FRONTLINE

APRI L 10, 2009 I NDI A S NATI ONAL MAGAZI NE RS. 15 WWW. FRONTLI NE. I N
Real Issues
As the run-up to the worlds biggest democratic
excercise begins, a panel of experts write on what
matters to the Indian voter
CRIME RAGGING ON CAMPUS
Guidelines ignored 109
PUBLIC HEALTH VACCINES
Ministrys mistakes 114
NUCLEAR ISSUES CAG REPORT
Cause of fuel crisis 45
VOLUME 26 NUMBER 7 MARCH 28- APRI L 10, 2009 I SSN 0970- 1710 WWW. FRONTLI NE. I N
F R O N T L I N E 3
On the Cover
A Kashmiri woman after she cast her vote
in the Assembly elections in
November 2008.
PHOTOGRAPH: FAYAZ KABLI/REUTERS
COVER DESIGN: U. UDAYA SHANKAR
Published by N. RAM, Kasturi Buildings,
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LEGAL I SSUES
Afzals mercy petition 34
Wider ambit of law 37
DEFENCE
DRDOs hat-trick 41
Why BrahMos failed 44
NUCLEAR I SSUES
Fuel crisis 45
WORLD AFFAI RS
Obamas plans for Iraq 49
New equations in the East 52
Sudan: ICC Warrant
against President Bashir 55
U.S.: A salvage operation 58
Spain: Victims of Franco 61
TRAVEL
Highgate Cemetery 64
HUMAN RI GHTS
Indian record 80
OPI NI ON
Elections: Points to
ponder 85
FI LM
Tragedy of history 90
ASTRONOMY
Solar spectacle 93
BANKI NG
Credit card woes 101
CRI ME
Culture police in
Karnataka 106
Campus cruelty 109
Interview: R.K. Raghavan,
Chairperson, Monitoring
Committee for the
Prevention of Ragging 110
PUBLI C HEALTH
Depressing scene 112
Vaccine asco 114
COLUMN
Jayati Ghosh:
Dealing with a
global crisis 88
Praful Bidwai:
Fences & windows 98
Bhaskar Ghose:
Democracy in action 104
R.K. Raghavan:
The drug menace 119
BOOKS 71
THE ENGLI SH
LANGUAGE 79
LETTERS 121
COVER STORY Time for change
Neoliberalism is in retreat and Election
2009 presents an opportunity to bury it and
go for an alternative development strategy. 4
RELATED STORI ES
Recession: Loss of
livelihoods 8
Agriculture: A world of
distress 11
Ination: Price burden 15
Education: Lessons in
apathy 18
Public health: Unhealthy
trend 21
Communalism: Ways of
Hindutva 26
Social justice: Imperfect
sympathy 29
Gender issues: Sense of
betrayal 124
Foreign policy:
American embrace 126
Political perceptions 130
NUCLEAR I SSUES
A CAG report blames the
Department of Atomic Energys
poor planning and
mismanagement for the
uranium shortage. 45
CRI ME
Ragging continues to defy a
solution as educational
institutions turn a blind eye to
the need for compliance with
Supreme Court guidelines. 109
PUBLI C HEALTH
The closure of three public
sector vaccine-producing units
has led to a shortage of
vaccines in the countrywide
immunisation programme. 114
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
4 F R O N T L I N E
THE triumph of neoliberalism in India was nev-
er complete. The nationalised banks continued to
remain state-owned; key public sector companies
were not privatised; pension funds were not handed
over to speculative nance capital; the currency was
not made fully convertible; and the nancial sectors
holding of foreign assets, other than the foreign
exchange reserves of the Reserve Bank of India
(RBI), continued to remain minuscule. In short, the
two interlinked and mutually reinforcing processes
underlying neoliberalism, namely, the dismantling
of the public sector and integration with global -
nance, remained arrested.
This happened not for want of trying by the
proponents of neoliberalism. Every means, fair and
foul, was adopted, including crash measures, for
insurance privatisation for instance, by a govern-
ment in its last days that had even been reduced to a
minority. But they oundered in the face of stiff
opposition by the trade unions, especially those in
the nancial sector, by the political Left, and by the
progressive intelligentsia. The glee with which the
neoliberal establishment greeted the break between
the Left and the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
and the alacrity with which it demanded that the
neoliberal agenda should be rushed through after
this break only underscore the signicance of the
Lefts resistance to neoliberalism. But even that re-
sistance was not enough. Even the half-triumph of
neoliberalism was enough to widen the hiatus in
Indian society and shake modern Indian society to
its very foundations.
The formation of a modern Indian nation out of
an extraordinarily disparate population riven by mil-
lennia of caste, class, gender and other forms of
oppression is one of the marvels of our times. It was
made possible through the prolonged anti-colonial
struggle that was founded upon an implicit social
contract. This implicit social contract, which had
been occasionally articulated earlier, notably in the
Karachi Congress Resolution of 1931, was sought to
be given expression to in the Constitution of the
Republic. And central to it were: electoral democra-
cy based on universal adult franchise, secularism,
civil liberties, the end of caste and gender oppres-
sion, and the building of an egalitarian society. An
Neoliberalism has developed in India
an economic model characterised by
immiserisation at one pole and
accumulation of wealth at another.
Its defeat will be possible only if the
state shakes off the hegemony of
international nance capital.
TIME FOR CHANGE
Neoliberalism is in retreat and Election 2009 presents an opportunity to bury it
and go for an alternative development strategy. BY PRABHAT PATNAI K
Cover Story
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 5
economic regime that produces some
of the worlds top billionaires at one
end and thousands of peasant suicides
on the other is a violation of that social
contract; it endangers the foundation
of the modern Indian nation. And neo-
liberalism constituted such a violation,
above all by withdrawing state support
from peasant and petty production.
Peasant and petty production can
survive the onslaught of capitalism on-
ly through the active intervention of
the state, and such survival must be
ensured in a society like ours. The rea-
son is not that the travails of the people
in the process of transition from a de-
clining petty production economy to
an emerging capitalist one become un-
bearable when they are between jobs,
and that the decline therefore needs to
be ne-tuned. It does, but that is not
the reason. The reason is that in the
present conditions such a transition is
simply not possible. The capacity of
such capitalist development to gener-
ate employment is so low that not pro-
tecting peasant and petty production
against displacement by such capital-
ist development can only produce a
growing army of unemployed and un-
deremployed paupers, that is, absolute
immiserisation at one pole together
with the growth of wealth at another.
Indeed the higher the rate of
growth of the capitalist sector, the
greater will be the scale of such abso-
lute immiserisation, insofar as the
higher growth impinges even more
strongly on the petty production sec-
tor. The view that the solution to the
persistence and even accentuation of
poverty lies in the achievement of even
higher rates of economic growth is
thus erroneous; the higher growth it-
self can be, and has been, the cause of
the accentuation of poverty.
The amelioration of poverty re-
quires a state that prevents the deci-
mation of petty production by
capitalist development, that under-
takes signicant expenditure to pro-
vide welfare benets to the entire
working population and augment the
social wage in both capitalist and non-
capitalist sectors. The neoliberal state,
by its very nature, cannot do this; in-
deed it does the opposite.
The term neoliberal state may
cause surprise. After all, Nehruvian di-
rigisme and neoliberalism are often
seen as two alternative possible policy
sets that are available to the same
state, that is, the same state is seen to be
capable of pursuing either the one or
the other. But this is a mistake. The
transition from one policy to the other
entails a change in the class cong-
uration underlying the state, a change
in the nature and composition of the
dominant classes themselves, and
hence also a change in the nature of the
state. During the 1930s, for instance,
when import-substituting industrial-
isation was undertaken in Latin Amer-
ica, replacing the earlier
export-oriented strategy, this shift was
accompanied by major political up-
heavals. It was not just a switch from
one policy to another; this switch was
part of a shift from one kind of state to
another. The shift from Nehruvian di-
rigisme to neoliberalism in India was
part of a worldwide shift from dirigiste
to neoliberal regimes; in the advanced
countries this shift was marked by the
end of Keynesian demand manage-
ment. This worldwide shift was the
result of a process of globalisation of
nance, which brought into being an
international nance capital.
Nation-states pursuing dirigiste
policies had to bend to the caprices of
international nance capital in order
to prevent the ight of nance (unless
they showed the political resolve to de-
link themselves altogether from the
realm of globalised nance, which
bourgeois states typically did not). Ne-
oliberal policies, of sound nance
(involving at best a small specied s-
cal decit); of trade and nancial liber-
alisation; of rolling back the state from
its interventionist role (except in the
interests of nance capital); of priv-
atising public sector units; and such
like represented the interests and out-
look of international nance capital.
Their pursuit accordingly entailed
a shift in the character of the state,
from one standing above classes and
mediating between them (even while
being a bourgeois state) to one that
acted predominantly in the interests of
the upper echelons of the bourgeoisie
that was integrated with international
nance capital. Expecting such a state
to defend and protect petty production,
to undertake welfare expenditure and
to raise social wages, that is, to amelio-
rate poverty, is a chimera.
True, in India the transformation
in the nature of the state was never
complete. The framework of democra-
cy constrained the march of neoliber-
alism, since within this framework the
neoliberal agenda could never muster
sufcient support for its total triumph;
and yet this framework itself could not
be jettisoned either. Notwithstanding
all exhortations to keep development
above politics, a euphemism for get-
ting a consensus around the neoliberal
agenda, such a consensus proved elu-
sive. And yet even this half-triumph of
I N THE CENTRAL Hall of
Parliament. Notwithstanding all
exhortations to keep development
above politics, a euphemism for
getting a consensus around the
neoliberal agenda, such a consensus
proved elusive.
V
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6 F R O N T L I N E
neoliberalism, this semi-transforma-
tion of the state, was quite enough to
do considerable damage, above all
through its withdrawal of support to
peasants and petty producers.
The cut in subsidies increased the
input costs for the peasantry; the with-
drawal from the goal of social banking
reduced institutional credit to agricul-
ture, throwing the peasantry back to
the mercy of moneylenders for loans at
exorbitantly high interest rates; the
virtual winding up of extension servic-
es increased the peasantrys direct ex-
posure to, and dependence upon,
multinational companies; trade liber-
alisation made the peasantry vulner-
able to the vagaries of world market
prices; the progressive dismantling of
the domestic procurement mechanism
removed even such protection as the
growers of crops covered by the Com-
mission for Agricultural Costs and
Prices (CACP) could have got; and
above all public expenditure deation
in the countryside reduced rural pur-
chasing power drastically.
The upshot was not just agricultu-
ral stagnation and a decline in per cap-
ita foodgrain output in the period after
the beginning of the 1990s; it was also
a decline in per capita foodgrain ab-
sorption, which was even steeper than
the output decline. The squeeze on
purchasing power in rural India was so
drastic that notwithstanding the de-
clining per capita output, foodgrain
stocks got built up whenever procure-
ment operations were in force. And
what was true of the peasants was
equally true of other sections of petty
producers as well. Squeezed between
cheap imports on the one hand and
rising input costs on the other, they
experienced signicant absolute im-
poverishment, to a point where their
return per labour day fell below even
the lowest minimum wage.
The tragedy, however, lies in the
fact that the very same people who had
been immiserised during the boom
will get further immiserised during the
crisis that is now upon us, the crisis
that has been precipitated worldwide
by the triumph of neoliberalism itself.
The same neoliberal dispensation that
had squeezed vast masses of the pop-
ulation during the boom has now pre-
cipitated a crisis in the course of which
this squeeze will intensify.
But the crisis also spells the end of
neoliberalism. It is obvious that the
only way out of the global crisis is
through scal stimuli in the form of
increased government expenditures,
which, to be effective, have to be coor-
dinated across countries, and which, to
be politically acceptable, have to be
directed towards the welfare of the
people. Such a coordinated stimulus,
which would violate the tenets of
sound nance and re-establish the
proactiveness of the state, is obviously
anathema for international nance
capital and is being resisted by it. This
resistance, however, only prolongs the
crisis and strengthens the rejection of
its ideology, neoliberalism, which is
the cause both of the crisis and of its
persistence. Neoliberalism clearly has
reached the end of its tether.
In India, however, a novel effort is
being made to rescue it. The govern-
ment agrees that a scal stimulus has
to be provided to get the economy out
of the crisis, since all efforts at using
monetary policy to revive demand
have come a cropper. But in discussing
the nature of this scal stimulus it em-
phasises larger viability gap funding
for public-private-partnership (PPP)
projects in the infrastructure sector.
Larger government expenditure, in
other words, should take the form of
handing over larger amounts of funds
to private capitalists in the name of
developing infrastructure. Since PPP
with viability gap funding was very
much a part of the neoliberal agenda,
this amounts to promoting neoliberal-
ism even while apparently retreating
from it, in a Keynesian direction,
through having a larger scal decit.
This strategy is not just futile in the
present context, when the inducement
to invest is so low that even larger go-
vernment municence is unlikely to
help in inducing larger private invest-
ment, but also undemocratic, in a dou-
ble sense. First, infrastructure being
a portmanteau concept, promoting
infrastructure development can
mean anything from building a road in
a village to building a ve-star hotel;
typically, the projects that are promot-
ed in the name of infrastructure de-
velopment prioritise the latter rather
than the former, thereby ignoring peo-
ples priorities. Secondly, the expendi-
ture of public money is better done
directly through a government ac-
countable to the public than through
transfers to private capitalists, the
need for which is never established
and the use of which is never
monitored.
An appropriate scal stimulus, in
the form of larger government expen-
diture on health, education, sanita-
tion, drinking water, rural
infrastructure, agricultural develop-
ment, food security, and price support
for the peasants and petty producers,
will necessarily require controls over
cross-border nancial ows to prevent
capital ight. It will also require an
appropriate regime of protection
which defends peasants and other pri-
mary commodity producers against
the crash in world prices, which de-
fends petty producers against cheap
imports, and in general against the
beggar-my-neighbour policies of
other countries, and which ensures
that the leakages of the impact of the
scal stimulus are minimised.
All these entail a retreat from neo-
liberalism. But this retreat cannot be
seen only as a temporary one. Over-
coming the crisis has to be linked to an
alternative development trajectory, a
trajectory of peasant agriculture-led
growth, which requires an economic
regime altogether different from neo-
liberalism. The neoliberal regime, in
other words, has to be buried for ever,
which in turn is possible only if we
shake off the hegemony of internation-
al nance capital. The struggle against
neoliberalism, which had restricted its
triumph to only a half-triumph, now
needs to get intensied to roll it back
altogether.
Womens issues: page 124.
Foreign policy deviations: page 126
Political perspectives on
real issues: page 130
IN a country where unemployment and unde-
remployment are pervasive, it is to be expected that
the creation of new jobs and provision of decent
livelihoods would be an important election issue. In
India, around 8 per cent or less of the workforce has
formal and decent wage and salaried employment,
and an overwhelming majority of workers are self-
employed because many among them are unable to
nd gainful wage employment.
Not surprisingly, employment generation was a
dominant issue in the previous election, so much so
that generating gainful employment and offering a
oor level of employment (100 days) for each house-
hold constituted two of the seven goals spelt out by
the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) of the
United Progressive Alliance (UPA), when voted to
power.
Five years later, the problem has not gone away.
The Interim Budget speech of the Finance Minister,
drafted to read like a record of achievements of the
UPA and a promise of what is to come if it is voted
once more to power, speaks of the need to make
growth inclusive by creating about 12 million new
work opportunities per annum.
Why only 12 million jobs are needed every year is
not too clear. But even this is an admission that
growth that has been running at between 8 and 9 per
cent per annum, starting from the last year of the
National Democratic Alliances (NDA) rule (2003-
04) and going through four years of the UPAs rule to
2007-08, has not helped create employment fast
enough.
Any objective assessment of the last ve years in
India must recognise that though the employment
objective was included in the CMP, the UPA govern-
ment that came to power initially sought to put it in
cold storage. It dragged its feet and sought to scuttle
efforts at implementing an employment guarantee
programme, arguing that the money allocated to
such schemes would nd its way to undeserving
recipients. It was only pressure from political forces
outside the UPA and from a clutch of civil society
organisations (supported by inuential sections
within the UPA) that ensured that these goals were
not consigned to the dustbin.
However, issues on which consensus should have
been immediate were transformed into contested
policies, which meant that these programmes, espe-
cially those aimed at generating employment and
improving livelihoods, were initiated late, provided
little or inadequate funding (at least till very recent-
ly) and fell well short of what could have been
achieved.
As a result, in February this year, when the com-
pletion of three years of the National Rural Employ-
ment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) was being
celebrated, the government declared that over 360
crore person-days of employment had been generat-
ed and over 32 lakh works had been taken up. Out of
a total Budget outlay of Rs.53,300 crore in the three
years, the expenditure had been Rs.41,756 crore of
which Rs.28,227 crore (68 per cent) had been dis-
bursed as wages.
The slow pace at which the programme has
evolved should be clear from the fact that in 2008-09
alone, according to the NREGA website, 175.13 crore
person-days of employment, covering 4.07 crore
households, had been generated. And the Interim
Budget has provided for Rs.30,100 crore for this
scheme for the year 2009-10 alone.
These gures need to be put in context. If we
assume that a regular job offers 260 person-days of
employment in a year, the equivalent number of full
job opportunities that the scheme has created in
2008-09 is about 6.7 million and during the rst
three years of its operation, 13.9 million.
Loss of livelihoods
A survey of 2,581 units in eight sectors estimated a
decline in employment from 16.2 million in
September 2008 to 15.7 million in December
2008, implying a loss of about half a million jobs.
Programmes aimed at creating jobs were initiated late and provided little or
inadequate funding, and they fell short of their goals. BY C. P. CHANDRASEKHAR
K
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8 F R O N T L I N E
Cover Story
RECESSI ON
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 9
This compares with the conserva-
tively estimated 12 million new work
opportunities that are seen as required
every year by the Interim Budget or a
total of 36 million over three years.
Thus, while it is true that marginalised
sections such as the Scheduled Castes,
Scheduled Tribes and poor women
have beneted from the NREGS, the
programme has only gone part of the
way in meeting job creation require-
ments during the UPA rule.
This is of signicance because the
evidence appears to be that the num-
ber of jobs created by the normal proc-
ess of growth in the economy is small,
and that these jobs are substantially of
a kind that does not qualify as decent
employment. Unfortunately, data on
employment and unemployment in
the economy as a whole are available
only once in ve years when the Na-
tional Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO) conducts its ve-yearly survey
of the employment situation in the
country.
The last two quinquennial surveys
of the employment situation relate to
1999-2000 and 2004-05. It is only for
the registered manufacturing sector
that information is available on a more
regular basis through the Annual Sur-
vey of Industries. But even that is cur-
rently available only until 2005-06.
This makes it difcult to assess overall
employment trends in the country un-
der the UPA.
DECLI NE I N FORMAL
EMPLOYMENT
However, the gravity of the employ-
ment and livelihoods problem can be
CANDI DATES TUSSLE FOR enrolment forms at a job fair conducted by the Greater Hyderabad Municipal
Corporation in Hyderabad on February 18. Even though growth was steady at 8 to 9 per cent per annum from
2003-04 to 2007-08, it has not helped create employment fast enough.
MAHESH KUMAR A./AP
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 F R O N T L I N E
assessed by looking at the trends that
had become visible by 2004-05.
Though there were signs of an acceler-
ation of employment growth between
1999-2000 and 2004-05, the nature
of employment being generated left
much to be desired.
To start with, as the National Com-
mission on Enterprises in the Unorga-
nised Sector made clear, if organised
employment is taken to consist of all
employment in units that fall under
the formal sector denition, then such
employment rose at an average rate of
3 per cent per annum from 54.1 million
in 1999-2000 to 62.6 million in 2004-
05.
However, if the denition is re-
stricted to organised workers in the
organised sector, then formal em-
ployment in the organised sector had
fallen marginally from 33.7 million in
1999-2000 to 33.4 million in 2004-
05. This compares with an average an-
nual increase in total employment
from 361.7 million to 422.6 million
between those two dates.
Secondly, there has been a shift in
the type of employment being generat-
ed, with a signicant decline in wage
employment in general. While regular
employment had been declining as a
share of total usual status employment
for some time now (except for urban
women workers), wage employment
had continued to grow in share be-
cause employment on casual contracts
had been on the increase. But the
2004-05 survey revealed a fall in casu-
al employment as a proportion of total
employment.
For urban male workers, total
wage employment was at the lowest
that it has been in at least two decades,
driven by declines in both regular and
casual paid work.
For women, in both rural and ur-
ban areas, the share of regular work
had increased but that of casual em-
ployment had fallen so sharply that the
aggregate share of wage employment
has fallen. So there is clearly a real and
increasing difculty among the work-
ing population of nding paid jobs,
whether they are in the form of regular
or casual contracts.
The fallout of this was a very signif-
icant increase in self-employment
among all categories of workers in In-
dia. The increase had been sharpest
among rural women, where self-em-
ployment now accounts for nearly
two-thirds of all jobs. But it was also
remarkable for urban workers, both
men and women, among whom the
self-employed constitute 45 and 48 per
cent respectively, of all usual status
workers.
All told, therefore, around half of
the workforce in India did not work for
a direct employer. This was true not
only in agriculture, but increasingly in
a wide range of non-agricultural activ-
ities, especially services. The acceler-
ation in employment growth did not
therefore reect any increase in the
ability of the commodity-producing
sectors and the organised non-agricul-
tural sectors in general to absorb work-
ers.
Finally, the sharp increase in pro-
ductivity implicit in the lack of corre-
spondence between the rate of growth
of output and the rate of growth of
employment in the organised manu-
facturing sector was not accompanied
by any increase in real wages of work-
ers. The net result has been a sharp rise
in the share of prots in value added
and a corresponding decline in the
share of wages in registered
manufacturing.
JOB LOSSES
Even though these trends relate to the
period prior to 2004-05, there is rea-
son to believe that they had been oper-
ational in the years that followed and
remain true even today. Unfortunately
for the UPA, while it did not exploit the
opportunity it had when growth was
high, it is overseeing a collapse of em-
ployment and livelihoods as a result of
the crisis that has begun affecting In-
dia over the last year.
As has been discussed in Frontline
before, even a woefully inadequate
survey covering 2,581 units in eight
sectors by the Labour Bureau, Shimla,
estimated that total employment in
the sectors covered declined from 16.2
million during September 2008 to 15.7
million during December 2008, im-
plying a job loss of about half a million.
An update on that survey, which
covered around 25 per cent of the orig-
inal limited sample in six sectors, esti-
mated that in January 2009 the rate of
decline in employment was higher
than the average monthly rate of de-
cline during the previous quarter and
that job losses in the non-export sec-
tors were now more severe than before.
Even though these estimates are by
no means reliable or denitive, they
are indicative of the trends under way.
While these trends could be attributed
to the global crisis, the immediate
political victim of these developments
is likely to be the Congress.
The NDA, we should not forget,
was rejected because its India Shin-
ing slogan whitewashed the failure of
the government to reach the benets of
growth to the poor and concealed the
increase in inequalities that had oc-
curred under NDA rule. Growth under
the UPA has been strong for a longer
period of four full years. Yet, if employ-
ment growth and employment quality
have not improved substantially, it too
can be held responsible for not reac-
hing the benets of growth to the poor
and of permitting inequalities to wid-
en even further.
The NREGS, which it reticently
and inadequately implemented, may
come in handy as an achievement to
tout, but may not be good enough to
neutralise the fallout of the larger
trends in employment and livelihoods.
This electoral issue, therefore, may
contribute to a weakening of the UPAs
hold and even to its ouster.
Around half of
the workforce
in India does
not work for a
direct
employer.
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F R O N T L I N E 1 1
AS the outstanding Marxist economist Paul Ba-
ran had pointed out in The Political Economy of
Growth, what is cooked in the kitchen is not decided
in the kitchen. Similarly, what happens to agricultu-
ral producers is decided outside agriculture by public
policy. The ruling partys Jai Ho campaign before
the imminent general elections takes us back to the
National Democratic Alliances (NDA) infamous
India Shining campaign of 2004 in the middle of
acute agrarian distress and farmer suicides.
What is the situation today after ve years of
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule? Agrarian
depression continues and farmer suicides are un-
abated not only in Maharashtra but in Chhattisgarh,
Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, to which weaver
and textile worker suicides have now been added.
Professor K. Nagarajs recent study of farmer suicid-
es (Farmer Suicides in India: Magnitudes, Trends
and Spatial Patterns) shows a higher incidence in
States that produce export crops as well as certain
tribal population-predominant States. Only Kerala
has seen a drastic drop in farmer suicides by 2008
owing to swift measures taken by the Left Demo-
cratic Front government after coming to power in
May 2006, though the very recent dip in export crop
prices is again raising the spectre of renewed
distress.
The public memory is surely not so short that the
mephitic role played by Manmohan Singh as Fi-
nance Minister in the P.V. Narasimha Rao govern-
ment in initiating the agricultural depression has
been forgotten. Subscribing to the economic dogmas
of international nancial institutions (the Interna-
tional Monetary Fundand the World Bank) advising
a cutback in state spending and a reduction of al-
ready meagre agricultural subsidies, from July 1991 a
strongly contractionary, expenditure-deating set of
policies was put in place by Manmohan Singh, tar-
geting mainly the unorganised sector sharp reduc-
tion of Central and State government development
expenditures, large cut in fertilizer subsidy, deval-
uation of the rupee, unrestricted primary exports,
and so on. For the rst time in 30 years, Indias per
capita gross domestic product fell and the crude
death rate rose in certain States. Financial sector
reforms from 1994 redened the priority sector for
bank lending and squeezed out the peasantry from
affordable bank credit, forcing them into the willing
arms of usurious moneylenders who take Rs.3 to
Rs.5 a month interest on Rs.100 lent in a year.
After a brief interregnum, the NDA government
from 1998 pursued the same deationary policies
with equal vigour and by prematurely removing
quantitative restrictions on trade, exposed our pro-
ducers to the full fury of the global price declines that
had started from the mid-1990s. Peasants who had
borrowed to expand cash crops output expecting
prices to be maintained became quickly insolvent.
Farmer suicides started and they continue to this day
after a whole decade has passed: they are only the tip
of the iceberg, the most tragic expression of a vast
submerged world of distress. The share of both rural
development spending and infrastructure spending
fell drastically in the 1990s, the steepest rate of fall
being the one during the Congress rule up to 1996.
The Central governments total development spend-
ing registered negative annual growth over the entire
1990s after growing at a steady 6 per cent annually
during the 1970s and the 1980s under the previous
Congress and alternative governments.
PI OUS WI SH- LI ST
All this is known and history, it might be argued. In
recent years development spending has risen again,
so why harp on the past? The point is, rst, that a
decade of relentless state attacks on farmers viability
A world of distress
A concrete action plan is needed to revive
agriculture. It should include genuine debt relief
measures for producers, crop price stabilisation,
and income generation to revive demand.
Depression in agriculture and farmer suicides continue, thanks to the misguided
actions of Indian policymakers. BY UTSA PATNAI K
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AGRI CULTURE
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 2 F R O N T L I N E
has had such deep and traumatic ef-
fects in raising unemployment, drasti-
cally lowering the output growth rate,
depressing mass incomes and hence
reducing the incentive to invest by the
peasantry, that only a well-thought-
out and coordinated set of measures
can revive this sector, which supports
over three-fths of our population.
Second, the world recession has
unleashed a second round of income-
depressing factors on rural producers
by contracting demand, both internal
and external, and leading to a fresh
round of price declines, problems
which are not being addressed at all.
In the present situation, the extant
pontications of the experts on agri-
cultural revival are grossly inadequate
and express a pious wish-list rather
than a concrete action plan. Such a
plan has to include genuine debt relief
measures for producers including the
state taking over farmers debt to pri-
vate moneylenders, crop valorisation,
crop price stabilisation through revival
of the commodity boards and their
purchase function, and income gener-
ation to revive demand. Our policy-
makers still refuse to face up to the fact
that it is their misguided actions alone
that have created the present crisis.
How committed the UPA govern-
ment has been to reversing agrarian
distress can be judged from the fact
that the Reserve Bank of India ended
Rs.6,000 crore general line of credit
enjoyed by the National Bank for Agri-
culture and Rural Development (NA-
BARD) two years ago. This country is
sitting on a mountain of reserves,
which are being used by the RBI to
support the United States balance of
payments, while it refuses to support
rural development banking in this
country even to the most meagre ex-
tent.
On the supply side, primary export
thrust to ll supermarket shelves in
Northern countries has shifted 8 mil-
lion hectares away from foodgrains,
resulting in a drastic drop in per capita
grain output. The Planning Commis-
sion economists are talking about
above 4 per cent growth rate during
the period of UPA rule by taking the
initial grain output as 198.4 million
tonnes in 2004-05, which happened to
be a remarkably low output year (the
previous years output was 213 million
tonnes), and then comparing this very
low output with a peak output of 230
million tonnes in 2007-08. Base year
manipulation and taking trough to
peak output to dress up the growth
rate is an old ploy although it fools
nobody; prestigious bodies like the
Planning Commission should not
stoop to such cheap tricks. The country
last saw a peak output of 199.4 million
tonnes back in 1996-97 and it is this
which should be taken for comparison
with the 2007-08 peak output. The
peak-to-peak growth rate from 1996-
97 to 2007-08 works out to 1.3 per cent
per annum, well below the population
growth rate of 1.8 per cent. Per capita
output is falling faster than ever
before.
In such a situation of output shor-
tage, food price ination should have
started long ago if demand had been
maintained, but in fact the ination
rate was at a historic low with the Con-
sumer Price Index for Agricultural La-
bour rising only 11 per cent over the
ve years 1999-2000 to 2004-05.
What explains this? A severe squeeze
on aggregate demand of the mass of
the population (at least 60 per cent of
the total) has been engineered through
the measures of income deation.
Advanced countries with a history
of centuries of colonial exploitation
and parasitism have developed the bad
habit of believing that other peoples
resources can be appropriated by them
as they please. They have been para-
noid about China and India with their
vast populations using up more of the
worlds scarce resources as their per
capita income rises. They have deliber-
ately advised income-deating poli-
cies for India and other developing
countries, which depress mass in-
comes and purchasing power, thus re-
ducing the rate of domestic absorption
of even basic foodgrains to ease the
diversion of land to export crops for
lling up supermarket shelves in the
global North. Unfortunately, Chinas
market-oriented reforms have had the
same effect of displacing grain with
cotton and commercial crops.
The success of these income-de-
ating policies appears to be not
The RBI ended
the Rs.6,000
crore general
line of credit
enjoyed by
NABARD two
years ago.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 3
POVERTY DROVE THI S farmers family near Bangalore to commit suicide, in
2002. Financial sector reforms from 1994 redened the priority sector for
bank lending and squeezed out the peasantry from affordable bank credit,
forcing them into the willing arms of usurious moneylenders. Farmer
suicides started in the late 1990s and continue to this day after a whole
decade has passed.
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known to former U.S. President Ge-
orge Bush and economist Paul
Krugman, who have been quick to
blame India and China for the 2007-
08 global price rise citing their high
rate of per capita income growth which
they say must be raising grain demand
per head both for direct consumption
and for use as feed to convert into ani-
mal products. They do not have the
slightest idea of what has been going
on owing to their ignorance of the fac-
tual position as well as theoretical mis-
conception. The factual position is that
far from a rise, there has been a sharp
decline not only in per capita output,
but also in per capita total (food plus
feed grains) demand over the period of
market-driven economic reforms in
both countries, namely, the last 15
years. The income of the minority in-
deed has been rising fast but, at the
same time, the income of the majority
has been falling or stagnating. The rise
in per capita total grain demand of the
minority which is getting richer and
demanding more animal products,
that is, more feed grains, is being more
than cancelled out by an enforced fall
in per capita grain demand of the ma-
jority which is stagnating or getting
absolutely poorer. The result is overall
decline, increase in mass hunger. Stag-
nating income too will produce falling
food intake when market pricing for
health, education, and so on raises
these costs forcing sacrice of food
spending.
What Bush, Krugman and indeed
many of our home-grown economists
suffer from theoretically is the fallacy
of composition (in which the beha-
viour of the part, the rich minority, is
assumed to be the same as the beha-
viour of the whole, the entire popula-
tion). Market-oriented reforms
worsen income distribution while they
are assuming unchanged income dis-
tribution. The National Sample Survey
data on consumption show that, be-
tween 1993-94 and 2004-05, over 60
per cent of Indias rural population has
seen a substantial absolute decline in
the intake of both cereals and animal
products such as milk, eggs and meat,
while the top 10 per cent registered a
sharp rise in animal product intake
though not in cereal intake. The aver-
age decline in nutrition is the result of
these divergent trends and we see not
only falling per capita calorie intake
but also falling per capita protein in-
take. The Army has been obliged to
lower its physical standards for male
recruits in some centres owing to the
shortage of candidates satisfying the
previous standards. While woman and
child malnutrition is much talked
about, the reality is that the entire pop-
ulation save the very top groups is af-
fected. The percentage of persons
unable to obtain a daily energy intake
of even 2,200 calories rose from 58.5
per cent in 1993-94 to 69.5 per cent by
2004-05 and the position now would
be worse.
THE KERALA MODEL
What are the measures which should
be taken by the new government which
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 4 F R O N T L I N E
will assume ofce two months from
now to reverse these alarming trends?
Much will depend on the political
complexion of the government and its
commitment to improving welfare.
The measures taken to counter agrar-
ian distress by the government of Ker-
ala after assuming ofce in May 2006
can serve as a model in many respects.
First, it speedily formulated The
Kerala Debt Relief Commission Act,
2006, which was notied on January
18, 2007. Under this Act, applications
for relief were invited from farmers
unable to repay debt including from
private moneylenders. This immedi-
ately put a stop to harassment of in-
debted farmers and the suicide rate
dropped sharply.
The procurement price of paddy
was substantially raised a whole year
before runaway global price rise forced
the Central government to raise pro-
curement price of wheat. Suicides in
paddy-growing areas stopped and
paddy acreage has started slowly reco-
vering.
The National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme was implemented
with vigour in the affected districts
with strictly equal pay for men and
women, and has helped to restore de-
mand. The recent commodity price de-
clines as the global recession has taken
hold will again affect farmers badly,
and to prevent fresh distress, budge-
tary allocation to the extent of Rs.10
crore, to be raised if necessary, has
been made last month for a Commod-
ity Price Safety Net which will meet the
difference between falling actual price
to the farmer and a living price.
There are many measures which a
Central government can take and
which are not within the purview of the
States. First, the indiscriminate sign-
ing of free trade agreements without
any consideration for their adverse im-
pact on our producers has to stop, and
tariffs have to be raised for sensitive
products and quantitative restrictions
imposed when necessary.
Second, the purchase function of
the Commodity Boards (such as Spices
Board, Tea Board, Coffee Board) were
terminated years ago and they exist
only in name. Effective revival of mar-
ket intervention by Commodity
Boards to purchase a substantial part
of output put on sale at minimum sup-
port prices is essential for stabilising
price to the grower without which
there can be no revival of protability
or investment.
Revival of mass demand is needed
with a big thrust on development
spending and on employment guaran-
tee, without which once more food
stocks will build up in godowns instead
of meeting the needs of the hungry as
in 2002, and a rising share of food
subsidy will go uselessly in holding
stocks.
The Land and Livestock Survey of
2002-03, compared with 1999, shows
an alarming loss of livestock with over
nine-tenths of all farmers and an
alarming rise in the proportion of zero
or nil operational holdings, from 19.8
per cent to 31.2 per cent at the all-India
level, while for States like Andhra Pra-
desh and Kerala the proportionate in-
crease is even more than this average.
Many of our progressive intellec-
tuals writing on land holdings are so
petried that they refuse to mention
the facts of these surveys and produce
only a single cryptic sentence in their
papers saying the two gures are not
comparable. Non-comparability if it
does exist, does not preclude the sit-
uation being even worse than the data
indicate. Facts do not go away if one
buries ones head in the sand, and a
much more mature intellectual stance
of facing unpalatable facts boldly is
needed for formulating practical mea-
sures to reverse the trend of asset loss
and virtually unabated distress which
are emerging from the data.
CARDAMOM BEI NG WEI GHED and packed at a spices sales outlet in Kochi,
Kerala. Effective revival of market intervention by bodies such as the Spices
Board to purchase a substantial part of output put on sale at minimum
support prices is essential for stabilising the prices paid to the grower.
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F R O N T L I N E 1 5
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
PRICE movements are fundamentally about in-
come distribution. When prices of certain commod-
ities go up faster than those of others, it implies
reduced real incomes for those who sell the latter.
The most obvious direct effect is of course on real
wages because when the price of labour, or money
wages, does not keep pace with the items that form
the consumption basket of workers, it implies re-
duced real wages of workers.
But other categories of workers are also affected:
when agricultural crop prices do not go up as much
as the input costs of cultivationor of other goods that
farmers have to buy, it affects the real incomes of
farmers. Similar is the case of non-agricultural petty
producers, who can also be considered as self-em-
ployed workers.
That is why prices are also political, or rather,
why ination can be such a hot political issue espe-
cially before elections. The general perception is that
high ination is unpopular, for the obvious reason
that it cuts into the real income of most people.
Therefore, in the middle of last year when the in-
The price burden
This will affect the poor, for whom food accounts for
more than half of total household expenditure.
Food prices are politically sensitive: elections have
supposedly been won or lost over the price of onions.
Overall ination has slowed down, but food prices continue to increase.
BY JAYATI GHOSH
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A FARMER DRI ES jute at Jonnavalasa village, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The prices of bres
have barely increased. But oilseed prices have fallen by more than 5 per cent. This immediately affects
all the producers of cash crops, who get the same price or less for their products even as they pay
signicantly more for food.
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I NFLATI ON
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 6 F R O N T L I N E
crease in prices had become an issue of
widespread concern, it essentially re-
ected the concern that the issue was
impacting on the real incomes of most
ordinary people.
The recent decline in ination
rates has led many to believe that this
is no longer a concern. But, in terms of
political impact, what needs to be exa-
mined is the extent to which ination
of the past few years has affected real
incomes. In other words, do people feel
better off or worse off than they did ve
years ago when the UPA government
came to power?
It is important in this regard to be
aware of the difference between in-
ation and price levels. Ination refers
to the change in prices, and any posi-
tive rate of ination, however low, in-
dicates that prices are rising. So even if
the ination rate is coming down, it
does not mean prices are coming
down, it only means that prices are
increasing at a slower rate than before.
This is a mistake commonly made by
media commentators, who confuse a
decline in inflation rates with a decline
in prices. If prices themselves actually
come down, then that is deation.
Why does this matter? Because
even if the ination rate slows down or
comes down to zero, it simply means
that the price level stays at the level it
had reached, which may be felt to be a
very high level by those whose nominal
incomes have not increased. So if pric-
es had risen very dramatically last year,
but have now slowed down, this may
still be experienced as very high price
levels by those whose wages and sala-
ries have not increased much over the
whole period.
The accompanying chart shows
how consumer prices the price of the
basket of goods estimated to be con-
sumed by different groups of workers -
have moved since April 2004, just be-
fore the last general election. Some
points of note emerge from this chart.
First, overall ination has been quite
high for both sets of workers over this
period, with consumer prices increas-
ing by around 40 per cent over this
ve-year period. It is extremely un-
likely that nominal wage incomes for
most workers in urban or rural areas
have increased by that much in this
period, although we will have to wait
for large sample survey data to check
on this.
Certainly, the large sample survey
data of the past suggested little change
in nominal wage and self-employed in-
comes between 1999-2000 and 2004-
05, especially in the informal sector. It
is likely that this trend has continued
into the past ve years as well. Micro
case studies suggest that nominal re-
muneration for a signicant propor-
tion of self-employed workers such as
home-based workers has even de-
clined in recent times, suggesting that
real incomes have plummeted quite
dramatically.
Second, while the consumer price
index for industrial workers was in-
creasing more rapidly until October
2006, the index for agricultural la-
bourers too has been moving up more
rapidly thereafter. The main reason is
probably the faster increase in the
price of food, since the food index even
for industrial workers has moved up
more rapidly since October 2006.
But higher ination need not al-
ways be the greater problem in fact,
sometimes the opposite can be true.
This is not always and inevitably the
case it depends on what is happening
to nominal incomes as well. So even
falling ination can be of concern, if
the nominal incomes of enough people
fall even faster. And deation, if it is
associated with declining economic
activity and employment, can be really
bad news.
That is why the news, on March 19,
that the wholesale price index (WPI)
for all commodities had barely in-
creased on an annual basis, going up at
the historically low rate of 0.44 per
cent, gave rise to mixed reactions.
Some welcomed it, on the grounds that
it reected an easing of the inationary
pressures that seemed so marked just a
few months ago. Others (notably the
Chairman of the Prime Ministers Eco-
nomic Advisory Council) dismissed
the lower ination rate as nothing but
a base effect of the earlier high prices,
as the economy stabilises at those price
levels. Others were actually alarmed at
this possible sign that the economy is
entering a deationary phase, in which
output and employment may even
shrink.
Yet hardly any commentators
dwelt on the income distribution as-
pect of the ination, which is arguably
the most signicant consequence, at
least politically. To understand the
distributive implications, the overall
ination rate has to be unpackaged
into its component parts, to under-
stand which sectors and which cate-
gories of producers and consumers are
affected in different ways.
An examination of the disaggre-
gated changes in the latest WPI num-
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 7
A MI GRANT LABOURER in New
Delhi. Prices of foodgrains and
pulses have gone up by about 10 per
cent, particularly affecting the poor.
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bers throws up some surprising, even
alarming, results. The accompanying
table provides information on year-
on-year percentage changes (or an-
nual ination rates) for different cate-
gories of goods.
While overall ination has indeed
slowed down to almost no change in
the aggregate price level, food prices
have continued to increase. Foodgrain
prices have gone up the most by more
than 10 per cent and this cannot be
blamed on higher procurement prices
alone, since the prices of pulses, which
are not covered by public procure-
ment, have also gone up just as much.
I NCREASI NG FOOD PRI CES
The prices of fruits and vegetables and
eggs, sh and meat have also in-
creased, even if not by as much as for
foodgrains. The only food category for
which prices have fallen is edible oils,
which reects the decline in oilseed
prices as world prices have crashed.
Other food articles prices have in-
creased by more than one-fth in this
one year.
So all householders who wonder
how ination could be falling when
they keep facing higher prices when
they go to the market are right in one
important respect food prices are in-
deed still rising, despite the stability of
the overall price level. And this will
obviously affect household budgets,
especially among the poor for whom
food still accounts for more than half
of total household expenditure. It is
worth remembering that food prices
have always been politically sensitive:
there are elections that are supposed to
have been won or lost over the price of
onions.
Another major item of essential
consumption has also increased in
price: that of drugs and medicines has
gone up by 4.5 per cent, which ob-
viously impacts upon the entire pop-
ulation, but especially the bottom half
of the population which may nd it
extremely difcult, if not impossible,
to meet such expenditures in times of
stringency.
But these are not the only disturb-
ing thing about the disaggregated da-
ta. A remarkable feature is how
non-food primary product prices have
moved. The prices of bres mainly
cotton, jute and silk have barely in-
creased at all.
Oilseed prices have fallen by more
than 5 per cent. This immediately af-
fects all the producers of cash crops,
who will be getting the same or less for
their products even as they pay signif-
icantly more for food. They are also
paying more for fertilizer and pesti-
cides, whose prices have increased by
more than 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, several manufactured
goods have also declined in price over
the past year. Some of the sharpest
price declines have occurred in iron
and steel (a decline of nearly 17 per
cent) and non-ferrous metals (a de-
cline of nearly 11 per cent). This has
happened mostly in the very recent
period, as the impact of the global re-
cession fed into trade prices. Indeed,
the sheer rapidity and extent of the
price changes for traded goods is
remarkable.
For example, the price of bres
rose by 12.1 per cent between March 8,
2008, and January 10, 2009, and then
plummeted by 9.3 per cent in just the
past two months. While some of this
can be explained by seasonality (such
as the cotton harvest that comes
around December-January) the de-
cline this year is much sharper than in
previous years and reects interna-
tional prices as well. Overall, the price
index of manufactured goods in-
creased slightly by 2 per cent until Ja-
nuary 10, and subsequently fell by 0.65
per cent to March 7, 2009.
What does all this add up to? What
it suggests a worrying combination of
falling prices faced by agriculturalists
who produce cash crops as well as pet-
ty producers and others who produce
manufactured goods, even as the pric-
es of essential items like food and med-
icines continue to rise. These groups
and their families alone account for
the majority of the population in the
country. The latest gures ought to
worry the government that is still in
power, for this combination could
amount to electoral dynamite.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 8 F R O N T L I N E
PRIMARY education in India has the history of
being an object of neglect by the Indian state through
the 60 years of Independence. First, the state has
never regarded the provision of education to chil-
dren as a legal duty, as most modern nations have. In
other words, the need for a compulsory education
law that would universalise education was never
seriously considered. India is one of the few modern
nations that has not yet banned all forms of child
labour. Secondly, while most modern nations have
expanded their educational systems through signif-
icant public spending, public nancing of education
in India has always been inadequate. The share of
expenditure on education has only rarely exceeded 3
per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP) in
India, while the international average is close to 5 per
cent. Thirdly, while in many modern nations educa-
tional expansion has gone hand in hand with sub-
stantive social transformation, large parts of India
are yet to undergo such transformation. Class, caste
and gender discriminations have persisted on a mass
scale in Indian society, fostering corresponding dif-
ferentials in educational achievements.
In 2003-04, according to ofcial estimates,
about 52 per cent of children were out of school at the
elementary education level. The corresponding
share was higher at about 59 per cent for Dalits and
70 per cent for Adivasis. Even among children who
enrolled, dropout rates were large; in 2003-04, the
average dropout rate at the elementary level was
about 52 per cent. In the age group of 5-14 years,
there were about 13 million child workers as per
Census 2001.
The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) govern-
ment assumed power in 2004, riding on a historic
verdict of the people against the neoliberal policies of
its predecessor. While there were no illusions of any
signicant shift of policy, there was the hope that a
sincere effort to address some of the concerns in
education would begin under the UPA. The Com-
mon Minimum Programme of the UPA pledged to
raise public spending in education to at least 6 per
cent of the GDP. In part, this increase was to be
nanced through an education cess on Central taxes.
A legislation that ensured right to education as a
fundamental right was also promised. The midday
meal scheme was to be made a national scheme for
all primary and secondary schools.
PUBLI C FI NANCI NG OF EDUCATI ON
The total public spending on education has been
falling sharply as a share of GDP from 1999-2000
onwards (see chart). In 1999-2000, India spent 3.3
per cent of its GDP on education. When the UPA
government took over in 2004, educational spend-
ing stood at 3 per cent of the GDP. After 2004, this
share actually fell for the rst three years and then
rose to settle at 3 per cent in 2007-08 (the last year
for which revised Budget gures are available). Ten-
tative Budget estimates of expenditure and the GDP
show a possible fall of public spending in 2009-10 to
below 3 per cent. Clearly, in spite of introducing an
educational cess, the UPA government was unable to
prevent the fall in total public spending on education
after 2004.
The increase in public expenditure on education
was to be achieved in a phased manner. Economists
C.P. Chandrasekhar and Jayati Ghosh have prepared
a set of estimates on the annual increase in public
educational spending that is required to gradually
achieve the target of 6 per cent of the GDP by 2009-
10 (Table 1). As per their estimates, the actual expen-
diture on education in 2007-08 should have been Rs.
2.2 lakh crore, equivalent to a public spending to
Lessons in apathy
Every year after 2004, public spending on
education was signicantly lower than required.
In 2007-08, the total public spending was only
Rs.1.4 lakh crore: a decit of 36 per cent.
The neglect of the public school system and the encouragement of private
schools characterise the UPAs education policy. BY R. RAMAKUMAR
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EDUCATI ON
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 9
GDP ratio of 5.5 per cent. As this
amount was to be spent by the Centre
and States together, a part of this
amount should have been devolved to
States in some tied fashion. However,
for every year after 2004, the actual
public spending on education was sig-
nicantly lower than the required
amount. In 2007-08, the total public
spending on education in India was
only Rs.1.4 lakh crore: a decit of 36
per cent.
It may be argued that the Central
governments spending on education
has risen as a share of the GDP. While
that may be true, the inability of the
UPA government to ensure a rise in
States spending on education cannot
be sidestepped. In fact, in many ways,
the UPA government has continued to
tie the hands of States in the sphere of
THE EDUCATI ONAL I NFRASTRUCTURE is poorly developed: in 2007-08, as many as 27 per cent of schools did not
have pucca buildings, 13 per cent did not have drinking water facilities, and 50 per cent did not have separate toilets
for girls. Here, a government high school at Dhoolpet in Hyderabad.
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spending choices. One of the most im-
portant barriers to the States spend-
ing on the social sector is the Fiscal
Responsibility and Budget Manage-
ment Act. The Act mandates all States
to reduce their revenue decit to zero,
and scal decit to 3 per cent, by
around 2010. In this situation, States
have shied away from spending and
have preferred to park surplus funds in
the intermediate treasury bills of the
Reserve Bank of India. As on March 6
2009, States had an investment out-
standing of a whopping Rs.96,182
crore in these treasury bills. The com-
plicity of the UPA government in en-
gendering this situation cannot be
missed. In some of the agship
schemes of the Central government,
such as the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
(SSA), there was an absolute fall in
expenditure after 2007. The Budget
outlay for the SSA, which was
Rs.12,020 crore in 2007-08 (Revised
Estimate), fell to Rs.11,940 crore in
2008-09 (Revised Estimate) and
Rs.11,934 crore in 2009-10 (Budget
Estimate). Further, the share of States
contribution to the SSA has been
raised, without corresponding in-
creases in total devolution to States.
RI GHT TO EDUCATI ON
The 86th constitutional amendment
had established the right to education
in India as a fundamental right. The
UPA government delayed the tabling
of the law that operationalise this
amendment in Parliament for about
two years. A Draft Model Bill was cir-
culated in 2006. There was strong crit-
icism that the provisions of the Bill
undermined the spirit of the constitu-
tional amendment. The Bill placed the
onus of ensuring the childs presence
in school on the parents while absolv-
ing the state of any responsibility in
either ensuring provision or enforcing
the law. Also, while a 2005 draft of the
Bill contained a provision to reserve 25
per cent of seats in private schools to
poor children, the provision was delet-
ed from the 2006 Model Bill. Given its
present form, there is little chance of
the Bill addressing the issues of enrol-
ment and drop-out in any substantive
manner.
EDUCATI ONAL BACKWARDNESS
Contrary to the claims of a section of
civil society activists and non-govern-
mental organisations, backwardness
in education continues to be acute in
India (Table 2). Data compiled by the
National University of Educational
Planning and Administration (NUE-
PA) show that the share of girls and
Dalits enrolment in total primary en-
rolment has remained largely un-
changed between 2002-03 and
2007-08. The state of educational in-
frastructure is poorly developed: in
2007-08, 27 per cent of schools did not
have pucca buildings, 13 per cent did
not have drinking water facility, and
50 per cent did not have a separate
girls toilet. Studies show that even
while these facilities are available,
their quality remains poor.
In a development that undermines
the right to free primary education,
there has been a growth of private
schools; the share of government
schools among all schools providing
elementary education declined from
86.3 per cent in 2003 to 81.2 in 2007.
The neglect of the public school system
and the encouragement of the private
school system characterise the neolib-
eral ideological orientation of the
UPAs educational policy.
Reecting the squeeze on nances,
the number of single-teacher schools
has risen from 2 per cent in 2002-03 to
10 per cent in 2007-08. Another out-
come of the nancial squeeze is that
almost all the new appointments in
primary schools are of a short-term
contract nature; these grossly under-
paid teachers are known by different
names: para-teachers, shiksha-mitras,
contract teachers, and so on. The qual-
ity of teaching has been the casualty
under this cost-cutting policy.
In sum, the task of universalisation
of education remains as big a challenge
in 2009 as it was in 2004. Experience
shows that the success in completing
this task is contingent on the degree to
which the problem is progressively
politicised. To be certain, the UPA go-
vernment has proved to be a major
failure in this regard.
R. Ramakumar is Assistant Professor,
School of Social Sciences, Tata
Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai.
The number of
single-teacher
schools rose
from 2 per cent
in 2002-03 to
10 in 2007-08.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 2 1
WHAT is the state of the nations health? The
ndings of the third National Family Health Survey
(NFHS-3), a household survey carried out during
2005-06, should put the political class to shame. The
country may be witnessing an 8-9 per cent economic
growth and the government may think that India is a
world power in the making, but these ndings tell
the real story of where all that growth is headed.
When the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
came to power in 2004, some of the health-related
declarations it made as part of the National Common
Minimum Programme (NCMP) are as follows:
The government would increase public expendi-
ture on health services from around 1 per cent of
GDP to around 2-3 per cent;
While focussing on primary health care in a sub-
stantial manner, all efforts shall be made to provide
health insurance to all rural families;
In order to tackle all communicable diseases, the
government would increase investment in health
services;
The government would make all life-saving
drugs affordable to all;
The government would ensure that all sections of
the population can afford and avail themselves of
health services.
In the context of these promises, how does the
national health prole look?
Unhealthy trend
Access to quality health care is a basic human right.
Public health must be on the top of the agenda of
political parties, which, unfortunately, has not been
the case in the 60 years of Independence.
The present government and the ones before it have neglected the health sector,
as the National Family Health Surveys show. BY R. RAMACHANDRAN & T. K. RAJALAKSHMI
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PUBLI C HEALTH
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
2 2 F R O N T L I N E
The infant mortality rate (IMR),
the number per 1,000 children before
one year of age, is 57, which means
over one in 18 infants die before they
are one year old. While the gure is a
marginal improvement over the IMR
of 68 of NFHS-2 (1998-99) about 1 in
14 this is unacceptably high.
The same is true for children under
ve, wherein the child mortality rate
(CMR) is 74 (one in 13) as compared to
92 of NFHS-2. This is a far cry from the
Millennium Development Goal
(MDG) of a CMR of 42 by 2015. More
tellingly, this is equal to the average of
all the Least Developed Countries
(LDC), 2.5 times that of China and
eight to 10 times higher than that of
developed countries. Clearly, the IMR
target of 30 by 2010 set by the 2002
National Health Policy (NHP-2002)
is unlikely to be achieved.
I MMUNI SATI ON PROGRAMME
What is particularly disquieting about
these gures is that much of these
deaths are preventable through child-
hood immunisation. But the reach of
the countrys Universal Immunisation
Programme (UIP) continues to re-
main low, which is the result of a weak
public health care system. The
NFHS-3 data show no signicant im-
provement in immunisation coverage
between 1998-99 and 2005-06 (Fig-
ures 1 and 2): 42 per cent coverage in
NFHS-2 and 44 per cent now. The
coverage has actually worsened in
Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharash-
tra, Punjab and Tamil Nadu. The ob-
jective of introducing the pulse polio
programme (PPP) over and above the
routine immunisation programme
was to make India polio-free. That
goal has not been achieved because the
PPP is being done at the cost of routine
immunisation, in terms of deployed
resources. The budgetary allocation
for routine immunisation has been
roughly a third of that for the PPP. The
number of Acute Flaccid Paralysis
(AFP) cases, an indicator of the success
of polio vaccination, which prevents
limb paralysis in children, has actually
increased enormously, from 3,047 in
1997 to 31,973 in 2006.
The UIP suffered a major blow
during 2008-09 because of the highly
misplaced decision to shut down the
three vaccine-producing public sector
undertakings (PSUs) on grounds of
non-compliance with the World
Health Organisation (WHO) norms
on good manufacturing practice
(GMP). With the government unable
to ensure adequate supplies from the
private sector at affordable prices, vac-
cine shortage has worsened. While
these PSUs never had any problem
with their vaccine quality, there have
been recent reports of vaccine from
GMP-qualied private sector compa-
nies failing in quality checks (story on
page 114).
CHI LDREN S HEALTH
India is fast earning the dubious dis-
tinction of being the hunger capital of
the world. The nutritional status of
children has not improved over the
past ve years, which means the In-
tegrated Child Development Services
(ICDS) aimed at promoting child
health and nutrition is not working.
The outreach and delivery of ICDS
is extremely poor. As per NFHS-3 da-
ta, the services of an anganwadi are
available only to a third of the children
and the supplementary food scheme
reaches only 26 per cent. As a result,
nearly half the children under the age
of ve are stunted, which reects their
childhood nutritional status. Nearly
one-fth are underweight for their
height, an indicator of both chronic
and acute undernutrition. These g-
ures are nearly double the levels of
undernutrition even in sub-Saharan
Africa.
Undernutrition extends to adults
as well (Figure 3). Over half the wom-
en and nearly one-fourth of the men
are anaemic. This is a direct conse-
quence of the continued lack of bal-
anced nutrition from childhood into
adulthood, especially among women.
Women are the worst hit in terms
of access to health services. According
to NFHS-3 data, only 17.3 per cent of
women have ever received any service
from a health care worker. Only 17.9
per cent of the public health centres
(PHCs) have a woman doctor. As a
direct consequence, 56.2 per cent of
women (aged 15-49) are anaemic,
which actually represents an increase
from the NFHS-2 data of 51.8 per cent.
The percentage of pregnant women
who are anaemic has also increased
from 49.7 per cent to 57.9 per cent.
Around 52 per cent of childbirths
take place in the absence of a qualied
health worker. This, coupled with
womens intrinsic poor health and
poor nutritional status, causes the
death of over 120,000 mothers follow-
ing childbirth. The maternal mortality
rate (MMR), the number of women
dying of childbirth-related problems
per 100,000 deliveries, is a high 300,
according to NFHS-3, still way beyond
the NHP-2002 target of 100 by 2010.
COMMUNI CABLE DI SEASES
The burden of disease on the popula-
tion continues to be high and takes a
heavy toll of life. Recent years have
witnessed a resurgence of various
communicable diseases such as tuber-
culosis (TB), malaria, chikungunya,
dengue, kala-azar, encephalitis and
leptospirosis.
India bears one-fth of the worlds
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 2 3
burden of TB. About 3.7 lakh people
die of TB in India every year, the high-
est in the world, and this gure is only
likely to go up with increasing evi-
dence of the widespread prevalence of
multi drug-resistant TB (Figure 4).
Since NFHS-2, the reported cases of
TB have declined by 18 per cent, but
the level of medically treated cases of
TB has not changed (Figure 5).
The number of malaria cases re-
mains at around two million annually,
but the disturbing aspect is the in-
creasing trend of drug-resistant falci-
parum malaria (nearly half the cases),
which causes the highly fatal cerebral
malaria. Poor surveillance and the lack
of access to hygiene, sanitation and
drinking water among the poor, cou-
pled with a weakening public health
system, have contributed to this.
About six lakh children die of diar-
rhoea, a disease that is easily preven-
table by providing access to potable
water and sanitation. Infected chil-
dren can be prevented from dying if
they have access to the simple house-
hold remedy of Oral Rehydration So-
lution (ORS). According to NFHS-3,
only one-third of urban diarrhoeal cas-
es get ORS, while less than a fourth of
rural cases get it (Figure 6). The sit-
uation, according to NFHS-3, has ac-
tually worsened; only 29 per cent of
households have access to improved
toilet facilities. Besides, about 200
million people still do not have access
to clean drinking water.
Notwithstanding the controversy
in the number of Human Immunodef-
iciency Virus (HIV)/Acquired Im-
mune Deciency Syndrome (AIDS)
cases and the prevalence rate of in-
fection in the country, and the recent
downward revision of estimates for
these, they are still signicant. With
the latest estimate of 25-31 lakh cases
(depending upon the study and the
agency), India has the third largest
number, after South Africa and Nige-
ria. This constitutes a serious threat
and a major challenge for the health
care system in the country. Though
treatment and access to health care
facilities for the disease have improved
in recent years, these need to improve
further.
Having said that, one should bear
in mind that the allocation for HIV/
AIDS is skewed greatly in its favour
because of foreign funding for the Na-
tional AIDS Control Programme
(NACP), from agencies such as the
Melinda Gates Foundation. The allo-
cation for the NACP is roughly of the
same magnitude as the combined allo-
cation for the control of TB, leprosy,
trachoma, blindness and iodine-de-
ciency disorder. The neglect of the rou-
tine immunisation programme for
women and children, in terms of inad-
equate nance, manpower and cold-
chains and other infrastructure, only
compounds the problem of tackling
communicable diseases.
HEALTH I NFRASTRUCTURE
In terms of the growth of infrastruc-
ture in the public health sector in rural
areas, even as per 2001 population
norms, there is a shortfall of 21,983
subcentres, 4,436 PHCs and 3,332
community health centres (CHCs).
Though the increase in the number of
subcentres from the 9th Plan period to
the 10th Plan period (6 per cent) has
been signicantly higher than that
from the 8th Plan period to the 9th
Plan period (0.8 per cent), this is still
insufcient given the population
growth.
The PHCs have actually registered
a 2 per cent drop between the 9th and
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
2 4 F R O N T L I N E
10th Plan periods. There is a substan-
tial increase only in the number of
CHCs, but these suffer from staff and
resource shortages.
As many as 807 PHCs have no doc-
tor, 1,188 PHCs and 1,647 subcentres
function without electricity or without
regular water supply. According to the
Rural Health Statistics of the Ministry
of Health and Family Welfare
(MoH&FW), 50 per cent of subcen-
tres, 24 per cent of PHCs and 16 per
cent of CHCs function out of rented or
temporary premises.
Availability of skilled personnel
even for standard medical care is woe-
fully inadequate in the public health
system. More than one-fth of the
sanctioned posts for doctors are va-
cant, while over 40 per cent of the
PHCs have no laboratory technicians
and nearly one-fth have no pharma-
cists. This is a direct fallout of the na-
ture of our medical educational
system, which is largely based on the
Western model, is urban-centric and
does not produce the right kind of
health workers. Only 20 per cent of the
medical professionals are available for
70 per cent of the countrys popula-
tion, in rural India.
The nature of hierarchical health
governance, administratively, nan-
cially and technically, also contributes
to the poor state of the public health
sector. Further, public health and
sanitation, hospitals and dispensaries
are State subjects. Health should be
brought under the Concurrent List in
the Constitution, which gives a role to
both the Centre and the States.
RURAL HEALTH MI SSI ON
The National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM), which is a agship pro-
gramme of the UPA government, has
certainly brought in some reforms, but
they are not enough. Also, there are
several shortcomings inthe NRHM, as
discussed below.
The NRHM was launched in April
2005 with the objective of providing
universal access to equitable, afforda-
ble and quality health care. However,
the ndings of the second Common
Review Mission (CRM) of the
MoH&FW, released in November
2008, showthat much of the NRHMs
focus has been to increase institutional
deliveries despite most of the States
having poor infrastructure. For in-
stance, in Karnataka, institutional de-
liveries increased from 60 per cent in
2005 to 79 per cent in 2008-09, while
the First Referral Units, the PHCs and
the CHCs remained underutilised. It
also revealed that the PHCs and the
CHCs continued to lack basic facilities
and faced a shortage of technicians
and doctors.
In 2007-08, the Jan Swasthya Ab-
hiyaan (JSA) and the Peoples Rural
Health Watch (PRHW), citizens fora
that raise health issues, conducted a
survey in the high-focus States of Uttar
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattis-
garh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Bihar and
Rajasthan to analyse the impact of the
NRHM on rural health care.
The survey found that only mar-
ried women were selected to serve as
accredited social health activists
(ASHAs), the lynchpin of the NRHM.
The ASHAs were found to be trained
mainly for reproductive and child
health services (read family planning)
and not as community health workers,
which is what is envisaged under the
NRHM.
Nearly 75 per cent of the ASHAs
spoken to in the survey said they had
received no money. In fact, according
to the CRM report, payments for the
ASHAs and the Janani Suraksha Yoja-
na (JSY) scheme were poor. It added
that introducing incentives for the JSY
and sterilisation compensation had
deleterious effects.
The JSA-PRHW survey concluded
that no genuine steps had been taken
to recruit doctors at all levels of the
public health services, retain them and
make the health system functional;
that despite a massive shortage of in-
frastructure, no measures had been
taken to address the issue. The incen-
tives under the JSY needed to be re-
viewed as they were leading to conict
and corruption between auxiliary
nurse midwives (ANMs), ASHAs, dais
and anganwadi workers.
All of the above are pointers to in-
adequacies in the public health care
system, in terms of resources deployed
and hence in its outreach and
coverage.
POLI O DROPS BEI NG administered in a remote village in Salem district in
Tamil Nadu as part of the pulse polio campaign in February. The goal of
making India polio-free has not been achieved because the pulse polio
programme is being implemented at the cost of the routine immunisation
programme.
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India has the most privatised
health care system in the world. Ac-
cording to NFHS-3, for 70 per cent of
urban households and 63 per cent of
rural households the unregulated pri-
vate sector is the chief source of health
care. Only 5 per cent have any kind of
insurance cover for at least one mem-
ber of the household. As a result, peo-
ple bear over 80 per cent of medical
expenses through out-of-pocket ex-
penses, pushing the already poor to
below-poverty-line status.
According to the 2004 data of the
National Sample Survey Organisation
(NSSO), 40 per cent of the respon-
dents did not take treatment for their
serious ailments because of nancial
constraints. According to the Planning
Commissions Steering Committee
Report on health, the average cost of
private health care is about eight times
the cost in the government sector.
Not only does the private sector
need to be regulated, it must also be
integrated into the public health sys-
tem where possible and in certain sit-
uations be required to perform the role
of the public health system. Health
care, being predominantly private-
sector driven, makes the system ur-
ban-oriented with a bias towards terti-
ary-level health services. Protability
becomes the bottom line, ignoring eq-
uity and rationality.
MEDI CAL TOURI SM
Against the WHOs recommendation
of 10 to 15 per cent Caesarean deliv-
eries, today in urban India 45 to 50 per
cent of childbirths are by Caesarean.
This situation is attributable to a prot
motive, which has also led to an unde-
sirable growth in medical tourism,
with indirect government support for
patients from West Asia and the devel-
oped world who have the money to
pay.
Even medical education has be-
come private-sector dominated. The
Medical Council of India (MCI), re-
sponsible for maintaining standards in
medical education and in the medical
profession, has increasingly become
subservient to the interests of private
enterprise.
Over the years, with the increase in
the number of private medical colleg-
es, the MCIs powers have grown
greatly. In November 2002, the Delhi
High Court ordered its president, Ke-
tan Desai, to step down on various
charges, including corruption. But, de-
spite the courts observations, the Cen-
tre has done nothing to correct the
irregularities within the MCI. Recent-
ly, it turned a blind eye to Ketan De-
sais re-election as the MCIs president.
In an environment of private-sec-
tor-dominated health care, irrational
treatments abound. It is estimated
that in India two-thirds of the money
spent on medical treatment goes to-
wards buying unnecessary drugs be-
cause of irrational prescriptions by
private practitioners. Such an environ-
ment has enabled the pharmaceutical
industry, which comes under the Min-
istry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, to
thrive. There is a proliferation of brand
names in India, with as many as
80,000 brands around. Even so, only
20 to 40 per cent of the people have
access to all essential drugs they need.
Many drugs are sold at huge prot
margins of 200 to 400 per cent, thus
putting essential drugs beyond the re-
ach of the common man. The prices of
drugs have grown at a disproportion-
ately high rate when compared with
the Wholesale Price Index (WPI). This
has actually worsened during the UPA
regime. Yet, policymakers are reluc-
tant to impose any price control be-
cause of the industry lobby prevailing
over politics. The existing price control
regime is far from effective as most
essential medicines are outside its pur-
view.
There is also the issue of the spu-
rious drug market, which the Drug
Controller General of India (DCGI)
appears ill-equipped or unwilling to
tackle. Therefore, a national drug au-
thority under the Health Ministry be-
comes necessary.
As regards investment during the
past ve years, the average spending
on health was 0.86 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP) as against the
2 to 3 per cent that the UPApromised.
Even as a fraction of the total expendi-
ture, the spending on health has
dropped to 2.9 per cent from 3.4 per
cent.
Public health expenditure in India
as a proportion of total health expendi-
ture is only 16 per cent, according to
the JSA. This is less than that in Ethio-
pia (36 per cent), Burkina Faso (31 per
cent), Nigeria (28 per cent) and Pakis-
tan (23 per cent). In 1974, around 80
per cent of hospital units and 80 per
cent of hospital beds were in the public
sector. Post-liberalisation, in the
1990s, the trend reversed and only 38
per cent were in the public sector. The
situation now could be far worse.
In addition to this is the scal man-
agement pressure from the Centre on
the States, resulting in massive budge-
tary cuts in the socio-economic sec-
tors, including the already deprived
health services. The overall health ex-
penditure by States declined from 4.5
per cent in 1999-2000 to 3.6 per cent
in 2008-09.
Besides, the government subsidy
for health also does not reach the poor-
er sections of the population. Accord-
ing to a WHO report, only 10 per cent
of the total subsidy goes towards the
benet of the poorest 20 per cent of the
population, whereas the richest 20 per
cent avails itself of 33 per cent of the
subsidy.
Access to quality health care is a
basic human right and should be
viewed as a fundamental right of every
citizen. A healthy nation is a prerequi-
site for social and economic develop-
ment. Mere economic growth
measured in gross nancial terms, as is
evident, does not ensure that. To make
the public health care system work re-
quires determined political leader-
ship, adequate investment and
appropriate policy instruments rooted
in ground realities.
Therefore, in the run-up to the
general election, from the perspective
of the electorate, peoples health
should be accorded top priority along
with education and food security. Pub-
lic health must be brought to the top of
the political agenda, which, unfortu-
nately, has not been in evidence in the
past 60 years of independence.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
2 6 F R O N T L I N E
NO other phenomenon has affected life in the
subcontinent so adversely as communalism. When
this monster came on the stage as early as the
beginning of the 18th century, as evidenced by a
communal riot in Ahmedabad, no one perhaps had
an inkling about the magnitude and character it
might assume in future.
Although it took a long time for it to take centre
stage, when it did, it had a devastating effect on
Indian polity and society. Its inherent ability to di-
vide people on the basis of religion and sow the seeds
of mutual hatred led to the partition of the country.
The people of India and Pakistan can ill afford to
forget the human tragedy that Partition entailed.
The pathos of Partition, which the Urdu writer Sadat
Ali Manto so touchingly captured in Toba Tek Sing
and Khol Do, or the masterly account in Bhishm
Sahnis Hindi novel, Tamas, tell us how devastating
and brutal communalism can be.
The heart-rending experience of Partition, how-
ever, did not put an end to communalism. It only
exacerbated it, at least in India, as the memories of
inter-communal violence were invoked for political
mobilisation. As a result, during the post-Indepen-
dence period, communalism continued to plague
social consciousness and colour political perspec-
tives in the country. By the end of the 20th century,
its inuence had assumed such proportions that
Hindu communal forces succeeded in wielding pow-
er at the Centre and in some States. This success
heralded a new stage in the development of commu-
nalism and at the same time a tumultuous phase in
the political history of the nation.
The access to power that the communal forces
gained by the end of the 20th century was important
for a variety of reasons. Among them, the most sig-
nicant was the two-fold agenda that the communal
forces pursued in order to perpetuate the newly ac-
quired political power. They realised that controlling
the state institutions in itself was not sufcient if
they were to consolidate power and exercise it for a
long time to their political advantage. It would be
necessary to transform the character of the adminis-
tration itself.
The secular administrative practices, which the
Indian state had followed since Independence, albeit
with limitations, were out of sync with the new regi-
me. The Sangh Parivar expected from the state in-
stitutions active involvement in the pursuit of its
communal agenda. In other words, it wanted the
administration to shed its secular character and
serve as the communal arm of the state. In pursuit of
this objective, the governments led by the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP), both at the Centre and in the
States, ensuredthat communal elements were exten-
sively, if not exclusively, recruited into various
branches of the administration.
The extent to which it succeeded in this endea-
vour is difcult to ascertain, but it is fairly apparent
that a conscious policy to induct Sangh Parivar cadre
was followed. A good example is the police. It is
widely reported that the police force in States ruled
by the BJP, such as Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and
Gujarat, has been saffronised by inducting recruits
from the Sangh Parivar. The consequences are by
now well known. In the communal conagration in
Gujarat in 2002, the police not only refused to in-
tervene to save the victims but actually abetted mem-
bers of organisations such as the Vishwa Hindu
Parishad (VHP) and the Bajrang Dal in their crimes.
Police partisanship has also been reported from
Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and other States in
which the BJP is or was in power. Almost all state
institutions underwent such a transformation under
Ways of Hindutva
Among the many reasons that attract people to a
communal ideology and to communal violence are
fundamentalism and poverty. For a long time,
Hindu fundamentalism remained rather muted.
The violence in Gujarat and Orissa has generated disgust towards the Sangh
Parivar, but Hindu communalism is seeking to refurbish its image. BY K. N. PANI KKAR
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BJP rule. When the National Demo-
cratic Alliance was defeated in the last
elections, it was hoped that the secular
character of the administration would
be retrieved. However, it did not hap-
pen. The lack of political will was not
the only reason. The communal ele-
ments were so well entrenched in the
administration that they could prevent
the attempts to recover secular prac-
tices. This has led to a paradox: a go-
vernment pledged to secularism, but
an administration predominantly
manned by communal elements. As a
result, communal inuence remained
unabated in administration. Even the
Army, it is reported, was not free from
the communal inuence. If so, it is
possible that the example of Lieute-
nant Colonel S.K. Purohit, who is ac-
cused of being the brain behind the
Malegaon bomb blast, may not be an
isolated instance.
What distinguished BJP rule from
the previous administrations was the
manner in which the government was
used to realise the political agenda of
creating a Hindu state. The Sangh Pa-
rivar looked upon the government not
from the perspective of what was im-
mediately possible, but as an instru-
ment to create a communal future. As
such, its main interest was to construct
a social and political consciousness
that would usher in and sustain a Hin-
du nation. That was the purpose for
which the institutions of the state, par-
ticularly the ideological apparatuses,
were used extensively.
Almost every initiative in the elds
of education and culture were under-
taken with such an intention. In order
to realise it, the ideological apparatus-
es of the state were placed under the
control of communal activists, ideo-
logues and fellow travellers. They rew-
rote the national agenda in communal
terms. Their interventions in the edu-
cational, cultural and intellectual
elds sought to privilege indigenous
knowledge over others and thus create
a Hindu nationalist fervour. In the
process, they sought to redene the
nation as Hindu.
The work of these captive state
institutions was complemented by the
activities of a large number of civil so-
ciety organisations. There is hardly
any area of social and cultural life in
which the Sangh Parivar has not made
its presence felt. Educational institu-
tions have received particular atten-
tionbecause of the role they canplay as
channels of ideological dissemination.
Over the past 70 years, the Rashtriya
Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) has set up
thousands of schools. A relatively re-
cent initiative is the single-teacher
schools, Ekal Vidyalayas, established
in tribal villages.
It is difcult to ascertain how many
educational institutions are function-
ing under the aegis of the Sangh Pari-
var, but the number is large enough to
mould the outlook of a substantial sec-
tion of the young generation. The im-
portance of the work of these
institutions is that they function as
conduits for the recruitment of young
CHRI STI ANS MOVI NG TO government-arranged camps after hiding in a
forest for several days, at Naugram village, in Orissa on August 30, 2008.
Thousands of Christians were driven from their homes by violent Hindutva
activists following the murder of a Vishwa Hindu Parishad leader.
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children to the communal fold. The
inuence thus gained enables commu-
nal organisations to expand their ac-
tivities even in the absence of political
power. That is why during the past ve
years, when the political inuence of
the communal forces declined, as evi-
dent from the reverses of the BJP in
elections, the social and cultural
fronts, such as the VHP and the RSS,
not only held their fort, but actually
expanded their sphere of inuence.
In fact, the political discomture
did not mean a decline in its ideolog-
ical inuence. On the contrary, the
past ve years marked the spread of
communal ideology to new sections of
the population, particularly Dalits and
Adivasis.
BRUTAL VI OLENCE
Faced with the prospect of losing polit-
ical power, Hindu communalism has
been resorting to violence and even
terrorism to consolidate its militant
cadres. The unprecedented indul-
gence in violence and aggression wit-
nessed recently is a part of this
strategy. Violence, both spontaneous
and premeditated, has always been an
integral part of communalism. But
during the past few years, the charac-
ter of communal violence has changed.
It has become more intense, inhuman
and brutal.
Earlier, communal tensions and
resulting riots did not lead to large-
scale mayhem and murder. Their re-
ach was limited and they were general-
ly suppressed quickly by the
intervention of the state. Society and
the administration then exercised a re-
straining inuence. Not any longer.
Communal riots are large-scale events
now; some of them, such as the anti-
Sikh riots of 1984 and the genocide in
Gujarat of 2002, were like holocausts.
Not only are they larger in terms of the
number of victims, but their manifes-
tation has become so cruel that it is
difcult to associate the perpetrators
with human beings.
It is most painfully exhibited in the
cruelty against women. Rape is com-
mon in all communal riots. But the
way in which rape was used in Gujarat
as a weapon of terror and revenge had
not occurred before. Slitting open the
womb of a pregnant woman and
throwing the foetus in re was unprec-
edented even in the annals of commu-
nal violence. So was the manner in
which Pastor Graham Staines and his
children were burnt to death. Gujarat
and Orissa testify to the extent to
which communalism could dehuman-
ise society.
A major social consequence of
communalism is the segregation of
people on the basis of their religious
beliefs and, more grievously, the dis-
placement of populations from their
traditional areas of residence. The
ghettoisation of minorities has been
happening in almost all cities for quite
some time. After each communal riot,
people move to areas where their co-
religionists can possibly provide safe-
ty. Such a process has happened in
almost all cities: Mumbai, Delhi, Ah-
medabad, Lucknow and so on.
There is also a social selection on
the basis of religion. Popular idols such
as Shabana Azmi and Shah Rukh
Khan have testied that they found it
difcult to get a house in the most
modern metropolis of India. Even
they. Some of my Muslim friends could
not rent a house in the capital of sec-
ular India. While looking for a house in
Kozhikode, Kerala, I was told by the
broker that the neighbour is not a
Muslim. This natural selection
which communalism is bringing about
is a way of ensuring religious segre-
gation. Ahmedabad already has a bor-
der separating Hindu India and
Muslim Pakistan. Short of expelling
the minorities from the country, is
communalism aiming to create sep-
arate religious enclaves?
Large-scale displacement of pop-
ulations has been a common conse-
quence in almost all communal
incidents in recent times. In Gujarat,
more than 100,000 people belonging
to the Muslim community ed their
homes and lived for months in camps.
It is estimated that about 80 per cent of
them have not been able to return to
their homes. In Orissa too, thousands
of Christians have taken shelter in the
forest to escape from the attacks of the
members of Hindu communal orga-
nisations. A condition for their return
is reconversion to Hinduism. Both
these States controlled by the BJPhave
not discharged even the basic duty of
protecting the lives and property of
citizens.
Among the many reasons that at-
tract people to a communal ideology
and to communal violence are funda-
mentalism and poverty. For a long
time, despite occasional outbursts,
Hindu fundamentalism remained
rather muted. It now appears to be
breaking out of its self-imposed re-
straint. It may not be altogether in-
accurate to locate in the Sri Rama Sene
of Pramod Muttalik the signs of
emerging Talibanism among Hindus.
The question Muttalik has raised is
what constitutes authentic Indian cul-
ture. The answer he and his ilk provide
is that everything with an external ori-
gin is unIndian. According to him and
Hindu fundamentalism, the syncretic
tradition for which India is justly fa-
mous has no place.
On the eve of the elections, Hindu
communalism is desperately seeking
to refurbish its image. The strategy of
violence and intimidation did not earn
any dividend; it has actually backred.
The demolition of the Babri Masjid,
for instance, alienated the liberal Hin-
du, as he or she saw in it an assault on
the civilisational values of India. The
recent violence in Gujarat and Orissa
has generated revulsion towards the
Sangh Parivar. There is also general
disapproval of the fundamentalist an-
tics in Karnataka and the terrorist fo-
rays in Maharashtra. Consequently,
Hindu communal forces are no more
reckoned as responsible enough to be
entrusted with the administration of
the country. As such, the BJP is not a
major contender for power in the com-
ing elections.
Yet, communalism continues to be
an important issue. Therefore, it is im-
perative on other political formations,
the United Progressive Alliance and
the Left Alliance, to clarify to the peo-
ple where they stand in relation to
communalism.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 2 9
IN the last two decades, major political parties
and coalitions in power have expressed sympathy for
the Scheduled Castes (S.Cs), the Scheduled Tribes
(S.Ts) and the Socially and Educationally Backward
Classes (SEBCs) /Other Backward Classes (OBCs)/
Backward Classes (B.Cs) in their manifestos and
common minimum programmes (CMPs).
The CMP of the United Front government in
1996 laudably committed itself comprehensively to
the Dalit Manifesto in the following words: The
United Front government will carefully study the
Dalit Manifesto formulated by the National Action
Forum for Social Justice and implement its salient
recommendations. The Dalit Manifesto referred to
is the document of March 7, 1996, incorporating the
rights and entitlements of the S.Cs, the S.Ts and the
B.Cs authored by me under the auspices of the Na-
tional Action Forum for Social Justice.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) go-
vernments National Agenda for Governance (NAG)
in 1998 promised: The interests of Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Backward Classes will
be adequately safeguarded by appropriate legal, ex-
ecutive and societal efforts and by large-scale educa-
tion and empowerment. We will continue to offer
all assistance to the S.Cs, S.Ts and Backward Classes
to ensure their speedy socio-economic development.
We will remove the last vestiges of untouchability.
We will present a National Charter for Social Justice
(samajik nyay) based on the principle of social har-
mony (samajik samarasta).
One of the six basic principles of governance in
the National Common Minimum Programme
(NCMP) of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government in 2004 was: To provide for full equal-
ity of opportunity, particularly in education and em-
ployment for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes,
OBCs and religious minorities. Specic commit-
ments listed in that CMP under the head Scheduled
Castes, Scheduled Tribes arranged subject-wise
include:
(1) Protecting, strengthening and adding to em-
powering assets of/for the S.Cs and the S.Ts
The UPA government will launch a comprehen-
sive national programme for minor irrigation of all
lands owned by Dalits and Adivasis. Landless fam-
ilies will be endowed with land through implementa-
tion of land ceiling and land redistribution
legislation. No reversal of ceilings legislation will be
permitted.
Eviction of tribal communities and other forest-
dwelling communities from forest areas will be dis-
continued. The rights of tribal communities over
mineral resources, water sources, etc., as laid down
by law will be fully safeguarded.
The UPA will urge the States to make legislation
for conferring ownership rights in respect of minor
forest produce, including tendu patta, on all those
people from the weaker sections who work in the
forests.
(2) Symbiosis of tribal communities and forests
The UPA administration will take all measures
to reconcile the objectives of economic growth and
environmental conservation, particularly as far as
tribal communities dependent on forests are
concerned.
(3) Rehabilitation
More effective systems of relief and rehabil-
itation will be put in place for tribal and other groups
displaced by development projects. Tribal people
alienated from land will be rehabilitated.
(4) Reservation in government and public
sectors
All reservation quotas, including those relating
Imperfect sympathy
An example of serious commitment to the
fullment of manifesto promises was Prime
Minister V.P. Singh, in 1990. He regularly
discussed each promise and monitored progress.
What the manifestos and common minimum programmes of political parties and
governments in the past held for Dalits. BY P. S. KRI SHNAN
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to promotions, will be fullled in a
time-bound manner. To codify all res-
ervations, a Reservation Act will be
enacted.
(5) Reservation in the private
sector.
Despite such all-round sympathy,
the conditions of S.Cs, S.Ts and B.Cs,
including those of religious minorities,
have not improved substantially and
qualitatively, and in some respects
have even worsened. Thus, the goals of
economic liberation (transformation
from providers of agricultural and oth-
er labour into co-equal maliks of the
country), educational equalisation at
all levels, social dignity and real and
total equality of opportunity continue
to elude them. The reasons and the
remedy for this dichotomy between
commitments and outcome are a seri-
ous matter affecting the future of these
three categories, deserving in-depth
consideration by the entire political
leadership of the country, particularly
now in the run-up to the 15th Lok
Sabha elections.
Let us look at the record of imple-
mentation of the promises made at
these three points of time.
Implementation of the U.F.s
CMP: One plus and one minus.
A laudable initiative of the short-
lived United Front government was to
provide Rs.250 crore in December
1996, ahead of the Budget of 1997-98,
in keeping with its CMP commitment
for an important scheme, contained in
the Dalit Manifesto, of high quality
residential schools from Classes 6 to
12, in all districts for the S.Cs, the S.Ts
and the B.Cs, starting with low-literacy
districts and girls. This scheme was
designated as Kasturba Gandhi Swa-
tantrata Vidyalaya and the outlay was
placed at the disposal of the Ministry
of Welfare. But it remained in limbo;
no such residential school was estab-
lished and ultimately the accumulated
amount provided in successive Bud-
gets was taken away from that Minis-
try in 2003 and transferred to the
Ministry of Human Resource Devel-
opment (HRD). After the loss of more
than eight years the scheme reappear-
ed in the Budget of 2005-06 with the
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name Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidya-
laya with a dilution of the original
concept of residential schools of excel-
lence from Classes 6 to 12 and an unre-
alistically low provision of outlay per
school.
Certain negative measures sur-
faced, while substantive positive ac-
tion could not emerge. Thus, in 1997,
the Department of Personnel was al-
lowed to issue ve ofce memoran-
dums (OMs) substantially damaging
reservation. One of these OMs went to
the extent of misinterpreting a Su-
preme Court judgment and pushed the
S.Cs from the rst position in the ros-
ter down to the seventh position and
the S.Ts from the third to the 13th
position a blatant injustice crying for
the last 12 years for correction and
restoration of the status quo ante.
Implementation of the NDAs
National Agenda for Governance
(NAG): One positive and major
negatives.
Constitutional amendments to
nullify three of the ve OMs men-
tioned above were enacted. But the
benet could accrue to the S.Cs and the
S.Ts only partly for want of focussed
efforts to enforce their full implemen-
tation. Further, the promised National
Charter for Social Justice was not
presented.
Implementation of the UPAs
CMP: Some progress but major
disappointments.
No allocations were made in any of
the Budgets for the promised Compre-
hensive National Programme of Minor
Irrigation of all lands of the S.Cs and
the S.Ts. No Ministry was made re-
sponsible for this important liberating
and empowering programme.
Regarding the commitment to the
S.Cs and the S.Ts that landless families
(which means all landless families)
among them will be endowed with
land, there has been no progress worth
mentioning, and that is perhaps why
the various reports to the people on the
implementation of the NCMP, issued
by the government, do not even make a
mention of this programme.
A Standing Committee of Minis-
ters on Dalit Affairs was set up in
2005. When everything required for
Dalits is well known, the establish-
ment of a committee becomes only an
excuse for inaction and indolence. The
committee appointed subcommittees.
The committee cleared the recom-
mendations of the subcommittees in
latter 2008 and communicated them
to the respective Ministries for issue of
orders. These recommendations are
positive and sound, but not a single
order or action has emanated. I
brought this to the notice of important
leaders of the Congress, but with no
concrete result.
In the light of a commitment to the
S.Cs and the S.Ts in the CMP, a Bill for
reservation in posts and services for
the S.Cs, the S.Ts and the B.Cs was
introduced in Parliament in 2005. It
went through the mill of a Parliamen-
tary Standing Committee. Then it re-
ached a roadblock on account of
certain issues pertaining to the B.Cs.
The government then separated the
Bills and introduced the Scheduled
Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Reser-
vation in Posts and Services) Bill,
2008, in the Rajya Sabha in its brief
December 2008 session. This Bill was
passed with a number of indefensible
exemptions and blockages, which pre-
clude the fullment of reservation at
higher levels and in a number of edu-
cational and other institutions, and
certain other undesirable provisions as
well as lacunae.
As the matter came to public notice
when it was due to reach the Lok Sab-
ha in its brief and nal session in Feb-
ruary 2009, it naturally created a
furore. As requested by Dalit leaders, I
prepared a list of amendments re-
quired in the Bill, deleting all harmful
provisions and inserting provisions es-
sential for the fullment of reservation
without dilution. These amendments
were discussed and accepted by S.C.
and S.T. Ministers and Members of
Parliament and handed over by them
to the top leadership. It was still pos-
sible to bring a Bill so amended to the
Lok Sabha and get it passed and to get
the amended Bill passed in the Rajya
Sabha also before the announcement
of elections. But this did not happen.
The Bill for the B.Cs was forgotten.
There has been very little discourse
about the problems of the B.Cs and
their aspirations even though they are
mainly the victims of the destruction of
traditional occupations and the aliena-
tion of traditional resources, as in the
case of artisans, sherfolk, stonecut-
ters and peasants, causing their tre-
mendous immiseration.
Discourse about all the three cate-
gories of people is very limited. Even
this is typically conducted within the
narrow contextual framework of elec-
toral advantage and not in the context
of right and wrong, rights and entitle-
ments, and the interests of the nation.
One of the commitments fullled
was the passing of the Central Educa-
tional Institutions (Reservation in Ad-
TRI BAL ACTI VI STS FROM Koraput demonstrate for land rights, in
Bhubaneswar. A le picture.
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missions) Act, 2006. As usual, this Act
was challenged in the Supreme Court.
The HRD Ministry took my help to
place all socio-historical and current
facts, fully and in perspective, before
the Supreme Court through its law-
yers.
The Supreme Court upheld the Act
on April 10, 2008. The government
was also to bring in a Bill on reserva-
tion in admissions to private educa-
tional institutions in terms of the 93rd
constitutional amendment. This has
not happened despite the efforts of the
HRD Ministry.
A positive step for the S.Ts was the
enactment of the Scheduled Tribes
and other Traditional Forest Dwellers
(Regulation of Forests Rights) Act,
2006, but its thorough and total im-
plementation is awaited.
The Plan provisions, Budget out-
lays and the special component plans
for the S.Cs and the tribal sub-plans
have all been far short of what the S.Cs
and the S.Ts are entitled to and what is
mandated by the Constitution, nation-
al commitments and NCMP promises.
Manifestos of political parties
should, in the part relating to the S.Cs,
the S.Ts and the B.Cs, including those
belonging to religious minorities,
comprehensively spell out the specic
steps required to achieve the goals of
their economic liberation and educa-
tional equalisation and social dignity
and real and total equality of opportu-
nity for them.
These three social categories con-
stitute about three-fourths of the Indi-
an population and the near-totality of
the countrys labour force. Their legiti-
mate needs have to be fullled in order
to see that the Indian nation is able to
progress and rise to its full potential.
Since coalitions have become a fact of
life in our country, their CMPs also
should spell out these steps.
Thereafter, unlike in the past, the
promises should be taken seriously
right from day one and practical steps
should be taken to full them without
allowing anyone to put obstacles.
An example of serious commit-
ment to the fullment of manifesto
promises was Prime Minister V.P.
Singh, in 1990. He regularly discussed
each promise at fortnightly meetings
and personally monitored progress. I,
as Secretary of the crucial Welfare
Ministry, had the opportunity to par-
ticipate actively and help in their
fullment.
I have communicated to a number
of political parties a list of manifesto
points, including land for all rural S.C.
and S.T. families; the development of
all lands of the S.Cs and the S.Ts
through a comprehensive national
programme of minor irrigation; the
setting up of quality residential
schools and a leak-proof reservation
Act providing for reservation in pri-
vate educational institutions; the es-
tablishment of exclusive special courts
for speedy trials under the S.C. and
S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act; the
transfer of 15 per cent and 7.5 per cent
of Plan outlays, before sectoral distri-
bution, to the special component plan
for S.Cs and the tribal sub-plan respec-
tively for relevant comprehensive
planning by the National S.C. and S.T.
Development Authority and similar
State Authorities to be newly estab-
lished; and other important measures
required for the S.Cs, the S.Ts and the
B.Cs, including those of religious mi-
norities. To these has to be added a
new reservation Act in posts and ser-
vices incorporating the comprehensive
amendments circulated in February
2009.
In the general election, the S.Cs,
the S.Ts and the B.Cs, should press the
main contestants in each constituency
for commitments to move these com-
prehensive manifesto points in their
parties manifestos and CMPs and for
their serious fullment.
P.S. Krishnan is a former Secretary to
the Government of India.
AT A PROTEST by members of the Dalit Students Solidarity Movement demanding reservation in posts and services,
in New Delhi on February 16.
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3 4 F R O N T L I N E
THE Presidents exercise of powers under Article
72 of the Constitution to grant pardonor to commute
the sentence of a convict handed the death penalty
has never been easy. Every President faces the moral
dilemma of weighing societys cry for justice to the
victims against the convicts plea for mercy. The
Constitution provides similar powers to the Gover-
nor under Article 161. When a petition under Article
72 or 161 is pending before the President or a Gover-
nor, the execution of that death sentence stands
suspended.
The Presidents ability to take an objective deci-
sion under Article 72 is sure to come under stress if
the issue is politicised as it has been in the case of
Mohammad Afzal, who has been awarded the death
sentence in the 2001 Parliament House attack case.
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, as President, received Af-
zals mercy petition on October 4, 2006, and for-
warded it to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for
its advice. Since then, the Ministry has been examin-
ing the petition in consultation with the Government
of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. The MHA
usually consults the State government concerned
before submitting the mercy petition back to the
President with its advice as the Presidents powers
under Article 72 are always exercised with the aid
and advice of the Council of Ministers.
The inordinate delay by the MHA to submit
Afzals petition to the President with its advice is
perhaps indicative of the dilemma the government
faces in keeping the issue free of political consider-
ations. Whatever the governments advice, it is likely
to be interpreted in political terms.
Notwithstanding the plausible interpretation of
this inordinate delay, one may ask how the govern-
ment and the President can decide Afzals petition
objectively. The publication of Afzals petition (The
Afzal Petition: A Quest for Justice) by Promilla and
Company, in association with Bibliophile South Asia
and Champa: The Amiya and B.G. Rao Foundation,
in 2007 was a signicant effort to dispel the mis-
givings about Afzals plea for mercy. The medias
indifference to the publication of Afzals petition,
considering that a mercy petition usually remains
under wraps until the Presidents decision on it, is
indeed inexplicable.
However, trying to understand the issues raised
in Afzals mercy petition would be a futile exercise
without knowing how the government and the Presi-
dent decided mercy petitions in the past. Therefore,
Frontline sought from the Government of India,
under the Right to Information Act, details of mercy
petitions decided by and pending with the President
during the past 15 years. The reply from the MHA
states that the President decided 12 mercy petitions
in the past 15 years, with clemency being granted in
three cases. As many as 25 petitions, submitted by
the MHA with its advice, are pending with the Presi-
dent for a nal decision. The MHA is examining
three petitions, including Afzals, in consultation
with the respective State governments, to prepare its
advice for the Presidents nal decision.
LI TTLE ROOM FOR DI SCRETI ON
When the MHA advises the President regarding
Afzals mercy petition, it cannot ignore the well-
established guidelines that it has followed meticu-
lously while deciding other mercy petitions. As Fron-
tlines examination of the les relating to the 12
decided cases revealed, the government relied on
seven specic guidelines (which it called grounds) to
advice the President on the merits of each petition.
These guidelines are based on facts, and are easily
veriable, and leave the government with little dis-
cretion in the matter. The government sought to
answer yes or no to the questions implicit in each
Mercy guidelines
The inordinate delay by the Ministry
of Home Affairs in submitting
Afzals petition to the President with
its advice is perhaps indicative of the
dilemma the government faces in
keeping the issue free of political
considerations.
There is a strong case to consider Mohammad Afzals mercy petition if the
government sticks to the norms it followed in earlier cases. BY V. VENKATESAN
Legal Issues
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 3 5
guideline while determining whether
any of the seven grounds applied to a
petition. These grounds are as follows:
Personality of the convict (such as
age, sex, or mental deciency) or cir-
cumstances of the case (such as provo-
cation or similar justication). Thus, if
the convict was very young, or a wom-
an, or a mentally challenged person, or
if the offence was committed under
distress, these were considered as rele-
vant factors for the grant of clemency.
Has the appellate court expressed
doubt on the reliability of evidence but
has nevertheless decided on
conviction?
Is it alleged that fresh evidence is
obtainable, mainly with a view to see-
ing whether a fresh inquiry is justied?
Has the High Court, on appeal, re-
versed an acquittal or has it, on appeal,
enhanced the sentence?
Is there any difference of opinion in
the Bench of High Court judges, neces-
sitating reference to a third judge?
Was the evidence duly considered in
xing responsibility, if it was a gang
murder case?
Were there long delays in the in-
vestigation and the trial?
If the answer is yes to even one of
these grounds, then the President
found it reasonable to grant clemency.
The details of the three cases in which
the President granted clemency amply
bear this out.
In March 1998, the President com-
muted the death sentences awarded to
S. Chalapathi Rao and G. Vijayavard-
hana Rao for their role in the torching
of an Andhra Pradesh State transport
bus near Chilakaluripet in Guntur dis-
trict on March 8, 1993, which caused
the death of 23 passengers. Their mer-
cy petitions were rejected by President
Shankar Dayal Sharma in March 1997.
Fresh petitions were led before the
President on their behalf, warranting a
Supreme Court stay on their execu-
tions.
Their second mercy petitions stat-
ed that the two Dalit youth had abso-
lutely no intention of harming, let
alone killing, any of the passengers of
the bus and that their intention was to
commit robbery so as to overcome MOHAMMAD AFZAL. A le picture.
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3 6 F R O N T L I N E
their acute poverty. They had no previ-
ous criminal record and were very
young. They committed the crime
while being mentally and emotionally
disturbed and tense due to their poor
family situation. Their confessional
mercy petitions poignantly brought
out their remorse and repentance. In
violation of the International Cov-
enant of Civil and Political Rights, they
were denied legal aid for a period of
one year after their arrest. Sharmas
successor, K.R. Narayanan, found
these facts sufcient to grant clemency
under the rst ground.
The commutation of the death sen-
tence of Kheraj Ram from Rajasthan
in 2006 was equally in accordance
with these guidelines. The High Court
had acquitted Kheraj Rambut the Su-
preme Court restored the trial courts
conviction and death sentence. The
MHA considered 11 years of investiga-
tion and trial in this case too long. It,
therefore, recommended to the Presi-
dent to commute his sentence to life
imprisonment, as his case was covered
under the second and seventh
grounds.
AFZAL S PETI TI ON
As these seven grounds help the Presi-
dent to be consistent, transparent and
objective in arriving at a decision on a
mercy petition, there is a strong case to
consider Afzals mercy petition in the
light of these grounds, irrespective of
the political controversies that the
Presidents decision may give rise to.
In his petition, Afzal claimed that
he became involved in the conspiracy
to attack Parliament House without
his knowledge, intention or willing-
ness. His allegation that ofcers of the
Special Task Force (STF) of Jammu
and Kashmir used him and introduced
him to one of the terrorists involved in
the attack, whom he identied as Mo-
hammad, could be considered as
pointing to fresh evidence.
The prosecution stated that Afzal
had gone to Srinagar on December 13,
2001, in the truck driven by another
co-accused, Shaukat Hussain, and was
arrested along with Shaukat Hussain
in Srinagar on December 15, 2001. Af-
zal claimed that any truck or vehicle
going to Srinagar had to pass through
the Lakhanpur checkpost where a toll
is collected and particulars of every
vehicle, as also the name of the driver
and his driving licence number, are
entered. Afzal alleged that the investi-
gation had glossed over this important
fact. This fabrication, he suggested,
discredited the alleged recoveries of a
laptop and Rs.10 lakh from his posses-
sion in the truck.
The Supreme Court, in its judg-
ment dismissing Afzals appeal against
his conviction and sentence, dealt ex-
tensively with the facts relating to how
he was denied access to a lawyer. Afzal
alleged that he was denied legal assis-
tance both at the investigation stage
and at the trial stage.
Disagreeing with the Supreme
Courts view that his objection to the
lawyer was an afterthought, Afzal re-
called that he had written an applica-
tion to the Designated Judge of the
trial court on July 8, 2002, that he was
not satised with the amicus curiae.
He said he had also given the names of
four lawyers and requested the judge
to appoint any one of them for him.
Afzal claimed that he again told the
court on July 12, 2002, that he was not
satised with the person appointed as
counsel and, most important, that
counsel Neeraj Bansal also told the
court that he wanted to withdraw from
the case. But the judge did not dis-
charge Bansal, and asked him to assist
the court.
Afzal said he never signed any va-
kalatnama in favour of Bansal, the
amicus curiae. He pointed out that
material witnesses were not chal-
lenged in cross-examination and nei-
ther was any suggestion put to them to
disprove the allegations against him.
One of the key pieces of evidence
against Afzal was that he knew the
deceased terrorists. He argued that if
the Supreme Court did not believe the
so-called confession, they should also
not have believed the police that he
identied the deceased terrorists.
He alleged that he did not have the
expertise to cross-examine the prose-
cution witnesses on the laptop issue
and added that his counsel, too, did
not examine any of the witnesses on
the contents of the laptop, an impor-
tant piece of evidence recovered from
him as cited by the prosecution.
The prosecution told the court that
Afzal led the police to the hideouts and
to the shops where the terrorists
bought mobile phones, motorcycles
and explosives. Afzal alleged that his
advocate did not cross-examine Prose-
cution Witness (PW) 66 (Inspector
Mohan Chand Sharma) at all, even
though he was one of the most impor-
tant witnesses, and had coerced him
into making a disclosure statement.
Afzal alleged that the shopkeepers
were all coerced into identifying him.
He said that his advocate cross-exa-
mined only 22 of the 80 prosecution
witnesses and that during the cross-
examination he sometimes just gave
one suggestion. Even though I was the
most vulnerable person I had no legal
assistance for no fault of mine except
that I am too poor to afford a lawyer,
he said.
The contents of Afzals petition
make it clear that key pieces of evi-
dence were ignored during the investi-
gation and his inability to
cross-examine the prosecution wit-
nesses effectively was a crucial factor
in the success of the prosecution.
An objective study of Afzals pet-
ition would, therefore, show that there
is enough justication for the Presi-
dent to grant pardon or commute his
death sentence by citing the third
ground, that is, fresh evidence was ob-
tainable, mainly with a view to suggest
that a fresh inquiry is justied.
Afzal alleged
that the
shopkeepers
were all coerced
into identifying
him.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 3 7
ALTHOUGH, historically, mercy was the perso-
nal prerogative of the sovereign, in the Indian re-
public it is a power that must be exercised by the
government within the bounds of the Constitution.
Thus, the President and the Governor, in exercising
their mercy powers respectively under Article 72(1)
(c) and Article 161 of the Constitution, must act on
the advice of the Council of Ministers at the Centre
and in the States respectively. In practice, therefore,
most decisions on mercy petitions are made by the
Minister of Home Affairs (MHA) on the recom-
mendation of a Joint Secretary or an Additional
Secretary. Only a few exceptional cases have been
discussed at the level of the Cabinet.
In making its decision on mercy, the govern-
ments role is not limited to looking at only the facts
found to be true by the judiciary or even the evidence
produced in the courtroom. It can take into account
a much wider set of circumstances, facts and evi-
dence. Given this nature, as also the object of the
power, it has been generally argued that it is impos-
sible to lay down any denite rules for taking a
decision on a mercy petition.
Initially, the Supreme Court suggested that it
would be proper for the government to make its own
rules for guidance in decision-making. Later, howev-
er, it rejected pleas from condemned prisoners, who
argued that the absence of guidelines led to the
arbitrary exercise of power.
In the landmark judgment in the Kehar Singh
case (AIR 1989 SC 653), the Supreme Court noted
that power under Article 72 is of the widest ampli-
tude, can contemplate a myriad kinds and categories
of cases with facts and situations varying from case to
case in which the merits and reasons of state may be
profoundly assisted by prevailing occasion and pass-
ing time. A virtually identical response was provid-
ed by the MHAwhen information on mercy-petition
guidelines was sought through a question in Parlia-
ment in November 2006.
Although the MHA claimed in Parliament that
no specic guidelines could be framed, it is clear that
guidelines do exist. The colonial government of Brit-
ish India had drafted certain general guidelines to
assist decision-making. The MHA combined these
with a few guidelines drawn up by subsequent Home
Ministers and put them into a document, Guide-
lines for dealing with mercy petitions (see earlier
story for list of guidelines). This undated document
is what the government uses now for decision-mak-
ing on mercy petitions.
In 2005, President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, finding
these guidelines inadequate, requested the MHA to
consider also the following when deciding petitions:
the humanist and compassionate grounds in each
case; the scope for recidivism; and the nancial lia-
bilities of the convicts family. These have not been
included in the guidelines. A study of decided mercy
petitions (covering 1947-1971 at the National Ar-
chives of India and 1981-2006 at the MHA), howev-
er, shows that in addition to the seven-point
guidelines, many other factors inuenced the go-
vernment and the President when deciding mercy
petitions.
Factors relating to evidence: Despite the wide
scope of mercy proceedings, it is generally believed
that the government should not provide an addition-
al court of appeal. The seven-point guidelines, there-
fore, suggest that the government should only look
into matters of evidence in cases where the judges
expressed some concern about it (Guideline II: cases
in which the appellate court has expressed its doubt
as to the reliability of the evidence and has neverthe-
less decided on conviction), or in specic cases where
fresh evidence was claimed (Guideline III: cases
where it is alleged that fresh evidence is obtainable
mainly with a view to seeing whether fresh inquiry is
justied), or where an individuals role in a gang
murder had to be determined (Guideline VI: Consid-
eration of evidence in xation of responsibility in
Wider ambit
Although precedents may have
limited value in mercy petitions,
there is little doubt that many of the
points and cases discussed are
relevant with respect to Mohammad
Afzals petition.
Unlike the blind justice of courts, mercy jurisdiction is wider: the government
can consider a larger set of facts and circumstances. BY BI KRAM JEET BATRA
Legal Issues
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
3 8 F R O N T L I N E
gang murder cases). In practice, how-
ever, the government has commuted a
large number of sentences on grounds
of inadequate or unsatisfactory evi-
dence even when the courts were con-
vinced about the suitability of the
evidence.
The discussion within the MHA on
evidence in mercy petitions has often
extended to minute details. Sentences
have been commuted on the executive
being dissatised with the particular
evidence presented in a case. In one
case, the sentence was commuted as
the government believed it would be
risky to send a person to the gallows
only on the basis of oral evidence of a
stereotyped nature. Other reasons
have ranged from inconsistencies in
dying declarations and scope for tu-
toring to contradiction in witness
testimonies and lack of indepen-
dence in testimonies.
In a case where two brothers killed
their step-brother, allegedly over a
property dispute, the government was
not convinced entirely about the evi-
dence of the motive and commuted the
sentence by way of abundant caution
(P. Venkatramiah, 1961).
In a number of cases, the govern-
ment has even gone so far as to con-
clude that the evidence on record does
not show the real facts of the case,
thereby presuming other reasons for
the offence.
Legal defence and so on: The
competence and adequacy of the legal
defence has been a key factor for com-
mutation of sentences in several cases.
In a case where a man killed his wife
(and son) suspecting her of indelity,
the executive noted that the defence
case was not properly thought of and a
wrong defence was made out on his
behalf. This resulted in the petitioner
being found guilty by the court despite
strong comments on the inadequate
defence of the petitioner. The Minister
of State for Home Affairs, also nding
that witnesses for the prosecution
were not even properly cross-exa-
mined, recommended commutation
of the sentence, noting that he was
amazed at the utter incompetency of
the defence put forward on behalf of
the petitioner (Haridas Ramdas,
1958).
In a number of other cases also,
poor legal defence made available to
the prisoner has led to commutation.
Commutations have also been granted
where the role of other institutions,
including the prosecution and the
High Court, has been suspect.
Extinction of the family line:
Continuation of family line is another
factor that has inuenced the exec-
utive to commute death sentences.
This appears to have come in as early
as 1956 when the sentence of one An-
grez Singh was commuted with a view
to saving the family from virtual ex-
tinction.
In another case, where one brother
murdered his parents, the executive
commuted the sentence to avoid mag-
nifying the loss of the remaining
brothers, while in another, a husband
who killed his wife had his death sen-
tence commuted to prevent the chil-
dren from becoming guardian-less.
The eventuality of an old man becom-
ing sonless was sufcient to commute
the sentence in another case. Where
two brothers were sentenced to death,
such a rationale effectively became a
lottery since, despite identical roles in
the murder, one brother was sen-
tenced to life while the other was
hanged (Bharwad Mepa Dana, 1960).
General security considerations:
Impact on law and order has often
been taken into account as a factor by
the executive in the decision-making
process. In Sawai Singhs case (1985),
the mercy petition was rejected since
the victim was a policeman and com-
mutation would not be in the interests
of maintaining the morale of the po-
lice. References to the general law
and order situation in a State were a
factor in deciding a number of other
cases as well.
Broad political situation: Dinub-
hai Bhimbhai Desais (1960) was a
prominent case in which the petitioner
killed his wife over a dowry dispute.
Although the death sentence was com-
muted because the President raised
concerns about the lack of proof of the
motive, another factor that appeared
to have inuenced the decisionwas the
nearly 1,500 petitions sent by persons
across Gujarat pleading for mercy in
the case. Most of the petitioners saw
the death sentence as an affront to the
new Gujarat State and identity.
A more obvious case was that of the
assassins of the former Chief of the
Army Staff, General A.S. Vaidya,
where the Maharashtra government
left the decision to the Centre given
that the petition raised political issues
relating to developments in Punjab.
Identity of victim: Although ap-
pearing to be a vital consideration in
practice, this is one factor that is rarely
mentioned on the record. A rare excep-
tion was a case where the Home Minis-
ter of then Madras State sought the
rejection of a mercy petition as the
victim was the mother of one of the
Deputy Directors of Education in the
State and the case had created a lot of
excitement locally. The petition was
rejected by the Governor of Madras,
but it was commuted by the President
largely on grounds of insufcient
evidence.
In two other cases, victims family
members ofcially played a vital role.
In the petition led by one Parmatma
Saran (1961), a letter from the father of
the victim in favour of mercy played a
major role in the governments deci-
sion to commute the sentence, while in
proceedings relating to Dhananjoy
Chatterjee (1994), a letter from the fa-
ther of the victim asking for the rejec-
tion of the petition and the execution
of the accused was relied upon by the
MHA in recommending rejection in
its summary for the Home Minister.
THE AFZAL CASE
Cases such as those of Mohammad Af-
zal are not easy for the government to
decide. It has to keep in mind a num-
ber of factors, implications and com-
plications before making a nal
decision. Although precedents may
have limited value in mercy petitions,
there is little doubt that many of the
above points and cases discussed are
relevant with respect to Afzals pet-
ition. Questions of evidence, the qual-
ity of legal defence and the broader
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
4 0 F R O N T L I N E
political implications in Kashmir have
all been raised in petitions led by Af-
zal and by others on his behalf. The
above cases show that each of the fac-
tors has already been a consideration
for mercy in the past.
On the other hand, the case of an-
other Kashmiri, Maqbool Butt, also
shows us the ugly face of the mercy
power. Butt, the founder and former
leader of the separatist Jammu and
Kashmir Liberation Front, had his
petition pending for seven years. He
was executed in 1984 after his petition
was rejected apparently as revenge for
the abduction and murder of an Indian
diplomat in the United Kingdom by
the Kashmir Liberation Army.
In Afzals petition many facts have
also been raised in support of the plea
for a fresh investigation or inquiry into
the attack on Parliament House. Such
an investigation would not be unprec-
edented.
In a number of mercy cases, both
State and Central governments found
it t to seek fresh inquiries from vari-
ous State criminal investigation de-
partments. In at least three cases in the
1960s, such re-investigations at the
mercy stage led to commutation (Av-
tar Singh, 1961; Baij Nath Puri, 1963;
and Har Charan, 1967).
Even if the government rejects Af-
zals petition, the President can assert
her moral authority as the constitu-
tional head of state. Although, effec-
tively, the government makes the
mercy decision, the President is not a
mere rubber stamp. She has an oppor-
tunity to return the petition, asking for
the governments recommendation to
be reviewed. This has been exercised
by many Presidents in the past, in-
cluding Rajendra Prasad, S. Radhak-
rishnan and Zakir Hussain.
Abdul Kalam also returned a large
number of cases for reconsideration.
Further, although the President can-
not seek reconsideration more than
once, President K.R. Narayanan
showed that there was no compulsion
to sign the rejection of the petition
either.
On the other extreme lies the jud-
icial murder of Kehar Singh. Follow-
ing the assassination of Prime
Minister Indira Gandhi, Kehar Singh
was convicted of being involved in the
conspiracy (along with the two assas-
sins) on the basis of extremely imsy
circumstantial evidence. V.M. Tar-
kunde, former Judge of the Bombay
High Court, remarked that the evi-
dence was not sufcient even to hang a
dog. Instead of exercising his moral
authority and powers for seeking re-
consideration, President R. Venkata-
raman allowed the mercy petition to
be rejected without any questions or
objections.
Although he never completely ad-
mitted to this lapse, in his autobiog-
raphy the former President suggests
that the decision was politically motiv-
ated, noting that Kehar Singhs case
raised a few queries in my mind
should not the President have discre-
tion to examine any extenuating cir-
cumstance and alter the death
sentence without the advice of the go-
vernment? How else can prejudice or
partisanship be prevented? (Page
249-250, My Presidential Years).
President Pratibha Patil must bear
these facts in mind when she examines
Mohammad Afzals petition.
Bikram Jeet Batra (bjba-
tra@gmail.com) is a lawyer and re-
searcher and is at present writing a
book on the death penalty in indepen-
dent India.
MAQBOOL BUTT, JKLF founder, was executed in 1984 after his petition,
pending for seven years, was rejected apparently as revenge for the
abduction and murder of an Indian diplomat in the United Kingdom by the
Kashmir Liberation Army. Here, JKLF activists in Srinagar mark the
anniversary of his hanging, in February, with a protest demanding the return
of his remains buried inside Tihar Jail in New Delhi.
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F R O N T L I N E 4 1
THE Defence Research and Development Orga-
nisations (DRDO) prowess in advanced software
that goes into the making of interceptor missiles was
proved convincingly on March 6 when a Prithvi
interceptor missile achieved a direct hit-to-kill on an
enemy missile. The interception took place at an
altitude of 80 kilometres when a modied Dhanush
missile, launched from the naval ship INS Subhadra
in the Bay of Bengal, was in its descent phase and
hurtling towards Wheeler Island, off Orissas coast.
Dhanush was simulating the nal phase of the tra-
jectory of ballistic missiles with a range of 1,500 km,
such as Pakistans Ghauri missile. At the end of over
ve minutes of heightened suspense at the Launch
Control Centre (LCC) on Wheeler Island, the Prithvi
interceptor missile cut into the path of the incoming
Dhanush missile, knocked it out and also pulver-
ised the latter with its new manoeuvrable warhead.
Such was the accuracy of the interception that
those scanning the plot-boards at the LCC celebrat-
ed like never before. India was nally on the way to
acquiring a ballistic missile defence shield to thwart
enemy attacks. In terms of strategic importance, the
success established Indias capability to intercept
Pakistans Hatf and Ghauri missiles.
Our strength is our software, V.K. Saraswat,
Programme Director, Air Defence, DRDO, had de-
clared in November 2008. In the ballistic missile
The Prithvi interceptor missile
achieved a direct hit and detonation
of the modied Dhanush missile at
an altitude of 80 km. Dhanush was
simulating the nal phase of the
trajectory of ballistic missiles with a
range of 1,500 km.
THE I NTERCEPTOR MI SSI LE Prithvi racing
towards its target soon after its launch from
Wheeler Island, off the Orissa coast, on March 6.
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Hat-trick of hits
The success of the DRDOs March 6 test
means that India will have a ballistic
missile defence shield ready for
deployment in four years.
BY T. S. SUBRAMANI AN
Defence
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
4 2 F R O N T L I N E
defence shield, if there are glitches in
the software, it cannot be excused. It
has to work thoroughly. There are a
million lines of code. The onboard
software runs in real time in the in-
terceptor missile.
Saraswat called the March 6 suc-
cess a major test in assembling the
ballistic missile defence system as part
of network-centric warfare. He add-
ed: In the next 25 years, you will see a
growth in the direction of network-
centric warfare. So we are making
these building blocks.
It was the third success in a row for
the DRDO, which has been making
all-out efforts to acquire a two-layered
ballistic missile defence shield with in-
terceptors that can shoot down incom-
ing missiles. It tasted success in its rst
mission on November 27, 2006, when
a Prithvi missile intercepted a Prithvi-
II missile at an altitude of 48 km in
what is called the exo-atmosphere. It
was a direct hit. The interceptor was
called Prithvi Air Defence (PAD-01).
Again, on December 6, 2008, an Ad-
vanced Air Defence (AAD) missile
shot down a modied Prithvi missile at
an altitude of 15 km in what is called
the endo-atmosphere when the at-
tacker was in the nal stage of its
ight. It was a direct hit too. With the
March 6 direct hit, the DRDO has
achieved a hat-trick.
If the interception on March 6 took
place at an altitude much higher than
in the previous missions, there are dis-
tinct advantages to it. The debris will
take longer to fall through the atmo-
sphere and become cin-
ders because of re-entry
heat. In an actual war,
this will reduce the effect
of any fallout of the de-
bris of a nuclear warhead
and the risks associated
with radiation.
Three features stood
out in the latest mission:
the Prithvi interceptor
missiles gimballed/ma-
noeuvrable warhead,
which can rotate 360 de-
grees; the interceptors
coasting phase, which
can take care of the manoeuvres per-
formed by the attacker; and the very
advanced software residing in the
computers of the interceptor. The war-
head is called a directional one because
it can be directed to explode towards
the target. Only the U.S. and Russia
have gimballed directional warheads.
Regarding the software used in the
interceptor, Saraswat said: The soft-
ware of the guidance, control and navi-
gation systems, which was generated
by our scientists in Hyderabad, is prac-
tically the high watermark of the tech-
nology of our ballistic missile defence
system. It will not be out of place to say
that while many countries have been
struggling for many years to get this
kind of performance, it is to the credit
of the young team at the DRDO that it
made this mission a success. As far as
the programme is concerned, this is a
major milestone in proving the capa-
bility of our ballistic missile defence
shield. The computer controlled, nav-
igated and guided the vehicle towards
its target, besides performing a series
of mission-sequencing tasks. Besides,
the interceptor had a special software
to discriminate the terminal phase of
the enemy missiles ight. Intercep-
tions would take place in the terminal
phase.
THE TEST
Dhanush, the enemy missile, was a
single-stage missile with a diameter of
one metre, a weight of 4.5 tonnes, and
a height of 9.4 m. Propelled by liquid
fuel, it quickly climbed to an altitude of
150 km, cut a parabola
and started heading to-
wards Wheeler Island.
About 50 seconds into its
ight, radars at Konark
and Paradip in Orissa
tracked the missile and
relayed the information
to the Mission Control
Centre (MCC) on Wheel-
er Island. The MCC then
analysed whether it was a
ballistic missile or an air-
craft. Within ve sec-
onds, the MCC
concluded that it was a
hostile target which would impact
close to Wheeler Island very soon. This
information was received by the LCC,
which used it to compute the trajectory
of the interceptor to engage the in-
coming ballistic missile. It then decid-
ed that the interception should take
place at an altitude of 80 km when
Dhanush was in its descent mode. The
LCC also quickly decided when the in-
terceptor, named Prithvi Air Defence
(PAD-02), should lift off. When the
launch computer gave the command
for it to blast off, the two-stage in-
terceptor, 10 metres tall, weighing 5.2
tonnes and having a diameter of one
metre, rose from a truck on the beach-
head on the island. While its rst stage
was powered by liquid fuel, the second
stage had solid propellants.
About ve minutes and ten sec-
onds later, when the interceptor had
reached an altitude of 80 km, its hom-
ing seeker acquired the target when it
was 25 km away. Using this informa-
tion, the interceptors computer guid-
ed it towards the target and brought it
within a few metres of Dhanush.
At this point of time, the radio
proximity fuse (RPF) of the gimballed
directional warhead calculated the
V. K. SARASWAT,
Programme Director,
Air Defence, DRDO.
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distance from Dhanush and the time
at which the warhead should detonate.
When the interceptor and the tar-
get were practically colliding with each
other, the warhead was detonated,
which led to the fragmentation of the
target and the interceptor. It was a
direct hit and also a warhead detona-
tion. A large number of fragments
formed due to the collision and det-
onation of the warhead were tracked
by ground radars and the radars on
ships. We could see on our plot boards
hundreds of new tracks being formed,
conrming that it was both a direct hit
and a detonation, Saraswat said.
The highlights of the mission were
proving the technology of the gim-
balled directional warhead and dem-
onstrating the interceptors coasting
phase, using a vernier thruster. This
coasting phase in the interceptors tra-
jectory helps it to decide at what stage
it should intercept the enemy mis-
sile. If the attacker does a manoeuvre,
the interceptors guidance system will
take care of it. To make the seeker
effective, the DRDO used a wide-beam
RPF in the warhead, which was a mini-
radar. So even if there is a manoeuvre
by the enemy missile in the last 500
milliseconds, the RPF will be able to
take care of it. The directional warhead
will be ignited on the basis of the data
given by the RPF, said Saraswat.
Another major element employed
in the mission was the advanced battle
management command, control and
communication software, which resid-
ed in the MCC. The entire event was
tracked by a number of ground sta-
tions with complete mobile and static
communication systems provided by
satellites, bre optics and line-of-sight
communication.
Saraswat said: It was a mission
planned, designed and executed with
clockwork precision. It proves the ro-
bustness, reliability and repeatability
of the design of Indias emerging bal-
listic missile defence system, which
can take care of incoming missiles with
a range of 300 km to 1,500 km. It
demonstrates that the DRDOs ballis-
tic missile defence shield has reached a
great level of maturity.
W. Selvamurthy, Chief Controller,
DRDO, predicted that in the wake of
the hat-trick of successes, Indias bal-
listic missile defence shield would be
ready for deployment in about four
years. It will take us a couple of more
trials before our system is ready to be
offered for deployment. In the next
trial, we will do combined intercep-
tions in both the exo-atmosphere and
the endo-atmosphere, he said.
Saraswat praised the synergy and
the collective skill and knowledge of
the DRDO laboratories which made
the mission a success. They included
the Research Centre Imarat, the Ad-
vanced Systems Laboratory and the
Defence Research and Development
Laboratory, all located in Hyderabad
and collectively called the missile
complex; the High Energy Materials
Research Laboratory, the Armament
Research and Development Establish-
ment, and the Research and Devel-
opment Establishment (Engineers),
all located in Pune; the Electronics and
Radar Development Establishment,
Bangalore; the Terminal Ballistics Re-
search Laboratory, Chandigarh; and
the Vehicle Research and Develop-
ment Establishment, Ahmednagar.
THE DHANUSH MI SSI LE being launched from the naval ship INS Subhadra in the Bay of Bengal.
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Defence
SUCCESS stories at the Defence Re-
search and Development Organisa-
tion are occasionally interspersed
with failure. An experiment on Ja-
nuary 20 was one such.
The supersonic cruise missile
BrahMos missed the target at the
Armys range at Pokhran in Rajas-
than because its global positioning
system (GPS) blanked out, said
DRDOofcials. The American satel-
lites that run the GPS had been
switched off on the day Barack Oba-
ma was sworn in the United States
President, they said. The missile,
therefore, travelled for 112 seconds
instead of the slated 84 seconds and
fell 7 km away from the target.
The ofcials could not say
whether the Americans had deliber-
ately switched off the GPS satellites
to test whether Indias missile mis-
sion would be a success without
them. They conceded that it was pos-
sible to switch off GPS-linked satel-
lites selectively. The failure of the
mission, therefore, has underlined
the need for India to have its own
GPS-linked satellites instead of de-
pending on American or Russian
constellations, said an ofcial.
BrahMos, jointly developed by
India and Russia, is essentially an
anti-ship missile. It can hit targets
290 km away, and can cruise at a
particular altitude at Mach 3 (three
times the speed of sound). BrahMos
is the only missile in the world, ac-
cording to the DRDO, that can hit
targets both in sea and on land, with-
out any change in its hardware; only
the software in the missiles comput-
er has to be changed.
Ofcials of the DRDO described
the January 20 mission as a difcult
one because the target was just 50
km away instead of the normal 290
km. The missile, launched in a land-
attack mode, had to hit a particular
target out of a cluster of targets. The
Army insisted that the error in hit-
ting the target, which resembled a
chemical weapons factory, could not
exceed one metre. Reectors had
been installed to mislead the missile.
The DRDO, therefore, made a
new seeker for the missile to meet
this challenge. A software was devel-
oped with a new algorithm, which
was to help the missile reach the tar-
get by using the GPS data obtained
from the U.S. satellites. The mission
demanded that the missiles inertial
navigation system(INS), its GPS re-
ceiver and its seeker should all work
together.
But there were constraints on the
mission. A DRDO ofcial said:
When the missile is ying very fast,
it is difcult to perform ma-
noeuvres. The GPS data did not
come in time, so the INS data with its
uncorrected error was taken as the
reference and we missed the target.
A repeat mission on March 4,
with the American GPS-linked satel-
lites turned on, was a success.
T.S. Subramanian
Why BrahMos failed
BRAHMOS MI SSI LES ON display at the Army Day parade in New Delhi on January 15.
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IN one of its most damning reports on the De-
partment of Atomic Energy (DAE), the Comptroller
and Auditor General of India (CAG) has found that
even though India has adequate uranium resources
to achieve the target of 10,000 MWe with natural-
uranium red Pressurised Heavy Water Reactors
(PHWRs), the widening fuel demand-supply mis-
match and the consequent fuel crunch in the coun-
trys nuclear power programme (NPP) are largely
because of the poor planning and mismanagement
of the fuel supply chain by the department.
The series of PHWRs (currently numbering 15)
constitutes the rst stage of the three-stage NPP
whose basic premise is that with 10,000 MWe from
PHWRs, sustained growth of nuclear power based
entirely on indigenous resources, and thereby long-
term energy security, can be achieved. Homi J.
Bhabha, the founder of the Indian atomic energy
programme, was also the chief architect of the three-
stage development of nuclear power. The year 2009
marks his birth centenary, which the DAE is all set to
celebrate. Coming at this juncture, the CAG report
would be highly embarrassing for the department.
In an earlier article on uranium shortage (The
Hindu, July 11, 2008) it was argued that the current
situation was a consequence of inadequate funding
for mining activities during the 1990s. While this
certainly did contribute to the present crisis, the
CAG report reveals that the DAE itself is to be largely
blamed for its failure to take corrective measures
post-2000 when funding was no longer an issue.
In his 2007 Founders Day address, Dr. Anil
Kakodkar, Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commis-
sion (AEC) and Secretary in the DAE, stated: The
present fuel demand-supply mismatch would not
have arisen had [mining] projects been pursued in
the same spirit with which Dr. Bhabha started activ-
ities at Jaduguda. This clearly is an indirect ad-
mission of that failure. But Kakodkar went on to say,
[O]ur uranium exploration programme has seen a
paradigm shift... and we should not rule out a PHWR
capacity much larger than 10,000 MWe. Giv-
enthe unprecedented programme thrust, I see no
reason why this should not happen (emphasis add-
ed). The CAG report, however, makes it clear that
such a thrust is just not there.
The DAE had originally (in 1984) set the target of
10,000 MWe from PHWRs to be achieved by 2000.
In 1995, following funding cuts during the1990s, this
was deferred to 2020. The revised milestone also
formed part of the DAEs 1997 document Vision
2020. But the road map up to 2020, which was
actually drawn up only in 2001, was incomplete as it
did not fully address the fuel needs of PHWRs up to
2020, notes the CAG report. While there was no
deciency in planning for new PHWRs (from the 9th
to the 13th Plans) to meet the target, the DAE did not
link the availability of fuel while laying down the
timeline for new reactors, the report has observed. It
takes 10to 15 years from the start of exploration until
uranium becomes available for use. But even as the
DAE planned for PHWRs, matching targets were
not set for the front-end chain of the fuel cycle
exploration, mining, processing/milling and fuel
fabrication.
This is despite the fact that a committee constitu-
ted by the DAE in May 2000 for the assessment of
uranium demand-supply for the 10th Plan conclud-
ed in its report of August 2000 that shortage of
uranium may arise from 2003-04 onwards. The Re-
port on NPP up to 2020, prepared by another DAE
committee (December 2000), in fact, predicted a
demand-supply mismatch to arise a couple of years
earlier and called for matching actions on the nucle-
ar fuel cycle front to achieve the 2020 target. Indeed,
the capacity factor (CF), or the plant load factor
Fuel crisis
Even as the DAE planned for Pressurised Heavy
Water Reactors, matching targets were not set for
the front-end chain of the fuel cycle exploration,
mining, processing/milling and fuel fabrication.
A CAG report blames the Department of Atomic Energys poor planning and
mismanagement for the uranium shortage. BY R. RAMACHANDRAN
Nuclear Issues
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4 6 F R O N T L I N E
THE YELLOW CAKE, made from natural uranium through a series of
chemical processes, at the mill in Jaduguda in Jharkhand.
(PLF), dropped from 80 per cent in
2002-03 to 50 per cent in 2007-08
because of non-availability of fuel.
CABI NET CLEARANCE
During 1999-2002, the DAE sought
approval for four new PHWRs Kaiga
3&4 and RAPS 5&6 at a cost of
Rs.6,354 crore. The report points out
that when the uranium committees
report became available in August
2000, the approval of the Cabinet
Committee for Economic Affairs
(CCEA) and the administrative sanc-
tion for Kaiga 3&4 were pending.
Likewise for RAPS 5&6, approvals by
the Nuclear Power Corporation (NPC)
Board, the AEC and the CCEA as well
as the administrative sanction were all
pending. However, notes the CAG,
these projects were approved in spite
of having knowledge that there was
going to be a fuel shortage. But,
more seriously, even though the Cabi-
net specically sought clarication on
the issue of availability of fuel, Cabi-
net clearance was taken despite the
knowledge that these reactors would
suffer for want of fuel and without ade-
quately highlighting the shortage of
fuel for these reactors in the Cabinet
notes.
Further, according to the CAG,
while seeking the AECs approval for
the perspective plan up to 2020 in July
2001, the DAE had not established
fuel availability linkages to the pro-
posed PHWRs or made the specic
disclosure that there would be a fuel
shortage. When in August 2001, while
approving the NPP up to 2020, the
AEC raised a specic query regarding
fuel availability for the proposed road
map, the Chairman of the AEC and the
Chairman and Managing Director
(CMD) of the NPCafrmed that requi-
site action had been taken to accelerate
fuel-related projects in order to ensure
timely availability of fuel. But in real-
ity, the proposed projects on the fuel
front had been so grossly mismanaged
that none of them could take off.
The DAE stated in its June 2008
reply that the decision to set up new
PHWRs was consciously taken so as to
ensure that the skill and manufactur-
ing base within the DAE and outside
did not get eroded. The CAG, however,
has argued that though AEC and Cabi-
net notes did mention the need to sus-
tain human resource and
manufacturing capacity, the DAE had
not made specic disclosures that after
construction these reactors would suf-
fer for want of fuel. Contending that
the auditors conclusion on non-dis-
closure was injudicious, the DAE
said that the fuel position until 2000
was satisfactory and new projects got
sanctioned after due cognisance of the
inventory position and planned ac-
tions for augmenting uranium pro-
duction, like opening new mines in
Domiasiat, Meghalaya. The fact, how-
ever, is that these planned actions of
the DAE are yet to materialise.
The CAG also pointed out that the
monitoring of fuel availability was be-
ing done both formally and informally
through various committees and at the
highest level but, interestingly, more
in an informal manner. In response,
the DAE stated that the monitoring
was informal because of the sensitivity
of the programme. From 10th Plan
onwards, the DAE added, to acceler-
ate the overall programme, emphasis
was on programme mode instead of
project mode and the 15-year pro-
gramme was dovetailed to the 5-year
planning process. The CAG has, how-
ever, argued that a programme is al-
ways implemented through various
projects and cannot be viewed in
isolation.
The report quotes from the min-
utes of a November 2006 AEC meet-
ing wherein a former AEC Chairman
had called for having periodic and de-
tailed review of various material inputs
to the NPP to which the present chair-
man agreed, and says: In hindsight
if a formal mechanism had been in
place, it could have probably antici-
pated [the demand-supply mismatch
of inputs] and taken corrective ac-
tions. The report has further observed
that the improved monitoring and
strategic planning from the second
half of 10th Plan (after the fuel crisis
had erupted) has still not yielded re-
sults and the demand-supply mis-
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F R O N T L I N E 4 7
match of fuel continues to affect ad-
versely the operation of the PHWRs.
Since the DAE Secretary is directly
responsible for ensuring adequate fuel
for the PHWRs and the AEC Chair-
man is required to monitor and direct
the DAE to take corrective actions
against management failures, the CAG
has commented that the twin roles be-
ing assumed by the same person di-
minished the chances of owning up
failures and taking remedial actions.
Having a single person as head of both
the DAE and the AEC may lead to a
conict of interest, the CAG has
opined, and has recommended a re-
look at this policy, particularly when
the country is going through a nuclear
fuel crisis.
The uranium resources needed for
the DAEs 2020 target of 10,000 MWe
from PHWRs over their 40-year life is
about 1,01,600 tonnes of the mineral
uranium oxide U3O8 (for equivalent
amount of uranium metal, divide by
1.18). This is based on average values
for burn-up, CF and electricity con-
version efciency in PHWRs, taken as
6,000 MWdays/t, 0.75 and 0.33 re-
spectively, and on loss fractions during
mining, milling and fabrication of fuel,
taken as 0.15, 0.2 and 0.05 respec-
tively. Of course, before the fuel crunch
set in, the NPC was able to achieve
higher burn-ups (of about 7,000
MWd/t) and higher capacity factors
(of about 0.85).
The CAGs report on fuel manage-
ment for the PHWRs has found that
the demand-supply mismatch in
meeting the targets set in the DAEs
Report on the NPP up to 2020 is be-
cause of the departments decient
planning and monitoring of the fuel
situation. This, in turn, has resulted in
the agencies associated with the fuel
supply chain the Atomic Minerals
Directorate (AMD), Uranium Corpo-
ration of India Ltd. (UCIL) and the
Nuclear Fuel Complex (NFC) failing
to set appropriate milestones for
themselves.
As of September 2007, the AMD
had identied 1,07,268 tonnes of re-
serves (of U3O8) of which only 71,159
tonnes are economically viable. Be-
tween 1966 and 2007, the AMD hand-
ed over 27 deposits in various parts of
the country, with a total resource po-
tential of 93,259 tonnes, to the UCIL.
Out of this, major reserves are from the
Singhbhum belt in Jharkhand, which,
according to the AMD, has an estimat-
ed resource potential of 47,809 tonnes
as of 2009. In recent years, however,
the rate of augmentation of reserves
has dropped, the CAG notes. Though
the DAE had set a target of 75,000
tonnes for the 11th Plan, as compared
to 28,195 tonnes during the 8th Plan,
augmentation dropped to 13,661
tonnes and 16,244 tonnes during the
9th and the 10th Plans respectively.
After evaluating the deposits
handed over by the AMD, the UCIL
carries out mining, processing and
milling of ores to produce MDU (mag-
nesium diuranate), or yellow cake.
The NFC converts the MDU into ura-
nium dioxide (UO2) pellets and fuel
bundles for reactors. The Jaduguda
mine is the rst uranium deposit in
Singhbhum to be exploited in the
country, where mining operations be-
gan in October 1967. Subsequently,
many other mines in the region began
production: Bhatin in 1986, Narwapa-
har in 1995 and Turamdih in 2003.
But the ore produced from all these
mines is processed in one mill at Jadu-
guda. Commissioned in 1968, the mill
has an installed capacity of 6,27,000
tonnes per annumof ore.
The installed mining capacity of
these four mines together is, however,
8,55,000 t/a of ore, implying a short-
fall of 26.67 per cent in the milling
capacity. Even though faced with a fuel
shortage since 2006, the UCIL has
been operating the mill at around 110
per cent capacity: this mining-milling
mismatch has resulted in 93,472
tonnes of accumulated unprocessed
ore (as of March 2007). More signif-
icantly, because of this mismatch, the
UCIL operated its mines at 71-89 per
cent capacities during 2002-07 de-
spite the increased demand for fuel
during this period. Further, the new
opencast mine at Banduhurang, which
was ready to produce 1,600 tonnes a
day of ore from October 2006 and
2,400 t/d from April 2007, remained
non-operational because of inade-
quate milling capacity.
Though the installed PHWR ca-
pacity increased from 2,500 MWe in
2002-03 to 3,580 MWe in March
2007, and the NPCs increased fuel
requirement was known in June 2001
itself, enhancing of the mills capacity
to 2,500 t/d was taken up only in Sep-
tember 2006. The above suggests sig-
nicant deciencies in the strategic
planning process. As remedial actions
were within the reach of the DAE, and
were not contingent on any external-
ities, the situation was avoidable,
the CAG has concluded. The new
3,000 t/d Turamdih mill, which was to
start in March 2006 but has got over
its operational problems only this year,
should improve the situation.
As per the DAEs road map, notes
the CAG, the UCIL had proposed
mining and processing plants at Dom-
iasiat (Meghalaya), Lambapur-Pedda-
gattu (Andhra Pradesh) and Gogi
(Karnataka) for the 10th Plan. Ores in
these deposits are of better grade than
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Nuclear Issues
those at Jaduguda. However, these
have all now been rescheduled for
completion only in 2012. At Domia-
siat, for example, the AMD completed
its detailed exploration in 1992. But
the project activities did not begin
even after 15 years though the plan was
to develop the mine quickly and ef-
ciently. Notwithstanding the long-
standing opposition to the project
from some sections of the local pop-
ulation, the UCIL took as long as 12
years to prepare the detailed project
report and it took two more years for
its revision. The Environmental Im-
pact Assessment and the Environmen-
tal Management Plan were ready only
in 2006.
There was also a three-year delay
in obtaining clearances from the Min-
istry of Environment and Forests
(MoEF), chiey because the UCIL
submitted incomplete applications,
the CAG has noted. The UCIL also
delayed ling the mining lease appli-
cation until October 2001. This, ac-
cording to the report, was one of the
most signicant delays in the project
so far. The State government is yet to
give its go-ahead, approve the mining
plan and grant a mining lease. More
pertinently, even as late as mid-2008,
the DAE had not given nancial sanc-
tion for the project. The CAG, there-
fore, doubts whether production at
Domiasiat will commence even from
2012.
Similar is the fate of the Lamba-
pur-Peddagattu and Gogi projects.
The Lambapur deposits were handed
over to the UCIL in 2001 and the
DAEs road map envisaged mining to
commence by 2006-07. But, accord-
ing to the CAG, even after more than
six years, work on the mines or the mill
had not progressed because of delay in
obtaining clearances from the MoEF
and the State government. According
to the DAE, however, though all the
clearances were available, the UCIL
had to wait because the decision of the
National Environment Appellate Au-
thority on the verdict against the
MoEF clearance for the mine was
pending.
Likewise, the Gogi project was to
be completed by 2007. The CAG ob-
served that the work had not begun in
the 10th Plan and the AMD was yet to
complete a detailed exploration of the
site. According to the DAE, however,
the economic viability of the deposit
was yet to be established and there
were external factors that were beyond
its control. Observing that the DAEs
current interventions had not worked,
and the delay had already affected fuel
supply adversely, the CAG has called
for innovative decisions to solve the
deadlock at these sites with better
grade deposits.
MI NI NG AND MI LLI NG PROJECTS
However, following the failure to get
these projects going, the DAE/UCIL
decided in June 2002 to restart some
mining and milling projects in Singhb-
hum, which had been shelved in antic-
ipation of the Domiasiat mine: the
Bajgata mine the exploration of which
the AMD had completed in 1990 but
which was closed because of a fund
squeeze during the 1990s; the Mohul-
dih mine, which the AMD had handed
over in 1989; and the 3,000 t/d Tu-
ramdih mill. The Bajgata project was
to be completed by March 2008, but it
was opened only in December 2008.
The Mohuldih project was approved in
March 2004 and was to start in 2008,
but the project is yet to be completed.
The DAE apparently took seven
months to apply for the environmental
site clearance and 16 more months to
apply for the environmental project
clearance. Even the DAEs adminis-
trative and nancial sanction came on-
ly in March 2007. The Turamdih mill,
the third revisited project, was also de-
layed by 33 months.
Even though the AMD had handed
over proven reserves that were suf-
cient to meet the PHWR requirement
up to 2020, the CAG found that the
road map drawn up by the UCIL for
uranium production was not commen-
surate with the requirements of the
PHWR programme. It had planned
the exploitation of only 46 per cent of
the requirement during 2001-02 to
2007-08 and only 79 per cent for the
period 2008-09 to 2016-17, and had
no plans for the period beyond
2016-17.
Slippages and shortfalls in mining
and milling naturally had a cascading
effect on the further downstream ac-
tivities of fuel fabrication by the NFC
and reactor operations by the NPC.
But, according to the CAG, both these
agencies, instead of raising the red ag
at appropriate times to signal the im-
pending fuel crisis, diluted their own
targets even as PHWRs were being
commissioned as per the NPP up to
2020.
To produce enough fuel bundles
for 10,000 MWe PHWR capacity, the
road map laid down in 2001 required
the NFC to replicate the existing 600
t/a fabrication unit with one each of
same capacity during the 10th-11th
and 11th-12th Plan periods respective-
ly. Against this, the NFC had taken up
in the 10th Plan augmentation of the
existing unit to 850 t/a only, which is
to be completed this year. The CAG has
observed that the NFC capacity of 600
t/a was not commensurate with the
projected requirement of fuel during
2005-06 and 2006-07. The gap
ranged from 13 per cent to 56 per cent
during these three years and, had the
plants operated at 0.85 CF, the actual
uranium decit would have been 7 to
62 per cent during 2002-07. Had
there been sufcient inow of MDU
from the UCIL (or elsewhere), the
PHWRs could not have operated at
full capacity owing to the inadequate
installed capacity at the NFC, the CAG
has commented.
The NPC apparently reduced its
demand on the NFC, based on the ex-
pected supply rather than on the pro-
jected demand of the PHWRs.
Consequently, the NFC also did not
demand quantities of MDU commen-
surate with the actual fuel require-
ment. This resulted in the shortage of
MDU being masked and not being
projected adequately by the NFC. Set-
ting watered-down targets leads to
over-reporting of performance for
power generation masks the real
performance and impedes timely
corrective action, notes the CAG re-
port.
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IRAQ has witnessed quite a few important devel-
opments in recent months. The coalition led by
Prime Minister Nouri al-Malikis Dawa Party has
emerged as the strongest group after the provincial
elections in February. The grouping won in nine of
the 18 provinces, including Baghdad, which has a
population of six million. The results also showed
that Moqtada al Sadr, the radical Shia cleric, who has
been keeping a low prole since his Mahdi militia
was put down in major Iraqi cities with American
and British military support, is no longer the politi-
cal force he once was. Even in his stronghold of Sadr
city, a Baghdad suburb with a population of more
than two million, his support base is shrinking.
The Supreme Iraqi Islamic Council, which until
recently was the most powerful Shia party in the
country, came a cropper in the provincial elections.
The party is a votary of federalism as opposed to the
Dawa Party, which has started advocating strong
centralised rule from Baghdad. The virtually autono-
mous Kurdish-dominated north refused to partici-
pate in the provincial polls on the grounds that they
would dilute the considerable power it has enjoyed
since the rst Gulf war. The good showing of parties
advocating strong central rule and unity of the coun-
try has not gone down well with those advocating a
separate Kurdish homeland in the north.
In the last week of February, immediately after
the election results were out, President Barack Oba-
ma nally announced the blueprint for the with-
drawal of American forces from Iraq in keeping with
his campaign promise. But most Iraqis as well as
many Americans are dissatised with the time frame
involved in the withdrawal and the number of troops
Obama wants to keep in Iraq. Many Americans had
voted for Obama believing that he would order a
speedy withdrawal of troops from Iraq. The Presi-
dent, however, seems to have gone by the advice of
Defence Secretary Robert Gates, a holdover from the
George W. Bush presidency, and senior Pentagon
ofcials such as CENTCOM (United States Central
Command) commander Gen. David Petraeus and
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike
Mullen.
According to the Obama plan, up to 50,000 U.S.
troops will stay on in Iraq beyond 2010 to protect the
ongoing civilian and military efforts inthe country.
The troops that will remain behind are being charac-
terised as non-combatants though they are regular
combat troops. Besides, a 100,000-strong army of
mercenaries and contractors will continue to have
a free hand in Iraq. Retired General Barry McCaf-
frey, in an internal report for the Pentagon last year,
had predicted that the Iraqi government would
eventually ask for U.S. troops to stay beyond 2011
with a residual force of trainers, counterterrorist
capabilities, logistics, and air power. Many observ-
ers fear that the reduction of American ground
troops will be balanced by an increase in American
air power over Iraq.
John McCain, Obamas Republican rival in last
years presidential polls, was among those who wel-
comed the decision to continue deploying troops in
Iraq beyond the 16-month period Obama had prom-
ised. McCains hawkish views on Iraq, according to
many analysts, were among the main reasons why he
lost the elections. Obama, after taking over the presi-
dency, seems to be backtracking on most of the
promises he made on Iraq. He has now made it clear
that ofcials responsible for the illegal war in Iraq
and the torture, assassinations and illegal detentions
that followed will not be prosecuted. The theft of
Promises revised
Iraq: President Obamas pronouncements on troop withdrawal show that the U.S.
hopes to retain Iraq as a military and political protectorate. BY JOHN CHERI AN
The presence of U.S. troops is necessary to ensure
that Washingtons favourite candidate wins the
national elections next year and parties against
the occupation are kept out of the electoral fray. A
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over $50 billion of U.S. funds meant
for the reconstruction of Iraq is also
not being seriously investigated.
Both the government and the op-
position parties in Iraq had protested
against the Bush administrations plan
to prolong the occupation of Iraq. Last
year, the Bush administration had re-
sorted to arm-twisting the Maliki go-
vernment to push through a Status of
Forces Agreement (SOFA) that allows
a limited number of U.S. troops to stay
on in Iraq until 2011. But owing to
widespread protests in Iraq, SOFA will
be put to a referendum next year. SO-
FA, in all likelihood, is going to be
rejected by the Iraqi people. In that
event, the U.S. will, in theory, have to
withdraw all its troops post-haste from
Iraq.
But Prime Minister Malikis top
aides have apparently told Washing-
ton that they want the U.S. troops to
stay much longer at least until the
Iraqi armed forces are able to maintain
internal security. The victory in the
provincial polls has made Maliki the
front-runner in the national elections,
which in all probability will be held in
2010. Though the elections were
scheduled for December this year, it is
likely to be postponed as an electoral
law to govern the conduct of elections
is still not in place. U.S. troops will be
needed to ensure that Washingtons
favourite candidate wins and also to
keep out of the electoral fray parties
that are opposed to the occupation,
such as the Baath Party.
Then there is the Kurdish problem,
which threatens to spin out of control.
The Kurdish leadership in northern
Iraq, which has become the loyal sur-
rogate of the U.S. in the region, is for a
permanent troop presence in Iraq. It is
an insurance policy for these leaders as
both Shia and Sunni parties are united
in their efforts to ensure that Iraq is
not partitioned and that Baghdad re-
tains control over the vast oil resources
in the north. The ghting over the oil-
rich city of Kirkuk, which is being
claimed by the Kurds, has escalated in
recent months.
In the words of the West Asia ex-
pert Professor Juan Cole, it is a crisis
waiting to happen. The Iraqi Kurds
are investing a lot of hope in President
Obamas promise of a responsible
withdrawal from Iraq. Kurdish Prime
Minister Nechirvan Barzani has ex-
pressed the hope that the U.S. will
leave Iraq only after resolving the con-
tentious issues that have distanced the
Kurds from other ethnic and denom-
inational groups in the country. He
specically mentioned Article 140 of
the Iraqi Constitution and issues relat-
ing to the distribution of the bountiful
oil wealth in the north. Article 140
refers to the territorial disputes center-
ing around Kirkuk and other towns.
Kurdish ofcials have been repeatedly
demanding that Obama appoint a
special envoy to resolve their long-
standing disputes with the rest of Iraq.
Washington will, of course, use the
various crises erupting in the country
as a pretext to prolong the stay of the
U.S. forces. The Pentagon has anyway
planned for a long haul in Iraq. The
biggest U.S. embassy in the world, the
size of a city state, is being built inside
the green zone in Baghdad. This,
along with 50 military bases in Iraq,
illustrates the U.S. commitment.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
while campaigning for the Democratic
nomination for the presidency, had
spoken about the need for permanent
basing facilities in Iraq. She had en-
dorsed the Pentagons plan for a per-
manent air base in Kirkuk. The
American media have reported that
the U.S. military establishment wants
to stay on in Iraq for another 10 to 15
years. The U.S. military is currently
working overtime to expand the exist-
ing bases with longer runways that can
handle heavy bombers and transport
planes. The U.S. already has a string of
bases in the region in states such as
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman.
It is obvious from Obamas latest
pronouncements that Washington
still hopes to retain Iraq as a military
and political protectorate. Iraq, after
all, is the second biggest producer of oil
in the world after Saudi Arabia. Ra-
dan, the political committee speaking
for a number of Iraqi resistance
groups, issued a statement condemn-
ing Obamas February speech. The
Iraqi people are disappointed in your
plan. They expect your troops to leave
our country in full and not in part, the
statement said. There is no such thing
as friendly occupation, the statement
went on to add. It asked the U.S. Presi-
dent to vacate Iraq at a time suitable
for our people and not suitable for your
agents in the green zone.
Meanwhile, the suffering of the
Iraqi people shows no signs of abating.
I RAQI PRI ME MI NI STER Nouri
al-Maliki. The coalition his Dawa
Party leads emerged as the
strongest group in the provincial
elections.
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speaks to an audience of Marines in
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said the U.S. would withdraw all its
troops by the end of 2011.
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After the Obama announcement on
Iraq, there were suicide bombings in
Mosul, Diyala and Baghdad, causing a
lot of casualties. The condition of the
refugee population, numbering more
than 4.5 million, remains unchanged.
One in every six Iraqi citizen is now a
refugee. According to a UNICEF
(United Nations Childrens Fund) re-
port, only 5 per cent returned to their
homes though 2008 was comparative-
ly the least violent year since the Amer-
ican occupation began. Seventy per
cent of the children in Baghdad are not
able to attend school, and 40 per cent
of households in Iraq have no access to
clean water.
Most independent surveys have
concluded that more than a million
Iraqis lost their lives in the past six
years under the American occupation.
Iraqi ofcials have said that there are
between one million and two million
war widows and ve million orphans.
War widows clad in black begging for
alms on the roads of Baghdad is a com-
mon sight now. A large number of Ira-
qi children are now affected with post-
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Ac-
cording to Dr. Haithi al Saidi, Dean of
the Psychological Research Centre at
Baghdad University, 28 per cent of
Baghdads children suffer from some
degree of PTSD. The statistics that are
coming out make grim reading. As a
result of an unjust war, one out of every
two Iraqi has been affected in some
way or the other.
But the Maliki governments pri-
orities appear to be different. In the
second week of March, a Baghdad
court sentenced Muntadhar al Zaidi,
the journalist who threw his shoes at
President Bush in December last year,
to three years in prison. Muntadhar,
who is now a household name in the
Arab world, had refused to apologise
for his act. He told the judge who gave
the verdict that his reaction was a
natural response to the occupation.
Muntadhar was tortured while await-
ing trial. His family members said that
they would not only appeal but would
also le torture charges against Bush
and Maliki in a human rights court
outside Iraq.
Muntadhars chief defence lawyer,
Ehiya al Sadi, said that his clients goal
had been to insult Bush for the pain
Iraqis have suffered. Khalil al Dulai-
mi, who was Saddam Husseins de-
fence lawyer, has formed a team of 200
lawyers, including Americans, to ght
for Muntadhars release. Our defence
will be based on the fact that the U.S. is
occupying Iraq, and resistance is legit-
imate by all means, including shoes,
Dulaimi told the Iraqi media.
A POLI CEMAN I NSPECTS the wreckage after a car bomb exploded in Kirkuk
on March 11. Fighting over the oil-rich city, which is claimed by the Kurds,
has escalated in recent months.
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BY receiving Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jie-
chi at the White House on March 12, United States
President Barack Obama has signalled his recog-
nition of Chinas centrality to global affairs. It is
relatively rare for a U.S. President to engage in seri-
ous discussions with the Foreign Minister of another
power instead of its chief executive. And, Yangs visit
to Washington was in a large part designed to pre-
pare the ground for Chinese President Hu Jintaos
talks with Obama on the sidelines of a summit of the
new Group of Twenty (G-20) leaders in London in
April. Thereby hangs a diplomatic tale in the mak-
ing.
Also relevant to this developing story is the nar-
rative that the politically embattled Japanese Prime
Minister Taro Aso met Obama at the White House
on February 23, becoming his rst foreign guest. For
the new age American leader, it was a strategic
decision of staying the course with a long-time ally,
Japan. However, Obamas strategic choices in for-
eign policy, as distinct from a strategic decision or
two already taken, are yet to crystallise.
Indisputable in this evolving situation is Amer-
icas continuing recognition of East Asia as the fast-
emerging prime theatre for not only global politics
but also economics, especially during the current
crisis. Signicantly, Obama and his Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton have already begun to try and
co-opt not only Japan but also China as potential
partners in the inevitable effort to ride out or roll
back the global economic crisis. This aspect, in par-
ticular, leaves open Obamas nal strategic choices in
East Asia, especially in regard to the relative levels of
importance he will give to Japan and China over the
long term.
In a conventional view, Obama has in a big way
humoured Japan by engaging Aso rst in face-to-
face interactive talks. And, their summit was preced-
ed by Hillary Clintons visit to Japan as the rst
destination of her foreign travels in her capacity as
the highest-ranking U.S. diplomat. Why did Aso,
seen by his critics in Japan itself as a leader slipping
towards a terminal decline in politics, nd favour
with Obama? Surely, the reason can be traced to the
decades-long culture of close political ties between
their countries. And, the politics of personalities has
had nothing to do with this reality.
In a transcendental view in diplomacy, Obamas
talks with the Chinese Foreign Minister have result-
ed in a rephrasing of the political mantra in the
U.S.-China engagement. The White House said
Obama and Yang discussed the overall state of
bilateral relationship, emphasising the desire of both
sides to strengthen cooperation and build a positive
and constructive U.S.-China relationship. There
has been a subtle and hardly noticed shift from the
recent phraseology of cooperative and constructive
ties to a positive and constructive relationship. It is,
of course, too early to foresee how this new accent on
a positive dimension would translate into political
realities.
As for the Obama-Yang meeting itself, there have
been two signicant precedents involving India and
a U.S. President. In the very early phase of the previ-
ous President George W. Bushs rst term in ofce,
he dropped by during a meeting between his Na-
tional Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and Indias
External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, and escort-
ed him to the Oval Ofce for a conversation. That
event, which set off a buzz in some diplomatic circles,
happened before Bush began courting Pakistan in
the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the U.S.
More importantly, in April 2005, Bush received
the then Indian External Affairs Minister Natwar
Singh at the White House. And, that meeting set the
stage for discussions which nally resulted in the
Emerging equation
The engagement with East Asia
indicates the possibility of deeper
nuances within the emerging U.S.-
Japan-China equation. Obamas
meeting with the Chinese Foreign
Minister shows his recognition of
Chinas centrality to global affairs.
A continuing recognition of East Asia as the prime theatre for global politics and
economics is evident in Obamas diplomacy. BY P. S. SURYANARAYANA I N SI NGAPORE
World Affairs
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 5 3
U.S.-India civil nuclear energy deal.
Now, regardless of Obamas prospec-
tive posture in relation to this deal, an
interesting question is whether his
meeting with Yang will in fact lead to
any dramatic initiative in U.S.-China
ties. The current signals are of a mixed
nature, though.
I MPROVI NG DI ALOGUE
A bilateral military incident, which
occurred on the eve of Yangs visit to
Washington, became a major talking
point. The White House said Obama
stressed the importance of raising the
level and frequency of the U.S.-China
military-to-military dialogue in order
to avoid future incidents. Shorn of the
contentious details, the incident in
question was the perceived harass-
ment of a U.S. Navy ship, Impeccable,
by a few Chinese vessels along the in-
ternational waters of the South China
Sea in early March.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry
quickly asserted that the story of the
U.S. side is totally untrue and unac-
ceptable. Beijing maintained that the
U.S. surveillance vessel was operat-
ing in Chinas exclusive economic zone
without our permission at the time of
the incident. Commenting on this af-
ter her talks with Yang in Washington
on March 11, Hillary emphasised that
they agreed that both sides must work
hard in the future to avoid such in-
cidents and to avoid this particular in-
cident having consequences that are
unforeseen. On the issue of human
rights, a frequent topic in the U.S.-
China engagement, Obama has, in his
conversation with Yang, expressed
hope there would be progress in the
dialogue between the Chinese govern-
ment and the Dalai Lamas represen-
tatives. Signicantly in this context,
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao
minced no words while addressing the
international media in Beijing on
March 13.
Wen said: Tibet is an inalienable
part of Chinas territory; and Tibet-
related issues are totally and complete-
ly Chinas internal affairs and brook no
foreign interference. We always say
that the Dalai Lama is not a simple
religious gure but is actually a politi-
cal exile. And, we have full justication
for this position. The so-called exile
government situated in Dharamshala
is a de facto theocratic government;
and this illegal government is under
the direct leadership of the Dalai La-
ma.
A key issue that the U.S. wants to
co-opt China for is North Koreas de-
nuclearisation and its rollback of a col-
lateral ballistic missile programme.
Obama, acknowledging Chinas im-
portant role as the Chair of the multi-
lateral talks on Korean
denuclearisation, conveyed to Yang
that the U.S. was becoming increas-
ingly mindful of the risks posed by
North Koreas missile programme.
As this is written, North Korea has
notied its intention to launch a satel-
lite for space development for
peaceful purposes. The U.S. and its
allies such as Japan and South Korea,
however, see this move as nothing but
a smokescreen for test-ring an inter-
continental ballistic missile capable of
delivering a nuclear warhead. Asked to
comment on this, Wen said on March
13 that the parties concerned must
bear in mind the bigger picture and
refrain from taking actions that may
escalate tensions. He did not make a
direct mention of the possible moves,
as of mid-March, by the U.S. or Japan
to shoot down North Koreas long-
range rocket in its test-ight. Howev-
er, Wens call for restraint was general-
ly viewed as Chinas line on this issue.
Overshadowing these and other is-
sues of politics and long-term strategic
interests of the major powers is the
current global nancial and economic
crises. According to the White House,
Yang and Obama agreed that China
and the U.S. must work closely and
urgently, as two of the worlds leading
economies, to stabilise the global econ-
omy by stimulating demand at home
and abroad and [to] get credit markets
owing. And, with China being a de-
veloping economy still, Obama want-
ed the development divide in the world
trade talks to be suitably addressed.
On a different but related front,
Tokyo is trying to shore up its own
relevance to the crisis-hit world by
basking in the early sunshine of Oba-
mas Japan-friendly diplomacy. Privy
to the nuances of the Obama-Aso sum-
mit, Kazuo Kodama, a top Japanese
ofcial, told Frontline that the prima-
cy of the Tokyo-Washington alliance
deserves this kind of a gesture from
the new U.S. leader. The two leaders,
he emphasised, reafrmed the im-
portance of the alliance as the corner-
stone of their respective foreign
policies.
About the ongoing strategic re-
U. S. SECRETARY OF State Hillary Clinton greets Chinese Foreign Minister
Yang Jiechi in Washington on March 11. Yang held talks with President
Obama the next day.
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alignment of political forces on the
global stage, Kodama said the two
leaders agreed that the credibility of
the U.S. dollar as the key [global] cur-
rency should be maintained. It was
also agreed that the U.S. dollar-based
[international] nancial system
should be maintained. Now, reces-
sion-battered Japan is still the worlds
second largest economy, behind the
ailing U.S.
Several other aspects of Obamas
initial engagement with East Asia, as
evident from Hillarys visit to this re-
gion in February and from this corre-
spondents conversations with
diplomats and ofcials, indicate the
possibility of deeper nuances within
the now-emerging U.S.-Japan-China
trilateral equation.
While in Tokyo in February, Hil-
lary and her Japanese counterpart Hi-
rofumi Nakasone noted the
importance of their two countries en-
gaging South Korea, Australia and In-
dia, all of which share [certain]
universal values. However, neither
Hillary nor Nakasone spoke of any
need for a blueprint of cooperation
among these ve countries, on a pri-
ority basis, in the present global cir-
cumstances. To this extent, this
specic idea does not seem to have
own high, although it may acquire
resonance at a later date, especially if
Australian Prime Minister Kevin
Rudds idea of an Asia-Pacic Com-
munity gets seriously discussed by
world leaders.
WI NDOW FOR WASHI NGTON
Hillarys subsequent talks in Jakarta
with her Indonesian counterpart Ha-
san Wirajuda and President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono brought into fo-
cus two other elements of the evolving
Obama foreign policy. First, Obamas
U.S. is keen to explore the possibility of
engaging Indonesia and assessing its
potential as a window for the West,
more narrowly for Washington, on the
wider Islamic bloc. Secondly, Obamas
U.S. is no less eager to have Indonesia
as a partner in addressing climate
change issues. Signicant in this con-
text is the recent remark by a top In-
donesian ofcial, Dino Patti Djalal,
that his country would like to reap the
benets of its potential status as an
environmental superpower.
At the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Secretariat in
Jakarta, Hillary conveyed the new U.S.
administrations resolve to go through
a process of acceding to the 10-nation
blocs Treaty of Amity and Coopera-
tion. Such accession is a prerequisite
for membership to the 16-nation East
Asia Summit, which now includes Chi-
na and Japan as also India and Austra-
lia. There are other criteria as well, but
the accession is the central one.
The visit to Seoul by Hillary, dur-
ing the same East Asia tour, was aimed
at reassuring an old ally like South
Korea about continued U.S. support.
Such support would have two political
coordinates the shared values of de-
mocracy and the like, at one level, and
security-related reassurances from the
U.S. in the specic context of North
Koreas nuclear and missile pro-
grammes.
Hillarys follow-up talks with her
Chinese counterpart Yang and Presi-
dent Hu in Beijing in February itself
were signicant for an unusual reason.
For the rst time, the U.S. indicated
the possibility of a qualitatively new
phase in bilateral ties. This, as hinted
at by Hillary through some political
hedging on issues such as human
rights in China and the Tibet ques-
tion, translates into a practical propo-
sition as follows. The U.S. may now be
willing to shelve the divisive issues, as
perceived by either side, and engage
China on an equal platform over the
main global challenges of a worsening
economic recession and climate
change.
After his talks with Hillary on that
occasion, Yang said that China-U.S.
relations would make greater pro-
gress in the new era as long as both
respect and accommodate each oth-
ers core interests. Some budding crit-
ics of the Obama era tend to see
Hillarys acquiescence in the primacy
of core interests as a sign of U.S.
failure to lead and demand that other
countries follow its line on all global
and regional issues. What these
emerging critics miss, though, is the
gradual erosion of U.S. primacy in eco-
nomic and military spheres.
Several security-political experts
such as Robert D. Kaplan have, howev-
er, begun to see what Kaplan describes
as Americas elegant decline at this
stage. According to him, the U.S. has
begun to hit the trajectory of such a
decline by leveraging the growing sea
power of allies such as India and Japan
to balance against China. It is not
clear at this stage whether the Obama
administration would follow its prede-
cessor in looking at India as a budding
ally. Also unclear now is the likely
response of India to such a perception,
especially after a new government as-
sumes ofce in New Delhi in a few
months time. And, from the U.S.
standpoint, there are political uncer-
tainties in Japan, too.
In this perspective, the possibility
of a U.S.-Japan-China trilateral equa-
tion within the new G-20 forum, or
even outside it, can have three leader-
ship dimensions. A relevant and sig-
nicant nuance was suggested by
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen while an-
swering a question from this corre-
spondent in Singapore recently: I
dont think there are any chauffeurs to
the world economy. Noting that Chi-
na and India have managed to avoid
the worst of the recession so far,
Amartya Sen emphasised he wouldnt
say that they will be driving the world
economy.
Within these parameters of real-
ism, Washington may have to be the
leader, under the framework of a po-
tential U.S.-Japan-China trilateral
equation, to address the current global
economic crisis. And, Japan will prob-
ably take the key initiatives within any
such trilateral core group to address
climate change challenges. China, of
course, is seen as the proactive player
for engineering a realistic end to
North Koreas nuclear arms and mis-
sile programmes.
A bigger issue beyond any such po-
tential trilateral equation is the one
relating to power-sharing in a possible
multipolar world of the
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THE arrest warrant issued by the International
Criminal Court (ICC) on March 4 against President
Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for crimes against human-
ity and war crimes in Darfur is viewed as a dangerous
precedent by many in the international community.
It is the rst time that this kind of a warrant has been
issued against a serving head of state, that too under
such controversial circumstances. The warrant came
even as the Government of Sudan and the important
guerilla factions of Darfur were taking strides to-
wards securing a peace deal in the battle-scarred
region.
The government in Khartoum puts the death toll
in Darfur since ghting erupted in 2003 at around
10,000. The ICC and many human rights groups put
the toll at around 300,000. The ICC has no powers
to enforce its arrest warrants, but those indicted by it
can be arrested on the territory of those states that
have signed up to the ICC statute. Luis Moreno-
Ocampo, the ICC prosecutor who rst called for an
ICC warrant to be issued last year, said that Sudan
was obliged under international law to carry out the
arrest on its territory. Sudan is not a member of the
ICC.
African nations rallied round Sudan as Bashir
struck a deant posture. Huge crowds rallied in
support of their President in the capital, Khartoum,
and other cities in the northern part of the country.
We are telling the colonialists that we will not sub-
mit, Bashir told cheering supporters in Khartoum.
The President urged his countrymen to carry out a
jehad against the indels, pointing out that arrest
warrants had not been issued by the ICC against the
Israeli leaders who committed crimes against hu-
manity through the recent attack on Gaza.
Many Arab and African leaders have criticised
the ICC and voiced their support for the Sudanese
President. China too has criticised the move by the
ICC. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said
that his country opposed any decision that impeded
peace in Darfur. China expresses its regrets and
worry over the arrest warrant for the Sudan Presi-
dent issued by the ICC, a Chinese Foreign Ministry
statement said. The spokesman also urged the Unit-
ed Nations Security Council to respect calls by the
African Union(A.U.), the Arab League and the Non-
Politics of a warrant
Many Arab and African leaders
have criticised the ICC and rallied
round Bashir. Only the U.S. and
the E.U. have expressed support
for the ICCs decision.
The International Criminal Courts warrant against President Bashir of Sudan is
the rst one it has issued for the arrest of a serving head of state. BY JOHN CHERI AN
PRESI DENT OMAR AL-BASHI R addressing a
gathering in the North Darfur state capital, Al
Fashr, on March 8.
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Aligned Movement and call on the
ICC not to hear the case for the time
being. India, which has substantial
business interests in Sudan, especially
in the hydrocarbon sector, has been
non-committal on the issue despite its
long-standing ties with the country.
Only the United States and the Eu-
ropean Union have expressed support
for the ICCs momentous decision. The
U.S., China, Russia, India and Israel
are among the countries that have not
joined the ICC since its creation in
2002. In fact, the U.S. under George
W. Bush was one of the most vocal
critics of the ICC, but because of Wash-
ingtons decades-old enmity with
Khartoum, it did not cast its veto in the
Security Council and allowed the ICC
to go ahead with the prosecution of
Bashir.
Sudan since the late 1980s has tak-
en a principled stand on many foreign
policy issues. It opposed the rst Gulf
War and has been a vocal supporter of
the Palestinian cause. Sudan was tar-
geted by American cruise missiles in
the aftermath of the terrorist attacks
on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar
es Salaam in 1998. The ICC is nowseen
by many Sudanese as an instrument
being used by the U.S. to get rid of a
government it despises.
On the other hand, the U.S. has
been using all its inuence to see that
Israeli leaders escape international
justice. For that matter, the U.S. itself
has committed far greater war crimes.
The invasion of Iraq led to the death of
more than 1.3 million people. The
highest estimates of casualties in Dar-
fur amount to only one-fourth of the
casualties inicted by U.S. forces in
Iraq. In the so-called global war
against terror, the U.S. has routinely
resorted to torture, abductions and de-
tention without trial.
The Security Council has the right
to defer the warrant against Bashir.
The governments in the region are
speaking about the dangerous impli-
cations of the arrest warrant. Ofcials
in the U.S. and in the E.U. headquar-
ters in Brussels, Belgium, have also
expressed their apprehension that the
Sudanese government could once
again revert to using military force in
Darfur and that the peace deal with
southern Sudan, which has been hold-
ing for the last three years, may also
unravel.
General elections are scheduled to
be held in Sudan this year, to be fol-
lowed by a referendum in the south of
the country on self-determination.
The timing of the arrest warrant could
derail these two democratic exercises.
Since the issue of the warrant, the
joint U.N./A.U. peacekeeping force,
known as UNAMID (United Nations-
African Union Mission in Darfur), has
come under re. Thirteen foreign re-
lief agencies were expelled from Dar-
fur in the rst week of March. They
were providing 4.7 million people in
the region with food, water and med-
ical aid. Thousands of people continue
to stay in camps and are totally depen-
dent on international agencies for
sustenance.
The spokesman for Egyptian Presi-
dent Hosni Mubarak said that the ICC
decision would have dangerous conse-
quences for the Darfur region in par-
ticular and Sudan in general. The
decision, he said, smacked of politic-
isation and selectivity. African and
Arab states have been lobbying the Se-
curity Council to defer the case against
Bashir indenitely so that a solution to
the conict in Darfur could be expedit-
ed. China, which has intensive political
and economic links with Sudan, could
help out as it is a veto-wielding Secur-
ity Council member.
In July 2002, the Security Council
gave U.S. troops a 12-month exemp-
tion from prosecution by the ICC that
was renewable every year. The Bush
administration had threatened to re-
move its peacekeepers from Bosnia if
the exemption was not granted. But
the Security Council refused to renew
the exemption after the atrocities com-
mitted by U.S. troops in Iraq came to
light in 2004.
A. U. EMERGENCY MEETI NG
The A.U., which held an emergency
meeting after the ICC warrant was is-
sued, stated that it would try to stop
the execution of the warrant. The A.U.
spokesman said that the organisation
was deeply concerned at the far-reac-
hing consequences of the act as it
came at a critical juncture in the proc-
ess to promote lasting peace in Sudan.
Moses Wetangula, Kenyan Minister of
Foreign Affairs, said that the oper-
ations of the ICC were very suspect
and that some racial undertones
could be detected in the manner in
which the ICC handled African issues.
Since its creation, the ICC has focussed
almost exclusively on African leaders
and warlords.
The A.U. meet was preceded by
that of the Arab League. The Arab
League emphasised in a statement
that the need for a peaceful settlement
of the Darfur issue was much more
important than the ICCs arrest war-
rant. Arab League Secretary-General
Amr Moussa met with Bashir after the
warrant was issued. He said that the
ICC decision had provoked anger
within the Arab League.
The Sudanese government and the
main rebel group in Darfur, the Justice
and Equality Movement (JEM),
signed a goodwill agreement in the
third week of February at a meeting
hosted by Qatar. Both sides pledged to
implement condence-building mea-
sures (CBMs) in a bid to resolve the
conict. Within Sudan, only opposi-
tion leader Hassan al-Turabi and the
Darfuri rebel groups supported the
ICCs move.
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F R O N T L I N E 5 7
Turabi, who was released from
prison a few days after the arrest war-
rant was issued, has held on to his view
that the Sudanese President is moral-
ly culpable for the conict in Darfur.
He urged Bashir to surrender to the
ICC in order to save Sudan from more
international sanctions and political
turmoil. Turabi was Bashirs mentor at
one time and was instrumental in his
coming to power in a military coup in
the late 1980s. Turabi, who is now 76,
was the eminence grise of the regime
until he fell out with Bashir over ide-
ological issues.
The Sorbonne-educated Turabi is
acknowledged as one of the foremost
Islamist intellectuals of his time.
When this correspondent met Turabi
in Khartoum after he was released
from one of his periodic stints in jail
three years ago, he was quite forthright
in his views on Darfur and related is-
sues. He said that Darfur became part
of Sudan only after the country came
under British tutelage and that it was a
separate administrative unit under Ot-
toman rule. The JEM leadership is
known to have close links with Turabi
and his Popular National Congress
Party, which is the main opposition
party in Sudan.
The ruling National Congress Par-
ty leadership seems to be fully behind
Bashir as he faces one of his biggest
challenges.
Sadiq al-Mahdi, Turabis brother-
in-law and a former Prime Minister of
Sudan, spoke out in support of the be-
leaguered President though he was
ousted in an Islamist-inspired military
coup in 1989 led by none other than
Bashir. Mahdi, the leader of the Na-
tional Umma Party, said that the ICC
warrant had endangered the sover-
eignty and unity of the country and
that it was the duty of the Sudanese
people to unite on the issue.
BASHI R S SUPPORTERS HOLDI NG pictures of chief International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo
with the words, in Arabic, Liar, Liar, Traitor as they listen to Bashir on his visit to Al Fashr.
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When more and more people are thrown out of
work, unemployment results.
President Calvin Coolidge, in the 1920s.
DOWN the street from where I live is the home of
Calvin Coolidge, the President of the United States
from 1923 to 1929. Associated with the laissez-faire
Roaring Twenties, Coolidges presidency is regarded
as the harbinger of the Great Depression. Against
regulations and taxation, Coolidge closely followed
the instructions of his Treasury Secretary, the banker
Andrew Mellon. Credit was Coolidges credo: The
uncivilised make little progress because they have
few desires. The inhabitants of our country are stim-
ulated to new wants in all directions. Sinclair Lewis
Babbit (1922), the novel of that era, portrayed this
world of goods to be bought, these standard ad-
vertised wares toothpaste, socks, tires, cameras,
instantaneous hot-water heaters [these] were his
symbols and proofs of excellence; at rst the signs,
then the substitutes for joy and passion and wis-
dom.
It was in this spirit of an abundance of goods and
desire for these goods that Coolidges successor to
the presidency, Herbert Hoover (1929-1933), said as
he took ofce: We in America today are nearer to the
nal triumph over poverty than ever before in the
history of any land. Not long after, the job cuts
began and, eventually, about a third of the American
workforce was unemployed. Not far from Coolidges
retirement home, in Northampton, 25 starving chil-
dren broke into a luncheon for war veterans, and
vans of police came to drive them away. Of such
hubris and suffering is tragedy made.
The current pace of economic and social collapse
in the U.S. is staggering. Since January 1, 2009, as
many as 1.2 million people have lost their jobs. Al-
most 5.4 million people go each week to collect their
dwindling unemployment benets; a year ago the
number was 2.6 million. This is the highest gure
since 1967. The Bureau of Labour Statistics an-
nounced that the ofcial unemployment rate now
stood at 8.1 per cent, while the underemployed rate
(which includes those who have stopped looking for
work, and who involuntarily work part-time) was
now at 14.8 per cent.
The few job openings are now swamped with
applications from overqualied people. Food banks,
hospital emergency rooms and homeless shelters are
oversubscribed. The mortgage crisis created a burst
of foreclosures. Joining these victims of the mort-
gage casino are newly unemployed people, who can-
not pay their mortgages. Foreclosure lings rose by
30 per cent in February 2009 from February 2008.
The numbers are doomed to get worse. The La-
bour Department reports that productivity rates
(output per hour of work) fell by 0.4 per cent, which
means that workers report to their jobs but there is
little for them to do. The Commerce Department has
added to this gloomy scenario with its report that
inventories fell by 1.1 per cent, so retail sales are
down to the bone.
Kim Whelan of Wachovia told Bloomberg:
Wholesalers are trying to cut inventories as fast as
they can but its hard to keep up with the pace of
declines in sales. The inventory numbers are reec-
tive of extremely weak demand and the severity of
the recession. More pink slips are probably being
printed as this column goes to press.
A chill blows across the Atlantic. The Obama
administration called upon Europe to spend more
Beyond some minimal level, real
estate interests oppose public
housing; private health care interests
oppose public health care; insurance
companies oppose public insurance;
private education interests oppose
public education; and so on.
What Obama has presented is a salvage operation and not a stimulus that can
break the 15 p.c. ceiling on government civilian consumption and investment.
Letter from America
VIJAY PRASHAD
Spreading gloom
World Affairs
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 5 9
on a global stimulus plan. Talking to
The New York Times on board Air
Force One on March 6, President Ba-
rack Obama cautioned that if the Eu-
ropeans did not do more, then what
youre seeing now is weaknesses in Eu-
rope that are actually greater than
some of the weaknesses here, bounc-
ing back and having an impact on our
markets.
Jean-Claude Juncker, a veteran
Belgian politician, now head of the Eu-
rogroup and Finance Minister of Bel-
gium, red back: Recent American
appeals insisting Europeans make an
added budgetary effort were not to our
liking, given that we are not prepared
to go further in the recovery packages
we have put forward. We take the view
that we dont need to make a further
effort for the moment. We mustnt pile
decit upon decit.
Washington retracted, but the
problems remain, and they will have
an effect on the April 2 meeting of the
G-20 as well as the coordination that
will follow as the global economy de-
clines (the World Bank estimated that
global industrial production fell by 20
per cent in the fourth quarter of 2008,
and the International Monetary Fund,
IMF, believes that output in advanced
industrial countries will fall by 2 per
cent in 2009).
NARROWI NG GAP
The gap between Obama and the Eu-
ropeans is not that wide. At the Febru-
ary 22 meeting in Berlin, leaders of the
European countries agreed on a two-
pronged assault on the crisis: rst, for
a more robust global regulation of
hedge funds and other private pools of
capital which may pose a systematic
risk, and second, for more capital to
be funnelled into the IMF, largely to
help stabilise the region known as
emerging Europe (the Balkan and
Baltic states, central and eastern Eu-
rope).
This emerging Europe is in ur-
gent need of 120 billion euros (accord-
ing to the World Bank), a sum far in
excess of the capacity of the regional
European Bank for Reconstruction
and Development. The IMFs New Ar-
rangements to Borrow will be the
source of outlay, if the Europeans ac-
tually send the IMF a cheque worth
their promises (Japan already turned
in $100 billion in mid-November
2008).
The IMF is currently sitting on
$141 billion (as opposed to $202 bil-
lion in late 2007), an amount that is far
less than the already articulated needs.
The Obama administration is also
keen on more regulation and more in-
fusion of money into the banks, al-
though it is not clear as of now if it will
put its stimulus money towards a glob-
al rescue plan. The pressure on the
administration to kick-start the U.S.
economy is so great that it is politically
impossible for the stimulus money to
go to the IMF or the World Bank. The
Obama team hopes that the Euro-
peans and the Japanese will cover the
AT EL CENTRO, California, where the unemployment rate is 22.6 per cent, the highest in the U.S., a volunteer gives
people a monthly food handout distributed by the Imperial Valley Food Bank, on March 13.
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IMF, while it tries to restart demand
within the U.S.
The Europeans and the U.S. differ
on the scale of governmental interven-
tion in the domestic economy. A laid-
off European worker remains on vari-
ous forms of national health plans, has
decent educational benets and con-
tinues to collect income support. This
is not available to the laid-off U.S.
worker, who will have no access to
health care, faces astronomical educa-
tional costs, and will only have time-
bound unemployment benets.
THE 15 PER CENT CEI LI NG
Obamas administration wants to ease
the burden on the worker and remove
the costs of health care and retirement
off the books of the employer. In a 1966
book, economists Paul Sweezy and
Paul Baran showed that the U.S. reco-
vered from the Great Depression of the
1930s by the massive expansion of fed-
eral spending for the Second World
War. The New Deal conducted a sal-
vage operation to x what had been
broken by the Gilded Age, when Coo-
lidge was President. New Deal spend-
ing was unable to be a stimulus.
Powerful interests refused to allow a
pliant Roosevelt administration to in-
crease government civilian consump-
tion and investment beyond an outer
limit of around 15 per cent of the gross
domestic product (GDP).
In 1938, the gure was 14.5 per
cent and in 2007 it was 14.6 per cent.
In a recent issue of Monthly Review,
editor John Bellamy Foster and Ro-
bert McChesney wrote: The reasons
for this are straightforward. Beyond
some minimal level, real estate inter-
ests oppose public housing; private
health care interests and medical pro-
fessionals oppose public health care;
insurance companies oppose public
insurance programmes; private edu-
cation interests oppose public educa-
tion; and so on. The big exceptions to
this are highways and prisons within
civilian government spending, togeth-
er with military spending.
What we have from the Obama ad-
ministration, then, is a salvage oper-
ation and not a stimulus capable of
breaking the 15 per cent ceiling on go-
vernment civilian consumption and
investment. Anything more than that
would require a political change, so-
mething that neither the Democrats
nor the Republicans can stomach.
In early December 2008, the Busi-
ness Roundtable (a 40-year-old orga-
nisation of the main U.S. corporations,
with total revenues of $5 trillion) re-
leased a survey of its member-CEOs,
which revealed anxiety about the econ-
omy. Asked to comment on the top
cost pressures, the CEOs pointed to
the normal ones that CEOs complain
about (labour costs at 18 per cent, liti-
gation costs at 12 per cent, and materi-
al expenditures at 26 per cent). But
they also pointed to three areas of in-
terest to the Obama agenda: pension
or retirement costs (17 per cent), ener-
gy costs (12 per cent) and health care
expenditures (15 per cent).
The Roundtables leader, Howard
McGraw, of the publishing conglom-
erate McGraw Hill, said: We are look-
ing forward to sitting down with
members of both political parties to
work towards a meaningful reform of
our health care system and a more ef-
cient and sustainable energy future.
The stimulus-bailout pushed by
the Obama administration pleased the
Roundtable since the money went to-
wards banks and nancial institutions
but not to the foreclosed homeowners
or the unemployed. The banks have
still not begun to unload credit, but are
using the money to consolidate their
power by buying other banks (as Coo-
lidges Treasury Secretary, Andrew
Mellon, put it: In a depression, assets
return to their rightful owners). The
Roundtable has every reason to be
pleased with Obamas administration.
But the contradictions continue to
unravel. On March 12, Obama deli-
vered a lecture at the Roundtable, say-
ing that the problems in the nancial
markets, as acute and urgent as they
are, are only a part of what threatens
our economy. The long-term
threats, he said, are the cost of our
health care and our oil addiction, our
education decit, and our scal def-
icit.
In Congress, meanwhile, Republi-
cans balked at the expanded agenda,
which they have undertaken to block
with all their ability. What Obama has
promised is not so much to raise the 15
per cent ceiling but to provide a battle-
eld over that upper limit. Obama has
cracked open the space for a debate.
Whether the people are able to forge
the social will to confront those who
swear by the 15 per cent ceiling is to be
seen.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 6 1
THE truth, if ever it emerges, will come too late
for Emilia Giron. For 65 years the hard-bitten moth-
er of seven ached to know what had become of her
son Jesus. Born in the early 1940s during the venge-
ful rst years of General Francisco Francos 36-year
dictatorship of Spain, Jesus was taken from her
shortly after his birth to be baptised. She never saw
him again.
To her last, my mother bore the anguish of not
knowing what had happened to Jesus. She yearned
to meet the child that they had stolen, said Antonio
Prada Giron, 69, the oldest child of Emilia Giron,
who died in 2007 at the age of 95.
Sifting through family documents and photo-
graphs in the slate-roofed cottage where his mother
once lived, Prada said his parents were persecuted in
the years after Franco took power by the police, who
were hunting for his uncle, a fugitive guerilla. Pradas
parents, who farmed the vine-covered hills around
the northwestern Spanish hamlet of Lombillo de los
Barrios, were jailed when he was two. His mother
gave birth to Jesus soon afterward.
Lost identities
A judge orders an investigation into the disappearance of children forcibly
taken from left-wing families in the early 1940s. BY VI CTORI A BURNETT
Hundreds of children were taken
from families that had supported
General Francisco Francos
Republican opponents during the
Spanish Civil War. The children
were adopted or sent to religious
schools and state-run homes.
ANTONI O PRADA GI RON with the yellowed family book, the ofcial booklet in which the Giron family members are
listed, in the hamlet of Lombillo de los Barrios. The name of his stolen brother Jesus is not registered in it.
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The story is part of a dark and long-
overlooked chapter in Spains history
of the repressive decades under Franco
which has drawn fresh attention since
November 2008, when Judge Baltasar
Garzon ordered provincial judges to
investigate the disappearance of chil-
dren taken from left-wing families as
part of an effort to purge Francos
Spain of Marxist inuence.
Historians and associations that
represent Francos victims say hun-
dreds of children were taken from
families who had supported Francos
Republican opponents during the
Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939
or who were suspected of ties to left-
wing groups. The children were adopt-
ed or sent to religious schools and
state-run homes.
Some were baptised with new
names, and their birth records were
hidden or destroyed, they say. Others,
sent into exile during the war by the
Republicans and then brought back by
Franco, were given new identities.
In a sense, this is the most symbol-
ic crime of the Franco era, said Emilio
Silva, head of the Association for the
Recovery of Historical Memory, an or-
ganisation that has excavated the re-
mains of hundreds of people from
Franco-era graves. To steal a child
and take away his identity thats what
Franco did to the country as a whole.
In his 152-page court order, Judge
Garzon wrote, There was a legalised
disappearance of minors, who lost
their identity, and whose number re-
mains uncertain. He suggested that
there could be thousands of lost chil-
dren, but historians say that gure is
inated.
There were denitely kidnap-
pings of children in prisons, and abus-
es. But we really dont know how
many, said Angela Cenarro Lagunas,
a professor of modern history at the
PRADA GI RON AT the grave of his mother Emilia in Lombillo. For 65 years she ached to know what had happened to
her lost son.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 6 3
University of Zaragoza. Ricard Vinyes,
a professor of modern history at the
University of Barcelona and the author
of a book on female prisoners of the
era, said documents and oral testimo-
nies indicated that hundreds of chil-
dren lost their identities when they
were separated from their imprisoned
mothers.
The case has some echoes of Ar-
gentinas dirty war of the 1970s and
1980s, when children of murdered dis-
sidents were secretly stolen and often
adopted by military families. Vinyes
said Franco was open about his project
to re-educate the children of his ene-
mies. Francos top military psycholo-
gist, Antonio Vallejo Nagera, claimed
that Spain could be saved from Mar-
xism by isolating children from Re-
publican parents. A 1940 decree
allowed the state to take children into
custody if their moral formation was
at risk.
Their logic was that the solution
lay in separating children from their
mothers, Vinyes said.
Catholic schools and the welfare
system known as Social Aid became a
machine for political reorientation.
Social Aid children led a life of fascist
doctrine, harsh discipline and Catholic
ritual, Angela Cenarro said.
According to Vinyes, nearly 31,000
children were registered as being in
state custody at some point between
1945 and 1954, the majority of them
from Republican families. For many, it
was because their parents were impris-
oned or executed; for some, it was be-
cause their families could not support
them.
Uxenu Ablana, 79, said because of
his leftist background he was torment-
ed in the Catholic and welfare homes
where he lived between the ages of six
and 18. Ablana, a retired machinery
salesman who grew up in the Asturian
village of Pravia in Spains north, went
into state custody after the police
killed his mother and jailed his father
for collaborating with the Republi-
cans. He said that in the homes he was
named Eugenio Alvarez, the Spanish
version of his Asturian name.
They called me child of a red,
communist, devil, Ablana said by tele-
phone. He recalled being made to spit-
polish 80 pairs of shoes in a broom
cupboard. It was as if my life ended
the day I went to Social Aid.
Now that Judge Garzon has or-
dered the investigation into lost chil-
dren, associations representing
Francos victims say they believe that
they may locate some of them. The
judge instructed provincial courts, in
January, to collect DNA (deoxyribonu-
cleic acid) samples from several aged
or sick Spaniards searching for family
members.
Fernando Magan, a lawyer for the
Association for the Recovery of Histor-
ical Memory, said judges could open
adoption registers and lists of children
in Social Aid homes and religious
schools.
Prada, who settled in France in
1958 but returns each winter to Lom-
billo, said nding his brother would
help close wounds.
It has left a hole in my life, know-
ing that I have a brother, not knowing
where he is, whether he was brought
up by good people, he said, ngering
the yellowed family book, the ofcial
booklet in which the Giron family
members are listed. Jesus is not regis-
tered there.
When Prada was about 10, he and
his grandmother made the 290-kilo-
metre trip to Salamanca, where his
mother had been imprisoned, to look
for Jesus. They found nothing, and
guards at the orphanage threatened to
send his grandmother to jail if she per-
sisted in her search.
To think, I might have walked by
him once in the street without know-
ing, he said, his eyes reddening. Even
with the new investigation, he said, the
chances of nding Jesus are minute.
Its like looking for a needle in a hays-
tack.
New York Times News Service
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GENERAL FRANCI SCO FRANCO,
whose repressive regime tried to
purge Spain of Marxist inuence.
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ONone of the highest hills (131 metres) in north
London, at the brim of a carefully cultivated leafy
unruliness, stands a simple granite obelisk support-
ing a bust of Karl Marx. This is where Marx is buried.
His grave is in Highgate Cemetery, which sprawls on
either side of a brick-walled curving lane.
This is the quietest place in that noisy city, not
even a mufed murmur of that great big city comes
through. Even if the noise did get past the spacious
Waterlow Park adjacent, the thick forest inside the
cemetery would snuff it out. The 37 acres (14.973
hectares) of the East and West Cemetery, which
border both sides of the undulating Swains Lane, is
on top of Highgate Hill, which many centuries ago
had a toll booth to collect tax from traders entering
and leaving London.
By early 19th century, all the church cemeteries
in London were so full that bodies had to be buried
on top of each other with the topmost one being just
a few inches below the surface. In those days, people
in England believed that, to arise on Resurrection
The winding trail to Karl Marxs
cemetery is down a large wood with
unusual burial sites and Victorian
architecture. TEXT & PHOTOGRAPHS
BY ROMESH BHATTACHARJI
The forest, lit up by wild owers and
occasionally by the sun, is dense
enough to conceal many graves
completely, but it is worth the
trouble to hack through the burrs
and the brambles to see some
unusual gravestones.
Travel
THERE ARE FRESH owers
every day at Karl Marxs
grave, the most perennially
popular at Highgate
Cemetery.
A walk through
Highgate Cemetery
6 4 F R O N T L I N E
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 6 5
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
6 6 F R O N T L I N E
Day, one had to be buried. In 1832, the
British Parliament authorised seven
new burial grounds to accommodate
the crush. These were known as the
Magnicent Seven. Highgate West
was one of them and the most popular.
Its rst recipients were in 1839. Since
then, about 170,000 have been buried
in 52,600 graves on both the East and
West Cemeteries.
Slowly moving stately hearses with
caparisoned horses and a panoply of
well-dressed hired mourners, often ac-
companied by sombre musicians beat-
ing time, were a regular sight
attracting many spectators in this pop-
ular cemetery. Within its sylvan pe-
rimeter are the remains of the rich, the
famous, and the ordinary of the Victor-
ian era.
They include adventurers, actors,
aristocrats, authors, cricketers, doc-
tors, explorers, journalists, engineers,
magicians, musicians, newspaper
owners, philosophers, poets, priests,
politicians, revolutionaries, refugees,
scientists, and thinkers. Common peo-
ple too were buried here.
Robert Arthur Thomas (1825
-1903), a useful cricketer, who played
in the rst Test match against Austra-
lia in 1880 and then became a success-
ful umpire, lies in anonymity in a
weed-covered grave on the southern
side of the Eastern Cemetery. Howev-
er, the best attended funeral was that
of 39-year-old Thomas Sayer in 1856,
who was the last champion of bare-
sted boxing of a then very violent
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 6 7
THE VI CTORI AN ERA saw funeral processions with hired, well-dressed mourners and musicians. But by the 1960s,
when cremations were legal, the ornate funerals stopped and the East and West Cemeteries did not have money for
their upkeep. The West Cemetery was closed in 1975, though the dead are still interred in the eastern side.
London. By the early 1960s, when cre-
mations were legal, processions of or-
nate funerals stopped and both
cemeteries did not have the money for
their upkeep.
In 1975, the West Cemetery, which
had become a maintained wilder-
ness, was closed altogether as it was
too expensive for funerals, and the
East Cemetery was preserved better. It
is now closed for visits during funerals.
The older West Cemetery was once
part of a mansion owned by Sir Wil-
liam Ashurst, Mayor of London in
1693. After the cemetery was conse-
crated in 1839, Victorians came from
miles around to enjoy the architecture
of the tombs and get a birds eye view of
London. Both were impressive.
The highlight of the 20-acre West
Cemetery is the gloomy colonnaded
Egyptian Avenue leading to the Circle
of Lebanon, built around an ancient
glowering cypress tree, a remnant of
Ashursts garden, with catacombs
skirting the edges. The view of London
was somewhat deliberately blocked
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
6 8 F R O N T L I N E
and spoiled later by the brash and
quixotic Julius Beer (1836-1880),
founder of The Observer. Fed up with
the hypocrisy of London society, which
shunned him even after he, born a Jew,
became a Christian, Beer built a huge
mausoleum with a garish gold and
brilliant blue ceiling. Also buried in
this cemetery is Henry Hugh Arm-
stead (1828-1905), who made the gro-
tesque marble sculptures in the Beer
Mausoleum.
Despite such abundant opulence,
the most perennially popular grave is
No.32 in the East Cemetery. It is of
Marx, who is buried here along with
his wife Jenny, who predeceased him
by 15 months, his housekeeper (Hele-
na Demuth), a daughter and a grand-
son. Every day, there are fresh owers
on his celebrated grave. His relevance
to modern times continues with his
books still selling fast, even in the
United States.
Strangely, of all his quotations this
one is the most popular on websites in
the U.S. at the moment: Owners of
capital will stimulate the working class
to buy more and more of expensive
goods, houses and technology, push-
ing them to take more and more ex-
pensive credits, until their debt
becomes unbearable. The unpaid debt
will lead to bankruptcy of banks, which
will have to be nationalised.
Marx is buried in the sunniest por-
tion. It is in the north-north-east side
of the cemetery, near a bend leading to
which is a tarred road from the Swains
Lane entrance. Marx was originally
buried at the southern end of Highgate
Cemetery in a rather obscure, uncon-
secrated corner. There was not even a
gravestone in those days. Lenin was a
regular visitor when he stayed in Lon-
don in 1903. Rabindranath Tagore,
who stayed in the adjacent Vale of
Health (Hampstead Heath) in 1912,
used to walk to this cemetery.
In the 1940s, the British Commu-
nist Party moved the remains of Marx
and his family to its present prominent
location because there were so many
visitors anxious to see where the great
thinker was buried. Thanks to Marx,
this cemetery is no longer the dilapi-
THE GRAVE OF
Tom Wakeeld,
a writer, is in contrast
to many garish ones
and is unusual. The
headstone carries
a caricature and
refers to Wakeeld
as Mother.
THE GRAVE OF
Herbert Spencer, the
famous English
philosopher and
economist, carries only
his name on a big
simple stone.
THE GRAVE OF
Sello Moeti (1953-
1988), a brilliant
militant member of
the African National
Congress, is found
at Marxs corner.
This corner is the
resting place for
many who chose to
oppose injustice and
discrimination all
over the world.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 6 9
dated one of the 1960s. People from
every nation in the world have been
here and from them the Friends of
Highgate Cemetery (FOHC), founded
in 1981, get most of their funds to look
after the restoration of the grounds.
The FOHC ensures that the cemetery
is maintained in manicured romantic
decay, by trimming a bush here, re-
moving some moss there and picking
up fallen leaves just once in a while.
There are many other well-known
people in this cemetery. There is a lark-
spur-covered fork in which is the grave
(No.1) of Andrew Wilson Baird (1842-
1908), who as the Superintendent
General of Ports in India, Burma
(Myanmar) and Ceylon (Sri Lanka),
devised the technique of measuring
tides, which is still followed.
Marxs side of the cemetery, the
best maintained and the most easily
accessible, has become a corner for
people who fought against autocratic
regimes in their countries. Their
graves are simple but often with pun-
gent messages like I shall never be-
lieve God plays dice with the world.
Most of the names are of little-known
people but from their headstones they
appear to be gutsy ghters and worthy
of deeper study.
In Marxs corner, most of the
graves are usually simple slabs strik-
ingly in contrast with the afuent
splendour of the intricately decorated
graves skirting the road. All the inhabi-
tants are equally indifferent to the glo-
ry or the simplicity of the headstones
above them. The paths of glory lead
but to the grave.
There is Dr. Jamil Munir Abdul-
Hamid (1939-1997) of the Iraqi Com-
munist Party; Harinder Kaur Veriah
(1966-2000), the Malayan-Indian so-
cialist; the famous Dr. Yusuf Mah-
mood Daddoo (1909-1983),
chairpersonof the South African Com-
THE THI CK FOREST on the grounds snuffs out all sounds of the city, making Highgate probably the quietest place in
London. Sometimes a strong wind adds to the gloomy garden-of-death atmosphere.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
7 0 F R O N T L I N E
Travel
munist Party; and Sello Moeti (1953-
1988), a brilliant militant member of
the African National Congress.
It is the resting place for many,
who chose to oppose injustice and dis-
crimination all over the world. This
corner is actually a compliment to En-
glands tolerant tradition that has shel-
tered people of diverse opinions and
ideologies. To the right of Marxs grave
is buried Claudia Jones (1915-1964),
the black freedom campaigner, who
started the now famous Notting Hill
Carnival.
Many of the graves, especially of
soldiers and colonials, are decorated
with statuary and embellished with in-
tricate imperial emblems and wreaths.
The grave of Lieutenant Colonel John
Pitt Kennedy (1796-1879) could have
some interest for people in our Border
Roads Organisation, for it was he who
realigned the India-Tibet road from
Shimla and converted it from a
treacherous path to a commercial ar-
tery in the 1860s.
The forest lit up by wild owers
and occasionally by the sun, even in
winter when the trees are bare, with its
foxes and hares is dense enough to
conceal many graves completely, but it
is worth the trouble to hack through
the burrs and the brambles to see some
unusual gravestones. Buried under a
well-adorned tomb lies one Edward
Richard Woodham (1831-1886), who
was one of the survivors of the charge
of the Light Brigade at Balaclava in
1854 but has strangely not been deco-
rated.
There are graves that are simple
and those that are adorned garishly.
There is a most unusual grave with a
caricature on its headstone. It is of one
Tom Wakeeld and he is simply and
strangely referred to as Mother. No
one could explain why. Perhaps the
FOHC could publish a history of these
graves.
The western section has more out-
rageous Gothic style mausoleums and
tombs with over-elaborate and ornate
carvings and frescoes. Since these dec-
orations are fragile, only guided tours
are allowed into this section, unlike the
eastern one where one is free to roam
at will.
There is an entrance fee for both
cemeteries. No tourist spot in the Brit-
ish Isles can be seen without a tourist
fee, which in case of the Highgate
Cemetery is an unusually low 1. The
dead are still being interred here, but
the pressure on space has eased tre-
mendously since crematoria have be-
come more popular since the 19th
century.
Some of the eminent people who
are buried here are well known
throughout the world. Michael Fara-
day (1791-1867), who constructed the
rst electric motor, lies here. Herbert
Spencer, the famous English philoso-
pher and economist, some of whose
admirers had not blushed to compare
him with Aristotle, is buried across
the road from Marx under a big simple
stone that has only his name. The fa-
mous Henry Gray (1820-1861) of
Grays Anatomy, which still is studied
by medical students, is buried in the
western side.
A GHOULI SH STORY
Christina Georgina Rosseti (1830-
1894) is buried here, as is her brother
Dante Rossetis wife. There is a ghoul-
ish story here: Dante, in a t of grief,
buried a book of his latest poems, with
her. Later, when he needed money, he
dug up the grave one October night in
1869 and recovered the book that had
become entangled in the hair and, af-
ter disinfecting it, sold it for a lot of
money, thus making this ghastly ex-
cess very protable.
The many tombs, vaults and mau-
soleums built with extra grand Gothic
ourish, preferred by the Victorians,
along winding leafy paths, give some
sections of the densely wooded East
and West Cemeteries a scary appear-
ance. A strong wind adds to the gloomy
garden-of-death atmosphere by rub-
bing branches and rustling through
scattered dry leaves. Vines and roots
are allowed to grow and they tilt some
tombstones. The effect is chillingly
dramatic. Perfect setting for ghosts
and nasty spirits. Beautifully carved
tombstones lie hidden under immense
leafy canopies.
Inevitably, there is a myth about
the Highgate vampire. It was thus nat-
ural that a Dracula movie with a tting
bloodthirsty title, Taste the Blood of
Dracula, starring Christopher Lee was
shot here in 1968.
VI NES AND ROOTS are allowed to grow and they tilt some tombstones.
One can nd beautifully carved tombstones hidden under immense leafy
canopies.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 7 1
A
CCORDING to data ob-
tained in 2007, about 17
per cent of Scheduled Caste
persons in the country cul-
tivate land; about 12 per
cent in the rural areas and 28 per cent
in the urban areas are in business, al-
beit small; the literacy rate among
them has gone up to 57 per cent; un-
employment has diminished; and the
share of the S.Cs in government servic-
es has improved. As a consequence of
all these positive changes, poverty has
declined among the S.Cs, says Suk-
hadeo Thorat in Dalits in India:
Search for a Common Destiny. Fur-
thermore, he cites evidence to suggest
that the practice of untouchability and
discrimination have reduced to a cer-
tain extent in some public spheres.
Those who plead for the exclusion
of the creamy layer in the S.C. commu-
nity from the reservation ambit will
nd these data useful. The concern of
Thorats book is not to protect the quo-
ta benets enjoyed by the creamy layer
among the S.Cs; nor is the book an
answer to critics of the continuation of
quota for the creamy layer among the
S.Cs. In fact, those who read this book
will be more than convinced why the
creamy layer category within the S.Cs
should not be denied the quota bene-
ts for a long time to come.
Thorat rightly says that notwith-
standing some gains made in the past
50 years or so, the disparities between
S.Cs and other sections of Indian so-
ciety continue, with the S.Cs lagging
behind with respect to a number of
development-related indices.
Consider this. In 2000, about two-
dence of anaemia among S.C. women
and the mortality rate among S.C. chil-
dren are high compared with those
among their non-S.C/S.T. counter-
parts. Various studies show evidence
of discrimination in various market
and non-market transactions, includ-
ing access to social services such as
education, health and housing, and in
political participation.
Thorat reveals, with the support of
data, that the cumulative impact of
these disparities is reected in the high
levels of poverty in the S.C. commu-
nity. In 1999-2000, about 36 per cent
of S.Cs were poor as compared with 21
per cent among non-S.Cs/S.Ts. The
prevalence of poverty was particularly
high among S.C. households that were
engaged in wage labour in rural areas
(50 per cent) and urban areas (60 per
cent).
More signicantly, S.Cs continue
to be victims of untouchability and
other atrocities, even if they have regis-
tered some degree of material pro-
gress. Thorat notes that on an average
about 23,000 cases of human rights
violations and atrocities are registered
with the police annually by S.Cs. He
believes that there is still a long way to
go before S.Cs can attain some degree
of respectability, a dignied life and
sustainable livelihood. According to
him, the gap between S.Cs and non-
S.Cs can be reduced by strengthening
and expanding the current policy of
empowerment and equal opportunity.
Martin Macwan, Chairperson, In-
dian Institute of Dalit Studies (IIDS),
which carried out the research for this
book, states in the foreword that the
thirds of S.C. rural households were
landless or near-landless, compared
with one-third amongst the non-
Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe
communities; fewer than one-third of
S.C. households had acquired access to
capital assets, compared with 60 per
cent among non-S.C/S.T households;
and about 60 per cent of S.C. house-
holds still had to depend on wage la-
bour, compared with one-fourth
among non-S.C./S.T. households.
Disparities of a similar magnitude
exist in their health status. The inci-
A reality check
IN REVIEW
Dalits in India: Search for
a Common Destiny by
Sukhadeo Thorat; Sage,
New Delhi, 2009; pages 314,
Rs.895.
Sukhadeo Thorats book throws light on the gap between rhetoric and reality
over Dalits emancipation. BY V. VENKATESAN
books
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
7 2 F R O N T L I N E
thematic issues dealt with in the book
have been substantiated by detailed
datasets from three decadal periods,
beginning from the 1980s to the pre-
sent day generated from a wide uni-
verse of sources, including ofcial
sources and micro-level studies.
A brief note on the methodology
and sources of the book will be of use to
readers to understand how compre-
hensive and detailed the chapters of
this book are. The book draws upon
datasets from the Census of India and
the National Sample Surveys on land
ownership, employment and unem-
ployment, and consumption expendi-
ture. It also utilises the Rural Labour
Inquiry reports, which are unique in
the sense that they provide data on
several aspects of rural labour from
1974-75 to the present day.
In case of indicators such as educa-
tion, health and civic amenities, the
book utilises data from the Census of
India and the National Family Plan-
ning and Health Survey reports. For
the analysis of the incidence of dis-
crimination and atrocities, the book
relies on data carried in Crime in India
reports and substantiates it with addi-
tional data from the National Com-
mission of Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes, reports of the Min-
istry of Social Justice and Empower-
ment, and some primary studies on
caste discrimination and atrocities.
LOOKI NG BACK
The book is of immense value for the
nuggets of information it carries. The
Schedule Caste members constitute
about 16.2 per cent of the Indian pop-
ulation. More than half the S.C. pop-
ulation is concentrated in the States of
Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar,
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
The use of the nomenclature
Scheduled Castes can be traced back
to 1932, when it was proposed before
the Indian Franchise Committee by
the then provincial government of
Bengal. Accordingly, in the Govern-
ment of India Act, 1935, a schedule
containing a list of these classes was
added for the rst time. Prior to this,
they were classied as Depressed
Classes. Article 341 of the Constitu-
tion authorises the President of India
to specify castes to be notied as S.Cs.
The President, in consultation with
the Governor of the State concerned,
noties a particular caste as S.C.; the
inclusion of the caste in the schedule is
then promulgated by Parliament. Var-
ious presidential orders from 1950 to
1978 notied, modied and amended
statutory lists of S.Cs in various parts
of the country. At present, there are
1,231 castes on the list of S.Cs.
In the introduction, Thorat briey
deals with the characteristic features
of S.Cs. He rightly suggests that the
criteria for inclusion of a particular
caste on the S.C. list were based on its
social, educational and economic
backwardness arising out of tradition-
al customs related to the practice of
untouchability.
The Government of India Act,
1935, determined these forms of depri-
vation, particularly social and eco-
nomic, on the following basis: that it
occupies a low position in the Hindu
social structure; its representation in
government services is inadequate; it
is inadequately represented in the
elds of trade, commerce and indus-
try; it suffers from social and physical
isolation from the rest of society; and
there is a general lack of educational
development amongst major sections
of the community. Considering that
there is a clamour from many other
backward classes for inclusion on the
list of either S.Cs or S.Ts, Thorat could
have also dealt with the adequacy of
these criteria, although this cannot be
suggested as a serious limitation of this
book, whose major concerns are
different.
The book deals with policy direc-
tions for the government in terms of
dual strategies, namely, empower-
ment and equal opportunity. Under
empowerment, Thorat calls for im-
provement in access of the S.Cs to agri-
cultural land, and for steps to make
S.C. cultivators viable, in terms of in-
creased access to credit and other in-
puts and to market opportunities.
Similarly, he recommends improving
the S.Cs access to capital, information
and markets to make businesses run
by S.C. members viable.
Given that the acquittal rate in cas-
es relatingto untouchability and atroc-
ities is close to 99 per cent, Thorat
suggests that there is a need to improve
drastically the working of institutions
such as the judiciary, the police andthe
relevant divisions of ministries, public
prosecutors and village-level function-
aries engaged in the enforcement of
the laws aimed to prevent untouch-
ability and atrocities against S.Cs and
S.Ts and the delivery of social justice.
The book rightly observes that the
strategy of economic and educational
empowerment will improve the capac-
ity of the S.Cs to participate in eco-
nomic development, but will not
necessarily provide their members
their due share in employment and
access to various markets. An im-
provement in education levels and job
skills will improve employability, but
discrimination in the labour market
may deny them the chance of getting
jobs. Similarly, the book argues that
the availability of agriculture land and
capital for (non-farm) business may
help members of the S.Cs initiate cul-
tivation and non-farm businesses, but
discrimination in the provision of in-
puts, credit, information, civic amen-
ities such as electricity, water, and so
on, and the sale of nal products may
generate less income and make their
businesses less protable.
The book suggests that there is evi-
dence of discrimination against S.C.
workers in employment and S.C. busi-
nesspersons in various markets. It is
precisely for this reason, the book ar-
gues, that the equal opportunity policy
has been developed in the form of res-
ervation to ensure S.Cs their due share
in employment, education, capital for
business, housing, water and other
amenities. The book makes a strong
plea for a parallel reservation policy for
the private sector, covering various
markets, as there is evidence of caste-
based discrimination.
Thorat, who is the Chairman of the
University Grants Commission, has to
be commended for authoring this book
with empirically rich data.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 7 3
T
HE theory of permanent
Muslim-Christian enmity,
though it ourishes in the
caves of Tora Bora and parts
of the American academy,
was long ago exploded by the histori-
ans. In this clear and well-written
book, Jonathan Lyons delves into all
sorts of musty corners to show how
Arabic science percolated into the La-
tin world in the middle ages and
helped civilise a rude society.
He tells how Arab advances in as-
tronomy, mathematics, engineering,
navigation, geography, medicine, ar-
chitecture, chemistry, gardening, -
nance and verse passed into Europe by
way of the Crusader kingdoms, Sicily
and Spain and prepared the ground for
both the Renaissance and the scientic
advances of the 16th and 17th centu-
ries. This inltration of ideas has left
traces in our language, from alcohol,
algebra and algorithm to the Arabic
names of the bright stars Betelgeuse
and Aldebaran.
With the fall of the Roman empire
in the west, Europe lost touch with
much of its classical inheritance and
was isolated by the Arab invasions
from the Byzantine empire where
some ancient learning survived. Lyons
recounts how early medieval Christen-
dom was unable accurately to measure
the time of day for monastic ofces, or
x the date of Easter, while dogmatic
schemes of scripture and hierarchy left
little scope for natural science. Aristot-
les inuence was conned to the logic
and rhetoric of the schools. Bishop Isi-
dore of Seville promulgated the idea
that the Earth was at.
In contrast, when the Arabs con-
quered Iraq in the rst half of the sev-
enth century A.D., they came upon
living schools of Hellenistic learning in
translation, chief among them Aristot-
le, the mathematician Euclid and the
medical philosophers Hippocrates
and Galen. For this natural philoso-
phy, the Arabs coined the word falsafa,
and called its practitioners falasifa.
The great Arabic philosophers such as
Ibn Sina in Iran (known in Latin Eu-
rope as Avicenna, who died in 1037)
and Ibn Rushd in Spain (Averroes,
who died in 1198) found ways of in-
serting Aristotelian natural philoso-
phy and Ptolemaic cosmology into a
scriptural monotheism, which was
precisely what the Latins needed. As
Lyons writes, Arabic replaced Greek
as the universal language of scientic
inquiry.
He begins with a vivid contrast. In
1109, ten years after the Crusaders
sacked Jerusalem and put Muslims,
Jews and eastern Christians to the
sword, Adelard of Bath, a well-born
scholar, set off for Antioch not to kill
Muslims but, as he put it, to investi-
gate the studies of the Arabs (studia
arabum). As so often in medieval biog-
raphy, a few facts are made to work
hard, and some scholars (though not
Lyons) doubt Adelard ever mastered
Arabic. Nonetheless, he is thought to
have taken part in translations from
Arabic of Euclids geometric system,
the elements, and the astronomical ta-
bles of al-Khwarizmi, and composed
such original works as On the Use of the
Astrolabe. For Lyons, Adelard is the
rst man of science. Such was the
prestige of Arabic learning in England,
according to a startling passage here,
that partisans of King Henry II, during
the quarrel with Rome over Thomas
Becket, threatened the king would
convert to Islam.
The new learning spread. By the
middle of the 12th century, Euclid and
natural science and medicine, along
with Indian mathematics andastrono-
my that had come by way of Iran. Sys-
tematic reasoning, driven out of
Muslim jurisprudence in favour of
precedents from the Prophets life and
conduct, found a new eld of inquiry in
ancient geography and cosmology. Af-
ter the founding of Baghdad in A.D.
762, the Abbasid caliphs established a
library and a team of translators at the
Beit al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom
of Lyons title.
A famous early catalogue of Arabic
books, known as the Fihrist, lists as
many as 80 Greek authors in Arabic
Intellectual invasion
IN REVIEW
The House of Wisdom: How
the Arabs Transformed
Western Civilization by
Jonathan Lyons; Bloomsbury;
pages 248.
Jonathan Lyons reveals the inuence of the Arab world on Western
civilisation. BY JAMES BUCHAN
books/review
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
7 4 F R O N T L I N E
Pythagoras are arrayed with the Virgin
on the west front of Chartres cathe-
dral. Lyons summons up a world of
itinerant scholars such as Michael
Scot, who (in the words of one monk)
in Paris seek liberal arts, in Orleans
classics, at Salerno medicine, at Toledo
magic, but nowhere manners and
morals.
Scot found his way to the Arabising
court of one of the baptised Sultans,
the Emperor Frederick II, where he
translated Arabic commentaries on
Aristotle and helped promote the great
mathematician Leonardo of Pisa. Leo-
nardo, generally known as Fibonacci,
gave a systematic account of the Arab/
Indian numerical system and the sign
0, which the Arabs call zephyr, or
rather sifr and which we call the zero.
For the orthodox, these men reeked of
brimstone, and Dante placed Michael
with the wizards in the eighth circle of
hell. St. Thomas Aquinas brought a
measure of peace to the church, but the
systems of Aristotle and Ptolemy be-
came rigid and brittle till they shat-
tered in the Copernican revolution of
the 16th century.
Why Muslim science and medicine
remained in their medieval state in
certain regions well into our lifetimes
belongs to another book. For all Lyons
wonder and admiration, the falasifa
were always out of the mainstream of
Muslim thought; they are best under-
stood as a sort of sect, like the Shia, and
were as vulnerable to charges of here-
sy. The only small blemish in this ne
book is that Lyons has printed a beau-
tiful page of al-Birunis Arabic treatise
on mathematics back to front, so the
text can only be read in a mirror.
Guardian News & Media 2009
A PERSI AN (I RANI AN) astrolabe from 1208.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 7 5
P
ROFESSOR Sumit Sar-
kars earlier volume, in this
series of documents on the
freedom movement, on the
year 1946 covered British
India. The present volume covers the
princely states, which gave us no end of
trouble as we moved towards indepen-
dence in 1947. The distinguished his-
torian has covered both parts of the
country ably, as one might expect of
him.
You have here the central Indian
states and the states of western, east-
ern and north-eastern India. But at-
tention will be focussed on
Travancore, over whose affairs Sir C.P.
Ramaswami Aiyar presided with all
the airs of an autocrat; the Nizams
Hyderabad; and Kashmir.
Sarkars overview of the states in
general knits the documents together
in an instructive survey. It is a volume
of great value, which no historian or
student of history or politics can
ignore.
The overview describes the peas-
ants struggles and the peoples agita-
tion for democratic reforms in the
princely states. The All India States
Peoples Conference deserves a book
by itself.
In 1946, Jawharlal Nehru, despite
his reservations, rushed to help Sheikh
Abdullah in his ill-timed, ill-advised
Quit Kashmir movement. Muham-
mad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim
League were cold. The League press in
Lahore sympathised with the Sheikh
and supported him ardently.
SALE- DEED FOR KASHMI R
Asaf Alis performance as defence
counsel in the Sheikhs trial for sedi-
tion was splendid. He rested his case
on the peoples right to demand free-
extent to which I can be of any assis-
tance to you, it will be entirely and
wholeheartedly be made available. A
large number of States are asking me
for my opinion as to the choice of ad-
ministrators and I shall certainly keep
in mind what you have written, and
feeling as I do, that your presence at
the head of an important Indian State
will be of great use to the cause which
you and I have both at heart, you may
rely upon my complete cooperation in
the matter.
NI ZAM S I NTRI GUES
In 1946, the Nizam began his intrigues
against supporters of accession to In-
dia, now that independence was near.
The Congress was restrained, realising
as it did that the Nizam was encourag-
ing communal forces. But the Nizam
brooked no arrogance. He insulted
Jinnah.
The British Residents two reports
for the rst and second halves of July
1946 are most revealing. An extract
from the report for the second half of
July:
During his stay in Hyderabad Mr.
Jinnah addressed ve meetings all of
which were well attended and was pre-
sented with purses amounting to more
than a lakh of rupees. In his speeches
he stressed the need for Muslim unity
and assured the Muslims of Hydera-
bad that if they would unite they would
have his and the Muslim Leagues un-
stinted support. Referring to his state-
ment in Delhi on the recent
development in Kashmir, he said it
had no bearing on Hyderabad where
conditions were different and where a
government more suited to her [its]
genius was necessary. This statement
was criticised by the Local Hindu
Leaders.
dom from a ruler whose title to rule
was derived from what Mahatma
Gandhi aptly called a sale-deed, the
Treaty of Amritsar (1846) by which the
Dogra Gulab Singh bought Kashmir
for Rs.75 lakh.
The recently published Empire of
the Sikhs: The Life and Times of Mah-
araja Ranjit Singh by Patwant Singh
and Jyoti M. Rai ably documents Gu-
lab Singhs treachery to his masters,
the Sikh Darbar at Lahore, in their
hour of adversity. It is not Gulab Singh
but, as the authors write, the British
who founded the State of Jammu and
Kashmir.
Ramaswami Aiyar was not only an
unprincipled autocrat but, as his letter
to Shyama Prasad Mookerjee repro-
duced in this volume establishes, a
rabid communalist as well. The pop-
ular struggle against his rule is well
recorded in this volume. This is what
CP wrote to Mookerjee: You have
done wonderful and formative work in
the direction of Championing the
cause of Hindu solidarity and of expos-
ing the vacillating and suicidal policy
of the Congress. It is a pity, however,
that our community has not roused
itself into a realisation of the crisis
ahead of it.
Anyhow, I consider that your idea
of working in an Indian state is a very
suitable and timely one, and to the
Kashmir: the truths
BOOK FACTS
Towards Freedom:
Documents on the Movement
for Independence in India,
1946, Part 2, edited by Sumit
Sarkar; Indian Council of
Historical Research; Oxford
University Press; pages 1,455,
Rs.2,950.
A volume of great value, which no historian or student of history or politics can
ignore. BY A. G. NOORANI
books/in brief
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
7 6 F R O N T L I N E
O
VER the past 150 years
Darwin has become many
people and many opi-
nions. On the Origin of
Species has been used to
justify ideologies quite at odds with
each other, including socialism and
fascism; he has been claimed as an
atheist, yet also represented as an em-
piricist hardly aware of the implica-
tions of his own theory. His
determined silence in the Origin on
the effects of his ideas for humankind
may have been intended as he said
to be diplomatic, but instead shook
the foundations of human pride in our
separate status.
His reluctance to apply evolution-
ary principles directly to social reform,
as his fellow naturalist Alfred Russel
Wallace did, has led some to view him
as unconcerned with social justice.
Darwin takes it for granted that we are
part of the animal kingdom. And he
takes that understanding further: we
are kin to all organic life forms, extant
and extinct.
In the telling of Darwins story, em-
phasis is often put on his presence as a
family man, the devoted husband and
father of 10 children who had the free
run of the house and even his study.
Darwin certainly lived in the midst of
his own family and among those of his
immediate kin, present and for several
generations back. But in the Origin
Darwin also expanded the idea of fam-
ily, away from the human only, away
from what he called the exclusiveness
of pedigrees and armorial bearings,
to embrace all the past and present
inhabitants of the world. Instead of
being special creations, all organic
beings are, as an outcome of his theory,
lineal descendants of those which
Darwin seeks to hearten and reassure
the reader: When I view all beings not
as special creations, but as the lineal
descendents of some few beings which
lived long before the rst bed of the
Silurian system was deposited, they
seem to me to become ennobled. We
are part of the grandest of all families,
he suggests, because we are part of the
oldest family (that criterion by which
the grandeur of aristocratic families is
judged). His theory challenges apar-
theid in all its forms, including that
between the living and the dead.
Two important new books consid-
er Darwins achievement and the rad-
ical changes brought about by his
thinking. In Darwins Island, Steve
Jones places his work in a continuum
that reaches into the present of scien-
tic research, as well as emphasising
its extraordinary prescience; in Dar-
wins Sacred Cause, Adrian Desmond
and James Moore investigate the so-
cial and personal forces that formed
his thinking. Jones looks forward, and
laterally across all the areas to which
Darwins work contributed; Desmond
and Moore plumb the past and seek a
central explanation for Darwins drive.
Both books enhance our under-
standing of Darwins signicance.
They are exhilarating in the freedom
and precision with which they track
ideas. Though both treat Darwin as a
great man, they are not at the mercy
of the great-man view of history. They
recognise that the powerful individual
is shaped and conditioned by the times
in which he or she lives. There is a
difference between them, though:
Jones has no truck with the idea that
Darwins theories are inherently so-
cial, though their effects are colossally
so. Desmond and Moore emphasise
lived long before the Silurian epoch.
We are all the offspring of common
parents, and for Darwin this inclu-
siveness is the grand fact he has
uncovered.
In the conclusion to the Origin,
Knowing Darwin
Two important books consider Charles Darwins achievements and the radical
changes brought about by his thinking. BY GI LLI AN BEER
BOOK FACTS
Darwins Island: The
Galapagos in the Garden of
England by Steve Jones;
Little, Brown; pages 320.
Darwins Sacred Cause:
Race, Slavery and the Quest
for Human Origins by Adrian
Desmond and James Moore;
Allen Lane; pages 512.
books/review
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 7 7
the inspiration that political ideas pro-
vided, and see them as intrinsic to Dar-
wins theories.
Both books draw on Darwins in-
sistence that all organisms are kin and
from common stock. They set out to
rescue him from some false assump-
tions and to demonstrate the range
and impassioned foresight of his work,
as well as its relation to his own life
experience. And both engage with the
whole corpus of his writing, not just
the Origin.
That in itself is a great gain: Dar-
win was an indefatigable writer as well
as a scrupulous observer throughout
his adult life, from the 1830s to the
early 1880s. In that time, he published
a continuous stream of books, many of
them founding documents of a range
of different disciplines. The Effects of
Cross and Self-Fertilisation in the Ani-
mal Kingdom(1876), for example, was
about hermaphrodite plants and was,
Jones argues, a rst step in the scien-
tic study of sex.
As Jones demonstrates, Darwins
concern with sexed and unsexed spe-
cies and with their inventive means of
exchanging genes had its bearing on
his anxieties about rst-cousin mar-
riages such as his own. But the out-
come of his investigation was not
controlled by these concerns. Jones al-
so goes on to show where later research
has reinforced or corrected Darwins
views: He denied the importance of
selng in animals and was again mis-
taken I myself once worked on her-
maphrodite slugs, who manage quite
well with sex within their own skins.
RADI CAL I NSI GHTS
Jones shows how Darwin, living a fam-
ily life in the English countryside, was
able to attain radical insights and ex-
perimental results from the materials
of his garden and greenhouses and
from the elds that surrounded his
house. These insights and results, he
argues, are as vital to evolutionary the-
ory and its future as those Darwin
gleaned from his visit to the Galapagos
Islands. He shows, too, that despite the
illness that hampered much of his
adult life, Darwin travelled quite wide-
ly within Britain (often accompanied
by subjects of study such as pots of
orchids or of insect-eating plants . . . at
considerable inconvenience).
The delight in reading Jones book
is the zest with which he explores facts
and sets them together to yield more
than anyone could have expected, in
true Darwinian style. Although he in-
sists on the crucial experimental pres-
ence of the British Isles in Darwins
researches, he does not conne himself
to these shores. Jones demonstrates
the coherence of Darwins output,
showing how much of his thinking ra-
diates out from his studies of barnacles
and climbing plants, insects and
worms. The nches and the tortoises of
the Galapagos are part of the throng of
life-forms, not the sole topic of his in-
vestigations.
Darwin himself had geology as his
founding imagination and, writing to
his friend and cousin William Darwin
Fox, just before he arrived at the Gala-
pagos, he was excited mostly at the
prospect of nding rock strata there.
To Darwin, nothing was trivial, since
his entire theory depended on trans-
mission of slight variations which, over
time, produce huge consequences. On
the contrary, as Jones makes clear, he
saw how things small and large in scale
relate intimately to each other and
how organisms remote in time and
place share processes with others close
at hand.
Jones relishes Darwins own puz-
zlement, even occasional exasperation,
at the sheer inventiveness of forms in
nature. Of orchids, Darwin writes:
Hardly any fact has struck me so
much as the endless diversities of
structure, the prodigality of resources,
for gaining the very same end, namely,
the fertilisation of one ower by the
pollen from another plant.
Jones comments that he glimpsed
but a small part of the game played by
all plants as they full their sexual
identity and goes on to ruminate on
cheats, stupidity, reproductive dishon-
esty and identity fraud in plants, with
some side-glances at human parallels.
(He notes with some glee Darwins as-
sumption that females are monoga-
mous, which led him to refuse the idea
of reproductive fraud in mammals.)
MAGI C OF CONNECTI ON
Jones is still startled by the investiga-
tions he records and by the potential-
ities of science. He demurs at anything
that too closely identies the scientist
with the science, yet he emphasises the
magic of connection: There is so-
mething magical in the way that scien-
tic rationalism connects raindrops
with heartbeats, and battered trees
with depressed infants.
Occasionally, I found his insis-
tence on the language of competition
and struggle misleading: the biolog-
ical war between ower and insect
might be seen as biological collabora-
tion. He insists that the whole of evo-
lution involves an endless set of tactics,
but no strategy. That is, Darwinian
theory is not predictive. The intricacy
of connections and deviations certain-
ly makes it impossible to foresee the
future. Nor, Jones asserts, does natural
selection have any inbuilt tendency to
improve matters. Here he differs from
Darwin who, frequently links the idea
of selection with that of improvement.
That difference cannot be glossed
over. Jones seems to assume Darwins
assent, but in the Origin we read: old
forms will be supplanted by new and
improved forms; the later and more
improved forms have conquered the
older and less improved organic beings
in the struggle for life. And in his au-
tobiography Darwin writes of his dis-
may at the distant fate of Earths
organic life as the planet cools: Believ-
ing as I do that man in the distant
future will be a far more perfect crea-
ture than he is now, it is an intolerable
thought that he and all other sentient
beings are doomed to complete anni-
hilation after such long-continued
slow progress. Natural selection does
not produce perfection (indeed, im-
perfection, as of the eye, is evidence of
natural selection in process), but Dar-
win does draw the idea of improve-
ment tightly into his understanding of
its outcome.
Looking back, we may see this in-
sistence as tinctured with the Victor-
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
7 8 F R O N T L I N E
ian belief in progress and the hierar-
chical views of race-theorists, which
colour Darwins efforts even as he tries
to think himself free of those assump-
tions. Thats not to his discredit, but it
is important to acknowledge the de-
gree to which he both worked within
and struggled against the assumptions
of his time, especially when they are
not our assumptions.
LOATHI NG OF SLAVERY
Desmond and Moore concentrate on
the human implications of Darwins
argument that all life-forms are kin.
Their theme is the appalling practice
of slavery and the history of the anti-
slavery movement. They explore the
Darwin familys place in that move-
ment and show the ways in which sci-
entic debate was fundamental to the
struggle between those who tolerated
or supported slavery and those, such as
Darwin, who had both a visceral and
an intellectual loathing of it. They go
further, to suggest that the initial drive
behind Darwins investigation of spe-
cies formation was his personal loath-
ing of slavery. To this end, they
marshal an admirable and exciting
mass of research into Darwin family
history and Darwins early life, bring-
ing out the importance of his mothers
Unitarianism and his Wedgwood rela-
tives activism. Their account of Dar-
wins rather unhappy year at
Edinburgh University, struggling to
study as a doctor, is illuminating.
This episode is usually written off
as a fruitless period in Darwins young
life and intellectual formation. The au-
thors explain his reaction in terms of
him being a polished young gentle-
man, one who had a particular hor-
ror of bleeding. But given that one of
these operations was on a child, its not
hard to share his horror at pain.
His capacity for empathy was a
quality that was to stand him in good
stead in his scientic practice later, so
that their vague summary sentence is
disappointing: It was clearly the aura
as much as the anatomy that he hated.
But much else in these early chapters is
revelatory, in part because Desmond
and Moore bring so many strands to-
gether though their characterisation
of Walter Scotts novels as emphasis-
ing continuity and medievalism misses
a trick. In fact, novels such as Waverley
and Old Mortality confronted what
was then quite recent upheaval, resis-
tance and change: the forces of discon-
tinuity and of struggle for territory.
Desmond and Moore explore the
opinions and histories of Darwins
teachers and fellow-students, their re-
lations to phrenology, philanthropy,
taxonomy and taxidermy. The last
proved especially fruitful for Darwin:
one winter he bought 40 hours of in-
struction in stufng birds from a black
freedman, John, and late in life re-
called that I used often to sit withhim,
for he was a very pleasant and intelli-
gent man. Desmond and Moores
point is that Darwin, from quite early
on, had learned to appreciate the ca-
pacities of people who elsewhere
would be subject to slavery. Moreover,
since John had travelled with his
master, Waterton, through jungle
country, Darwin would have had ac-
cess to a different view of the commun-
ities they had explored from that to be
found in travel books. In Edinburgh,
when Darwin was studying there, is-
sues of environmental versus anatom-
ical determinism, and a self-animated
versus a creatively animated nature,
were being thrashed out all around
him.
Already the shadow of slavery as a
dark corollary was emerging, Des-
mond and Moore write, never stated,
but looming larger as explanations of
subjugation came to the fore. Slavery
features everywhere in their account:
from Darwins immediate family cir-
cle, to his later testy relations with his
early mentor, the great geologist Char-
les Lyell, who failed fully to acknowl-
edge the evils of slavery.
Although there are times where
Desmond and Moores assiduity in
nding side-references to slavery be-
comes somewhat oppressive, the au-
thors do succeed in demonstrating the
degree to which current events merged
into Victorian scientic inquiry and
inected its ndings. Moreover, they
highlight Darwins ability to treat
equally people of many backgrounds,
including the impressive Richard Hill
naturalist and anti-slavery activist
and the rst gentleman of colour in
the Jamaican magistracy, assigned to
adjudicate between former slave-hol-
ders and slaves. Such ties were perso-
nal but also always in the service of
experimental investigation and scien-
tic theory.
The authors set out to establish not
only the centrality of race relations,
and specically slavery, in Darwins in-
vestigations, but to demonstrate that
he formed the concept of sexual selec-
tion much earlier than is often thought
and that it owes much to these racial
controversies. The Descent of Manthus
becomes all about sexual selection
rather than this idea being loosely add-
ed at the end.
There may be more unevenness in
Darwins attitudes than this book can
quite tolerate, particularly in relation
to hierarchy among human races. And
absences, like that of humankind from
the Origin, can be lled with many
meanings: perhaps Darwin was not as
preoccupied with the human as are his
commentators. But in the main they
are justied in their claims: Darwin
never forgot the cries he heard from an
anonymous house while on a land
journey from the Beagle, and this
haunting rst-hand experience of lib-
eral impotence in the face of cruel and
degrading suffering fuelled his think-
ing.
Guardian News & Media 2009
CHARLES DARWI N, AN 1883
painting.
T
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 7 9
F
EDS Interview
Obama on Pay-to-
Play was The
Washington Times
headline last Christ-
mas Eve, subheaded Teams Blagojev-
ich review nds nothing
inappropriate in contacts between
Governor Rod Blagojevich of Illinois
and White House aides about the re-
placement for the Senate seat Barack
Obama was vacating. That was about
the suspected sale of the appoint-
ment by the FBI-wiretapped Gover-
nor, who was ultimately impeached
and removed.
Three weeks later, above an edi-
torial headlined The Price of Pay-to-
Play and a reminder that the most
brazen episode of pay-to-play of late
was in the Blagojevich affair, The New
York Times used the same compound
phrase about the withdrawal of Gover-
nor Bill Richardson of New Mexico
from nomination to the Obama cabi-
net.
The editorial held that the New
Mexico Governor backed away from
the chance to run the Commerce De-
partment as federal prosecutors inves-
tigate whether his aides steered a
lucrative state contract to a generous
political donor.
Many regular readers of this co-
lumn will focus on the hyphenation
issue: Why, if pay for play means re-
muneration for participation, should
the words forming the collocation be
separated by hyphens? My judgment,
after consulting the lexicographer Sol
Steinmetz: If the phrase is being used
as a noun (was Blago engaged in an
example of pay-to-play?), then it
takes a pair of hyphens. If it is used as a
verbal statement (was his friend Bur-
Playboy magazine hired Ron Reagan
Jr., the Presidents son, then 24, as a
reporter. A local newspaper noted that
in observing ancillary events he at-
tended the Hookers Ball for 15 min-
utes and left hastily when told now its
time to pay to play.
Jazz and football: Some jazz clubs
charge customers who are musical
amateurs for the right to sit in with
the pros, just as school sports teams
may require students to invest in their
own equipment and uniforms.
Music-broadcasting corruption:
Radio Sees Pay-for-Play Tables
Turned on Gov was a New York Daily
News headline last year after Governor
Eliot Spitzer admitted patronising a
prostitute. Joke circulating in radio
for the last week, David Hinckley
wrote, notes that Spitzer leaned hard
on radio a couple of years back with
allegations of payola, a practice whe-
rein record labels or their promoters
give a radio station considerations in
return for getting on-air exposure.
Pay-for-play, its called.
What makes the phrase so widely
applicable is not the pay usually
money or some other emolument but
the multiple meaning of play: Play a
game of chance? Play a role in politics?
Play a record on the air? Play the mar-
ket? Play the fool? Play around prom-
iscuously? You pays your money and
you plays your choice.
The New York Times Service
ris going to pay to play?), no hyphen.
But if it is used as a compound ad-
jective (Welcome to my pay-to-play
column), in go the hyphens.
That should settle that. What at-
tracts me to this wavy nouvelle vogue
phrase, however, is its multiplicity of
meanings, making the alliterative
words applicable to any number of dif-
ferent, usually nefarious, acts.
Gambling: First use I can nd
(though with the words inverted) has
to do with an experiment conducted by
the psychologist Norman Kass and re-
ported in a June 1964 issue of the jour-
nal Child Development. The articles
precis noted that 40 children between
six and 10 years of age, equally divided
between boys and girls, were placed in
a play-to-pay gambling situation.
The phrase has also been used in schol-
arly discussions of game theory.
Political chicanery: A 1977 citation
dug up by Grant Barrett, co-host of the
radio programme A Way With
Words, is in a Washington Post article
by Walter Pincus, referring to the pre-
vious years Congressional sex, pay
and play scandals. This was followed
by a 1982 New York Times story by
Nathaniel Sheppard Jr. about the Rev.
Jesse Jacksons Chicago-based civil
rights organisation PUSH, which was
said to pressure corporations to invest
prots made in black areas back into
those communities.
Critics objected to his statement If
you want to play you have to pay as a
form of shakedown, which he denied.
Barrett notes that variations on that
remark, which Jackson popularised in
a socio-economic context, appeared
previously in books about crime.
Prostitution: At the 1984 Demo-
cratic convention in San Francisco,
Pay-to-Play
The wavy nouvelle vogue phrase, with its multiplicity of meanings, makes the
alliterative words applicable to a number of different, usually nefarious, acts.
The English
Language
WILLIAM SAFIRE
Column
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
8 0 F R O N T L I N E
THOSE who live in glass houses should not
throw stones at others. The saying applies very much
to successive governments of India which chafe at
international accountability for their observance of
human rights, are very touchy about foreign crit-
icism while freely criticising the records of other
countries. Strangely enough, while Indias participa-
tion in the United Nations fora is well reported in the
media, for nearly a quarter century the media have
downplayed, if not ignored or even blacked out, the
drubbings Indias Attorneys General have received
in the U.N.s Human Rights Commission and its
successor, the U.N. Human Rights Council.
If the truth be told, even the National Human
Rights Commission was born, if not in sin, as a baby
to demonstrate our virtue. There is no denying that
on many an issue it has rendered service or that on
sensitive issues it becomes patriotic. Nor does one
question the fact that our record is about the best in
the Third World.
But how many papers reported the proceedings
of the Human Rights Council on April 14, 2008,
when Solicitor General Goolam Vahanvati present-
ed Indias report and had to respond to criticism of
Indias record by the members?
The background is important. On March 27,
1979, India ratied both the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
The Instrument of Ratication was deposited with
the U.N. on April 10, 1979. Much later, on May 14,
1993, the government moved in Parliament the Hu-
man Rights Commission Bill (No. 65) of 1993. It
became law on January 8, 1994, in an improved
form, as the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993
(Act 10 of 1994).
Each step reected its clime. The ratication was
done by the Janata Party government in the wake of
the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi (June 1975-March 1977). The Act was enact-
ed for mixed considerations. It was partly in re-
sponse to demand at home but largely to silence
criticism abroad. This duality of its raison detre has
impaired the institution, in its composition and ac-
tual functioning.
In 1992, the late Vithal N. Gadgil of the Congress
represented India before the Human Rights Com-
mission, which met annually in Geneva. It was set up
by the U.N.s Economic and Social Council on Febru-
ary 16, 1946. Listening to the criticism of Indias
handling of insurgency situations, he hit upon a
bright idea our own Human Rights Commission.
Its ndings will act as correctives to the biased and
one-sided reports of some of the NGOs [non-go-
vernmental organisations]. It will also be an effec-
tive answer to the politically motivated international
criticism. It was to be a part of the state, its defender
before the world.
Indian record
India is a party to a number of
international human rights
instruments... [but] has not ratied
the Convention against Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading
Treatment or Punishment, or its
Optional Protocol.
The media have ignored the drubbings Indias Attorneys General have received in
the U.N.s human rights bodies. BY A. G. NOORANI
WOMEN PROTESTI NG I N front of the Assam
Ries headquarters at Kangla, Imphal, against the
custodial killing of a girl, in July 2004.
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F R O N T L I N E 8 1
Article 16 of the International Cov-
enant on Economic, Social and Cultu-
ral Rights binds state parties to submit
reports on the measures which they
have adopted and the progress made in
achieving the observance of the rights
recognised herein. They are to be sub-
mitted in stages in accordance with a
programme drawn up by the Econom-
ic and Social Council.
Article 40 of the Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights contains a similar
commitment. These reports were exa-
mined by the Human Rights Commit-
tee (HRC) set up under Article 28 of
the Covenant. India submitted its rst
report on July 4, 1984, four years after
ratication. It was examined by the
HRC in New York on March 28 and
30, 1984, in three meetings. Indias
Attorney General K. Parasaran was
closely questioned.
The second report was due on July
9, 1985. It was submitted on July 12,
1989, after seven reminders. It was ex-
amined by the HRC on March 26 and
27, 1991, in four meetings (CCPR/C/
SR 1039 to 1042).
In 1984 as well as in 1991, members
of the HRC seemed extremely well in-
formed and closely questioned Indias
representative. On both occasions, In-
dias response was formal rather than
substantial. It relied on the texts of the
Constitution and the laws. They want-
ed details on actual performance and
criticised laws such as the Armed Forc-
es (Special Powers) Act, the Terrorist
and Disruptive Activities (Prevention)
Act (TADA) and the National Security
Act as being incompatible with the
Covenant. They were concerned at in-
stances of torture and death in police
custody and failure to bring offenders
to justice. What is important is that a
pattern of international accountability
has been rmly established.
Questioning on the second occa-
WORK ON AN irrigation canal under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) in progress at Sabnima
village in Athmalgola block of Patna in Bihar on December 24, 2008. At the Universal Periodic Review of India, China
asked how India intended to implement its NREGA programme further.
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8 2 F R O N T L I N E
sion was sharper than on the rst.
NGOs such as Amnesty International
and Human Rights Watch briefed
members of the HRC thoroughly. At-
torney General G. Ramaswamy pre-
sented the second report. The third
report was submitted only on Novem-
ber 29, 1995. It was examined by the
HRC in Geneva on July 24-25, 1997.
Attorney General Ashok Desai intro-
duced the report.
We had by then built up a formid-
able reputation for transparency in in-
ternational accountability on human
rights. The 1997 Annual Report of the
Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary or arbitrary executions said:
The Special Rapporteur continued to
receive numerous reports indicating
the occurrence of violations of the
right to life in India. The majority of
the information received related to the
situation in the State of Jammu and
Kashmir where, according to various
sources, Indian security forces were re-
sponsible for human rights violations,
including deliberate killings of detai-
nees in custody and reprisal killings of
civilians. The perpetrators of extrajud-
icial, summary or arbitrary executions
reportedly continue to enjoy virtual
impunity. In addition, it was reported
that the government continued to sup-
port paramilitary troops, which are re-
portedly also responsible for the killing
of a large number of civilians. The
source pointed out that these troops
are non-uniformed and therefore dif-
cult to identify. The Special Rappor-
teur was also informed that a number
of armed militant opposition groups
are responsible for human rights abus-
es, including the killing of numerous
civilians.
Three requests in 1994 for permis-
sion to visit India were declined (em-
phasis added, throughout). The 1997
Reports of the U.N.s Working Group
on Disappearances and the Special
Rapporteur on Torture were also crit-
ical of Indias record. There was wides-
pread criticism of the HRCs
composition and behaviour. Some
states, notorious for their violation of
human rights, got elected on that body
and acted as judges on others conduct.
It was replaced by the Human
Rights Council by U.N. General As-
sembly Resolution 60/251 of March
15, 2006, and consists of 47 member-
states of the U.N. It was mandated to
undertake a Universal Periodic Re-
view (UPR), based on objective and
reliable information, of the fullment
by each state of its human rights obli-
gations and commitments in a manner
which ensures universality of coverage
and equal treatment with respect to all
states; the review shall be a cooper-
ative mechanism, based on an inter-
active dialogue, with the full
involvement of the country concerned
and with consideration given to its ca-
pacity-building needs; such a mecha-
nism shall complement and not
duplicate the work of treaty bodies.
At its fth session on June 18,
2007, the Council responded to this
request and adopted, in Resolution
5/1, detailed modalities regarding the
UPRmechanism. These modalities re-
late, in particular, to the basis of the
review, principles and objectives to be
followed, the periodicity and order of
review of countries, process and mod-
alities as well as the outcome and the
follow-up to the review. Furthermore,
the HRC decided that the review
would be conducted in one working
group composed of the 47 member-
states of the Council.
On September 21, 2007, the HRC
adopted a calendar in relation to the
consideration of the 192 member-
states of the U.N. to be considered dur-
ing the rst four-year cycle of the UPR
mechanism. It decided on the precise
order of consideration of reviewed
states in 2008. In accordance with
Resolution 5/1, the documents on
which the review would be based are
information prepared by the state con-
cerned, which can take the form of a
national report; and any other infor-
mation considered relevant by the
state concerned, which could be pre-
sented either orally or in writing.
Additionally, a compilation pre-
pared by the Ofce of the High Com-
missioner for Human Rights
(OHCHR) of the information con-
tained in the reports of treaty bodies,
special procedures, including observa-
tions and comments by the state con-
cerned, and other relevant ofcial U.N.
documents.
Additional, credible and reliable
information provided by other rele-
vant stakeholders to the Universal Pe-
riodic Review, which should also be
taken into consideration by the Coun-
cil in the review. The stakeholders in-
clude, inter alia, NGOs, human rights
defenders, academic institutions and
research institutes, regional organisa-
tions and civil society representatives.
The national report is required to be
prepared on the basis of general guide-
lines adopted by the Council on Sep-
tember 27, 2007.
Additionally, the HRC adopted a
detailed UPR mechanism on June 18,
2007. It runs into 127 paragraphs plus
20 Rules of Procedure.
When, therefore, Indias report
came up before the Human Rights
Council for its consideration, it had
before it an able compilation prepared
by the OHCHR of the information on
Indias record contained in the reports
of U.N. bodies and rapporteurs as well
as a summary of 37 stakeholders sub-
missions to the UPR. They include
Amnesty International, Human
Rights Watch and the Kashmir Insti-
tute of International Relations. It al-
leged that 80 per cent of the school
buildings were occupied by the Army.
Even in former times, internation-
al NGOs would brief members thor-
oughly on aws in the reports
submitted by the states. The HRC ap-
pointed Ghana, Indonesia and the
Netherlands as a troika of rapporteurs
to facilitate review of Indias report.
A list of questions prepared in advance
by Ireland, Germany, Portugal, Italy,
Sweden, Denmark, Finland, the Neth-
erlands, the United Kingdom and Lat-
via was transmitted to India through
the troika. These questions are avail-
able on the extranet of the UPR.
QUESTI ONS TO I NDI A
The report was considered on April 10,
2008. Forty-two statements were
made by various delegations. Those
from the Third World were benign.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
The ofcial Summary of the Proceed-
ings of the Review Process and its
Conclusions and/or Recommenda-
tions make interesting reading. Here
are some revealing nuggets:
While welcoming the fact that In-
dia is a party to a number of interna-
tional human rights instruments, the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland noted that India has
not ratied the Convention against
Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment or Punishment,
or its Optional Protocol. It recom-
mended that India ratify both instru-
ments at the earliest opportunity. The
United Kingdom asked for additional
information on (a) reports of attacks
against persons from religious or other
minorities, in particular in Orissa
State; (b) steps to implement treaty
body recommendations on the Armed
Forces Special Powers Act; (c) anti-
conversion legislation; and (d) the
Communal Violence Crimes Bill. It
welcomed the involvement of civil so-
ciety in the national preparatory proc-
ess for the UPR session and
recommended that they be fully in-
volved in the follow-up to UPR.
Canada recognised that India is a
highly diverse country facing many
challenges. It raised issues concerning
the Armed Forces (Special Powers)
Act (AFSPA), the situation of civil so-
ciety and the situation of Dalits. Cana-
da referred to reports of torture and
abuse by and impunity of police and
security forces acting under the AF-
SPA. Canada spoke about the commit-
ment of the Prime Minister and the
studies undertaken to reform the AF-
SPA and asked what measures had
been taken to repeal or reform this Act.
Canada referred to India as a model
where civil society and democracy
ourishes and the press actively re-
ports on human rights abuses.
However, it mentioned allega-
tions about the use of the Foreign Con-
tribution Regulation Act in limiting
civil societys work on sensitive issues
and referred to reports that Amnesty
International had to downsize its work
on account of this Act. With reference
to the follow-up of the 2007 conclud-
F R O N T L I N E 8 3
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
8 4 F R O N T L I N E
Human Rights
ing observations on India adopted by
CERD [Committee on the Elimina-
tion of Racial Discrimination], Cana-
da recommended that India begin
providing disaggregated data on caste
and related discrimination.
Brazil asked several questions re-
garding (a) the measures taken to pro-
mote the empowerment of women and
the main policies taken to mainstream
gender into national plans, (b) the con-
crete measures implemented to com-
bat extreme poverty and (c) the
evaluation of the strategy to end child
labour. Additionally, Brazil proposed
that India consider signing and ratify-
ing the Optional Protocol to the Con-
vention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Discrimination against
Women (CEDAW) as well as Interna-
tional Labour Organisation (ILO)
Conventions No. 138 concerning mini-
mum age for admission to employ-
ment and No. 182 concerning the
prohibition and immediate action for
the elimination of the worst forms of
child labour.
China asked how India intended to
implement the National Rural Em-
ployment Guarantee Programme fur-
ther. Considering the prohibition of
child labour, the Netherlands recom-
mended that India review its reserva-
tion to Article 32 of the Convention on
the Rights of the Child and ratify ILO
Conventions No. 138 and 182.
Germany asked India to provide
complementary information on (a)
how recommendations made by the
Committee on the Elimination of Ra-
cial Discrimination and CEDAW on
Dalits and Scheduled Castes were be-
ing followed up on, (b) what the posi-
tion of the government was regarding
the recommendation of several treaty
bodies to repeal the Armed Forces
(Special Powers) Act of 1958, and (c)
what concrete steps were being taken
to implement national laws abolishing
child labour.
The United States of America ex-
pressed its satisfaction to see a nation
as diverse as India engaged in the UPR
process. It asked for further details on
(a) freedom of religion and expression
and on the promulgation of state anti-
conversion laws, (b) actions being un-
dertaken to combat police and govern-
ment corruption, (c) implementation
of child labour laws, (d) crimes against
women, including domestic violence,
dowry-related deaths, honour crimes
and sex-selective abortion of unborn
girls, and (e) the social acceptance of
caste-based discrimination.
The Indian delegation said that
ratication of the Convention against
Torture is being actively processed by
the government. The Bharatiya Jana-
ta Party-led National Democratic Alli-
ance government signed it with great
fanfare nearly a decade ago. Nearly a
year has elapsed since the delegation
promised active processing. Nothing
has been done. Pray, what does the
vague, readily abused word process
mean? It is not the Ministry of Ex-
ternal Affairs but the Home Ministry
which creates problems.
In the second round the Republic
of Korea asked for more information
on Section 197 of the Code of Criminal
Procedure of 1973 regarding the im-
punity of civil servants. Tellingly,
Latvia noted Indias positive cooper-
ation with the special procedures and
stated that it would like India to con-
sider extending a standing invitation
to all special procedures of the Human
Rights Council. Switzerland referred
to the reported cases of torture, noted
by the Human Rights Committee and
the Special Rapporteur on the ques-
tion of torture, and welcomed Indias
signature of the Convention against
Torture and its determination to ratify
it. It, therefore, recommended that In-
dia ratify the Convention as soon as
possible. Additionally, it encouraged
India to respond favourably to the re-
newed request made by the Special
Rapporteur on the question of torture
to be permitted to carry out a mission
to the Indian territory as soon as pos-
sible. Lastly, it recommended that a
standing invitation be extended by In-
dia to all the Councils special
procedures.
Sweden raised two questions
which it stated could also be seen as
recommendations. India has ratied
or acceded to several instruments of
international law relating to human
rights, but there are also a number of
instruments to which it is not a party,
notably, the Convention against
Torture, the Refugee Convention and
ILO Convention Nos. 138 and 182 re-
lating to child labour. It noted with
interest Indias intention to ratify the
Convention against Torture and en-
couraged the government to do so.
Indias bland denials verged on the
ridiculous. India noted that Canada,
as well as others, referred to the im-
punity for human rights violations un-
der the Armed Forces Act which was
incorrect. India stated that no forces,
armed or police, function with impun-
ity. Armed forces were under strict or-
ders not to transgress human rights
and the strictest action is taken, and
incidents are swiftly adjudicated by
procedures that include court-mar-
tials. Tell that to the Kashmiris. The
recent outrage in Sopore alone belies
the claim. Regarding questions on
minorities from Saudi Arabia and
Bangladesh, India noted that minor-
ities, both religious and cultural, enjoy
a very special status. Indeed, like
Kashmirs special status?
The tabulation of Recommenda-
tion and Indias Response put out by
the OHCHR makes interesting read-
ing. Note the bureaucratese evasion.
Requests for concrete action are met
with profuse expressions of devotion to
the rights.
The implication is clear. We are
perfect. We are doing ne. The action
recommended is unnecessary.
Ratication of
the Convention
against Torture
is being actively
processed
by the [Indian]
government.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 8 5
NOW that the next general elections have be-
come a proximate, profound issue, decisive for the
nations future andwith creative potential for Indias
democratic survival, any improvement of the peo-
ples participative and representative character of
the elections has a positive value and is welcome.
To reduce the tension after the poll process is
over, and before the procedure for counting is con-
cluded in a populous parliamentary constituency, an
alternative suggestion or proposal for eliminating
delay and foul play and malpractice with ballots is
called for. What I suggest is the following:
When Benazir Bhutto was a candidate in Pakis-
tans general elections several years ago, I happened
to be an international observer. Of course, there were
other leading gures from other countries too. To my
surprise I found two novel features, which India may
copy with modications as felt necessary.
One was that instead of the local police to main-
tain law and order, there were pickets of Army per-
sonnel located some distance away from the polling
station. I asked why the local police was kept away
and the Army was brought in. The reply was that the
local political leaders could inuence the local police,
while the Army could not be inuenced.
The second feature was phenomenal. At 5 p.m.
polling ended, and when I went to the station, the
returning ofcer told me that the counting in that
polling station wouldbegin a couple of hours later, at
7 p.m., and every candidates representative would
be present at the counter when objections could be
raised and considered by the returning ofcer. The
result of the counting wouldbe communicated to the
candidates ofcially. This was decentralisation of
counting, and the results were made known quickly.
So much so, there was no tension or speculation, and
by late night information about the result of the
counting would be available from the various polling
stations. The victory of the candidate was not in
doubt; no tampering in the polling station or while
the boxes were in transit to the central polling station
was possible.
This procedure quickens the completion of the
process; reduces tension and delay; and makes the
counting easier, with the numbers being manage-
able; and the entire outt at the polling booths han-
dles the counting effectively.
THE SOVI ET EXPERI ENCE
The second suggestion is what I thought workedwell
in the Soviet Union under the election law. Every
large hospital and large prison had a small polling
station. It may not be possible for many patients in
the hospital to move to the polling station. But they
can vote safely if there is a polling station inside the
hospital, with the presence of the candidates or their
representatives, as in any other polling station, en-
suring fair play. Many patients, who cannot other-
wise vote because their illness prevents them from
reaching their polling station, will be able to exercise
their franchise by this harmless process.
Similarly, central prisons in every State keep in
their custody many thousands of undertrials who are
otherwise entitled to vote. They cannot vote because
they happen to be in custody, though they may, after
trial, be acquitted. Why deny them their vote if, by
setting up a polling station in the prison, those who
are entitled to vote under the law can do so, though
for the time being they happen to be in custody. They
should not be deprived of their right to choose a
representative.
Another suggestion is that every voter must have
the right to suggest a name, which he chooses to vote
for, if he nds it difcult, conscionably, to vote for all
or any candidate as he nds them too bad to claim his
approval. This, too, is a practice that once prevailed
in the Soviet Union.
The Law Reforms Commission, Kerala, has
Points to ponder
A provision we may consider
borrowing protably from the Soviet
era election law is the right to recall
an elected candidate for gross
misconduct for grave corruption or
outrageous communalism.
A few suggestions for consideration by the Election Commission and the media
and for national public debate. BY V. R. KRI SHNA I YER
Opinion
8 6 F R O N T L I N E
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
section (5), for the words or otherwise
or in the lawful custody of the police,
the words for a period more than one
year or for an offence involving moral
turpitude shall be substituted.
Amendment to the Kerala Mu-
nicipalities Act
Amendment to Section 77: In Sec-
tion 77 of the Kerala Municipalities
Act 1994 (hereinafter referred to as the
principal Act), after Sub-section (2),
the following explanation shall be add-
ed, namely:
Explanation: A person who is de-
tained as an undertrial prisoner in a
jail or is in the custody of police or any
other agency or as an inpatient in any
hospital shall be considered as a per-
son absenting himself temporarily
from his place of residence.
Amendment of Section 132: In
Section 132 of the principal Act, in
Sub-section (5), for the words or oth-
erwise, or is in the lawful custody of the
police, the words for a period more
than one year or for an offence in-
volving moral turpitude shall be
substituted.
In a State where parties are corrupt
and candidates manipulate and win
elections through money, muscle and
maa power, each voter will no longer
be disappointed, given the freedom to
choose his candidate and cast his vote
for him, provided the ballot paper con-
tains an extra column for the voter to
I N BI HAR S BEGUSARAI district, people wait to vote in the Assembly elections in 2005.
made certain proposals that are akin to
what has been stated above. Those
proposals are reproduced below:
Amendment to the Kerala Pan-
chayati Raj Act
Amendment to Section 21: In Sec-
tion 21 of the principal Act, after Sub-
section (2), the following explanation
shall be added, namely:
Explanation: A person who is de-
tained as an undertrial prisoner in a
jail or in custody of police or any other
agency or as an inpatient in any hospi-
tal shall be considered as a person ab-
senting himself temporarily from his
residence.
Amendment to Section 76: In Sec-
tion 76 of the principal Act, in Sub-
F R O N T L I N E 8 7
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
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cast his vote beyond the names formal-
ly printed in the ballot paper.
The process may be cumbersome
but is a check on corruption or maa
manipulation of candidates, and en-
sures for the voter freedom of fran-
chise instead of being forced to choose
one among the party-chosen rotten
apples. A propaganda move by the
media and other publicity measures
may make this procedure available for
promoting clean elections.
These suggestions require national
debate and parliamentary legislation. I
hope the nation will see some sense in
the proposals I have made not with
dogmatic originality but from what I
have observed working elsewhere as
satisfactory. The purpose is to see that
democratic governance operates
through candidates who effectively
represent the constituency better than
at present.
REPRESENTATI ON FOR WOMEN
Women comprise half of the popula-
tion in India, and if democracy is to
have sex egalite and women power
with its real play in the governance of
the country, every political party con-
testing elections should provide half
the number of candidates from among
women. We nd a gross disproportion
in the presence of women in the judici-
ary, the legislature and the executive.
This gender injustice can be cor-
rected only by the Election Commis-
sion insisting on every political party
seeking to contest the election provid-
ing the Election Commission with its
list of candidates in which half the
number should be of women. Or, there
must be more constituencies exclu-
sively for women, as there is for the
Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes at
present. There can be a provision to
make womens egalitarian participa-
tion by extensive reservation of con-
stituencies for women only.
One provision we may consider
borrowing protably from the Soviet
era election law is the right to recall an
elected candidate for gross miscon-
duct for grave corruption or outra-
geous communalism. In the Soviet
Union, I have read, such a provision
existed and worked. Party candidates
had been successfully recalled on an
appropriate motion and subject to
strict procedure.
In India today, corruption and
communalism and other vices in elec-
tions, and later by parliamentarians,
have reached Himalayan proportions
that in extreme cases of proven mis-
behaviour are unworthy of members.
There is no justication why a right of
statutory recall should not be made
under the Representation of the Peo-
ple Act.
I seriously suggest that there be a
national debate on this subject and
that recall becomes a voters right from
panchayats to Parliament.
When India won Independence
three score years ago, it made a great
tryst with destiny reminiscent of Abra-
ham Lincolns historic Gettysburg
speech, which I recall here:
It is for us, the living, rather to be
dedicated here to the unnished work
which they who fought here have thus
far so nobly advanced. It is rather for
us to be here dedicated to the great
task remaining before us; that from
these honoured dead we take in-
creased devotion to that cause for
which they gave the last full measure of
devotion; that we here highly resolve
that the dead shall not have died in
vain; that this nation, under God, shall
have a new birth of freedom; and that
government of the people, by the peo-
ple, and for the people, shall not perish
from the earth.
What the little man of India has
lost after 60 years of Independence is
the equal chance implied in the great
sublime word democracy. It is histor-
ically explained in the great Gettys-
burg speech of Abraham Lincoln and
further sharply presented by Winston
Churchill in an apt quoted passage,
which is given below:
At the bottom of all the tributes
paid to democracy is the little man
walking into the little booth with a
little pencil, making a little cross on a
little bit of paper. No amount of rheto-
ric or voluminous discussion can pos-
sibly diminish the overwhelming
importance of that point.
Our challenge today for the little
Indian in large numbers is to win back
his right under the Constitution spelt
out in the Preamble Part III, IV and IV
A of the suprema lex.
Our challenge
today for the
little Indian is
to win back his
right under the
Constitution.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
8 8 F R O N T L I N E
A
visit to Western Europe in
early March provided some
slightly different if unset-
tling insights into global
economic arrangements
and their socio-cultural coordinates.
As the crisis unfolds, people everywh-
ere are questioning current economic
institutions and processes. Naturally
enough, their fears, insecurities and
concerns also affect their visions for
the future. The fundamental issues re-
late to income and resource distribu-
tion, but in this time of global crisis,
the expression of these issues can be-
come sharper and even more openly
divisive in spirit.
Two features of some of the current
public responses in these societies are
especially relevant in this context. The
rst is the barely concealed animosity
towards China and India (inevitably
clubbed together, despite all the huge
differences) as perceived beneciaries
of globalisation and voracious con-
sumers of global resources. The second
is the general inability to conceive of a
way out of the current global economic
crisis without replicating the past even
though clearly those past trends can-
not be sustained.
European attitudes towards Asia
have long been characterised by var-
ying combinations of fear and fascina-
tion, respect and revulsion,
competition and colonialism as stud-
ies of Orientalism have made only too
evident. But the current public percep-
tions are somewhat different: fed by a
sensationalising media that cannot
waste time or space on complexities,
they move in pendulum swings from
seeing populous Asia as the breeding
ground for poverty and terrorism to
believing that aggressive exporting
manufacturing jobs from North to
South when the fact is that manufac-
turing employment has declined in the
developing world as a whole, has bare-
ly increased in most countries of Asia
and has actually declined since 1997 in
what is generally accepted to be the
workshop of the world, China.
A member of the audience at a
public debate in London asked wheth-
er China and India, newly enriched by
exploiting the globalisation process,
would therefore use the current crisis
as an opportunity to ride through the
global economic tsunami which
threatens to engulf everyone else, and
emerge stronger than the United
States and Europe. A distinguished-
looking and apparently eminent elder-
ly gentleman at a large conference in
Berlin was even sharper: China and
India, he claimed, beneted from the
Asian economic crisis in 1997-98 at the
cost of their neighbours, and now they
will benet from the global crisis. An-
other participant from the oor ex-
pressed it slightly differently: These
countries are not poor, they are full of
billionaires and have four out of ten of
the worlds richest people, and yet they
come blaming us for the crisis and de-
manding assistance from us.
These are obviously not politically
correct positions, nor are they neces-
sarily even the majority view, since
they were opposed by other participa-
nts in each of these events. Yet, the
sheer honesty of their expression is
useful, since it provides some idea of
what must be a widespread underlying
perception. And the concerns do not
relate only to potential shifts in geo-
political or economic power. Even
among more progressive people in Eu-
rope, there is a palpable fear (some-
based on underpriced labour is caus-
ing more than two billion people to
lead middle-class lives that draw un-
sustainably on the worlds resources.
SHEER I GNORANCE
Of course, sheer ignorance explains a
lot. Among the general public in Eu-
rope, and even in the more informed
sections, there is almost no realisation
of how globalisation has adversely af-
fected livelihoods and employment of
the majority of the population in the
developing world, including in fast-
growing Asian countries. The agrarian
crisis is largely seen to be history, sup-
posedly vanquished by the rising pric-
es of agricultural goods in world trade
between 2002 and mid-2008, even
though farmers incomes continue to
stagnate and cultivation is still barely
viable in large parts of the developing
world. Because of the volumes of man-
ufacturing exports from Asia, there is
still a widespread perception of shift of
Time to change
The current crisis is an excellent opportunity to reorganise economic life in the
developed world, making it less rapacious and more sustainable.
Preoccupations
JAYATI GHOSH
Column
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 8 9
times unspoken and sometimes ex-
pressed only in subtle and qualied
arguments) that growing consump-
tion of such a large part of the worlds
population will put an unbearable
strain on global resources and, there-
fore, cannot really be supported.
There is certainly some degree of
truth in this there is no question that
current Northern standards of life
cannot be sustained if they were made
accessible to everyone on the planet.
This means that future economic
growth in the developing world has to
involve more equitable and sensible
patterns of consumption and produc-
tion. But that hardly deals with the
basic problem. Even if the elite and the
middle class of the developing world,
particularly from China and India, just
stopped increasing their consumption,
simply bringing the vast majority of
the developing worlds population to
anything resembling a minimally ac-
ceptable standard of living will involve
extensive use of global resources. It
will necessarily imply the use of more
natural resources and more carbon
emission.
So the stark reality is that the de-
veloped world must, on the whole,
consume less of the worlds resources
and reduce its contribution to global
warming absolutely. This, in turn, has
effects on income as well. It is not im-
mediately clear why rich countries
with falling populations necessarily
need to increase their GDP, and why
they should not focus, instead, on in-
ternal redistribution and changing lif-
estyles, which could, in fact, improve
the quality of life of every citizen.
The current crisis is an excellent
even unique opportunity to bring
about such shifts in socially created
aspirations and material wants, and to
reorganise economic life in the devel-
oped world to be less rapacious and
more sustainable. But, sadly, this mes-
sage is not being heard at least among
the major policymakers in the core
capitalist countries. In the U.S., even
the relatively environment-friendly
Obama administration simply talks
about promoting cleaner, greener
technologies rather than altering ab-
surd and wasteful consumption pat-
terns. For example, it is still basing its
transport strategy on an excessive re-
liance on private automobile use rath-
er than on a more extensive and
efcient public transport.
In Europe, too, the focus is on re-
viving and increasing the old and per-
haps outdated patterns of
consumption. Italian Prime Minister
Silvio Berlusconi has pleaded with his
people not to change their lifestyles
because of this crisis, because that
would reduce economic activity imme-
diately. The implication is that waste-
ful and excessive consumption is
socially desirable because that is the
only way to preserve employment.
Globally, too, policymakers are dis-
playing the same startling lack of
imagination. The focus is on the U.S.
and all eyes are on the Obama recovery
package, since direct or indirect de-
pendence on exports to the U.S. is so
great for most countries that this is
seen as the only way for all economies
to recover. Yet, the U.S. simply cannot
continue to be the engine of world
growth, given its huge external debt
and current decit, nor is it desirable
that it should do so. This creates an
inevitable and urgent need for other
economies to redirect their trade and
investment, at least at the margin. This
also creates an opportunity for other
countries to think about generating
more sustainable, and possibly more
desirable, consumption patterns.
Why is it that so few people, espe-
cially those in a position to inuence
economic policies today, are raising
these rather obvious questions? What
we do not seem to realise is that unless
these basic issues are sorted out, we
will not only be marching with lem-
ming-like intensity and desperation to
the sea but also be squabbling, ghting
and even killing each other for the
privilege of getting there rst.
PRESI DENT BARACK OBAMA with visiting Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at the White House on March
14. The focus is on the U.S., and all eyes are on the Obama recovery package, since direct or indirect dependence on
exports to the U.S. is so great for most countries that this is seen as the only way for all economies to recover.
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THOUGH her provocative portrayal of the ex-
Schutzstaffel (SS) guard Hanna Schmitz in The
Reader won Kate Winslet the Oscar, it is fair to
assume that Academy voters also took into account
her work in Revolutionary Road. All this speaks
volumes about her persistence, warmth and commit-
ment to work.
Bernhard Schlinks novel The Reader (1995), on
which the movie is based, tackles the problem of the
inability of succeeding generations of Germans to
respond to the tragedy of the Holocaust. The ideol-
ogy of mass murder has a history and a context in all
its perversity and evil.
Set in 1958, in the city of Heidelberg, the novel/
lm begins with the short and passionate affair be-
tween a 15-year-old schoolboy, Michael, and a 36-
year-old tram conductress, Hanna Schmitz, who has
him read to her from the classics before making love.
She hides from him the fact that she cannot read or
write, but he knows. The nude scenes are deeply
aesthetic and coherent to the theme of dichotomy of
passion and indifference. Then Hanna Schmitz dis-
appears suddenly, only to be discovered by Michael
eight years later at a war crimes trial.
She, along with a few others who had worked as
SS guards, are held guilty of allowing Jews in their
custody to die. When asked if she is the author of the
report on the re that killed the Jews, Hanna
Schmitz does not deny it. Michael is confused and
horried that she regards the public exposure of her
illiteracy far worse and humiliating than her in-
volvement with the Nazi programme.
During the trial it is revealed that Hanna
Schmitz had the terminally ill Jews read to her before
sending them to the gas chambers. Michael conjec-
tures that she probably wanted to make their last
days bearable; or did she send them to their death so
that her illiteracy remained a secret? Hanna
Schmitzs true guilt is her illiteracy, which becomes
an allegory for the contemporary misunderstanding
of the Holocaust. She is convicted and sentenced to
life imprisonment.
A GERMAN FATE
Michael is left thinking: I wanted simultaneously to
understand Hannas crime and to condemn it. But it
was too terrible for that. When I tried to understand
it, I had the feeling I was failing to condemn it as it
must be condemned. When I condemned it as it
must be condemned, there was no room for un-
derstanding.... I wanted to pose myself both tasks
understanding and condemnation. But it was impos-
sible to do both the pain I went through because of
my love for Hanna was, in a way, the fate of my
generation, a German fate.
It is at the Natzweiler-Struthof concentration
camp that Michael meets an old man who gives him
his reasons for the complicity of those behind the
Holocaust tragedy: An executioner is not under
orders. Hes doing his work, he doesnt hate the
people he executes, hes not taking revenge on them,
hes not killing them because theyre in his way or
threatening or attacking them. Theyre a matter of
such indifference to him that he can kill them as
easily as not.
In the novel, Bernhard Schlink asks himself and
the reader: What should our second generation
have done, what should it do with the knowledge of
the horrors of the extermination of the Jews? We
should not believe we can comprehend the incom-
prehensible, we may not compare the incomparable,
we may not inquire because to make the horrors an
object of inquiry is to make the horrors an object of
discussion, even if the horrors themselves are not
questioned, instead of accepting them as something
in the face of which we can only fall silent in re-
vulsion, shame and guilt. Should we only fall silent in
revulsion, shame and guilt? To what purpose?
The story derives its signicance from the com-
plex notions of justice and responsibility that it
Tragedy of history
She nds no pleasure in cruelty, but
has acquired the faculty of shutting
her mind to it. She remains adamant
that her actions were in coherence
with her sense of duty.
Hanna Schmitz in The Reader is responsible for the death of hundreds of Jews,
but why do we sympathise with her? BY SHELLEY WALI A
Film
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 9 1
throws up in the court scene, a location
for the conict between ethics and du-
ty. The public prosecutor asks Hanna
Schmitz to explain why she had al-
lowed more than 300 mothers and
children to perish in the re when the
church in which the Jews were locked
up had come under heavy aerial bom-
bardment.
She replies that as a guard on duty,
she could not possibly open the doors
of the church to allow the prisoners to
escape. She reasons that it never oc-
curred to her to unlock the doors of the
blazing church; her sense of duty pre-
vails over any pity or sense of ethics
and humanitarian rationale. Her in-
ability to see the reasons for her perse-
cution seems justied when seen in the
light of the controversy over Hannah
Arendts article, Eichmann in Jerusa-
lem. In 1963, Hannah Arendts articles
for The New Yorker on Adolf Eich-
manns trial in an Israeli court pro-
voked a heated discussion among
Western intellectuals, including Irving
Howe and Alfred Cazin.
Both the characters, the philoso-
pher and the heroine of The Reader,
carry the same rst name. It is for this
reason that the movie becomes intel-
lectually challenging, when seen in the
light of Hannah Arendts philosophy
on the banality of evil. Why do we
sympathise with Hanna Schmitz?
Her persecution goes down well
with the Jewish lobby and those who
hold a traditional view of ethics and
morality. But seen in terms of her
sense of duty, the crime begins to take
on another shade of the responsibility
of action.
Within the ambit of ones duty lies
the question of behaviour according to
the demands of the job in hand even if
it means death for some. This is the
central paradox of any discussion on
the philosophical issue of ethics and
duty. It is commonly held that the
commitment of an evil deed must in-
volve an evil heart or a criminal tem-
perament.
But within Hannah Arendts con-
cept of the banality of evil this is not
the case. You can very well commit a
culpable deed without having a streak
of wickedness. Hannah Arendt argues,
It is, I think, a simple fact that people
are at least as often tempted to do good
and need an effort to do evil as vice
versa.
Hanna Schmitz has no pleasure in
cruelty, but has acquired the faculty of
shutting her mind to it. This is regi-
mentation under a strict bureaucracy.
She lacks a criminal mind, as did Eich-
mann. The fact that Hanna Schmitz
passionately enjoys her teenage para-
mour reading to her from the classics
and that she permits him to make love
to her only after she has relished the
reading shows that her reprehensible
KATE WI NSLET (HANNA Schmitz) and David Kross (Michael) in a still from the lm.
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act does not come from an evil mind.
Eichmanns involvement in the de-
portation of hundreds of Jews to the
gas chambers does not give him any
pangs of conscience; it is the result of a
deep-seated desire to full the de-
mands of an assign-
ment. Personal
feelings or the sense of
morality are not per-
mitted to interfere
with the sense of duty.
All his life, he had
shown an acute sense
of law and morality
that dominated his ev-
ery action. When it
came to organising the
deportation, he single-
mindedly saw to it that
the job in hand reac-
hed its conclusion. To
Hannah Arendt, it was
more a case of thought-
lessness than a mon-
strosity, an incapacity
to think from the point of view of
others.
In a deeply regimented totalitarian
state, individualism amounts to incon-
sequential actions. What if one re-
volts? Ones removal will not mean the
arrival of another re-
bel. It would end in a
more controlled au-
tonomy under a harsh-
er bureaucratic system
that co-opts more plia-
ble recruits into the
system. And in such a
system, one confronts
two kinds of people, in-
tellectuals who have
the conviction and the
mind to rebel, and the
others who consider
themselves as normal
and value conformism
and obedience to the
rules of the state.
Hannah Arendt,
therefore, agrees with
Immanuel Kant who dened judg-
ment as the faculty which always
comes into play when we are confront-
ed with particulars. There are no rules
that can be applicable to circumstanc-
es that in a particular situation appear
unique. At the human level, the choic-
es we make determine our destiny and
dene our ideological stance. Rules are
too conventional and narrow in scope
to cover the paradoxes and ironies of
our existence.
In order not to reveal to the world
that she is anilliterate, Hanna Schmitz
refuses to admit that she is not the
author of the order made out against
the prisoners. This lie would cost her a
lifetime in prison followed by suicide.
But to the end she remains adamant
that her actions were in coherence
with her sense of duty. She donates her
meagre wealth to the Jewish cause be-
fore dying, but nowhere is there any
repentance. Justice and responsibility
are after all not all that unambiguously
simple concepts to deal with.
THE TRI AL OF Adolf Eichmann, one of Adolf Hitlers lieutenants, in Jerusalemon December 11, 1961. Eichmann,
seen in the glass cage, was involved in the deportation of Jews to the gas chambers. He did not have any pangs of
conscience about it and felt that he was fullling the demands of an assignment.
A
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ADOLF EI CHMANN. HE ed
to Argentina after the
Second World War but was
arrested in 1960.
A
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F R O N T L I N E 9 3
THE total eclipse of the sun that will occur on
July 22, 2009, will be one of the most important
astronomical events of this century for India as the
path of totality will pass over a good number of cities
and several densely populated areas of the country-
side. Moreover, the next solar eclipse whose totality
track will pass over the thickly populated areas of
India is to occur in 2114, that is, after a gap of over
100 years. This eclipse is of special signicance also
because it will be the longest solar eclipse of this
century, with totality lasting more than 6.6 minutes
at maximum. This will make it the longest total solar
eclipse until 2132.
Of the many astronomical phenomena of interest
to the layman as well as the professional astronomer,
and visible to the naked eye, a total solar eclipse is the
most spectacular. Rarely does the track of totality
pass over thickly populated regions, but if one is near
the path, it is worth travelling to the area to witness
the eclipse.
CAUSE OF SOLAR ECLI PSE
An eclipse of the sun is caused by the inter-position
of the dark body of the moon between the earth and
the sun so that the shadow of the moon sweeps over
the face of the earth. It can occur only during the new
moon, when the moon is in conjunction with the sun.
In other words, an eclipse of the sun occurs when the
moon passes so near the line between the earth and
the sun as to cut off some or all of the suns light. This
shadow consists of two parts: the umbra, or total
shadow, a cone into which no direct sunlight pene-
trates; and the penumbra, or half shadow, which gets
light from only a part of the suns disc as shown in
Diagram1.
To an observer who is within the umbra, the sun
will appear completely covered by the moon, that is,
a total solar eclipse (Diagram 1-b). If the observer is
within the penumbra, the moons disc will appear
projected onto the suns disc so as to cover it partly,
that is, a partial solar eclipse (Diagram 1-c). An
annular eclipse occurs when the moon is directly
between the earth and the sun but the umbra does
not reach the earth (Diagram 1-a).
If the plane of the moons orbit around the earth
coincided with the ecliptic (that is, the plane of the
earths orbit around the sun), an eclipse of the sun
would take place at every new moon, that is, at
intervals of about 29 days. But this is not so. The
moons orbit is actually inclined about ve degrees to
the ecliptic, and it is only when the moon happens to
be at or near one of the nodes where the orbits
intersect that the three bodies are nearly in the same
Solar spectacle
The path of totality will pass over a
good number of cities and several
densely populated areas of the
countryside; this will happen next
only in 2114. It will be the longest
solar eclipse until 2132.
The total solar eclipse that will occur on July 22 will be one of the most important
astronomical events of this century for India. BY AMALENDU BANDYOPADHYAY
THE DI AMOND RI NG effect, photographed during
the eclipse on October 24,1995.
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
9 4 F R O N T L I N E
line and an eclipse can occur. At other
times, the shadow of the moon just
disappears into space.
FREQUENCY OF ECLI PSES
In a year, there can be a minimum of
two eclipses, both solar, and a maxi-
mum of seven eclipses, out of which
four may be solar and three lunar or
ve solar and two lunar. The track of
totality is narrow never more than
269 kilometres and as such the
chances of seeing a total eclipse from
any given locality are small. In the long
run a total eclipse of the sun happens
at a particular place only once in about
360 years.
The sun is 1,392,000 km in diame-
ter and the moon is only 3,476 km in
diameter. To us on the earth, the two
bodies appear about the same size be-
cause while the diameter of the sun is
about 400 times that of the moon, the
sun is also about 400 times as far away.
It is then to be regarded as a circum-
stance fortunate for the advancement
of astronomical science that the spatial
relationship of the sun, the moon and
the earth are as they happen to be. In
fact, a very small decrease in the angu-
lar diameter of the moon relative to
that of the sun would have rendered
improbable this most sublime specta-
cle of a total eclipse of the sun.
ECLI PSE PATTERNS
The Chaldean astronomers in about
400 B.C. discovered that eclipses occur
in regular succession at an interval of
18 years and 111/3 days. This cycle is
known as the Chaldean Saros. Saros
comes from a Greek word for repeti-
tion. The exact interval is 223 luna-
tions, or 6,585.3 days. The Saros cycle
provides a simple method of predic-
ting the eclipses. But though the
eclipse repeats itself every Saros cycle,
it is not visible from the same place on
the earth. Since the cycle is one-third
of a day longer than 18 years and 11
days, when the eclipse recurs, the earth
will have spun one-third of a rotation
farther east and the eclipse will occur
to the west of where it did earlier.
As the moon moves eastward in its
orbit with respect to the sun at an aver-
age speed of 3,400 km an hour, its
shadow sweeps eastward across the
earth at the same speed. The earth,
however, is rotating towards the east in
the same general direction. Since at
the equator the earths surface moves
at about 1,670 km an hour, the shadow
moves relative to the earth at about
1,730 km an hour. In higher latitudes,
where the velocity of the earths sur-
face is less, the shadows relative speed
is higher.
The tip of the truncated cone of the
umbra of the moons shadow sweeps
along a thin band across the earths
surface and the phase of totality of the
eclipse is observed successively along
it. Because of the shadows speed, to-
tality is brief. The path across the earth
within which a total solar eclipse is
visible is called the path of totality.
Within about 3,000 km on either
side of the path of totality, a partial
eclipse is visible, the observer being
located in the penumbra of the sha-
dow. An eclipse of the sun observed at
a location near the equator under the
most favourable conditions namely,
when the moon is nearest to the earth
and the sun is at its farthest from the
earth may be a total one for 7min-
utes, the maximum possible duration.
Such an eclipse will be visible in India
on July 5, 2168 the longest eclipse in
human history.
The long totality phase of the July
22, 2009, eclipse will mainly be be-
cause the eclipse will start just a few
hours after the moon reaches its peri-
gee (closest approach to the earth). At
such a close distance, the moon ap-
pears fully 8 per cent larger than the
sun and casts a broader than usual
shadow.
In the observation of a solar
eclipse, four contacts are recognised:
the rst when the edge of the moon
rst touches the edge of the sun, the
second when the eclipse becomes total
or annular, the third at the cessation of
the total or annular phase, and the
fourth when the moon nally leaves
the suns disc. From the rst contact to
the fourth, the time can even be a little
over four hours.
The last total solar eclipse whose
path of totality passed over India oc-
curred on August 11, 1999, but this
eclipse lost its importance as the phase
of totality was visible just before sunset
mainly from a few locations in Gujarat.
The total solar eclipse on February
16, 1980, was of particular interest to
astronomers in India as there was a
well-observable totality phase in India
for the rst time in the 20th century.
The previous total solar eclipse seen
over central India occurred on January
22, 1898 the solar eclipse of 1980
embraced the Indian subcontinent af-
ter a long gap of 82 years.
Of course, after a gap of only 15
years, on October 24, 1995, the path of
totality of another solar eclipse swept
over thickly populated areas of India,
and a very large number of people and
astronomers were able to witness it.
PATH OF THE JULY ECLI PSE
The path of totality of the July 22
eclipse will start just off the western
coast of India and cross India, the ex-
treme north of Myanmar and China to
end in the Pacic Ocean among the
Hawaiian islands. The totality phase
will begin at 6-23 a.m. IST and end at
9-48 a.m. IST. This eclipse will be vis-
ible as a partial eclipse from the east-
ern part of Africa, Madagascar, Asia,
part of Indonesia, the extreme north-
east tip of Australia and the extreme
northern part of North Island, New
Zealand. The partial phase will begin
at 5-28 a.m. and end at 10-42 a.m. IST.
The umbra of the moons shadow
will rst touch the earth off the west-
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 9 5
ern coast of India at sunrise at 6-23
a.m. Within seconds, the coastal city of
Surat (Gujarat) will be plunged into
darkness for three minutes and 17 sec-
onds. Here the sun is only 3 above the
eastern horizon, but the altitude of the
eclipse will rapidly increase as the um-
bra rushes east. Vadodara (Gujarat)
will be on the northern limit of totality
and will experience darkness for one
minute and 19 seconds.
The umbral shadow will take just
eight minutes to cross India. The sha-
dow will reach Indore (Madhya Pra-
desh), which will be plunged into
totality for three minutes and 13 sec-
onds; here the altitude of the sun is
merely 6 above the horizon. Bhopal
(Madhya Pradesh) lies 40 km north of
the central line. Even at this distance,
it will succumbto three minutes and12
seconds of the total phase.
Approximately 400 km north of
the path, the Taj Mahal in Agra (Uttar
Pradesh) will experience a deep partial
phase of magnitude 0.906 (magnitude
is the fraction of the suns diameter
obscured by the moon) at 6-26 a.m.
IST. The width of the path of totality
will be 218 km here. Allahabad (Uttar
Pradesh) will just miss the totality
track and experience a signicant par-
tial phase of magnitude 0.999.
Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Pat-
na (Bihar) both lie within the shadows
path. About 500 km to the south-east,
the populace of Kolkata (West Bengal)
will be able to view a partial eclipse of
magnitude 0.911. The track of the um-
bral shadow will sweep over Darjeel-
ing and Siliguri, both in West Bengal;
Gangtok in Sikkim; Thimphu in Bhu-
tan(here the umbral path width will be
224 km); Dibrugarh in Assam; and
Itanagar in Arunachal Pradesh and
then across northern Myanmar before
the entire shadow enters Chinas Yun-
nan province. Guwahati (Assam) will
just miss the umbral track and experi-
ence a deep partial eclipse of magni-
tude 0.998.
The instant of greatest eclipse will
occur at 8 hours 5 minutes 19 seconds
IST at a location in the Pacic Ocean
(latitude 24 13 N, longitude 144 07
E) where the duration of totality will be
six minutes and 39 seconds; the suns
altitude will be 86.
The countdown to the phase of to-
tality is dramatic. Three minutes be-
fore totality, the sky darkens, some
owers fold up, and wildlife, especially
birds, exhibit nocturnal behaviour.
The landscape takes on unusual colour
tones. Only a narrow crescent of the
sun can be seen, sunlight ltering
through the foliage of trees forms cres-
cent-shaped images on the ground.
From atop a hill, if one looks to-
wards the western horizon about two
minutes before totality, one can see the
umbral shadow of the moon approach-
ing at about 3,000 km an hour. About
one minute before totality, curious
moving ripples of dark and light bands
appear on any smooth white surface.
These shadow bands (as they are
called) are a curious atmospheric phe-
nomenon. Inthe last few seconds, light
falls rapidly, it becomes cooler and the
wind tends to drop. And then the real
drama begins.
In the last instant before totality,
the only visible parts of the sun are
those that shine through the lower val-
leys in the moons irregular prole and
line up along the periphery of the ad-
vancing edge of the moon. This gives
one the impression of watching a bril-
liant beaded necklace the phenome-
non is known as Bailys beads. The
nal ash of sunlight through a lunar
valley produces a brilliant are
(LEFT) THE PATH of totality
passing over India. (Above)
The gobal path of totality.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
9 6 F R O N T L I N E
known as the diamond ring effect. Af-
ter the diamond ring disappears, if one
looks at the crescent of the sun through
a pair of binoculars, one can see the
beautiful ash spectrum. The chro-
mosphere (the suns lower atmo-
sphere, which lies just above its visible
photosphere) blazes away in full glory,
an indication that totality has just
commenced.
At this moment, one can see red
and orange jets of re shooting up.
Known as prominences, they reach to
heights of a few million kilometres
above the solar surface. Prominences
of various shapes and sizes are seen
during totality as pink ame-like pro-
jections. The larger ones are visible
throughout totality, while the smaller
ones appear and disappear as the ad-
vancing moon uncovers or covers
them.
After this phase, the bright disc of
the sun is entirely hidden behind the
moon, and the corona the suns outer
atmosphere consisting of sparse gases
that extend millions of kilometres in
all directions from the apparent sur-
face ashes into view. It is ordinarily
not visible because the light from the
corona is feeble compared with that
from the underlying layers of the sun,
but when the brilliant glare from the
suns visible disc, or photosphere, is
blotted out during an eclipse, the pear-
ly-white corona becomes visible.
The corona is the most striking fea-
ture of a total eclipse. The bright inner
corona contains elegantly shaped
arches and loops that taper off into the
fainter streamers of the outer corona.
These various forms are created by the
solar magnetic eld. The shape of the
corona varies with the 11-year solar
cycle. Totality ends as abruptly as it
begins. The corona vanishes, and the
features of the partial eclipse now re-
cur in reverse order. Finally, the moon
leaves the suns disc. During a total
eclipse, sunlight is greatly reduced and
bright stars and the planets become
visible to the naked eye, the planet
Venus and Sirius, the brightest star,
being the most prominent among
these.
PRECAUTI ONS
How must one witness a solar eclipse?
Watching a partially eclipsed sun is as
hazardous to the naked eye as the un-
eclipsed one. For safe direct viewing,
the intensity of sunlight should be re-
duced at least 100,000 times and the
ultraviolet and infrared part of solar
radiation should effectively be cut off.
The most effective ltering aid is a
dark X-ray plate of sufcient thick-
ness. Another safe device is the dark
arc welders glass. The intensity of the
uneclipsed portion, even when it be-
comes a thin crescent, remains high
enough to cause permanent or partial
blindness. During the phase of totality,
one does not require any lters.
The progress of a solar eclipse can
be observed safely by holding a piece of
cardboard with a one-millimetre-di-
ameter hole in it above a white surface,
such as a concrete pavement. The hole
in the cardboard produces a pinhole
camera image of the sun. With a small
telescope, the suns image can be pro-
jected onto a piece of paper held at the
correct distance with the help of a xed
frame. It will help to keep this piece of
paper within a small, empty, dark
wooden box with no lid. This may well
be the safest device with which to
watchan eclipse; also many people can
watch it simultaneously.
Why are expeditions from many
countries sent out to observe a total
LUNAR VALLEYS, THROUGH which
the suns rays pass to create the
diamond ring and Bailys beads
effects just before totality. (Right)
Bailys beads and a sun ringed by
the glow of prominences,
photographed on July 11, 1991, from
the Baja peninsula.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 9 7
SHADOW BANDS, WHI CH appear about one minute before totality,
photographed by an astronomer from Sicily; (inset) the sun at that moment.
solar eclipse in spite of the enormous
expenditure involved? Because the sun
is the one star whose atmosphere we
can study in minute detail and whose
visible activity provides us with valua-
ble clues to the behaviour of the mil-
lions of other stars that populate our
galaxy. Eclipses also offer opportuni-
ties to observe features near the suns
edge that are ordinarily concealed by
the glare. The corona can be studied
both visually and spectroscopically on-
ly during a total eclipse.
Many important discoveries have
been made in the past through total
eclipse observations. The rst attempt
to photograph the corona for studies of
its structure was made during the
eclipse of July 28, 1851. During the
eclipse of August 17, 1868, when the
path of totality passed over India, the
astronomer Pierre Jules Cesar Janssen
of the famous Meudon Observatory of
France camped in the tobacco elds of
Guntur in Andhra Pradeshanddetect-
ed the existence of an unknown ele-
ment on the suns surface. Since it was
rst seen on the sun, it was named
after Helios (the Greek word for the
sun), and that is how the element heli-
um came to be discovered. That is why
it is said that solar physics was born in
1868 in the tobacco elds of Guntur.
Albert Einsteins theory of relativ-
ity was rst tested during the total so-
lar eclipse of May 29, 1919, when
starlight was proved to be deected by
the suns gravitational eld. Hitherto
undetected comets may be found in
the vicinity of the sun during totality.
In the third week of July, the mon-
soon season will be at its height in
India, and as such, along the entire
track of totality, the season will be hu-
mid with frequent clouds and rain.
Satellite data reveal an especially high
chance of cloud along the central line
of totality in India, with average day-
time amounts oscillating wildly
around 75 per cent. But in spite of the
gloomy cloud statistics, there is still a
ghting chance of sunshine, and in
some spots, the statistics tilt to the
good side of 50/50.
The satellite observations of clou-
diness compiled by the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration
(NASA) show a minimum in the cen-
tral line cloud cover just east of Patna.
This region, along the Ganga river, lies
north of the 700-metre-high Chhota-
nagpur plateau.
The air descending from the plat-
eau to the river will be warm and dry,
slightly decreasing the cloudiness.
This should lower the average cloud
cover to a more tolerable 63 per cent in
the vicinity of Patna. Dibrugarh, at the
head of the Brahmaputra valley, will
have an average cloudiness of 86 per
cent according to surface-based cloud
observations.
That the sun is the source of the
energy that sustains life on the earth
has been realised from the earliest
times. As a result of the realisation of
the essential part played by the sun in
our lives, people have from ancient
times feared a blacking out of the sun,
perhaps more than any other natural
phenomenon. The main point that
should be realised is that all super-
stitions associated with solar eclipses
became prevalent all over the world
because of absolute ignorance of the
science. It is only in comparatively re-
cent times that people came to un-
derstand that eclipses do not mean the
end of the world and that few scientic
events can vie with them in terms of
interest and beauty.
Professor Amalendu Bandyopadhyay
is a senior scientist at the M.P. Birla
Institute of Fundamental Research,
M.P. Birla Planetarium, Kolkata.
REFERENCES
i) Indian Astronomical Ephemeris 2009
computed by the
Positional Astronomy Centre, Kolkata.
ii) NASAs Total Solar Eclipse of 2009,
July 22, Espenak and Anderson 2008.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
9 8 F R O N T L I N E
Column
P
AKISTAN, which was tee-
tering on the brink of an
all-out confrontation be-
tween President Asif Ali
Zardaris regime and the
combined forces of the lawyers move-
ment and the Pakistan Muslim League
(Nawaz), has pulled back from the pre-
cipice, at least for the moment. In a
dramatic development, Prime Minis-
ter Yusuf Raza Gillani announced on
day ve of the Long March for the
restoration of sacked Chief Justice If-
tikhar Chaudhary that his government
has conceded the demand and will also
petition the Supreme Court against
declaring former Prime Minister Na-
waz Sharif and his brother and former
Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif
ineligible for elected ofce.
Political reconciliation seems to be
in the air. But the real test of Pakistans
civilian leadership has only just begun.
It speaks volumes about Pakistans in-
stability and the depth of its systemic
crisis that it was only after the inter-
vention of Army Chief Ashfaq Parvez
Kayani that the crisis was defused at
the very last hour. Crucial, too, were
mediatory efforts by the United States
and the United Kingdom demanding
that Zardari, Gillani and the Sharifs
sort out their differences or face an
aid cut-off.
Clearly, Pakistans turbulent polit-
ical situation is no longer amenable to
resolution on the basis of its internal
and civilian resources and processes
alone. Its institutions, damaged and
corrupted by prolonged military rule,
and weakened by its inept and frac-
tious civilian leadership, cannot en-
sure a secure transition to democracy
with a bare minimum of legitimacy
and stability.
A political catastrophe has been
act in the coming days and weeks in an
effort to shore up his authority with-
out the manipulative legal instru-
ments that were available to him
under outgoing Chief Justice Abdul
Hamid Dogar.
By all reckoning, Zardari has also
lost a good deal of the support he en-
joyed within his Pakistan Peoples Par-
ty (PPP), to whose co-chairmanship he
was catapulted after Benazir Bhuttos
tragic killing. Not only did he not have
a sustained and organic relationship
with the PPP, he also marginalised and
antagonised its better-known leaders,
including former presidential aspirant
Makhdoom Amin Fahim, lawyers
movement leader Aitzaz Ahsan, and
Benazir Bhuttos condants Naheed
Khan and Safdar Abbasi.
However, three things are clear.
First, Zardari will be under intense
pressure to abide by the Charter of
Democracy that Benazir Bhutto and
Nawaz Sharif signed in May 2006,
pledging to work cooperatively to-
wards full democratisation and to keep
the Army and external powers out of
meddling in civilian affairs.
Second, he will be asked to dene
the precise functions and powers of the
President vis-a-vis the Prime Minister
and Parliament. The present dualism
of an executive presidency and an
elected Prime Minister is not sus-
tainable. Nor can the President legiti-
mately hope to continue to wield the
excessive powers he has under the
much disliked Article 58(2)(b) of the
Constitution, including the power to
dismiss an elected government and
dissolve Parliament. This could trigger
changes in power balances and launch
new contestations.
Third, and most important, the
present formula to defuse the confron-
staved off, but only just. The conse-
quences of Chaudharys reinstatement
are yet to be seen. If he rules against
the October 2007 National Reconcil-
iation Ordinance, which dropped cor-
ruption cases against Zardari and his
assassinated wife Benazir Bhutto and
allowed them to be rehabilitated, the
existing political arrangements in Pa-
kistan would come down like a house
of cards.
If Chaudhary declares the Novem-
ber 2007 Provisional Constitutional
Order of former President Pervez
Musharraf null and void, a large num-
ber of appointments made to the high-
er judiciary would be annulled. If he
pursues the cases of missing people,
some of them believed to have been
handed over to the U.S., that can open
a can of worms.
However much Zardari pretends
otherwise, it is incontrovertible that he
has lost face. It is not clear how he will
Fences & windows
As India responds to multiple crises in its immediate neighbourhood, it needs to
rethink its strategic vision and policy radically.
Beyond the
Obvious
PRAFUL BIDWAI
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 9 9
tation centred around Choudharys re-
instatement in no way resolves the
long-term, profound and foundational
crisis in which Pakistan is trapped,
which is at the root of its political tur-
moil, social disarray and growing un-
governability.
This crisis manifests itself in perva-
sive and rapid growth of religious ex-
tremism and jehadi terrorism in
society; the Taliban takeover of the
Swat valley, large chunks of the North-
west Frontier Province (NWFP) and
the Federally Administered Tribal Ar-
eas (FATA); imbalances between civil-
ian and military power centres; ethnic
strife and insurgencies in the smaller
provinces; discontent at the preponde-
rance of people from Punjab in go-
vernment and the Army; increasing
lack of integrity and efcacy of the law-
and-order apparatus; unaccountabil-
ity of the intelligence services; and de-
clining personal security and forced
migration.
MI LI TANCY GONE AWRY
Pakistan is wracked by a rising tide of
terrorism and religious extremism.
The Army has no coherent strategy to
deal with it. It has allowed the Afghan
Talibans Quetta Shura to ourish and
provided sanctuary to its militants in
the border areas. But its calculation
that it would achieve its objective of
creating strategic depth in Afghan-
istan and still control Pakistans in-
ternal jehadi militancy has gone awry.
Benazir Bhuttos assassination, the
Marriott Hotel attack, and the recent
Lahore attack all bear testimony to
this. The Army is either unwilling, or
worse, unable to fully join the ght
against the Taliban in Pakistan.
Nor is it wholeheartedly cooperat-
ing with the U.S.-led forces in Afghan-
istan, which would help break the
nexus between the Al Qaeda-Taliban
in Afghanistan and Baitullah Meh-
suds Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan. This
has only aggravated the Armys legiti-
macy crisis.
With all its institutions in disarray,
the Pakistani state is unravelling. Pa-
kistan is not quite imploding, but pow-
er within it is increasingly fragmented
and the State does not control large
swathes of its territory.
FAI LED STATES I NDEX
This phenomenon is captured by the
notion of the failed or failing state.
Pakistan ranks ninth in the Failed
States Index compiled for 2008 by
Foreign Policy, a magazine of the Fund
for Peace (U.S.). Somalia holds the
rst rank, Sudan the second, and Zim-
babwe the third. Pakistan is just two
ranks below Afghanistan, and margin-
ally higher than war-ravaged Central
African Republic and Guinea.
The Index may not be perfect, but
it is a good pointer. Twelve criteria are
used to compile it, including the states
criminalisation and delegitimisation,
progressive deterioration of public ser-
vices, widespread human rights vio-
lations, a state within a state security
apparatus, legacy of vengeance-seek-
ing groups, the rise of factionalised
elites, uneven economic development
along group lines, sharp and/or severe
economic decline, movement of refu-
gees and internally displaced persons,
and so on.
Pakistan scores badly on (8 or
higher on a worsening scale of 10) on
all but two of these criteria. Pakistans
slow unravelling will have dreadful
consequences for the entire South
Asian region, including Afghanistan.
We cannot afford to be indifferent to
this or to indulge in nger-pointing.
THE I NDI AN STATE S ATTI TUDE
However, the Indian state shows few
signs of comprehending the full di-
mensions and consequences of Pakis-
tans unravelling. Many in the Indian
establishment show a certain schaden-
freude at Pakistans plight and claim it
represents just deserts for its past use
of terrorism as an instrument of state
policy. They indulge in self-congrat-
ulatory contrasts with India. Some, es-
pecially in strategic community, are
undecided if they accept the proposi-
tion that peaceful coexistence between
Indian and Pakistan is impossible.
This speaks of dangerous compla-
cency and smugness. A collapsing or
Talibanised Pakistan will be a grave
danger to India in every way. If Pakis-
tan is unable to control the extremist
militancy that is now devouring it, the
violence will inevitably spread to India
and endanger our citizens already
fragile security. The jehadis will nd
new recruits here. A Hindutva back-
lash to this will put pressure on the
state to take draconian (but eventually
counterproductive) measures to con-
tain violence. This will degrade and
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PUSHPA KAMAL DAHAL Prachanda, Prime Minister of Nepal; Asif Ali Zardari, President of Pakistan; Sheikh
Hasina, Prime Minister of Bangladesh; Mahinda Rajapaksa, President of Sri Lanka.
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 0 F R O N T L I N E
Column
devalue Indian democracy, jeopardis-
ing our greatest achievement, and
disorienting the society and distorting
its priorities.
India needs to develop a compre-
hensive and holistic paradigm which
would help it understand, analyse and
respond to Pakistan. This will mean
addressing some of Pakistans insecur-
ities vis-a-vis India by, for instance,
pulling out troops from Jammu and
Kashmir and further pacifying the
border, and by curbing military expen-
ditures and negotiating nuclear risk-
reduction measures. It also entails en-
gaging Pakistani civil society and
political parties, and building strategic
alliances with all the forces that stand
for moderation and democratisation
in Pakistan.
India needs to develop similar
cooperative approaches towards its
other neighbours too, especially Sri
Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal, each of
which confronts India with difcult
choices.
SRI LANKAN CRI SI S
The topmost priority is Sri Lanka,
where a massive humanitarian crisis
has arisen as the Sri Lankan Armed
Forces (SLAF) pursue their war
against the Liberation Tigers of Tamil
Eelam (LTTE). The war is largely justi-
ed. But the fate of the 1,50,000 to
2,50,000 civilians trapped in the war
zone is a cause for concern.
According to several independent
reports by the Human Rights Watch,
the International Crisis Group and the
United Nations High Commissioner
for Human Rights Navanethan Pillay
both the SLAF and the LTTE have
been targeting civilians or using them
as human shields. Since January 20,
over 2,800 people have been killed and
7,000 injured. The current level of
civilian casualties is truly shocking,
there are legitimate fears that the loss
of life may reach catastrophic levels if
the ghting continues this way, says
Pillay.
India has a special responsibility
towards the trapped civilians, on two
counts. First, India has provided cru-
cial logistical support, including radar
surveillance and tracking, and helicop-
ters, to the SLAF. Without Indias sup-
port, the SLAF could not have
prosecuted the war successfully. But
New Delhi has done little to translate
this leverage and the considerable
diplomatic clout it enjoys to secure
veriable assurances that civilians will
not be targeted and will instead be
allowed to leave the war zone through
safe corridors.
Second, India has had a history of
intervening in Sri Lankan affairs in
ways that have greatly complicated the
situation there by training and arm-
ing the LTTE in 1983-86, and sending
the Indian Peace-Keeping Force in a
disastrous operation in 1987. India
cannot suddenly wash its hands off by
refusing to mobilise a diplomatic ini-
tiative through the U.N. to press Col-
ombo to allow the civilians safe
passage, and provide them sorely
needed food and other supplies, and
above all, medical treatment.
India has just sent a 52-member
military medical mission to Pulmod-
dai in the northeast. But this is not
adequate. A much bigger international
effort is called for, which India must
catalyse all the more because the U.S.
has reportedly shelved the evacuation
plans which it was earlier considering.
BANGLADESH
India similarly needs to engage Ban-
gladesh and Nepal, where new govern-
ments are in power. The Bangladesh
Ries mutiny was an alarming devel-
opment. It was reportedly planned in
response to Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasinas decision to open war crimes
cases against hardline-Islamist collab-
orators of Pakistan during the liber-
ation struggle of 1971 and the
assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rah-
man in 1975. There is reason to fear
that the conspirators were Jamaat-e-
Islami leaders closely allied with Pa-
kistani intelligence agencies and jeha-
di groups.
That apart, India needs to express
solidarity with the Hasina government
without being seen to be playing Big
Brother. Many past Indian actions, in-
cluding unilateral diversion of the wa-
ters of the Ganges through the Farakka
barrage which caused enormous wa-
ter scarcity and economic distress
have indeed created that impression.
India must correct it.
NEPAL
Nepal is perched at a fateful moment
in its history as it makes a transition to
a constitutional republic. New Delhi
has played its cards all wrong several
times in Nepal, supporting the King
just as he was about to be sent packing
by the pro-democracy movement. It
must correct its course by honouring
the Nepali governments wish to rene-
gotiate the trade, and transit treaty
and work out an equitable water-shar-
ing agreement.
Water will be a crucial component
in Indias relation with Nepal (and
Bangladesh). Indias access to the
shared waters of rivers originating in
the Himalayas hold a key to sustain-
able development of hydroelectricity
and water resources in the underdeve-
loped east. It is imperative that India
and Nepal launch a major cooperative
development project in which river
waters and downstream industry
based on hydroelectricity play a vital
role.
To do all this, India must overcome
and discard the Curzonian legacy of its
foreign policy thinking, which aims to
establish India as the dominant power
in Eurasia as its natural destiny de-
rived from the British Empire.
New Delhi needs an equitable,
generous, inclusive and cooperative
relationship with its neighbours, with
which they feel at ease. To develop this,
the government should move out of
the narrow connes of consultations
with the incestuous and closed group
of serving and former diplomats, sol-
diers, and strategic experts.
Instead, it should involve a much
broader set of people, including social
scientists with genuine expertise in
South Asian languages, cultures and
political traditions, international rela-
tions theorists, and civil society orga-
nisations, in the process of strategic
review and policy formulation for the
region.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 1
A CREDIT card, named after the small plastic
card issued by a bank or a non-banking financial
company (NBFC), enables its holder to buy goods
and services based on the holders promise to pay for
those goods and services. In this system, the issuer of
the card grants a line of credit to the user from which
the user borrows money to pay to the vendor, and
thus it becomes cash advance to the user. Normally,
the purchases made by the cardholder are to be paid
in full each month. The card issuers usually waive
interest if the balance is paid in full each month.
There is also a debit card system, which allows
immediate withdrawal of funds by an electronic
cheque directly from either the bank account or from
the remaining balance in the card. The debit card is
not popular in India as the merchant is charged for
each transaction. The debit card is used mostly for
ATM (automated teller machine) transactions.
It may appear that a credit card is a convenient
instrument to go shopping as, under the buy now,
pay later system, the cardholder is able to buy things
at random without immediate payment in cash. The
crunch comes when the accumulated expenditures
are not paid in full by the appointed time. Banks are
lenient in allowing later payment as the accumulated
interest swells up by leaps and bounds. Though
banks are allowed to charge an interest of 2.5 per
cent, it has been found that currently banks charge
the credit card holder interest far in excess, to the
extent of 50 per cent, on defaulted payments. Some
of the banks were found to attend at a later date to
cheques deposited in time so that they were treated
as default payments coming under the mischief of
heavy interest charges.
There have been innumerable complaints of
fraudulent means adopted in collecting heavy in-
terest amounts from cardholders. In a case in July
2008, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal
Commission (NCDRC) ruled that charging of in-
terest at rates in excess of 30 per cent per annum was
an unfair trade practice.
The NCDRC took notice of the fact that Indian
credit-card-holders pay some of the highest interest
rates in the world, whereas their American counter-
parts pay about 13 per cent only. It added: The
default rates in mature markets like the United
States are very low, still it does not fully explain the
high rates charged in India.
Holding the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) respon-
sible for the current state of affairs, the NCDRC said:
If the RBI is considered to be one of the watchdogs
of nance and economy of the nation and the prevail-
ing credit conditions are such as should invite its
policy intervention, then, in our view, there is no
justiable ground for not controlling the banks
which exploit the borrowers by charging exorbitant
rates.
About the exorbitant rate of interest put on the
credit-card-holders in India, there was a news item
in July 2007 in the International Herald Tribune
stating: Rates and fees frustrate credit card users
around the world, but Indian consumers have so-
mething special to complain about: interest rates
average more than 30 per cent, and can soar to more
than 50 per cent, while charges tacked on for late
payments are sometimes a whopping 20 per cent of
the overall balance.
All credit card issuers should be transparent in
informing every cardholder whether the interest le-
vied is compound or simple interest and also wheth-
er the collection of interest is quarterly, half yearly or
annual. All this information should be given to cli-
ents when they apply for credit cards. Any change in
the procedure should be implemented only after
intimation in advance to and due acceptance by the
respective cardholders.
Painful credit
If the Reserve Bank of Indias policy of spreading
the banking habit to rural areas is to succeed,
banks should use the local language in order to
enlighten people on the benets of banking.
If the use of credit cards has grown enormously, so has dissatisfaction among
cardholders over the stranglehold of the card issuers. BY ERA SEZHI YAN
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Banking
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 2 F R O N T L I N E
Banks should adopt fair means in
the matter of recovery of dues. Some-
times the agents sent by banks are re-
ported to have behaved in a brutal
fashion, hurting and humiliating cli-
ents physically and verbally. Agents
should be provided with proper certif-
icates from banks, and the name and
address of the designated ofcer who is
responsible for whatever is done on
behalf of the bank concerned.
Moreover, there are innumerable
unsolicited phone calls for marketing
the cards haunting citizens with or
without credit cards at all times of the
day. Banks should be directed not to
intrude upon the time and peace of
people through such irksome methods
of canvassing.
RBI GUI DELI NES
It is true that the RBI has issued sever-
al directives/circulars to banks for im-
plementing regulatory measures to
encourage the growth of credit cards in
a safe, secure and efcient manner and
to ensure that the rules, regulations,
standards and practices of the card-
issuing banks are in alignment with
the best customer practices.
As a Cancard Visa card holder, I
nd that the bank concerned with my
credit card has made no efforts to com-
ply with some of the important RBI
guidelines. It seems to be the case with
most of the credit card issuers in India.
For instance, the terms and condi-
tions given by the bank to the card-
holders is in very small letters, less
then font size 5, which cannot be read
easily without using a magnifying lens,
whereas the Appendix of the RBI gui-
delines directs: The font size of the
Most Important Terms and Condi-
tions (MITCs) should be minimum
Ariel - 12.
The RBI guidelines state: MITCs
termed as standard set of conditions,
as given in Appendix, should be high-
lighted and advertised/sent separately
to the prospective customer/customer
at all stages.
So far no advertisement has come
in the media nor has any communica-
tion been sent to cardholders high-
lighting the terms and the changes, if
any, in the terms. Some business cen-
tres readily inform the customer that
they may charge 2 per cent on the price
of goods sold on his/her credit card as
the issuer of that card has no tie-up
with them. So also some banks which,
at the time of issuing the credit card,
inform clients about the particulars of
oil companies or airlines where they
have or do not have tie-ups.
When I went to some oil stations
and showed my Cancard, the employee
there said he would issue the bill for
the exact amount marked on the
board.
Later, I found that the bank con-
cerned with the card charged sur-
charge and the service tax on the
surcharge. The explanation given by
the bank was that it did not have tie-
ups with oil companies as per policy
matter.
In this regard, the RBI has issued
the guidelines: The bank/NBFC
should not levy any charge that was not
explicitly indicated to the credit-card-
holder at the time of issue of the card
and getting his/her consent. However,
this would not be applicable to charges
like service taxes, etc., which may sub-
sequently be levied by the government
or any other statutory authority.
Banks do not explicitly indicate to the
cardholder at the time of issue of the
card or at any other time about appli-
cation of surcharges or service taxes on
such surcharges.
It is understood that for credit
cards issued by the State Bank of India
(SBI), there is no surcharge in Indian
Oil Corporation-run oil stations. It is
strange that the bank issuing Cancard,
also a public sector bank, has not made
any effort to arrange a tie-up with one
or other of the public sector oil compa-
nies, whereas private sector banks
such as ICICI Bank and HSBC have
been able to arrange tie-ups with pub-
lic sector banks. These two private
banks have become leaders in attract-
ing a large number of cardholders,
more than any of the pubic sector
banks.
LANGUAGE POLI CY
The RBI guidelines direct: While is-
suing cards, the terms and conditions
for issue and usage of a credit card
should be mentioned in clear and sim-
ple language (preferably in English,
Hindi and local language) comprehen-
sible to a card user.
This directive has not been com-
plied with by the Cancard division of
the bank concerned, for which the ex-
planation offered by the bank is: The
terms and conditions for issue and use
of credit cards are being conveyed in
bilingual, i.e. English and Hindi, as
required under [the] ofcial language
policy of our bank.
While the RBI wants to spread the
banking habit to rural areas, where
more than 50 per cent of the people
live, use of the local language is essen-
tial to enlighten people on the benets
of banking and to enlist more users.
One is aware of the constitutional
position of the ofcial language of the
Union to be Hindi and of English to be
continued in all respects for the ad-
ministration of the Union even after
the period of 15 years from the com-
mencement of the Constitution. Fur-
ther, the Constitution provides that
regarding the ofcial languages of a
State, the legislature of a State may by
law adopt one or more languages in the
State as languages to be used for all or
any of the purposes of the State.
It is well known that the Tamil
Nadu Assembly adopted, in January
1968, Tamil and English as the ofcial
languages of the State. Language is a
sensitive issue and there is no need
Charging of
interest in
excess of 30 per
cent a year is
unfair trade
practice, says
the NCDRC.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 3
now to raise any controversy over it.
The RBI guidelines are clear that
the terms and conditions for issue and
usage should be mentioned in clear
and simple language (preferably in
English, Hindi and local language)
comprehensible to a card user.
It is a mandatory directive, which
should be implemented by banks while
issuing credit cards. If a bank in this
instance, the bank issuing Cancard
found it difcult to implement this di-
rective on the use of local language
comprehensible to the customers it
should have appealed to the RBI to
discard the directive or to get an ex-
emption for itself.
Leave alone the RBI directive and
the ofcial language policy of the bank
in question. How is it possible for a
banking institution having branches
and customers throughout India to
conne its work only in English and
Hindi even in non-Hindi States, where
public relations have to be maintained
and banking habits enlarged among
the people who may not be well- versed
in English or Hindi?
The Imperial Bank of India was
taken over by the Government of India
and renamed as State Bank of India
under the State Bank of India Act,
1955. This was followed by the forma-
tion of seven banks as subsidiaries of
SBI under the State Bank of India
(Subsidiary Banks) Act, 1959. Four-
teen major commercial banks were na-
tionalised in 1970 and six more in 1980
by Acts of Parliament.
The statement of objectives and
reasons appended to the Banking
Companies (Acquisition and Transfer
of Undertaking) Bill, 1969, stated:
The banking system touches the lives
of millions and has to be inspired by
the large social purpose and has to
subserve national priorities and objec-
tives, such as rapid growth in agricul-
ture, small industries and exports,
raising of employment levels, encour-
agement of new entrepreneurs and the
development of the backward areas.
For this purpose, it is necessary for the
government to take direct responsibil-
ity for the extension part of banking
system.
I was in Parliament and gave full
support to the nationalisation of banks
on the basis of the objectives enunciat-
ed in the Bill. The main objective of the
nationalisation was to transform
banking for the classes to banking for
the masses. If the bank, one of the
nationalised banks of 1970, decides to
stick to its language policy, it will de-
feat the very purpose of banking for the
masses and will serve only the classes
of people knowing English or Hindi.
The directives of the RBI cannot be
ignored by any bank in India. The Re-
serve Bank Act, 1934, and the Banking
Regulation Act, 1949, have given the
RBI vast powers of supervision and
control over commercial banks.
During the debate in the Lok Sab-
ha on July 29, 1969, on the Bill on
nationalisation of banks, a member
raised a question whether nationalised
banks would be outside the purview of
the RBI. Prime Minister Indira Gand-
hi, who also heldthe Finance portfolio,
informed the House: This is not at all
true, because they remain scheduled
banks and the Reserve Banks powers
with regard to them also remain. This
will not reduce the Reserve Bank to
insignicance. In fact, it can become
more signicant and purposeful and
the Reserve Banks organisation may
have to be strengthened and given new
denite directions.
The nationalisation of Indian
banks in 1970 and in 1980 has imposed
new responsibilities on the RBI to di-
rect the growth of banking and credit
policies towards more rapid develop-
ment of the economy and the real-
isation of certain desired social
objectives. The RBI and the Centre
should take notice of the deance of
RBI directives by certain banks.
It is not known whether all banks
other than the Cancard Visa card-issu-
ing bank, and the NBFCs, have their
own ofcial language policy of En-
glish-Hindi only, in violation of the
RBI directives. Public sector banks run
on public money should have some
consideration on the development of
banking business and allow its benets
to reach the vast disadvantaged sec-
tions of the people. Nationalised banks
should follow the objective of banking
for the masses.
Either the RBI or the Government
of India should take immediate steps
to correct the unwarranted and dange-
rously unwise decision taken by a bank
or banks in regard to deance of cer-
tain directives of the RBI, especially in
regard to the adoption of an English-
and-Hindi-only policy in their bank-
ing activities. Otherwise, there may be
a need to get a clear judicial decision
on this or to seek other means to offset
the impending danger. It should not
be allowed to disturb the unity and
harmony now prevailing in the multi-
lingual federal set-up of India.
UNFAI R PRACTI CES
In 1920, shoppers in the U.S. intro-
duced a plate buy now, pay later
which could be used only in shops that
issued it. In 1950, Diners Club and
American Express issued the rst
plastic money cards. With magnetic
strip in 1970, the credit card became
part of the information and technology
system.
Though there is enormous growth
in the use of various types of credit
cards for each kind of business and
shopping at the average of four cards
per user, there is growing dissatisfac-
tion among cardholders on the painful
stranglehold of the card issuers. In
April 2008, Chris Dodd, chairman of
the Senate Banking Committee, intro-
duced new legislation, the Credit Card
Accountability, Responsibility and
Disclosure Act, to end the abusive and
costly credit card practices in the U.S.
The legislation has been welcomed by
the coalition of consumer, labour and
civil rights groups: [A]s the U.S.
economy tightens, nancially vulner-
able families need the protection of the
Credit Card Act.
India also needs a strong legisla-
tive measure to eliminate unjustied
interest hikes and unfair contract
clauses and to provide for severe pen-
alty on the card issuers in levying abu-
sive and hidden charges. Credit cards
add, at the present, more discredit to
the entire management of the banking
structure in India.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 4 F R O N T L I N E
N
OT so long ago I voted in
the State elections in
Delhi. I was doing so af-
ter a very long time, and
for the rst time in the
city-state of Delhi. I went to the polling
booth with my mint-fresh election
card and was pleasantly surprised at
the smoothness with which the proc-
ess was completed. Someone looked at
my card, called out my name, another
person ticked off my name in a list and
I was asked to vote, using the electron-
ic voting machine. I did so and walked
out. It took all of two or three minutes.
True, there were only a few voters
at the time, but even if there had been a
large crowd as there was in the poll-
ing booth adjacent to the one I was
asked to go to the process was
smooth enough to keep the line mov-
ing. And there was no tension or impa-
tience or anything other than a
relatively calm atmosphere.
Some decades ago I had voted in an
entirely different place. While the
process there, too, was relatively
smooth, there was some confusion
among some voters faced with a yard-
long voting paper; many found the
large number of symbols bewildering,
and then had trouble folding the paper
in the prescribed manner. (It had to be
foldedlengthwise, as many of us would
recall, so that the ink from the rubber
stamp on a symbol did not get on to
another symbol but on the empty
space opposite the candidates symbol
and name.)
Security in those days meant one
constable or home guard with a lathi,
who sat stolidly in one corner. Those
were the days of booth-capturing,
when goons from one party burst into
the polling booth and stuffed the ballot
sprawled on a chair outside there are
a sizable number of armed security-
men. It is sad that our basic democratic
process should need this dimension,
but the times demand it. Consider the
difference today in trying to enter a
ve-star hotel. This security presence
has made it virtually impossible for a
booth to be captured, and in the un-
likely event of that happening, a re-
poll is held in that booth, with tighter
security.
Not many people give a thought to
the enormous effort that goes into the
holding of this gigantic event. It is not
just about the Election Commission,
though that is where the major deci-
sions and policies are made. Nor is it
only about the ofces of the chief elec-
toral ofcers of each State, where, no
doubt, crucially important work is
done and innumerable problems to do
with polling personnel, their move-
ment, damaged voting machines and
complaints about electoral lists and so
onhave to be resolved. But down in the
ofces of the Returning Ofcers Dis-
trict Magistrates and Subdivisional
Ofcers there are thousands of issues
that have to be dealt with.
Getting persons to do polling duty
is a major headache for Returning Of-
cers. They have the power to require
any citizen to do polling duty, but the
people they use as a matter of course
staff from their ofces and other dis-
trict-level ofces, primary school
teachers and others are either falling
sick, or are needed for emergency work
of some kind. If the Returning Ofcers
do manage to get the required number,
it is, frankly, a little short of being a
miracle. Then there are the other is-
sues their transport, places to stay
overnight if the polling station is in a
boxes with votes for their candidates,
and rigging, which is much the same
thing, except that the means employed
are a little more devious. Back then, it
was possible to remove the ink used to
mark ones nger even though it was
supposed to be indelible. The trick was
to put cold cream or something similar
on the nger and the indelible ink ap-
plied on it could be easily removed
using some special chemical that was
readily available.
But, as ways of getting round the
voting procedure became more so-
phisticated, so did the voting system
itself; voter identication cards and
voting machines make the mere re-
moval of the ink a less effective way of
dodging the system. It is still possible
to remove the ink, but then one needs
the card, which has a unique hologram
and cannot be duplicated.
The real change has been, of
course, the security system. Booths no
longer have a somnolent home guard
Democracy in action
Not many people give a thought to the enormous effort that goes into the Indian
election exercise, the worlds greatest democratic event.
Point of View
BHASKAR GHOSE
Column
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 5
remote location and their security
units that need to be worked out.
To make matters worse, all the
work has to be done under the suspi-
cious and intent scrutiny of agents of
candidates. Any suspected action that
even remotely seems to help one can-
didate over another results in a bar-
rage of angry letters, demonstrations
and other forms of protest.
Adding to all this are problems of
terrain and climate. Polling stations
have to be established in the remote
fastnesses of Ladakh and Arunachal
Pradesh, in the arid desert regions of
Rajasthan and in the Naxalite-affected
regions of Jharkhand and Andhra Pra-
desh. Once the voting is over, the
sealed machines have to be brought
back so that the counting can be done
on the appointed day.
Counting sounds relatively simple
compared with the establishment of
the polling stations and the logistics of
getting there and back. But the loca-
tional advantage is offset by the fact
that everything, literally everything,
that happens in the counting centres,
is under the scrutiny of representatives
of candidates. This becomes a nerve-
wracking exercise in a close contest.
True, elections are held elsewhere
in the world and hardly anyone talks
about the administrative effort they
take. But nowhere are they conducted
on such a gigantic scale, on the ap-
pointed days (with a few unfortunate
exceptions), and results declared on
the appointed day.
And then, the democratic gover-
nance of the country goes on, in such
fashion as is possible, or made pos-
sible, by the elected members of the
Lok Sabha or State Assemblies and
their party leaders. The process that
brought them to where they can talk
power and Ministry formation, or
group and regroup, is almost instantly
forgotten; the men and women who
contributed to make possible the rene-
wal of our democratic polity then re-
turn to their ofces and regular work.
Nor, indeed, should it be other-
wise. The work they do is part of a
process that permeates all aspects of
our lives, and it is right that they do it
and then go back to doing their regular
work. However, once the whole proc-
ess is over, perhaps one could pause for
a moment and spare a thought for
those thousands of civil servants who
make the elections possible; not only
the Election Commission and the chief
electoral ofcers, though they deserve
the countrys thanks in no small mea-
sure, but those who trudge to distant
parts of the country, ensure that citi-
zens can vote, and then painstakingly
count the millions of votes cast. In
their own way each one of them helps
keep the democratic fabric of the coun-
try whole, and in good order.
I F ANY ACTI ON by polling ofcials even remotely seems to help one particular candidate over another, it results in a
barrage of angry letters and demonstrations. Here, polling ofcials in Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka check
voting machines before taking them to the booths, during the May 2008 Assembly elections.
R
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 6 F R O N T L I N E
SINCE mid-February, a section of women in
Bangalore, the southern Indian city with a progres-
sive and cosmopolitan culture, have had to grapple
with a new form of harassment a spate of attacks on
them marked by aggressive ferocity and violence as
opposed to general incidents of
sexual harassment or eve-teas-
ing on the streets.
From rst-person accounts
available on a blog that collated
responses, seven attacks took
place between February 17 and
28. Three of these took place on
February 17, followed by one on
February 24 and two on Febru-
ary 27. And just as these six
attacks were beginning to at-
tract media attention, the sev-
enth, a random attack, took
place on a female journalist
working for Tehelka on Febru-
ary 28. In March too, reports of
attacks have come in.
The attacks have come a
month after the one on women
at the Amnesia pub in Manga-
lore on January 24 by activists
of the Sri Rama Sene (SRS)
(Taliban in saffron, Fron-
tline, February 27, 2009).
Hence, a tenuous link can be
established between the attacks in Bangalore and
Mangalore. In both cases, the assailants targeted a
particular class of women urban, English-speaking
women dressed in Western clothes in their efforts
to mark patriarchal boundaries for Indian women in
public spaces. The attacks have caused a great deal of
anguish and insecurity among women and also the
general public in Bangalore, who seem concerned
about the state apparatus indifference to these
events.
This indifference was evident in its lack of action
against Pramod Muttalik, the SRS president, who
volubly justied his organisations role in the pub
attack. The Dakshina Kannada district administra-
tion has woken up only now, almost two months
after the incident at the Amnesia pub. An order
banning Muttaliks entry into the district for a year
was passed on March 16 by the Deputy Commission-
er and District Magistrate of Dakshina Kannada, V.
Ponnuraj. Speaking to Frontline
from Mangalore, Ponnuraj said:
He [Muttalik] has been sup-
porting incidents such as the pub
attack and justifying it under the
name of moral policing. If he is
allowed to come into the district,
there is a possibility that he will
instigate violence.
CUSTODI ANS OF CULTURE
Claiming responsibility for the
attacks on women at the Amnesia
pub, Muttalik had said, We are
the custodians of Indian culture.
Even in some of the attacks on
women in Bangalore, there was
an evident intent to dene the
boundaries of culture by target-
ing women dressed in Western
clothes and speaking English.
Some of these incidents took
place in broad daylight, and bys-
tanders did not help the victims.
In one incident, Geethanjali
(name changed) was driving her
Culture police
They targeted English-speaking
women dressed in Western clothes,
apparently in an effort to mark
boundaries for women in public
spaces. But the protests have been
stronger than those in Mangalore
against right-wing atrocities.
Bangalore witnesses a spate of attacks on women by right-wing groups.
BY VI KHAR AHMED SAYEED I N BANGALORE
Crime
SRI RAMA SENE chief Pramod
Muttalik at a meeting held to
condemn Valentines Day
celebrations, in Bangalore.
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 7
car through Indiranagar when two
men on a motorcycle followed and
taunted her. They spat on her car win-
dow. As she drove away, the men
chased her again and threatened to kill
her.
In another case, Lakshmi (name
changed) was accosted by four men in
Vasanthnagar; they punched and
abused her for wearing jeans.
In a third case, Jasmine (name
changed) was on her way to work on
the morning of February 24 when the
autorickshaw in which she was trav-
elling broke down. While she was try-
ing to hail another auto, a vehicle
slowed down and the four men inside
said something to her. The situation
soon turned grim. The men got out of
their car and started abusing her.
The incident went like this, as she
wrote in the blog: They started touch-
ing me and pulling at my clothes. One
of them tugged so brutally at the shrug
I was wearing that he scratched my
neck. Their goal was to show the col-
lected crowd that had gathered the top
I was wearing underneath my shrug.
When the shrug didnt come off with
their efforts, the violence of their tug-
ging increased. In self-defence, I hit
out at an offending hand that was try-
ing to disrobe me. The response, one of
the men slapped me hard across my
ear. Then they began trying to lift my
top up while making references to
pink chaddi [panties].
PI NK CHADDI CAMPAI GN
The pink chaddi campaign was a suc-
cessful protest against the SRS action
in Mangalore. Thousands of women
across the country, who were repelled
by the SRS action, organised them-
selves on the online social networking
site Facebook under the tongue-in-
cheek name A Consortium of Pub-Go-
ing, Loose and Forward Women. They
then responded to Muttaliks hate
rhetoric by sending thousands of pink
panties to the SRS headquarters on
February 14, Valentines Day.
While there has been criticism of
the pink chaddi campaign and it has
even been considered offensive by
some, it was effective in rallying wom-
en who have not been associated with
any form of public activism in the past.
By mid-March, the group on Facebook
had more than 57,000 members.
As the pink chaddi campaign
gathered momentum and attracted in-
creasing media attention in the rst
two weeks of February, Muttalik was
forced to respond to it. As a co-ordina-
tor of the campaign said, this is the
only way to engage people like Mutta-
lik in a dialogue.
In Jasmines case, the fact that the
attackers accused her of being part of
the pink chaddi campaign demon-
strates the effect the campaign has had
on certain patriarchal elements in
Bangalore.
FEARLESS KARNATAKA
Some of the activists involved in the
pink chaddi campaign mobilised
themselves immediately after reports
of the attacks came in. Organising
themselves as a group called Fearless
SRS ACTI VI STS I N Hubli with the packets they received from the pink chaddi campaign team on Valentines Day.
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 0 8 F R O N T L I N E
Karnataka/Nirbhaya Karnataka
(FKNK), they submitted a memoran-
dum to Shankar Bidari, Commissioner
of Police, Bangalore, and held a protest
against the attacks outside his ofce on
March 1. Bidari responded that the
three rst information reports (FIRs)
lodged (only three of the women com-
plained to the police about the attacks
on them) could not be categorised as a
persistent problem. He added that
Bangalore was a cultured city. State
Home Minister V.S. Acharya asked the
media why the issue was being brought
to his notice.
Members of the FKNK organised
events in the city before and on In-
ternational Womens Day, on March 8,
to demonstrate their dissatisfaction
with the response of the State adminis-
trationand the police. In many parts of
the city, they conducted street plays
and distributed testimonials of the vic-
tims of the attacks. An event called
Take Back the Night was held to as-
sert symbolically womens right to
public space in the city at night.
The woman journalist with Tehel-
ka who was attacked said that it could
not be denied that a certain class of
women had the resources to network
and articulate their grievances. This
does not in any way mean that this
class of women speak only for them-
selves. Violence against women in
public spaces is a problem suffered by
all women across classes and these re-
sponses should be considered as a re-
sponse of all women, she said.
But many people in the city felt
that the FKNKs response to the at-
tacks was an overreaction as these
incidents had always happened.
SOCI AL APARTHEI D
What worries many activists in Banga-
lore is that right-wing groups that have
been active in Dakshina Kannada dis-
trict and coastal Karnataka so far
might be exploring other places in the
State, including Bangalore, to experi-
ment with their ideas of social apar-
theid, a phrase that a report uses to
describe the societal conditions in
Dakshina Kannada. The report, based
on the ndings of an independent fact-
nding team, consisting of Shakun
Mohini of Vimochana, B.N. Usha of
Hengasara Hakkina Sangha (Wom-
ens Rights Group), Arvind Narrain of
the Alternative Law Forum (ALF) and
Ramdas Rao of the Peoples Union for
Civil Liberties (PUCL), which visited
Mangalore in February, describes so-
cial apartheid as a practice of segre-
gating communities on the basis of
religion and gender by self-styled vigi-
lante groups as well as prescribing ap-
propriate behaviour and conduct for
separate communities.
According to the report titled Cul-
tural Policing in Dakshina Kannada:
Vigilante Attacks on Women and Mi-
norities, 2008-09, culture policing
has been going on in Dakshina Kanna-
da both before and after the Manga-
lore pub incident. Unlike Bangalore,
the district has not seen any signicant
opposition to the activities of right-
wing groups.
In early March, two incidents of
culture policing took place in the re-
gion. Muslim girls were banned from
wearing the burqa in the Government
Composite Pre-University College in
Panja village in Dakshina Kannada;
secondly, the erection of a statue of
Hollywood actor Charlie Chaplin by
lm-maker Hemant Hegde on March
15 was opposed in Baindur in Udupi
district on the grounds that Chaplin
was a Christian. Local Bharatiya Jana-
ta Party activists along with activists
from other right-wing organisations
led the opposition; the issue has found
support with the local BJP legislator,
K. Lakshminarayana.
The report states: A survey of the
English press from 02.09.08 to
25.02.09 shows that there were 22 in-
cidents of moral policing reported
from the district. A survey of the local
Kannada press from 01.08.08 to
15.02.09 reveals that there were 45 in-
cidents in which self-styled vigilante
groups took the law into their own
hands.
This includes the suicide of a 15-
year-old schoolgirl on February 11 af-
ter she was publicly humiliated by a
suspected Hindutva group for being
friendly with a Muslim, and the beat-
ing up of the daughter of a Communist
Party of India (Marxist) MLA from
Kerala for fraternising with a Muslim.
The other incidents have also mainly
involved inter-communal socialising
between young people. Narrain, one of
the members of the fact-nding com-
mission, told Frontline: There is an
effort by the Hindutva vigilante groups
to consistently target young people.
The incidents in Mangalore have
happened over a period of several
years. The civil society in Dakshina
Kannada has failed to stand up to the
gradual, but consistent, propaganda
and intimidation by the right-wing
forces.
Inter-communal socialising by
young people is coming to a gradual
halt, and women are afraid to be seen
in pubs. In some measure, the patri-
archal and communal elements have
managed to communicate effectively
their warped agenda to the general
public.
The events in Mangalore and Ban-
galore show that there is a deliberate
effort to delineate the space in which
women can operate and at the same
time establish a culture of violence.
The robust response in Bangalore to
the attacks prove that the city would
have less patience than Mangalore
with efforts to introduce social apar-
theid.
There is an
effort by the
Hindutva
vigilante groups
to consistently
target young
people.
ONLINE
http://
thepinkchaddicampaign.blogspot.com/
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 0 9
TWO incidents of ragging in
higher educational institutions, one
in the North and another in the
South, have exposed the nations in-
ability to stem the menace, which
has deed solution.
The death of 19-year-old Aman
Kachroo at the hands of senior stu-
dents in the Rajendra Prasad Med-
ical College in Tanda, Himachal
Pradesh, on March 8 raised disturb-
ing questions about the culpability
of the college authorities and the
regulatory bodies, who are entrust-
ed with the responsibility of ensur-
ing compliance of the college with
the anti-ragging guidelines. Amans
killers have been swiftly arrested
and will be prosecuted, but the cul-
pable negligence of these authorities
is yet to be established.
Another victim, a girl, from the
Government Engineering College at
Baptala in Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, consumed a
pesticide after senior girl students in her hostel
forced her to dance naked in front of them.
Although these incidents are shocking, it is their
recurrence that should outrage any civilised society.
A study by the Coalition to Uproot Ragging from
Education (CURE) revealed 14 cases of suicide by
victims of ragging and 12 reported cases of serious
physical and mental torture by way of ragging be-
tween 1998 and 2007. In this decade alone, 198
incidents of ragging have been recorded across the
country.
It is not as if the governments are unconcerned
about the need to stem the menace. A report on the
measures to stem ragging, by a committee set up at
the instance of the University Grants Commission
(UGC) in 1999, referred to the Government of Indias
notication banning ragging in the aftermath of the
death of two freshers in a Regional Engineering
College in the late 1970s.
Since then, various State governments have been
experimenting unsuccessfully with
ordinances, laws and circulars to
deal with the menace. Six States
Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Andhra Pra-
desh, Maharashtra, West Bengal
and Chhattisgarh have enacted
statutes against ragging.
The UGC set up a four-member
committee, chaired by K.P.S. Unny
of the Jawaharlal Nehru University,
in 1999, in response to a public in-
terest petition led in the Supreme
Court by the Vishwa Jagriti Mission.
The committees recommendations
were exhaustive. On the basis of
these, the Supreme Court issued a
set of directions in 2001. The court
said that the police, while dealing
with ragging cases, should not treat
students as criminals but should on-
ly resort to corrective action.
In 2006, the court, concerned
with the non-effectiveness of its di-
rections while hearing the case Uni-
versity of Kerala vs Council of Principals of Colleges,
felt the need for another committee to examine the
measures afresh. A committee, headed by R.K.
Raghavan, former Director of the Central Bureau of
Investigation, was thus set up.
The Raghavan committee analysed 198 incidents
of ragging between 1998 and 2007, from the compi-
lation forwarded by CURE. Tamil Nadu and Andhra
Pradesh were among the rst States to enact dedicat-
ed legislation, way back in 1997, prohibiting ragging.
Ironically, Andhra Pradesh recorded the highest
number of incidents (23) during the period. The
Campus cruelty
A study revealed 14 cases of suicide
between 1998 and 2007. In this
decade alone, 198 incidents of
ragging have been recorded across
the country.
Ragging continues to defy solution as educational institutions turn a blind eye to
the need for compliance with the Supreme Courts guidelines. BY V. VENKATESAN
PARENTS AND FRI ENDS
of Aman Kachroo, who died
after being ragged by his
seniors, at a protest against
ragging in New Delhi on
March 14.
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
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IN 2006, the Supreme Court consti-
tuted a committee led by R.K. Ragh-
avan, former Director of the Central
Bureau of Investigation, to suggest
measures to curb ragging. Submit-
ting its report on May 7, 2007, the
committee said that it might not
have fully understood all aspects of
the menace but its 50 recommenda-
tions could have a reasonable poten-
tial to change the situation. The
report, on the basis of which the Su-
preme Court distilled on May 16,
2007, nine specic guidelines to be
followed, has not been taken serious-
ly by any of the stakeholders. In this
email interview to Frontline, Ragha-
van reects on the reasons for this
indifference.
In your report, you underlined the
absence of a statutory provision,
followed by appropriate delegated
legislation, to prevent ragging as
being responsible for the
continuance of the problem.
I stand by this position. Stiff and
well-conceived legislation may not
put an end to ragging but will take us
towards it.
You also blamed the absence of civil
society initiatives. What can be done
to create such initiatives?
Incidents such as that of [Aman]
Kachroo should receive greater at-
tention from the media, especially
those in our languages and not mere-
ly in English. Parent-teacher asso-
ciations should bring in initiatives
aimed at educating student and
teacher communities to evince grea-
ter interest in preventing rather than
reacting to tragedies.
You made 50 recommendations.
How many of these have been
accepted and acted upon?
You will have to ask the regulato-
ry bodies as also the HRD [Human
Resource Development] Ministry to
arrive at an estimate. Implementa-
tion has been half-hearted, smack-
ing of tokenism.
The Supreme Court order carried
nine specic guidelines. Do they
reect your recommendations? Do
they have the force of law? Will it be
an effective deterrent?
Yes, the Supreme Court direc-
tives are mostly based on my com-
mittees recommendations. The fact
that they are guidelines indicate
that they do not have the same sanc-
tity as legislation passed by Parlia-
ment or the State Assemblies. But,
when guidelines are issued by the
apex court, they assume the colour of
law and their violation does attract
contempt.
Guidelines are not a panacea.
But they can bring about a vast
change for the better.
How relevant is the ling of first
information reports by the victims
and institutions? What if the victims
prefer to seek extra-legal remedies
in view of threats from
perpetrators?
For this not to happen, we need a
more sensitive police. This can come
about only through training and
media pressure.
Are parents guilty of ignoring
victims complaints? How
widespread was the parents
indifference among the cases you
studied?
I do not agree that parents ignore
their wards complaints. At best, they
underestimate the danger to them.
Cases like Kachroos are a wake-up
call to them.
Can a piece of all-India legislation to
prevent and punish ragging help?
It is difcult to predict. But all-
India legislation will be taken more
seriously by all concerned.
Can a help-line be an effective
answer?
Yes, certainly. It will depend on
who runs it and what resources back
the organisation that operates it. An
NGOwith a good track record can be
persuaded to run it at least in impor-
tant towns. The police will again
have to cooperate with such a
venture.
What are the prime reasons for the
recent incidents?
Apathy and negligence on the
part of the college managements and
an utter lack of fear or respect for law
on the part of the students, who copy
our politicians, the majority of
whom have shown a disdain for the
rule of law.
How do you think the problem of
collecting evidence in prosecuting
offences of ragging can be
addressed?
Through appointing full-time
mentors on campuses and wardens
in hostels and making them accoun-
table to whatever happens by way of
harassment of students.
They will be drawn from the fac-
ulty and the burden to establish how
an incident of ragging happened will
be on them. Such an arrangement
will aid the preliminary investiga-
tion and thereafter make reliable
evidence available for the authorities
to act.
Implementation is half-hearted
Interview with R.K. Raghavan, Chairperson, Monitoring Committee for the Prevention
of Ragging. BY V. VENKATESAN
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 1
committee explained that this might
be because of greater awareness
brought about by the law and conse-
quently even isolated instances being
highlighted by the media or reported
by the victims. Another reason could
be the growth of professional colleges,
where incidence of ragging is known to
be high.
The committee noted that while
Uttar Pradesh did not have a State law
against ragging, it hadreported almost
as many incidents as Andhra Pradesh.
West Bengal, despite having a State
law (enacted in 2000) against ragging,
reported the third largest number of
incidents (16).
The major contribution of the
committee was to highlight the dimen-
sions of ragging. These are: 1) Exploit-
ing the services of a junior student for
completing the academic tasks as-
signed to an individual or a group of
seniors; 2) Financial extortion or put-
ting expenditure burden forcefully on
a junior student by seniors; 3) Physical
abuse including all its variants: sexual
abuse, homosexual assaults, stripping,
forcing obscene and lewd acts and ges-
tures, causing bodily harm or any oth-
er danger to the health of the victim;
and 4) Any act or abuse by spoken
word, emails, snail-mails, and public
insults so as to derive perverted plea-
sure, or vicarious or sadistic thrill from
actively or passively participating in
the discomture of others.
The committee noted that it had
not come across any instance of educa-
tional institutions approaching the po-
lice to report even extreme incidents of
ragging. This attitude was of concern
to the committee, which sought to
make the institutional authorities ac-
countable in a number of ways. The
committee also reported that it had
not come across a single instance of
any action being taken against an in-
stitution or their authorities con-
cerned.
In the Jagriti matter, the Supreme
Court held that collective nes could
be imposed where those committing
or abetting ragging could not be iden-
tied. The committee did not, barring
one or two isolated instances, come
across any instance of collective puni-
shment being imposed.
To address the root cause of rag-
ging, the committee recommended a
variety of measures right from the
school level. One is introduction of hu-
man rights education, of which aware-
ness against ragging is a compulsory
part. The committee felt that bullying
and corporal punishment at the school
level legitimised ideas of power abuse,
harassment, and violation of dignity
and privacy, and prepared the ground
for ragging at the college level. Corpo-
ral punishment has been banned in
Goa, Delhi and Tamil Nadu.
The committee urged that every in-
cident of ragging be treated with the
heaviest hand possible, however iso-
lated or mild or positive it might
appear. The punishment, it suggested,
had to be justiably harsh to act as a
deterrent.
In its order on May 16, 2007, the
Supreme Court endorsed many of the
major recommendations of the Ragha-
van Committee. In particular, the
court held that any failure on the part
of institutional authority, or negli-
gence, or deliberate delay in lodging a
first information report should be con-
strued as culpable negligence. The
court also held that the authorities and
functionaries of the concerned institu-
tion should also be open to scrutiny so
that one could nd out whether they
had taken effective steps to prevent
ragging. In case of any failure on their
part, action can be taken; for instance,
denial of any grant-in-aid or assistance
from the State government.
The Rajendra Prasad Medical Col-
lege, for instance, gets Rs.120 crore as
annual grant from the Centre. And the
State government and the college
management are keen to raise the col-
leges standards to the level of the All
India Institute of Medical Sciences.
The Supreme Court Bench com-
prising Justices Arijit Pasayat and
Asok Kumar Ganguly took note on
March 16 of the recent incidents of
ragging and remarked that the author-
ities in both Himachal Pradesh and
Andhra Pradesh had prima facie com-
mitted contempt of the court by not
complying with the guidelines. The
court issued notices to the State go-
vernments, besides the educational in-
stitutions concerned, to show cause
why contempt proceedings should not
be initiated against them.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 1 2 F R O N T L I N E
MENTAL ailments will overtake cardiovascular
diseases to become the single largest health problem
in the country by 2010, says a study done by the
National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sci-
ences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, at the behest of the
National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). It
notes that close to 7 per cent of the countrys pop-
ulation suffer from varying degrees of mental dis-
order. And over 3 per cent of them need active
treatment. Translated into numbers, this means that
a staggering 30 to 35 lakh people in India are in
urgent need of treatment, including hospitalisation,
for mental ailments, but there are only 29,000 hos-
pital beds and 3,300 psychiatrists available in all to
treat them. Of these, over 3,000 psychiatrists are
based in the four metros.
This woeful shortage of trained mental health
care professionals in the country made Union Minis-
ter for Health and Family Welfare Dr. Anbumani
Ramadoss to plead literally with NIMHANS gradu-
ates at their recent convocation ceremony to stay on
in India and not migrate to Western countries.
However, there is some good news too. The Cen-
tral government has nally woken up to this acute
problem and is putting up a comprehensive plan of
action on a war footing. Union Minister of State for
Health P. Lakshmi told Frontline that the govern-
ment planned to re-strategise the National Mental
Health Programme (NMHP) and integrate it with
the general health care programme. The NMHP has
been in force since 1987 but has not delivered much.
The government will now launch a nationwide pro-
gramme to train general practitioners in mental ail-
ments so that, even if they are not qualied enough to
prescribe treatment, they can detect early signs and
refer patients to psychiatrists. The problem with
mental health is also one of awareness. Very often
people do not realise that their weird behaviour
could be the result of some mental disorder, and by
the time they do it is too late. So, what we need is a
system wherein the ailment can be detected at an
early stage and treated properly, she said over phone
from her constituency in Andhra Pradesh.
Another problem with the mental health care
system, she said, was the social stigma attached to
the disease, which prevented many people from dis-
closing their problem. This we plan to tackle
through aggressive awareness campaigns on radio
and television. Our advertisements are already on
air. Besides, we need to sensitise the community at
large because unlike several other diseases, mental
health cannot have hospital-centric treatment alone.
The family, the neighbourhood and society at large
has to be involved, she said.
The Ministry has already nalised an ambitious
plan of action to augment manpower and it has been
approved by the Cabinet Committee on Economic
Affairs. This plan seeks to establishat least 11 centres
of excellence for mental health and neurosciences. A
number of other institutions will be strengthened in
terms of manpower. It is hoped that the plan, with an
outlay of Rs.474 crore for the duration of the Elev-
enth Five-Year Plan, will churn out another 100
psychiatrists, 400 clinical psychologists, 400 psychi-
atric social workers and 800 psychiatric nurses every
year. According to Lakshmi, the availability of more
psychiatrists and other mental health care profes-
sionals will go a long way in dealing with the prob-
lem. The lack of timely access to a psychiatrist is at
times as high as 50 to 80 per cent.
Another problem is the rehabilitation of cured
patients. The stigma attached to the afiction is such
that even after patients are cured, their relatives
refuse to take them back. This increases the load on
an already overburdened system. The Ministry of
Social Justice has agreed to run houses for the reha-
bilitation of cured, abandoned patients, Lakshmi
said. Professionals in the eld of mental health care
Depressing scene
The Union government hopes to
change things with a re-strategised
National Mental Health
Programme, which will be
integrated with the general health
care programme.
Mental disorders threaten to become a serious problem in India and the
treatment facilities remain woefully inadequate. BY PURNI MA S. TRI PATHI I N NEW DELHI
Public Health
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 3
have greeted the governments cam-
paign with some degree of scepticism
but have approved it nonetheless. Ac-
cording to Dr. B.N. Gangadhar, head
of psychiatry at NIMHANS, which is
engaged in formulating a model men-
tal health care programme along with
the NHRC, it is in vogue to talk of
mental health being in a shambles now
but it has been so for years.
The situation has been quite bleak
for years. In fact it has been so bleak
that the Supreme Court was forced to
take suo motu action and direct the
NHRC to ensure that mental patients
were given dignied and humane
treatment, he said. The apex courts
initiative resulted in the NHRC and
NIMHANS coming together in the
early 1990s to work on a project called
Quality Assurance in Mental Health,
he added.
According to Gangadhar, the pro-
grammes initiated by the United Pro-
gressive Alliance government are a
step in the right direction, but there is
a long way to go. We need to give
training to general practitioners at the
grassroots level to counsel mentally ill
persons and to refer them to the right
doctors. The present government has
initiated a training programme for
doctors at primary health care centres
and at district hospitals. Over 200 dis-
trict hospitals have already been cov-
ered; by 2012, all district hospitals will
have trained doctors and adequate in-
patient and outpatient departments
for such patients. This is a major
achievement because access to profes-
sional health care workers, especially
in semi-urban and rural areas, re-
mains the biggest problem today, he
said.
MULTI DI SCI PLI NARY APPROACH
Dr. Jitendra Nagpal, consultant psy-
chiatrist at the Delhi-based Vidyasa-
gar Institute of Mental Health and
Neuro Sciences (VIMHANS), could
not agree more. Nagpal, who has been
involved in running community-based
mental health care programmes for
years now at his own initiative (he pro-
vides mental health counsellingin over
500 schools in North India and runs
various charitable mental health care
centres in the Mathura-Vrindavan-
Agra region), said availability of men-
tal health professionals was a big chal-
lenge in rural and semi-urban areas.
For hundreds of miles outside
Delhis periphery, there are no psychi-
atrists available and people are forced
to go to faith healers, magicians and
quacks to treat their mental disorders,
thus compounding the problem. The
only way this problem can be ad-
dressed is by public-private partner-
ships [PPP] because it is just not
possible for the government to handle
a problem of this magnitude alone, he
said, describing the state of affairs in
the eld of mental health as pathetic.
The mental health care system
would be put on the right track, he
said, by creating a parallel secondary
system of experts that is, by training
general practitioners, paediatricians
and gynaecologists in this area and by
involving private players, who have
success models to show, in the effort.
But he said he was sceptical about the
government initiative because his own
experience showed that the govern-
ments obsession with control and au-
thority had prevented it so far from
involving private professionals. There
was nothing to indicate that this was
about to change now, he said.
The government action in this
eld has been marked by complacence,
lethargy and red-tapism, which has so
far played havoc with the system. We
have had the NMHP for over 20 years
now, but not even a single study has
been done to check its impact. The
sense of urgency with which this prob-
lem should be treated is also missing,
said Nagpal with great anguish.
According to him, 10-15 crore peo-
ple in India suffer from various mental
disorders such as stress, insomnia,
psychosomatic diseases and problems
arising out of changing lifestyles fol-
lowing globalisation, urbanisation and
breakdown of old family values. Nearly
1.5 crore people, he said, were known
to be suffering from extreme schizo-
phrenia.
It is reported that by 2020 depres-
sion will become the single largest kill-
er in the world and India will lead the
list. Sad to say, no one seems to realise
the urgency of the situation. Unless the
country has mentally sound people,
how can we talk of being an econom-
ically strong nation? Nagpal said. The
only way out, he said, was to have a
multidisciplinary approach to the
problem, involve society at large and
adopt the PPP model, albeit under go-
vernment control and supervision.
Otherwise, he warned, all the talk of
re-strategising the NMHP would re-
main on paper and, once again, thou-
sands of crores of public money would
get wasted.
AT THE I NSTI TUTE of Mental Health, Chennai. Close to 7 per cent of the
countrys population suffer from varying degrees of mental disorder.
K
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1 1 4 F R O N T L I N E
SINCE Frontline published a Cover Story last
year (April 11, 2008) on the closure in January 2008
of the three public sector units that met the bulk of
the requirement of primary vaccines for the coun-
trys Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP),
and its potential impact on the supply of affordable
essential vaccines for childhood immunisation, sev-
eral important developments have taken place.
The DrugController General
of India (DCGI) ordered the
three units to shut down on the
grounds that they were not com-
plying with current good manu-
facturing practice (cGMP)
norms under the Indian Drugs
and Cosmetic Rules (D&CR),
1945. However, Union Health
Minister Anbumani Ramadoss
had told Frontline that the li-
cences of the units had to be
withdrawn because of tremen-
dous pressure from the World
Health Organisation to derecog-
nise the DCGI, which is Indias
National Regulatory Authority
(NRA), following the WHO-
NRA assessment of the units in
2007. This was the third assess-
ment after the ones carried out
in 2001 and 2004. The DCGI is
supposed to ensure that the pub-
lic sector units comply with the WHOs cGMP norms
if they are to be certied by the WHO for the export
of vaccines for global immunisation programmes.
The Indian cGMP norms are equivalent to the WHO
norms. These were adopted in 2001 but notied only
in 2005.
The units in question are the 103-year-old Cen-
tral Research Institute, Kasauli in Himachal Pra-
desh; the 100-year-old Pasteur Institute of India,
Coonoor in Tamil Nadu; and the 60-year-old BCG
Vaccine Laboratory, Chennai. These units had been
manufacturing the Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)
vaccine to prevent childhood tuberculosis, the triple
diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine, the oral
polio vaccine (OPV) and the measles vaccine. The
apprehensions expressed in the Cover Story that this
unwarranted move could lead to a shortage of vac-
cines in the countrywide immunisation programme
have turned out to be true (see tables).
Besides these vaccines and others belonging to
the DPT group, such as the diphtheria-tetanus (DT)
toxoid and tetanus toxoid (TT) vaccines, these units
produce non-UIP vaccines such
as the anti-rabies vaccine (ARV)
for animals and humans, the ty-
phoid vaccine and, most impor-
tantly, the yellow fever vaccine.
They also produce sera, includ-
ing the anti-snakebite serum.
The Kasauli institute is, in fact,
the only unit in South-East Asia
to produce the yellow fever vac-
cine.
A centralised vaccine park,
which will have state-of-the-art
infrastructure for the produc-
tion of and research onboth UIP
and non-UIP vaccines, includ-
ing new generation vaccines,
was proposed to be set up in
Chengalpattu near Chennai in
lieu of these three units. Hin-
dustan Latex Ltd. (HLL), a pub-
lic sector undertaking of the
Ministry of Health and Family
Vaccine asco
[N]either the joint inspection team
of WHO-NRA nor the subsequent
team from the DCGIs ofce had
made any recommendation
regarding stopping production of
vaccines by these units or closing
down these units.
The closure of three public sector vaccine-producing units has led to a shortage
of vaccines in the countrywide immunisation programme. BY R. RAMACHANDRAN
ANBUMANI RAMADOSS, UNI ON
Health Minister, said that the
licences of the vaccine-producing
units had to be withdrawn because
of pressure from WHO.
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Welfare, was to set up this complex.
On January 11, 2008, the Ministry
handed over 330 acres (1 acre is 0.4
hectare) to the HLL for the proposed
complex, named MediPark.
Though the HLL is a successful
prot-making unit, it has little experi-
ence in vaccine production and tech-
nology. To begin with, the company
started trading in vaccines through the
marketing of the hepatitis B and ty-
phoid vaccines. Interestingly, with its
entry into the vaccine business and
perhaps to present a different image,
the company recently changed its
name to HLL Lifecare Ltd.
The HLL, in turn, envisages Medi-
Park as a public-private-partnership
(PPP) venture with an investment of
Rs.500 crore, with the UIP vaccine
unit alone costing Rs.160 crore. The
HLL has requested the Ministry to
fund this component of the park en-
tirely. The Ministry has apparently
sought direct Cabinet approval for
funding this project, but now this can
be considered only by the new govern-
ment. The private partner is yet to be
identied by the HLL. According to
recent news reports, the estimated cost
of the project is now Rs.900 crore,
implying that the cost of the UIP vac-
cine unit will have correspondingly
shot up.
Towards this new-found enter-
prise, the HLL also signed a mem-
orandum of understanding last
August with NNE Pharmaplan India
Ltd., a Denmark-based multinational
company, for it to be the consultant for
the project. According to A.K. Singal,
the managing director of NNE Phar-
maplan India, as of now, the Ministry
has given the go-ahead to the company
to prepare the basic engineering plan
only. The detailed engineering plan
will be taken up once the full contract
is awarded to it, he said.
PARLI AMENTARY CONCERN
Interestingly, the Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Health and
Family Welfare in its 27th Report
(April 2008) recommended that the
suspension of the manufacturing li-
cences of all the three public sector
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 1 6 F R O N T L I N E
units be revoked. In its 34th Report
dated February 18, 2009, which has
specically looked at The Function-
ing of the Three Vaccine Producing
PSUs, the Standing Committee,
chaired by Amar Singh, says: In the
absence of any proactive action on the
part of the Ministry [in response to the
recommendation], reports about
shortage of vaccines in the different
States kept pouring in. It therefore
decided to holistically examine this
sensitive issue.
On December 6, 2008, T.K. Ran-
garajan, a Rajya Sabha member from
the Communist Party of India (Mar-
xist), made a representation to Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh on the vac-
cine unit closure issue. He raised 10
questions and sought the Prime Minis-
ters urgent intervention in the matter.
The questions related to the addi-
tional nancial expenditure incurred
on the procurement of vaccines since
the closure of the units, the total esti-
mated additional expenditure until
2012 when the vaccine park is likely to
become operational, a comparison of
this with the cost of upgrading the
units to cGMP norms, the Ministrys
strategy for making the vaccines avail-
able in the interim, the impact on the
immunisation programme because of
the closure, and so on. Rangarajan also
met Manmohan Singh, who apparent-
ly gave him a patient hearing.
The Prime Ministers Ofce, in
turn, asked the Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare on December 23 to
respond to the queries by December
29. But Rangarajan is yet to receive
any response from the Prime Minis-
ters Ofce or the Ministry.
However, in reply to a question in
the Lok Sabha, Anbumani Ramadoss
stated on February 18 that an expert
committee under the chairmanship of
the DCGI had been constituted in
April 2008 to study, inter alia, the
existing infrastructure/facilities avail-
able with these institutes and explore
the feasibility of converting these facil-
ities into testing laboratories, utilising
the existing facilities for setting up res-
idential training facilities and having
some of the vaccines/anti-sera produc-
and anti-sera at the Pasteur Institute.
The institute will also be developed
into a central testing laboratory for
medical devices and a training centre
for the production and testing of anti-
sera.
Recommendations for the Kasauli
unit include new manufacturing facil-
ities for the yellow fever vaccine, the
inuenza vaccine (seasonal and pan-
demic), the acetone-killed typhoid
vaccine and the TCARV; a new anti-
sera facility; a centre for measles, u
and rabies surveillance in addition to
the existing polio surveillance; expan-
sion and modernisation of the existing
animal house into a national animal
breeding centre; and the expansion of
the Central Drugs Laboratory at Ka-
sauli to have separate wings for bacte-
rial and viral vaccines.
tion at these institutes in compliance
with cGMP. Though the expert com-
mittee has submitted its report, iron-
ically, its terms of reference never
included exploring ways to upgrade
the existing units to make them cGMP
compliant for primary vaccines.
This suggests that the Ministry
never had any intention of upgrading
them to meet cGMP norms and that
the decision to shut them down was
perhaps taken in 2004 itself. If one
goes by the remarks of M. Ayyappan,
the chairman and managing director
of the HLL, to a news agency, the rst
project report was prepared in 2004
itself and the green signal was given in
2006. According to Anbumani Rama-
doss statement, the expert committee
recommended the production of tissue
culture anti-rabies vaccine (TCARV)
THE PASTEUR I NSTI TUTE of India in
Coonoor. The [Parliamentary Standing]
Committee fails to understand as to how the
Ministry would ensure cGMP compliance in
the private institutes when it cannot enforce
the same in its own institutes.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 7
The recommendations for the
Chennai unit include its conversion in-
to a BCG vaccine-testing laboratory
under the Central Drugs Laboratory,
setting up a training centre for BCG
production and testing, developing a
central testing laboratory for cosmet-
ics, and expanding and modernising
the existing animal house.
Given the limited and very specic
terms of reference, these recommen-
dations are not surprising. Indeed, the
Parliamentary Standing Committee
report states: The scope and TOR
[terms of reference] of the EC [expert
committee] are self-revealing.
[They] indicate that the Ministry had
already taken a decision for nal stop-
page of vaccine production at the in-
stitutes despite the fact that the
manufacturing licence remained
suspended till the time discrepancies
notice were nally removed. The Com-
mittee expresses its serious reservation
on this development. The report fur-
ther says that certain critical aspects
about the functioning of the three
units remain unclear even after an
analysis of the Ministrys Status Note
and the expert committees report, re-
quiring complete examination of the
whole issue by the Standing Commit-
tee.
The most signicant and the
damning observation of the Standing
Committee is the following: [N]ei-
ther the joint inspection team of
WHO-NRA nor the subsequent team
from the DCGIs ofce had made any
recommendation regarding stopping
production of vaccines by these units
or closing down these units.
The report also points out that in
the last evaluation of the units, carried
out in 2007, the three units had been
asked to rectify certain deciencies in
cGMP compliance that were noticed
but the institutes were neither given
sufcient time nor adequate budgetary
support to rectify the deciencies
pointed out by the inspection team.
The Standing Committee has
pointed out that the major shortcom-
ings pointed out by the WHO inspec-
tion team had already been rectied by
the institutions concerned and what
remained were a few drawbacks per-
taining mainly to infrastructure,
which could have been easily removed
with positive support from the Minis-
try. Citing Rule 85 (1) of the Drugs and
Cosmetics Rules, the Standing Com-
mittee stated that the licences of the
three units should have only been sus-
pended for a specic period.
This period, says the report,
could have been utilised for removal
of all the shortcomings in a time-
bound manner under the overall su-
pervision of the Ministry.
MI NI STRY S I NACTI ON
Castigating the Ministry for its total
inaction, the Parliamentary Standing
Committee states: [I]t is astonishing
to nd that the building structures of
these old institutions have continued
to remain in their original set-up. Ideal
position would have been to revamp
the existing structures so as to ensure
normal functioning as well as further
expansion/strengthening in accord-
ance with the changing times/require-
ments. The Committee is not aware
whether any initiative, whatsoever,
was taken by the Ministry or the Direc-
tor-General of Health Services
(DGHS) to draw up an action plan and
take follow-up action in a time-bound
manner. The Committee fails to un-
derstand as to how the Ministry would
ensure cGMP compliance in the pri-
vate institutes when it cannot enforce
the same in its own institutes.
But more serious is the charge by
the Standing Committee that the
WHO had offered to upgrade the tech-
nology of these units but the Ministry
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A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 1 8 F R O N T L I N E
had declined the offer and instead pre-
ferred to cancel their
vaccine-producing licences.
Interestingly, the Standing Com-
mittee has found that a proposal to
convert the DPT manufacturing lab-
oratory at the Kasauli unit into a
cGMP-compliant structure was made
way back in 1997-98, and the contract
was awarded to Noida-based HSCC.
However, after nine years and
spending Rs.11.86 crore, the rm, in
December 2006, expressed its inabil-
ity and disinterest in completing the
project. [This] epitomises the cava-
lier fashion with which the Ministry
has treated the issue. The Committee
views with serious concern the admis-
sion on the part of M/s HSCC about
their not having any expertise to con-
struct a scientic structure to cGMP
standards. The Committee is of the
rm opinion that the Ministry is re-
sponsible to a large extent for the pre-
vailing unsatisfactory situation in the
three institutes thereby leading to
shortage of life saving vaccines with
serious impact on UIP and child
health care programmes in the coun-
try.
As reported earlier in Frontline,
besides suspension of production, the
DCGI also ordered the destruction of
held-over stocks, in particular at the
Chennai unit, the sole manufacturer of
BCG in the country, stating that prod-
ucts manufactured at the institute
could not be used owing to non-con-
formity with cGMP standards. This,
according to the Standing Committee,
was done on February 20, 2008.
Until the inspections were carried
out, the institute had been meeting the
requirements of BCG vaccine for the
entire countrywithout any reports of
any adverse effects. If the vaccines
supplied under the UIP conformed to
the standards of safety, efcacy and
quality, then what could be the logic to
order the destruction and writing off of
the stock by the DCGI? the Standing
Committee asked.
It also noted with dismay that, in
the wake of the closure of the units,
there have been vaccine shortages for
the UIP across the country. The de-
mand-supply gap following vaccine
procurement from private suppliers in
2008-09 is given in Table 1.
Signicantly, the Standing Com-
mittee said that the cGMP status of
these private suppliers was not known
and that it would like to be apprised by
the Ministry about it. The committee
has also commented that once the pri-
vate sector becomes the source of vac-
cines, there is every likelihood of the
cost of the vaccines going up, defeating
the very objective of providing essen-
tial vaccines at an affordable price. In-
deed, the Minister recently conrmed
this unfortunate development to a tel-
evisionchannel. Though private sector
units had made a commitment to the
Ministry on paper, they were now de-
manding a much higher price.
As regards the proposed vaccine
park, the Standing Committee noted
that with the three vaccine-manufac-
turing public sector units already func-
tioning for so many decades the right
course of action would have been to
make sincere efforts to revamp them.
Vaccine park coming up at the
cost of already existing units cannot be
justied from any point of view. This
project could take a couple of years
before manufacturing and supply of
vaccines could actually take place. In
conclusion, the committee recom-
mends that the Ministry revoke the
suspension of the vaccine-manufac-
turing licences at the earliest.
Until such time that new infras-
tructure is built conforming to D&CR
norms, these institutes should be al-
lowed to continue production in the
old structures after carrying out the
rectications either fully or to the ex-
tent possible, the report states.
Another signicant development
in the matter is that on February 21, a
Supreme Court Bench comprising
Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and
Justice P. Sathasivam admitted a pub-
lic interest litigation (PIL) led by S.P.
Shukla, former Special Secretary to the
Ministry of Health and Family Wel-
fare and a former Member of the Plan-
ning Commission, and
non-governmental organisations
against the government, including the
Health Minister, the Health Secretary,
the DCGI, the directors of the three
public sector units and the respective
State governments.
The bench, in turn, issued notices
to the respondents. The Parliamentary
Standing Committee report streng-
thens the petitioners prayers signif-
icantly.
The petition asked the court to
make recommendations to ensure the
availability of essential vaccines at af-
fordable prices, including directing
the government to restart production
at the public sector units. Drawing the
courts attention to media reports that
alleged improper and illegal arrange-
ments between some of the public sec-
tor units producing vaccines and
various private rms, especially Green
Signal Bio Pharma, a company owned
by P. Sundaraparipoornan and regis-
tered in 2005, the PIL asked the court
to constitute a committee of experts to
investigate these allegations. The
scope of the Standing Committees re-
port, unfortunately, neither included
these aspects nor some of the ques-
tions raised by Rangarajan.
However, according to sources, the
Prime Ministers Office has taken a
strong view of the entire issue and has
directed the Ministry to seek clearance
from the Expenditure Finance Com-
mittee for the vaccine park proposal
before bringing it up to the Cabinet.
The Ministry will be directed to submit
a detailed report to the Finance Com-
mittee on all the outstanding issues in
the matter, the sources said.
The Committee
feels that the
the Ministry is
responsible for
the prevailing
situation in the
three units.
Public Health
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 1 9
[T]he war on drugs has been a disas-
terthe 100-year struggle has been il-
liberal, murderous and pointless...the
least bad policy is to legalise drugs.
The Economist (March 7-13,
2009)
O
NE of the major handi-
caps a criminal justice re-
searcher faces in India is
the non-availability of up-
to-date and reliable statis-
tics. Crime gures put out annually by
the National Crime Records Bureau
(NCRB) and organisations such as the
Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) of the
Finance Ministry tell only a part of the
story. It is not because these agencies
want to play down the magnitude of
the problem. The fact is they depend
on inputs from a variety of sources,
especially the State police depart-
ments, which have a stake in proving
to the rest of the world that crime is
under control and they are doing their
job very well indeed. The tendency,
therefore, is to ignore most reported
crimes and suppress information on
them whenever possible. This is my
impression not only of conventional
crimes but of those induced by the
trade in and consumption of drugs.
It is an open secret that drug addic-
tion is widely prevalent in our major
cities and that it is not difcult to buy
drugs at a moments notice in the vi-
cinity of some of our educational cam-
puses. The gures quoted by the NCB
in its annual report for 2006 do point
to some activity on the part of enforce-
ment agencies at the Centre and in the
States. Seizures of opium (2,826 kg),
heroin (1,182 kg), ganja (157,710 kg)
and hashish (3,852 kg) and cocaine
(206 kg) may be modest but cannot be
dismissed as wholly inconsequential.
passing on crucial information to a
dreaded drug gang called Sinaloa. Rel-
evant here is the recent arrest by the
Maharashtra Police of an Indian Po-
lice Service ofcer who allegedly got
mixed up in the drug trade after a dep-
utation to the NCB.
More than earlier, in the past few
years, the need for proactive cooper-
ation between nations is seen as abso-
lutely essential to touch at least the
fringe of the problem. No nation can
remain complacent because the pat-
terns of consumption and the routes
used for transporting drugs keep shift-
ing, and it is in everybodys interest
that assistance is lent generously and
ungrudgingly.
It is against this backdrop that the
United Nations Ofce of Drugs and
Crime (UNODC) earlier this month
convened its annual conference at its
Vienna headquarters to review the
progress of enforcement. More than
100 nations took part in the deliber-
ations amidst visible scepticism that
the labours of the U.N. body had be-
come too routine to have any impact at
all on a grave situation.
Interestingly, this year marks the
100th anniversary of international
cooperation in the ght against drugs.
Anti-opium activists managed to bring
enough pressure on nations to hold the
rst conference of its kind in 1909 in
Shanghai. This paved the way for an
International Opium Convention of
The Hague in 1912. Since then, there
have been three conventions, all under
the auspices of the U.N., in 1961, 1971
and 1988. These did bring about more
than symbolic improvements. As a re-
sult, drug consumption across nations
stabilised at around 5 per cent of the
worlds adult population. Deaths
The nagging question is: Do these
gures adequately reect the ground
situation, especially in the light of the
fact that India is a lucrative market for
drug dealers and is also a relatively safe
transit point for prohibited substances
originating from Afghanistan, a coun-
try notorious for poppy cultivation?
(Afghanistan incidentally has edged
out Morocco in the production of can-
nabis resin.)
Ironically, the same misgivings
that we express with regard to India
are aired in countries such as the Unit-
edStates andthe UnitedKingdomand
in parts of Europe and Africa. There is
reasonable criticism that laws in most
of the regions of the world do not have
the required bite andthat enforcement
agencies are either hampered by a lack
of resources or by downright corrup-
tion. A case in point is Mexico, where a
federal prosecutor working for the at-
torney general was charged last No-
vember with taking bribes in return for
The drug menace
In the past few years, cooperation among nations has been seen as essential even
to touch the fringe of the problemof drug trafcking.
Law and Order
R.K. RAGHAVAN
Column
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 2 0 F R O N T L I N E
traceable directly to drugs are around
200,000 a year, a small number com-
pared with deaths resulting from alco-
hol and tobacco consumption.
But those who gathered in Vienna
a few weeks ago were not exactly im-
pressed. They said that these gures
did not reect the ground situation,
which, in their opinion, was fast get-
ting out of control. Not only were new
and dangerous drugs nding their way
rapidly into new centres, but the gangs
dealing in them were found to be in-
genious in nding fresh routes to
transport them unnoticed by enforce-
ment agencies. UNODC chief Antonio
Maria Costa himself admitted at the
conference that the problem was con-
tained but not solved. This candid
assessment should make all right-
thinking leaders do more in their re-
spective countries to ensure that drug
consumption does not escalate. Suc-
cess here would hit at what Costa re-
ferred to as a criminal black market of
staggering proportions.
SURGE I N DRUG PRODUCTI ON
Ground realities, however, are forbid-
ding. The World Drug Report 2008,
prepared by the UNODC, recorded
that since 2007 there was an undoubt-
ed expansion of the area under opium
and coca cultivation. For instance, in
Colombia, a determined President Al-
varo Uribe, saw to it that hundreds of
thousands of hectares of land was
sprayed with weed killer in an attempt
to reduce coca cultivation, which in
fact fell by half between 1999 and
2006. This proved to be only a tempor-
ary success. Latest reports point to a
surge in production.
Also, the UNODC report for 2008
found consumption to be on the rise in
some developing countries. Most sig-
nicantly, new routes are emerging as
safe corridors for conveying prohibited
substances. This is why Mexico has
become such a dangerous place in the
past few years. Drugs produced in Col-
ombia were initially being transported
to the rest of the world through the
Caribbean islands. Once the U.S. and
other countries sealed this route effec-
tively, Mexicos lax administration
came in handy for the drug lords.
Small gangs making small prots from
marijuana and heroin soon became
rich beyond their wildest dreams
through trading in the highly priced
cocaine owing copiously from Col-
ombia into Mexico rst and later into
the U.S., where there is a huge market
for them. The kind of violence this has
spawned in Mexico is unbelievable.
Since 2006, 800policemen and ar-
my soldiers have died in the battle with
the gangs. The losses suffered by the
gangs are far more. The point is, in an
expanding consumer market such as
the U.S., there is no way we can put
down heavily armed rapacious gangs
of the sort that haunt Mexican Presi-
dent Felipe Calderon and his dedicat-
ed ofcials who want to see a drug-free
Mexico.
Costa is fully conscious that stiffer
anti-drug legislation is no answer to
the current malaise. He is aware that
many countries are rooting for legal-
isation of drugs to get out of an awk-
ward situation. This trend is growing,
if the action taken in many States of
the U.S. is any indication. In as many
as 13 States, the police have been ad-
vised to ignore mere possession of can-
nabis by a citizen. Such possession is
actually not an offence in many Euro-
pean countries, such as Spain, Portu-
gal and Italy. The belief is that once
drugs can be openly bought there will
be less and less temptation to buy
them, except when an individual is an
addict.
SWEDI SH EXAMPLE
As against this universal trend, there is
an odd country here and there that is
very rigid about enforcing anti-drug
laws. Sweden is one such nation,
where possession is a criminal offence
and is strictly enforced. The UNODC
would like to hold this up as an ex-
ample worth emulating. This debate
on whether to punish drug offenders
guilty only of consumption is similar to
the one we see in respect of capital
punishment and will continue unre-
solved.
Ironically, Costa has taken the po-
sition that decriminalisation of drugs
will be a historic mistake. It is dif-
cult to believe that he will carry any
conviction with many nations that are
more concerned with conventional
crimes. It is equally true that those
who are pleading for drug offences to
be taken out of statute books, except
when they directly lead to violence,
ignore the fact that consumption of
drugs not only impairs public health
but actually generates a wide range of
criminal activities.
The Vienna conference, despite
wide differences over existing U.N.
policy and strategy with regard to
drugs, adopted an action plan that laid
emphasis on a balance between mea-
sures to curb supply and demand and
those to strengthen health care and
social services. In specic terms, the
conference established 2019 as a target
date to eliminate or reduce signi-
cantly and measurably drug produc-
tion and trade. This is a compromise
between those who believe that the
current policy has failed and those who
think that the struggle is worth pursu-
ing relentlessly.
We hope to see this percolating
down to Asia where the current trends
are alarming. With the resurgence of
the Taliban, which derives most of its
resources from poppy cultivation, Af-
ghanistan is going to pose many a
problem to those who desire to see a
drug-free world.
OPI UM, WORTH OVER Rs.3 crore,
seized by the Upparpet police in
Karnataka. A 2008 photograph.
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Column
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 1
letters
Dharavi and Slumdog
I AGREE with Mitu Senguptas views on
Dharavi, but not with her views on Slumdog
Millionaire (Hollow message, March 27).
The lm is about the life experiences of a few
individuals and has a powerful and convinc-
ing storyline. It should not be interpreted as a
portrayal of life in Dharavi in general. There
are lms made on heinous crimes committed
in cities but they do not necessarily portray
all cities as dens of criminals.
I think it would be wrong to look at the
portrayal of a few isolated characters from a
slum as being representative of an entire lo-
cality or population. The cinematic treat-
ment of Slumdog Millionaire is undeniably
outstanding.
BIMAN BASU
NEW DELHI
Pakistan
THE Cover Story (Sinking
state, March 27) conrms
that Talibanism has reac-
hed the heart of Pakistan.
The terrorist attack on
Sri Lankan cricketers in La-
hore shows how awed pol-
icies have made the security
scenario in South Asia pre-
carious. The civilian govern-
ment in Islamabad is
powerless as it has lost the
battle against the Islamists.
It has no courage to disman-
tle the terrorist infrastruc-
ture on its territory.
It is for Pakistan to de-
cide what it wants. It should
understand that any bid to
aid fundamentalist ele-
ments covertly or overtly
will only aggravate its prob-
lems. Restraint and alert-
ness, besides patience and
trust, may be the only way
out.
DILBAG RAI
CHANDIGARH
IN the wake of the recent
political crisis, increased
terrorist activities, the Tali-
bans resurgence, all-round
anarchy and, above all, U.S.
President Barack Obamas
plan to expand the covert
U.S. war in Pakistan far be-
yond the tribal areas near
the border with Afghanis-
tan, the power-hungry mil-
itary is likely to take over the
country in the near future.
K.P. RAJAN
MUMBAI
IT is clear that there is no
governance of any sort in
Pakistan. Jehadi terror is
the main issue to be ad-
dressed there. The govern-
ment in Pakistan is very
weak and has no control
over the Army; the Army, in
turn, has no control over the
ISI. This is the real tragedy
of Pakistan. The jehadists
are under nobodys control.
As a result some sort of an-
archy prevails in that
country.
The Pakistan govern-
ment must restore rule of
law and promote good go-
vernance.
DR. K.K. AMMANNAYA
UDUPI, KARNATAKA
ASSURED of security re-
served for VVIPs, Sri Lanka
chose to play in Pakistan
when the rest of the cricket-
ing world remained wary.
Pakistan-based militants
have no reasons to bear a
grudge against Sri Lanka,
let alone its cricketers.
Hence, there is reason to
suspect that the attack was
carried out by internal or ex-
ternal elements who either
wish to destabilise the Pa-
kistan government or to iso-
late it further
internationally. It needs to
be probed whose agenda
this attack was.
K.S. JAYTHEERTHA
BANGALORE
THE harsh reality is that the
democratically elected Pa-
kistan government runs the
risk of being overrun by the
Taliban or the military.
The political leadership
appears too weak to put up
any signicant resistance to
the formidable Taliban in
the absence of any active
cooperation from the armed
forces. Even a militarily less
powerful Sri Lanka did not
yield to the decades-long
armed struggle of the LTTE
to change its constitutional
framework. The real loser is
the hapless citizens of the
country who are caught be-
tween the merciless jehadis
and a powerless state.
For the West, which has
been blindly supporting Pa-
kistan and pumping in mil-
lions of dollars as aid, the
writing on the wall should
be clear.
BICHU MUTTATHARA
KHADKI, PUNE
Elections
IT looks like the coming
general elections will, in all
likelihood, throw up a hung
Parliament (Alliance
route, March 27). Once
again, the ow of money and
liquor to woo voters as well
as muscle power will play a
dominant role. Indepen-
dents could turn out to be
the kingmakers in the end.
K.R. SRINIVASAN
SECUNDERABAD
Education
THE article Report card
(March 27) provided a
glimpse into the state of
education in the country.
What has been found in the
case of certain North Indian
States may prove to be true
for the rest of the country.
The PROBE survey deserves
appreciation for the magni-
tude of the eld work, the
intensity of the analysis and
the quality of its results.
Great thinkers have
equated opening of a school
to the closing down of a
hundred prisons. Inspiring
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 2 2 F R O N T L I N E
teaching practices and
promising educational stan-
dards would bring about in-
valuable results.
Activity-based learning and
due space for sports would
create generations that
would be strong physically
and mentally.
S. V. VENUGOPALAN
CHENNAI
Lawyers vs police
LAWYERS of Tamil Nadu
seek action against the po-
lice while expecting their
own acts of violence to be
overlooked (Courting trou-
ble, March 27). As it is,
hapless litigants have been
held to ransom by these law-
less lawyers. Tax payers
funds are being wasted by
their continuous disruption
of court functioning.
A. MEHRA
MUMBAI
The Oscars
IT was enlightening to read
the two articles on the Os-
car-winning Slumdog Mil-
lionaire (March 27). We
salute A.R. Rahman for his
inherent talent and for win-
ning the prestigious Acade-
my awards. Sure, Slumdog
Millionaire has given us
moments of joy amidst eco-
nomic crisis and terrorism,
but it is not correct to com-
pare it withother great Indi-
an lms.
DR. SANJIV GUPTA
PERTH, AUSTRALIA
IN her article Hollow mes-
sage Mitu Sengupta has
unfairly criticised Slumdog
Millionaire for failing to
portray the positive dyna-
mism of slums. First, the
movie is not about slums. It
is the story about a boy who
spent his childhood in one.
In fact, the slums are not
central to the storyline at
all; there are many Bolly-
wood movies that have por-
trayed slums in a worse
light.
Secondly, who says ev-
ery Hollywood movie made
with an Indian theme has to
be committed to elevating
the status of India interna-
tionally? What is wrong
with bureaucrats trying to
improve the quality of hous-
ing in these slums? The real
issue is that whenever the
government succeeds in
substituting slums with im-
proved housing, slum dwell-
ers, instead of enjoying their
new homes, prefer to sell or
rent them out and then set
up slums elsewhere. Now
which Hollywood director
can make a movie to address
that problem appropriately
while not damaging the im-
age of India?
VIDYA CHINOY
NEW DELHI
THE 81st annual Academy
Awards will remain etched
in the Indian memory for
years to come. This is not
because a lm based on In-
dia swept the Oscars but be-
cause the world witnessed
so many talents from India,
namely A.R. Rahman, Gul-
zar and Resul Pookutty.
A.R. Rahman has made the
world sit up and take note of
popular Hindi lm music.
That he bagged the Oscar
for the composition of Jai
Ho, which is in Hindi, is
testimony to the global ac-
ceptance of Indias lm mu-
sic. Just like the protagonist
in Slumdog Millionaire,
Rahman too had to over-
come numerous odds in his
life before he achieved suc-
cess. Also, the success of
Slumdog Millionaire and
Smile Pinky at the Oscars
shows that it is not merely a
glamorous cast or the mil-
lions spent on making a mo-
vie that appeals to the
international jury but the
content of a lm.
S. BALAKRISHNAN
JAMSHEDPUR,
JHARKHAND
Additional D.A.
IT is highly disappointing
that Jayati Ghosh has crit-
icised the Central govern-
ments proposal to release
additional Dearness Allow-
ance amounting to
Rs.5,000 crore to its em-
ployees (Exercise in iner-
tia, March 27).
Additional D.A. is a
hard-won right of the em-
ployees. Several lakhs of
employees and pensioners
as also the employees of
State governments and
Central and State govern-
ment undertakings will be
paid this D.A. to compen-
sate for the erosion of their
wages owing to price rise.
Therefore, it does not defy
any logic as contended by
the writer. The consequen-
tial increase in the purchas-
ing power of these
employees would certainly
result in increased sales of
goods, which in turn would
rise the manufacturing ca-
pacity of producers and gen-
erate more employment.
Jayati Ghosh asks why
this amount could not be
spent on Centrally-spon-
sored schemes that will di-
rectly benet ordinary
people. She attempts to cre-
ate an articial cleavage be-
tween high wage-earning
Central government em-
ployees and ordinary peo-
ple. In the meeting of the
Joint Consultative Mecha-
nism that was set up at the
time of the Third Central
Pay Commission, Central
government representatives
contended that any increase
in the wages of government
employees would be only at
the cost of ordinary poor
people. K.G. Bose, the then
president of the National
Federation of P&T Em-
ployees, countered this ar-
gument by saying that if the
total sum of increased wag-
es to be paid to the Central
government was to be spent
on schemes to generate em-
ployment to the ordinary
people, the employees were
ready to forego their in-
creased wages.
DANIES JESURAJA
CHENNAI
Neighbours
INDIA shares its borders
with small and large coun-
tries. But the fact remains
that none of its neighbours
loves it despite its helpful
and peace-loving nature
(Staying alert, March 27).
For instance, India sent
the Indian Peace Keeping
Force to Sri Lanka as a
goodwill gesture but it did
not yield any positive result.
Rather it led to the Liber-
ation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
assassinating former Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi who
brokered the Indo-Sri Lan-
ka Accord.
Initiatives such as the
Non-Aligned Movement,
South Asian Association for
Regional Cooperation and
other cooperation-building
efforts have unfortunately
not yielded the desired re-
sults. Let us rely upon our
defence might and use it as a
deterrent, should any of our
neighbours confront us.
This will also help in miti-
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 3
gating cross-border terro-
rism effectively.
SUBRAMANYA
CHANDRASHEKAR
BANGALORE
Kabir Das
KABIR was a legendary
spiritual gure who provid-
ed sustenance for diverse
contemporary ideas (In
search of Kabir, March 27).
He was a disciple of Rama-
nanda. The Arabic term Ka-
bir means great. It is one of
the 99 names of Allah in Is-
lamic theology.
Kabir believed in secula-
rism. His identication of
Ram with Rahim paved
the way for a unique reli-
gious experience. His
monotheism reveals Nirgu-
na Brahma. He was a Mu-
wahhid, a believer in the
unity of God. His concept of
Shunya reveals the idea
that an individual is at-
tached to the supreme one,
the ultimate reality.
Through his two-line verses,
he revealed love, mysticism
and his unbending love for
the supreme.
T.V. JAYAPRAKASH
PALAKKAD, KERALA
Partition
THE review of Joya Chat-
terjis Spoils of Partition
by A.G. Noorani (March 13)
throws light on aspects that
the Bengali elite and intelli-
gentsia would feel embar-
rassed to expose, much less
admit candidly. The dread-
ful experiences and suffer-
ings of vast sections of
people, particularly in East
Bengal in 1905-1911, culmi-
nated in the partition of
Bengal in 1947. The admin-
istrative reason for the par-
tition was most justied
because it was aimed at de-
veloping the most populous
and large geographical ar-
eas falling under East Ben-
gal. A vast majority of
people, comprising the
Muslims in particular and
the lower social strata of
Hindus, saw in the anti-par-
tition agitation a resolve of
the upper strata to block
their advancement.
Though Sir Surendra-
nath Banerjee, who was the
unquestioned leader of
Swadeshi Movement
[1905-1911], did not take
long to show his narrow-
mindedness when the Brit-
ish government urged Indi-
ans to join the armed forces
to ght for the Empire in the
First World War, he ap-
pealed to boys from well-off
sections to heed the call and
some 5,000 people joined
the army. Until 1911 he vig-
orously campaigned against
the partition of Bengal on
grounds of common lan-
guage, culture, common at-
titude to life, brotherhood
and communal harmony.
K. BISWAS
MUZAFFARPUR, BIHAR
Recession
THE global nancial melt-
down has had an adverse ef-
fect on India (Vanishing
jobs, March 13). The ser-
vice sector is facing setbacks
and its magnitude is not less
than that in the U.S. In such
circumstances a balanced
approach needs to be taken
by our policymakers to ar-
rest the nancial mayhem.
ATUL THAKUR
GHAZIABAD, U.P.
ANNOUNCEMENT
Letters, whether by surface mail or
e-mail, must carry the full postal
address and the full name, or the
name with initials.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
1 2 4 F R O N T L I N E
SEVERAL national womens organisations have
on their own prepared a charter summing up many
of their long-standing demands. They want the char-
ter to be a part of the political agenda of the parties
contesting the 15th Lok Sabha elections. The orga-
nisations recalled how women across the country,
hoping for a better political and economic deal from
the new government, voted against communal forces
in 2004. In their joint statement, the 11 signatories to
the charter pointed out all the unfullled promises
made by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) go-
vernment.
We feel particularly let down by the non-pas-
sage of the Womens Reservation Bill, said Sudha
Sundararaman, general secretary, All India Demo-
cratic Womens Association(AIDWA). The womens
organisations were taken by surprise when on the
last day of the Lok Sabha, the government hurriedly
announced that it was going to set up a Mission for
Womens Empowerment. It was the biggest betrayal,
noted the other signatories to the charter, which
include the National Federation of Indian Women
(NFIW), the Joint Womens Programme, the All
India Dalit Mahila Adhikar Manch, the Young
Womens Christian Association and the Guild of
Service.
Representatives of AIDWA and the NFIW point-
ed out that even where the UPA had done something
creditable like passing the National Rural Employ-
ment Guarantee Act (NREGA), it was only after the
repeated intervention of the Left parties. Even then,
the Act was effectively sabotaged by setting up high
productivity norms, difcult working conditions and
unequal wages. On the agrarian crisis that had ad-
versely affected women, the government had ig-
nored the recommendations of the M.S.
Swaminathan Committee, which included specic
ameliorative measures for women, they said.
On the social justice front, despite a recommen-
dation by the Justice Ranganath Misra Committee,
the claims of Dalit Christians to reservation in the
Scheduled Castes (S.C.) category have been by-
passed. Instead, a Bill was hastily passed in the Rajya
Sabha, excluding 47 institutes of excellence from the
purview of reservation for S.Cs and the Scheduled
Tribes. Our experience in cases of rape involving
Dalit women is that the police never register a case
under the S.C. & S.T. (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,
said Vimal Thorat, representing the All India Dalit
Mahila Adhikar Manch.
The failures have not been only on the political
front. Despite the recession affecting almost every
sector, including the export sector where women are
employed in large numbers, the government has
failed to take any steps to bail out the industrial
working class. Incidents of violence against women
have gone up in the past ve years. Owing to the
sustained pressure from womens groups, the go-
vernment incorporated changes in the Hindu Suc-
cession Act and enacted the Protection of Women
from Domestic Violence Act. Even this has turned
out to be a half-hearted exercise, as no budgetary
support is provided for the effective implementation
of such legal measures.
Similarly, there was no attempt to enact compre-
hensive legislation to address rape and all forms of
sexual assault, including child rape. The Bill for the
protection of women against sexual harassment at
the workplace remains in cold storage despite sever-
al rounds of discussions on it involving the govern-
ment, the National Commission for Women and
other womens groups. The implementation of the
Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Tech-
niques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, 1994, has
Sense of betrayal
Women voted for the UPA with high hopes, but the governments responses to
issues concerning them have been marked by tokenism. BY T. K. RAJALAKSHMI
They feel particularly let down by the non-passage
of the Womens Reservation Bill and the absence
of any attempt to enact legislation to address rape
and other forms of sexual violence. P
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GENDER I SSUES
AGRI CULTURAL LABOURERS I N
Visakhapatnam. Womens groups
allege that the UPA government
ignored the recommendations of the
M.S. Swaminathan Committee,
which had included specic
ameliorative measures for women.
K
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also been tardy. The womens groups
have asked political parties to take up
issues relating to the universalisation
and strengthening of the Public Dis-
tribution System; the extension of the
Integrated Child Development Servic-
es to all habitations; the regularisation
of anganwadi workers and ensuring
just wages for the accredited social
health activist, the lynchpin of the Na-
tional Rural Health Mission; and in-
creasing allocation for health and
education.
Other demands include extending
the NREGA to urban areas and remov-
ing the upper limit of 100 days of em-
ployment; providing loans at low
interest rates for women in self-help
groups; and enacting comprehensive
legislation to regulate the working
conditions of providing maternity
benets, public child care facilities and
social security to agricultural workers
and workers in the unorganised sector,
a large proportion of whom are wom-
en.
On the legal front, the womens
groups demanded the passage of the
Womens Reservation Bill. Additional-
ly, they sought a law to penalise sexual
harassment at the workplace and sex-
ual assault, repealing of Section 377 of
the Indian Penal Code, and a separate
law to deal with child abuse, honour
killings, acid attacks and so on. They
said laws were needed to ensure joint
matrimonial property rights for wom-
en and to check trafcking in women
and children.
The expectations from the UPA
were high, but it soon became clear
that like its predecessor, the National
Democratic Alliance, it was interested
only in tokenism, they said.
AN I NTEGRATED CHI LD Development Services centre at Erode, Tamil Nadu. Womens groups have asked
political parties to extend the ICDS to all habitations and improve child care facilities for agricultural and
unorganised workers.
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FOREIGN policy issues do not usually gure
prominently in Indian elections. This time too, the
issues that have gained prominence in the run-up to
the general elections are domestic ones. The Con-
gress party, which heads the government, had until
recently touted the India-United States nuclear deal
as one of the major achievements of its United Pro-
gressive Alliance (UPA) government. Not too long
ago, the Congress staked the future of the govern-
ment to secure the nuclear deal. But, as the count-
down to the general elections began, the
much-touted nuclear deal, which cements Indias
close strategic links with the U.S., is not being high-
lighted either by the Congress or by its allies in the
UPA.
The Left parties, which are expected to play a key
role in the formation of the next government at the
Centre, are giving a lot of prominence to foreign
policy issues. They have demanded a radical reorien-
tation of the countrys foreign policy. The election
manifesto of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
says the party will work towards an independent and
non-aligned foreign policy. It specically opposes
the U.S. war on terror and military interventions in
the region. The CPI(M) has also demanded an
amendment to the Constitution to make legislative
sanction mandatory for any international treaty.
The UPA government signed the nuclear deal with
the U.S. without taking Parliament into its
condence.
Critics of the government allege that in the ve
years of UPA rule India has been reduced to the
status of a junior partner of the U.S. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singhs praise for George W. Bush when
he was President for his key role in securing the
nuclear deal is cited as an illustration. Manmohan
Singh, in his last ofcial meeting with Bush, said that
the people of India deeply loved the latter for all
that he had done for the country. Abhishek Singhvi,
the Congress party spokesman, even went to the
extent of suggesting that the Bharat Ratna, Indias
highest civilian award, be conferred on Bush. In its
ve years in power, the UPA governments foreign
policy focus was almost exclusively on the U.S. As for
Bush, the only signicant achievement he can claim
after his eight years at the helm is the nuclear deal
with India, which signicantly enhances Americas
strategic interests in Asia.
The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) go-
vernment led by the Bharatiya Janata Party was the
rst to shatter the broad domestic political consen-
sus that existed on foreign policy issues, rst with the
Pokhran nuclear tests and then with its unabashed
catering to the interests of Washington in the region.
Brajesh Mishra, National Security Adviser to then
Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, even talked
about the need for a Washington-Tel Aviv-New Del-
hi axis.
When the UPA government was sworn in, it was
hoped that the domestic political consensus would
be restored. Once in power, however, the Congress
party followed the same path. The Common Mini-
mum Programme (CMP), which was framed before
the formation of the UPA government, specically
mentioned a nuanced foreign policy. The CMP
called for good relations with all major powers, in-
cluding the U.S., but at the same time stressed on
strengthening non-alignment and multipolarity.
PRO- WEST TI LT
But the Congress from the outset was determined to
implement its own foreign policy blueprint. The late
J.N. Dixit, the rst National Security Adviser to the
UPA government, told this correspondent that it was
the Congress government under P.V. Narasimha
Rao that initiated the pro-West tilt in the countrys
American embrace
Under the UPA government, India distanced itself
from its traditional friends and from groupings
such as NAM. In its quest for the nuclear deal, it
put the Iran pipeline project on the back burner.
A serious accusation against the UPA government is that in the ve years of its
tenure it reduced India to the status of a junior partner of the U.S. BY JOHN CHERI AN
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FOREI GN POLI CY
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F R O N T L I N E 1 2 7
foreign policy in the early 1990s in
keeping with post-Cold-War realities.
He said that the NDA government was
only emulating the Congress.
As soon as it was in ofce, the Con-
gress went about further strengthen-
ing its strategic ties with the U.S. and
its surrogate in the region, Israel. This,
despite the fact that the UPA govern-
ment was dependent on the Left par-
ties for its survival. At most there was
only muted criticism of U.S. and Is-
raeli policies in West Asia during the
UPAs ve-year stint at the Centre. The
violation of the sovereignty of coun-
tries such as Lebanon and Syria by
Israel and the horrendous atrocities in
Gaza that followed did not prompt a
strong response from the Indian go-
vernment. The Left parties called for
the snapping of strategic ties with the
Zionist state after the massacre in Ga-
za. Instead, the UPA government fur-
ther intensied its security and
military links with Israel.
The neoconservative Bush admin-
istration had charted a special role for
India in the region. After 9/11, senior
American ofcials were quoted as say-
ing that the U.S. had only India and
Israel as allies for the long haul in its
global war against terror. The U.S.
gave Israel the green signal to sell
high-tech weaponry to India, includ-
ing early warning systems and anti-
missile systems. By the end of the UPA
governments term, Israel had
emerged as the top weapons supplier
to India, replacing Russia. Many mul-
ti-billion-dollar defence and aviation
deals have already been signed with
the U.S. The U.S. and India now close-
ly cooperate in the elds of intelligence
and surveillance. The chiefs of the Fed-
eral Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and
the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
have already visitedIndia to liaise with
their counterparts here.
Leon Panetta, the newly appointed
CIA chief made a high-prole visit to
the subcontinent in the third week of
March. American intelligence chiefs
are used to getting a red carpet wel-
come in Islamabad and Kabul. But
such is the importance being accorded
these days to security cooperation with
the U.S. that New Delhi too went over-
board in welcoming Panetta. For the
rst time, a CIA chief was granted a
meeting with the countrys Home
Minister, P. Chidambaram. Panetta
also met with other top ofcials of the
Indian security establishment during
PRI ME MI NI STER MANMOHAN Singh and President George Bush in Washington on September 26, 2008.
P
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his familiarisation trip. This was his
rst trip outside the U.S. after taking
over his new post.
CPI ( M) STATEMENT
The CPI(M) Polit Bureau in a strongly
worded statement said that the meet-
ing between the CIA chief and Chi-
dambaram marks a new stage in
Indo-U.S. collaboration. The state-
ment highlights the fact that this is the
rst time that a CIA chief has been
received at such a high political level,
signalling the new status of the CIA in
India. The statement said this was
further evidence that under the Man-
mohan Singh government, India was
fast becoming like Pakistan where the
CIA and FBI chiefs meet with the Inte-
rior Minister and the Prime Minister.
The CPI(M) statement pointed out
that U.S. security and military agen-
cies had a long history of destabilising
governments viewed as inimical to
American interests.
The role being played by U.S. se-
curity and military agencies in the
country and the manner in which the
Congress-led government is promot-
ing such ties should be a matter of
serious concern for all those who wish
to protect national sovereignty and the
integrity of our democratic system,
the statement said.
Many countries in the region have
started viewing the extremely close ties
between India and Israel as a tacit alli-
ance between the two strongest mil-
itary powers in the area. The biggest
backers of closer ties between India
and the U.S. are the neoconservatives
and those with ties to the right-wing
Likud Party in Israel, which had a lot
of clout with the Bush administration.
They argued that the Pakistan Army
was unreliable in the war against ter-
ror.
The U.S. also wants to build India
up as a counterweight in the region to
China. It is no secret that the U.S.
views China as the new emerging su-
perpower that in due course will chal-
lenge its hegemonic policies.
The rst concrete illustration of
the Congress partys betrayal of the
foreign policy pledges made in the
UPA was the signing of the key India-
U.S. Defence Framework Agreement
in June 2005. The Left parties warned
the government at the time that the
ne print in it along with the Hyde Act,
approved by the U.S. Congress in con-
nection with the nuclear deal, would
make Indian foreign policy con-
gruent to Americas foreign policy.
The prediction was not off the mark. In
a volte-face, rarely witnessed in the an-
nals of Indian foreign policy, the Indi-
an government voted with the U.S. at
the International Atomic Energy
Agency Board meeting in September
2005 to refer Irans nuclear le to the
United Nations Security Council. A
spokesman for the Iranian govern-
ment said that Iran was particularly
surprised with Indias vote.
A year later, the India-U.S. nuclear
agreement was formally inked during
Bushs visit to India. During that visit,
the two countries also signed the Lo-
gistics Support Agreement, which
gives the U.S. military the privilege of
using Indian facilities for mainte-
nance, servicing, communications and
refuelling. The two countries also set
up a Global Democracy Initiative to
highlight to the world that the part-
nership was based on shared values.
The democracy initiative was essen-
tially the brainchild of the neoconser-
vative American think tank the
National Endowment for Democracy.
For many Non-Aligned Movement
(NAM) member-countries, U.S.-spon-
sored democracy is a code word for
regime change.
Under the UPA government, India
distanced itself considerably from its
traditional friends in the region and
from groupings such as NAM a trend
that had started under the NDA go-
vernment. In its quest for the nuclear
deal with the U.S., the UPA govern-
ment put the gas pipeline project with
Iran on the back burner. Condoleezza
Rice, Secretary of State in the Bush
administration, explicitly warned the
Indian government against going
ahead with the deal with Iran. In fact,
Washington had prevailed on New
Delhi to implement many of the tough
sanctions the West had clamped on
Iran for continuing with its civilian
nuclear programme. Pakistan, despite
being among the U.S. closest allies,
has gone ahead and signed a gas pipe-
line deal with Iran. All this is not sur-
prising.
Condoleezza Rice, in a speech in
June 2007, advised the Indian govern-
ment to distance itself from groups
such as NAM. She also said that NAM
hadlost its meaning. NAM is the only
forum that unites all developing coun-
tries. It is one of the few groupings that
question the untrammelled military
spending of the U.S. despite the Cold
War having ended more than a decade
and a half ago. It has been critical of
the preventive wars and regime
changes the U.S. has resorted to. India
has been very circumspect in reacting
to U.S. adventurism. An opinion poll
taken last year and published in Fi-
nancial Times showed that the major-
ity of Europeans viewed the U.S. as the
biggest threat to international stabil-
ity. But the Indian elite seems xated
on the desire of turning their country
into a regional superpower with U.S.
help.
The UPA government preferred to
make the U.S. the arbiter in South
Asia. In neighbouring Bangladesh, the
army was allowed to take over the go-
vernment with the tacit approval of the
U.S. and India. It was Washington on
behalf of New Delhi that did most of
the diplomatic heavy lifting to per-
suade Islamabad to cooperate fully on
issues relating to terrorism. It is Wash-
ington that is trying to facilitate a
breakthrough in the continuing politi-
cal impasse on Kashmir.
In other parts of the world, govern-
ments are going out of their way to
keep Washington out of the picture
while resolving bilateral disputes. This
is especially true in Latin America,
which the U.S. has for long considered
its backyard. The resolution of the seri-
ous dispute in Zimbabwe through the
efforts of regional states is another il-
lustration. The Southern African De-
velopment Council (SADC), despite
arm-twisting from the West, prepared
the grounds for political cohabitation
between hitherto sworn enemies.
A P R I L 1 0 , 2 0 0 9
F R O N T L I N E 1 2 9
The changing realities in South
Asia in the post-9/11 period forced the
Pakistani leadership to be more ac-
commodative to Indias concerns.
When General Pervez Musharraf was
at the helm of affairs and was in a
position to deliver, he offered India a
lot of concessions on the Kashmir is-
sue. But the Indian government dith-
ered, fondly hoping that more
concessions would come from a belea-
guered government in Islamabad,
which was under increasing pressure
to deal with India. A resolution of the
Siachen issue was very much on the
table.
Now, after the terrorist attacks in
Mumbai and with a weak civilian go-
vernment in Pakistan, the dialogue
process between the two countries
seems to have lost its momentum.
The UPA governments Afghanis-
tan policy seems equally confused.
While some Western governments
have accepted the inevitability of a Ta-
liban military victory in the long run,
External Affairs Minister Pranab
Mukherjee insists on categorising the
Taliban as a terrorist group and a
threat to civilisation. His statement
came at a time when the Barack Oba-
ma administration was trying to open
talks with the good Taliban.
Relations with China, Indias other
important neighbour, during the ve
years of UPA rule were marked with a
degree of mutual distrust. Beijing had
reason to be upset by the sudden surge
in the activities of the Dalai Lama and
his supporters in the run-up to the
Beijing Olympics last year. China has
been adopting an even-handed atti-
tude on the Kashmir issue. The Indian
media went overboard in their cov-
erage of the disturbances in Tibet early
last year. In contrast, the Chinese
media showed restraint while report-
ing on the widespread violence that
occurred a few months later in the
Kashmir valley.
The India-U.S. nuclear deal gener-
ated some diplomatic friction between
the two countries. Beijing had initially
raised some queries about the special
treatment being meted out by Wash-
ington to a state that was not a signato-
ry to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation
Treaty. But in the end, Beijing did
nothing to endanger the deal and did
not upset the consensus in the crucial
Nuclear Suppliers Group meet in
Vienna late last year.
China had reasons to be upset. The
UPA government signed up with the
Quadrilateral Forum in 2007. It is a
U.S.-Japanese initiative to rm up an
anti-China alliance. The group con-
sists of the U.S., Japan, Australia and
India. Under the auspices of the group,
military exercises involving the navies
of the four countries took place in
2008. The Bush administration had
planned an Asian NATO (North At-
lantic Treaty Organisation)-like
grouping with India as one of its major
pillars.
If the electorate opts for a progres-
sive government at the Centre, there
will have to be a drastic overhaul of
foreign policy. The focus should be on
strengthening multipolarity and
South-South cooperation. More diplo-
matic efforts should be expended on
improving trilateral cooperation be-
tween India, China and Russia and on
strengthening groupings such as
BRICS, consisting of Brazil, Russia,
India, China and South Africa. Con-
certed moves are necessary to streng-
then cooperation among South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation
(SAARC) members and promote clos-
er relations with Indias immediate
neighbours. The unifocal obsession of
the Indian elite with the U.S. should
come to an end.
I NDI A HAS SI GNED many multi-billion-dollar defence and aviation deals
with the U.S. Here, the assault ship Jalashwa, acquired by the Indian Navy
from the U.S. It is the Navys second largest ship.
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1 3 0 F R O N T L I N E
A STRIKING characteristic of the last general
elections was the subversive debate among vast sec-
tions of the electorate on policy issues relating to the
economy, development, social amity and political
leadership. The ruling National Democratic Alliance
(NDA), led by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was
convinced of a political wave in favour of the leader-
ship of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and the
track record of his government. The NDAs India
Shining slogan was supposed to encapsulate both
Vajpayees leadership and the impression his go-
vernment had left on the country. The election re-
sults, however, did not match the NDAs
expectations of a wave and the projections it had
made on that basis.
The NDAs defeat marked the collapse of a dream
to recreate a political wave similar to the one that
swept Rajiv Gandhi to power in 1984 after the assas-
sination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The Con-
gress won a phenomenal 404 out of 514 seats in that
election. Many issues, ranging from corruption in
high places to Hindutva communalism to social jus-
tice to development, have dominated elections since
then starting with the 1989 polls but no single
issue had an overwhelming emotive appeal.
The run-up to the current general elections pre-
sents a similar picture. A number of questions relat-
ing to the economy, development, internal security,
foreign policy, communalism, corruption in govern-
ment and the corporate sector and the empower-
ment of Dalits and other oppressed sections are
discussed by the electorate, particularly in the con-
text of the performance of the Congress-led United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. The Con-
gress and the BJP, the leading parties respectively of
the ruling UPA and the opposition NDA, and the
Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest
force in the emerging non-Congress, non-BJP politi-
cal grouping, are addressing these policy issues in
their respective ways. The positions they adopt on
various issues will, by and large, dictate the line
followed by each of the three political formations. In
fact, the slogans evolved by these parties provide a
broad indication of their policy thrust.
The slogan of the Congress is Stability and in-
clusive growth through inclusive governance and
the party has sought to present it rather dramatically
by obtaining the rights of the A.R. Rahman-Gulzar
teams song Jai Ho (Towards Victory) in the Oscar-
winning lm Slumdog Millionaire.
The BJPs platform is Good governance, devel-
opment and security. The partys attempt is to pro-
ject this slogan on to the personality of its leader and
Prime Minister-candidate Lal Krishna Advani. A
special slogan on Advani proclaims thus: Mazboot
neta, nirnayak sarkar (Strong leader, decisive go-
vernment).
The CPI(M) has summed up its campaign thrust
as Towards a secular pro-people alternative, and
explained it as an attempt to form a non-Congress,
non-BJP government that would guarantee pro-
people economic policies, social justice, consistent
secularism, genuine federalism and an independent
foreign policy. Of the three parties, the CPI(M) was
the rst to come up with an election manifesto. The
Congress and the BJP are expected to release their
manifestos formally in the last week of March.
Signicantly, the emphasis in the policy perspec-
tives of the three parties is on the economy. A variety
of factors, ranging from rising prices, widespread job
losses and the overall economic slowdown, have con-
tributed to this focus. A survey conducted by the
government shows that half a million jobs have been
lost between September and December 2008. Many
economists and labour activists have contested this
estimate as unrealistically low.
The alternating inationary and deationary
tendencies over the past one year have had a crip-
Political perceptions
Signicantly, the Congress and the
BJP, the two main votaries of
neoliberalism, have been compelled
to acknowledge and accept
the alternative policies advocated by
the Left for over a decade.
In the policy perspectives of the Congress, the BJP and the Left, the emphasis is
on the economy. BY VENKI TESH RAMAKRI SHNAN I N NEW DELHI
Cover Story
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pling effect on the common people, as
retail prices have been steadily on the
rise. As these economic policy-related
issues take centre stage, some of the
perceived hot election topics have
been reduced to supplementary status.
These include matters relating to in-
ternal security and the India-United
States nuclear deal.
When the November 26-29, 2008,
terror attack on Mumbai happened,
the BJP was convinced that internal
security would be the main theme of
the 2009 elections. But the party had
to change its view after the issue failed
to evoke much response in the Novem-
ber-December 2008round of Assemb-
ly elections, especially in Delhi.
In July 2008, when the UPA go-
vernment was forced to face a con-
dence motion in the Lok Sabha, the
dominant view was that the India-U.S.
nuclear deal, over which the Left par-
ties withdrew support to the govern-
ment, would be the main election
issue. The thinking was that the Con-
gress would highlight the nuclear deal
as an initiative to enhance Indian in-
frastructure and the Left would casti-
gate it as a clear instance of
abandonment of an independent for-
eign policy.
CHANGE I N APPROACH
While all these issues and related in-
terpretations remain in the campaign
spectrum of the three parties, there is
little doubt that the central theme is
the economy. Obviously, their per-
spectives on the economy are bound to
be different. Still, there seems to be a
notable shift in the approach of both
the Congress and the BJP on the ques-
tion of pursuing policies of economic
liberalisation.
Congress policy managers readily
come on record that policy changes are
required to ensure the continuance of
a stable economy. Advani has gone to
the extent of saying that the bubble of
Sensex-generated prosperity has
burst and that such undependable
devices of the free-market economy
cannot be the basis for building a truly
prosperous nation. He also admitted
that the BJPs India Shining cam-
paign in 2004 was a mistake.
Clearly, there is a realisation in the
ruling dispensation and the principal
opposition party that the policy of
blind and unrestrained liberalisation
would not be benecial in the long run
and that there is a need for alternative
economic policies. Whether the BJP
and the Congress will stick to these
perspectives and actually implement
them if they come to power is a moot
question.
A number of Congress leaders in-
volved in formulating the partys man-
ifesto told Frontline that the party
would focus naturally on the positives
in the UPAs ve-year term. The pos-
itives include the National Rural Em-
ployment Guarantee Scheme
(NREGS), the Right to Information
Act (RTI), the farmers loan waiver
programme, the National Rural
Health Mission (NRHM) and Bharat
Nirman. They claim that these pro-
grammes have brought about far-reac-
hing improvement in the economy and
in health care, particularly in rural ar-
eas. The RTI will be highlighted as an
instrument that has strengthened
transparency in government.
CPI (M) GENERAL SECRETARY Prakash Karat (right) and Polit Bureau
member Sitaram Yechury at the release of the partys election manifesto in
New Delhi on March 16.
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According to Mani Shankar Aiyar,
Union Minister for Panchayati Raj
and a member of the Congress mani-
festo committee, one of the highlights
of the partys campaign will be the in-
crease in social sector expenditure. He
pointed out that during the tenure of
the UPA government, poverty allevia-
tion programmes and schemes such as
the NREGS and Bharat Nirman have
cumulatively recorded an outlay of
Rs.1,20,000 crore. This, he added, was
a fourfold increase on the spending in
these segments by the previous NDA
government.
M. Veerappa Moily, Chairman of
the Administrative Reforms Commis-
sion, said these programmes signified
the commitment to the Common Min-
imum Programme (CMP) for Gover-
nance evolved at the start of the UPAs
term.
UNKEPT PROMI SES
However, the Congress and the UPA
do not stand on such sure ground
when it comes to many other segments
of the CMP. As evaluated by the Delhi-
based Centre for Budget Governance
and Accountability (CBGA) in its
study How did the UPA spend our
money , the government has failed to
live up to the promises made in the
CMP about increased expenditure in
vital areas such as health and educa-
tion.
The CMP had promised to spend 9
per cent of the gross domestic product
(GDP) on health (3 per cent) and edu-
cation (6 per cent). But the proportion
spent on education by the Union go-
vernment, the study notes, increased
only to 0.69 per cent of the GDP in
2008-09 from 0.42 per cent in 2004-
05. Similarly, the Union governments
expenditure on health increased only
to 0.34 per cent of the GDP in 2008-
09 from 0.26 per cent in 2004-05. The
study also notes that for large parts of
the UPAs term, barring the last couple
of years, the allocations for agriculture
and rural development were low.
Many Congress leaders admit that
the basic direction of the economic
policy, guided by the principles of free-
market liberalisation, has contributed
to such shortfalls on the promises
made in the CMP. Veerappa Moily em-
phasised that the Congress would have
to take into consideration the fact that
superior economic performance
would not be easy in the years ahead.
Talking to Frontline, he said: The
global economic climate is cloudier
than it has been for a long time. When
2008-09 began, there was a percep-
tion of a cyclical downturn in the in-
dustrialised world, but it has quickly
snowballed into a global nancial cri-
sis. Domestic policy action cannot
completely negate the effect of a global
downturn as severe as this. We can at
best minimise its negative impact. So
the manifesto would take into consid-
eration these aspects and try to streng-
then the middle-path economic
philosophy of mixed economy crafted
by Jawaharlal Nehru.
I NCLUSI VE GROWTH
The party is seeking to put a new spin
on its policy and campaign thrust by
projecting the idea of inclusive go-
vernance. According to Mani Shankar
Aiyar, the programmes the party plac-
es before the electorate are expected to
be based on the idea that inclusive
CONGRESS PRESI DENT SONI A Gandhi at a public meeting in Hyderabad in February.
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growth can be achieved only through
inclusive governance. Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh had also comment-
ed earlier that inclusive growth,
which is the motto of the 11th Five-
Year Plan, can be achieved only
through inclusive governance.
Mani Shankar Aiyar explained this
idea further, pointing out that in the
social sector the expenditure for pover-
ty alleviation programmes had in-
creased 15-fold in the past 15 years
from Rs.7,600 crore in 1994 to
Rs.1,20,000crore in 2008 but pover-
ty hadnot reduced in the same propor-
tion. Obviously, deciencies in the
administrative system and the bureau-
cracy are responsible for that. It is here
that implementing the concept of in-
clusive governance using local elected
bodies becomes relevant, he said.
The concept of inclusive gover-
nance has been written into the rst
draft of the Congress manifesto. How-
ever, Mani Shankar Aiyar was not sure
what shape the manifesto would nal-
ly take, as it was being discussed and
redrafted at a broader level. The lea-
dership, including Congress president
Sonia Gandhi, was exchanging ideas
with specialists in various elds and
social activists involved in rural devel-
opment, health and education as part
of this process.
Interacting with the media in the
second week of March, Congress man-
ifesto committee chairman Pranab
Mukherjee suggested that the Con-
gress had started moving in the direc-
tion of inclusive governance, though a
lot more had to be done. According to
him, the party is seeking a renewed
mandate, on the strength of having
fullled the pledges it made in the
2004 manifesto. We will go to the
people reafrming our commitment to
provide security, dignity, prosperity
and the resolve to combat divisive and
communal forces. Only the Congress
can provide a government with an all-
India perspective as it is the only truly
national party, he said.
BJP S COUNTER- CAMPAI GN
The BJPs campaign thrust is on coun-
tering the UPAs claims and projec-
tions. One instance of this is as follows:
The NDA government started with 5
per cent growth in 1998 and left an
economy with 8.5 per cent growth in
2004. The UPA started with 8.5 per
cent and will leave it at 6.5 per cent or
even lower. The Vajpayee government
ushered in condence and hope about
future. Today there is only uncertainty
and despair.
Talking to Frontline, Sudheendra
Kulkarni, a prominent member of the
BJPs think tank, said the party would
highlight not only this but also the fact
that the UPA government was in de-
nial mode.
Once upon a time the Congress
ascribed all problems to the foreign
hand. Now, that has been replaced by
the phrase external factors. Everyth-
ing from price rise to economic slow-
down is being attributed to external
factors, he said.
The BJP would come up with an
ideological theme paper addressing
the issues that confront the party and
that would be followed by an NDA
manifesto, which would delineate the
framework for governance, Kulkarni
said.
Over the past three months Advani
has been interacting with a variety of
personalities and opinionmakers from
different sections of society as part of
an exercise to evolve a clear policy fra-
mework.
The interactions have been with
the captains of industry and business,
leaders of farmers, representatives of
the security and strategic affairs com-
munity, economists, foreign policy
specialists and experts on social sector
development.
Kulkarni said the consensus in all
these meetings was that the UPA go-
vernment had failed. The NDAs fra-
mework for governance would provide
guidelines to undo this failure by fo-
cussing broadly on the following is-
sues:
1. Replacing the current direction-
less leadership with constructive and
efcient leadership.
2. Evolving a robust, self-condent
nationally oriented model of develop-
ment, which is rooted in the ideals of
democracy, equality, justice and inte-
gral human progress.
3. Addressingthe agrarian crisis on
a priority basis.
4. Course-correction of the im-
paired infrastructure development by
removing bottlenecks.
5. Strengthening the mechanisms
for internal security and imparting the
right political leadership to the inter-
nal security machinery.
Kulkarni quoted Advani to point
out that just as the centre of gravity of
the world economy had shifted from
the West to Asia, the centre of gravity
of our national economy must shift
from India to Bharat to agricul-
ture, revitalisation of villages, small
and medium enterprises, and the un-
organised and informal sectors of the
economy. The BJP would pursue a pol-
icy that did not generate conict be-
tween the public sector and the private
sector, he said.
On foreign policy, the BJPs posi-
tion is that Indias autonomy in the
conduct of foreign policy has been seri-
ously undermined. The partys leaders
pointedout that although India should
continue to have a close and multi-
dimensional friendship with the U.S.,
the UPA government ignored the fun-
damental truth that U.S. foreign policy
was guided primarily by its own na-
tional interest and that India must do
what was in Indias national interest.
The abandonment of autonomy,
according the BJP leadership, was
most evident in two issues: the han-
dling of the menace of Pakistan-spon-
sored terrorism and the India-U.S.
nuclear deal. Hindutva, the centre-
piece of the BJPs campaign in many
earlier elections, is being pushed for-
ward rather surreptitiously on account
of the pressure from NDA partners
such as the Janata Dal (United).
This stealthy campaign is being
done using organisations such as the
Sant Samaj (a grouping of Hindu reli-
gious activists and leaders) and
through meetings in small towns and
villages. One such campaign initiative,
by Varun Gandhi, the candidate-des-
ignate in Pilibhit in Uttar Pradesh, was
exposed in the media, forcing the BJP
1 3 4 F R O N T L I N E
leadership to make public retractions
on its Hindutva agenda.
LEFT PERSPECTI VE
The CPI(M)s manifesto questioned
the claims of both the Congress and
the BJP. It said the Congress-led coali-
tion government pursued policies that
were nakedly pro-rich and intensied
the divide between the rich and the
common masses, while the BJP con-
ned itself to raising various issues,
including that of terrorism, from the
standpoint of Hindutva communal-
ism. The manifesto holds the Manmo-
han Singh governments economic
policies primarily responsible for in-
ation and price rise.
It said the UPA government
squandered the mandate of the 2004
Lok Sabha elections by pursuing the
policies of liberalisation and privatisa-
tion, which stood discredited in the
backdrop of the global economic crisis.
In a reference to foreign policy, the
manifesto criticised the Congress thus:
A party which sees the future of India
tied to the coat-tails of the United
States does not deserve to run the go-
vernment of our sovereign democratic
republic. It pointed out that the ear-
lier regime of the BJP was no different
as it also had promoted the same pol-
icies. The manifesto described the BJP
as the most reactionary force in the
country , which is marked by pro-rich
and communal policies.
The analysis of the governments
track record holds that wavering pol-
icies intensied the agrarian crisis,
curtailed the rights of workers, failed
to check the rise of communal violence
and favoured big corporates by grant-
ing them tax benets and allowing
them to grab large tracts of land in the
name of industrial promotion.
The role played by the Left vis-a-
vis the Congress-led government is de-
scribed as that of a sentinel in the in-
terests of the people. The manifesto
points out that two major pieces of
legislation the NREGA and the Trib-
al Forest Rights Act would not have
come about in the present form with-
out the CPI(M)s intervention.
The manifesto highlights the Lefts
interventions that led to the protection
of many public sector industries and
the shielding of the banking sector
from the impact of the global econom-
ic collapse. The proposed CPI(M) plat-
form is presented as one that would
promote alternative policies and a
non-Congress, non-BJP political for-
mation on these lines. On the whole,
the political climate in the run-up to
the polls is marked by an unmistakable
emphasis on the need for alternative
social and economic polices.
The projected alternative polices
are broadly based on the positions ad-
vocated by Left parties over the past
decade and a half, but what is most
signicant is that even the Congress
and the BJP, the two prominent votar-
ies of neoliberal policies during this
period, have been compelled to ac-
knowledge and accept them. This gen-
eral acceptance and acknowledgement
at the policy level has manifested itself
in the shifting of the BJPs erstwhile
allies such as the Telugu Desam Party,
the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam and the Biju Janata Dal to
the Left-led platform.
The big question, however, is how
far these shifts will concretise in terms
of realpolitik in the days to come. The
answer lies in the realm of conjecture
because most of the smaller parties in
the three formations, including the
relatively larger Bahujan Samaj Party,
normally ght elections without a
manifesto or well-dened policies, es-
sentially in order to enhance their po-
litical manoeuvrability.
BJP LEADERS L. K. Advani and Rajnath Singh at the launch of the partys IT Vision Document in New Delhi
on March 14.
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Published on alternate Saturdays.WPP No.CPMG/AP/SD-15/WPP/2008-2010 & MH/MR/South-180/2009-11.Postal Regn. No.TN/ARD/22/09-11. RNI No.42591/84