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A weakened Bush BSP holds the trump |
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Arms accord in Nepal
Whither Indian broadcasting?
An ode to LG
News
analysis Nonproliferation goals still
viable Legal notes
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A weakened Bush AS predicted by many poll pundits, President Bush’s Republican Party suffered a drubbing in one of the most keenly contested mid-term US Congressional elections. The world watched with curiosity how the Democrats wrested control of the US House of Representatives from the Republicans, who had held sway over the powerful wing of Congress since 1994. The Democrats won a comfortable majority in the 435-member House with the strength of Mr Bush’s party getting reduced to 206 from 232. However, the Republicans continue to retain their control over the 100-member Senate, though their number has come down to 51 from 55. The Democrats improved their position in the Senate, too — from 45 to 49 — but they needed two more seats to claim a majority. The election results are seen as clear disapproval of the style of functioning of President Bush, as the poll was considered a referendum on his leadership and policies. The widespread resentment against the Iraq war is believed to have influenced the voters’ choice more than the other factors in play — like the Bush administration’s handling of the economy. The growing chaos in Iraq and the unending loss of US lives in the insurgency there had been plummeting his popularity for some time. President Bush tried to reverse the situation by using the death sentence pronounced on Saddam Hussein, but in vain. The US voters, it seems, had already made up their mind. The Democrats may try to force the White House to withdraw from Iraq, but only in a phased manner. The mid-term Congressional poll had special significance for India as it came at a time when the US House was in the process of clearing the Indo-US nuclear deal. The weakened position of President Bush may have its impact on the deal, but the situation will be clear only after the coming lame-duck Congress session. The agreement in the area of civilian nuclear technology is as much in the US interest as it is in India’s, and most Democrats know it. The poll results, of course, have brought in an element of uncertainty as the Democrats may demand more concessions from India, which may not be acceptable to New Delhi.
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BSP holds the trump THE results of the civic elections in Uttar Pradesh constitute a wakeup call for Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his party. He is no longer assured of the Backward-Muslim vote bank, which has been the Samajwadi Party’s mainstay so far. The erosion in his traditional vote bank has not been accompanied or compensated by any accretion in the support from upper castes. So, at the end of the elections, Mr Yadav stands at the crossroads with little to show off. One wonders whether he still realises that mouthing platitudes about secularism is no substitute for good governance in a state which is at the bottom in almost all socio-economic indices of development. The Samajwadi Party’s loss is the BJP’s gain. For a party which has truly been down in the dumps, the results denote a turnaround few even in the party had expected. The BJP has won eight posts of Mayor out of a total of 12, establishing itself as the favourite of the urban middle class. More important, its appeal is spread all over the state. It may be too boastful for the BJP to claim that it alone can provide a government after the next election due next year but there is some basis in their assertion, which other parties can only ill afford to ignore. The results would have been a better barometer of the ground situation in the state if the Bahujan Samaj Party too had formally joined the fray. Since the party preferred to support Independents, rather than field its own candidates, there is no clue to the extent of actual support it enjoys in the state. However, the large number of Independents winning, particularly in the nagar panchayats, shows that Ms Mayawati’s party remains a force to reckon with. In any case, the BSP is not a pushover as the SP and the BJP seem to believe. The Congress has done better this time, winning three Nagar Nigams and coming second only to the BJP but it has a long way to go before it can even nurse ambitions of staging a comeback to power. The party remains confined to some pockets though, surprisingly, Mr Rahul Gandhi’s Amethi is not one of them. The results will help the parties concerned in preparing themselves for the Assembly elections. But one thing is certain; the BSP holds the trump card in Uttar Pradesh.
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Arms accord in Nepal THE agreement reached between the Government of Nepal and the Maoists to place the latter’s weapons under United Nations supervision is a breakthrough that would be welcomed as a step forward towards a peaceful democracy. The Maoists, like rebels elsewhere in the world, were most reluctant to negotiate any management of the arms with the aid of which they had waged one of the bloodiest “People’s Wars” that has claimed over 12,000 lives since 1996. Talks with earlier governments never went far enough to deal with arms surrender, and even the talks with the Seven-Party Alliance (SPA) Government that began in May were deadlocked on this issue. Given this background, the accord on arms management between Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala and Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) supremo Prachanda is a landmark
development. The agreement clears the decks for the Maoists to join the interim government and, along with mainstream democratic parties, go ahead with the timetable for elections. The weapons held by the rebels as well as the Royal Nepalese Army would now be looked after by UN officials. Under the deal, Maoist combat ranks will remain confined to cantonments where the arms would be stored away under lock and key. UN squads, aided by electronic sensors and closed circuit cameras, at these cantonments would be expected to safeguard against any breach of the arrangement. With weapons out of the way, Mr Koirala and Mr Prachanda can now get down to the task of finalising the agreement on the political issues. The most contentious issue is the fate of the monarchy. While Mr Koirala’s Nepali Congress favours a ceremonial role for the king, others in the SPA and the Maoists are dead set against it. Resolving this and agreeing on the route to do so is the next big issue to be grappled with.
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Sure, winning isn’t everything. It’s the only thing. — Henry ‘Red’ Sanders
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Whither Indian broadcasting? WELL over a year ago, the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting constituted a committee to draft a “Content Code” for television programmes to be aired in India. This group was allotted three months to complete its task. Earlier this year, its recommendation was circulated to the stake holders. Amazingly, it only took into account free-to-air television and overlooked the key aspect of conditional access TV, with parental lock and pin code control. More frustratingly, no code is yet to be notified. Meanwhile, the Mumbai High Court passed a judgement banning adult feature films on the airwaves in response to a public interest application. At the time of the interim verdict in this case, the central government had indicated to the honourable court that a Content Code was imminent. Yet, even after several months, the Centre failed to produce this, thus making the drastic decree inevitable. The industrialised world, which watches India rather inquisitively these days, reacts with horror and hilarity at such developments. It finds it obnoxious that in the 21st century the Maharashtra police has nothing better to do than undertake raids on cable operators, sealing their decoders and even arresting some of them. It wonders if India is free of serious crimes, of terrorism. As a consequence of the judicial order, the whole of India, particularly the intellectual and intelligent Indian, is being held to ransom because of the whims of a puritanical petitioner. It goes without saying that authorities must protect children. At the same time, they must not deny liberty of access to its mature citizens. The issue is not whether a grown up person should watch adult programmes, but that he or she must enjoy the freedom to do so. It is also not for a government to pontificate on eroticism (not to be confused with pornography) or explicitness, when technology can impose conditional access to such viewing, with additional safeguards like parental lock and pin code control. Any programme available on such basis is, arguably, not in the public domain. As the Israeli Supreme Court famously concluded, a citizen cannot be censored in the privacy of his home. The Kama Sutra is prominently displayed and briskly sold. India’s Tourism Ministry spares no effort to internally and internationally trumpet the erotic sculptures of Khajuraho and Konarak. In any case, the Internet, now, makes a mockery of censoring television. Is it feasible for governments to be moral policemen to a billion people? Is this desirable in a democracy? Is it not an utter waste of law enforcement time and money to even attempt it? Prohibition never works; it only triggers illicit trade. Realistic regulation will ensure that adult content is either transmitted after a watershed hour or on conditional access terms. Introduction of conditional access on cable was announced in 2003, but is yet to be officially implemented, except half-heartedly in Chennai. In fact, it’s only after the Delhi High Court ordered the MIB to redeem its pledge that the latter has authorised this from January 1 next in parts of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. Addressable systems, for one, will deter corrupt cable operators from under-declaring subscribers. A fresh Broadcast Bill, which was withdrawn from the monsoon proceedings of Parliament, and, according to Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munsi, Minister of Information and Broadcasting, may not be introduced until the budget session, has a laudable intent - the setting up of a regulatory authority. But broadcasting is a specialisation; and needs to be de-linked from the clutches of ministers, MPs and bureaucrats. Mobile phones and private airlines arrived in India after multiple channel TV; yet they have galloped past broadcasting, with world class structures and services. The language of the proposed Bill is, sadly, authoritarian, clumsy and convoluted and at odds with a much-needed enlightened approach to the information order. Contentiously, there is no definition of what is “obscene and vulgar” as stated in clause 4.(2)(a) of the draft. One person’s obscenity could well be another person’s art! Besides, eroticism should not be confused with either obscenity or vulgarity. Mandatory sharing of coverage of “national and international” sports with Doordarshan (DD) and All India Radio (AIR) would be tantamount to a restraint on a rights holder’s ability to recover its investment. The corresponding organisation in Britain, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), often a role model for public service broadcasters, has never adopted such a policy. It has, in fact, lost prestigious cricket and “live” premiership and Champions League football licences. It retains international soccer, Wimbledon tennis and British Open golf rights by successfully bidding for these. Admittedly, “listed” events are expected to be on terrestrial TV (which includes ITV, Channel Four or Channel Five), but not necessarily on the BBC. It might be reasonable of the MIB to request a rights holder to “listed events” (which need to be independently categorised) to also broadcast free-to-air or disseminate on DD’s direct-to-home platform. But it would be unethical of DD or AIR to demand any share of revenue, if it has made no investment on acquisition. Then, the attitude to registration of channels appears to be one of indirect control. Licencing of channels should be on the basis of an applicant’s competence and experience and not on any other consideration, barring matters of national security. Besides, why, for instance, should AIR continue to enjoy a monopoly over news, current affairs and live sports coverage. Furthermore, the last thing a government should indulge in is to shield corrupt politicians from “sting operations” mounted by the media as long as privacy laws are not violated. Any new legislation or regulation in the realm of broadcasting should be a landmark leap forward, not a preservation of the status quo, let alone a step backward. Delhi must appreciate that in a true democracy the information order is as much an institution as the executive, the judiciary and the legislature. India will not be taken seriously unless it reforms its broadcasting
sector.
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An ode to LG
D
day was drawing closer. Ma and Papa were going to complete 50 years of conjugal bliss and togetherness. The occasion certainly called for celebrations and gifts and we were all eager to buy our parents something meaningful which they would treasure for times to come. But Ma was not able to decide what she wanted. Just one week before the big day, Ma made the announcement — she wanted LG rings. This took everyone by surprise firstly because while LG TVs, fridges and music systems could be found in innumerable homes and showrooms, one had never heard of “LG rings”. Secondly she was never one for foreign brands. Memories of Mahatma Gandhi’s swadeshi movement were still fresh in her mind. Her transistor — out of bounds for everyone, was permanently tuned to Vividh Bharati so that she could listen to renditions of old Hindi film songs whenever she wanted — Nagari Nagari Dware Dware and Ayega Aanewala being her favourites. The very fact that she even knew about LG, let alone wanting “LG rings” as an anniversary gift was puzzling indeed. But soon the mystery unraveled. The “LG rings” she had in mind were quite simply gold rings with the letters L and G inscribed on them. She wanted two of them — one for her and one for Pa. The L stood for Leelavati, my mother’s name while the G was for Ghanshyam Singh — my papa. It was her simple and beautiful way of expressing love and gratitude for the happy union the almighty had blessed them with. L parted ways with G and everyone else with Nagari Nagari on her lips and LG ring on her finger. Now her lifelike portrait with a garland around looks down on us with soulful eyes, the soft expression giving one the feeling that she is silently humming Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat. G decided to make Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry his abode, the LG ring adorning his shriveled thin finger. At the ashram, he went about his daily chores most meticulously. Having served in the uniform service he was a strict disciplinarian. Mornings were spent in the handicraft work shop and evenings zealously guarding the gate to the sports ground. Each person — mostly children, was thoroughly checked for having a valid I-card. No excuse worked and many were turned away everyday. To provide comfort in their disappointment he offered them toffees. This was also necessary to counter any erosion in the popularity of “Singh Uncle”. However, time took its toll and the body grew feebler. Finally, he left to meet his maker and perhaps his beloved wife Leelavati. I sometimes imagine them meeting again and renewing vows by exchanging LG
rings.
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News
analysis ONCE the best known face of reforms and secular credentials, former Chief Minister and TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu has now turned a champion of populism and minority appeasement. The somersault, as dramatic as it can get in Indian politics, is the direct result of losing power after nine years of national and international recognition as a leader with a difference. The poster boy of economic reforms in the state is now critical of liberalistion for failing to ensure equitable distribution of wealth. The new-age politician, who had famously declared that he preferred tourism among all isms, is now in search of an ideology that can bring him back on to the centre stage of state and national politics. Towards this end, he has already constituted a five-member committee of senior leaders to examine the entire gamut of economic reforms and formulate a document that will form the basis for the party’s manifesto for the 2009 elections. He had already given a hint of what the new policy would be like: “a new, alternative set of economic policies that are pro-farmer and pro-poor. The time has come for us to re-orient the reforms so that they benefit the poor. In the present scenario, the reforms have benefited only the rich. The poor are becoming poorer,” Naidu said. Naidu’s volte face partly comes against the backdrop of his party’s overtures for a tie-with CPI (M), the ally of the ruling Congress. The communists played a key role in influencing the outcome of elections in the state for almost three decades now. They were aligned with TDP since the days of NTR, but the relations ruptured after Naidu chose the NDA stable. Sensing that loss of left support was one of the reasons that contributed to his downfall, Naidu is making desperate attempt to woo the reds for a re-alignment of political forces. Besides, the TDP can hope to reclaim its pro-poor and secular credentials only through an endorsement of its baptism by the left parties. Convinced that he had lost due to Muslims voting en bloc against him in the last Parliamentary and Assembly elections, Naidu is also desperate to woo back the minorities at any cost. It was understandable that he broke away with the BJP, as his party’s secular image was sullied despite TDP’s strong independent stance in matters relating to minorities. In fact, the party’s nine-year rule can justifiably take credit for restoring communal peace in the state. But a couple of years in opposition can unnerve the strongest willed politician. The attempt by the Congress government in the state to consolidate its minority vote back by bringing in legislation to provide 5 percent quota to Muslims in education and employment seems to have driven Naidu to competitive populism of the extreme kind. In a publicised visit to Ajmer Sharif Dargah recently, he donated Rs 50 lakh to the popular Muslim Saint’s shrine. He jumped at the first opportunity when Manmohan Singh government voted against Iran at UN Security Council. And the reasons he proffered to oppose the Centre’s decision could put even the Samajwadi Party to shame. While his “principled” stand was that the UPA government had acted against the spirit of non-alignment, he was more forthcoming in less high-profile public meetings when he maintained that the Iran vote hurt the Shia
Muslims in India. “India is now toeing the line of the United States, which slapped sanctions on the country in the wake of the Pokhran nuclear tests”, Naidu said. This new-found anti-Americanism contrasts sharply with the pro-West image that Naidu had acquired when in power. So enamoured was he with the free market and reforms that the opposition had dubbed him as an ‘agent of the World Bank’. Naidu currently is apprehensive of the intentions behind such loans. “There cannot be loans without any conditions attached,” he said, after the Bank recently enhanced the loan amount to the state. The man who took credit for bringing Bill Clinton to Hyderabad when the latter was the President, presently denounces President Bush’s policy for leading to “unrest in the world by antagonising Islamic countries.” Naidu’s response to a resolution moved in the winter Assembly session was also revealing. While backing the resolution which seeks to condemn the cartoons by the Danish newspaper, the former BJP ally spewed venom against the Congress with great relish for its anti-Iran vote. “Your party is against Muslims,” he triumphantly declared. Equally eloquent was the silence of Naidu on the violent protests that were held in the old city of Hyderabad on the same day by fringe elements. Neither the dynamic leader himself nor his party bothered to condemn the attacks on other communities in the name of protests, while even the Muslim religious leaders of the city chose to declare the acts as anti-Islam. While minorityism is the confirmed political philosophy of the changed Naidu, what comes as more surprising is his party’s new found love for freebies, and hatred against multinationals. The leader, who had emerged as an icon for reforms in administration and economy, looks like a caricature of himself when he is seen demanding full implementation of Congress government’s free power to farm sector. He has even come out against the proposed move to introduce the creamy layer principle in quotas to Backward Classes, dubbing the move as “a conspiracy” to stifle the advancement of backward classes. Naidu’s volte face, indeed, serves as a lesson that in Indian politics, principles have their relevance only in proportion to their usefulness in capturing or retaining power.
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Nonproliferation goals still
viable North
Korea is the first country to withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and test a nuclear weapon. It has agreed to return to six-party talks about its nuclear status, but skeptics expect little progress. Some doomsayers are predicting the collapse of the nonproliferation regime, but that kind of fatalism is mistaken. There are many things we can do to prevent such a future. We are, in fact, doing better at slowing the spread of the bomb than might be expected. In 1963 President Kennedy predicted that there would be 15 to 20 states with nuclear weapons within the next decade. Every country has a right of self-defense, and today some 50 countries have the technical capacity to produce nuclear weapons. Yet only nine do - the original five grandfathered in the 1968 treaty, along with India, Pakistan and Israel, which have never signed the treaty, and now North Korea. This is not the first time the nonproliferation regime has been threatened with collapse. In 1973 India exploded a nuclear device, and a rapid rise in oil prices fueled great expectations about the rapid expansion of nuclear commerce. France was selling a reprocessing plant to Pakistan, and Germany began to sell enrichment technology to Brazil. Many parties to the treaty planned to import or develop enrichment and reprocessing facilities. By the middle of the decade, South Korea and Taiwan had covert nuclear weapons programmes. The American Ford and Carter administrations prevented such a collapse with a combination of instruments. One was American security guarantees. Our allies in Europe and Japan were protected by our nuclear umbrella, and we told South Korea and Taiwan that our willingness to defend them would be jeopardized if they opted for the bomb. We also strengthened institutions such as the NPT and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) by persuading France and Germany to curtail their exports and by getting countries as diverse as the Soviet Union and Japan to join us in forming a Nuclear Suppliers Group. We negotiated an agreement in London in 1977 not to export enrichment and reprocessing facilities. We also engaged dozens of countries in an International Nuclear Fuel Cycle Evaluation, which developed more realistic estimates of the benefits and dangers of nuclear commerce. While this did not prevent Pakistan from developing a bomb in the next decade, expectations about nonproliferation were stabilised. What are the lessons for today? We again need to use a combination of instruments, starting with security guarantees. We can also strengthen international institutions. In addition, we should increase the IAEA’s budget and inspection capabilities. With regard to North Korea, we must work to stiffen the resolve of Beijing and Seoul in the enforcement of sanctions. North Korea’s nuclear test is not the end of the nonproliferation regime if we develop such a strategy. For those who believe that the horse is out of the barn, the answer is that it matters how many horses are out and how fast they are running. The writer, a Harvard professor, was assistant secretary of defense in the Clinton administration. By arrangement with
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Legal notes AS the debate continues about keeping criminals away from the election arena, former Attorney General Soli J Sorabjee, heading a committee on police reforms, has strongly advocated the debarring of charge-sheeted persons from contesting elections. This had been recommended by the Law Commission and the Constitution Review Commission. The noted constitution expert says that corruption and criminalisation have bedeviled the election process as the tyranny of wealth and muscle force have made a deadly combination, posing a serious threat to democracy. Though a ceiling on spending during elections has been fixed by the Election Commission, this remains on paper and nobody is really adhering to it. The most disturbing part is that a large number of young leaders are beginning their political career ‘unashamedly’ as lawbreakers rather than lawmakers. He is of the view that immediate steps need to be taken for cleansing public life to save democracy in the country. Sorabjee also suggested that the power to decide disqualification of legislators for defection needs to be modified. This should not be left for the Speaker of the House to decide as the presiding officers in state assemblies have been found to virtually act like party functionaries.
Mandal numbers defective The veracity of the numbers used by the Mandal Commission report for fixing the Other Backward Classes (OBC) population in the country at 52 per cent has been questioned in fresh submissions in the Supreme Court. Petitioners have challenged the government decision to extend 27 per cent OBC quota in educational institutions of higher learning. The main ground in the fresh submissions is that the Mandal Commission had covered only 0.06 per cent of the population in its survey, by taking two villages and one urban block into account in each district, to arrive at their conclusions. Besides, it had emphasised more on caste criteria than the economic condition of the OBCs. Some castes were included in the list merely by going into the ‘surnames’ without actually verifying whether the persons using them really belonged to that particular caste. The Commission had rejected 151 tables suggested by experts for determining the backwardness of a community, and worked merely with 31 tables. According to the tables adopted by the Mandal panel, the OBC population was fixed at 52 per cent, SC and ST at 24.4 per cent, Muslims at 13 per cent, Christians at 2.4 per cent, Sikhs at 1.9 per cent, and Jains and Buddhists at 0.8 per cent, the total of which comes to a little over 95 per cent. If this was accepted, then the upper-caste Hindu population in the country should be less than 5 per cent, which would be ‘ridiculous’. Besides, it had completely ignored the creamy layer criteria and relied heavily on caste-based census figures for 1931, which could not be a realistic base for determining the percentage of any caste after Partition. The whole issue needed a fresh look, the petitioners asserted.
Law Commission still awaited In spite of the Government making an announcement about reconstituting the Law Commission, a statutory body, it has yet to appoint the Chairperson of the panel and other members. The three-year tenure of the Commission had ended on August 31 but the Government had failed to put in place a new panel prior to it, or soon after, as was the practice in the past. When the issue was raised in various forums, the Cabinet had decided about a month ago to reconstitute the Commission. But till date no further action seems to have been taken in this regard. Justice M J Rao, who headed the
Commission, relinquished the office on August 31 after his tenure was over. The provision for the Commission is made in the Constitution to advise the Government on legal reforms from time to time and also to suggest repealing of those laws which have become obsolete in changed circumstances. This is perhaps for the first time that the Government has shown no seriousness in constituting the Commission even after a Cabinet decision.
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Disobedience to be civil implies discipline, thought, care, attention. — Mahatma Gandhi Forgiveness for one who imbibes its spirit, One who is able to forgive is neither afflicted by any malady, nor is tortured by the Regent of Death. — Guru Nanak Evil thoughts do not grow alone in mature heads. They spring up like weeds in the minds of children too. Parents and guardians of such children should keep watch over the development of such children. — The Mahabharata Worship nothing but God; be good to your parents and relatives, and to the orphan and the poor. Speak nicely to people, be constant in prayer, and give charity. — The Koran Looking at the millstones grinding the grains, I wept; one, who is caught between the two stones, never comes out safe. — Kabir
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