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Letter from the Editor

Inderjit Badhwar
uring the event-packed, frenetic four weeks when our fortnightly magazine has been on the stands, the one question I am repeatedly asked is why we call it India Legal. Not that people dont like the title. They find it authoritative. They find it catchy and different. But they remain mystified by our choice when they read the contents and discover that the magazine is not simply a handbook or digest for the legal profession. Precisely. And yet, members of the legal community who read it find it fits their niche reading needs. Veteran high court lawyer TL Garg called me from his chambers the moment he received his copy to say it fills a void. Well-known corporate lawyer Ritesh Kumar whatsapped me: The publication is really good. Intellectually stimulating. Among other prominent lawyers who commented is Ranjeev C Dubey, managing partner of N South, Advocates: I am most pleasantly surprised. Congratulations! Clearly, in the legal business, calling a spade a spade is only a contempt of court so your candor is commendable. The comments have poured in not only from the legal profession but also from general readers like Hilario J de Souza, who says: Thank you for presenting legalese to us in a manner even I can grasp. And this from Krishan Kant, a Kingfisher Airlines employee: I am writing this letter to highlight the plight and agony of Kingfisher airline employees after 19 months of battle( I feel) that India is run by politicians who plunder, bureaucrats who carry out illegal orders, ministers who violate the constitution, businessmen without a social conscience, lawyers who sell out and judges who do not stick their necks out against executive skulduggery. That last sentence is a direct quote from my previous editorial. I quote these readers not to wallow in self-praise but rather to suggest that India Legal is probably the right choice of a name. It is obvious that the magazine has mined a rich vein of readers interest. It has placed a niche perspective of the law within the wider ambit of a general readership. It has become a marketplace for the discussion and telling of all breaking stories and investigations within the perspective of their legal parameters. Its to the credit

of the unspoken wisdom of our constitution that we are a nation of laws and not man-made whimsies. Take any major political, social or economic issue facing the nation or the world, research and write on it within the legal framework and youve got an India Legal story! The cover story of our first issue with exclusive pictures of bruises on Sunanda Pushkars dead body raised legal issues about the investigation. Today that story has made national headlines. The viscera report vindicates India Legals investigations that Shashi Tharoors wife did not commit suicide or die of an overdose of drugs. The police now feel that the dozens of bruises on her body, which we revealed two issues ago, hint at a possible murder. Our second issue with the legal conniptions over Oshos will and plagiarism charges against Arvind Kejriwal continues to make waves, as I am sure will this issue. Our cover story by NV Subramanian is on Political Liars, (a pun on lawyers) who have let down our system of governance. Other stories include Girish Nikams trenchant analysis on how and why India will change, no matter who becomes the next prime minister; Managing Editor Ramesh Menons evocative feature on voting rights for Tibetan refugees; Executive Editor Alam Srinivas take on whether tougher laws could have prevented corporate scams like Sahara and Satyam; arms merchant Sudhir Choudhries murky empire; IPL and the underworld connection; the legal limbo of abandoned mothers; the misuse of anti-dowry laws; and a hard-hitting expose of judicial impropriety. I am sure the bouquets and brickbats will fly fast and furious. Keep em coming. You can email your comments to editor@indialegalonline.com and we will pay `1,000 for the letter we feature as Letter of the Week. Cheers,

editor@indialegalonline.com

April 15, 2014

APRIL 15, 2014 VOLUME. VII


Editor-in-Chief Inderjit Badhwar Managing Editor Ramesh Menon Executive Editor Alam Srinivas Senior Editor Vishwas Kumar Contributing Editors Naresh Minocha, Girish Nikam Associate Editor Meha Mathur Deputy Editors Prabir Biswas, Vishal Duggal Art Director Sudhir J Kumar Deputy Art Director Anthony Lawrence Graphic Designer Lalit Khitoliya Photographer Anil Shakya News Coordinator Kh Manglembi Devi Web Designers Shubra Kandhari, Jitendra Kumar Production Pawan Kumar Verma CFO Anand Raj Singh VP (HR & General Administration) Lokesh C Sharma Director (Marketing) Raju Sarin GM (Sales & Marketing) Naveen Tandon-09717121002 DGM (Sales & Marketing) Feroz Akhtar-09650052100 Marketing Associate Ggarima Rai For advertising & subscription queries sales@indialegalonline.com

ISSUE. 15

LEAD

LAWYER POLITICIANS
From taking a lead in the national movement and nation building, the legal brigade in parliament has degenerated into a bunch of dynastic sycophants. NV SUBRAMANIAN traces its downfall CORPORATE

Published by Raju Sarin on behalf of E N Communications Pvt Ltd and printed at CIRRUS GRAPHICS Pvt Ltd., B-61, Sector-67, Noida. (UP)- 201 301 (India) All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation in any language in whole or in part without permission is prohibited. Requests for permission should be directed to E N Communications Pvt Ltd . Opinions of writers in the magazine are not necessarily endorsed by E N Communications Pvt Ltd . The Publisher assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited material or for material lost or damaged in transit. All correspondence should be addressed to E N Communications Pvt Ltd .

Subrata-dum & Raju-dee


SPECIAL REPORT

36 12 18

OWNED BY E. N. COMMUNICATIONS PVT. LTD.


NOIDA HEAD OFFICE: A -9, Sector-68, Gautam Buddh Nagar, NOIDA (U.P.) - 201309 Phone: +9 1-0120-2471400-432 ; Fax: + 91- 0120-2471411 e-mail: mail@indialegalonline.com website: www.encnetwork.in, www.indialegalonline.com MUMBAI OFFICE: Arshie Complex, B-3 & B4, Yari Road, Versova, Andheri, Mumbai-400058 RANCHI OFFICE: House No. 130/C, Vidyalaya Marg, Ashoknagar, Ranchi-834002. LUCKNOW OFFICE: First floor, 21/32, A, West View, Tilak Marg, Hazratganj, Lucknow-226001. PATNA OFFICE: Sukh Vihar Apartment, West Boring Canal Road, New Punaichak, Opposite Lalita Hotel, Patna-800023. ALLAHABAD OFFICE: Leader Press, 9-A, Edmonston Road, Civil Lines, Allahabad-211 001.

With companies like Sahara and Satyam always being one step ahead of law, will the new Companies Act of 2013 help curb mega frauds? ALAM SRINIVAS investigates

Arms and the murky man

He runs luxury spas, and donates to political parties and charities. But VISHWAS KUMAR finds that Sudhir Choudhrie and his sons have earned their fortunes through controversial Indian arms deals with Russia and Israel

April 15, 2014

PROBE

Water coffins

23 27
SPORTS

ALSO
The Hindutva debate continues ...30 Women & Hindu Succession Act ......34 EC & Gas pricing.......40 Sunanda Pushkars mysterious death .......42

While Admiral DK Joshi resigned because of a series of naval accidents, the real problem is financial crunch, lack of spares and delays in procurement. Report by VISHWAS KUMAR HUMAN INTEREST

Runaway bridegroom

After Punjab, there is an increasing trend of Gujarati NRI bridegrooms deserting their wives. But help is at hand, MAHESH TRIVEDI informs

In Dawoods den

70 74

CIDCO judgment .......44

THE NATION

Voters manifesto

48

Despite its notoriety for matchfixing, BCCI has chosen Sharjah as the venue for IPL 7. A report by GAURAV KALRA GLOBAL TRENDS

Whichever political party comes to power this May, it will have to pay attention to issues like corruption and judicial accountability. It can ignore the aam aadmi agenda at its own peril, writes GIRISH NIKAM

Heil!

What is a real dictator? ROBERT D KAPLAN analyses whether authoritarian figures are necessarily bad for a country

Education fraud in UP ..........................52 False dowry cases......56 Nursery admission woes in Delhi .............60

PHOTO ESSAY

Tibetan tango
Why is the refugee community reluctant to vote in India, despite Election Commission giving them the right? RAMESH MENON answers. Photographs by SHIVANI DASMAHAPATRA and JAVED SULTAN

REGULARS
Letters .....................6 Ringside ..................8 Supreme Court .........10 Consumer Watch ......78 Is That Legal? ...........81 Wordly-wise...............82

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Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE Photographs: ANIL SHAKYA

LETTERS

LETTER OF THE FORTNIGHT Who will stem the rot?


Hearty congratulations on the re-launch of India Legal. I totally agree with you that after a decade, nothing has changed. I am a Kingfisher Airlines employee and after 19 months of battle to get our salaries I feel that India is run by politicians who plunder, bureaucrats who carry out illegal orders, ministers who violate the constitution, businessmen without a social conscience, lawyers who sell out and judges who do not stick their necks out against executive skulduggery. I am writing this letter to highlight the plight and agony of Kingfisher Airlines employees. The hard fought battle, during which we ran from pillar to post and almost begged for justice from all pillars of democracy, we came to know the dubious working culture of our system, where Subrata Rai has been jailed but nobody in the system has courage to take any action against Vijay Mallya; where there are labour commissions and labour law set by the government but Kingfisher Airlines staff is still fighting for salaries. The chief labour commissioner sent a notice to Vijay Mallya in February 2014 but he didnt turn up, giving the impression that he is above law. We have written thousands of letters to the president, prime minister, Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Their election campaigns focus on unemployment. When they cannot help the employed class, how can they cater to the unemployed? Sachin Pilot asked the corporate affairs ministry to look into the matter but we are still awaiting any action. Our career has been destroyed by Vijay Mallya. Please highlight our plight. Krishan Kant, via email

A fascinating read
I read India Legal from cover to cover. Its a terrific piece of work a wonderful accomplishment. Congratulations. I was fascinated by your review of the real Abscam story. Yes, Hollywood is its own reality.

It goes without saying that your publication of India Legal speaks to some of the vast differences and similarities between India and China a central theme of To The Mountaintops. Jim I Gabbe, Co-publisher, Raconteur, New York

A case for upper case


India Legal is an interesting addition to my reading list. I quite like the mix of stories in your magazine, which I initially suspected would be cumbered by legalese. Happily, that's not quite the case. However, I have a quibble. Please start using letters in upper case, wherever its conventionally merited, in the intros and kickers for your feature stories. To see names in print written as n srinivasan or ems namboodripad is mildly irritating. Vivek Rajagopalan, Chennai

Making valid points


I enjoyed reading Revenge of the Muddle Class (March 31, 2014). It is true that the mid-

April 15, 2014

dle class is the most muddled up. Politicians long ago concluded that this class of people only needs to be taxed, not wooed. This class will come out to vote anyways as they are educated, conscientious, care about democracy and so on. My view is that this started during the Mandal era when reservations for the weaker class sidelined the hard-working middle class students to the extent that today, most students who want to study are leaving India for better opportunities outside. Apart from brain drain, the country is also losing out economically in a big way. Another story in the same issue entitled Where are you MLord is certainly an eye-opener. I was under the impression that cases have started moving in Indian courts after all that hype over fast-track courts. If magistrates do not come on time, how are they expected to provide timely justice to the common man? I work with the Canadian legal system and here attempts are being made to dispose cases as early as possible. Judges are always on timein fact, they sometimes have to wait for the accused, witnesses or defense counsel. If judges themselves don't believe in justice delayed is justice denied, what can be expected of the general public. Ahem! Neelam Batra-Verma, Vancouver, Canada

Why call it India Legal?


I went through the whole magazine in detail. Congratulations on such a wonderful issue. The range and selection of stories is catchy and prolific. However, I am not sure why the magazine is named India Legal. I understand your reportage involves some legal snippets. But most of the magazines content, and indeed the best part of it, is general interest in nature. By slotting this magazine in the legal space, are you not running the risk of your reader not even picking it up at the stands, thinking its a magazine for a select readership? That would be a pity for this is a wonderful effort. Also, I feel that the pdf version of it is not of a high quality. It is a bit difficult to read, the pictures dont look high definition and the Es look like Cs, among other issues. Sampad Patnaik, Bangalore

Editor replies
Law impacts almost every story we read in daily newspapers or see on television. The events that shape politics, lifestyles, social interactions, personal destinies are inextricably intertwined with the law and its vagaries. India Legal is a well-heeled mixture of regulars and special features. The inside workings and news about the judicial system is part of the regular menu but the magazine covers all important political, economic, corporate, and social developmentswithin the context of legal relevance. The reason why we call our magazine India Legal is that all of the magazines stories and articles revolve on a recurring spin: they are reported, written and presented within the legal framework that drives them. The magazine empowers and enlightens the citizens on a variety of issues that touch their lives. While it offers a unique inside look at the workings of the Indian legal system with journalistic panache and high production values, India Legal is by no means produced exclusively for lawyers and judges. Our magazines stories are designed to appeal to a wider and sophisticated general audience of decision-makers, corporates, politicians, and the common man. Thus, India Legal is happy in carving out a unique slot for itself. As for the e-version of the magazine, you will soon be able to read it in a far improved PDF format on our website.

In a class of its own


There is a dearth of good magazines on legal affairs. There are some publications but they mostly end up writing about court cases and legal matters. India Legal fills the vacuum in reporting and analysis of political-social issues by doing it with a legal perspective. Binny Yadav, New Delhi

In brief
I was pleasantly surprised to read India Legal. Congratulations! Clearly, in the legal business, calling a spade a spade is only a contempt of court so your candor is commendable. Ranjeev C Dubey, managing partner, N South, Advocates, Gurgaon Thank you for presenting legalese and making it available to us in a manner even I can grasp. Hilario J de Souza, via email Superb, congratulations. It looks like your publication is going from strength to strength. Kian Ganz Publishing editor, Legally India, Mumbai It was due to India Legal that the Sunanda Pushkar issue has resurfaced. I also like the Q&A pages (Is that Legal). R Menon, Gurgaon Its too serious a magazine for a layperson. Nitin Mathur, via email

Please email your letters to: editor@indialegalonline.com Or write to us at: India Legal, ENC Network, A-9, Sector 68, Gautam Buddh Nagar, Noida (UP) - 201309

Aruna

VERDICT
In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago: 1918-1956

April 15, 2014

SUPREME COURT

Death is not the solution


he issue of the raison detre for commuting death sentences to life imprisonment was put to rest by the Supreme Court recently. A petition by the center to review its judgment on the issue was outrightly rejected by the apex court. The court had commuted the death sentences of 15 convicts to life imprisonment on the ground of unreasonable delay by the president in disposing of mercy petitions. And later it had even applied the same logic to death row convicts in the

Rajiv Gandhi assassination case. The central government felt that the time taken by the president in deciding mercy petitions of death row convicts cant be put to adjudication before the judiciary. A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Shiva Kirti Singh rejected the petition, finding it baseless. This would dash centers hope that Gandhi convicts, Murugan, Santhan and Perarivalan, can still be sent to the gallows.
Illustrations: Aruna

No room for hate speeches


t is not uncommon to find politicians in India hurling hate speeches to garner voters, especially during election campaigns. Now the Supreme Court has not only taken cognizance of the need for a clampdown on hate speech by parties at all

Inebriation no cause for mercy


f you think you can kill somebody after guzzling liquor and yet get a clean chit from the courts after claiming that you were drunk, you are mistaken. The Supreme Court has categorically mentioned that intoxication cant be the reason for reducing the gravity of a criminal offense. Dismissing an appeal by Bhagwan Tukaram Dange that he had unintentionally lit a matchstick and set fire to the saree of his wife under the influence of liquor after his father sprinkled kerosene on her, a bench of Justices KS Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen ruled that Dange, even if he was completely drunk, was expected to be aware of consequences of his action, and the court had no reason to interfere with the sentence delivered by lower court. Earlier, the trial court in Maharashtra had sentenced Dange for life for burning his wife to death. This judgment was later upheld by the Bombay High Court. Dange has now served 16 years in jail.

times, and not just during the elections model code of conduct phase. It has also asked for removing any confusion on what constitutes hate speech so that it doesnt infringe on the right to free speech and expression. Responding to a petition filed by NGO Pravasi Bhalai Sangathan, a bench led by Justice BS Chauhan asked the Law Commission whether it felt appropriate to define hate speech. The court pointed out that although there were enough legal provisions to curb hate speech, the existing laws were not being enforced properly. If the commission defines hate speech, EC can take action against political parties even if there is no model code of conduct in place.

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April 15, 2014

Medicine muddle
anbaxy Laboratories, a worldreputed drug company, recently caught the attention of the Supreme Court. In a public interest litigation (PIL), advocate ML Sharma accused the pharmaceutical company of sup-

plying adulterated drugs. Citing an instance where the company was fined $500 mn by the US Food and Drug Administration for supplying spurious drugs in that country, the PIL pleaded that Ranbaxys license be cancelled. It blamed the center for turning a blind eye and drug regulator Central Drug Standards Control Organisation for allowing the company to sell drugs in India despite Ranbaxy being found guilty in the US. A bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam, however, refrained from issuing an interim order that would have stopped the company from manufacturing drugs.

Nirbhaya case hangs in balance


obody would, probably, question the death penalty awarded by the trial court and later upheld by the Delhi High Court to Nirbhaya convicts. But by some strange quirk of fate, two of the death row convicts got a reprieve from the highest court of the land. The Supreme Court recently stayed the high court judgment to confirm death penalty to Mukesh and Pawan Kumar Gupta in a special sitting after Mukesh claimed he was armtwisted by the police into accepting a lawyer VK Anand during the trial, rather than the one he had already engaged. The petition filed by their counsel ML Sharma said that the trial was, therefore, unfair. Both Sharma and Anand have been engaged in a legal tussle over appearing for Mukesh ever since the Nirbhaya trial started in January 2013. Sharma had filed a petition in the Supreme Court to transfer the case from Delhi to Mathura on the ground that the trial was being influenced by negative public glare and media coverage. However, Anand raised an objection that Sharma had not been empowered by Mukesh to represent him in the case. The apex court had rejected Sharmas appeal based on a report by a senior subordinate judge, which stated that Mukesh wanted Anand to serve as his lawyer in the trial court as well as the transfer petition, and not Sharma. However, after the high court verdict, Mukesh had availed the services of Sharma to fight his case as counsel in the Supreme Court.

Compensation woes
s it apt to ignore the victim while giving a compensation package and hand it out to her mother on the ground that the victim is illiterate and thus not capable enough to handle the money? Can this be done even if the victim is a 20-year-old adult? A bench of Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justices SA Bobde and NV Ramana raised the issue while initiating suo moto proceedings in a case where the West Bengal government had made a compensation package to the mother of a tribal girl who was gangraped by 13 people as per the directions of a village headman, for daring to choose a life partner. The compensation package included

`50,000 to the rape survivors mother, widow pension to her, rebuilding of the house damaged by the mob, construction of a toilet, and a tubewell. The apex court pointed out several loopholes, such as why was the compensation given to the mother when she was not entitled to it, was the mother literate enough to manage the money, and if it was a case of largesse doled out by the West Bengal government. While reserving its judgement, the bench said it was also exploring the legal possibility of the accused paying the compensation package and wanted to know whether the tax payers should be burdened for someone elses crime.

April 15, 2014

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CORPORATE / companies act/sahara and satyam

Anil Shakya

GREAT FALL: Arrests of Sahara Chairman Subrata Roy in February 2014 and of Satyam Computer Chairman Ramalinga Raju in early 2009

SUBRATA-DUM
while changes in the companies act may usher in transparency, they are no viable substitutes for tighter vigilance by regulators. new laws cannot prevent Sahara-Satyam type corporate scamstwo sides of the same tarnished business coin
By Alam Srinivas
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T was a surreal meeting in the early 2000s. Years before he was arrested, Ramalinga Raju of Satyam Computer said he wanted to become a global thought leader like Bill Gates and Jack Welch. As he built castles in the air about his future, he showed me his latest purchase. It was a telescope in his balcony, which he used to scan the night sky. He talked about integrity, transparency, honesty, and respect. He turned out to be a black dwarf; a star that had burnt out its lights. A few years later, I chased Subrata Roy, chairman and managing worker, Sahara Group, in Lucknow. Known for hobnobbing with global and Indian celebrities and actresses, he hadnt been seen for months. Rumors were that he had a serious disease. Most of the dozens of people I met hated Saharasri, as he was called by his employees. He ran a byzantine empire cloaked in an opaque veil.

Getty Images

& RAJU-DEE
Recently, he found himself in Tihar Jail, thanks to SEBI and the Supreme Court. Both Roy and Raju seemed like two sides of the same tarnished corporate coin. Satyam was a publicly-listed company, which won awards for corporate governance. But it turned out to be a sham, as it cooked up its balance sheet and financesa $2.7billion fraud. Sahara was an unlisted group, and out of SEBIs ambit. Yet it was the market regulator, which exposed its `24,000 cr nefarious activities that included bogus investors and unaccounted money. No doubt the country required changes in the Companies Act to prevent, or at least curb, such scandals. It was paramount to protect the small investors in both listed and unlisted firms, and to make sure that the independent directors, auditors, rating agencies, and institutional investors did their jobs. Simultaneously, the government had to give more teeth to its barking dog, SEBI, and additional powers to go after corporate conmen like Roy and Raju. The end result: The amended Companies Act of 2013. The act had several clauses, whose aim was to prevent corporate frauds. Amongst ourselves, we call it the Roy & Raju Act; almost all its changes are an attempt to prevent such manipulations, says Prithvi Haldea, the founder of Prime Database. He adds that theoretically: The new act is stronger, asks for more
April 15, 2014

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CORPORATE / companies act/ sahara and satyam

Anil Shakya

Corporate frauds
Independent directors sided with owners; behaved like rubber stamps Pyramidal maze of firms where top firm controlled those in several tiers External auditors ignored red flags; were paid extra and hired for almost a decade Boards openly cleared related party deals that helped the promoters

2013 amendments
Directors to be appointed from an official database; one women director mandatory Curbs on the number of tiers of subsidiaries that can be controlled by a holding firm Compulsory rotation of external auditors for both listed and unlisted companies Related party deals to be cleared by both the board and shareholders

disclosures by companies and promoters, and can prove to be good for both the retail and institutional investors. PUBLIC-PRIVATE DEPOSITS Two of Sahara Group firms, Sahara India Real Estate Corporation and Sahara Housing Investment Corporation, together mopped up over `24,000 cr from three million investors. Every precaution was taken to skirt SEBI rules and laws. The instrument was optionally fully convertible debenture (OFCD) which, as per the then regulators definition, was neither equity nor debt. It was a hybrid instrument,

which was not legally monitored by SEBI. OFCDs are different from fully-, partiallyand non-convertible debentures. Both were unlisted companies, i.e. they were not traded on stock exchanges and, therefore, did not come under SEBIs purview. They were ruled by the old Companies Act. In their prospectuses, filed with ministry of corporate affairs, they claimed that they did not wish to get listed at any stage. Their lawyers maintained that an offer of shares or debentures to more than 50 persons does not automatically make it a public issue or private offer, both of which are governed by SEBI.

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Most importantly, the group said the OFCDs were sold only to people who were approached privately (and not in a public manner through advertisements), and associated or connected with the Sahara Group. So, by no stretch of imagination was it a public issue. Hundreds of thousands of Saharas agents went to potential investors, who were part of the group in some form, to raise the money. The Supreme Court ruled in August 2012 that Saharas OFCDs could be regulated by SEBI. Since the two firms did not adhere to the regulators rules, they had to return the entire amount to their investors. In case of Kolkata-based Saradha Group, its agents raised over `1,000 cr from lakhs of individuals. It operated a typical ponzi scheme, and SEBI asked it to return the money too. The 2013 Companies Act imposed stringent norms on companies keen to raise public deposits. Only banking firms, non-banking financial companies, certain public entities and those prescribed by the government are now allowed to accept deposits. Public firms can do it only if they got a credit rating and put their assets as collateral against the deposits. In case of defaults, the regulator could immediately attach and sell these assets to pay depositors.

holders in listed companies first, and go after unlisted firms later. According to a 2010 paper, Indias Satyam Accounting Scandal by David Winkler of University of Iowa College, The ownership structure of Indian businesses contributed to the Satyam scandal. The pyramid structures in most family-run and other businesses permits groups to control more of the operations than their equity claims represent. Winkler noted that in the 1990s, almost a third of Indian businesses had pyramidal hierarchies in place. PYRAMIDAL MAZE OF FIRMS This is how it works. The promoters own 51 percent of the top company, which holds 51 percent in second-tier firms which, in turn, control 51 percent in the third-tier companies. Thus, the owners have complete control over all the tiers, even though their real financial commitment in the second tier is 26 percent (51 percent of 51 percent), and stakes in the third tier are only 13 percent. Winkler concluded that such structures allowed business families to benefit themselves and harm small shareholders, tunnel corporate gains and funds from one entity to others, and make it difficult for outsiders to know how all the business have performed. Under the new clauses, the layers of subsidiaries (Tier-1, Tier-II and Tier-III) of a holding company in any group are restricted. A firm will be deemed to be a subsidiary of a holding company if the latter, along with other subsidiaries, controls over 50 percent of the formers share capital. Even if the holding company has the power to appoint and remove the majority of directors in an entity, the latter will be dubbed as a subsidiary of the former. But what happens if two holding companies, along with their layers of

owever, one has to see how these laws are implemented. Ironically, SEBIs case against Sahara, which was required to stop Roys corporate shenanigans, acted against the interests of the small shareholders. One of the allegations against Sahara was that there were no genuine investors involved in the OFCDs. The majority of them were benami and non-existent; it was possibly black money that was laundered through the debentures. If this was indeed true, wasnt SEBI barking up the wrong tree? Isnt it the regulators responsibility to dig into corporate irregularities where genuine shareholders are involved? Why did SEBI spend over `60 cr in the last fiscal for digitization and scan of Sahara documents related to investors, refund-related activities, legal costs and in-house expenses? The regulator has to look at the interests of the minority share-

Amongst ourselves, we call it the Roy & Raju Act; almost all its changes are an attempt to prevent such manipulations.
Prithvi Haldea, the founder of Prime Database
April 15, 2014

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CORPORATE / companies act/ sahara and satyam

New disclosure laws


nder the new Act, independent directors have to be selected from a data bank, which will be maintained by a notified institute or association. No individual can be a director in more than 20 firms; earlier, people were on board of dozens of firms. Independent directors cannot receive stock options, but can be compensated

by sitting fees and reimbursement of other expenses such as travel and stay to attend board meetings. The 2013 act stated that directors, except managing directors, cannot receive any loan or guarantee from a firm on whose board they serve. To reduce related-party transactions, like the one between Satyam and the two Maytas firms, the 2013 amendments made it mandatory for a companys board and shareholders to approve such deals. They need to be disclosed in the annual reports under Directors Report. The interest rates on loans given to related parties cannot be lower than the rates on government securities. The flip side is that there are several ways promoters can siphon off money without going through the related-party route. Normally, loans are given to related parties at ridiculously low or zero interest, and the money is never returned. But what if the owners inflate invoices of their vendors, and ask the latter to pay the difference in cash or to another company, which raises a bogus bill?

GLOSSING OVER CORRUPTION? (L-R) Krishna Palepu of Harvard Business School and Vinod Dham, entrepreneur and venture capitalist, who were on board of Satyam when Raju perpetrated the fraud

subsidiaries, are owned by different family members? And the holding firms and subsidiaries have cross-ownership linkages between them. Will the regulators decide that Tata Group and Cyrus Mistry Group are inter-related because Cyrus Mistry is chairman of the former? DEPENDENT DIRECTORS JP Sharma, professor at Delhi School of Economics, did an extensive study on Satyam. He concluded: Satyam Board was composed of chairman-friendly directors, who failed to question managements strategy. This was despite the fact that six out of nine directors were independent, and

In Satyams case, the independent directors allied themselves with the interests of the promoters. And auditors failed to react despite red financial flags.
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April 15, 2014

included names such as Krishna Palepu, a Harvard Business School professor, Mangalam Srinivasan, a US academician, and Vinod Dham, known as father of the Pentium chip. One of the major charges against Raju was his decision in December 2008 to merge Maytas Infra and Maytas Properties, owned majorly by him and family, with Satyam. The combined acquisition tag: $1.6 billion. Sharma found that seven of the nine directorsthe two promoter directors excused themselves from the board meeting because of conflict of interesttook a unanimous decision on the M&As. It was only when most of the shareholders rejected the deals, and Satyams stock tanked that the board overturned it. But it was too late, and it triggered Rajus fall. In his piece, What Went Wrong With Satyam, Sharma said: This naturally causes suspicion on the role performed by the independent directors present in that meeting.

What concerns everyone is that those independent directors allowed themselves to be party to the mysterious designs of the promoter directors. It is hard to believe that such eminent and experienced personalities could not discover the well-planned massive fraud and manipulations. Therefore, the new amendments try to make the independent directors more accountable, and their decisions more transparent (see box). UNACCOUNTABLE AUDITORS In May 2012, Reebok India accused its senior managers, including MD and CFO, of setting up secret warehouses to steal products, fudging the accounts and faking sales. The global parent estimated the loss to be `870 cr, although the Serious Fraud Investigation Office found evidence of falsified documents worth `500 cr. The Satyam case was bigger; Rajus culinary skills helped him to cook all kinds of figures in his annual and quarterly balance sheets. For instance, in its September 2008 quarter, Satyam showed cash and bank balances as over `5,300 cr; the actual figure was less than `500 cr. The interest (almost `400 cr) it claimed to earn from these bank balances did not accrue to the company. Unsecured loans to others were shown as less than `250 cr; the actual figure was almost `1,500 cr. After his arrest, Raju admitted that his firm overstated income and profits each quarter for several years. According to Winkler, The results announced on October 17, 2009, overstated quarterly revenues by 75 percent and profits by 97 percent. Satyams head of internal audit raised fake invoices to inflate income. Over 6,000 benami salary accounts were created to give an impression that the company was growing. Clearly, the external auditors, Price Waterhouse Coopers (PWC), failed in its responsibilities despite several red financial flags. First, PWC should have questioned why the company kept huge cash in non-interest deposits. Any sane CFO would have earned some income on it. Second, the external auditors should have checked at least some of the purported bank accounts, in which the company claimed

Getty Images

deposits. Third, PWC could not uncover the scam for nine years (2000-09), while Merrill Lynch, which was hired by Satyam in December 2008, discovered it in 10 days. Under the new act, external auditors have to be rotated at regular intervals, and they cannot provide other services like investment advisory and financial information systems to the firm, its holding company, and subsidiaries. This is aimed to ensure the independence of the external auditors, which cannot be wooed by other incentives. Yet again, the rotation of auditors is not the cure. If an audit firm like PWC can sleep on its job, and if the promoters are hell-bent to hide facts, corporate frauds will continue. The owners can find different ways to incentivize auditors to close their eyes; Satyam paid PWC twice the amounts companies pay to other external auditors. A Delhi-based corporate lawyer explains: In October 2008, World Bank banned the firm for eight years due to allegations of spying; the same month, an analyst questioned the huge cash balances, which did not earn any interest. If SEBI was alert, it could have caught Raju. Since our laws are reactive, as is the case with 2013 Companies Act, corporate owners are always several steps ahead of the law makers and regulators. IL

HALL OF FAME, AND INFAMY Reebok India Managing Director Subhinder Singh (fourth from left), who was charged with a `870 cr fraud, during happier times; here he poses with Indian cricketers after the teams World Cup victory in 2011

April 15, 2014

17

SPECIAL REPORT / defense agents / the choudhries

ARMS AND THE MURKY MAN


he owns luxury hotels and manages charities. but sudhir choudhries real work is to act as a fixer of super deals

Illustration: Anthony Lawrence

18

N 2009, just after the global financial crisis of 2008, a London-based investment company, C&C Alpha Group (CCAG), made an audacious announcement. It launched a chain of luxury boutique hotels, Nira Hotels & Resorts, to cater to the rich and famous across the world. The first two properties it announced were Nira Diwa in Manila, the Philippines, and Nira Lahari in Kerala, India. While Nira Diwa offered an exclusive urban retreat blending old-world charm with contemporary sophistication, Nira Lahari was located along the picturesque Vembanad Lake. As expected, it evoked gasps and the right kind of buzz. It was the kind of reaction the company desired. It was a relatively new group that started in 2002, its owners were relatively unknown and people were unaware about the sources of the companys cash flow. But then, CCAG was not an ordinary company. Its net worth today is `248.5 cr (24,504,214). And it was headed by the 35-year-old Indian-born, Boston-educated, British national, Bhanu Choudhrie, his elder brother Dhairya and cousin Dhruv. Nothing exceptional about this, except that Bhanu and Dhairya are sons of Sudhir Choudhrie, one of Indias biggest arms dealers. The authorities in the UK became suspicious of the groups activities and its directors, who did not seem to have any credible sources of income to match their lavish lifestyles and charities.

The Choudhries family tree


Shanti Prasad Choudhrie

Sudhir Choudhrie wife Anita

Late Rajiv Choudhrie wife Rita

Amrit Choudhrie

Dhairya wife Karina

Bhanu wife Simrin

Dhruv wife shylla

Simran

COVER BLOWN Sudhirs defense-related businesses came to light when the UK Serious Fraud Investigation Office probed corruption charges against iconic UK engine-makers Rolls Royce. It found evidence in February this year that Sudhir and his younger son, Bhanu, facilitated Rolls Royce deals in China and Indonesia. The findings had repercussions in India. The residences and offices of the Choudhries in the UK were raided and Sudhir and Bhanu were arrested there. Under pressure, Indias defense minister,

AK Anthony put all Rolls Royce contracts under hold until the investigations on them were over. He asked the Central Bureau of investigation (CBI) to probe the purchase of engines for 123 Hawk fighter jets in 2004. The deal was worth `10,000 cr, and involved `500 cr kickbacks to Indian agents. The CBI has registered a preliminary inquiry to probe the case. The Choudhries are out on bail in the UK and a spokesperson for the duo denied any wrongdoing, adding they are cooperating fully with the investigation. Anthony was under pressure when questions were raised on the purchases of VVIP helicopters and Tatra trucks. The Rolls Royce charges, barely two months before the national elections, was the last thing that UPA-II needed, embroiled as it was in other corruption charges. The defense ministry, along with stateowned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL), is Rolls Royces largest customer; almost 3,000 Rolls Royce engines are fitted in various air force planes. India is the biggest

The Choudhries masquerade their defense interests by generous charity work. They honored Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan at a recent leadership event.
April 15, 2014

19

SPECIAL REPORT / defense agents / the choudhries

Indias suspected defense deals


Year
2000 2000 2002 2004 2004 2007 2009 2010 2010 2011 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2012 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2013 2014

Army
T-72 Tank BMP 2 APC (infantry combat vehicle) UAV-HERON (unmanned air vehicle) T 90 Tank M 46-130 upgunning (towed field gun) T 90 Tank Long Range Surface-to-Air-Missile MI-17 V5 (helicopter) MIG 29 K (fighter plane) Quick Reaction Surface-to-Air-Missile Ammunition-SMERSH (for rocket launcher) Ammunition T 72 (ammunition for tank) SU 30 (Sukhoi fighter plane) SU 30 MKI (Sukhoi fighter bomber plane) Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft Low Level Quick Reaction Missile System INVAR T 90 Missile (for T-90 tank) INVAR T 90 Missile T 72 Power Pack Upgrade (upgradation of tanks) BMP 2 Power Pack Upgrade (infantry combat vehicle) SU 30 Upgrade UAV-HERON upgrade KA 28 MLU (helicopter) T 90 Tank

Quantity
1,500 1,600 310 180 347 108 29 140 80 214 10,000 15,000 1,000 1,362 140 11 600

Value
($ million)

900 640 220 825 48 1,051 2,500 565 2,250 1,600 364 178 2,240 1,600 20,000 2,445 400 480 700 470 847 72 120 2,400

middlemen. Sudhirs connection with HAL is old and well-established, says a retired wing commander. So is Rolls Royces connection with HAL. It is an open secret that Sudhir is involved in several IAF purchases. While the HAL-Rolls Royce relationship goes back to the mid-50s, Sudhirs connection with HAL can be traced back to the 70s and 80s. THE BEGINNINGS It started when Baljit Kapoor, who was Sudhirs uncle, became HAL chairman in the 80s. Baljit was close to Indira Gandhis PMO, which allegedly helped him to grab the post, says a source. He adds: Baljit mentored Sudhir by providing him foreign business contacts and helped cultivate relationships with powerful Punjabi political leaders, bureaucrats and the businessmen in the capital. Sudhir started his forays as an arms dealer in the 70s along with two Delhi-based middlemen, retired Vice Admiral SM Nanda and his son, Suresh Nanda. They floated a company, Eureka, with an office in Delhis Defence Colony. The first major deal they were involved in was the purchase of the French Matra missiles for the IAF. Later, Sudhir started his company, Magnum International Trading Company Limited (MITCO), which publicly was into tea exports. However MITCOs work was exposed after the CBI probe in 2006 into

arms purchaser in South Asia and the second in the world, after the US. Its no wonder, then, that foreign suppliers are willing to pay a commission of up to 10 percent to middlemen to facilitate the deals. Sudhir is not unknown to the ministry of defense. He was already on the watch-list of

List of defense corruption scandals since Bofors


HDW Scam, (mid-1980s): This was the first time the Nandas family figured in defense corruption. It was alleged that the retired Vice Navy Chief SM Nanda and his son Suresh acted as middlemen in the purchase of `400 cr submarines from German company, HDW (Howaldswerske). Status: Case closed. Bofors scam (1987): Former prime minister, Rajiv Gandhi was alleged to have received `64 cr for the 155-mm howitzers purchase from Swedish firm Bofors. Ottavio Quattrocchi, who was close to the family of Rajiv Gandhi, acted as a middleman for the $1.3 billion deal for 400 guns.

Status: Delhi High Court acquitted the accused. Coffin scam (1999): During the 1999 Kargil war, CBI filed a case against a US contractor and senior army officers for the purchase of coffins. Defense Minister George Fernandes was accused. Status: Case pending. Tehelka scam (1999): An online news portal revealed how army officers and political leaders were involved in taking bribes

during arms deals. The sting showed that bribes were paid in at least 15 deals, including the Barak missile case. Status: Case pending. Scorpene deal (2005): It was alleged that the Scorpene submarines manufacturer Thales paid `500 cr to middlemen to

secure the contract. The CBI, however, found no evidence of corruption in the deal in 2008. Scorpene submarines are now being built in India under a technology transfer agreement that was part of that contract. Status: Case closed. Barak missile scam (2006): The first case in which Sudhir Choudhrie was named. CBI had registered an FIR in 2006, but did not name Sudhir as an

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the `1,125 cr Barak missiles deal. The missiles were purchased from Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), and CBIs FIR revealed that kickbacks were routed through MITCO. On October 10, 2006, the CBI raided the residences of Suresh Nanda, Arvind Khanna, his son Vipin Khanna and Sudhir Choudhrie. A few hours before the raid, Sudhir escaped abroad. When CBI sleuths reached his residence in Sundar Nagar in Delhi, they found that he had taken a flight to London the previous night. Was he tipped off or just plain lucky? No one knew. But it showed his possible clout and connections in the highest echelons of the land. In December 2013, the CBI filed closure report and said its probe could not find any evidences of wrong-doings. But this is not the first case that the CBI had closed against Sudhir, citing similar lack of evidences. In 2007, the CBI filed an FIR against Sudhir in the purchase of faulty Soltam guns (worth over `208 cr) from an Israeli company. He, along with the then Samata Party treasurer, RK Jain and other defense officials, were booked under corruption charges. In 2010, the agency filed a closure in the case, which was accepted by the court in 2011. Fortunately, the success of the Barak and Soltam deals, according to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, heightened Sudhirs reputation. IAI later sold unmanned aerial vehicles to India. Then followed the sale of attack

Foraying into arms deals in the 70s with retired Vice Admiral SM Nanda, Choudhrie first cracked a big deal with French Matra missiles for the IAF.
drones called Green Pine, radars used by the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system and four AWACS-type aircraft equipped with the Phalcon radar system. Today, Israel is next to Russia among Indias arms suppliers. With annual purchases from Israeli companies touching $3-4 billion, one can calculate the amount of money made in commissions, reveals a defense ministry source. INROADS INTO UK It was the Russians who initially spotted Sudhirs network. He worked with Russian government-owned companies, which were major suppliers of arms during the Cold War. Later, when USSR disintegrated, the government started privatizing defense businesses. Sudhir was smart enough to buy stakes in some of these companies. One was Sukhoi, which manufactured fighter jets, and where he was allegedly a part owner. The CBI raid in 2006 became a turning point in Sudhirs life. He knew his return to India was tough. He feared that a CBI chargesheet and trial could force the UK to extradite him. Besides, he was unsure

accused. Status: The CBI filed closure report. Soltam Gun scam (2007): In the FIR, CBI had accused the Israeli firm

Soltam of paying bribes to, among others, Sudhir. Status: Case closed. Sudipta Ghosh case (2009): The former Ordnance Factory Board director general, Sudipta Ghosh was arrested by the CBI for taking bribes from two Indian and four foreign

companies blacklisted by ministry of defense. Status: Case pending. Tatra Trucks deal (2012): The then army chief, VK Singh (now BJP party member and Lok Sabha candidate from Ghaziabad constituency) blew the lid off the scam in purchase of over 7,000 Tatra trucks. In the past 25 years over ` 5,000 cr have been spent on the purchases. The CBI registered FIR against London-based defense dealer Ravi Rishi and several other officials. Status: CBI probe continues. VVIP Helicopters deal (2013): In January 2014, India cancelled the `3,600-crore contract for 12 helicopters with the UK-based Agusta Westland. In February 2013, reports had surfaced alleging that two top officials of Agusta

Westland's Italian parent, Finmeccanica, had paid bribes. Status: Probe on. HAL-Rolls Royce engine deal (2014): The UK SFIO in February this year raided and arrested Sudhir and his son Bhanu on allegations of acting as a middlemen for sales of Rolls Royce engines to Indonesia and China. The ministry handed over the matter to CBI. Status: CBI yet to begin probe.

April 15, 2014

21

SPECIAL REPORT / defense agent / the choudhries

Meddling policies
Mid-1980s: Following the Bofors scandal, Rajiv Gandhi declared a ban on middlemen. 1989: The ministry of defense issued guidelines to regulate agents through registration and monitoring. 1999: The then defense minister George Fernandes reinforced the ban on agents, and ordered an inquiry into military purchases, including spares acquired since 1985. 2001: Fernandes asked Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) to examine ways to reduce middlemen. The CVC recommended legalization of agents, by registration to inculcate transparency and efficiency. It resulted in ambiguous and contradictory guidelines of recording the agents contractual, banking and financial details. Over the past 13 years, not a single agent has registered with the ministry of defense. 2006: Defense Procurement Policy (2006) banned agents/middlemen. Made it mandatory for suppliers to sign pre-contract integrity pacts under which they unequivocally confirm that no individual or firm was employed to facilitate the deal. 2006-14: The ministry of defense continues with the policy of ban on the role of middlemen and signing of integrity pact. It blacklisted firms alleged to be involved in corruption cases, and banned seven foreign companies.

nessman stepped into the public gaze. His companies orchestrated a PR campaign to improve his image. Recently, in their company-sponsored GG2 Leadership event in the UK, Dhairya gave an award to Malala Yousafzai, the celebrated Pakistani teenager who was attacked by the Taliban. NEW AVATAR For decades, Sudhir and his family have tried to cloak their defense activities with legitimate businesses. In 1995, Sudhir was on board of a joint venture, which involved Tata Groups Taj Group of Hotels. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, he was a non-executive director in ebookers Plc, an online tourism and travel website, which has now changed ownership. He was also a director in Adidas venture in India. His son, Bhanu, who is a collector of Asian art and promotes it, also runs a charity called Path to Success, which works with disabled and disadvantaged children. He manages the groups flagship, Shanti Hospitality Group, which includes boutique hotels, spas and beach, plantation and golf resorts across the world. Shanti Maurice, a luxury resort in Mauritius, was the winner of the World Luxury Spa Award in 2012. According to a newspaper article, Bhanu advises and sources deals in emerging markets, such as India, Russia and South-East Asia and assists individuals to incubate and grow their businesses and maximize business potential. He has interests in hospitals and healthcare; the group owns 13 care homes with over 600 beds in Midlands and southeast regions in the UK. The Sudhir familys renowned investments in India are in Ananda Spa, located at the foothills of the Himalayas. IHHR Hospitality Pvt Ltd has five star properties in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Amritsar and Pune. Each five star, according to industry experts, incurs an investment of at least `200-300 cr for construction, or a cumulative cost of over `1,000 cr. But with the Rolls Royce controversy, Sudhirs image has taken a beating. Still, it will be a huge task for Indian and the UK investigators to piece together the pieces in this jigsaw puzzle. IL

how to continue with his consultancy business (middlemen), while being abroad. Old associates of Sudhir reveal that he used his Indian experience to make inroads into the UK political circles. British newspapers reported that he was the top donor for the Liberal Democrats Party: amounts ranging from 50,000 (approx `50 lakh) to 20,000 (`20 lakh). Two companies controlled by Sudhirs son, Bhanu, and nephew DhruvAlpha Healthcare and C&C Business Solutionsdonated an additional 4,75,000 in the UK. From October 2006 to January 2011, Sudhir remained in London. He used it to his advantage. He put his money into legitimate businesses across the globe. The 2009 economic recession was a blessing in disguise for fresh investments. In 2008 and 2009, his sons CCAG group floated several new companies dealing in real estate, hotels, shopping malls, among others. Sudhir returned to India in 2011 after the CBI gave him a clean chit in the Soltam gun probe due to lack of evidence. The reclusive busi-

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April 15, 2014

PROBE/ navy accidents

PIB

WATER COFFINS
aged vessels, lack of accountability, low budgets and delays in repairs have turned the naval fleet into death vessels
By Vishwas Kumar

POSTMORTEM TIME Former chief of naval staff, Admiral DK Joshi briefing Defense Minister AK Antony about the explosion on INS Sindhurakshak submarine in August 2013

here does the buck stop? One could ask this question after navy chief, Admiral Devendra Kumar Joshi resigned almost 18 months before his retirement was due, taking moral responsibility for the recent accidents which took place in various submarines and warships, resulting in the loss of many lives. Most defense experts feel that it is the civilian bureaucracy, i.e. the Ministry of Defense (MoD) headed by AK Antony which should be held accountable. After all, it controls the defense budget. In the recent past, the navy has possibly suffered the most in terms of annual budgets and expenditure on modernization. Going by the expenditure on the three
April 15, 2014

23

PROBE/ navy accidents

The defense secretary has been assigned authority for the defense of India. However, he has zero accountability... when things go wrong.
Arun Prakash, former navy chief
forces in 2013-14, the share of the navy was the lowest (18 percent) compared to army (49 percent) and air force (28 percent). In comparison to the previous fiscal year (2012-13), the navys share declined by 1.4 percent. It fared worse in 2012-13, when the budgets of all the three wings of the armed forces were slashed drastically. However, the cut in the navys revised budgets was the highest, compared to the other two forces. This budget was reduced by almost 27 percent, while the respective figures for army and air force were 16 percent and 0.25 percent. The various CAG reports (1999, 2008 and 2013) show the inertia and lack of concern the ministry displayed towards those guarding Indias maritime borders. Its a tragic saga of neglect and inefficiencyaged vessels, shortage of staff, increased work-load, lack of spare parts and delays in repairs and refits. Its bad enough that these have affected the operational efficiency of warships, but now, they have led to loss of lives. The situation is so grim that navy insiders call their ships death vessels, similar to air force MiGs referred to as flying coffins due to their frequent crashes. AGEING FLEET Warnings about the navys dire straits were visible. In 2008, CAG warned: With serious slippages in the induction plan, the navy is left with an ageing fleet with more than 50 percent of submarines having completed 75 percent of their operational life and some already outlived their maximum service life. The report added: If the construction plan for new submarines is not expedited, 63 percent of the existing fleet would complete their prescribed life by 2012 when the first new submarines will be inducted as per the

present schedule. The 2012 deadline has gone and the French-manufactured Scorpene submarines will be ready only in 2016. What does the navy plan to do in the interim? This procrastination on the part of MoD has serious consequences. Retired Colonel Ajit Bhinders twitter (@ajitbhinder) comment on the present situation is apt. He wrote: Admiral Joshi did the right thing by resigning. Today no chief Army/Navy/AF can get anything done fr (for) their commands because of Neta/babu/MoD. The area where the navy needs resuscitation is refits and repairs. Any delay can affect safety, warn experts. The 2008 CAG report said: The refit activity management in the Navy was not efficient as 83 percent of short refits and 100 percent of normal and medium refits were delayed and could not be completed within the prescribed time period. It added that the average operational availability of the submarines was as low as 48 percent. This issue assumes significance in the light of 20 sailors reportedly

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April 15, 2014

courtesy: indiannavy.nic.in

Age no bar?
Number of years navy ships have been in service

24%

15% 9% 26%

26%

1-10 years

21-25 years

11-20 years

26-30 years

30 years

TESTING TIMES Surface-to-surface missile firing exercise underway

dying during a fire in the two Russian-made submarines, INS Sindhurakshak and INS Sindhuratna, which underwent refits and repairs. FINANCIAL CRUNCH The root cause of the problems is the lack of finances. Given the fleet size the repair load is huge. The repair and maintenance work takes months to complete. On top of that, there is lack of availability of spare parts and manpower in dockyards. Former navy chief Arun Prakash told a magazine: The chiefs carry full responsibility for their serviceoperational and administrativebut they have no locusstandi in the MoD. The defense secretary, on the other hand, has been assigned authority for the defense of India and for the three armed forces HQs. However, he has zero accountability for anything, especially when things go wrong. The sorry state of affairs in the MoD was revealed when CAG did another audit in December 2013 called performance audit

on repairs and refits. It covered the period between 2005-06 and 2009-10 and revisited its 1999 conclusions. Incidentally, this period covers the tenure of Antony who assumed office in October 2006. This audit exposed the grave risk not only to submarines, but also to surface warships (corvettes, destroyers, frigates, etc), which suffered from similar self-inflicted problems. The auditors recorded their disappointment with the MoD for not acting on their previous findings: We observed that even after a decade, the Navy has cited that no perceptible improvement has taken place in timely completion of refits. Resultantly, 8,629 ship days were not available for maritime operational purposes, due to availing excess days for completion of refits. DELAYED REFITS The audit statistics are disturbing. More than 50 percent of warships (surface) in service are beyond 20 years of age. In more than 82 percent of warships, refits and repairs have been delayed up to and beyond the 300 mandated days. The main factor contributing to delay in completion of

In 2013-14, the budgetary share of navy was the lowest (18 percent) compared to army (49 percent) and air force (28 percent). Babus decide these budgets.
April 15, 2014

25

PROBE / army excesses

Getty Images

OF FIRE AND WATER Rescue work at naval dockyard where explosions occurred in INS Sindhurakshak submarine in August, 2013

Trail of disasters
AUGUST 14, 2013: INS Sindhurakshak, a kilo-class submarine, implodes and sinks when missiles and other ammunition go off because of unknown factors, killing all 18 on board. DECEMBER 4, 2013 (Navy Day): Indias leading minesweeper, the INS Konkan, undergoing repair in Visakhapatnam, catches fire. DECEMBER second week, 2013: A misfire from a gun abroad ICGS Sangram hits the Western Naval Command headquarters. DECEMBER third week, 2013: INS Tarkash, the navys newest guided missile frigate from which the Brahmos supersonic cruise missiles was test fired in May, hits jetty while berthing at the Mumbai naval base and damages its hull. DECEMBER 23, 2013: Frontline frigate INS Talwar collides with a fishing trawler off the Maharashtra coast; luckily there is no significant damage. JANUARY 4, 2014: INS Betwa, an indigenously built frigate, reports a crack in its sonar domethe bottom of the ship. The cause of the accident is not clear. The navy launches an inquiry into the incident. JANUARY 17, 2014: INS Sindhughosh, a kilo-class submarine operating out of Mumbai, has a near-miss when the tide suddenly recedes and the ship runs aground. However, the ship is secured with the help of tugs and ropes and no damage is reported. The ship sails out subsequently. JANUARY 21, 2014: INS Vipul, a missile boat from the Killer Missile Squadron, which has recently returned from a normal refit inside the Mumbai Naval Dockyard, is detected with a hole in its pillar compartment while it was on an operational deployment off Mumbai. JANUARY 30, 2014: Amphibious ship INS Airavat suffers damages when its propellers hit the ground while returning to the harbour in Visakhapatnam. The cause of the incident apparently is the dredging work going on in the channel. FEBRUARY 25, 2014: Smoke and fire in the battery kit of INS Sindhuratna, a Russian-origin diesel-electric, kilo-class submarine commissioned in 1988, results in the death of two officers. Twenty-nine people are evacuated and hospitalized for inhaling poisonous gases. MARCH 2, 2014: An officer is killed and a worker injured after inhaling carbon dioxide gas which leaked from a container in the INS Kolkata (Yard 701), advanced warship at Mumbai's Mazagon Dock Limited.

refits/MLU (mid life updates) was the poor availability of spares and equipment. Nonavailability/failure of critical equipment, delays in supply and fitment of various systems, etc, also resulted in time over-runs, the report said. Alarmingly, it also said that most refits are started and completed with considerable delays. Of the 152 refits checked by audit teams, only 18 percent commenced as per the norms of the navy, while 74 percent were completed with a total delay of 8,629 days. The audit made startling disclosures that expose the hollowness of Indias defense preparedness. It claimed that naval warships had been extensively utilized beyond the standard period of time before a refit was taken up. This, it said, indicates lack of adherence to operational-cum-refit cycle (OCRC, which determines refit schedules). Answers given by the navy to the auditors on delay in refits point towards a critical shortage of warships, forcing them to keep even overused ones to maintain operational requirements. The audit said: The Navy accepted that the actual refit start date did not match with the planned, if calculated strictly as per OCRC. There were many reasons for this mismatch, the report said. These were: The ships had undergone many operational and refit cycles. Any deferment of refit or delay in completion would affect future refit schedule of the ship. Deferment of refit was also due to operational commitment to maintain minimum force levels. This causes a cascading affect on subsequent refits. A ship that is overdue for refit cannot be a part of an optimal solution to Indias security needs. Non-availability of spares for refits of navy ships is one of the main reason for delays. The audit report commented: Availability of required spares continues to be a critical area which need to be addressed for a fundamental reform of refit management. Lack of required spares, resort to cannibalization (taking useful materials from disabled ships) and refurbishment of existing spares when their replacements are unavailable, are a matter of concern. The navy is truly in choppy waters. IL

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April 15, 2014

HUMAN INTEREST/ NRI brides

Aruna

the plight of women abandoned by nri husbands is distressing. However, a new centre in gujarat is giving them hope and helping them get back on their feet By Mahesh Trivedi

RUNAWAY BRIDEGROOM

HEN Usha Parikh left her lucrative job in a top IT company in Ahmedabad to marry a US-based NRI engineer, she had dreams in her eyes. But they soon crashed when she realized that her husband was an unlettered mechanic and an alcoholic at that. Just three months after Rekha Shah, daughter of a Surat-based diamantaire, tied the knot with a Singapore doctor, the 29-year-old pregnant woman was desperate to return to India.
April 15, 2014

27

HUMAN INTEREST/ NRI brides

Numbing numbers
Number of complaints received by five Indian missions about fraudulent NRI marriages since 2010-11: 179 Cases from New Zealand, Slovak Republic, China (Hong Kong), the UK and the US in 2012-13: 66 Number of complaints received by the ministry of overseas Indian affairs (MOIA) in 2012-13: 386 Cases from the UK in 2013-14: 15 Number of women who received assistance under the central government scheme during 2008-09 to 2012-13: 101 Amount of money disbursed by MOIA to NGOs and 77 deserted women abroad between 2008 and 2011: `32,86,709
Source: Data released in the Lok Sabha by minister for overseas Indian affairs Vayalar Ravi

the honeymoon. In the case of Gujarat, the ministry of overseas Indian affairs and the Gujarat government have only now started compiling data. HOME AMID DESPAIR But all is not lost. An Ahmedabad-based Non-Resident Gujarati (NRG) Center, launched in November 2013, now provides such women legal help. This is in partnership with Gujarat government and Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI). Ever since it began, harried wives and young mothers have been making frantic calls from abroad, while their worried parents in Gujarat have been rushing there for help. The chairman of the center is Kulin Patel, former Indian high commissioner to Uganda and ambassador to Rwanda and Burundi. He says that a majority of cases are related to cheating or the husband deserting the wife, either for dowry or because of an extra-marital affair. Six NRI women have already met Patel and sought succor. Says Patel: Many men get married due to parental pressure and abscond right after the wedding. In other cases, the man may be having an affair with someone else. Some couples come back here after a year and the husband finds some excuse to fly back alone. Seeing the plight of these young brides, Patel formed an expert panel with IPS officer Anil Kumar Pratham, Gujarat high court advocate Gopinath Amin and travel professional Manish Bhatt. All three help the girls in various ways. Pratham, who is inspector-general of police as well as head of the womens cell in the state, orders investigations into various cases and even takes the help of Interpol. Bhatt, who has travelled the world, not only quickly sorts out visa-related problems, but also asks his advocate friends to give free consultation to these women. Amin, who is also the chairman of the legal advisory committee of GCCI, says that the victims rarely conduct a thorough background check of the groom. The womans family feels that the boys side will be offend-

Her life had become hell, as she was constantly beaten by her husband and in-laws for more dowry. When Anju Patel got married to a London-based marketing executive following an internet romance, her joy knew no bounds. Six months back, she returned to her one-room home in Vadodara, abandoned by her husband. There are many such distressing stories. In Punjab. And in Gujarat. Stories of girls who live on the wings of hope as they marry NRI husbands, their heads full of fancy dreams and their hearts filled with nave optimism. Accounts of how their world comes crashing down as they are duped by unscrupulous and immoral husbands. Out of 2.5 crore NRIs, Gujaratis account for 65 lakh. But while Punjab has gained notoriety for cases of fraud by NRI grooms, similar cases are now coming to light in case of NRI grooms from Gujarat too. According to a 2007 study, an estimated 25,000 such women are deserted in Punjab and over 20,000 have not seen their husbands after

In about 30 percent of cases, deserted wives live all by themselves and struggle to find a way to come back.
Parag Desai, a parent

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April 15, 2014

Uday Shankar

ed if they ask for his details, but they must know the complete address, contact numbers of at least two friends who live within the area and one contact number of a colleague of his, warns Amin. Most of the time, the girls are young and ignorant of the laws of a foreign country. To increase awareness, the NRG Centre has been distributing literature with useful tips about NRI marriages and has organized two seminars in Anand and Mehsana in mid-February. EXPANDING SUPPORT Ramesh Rawani gave `25 lakh as dowry for his daughter. After she was abandoned, he wants the center to help him recover it. He says the process of seeking justice is complicated, as Indian laws do not apply to NRIs. Another parent, Parag Desai, says: In about 30 percent of cases, deserted wives live all by themselves and struggle to find a way to come back. Most are unaware of legal procedures. In some cases, US courts even declare a divorce through video conferencing. But this ignorance will be a thing of the past, as NRG centres have been set up in Surat, Rajkot, Vadodara, Anand and Mehsana and more are coming up in Navsari and Bhuj. Incidentally, the central government too

In Punjab, over 25,000 women are deserted by their NRI husbands every year, and over 20,000 dont see their spouses after honeymoon.
has taken steps over the years to check fraudulent NRI marriages. The external affairs ministry has set up a cell in each mission abroad to help such victims. The ministry of overseas Indian affairs has launched an educational-cum-awareness campaign for the Indian brides and published a guidance pamphlet called Marriages to Overseas Indians. This is available in English, Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi. It has published a booklet with information on safeguards available to women deserted by their NRI spouses, legal remedies available, authorities who can be approached and NGOs. The ministry provides an assistance of $3,000 in developed countries and $2,000 in developing countries for filing cases in courts abroad or for legal counseling through various NGOs. Finally, distressed women have a shoulder to lean on. IL (Kulin Patel, NRG Centre chairman, can be contacted at 9825026780 or 079-4006 9603)
April 15, 2014

29

CONTROVERSY/ religion and politics

IS HINDUTVA A WAY OF LIFE

way back in 1995, a supreme court judgment had held hinduism to be different from hindu religion. but now, the apex court has decided to re-open this controversial ruling By Vishwas Kumar

20

April 1, 2014

T IS an emotive issue and one that can polarize people sharply. The interpretations of Hindutva/Hinduism vary. But is Hindutva/Hinduism a way of life of the people in India, or is it a state of mind? Is it different from the word Hindu? Can one seek votes in the name of Hindutva? Will doing so violate electoral laws that prohibit a candidate from making an appeal to voters in the name of religion?

A landmark-yet-controversial judgment by Supreme Court in 1995 held Hindutva/Hinduism to be different from Hindu religion, and had said that any appeal to voters through the former didnt mean corrupt practices as per the electoral laws. It had come as a big booster for the BJP and its ally, Maharashtras Shiv Sena. Both the right wing parties had always argued that Hindutva was their core philosophy, which meant Indianization or bharatiyata and that they were not

April 15, 2014

31

CONTROVERSY/ religion and politics

In a democracy, if Hindu religion is a way of life, why shouldnt Christianity or Islam also be treated as a way of life?
DR SURAT SINGH,
Supreme Court lawyer

tutional bench for reviewing the 1995 judgment. The bench contended that the judgment lacked clarity in defining the context in which politicians seek votes in the name of religion. However, it is only now after 18 years that a constitutional bench has been finally formed.

against the minorities, as alleged by their political rivals. However, the apex court has now decided to re-visit this debate. Chief Justice P Sathasivam recently constituted a sevenmember bench to review its previous judgment. The decision was made on the recommendation of a five-judge bench headed by Justice RM Lodha and comprising Justices AK Patnaik, SJ Mukhopadhaya, Dipak Misra and FMI Kalifulla. The controversy over seeking votes in the name of Hindutva has its roots in the election of Shiv Sena candidate Manohar Joshi to the Maharashtra assembly in 1990. After Joshi won the election, his Congress rival Nitin Bhaurao Patel filed a case in the Bombay High Court, accusing the Sena leader of garnering votes in the name of religion. The high court declared his election null and void. Thereafter, Joshi knocked the doors of the Supreme Court against the high courts judgment. A threemember bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice JS Verma, upheld Joshis election as valid in December 1995, on the ground that seeking votes in the name of Hindutva is not an offence. Four months later in 1996, another three-member Supreme Court bench while dealing with a separate petition of BJP candidate Abhiram Singh on the same issue requested the then chief justice to form a consti-

hile some experts showered praise on Justice Verma for his bold order that gave legal sanctity to the Hindutva philosophy, others blamed him for fanning the Hindutva forces due to his differentiation between religion and philosophy. But Verma had, in the same judgment, warned that any misuse of the word Hindutva for a narrow political consideration should be strictly dealt with by the laws of the land. Supreme Court lawyer Dr Surat Singh says: Saying that Hindutva is not equal to Hindu religion is like saying that Christianity is not equal to the Christian religion. Also, saying that Hindutva is a way of life puts Hindu religion on a different footing from other religions. In a democracy, if Hindu religion is a way of life, why shouldnt we treat Christianity and Islam as a way of life, too? Singh explains that Hindutva can be used in two different ways. It can be used in a progressive and inclusive manner where Hinduism is a way of life and tolerant of other religions. But it can also be used in a dogmatic and exclusive sense. This is by showing that the Hindu way of life is superior to others, bringing it in clear conflict with the secular mandate of the constitution, he points out. Defending the 1995 judgment, lawyer Umesh Sharma says: Hinduism is a way of life. Even the worlds biggest religions were influenced by it

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April 15, 2014

SC shouldnt be blown by ideological fashions


Historian and political commentator MUKUL KESAVAN, who had criticized the 1995 judgment of Justice JS Verma in his book Secular Common Sense, comments on the Hindutva debate in an interview to Meha Mathur. Excerpts:
Anil Shakya

What was your principal objection to the 1995 judgment? This whole debate that ended up in the Supreme Court (SC) occurred because there was a petition against the election of BJP-Shiv Sena MLAs in Maharashtra. They had sought votes in the name of religion, whereas the election laws make it illegal for candidates to do so. I can understand that the SC was very careful about nullifying elections as it didnt want to interfere with the legislature. But the rationale behind striking down the high court judgment was bizarre. Justice Verma quoted Maulana Wahiduddin Khans article in The Times of India, where the author said that Hindutva is a kind of unitary nationalism. But if you read the rest of the article, Khan also went on to say that this kind of unitary nationalism is terrible, really oppressive and very bad for the minorities. Justice Verma took a good quote out of context and turned it literally inverse to the authors intention. It was a bad judgment based on bad reasoning. What are the implications of the judgment? The moment SC ratifies Hindutva as a form of Indian nationalism, the majority groups can question why they are being called communal. They can claim to be nationalists based on the decree of the court. So you have legitimized majoritarian communalism. But every country has a civilizational build-up and the majority community does have an influence on its culture. It is natural that the practices and beliefs of the majority shape the political culture and discourse and institutions of a society. However, the difficulty arises when you begin to argue that the Republic of India should be governed by a majoritarian consensus instead of the constitution. Hindutva here is being used to pressurize the republic, in a sense, to either ignore parts of the constitution or read the constitution in an unnatural way to favor a kind of majoritarian construction. Just because you are in a majority, you cant expect everybody to defer to your views. That is not acceptable. Its one thing if there is a process of decentered social practice that tends in a certain direction; its quite another to rig the game, to insist that in a situation like Ram Mandir the views of the majority must prevail. Because after all what is at stake here is not just a piece of real estate in Ayodhya, but a constitutional ground on which the republic is built. Are there rules of law that determine whether the status of a place can be maintained or changed? You cant just override laws by invoking the majority. How do Muslims feel about this kind of judicial intervention? It will be dangerous for me to speak on behalf of the Muslims. But the problem is, SC, which has a very distinguished record, has over the past 20-25 years delivered a set of questionable judgments on matters affecting Hindu-Muslim relations. The point to ponder is how do these judgments affect constitutional guarantees. Today its the Muslim community, tomorrow it will be someone else. When the apex court chooses to pass such judgments this has very dangerous implications for the political culture of the country. Do you see these judgments as a part of bigger movement? If you mean there is a broader conspiracy theory like an attempt to reinterpret the Indian constitution in a majoritarian way, I would say no. But if you ask has there been a broadening of the majoritarian discourse, has there been an attempt to shift the political commonsense of the republic rightwards, and has that succeeded, I would say yes. And the judges being human, sometimes tend to defer to this consensus. And ideally, SC should not be a weather wing. It should stand fast on constitutional ground, and not be blown about by ideological fashions.

when they came to India. These religions got assimilated into our countrys way of life. Explaining a way of life as including language, culture, food and dress, he adds: A Bihari Muslim or a Bengali Muslim may be vastly different from each other, but they would have more similarities with their respective Hindu communities. Even Sufism, part of Islam, is similar to the Hindu culture of singing devotional

songs. Is this not Hinduism or a Hindutva way of life? asks Sharma. Even AG Noorani, lawyer and author, wrote in Frontline recently that there is a difference between Hinduism, an ancient and tolerant faith, and Hindutva, which represents modern hate. He also sought rejection and review of the apex court ruling in his article. How time can change perceptions! IL
April 15, 2014

33

ACTS & BILLS / gender inequality

HOUSE OF
DISCORD

I
34
April 15, 2014

an amendment in the hindu succession act was meant to give equal rights to women. but while it helped the daughters to get a share of their fathers property, it left the mothers by the wayside By Shivani Dasmahapatra
band, who moved into an old-age home as he did not want to fight with his sisters. With no financial support from him, Asha struggled to make ends meet. Her only daughter, married and settled abroad, helped her occasionally. MARRIED WOMENS WOES Tragically for Asha, the house where she had spent almost all her life, was now being claimed by her sisters-in-law. This particular case shows how despite good intentions, legal reforms to overcome gender inequality and discrimination dont benefit all women; some innocent victims like Asha are left by the wayside. While the 2005 amendment helped daughters demand partitionthough they also share liabilities nowit was deletion of Section 23 of the 1956 act that diminished the right of married women in their marital property. This section was a special provision with respect to dwelling houses and

N 1968, when smart, educated Asha Sachdeva got married, she had dreams in her eyes and hope in her heart like any young bride. She looked forward to a life of marital bliss and spending her autumn years with her husband in her marital house. But it wasnt to be. Fortysix years later, at the age of 67, Asha is fighting a lonely battle for her right to protection and shelter in her husbands house. Ironically, the upheaval in Ashas life started in 2005, when the Hindu Succession Act 1956 (HSA) was amended. The change included daughters as coparceners (joint heir) in the Mitaksara (one of the schools of Hindu law) family property with the same birthrights as sons. While it was meant to secure the future of daughters, it dealt a blow to wives who had been abandoned, deserted or widowed. Thats precisely what happened to Asha. In 2009, she was abandoned by her hus-

Photos: Shivani Dasmahapatra

held that married daughters could not ask for partition until the sons decided to do it first. The reasoning then was that forcing a son to partition the house would leave him and his family shelterless. The section had also provided for rights of widowed women to be settled before the sons and daughters could ask for partition. Until 2005, the biggest protection wives had in the marital home was the status of being married, which carried with it the right to be maintained, not only by the husband, but by the joint family as its assets were also her assets. But Asha finds herself without shelter now. This has been my whole life. Why am I being pushed out of my home now? asks Asha plaintively. At the time of marriage, she had to give up her job as demanded by her husband and made to

take care of her ailing mother-in-law. Neither could she look after her deceased fathers business interests as, again, her husband didnt allow it. PROGRESSIVE STEP? Though the new succession law seems progressive and is a step in the right direction, it leaves women like Asha Sachdeva in the lurch. That women have been made coparceners with the same rights as male members is very empowering. But, it has reduced the share of wives in a property where she has lived as an owner, points out advocate Geeta Luthra. It doesnt serve the empowerment of women to give justice to one category, while denying it to the other. The gap between the vision and harsh reality is too evident. IL

VICTIM OF A PROGRESSIVE LEGISLATION Asha Sachdeva, who was deprived of her marital property following the 2005 amendment to the Hindu Succession Act

April 15, 2014

35

LEAD/ lawyer-politicians

Aruna

once at the helm of a democratic nation-building, our legal mps are unabashedly protecting dynastic politics in their new avatars By NV Subramanian

36

ROM the 2G scam zero-loss theory to the abuse of Anna Hazare and constitutional functionaries and intrigues against opposition leaders, the lawyer-politicians of the ruling party are displaying the egregious side of their legal training. Is this an aberration or par for the course, or are they victims of the fallen standards of public life, warped in particular by dynastic politics? A little of all, and lawyerpoliticians in the opposition deport no differently in power, arrogance being their calling card, although in the defense of dodgy deals, their record may not be as chequered as their fellow professionals on the government side. The fall for the community of lawyer-politicians has been substantial since the national movement and precipitous in the

EPICENTER OF ROT
past few years, and the depths of depravity, it would appear, have not been plumbed. WANNABE POLITICIANS The national movement had its careerist lawyer-politicians to be sure, and their motivations were not entirely idealistic. Motilal Nehru was inclined to support Jawaharlals political ambitions with his lawyerly earnings in what would innocuously seem the first hint of dynastic longings. Others were less candid but equally ambitious. They were working towards important political positions in independent India and as many as one-half of the lawyers of the freedom movement attained their career goals. INDIA AND THE US A rough democratic parallel may be found in the United States but there are important differences as well. Its founders were not all lawyers, although they may have been in preponderance. The first president was a military hero. Considered Americas greatest president, Abraham Lincoln was a lawyer, but he arrived much later on the scene, and his greatness may have partly derived from his early deprivations, his selfeducation and his professional accent on dispute-resolution than litigation, a trait as un-lawyerly as any. But whereas the United States sustained an interest in lawyers as politicians until bankers and businessmen squeezed their numbers in recent decades, India showed a declining liking for this trade from the second Lok Sabha onwards, increasingly mixing its population with agriculturists. As the democratic process expanded and encountered entrenched caste, class, community and regional interests, the complexion of the Lok Sabha transformed further, and the net losers were lawyer-politicians, unless they embraced other identities, which they actually did in most cases. The rise of dynastic politics with Indira Gandhi also reduced the role of politicians as lawyers in her iron reign, except in the phases where she clashed with the judiciary. The core of the trend she started still continues. Today, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have about the same number of lawyers75 eachbut a majority of them has never practised. NEW AVATAR But the troubles of the present are not so much derived from this state of affairs, as the fact that politics has been so distorted by the original sin of dynasticism, Mrs

Lawyer-politicians now lie for political clients, outshout opponents on the street, battle naysayers in news television studios, and triple as perception managers.
April 15, 2014

37

LEAD/ lawyer-politicians

In dynastys defense

Kapil Sibal
Telecom Minister

P Chidambaram
Finance Minister

Salman Khurshid
External Affairs Minister

Abhishek Manu Singhvi


Congress spokesperson

Despite CAG stating that the center had suffered a loss of ` 1.76 lakh cr in the 2G scam, Law Minister Kapil Sibal said on January 6, 2011: The logic underlying this estimate is completely flawed.

While claiming there was no loss to the government in the coal mines allocation, Chidambaram said on August 24, 2012 that the loss only comes into effect in relation to mined coal, not for coal buried in mother earth.

Blaming Narendra Modi for the poor handling of Gujarat riots in 2002, Khurshid at a rally in UP on February 26, 2014 described the Gujarat chief minister as impotent and asked why he couldnt protect people.

Resigning as Congress spokesperson after a CD showed him having sex with a woman lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi said on April 23, 2012 that the CD was possibly morphed and raised no public interest issue.

Gandhis legacy, that lawyers are getting newly drafted into political roles much like the consigliore of the old mafia families. In the post-modern avatar, lawyer-politicians are meant to ring-fence and protect grafthit, endangered dynasties. In addition to lying for their political clients, they have to outshout opponents on the street, battle naysayers in news television studios, and suitably round off their onerous assignment by tripling as perception managers. This is Indias longest-running Watergate moment, and closure is not at hand. For those of a certain generation who remember the Watergate scandal, it had its good and bad sides. The lawyers on the side of Richard Nixon, Nixon included, gave

lawyers a bad name for at least a generation. The only lawyer who got properly elected after Nixon (Gerald Ford was a stopgap) was Bill Clinton in the 1990s, and Jimmy Carter never let an opportunity pass to remind audiences he wasnt a lawyer or a liar, although he was deceitful on the Soviet action in Afghanistan. However, the lawyers also ultimately saved the day for America in Watergate, working with the Congress and the judiciary to bring Nixon to justice. Unfortunately, the silver lining has not appeared so far on the clouded Indian sky. PLAYING UP DYNASTY The Indian story up to the present is unabashed political lawyerly mendacity to save the regime. The mendacity convinces no one as mendacity never does. Nor is it likely to save the regime. But when has guilt prevented the guilty-rich and the powerful from engaging the best lawyers in town? But then, pause and think, is this politics, demo-

Nixons lawyers gave the profession a bad name during Watergate. But others helped bring Nixon to justice. This silver lining hasnt appeared in India.
38
April 15, 2014

In the BJP

AAP too?

Ravi Shankar Prasad


BJP spokesperson

Arun Jaitley
Senior BJP leader

Meenakshi Lekhi
BJP spokesperson

Somnath Bharti
Delhis former Law Minister

After Narendra Modi claimed Nehru did not attend Sardar Patels last rites, Prasad upped the ante by adding on October 30, 2013 that the former prime minister did not go for Rajendra Prasads funeral.

Taking on Congress spokesperson Manish Tiwari, who had compared Modi to Hitler in Goa, Jaitley said on November 21, 2103 that it was a pity that Tiwari could find out Hitler but not a serial rapist (Tarun Tejpal).

Reacting to a news channel showing AAP members asking money for Delhi elections, Lekhi said on November 23, 2013 that Kejriwals wife was making crores while working in the revenue department.

Lashing back at Arun Jaitley and senior lawyer Harish Salve for criticising AAP on the foreign nationals issue in Delhi, Bharti said on January 21, 2014 that he wanted to spit on their faces and public will beat them.

cratic politics, or is it about saving and preserving a corrupt oligarchy? Even if the lawyer-politicians knew the truth of their activity, they would dissimulate. This trend is by no means restricted to India. And it is not merely confined to regime venality and mega corruption. But in the United States where lawyering and politics intersect the most of any Western democracy (about which Tocqueville wrote so insightfully), there is considerable agonizing over the declining values of lawyer-politicians. Lincolns benchmarks haunt the country. This writer has not come across similar angst here. Long ago, Arun Shourie felt anguished about party lawyers poisoning the political discourse. That is a cry in the wilderness. NOBLE VISION For all their limitations and self-interests, the founders put together a first class constitution for India. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar,

ably guided by Vallabhbhai Patel and others, toiled to produce a sound and sensible document. As lawyers who were unsure how the society of independent India would evolve, they left, for example, the equation between fundamental rights and the directive principles of state policy deliberately ambivalent, hoping for the future to get the dynamics right. The courts are active in that direction. But lawyer-politicians havent kept pace. Perhaps they are not to blame either. Politics, dynastic politics in the main, is at the epicenter of the entire rot, and both the disease and the immune response from the rest of the political establishment have been ruinous, to say the least. IL
NV Subramanian is editor, www.newsinsight.net and writes on politics and strategic affairs. He has authored two novels, University of Love and Courtesan of Storms
April 15, 2014

39

FOCUS / gas pricing

cec sampaths letter to defer a hike in gas prices smacked of political machinations; it doesnt matter whether the increase is justified or not

Electoral Economics
PIB

By Alam Srinivas

BAILING OUT UPA-II? Chief Election Commissioner VS Sampath; the commission has surprised critics with its deferment of gas prices

olitically, there were two reactions to the announcement. The UPA-II regime heaved a sigh of relief when the Election Commission of India (EC) postponed the doubling of gas prices until the new government took over in May 2014. Arvind Kejriwal, the leader of Aam Admi Party (AAP), who had criticized the move to raise prices alleging a nexus between Mukesh Ambanis Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and oil ministers, and had written to the EC to defer the decision, claimed victory. Within the business community, there were both loud claps and long faces. The gas users like power and fertilizer sectors hailed the EC. The producers such as RIL, state-owned ONGC and Cairns India felt the delay will further depress their viability. Stock market analysts said it was retrograde, and could force global investors to stay away from India. But everyone hoped that the new government would take a rational and

correct view in two months. However, the worst was the role that EC played in Laffaire Gas. The commissions decision seemed illogical, ill-thought-out, and contrary to norms. In fact, it pandered to the electoral machinations of the ruling regime, and seemed to be guided by a sense of fear. If you look at the words that the EC used in its reply to the oil ministry on the issue, you can sense that the former was afraid to either upset the rulers or the beneficiaries, says an economist. Consider the language of the four-line, single-sentence terse letter by the EC. It read that the Commission has decided that the proposal may be deferred. The juxtaposition of decided with may is fascinating. EC did not categorically tell the government to back off. It still gave some leeway to the politicians and bureaucrats. Was there an underlying message in these words? Did the EC want to convey to the political bosses and others that it was the petroleum ministry, and not the commission, which took the decision to defer the price hike?

he central part of the single line in ECs letter said that it reached the decision after taking into account all relevant facts, including the fact that the matter is subjudice in the Honble Supreme Court. Clearly, the main factor that played on the ECs mind was that the apex court had admitted a petition filed by CPM politician, Gurudas Dasgupta. But this line of contention raised more questions, and looked more like an excuse rather than a rationalization. First, the SC has agreed to only take up the petition. It has not given any interim orders or verbal observations to stay the price increase till its final order, or a hint that the decision was wrong. If the governments decisions are put on hold because the highest court has agreed to hear the cases, nothing will ever get done. Everything will come to a standstill. Second, in the past, the government has taken critical decisions on the issue of gas prices, even though cases were being heard by several courts. For example, in June 2005, the two Ambani brothers, elder Mukesh and Anil, announced a truce to their public fight, and divided the assets of the Reliance Group. Under the patch-

up, Mukesh agreed to sell gas produced by RIL to Anil at a price of $2.34 per unit. In early 2006, both the siblings asked the government to clear this price. On July 26, 2006, even as the Bombay High Court (BHC) was hearing the case, the government rejected the price. In August 2007, an empowered group of ministers fixed it at $4.2; in May 2008, it finalized the manner in which RILs gas would be allocated to the user industries. The BHC gave its order in June 2009. Third, the ECs fluid, non-committal, and open-ended letter will help UPA-II, which can argue its case either ways. If experts criticize it for not increasing gas prices, as the business community has, it can contend it was forced to do so. If critics like Kejriwal attack it for corruption, it can retort that prices have not been doubled. As P Chidambaram once said about the coal scam that there was no scandal as long as the ore wasnt mined and remained under mother earth, Congressmen can snap back that there is no benefit to RIL as the prices will remain the same. Clearly, the EC killed several birds with its letter. It convinced the critics that it deferred the controversial decision. It enabled UPA-II to counter attacks against it. The commission also soothed the business community that the hike had been delayed for two months, and not cancelled. And it left unanswered the question whether the decision was a corrupt one or not. IL

WIN SOME, LOSE SOME (L-R) RIL CMD Mukesh Ambani and Minister of Petroleum Veerappa Moily; while the price deferment might help UPA-II politically, the business community is upset with the move

April 15, 2014

41

FOCUS/ sunanda pushkar/mysterious death

NO POISON, NO DRUGS
the viscera report vindicates india legals investigations that shashi tharoors wife did not commit suicide or die of overdose of drugs. even the police now feel that the dozens of bruises on her body, which we revealed a month ago, hint at a possible murder

By Vishwas Kumar
42

our weeks ago, India Legal revealed that Sunanda Pushkar, the flamboyantextrovert wife of junior minister Shashi Tharoor could have died of the dozens of bruises on her body. We said that based on the evidence that police had gathered, she could not have committed suicide by consuming poison or accidentally died of an overdose of alprax. Her viscera report, which the police received a few days ago, vindicated our conclusion. No poison or traces of alprax were found in her body. Police sources contend that they are forced to consider that the causes of the death may be the bruises on her body, especially around her neck. However, Delhis Police Commissioner BS Bassi said: The probe is still on and there is no question of giving a clean chit to anybody. We are examining all available evidence and have sought the help of doctors. BJPs politician KJ Alphons told mediapersons in Thiruvanthapuram (Kerala), Tharoors constituency:

There are far too many contradictions in the police report. Therefore, the BJP is demanding a CBI inquiry. Clearly, the police need to take another look at Sunandas post-mortem report. The report should have automatically analyzed the following issues earlier. What caused the injuries around her neck, arms and wrists? Was there a fight between the couple the night before her death on January 17, 2014? Did anyone or more than one person hold her by the arms and wrists? Who entered and exited suite 345 at Leela Palace Hotel on the two crucial daysJanuary 16 and 17? Says a prominent Delhi-based lawyer: If the viscera report has ruled out poisoning or overdose, the police should register a criminal case to further continue the probe. There is no excuse not to do so only because her family members have not alleged foul play. Tharoor has maintained that Sunandas parents and son feel that no one except her was involved in her death. He has complained to the Election Commission about a political conspiracy to malign him before the elections. At the same time, the police should look at both the actual and circumstantial evidences in this case. It is its job to probe the circumstantial evidences. In a blind murder case like Sunandas, it is an important aspect. During forensic examination, we try to keep our findings consistent with the circumstantial evidences, says a forensic expert, as he shifts the onus on the police. hat are the options before the police now? It has sent the viscera report to the forensic doctors at the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL) to get their views on what it means in terms of the cause of Sunandas death. Just to be doubly sure, it can send the viscera report to another lab, apart from CFSL, for a second opinion. The police have several modus-operandi to continue with a murder probe. Seeking different opinions from the doctors is just one of them, explains a lawyer. Until the viscera report came in, the police conducted its investigations under Section 176 of Criminal Procedure, which

The probe is still on and there is no question of giving a clean chit to anybody. We are examining all available evidence.
Delhi Police Commissioner, BS Bassi
empowers it to go ahead without the registration of an FIR (First Information Report). In the near future, if new evidence indicates foul play, the police can register an FIR against named or unnamed accused. How will these new developments impact Tharoors election campaign? Already, in Kerala, especially his constituency, his wifes death has become a huge issue. The EC is unlikely to accept the ministers plea to put a stop to the smear campaign in the light of the viscera report. Most political pundits seem convinced that given the state of the Congress party, and now this controversy, Tharoor will lose his seat. It is for the police, forensic doctors, and the post-mortem team to revisit all the available evidence. They have to ask and answer questions they have avoided in the past. Most importantly, they have to explain the cause of the bruises on Sunandas body. We at India Legal will pursue our own investigations, since, as we said weeks ago, we believe the Sunanda Pushkar case is in public interest. IL
April 15, 2014

43

INVESTIGATION/ judicial impropriety

The Curious Case of Cidco


a supreme court bench disposed of a case, which was in front of another bench and in which corruption charges were upheld by a high court, within minutes By the India Legal Team

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April 15, 2014

Illustrations: Aruna

MAGINE a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which allowed a petitioner to withdraw its case, which was listed in front of another three-judge bench, headed by former chief justice Altamas Kabir! Imagine again that the chief justice bench had disallowed the withdrawal because the Bombay High Court (BHC) had given an adverse ruling and pointed issues of manipulation, undervaluation of a prime property and corruption! This is exactly what happened in the case that involved the Maharashtra-owned City and Industrial Development Corporation (CIDCO), Mistry Constructions and Makhija Developers. Dushyant Dave, who represents CIDCO in several cases, wrote a letter to all the judges of the court and demanded a suo moto exercise to remedy the gross abuse of the process of the court. Later, retired Supreme Court judges and over 100 lawyers complained to the chief justice. All hell broke loose in the legal community when Justice CK Prasads bench accepted the plea of Mistry Constructions and Makhija Developers that they had reached an out-of-court compromise and, therefore, did not wish to pursue the case. It implied that the chief justices bench, which had listed the case for hearing a few days later, could not give its order. The events that led to the controversial order read like a legal thriller. In December 2002, CIDCO invited bids to develop an 18-hole international golf course and a country club on 33.55 hectares of prime land in Mumbai. Mistry Constructions won, and signed a lease agreement with the state firm in August 2009. This was shocking because the losing bidder, Makhija Developers, had gone to court and the case was still being heard by the BHC. In its ruling in December 2009, the high court lambasted CIDCO. First, it noted that the reserve price of just over `33 cr for the lease was undervalued, especially since over six years had elapsed between the tender and the lease agreement. Over this period, the land costs in and around Mumbai have multiplied, and the market value could be over `100 cr. Second, the BHC saw no reason behind

CIDCOs decision to finalize the lease, when a final decision had not been taken. While this petition was pending, CIDCO, as a public body, ought to have refrained from signing the lease deed on 22/8/2009 or at least ought to have approached with a Civil Application in this petition seeking leave to sign the lease deed, noted the high court. The hurry to sign the lease, and a reluctance to issue a fresh tender to get a higher price on the part of CIDCO raised doubts in the mind of BHC. It stated that there is some room to believe that somewhere in the management of CIDCO efforts were made to favor respondent no. 4 (Mistry Constructions). We have no doubt that CIDCO failed to come to the expectations as a public body to maintain transparency and to follow the tender terms. Based on the above observations, the high court quashed the lease. The matter went to the Supreme Court in 2010, when Mistry Constructions filed a civil appeal against Makhija Developers. However, between 2010 and early 2013, the two firms reached an out-of-court settlement and asked the apex court to dispose of the appeal. The three-member Supreme Court bench, which was headed by Altamas Kabir and included Justices Vikramjeet Sen and SA Bobde, refused. n February 2013, the bench said that it had taken its decision because of certain findings of the high court and, hence, the applications of the two firms were dismissed. Let the appeals themselves be listed for hearing at an early date, it concluded in its judgment. A year later, in February 2014, the civil appeals were before another three-judge bench of Justices BS Chauhan, J Chelameshwar and MY Eqbal. This was around the time when events in the case twisted and turned like in a John Gresham novel. On January 20, 2014, Justice CK Prasads bench heard a crimi-

High Court said CIDCO had undervalued the land and tried to favor Mistry Constructions. CIDCO hadnt maintained transparency to follow the tender norms.
April 15, 2014

45

INVESTIGATION/ judicial impropriety

nal case {Neera Saggi and Anr vs Parshuram Naik and Anr, No. SLP (crl) 7232/2013}. In its order, it asked the criminal matter to be listed along with a civil appeal No. 94549455 of 2013. This was unprecedented. The lawyers in Saggi vs Naik case had not asked for it, and the two cases were not connected.

ore importantly, case No. 94549455 was the Mistry Constructions vs Makhija Developers one. But the bench had made a mistake in the year; while the actual appeal was filed in 2010, the bench thought it was a 2013 case. However, it quickly corrected it on February 20, 2014. In its ruling, it stated that while it had asked two cases to be clubbed, due to inadvertent mistake, the year of the Civil Appeal No. 9454-9455 was shown as 2013 instead of 2010. It then asked the two cases to be listed for hearing on February 25, 2014. On that day, the bench accepted senior advocate CU

In an unprecedented manner, Justice Prasads bench clubbed an unrelated criminal appeal with the CIDCO matter, and gave orders in both.
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April 15, 2014

Singhs argument that the criminal case had no linkages with the civil one. But, still it passed an order in the Mistry Constructions vs Makhija Developers appeal. There was no representation from CIDCO, but the bench was not bothered. The order allowed the writ petitioner to withdraw the writ petition. In fact, it added: In view of the aforesaid, the impugned order passed by the (Bombay) High Court is rendered non est and, therefore, set aside on that ground alone. As the Project is old and the appellant (Mistry Constructions) has spent huge amount, we direct the CIDCO to provide necessary assistance to the appellant to complete the Project without unnecessary delay. Dave and other lawyers raised several questions against the judgment. How did the Justice Prasad bench become aware of the CIDCO civil appeal, when the case had never crossed its path? Why was the bench so keen to dispose of the matter in such an unnatural manner and in violation of judicial propriety and decorum? Could it pass a suo moto order like this? The ball is in the Supreme Courts court. CIDCO wants to file a review petition. It is for the judiciary to decide whether the issue is one of judicial impropriety or not. IL

IVE years ago, when UPA-I was finishing its term and seeking a second term in the 2009 elections, the debate was about a weak Prime Minister Manmohan Singh versus a strong rival LK Advani from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Various theories were floated about how the Congress may be at a disadvantage; the party could at best manage to increase its seats marginally from the 2004 tally of 145. It was said that the BJP would improve its 2004 tally of 138. However, both proved way off the mark. Congress tally in 2009 jumped to 206, while the BJPs plummeted to 116. This time, with just a couple of weeks left for the first phase of polling in April 2014, the Congress morale is at an all-time low; electoral predictions show that at best it can win 100 seats. BJP, which sat on the political periphery for almost a decade, is riding on a high, all pumped up. Its leaders incredibly talk of 272-plus seats for the party. What has changed between 2009 and 2014 are two factors. First, the dismal decline of UPA-II, mired as it is in dozens of scandals and scams. Policy paralysis and economic slowdown in the past few years have also worsened matters. The second is, however, more important. It is the arrival of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). A PARADIGM SHIFT This new kid on the block is trying to change the political discourse in a way not witnessed in this country for decades. As its 49-day Delhi assembly experiment proved, AAP wants to regain both the ruling and opposition slots. It does not want to give any political space to its opponents. It has taken direct pot shots at the entrenched political class and its two main proponents Congress and BJP. Not just criticizing their politics and the collusion between them, but also identifying and taking on the business forces behind them. The attack on corporate groups and their

insidious role in controlling mainstream political parties was something which had been forgotten in the political discourse for a long time. The last time a politician made it a nationwide issue was the late VP Singh in the late 1980s. Before that, the JP movement had achieved a similar objective, albeit in north India, in the 1970s. That has not only changed now, but AAPs consistent attempts to expose the corporate-politicianmedia nexus has brought in a new vitality to the entire electoral discourse. In the background of the AAPs entry into the national electoral arena, the two main parties have been focussing their energies on the issue of growth and development while skirting the issues of corruption and the parties nexus with corporates. But that does not mean that the peoples concerns on these twin issues can be diverted. The fact that the social media is buzzing with corruption issues is an indication that the agenda will remain a concern even after the elections are over. What does the future portend, irrespective of which party or coalition makes it to the Raisina Hill in May 2014? Will AAP become history? Will the issues that it has raised become irrelevant? Will it be business as usual? PERTINENT ISSUES Not easy questions to answer, indeed. However, going by the mood in the country and the increasing involvement of the people, who earlier did not take interest in politics, it doesnt seem as if it is going to be business as usual. Lets take the issue of corruption. This is a malice which has struck deep roots and is not something which can be eradicated easily. However, no government which will be sworn in will be able to skirt it. It will

A new regime will need to quickly set up the Lokpal to stem the corruption rot. Distribution of natural resources will come under closer scrutiny.
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THE NATION / voters manifesto

Most parties will choose candidates from the grassroots. The election of outsiders will usher in inclusive politics and change parliaments face.
have to, without wasting much time, go ahead with the setting up of the Lokpal; UPA-II delayed the passage of the Lokpal Bill for various internal and external reasons. The other legislations like the Grievance Redressal Bill will have to be brought in as the pressure will be unrelenting from the civil society groups, which have been espousing them. The working of the business groups and the impunity with which they have been able to manipulate the political and economic system, will come under increasing scrutiny. For instance, the gas pricing issue,

ACCEPTING CHANGE Influenced by the AAP model, the Congress family has realised the need to be transparent while selecting candidates
Courtesy punecongress.com

in which Reliance Industries Limited has been under scrutiny, will become a benchmark on how the future government looks and acts on such issues. Distribution of natural resources, be it coal, spectrum and others, will come under scrutiny, and the governments leeway in favoring its chosen ones, will get increasingly limited. The judiciary, which has been under tremendous pressure, both in terms of the huge backlog, as well as its periodic attempts to overreach itself, will also have to keep looking over its shoulder more often. The judicial accountability will now no more be a matter of choice, as the proposed legislation is already in parliament, and if passed by the new regime, will ensure that the judges have to maintain certain standards.

ne area which is likely to gain more and more traction and will put the political parties under watch is the way they distribute tickets. The AAP has undertaken a path, which has attracted attention. Its decision to bring candidates from the grassroots and after due consultation with the constituents, despite this principle being said to have been overlooked in some cases, is likely to force other parties to follow suit. In fact, Rahul Gandhis decision to have primaries (akin to the US system) to choose candidates in a few select constituencies is a step in that direction, obviously influenced by AAPs experiment in Delhi. This will change the electoral scene substantially, once all parties adopt it or are forced to adopt it, increasingly. It may not be easy for the entrenched parties to do so, in the near future, but the pressure from its workers and cadres will force them to adopt it gradually. Will this mean a beginning of the end of quota politics or caste-based choices? It is too early to say confidently that it would be for sure, but it certainly gives such hopes. Another important factor, which will be witnessed increasingly, is the role of outsiders in electoral politics. Though there have always been people from various walks of life, who dont fit into the politician category fighting elections, this time it is differ-

POLITICO-BUSINESS NEXUS? BJPs prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi has been accused of favouring top business houses by Aam Aadmi Party

Getty Images

Voters expectations
Corruption: It must be an utmost priority for the new government, which must get cracking on setting up Lokpal and getting other crucial bills passed in parliament to curb the menace. Business-politician nexus: The RIL-related gas pricing issue is a pointer, and the government cant be seen offering a leeway for corporates to milk the political and economic system for their selfish ends. Patronage: The government of the day should be seen as being impartial in distributing natural resources. Judiciary: Lack of judicial accountability has vitiated the legal system and the government will need to legislate quickly. Selection of candidates: The political parties should instil transparency over choosing candidates for future elections, and tickets should be allotted on merit. Fresh Faces: People from all walks of life should continue to fight elections. Parliament: All MPs must ensure that Lok Sabha sessions are effective.

ent. The emergence of AAP has given people from civil societyactivists, academics, corporate honchos and grassroot workersa chance to get tickets to fight elections, under a popular banner. While the relative success of these candidates will certainly inspire hope among more such people to enter the electoral arena in future, it will also force political parties to look to expand their catchment area. It will definitely usher in more inclusive politics, which has been the cry for a long time. Another area which needs fixing is the legislature. Over the last few decades, the performance of parliament has only deteriorated further, as noise has replaced legitimate voices. It is one area to which all parties will have to, and hopefully be forced to, lend their time and energy. Even if a few of the new faces in politics get into the Lok Sabha, it should make a difference. The tensions seen in political parties going through the throes of finalizing tickets should be seen as the churn happening in the electoral arena. This churning should be visible in the coming years in terms of governance and the way parties are run. IL
April 15, 2014

51

CASE STUDY/ uttar pradesh/education scam

pha s s o gaya
allahabad high court finds examination fraud has assumed alarming dimensions in the state By Rakesh Bhatnagar

Pappu

ducation is a great leveller, but not for the family of Neeraj Kumar, a Dalit boy from Shikohabad, in Uttar Pradesh. The 17-year-old ended his life in early March due to the pressure of paying `7,000 to the principal of the center in order to appear for class X board examinations. The poverty-stricken family does manual jobs to make ends meet, and Kumar contributed to the income. The family had already paid `4,000 to the principal, and the mother had mortgaged her ring to pay the remaining amount. Depressed by the situation, Neeraj set himself on fire. The principal, who had forced about 700 candidates to pay the amount, was arrested. The case is a pointer to the state of education in Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state of India. The state has many firsts in its cap, but not all are awe-inspiring. Take education, for instance. Globally, the UP Board of High School and Intermediate Education holds the annual examination for the largest number of students. In 2014, over 7 million candidates appeared for high school and intermediate exams. But the figure hides the dismal state of education in Indias largest state. While criminalization of politics is an accepted fact in India, especially UP, it

is terrifying when it permeates the education sphere. This is manifested during the exams when, in an attempt to boost marks, unfair means are used and the powers-thatbe turn a Nelsons Eye to it. Interestingly, after the Bollywood movie, Munna Bhai MBBS, which deals with cheating and illegal ways to pass exams, hit the theatre in 2003, novel ways became popular in the state. Dishonest students took to using smartphones, microchips and bluetooth devices. CHEATING TAG In UP, this state of affairs is, in fact, perpetuated with impunity by those in power lawmakers, ministers, bureaucrats and constitutional authorities. Shockingly, schools and colleges which were blacklisted and faced criminal investigations for facilitating copying have been designated as examination centers. In the process, many recognized institutions, which wanted clean examination, were denied the right to choose a clean examination center. The situation deteriorated to such an extent that schools filed a petition against the tainted centers in the Allahabad High Court. In its judgment, the court slammed the education department. It noted the spurt in the number of students who passed the exams, whenever the Samajwadi Party came

to power in the state. The order read: The Court is constrained to observe that the menace of mass copying and malpractices in the examinations conducted by the Board is frightening. The high court also pointed out that the provisions of the Uttar Pradesh Public Examinations (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 1998, were ignored in recent years. It is evident that in the year 1998, when the Act came into being, the percentage of the successful candidates in the high school and intermediate sharply declined. Between 1998 and 2003, the figure fluctuated between a low of 28.07 percent (1998) and a high of 40.91 percent (2003) in high school, and between 55.29 percent (1998) and 70.51 percent (2003) in the intermediate examination. But after Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister in 2003, the pass percentage sharply rose to 70 percent in high school and 89 percent in intermediate the next year. Each time there was a change of government in the state, the pass percentage varied. In 2012 and 2013, it was an alltime high of 83.75 percent and 86.63 percent in high school, and 89.4 percent and 92.68 percent in intermediate, the judgment said. Incidentally, Mulayams son, Akhilesh, became the CM in 2012.

ONE FOR THE RECORD: Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav distributing free laptops to girl students as part of his pet scheme

April 15, 2014

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CASE STUDY/ uttar pradesh/education scam

After Mulayam Singh Yadav became the chief minister in 2003, the pass percentage sharply rose to 70 percent in high school and 89 percent in intermediate the next year.
Obviously, the court wondered how the percentages of successful candidates vary so widely, when syllabus, teachers and infrastructure of the institutions are the same.... It added: It is obvious that high percentage of successful candidates in the high school and intermediate cannot be attributed to the improvement of standard of education, but there may be some extraneous reasons. What has further led to the erosion of education is the dropout rate. While over 23 million children between 6-10 years go to school in UP, the figure drops to just over 15 million in the 11-13 age group. Eight million children drop out of schools every year. Further, 1.1 lakh children above 13 years leave their schools. Thus the dropout rate is sharp in middle and high school (matric). PAUCITY OF TEACHERS The state government failed to recruit 10,000 assistant teachers for the over 1.68 lakh schools. Justice Pradeep Kumar Singh Baghel, who gave the above mentioned judgment, noted: From this fact alone, it is evident that the malpractices in examinations in the state have assumed an alarming proportion. In addition, nearly 4,000 sanctioned posts in schools have been vacant for years. Not surprising, considering that since 2006 UP hasnt created even a single post in recognized and aided degree colleges. All this is having a damning effect on students. They have to get 75 percent attendance for appearing in the university examination. But the high court asked: When there is acute shortage of teachers in degree colleges, how can any institution ensure that 100 percent classes are held so that the students may achieve the required attendance? Instead of seeking remedies to ameliorate this situation, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has preferred to opt for populist

measures, like the distribution of laptops to 1.5 million students in 2013. GIRL CHILD The less said about the girls the better. Although the state government issued a direction on October 19, 2013 that in rural areas there should be a self-center for girl students (where they study) and if that was not possible, it should be located at the nearest place, the reality is far different. Even a statutory restriction on the education department regarding examination centers for rural girl students is not being followed. It says that these centers should not be outside their village, but the fact is that the girls often have to walk 10-20 km to reach the centers. Needless to say, this neglect increased the number of girls dropping out of schools after Class X. There are stipulations that girl students from one institution should not be allotted different examination centers so that all of them can be adjusted at one center. Pertinently, Judge Baghel noted: I find that in respect of large number of institutions, the girl students have been allotted different centers. In the minutes produced before the Court, no reason has been assigned why the government order has not been complied with. India may have implemented the Right to Education Act at the national level, but unless the state of education improves in states, they are likely to find themselves in a situation akin to Uttar Pradesh. IL

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HUMAN INTEREST/ dowry laws

SOULS
this is often the plaintive cry of men arrested under section 498a related to dowry harassment. the conviction rate is just five percent, clearly indicating how much this law has been misused
By Anik Basu

SAVE OUR

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Pradeep Saini

HY must a man be arrested just because his wife says he has been cruel? Why would not the police question the woman? Cant she be lying? This emotive query from Srinivas Dadi Rao, 44, is not without basis. The Kolkata-based convenor of Save Indian Family Foundation, an NGO counseling men in marital disputes, articulates the trauma a man undergoes when falsely implicated by his spouse: Its so easy to believe its the woman whos been wronged, and that the man has been harassing her. Registration of crimes against women under Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code has seen a quantum jump from 50,000 to 1.6 lakh during the 2002-2012 period. After the horrendous gang rape in Delhi in December 2012, this figure has shot up even more. But what is the conviction rate? An abysmal five percent, according to the 2012 data from the National Crime Records Bureau.

years and shall also be liable to fine. The offence is cognizable, non-compoundable and non-bailable. REVERSE JUSTICE The sweeping ambit of these words has often been misused by many women and has left the victims wringing their hands in despair. A complaint by a woman under the dowry act can keep her husband and in-laws in prison for an inordinate time. Surprisingly, there is another aspect to this. As Kolkata High Court advocate Arpita Chowdhury puts it: Misuse is prevalent among upper strata women; they are literate and know the law. It may well be an unfortunate case of putting education to wrong use. Taking note of the increasingly fraudulent cases under Section 498A, even the Supreme Court termed them legal terrorism. Civil society, legal professionals and NGOs have vehemently spoken against misuse of this section meant to protect women. Mita Chatterjee, a lawyer practising in Alipore Court, says: It is true that women are misusing 498A and using it as a weapon instead of a shield. Men have no law that protects their interest. What many do not realize is that in the process, many genuine dowry victims have to suffer as they too

RAMPANT MISUSE If you wonder why the situation is so skewed, the answer may lie with the litigant women themselves. Section 498A was formulated in 1983 to protect women from harassment over dowry. It clearly states: Whoever being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such woman to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three

A complaint by a woman under the dowry act can keep her husband or in-laws in prison for an inordinate time. Even the Supreme Court termed the fraudulent cases as legal terrorism.
April 15, 2014

57

HUMAN INTEREST/ dowry laws

Maladjustment malady
Failure to adjust to the husbands habits is not a valid ground for filing a complaint under Section 498A, says Kolkata lawyer Mita Chatterjee
Do you agree that many women misuse Section 498A? Section 498A was introduced in 1983 to protect married women from being subjected to cruelty by husband or his relatives. But with growing awareness, we are witnessing a new trendmore and more women are using the section as a weapon, instead of as a shield against harassment. What has been your experience in handling various cases under the Section 498A? During my 10-year practice, I have come across several cases where the section was misused. For instance, there was a case filed a few months ago by a working woman. Her charge against the husband was that he did not wipe the dining table after meals and she being a working woman, had to do the chore. This was not a dowry case. It was a maladjustment issue, and should not have led to the woman filing a case. It is sad that only a small percentage of people who are victims of cruelty against women are taking help of this law. Id say only about 20 of the 100 genuine victims come to seek legal help. Why do the victims shy away? This is due to various reasons such as lack of awareness and low literacy levels. Another important reason is their financial status. Most victims of domestic violence hail from rural areas and in many cases they do not take requisite legal help. But in urban areas, the opposite is true. I have come across men who are so scared of this section that they are ready to do anything their wives dictate. Can a charge be levelled under 498A even if no dowry is demanded? Yes. Any Indian womanor for that matter her relativescan file a case under 498A against her husband, his parents, uncles, aunts, sisters, brothers and other relatives. A 498A case leads to arrest without any verification or investigation, making it a cognizable offense. How long does a typical 498A case last? It can drag on for two to three years. Surveys done by various NGOs show around 92-94 percent of cases are found to be false and filed by wives only for certain motives. What can a man do if found not guilty? He can file a case of defamation. If someone defames you, you can sue her to pay damages for harming your reputation. What is the end result of 498A? What are the chances of reconciliation? Since it is a non-compoundable offense, there is little scope of any reconciliation. The couples usually seek divorce. Normally, the husbands family ends up paying a huge amount to settle the case.

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are viewed with suspicion. Chatterjee adds that only a fifth of genuine victims of crime against women actually step forward to lodge complaints. While most of us are used to women narrating their sorry tales, men get little sympathy. Amit Gupta from Raipur is a harassed man. He was slapped with a dowry harassment case by his wife within days of getting married in 2012. She named his mother and sister as co-accused. But the court dismissed the charges against the two women. Gupta says: I was not surprised as they were trumped-up charges. But he was not so lucky himself as he had to spend two days in a lock-up in Ahmedabad where his estranged wife lives. His own trial is yet to begin. Chowdhury remembers the case of a man who came to her for help. He lived in fear of 498A and showed me a letter from his wife to demonstrate how she had tortured him mentally and threatened him with 498A, she says, adding, she had also lodged a complaint with the Womens Commission to keep up the pressure on him. What could help highlight the misuse of 498A, say experts, is a push by celebrities. This has helped in cases such as surrogacy (thanks to Aamir Khan) and mastectomy (Angelina Jolie espousing the cause). The men need help from the media too. TRAGIC TALES Unfortunately in many cases, men are unwilling to take the matters head-on. Chowdhury says that she advised the man to first file a police complaint. But he refused, saying he would rather suffer his wifes torment than make life miserable for their child. I could not do anything for him after that, she says. Tragically, some cases can lead to suicide too. Chowdhury says that once an elderly man came to her saying his daughter-in-law had driven his son to suicide. After he filed an FIR, the police found substance in his allegation and arrested the accused. Activists and victims say that in many cases, it is family members who stoke the fires. Ramyajyoti Sarkar, 36, a software engi-

COPING WITH ABUSE (L-R) Lawyer Arpita Chowdhury; Rabindranath Sen who was jailed after his wife slapped a 498A case against him; and Srinivas Dadi Rao who counsels harassed men

neer, who got separated six months after their marriage, says, There were several players who brought an end to my marriage. No one helped in trying to save it. It all began when he commented on an omelette made by his wife. As relations exacerbated, it culminated in divorce five years later. In between, he spent 14 days in jail due to 498A. Rabindranath Sen, 35, is a traumatized man today. He spent two weeks in jail, thanks to 498A. Though he got bail, it was so stressful that he even attempted suicide, thanks to the same woman he had courted for three years and then married. But the marriage lasted three months. The issue: Sens in-laws wanted him to live with them. But he asks, What about my own parents? I couldnt abandon them and so refused to move in with my in-laws. The situation took an ugly turn one day when the couple decided to resolve the issue at the womans parents house. When he reached there, he was immediately arrested. Today, Sen is philosophical. I realize this can be a new beginning in my life. But I still love my wife and want her to be happy. Sen is not wrong. For strange are the IL ways of the heart.

Litigation galore
Top three states leading in the number of cases filed under 498A: West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan Number of crimes against women in West Bengal: 31,000 Number of dowry cases in this state in 2012: 19,865 Number of cases registered under 498A in Andhra Pradesh: 13,389 Number of cases under 498A in Rajasthan: 13,312 (These figures are for 2012)

April 15, 2014

59

FOCUS/ nursery admissions/lawsuits

Parveen Goribidnur

God, get me into school


this ardent prayer of a three-year-old in delhi reflects the desperation of countless families By Parveen Goribidnur
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T is quiet and serene and a far cry from the stress and strain of daily life. The tranquil meditation center at Aurobindo Ashram in Delhi is a green oasis, which lulls the harried brain and soothes the tired soul. As people sit around meditating, my three-year-old, hyperactive daughter too calms down and closes her eyes in pensive reverie. I breathe a sign of relief and absorb the peace of the place. Suddenly, I hear my daughter pleading, Aurobindo, please get me admission in a school. I am aghast, embarrassed even, but also moved by the earnestness and inno-

AGE OF INNOCENCE As these tiny tots pray for school admission are they even aware of the travails their parents are going through?

cence of her wish. Some people opened their eyes and smiled at her, others looked stunned. I felt guilty. Had I inadvertently transferred my angst over nursery admissions to the little mite? Had she gauged the trauma I was undergoing? Nursery admissions today have become a byword for stress, nepotism and indecision. And, it has become the playground for the larger battles one will face later in life. But surely, three years is too young an age to start learning the laws of the jungle. But then, this is India where demand is always more than supply. What makes nursery admissions worse this year has been the sheer confusion pervading the issue, with policy-makers making one directive after another, leaving parents angry. When did this havoc start? In December 2013, when admissions started for 20142015. On December 9, the Directorate of Education (DoE) received instructions from Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jungs office that the guidelines for 2013 should be followed for 2014 too. But on December 18, the LG did an about-turn and issued new criteria. It was as follows: those within a 6 km radius would be given 70 points; alumni, 5 points; and siblings, 20 points. Five percent seats were to be reserved for girls. This created uproar, as those from north, east and west Delhi said there werent enough schools within a 6 km radius, and that south Delhi schools were better than the ones in their area. On December 27, the DoE amended the neighborhood criteria to expand it to a radius of 8 km. When schools started receiving applications, parents ran helter-shelter, applying to as many schools as physically possible, as it was all a matter of luck. I wasnt any different. I teamed up with a neighbor who was in the same predicament as me. After dropping our kids to play-school, we would follow a roster as there was little time to lose. DIFFERENT CRITERIA The next hurdle was paying the registration fee. Some schools welcomed online payments, others wanted parents to come to school before 9 am, pay, get the application form and then, come again at a different
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FOCUS/ nursery admissions/lawsuits

transfer cases, several fake ones too. This left general category cases out in the cold as points had got awarded to alumni, sibling and now, transfer cases. PILs GALORE This growing frustration found a ready outlet in portals like admissionsnursery.com and social media like Facebook. Parents began to form groups and formally protested. Finally, a PIL was filed, after which, on February 27, the high court ordered the scrapping of transfer points. It asked schools to start draws again. And then began the endless wait. As my neighbor and I kept checking the websites of the numerous schools we had applied to, our despondency increased. Our daughters names were nowhere on any list. To top it, another group of parents filed a PIL challenging the partial redraw, which considered seats left by transfer points. The HC again ordered a fresh draw with all applicants included, other than those applying under sibling and alumni points. And there was more coming. A group of parents, who were genuine transfer cases, filed a PIL against the scrapping of transfer points as they felt their right had been violated. There was also another group of parents who sought inclusive education for their disadvantaged children. These parents filed a PIL that they didnt want their children to be combined with EWS. A fifth PIL was filed on March 7, this time against those getting alumni points. Questions were asked as to why the admission process should be a dynastic one. Why should children only from certain families continue to go to good schools? Wasnt the Right to Education everyones basic right? The Supreme Court finally brought the entire process to a halt, demanding that the concerned parties produce documents. It ordered that no new draw should take place till March 24. However, at the time of going to press, the stay on the draw of lots had not been lifted. Meanwhile, my daughter and I walk around our neighborhood in the evenings, enjoying the calm and serenity. And yes, IL harboring hope too.

Pramod Pushkarna

LIFE AND DEATH MATTERS A couple racks its brains over the requirements mentioned in the school form

time to submit it. Worse, the photo of the child, which had to uploaded on some school websites, was a different specification each time. If your head is swirling in confusion, so was mine. But that was nothing compared to the long queues at schools everywhere. We would plan which school to visit when, check out its location and prioritize various files with relevant documents. We applied to no less than 35 schools, explored parts of Delhi we hadnt seen before and savored delicacies we hadnt tasted ever during our daily rounds between 9-12 pm. After the date for submission of applications got over, the next drama began. As schools began to put up the lists of those registered, the lacunae in the LGs policy was evident. First, transfer points created havoc. People transferred to Delhi from other states or countries from January 1 to December 31 in 2013 were given five extra points. In a country like ours where getting certificates is easy, schools began to get bogged down with

Nursery admissions today have become a byword for stress, nepotism and indecision. And, it has become the playground for the larger battles one will face later in life.
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PHOTO ESSAY/ refugees/right to vote

TIBETAN
TANG
despite the election commissions decision on electoral rights for tibetans, many of them may not be able to cast their ballot in 2014. elders fear that indian citizenship may be the last nail in their dream of an independent tibet By Ramesh Menon Photos by Shivani Dasmahapatra and Javed Sultan

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T is a feeling of belonging. Of being valued. Of having an identity. When news broke out that the Election Commission (EC) of India had ordered states to include children of Tibetan refugees born in India between 1950 and 1987 in the electoral rolls, there were mixed feelings. For the one lakh migrants in India, mainly living in refugee camps, it was an emotional moment. For the first time since they had fled the Chinese repression, they were being recognized not as refugees, but as citizens of a country. The ECs move came after a Karnataka High Court order in August 2013 paved the way for granting Indian citizenship to Tibetans. The process of polling rights began when Tenzin Choephang Ling Rinpochwe, a Tibetan born in India, was denied an Indian passport due to his origin. He went to court

and secured an order granting it to him. Sherab Tsedor, 29, a seasoned Tibetan activist born in Delhi, dreams of an independent Tibet every day. He has never been there, nor will he be able to secure a visa as he is on the Chinese watch list. He set himself on fire in November 2011 in front of the Chinese embassy, demanding freedom for Tibet. Alert policemen managed to put out the fire. Sherab was hospitalized for many weeks and had to undergo 12 plastic surgeries on his damaged left foot. But hes a battle-hardened war horse, who has taken part in over 30 protests in front of the Chinese embassy and has spent seven terms in Tihar Jail for doing so. Today, he wonders, Will my vote in India dilute the way I look at our fight for freedom? We have to remain pure Tibetans in our struggle and not dilute it. If we become Indians, how can we demand Tibet? A WAY OF LIFE India has many settlements for Tibetansin Majnu Ka Tilla, Dharamshala and McLeod Ganj. They have lived in India for decades, zealously guarding their culture and way of life. Thats the only way to keep reminding themselves of their ultimate goal of a free Tibet. They spoke in many voices to India Legal of their vision for their homeland, their struggles and the inducements offered to forget Tibet.

LONGING FOR HOME Tenzin Lhakyi wants to remain a Tibetan, not Indian

April 15, 2014

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PHOTO ESSAY/ refugees/right to vote

Years ago, Ven Bagdros feet started bleeding when he was made to stand on ice and then step out as his skin got separated. He was forced to confess he killed a Chinese policeman. Trudging across the Himalayas to come to India, Ven now lives in Dharamshala and hopes the fight for Tibets independence will not die out.

CANDLES IN THE WIND (clockwise from above) An aged lady who would have experienced the uprooting now at peace with life in India; a devotee rotating the prayer wheels at a monastery; children oblivious to the brutalities their elders have suffered

Migmar Tsering, secretary, environment and culture, Regional Tibetan Youth Congress, was born in Delhi 42 years ago. He still nurses memories of his only visit to Tibet at the age of nine. I will never forget my trip to Kham via Lhasa. It was so clean and beautiful everywhere. The rivers were sparkling. Tibet is another world, he sighs. He recounts how a Taiwanese leader once came to Majnu ka Tilla in Delhi, where there is a large Tibetan settlement, and tried to persuade them to look at China as their country. He brought 500 blankets and 300 cartons of biscuits to be distributed. The people got so angry at this inducement that they wanted to burn the blankets and cartons. But we said that we should sell them, and use the money to further our fight for justice. We want a free country, not freebies. Many have been persecuted and punished for dreaming of a free Tibet. Its not easy for them to let go of this inspiration that has been the guiding light in their lives. Ven Bagdro, a Tibetan living in Dharamshala for the past 21 years, still remembers March

5, 1988, when China saw one of the biggest uprisings for a free Tibet. Ven took part in it and shouted a slogan, asking China to get the Dalai Lama back to Tibet. As a consequence of this, he was put into a prison in China for four years. CHINESE TORTURE Its not easy for him to forget the torture he underwent. Soon after his arrest, he was made to stand barefoot on ice for 35 minutes. When he stepped out, the skin of his foot stuck to the ice and left him bleeding. He was beaten with electric batons and made to confess that he had killed a policeman during the protest. He says he did it to escape the torture. He was then sent to prison. After his release, he trudged for three months across the Himalayas to enter India. Today, he lives in Dharamshala and spends his time writing. He has authored 12 books, his latest being A Hell on Earth. Obviously, he is referring to what China did to the Tibetans. He says, By allowing us the right to vote, India has shown that it treats us on par with

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Indians. But it has to continue supporting us in our fight for an independent Tibet. The world should recognize the Tibet issue as it is a global question now. He does not intend to vote. In street corners at Majnu ka Tilla, the EC order has unleashed a torrent of emotions. People are talking not just about the option of voting in India, but in Tibet, no matter how remote that might seem. Migmar says emphatically, Tibet has

to be free. We are so different from the Chinese. Compare our culture, religion, beliefs, clothes and food. How can we not succeed? Look at movements all over the world. I may not see freedom, but my children and grandchildren will see it. His optimism is touching. Busy restaurateur Tenzin Lhakyi is on the horns of a dilemma about whether to vote and be accepted as an Indian or abstain and continue being the refugee

Just because we vote in India doesnt mean our fight for a free Tibet is over.
KARTEN TSERING, president, RWA, Majnu Ka Tilla

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PHOTO ESSAY/ refugees/right to vote

The struggle for an independent Tibet is sacred for us. We must focus on our struggle and not get diverted by the lure of privileges. If we do that today, future generations will forget what the fight about Tibet was all about.
TENSZIN TSUNDUE,
award-winning writer and activist

Will my vote in India dilute the way I look at our fight for freedom? If we become Indians, how can we demand Tibet?
SHERAB TSEDOR, activist

that she is her resettlement colony. She was born in Ladakh, but dreams of living in Tibet. Probably thats why she didnt apply for a voter identity card, nor intends to. LOSING CONCESSIONS Another reason that many are baulking at voting in India is that they will be seen as Indians. That means foregoing numerous concessions and facilities given to refugees such as scholarships and visas to settle abroad. Many of Tenzins friends have settled in Canada, the US, Switzerland, Australia and Belgium. Others have taken advantage of Fulbright scholarships to study abroad. Her two brothers and four sisters have settled abroad. Maybe, she will too. Her eyes soften as she talks of her father, Tsultrim Gyatso, 75, who was a monk in Tibet, and today, sells sweaters in Dehradun. He survived 13 bullets wounds when he was fired at by the Chinese army while fleeing to India. It is a miracle he survived, considering

that those fleeing with him manually took out the bullets and nursed him. He had a pendant with Dalai Lamas picture in it. He thinks it saved him. Every Tibetan in India will have a story to narrate as each one has surmounted different kinds of problems, she says. Even youngsters like Lobsang Yangtso have their hearts beating for Tibet. She came to India at the age of nine as her mother wanted her to study in a Tibetan school, not a Chinese one. Pursuing her doctorate in Chinese studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, she says: Even if I vote, I will still feel like a refugee in India as my family is in Tibet. Someday, I hope I will be able to go back, she says. GRATEFUL TO INDIA Others are grateful that India considers them one of their own. Karten Tsering, 46, is the president of the residents welfare association in Majnu ka Tilla. His father, Wangyal, fled Tibet in 1959. They stayed for a while in Arunachal Pradesh, and then came to Delhi, where they lived in a slum. It was only in 1963 that they

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shifted to Majnu ka Tilla. Karten was born after they settled down there. His parents lived a hard life and as they did not want Karten to grow up seeing that, they sent him off to the Central School for Tibetans in Himachal Pradesh. Karten sees the Indian governments move on voting rights as a wonderful gesture that the Tibetans should be grateful for. It means that India recognizes and values us. We have got an identity. Just because we vote does not mean that our fight for Tibet is over. There are thousands of Tibetans all over the world, but none of them have given up on Tibet. If we were offered Chinese citizenship, we would have thought a thousand times, but why should we hesitate to take Indian citizenship? he questions. But even if they are willing to vote, the process is long. Award-win-

ning writer and activist Tenszin Tsundue says that while it is magnanimous of India to let Tibetans vote, it does not mean that they can vote in the coming elections. They first have to submit their registration certificates which classify them as foreigners in India. They would then have to apply for Indian citizenship. This will take at least one-and-a-half years, after which, they can get voter cards. He echoes what many Tibetans feel, Most of us do not want to become Indians as the struggle for an independent Tibet is sacred for us. We must focus on our struggle and not get diverted by the lure of privileges. If we do that today, future generations will forget what the fight about Tibet was all about. Will Tibet happen some day? Answers Sherab, India took 200 years to gain freedom. We have only fought for 60 years. IL
April 15, 2014

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SPORTS / ipl/sharjah

STATEMENTS OF PAKISTANI CRICKETERS TO THE JUSTICE QAYYUM INQUIRY COMMITTEE ON MATCH-FIXING (2000)
SARFRAZ NAWAZ said that betting on cricket started in 1979-80 when Pakistan was on the tour of India under the captaincy of Asif Iqbal. He said that this spread to Sharjah and it was from there that match-fixing started on a larger scale. BASIT ALI, member of Pakistani squad from 1993 to 1995, deposed that he received a call a day before the final of the Australasia Cup in Sharjah in 1994, made by Raqeeb who offered him `10 lakh if he would get himself out for less than 10 runs. JAVED MIANDAD appeared before the Committee and stated that during the Pakistan-England match at Sharjah, he had received a phone call from someone apparently reliable and whom he did not want to name, who said that the match was fixed. AAMIR SOHAIL maintained that match-fixing takes place in Sharjah and that Saleem Pervez had informed him that he had paid money to Salim Malik, Mushtaq Ahmad, Inzamam-ul-Haq and Waqar Younis. WASIM AKRAM also told the Justice Qayyum inquiry committee that he had talked to someone called Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar on the phone, who told him that the Pakistan match with England at Sharjah had been fixed.

MASTER FIXER: Mafia don Dawood Ibrahim during a cricket match in Sharjah

IN DAWOODS DEN
despite charges of match-fixing in 2013, the bcci has shifted ipls coming season to sharjah, the base for betting mafia
By Gaurav Kalra
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EXTRACTS FROM THE PAUL CONDON REPORT (2001)


Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates had been mentioned during various inquiries as a venue where match-making occurred. In January 2001, the Emirates Cricket Board commissioned a private Inquiry, under the chairmanship of the George W Staple CB QC, to examine allegations that directly impinged upon Sharjah as a venue. The inquiry commission, which also included former West Indian captain Clive Lloyd and Brigadier Mohammed K Al Mualla, submitted its confidential interim report to the Board in 2001.

Getty Images

HARJAH, United Arab Emirates. A generation of cricket fans is transported to an uneasy universe at its mention. Such fanatic followers, who have watched cricket matches at the venue during the 1980s and 1990s, are forced by a string of wretched memories. Javed Miandads last ball six off medium pacer Chetan Sharma to win the finals for Pakistan in 1986 rankles to this day. Aaqib Javeds hat trick in 1991, which was made dubious because of the three LBWs, was another bitter pill to swallow. During the 2000s, the venue fell off the cricket map, when the Indian government imposed a ban on its team playing in Sharjah in 2001 because of allegations of match fixing, including the Hansie Cronje affair, when the late South African skipper admitted he had manipulated games along with bookies and punters, and CBIs interim report in 2000, which led to a ban on senior Indian players like Mohammad Azharuddin and Ajay Jadeja.
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SPORTS / ipl/sharjah

later, it was a grim reminder of why Sharjah was best avoided. It is well known that the ringmasters of betting syndicates that run the global illegal operations are still based in the Middle East. In the recent Justice Mukul Mudgal Committee report into IPL match fixing, one of the three panel members, Nilay Dutta, observed that the Delhi Police had intercepted calls between Indian bookies, who mentioned names of two international-level Indian players, and their partners based in Dubai and Pakistan. Dutta was emphatic that Ibrahim still controlled match-fixing and illegal betting syndicates across the globe. UAES MURKY PAST Sharjahs reputation as a credible venue was damaged when stark and shocking details about vile activities there made their way into public domain in the 2000s. In a testimony published in Pakistans Qayyum Inquiry report in 2000, former Pakistan fast-bowling great, Sarfraz Nawaz, described it as the place from where matchfixing started on larger scale. According to an article in Londons Telegraph in November 2011, Pakistans opening batsman, Aamir Sohail, who played international cricket from 1990 to 2001, told the committee that match fixing mainly takes place in Sharjah, and a local bookie claimed he paid $100,000 to two Pakistani players to throw a final against Australia. A year later, the BBCs cricket correspondent, Jonathan Agnew, insisted that I would swear under oath that two of the dozen or so matches I have witnessed on that desert ground over the years were fixed: both of them by Pakistan. There is more evidence of just how vulnerable players were, and perhaps could be, in Sharjah. Adam Hollioake, who led England in a tournament there in 1997, recounted his experience to the BBCs Panorama program in 2001. His account is chilling and worth reproducing in full: Basically I arrived in my hotel room to be greeted after about four or five minutes by a phone call from an anonymous caller asking me for information about what my batting line up was going to be and

DUBIOUS CONNECTIONS: Cricketer S Sreesanth was banned by BCCI last year for his alleged links with bookies accused of spotfixing during IPL 6

Cricket almost vanished from the UAE until 2011 when it became the home venue for Pakistan following the 2009 terrorist attack in Lahore, when the bus which was carrying Sri Lankan cricketers to the match venue was attacked. India still shied away from Sharjah. Now, 13 years after the ban, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has decided to rekindle its lovehate affair with the desert outpost. Sharjah, along with Abu Dhabi and Dubai, will share 16 matches in the first phase of this seasons Indian Premier League (IPL), which had to find a temporary home outside India because of the national elections in April-May 2014 that coincide with the leagues window. Why did the BCCI, whose president, N Srinivasan, has been asked by the Supreme Court to relinquish his post due to charges of match fixing against his son-in-law, choose venues that have the most dubious antecedents? IBRAHIM & CO The images of underworld kingpin and Indias most-wanted terrorist Dawood Ibrahim watching cricket from the stands in Sharjah in the 1980s cannot be forgotten. Recently, former India captain Dilip Vengsarkar told an audience how Ibrahim entered the dressing room of the Indian team in Sharjah in 1986 and offered the players a car each if it beat Pakistan in the finals. Despite Vengsarkars clumsy denials

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who I was going to bowl first, what I was going to do if I won the toss, etc. etc. Five minutes later I received another phone call. I was phoned by someone different saying that Id spoken to his colleague a few minutes earlier and saying that if I wanted to become very wealthy I should basically speak to him and arrange to meet with him. I hadnt even played my first game as captain of England at the time, and Id basically played five one-day internationals. BUKHATIRS BRAVADO The rise, fall and rise of Sharjah can be attributed to one person: Abdul Rahman Bukhatir, a leading local businessman, who brought cricket to the city in the first place in the 1980s. Recognized as the father of cricket in the Middle East, he never gave up his ambition to make Sharjah a regular venue for global cricket. Despite the 2001 ban, it held the 2004 ICC Intercontinental Cup, which was held between nations that had not got a test status from the International Cricket Council (ICC). In 2010, when Afghanistan emerged as a strong second-tier cricket team, Bukhatir convinced the nation to choose Sharjah as its home ground for international matches, given the fact that Afghanistan was wracked by issues related to the presence of US forces and rising clout of the Taliban. A year later, the Pakistan Cricket Board embraced the city for its own matches. Bukhatir hoped that Sharjahs second innings would be a long one. He said in 2011 that the whole idea is to interlink cricket between the Emirates and create a solid base for cricket. He now has his dream wish. There can be no greater impetus than the arrival of crickets most high-octane product. The IPL doesnt just attract the worlds top-playing talent, but makes the world dance to its tune while its on. It is a perfect league to marry cricket, entertainment and eyeballs. COMPLACENT BCCI The key question: is the BCCI decision to move IPL to a destination that evokes suspicion based on sound judgment? IPL chairman Ranjib Biswal reassures: The govern-

REMARKS BY NILAY DUTTA, A MEMBER OF JUSTICE MUDGAL IPL PROBE COMMITTEE REPORT 2014
Investigations by the Delhi Police have revealed that the illegal cricket betting crime syndicate is being headed by Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar, who is a known declared terrorist, based abroad. An intercepted voice call between Mr. Chandra Prakash Jain @ Chandresh Jain @ Jupiter and accused Mr. Ashwani Aggarwal @ Tinku Mandi on 15.05.2013 at 0042 hours shows interalia the involvement of Mr. Chandresh Jain in trans hawala operations, high level fixing of players (names being taken of two international level Indian cricketers) and connections with Pakistan and Dubai-based members of the syndicate. Mr. Chandresh Patel, according to Delhi Police is one of the key henchmen/fixer of Dawood Ibrahim. He was in direct contact with the bookies in Pakistan, and it was through him that the crime syndicate operated by Dawood initiated spot fixing by Rajasthan Players.

ment of UAE has given us all the assurances about staging a corruption-free tournament. The ICC, which has its headquarters in Dubai, offered help. Recognizing the importance of the integrity of the competition, the ICC will provide its full support for the matches in the UAE, including through the provision of anti-corruption services, its statement promised. The over-riding concern is whether an eco-system that appears to be overrun by deceit, lucre and avarice can be contained despite assurances from the BCCI and UAE? The BCCI claims that after the allegations in the last season, key recommendations by its anti-corruption chief Ravi Sawani were taken on board and more robust protocols are in place to fight corruption. Anti-corruption officers will stay with the IPL teams, there will be stricter rules about valuable gifts given to the players and umpires, and visitors access to players will be restricted. The battle though is one of hearts and minds. A large section of fans will sample the IPL this time with cynicism. They will question on-field events and snigger at weird occurrences. Clearly, the seventh edition of IPL faces a crisis of credibility. Players, officials and team owners stand charged for a series of grave misdemeanors. Despite all the bells and whistles that make IPL attractive, winning the trust back of its fans will be BCCIs biggest challenge. IL
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GLOBAL TRENDS/ defining dictators

is every dictator similar? can lee kuan yew of singapore be compared with iraqs saddam hussein and germanys adolf hitler?
By Robert D Kaplan

HEIL!

DEMOCRATS AND A DICTATOR Prime Minister Winston Churchill of the UK, President Franklin D Roosevelt of the US and Joseph Stalin of the USSR share moments of warmth at the Yalta Conference at the end of World War II

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hat is a dictator, or an authoritarian? Ill bet you think you know. But perhaps you dont. Sure, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong were dictators. So were Saddam Hussein and both Hafez and Bashar al Assad. But in many cases, the situation is not that simple and stark. In many cases, the reality and the morality of the situation is far more complex. Deng Xiaoping was a dictator, right? After all, he was the Communist Party boss of China from 1978 to 1992. He was not elected. He ruled through fear. He approved the massacre of protesters at Tiananmen Square in Beijing in 1989. But he also led China in the direction of a market economy that raised the standard of living and the degree of personal freedom for more people in a shorter period of time than perhaps ever before in recorded economic history. For that achievement, one could, arguably, rate Deng as one of the greatest men of the 20th century, on par with Winston Churchill and Franklin D Roosevelt. So is it fair to put Deng in the same category as Saddam Hussein, or even Hosni Mubarak, the leader of Egypt, whose sterile rule did little to prepare his people for a more open society? After all, none of the three men were ever elected. And they all ruled through fear. So why not put them all in the same category? Or what about Lee Kuan Yew and Zine El Abidine Ben Ali? During the early phases of Lees rule in Singapore, he certainly behaved in an authoritarian style, as did Ben Ali throughout his entire rule in Tunisia. So dont they both deserve to be called authoritarians? Yet Lee raised the standard of living and quality of life in Singapore from the equivalent of some of the poorest African countries in the 1960s to that of the wealthiest countries in the West by the early 1990s. He also instituted meritocracy, good governance, and world-class urban planning. Lees two-volume memoir reads like the pages in Plutarchs Lives of the Noble

Getty Images

Grecians and Romans. Ben Ali, by contrast, was merely a security service thug who combined brutality and extreme levels of corruption, and whose rule was largely absent of reform. Like Mubarak, he offered stability but little else. You get the point. Dividing the world in black and white terms between dictators and democrats completely misses the political and moral complexity of the situation on the ground in many dozens of countries. The twin categories of democrats and dictators are simply too broad for an adequate understanding of many places and their rulers and thus for an adequate understanding of geopolitics. There is surely a virtue in blunt, simple thinking and pronouncements. Simplifying complex patterns allows people to see underlying critical truths they might otherwise have missed. But because reality is by its very nature complex, too much simplification leads to an unsophisticated view of the world. One of the strong suits of the best intellectuals and geo-politicians is their tendency to reward complex thinking and their attendant ability to draw fine distinctions. Fine distinctions should be what geopolitics and political science are about. It

GATHERING OF MINDS Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi (second from right) leans on Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak (right) and Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh (third from right) at the 2nd Afro-Arab Joint Summit on October 10, 2010.

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GLOBAL TRENDS/ defining dictators

means that we recognize a world in which, just as there are bad democrats, there are good dictators. World leaders in many cases should not be classified in black and white terms, but in many indeterminate shades, covering the spectrum from black to white. Nawaz Sharif and his rival, the late Benazir Bhutto, when they alternately ruled Pakistan in the 1990s, were terrible administrators. They were both elected by voters, but each governed in a thoroughly corrupt, undisciplined and unwise manner that made their country less stable and laid the foundation for military rule. They were democrats, but illiberal ones. The late King Hussein of Jordan and the late Park Chung Hee of South Korea were both dictators, but their dynamic, enlightened rules took unstable pieces of geography and provided them with development and relative stability. They were dictators, but liberal ones. Amid this political and moral complexity that spans disparate regions of the Earth, some patterns do emerge. On the whole, Asian dictators have performed better than Middle Eastern ones. Deng of China, Lee of Singapore,

Park of South Korea, Mahathir bin Mohammad of Malaysia, Chiang Kai-Shek of Taiwan were all authoritarians to one degree or another. But their autocracies led to economic and technological development, to better governance, and to an improved quality of life. Most important, their rules, however imperfect, have overall better positioned their societies for democratic reforms later on. ll of these men, including the Muslim Mahathir, were influenced, however indirectly and vaguely, by a body of values known as Confucianism: respect for hierarchy, elders, and, in general, ethical living in the here-and-now of this world. Contrast that with Arab dictators, such as Ben Ali of Tunisia, Mubarak of Egypt, Saddam of Iraq, and the al Assads of Syria. Ben Ali and Mubarak, it is true, were far less repressive than Saddam and the elder Assad. Moreover, Ben Ali and Mubarak did encourage some development of a middle class in their countries. But they were not ethical reformers by any means. Of course, Saddam and al Assad were altogether brutal. They ran states so suffocating in their levels of repression that they replicated prison yards. Rather than Confucianism, Saddam and al Assad were motivated by Baathism, a half-baked Arab socialism so

Lee Kuan Yew was authoritarian but he converted Singapore from a poor country in the 1960s to one of the wealthiest countries in the world by the early 1990s.
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SPOT THE DESPOT (L-R) President Haji Muhammad Suharto of Indonesia (ruled 1967-1998); President Hussain Muhammad Ershad of Bangladesh (1983-1990); President Ferdinand Marcos of Philippines (1965-1986); Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore (1959-1990; thereafter minister mentor); President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran (2005-2013)

viciously opposed to Western colonialism that it created a far worse tyranny of its own. Beyond the Middle East and Asia there is the case of Russia. In the 1990s, Russia was ruled by Boris Yeltsin, a man lauded in the West for being a democrat. But his undisciplined rule led to sheer economic and social chaos. Vladimir Putin, on the other hand, is much closer to an authoritarianand is increasingly soand is consequently despised in the West. But, helped by energy prices, he has restored Russia to some measure of stability, and thus dramatically improved the quality of life of average Russians. And he has done this without resorting to the level of authoritarianism with the mass disappearances and constellation of Siberian labor campsof the czars and commissars of old. Finally, there is the most morally vexing case of all: that of the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. In the 1970s and 1980s, Pinochet created more than a million new jobs, reduced the poverty rate from a third of the population to as low as a tenth, and the infant mortality rate from 78 per 1,000 to 18. Pinochets Chile was one of the few non-Asian countries in the world to experience double-digit Asian levels of economic growth at the time. Pinochet prepared his country well for eventual democracy, even as his economic policy became a model for the

Dividing the world in black and white terms between dictators and democrats completely misses the political and moral complexity of the situation.
developing and post-Communist worlds. But Pinochet is also rightly the object of intense hatred among liberals and humanitarians the world over for perpetrating years of systematic torture against tens of thousands of victims. So where does he fall on the spectrum from black to white? Not only is the world of international affairs one of many indeterminate shades, but it is also one in which, sometimes, it is impossible to know just where to locate someone on that spectrum. The question of whether ends justify means should not only be answered by metaphysical doctrine, but also by empirical observationsometimes ends do justify means, sometimes they dont. Sometimes the means are unconnected to the ends, and are therefore to be condemned, as is the case with Chile. Such is the intricacy of the political and moral universe. Complexity and fine distinctions are things to be embraced; otherwise geopolitics, political science, and related disciplines distort rather than illuminate. IL Republished with permission of Sratfor
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CONSUMER WATCH

News capsules from the consumer world to keep you well-informed


FLAT DENIAL
TWO Mumbai developers could land in a location people generally hate the most jail. On March 4, 2014, the Thane District Consumer Redressal Forum stipulated three months imprisonment for them if the respondentsKuldeep Oswal and Gyanchand Sancheti failed to comply with an order it passed seven years ago in a property dispute case. Two Mumbai residents, Smita Chandresh Sawla and Vibha Nilesh Shah had complained that the flats they had booked in Oswal Empire Building, developed by the respondents, had not been registered with the authorities. They also said they were not given the completion certificates when the flats were handed over. In 2007, the forum directed each developer to pay `10,000 to the complainants within the next two months, and also regularise the sale deeds. As the respondents continued to ignore the order, the complainants again filed a criminal complaint, following which the court decided to fine the builders `10,000 individually, failing which they would have to undergo imprisonment. The court also ruled that the defendants in this case had committed an offence under section 27 of the CPA.

Illustrations: Aruna

Illustrations: Aruna

DIRECTIONLESS SALES
DIRECT selling or non-store retail format has gained popularity in India, and become a major avenue for employment for the youth. But the legal framework to safeguard the interests of consumers in this segment is virtually absent. In a timely initiative, Indian Direct Selling Association (IDSA) organised a conference in New Delhi on March 12 to spread awareness among the public on the issues relating to protection of the direct selling consumer. The delegates at the conference were of the view that the need of the hour is a legislation which can ensure protection of consumers from fraudulent deals offered by many non-store retail formats. Chavi Hemanth, secretary general, IDSA said: Such legislation will help in curbing the growth of fraudulent companies which shut down after usurping the money from the consumers. Manoj Parida, joint secretary, ministry of consumer affairs, emphasised on transparency and accountability for the protection of consumer rights in India.

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Quality programme
DOC IN DOCK
INDIAN Medical Association (IMA)the national organisation of licensed medical practitionersis worried that doctors and health centres can be and are tried under the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) 1986. Subsequently, it decided to petition the law ministry to withdraw medical services from the ambit of the act. Medical negligence cases are on the rise in India, forcing people with complaints against doctors to move consumer courts under the CPA. Apparently, the IMAs move is being contemplated because of the landmark compensation of `5.96 cr that the Supreme Court awarded to a plaintiff in October 2013, in a 15-year-old medical negligence case. Plaintiff Kunal Saha, an American citizen of Indian origin, moved the National Consumer Forum in March 1999 seeking compensation after his wife Anuradha died the year before during treatment at Kolkatas AMRI Hospital. He accused the hospital and three doctors of medical negligence. The doctors at the hospital had recommended a heavy dose of depomedrol steroid when Anuradha had complained of acute pain, fever and rashes. Dissatisfied with the forums award of `1.72 cr as compensation, Saha moved the Supreme Court in 2006. The apex court directed the AMRI authorities and the three doctors to pay `5.96 cr by December 2013. Subsequently, the hospital sought one year extra time to pay the compensation because of financial hardship while Saha filed a contempt plea against AMRI Hospital for failure to pay the compensation on time. The apex court has kept the contempt petition pending, with next hearing date slated for May 5, 2014. The IMA has decided to become a party to the review petition that AMRI is likely to file against the compensation order. It also wants a tribunalother than the consumer courtswith medical experts under a judicial officer to be set up to hear similar complaints. According to Dr Narender Saini, secretary general, IMA, health is not a concept that can be broken down in mathematical terms like any other commodity. While judicial officers can identify obvious medical malpractices, he said, subject knowledge is necessary to distinguish between a medical accident and medical negligence, and only a doctor can have that. THE Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) wants more people to be aware of quality and their right to demand it. In a bid to ramp up awareness, Indias official quality watchdog now plans to rope in consumer bodies as its ambassadors and enlighten people on various quality aspects. The awareness programme will cover a gamut of consumerrelated issues, including lessons on the benefits of purchasing products with the ISI stamp, the certification mark for industrial products in India, etc. The move would also inculcate quality consciousness and awareness among students, BIS hopes. Selected organisations will be provided with free training on standards formulation process along with the permission to draw market samples and testing at BIS-recognised laboratories across the country.The result will be published on the BIS website. As partners of BIS, consumer organisations will be permitted to conduct raids on manufacturers and stockists to check sale of spurious ISI products. Also, a national-level organisation would be eligible to become member of the policylevel committees of BIS.

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CONSUMER WATCH

FAQs

Are the consumers coming forward to complain? The Consumer Coordination Council started JAGO GRAHAK JAGO Multi Media Campaign in 2005. It initiated the National Consumer Helpline and the Consumer Online Resource Centre to make it easy and simple to complain. However as reported by Mid-Day, consumers are still reluctant to complain because of the inordinate time it takes to resolve cases.

Which is the ruling body for consumer complaints? There are designated regulators and an array of laws to address every type of consumer complaint. For example, all telephone-related complaints are guided under the TRAI Act or the Indian Telegraphs Act apart from the Consumer Protection Act 1986.

Is it possible that the consumer has filed a false complaint? It is quite possible and that is why the CPA 1986 was amended to punish consumers for false or frivolous claims. The consumer is liable to pay up to `10,000 for filing such complaints. Under Section 26 of the act, the relevant provision is as follows: Where a complaint instituted before the District Forum, the State Commission or as the case may be, the National Commission, is found to be frivolous or vexatious, it shall, for reasons to be recorded in writing, dismiss the complaint and make an order that the complainant shall pay to the opposite party such cost, not exceeding `10,000, as may be specified in the order.

How long does it take for verdict to be delivered in a consumer case? There is no fixed timeline. If you know the right people, then the trial period can be short; however, there are several examples in insurance, banking and healthcare sectors where the consumer has had to fight for compensation for more than 15 years.

When an individual takes on a corporate, are the scales not tilted on the side of the latter? The scales are tilted towards the manufacturers and the service providers, including state-owned companies. An ordinary consumer often has to fight against an organization with vast resources. However, there are various consumer groups that can advise and help individuals.

Is it worthwhile to get every complaint, big or small, addressed? Every consumer has a right to get his grievance redressed, howsoever small the financial amount involved may be. However, consumer organizations can take the lead by claiming compensation on behalf of several consumers. This can be done under class action litigation or a public interest litigation (PIL) to seek justice for consumers who are helpless and economically hamstrung. The organizations can create data on such cases and facilitate the government to bring a robust policy on refund and exchange of defective or sub-standard products or services. This can be done through deterrent penalties for intentional delays in providing resolutions or adopting unfair trade practise.

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IS THAT LEGAL?

Ignorance of law is no excuse. Here are answers to some frequently-asked legal queries regarding matters that affect us on day-to-day basis
Construction of a dam on a river has led to submersion of an old temple. The devotees seek an alternative site to build a new temple, but the Government refuses. In case of road, dam or other national projects, is the government obliged to provide alternative land keeping in mind religious sentiments of people? No, in case of submergence of temple owing to a construction of a dam the government is under no obligation to provide an alternative site keeping in view the religious sentiments of the people. In case of displacement or acquisition of land the law provides for compensation to be awarded for the land acquired.

Illustrations: Aruna

A student gets his postgraduate degree from an institution with deemed university status, but just two years later, this institution gets derecognised. Will the student lose the chance of applying to government or private jobs which require postgraduate qualification? Even if the institution loses its deemed university status it will not cast any retrospective effect to the degree holders who passed out from there before its derecognition became operative. Though the issue is sub-judice before the apex court, the government has not made any adverse declarations or prohibitions for such students. But perhaps recruiters perceptions, especially in the private sector, will be influenced by this.

An Indian employee of the UN system has not been filing his income tax return for the simple reason that salaries of UN employees are tax free. To his surprise, the income tax department sends him a notice for non-filing of return. What does law say about it? It has been explicitly stated in Section 18(b) of the UN (Privileges and Immunities) Act 1947 that an official of the UN shall be exempt from taxation on the salaries and emoluments paid to them by the United Nations. But for any income falling under the head Salaries under the IT Act 1961 received otherwise he ought to have filed a return.

A hot-headed student leader had been arrested at the height of a student movement on charges of damaging public property. He spent a few days in jail before being released on bail. The case dragged on for a few years when charges against him were dropped. Now, as he applies for international assignments, will his past come to haunt him? Even if the person faced charges of damaging property and was jailed, what matters is that the charges against him were dropped later. Therefore its not a hurdle in his applying for international assignments. He will be treated as innocent, like any other person. Had he been convicted then the matter would have been different.
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WORDLY
have fun with english. get the right answers and play better scrabble

WISE

1. Lingua franca means . ... A: foreign language B: French language C: mutual language D: legal language 2. What do you understand by the word perfunctory? A: prompt B: perfect C: half-hearted D: functional 3. Actions speak .. than words. A: more B: louder C: better D: less 4. Matricide is the killing of a mother but senicide is the murder of an .... ..... A: American soldier B: old person C: outgoing officer D: elderly woman 5. A misogynist hates .. A: pregnancies B: gynaecologists C: miscellaneous things D: women 6. Gita is suffering from heliophobia because she fears ... A: sunlight B: blood C: helicopters D: hills 7. An anthomaniac has a passion for ... A: maths B: history

C: Anthology D: flowers 8. Pomology is the study of .. . A: women B: fish C: hair D: fruits 9. An angle exceeding 90 degrees is called angle. A: wide B: right C: obtuse D: long 10. In the disease called glossitis, is affected. A: tongue B: liver C: nose D: throat 11. Plural of radius is A: radiuses B: radii C: radius D: radiae 12. Italian word ciao is another way to say .. . A: sorry B: goodbye C: yes D: thanks 13. In the SMS lingo, O4U will mean . .. A: only for you B: nothing for us C: ordered for us D: one for you 14. The boss was impressed by her excellent command . English.

A: on B: of C: in D: over 15. Tagores story centres . office politics. A: at B: on C: around D: in 16. Oxymoron means a combination of ... A: Two contradictory words B: Oxygen and moron C: Orbit and electron D: No such word 17. Its Ifs and buts and fair and square, but pick and . ? A: choose B: play C: pocket D: go 18. Which spelling is correct? A. gragarious B. gregarious C. gregerious D. grigareous 19. An ... is an inscription on a tombstone. A: epigram B: epigraph C: epitaph D: epithet 20. What does <3 mean in internet slang? A: less than 3 B: love C: we three D: all three

Aruna

SCORES 15. on 16. two contradictory words 17. choose 18. gregarious 19. epitaph 20. love

ANSWERS
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Mutual language Half-hearted louder old person women sunlight flowers 8. fruits 9. obtuse 10. tongue 11. radii 12. goodbye 13. only for you 14. of

0 to 7 correctYou need to do this more often. 8 to 12 correctGood, get the scrabble board out. Above 12Bravo! Keep it up!

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