The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Clean up sports federations
Politicians, businessmen must exit sports

THE Supreme Court has made very strong remarks about the manner India's sports federations are run by politicians and businessmen. A two-member bench has observed: "Private individuals are controlling the games in India. Can the game be held hostage by private interest? This is why hockey has come down and the team is struggling to qualify for the Olympics where we used to win gold medals. These officers run the federations at the cost of the game." These remarks contain the essence of what sports-lovers and sportspersons feel -- India's sports administrators are involved in sport only due to self-interest, not due to their interest in sports. But who can evict politicians and businessmen, a most potent combination, from the offices of sports associations?

The presence of businessmen and politicians -- and bureaucrats, too -- in sports associations demonstrates the worst aspect of the principle of democracy. Ostensibly, politicians represent people and their will. They are elected to sports associations through a democratic process. They resist attempts to clean up sports. When the then Sports Minister Ajay Maken presented a draft Bill in an attempt to make sport transparent and the administrators accountable in 2011, it was not allowed by the Cabinet. Five ministers then -- Sharad Pawar, Praful Patel, C.P. Joshi, Farooq Abdullah and Vilasrao Deshmukh -- headed sports associations. And we've seen the shame a businessman, N Srinivasan, has brought to cricket administration. All political parties have men in the cricket board -- to name a few, Narendra Modi, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Anurag Thakur, Arun Jaitley and Rajeev Shukla are involved with cricket administration. Elected politicians are the law-makers -- can the courts bar law-makers from becoming sports administrators? If the courts attempt that, the law-makers can simply change the rules. Change must come from within. Political parties must bar their members from heading or even joining sports federations.

Thought for the Day

The first mistake of art is to assume that it's serious. — Lester Bangs

On this day...100 years ago

Lahore, Thursday, December 11, 1913

The Punjab courts act

The Bill that is to be introduced, discussed and passed at the next meeting of Punjab Legislative Council is a non-contentious measure. Its main object as explained in the statement of “objects and reasons” is to effect the changes rendered necessary by the proposal to introduce District and Sessions Judges in lieu of Divisional and Sessions Judges and District Judges, but this opportunity has been taken to re-number and re-arrange the sections of the present Act and to introduce a few minor amendments. Ordinarily there will be a District Judge for each district but the local Government may, where necessary, appoint the same person to be District Judge for “two or more districts.”

Indian demagogues and politicians

We thought that the time was past when critics of India and Indians were suspicious of constitutional reforms in India and of the policy of taking the people into co-operation with Government. But the Morning Post of London writing on the 18th November warns the young India Mahomedan Party against their pursuit of democratic doctrines of Government. It blames the British Government for the recent reforms carried out in India and says: “We shall find Constitutionalism in India not only a failure, not only a danger to the stability of the British Government, but a great curse and evil, a source of disappointment, hatred, and discord to the Indian people themselves. Incidentally if we persevere in such courses we shall find that the best people in India, the people whose support is vital to our rule, will be driven from us, and the people that appear in their stead, the demagogues and politicians will be of no service to us, but rather our enemies and supplanters.”

ARTICLE

Shed the arrogance of power
The Congress dynasty does not sell any longer
Kuldip Nayar

The best thing that has happened in the elections is the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party, which evokes a sense of idealism

Without any doubt, the just-concluded assembly elections have reflected an anti-Congress mood. The people of four states, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, have expressed annoyance at the polls for their legislatures. The saving grace for the Congress is Chhattisgarh where the party is close second because it sacrificed its 32 functionaries while confronting the violence of the Maoists.

Why the party has got the drubbing is due to its 10-years of mis-governance at the Centre that manifested itself in the shape of corruption, price rise and the general sense of insecurity. Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi could not pull the chestnuts from the fire because Sonia Gandhi is distant from the people and Rahul does not click. Good that the party is going to introspect. To begin with, it can shed the arrogance of power. My feeling is that the dynasty does not sell any longer. Rahul is too prosaic to make any impact as his campaigns in the different states have shown this. His sister, Priyanka, may do better.

Sonia Gandhi has said that the party will name the prime ministerial candidate soon because Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi had the focus since he had been put up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the office of Prime Minister. She will find it difficult to choose the candidate because she has pushed Pranab Mukherjee, upstairs by making him the President. P. Chidambaram is the obvious choice but he would not be as obedient as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been.

The best thing that has happened in the elections is the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party, which evokes a sense of idealism and strengthens the belief that religion, caste or language does not influence an ordinary person. I wish the Aam Aadmi Party had an ideology to pursue. The future has to be chalked out, not only against corruption but also against consumerism which is taking over the nation. It is time to revive the ethos of our freedom struggle: democracy, pluralism and egalitarianism.

The immediate task should be the electoral reforms. The role of money has become important. It has been always there, but has beaten this time all the previous records. There were 6,454 candidates in fray in the five states. Madhya Pradesh had the highest number of candidates-2,586 for 321 seats, followed by Rajasthan with 2,087 for the 200 seats. There was a drop in Chhattisgarh-843 contestants for 91 seats, 142 for 40 seats in Mizoram and a whopping figure of 796 for Delhi's 70 seats. The expenditure runs into thousands of crores of rupees.

The various studies show that the cost for a Lok Sabha seat is around Rs. 10 crore. Seven to eight assembly constituencies constitute a Lok Sabha seat and the expense works out to Rs. 1.25 crore per assembly constituency. But it is said that the minimum expenditure on an assembly seat is at least Rs. 2 crore. Adding these figures, the total expenditure by the candidates comes to Rs. 13,908 crore. The Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) explains: "We do not want to put all the eggs in one basket."

The campaign of Modi, the BJP's prime ministerial candidate, is reportedly financed by the corporate sector. The party cadres are said to be happy for getting the money. The meeting of captains of industry at Ahmedabad last year to support the candidature of Modi for prime ministership emphasises their preference for him because his speeches indicate how they would have a free hand if he came to power.

They should have reconsidered their stand after the surveillance by the government's security forces, including the anti-terrorist force, of a woman he had taken 'fancy' to in 2004. It was not protection but a close check on whom she met or where she went. The state's inquiry committee is a farce. There should be a judicial probe. The surveillance is linked with Modi or, probably elections, in Gujarat. The overall picture may not be affected very much. Yet what it suggests is that electoral reforms are essential for free and independent polls.

Two trends have emerged, one positive and the other negative, from these elections. The positive aspect is that more voters have come to the polling booths than ever before, nearly 75 per cent exercising their franchise. If spelled out, it means that people have expressed their ever-increasing faith in the ballot box, an essential ingredient of democratic governance.

The negative side is the mudslinging. I have watched campaigns of all elections since Independence. There were fierce contests, particularly from the late sixties. Yet none, neither an individual nor a political party, ever hit below the belt.

At best, a remark like the one by Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, a socialist leader, was that Mrs Indira Gandhi, his strong opponent, was a "goongi gudiya" (a silent doll). There was no malice. Indulging in personal abusive remark was not considered ethical. Since then the thin line between what is moral and immoral has got erased. And it has become free for all.

The current state elections are considered a semi-final contest. I shudder to imagine how low would the level of the final, the Lok Sabha elections in May 2014, go to. Political parties have to agree upon a code so that the polls are not reduced to street brawls and the candidates do not behave like urchins.

I think that the Election Commission has been too complacent and too accommodative. I have seen reports of giving warnings and asking for explanations from erring candidates. But no action has been forthcoming so far. I get the feeling that the two have come to develop a cozy relationship, the anti-thesis of independent elections. I do not doubt the veracity of elections. Yet the means are not less important than the end.

My greatest concern is over the attempt to polarise society. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi may not have played the Hindu card directly. But all his speeches underline the notion of Hindu nationalism, an anti-thesis of pluralism which is the ethos of our country.

That the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) has forced his candidature on the moderate Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is understandable. But why people like Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, who are considered left of the BJP ideology, are sharing the rostrum with Modi? L.K. Advani, who has mellowed over the years, has made it clear through his attitude that he is distant from Modi and the communal politics he represents.

MIDDLE

Back to my children’s school
Ashok Kumar Yadav

Whenever educational institutes call me to their annual functions, I rarely decline because of my insatiable craving to enthuse youngsters, but if the invite comes from my own or my children's alma mater, it drives me nostalgic. One morning last year when the Headmaster of The Lawrence School, Sanawar, asked me to preside over the annual sports meet, the thought of revisiting the alma mater of my children spilled my emotions.

After negotiating the whistling pines as we reached, the tears started rolling while we were being ushered in by a contingent of smartly dressed scouts. What, in fact, had made me trendy among the budding Sanawarians was not just my being a member of the Lawrence School Society that controlled the school or someone belonging to the elite service, but rather the factum of my being the father of my son and daughter who studied there.

When the Headmaster in his address recapitulated my son's gesture splashed by him in the Kirlosker All-India Business Quiz Contest a year before, it refilled my eyes with some more tears. With Wordsworthian 'inward eye', I could distinctly 'hear' the echo of roaring applause in the Tilly's hills cradling the campus when my son had surrendered well-earned 10 points despite his having replied a question correctly when the rival Vivek High team raised a hullabaloo, albeit unfounded.

Not just the participating teams but even the chief guest, Valson Thampu, Principal, St. Stephen's College, had also then joined the chorale to pat my adolescent son who refused to wear a stained victory on his sleeve despite the quiz master's ruling in his favour. In an atypical exhibit of fairness as epitomised by Francis Bacon in his essay "Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature", my son floored everyone by displaying his sportsmanship. Eventually, there was a nail-biting tie which the host team, nevertheless, sailed through to lift the laurels.

It instantly reminded me of similar display of sportsmanship by Indian cricketing deity Sachin Tendulkar, who usually left the crease once he felt he was out without waiting for the umpire's signal. That my son idolises Sachin is no secret. However, my son is just half his age, but the way he championed the Gandhian principle of purity of means made the school and its schooling proud.

Basking in the glory of our children, I and my wife meandered to their classrooms, dormitories and interacted with their juniors on various subjects. My wife sensitised the girls, in particular, about their safe-keeping from the 'polar bears' disguised in human form. We then went past the Honours' Board where my son's name was inscribed, being the topper of the batch.

While returning, my wife elbowed me if I would like to study here if reborn, I replied in the negative. She was surprised but I had my own reasons. It was true that the Sanawar school was iconic in the arena of all-round education and the only public school in the world having catapulted the ever-youngest team of students to scale Mt. Everest, I still felt it had no pond of rainwater where I could float 'kaghaz ki kishti' at will as I used to do in my own alma mater at Bawal, my home town.

OPED — WORLD

Iran breakthrough — not so fast
The recent landmark nuclear accord with Iran has triggered unprecedented commentary and assessments. It has evoked a cautious vision of a thaw between Iran and the US. Though the term 'Middle East' does not figure in the document, it has the potential of bringing about a historic transformation in the region.
Sheel Kant Sharma

The Arak heavy water facility. Atomic experts were at the plant recently to inspect it for the first time in over two years. AFP photos

THE accord reached last weekend between Iran and its western interlocutors about Iranian nuclear programme is of enormous significance even as a first step. The outcome of long and intense negotiations until the wee hours of November 24, which Iranian foreign minister Zarif's tweet likened to 'white smoke' that signals new Pope's election in the Vatican, comprises just four terse pages of minutiae entitled, "Joint Plan of Action". It is focused entirely on Iran's nuclear programme and related sanctions - and is nowhere near closure on either. Yet it is widely and unquestionably seen as a breakthrough.

It sets as goal of negotiations a comprehensive agreement ensuring exclusively peaceful nuclear programme in Iran and lifting of all UN Security Council and other US and EU sanctions on Iran. That goal will be reached by a reciprocal, step-by-step process, fully transparent to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections, involving stopping, curtailing, and partial dismantling of Iran's existing and planned uranium enrichment and plutonium production capacity, facilities and activities as also conversion and dilution of existing stocks of enriched uranium with effective safeguards against its military use potential. Iran will be enabled to enjoy right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) as well as agreed closure of UN Security Council's file on its nuclear programme.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made friendly gestures to neighbours and is the key player in the nuclear deal.

The interim first steps will be taken within six months and essentially involve Iran ceasing enrichment of uranium above 5 per cent; converting half of 20 per cent enriched gaseous uranium to metal oxide and diluting remainder to less than 5 per cent thereby delaying return to further enrichment; capping 5 per cent enriched gaseous stocks by conversion of new additions to metallic form, halting of further advances at Natanz and Fordow enrichment plants as well as the Arak reactor project, and accepting embargo on new locations for enrichment.

All these will be under enhanced monitoring by the IAEA, including daily access for inspections of enrichment activities, and information about Arak project and uranium mines and mills. These measures should ensure that Iran would not get closer to the bomb as negotiations progress.

New experience

As quid pro quo Iran will receive proportionate, limited sanctions relief from the US and EU; marking marginal concessions with regard to oil sales to Iran's customers, releasing sales revenue held abroad, suspending sanctions on Iran's petrochemical exports, auto industry, oil related insurance and transportation costs, gold and precious metals, and licensing spares for flight safety of civil aviation. Up to 7 billion dollars will be released to Iranian economy from the sanctions' hold over the initial six months. No new sanctions will be imposed by the US, EU or the UN Security Council.

This accord has triggered unprecedented commentary, analyses and assessments. Its text evoked visions of an abiding thaw between Iran and the US. Though the term Middle East does not figure in the document, it is vested with the potential of bringing the region on the verge of a historic transformation and of reordering alliances. Iran's Gulf neighbours, not mentioned in the text, are concerned about its praxis even as they voice nervous welcome and applause. The document contains the overriding proviso: "Nothing is agreed till everything is agreed". Thus, the reciprocal measures agreed by both sides are still 'voluntary' first steps. Nonetheless, scaremongering among the US right wing and Israel about Iran's stringing out on its part and President Barack Obama's premature release of tighter sanctions, remains unabated.

The success of sustained and quiet diplomacy, which has been in the works between the US Administration and Iran for most of the current year, has made both cynics and optimists go overboard. Undoubtedly, it has evoked a sigh of relief from the dark portents of military action which loomed large last winter. However, caution and understatements with which the authors of this accord have related their achievement back home is in strong contrast with the hyperbole about the unfolding of a historic denouement.

The caution may have much to do with the extreme cynicism about Iran in the US Congress, and the wounded psyche of 'the Iranian nation', for whom the accord in President Rouhani's pithy comment, 'marks a starting point for a new experience'.

Ground for hope

Stakes for both sides in making progress on the first steps are very high. The badly chequered record of the on-off diplomatic efforts over the past decade-plus may hound the process. Both the sides face the stark choice of honouring the process set by the accord on the one hand and the alternatives on the other of military action and mounting conflict, tension and unceasing attrition. The body language at Geneva and the emerging feel-good factor give ground for hope. As for the hyperbole, visionary zeal of some commentators, including many in India, needs moderation lest extraneous stuff weighs on
the process.

Take for instance the talk about reordering in the Middle East — it is too early to imagine that the modus vivendi with Iran on the nuclear question will be at the cost of decades of close US and western ties with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. It is worthwhile recalling that President Obama had certified to the Congress in March 2012, apropos implementation of tighter sanctions on Iran's oil trade, that the global oil market was strong enough to prevent spikes due to loss of Iranian oil. This assumes Saudi co-operation.

The step-by-step process will still depend on the continuation of existing sanctions on Iran's oil export until 'all is agreed'. This is inconceivable without undiminished cooperation of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Those dreaming of Iran's instant mainstreaming in global oil trade should be reminded of the vexed political legacy of past several decades and of the years of stagnation of Iranian oil economy.

So, the longstanding relationships of the US and its European allies with the Gulf States and Saudi Arabia are not likely to change. On the contrary, the calming of Iran's relations with the US and EU may have beneficial impact on the neighbourhood as a whole. The more Iran engages globally, the more responsive to good neighbourly relations it is likely to be. Rouhani has already made friendly gestures to neighbours, and nuanced sound bytes for Israel, shunning his predecessor's bluster and offensive language. Early signs of warming with Turkey too need not be considered out of bound.

Iran may eventually retrieve something more than the 2003 situation when there were fewer sanctions and it had offered a freeze at just 164 centrifuges as part of a grand bargain. This was spurned at a great cost. The supreme leader's endorsement of present breakthrough may lie in the tradeoff between entering mainstream of global economy and the staggering cost of isolationism as well as opprobrium of, at best, a risky breakout capability.

What Iran may finally concede was already on Rouhani's brief in 2003, including the acceptance of the Additional Protocol to the IAEA. The text of the accord duly recognises the Majlis's position within Iran's polity. It was Majlis which had suspended the Additional Protocol. The upturn has come about due to the farsighted, dignified and accommodative stance of Iran's interlocutors instead of the unremitting punitive approach of 2003-05. This seems to have made all the difference as reflected in Zarif's happy welcome back home. The praxis of the accord when seen in this light should augur well for all.

The writer is a former Ambassador of India to Austria & Permanent Representative to UN Office in Vienna & IAEA.

Going nuclear

2002: Russian technicians begin construction of Iran's first nuclear reactor.

2005: IAEA finds Iran in violation of the NPT.

2006: UN Security Council deadline to halt work on nuclear fuel passes.

2007: US imposes sanctions against Iran.

2009: IAEA passes resolution condemning Iran for developing a second uranium enrichment site.

2012: IAEA inspectors denied access to Parchin site; EU imposes further curbs.

2013: Newly elected President Hassan Rouhani says Iran will not build nuclear weapons; agrees to curb uranium enrichment and give UN inspectors better access to sites.