O P I N I O N S

EDITORIALS

Tackling hunger
Debate food Bill in Parliament
The Congress has constituted a three-member committee to evolve a political consensus on the food security Bill before presenting it in a special session of Parliament. A decision on issuing an Ordinance to make it a law was put on hold by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. Though the monsoon session of Parliament is still a month away, the UPA government may not wait for it.

Piloting a deadly path
VIP convoys should not endanger lives
The death of two police constables who were part of a VIP convoy escorting a minister is an unfortunate accident that raises concern about how VIP security is executed. The moving cover provided to people designated as VIPs can vary, but often it involves a pilot vehicle which can be an open-top Gypsy in which constables sit perched on the sides.

• Thought for the Day

ARTICLE

Thailand needs sustained focus
It can be useful in counter-insurgency operations
by Rahul Mishra
Dr Manmohan Singh embarked on a two-day visit to Thailand from May 30, making it his first visit to the country as India’s Prime Minister. While it took Dr Singh eight years to visit Thailand, his counterpart, Yingluck Shinawatra, visited India twice during the past two years. Dr Singh’s visit is widely perceived as being of a reciprocal nature after Shinawatra’s January 2012 India visit.

MIDDLE

Ultimate truth of life
by Ramesh Luthra
My recent ordeal in a renowned hospital of the city was very trying and testing. I was in for a big shock when I opened my eyes. Pipe here, pipe there. A number of them were fitted into my beautiful frame I always boasted of. Shall I have to live with these crutches for the rest of my life? The thought nagged me constantly. I lay cursing the Almighty. What for all the troubles and tribulations had been hurled upon me by God? I felt as if the very heavens had fallen on me.

Saturday Review

CINEMA: NEW Releases
Not an empty boast
Nonika Singh
Four good for nothing youngsters who nurse ordinary dreams...... well which youngster doesn't daydream? But the twist is one of them actually dreams in the night. Ha, ha...yes the joke is on its way. His buddy whom he calls Bhai and is his partner in failure (together they have flunked Class XII twice) infers it and arrives at a number that becomes their ticket to some quick bucks. The problem ensues when they want more than just a few hundred. In the mess of their making, two others get embroiled.

Emotive drama
Johnson Thomas
Suhail Tatari's second coming after a forced hiatus of four years, is a medical thriller written by Vikram Bhatt , based on several true incidents of negligence from the medical profession. The film, Ankur Arora Murder Case is a tense, emotive drama that shifts from hospital to court-room with great panache.

More of a trial
Johnson Thomas
Superman flies back onto the big screen in this Warner Bros. Legendary Pictures production directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen), produced by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), and featuring a screenplay by David Goyer (Blade, The Dark Knight). The much-anticipated superman origin story re- jig is a disappointment. The tone is humourless and the rejig aesthetics are questionable. This is an origin story apparently reworked to suite modern tastes, but the audience is not likely to take kindly to a depiction that is unlike anything that has come before.

Movies on TV

EDITORIALS

Tackling hunger
Debate food Bill in Parliament

The Congress has constituted a three-member committee to evolve a political consensus on the food security Bill before presenting it in a special session of Parliament. A decision on issuing an Ordinance to make it a law was put on hold by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday. Though the monsoon session of Parliament is still a month away, the UPA government may not wait for it. The Congress is keen to see through Sonia Gandhi’s favourite project, which is expected to reap electoral dividends for the party in 2014 just as the popular rural job guarantee scheme did it in 2009. The BJP does not want the Congress to draw political mileage from the pro-poor legislation.

The UPA may not wait for the monsoon session since it is quite possible the BJP may not, once again, allow Parliament to function on one pretext or the other. Therefore, a special session is more likely and the BJP too is not averse to it. What is important is the Bill should be debated threadbare since it aims to provide cheap foodgrains to 70 per cent of the country’s 1.2 billion people and is estimated to cost Rs 2 trillion annually. Every eligible citizen will have a legally enforceable right to food. The government’s food subsidy bill will shoot up, worsening the fiscal deficit.

Hunger and malnutrition remain the blots on a growing India. The poor cannot be allowed to starve when foodgrains rot in the open. The focus has to be on how to plug the leakages, mostly known, in the existing public distribution system. The model of food distribution followed in states like Chhattisgarh needs to be studied. Rather than hurrying through the Bill with an Ordinance, the government should approach Parliament with an open mind, allow the Opposition to do the fault-finding and pick up useful suggestions from whichever quarter they come. It is better to give the whole issue a careful thought and tie the loose ends now than face criticism for a flawed piece of legislation later.

Piloting a deadly path
VIP convoys should not endanger lives

The death of two police constables who were part of a VIP convoy escorting a minister is an unfortunate accident that raises concern about how VIP security is executed. The moving cover provided to people designated as VIPs can vary, but often it involves a pilot vehicle which can be an open-top Gypsy in which constables sit perched on the sides. Such a position gives them tremendous mobility in case it is needed, but it also makes them uniquely vulnerable to sudden changes in the vehicle’s momentum. This is precisely what seems to have happened when a pilot vehicle escorting Punjab Education Minister Sikandar Singh Maluka stopped suddenly near a barrier in Haryana and the constables fell on the road. They died on the spot.

Flashing red lights atop vehicles is a reasonably common sight. Vehicles with sirens screaming and tyres screeching rush on roads, brushing aside hapless people who happen to be in the vicinity. It is difficult to understand why all VIP movement requires such urgency. The VIP status is doled out liberally, especially to members of the political class, and subtle security seems to be an oxymoron in the world of blinking red lights, sirens and gunmen waving away intruding traffic on the roads. Open-top jeeps may have their use at a low speed, but at high speed they cannot provide safety to their passengers, as we have just seen.

The death of the two constables in the Education Minister’s convoy should raise red flags about the way VIP movement is conducted in the state, and in other parts of the country. The rationale of sending large convoys to escort ministers and other VIPs needs to be reviewed. In many nations, all except those at the very top prefer unobtrusive security. British Prime Minister David Cameron, accompanied by a bodyguard, took the London underground recently because ‘he had a very busy schedule and it was quicker for him to travel by train than go by road’. How many of our ministers will follow suit?

Never too soon
Reliance on monsoon heavy as ever

In a country where temperatures in certain areas tend to graze the 50°-C mark, the first impact of the monsoon is felt in the bodily relief that the man in the street, or on a parched field, experiences. That, fortunately, has come much earlier in the North this year, with unusually heavy pre-monsoon showers. The real thing too is expected within 10 days, a full week ahead of the date. The true significance of the monsoon, of course, lies in the food and water that it provides the 1.2 billion inhabiting the country, with half its agricultural land still dependent on irrigation straight from the skies. It is only if the Nature’s bounty brims over that things begin to go wrong with floods, which to an extent is our own failing, given the means available to control.

For Punjab and Haryana — addicted to paddy that guzzles more water than the land receives in a year — the pre-monsoon showers and prediction of monsoon arrival a week ahead of June 30 are particularly good news. Overall, as well as in the immediate context, both states are crippled with an acute power shortage, with lack of sufficient generation capacity or purchasing power, and currently a few generation units on the blink for various reasons. But for water pumped with tubewells 20 days ahead of the monsoon’s actual date, the two states would not be able to transplant paddy beginning June 10, as they do now. So dependent have they become on tubewells that they have forgotten that canals need annual maintenance. The result is canal breaches becoming an annual feature, which is a shame when the monsoon schedule is known.

It is amazing to note that mankind has become powerful enough to disturb Nature’s weather patterns through global warming, but not able enough to manage the fresh water it receives each year. Floods and droughts continue to be India’s bane, with some areas, including cities, crying for even drinking water. This is the age of e-governance and we are a democratic socialist republic — yet struggling with water management, something as old as civilisation itself!

Thought for the Day

Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all. — Ernest Shackleton

ARTICLE

Thailand needs sustained focus
It can be useful in counter-insurgency operations
by Rahul Mishra

Dr Manmohan Singh embarked on a two-day visit to Thailand from May 30, making it his first visit to the country as India’s Prime Minister. While it took Dr Singh eight years to visit Thailand, his counterpart, Yingluck Shinawatra, visited India twice during the past two years. Dr Singh’s visit is widely perceived as being of a reciprocal nature after Shinawatra’s January 2012 India visit.

Dr Singh’s tightly programmed itinerary encompassed a host of meetings and discussions, including a tête-à-tête with the Thai Prime Minister. A meeting scheduled with the King Bhumibol Adulyadej got cancelled due to the King’s frail health. However, Dr Singh presented a ‘Maha Bodhi’ sapling to Yingluck Shinawatra to be handed over to the King. During the visit, seven significant memoranda of understanding pertaining to an anti-money laundering programme, establishment of a Thailand-India exchange, cooperation on geo-informatics, geospatial technology and space issues, etc, were inked. Defence Minister AK Antony's recent visit to Thailand was also aimed at exploring the possibilities of stronger defence ties with Thailand.

‘Four Cs’— counter-insurgency, commerce, connectivity and cultural connections — have the potential to redefine and add new dimensions to the Indo-Thai relations. In that regard, both New Delhi and Bangkok have been working closely on a slew of issues to substantiate the initiatives taken during Shinawatra-Singh meetings during the past two years.

The first and foremost is cooperation regarding counter-insurgency and counter-terror operations. Needless to say that there cannot be a better moment than now for joining hands to take up responsibilities - fighting trans-national terrorism, handling insurgency problems as also promoting bilateral cooperation in fighting organised crime. Both India and Thailand are multi-ethnic and pluralistic countries and are facing daunting challenges of armed insurgency and terrorism. India’s Jammu and Kashmir and north-eastern states are infested with insurgents while Thailand is struggling with them in its southern province, especially in Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat districts. Learning from each other’s experience may help India and Thailand in dealing with the problem resolutely. The two countries also need to devise mechanisms to tackle terror attacks in urban areas and avert such incidents in future. It is worth noting that criminals, particularly Dawood Ibrahim’s aides and insurgent groups such as NSCN (IM) and ULFA, have used Thailand as a safe heaven. Signing of the much-awaited extradition treaty is likely to help the two governments curb the menace of insurgency and organised crime and complement the already existent Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty.

Second, India’s commerce and trade ties with Thailand are going from strength to strength; the biggest indicator of which is the fact that since 2000 bilateral trade volume has gone up eight times, reaching $8.6 billion in 2012. Over the past five years, bilateral trade has been increasing at a rate of over 15 per cent per annum. The two countries aim to reach the $14 billion mark by 2014. Bilateral Free Trade Agreement negotiations are also underway, which, once realised, will give a fillip to bilateral commerce and trade ties. Twentyseven negotiation rounds have already taken place and the bilateral FTA is likely to be concluded after the completion of the next round of trade negotiations. It is likely to happen within a few weeks with the finalisation of sanitary and phyto-sanitary norms and other issues.

Notably, the two countries have already done away with customs duties on 82 items. The decision, taken in 2004, was a part of the Early Harvest Scheme, which is the initial phase of the proposed Free Trade Agreement. Like several other countries of the East Asian region, Thailand is upbeat about India’s growing economic prowess. Last year alone, Thailand’s Board of Investment approved 25 Indian projects reaching over $ 200 million. Thailand is keen to have Indian investments in the Dawei Special Economic Zone as also in power, petrochemicals and services sectors. Thai investments in India crossed $10 million last year. It would be in the best interest of India inc. to join hands with its Thai counterparts in electronics, IT, food processing, manufacturing and tourism sectors to reap benefits from the second biggest economy of Southeast Asia. The newly established Thai-India Business Forum would further facilitate commerce and trade links. A Memorandum of Understanding between India’s Financial Intelligence Unit and Thailand’s Anti-Money Laundering Organisation was also inked. Exchange of financial intelligence relating to money laundering and terror financing would help India fight economic crimes in a more resolute fashion.

Third, rail, road and air connectivity with countries of the Southeast Asian region has been one of the prime objectives of India’s Look East Policy. The recently held India-ASEAN car rally and the INS Sudarshini expedition underscore that point. In that regard, it is pertinent for India to keep focussing on infrastructure building in its north-eastern states and provide the necessary wherewithal across the border to Myanmar also. India is committed to providing Myanmar with a $500 million line of credit for infrastructure projects. Furthermore, Indo-Thai cooperation on that count holds immense potential considering that it will connect India with commercial ports in Thailand, Myanmar and beyond. The trans-Asian highway and road network connecting Moreh in Manipur to Mae Sot in Thailand through Myanmar are also underway. However, the Dawei corridor project, likely to be completed by 2017, is perhaps the most promising of all projects in terms of trade potential. The project, approved by the Thai government recently, has the potential to become a major logistical hub that can boost connectivity of India’s Chennai, Kolkata and Vishakhapattanam ports with Southeast Asian ports by several folds, thereby increasing the commercial output.

Fourth, and a very important area of mutual cooperation for India and Thailand, has been highlighting and linking India’s millennia-old cultural connection with Thailand. Till date, India’s religious and socio-linguistic footprints are indelible on Thailand. Both Hindu and Buddhist historical accounts tell us that to a large extent, Thai culture is an offshoot of ancient Indian culture. Intriguingly, while Thailand has emerged as the world’s most sought-after tourist destination, India is left far behind despite having diverse tourist places and culturally rich historical sites. Apart from popular destinations --- such as Bangkok and Phuket --- cultural tourism attracts a lot of Buddhists from Asia to Thai cities such as Chiang Mai and Authaya. India’s "Incredible India" campaign can certainly get more productive if Thai best practices are inculcated in it. Considering that more than 90 per cent of Thai population follows Buddhism, India provides gratis visa to Buddhist monks. However, India needs to do more to attract Thai tourists. One such initiative could be creating more nodes for air links that connect directly with Bangkok. Providing world-class hospitality services would bring rich dividends to the Indian tourism sector in the long run. Sadly, as of now, Southeast Asian tourists visiting the Buddhist Circuit don’t come back satisfied with the hospitality services rendered.

Thailand is India’s gateway to Southeast Asia, and its importance is critical considering that it will take Myanmar, India’s next-door neighbour, a long time to become a peaceful democratic state. Recurring ethnic tensions, drug and human trafficking, and infrastructural problems further impel India to keep a sustained focus on Southeast Asia in general and Thailand in particular. Thailand’s support is crucial for keeping a check on insurgency in India's Northeast.

Incidentally, Thailand’s Look West policy, started in 1996, has complemented India’s engagement with Thailand and its Look East policy. South Asia’s prominence in Thailand’s Look West policy is evident from the fact that Shinawatra paid a three-day visit to Sri Lanka starting May 31. While Bangkok and New Delhi are trying to build the Bay of Bengal sub-region as a zone of multifaceted growth and prosperity through sub-regional groupings such as the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) and Mekong Ganga Cooperation (MGC), they need to rejuvenate these groupings. Finding ways to tackle transnational maritime challenges also demand their attention. Both India and Thailand have to devise a long-term strategy to maintain sustained focus on regional cooperation. Hopefully, with Dr Singh’s Thailand visit, progress on a few of the goals will be achieved.

The writer is associated with the Institute for Defence Studies & Analyses (IDSA), New Delhi.

MIDDLE

Ultimate truth of life
by Ramesh Luthra

My recent ordeal in a renowned hospital of the city was very trying and testing. I was in for a big shock when I opened my eyes. Pipe here, pipe there. A number of them were fitted into my beautiful frame I always boasted of. Shall I have to live with these crutches for the rest of my life? The thought nagged me constantly. I lay cursing the Almighty. What for all the troubles and tribulations had been hurled upon me by God? I felt as if the very heavens had fallen on me. Why, of all the human beings, have I been made a scapegoat and undergo this ordeal – the mother of all surgeries? Why should one who had been leading a very austere and saintly life be made to bear all these problems?

What an odd creator He is! He makes His own creations suffer, groan and sigh. May be, He derives pleasure out of it. I have seen hundreds and thousands of men and women being blessed with a healthy and joyous life, making others envious of their good stars. But for me life had been an endless tale of trials and tribulations. Alas! To me the cup of life had been dealt in another measure, I felt. Faced arrow after arrow from the Almighty’s bow.

Lying all by myself, I was reminded of ‘Surgical ward’ by AH Auden. The patients in the ward, their wounds covered with bandages, lie ‘remote like plants’ from each other, unaware of and indifferent to the pain and suffering of the patient on the next bed. A very grim but realistic description. Isn’t it? Frankly speaking, I too focussed on my pain presuming as if I was the only patient in the ICU. When back at home, life wasn’t the same as it used to be before my brush with surgery. I got dependent on others for even little things, making me depressed and disgusted with life. Gradually medicines and motherly care bore fruit. I thanked my stars after having noticed a number of people suffering in the hospital voluntarily. In a moment of thanksgiving I did realise that timely medical aid and that too of the topmost quality did save my life. What else did I ask for? God had gifted me with a new lease of life. Indeed a moment of awakening it was for me. I wasn’t the only one suffering on the earth. There were others who were born only to suffer.

Seems everything is preordained by God. Nothing moves against His will. There is no point in cribbing and feeling jealous of others. My mother, well versed in scriptures, seemed to put in all the wisdom of the world, saying, “Tera bhana mitha lage (Whatever you give should be accepted willingly and gracefully.) At last, the ultimate truth of life dawned on me.

Saturday Review

CINEMA: NEW Releases
Not an empty boast
Nonika Singh

RATINGS: ***** Excellent | **** Very Good | *** Good | ** Average | * Poor

Four good for nothing youngsters who nurse ordinary dreams...... well which youngster doesn't daydream? But the twist is one of them actually dreams in the night.

Ha, ha...yes the joke is on its way. His buddy whom he calls Bhai and is his partner in failure (together they have flunked Class XII twice) infers it and arrives at a number that becomes their ticket to some quick bucks. The problem ensues when they want more than just a few hundred. In the mess of their making, two others get embroiled.

FUN FILLED: (L-R) Pulkit Samrat, Varun Sharma, Manjot Singh & Ali Fazal

On this unusual premise the comedy Fukrey takes off, flies high for many a light-hearted moments, especially in the first half, nosedives too but holds its ground by and large. Comic punches in particular are tangy, hit home and invariably bring a smile, often laughs too. Laughter comes easily and naturally. All thanks to some natural performances by all the four lead male actors though a few score better than the others. Then there is the caricaturised persona of Bholi Punjaban (Richa Chadda of Gangs of Wasseypur fame) who is anything but innocent. With her loud and lewd part of a female goon she adds the right degree of spice.

Of course, as the narrative moves and incorporates her into the storyline much is on the predictable lines. Yet the film doesn't turn outright dreary and is suitably fast-paced and fun-filled. Characters, except Punjaban's, are straight out of life, the kinds perhaps you bump into day in and out. Take the simpleton besotted sardar Lali (Manjot Singh) playing the son of Billu halwai. So incredibly natural is he and so endearing that one's heart actually goes out to him. Juxtaposed against him is the funny man, our dreamer (Varun Sharma) who calls Leonardo DiCaprio starrer Inception, Inspection and even takes a dig at the Hollywood blockbuster. What more, he has the gall to romance the female don Punjaban.

In a film like this, romance takes a backseat but whatever is there of it once again is sans artifice. Why the kite on which our cocksure hero Honey (Pulkit Samrat) writes a note to his love interest has friendship written wrongly. English words mis-spelt is so much a part of our socioeconomic landscape and is often a cause for mirth. Indeed, there is humour in words, in one-liners even in the tattoo inscribed on ‘devilish’ Punjaban's nape. That it reads Cindrella is as amusing as many of her antics and those of others. Not to say it's a perfect joyride. Or a side splitting laugh riot.

Post-interval one knows which way the cookie will crumble. Good thing is the sunny side of that cookie is high on entertainment and fun. Despite the glitches (some even might see it as an attempt to 'glorify' gambling) and holes in the script, in all likelihood you will leave the auditorium with a feel good smile. Certainly makes it to the watchable list.

Emotive drama
Johnson Thomas

Suhail Tatari's second coming after a forced hiatus of four years, is a medical thriller written by Vikram Bhatt, based on several true incidents of negligence from the medical profession. The film, Ankur Arora Murder Case is a tense, emotive drama that shifts from hospital to court-room with great panache.

This is a well-intentioned film that pins its hopes on sentiment arising from traumatic experiences with the medical profession. It's an expose of sorts, of the deep rooted evils associated with the manner in which the once vaunted medical community functions today. Unfortunately the screenplay is a little too caught-up in semantics to make the drama sharper or vital. And there's also an unnecessary angle of the two opposing lawyers cohabiting on the sly and trying their own shenanigans to keep the incoming monies flowing in.

There is of course no doubting the sincerity of this enterprise and Suhail Tatari crafts a taut enough thriller. The central conflict in this script that is partly a conscience-pricking morality tale, and partly a racy thriller is between the megalomaniacal medicine-man and the idealistic intern. The characters though true to type don't evolve into something stronger though. Nandita (Tisca Chopra) rushes her son to Shekhawat General Hospital when he complains of acute stomach pain. Fresh intern Romesh(Arjun Mathur) qualifies it as an appendicitis while the doctor with the God Complex, Dr Asthana (Kay Kay Menon) decides to operate. An hour before the operation Ankur consumes a few biscuits, duly notified by nurse Rosina but the doctor refuses to postpone, claiming that the Riel's tube could take care of the problem. But when the operation gets underway , the doctor is distracted by a call on his cell-phone and the Riel's tube exercise is well forgotten. The operation is successful but the patient suddenly suffers from aspirated pneumonia coupled with lung collapse and has to be put on the ventilator. A few days later he succumbs. Dr Asthana does a strong cover-up but the young intern Romesh whose conscience is much stronger than his need to survive in the medical profession decides to uncover the truth. Unfortunately, it's not easy to prove the same in the court as the two lawyers(Manish Chowdhury and Paoli Dam) who should be professional and above board in their conduct are having a secret liaison with each other and plan to milk the case for all it's worth.

There are some strong and emotive moments in the telling but the dry nature of the writing and a penchant for repetition especially in dialogues makes the experience a little less involving. Tisca as the grieving mother who wants to score a point for all similarly traumatised victims does a fine job. Her performance is note perfect even though her character is not clearly defined.

Arjun Mathur plays Romesh with a great deal of earnestness but there is stiffness in his body language, which is a little off-putting. Vishaka Singh, Paoli Dam, Manish Chowdhury, Harsh Chaya play their characters with sharp felicity even though hampered by ill-defined roles. Kay Kay Menon stresses on his God Complex a little too much for his performance to be considered perfect. The female characters here are a little more modern and free-thinking than we have been used to in Bollywood setup. But despite these drawbacks Ankur Arora Murder Case is worth a dekho!

More of a trial
Johnson Thomas

Superman flies back onto the big screen in this Warner Bros. Legendary Pictures production directed by Zack Snyder (Watchmen), produced by Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight), and featuring a screenplay by David Goyer (Blade, The Dark Knight).

The much-anticipated superman origin story re- jig is a disappointment. The tone is humourless and the rejig aesthetics are questionable. This is an origin story apparently reworked to suite modern tastes, but the audience is not likely to take kindly to a depiction that is unlike anything that has come before.

The age-old superman staples are neglected here. We never hear of kryptonite, the Fortress of Solitude is a locale that never sees light and Clark Kent never goes anywhere close to the Daily Planet in which he contributed, as shown in the films that came before this. In fact Bryan Singer's 2006 Superman Returns, which was generally panned by all concerned , now appears to be a far better cinematic experience than this one.

Krypton looks like a cross between an ice castle in the sky and a grayer version of Avatar's Pandora — where scientist Jor-El (Russell Crowe) steals an opportune moment to save the planet's first naturally birthed new born, his own son Kal-El in the midst of a military coup staged by the rogue Gen Zod (Michael Shannon). Following which Krypton goes up in flames and then we are brought down to earth some 33 years later with the adult Clark (Henry Cavill) working as a grunt on a commercial fishing trawler, still secreting his superego from the world. The occasional largescale heroics are there of course but without much accompanied publicity.

This movie is darker than any superman flick that came before it but it just doesn't look convincing. The scaling is completely off and the perspective completely wonky. It feels like it is stitched together by patches of boring exposition and the back and forth structure doesn't allow for complete involvement. The action shots are spectacular but it's just not enough. The CGI though lacks clarity and the dimensions are all wrong. Zack Snyder's gloomy narration and Henry Cavill's dour performance make it that much more difficult to get involved.

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