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Noble scheme Overdue reform |
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Not cricket BCCI is about money and politics CRICKET bosses are much more in the news than the game itself and, invariably, for the wrong reasons. No doubt, periodic controversies over Team India’s captaincy or distasteful exchanges between the captain and the coach also make the headlines much more than the performance of our players.
Tenure of Chief Justice
Our own hurricanes
A trouble spot called Aceh Police backs gangs to counter Naxalites World Bank, IMF to focus on aid
From the pages of
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Noble scheme IN theory, there is no difference between a son and a daughter. In practice, that equality is a joke. The latter is treated as a burden, even to be gotten rid of through foeticide or infanticide, if possible. That is why the male-female ratio is becoming dangerously skewed. Amid such deep-rooted prejudices, education is still considered the preserve of the male child, if at all the parents are willing to send their wards to school. The consequences are disastrous in the extreme. Over 60 per cent of the female population happens to be illiterate and over two-thirds of them live in rural areas. Forget about the previous generation, even girls of today are being deprived of education with a vengeance. They form more than half of the illiterate children in the 5-9 age group. The situation can be salvaged to a considerable extent once a new scheme formulated by the Centre comes into operation from the next academic session. Under it, if a girl is the only offspring of her parents, she will get fee exemption as well as scholarship. If the parents have two girls, they won’t get scholarship and fee exemption will be cut down to 50 per cent. The idea is not only to promote female literacy but also to give a boost to the one-child norm. While fee exemption in itself is incentive enough, the scholarship should be an added attraction. It will be Rs 800 per month for school, Rs 1,000 for an undergraduate course and Rs 2,000 a month during postgraduation. This means the girl child will get almost free education. It goes without saying that women’s redemption and empowerment lie in their education. The Central scheme is a laudable step in that direction. It offers so many benefits that the states should chip in enthusiastically to make it a big draw. Awareness will have to be spread through the length and breadth of the country. At the same time, it is necessary to open many more secondary schools, especially in far-flung areas. Even those parents who are willing to send their daughters to school are hesitant to do so if the school happens to be far away from their residence.
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Overdue reform THE Union Cabinet’s decision to ensure a two-year tenure to the Union Home Secretary, the Defence Secretary, and the Directors of the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) is most welcome. A fixed tenure for these officers had been on the agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for quite some time. At present, only the Cabinet Secretary and the CBI Director enjoy a two-year tenure. Such a reform was long overdue because frequent change of bureaucrats in charge of sensitive ministries like Home Affairs or Defence (either because of their superannuation or routine transfer) was affecting policy-making and decision-making at crucial levels of governance. A fixed tenure for these top officials will help achieve three important objectives. First, it will ensure continuity in administration, especially on matters relating to national security. Secondly, it will strengthen effective inter-departmental coordination among the sensitive departments. And thirdly, it will rejuvenate the administrative system. Doubts have been raised in some sections on the propriety of a fixed tenure for some bureaucrats, depriving others of their right to hold the same posts. Reports suggest that a section of the bureaucracy is against the principle of continuity as it is sought to be limited only to some ministries and not others. It is argued that the rules of all-India services do not discriminate between one ministry and another. It is also said that because of the privilege of an extension of service beyond the age of superannuation for enabling an officer to complete the two-year tenure, the Centre’s decision would give rise to canvassing and interference. However, these do not seem to carry much weight. Apparently, the Union Cabinet has taken adequate care to ensure that the two-year tenure is not treated as “automatic” for these designated posts. For example, as and when a vacancy occurs in any of these posts, the Centre will examine it on a case-to-case basis. Besides, the officer’s performance will also be on constant review. These suggest that fears about the fixed-tenure scheme are unfounded.
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Not cricket CRICKET bosses are much more in the news than the game itself and, invariably, for the wrong reasons. No doubt, periodic controversies over Team India’s captaincy or distasteful exchanges between the captain and the coach also make the headlines much more than the performance of our players. But, by far the most unsavoury drama is the yearly shenanigans before, during and after the elections to the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). Being the world’s richest sport organisation, the BCCI is an empire by itself; and where so much money is involved, there is bound to be politics as well as power struggles. As a result, politicians, businessmen, industrialists and plain moneybags — in fact, everyone except cricket — join battle every year to decide who should be BCCI helmsman. As predictable as the unedifying spectacle of this contest for power are the court battles every year, with rival contenders resorting to every trick in the book to do in their opponents. India’s cricket czar Jagmohan Dalmiya may have stepped down from the top post, but is determined that only men of his choice should head the BCCI. Politicians — and Union Agriculture Minster Sharad Pawar is just the most visible and at the front among those taking on Mr Dalmiya —are no less determined to wrest control of the BCCI. In the event, almost every politician worth anything is as much involved in the BCCI contest as the 30 associations that vote in the elections. This year, too, the story of these men and their sordid manoeuvres is the same. One group calls for the annual general meeting while another is out to scuttle it, with the tug-of-war extending to courtrooms, boardrooms and the higher echelons of political parties. In the process, cricket has been reduced to another commodity for commerce and political power play.
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It is manlike to punish but godlike to forgive. — Peter Von Winter
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Tenure of Chief Justice WILLIAM Hubbs Rehnquist who died on September 3 this year at the age of 80 was the 16th Chief Justice of the US during its nearly 250-year-long history. He was the Chief Justice for 18 years. Chief Justice Marshal still holds the record for the longest service as Chief Justice — 34 years from 1801 to 1835. May be the nominee to be the new Chief Justice of the USA, John G.Roberts Jr., who is only 50 years old and described by a “Washington Post” article as, “..elite among the elite; (like) the basketball star Tim Duncan, brilliant without being flashy...” will break that record. In contrast Chief Justice of India R.C. Lahoti who is due to retire on November 1 is the 35th Chief Justice of India during the 55 years of existence of our Supreme Court. In India a very long tenure is impossible, even if it is desirable, because, unlike in the US our Constitution prescribes an age of retirement — 62 for a judge of a High Court and 65 in the case of a judge of the Supreme Court, including the Chief Justice. But the present experience of some Chief Justices of India lasting just a little beyond his journey back from Rastrapathi Bhavan, is not good for the institution. Long enough tenure - say three years - is the minimum that a Chief Justice would need to make a worthwhile contribution for the betterment of the judiciary he heads. The genesis of this problem of quick changes of Chief Justices was a 1993 exercise by a nine-judge Bench - the Second Judges’ Case. That judgment was concerned with infusing life in to the expression, “consultation” with the Chief Justice of India in the matter of appointment of judges including Chief justices, and transfer of judges from one High Court to another. The effort undoubtedly was to prevent repetition of 1973 and 1977 experiences of picking and choosing Chief justices and to check arbitrary transfer of judges as was done during the 1975 emergency. The remedy prescribed by the majority verdict in 1993 that hurts the judiciary today were a) - legitimising the concept of ‘seniority’ in the matter of appointment of the Chief Justices and of judges to the Supreme Court and b) introduction of the concept of “legitimate expectation” of the judges as a relevant consideration in filling vacancies. Even before the 1993 pronouncement, as a matter of convention seniority was respected in the matter of appointing Chief Justices of High Courts. But, “seniority” - was not a consideration for appointment to the Supreme Court Bench. As a matter of fact, the Chief Justices of High Courts were requested to suggest good names from their High Courts for elevation to the Supreme Court. It is interesting to note that under our Constitution the salary of a Chief Justice of a High Court is the same as that of a judge of the Supreme Court - they enjoy the same status. However, as a consequence of the second judges’ case ushering in the twin concepts of seniority and legitimate expectation, the “zone of consideration” for appointment to the apex court is in reality restricted to the chief justices of the High Courts because; they are the “seniors” and their legitimate expectation is not to retire at 62, but to continue for another three years. And this has resulted in two disastrous — perhaps unforeseen — consequences to the country’s judiciary. First, the seniors when appointed to the Supreme Court are nearing the age of retirement with short tenures of three to four years. As a result, too many vacancies occur in the Supreme Court Bench too frequently. Further, the seniormost among the short tenured judges has to be the Chief Justice, who can be in office for a few days or months between the date of fulfilment of his legitimate expectation and his next birthday. What has in the process become a casualty is the equally legitimate expectation of the citizens for Court with less of floating judges. The second undesirable fallout of the “seniority” rule is that most of the High Courts have been made to live with “transient chief justices”. High Courts have got accustomed to welcoming and sending off two or three Chief Justices per year — unless a High Court is blessed with a CJ who is marked “not fit” for appointment to the Supreme Court. The circle is vicious — frequent vacancies in the Supreme Court, because only the chief justices nearing their retirement are appointed - only chief justices of High Courts to be appointed to the Supreme Court because, they are seniors to others - the States have to manage with Chief justices for periods too short to be effective. In this process, the Chief Justice who has to be an ‘outsider’ to the state, has no time — not even the mood — to get some idea of the State, its size or even the geography - not to mention of its culture. He has no idea about who is who in the Bar — nor does he get to know the subordinate judiciary. Therefore he cannot effectively recommend any name for elevation to the Bench. A succession of the “lameduck” CJs results in the neglect of the High Courts and of the subordinate judiciary. Take the two recent cases of appointment to the Supreme Court Bench —with respect both young and able. Justice Kabir, then a Judge of the Calcutta High Court was appointed Chief Justice of the Chhattisgarh High Court in May. Justice Ravindran from Karnataka headed the Madhya Pradesh High Court for about six months or so. There are more vacancies in the Supreme Court and by November two additional vacancies will arise. This means more High Courts will soon be deprived of Chief Justices. It is already rumoured that Chief Justice Katju — who during his short stint has earned the respect of all and sundry in Tamil Nadu — is being transferred from Madras High Court to Delhi, presumably ‘en route’ to Supreme Court. If the prevailing process of appointing “Chief justices only” is not checked, the High Courts and courts subordinate to them will soon be beyond repair. Surely the members of the collegium — all experienced judges of the Supreme Court — would be aware of all these and more. They would know the basic truth that seniority and efficiency do not always march together — the older is not necessarily wiser. They must be feeling helplessly bound by the judgment that created the collegium. But for this compulsion many would not have been appointed Chief Justices of High Courts — not by the judges of the Supreme Court. Indeed a tragedy in the classical mould. Salvation can come only from Parliament through suitable amendments to the Constitution, first making the retirement age of the Judges of the Supreme Court and the High Courts the same, namely 65 years or may be even 70. With this the judicially baptised “legitimate expectations’ of their lordships are respected. The fear expressed in some quarters that in such a situation, no High Court judge would agree to be a judge of the apex court is without substance firstly because no judge should be given the option to refuse to serve anywhere and secondly there are at any given time many among judges who enjoy the rarified atmosphere of the highest court economic considerations not being relevant. Surely the Chief Justices of High Courts should be saved to serve the States —they would prefer it and the States need them. Establishing a National Judicial Commission consisting of representatives of the judiciary, the executive and the legislature entrusted with the job of — among others — selecting Chief Justices and of Judges of the higher judiciary cannot be delayed further. With this in place, the dreaded political interference will be remote. “Seniority” concept should be specifically ruled out for appointment to the Supreme Court or for appointment as Chief Justices. After these amendments, the NJC, unlike the present collegium will have the freedom to choose the best from among those who have long enough tenure left — and without causing much heartburn to the majority. The writer is a Senior Advocate, Supreme Court of India.
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Our own hurricanes KATRINA, Rita, Ophelia, Irene…. All dreaded hurricanes. Played havoc. Left a trail of destruction in their wake. Laid even the mighty United States of America low. No, we are not concerned about their respective destructive power. Did you notice another similarity in them? They all have feminine names. The tradition started during World War II when Army and Navy meteorologists started naming tropical cyclones after their girlfriends and wives. Perhaps, it was an attempt to make the misery caused by them less unbearable. Earlier, they were named after politicians. Following objections from feminists, they were given male names also but by a strange coincidence those with a feminine identity proved to be the most lethal. In comparison, look at what we have started doing in India! We assign them totally impersonal names like “Agni”, “Baaj” and “Pyaar” (whoever thought of the last one?). Such gender-neutral names are an insult to the rich resources of our country. Are we in any way lacking in appropriate names for hurricanes and typhoons? Any storm which is caused by Manuwadi forces as a conspiracy against hapless Dalits should be christened “Mayawati”. The nation owes it to the suppressed victims that losses suffered by them are made good by auctioning off useless buildings like Taj Mahal. An ochre storm which plays havoc wherever it goes and then quietly heads towards pilgrimage centres in the high Himalayas deserves to be called “Uma Bharati”. On the other hand, a petulant storm whose direction cannot be predicted and lurches from Left to Right and North to South without any rhyme or reason ought to be called “Mamata Banerjee”. The Indian name for a calamity like a tsunami, which kills human beings by the thousands but leaves animals more or less untouched, almost suggests itself: “Maneka Gandhi”. And what do you call a storm which begins with a whimper, gathers tremendous momentum without anyone noticing it, and then, equally unexpectedly, dissipates itself? “Sonia Gandhi”, of course. Mind you, this is only a representative list. There is an inexhaustible treasure of appropriate names. Unfortunately, we have far too few cyclones to accommodate them all. Those desirous of getting their names immortalised should write to the Met department at the earliest, with detailed curriculum vitae and recommendation letters from at least three active politicians. Once the national-level cyclones are exhausted, we can exploit localised storms and storms in teacups for naming ceremonies.
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A trouble spot called Aceh The western coastal areas of Aceh, including Banda Aceh, the capital, were among the areas hit hard by the tsunami. Approximately 230,000 people were killed and 400,000 left homeless out of its total population of 4.01 million. But Aceh, as one of the turbulent spots in the neighbourhood, has been on India’s strategic radar screen for a long time. The reasons: its strategically important location, substantial natural resources, conservative Muslim population vulnerable to radical Islamists, violent Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka, (GAM) that has cost over 9,000 lives since 1976, and acts of terrorism, piracy and gun-running that go on in this area. On August 15, 2005, Aceh was once again in the news; this time for a happier reason. The Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement signed a peace agreement that offers hope of ending a 30-year-old conflict. Aceh is located only 140 km away from the Indira Point, India’s southern-most tip on the Great Nicobar Island. These two locations at the western end of the Malacca Straits can monitor all shipping that passes through this Indian Ocean bottleneck towards or from the Asia Pacific region. Currently, nearly 65,000 military and non-military vessels (size 500 tonnes and above) pass through this bottleneck every year. The non-military vessels carry oil, general cargo and some passengers. But many vessels pass through to carry out illegal fishing and other shady activities in or near India’s Exclusive Economic Zone. Last year there were 37 recorded incidents of piracy in the area. Not many people know that out of 572 islands in India’s Andaman and Nicobar group, stretching over 700 km North-South, only 36 islands are inhabited. The others are vulnerable to illegal occupation for shady activities. Eversince Indonesia’s independence, have been periodic armed conflicts between the Indonesian military and the Aceh rebels fighting for greater autonomy from the national government in Jakarta. The resistance has both economic and socio-cultural roots. Many Acehnese people feel that most of the economic benefits of the province’s natural resources, especially oil and gas, do not benefit the locals. The socio-cultural divide between Aceh and the rest of Indonesia exists for several reasons. The Acehnese practise a more orthodox form of Islam than the rest of the archipelago due to its historical trade links with the Middle East. Such dissatisfactions led to movements for greater autonomy or complete separation. The Free Aceh Movement emerged out of the armed rebel groups fighting for secession. Some years ago, Aceh was granted a special territory status, giving it a greater degree of autonomy. For example, the provincial government is empowered to construct a legal system independent of the national government. In 2003, a form of sharia, or Islamic law, was formally introduced in Aceh. Ever since 9/11 and the Bali bombing incident in October 2002, the GAM leaders have been at pains to emphasise that GAM is essentially a separatist movement against Jakarta rule. It is motivated by nationalism and not fundamentalism. Its goals are limited to Aceh and do
not involve a struggle against the West. The group has denied any contacts with Al Qaida, or Jemaah Islamiyah, the most dominating terrorist group in South-East Asia. But there is evidence that GAM has been engaged in terrorism, piracy and gun-running. The conflict between GAM and the Indonesian forces led to the province being named a “military operational zone” by the Indonesian Government. A “Cessation of Hostilities Agreement” signed between GAM and the Indonesian forces in 2002 collapsed in early 2003. The Indonesian Government then declared martial law in the province. In November 2003, the martial law was extended for a further six months. Combat fatigue and decimation of GAM middle ranks was evident before Aceh was struck by the devastating tsunami in December 2004. Their combined effect resulted in GAM and the Indonesian Government declaring a ceasefire and reiterating the need to resolve the conflict. The Indonesian Government opened the province for international relief efforts although restrictions were placed on the Press and aid workers in some areas. India sent one hospital ship, 40 tonnes relief materials and 3 tonne of medical stores. Its relief work was highly appreciated by the Acehese as well as the Government of Indonesia. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Indonesia Government indicated willingness to discuss increased autonomy and amnesty for the former rebels. The talks held in Finland resulted in a peace agreement that was signed in Helsinki on August 15, witnessed by 250 observers from the EU and five South-east Asian countries. However, peace in not a done deal yet. There are several difficult details to be worked out. Some incidents of piracy and abduction have been reported even after the signing of the agreement. Aceh is yet another example, which shows that religion by itself cannot hold a nation together. India’s strategic interests require that the Aceh problem in Indonesia is resolved peacefully. That would promote greater stability in a sensitive area. The failure could allow undesirable external elements to make it a playground for more troubles.
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Police backs gangs to counter Naxalites THE rise of private armies in Andhra Pradesh, aimed at eliminating Maoists in particular and activists of rights organisations and political opponents in general, is a new and worrisome development in the state. What is causing concern to public-spirited citizens in the state is the fact that these private gangs, recently calling themselves as “cobras”, have the blessings of the state apparatus, more specifically the police. These lumpen gangs are not caste-based armies, as CPM politburo member Sitaram Yechuri called them, but are born out of the state policy to dispense with ultra-left militancy in all manners possible. Caste is indeed an undercurrent in these allegedly state-sponsored retributive killings because the victims most of the time are from Dalit castes, as Maoists enjoy the support of the BCs, STs and SCs. And they are the easy targets for the police and the private armies. It was during the tenure of the TDP’s Chandrababu Naidu that the police, bent on exterminating the ultra-left underground movement in the state by hook or crook, devised the devious design of encouraging lumpen elements to take on Maoist revolutionaries. Naidu is in a way the architect of what he later called “counter insurgency covert operations” at a meet held by the Union Home Ministry on left-wing extremism in April 2004, a month before he was ousted from power. The policy of turning criminals out of surrendered Naxalites started in 1994 with Kathula Sammaiah, who left the then People’s War Group after killing three of his fellow squad members. In 1998 April, Somla Naik of Nalgonda district killed a squad leader and four squad members and surrendered to the police. Within a week, Jadala Nagaraju of Karimnagar district killed Malkapuram Bhaskar, alias Vijay, district secretary of People’s War to “join mainstream”. In all these three incidents, the unsuspecting victims were killed by their covert colleagues. None of the killers was ever prosecuted despite their confession of committing homicide. In fact, the police had produced them with escort before the Press to narrate their gruesome murders as if they had done a heroic act. The murderers were later taken under the protection of the police and were allegedly provided unnumbered vehicles, weapons and money. The message was loud and clear and many more surrendered Naxalites joined the ranks to take on Maoists under the tutelage of the police. Emboldened by the state support, the covert groups steadily transformed into mafia gangs and indulged in kidnappings, killings and extortion of people other than Naxalites in a bid to expand their base. At least in five Telangana districts, these mafia gangs had widened their network, using names like Green Tigers, Kranti Sena etc. A city-based civil rights organisation Human Rights Forum (HRF), in its memorandum to the Chairperson, National Human Rights Commission, termed these mercenaries as “ex-militants turned criminals turned armed protégés of the police”. Some of these mafia gang leaders had become such a menace even to the police that they had to be bundled out of the country. Kathula Sammaih, a prime accused in the DIG Vyas murder, died in Colombo, while trying to escape from the airplane which caught fire while landing in April, 2000. These mafia gangs were primarily used by the police to eliminate civil rights activists, as the cops could not get rid of them as they did the underground armed militants in encounters, fake or otherwise. However, after the Congress government took over, these gangs have expanded their operations to fixing political differences. Most of the people involved in the killing of Paritala Ravi, a TDP MLA, are not the regular factionists of Rayalaseema, but hooligans who joined hands with mafia leaders involved in killing Maoists. After the talks with Naxalites failed and the state government deciding to draw battlelines against the CPI (Maoist), the private armies have had a field day in Andhra Pradesh. They killed a rights activist Kanakachari last month and a Dalit activist M Prasad on September 10 in response to the killing of a Congress MLA by the Naxalites. It is interesting to note that these private armies spring up after a major attack by extremists. Tirumala Tigers was formed after the attack on Chandrababu Naidu in October, 2003. Narsa Cobras was formed after the Maoists shot Maktal Congress legislator Narsi Reddy in Mahbubnagar district on August 15. The government, however, feigns ignorance about the rise of the private armies. “The gangs are just reactionary forces like Maoists. The victims of the left terror might have formed into these gangs to take vengeance,” DGP Swaranjit Sen said.
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World Bank, IMF to focus on aid THIS weekend’s meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund take place as interest in the problems of poor countries grows. In the past few years, the annual summits of the Group of Eight industrialised nations have focused repeatedly on Africa; this year’s gathering was preceded by consciousness-raising Live 8 concerts in several cities. The stalled current round of global trade talks is also supposed to be about poverty reduction. The United Nations’ worthy Millennium Development Goals have been endorsed even by a skeptical Bush administration, which threatened to blow up the recent U.N. summit over this issue but then backed down when it became clear that just about every other country in the world regards the goals as sacrosanct. Unfortunately, the new enthusiasm for helping poor countries is not always properly channeled. The Live 8 concerts, for example, were focused on debt relief, a subject that will loom large again at the World Bank-IMF meetings. But debt relief will save poor countries a tiny amount relative to what they can expect by way of aid. Equally, aid gets more attention than other policies that may matter more. Immigration policy is one example: The money sent home by workers from poor countries who hold jobs in the rich world comes to more than all official aid budgets combined, and the correlation between remittances and poverty reduction appears to be stronger than the correlation between aid and poverty reduction. Likewise, aid probably matters less than trade policy, too. In May, amid much fanfare, Congress approved $908 million in aid for four of the countries affected by the Dec. 26 tsunami, but the United States raises twice that amount each year by taxing imports from those countries. To make development policy effective, the rich world needs to take a broad view of its interactions with poor countries, factoring in not only aid, trade and migration but also contributions to the poor world’s military security, environmental prospects and access to investment capital and useful technology. As it happens, the work of meshing these disparate policies into one analytical framework has already been done: For the past three years, the Center for Global Development in Washington has scored 21 rich countries’ contributions in each of these categories and published the results in Foreign Policy magazine. This Commitment to Development Index could be the benchmark against which development promises are measured. The latest index confirms that policies toward the poor world are improving slowly. The end of global quotas on textiles and clothing imports, together with extra aid, has pushed the average score in the index up from last year. The index ranks Denmark as the most pro-development nation, reflecting its steady contribution to U.N. peacekeeping, trade openness and environmental controls as well as a large aid budget relative to the size of its economy. The United States, which scores well on trade, investment and security but abysmally on aid, comes in 12th overall. Japan is at the bottom.
— LA Times-Washington Post
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From the pages of Europeans and Indians
Sir Arthur Lawley, whose sympathetic utterances on the occasion of the Budget discussion in the Madras Council have been already commented on in these columns, has felicitously defined what he conceived should be the relation between Europeans and Indians. He said that the relation should be one of manly comradeship. And he proceeded to expand his idea in the following terms: “Think for a moment what that phrase implies. It does not mean the mere passive attitude of the arm-chair sentimentalist, the mere attitude of sympathy and goodwill, but it means for both races devotion of their energies to the attainment of one end; it means experience of difficulties faced together and the striving shoulder to shoulder, side by side, towards one common goal, the good of India.” That there is some truth in the above observations of Sir Arthur Lawley, no one will dispute. It was by his brilliant centuries and his unparalleled record as a batsman and a bowler that Jam Ranjitsinhji became the idol of the English people. But the fact cannot be gainsaid that in India there is not much of this healthy comradeship even on the playground.
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For those who believe in God and the Envoys of God, and do not discriminate among the Envoys, their reward is imminent; for God is most forgiving, most merciful. — Book of quotations on Islam Visit not miracle-mongers and those who exhibit occult powers. These men are stragglers from the path of Truth. — Ramkrishna Every religion is good that teaches man to be good. — Book of quotations on Religion
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ACEH is a little known north-west province of Indonesia that shot into world fame on December 26, 2004. It was the closest point of land to the epicentre of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake that triggered a tsunami.