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India’s Superpower Euphoria CCXCVI
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Dantewada not fully in our control: Raman Singh
IANS | Mar 31, 2011, 06.48pm IST
Comments (4)
Tags:Raman Singh|Maoists|Central Reserve Police Force|Bharatiya Janata Party
RAIPUR: No one found guilty will be spared, chief minister Raman Singh says on the Dantewada arson incident in which policemen allegedly went on the rampage in three tribal hamlets of Chhattisgarh. But he is quick to add that the area is not fully under government control.
Reacting to the attack on Swami Agnivesh, Singh said he had warned the social activist against going to Dantewada as there was a possibly of a “people’s outburst”.
“The government will act hard, no one, no policeman will go scot free if the probe report indicts them,” Singh told IANS even as his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government faces possibly its strongest ever criticism since it came into power for the Dantewada episode.
Villagers of Tarmetla and two other nearby tribal hamlets in Dantewada district have alleged that policemen had gone on the rampage between March 11 and 16, burning down over 200 houses, killing people and even raping women.
Singh, however, said Tarmetla was not fully under the government’s control.
“Everyone knows that the Tarmetla area is not under the government’s full control. In recent months police have made some penetration and challenged Maoists who are using local people as a human shield in the battle against police,” the 59-year-old politician said.
Tarmetla, about 500 km south of capital Raipur, is the area where Maoists had massacred 76 security April 6 last year, including 75 of them belonging to the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
Singh said the “forces still struggle to enter certain jungle areas in Bastar where Maoists dominate, they have buried landmines, there is always a possibility of civilians coming to harm in the case of crossfire, but the probe report will make everything clear because I too want to know the facts of the Tarmetla arson case”.
Singh, who has headed the BJP government since December 2003 in the country’s worst Maoist insurgency-hit state, on March 24 set up a four-member probe panel besides ordering a magisterial inquiry. Newspaper photographs showed the devastation in the areas.
Singh said the “probe will be completely ‘fair and impartial’. I have transferred the Dantewada collector R Prasanna and senior superintendent of police SRP Kalluri because there was lack of coordination among them and also to ensure that the probe is influenced by anyone”.
He, however, chose to remain silent in the state assembly as the stormy budget session ended Thursday, refusing to make a statement on the Dantewada incident despite the Congress paralysing the house since Monday and terming the incident a fallout of ‘jungle raj’.
Even Swami Agnivesh and some mediamen accompanying him were attacked by a mob in Dantewada March 26 while they were on their way to Tarmetla. Agnivesh was pulled out of his car, manhandled and eggs were thrown at him allegedly by policemen in civilian clothes and cadres of the anti-Maoist militia Salwa Judum. The protesters stoned Agnivesh’s convoy and forced him to return.
Singh remarked: “I provided him full security, I had personally told him before he headed to Dantewada that the area is very sensitive, ‘I will give you (Agnivesh) security cover till the location where we are in a position to provide it,’ I had also told him that people of the area have suffered too many Maoist brutalities, so people’s outburst is a possibility.
“Agnivesh should have avoided going to the media in Raipur and New Delhi about what happened to him in Dantewada, it spoils the atmosphere.”
The Congress had sent a 10-member team of party legislators to Dantewada villages March 29 to make an on the spot assessment but they were arrested in Dantewada and returned without reaching Ground Zero.
Asked why his government was stopping those who wanted to know the truth, Singh said: “It’s not an area you can easily go to, roads have multiple-layer landmines and Maoists are dominant, each time an outsider attempts to go there, police have to go first to open the roads and clear the landmines.”
Readers’ opinions (4)
Recommended (1)
Sid Harth Harth (USA)
2 mins ago (02:17 AM)
TOI coverage of this sad incidence is pathetic. The Hindu has not only covered it better but they have taken trouble to send reporters/photographers to investigate as quickly as humanly possible. The comments on this article are also highly biased and pathetic. Forget about your pet project, “aman ki asha.” Dantewada is burning. By the way give your readers some facts. They are available. Just a snippet: “Dantewada is blessed with various mines and minerals. Bailadila contains one of the largest deposits of Iron Ore in the world. The Iron content of the Ore is as high as 68%, which can easily be termed as of world class quality Ore. Similarly deposits like Uranium, Granite, Graphite, Lime Stone and Marble are also found in the district. Dantewada is inhabited by several tribal groups such as Maria, Muria, Dhurwa , Halba ,Bhatra, Gonds. According to 2001 census report, the total population = 353794. Male = 171950 Female = 181844
…and I am Sid Harth
n (blr)
3 hrs ago (11:04 PM)
plz god help those innocent people..because we can not do anything..neither our callous politicians…nor the maoist..not the police …not even those arundhati roy and swami agnivesh who wants publicity…
Agree (1)Disagree (1)
Conscience (Bangalore)
5 hrs ago (08:41 PM)
Now contrast this news with Chidambaram’s hard policy on Naxalism. It is no wonder that there is unrest in the tribal regions.
Agree (2)Recommend (1)
VJ (TVM)
6 hrs ago (07:34 PM)
Agnivesh should loose his tongue on a landmine,then he will be more kind towards Maoists and other anti-nationals.Fraud swami needs to deported to the bottom of the ocean
Agree (13)Disagree (5)Recommend (6)
Raipur, March 31, 2011
Torched villages still denied rations in Chhattisgarh
Aman Sethi
Twenty days after security forces allegedly burnt about thirty seven houses in Morpalli and fifty homes and granaries in Timapuram in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, villagers said they were yet to receive emergency rations sanctioned by the district administration.
On March 24, The Hindu reported allegations that a combined team of Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the Chhattisgarh police and the Central Reserve Police Force burnt close to 300 homes, granaries and sheds over the course of a five day operation in the villages of Morpalli, Timapuram and Tarmetla from March 11 to March 16, prompting the then District Collector R. Prasana to send emergency food rations to the affected villages.
Today (Thursday), in a telephone call with this correspondent, a villager speaking on the condition of anonymity as he feared for his safety, said that while food rations had reached Tarmetla, but residents of the interior villages of Timapuram and Morpalli were yet to receive any aid and were fast running out of supplies.
On March 30, the Supreme Court directed food commissioners N.C. Saxena and Harsh Mander to visit the affected villages to inquire into the basis of reports that six residents of Morpalli had died of starvation. The National Human Rights Commission has also directed the Chhattisgarh government to file a report on the incident. However, it appears unlikely that anyone will be able to access the villages anytime soon.
The district police have sealed that sole motorable road leading to the three villages. In the past two weeks, journalists, social activists and even a convoy of 10 Congress members of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly have been turned back by a hostile crowd of SPOs and members of the Salva Judum, an anti-Maoist vigilante force that the State government claims has been disbanded. The State government’s claims were made in response to a case, pending in the Supreme Court, which holds the Judum responsible for 537 murders, 99 rapes and 103 acts of arson.
Responding to calls that Dantewada had descended into anarchy, the state government transferred Dantewada Senior Superintendent of Police, S.R.P. Kalluri, but locals in Dantewada say the situation is yet to improve. Last week, social activist Swami Agnivesh described the SPOs and Judum as a “Frankenstein’s monster” that the Chhattisgarh police had created and subsequently lost control of. Mr. Agnivesh made these observations soon after he was attacked for trying to deliver rations to the stricken villages.
In an interview with IANS, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has admitted that Dantewada is not completely under his government’s control and claimed that parts of the district had been sealed by the police for security purposes.
Keywords: Chhattisgarh, Dantewada, Maoist issue
NEW DELHI, March 31, 2011
‘Chhattisgarh police claim of encounter with Maoists a hoax’
J. Balaji
Comment (1)
Despite Supreme Court order, Salwa Judum is still active
A 13-member fact-finding team that visited Chintalnar, Morapally, Timmapuram and Tadmetla villages of Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh has found that the police claim that they had an encounter with Maoists in the jungles of Dantewada during March second week as “a hoax and far from reality.”
“We have been inside these areas for two days, only to see that there was no ‘encounter’ with Maoists as claimed by the police, which is nothing but a myth propagated by the State to justify these atrocities,” the team said in a report released to the media.
The team said State-sponsored Koya commandos, consisting of former Maoists and tribals, and the “CoBRA” unit of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) went on the rampage from March 11 to 16 in these villages, killing three tribals, raping three women and setting on fire/destroying over 300 houses/huts, granaries and other properties.
“These rampages were done with full consent and active support of the State.” This clearly showed that the Salwa Judum was active and functioning like always. The State’s branding them as “Koya Commandos” was “bogus.” Despite the Supreme Court’s directive to disband Salwa Judum it was fully functional and actively promoted and sponsored by the State government.
The team said the attack by the police forces and the Salwa Judum was heinous and the attack on innocent tribals was done persistently by the State and its mercenaries in the name of “Operation Green Hunt.”
These villages were particularly targeted as they had done alternative development works such as digging ponds, distributing land among the landless, making irrigation facilities which the State had failed to provide.
The Hindu has extensively reported about the atrocities perpetrated on tribals.
The team members, led by C.H. Chandrasekhar, and consisting of social, human rights and civil activists, lawyers, journalists and educationists, among other things, urged the State government to register cases of rape, murder, atrocities and kidnap against the CRPF and Salwa Judum members and provide exemplary punishment for the perpetrators of these acts. The injured should be given immediate medical assistance and medical tests of the rape victims should be conducted.
People who suffered losses should be compensated. The government should immediately disband the Salwa Judum/Koya commandos.
Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), taking suo motu cognisance of media reports on the attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh and his team members on March 26 when they tried to take relief materials to the affected villages, issued notices to Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary and the Director-General of Police, seeking factual reports on the incident within four weeks.
The reports said a large group, comprising special police officers of the Chhattisgarh police and members of the Salwa Judum attacked and manhandled him twice despite his trying to go to the villages with police escort. The Commission said “the entire incident is a matter of great concern.”
Swami Agnivesh had gone there to deliver clothes, blankets and other relief materials to the affected people.
Keywords: Chhattisgarh, Dantewada, police atrocity
New Delhi, March 30, 2011
Policemen can’t get away with violence, rape: Supreme Court
J. Venkatesan
Expressing concern over increasing custodial violence, the Supreme Court on Tuesday warned policemen that such incidents including rape would not be tolerated.
A Bench of Justices Markandey Katju and Gyan Sudha Misra said: “Policemen must learn how to behave as public servants in a democratic country, and not as oppressors of the people.”
Quoting the judgment in the D.K. Basu case, the Bench said: “Custodial violence, including torture and death in lock-ups, strikes a blow at rule of law, which demands that the powers of the executive should not only be derived from law but also that the same should be limited by law.”
Justice Katju, writing the judgment, quoted a Urdu poem — Bane hain ahal-e-hawas muddai bhi munsif bhi Kise vakeel karein kisse munsifi chaahen by Faiz Ahmed Faiz — and said: “If ever there was a case which cried out for the death penalty it is this one, but it is deeply regrettable that not only was no such penalty imposed, but not even a charge under Section 302 [murder] of the Indian Penal Code was framed against the accused by the courts below.”
Appellants Mehboob Batcha, Parthasarathy, Jafar Siddique and Karunanidhi, who were policemen, wrongfully confined Nandagopal in police custody in the Annamalai Nagar station (Tamil Nadu) on suspicion of theft from May 30, 1992 to June 2, 1992 and beat him to death with lathis. They also gang-raped his wife Padmini in a barbaric manner. Both the trial court and the Madras High Court held the appellants guilty and sentenced them to 10-year imprisonment.
Dismissing the appeals the Bench said: “The graphic description of the barbaric conduct of the accused shocks our conscience. We see no reason to disbelieve the wife’s evidence. Ordinarily, no self-respecting woman would come forward in court to falsely make such a humiliating statement against her honour. Crimes against women are not ordinary crimes committed in a fit of anger or for property. They are social crimes. They disrupt the entire social fabric, and hence they call for harsh punishment. The horrendous manner in which the woman was treated by policemen was shocking and atrocious, and calls for no mercy.”
Rarest of rare cases
The Bench further said: “We are surprised that the accused were not charged under Section 302 IPC and instead the courts below treated the death of Nandagopal as suicide. In fact, they should have been charged under that provision and awarded the death sentence, as murder by policemen in police custody is, in our opinion, in the category of the rarest of rare cases deserving the death sentence, but surprisingly no charge under Section 302 IPC was framed against any of the accused. We are constrained to say that both the trial court and the High Court have failed in their duty in this connection. The entire incident took place on the premises of the Annamalai Nagar police station and the accused deserve no mercy.”
Keywords: Supreme Court, police raid, Maoist problem, internal security, police violence
TARMETLA, March 23, 2011
Chhattisgarh villages torched in police rampage
Aman Sethi
Comment (46)
An investigation by The Hindu reveals the horrific aftermath of a five-day anti-Maoist operation in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. Photo: Aman Sethi
Related
SLIDESHOW
Once the raid began, the villagers ran into the forests and returned to find their houses reduced to smoldering ruins. Photo: Aman Sethi
Tarmetla: A village in flames
Three women assaulted, three men killed, hundreds rendered homeless in course of 5 day operation
The operation began in the early hours of March 11 when about 350 heavily armed troopers marched into the forests of Dantewada. They returned to their barracks five days later, with three villages aflame, about 300 homes and granaries incinerated, three villagers and three soldiers dead, and three women sexually assaulted, the victims and several eyewitnesses told The Hindu.
Last week, the Chhattisgarh police said three Koya commandos were killed in a Maoist ambush during a routine search, yet journalists attempting to reach the site were turned away by gun-toting special police officers. On visiting the area through a forest route, this correspondent was confronted by the aftermath of what appeared to be an attack by security forces on three tribal settlements in a 15-km radius of the police camp at Chintalnar, which has left hundreds homeless and brutalised.
The following account is based on interviews with villagers who spoke on the record and senior police sources who sought anonymity to speak freely. The names of victims of sexual assault have been changed to protect their identities.
In the first week of March, the police and the Central Reserve Police Force planned an operation to be conducted by the CRPF’s elite CoBRA battalion and the police’s Koya commandos, a tribal corps of surrendered Maoists and local youth.
A surrendered Maoist had claimed that the guerrillas were running an arms factory at Morpalli, a tour-hour march from the police camp at Chintalnar, a police official told The Hindu. Intelligence inputs indicated that about 100 Maoists, including Jai Kishen, a high-ranking Andhra cadre leader, were present nearby.
“On March 11, about 200 Koyas and 150 CoBRA left Chintalnar about 4 a.m. to destroy the arms factory,” said a police source.
“The force arrived at 8 in the morning and surrounded the village,” said Nupo Mutta, a former sarpanch of Morpalli. “They fired a few shots in the air and we ran into the forests.”
Madavi Sulla, 30, did not act fast enough. “My husband was sitting in a tree picking tamarind,” said his wife Madavi Hunge. “The force saw him and opened fire. I pleaded with them to stop, but they tore my clothes and threatened me.” Hunge escaped. The police moved further into the village, leaving Sulla’s corpse hanging in the tree.
“I was picking ‘tendu patta’ on the fields when the force came and said I was spying for the Maoists,” said Aimla Gangi, 45. “They threw me to the ground, pulled off my clothes and molested me in front of my two daughters. They also stole Rs.10,000 from a bag I kept tied around my waist.”
Villagers say the force left by noon, having torched 37 houses. They also picked up Madavi Ganga, 45, his son Bima and his daughter Hurre, 20. “They took us to the Chintalnar police station and put me in a separate cell and stripped me,” said Hurre.
Hurre said she was kept all night in the station and sexually assaulted. Ganga and Bima said the police repeatedly asked them whether Maoists visited their village and beat them through the night. The Madavi family was released when the women of Morpalli demanded their release at the Chintalnar station.
Police sources say they found neither arms factories nor Maoists at Morpalli that day, though they did find a 15-foot memorial commemorating the death of eight Maoists in the April 2010 encounter, in which 76 CRPF troopers were killed near Tarmetla village.
The operation resumed at Timapuram on March 13. “There was a disagreement because the CoBRAs prefer night operations, and the Koyas wanted to operate in the day,” said a source familiar with the operation, “so the Koyas set out on their own.”
En route, the Koyas stopped at Phulanpad where they picked up Barse Bima and Manu Yadav and took them along to Timapuram.
As word spread of the Koyas imminent arrival, Timapuram’s resident fled to the forests. “The Koyas came to Timapuram about 2 in the afternoon. They set up a camp, killed our chickens and goats and ate them.” said Timapuram resident Madkam Budra.
Budra said the commandos spent the night at Timapuram, a fact confirmed by the police, and installed sentries to ward off a possible Maoist attack.
The Maoists attacked next morning, on Monday March 14. “We knew the Koyas had spent the night at Timapuram and laid our ambush early morning,” said a Maoist fighter who had participated in the attack and met this correspondent on the outskirts of Timapuram late Sunday night. “About 70 Maoists participated in the attack, including Area Commander Ramanna.”
The ambush lasted for two hours. Three Koyas were killed and nine injured. After the Koyas called for reinforcements, a helicopter flew in to evacuate the injured; the Maoists finally retreated by noon. The police and local newspapers say 37 Maoists were killed in the ambush, but a handwritten note sent to this correspondent by the Maoists claims that only Section Commander Muchaki Ganga was killed.
The Koyas spent the night at the village and left next morning, March 15, for Chintalnar. Before they left, villagers say, the Koyas burnt about 50 buildings, including homes and granaries. They also executed one of their captives, Barse Bima, with an axe. “My husband’s hands were tied behind his back, he had been hit with an axe on the base of his neck and twice on his chest,” said Barse Lakhme, who cremated the body.
The other captive, Mannu Yadav, was taken to Chintalnar where, villagers allege, the police shot him and claimed he was a Maoist fighter killed in the ambush. “The body claimed by the police was not a Maoist,” said a senior officer. He said he was tipped off by a Koya. “They killed him because they needed to show something.”
On March 16, villagers say the same company of Koyas surrounded Tarmetla village and burnt about 200 structures, including homes, granaries and woodsheds. Tarmetla’s former sarpanch, Gondse Deva, said the Koyas swept through the village, setting fire to the straw roofs, stuffing burning hay into the granaries, burning food, clothes, valuables, money and keepsakes. “The force has also taken away two men, Madavi Handa and Madavi Aita,” said Deva. “We don’t know where they are, we think they are dead.”
When she heard the commotion, Madavi Hidme threw all her jewellery and money into a bag before rushing for the forests. “I was stopped by four SPOs and beaten with sticks until I lost consciousness,” she said. “When I awoke, I was naked. My bag was gone.” Hidme has been assaulted so violently that a cut has opened up on the left side of her face; she can’t see from her left eye.
Dantewada Collector R.Prasanna is setting up a committee to look into the incidents. “The committee shall be headed by the tehsildar of Konta, along with a representative from the press, civil society and a people’s representative,” he told The Hindu. “We will provide Rs. 50,000 in compensation for each house burnt, and will reimburse villagers for their grains, utensils and other possessions. The committee shall submit its report in one month.”
Director-General of Police Vishwa Ranjan did not return phone calls to his office.
Keywords: police raid, Maoist problem, internal security
Comments:
There has to be some morality in the way the forces behave and operate. This story is a clear indication of how the ‘system’ turns ordinary people into Maoists. Not that I support the activities of Maoists, but I also do not condone, and hope that the people in power also do not, the security forces who act so recklessly.
from: mgupta
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 01:18 IST
What the hell are these people doing? Is these how our police and commandos behave? If all this is true then no wonder tribals are supporting Maoists. I am ashamed really.
from: RP
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 03:09 IST
The Hindu is the ONLY newspaper that has boldly come out against the police atrocities happening against the tribals under the pretense of maoist operation. Government has silenced people like Binayak Sen who spoke against this. What a pity !
from: DR
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 04:07 IST
This medieval approach of security issues happens in many places in India. It happens in Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Kashmir and it is seldom reported. Indian police and para-military are savage and brutal. India needs to grow into 21st century. Besides compensating the people who have suffered, they should also punish those who perpetrated this savagery. I do not like the comment of the “Collector” that they will be compensated and their is no mention of punishment for the beasts.
from: Naveed Khan
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 04:57 IST
It is a known fact that Tribals and villagers in remote areas have always been treated as third class citizens in their country, without any development for years. However, the recent incidents of violence, killing and pillage of their community will shock any one with a heart to the core. Are we living in a such a brutal democracy where poor people have no right to even live?
from: Somu Kumar
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 05:06 IST
Shame on the Indian government? Human rights is not worth one paisa. I’m ashamed to call myself Indian.
from: Karuna
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 06:39 IST
Is there anything called “shame” still left with us. What a gory act. Really appreciate The Hindu for bringing this up. As citizens we need immediate action against the perpetrators of the crime, and this should be set as an example for police highhandedness. Whatever happened to the collective conscience of the society?
from: raghavan
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 08:31 IST
Once again The Hindu did a great job. What a shame on the state police forces. Are these humans? Corrupt government, cruel CRPF personnel..Communist groups with no honest agenda..what is going on in the nation? Government immediately announces compensation.
from: Abhay
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 08:59 IST
Is this the freedom for which our forefathers fought and died?
from: GERSHOM CHELLIAH
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 10:30 IST
Helpless fellow Indians.
This is just a news for others. But for those who affected is a pain for ever.
As usual, the government has running out of back log issues. This would be an additional case..thats all to say.
from: RG
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 11:05 IST
What is our country coming to? The police force that were meant to deal with the Maoists are actually showing their inability on the villagers. Even without a single thought they are hunting down the villagers and harassing the women folk. Such incidents should be dealt with much more vigor than just reporting them. Where has the Human Rights Commission gone? Don’t they have a say in such grave injustices to mankind. This assault on the lower classes of people do not claim anybody’s attention, but it highlights how the power and authority of the Police personnel and the other forces of the government are being misused for their own satisfaction.
from: Shyam Varma
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 11:17 IST
As far as I know it happens a lot of times. However all due to your brave journalists we know this on national level. We do have news papers in the state but they always buckle to corporate interests for they are run by them. Thank you Hindu in you and because of you the journalism is alive and we have hope.
from: Saurabh
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 11:19 IST
To think that this violence is dished out by the state is incomprehensible. And they wonder why people take up arms to fight back? Good reporting, by the way, by Aman Sethi.
from: Rashmi Singh
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 12:51 IST
The state acting in disguise of a protector is plundering its own villages. Tarmetla, Dantewada incident on 11th March displays the concealed intention of the state of Chhattisgarh to do away with the tribal population and grab their land for its insatiable hunger for industrial development. It was a commendable job undertaken by The Hindu to reveal the true face of the BJP government in Chhattisgarh. There was no whisper of this cruel incident for twelve days which shows how efficient the government has been in hiding it real agenda. Another report in one of the leading newspapers corroborates it that every attempt was made to dissuade people coming from outside from entering the village. How democratic the state is when it resorts to such technique in portraying the beautiful picture of shining India. The local media is yet to murmur about this rampage.
from: mohan shekhar
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 13:57 IST
This incident is a slam on the Democracy and the Fundamental Right’s of these tribals, which has been enshrined in the Constitution of India. A gross violation of human rights and Article 21. Everyone has to condemn this brutality.
from: Yusuf Hayath
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 14:32 IST
Absolutely awful. Even if these villagers were Maoist sympathisers or active members, the alleged treatment meted out by the security forces is abhorrent. This will just increase the membership of the maoists. Human rights should be observed when dealing with such poor, simple and helpless people. The perpetrators of this crime should be prosecuted.
from: Vipul Dave.
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 14:33 IST
This is absolutely disastrous and shocking!. First of all I commend The Hindu for bringing out this story as it is risking life and limb. But, it is appalling to read what has happened at the villages in Dantewada, where is the government? Who is controlling these operations? Who has authorised the koya commandos to commit such a barbaric act on their own countrymen?. All these questions need to be answered, The district administration may have taken a step to bring to light the facts of this massacre, but it is not enough.It is heart-rending to see that on one hand India opposes the military action on some other country, but turns a blind eye on its own.
from: bharath r
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 14:51 IST
I’m shocked and very disturbed on reading this news. I doubt if our country is a democracy anymore. Will these culprits be punished and the victims be rehabilitated? I request this newspaper to follow up on this story and make sure justice is served.
from: arun
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 15:37 IST
Another Committee, headed by tehsildar and other representatives. Again bribes will be given to the officials, the committee will report that the commandos acted correctly and that will be the end of matter. I am sure none of the “50,000″ compensation will reach the villagers. Instead of giving compensation, the authorities should ask themselves, how can such an incident happen first of all?
from: Amy
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 15:45 IST
It is always the innocent who suffer. Usually, the Govt. forces vent their anger on the helpless villagers. Rape, torture,torching of houses, etc are the only things they can actual do. No wonder why India sided with Qaddhafi.
from: pingmi
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 15:47 IST
The policemen committing the crime must be arrested and charged with Rape and murder. The crimes must be investigated by a national committee and all involved in its planning and execution must be brought to justice. It is a shame that the poorest of the poor and the most vulnerable sections of the population are being subjected to rape, murder and terror by the police while the whole nation watches silently.
from: Raghuram
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 17:57 IST
This is not fair by the police. The police never think about people. What fault of those who lost his home, son, and every thing?
from: Vakil Ahmed
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 18:12 IST
Is this the way government handles the biggest threat to nation? Ashamed of this cowardly act; those people without any basic facilities need to be cared for. Actions like this will definitely increase the strengh of maoists in the region.
from: Ezhil John
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 18:18 IST
So far I was thinking these maoists are really a nuisance, but on reading an article like this, I asked myself, what will I do if I am attacked and tortured and stripped of my belongings – repeatedly for no fault of mine …..I will be pushed to commit the fault, what the heck anyways they are going to attack but now with me wielding a gun , I feel I have power. Great Job Army, CRPF, BSF and Police officers – some of them who do not believe power comes with responsibilities (while I salute many truly serving the country)
from: sriram
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 18:20 IST
In what civilised society are we living? Are we killing our own people like this for accomplishing what? Humane society has no room for this sort of activitis and every human being will come with out any reservations condemning it.
from: praveen
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 19:31 IST
These reports of police brutalisation of our very own citizens is shocking and very saddening. Where is the battle to win the hearts and minds of our own people? Those found guilty, and I am sure there will be pressure brought to bear to ensure that at least some are brought to justice, must be given severe penalties to act as a warning to others who might exploit poor villages. The GOI MUST take these issues extremely seriously. They are meant to represent all Indians.
from: Samir Mody
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 21:12 IST
The state is alienating people each day and brutally
thanks to Aman for the report from an area difficult to cover
from: sreedhar
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 21:47 IST
Given the circumstances where Indian state machinery kill their own people, no surprise that Indian government did not favour NO FLY ZONE in Libya. There is no democracy in India, rather dictators rule us and loot public money.
from: Indian tiger
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 21:57 IST
Exellent reporting
from: snm rao
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 22:37 IST
No wonder why movies still show atrocities commited by police on common men. I am deeply hurt and angered by what has occurred to people who are innocent. The gravest of crime according to me is to harm women, how can these commandos sleep at night, won’t they be haunted by what they had done to innocent people. I hope they are duly punished, but knowing our Indian politicians, I am certain that this would never happen and incidents such as these arent the last that we will witness.
from: Prasanna
Posted on: Mar 23, 2011 at 22:48 IST
The Chhattisgarh Govt. should be immediately dismissed and Central rule should be imposed there. Whether koya commandos or salwa judum, these are just different instruments for implementing organised state brutality. The state govt. is behaving like a warlord who happens to have more arms and men than the maoists at the moment. A search operation by a police force, based on intelligence input, is a legal exercise, but dumping their frustrations onto the hapless tribal villagers by vandalising their properties (whatever little they have) and dignity, speaks of a cheap warlord kind of attitude. The aim seems to be showing the maoists, that the govt can be more brutal than them. Shame on Raman Singh’s Govt
from: Anirban
Posted on: Mar 24, 2011 at 02:50 IST
More progress as India marches on to becoming a global super power!
from: vxpatel
Posted on: Mar 24, 2011 at 12:56 IST
Shame on CRPF. This is too much on tribals of Chhattisgarh. Thanks to The Hindu for bringing out the right picture, this will be helpful to get justice to them.
from: ASHOK KUMAR
Posted on: Mar 24, 2011 at 13:15 IST
Congratulations to Mr. Aman Sethi for bringing this out. The State forces stand like an alien invader among its own people.
from: Gilbert Sebastian
Posted on: Mar 24, 2011 at 14:06 IST
Is there anything left to comment? I don’t know how come both sides can justify what they are doing specially how they are doing it. Sometime I wonder this is what I should call ‘India Shining’??
from: Chanchal
Posted on: Mar 25, 2011 at 18:45 IST
Shameful indeed. We as a country have got out priorities all wrong. What’s the difference between our govt and Libyan ? No wonder India didnt support the military action against Gaddafi and co. With so much pain all around us, we Indians have grown immune to the pain of other people. Kudos to’The Hindu’ for publishing the story. I am sure not many people will bother to click and read it. Any news about cricket World Cup will generate more clicks.
from: Manav
Posted on: Mar 26, 2011 at 23:23 IST
I would really appreciate if Government of India internal security make a note of these issues and try to initiate some operations. This is the 21 century – enough of fighting and I think all these are encouraged by local politicians. One more thing, if this is has to be stopped the government should be led by educated persons like IAS or IPS officers rather than uneducated politicians.
from: Rama
Posted on: Mar 27, 2011 at 10:04 IST
The stubbornness of the governments especially Chhattisgarh is responsible for fueling the Maoist activity. Illegal mining, ignoring local welfare may be prominent causes but the way they are dealing with Binayak Sen and people of this village instigates people resorting to violence.Similar pattern can also be observed in JandK.
from: Rananjay
Posted on: Mar 27, 2011 at 10:33 IST
Can anyone tell the difference in treatment of poor tribal Indians by this so-called police and the treatment by police under British rule?
from: Yashwanth P
Posted on: Mar 27, 2011 at 16:27 IST
What is the National Human Rights Commission doing…it should take suo motto cognizance of such gruesome and gory incident. An appeal to Mr. K.G. Balakrishnan- please act or quit so that someone more competent, credible and honest can look into this.
from: Mohan Shekhar
Posted on: Mar 27, 2011 at 18:48 IST
I congratulate Mr Aman Sethi for this brave piece of journalism. Wish we had more journalists like him in this country.
from: Kshitiz
Posted on: Mar 28, 2011 at 00:24 IST
All this naked dance of violence by the very people who are duty bound to protect lives and properties of the citizens of the country is a very serious matter. Where has gone their oaths taken under the Constitution of India? We talk of being the largest democracy of the world but have failed when it matters to the poor innocent tribals who are killed at will. This is not the way to discharge frustration of not being able to go behind the blood of naxalites. It is time for Apex Court to take a suo moto notice of the facts and bring the culprits to justice.
from: Pravin Patel
Posted on: Mar 28, 2011 at 06:29 IST
The Home Minister of Chattisgarh says it was the Maoists who burn those villages and molested the women, this evidence is contrary; what’s lucid to the ear here confirmed by both the report and the oblivious authority is that the forces were mobilized, which is logical in the loose government’s an-eye-for-an-eye approach. Their strategy basically shouts ‘if the rebels don’t give up arms and since they think hey have some muscle, we use our arms to show our strength’, and if the government thinks the people directly concerned (which I believe everyone should be) don’t hear them, they retaliate ‘the rebels are bad, if you don’t understand that, then we’ll show you how bad they are’. And they did show them, ruthlessly.
But the only fault the logic perseveres in is when you ask why resistance takes arms in the first place, when you start to wonder why does this violence exist is when it is utterly devastated.Which essentially pulverizes the point of doing such in the first place. The point still being that there are rudimentary individual rights infringed and livelihoods that are being bloody destroyed. I fail to understand how an elected government chooses such childish measures, I fail to understand how the righteous soldier follows an order playing with human lives like old toys, I fail to understand what the ‘upright’ Naxal rebellion is fighting for in their demonstration of spilling blood and menacing penetration of the gullible mind, I fail to understand the point of having such a government if it not be for the protection of the society. Moreover why are the people of this largest ‘democracy’ quiet in their own mundane lives? I refuse to submit to the idea that nothing can be done about this. Isn’t this enough to wake up from the banal sleep?
from: Aman Bardia
Posted on: Mar 29, 2011 at 19:27 IST
Commendable piece of Journalism. The Dantewada Collector R.Prasanna says that ‘The committee shall submit its report in one month’. But what about until then? Shouldn’t he be answerable to those villagers whose homes and granaries have been destroyed by the fire. How will they survive until they receive the compensation amount for their losses (even if they do)?
from: Xitiz Bhatia
Posted on: Mar 30, 2011 at 05:13 IST
What is not understood is to whom these so called special forces answerable to.How come something so crude and incompetent as Koya commandos can be handed responsibility for something do delicate. Moreover it comprises former Maoists themselves. They are just trying to save their asses. Do we even have the same set of laws for urban and tribal people anymore? Why is there no response from the central government on this? Had this been Kashmir, the centre would have been all over this. I am from Assam and I have literally seen the situation in North East becoming chaotic because of this kind of double standards.
from: Arun Kumar Singh
Posted on: Mar 31, 2011 at 15:50 IST
Hats off to Aman and The Hindu for bringing this news from the villages. Can we belive that we live in society where such acts took place between 11-16 March, it came out on 23 March. Aman this is your real tribute to Shaheed Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Can we believe that even after this came out no one is allowed to enter in the area to meet the affected people and provide the food and other necessary things as relief to the people. Can we believe that a Additional Superintendent of Police, Mr. Maravi accompanying Swami Agniwesh on the order of State Government is not allowed to reach to the people with relief material. And finally ASP Mr. Maravi wanted to lodge an FIR of attack and local police station refused to do so. In this situation reporting from the village Tarmetla is really commendable job.
from: Rajpal
Posted on: Mar 31, 2011 at 18:30 IST
Raipur, March 26, 2011
Swami Agnivesh, journalists attacked in Dantewada
Aman Sethi
Comment (2)
The Hindu A Hindu investigation reveals the horrific aftermath of a five day anti-Maoist operation in which security forces assaulted three women, killed three men and left hundreds homeless in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district. File photo: Aman Sethi
Collector, Senior Superintendent of Police transferred following reports of torching of villages
A large group comprising Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the Chhattisgarh police and members of the Salwa Judum attacked social activist Swami Agnivesh on Saturday as he attempted to deliver relief to a village allegedly torched by security forces in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district.
On March 23, The Hindu published reports and photographs alleging that SPOs had torched about 300 homes, granaries and wood-sheds, killed three men and sexually assaulted three women during a five-day anti-Maoist operation in the villages of Tarmetla, Timapuram and Morpalli.
Since then, the district police had sealed off the three villages and intimidated journalists who tried to visit them.
On Saturday, Mr. Agnivesh was to deliver clothes, blankets and other relief materials to the affected villagers when he was attacked twice in six hours by a mob at the Salwa Judum camp at Dornapal.
(The ‘Salwa Judum’ refers to a controversial tribal vigilante group, armed, trained and assisted by the Chhattisgarh government in its battle against the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). A public interest litigation, currently being heard by the Supreme Court, holds Judum members responsible for 537 murders, 99 rapes and 103 acts of arson.)
“Relief material seized”
In a telephone interview, Mr. Agnivesh said the first attack occurred early in the morning when a crowd of SPOs and Judum members surrounded his vehicle, pelted him with raw eggs, knocked off his turban and pushed him around. Reporters at the spot were also manhandled by the crowd. In a dispatch filed from the spot, Joseph John of the Indian Express reported that the crowd accused Mr. Agnivesh of turning a blind eye to the plight of victims of Maoist violence.
“They seized all the relief material intended for Tarmetla,” said Mr. Agnivesh, adding that he then returned to Sukma and telephoned Chief Minister Raman Singh for assistance.
In February this year, Mr. Agnivesh was instrumental in securing the release of five policemen kidnapped by Maoists.
Sources in the security establishment told The Hindu that the 150th Battalion of the CRPF was called in to protect Mr. Agnivesh.
The CRPF was in place by afternoon, when Mr. Agnivesh attempted to visit the affected villages once more. “Despite security assurances by the Chief Minister, we were attacked by a crowd engineered by the Salwa Judum and SPOs,” said Mr. Agnivesh, adding that his vehicle was stoned and he was forced to return.
Reporters at the site said a crowd of nearly 2,000 people at Dornapal attacked mediapersons and broke several cameras. Eyewitnesses said Naresh Mishra of the television channel Zee 24 was among those beaten.
“The police have created a Frankenstein’s monster that they cannot control,” said Mr. Agnivesh. “This was an attack on the administration by an unaccountable lynch mob.”
Reacting to the events of the past three days, the Chhattisgarh police transferred S.R.P. Kalluri from his post as the Dantewada Senior Superintendent of Police. “Mr. Kalluri was transferred to allow for an independent inquiry into the recent allegations,” said Director-General of Police Vishwa Ranjan, “He will take up duty as Deputy Inspector General, Surguja.”
Mahasamund Superintendent of Police Ankit Garg shall take over as Dantewada SP.
The spokesperson for the Chief Minister, N. Bajinder Kumar, confirmed that Dantewada Collector R. Prasanna has also been transferred. “Mr. Prasanna shall take over as Municipal Commissioner Raipur. “The existing Commissioner, O.P. Chaudhury, shall replace him,” Mr. Kumar said.
“Mr. Kalluri has lost the moral, legal and constitutional right to remain in his post,” said Ajit Jogi, Congress MLA from Marwahi and former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh.
Keywords: Chhattisgarh conflict, Dantewada, Maoist issue, Swami Agnivesh
Comments:
The attack on social activist Swami Agnivesh by Chhatishgarh special police forces and its pet organisation Salwa Judum shows how intolerant and authoritarian could become BJP government led by Raman Singh. This is direct attack on democratic fabrics in the country. It also indicates further that how brutal is Chhatishgarh BJP government in silencing the voices and attack on right and liberty of the people of the country! Apart from exposing BJP, it has also proved how it was biased against Dr Vinayak Sen, who was working there as social activists in treating poor tribals and got them jailed on the charge of sedition. If the voices of poor and their sympathisers are silenced in such fashion then what is need of democracy and people have every right to wage relentless war against state terror.
from: krishn kumar singh
Posted on: Mar 27, 2011 at 12:38 IST
Where did BJP come from… since when can a state Govt. deploy army or send in commandos? This is done by Congress+BJP. The only difference is that Congress does not even bother about the health of the Golden Goose.
from: Subramani
Posted on: Mar 28, 2011 at 21:05 IST
Raipur, March 24, 2011
SPOs assault truck owner for delivering rations to burnt village
Aman Sethi
Two days after The Hindu reported that security forces had burnt close to 300 hundred homes and granaries in three villages in Chhattisgarh’s violence-wracked Dantewada district, Special Police Officers (SPOs) of the State police assaulted a truck owner for delivering emergency rations to the affected villages.
According to eyewitness reports, a tribal police corps known as the Koya commandos conducted a five day anti-Maoist offensive from March 11 to March 16 in Dantewada’s Konta block, in the course of which they reportedly burnt about 300 buildings, sexually assaulted three tribal women and killed at least three men (two more are missing) in the villages of Tarmetla, Timapuram and Morpalli.
Yesterday, Dantewada District Collector R. Prasanna constituted a five-member inquiry committee and announced that the district administration would deliver emergency rations of grain, clothes, and cooking and edible oil to the affected villages. However, SPOs at the Salwa Judum camp of Dornapal allegedly assaulted truck owner Kapur Chand Rajput and accused him of aiding the Maoists.
“This morning, the Collector [Dantewada] and Commissioner [Bastar] requisitioned my truck to deliver rice and blankets to some interior villages. As soon as the trucks left Dornapal, an SPO leader called Surya accused me of sending food to the Maoists, threatened me and beat me with the butt of his rifle,” said transporter and Congressman Kapoorchand Rajput.
“Surya said ‘The collector is a Maoist, the commissioner is a Maoist’. How dare you send your truck’,” Mr. Rajput said, adding that Mr. Surya pointed his assault rifle at Mr. Rajput and threatened to kill him.
According to a March 23 report in the Times of India, TOI reporter Supriya Sharma was prevented from visiting the affected villages by the district police on grounds of ‘security’.
Dantewada Collector R. Prasanna said he had received Mr. Rajput’s complaint and said he would investigate the matter. He refused to comment on Mr. Surya’s alleged remarks. Mr. Prasanna said that the rations had reached Chintagupha village and would be distributed to the affected villagers today and tomorrow.
In zero hour at the Chhattisgarh Vidhan Sabha yesterday, senior Congress leader and five time MLA from Kharsiya, Nand Kumar Patel, cited news reports to draw attention to the acts of arson in Dantewada and demanded an explanation from the government. “This is a grievous crime,” said Mr. Kumar, “It has been 10 days since the incident but the government is yet to determine exactly what happened on March 11.”
Keywords: Maoist issue, Chhattisgarh, Dantewada district
Jagdalpur, March 23, 2011
Police ‘attack’ on Chhattisgarh villages to be probed
Aman Sethi
The Hindu A woman sits outside her house amidst her ruined possessions. Eyewitnesses accused Chhattisgarh’s Koya commandos and the CPRF of burning homes, sexually assaulting women and executing three men in Chhattisgarh’s tribal villages. Photo: Aman Sethi
The panel shall consist of two government officials, a lecturer from a government college and two independent members.
The Dantewada Collector R. Prasanna has announced a probe into allegations that the district police and central paramilitary forces burnt homes, molested three women and killed at least three men in a five military operation in March.
On Wednesday, The Hindu and Rajasthan Patrika carried news reports in which eyewitnesses accused Chhattisgarh’s Koya commandos (an armed tribal police corps) and the Central Reserve Police Force of burning over 300 homes and granaries, sexually assaulting women and executing three men in the tribal villages of Timapuram, Morpalli and Tarmetla between March 11 and March 16.
The panel shall consist of two government officials, a lecturer from a government college and two independent members.
“We have set up a five member panel comprising Mr. Suresh Mahapatra, editor of local newspaper, Bastar Impact, Ms. Ratnabala Mohanty, a lecturer at Dantewada Post Graduate College, and the Head of a local NGO Pragati Prayas, Mr. Narendra along with the Tehsildar and Sub Divisional Magistrate of Knota block to inquire into the incident,” said Mr. Prasanna over the telephone.
Mr. Prasanna said that the panel had been asked to report their findings in the following fortnight and that compensation to violence-affected families would be paid by the end of the month.
Acting on media reports that security forces had burnt granaries, Mr. Prasanna said that the administration was also sending rice, pulses, edible oil, clothes and fuel to Tarmetla village.
In a telephone conversation, Chhattisgarh Director General of Police, Vishwa Ranjan ruled out instituting a parallel police inquiry into the incident. “My people on the ground do not agree [with the media reports],” said Mr. Ranjan.
Keywords: Chhattisgarh, molestation, sexual assault, Maoist issue
Raipur, March 28, 2011
Maoists burnt villages, claims Chhattisgarh government
Special Correspondent
The Hindu A villager’s home ravaged in the fire and raids in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district between March 11 and March 16. Besides their homes, Tarmetla residents lost most of their possessions to the fire. Photo: Aman Sethi
Chief Minister personally responsible, says opposition and stages walkout
A week after The Hindu first published allegations that security forces burnt close to three hundred homes, sexually assaulted three women and killed at least three men (two are still missing) in three villages in Chhattisgarh’s Dantewada district, the State government finally broke its silence and blamed the atrocities on Maoist guerillas.
Speaking in the Vidhan Sabha, Chhattisgarh Home Minister Nankiram Kanwar admitted that 327 troopers of the Chhattisgarh Police and Central Reserve Police Force conducted a five day area domination exercise from March 11 to March 16 and raided the villages of Morpalli, Timapuram and Tarmetla; but claimed that, in each instance, the security forces were ambushed by Maoists who burnt the villages and escaped in the ensuing confusion.
Rejecting the Home Minister’s explanations, the opposition held Chief Minister Raman Singh personally responsible for the incident and boycotted the Vidhan Sabha for the day.
According to Mr. Kanwar’s statement, the security forces raided Morpalli village on March 11 this year, when they were attacked by Maoists. The Maoists then allegedly set fire to a number of homes and escaped. Citing the testimony of one Madavi Ganga of Morpalli village in this regard, Mr. Kanwar said a case had been registered in the Chintalnar Police Station.
On March 20, this correspondent interviewed Madavi Ganga of Morpalli. As reported in The Hindu on March 23, Mr. Ganga said the police picked him up, along with his son and teenaged daughter, on March 11 and took him to the Chintalnar police station where he was held overnight and repeatedly beaten.
His daughter said she was kept in a separate cell and was sexually assaulted by policemen. The Madavi family said they were released only when the women of Morpalli surrounded the Chintalnar police station and demanded their release. This correspondent visited all three villages where eyewitnesses claimed that their homes had been burnt by Special Police Officers (SPOs) and Koya commandos of the Chhattisgarh police.
Mr. Kanwar claimed that a similar pattern of ambush and arson was witnessed when the security forces raided the villages of Timapuram and Tarmetla, where the Maoists surrounded the forces, killed three SPOs and set fire to the villages.
In each case, the Home Minister said that police cases had been registered at the Chintalnar police station. However on March 23, a week after the alleged crimes, Dantewada’s Senior Superindent of Police, S.R.P. Kalluri told IANS that he had no knowledge of any incidents in the area, claiming, “It’s all Maoist-propaganda, nothing happened there.” Mr. Kalluri has since been removed from his post and transferred to Surguja.
In the Vidhan Sabha, the Leader of the Opposition Ravindera Chaubey, refused to accept the Home Minister’s statements. “No one from the administration has been able to visit the site. How can we believe this?” he asked.
Keywords: Chhattisgarh, Maoist issue, Dantewada district
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NREGS
Volume 28 – Issue 07 :: Mar. 26-Apr. 08, 2011
INDIA’S NATIONAL MAGAZINE
from the publishers of THE HINDU
BOOKS
Imperfect analysis
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
Writing on new-age working women is a good idea, but this book lacks a context and a framework.
ECONOMIC emancipation for women and the liberating influences brought about by it are issues that have long been debated and discussed. Today, there is no disagreement that denial of equal economic opportunities can be construed as one of the severest forms of discrimination against women. There is still a yawning gap between the constitutional rights envisaged for women and the actual realisation of them. Little wonder then that the Women’s Reservation Bill continues to be a matter of debate even after 16 years, and additionally, there are serious attempts to dilute several existing and important protective provisions for women.
In the centenary year of International Women’s Day, it is perhaps pertinent to look at these issues and the changing relationships at the workplace as they have affected women and their emancipation sought by the women’s movement. The work done by women, and the value, social and economic, accorded to it are other subjects of debate that keep surfacing time and again. Given the strong patriarchal and feudal attitudes that prevail, some are confused about whether the Indian woman has really arrived. The confusion grows when real images and examples of “successful” women who have “made it” despite all odds are shown in various forms in order to convey a message to cynics that the Indian woman is not really badly off, that she has a lot of enterprise, and that through sheer grit and self-determination she is able to achieve much. But maybe this is not the end of the story.
Gita Aravamudan’s Unbound: Indian Women@Work is about the challenges faced by a cross section of new-age working women, a term coined by the author presumably to denote the period following liberalisation and a section of women who entered the job market then. The author, who is no stranger to gender issues (she authored the sensitive Disappearing Daughters: The Tragedy of Female Foeticide), looks into the lives of young women who tell the author how they struggled, coped with, compromised and sometimes rebelled in order to become what they are. The book is a collection of individual experiences cutting across different work sectors. There are journalists, radio jockeys, information technology professionals, brewery entrepreneurs, domestic workers and item girls. To that extent, the book offers variety and some interesting information about the characters. But, in sum, these are all subjective experiences, and the protagonists find equally subjective ways of dealing with them.
Gita Aravamudan’s writing has a certain flow, which is communicative and not intended to stupefy with bombastic words; an easy style that is comfortable but does not provoke or excite the reader intellectually.
It seems the author has tried to look for answers but not hard enough. She concludes one interview with a television media personality with this observation: “She was, in other words, a woman whose unbinding was total and complete. Not many in her generation could hope to achieve what she had accomplished. Not many could aspire to have the kind of freedom she had.” The statements do not inspire, but they do inspire awe. If there is any struggle, it is of the inner self and for self-accomplishment. The problem with using terms such as “unbinding” and giving them an overarching importance and meaning is that a situation to justify the latent gravity in the term has to be created constantly. That is one of the major limitations of the book. It presupposes several things; it predetermines several outcomes in order to justify the title.
Clearly, the book seems to indicate that women do have a choice, provided they assert themselves enough. But the question is whether it is enough to base an understanding on a handful of so-called achievers, strugglers and stragglers, ignoring the vast number of women with low-paid, insecure jobs in the unorganised sector. It is equally important to understand the agencies and factors that shape the conditions in which such women work.
Is it enough to have “individual strength” to deal with the kind of situations mentioned in the book? The samples chosen by the author for her study are mostly educated women, mainly from upper-middle-class families, and some from other privileged backgrounds. They have articulated very typically middle-class concerns. Whether the book was intended to study only mobility and employment trends among upper- and middle-class women and the occasional angst of the item girl who is proud of her sexuality is not clear; to that extent, its scope is limited. Stories of women who work in the most depressing conditions in the unorganised sector would have made the study more interesting.
The tenor of the book gives an impression that nothing has changed fundamentally over the years. There is a certain finality in the tenor in many sections of the book, where the author articulates her own conclusions and views, which, in the absence of a logical trajectory of events, do not appear convincing.
For instance, in the preface, while describing the period of the 1950s and 1960s, the author says that “a silent, almost unnoticed revolution was taking place at the bottom end of the ubiquitous middle class where money was a problem. Educated girls were now viewed as economic assets.” Girls who had graduated from high schools, she writes, began to enter the job market as nurses, teachers, stenographers and bank clerks. But there are no data to support this. There is also no indication that this was region-specific and contingent upon the specific conditions of development and maybe social reform in some States.
In the sectors mentioned in the book, women from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Rajasthan were definitely not coming out in large numbers to work even in the 1950s and 1960s. They were mostly agricultural workers. Some statements obfuscate the repression and economic pressures in middle-class families. For instance: “The education and autonomy of middle class women had had a trickle down effect. Even working class families were getting their daughters educated and many of these young women were entering the job market. They brought home pay packets that transformed the lifestyle of the family.”
PAUL NORONHA
Women labourers from Maharashtra and the border villages of Karnataka wait for jobs on a pavement in Mumbai. Stories of women who work in the unorganised sector would have made the book more interesting.
The discrimination in education continues even today. A recent national survey on primary education revealed that boys were more likely to be sent to private schools, while girls of the same family went to government schools.
The overall situation is clearly not in black and white and the author does bring out shades of grey occasionally. With a limited understanding of what gender actually means (even her respondents do not seem to know that gender is a social and not merely a biological construct), the author quotes a former chief executive officer of Tesco Hindustan Service Centre as saying: “The capability of the individual matters. Not the gender. As a woman you need to have the confidence that your gender cannot hold you back.” The terms “sex” and “gender” have got mixed up here.
“By the 1970s, women professionals were beginning to appear all over the white collar landscape,” writes Gita Aravamudan. There is no information about the class or caste background of these “women professionals”. It is left to the reader to assume many things, including these details. Though not mentioned in the book, in 1975, the seminal report of the Committee on the Status of Women in India came out, detailing the horrific conditions in which women were located. It would have been useful and informative for the reader had the author given some idea of the historic momentum unleashed by the report and the impetus it gave to the women’s movement and women’s studies in the country. How did these changes come about? Were they structural? Were they reformist? Or was it just the easy availability of opportunities that saw a huge contingent of middle-class women enrol for jobs or in educational institutions?
There is a complete absence in the book of the role played by the women’s movement. Had some women politicians, women’s studies’ scholars and women’s movement activists also been interviewed, it would have thrown a different dimension altogether to the narrative, given the tremendous challenges these women face.
The book picks up momentum somewhere in the middle where there is some detailed discussion on sexual harassment at the workplace. The interviews too are interesting and engaging. There are lots of illustrations of sexual harassment at the workplace involving important people. Overall, it is sympathetic to women, but there is this element of doubt that a good number of high-profile cases could have been fabrications, given the huge out-of-court settlements arrived at.
On occasion the narrative tends to moralise, which is slightly disconcerting. For instance, her interview with Shefali Jariwala, who popularised the Kaanta Laga item song and who then disappeared from television screens, is otherwise very sensitively conducted. The moralising part comes when she speaks about Pearl Miglani, the first woman DJ, “who took her music very seriously… as far removed as you could get from Shefali’s DJ Doll”. Such comparisons are quite unnecessary. There is more moralising elsewhere when she discusses the plight of a young unhappily married professional who suffered guilt despite not having had a “physical relationship” with a colleague.
The graphic details make interesting reading. Gita Aravamudan informs us that Shefali Jariwala went into a depression following the breakdown of her marriage and also because of obesity-related problems, but she subsequently regained her self-confidence. Shefali Jariwala, apparently, was a good student all through (secured 88 per cent in her school final), studied engineering and entered the entertainment industry on her own mettle. The author’s understanding is that Shefali Jariwala’s decline into obscurity and becoming the subject of lewd remarks or sexually loaded comments were an outcome of the way she was portrayed in a leading song-and-dance sequence.
Sexual harassment is not occupation-specific; the degree may vary, it can happen almost anywhere and in any society where the dominant ways of looking at women have not fundamentally changed and where there is a weak enforcement of laws protecting women. Many women who do not do item numbers sometimes face equal, if not more, harassment. Celebrities, after all, do enjoy a certain protective immunity because of their celebrity status compared with ordinary mortals who struggle for a living on a day-to-day basis.
The idea of writing on new-age working women is good. What the book lacks is a context and a framework. Documenting details of people’s lives always makes interesting reading, more so if it happens to be a cross section of “women achievers”. The “achiever” and “loser” models are also constructed stereotypes and reflective of the deeply unequal society we live in. To draw parallels between the lives of a domestic worker and the CEO of a company as if to portray a commonality of issues faced at the workplace and of discrimination obfuscates more than one reality.
BOOKS
Portraits of women
INDU AGNIHOTRI
Showcasing the strengths and limits of a narrowly conceived project of feminist history writing.
THE visible presence of the women’s movement in India over the past several decades has generated an increasing interest in publishing around the subject of women. The institutional response to the women’s movement has led to the introduction of “Women’s Studies” in university curricula across the world. As part of the thrust towards multiculturalism and diversity, many universities offer courses that focus on women’s position in Third World countries. At the same time, there is the advance of diasporic India and a booming Indian economy.
All in all, there is an interest in Indian women. Added to this is the mystique surrounding the rich cultural diversity of the country and what the writer of the volumes under review refers to as “two sharply contrasting aspects” of Indian women, “…the first facade is of the serene, primordial mother Great Goddess, …the other is the clouded face of the domestic handmaiden trailing behind men in life expectancy, nutrition, health, education, pay, and other rights on the subcontinent”.
The interest that the women’s movement aroused has generated research on a range of subjects, and there is ample source material available to undertake complex social analysis from a historical perspective.
The present volumes emerge from an effort by one trained in history to cover the entire gamut of women’s lives in India from very ancient times to the present day – a task that not many professional historians in India would undertake, certainly not in a single publication. But those who approach the subject from more distant shores are emboldened by their apparent familiarity with the country and also the need to explain enigmatic India to others. That perhaps explains the drive to cover themes as vast and diverse as region, environment, gender; Vedic goddesses and women; mothers and wives in the Smriti texts; Buddhist and Jaina nuns and laywomen; women in classical art and literature; the divine feminine: devis, yoginis, taras; queens, saints, courtesans; Muslim women in pre-modern India; women in the colonial era; male reformers and women’s rights; feminists and nationalists and women in India today, all in the course of some 500-odd pages.
The volumes are, undoubtedly, packed with information, collected from a wide range of classical texts and also secondary literature. However, the framework within which this is placed is highly problematic. What does one say about a book which states at the outset that “due to the longevity of Indian history, this study of women is, therefore, divided into two broad chronological sections, that is, the pre-modern era from antiquity to the early medieval Hindu kingdoms and the later era under Turko-Afghan and Mughal dynasties, colonial rule and the independent state after 1947”?
This comes after nearly half a century of debate on historiography among Indian historians with regard to periodisation, as well as the need to write history incorporating perspectives from below, apart from the subaltern encounter. The material presented is organised around four interrelated themes to focus on gender and female sexuality, that is, pre-modern social, religious, cultural, political paradigms of women in male-authored texts; their later resurrection by men and women for contemporary political and social purposes; women’s narratives in their social contexts; and the contentious issues of female agency and objectification.
TRAVERSING VAST GROUND
The book traverses a vast ground. There are pertinent and extensive quotes from classical texts. These are supplemented by and counterposed with women writing that was first highlighted in Women Writing in India edited by Tharu and Lalitha, as well as other, more recent, research. However, the focus remains largely on elite women and hardly any attempt is made to match the information gathered from literary texts with evidence from other sources that would give a clearer picture of women’s lives and the material culture within which these were embedded.
VIRENDER SINGH NEGI
A woman labourer in Tehri Garhwal, Uttarakhand. A huge amount of information is packed in the two volumes on women’s work, indentured labour and Goa’s experience under Portuguese rule.
While literary sources remain a significant medium for understanding women’s status, lives and conditions in early times, the importance of archaeological sources and the attempt to locate women in concrete material conditions cannot be discounted, as can be seen from Gerda Lerner’s work in the context of Mesopotamia, which pointed to the tremendous scope for this kind of analysis. However, referencing for archaeological sources does not go beyond the first few pages.
The narrative concerning women starts with ancient and classical texts, which “reveal that in the pre-eminent interface between Aryan and local Dravidian-aboriginal cultures, the core value crystallised across the subcontinent. This was the high honour given to female chastity, a virtue whose lustre almost exceeded that of women’s natural intelligence in archaic texts….”
It is as if the author herself is trapped in the typologies that she traces from the texts: heroic, divine, maternal, saintly, victimised, lustful or manipulative. The women retreat into private courtyards and zenanas to emerge as sisters, matriarchs, wives and widows and feminists in the discourse of male reformers on women’s rights and of “Hindu” and “Muslim” nationalists, and as “objects of male political contestations during the Raj; and in the efforts of the reformers who used women’s customary constraints to negotiate their own place in the Raj, making women fodder for the nationalist engine.…”
It is in the chapter on “Women in the Colonial Era”, where the author uses official sources, British parliamentary papers in this case, to discuss issues such as education and indentured labour that the discussion begins on the mass of women’s lives on a more concrete historical plane.
The gap in the framework of the book is aptly summed up in the concluding section of the Introduction titled “Shakti, Saint or Slave”, which argues that a study of women’s experience is validated “simply because historically women’s experiences have been uniquely their own, whether in segregated female spaces or integrated public forums. Their agency or objectification is specific to each era, region, culture, economy, polity, and religion. Thus this book examines the narratives by and about women in the context of their regional history. To study India’s women, we must come to terms with Indian patriarchies and the region’s contradictions of power and pathos, beauty and ugliness, compassion and cruelty, serenity and chaos.”
To an extent, the volumes showcase the strengths and limits of a narrowly conceived project of feminist history writing, which, even though it manages to put together a vast array of facts, supported by textual and even scriptural referencing for understanding women’s status, leaves the reader clueless as to why and how patriarchy persists or what are the linkages between women’s seclusion, exclusion and selective inclusion within the structures of power.
The manner of presentation of facts foregrounds the need for a more contextualised location of the women referred to, outside the scriptures, outside the courtly intrigues and outside their patriarchal configurations and contestations. In other words, the contestation, as the author clearly understands, is at the level of complex political formations wherein caste and class operate to constitute gender differentially. To analyse that a singular focus on patriarchy will not do.
In a sense that marks the challenge for the project of “feminist historiography”. To weave the story of women within the context of social history needs deeper engagement with the socio-historical process, including in more specific ways. For that a “general narrative” on women in India will not do except to underline that patriarchy existed and operated in such a way as to render women unequal through these times.
The fact remains that a huge amount of information, including on women’s work, indentured labour and Goa’s experience under Portuguese rule, is packed in the two volumes. However, the section headings reinforce the pitfalls of opting for titles that may connect to a Western audience. While the author’s familiarity with South India, particularly with the literary and cultural developments in the region, is a strong point in the book, she has failed to build on it to provide an overview of a vast range of regions and subjects.
Since much of our writing in Indian social sciences is focussed on the North, a more specific focus on the South could have been used to advantage. Thus, much of the information garnered is likely to be lost on the reader. The manner of presentation of the facts, which involves moving from the micro level to the complicated weave attempted on a trans-historical plane, is likely to leave a professional historian with a sense of unease.
For example, in the very first chapter, in a section on “Social Matrix”, the discussion on the Adivasis moves from 300 B.C. to the All India Democratic Women’s Association’s documentation of “rape of women from Adivasi or S.T., Scheduled Castes or Dalits (S.C.)”, all in fewer than 10 pages.
The concluding chapter encompasses some contemporary issues such as declining sex ratios, domestic violence, education, employment and the Women’s Reservation Bill. It is supplemented with a who’s who of women activists in the modern period. However, the book lacks a framework and a sense of direction as what to present by way of a conclusion.
The reader is left flummoxed about the contention that is sought to be made, if any. The point is, when history is presented as myth, text, fact and information, all in one, without an attempt to delineate the different layers or to identify these in the context of specific historical structures and processes, it fails to acquire or impart a clear meaning. In the absence of these linkages, the changing forms and nature of patriarchy appear to be reduced to patriarchal bias in the texts and their composers while imperialism/colonialism become a contestation between orientalists, evangelists, conquerors and reformers-nationalists. Thus, the connections are not drawn between historical process and evolving cultural practices or anti-imperialist consciousness, women’s assertion and organisational activity, even where these aspects are mentioned.
Greater patience could have been exercised while editing the volume as some glaring errors such as defining jhum variously as shifting agriculture, rotational horticulture and just agriculture within a space of a few pages, inconsistency in spelling Garos, and repetition on women in the Sultanate period and in the Mughal courts.
Indu Agnihotri is Senior Fellow, CWDS, New Delhi.
BOOKS
Dark days
A.G. NOORANI
A full and permanent record of the Emergency is provided in Era Sezhiyan’s compilation of the reports of the Justice Shah Commission.
ERA SEZHIYAN’S labours for freedom during the Emergency have not received the recognition that is their due. As Member of Parliament he won respect for his studiousness and dignity. Recently, he wrote a fine study on the Member of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) for the Institute of Social Sciences, New Delhi. It is very appropriate that he should have retrieved the three volumes of the Commission of Inquiry, headed by Justice J.C. Shah, on Indira Gandhi’s proclamation of the fraudulent Emergency and the brutalities and the excesses that followed in its train and published them in full in this volume.
His preface explains why and how he undertook this task. He found on the Internet that Indira Gandhi had recalled copies of the report and had them destroyed. It was a tribute to the quality of its censures. The National Library of Australia had the third and last volume; the School of Oriental and African Studies in London had all three. That is not unprecedented. A student of the Kashmir dispute or the boundary dispute with China will have to seek the records since 1914 from the British Library in London. The National Archives of India will not provide them.
Era Sezhiyan had preserved his copies of the three reports. He has published them here in full as a permanent record of the Emergency, together with some of the important cases that Justice Shah had investigated and commented on and an introduction by Sezhiyan. He raises a pertinent question: Have the records of the Shah Commission been preserved in the National Archives under the Public Records Act, 1993? The commission had taped all the proceedings of the public hearings. A total of 234 tapes were handed over to the Union Home Ministry.
Sezhiyan has provided some details of Indira Gandhi’s misstatement to enrol herself as a voter in the Doddaballapur Assembly Constituency in Karnataka in 1978. She contested and won the Chickmagalur byelection to the Lok Sabha. One hopes Sezhiyan will elaborate on that sorry episode in greater detail, especially the role of R.L. Jalappa. He reproduces in this volume a facsimile of Jalappa’s letter to the Electoral Registration Officer.
Serious questions must be raised and answered on the Shah Commission, including Justice J.C. Shah. To his credit, he spoke during the Emergency to a packed audience at the K.C. College Hall in Mumbai to denounce the 42nd Amendment to the Constitution, a fruit of the Emergency. He ought not to have accepted the assignment to inquire into the Emergency and its excesses.
On December 28, 1979, Justice T.P.S. Chawla of the Delhi High Court delivered a 347-page judgment quashing the prosecution of Indira Gandhi and Pranab Mukherjee for refusing to testify before the Shah Commission. In some 50 pages, Justice Chawla considered the issues of judicial review of the Emergency and the relevance of the oath of office to a Minister’s accountability to law. Those pages reek of error. However, he also questioned the procedure adopted by Justice Shah, and that is a matter which deserves greater attention than it has received. It calls for a thorough and objective study.
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
Indira Gandhi leaving Tis Hazari court after getting bail in February 1978 in a corruption case filed against her during Janata Party rule.
The Commissions of Inquiry Act, 1952, has two pertinent provisions. Section 5(2) empowers the commission to require any person “to furnish information on such points or matters” which in its opinion “may be useful for or relevant to” the inquiry. That person is legally bound to furnish the information on pain of punishment. This clearly applies to requisition for information on specific points which the commission requires. They must be set out in the notice itself.
In 1971, the Act was amended advisedly to ensure respect for the rules of natural justice. Section 8 (B) laid down that if the commission “(a) considers it necessary to inquire into the conduct of any person; or (b) is of opinion that the reputation of any person is likely to be prejudicially affected by the inquiry”, it “shall give to that person a reasonable opportunity of being heard in the inquiry”. The commission can form that opinion “at any stage of the inquiry”.
In Indira Gandhi’s case, clearly that stage was the very commencement of the inquiry. As Prime Minister she was directly involved. British Tribunals of Inquiry followed this practice. She was called to speak only after charges against her had been broadcast to the wide world day after day.
The Commission of Inquiry (Central) Rules, 1972, required, by Rule 5(2) (a), that the commission shall issue a notice to every person who in its opinion should be given an opportunity of being heard in the inquiry “to furnish a statement on such matters as may be specified”. This clearly applied to Indira Gandhi and applied at the very outset.
In Chapter III of the First Report, Justice Shah explained the procedure he adopted. In paragraph 3.13 he argued that a “preliminary inquiry” was necessary to “identify that person” to whom a notice under Rule 5(2) (a) was necessary. This was worse than absurd. It was disingenuous. The identity of the main suspect, then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, was not secret. She should have been summoned and allowed to be represented by counsel from the very beginning.
It is not only Indira Gandhi’s supporters who were unhappy with Justice Shah’s conduct of the inquiry. None questioned the fairness of Justice A.C. Gupta’s conduct of the Commission of Inquiry on the Maruti scandal. One grants that the issue raised here is debatable. Two views are possible. The proceedings of the Thakkar-Natarajan Commission and its unfairness to V.P. Singh brought home to many the errors that commissions of inquiry commit. A full study is called for.
BOOKS
Towards oligarchy
BHASKAR GHOSE
The “democratic process” today is more about securing the interests, political and economic, of the power elite than about representing the people’s will.
RANJEET KUMAR
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
MANY in India have had, for many years now, an uneasy feeling that democracy, as generally understood, sits uneasily among the people of this country. India has large and sometimes articulate political parties and it has had leaders totally committed to the concept of democracy, which is also true. There was Jawaharlal Nehru, Jayaprakash Narayan and others who believed in the concept of democracy as the only one that would keep the country together and take it forward.
Like true democrats they believed that dissent was an essential part of democracy, and that the country would only be enriched by debate and discussion, even by agitation if that became necessary. Their belief was complemented by their direct contact with the people; the trust that people had in them made it possible for them to persuade them to accept, enthusiastically, the beliefs and ideas they gave them.
But when such leaders and people are not there any more, what happens to the parties and institutions they have built and nurtured? One facile answer is that political argument gets stronger and power shifts from one group to another when elections are held. In other words, the people decide who will have the responsibility to manage the country, removing those whom they consider incapable and bringing in those they think can do the job. This is very convenient and comforting. It is also totally fictitious.
It is true that political argument does get stronger, more so because of the increasingly watchful media, of which most political groups have become wary, even fearful, and not without reason. The fiction lies in the belief that the “people” remove those who do not perform and bring in those who they think can perform.
First, the concept of “people” is simplistic; the vast numbers of individuals in the country are an infinitely complex entity consisting of a vast number of groups and sub-groups. This enormous mass of individuals does not come together and decide anything; that is not what happens, not at all. What happens is that a strategy aimed at finding acceptance with groups of individuals, in some cases possibly fortuitously, works or works better than the strategy of another group. In the 2009 general elections, the strategy of what was called the Third Front did not work; most individuals did not trust it. In a muddle of strategies, the United Progressive Alliance got through but not because it had planned to do so. It had, of course, tried to win, but its plans were wide off the mark. When it won it must have been as surprised as anyone else. On the other hand, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) had a strategy that he had worked on for years – to give people the kind of development and security they had been yearning for – and his victory was no surprise, except perhaps to his opponents, and their surprise was more at the magnitude of his success than at the victory itself. It made their strategies and plans look comic in comparison.
Nitish Kumar is an exception, and a phenomenon confined to Bihar. At the national level, and in most other States, the structure of democracy is being subjected to forces that may well change it completely over time. To understand that one has, perhaps, to take a step back and look at what the process is about today.
It is not about representing the “people’s” will. It is about control and power. Our so-called democracy is defined not by the existence of dissent and opposition activity but by the nature of the power wielded. It is monarchical and meant to secure the interests, political and economic, of the ruling group, whichever it is. And this is done by ensuring that power remains with an elite group – preferably the family, but also those who are close to it and share the same backgrounds. One can see it today in what many refer to as the First Family in the Congress; Sonia Gandhi is clearly grooming her son, Rahul Gandhi, to be the next Prime Minister, and should he not marry and have children, then there is her daughter, with two children who are doubtless being groomed as future Prime Ministers or party leaders. But they are not by any means the only family. Look at the number of sons and daughters now who are inducted into the corridors of power: Jyotiraditya Scindia, Sachin Pilot, Supriya Sule, even Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar who is what he is because he is Biju Patnaik’s son, and a whole host of others whom media naively call the Young Turks. The original Young Turks were not just young; they had come to prominence because of their abilities, not because of who their father or mother was.
SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Congrass MPs Sachin Pilot, Supriya Sule and Jitin Prasad, a file photograph. A number of sons and daughters whom the media naively call Young Turks have been inducted into the corridors of power.
Inevitably, the elements of power are being chivvied towards specific families, which will then determine who will stand for elections for their parties, and thus consolidate their own position, securing it for their generation and the generations to follow. Increasingly, their contact with the people has become more and more distant; the people get to be called the “masses” who have to be manoeuvred by skilled managers (devotees of the families, naturally).
It is not a phenomenon confined to the Congress party; it is as much in evidence in the opposition parties such as the Samajwadi Party and others. And where the factor of unease comes in is in what appears to be an inevitable slide towards oligarchy, where an elite takes over power – political and economic. It is economic, too, of course. All the big corporate giants are busy grooming their sons and daughters to take their place among the power elite; Mukesh Ambani and Anil Ambani are only one instance of this. Even the much-revered Tata group is reportedly looking for a Tata to head it once Ratan Tata leaves; Rahul Bajaj has already inducted his son into his empire, so has Vijaya Mallya.
The German sociologist Robert Michels developed a concept that is common knowledge now – the iron law of oligarchy. He says, in effect, that democratic institutions, both political and economic, must inevitably transform themselves into oligarchic entities as the ruling elite strives to keep power and control. The people can never rule; it simply does not happen. He wrote:
“It is nonetheless true that social wealth cannot be satisfactorily administered in any other manner than by the creation of an extensive bureaucracy. In this way we are led by an inevitable logic to the flat denial of the possibility of a state without classes. The administration of an immeasurably large capital, above all when this capital is collective property, confers upon the administrator influence at least equal to that possessed by the private owner of capital. Consequently the critics in advance of the Marxist social order ask whether the instinct which today leads the members of the possessing classes to transmit to their children the wealth which they (the parents) have amassed, will not exist also in the administrators of the public wealth of the socialist state, and whether these administrators will not utilise their immense influence in order to secure for their children the succession to the offices which they themselves hold .” (Robert Michels; Political Parties – A Sociological Study of the Oligarchical Tendencies on Modern Democracy; London, 1916. Reproduced and preserved in the library of the University of Virginia.)
It seems almost natural to us; a large number of us take instinctively to servitude. It will not do to point to the existence of the opposition. Michels argues, very persuasively, that the opposition and the ruling group are actually one when it comes to the formation of the elite structure that will rule. The concern that this rule be perpetuated is a shared one; all that changes is which part of the elite group gets to rule.
One can only hope that this is not what we have in store for us, that we do produce some leaders from outside the elite families who, like Nitish Kumar in Bihar, will lead parties with clear concepts of development.
PUBLIC HEALTH
A dying system
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
recently in Jodhpur
The death of 16 women admitted to a government hospital in Jodhpur for childbirth exposes the sorry state of the public health system in Rajasthan.
AP
Doctors and government officials speak to a women suspected to have fallen ill after being administered contaminated intravenous fluid at the State-run Umaid Hospital in Jodhpur, on February 25.
THE death of 16 women, who had sought obstetric care, within a span of a fortnight following infection caused by contaminated intravenous (IV) fluid injection and unhygienic conditions in a leading government hospital in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan has made a mockery of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the flagship health programme of the Union government. The goal of the mission, launched in 2005, is to provide “integrated comprehensive primary health care services, especially to the poor and vulnerable sections of society”.
The deaths would have gone relatively unnoticed had they occurred over a period of time. It became public only after relatives of one of the deceased women raised a hue and cry.
That the deaths took place at Umaid Hospital, one of the oldest and largest government hospitals, predating Independence, was even more shocking. The majority of the women were poor or belonged to lower-middle-class families and had been admitted to the hospital in an advanced stage of pregnancy. They came from far-flung areas of Barmer, Jaisalmer and Jodhpur districts which lack facilities for obstetric care. Some of them had traversed more than 300 kilometres.
All the women who died were between 21 and 34 years of age. Fourteen of them died after giving birth to healthy babies. Women in Rajasthan are known to be vulnerable to maternal mortality owing to nutritional deficiency and the risk caused by complications during delivery. The State has the third highest maternal mortality rate (MMR) in the country, at 388 per 1,00,000 births. But the latest deaths are a scathing indictment of the state of maternal health care and the public health system in general in the State.
As many as five committees, including one by the Central government, were constituted to inquire into the incident. According to Divisional Commissioner R.K. Jain, the conclusions drawn by a three-member team deputed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have not been made available to the State government or to the office of the Jodhpur Divisional Commissioner. A second viewpoint came from a three-member team, which included a microbiologist from Jaipur. The doctors commented on the lack of hygiene in the labour room and operation theatre of the hospital. Another inquiry, by the S.N. Medical College administration, confirmed contamination and unhygienic conditions as factors responsible for the spate of maternal deaths. A sample of the contaminated IV fluid batch has been sent to the Central Drug Laboratory in Kolkata for verification. Two more inquiries, one by the Divisional Commissioner himself and the other by a four-member team of medical experts from the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education & Research, Chandigarh, were instituted. Meanwhile, the hospital administration suspended a storekeeper and the area drug inspector.
On the basis of the findings of the inquiry carried out by the Divisional Commissioner, the State government suspended three doctors for negligence and lapses in the procurement of medicines. This response came after repeated demands to fix responsibility on senior hospital authorities. The doctors against whom action has been taken are Sushila Boda, head of the gynaecology department at Jodhpur Medical College; Ajay Malviya, Chief Medical Officer (Stores), Mahatma Gandhi Hospital; and Mohan Makwana, Chief Medical Officer (Stores) and paediatrician at Umaid Hospital.
The patients’ attendants had spent anywhere between Rs.20,000 and Rs.1 lakh for medication, in spite of the fact that they were undergoing treatment at a government hospital. The families of the women had to pay for medicines and for blood and plasma transfusions.
Demanding action against the doctors who treated the women, non-governmental organisations such as Vikalp, Gravis and Meera that work in the area of women and health care said complicated surgical procedures should be entrusted with trained doctors. They have also demanded the strengthening of health facilities in Jaisalmer, Jalore, Pali and Barmer districts, pointing out that in the absence of comprehensive health care services in those areas, families are forced to go to Jodhpur for something as basic as childbirth. They demanded that proper discharge papers be given to the patients (in fact, only a few families had any kind of papers with them) and that proper post-natal care be provided for the newborns of the women who had died.
Compensation
The government announced a compensation only after 13 deaths had taken place. Surprisingly, even after the government sealed the particular batch of IV fluids and blacklisted the Indore-based Parental Surgical India Limited and its local distributor, three more women, who were delivered of their babies, died owing to multi-organ failure and septicaemia. One woman, Sagar Kunwar, who was alive but was declared dead in the list issued by the hospital initially, finally succumbed to her illness on March 14. The previous day, Manu, the wife of an agricultural labourer, who had been admitted to the hospital on February 15, died. She had given birth to a baby boy on March 9.
AFP
Umaid Hospital is overburdened. It is equipped to conduct only 40 deliveries a day but 70 deliveries take place each day.
“The doctors said nothing clearly. They said she has tuberculosis and cancer and that they had to take out the uterus because there was a gaanth [the local word for fibroid or a cyst],” said Rekha Ram, Manu’s brother-in-law. He called up from Jodhpur to inform Frontline that his sister-in-law was dead and that the hospital was pressuring his family to take away her body.
“She was in the ICU [intensive care unit] for seven days. We are agricultural workers from Osian block in Barmer. We get work sometimes. We do not even have a BPL [below poverty line] card. Yet, we have borrowed and spent Rs.70,000 so far. The doctors should at least tell us what is wrong with her,” said Manu’s husband, Dewa Ram. He gave this information to Frontline when Manu was still alive. Manu’s two previous childbirths were conducted in the village itself. This time she had developed pain and fever, and that is why she was taken to Umaid Hospital.
The government announced a compensation of Rs.5 lakh to each of the 16 bereaved families. Its mandate of compensation was limited to the deaths that had taken place owing to the contaminated IV fluid. The families of Manu, Prem and Sagar Kunwar, the three women who died between March 13 and15, were not entitled to any compensation.
After the first three deaths were reported on February 13, fourteen other cases were shifted to the ICU wards of the super-speciality M.G. Hospital and Mathura Dass Mathur Hospital, both of which are attached to S.N. Medical College. Umaid Hospital was declared out of bounds for the media after the negative publicity it got following the deaths. A junior doctor, on condition of anonymity, told Frontline that the number of inpatients had dropped. There was no doubt, he said, that referral systems were totally absent in the rural areas. “There is a reason why they come here. The primary health care centres [PHCs] and the community health centres [CHCs] are not at all equipped. They have neither personnel nor infrastructure. What is the point of appointing a gynaecologist at a PHC without providing for other enabling infrastructure and personnel?” he asked. He said that on some days the corridors of Umaid Hospital would be filled with patients.
According to R.K. Jain, people generally preferred to go the district hospital or they went there because someone in the family had delivered there. He said there should be some regulation to restrict the inflow of patients to the district hospitals in order to prevent overcrowding. Stating he was not a “medical expert”, he said he would look into administrative lapses; procurement issues; tendering processes, especially those involving the procurement of IV fluids; the absence of infrastructure in the source areas from where the patients came; and negligence on the part of officials.
“Twenty thousand deliveries are done annually at Umaid Hospital, 30 per cent of them by Caesarean section. There are some 70 cases of maternal mortality every a year. The hospital is overburdened. Most of the cases where the deaths took place were complicated ones, almost ‘gone’ cases. There were two cases of intrauterine death,” he said.
Ashish with his baby girl. His wife, Prem Sheela, died on February 21.
The hospital was equipped to conduct only 40 deliveries a day but 70 deliveries took place each day, he said. “I am going to propose a mechanism to regulate the inpatient traffic here. I am also going to find out the reasons why the CHCs referred the patients to Umaid Hospital in the first place. I will also take to task any auxiliary nurse midwife or Chief Medical Health Officer if any negligence has been found on their part,” he said, adding that not all cases were referred ones. Even if the hospital was overburdened with patients, it was common knowledge that almost all the senior doctors had a flourishing private practice, which on many occasions was conducted when they were required to be at the hospital.
On March 13, when Prem, who was admitted to the ICU of M.G. Hospital, died, her relatives insisted that she was entitled to government compensation to which the medical superintendent, Arun Mathur, agreed in principle. She had been admitted to Umaid Hospital on January 31 and then referred to M.G. Hospital, where she died of multi-organ failure. Arun Mathur declined to comment whether contaminated IV fluid was responsible for the death. “She had undergone dialysis and had low blood pressure. She had been put on ventilator as well,” he told Frontline.
Most of the women died owing to post-partum haemorrhage and septicaemia followed by multi-organ failure, or multi-organ dysfunction syndrome, the medical term used to describe this condition. In some cases, it was a combination of several causes, including disseminated intravascular coagulation. What was shocking was that some of the women had given birth to healthy children earlier and had survived childbirth.
Frontline spoke to five of the affected families, including those who were not on the government’s “compensation list”, and found that all of them were in deep debt owing to costs incurred during the period of medical treatment. They uniformly complained of the attitude of the doctors, including the head of the gynaecology department of Umaid Hospital. Arif Chhipa, a resident of Khanda Falsa in Jodhpur town whose 20-year-old wife, Rukhsana, died on February 22 from a variety of listed causes, including renal failure and multi-organ failure, said the doctors in the ICU at M.G. Hospital were laughing when her haemoglobin level showed no improvement despite blood infusions. Rukhsana had a Caesarean section and gave birth to a baby girl on February 14. Her condition began to worsen subsequently.
“Her hands and feet were swollen. Her stitches were leaking. They took Arif’s consent to do a dialysis on her. She was perfectly healthy when she walked into the operation theatre,” said Shamim, a relative of Rukhsana’s who was with her throughout. In fact, the “cleaning” of the patient, post- and pre-partum, was done by the attendants and not by the hospital staff. “The government-appointed nurses and other staff would not do anything. We got the sanitary pads ourselves and had to clean her up. The table on which she lay was not cleaned properly,” she said. Arif suspects that contaminated glucose was responsible for the death. “We have no bills but we spent around Rs.1.5 lakh on the treatment,” he said.
Narender, a resident of Masuriya Colony in Jodhpur town, was the first to raise a hue and a cry after his 20-year-old wife, Bhawana, was declared dead by M.G. Hospital, where she had been admitted after being referred to by Umaid Hospital. Interestingly, the cause of death was not listed in the information given by the administration. As in the case of Rukhsana, Bhawana’s body was “swollen like a balloon”. This was not Bhawana’s first delivery. She had given birth to two children before.
According to Narender, who is a graduate and is unemployed, she was admitted on February 19 at 10 a.m. (though the hospital records say she was admitted at 4-30 p.m. and list the time of delivery as 3-56 p.m.). She delivered at around 4 p.m. and then started bleeding. She bled all night, and the doctors took Narender’s consent to remove her uterus. However, the bleeding did not stop. It was then decided to move her from Umaid Hospital to M.G. Hospital. Narender said they were fumbling with the oxygen cylinder even as her heartbeat was getting faint.
The corridor leading to M.G. Hospital’s intensive care unit.
On February 24, she began bleeding from her nose and mouth, and dialysis was tried. “At 3-30 p.m., the doctors called me aside and said they were trying to revive her, but an hour later they said she had died. They did not even bother to explain to me what had gone wrong. When I insisted, they asked me if I knew better than they,” Narender said. “I don’t know how I am going to bring up my girls. They are so small. The newborn wakes up in the middle of the night. My eldest one, Kirti, does not know her mother is dead, but she knows something is wrong – she remains quiet all day,” he said.
Ashish is another young man who lost his 21-year-old wife, Prem Sheela. The cause of her death was listed as renal failure, jaundice and multi-organ dysfunction syndrome. He said they had taken her for check-up regularly at the government hospital at Paota and that no problem had been detected at any stage. She was to deliver on February 5, but then five days later she was referred to Umaid Hospital. On February 11, a healthy baby girl, weighing three kilograms, was born. “My daughter-in-law was educated and progressive. She had even taught in a nearby school and wanted to go back to work once things stabilised. She never used to cover her head like other women in Rajasthan,” said a distraught Shiv Rattan, an employee with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited. From February 16, Prem Sheela’s condition worsened.
“After the C-sec, she couldn’t get sleep. They did not let us inside, so we do not know what was going on with her,” said Ashish. Two rounds of blood tests were done, for which the family paid, and it turned out that she had jaundice. “They even said she might die and referred her to Mathura Dass Mathur Hospital. We bought plasma as well on more than three occasions,” he said, showing three receipts of Rs.1,200 each issued by the Umaid Hospital Medicare Relief Society.
The family spent around Rs.50,000 on the treatment. For 12 days, Prem Sheela battled for her life. On February 21, she breathed her last. “We do feel the doctors are to blame,” said Shiv Rattan.
According to the Sample Registration System statistical report of 2008, the MMR in India is 254 deaths for every 1,00,000 live births. Recently, the fourth Common Review Mission (CRM), an assessment of the NRHM, reviewed 14 States, including Rajasthan. It identified gaps in infrastructure and a lack of human resource, especially shortage of specialists, second auxiliary nurse midwives and multi-purpose health workers. It also observed the need for proper procurement systems and the establishment of laboratory services at peripheral levels at affordable rates.
The fourth CRM has recommended contractual appointment under the NRHM, which, given the state of the health care system, may not be a good idea. A Planning Commission study of the NRHM has indicated uneven progress in the implementation of the programme in States such as Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.
Responding to a question in Parliament on the condition of the PHCs, the Union Health Minister replied that many PHCs had been made functional to provide round-the-clock services and newborn baby care units had been established in them. If such a facility was really available in Rajasthan, perhaps many deaths could have been avoided. For the moment, the State government is in the dock and everyone is waiting for an explanation for the denial of proper medical care at the government hospital.
GENDER ISSUES
Reverse reservation
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
The Haryana government order that in effect reserves 67 per cent of teaching posts for men is of a piece with its record of gender bias.
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
AIDWA members protest against the government notification reserving 67 per cent of teaching posts for men, in Rohtak district.
THE Haryana government claims it has a slew of schemes and policies aimed at empowering women, but one of its policy decisions relating to the recruitment of teachers has angered women in the State. In 2005, the government issued an order reserving 33 per cent of the teaching posts for women and 67 per cent for men. The decision was widely criticised as grossly unconstitutional, but it was never cancelled. Following protests by the School Teachers’ Federation of India and women’s organisations against the notification, the government modified it in 2006 by reserving at least 33 per cent of seats for women.
In June 2009, the Haryana Public Service Commission (HPSC) invited applications to fill 1,317 teachers’ vacancies in chemistry, economics, English, fine arts, geography, Hindi, history, mathematics, music, physical education, political science, psychology, Punjabi, Sanskrit and sociology.
The HPSC conducted screening tests on December 19 and 26, 2010. The number of candidates who qualified for interviews was three times the number of vacancies. Against the number of vacant posts in each subject at the time of advertising, a 33:67 division was done, restricting the total quota for women at 33 per cent. For instance, if the total number of vacancies for chemistry was 33 with 21 in the general category, 14 were “reserved” for men and seven for women in this category. In the reserved categories too, a higher proportion was “reserved” for men. This was challenged in court, and a corrigendum was issued following this. But the approach remained the same at the time of screening.
In order to ensure that more men were selected, the cut-off marks for women who had appeared for the screening tests for the posts of lecturers (school cadre) were kept a few marks above those for men in the general as well as reserved categories. For the post of English lecturers in the general category, the cut-off mark for men was 50 and for women 62. For posts in Hindi, the cut-off score for men was 71 and for women 76; for the Scheduled Castes, parity was maintained at 71 for both men and women while for the Backward Classes category, the cut-off score for women was 78 and for men 75. Even for the physically handicapped, the cut-off score for women was higher by a few marks.
The difference in the cut-off marks for the reserved categories, ex-servicemen and physically handicapped persons in all the subjects was obvious. Worse still, women candidates who had qualified with “higher” cut-off marks were not called for interviews.
In response to a query under the Right to Information Act about the total number of female candidates selected to the 627 posts in the general category, the Haryana Staff Selection Commission replied in September 2010 that no female candidate had been selected in the general category for the posts of physical education instructors.
Court verdict
The issue was brought to the notice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by one Ruchi Manglik and other petitioners. The court took cognisance of the matter and was critical of the manner in which the HPSC conducted the recruitment of lecturers in the school cadre. The two-judge Bench comprising Justices M.M. Kumar and Ritu Bahri directed the department concerned to issue a corrigendum and correct the June 18 advertisement that had indicated reservation for both men and women.
The Bench observed: “The advertisement has specified the number of posts for numerous subjects. As per the terms of advertisement, for example in the subject of chemistry, out of the 21 posts meant for general category, 14 posts have been reserved for men and seven for women candidates. It clearly conveys the impression that reservation is not only for female but also for male (candidates).”
Referring to the reply given by the government, the Bench observed: “It conveys in unmistakable terms that any woman having a higher merit would be entitled to be considered as a general candidate in their respective subjects and would be entitled to appointment if her merit is higher. In other words, women could also exceed the limit of 33 per cent and if they are in merit, they are to be given appointment on any of the 67 per cent posts set apart for general category. There is, thus, no reservation for male candidates, but reservation to the extent of 33 per cent is to be made for the female candidates.”
Allowing the petition and referring to Supreme Court verdicts, the Bench observed: “When selections and appointments to public offices are to be made along with post reserved for various categories, proper course required to be adopted is to first prepare the merit list of all the candidates without any regard to reservation.”
A corrigendum was issued by the Secretary, HPSC, on December 12, 2010, which said:
“In partial modification of Advertisement No. 3/2009 & 4/2009 for recruitment of 1,317 and 209 posts of lecturer (school cadre) HES-II (Group-B) respectively in Haryana Education Department published on 18.06.2009 in Indian Express, The Times of India, Dainik Bhasker & Dainik Tribune and subsequent corrigendum issued on 18.07.2009, it is announced for the general information of the candidates that as clarified by the Education Department in compliance of the orders of Hon’ble Punjab & Haryana High Court dated 16.8.2010 passed in CWP No. 10072 of 2010 titled as Ruchi Manglik and others v/s State of Haryana and others that 33 per cent reservation for women of Haryana shall be horizontal as notified vide Govt. Notification No. GSR 24/Const/Art.309/2008 dated 18.08.2008 and the ratio of judgment as laid down by the Hon’ble Apex Court in Indra Sawhney vs Union of India 1992 supp(3) SSC 217 shall also be applicable.”
Satpal Siwach, an office-bearer of the School Teachers’ Federation of India, said: “The idea of different cut-off rates itself is discriminatory. Without reservation, there is a high proportion of women in teaching jobs in schools; it is more than 40 per cent, definitely. By limiting it to 33 per cent, the government has discriminated against women on the basis of gender, which is unconstitutional.”
The move to institutionalise 67 per cent or two-thirds reservation for men has been criticised strongly by the Left parties in the State, in particular the Communist Party of India (Marxist). “Not only women but other categories such as the S.C., the B.C., and the physically challenged have been excluded from selection in the open category,” said Inderjit Singh, State secretary, CPI(M). He said that he had written to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda about this but was yet to hear from him. The CPI(M) has also appealed to the Governor to look into this blatantly unconstitutional order.
Surprisingly, other mainstream parties in the State, including the opposition Indian National Lok Dal, have not reacted to the order. Though there are several Congress Members of Parliament from the State, including Kumari Selja, who are part of the Central government, none has bothered to discuss the issue. The matter was ultimately raised by CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member Brinda Karat on March 1 and she was joined by other members, including a few from the Bharatiya Janata Party. Brinda Karat, who began with the disclaimer that the issue had no political motive, said that reservation was being misused by the Haryana government to deprive women of a level playing field.
“This is a new face of reservation. Thirty-three per cent reservation for women in jobs has been converted into 67 per cent reservation for men in Haryana,” she said, raising the issue in zero hour. The members demanded a clarification from the Haryana government. The Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs, Ashwani Kumar, assured the MPs that the matter would be looked into.
A few newspapers also have been writing and commenting on the adverse effects of such biased recruitment policies. The ploy has been to reserve the majority of jobs for men in the garb of reserving 33 per cent of them for women. Instead of keeping 33 per cent as the minimum reservation limit for women, it has been converted into the maximum limit.
Even on the basis of pure merit, if more than 33 per cent of women were to get selected, this clause would restrict their numbers to 33 per cent. This move to keep women away from their legitimate right to equal participation in the sphere of employment is not surprising in a State where gender discrimination is one of the most serious challenges, honour killings are common and adverse child sex ratios prevail.
GENDER ISSUES
Oppressor’s case
T.K. RAJALAKSHMI
Women’s organisations rise up against a petition that seeks an amendment to Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code.
S. RAMBABU
A victim of domestic violence from Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. A February 25 photograph.
A PETITION that alleges the misuse of Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which has been admitted by the Rajya Sabha Committee on Petitions, has become an object of concern among leading women’s organisations in the country. The petition claims that the law, dealing with dowry-related torture and acute domestic violence, is being misused. The existing law provides for a punishment of up to three years.
The petition, filed by one Dr Anupama Singh, ostensibly on behalf of many people, has demanded that the said section be made non-cognisable, bailable and compoundable. At present, the section reads: “Whoever, being the husband or the relative of the husband of a woman, subjects such women to cruelty shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years and shall also be liable to fine.” Currently, Section 498 is the only law that victims of dowry-related torture and domestic violence can have recourse to. The fact that dowry-related violence and dowry deaths have shown no abatement in the past two decades only indicates that the existing laws have not been implemented properly and have, therefore, failed to serve as deterrents.
It is ironical that while women’s organisations are demanding new laws to deal with the multifarious types of violence against women – the latest one is a law to deal with honour-related murders – and the government is responding positively, demands are being made to dilute existing ones. Besides, a Bill dealing with the protection of women from sexual harassment at the workplace has been introduced in the Lok Sabha. Also on the anvil is a draft Bill expanding the definition of sexual assault to include child abuse as well.
The fact that the Rajya Sabha committee has entertained a petition that seeks to amend Section 498A is perceived as a regressive step. Women’s groups, including the All India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA), have expressed their disappointment and submitted a memorandum to the committee highlighting their concern.
The petitioner has contended that Section 498A is being widely misused, fearlessly abused, and used with ulterior motives by unscrupulous people. The abuse, according to the petitioner, has caused a lot of harassment and torture, including atrocities inflicted on senior citizens, children, women (including pregnant women) and men. The petition claims that “there are several cases of dowry death wherein the supposedly ‘dead victims’ have come back alive, and several cases where the same women has [ sic] repeatedly alleged charges under this law in each of her [ sic] repeat marriages”.
The petition portrays complainant women as veritable Delilahs and Jezebels. It pleads that the law is being misused by women to “enable a get-rich-quick-scheme to extort large sums of money from innocent families”, “as a bargaining tool by those women who indulge in adultery”, to “alienate the husband from his parents and siblings so as to gain control over his finances and social behaviour including his lifestyle”, and to “conceal true facts about the mental health and educational level at the time of marriage, thereby adopting fraudulent means to forge the alliance”.
According to the petition, when their nefarious acts were exposed, the complainant women took recourse to this law, “deflecting the needle of crime on the innocent husband and his family… this law being an exception in Criminal Law presumes the accused as guilty until proven innocent; hence the woman’s word is taken as a gospel of truth. And there from begins the saga of unending trials, tribulations and destruction of an innocent man and his family.”
The law, it says, is being misused “to enable divorce so as to revive any pre-marital relationship that the wife has had [ sic] as she may have unwillingly given her consent for marriage to satisfy her parents”; to deny custody of children to the husband and his family; and to inflict “sufferings on husband and his family to settle scores and to wreak vengeance, thereby posing a grave threat to the very existence of a peaceful family unit in society”. The petition claims that thousands of innocent families have been implicated in false cases as a complaint is enough to arrest the husband, in-laws and anyone else. It contends that this has led to the “arrest of lakhs [ sic] of innocent citizens (thousands of families), with many committing suicide as they are unable to bear the indelible stigma on their honour and reputation”.
Quoting from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the petition says that some 501,020 people had been arrested under Section 498A of the IPC from 2003-06; 294,147 of them completed trial under the Section; and 58,842 were convicted. The petition also quotes a 2005 Supreme Court order where the misuse of the law was compared to “unleashing legal terrorism”; an undated World Health Organisation (WHO) report that has apparently said that Section 498A is one of the major reasons for growing “elder abuse in India”; a Law Commission Report (154th); the Malimath Committee Report (on Reforms of the Criminal Justice System); and the 111th report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Home Affairs, which have apparently acknowledged that there has been widespread misuse of Section 498A.
The Malimath Committee Report made general observations in the section dealing with offences against women. It said: “There is a general complaint that Section 498A of the IPC regarding cruelty by the husband or his relatives is subjected to gross misuse and many times operates against the interest of the wife herself. This offence is non-bailable and non-compoundable. Hence husband and other members of the family are arrested and can be behind the bars, which may result in husband losing his job. Even if the wife is willing to condone and forgive the lapse of the husband and live in matrimony, this provision comes in the way of spouses returning to the matrimonial home. This hardship can be avoided by making the offence bailable and compoundable.”
The Standing Committee report, while referring to the Law Commission’s and Malimath Committee’s reports, also recommended compounding of the offence under Section 498A . It noted: “Section 498A is intended to protect the woman from the cruelty of the husband or his relative. It has been widely reported that this provision has been misused and is also harsh as it is non-bailable and non-compoundable. It is desirable to provide a chance to the estranged spouses to come together and therefore it is proposed to make the offence under Section 498A IPC a compoundable one by inserting this Section in the Table under Sub Section (2) of Section 320 of CrPC [Criminal Procedure Code], wherein it can be compounded with permission of the court.”
On the basis of the general observations of the reports, the petitioner has demanded that the section be suitably amended so as to make (1) the offence under it bailable, non-cognisable and compoundable; (2) to make it punishable for whosoever misuses it; (3) to make the misuser liable to compensate the financial loss suffered by the falsely accused in the process; (4) to make the law gender-neutral in order to protect the interests of any man or woman and (5) to ensure time-bound trial, with a six-month limit.
P.V. SIVAKUMAR
A demonstration against Section 498A of the IPC in Hyderabad on October 3, 2010. The opposition to the law is based on the contention that it is being widely misused, fearlessly abused, and used with ulterior motives by unscrupulous people.
As far as the number of cases are concerned, very few people would dispute the figures quoted in the NCRB reports. Roughly around 80,000 cases of torture are filed every year; every minute, a woman is killed for dowry; and very few of the complaints result in convictions. For this, the poor implementation of the law rather than the law itself is to blame.
Women’s groups feel that any dilution of the law will first leave victims of cruelty in the lurch. Making the offence non-cognisable would mean that the police will not respond to any complaint made by a woman and also not investigate the matter. This would also mean that every time a woman faces domestic violence, she will have to go to the court to file a complaint before a magistrate, a process that the majority of Indian women will not find easy. The offence being bailable implies that no person can be arrested at any stage by the police without a magistrate’s order. This would mean that a woman victim could well face more physical or mental abuse without any protection whatsoever from her aggressor.
Sloppy investigation
As far as sloppy investigation is concerned, AIDWA has argued that amendments made to the CrPC in 2009 included one with regard to the powers of the police. The amendment provides that in cases that entail a punishment of up to seven years of imprisonment the police should, before arresting a person, make proper investigation. It also states that no arrest shall be made if the accused cooperates with the police and does not tamper with evidence. The onus to investigate properly before conducting an arrest is, therefore, on the police.
AIDWA, which is the largest women’s organisation in the country and has fairly long experience in dealing with issues relating to women as victims, says that the ground realities are in complete contrast to what has been presented in the petition. First, it says, women approach the police or any organisation only after going through a lot of physical and mental battery. Even when they have dared to file a complaint, it is common to find gender biases, corruption and inefficiency on the part of the police.
Second, the police have been found to take an inordinately long time to register complaints, and complainants have often had to make repeated trips to the police station. Even the specialised Crimes Against Women Cells (in Delhi and Mumbai) have not proved helpful to women complainants. AIDWA’s experience is that women are forced to attend conciliation proceedings, and the cases are normally registered after the breakdown of these. Neither do the police make attempts to recover the streedhan or dowry in time. The nature of the investigation has, by and large, been shoddy in that the statements of the complainant and other members of her family/relatives are not recorded.
AIDWA general secretary Sudha Sundararaman and legal convener Kirti Singh have demanded that complaints under Section 498A be dealt with in the same way as complaints under provisions for other serious crimes. A perusal of various judgments under this section reveals that there was hardly an instance in which the accused were held guilty under Section 498A on its own. It was only in cases where the woman had finally died that the accused were punished under this section. False complaints, the organisation said, needed to be dealt with on a case-to-case basis.
Surveys
It is presumed that a law can be misused only if there is a fair degree of knowledge about it. The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India conducted a survey of 10,000 women, including working women, housewives and college girls in Delhi and the National Capital Region, and found that despite over 20 constitutional provisions for women, 70 per cent of those surveyed were not aware of their legal rights. Another questionnaire-based survey, on 2,460 young women, done by AIDWA last year in 13 States revealed that violence at home was an endemic and commonplace phenomenon. The respondents were all in the 16-30 age group.
In some States such as Tamil Nadu, all the married women surveyed admitted to violence by their husbands and in-laws. The survey findings from Uttar Pradesh were equally shocking. Of the 239 women surveyed, 132 reported domestic violence, and the trend was common across educated and uneducated families.
The majority of respondents from Mumbai and Pune revealed that remaining single was not an option; similarly, 33 of the 40 women surveyed in Rajasthan felt that marriage was essential. While most of the married women shared their experiences of domestic violence with their parents, none of them reported sharing such experiences with their in-laws. Of the 100 women surveyed in Haryana, 44 reported violence at the hands of their natal and marital family members.
The findings of various surveys conducted only reaffirm what has been known all along – that women do suffer a lot of violence in this country. The virtual absence of any marital rights makes women even more vulnerable in contemplating action against their husbands or in-laws. The latest NCRB data, which are for 2008, revealed that dowry deaths had gone up from 6,975 cases in 1998 to 8,093 in 2007; cases registered under Section 498A had risen from 41,375 to 75,930 (almost doubled), while reported sexual harassment cases had gone up from 8,053 to 10,950 in the 10-year period. There has been a steady escalation in the violence against women, that too dowry-related violence. If there had been a real decline, it would be reflected in the number of dowry deaths.
In a socio-cultural milieu that encourages a culture of silence as far as women are concerned, where getting married and staying married are extolled values, and where marriage is perceived as providing security and social respect, the possibility of a large number of women faking and falsifying incidents of violence and harassment against them is not only remote but almost improbable.
COLUMN
Socialist & feminist?
JAYATI GHOSE
True emancipation of women requires a politics that has been shed of its masculinity to pave the way for socialism for women and men equally.
AJAY VERMA/REUTERS
At a rally on International Women’s Day in Chandigarh on March 8.
THIS year, March 8 marked a century of the celebration of International Women’s Day (IWD). But aside from a few publications and websites of women’s movements, this event went largely unremarked in the mainstream press and also in the public consciousness.
The idea of International Women’s Day was born in the socialist movement in the first decade of the 20th century. Clara Zetkin, socialist leader and head of the Women’s Office of the Social Democratic Party in Germany, proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – to be known as Women’s Day – to recognise the social contribution of women and to press for their demands.
As a socialist and an early (but not self-acknowledged) feminist, Clara Zetkin saw this as part of a broader anti-capitalist movement that would also foster cooperation between women in unions, women’s organisations and socialist parties so they would unite and fight jointly in the class struggle for a more progressive society.
This suggestion was accepted unanimously at the second international conference of working women in Copenhagen in 1910, which included over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women’s clubs, as well as the first three women elected to the Parliament in Finland.
The first International Women’s Day was honoured in some European countries (Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland) in 1911 on March 17. Rallies were held involving more than a million people (both women and men), raising demands for women’s right to work and be given equal wages, to vote, to hold public office and to end other forms of discrimination. The Russian revolutionary Alexandra Kollontai described one of these rallies as composed of “one seething, trembling sea of women… certainly the first show of militancy (in Europe) by working women” (www.leftwrite.wordpress.com).
The demands raised at those first demonstrations still resonate today: an end to imperialist wars; better social and economic conditions for women and children; controls on rapidly rising food prices.
In the United States, in March 1908, socialist women and women workers from the clothing and textile trades had organised a mass meeting for an eight-hour day and women’s suffrage. But less than a week after the first IWD in Europe in 1911, on March 25, the tragic “Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire” in New York City in the U.S. led to the deaths of more than 140 working women, mostly recent migrants into the U.S. This led to greater attention to working conditions and labour legislation for women in the U.S. and other developed countries, and these also became important rallying points for the demands made for women on IWD in later years.
The reason that the date was shifted to March 8 is of great relevance for the global women’s movement. In 1917, in tsarist Russia, Russian women went on strike for “bread and peace”, partly in response to the death of over two million Russian soldiers in war. The strike began on the last Sunday of February (which was March 8 by the Gregorian calendar used throughout most of the world).
The strike continued despite state repression and personal hardship endured by the women. This was the catalyst for – and effectively became the first stage of – the Russian Revolution. Four days later, the tsar was forced to abdicate and the provisional government granted women the right to vote. Ever since, IWD has been celebrated on March 8 not only to press for demands for gender equality but, importantly, as recognition of the tremendous power that women can wield when they unite.
The association of IWD with broader struggles of working people has remained a critical part of its essence. The slogan most often used on IWD was “Class struggle is women’s struggle – women’s struggle is class struggle!”
It was, therefore, very much part of the activities of trade unions and workers’ organisations, which recognised that women’s emancipation cannot occur within a social and economy system that denies the emancipation of workers in general, and vice versa. But as IWD became more international (taken up by the United Nations in the second half of the 20th century) and even “official” in scope, this critical link between the emancipation of women and broader economic and social emancipation of all has often been sidelined.
This reflects a general tension that, unfortunately, still remains between feminism and other progressive Left movements – a tension that persists all the more because the Left is the natural and inevitable home of those aspiring to the liberation of women.
Women have been part of the working class since the beginning of capitalism, even when they have not been widely acknowledged as workers in their own right. Even when they are not paid workers, their often unacknowledged and unpaid contribution to social reproduction and to many economic activities is absolutely essential for the functioning of the system.
However, it did take a long time for women’s struggles to be accepted as an integral part of working class struggles for a better society. For many decades, even after the first IWD was celebrated to highlight the demands of women, trade unions and other worker organisations tended to be male preserves based on the “male breadwinner” model of the household in which the husband/father worked outside to earn money, while the wife/mother did not earn outside income and handled domestic work.
It has taken prolonged struggle and determined mobilisation to generate greater social recognition of the role of women as wage workers in different forms, as well as to bring out the crucial economic significance of unpaid household labour and community-based work that is dominantly performed by women.
Even so, it must be admitted that a major problem for many women activists has been the fundamental inequality in the alliance between feminism and socialism. Donald Sassoon notes in his magisterial history of the European Left in the 20th century ( One Hundred Years of Socialism, The New Press, New York, 1996, page 419): “It was accepted by socialists only on their own terms, namely that the social struggle between capital and labour was to be recognised as fundamental; the emancipation of women as women depended on the victory of the working class.”
Partly this reflected a concern that “bourgeois” feminism would distract from the critical question of class struggle, which is why even someone like Clara Zetkin could insist that socialist women should avoid cooperating with other feminist groups. But the social reality of the experience of socialist countries in the 20th century has also shown that the breaking of gender stereotypes and domestic division of labour are not necessarily achieved through the dictatorship of the proletariat, even when significant strides are made in gender equality in other ways.
For socialist feminists, this has meant a dual and more complex process of struggle: the need to address and confront the unjust economic order that is expressed in class societies, and the simultaneous need to address and confront the constantly regenerated patterns of gender inequality and subordination that are expressed not just in economic terms but also socially, culturally and politically. The complexity is usually made more intense because the second type of struggle involves taking on not only opposing class forces but also elements within parties, trade unions and other organisations of the Left.
The fact that this second kind of struggle is happening more and more in India and elsewhere may appear to be divisive of Left and progressive movements, but it is actually a sign of great vitality.
True emancipation, obviously, requires a politics that has been shed of its explicit and implicit masculinity, to pave the way for socialism for women and men equally. For that reason alone, it is probably important for socialist men to remember and celebrate International Women’s Day.
ESSAY
Long way to go
P.S. KRISHNAN
Budget 2011-12 and the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
V. RAJU
In the case of the NREGS, showing outlay proportionate to S.C. labourers as its SCP is not correct. It only reinforces the caste-dictated traditional role of the S.Cs as labourers. It is the value of the assets of direct and exclusive benefit to the S.Cs created through the NREGA that should be counted as the SCP. Here, a tank being desilted under the NREGS in a village in Krishna district in Andhra Pradesh.
THREE decades ago, in the early years of the Special Component Plan (SCP) for Scheduled Castes – very recently renamed inappropriately as Scheduled Castes Sub-Plan (SCSP) – Indira Gandhi on her return as Prime Minister wrote two historical D.O. letters dated March 12, 1980, one to Central Ministers and the other to State Chief Ministers, regarding the SCP in the Central and State government sectors respectively. These letters are of great significance for the Scheduled Castes (S.Cs) and also for the Scheduled Tribes (S.Ts).
She asked Central Ministers to take up new need-based programmes and reorient existing programmes to suit the specific developmental requirements and handicaps of the S.Cs so that benefits reach them through individual, family and group-oriented programmes. She wanted all departments and Ministries to take initiatives within their respective sectors for the development of the S.Cs. She reiterated the responsibility of each department to execute programmes relevant to the S.Cs and ensure that an optimal SCP for the S.Cs was prepared expeditiously by each Ministry as part of the Annual Plan as well as the Five-Year Plan.
In the letter, she admonished the Central Ministries that while the State governments had made a beginning, most Central Ministries were yet to prepare their SCPs. She underlined the concept of a Tribal Sub-Plan (TSP) to ensure the integrated development of the various S.T. communities, with the aid of pooled financial resources of the Centre and the States, keeping in view their different economic socio-cultural backgrounds. The letter pinpointed the dual disabilities of severe economic exploitation and social discrimination that the S.Cs suffer from and the exploitation of the S.Ts and their confinement to remote, inaccessible areas with poor infrastructure, and wanted every Central Minister to ensure that each Central Ministry made its due contribution to the task of development of the S.Cs and the S.Ts.
In her letter to Chief Ministers and Governors, she underlined that it was particularly important to take note of the developmental needs of the S.Cs in each occupational category, identify the available opportunities suitable for them, formulate appropriate developmental programmes in their light and build these programmes and corresponding outlays into the SCPs. This letter wanted the programmes and outlays in the SCP to be adequate to cover the S.Cs and not be mere token provisions. Also, it said the State SCPs should be improved not only quantitatively but also qualitatively, and satisfactory implementation should be ensured by a clear-cut personnel policy. She told the Chief Ministers and Governors that they should see that the task of development of the S.Cs received the highest priority and that they should give it their personal attention and guidance.
I had the privilege of formulating these two letters for Indira Gandhi. Of the Central Ministers addressed, Pranab Mukherjee, then Minister for Commerce and Civil Supplies, is still active, now as Finance Minister.
Continuing indifference
The neglect of the Central Ministries continues to this day. The indifference of governments to the SCP and the TSP, the goals of the development of the S.Cs and the S.Ts mandated by the Constitution and national policy, and their plight and fate is matched by the indifference of the media, both visual and print, with rare exceptions.
In 1986, K.R. Narayanan, then Minister for Planning, wrote a letter (which I prepared) to the Chief Ministers. In response, N.T. Rama Rao, the then Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, while assuring Narayanan of the State government’s cooperation, in a clever counter-thrust, knowing the indifference of Central Ministries, expressed the hope that the Central Ministries also would be making optimal SCPs as suggested by him.
Budget 2011-12 is an occasion to examine how far this Central neglect continues, how far there is change and what needs to be done this year and ultimately to fulfil the primary goal of the SCP and the TSP as laid down in the Constitution and repeatedly emphasised. Most recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in his address on June 27, 2005, to the 51st meeting of the National Development Council, said the gap in the socio-economic development of the S.Cs and the S.Ts should be bridged within a period of 10 years, which obviously meant that the S.Cs and the S.Ts should reach the level of the advantaged castes/classes of Indian society in all parameters within this period.
Shortly before the Budget, the plight of the SCP came into the limelight, incidental to and thanks to the exposure of controversies regarding malpractices in the Commonwealth Games 2010, including diversion of large amounts of the SCP of Delhi State to totally irrelevant infrastructural programmes of the CWG. A diversion of Rs.678.91 crore was admitted by the Home Minister himself in the Rajya Sabha on August 31, 2010.
Incidentally, what was highlighted in Delhi is also true in varying degrees of other State governments and Union Territories (U.Ts). A task force appointed to review the guidelines on the SCSP and the TSP, under the chairmanship of Narendra Jadhav, Member, Planning Commission, submitted its first report in the context of Central Ministries on November 29, 2010.
The Plan Expenditure in Budget 2011-12 is Rs.4,41,546.75 crore, which is 35.1 per cent of the total Budget. The Plan outlay for schemes exclusive to the S.Cs is Rs.4,639.34 crore and for the S.Ts it is Rs.4,245.55 crore, vide Part-A of Statement 21 and 21A of Expenditure Budget Volume I. Though they represent a step-up of 41.74 per cent and 21 per cent respectively over the previous Budget, the base is so low that the present outlays are a measly 1.05 per cent (0.88 per cent in Budget Estimates, or B.E., 2010-11) and 0.96 per cent (0.83 per cent in B.E. 2010-11) of the total Plan, both adding up to 2.01 per cent. The S.Cs and the S.Ts constitute a quarter of India’s population – S.Cs 16.2 per cent and S.Ts 8.2 per cent – but a much larger proportion of the deprived and exploited population.
Schemes where at least 20 per cent are shown as benefitting the S.Cs and the S.Ts are listed in Part B of Statement No. 21 (for S.Cs) and 21A (for S.Ts). Separate display of figures for the two categories is a welcome innovation of this Budget. In the last few years, the two were jumbled up together. These latter schemes account for Rs.25,911.66 crore for the S.Cs and Rs.13,125.80 crore for the S.Ts. They account respectively for 5.87 per cent of the total Plan outlay for the S.Cs and 2.97 per cent of the total Plan outlay for the S.Ts. Adding both categories, the S.Cs have 8.98 per cent of the total Plan outlay and the S.Ts 5.11 per cent. Part-B schemes add up to 8.84 per cent (6.94 per cent in the last year). Quantitatively, thus, there is improvement but it is not sizable or proportionate to the S.C. and S.T. population.
Out of 68 Ministries and departments, 31 have provided outlays for S.C. and S.T. programmes, 25 of them for the S.Cs and 26 for the S.Ts, compared with 21 jointly for the S.Cs and the S.Ts in the last Budget. This is another quantitative improvement.
The quantitative improvements are the outcome of the Narendra Jadhav-led task force exercise, and this is welcome.
It was the calculation of the task force that if the percentages recommended by it were followed in the Central Plan of 2011-12, 14.3 per cent of the total Central Plan outlay would be available for the SCSP against the stipulated 16.2 per cent and for the TSP more than the stipulated 8.2 per cent. A sum of Rs.6,118 crore, or Rs.6,100 crore more, would be required to reach the stipulated 16.2 per cent in the case of the SCP, and this amount ought to be made available as a lump sum in the Annual Plan and Budget 2011-12 to be allotted by the Planning Commission or the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, preferably the former, to be given to Ministries that come forward with specific “S.C.-oriented schemes”.
Huge gap in outlays
But it is seen that only 7.23 per cent has become available for S.C. development, according to the Budget documents of 2011-12. The quantitative gap, therefore, is not of the order of Rs.6,000 crore as calculated by the task force but nearly seven times as much, namely, Rs.40,980 crore. In the case of the S.Ts, contrary to the task force’s expectation, a gap of Rs.18,835 crore has emerged in this Budget.
Even if, following the methodology of the task force, the Central assistance for State and U.T. Plans is deducted and the SCP and the TSP due and budgeted are calculated on the reduced denominator, the gap will still be Rs.24,570 crore for the SCP and Rs.10,530 crore for the TSP. In fact, there is no need to exclude the Central assistance for State and U.T. Plans, and the SCP and the TSP should be earmarked on those items also – even the task force felt that earmarking under the SCSP/TSP should apply to at least some of the items under Central assistance for State and U.T. Plans, though I would say that such earmarking can and should be done in all or almost all items.
The Budget does not provide as lump sum the gap amount of Rs.40,980 crore or Rs.24,570 crore or even the task force amount of Rs.6,000 crore for the SCP or the gap amount of Rs.18,835 crore or Rs.10,530 crore for the TSP.
This is a serious failure in the Plan Budget-making exercise on the quantitative side. Will this be made good and when? Members of Parliament belonging to the S.C. and S.T. categories and other S.C./S.T.-friendly MPs and the Standing Committee have to take this up seriously.
Qualitative neglect
Even more important is the qualitative side, which is yet to receive adequate attention. There is reason to believe that in many cases Ministries have earmarked outlays for the S.Cs and the S.Ts as part of the SCP and the TSP mechanically without thinking as to what precise benefit will directly, exclusively and indubitably accrue respectively to the S.Cs and the S.Ts from these earmarked outlays.
To make sure that the outlays do not remain on paper without any serious intent or efforts at implementation, as has often happened in the past, each Ministry/department must now specify these direct, exclusive and indubitable benefits for the S.Cs and the S.Ts, and the Planning Commission and the Ministries of Social Justice & Empowerment and Tribal Affairs will have to vigorously and rigorously pursue this. While doing so there should be no effort to earmark a portion of the building cost of the Indian Institutes of Technology and the Indian Institutes of Management and other institutions to be shown as a part of the SCP or the TSP unless the institutions are constructed exclusively or mainly for the two categories of persons.
In the case of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS), showing outlay proportionate to S.C. labourers as its SCP is not correct. It only reinforces the caste-dictated traditional role of the S.Cs as labourers. It is the value of the assets of direct and exclusive benefit to the S.Cs created through the NREGA that should be counted as the SCP. For example, community borewells for S.C. lands; construction of good houses for the S.Cs; laying of all-weather link roads from S.C. bastis to places where they have to go, such as school, the primary health centre, funeral ground, and so on; construction of community study centres in S.C. bastis; and construction of buildings and facilities for anganwadis to be located in S.C. bastis as S.C. women and children are often humiliated by discrimination in anganwadis in general localities. A very valuable item would be the reclamation of the many lakhs of acres of usar (alkaline and saline) lands in Uttar Pradesh and other States, to be distributed among rural landless S.C. families.
Instances can be multiplied but these illustrate the type of vigorous and rigorous exercise required to translate the outlays shown for the S.Cs and the S.Ts into real and tangible benefits in full for them. The resultant schemes and their details should be put out in the public domain and communicated to all active non-governmental organisations and activists to facilitate grass-roots-level social audit, feedback and timely correctives.
If the amount of the gap mentioned above is provided as a lump sum to make up 16.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent respectively for the SCP and the TSP, through the efforts of MPs, the Planning Commission and the two nodal Ministries, this amount should not be frittered away but used for solid schemes that will remove the gap in all developmental and welfare parameters between the S.Cs and the S.Ts on the one hand and the advanced castes/classes on the other as directed by the Prime Minister and Chairman of the Planning Commission in June 2005. The Prime Minister’s solemn direction should not be allowed to remain only on paper.
Required methodology
All these, if done properly, with a sense of mission, will take us only part of the way. To go the full way, there is no alternative to the approach I have pleaded for in working groups and steering groups from 1982 onwards and through documents in the public domain from 1996 onwards (for example, Dalit Manifesto, 1996; Himalaya Proclamation, 2004; and Draft Common Minimum Programme, 2009). The population-equivalent proportion (at present 16.2 per cent and 8.2 per cent) of the total Central Plan outlay should be set apart respectively as the SCP and the TSP before the allocation of the total outlay among sectors and Ministries.
Similarly, population-equivalent proportion should also be set apart as the SCP and the TSP in each State Plan. Within this untied total corpus of the SCP and the TSP of the Centre and the States, schemes and programmes should be sanctioned on the basis of the developmental needs and priorities of the S.Cs and the S.Ts, which will bring about their economic liberation and educational parity at all levels with the advanced castes and secure their protection from violence (atrocities) and humiliation (“untouchability”) and push up indicators for the S.Cs and the S.Ts in all parameters – economic, occupational, educational (at all levels), health (infant mortality, under-five mortality, anaemia, malnutrition) to the level of the advanced castes.
Such schemes must include a task force in each taluk/tehsil/mandal to identify, in association with local S.Cs and S.Ts, all lands distributable to landless rural S.Cs and S.Ts (assessed waste/ gair-mazaruva, bhoodan, and reclaimable usar lands, and so on), evict encroachers and make grants with real possession to landless S.Cs and S.Ts, and a district-level task force for supervision and direction, thus fulfilling a pre-Independence national commitment; and comprehensive minor irrigation for all lands of the S.Cs and the S.Ts through community borewells, tube wells, and so on, one of the unfulfilled commitments of the United Progressive Alliance’s Common Minimum Programme, 2004, and of the President’s Address to Parliament, 2004.
This will not only give economic freedom and status for the S.Cs and the S.Ts but also impart a big push to food production, removing the fear of the C. Rangarajan Committee regarding viability of a food and nutrition security law covering all deserving people (who will inter alia include all rural and urban slum-resident S.Cs and S.Ts and most of the Backward Classes) – the S.Cs and the S.Ts if universally endowed with lands can ensure adequate additional food production required.
On the educational side, there will have to be pre-primary education for all S.C. and S.T. children by upgrading anganwadis into pre-primary schools with qualified teachers, and, as recommended in 2008 by the Group of Ministers on Dalit Affairs set up in 2005, setting up a network of high-quality residential schools to cover all children of S.Cs and similarly also of S.Ts and B.Cs, especially More, Most and Extremely Backward Castes among the B.Cs, including Muslim and Christian B.Cs.
These steps have to be accompanied by the upgradation of S.C. bastis and tribal hamlets to humanly acceptable levels with all-weather connectivity and with all necessary amenities, including community study halls for children with computers and 24-hour electricity; and special coaching schemes to enable the S.Cs and the S.Ts to fully occupy reserved seats in higher professional and technological institutions.
Other musts are mobile task forces to ruthlessly extirpate rampant “untouchability”, bonded labour and atrocities, and so on. These are instances and more such schemes and details are available in documents I have referred to and in my book Empowering Dalits for Empowering India: A Road Map (Manak Publications, New Delhi, 2009).
Planning for B.Cs?
Planning for the B.Cs with the objective of removing the backwardness of each caste of the B.Cs and to bring them to the level of advanced castes in all parameters has not even been thought of seriously until now. The methodology appropriate for this has been detailed in the Report of the Planning Commission’s Working Group on the Empowerment of Backward Classes in the Tenth Plan, 2001, under my chairmanship, which, like all working group reports on deprived categories and social classes is gathering dust.
All those who are wedded to the human and constitutional values of equality and social justice with, in the specific context of India, focus on the S.Cs, the S.Ts and the B.Cs, especially the traditionally landless castes of the B.Cs (More, Most and Extremely Backward castes of B.Cs), including the B.Cs of Muslim, Christian and other religious minorities and women and children of these three social categories, and who are concerned with social cohesion, national unity and optimal progress of the nation, should work proactively for this cause wherever and whatever they are, whether MPs or MLAs, other political leaders, the Prime Minister, Chief Ministers and Ministers, All India Service and Central officers, other officers, economists, professionals, educationists, bankers and development financiers or media professionals or other enlightened citizens.
Our media, which deserve congratulations on many matters, unfortunately, have totally missed the S.C. and S.T. aspect of the Budget and the virtually absent B.C. aspect. I hope they will remove this blind spot.
P.S. Krishnan is a former Secretary to the Government of India and has been a social justice expert for the last nearly six decades.
COLUMN
Urban challenges
R.K. RAGHAVAN
Despite the recent attempts of the police force to build bridges with people, policing in cities does not measure up to popular expectations.
SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA
Radhika Tanwar, who was shot dead near her college in New Delhi on March 8.
KUDOS to the Delhi Police for swiftly solving the Radhika Tanwar murder case that had shocked the whole city. Radhika, a girl of 20, was shot dead in broad daylight outside her college. It is sad that very few onlookers went to her assistance. It is just possible that she could have been saved if she had been rushed to the nearest hospital for prompt medical attention.
Worse was to follow. The crime must certainly have been witnessed by a large number of people. None, however, came forward to help the police with any information. It is a matter of gratification that the Delhi Police could still make headway and identify the assailant, a young deranged person who had stalked Radhika for years. This is the crux of the problem. The police are expected to contain crime and also solve it with no support from the community.
A few months ago, the Delhi Police similarly cracked a case of gang rape in which a woman was attacked by a pack of goons in a moving car. This was a blind case, and the police were berated for not solving it. That the police managed to locate the aggressors within weeks was a tribute to their perseverance.
There are several other such successes of which the Delhi Police can rightly be proud of, but these are unknown to the public. Undeniably, however, the police in the capital have a press that constantly looks for their failures rather than achievements. This is probably true of the police the world over. But it is very much so in our country, with so many newspapers and television channels competing fiercely with one another in a rat race for survival and looking all the time for the negative and the sensational news.
What do the several instances of the Delhi Police’s success (including in the case of Radhika Tanwar) mean to society at large? The obvious fact is that a police force in any Indian city can still give a good account of itself in spite of the heavy odds stacked against it in the form of burgeoning residential settlements, an enormous floating population, lack of manpower, an uncooperative public, and corruption within its ranks. What the police need are enormous motivation and generous public and political support.
Talent within police forces is abundant, providing the building block for enhancing police effectiveness. More and more young men and women, many with college degrees, are willing to join the police. They are good clay to be moulded by their supervisors. The million-dollar question is whether such a resource is sensibly utilised and enthused by the leadership. The answer is both “yes” and “no”. There are a few young and imaginative Indian Police Service officers, some with a Management degree, who understand the value of morale in a work group that is overburdened and stressed all the time and needs a dynamic leadership if it has to remain on course.
SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR
Ram Singh alias Vijay, the main accused, when he was produced in a District Court at Dwarka in New Delhi.
They are also trying many innovations particularly in the area of better relations with the public so as to enhance the latter’s stakes in efficient policing. In spite of this commendable endeavour, policing in cities does not measure up to popular expectations. There is often criticism that the police are corrupt and inefficient and that no sensible citizen will dare go to a police station for assistance.
There was the recent suicide of an Inspector of Police in Chennai who possibly could not cope with work pressure, especially in the form of investigation into a sensational and clueless murder, and put an end to himself. While it is prudent not to play up this sad occurrence and also unfair to indulge in generalisations, the suicide stands out as an example of what can happen to a police officer who is battling complicated crime and coping with a maddening workload. The need to institutionalise the practice of counselling for the members of an overstretched police force can hardly be overstated. The pressures on urban police are far higher than an essentially rural force, which has fewer cases to handle and more time to respond to a crime or a public order problem, usually away from media glare.
While training and incentives can play a major role in strengthening police professionalism, there is a lot that can be done by way of restructuring the police organisational structure. Little thought is devoted by senior leaders to this subject of providing a new format to police forces so that delivery of service is more acceptable to the common man. One striking feature of the Indian police force is that it is top heavy, with a ridiculous number of Directors General of Police and Additional Directors General of Police. This is widely commented upon by the junior ranks and the constabulary, which is at the bottom of the pyramid.
This has been brought about by the nearly time-bound promotions in the all India services, whereby non-performers and those with an unsavoury reputation also make the grade. What is more significant is that a majority of those at the top do not have enough work to keep themselves occupied. This leads to measurable frustration and consequent jockeying for the few important positions. It is necessary to explore whether such unutilised talent can be deployed to beef up urban policing, of course, without disrupting the command structure.
Nothing should be done to dilute the authority of the Commissioner of Police. It is possible to create special wings that will address major urban problems such as youth violence; trafficking in human beings, especially women and children; peddling drugs; and so on. This is a delicate exercise that will involve fusing of the line of control with operational freedom. This may seem a vague and impractical thought, but it is worth an experiment if the police need to leverage available talent.
The ills of a police station
The police station is the fundamental unit of policing in the country. It is, however, the weakest link in the chain and has brought in a lot of odium to the forces. It suffers from a variety of ills: modest manpower, a faultily constructed building with very limited space, lack of an area for rest and recreation for the men and women who work there, and abysmally poor facilities to receive visitors. These together build an atmosphere of gloom and depression. Should this be so in an era when workplaces are so employee-friendly and hygienic? A change will bring in rich dividends. You provide the ambience. Policemen will thereafter respond with glee and satisfaction.
Is it not possible to build about 100 police stations in each major city that will not be luxury offices but will certainly be clean and comfortable locations where policemen will give their best? A few years ago, private industry came out generously to build several new police stations in Bangalore as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR). This should be emulated by most of the other cities in the country, whereby there is basic infrastructure for the police to provide uninterrupted service to the common man. This would definitely pave the way for better performance in an urban setting.
G.P. SAMPATH KUMAR
A police station in Bangalore. A file photograph. A few years ago, private industry came out generously to build several new police stations in Bangalore as part of its corporate social responsibility.
One chronic complaint against the urban police is that they are tardy in responding to emergency calls. One may recall that in the United States, a police chief’s efficiency is judged almost solely on the time taken by his force in responding to urgent citizen calls for help. His contract will not be extended if his force fails this test.
There is no such public audit in India. I would strongly recommend that every city police force maintain a daily log of the response time and publicise it so that the public get to know how well its police are performing. This will have to be automated so that there is no fudging of the response time. This is the only way one can keep policemen on their toes and seek to raise levels of public satisfaction. This is how one can also enhance police accountability.
Traffic management in all major cities is fast breaking down. It is not merely the volume of traffic that is a major concern. It is equally the shrinking infrastructure available to the management and the growing indiscipline of road users, both those who drive and those who negotiate the thoroughfares on foot. There is a general feeling of helplessness that bodes disaster for the next few years, when traffic will come to a near grinding halt in the six metropolises (including Bangalore and Hyderabad) during peak hours.
This is not a mere police problem as the common man believes. The whole administration will have to rise as one and work in an integrated fashion. Now such coordination is evident only in a small measure. What is absent is the political will to clear pavements that are massively encroached on by hawkers, who have to grease the palms of enforcement personnel, both the city corporation and the police, on a regular basis.
An encroachment-free pavement and a free hand to the police to proceed against drivers of all classes of vehicles and impose a spot fine for violating basic traffic rules can improve the situation greatly. The way our polity is organised offers little hope that there will be professional and ruthless enforcement of the legal provisions available. Those who rule us do not understand the gravity of the present situation.
Unfortunately, such critical civic issues do not figure in election manifestos. As a result, urban policing will continue to be sloppy for many decades to come, much to the chagrin of the law-abiding citizen.
COLUMN
Warning signals
PRAFUL BIDWAI
As the global nuclear industry’s fate hangs in the balance, India must rethink its nuclear power expansion plans and impose a moratorium on new reactors.
TOMOHIRO OHSUMI/BLOOMBERG
A rod containing plutonium-uranium mixed oxide, known as MOX fuel, is being loaded into Reactor No. 3 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station on August 21, 2010.
“We cannot afford another accident.” This was the categorical comment of Mohamed ElBaradei, then the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General, on a nuclear mishap at a seven-reactor plant at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, the world’s largest nuclear power station, that released 1,200 litres of radioactive water following an earthquake in Japan in July 2007.
The operator of the plant was Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), which also runs the Fukushima reactors that have just had a huge loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA) following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. ElBaradei said: “It’s clear that this earthquake, as Tepco … indicated, was stronger than what the reactor was designed for.” The Fukushima reactors are older than those at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa and probably more under-designed. Tepco lied about the 2007 accident by claiming that there had been no radioactivity release. Investigators found that it had unknowingly built the plant on top of an active seismic fault.
Tepco has now plunged the global nuclear industry into its worst crisis since the Chernobyl disaster, whose 25th anniversary falls on April 26. Although the three reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear station have not had a core meltdown at the time of writing, in some ways the crisis is even more severe than the Chernobyl catastrophe. Chernobyl was attributed to a flawed reactor design and sloppy operating practices in industrially backward Ukraine. Fukushima cannot be so attributed. Japan’s nuclear safety standards are supposedly the best in the global nuclear industry.
The accident that the industry “cannot afford” has probably happened. The industry’s fate now hangs precariously in the balance in Japan. If the Fukushima reactors’ cores cannot be rapidly cooled and if a large radioactivity release occurs, with or without a complete core meltdown, the industry’s days may well be numbered. It is already suffering from stagnation and decline: world nuclear power generation peaked in 2006/07 and is falling, as is the number of operating reactors.
The United States’ nuclear industry, which has received no new reactor order since 1973, has not recovered from Three Mile Island (1979). Nor has the European industry overcome the blow delivered by the Chernobyl incident. The “nuclear renaissance” announced by George W. Bush always looked wobbly, with poor economics and a bad “learning curve”: the industry takes almost twice as long to build a reactor now as it did in the 1960s and 1970s. Now, the “renaissance” will probably be terminated as the industry enters a new phase of crisis.
What exactly happened in Japan over the fateful weekend of March 12-13? In the absence of complete information, which neither Tepco nor the Japanese nuclear regulatory agency has parted with, it is hard to reconstruct the precise sequence. But going by analyses by the U.S.-based Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), and other independent experts, the earthquake shut down the three operating reactors at Fukushima, as designed, thereby cutting off the power with which to cool the reactors’ still-hot cores and control rods. As designed, the back-up diesel generators cut in, but an hour later, cut out, for as-yet-unknown reasons.
The core, containing hundreds of tonnes of fuel, started heating up further. As water circulation stopped, more than half the core was exposed in Reactors 3 and 1. It was fully exposed in Reactor 2, which is also in distress now.
The three reactors all suffered a LOCA, which carries the hazard of a partial or complete core meltdown. On March 12, an explosion occurred in the Reactor 1 building, probably caused by accumulated hydrogen. The hydrogen was probably produced by the hot fuel. The detection of significant quantities of caesium-137 outside the reactors suggests that the fuel was damaged. Caesium-137 is a product of the splitting or fissioning of uranium atoms, as is iodine-131. Tepco claims that neither the Reactor 1 vessel nor its primary containment, a steel vessel surrounded by a reinforced concrete shell, was breached. The claim is hard to verify. But the concrete shell could well have been damaged by the two explosions. It is also not known whether the control room and the power cables needed for the emergency equipment used to cool the reactor core, which are located outside the primary containment, were damaged.
At any rate, unspecified quantities of radiation were released. Radiation from Daiichi was detected by a helicopter 100 kilometres away. Of particular significance are iodine-131 (which gets concentrated in the thyroid, leading to cancer) and caesium-137 (which is similar to potassium in its chemical properties and gets easily absorbed in human tissues). These releases have grave health implications. Caesium-137′s half-life is about 30 years, which means it will take a century to decay significantly.
To cool the reactors’ cores, Tepco has been pumping seawater into them with fire-pumps against high pressure. This is an option of last resort and will mean writing off the reactors. Tepco has also been venting contaminated steam and other radioactive vapours from time to time to release high pressure, thus adding to the harm to the public.
To sum up, the Daiichi reactors suffered LOCAs and may yet undergo a core meltdown with catastrophic radiation releases. There is clinching evidence of reactor core/fuel damage from Reactor 1. All three reactors have had explosions. The situation is not under control despite desperate measures.
There are other apprehensions too. Two are important. There are reports that large quantities of spent-fuel rods are stored in the Reactor 1 building in keeping with the General Electric Mark I design. They pose a great hazard because of the site’s flooding under the tsunami. These rods contain tonnes of high-level radioactive waste. Secondly, Reactor 3 uses mixed uranium-plutonium oxide (MOX) fuel in the core. According to Edwin Lyman of the UCS, “the use of MOX generally increases the consequences of severe accidents in which large amounts of radioactive gas and aerosol are released compared to the same accident in a reactor using non-MOX fuel…. Because of this, the number of latent cancer fatalities resulting from an accident could increase by as much as a factor of five for a full core of MOX fuel compared to the same accident with no MOX.”
General Electric’s Mark I design, it emerges, is unusually vulnerable to containment failure in the event of a core meltdown. A recent study by Sandia National Laboratories shows that the likelihood of containment failure is nearly 42 per cent. “The most likely failure scenario involves the molten fuel burning through the reactor vessel, spilling onto the containment floor, and spreading until it contracts and breaches the steel containment-vessel wall. The Sandia National Laboratories report characterises these probabilities as ‘quite high’.”
The crisis in Japan proves what might be called the nuclear version of Murphy’s Law: all that can go wrong will go wrong at some point in a nuclear reactor. Japan is a technologically advanced country, and its safety standards are among the world nuclear industry’s highest. This Fukushima crisis shows that all reactors are vulnerable to the risk of catastrophic accidents irrespective of precautions and safety measures.
The Japan crisis holds a number of lessons for India as it embarks on a massive nuclear power expansion programme, which will double and then further triple India’s nuclear capacity. First, nuclear power generation is inherently hazardous. It is the only form of energy generation that can lead to a catastrophic accident with horrifying long-time consequences in health damage and environmental contamination. Human error or a natural calamity can trigger a catastrophic accident – but only because reactors are themselves vulnerable.
Reactors are high-pressure high-temperature systems in which a high-energy fission chain reaction is only barely controlled. In organisation theory terms, discussed ably by Charles Perrow in his classic Normal Accidents, nuclear reactors are both systemically complex and internally tightly coupled. A fault or malfunction in one subsystem is quickly transmitted to other subsystems and gets magnified until the whole system goes into crisis mode, often in seconds or minutes.
Second, nuclear power involves radiation exposure at all stages of the so-called “nuclear fuel cycle”, from uranium mining and fuel fabrication, to reactor operation and maintenance, to routine emissions, to spent-fuel handling, storage and reprocessing. As this column has discussed earlier, reactors leave a toxic trail of high-level radioactive wastes. These remain hazardous for thousands of years. The half-life of plutonium-239, produced by fission, is 24,000 years. Science has no way of safely storing nuclear wastes for such long periods, let alone neutralising them or disposing of them.
Third, these risks are turning out to be unacceptable. They can only be remedied at a high expense, which would make nuclear power even more exorbitantly expensive than it already is. Fourth, while the industry claims nuclear power is safe, it expends a considerable effort in lobbying for laws that limit the operator’s or supplier’s liability for accidents to artificially low levels.
The objections raised by the U.S. and France to India’s recently passed Nuclear Liability Bill, despite the artificially low limit placed on liability at a few hundred million dollars, signify that the industry acknowledges that nuclear power carries high risks of damage but wants governments – that is, the public – to subsidise and absorb them.
Fifth, India has no independent authority that can evolve safety standards and regulate reactors for safety. The Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) is not such an authority. It is dependent for its budget, equipment and personnel on the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and reports to the Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), who is also the DAE’s Secretary. Over the four decades and more since the Tarapur reactors were installed, the DAE has merely implemented or copied U.S. and Canadian designs, with minimum modifications. It has shown no ability to improve substantially on existing safety designs, leave alone innovating new ones.
Sixth, the Tarapur reactors are based on General Electric’s (GE) Boiling Water Reactor (BWR) design, similar to the Fukushima reactors, only older, smaller, and possibly with less advanced safety systems. This, coupled with Sandia National Laboratories’ conclusion that its primary containment is fragile, demands a thorough analysis in collaboration with other operators of GE reactors, including Tepco. Meanwhile, it would be prudent to shut down the two Tarapur reactors, which are more than 40 years old and badly contaminated.
Seventh, India must rethink its plans to expand nuclear power generation by importing French, Russian and U.S. reactors, including the untested design of the French company Areva’s European Pressurised Reactors (EPRs), six of which are to be installed at Jaitapur in Maharashtra. These contracts are being given away to foreign companies, without even the pretence of competitive bidding or techno-economic evaluation, as a means of rewarding them for the role their governments and business lobbies played in the completion of the India-U.S. nuclear cooperation deal and its endorsement by the IAEA and the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).
These reactors, including the proposed AP-1000 designed by Westinghouse in the U.S., have not passed the approval barrier in any country with a reasonably independent regulatory authority. Their designs have not yet been frozen and their hazards are not fully understood. Besides, their capital costs are far, far higher than those of indigenous reactors, which themselves produce power that is about twice as expensive as electricity from conventional sources, and some renewable sources too. Finally, it would be a grave blunder for India to seek energy security through the nuclear route. The route is bound up with unacceptable hazards and long-term legacies of decommissioning nuclear reactors (which can cost one-third to one-half as much as constructing new ones) and waste storage over centuries.
As energy planners such as A.K.N. Reddy have convincingly shown, India’s energy needs would be best met by a thoughtful combination of conservation; local decentralised systems, including biomass, solar-thermal and wind; and a measure of conventional sources. Besides, there is a huge potential for solar photovoltaics and micro- and mini-hydroelectricity, which has not been tapped. If, as analysts argue, it is possible even for the U.S. to have a low-carbon, non-nuclear future, why should that not be so for India?
After the Japan crisis, the issue of nuclear safety has become paramount. It must take precedence over all else. It would be downright unethical to sacrifice safety in order to appease an industry that has failed the world or to please the technocratic nuclear elite that considers itself infallible, omniscient and above the public interest. Japan’s greatest lesson is that human societies and institutions must not become slaves to the nuclear industry.
…and I am Sid Harth
Filed under News, Views and Reviews
03/23/2011
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PM and PM Wannabe
Tarapore Nuclear Power Plant
New Delhi, March 24, 2011
Tehelka comes in handy for defensive Congress
Smita Gupta
Days after being on the defensive on the WikiLeaks disclosures of a possible cash-for-votes scam back in 2008, a belligerent Congress went for the jugular, bringing cheer to the ruling party. In the Lok Sabha, it was a combative Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal; in the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister P. Chidambaram held the fort.
Emboldening the Congress on Wednesday was the publication of a news story in Tehelka, suggesting that the BJP had masterminded a cash-for-votes sting operation through the CNN-IBN channel in 2008, to destabilise the government.
Indeed, the Tehelka report came in handy, with Mr Chidambaram emphasising that the sting operation was not an independent journalistic exercise but a “deliberate attempt in collaboration with a political party” to destabilise the government, and adding the Delhi Police would include these new revelations in its investigations into the cash-for-votes scam.
In the Lok Sabha, Mr. Sibal quoted at length from the Tehelka report, to great effect. And Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi, usually very circumspect, was provoked into heckling a surprised BJP member Yashwant Sinha.
The Prime Minister, too, stunned the Lok Sabha when he quoted a Urdu couplet to mock Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj, before going in for the kill, attacking the former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. Dr. Singh said Mr. Advani had never forgiven him as the BJP leader believed that “being the Prime Minister was his birthright.”
The impact of the combative performance of Dr. Singh, Mr. Sibal and Mr. Chidambaram, together with the publication of the Tehelka report, visibly lifted the mood of a despondent Congress. The Congress may not have been exonerated, but with the spotlight now on the BJP, the heat is no longer on just the ruling party. A Congress MP summed it up: “After today’s discussion, there is really very little left to say.”
The Tehelka report, which quotes the former CNN-IBN reporter, Siddharth Gautam, who was involved in the sting operation, says neither the Congress nor the Samajwadi Party was actively looking for MPs to buy — rather, it was the BJP which “had wilfully set out to entrap either the Congress or the SP into buying three BJP MPs so it could pull off a successful sting operation and discredit the government.”
This sting operation “appears to have had the sanction and collusion of respected BJP leaders like Sudheendra Kulkarni, Arun Jaitley and even L.K. Advani,” says the Tehelka report. The story is based on three pieces of evidence — the firsthand account of the former CNN-IBN reporter, 10 crucial phone recordings that show the BJP’s Ashok Argal frantically calling up people and shopping for someone to buy him and the other two BJP MPs on the night of July 21, 2008, the eve of the nuclear vote; and the parliamentary panel report which, it says, “is full of contradictory accounts which prove that every player in the scandal resorted to either blatant lies or at least half-truths.”
The Tehelka report, however, does not totally exonerate either the SP or the Congress: while the report shows there is absolutely no credible evidence to support the allegations against the Congress, it also “demonstrates that the parliamentary panel headed by Congress MP K.C. Deo and the Delhi Police did little to collate the evidence and nail the accused.”
Keywords: cash-for-votes scam, Tehelka sting operation
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Watch out for dangers of hearsay: PM
OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi, March 23: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today warned the Opposition not to take the “dangerous path” of destabilising the government on the basis of what one embassy official says about something, as was the case with WikiLeaks.
“Tomorrow, if another official of a foreign embassy takes it into his head to create a feeling of strife and distress among the political parties in our country, all that he has to do is to plant a diplomatic message, and also ensure that somehow it leaks,” he said.
“I think… this august Parliament should reflect as to what we are doing to our country. It is not in a spirit of any partisan upmanship I say this, but as someone who is worried about the aftermath, the after-effect of this development on the future management of our country.”
The Prime Minister reiterated that his government had committed no wrong during the trust vote in 2008 and accused the BJP of selectively quoting from the Kishore Chandra Deo Committee report to prove their charges.
Defending his statement that there was insufficient evidence to draw a conclusion of bribery, he recalled that the then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had also said the Deo report did not establish the bribery charge.
Quoting from Somnath’s observations, he said: “Finding of the committee is that material on record does not conclusively prove that the money contained in the bag which was eventually displayed in the House was actually sent by the persons who were alleged to have sent it for the purpose of winning over the MPs to vote in favour of the motion of confidence”.
The same conclusion emerges when we study the report of the committee in totality, Singh said, adding “it is no use quoting sections which suit one’s convenience or which support one’s argument.”
The BJP was clueless for a few minutes after the reply and then walked out of the House, but by then the Prime Minister had already left.
Singh received full support from Congress members who forcefully rebutted the Opposition’s arguments on bribery and the veracity of the leaked US diplomatic cables.
Kapil Sibal made a powerful intervention, accusing the BJP of denigrating the Prime Minister’s office in its desperation to seek political advantage at every stage.
He cited a Tehelka report this morning that said the BJP’s top leaders had masterminded the cash-for-votes sting operation in collusion with a television channel. “Sushma Swaraj wanted to know who did it, it was done at your behest and the person who got it done is the leader of the other House,” he said.
Sibal also confronted Sushma for selectively quoting WikiLeaks owner Julian Assange to prove that the cables were authentic. “Assange also said that the contents may or may not be authentic,” he claimed.
If WikiLeaks was reliable then would the BJP accept what it says about Modi, that he was an insular and distrustful person and ruled through fear and intimidation, Sibal asked. Parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal, who was the first speaker from the Congress, lamented that the House had to be held hostage over WikiLeaks only because the BJP was “desperate to grab power” by any means. He said other countries had rubbished WikiLeaks and described it as “cyber terrorism”.
Bansal denied that Singh had used the electoral logic to justify anything, pointing out that the Prime Minister had clearly said no crime had been committed by the government.
This was in answer to Sushma’s question why Narendra Modi was not acquitted in the Gujarat riots after his successive election victories and whether Rajiv Gandhi’s stunning win in 1985 washed off the blame for the anti-Sikh riots.
New Delhi, March 23, 2011
No cash was given for votes: Manmohan
J. Balaji
The Hindu Prime Minister Manmohan Singh listens to Bharatiya Janata Party leader L.K.Advani at the Parliament House in New Delhi on Wednesday. Photo: R. V. Moorthy
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday reiterated that no one from the Congress or the government had indulged in any lawful act as alleged in a U.S. Embassy cable published in The Hindu on March 17.
“I would like to make it clear once again that none from the Congress party or the government indulged in any such unlawful act during the trust vote in 2008. We have not been involved in any such transaction and we have not authorised any one to indulge in such transactions,” he said in both Houses of Parliament, while replying to a short-duration discussion on the WikiLeaks report.
Refusing to entertain the cable’s charge of a Congress politician showing two chests of bribe money to a U.S. Embassy staffer, Dr. Singh devoted a substantive portion of his reply to an attack on the Opposition benches, particularly the BJP.
Targeting senior BJP leader L.K. Advani, he said: “Advaniji believes that becoming the Prime Minister was his birthright and therefore, he has never forgiven me…All I can say to Advaniji is that people of India have voted us to power in free and fair elections. Please wait for another three-and-a-half years.”
This was not the first time in his parliamentary career that he was facing an Opposition onslaught of this type. “I have had to go through that as Finance Minister and as the Prime Minister. The main Opposition party, right from 2004, adopted the attitude that we are a usurper.”
On the WikiLeaks cables, he said it was not possible for the government to confirm the veracity or the contents of such communication. “If they exist, they would be communications from U.S. diplomats stationed in Delhi to their government in Washington. It is not open to us to enquire from either of the two regarding the communications they exchanged among themselves.” Many persons referred to in those communications had strongly denied their veracity, he said.
On the report of the V. Kishore Chandra Deo committee, set up by the 14th Lok Sabha to go into the allegations of some BJP MPs that they were offered money to cross-vote in the confidence motion, Dr. Singh said the Committee had concluded that there was insufficient evidence to conclude “bribery” had taken place. “I am convinced that taking the report as a whole, this is a correct inference.” The Opposition had earlier accused him of distorting the contents of the report.
To buttress his argument, Dr. Singh read out the statement of then Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, who, while introducing the Committee’s report in the House on December 16, 2008, had said: “…material on record does not conclusively prove that the money contained in the bag, which was eventually displayed in the House, was actually sent by the persons who were alleged to have sent it for the purpose of winning over Shri Ashok Argal, Shri Faggan Singh Kulaste and Shri Mahavir Bhagora to vote in favour of the Motion of Confidence. The Committee have, however, found the evidence given before the Committee by three persons involved in this episode as unconvincing, and the Committee have suggested that their role in the matter needs to be investigated by investigating agencies.”
Later the matter pertaining to the three MPs was referred to the Union Home Ministry for appropriate action. Subsequently it was sent to Delhi police for a probe which was on the job now.
The Prime Minister said he wanted to leave it to the good sense of the House to decide for itself whether the report of the Committee in any way substantiates the wild allegations levelled by some Opposition members against the government.
Keywords: Cable162458, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, cash-for-votes, trust vote, confidence motion, Manmohan Singh government, nuclear deal
New Delhi, March 23, 2011
Manmohan can’t shrug off blame: Sushma
Vinay Kumar
Sushma Swaraj
Disclosures made by the WikiLeaks and published by The Hindu continued to rock both Houses of Parliament as a united Opposition on Wednesday slammed the UPA government over the “cash-for-votes” scam. It trained its guns on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he happened to be the “biggest beneficiary” of the trust vote he sought in July 2008.
Raising a discussion in the Lok Sabha on Dr. Singh’s March 18 statement on The Hindu’ s report made under Rule 193, which does not entail voting, Leader of the Opposition Sushma Swaraj launched a sharp attack on the Prime Minister, saying as head of the government he could not shirk his responsibility. Dr. Singh was intently listening to the discussion.
Objecting to his description of the WikiLeaks cables as “unverified, speculative and unverifiable,” she said the disclosures could not be dismissed in such a manner.
“It is the habit of the Prime Minister to blame others. If it is price rise, then Sharad Pawar [Agriculture Minister] is responsible; if it is 2G, then it is A. Raja [former Telecom Minister] and if it is Commonwealth Games scam, then [Suresh] Kalmadi is to be blamed.”
Ms. Swaraj said people were fed up with the Prime Minister’s excuses like “I don’t know anything, I am not aware of anything, there are coalition compulsions and I am not that much guilty as I am made out to be.” She said people were asking, “If you do not know anything, then why are you the Prime Minister?”
Amid frequent interruptions by Congress members, she said that after the Parliament Inquiry Committee had recommended further probe into the cash-for-votes scam, the Delhi Police Crime Branch registered a case in January 2009 and the Central Forensic Science Laboratory verified the authenticity of the tapes of a sting operation.
Pointing out that the Prime Minister had not mentioned this in his statement, Ms. Swaraj said: “Nobody tells you anything? This is why I have given notice of a breach of privilege motion.”
The Opposition leader also objected to the Prime Minister’s reference, in his statement, to the 2009 electoral victory of the Congress, saying it was a dangerous argument. For, a poll victory could not wash the stains of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots on the Congress.
Ms. Swaraj said India’s democracy was “shamed” by the ‘cash-for-votes’ scam and an electoral victory or loss would not wash it off.
Earlier, initiating the discussion, CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta accused the Prime Minister of having resorted to “parliamentary piracy” to win the vote of confidence in 2008 and demanded that he come clean.
The parliamentary panel report had recommended “investigation by an appropriate agency” into the alleged attempts to purchase votes to win the trust vote, he pointed out.
“It’s a case of parliamentary piracy because some members were hijacked. The suspicion is that an organised group of political gangsters was at work,” Mr. Dasgupta said even as his remarks evoked angry protests from the treasury benches.
As the CPI leader demanded a probe into the large-scale absenteeism among opposition members during the trust vote, ruling party members including the Congress’ Raj Babbar, Sanjay Nirupam, Annu Tandon and Mahabal Mishra were on their feet protesting the reference.
“Might is right”
Mr. Dasgupta said “electoral verdict cannot condone criminality if it has been perpetrated.” However, Dr. Singh’s argument gave credence to the “might is right” theory, a dangerous proposition in a functional democracy.
“I concede that the Prime Minister was precise in his statement and the statement was cogent. He was very prompt in throwing the ball in the court of the Opposition, his tone was very firm and he was firm in rejecting the complaints on cash-for-votes,” Mr. Dasgupta said adding a “linguistic fervour” was used to conceal the facts.
Did you verify documents?
Defending the government, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal said Dr. Singh’s statement was based on facts and accused the Opposition of creating an “environment of crisis” on the basis of WikiLeaks documents which should not be given any importance.
Contending that the BJP was misinterpreting the facts, he asked whether the main Opposition had verified the contents of the WikiLeaks documents or whether it could do so.
“You consider it the truth? … Whenever you attacked the Prime Minister, he has emerged stronger because he has that kind of personality.”
Mr. Bansal said there was nothing wrong in the Prime Minister mentioning about the 2009 electoral win. He said the BJP was raising the issue as it was not able to digest the UPA’s victory in 2004 and again in 2009.
In an oblique reference to the ‘turf war’ in the BJP, Mr. Bansal said the “problem is within” and appealed to it to rely on facts and not give credence to “wild allegations.”
When he pointed out that the Parliament Inquiry Committee had recommended a probe against Sudheendra Kulkarni, former close aide of BJP leader L.K. Advani in the ‘cash-for-vote’ scam, the BJP members including Yashwant Sinha countered, asking why the case had not been pursued for the last three years.
Keywords: Wikileaks, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, freedom of speech, cash-for-vote scam
Gandhinagar, March 22, 2011
Modi upbeat but rivals say there is nothing to crow about
Manas Dasgupta
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party are buoyant over the WikiLeaks revelations, as reported in The Hindu on Tuesday, suggesting that the U.S. was “recognising” the “fast-paced developments” in the State.
Mr. Modi was happy about U.S. Consul-General in Mumbai Michael S. Owen describing him as an “incorruptible” leader. “It is one thing to describe someone as non-corrupt and quite another to be told that he or she is incorruptible. It feels great to be described as incorruptible,” Mr. Modi told journalists on the sidelines of a seminar on “Water for inclusive growth” held on the occasion of World Water Day here.
He said he was happy that at a time when other WikiLeaks reports had raised accusing fingers against the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, the cables described the Gujarat administration under him as “corruption-free” and attributed the State’s development to this aspect.
Mr. Modi was also happy that the U.S. Consul-General reported “faithfully and correctly” the details of the meeting he had with Mr. Owen in November 2006. “When he broached the subject of alleged human rights violations in Gujarat in 2002, I looked straight into his eyes and told him that at least the U.S. is not competent to teach me about human rights. I told him that I am a proud son of India where human rights are highly honoured and recounted a list of instances where the U.S. had blatantly violated human rights. It is nice on Mr. Owen’s part that he had reported this to his higher-ups faithfully and correctly as revealed from the WikiLeaks,” Mr. Modi said.
Asked whether he considered the cables on the Gujarat riots and such other issues as U.S. interference in the internal matters of the country, Mr. Modi said the question should be directed at the Central government.
“U.S. keen on ties”
State Cabinet spokesman and Health Minister Jaynarayan Vyas said the revelations proved that the U.S. was not only “repenting” the “mistake” of not granting Mr. Modi a visa but had also showed keenness to try to improve relations with the Chief Minister. “Now has the U.S. started realising the reality,” he said.
BJP spokesman Vijay Rupani said the WikiLeaks reports would propel Mr. Modi into the national stage. The reports showed the importance the U.S. attached to the Gujarat Chief Minister as a prospective national leader. “This has become a matter of pride for us.”
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil, however, described Mr. Modi’s “interpretations” of the WikiLeaks as “day-dreaming” and said the Chief Minister was deliberately “misreading” the reports to mislead the people in the State.
“Now that he has realised that he cannot get a good conduct certificate from the people of Gujarat, he is trying to get “bogus certificates” from outside,” Mr. Gohil said. At no stage had the U.S. Consul-General described Mr. Modi as “incorruptible” and only stated that corruption at the lower levels of the administration had been considerably reduced. The same cable mentioned that at the higher levels and particularly in relation to the big industrial houses, “corruption had increased manifold,” Mr. Gohil claimed.
Human rights activists and other non-governmental organisations also refused to attach much significance to the WikiLeaks reports. “They merely show that the U.S. is concerned about his rise. Had the U.S. been really warming to him, they would have lifted the embargo on him,” Fr. Cedric Prakash, human rights activist and director of the voluntary organisation, Prashant, said.
Keywords: Cable84043, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, Narendra Modi, visa denial, post-Godhra riots, Muslims in Gujarat, Vibrant Gujarat
New Delhi, March 22, 2011
Food Ministry to give comments on Narendra Modi’s report in 15 days
PTI
PTI Prime Minister Manmohan Singh receives the Report of Working Group on Consumer Affairs from its Chairman and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. A PTI file photo.
The food and consumer affairs ministries will soon submit their views to the Prime Minister on the recommendations made by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi-led working group, including a ban on futures trading in essential commodities to control inflation.
“We are examining the suggestions of the working group headed by Gujarat CM and we will submit our views on the recommendations related to my ministries to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the next 15 days,” Food and Consumer Affairs Minister K V Thomas said yesterday.
Asked about the ministries’ view on the working group’s suggestion of banning futures trade in essential items, Thomas said, “We have an open mind (on this issue),” but refrained from further comment.
The Working Group on Consumer Affairs, set up in April, 2010, to find ways to control retail prices, had submitted the report to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on March 2. Apart from Gujarat, the Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra were members of the group.
The group has made 20 recommendations with 64 action points, ranging from banning futures trade in essential items to making offences under the Essential Commodities Act as non-bailable. It has also suggested setting up special courts for early trials.
“Considering the lack of strong linkages between spot and future markets at present, the Modi Report suggested that for the time being, essential commodities should be kept out of the futures market,” an official release had said.
Commodity markets regulator FMC has already suspended futures trading in rice, tur and urad, but wheat and sugar are still traded.
The working group had also asked the government to explore unbundling of Food Corporation of India’s (FCI) operations in terms of its procurement, storage and distribution functions.
Keywords: Inflation, Commodity trading, Study group, Consumer affairs, Narendra Modi, K. V. Thomas
CHENNAI, March 23, 2011
India sought help in IC-814 case; FBI said ‘no fishing’
Nirupama Subramanian
AP File photo of JeM founder Maulana Masood Azhar. U.S diplomatic cables, accessed by “The Hindu” through WikiLeaks, show that Washington was wary about sharing information that could have helped India pursue the 1999 IC-814 hijack case.
New Delhi wanted access to Taliban records seized by the U.S.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) did not respond to Indian requests for assistance in the investigation into the IC-814 hijacking as it did not want to cooperate in what it internally described as “fishing expeditions.”
Wearying of playing the go-between, the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi urged Washington to bring to an end “this ongoing cycle of requests” by giving the Indian government a “clear negative response” rather than “perpetuating a fruitless dialogue.”
But on a later occasion, it urged greater cooperation with Indian investigators in the interests of the developing bilateral strategic relationship.
U.S diplomatic cables of 2005, accessed by The Hindu through WikiLeaks, reveal how wary Washington was just a few years before the Mumbai 2008 attacks about sharing information with India, especially where it concerned Pakistan.
The Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to New Delhi was hijacked and taken to Kandahar in Afghanistan in 1999.
India surrendered to the hijackers’ demand for the release of three militants including Masood Azhar, who went on to form the Jaish-e-Mohammed.
In exchange, the government secured the freedom of all but one — the hijackers killed him — of the 178 passengers and 15 crew on board the aircraft. The Taliban government in Afghanistan provided safe passage to the five hijackers and the three released militants.
India registered a case and began investigations into the hijacking. The U.S. too registered a case as there was one American citizen among the passengers.
When U.S. forces invaded Afghanistan in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks, ousted the Taliban government and detained many of its leaders, India asked the Americans for access to those linked to the hijacking. New Delhi also wanted access to records the U.S. may have seized in Afghanistan that could help India’s case.
Two non-papers
More than three years later, India was still pushing for its “pending requests”. In March 2005 and again in May that year (Cable 29497: confidential, March 24, 2005; 32567: confidential, May 13, 2005 ) the Ministry of External Affairs handed over identical “non-papers” — diplomatic jargon for an informal memorandum — to U.S. Embassy officials in New Delhi, reiterating the requests.
Both times, Deputy Chief of Mission Robert O. Blake transmitted the non-papers to Washington, along with the response from the Embassy Legal Attache, an FBI position in U.S. diplomatic missions.
In both instances, the Legal Attache had the same response: “Legatt noted that the FBI has shared all its information relevant to the hijacking of IC-814 with the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s lead federal law enforcement agency, but has not acquiesced on requests it deems ‘fishing expeditions’.”
The only addition he made to his response in May was that he had not conveyed the FBI’s “fishing expedition” sentiment to India.
However, Mr. Blake added that the MEA request showed “senior-level attention to the IC-814 matter and perception at that level that the USG has been less than fully forthcoming.”
Making an “action request,” he urged that “we need to bring an end to this ongoing cycle of requests […] and a clear negative response would be preferable to perpetuating a fruitless dialogue. The FBI has reportedly exhausted its ability to cooperate, and we should directly inform both CBI and MEA to that effect, with specific confirmation on what evidence is or is not in US possession.”
Later that year, Mr. Blake sent another cable on the subject (45536: secret, November 18, 2005), this time urging Washington to take the Indian request seriously: cooperate more.
Reason: MEA Joint Secretary (Americas) S. Jaishankar had told him and the Embassy Political Counselor at a meeting on November 18 that “a USG failure to respond to earlier information requests […] regarding the hijacking of IC-814 could infringe on the broader US-India law enforcement/intelligence relationship.”
The trial of the 10 persons who were accused in the hijacking — seven of them in absentia — was winding down. Dr. Jaishankar conveyed “that the GOI, in absence of a US reply, will be forced to state in court that they are unable to proceed further due to US inaction.”
Immediate action now, the MEA official said, “would forestall such an embarrassing event.”
Mr. Blake urged that “to prove our new strategic partnership extends to the intelligence areas, we should share fully what we know. Such a step may prompt India to share more fully as well. Jaishankar is clearly testing the limits of our transformed relations.”
His requested action this time was “to verify the Indian’s claims about the hijackers’ detention status. If they are in USG detention, we should grant Indian access or share information we have gleaned on the IC-814 hijacking.”
Keywords: Cable 29497, cable32567, cable45536, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, IC-814 hijacking, Kandahar, Masood Azhar release, Taliban, FBI
March 23, 2011
Corrupt means taint the nuclear deal
Brahma Chellaney
The HIndu The mounting Tarapur spent-fuel stockpile poses greater safety and environmental hazards than probably at any other plant in the world. A view of the Tarapur Atomic Power Plant 1, at Tarapur. File photo: Vivek Bendre
The new bribery revelations, a rigged process to import reactors and safety-related concerns must lead to the long-blocked scrutiny of the nuclear deal by Parliament.
The world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl raises troubling questions about India’s plans for a huge expansion of its nuclear power programme through reactor imports. Given its low per-capita energy consumption, India must generate far more electricity to economically advance. So it needs more nuclear-generated power. The real issue thus is safe and cost-competitive nuclear power.
What is disconcerting about India’s plans for massive imports is that they are not part of a well-thought-out strategy but a quid pro quo to the United States, France and Russia for bringing the Indo-U.S. civil nuclear deal to fruition, including through a Nuclear Suppliers Group waiver. For example, while keeping Parliament in the dark, the UPA government faxed a letter to U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns on September 10, 2008 — just hours before the White House sent the deal to the U.S. Congress for ratification — committing India to import a minimum of 10,000MW of nuclear-generating capacity from the U.S.
As the WikiLeaks’ revelations, published by The Hindu, underscore, the U.S. has a big stake in the nuclear deal and went to unusual lengths to drum up support in India and ensure the outcome it desired. And although the deal is loaded with largely one-sided and irrevocable conditions for India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh staked his premiership on getting the deal through.
The WikiLeaks’ disclosures over the cash-for-votes scandal during the consummation process only confirm the role mucky money played in lubricating the deal. Now big money is influencing the opaque contract making.
Those who pushed the deal through without building national consensus or permitting parliamentary scrutiny now seem too invested in this deal to objectively gauge long-term safety or the cost competitiveness of reactor imports. One indication of this is the unabashed manner in which a nuclear park has been exclusively reserved — without any competitive-bidding process — for each of the four preferred foreign vendors. Yet after Fukushima, several major safety concerns stand out:
India is committed to importing reactor models that are yet to be operated in any country, including state-owned Areva’s 1630MW European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) and the General Electric-Hitachi’s 1520MW Economic Simplified Boiling Water Reactor (ESBWR), which is still to receive the final U.S. design certification.
There is no justification for importing untried reactor models. In the 1960s, GE sold India the first two prototypes of its Boiling Water Reactor (BWR), whose designs it later supplied for all six reactors at the now-crippled Fukushima Daiichi plant. India had little option then because nuclear power was relatively new. The GE-built Tarapur plant faced important operating and safety issues, in part because the Americans cut off supply of even safety-related replacement parts in response to the Pokharan I test. Today, the rush to buy untried foreign-reactor technology is simply indefensible.
It is only after the Fukushima nuclear crisis unfolded that India’s nuclear chief belatedly acknowledged the need for an earthquake- and tsunami-related safety evaluation of Areva’s EPR design. Why wasn’t this done before committing India to buy the EPR prototype?
The drive to build energy “security” by importing foreign fuel-dependent reactors — that too without transparency, open bidding and public accountability — is nothing but a money-spending boondoggle, with the potential to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in kickbacks for the corrupt.
In an openly manipulated process, price negotiations are taking place only after each of the four chosen foreign vendors has been gifted an exclusive seaside nuclear park to build reactors. What bargaining power are the authorities left with when they have already reserved each park for a particular firm?
With the rise of the corporate nuclear lobby, the line between the seller and the buyer has blurred. The nuclear deal was pushed through by the Prime Minister’s Office with the aid of some serving and retired nuclear officials, private-sector companies attracted to nuclear business, and interested foreign governments and vendors. The very entities and consultants that are set to reap major commercial gains helped build the dubious case for massive reactor imports by India.
Now an incestuous and unethical relationship exists between the buyer and seller, underscored by the moves to place initial import contracts worth more than $10 billion without any competitive bidding. It may require the Supreme Court’s intervention to stop this brazen cronyism, or else a 2G-style scam would likely unfold, but with long-term safety ramifications.
To compound matters, the line between the regulator and the operator has also blurred. And the secrecy enveloping the nuclear military programme has unwarrantably been extended to a purely commercial sector — nuclear power.
Structurally, the national regulator, the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board, is in no position to act independently because, like the operator, it is under the Department of Atomic Energy. More worrying, however, is the manner in which the Board has become the handmaiden of the political agenda set in New Delhi.
Before embarking on a major expansion of its programme, shouldn’t India first create a strong, truly independent nuclear regulator?
Worse still, the planned import of four different types of new Light Water Reactor (LWR) technology will make India’s nuclear-power complex the most diverse in the world. Technological diversity may be good to obviate reliance on one supplier. But the wide-ranging diversity India is getting into will make its safety responsibilities extremely arduous and complex, given the multiplicity of reactor designs it already has in place.
It takes a long time to create teams of experienced safety engineers for any reactor model. But when a particular reactor model is still not in operation anywhere, training of engineers cannot even begin. By contrast, India has immense experience in building, operating and safeguarding indigenous CANDU-style reactors.
The chain of incidents engulfing all six Fukushima Daiichi reactors was triggered by their close proximity to each other. With a flare-up at one reactor affecting systems at another, Japan ended up with serial blasts, fires, spent-fuel exposures, and other radiation leaks.
This seriously calls into question India’s decision to approve the construction of six and more large reactors at each new nuclear park. The plans to build clusters of reactors must now be abandoned.
At Fukushima, the spent-fuel rods — holding most of the highly radioactive uranium at the site — have proved a bigger radiation problem than the reactor cores. This shines a spotlight on the spent-fuel challenges at the sister but older plant in Tarapur, where the discharged fuel has been accumulating for over four decades because the U.S. has refused to either take it or allow India to reprocess it.
The mounting Tarapur spent-fuel stockpile poses greater safety and environmental hazards than probably at any other plant in the world. The spent-fuel rods — unlike the reactors — have no containment structure, and they endanger public safety in India’s densely-populated commercial heartland.
The spent-fuel bundles are kept under water in bays at a special facility at Tarapur. But such temporary pools have proven Fukushima’s Achilles heel.
The cost to move the spent-fuel rods in secure dry casks to a faraway desert area will be prohibitive. India already has borne high storage costs at Tarapur. Those costs should not only be billed to Washington, but India must exert pressure on America to agree to the immediate spent-fuel reprocessing under international safeguards — the only viable option to contain the risks.
India’s nuclear accident-liability legislation has seriously burdened the Indian taxpayer by capping the liability of foreign suppliers at a modest level. With the foreign vendors also freed from the task of producing electricity at marketable rates, the taxpayer is to subsidise the high-priced electricity generated. For the foreign vendors, there is no downside risk; only profits to reap. Yet GE and Westinghouse are unhappy with the state operator’s right of recourse.
The legislation was passed after the BJP — a party too compromised to be able to withstand pressures — cut a deal with the government. But after Fukushima, it is important to tighten some provisions of the legislation, which goes beyond U.S. law to channel both economic liability and legal liability to the state and abridge victims’ legal rights.
More broadly, before signing multibillion-dollar contracts, India must first formulate a coherent nuclear-power policy that also addresses safety issues. After all, Dr. Singh is seeking to take India from a largely indigenous capacity to a predominantly import-based programme by implicitly jettisoning Dr. Homi Bhabha’s vision and strategy. Not only is the goal of a self-reliant thorium fuel cycle now pie in the sky, but India is also set to become dependent on foreign suppliers even for critical safety-related replacement parts.
Actually, the corrupt means employed in engineering the nuclear deal must now lead to its long-blocked scrutiny by Parliament. A larger question haunting the country is whether it has institutionally become too corrupt to be able to effectively uphold nuclear safety in the long run — a concern reinforced by the troubled state of internal security, high incidence of terrorism and politicisation of the nuclear establishment.
Keywords: Indian nuclear policy, safety measures, Fukishima nuclear crisis, WikiLeaks’ revelations
New Delhi, March 18, 2011
`Pause a little’, Ramesh on safety of n-plants in India
PTI
Amid growing concerns over the nuclear catastrophe in Japan, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh on Friday said the country should “pause a little” to look at the “state of preparedness” of the atomic plants to deal with emergencies like tsunami and earthquake.
Mr. Ramesh, however, said he was not making a case for the country to forever abandon nuclear power.
Terming as “horrendous” what happened to Japan’s nuclear safety in the aftermath of devastating earthquake and the resultant massive tsunami on March 11, Mr. Ramesh said, “We have to draw the appropriate lesson.”
“I think we have to pause a little, we have to look at the safety system. We have to look at our state of preparedness for emergencies like tsunamis and so on,” Mr. Ramesh said on the sidelines of the “India Today Conclave 2011” here.
“It is not an abandon button. It is a time for calm and cool thinking,” Mr. Ramesh said but made it clear that India is not going to abandon nuclear energy forever.
“That is clearly an unrealistic position to take given the need of our energy requirement. What happened in Japan is fully shocking and we have to do a thorough independent professional audit of our systems,” the Minister said.
His comments came amid concerns by environmentalists over safety of the planned Jaitapur nuclear plant in Maharashtra if it is affected by an earthquake or a massive tsunami.
Keywords: nuclear energy, nuclear safety, Indian n-plant
Opinion » Editorial
March 23, 2011
All set for the fight
By taking three weeks for their pre-electoral exertions such as cobbling together alliances and identifying seats and candidates, political parties in Tamil Nadu have taken up half the time the Election Commission of India gave them to face a general election to the State Assembly on April 13. None of the parties was quite ready for elections at such uncomfortably short notice, but the election authorities perhaps felt that the campaign phase might be better supervised and the possibility of voter bribery and more subtle blandishments more effectively curbed if the campaign phase was kept to the minimum. The campaign dust is set to swirl from now on, marking the beginning of an acrimonious spell of electioneering. This is essentially a two-cornered contest between the fronts led by the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK). History bears down on the DMK as no party has been elected back to power since 1984. But its veteran leader, Chief Minister Muthuvel Karunanidhi, nurtures hope of bucking this trend, armed with what he believes is a winning election manifesto and a track record of implementing a number of welfare measures. On the other side, the AIADMK led by a charismatic and strong leader has roped in the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) led by actor Vijayakant, whose ambition to emerge a leading player in the State political stage has been tempered by experience and is now a willing ally in the project to oust the DMK regime. With the Left parties on her side, the alliance leader, former Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, will seek to cash in on the DMK’s 2G-related travails and other embarrassments, besides anti-incumbency ingredients such as the price spiral, the power shortage, and allegations of corruption and ‘family rule.’
With DMK-Congress ties coming under strain in the shadow of the Supreme Court-monitored investigation into the 2G spectrum allocation scandal, the Congress resorted to unabashed arm-twisting to extract 63 seats from the DMK kitty, thereby shrinking the ruling party’s own presence in the poll fray to just 119 candidates of its own and a few from minor allies contesting on its symbol. There is no chance of the DMK forming a government on its own strength, as any party would need 118 seats to touch the majority mark in the 234-member legislature. Despite the fight being mainly between two muscular opponents, the bewildering array of smaller parties — which bank on caste support or whose sway is confined to regions — in both fronts makes Tamil Nadu a laboratory specimen for notions of alliance arithmetic and inter-party chemistry. The alliance leaders will hope that the bitterness and brinkmanship of the negotiation phase would not spill over to the campaign stage. But across the divide, the fight is set to be fierce.
Keywords: Tamil Nadu Assembly polls, Election Commission, voter bribery, Tamil Nadu politics, political scandals
23 Mar, 2011, 04.08PM IST,TNN
2G scam: CBI will name Raja, Balwa KTV boss in chargesheet
Read more on »videocon|tata|swan telecom|shyam mobile|shahid balwa|s tel|r k chandolia|loop telecom|dot|dmk|dishnet|cbi|alliance infra|2g scam
NEW DELHI: The CBI is set to file its first chargesheet in the 2G scam , naming former telecom minister A Raja, Swan Telecom promoter Shahid Balwa , former telecom secretary Siddharth Behuria, Raja’s former private secretary R K Chandolia , and Kalaignar TV MD Sharad Kumar.
According to dependable sources, the chargesheet would also name at least two corporate houses, Swan Telecom and Unitech. Official sources said the CBI would stick to the deadline set by the Supreme Court and file the first chargesheet before March 31.
The SC is monitoring the CBI investigation into the arbitrary allocation of the 2G spectrum to chosen companies in 2008, which may have caused a loss of up to Rs 176,000 crore to the exchequer.
Sources said the first chargesheet would focus on the criminal conspiracy to doctor eligibility and alter the first-come-firstserved policy. The chargesheet would also include charges under forgery and cheating.
There would be more chargesheets, given the scope and number of conspirators in the case. CBI sources said the subsequent chargesheets could name DMK patriarch Karunanidhi’s daughter MK Kanimozhi, a Rajya Sabha MP and promoter of Kalaignar TV, and many others. Several companies directly or indirectly involved in the scam and many officials involved in allocation of 2G spectrum and licences would also be named, sources said.
The CBI is still investigating the role of Anil Ambani’s Reliance group, Loop Telecom , Essar group, Tata group, Videocon , S Tel , Shyam Mobile , Alliance Infra , Dishnet and others. It is also looking at the role played by individuals, including many corporate leaders, DoT officials and others.
Sebi cracks the whip on online stock manipulation
ENS Economic Bureau Tags : Securities and Exchange Board of India, SEBI, market regulator, Facebook, Twitter Posted: Thu Mar 24 2011, 00:26 hrs Mumbai:
The market regulator is cracking the whip on manipulators who use internet blogs, chat forums, emails and social networking sites for price rigging.
In a bid to check circulation of unsubstantiated news which could distort normal functioning and prices of stocks, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has announced a new set of code of conduct for staff of broking houses and other market intermediaries.
The registered market intermediaries, regulated by the Sebi, are directed that proper internal code of conduct and controls should be put in place, the regulator said in a circular.
“The staff of broking houses and other intermediaries should be discouraged from circulating information obtained from clients or others without proper verification,” it said, adding that there should not be any kind of unsubstantiated news, which could distort normal functioning the prices of stocks. Sebi has observed that unauthenticated news related to various scrips are circulated in blogs, chat forums or e-mails by employees of broking houses and other intermediaries in violation of rules.
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“The intermediaries do not have proper internal controls and do not ensure that proper checks and balances are in place to govern the conduct of their employees,” Sebi said, adding that such speculative news and “rumours” can affect the functioning of the markets and distort prices of bourses. In the circular, the watchdog further said that access to blogs, chat forum and other sites should either be restricted under supervision or access should not be allowed.
“Logs for any usage of such blogs/chat forums/messenger sites shall be treated as records and the same should be maintained as specified by the respective regulations which govern the concerned intermediary. Any market related news should be forwarded only with approval of concerned personnel,” it added.
“If an employee fails to do so, he/she shall be deemed to have violated the various provisions contained in Sebi Act/Rules/Regulations etc and shall be liable for actions,” it said. The stock exchanges have also been directed to make necessary amendments to the relevant rules and regulations for implementation of decision. A committee, appointed by the regulator comprising representatives from market intermediaries, had earlier suggested the need for such a code of conduct.
Sebi is putting in place new software tools that would analyse discussions on social networking platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. The regulator has implemented a new tool for speedy analysis of data and identification of possible violations like insider trading and front running. The new tool, named Data Ware Housing and Business Intelligence System, will enhance Sebi’s surveillance functions, it said.
Coalitions of caste
Gopu Mohan Tags : Election 2011 Tamil Nadu, most backward class, Pattali Makkal Katchi, Vanniyar community Posted: Thu Mar 24 2011, 02:49 hrs Chennai:
Ahead of the polls in Tamil Nadu, a number of outfits — established, nascent and unknown — have emerged from the shadows with a claim to transfer their captive, caste-based votes for respect, recognition and other benefits.
The power of this transferable vote share has been exhibited best by the Pattali Makkal Katchi, a party of the numerically strong most backward class (MBC) Vanniyar community and founded by Dr S Ramadoss. They comprise nearly 30 per cent of the population. The community has leaders in all parties, yet the poor among its members remain so.
The social outfit Vanniyar Sangam was born in 1980, and from it the PMK was formed nine years later. Though its vote share has remained single digit, the party has two advantages: its votes are considered transferable en bloc, and its votes are concentrated, in the north.
Also dominant in these districts is the Dalit party Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi, led by Thol Thirumavalavan, MP. The party, earlier known as Dalit Panthers of India, has considerable influence among the Paraya sub-sect of Dalits, and was involved in a series of communal clashes with the Vanniyars. Now that both are in the DMK-led alliance, their leaders have made the right noises about working towards the same goal.
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The PMK is contesting from 30 seats and the VCK from 10. In the west, known as Kongu region, which the DMK has failed to conquer yet, it has brought in the Kongunadu Munnetra Kazhagam, a new party formed by the influential Gounders. Stitched together as a political outfit merely months ahead of the general elections, the KMK still garnered 5.79 lakh votes from 12 constituencies. The DMK has allocated it seven seats, getting in return the support of a community that forms about 40 per cent of the region’s population.
To gain the support of the Thevars, a dominant community in the south, the ruling front has Muvendar Munnetra Kazhagam, conceding one Assembly seat that will be contested on the DMK symbol.
Most of the DMK’s partnerships have been countered with equal and opposite moves by the lead opposition party, the AIADMK.
The Thevars have largely sided with the AIADMK since the period of party founder M G Ramachandran, an allegiance that was cemented after present general secretary J Jayalalithaa’s close aide Sasikala, a member of the community, became a decision-making figure in the party.
Besides this, the front has the All India Muvendar Munnani Kazhagam, a Thevar party that has been allotted one seat. A splinter group of the MMK has also sided with her, while yet another Thevar organisation, Pasumpon Desiya Kazhagam, has extended support.
The All India Samathuva Makkal Katchi (AISMK) floated by actor-politician Sarathkumar got two seats from the AIADMK as it has the backing of the Nadar community. Soon after the deal was signed in the opposition camp, the DMK president allotted one seat (on a DMK ticket) to the little known Perunthalaivar Makkal Katchi which claims support of the same community.
Perunthalaivar is a sobriquet of legendary late Congress leader K Kamaraj — the national party still enjoys support from the Nadars.
After the PMK changed its alliance for yet another time — following the Lok Sabha disaster where it won none of the seven seats it contested along with the AIADMK — a rival group, Vanniyar Federation, moved closer to Jaya’s party.
Incidentally, minister of state S Jagathrakshakan merged his Jananayaga Munnetra Kazhagam with the DMK before the general election, a move that helped him return to Parliament. He defeated the PMK’s R Velu.
If the VCK can help bring in Dalit votes to the ruling front in the north, the opposition front has Puthiya Thamizhagam, a party of another sub-sect of Dalits, the Pallars who represent several votes in the south. The party has been allotted two seats.
With only three weeks left for polling, Jaya has got the support of a confederation of Dalit outfits which includes Parayar Peravai, Dr Ambedkar Peravai, Ambedkar Makkal Padai, a faction of BSP, Adidravidar Puratchi Kazhagam, Dalit Makkal Munnani among others.
Compared to its rival, the AIADMK is in a better position in the Kongu region, which was evident from its lack of enthusiasm to rope in the KMK. Instead, when the DMK struck a deal with the KML, Jaya’s side responded by giving the Tamil Nadu Ilaignar Kongu Peravai one seat.
A coalition of community-based organisations has been newly floated to challenge the two fronts. On board are the Indian Jananayaka Katchi launched by education entrepreneur T R Pachamuthu and backed by his community; Bhargava Kula Vellalar; Tamizhaga Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) of Dalit leader John Pandian who converted his Devendrakula Velalar Munettra Kazhagam into the party; Yadava Maha Sabha; Tamil Nadu Vaaniyar Chettiyar Peravai; and newly-formed Samooga Samathuva Padai founded by former bureaucrat and Dalit activist A Sivagami who quit the BSP.
There are also caste-based organisations like Dalit outfit Puratchi Bharatham and Muthiraiyar community-backed Singa Tamilar Munnetra Kazhagam, not part of any front yet.
Among religious groups, the Indian Union Muslim League, a UPA partner, has been allotted three seats; their intra-community opponent, Manithaneya Makkal Katchi got a similar deal from AIADMK.
A new entrant is the Indian Christian People’s Party (ICPP), launched on Sunday by Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore A M Chinnappa. For the record, there already exists an All India Christian Makkal Katchi.
Whether the tie-ups would help is anybody’s guess. For instance, a decade ago, Karunanidhi had cobbled up an alliance comprising 18 outfits, both political and casteist, but had to sit in Opposition as the citizens preferred to vote against his government rather than in favour of their community organisations.
Five months after CWG, flat owners wait in vain
Akshat Kaushal / New Delhi March 24, 2011, 0:54 IST
Although the Commonwealth Games ended more than five months ago, owners of around 400 apartments in the Games village have still not got possession of the flats they have already paid for.
“After paying 95 per cent of the flat cost, no one in the government or Emaar-MGF (the developer) is giving us any indication on the timing of the possession of the flats,” said a flat owner.
The owners of these flats say that according to the Project Development Agreement, which was signed between the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Emaar-MGF, the apartments were to be handed over by the DDA to Emaar-MGF within two months of the Games and subsequently to the owners. However, five months since the Games, there appears to be no sign of when they will be allotted their flats.
“Emaar-MGF has informed us that they can give possession only after getting handover from DDA. However, due to the financial disputes with DDA, we are not confident that the builder is doing its best to resolve its disputes and give us a timely possession,” said a flat owner.
When contacted, Emmar-MGF said in an email response, “The flats were to be handed over to Emaar-MGF by DDA within two months after the completion of the Games, however, despite several reminders to DDA we are still awaiting the handover from them.”
The spokesperson of the DDA, Neemo Dhar said: “The flats have not been handed over to Emaar-MGF because the completion certificate has not been prepared.” She further added that “there is no time-frame” by which the DDA would be able to complete these formalities.
Emaar-MGF, under a private-public partnership with DDA, had won the contract to develop 1,168 flats. The company had hoped to sell 70 per cent (778) of these and to use the cash from the sale to finance the construction. However, because of the global recession, Emaar was unable to sell all the flats and had to be bailed out by DDA. As part of the bailout, DDA purchased 333 of the flats for Rs 700 crore at the rate of Rs 11,000 per sq ft. Later, DDA seized Emaar’s entire bank guarantee amounting to Rs 183 crore as damages for its failure to complete the Commonwealth Games village project in time.
Meanwhile, the owners are caught in the crossfire because of the disputes between DDA and Emaar-MGF.
“Emaar-MGF says DDA has not returned the possession to them, which is the cause of the delay. I am paying an EMI of Rs 2.5 lakh and I don’t know when I will get possession of my apartment,” said Vikas Kapoor, who owns a flat in the Games village.
Another owner V Vasu said, “I sold an existing house to raise money for buying this flat, but now because of the delay I am forced to live in a rented apartment. The delay is also causing damage to the building, as there is no maintenance.”
Carrying coals to New Delhi
Doubts on coal reserves raise questions about thermal power
Business Standard / New Delhi March 24, 2011, 0:15 IST
It would seem that disappointment or controversy is never too far away from India’s energy sector. The recent admission by the Union ministry of power that even the ‘revised’ target of 62,000 MW for the 11th five year plan (the initial plan target was 78,000 MW) would be missed by 20 per cent, while disappointing, barely surprised those familiar with the Power Ministry’s record of meeting set targets. A recent report by The Energy Research Institute (TERI) pricks the sanguine belief, widely held, about India’s limitless coal reserves, deemed adequate to support a significant proportion of India’s energy ambitions well into the next century. Total coal reserves in India are estimated to be of the order of 276 billion tonnes, of which 110 billion tonnes are ‘proven’ resources. These estimates are based on the Indian Standard Procedure (ISP), a time honoured practice to estimate all minerals, dating back to the 19th century. This, according to the authors of the study is the crux of the problem. In not adequately considering the techno-economic costs associated with extraction, the ISP tends to overestimate mineral reserves that can be feasibly mined. An alternative estimation method called the United Nations Framework Classification (UNFC) that was designed to overcome the limitations of the ISP has not been implemented, despite a government go-ahead in 2001. Adopting the UNFC methodology, would provide a more realistic estimate of India’s mineral endowment, which in turn would lead to appropriate policy responses.
The report’s logic is persuasive: if the marginal cost of extraction exceeds the price at which it can be sold, it would make little economic sense to do so, unless the government subsidises the difference. Some of India’s reserves are indeed in thickly-forested areas in states such as Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Chattisgarh. Even if the activist positions adopted by the Ministry of Environment & Forests (MoEF) were to be downplayed for the moment, getting the coal from pit to plant would require considerable investment in logistics and infrastructure, which even in a best-case scenario would be a gradual process. The central findings of the report are sobering for India’s energy policy. If present ISP-based estimates were discounted conservatively by 40 per cent, ‘proven’ reserves would come down by about 44 billion tonnes to about 66 billion tonnes. At present levels of consumption, they would suffice for 110 years. A dynamic forecast of the future supply-demand scenario would necessarily consider the higher demand as the Indian economy grows at approximately 9 per cent over the next two decades, as well as the potential of technology to access reserves currently classified as non-extractable.
India’s energy mix, which currently relies heavily on thermal power and is expected to do so in the foreseeable future makes it imperative that the findings of the report be treated seriously. For example, supply of coal from Coal India Limited (CIL) to power producers has been notoriously erratic. While this was ascribed to systemic inefficiencies, mainly in the form of inadequate infrastructure and transport networks, the TERI report might raise more fundamental questions about the reliability of CIL as a coal supplier, given that its actual reserves may be lower than stated. Coal imports, mainly in the form of high-grade thermal coal are already close to 25 per cent of total consumption. If the findings of the report are true, India might have to reconcile to imported coal becoming an even more important part of the total fuel mix in the foreseeable future. Forewarned is forearmed!
…and I am Sid Harth
Filed under News, Views and Reviews
03/22/2011
India's Superpower Euphoria CCLXXXVIII
Everything you always wanted to know about India and more
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Hindutva Hoodlum Narendra Modi
Cable Cake
NEWS THe India Cables
CHENNAI, March 22, 2011
Engaging Modi the U.S. way
Suresh Nambath
PTI Facing the possibility of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi assuming a leadership role at the national level, the State Department sanctioned meetings in 2006 at the level of the Mumbai Consul General. File photo
Confidential 2006 cable reveals complex calculations in the event of the Gujarat Chief Minister ‘making it to the national stage’; wants a clear message delivered on U.S. concerns over ‘human rights and religious freedom’
Having declined to engage with him at the ambassadorial level because of his role in the 2002 Gujarat communal violence and anti-Muslim pogrom, U.S. diplomats found themselves, in 2006, facing the possibility of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi assuming a leadership role at the national level. Conscious that the United States would have to deal with him at a later stage if he rose in stature on the national stage, the State Department evidently sanctioned meetings at the level of the Mumbai Consul General on the understanding that such interactions would also enable the U.S. to deliver a “clear message on human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat.”
In a cable dated November 2, 2006 (84043: confidential), the Consul General in Mumbai, Michael S. Owen, underscored the importance of interacting with Mr. Modi “whose B1/B2 visa we revoked in 2005, at the level of the Consul General” over the Chief Minister’s role in the 2002 communal violence. Such interaction, Mr. Owen said, “will also shield us from accusations of opportunism from the BJP that would invariably arise if we ignored Modi now but sought a dialogue with him in the likely event that he makes it to the national stage.”
On the basis of discussions with leaders of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Mumbai Consulate concluded that Mr. Modi had set his sights on national politics. Interestingly, many in the BJP leadership believed that the Gujarat Chief Minister was the “only person of the BJP’s many aspiring leaders who can reinvigorate the party and stop its further slide into oblivion.”
While there was no consensus on Mr. Modi’s chances for success at the national level, some in Delhi and Gujarat strongly felt that his rise was inevitable, Mr. Owen added.
The Mumbai Consulate’s 2,850-word assessment, which was cleared by the New Delhi Embassy before being cabled to the State Department, was carefully considered, nuanced, and telling. The disquisition could well form the core of an M.A. thesis in politics:
“If Modi does eventually get a national leadership role in the BJP in the foreseeable future, the USG [United States Government] will be obliged to decide how it wants to deal with a figure of national prominence whose B1/B2 we revoked. We believe it would dilute our influence to avoid Modi completely. If we waited to engage Modi after he attains national stature within India’s largest and most important opposition party, many in the BJP would likely view this as an opportunistic move and only deepen the suspicions cultivated by some BJP leaders in western India since the visa revocation.
“Since the riots of 2002, we have declined to engage Modi at the Ambassadorial level, but Mumbai Consul Generals have routinely sought meetings with Modi whenever they visited Ahmedabad. We will continue to seek such meetings at the level of the CG to emphasize that the USG does not have a formal no-contact policy… and to demonstrate to the BJP that we are interested in cultivating relationships with the party while it is in the opposition. Direct encounters with Modi will also enable us to deliver a clear message regarding USG concerns for the state of human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat.”
On Mr. Modi’s strengths as Chief Minister that could aid his national leadership ambitions, Mr. Owen’s analysis was: “Modi has successfully branded himself as a non-corrupt, effective administrator, as a facilitator of business in a state with a deep commercial culture, and as a no-nonsense, law-and-order politician who looks after the interests of the Hindu majority. Modi’s backers in the BJP now hope to convince the party leadership that he can use these positive traits to attract voters throughout India. Some BJP leaders believe, or hope, that voters will forget or forgive Modi’s role in the 2002 bloodshed, once they learn to appreciate his other qualities.”
Not ‘if’ but ‘when’
The Consul General quoted Harin Pathak, a BJP Member of Parliament from Gujarat, as saying that the BJP national leadership, and particularly former Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, were convinced that only Mr. Modi could rejuvenate the party. Ram Madhav of the RSS also voiced similar views, “going so far as to say that Modi’s ascendancy is not a question of if but when, and the USG must start considering now how it will deal with Modi when he becomes head of the BJP and leads the party’s electoral campaign in the national elections scheduled for 2009.”
Mr. Owen also drew attention to what he saw as divergence between Mr. Modi’s public image and his private actions. “In public appearances, Modi can be charming and likeable. By all accounts, however, he is an insular, distrustful person who rules with a small group of advisors. This inner circle acts as a buffer between the Chief Minister and his cabinet and party. He reigns more by fear and intimidation than by inclusiveness and consensus, and is rude, condescending and often derogatory to even high level party officials. He hoards power and often leaves his ministers in the cold when making decisions that affect their portfolios.”
(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
Keywords: Cable84043, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, Narendra Modi, visa denial, post-Godhra riots, Muslims in Gujarat, Vibrant Gujarat
Thank you.
Your comment has been received and will be moderated.
America is a superpower. However, America has not kept a balanced view over Indo-Pak relations. Havining kept a closer relationship with Pakistan for one or other reason, America has neglected a fast rising India. Part of this complex relationship can be blamed on India’s attitude also. Since Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru’s declared stand on the so called non-alignment movement and much closer relationship with such communist countries as USSR, China and Cuba, America has kept India at a distance. Times have changed. America is fast losing her economic superpower status. America needs all the help from whichever national party is in power. However, the leaked cable suggests a very superficial attempt at establishing direct, face-to-face contact with Narendra Modi, a much adored Hindutva poster boy. He may be a wonderkind to some of the saffronites for whatever reasons but has no national stature. His personality is pompous, acerbic and threatening to the general population. Especially to the minority segments. He has used all his cunning, power and charisma to interefere in a due process of law to avoid a direct link between Godhra carnage. Not proven guilty by state judiciary, highly manipulated by him personally, does not mean he is not guilty. All dictators have used his techniques all over the world. America is famous for having an excellent relationship with dictators of all sizes, shapes and colors. Perhaps, they wanted to test the saffron waters for a change.
…and I am Sid Harth
News » The India Cables » The Cables
March 22, 2011
84043: Modi sets his eyes on national politics
Direct encounters with Modi will also enable us to deliver a clear message regarding USG concerns for the state of human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat.
84043 11/2/2006 12:42 06 MUMBAI 1986 Consulate Mumbai CONFIDENTIAL “VZCZCXRO7463PP RUEHBI RUEHCIDE RUEHBI #1986/01 3061242ZNY CCCCC ZZHP R 021242Z NOV 06FM AMCONSUL MUMBAITO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4876INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 6035RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 9711RUEHCI/AMCONSUL CALCUTTA 1145RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 1258RUEHKA/AMEMBASSY DHAKA 0660RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 0667RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 0664RHEHAAA/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHINGTON DCRHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HIRHMFISS/HQ USCENTCOM MACDILL AFB FLRUEAIIA/CIA WASHINGTON DCRUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC” “C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 MUMBAI 001986
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 11/2/2016 TAGS: PGOV, PREL, CVIS, PHUM, KIRF, KISL, ECON, IN
SUBJECT: GUJARAT CHIEF MINISTER MODI SETS HIS SIGHTS ON NATIONAL POLITICS
REF: A: MUMBAI 1719; B: MUMBAI 818; C: 05 MUMBAI 1727
CLASSIFIED BY: Michael S. Owen, Consul General, Consulate General Mumbai, State. REASON: 1.4 (b), (d)
Summary and Comment
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1. (C) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has his sights on national politics. Everyone we spoke to during a recent trip to Ahmedabad told us that Modi will use an expected state election victory next year to make a bid for the national presidency of the BJP. RSS and BJP leaders in Delhi echo these sentiments. Many in the party leadership believe that Modi is the only person of the BJP’s many aspiring leaders who can reinvigorate the party and stop its further slide into oblivion. No one doubts that Modi will be reelected as Chief Minister of Gujarat in elections scheduled for late 2007, since he remains immensely popular among Gujarat’s largely Hindu voters. Modi has successfully branded himself as a non-corrupt, effective administrator, as a facilitator of business in a state with a deep commercial culture, and as a no-nonsense, law-and-order politician who looks after the interests of the Hindu majority. Modi’s backers in the BJP now hope to convince the party leadership that he can use these positive traits to attract voters throughout India. Some BJP leaders believe, or hope, that voters will forget or forgive Modi’s role in the 2002 bloodshed, once they learn to appreciate his other qualities. Views differ in Gujarat on whether Modi can overcome his negative baggage to assume a national role. Some think that the memory of 2002 will turn off voters. Others say his arrogant and blunt leadership style will alienate the BJP hierarchy in New Delhi as it has in Ahmedabad, or that Modi’s lower caste origins could become an obstacle at the national level.
2. (C) Against this backdrop of opinions, we believe that Modi’s rise in the BJP seems likely. In coordination with Embassy New Delhi, we intend to continue our policy of interaction with the Chief Minister, whose B1/B2 visa we revoked in 2005, at the level of the Consul General. Since 2002, Mumbai Consul Generals have routinely sought meetings with Modi whenever they visited Ahmedabad. Such interaction allows us to deliver a clear message on human rights and religious freedom directly to the source. It will also shield us from accusations of opportunism from the BJP that would invariably arise if we ignored Modi now but sought a dialogue with him in the likely event that he makes it to the national stage. End summary and comment.
Modi Sets Sights on National Politics
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3. (SBU) Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi remains immensely popular among the state’s non-Muslim voters. Everyone we spoke to during an Oct. 7-8 trip to Ahmedabad predicted that Modi would easily win the next state elections, scheduled for late 2007. Views differ only on how large his victory will be.
4. (C) Our interlocutors were also unanimous in their belief that Modi has already set his sights on national politics. Modi hopes to use an electoral success as a springboard into the national BJP leadership, we heard repeatedly. The BJP national leadership, and particularly former deputy prime minister L.K. Advani, were convinced that only Modi could rejuvenate the party, Gujarat MP and BJP politician Harin Pathak told us. According to our interlocutors, Advani and former law minister Aroon Jaitley are the biggest Modi votaries in the central leadership, as no other clear successor to the party’s aging leadership is in sight, and Modi’s relative youth and obvious leadership talents are attracting more attention at the party center. The RSS’s Ram Madhav told Embassy New Delhi the same thing, going so far as to say that Modi’s ascendancy is not a question of if but when, and the USG must start considering now how it will deal with Modi when he becomes head of the BJP and leads the party’s electoral campaign in the national elections scheduled for 2009.
5. (C) Separately, Piyush Goyal, General Secretary for the BJP
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in Maharashtra, said the BJP leadership is convinced that Modi can appeal to wide segments of Indian voters outside of Gujarat, and that his role in the 2002 bloodshed will not necessarily damage his popularity. Goyal said many within the BJP believe that Modi has the potential to become Prime Minister, and that voters may forget 2002 once the Chief Minister’s other qualities become widely known. The attributes that have made Modi so popular in Gujarat are the qualities that the BJP would use at the national level as well, Goyal said.
Modi the Administrator
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6. (C) Most BJP insiders tell us that Gujarat’s voters like Modi because he has successfully branded himself as an effective administrator and a pro-business, no-nonsense, law-and-order politician. Supporters and critics alike acknowledge that Modi is an effective administrator. He has successfully cultivated the image of a clean politician who has reduced corruption in public life in Gujarat. Views differ on how clean and non-corrupt Modi actually is, however. All our interlocutors acknowledge that Modi is a modest man who, unlike many elected officials in India, has not used his position to enrich himself or his family. Most contacts also say that he has purged the state administration of petty corruption at the mid- and lower levels of the bureaucracy. However, several people tell us that big ticket corruption is still common. Journalist Javed Rahmatullah claimed that Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL) paid a large bribe for permission to expand its refinery in Jamnagar. The money went into the BJP’s party coffers, Rahmatullah claimed, and not to Modi or any other individual. Other contacts have told us that business money flows to the BJP in Gujarat, but nobody had been this specific. We have been unable to verify Rahmatullah’s claim.
Modi and Business
—————–
7. (SBU) Modi’s supporters claim that the state’s economy has flourished under his leadership. They cite the state’s annual growth rate of around nine percent, 15 percent growth in industrial production, sizable public investment in infrastructure and Gujarat’s top ranking among Indian states as a destination for domestic investment. Among the five state governments in our Consular district, the GOG is the most visibly active in its attempts to attract investment, both domestic and foreign. One state agency recently supported a road show to the U.S. aimed at attracting foreign investment. The GOG is aggressively promoting special economic zones (SEZs) as a means to create new jobs and modernize infrastructure in the state.
8. (SBU) Modi’s pro-business stance has won over the state’s large business and trader community. Most businessmen say Modi has created a positive business climate in the state. Under Modi’s leadership, red tape has been reduced, and most government officials support business rather than act as an obstacle to it, we hear repeatedly.
9. (SBU) The economic reality of Gujarat, however, may be far more complex than the ebullient statements of Modi’s supporters suggest. Although Gujarat tops all Indian states in terms of investment intentions, actual investment is far less, and certainly less than the neighboring state of Maharashtra. Despite the presence of a few well-known international companies, FDI flows into the state are relatively small. Gujarat received less than four percent of the FDI coming into India in the past five years (Note: Delhi and Maharashtra, the top two FDI destinations, got 28 percent and 22 percent respectively. End Note) Ahmedabad does not have the visible construction activity, and increasingly noticeable foreign presence, of Pune in neighboring Maharashtra, for example. Many Gujaratis will say that the state is still not sufficiently known abroad. Some contacts are confident that investment will increase in tandem with growing awareness of Gujarat’s business climate spawned by the GOG’s aggressive marketing. Other sources were far less sanguine, and argue that the stain of the 2002 riots and the poor human rights record of its leadership continue to deter foreign companies fearful of further communal
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violence. Arvind Agarwal, GOG Industries Commissioner, conceded to us that the riots continue to negatively influence images of the state abroad.
Modi, Law-and-Order and Hindutva
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10. (C) Modi has successfully cultivated the image of a no-nonsense, law-and order politician among Gujarat voters. This image of Modi as a strong, decisive leader is what his BJP supporters hope will help him establish a foothold at the national level.
11. (C) Modi’s role in the 2002 bloodshed continues to divide Gujaratis and Indians in general. While he remains repugnant to large numbers of people, particularly Muslims, human rights activists and educated urbanites with liberal or leftist leanings, many in the Hindu majority view his actions in 2002 favorably. Negative attitudes towards Muslims remain firmly anchored among Gujarati Hindus. Many feel that they, and not the Muslim minority, are the true second class citizens of India. Muslims often “”stepped out of line,”" prior to 2002, we often hear, demanding and receiving exceptional treatment by politicians who felt the need to placate them on the basis of perceived injustices carried out by the Hindu majority. That changed when Modi came into power in 2002, they say. While no one will openly condone the bloodshed of 2002, many Gujarati Hindus feel that Modi “”put Muslims into their place.”" The BJP continues to echo these themes in its national political stance, especially over issues such as Hajj subsidies, the Muslim civil code, the singing of Vande Mataram, or other such religiously sensitive concerns.
12. (C) Modi continues to support a Hindutva agenda in the state, with the recent passage of amendments to the state’s anti-conversion law (ref A) being seen as a concession to his supporters on the Hindu right. Both supporters and critics of Modi confirm that the state government continues to use administrative tools to marginalize and ghettoize the Muslim minority.
13. (C) At the same time, most interlocutors tell us that Modi cannot gain anything more by openly pursuing an aggressive Hindutva agenda. He already has the backing of those who applaud his firm stand against Muslims, and he risks alienating swing voters in Gujarat by being too openly communal. Modi understands that, outside of Gujarat, his role in the 2002 riots has damaged both his reputation and that of the state. He also realizes that outbreaks of communal violence in Gujarat will harm both his chances in the state and nationally, and hence he has given law enforcement agencies clear instructions to act swiftly if violence breaks out, we have been told. Several interlocutors cited Modi’s rapid reaction to the communal rioting in Vadodara in May (ref B) as proof of his new strategy. Modi allowed federal army troops to establish order, and he even visited hospitalized Muslim victims of the riots in an attempt to portray himself as a leader of all Gujaratis.
Modi’s Leadership Style
———————–
14. (C) Views remain divided on whether Modi’s leadership style will help or harm him if he enters national politics. In public appearances, Modi can be charming and likeable. By all accounts, however, he is an insular, distrustful person who rules with a small group of advisors. This inner circle acts as a buffer between the Chief Minister and his cabinet and party. He reigns more by fear and intimidation than by inclusiveness and consensus, and is rude, condescending and often derogatory to even high level party officials. He hoards power and often leaves his ministers in the cold when making decisions that affect their portfolios. His abrasive leadership style alienated much of the state BJP leadership in 2005. He was able to quell their subsequent rebellion by branding them as corrupt opportunists who were angry because he denied them the tools of political patronage and corruption (ref C). Modi maintains the support of most MLAs in the state because they understand his popularity with voters. His leadership style has created many enemies within the state party, however. This opposition could
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come back to haunt him at the national level, some critics hope. In any case there is consensus that Modi has failed to attract a sustainable, loyal cadre of followers within the state party, and that his few confidants will likely be pushed out of power and influence if and when Modi leaves the state for New Delhi. At the national stage, he will have to depend on opportunists who want to latch onto his bandwagon, some believe.
Modi and Caste
————–
15. (C) Caste resentments exacerbate the bad feelings between Modi and much of the state party’s leadership. Modi heralds from a so-called Other Backward Caste (OBC), while many of his opponents are from higher castes, and in particular from the Patel caste that dominates public life in the state. The Chief Minister is openly distrustful of the higher-caste party officials around him, yet is careful not to make caste an issue since he seeks the support of the Gujarati commercial class, most of whom are Patels or other higher castes. Gujarat Congress spokesman Himanshu Vyas told us his party hopes to play the caste card in the 2007 elections to divide Modi’s support among Hindus, yet none of our other interlocutors believed that caste issues could endanger a Modi victory at the polls. Some believe, however, that Modi’s lower caste status could create problems for him in national politics.
Econoff’s Unscheduled Meeting with the Chief Minister
——————————————— ——–
16. (C) The USG has not met Modi since his B1/B2 visa was revoked in 2005, yet Embassy Econoff had an unscheduled courtesy call with the Chief Minister on the margins of our recent visit to Gujarat. While paying a personal visit to a family friend who works in Modi’s office, she was quickly whisked through the several perimeters of security surrounding the Chief Minister and introduced to Modi himself. Modi was pleasant and, conversing only in Gujarati, asked her the purpose of the USG visit to the state (Note: The local edition of the Times of India speculated earlier that day why USG officials were in Gujarat and indicated they might be on a “”secret”" mission. End note) After Econoff clarified the purpose of the visit to meet with contacts to assess Gujarat’s political, economic, and social environment, Modi seemed surprised that U.S. officials would travel to Gujarat, saying the USG had warned the state is “”unsafe.”" Econoff responded by stressing that while the USG has serious concerns about human rights and religious freedom, we do not restrict visitors or opportunities for U.S. companies to invest in Gujarat. Modi also asked what our contacts said about the current state of human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat. Econoff replied that the opinions were mixed.
Comment
——-
17. (C) Modi’s dominance of Gujarat politics is likely to continue for now, and by all accounts he should get reelected easily next year. Among our contacts, there is not yet a consensus on Modi’s chances for success at the national level, but some feel strongly in Delhi and Gujarat that his rise is inevitable. If Modi does eventually get a national leadership role in the BJP in the foreseeable future, the USG will be obliged to decide how it wants to deal with a figure of national prominence whose B1/B2 we revoked. We believe it would dilute our influence to avoid Modi completely. If we waited to engage Modi after he attains national stature within India’s largest and most important opposition party, many in the BJP would likely view this as an opportunistic move and only deepen the suspicions cultivated by some BJP leaders in western India since the visa revocation. Since the riots of 2002, we have declined to engage Modi at the Ambassadorial level, but Mumbai Consul Generals have routinely sought meetings with Modi whenever they visited Ahmedabad. We will continue to seek such meetings at the level of the CG to emphasize that the USG does not have a formal no-contact policy (Note: The CG requested a meeting during his initial visit to Gujarat in 2005, but Modi was traveling that day), and to demonstrate to the BJP that we are interested in cultivating relationships with the party while it
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is in the opposition. Direct encounters with Modi will also enable us to deliver a clear message regarding USG concerns for the state of human rights and religious freedom in Gujarat. End comment.
18. (U) Embassy New Delhi cleared this cable.
OWEN
Keywords: cable84043, The India Cables, Narendra Modi, post-Godhra riots, Muslims in Gujarat, human rights violation
ews » The India Cables
CHENNAI, March 22, 2011
Caste politics at work in Gujarat
Sarah Hiddleston
Modi holds his friends close, his enemies even closer
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi used “caste resentments” to “tighten his grip on power,” after his “autocratic leadership style” provoked consternation in the Bharatiya Janata Party and forced an expansion of his Cabinet in 2005, the U.S. Consulate in Mumbai reported.
The August 10, 2005 cable (38300: confidential; only partial extract accessible), which was issued under the name of Public Affairs Section Director Linda C. Cheatham days after the expansion, took a close look at its timing and the allocation of portfolios.
Mr. Modi’s moves, the cable explained, were the result of a direction from BJP president Lal Krishna Advani following criticism from party members. According to the cable, “Modi consented under the condition that the BJP appoint a state party president loyal to him. In early June, Advani kept his part of the bargain when the BJP appointed Vajubhai Vala as Gujarat BJP president.”
The Gujarat Chief Minister made the most of the development, the cable said, explaining that he “ingeniously weakened his critics by only appearing to devolve some power to them and by securing pledges of loyalty.”
The cable noted: “Many contacts, including journalists Anosh Malekar and Uday Mahurkar as well as BJP official Pankaj Mudholkar, told us that none of the new ministers will have any significant policy-making clout or sizable budgets that can be diverted for political patronage. The newcomers received departments such as women and child welfare, employment guarantee and fisheries. The CM and his core supporters still control the most important portfolios, such as Home, Finance, Industry, Irrigation and Rural Development.”
“Modi timed the expansion of the cabinet,” the Mumbai Consulate cable pointed out “to take advantage of the absence of the leader of the rebels, former Gujarat chief minister Keshubhai Patel. Patel is currently in the U.S., where his wife is undergoing medical treatment. Modi reportedly focused on two influential Patel supporters and enticed them to join his cabinet under conditions that Patel himself would probably never have supported.”
The Consulate’s reading was that Mr. Modi appeared to “be using the cabinet expansion to change the power equation among castes.”
The cable elaborated: “Tensions between the sizeable, landowning and better-off Patel caste and … ‘Other Backward Castes’ (OBC) have long simmered in Gujarat’s politics. Modi belongs to a small and economically weak OBC group…Our contacts tell us nine of the 11 new cabinet members are from the OBC grouping. They are also drawn evenly from all regions of Gujarat. Having effectively manipulated religious strife to strengthen his power base during and after the 2002 riots in Gujarat, Modi is now using caste/class resentments within Hinduism to tighten his grip, many of our contacts believe.”
The Mumbai Consulate surmised that the refusal of BJP MLA (and a VHP member) Govardhan Zhadapia to take the Cabinet posting offered to him, and the appointment of Purushottam Solanki, wanted by the Mumbai police for “extortion,” could potentially alienate both VHP and urban middle class voters.
However, the confidential cable concluded that “in a BJP beset by internal struggles, Mr. Modi’s revival sets him up nicely to influence the king making when the time comes.” In fact, he seemed “stronger than at any time since the rebels took their opposition public” — indeed a “force to be reckoned with.”
(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
Keywords: Cable38300, Narendar Modi government, caste politics, Patels, OBCs, VHP, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate
News » The India Cables
CHENNAI, March 22, 2011
When Modi was denied the visa
Suresh Nambath
The Hindu The Ministry of External Affairs made a pitch for restoring Narendra Modi’s U.S. visa. Photo: P.V. Sivakumar
UPA government, having “gone through the motions” by protesting, was “unlikely to ratchet up the pressure further”; Modi’s “America bashing has made many” in the Congress and the BJP “nervous”
Sometimes, diplomacy is more about keeping up appearances than about achieving concrete results.
After India urged the United States in March 2005 to reconsider its decision to revoke the visa of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the U.S. Embassy made an action request to Washington seeking a “review” of the case. However, the ‘action request’ cable of March 18, 2005 (29140: confidential) also had a revealing accompanying note: “Post does not expect any change, but would appreciate a cable telling the GOI [Government of India] we took a fresh look and decided to maintain our decision.”
Grave concern
The cable was sent by the New Delhi Embassy under the name of Ambassador David Mulford after India’s Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran called the Deputy Chief of Mission in the Embassy, Robert O. Blake, to his office on March 18, 2005 to express India’s “grave concern” over the revocation of Mr. Modi’s visa.
Evidently, the Embassy’s only interest in sending the ‘action request’ cable to the State Department was the diplomatic and political necessity of responding to Mr. Saran on March 19, 2005, the day Mr. Modi was to travel to the United States.
During the meeting with Mr. Blake, Mr. Saran characterised the U.S. decision on Mr. Modi’s visa as “uncalled for” and as a display of a “lack of courtesy and sensitivity.” The Foreign Secretary conveyed that the refusal had already “incited a controversy and threatened to spark just the kind of divisiveness the US alleges Modi himself facilitated.”
Reporting on the meeting, the confidential cable said: “Saran argued to the DCM that the USG [United States Government] had made a decision based on opinion, an opinion that even some in India hold. That opinion, however, is a separate issue from the fact that Modi is a constitutionally-mandated office holder whose position derives from the people. Saran argued that the US as a democracy would appreciate this, and argued that the dignity of the office of Chief Minister cannot be overridden. Calling the USG determination that Modi had failed to act in Gujarat during the 2002 riots a ‘subjective judgment,’ Saran suggested that perhaps Washington had not considered that this was a separate issue in the Indian mind.”
While appreciating the importance that the United States government attached to religious freedom, Mr. Saran cautioned that this determination could have an effect opposite from that intended: “a strong emotional reaction which had the potential to polarise the Indian people.” This, he noted, would not be in the interest of religious harmony, or shared U.S. and Indian objectives.
Highlighting the political ramifications, Mr. Saran said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was “up in arms.” The incident, he added, might “open up an odd type of standard to give or not give visas.”
On his part, Mr. Blake explained to Mr. Saran the two parts of the U.S. decision – the refusal of the A2, and the revocation of the B1/B2, “highlighting that we had acted in accordance with our own law and democratic constitution.” The U.S., he told the Foreign Secretary, had taken into consideration independent reports, including that of India’s own National Human Rights Commission. “The decision was not taken capriciously, but involved many people in Washington.”
‘Position deteriorating’
Another cable sent three days later (29231: confidential), also under the name of Ambassador Mulford, reported that the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, after having “gone through the motions” by protesting the U.S. decision, was “unlikely to ratchet up the pressure further.”
The New Delhi Embassy’s reading of the situation, even if it was arguable on Mr. Modi’s “position deteriorating” in the national leadership stakes, must have reassured the State Department: “Congress has long viewed Modi as a vulnerable target and will, at the appropriate time, use the visa incident as further ammunition against him. Both Congress and the BJP particularly value the US-India relationship and Modi’s America bashing has made many nervous. Both parties will likely move to ensure that the negative impact on the relationship from this incident is minimal. With Modi’s position deteriorating, the BJP leadership could decide to quietly push him aside at the appropriate time. This could become a further liability for [BJP president L.K.] Advani, who [was] the senior party leader most visibly supporting Modi.”
The Embassy cable also reported that in private conversations with American diplomats, “Indians have expressed overwhelming support for the US decision.” Initial shock at the denial was now turning to embarrassment and “Modi harmed himself by making vitriolic anti-American statements that are not resonating well.” One former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, the cable said, told DCM that “Ninety five percent of India stands with you.”
(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
Keywords: Cable29140, cable29231, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, BJP, visa denial, Narendra Modi, U.S. Embassy, 2002 Gujarat communal violence, Godhra train carnage
ews » The India Cables
CHENNAI, March 22, 2011
2002 riots an ‘internal Gujarati matter’: Modi told American diplomat
Suresh Nambath
AP EYES WIDE SHUT: While the State looked on, 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and 223 more people were reported as missing in over four weeks of rioting. A 2002 file photograph of rioters in Ahmedabad.
U.S. itself is guilty of “horrific human rights violations” says Gujarat Chief Minister.
When an American diplomat raised the horrific Gujarat communal violence of 2002 with Chief Minister Narendra Modi in November 2006, he got more than what he had bargained for: a lecture on the “horrific human rights violations” by the United States.
Michael S. Owen, Consul General in Mumbai, was the diplomat at the receiving end of Mr. Modi’s tirade during a November 16, 2006 meeting in Gandhinagar. This was the first such meeting since the March 2005 revocation of Mr. Modi’s U.S. visa on account of his role in the 2002 communal violence in Gujarat — in which (according to an official ministerial statement made in Parliament in 2005) 790 Muslims and 254 Hindus were killed, and 223 more people were reported as missing. The genocidal attack on Muslims by mobs of Hindu extremists and fanatics followed the burning of a coach of the Sabarmati Express by a local mob of Muslim extremists and fanatics at Godhra on February 27, 2002. The coach was carrying kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya. The police failed to quell the post-Godhra anti-Muslim pogrom that went on for several weeks, which lent credence to reports of state complicity in the violence. Mr. Modi was questioned on March 27, 2010 by the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team headed by R.K. Raghavan, former Director of the Central Bureau of Investigation, in connection with the Gujarat riots.
In a revealing Mumbai Consulate cable, which was sent on November 27, 2006 to the State Department and copied to an interesting selection of U.S. embassies, consulates, and other destinations (87085: confidential), Mr. Owen recounted what followed after “a relaxed” Chief Minister had given him “a glowing overview of his Government’s achievements in building infrastructure and promoting economic growth in Gujarat” and he had responded appropriately. The Consul General then moved on to a taboo subject, an issue that Mr. Modi evidently considered to be none of his business: “while we are very pleased with our business and people to people relations with Gujarat, we remain concerned about communal relations within the state. In particular, we remain concerned that nobody has yet been held accountable for the horrific communal violence of 2002, and are further concerned that an atmosphere of impunity could lead to a further deterioration of communal relations. What is the Government of Gujarat’s view on this, he asked.”
‘Modi visibly annoyed’
“A visibly annoyed Modi,” the Consul General reported to the State Department, “responded at considerable length.” The Chief Minister, he said, made three essential points: “the events of 2002 were an internal Gujarati matter and the U.S. had no right to interfere; the U.S. is itself guilty of horrific human rights violations (he specified Abu Ghraib, Guantanamo, and attacks on Sikhs in the U.S. after September 11) and thus has no moral basis to speak on such matters, and; Muslims are demonstrably better off in Gujarat than in any other state in India, so what is everybody griping about?”
Mr. Owen correctly pointed out that it was not only the U.S. that was concerned with this issue. “The Indian National Human Rights Commission report itself cited ‘a comprehensive failure on the part of the state Government’ to prevent the violence of 2002. We are reflecting a broad cross section of opinion that no one has been held accountable for the violence and that consequently a climate of impunity is developing. Secondly, Abu Ghraib is precisely the point: Americans can also commit human rights violations but when they do we have a clear procedure to investigate, prosecute, and punish those guilty of wrongdoing. This is what we and others would like to see in Gujarat.”
To this, “Modi grumbled that the Indian National Human Rights Commission was biased and its reports wildly inaccurate. More broadly, he claimed, the U.S. relied far too much on ‘a few fringe NGOs’ that don’t know the real picture and have an axe to grind. In any event, if officials are guilty of wrongdoing, then it is up to the courts to prosecute and punish them, and the Chief Minister could not interfere with the judicial process.”
The Consul General reacted that it had been well over four years since the violence occurred and nobody had been sanctioned; this gave little confidence that anyone would ultimately be held accountable. “Modi noted (accurately, alas) that the culprits in the 1993 Mumbai bombings are only now being sentenced, so we should not have ‘unrealistic expectations’.”
‘Evasive, backtracked’
When the diplomat asked if there was in fact an active investigation of the Gujarat violence still under way, “Modi was evasive and backtracked to his claim that Muslims in Gujarat are better off than in any other state in India. He noted that the BJP had won big victories in recent local bodies elections in Muslim districts, and that a recent study had found literacy among Muslims was higher in Gujarat than in any other state. The 2002 violence had involved a ‘few miscreants’ and had been blown out of proportion by ‘fringe elements,’ he said. Communal relations in Gujarat are now excellent, he claimed.”
Mr. Owen responded that the U.S. acknowledged the many positive accomplishments of the Modi government, including economic growth and education: “These are to be applauded, but do not diminish in any way the importance of holding accountable those persons who are guilty of inciting or carrying out communal violence…failure to do so will create an atmosphere of impunity in which radical elements would feel emboldened in the future. He concluded by underlining that the U.S. Government considers human rights and religious freedom to be extremely important, and we will continue to monitor developments and engage his Government in these areas.” Mr. Modi, switching to an apparently more conciliatory note, allowed that he understood human rights and religious freedom to be important to the U.S. because “you people keep raising these issues all the time.” The meeting concluded with the Chief Minister saying” with a touch of irony that he hoped Consul General would return to Gujarat on a regular basis. ‘All Americans are always welcome in my state,’ he said.”
Consul General Owen’s concluding comment in the cable is: “Modi is clearly not going to apologize or back down on the violence of 2002, but we think it is vital for him to hear that we are not going to let the passage of time erase the memory of these events. Despite the chilly atmosphere of the meeting, Modi did take on board the message that human rights and religious freedom are important issues that we will continue to monitor carefully. We believe Sinhji’s comments on Modi are indeed accurate: ironically the man most hold accountable for the communal violence of 2002 may now be the most ardent defender of communal harmony, at least on the surface. It remains to be seen to what extent Gujarat’s economic boom will lead to genuinely improved communal relations over time.”
The reference is to an “interesting point” that former Congress party MP and former Minister of Environment Yuraj Digvijay Sinhji made to Mr. Owen: “The fact that Modi clearly has aspirations for national leadership makes him, ironically, one of the greatest protectors of communal harmony at this stage. Modi knows that another outbreak like 2002 would doom his chances, so he is going to be particularly zealous to ensure there are no further problems on his watch.”
But that was not all that Mr. Sinhji said in his lengthy meeting with the Consul General. “Asked whether Modi could become a national leader,” the Mumbai consulate-general cable relays to the State Department,” Sinhji (himself the scion of the princely Wankaner family and a Cambridge grad) sniffed that Modi ‘lacks the polish and refinement’ to become a national leader. But Sinhji raised another reason why Modi could face challenges in becoming a national leader: Modi’s reputation for being completely incorruptible is accurate, and if he were to become a national leader he would crack down on corruption throughout the BJP. There are too many BJP rank and file waiting to line their pockets once the BJP returns to power, Sinhji said, and the prospect of Modi cracking the whip on corruption is entirely unappealing to this crowd. Modi would have a hard time clearing this hurdle, according to Sinhji.”
(This article is a part of the series “The India Cables” based on the US diplomatic cables accessed by The Hindu via Wikileaks.)
Keywords: Cable87085, The India Cables, WikiLeaks, Cablegate, 2002 Gujarat communal violence, Narendra Modi government, religious freedom, Godhra train carnage
Opinion » Interview
March 22, 2011
The behaviour of guilty men: Julian Assange
AP WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: “We want as much in the historical record about how governments and organisations actually behave. So we can use it to understand our world, adapt it and adjust to it and to engage in the democratic process. Without that we are sailing in the dark”. File photo
‘We are working with The Hindu because we have seen its good work. What we have seen in India is ‘an attempt to distort the record and fool the public about the nature of the material…If this cable on bribery is incorrect, the U.S. Ambassador in India has a lot to answer for. ‘‘There is no doubt whatsoever that the cables are authentic’
WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assange speaks to NDTV Chairman Prannoy Roy on the impact of WikiLeaks worldwide, the consequences, the challenges the network faces, the significance of the India Cables, the partnership with The Hindu, freedom of speech versus privacy, and why governments should be more open. Excerpts from the extended interview telecast on NDTV 24X7on March 21; this is published with permission from NDTV. The interview was conducted over a satellite link.
You are under global attack… Your home country, Australia, accuses you of treason. America wants to arrest you… In Sweden you have been accused of rape. The West prides itself on the rule of law and its institutions of justice. Are you shocked by the ferocity, and the illegalities, of the attacks on you?
I’m disappointed that the U.S. administration has decided to betray the traditions of the founding fathers, and those great traditions of Franklin and Madison. Now the Codified Bill of Rights has within it important protection for freedom… in the First Amendment. So that’s depressing. I would like to say that it is not shocking. We have been following the U.S. military for four, five years now, in this process of WikiLeaks. And in other countries. But we can see that there is a burgeoning security state that has spread out not just for Washington, because the centre of gravity is around there. It goes into all the Western countries, and there is a Western alliance that responds very aggressively. Previous publications have received some of that response. But it is really the size and the scale of the publication which has received [such a response], and been stimulating such aggressive attack.
Egypt, Tunisia, safest
Now, with so many countries hunting you down, where can Julian Assange live safely…? In the end, do you think go