O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Signals from Srinagar
Limited use of the Army unavoidable
The Army staging a flag march in parts of Srinagar sends out a signal that the situation is quite alarming in the valley. Despite the efforts by the police and the paramilitary forces (read the CRPF) for the past few days, people have continued to indulge in violence on various pretexts. Even the imposition of curfew has not brought about the desired result.

Pak-China N-nexus
India must step up diplomatic pressure
India has reason to be concerned over Pakistan’s nuclear reactor deal with China, given Islamabad’s record of nuclear proliferation and China’s proclivity to build up that country as a potential threat to India. When India got a waiver for nuclear commerce from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, there was universal acceptance that India had an impeccable non-proliferation record.

Judges for life?
Raising retirement age a better option
On the face of it, the Allahabad High Court’s directive to the Centre to explore the possibility of having “judges for life” in the Supreme Court and the High Courts is not flawed. Speaking for the Division Bench in response to a petition, Justice Uma Nath Singh has given two weeks’ time to the Centre to respond.

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

Kashmir needs all-party consensus
Call in the National Integration Council
by Inder Malhotra
Initial signs of a slow return of normalcy to the deeply disturbed parts of the Kashmir valley over the weekend were obviously misleading, as the subsequent grim events, including the need to seek the Army’s help, underscore. However, the main point about the problem is different. When the situation simmers down - as it would sooner or later - it is vital that both New Delhi and Srinagar do not repeat their habitual mistake of reverting to complacency and inaction until the next upheaval engulfs them.

MIDDLE

The transformation
by Harish Dhillon
WHILE lecturing at Lucknow University, I also joined evening classes at the Arts College. One of the teachers was a young, unassuming artist named Nanak Sharma. A few months later he had his first solo exhibition.

OPED WORLD

Sloppy spies and clumsy FBI
While the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) claims to have busted a Russian spy-ring in the US, the spies themselves, and their handlers in Moscow, are disappointingly pedestrian, finds Kim Sengupta

Hey, it’s Russian football
You win some and you lose some, so what’s the big deal ?
Roland Oliphant
The Russian government’s initial reaction to the arrest of 11 people, at least some of whom it has admitted are its citizens, was true to form. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Bill Clinton the American police were “out of control, throwing people in jail” and the Russian Foreign Ministry called the allegations “baseless”. But the mood in official Moscow has gradually changed.

WRITING ON THE WALL
Coming-out Party of China
Shastri Ramachandaran in Beijing
It is Party time. At 89, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is in fine fettle. At this ripe age, far from retreating modestly, the CPC has decided to be more forward and shed the veil of mystery around it. It is looking the world at large full in the face in what is an unabashed “charm offensive”.

• Corrections and clarifications

EDITORIALS

Signals from Srinagar
Limited use of the Army unavoidable

The Army staging a flag march in parts of Srinagar sends out a signal that the situation is quite alarming in the valley. Despite the efforts by the police and the paramilitary forces (read the CRPF) for the past few days, people have continued to indulge in violence on various pretexts. Even the imposition of curfew has not brought about the desired result. The trouble-makers, indulging in stone-throwing at the slightest pretext, have been able to violate curfew orders with impunity. Why? Perhaps, they have come to believe that even if they are arrested on charges of stone throwing at security forces, nothing much will happen to them. The law needs to be amended to send across the message that anyone indulging in the hurling of stones, using these as a weapon, will invite severe punishment. Such elements must be dealt with sternly.

The security forces cannot keep quiet when they are attacked by elements specialising in throwing stones. And once the men in uniform open fire in self-defence, there are chances of protesters succumbing to injuries. This will obviously further antagonise people, contributing to their alienation. This vicious circle must be broken for peace to prevail in the valley.

In such a situation, deploying the Army to serve as a “deterrent” is understandable. What can the nation do when the situation threatens to worsen. The step has been taken with the state government asking for it. The Cabinet Committee on Security, which met in New Delhi on Wednesday to take stock of the growing crisis in Kashmir, has done well to make it clear that the Army will be there only in “peripheral” areas in Srinagar and elsewhere so that Pakistan-trained saboteurs can be prevented from taking advantage of the situation. In any case, using the Army for crowd control, and that too in a sensitive border state like Jammu and Kashmir, is fraught with enormous risks. In fact, it will be better if more paramilitary forces are deployed to bring the situation under control. This will be in the larger national interest. Ideally, the Army should step in with full force only when all measures have failed.

Pak-China N-nexus
India must step up diplomatic pressure

India has reason to be concerned over Pakistan’s nuclear reactor deal with China, given Islamabad’s record of nuclear proliferation and China’s proclivity to build up that country as a potential threat to India. When India got a waiver for nuclear commerce from the 45-member Nuclear Suppliers Group, which controls the export and sale of nuclear technology worldwide, there was universal acceptance that India had an impeccable non-proliferation record. By contrast, Pakistan’s record of proliferation is appalling. Equating the two countries on this vital issue of international security would be dangerous indeed. The father of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, A.Q. Khan, had at one stage openly acknowledged his country’s proliferation to Iran and North Korea. Pakistan is also believed to be the fountainhead of the proposed Islamic bomb. The threat due to Pakistan’s enhancement of nuclear capability is, therefore, not just to India but to the world at large.

Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari’s claim that the agreement for China to build two nuclear reactors in Pakistan was inked in 2009 though China notified the NSG only last month does not detract from the gravity of the deal. Mr Zardari’s statement in Beijing that his current visit is the fifth since October 2008 only strengthens suspicions that the two countries have been up to something. It would be wrong for the NSG to allow the deal on grounds that it was initiated in 2004 when China was not a member of the NSG. India’s stand that the pre-2004. China-Pakistan pact accounted only for the Chashma-2 reactor and some research reactors and that this deal for nuclear reactors is in the aftermath of the NSG”s waiver to India is weighty.

It is now up to India to raise the pitch of its diplomatic opposition to the China-Pakistan deal so that the NSG, if approached, does not brush aside Pakistan’s proliferation record. While the Pakistan government’s own intentions are suspect, there is a big question mark also over the security of Pakistan’s nuclear assets which the world cannot brush aside.

Judges for life?
Raising retirement age a better option

On the face of it, the Allahabad High Court’s directive to the Centre to explore the possibility of having “judges for life” in the Supreme Court and the High Courts is not flawed. Speaking for the Division Bench in response to a petition, Justice Uma Nath Singh has given two weeks’ time to the Centre to respond. Having maintained that the petitioner’s contention is not altogether “devoid of substance”, he said that there is every justification for the government to consider the proposal favourably. He has also referred to the practice that obtains in the UK and the US. While there is no retirement for judges in the US — they can retire voluntarily or resign any time — in the UK, the judges retire at 70 years, if first appointed to a judicial office after March 31, 1995, or at 75 otherwise. Though there is no conceptual flaw in having judges for life in India, the conditions that exist here and in advanced countries like the US and UK are quite different.

If our judges don’t retire, it will deprive the youngsters of their opportunity to occupy the hallowed offices. The new concept will ensure continuity as also help clear the backlog of cases to some extent (since it is felt that senior judges dispose of more cases quickly). However, it is no substitute for merit and efficiency. On the contrary, a constructive and feasible alternative to Justice Singh’s directive is to impress upon Parliament to raise the age of retirement for the judges in the higher judiciary.

Indeed, Union Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily hinted recently that the Centre would consider giving the go-ahead to the proposal to increase the retirement age of the High Court judges from the present 62 to 65 years. The National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution headed by Justice M.N. Venkatachallaih had suggested 68 as the retirement age for the Supreme Court judges and 65 for those in the High Courts. Many jurists have also said that given the increased longevity of human life, the judges’ retirement age should be suitably raised so that the country can be benefited by their long years of experience. As a constitutional amendment is needed for this, Parliament should take the call early.

Thought for the Day

With stupidity the gods themselves struggle in vain. — Friedrich von Schiller

ARTICLE

Kashmir needs all-party consensus
Call in the National Integration Council
by Inder Malhotra

Initial signs of a slow return of normalcy to the deeply disturbed parts of the Kashmir valley over the weekend were obviously misleading, as the subsequent grim events, including the need to seek the Army’s help, underscore. However, the main point about the problem is different. When the situation simmers down - as it would sooner or later - it is vital that both New Delhi and Srinagar do not repeat their habitual mistake of reverting to complacency and inaction until the next upheaval engulfs them.

Two years ago over the issue of allocation of some land for temporary shelters for once-a -year pilgrims to the Amarnath shrine the state was virtually aflame. But once the fire was put out, nobody bothered about Jammu and Kashmir’s unending problems. The euphoria that overtook both the Congress and the National Conference after their undoubtedly spectacular victory in the state assembly elections was even more diverting.

Come to think of it, but for their ostrich-like approach, the powers that be could have foreseen the latest irruption. After all, for many months agitation was on against a series of tragic incidents such the mysterious deaths of two women at Shopian, the alleged killing of three innocent civilians by an army officer in an encounter staged close to the LoC, and the arrest of a CRPF officer for allegedly ordering a subordinate to shoot a young man. On top of it, there had been a constant demand for the repeal of the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act (AFSPA). Remarkably, the two mainstream Kashmir parties, the ruling NC and the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) supported it, even though they are otherwise bitterly hostile to each other. In fact, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has publicly accused the PDP of “encouraging the stone-throwers”.

The Chief Minister is entirely right in arguing that since both Central and state governments have enjoined “maximum restraint” on the police and the CRPF, what are the security forces to do when their lives are threatened by violent mobs? Virulent and persistent pelting of stones by teenagers “manipulated by anti-national elements” was perhaps at the root of the recent turmoil. But how can you put down stone pelting in only one state when it is regrettably the order of the day all across the country? Anyone with any grievance, real or imaginary, seems to have a fundamental right to throw stones at security forces, block road or rail traffic, burn buses and public property and so on. The widespread violence and arson during Monday’s Bharat Bandh, led by top BJP and Left Front leaders, proves the point to the hilt. Before awarding deterrent punishment to the stone-throwers of Sopore and Srinagar it would be necessary to do so throughout the country. Unfortunately, the possibility of this happening is remote because there is no sign of the requisite political will and administrative efficiency.

In all honesty the discussion so far addresses only the symptoms of the problem, not its substance. Kashmir’s is a special case for two reasons, generally slurred over. First, almost everything happening there has an external dimension; and secondly, the alienation of the people in the valley is more widespread than generally acknowledged. The role of the security forces, therefore, becomes crucial, especially because of the gap between political leaders and the people. Policing by itself in not enough. Politicians in power have to win over the people. Omar Abdullah has said repeatedly that Kashmir is a political problem and it “must be resolved politically”. Interestingly, the new Army Chief, General V. K. Singh, has said virtually the same thing. The Kashmir Chief Minister has added that since talks with Pakistan are already on, there should be talks with all Kashmiri groups, too.

The point is well taken. But the trouble is that things are not as simple as they are being made out to be. Talks between New Delhi and Kashmiri groups have been going on since the days of P. V. Narasimha Rao, who wisely stated that every proposal for greater autonomy “short of azadi” was negotiable. Atal Bihari Vajpayee continued the process, as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is doing. Indeed, it is difficult to keep count of the task forces that have functioned or of the reports they have produced, sadly to no avail. The reason is that no two Kashmiri groups agree on anything. They want the Central government to produce a solution that they can reject. The PDP had one view when it was in power and a totally different one now.

In short, there appears to be not one Kashmir problem but as many as there are political parties in the state. Wouldn’t it be better for all Kashmiri political parties to sit together and hammer out their agreed demands that can then be the basis for negotiations with New Delhi?

However, it should be clear that over the highly emotive issue of Kashmir there cannot be an agreement, internally with the Kashmiri groups or externally with Pakistan (though the two may be interconnected), without the country’s backing. An all-party consensus is, therefore, imperative. Why the UPA government hasn’t tried to evolve one is a mystery.

Such an effort should no longer be delayed. Up to now all-party conferences have been stray and informal. Kashmir is too serious a matter to be treated casually. The National Integration Council (NIC), moribund since 2005, would be the right forum for sustained consultations on Kashmir. Doubtless, in its present form the NIC is unwieldy, but there is no reason why its membership cannot be reduced to a manageable level.

Finally, it would be a pity if the just started India-Pakistan talks get derailed because of any upheaval in J & K. There is, in fact, a view that the separatists of Kashmir are determined to create such mayhem that Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmoud Qureshi is driven to tell his Indian counterpart, S. M. Krishna, on July 15 that Kashmir, being the core issue, must be discussed first. Qureshi has already announced that he would take up the issue of human rights in Kashmir with him. The point to remember, however, is that Pakistan’s India policy is made not by the Foreign Minister, the Prime Minister or President but by the Pakistan Army Chief, Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.

MIDDLE

The transformation
by Harish Dhillon

WHILE lecturing at Lucknow University, I also joined evening classes at the Arts College. One of the teachers was a young, unassuming artist named Nanak Sharma. A few months later he had his first solo exhibition.

 When I reached, there were six visitors with the artist standing unobtrusively to one side. Eighteen canvases were on display, all skillfully executed and displaying a remarkable use of colour.  There were two I particularly liked — a herd of cattle being driven home at dusk and an urchin at a tea stall on and a cold, misty morning. While looking at one you could feel the heat on your body and the dust in your nose and throat and with the other you felt the bitter cold of winter.  I bought the “Gaudhuli” — it was the only painting he had sold.

I bumped into him again, years later on a visit to Lucknow.  He had done well for himself — his paintings now sold for six-figure sums. He had also lost his modesty and become a pompous individual.  He had an exhibition on and he invited me to it. The hall was full of people and he was holding forth about his work.  

There were 24 paintings, all bewildering  abstracts,  some rather  attractive with their remarkable use of colour. But none aroused any feeling. I noticed red dots below a dozen of them. Our paths crossed and he asked me to stay on.

The gallery closed an hour later. “So, tell me”, he said, when we were finally alone and, for a brief moment, he was the same unassuming young man.

“I do not understand them.” There was a momentary flash in his eyes, and then he launched into a long speech on how true art was never photographic and the meaning lay in the heart and mind of the beholder.

“But what is it?” I asked pointing to the painting next to us.  He looked at it for a moment and laughed a hard, cynical laugh.

“A crack in the wall of my stairwell, with ‘paan’ stains on it.”

There was bitterness in the irony that no one would pay a hundred rupees for a painting which made you feel the cold of a winter morning, and the warmth that coursed through an urchin’s hands as he grasped a tumbler of hot tea, while many would pay lakhs for a crack in the wall.

“You’ve had very good sales.”

“Yes. I always have good sales.  I am a rich man now.” He spoke with  arrogance, and pomposity  and all signs of the old Nanak Sharma were gone.

He came to my room the next morning and gave me a painting, carefully packed in a tube. I baulked at the idea of owning ‘a crack in the wall’, but when I opened the painting it was of the urchin at the tea stall. Perhaps he was telling me that the transformation had not been an easy one for him.

OPED WORLD

Sloppy spies and clumsy FBI

While the Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI) claims to have busted a Russian spy-ring in the US, the spies themselves, and their handlers in Moscow, are disappointingly pedestrian, finds Kim Sengupta

Newspapers have gone to town with the story of Anna Chapman who was married to a British man before moving to the US.

An artist’s view of the Russian spies in an American court in Virigina.

IT WAS a high-octane tale of secrets and lies; of dangerous Russian agents who had infiltrated the heart of America; of buried pots of money; the geopolitical consequences, we were told, were incendiary - reminiscent of the dark days of the Cold War.

But despite the breathless accounts, the real story had more than an element of bathos. The prosecution is yet to produce any evidence of deep intelligence being passed by the "spy ring" to their Moscow handlers. In fact the Russian agents were not even successful enough to face espionage-related charges, being accused, instead, of failing to register with the US authorities as representatives of a foreign power, and omitting to declare income for tax purposes.

"The government’s case essentially suggests that they successfully infiltrated neighbourhoods, cocktail parties and the Parents and Teachers Association," said Peter B Krupp, the lawyer for Donald Heathfield, after studying FBI affidavits. "It is all a bit confusing."

Neighbours were however fooled by the agents’ efforts to fit in. One told The New York Times: "But they couldn’t have been spies! They were just like anyone else around here. They had lots of pizzas and family-sized meals delivered."

According to US officials, the real purpose of the "sleeper cells" was to win the confidence of influential political circles, find out their thinking about Russia and get inside knowledge of Barack Obama’s tactics in last year’s Moscow summit.

Yet they were in no position to gain any of this information in the shopping malls where they spent much of their alleged spying money, or the parks where they met. This was clear from a dialogue taped by the FBI in which two of the agents, husband and wife Juan Lazaro and Vicky Pelaez, talked about the lack of appreciation shown towards them by Moscow.

"They tell me that my information is of no value because I didn’t provide any source. They say that without a source, without saying who tells you all of this, it’s of no use to them." Ms Pelaez tried to sooth him, saying: "Just put down any politician from here."

Having failed to gather "humint" - human intelligence - the Russian cell also seemed to have been rather backward in the use of secret electronics, depending instead on off-the-shelf consumer electronics. They also used invisible ink and a manual encryption method known as "one-time pad" - both of which can be bought in many "spyware" shops in New York and London.

The FBI were keen to stress that the spies were trying their utmost to carry out their work in secret. One example they gave was of Anna Chapman, the "Mata-Hari" who, according to one American tabloid, had "Sexy Red Agent’s Locks to Die For". Ms Chapman would go to a coffee shop in Manhattan and set up her laptop. Then, using a standard Wi-Fi chip, she "probably" communicated with a mini van which would be seen with suspicious regularity in the neighbourhood.

Another sign of her alleged ingenuity was that she bought a "pre-paid" mobile telephone, which did not come with a contract, and thus the shop did not check her ID before selling it.

Glenn Fleishman, who edits the "Wi-Fi News" blog in the US, maintained that the standard Wi-Fi link used by Ms Chapman was "pretty amateurish and laughingly easy to sniff out". He pointed out that other technology for short-wave transmission was commercially available; known as ultra-wideband radio, this would have been almost impossible for the FBI to pick up.

Robert Emerson, a British security consultant, said: "We are in a world of smoke and mirrors. The use of a ‘prepaid’ phone is being put forward as devilishly crafty. But the fact is that thousands of people use them every day and there are much more secure ways of communicating. Look, maybe this woman and her associates really were engaged in espionage. But they seemed to have been pretty bad at it."

Old Russian intelligence hands are certainly embarrassed by the ineptitude of the secret American cell of the Russian spies.

Juan Lazaro made a lengthy statement soon after his arrest admitting that that was not his real name, that he was not born in Uruguay and that his home in Yonkers was paid for by the Russians. He declared, with a flourish, that his loyalty to his service was greater than his love for his son. The service, however, was still waiting for a decent report out of him.

Mikhail Lyubimov, who had worked as a KGB operative in Western Europe in the Seventies and Eighties, said: "We don’t seem to have the human resources to continue this competition with dignity." Gennady Gudkov, deputy chairman of the State Duma’s security committee, added: "In the best times of Soviet history, the organisers and controllers of such a sloppy operation would have ended in prison. And, at the worst times, they would have been shot."

A message intercepted by the American authorities to the spy cell showed the director of SVR poring over the cost of the house used by his agents: "We are under the impression that C views our ownership of the house as a deviation from the original purpose of our mission here.We’d like to assure you that we do remember what it is," it read.

But it was not that long ago that British agents were caught in Moscow using a fake "rock" to pass intelligence. The idea apparently came from watching a David Attenborough wildlife programme in which a tiny camera was hidden inside artificial elephant dung. The secret mission was filmed and shown on Russian TV, leaving red faces in London.

Vladimir Putin’s first reaction at the time was that the MI6 agents should not be expelled. "If these spies are sent out, others will be sent in. Maybe they will send some clever ones next time who will be far harder for us to find. May be we don’t want that to happen."

( By arrangement with The Independent )

Hey, it’s Russian football
You win some and you lose some, so what’s the big deal ?
Roland Oliphant

The Russian government’s initial reaction to the arrest of 11 people, at least some of whom it has admitted are its citizens, was true to form. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin told Bill Clinton the American police were “out of control, throwing people in jail” and the Russian Foreign Ministry called the allegations “baseless”. But the mood in official Moscow has gradually changed.

“Russians think their security services should work actively and spy on America,” said Sergei Markov, an MP for the ruling United Russia party. “It’s understood that the Americans should guard their territory, so what’s strange? Most Russians think of it like a football match.” But, as Markov admitted, losing 10- nil is never easy. And the loss of 10 agents (the 11th, Christopher Robert Metsos, seems to have escaped after jumping bail in Cyprus ) and revelations about broken laptops, agents posting their details on Facebook and banal arguments with Moscow over the price of a mortgage have put a dent in the foreign intelligence service’s mystique.

“Imagine if James Bond opened his box of tricks and inside there was some grilled chicken, a pair of socks and a picture of a girl with a note saying, ‘When you get back don’t forget to mow the lawn,” moaned Moskovsky Komsomolets, a Russian tabloid.

But the chief feeling is of bewilderment. The FBI’s story that they swooped because the suspects were about to flee, is almost universally derided. “Personally, I think they were trying to cover up the scandal they have with that oil spill in Louisiana,” suggested an accountant from Moscow. “It’s America’s problem,” shrugged Alexei Mukhin, director of a usually well-informed think tank, when asked if the scandal could affect relations. He compared the American political structure to the Russian Siloviki, the hard-line ex-spies said to surround Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

“The American siloviki decided to show Medvedev that not everything is so smooth in Russian-American relations,” he said.

(By arrangement with The Independent)

Coming-out Party of China
Shastri Ramachandaran in Beijing

It is Party time. At 89, the Communist Party of China (CPC) is in fine fettle. At this ripe age, far from retreating modestly, the CPC has decided to be more forward and shed the veil of mystery around it. It is looking the world at large full in the face in what is an unabashed “charm offensive”.

On June 30, the CPC sprang a surprise by fielding 11 spokespersons to answer any and all questions from the media, no holds barred. The 11 media spokespersons are drawn from various Party departments. Any coincidence with the number of players in a cricket team is coincidental. China does not play cricket.

However, that so many spokespeople are fielded to satisfy media interest in Party affairs testifies to a new sporting spirit, where it is game for a media scrum. Clearly, this coming-out Party is significant, not just symbolic. Rising China wants to reach out more, and is getting more conscious, by the day, of how it is perceived by the rest of the world. However, intent and outcome do not always match. So it was no surprise that a few of the spokespersons were ill at ease when dealing with “pointed” questions from the media.

A day before, at a rare press conference, a senior functionary of the Party ‘school’ had a tough time convincing newspersons that the place was not meant for “socialising”; and, that senior party officials actually study and work hard at their courses during their time in the school. Regardless of most questions dealing with “rumours” of officials having a ball when at the Party school, its Vice President Li Jingtian didn’t lose his cool. He drove home the point that the Party school was not an elite venue for wining and dining.

That was another first: a glimpse into the school and what goes on there.

Yuan rise hits vuvuzela

Those ear-splitting plastic horns may be a rage in South Africa with football fans. Who knows, when the football fever fades in a fortnight, the next big port to land vuvuzelas might be Delhi, for the Commonwealth Games.

Less known than the vuvuzela is the fact that 90 percent of the plastic contraption at the football matches is made in China. It is China’s connection to the World Cup and the Chinese are proud of these plastic horns that were once used to drive away baboons in Africa.

As the world’s largest producer of vuvuzelas, the manufacturers should be on a roll. Unfortunately, they aren’t. Each horn costs about 2.80 yuan wholesale and the profit is less than 0.4 yuan, though it sells for $ 3 to $ 8 in South Africa. While the foreign traders make a killing, the thin margin has become thinner for the four factories making it with the Yuan rising against the dollar.

The stronger yuan makes this export more unaffordable. A million vuvuzelas are disturbing not only to the ear. It is hard on the balance sheet, too.

Tailpiece

Inspired by “calamity museums”, such as a pirate museum in Cuba, a man in Shenzhen, the overnight city in Guangdong Province, is planning to open a “Thief Museum” showcasing burglary tools and theft news and information from China and abroad. (Report in Yangcheng Evening News). (July 2, 2010)

The author is senior editor/writer with the Global Times in Beijing. Views expressed are personal.

Corrections and clarifications

• The headline “BSF likely to take charge in Naxal heart” (Page 1, July 6, The Tribune) should have instead been “Naxal heartland”.
• The headline “Snakebites are here again” (Page 1, July 8, Chandigarh Tribune) should have said it is the season for snakebites.
• The headline of the turn of the report, “At 1,000 cases a year, India matches Pak in menace,” (Page 8, July 5, The Tribune) is confusing without the logo of honour killings given on page 1.
• The headline “No camera shy this one” (Page 2, July 8, Lifestyle) is incorrect, camera shy should have been followed by a noun.

Raj Chengappa, Editor-in-Chief