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Fight to finish Dithering
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Death
for Dalit killers
Curb terrorism
Chinese food, Chinese
prices
Financial turmoil Penguins and golf in
Burma’s hidden capital Delhi Durbar
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Dithering over bailout
When
the US announced a $700 billion bailout last week, some of the global stock markets the world over registered the biggest one-day gain. The celebration, however, was much too soon as the rescue plan has got stuck in the congressional debate. The delay has depressed the bulls. The Congress wants the bailout not just for the Wall Street, but also for Americans at risk of losing their homes. Both presidential candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, want to ensure that the villains do not escape unscathed. The FBI is probing criminal dimensions, if any, to the meltdown. On Wednesday President Bush, accused by the Democrats of being absent from the once-in-a-lifetime crisis, tried to sell the package to angry American taxpayers. The financial collapse could have been avoided had the Bush administration enforced the rules and detected excessive and risky lending to home buyers of dubious track record. The unflinching American faith in freedom to private enterprises stands shaken and there are demands for strict regulation. Some are against the bailout to Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG. They want the unfit to drop dead. The latest package, stitched together by US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Barnanke, aims to buy the toxic debt of the Wall Street. It will have to be passed soon if the US is to avoid any more financial pain. The system has run short of money. Businesses have no more access to institutional credit and households are denied loans. Banks do not lend even to other banks. President Bush has warned the Democrats that they will be held responsible if the bailout is not cleared and the economy tanks. The ripple effects of such an eventuality can be well imagined. Americans will have to pay a heavy price whether the Congress clears or rejects the bailout. What is worse, even after the congressional green signal, there is no guarantee of success. The situation can remain uncertain for some time.
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Death for Dalit killers
The
death sentence awarded to six persons and life imprisonment for two others for lynching four members of a Dalit family at Khairlanji in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district was called for. Though the capital punishment given by the Ad Hoc Sessions Judge is subject to confirmation by the Bombay High Court, the Judge has done his duty in giving exemplary punishment to eight persons. The September 29, 2006, killings had not only sent shock waves across Maharashtra but also triggered one of the worst riots in the state. A train was set on fire and Dalit rage has simmered in the Vidarbha region at the slow pace of probe. Following public outcry, the government handed over the investigation to the CBI. The trial began in May 2007 and lasted over a year during which 36 witnesses were examined, including four eyewitnesses, of whom one turned hostile. Surprisingly, the eight convicts were held guilty of murder, but not caste crime because of scanty evidence that also ruled out rape of two women victims. The court dropped the charges under the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act against them, saying it was a case of “revenge” and “not caste prejudice”. Union Minister for Social Justice Meira Kumar has said that if such episodes are treated as “mere criminal acts”, devoid of any casteist motivation, the Prevention of SC/ST Atrocities Act will lose its relevance. She has asked Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh for a review of the case and action against the state police personnel for dereliction of duty. While it would be interesting to wait for the state government’s response to Ms Meira Kumar’s request, there is no denying of the fact that the CBI has done a competent job by securing capital punishment for six of the accused and life imprisonment for two. Moreover, the court helped expedite the trial despite heavy odds. In spite of threats to his life, Bhaiyalal Bhootmange, the key witness who lost his wife, daughter and two sons, one of whom was blind, in the massacre, stood firm and fought for justice. The government has provided a job for him and a house on compassionate grounds, but he wants all the accused, including the three persons who have been acquitted, to be punished.
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To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour. — Robert L. Stevenson
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Curb terrorism Delhi
bombings resulting in horrible killings have understandably caused indignation at the almost total failure of intelligence machinery. The Prime Minister has commendably scotched the idea of a federal agency accepting frankly that in view of bombings having taken place under the so-called watchful eye of Central agencies, the fight against terrorism requires the involvement of states as equal partners especially in the light of autonomy of states under our federal Constitution. But instead, one finds the BJP trying to score a point on the withdrawal of Pota by the Congress, conveniently ignoring that the worst terrorist attack on Parliament was during the currency of Pota. In the same strain, the Congress which had gone to town on the undesirability of Pota, had included the worst provisions of Pota in the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act 1967. It is now even inclined to include those very provisions like making confession to the police admissible in evidence, a provision which was described by two Judges in TADA case “unfair, unjust and unconscionable, offending Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution”. A similar provision existed in Pota . So, now we have a clear danger of alignment of the BJP and the Congress to initiate serious attack on the human rights of individuals by bringing a comprehensive legislation incorporating the stringent provisions of TADA and POTA, which can be described in the words of Edmund Burke: “Bad laws are the worst sort of tyranny”. What proof of anger at these acts of terror can be more revealing than the heart-rending cry of the mother of the alleged suspect Tauqeer (that let him be hanged if he is found guilty though she has full faith in his innocence) I have no doubt that this illegitimate product of TADA and POTA will be a grievous attack on human rights. The BJP now supporting tougher laws should be reminded of what it said in 1993: “Tada should be reviewed drastically, if not completely withdrawn”. This assessment was confirmed by the Supreme Court in the comment on Tada: “It is heart-rending to note that day in and day out we come across news of blood-curdling incidents of police brutality and atrocities alleged to have been committed in utter disregard and in all breaches of humanitarian law and universal human rights as well as in total negation of the constitutional guarantees and human decency…” The practical utility of TADA was shown to be nil because during 1985-93. Conviction rate of those arrested never exceeded 0.89 per cent. But the saddest part was the almost total somnolence of our legislators which shows that discussion in Parliament on TADA from 1985 to 1993 has varied between 1 hour and 10 minutes (1993) to a maximum of 8 hours in 1985. The participation of MPs varied from 8 MPs to a maximum of 34 in 1985. It would seem that gradually the sensitivity of MPs at the deprivation of basic rights of citizens is becoming dulled. The National Human Rights Commission (N.H.R.C) had given its firm opinion against POTA. It was the considered view of the commission that all the actions which the government wishes to take are substantially taken care of under the existing laws. Seeking to oppose contemplated new anti-terrorist legislation in the context of dastardly bomb blasts in Delhi would normally appear foolhardy and invite the risk of being accused of acting against national interest. But I demur and in that connection echo warning given by US media within a couple of days of the 9/11 tragedy. New York Times wrote: “The temptation will be great in the days ahead to write draconian new laws that give law-enforcement agencies, or even military forces, a right to undermine the civil liberties that shape the character of the United States. President George Bush and Congress must carefully balance the need for heightened security with the need to protect the constitutional rights of Americans.” Similarly Washington Post wrote: “The country cannot allow terrorists to alter the fundamental openness of US society or the government’s respect for civil liberties.” Philadelphia Inquirer wrote: “We feel rage. We feel fear. We are bewildered. We can’t avoid acting on those feelings. Yet, we must calibrate our response against the ideals of liberty and tolerance that have made this nation Of course, saner voices were ignored when the US Government passed anti-human right legislations. But similar condemnation found echo there. Thus Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU’s Washington nation office wrote: “This law is based on the faulty assumption that safety must come at the expense of civil liberties.” The U.S.A. Patriot Act vests law-enforcement agencies nationwide with extraordinary new powers unchecked by meaningful judicial review”. Mr Muggeridge, former Editor of Punch (UK) once warned: “The choice for us is between security and freedom. And if we ever ceased to prefer the later, we should soon find that we had nothing of any worth left to secure anyway.” I am not underestimating the danger of terrorism, nor am I against using all the governmental resources against it. But the methods must be consistent with the letter and spirit of our Constitution, namely the supremacy of human rights. This has been forcibly asserted by the Supreme Court even when it upheld (regretfully to many of us) the validity of Pota. But it commented very strongly thus: “The protection and promotion of human rights under the rule of law is essential in the prevention of terrorism. If human rights are violated in the process of combating terrorism, it will be self-defeating. Terrorism often thrives where human rights are violated, which adds to the need to strengthen action to combat violations of human rights. The lack of hope for justice provides breeding grounds for terrorism. In all cases, the fight against terrorism must be respectful to the human rights. Our Constitution laid down clear limitations on state actions within the context of the fight against terrorism.” All political parties and governments must therefore remember that human rights are not a gift from the government nor a bounty, which any government may choose to distribute or withdraw at its whim. Acceptances of human rights are essential prerequisites of a civilised and a democratic country. It is only such civilised conduct that distinguishes democracy from totalitarianism. That is why the proposed new legislation (even with the joint consent of both national parties, has to be resisted by all, because as rightly said, in times like these “It is a duty to speak and sin to be
silent”.
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Chinese food, Chinese prices Any
number of glossy fliers cascade from our morning newspapers every day. Lustrous pictures of melting cheese and green capsicum atop crusty pizzas; shiny brown Chinese sauces soaking bite sized temptations; hamburgers with toasted sesame buns and peeping green lettuce just waiting to be wolfed down. Accompanied with instant home delivery offers at affordable prices one might expect people to banish the thought of cooking and opt for such culinary delights in droves. Far from it. All such leaflets are swept under the staircase where they wait for the kabadi’s monthly raddi visit. The quotidian repertoire of peas, beans, lentils, accompanied by lauki, parmal and tinda continue to hold sway in the household of the young elderly as we are now called. But one morning things changed suddenly when a Chinese restaurant offered a meal for Rs 150 per head with an “eat till you burst” guarantee. I picked up the telephone and asked whether the service was open on a Sunday. Forty years in bureaucracy had taught me to suspect gadbad in any proposal that sounded too good to be true. The restaurant was indeed open from 11 a.m and we were welcome any time. We walked in (both on the wrong side of 60 — grey, bespectacled and dour as most married couples become by this time in each other’s company). We were seated next to the window by a smart young waitress in black trousers and a black sweatshirt. Steaming bamboo baskets came next each one nestling the promised “unlimited starters” — chicken nuggets, spring rolls and dim sums with tangy red sauces to accompany them. We gobbled the starters in a jiffy and were just getting ready for the next course when the smiling waitress returned and asked which starters we might like to repeat. “Dim sums” we both said and in less than three minutes fresh baskets with piping hot morsels floated to the table which we devoured like teenagers. For the main course we were asked whether we would like noodles with chilli chicken or fried rice with Szechwan chicken. Our selections arrived in smart black bamboo containers but tasty as the fare was, it was becoming difficult to finish what was proffered. Hardly were the chopsticks laid down than the waitress sprang back asking whether we were ready for second helpings. That being impossible, the meal ended with a generous scoop of ice cream topped with chocolate fudge. All through we were plied with Pepsi to complete the “unlimited beverage” part of the offer. Suddenly all WHO’s adages about junk food were thrown out of the window. Lots of other foodies were pouring in by then responding to the “Burst your Belly” offer. Whole families with hungry children, curious foreigners and even a traditional Malyali couple with the wife swathed in a sequined nylon sari and a thick mass of open black crinkly hair had all been lured by the “Unlimited Meal” offer. The moral of the story for advertisers — it’s not the flavour, it is not the colour, it’s not the trans-Atlantic names or the “two- for-the price of one” slogans that entice new clients. It is the temptation of eating boundless quantities of food without paying five-star buffet prices that outweighs all else. Just the thought of endless Chinese food at Chinese prices had done the
trick.
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Financial turmoil
The
fall within days of each other of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and the world’s largest insurance company, AIG, cannot but have repercussions on India. The world has to configure a regulatory system so that the huge mismatch between financial flows and trade flows is corrected. The very complex financial packages that finally brought down the large investment backs need monitoring and regulation. Earlier, India had a mini crisis because of trading in foreign exchange derivatives, which neither buying companies nor selling banks understood fully, leading to lawsuits that the banks had misled the companies. Clearly, we are no longer insulated from the world but are part of it. All our policies must take account of this change. The fall from grace of investment banks and money market players will have ripple effects. For example, Lehman insured many of its liabilities, including the rent on London offices, with AIG. AIG insures many risks globally, some more unsafe than others. AIG’s balance sheet included risks of investment bankers, house mortgages and others caught in the subprime crisis and declining house values. AIG’s global interconnections will trigger worldwide problems, and not merely for financial institutions. As AIG sells assets to repay loans, it must look at a most profitable asset, ILFC — the leading aircraft leasing company, the largest buyer of planes, with more than 150 Boeing and Airbus aircraft on order. ILFC must cut aircraft orders, further weakening Airbus and Boeing, already weakened by delayed products, labour problems and management weaknesses. Aircraft leases will become more expensive, some airlines will close, more jobs will go and airline passengers will pay higher fares. Banks, insurance companies, leasing companies, aircraft manufacturers, airlines, hence travel agents, hotel workers and workers in many industries will be affected. India is nowhere near China in development parameters and macroeconomic fundamentals. The fiscal deficit after adding the fudges in the last two budgets on subsidies on oil, fertiliser and food, and other major expenses that are “below the line” was high. It will go much higher as expenditure shoots up on account of floods, etc. and the GDP growth falls by 2 per cent or so. The balance of payments on current account is in deficit. Our “ample” foreign exchange reserves, unlike China, are not made up of export surpluses and foreign direct investments but of more volatile commercial borrowings, NRI deposits and declining FII inflows. The rupee is fast depreciating, heightening inflationary tendencies. India had become a major destination for outsourcing by overseas banks, financial institutions, airlines and many others. They will cut orders and squeeze margins. As the US and developed economies decline for at least the next year, India will see a decline in volume and margins in industries like information technology, financial services, tourism etc. Employees in these industries have been large users of housing loans, loans for consumer durable products and credit cards. As layoffs in these service industries increase, so will defaults, hitting aggressive banks that have sought their business. The already tight liquidity, higher interest costs and banks’ reluctance to lend in most countries, including India, will further adversely affect growth in industry and services. Along with negative FII inflows, share values have nosedived. Spasmodic recoveries will be followed by further declines. The cash-rich investor might enter markets to pick up bargains, but there will be little business. New capital issuers are already being put on hold. With debt also becoming tight, industrial investment is sure to be adversely affected. The wider opening of the window of external commercial borrowings might help bigger companies, especially in infrastructure. But costs will be higher. The freedom to bring money in even when spending is later will help them arbitrage and make some extra profit. The exposure of Indian banks and financial institutions has been limited to some aggressive private ones. Nationalised banks have been conservative and they dominate Indian finance. Perhaps, the USA has taken a lesson from India by practically nationalising much of its financial sector by taking over most of life and general insurance! A good monsoon this year will raise agricultural growth. That will not restore the overall growth rates. The last budget had ambitious expenditures planned on physical and social infrastructure and agriculture. Good economic management in inflationary conditions demands a slowing of these expenditures. However, the general election due next summer will make the government discard the necessary in favour of wooing votes. Already inflation is at 12 per cent. If oil prices keep rising it would get worse. The UPA government is caught in a dilemma. Cutting expenditures might dampen inflation but will accelerate declining growth and employment. If it does not curb expenditures, inflation would worsen. Both will hurt consumers and voters. The UPA should have had better economic management in the last two budgets. The meltdown of American financial institutions will only add to the worsening electoral prospects of the UPA.
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Penguins and golf in Burma’s hidden capital A year
ago this week, Burma saw its biggest uprising in decades when Buddhist monks and thousands of civilians poured onto the streets of Rangoon and Mandalay. But as the world watched, the targets of their fury were nowhere to be seen. The generals who rule Burma had relocated hundreds of miles to the north to a new purpose-built capital city designed to be impervious to protest or invasion. Welcome to Naypyidaw a bizarre, white-elephant place populated only by government employees forced to relocate. Building began after the personal astrologer of Than Shwe, the head of the notorious Burmese junta, prophesied unrest in 2005. The superstitious – and paranoid – regime selected a site in the remote badlands of central Burma and set about turning their mad vision into bricks and mortar. Millions of Burmese are still reeling from Cyclone Nargis while rising food prices push many closer to starvation, but the military rulers are pumping money into their personal utopia. Sealed off from the rest of the world, an estimated £2.7bn from the ruby, teak and opium trades is giving Naypyidaw such luxuries as 24-hour lighting – most Burmese get electricity for a few hours a day – three golf courses and a zoo, complete with climate-controlled penguin house. Glimpse of the hidden city are rare. There are no international flights. Foreigners are banned. There is no mobile phone network. To get here, would-be-visitors must take the battered road north of Rangoon. Suddenly the dirt track becomes a vast eight-lane highway stretching across the scrub land to the horizon. The highway is weirdly empty, used only by horses and carts and the occasional, screaming convoy of the junta’s blacked-out SUVs. The city itself is eerie, a jumble of new buildings spread over scrubland and linked by yet more wide roads. The government claims that a millions people live here, but apart from construction labourers (widely assumed to be forcibly employed) and government workers, Naypyidaw is deserted. A few labourers in dirty sarongs walk past – they smile hesitantly and scurry away. Further on, we pass a group of women in the white shirts and green sarongs of the government uniform. They too avert their eyes. Over everything hangs an unsettling quite: where most Asian cities bustle, here there is silence. Along yet another empty road is a half-built shopping centre, with a huge glass front dusty from disuse. Nearby, a huge neoclassical buildings apparently modelled on Wall Street is being erected: it’s new bank. Other projectors are further behind: “Mitsubishi Electronics Coming Soon!” declares a sign erected at a jaunty angle. Behind it is an empty field. Along with another highway are hundreds of blocks of flats-there are more than 1, 500 across the city. Many are clearly uninhabited. In an Orwellian touch, they are colour-coded according to the ministry whose employees they house: blue for Health, green for Agriculture and Irrigation. Next to them is a police station; outside a large board asks surreally, “May I help you?” Than Shwe and his junta have locked themselves away in a fortress within a fortress, in a closely guarded secret quarter populated entirely by military leadership. No civilians-let alone foreigners – are allowed here. Reports say the area is a network of bunkers and luxury houses, from which the generals rarely venture, emerging downtown only to play to golf or gamble in the specially built five-star hotels. Even in Pyinmana, a sleepy, poor town a few miles away, conversation is guarded. What do people here think of Naypyidaw? “They don’t, “says one local bitterly. “We just survive day to day.” “Than Shwe is a king, he wants his own palace,” shrugs another. “And although he is king, he is afraid of many things. He thinks that here he will be safe.” He may be right. A year on from the protests, there is little sign of more. There is no money for an armed uprising, and no organisation to run it. Hundreds are still in prison and many more are in exile. By arrangement
with The Independent
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Delhi Durbar Is the BJP’s honeymoon with the media over? The party, which always takes special care of the media almost to the point of pampering it, is, of late, a shade displeased with presspersons, especially the electronic media. The BJP was upset not just with CNN-IBN for not telecasting the “sting” on the “cash-for-votes” controversy but also with other media organisations for not mounting a campaign to force the channel to show the clippings. Now the BJP is annoyed with TV channels and newspapers for doing a check on the family background of the various young men accused of terrorist operations. And the person articulating this disdain for the media is none other than its articulate general secretary Arun Jaitley. It is another thing that the media still loves him so much that even senior editors and journalists storm to 11 Ashoka Road the moment they hear that Jaitley is addressing the day’s briefing.
In Nobel race
The stars are shining bright for Indian academics once again with three eminent economics professors in contention for the Nobel Prize this year. They include Jagdish Bhagwati, Avinash Kamalakar Dixit and Partha Sarthi Dasgupta. Known for his advocacy of free trade, Jagdish Bhagwati, professor of economics at Columbia University, has been nominated for the Economics Nobel more than nine times. Avinash Kamalakar Dixit is known for his game theory. He has co-authored a book “Games of Strategy, Thinking Strategically” with Barry Nalebuff of the Yale School of Management and “Investment Under Uncertainty” with Robert Pindyck. Dixit, whose research interests range from microeconomic theory and international trade to industrial organisation and growth and development theories, admits he became an economist largely through a series of accidents. Dasgupta, who has worked with Nobel Prize winner Joseph Stiglitz on environmental economics, is the Frank Ramsey Professor of Economics at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge.
Martyrs ignored
For the Government of India, it seems, Bhagat Singh is more of a martyr than Sukhdev and Rajguru. Though Bhagat Singh’s centenary celebrations had a national flavour with the Centre going all out to show respect to the martyr and even installing his statute in Parliament, Sukhdev and Rajguru have not been so lucky. The ruling coalition did not host any major celebrations to mark Sukhdev’s birth centenary that fell on May 15 (before Bhagat Singh’s centenary) last year. Rajguru also met the same fate when his centenary passed off without a flutter recently. It is learnt that the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting held a low-profile book release function to mark Rajguru’s centenary. Interestingly, the book “Rajguru: Phansi ke Phande Tak” has been authored by additional sessions judge Anil Verma, posted in Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh. Contributed by Faraz Ahmad, Bhagyashree Pande and Aditi Tandon
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