Frontline 2016-07-22
Frontline 2016-07-22
Frontline 2016-07-22
IN
‘Sankalpamum
Sambavamum’ 95
More than inspiring 96
TR I BUTE
Tamil Nadu: Money Rajinder Puri’s world 99
power in elections 40
Interviews: LE G I S LA TI ON
Anbumani Ramadoss, Geospatial Bill:
PMK leader 48 Mapping under scanner 103
Thol. Thirumavalavan, Controlling the freely
VCK leader 50 available data 106
Money mindset 52
RELA T ED S T O RI ES C ON TR OVE R S Y
INSTI T UT I O N S Targeting Teesta Setelvad 124
Raghuram Rajan, Interview: Paul Mason, Labour Party member 8
victim of a tirade 53 Revolt against hegemony of finance 11 CRIME
What next for E.U.? 15 Daylight murders
INDIA & U. S . in Chennai 126
Impact on “emerging markets” 19
The secret accord 55 It is event management
Diplomatic fiasco Wake-up call for India? 23
now 128
over NSG 60 Immigrant factor 25
Grim future 29
WOR L D A F F A I R S THI S FOR TN I G HT 112
Short-term pain 31
Failed gamble 33 S CI E N CE N OTE BOOK 122
Datacard: Bumpy road ahead 120
BOOKS 83
LE TTE R S 130
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BREXIT SHOCK
The Leave verdict in the United Kingdom has spotlighted the despair and
anger of its working class that have their origins in the multiple burdens
successive governments imposed on it. But the deeper meaning of the vote
that was informed by a campaign of fearmongering and disinformation is
unclear. B Y PARVATHI MENON I N L O N D O N
P RI M E M I N I S TE R
David Cameron speaks
to the media on June 28
during an E.U. summit in
Brussels.
ANDREW TESTA/NYT
JOHN THYS/AFP
NEIL HALL/REUTERS
cities where pubs and local misleading and often fudged da-
shops were boarded up and real ta. A Commons Treasury Select
estate sharks from the south Committee came down heavily
were moving in for the kill, buy- on “the arms race of ever more
ing up properties put up for sale, lurid claims and
“building property portfolios in counterclaims”.
the poverty, as if this was one J EREM Y C O RB Y N , Labour Party leader, Most dangerous and vitiat-
giant fire sale”. speaks on immigration and moving on after the ing of all, however, was the anti-
“Leave” posters were every- referendum, in central London on June 25. immigrant and racist UKIP
where, he noted, but there was campaign. The party warned of
not a single one for “Remain”. an immigrant deluge into Bri-
He observed the ubiquitous be- tain if it stayed in the E.U. It
tting shops, next door to each of said, once Turkey joined the
which is a pawnbroker or payday E.U., Britain would be overrun
lender. The answers he received by Turkish “criminals”; increas-
to his ‘in’ or ‘out’ questions—“we ing immigration would put pres-
have been left behind”, “politic- sure on schools, the National
ians don’t care”, “immigration is Health Service (NHS) and hous-
ruining the country”—made the ing; jobs of British workers
same point of poverty and would be “stolen” by immigrants
neglect. on low wages; the refugee flow
into Europe would flood the
THE CAMPAIGN U.K.; and so on. For an electo-
The most significant aspect of rate deeply disgruntled with
ERIC VIDAL/REUTERS
re-elected, it would be near impossible for him to func- none of the rights or financial support accruing to an E.U.
tion given that two-thirds of the parliamentary party member. There is little on the table domestically to fill the
have vowed not to work with him. vacuum.
The referendum has exposed the unpreparedness of There are other imponderables. The SNP in Scotland,
the Leave campaign to handle the post-Brexit negotia- which voted to Remain, has raised the possibility of a
tions with the E.U. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty allows second independence referendum, arguing that the re-
an E.U. member to opt out voluntarily. The countdown to sult has given it the mandate to negotiate its own settle-
a full exit begins after Article 50 is triggered and will take ment with the E.U. The First Minister of Scotland Nicola
two years. The present government has held back from Sturgeon, a consummate politician, lost no time in going
doing this partly because of the leadership vacuum cre- to Brussels and meeting E.U. leaders to negotiate what
ated by Cameron’s resignation planned for September she calls the “protection of Scotland’s interests”. If she
and partly because it has no plan. Britain is desperate for does not make headway in pushing her case for the
access to the European free market, but without the accommodation of Scotland in some form at the E.U.
underlying condition of free border movement, a de- table, she will then press her case for a fresh independ-
mand that has received a resounding no from other E.U. ence referendum, which she is optimistic she will win.
member states. In the stern words of European Council Rebottling the genie is not an option for Britain. Of
Chairman Donald Tusk: “It’s not single market a la course, Brexit can be turned into an opportunity given
carte.” the right vision in addressing the causes that lie behind
what the Labour MP Diane Abbott called “the roar of
LACK OF CREDIBLE PLAN rage against Westminster”. In the meanwhile, the ex-
The lack of a credible plan on Britain’s negotiating stance treme end of the Leave spectrum has unleashed political
with the E.U. even in the official Leave camp left observ- forces that can undermine any forward progress. Britain
ers stunned. Former First Minister of Scotland and lead- with its history of migration and multiculturalism has
er of the Scottish National Party (SNP) Alex Salmond seen racist outbreaks in the past. Junctures of transition
was quick to expose this flaw. In the Scottish Referendum and social discontent of the kind the country is experi-
of 2014, the SNP prepared a detailed vision of an inde- encing now are times when backward-looking social
pendent Scotland with supporting plans in a 600-page forces see opportunities to revitalise themselves. Since
white paper. The party had even prepared a contingency the referendum there have been a spate of hate crimes
plan on the immediate steps they would take on the day against minority groups by Far-Right activists. Racist
of the referendum results, if the country voted for inde- attitudes seeping into communities are an even more
pendence. There is no such preparation in evidence here. potent danger that can set back even the most progres-
The divorce with the E.U., therefore, promises to be a sive of national agendas. This is surely the biggest chal-
protracted affair, during which time the U.K. will enjoy lenge that a post-Brexit Britain faces. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 10
COVER STORY
A stone at a
hornets’ nest
The revolt of the British working class against the hegemony of finance
will undermine the confidence of capitalists and also encourage other
countries to follow the British example. B Y PRABHAT PATNAIK
THE VOTE FOR “BREXIT” REPRESENTS globalised finance, in the form of neoliberal policies that
essentially an un-self-conscious revolt by the British peo- brought crisis and unemployment, increasing inequality
ple against the hegemony of finance capital. Indeed, since and absolute poverty, and cuts in the Welfare State,
63 per cent of Labour voters reportedly voted for “Brexit”, especially in the National Health Service, proved too
and the Labour Party, despite years of Blairism, contin- much for them to swallow.
ues to derive its voting strength substantially from the
working class, it would be no exaggeration to call the A SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY
“Brexit” vote a working class revolt against the hegemony The tragedy, however, is that the Left and the Centre-Left
of globalised finance capital. It occurred not just as a (in particular the Labour Party), with the exception of a
protest against the fallout of this hegemony in the form of small group (the “Lexit”), completely ignored the senti-
crisis and unemployment, and not just as a counter to ment of the working class which they claim to represent
finance capital’s project of overcoming all (so-called) and opposed “Brexit”, leaving the field open for racist and
“isolationism”, but also in the face of a massive campaign ultra-right elements like the U.K. Independent Party
that finance had unleashed against “Brexit”. And it defied (UKIP) of Nigel Farage, and a group of Tories including
not just German finance capital but British finance cap- the former Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, to emerge
ital as well, based in the City of London. as the champions of people’s anger. Not surprisingly, a
The City had worked assiduously for a “remain” ver- racist and anti-immigrant hue got imparted to the “Brex-
dict, not just because of its general predilection for “glob- it” campaign, and this very fact was then used ironically
alism”, but also specifically because of its apprehension to justify a “remain” vote; but the racist and anti-im-
that Britain’s opting out of the European Union would migrant hue was itself a result of the abandoning of the
allow Frankfurt to move ahead of London as the financial working people by those who should have been leading
centre of Europe. It had always been staunchly pro- them, namely the Left and the Centre-Left. The position
Europe: it had been instrumental in pushing Britain into of the Left and the Centre-Left thus became a self-fulfill-
Europe, and also in getting rid of Margaret Thatcher as ing prophecy: they did not support “Brexit” because it
Prime Minister when she started expressing anti-Europe invoked anti-immigrant feelings; but it invoked such
sentiments. Indeed, a bewildered Margaret Thatcher, feelings precisely because they did not support it.
when she was forced to resign, had reportedly remarked: And in the process they ignored the real grievances,
“I have never lost a general election; I have never lost a whose roots they knew, of the working people. They could
vote of confidence in the House of Commons; I have have explained to those who were influenced by the
never lost an election for the Tory Party leadership; and anti-immigration rhetoric that the problem lay not so
yet I am no longer Prime Minister!” She had obviously much in immigration as in the hegemony of globalised
not reckoned with the City’s immense manipulative pow- finance capital, which has perpetuated and intensified
ers. But even these came to naught in the E.U. referen- the crisis because of its insistence upon “austerity”, that
dum, partly because it underestimated the opposition to is, upon drastic cuts in public spending, adversely affect-
E.U., but above all because the British working people ing employment and incomes. Bringing this fact home to
remained steadfast in their opposition despite intimi- the working people would have made their un-self-con-
dation and blackmail. The outcome of the hegemony of scious revolt against the hegemony of finance into a
GERALD PENNY/AP
from which there is no visible exit. All crises create condi-
tions for the growth of fascism, and the present one is no
exception. Hence, unless the Left presents an alternative
agenda to the status quo, an agenda that in the present
M A R G A R E T T H A T C H ER was forced to step down context must mean a transcending of the hegemony of
as Prime Minister in 1990 after she started expressing globalised finance and of the era of “neoliberal capital-
anti-Europe sentiments. ism” that it has unleashed on the world, fascist elements
are likely to gain ascendancy. It is significant that when-
hegemony of finance. They would in short be perfectly ever such an alternative agenda has been presented, the
willing to compromise the essence of “Brexit” by accept- people have responded to it with enthusiasm. The obvi-
ing super-“austerity” packages at the expense of the peo- ous example is the United States, where Bernie Sanders,
ple for “stabilising” the economy, even while intensifying a self-confessed socialist, has drawn substantial mass
their racist or anti-immigration agendas. The difficulties support with his programme of confronting Wall Street,
facing the British people while coping with the fallout of support that is even larger than what Donald Trump has
the revolt against the hegemony of finance must not drawn with his right-wing rhetoric.
therefore be underestimated.
Spokesmen of finance are highlighting these very NO RETURN TO STATUS QUO ANTE
difficulties to draw the conclusion that the “Brexit” vote No matter what happens in Britain, the British vote to
was wrong. The point, however, is not that the people, leave the E.U. will have two crucial implications for the
because of the transitional difficulties associated with capitalist world. One, it will aggravate the crisis of world
revolting against the hegemony of finance, should re- capitalism, which constitutes the underlying reason for
main stuck forever in the crisis and poverty and unem- this vote in the first place. The fact that the working class
ployment which such hegemony engenders; the point is in Britain, one of the most powerful capitalist countries,
that those who uphold the interests of the people, the can revolt against the hegemony of globalised finance,
forces of the Left, must come to their aid at this juncture. will certainly undermine the “state of confidence” of cap-
italists, thwarting all prospects for the emergence of
WHAT THE LEFT SHOULD DO “exuberant expectations” in the foreseeable future; and
The Labour Party, which currently has a left-wing leader since asset-price “bubbles”, based on such expectations,
in Jeremy Corbyn, must commit itself to implementing are the main sources of booms under neoliberal capital-
the Brexit verdict (even David Cameron has done that), ism, the puncturing of such “exuberance” will aggravate
ask for immediate fresh general elections, and approach the crisis. Two, this very fact will further encourage other
the electorate with a credible new programme of ending countries to follow the example of the British, and this
“austerity”, of tying up with other Left formations in will happen even if the transitional difficulties of the
Europe like Podemos which are on the verge of power British economy prove to be quite formidable. Remain-
(despite the latest election results), of arranging to fi- ing stuck in a crisis, in short, will henceforth be unaccept-
nance the current account deficit in the near future in a able to the working people. Now that the first stone has
manner that does not entail “austerity”, and of simultane- been directed against the hornets’ nest, getting back to
ously taking steps to curtail this deficit through direct status quo ante will prove quite impossible. And since the
measures if necessary. current period of globalisation has been characterised
The current drift in the Parliamentary Labour Party, above all by the globalisation of finance, as the revolt
however, is in an exactly opposite direction: to remove against globalised finance gathers momentum, it will set
Jeremy Corbyn from leadership for not having cam- in motion a process of unravelling of the phenomenon of
paigned sufficiently vigorously against “Brexit” and to globalisation itself, at least in the form in which it has
“undo the damage” done by the referendum verdict. But existed so far. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 14
COVER STORY
EVEN BEFORE THE RESULT OF THE UNITED the concerns of greater popular resonance across other
Kingdom referendum came, the European Union was countries in the E.U.—and the idea that this could simply
facing a crisis of popular legitimacy. The result, especially be the first domino to fall—are absolutely valid. So the
in England and Wales, was certainly driven by the fear of bloc as a whole now faces an existential crisis of an
increased immigration, irresponsibly whipped up by xe- entirely different order, and its survival hinges on how its
nophobic right-wing leaders who now appear uncertain rulers choose to confront it.
themselves of what to do with the outcome. But it was as
much a cry of pain and protest from working communi- HOW THE UNION WAS FORMED
ties that have been damaged and hollowed out by three A little history is in order first. The formation of the union
decades of neoliberal economic policies. And this is why itself, from its genesis in the Treaty of Rome in 1957, was
VOTIN G PA PE R S are handed to the Deputy Speaker after a vote on the Maastricht Treaty in the U.K. House of Commons in
London. The exercise saw the House approve an amendment relating to the composition of the European Community for the
regions by a 314-292 vote.
(to its own great advantage) and has fussed about the
payments it has to make as well as the regulations for
labour and welfare that it has been forced to introduce.
Governments in the U.K. have always contained Eu-
rosceptic voices, especially in the Conservative Party. But
SU P PO R T E R S O F T H E C A M P A I GN against the Lisbon it is nonetheless a large and important economy, with a
Treaty during the count of the ballots at the Royal Dublin significant geopolitical presence, even if that is largely the
Society in Dublin on June 13, 2008. The vote was against the legacy of history.
treaty by 53.8 per cent, but Ireland was made to vote again Second, ignoring democratic expression at this point
until a more satisfactory result was obtained. of time in Europe is fraught with greater risk. There is
Disruption on cards
Britain’s exit from the E.U. could disrupt world trade and jeopardise the
process of pulling the global economy out of recession. B Y C.P. CHANDRASEKHAR
JASON ALDEN/BLOOMBERG
BR ITI S H one-pound sterling coins in an arranged photograph in Guildford, U.K., on June 13.
BRITAIN HAS VOTED TO LEAVE THE EUROPEAN “emerging markets” such as India. That could worsen the
Union (E.U.). The managers of global capitalism now depressed conditions confronting the current world
have their hands full addressing the fallout of Brexit even economy. So, preventing Brexit from precipitating an-
as their efforts to manage the aftershocks of the crisis of other crisis that could convert the Great Recession into a
2008 remain unsuccessful. It does not help that Brexit Great Depression is the task before these managers. The
immediately affects the E.U., where the legacy of the problem is, they know neither what Brexit will do nor
earlier crisis has been the worst. In fact, the churning what needs to be done, whatever adverse effect it may
within the E.U. is partly the result of the persisting crisis have. Moreover, governments across the globe are
in parts of the region. And it is there that the next crisis is weighed down by “stimulus fatigue”, or the burden of
likely to unfold first. stimulating a recovery while remaining committed to a
But as recent history has repeatedly made clear, in a neoliberal fiscal and monetary policy framework. They
globally integrated world no crisis remains confined to are ill-prepared to deal with one more potential obstacle
one region. If Britain’s departure from the E.U. worsens to that recovery.
the crisis in Europe, it will also, to different degrees, There are, of course, reasons to hope that the Brexit
affect the rest of the world, including the so-called vote, if not reversed as even many “Leave” campaigners
Wake-up call?
While the overall negative impact of Brexit on India will be short-lived,
Indian investments must deal professionally with Europe without always
looking at it through the British prism. B Y SHIV MUKHERJEE
GEOFF CADDICK/AFP
A STORY IS TOLD OF A NEW INTERNATIONAL BR I TI S H P R I M E M I N I S TE R David Cameron signing the
Monetary Fund (IMF) Director who swears to transform visitors’ book at the Jaguar Land Rover factory, owned by
the institution into something the world admires, a real Tata Motors, in Solihull in central England on June 22.
force for development, world peace and prosperity. He
begins by sacking all the advisers he inherited and em- ing on their differing vulnerability and exposure to global
barks on a head-hunting exercise for new blood that trends.
shares his vision. The job description includes an essen- The somewhat surprising convergence of views be-
tial qualification: applicants must have one hand only. As tween our government’s financial czars and the eggheads
he explains to the bemused head-hunting company, “I who usually suffer from the affliction of the apocryphal
am sick and tired of economists who answer every ques- IMF Director, and even more interestingly by our busi-
tion with ‘on the one hand, blah, blah, blah, and on the nessmen and industrialists, are based on the following:
other hand, blah, blah, blah….’ So I want one-handed The fundamentals of our economy are strong. We are
economists.” the fastest-growing economy in the world with a growth
Fortunately for us, as far as the impact of Brexit on rate of 7.6 per cent, and even if the fallout of Brexit does
India is concerned, we have been spared this two-handed its worst, we should still grow at 7.3 per cent, and still be
doublespeak. Going by the reports of all manner of ex- the fastest-growing economy in the world. The fiscal
perts, business persons and government representatives, deficit and revenue deficit are thoroughly under control,
both in India and abroad, the broad conclusion is that the as is inflation. (The minor consideration that the vast
overall negative impact will be short-lived, and marginal, majority of our population, reeling under the price of dal
though the impact may vary in different sectors depend- and tomatoes, knows nothing about these fundamentals
PTI
India is the third largest investor in the U.K., with
C .S. V E R M A , Steel Authority of India Chairman, and about 800 companies established there.
Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, The depressing fact is that saving the top 15 or 20
signing an MoU in London in May 2015. companies, the rest (or at least most of them) are trading
companies or shell companies, whose main aim is squir-
and cares even less, should not worry us…. Seriously, the relling away money from India, through under-invoicing
calm reaction of the government, the Reserve Bank of and over-invoicing, and stashing it abroad, some of it to
India (RBI) and the Securities and Exchange Board of engage in business abroad with ready access to cash,
India (SEBI), as well as the captains of industry, sends without having to bother about the Indian bureaucratic
out reassuring signals that augur well for a similar calm requirements, and the rest of it to be sent back to India as
and stability in the economy.) laundered investments. Consider that if the U.K. is the
India’s foreign exchange reserves are at a healthy third largest investor in India, the top two are Mauritius
$365 billion, which would allow our central bank to and Singapore.
inject whatever liquidity is needed to counter volatility. Investments through these routes will not stop
There may be a small outflow of investments, as investors —their motivation and causes are immune to the state of
in this situation tend to withdraw money from emerging the U.K. economy.
markets and switch to the safe haven of the world’s Additionally, the companies from India that have a
currency, the dollar, followed by the yen. But even this presence in the U.K. are British companies legally, which
should be temporary, as the dust stirred up by the initial pay taxes to Britain, not to India. They create jobs for the
shock settles down, as shown by the quick recovery of the British, not for Indians, except for a few people in the top
Indian stock market from its 1,000-point fall immediate- management. All that India gets is remittances of profits.
ly after the result. And these are not substantial, because Indian invest-
The slew of reforms just announced by the govern- ments are either trading companies or manufacturing
ment will also counteract the Brexit fallout, given that acquired through mergers and acquisitions, with no
India remains what the World Bank President Jim Yong transfer of original Indian technology giving them a
Kim on June 30 called the “one bright spot” in a gloomy return on royalties.
global economy. We withstood the financial tsunami of This whole business of the U.K. being our gateway to
2008 reasonably well, and that was a crisis immeasurably Europe is overstated. First, it might even be a silver
more dangerous than this one. The rupee will slide a bit, lining, forcing lazy Indian businesses to deal profession-
but that will arguably help our sluggish exports, make ally with Europe without always looking at it through the
imports more expensive, and help our trade balance, British prism. They should use this as an opportunity, not
especially with the United Kingdom where the sterling a threat. And the Indian government should make it very
pound will slide even more. clear that all that these companies can expect from it is
There is time to plan, to prepare, and the space to sympathy, and nothing else.
manoeuvre. Things legally remain the same at least for “Make in India” is an objective that should resonate a
the next two years, as the new British Prime Minister hundredfold more with our own companies, rather than
tries desperately to retain access to the single market, foreign ones. If this energises our government to speed
while trying to opt out of the obligations to allow free up and widen reforms that enable Indian industry to do
movement of people—something which is not going to be so, we might, sometime in the near future, look upon
conceded by the European Union (E.U.), as signals from Brexit as a welcome wake-up call. 첸
the remaining 27 membercountries seem to indicate. Shiv Mukherjee is a former High Commissioner to the
What happens to India if the moves towards copycat United Kingdom.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 24
COVER STORY
Immigrant factor
The refugee influx, triggered by wars imposed by the West on Libya and
Syria, is one of the reasons for Brexit and the call for national referendums
on E.U. membership in other European countries. B Y JOHN CHERIAN
PHILIPPE HUGUEN/AFP
A KEY ISSUE THAT PROMPTED THE BREXIT M I G R AN TS W ALK P A S T a graffiti reading “London my
vote was immigration. The right-wing United Kingdom dream” written on a tent, at the “Jungle” camp for migrants
Independence Party (UKIP), led by Nigel Farage, the and refugees in Calais, France, on June 24, a day after
leading proponent of Brexit, circulated a colourful poster Britain voted to leave the E.U.
with the title “Breaking Point” showing hordes of refu-
gees looking like Arabs and Asians jostling to get into the were not happy with the fact that many of the low-paying
U.K., just before the British people cast their votes in the and unskilled jobs were being taken by newcomers from
June 23 European Union (E.U.) referendum. After the the new E.U.-member states from eastern Europe.
results of the referendum were announced, there were Right now the racist anger may be directed at Poles,
incidents of racial abuse, mostly against people from Bulgarians, Romanians and other East Europeans but it
eastern Europe. This correspondent, who was in London is only a matter of time before non-white citizens, too,
during the Brexit campaign, could see first hand the face discrimination as the British economy faces a melt-
emotions at play on issues relating to immigration. In- down. The British media, which played a key role in the
terestingly, from available data, most British citizens of pro-Brexit campaign, focussed on “lazy” East Europeans
Asian and African origin also voted for Brexit. They, too, and Greeks, “scary” refugees and “Brussels bureaucrats”.
TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP
when they met for
bilateral talks.
COVER STORY
Grim future
The decision to leave the E.U. holds few economic advantages for Britain
and has only served to create political turmoil in the country. B Y VIJAY PRASHAD
UNITED STATES PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA get a trade agreement done,” he said. What Obama has in
travelled to London prior to the Brexit referendum to mind is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Part-
lend support to the “Remain” campaign. He warned nership (TTIP), a companion of the Transpacific Part-
Britain that a vote to leave the European Union (E.U.) nership, both of which are mega trade deals that would
would entail great economic hardship; Britain would go cement flagging U.S. power on both flanks of Eurasia.
to the “back of the queue” in trade agreements and would The TTIP, Obama’s flagship European policy, will
suffer as a consequence, he said. Talk of a United King- end up liberalising about 30 per cent of world trade. Part
dom-United States trade agreement to compensate for of the impetus for this deal is to secure agreements within
any losses from Europe was not to be given fuel. the West, which it has a hard time pushing through the
“I think it’s fair to say that maybe some point down World Trade Organisation (WTO). China’s economic
the line there might be a U.K.-U.S. trade agreement, but growth continues to rattle Western powers, with the U.S.
it’s not going to happen any time soon because our focus hoping that the TTIP and the Transpacific Partnership
is in negotiating with a big bloc, the European Union, to will put it in a favourable position vis-a-vis the Chinese
Short-term pain
Notwithstanding the painful restructuring of ties with Europe, in
the short run China is likely to benefit from the extra elbow room for
strategic manoeuvre that it is likely to acquire on the global stage
in the aftermath of Brexit. B Y ATUL ANEJA IN B E IJIN G
Failed gamble
Brexit is a perfect case study of how referendums offer binary choices
and reflect the people’s frustrations, without factoring in uncertainties
and complications. B Y SHIV MUKHERJEE
CLODAGH KILCOYNE/REUTERS
“Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold.” the surprise of virtually the whole world. Britain voted to
—Yeats. leave, 52 per cent to 48 per cent.
Perhaps Cameron should have remembered the
IT BEGAN AS DAVID CAMERON’S PLAN TO words of Robert Burns: The best-laid plans of mice and
quell factionalism within his party, where groups have men, go oft awry. And the ghost of the great Scottish poet
been at loggerheads for decades over “Project Europe”, by must be smiling as a furious Scotland, which voted 68 per
extracting some concessions from the European Union cent to “remain”, threatens to negotiate its own deal with
(E.U.) in early February such as a cap on welfare to the E.U., if necessary by leaving the United Kingdom,
immigrants and flexibility on the European operations of through another referendum for an independent
London’s financial institutions and then calling a nation- Scotland.
al referendum to vote “aye” or “nay” on staying within the This was the U.K.’s second referendum on Europe,
E.U. The outcome was supposed to be the proverbial the first in 1975 concerning the European Common Mar-
“sure thing”, silencing the critics, but the gamble failed to ket (ECM). Prime Minister Harold Wilson called for a
jobs-immigration nexus and made it the central issue, per cent of proposed laws, abstained on 3 per cent and
and the genuine economic arguments of the liberals opposed 2 per cent.)
failed to turn the tide. People think 15 per cent of the population are im-
The lesson from this affair is that the masses, even in migrants, or 10.5 million. Those for “Leave” said 20 per
highly educated and developed societies, respond to pop- cent, those who wanted to “Remain” said 10 per cent.
ulist messages. To counter populism is going to be a very (The correct figure is 3.5 million, or 5 per cent.)
long haul. The fat cats in the E.U. spend 27 million pounds on
administration. (The correct figure is six million
FACTS AND PERCEPTION pounds.)
In most political campaigns, the first casualty is the truth. All this in an educated, rich and developed society.
Brexit proved this incontrovertibly. Here are just a few The truth may make you free, but in election campaigns
examples of the lies the voters were subjected to un- worldwide, Brexit being no exception, it may not win you
relentingly: The U.K. pays 350 million pounds a week to the majority vote.
the E.U. (It pays less than half this amount and also gets a In the U.K., populism, with its single-minded focus
rebate. The many billions it gets through tariff-free trade on immigration, with the subtexts of job losses and post-
with a single market is ignored, and this is now coming ers of swarms of Poles, blacks and West Asian refugees
back to haunt the country.) entering Britain, putting intolerable pressure on the wel-
The U.K. is the highest, or among the three highest, fare state’s services and opening the door to terrorists,
contributors to the E.U. budget. (It is the fourth, after prevailed over the largely economic arguments of those
Germany, France and Italy.) for “Remain”.
Some 60 per cent of laws in the U.K. are passed by the Xenophobia, bigotry, racism and scapegoating the
E.U., by the European Commission, the super bureau- E.U. through a tissue of lies and scaremongering, with a
crats of Brussels. (The Commission cannot make laws. It sugar-coating of nostalgia for a time when the sun never
can only propose them, apart from proposals made by set on the British empire, narrowly won the day. David
member states. Laws are debated and passed by the Cameron asked for it, putting party interests first in a
European Council, where every member country has a gamble, and he got it. 첸
vote, and endorsed by the European Parliament, which
has elected members from every member state. Research Shiv Mukherjee is a former High Commissioner
shows that over a period of time, the U.K. supported 95 to the United Kingdom.
Divided house
Judges in Telangana resort to the unprecedented act of public
protest as they feel they have been short-changed by the
process of allocation of judicial officers to the two States after
the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh. B Y K U N A L S H A N K A R
ON June 13, dramatic scenes vocates Joint Action Committee aspersions on the integrity of the
were witnessed outside the Chief (TAJAC), openly questioned the Acting Chief Justice, Dilip Babasa-
Justice’s chambers within the pre- manner in which the High Court heb Bhosale.
cincts of the High Court in Hydera- sought to distribute lower judicial The cause for this heartburning
bad. Lawyers, coming together service officers between Telangana is a May 3 “provisional allocation” list
under the aegis of the Telangana Ad- and Andhra Pradesh. They even cast of lower judicial officers—junior and
senior judges and district judges
—between the two newly formed
States. Telangana judicial officers
say the High Court has violated its
own guidelines in the division proc-
ess in order to accommodate the
preferences of Andhra Pradesh offi-
cers, who have overwhelmingly opt-
ed to be placed in Telangana in view
of better chances for promotion.
It all began with a circular issued
by the High Court on January 12
seeking judicial officers to send in
NAGARA GOPAL
their choice of where they would like
to be placed. The circular, apart from
giving a deadline, urged confiden-
tiality.
On February 26, however, the
J U S T I C E D I LI P B AB AS AHE B B HOS A LE , Acting Chief Justice of the
Registrar General issued another cir-
Hyderabad High Court.
cular under the title “Guidelines for
exercising option by the judicial offi-
cers for bifurcation of the Subordi- criteria for placements. It stated that nisation Act stipulates a common
nate Judiciary”. This circular spelt officers who chose to work in their High Court for the two States until
out a “procedure for allocation”, giv- native State as declared while enter- the constitution of a new High Court
ing seniority and nativity as the main ing service would be accommodated for the residuary Andhra Pradesh
first. And those who were non-native State. The case, filed by a now-retired
would be accommodated “subject to Metropolitan Sessions Judge from
availability of vacancies”. A “Revised Hyderabad in May 2014, even before
Option Form” was enclosed with this the State’s reorganisation could take
circular as the “last chance” to state effect on June 2, had halted the And-
one’s preference. Excess officers hra Pradesh High Court’s decision to
from either State would be appoint- divide the lower judiciary.
ed based on vacancies “at the dis-
cretion of the Chief Justice”. PROTEST MARCH
Judicial officers under the re- Things have come to such a pass now
cently formed Telangana Judges’ As- that members of the TJA, which
sociation (TJA) saw a bias in the claims a membership of about 200,
manner in which these preferences marched to the Raj Bhavan on June
were sought and in the final list re- 26 seeking Governor E.S.L. Nara-
leased on May 3. None of the judicial simhan’s intervention in the matter.
officers Frontline spoke to wished to “We did not hold placards, nor did
be identified for fear of reprisals and we shout any slogans. It was a silent
as judges are expected to maintain a march to the Governor, as he is the
distance from the media. final appointing authority for the
United Andhra Pradesh had subordinate judiciary,” a member of
about 900 judicial officers and the the TJA said. The protest, although
Supreme Court, in an order dated only symbolic, sent shock waves
December 10, 2015, wanted them di- throughout the judicial system. The
vided in the 60:40 ratio between next day, Chief Justice Bhosale sus-
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. pended the president and the secre-
This was preceded by a protracted tary of the association. Another nine
legal battle in the Supreme Court judges were suspended the next day.
over the efficacy of dividing the lower The Constitution vests adminis-
judiciary while the High Court re- trative authority almost solely with
mained common for the two States. the High Court for the State under its
The 2014 Andhra Pradesh Reorga- jurisdiction but allows consultative
roles for the government and the
K.V.S. GIRI
‘ARBITRARY’ ALLOCATION
Telangana lawyers and judicial offi-
cers cite several reasons for the “ar-
bitrariness” in the allocation process.
G. RAMAKRISHNA
Gandra Mohan Rao, president of the
Telangana High Court Advocates’
Association which spearheads the
lawyers’ protests, claimed that a dif-
ference of opinion “between judges
P R OT E S T I N G A D V O C A T ES who were detained at the Police Training Centre of the five-member advisory commit-
in Hyderabad on June 29. tee headed by the Chief Justice, with
two members each from Andhra and
indeed a rare, if not an unpreceden- ciary in Telangana. A senior officer Telangana”, constituted to deal with
ted, act of rebellion by the judicial posted in Hyderabad said: “That is the division was one of the reasons.
officers. not because of reservation, but be- He said a vertical split between the
cause of merit. There is an exam for four judges in choosing nativity over
DISPROPORTIONATE entry into the judicial service. Any- an officer’s preference of placement
REPRESENTATION body from any State can apply. So, and the Chief Justice’s reluctance to
A petition submitted by the TJA to when you can have someone from cast his vote in the matter led to the
the Chief Justice claimed: “As Karnataka or Tamil Nadu working question being referred to the Full
against the Telangana State District here, then why not Andhra?” Court, with all the 25 judges taking
Judge cadre strength of 94, 95 offi- Indeed, the examination is open part in the process. According to Mo-
cers have been allocated. And out of to everyone, but is administered by han Rao, this led to the decision to
the 95 officers allocated to Telanga- the High Court in the areas under its consider an officer’s preference of
na, 46 are natives of Andhra Pra- jurisdiction as and when vacancies placement as the criterion as Andhra
desh. As against 140 District Judge arise. The examinations are usually judges were in an overwhelming
cadre posts in Andhra Pradesh, only conducted under service rules de- majority.
110 officers have been allocated, signed by each State, in this case the Telangana officers also point to
leaving 30 vacancies. From this it is Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Ser- the practice of choosing one-third of
clear that even though there are 30 vice Rules of 2007. Entry is only the judges from the judicial services
vacancies of District Judge posts in through two positions: Junior Civil and two-thirds from the Bar for ap-
Andhra Pradesh, 46 officers from Judge and District Judge. Law grad- pointment as High Court judges as
Andhra Pradesh are allocated to Te- uates straight out of college are eligi- another factor for so many judges
langana.” It is claimed that this pat- ble to take the Junior Civil Judge from the Andhra cadre opting for
tern is repeated for the positions of examination. An earlier rule which Telangana. The self-appointment
junior and senior civil judges as well. stipulated a minimum of three years process, as laid down by the 1998
“Thus, in all, 134 judicial officers of of practice before one could take the Three Judges Case which led to the
various cadres belonging to Andhra examination was done away with in setting up of collegiums in all the
Pradesh are allocated to Telangana, 2007. Lawyers need seven years of High Courts and the Supreme Court
leaving 100 vacancies in Andhra Pra- practice to be eligible to take the ex- by convention, fills two-thirds of the
desh,” claimed the petition. amination for District Judges. Appli- vacancies with lawyers practising at
Even officers who are natives of cants are aware that arguments in the courts concerned and one-third
Andhra Pradesh acknowledge the the courts and even case files can be from the officers of the lower judi-
overwhelming presence of cadre in the local language. This restricts ciary under their jurisdiction. A
from their region in the lower judi- applicants to those who are compe- 60:40 division of the 61 judges of the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 38
Hyderabad High Court means that tervention, and so has Telangana’s was Ramesh S. Garg, who was ap-
36 would be allotted for Andhra and Chief Minister. pointed Acting Chief Justice. I ap-
24 for Telangana. This leaves Telan- These cracks have only widened peared before him,” said Anand
gana with eight judges to be filled over the past two years. Lawyers and Mohan Mathur, who was Madhya
from the subordinate judiciary (one- academics who actively participated Pradesh’s Advocate General between
third of its allotted 24), of which only in the Telangana Statehood agitation 1980 and 1989. Mathur said a new
one is currently serving. Positions of lent a degree of legitimacy to the de- High Court building was built seven
judges lying vacant across India’s mand between 2009 and 2013. But years later, following A.K. Patta-
High Courts have not been filled af- now they feel short-changed as the naik’s proposal after he became the
ter the Supreme Court invalidated bifurcation of the judiciary and pos- Chief Justice in 2005.
the 2015 National Judicial Appoint- sible job opportunities and promo- Judicial officers in Uttar Pradesh
ments Commission Act, which was tions for them have not been and Bihar mirrored the apprehen-
meant to replace the collegium adequately addressed by the Andhra sions of their counterparts in Mad-
system. Pradesh Reorganisation Act. But the hya Pradesh. They perceived
A senior Sessions Judge in Hydera- State government seems proactive, transfers to the new States as dead-
bad said a way out could be to ap- with Telangana Chief Minister Kal- end jobs. “Everybody thought of a
point more Telangana judges to the vakuntla Chandrasekhar Rao even posting at Nainital [where Uttarak-
High Court directly from the Bar, creating a Rs.100 crore “Welfare hand’s High Court is located] as a
leaving the lower judi- Fund” for lawyers punishment posting. It was much
cial vacancies to those and offering a sepa- later that they realised the opportu-
from Andhra Pradesh. rate building to nities for promotions after being ab-
“This would protect at house the Andhra sorbed into a new State,” said
least the seniority in Pradesh High Court Akhilesh Kalra, who practises at the
service,” he said. But in Hyderabad while Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad
senior advocate L. the new one gets High Court. Kalra said: “Those who
Ravichander, who built at Amaravati. would have retired here as Addition-
practises at the Hyd- Many in the legal al District Judges, who would have
erabad High Court fraternity point to never even thought that they would
KUNAL SHANKAR
and who has thrown the peculiar situa- become District Judges, went on to
his weight behind the tion of Andhra Pra- become Supreme Court judges.” Kal-
Telangana officers, desh’s bifurcation as ra feels that it is this hindsight gained
says: “One of the main one of the causes. from earlier bifurcations that has led
reasons for the de- The formation of to such a bitter fight between judicial
mand for separate GA N D RA M O H A N RA O , three new States in officers in Andhra Pradesh and
Statehood was more president of the Telangana 2000 (Chhattisgarh Telangana.
jobs for people from High Court Advocates’ from Madhya Pra-
here. Therefore, why Association. desh, Jharkhand CONTINUING STALEMATE
not fill vacancies in from Bihar, and Ut- Back in Hyderabad the stalemate
Telangana with people from here? tarakhand from Uttar Pradesh) did continues. Telangana judicial offi-
The excess Andhra officers could be not witness such acrimony in the di- cers are demanding that the High
accommodated in their State with vision of their bureaucracy or judi- Court rescind the provisional alloca-
the creation of more posts. After all, ciary. That could be because the tion and recast it, keeping nativity as
the backlog of cases is massive and capital remained with the residuary the main criterion for placement.
India has one of the lowest litigant to State. In the case of Jharkhand, a The allocations have not come into
judicial officers ratios. Such appoint- Ranchi Bench of the Patna High force.
ments could at least address this Court was already functioning and it The five-member committee
anomaly in the interim.” was converted into the new State’s headed by the Chief Justice is expect-
High Court. ed to address the grievances of offi-
LAWYERS’ BOYCOTT There is also the fact that in the cers regarding their allocations.
All this has paralysed the functioning case of earlier divisions, the judiciary Meanwhile, Andhra judicial officers
of the judiciary in Telangana’s 10 dis- was bifurcated along with other ser- and lawyers demand that Chief Min-
tricts for more than a month, with vices all at once. Take, for instance, ister N. Chandrababu Naidu expe-
lawyers boycotting court proceed- the case of Chhattisgarh, which was dite the establishment of the High
ings. TJA members have decided to born on November 1, 2000. Its High Court. When Naidu has been able to
go on “mass leave” on June 28 and Court at Bilaspur began functioning build a temporary secretariat for the
29, exposing fissures within the judi- on the very same day out of a govern- government, building an interim ac-
ciary. TAJAC has even petitioned the ment high school. “The only judge commodation for the High Court,
Union Law Minister, D.V. Sadanan- from the Madhya Pradesh High they feel, should not be too
da Gowda, seeking the Centre’s in- Court who was willing to relocate difficult. 첸
SPOTLIGHT
IF you are a voter in Tamil Nadu, your vote has a large free from the cash-for-vote menace, almost all the
price, depending on your constituency and the ruthless- other 228 constituencies in the State witnessed large-
ness of the electoral battle. The price ranged from Rs.100 scale, organised distribution of cash to voters.
to Rs.1,500 in the 2016 Legislative Assembly election Gone are the days of targeted vote buying, a phenom-
held on May 16. enon that goes back to the 1962 Legislative Assembly
An investigation reveals that while most of the six election in which C.N. Annadurai was defeated. Aware
constituencies of Kanyakumari district remained by and that money was being distributed to ensure his defeat,
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 40
A. MURALITHARAN
C A SH T O T A L L I N G R S . 2 . 8 5 C RO RE seized by the Srirangam Tahsildar in Tiruchi on March 11. (Left) Unaccounted cash
worth Rs.13.77 lakh seized by election officials from a motorist near Mamangam in Salem on March 28.
the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam’s (DMK) founder- the votes were counted on May 19. The findings of three
leader, who went on to become Chief Minister five years independent analysts who were closely following the
later, even made it a point to speak about it and appealed election across the State for different reasons and had set
to people not to take money. up teams at district headquarters and other places, in-
Later on, certain sections of voters were targeted for terviews with voters and representatives of all political
vote buying. Dalit colonies, minority groups, labourers parties, and first information reports (FIRs) filed by the
and party cadre were given cash for their votes just ahead police and officials of the Election Commission (E.C.)
of the voting day. This continued until 2009, when the prove that large-scale money distribution took place be-
DMK, enthused by the cash-for-votes experiment in Kar- fore the election.
nataka in 2007, came up with the “Tirumangalam for- The investigation, which began in January, found
mula”. Money was allegedly distributed across the that money or gifts were distributed to voters by prospec-
constituency in Madurai district which had a byelection tive candidates. The E.C. had not begun monitoring the
that year, in the first recorded case of mass voter bribing. election at that stage as the model code of conduct had
The age of mass cash distribution had arrived in Tamil not come into force. Gifts were given to winners of “ko-
Nadu. lam” (traditional floor drawings) competitions for wom-
A total of 3,776 candidates, including 975 from recog- en, festival-eve competitions for men, women and
nised national and State political parties, were in the fray children, and cricket, volleyball, kabbadi and even foot-
for the 234 seats this time. There were 66,007 polling ball tournaments for men. This correspondent is aware of
stations. The State had single-day polling on May 16, and a prospective candidate stocking 1.5 lakh sarees in his
where a candidate has stored the money in a constituency go on like clockwork. This correspondent is aware of
is an open secret. This correspondent is aware of one such places where excellent coordination existed and where
instance—the candidate of a main Dravidian party there was zero coordination. In one zero coordination
shared all the locations of his money stash with his arch metropolitan constituency, the candidate, a first-timer
rival. “This actually prevents the rival from sneaking to brought in his loyalists, did the mapping of the constitu-
the E.C. or other officials about the money stash,” said a ency on his own and handled the distribution. To make
party veteran. He confirmed that this sharing of in- local-level leaders aware of his prowess, he even played
formation appeared to be the new norm among the main back a conversation between his main rival and the rival’s
rivals. In this case this correspondent is aware that the main agent, one surprised middle-level leader told this
information was not shared with anyone, including the correspondent.
E.C. There are up to five “circle” secretaries under the area
A former Member of the Legislative Assembly said secretary (depending on the size of the constituency).
the money was not necessarily moved from the party Each secretary has a few trusted (five to eight) lieutenants
headquarters in Chennai to the constituencies. under him. These lieutenants, or foot soldiers, are the
“The money is usually taken from a local business- most important link in the chain. The entire constituency
man or trader if there is an additional need in a constitu- is mapped and divided into “handlable” segments of
ency. This money is paid back, sometimes with interest, a 50-60 houses. Each of the trusted lieutenants is roughly
few months after the results are declared,” he said. in charge of two or three streets in a constituency. It is
Another method is to move the money ahead, some- their responsibility to distribute the cash to each individ-
times six months ahead of an election. This is to circum- ual and return the unused money.
vent the E.C.’s watchdogs. “I was given a total of Rs.1.4 lakh for distribution. My
Money distribution is a fine art. The candidate is target was to cover two streets in my constituency. It was
under the care of a paguthi (area) secretary. If the equa- Rs.1,000 for every household,” said a local leader.
tion between the two works, the money distribution will This is not the only expenditure for a candidate. He
You have been talking about money distribution for The PMK decided not to bribe the voter, instead the
votes across all the 234 constituencies. What specific party held huge rallies and meetings all over the State.
information does the PMK have to support the It is alleged that although the PMK headquarters and
allegation that money was the party’s candidates did not
distributed? distribute cash, the party’s local body
I can go back to the previous elec- representatives gave money in some
tion [2011] when the AIADMK gave places.
Rs.200 each to all the voters in all the Can you prove this? We do not
constituencies. Earlier, if a constitu- have money to give and our policy is
ency had 2.5 lakh voters, the party not to bribe the voter. On May 14, all
would give money to one lakh or the 232 party candidates took an oath
75,000 voters. This time, the that we would not bribe voters. When
AIADMK paid two lakh voters, that I met the Chief Election Commission-
is, 80 per cent of the voters. Both the er in New Delhi, he told me: “We have
DMK and the AIADMK distributed got information that your party did
money. Former DMK Ministers gave not distribute money and you have
Rs.1,000 for every vote. That was the done a clean election.” And then he
R. RAVINDRAN
spends on publicity work and engages booth agents learnt that they were in Poovar [resort],” he added.
needed on election and counting days. He also takes care However, it was not always that easy to distribute
of the expenses of religious festivals, sports meets and any cash. “We get a maximum of 10 minutes in a hamlet,” said
event that happens in his constituency. a top politician, who did not want to be named. “It’s get in
A close associate of a candidate from a southern and get out. We have the money in neat covers [enve-
district said: “One day it was quite funny but very busi- lopes], with the candidate’s name or symbol on it. It is
ness-like. The DMK was distributing money on this side handed over to a local handler, and he takes care of the
of the road, and the AIADMK was distributing it on the hamlet,” he added.
other side of the road.” “Cash was distributed in corporate style,” said a sym-
What about the E.C.’s flying squads? He said party pathiser of a party, who has helped in the distribution of
men received advance information from an insider about multiple items to voters.
the flying squads’ raid. Besides, on the day money distri- “You can look at it like this. It was done with one head
bution was taking place, they had nothing to worry. The of operations and some others in the capacity of manag-
officials were taken care of, he said. “Six Indian Revenue ers, assistant managers and team leaders who were re-
Service officers were not to be seen. I made enquires and sponsible for channelling money to the voters,” he added.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 48
crore for this election, of which 80 to 90 per cent was encies voters were bribed. The DMK, for instance, tar-
spent on bribing voters. The AIADMK was not seen to geted my stronghold.
be campaigning. For instance, at one point of time [in For instance, if I got 900 votes in a village in the Lok
my constituency], the DMK’s expenditure [submitted Sabha election, this election I got only 350 votes or 400
to the E.C.] was Rs.18 lakh, our expenditure was Rs.14 votes. The remaining 500 got split between the DMK
lakh. The AIADMK’s expenditure was Rs.2 lakh. Be- and the AIADMK. Families which had earlier voted en
cause they did not hold any public meetings, no cam- masse for me now cast a few votes in favour of the DMK
paigning; the candidate alone was seen going around. or the AIADMK. That is why I lost. I got 58,000 votes. I
We, on the contrary, were going around campaigning. should have got at least 75,000 votes. That margin was
The DMK was also doing that. taken away by money.
The AIADMK’s strategy was to send four people to a This is what happened across the State. The Elec-
village. These people would stay there till evening and tion Commission was completely ineffective. In Arava-
get details such as who is a DMK sympathiser, who will kuruchi, the election was postponed [at that time, later
vote on community lines, and who is a neutral voter. the notification was rescinded] because Rs.5,000 was
They did this for 15 days. They did micro-level planning distributed [to each voter]. In my constituency, initially
of voters, and worked out how much money should be Rs.500 was given. So the election will be postponed
given and who the money should be given to. For every only if Rs.5,000 is given? Rs.500 is not money? If the
25 voters, they appointed one person. That person had E.C. could postpone polling in Aravakuruchi, then it
Rs.30,000 to Rs.40,000 in his pocket. They became could postpone election in all the other constituencies
active only in the last two days of the election. Their as well. I gave a complaint to the Chief Electoral Officer
modus operandi was two persons would first go with of Tamil Nadu and sent a copy to the CEC.
AIADMK handbills to canvass votes; one person would
follow them; he would give the money. Nobody could Is it possible to control money distribution?
catch them because they did not carry a large amount of It is definitely possible. We said some changes have
money. We caught four of them. We handed them over to be made. The E.C. should ask for a taped video from
to the police. In Dharmapuri alone, 27 first information party leaders where they insist that their party men
reports [FIRs] were filed against the DMK and the should not pay money, and voters should not take mon-
AIADMK. One AIADMK cadre was found with more ey for votes. They should make it clear that both giving
than Rs.2 lakh. But no action was taken. An FIR was and taking money for votes are punishable offences. A
filed, that is all. candidate found distributing money should be disqual-
ified and not allowed to contest the next two elections.
So, in your view, people voted for the party that gave Even after he wins, if he is found to have distributed
them more money? money, he should be disqualified. If the E.C. has this
People voted for the person who gave them more. In power, then it will put fear into the minds of candidates.
my constituency, [M.K.] Stalin [DMK treasurer, who If a party is found distributing money in, say, 10
led the party in the election] made sure I lost. He sees constituencies, it should be disqualified, derecognised
me as a future threat. Their aim appears to be to tell the and its election symbol withdrawn. See, giving money is
people that even the chief ministerial candidate [of the not a secret. If you are distributing it among 1,000
PMK] lost. people, you can do it secretly. But you are giving to two
My party candidates told me that in all the constitu- lakh people. This cannot be a secret.
In his experience, there were only a few cases of camphor in a plate filled with vermillion-coloured water.
people rejecting the money. “Even a teacher with an This is shown to the candidate in close proximity, and is
MPhil degree was willing to take the money as it would an age-old custom to ward off the evil eye.
come of use to buy groceries,” he said. “In each village the number of aarti–plate bearers
There are two types of money distribution. One, when have increased exponentially with each election,” said a
women come forward to perform aarti (a traditional candidate of a main political party.
welcome with garlands and lamps) to a candidate, and “In the 1990s, for instance, there used to be 10-15
two, through direct distribution. While a few candidates aartis at a spot. Now, there are no fewer than 50. When
and representatives of political parties insist that dis- the model code of conduct is in force, a video camera
tributing money post-aarti is not immoral, some of them team follows the candidate and so, the candidate will not
agree that bribery is not right. Even the aarti offerings distribute money. The distribution takes place after the
has reached menacing proportions, with many house- candidate leaves the spot,” the main agent of a candidate
holds even pushing their children to offer the aarti to a said.
candidate because they get paid. After the elections, the How much would a candidate or a political party have
aarti is performed to the winning candidate by burning spent on the purchase of votes?
‘Near-total bribery’ vigilant and not let their votes be split. But in every
village between 50 and 100 votes were spilt.
the DMK alliance. They [the DMK and or the Congress. I tried to explain to the
the Congress] distributed money to orga- people that this was a multi-cornered fight
nised community groups, including Ja- and so I might win by a narrow margin. “If
maats and caste groups. This was the you vote for the other parties because you
initial information. But in reality, each have taken money from them, I will lose by
and every house received money; the a narrow margin,” I told the voters.
AIADMK has given money to DMK sup-
porters and the DMK has given to The situation today is that without money
L. SRINIVASAN
[known] AIADMK supporters. Both the power, you cannot exist in electoral
parties have given cash to 100 per cent of politics. Where does that leave political
the households in my constituency. parties like yours?
There is a need for electoral reforms.
There is information that the amount varied from one
pocket to another. Can an election be fought with the Rs.28 lakh
I was told that voters in urban areas were given prescribed by the E.C.?
Rs.500. In villages, I was told by people who received That’s what they have decided. My question is was
money that the DMK paid Rs.250 and the AIADMK only Rs.28 lakh spent in R.K. Nagar? The drawings, the
Rs.300. This is our proof. Even VCK supporters have handbills and other publicity material used in the con-
told me that they received money. stituency will cost several lakhs of rupees. The bias of
They distributed money even after knowing that the E.C. comes to the fore. I have asked for a review of
they are VCK supporters. Earlier, this was not the case. the statement of expenditure for R.K. Nagar. The E.C.
If a party knew for certain that a particular house must take selected constituencies, the star constitu-
belonged to the cadre of a rival party, they would not encies, and compare the statements of expenditure the
give money. This election was different. VCK workers candidates have submitted with its own investigation
were also given money. We managed this number of and arrive at a conclusion.
votes after surmounting all these.
The reason for the mass distribution of cash is that Are you asking for a forensic audit?
in the previous elections, there was no credible force Yes, I am asking for an audit. If the E.C. audits their
against the DMK and the AIADMK. But when Vijaya- expenditure, it can annul their victories. How come the
kanth joined the PWF, both the DMK and the E.C. takes the statement of expenditure at face value
AIADMK got scared that this would become a big force. and declares a candidate winner? Elections are the
They wanted to make sure that we didn’t grow at any fountainhead of corruption. In order to eliminate cor-
cost. That is why they paid 100 per cent of the people. ruption, the first step is to curb electoral malpractices.
That is why there was such an understanding between It is calculated that the AIADMK and the DMK
the AIADMK and the DMK, an understanding that did have spent Rs.3,000 crore each on this election over the
not exist before. past two years. The DMK’s [expenditure] began from
the time of the Namakku Naame journey [pre-election
If a voter takes Rs.200 from a candidate and Rs.300 tour by DMK treasurer M.K. Stalin] to the counting of
from another, who will he or she vote for? votes. Was this money collected from party members?
I asked the voters the same question in the last Did party workers collect money from the people of the
election too. See, both the parties have given money to State? Who gave them this cash? Who gave them dona-
households. If there are five votes in a household, three tions? Why would someone give a donation if there is no
will vote for the DMK and two for the AIADMK. [A benefit for them? The Rs.3,000 crore the two parties
VCK supporter interrupts to say that this is what hap- spent is an investment. The AIADMK has taken the
pened in her mother’s house.] Or, if there were six votes entire State for a tender [bid] for Rs.3,000 crore. This is
in a house, four voted for me and two for the AIADMK not a government.
tries to wangle his share. “If the candi- want to reach 80 per cent of the voters, I
date can spend so much to get votes, he will have to pay for 90 per cent of the
should be able to pay us too,” said a voters,” one candidate said.
booth-level worker. This correspondent However professionally managed
is aware of several cadre-level workers the campaign, there was bound to be
who refused to campaign or shifted loy- J . M O H AM E D pilferage, another candidate said. The
alties because there were no monetary S H A N A V AS of the VCK, norm is that 10 per cent of the money
benefits. who contested from gets lost at multiple levels.
A former councillor said: “There was Kunnam constituency. R.K. Radhakrishnan
2014 Lok Sabha election, when, according to multiple leaders, regardless of whether they won or lost, is main-
accounts, almost 70 per cent of Tamil Nadu voters were taining the lifestyle. They are expected to be part of all
bribed. This correspondent has followed the votes-for- local functions, contribute financially to every single
cash phenomenon right from the 1996 Assembly elec- event that happens in the constituency—be it wedding,
tion, when the menace was restricted to a few pockets in coming of age, death, birth, festivals or anything else.
the State. And, they are also expected to be present at all these
functions.
IMPACT ON THE CANDIDATE An elected candidate thus invariably spends more
Where does such unsustainable expenditure leave the than a defeated candidate. “An MLA has to spend any-
candidate or the MLA? thing from Rs.5 lakh to Rs.10 lakh a month to maintain
“Life is very difficult,” said an MLA. “The loans have his relationship with his base in the constituency,” said an
to be repaid. Lifestyle has to be maintained. There is advocate identified with a political party. This is not true
another election coming in 2019 [Lok Sabha]. Wonder of the Left or Dalit parties.
what we will do,” he said. While those who lent money By winning, and not being part of the power struc-
were generally understanding, the problem for most ture, many MLAs in Tamil Nadu face a dark reality. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 52
INSTITUTIONS
Victim of tirade
Raghuram Rajan’s exit following a fusillade from Subramanian Swamy
raises questions about the government’s approach to key issues.
BY V . S R I D H A R
MANJUNATH KIRAN/AFP
Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan. The
cannon fired thrice since May; in
three missives to the Prime Minister,
and in comments to the media, Swa-
my mixed innuendo with slurs on
Rajan’s “patriotic” credentials and
demanded his immediate sacking. RA GH U RA M R AJ A N .
He also found fault with Rajan’s
handling of the economy, especially In a letter addressed to the RBI staff, India” strategy based on using the
the “high” interest rates that were he said he was going back to acade- demand potential within the country
hurting Indian industry. In doing mia. Rajan is the first RBI Governor would be a more worthwhile pursuit.
this he was seeking to make common since 1992 not to seek a second term. Later, when the Finance Minis-
cause with not only the extreme By the time Prime Minister Modi try floated a proposal to establish a
right-wing within his own party but spoke with some clarity on the issue single bank that would take over the
also with sections of industry that are for the first time, on June 27, the bad loans in the banking system—a
irked by a rule-bound policy regime damage had been done. Forty days “Bad Bank”, as the media called
Rajan was committed to. Critics of after Swamy’s first salvo, Modi, in an it—Rajan thought the idea to be a
the government’s policy have said interview with a news channel, dangerous one from a systemic point
that the rule-bound regime he has obliquely rebuked Swamy by decry- of view. He pointed to the moral haz-
been pursuing is rooted in economic ing the resort to “publicity stunts”. ards in such a proposal and suggest-
orthodoxy, which vests too much in He also issued a certificate of Rajan ed a more aggressive clean-up of
monetary policy instruments, but being “no less patriotic than any of bank balance sheets.
that is another matter. us”. Rajan also countered the idea,
Even as Prime Minister Naren- floated by Chief Economic Adviser
dra Modi and Finance Minister Arun A MAN WITH HIS OWN IDEAS Arvind Subramanian, that the RBI’s
Jaitley watched silently, refusing to What explains the long silence and reserves could be used for recapita-
rein in the loose cannon, speculation the refusal to rein in Swamy and his lising the banks. His response after
mounted in the media and the mar- tirade against the RBI Governor? the Dadri lynching, in which a man
kets on whether Rajan would contin- Part of the explanation surely has to was killed for having allegedly con-
ue after the conclusion of his current do with Rajan’s quick-witted repar- sumed beef, was telling. Speaking
term in September. Rajan could not tees to some of the government’s pol- from a purely liberal perspective, he
have been blamed if he presumed icy proposals, among them Modi’s articulated the idea that economic
that his time was up at the helm. On pet project, “Make in India”. Rajan liberalism was incompatible with in-
June 18, the RBI Governor, a former pointed out that a global economy hit tolerance, bigotry, prejudice and
chief economist at the International by recession was hardly conducive to hate. All this indicated that Rajan
Monetary Fund, announced that he an export-led growth strategy. In- was unlike many who had held his
was not available for a second term. stead, he suggested that a “Make for post earlier and was always unafraid
53 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
to speak his mind. More importantly, tiples of what Mallya owes. There is RBI were also at loggerheads over
Swamy’s utterances against Rajan, consensus in industry that banks the composition of the Monetary
notably his accusation that Rajan has have turned extremely risk-averse Policy Committee, which will be en-
“wilfully” and “deliberately attempt- for two main reasons. First, the ac- trusted with the task of determining
ed to wreck the Indian economy”, celerated provisioning norms that monetary policy and the inflation
reflect the angst among sections of Rajan introduced made lending that target. The government, seeking the
Indian industry that the single- much more difficult. Second, be- upper hand, wanted a say in deter-
minded pursuit of inflation targeting cause the provisioning affected prof- mining the policy targets, but Rajan
using high interest rates had doused itability, they became even more was reportedly in favour of retaining
the possibilities of an industrial risk-averse. This has obviously af- the central bank’s independence in
recovery. fected banks’ interest margins—the this matter.
It is true that Rajan’s quest to difference between what they pay de- On June 27, the government no-
rein in inflation at all costs has placed positors and what they earn from tified the rules determining the com-
overwhelming importance on mone- lending operations. Seen in this con- position of the six-member
tary policy tools, especially interest text, Swamy’s call for a reduction in committee, which ensures that the
rates. But Swamy’s accusation that interest rates is at best illogical; at government will have a significant
Rajan has wrecked the economy as a worst, it is nothing but an espousal of say in the matter but the casting vote
result misses some vital facts. First, what self-seeking industrial interests in the event of a tie would vest with
Rajan is hardly the first RBI chief to want after putting Indian banks in the RBI Governor. Meanwhile, the
do this; successive governments, danger. government has announced a short-
most notably those headed by Man- list of four contenders to replace Ra-
mohan Singh, had surrendered all OBSESSION WITH INFLATION jan—RBI Deputy Governor Urjit
other policy tools in exchange for Of course, this is not to say that Rajan Patel, former Deputy Governors Ra-
monetary policy instruments. This is diametrically opposed to economic kesh Mohan and Subir Gokarn, and
was done in the guise of allowing the orthodoxy in the matter of economic State Bank of India Chairperson
central bank a measure of “inde- policy. It is just that he believes that Arundhati Bhattacharya. Rajan’s de-
pendence”, as if economic policy inflation targeting is critically impor- parture from the RBI is not based on
ought to remain in the realm of tech- tant for macroeconomic stability, any key disagreement over the
nocrats without being accountable even if it means using a consumer course of economic policy. Nor does
politically in any way. price index that is far removed from the manner of his departure indicate
The second aspect that is missed the reality of peoples’ lives. For ex- any ideological differences. But it
in this tirade against Rajan pertains ample, the index is constructed in does reflect the mindset and ap-
to the fact that Indian banks, partic- such a way that the weightage for proach of the Modi government.
ularly those in the public sector, have food articles is very low. First, it reveals a serious discom-
been burdened by the massive build- It is also important to recognise fort with anyone with a modicum of a
up of non-performing assets in their that Rajan became a darling of the liberal approach, in economic mat-
portfolio. It is true that Rajan’s ag- Indian media and the markets pre- ters or otherwise. Second, Modi’s
gressive pursuit of cleaning up bank cisely because of this fixation with long silence in the face of the relent-
balance sheets has resulted in accel- inflation. less tirade against Rajan shows that
erated provisioning of these banks, After all, those who rely primarily the political authority is willing to let
which hit their profitability and led on assets to earn incomes fear in- fly loose cannons to attack inconve-
to a spectacular collapse of their flation like the plague because they nient targets. The third aspect of the
share prices earlier this year. see it as eating into their returns; in Rajan affair is that the government is
However, to blame him for this is contrast, workers also fear inflation willing to remove any obstacle in or-
surely self-serving advice, especially but they are ready to tolerate it in der to appease Indian corporate
when it is articulated by the Indian moderation if they can find jobs. Ra- interests.
corporate sector, which is primarily jan’s other supposed sin, the acceler- In hindsight, Swamy may well
responsible for the burgeoning prob- ated clean-up of bank balance sheets, not have been a loose cannon. In-
lem of bad loans. can also be explained by his own vi- stead, the Rajan affair may well be
Vijay Mallya may symbolise the sion for Indian banking. one more instance in which doubles-
rogue borrower, but he is hardly the He sees this as a way of making peak from within the Sangh Parivar,
only one who has caused grief to the banks “healthy” so that they can be combined with silence at the helm at
banks. Several other industrial made more “competitive” and “effi- crucial junctures in the episode, may
groups—especially those operating cient”, euphemisms for their eventu- have been used to obtain a result that
in the infrastructure and steel indus- al privatisation. This is because he, the government wished for anyway.
tries—owe much more to the banks. like everyone else, recognises that If that were to be true, it would be in
Among them is the Gujarat- the public sector banks cannot be put keeping with the mode of govern-
based Adani Group, which has out- on the anvil in their current state. ance that has been the hallmark of
standing loans that are several mul- The Finance Ministry and the the Modi sarkar. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 54
INDIA & U.S.
THE SECRET
ACCORD
What are the terms of the deal that Prime Minister Narendra Modi
concluded with President Barack Obama and what do they mean for
the country? Modi should explain. B Y A . G . N O O R A N I
THE government of India owes a U.S. Defence Secretary Ash Carter The Hindu published a news report
clear duty to the nation to publish the settled an understanding with De- from New Delhi and Washington
secret agreement it concluded with fence Minister Manohar Parrikar on which pointedly asked: “Is there a
the United States, along with other three “foundation agreements” in behind-the-door deal that we don’t
agreements, when Prime Minister New Delhi on April 12. One of them know about? The current deal seems
Narendra Modi met President Ba- was to conclude a Logistics Exchange pretty one-sided and the Narendra
rack Obama in Washington, D.C., on Memorandum of Agreement (LE- Modi government wouldn’t have
June 7. The published agreements MOA) “in the coming months”. taken it if they didn’t see the worth. It
were long in the making. Earlier, The very next day, on April 13, begs the question if there is a behind-
PTI
DE FEN C E M I N I S T E R M A N O H A R P A RRI K A R and U.S. Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter at a joint press conference at
South Block in New Delhi on April 12, the day they sealed an understanding on three agreements, including the LEMOA.
55 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
the-door deal. If yes, what is it? Is it ance” (Chas. W. Freeman Jr; The the leaders’ joint statement and press
worth it? And more importantly, Diplomat’s Dictionary, U.S. Insti- briefing amount to nothing. The se-
when a new U.S. government is elect- tute of Press, 2006; page 40). The cret deal is aimed at China. What “an
ed to power in November will it still correspondent had company in administration official” told the
uphold it?” The fears proved to be Washington, D.C. Chidananad Raj- Press Trust of India (PTI) a day earli-
well founded. The Hindu’s Special ghata’s report from there confirmed er makes that abundantly clear. The
Correspondent reported from Wash- The Hindu’s report completely on all Times of India reported on June 8:
ington, D.C., after the Modi-Obama the details. “The mysterious road “There were clear indications on
summit on the basis of an author- map: Aside from designating India Tuesday [June 7] that Washington
itative briefing: “According to a se- as a major military partner, U.S. offi- and New Delhi won’t allow China’s
nior Obama administration official, cials also said Obama and Modi had unbridled domination in Asia-Pacif-
a significant achievement of Mr Mo- ‘completed a road map’ describing ic; there has to be a place for all.
di’s visit is the finalisation of a docu- ‘what we will be doing together to Ahead of the meeting, the Obama
ment on the shared strategy of both achieve that leader’s vision’. They administration made it known that
countries in Asia-Pacific. The official mysteriously insisted that the road the U.S. is ‘committed’ to help India
said this document—kept confiden- map would not be disseminated but build its defence capabilities until it
tial— outlines a joint strategy to deal indicated broadly that it advanced can be the ‘net provider of security’ in
with specific situations that could the ‘joint strategic vision’ of the two Asia, regardless of whether or not
emerge in the Asia-Pacific region in countries in Asia-Pacific and Indian there is a formal U.S.-India alliance.
the future” (The Hindu; June 9, Ocean into specific actions” (The ‘There is a recognition that as India
2016). Times of India; June 10, 2016; em- grows and develops, the capacity to
phasis added, throughout). Note that protect its interests, not just in the
WHY THE PAEANS OF PRAISE what the “senior Obama administra- immediate region but broadly
This is nothing but a treaty of alli- tion official” said was reported in di- throughout Asia-Pacific, particularly
ance in which the important clause rect quotes. in the Indian Ocean region, it is in
on the casus foederis is spelt out. “Ca- This explains the paeans of praise the U.S. interest to build India that
sus foederis is an act or event that for Modi and the various character- capacity until it can truly be the net
involves the clauses of a treaty of alli- isations of the secret deal. Without it, provider of security,’ an administra-
tion official told PTI ahead of the talks on the boundary dispute? Last- 2003. The Lok Sabha passed a reso-
Modi-Obama talks.” ly, will the U.S. be satisfied with this, lution in his support. He told the
Seven points deserve note. First, or seek a yet tighter embrace? Communist Party of India (CPI)
the U.S. official felt emboldened by Only the secret deal explains the leader A.B. Bardhan, “Comrade, zor
the progress already achieved to say applause from the U.S. side. If As- zor se bolo” (Comrade proclaim your
what he did ahead of the talks and he sistant Secretary of State for South opposition louder and louder). But
did so in direct quotes. Secondly, the and Central Asia Nisha Desai Biswal there was a school of hawks, com-
secret accord was in lieu of a formal hails it because it “overcomes the prising defence “experts” and retired
treaty of alliance which requires, un- hesitations of history”, it is because it diplomats, who mindlessly support-
der the U.S. Constitution, ratifica- rejects India’s historic commitment ed dispatch of Indian troops as a pro-
tion by the Senate; but it in effect to non-alignment by which Atal Bi- jection of India’s power to jump onto
amounts to a treaty, bypassing the hari Vajpayee swore as Minister for the American bandwagon. India’s
Senate. Thirdly, the accord does not External Affairs (1977-79) and as name would have been mud in Iraq
enjoy domestic support in its jetti- Prime Minister (1998-2004). Anja had they prevailed. Meanwhile, In-
soning of non-alignment. Fourthly, Manuel, who worked in the State De- dia is participating in a joint naval
it is concluded with a lame-duck ad- partment and was involved in the exercise with the U.S. and Japan
ministration. Hillary Clinton or Do- talks on the civil nuclear deal with close to islands contested by China.
nald Trump might take a different India, told Mandira Nayar: “Now, India’s Navy said, on June 10, that
view. Fifthly, it does not reckon with when I talk to Indian officials they “the primary aim of this exercise is to
the reality that the U.S. views India see China similar to how we in the increase interoperability among the
as its footman in its own fight with U.S. see it. So, the new alignment three navies and develop common
China. Sixthly, if “it is in the U.S. between India and the U.S. is be- understanding of procedures for
interest to build India”, will it allow cause both are looking over their maritime security operations”.
India to diverge from the U.S. line at shoulders at Beijing. This is a posi- Reuters’ understanding of In-
any given point? Seventhly, where tive development, but we must en- dia’s move will be widely shared. “For
does it leave India in its relations sure that we are clear and consistent India, the gathering is a chance to
with its immediate neighbour China with Beijing about where the lines put on a show of force close to Chi-
and what impact will it have on the are” (The Week; June 19, 2016). na’s eastern seaboard and signal its
Another patronising pat on In- displeasure at increased Chinese na-
dia’s back as “a great ally”. This is val activity in the Indian Ocean”
from Paul Ryan, Speaker of the (Hindustan Times; June 16, 2016)
House of Representatives. What had —as if India could not have increased
DU R IN G I N D I A ’ S J O I N T Modi done to earn such unpreceden- its own naval activity in the Indian
military exercise, called ted, extravagant praise? One voice is Ocean.
Malabar, with the United ominous. It suggests that the U.S.
States and Japan, off Japan’s will, like Oliver Twist, “ask for more”. THE DECEPTION IN LEMOA
southernmost island of John McCain, Chairman of the Sen- Talking of which brings out the de-
Okinawa, on June 15. ate Armed Services Committee, told ception in the deal on the LEMOA.
CNN: “India must begin acting like a The reciprocity it provides is spu-
close partner and ally. Despite the rious. The U.S. will have free access
growing closeness, it is no secret that to the bases on Indian soil. To which
frustration continues to exist in U.S. base can India possibly have ac-
many areas, both defence and non- cess except the one on Diego Garcia
defence.” He added that the U.S. ex- in the Indian Ocean, whose removal
pected a lot from its partners and India agitated against for long?
allies, including joint patrolling, sig- Demilitarisation of the ocean was the
nificant contributions to armed con- issue. There is another aspect. The
flicts, and a strict adherence to natives were expelled and relocated.
human rights, among other things” India, which consistently spoke up
(The Times of India; June 9, 2016). against colonialism, will now be-
come an accomplice to a leading co-
CONTRIBUTIONS TO ARMED lonial power.
The allies’ interests do not coinci-
BOBUHIRO KUBO/REUTERS
CONFLICTS?
Does this spell India’s “contributions de; on several areas they diverge.
to armed conflicts” initiated in the One is reminded of the U.S.-Pakis-
past and the ones to be initiated by tan alliance of 1954, which was os-
the U.S. in future? Remember, Vaj- tensibly directed against the Soviet
payee as Prime Minister flatly re- Union. The U.S. is pursuing a two-
fused to send Indian troops to Iraq in pronged policy towards China—con-
Diplomatic fiasco
Though India is trying to blame China for the failure of its bid to join
the NSG, it is clear that the United States had led the Indian
government up the garden path. B Y J O H N C H E R I A N
A TE A R FUL W OM AN
in Bogota, Colombia,
watches a live broadcast
of the signing ceremony
of the peace accord in
Havana on June 23.
GUILLERMO LEGARIA/AFP
Santos was the Defence Minister during most of
Uribe’s term in office and it was under his stewardship of
the Defence Ministry that the Colombian armed forces
dealt the FARC some significant blows. American help
under “Plan Colombia”, started during the Clinton ad-
ministration, played a key role in the advances made by
the Colombian military. The U.S. has provided more than
COL O MB I A N S celebrate in downtown Bogota on $10 billion in weapons and military training under this
June 23 after the government and the FARC signed the plan. In the 2014 presidential elections, Uribe supported
ceasefire, ending Latin Ame’ica's longest civil war. the candidature of Oscar Ivan Zuluaga, whose main
plank was that he would discard peace talks and instead
resistance”. Cuba and Norway are the two guarantors of opt for an all-out war against the FARC. He was roundly
the peace accord. Also present at the ceremony in Havana defeated by Santos, who was running for his second and
were U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Venezuelan last term in office. Santos had already initiated peace
President Nicolas Maduro and Chilean President Mi- talks with the FARC in his first term. The government has
chelle Bachelet. The United States had sent a top State also entered into talks with the ELN, which has around
Department official to witness the historic occasion. The 2,000 fighters.
peace talks received a fillip after the Obama adminis- Many top leaders of the FARC were eliminated in the
tration gave its support last year. U.S. Secretary of State last decade. Their top commander for many decades,
John Kerry met with a FARC delegation when he accom- Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda Velez, died in 2008. The
panied President Barack Obama on his state visit to Cuba FARC, however, proved to be a resilient force and contin-
earlier this year. Kerry was quick to issue a statement ued to exert influence over a vast swathe of the country
expressing the American government’s happiness over and hold the allegiance of a significant section of the
the agreement between the Colombian government and peasantry and the working class. The FARC developed as
the FARC. the armed wing of the Communist Party of Colombia in
Thousands of people in the Colombian capital, Bogo- 1964. The country continues to be under the control of an
ta, who had assembled on the streets to watch the sign- oligarchic elite which mainly remains unreconciled to
ing, were seen loudly clapping and cheering the agrarian reforms. “As in many Latin American countries,
announcement of the ceasefire. “Colombia got used to we can find the seeds of present-day social inequality and
living in conflict. We don’t have even the slightest memo- strife in the concentration of Colombia’s land and re-
ries of what it means to live in peace,” Santos told the sources under the control of a tiny minority, matched by
media in Havana. He stressed that a “new chapter has the progressive dispossession of the majority of the peo-
opened” for his country, “one that brings peace and gives ple, which originated with colonialism in the 16th centu-
our children the possibility of not reviving history”. ry,” explains the historian Jasmin Hristov in Blood and
Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had Capital: The Paramilitarization of Colombia.
played a key role in convincing the FARC leadership to Dan Kovalik, Professor of International Human
start peace talks with the government in 2012. Santos has Rights at the University of Pittsburgh, has said that most
pledged to hold a national plebiscite on the peace deal. of the killings in recent years are the work of right-wing
From available indications, the peace deal has met with paramilitary groups working in cahoots with the govern-
widespread approval. “We’re getting closer to the end of ment. He notes that human rights groups have consis-
armed conflict than at any time during the last five tently concluded that the “lion’s share of human rights
decades,” Raul Castro said. “The decision of the two sides violations” during the worst years of violence was the
represents a decisive step forward. The peace process handiwork of these forces. The Colombian state has one
cannot turn back.” of the worst human rights records in Latin America.
Left-wing parties and civil society groups have wel- Under the terms of the peace accord, the FARC fight-
comed the imminent dawning of peace in their home- ers and the armed forces will now have to cooperate to
land. Parties like the left-wing Democratic Pole have keep the peace. “The Colombian armed forces that grew
been vocal supporters of the peace process. There are enormously during the war are now called to play an
only a few significant holdouts opposing the peace accord important role in peace. They were our adversaries, but
in Colombia. One of them is Santos’ immediate prede- going forward, they will be our allies,” Timochenko de-
cessor as President, Alviro Uribe, who now heads a new clared in Havana. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 64
CAROLYN KASTER/AP
WORLD AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES
End of exceptionalism
The U.S. does not have the economic or political power to thrust its agenda
on a multipolar world and this is not because, as Donald Trump claims, of
the policies of Barack Obama. B Y V I J A Y P R A S HAD
ON JUNE 22, FRANCE’S OUTSPOKEN frontations over the shipping lanes in the South China
ambassador to the United States, Gérard Araud, said: Sea and disputes over currency manipulation danger-
“The next President will face a multipolar world where ously flirt with the language of war. “Relations between
the U.S. will be the main but not the only power. Realism China and the United States need not—and should not
is the only possible agenda.” It is unusual for such a close —become a zero-sum game,” wrote Kissinger. China had
ally of the U.S. to make this statement. After all, it has become too important for the U.S. to indulge in Cold War
been one of the pillars of the U.S.’ self-identification that theatrics. It was far more important, Kissinger noted, for
it is the major force in the world. Political leaders in the the two powers to come to an understanding on how to
U.S. routinely speak of the country as the greatest in the confront global imbalances—whether economic or
world, the only country with truly global ambitions and political.
with global reach. U.S. military bases litter the continents The Republican nominee for President, Donald
of the world, and U.S. warships move from ocean to Trump, not known for his political sobriety, is running on
ocean, bearing terrifying arsenals. When the Union of a campaign slogan that admits to today’s reality. “Make
Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) collapsed in 1991, it America Great Again!” says the slogan, which acknowl-
became self-evident that the U.S. was the sole remaining edges the weaknesses of the U.S. at this present time. At
superpower. Unipolarity defined the world order. So least Trump admits to this, although he hastily suggests
what is it that makes the French ambassador speak of a that somehow his presidency, miraculously, will trans-
multipolar world? form the vulnerabilities of the U.S. into strengths. Trump
Araud is not alone in his realism. Some years ago, blames the presidency of Barack Obama for the collapse
former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger alerted of the country’s strength. He condenses the right-wing
the political elite against its belligerent rhetoric about
China. In his 2011 book On China, Kissinger wrote of the ( TOP ) LE AD E R S OF THE G 7 at the summit of the
need for the U.S. and China to form a partnership which grouping in Ise, Japan, on May 26. The Western alliance
would be “essential to global stability and peace”. Con- system has been disrupted by the rise of China.
AN AE R I A L V I E W
of the Harappan
industrial site of
4MSR near Binjor in
Rajasthan.
A Harappan export
processing zone
Excavations at the 4MSR site near Binjor in Rajasthan
reveal an exclusive industrial production centre belonging
to the Early Harappan and Mature Harappan phases.
By T.S. SUBRAMANIAN
ASI
RURAL SETTLEMENT
“The usual plan of a Harappan settlement, which had a
citadel, a middle town, a lower town and fortifications, is
not traced here. This was a rural settlement,” said Sanjay
Manjul, the director of the excavation at 4MSR. Manjul
is the Director of the Institute of Archaeology, New
Delhi, ASI’s academic wing, which offers a two-year
postgraduate diploma in archaeology. It has been con-
ducting the excavations at 4MSR jointly with the Excava-
tion Branch-II of the ASI at Purana Qila, New Delhi.
Students of Santiniketan, Kolkata; and Kumaon Uni-
versity, Uttarakhand; and the staff of the archaeology
departments of Telangana and Assam also formed part of
the excavation team.
Each of the 12 trenches dug in the second season this
year measures 10 x 10 metres and has four quadrants of
varying depths. “This site is important,” Manjul said, “to
get a complete picture of the Harappan period and to
understand the process of urbanisation at that time.
Without studying a rural settlement, one cannot under-
stand an urban settlement.”
‘A UNIQUE SITE’
R.S. Bisht, former Joint Director General, ASI, called it “a
unique site” which “exclusively had a cluster of work-
shops for industrial activity right at the beginning of the
pre-Harappan [also known as Early Harappan] period”.
Bisht, who led 13 seasons of excavation of Harappan sites
at Dholavira in Gujarat from 1990 to 2005, visited 4MSR
both last year and this year.
He observed that 4MSR had “so many factories” and
said: “I could not notice any street system. There were no
lanes either. I saw so many fireplaces for the first time in a
Harappan settlement.”
One other thing that fascinated Bisht was the discov-
ery of a cluster of eight weights made out of banded chert
stone, seashells (three) and sandstone. They weighed
0.25 grams, 0.46 g, 0.76 g, 2.26 g, 6.95 g, 13.68 g, 27.5 g
and 52.10 g. The general ratio of the weights was 1:2. “So
far, Dholavira is the only site which has yielded so many
shell weights. It has not been reported from any other site
that the Harappans were also using shell weights. But
Binjor now has three shell weights,” he said.
Shubha Mazumdar, Deputy Superintending Archae-
ologist, Excavation Branch-II, ASI, said the importance
of the site lay in its workshops. “The Harappans, depend-
ing on their capacity and economic conditions, built
these kinds of workshops. They made finished products
here and exported them to other sites,” he said.
The ASI team also discovered a large quantity of
terracotta and shell bangles with ornamentation from
the site. Some of them were of the conjoined variety, that
V. VEDACHALAM
gular terracotta cakes,” Manjul said. Among the artefacts CI R C ULA R and yoni-shaped (foreground) hearths in a
found at 4MSR, three stand out: a seal-cum-pendant trench. In the furnaces, Harappan artisans made beads,
made out of steatite with engravings of animals on both copper products and gold ornaments. (Right) Platforms
sides; a terracotta seal with three Harappan signs; and a made of mud bricks, and oval- and circular-shaped hearths.
terracotta figurine with a beak-like nose, hairdo, banded
ornaments, and holes around the neck, which might have the thin seal, 2.3 cm x 2.2 cm, without damaging it. “You
been for the inlay of semi-precious stones. can wear it as an amulet or a pendant. It is basically an
The seal-cum-pendant belongs to the Early Harap- amulet-seal without a script,” said Manjul.
pan phase. Carved on one side of it are a frog and a deer Bisht said the discovery of this kind of steatite pen-
with horns. The other side has a mongoose, a dog and, dant from the pre-Harappan level was interesting. “It
perhaps, a goat. One cannot but admire the dexterity of does not appear to be a seal. It appears to be a token, a
the craftsman who carved the animals on both sides of kind of pendant. I doubt whether such a pendant has
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 72
been reported from any site so far,” he said. It has a tricacies involved in the urbanisation of the Indus Valley
knob-like projection and a hole for a cord to pass civilisation. That way, Binjor is a unique Harappan set-
through, which is unusual. “What is also unique is the tlement that provides the much-needed data on feeding
depiction of five animals,” Bisht said. [distribution] centres,” Rajan said.
K. Rajan, Professor of History, Pondicherry Uni-
versity, and an accomplished field archaeologist, called SIMILARITIES, DIFFERENCES
his visit to 4MSR in March “one of the most rewarding In what ways are this year’s excavation different from the
academic experiences”. The 4MSR excavation was im- one last year which yielded a vast assemblage of painted
portant on several counts, he said. Generally attention ceramic ware from the Early Harappan period? A Harap-
was paid to big Harappan sites such as Kalibangan, pan seal, thousands of beads made from semi-precious
Dholavira, Rakhigarhi and others, he said. “We hardly stones, a gold ornament, hundreds of disc- and trian-
concentrate on small settlements to understand the in- gular-shaped terracotta cakes, a fire altar and the skele-
A T ERRA C O T T A
H U M A N F I GU RI N E
with a beak-like nose
and holes around the
neck. The holes may
have been for the inlay
of semi-precious
stones.
A T ERRA C O T T A animal
figure.
H U ND R E D S O F iddli-shaped terracotta cakes have been found at 4MSR during the excavations in 2015 and 2016.
V. VEDACHALAM
A SMA L L T A N K made with wedge-shaped burnt bricks and the channel that carried water into it. The tank measured
130 cm x 130 cm on the outside. Harappan craftsmen used the water in the tank mainly for cooling the beads they made.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 80
tion confirmed that 4MSR was indeed a factory site and
the horizontal excavation revealed the plan of these mul-
tipurpose workshops with their furnaces, a series of
hearths of different shapes and sizes and an anvil,” Man-
jul said.
“A lot of urban sites have been excavated. But rural,
camp or factory sites have hardly been excavated in the
Harappan context. This excavation has revealed a lot of
furnaces, hearths and an anvil along with the raw materi-
als that the artisans used in their workshops. So this site
is important to understand a rural Harappan settlement.
It came up sometime during the period of other Harap-
pan sites such as Kalibangan, Rakhigarhi, Baror and
ASI
Banawali,” he said.
S A N J AY M A N J UL (second from left), director of the
excavation at 4MSR, and his team members with a pot
INGENIOUS DESIGN
discovered from the site.
The multipurpose workshop complex had within it a
small square tank ingeniously designed with wedge-
shaped bricks to store water. In many Harappan sites,
while structures such as platforms and residential houses
were built with rectangular mud bricks (bricks made of
clay and dried in the sun), the well was built with wedge-
shaped burnt bricks. Bricks baked in kilns at a high
temperature did not break easily. The tank in this case
was made of two layers of wedge-shaped burnt bricks,
with the floor level measuring 80 cm x 80 cm and the
outer wall of the tank measuring 130 cm x 130 cm. Water
reached the tank through a small channel on the floor.
“Water is sprinkled on the beads which get heated up
when craftsmen drill holes in them. Besides, water is
V. VEDACHALAM
used for kneading the clay for the terracotta products and
while bending products,” Shubha Mazumdar said.
Some platforms at the site were separated by a gap of
170 cm. “It can be a corridor or a passage. It can be a
separation of one house from the other,” said Mazumdar. A S TUD E N T of the Institute of Archaeology, ASI,
Some workshops had small residential houses situated New Delhi, brushing a perfectly made pot.
adjacent to them.
The rubble dumped on the mound by the Army after
Partition in 1947 and later by villagers helped preserve
the Harappan exotica for many years. But farmers have
cut the sloping sides of the mound to reclaim more area
for wheat cultivation. Worse, a concrete tank used for
irrigation now stands close to the mound.
LAYERS OF HISTORY
The trenches dug in the mound have seven layers, each
layer revealing the history of a particular period. The top
two layers form the rubble heap. Layers three and four,
below them, are associated with the Mature Harappan
V. VEDACHALAM
Europe’s troubles
A shrewd economist makes sharp observations on globalised capital
gone mad, largely in Europe. B Y C . T . K U R I E N
T HOMAS PIKETTY
rose to global fame in
2014 when the English
the member-countries had
a position of its own. Nor
was it an isolated issue.
translation of his Capital Soon it was the question of
in the Twenty First Centu- Chronicles On Our public (sovereign) debts.
Troubled Times
ry came out that year When in two of the mem-
By Thomas Piketty
(Frontline, November 28, Translated from the ber-countries (Italy and
2014). Between April and French and Greece) the sovereign debt
end of that year, the book annotated by Seth issue became one of con-
had become a bestseller, Ackerman troversies, Germany and
overtaking even the be- Penguin Random France could not resist the
stsellers in the fiction House India, 2016 urge to render friendly ad-
category. vice.
Unlike that heavily da- Pages: 181 Piketty puts it tersely:
ta-based and rigorously Price: Rs.699 “A single currency with
analytical magnum opus, seventeen different public
the French economist’s lat- debts and twenty-seven
est book, Chronicles On nancial meltdown in the lion and China, with an different tax policies that
Our Troubled Times, is an United States and its con- even larger population. are mainly trying to siphon
easy read. It consists of tinuing impact on Europe, Considering that the U.S. is tax receipts from their
some 50 newspaper arti- may appear to be some- a superpower from an eco- neighbours does not work.
cles published between what distant, both in space nomic perspective and In- But to unify public debts
September 2008 and No- and in theme. But the run- dia and China are rapidly and institute a budget and
vember 2015 with a preface ning theme, says the au- growing economies, the tax union, Europe’s politi-
of 11 pages. thor, is “globalised capital E.U. does not have much to cal architecture must be
The pieces, says the au- gone mad”. Which part of boast about. Even worse, fundamentally revised.”
thor, “represent one social the world can escape from while the U.S. bounced And, “A single currency
scientist’s effort to under- the consequences of that back fairly soon after the with eighteen different
stand and analyse the day- madness? meltdown, the E.U.’s trou- public debts on which mar-
to-day world, to get in- bles are continuing and kets can freely speculate, as
volved in the public UNITED STATES would appear to be far from well as eighteen different
debate; an attempt to rec- OF EUROPE being resolved. tax and social systems in
oncile the rigours and re- Europe has its special The E.U., launched in unfettered competition
sponsibilities of problems, though. One of some sense to counter the with one another, does not
scholarship with those of them is its size. While ge- smallness of individual work and will not work.”
citizenship”. ographically it covers the members, has other prob- Halfway house solutions
How one wishes that major part of an entire con- lems, too, which arise from are neither economically
more saintly savants, espe- tinent, demographically it the very nature of the union sound nor politically feasi-
cially those in India, is small. The population of and became embarrassing- ble.
climbed down from their the European Union ly evident when it started A United States of Eu-
distant secure towers. (E.U.) in 2015 was 510 mil- facing specific issues. rope is the only option, af-
For Indian readers, the lion. While that is larger When the question of the firms Piketty.
specifics of the pieces, than that of the U.S., it is a external value of the euro There are harsher in-
practically all of them deal- poor second to India with a became an issue, each one dictments also. Here is
ing with the 2008-09 fi- population of 1,200 mil- of the 17 central banks of one: “To pick up a few bil-
FEAR OF
The collection of essays portrays Pakistan, a state ENCIRCLEMENT
Pakistan’s relations with
which has been never short of challenges, from India suffered from a trust
every conceivable angle. B Y Z I Y A U S S A L A M deficit from the very begin-
ning. No wonder Jinnah
chafed at Akhand Bharat,
INTERNAL THREATS
Interestingly, Pakistan’s
story is not only about ally-
ing itself with countries to
maintain a semblance of
order in the turbulent sub-
continent. It is as much
about the internal dynam-
ics of the country, its keen
military, the Baluchistan
challenge and a police
force called upon to handle
Federally Administered
Tribal Areas (FATA).
In the essay titled “In-
ternal Security Issues in
Pakistan”, Hassan Abbas
says: “In Pakistan, an un-
derstaffed and under-
equipped police force is in-
AFP
creasingly called on to
P R IM E M I N I S T E R Nawaz Sharif arrives with Army Chief of Staff General Raheel Sharif at manage rising insecurity
the Prime Minister House in Islamabad on January 13 for a high-level meeting. and militant violence, and
quite predictably the po-
lice performance has been
width of vision but not al- as one of its regional bro- istan resulted in the Pakis- far from satisfactory…. For
ways the profundity to go kers in charge of contain- tan Army being offered many years, Pakistan has
with it. ing communism in Asia. billions of dollars besides been engaged in battling a
Right from its birth in This security-based rap- military support by the hydra-headed insurgency
1947 to the present, it has prochement was made U.S. The partnership was in FATA and parts of the
continued to be a troubled easier by the rise to power to culminate in Pakistan Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa
state and this has made it a of two ex-armymen, joining the U.S. in its war Province, formerly known
fighter throughout its ex- Dwight D. Eisenhower against terror in the wake as the North West Frontier
istence. With not-so-cor- and Ayub Khan, the for- of the 9/11 attacks on New Province. An expanding
dial neighbours all around mer having no real prob- York’s twin towers. The re- terrorist campaign target-
and the upsurge of com- lem with the latter’s coup newed partnership served ing Pakistan’s major cities
munism, Jinnah sold Pa- in 1958.” However, a rela- the immediate interests of is inextricably linked to
kistan to the U.S. as a tionship built on mutual Pakistan, but India was this insurgency. The grow-
geographically pivotal interest can hardly be du- left squirming. All along, ing number of suicide at-
state in its fight against the rable. Interests change and China had been a less ap- tacks across Pakistan
Soviet Union. The U.S. so do relationships. preciated, but no less use- underscores the dangerous
took a while to come The Pakistan-U.S. ful, ally of Pakistan, using nature of the crisis. From
around, but it did concur partnership underwent its insecurity and hostility 2002 to 2006, the total
“when the Cold War un- similar ebbs and troughs vis-a-vis India to cultivate number of suicide attacks
leashed itself in Korea. It before finally the enhanced it for an engagement with in Pakistan was twenty-
then recognised Pakistan Soviet interest in Afghan- the U.S. As mentioned in one while over the next five
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 86
years, the total number to enforce constitutional tan. Burki and Naseemul- in one’s own skin. Remem-
rose to 279…. Pakistan has limits on power abuse by lah point out: “When ber, Jinnah gave up his
reportedly suffered close to elected officials (in 2008- Pakistan achieved inde- business suits for the sher-
50,000 casualties in the 13)’, democracy would not pendence, it did not have wani. Pakistan, too, might
war on terror so far.” have survived in Pakistan.” the capacities of a func- have to stop looking at the
Pakistan’s politicians tioning state. That was not West and capitalise on its
are no less deserving of at- ECONOMIC FRONT the case for India, which strategic location for trade
tention. Mohammed Wa- In the section on Pakis- could simply take over cen- rather than balance of
seem, in his essay titled tan’s economy, Shahid tral institutions from the power.
“The Operational Dynam- Javed Burki and Adnan British Raj. They inherited Historically, it is a loca-
ics of Political Parties in Naseemullah paint a dis- a well developed capital tion that yielded great divi-
Pakistan”, gives a fairly concerting picture. Noth- city, a well staffed central dends in the world of
clear picture of this dy- ing much has worked for government, a central business. As for its rela-
namics. Politics in Pakis- Pakistan on the economic bank and a treasury to tionship with India, it is
tan, unlike in India, has front. handle government’s fi- likely to be the same: some
largely been a pursuit of To quote the authors: nance. The British left for- appeasement, some skir-
the elite, with most of the “Pakistan’s economy—wh- eign exchange reserves to mishes, a little conciliation
leaders hailing from ich has been struggling the partitioned states, 17 and some crises. This posi-
wealthy backgrounds. with fiscal deficits, high in- per cent of which were to tion is unlikely to change
They are often foreign- flation, declining dollar re- be given to Pakistan as its as long the military con-
educated gentry with no serves, and the drying up of share of these ‘sterling bal- fiscates power in Pakistan
direct link with the poverty foreign direct or portfolio ances’. Yet none of these and real democracy does
and illiteracy of the mass- investment that could fi- were immediately availa- not take root.
es. Tokenism prevails in nance current account def- ble to Pakistan. It had to The book concludes:
the quest for democracy, icits—continues to depend create a new state out of “Short of the establish-
like organising a march to on external support. In nothing…. Compounding ment of a real democracy
Data Durbar or to Parlia- September 2013, the In- this problem was the arriv- in Pakistan wherein civil-
ment to protest against ternational Monetary al of eight million refugees ians would exercise real
certain actions of the gov- Fund (IMF) approved a from India while six mil- control over the military,
ernment. Interestingly, three-year conditional ex- lion Hindus and Sikhs any long-term rapproche-
despite their none-too- tended facility loan of $6.6 emigrated to India.” ment with India will re-
comfortable past, politics billion to Islamabad. The When the country’s main elusive. The current
and military are often on IMF programme was sup- first Finance Minister ar- trend in Pakistan where ci-
the same page with respect plemented in March 2014 rived at his office in Ka- vilian power is no more
to foreign affairs. by a $1.5 billion loan from rachi, he famously found a than a facade does not au-
Philip Oldenburg Saudi Arabia—not to say single table and a chair. gur well for the future of
makes astute observations. anything about the resil- So, where does the so- India-Pakistan
He writes: “The political ient American aid.” lution lie? The solution can relationship.”
landscape of Pakistan has No wonder, Pakistan is be found in some of the ac- The book provides no
always had a prominent called the sick man of tions of Jinnah. For in- easy answers. The contrib-
place for its judiciary, and South Asia—Bangladesh’s stance, do as Jinnah did: utors to the collection open
particularly the Supreme growth rate is twice that of forge new allies, look with- a new window and let the
Court. The emergence of a Pakistan. in. Then follow Ayub reader take in the view and
judicially active court led It all seems so gloomy, Khan’s development dec- come to his or her own
by Chief Justice Iftikhar but this gloom stems from ades of the 1960s. And, im- conclusions. An open-end-
Muhammad Chaudhry the foundation of Pakis- portantly, be comfortable ed approach serves well for
and then the exhilarating a work of this nature.
2007-09 Lawyers’ Move- As for Jaffrelot’s invol-
ment seemed to mark a vement with the project, to
watershed in the Supreme borrow Ghalib words, the
Court’s role, from junior “The current trend in book is the body, his words
partner to the military and its soul. His essay carries
bureaucracy in times of
Pakistan where civilian more weight than many
crisis, to an institution au- power is no more than a others put together. If the
tonomously exercising book makes for impressive
power. Indeed, it can be ar- facade does not augur well reading, credit has to be
gued that ‘had it not been for the future of India- given to its editor. Jaffrelot
for the revival of the rule of even makes crossroads in-
law and for a mechanism Pakistan relationship.” teresting. 첸
story form took its own root in the lan- providing a sense of cohesion to the
guage and that its practitioners not on- collection. The compilers had to take
ly mastered the art of storytelling but into account three distinct political tra-
also tweaked the language to represent jectories and two opposing ideas of
the new needs of a society in the throes what constitutes art in creative writing.
of momentous change. The three political trajectories, broadly
Those stories are Sankalpamum speaking, are the nationalistic stream
Sambavamum (1913) by Ammani Am- inspired by the experiments in Bengali
mal (on page 95), Subbayyar (1921) by language, the Left’s social realism
Selvakesavarayar and Moondril Edhu largely inspired by the Russian masters
(1924) by V. Visalakshiammal. and the Self-Respect Movement’s de-
The anthologists have tried to be as sire to retain the wellsprings of the lin-
inclusive as possible to offer a glimpse guistic identity against the tide of
of the richness of the new literary form homogenisation that flowed from Indi-
in Tamil. “We set ourselves three vital an nationalism. The ideas contesting
principles to attain the larger objective for supremacy were “art for art’s sake”
of this collection and guide us through and “art for social and economic
the selection. First, apart from all the C O N S T A N Z O B E S C HI . He change”.
conventional elements of the short sto- was popularly known as Dilip Kumar and Subashree Krish-
ry, we wanted the selected pieces to Veeramamunivar. naswamy have managed to navigate
possess a very strong sense of ‘story’, so these choppy waters rather well. They
that they would survive the conflict of nuances between have chosen stories from iconic writers representing each
languages during the process of translation. Second, we of these streams. One can quibble about their various
decided to choose stories that reflected diverse geograph- choices. Another set of editors may have selected some
ical, professional and social backdrops that are a compos- other stories of each of the authors represented in the
ite of Tamil life and ethos. Finally, the commitment of the anthology. They may have even chosen a different set of
writer to the form of the short story and to the truthful authors. For instance, C.N. Annadurai and T.K. Sriniva-
narration of the depicted experience was crucial. These san represent the Dravidian movement in this anthology.
parameters instilled clarity of vision in the work at hand,” Some may feel that S.S. Thennarasu and M. Karunanidhi
says Dilip Kumar. should have been included.
One avid reader of contemporary Tamil literature felt
TO BE INCLUSIVE AND COHESIVE that the stories of Konangi and Poomani featured in the
While the objective to be inclusive in the selection of book reflect their early styles and do not capture their
stories is commendable, it also poses the challenges of later experiments with form, language and narrative
styles. In this context, Dilip Kumar’s explanation of the swear words, if possible. We would like the readers to
selection criteria seems fair. He says: “Our collection tries experience the Tamil culture, the Tamil language. We
to be as representative as possible, primarily focussing on have taken great care to retain the authors’ distinctly
literary achievements that stand the test of time. But we diverse voices from different regions, strata and times.
have taken care not to overlook some of the cherished We hope that the reader can perceptively sift the ironic
pieces of popular writing. Popular writings in Tamil, gaze from the comic and the metaphysical. We also hope
always distinct, attempt to discuss and expose topical this text, a different avatar from the original, will usher in
conflicts and human folly in a way that never breaks any a new readership for the writers and introduce to the
convention nor hurts any tradition.” readers an entirely fresh world,” says Subashree
The anthologists also point out that they had to leave Krishnaswamy.
out some of their favourite writers and their stories be- The translators have used kinship terms unapologet-
cause those stories were not amenable to translation. “I ically in many places, and this not only retains the essence
kept these important things in mind when I finally chose of Tamil but also draws our sensibilities to its fluid syntax
a story: one, the story had to have a universal appeal, in the spoken form, which is the basis for most of the
despite its unique cultural specificities. But that doesn’t stories. The free use of Tamil words somehow seamlessly
mean that we settled for simpler stories. A challenging merge with the narrative, and the context provides the
text which would prod me to bring out the beauty of the meaning. For readers who find it difficult to understand
source language in English was what we looked for. It what a particular word means in English, there is an
was also vital that the translated text retained almost all extensive glossary at the end where every non-English
the nuances and the natural flow of the original, over- word is explained. This anthology becomes a great read-
coming the inevitable losses that happen during any ing experience because it refrains from that annoying
process of translation. habit of adding footnotes and endnotes for almost every
“A few translations had to be abandoned since they sentence that have a culture specificity.
did not stand up to scrutiny after translation. Some In a larger sense, this anthology is an act of repudia-
stories hinged totally on local dialect, while a few were tion of the claims made by Salman Rushdie when he
riddled with too many linguistic impossibilities, which, co-edited The Vintage Book of Indian Writing 1947-
when elaborated upon within the text, made the reading 1997. Rushdie’s claim was: “The prose writing—both
experience cumbersome and laborious. Besides, a few fiction and non-fiction—created in this period by Indian
stories that resonated strongly among readers in Tamil writers working in English is proving to be a stronger and
quite simply did not work with readers of the translation. more important body of work than most of what has been
Including such stories would have shown the authors in produced in the eighteen ‘recognised’ languages of India,
poor light,” says Subashree Krishnaswamy. the so-called ‘vernacular languages’, during the same
What makes this anthology ring true to Tamil ears is time; and, indeed, this new, and still burgeoning, ‘Indo-
that it has retained the quaintness of certain usages and Anglian’ literature represents perhaps the most valuable
refused to smoothen the linguistic rough edges to sound contribution India has yet made to the world of books.”
right for an essentially English reader. “We were con- None of the Tamil stories are second to any of the
scious that the essence of the original must be retained. “Indo-Anglian” stories included in Rushdie’s volume.
We wanted the intonations of Tamil to come This speaks volumes for the abundance of creativity in
through—the slang, the idiomatic usage, and even the Indian languages. 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 94
With trees, birds and squirrels tossing quips back
More than inspiring and forth, the writing at first revealed a certain fresh-
ness and innocence, tinged with a sense of fun. But
I SETTLED in to read this story, an indulgent smile with the clever insertions of advertisements and head-
very much on display. After all, Expectation and the lines, the author naturalised the story, firmly putting it
Event began much like a parable and was written at a in the Tamil context. This not only evoked the times
time when the short story as a genre had barely reared but also lent credibility to the story. (Even after a
its head. I expected the author to deliver a banal hundred years, the attitude of newspapers and ad-
homily with a grandmotherly air, as if addressing a vertisements has not changed—‘Man dies climbing
brood of children. But the intelligent and unexpected tree’, ‘Yogi living on air’, ‘Sparrow virility potion’, ‘Nov-
end jolted me out of my complacency and sharply el hair remover’.)
reminded me of the enormity of the task at hand. In the end, we realise that all this takes place in a
Though the language of this nuanced story was classroom and the author neatly turns the story on its
reflective of the period, it had the lucidity and preci- head, forcing the reader to take children seriously.
sion of modern prose. Ammani Ammal was sure of her Intertwining so many elements effortlessly and seam-
craft, judiciously structuring her sentences to suit the lessly, the author reveals a high degree of sophisti-
tenor of modern storytelling. Here is a graphic de- cation, surely the hallmark of a successful modern
scription—an assembly line of perfect thinking, if you story. While building the story in English brick by
will—which even a talented writer of today would be brick, I always kept this larger picture in mind and
hard put to better: “First they chopped it into bits, inched towards it. The story, as an organic whole,
then pushed it into the grinding machine along with readily fell into place.
the others, pounded and squeezed all the juice out of Curiously enough, the English title was given by
its body to make it into mush, torturing it in ever so the author herself, printed as a subtitle. It is to our
many ways, before finally turning it into paper.” immense regret that we could not get any details about
The writing was peppered with words not much in the author. We do not know who she was, only that she
use these days and a few of them were Sanskritised, in was immensely talented. A good writer always goads a
keeping with the times. For example, “himsai” and translator into giving her best. Ammani Ammal more
“prasiddhi”. But they were not hard to decipher, and than inspired me.
lent a certain old-world charm to the writing. Subashree Krishnaswamy, Translator
aren’t suitable enough to be put for such use. They will birds cooed in the branches and children scampered
use you to make paper.” about in the shade and when you proudly watched them
“What is paper?” asked the tree to the weaver birds all? “I never imagined the world would be like this,”
who were flying here and there on its branches. “We don’t mused the tree aloud. The other trees, also turned into
know. We’ll ask the sparrows.” paper, concurred in one voice: “Whatever has been said
The sparrows said what they knew: “Paper is the of the world is all highly exaggerated.”
white thing on which people write and read. Earlier they Then they wound the tree into a roll, five miles long,
were making it with rags. Nowadays because trees are so and loaded it into a ship. There, poor thing, it suffered
easily available, they are making it with trees.” from ailments such as seasickness for a week. A fierce
“O, people will read me, is it?” enquired the tree wind blew over its head. When they heard the noise, all
eagerly. “Yes,” they replied. The tree lay spellbound, its the trees that were turned into paper sighed about the
happiness knowing no bounds. Aware that there was days spent so pleasantly in the forest, when they had so
little reason to be so joyful, the sparrows cautioned: fearlessly braved the winds. Our casuarina tree (turned
“Ayyo, wait for a minute. They are going to turn you into into paper) had the misfortune to be piled at the bottom
newsprint, not paper for a book.” of the mast of the ship.
“Whatever it is, they will write only interesting, good Not only that, the mast also happened to be its old
things on me, isn’t it?” said the tree. “Perhaps,” said the friend. The mast told the tree with satisfaction and pride:
sparrows. “But, generally, they don’t always write good
things.” A few men then came to drag away the tree. Poor
thing, the tree went through such ordeals. First they
chopped it into bits, then pushed it into the grinding Why, the life of a newspaper
machine along with the others, pounded and squeezed all
the juice out of its body to make it into mush, torturing it is just one single day.... A
in ever so many ways, before finally turning it into paper.
What was the point in having such thoughts while under- mast, on the other hand, is
going such torment? And what use thinking of days of
pleasant sunshine in the sloping hills of the forest, when of use for several years.
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 96
ILLUSTRATION: K.G. RANGARAJAN
97
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
A P HOTOCOP Y
of the original
text from
“Viveka Bodhini”
magazine (1913).
“There is no greater life than being a mast. Under the bemoaned the fact that it hadn’t become a mast. It took a
sunshine during the day and under the stars and the vow that if only it could somehow escape from this pre-
moon at night, we take people and goods to new-new dicament, it would never let its mind wander. But ayyo, it
countries, see so many ports—I can’t tell you how much was all over. Then the tree and others like it were cut up,
use we are to the world.” folded, and bundled off in the early-morning cold to be
The tree started to cry. “Are you telling me that a mast sold in the railway station. A man bought it for half an
is as important as a newspaper?” anna, read the entire contents, announced that there was
The mast shook with laughter. “Well, this is what I nothing worthwhile in it, and flung it under his seat.
like. Why, the life of a newspaper is just one single day; Another man picked it up, read it, and on the way back
it’s of no use at all even the very next day. A mast, on the home when he bought some fish, he wrapped them in it.
other hand, is of use for several years. O, I forgot another Stinking of fish, it spent the entire night thinking about
thing. Sometimes the captain of the ship leans against it. life in the forest. The next day, when the stove didn’t light
Just imagine how proud it feels.” up, the maid flung the fish wrapping into the fire. In a
The tree was engulfed in immeasurable sorrow. On minute it was burnt— “busss…”
reaching the port, the rolls of paper were unloaded on the Forgetting that it was a story that they read, the
shore. In the end, it reached the godown of the city’s students pondered on both the joys that the tree could
newspaper. It would have been so breezy in the forest; it have experienced and the turmoil it was subjected to in
was so different being shut inside the airless godown. reality.
Every roll of paper that lay in the room lamented with The teacher who was considered a great enemy and
great sorrow. One night, our tree (the paper) was taken to nicknamed ‘Teacher Never-to-Die’ asked: “What is the
the printing place, where under the press, unable to moral of the story?” “Man proposes, god disposes”, or
breathe, it lost consciousness. When it came to in the “You can’t beat fate” or some such grandiloquent philo-
morning, it found letters imprinted on its body. What the sophical statements were what he expected from the
sparrows had said had come true. What was printed on it children. But one boy, whose mind was still on the story,
were advertisements with crude illustrations—‘Fragrant uttered: “The moral is, these wretched newspapers
snuff’, ‘Sparrow virility potion’, ‘Hypnotic aromatic to- should be banned!”
bacco’, ‘Sixteen expensive things for a rupee’, ‘Novel hair Taken aback by the unusual response, the teacher
remover’, and things such as ‘Broad-daylight Murder in didn’t know what to say. Just because he was a young boy,
Chinglepet’, ‘Man Dies Climbing Tree’, ‘Trains Collide’, we shouldn’t presume that he answered in jest. More-
‘Yogi Living on Air’, ‘Flying Baby’, etcetera. There was not over, we elders are tortured daily by many such newspa-
a single thought-provoking word to be seen. pers which give us error-ridden information, poorly
Oh! Even the all-knowing Lord of the Serpents, Ad- printed on shabby, dirty paper, yielding nothing in return
hiseshan himself, wouldn’t be able to express how sad the for the effort we put in. Shouldn’t we then endorse this
tree was when it came to know what was printed on it; it view? 첸
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 98
TRIBUTE
AN encounter with any public On the other, with his vision fixed on
history will reveal how political pow- justice, and his cartoon-making
ers, irrespective of ideology and loca- process paralleling the building of a
tion, have led the common people, at moral argument, he established the
various points in time, to believe that methodological kinship between
their wisdom as a community is di- philosophy and cartoon art and
rectly linked to the quantum and proved that the comic philosopher is
depth of suffering they are capable of for real, here and now.
enduring. Thus has the tragic been Rajinder Puri (1934-2015) was
established over ages as the most ef- the mascot of the morally upright
fective legionnaire of the philosophi- Indian cartoon. Looking every issue
cal. As a tragic consequence of this in the eye without fear or favour, Puri
construction, the comic has often made a non-negotiable space out of
been pushed to the peripheries of the his satirical line. His incisive mind
VIPIN CHANDRAN
political state, and a great distance is lent a sense of truth to every contem-
constantly made up between the can- porary political issue. His probing
ons of the government and the hu- lines, uncluttered frames and witty
morous expressions of the comic commentary never let our attention
artist. Histories have conspired to shift from the idea and practice of
RA J I N D ER P U R I , a 2007 picture.
identify and brand the comic as the justice in our times. He redefined the
aberrant, which at its worst could cartoon as a public service.
serve the benign role of the chief pursued and expressed by a comic In his column “Bull’s Eye” in the
court jester and at its best might just philosopher. But, there has hardly October 21, 2002, issue of Outlook,
be expelled on charges ranging from been a comic thinker, too, political he wrote: “‘Seven months have
sedition to insanity. Needless to say, enough to draw an unambiguous line passed, we still haven’t got the truth
comic philosophers themselves have to establish comic philosophy as a about Godhra,’ I said. ‘Wait for seven
contributed to the unbridled success carrier of a moment’s truth. years,’ a lawyer advised me. ‘Remem-
of this authoritarian strategy the And, that is where Rajinder Pu- ber the mass cremations in Punjab?
world over—with their rare detach- ri’s calling as a cartoonist and a polit- Remember J.S. Khalra? More than
ment, they would simply laugh at the ical columnist becomes starkly seven years have passed. Have we got
murky politics of the day and never different from that of his contempo- the truth?’” Puri’s lines remind us
organise themselves against it as a raries. On the one hand, with the raw that the truth is still not found—it is
counter political voice. power of his drawing and his savage an unidentified, putrefying corpse ly-
Rarely has there been a political satire, he reduced the epistemolog- ing on the rail track, exposed, dis-
establishment that sought to learn ical distance between the fields of the owned, disturbing us with a
the truth of the human condition as political activist and the comic artist. grotesque vision of the stinking state
99 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
of affairs we are part of, urging us to and modern European masters while during the Emergency. In an essay in
do something about it, awakening in England despite his avowed dis- his book India: The Wasted Years,
the political subject in every passer- like for high art. It was during this 1969-1975, Puri wrote: “The govern-
by. We sense growing frustration in time that he met Ronald Searle, Osb- ment is becoming the common ene-
his lines, but there is also a strong ert Lancaster, Gerald Anthony my, and the police is a common
undercurrent of hope about knowing Scarfe and others. The change in Pu- target of public wrath.” In a cartoon
the truth. He lays the question of ri’s drawing style between his mid featuring Indira Gandhi, he strikes
truth out there, leaving open the pos- 1960s’ pocket cartoon “What a Life!” hard at her about the restrictions im-
sibility of its just resolution. Some- in The Hindustan Times and his lat- posed on the press and creative art-
day, someone may come by, and do er cartoons showing directness of ists.
the recognising act…. line and purpose does not escape The 18-month Emergency, de-
While Puri’s artistic method re- one’s notice. One sees the thinner clared in June 1975, and the resul-
minds one of Honore Daumier’s ex- lines and almost Laxman-like satire tant frustration with the political
ploration of the myriad possibilities in “What a Life!” undergoing a tre- rottenness around prompted Puri to
of line in the expression of ideas and mendous transformation. try direct political action. He became
emotions, his quest for truth imme- It may be valid to connect the the founder-secretary of the Janata
diately takes one to Jonathan Swift’s quick development of his uninhib- Party, which defeated the Congress
fierce satire. “Swiftian Satire”, a re- ited craft in handling the grotesque in the following national elections.
cent exhibition of Puri’s cartoons in with his early acquaintance with the But he soon found that the newly
New Delhi (India International Cen- originals of the medieval Dutch mas- built party was also becoming a
tre Annexe, May 3-10), revealed this ter Hieronymus Bosch and the early hotbed of intrigue as the greed of the
twin-edged reality of the late cartoo- 20th century German cartoonist and politicians clashed with their own
nist’s relentless pursuit of social and painter George Grosz. Perhaps, these stated mission of public service. Not
political justice through his work. encounters only accelerated the in- surprisingly, the Janata Party split
Curated by Partha Chatterjee and evitable home-finding process for a and out of it emerged entities such as
Arvinder Singh, the show featured a cartoonist who, at the impression- the Janata Dal, the Lok Dal and the
fine selection sourced from the Neh- able age of 13, had passed through Bharatiya Janata Party. Puri worked
ru Memorial Museum, K. Sriniva- the horrors of his country’s partition. briefly with the labour cell of the BJP
san’s personal collection and Puri’s Puri came to Delhi with his fam- but quickly realised that it was not
books. ily from Karachi, and Partition and for him. In 1988, he decided to leave
Chatterjee reports how during its utter ruin of human life and trust organised politics and continued to
conversations over tea the cartoonist were to mark him for life, as an indi- crusade until the very end for social
would occasionally allow his friends vidual and as a cartoonist. Later, he and political justice for every citizen.
a peek into his personal memory and came in contact with the socialist
share some sights and scenes from Ram Manohar Lohia, and like the PURITY OF PURPOSE
the time he was working with The latter became sceptical of the Con- Puri’s work has since remained both
Manchester Guardian and The Glas- gress party’s intentions and capacity the symbol and the field of his politi-
gow Herald. It seems Puri had, in an to rule India fairly. This scepticism cal commitment, which was touched
unguarded moment, confessed to continued through the first decades by a purity of purpose and stayed free
having seen the art of the classical of Independence and was reaffirmed of partisan considerations. Counter-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 100
ing the insubstantial, imitative and fered. From the beginning of his ca- friends recalled with relish some of
insecure establishment, he ceaseless- reer, he had also been keenly the “music” stories he would relate to
ly renewed his matter and method interested in international politics, them in his lighter moments. His
through experiments ranging from thus not limiting his inquires to the love for the khayal singing of Ustad
political activism to the use of tech- Indian political space. From Richard Chhote Ghulam Ali Khan, who
nology and colours in his cartoon- Nixon to Barack Obama, his brush hailed from Kasur (now in Pakistan)
scape. “Swiftian Satire” showed the followed United States Presidents, like his illustrious senior Ustad Bade
scale and variety of Puri’s political too—from the black-and-white peri- Ghulam Ali Khan, was integrally
art. In his punches, the acuity of Abu od through to the new digital revolu- connected to his concern for the un-
Abraham and O.V. Vijayan and the tions enabling convenient glocal derserved. Making a connection with
homely wit of R.K. Laxman and connections. the larger world of human expres-
Shankar (Kesava Shankar Pillai) As Chatterjee said, to create new sions, Puri informed his work not
synchronise. His vision, ideals and expressions and movements for his only with his knowledge of politics
craft together exemplified the proce- constant experiments with truth, Pu- and art but also of cinema, music and
dural affinity between philosophy ri drew from a variety of forms. He sports—football, tennis and boxing.
and caricature, and his work re- responded keenly to Hindustani mu- Puri’s disillusionment with and
vealed the paradigmatic connect be- sic, both vocal and instrumental. His anger towards Indian politicians
tween these modes of understanding were remarkably captured in his
life. What links his philosophical vi- weekly column on December 13,
sion of justice and his cartoon is their 1999, five years after the demolition
common proclivity to identify and of the Babri Masjid: “Last week’s
highlight the extraordinary that is grand bash in Mulayam’s house to
hidden in the ordinary, thus power- celebrate his son’s wedding provided
fully projecting a supranormal per- some indication. The leaders all
spective of a certain object, thereby made peace while the people were
subverting its “normal” reception. getting killed.” Puri held that politic-
This method of extricating a distinc- ians could not be exempted from the
tive truth from the chaos around at accountability for the slaughter of in-
once elevates the humdrum world nocents and the looting of the Indian
view of the man on the street and nation and its natural resources, and
sublimates the elitist distance of- he hit at them all, regardless of their
fered by irony-making wordsmiths. affiliations. For us, even after his
Paradoxically, experimenting passing, his work emerges as a re-
and renewing himself despite the im- lentless monitor of democracy, re-
pression of reticence and reserve that minding us of the power of simple
he gave us, he thought it was not too lines and words, of the historical up-
late for him to start using the com- risings of the common people against
puter, and once at it, he started ex- P U RI ’ S P O C K E T C AR TOON repressive regimes. In his last piece,
ploring in his unique way the graphic “What a Life!” from “The Hindustan which appeared on October 13, 2014,
possibilities the digital world of- Times” of January 1, 1966. in The Statesman, he wrote of a Modi
K.R. DEEPAK
THE Geospatial Information T H E GH A T road leading to Dharamsala and Mcleodganj in Himachal Pradesh.
Regulation Bill, 2016, which has Clicking an aerial picture of a landscape may become a punishable offence.
been put up for discussion in the
public domain by the Ministry of Geospatial information, accord- photos referenced to a co-ordinate
Home Affairs, may severely impact ing to the Bill, means “geospatial im- system and having attributes”. A per-
on the utilitarian values of informa- agery or data acquired through space son found to have stored such images
tion technology, which mobile phone or aerial platforms such as satellite, on a device or in print may face a fine
users have taken for granted. For in- aircrafts, airships, balloons, un- of up to Rs.100 crore, or a seven-year
stance, seemingly harmless acts such manned aerial vehicles, including prison term, unless otherwise per-
as clicking the picture of a landscape value addition; or graphical or digital mitted. The punishment for taking a
from an airborne aircraft’s window data depicting natural or man-made picture is disproportionate to the “of-
seat and posting it on Instagram or physical features, phenomenon or fence” when compared with, say, the
sharing it on WhatsApp, may be- boundaries of the earth or any in- punishment for sexual harassment,
come punishable offence if prior per- formation related thereto, including which is up to three years of impris-
mission is not obtained for the same. surveys, charts, maps, terrestrial onment. This Bill, if enacted, will be
103 FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016
retrospective in nature, which means publish or distribute information aerial photography, geophysical sur-
that all those who have already com- without any restriction whatsoever. veys, cloud seeding, etc”. The Remote
mitted the “act” of clicking or storing The Bill is also at odds with the Sensing Data Policy (2001 & 2011)
or printing such images need to National Geospatial Policy (NGP), defines “the distribution process of
queue up before an authority to ob- 2016. “Taking into consideration the satellite images to different category
tain a licence in order to avoid crimi- increasing growth of the use of Ge- of users”. The National Data Sharing
nal proceedings. It is not clear how ospatial Data, Products, Services and and Accessibility Policy, 2012, pro-
the government proposes to monitor Solutions (GDPSS)”, the compre- vides “an enabling provision and
each and every smartphone or device hensive NGP was promulgated in platform for proactive and open ac-
with an inbuilt GPS (Global Posi- April “to empower people through cess to the data generated through
tioning System). What is also not geospatial technologies”. The NGP public funds available with various
clear is the Central government’s says: “The wide availability of satel- departments or organisations of the
larger agenda: whether it wants to lite data and digital forms of map Government of India”.
integrate technology with the lives of information through networks has Legal experts fear that if the pro-
people or restrict its capabilities. It is rendered the erstwhile policies of re- visions regulating map-making and
not clear how the Digital India stricting map information to citizens sharing are enforced, innovative
dream that Prime Minister Naren- obsolete in many countries. The map-making technologies and loca-
dra Modi keeps talking about is to be mass markets for spatial information tion-based services that drive peo-
achieved if such a regressive legisla- has become a reality and this trend is ple’s lives today will be badly
tion is passed. likely to grow.” The policy is applica- affected.
At this stage, the proposed law ble to geospatial data-based prod-
also seems to be at odds with busi- ucts, solutions and services offered SUBMISSIONS ON THE BILL
nesses using location-specific infor- by governments, private organisa- The government has received several
mation, which have become a part of tions, non-governmental organisa- submissions, including sharp criti-
the daily lives of many Indians. Mo- tions and individuals. According to cisms, on the draft Bill. The Vidhi
bile applications that need a the policy, all geospatial data, prod- Centre for Legal Policy has submit-
GPS—from food delivery platforms ucts, solutions and services will be ted that the Bill placed serious ob-
to cab services—rely heavily on ge- categorised as restricted, unrestrict- structions in the path of independent
ospatial data. Many applications that ed and open on the basis of features environmental research and in-
allow online train/bus/flight ticket and not on the basis of their geog- formed and effective public partici-
booking use location-specific data. raphy. pation in environmental
What triggered the proposed leg- It is pertinent to note that map- decision-making. Arguing that the
islation was the depiction of Jammu making and distribution of maps in right to access information and to
and Kashmir as part of Pakistan and India have always been regulated by participate in environmental deci-
Arunachal Pradesh as part of China the Survey of India, which had the sion-making are integral compo-
in some social networking sites. With sole right to draw maps. The restric- nents of the right to environment
this in mind, the Bill aims to regulate tions were never implemented strin- upheld by the Supreme Court under
acquisition, dissemination, publica- gently. According to the NGP: “The Article 21 of the Constitution, and
tion and distribution of geospatial National Map Policy, 2005, defines also affirmed by the High Courts, the
information that is likely to affect the the scope, distribution and access of National Green Tribunal and the
security, sovereignty and integrity of digital Survey of India topographic Central Information Commission
India. The Mumbai terror attack of maps to user groups without jeopar- have demanded that the Bill be with-
November 26, 2008, is repeatedly dising national security.” drawn, or at the very least, that the
recalled in defence of the Bill. There Unlike the proposed legislation, use of geospatial information for the
is no gainsaying the importance of the National Map Policy does not purposes of participation in environ-
protecting sensitive information to have a blanket order but specifies mental decision-making be exempt-
safeguard the country and its citizens that wrong borders and sensitive ar- ed from its provisions.
against acts of terrorism. But, iron- eas should not be shown on maps. It The digital and telecom resource
ically, the Bill penalises the citizen as does not place many restrictions on centre, Medianama, has suggested
it applies to citizens of India outside the use of open series maps (as op- that the Bill be renamed the Sensi-
India, persons in the service of the posed to defence series maps) that tive Geospatial Information Regula-
government, wherever they may be, otherwise conform to the provisions tion Bill and that its scope be limited
and persons on ships and aircraft, of the National Map Policy, which to the depiction of information
registered in India, wherever they can be used by anybody to overlay deemed sensitive from the perspec-
may be. Interestingly, the Bill does spatial data on the map. tive of national security. It said: “Giv-
not include non-Indians in its ambit, The Civil Aviation Requirement, en that the devices and services...
who may misuse spatial data to harm 2012, according to the NGP, “details would generate billions of location
the nation’s security and sovereignty. procedures for issuance of flight data points every second, it is im-
They are free to acquire, disseminate, clearances for agencies undertaking practical and impossible for any se-
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 104
not recognised before the passage of
the Scheduled Tribes and Other Tra-
ditional Forest Dwellers (Recogni-
tion of Forest Rights) Act in 2006.
The procedure provided in the hard-
won Forest Rights Act [FRA], which
recognises claims to forest areas by
communities who have resided there
for generations, relies on mapping as
one of the core evidences. The in-
troduction of the Bill poses a big
question on the claims process pro-
vided for in the FRA, as acquisition
of geospatial information by any per-
son is illegal under the proposed Bill.
The broad definition of “geospatial
information” draws within its sweep
hand-drawn maps that include nat-
ural features and landmarks refer-
enced to a coordinate system. The
definition also includes the acquisi-
tion and use of GPS information.
K.R. DEEPAK
Both of these mapping techniques
are widely used in the process of fil-
ing individual and community forest
rights claims.”
TH E T E R R A I N O N the outskirts of New Delhi.
PAKISTAN’S OBJECTION
curity vetting agency to track this Nadu], and enabled volunteers to Objections to the Bill came from an
data.” It wanted a clear definition of provide information about the con- unusual quarter: Pakistan. A stake-
national security. “This Bill should dition of roads and the availability of holder, Pakistan raised concerns
not be applicable to those who use relief. These cases of use would not with the United Nations Secretary-
geospatial information or have noth- have been possible with the current General and the President of the
ing to do with the depiction of maps. Bill. By covering practically any vi- U.N. Security Council over the de-
It should be applicable only to map- sual representation of information piction of Jammu and Kashmir as
ping companies for their depiction of about coordinates in its ambit, the part of Indian territory, which, ac-
mapping data, and for the data that Bill will impede several academic us- cording to it, is factually incorrect
they themselves [and not users] rep- es of maps in fields such as architec- and legally untenable. It called upon
resent on a map, as well as how map- ture,” it said. the U.N. to uphold the Security
ping companies represent data The Internet Democracy Project Council resolutions and urged India
within India. As intermediaries, they has pointed out that the Bill dispro- to stop acts that violated internation-
can’t be responsible for data that us- portionately affected many margin- al laws. India hit back by saying that
ers generate. As explained above, us- alised sections—such as persons the Bill was an internal matter and
ers cannot be held responsible for with disabilities (PWDs) and forest- that Pakistan had no locus standi in
data they inadvertently generate,” it dwelling communities—for whom the matter.
said. mapping has been a crucial tool in External Affairs Ministry spokes-
According to the Internet De- recording and using information person Vikas Swarup said: “The pro-
mocracy Project, the Bill will be di- about their surroundings and for de- posed Bill is an entirely internal
sastrous for businesses, manding their rights. “Maps are an legislative matter of India, since the
communities and individuals. “A integral part of assistive devices, and whole of the State of Jammu and
range of non-commercial applica- help PWDs commute and find their Kashmir is an integral part of India.
tions of Geographic Information offices, homes, places of recreation, Pakistan or any other party has no
Systems will be hit. Humanitarian etc. By regulating map use, the gov- locus standi in the matter. The gov-
efforts have been revolutionised in ernment is essentially pushing the ernment firmly rejects Pakistan’s re-
the aftermath of the availability of situation of PWDs back by 20 years, peated and increasing attempts to
high-quality satellite imagery. This putting PWDs back at the mercy of impose on the international commu-
has led to the mapping of areas after strangers on the street. [Similarly] nity matters that India has always
earthquakes and floods hit areas rights over homestead land that have been open to address bilaterally with
such as Nepal and Chennai [Tamil been occupied for generations were Pakistan.” 첸
THE draft Geospatial Informa- years. The Bill is highly authoritarian store such geographic information.
tion Regulation Bill (GIRB), intro- and heavy-handed in tone and its Such information can be provided in
duced in Parliament and released whole emphasis is on licensing, secu- the form of (digital) maps, remote-
online to the public on May 4 for rity vetting and penalising, and there sensed data, data gathered through
comments, is perhaps one of the is absolutely nothing in it about facil- the use of the Global Positioning Sys-
most anachronistic pieces of legisla- itating access to and usage of geospa- tem (GPS) and geographically refer-
tion that the government has come tial information that is of importance enced satellite imagery.
out with. to the public, to business and for de- The geospatial information sys-
Article 3 of the Bill says: velopment in general. Contrast this tem (GIS), an industry that has
“(1) Save as otherwise provided in with the corresponding Chinese Act, grown rapidly in the last couple of
this Act, rules or regulations made which says in its Article 11: “Basic decades, is a computer-based system
thereunder, or with the general or surveying and mapping is a public capable of assembling, storing, ma-
special permission of the Security welfare undertaking” (emphasis nipulating and displaying different
Vetting Authority, no person shall added). This intent is completely ab- kinds of geo-referenced information,
acquire geospatial imagery or data sent in the Indian Bill. and analysing the same to provide
including value addition of any part At a time and age when digital solutions for decision-making in de-
of India either through any space or technology is ubiquitous and “geos- velopmental and infrastructure pro-
aerial platforms such as satellite, air- patial information” about any part of jects, land use, urban development,
crafts, airships, balloons, unmanned the world is available freely to any- construction activities, water supply,
aerial vehicles or terrestrial vehicles, one with Internet connectivity to irrigation, rural electricity supply
or any other means whatsoever. download even on a mobile phone and highway development and pro-
“(2) Every person who has al- and such information is increasingly viding public utility services, such as
ready acquired any geospatial imag- becoming part of our daily lives (the communication networks, drainage
ery or data of any part of India… next time you call a radio taxi, re- systems, roads, public transport and
including value addition prior to member that it uses a GPS-enabled traffic regulation.
coming of this Act into effect, shall device), the Bill defies logic. Geospatial data is also an impor-
within one year from the commence- What does geospatial informa- tant component of scientific research
ment of this Act, make an application tion or data mean? The phrase refers and industrial activity relating to ge-
along with requisite fees to the Secu- to data that have a geographic com- ological formations, landslips, tec-
rity Vetting Authority for retaining ponent to them, that is, data that tonic studies, mineral and oil
such geospatial information and have geographic information tagged explorations, and coastal and ocean-
grant of licence thereof.” to them, say in the form of coor- ographic studies. For such applica-
Violations of these will attract dinates, an address, a city name, or tions, usually, large-scale
heavy penalties, which can vary from any other locational attribute. Ge- topographic maps (1:50,000 and
Rs.1 crore to Rs.100 crore and/or im- ospatial technology refers to technol- larger) are needed. With the advent
prisonment up to a period of seven ogy used to acquire, manipulate and of the GIS, the demand for geospatial
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 106
(of different kinds) whose sole gener-
ator and repository was the Survey of
India (SOI).
According to the dispensation
that prevailed until 2005—when the
new National Map Policy (NMP)
was announced—maps were cate-
gorised as “restricted” and “unre-
stricted”, the latter covering only
about 40 per cent of the area of the
country and that too at scales less
than 1:250,000. The restricted area
included all the land within 50 km of
the country’s boundary. All digital
data, irrespective of the region and
scale, was restricted. Getting access
to the restricted data involved a cum-
bersome process of authorisation by
a Joint Secretary-level official, fol-
lowed by a vetting process by security
agencies to ensure that the so-called
Vital/Vulnerable Areas (VAs) and
Vital/Vulnerable Points (VPs) were
removed from the maps, which could
take months.
OLD MINDSET
The SOI, given its origins primarily
for military operations during the
British days, continued to be largely
under the control of the military and
THE HINDU ARCHIVES
SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY
Chauhan. Every time he Delhi and District Cricket
neared his 100, I would Association (DDCA). He
pray to God to help him was said to be the man
complete his century. supporting Arun Jaitley in
Today, though, I pray for the latter’s no-holds-
the students of NIFT and barred fight with fellow
their future.” (Incidentally, party leader Kirti Azad.
CHE TAN C HA UHAN , the newly appointed Chairman of
Chauhan retired from Test Chauhan’s elevation to
the National Institute of Fashion Technology.
cricket without a century NIFT is being seen as a
to his name.) reward for his loyalty to
Textiles Minister Jaitley. Soon after the Chauhan himself claimed printing press. “I will give
Santosh Gangwar gave announcement, Azad saw that he would divide his 20 per cent of my time to
Chauhan a vote of a silver lining in the whole time between his new my business, 20 per cent
confidence and pleaded affair, quipping: “I hope responsibilities, the DDCA to NIFT and the rest to the
with the media to give him now he will spend less (where he is the vice DDCA,” he said, sparking
“at least three months” to time in the DDCA.” chairman) and his own off a series of tweets
prove his worth. “Chauhan
has a fair idea of fashion
as he is widely travelled,”
Gangwar said. “The NIFT
board has 11 members
belonging to different
walks of life, including
businessmen and
designers,” he added.
The board includes
Sunil Sethi, president of
the Fashion Design
Council of India; Ruby
Yadav, a former Miss Asia;
Balkrishan Goenka,
chairman of the Welspun
Group; and P.K. Gupta,
chairman of the Sharda
Group of Institutions and
NAGARA GOPAL
chancellor of Sharda
University. There are three
lawmakers too: Rajya
Sabha member Kanimozhi
and Lok Sabha members S T U D EN T S O F N I F T at a handloom unit in Hyderabad.
ASHOKE CHAKRABARTY
studio shut down, bringing work came its way, but the
to an end an institution that closure still came as a big
had contributed to blow to the octogenarian
spreading images of photographer. “I am in
Kolkata in its various despair,” he said. “That
stages of evolution all over such an institution should
the world. Many of these T H E B O U RN E & S H E P HE R D studio in Kolkata. close down means a
pictures are preserved and chapter in the world of
displayed in places like the relationship that went back Ray also had a deep photography is coming to
National Portrait Gallery in many years. My father interest in old Kolkata and an end,” said Ghosh.
London, the Smithsonian would go there for the Raj period, which would What made Bourne &
Museums in the United reference work and [he often draw him to Bourne & Shepherd such an
States, and the Cambridge went there] while making Shepherd. “In those days, it invaluable source of
University Library in the period films like was the National Library reference was the huge
United Kingdom. “Charulata” (1964), and Bourne & Shepherd range of subjects it covered
Not only did it capture “Satranj ke Khiladi” (1977), that he mainly visited,” said and preserved. The
and preserve history, the etc. One big advantage at Sandip Ray. internationally acclaimed
studio was a part of history Bourne & Shepherd was In 1991, a fire destroyed film-maker Buddhadeb
itself, as many great that its classification of the archives of the studio. Dasgupta discovered this
figures of Indian history, photographs was just Sandip Ray remembers when making a
including Rabindranath magnificent, and whatever that his father was documentary many years
Tagore, often frequented my father wanted to see, absolutely devastated by ago. “The film I was doing
the place. Satyajit Ray had a whether negatives or glass the news. “He was quite ill was on the folk/traditional
long and deeply personal plates, would be provided at that time, and when he form of art and how it had
relationship with the for him instantly. He got to know of the fire he inspired the great painters
studio. According to his depended a lot on Bourne & was just heartbroken. We of modern India. I do not
son, Sandip Ray, whenever Shepherd for visual still have all the amazing think many people are
Satyajit Ray made a “period reference, particularly for prints we got from the aware of the excellent
film” he went to Bourne & costumes and jewellery of studio,” said Sandip Ray. collection of pictures
Shepherd to consult its a particular period,” Sandip The legendary Bourne & Shepherd had
archives. “It was a Ray told Frontline. Satyajit photographer Nemai amassed on paintings and
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 116
and propagating a
Cabinet reshuffle and dissent
karnataka
May 2018 Assembly Krishna, still doubt his winning a sizeable number
election. Siddaramaiah Congress credentials to be of seats in Mysuru and
said to his Cabinet Chief Minister. Chamarajanagar districts.
colleagues that the Said a former The recast team has
reshuffle was in the Minister: “He never sought to highlight the
“interest of the party” and mingles with party Congress’ commitment to
C H I EF M I N I S T ER
was “needed if there was workers and is always be the messiah of Dalits
Siddaramaiah.
to be an effective Cabinet”. surrounded by his own and Other Backward
Speaking to Frontline, He is trying to curb henchmen and sycophants Classes (OBCs) even while
senior colleagues of dissidence through money most of whom are ‘friends’ promoting the interests of
Siddaramaiah said that power and offers of who joined the Congress the Lingayats. The
since there was no scope postings…. He is paving along with him. He has no Congress projection of
for any expansion (the the way for the exit of the ‘Congress culture’ or Siddaramaiah in the State
Cabinet already had the Congress from commitment to the party. and Mallikarjuna Kharge
maximum permissible Karnataka.” It is well known that he (a Dalit) at the Centre
number of Ministers) the The aftermath of the came to the Congress only resonates this philosophy,
Chief Minister had no latest reshuffle, which has to become the Chief as does Siddaramaiah’s
option but to drop some also seen the elevation of Minister.” reshuffle, which reflects
Ministers to accommodate a few from Minister of Many Congressmen the altered caste and
new ones. They were State to Cabinet rank, are also critical of the community equations;
angry that he neither dampened the euphoria Chief Minister for there are now nine OBCs,
consulted any of the them following the Congress’ promoting the interests of five Dalits and seven
(senior Ministers) nor took unexpected gain of a third his Kuruba (shepherd) Lingayats in the Ministry.
those who were being seat in the Rajya Sabha caste (which has been The major loser is the
dropped into confidence. elections with the help of given an extra berth in the State’s other dominant
Said a senior Minister: rebel Janata Dal (Secular) reshuffle) over all others community, the
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 118
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 120
A ‘nano’ drum to probing exciting new as- of the journal Nature or strains, the drum. The
pects of fundamental Nanotechnology, bending of the drum also
RESEARCHERS in the Tata physics. The experiment consist- caused different modes of
Institute of Fundamental The work, done by John ed of studying the mechani- the drum to interact with
Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Matthew and his associates, cal vibrational modes, or each other. “Using this in-
have demonstrated the abil- made use of graphene, a “notes”, similar to a musical teraction we can now show
ity to manipulate the vibra- one-atom thick wonder ma- drum. The small size of the that energy can be trans-
tions of a drum of terial, to fabricate drums drum (diameter 0.003 mm, ferred between the modes,
nanometre-scale thickness, that have highly tunable me- or 30 times smaller than the leading to the creation of
which would be the world’s chanical frequencies and diameter of human hair) new ‘notes’ in the drum,”
smallest and most versatile coupling between various gave rise to high frequencies says Mandar Deshmukh, un-
drum. This work, according modes. Coupling between of vibration for the “nano der whose supervision this
to a TIFR press release, has the modes was shown to be drum” in the range of 100 work was carried out. The
implications in improving controllable, which led to megahertz (100 million rate of energy transfer could
the sensitivity of small de- the creation of new, hybrid times/second). The work be precisely controlled by
tectors of mass, very impor- modes and, further, allowed showed that the notes of electrical signals that mod-
tant in detecting the mass of amplification of the vibra- these drums could be con- ulate the coupling. The work,
small molecules like virus- tions. The work has been trolled by making use of an in addition, made use of the
es. This also opens the door published in a recent issue electrical force that bends, mechanical mode coupling
ON June 16, the Ministry of Teesta Setalvad told Frontline: SCPPL towards its agreed monthly
Home Affairs (MHA) issued an or- “It is an old story which you also have share of shared actual expenses in-
der cancelling the Foreign Contribu- been following. We have been fight- curred on office/furniture and fix-
tion (Regulation) Act, 2010, (FCRA) ing this for two years. This decision tures/office equipment/staff. No
registration of the Sabrang Trust, of was pre-decided. When Javed went part of this amount was paid to Tees-
which the chief trustees are the activ- for the hearing, it was over in seven to ta Setalvad or Javed Anand, and no
ist Teesta Setalvad and her husband, 10 minutes. This is nothing but a rent has ever been charged to any
Javed Anand. The order means that vilification campaign to malign and trust or entity for use of office space
the Sabrang Trust will not be able to defame.” The Sabrang Trust works by Teesta Setalvad’s parents, as
receive foreign funding anymore. on issues relating to communal har- alleged.
The Ministry’s order said that the mony. The choking of funds effected The MHA order says that the
FCRA registration was being can- by the MHA order will hinder its NGO did not obtain the mandatory
celled because of monetary irregular- work, particularly its work with the government permission before uti-
ities detected in the Sabrang Trust’s victims of the 2002 violence in Guj- lising over 50 per cent of foreign con-
transactions and also that the orga- arat. tributions for administrative
nisation’s responses to the charges expenditure. Teesta Setalvad’s press
had been carefully examined. It said ACCUSATIONS AND REBUTTAL release had contended that its ad-
that the trust had spent Rs.50 lakh The MHA has listed six FCRA vio- ministrative expenses for 2010-11
for Sabrang Communications & lations by the Sabrang Trust. Teesta and 2011-12, the check period, were
Publishing Pvt Limited (SCPPL), of Setalvad and her team have said they well below the permissible 50 per
which Teesta Setalvad and Javed have already refuted each one of the cent limit. She says that the MHA
Anand are directors, co-editors, charges. In a press release of October has collated project-related expenses
printers and publishers. “By this ac- 2015, Teesta Setalvad’s defence team incurred in furtherance of the ob-
tion, the NGO [non-governmental said in the 2015 release that the jectives of the trust with adminis-
organisation] has not only unau- transfer of Rs.50 lakh (between trative expenses. The FCRA, 2010,
thorisedly utilised the foreign contri- 2006-07 and 2013-14) was “pay- clearly states that expenses directly
bution for the purposes of an ment” by the Sabrang Trust to related to project execution are not to
unregistered entity but also that en- be included in administrative ex-
tity being a self-owned media and penses, the trust says.
publication company, utilised that The order stated that the inspec-
amount for activities totally prohib- tion of records showed that the chief
ited by FCRA,” the order added. trustees Teesta Setalvad and Javed
The trust responded to the order Anand also work as directors, co-edi-
with a statement, saying: “The Trust- tors, printers and publishers in
ees regret to note that today’s order SCPPL, which publishes a magazine
of the Home Ministry is simply a called Communalism Combat. Both
mechanical reiteration of the very entities function from the same
S HA NK ER CHAK R AV ARTY
Crime capital
A series of murders in Tamil Nadu in June, including that of a young
woman on a railway platform in Chennai, shatters the State’s image as a
“garden of peace”. B Y T . S . S U B R A M A N I A N
R. RAGU
claimed that “my reign [from 2011 to
2016] was the golden age for
women”. T H E B O D Y O F S W ATHI being carried away from the Nungambakkam
In the Assembly election held on railway station on June 24.
May 16, the All India Anna Dravida
Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), of on her Facebook wall. However, A constable knocked on the family’s
which Jayalalithaa is the general sec- what caught the national attention flat located on South Gangai Amman
retary, was voted to power for anoth- was the brutal murder of 24-year-old Kovil Street, Choolaimedu, near the
er five-year term. She became Chief S. Swathi, a software engineer em- Nungambakkam railway station. It
Minister again on May 23. Within 40 ployed in Infosys, around 6.45 a.m. was heartrending to see her father
days of her taking over as Chief Min- on the platform of the Nungambak- Santhanagopalakrishnan break
ister, a series of murders, targeting kam railway station in Chennai on down on seeing his daughter’s body
women, convulsed Chennai. Earlier, June 24. lying on the platform.
on May 8, Rohini Premkumari, an About 15 minutes earlier, her fa- The police achieved a break-
oncologist, was found murdered in ther, K. Santhanagopalakrishnan, through on July 1 night when they
her home in Egmore in the heart of had dropped her at the railway sta- zeroed in on 22-year-old P. Ram-
Chennai. The assailants had hit her tion on his two-wheeler. Swathi was kumar, who was hiding in the back-
on the head with an iron rod. waiting on the platform to catch an yard of his house at Panpozhi village
It was a week of bloodshed from electric train to travel to her office near Meenakshipuram, about 60
June 19 to 26, with numerous mur- located at Mahindra World City in km from Tirunelveli town. After
ders taking place in Chennai and Ti- Paranur, when the assailant swung a committing the murder on June 24,
runelveli and Tuticorin districts. specially made weapon at her from he had gone home where his parents
Most of the victims were women. behind. Reports said that as she lay lived and never stepped out. When
From June 22 to 26, seven women writhing on the platform, nobody the police surrounded his home at 11
were murdered, six of them in Chen- came to her help. Her body lay there p.m., he tried to commit suicide by
nai and the seventh in Tirunelveli till 9 a.m. Her handbag lay near her slashing his throat with a knife. He
district. Besides, a young woman body. The police, who arrived at the was rushed to the government hospi-
committed suicide in Salem after a railway station around 9 a.m., reco- tal at Tenkasi town and later shifted
morphed picture of hers was posted vered her identity card from the bag. to the Government Medical College
FRONTLINE . JULY 22, 2016 126
Hospital at Tirunelveli. Ramkumar hind her, and as she turned back to bleeding to death took a train and
is a graduate engineer who complet- look, the assailant hit her on her right escaped” (Daily Thanthi DT Next,
ed his B.E. from an engineering col- jaw, neck and head with his ma- June 26). Her body was not covered
lege at Alankulam in Tirunelveli chete-like weapon. He then sprinted for a long time after the incident. “So
district. He came to Chennai looking down the platform towards Kodam- many trains would have passed by on
for a job and was staying in a lodge on bakkam side, ran along the railway both the platforms and yet no one
Eighth Street, Sourashtra Nagar, track for about 50 metres and threw came forward to cover the body till a
close to Swathi’s house. Informed the weapon near three white-painted senior police official arrived at 9
police sources said the motive for the pillar boxes installed for signalling. a.m.,” said Swathi’s uncle K. Govin-
murder was unrequited love. He then scaled a wall along the Rail- daraj (The Hindu, June 26, 2016).
However, T.K. Rajendran, Com- way Border Road, which runs paral- Again, on June 24, four women
missioner of Police, Chennai, who lel to the track. But he cut his hand on belonging to one family were mur-
addressed a press conference on July the glass pieces embedded on the top dered in the heart of Chennai. Chin-
2, said “the motive behind the crime of the wall and disappeared. The po- naraj, a 35-year-old man, murdered
will be known during the investiga- lice found bloodstains on the wall. his wife, Pandiammal (38), and her
tion”. When a reporter asked him An important clue to his identity three daughters from her previous
whether the crime was emerged when it was dis- marriage, in their cramped home on
committed “out of pas- covered that a closed cir- Muthu Street in Royapettah, close to
sion”, he reiterated that cuit camera installed by a the Royapettah police station. Chin-
the motive would un- private firm, which is lo- naraj clubbed them to death with an
ravel only during the cated on Railway Border iron rod and stayed with the bodies
BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
investigation. “There is Road and offers various for two days in the closed house. He
no other accused,” he courses, had captured strangled the youngest daughter, a
asserted. pictures of the assailant schoolgirl, with the wire of an electric
Answering ques- walking along the road iron. Raja Bahadur, the houseowner,
tions on how the police with his backpack before alerted the police after a stench start-
were able to apprehend he reached the railway ed emanating from the house. The
Ramkumar, Rajendran S . S W A T H I . station and committed police found Chinnaraj sleeping on
said: “Our teams were the murder. He was wear- the Marina beach, behind the Light
able to zero-in on him after a thor- ing dark trousers and a checked shirt House. He had parked his scooter
ough investigation. Our teams and was walking along the com- nearby and that gave him away.
fanned out in Choolaimedu and pound wall abutting the railway Chinnaraj told the police that after
Nungambakkam and on the Infosys track. More footage of his, after he he committed the four murders, he
campus.” People not only from committed the crime, became avail- wanted to drown himself in the Bay
across Tamil Nadu but also from oth- able from cameras installed in a of Bengal but did not have the cour-
er States provided information to the house on Seventh Cross Street, Sou- age to do so.
police. Swathi’s parents cooperated rashtra Nagar. The footage shows
with them. him checking his hands for injuries, LACK OF COORDINATION
A lot of footage from several probably sustained when he scaled Even as anger swept through Chen-
CCTV cameras was studied. Thou- the compound wall. The footage nai over Swathi’s and a string of other
sands of phone calls made in the shows him entering Eighth Cross bloody murders, the Government
Choolaimedu area before and after Street and disappearing. Railway Police (GRP) and the Chen-
the crime was committed were ana- Swathi’s murder shook Chennai, nai city police were at loggerheads as
lysed. especially women. It took place in to who should investigate Swathi’s
The killer was aware that her fa- daylight on an open railway platform murder because it took place on a
ther dropped her near the station where at least a few dozen people railway platform. A top police official
every day around 6.30 a.m., when the would have been waiting to catch reportedly told an English newspa-
station is not usually crowded. She their trains. But, as her father told per that although railway stations
always sat on a particular bench on reporters, nobody came to her res- did not fall under the jurisdiction of
platform number 2 because the cue. Nobody chased the assailant ei- the city police, he had offered help to
women’s compartment of electric ther. Nobody bothered to inform the the GRP in investigating the crime.
trains would halt opposite it. Close to police about the crime or call the Indeed, reports in various news-
the bench is a telephone booth. ambulance (it was learnt later that papers about the lack of coordination
There is a railway catering stall, a the police reportedly received two between the Chennai city police and
shop selling newspapers, and anoth- phone calls about the crime). A po- the GRP bothered a Division Bench
er stall, all situated in a row near the lice officer said: “People just watched comprising Justice S. Nagamuthu
phone booth. On the fateful day, the injured girl bleeding and writh- and V. Bharathidasan of the Madras
Swathi was perhaps sitting on the ing in pain till the police arrived at High Court so much that on June 27
bench. She saw somebody move be- the spot. Many who saw the girl the two judges, suo motu, summoned