O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Governor vs Supreme Court
Mayawati comes out of Taj Corridor
Uttar Pradesh Governor T. V. Rajeshwar’s refusal to sanction the prosecution of Chief Minister Mayawati and her minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui in the Rs 175 crore Taj Corridor case is on the expected lines. In his 23-page communication to the CBI, which had been investigating the case on the orders of the Supreme Court, the Governor has taken the position that “There is no prima facie case against Mayawati”. 

Goan curry
Stability depends on free-floating MLAs
The Congress’ victory in the Goa Assembly elections is cause for cheer to the party after its electoral reversals in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and the Delhi Municipal Corporation. In the 40-member House, it has captured 19 seats along with its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party. 

Lessons from Hamirpur
Congress on shaky ground
The BJP elation over the Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection win is understandable. Its former representative, Mr Suresh Chandel, had to quit after the cash-for-query scam. Mr Chandel had defeated the Congress candidate, Mr Ram Lal Thakur, twice before.

• Thought for the day

ARTICLE

Nuclear negotiations
Spent fuel reprocessing comes in the way
by O.P. Sabherwal
Have we arrived at the last lap in the protracted — and one must also say complex — negotiations surrounding the Indo-US civilian nuclear accord? It appears so, but this last lap has got stretched out. Going by the declarations and postures of the main actors on both sides during the latest round of interaction, the basics are well in place.

 

MIDDLE

Window on royality
by  Neha Wattas
I rarely expect great things to happen before I’ve had my morning cup of coffee. However, on a lazy Sunday morning, several weeks ago, while I was robotically going through my routine of pulling open the window blinds of my living room, I was in for a royal surprise, quite literally!

 

OPED

Change growth model to tackle global warming
by Madhav Mehra
The climate change scenario in India is much worse than it looks. The inequity of climate change is writ large everywhere. The only glacier that feeds our seven rivers will flood India’s waterways for the next 40 years and then will dry up completely. So our grandchildren will have no fresh water and face severe drought conditions within half a lifetime.

Russia and an excercise in ‘nuke-pointing’
by Kim Sengupta
Vladimir Putin’s threat to once again target Western Europe with Russian missiles brought back the spectre of the worst days of the Cold War and the start of a new arms race.Taken at its bleakest interpretation this would mean that a whole swathe of military targets, some in cities like London and Brussels, will in future be considered legitimate targets for Russian attack.

Legal Notes
Law to make marriage registration compulsory
by S.S. Negi
To give concrete shape to the policy of women empowerment and secure their interests, the Government is planning to make registration of marriages compulsory. A Bill to this effect is being given the final touches. This is the Manmohan Singh Government’s next step in providing a protective cover to married women, after the passage of the law against domestic violence. 

• No to tax discrimination

• SCBA suspends Anand, Khan

EDITORIALS

Governor vs Supreme Court
Mayawati comes out of Taj Corridor 

Uttar Pradesh Governor T. V. Rajeshwar’s refusal to sanction the prosecution of Chief Minister Mayawati and her minister Nasimuddin Siddiqui in the Rs 175 crore Taj Corridor case is on the expected lines. In his 23-page communication to the CBI, which had been investigating the case on the orders of the Supreme Court, the Governor has taken the position that “There is no prima facie case against Mayawati”. The Governor’s nod was essential for prosecuting Ms Mayawati and her political lieutenant accused under various sections of the IPC and the Prevention of Corruption Act. Now the high-profile case may stand closed. The CBI has told the special court in Lucknow constituted for the purpose that it can no longer pursue the case.

The spirit of the law, however, cannot justify the Governor’s stand particularly when so much has happened in this connection so far. His clean chit to Ms Mayawati is a clear case of scuttling the law apparently as part of a deal between the BSP leader and the ruling UPA headed by the Congress. The BSP’s support is crucial for the Congress to get its nominee installed in Rashtrapati Bhawan. What Ms Mayawati has described as a “false case”, registered against her when the BJP-led NDA was in power at the Centre, relates to a controversial plan, now abandoned, approved during her chief ministership in 2002 for a heritage corridor along the banks of the Yamuna near the Taj Mahal.

But is it so easy for her to get off the hook of the law? The Governor saying lack of evidence is contrary to what the Supreme Court had ruled on September 18, 2003: there is no dearth of material for the CBI to file an FIR against Ms Mayawati and others accused in the case. The apex court, which has thwarted earlier attempts to drop the case, has consistently held a view contrary to what the Governor has stated. Legal opinion has it that the Supreme Court may not allow the case to end in this manner if somebody approaches it with a public interest litigation. The law must not be allowed to appear as a handmaiden of the powers that be.

Goan curry
Stability depends on free-floating MLAs

The Congress’ victory in the Goa Assembly elections is cause for cheer to the party after its electoral reversals in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand and the Delhi Municipal Corporation. In the 40-member House, it has captured 19 seats along with its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party. With the support of two independents, one of whom is the son of Chief Minister Pratap Sinh Rane, and the Maharashtra Gomantak Party which has won two seats, the decks have been cleared for another Congress-led government. For the Bharatiya Janata Party, it was a humiliating performance. It managed to win 14 seats — three short of what it had in 2002.

However, it is doubtful whether the election results would ensure political stability, given the culture of defections that prevails in Goa. Despite the Anti-Defection Act, floor crossing has been so endemic that the state has witnessed 15 governments in 17 years. Party labels and affiliations seem to have lost their relevance for the simple reason that most legislators have switched sides at one time or the other to topple governments. Changes made in the Anti-Defection Act in 2003, which invalidated splits and mandated two-thirds support for any dissident group to merge with another party, have proved to be of no avail in the political bazar of this small state where individual legislators and their loyalties matter more than the parties.

Now that the Congress will form the new government, all eyes will be on the controversial Goa Regional Plan 2011, which had visualised the development of commercial buildings and hotels in the state’s forest areas. The Rane government drew considerable flak over it. It was later denotified following months of rallies and protests by civic groups and artists who feared that it would destroy the state’s fragile ecology and turn it into a concrete jungle. Though leaders from both the Congress and the BJP criticised the Plan during the election campaign, politicians of all major parties have reportedly cornered huge chunks of farmland to make profit after the Plan comes into force. The new government’s moves on the Plan will be seriously watched in the days to come even as the BJP hopes that the history of defections will come to its aid sooner rather than later. 

Lessons from Hamirpur
Congress on shaky ground

The BJP elation over the Hamirpur Lok Sabha byelection win is understandable. Its former representative, Mr Suresh Chandel, had to quit after the cash-for-query scam. Mr Chandel had defeated the Congress candidate, Mr Ram Lal Thakur, twice before. The Congress wanted to capitalise on the disgrace Mr Chandel had brought to his party. To counter that, the BJP fielded a formidable leader, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, against a twice-defeated Congress nominee. Mr Dhumal’s success, therefore, does not come as a surprise. The confidence the Congress had gained with the Shimla civic poll victory will, no doubt, get a beating.

There are three main reasons for the Congress failure to wrest Hamirpur from the BJP. One, people in Himachal’s lower areas feel discriminated against in the Congress regime. Two, the ruling party had to pay for public disenchantment over the price rise and unemployment. Every ruling party has to cope with the inevitable anti-incumbency feeling. Three, the Congress entered the poll arena faction-ridden. Rebel leader Vijay Mankotia released an audio CD that contained the alleged conversation of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh with his wife about some financial deals. The BJP made it a poll issue.

The Hamirpur result can influence the coming assembly elections. If the BJP assigns a national role to Mr Dhumal, it will have to find a new candidate for leading the state. Mr Dhumal may, however, return to state politics. The margin of Mr Dhumal’s win is massive. The Congress has lost in 15 of the 17 assembly segments that constitute this parliamentary constituency. Mr Ram Lal Thakur has quit the state Cabinet on moral grounds, while the Chief Minister has refused to oblige the BJP and his detractors within the party. The Congress will have to smoothen its sharp edges before it faces the electorate again. 

Thought for the day

Crime isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom. Cops are like a doctor that gives you aspirin for a brain tumour. — Raymond Chandler

ARTICLE

Nuclear negotiations
Spent fuel reprocessing comes in the way
by O.P. Sabherwal

Have we arrived at the last lap in the protracted — and one must also say complex — negotiations surrounding the Indo-US civilian nuclear accord? It appears so, but this last lap has got stretched out. Going by the declarations and postures of the main actors on both sides during the latest round of interaction, the basics are well in place. It is the key operational issues that need to be clinched, and the divergent positions reconciled. In particular, the contentious issue of reprocessing spent fuel from reactors continues to dodge an unambiguous Indo-US rapport.

Considering the overwhelming import of Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation for both countries, not to speak of its huge spin-off gains in the cause of negating global warming, the need to shed rigidity has become apparent for both countries. Flexibility is needed on both sides, and it is showing results. But on one aspect there is no room for flexibility and manoeuvre — and that issue is of reprocessing spent nuclear fuel from facilities placed by India within IAEA safeguards.

Three issues were short-listed for the final round of negotiations in New Delhi. The most crucial from India’s point of view were, and still are, first, the unimpeded right to reprocess nuclear spent fuel and recycling of plutonium thus obtained, for optimum extraction of energy from the nuclear fuel intake. And second, assured uranium supplies for imported as well as indigenous nuclear reactors placed by India under IAEA safeguards. The third, and perhaps most sensitive issue, is of a possible resumption by India of a nuclear weapon test. Has India the right to such a test? And what will be its consequences if India resumes nuclear weapon testing?

There have been acceptable results on two of the three short-listed issues, but on one — namely, India’s unimpeded right to reprocess spent fuel from reactors placed within IAEA safeguards, existing and those to be built in future by imports and indigenously — the contentious points have not been resolved. Why and how?

Overgrowth of verbiage has clouded the real debatable points in regard to reprocessing, and these need to be cleared up. At the top of this list is the basic import of reprocessing for India’s nuclear power programme - the foundation on which the Indian nuclear programme rests. It is the base of India’s futuristic vision of energy security, and the key link in the Bhabha three-phase nuclear power programme that inducts India’s vast thorium reserves in the nuclear fuel cycle.

Obviously, it is not a question of India’s “right” to reprocessing. For, India has been reprocessing spent fuel now for well over a decade, and only thus has it been possible to run the Fast Breeder Test Reactor, build fuel supplies for the upcoming 500 MW prototype Fast Breeder Reactor at Kalpakkam, and, of course, the nuclear explosive core for the weapon stockpile in the Indian arsenal.

This should have been clear at the very onset, implying acceptance of India’s right and capability to reprocess spent fuel from divergent varieties of reactors. But this is not how things shaped. It was a zigzag course that the negotiations on reprocessing took.

Early on, the American negotiators stressed the need for adequate safeguards round the reprocessed plutonium that was difficult to ensure since India had not placed its reprocessing plants within safeguards. The Indian response was to opt for one of its operational reprocessing plants, Tarapur “prefree” reprocessing plant, to be earmarked for safeguards, with effect from the year 2010. From this year, the Tarapur reprocessing plant would be working within the ambit of IAEA safeguards, and this should enable the reprocessing of spent fuel from the 14 indigenous reactors to commence forthwith.

However, the trite negotiations on India’s “right to reprocess spent fuel in perpetuity” also relates to nuclear facilities built by imports. The fact that American, French and Russian imported reactors that are expected to be inducted as a sequel to the talks, required design alterations in the reprocessing plant was the issue. Was India in a position to build such a reprocessing plant since the fuel for these reactors was low-enriched uranium, as against the natural uranium-fuelled PHWR reactors built in India?

The possibility of import of American reprocessing technology and equipment was brooked, but the Indian nuclear establishment was capable of meeting this challenge on its own. This had been demonstrated by the latest reprocessing plant built at Kalpakkam, with an altered design for reprocessing fast breeder spent fuel. American technology and equipment import for building new reprocessing plant would greatly enlarge Indo-US civilian nuclear cooperation and would accelerate the programme for building nuclear power capacities in India - the main objective of the Indo-US accord. But there was no United States commitment on this. The American side, on the other hand, projected the danger of reprocessed nuclear fissile material spilling over to the non-safeguarded projects, since the only civil use of the reprocessed plutonium was in fuel for fast breeders, which were at present not within safeguards. Future fast breeders that India had undertaken for being placed within safeguards will take a long time to come up.

The only “advance” that the US Under Secretary of State, Mr Nickolas Burns, has offered is to keep the reprocessing issue open, and to take up the matter as and when the need arose. That is, when building the next fast breeder reactor, to be placed within safeguards, is undertaken by the Indian nuclear establishment. This, according to Mr Burns, would take time, and so the reprocessing issue could remain open-ended. This proposition was unacceptable to the Indian interlocutors. For India, reprocessing of spent fuel is a basic issue that has to be embodied within the 123 Agreement in clear terms. The experience of Tarapur 1&2 reactors built by an American consortium in the sixties was sufficient warning of the dangers of allowing the reprocessing issue “open-ended”.

While Mr Burns has put forward the difficulties of getting Congressional acceptance of an unambiguous Indian right to reprocessing, he has nevertheless assured of his best effort to meet the Indian stipulation and is expected to resume the talks thereafter. The matter is also likely to come up at the political level, when President George Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meet early this month on the sidelines of the G-8 summit. To cap it all, the Foreign Ministers of both countries are expected to meet in July, when Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice responds to Mr Pranab Mukherjee’s invitation to visit India.

The conclusion of the latest round of Indo-US talks has thus been tinged with hope, but this optimism may still be elusive. Can one place part of the blame on Indian negotiators, for not having squarely spelt out at an early stage the basic import of reprocessing for the Indian nuclear programme? While Atomic Energy Department chief Dr Kakodkar had right from the start described “reprocessing to be non-negotiable”, this description was not shared by the negotiators of the Monistry of external Affairs. Matters have now been set right, and the Americans are likely to respond.

MIDDLE

Window on royality
  Neha Wattas

I rarely expect great things to happen before I’ve had my morning cup of coffee. However, on a lazy Sunday morning, several weeks ago, while I was robotically going through my routine of pulling open the window blinds of my living room, I was in for a royal surprise, quite literally!

Still rubbing my eyes languorously, my attention was caught by a big crowd gathered in the cold, outside the sleepy little church right across the street from my apartment building. Except for its elaborate, green-coloured dome that breaks the visual monotony of the dull, grey high-rises in my downtown Philadelphia neighborhood; one would hardly ever notice it. From the vantage point of my apartment, I got a clear view of gentlemen dressed in traditional Welsh regalia — kilts in colourful tartan patterns with fancy belts and jackets, the ladies looking resplendent in beautiful hats and dresses, and children with flowers.

Before I could realise it, I saw with my own eyes — Their Royal Highnesses Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles in flesh and blood. They were cheerfully waving to the crowds, shaking hands and slowly approaching the church. It was one of those exhilarating moments when real-life takes a slow motion movie-like quality. I couldn’t believe my luck.

I later found out that the church was, in fact, the spiritual home of the Welsh Community in Philadelphia. The Prince and the Duchess, on their two-day visit to the US, had not only chosen to attend Sunday morning service there, they had also spent the previous night at the Four Seasons Hotel just two blocks away from my place. This was as close as one could get to Royalty on a Sunday morning in one’s pajamas!

It was exciting to see that the city of Philadelphia, once the epicentre of the great revolution against the British Empire, had welcomed the Prince and the Duchess with open arms and tonnes of brotherly love, living up to its title: “City of Brotherly Love”. The church had conducted a special reading in Welsh and to honour the royal couple, a choir sang “God Bless the Prince of Wales”.

While I was certainly not proud of not keeping up with local city news; my ignorance about the royal visit lent this whole incident a rather serendipitous flavour. I am now convinced that I have a charmed window. On cold, wintry, snow-laden days I keep gazing outside ... Perchance to behold another spectacle from my window to royalty. 

OPED

Change growth model to tackle global warming
by Madhav Mehra

The climate change scenario in India is much worse than it looks. The inequity of climate change is writ large everywhere. The only glacier that feeds our seven rivers will flood India’s waterways for the next 40 years and then will dry up completely. So our grandchildren will have no fresh water and face severe drought conditions within half a lifetime.

Yet, the action we are taking is nothing more than making a few movies and engaging in symbolic acts. It is an irony that while the world has been polluted by the rich industrialised North, the real sufferers of climate change will be the poor of the East and inhabitants of Africa.

The developing countries are being criticised today for being unmindful of environmental damage caused by high growth economies like India, China and Brazil. Whilst there can be no mercy for any kind of environmental pollution North countries have to realise that developing countries have a right to grow and that it is only fair that the North meets the costs of the South’s growth, at least upto a take-off stage. In fact, it was this moral compulsion that brought in the concept of carbon credits. But over the years the price of these carbon credits has reduced so much that they have lost their shine.

There are already 25 million climate refugees displaced by climate-induced disasters such as those in the Papua New Guinean Carteret Islands. They have been forced to relocate because of the rising ocean level. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. 259 km of river delta islands near the Bay of Bengal have vanished in the last 30 years.

The strategy, therefore, to deal with climate change, is going to be different for poor countries. While carbon tax, financial incentives and increased insurance premia can force people to go green in developed countries, the grim poverty of Asia and Africa calls for an integrated action plan, where the North implements the “polluter-pays” principle and provides scientific and technological know-how, as well as infrastructural support, and transfer of technology to the South to bring it to a level playing field.

The environmental footprint of the poor is a fraction of their rich counterparts. Creating wealth through unbridled consumerism and proliferation of products that create unneeded wants can be disastrous for the ecology. India’s ecological footprint i.e. the natural material used per person per year, is one twelfth of US and Europe.

If the rapid rate at which the developing economies are growing translates itself into consumerism, our mission of the bridging the gap is going to result in an ecological catastrophe. We therefore need to change our growth model and move our economy from an acquisitional mode to an ‘experiential’ mode.

We have to find ways to dematerialise products and opt for minimalist designs. India will thus have an even more legitimate right to demand from the North, credits for saving the environment by adopting a dematerialised, low carbon, experiential model of growth.

Just as it is real that climate has changed due to human activity, humans have the power and technology to reverse the damage. For this to happen business has to be brought to the forefront of the climate change agenda. Our focus has to be on galvanising businesses for a robust response to climate change in a way that opens new vistas of growth and development, advancing human happiness.

The 8th Environment Conference in Palampur brought to the fore an eleven point plan called PROACTIVATE. The acronym denotes the action required for regeneration of the planet. It calls upon businesses to Price natural capital; Radically increase energy efficiency; Opt for minimalist lifestyles that emphasise the value of experience as opposed to acquisition; Adopt zero waste and closed loop systems; Capture CO2 through forestation; Turn to renewables; Invest in green issues; Vigorously pursue market mechanism to punish polluters; Activate women and children to drive the change; Train staff to eco-innovate and focus on Execution by example rather than exhortation.

Climate change calls for a holistic approach designed to reduce the human footprint on the planet by committing to make a 180 degree shift in lifestyles. It challenges our current paradigms of wealth and prosperity. Who would prefer to be a billionaire with a parched throat in the arid world of 2050?

It is time we started recognising the price of natural capital – of greenery, rivers, mountains, oceans and glaciers and moved our natural assets way above the financial capital in the balance sheets. The pendulum of asset valuation has moved beyond tangibles. People have begun to question the very purpose of work and wealth creation.

In 1930 John Maynard Keynes imagined that richer societies would become more leisured ones, liberated from toil to enjoy the finer things in life. Yet, most people today work harder, have less leisure and less happiness.

In 1927, Mahatma Gandhi wrote in Young India: “A time is coming when those who are in the mad rush today of multiplying their wants, vainly thinking that they add to the real substance, real knowledge of the world, will retrace their steps and say: ‘What have we done?’”

After 80 years, these words ring true.

The writer is President, World Council for Corporate Governance, UK and World Environment Foundation, UK.

Russia and an excercise in ‘nuke-pointing’
by Kim Sengupta

Vladimir Putin’s threat to once again target Western Europe with Russian missiles brought back the spectre of the worst days of the Cold War and the start of a new arms race.

Taken at its bleakest interpretation this would mean that a whole swathe of military targets, some in cities like London and Brussels, will in future be considered legitimate targets for Russian attack.

But the current strategic positioning between Russia and NATO, and the working relationship by the two sets of the military, does not support such an apocalyptic scenario.

Both Russian and Western analysts agree that President Putin’s declaration shows anger at the US plans to build a missile defence system in eastern Europe, and aims to please hard liners in the Russian administration, But it is hardly a declaration of war.

The US says they are putting the radars and interceptor missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic as a shield against possible nuclear strikes by so-called “rogue” states, especially Iran and North Korea. They pose no threat, the say, to the massive Russian nuclear arsenal across the border.

For the Russians, however, positioning the missiles on their doorstep, in former Warsaw Pact countries, is a provocation which, if not countered, may be followed by the stationing of more offensive strike capabilities.

Last week Russia carried out the test launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of penetrating US anti-missile defences. In theory, they could in the future be passed on to a third party. Moscow has also been carrying out exercises with its mobile rocket launchers and strategic bombers.

The US, in response, has insisted that the Polish and Czech projects were to combat threats not from Russia but further afield. And it is, indeed, the case that for Iran would have to fire missiles to the west if it aims at America, across Europe and the north Atlantic.

However, Col. Christopher Langton, senior fellow at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) in London points out: “They did not have to be in Poland or the Czech Republic. They could, just as well, have been in Scotland. So, in a sense, by putting them in those two countries the Americans are showing that they will go ahead and do what they want and they don’t care overmuch for Russian sensibilities.

“What is interesting is that Putin has not really complained about the American missile shields being put up in the Asia Pacific region, also close to Russian territory. Is it the case that because they are in the east, away from Moscow and St Petersburg, and thus he is not that bothered, or is it because he is keen to try to detach European NATO opinion away from America by repeatedly saying that it is the Americans creating a dangerous situation. While these threats are being made by Putin, we have NATO officers in Moscow discussing European missile defence in talks which appear to be quite constructive.”

By arrangement with The Independent

Legal Notes
Law to make marriage registration compulsory
by S.S. Negi

To give concrete shape to the policy of women empowerment and secure their interests, the Government is planning to make registration of marriages compulsory. A Bill to this effect is being given the final touches. This is the Manmohan Singh Government’s next step in providing a protective cover to married women, after the passage of the law against domestic violence. An inter-ministerial committee to coordinate with various ministries and departments to give final shape to the proposed law has been set up.

The non-registration of marriages is being seen as a major impediment in women getting their due share in the property of the husband and other monetary dues, in case of his death or divorce. Inputs are being collected from the ministries of law, social justice and empowerment and women and child development by the committee, to give final shape to the Bill, which may be introduced during the monsoon session of Parliament.

Major changes are also being proposed in the Anti-Sati Act, 1987 to make its provisions more stringent, deterrent and effective, and help re-orient the existing perception of women attempting to commit sati as a victim of social conditions, rather than as an offender.

To bolster the Supreme Court-ordered guidelines on sexual harassment in the workplace with a concrete law, the Sexual Harassment of Women at Work Place (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Bill is also at the final stage, awaiting introduction in Parliament.

No to tax discrimination

States cannot have different rates of entertainment tax for the films of languages other than that spoken in their territory, merely on the grounds that it was being done to promote the local film industry. This has been laid down by the Supreme Court in a recent judgement, holding that fixation of higher rates of entertainment for films of other languages by a state is an act of “hostile discrimination” and violated the principle of equality laid down in the Constitution.

The ruling came in a case pertaining to the fixation of 24 per cent entertainment tax by the Andhra Pradesh Government to ‘other language’ films, while it was 10 per cent for Telugu films. The court not only struck down the AP Government's order to this effect but also imposed a cost on the state government, saying the act of the state government was nothing but “ex-facie arbitary” and directly attacked Article 14 of the Constitution. The court held that the films of all languages exhibited in the territory of AP would have to pay the same entertainment tax as fixed for Telugu films.

SCBA suspends Anand, Khan

After a sting operation by a TV channel which showed alleged connivance between defence lawyer R.K. Anand, a senior advocate and Congress leader, and special prosecutor I.U. Khan, in the high profile BMW hit-and-run case involving the grandson of former naval chief S.N. Nanda, the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has suspended the two lawyers from its membership, pending an inquiry by a committee set up by it.

The suspension though will not have any effect on their practice. Yet it comes as a major blow to the two senior lawyers, considered buddies in legal circles for starting their practice together decades ago at the Tis Hazari courts. It is a double blow to Anand, who is trying hard to establish himself as a Congress leader in Delhi from where he unsuccessfully contested for the Lok Sabha last time.

The real body to take effective action against a lawyer for misconduct is the state bar council and the Bar Council of India. S.N. Nanda’s grandson Sanjeev Nanda was chargesheeted for running over six persons, including three cops in 1999, when driving his BMW car at high speed in the Lodhi Road area of the Capital. Sanjeev’s father is a known arms dealer.

The Nanda family had even paid Rs 10 lakh to the family of each victim as voluntary compensation, which was approved by the Delhi High Court. But the High Court had said that this would not come in the way of a criminal trial. During the trial, most of the witnesses had turned hostile. The TV expose has been hotly debated in legal circles these days.