, Iraq and Nigeria, apart from the traditionally more important sources in Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

In the end, for India the main concern over the situation in Libya and Syria is less about direct oil supplies and more about oil prices and overall economic activity in the region. If Libyan oil exits the world market in the near term, as a consequence of the instability that is likely to follow Mr Gaddafi's final exit and the inevitable regime change, global crude supplies will be hit. This would push the prices up in the near term, till new supplies can be secured. Apart from this, the continued turmoil in West Asia will hurt overall construction and other economic activity in the region, impacting inward remittances of dollars from Indians working there. All of this could push oil prices up at a time when India remains under pressure on the inflation front and its current account deficit is rising once again. Indian diplomacy in the region has vacillated between hesitant support for popular uprisings and the desire not to rub Arab opinion up the wrong way. It is in India's interest to take a long-term view of its geo-economic stake in good relations with the Arab world and adopt meaningful postures that serve her immediate and long-term economic and strategic interests.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

HALFWAY HOUSE

RATIONAL FERTILISER PRICING NEEDED FOR RATIONAL USE

The recent decision by the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) to free urea prices and bring urea under the nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime should have been taken along with the decontrol of phosphatic and potassic fertilisers in April 2010, if not earlier. In fact, the process of switching over to the well-conceived NBS system has been inconclusive without urea being covered in it. As a result, most of the key objectives of this move have remained unmet. These include promoting balanced application of plant nutrients to preserve soil health, encouraging production of innovative and situation-specific fertiliser products, rationalising fertiliser subsidy and attracting fresh investment in this sector. Surprisingly, though most of the ministries concerned – including those of agriculture and finance – favoured extending NBS to urea, the main administrative ministry, the fertiliser ministry, continued to have misgivings about it. Its main worry was that it would lead to an abnormal rise in farm gate rates of urea which might hurt farmers. However, the fact is that the rise in prices, though inevitable, would not be unreasonable since the government is not abandoning the policy of subsiding fertilisers to keep retail prices lower than the production cost. The EGoM has now decided to allow a maximum of 10 per cent increase in urea prices in the first year of decontrol, after which firms would be free to fix prices in a competitive market. For calculating subsidy under NBS for urea units using different feedstock and of varying vintage, the committee of secretaries, headed by Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri, has suggested a useful formula to the government.

However, decontrolling urea prices is only the first step in the urea sector reform. To take this process to its logical end, the government will have to address the issue of supply and pricing of gas for fertiliser production and draw up a policy to end the nearly decade-old drought of fresh investment in capacity addition. The Saumitra Chaudhuri committee report can be useful for this purpose. One suggestion that merits consideration is notional pooling of natural gas prices. This will ensure contracted prices for the public and private sector gas suppliers and a uniform feedstock cost for a level playing field for all urea units, regardless of their technology and age. The uncertainty about sustainable gas availability at reasonable prices has, in fact, been one of the reasons for the failure of the government's 2008 investment policy to attract fresh funding in this sector. Of course, there have been concerns about the implementation of the policy on parity pricing for imported urea. Since urea is a highly capital-intensive industry, investors seek assured and adequate gas availability and reasonable returns. For this, the new and expansion projects may also need some fiscal sops, such as infrastructure status or a tax holiday or concessions for the first few years. Addressing these issues would help reduce India's import dependence in urea.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COUNTERING CHINA'S ECONOMIC DOMINANCE

ACTIVE PARTICIPATION IN MULTILATERAL CO-OPERATION CAN BE INDIA'S RESPONSE TO CHINA'S GROWING ECONOMIC PRESENCE

ARVIND SUBRAMANIAN

Bismarck famously said of the United States that it had managed to "surround itself on two sides with weak neighbours and on the other two sides with fish". India, unfortunately, does not enjoy this luxury of splendid isolation: instead of fish it has Pakistan on one side and China on the other, a China that is on the verge of becoming economically dominant, sharing that status with the United States for now and enjoying it exclusively in the near future.

The India-China relationship is fraught, having to contend with a number of things: the mutual resentment created by history (India's stemming from its humiliation in the 1962 war and China's from having to endure the Dalai Lama's flight to, and long-term exile in, India); tensions of contiguity; anxieties of a hierarchical geography with upstream China controlling downstream India's access to possibly the most precious of all future resources — water; and the unavoidable rivalries of large growing economies competing for markets, commodities and seats at the high table of global decision making.

Goldman Sachs, in creating the grouping BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China), thought that the common denominators of size and promising growth prospects could somehow wish away or at least dilute these complications and create common purpose and interest. Alas, that will not be the case. So, a strategic question for India is: how should it respond in the economic arena to a dominant China?

On the one hand, trade and economic relations between China and India are intensifying, creating opportunities for both countries and mutually reinforcing stakes, and imparting a positive-sum dynamic to the relationship. On the other hand, the economic relationship is seen, politically, as increasingly imbalanced. India runs a large and growing trade deficit with China, and the pattern of trade is reminiscent of trade during the days of empire. India exports predominantly raw materials to China and imports high-value-added and sophisticated goods.

Indian industry and government officials have complained about China's policies on trade, industry, foreign direct investment and exchange rate that aid, often opaquely, Chinese industry and exports. China's government procurement policies have impeded Indian pharmaceutical exports and the fear is of a large China using its size to create and set standards (for example, for telecommunications equipment) that others have no choice but to follow. Not just the content but even the tone of these complaints can resemble the emanations from the China hawks in the United States.

India, like China's other major trading partners, has to grapple with the question of how much it should engage with China bilaterally and how much multilaterally. India's dilemma is that its negotiating strength in a bilateral context is limited owing to the stark imbalance in economic size, yet it is unable to embrace multilateralism as conviction, preferring a reluctant and opportunistic multilateralism that can end up as ineffective multilateralism. Why the latter?

India has been a habitual naysayer in its multilateral dealings. It was a "sovereignty hawk", in Strobe Talbott's famous words, trying its best to minimise having to do what it would otherwise not want to do. In the trading system, for example, India lobbied hard and strong over the past three decades to preserve the right to protect its economy through tariffs and quotas. Sovereignty, in this arena, was equivalent to the freedom to protect or prevent the imposition of rules and obligations that would deprive India of this freedom. Of course, this objective, in turn, flowed from an economic ideology that initially viewed liberalisation and market opening as unhelpful to India's interests, and later, when it recognised the benefits of liberalisation, it still viewed it as something to be undertaken at India's pace and on India's terms rather than have it dictated by outsiders.

But if India was a naysayer, it was one with a following with the old G77 serving as a forum for India to intellectually lead, and speak on behalf of, several developing countries. Leading this pack became a habit, a mindset, even an entitlement.

In recent years, as India's ideological moorings have shifted, it has been able, although gradually and episodically, to back away from playing the recalcitrant partner, stymieing efforts at international cooperation (Jairam Ramesh's constructive role in the climate negotiations at Cancun is one example). But its officials have been less able to renounce the mantle of leadership, and hence less willing to join multilateral coalitions where leadership is shared or even sacrificed. In short, it has been easier to repudiate ideology than to spurn the spotlight.

As a result, India finds itself in an interesting situation. For example, in discussions on China's exchange rate policy, India has chosen not to align itself with the United States as part of a multilateral coalition for fear of endangering the broader relationship with China ("we live in a rough neighbourhood" is India's response with some merit), and because it believes that the United States can "handle" China alone without India's participation. The consequence, of course, is the classic free rider problem where all countries that think similar contribute to the breakdown of co-operation.

Even where the need for forging coalitions is recognised, the Indian instinct is still to seek out developing country partners such as South Africa, Brazil, or Indonesia rather than the United States and Europe.

If China is to be tethered to the multilateral system – an imperative for countries such as India against an unbenign exercise of future Chinese dominance – India must become part of the effort to forge successful coalitions that will strengthen multilateralism. Going forward, the United States cannot do it alone. Coalitions must be broad and require easy engagement between the old powers and emerging ones. Thus, India must become a visceral multilateralist which would entail coming to terms with a demotion in status and require reaching out to all partners, not just erstwhile comrades in the G77.

The appealing symmetry in future efforts to engage China is to induce a greater humility in both the United States and India. The United States will have to spurn the temptation – rather shed the delusion – that it can exercise exclusive leadership and dominance in shaping outcomes. India will have to stop coveting the mantle of leadership and instead participate in multilateral co-operation as an important but humble drone rather than as the queen bee.

The author is senior fellow, Peterson Institute for International Economics and Centre for Global Development.
This piece is based on his forthcoming book,
Eclipse:Living in the Shadow of China's Economic Dominance

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

WHERE ARE THE CONGRESS LEADERS?

THE MANNER IN WHICH THE MANMOHAN SINGH GOVERNMENT IS FUNCTIONING SEEMS TO SUGGEST THAT IT HAS BECOME A RULING ALLIANCE WITHOUT LEADERS

A K BHATTACHARYA

The government's decision yesterday to nominate Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee as its chief negotiator to hold talks with Anna Hazare should expedite an early resolution of the stalemate over the Lok Pal Bill. However, the decision is also likely to trigger a question that would surely embarrass the top leadership of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. Why did it appear that the government dragged its feet over using the services of Pranab Mukherjee, the UPA's most experienced politician and administrator, to defuse the crisis caused by the Hazare agitation?

Indeed, since the arrest of Mr Hazare on August 16 and the order of his release the same evening, several key ministers in the UPA government appear to have gone into hiding. Until August 16, you could watch them on television and read about their views in newspapers. No longer, after the government committed its biggest blunder in recent times — by first facilitating Mr Hazare's arrest, then realising its mistake and ensuring the order for his release in less than 24 hours.

Even before the August 16 fiasco, the role of some UPA ministers had become intriguing. None of the ministers belonging to the non-Congress alliance partners associated themselves with the government in its bid to tackle the Hazare challenge. Trinamool Congress leaders stayed away from such consultations, barring a statement from Mamata Banerjee extending support to the prime minister. So did the Nationalist Congress Party leaders. Leaders of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam had already become quiet after the arrest of one of its ministers in the UPA government. The message that came out loud and clear from this was that the Congress alone, and none of its alliance partners, would come together to respond to the Hazare movement against corruption.

That was the first stage where the Congress became isolated within the UPA. This was ironic because Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier attempted to rationalise irregularities, particularly in the 2G telecom scandal, by claiming that these arose out of the compulsions of keeping an alliance government intact. Indeed, charges of corruption were levelled primarily against ministers belonging to the non-Congress coalition parties.

Within the Congress, a few ministers experienced a different kind of isolation. Mr Mukherjee appeared to have withdrawn himself from such issues ever since he came under criticism for having gone to New Delhi airport to meet the yoga guru, Ramdev. The idea of that meeting was to persuade Ramdev against holding his agitation against a host of issues including corruption at the Ramlila grounds in New Delhi. That was a risky move. If he had succeeded, nobody in the Congress or outside would have raised an eyebrow. In politics, failure is an orphan. Thus, Mr Mukherjee had to eat humble pie.

In contrast, Home Minister P Chidambaram and Telecom and Human Resources Development Minister Kapil Sibal had emerged as the new stars of the Congress. Law enforcement agencies used force to throw out the followers of Ramdev from the Ramlila grounds at night. The police later apprehended Ramdev while he tried to run away from the venue of the agitation and packed him off to Hardwar. That was the end of Ramdev's campaign against the government.

Mr Hazare posed a different and more formidable challenge. The Congress leadership made a big mistake by assuming that it could handle Mr Hazare the same way it took care of Ramdev. His arrest on August 16 changed the contours of the debate. The popular mood turned against the government not so much for the issues concerning the Lok Pal Bill as for the manner in which Mr Hazare was arrested for merely threatening to violate the police orders. It goes to the credit of the team behind Mr Hazare that it lost no time in exploiting that opportunity to the hilt, helped in large measure by the UPA government of Manmohan Singh which seemed to be bereft of ideas to tackle the Hazare challenge.

It was not just Pranab Mukherjee, several other senior Congress leaders may have felt the same way. What use did the government make of A K Antony, defence minister and a member of the core group of the Congress party? Neither Mr Mukherjee nor Mr Antony could be seen explaining the government's position on the matter. The irony is that the Congress has many stalwarts who could effectively present the party's case on the Lok Pal Bill. There is Veerappa Moily, Salman Khurshid and Jairam Ramesh, just to name a few. However, the manner in which the Manmohan Singh government functioned seemed to suggest that it had become a ruling alliance without leaders. Only from yesterday did it appear that the government indeed had these ministers at its disposal to defend and explain its position on the issue.

One explanation of such listless, and often rudderless, government functioning could be the absence of Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is abroad recuperating from an illness. Remember that the Hazare challenge is perhaps the biggest the UPA has faced in its entire seven-year long history and Ms Gandhi is not around to advise the government. If that indeed is the case, then the Congress is in deep crisis and Sonia Gandhi must be having sleepless nights.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

EXCESS OF SUNLIGHT

THE SUPREME COURT WARNS AGAINST THE OVERUSE OF RTI

M J ANTONY

Ardent admirers of the Supreme Court will credit it with starting three revolutions in the past three decades. In the 1980s the public interest litigation (PIL) movement opened the doors of the court to every citizen, especially those who could not reach it due to poverty, illiteracy or backwardness.

Around the same time, the court sowed the seeds of citizens' right to know in a few judgments, asserting that sunlight is the best disinfectant. This led to the Right to Information (RTI) Act.

The third wave, the creation of an anti-corruption mechanism, also germinated in the court room, when the hawala cases, the 2G scam and other mega swindles led to momentous orders.

Like all revolutions, they have a tendency to overshoot themselves and lead to unintended results. PIL has grown into a wild bush and the courts are now trimming its branches and punishing interlopers and frivolous petitioners. Last week, the Supreme Court found that the right to information was also going too far. In a judgment, Central Board vs Aditya, the court stated that "this cherished right is intended to be a formidable tool in the hands of responsible citizens to fight corruption and to bring in transparency and accountability."

However, it warned that indiscriminate and impractical demands or directions for disclosure of all and sundry information (unrelated to transparency and accountability in the functioning of public authorities and eradication of corruption) would be counter-productive as it will adversely affect the efficiency of the administration and result in the executive getting bogged down with the non-productive work of collecting and furnishing information. The Act should not be allowed to be misused or abused, to become a tool to obstruct national development and integration, or to destroy the peace, tranquillity and harmony among its citizens. Nor should it be converted into a tool of oppression or intimidation of honest officials striving to do their duty.

"The nation does not want a scenario where 75 per cent of the staff of public authorities spends 75 per cent of their time in collecting and furnishing information to applicants instead of discharging their regular duties. The threat of penalties under the RTI Act and the pressure of the authorities under the RTI Act should not lead to employees of public authorities prioritising 'information furnishing', at the cost of their normal and regular duties," the court said

Last year, the court dismissed an appeal in which a litigant who lost his property suit in all courts below wanted information as to why and for what reasons the judges had come to their decision against him. "A judge is not bound to explain later on for what reasons he had come to such a conclusion," the judgment in Khanapuram vs Admn Officer said.

Some high courts also receive petitions that seek irrelevant information or to settle scores against public officials. One case was decided by the Delhi High Court recently in which the judgment opened with a lament on the "maladroit manner in which a beneficial legislation and judge-made law" was used to mortify a deputy commissioner of the municipal corporation. In this case, Paardarshita Public Welfare Foundation vs Union of India, a non-government organisation sought information on the official's alleged sexual disorders, DNA test, hospital records on alleged piles and sterilisation surgery. This was only half of its litany of demands.

The high court dismissed its application with costs, which will go to the benefit of the Blind Relief Association. The judgment stated that the petition was "beyond the perception of decency and in fact invasion of privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. It is a reflection of extreme vengeance proclivity and is in bad taste and definitely would not come within the realm of the RTI Act."

The Supreme Court judgment last week dealt with the right of examinees to access their evaluated answer-sheets. The court held that students have a right to see their answer sheets because it is "information". It is not in the protected category listed in the Act. The Calcutta High Court had also taken the same view before in this appeal case.

However, the Jharkhand High Court has a different take on this. In its recent judgment, Jharkhand PSC vs State of Jharkhand, it ruled that it was dangerous to disclose evaluated answer-sheets. The information will reveal the names of the examiners, supervisors and others associated with the process of the examination. It will "endanger the life and physical safety of such persons."

The Chhattisgarh High Court also upheld the decision of the information officer not to supply answer sheets of police constables participating in departmental promotion. The high court stated that the disclosure would be harmful to the competitive position of other candidates. The Patna High Court in another recent case stated that the names of members of the interview board to recruit police lab assistants could be disclosed, but their photographs or residential addresses should not be disclosed. The high court judges seem to know the ground situation in their territory better than the Supreme Court brethren, who have their heads apparently in the clouds.

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BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

DOING MORE WITH LESS

INDIA DOESN'T NEED LARGE SAMPLE SURVEYS TO GENERATE BETTER ESTIMATES

LAVEESH BHANDARI

From sampling to surveying to estimating, the the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) continues to use methods that are consistent across time. However, the economic structure is changing and so is the proclivity of Indian households to respond to surveys. Methods that were developed in the past will not work as well now, and these methods need to change. The changes will require innovative practices that will need to be developed not just in research institutions such as the Indian Statistical Institute, but also within the Central Statistical Organisation and NSSO.

Take sampling, which requires the survey agency to randomly choose from all households in the country. But in an era where temporary and permanent migration is rampant, the base data need to be updated very frequently. Such updated data do not exist all the time. The Census develops a universal list every 10 years that gets dated even before it is released. The Election Commission's list is supposed to be close to universal, but in practice rarely is. Unique Identification (UID) will have universal coverage after many years. In the past when the numbers were smaller, it was easier to overlook this problem, but now it is much more serious.

Are there solutions? Yes there are, and we need to identify such possibilities and develop new methods that incorporate them. Take remote sensing data, which can help us identify where new habitations are coming up on a real-time basis. The triangulation of mobile usage can help us identify the major centres of mobile usage and consequently human presence. Admittedly, methods may not currently exist to use such information, but the tools of collecting such information do exist, and new methods can be developed.

The need for having a lot of information has led to a very large questionnaire that can take hours to respond to and consequently many households refuse. Detailed item-by-item queries running into thousands are impossible for anyone to recall and respond to. Respondents, rich or poor, who have other more important things to do, will obviously refuse or fudge. Some researchers reward households for taking the time to respond. Yet other methods involve multiple questionnaires with one set of queries that are asked of all households, and other questions asked to only some households. Econometric methods then can be used to help generate a common set of estimates. These are just some among many experiments that need to be tried.

Policy-makers love the five-yearly large sample surveys that have greater than 100,000 respondents. The annual "small sample" surveys of as many as 40,000 or 50,000 respondents are rarely used. Why? Because 50,000 households is considered a small sample. Time and again, basic statistics has shown that you don't need such a large sample. And increasing sample size beyond a few thousands does not generate significantly better estimates. People who have directly managed large surveys will tell you that the larger the sample size, the tougher it is to maintain quality. Large surveys requires large teams, greater monitoring and control, and there are control losses across each hierarchical level. In other words, large samples typically have lower data quality than small samples when you are in the range of tens of thousands. (Of course we cannot obtain dis-aggregated estimates, for instance, at the sub-state level, but currently we have a problem at the all-India level. Let's solve that problem first.)

In other words, we should try to reduce the sample size as much as is possible. And the resources so saved need to be put into ensuring better quality sampling, questionnaires, responses and methods to convert those responses into estimates.

To underscore the same point, currently the small sample surveys generate results that vary greatly year on year, poverty being one example. That is obvious. There are millions of people in very close vicinity of the poverty line, and so small changes in the poverty line can have a very large impact on poverty. The yearly fluctuation in estimates of poverty is natural and not necessarily a flaw in the underlying data-generating process. But even if there is a problem in that process, it is that process that needs to be strengthened.

A related aspect is on price index and inflation estimates. Good and timely inflation estimates are required not just for monetary policy purposes but also for estimating poverty. Collection of price data of a predefined set of commodities is among the easiest data collection tasks. But we have a large number of items that are not updated regularly, there are missing data, and reported prices do not appear to be in line with the ruling prices. In short, the problem is the same — we need to invest in control and monitoring of this system.

But there is an additional problem. The government already collects masses of information that is just not used. The ministry of corporate affairs collects company financials, the ministry of commerce collects information on exports and imports but only releases highly aggregated numbers many months after collection, the Provident Fund organisation collects data on employment, the Reserve Bank of India on credit and deposits and so on. But these data are either not used, or released with such a major time lag that not much can be done to feed into policy. The Census also makes it impossible for unconnected researchers to access its raw data. All of this data can help cross-check, calibrate, and fine-tune the data being generated on the Indian economy by other arms of the government.

Finally, the data collection machinery needs to go back to its roots and reconnect with the era where innovation ruled and highly structured administrative mechanisms had not killed initiative. The best minds entered such organisations, were mentored, and they created something unlike anywhere else in the world. We can do it now if we could do it in the past.

Concluded. The first in this series "Wanted: New ways to figure the facts" appeared on August 6. And the second part "Mis-reading the numbers" appeared on August 13

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

ELEMENTARY, WATSON!

AGGRESSIVE LENDING IN THE DOWNTURN LED TO RISE IN BANKS' NON-PERFORMING ASSETS

As you sow, so must you reap' might sound like an old-world saying far removed from the modern world of banking. But some truths are eternal. So public sector banks (PSBs) are, perhaps, realising! Having lent aggressively at the government's behest to shore up the economy in the aftermath of the 2008 global crisis, the chickens are now coming home to roost! Gross nonperforming assets (NPAs) have already risen in the last quarter on a quarter-on-quarter basis and if, as feared, there is a slowdown in the growth momentum, could rise further. The country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) has seen its NPAs grow to 3.52% in the last quarter against 3.14% on a quarter-on-quarter basis. It is not alone. In contrast, private sector banks are sitting pretty. Unlike their public sector brethren, they were able to use their commercial judgment (read, be conservative in their lending during the downturn). It is no surprise, therefore, that the problem of rising NPAs is largely limited to PSBs. Nonetheless, given their dominance in the banking sector, the overall level of NPAs is bound to increase as rising interest rates and increasing input costs take their toll. Add to that the prospect of a slowdown in GDP growth — the baseline projection is now 8.2% compared to 8.5% in the previous year — and you have a recipe for a further increase in NPAs. Inevitably, the Bankex (stock market index of banks' shares) has fallen more than Sensex, reflecting fears that banks will be relatively more severely affected by any slowdown in growth.

The good news, however, is that despite the rise in NPAs, Indian banks, including PSBs, are in a far better shape than a few years ago. Part of the credit must go to prudent provisioning as a result of which the rise in net NPAs (gross NPAs less provision) is far less alarming than in gross NPAs. And part, to helpful tweaking of the definition of NPAs! In the coming months, if banks continue to feel the crunch, the RBI might be tempted to indulge in more such tweaking. But that would be unwise. It would be better, by far, if the government were to allow PSBs to function on commercial lines in the first instance, instead of resorting to smoke and mirrors later.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

ENDGAME IN LIBYA

A UNITED, DEMOCRATIC STATE WILL BE HEARTENING FOR THE ENTIRE ARAB WORLD

Though initial reports about the fall of Tripoli and the arrest of Colonel Gaddafi's sons appear presumptuous, and fighting has flared up with pockets held by forces loyal to Gaddafi still resisting the rebels, it appears as if the endgame in the Libyan conflict has arrived. The stunning entry of opposition forces into Tripoli — given that at one point the war seemed like it would turn into a stalemate with even the unsavoury prospect of a divided country looming — heralds another historic moment in the Arab world, which has seen sweeping rebellions against seemingly unassailable authoritarian regimes. The best option even now, to avoid further bloodshed, would be for Gaddafi and his sons to accept the revolution and either surrender or seek an exit. Failing that, the task before the opposition Transitional National Council would be to ensure, once Tripoli is under its control, that a functional government takes shape and no reprisals are carried out against the Gaddafi regime's supporters and his clan members. The problem in Libya is that it is a much more clan/tribe-based society than, say, Tunisia or Egypt. But it is hoped the opposition, which steadfastly refused international military presence on the ground — though undeniably aided by air support from western nations — will soon proceed with the much-needed establishment of political parties, institution-building and national reconciliation.
It was clear that the eccentric and, in recent times, increasingly irrational Gaddafi regime would not give up easily. But what seems to have undone it was a sort of mass uprising within Tripoli as the opposition forces streamed in. Also, apart from the fact that Libyan diplomats and politicians had defected in droves, members of the regime's army also seem to have deserted regularly. It is to be hoped that violence would end quickly. And it will be immensely heartening for the entire Arab world if a country that was run like a familial-tribal fiefdom transforms into a democratically functioning state. India must welcome the end of the Gaddafi regime and do what it can towards making that democratic state a reality.

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

JUSTICE DENIED!

IS IT ONLY POLITICIANS WHO MATTER IN THIS DAY AND AGE?

When the senior Supreme Court judge Justice Altamas Kabir checked in at the official Kumara Krupa Guest House in Bangalore on the night of August 5, an attendant directed him to an ordinary room instead of the VVIP suite allotted to him. Justice Kabir, who had come to preside over the convocation of the prestigious National Law School University of India in his capacity as the NLSUI chancellor, had opted to stay at the state guest-house instead of at a five-star hotel. However, the room he got at Kumara Krupa was shabby, the bedsheets were stained and the toilet-towels torn. The next morning when the matter was brought to the notice of Karnataka Chief Justice J S Kehar, the state chief secretary SV Ranganath and another senior official rushed to the guest-house and ensured that Justice Kabir was shifted to the VVIP room.

But questions remain to be answered. While four staffers, including the attendant at the reception, have been suspended, shouldn't action also be taken against those senior officials who are responsible and accountable for the behaviour of their subordinates? The other question is whether the basic standards of cleanliness should be missing from the non-VVIP rooms in state guest-houses. This incident, coming as it does in the wake of the Lokayukta report on the major mining scam in Karnataka, further highlights the extent to which standards of administration have deteriorated. In the good old days, the then Diwan of the princely state of Mysore, Sir M Visvesvaraya, refused to use the office pen and stationery for personal work even when he was touring on official duty and staying in the state guest-houses. The region has since been transformed into India's Silicon Valley but standards of governance have sadly plummeted!

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

ON A HISTORICAL PARALLEL

INDIA'S RUSH TO SOCIALISM BETWEEN 1969 AND 1976 HOLDS UP A MIRROR TO THE LAST SEVEN YEARS OF HALTING REFORM

The story of India's march to socialism between 1969 and 1976 under Prime Minister Indira Gandhi offers an interesting parallel (and contrast) to the last seven years. Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, who succeeded Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, unexpectedly died in January 1966. The Congress party bosses, known as the Syndicate, chose lightweight Mrs Gandhi over rival Morarji Desai in the hope of continuing to rule the country by proxy.

In the February 1967 elections, the Congress fared poorly, winning just 283 out of 516 seats in the Lok Sabha. Morarji Desai won his seat with substantial following in the new Parliament. This forced the Syndicate and Mrs Gandhi to accept a compromise whereby Desai became deputy prime minister and finance minister. A group of radical socialists, loosely organised under the Congress Forum for Socialist Action, had been active within the Congress since the late 1950s but without influence on policy. So long as he was Nehru was alive, his pragmatism prevailed and after him the Syndicate, which was more sympathetic to business, kept them at bay. But by 1967, some firebrand radicals known as the Young Turks had begun to make their influence felt.
Coincidentally, Mrs Gandhi was keen to challenge the authority of the Syndicate following the election. But she lacked the necessary political base. While she is said to have had no strong views on socialism yet (according to historian Ramachandra Guha, she had "rarely invoked the word 'socialist' before 1967"), her principal secretary P N Haksar was a doctrinaire leftist. Perhaps on his advice, she decided to make a common cause with these young socialists, helping them push their Ten-point Programme through the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in June 1967. Fearing that opposition by them may split the party and leave them without power, Syndicate bosses played along. The implementable agenda in the Ten-point Programme was long on curbing the wealthy, short on aiding the poor. It sought social control of banking institutions; nationalisation of general insurance; nationalisation of export and import trade; public distribution of foodgrain; curbs on monopolies and concentration of economic power; limits on urban incomes and property; better implementation of land reform; and an end to princely privileges and privy purses.

Rather than social control, the Young Turks had sought nationalisation of banks. But Mrs Gandhi, who had different political goals, demurred. For now, she preferred to let Desai take the lead and establish social control. A parliamentary Act toward this end was passed in 1968, which the Young Turks saw as wholly reflecting the views of Desai. Until as late as April 1969, when the AICC met in Faridabad, Mrs Gandhi publicly opposed nationalisation. But the death of President Zakir Hussain in May 1969, which threw open the question of the nomination of the Congress candidate for presidential election, brought to a head the conflict between the Syndicate and Mrs Gandhi. The decision on the candidate was to be made by the Congress Parliamentary Board (CPB) at the July 10-12, 1969 AICC session. Recognising that she lacked the votes in the CPB to see her candidate through, Mrs Gandhi acted strategically. She took a 180-degree turn and sought a resolution for the nationalisation of the major banks. To avoid direct public confrontation, the Syndicate once again acquiesced and the AICC passed the necessary resolution.

With the resolution in hand, Mrs Gandhi moved swiftly. She stripped Desai of the finance portfolio on July 16 and promulgated an ordinance nationalising 14 largest banks on July 19, 1969. The move eventually split the Congress, but 220 Lok Sabha members stayed with Mrs Gandhi. Two communist parties provided the balance of the votes necessary for majority.

The nationalisation made Mrs Gandhi an instant national hero, leading her to fully own the socialist agenda. The radical socialists had, thus, scored complete victory. In the following years, Mrs Gandhi nationalised insurance, coal mines and oil industry; severely restricted investments by large firms under the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969; reserved many labour-intensive products for exclusive manufacture by small-scale enterprises; tightened controls on exports and imports; nearly banned foreign investment under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act, 1973; effectively denied the firms with 100 or more workers the right to layoff workers; and severely limited the ownership of urban land under the Urban Land Ceilings Act, 1976.
The results were devastating: per-capita income rose from . 775 per month in 1969-70 to just . 815 per month in 1976-77 at 1999-2000 prices. The average per-capita income growth during the period was just 0.8% with no reduction in poverty achieved. India had lost almost an entire decade.

It was not until 1991 that socialists were forced into retreat. The reforms during the 1990s and early 2000s undid some of what had been done between 1969 and 1976. But history repeated itself in 2004. The reformist government of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee lost the election and the Congress came to power, once again with the aid of communist parties. This returned the socialists within the Congress to the forefront of policymaking but with a difference. The debacle under Mrs Gandhi and accelerated growth in the 1980s and 1990s had taught them the value of growth. They now understood that growth brings larger revenues so essential for large-scale social programmes. Therefore, even though they would not push growth-centered reform agenda, they resisted the instinct to curb the incentives for wealth creation that the past reforms had put in place. Nevertheless, a lacuna remained: they still did not appreciate that social sector required reforms, too. Social engineering is more than just spending money on social programmes.

ARVIND PANAGARIYA

PROFESSOR, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

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THE ECONOMIC TIMES

GUEST COLUMN

POTENTIAL OF MASS MOVEMENTS

C P BHAMBHRI

Anna Hazare's agitation in defence of his version of the Lokpal Bill seems to have revived public memories of the 1974-75 Jayaprakash Narayan-led anti-corruption mass agitation, especially among the new generation of technology-driven middle class youth in metropolitan towns of India. But can Anna Hazare's anti-corruption crusade become a benchmark comparable with the historical mass mobilisation movements launched by Gandhi from 1920 to 1947 or the one popularly known as the JP movement of 1974-75? A mass movement has to be distinguished from political mobilisation undertaken by every political party in a competitive democracy because, unlike parties which mobilise their voters and supporters for winning an election, people's movements are launched for cleansing the system of its fundamental ills. Gandhi prepared Indians to fight the struggle for Independence and for this mass struggle he created a united social bloc of castes, classes, religions, regions and women. The Gandhian movement was socially broad-based and inclusive of all major group identities of the country. The JP movement, unlike Gandhi's struggles, had a limited reach, where he raised anti-corruption issues facing India.

Further, JP, unlike Gandhi, had no mass base of his own, and he led the movement on the basis of cadre provided by Lohia socialists, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Jan Sangh. Essentially, JP launched a movement on the corruption issue primarily directed against Indira Gandhi as an individual and as a leader of a corrupt party and government.

The lesson from the JP movement is that a large-scale mass movement has to be a product of preceding small-scale mobilisations as Gandhi did from the 1920s to 1947. Anna Hazare's movement has some salient features that are a replication of the JP movement, but it has nothing in common with Gandhian movements. Hazare's movement has spread in towns and cities, especially after his arrest by Delhi Police on August 16 and angry people have come out on the road in support of him. It is a repeat story, because the JP movement had assumed an all-India status only when the Allahabad High Court judgment of June 1975 set aside the election of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

This support of the urban middle and lower middle class to Hazare is not only because of his anti-corruption crusade but because it is also an expression of their general frustration with the existing situation for which the easy whipping boy is the Manmohan Singh government. Further, Hazare himself and many of his supporters on the streets are targeting corrupt politicians, but in reality they are themselves apolitical, even anti-politics, in their daily life and ideological value system. Hazare has debunked the system of elections by publicly stating that 'elections are won by bribing the voter' and his complete lack of faith in the democratic process of India can be summed up in his oft-repeated statement that 'the transfer of power after 1947 was from the 'white' to the 'brown' and 'black' Indians and 'nothing has changed during the last 64 years of India's Independence'.
Further, unlike Gandhi, Hazare who has no faith in democracy, has adopted 'fascistic methods' to get a seal of approval by Parliament for his demand. This has nothing to do with Gandhian movements because Gandhi suspended his movements and never feared to negotiate with the colonial rulers. Anna, like JP, has been compelled to depend on the mobilisation machine of the Sangh Parivar and its communal-fascist cadre of the RSS. The BJP within Parliament and the whole joint family of the Sangh Parivar on the streets are providing the whole structure of support to keep the pot boiling to stigmatise the Congress, its main rival in politics.
Gandhi's movements had a long-term impact on Indian public life, Hazare's movement, like the JP movement, has political consequences and its impact will be felt only in electoral politics. The age of large-scale united all-India mass movements has come to an end because a socially and regionally fragmented country will have, and has been, witnessing local/regional movements or caste-based movements. Our national identity, which was created by Gandhian struggles from Kohima to Peshawar, has been pushed to the background by movements launched by 'fragments' on particularist demands of sections of society. Political competition among parties around 'local grievances' has become the reality of democratic India. It is no one's case that 'politics' will be missing from social movements; the only issue, as raised by the German philosopher Habermas, is that every social movement should be critically evaluated on the basis of its leadership, its social base, and the social cause pursued by the leaders. On the basis of the analytical yardstick suggested by Habermas, Hazare's movement and the social support generated by it clearly reveals that the communal-fascist Sangh Parivar is the main driver of this movement.

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EDITORIAL SAMARTH

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Wednesday, August 24, 2011

EDITORIAL 24.08.11