EDITORIAL SAMARTH: EDITORIAL 05.09.11

Please contact the list owner of subscription and unsubscription at: editorial@samarth.co.in

media watch with peoples input an organization of rastriya abhyudaya

Editorial

month september 05, edition 000828 , collected & managed by durgesh kumar mishra, published by – manish manjul

Editorial is syndication of all daily- published newspaper Editorial at one place.

For ENGLISH EDITORIAL http://editorialsamarth.blogspot.com

THE TIMES OF INDIA

TURN THE CORNER
TRANSFORM OR PERISH
PLAYING THE WRONG GAME - BORIA MAJUMDAR
'A COMPUTER CANNOT MATCH THE NOVELTY AND WIT OF A TEACHER' - FIROZ BAKHT AHMED
GODLY GRAFT - JUG SURAIYA

HINDUSTAN TIMES

TAKE THE BULL BY ITS HORNS
SAYING IT AS IT IS
NEVER A PEOPLE'S PERSON - JAYATSEN BHATTACHARYA
KEEPING A RECORD OF OUR PAST - SARATH S PILLAI
AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB - SUMIT MITRA

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

NO BLUSHING
EASTWARD MOMENTUM
SIXTH TIME LUCKY?
A NEW NORMAL?
SHADES OF HUMANISM
DARK OCTOBER, BLACK NOVEMBER
WHEN TELEVISION WAS REVOLUTIONISED
LOOKING DC, TALKING TOKYO - ASHOK PARTHASARATHI
HOW TO FIGHT AN IDEA - H.D.S. GREENAWAY

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

MY-DEFINITION WARS
A TIME TO SPEND?
EAT CAKE, PAY TAX - AMITENDU PALIT
PRUNE THAT NEGATIVE LIST - M GOVINDA RAO

THE HINDU

PRINT MEDIA DO BETTER THAN TV: COVERAGE OF HAZARE FAST
U.N. CHIEF SOUNDS CLIMATE ALARM IN SOLOMONS VISIT
CUBAN SCIENTISTS DEVELOP OIL WASTE TREATMENT WITH BACTERIA
BRIEF WORKOUTS COUNT
SO, WAS THIS A WAR FOR OIL? - TERRY MACALISTER
NEW CONSERVATISM IN EUROPE IMPEDES TWO OF ITS NATIONS - SUZANNE DALEY
THE LOKPAL AND THE CBI - R.K. RAGHAVAN

THE ASIAN AGE

USE COMMON SENSE,NOT TECHNICALITIES
INDIA MUST BRIDGE THE TRUST DEFICIT - INDRANIL BANERJIE

DAILY EXCELSIOR

DOWRY MENACE
ON PRA
TEACHING IS A MISSION - BY DR (MRS) VISHIESH VERMA
BUILD MORE POWER CENTERS - BY DR BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA
IMPLEMENT POLICE REFORMS - BY JOGINDER SINGH

THE TRIBUNE

BOOST FOR DELHI-DHAKA TIES
SIKH MARRIAGES
ASS THEY SAY!
INDIA, B'DESH MOVING CLOSER - BY MAHARAJAKRISHNA RASGOTRA & JOYEETA BHATTACHARJEE
A RARE SCHOLAR - BY SYED NOORUZZAMAN
FINALLY, AN UPRISING AGAINST GRAFT - S.L. SHARMA
WE, THE PEOPLE, MATTER - MOHIT SHARMA

MUMBAI MIRROR

TURKEYS DON'T VOTE FOR CHRISTMAS

BUSINESS STANDARD

WEAVING A FRIENDSHIP
DOUBLE DIGITS AGAIN
IS THE FEASIBLE ALSO REACHABLE? - SANJAYA BARU
A PROMISE OF LIQUIDITY
CHINA'S GREAT REBALANCING ACT - EVAN A FEIGENBAUM

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

BLACK OUT
TWEAK IT
RAIL BONDS
NO CHILD OR TEACHER LEFT BEHIND - MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH
RIDING ON INDIA'S AUTO BOOM
GOURI AGTEY ATHALE
A TRAIN OF THOUGHT - RAGHU KRISHNAN

BUSINESS LINE

TEA BADLY BREWED
FEELING NEGLECTED
REACHING OUT TO, AND WINNING OVER, PEOPLE - B.S.RAGHAVAN
A MEET THAT COULD RAISE SAARC HOPES - ASHWINI PHADNIS
LET GENDER JUSTICE PREVAIL - MOHAN MURTI
A POLICY READING OF RBI'S BOOKS - K.KANAGASABAPATHY
'WE ARE PLAYING THE GAME OF LAST MAN STANDING' - RAGHUVIR SRINIVASAN

DECCAN CHRONICAL

INDIA MUST BRIDGE THE TRUST DEFICIT
USE COMMON SENSE, NOT TECHNICALITIES
A LIBYAN PRISONER LIVES TO TELL HIS STORY
GODDESS OF SMALL CHANGES
LIVE, LOVE LIKE MOTHER TERESA

THE STATESMAN

PAK-PIRACY NEXUS?
RURAL MIGRATION
TRUTH ABOUT SYRIA
THREE CROWN JEWELS~II
ART SHOW THAT'S DRIVEN BANSKY UP THE WALL
THREE CROWN JEWELS~II

THE TELEGRAPH

QUICK ACTION
SMALL FACTS
BALANCE OF POWER - S.L. RAO
LEARN TO FOLLOW - ARABINDA RAY

DECCAN HERALD

ABUSING PRIVILEGE
END THE TIFF
LET GO OF SPORTS - M J AKBAR

OHERALDO

CELEBRATING TEACHERS' DAY
JAN LOKPAL: IS IT THE ONLY WAY FORWARD? - SAIFUZ ZAMAN

HAARETZ

A FAIR AGREEMENT
TURKISH RED ALERT - BY AKIVA ELDAR
BETWEEN TWO LANGUAGES - BY MERAV MICHAELI
GASOLINE FUMES IN THE AIR - BY SHAUL ARIELI
WHICH PEOPLE, WHAT JUSTICE? - BY SALMAN MASALHA

TIMES FREE PRESS

LABOR DAY, 2011
LITERACY AND THE FUTURE
U.S. GROWTH FORECASTS DOWNGRADED
HEALTH CARE LAW THREATENS JOB CREATION
BOGUS MEDICAL MALPRACTICE LAWSUITS COSTLY

HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

TURKEY, ISRAEL: QUO VADIMUS?
INTO A FRYING PAN…
FROM THE MAVI MARMARA CRISIS TO TODAY'S 'SAFETY OF NAVIGATION'
THE ISRAEL-TURKEY CRISIS - SOLİ ÖZEL - SOZEL@HTGAZETE.COM.TR
WHY ARE POLITICIANS GENERALLY LATE?
A COUNTERPRODUCTIVE DISDAIN
ALEXANDER COOLEY/LINCOLN MTCHELL

I.THE NEWS

UMRAH FLIGHTS
OBLIVIOUS TO PUBLIC OPINION - DR A Q KHAN
LUNAR LEGITIMACY - IMRAN KHAN
TAJIKISTAN SUMMIT - DRAINING AWAY
THE UNTHINKABLE - CHRIS CORK
SLIDE INTO KAKISTOCRACY - ASIF EZDI
THE AFGHAN 'WAY FORWARD' - SHAMSHAD AHMAD

PAKISTAN OBSEVER

GILANI'S DEEP CONCERN OVER LAND GRABBING
MUSHARRAF-SINGH DEAL ON KASHMIR
PLANNED UP-GRADATION OF TRANSFORMERS
CREATING MORE PROVINCES! - DR SAMIULLAH KORESHI
MASSACRE IN INDIAN HELD KASHMIR - AIR CDRE KHALID IQBAL (R)
MANIPULATION OF KASHMIR DISPUTE - DR RAJA MUHAMMAD KHAN
HIGHER THAN THE HIMALAYAS - MALIK M ASHRAF
AFGHAN SOLDIERS DESERTING ARMY: NATO - JOSHUA PARTLOW

THE AUSTRALIYAN

ONLY BIPARTISAN ACTION HAS A CHANCE TO STOP THE BOATS
GOLDEN SALLY NAILS THE HURDLES
DANGEROUS MOVE BY TURKEY

THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD

OTHER SOLUTIONS IN THE PACIFIC
SILENCE HIDES SHAMEFUL NEGLECT OF MENTALLY ILL
TAKE CARE IN LOOKING AFTER NO.1

THE GUARDIAN

ISRAEL AND TURKEY: SAILING INTO CHOPPY WATERS
HEALTH AND SOCIAL CARE BILL: WORSE THAN NOTHING
IN PRAISE OF… INQUEST

THE JAPAN TIMES

WORLD'S BIGGEST BLOG OBSESSION
WORKING HOLIDAY ANNIVERSARY
REVOLUTION NO BOON TO THE COPTS - BY DOUG BANDOW
AMERICA'S SELF-INFLICTED ECONOMIC DECLINE - BY MALCOLM FRASER
'TOP GUN' BLAZED A TRAIL FOR WAR PROPAGANDA - BY DAVID SIROTA
JOBS COULD REBOOT WORKING CLASS - BY HAROLD MEYERSON
FORECASTS OF ROBUST MIDDLE-CLASS GROWTH ARE REASON ENOUGH FOR CHINESE, INDIAN OPTIMISM 0- BY RAMESH THAKUR

THE JAKARTA POST

THE EASTERN LAGGARD
THE PAPUANS' (IL) LEGITIMATE BATTLE FOR INDEPENDENCE - HARISON CITRAWAN
BASEL III AND THE EMERGING ECONOMIES (PART I OF 2) - ANWAR NASUTION

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

TURN THE CORNER

As the first strategic economic dialogue between India and China is due to launch in Beijing later this month, the confrontational incident in which the Chinese navy buzzed an Indian warship off the coast of Vietnam highlights the rough edges in the India-China bilateral relationship. It encapsulates the sense of distrust that exists between two of the fastest growing major economies in the world. At the same time, there is no denying that the scope for mutual cooperation is huge.

The challenge, however, is to get over the perception that the India-China engagement is a zero-sum game. Whether it is the land border issue, stapled Chinese visas or hindering Indian access to international fora (while throwing a diplomatic lifeline to Pakistan whenever it gets isolated on the terror issue), Beijing's approach has seldom been a cooperative one. It has, for example, settled disputes over land borders with 12 of its neighbours, India being the only significant exception. New Delhi needs to persuade Beijing that it is against China's own interest to continue placing most of its eggs in Islamabad's basket rather than New Delhi's. India offers a far bigger market for its goods while Pakistan is close to a failing state because of the indulgence it offers to terror militias. Indeed that problem has come to bite China itself, as it has to put up with Islamic insurgents in Xinjiang province bordering Pakistan.

If brinkmanship and belligerence are set aside from bilateral policy, there are significant areas of synergy. China is India's largest trading partner. Two-way trade stood at $61.7 billion in 2010. The figure is expected to touch the $100 billion mark by 2015. Areas of mutual investment include IT and ITeS, pharmaceuticals, agriculture, power, telecom and automobile. Given the economic slowdown in the West, such bilateral investments would indeed be prudent.

India and China together account for one-third of humanity and share a 3,500 km-long border. Geographical realities provide New Delhi and Beijing little choice but to engage each other. Besides, the shifting global balance of power presents a unique opportunity to both countries to influence key global decision-making on trade, climate change and international finance. The opportunity cost of not cooperating on these issues and promoting healthy bilateral ties is far too great for either country to incur. Instead of devoting their energies to petty maritime rivalry and quibbling over visa protocols, the two sides would do well to boost ties through trade, commerce and strategic exchanges and embrace the benefits that enhanced bilateral cooperation would bring.

***************************************

THE TIMES OF INDIA

COMMENT

TRANSFORM OR PERISH

This will offend party apparatchiks. But Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, former West Bengal chief minister and CPM's politburo member, has hit the nail on the head with his gloomy party prognosis. According to the latest WikiLeaks revelations, Bhattacharjee told US ambassador Timothy Roemer that communist ideology and his party needed to "either change or perish". His ominous prediction should be viewed in the context of Bhattacharjee's uneasy relations with CPM hardliners like Prakash Karat - especially following the Left Front's ignominious defeat in West Bengal two months ago. The CPM's refusal to reinvent itself programmatically and politically, even after so many years have elapsed following the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union and the socialist bloc, is inexplicable.

Ostrich-like, the party has remained wedded to outmoded ideas and anachronistic programmes, even as communist parties elsewhere in the world have either transformed themselves into social democratic parties or found themselves reduced to minuscule groupings. A hallmark of this political obduracy was the CPM's 'historic blunder' in 1996, refusing to allow Jyoti Basu to head a coalition government in New Delhi. Bhattacharjee too had been a victim of his party's myopia. During his chief ministerial tenure he had frequently clashed with central party bosses over policies like FDI in retail, privatisation of pension funds, banning of strikes in the IT sector. On the one hand the CPM intoned its obsolete economic rhetoric, on the other it practised Stalinist tactics to suppress dissent. This regurgitation of outdated economic and political theories can no longer help Indian communists survive turbulent times. The party should seriously consider transforming itself into a more relevant social democratic entity.

***************************************

THE TIMES OF INDIA

TOP STORY

PLAYING THE WRONG GAME

BORIA MAJUMDAR

Sharad Pawar on losing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) presidential election to Ranbir Singh Mahendra in September 2004 had famously said he was helpless because "the bowler, umpire and the third umpire was the same person". He was referring to Jagmohan Dalmiya using the BCCI president's vote for levelling the poll count and subsequently using his casting vote to get Mahendra elected. It was, Pawar suggested, a classic case of conflict of interest.

Pawar is now one of the principal detractors of the National Sports Bill, which the government wants redrafted. As International Cricket Council president, he is an interested party and as Union agriculture minister and former BCCI chief, Pawar in this case is bowler and umpire rolled into one. His opposition to the Bill is a classic case of conflict of interest.

Cases of conflict of interest over the Bill don't end with Pawar. Farooq Abdullah as president of the Jammu & Kashmir Cricket Association and Praful Patel as All India Football Federation president are in the same league. It is natural they would want to sink the Bill; neither can debate it on merit as cabinet members. While their opposition as sports czars is understandable, their challenging the Bill from within the cabinet is untenable. If the Bill were ever placed in Parliament Arun Jaitley as Delhi and District Cricket Association president would be in a similar predicament.

Given the Bill's importance from an Indian sporting pers-pective it is now upon the prime minister to ensure it gets debated on merit. If that means asking some of his senior cabinet colleagues to abstain from such deliberations, so be it.

This is not an opinion in favour of or against the Bill. There is little doubt some of the concerns expressed by both the Bill's proponents and detractors are legitimate. But far more problematic and far more signi-ficant are the ego battles being fought over it, games of one-upmanship likely to adversely impact the fortunes of Indian sport in the immediate future.

There is little doubt the BCCI is the only success story in Indian sports administration: its splendid marketing has made Indian cricket the cynosure of world attention. At the same time, there's little doubt that the board needs to be made more accountable and there is an urgent need for transparency.

Unfortunately, the debate over the Bill isn't addressing these core issues anymore. It is now limited to the issue of the government trying to control BCCI and the latter doing its best to protect its autonomy. The central objective of sports reform has been sidestepped.

True, government control over cricket is unwarranted. Having read the Bill in its entirety and also during the various draft stages, one can say that it is not aimed at doing so. But with the sports minister and BCCI training guns on each other on a daily basis, the Bill is losing relevance.

If the BCCI is to organise a major tournament in India in the future, it has to approach the sports ministry for clearances on certain matters. In an ambience of hostility such clearances, it can be conjectured, will not be forthcoming. Things will get mired in red tape causing losses to the national exchequer and bringing shame for the country. It is of paramount importance to circumnavigate personal differences between the sports ministry and BCCI bigwigs for the sake of sports reform, a crying need in national sporting circles at the moment.

It is the same story with Indian Olympic Association (IOA) authorities. They have opposed the Bill citing the autonomy clause in the Olympic charter. However, if there's one body that desperately needs to be made accountable, it is the IOA. Its performance graph shows a consistent downward trend, natural in view of the gloom surrounding India's Olympic sporting scene.

Despite a good number of shooters having achieved success on the international stage over the last few years, India continues to rue the absence of a pistol coach, with the shooting federation and the IOA sidestepping such issues and focussing on protecting their auto-nomy. That the Commonwealth Games opportunity was lost was largely due to a dysfunctional IOA and an ineffective sports ministry. The Games, which could have been a game-changer for India's Olympic sport, are remembered more for scams and cases of malpractice.

Indian sport is in serious need of reform. Change is needed, both at the top and at the grassroots, especially with the London Olympic Games just 10 months away. It will be India's last opportunity to become a multi-sporting nation, an opportunity that's getting lost thanks to ego battles over the sports Bill.

Finally, it was interesting to note that the cabinet questioned the Bill's timing. Why such a Bill at a time the government is embroiled in so many controversies - that's the underlying assumption. This concern highlights the status of sport in India. Sport is still very marginal in our national imagination. Far more important than the sports Bill getting passed is a change of the kind of mindset that relegates sport to the backburner without realising its immense potential. To end on a pessimistic note: while there is crying need for change, the acrimonious debates centring on the Bill raise serious doubts about achieving the reform objective.

The writer is senior research fellow, University of Central Lancashire.

***************************************

THE TIMES OF INDIA

Q&A

'A COMPUTER CANNOT MATCH THE NOVELTY AND WIT OF A TEACHER'

FIROZ BAKHT AHMED

Eminent educationist Lata Vaidyanathan has been teaching for two and a half decades. Currently principal of Modern School, Delhi, she spoke with Firoz Bakht Ahmed on the occasion of Teacher's Day, explaining trends distorting education today, the imperative for more elite schools to reach out to less privileged students and why teachers, although less highly-regarded than before, are in fact irreplaceable:

What is the aim of education?

The aim of education is not merely the acquisition of information or technical skills - though essential in modern society - but the development of that bent of mind, that attitude of reason, that spirit of demo-cracy which will make us responsible citizens. The goal is commitment to knowledge and the advancement of learning.

The aim of education is to emphasise not really earning power but learning power.

What ails school education today?

Schools and colleges today are seen as transit camps to the workplace, instead of incubators for the transformation of the individual. This has resulted in a closing not only of the human mind but, more significantly, a closing of the human hearta¦ The intellectual cacophony we see around us relates to this. An education that ignores moral and spiritual values cannot qualify as a quality education.

What is the status of teachers today?

Indian society has always respected those called gurus. They were traditionally hailed as pathfinders because the gurus transferred the knowledge they held. Sadly, in modern times, we're seeing the dilution of the guru-shishya parampara. Basically, society has itself drifted from seeking spiritual satisfaction to material satiation.

Correspondingly, teachers have fallen from the high pedestal of the guruji to the mundane masterji levela¦In some television ads today, the poor teacher is even made the butt of students' sarcasm and subjected to mockery.

Despite this, what inspires someone to be a teacher today?

There's a tremendous sense of fulfilment in being able to touch so many innocent, young, wonderful lives. A teacher affects eternity because for a child, it is always, "But my teacher saida¦!" I have always believed that teachers, especially at the school level, must be the best minds of the country.

But is there enough money in teaching?

See, teaching is a mission. Teaching has always been a task that one carries on with full satisfaction and no grudges. Teachers may not be tycoons or celebrities but they are happy to carry on with their work because of the quiet satisfaction it gives.

It is felt elite educational institutions are a bane as poor students cannot afford them; what do you think?

I think they are a boon! These schools inspire a little something extra that sets their students apart. They can be recognised in any nook and corner of the globe by their confidence and leadership qualities demonstrated in diverse fields. And now, these schools have started admitting underprivileged kids as well. Talent cannot be suppressed and these kids certainly do make it to the topa¦ but the fact remains that talent, if not traced and taken care of at the right time, dies.

With innovations like 'Net' classes developing, do you think computers will eventually replace teachers?

Never, as the kind of novelty, wit, the innovativeness and the presence of mind a teacher has, a computer can't match. A computer doesn't have warmth of heart. It cannot be caustic, remedial or just plain angry. It cannot guide, reassure or advise for posterity.

***************************************

THE TIMES OF INDIA

JUGULAR VEIN

GODLY GRAFT

JUG SURAIYA

As a small child i would sometimes accompany my mother when she went to the local temple just off Chowringhee Road in Calcutta where we lived. It was a small temple and stood in the middle of a road. Cars and cows used it as a traffic island which helped them navigate past each other. The devotees who visited it also used it as a navigational aid in getting past the problems and obstacles that life had placed in their path.

My mother wasn't a particularly devout person. I was too young to appreciate the finer points of theology, but it seemed to me that her attitude to religion was more in the nature of pragmatism than piety. She would buy a marigold garland and some small, sugary sweets from the salesmen who squatted on the pavements near the temple. The flowers and sweets would be handed over to the priest - a wizened man with shrewd eyes and an aura of tulsi paani - who in turn would offer them up to the resident deity.

Shut your eyes and say a prayer, my mother would tell me. What'll i pray for?, i'd ask. Pray to be a good boy and to do well at school, my mother would say. So i'd shut my eyes as instructed, put the palms of my hands together in the approved manner, and pray for goodness and scholastic excellence. They never worked, my prayers. I don't know about the goodness part of it, but certainly the bit about scholarly achievement fell far short of the mark. This did not surprise me. After all, what could you expect in return for a couple of stale flowers and a handful of sticky batashas. An eight-year-old Einstein in shorts? Get real.

Or maybe the problem was that what i was praying for was too general, not specific enough, for the Prayee - the recipient of my prayers, whom i thought of as a large, comforting, genderless Presence, rather like the cuddly teddy i used to sleep with till the previous year, except considerably bigger - to respond to. The Prayee must be getting thousands, maybe millions, of prayers all the time, from all over the world, in a host of languages, asking for all manner of things. So what were the chances of my prayers hitting the jackpot, so to speak? Pretty much as close to zero as the marks on my report card.

Sometimes, when something got misplaced in the house and couldn't be traced - a bunch of keys, a piece of jewellery - i'd be told to include the discovery of the missing item in my prayer list. This seemed to work better. More often than not, the misplaced keys, or bangle, or whatever, would be found, sometimes in the most unexpected of places. How the heck did the Prayee - also sometimes known as God - know where the darn thing was and locate it for us? Because God was everywhere and saw everything, like a Super Snoop?

That was one explanation. But what if there were another? What if it was none other than God - who was not only everywhere and saw everything, but could also pretty much shift everything about wherever and whenever at whim - who'd gone and put the bangle under the flowerpot, or the keys in the icebox? Why? Why else but to extract our votive offerings in the form of garlands and sweets? Holy moly. Was God demanding bribes?

I don't go much to temples these days, nor to mosques, churches or gurdwaras, at least not to pray, or make votive offerings. But a lot of people obviously do. Which might explain why religious establishments, of all religions, are among some of the wealthiest institutions in the country. Tirupati - which reportedly is a competitor of Fort Knox in terms of gold holdings - is only one example. As with everything else, inflation has caught up with prayers and votive offerings as well. A bunch of flowers and a fistful of sweets won't get you anywhere today. It probably takes an ingot or two of gold to do the trick.

To get to the ultimate root of graft, will the Jan Lokpal Bill include in its ambit the biggest graft generator of all, God?

jug.suraiya@timesgroup.com

http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

HINDUSTAN TIMES

TAKE THE BULL BY ITS HORNS

Sadly, designations and duties at the United Nations (UN) are long on symbolism and short on substance. Nonetheless, India has now been a Security Council member, having completed its first month as president of the same without any incident and can even claim some sense of accomplishment.

A series of thorny topics, led by Libya and Syria, and a set of less controversial ones like the partition of Sudan and peacekeeping operations in the Horn of Africa have been handled with some élan.

Crude assessments of voting patterns and resolution language in the UN assume it is about big powers getting, or not getting, their way. The assumption then is that India's own success must be measured in terms of the degree of defiance it shows. This is the policy of a nation on the fringes of global authority. But it is not that of an emerging power, one whose interest is in being part of international rules-making in a way that enhances its interests, influence and self-confidence.

The real measure of India's role in the Security Council, especially when it holds the chair, is the degree to which it is able to hammer out compromises and bridging language over issues on which there is no consensus. That can be easy when it comes to creating South Sudan. But it is very difficult when it comes to international responses to the present, violent phase of the Arab spring. Different schools will have different views on the UN's rulings on Syria, for example. What is crucial, as it is absurd to expect too much when even the Permanent Five powers are so bitterly divided over sanctions and intervention against Damascus, is that the UN should not be seen to be paralysed and incapacitated. This encourages governments to take unilateral action and generally delegitimise the United Nations and international law.

The UN's role is both more difficult and more important at a time when the United States, the sole superpower, is experiencing a period of economic crisis and relative military decline. And a lack of coherent domestic leadership is evident in almost every major region of the world. The organisation's expansion and reform is also on the backburner for now. That is to be expected. But it remains on the agenda and India needs to use the vacuum at the summit of global power to burnish its own credentials for a permanent seat — and learn how to be a constructive and responsible power on a level that it hasn't had to do for most of its independent history.

***************************************

HINDUSTAN TIMES

THE PUNDIT

SAYING IT AS IT IS

It seems to be pouring long and hard as far as the fate of the CPI(M) is concerned. Memories of the electoral debacle that the party suffered in this assembly elections are yet to acquire that sepia tint, when out comes even more damaging information from the WikiLeaks can of worms. The website

has revealed that former Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had, in 2009, stated that the communist ideology as well as his party needed to "either change or perish". This stunning lack of confidence was, of course, expressed in the strictest confidence during a conversation with then US ambassador Timothy Roemer.

To make matters worse, Mr Bhattacharjee did not stop with his articulation on the withering away of his party, which he attributed to a lack of technical expertise and ideas whose shelf life were long over. He went on to 'shower praises' on US President Barack Obama, recounted the benefits of Pepsico's Frito Lay factory to the potato farmers of Bengal and pointed out that several allies within the party have had education in the US. As anybody familiar with the anti-imperialism rhetoric of Indian communists would know, Mr Bhattacharjee had managed to praise almost everything on the shopping list of what the reds publicly profess to hate.

All of which makes one wonder as to why communist leaders wishing to unburden themselves or discuss their woes always choose foreign nationals as confidantes. In the run-up to the West Bengal polls this year, CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat had reportedly expressed his apprehensions (subsequently denied by him) to British Marxist historian Eric Hobsbawm that the party would fare poorly in the elections. The WikiLeaks disclosures have also revealed that CPI(M) leaders from Kerala have been wooing US investments. Given the intensity of self-doubt when away from the public eye, we suggest the communist leaders undertake a full confessional to their party rank and file and be a vanguard of a different revolution.

***************************************

HINDUSTAN TIMES

NEVER A PEOPLE'S PERSON

JAYATSEN BHATTACHARYA

Whenever longstanding dictatorial regimes are threatened, the media's coverage is invariably peppered with images of angry citizens trammelling over busts and statues of dictators. We have seen this happening in Iraq, Egypt and now in Libya. Interest-ingly, Libya's Muammar Gaddafi overthrew a

king to come to power but then proceeded to breed sons who on a bad day would purchase nothing but Armani and Gucci products. So what is with these leaders who spearhead popular movements but later succumb to the same vices of the earlier rulers?

The fact is that people who grab power by a coup or with the tacit acceptance of some supporters have to become absolute leaders. To do so, they suppress opposing voices and depend on coteries, loosely-threaded factions, camarillas or military cliques. These groups then become the backbone of a pariah empire. Gradually, in a bid to remain at the top, the dictator realises that a larger-than-life persona would help him strengthen his position. So he starts doling out favours, ranks, land and scholarships. In return, he asks for nothing but the loyalty of his chosen few.

Next, he starts to refashion society. He pays people to suppress opposing voices. He controls the media, public welfare becomes non-existent. Those with voice, conviction and intelligence either flee the land of their birth or are silenced. The poor are deluded into thanking their oppressors because they provide them with their daily dose of free soup.

With opponents and intelligent thin-kers out of his way, the leader now needs more money: to perpetuate his ruling clique. The inevitable happens: their cronies start taking advantage of the situation either by force or fear.

In such situations, people need some kind of solace or something to latch on to for their survival. They look deferentially at things that are products of their dictator's profligacy: giant golden busts and statues of the leader. In Gaddafi's case, along with his busts and statues, there is the 'Green Book', a self-autho-red treatise that talks about how dictatorship is the logical precursor to genuine democracy. The Book became a mandatory reading for children, students and even civil servants.

Dictators need money to stay in power for two reasons: to repress opponents and reward loyalty. But after staying many years in power, a problem emerges. He begins to lose control over those he paid to gain information about his enemies. He pays more, only to have his enemies pose as his supporters. By now, his supporters start demanding more to get information about his enemies.

And soon enough, the golden statue is gone and his luxury villas are ransacked, perhaps by the same people who till recently were the beneficiaries of his ill-gotten largesse. And soon enough, they offer a hefty ransom on his head. Ironi-cally, the ransom money is part of the very dole he once handed out.

( Jayatsen Bhattacharya is a Kolkata-based advertising professional )

***************************************

HINDUSTAN TIMES

KEEPING A RECORD OF OUR PAST

SARATH S PILLAI

Private archives form an amorphous category of records in our archives. The Public Records Rules, 1997, defines them as those owned by individuals and non-governmental organisations. However, the easiest way to understand private records is to see them as 'non-public' in nature.

The Public Records Act, 1993, considers a record as a public document if it's created by or related to the Union government, Union Territories' (UT) administration, public sector units, statutory bodies and corporations, commissions and committees constituted by the Centre or UTs. The records of a body/organisation funded by central or UT administration are also public in nature. Thus, it's clear that the single central archival law leaves the concept of private archives open-ended.

Private archives include private papers of eminent persons/families, business records, ecclesiastical records and even records of political parties. The modern approach to archival management has been towards the establishment of 'Total Archives', which means the coexistence of public and private records. Sadly, the concept of private archives is yet to catch up in India.

India being a democratic country where fundamental rights of the people are paramount, an institutional or legal mechanism for the acquisition and preservation of private papers of eminent persons/families may be a retrograde step. In India, unlike in the West, there is no desire to donate one's private papers. Countries like Argentina, Canada and France give tax concessions to the owners of private papers.

In India, most people are hesitant to part with their records, fearing that public access may hamper their image. Even after the death of individuals, their successors fear the same. But the only way we can preserve these records is by scientifically managing them, which is an expensive procedure.

However, the archives can't acquire these records by force. Most private records reach archives as gifts or by persuasion. Once the archives acquire private papers, they are bound to meet the restrictions imposed on the records by the donors. Beyond the 30-year rule, which the donor can insist, restrictions such as prior permission for consultation by research scholars, submission of excerpts taken by scholars for scrutiny and even closing certain documents up to a certain period for reasons of national or personal interests are normally followed.

Business records in India, which are technically private records, are also in dire straits. The concept came late to India and, therefore, its growth has been slower. India has about 9 lakh business houses. However, just 10-15 of them have shown interest in maintaining their records. There are no major guidelines for regulating business archives as of now.

Company laws, too, usually have minimal references to record-keeping while preservation is left out of the legal purview. The concept of business archives have caught on well in western countries. There, business councils work as facilitators between private business houses and the government to create and maintain a regime of records. We need the involvement of business councils in India too. While business houses have a right to privacy, it's about time they also manage their records scientifically. Business houses can also classify records, just as government records, and restrict access to sensitive records. But keeping the records away from public eyes is not in the public interest. The National Archives of India recommended to the finance ministry that business houses should be given tax breaks if they maintain private archives. However, nothing has come about so far.

We also need a culture of donation of these records to proper archives. Records, public or private, are important for the reconstruction and re-interpretation of a nation's past. They are a part of a nation's documentary heritage. A culture of archival consciousness must be inculcated in people in general and stakeholders of private archives in particular.

( Sarath S Pillai holds a post-graduate diploma in archives management from the School of Archival Studies, National Archives of India, New Delhi )

The views expressed by the author are personal

***************************************

HINDUSTAN TIMES

AN EXCLUSIVE CLUB

SUMIT MITRA

From the bulldozing style of public affairs activist Anna Hazare, nobody will say that his methods are democratic to a T. Some called him a hick town dictator. 'I, the people,' reads the headline of a report in The Economist critical of his fast. Yet, he has been successful

so far because the government never took the corruption issue seriously, nor did it ever show any earnestness to liberate the anti-corruption mechanism from politicians' stranglehold. Instead, it got, as Central Vigilance Commissioner, the official who orders corruption inquiries, a man who was himself facing trial for corruption.

It is in this context of the government's endemic failure to initiate corrective actions on its own that one needs to examine Anna's new challenge, which is to cleanse the electoral system. The system's deficiency lies not in the way it gets people to vote — like the British or the European — but in the very nature of our political parties, which are arbitrary, autocratic and unaccountable. Our Constitution and that of erstwhile West Germany were written around the same time. While ours hardly uses the word 'party', the Germans never ignored the elephant in the living room. Their Constitution read, "The parties shall help form the political will of the people... Their internal organisation shall conform to democratic principles."

Political parties in India, with no exception, are businesses run by powerful individuals or families. Each one of them is run by a 'headquarter' whose control and command system is as opaque as the castle in Franz Kafka's novel. With the exception of the communist parties, who have a system of regular voting, however stage-managed, no party has an annual schedule of internal elections. However, inside these arbitrary parties, the new development taking place is a sudden influx of some very rich people. A study by J Prabhash in Asia Pacific Journal of Social Science (December 2010) shows that the average declared asset of the BJP Lok Sabha members rose 288% from Rs 96.91 lakh in the 14th Lok Sabha (2004) to Rs 3.07 crore in the 15th (2009). The BSP got rich quicker, with the average asset rising 288.05% in five years.

But even more intriguing was the bizarre enrichment of the oldest and the largest party, the Congress, which still swears by Mahatma Gandhi and his minimalist philosophy. In the five years of UPA 1, its Lok Sabha members' average asset doubled (102.11%) from a high base of R3.10 crore to R6.28 crore. Significantly, during election times, a complaint that is heard off and on, though generally from unlucky ticket seekers, is that nominations are being 'auctioned'. One such complainant, Margaret Alva, presently governor of Uttarakhand, reportedly lost her cool because her son was denied a party ticket.

Entry into Parliament is surely becoming increasingly a family matter, with the parties ruling India becoming more plutocratic and dynastic after every election. Patrick French, in his recent book, India: A Portrait, has traced the roots of the political careers of winners in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections to check out how many of them had their family background as springboards to plunge into politics. The largest party, Congress, with 208 members, has 78, or 37.5% of the Lok Sabha members who owe their status in life to their moms, dads or grandfathers. For Ajit Singh's RLD, the ratio is a spectacular 100%, with all its five members belonging to what famous investor Warren Buffet described as the "lucky sperm club" — though it was in another context. But seven out of the nine members (77.8%) of Sharad Pawar's NCP are what French calls HMPs (Hereditary MPs).

The mushrooming of political dynasties, and increasing entry of rich persons into Parliament, show how exclusive a club it is in a country where 37% people live below the poverty line. It's corrupting public policies to suit the private ends of the plutocrats and dynasts. The talk that 'There Is No Alternative' to so and so, and so let dynasty prevail, are all smoke and mirrors, reminiscent of US elections before Andrew Jackson (1830s) when the caucuses in closed rooms decided who'd stand as a party's presidential candidate. The subsequent changes were also liable to be torpedoed by powerful people. It was as late as 1972 that parties in the US were brought under electoral discipline, with candidates for all public offices being elected democratically by members through secret ballot.

In India, secret ballot for party elections holds the key to poll reform. The registration system of political parties under section 29A of the Representation of the People Act fails to bring them under the Election Commission's scrutiny of fairness of internal elections. Office bearers' election must be held under the commission's supervision and through secret ballot. Activists of many hues in India want parties to choose their parliamentary and assembly candidates not at their headquarters' diktat but through secret ballot by registered party members in the constituency, with the poll overseen by the Election Commission. Mayawati may be best qualified to head BSP, but let its members say so!

The connection between runaway corruption, and a Parliament which is representative only nominally, is obvious. It is as early as 1998, in the Vineet Narain versus the Union of India case, that JS Verma, then Chief Justice of India, drew the outline of a system by which the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) could function as an anti-corruption police independent of politicians' interference. But that is water under the bridge and thanks to a Parliament with different priorities, the CBI is still the ruling party's 'seva dal'.

If Hazare's critics are champions of the parliamentary system, they should do something to safeguard its representative character.

( Sumit Mitra is a Kolkata-based political commentator )

The views expressed by the author are personal

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

NO BLUSHING

The CPM has many reasons to be mortified by the latest WikiLeaks disclosures — reports of conversations between US officials and senior leaders reveal the uncomfortable gap between party catechism and their own informally expressed opinions. The then West Bengal chief minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tells the US representatives his party must "change or perish", the Kerala CPM dedicatedly chases after American investment even as it deplores US imperialism. However, despite all these revelations, the party seems unflappable. At a press conference, CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat confirmed that these meetings had taken place, but pointed out that most of this WikiLeaks content was second-hand analysis by US officials that could not be taken as credible fact. "There are two aspects, one a factual report of what transpired and second, the observation and interpretation of US diplomats on these meetings, which need to be taken with a pinch of salt... we need not accept them,'' he explained.

That is a perfectly unobjectionable assessment, in line with what most people would say about the chatty, impressionistic diplomatic cables that WikiLeaks has raided, but where was the CPM's worldliness a few months back? When the first batch of WikiLeaks cables were outed, mostly to do with the UPA-US government interaction, Karat wrote an op-ed calling out the prime minister's claim that this information was unverifiable, as an attempt to "brazen out the exposures". The CPM didn't let the unreliability of foreign office gossip and the shallow readings of US officials come in the way of its sanctimony then, and every shred of damaging information was seized upon as the revealed truth. Karat dismissed the government's "pathetic excuse" saying that "everyone knows that the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, herself had called the Indian foreign minister to warn about the leakage of these cables and the consequent embarrassment they may cause". WikiLeaks chatter on the "cash for votes" scandal was all the confirmation the CPM needed to attack the prime minister.

Now, Karat has swung around to the position that WikiLeaks must be read with editorial filters firmly in place. What's truly impressive is the conviction with which he and the party have espoused both positions. There's no outward trace of discomfort, or even the slightest flinching at having to make this sudden 180-degree turn. Or do Marxists just know how to deal with contradictions

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

EASTWARD MOMENTUM

In 1997, the Indo-Bangladesh treaty of friendship, peace and cooperation — which dates back almost to the country's foundation, as it was signed in March 1972 — was allowed to expire. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka, which starts September 6, should be seen as an occasion to finally renew those historic links, and particularly to emphasise the economic benefits that will accrue to both countries from a closer partnership.

This extends well beyond the advantages to India's landlocked northeastern states from access to Bangladesh's underutilised ports at Mongla and Chittagong, although that is possibly the biggest single idea on offer. What is needed is to ensure that there is considerable forward momentum on a range of bilateral projects, to demonstrate that economic partnership is a done deal. This momentum has been noticeably lacking of late on the Indian side; it appears, for example, that a 1320-megawatt coal-fired plant that NTPC was due to set up for Bangladesh might not happen in time due to, in part, the feasibility estimate from NTPC reportedly coming in months behind schedule. The most important location for an impetus to economic partnership will be in opening Indian markets more fully to Bangladeshi goods. This will involve two major pieces of effort: the first is in resisting lobbying from Indian domestic textile producers, and open Indian markets to garments from Bangladesh, which account for three-quarters of that country's exports. This step is overdue, and should be the centrepiece of the PM's visit. It will be meaningless, however, unless a corresponding effort is made to dismantle non-tariff barriers Bangladeshi business faces — particularly through inept, underfinanced and obsolescent border crossing infrastructure.

Border crossing infrastructure, after all, will also be crucial for India if transit agreements with Bangladesh finally work out as hoped. West Bengal and the Northeast will both benefit hugely from closer ties with Bangladesh; and upgrading that country's internal infrastructure is something that benefits India, too. Dr Singh is going to Dhaka with the chief ministers of the five states that border Bangladesh. That is a signal for hope.

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

SIXTH TIME LUCKY?

The Japanese, reflexively cynical about their politicians through long sufferance, can rattle off their country's problems, and yet only despair at the revolving door through which prime ministers come and go, as ineffectual as ever. Yoshihiko Noda, the new PM, is Japan's sixth since September 2006. But even for those who argue that the personality of Japan's PM doesn't matter, that government is run by pretty competent bureaucrats, Noda's predecessor, Naoto Kan, was particularly disastrous. He couldn't stem his party's rebellion against him, lost the Upper House of the Diet, thereby failing to push through necessary reforms, and he shocked everybody by mishandling the aftermath of last March's earthquake and tsunami. Given Japan's dysfunctional politics, the Democratic Party of Japan, which scored a historic victory in 2009, squandered its goodwill in no time, although voters are reluctant to go back to the Liberal Democratic Party, which lost only its second election in a half-century.

The minefield that Noda walks into is formidable even by a developed country's standards: Japan's economy has been in "permanent" recession, a rising yen is harming Japan's export-oriented manufacturing sector, Tokyo has the biggest national debt in the industrialised world, a pension system unreformed for a decade, and an ageing society. To top it all, the natural disaster stalled discussions begun on restarting the stagnant economy. Post-Fukushima, the damaged reactors — yet to undergo a cold shutdown and still leaking radiation — led to a shutdown of other nuclear power plants.

Noda has picked an "unknown" Jun Azumi as finance minister, prompting speculation that he'll continue policies he had designed as FM himself. But his biggest challenge remains pushing reforms through a "twisted", uncompromising Diet — at a moment when Japan is arguably facing its biggest crisis, post-World War II.

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

A NEW NORMAL?

BAIJAYANT 'JAY' PANDA

For months, some politicians, media commentators and other opinion-makers had been dismissive of Anna Hazare, arguing that he is an undeserving hero, pitchforked into superstardom only by the government's repeated bungling. He and his team have also been depicted as demagogues, whose rigid approach defied rational discussion.

The reality is that "Team Anna" was never as intransigent as it was portrayed. There had all along been signals that they would engage in give-and-take; but as long as the government stuck to its unbending position, it made perfect negotiating sense for them to do the same. And although the government's mismanagement was a catalyst, it is equally clear that there is a substantial, simmering public anger that will not fade until concrete steps are taken against corruption.

Politicians have finally understood this. There appears to be genuine commitment to pass a tough Lokpal bill soon, albeit with varying degrees of enthusiasm, even if only to retrieve lost political capital. The government has suffered far more losses, but the opposition has not escaped unscathed. "There, but for the grace of God, go I" must be the relieved sentiment among many of the latter, who could arguably have been as prone to gaffes as the former if only they had been burdened with incumbency.

The challenge today is one of managing expectations until the nuts and bolts of the bill are worked out in the standing committee and subsequently in Parliament. The vast majority of the agitators were unfamiliar with the details of the Jan Lokpal draft, nor are most of them keen on the nuances. Suffice it to say that they've had it with corruption, are not going to take it any more, and fully support Anna Hazare and the Jan Lokpal version.

There lies the rub, with at least some parts of it being described by several experts of the highest integrity, such as Justice J.S. Verma, as contradicting the basic structure of the Constitution. But this is not an insurmountable hurdle. The discussion in Parliament — when both government and opposition showed flexibility in accommodating some of the agitators' key demands — has done more than defuse the immediate crisis. Besides buying time for the political class to do the right thing, the debate highlighted issues of genuine concern — such as federalism and the checks and balances of democracy — and also saw possible solutions being floated. This was a turning point, but it is crucial that the tempo be maintained.

There continues to be sniping about Anna Hazare's credentials, his non-democratic track record and the source of his funding. But what really matters is whether his cause has merit. That it surely does, irrespective of why he has not taken up on behalf of the tribals; or how he strong-armed Ralegan Siddhi (as long as he ultimately abides by Parliament's final act); or whether his acolytes have received funding from the Ford Foundation (which in any case has done much good work in India, and it's not as if the money is linked to drug trafficking or terrorism). With those caveats, there is nothing illegitimate about his tactics, which have bullied a recalcitrant system to the cusp of change.

Meanwhile, some good things have started happening. There is now traction for proposed Citizens' Charters and Right to Services acts, which stipulate time limits for officials to process files for such common services as issuing domicile certificates and releasing pension payments. For the first time, babus are to be held accountable for service delivery to common citizens. Even more importantly, the biggest cause of systemic, everyday corruption — the ability to cause delays — will now be under attack. Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab have already enacted such acts over the past eight months; now other states like Kerala and Orissa have announced they will follow suit. Surely Anna Hazare's obduracy and holding the establishment's feet to the fire have contributed to this.

While ending his latest fast, Anna Hazare caused a flutter by announcing that the next battle he plans beyond the Lokpal bill is electoral reforms, including the right to recall elected representatives. This has sent some detractors into a tizzy. But the fact is that the country desperately needs electoral reforms; not just the right to recall, but even more fundamental ones like cleaning up election funding and enforcing intra-party democracy. The longer the political class dawdles on such matters, the greater the possibility that someone else will step into the vacuum and take charge, perhaps an Anna or even an activist judge.

There are also other areas of pending reform that are long overdue, providing opportunities for would-be heroes. One such is judicial reform. India has an abysmally low ratio of judges for its population, variously reported as between six to 14 per million people. Either number is a fraction of that of developed countries, and even below Bangladesh. The Law Commission recommends that it be at least 50 per million, which would require thousands of additional judgeships to be created, along with the associated infrastructure and operating budgets. A long pending proposal to create an independent National Judicial Commission for this purpose has been gathering dust. Related bills on judicial standards and whistleblowers' protection are in the pipeline, but well behind schedule.

Anna Hazare's success would not have been possible without politicians abdicating their responsibilities. But Anna and his followers will find it difficult to forever keep pressuring the system from the outside. When the next election rolls around, they will need to participate to some degree in order to retain their newfound influence. They can do this either by fielding candidates or at least campaigning for or against some of the usual suspects. But opting out of the electoral process will be risky; whoever wins will acquire fresh political capital, and may not be as hapless as the present government in letting it evaporate.

The writer, a Lok Sabha MP, belongs to the BJD
express@expressindia.com

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

COLUMN

SHADES OF HUMANISM

TASNEEM ZAKARIA MEHTA

It is hard to imagine the Mumbai art scene without the frail, smiling Jehangir Sabavala. A painter of his reknown could well have stayed aloof, adding to the aura of fame, but his deep engagement with the art fraternity and in particular with younger artists, singled him out as perhaps the most remarkable humanist of his generation of artists.

Jehangir was always at the many art talks and discussions that have become so popular in Mumbai, till his health prohibited his attending. I met Jehangir at such a talk in the early 1990s when I moved back to Mumbai from London, fresh with a degree in modern art and an urge to explore India's yet nascent contemporary art scene. It was a discussion at the National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) on contemporary forms of representation, and I remember expressing a view divergent from Jehangir's. It was a cordial exchange and I introduced myself after the talk. A few days later, I received a handwritten note commenting on what I had said. Jehangir had thought about it and wanted to further the exchange. That's how our friendship began. I was young and green and he was by then famous and much-acclaimed. I was profoundly touched by his gesture. It did not matter that we disagreed. What mattered was his willingness to be open, to understand the other, to accommodate a different point of view, something that is increasingly unusual in our day.

I will not dwell on Jehangir's art and his career as much has already been said about it, except to say that the controlled precision of his line and the sometimes brooding, sometimes luminous, colours were an extension of the man himself. He stayed true to his inner vision even where many others were influenced by the changing times. I had presented him with a catalogue of avante garde Asian art at the Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane. In his letter thanking me, he wrote: "Whilst browsing through the catalogue — I came to a definite conclusion — that the 'Frame' is very far from dead, despite today's 'vogue' and what the 'elaque' both here and abroad have to say. My own beliefs and strengths (such as they are) were reinforced — and I felt that I was on the right track, always struggling to try and paint a 'fine painting'. To evolve in depth, and say what I have to say in my own way — irrespective."

The letter goes on to talk about his commitment to the "Desi" scene which brings me to another legacy that Jehangir left us that, sadly, unlike his art, has faded almost into oblivion — the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA) in Mumbai. Built as the Cowasji Jehangir Hall by his maternal grandfather, Jehangir, along with gallery owner Kekoo Gandhi, was instrumental in giving Mumbai the much-needed place to showcase modern and contemporary art. Jehangir was a member of the committee supervising the makeover of the building and would spend many hours ensuring the finishes were right and the work moved on. It took almost 20 years for the NGMA in Mumbai to come up and it is a sad comment that in the city, where modern art was born, this legacy languishes unheeded. Jehangir was deeply troubled by the decay of the institution. Perhaps it would be a fitting memorial if the Mumbai art community could rededicate the building to those who struggled so valiantly to give it birth.

In the foreword to a 1972 exhibition catalogue, poet Adil Jussawala notes, "With Sabavala, the end of the journey is clearly in sight even as it is begun. Each of his paintings is a carefully worked out approach to a predetermined goal... Another goal lies beyond some of the paintings and it is not at all easy to define it. In part at least, it would seem to be metaphysical, with the paintings as steps in a difficult, highly formalised pilgrimage towards a metaphysical 'truth'." Jehangir Sabavala was a rare artist but he was an even rarer human being. As the colloquial goes, they don't make them like that anymore.

The writer is Honorary Director, Dr Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai and Vice Chairman, INTACH
express@expressindia.com

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

DARK OCTOBER, BLACK NOVEMBER

INDER MALHOTRA

After the massive Chinese invasion along the Himalayas, it was no longer possible to continue the farce of the border war being commanded from a sickbed in Lutyens' Delhi. Yet, General B.M. Kaul was opposed to any change and had the full backing of Defence Minister Krishna Menon. Even so, the change eventually came, but so fitfully and reluctantly as to make things worse. The shockingly inept performance of both the political and the army leadership cannot be explained without unveiling some ugly details.

Army chief Thapar's first impulse was to follow his profession's long-established norms and ask the divisional commander, Major-General Niranjan Prasad, to officiate as corps commander as well. But the orders could not be conveyed to Prasad for two reasons. First, the divisional commander — who had stayed on at his highly vulnerable headquarters at Zimithang all through the day and night despite the disintegration of 7 Brigade right before his eyes — decided the next morning to move southwards to Tawang or beyond. For him and his staff this meant a two-day march through treacherous terrain. Consequently, for 48 hours between Lucknow, where lived the GOC-in-C of Eastern Army Command, Lieutenant-General Sen, and the battlefield, "there was no one in command". Moreover, on high mountains and deep forests, electronic messages did not reach.

Secondly — and this was far more important as well as complicated — the selection of a corps commander was intertwined with a vital strategic problem. Some army leaders were having serious second thoughts about their earlier plan to make Tawang the base for Indian defence if Namkachu and surrounding areas were lost. Also the prevailing doctrine was never to withdraw from a position unless attacked and pushed back.

The administrative and political importance of Tawang was great. But, in the eyes of several experts, most notably the director of military operations, D.K. Palit, it had no tactical value. On the contrary, there were so many routes through forested mountains that the Chinese could easily bypass Tawang and box the Indian forces there.

Their plea therefore was that Indian defence line should be moved further south to the more defensible Sela Pass, with a back-up garrison at Bomdila 90 km to the rear. Those who opposed this idea were equally emphatic in arguing that the country wanted the army to defend every inch of its soil and never withdraw from anywhere out of fear that the Chinese would overrun it. Eventually, Nehru agreed that building up Sela and Bomdila was a better idea, especially because the army felt so.

At this stage, Thapar decided that he would announce all the changes in plans or personnel at Tezpur, and simultaneously directed Sen to temporarily take over command of IV Corps too. By the time the army chief, together with Palit and Intelligence Bureau Chief Mullik reached the IV Corps HQ, the situation had taken a strange new twist. Angered by Prasad's vacation of the divisional HQ without the Eastern Army Commander's permission, Sen had sacked him. Major-General Anand Singh Pathania was Prasad's replacement.

It was in this confused and confusing state of affairs that New Delhi finally appointed Major-General (later Lieutenant-General) Harbaksh Singh the acting GOC of IV Corps, and he was at Tezpur immediately. There are far too many accounts of the 1962 war by a large number of participants and equally numerous others. Inevitably, these differ from one another, sometimes widely. But on one point there is striking unanimity. Harbaksh's very presence, to say nothing of his brisk interaction with all formations under his command, boosted the sagging morale of the entire corps. (No wonder, this tall soldiers' soldier was to be the unquestioned hero of the war with Pakistan three years later.) Sadly, this was too good to last.

For, on October 28, Kaul, declared fit by army doctors, returned to Tezpur and reclaimed his command. Again, all accounts agree that this did not go down well with either the men or younger officers. In any case, it had no impact on the ground situation because, having achieved their immediate objectives astonishingly fast, the Chinese had halted the first phase of their assault by the morning of October 25.

As is well known, China's main purpose for this lull was to derive as much diplomatic and propaganda advantage as possible. On October 24, Zhou Enlai made a three-point cease-fire offer to Nehru that was totally unacceptable to this country. Beijing also issued an obviously pre-prepared note in which China told the world that on October 20, India had "started a massive offensive in both the eastern and western sectors of the Sino-Indian border. In these circumstances, the Chinese frontier guards had no choice but to strike back in self-defence". According to Dorothy Woodman, an eminent British scholar of that time, this Chinese claim was "obviously nonsense". In Nehru's words, the Chinese "posed that they were meek lambs set upon by tigers" — and therefore they "were devouring Indian territory". Ironically, China and its dutiful Western propagandists continue with the Chinese mythology to this date, but that is a separate story.

However, to go back to the lull in fighting, the Chinese also needed time for an operational design of theirs. Pursuing and ambushing the survivors of 7 Brigade at Namkachu, and outflanking Indian positions, they had arrived at Tawang by Octover 24. They had even blown up a vital bridge at a river crossing called Jang that Prasad was hoping to use to stop them, even if temporarily. Having done this, they immediately started constructing a road fit for the use of heavy trucks. Twelve years after the event, Mullik wrote in his book My Years With Nehru: The Chinese Betrayal that the Chinese built this road "with tremendous speed and completed it within two weeks, a really marvellous engineering feat, exhibiting a much superior road-building technique in this high plateau than that of our engineers".

Much has doubtless changed since those dark days, to our advantage. But with great reluctance and much greater regret, one has to admit that the gap between the Chinese skills and techniques and ours in the construction of the state-of-the-art infrastructure on the India-China border is not yet bridged.

The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

WHEN TELEVISION WAS REVOLUTIONISED

RAMESH SHARMA

The coverage of the Anna Hazare movement reveals a lot about our TV channels, and their newfound sense of power and omniscience. The phenomenal rise in Anna Hazare's popularity, especially between his fast in April and his arrest on August 16, can be largely attributed to the UPA's blunders, which persuaded even fence-sitters to throw their support behind Anna.

However, in spite of these mistakes, and for all that Anna managed to strike an emotional chord with much of the nation, his movement became a huge collective experience largely because of the electronic media. 24x7 TV channels were his constant cheerleaders, giving momentum to his cause. The Anna movement was, in fact, made for TV. After a season of scams, the image of a frail and simple 74-year-old activist pitting himself against a powerful and venal state was compelling. His lonely figure, wasting away on an indefinite fast, set against a large profile of Mahatma Gandhi, became an iconic TV image. It was a facile narrative of good against evil, a populist theme of a universal fight against corruption — and TV channels helped it take over the national agenda with the speed of a tsunami.

The movement was given relentless, wall-to-wall coverage, 24x7. Every press conference, every speech by Team Anna — even the theatrics of some of Team Anna's resident performers on the Ramlila stage — were covered live by almost all channels. The incendiary comments, the crude humour, all were fodder for the masses, helping create a distinctly anti-establishment, anti-Parliament mood.

For 24x7 news channels, the Anna Hazare coverage was much like a reality show. The hysterical reporting — mostly motivated by competitive populism — had been at times like an extended advertorial for Anna Hazare. There was no effort to separate the core issues from raw emotions. While there were some stories in the print media on how the movement was structured and the differences between key personalities, television coverage was jingoistic and almost reverential. Anna was seen almost entirely through this benign prism and became synonymous, not with the contradictions inherent in his Jan Lokpal bill, not as an unreasonable man, who in the early days of the agitation was attempting to push his version down Parliament's throat — not even as someone who posed the real threat to the delicate balance between the three organs of our Constitution — but only with the emotional resonance of an anti-corruption movement. It is another matter that his personal credibility factor made it easy for TV channels to package the messenger.

The Jan Lokpal bill has been sold to the Indian public as the ultimate panacea to end corruption in the country. One can grant TV channels the editorial right to decide what to feed their viewers. But the absence of any critical analysis of substantive issues, the reluctance to debate the import and repercussions of the Jan Lokpal bill or even alternative bills like the one proposed by Aruna Roy, was truly irresponsible. In the early days of the agitation, those who questioned Team Anna were ignored — and most anchors were reluctant to question Team Anna hard, for fear of being seeing as pro-corruption. It was only when the endgame neared that prime-time debates focused on the bill, but this too was distracted, with the usual suspects as speakers and the discussions quickly descending into slanging matches between the two principal political parties.

We can grant both Anna Hazare and the electronic media the distinction of having allowed corruption in daily life to occupy the centrestage of our public discourse. But by encouraging a lynch mob-mentality, by making the choices facile, in the "you are with us or against us" mode, viewers have been lulled into believing that Anna's formula is the only way to save us from a "corrupt " government and an impotent Parliament.

The truth is that there is no magic wand to end corruption, that the devil is actually in the details. That any legislation that challenges the basic tenets of our Constitution is inherently more dangerous than the solution it proposes. And that this legislation itself in any case, will only be the first step in a very long journey to eradicate corruption.

Now that Team Anna has won a moral victory and Anna Hazare has called off his fast it is imperative that both Anna and his partners in the electronic media educate their supporters on putting in place many other landmark legislations, including electoral reforms and funding of political parties in the coming months and years, if corruption is to be truly reduced. Otherwise, they both will only have used and abused the trust of hundreds of thousands who have marched behind the piper (as a UPA minister described it) with hope on their lips, singing and dancing to the seductive, sometime shrill, tune and the promise of instant moksha from corruption.

In his book Believing Bullshit, Stephen Law writes that there is a good chance if you apply control, repetition, emotional manipulation, — that is, tools of brainwashing — the focus group will eventually accept what you say. In recent times, we have witnessed this modus operandi being used quite effectively not only by Team Anna but also by the electronic media. But as the American comedian Jon Stewart says: "If we amplify everything we end up hearing nothing." An observation Indian news channels are well advised to pay serious attention to, if they are not to lose their own credibility and voice.

The writer is an award-winning filmmaker and media entrepreneur

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

OPED

LOOKING DC, TALKING TOKYO

ASHOK PARTHASARATHI

Towards the conclusion of the Indo-US nuclear deal in 2008, the Indian government issued letters of intent to the US, French and Russian governments for their companies to sell 10,000 MW capacity of reactors to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Ltd (NPCIL) over a period of time to be negotiated. The government of India (GoI) also allocated sites for those foreign companies to set up their reactors.

It is as a result of the above process that Russia was to set up four more 1,000 MW power plants at Koodankulam (where two such plants have been under construction for the entire past decade, one is to be commissioned this year and the other in 2012) and four additional Russian reactors of the same capacity are to be set up in Haripur in Bengal. Similarly, six 1650 MW reactors made by the French firm Areva are to be set up at Jaitapur in Maharastra, starting with two that will be operational by 2017-2018. As for the 1,000 MW reactors made by US firms Westinghouse and the US-Japan joint venture GE-Hitachi, all that has been agreed so far is that they will be set up in Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. No specific sites have been decided on as yet.

And thereby hangs the following tale. Westinghouse is owned 100 per cent by the Japanese firm Toshiba and in the GE-Hitachi joint venture, 60 per cent is owned by Hitachi. Under Japanese law, such firms with majority Japanese equity can sell their reactors only to countries that have signed a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with the Japanese government, and after that agreement has been ratified by the Japanese parliament.

Accordingly, the GoI and the Japanese government have been negotiating for the last 18 months towards a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement. As many as four rounds have been held, but practically no progress has been made.

Why? Basically, it is because of Japan's long standing anti-nuclear position (despite itself having set up 53 civilian nuclear power reactors), that any country with whom Japan signs a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement must have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and the Comprehensive (Nuclear) Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). It has been India's strong and longstanding national policy not to sign either of those treaties.

A consequence of this fundamental disagreement has been that the Japanese government has now indicated that it is suspending negotiations with the GoI. This is a very serious development for the US because it means both its nuclear reactor manufacturers, Westinghouse and Hitachi-GE, cannot get a slice of the potential $150 billion Indian nuclear reactor market, while its competitors, Russia and France, steam ahead.

Who is going to cut this Gordian knot, and how? That is the multi-million dollar question. It is ironic that while "American" nuclear reactor suppliers, that is, those operating from US soil like Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi, are unable to ship reactors to India, the US government is pressing the GoI to amend our civil nuclear liability law to give US reactor suppliers "a level playing field" vis-à-vis their French and Russian counterparts. When the US government is confronted by GoI with the fact that both the French and Russian governments and their companies have clearly informed GoI that they have no difficulty whatsoever with our liability act and do not require GoI to ratify the international Convention on Supplementary Compensation (CSC) (which GOI has already signed), and the US government alone is pressing GoI to undertake such ratification, the US has no answer. When GoI reminds the US government that even if it were to ratify the CSC, the lack of a bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement with the Japanese government would continue to prevent the sales of nuclear reactors by Westinghouse and GE-Hitachi, the US government has even less of an answer! It is time the GoI put the US government in its place, given this unreasonableness.

The writer was science and technology adviser to Indira Gandhi and secretary of several major scientific departments of the GoI

***************************************

THE INDIAN EXPRESS

HOW TO FIGHT AN IDEA

H.D.S. GREENAWAY

Historians will label the events of that September morning 10 years ago as the most destructive act of terrorism ever committed up to that time. But I suspect they will also judge America's last decade as one of history's worst overreactions.

Of course, overreaction is what terrorists hope to provoke. If judged by that standard, 9/11 was also one of history's most successful terrorist acts, dragging the US into two as yet unresolved wars, draining the treasury of $1 trillion and climbing, as well as damaging its power and prestige. These wars have empowered our enemies and hurt our friendships, and have almost certainly generated more terrorists than they have killed. Like other victims of terrorism, the US believed somehow the answer could be found in brute force. But ideas seldom yield to force, and militant Islam is an idea. The result has been the militarisation of US foreign policy.

The brief war to topple the Taliban and rid Afghanistan of Osama bin Laden was admirably executed, using air power, Northern Alliance allies, and a few CIA agents on horseback to achieve a specific goal. The failure to nab bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, to let them escape from Tora Bora where they were cornered, was a spectacular failure.

Our 10-year occupation, and our off-and-on-again attempts at nation building, have been a disaster. At first Afghanistan was starved for resources, taking a back seat to the ill-planned, and ill-advised attack on Iraq. When, at last, Afghanistan became a priority, the moment for success had already passed.

Today the Afghan war has morphed into a war against the Pashtuns — perhaps the most war-like people on earth, whom two great empires before us, the Russian and the British, failed to subdue. One could not possibly find a worse place to fight, or a less likely people on whom to impose our will.

It is true that the Pashtun tribes and clans have traditionally been willing to switch allegiances when the incentives were sufficiently attractive, so the idea of winning over some groups who are now fighting against us was not totally out of the question. But so far it has simply not worked, and General David Petraeus fell into the trap into which so many generals before him have fallen: He believed that what he learned in one war, the Iraq war, could be replicated in the next: Afghanistan.

As for Iraq, if ever there was an intellectuals' war, it was Iraq. Neoconservative theorists, who knew nothing about Iraq , believed that the transformational power of democracy could change the Middle East — make Arabs more like Americans. But what happened was that Iraq became more like the Middle East, and, although violence has slowed, it has by no means been brought to any semblance of normalcy. None of the underlying questions, the balance of power between Sunnis and Shiites, what should be the relations of Kurdistan to the rest of the country, have been settled. In the meantime, the Iraq war has greatly empowered Iran, and the reaction of Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in backing Syria's Bashar Assad at Iran's bidding speaks for itself.

The Bush-Cheney years saw a remarkable abrogation of civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism, and the descent into torture showed how easily fear can bring even a modern democracy over to the dark side.

Although al-Qaeda was remarkably successful at linking together so many of the Muslim world's pockets of grievances, mastering the techniques of the Internet, the fact of the matter is that most Muslims would rather not live under the extreme Wahhabism that al-Qaeda preaches. Bin Laden's ideas about his faith were to Islam what Pol Pot's were to socialism. But the sad and counterproductive rise of anti-Muslim attitudes in both Europe and the US since 9/11 testify that Bin Laden was not entirely unsuccessful in driving a wedge between the Islamic world and the West.

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

MY-DEFINITION WARS

If you thought Bill Clinton's "it depends what the meaning of 'is' is" was the ultimate in verbal pyrotechnics, there's something similar happening in the 2G scam case right now. The high voltage battle on what key terms might mean threatens to blow the case apart even before charges are framed by the court. In the absence of more than one money trail, this my-definition war, along with major policy flip-flops by the telecom regulator, is likely to play a vital role in which way the case goes—in an affidavit to the Supreme Court in March, Trai said it was not in favour of giving out licences in 2008 at 2001 prices, but in a letter to CBI in August, it said it was never in favour of hiking the entry fee! While law minister Salman Khurshid has said the CBI case cannot hinge on definitions given by his ministry, it is unlikely the courts will dismiss his ministry's opinion easily.

As part of its case against telecom firms Loop and Swan, CBI had alleged the two firms were associates of Essar and Reliance Telecom, respectively, and cited funds-flows to prove this. When the CBI asked the corporate affairs ministry to define 'associates', the latter said there was no definition other than that in Accounting Standards 18—this was meant to account for related party transactions and stated that if a firm has 20% or more voting rights in another firm, that is an associate. When this went to the law ministry, it did one better and said associate companies required one to be a subsidiary of the other or for a common parent to have more than a 50% shareholding in both companies—by this definition, Max New York Life, for instance, is not an associate of New York Life.

A parallel battle of definitions is that relating to what rollout means. Around eight months ago, Trai had recommended that 74 of the Raja licences be cancelled since they had not rolled out their networks on time, a pre-condition of the licence. The telecom ministry has not accepted this recommendation as it has a different definition of what constitutes a rollout. Perhaps, as happened in a recent judgment on OBC eligibility marks, the courts will take the definitions given in various dictionaries and then take a call.

***************************************

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

EDITORIAL

A TIME TO SPEND?

The good news first: the US 2011 deficit is all set to fall to around a fifth lower than what was envisaged as recently as six months ago—from the February estimate of $1.65 trillion, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) now estimates it will be more like $1.32 trillion, or a fall from 10.9% of GDP to 8.8%. The bad news, and this list is much longer, is that unemployment will stay high, at 8.3% in the 2012 election year (it rises to 9% under a slower-growth scenario) and GDP growth estimates have also been lowered from 2.1% in June to 1.7% now. Apart from being a serious political issue—and it's not just about President Obama getting re-elected, the high unemployment has economic implications—how does consumer spending rise as long as unemployment is so high? According to the OMB report, while corporate profits rose from $906 billion in 2009 to $1,322 billion in 2011, employee compensation rose from just $7,812 billion to $8,264 billion.

Opinions vary across the US political spectrum, but Jared Bernstein, a former member of Obama's economic team, uses the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) latest figures to point out that the $787 billion Recovery Act created around 2.5 million jobs and shaved 1.5 percentage points off the unemployment rate. So it looks like it's time Obama came up with another big jobs push. We'll hear more of that on Thursday. Given how the Republicans are playing hardball—they even forced Obama to postpone his speech by a day—the chances of getting anything passed look difficult.

How does this square up with the task of cutting the deficit? And does a stimulus help when the real US problem is what's called a balance sheet recession—at 115% of disposable income, US household debt is better than the 130% it reached in 2007, but much lower than the average of 75% in the 1970-2000 period. There's little doubt the US cannot get back to robust growth till this is fixed, but right now the US is one push away from a double-dip. And, in any case, unless there is GDP growth, the deficit/debt situation isn't going to get better—as Morgan Stanley's Stephen Roach points out, the CBO's deficit reduction trajectory assumes a 3.4% annual GDP growth; a one percentage point shortfall in GDP growth, he says, leads to higher budget deficits of around $3 trillion over a 10-year period. Immediately, the US has to make big structural reforms—according to Jon Huntsman who is running for President in 2012, complying with the 17,000-page tax code costs taxpayers $400 billion each year; former President Bill Clinton, just out with 14 ways to increase jobs, bemoans the sharp rise in rules and regulations that make getting things done tough. In the medium term, the US needs to make expenditure cuts, if need be on Obama's dream schemes, but it needs more jobs now.

***************************************

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

EAT CAKE, PAY TAX
AMITENDU PALIT

This year, the Chinese are not finding moon cakes as sweet as they normally do. Local tax authorities in Beijing, Shanghai and Nanjing have decreed that the cost of moon cakes gifted by employers to employees should be added to the incomes of the latter for calculating income tax. In other words, moon cakes can no longer be treated as non-taxable gifts. They will be considered part of the allowances eligible for taxing, much like the housing allowance.

The decision has obviously not gone down well with the residents of the three cities. Yue bing or moon cakes mark a joyous occasion for the Chinese. They are consumed during the mid-Autumn (Zhongqiu) festival, which is usually celebrated during the months of August-September, and are considered essential in the lunar worship marking the festival. The cakes are usually made of sweet lotus seed or red bean paste, occasionally mixed with egg yolk, and come mostly in round shapes. Having yue bing and tea in the company of friends and family while watching the moon is the quintessential Chinese vision of celebrating Zhongqiu.

Over the years, moon cakes have contributed to the growth of local bakery and confectionary businesses in China. Much like laddoos and gujiyas distributed during Diwali and Holi in India, moon cakes are gifted by businesses and employers to clients and workers during Zhongqiu. Informal networks, or guanxi, are famous in China for shaping business strategies and decisions. Gift-giving is an integral of part of maintaining and sustaining these networks.

With both producer and consumer incomes increasing in China, the yue bing industry has moved upmarket. Gold-plated moon cakes are pretty common these days. The biggest innovations have come in the form of fusions attempting to blend Western elements into traditional moon cakes. Ice cream moon cakes made by Häagen-Dazs have become enormously popular, as have moon cakes with truffle, caviar and also whiskey and champagne.

But why tax these cakes? It is important to note that authorities were careful in not imposing excise duties on yue bing as that would have immediately resulted in an increase in their prices. With moon cakes becoming expensive now, inflation would have become higher, as would have popular discontent. The festive mood would have turned even sourer.

Rather, the tax authorities chose a route that was less confrontational, but more effective. Non-taxed gift allowance always offers employers and businesses the opportunity of incurring expenses that can be netted against taxable income for reducing the tax liability. There are several examples of reducing taxable incomes through generous non-taxable expenses. State-owned enterprises in China reportedly spend large sums on purchase of expensive liquor and also private cars for senior executives and declare the same as non-taxable allowances. By targeting a 'fringe' benefit such as expenditure on moon cakes for inclusion in tax calculations, authorities have sought to tap fairly large chunks of income that otherwise go untaxed.

Nonetheless, the tax has created considerable unhappiness. For residents of Nanjing, this is a double blow, coming on the back of another unpopular tax announcement. Adding spouses' name to a real estate property after marriage is now inviting contract tax in Nanjing. Nanjing is not an exception in this respect though. The cities of Chengdu, Qingdao and Wuhan have also introduced similar measures.

These innovative measures for increasing local government revenues are probably fuelled by steadily rising concerns over the high levels of local government debts in China. The National Audit Office (NAO) estimates aggregate local government debt in China at $1.7 trillion at the end of 2010. At its current level, the debt amounts to 27% of the country's GDP.

Not only is the size of the debt large, a large part of the debt is nearing maturity. According to the NAO report, 41% of the total debt will fall due by 2012 with almost half of it up for repayment in 2011. Though the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has allayed fears over debt defaults by provinces, it has also warned that some governments run the risk of bankruptcies if they don't do strategic planning.

In the future, the bulk of strategic planning by local governments will focus on disciplining the large amount of loans that they pick up from banks. These have not only complicated their own debt profiles, but have also generated humongous non-performing loans for banks, adversely affecting their balance sheets. Beyond thinking through these loans, more strategic planning involves identification of new sources of revenue. Moon cakes and property appear clear favourites in this respect. Neither is expected to experience lower demand and both are good revenue earning prospects for debt-ridden local governments.

The author is a Visiting Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of South Asian Studies (ISAS) in the National University of Singapore (NUS). These are his personal views

***************************************

THE FINANCIAL EXPRESS

COLUMN

PRUNE THAT NEGATIVE LIST
M GOVINDA RAO

The concept paper on taxation of services released by the Central Board of Excise and Customs for public debate is an important initiative. The paper provides a way forward to expand the service tax base and make a transition to the Goods and Services Tax. The paper conforms to the finance minister's statement in the budget speech that he would initiate an informed public debate on comprehensive coverage of services in the tax, with a small negative list. The paper is opportune and the CBEC, after taking into account the comments from various experts and trade and industry associations, can finalise its approach to comprehensive service taxation in the forthcoming budget. Comprehensive coverage with a small negative list and adoption of common threshold and rates for excise and service taxation would transform the existing consumption tax at the Centre into a GST at the manufacturing stage.

The recommendation in favour of general taxation of services was made as far back as 2001 in the report of the Expert Group on Service Taxation chaired by me. The report recommended, "It is necessary to dispense with the present approach of selectivity in taxing in favour of a general taxation of all traded services with minimum exceptions" (page 3). According to the group, "Selective taxation of services is undesirable for, it violates neutrality in taxation, leads to inadequate coverage in addition to raising several avoidable procedural/legal complications". In fact, the expert group had recommended that after making the service tax general, the central government should move towards a common threshold and rates, and provide input tax credit to goods and services so that by 2004-05, the excise duty and the service taxes could be transformed into a general taxation of goods and services at the manufacturing stage. Of course, it is important to keep the negative list small.

There are a variety of reasons for preferring general taxation of services with a small negative list to the selective taxation prevailing at present. Even as the coverage of services has steadily increased to more than 110 services, the selective approach leaves out many identifiable and unidentifiable services, complicates administration— leading to a large number of litigations—and provides enormous scope for the special interest groups to lobby and keep some services out of the tax net. In the GST regime, the general approach helps to extend input tax credit comprehensively. Thus, from the point of view of broadening the base, ensuring greater neutrality and efficiency, general taxation of services is important. The general approach is preferred from the legal and administrative point of view as well. In this approach, it is necessary to define "service" and not each of the individual services. In fact, defining each of the individual services has been a major cause of disputes and litigation.

Most countries define transactions in services as a residual—all transactions other than goods or money. Some countries exclude the services rendered by the employee to the employer in the definition as well, whereas some others put this under the list of exempted services. The concept paper defines "service" as anything that does not constitute supply of goods, money or immovable property. It is useful to keep the definition simple and unambiguous and keep any specific item in the negative list.

For wider base and comprehensive input tax credit, it is extremely important to keep the negative list small. There will, of course, be pressures from various special interest groups to expand the list but it is important to keep the list to the minimum. The concept paper lists out nine categories of services in the negative list for administrative considerations, contractual obligations, welfare considerations, economic considerations and those that have been specified under the state list. The indicative categories of services in the negative list raise some issues of concern. First, there are too many items and it is necessary to prune the list in order to reap the advantages of general taxation.

Second, the list indicates that certain agencies other than the government such as RBI or the government regulatory bodies may have a list of exempted services. Indeed, the power to levy the tax or to exempt a service must be exercised by the taxation department and not any other agency. Third, it is clearly wrong to keep out the services based on their end use. Keeping the list based on end use will create a nightmare for administration and is a recipe for creating avenues for evasion of the tax. There is no need to keep the services used by agriculture, animal husbandry, forestry and fisheries out of the tax net. For the same reason, it is inappropriate to exempt the construction sector for infrastructure works, government buildings or for any other purposes, however philanthropic the purpose may be.

It must be noted that the tax policy should focus on raising revenues in equitable and efficient ways and objectives like infrastructure building and looking after the homeless, orphanages, old age homes or building religious structures should be addressed by other policy instruments.

The concept paper has avoided controversies by keeping all education leading to a degree or a diploma out of the tax net. This is surely questionable, with the education sector having become a major investment option. In the case of the health sector, the paper provides two options. The first is to keep the services provided by the establishment with a turnover of less than R4 crore out and the second is to include the basic health services. Indeed, fees are not charged on basic healthcare provided by the government and there will not be any tax payable on it. Healthcare has become a big business and those who spoke of "misery tax" when the tax was selectively imposed do not think of the misery of the poor patients having to pay hefty fees for them! Nevertheless, it is important to tread carefully in dealing with this sector.

One notable omission in the negative list is the services rendered by non-profit entities undertaking research activities. In fact, there is a case for exempting research and training services sponsored by the government or its agencies. One has to make a distinction between consultancy services and genuine research. On the whole, this is an important concept paper and surely deserves to be discussed by all stakeholders.

The author is Director, NIPFP and Member, EAC to the Prime Minister. These are his personal views

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

PRINT MEDIA DO BETTER THAN TV: COVERAGE OF HAZARE FAST

The second fortnight of August 2011 saw one of the largest mobilisations of people in recent years against corruption in India. The struggle led by Anna Hazare dominated the media all through the fortnight.

A new feature was the participation of the social media, which helped mobilise people in different corners of the country in support of the Team Anna. Twitter, Facebook, other social media sites, and blogs played a significant part in bringing people together in peaceful demonstrations, candle protests and so on. Team Anna may have been the first major beneficiary of the technology.

As for the performance of news television channels, public opinion seems divided. Those who supported or sympathised with Team Anna were naturally happy with the round-the-clock saturation coverage, which was overwhelmingly favourable to the movement. However, veteran journalist B.G. Verghese was quoted as saying: "The media has magnified the event beyond its worth. It has not at all been objective in its coverage." This only speaks to the low political stock of the government and its lack of credibility in the wake of a series of corruption cases and scams.

Print media coverage of this second phase of the Anna-led, fortnight-long agitation against corruption at various levels was clearly more balanced and insightful, reflecting various points of view, at least in the case of major mainstream newspapers with a long tradition. The editorial coverage critically addressed the core issues, including legal and constitutional issues and flawed notions such as the "supremacy of Parliament." To engage the more discerning readers, a few newspapers published articles explaining the legal, political, and social aspects of corruption.

The Hindu , which gave extensive coverage to the Team Anna's crusade against corruption and its initiatives to get legislation for a strong and effective Lokpal authority expedited, wrote four insightful and hard-hitting editorials between August 17 and 28.

The first leader ("Corrupt, repressive and stupid," August 17) was bold and strongly worded. It said: "A corrupt government devoid of moral authority is ill equipped to deal reasonably with legitimate public anger." The scathing editorial commented that through the illegitimate detention of Anna Hazare even before he began his fast and the arrest of peaceful protesters in Delhi, the central government "revealed its ugly, repressive face." It noted that the government missed several opportunities to arrive at a consensus with Team Anna on setting up an empowered Lokpal and instead attempted to push through a farce of a Lokpal Bill.

The next editorial ("Anna is not India nor India Anna") was published three days later, when Mr. Hazare won the first round, with the government yielding to his demand that he be allowed to go on an indefinite fast in Delhi to achieve legislation for a strong and effective Lokpal. "The wise course for the government," the newspaper advised, "is to withdraw the Bill, immediately, without standing on false prestige." The editorial took issue with the Prime Minister's contention that it was the "sole prerogative" of Parliament to make a law. This was true only in the most literal, superficial, banal sense, the editorial pointed out. It affirmed that in India, unlike the United Kingdom, Parliament was not supreme; it was the Constitution that was supreme. But the editorial criticised a prominent member of Team Anna for getting carried away and proclaiming, in a way that recalled an authoritarian era, that "Anna is India and India is Anna."

The third editorial, a single leader ("The way out," August 22), analysed the relative merits of key sections of the two Bills, the Lokpal Bill of the Central Government now before the Standing Committee and Team Anna's Jan Lokpal Bill. The fourth editorial, a single leader analysing the specifics agreed upon and the issues that needed to be settled ("Significant victory," August, 28), hailed Parliament's unanimous adoption of a resolution agreeing "in principle" with Team Anna's position on a few controversial points as a triumph for the anti-corruption moods in the country.

Besides these editorials, The Hindu carried four substantial editorial page articles during this period, when the fast by Mr. Hazare was entering a crucial stage. The articles, written by an acclaimed writer, two academics, and a political leader, were enlightening, each looking at the dramatic developments from different angles.

The essay "I'd rather not be Anna" ( The Hindu , August 22, 2011) by Arundhati Roy was highly critical of the Anna Hazare phenomenon and what it represented. In the writer's view, corruption in the society could not be seen in isolation from many other factors in the country. The article, which was widely circulated and won national as well as international attention, received a huge number of responses, especially at the newspaper's website.

The second article ("Ambedkar's way and Anna Hazare's methods," August 23) by Sukhadeo Thorat, economist and educationist, argued that Team Anna should use constitutional methods and enhance people's faith in them. "Otherwise," Dr. Thorat noted, "it will convey the message that only coercive and unconstitutional methods work." He recalled how coercive means forced Dr. B.R. Ambedkar to give up his demand for a separate electorate when Mahatma Gandhi was on a "fast-unto-death."

The third article ("Messianism versus democracy," August 24) by the economist Prabhat Patnaik contended that 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, was antithetical to democracy. "Messianism substitutes the collective subject, the people by an individual subject, the messiah. The people may participate … in the activities of the people, as they are doing reportedly at Anna Hazare's fast… but they do so as spectators."

The fourth of the articles ("For a strong and effective Lokpal," The Hindu , August 25) by Prakash Karat, general secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), observed that the attitude of the UPA Government and its failure to tackle corruption had fuelled public anger. He said that the government was seen as being complicit in corruption and this had been seen as the most corrupt government in the history of independent India. Since Hazare's first hunger strike in April, Mr. Karat noted, anti-corruption movement had gained momentum.

Together with the editorials, these assessments helped readers gain a critical perspective on the Anna Hazare phenomenon, the anti-corruption mood in the country, and the major issues at stake. On the whole, the coverage of the fortnight's drama not just by The Hindu but by several other dailies, including The Times of India, The New Indian Express, The Indian Express , and magazines, notably Outlook and India Today , reminded and reassured observers that for credible information, analysis, and diverse comment, it was the mainstream Indian press that still held the field.

readerseditor@thehindu.co.in

***************************************

THE HINDU

EDITORIAL

U.N. CHIEF SOUNDS CLIMATE ALARM IN SOLOMONS VISIT

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon says he has seen first-hand the need for urgent action on climate change after visiting the remote Solomon Islands.

During his one-night stay, Ban said rising sea levels are wiping out crops on low-lying islands in the Solomons and threatening the existence of the entire chain, located 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometres) north-east of Australia.

Ban said on September 4 that he's ready to "sound alarm bells to the whole world" over the dangers of climate change. He said the developed world has a moral obligation to help nations like the Solomons with financial and technological aid.

Ban was due to leave on Sunday for Kiribati, another island chain threatened by climate change. From there, he'll fly to New Zealand.

He is on a four-nation visit to Australia, New Zealand, the Solomon Islands and Kiribati during which the issue of climate change will be a key focus. "My visit is to continue sounding the alarm about climate change; to get a firsthand sense of Pacific concerns, Pacific opportunities, Pacific hopes; and to participate in the Pacific Islands Forum."— AP

***************************************

THE HINDU

CUBAN SCIENTISTS DEVELOP OIL WASTE TREATMENT WITH BACTERIA

Two Cuban research centres have started using bacteria to treat the oil contaminated water in several parts of the Caribbean island in order to reduce the presence of hydrocarbons in soil and water bodies in the country.

The Center for Environmental Studies of Cienfuegos (CEAC), in collaboration with the Center for Bioactive Marine (CBM) in Havana, is carrying out the process in the provinces of Cienfuegos, Pinar del Rio and Matanzas, according to CEAC Director Alain Munoz.

Munoz said the two centres expect the treatment procedures will be soon introduced in the southern Isle of Youth and the southern province of Holguin.

The process, which is known as bioremediation, consists of applying bacteria over the contaminated area to eliminate the chemical components of oil in a maximum of 180 days, he said.

The treatment can be used both inland as offshore. After analysing the physical, chemical and geomorphological characteristics of the area, the bacteria is inoculated in the contaminated area and is subjected to a process of growth called Bioil-fc prepared by the CBM. Cuba is attempting to achieve autonomy in meeting its energy needs using eco-friendly measures. — Xinhua

***************************************

THE HINDU

BRIEF WORKOUTS COUNT

"Idon't have the time" can no longer be an excuse for not exercising. According to a study reported recently in The Lancet ("Minimum amount of physical activity for reduced mortality and extended life expectancy: a prospective cohort study," by Chi Pang Wen et al .,), health benefits have been recorded even with 15 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity daily for six days a week. Mortality dropped by 14 per cent, and life expectancy was extended by three years compared with those who led a sedentary lifestyle. The authors followed up, over an eight-year period, more than 400,000 healthy Taiwanese men and women with varying levels of physical activity. Although the public health recommendation in most countries is physical activity for a minimum of 30 minutes a day for five days a week, brief activity seems to be better than no activity. This message was brought out by the 2008 U.S. physical activity guidelines, which observed that "even low amounts of physical activity reduce the risk of dying prematurely." A paper published recently in Circulation also underlined that the risk of coronary heart disease was "significantly lower" even when the physical activity was "lower than the minimum recommended amount."

Fifteen minutes should be considered only a minimum. As the Lancet study found, there were more benefits when the duration was longer. Every additional 15 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise a day reduced the total mortality by four per cent and cancer death by one per cent compared with people who were inactive. However, no additional health benefits were seen beyond 100 minutes. The work, however, has a major limitation — it was an observational study and not a clinical trial. Hence no direct link between health benefits and physical activity can be firmly established, as other factors would have played a role. Despite this limitation, the possible benefits of moderate-intensity workouts of shorter duration may encourage more people to abandon physical inactivity. There is also a greater likelihood of people increasing the duration once they start exercising. Those who intend to follow the public health recommendation of a minimum of 30-minute continuous workout a day but are unable to do so can take heart. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the benefits of 30 minutes can be reaped by working out for at least ten minutes thrice a day or 15 minutes twice daily. The World Health Organisation says physical inactivity causes six per cent of deaths globally and it has identified inactivity as the fourth leading risk factor for mortality. Hence any programme that can motivate people to exercise daily should be strongly encouraged.

***************************************

THE HINDU

SO, WAS THIS A WAR FOR OIL?

TERRY MACALISTER

The Libyan conflict has been a war about oil if not "for" oil. The country's economy is almost totally dependent on hydrocarbons and a key objective for the transitional government will be to get the wells up and running again as soon as possible.

The British and French, meanwhile, are worried about future energy supplies. They are already pushing and shoving over who should get what of the energy proceeds before the political dust has even settled in Tripoli (just as BP and Shell are once again sitting pretty in Iraq following western military intervention there).

The U.K. government has been working hand in glove with parts of the oil industry to bring about regime change in Libya. London crude trader, Vitol, held meetings with Britain's International Development Minister Alan Duncan (a former consultant to the firm) and played a key role in keeping the rebels well-supplied with petrol while others tried to starve Muammar Qadhafi's troops of fuel. Was this a practical operation to undermine Qadhafi's military logistics or a potent symbol that western politics and oil are so closely intermeshed that the agendas of both are indistinguishable? Certainly the French blew the gaff on Thursday. Foreign minister Alain Juppe was trying to bury a story run in Liberation that suggested that Paris had tied up an agreement to be given 35 per cent of all the country's oil in future in return for military help. He said it was "fair and logical" to him that Libya's new interim government, the National Transitional Council would turn to France in the reconstruction of Libya.

The British have not been so public about their expectations but we know that BP has already held talks with the new opposition leaders and are preparing to re-enter the country. Clearly, the role of Vitol, never mind the RAF jets, will require some recognition in the new Libya that emerges — at least in the eyes of the U.K. political and oil establishment.

And the prospects look good. An executive from the rebel oil company, Agoco, has already said the interests of Britain, France and Italy will all be treated favourably compared with those who equivocated, such as Russia and China.

But won't the NTC want to reorganise its oil industry differently, and perhaps do without the West completely? Qadhafi originally kicked out western oil but then invited it back in after U.N. sanctions over the Lockerbie bombing were lifted. The problem for the NTC is that oil provides virtually all of the country's income. Even if nationalisation was their preferred option, getting production back up and running as quickly as possible is the imperative. Libya used to produce 1.6m barrels of oil a day — worth an almighty $1.3bn a week at today's crude prices, and money the NTC desperately needs, even if it means sharing the spoils.

Tougher terms?

Whatever deal is reached, it is unlikely to be all or nothing: nationalisation or capitulation. What the new government will certainly want to do is exact much tougher terms for western oil company involvement. The idea that a third of Libya's oil would be simply turned over to the French, as the Liberation story suggested, is surely nonsense. It would be political suicide for the NTC.

What happened in Iraq is instructive. Although BP and others have been given access to reserves in Iraq, they are not on the terms they would ideally have chosen. The auctions there have resulted in "technical service agreements", where the likes of BP act as contractors and get $2 on each barrel of oil produced but do not "own" the reserves in the way they do in the North Sea — or did in Iraq before they were removed by Saddam Hussein.

Western independent oil companies have the most modern technology, easy access to capital market money and a can-do spirit, but they are also on the defensive because they are being gradually muscled out globally by State-owned national oil companies in places such as Venezuela, Brazil and Russia.

The desperate — and now failed — recent attempt by BP to tie up a share-swap deal with Russian State-owned Rosneft, despite all the problems it has had in that country, was just another sign of this.

With the North Sea and other mature basins fast running out of oil and a failure to fully invest in lower carbon alternatives, western ministers are also desperately worried about future crude supplies.

It was a war around oil in Libya — but the new interim government in Tripoli could yet win that, too. ( Terry Macalister is the Guardian's Energy Editor .) — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2011

The dust in Libya has not yet settled, but already the struggle has begun over who gets what.

***************************************

THE HINDU

NEW CONSERVATISM IN EUROPE IMPEDES TWO OF ITS NATIONS

SUZANNE DALEY

The infrared cameras here near Bulgaria's borders with Greece and Turkey are high powered enough to pick up rabbits scampering across farm fields in the dead of night.

But on a recent afternoon, the men inside the border station were focused on a car — moving a bit too fast along a country road. Maybe a smuggler, they thought. They called over their radios to have the car stopped. It turned out to be a false alarm.

Bulgaria and its neighbour Romania, which has spent more than €1 billion, or about $1.4 billion, developing an equally high-tech border operation, are hoping to join the European Union's visa-free travel zone this month. They also hope to take over guarding some of the union's outer borders.

A few years ago, such a move would probably have been routine, experts say, just another step in the European Union's continuing, enthusiastic expansion. But today, there is a new conservatism at work in the bloc.

The issues

Both Bulgaria and Romania were welcomed into the European Union in 2007, despite lingering questions about organised crime, corruption and an ineffective judiciary. Now, however, as Europe faces an economic crisis, fear of more immigration from Africa and growing nationalistic fervour among member countries, it is paying more attention to these issues.

"It is nice to have a machine to check if there is an illegal person in the back of a truck," said Karel van Kesteren, the Dutch ambassador to Bulgaria. "But if you can pay €500 to someone to look the other way, it makes no sense at all.

"When you give the key to your common home to someone else, you want to be sure that this person is 100 per cent reliable and obeys all the rules."

The Netherlands is one country likely to veto the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the free-travel zone, known as the Schengen zone. But others are likely to object as well, including Finland, Germany and France, where President Nicolas Sarkozy's re-election campaign has courted conservative voters who have been increasingly critical of the European Union's open borders.

Signs of corruption dot both the Bulgarian and Romanian countryside along the borders in the form of lavish villas belonging to border guards and customs officers. Dozens can be found here in Svilengrad, a town of about 20,000 on Bulgaria's southern border. So notorious is the behaviour of border guards and customs officers that they are the object of popular ridicule. "What do you give a border guard for his birthday?" goes one joke. The answer: "A shift on his own."

But a local taxi driver, who gave a tour of the villas on the condition that his name not be used, defended the border guards, saying that they brought wealth to the town. He also said that one customs officer, now the owner of a hotel and casino, had replaced the windows in the school and rebuilt the local church.

"When they have money, we have money, too," he said.

Trying to combat corruption, Bulgaria has started using computerised scheduling to assign its border guards to different posts randomly every few hours. Romania has taken steps, too. In the past year, it arrested 248 border guards and customs officers, some of whom were accused of collecting as much as €5,800, or about $8,240, in a single shift.

In the past, some experts say, the arrests might have been enough to win the European Union's approval. But no more.

"It is a moment of extreme conservatism, and Romania and Bulgaria are suffering from that," said Heather Grabbe, director of the Open Society Institute in Brussels. "After the end of the cold war, people were looking at the big picture. Now everyone is looking small, rather than thinking big."

Some experts say the reluctance to admit Romania and Bulgaria is also to a degree a sense of buyer's remorse — a feeling that neither country was ready when admitted to the European Union.

EU lever

Holding out on entry to the free-travel zone is the only real lever the bloc has to force both nations to deal with multiple problems, including rampant criminal gangs and the treatment of the region's Roma population.

Even Bulgarian and Romanian officials no longer expect to get into the Schengen zone this fall. Most experts believe that, to soften the blow, the European Union will allow both countries to open their airports to visa-free travel, as a first step. But border control will rest elsewhere for some time to come.

Bulgarian and Romanian officials make no secret of their disappointment. They complain that they have met the requirements of the European Union but are now being held to new standards. Deputy Prime Minister Simeon Djankov of Bulgaria said those standards were not even clear.

"It would be simpler if they said, 'O.K., we have thought about it and the world has changed,'" he said, "'and therefore we think that there should be another three criteria — and here they are.'"

Instead, he said, his country is facing "vague" complaints about organised crime rings and border corruption. He added that those same complaints could be made about other European countries, including Italy and Greece.

Romania's Foreign Minister, Teodor Baconschi, concurs. "We are better equipped now than many of the member states."

As far as equipment goes, visits to the border seem to bear him out. In Bulgaria, border barriers that once existed largely to stop citizens from leaving the country during the communist era are now being retooled to keep immigrants and smugglers from coming in. The old electric fences and guard towers are rusting. But a line of freshly turned soil indicates where motion sensors are to be installed in the next few weeks.

At the Vaslui border station in Romania, guards patrol the river between Romania and Moldova in new speed boats. Trucks can be X-rayed, and there are wands that can measure whether there is too much carbon dioxide in the back of a truck — an indication that people are hiding inside.

But Gabisor Tofan, the mayor of a nearby village, said that corruption at the borders has been an open secret. "Every villager that passed into Moldova knew they had to give a small amount," he said.

There have been dozens of arrests of customs officers and border guards working at the Vaslui checkpoint, and there may yet be more, some officials said. The arrests drew attention to their fancy houses, including one belonging to a border guard, Sorin Bucur, that was pictured in several newspapers.

Mr. Bucur's wife, Marinella, said he had been questioned but not arrested. "My husband is very correct," she said. "They never found anything on him."

Geography

Geography is yet another factor in the lack of enthusiasm for letting Bulgaria and Romania into the free-travel zone. The two countries are paying a price for being close to Greece, which has done a poor job of controlling the flow of immigrants and illicit goods like stolen cars and smuggled cigarettes. In recent years, officials have estimated the influx of immigrants to Greece to be around 80,000 a year.

"Some E.U. countries are saying, 'Let us learn from the lesson of Greece,'" said Hugo Brady, a researcher at the Center for European Reform. "'Let us be conservative with Romania and Bulgaria.'" — © New York Times News Service

Bulgaria and its neighbour Romania are hoping to join the European Union's visa-free travel zone.

***************************************

THE HINDU

THE LOKPAL AND THE CBI

R.K. RAGHAVAN

It is a happy turn of events that there is, at last, a kind of truce between the Central government and the Anna Hazare Team on the Lokpal issue. Both sides have displayed a measure of maturity that augurs well for the future of public life in India. The stage is now set for some animated but objective discussion of the law that will concretise the idea of a strong ombudsman. It is not enough for the two sides to say that they are for a credible Lokpal. They need to go the extra length to accommodate each other's sensitivities. Otherwise things will be back to square one. This is why a lot of importance should be attached to the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee scheduled in the next few days.

The Anna Team's focus is rightly on the status of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in the future scheme of things. With all its faults — some real and many imaginary — the CBI is still the best bet to strike at the venality that marks public life in India.

To say that politicians alone are guilty of corruption, an impression given by the Anna Team, is greatly skewed. Civil service misdeeds are equally enormous and cannot be ignored. Take, for instance, the recent arrest of a senior Income Tax Department official who allegedly demanded a sum of Rs.50 lakh to overlook the suppression of unaccounted income by a company. Instances are legion of top officials of enforcement agencies asking for a bribe without any sense of shame or fear. The magnitude of corruption in the Central government departments is mind-boggling, and this is why we first need an effective anti-graft machinery at the Centre, rather than in the States. The corruption in the States could be tackled subsequently. If the Lokpal is unable to cut at the roots of the civil servant-politician nexus in promoting dishonesty, it would have hardly justified its creation.

The ushering in of a Lokpal should in no way dilute the CBI's legal authority or its operational effectiveness. This should be the starting point for any discussions of the Standing Committee. A former Union Minister, referring to the plea for total autonomy for the CBI from the Executive, asked this writer some time ago as to who exactly the organisation should be answerable to if it wants to be autonomous — particularly when monitoring of all CBI cases by the judiciary was impractical. This query by an otherwise well-meaning public figure summarises the political perspective of the whole issue of the CBI's autonomy. It reveals the unconcealed desire of the average politician to somehow retain at least a semblance of control over the CBI.

It is generally known that the senior bureaucracy is also not exactly unhappy with the current state of affairs wherein the CBI is under the thumb of the Department of Personnel. Perhaps the most significant move that came in 2003 was the insertion of Section 6A in the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act, 1946, making it mandatory for the CBI to get prior government permission before it can even proceed with a preliminary enquiry (PE) against an official of and above the rank of Joint Secretary. This was a dubious amendment to the Act, based on the specious ground of saving civil servants from needless harassment by the CBI. But it amounted to deliberate emasculation of an organisation that requires teeth to tackle public servant corruption. The provision has been questioned in judicial forums as violative of the fundamental right of citizens to equality before law. Let us hope that this issue is resolved soon in favour of maintaining the integrity of the public services.

It is against this backdrop that the Anna Team's demand to bifurcate the CBI, attaching its anti-corruption wing with the proposed Lokpal machinery, should be examined. This is ostensibly in order to remove the organisation from the clutches of the Executive. The rationale is unexceptionable. The practicality of the proposed arrangement is, however, highly debatable.

The CBI does not operate with any watertight compartmentalisation of its numerous wings. No doubt there is a distinct Anti-Corruption Wing functioning at its headquarters. In the field units the distinction is, however, blurred. There is a pooling of resources at all levels when a major case, invariably a sensational conventional crime, is investigated by the CBI at the request of a State government or on the orders of a court. This will no longer be possible if a large chunk of the CBI representing the anti-corruption staff is removed and tagged on to the Lokpal. The current top brass of the organisation are reportedly opposed to such an arrangement, which would deny them the substantial manpower needed for non-anti-corruption work. The CBI's resources are already quite slender, making it difficult to cope with the nearly 1,000 cases registered by it each year and about 7,000 cases that are on trial.

Following the Vineet Narain judgment (1997) by the Supreme Court, the superintendence of the CBI's anti-corruption work is with the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC). This is a nominal arrangement which has worked reasonably well, because we have had some non-interfering and mature Central Vigilance Commissioners, and an equally responsible and self-effacing CBI leadership. Under an aggressive and egoistic CVC this arrangement could have become untenable. If, however, you want to disturb this stable state of affairs with a view to yielding to the demand of the Anna Team, the whole process of transition will have to be carefully conceived and worked out.

As one who has headed the CBI, I am totally against any dismemberment of the organisation. That would cause more harm than good to the objective of rooting out corruption. If the Lokpal becomes a reality, the most sensible thing to do would be to transfer the existing authority of superintendence of the CBI from the CVC to the Lokpal. Any other arrangement would result in the creation of two separate investigating agencies, namely, the CBI, and the small unit envisaged for the Lokpal. That would lead to confusion and a clash of functions. Along with such empowerment, the Lokpal could be conferred the authority (that currently vests with the government) to sanction the prosecution of public servants. This can be done by suitably amending Section 197 of the Criminal Procedure Code, 1973 and Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. The power enjoyed by the government under Sections 377 and 378 of the CrPC to deny or accord permission to the CBI to go on appeal or prefer a revision petition against the orders of lower courts could also be vested in the Lokpal. It should be remembered that we have been witness to totally political decisions in such matters. Finally, the entire budget allocation for the CBI could be placed at the hands of the Lokpal, so that the CBI enjoys freedom from any tendentious holding up by government of sanctions of money required for its day-to-day running and implementing its long-term projects.

All these suggested moves may be viewed as being too drastic. But, then, without them the CBI will remain tied to the apron strings of the Executive. The former Chief Justice of India, J.S. Verma, must be a disappointed man. His bold judgment in the Vineet Narain case was aimed at insulating the CBI totally from political caprice. If, however, in the public perception this has not materialised, both the organisation's leadership and the executive will have to bear the cross.

The opportunity that is currently available to improve the image of the CBI through a thoughtful fusing of the agency with the Lokpal should not be frittered away. A lot of magnanimity on the part of the current Executive is called for. At the same time, the role of the media and the citizenry at large in bringing enough pressure for a reform of the system can hardly be overemphasised.

( Dr. R.K. Raghavan is a former director of the Central Bureau of Investigation.)

The ushering in of a Lokpal should in no way dilute the CBI's legal authority or operational effectiveness.

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

USE COMMON SENSE,NOT TECHNICALITIES

Recent ecent events bring home to us that the functioning of our governance structures leave no stone unturned to cause dismay. It is evident that the emphasis is on woodenness and technicalities, not on getting to the nub of an issue, much less empathy for the context. These characteristics are not unique to the UPA-led system, but as the government loses its sheen, thanks in some measure to its attitude of not communicating with the people, the mud seems to stick more and more. Once your stock goes, nothing seems to go right. Such a juncture ought to dictate humility, and a sympathetic look at matters of concern to the people. But not for those who are running the show.

Take what's happened to Arvind Kejriwal, an Indian Revenue Service officer who has been out to slay the demon of corruption for some years, whatever the view some may take of the way he has gone about it. The case appears symbolic of just what the Anna Hazare campaign was all about — extraordinary delays in government, with the matter being settled through a bribe. There is evidently a dispute between Mr Kejriwal and the cadre he served on whether he has cleared his dues, and whether or not he remains on the rolls of the government. It is typical that the government should continue to write inane letters to him over a period of four years, the latest of which arrived when the anti-corruption activist was one of the key commanders of Mr Hazare during the recent Ramlila Maidan campaign — that is to say at the peak of his popularity at the head of an unprecedented anti-corruption movement. This letter was clearly calculated to create the effect that the government was being vindictive. Should the matter not have been settled by the government within six months at best of the officer putting in his papers, if necessary by taking recourse to the law?

The privilege notices to Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Mr Kejriwal are no less galling. True, the trio were not decorous with language when they denounced the class of our MPs, and might even have attracted libel had they named names. But in a raucous democracy, this ought to be par for the course. MPs cannot be allowed to act precious. The case of Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta high court is different, but it too underlines technicality and foolishness, not the play of robust common sense. The man has resigned, but the shadow of impeachment is yet to lift fully. Isn't the purpose of impeachment to get the recalcitrant in high places to vacate office?

***************************************

THE ASIAN AGE

EDITORIAL

INDIA MUST BRIDGE THE TRUST DEFICIT

INDRANIL BANERJIE

At the time when anti-corruption social activist Anna Hazare was captivating the country with his inspiring fast unto death, another equally distressing drama was being played out in the country's stock markets. The indices of most stocks, which had started declining from the beginning of August, sank to their lowest levels in 14 months, wiping out thousands of crore of investor gains.

The Sensex, which is considered the best barometer of the Mumbai stock exchange, hit its nadir just when it seemed that Mr Hazare's stand-off with the government would come to naught.
The diffusing of the political crisis coincided with a gradual rebound in stock indices. Since then the Indian stock market seems to be stabilising.

No stock analyst, however, attributed the Sensex drop to the political crisis engendered by the Anna Hazare fast. The markets, they claimed, had been spooked by the global downturn and US monetary policy. Indian brokers were watching US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's moves more closely than domestic developments. The world seemed to have become a little too interconnected for comfort.
While there could be no doubt that developments in the global economy, especially the developed ones, would have an impact on the Indian industry, few analysts admitted that a bigger factor could be the domestic economic environment.
A lot of companies witnessed losses in their share values primarily because stock analysts found that as much as 46 per cent of Sensex companies had underperformed. It was clear that foreign financial investors felt things were not going so well for the Indian economy and decided to book profits while the going was still good. A major cause of the August stock prices trough was the withdrawal of $1.6 billion from Indian markets by foreign investors that month. This made the Indian stock market the worst performer among emerging markets after Brazil.
The problem is not lack of money; there is, in fact, too much of it floating around the world. Global investors do not know where to park their cash and have been mopping up US Treasury Bills even though they give negative returns only because it is reliable. Money is also going into gold and silver, raising their prices to historical highs. The problem really is lack of confidence in business performance in the Western economies and uncertainties in the emerging markets. This holds true for India as well.
The Indian economy is beset with a host of fairly serious problems, all of which are making global as well as domestic investors apprehensive.
Every economic indicator suggests that the overall GDP growth is declining and economists feel it will be impossible to maintain eight per cent growth this year. Most predict the GDP growth this fiscal will be 7.2 per cent or lower.
The economic slowdown in the country has been attributed to various factors. A recent Morgan Stanley report blamed a combination of factors for lower growth figures, "including persistently high inflation, higher cost of capital, cut in the ratio of fiscal spending to GDP, a weak global capital markets environment and slow pace of investment".
One other factor that has been widely cited for the drop in growth and investments is the effect of scams and corruption scandals on the government's decision-making process.
A bigger problem is uncontrolled inflation that is eating into household incomes and triggering continuous hikes in the RBI's prime lending rate.
The real devil seems to be government profligacy. Ballooning subsidy bills, a slew of populist programmes and general fiscal indiscipline has thrown government finances out of gear. Government data released last week revealed some frightening trends. Despite promises to contain the fiscal deficit in a systematic manner, this gap more than doubled in the first four months of this fiscal year as compared to the same period last year.
The figures suggested that the deficit of `2.2 lakh crores during April-June this year is already more than 63 per cent of the budget estimate of `3.07 lakh crore for the entire year. The government is both sucking in funds from the system as well as spending it on non-productive heads.
This is irresponsibility at its worst during a period of high inflation. To make matters worse, the government has massively hiked procurement prices of foodgrains and has simultaneously held on to public grain stocks, thus aggravating food inflation. At the same time, high domestic inflation and economic uncertainties have kept the rupee down in relation to the dollar, leading to a failure to compensate for high commodity prices, especially that of oil and gas. Rising energy prices have further added to inflation, thus setting up a sort of vicious cycle from which the economy seems unable to fully extricate itself.
The government by failing to control its deficit is living beyond its means. This suggests it has learnt little from the crisis that has scuppered the world's largest economy as well as a number of smaller European Union countries that are today on their knees because of irresponsible government deficits and borrowings.
India desperately needs to pull in cash from the vast global pool of available funds for investment in infrastructure, retail and so on. To do that the economy needs to become and look like an attractive investment opportunity. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen unless the government gets its act together.

Indranil Banerjie is an independent security and political risk consultant

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

DOWRY MENACE

In a Public Interest Litigation case seeking implementation of the Dowry Restrained Act 1960 in its letter and spirit and also formulate rules for the purpose so that proper enforcement of the Act could be ensured has been heard by the J&K High Court. The Divisional Bench issued notice to the State and others which was accepted by Advocate General. Divisional Board also directed to file objections in the PIL within four weeks.
Dowry system has been one of the scourges of the society since long. Social reformers in our country, one and all, strongly pleaded putting an end to this despised system. The foremost among great social reformers was Raja Ram Mohan Roy. Subsequent social reformers and public men also carried forward the campaign of eradicating dowry menace. Gandhi ji also exhorted his countrymen to reject this social evil eating into its vitals. But as the things are, though there has been some impact of the teachings of social reformers on the masses of people but there is still a very large number of people both in rural and urban India who observe the system knowing that it is of great detriment to the nation. Apart from the fact that most of the parents of girls getting married cannot afford the big dowry expected by the other party, they have to incur loans or cut short their urgent day to day needs to raise funds and manage the dowry for their daughter. This leaves a psychological scar on the mind of would be daughter-in-law and she is made a victim of bad treatment by her in-laws. Day in and day out, there are news of burning the daughter-in-law or abusing and maltreating her because she could not bring with her handsome dowry for her in-laws. There are innumerable cases of divorce on account of ill treatment of daughters-in-law. And more sadly, a large number of girls of marriageable age commit suicide because their parents cannot afford a big dowry for them.

This social evil has to be tackled through the force of law. The PIL case filed by a philanthropist is a timely service to the society in our state. There is a Dowry Restraint Act of 1960 which was passed keeping in mind the ramifications of the evil of dowry. But as we see, the enforcement of the law is too weak and almost non-existent. The brunt of dowry is generally borne by the poor and deprived segments of the society. Enforcement of the Act in letter and spirit would bring great relief to middle and lower classes of society and at the same time, it would save many precious lives from wanton destruction. The petitioner has submitted that he is a social worker and was highly influenced from the dowry deaths taking place throughout 0the State for the non-fulfillment of dowry demand. Obviously, the State is under an obligation to formulate rules for the implementation of Dowry Restrained Act in order to punish or panelize the persons who were abetting or committing the offences under the said Act. The non-implementation of Dowry Restrained Act and non-framing of Rules is violation of the legal, statutory and fundamental rights of the women, as they are facing gender inequality. The Government should waste no time in framing the rules for the purpose of Dowry Restrained Act so that proper enforcement of the Act becomes possible.

***************************************

DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

ON PRA

Police reform has been one of the hotly debated subjects in the State. Apart from civil society, the Government, too, has been expressing eagerness to introduce Police Reform Act in order to make police services more effective. The State police have been under much pressure owing to the rise of militancy and separatism. The department has made many sacrifices while serving the state. Experience gained from meeting the militantancy challenge has further reinforced the need for bringing in substantial reforms in police. A bill has been drafted which among other things, proposes to have two Police Commissioners for the two cities of Srinagar and Jammu because the population of both the cities has crossed ten lakh which is the criteria set forth for shift to Commissioners. The PRA was supposed to be tabled in March session of the Legislative Assembly but has been deferred till next session. The Government has a good reason to defer it. It would like to study the position of PRA in other states and obtain the feedback before it decides to table the bill. This is a sound decision because it will give a wider vision of the reforms intended to be proposed. At the same time the draft reforms have to be put on the police website for obtaining public opinion. That stage has not come as yet. In all probability the Government would make partial amendments to the proposed Act keeping in mind special situation of the State.
Apart from structural changes which the Act would envisage, the more important aspect of the reforms has to be the acknowledgement of the sacrifices of police personnel while tackling militancy, hooliganism or politically motivated public demonstrations which usually culminate in destruction of public property, vandalism and disruption of law and order. PRA shall have to take into account the aspects of relief and rehabilitation of the martyred police personnel in fight against militancy and separatism.

An important feature of the Act could be the question of whether more powers be given to the police or not in view of new forms of insurgency and mechanisms of forging disturbances. This is a critical legal question and shall have to be opened up for proper legal debate. We know that extra powers are given to police in case the Government declares a particular area as "disturbed". In normal course of things the police do not enjoy such powers as are conferred by "disturbed area" situation. Hence the PRA shall have to make the position clear on that count.

***************************************

DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

TEACHING IS A MISSION

BY DR (MRS) VISHIESH VERMA

Can anyone who has been fortunate enough to have a good teacher, deny the sweetness, tenderness, sense of divine blessedness in human relationship between the teacher and the taught. It in no way binds or seeks to possess. Its nature is to give without seeking return. When Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, Principal Scientific Advisor to Govt of India was interviewed by Doordarshan soon after he was conferred the coveted honor of Bharat Ratna, he only recollected his humble teacher, Sri Sivasubramania Iyar, who taught him in elementary school in the third standard. This teacher instilled in young boy of seven years, the quest for scientific temper that catapulted him to the pinnacle as great scientist.

Since 1962, we in India, celebrate 5th September as Teacher's Day, the birthday of Dr Radhakrishnan a renowned Scholar, Orator, Philosopher, Teacher who was also President of India from 1962 to 1967. He said, "Education is a real glow and beauty of a person, it is the greatest hidden bank account fulfilling the needs of body, mind and spirit".

What illuminates education is character, which expresses itself through a virtuous life and upright conduct. The moral influence which builds up character is best communicated by the teacher through the persistent example of proper attitudes and conduct that he places before the young. Virtues are developed not just by knowledge of them on the academic plane but by a diligent practice of them. In this direction the teacher's guidance is absolutely necessary. Every culture in the world stresses the special relationship between the teacher and student, Socrates was loved by the youth of ancient Greece because he was a wonderful teacher. His disciple Plato described him "Wisest of men". 'Guru' the Sanskrit name for the teacher means the remover of darkness.
The teacher plays a significant role in education. Every country developed its system of education to express and promote its unique and socio cultural identity and to meet the challenges of time. There are moments in history when a new direction has to be given to the age old process. It is here that a teacher steps in. Whether one likes or not, teachers create future societies. The fiber of young individuals who shall become the citizens of tomorrow directly depends on the level of capability of their teachers. H.G Wells aptly said that the teacher is the zeal maker of history.
Dr Radhakrishanan said, "Until and unless we have dedicated and committed teachers who take to teaching as a mission in their lives, we can't have a good education system. Teachers should be best minds of the country. They should not merely instruct but gain true love of their pupils".
To him: …… the right kind of teacher is one who possesses a vivid awareness of his mission. He not only loves his subject, he loves all those whom he teaches. His success will not be measured in terms of percentage of pass students, not even by quantity of original contribution of knowledge- but equally through quality of life and character of men and women he has taught. Teachers have always to play a larger than life role in society because of their proximity to younger generation. The ABCD of a good teacher can broadly be classified into; accessibility, brilliance, communication skill and devotion to duty.
To Radhakrishanan, "A teacher must enter his classroom with the mind of a student eager to learn more and more, day by day." Hence everyday should be a day of learning for him. Besides, he said, "acquiring and imparting knowledge are two eyes for a teacher. His heart should be a lamp of knowledge, burning bright all the time; his conduct should be simple and his ambitions noble."
He adds, "Teacher's river of wisdom should flow like pure rain water. He should work hard, be broad minded and innovative". These were the ideals which the great philosopher suggested the teachers to follow.
A teacher has a most powerful influence on the lives of his students- more than parents. A teacher should not only love his students but his students should feel it in their hearts that their teacher loves them. A loving teacher will never feel any problem with students. Students learn much more by examples of their teachers than by any moral education lesson they may be given. A teacher need not be very poor he need not be very rich either. But he must be poor in wasting time and very rich in earnestness. He must combine the character with learning and conduct with personality.

In fact teaching is a noblest profession but a sorriest trade. It is a road that leads to the progress of the individual and to the society ultimately. A teacher is involved in personality building. A good teacher will make good student but it is the good student who becomes a good teacher. Teaching is not simply a profession or a vocation, but for some of the teachers, it is a rich source of satisfaction that not only joins under compulsion of circumstances but by thoughtful choice. A teacher finds peace in a classroom. The thrill in sharing the knowledge and wisdom one gains with those, who wish to gain, can't be described adequately. Teaching ceases to be a mechanical transfer of knowledge and turns into an experience of joy when teacher loses himself in the act of teaching and communicates his own zest and curiosity to his students, who are his alter-ego. The core of the process of one lamp lighting another, comes from the fact that teaching is in essence an act of joy. It is not chore imposed upon, on the contrary it is liberating and creative act, it releases something within the teacher and gives him feeling that nothing is more rewarding than to be able to give.

The present day portrayal of contemporary teacher is in stark contrast that Radhakrishanan had suggested. Where does the teaching profession stand today? Why have the teachers disappointed the society? On the occasion of Teacher's Day the teachers all over the country should sit and analyze the state of affairs of education prevailing in India and find the way out. Whenever the muscle power lakes the contrast of the situation, it is for the teacher to volunteer for bringing brain power. The mechanical equipment for teaching is incapable of adding sense of humor, witty behavior, and facial expressions in the classroom. As a result the students face psychological collapse due to the breakdown of the bicameral mind through the negligence of inner spiritual culture, which can be imparted only through the presence of an elevated teacher.
(The writer is a former Reader Coordinator of University of Jammu.)

***************************************

DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

BUILD MORE POWER CENTERS

BY DR BHARAT JHUNJHUNWALA

The disconnect between the people and their representatives has become clearly visible, thanks to Anna Hazare's movement. People were on the streets demanding action. The MPs, on the other hand, were holed into their homes crying hoarse about supremacy of the Parliament. Needless to say, people were not convinced.
The fundamental basis of Parliamentary Democracy is that the MPs will work in the interests of the voters. In the present system, however, the MPs vote more on the basis of interests of leaders of their party. The great political thinker of seventeenth century Jean-Jacques Rousseau wrote: ""It is the best and most natural arrangement that the wisest should govern the many, when it is assured that they will govern for its profit, and not for their own." Problem is that MPs are governing for their personal profit and not for profit of the people. They, therefore, lost people's sanction.
Supremacy of the MPs on the basis of the Constitution is meaningless. The Constitution, at best, reflects the will of the people at the time of Independence. Times have changed and the Constitutional arrangements have clearly failed to deliver. This great civilization has seen many constitutions come and go during the more than 5,000 years of its journey. This one too will pass. Crying hoarse about the Constitution is like a young man today demanding his rights as Zamindar on the basis of will of his Late Father.
The Constitutional system has deprived the people of their voice by instituting the system of whip. Leaders of a political party can require its MPs to vote in favour- or against a particular motion in the Parliament by issuing a whip. MPs who do not vote in accordance with the whip are disqualified and thrown out of the Parliament. The vote cast by the MP, therefore, is not according to the will of his voters or even according to his own conscience. The vote is cast according to the interests of the leaders. The voter can only determine who will cast the vote as directed by the leaders of the Party. They can elect Mr Ram Bharosey or Mr Mohammed Ishfaq. But whomsoever they elect will have to cast vote as per will of the leaders. Even otherwise the voter is irrelevant. MPs voluntarily toe line of the leaders in order to get the Ticket in the next elections. The people can vote one party in and throw another party out. But that is like choosing between the dacoit and the thief.
This disconnect between the people and the Parliament is not solved by the enactment of the Jan Lokpal Bill. The MPs will continue to enact anti-people and anti-nation laws. Land of the poor farmers will continue to be forcibly acquired so that big land sharks can make huge profits. Poor Indian citizens will continue to die in clinical trials done by Multinational drug companies. People's health will continue to be compromised in order to provide profits to McDonalds and Kentucky Fried Chicken. Rivers will continue to be killed to provide electricity for running air-conditioners of the rich. The country's sovereignty will continue to be pawned to provide profits to American nuclear goods suppliers. The Jan Lokpal Bill may somewhat reduce the bribes collected by the Ministers in enacting these policies, but the Bill cannot stop enactment of these anti-people policies.
It is also doubtful whether the Jan Lokpal Bill will actually be enacted in the form demanded by Anna. Government is hugely skilled in breaking the back of people's movements. My assessment is that the Government will not enact the Jan Lokpal Bill even after Lok Sabha has passed resolution in its favour. There will be another one- or two fasts. Ultimately, people will get tired and give in. Couple of years ago Dr Guru Dass Agarwal had to go on hunger strike thrice to save the Ganga from hydropower dams. Twice the Government went back on its assurance. Third time the Government scrapped the Loharinagpala hydroelectric project. But again it has gone back on its promise. Now it has come up with a scheme to kill the Ganga by making large number of small dams instead of Loharinagpala. The Government most likely will break Anna's movement by such stratagems. The Government will repeatedly agree to Anna's demands and then go back on them.
We need deeper strategies to overcome the basic problem of anti-people governance. It is seen that all governments exploit and tyrannize the people. This is common to India's Princely States, Arab monarchies, Communist Russia and modern Parliamentary Democracy. There is no difference among the two major parties either.
Prof Ila Ghosh, giving examples from the Ramayana, says that Kalidasa holds that the teacher, family priest, ministers and the public are various checks on the unrighteous ruler. One, these may censure the king. Public accusation unleashes a great power and keeps the king under check. Sri Rama, for example, had to expel Sita because of fear of public censure. Two, these may criticize the king. The people could express their anger and disagreement. Three, public can engage in picketing and protest. In the Ramayana a Brahmin whose only son had met an untimely death took the corpse and placed it on the ground before the doors of the palace. He started shouting laying the blame on Rama. That propelled Rama into action. Four, the public can pronounce a curse. Crying at the death of his son at the hands of king Dasaratha, Andh Muni hurled a curse on the king. This curse led to the disintegration of Ayodhya. Five, the fire of the ascetic can be unleashed. Peace loving ascetics are said to have all-consuming energy and fire just as the children of King Sagar were consumed by fire. Six, public can distrust the king. Sri Rama had to ask Sita to undergo fire trial again because the people of Ayodhya did not recognize the fire-test that she underwent at Lanka.
We need to invigorate these many systems of check on the government. Rousseau wrote it is best not to have interest groups. But, if they should exist, "it is best to have as many as possible and to prevent them from being unequal ..." This should be our mantra for securing good governance. Let us build many centers of power that continually censure, criticize, picket and protest, curse, unleash fire of the ascetic and distrust the Parliament. Only then the inherently anti-people character of the government can be kept in check. The fight between devas and asuras, or good and evil, is perpetual. There will be no quick solutions.

***************************************

DAILY EXCELSIOR

EDITORIAL

IMPLEMENT POLICE REFORMS

BY JOGINDER SINGH

Whenever something goes wrong in life, we look for scapegoats. Depending upon a given situation, there is no dearth of scapegoats, which could be our friends, parents, government, teachers, or colleagues, or sheer bad luck. If nothing works, then we always can blame Providence. Everybody looks for, scapegoat. But the biggest scapegoat seeker unfortunately, in our country is the Government. It is a fact that scapegoats are handy, to cover a multitude, of its acts of omission and commission.
The Supreme Court on 12th July questioned the circumstances leading to the June 4, 2012 police action to evict people, who had thronged the Ramlila grounds to support yoga guru Ramdev pressing for action against black money.
Delhi Police's affidavit had justified the action, saying Ramdev breached rules by taking permission to conduct a yoga camp and then converting it to a satyagraha. It also, added, perhaps as an after thought, there were intelligence inputs about a threat to the yoga guru. Incidentally, all the papers filed in the Court are vetted by the Government, through its law officers.
The court also asked the Union home secretary and the Delhi chief secretary to file their affidavits explaining the reason behind the police action.
In a second incident, the police arrested a former assistant of an Influential MP in the cash for vote scam, The three MPs, Ashok Argal (Morena), Fagan Singh Kulaste (Mandla) and Mahavir Bhagora (Salumber), had alleged that they were offered Rs 1 crore to abstain from the 2008 trust vote. They had carried into Parliament wads of notes on July 22, 2008. During police interrogation, the PA admitted, that the money he passed on to three BJP MPs came from his boss, a former SP leader, and now a member of Rajya Sabha.
Even otherwise, it stands to no logic or reason, as to, why a PA or Private Secretary should be in interested in passing one Crores of Rupees, even assuming that he or she has it, to some persons, whom he did not know in the past.
Along with the PA, another conduit was arrested. However, the Police obviously delayed action against the MP, who provided Rs 1 Crores on the ostensible ground that Delhi police needed the permission of the Union Home Ministry.
However, the Home Ministry has clarified that no permission is needed to interrogate anybody. Even under the law, for arresting anybody for any cognisable offence, no permission of any authority is required. It is a strange logic that those on the periphery and at the best support staff, have been arrested, but not the source of money or the main actor. He might ultimately face the music.
The MPs had alleged that they were offered money to abstain from voting. A seven-member Parliamentary Committee, was constituted to probe the allegations. After the inquiry, the committee had asked Delhi Police Crime Branch to investigate the role of three persons. Nothing was done almost for three years, till the Supreme Court pulled up the local police, for its inaction.
The constitution enjoins on the Government to ensure justice for all. But the fact remains, that no political party, or Government, in power, wants to give even a modicum of independence to the Police in its functioning. There is a tendency in all parties, when in power, to use it, to further their interests.
Instead of reforming the criminal justice system, so that every body's case is decided within six months to one year, the Government seems, to be selective, in pleading the hopeless cases of the high profile accused politicians, sending a wrong message that if you have political clout, you will find supporters.
But for the monitoring of the 2G Scam case, by the Apex Court, it would not have even seen the light of the day. Incidentally, the case was registered in October 2009 and when left with no alternative the accused Minister, was forced to resign and was arrested after 14th months and a lady MP. After 17 months.
The Apex Court had appointed a committee, headed by a former Supreme Court Judge to review the State of Police Reforms in India, ordered in its judgement, dated 22nd September, 2006. It says in findings, there was a near uniformity among all the States in not following the Directive, which relates to provision for a fixed tenure for certain categories of police officers including DG, IGP, SP and SHO.
These findings suggest that the reform of the police is not a top priority for state governments. It is because, they are unwilling to relinquish the control they have over the state police in the normal course of governance. Bureaucrats also raise huge obstacles, as they too are averse, to let the police out from under their thumbs.
Professor David H Bailey, a British Expert On Police observed as under regarding the prevailing situation in India : "In India today, a dual system of criminal justice has grown up-- the one of law and other of politics. With respect at least to the Police, decisions made by the Police Officials about the application of law, are frequently subject to partisan review, or direction by the elected representatives.
The autonomy of the Police officials in specific and routine application of laws has been severely curtailed. This is not only true of law and order situation. People accused of crime have got into the habit of appealing to political figures for remissions from the sanctions of law. Police officials throughout India, have grown accustomed, to calculating, the likely political effect to any enforcement action, they contemplate.
The result of partisan interference is often reflected, in lawless enforcement of laws, inferior service and in the general decline, of police prestige followed by irresponsible criticism and consequent widening, of the cleavage between the police and the public in the integrity and the objective of the police force."
It is not something creditable to the rulers, that justice is sleighted in favour of the rich and powerful. The Government should remember, that where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be greater.

***************************************

******************************************************************************************THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

BOOST FOR DELHI-DHAKA TIES

NEW ERA IN REGIONAL TRADE TO BEGIN

There could not be a better time for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to undertake a visit to Bangladesh beginning on Tuesday. The two countries are ready to give such concessions to each other as were unthinkable a few years back, when BNP leader Begum Khaleda Zia was in power. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed of the Awami League has always been a votary of close relations with India in the larger interests of Bangladesh and the rest of the region. She provided proof of it first by declaring that no territory of Bangladesh would be allowed to be used for terror-related activities against India. She went further ahead and handed over to New Delhi a few terror masterminds belonging to extremist outfits operating in India's Northeast. Dr Manmohan Singh, who will arrive in Dhaka along with the chief ministers of five border states, is expected to sign a number of agreements ironing out differences in approach between the two countries.

Besides an accord on sharing the Teesta and Feni river waters, India and Bangladesh are ready to swap some border enclaves for facilitating the entry of each other's nationals into certain areas where one reaches after taking a long circuitous route. In return, Dhaka also expects a lot from New Delhi. Indian generosity can be seen in many areas. India may liberalise the terms of payment relating to the $1 billion line of credit given recently to Bangladesh. New Delhi may also grant transit facilities to Bangladesh for doing trade with Nepal and Bhutan.

Besides these, Bangladesh is likely to get major concessions in the area of trade in textiles with New Delhi prepared to remove the limit on exports from the other side. Bangladeshi textile exporters will get unrestricted access to Indian markets without the imposition of duties despite the opposition from Indian textile manufacturers. All this will not only lead to a new era in India-Bangladesh relations but also in regional trade. There is the possibility of huge investment inflows into the region owing to the pro-growth atmosphere that is expected to emerge.

***************************************

THE TRIBUNE

EDITORIAL

SIKH MARRIAGES

TIME TO CLEAR THE AIR ON POLICY

Law Minister Salman Khursheed has landed himself and his government in a soup after announcing that the proposal to amend the Anand Marriage Act to register Sikh marriages separately would be dropped. The minister had rejected a proposal which owed its origin to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Justice. It was in 1909 that the Anand Marriage Act was enacted by the British government in response to a widespread demand from the Sikhs. At that time, many Sikhs who were married according to the Anand Karaj rites faced problems because their marriages were not recognised. The amendment seeking registration of such marriages under the Sikh Marriage Act is a logical extension of the original sentiments, since now marriages performed under Sikh rites are registered either under the Hindu Marriage Act or the Special Marriage Act.

While the minister's suggestion of a national mechanism for registration of marriages, with codes for different communities, has some merit and sounds reasonable, it must be kept in mind that the Muslims, Parsis, Christians and Jews already have distinct Acts that allow for registration of their marriages, while the Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains all come under the Hindu Marriage Act.

Though the minister struck a conciliatory note a day later, his remark has triggered off a reaction in the Sikh leadership, both political and religious. There is now the danger of the issue becoming a political one. Many statements have been issued, which is only to be expected. The atmosphere in the state is surcharged and the timing of the rejection of the amendment is inopportune, given the impending SGPC elections followed by Assembly elections. Logical explanations are seldom effective in an emotional environment. Political leaders, both at the Centre and at the state level, need to take measures to address this issue effectively and within a reasonable time span.

***************************************

THE TRIBUNE

COLUMN

ASS THEY SAY!

CRICKETERS NOW BEAR A DONKEY'S LOAD

For a few years, our cricket boys were on a winning spree and came to be regarded as a national asset. Who would have thought that the England tour would not only puncture their balloon but also put a hyphen in their stature turning them from "asset" to "ass-et". That did not happen only figuratively when they lost their numero uno position in the Test rankings. People actually said so, in literal terms. No less a person than former England captain Nasser Hussain threw the "donkey" epithet at them — that too for public consumption. The comments of Hussain, a member of the commentary panel covering the T20 International between Indian and England, came after Parthiv Patel misjudged Kevin Pietersen's catch off Munaf Patel's bowling. Hussain chewed the cud and said: "I would say the difference between the two sides is in the fielding. England are all-round good fielding side. I do believe that India have a few — three or four — very good fielders and one or two donkeys in the field still".

Now, being compared to any specimen from the animal kingdom is a big no no for anyone, whether an Indian or an Australian — ask Andrew Symonds who was the target of Harbhajan Singh's Monkeygate! So the Indian cricketing fraternity is bristling like a porcupine. There was a furore earlier also at the mere title of the film "Slumdog Millionaire". Those who had perhaps never heard words like "underdog" created a ruckus at the use of the word "dog". In the present case, the direct comparison with donkeys has got some people's goat. There is a clamour for not only an apology but also the removal of Hussain from the broadcasters' commentary panel.

Indians have an elephantine memory and may remember the snub for donkey's years. Thank heavens that the donkeys are colour neutral. Otherwise this might have also turned into a racial controversy. One thing is for sure. Nothing fails like failure. The cricketers have been cribbing that making them play matches back to back was donkey's work. Yet, they are loath to asinine remarks. One just hopes that the controversy does not generate more animalistic feelings.

***************************************

THE TRIBUNE

ARTICLE

INDIA, B'DESH MOVING CLOSER

FORGING A MODEL FOR SOUTH ASIAN RELATIONS

BY MAHARAJAKRISHNA RASGOTRA & JOYEETA BHATTACHARJEE

It is a cardinal principle of good neighbourly relations that, differences notwithstanding, each neighbour should respect the other's interests and refrain, in particular, from actions which may cause security-related concerns to the other. In today's globalised world, in particular, honesty and candour, trust and transparency are the sine qua non of good international relations.

It was precisely the trespass of these principles by Dhaka's BNP governments that had soured India-Bangladesh relations for years. Begum Khaleda Zia, leader of the BNP, as Prime Minister of Bangladesh was in un-abashed denial of ULFA's safe havens in her country from where they were launching terrorist attacks in Indian territory. Pakistan's ISI was also operating to infiltrate arms and terrorists into India from Bangladesh. Naturally, during Begum Zia's rule Bangladesh-India relations sank to their nadir, and bilateral problems which could have been settled years earlier remained unresolved, causing much avoidable bitterness and mistrust between the two neighbours.

India-Bangladesh relations have undergone a sea-change since Sheikh Hasina Wajid's accession to power in Dhaka in 2009. The catalyst of this salutary change was her statesman-like act to arrest and hand over to India the leaders of ULFA — "chairman" Aurobindo Rajkhowa along with key figures like Raju Baruah, Sasha Choudhury and Chitraban Hazarika. Out on bail in India, these gentlemen are now engaged in unconditional talks with the Union government. Antu Chaudang and Pradeep Chetia, Saurav and some other cadres were pushed back by Bangladeshi security forces from the border at Dawki. Anup Chetia is under detention and will in all probability be handed over to India. ULFA's "commander-in-chief", Paresh Barua, is still at large and may have escaped to China, Pakistan or Myanmar. The message has gone out that Sheikh Hasina's government will not allow Bangladesh territory to be used for anti-India activities.

Prime Minister Hasina took this transformational action as a matter of policy, well before her state visit to India in January 2010 and without bargaining for a quid pro quo from India. The action electrified New Delhi and invoked in our authorities a sense of obligation as well as responsibility to act likewise to settle, to Dhaka's satisfaction, long festering issues of sharing waters of common rivers, border management, dispute over a short stretch of the boundary, transfer of enclaves, the glaring trade imbalance and the maritime boundary dispute.

The 52-paragraph Joint Communique signed during Prime Minister Hasina's state visit in January 2010 has become the basis of a new, vastly improved and truly good neighbourly relationship between the two countries. Full implementation of the provisions of the communique will make Bangladesh-India relations a model for South-Asian relations. Even more importantly, Bangladesh, which lies at the strategic centre of two large regions of South Asia, and ASEAN will become a vibrant and prosperous hub of cultural, commercial and economic interaction between these regions with growing economies and a population of around 2 billion. It passes understanding that India's two major neighbours — Pakistan and Bangladesh — should have for so long allowed forfeiture of the enormous advantages of their geostrategic locations to unwarranted and unprofitable hostility towards India.

While Sheikh Hasina has been steadfastly implementing her part of the understandings reached in January 2010 despite the BNP's vociferous hostility, there have been complaints, in Bangladesh and in India, about the comparative lack of the requisite sense of urgency on India's part in doing its bit to implement the Joint Communique. However, in a recent visit to Bangladesh, we learnt that in intensive negotiations between the two sides at the level of ministers and senior officials in recent months, substantial progress has, in fact, been achieved in reaching agreed positions on a number of major issues, and agreements are likely to be signed during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's forthcoming visit to Dhaka.

We also found that the visit is awaited with much expectation, hope and enthusiasm. There is a palpable change in the public perception of India and because of this even the BNP, known for its traditional reservations in relation to India, has softened its stand: the party declared recently that it would not oppose deals with India if these are beneficial for the country. This is an additional reason for India, now, to go out of its way to show genuine interest in Bangladesh and resolve long-pending issues to the satisfaction of our smaller neighbour without pressing demands which might rile the Opposition — the BNP, for example, continues to oppose grant of transit facilities from mainland India to the country's Northeast. In inherently complex neighborhood negotiations, local sensitivities have to be borne in mind, and this mostly has to be on the part of the larger neighbour.

The ticklish issue of sharing the waters of the Teesta and Feni rivers, considered unsolvable till now, appears to have been sorted out. We believe agreements are also likely to be signed on transfers of enclaves inhabited by nationals of one country in the territory of the other, on the 2.4 km disputed land boundary and on cooperative border management to avoid killings of trespassers. Some further reduction in the negative list of items for trade and enhancement of the textiles quota is also on the cards, which in our view is not enough. Pakistan is a separate case, but with the rest of our South Asian neighbours we should be aiming at what Prime Minister Vajpayee had proposed a decade earlier for South Asia — "open borders and single market". We strongly recommend elimination of the negative list, removal of all customs and tariff barriers to allow free flow of goods and services between the two countries.

Fiftyfour rivers flow down from India into Bangladesh where they play a dominant role in the socio-economic life of the people. Bangladesh is bound to be impacted by the harnessing of these waters in upstream India. The needs and well-being of human beings on both sides of the border are involved. Therefore, a joint permanent machinery should be established to constantly watch the utilisation of these waters on both sides of the border and ensure equitable sharing and timely prevention of disputes.

The opposition BNP, led by Begum Zia, has made a political issue of transit facilities for India across Bangladesh territory, regardless of the fact that India has granted transit across its territory separating Nepal and Bangladesh. This is a hangover from the past and it would be impolitic to press our request on the Hasina government at this stage. As confidence and the habit of cooperation grow, and public perception of India improves further, Bangladeshis will see the benefits of exploiting the advantage of their country's geographic location not only as a bridge between India and its Northeast but also as a vital (and profitable) meeting ground between South Asia and South-East Asia.

Finally, we recommend that during his visit to Dhaka Prime Minister Manmohan Singh should, as a gesture of goodwill and friendship, unilaterally offer to convert half of the $1 billion soft loan given to Bangladesh earlier into a grant and make the rest interest-free.n

Mr Rasgotra, a former Foreign Secretary of India, is the President of the Observer Research Foundation, where Dr Bhattacharjee is an Associate Fellow.

***************************************

THE TRIBUNE

OPED

A RARE SCHOLAR

BY SYED NOORUZZAMAN

He would feel pity at Gandhian Anna Hazare when the great social activist roared from Delhi's Ramlila Maidan to press his demand for a strong Lokpal Bill to eliminate corruption. His argument, unlike that of Anna, was that no law would be enough to stamp out corruption unless there was a broad-based social movement to change people's thinking. In his opinion, there was need to work for having a society in which the corrupt had no place to survive.

But Dr Kausar Yazdani was not a crusader against corruption. He was a journalist, thinker, scholar and litterateur. One rarely comes across a person like him. He translated a number of books from Arabic into Hindi. It is difficult to find a person who is well-versed in these two languages. He also translated into Hindi many books written in English and Urdu, besides having authored a number of books in Hindi and Urdu. He died last week in New Delhi soon after Anna Hazare ended his indefinite fast. That he was my close relative — father-in-law — is a different matter.

Though he began his career as a journalist in Urdu, within a few years he shifted to Hindi with a purpose. He viewed Hindi as the fastest growing language, at least in the cow belt. His idea was that whatever he wrote in Hindi would attract a larger number of readers than Urdu, his mother tongue. Hence the decision to try his luck in Hindi. And this paid him rich dividends.

He became the founder-editor of a weekly magazine in Hindi in his early twenties, an age when most journalists start cutting their teeth in the profession of pen-pushers. He edited Kanti, a magazine respected for its authenticity, till he retired.

He combined in him two kinds of scholarship — religious (Islamic) and literary (Hindi). When he joined a college for doing his graduation, his classmates would laugh at him because of his being a maulana, a product of a religious seminary in Lucknow. But many of those who made fun of him became either his friends or admirers after the results of the fist semester were declared.

He not only did his graduation as a father of four children but also post-graduation in Hindi and then Ph.D. He got offers from universities in Delhi to join their Department of Hindi, but his reply was that he was fully contented as a magazine editor and author.

Dr Yazdani had a rare quality of inspiring people to take to journalism. I am sure I would not have been in this

profession had I not met him during my student days. He forcefully argued that there was no profession better than journalism if one aspired to bring about social change. Is Anna Hazare listening?n

***************************************

THE TRIBUNE

OPED

FINALLY, AN UPRISING AGAINST GRAFT

THE ROOTS OF CORRUPTION LIE MORE IN THE DOMAIN AND DYNAMICS OF INSTITUTIONAL STRUCTURES, INCLUDING POLITICAL, ADMINISTRATIVE, KINSHIP AND CLASS, THAN IN THE REALM OF INDIVIDUAL MOTIVATIONS

S.L. SHARMA

Indian society is witnessing a wave against corruption the likes of which it has never seen in the past. In fact, this kind of peoples' upheaval against corruption does not seem to have occurred in any other part of the world either. Triggered by Anna's fast unto-death for pressurising the government to accept the Jan Lokpal Bill, the upsurge is gathering unprecedented momentum. On the face of it, Anna's demand for the passage of the Bill doesn't seem to be such a big issue. What is it then that accounts for the huge public support that it commands? It is the cause at its core, i.e., the mission of combating corruption, a monster that has been bugging people for long, that explains the massive support of the people.

Corruption has grown in free India through two phases: a phase of proliferation (1960-90) and another of explosion of mega corruption (1991 onwards). Corruption mushroomed during the first phase due to licence-quota-permit raj, among other things, and grew into mega corruption in the second phase following the economic reforms in 1991. Its recent spurt is highlighted by a number of media surveys, research studies and, above all, the annual reports of Transparency International, a Berlin-based corruption watch agency which is known for its annual exercise of ranking various countries of the world on its Corruption Perception Index (CPI). India has always figured among the "highly corrupt' countries, and at times even among the "ten most corrupt" countries of the world which is clear from the following table.

Scams Galore

This dubious distinction apart, Indian society had to hang its head in shame in 2010-11 when corruption reached at its blatant worst, nay its tipping point, with the stunning disclosures of CWG, 2G spectrum, Adarsh Housing and many more. The public anger against it has been building all the while but could not find collective expression for want of a credible rallying point. The political parties failed to provide such a platform, despite their occasional attempts to make corruption an election issue to serve their partisan interests. Anna's noble move came a day not too soon to provide a much needed viable rallying point which is why it is receiving such a mammoth support.

The prevailing mobilisation signifies an event with a difference. For one thing, led by a public figure known for his impeccable integrity and resolute commitment to social causes, the movement developed at the hands of civil society. In the process it lent weight to the authenticity of civil society and its gathering influence. Incidentally, the rise of civil society has been associated with the decline in corruption in many parts of the world, mainly in the developed nations. Secondly, it is marked by an intense engagement of the urban, educated middle class which is rapidly growing bigger with its current strength of 22 million households in urban India, according to a report of the McKinsey Global Institute. Thirdly, the movement is being carried forward by youth who have come forward in incredible numbers to lead it in numerous cities and towns. It registers a new awakening of youth about their stake in India's future and hence their concern for a clean, transparent, accountable and responsive governance. Fourthly, it reveals the immense power of social networking as a medium of civil mobilization, among other things. Fifthly, the prominence of these sections notwithstanding, it grew into a mass movement encompassing people of all walks of life, all classes from corporate to domestic maids, all age groups and men and women alike. Finally, it has earned acclaim for its enviable distinction of passing as a peaceful protest.

The only section of society which has raised a dissenting against it is represented by the 'Dalit' and the 'backward' lobby. Their leaders contend that the move is unconstitutional, anti-reservation and it portends a dangerous development. They have problems with the dictatorial and unreasonable stance of the civic leaders which tends to undermine the constitutional, institutions like the parliament. Some members of the Parliament as well resent it. The view is not altogether baseless and the civic leaders would do well to be civil in their conduct. However, the question is: what do the people or the social activists do if the parliament sleeps over a public issue for as long as 42 years? More importantly, the critical question is: in the event of a rift between the people at large and the parliament, which agency merits primacy? The constitutional experts may advise.

Safeguarding quotas

At a deeper level, however, the opposition by the Dalit and the backward lobby seems to stem mainly from their perceived threat to the policy of reservation, just in case the civil society were to launch such an agitation against it. Their opposition thus appears to be more of a pre-emptive action to safeguard their reservation benefits than to oppose the mission of the movement to curb corruption. Some sympathizers of the present movement read into it the resonance of the traditional differences between Gandhi and Ambedkar. Some others have objected to the draft of the Jan Lokpal Bill and its contents. Aruna Roy as well as J.P. Narayan of Lok Satta, for instance, find the Bill rather unwieldy and overambitious and for the same reason suspect its efficacy. Alternatively, they have advanced their own separate versions.

There is finally a more fundamental question that merits consideration: can the passage of the Jan Lokpal Bill, all by itself, deliver liberation from corruption? It doesn't seem likely. The problem of corruption is far too complex and intricate to be tackled by a single piece of legislation, no matter how comprehensive and stringent it is. Corruption is a hydraheaded phenomenon that takes various forms not all of which are amenable to be handled by legislative measures alone. It warrants differentiated strategies to deal with different forms. More importantly, the roots of corruption lie more in the domain and dynamics of institutional structures, including political, administrative, kinship and class, than in the realm of individual motivations, though the latter cannot be regarded as altogether inconsequential. Given the structural sources of corruption, it warrants tackling strategies of institutional reforms as much as of regulatory ones. Within the regulatory framework also, it calls for institutional reforms which may provide for independent and autonomous supervisory and investigative agencies. Above all, there is an urgent need for strengthening our enforcement mechanisms too. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is right in stressing the need for judicial reforms. No less important, if not more, however, is the need for reforms in our polity which constitutes the fountainhead of corruption from where it flows down to administrative and other domains. It is interesting to note the omission, deliberate or inadvertent, of a reference to the need for political reforms in the Prime Minister's statement.

New awakening

Conceding all the limitations of the Bill, its sociological significance lies in generating new developments. First, it has sharpened peoples' awakening about the gravity of corruption and stirred their conscience and mobilized them against it. Secondly, it has lent voice to peoples' built up aggression against it. Thirdly, it has changed their perceptions about corruption by debunking their smug belief that corruption has become a way of life and that it is a necessary evil with which they have to put up. The movement has shown that evil it is, but not necessary. At a time when people had ceased to react to it and even begun to see merit in it on the count that it at least gets things done, it is no small achievement. Fourthly, it has also delivered a severe blow to the contention of a number of eminent social scientists who once contended that corruption has functional value, and that it promotes economic development rather than retarding it. Like the people, several scholars have underscored efficiency value of corruption in getting things done. Nathaneil H. Leff, an economist, states: "if the government has erred in its decision, the course made possible by corruption may well be the better one". Further, Samuel P. Huntington, a renowned political scientist, observes, "In terms of economic growth, the only thing worse than a society with a rigid, over-centralized, dishonest bureaucracy is one with a rigid, over-centralised, honest bureaucracy". Fifthly and finally, the movement has brought to fore the potential of peoples' power to rein in erring polity. This shows maturity of our democracy and augurs well for future.

Overall, the Jan Lokpal Bill is not so much about legislative enactment alone as about initiating serious measures to curb corruption. It has emerged as a symbol of expression of peoples' anti-corruption sentiment. Most important of all, it represents peoples' intense craving for a new public hygiene. For sure, the Bill by itself, is not likely to root out the endemic and entrenched problem of corruption. Nevertheless, it marks a significant beginning and represents an important milestone in peoples' fight against it. It as well paves the way to the introduction of institutional reforms by creating the institution of Jan Lokpal at the centre and Lokayukta at the state level.

The writer, former Chairperson Department of Sociology, Panjab University is an eminent sociologist who has worked extensively on corruption. He is currently working on his book on "Sociology of Corruption".

*************************************

THE TRIBUNE

OPED

WE, THE PEOPLE, MATTER

MOHIT SHARMA

I think Team Anna has carried out a brilliant campaign. It was conceptualised, organised and executed brilliantly. Anna Hazare has an exemplary record in his fight against corruption and he was the irreplaceable beacon of hope around whom we all rallied. In him, we found an idol to our belief in austerity and a mirror to our frustration with corruption.

Team Anna, brought out a wel-researched and worded draft of a Bill which could serve as a solution that the government had to adopt. They propagated the contents of this solution far and wide using conventional media and social media tools. My more inspired peers chose to leave their facebooks and gmails for a while and join the protest. Every morning the Mumbai local greeted me with chants of "Vande Mataram" and "Inquilab Zindabad". Team Anna roused us all out of our indifference and inspired us to stand up for what we thought was right. In the end, if I dare to call it the end that is, the Team, joined by millions of protestors from across the country, were able to stare the Parliament into a submission of sorts and extract a promise.

One prominent issue throughout this interim was that of tactics employed by our government. The definition of democracy places the people of a State at its core. A government has to be of, by and for the people. The Constitution, for all the reverence that we have for it, is, at the end of the day, a document that provides for procedures which we follow so that we can ensure the same set of rights and duties uniformly to all citizens of our country. Should it happen that proper procedure inhibits its very purpose, the procedure needs to be cast aside so that the will of the people can be exercised.

With this background, it was sad to see our MPs talking of "due process" and "respect for the Parliament" in their defence against the agitation. In fact, the very Parliamentary and Constitutional procedure that our MPs sought to protect has been violated by them in spirit, if not letter, so many times during the tenure of the present government that it would have been laughable to see them take that stance. One has to accept that some of the government's arguments against the Jan Lokpal Bill have merit. Our country, or for that matter, almost any democracy, runs as a functional chaos involving the three branches of the government, all of whom have somewhat independent interests and powers. The constant conflict ensures that all three are bound by checks and balances and that no one group can take complete control of the nation. The Lokpal, in due course of time, runs the risk of mutating into a super-authority whose whims and fancies would be imposed on the rest of the country. In our effort to secure our system from one evil, we risk catapulting it towards another equally dangerous consequence.

The entire campaign is an expression of a people who have had enough of shame and scandal, enough to come out on the road and protest against it. The government made hollow promises to the people in April and tried to get away without fulfilling those promises. It should know better this time around..

—The writer works with Price Waterhouse Cooper, Mumbai

*************************************

******************************************************************************************

MUMBAI MIRROR

EDITORIAL

TURKEYS DON'T VOTE FOR CHRISTMAS

DID ANYONE EXPECT INDIVIDUAL MINISTERS TO SUPPORT A BILL THAT WOULD EFFECTIVELY CURTAIL THEIR OWN SPORTING INFLUENCE?

Ajay Maken's draft National Sports Bill has a historical lineage. In 1974, with Indian hockey plunging to dismal heights and the Indian Hockey Federation locked in politicking between rival factions, Indira Gandhi too issued a similar directive to sports bodies. Presaging the current public outcry about the BCCI, its conflicts of interest and its opaqueness, that circular cited as its justification, 'the growing criticism in Parliament, press and otherwise of the low standard of sports and games in the country and the manner in which they are organised.'

Just as the current draft talks of sporting bodies coming under RTI and fixed tenures for their heads, that circular too made it clear that governmental aid and recognition would accrue to sports bodies which fulfilled strict criteria: no person could hold office for more than six years and annual accounts were to be audited. This was made official in 1975 and with the Emergency on, accepted by many sports bodies, only to be dropped later. Few have followed them since.

There is another similarity. Article 8 of the International Olympic Committee's charter forbids any government interference in sport and the IOC reacted angrily in the 1970s to the regulations, with whispers of disaffiliating India. This is precisely the argument that has been used currently by many in the sporting establishment opposed to the spectre of checks and balances.

In a letter to the IOA's Randhir Singh on May 4, 2010, for instance, Sheikh Ahmad, the president of the Olympic Council of Asia, argued that statist regulations on age and tenure violate the IOC charter on autonomy of sports bodies.

So what has changed in the three-anda-half decades that separate the earlier guidelines and the current draft bill?

First and foremost: politicians, politicians and politicians.

In the 1970s, for example, the hockey federation was first led by a policeman, Aswini Kumar, and then rift asunder by factionalism between P N Sahni and M A M Ramaswamy. None of them was a senior politician, leave alone a minister. The BCCI and state cricket associations today, by contrast, are a virtual who's who of contemporary politics. So are most other sports bodies.

In the 1970s, the dispute was between an interfering state and associations still led by professionals from other fields, even if notionally aligned to political factions. Today, there is little difference between the real political elite and the sporting domain's leaders.

This is why it was unconscionable that at least four cabinet ministers with a clear conflict of interest were allowed not to recuse themselves from the Cabinet discussion on the bill.

With senior ministers deeply implicated in the sporting structure not doing the right thing themselves, the Prime Minister, who surely is no stranger to rules of corporate ethical behaviour, should have asked them to leave. Even if the rules of coalition politics bound his hands, at least the appearances of ethical conduct could have been maintained.

Coming barely a week after the political class became the object of such national ridicule, this was poor politics at best, and a sign that the political class has learnt precious little from the Anna Hazare upsurge, at worst.

As they say, turkeys don't vote for Christmas. All clichés have an element of truth and in this case, did anyone seriously expect individual ministers to support a bill that would effectively curtail their own sporting influence?

Even if the draft bill has flaws, there was a genuine debate to be had but by rejecting clauses on accountability, disclosure and tenure, the ministers concerned have given one message: they are still not open for transparency and for anything that would clip the unfettered control of political satraps over Indian sports.

The deeper question is: why do Indian politicians control sport like nowhere else? Most of our sporting bodies were initially founded with princely patronage before Independence. In the age of amateurism, this was necessary because only the princes and big industrialists had the money and the time to devote to sports. Dorabji Tata, who founded the Indian Olympic Association supported the candidature of the Prince of Kapurthala as a successor on precisely these grounds in 1927.

At its core, sports is about the nature of power in society and from the late-1970s-early 1980s onwards, as the licence-permit raj became all-pervasive, politicians gradually displaced older elites and took control. The reason was simple, as the BJP's V K Malhotra once argued, 'being a politician, helps get things' in governmental permissions, funding, organising events etc. It also opens up yet another avenue for influence and the limelight, of course.

What the politicians have failed to understand though is that the nature of societal power patterns in India is changing again. Just as the politicians in government can no longer get away with old-style despotism, squirming in the spotlight of accountability; so too the sporting netas will find it increasingly difficult to persist with an older world of closed doors, secrecy and whimsical leadership.

Sports Minister Ajay Maken expects the National Sports Bill to be passed soon

NALIN MEHTA

***************************************

******************************************************************************************BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

WEAVING A FRIENDSHIP

TRADE CONCESSIONS TO BANGLADESH ARE GOOD ECONOMICS AND DIPLOMACY

Coming after more than a decade, the bilateral visit of an Indian prime minister to Bangladesh is being viewed by many in both countries and the region as "important", perhaps even "historic". A clutch of agreements intended to benefit both countries, including territorial exchange of enclaves, providing India greater access to its north-eastern states and lifting the ban on India's exports of yarn and fabric, is in the works. India's decision to provide duty-free access to textile imports from Bangladesh, a long-standing demand from Bangladesh, will be an important concession, as an agreement on Teesta waters. Having taken tough action against anti-India elements in that country, including insurgents and terrorists, the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina hopes to get these concessions as a return gift. India should be generous, despite some grumbling by lobbies at home, since these gestures make both economic and diplomatic sense. The textile industry is Bangladesh's economic lifeline, comprising almost 80 per cent of its manufacturing and virtually all its exports.

The decision to provide duty-free access to Bangladesh textiles to a huge and rapidly growing market (India's market for readymade garments alone is estimated to be of the order of $25 billion) is bound to provide a shot in the arm to a country struggling to stay afloat owing to depressed demand for its products in its traditional export markets in Europe and North America. The decision has led to loud protests from domestic textile manufacturers, who fear being swamped by cheaper Bangladesh textiles, particularly knitwear and jeans. This argument is not without foundation: sharply lower wages will give products from Bangladesh an edge in the short run. However, the sooner Indian manufacturers realise that the key to sustained competitiveness lies not in hiding behind tariff barriers but in enhanced productivity, the better. With the World Trade Organisation rules – some of which are already in operation – and with a more stringent regime underway, protectionism may offer little respite in the days to come. Indian industry has geared up to face competition before: textile manufacturers only have to look to the domestic auto and white goods industries for inspiration.

The increase in textile imports from Bangladesh is unlikely to significantly alter a trade balance that is currently heavily in India's favour. While bilateral trade between the two countries is of the order of $4 billion, India's exports constitute $3.5 billion of the total. Also, investment relations between the two countries, mainly in the energy sector, are being steadily ramped up. NTPC's decision to construct a thermal power plant in Bangladesh, with a fixed quota being distributed domestically and the surplus being exported to India, is hopefully the first of many such investments. Moreover, the two countries are situating bilateral economic relations in a regional context, clearly manifested in chief ministers of five north-eastern states accompanying Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. With similar arrangements on the anvil with Nepal and Bhutan and the green shoots of serious economic engagement with Pakistan emerging, the possibility of a vibrant South Asian Free Trade Agreement is finally taking shape and this kind of give and take is part of the deal.

***************************************

BUSINESS STANDARD

EDITORIAL

DOUBLE DIGITS AGAIN

HIGHER FOOD OUTPUT AND LOWER DISTRIBUTION COSTS NEEDED

The sudden rise in food inflation last week, with the rate hitting double digits after many weeks, was caused by an episodic rise in onion prices as well as the sustained rise in the price of protein-rich and high-value foods. The data, however, suggest that perishable high-value foods are contributing more to the high inflation rate than protein foods, which have a relatively longer shelf life. This category of inflation-drivers includes fruit, vegetables, milk, eggs, meat and fish but excludes protein-rich, relatively less perishable items, notably pulses, the main drivers of inflation till last year. This is borne out by the fact that the price of fruit soared during the week ended August 20 by 21.58 per cent and that of eggs, fish and meat by 12.62 per cent even as the price of pulses dipped by 4.16 per cent. The trend was similar to one in the previous week ended August 13 when fruit prices had risen by 27 per cent and those of eggs, fish and meat by 13.37 per cent even as pulses registered negative growth of 5.56 per cent. Pulses have, in fact, remained cheaper this year by 30 per cent from their last year's peak, even though the price of perishable protein and high-value foods has continued to rise unabated.

Two things are clear. First, the supply of non-cereal high-value foods has failed to keep pace with growth in demand, driven largely by a rise in income and changing food habits. Second, the post-production supply chain for these items is not efficient enough to deliver the available foods to the consumers in a cost-effective manner. Notwithstanding the seasonal factors, such as transportation disruptions during the monsoon, which create short-term shortages and push up prices, the wide gap between the farm gate price received by direct producers and the retail price paid by consumers points to persistent supply-chain deficiencies. Any strategy to ease food inflation should address both problems — production shortage and supply-chain rigidities.

Viewed from this angle, the Planning Commission's proposal – envisaged in its 12th Plan approach paper – to lay greater emphasis on raising the output of fruit, vegetables and protein-based items than on cereals is well founded. For this, it has mooted different growth targets for different food groups, with the lowest target of around two per cent growth proposed for staple cereals like wheat and rice, relatively higher goal of around four per cent for pulses, and the highest target of 4.5 to above five per cent for horticultural and animal husbandry products. Considering past production trends, the higher targets set for fruit, vegetables and livestock products are both desirable and attainable. This is because labour-intensive activities like horticulture and animal husbandry suit the Indian agricultural condition, which is marked by small farms and large families with ample domestic labour. However, unless the entire chain of post-production activities, including handling, storage, transportation and, most importantly, marketing of high-value agri-products, is suitably revamped to curb wastage, cut delivery costs and eliminate supply-chain rigidities and distortions, higher production alone would not bring down food inflation.

***************************************

BUSINESS STANDARD

IS THE FEASIBLE ALSO REACHABLE?

THE 12TH FIVE-YEAR PLAN APPROACH POINTS TO SOME 'OLD BLOCKS' TO A NEW, 'REASONABLE' GROWTH TARGET

SANJAYA BARU

India was one of the countries Walt Rostow was thinking of when he used the aviation metaphor to describe the growth process. After years of "taxiing" and building the energy to "lift off", an economy enters its "take-off" stage "when the old blocks and resistance to steady growth are finally overcome. The forces making for economic progress, which yielded limited bursts and enclaves of modern activity, expand and come to dominate the society. Growth becomes its normal condition. Compound interest becomes built, as it were, into its habits and institutional structure" (The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto, W W Rostow, Cambridge University Press, 1960).

Most would agree an economy that grew at an average annual rate of close to zero per cent for half a century (from 1890 to 1940), then at 3.5 per cent (from 1950 to 1980) and 5.8 per cent (from 1980 to 2000), and more recently at 9.0 per cent (2004-08) has settled into a phase when "growth becomes its normal condition", as Professor Rostow put it.

The question is, has "compound interest become built … into [India's] habits and institutional structure"? That is the point, in essence, that India's Planning Commission has raised in its "approach" to the 12th Five-Year Plan (2012-17). *

After five years of 8.2 per cent growth in the 11th Plan period (2007-12), says the approach paper, "it is reasonable to aim at 9.0 per cent growth for the Twelfth Plan". This is "a feasible target from a macroeconomic perspective", the paper notes, "but it cannot be viewed as an assured outcome". Indeed, the paper adds that nine per cent growth over the next five years is an "ambitious" target.

Two caveats stand between feasibility and possibility: first, "global economic conditions" which are "very uncertain"; and second, the required "political will to do what is necessary". The term "political will" is as old as the word "planning" in development literature!

To achieve rapid growth, says the paper, "the economy will have to overcome constraints posed by limited energy supplies, increase in water scarcity, shortages in infrastructure, problems of land acquisition for industrial development and infrastructure, and the complex problem of managing the urban transition associated with rapid growth. Greater efforts also need to be made in agriculture, health and education to ensure inclusion of the most excluded and sometimes invisible parts of our population".

Global conditions are a given. India can, at best, take some proactive steps to ensure that they do not become more hostile. These would include making the G20 a more meaningful forum for global policy, working with other developing countries, especially Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa, to ensure that global economic, trading and climate change regimes do not impose an additional burden on India and other developing countries, and the G7 economies do not become more protectionist.

But none of this is likely to alleviate the burden imposed by a slower global economy. The worst external constraint on growth is likely to be persistently high crude oil and food prices, but the solution lies in domestic "political will", to which the approach paper refers, and the ability to find domestic options in energy, food and key non-tradeables.

In the midst of three continuous years of nine per cent growth (2004-07), with rising foreign exchange reserves, rising exports, low current account deficit and rising foreign direct investment into India, an optimistic Prime Minister Manmohan Singh famously observed that the "external constraint" on India's growth process was probably a thing of the past and India's challenges lay largely at home.

India's planners used to talk of the "two gap" model — an external resources gap and a domestic resources gap. Many believed during the 10th and early 11th Plan periods that the former had been surmounted. The year 2008 and the global slowdown since have countered that optimism; the external constraint has returned.

However, the real policy challenges remain domestic, and the approach paper shows adequate recognition of all of them — infrastructure (urban and rural), agricultural productivity, energy pricing, finding the money to invest in health care and education, stepping up manufacturing sector growth and employment, ensuring that the growth process is ecologically sustainable and socially equitable, and making the government and public services delivery more efficient and less corrupt.

The chapter on innovation is an important reminder that India remains a laggard on new technology and new product development and in science and technology (S&T). The S&T foundations of the country's growth process require renewal and new strategies of public-private partnership, including with foreign firms and institutions. The modernisation of the human resources development infrastructure and systems and the integration of strategies to promote industrial development and S&T education and skills development are needed.

Some may regard a five-year plan an anachronism in the modern world. However, this thoughtful and comprehensive document shows why it is useful for a developing country democracy to have such a plan in the public domain. Development is a political process. Democratic governments have to make difficult choices with limited resources and within short time periods. The 12th Plan approach paper offers immense food for thought for an informed public debate.

The Planning Commission correctly notes that the "high expectations" of citizens are probably running ahead of the ability of both the economy and the institutions of government to deliver. "The Twelfth Plan has to meet the aspirations of millions of young men and women. This cannot be done by following a business-as-usual approach. All sections of society – government, farmers, businesses, labour and concerned citizens – have to adopt newer, more effective ways of pursuing their activities, so that we can collectively achieve our lofty goals." The challenge for all political parties is to be able to handle this "revolution of rising expectations".

*Available at www. planningcommission.nic.in/plans/planrel/12appdrft/appraoch_12plan.pdf

***************************************

BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

A PROMISE OF LIQUIDITY

WHILET THE FED HAS EMPHASISED THE NEED TO GET AMERICA'S FISCAL ACT TOGETHER, IT HAS NOT RULED OUT THE POSSIBILITY OF MORE MONETARY EASING

ABHEEK BARUA & SHIVOM CHAKRAVARTI

The pall of gloom that had shrouded global financial markets over the last few months lifted a tad last fortnight. Markets cheered statements made by the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke suggesting that more monetary easing was still on its policy menu. The focus over the last fortnight was on Bernanke's speech at a conference held at Jackson Hole in the US on August 26, 2011 as investors tried to gauge the Fed chairman's assessment of the economy and his policy prescriptions. Markets had been fretting over whether the US central bank remained willing to pick up the slack left by the impasse over fiscal policy that threatens to persist. Bernanke seemed willing to play ball. While he emphasised the need to get America's fiscal act together, he did not rule out the possibility of more monetary easing.

However, unlike last year's speech at the Jackson Hole conference where he laid out the contours of the second round of quantitative easing (QE2), Bernanke was a little more restrained this time. For one thing, he did not explicitly mention QE3. Neither did he lay out a timetable of what specific steps the Fed would take in bringing about liquidity expansion. All he said was that "the Fed is prepared to employ its tools as appropriate to promote a stronger economic recovery in context of price stability". However, for the financial markets, battered by the flow of adverse data and peeved by the lack of even minimal consensus on the course of US fiscal policy, even this fuzzy commitment was good enough. Besides, the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting held on August 9 and released on the 30th kept the market mood upbeat. The minutes showed that the Fed was actively considering more monetary measures and the degree of opposition to easing from the inflation hawks within the Fed was far more muted.

When do we expect the next round of heavy-duty monetary easing? One key difference between the macro-environment last year and now is the threat of rising inflation. Last year, deflation was the critical risk and made a strong case for quantitative easing. Inflation has queered the pitch. Thus, it's unlikely that the Fed will inject large doses of dollar liquidity into the system when "core" consumer price inflation is close to the Fed's tolerance threshold of two per cent. If the Fed is interested in resurrecting quantitative easing, the likely date for QE3 is early 2012 once inflation pressures subside in response to subdued economic growth. Remember that Japan's attempt to ease fiscal stimulus in 1997, less than halfway through its recession, resulted in five quarters of negative growth and triggered a deflationary spiral. The US might meet the same fate as it withdraws fiscal support.

However, while QE3 might take some time to come, the Fed could introduce a series of measures to assure the market that it is doing all that it can to revive the economy. One measure that appears to be on the cards is referred as "operation twist" or OT (how central bankers love jargon and acronyms) that was introduced for the first time in the 1960s. This involves the Fed selling short-term securities but purchasing long-term treasury securities. Such a measure would alter the composition of the balance sheet, and flatten the yield curve by lowering long-term yields and raising short-term yields. It would at the same time ensure that the size of the Fed's balance sheet remains constant and, thus, technically not lead to monetary expansion.

Our reading is that OT is unlikely to have much of an impact on the real economy as US long-term yields are already at a record low but have not done much to revive leveraged spending. However, the medium might just be the message. OT would be yet another reiteration of the Fed's commitment to monetary accommodation and could help revive risk appetite in the markets. The other measure that the Fed could announce is a cut in the interest on excess reserves from 0.25 per cent to zero per cent to encourage banks to increase lending. This again might not have a dramatic impact on actual credit creation with companies and households still in the process of repairing balance sheets and paying down debt.

However, the Federal Reserve will not be the sole Western central bank injecting liquidity. The EU crisis is far from resolved since concerns have shifted from the periphery to some of the bigger regions such as Spain, Italy and even France. Besides, the Euro seems grossly overvalued, especially when it is measured by the Real Effective Exchange of the peripheral economies. Thus, from both perspectives of providing liquidity support and the imperative of getting the Euro to depreciate, large-scale liquidity infusion might be the only way out. The European Central Bank might be forced to step up its own asset purchases programme and leave the purchases unsterilised before the US does.

The writers are with HDFC Bank.
These views are personal

***************************************

BUSINESS STANDARD

COLUMN

CHINA'S GREAT REBALANCING ACT

ITS CAPITAL-INTENSIVE, EXPORT-ORIENTED APPROACH IS DELIVERING DIMINISHING RETURNS AND THREATENS TO BECOME A MAJOR POLITICAL VULNERABILITY FOR THE GOVT

EVAN A FEIGENBAUM

or decades, China's blistering growth has depended on exports and investment. The country has become the world's workshop, lifting millions out of dire poverty. And for the first time in nearly two centuries, China has returned to a position of global power and influence.

But this growth model is no longer sustainable and its savvy leaders know it. They are committed to rebalancing the country's economy because their capital-intensive, export-oriented approach is delivering diminishing returns and threatens to become a major political vulnerability for the government.

Why is China's growth model delivering diminishing returns? The global economic crisis provided clear evidence that China's export-driven economy was vulnerable to dips in demand in the rest of the world. Meanwhile, its dependence on investment has introduced distortions and imbalances into the economy. China's rebalancing agenda is not merely about economics but, ultimately, the political viability of the Chinese system. Beijing has delivered economic prosperity to many Chinese citizens. But those very successes have yielded numerous problems which could undermine the regime's legitimacy if left unattended.

In a comprehensive new report on the future of China's political economy, "China's Great Rebalancing Act", my colleagues and I at Eurasia Group examined the maladies that confront Chinese leaders and the solutions they have prescribed to remedy them.

Their blueprint is the 12th Five-Year Plan, a set of strategic goals and binding economic targets through which they aim to alter China's macroeconomic landscape in far-reaching ways, with effects likely to be felt for a decade to come.

What are those maladies? We identified four. First, China's economy is overly dependent on fixed asset investment and exports. Consumption is about 35 per cent of GDP, a figure well below that of developing countries such as India. And the perpetuation of a production-intensive economic model owes much to inefficient capital allocation.

Second, companies – and the Chinese government – have captured much of the enormous wealth generated in the last three decades at the expense of Chinese households. And this dynamic is not only exacerbating an already yawning gap between the government and business elite on the one hand and average Chinese citizens on the other, it is also repressing consumption.

Third, vast regional disparities mean that policy makers in Beijing face the unique problem of having to deal with issues typical of both 21st-century middle-income countries and 20th-century developing countries. And these inequalities play out across a continent-sized economy: the wealthy coast contrasts starkly with the continental hinterlands.

Fourth, capital-intensive growth has exacted steep environmental and resource costs. Subsidised energy and land prices have encouraged companies to exploit China's natural resources and ignore debilitating energy inefficiencies.

The good news is that China's leaders have correctly diagnosed many of China's underlying economic challenges and have, at least on paper, prescribed many of the remedies required. These include the following:

One, the Plan aims to transfer wealth from producers to households in the form of continuous income hikes or forced dividends from firms. Beijing will consider spending more to repair China's frayed social safety net and expand social housing. And it emphasises human capital "software" through job creation, education reforms and innovation incentives.

Two, the internal migration of more than 300 million people from rural areas to cities over the next several decades will, Chinese leaders hope, generate investment and a natural "consumption windfall", driving economic growth.

Three, the Plan targets virtuous investment cycles as Beijing seeks to develop a more robust services sector to absorb new urban residents, while supporting the development of higher-value-added and high-tech industries, especially in sectors such as clean energy, high-speed rail and civilian aviation.

Four, Beijing will consider making capital more accessible to both average citizens and the private sector, as well as raising the cost of inefficient investments.

But here's the problem: Chinese politics simply won't permit many of these reforms. Entrenched bureaucratic, industrial and financial interests will resist everything from forced dividend payments to real financial reform. As a result, our Eurasia Group report argues, China's economic landscape will not change as fundamentally as the plan designers – and many foreigners – hope. That, in turn, means that China in five years will be more brittle and beset by social difficulties.

Although China should have little trouble muddling through until then, Chinese leaders are likely to face starker choices when the Plan has run its course in 2015 than they do today. They can double down on rebalancing — creating a more sustainable (long-term) growth model, but exacerbating (short-term) economic pain. Or, they can continue their attempt to muddle through and risk heightened political instability as a result of the widening gap between the haves and the have-nots.

Put bluntly, our report is not optimistic that China's cautious leaders have the stomach for bold reform. The next decade is likely to be more fraught than conventional wisdom suspects.

The author is head, Asia Practice Group, at Eurasia Group, and is also adjunct senior fellow for Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations Washington, DC

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

BLACK OUT

THE BULBS ARE FLICKERING IN THE POWER SECTOR; IT'S TIME TO ASK HARD QUESTIONS

State-owned NTPC, India's largest producer of electricity, has slapped BSES, a private power distributor, with a notice saying that it'll cut off supply if the latter doesn't cough up money due to NTPC. Delhi is one of the few places in India with private power distribution: nine years after what started out as a bold experiment, the effort seemed to be paying off. The summer of 2011 saw fewer power cuts and the theft of electricity has dropped from more than 50% before privatisation to about 12% now. Yet, suppliers and distributors are at each other's throats, wrangling over unpaid dues. It is time now, to start a wideranging survey of the power sector in India. Other than a few cities — Calcutta (now Kolkata) always had private power distribution; Mumbai and Delhi have now had it for just about a decade — the power sector is still overwhelmingly dominated by state and central government entities. Transmission and trading are near-monopolies with PowerGrid Corporation and Power Trading Corporation lording it over smaller rivals. Generation is still dominated by NTPC, though the private sector's share will grow once the giant ultra mega power projects start kicking in. After nearly 20 years of reform, has India achieved enough?

First, whatever happened to open access, the idea that consumers could shift between rival distributors? Open access could have led to tariff competition in cities like Delhi and Mumbai, which have more than one distributor. That would have ended the wrangling over tariffs, something that plagues regulators, distributors and consumers. Second, we need to ask why tariffs always head north. After all, if power theft has come down from over 50% to 12% of all the electricity generated, shouldn't that be reflected in lower prices for paying customers? Three, how is it that with all the frenetic buzz around the sector, it'll still miss its 11th Plan growth target? And finally, how shall we sort out issues like access to domestic coal and overseas equipment purchase in a climate where one arm of the government doesn't know what another is doing, and all other policymaking organs seem cryogenically frozen? The answers have to come soon; otherwise the growth story will plunge into darkness.

***************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

TWEAK IT

WHAT THE GOVERNMENT MUST DO TO MAKE NEW PENSION SYSTEM MORE ACCEPTABLE

The recommendation of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance to devise a mechanism to ensure a minimum assured return to subscribers of New Pension System (NPS) flies against the raison d'etreof the NPS, to reduce the burden of pension on government finances. The entire rationale of the shift from the pre-NPS defined-benefit pension scheme (where pensioners are assured of a specified pension) to the defined-contribution NPS (where there is no such assurance) is to rein in the government's growing pension liabilities. That will be defeated if the government gives an assured return, as the parliamentary panel has suggested. Yet the panel is right to point out that in the absence of a guarantee, the NPS cannot claim to provide old-age income security. True, most countries have moved from defined-benefit to defined-contribution pensions. But there is usually some minimum social security either in the form of a Pillar I pension or some other form. In contrast, NPS subscribers in India have no such cushion. So, the panel's suggestion that the minimum rate of return on NPS contributions should not be less than the interest rate on the employee provident fund scheme and any shortfall should be made good from the Budget, has merit. In practice, this should not be very difficult. As long as the EPF rate is not way off-market, there is no reason why fund managers can't be asked to match it.
After all, pension reform was never meant to be only about reducing the government's burden. It was also meant to extend the coverage of a formal pension scheme to the vast majority outside the privileged class of government employees. For them, the NPS opened a new option; especially when beginning early 2009, the scheme was opened to the non-government sector as well. But if the scheme has found few takers to date, despite having close to 85% of the working population without any formal pension scheme, it is because it falls short on the single-most important criterion of any pension scheme, one that offers old-age security: certainty. Till then, the NPS will not find many takers, especially among those who need it most — the less well-to-do.

***************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

EDITORIAL

RAIL BONDS

ARE BOTH JAMES BOND AND INDIAN RAILWAYS REFORMED RAKES?

Railways minister Dinesh Trivedi must be complimented for insisting on a unique bond in lieu of permission to shoot scenes for the latest 007 movie on Indian trains: that the British spy should become the railways' brand ambassador. But will the rest of the government — and indeed, the political class — approve of paeans to anything Indian from a notorious employee of a foreign power, albeit a fictional one? More so since the average (or potential) Indian train passenger may be more inspired by desi daredevil heroes such as Rajinikanth or Salman Khan? Still, an endorsement from Daniel Craig may dispel the bogey of scepticism regarding Indian Railways among some foreign travellers at least, not to mention the small but presumably significant band of Bond aficionados in this country. Trivedi's insistence that there be no cliched scenes of people riding on rooftops as Bond leaps from carriage to carriage is also commendable. After all, trains have come a long way since Gandhi — the man and the film — and Indian Railways can do without a Bond version of the recent YouTube video showing two men doing dangerous stunts atop a local train in Mumbai.

More tricky, though, is the condition that India cannot be shown in a bad light, as Trivedi obviously doesn't mean smog. Imagine if someone had thought of such a caveat for foreign film crews before. Then Slu m d o g M illi o n a i r e would never have made it to the bylanes of Dharavi or T h e C i t y o f J o yto Trivedi's k a r m a b h o o m i, Kolkata. An earlier Bond would have happily settled for more salubrious surroundings as he wanted nothing Moore than palaces and Octopussy the last time he was here. But as his battle-hardened current avatar is licensed to thrill with gritty realism, this condition could derail the plans of the film and the minister.

***************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

NO CHILD OR TEACHER LEFT BEHIND

THE INCREASE IN SCHOOL ENROLMENT IS POINTLESS UNLESS MATCHED BY MORE, HIGH-QUALITY TEACHERS

MYTHILI BHUSNURMATH

Do a Google search for 'Missing girl child in India' and the Internet throws up 1,810,000 results. Now repeat the search, this time for 'Missing teachers in India' and the Net throws up an astounding 54,800,000 results. Hardly the kind of statistic you'd want to wake up to on Teacher's Day!

Yet, that is the harsh reality today. Minister for human resource development (HRD) Kapil Sibal estimates the shortage at 1.2 million; enough to prod the HRD ministry into addressing the problem on a war-footing.
But more than a year after we passed the Right to Education Act, making free and compulsory education a fundamental right for all children between the ages of 6 and 14, studies show no improvement or only a marginal improvement in the all-important pupil-teacher ratio (PTR).

How do we deliver on the promise enshrined in the Act if we don't have enough teachers? The Act sets the PTR at a maximum of 30:1 while the actual ratio in primary schools [39, according to the just released PROBE Re-visted report and 33, according to National University of Education Planning and Administration, (NUEPA)] is well above that. It is certainly well above that of our bête noir, China, at 18.

'Across the world, the best minds opt for the teaching profession; but this is not happening in India, so we need to give more incentives,' said the HRD minister some months ago. But is it only a matter of incentives? How does one ensure accountability? Teaching is a vocation, not a 9-to-5 job; a good teacher has to be passionate about the job and cannot look at it only as a means to earn a livelihood.

It is for this reason that any attempt to tackle the shortage of teachers must address both the quantity and quality deficit. Each calls for a different approach. Merely increasing the number of teachers is of no use if, as repeated studies have shown, children are 'educated' only in name. At the same time, given the scale of the shortage, it is necessary to think of practical rather than ideal solutions, and most importantly, tailor them to suit local needs.
The latter is important because the shortage of teachers is highly skewed. While urban areas are relatively better off — in fact, there is a surplus in some areas — the picture is quite different in rural India. Here again, the picture is not uniform. You have states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu where schools in rural areas are far better served than in Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, where the need is the greatest, given low literacy levels in these states.

This is where a more imaginative approach could help. For instance, it is absurd to insist on the same minimum qualification for a primary school teacher as for a secondary school teacher. So, one way of addressing the shortage could be to specify sufficiently differentiated standards, keeping in mind both the need and the availability of suitable manpower. Another could be to employ parateachers, or teachers (often untrained) hired on short contracts to work in primary schools. This has been tried by a number of states and with considerable success. In their May 2010 paper, Esther Duflo, et al point to how para-teachers are not only more accountable but also respond better to incentives. Unlike, government teachers, they are not part of an entrenched-forlife constituency. They have a job as long as their performance is up to the mark, and since there is usually a long queue of job aspirants waiting to step into their shoes, they are kept on their toes.

Not surprisingly, states that went in for parateachers in a big way show a dramatic improvement in their PTRs. Unfortunately, despite this evidence on the ground, the Right to Education Act has virtually sounded the death knell to this tried-and-tested (and eminently practical) answer to the numbers deficit. It specifies a centrally notified acceptable level of qualification that all teachers will have to acquire within a maximum period of five years, failing which they will no longer be qualified to teach. This is clearly a case of the good being the enemy of the best. Insistence on centrallyspecified qualifications when we have almost six lakh under-qualified teachers in the school system is downright short-sighted. Remember what Deng Xiaoping famously said about not caring about the colour of the cat as long as it catches the mice. So too with para-teachers! If they are able to deliver (admittedly, the para-teacher model is not without flaws such as political influence in their appointment, elite-capture, etc) then nothing else should matter, neither degree nor pedigree! Distance education could also be an answer. So far, it has been used to impart training to teachers. But it could be used equally effectively to impart education to school children. As broadband connectivity improves, it may not be necessary for teachers to be physically present in schools. Another issue that is no less important is to free teachers of non-teaching responsibilities such as census surveys, election duties, household surveys and supervision of midday meals. The PROBE Re-visited report quotes a primary school teacher in Bihar saying, "First three teachers have to teach five grades and on top of that the authorities keep calling us to the office." This must change. The heartening increase in school enrolment consequent on the National Education Policy, 1986 and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan is pointless unless it is matched by efforts to improve the PTR and the quality of our teachers.
'Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more,' said Bob Talbert, the iconic Michigan journalist. On Teacher's Day, we need to chew on that

***************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

ET INTERACTIVE

RIDING ON INDIA'S AUTO BOOM

GOURI AGTEY ATHALE

Diane H Gulyas has been with DuPont, the third biggest US chemical maker, for more than three decades. She handled a variety of portfolios spanning from sales, marketing, technical to systems development, mainly in the DuPont's polymer business during her initial years. "It is a lot easier being a women engineer today than it was 20 years ago when the profession was dominated by men," says the chemical engineer.

Gulyas, who has been visiting India for over a decade now, also chose to be the 'champion' for the country on the board of the giant company. "The chairperson asked us to be the champion of any one country and I chose India. I could have chosen Russia, Brazil, Korea, China or Mexico. I believe India has a great potential," she says. Clearly, the fast pace of growth in India's auto sector is making it an attractive destination for allied sectors.
DuPont's global head of performance polymers played a proactive role in setting up the company's first innovation centre in India. The company also has a knowledge centre in Hyderabad — which is one of its seven global research and development centres outside the US — besides manufacturing facilities in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. "We do not have all the expertise in one place. Each innovation centre specialises in a specific area. For instance, our global air-ducts specialist is in Geneva. Therefore, if anyone needs help on this subject, even in the US, they can get in touch with him. The innovation centre in Pune is focused on the automative sector where the trend is towards making vehicles faster, lighter, safer and fuel-efficient. We will work with our customers in half a dozen areas including sustainability, lightweight, improved performance, alternative drive, safety, and comfort and design," she says.

While the Pune centre is the last one to be set up in Asia this year, Gulyas says the next centre will be either in Brazil or Mexico. And even as she talks of other centres, she admits that another such innovation centre in India is not off the table: it is under discussion. As India Champion within the company, what she says counts.
The automotive segment contributes about half the revenues for her division and about a fifth of DuPont's revenues. "So, this is a focus area, though issues such as sustainability pose a challenge." She refers to a change in the use of raw material from those that are derived from non-renewable fossil fuel sources to those that are sustainable — extracted from a renewable source. For instance, carpeting within the entire innovation centre is made from a DuPont patented product, Sorona, that has its origins from corn and is a replacement for products derived from a petrochemical base. "We are looking at developing applications for Sorona, for the apparel sector and have people working on it in Surat to use the material for sarees," she says.

How would she handle the food-versus-fuel debate on the risks of diverting crops for biofuel production to the detriment of food supply on a global scale? Gulyas maintains that the company is dedicated to working on non-food sources for polymers. "We have an ongoing research, for instance, on cellulosic ethanol where the raw material is castor seed and agri-waste. Now, castor seeds are not food and they grow in large quantities in India. We don't want to compete with food as that is unsustainable."

She argues that there's no one-size-fits-all approach and the need is to develop solutions that are unqiue to a country. "India is investing in railways and, therefore, it needs stable rail systems. In the US, we are no longer investing in rail systems. India can take the lead in solar power or in becoming a hub for small cars. These will be fuel-efficient small cars and the rest of the world will have to learn and catch up. Moreover, smaller, lighter cars will use less material and less fuel, leading to lower emissions, while being more affordable."
While the automotive segment contributes to half the revenues for her division, the balance comes from railways, transportation and two-wheeler segments. "For us, two-wheelers are not automotive! Among these businesses is the Kevlar, the material that forms bullet-proof jackets used by the military. "We are working on armoured vehicles and have extensive experience in this segment. We are excited about the opportunities for this in India. But there is also the business that we have in Brazil of providing this for personal vehicles," she said. Emission norms, which are getting stringent across the world, are seen to be driving several of the issues on which the DuPont innovation centre will work, specially on light-weighting. The performance polymers division, has offerings in this segment, starting with Kevlar products that can be used to reinforce tyres, she says.

DIANE H GULYAS PRESIDENT DuPont Performance Polymers

***************************************

THE ECONOMIC TIMES

GUEST COLUMN

A TRAIN OF THOUGHT

RAGHU KRISHNAN

If external affairs minister S M Krishna's suggestion to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and railway minister Dinesh Trivedi (in letters dated August 1) is acted on, the Malgudi Express could become India's first train to take you to a place which does not exist.

Malgudi, as fans of the late Indo-Anglian writer R K Narayan will tell you, is the imaginary town he created near the imaginary river Sarayu and inhabited by ordinary people who live forever in books titled The Vendor of Sweets, The Financial Expert, The Painter of Signs, The Bachelor of Arts, The English Teacher, The Guide, and, first and foremost, Swami and Friends which the young author sent to publisher after publisher in distant England until Graham Greene read the manuscript in 1934 and perceived in it a rare and original talent which reminded him of the Russian playwright Anton Chekhov because of the touch of gentle sadness which suffused the story of a schoolboy growing up in colonial India.

That gentle sadness would be even more evident in The English Teacher where Narayan, drawing from his own life, tells the story of a young lecturer whose wife dies of typhoid, leaving behind a little daughter. Another perceptive female critic felt that the real significance of The English Teacher was the author's ability to communicate to the reader "the extraordinary ordinariness of happiness", derived from first a shared life and then the memories to which the lecturer dedicates the rest of his existence.

India and the world, of course, remember Narayan more for The Guide. Not just because it won him the Sahitya Akademi Award but because of the movie made in English and Hindi (the international version produced by Nobel laureate Pearl Buck), with the debonair Dev Anand playing the role of a tourist guide who, much against his will, becomes a spiritual guru who ends up fasting to death because the simple rural folk (with whom he lives after serving a jailsentence for forgery) believe that the prolonged drought will end and the rains will come once a saint stops eating.

In India, saints are not born but happen like the weather, a reviewer of The Guide quipped in Time magazine.
Narayan's own life was equally inspiring. In a biography published some 15 years ago, Susan and N Ram reconstruct the life of a young writer who falls in love with a girl he meets on a Coimbatore street and then tells her father that he plans to dedicate his life not to the pursuit of wealth but to writing and wants to earn the barest minimum required to look after his wife and family. A far cry from today's world of mega literary awards and bookadvances running into seven figures!

So if S M Krishna's suggestion is acted on, the next time you buy a ticket on the Malgudi Express, remember to take with you copies of Swami and Friends, The English Teacher, The Guide and The Dark Room (the story of an abused wife who tries to break free and finally goes back to her tyrannical and philandering husband).
The literary rail coach-car could even carry copies of Narayan's books so that the reader could go to Malgudi even if the train never stops there on the journey from India's Silicon Valley of Bangalore to the Jasmine City of Mysore. Jasmine is the flower which the English teacher buys for his wife on the last walk before she contracts typhoid.

Today's Mysore, where multi-storeyed apartments sprout every day and are advertised every moment on the SMS, has little in common with the Mysore which Narayan lived in before and after marriage or with the Malgudi described in The Guide where the protagonist, when asked by tourists about a prominent monument to one Sir Frederick Lawley, either enthusiastically goes into great fictitious detail or, if he's in a bad mood, simply says, "Great man. Hence statue."

The same guide also wonders why tourists should put in so much of effort to visit the source of the Sarayu when the river has taken all the trouble to come down!

As a journalist who has driven down from Bangalore to Mysore at least twice a year in the last two decades, smaller towns like Mandya (in S M Krishna's constituency) keep reminding me of Malgudi.

Life in Mandya — even when glimpsed on brief stopovers to cover electioncampaigns — seems to flow at the same unhurried pace as in Malgudi to an extent where I find myself trying to identify the vendor of sweets, the financial expert, the painter of signs, and even a Narayan to write about it all!

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

BUSINESS LINE

OPINION

TEA BADLY BREWED

The Comptroller and Auditor General of India has hit the bull's eye in its findings on the Tea Board. Dwelling on the "Role of the Tea Board in tea development in India", the CAG has found the board ineffective in exercising its role, be it as a regulator or in research, marketing and promotion. The findings come at a time when exports from the country are down nearly 18 per cent in the first half, despite a 3 per cent drop in global production. The lack of efficiency in the functioning of the Board has led to a situation wherein Indian tea is realising lower prices in the global market than its competitors. This is primarily because of the inferior quality of Indian tea and the adverse price mix. In terms of volume, too, the production of orthodox tea has not increased. In fact, it has dropped below the target levels set by the Government. One of the key findings of the report is the failure of the Board to stipulate an increase in the production of orthodox tea as a condition for eligibility of subsidy. Unfortunately, in what could amount to a scandal, the Tea Board has been found to have extended subsidy to units that have not submitted proper documents, and without proper verification of factory records.

The Board has also been pulled up for repeatedly ignoring small tea-growers. The CAG has found 80 per cent of small growers still outside the ambit of regulation. Though the Board has been talking of a separate set-up for the small growers for over a year now, no progress seems to have been made. More worrying is the audit body's finding of declining productivity, with a substantial increase in the commercially unproductive area. The only way out that it sees is a replantation/rejuvenation programme. But the target set for such a programme is, according to the CAG, abysmal and it will take nearly 150 years to clear the backlog in replanting! The Tea Board is also lagging in fixing targets for its subsidy schemes. Most importantly, it has not laid down any mechanism to measure the impact of various development schemes. Nor has it conducted regular studies to identify components that can reduce production costs, which are among the highest in the major tea-producing countries. Clearly, the institutional role of the Board as a facilitator of the industry's interests in production and trade, in the post-reform environment, has been found wanting.

The CAG calls for a major restructuring of the Tea Board's policies. As mentioned in the report, it is time the Government reviewed the entire functioning of the Board. If the case of coffee is anything to go by, it would be hard to argue that the Tea Board is not required. The Centre would do well to start by first nominating a chairperson, as the Board has gone without one for the past few months.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

OPINION

FEELING NEGLECTED

The Indian Ambassador to China, S. Jaishankar's initiative to organise a business meet on Information Technology — without keeping the Commerce Ministry in the loop — has not gone down well with its officials. Since the objective of the meet is to boost exports from India to China, they feel that they could have given some valuable inputs had they been informed about it by the Indian Embassy in China.

Ganesha overrides Telangana

While the Telangana issue has over the months threatened to distance people from the regions of coastal Andhra/Rayalaseema and Telangana, the Ganesha festival has come as a welcome departure.

The giant laddu in the palm of the tallest Ganesha at Khairatabad in Hyderabad has been prepared by an entrepreneur from Tapeswaram in East Godavari district of coastal Andhra.

The laddu weighing 2,400 kg has been made with 1,000 kg sugar, 360 kg ghee and 150 kg of dry fruits and elaichi in Tapeswaram where making sweets is a cottage industry.

Hopefully, Lord Ganesha, who is believed to remove all obstacles and help people, would take care of the interests of people of both regions.

Say it with baingan bharta

One thought the only form of protest the country would see henceforth would be fasts. But, no, the green lobby wants to cook up a storm of protest and stir up a cauldron of controversy in a novel way — by preparing a humungous dish of baingan bharta. The grilled and mashed brinjal dish is the Greenpeace way of protesting against the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India (BRA-I) Bill.

Fancy dress protests

Protests appear to have come of age. Earlier people came out on the streets dressed in their usual attire. At the most you would find the hard core activist sporting a kurta and jhola. But not any more.

If the Anna Hazare supporters turned out in tri-colour tee shirts and the Gandhi topi, those against genetically modified Bt Brinjal turn up in the fancy dress of a Brinjal. The Bhagat Singh supporters wear bright yellow turbans and those against cruelty to animals, garlands and headgear of vegetables. It's obvious why protests need such a strong visual element — the 24X 7 TV channels are only waiting to lap them all up. Especially if they make for visually interesting footage.

Louts Valley?

There is simply no let-up in the flurry of property-related SMSs that arrive with irritating regularity. A colleague recently got one which exhorted buys in 'Louts Valley'. It was for Lotus Valley.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

REACHING OUT TO, AND WINNING OVER, PEOPLE

B.S.RAGHAVAN

The former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), Mr N. Vittal, in his article "Will a miracle occur at the end of double foolishness?" published in The Hindu of September 4, has undertaken what he calls "an exercise in double foolishness".

One type of foolishness is offering sound and sensible advice when no one has asked for it, and the other is offering it knowing full well that it will not be heeded by those for whom it is meant.

Since I am going to strongly endorse the suggestions coming out of Mr Vittal's undertaking of such an exercise, I suppose I shall be quadrupling the foolishness, but without the least hesitation on that score.

In that article, Mr Vittal exhorts the Government of India to regain a modicum of credibility, in the wake of the Anna tsunami which swept it off its feet, as a regime which will really and effectively fight corruption, essentially a Frankenstein monster created by itself.

To that end, he proposes that within a week after the end of the current Parliament session, the Government should issue five Ordinances providing for the following:

the prohibition of benami transactions;

confiscation of the illegal wealth of corrupt public servants;

protection of whistle-blowers;

barring persons against whom courts have framed criminal charges from contesting elections until he is acquitted or honourably discharged; and

making it mandatory for concluding the trial of persons charged with corruption within six months, and completing the appellate process also within a similar period, allowing for only one appeal.

In keeping with the principle of preserving "the institutional integrity" enunciated by the Supreme Court in setting aside the appointment of Mr P. J. Thomas as the CVC, Mr Vittal argues for replacing, in cases involving corruption, the "holy slogan" of presumption of innocence until proved guilty by presumption of guilt until proved innocent.

STILLBORN

It is worth mentioning here that there is already a law passed in 1989 prohibiting benami transactions, and there are recommendations by the Law Commission and the Second Administrative Reforms Commission for the other purposes mentioned by him which have been embodied in draft Bills, languishing in the various Ministries. Mr Vittal calls his proposal "simple", but considering that each one of the measures will hit the political class where it hurts the most, we can take it that the brainchildren of his 'double foolishness', further doubled by my endorsement, will be still-born.

Anna Hazare is shrewd enough to realise this and that is why he has begun talking of subjecting the Government to "repeated shocks" as the only way of jolting it to face realities on the ground.

One wonders whether the Government is aware of the hundreds of fiery messages circulating among netizens on the Internet round the globe giving vent to their utter contempt for India's political class and their condemnation of the "dirty tricks" played by the Government.

It is significant that they emanate from young professional groups such as IIT-alumni associations and enlightened persons who normally keep their cool and do not jump into any fray unless deeply stirred by patent acts of venality and oppression. One such message doing the rounds and making a powerful impact is an imaginary statement which a young IIT-alumnus claims he would make in Parliament if he were Om Puri or Kiran Bedi replying to the Privilege Motion.

NEUTRALISING THE LOATHING

Going by the reactions of Team Anna, there is every chance that the Privilege Motions will boomerang in a big way, and the situation, from the perspective of the Government, will be worse than before.

It is time younger (say, between 40 and 55), leaders of political parties took a serious view of the deepening alienation and devised a method of neutralising the loathing associated with the way India's democracy functions. It is advisable for the Speaker/Chairman to take the advice of a confidential Working Group which, in turn, can take the help of a highly reputed public relations consultant, on how to reach out to people and win them over.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

A MEET THAT COULD RAISE SAARC HOPES

ASHWINI PHADNIS

"Have you seen the reference paper on telecom?" the Brazilian diplomat at the WTO asked his Indian counterpart.

"No," was the prompt reply, because in 1995-96 landlines were predominant, and the Indian Government's instructions were to first "protect landlines" and only then think of making commitments on mobile telephony.

However, the Indian delegate got his hands on the reference paper. He then put it through to the Indian Government to decide on the country's stance on mobile telephony. The rest, as they say, is history.

SOUTH ASIA FORUM

Now, the Governments and billions of people of the eight SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries are hoping for more such out-of-the-box ideas, as the first meeting of the South Asia Forum (SAF) to be held in Delhi from September 7-9. SAF is an initiative that emanated from the Silver Jubilee Declaration of the SAARC Summit held in Thimphu, in April last year.

Billed as a meeting of business, think-tanks, academia, media and civil society, the main thrust of the three-day meeting will be to generate ideas, which could eventually lead to greater integration of the regional grouping, and help the region in moving towards an economic union. The regional grouping includes India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh. SAF is also being seen as a unique concept, because even though Track-II processes and people-to-people contacts are underway in the region, this is a first-of-its-kind forum, to be formally endorsed by the SAARC Summit.

It is not as though the SAARC regional grouping has not achieved much in its 25 years of existence. For example, starting from an intra-regional business of approximately $150 million, the last five years have seen the business go up to $5 billion.

Now, many hopes are being pinned on the SAF meeting, because even though the need for intra-regional economic integration is greater than ever before in the present competitive environment, a 2006 World Bank report shows that South Asia is the least integrated region on the globe.

FIVE-PRONGED STRATEGY

The figures speak for themselves. During 2009, with a total trade volume of $628.9 billion, intra-regional trade in South Asia was a mere 5 per cent. In comparison, East Asia's regional trade constituted 32 per cent of its total trade in 2006. To make matters even worse, a Ministry of External Affairs concept paper points out that as much as 55 per cent of the intra-regional trade potential remains largely untapped.

The Governments in the region have now realised that the SAF initiative will be largely driven by the industry or business. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the industry organisation, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), has been roped in for the Delhi event.

There is also a realisation that in the changing environment, it is services that will play a greater role in integrating the economies of the region, instead of manufacturing. Hence, intra-regional trade in services, which was absent under South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA), is now being considered.

To take this path of cooperation forward, the Indian industry body has suggested a five-pronged strategy — providing freedom to trade without barriers, freedom to invest across borders, freedom of seamless travel, connectivity across the borders and creation of South-Asian brand equity.

ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

While cynics point out that given the precarious state of relations between India and Pakistan, the two largest economies in the region, the SAF will be a non-starter, the region has a lot more to offer this public-private partnership. Take Bangladesh, for example. It has leveraged the international system and now has access to all international markets. So much so that 'Made in Bangladesh' labels are common everywhere in Europe or America.

The Indian business community is also enthused by the business prospects that it sees in many of the SAARC countries. At the top of the list is Sri Lanka, which not only provides a lot of business potential, but also has a Government that is keen to work with Indian companies. These are small but significant steps. However, the best thing for the SAF initiative is that it is now recognised all across the globe that economic integration in this region will be an important factor for global stability.

What the Forum now needs to do is to generate ideas which could be taken up by the Governments, so that the future of the people of the region can be changed, much in the manner that a chance meeting between Indian and Brazilian diplomats changed the lives of the people in India more than two decades ago.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

LET GENDER JUSTICE PREVAIL

MOHAN MURTI

Earlier this year, when I was at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, one of the interesting sessions I attended focused on pursuing policies that would allow more women to enter the workforce, occupy positions of decision-making in the government and other related positions of power, across the world.

The session titled Six Global Challenges, One Solution: Women arrived at the consensus that one of the most effective ways of combating unbridled global problems, such as illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and economic recovery, was by bridging the gender gap.

Rightly so, as women make up over half the world's population. And their participation in and contribution to the political process are both imperative and indispensable. In fact, it is a fundamental right.

Gender Equality

In this context, the nations of the European Union are striving incessantly to realise the very values upon which they were founded: Democracy, equality between women and men and an undivided, progressive Europe.

These values constitute the backbone of Europe's social democracy that, in turn, not only provides the rational foundation for its survival but is also accepted as a way of life.

Indeed, the increased representation of women in the European Parliament has raised the level of democratic representation of the citizens of the EU and helped Parliament incorporate a gender perspective into all areas of its work.

in European Parliament

In 2010, the balance between the sexes in the European Parliament and at other legislatures around Europe reveal that women make up around 53 per cent of Europe's population and occupy 35 per cent of the seats in Parliament.

According to a report by the European Commission, 20 countries around the world had 35 per cent or more female MPs. Among those, eight are in the EU — Sweden (47 per cent), Finland (44), the Netherlands (40, Denmark, Spain, Belgium, Germany and Austria (all, around 37 per cent).

India's ranking

The Davos session that released the annual Global Gender Gap Report 2010, issued by World Economic Forum, indicated that India stood at 112 among 134 countries worldwide. Despite the fact that India has women in leading positions in politics, this has not really heralded a new age of gender equality.

Iceland topped the Global Gender Gap rankings showing greatest equality between men and women, followed by Nordic countries Norway, Finland, and Sweden.

The WEF's annual Global Gender Gap Report assesses 134 countries on how well they divide resources and opportunities amongst male and female populations. Gaps are measured in the areas of economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, political empowerment, and health and survival.

The report and the discussions that ensued in the session sounded the alarm for India and similar laggards to take urgent steps to make women as equal partners in the society and eliminate gender inequality. A strong message from the world community, not to be ignored.

Gender imbalance

It is a fact that many countries of the world, hitherto ruled by men for centuries, have been going through a period of political and economic turmoil.

India is no exception, thanks initially to the Muslim rule, the British colonisation and the post- Independence male chauvinism. The Arab countries primarily, and India in particular, need special mention in this context.

In India, degeneration has set in and is so deep that many people have started asking for a women-takeover. The Anna Hazare movement, (may his tribe increase!) highlights how cruel and cold-blooded male administrators of the country are.

Motherly care

I am of the view that it is high time for countries like India, Pakistan and much of the Arab world to be administered at least in the higher political level and at the bureaucracy by women for some time till men re-invent some equanimity and level-headedness.

People of these countries, especially the poor need 'motherly concern and care', which only mothers can give. While men think with their head, the women do it by the heart. And, this makes for a lot of difference.

Now is the time for the women in India to demand an end to their unjust marginalisation and deprivation, be it the girl child in the womb, or at any level of schooling, housewives or office-goers.

A change cannot come about by relying on the lip service of men and their pseudo condescending exclamations. One look at the Women's Reservation Bill which has been hanging fire before Parliament for years, or the selection of candidates at election time by the political parties, is convincing enough to show the hollow intentions of the men.

Even Ms Sonia Gandhi, labelled as one of the most powerful woman in the world, is unable to get the Women's Reservation bill through because of objections from her male counterparts in Parliament in all the parties. A change can only come through an Anna type movement involving a large number of women. After all, reforms do not rain from heaven. They are grown in mother earth.

So, women have to snatch every inch today, here and now. And, sans affirmative action, India's gender gap will not significantly decrease in the years to come.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

A POLICY READING OF RBI'S BOOKS

K.KANAGASABAPATHY

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI)'s annual report released in the last week of August for the year 2010-11 (ending June 2011) shows that its total income increased by Rs 4,186 crore or 12.7 per cent to Rs 37,070 crore, from Rs 32,884 crore in 2009-10.

This is indeed a heartening development after the Bank's income sharply fell by Rs 27,848 crore or by 45.9 per cent in 2009-10. The two major components of the Bank's income are earnings from foreign sources and earnings from domestic sources.

The report adds that the increase in income from domestic sources by Rs 8,138 crore more than offset the decline in income from foreign sources by Rs 3,953 crore.

As a matter of fact, the income from foreign sources declined over the last three years since 2008-09. It will be of interest to examine how the income of the RBI behaved over the decade beginning 2001-02, distributed as between domestic and foreign sources.

Domestic, Foreign Sources

One factor that determines the income is the asset base. The other factor is the return available from these assets.

While the domestic assets comprise mainly central government securities, the foreign assets comprise foreign currency assets and gold.

The return is mainly a function of the level of domestic and international interest rates. India does not have a fully open capital account and, overall, domestic interest rates were ruling generally higher than international interest rates over the decade. The balance-sheet of the Reserve Bank expanded significantly during 2010-11, mainly reflecting the impact of liquidity management operations undertaken by the Bank.

There was a significant increase in Bank's portfolio of domestic assets in the form of government securities on account of open market purchases, repo purchases and disinvestment of Government of India's surplus balance parked with the Reserve Bank. The increase in foreign currency assets mainly reflected the valuation effect on the portfolio.

The annual report rightly claims that the assets and liabilities reflect the outcome of its operations, guided by the overall policy objectives relating to the economy and the financial system, and not by commercial considerations. Two such important developments in the policy in the recent period affecting the income of the Bank need to be highlighted.

First, the RBI has not been actively intervening in the foreign exchange market and has stopped significantly accumulating foreign currency assets since late 2008. There is, therefore, a perceptible shift in asset holding in favour of domestic assets.

While domestic assets increased by 38 per cent in 2010-11 on top of a 104 per cent increase in 2009-10, the foreign assets depicted an overall decline since 2008-09. As a result, the share of domestic assets increased from 11.2 per cent in 2007-08 to 29.7 per cent in 2010-11.

Second, is the strategic changes that have been introduced in the operating procedures of monetary policy.

One significant element of this policy has been the decision to keep the system generally in deficit mode to achieve a better transmission of policy rate signals of the Bank. This precludes the need of the Bank to absorb enormous surplus liquidity at a cost, and conversely enables the bank to earn on its liquidity management operations.

These two changes in a nutshell would also mean that the sterilisation costs are minimised. In fact, the level of market stabilisation securities has been reduced to zero currently.

The Decadal Trend

The income of the Bank showed volatile movements. On a cumulative basis, since 2001-02, the income increased only by Rs 15,221 crore, the domestic sources contributing Rs 4,156 crore and foreign sources Rs 11,065 crore (Table). For policy reasons and because of the interest rate differential, the return on domestic assets had generally been higher than that of foreign assets, barring two years, 2004-05 and 2005-06. The return on foreign assets touched its lowest in the last two years.

Foreign sources contributed to larger share of income, not because of higher return but because of the predominant share of foreign assets in the RBI's portfolio, touching as much as 89 per cent in 2008-09.

The counter-factual is that, perhaps, in the place of these assets, domestic assets would have earned a higher income.

But, what needs to be kept in mind is that overall policy considerations required the RBI's asset management policy to keep that level of foreign assets during the critical years that helped tide over the crisis situations smoothly. The RBI's operations and policy should, after all, never be viewed from a commercial angle.

The operating procedure of monetary policy in India has witnessed significant changes since the beginning of the 1990s, thanks to developments in the money market and changes in liquidity conditions brought about by financial sector reforms.

In this process, the LAF, introduced in June 2000, emerged as the principal operating procedure of monetary policy, with the repo and the reverse repo rates as the key instruments for signalling the monetary policy stance.

LAF, supported by instruments such as the CRR, OMO and MSS, had served the Indian monetary and financial system well.

Large volatility in capital flows and sharp fluctuations in government cash balances, however, posed several challenges to liquidity management by the Reserve Bank.

***************************************

BUSINESS LINE

'WE ARE PLAYING THE GAME OF LAST MAN STANDING'

RAGHUVIR SRINIVASAN

He spent 12 years at EasyJet when it was growing at a scorching pace and later helped start up low-cost Middle-East carrier, flydubai. Yet, for 40-year-old South African Neil Raymond Mills, this could be his toughest assignment.

He moved in as CEO of SpiceJet last October, just as the airline was flying into difficult times. Challenged now by high fuel costs, mounting losses and competition that is bent on taking fares to unsustainably low levels, Mr Mills has to leverage all his financial training and skills to help SpiceJet fly out of turbulence.

Business Line caught up with him at Toronto soon after SpiceJet took delivery of its first Bombardier Q400 NextGen aircraft. Excerpts from the chat on a tour bus headed towards Niagara Falls:

You said today that SpiceJet is not a regional carrier. Can you elaborate?

Regional carriers have certain characteristics if you look at them worldwide. They usually have poor volumes, the utilisation of the aircraft tends to be quite low and they don't tend to make any money. On all three aspects, we don't fit at all. We will want high volumes; we will have high utilisation of assets and we will make money. So we are a low-cost carrier that happens to be flying into regional markets. That's the difference.

If I could have flown into some of these smaller markets with a Boeing and kept the business simple, that's exactly what I would have done. I can't because of the infrastructure constraints and the need for a different machine.

With oil prices projected to remain strong, what are the options for airlines?

The option we have is obviously to manage the asset as best as we can. So even a 1 or 2 per cent reduction in fuel burn is important and we are doing everything we can to fly the aircraft as smartly as we can, to keep the fuel burn as low as possible. We are looking at revising our tankering policies, single-engine taxis. None of these will make you rich, but every bit will help.

There is no silver bullet in the low-cost business. But each little thing you do adds up, and over time, the solution is found.

You have been quoted as saying that competition is dropping prices to unsustainable levels. How do you cope with this kind of irrational competition?

We are trying to keep our cost base as low as possible. We are the operator with the lowest cost in India today and as you would see in our last published results, we have brought our cost per seat down by 5 per cent.

Pricing will be dictated by the market and we can survive in the short term to medium term with a few bad quarters. But, really, the game we are playing is 'last man standing' and we are okay with it.

And our promoter is okay with it as well, as you can see from the announcement today that he is picking up another 5 per cent in the company at a price of around Rs 36 a share, when the market price is Rs 22. He is actually paying a premium to get a preferential allotment. That's because he has confidence in the business and confidence that the money he is bringing into the business is good investment.

So what you are essentially saying is that you will keep bringing in capital to sustain the business…

Yes, and it is not a bottomless pit. I'm not going to keep asking him for money because we are inefficient or we don't make money. But this is really a time when the promoter is showing confidence in the business model. May be some of the other promoters should be looking to do the same thing.

Given the bad balance-sheets of some of your competitors, do you see a shake-out in the offing?

Whether there will be consolidation post the collapse, I'm not sure. Should there be a collapse? Well, some of the balance-sheets are horrible, absolutely horrible. I'm a finance guy and having any part of that balance-sheet would really scare me. Some of them are at the point where even servicing the interest bills is difficult. One of them has an interest bill that needs a 12-per cent margin to service; in the airline business, during the best of times you get a 4-6 per cent margin. How are you going to service that load?

Is the government making your job more difficult with some of its regulations, such as no extra charge for preferred seats?

It is not appropriate for me to have a go at the government when it is going through tough times.

Okay, what would you look for as help from the government at this juncture?

I would prefer to see the government step out of the industry; just leave it alone. Let the free market economy do its job. Don't overtax the industry, don't over-regulate it. Let us get on with it. If we kick the hell out of each other, that's fine. That is what free market is all about. The consumer does well because the pricing would become lower, particularly in the short to medium term, and we will all become better businesses by having to deal with competition. The government should be involved as regulator to make sure we remain honest, to make sure that we stay safe.

When do you think the new Q400s will start paying back? Are margins on the regional routes better than on the trunk routes?

Competition dynamics will be different here, so we may be able to achieve better pricing just because the level of head-to-head competition will be different. Even if we have head-to-head competition, the product is not comparable.

The Q400 is a very good machine and if you put it against the ATRs, especially the very tired machines that you have in India today, it is very superior.

So we should have better margins and I think it will start paying back from sometime in the middle of the second year of operations. That, any way, depends on the pricing we are able to get in the market.

What is the outlook for the next couple of quarters?

It's a tough environment and the only comfort, hollow comfort, is that our losses in the last two quarters are relatively less than that of competitors. Even on a proportional basis, we seem to be doing okay and that's all we will try to do.

As I said, it comes back to the 'last man standing'. It's a game I don't particularly want to play, but am quite happy to play considering the relative position that we have. If I have to play this game, then I'd rather have the balance-sheet that I do rather than that of my competitors.

SpiceJet seems to have vacated the space of being a sought-after low-cost carrier to Indigo… what is your take?

Indigo is a good competitor. The fact that SpiceJet is now smaller than Indigo is SpiceJet's fault, and not Indigo's.

SpiceJet went through too many management and shareholder changes in too short a time. It lost focus in delivering as a business. But the focus is back now — in the last four months we have grown 42 per cent. Are we trying to play catch up? No. We'll make sure that we are competitive.

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

INDIA MUST BRIDGE THE TRUST DEFICIT

At the time when anti-corruption social activist Anna Hazare was captivating the country with his inspiring fast unto death, another equally distressing drama was being played out in the country's stock markets. The indices of most stocks, which had started declining from the beginning of August, sank to their lowest levels in 14 months, wiping out thousands of crore of investor gains. The Sensex, which is considered the best barometer of the Mumbai stock exchange, hit its nadir just when it seemed that Mr Hazare's stand-off with the government would come to naught. The diffusing of the political crisis coincided with a gradual rebound in stock indices. Since then the Indian stock market seems to be stabilising. No stock analyst, however, attributed the Sensex drop to the political crisis engendered by the Anna Hazare fast. The markets, they claimed, had been spooked by the global downturn and US monetary policy. Indian brokers were watching US Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke's moves more closely than domestic developments. The world seemed to have become a little too interconnected for comfort. While there could be no doubt that developments in the global economy, especially the developed ones, would have an impact on the Indian industry, few analysts admitted that a bigger factor could be the domestic economic environment. A lot of companies witnessed losses in their share values primarily because stock analysts found that as much as 46 per cent of Sensex companies had underperformed. It was clear that foreign financial investors felt things were not going so well for the Indian economy and decided to book profits while the going was still good. A major cause of the August stock prices trough was the withdrawal of $1.6 billion from Indian markets by foreign investors that month. This made the Indian stock market the worst performer among emerging markets after Brazil. The problem is not lack of money; there is, in fact, too much of it floating around the world. Global investors do not know where to park their cash and have been mopping up US Treasury Bills even though they give negative returns only because it is reliable. Money is also going into gold and silver, raising their prices to historical highs. The problem really is lack of confidence in business performance in the Western economies and uncertainties in the emerging markets. This holds true for India as well. The Indian economy is beset with a host of fairly serious problems, all of which are making global as well as domestic investors apprehensive. Every economic indicator suggests that the overall GDP growth is declining and economists feel it will be impossible to maintain eight per cent growth this year. Most predict the GDP growth this fiscal will be 7.2 per cent or lower. The economic slowdown in the country has been attributed to various factors. A recent Morgan Stanley report blamed a combination of factors for lower growth figures, "including persistently high inflation, higher cost of capital, cut in the ratio of fiscal spending to GDP, a weak global capital markets environment and slow pace of investment". One other factor that has been widely cited for the drop in growth and investments is the effect of scams and corruption scandals on the government's decision-making process. A bigger problem is uncontrolled inflation that is eating into household incomes and triggering continuous hikes in the RBI's prime lending rate. The real devil seems to be government profligacy. Ballooning subsidy bills, a slew of populist programmes and general fiscal indiscipline has thrown government finances out of gear. Government data released last week revealed some frightening trends. Despite promises to contain the fiscal deficit in a systematic manner, this gap more than doubled in the first four months of this fiscal year as compared to the same period last year. The figures suggested that the deficit of Rs 2.2 lakh crores during April-June this year is already more than 63 per cent of the budget estimate of `3.07 lakh crore for the entire year. The government is both sucking in funds from the system as well as spending it on non-productive heads. This is irresponsibility at its worst during a period of high inflation. To make matters worse, the government has massively hiked procurement prices of foodgrains and has simultaneously held on to public grain stocks, thus aggravating food inflation. At the same time, high domestic inflation and economic uncertainties have kept the rupee down in relation to the dollar, leading to a failure to compensate for high commodity prices, especially that of oil and gas. Rising energy prices have further added to inflation, thus setting up a sort of vicious cycle from which the economy seems unable to fully extricate itself. The government by failing to control its deficit is living beyond its means. This suggests it has learnt little from the crisis that has scuppered the world's largest economy as well as a number of smaller European Union countries that are today on their knees because of irresponsible government deficits and borrowings. India desperately needs to pull in cash from the vast global pool of available funds for investment in infrastructure, retail and so on. To do that the economy needs to become and look like an attractive investment opportunity. Unfortunately, that is not going to happen unless the government gets its act together. Indranil Banerjie is an independent security and political risk consultant

***************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

USE COMMON SENSE, NOT TECHNICALITIES

Recent events bring home to us that the functioning of our governance structures leave no stone unturned to cause dismay. It is evident that the emphasis is on woodenness and technicalities, not on getting to the nub of an issue, much less empathy for the context. These characteristics are not unique to the UPA-led system, but as the government loses its sheen, thanks in some measure to its attitude of not communicating with the people, the mud seems to stick more and more. Once your stock goes, nothing seems to go right. Such a juncture ought to dictate humility, and a sympathetic look at matters of concern to the people. But not for those who are running the show. Take what's happened to Arvind Kejriwal, an Indian Revenue Service officer who has been out to slay the demon of corruption for some years, whatever the view some may take of the way he has gone about it. The case appears symbolic of just what the Anna Hazare campaign was all about — extraordinary delays in government, with the matter being settled through a bribe. There is evidently a dispute between Mr Kejriwal and the cadre he served on whether he has cleared his dues, and whether or not he remains on the rolls of the government. It is typical that the government should continue to write inane letters to him over a period of four years, the latest of which arrived when the anti-corruption activist was one of the key commanders of Mr Hazare during the recent Ramlila Maidan campaign — that is to say at the peak of his popularity at the head of an unprecedented anti-corruption movement. This letter was clearly calculated to create the effect that the government was being vindictive. Should the matter not have been settled by the government within six months at best of the officer putting in his papers, if necessary by taking recourse to the law? The privilege notices to Prashant Bhushan, Kiran Bedi and Mr Kejriwal are no less galling. True, the trio were not decorous with language when they denounced the class of our MPs, and might even have attracted libel had they named names. But in a raucous democracy, this ought to be par for the course. MPs cannot be allowed to act precious. The case of Justice Soumitra Sen of the Calcutta high court is different, but it too underlines technicality and foolishness, not the play of robust common sense. The man has resigned, but the shadow of impeachment is yet to lift fully. Isn't the purpose of impeachment to get the recalcitrant in high places to vacate office?

***************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

EDITORIAL

A LIBYAN PRISONER LIVES TO TELL HIS STORY

He was my confidential source in the Libyan military this spring, an officer who passed on secret information about disaffection in the ranks of Col. Muammar Gaddafi. And then as the Libyan revolution spread, he made bombs and smuggled weapons into Tripoli to help overthrow the Gaddafi government. But then Salem al-Madhoun, 47, was arrested three weeks ago, captured after the Gaddafi forces detected his Thuraya satellite telephone transmissions. I received an urgent message about his capture, and I assumed that by now he must have been tortured and executed. On arriving here in Libya, I set out to comfort his widow. That proved unnecessary. When rebels liberated the Abu Salim prison in Tripoli, they found Madhoun: skeletal and tortured, but alive. Now he is the hero of Tajoura, the suburb outside the capital where he lives, and in long conversations in his office and home he recounted the full story of how he came to help overthrow the government. Madhoun as an engineer he rose in the ranks of the Navy. When the Libyan revolution began in February, his ship was ordered to attack Benghazi, but he, instead, plotted to defect and sail his ship to Malta. Through an intermediary at that time, he asked me whether he could get American protection while the ship was at sea. I'm not in the business of providing air cover, but I wrote a blog post then urging the Obama administration to create a safety corridor to protect Libyan ships seeking to defect. Then Madhoun heard from fellow officers that he was about to be arrested, and he changed plans. He recorded a video on board his ship, announcing his defection and calling on other military officers to join his mutiny. I was in Cairo then covering the revolution at Tahrir Square and received a frantic call: Would I put the video online? I agreed to do so but asked about Madhoun's family. He was in hiding, but what if the government took revenge? I didn't want that on my conscience, and I suggested that Madhoun think it through carefully. He consulted with his wife, Samah, who was outraged at the way he was placing his family at risk. Somewhat sheepishly, Madhoun sent word that I shouldn't mention his name after all, and we dropped the idea of showing the video. He disappeared into hiding, along with his family, and began to help organise the underground resistance in the Tripoli area. Working with a force that he says consisted of around 1,200 underground rebels, he smuggled weapons in by boat and bombed security offices. He sent targeting data to French government contacts so that Nato could bomb military sites. Libyan women have received little attention in the uprising, but, behind the scenes, they played a significant role. Even Madhoun's daughters, ages 11 and 14, volunteered to sew rebel flags, which other family members then hung from mosques and schools to spread the message of resistance. "This is the time to fight Gaddafi," Madhoun's 18-year-old niece, Rehab, remembers telling him, and she pleaded for any assignment in the underground. An engineering student who speaks excellent English, Rehab also began painting dramatic anti-Gaddafi graffiti around Tripoli — sometimes in English so that foreigners would know that the opposition was alive. She also used her engineering skills to tap into the Internet, which the government had blocked, to send messages to the outside world. In May, Madhoun was picked up in a routine police sweep, but he lied about his identity and claimed to be a vegetable seller. After four hours and a beating, he was released. But then, on August 10, police found Madhoun's hide-out, and his world collapsed. "When they arrested me, I knew I was going to be killed," he recounted. He was subjected to horrific electric shocks in interrogations overseen by Seif al-Islam. "What helped me endure torture was reciting the Koran," he said, adding that he never gave up names. After less than two weeks, rebels stormed the prison and named Madhoun the military commander of the newly liberated Tajoura area. He now has an escort of bodyguards as he strolls through the neighbourhood — rapturously greeted by neighbours. Americans are wondering and worried about who Libya's new leaders are, and whether they can knit the country together. In truth, these new leaders include all kinds, but I'm reassured and inspired when I meet those like Madhoun. It's impossible to know what lies ahead for Libya, but Madhoun's story is a window into the grit and vision that made the entire Arab Spring possible, from Tunisia to Syria. Yes, the movement was facilitated by Facebook and Twitter, but so many people lost lives or limbs. This was no armchair revolution. Madhoun acknowledges that the hard work is only just beginning. Yet he is guardedly optimistic that Libya can build a modern multi-party democracy — and he hopes that US President Barack Obama will soon come to Tripoli so that the Libyan people can thank him and all Americans for their support. "My death was inevitable," he said, "but I am alive thanks to God and Nato."

***************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

A LIBYAN PRISONER LIVES TO TELL HIS STORY

***************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

GODDESS OF SMALL CHANGES

Raj bhavan jinx Since governor Prabha Rau's demise in April 2010, the Rajasthan Raj Bhavan has been eagerly awaiting a full-time governor. It's been more than a year and yet no one has been appointed. Or is it, as some whispers in sarkari corridors seem to suggest, that "koi Raj Bhavan jane ko raji nahi hai"? "You know, netas believe so much in the auspicious and the ominous that they became cautious after the death of the governor here," a politician said. Before Rau, S.K. Singh passed away while serving as governor. Late Nirmal Chand Jain spent only a few months here before he died. Late Darbara Singh, too, had a very short innings, less than a month. Last year the Congress high command offered the governor's post to an ailing, aged farming community leader of the Shekhawati region, but he refused to grace the Raj Bhavan. The only hope now seems to be Punjab governor who may take additional charge of Rajasthan. But the Raj Bhavan jinx is not confined to Rajasthan. Former chief minister Shiv Charan Mathur died while serving as the governor of Assam; former minister Govind Singh Gurjar passed away while he was working as the lieutenant governor of Puducherry. In politics it seems the only thing greater than power is life. Hazare to Hazarika At first many thought it could be one of those things — a mere slip of the tongue. But it is now clear that Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi habitually mixes up names. At his press conferences, journalists engage in a mind game, trying to figure out who the chief minister may be referring to. The latest casualty of Mr Gogoi's erring tongue was Anna Hazare. Mr Gogoi, while congratulating Mr Hazare on his crusade against corruption, repeatedly referred to him as "Anna Hazarika". Earlier, too, while congratulating West Bengal chief minister on her victory, Mr Gogoi referred to her as "Mamata Goswami". His aides see nothing very serious in these mutations as long as, they say, Mr Gogoi does not mix up the names of the Congress president and the Prime Minister. Lighter loads In the past, reporters on the West Bengal Assembly beat used to look forward to and also dread the day they would be given copies of the state annual budget, budget speeches of various government departments as well as fat volumes of CAG reports. This year too, after Mamata Banerjee took oath, reporters have been grumbling about having to lug the tomes again. But reporters were in for a surprise on September 1 when they were handed the budget speeches of three dozen departments and four volumes of CAG reports neatly packed in simple but attractive cloth bags which they could comfortably carry to their offices. "Another manifestation of Didi's paribartan," was how one scribe described it. Didi really is the goddess of small but sweet changes. Careful in Karnataka Now that it is almost certain that former Karnataka chief minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is headed for judicial custody for the misdeeds of his sons and son-in-law, his successor is not taking any chances. Ever since he took over as chief minister, D.V. Sadananda Gowda has been a very cautious man, especially vigilant about the "activities" of his son Karthik, who runs a real estate company. Not one to take chances, Mr Gowda has drawn not one but many lakshman rekhas around him. The chief minister has told son Karthik not to entertain his friends and, in particular, not to bring any projects to him for clearance. Gowda junior is reported to have told some of his friends that he hardly gets to spend any time with his father and now he has to restrict his interactions with them as well. Better safe than sorry, son, appa seems to be saying. A pledge of honesty Shortly after the Anna fever swept across the country, senior IPS officer Asim Arun, at present posted as deputy inspector general of police, Agra, rounded up all his subordinates and made them take a pledge that they would not accept bribe or indulge in any corrupt practices. While the initiative drew rounds of applause from anti-corruption activists, it has put the state administration in a quandary. Most of the top officials in the state remained tight-lipped when asked to comment on the initiative but some admitted that the episode had brought on considerable embarrassment for the Mayawati government. "This means that the police personnel were taking bribe till now and would stop indulging in corrupt practices after taking the oath. The officer in question should have given the issue some thought before indulging in such a childish act," said a senior IPS officer. But the naysayers seem outnumbered by Anna fans in the Uttar Pradesh administration. Lawyers in Agra have decided to take a similar pledge, and many other sections of "public servants" are also contemplating an honesty pledge. At this rate the Mayawati dispensation may well be the first to succumb to the Anna effect.

***************************************

DECCAN CHRONICAL

OPED

LIVE, LOVE LIKE MOTHER TERESA

The 101st birth anniversary of Mother Teresa was celebrated in many parts of the world, and especially at the Mother House of Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata, on August 26. According to the tradition of the Catholic Church, however, one usually observes feasts in honour of saints or the "blessed" on the day they left the world to live in total communion with God forever. Thirteen years ago on this date (September 5), Mother Teresa left the millions who adored her, mourning. Either way, it is worth remembering why the "saint of the gutter" continues to disturb the conscience of the world. Once when her biographer — Navin Chawla — asked Mother how her work would be different from other Catholic Orders, she replied, "As long as we remain committed to the poorest of the poor and don't end up working for the rich, the work will prosper." It must be elucidated that it is not just her work for the poorest of the poor that distinguished Mother from the rest of the social workers and NGOs. The reason for Mother to reach out to the "scum" and poorest of the society was the love she had for Jesus and she wanted desperately to share this love, especially with those who she thought were completely deprived of it. Spirituality for her was to impart that love to those who had all but lost human dignity. She always said, "Each one has a right to die with dignity, with the feeling of being loved and that God has not abandoned him/her." She did not ask people to do mighty acts of charity but to do what they did with great love. That is why she used to say to people, "Let us do something beautiful for God." Mother never glorified poverty nor did she curse those who caused destitution and human sufferings to the masses. One of the human right activists once asked her, "Mother you do so much for the poor but you never raise your voice against the social structures that cause such privation?" That was not the first time she was asked that question and knowing that it would not be the last time, she answered, "That job is left for others like you. My call is to bring smiles on the people's faces by letting them have the little of what God has given us in abundance." Mother drew her strength to perform this daunting task for years on end because her life was founded on her unflinching faith in Jesus which received its daily refuelling from the hours she spent praying, becoming thus a real example of St. Benedict's rule, "Ora et Labora".

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE STATESMAN

EDITORIAL

PAK-PIRACY NEXUS?

THOROUGH PROBE NEEDED

DISTURBING, and of ominous international dimension, are reports from Porbandar that the questioning of apprehended Somali pirates points to their being trained in Pakistan. Not only does that confirm suspicions that the division between piracy and terrorism is being blurred, but also that Pakistan's providing training to terrorists has spread far beyond traditional jihadi zones. Given the implications of that possibility, Indian security and investigative agencies must lose no time "checking out" the conclusions of the authorities in the Gujarat port. They are drawing their conclusion after questioning the pirates captured when the Indian Navy rescued a hijacked Iranian vessel, MV Nafis-1, off Mumbai a fortnight ago. Since a number of other Somali pirates are already in custody ~ including the shipwrecked groups washed up on the north Gujarat shore ~ a wider and deeper round of interrogation is extremely important: in fact it might be advisable at a later stage to involve investigators of other nations since Somali pirates have scant regard for the flags flown by the vessels they hijack. Conversely, it is possible that the local police/ customs authorities in Porbandar are propounding theories on flimsy evidence, allowing traditional bias to come into play. Either way, the truth must be established. Given the reality that India's coastal defences are porous ~ the defence minister has made his displeasure evident on at least two recent occasions ~ the possibility of terrorists operating under the guise of pirates has raised the threat threshold.

Maritime security monitors will be awaiting feedback on the success ~ or lack of it ~ of the government's permitting Indian-owned vessels to embark armed guards when traversing pirate infested waters. While a number of regulations have been imposed, of critical importance will be professional training of those guards and the level of coordination attained with the crew of the merchant vessel. As a follow-up, fresh legislation to give anti-piracy operations sharper teeth must be enacted quickly. Yet there is a flip side. By upping the ante it is inevitable that Indian vessels will become "trophy targets" for the pirates. And some will fall into the pirates' hands. In such situations the resolve of the civilian crew taken hostage, and that of their families in India, will be put to test. The government will then be subjected to severe pressure to back off and negotiate the crew's release. A policy mismatch could be on the cards.

RURAL MIGRATION

NREGS & THE CHARTER OF REFORMS

THE Union rural development minister's statement of intent to tone up the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme comes more than seven years after this flagship programme was introduced. Jairam Ramesh's "charter of reforms" only iterates the obvious when he avers that it ought to be "demand driven and rights based". Wasn't that the guiding principle when Dr Manmohan Singh inaugurated the scheme in 2004? It has since been embellished with the name of the Father of the Nation though the reach and impact hasn't quite matched up to the tag. In the net, the "charter" comes in response to a gigantic public sector failure. Mr Ramesh needs to go beyond theory and focus on a more critical issue ~ the reality of rural migration in the absence of "guaranteed" jobs. The target, therefore, has in certain states ceased to be a quantifiable factor. Indeed, the mitigation of this phenomenon called "distress migration" is one of the primary objectives of the scheme aside from the much-publicised 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a year. At the root of the crisis is the mechanics of the labour budget which itself is unscientific. The outlay is projected on the basis of the previous year's estimates and worse, speculative calculation. The hypothetical projection has had a disastrous effect, with prospective workers not assured of work. Hence the migration from one village to another, a phenomenon that has made work projections go haywire.

Not that the "charter of reforms", released by the minister last Thursday, hasn't taken note of the problem. Belatedly again, the minister has advanced the budgeting date to 15 August from the present 2 October, Mahatma Gandhi's birth anniversary. It has eventually been realised that the NREGS budgeting need not be an annual document to celebrate an anniversary. The timing has been awfully delayed, precisely after the fiscal year has lapsed. At any rate, it has proved to be too late in the day to prevent rural migration. The other issue that needs to be addressed is the obvious co-relation between wages ~ Rs 110 per day ~ and inflation. The "charter of reforms" must translate to tangible improvement in a crucial segment of public policy.

TRUTH ABOUT SYRIA

AND THE DEFECTION FROM WITHIN

ON the face of it, the defection of Syria's chief legal officer might appear to be the belated revolt of a disillusioned individual. But the provocation behind the switchover of Adnan Bakkour is an indictment of the Assad regime. Most importantly the siege of Hama, the bastion of the rebels, and the spate of killings in the town last month. In a video statement, the attorney-general has cited evidence of crimes against humanity ~ 70 executions and rampant torture ~ perpetrated by troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad. As expressions of human rights violation in Hama, the details are chilling. No fewer than 420 victims of the crackdown were buried by pro-government militia in the city's public park and another 320 had died under torture. The repression has been relentless despite calls from the US urging Assad to step down and the withdrawal of several Arab ambassadors. The President's withers have remained unwrung despite the diplomatic isolation. It might be tempting to draw a parallel with Libya; on closer reflection, the nature of the defection is both similar and different. Unlike in Tripoli, which had since April witnessed high-level defections from the Gaddafi regime as a mark of protest against his repressive rule, President Assad had thus far succeeded in keeping his administrative flock together. That commitment to the President can no longer be an asset, however spurious.
Adnan Bakkour has informed the world about the horrendously stepped up repression over the past month. And the world is unlikely to be convinced of the regime's claim that the video is "another dirty game by Al Jazeera". The details of the crackdown might never have been known were it not for the attorney-general's defection and the subsequent statement. The government has banned foreign media from entering the country. Bakkour's exposure is in accord with the findings of the United Nations, notably that more than 2,000 people have died since demonstrations against the Assad regime began in March. The defection and the video statement have dealt a further setback to the tottering regime. And this time around, it is from within.

***************************************

THE STATESMAN

ARTICLE

THREE CROWN JEWELS~II

A Book That Defines Celebrations

All along it had been a matter of speculation whether the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats, had a hand in the brushing up of Tagore's English text or not, and if so, how much he had changed. Some scholars asserted that Yeats's textual contribution was minimal, others that he needlessly anglicised and even distorted the text. Yet, no comprehensive proof of either assumption had so far been offered.

Radice is the first researcher who put two and two together and carefully compared the so-called "Rothenstein manuscript" of Gitanjali with the printed version. The Rothenstein manuscript, which is preserved at Havard University, was the one Tagore's British artist friend William Rothenstein submitted to Yeats and from which Yeats effected his alterations. Radice's findings are astonishing and will slowly, as they sink into public consciousness, revolutionize the view that is held on how Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize.
The "second book" combines an 84-page Introduction and several Appendices, running into 113 pages, which minutely and, I should say, passionately show how Yeats altered the original English Gitanjali ~ the "real Gitanjali", as Radice perfers to call it, and thus twisted the original intentions, the mood and the literary quality of the book. Yeats, in fact, did not merely correct or change the wording of the text and the punctuation. He also deleted the paragraphing of many texts and, indeed, totally shook up their sequence.

William Radice emphasises that by deleting the break-up of the texts into paragraphs their rhythm is altered, and rhythm is the forte of Rabindranath's English Gitanjali. It holds the texts together and gives them their soul. Radice takes pains to show that Rabindranath's sequence added up to a deliberate composition and amounted by no means to a haphazard heap of texts. Yeats misunderstood or disregarded this, or vainly wished to improve on it. Yeats veered towards an orientalising vision of Tagore: "...in Tagore, Yeats found what he wanted to see." Radice draws up elaborate charts in which he tabulates and evaluates these changes and adds long notes with his own views. Some may reject this as a school-masterly way of dealing with Yeats. However, this critical corpus needs to come into the public domain so that a comprehensive discourse may be initiated.
Yeats himself exaggerated his changes in a letter, calling them "exhaustive", while Rothenstein, among others, played them down.

Tagore, initially unsure of his English, probably had to give in to many changes of which he was not convinced. Rabindranath, who "believed that the poems he selected for translation represented his deepest self", (Radice), must have felt betrayed by the form in which Gitanjali was finally published. Its immediate success and the "rapturous reviews" may have numbed that feeling, but not forever, and later it gave way to a sense of disenchantment and disappointment. The poet lamented in a letter: "I am convinced that I myself in my translations have done grave injustice to my own work." In the translations that followed Gitanjali, Tagore managed to extract himself from the suffocating influence of Yeats, but fame made him hasty and careless; the result were translations, starting with The Gardener, which were, in Radice's words, "increasingly slipshod".
Whoever does not understand Bengali but wishes to enter into the spirit of the one book which made Tagore a Nobel Laureate, may now read these translations and compare them with Tagore's prose paraphrases. Faithfully imitating verse and rhyme and emulating the "musicality" of the originals, Radice wants to bring the non-Bengali readers as close as possible to the experience of the "poetic reality that the poems have in Bengali". Others will be interested in the historical processes which allowed an Irish poet to meddle with the award-winning literary creations of an Indian poet. This book feeds the interests of both groups. At a later stage, Penguin may possibly sever the Siamese twins and publish two separate books.

By presenting his translations, Radice takes up a delicate fight against numerous English phrases which, whether poetically meritorious or not, ring in our ears since our adolescence. "Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure" ~ becomes: "You've made me limitless, / it amuses you so to do". Improvement? I wonder. "If it is not my portion to meet thee in this my life..." ~ becomes: "If in this life I am never to see you, lord..." Improvement? Yes, certainly. The popular "Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?" ~ becomes: "Prayer and worship and rite ~ / cast them aside. / In a nook of the closed temple, / why hide?" This is crisp and has punch ~ a clear improvement. Or, a last sample: "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been frittered into fragments by narrow domestic walls; …". This is rendered: "A fearless place where everyone walks tall, / Free to share knowledge; a land uncrippled, / Whole, uncramped by any confining wall; / …" This, too, has a form firm and strong. But, I wonder, is "a fearless place" proper English? Maybe it is. Radice has moulded Rabindranath's somewhat arcane use of language into modern, more dynamic English, apart from presenting a faithful verse-translation of the original. Of course, every reader will discover his or her likes and dislikes in both versions. I personally regret that Radice did not, as in his earlier poetry translations, add annotations for each poem. For me they had been a distinguishing feature of his Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore. I am also not totally convinced by his method of including all the repetitions in the song-texts.

There are many which read well as poems; in that case reading the repetitions (of the singer) disturbs. Other song-texts do not really read well, they sound vapid and bland ~ they unfold their essence only as songs. Well, this is my personal stand. This book is a watershed in Tagore studies and must inspire a debate. Seminars should be held on it. It deserves praises and prizes.

(Concluded)

***************************************

THE STATESMAN

ART SHOW THAT'S DRIVEN BANSKY UP THE WALL

GUY ADAMS

NEW YORK, 4 SEPT: When is a Banksy not a Banksy? That is the million, or rather $ 450,000 question facing bonus-fuelled New York collectors who are beating a path to a new, and unsanctioned, exhibition of work by the world's most famous street artist.

The Keszler Gallery in the Hamptons, Wall Street's favourite holiday destination, is facing stern criticism from Banksy representatives and his fans after attempting to sell two high-profile works of public art, which were originally intended to brighten up the streets of Bethlehem.

The pieces, referred to as "Stop & Search" and "Wet Dog", were stencilled on to prominent walls in the West Bank city during a visit by the British artist in 2007. They disappeared shortly afterwards, only to re-emerge at the Keszler Gallery in Southampton Village late last month. News of the sale has angered Banksy enthusiasts, who argue that the works were meant for public consumption. They argue that street art is meaningless ~ and therefore value-less ~ outside of its original context, and say that foreign art dealers had no right to participate in their removal.

The gallery takes an opposing view. It insists that the pieces, among seven large Banksy works in its new show, were legitimately purchased and exported from the Palestinian territory. If left unprotected in their original location, they were in severe danger of deteriorating, and by now would almost certainly have been vandalised.
Fuelling the controversy is Pest Control, an organisation that is the nearest thing the reclusive British artist has to official representation. In a statement to Artnet magazine, it claimed that only one of the six pieces in the Keszler show had been formally authenticated as Banksy's work, and admonished the gallery for removing them from their original setting.

"We have warned Mr Keszler [the gallery's owner] of the serious implications of selling unauthenticated works, but he seems to not care," read their statement. "We have no doubt that these works will come back to haunt Mr Keszler." The debate highlights the problems that emerge when the soaring contemporary art market turns what some view as petty vandalism into a prized commodity. These days, Banksy pieces can fetch as much as $1.9 million, meaning that his public works are often thought to be worth more than the building they originally graced.

the independent

***************************************

THE STATESMAN

PERSPECTIVE

THREE CROWN JEWELS~II

A Book That Defines Celebrations

RABINDRANATH'S Gitanjali poems, both the Bengali book as well as his English rendering, form the core of the "Tagore myth". It is a lucky coincidence that this myth is being corrected and put into perspective in this jubilee year by a book which may well be remembered as the one book defining our celebrations in India. (Rabindranath Tagore: Gitanjali, a new translation by William Radice. Penguin Books India, New Delhi 2011).
Between the two covers we really have two books. The first is the English translation in verse of all those poems culled from the Bengali Gitanjali as well as from several other collections of poems and songs which Rabindranath himself translated into lyrical prose in 1912 and then collected and organised into the English Gitanjali. For the first time a translator has the guts to publish his own translation side by side with Tagore's iconic translation. William Radice himself calls it "audacious", fully conscious of the fact that his translation may go against the grain of many a Tagore-lover. It needed an experienced translator-poet like him for such an experiment to succeed. He did it, obviously, not to devalue Tagore and upstage himself, but rather to give to his readers a taste of the original poems and, at the same time, to record what Tagore had done to his poems in his own English paraphrases.
All along it had been a matter of speculation whether the Irish poet, W.B. Yeats, had a hand in the brushing up of Tagore's English text or not, and if so, how much he had changed. Some scholars asserted that Yeats's textual contribution was minimal, others that he needlessly anglicised and even distorted the text. Yet, no comprehensive proof of either assumption had so far been offered.
Radice is the first researcher who put two and two together and carefully compared the so-called "Rothenstein manuscript" of Gitanjali with the printed version. The Rothenstein manuscript, which is preserved at Havard University, was the one Tagore's British artist friend William Rothenstein submitted to Yeats and from which Yeats effected his alterations. Radice's findings are astonishing and will slowly, as they sink into public consciousness, revolutionize the view that is held on how Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize.
The "second book" combines an 84-page Introduction and several Appendices, running into 113 pages, which minutely and, I should say, passionately show how Yeats altered the original English Gitanjali ~ the "real Gitanjali", as Radice perfers to call it, and thus twisted the original intentions, the mood and the literary quality of the book. Yeats, in fact, did not merely correct or change the wording of the text and the punctuation. He also deleted the paragraphing of many texts and, indeed, totally shook up their sequence.
William Radice emphasises that by deleting the break-up of the texts into paragraphs their rhythm is altered, and rhythm is the forte of Rabindranath's English Gitanjali. It holds the texts together and gives them their soul. Radice takes pains to show that Rabindranath's sequence added up to a deliberate composition and amounted by no means to a haphazard heap of texts. Yeats misunderstood or disregarded this, or vainly wished to improve on it. Yeats veered towards an orientalising vision of Tagore: "...in Tagore, Yeats found what he wanted to see." Radice draws up elaborate charts in which he tabulates and evaluates these changes and adds long notes with his own views. Some may reject this as a school-masterly way of dealing with Yeats. However, this critical corpus needs to come into the public domain so that a comprehensive discourse may be initiated.
Yeats himself exaggerated his changes in a letter, calling them "exhaustive", while Rothenstein, among others, played them down.
Tagore, initially unsure of his English, probably had to give in to many changes of which he was not convinced. Rabindranath, who "believed that the poems he selected for translation represented his deepest self", (Radice), must have felt betrayed by the form in which Gitanjali was finally published. Its immediate success and the "rapturous reviews" may have numbed that feeling, but not forever, and later it gave way to a sense of disenchantment and disappointment. The poet lamented in a letter: "I am convinced that I myself in my translations have done grave injustice to my own work." In the translations that followed Gitanjali, Tagore managed to extract himself from the suffocating influence of Yeats, but fame made him hasty and careless; the result were translations, starting with The Gardener, which were, in Radice's words, "increasingly slipshod".
Whoever does not understand Bengali but wishes to enter into the spirit of the one book which made Tagore a Nobel Laureate, may now read these translations and compare them with Tagore's prose paraphrases. Faithfully imitating verse and rhyme and emulating the "musicality" of the originals, Radice wants to bring the non-Bengali readers as close as possible to the experience of the "poetic reality that the poems have in Bengali". Others will be interested in the historical processes which allowed an Irish poet to meddle with the award-winning literary creations of an Indian poet. This book feeds the interests of both groups. At a later stage, Penguin may possibly sever the Siamese twins and publish two separate books.
By presenting his translations, Radice takes up a delicate fight against numerous English phrases which, whether poetically meritorious or not, ring in our ears since our adolescence. "Thou hast made me endless, such is thy pleasure" ~ becomes: "You've made me limitless, / it amuses you so to do". Improvement? I wonder. "If it is not my portion to meet thee in this my life..." ~ becomes: "If in this life I am never to see you, lord..." Improvement? Yes, certainly. The popular "Leave this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut?" ~ becomes: "Prayer and worship and rite ~ / cast them aside. / In a nook of the closed temple, / why hide?" This is crisp and has punch ~ a clear improvement. Or, a last sample: "Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; where knowledge is free; where the world has not been frittered into fragments by narrow domestic walls; …". This is rendered: "A fearless place where everyone walks tall, / Free to share knowledge; a land uncrippled, / Whole, uncramped by any confining wall; / …" This, too, has a form firm and strong. But, I wonder, is "a fearless place" proper English? Maybe it is. Radice has moulded Rabindranath's somewhat arcane use of language into modern, more dynamic English, apart from presenting a faithful verse-translation of the original. Of course, every reader will discover his or her likes and dislikes in both versions. I personally regret that Radice did not, as in his earlier poetry translations, add annotations for each poem. For me they had been a distinguishing feature of his Selected Poems of Rabindranath Tagore. I am also not totally convinced by his method of including all the repetitions in the song-texts.
There are many which read well as poems; in that case reading the repetitions (of the singer) disturbs. Other song-texts do not really read well, they sound vapid and bland ~ they unfold their essence only as songs. Well, this is my personal stand. This book is a watershed in Tagore studies and must inspire a debate. Seminars should be held on it. It deserves praises and prizes.

(Concluded)

***************************************

******************************************************************************************

THE TELEGRAPH

QUICK ACTION

A certain newspaper had good fun on Monday at the chief minister's announcement three months ago of her intention to appoint an expert committee on floods. It remains unappointed. But on Wednesday she announced the appointment of a committee on the rise in the prices of fruit and vegetables. Flood waters cannot be substituted for fruit and vegetables; but floods in the growing areas are widely blamed for the shortage of fruit and vegetables. So the committee will find it difficult not to address the issue of floods. The despatch with which the chief minister appointed this committee demolishes a number of preconceptions about her, for instance, that she promises and does not perform, she gets many ideas and forgets them equally fast, she talks and does not listen, and some less flattering ones. Let those who flaunt these prejudices put them behind for now.

The composition of the committee is, however, curious. It is headed by the secretary for agricultural marketing. He will be assisted in his labours by the chief manager of marketing in the Calcutta Municipal Corporation, the deputy commissioner of police in the enforcement branch, the deputy superintendent of police from the same branch, and representatives of wholesalers and retailers. The committee has already been provided with expert guidance; the chief minister said after raiding a few markets that black marketeers were responsible for the price rise. So its first task would be to unearth these black marketeers. Once they are found, the police officers will be available on the spot to take them away. There is no law to punish them, for the prices of fruit and vegetables are not controlled. But such trivial objections cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the higher purpose of bringing down prices for the common man.

He may, however, be inclined to ask: why cannot fruit and vegetables be imported from other states? West Bengal is already getting over a third of the supply of fish from outside, chiefly from Andhra Pradesh. Fish is far more perishable than fruit and vegetables; why cannot they too be brought in from elsewhere when there is a shortage? The answer may well lie in transport facilities. Fish can be brought in by boat; when fish prices are high, even flying them in would not be too costly. Vegetables cannot bear such high transport costs, though apples and pears already come to Calcutta from New Zealand. But improving roads would by itself do much to stabilize prices. Prices in North Bengal are a fraction of prices in Calcutta; all that stops vegetables from being brought in is the poor roads. Even those that are normally good crumble in the monsoon. Somehow, they do not do so in Kerala or Goa, which get as much rain as West Bengal. However, the committee of bureaucrats is unlikely to look at such remote issues.

***************************************

THE TELEGRAPH

EDITORIAL

SMALL FACTS

Better can sometimes be just not good enough. A recent study on global neonatal mortality from 1990 to 2009, spearheaded by the World Health Organization, shows that in India there has been a 33 per cent drop in deaths of babies of not more than three weeks old. Even then, nine lakh babies, less than a month old, died in India in 2009, and this is the highest figure in the world. The context will indicate the enormity of this failure for a nation supposedly growing into a powerhouse. In the last 20 years, the global neonatal mortality rate has declined, but more than half of all such deaths occurred in India, Nigeria, Pakistan, China and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Africa as a continent is not doing well in this regard anyway; in some places, newborn babies are dying in greater numbers than before. But comparisons with African countries cannot provide excuses. The report shows that four per cent of all babies born live in India in the last 20 years died within a month.

Experts have recommended three simple ways to reduce neonatal deaths by one-third immediately — improved hygiene at birth, breastfeeding and keeping the baby warm. In India, access to basic health is still poor in vast rural tracts. Added to this, drinkable water may be scarce, nutrition poor — especially for women, deliveries at home quite common, and education regarding the proper protection of mother and child pathetically lacking. Government intervention in health services delivery has simply not been aggressive enough. Then there is the dominant mindset to contend with. Indian society has traditionally been callous to both women and children, and the neonatal mortality rate, just like the imbalance in sex ratio, is another outcome of that. The disgrace of this is not felt strongly enough. The report also raises a question. Is the calculation correct? Can it have taken into account the thousands of newborn girls quietly killed at birth?

***************************************

THE TELEGRAPH

OPINION

BALANCE OF POWER

ANNA HAZARE'S AGITATION HAS SET AN EXAMPLE FOR THE FUTURE COMMENTARAO: S.L. RAO

Jayaprakash Narayan's movement in the 1970s was met by Indira Gandhi with mass arrests and the Emergency for two years. Anna Hazare, a much less educated leader with a record of successful anti-corruption fasts in Maharashtra, got the Central government to recommend his suggestions to Parliament. Manmohan Singh appears meek compared to Indira Gandhi. He does not have a loutish Sanjay Gandhi to egg him to strong reactions. But he did have two distinguished lawyers as cabinet ministers who want initially no, and then tough, government responses to Hazare. This led to harsh comments from Hazare and his associates, but no violence, and delayed the settlement for many days. The Emergency made harsh reactions to public non-violent agitations unacceptable. Hazare's agitation will, over the years, spawn many similar local, and some national, agitations to redress specific public grievances about which there is widespread discontent.

Some say that Hazare has diminished Parliament and democracy. I think he has restored the right relationship between government, legislature and the people. If man

EDITORIAL SAMARTH

Google Analytics

Amazon Contextual Product Ads

Monday, September 5, 2011

EDITORIAL 05.09.11

Ganesha overrides Telangana

Say it with baingan bharta

Fancy dress protests

Louts Valley?