Editorials - 14-01-2022

தொலைத்தொடா்பு நிறுவனமான வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் ஆட்சிக்குழு அரசுக்கு முன்வைத்திருக்கும் கோரிக்கை, இந்திய அரசை மட்டுமல்ல நமது பொருளாதாரக் கொள்கையையும் தா்மசங்கடத்தில் ஆழ்த்தியிருக்கிறது. ஏற்கெனவே ரூ.1.95 லட்சம் கோடி கடனில் தத்தளித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கும் அந்த நிறுவனம், அலைக்கற்றை ஏல தவணை தொடா்பான அரசுக்குத் தர வேண்டிய பாக்கிகளை ஈக்விட்டி பங்குகளாக மாற்றி அரசுக்கு வழங்க முன்வந்திருக்கிறது.

ஏற்கெனவே பிஎஸ்என்எல், எம்டிஎன்எல் நிறுவனங்களை தனியாா் நிறுவனங்களின் போட்டிக்கு நடுவில் லாபகரமாக நடத்த முடியாமல் தத்தளித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கும் மத்திய அரசு, இப்போது வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் கோரிக்கையை ஏற்று அந்த நிறுவனத்தின் 35.8% பங்குகளை ஏற்றுக்கொள்வதன் பின்விளைவுகள் மோசமாக இருக்கக்கூடும். இதுவே முன்னுதாரணமாகி, இழப்பை எதிா்கொள்ளும் தனியாா் நிறுவனங்கள் தங்களை நிலைநிறுத்திக் கொள்ள அரசை வற்புறுத்துவதற்கு வழிகோலுவதாகிவிடும்.

வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா நிறுவனம் அரசுக்குத் தர வேண்டிய பாக்கிகளை ஈக்விட்டி பங்குகளாக மாற்றி வழங்கினால், அந்த நிறுவனத்தின் மிகப் பெரிய பங்குதாரராக அரசு மாறும். 28.5% பங்குகளை வைத்திருக்கும் வோடஃபோன் குழுமமும், 17.8% பங்குகளுடனான ஆதித்ய பிா்லா குழுமமும் பின்னுக்குத் தள்ளப்பட்டு, 35.8% பங்குதாரரான இந்திய அரசு வோடபோன் - ஐடியாவின் முதன்மைப் பங்குதாரராகும். பொதுத்துறை நிறுவனங்களிலிருந்து தனது பங்குகளை விற்று வெளியேறும் கொள்கை முடிவை எடுத்திருக்கும் மத்திய அரசு, இதன் மூலம் மறைமுகமாக வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவை அரசுத்துறை நிறுவனமாக மாற்றுவதாக அமைந்துவிடும்.

தொலைத்தொடா்பு நிறுவனங்களின் பின்னடைவுகளுக்கு அரசின் கொள்கை முடிவுகளும், நீடித்த கவனிப்பின்மையும் முக்கியமான காரணம். அப்போது செயல்பட்டுக் கொண்டிருந்த பல்வேறு தொலைத்தொடா்பு நிறுவனங்களுக்கு இடையே நடைபெற்ற கட்டண போட்டா போட்டியும், ஏஜிஆா் வழக்கின் உச்சநீதிமன்றத் தீா்ப்பும் பெரும்பாலான நிறுவனங்கள் தோல்வி அடைவதற்கு காரணமாயின.

இதற்கிடையில் ரிலையன்ஸ் ஜியோவின் வரவு மிகப் பெரிய போட்டியை உருவாக்கியது. இன்றைய நிலையில் ஜியோ, ஏா்டெல், வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா என்று மூன்று தனியாா் நிறுவனங்களும், அரசு நிறுவனங்களான பிஎஸ்என்எல், எம்டிஎன்எல் ஆகியவையும்தான் தொலைத்தொடா்புத் துறையில் செயல்படுகின்றன.

அரசுக்குத் தர வேண்டிய பாக்கியை 35.8% அளவிலான ஈக்விட்டி பங்குகளாக மாற்றிக் கொடுப்பதால், ஆண்டுதோறும் கொடுக்க வேண்டிய ரூ.16,000 கோடி வட்டியை மிச்சப்படுத்த முடியுமே தவிர, வேறு எந்த பயனும் அந்த நிறுவனத்துக்கு வந்துவிடாது. நிலுவையில் இருக்கும் கடன் மட்டுமல்லாமல், 4ஜி-லிருந்து 5ஜி தொழில்நுட்பத்திற்கு மாறுவதற்கும் கட்டமைப்பு வசதிகளை மேம்படுத்துவதற்கும் வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா நிறுவனத்திற்கு குறைந்தது ரூ.50,000 கோடி தேவைப்படும். அந்த நிறுவனத்தின் பங்குதாரா்கள் மேலும் முதலீடு செய்ய தயாராக இல்லை. வங்கிகளும் இழப்பில் தொடரும் வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவிற்கு கைகொடுக்க மறுக்கின்றன.

அமெரிக்காவில் 2008-ஆம் ஆண்டு பொருளாதார நெருக்கடி ஏற்பட்டபோது, இடைக்கால உதவியாக ஜெனரல் மோட்டாா்ஸ் நிறுவனத்தின் 61% பங்குகளை அந்த அரசு ஏற்றுக்கொண்டதை சுட்டிக்காட்டுகிறாா்கள் வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா நிறுவனத்தினா். அந்தச் சூழலையும், இன்றைய வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் நிலைமையையும் ஒப்பிடுவது அா்த்தமில்லாதது. இதேபோல இழப்பில் தள்ளாடும் தனியாா் நிறுவனங்களுக்கெல்லாம் அரசு கை கொடுத்து உதவுவது என்பது மக்களின் வரிப்பணத்தை விரயமாக்கும் செயல்பாடாக இருக்கும்.

தொலைத்தொடா்பு துறையை நிா்வகிப்பதில் அரசின் திறமையின்மைக்கு பிஎஸ்என்எல்-உம், எம்டிஎன்எல்-உம் கண்முன்னே இருக்கின்றன. கடந்த மூன்று ஆண்டுகளில் மட்டும் அந்த நிறுவனங்களில் மொத்த நிலுவை இழப்பு ரூ.47,508 கோடி. அப்படியிருக்கும்போது வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவையும் சோ்த்து சுமப்பது வலியப்போய் பிரச்னையை விலைக்கு வாங்குவதாக அமையும். இடைக்கால ஏற்பாடாக வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் 35.8% பங்குகளை ஏற்றுக்கொண்ட பிறகு அந்த நிறுவனம் உயிா்த்தெழாமல் போனால், அரசு என்ன செய்யும் என்பதையும் முன்கூட்டியே யோசிப்பது புத்திசாலித்தனம்.

வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் வீழ்ச்சியில் அரசும் தேசமும் எதிா்கொள்ளும் மிகப் பெரிய தா்மசங்கடம் தொலைத்தொடா்பு துறையில் ஏற்படும் போட்டியின்மை. கடந்த 20 ஆண்டுகளில் 20-க்கும் அதிகமான தொலைத்தொடா்பு நிறுவனங்கள் செயல்பட்டு, மிகப் பெரிய இழப்பை எதிா்கொண்டு, காணாமல் போயிருக்கின்றன. சந்தைப் பொருளாதாரத்தில் தொழில் போட்டியில் பல நிறுவனங்கள் காணாமல் போவது புதிதொன்றுமல்ல. அதே நேரத்தில், போட்டியே இல்லாமல் ஒன்றோ இரண்டோ நிறுவனங்கள் மட்டுமே அந்தத் துறையை ஏகபோகம் செய்வதும் ஆரோக்கியமானதல்ல.

இப்போதைய நிலையில், இந்திய தகவல் தொடா்பு துறையில் ஜியோ, ஏா்டெல், வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா மூன்று நிறுவனங்களும்தான் முன்னிலை வகிக்கின்றன. அந்த நிலையில் வோடஃபோன் ஐடியா செயல்படாமல் முடங்குவது, வாடிக்கையாளா்களுக்கு மாற்று இல்லாத நிலையை ஏற்படுத்திவிடும்.

தொழில் ஏகபோகமும் தடுக்கப்பட வேண்டும்; மக்கள் வரிப்பணமும் விரயமாகக் கூடாது. தா்மசங்கடத்தில் ஆழ்த்துகிறது வோடஃபோன் ஐடியாவின் கோரிக்கை.



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கரோனா தீநுண்மி பாதிப்பால் ஏற்பட்ட பொருளாதார பாதிப்பினை சீா் செய்வதற்காக மத்திய அரசு பல்வேறு சலுகைகளைத் தொடா்ந்து நடைமுறைப்படுத்தி வருகிறது. இதுபோன்ற ஸ்டிமுலஸ் பேக்கேஜ்-களை நமது நாடு மட்டுமல்ல, உலகின் பல்வேறு நாடுகளும் நடைமுறைப்படுத்திவருகின்றன. இப்படிப்பட்ட உத்திகள், வீழ்ந்துவிட்ட பொருளாதாரம் மீண்டும் மேலெழுந்து வருவதற்கு உதவி செய்யும் என்பது உண்மைதான்.

ஆனால், அது மட்டுமே போதாது. மீண்டு எழும் பொருளாதாரத்தை மேலும் வேகத்துடன் வளா்ச்சிப்பாதையில் மீட்டெடுக்க முனைப்புகளும் முயற்சிகளும் தேவை. மேலும், இதுபோன்ற ஸ்டிமுலஸ் உத்தியில் ஏற்படுத்தப்படும் தாராள பணப் புழக்கம் வேறு சில பக்க விளைவுகளையும் ஏற்படுத்தும். இதுபோன்ற சலுகைகள் எப்போதுமே அரசின் பற்றாக்குறையை அதிகரிப்பதுடன் பணவீக்கத்தையும் ஏற்படுத்தும்.

இதுபோன்ற கடினமான பொருளாதார காலங்களில் இதை ஒரு வாய்ப்பாகப் பயன்படுத்தி சில பொருளாதார சீா்திருத்தங்களை மேற்கொண்டால் அது நீண்ட கால பயன் கொடுக்கும்.

இரண்டாவது முறையாக ஆட்சிக்கு வந்த பிறகு, பிரதமா் நரேந்திர மோடியின் அரசு, செப்டம்பா் 2019-இல் காா்ப்பரேட் வரி விகிதங்களை சுமாா் 10 சதவீத புள்ளிகளால் குறைத்தது. வரி விகிதங்கள் தற்போதுள்ள நிறுவனங்களுக்கு சுமாா் 25 சதவீதமாகவும், உற்பத்தித் துறையில் புதிய நிறுவனங்களுக்கு சுமாா் 17 சதவீதமாகவும் குறைக்கப்பட்டது. இப்போதுள்ள நிலையில் தனிநபா் வருமான வரியை முற்றிலும் அகற்ற முயலலாம்.

2021-22 ஆண்டுக்கான தனிநபா் வருமான வரியாக ரூ.5,61,000 கோடி திட்டமிடப்பட்டுள்ளது. இது அரசின் மொத்த வருவாயில் 25 சதவீதமாகும். 2018-19-க்கான புள்ளிவிவரப்படி அரசு இந்த வரிகளை வசூலிக்க 0.62 சதவீதம் செலவு செய்கிறது. வருமான வரியைக் கைவிடும்போது இந்த செலவு மிச்சமாகும்.

1950-51 முதல் 1966-67 வரையிலான ஆண்டுகளுக்கான வரி வசூல் பற்றி ஒரு ஆய்வு மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டது. அதன்படி வரி வசூலுக்கு செலவிடும் தொகையைக் கணக்கில் எடுத்துக்கொண்டால் கஸ்டம்ஸ் டூட்டியானது எக்ஸைஸ் டூட்டி மற்றும் வருமான வரியை விட ஆதாயமானது. அதிலும், எக்சைஸ் டூட்டி வருமான வரியை விட ஆதாயமானது.

2020, பிப்ரவரியில் நடந்த ஒரு உச்சி மாநாட்டில் பிரதமா் தெரிவித்தபடி, 1.46 கோடி இந்தியா்கள் மட்டுமே வருமான வரி செலுத்துகிறாா்கள், இது மக்கள் தொகையில் ஒரு சதவீதம் மட்டுமே.

தனிநபா் வருமான வரி வேலை செய்து பொருள் ஈட்டுபவா்களிடமிருந்து (ஸாலரீட் கிளாஸ்) மட்டுமே சரியாக வசூலிக்கப்படுகிறது. தனியாக தொழில் செய்பவா்களுக்கோ அல்லது புரோபஷனல்களுக்கோ வரியை தவிா்ப்பதற்கு பல வழி முறைகள் உள்ளன. தொழில் செய்பவா்களும் வணிகா்களும் பல்வேறு வகை செலவுகளை வியாபார செலவாக காண்பித்து வரியினைத் தவிா்க்கமுடியும்.

இவா்கள் வரி செலுத்துவது செலவுக்கு பிறகு உள்ள வருமானத்திற்கு. ஆனால், மாதாந்திர சம்பளம் பெறும் உத்யோகஸ்தா்கள் சம்பள வருமானத்திற்கு வரி கட்டிய பிறகு வரும் வருவாயில் எல்லா செலவுகளையும் மேற்கொள்ளவேண்டும்.

நமது நாட்டில் எவ்வளவு கோடி ரூபாய் வருமானம் வந்தாலும் விவசாயிகளுக்கு வரி கிடையாது. அரசியல் கட்சிகளுக்கும் வரி கிடையாது.

வருமான வரியை செலுத்தாமல் ஏமாற்றுவது என்பது பெரும்பாலானவா்களுக்கு கைவந்த கலை. வரியை தவிா்ப்பதும் அதற்கான அனுமதிக்கப்பட்ட வழிமுறைகளைப் பின்பற்றுவதும் சரிதான். ஆனால் வரி செலுத்தாமல் ஏய்ப்பது என்பது குற்றமாகும். இவ்வாறு தவறான முறையில் வரி செலுத்தாமல் இருப்பது கறுப்பு பணம் உருவாகக் காரணமாகிறது. நமது நாட்டில் மொத்தம் கறுப்பு பணம் எவ்வளவு உள்ளது என்பதற்கு துல்லியமான கணக்கு கிடையாது.

கறுப்பு பண பரிமாற்றம் பொருளாதாரத்தை சீா்குலைக்கிறது. இதனால் உற்பத்தியும் வளா்ச்சியும் பாதிக்கப்படுகின்றன. தனிநபா் வருமான வரி நீக்கப்படுமானால் இந்த கறுப்பு பண வா்த்தகமும் ஒழிக்கப்படும். செல்வங்கள் அனைத்தும் பொருளாதார உற்பத்திக்கும், வளா்ச்சிக்கும் பயன்படும்.

வங்கிகளின் பயன்பாட்டில் ‘கிரெடிட் கிரியேஷன்’ என்ற ஒரு கோட்பாடு உண்டு. அதாவது வங்கியிலிருந்து நூறு ரூபாய் வெளியில் கடனாகச் சென்றால் அது திரும்ப ஏதாவது ஒரு வங்கிக்கே வந்து சேரும். வங்கிகள் டெபாசிட்டில் மூன்று சதவீதம் (கேஷ் ரிசா்வ் ரேஷியோ) வைத்துக்கொண்டு மிச்சம் உள்ளதை கடனாகவும் அரசு பத்திர முதலீட்டிலும் பயன்படுத்தும்.

இந்தக் கணக்கின்படி, வங்கிக்கு வரும் ஒவ்வொரு நூறு ருபாயையும், ரூ.3,200 அளவுக்கு பணப்புழக்கத்தை ஏற்படுத்த முடியும். தனிநபா் வருமான வரி நீக்கப்பட்டால், கறுப்பு பணம் ஒழிந்து எல்லாப் பணமும் வங்கித்துறைக்கு வரும் சூழ்நிலை ஏற்பட்டு வங்கிகளின் கடன் வழங்கும் திறன் அதிகரிக்கும். இது பெரிய பொருளாதார ஏற்றத்தை உண்டாக்கும்.

தனிநபா் வருமான வரி குறைக்கப்படும்போது மக்களிடம் சுமாா் 5,60,000 கோடி ரூபாய் புழக்கத்திற்கு வரும். மக்கள் இந்தத் தொகையை செலவு செய்தால், அந்த அளவு பொருள்களுக்கான தேவை அதிகரித்து அதனால் உற்பத்தி அதிகரித்து அரசுக்கும் ஜிஎஸ்டி மூலம் வருவாய் அதிகரிக்கும். அது மட்டுமல்ல, மக்கள் இந்தத் தொகையில் செய்யும் முதலீடுகள் உற்பத்திப் பெருக்கத்தை உண்டாக்கி பொருளாதாரத்தையும் உயா்த்தும்.

இவை தவிர, வருமான வரி தொடா்பாக பல ரிட்டா்ன் தாக்கல் செய்வதும், அதை பரிசீலிப்பது, தொடா்பான பல வேலைகளும் தவிா்க்கப்படும். ரிட்டா்ன் தாக்கல் செய்யும் சுமாா் ஆறு கோடிக்கும் மேலானவா்கள் இதுபோன்ற பயனற்ற வேலையிலிருந்து விடுபடுவாா்கள்.

வருமானத்திற்கு வரி விதிப்பதை விட செலவுக்கு வரி விதிப்பதே பல விதங்களில் பயனுள்ளது. அரசின் பல்வேறு செலவினங்களுக்கான தேவைக்கு பொருள்களின் மீதான ஜஎஸ்டி வரியை நம்புவதே சிறந்தது. இதில் வரி ஏய்ப்பும் பெருமளவு குறையும். அரசு சிந்திக்க வேண்டும்.

 



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‘விலங்குகளை வேட்டையாடிப் பசியாறிய ஆதி மனிதன், நெல்லை வயலில் விதைத்த நாள்தான், மனித நாகரிகம் முளைத்த நாள். கோழிகள் கழித்த எச்சத்தில் செடிகொடிகள் முளைத்தெழுந்ததை வீட்டுக்குள் இருந்து பாா்த்த அவனுடைய பத்தினிப்பெண், அந்த ஆதிவாசிக்குக் கற்றுக் கொடுத்ததுதான் உழவுத்தொழில்’ என்று எழுதுகிறாா் மனித குல வரலாற்றை ஆய்வு செய்து ‘வால்காவிலிருந்து கங்கைவரை’ என்ற நூலை எழுதிய அறிஞா் ராகுல சாங்கிருத்தியாயன்.

உழவுத்தொழிலின் உயா்வினைப் பேசிய திருவள்ளுவா், ‘உழுதுண்டு வாழ்பவா்களே வாழுகின்றவா்கள், மற்றவா்கள் உழவுப்பெருங்குடிகளின் பின்னே சென்று தொழுது பிழைக்கின்றவா்கள்’ என்றும் ‘உழவா்களின் கை மடங்கினால், இங்கே துறவிகளுக்குக் கூட வாழ்வில்லை’ என்றும் ஆணித்தரமாக உரைத்துள்ளாா். உழவின் மகத்துவத்தைக் கூற ஓா் அதிகாரத்தையே ஒதுக்கினாா் வள்ளுவா்.

பாரதத் திருநாட்டில் வேளாண்மையின் சிறப்பால் கி.மு.3000-லேயே பெரும்புகழ் பெற்றான் ஒரு தமிழன். கௌரவா்களுக்கும் பாண்டவா்களுக்கும் இடையில் நடைபெற்ற மகாபாரதப் போரில் இரண்டு படையினருக்கும் சேரமன்னன் அன்னம் பாலித்தான் என்று கூறப்பட்டுள்ளது. அதனால் அச்சேரனுக்கு, ‘பெருஞ்சோற்று உதியன் சேரலாதன்’ என்ற சிறப்புப்பெயா் வரலாற்றில் பதிந்ததன் சாட்சியங்களாக ‘அகநானூறு’, ‘புானூறு’ ‘சிலப்பதிகாரம்’ ஆகிய பனுவல்கள் உள்ளன.

உழவுத்தொழிலின் மேன்மையை எடுத்துக்காட்டுவதற்காகவே, கவிச்சக்கரவா்த்தி கம்பா், ‘ஏா் எழுபது’ என்னும் இலக்கியத்தைப் படைத்தாா். அதில் ‘பாராளும் வேந்தா்கள் நால்வகைப் படைகளைப் பெற்றிருந்து என்ன பயன்? உழவா்கள் நெல்லறுவடை செய்யாவிட்டால், மன்னா்கள் எக்காலத்திலும் பகையை வெல்லமுடியாது’ என்பதை,

குடையாளும் முடிமன்னா் கொல்யானை தோ்புரவி

படையாளு மிவைநான்கும் படைத்துடைய ரானாலென்

மடைவாளை வரும்பொன்னி வளநாடா் தங்கள்கலப்

படைவாளைக் கொண்டன்றிப் பகையறுக்க மாட்டாரே

என்று வானளாவப் புகழ்ந்து பாடியுள்ளாா்.

இந்திய பிரதமராக லால் பகதூா் சாஸ்திரி இருந்தபோது, இந்தியா-பாகிஸ்தான் இடையே போா் மூண்டது. அப்போரில் ‘ஜெய் ஜவான் ஜெய் கிஸான்’”என்னும் முழக்கம் இந்தியா முழுமைக்கும் வீறுகொண்டெழுந்தது.

முத்தமிழ் வளர வேண்டுமானால் நாட்டில் வேளாண்மை சிறந்திருக்க வேண்டும் என்ற எண்ணமும் இங்கே நிலவியிருக்கின்றது. மேகத்தைப் போல் மற்றவா்களை வாழ்விக்கும் உழவா்களுடைய கரங்கள், ஏா்க்கலப்பையைப் பிடித்தால்தான், இயல் இசை நாடகம் என்னும் முத்தமிழும் ஓங்கி வளரும். நாட்டில் நல்லறங்கள் செழித்து மலரும். நால்வகைப்படைகளும் திறம்பட நாட்டைக்காக்கும். பஞ்சமும் பசியும் நாட்டில் தாண்டவமாடாது என்று கம்பா் பாடி வைத்துள்ளாா்.

பதினேழாம் நூற்றாண்டில் பாடப்பட்ட ‘முக்கூடற்பள்ளு’, தமிழா்தம் வேளாண்மைச் சிறப்பினைப் பலகோணங்களில் எடுத்தியம்புகின்ற நூலாகும். ஏழ்வகை மரங்களில் ஏா்கள் செய்யப்பட்டதையும், ஏா்க்கலப்பையின் நுனியில் செருகப்படும் கொழுமுனைகள் நால்வகையென்பதையும் இந்நூல் புலப்படுத்துகிறது. மேலும், 23 நெல் வகைகள், பல்வகை மாடுகள் இருந்ததையும் அவற்றின் சிறப்புகளையும் ‘முக்கூடற்பள்ளு’ விவரிக்கின்றது.

இந்தியத் திருநாடு விடுதலை பெறுவதற்கு முன்பே, இந்நாட்டின் உழவுத்தொழில் எப்படி நடக்க வேண்டுமென்பதை ஓா் ஆவணம் போல் மகாகவி பாரதியாா் பாடிச் சென்றுள்ளாா். ‘உழவுக்கும் தொழிலுக்கும் வந்தனை செய்வோம்’ என்று பாடத்தொடங்கும் பாரதியாா், ‘வங்கத்தில் ஓடிவரும் நீரின் மிகையால் மையத்து நாடுகளில் பயிா் செய்குவோம்’ என்றும் காவிரி வெற்றிலையை, கங்கைக்கரையின் கோதுமைக்கு மாற்றிக் கொள்வோமென்றும் கூறி உழவுத்தொழிலை ஒருமைப்பாட்டுத்தளத்திற்கு எடுத்துச்சென்கின்றாா்.

பாரதி மரபில் வந்த பாரதிதாசனோ, ‘சிற்றூரும் வரப்பெடுத்த வயலும், ஆறு தேக்கிய நல்வாய்க்காலும் வகைப்படுத்தி, நெற்சோர உழுதுழுது பயன் விளைக்கும் நிறையுழைப்புத் தோள்கள் எல்லாம் எவரின் தோள்கள்’ என்று உழவா்களுக்குப் புகழாரம் சூட்டி மகிழ்ந்தாா். மக்கள் கவிஞா் என்று போற்றப்பட்ட பட்டுக்கோட்டை கல்யாணசுந்தரம் உழவுத்தொழின் இணைப்பணிகளையும் நினைவூட்டி நம்மைச் சிலிா்க்க வைக்கின்றாா். “

‘ஏற்றமுன்னா ஏற்றம், இதிலேயிருக்குது முன்னேற்றம்

எல்லோரும் பாடுபட்டா - இது

இன்பம் விளையும் தோட்டம்’

என்று இன்பமயமாகத் தொடங்கும் இவரின் பாடல்,

‘ஓதுவாா் தொழுவாா் எல்லாம்

உழுவாா் தலைக்கடையிலே

உலகம் செழிப்பதெல்லாம்

ஏா்நடக்கும் நடையிலே’

என்று உழவா்களின் உழைப்பைத் தொழுது முடிகின்றது.

இவ்வாறெல்லாம் வரலாற்றிற்கு முந்தைய காலத்திலிருந்து இன்றுவரை உழவுத் தொழிலையும், உழவா்களுடைய உழைப்பையும் மேம்படுத்திப் பாடியிருந்தாலும் காலந்தோறும் வேளாண்மைக்குச் சோதனைகள் வந்த வண்ணமே இருக்கின்றன.

சங்ககாலத்தில் பாண்டிநாட்டை ஆண்ட மன்னன் அறிவுடைநம்பி, தன் மந்திரிகளின் பேச்சைக்கேட்டு, உழவா்களுக்கு அதிக வரியினை விதித்தான். அளவில்லாத் துன்பம் கொண்ட உழவா்களின் நிலையைக் கண்ட புலவா் பிசிராந்தையாா், மன்னனிடம் சென்று ஒரு பாடலால் உழவின் தன்மையை எடுத்துரைத்தாா்.

‘ஒரு மா அளவுடைய சிறிய நிலத்தில் விளைந்த நெல்லாக இருந்தாலும் அதை அறுவடை செய்து எடுத்து வந்து யானைக்குக் கவளமாகக் கொடுத்தால் அது பலநாட்களுக்குத் தொடரும். அப்படியல்லாமல் நூறு வயல்களின் விளைந்த நெல்லை யானைகள் தாமே சென்று உண்ணத்தொடங்கினால், யானை வாய்புகும் நெல்லைக் காட்டிலும், அவற்றால் மிதிக்கப்பட்டுச் சேதம் அடையும் நெல்லே அதிகமாகும்.

அதுபோல, அறிவுடைய வகையில் நெறியறிந்து வரிவசூலித்தால் அந்நாட்டின் வேளாண்குடிகள் உரிய வரியையும் தந்து, தாமும் தழைப்பா். இல்லாவிட்டால், யானை புகுந்த நிலம் போல உணவு வீணாகி, உலகமும் அழியும்’ என்று பிசிராந்தையாா் பெரும் பாடத்தினை அரசனுக்கு உணா்த்தினாா். மனம் திருந்திய மன்னன் வரிகளைத் திருத்தினான். மக்களும் மகிழ்ந்தனா்.

வேளாண்குடிகளுக்கு, மன்னா்களாலும், அதிகாரவா்க்கத்தாலும் துன்பங்கள் ஏற்படுவது ஒருவகையெனில், இயற்கைச்சீற்றங்களால் விளையும் பேரிடா்கள் உழவா்களைக் காலந்தோறும் இன்னலின் எல்லைக்கே அழைத்துச் சென்றுள்ளன.

உழவா்கள் உலகெங்கிலும் ஒரேஇனம்தான். சோவியத் நாட்டின் உழவா்குடிகள், ஜாா் மன்னரால் பெருந்துன்பங்களுக்கு ஆளாக்கப்பட்டபோது, ‘உழுது விதைப்பாருக்கு உணவில்லை; பிணிகள் பலவுண்டு’ என்று ஓங்கியொலித்தாா் மகாகவி பாரதியாா். ஆங்கிலேயராட்சியில் இந்தியமண் அடிமைப்பட்டிருந்த போது, சிதைக்கப்பட்ட மனிதா்களில் முதலிடம் உழவா்களுக்குத்தான்.

அன்றைக்கு இந்தியா முழுவதிலுமிருந்த உழவா்கள், தங்கள் விளைச்சலில் ஆறிலொரு பங்கை ஆங்கிலேயா்களுக்கு வரியாகச் செலுத்தினா். இவ்வசூலிப்பால், ஜமீன்தாா்கள், லேவாதேவிக்காரா்கள், குத்தகைதாரா்கள் உட்பட அனைவரின் சுரண்டலுக்கும் ஆளாகி உருக்குலைந்தாா்கள். மேலும் இங்கிலாந்தின் ‘கிளாஸ்கோ’ மில்லில் நெய்யப்படும் துணிகளுக்குச் சாயம் தேவைப்பட்டதால், இந்திய விவசாயிகள் நெல், கோதுமைக்குப் பதிலாக அவுரி விளைவிக்க நிா்ப்பந்திக்கப்பட்டனா்.

அவுரி பயிரிட்டதால் நிலங்களெல்லாம் மலட்டுத்தன்மை அடைந்தன. இதனால் கொதிப்படைந்த விவசாயிகளின் போராட்டம் சௌரி சௌராவில் பெருங்கலவரமாக வெடித்தது. ஒரு காவல் நிலையம் தீவைத்து எரிக்கப்பட்டதில் 22 காவலா்கள் மாண்டனா். இதனால் ஒத்துழையாமை இயக்கத்தையே காந்தியடிகள் நிறுத்தி வைக்க நேரிட்டது.

ஆங்கிலேயராட்சியில் உழவா்கள் பட்ட வேதனைகளைக் கருத்தில் கொண்டுதான் பாரதிதாசன்,

குத்தகைக்காரா் தமக்குக் குறித்த எல்லை

குறித்தபடி உள்ளதுவா என்றுகேட்டேன்

கைத்திறனும் வாய்த்திறனும் கொண்டபோ்கள்

கண்மூடி மக்களது நிலத்தையெல்லாம்

கொத்திக்கொண்டு ஏப்பமிட்டு வந்ததாலே

கூலிமக்கள் அதிகரித்தாா் என்னசெய்வேன்

பொத்தல் இலைக் கலமானாா் ஏழைமக்கள்

என்று மனம் நொந்துக் குமுறினாா்.

உழவா்களின் தீராத்துயரங்களை பட்டுக்கோட்டையாரும் வாய்ப்பு கிட்டியபோதெல்லாம் பதிவு செய்யத் தவறவில்லை. ‘காடு வெளஞ்சென்ன மச்சான் நமக்குக் கையுங்காலுந்தானே மிச்சம்’ என்று உழவா்களின் குரலைத் திரையில் செதுக்கினாா். அது மட்டுமல்ல, விவசாயிகளின் வாழ்க்கைநிலையை மாற்றவியலாக் குற்றவுணா்ச்சியைப் பதிவிடுவதைப் போல,

நாடு செழிச்சிட மாடா ஒழைச்சவன்

நாத்துப் பறிச்சவன் ஏத்தம் எறைச்சவன்

மூடாத மேனியும் ஓடா எளச்சவன்

போடா விதைகளும் போட்டு வளா்த்தவன்

அரை வயித்து கஞ்சி குடிக்கிறான் சிலநாள்

அதுவுங் கிடைக்காமத் துடிக்கிறான்

என்றும் பாடி வைத்தாா்.

காலங்காலமாய் எண்ணற்ற தடைக்கற்களைச் சந்தித்து வாழ்ந்தாலும், வேளாண் பெருங்குடி என்னும் நதி ஓயாமல் இன்றளவும் முடங்காமல் ஓடிக்கொண்டுதான் உள்ளது. நிலங்களைத் தரிசாகக் காய வைத்திருப்பது மரபு அன்று என்ற அடிப்படை அறம்தான், இன்னும் அவா்களை நிலங்களிலேயே நீடிக்கச் செய்துள்ளது. வரலாறு முழுவதும் இன்றுவரை உழவா்கள் தீயைத் தாண்டியே வந்துள்ளனா். எதிா்காலத்திலாவது அவா்கள் இனிய தென்றலைத் தழுவி வாழட்டும்!

கட்டுரையாளா்:

பேராசிரியா்.

 

 



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சம்பா பருவ நெல் அறுவடைக்குத் தயாராகிவரும் காவிரிப் படுகை விவசாயிகள் வழக்கம்போல நேரடி நெல் கொள்முதலை எதிர்பார்த்திருக்கிறார்கள். அதே நேரத்தில், கடந்த குறுவையின்போது கொள்முதல் செய்யப்பட்ட நெல், திறந்தவெளி சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளில் போதிய பராமரிப்பு இல்லாததன் காரணமாக மழைநீரில் வீணாவது கண்டும் கவலையில் ஆழ்ந்துள்ளனர். அண்மையில், தஞ்சை மாவட்டம் கும்பகோணத்துக்கு அருகிலுள்ள சன்னாபுரம் திறந்தவெளி நெல் சேமிப்புக் கிடங்கில் வைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த நெல் மூட்டைகள் மழைநீரில் நனைந்து வீணானது, காவிரிப் படுகை விவசாயிகளிடையே அதிருப்தியை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது. நெல்லின் ஈரப்பதத்தைக் காரணம்காட்டி, கொள்முதல் செய்ய மறுக்கும் தமிழ்நாடு நுகர்பொருள் வாணிபக் கழகம், கொள்முதல் செய்யப்பட்ட நெல்லை முறையாகப் பாதுகாக்கத் தவறுவது முரணாக இல்லையா என்ற கேள்வியை அவர்கள் எழுப்புகின்றனர். தங்களது நான்கு மாத உழைப்பு வீணாவது அவர்களிடையே வருத்தத்தை உருவாக்கியுள்ளது.

சன்னாபுரம் கிடங்கில் அடுக்கிவைக்கப்பட்டிருந்த ஆயிரக்கணக்கான நெல் மூட்டைகள் சமீபத்தில் பெய்த மழையில் நனைந்தும் கருத்தும் வீணாகியுள்ளன. எனினும், 45 டன் நெல் மட்டுமே வீணாகியுள்ளதாக மாவட்ட நிர்வாகம் விளக்கம் அளித்துள்ளது. கடந்த சாகுபடி பருவத்தில் வழக்கத்தைக் காட்டிலும் அதிக நெல் கொள்முதல் செய்யப்பட்டதைச் சொல்லிப் பெருமைகொள்ளும் தமிழ்நாடு அரசு, சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளில் உள்ள பாதுகாப்பு வசதிகளையும் தொடர்ந்து கண்காணிக்க வேண்டும். குறுவை பட்டக் கொள்முதலானது, தஞ்சை மாவட்டத்தில் 5 நிலையான சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளிலும், 24 திறந்தவெளி சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளிலும் இருப்பு வைக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. பாசனப் பரப்பையும் சாகுபடி பரப்பையும் விரிவுபடுத்தி வேளாண் உற்பத்தியைப் பெருக்க வேண்டும் என்ற தொலைநோக்குத் திட்டத்துடன் செயல்பட்டுவரும் தமிழ்நாடு அரசு, வேளாண் விளைபொருள்களை விற்பனைக்கு முன்னும் பின்னும் பாதுகாப்பதற்கான சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளைக் கட்டமைப்பதிலும் தீவிர கவனம் செலுத்த வேண்டும்.

தெலங்கானா மாநிலத்தில் விளையும் நெல்லில் பாதியை மட்டுமே இந்திய உணவுப்பொருள் கழகம் கொள்முதல் செய்கிறது. இதையொட்டி, அம்மாநிலத்தை ஆளும் தெலங்கானா ராஷ்ட்ரிய சமிதி மத்திய அரசுக்கு எதிராகப் பெரும் போராட்டங்களையே நடத்திவருகிறது. தமிழ்நாட்டின் நல்வாய்ப்பாக, விளைவிக்கப்படும் நெல்லை முழுமையாகக் கொள்முதல் செய்யும் வாய்ப்புகளைப் பெற்றிருக்கிறோம். அவை முறையான பராமரிப்புடன் அரைவை ஆலைகளுக்கு அனுப்பப்பட்டுப் பொது விநியோகத் திட்டத்தின் கீழ் தரமான அரிசி கிடைப்பதை உறுதிப்படுத்த வேண்டிய கடமையும் அரசுக்கு உண்டு. ஒரு நாளைக்கு இரண்டு வேளை போதுமான உணவுக்கு வாய்ப்பற்றவர்கள் பல்லாயிரக்கணக்கில் வாழும் இந்த நாட்டில் திறந்தவெளியில் உணவு தானியங்கள் வீணடிக்கப்படுகின்றன என்று பத்தாண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு உச்ச நீதிமன்றம் தனது வேதனையை வெளிப்படுத்தியது. இடைப்பட்ட காலத்தில், தேசிய உணவுப் பாதுகாப்புச் சட்டத்தை நடைமுறைப்படுத்திப் பட்டினியைப் போக்கும் முயற்சிகள் எடுக்கப்பட்டாலும் உணவு தானியங்கள் வீணாவது தொடரவே செய்கிறது. புதிய சேமிப்புக் கிடங்குகளைக் கட்ட வேண்டிய காலத்தின் தேவையை இனிமேலும் தள்ளிப்போடக் கூடாது.



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ஆப்பிரிக்கப் பழங்குடிப் பாடல் ஒன்றில் ‘பாவோபப் மர வேர்களில் எங்கள் மூதாதையர்கள் உறங்கிக்கொண்டிருக்கிறார்கள்’ என்று ஒரு வரி இழையோடும். இது நம்பிக்கை சார்ந்த உணர்வெழுச்சிக்கு ஓர் எடுத்துக்காட்டு. ஓர் இனத்தின் உணர்வெழுச்சி என்பது அந்த இனத்தின் மொழி சார்ந்த கலைகளை மட்டுமல்ல; அந்த இனத்தின் கொண்டாட்டங்களையும் சேர்த்ததுதான். அந்த வகையில் தமிழர்களின் பெருவிழா பொங்கல்தான். ஆயினும், இன்று ஆற அமர யோசித்துப் பார்க்கிறபோது இருபதாண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு வரை கொண்டாடப்பட்டது போல பொங்கல் விழா இப்போது கொண்டாடப்படுகிறதா என்கிற கேள்வி எழுகிறது. பொங்கல் விழா அதன் வசீகரத்தை இன்னமும் இழக்கவில்லைதான். அதன் அடையாளங்களுடன் தலைமுறைகளைத் தாண்டி நிகழ்ந்துகொண்டுதான் இருக்கிறது. ஆனாலும், அதன் விழுமியங்களில் கொஞ்சம் வெல்லம் கம்மியானதுபோல் தெரிகிறது.

சிறு வயதுப் பொங்கல் நாட்கள் நினைவை விட்டு என்றும் நீங்காதவை. சித்தப்பாக்கள் தூக்க முடியாமல் தூக்கி வந்து கரும்புக் கட்டை முற்றத்து வாரியில் சாய்த்து வைப்பார்கள். திமுக அபிமானியான அப்பா வீட்டு மாடுகளின் கொம்புகளுக்குக் கறுப்பு சிவப்பு வண்ணம் பூசி வைத்திருப்பார். சன்னாநல்லூர் சந்தையில் வாங்கி வந்த பூவன் பழங்களும் மொந்தன் வாழைப்பழங்களும் வீட்டின் காமிரா அறையில் கயிறு கட்டப்பட்டு அதில் நீண்ட வரிசையில் தொங்கும். வயல் வரப்புகளில் வேர்விட்ட மஞ்சள் கொத்துகளின் வாசனை வீடு முழுக்க கமகமக்கும். பரங்கிக்காயும் பூசணிக்காயும் கூடத்தில் உருளும். பொங்கலுக்கு முதல் நாளிலிருந்தே விவசாயத் தொழிலாளர்கள் வீட்டுக்கு வந்து போவார்கள். ஒவ்வொருவருக்கும் வேட்டியும் துண்டும் வாழைப்பழமும் பரங்கிக் கீற்றும், கொஞ்சம் காசும் பித்தளைத் தாம்பாளத்தில் வைத்து அப்பாவும் சித்தப்பாக்களும் வழங்குவார்கள். வருஷம் முழுக்க வயலில் நீர் பாய்ச்சி, விதை விதைத்து, நாற்றுப் பறித்து, நடவு செய்து … பிறக்கப்போகிற தை மாதத்தில் அறுவடையும் செய்யப்போகும் அந்த உழைப்பாளிகளின் முகத்தில் பொங்கல் பண்டிகையின்போது மட்டும் எப்படி இவ்வளவு வசீகரம் வந்து உட்கார்ந்துகொள்கிறது என்பது எனக்கு ஆச்சரியமாக இருக்கும்.

மண், மனிதர்கள், மாடுகள் எனும் முக்கோண உறவில் மனிதர்களைத் திளைத்திருக்கச் செய்யும் இவ்விழாவை எந்தப் பண்பாட்டுப் படையெடுப்புகளாலும் சிதைக்கவே முடியாது என்பதற்கு அடையாளமாய்த் தமிழர்கள் மகிழ்ந்து குலாவி இருப்பார்கள். மாட்டுப் பொங்கல் அன்று பெரும்பாலான கிராமங்களில் மஞ்சு விரட்டு நடக்கும். கால்நடையைச் செல்வமாகக் கருதும் மக்கள் எல்லா கிராமங்களிலும் அப்போது இருந்தார்கள். மண்ணுக்கும் கால்நடைகளுக்கும் நன்றி செலுத்தும் விதமாகக் கொண்டாட்டங்கள் களைகட்டும். சமூக ஒருங்கிணைப்புக்குப் பொங்கல் பண்டிகையைப் போன்றதொரு விழாவை எந்த மாநிலத்திலும் நாம் பார்த்துவிடவே முடியாது. ‘ஊர் கூடி தேர் இழுத்தல்’ என்பதை நிரூபிக்கத் தமிழர்களுக்குப் பொங்கல் பண்டிகைதான் கைகொடுக்கும். ஊரே திரண்டு மாடுகளைக் கோயில் வாசலிலோ, பொதுத் திடலிலோ கொண்டுவந்து நிற்க வைத்து, அவற்றுக்கு மஞ்சள் தண்ணீர் தெளித்து, சாம்பிராணி புகை காட்டி குதூகலங்கள் நிறைவேறுவதெல்லாம் ஊர் ஒற்றுமையின் தருணங்கள். சமூகத்தோடு சேர்ந்து வாழும் கலையை தமிழர்கள் பண்பாட்டின் அடிப்படையில் கட்டுமானம் செய்திருக்கும் அழகைக் கண்டு ஆச்சரியப்படாமல் இருக்கவே முடியாது. பல கிராமங்களில் மாட்டுப் பொங்கல் அன்று வீட்டு தெய்வங்களுக்கு அல்லது முன்னோருக்குப் படையலிடும் பழக்கம்கூட உண்டு. முன்னோர் படையலில் அவர்களுக்கு விருப்பமான உணவு வகைகள் எல்லாம் இலையில் வரிசை கட்டும். முக்கியமாக அசைவ உணவு கண்டிப்பாக ஆஜராகும்.

மூன்றாம் நாள் காணும் பொங்கல் அன்று கலை நிகழ்ச்சிகளால் ஊரே மகிழ்ச்சி தோரணம் கட்டிக்கொள்ளும். கட்டுச் சோறு கட்டிக்கொண்டு பெண்களும் குழந்தைகளும் ஆற்றங்கரைக்கோ கோயில்களுக்கோ செல்வார்கள். தாவணிப் பெண்களின் அணிவகுப்புகளைக் காண்பதற்காகவே இளைஞர்களுக்குப் புதிய பக்தி பிறந்திருக்கும். காணும் பொங்கலில் மிக முக்கியமான அம்சமாக, பெரியவர்களை மதிக்கும் மாண்பை இளம் தலைமுறைக்குப் புரிய வைக்கும் வகையில் ‘காலில் விழும்’ நிகழ்வு நடக்கும். இளம் வயதுள்ளவர்கள் வீடு வீடாகச் சென்று பெரியவர்களைக் கண்டு வணங்கி, அவர்களின் காலில் விழுந்து வணங்கி ஆசிர்வாதம் பெறுவார்கள். அப்படிக் காலில் விழுந்து வணங்க வருபவர்களுக்குக் கரும்புத் துண்டும் வாழைப்பழமும் கையில் தரப்படும்.

இன்று நம் பொங்கல் பண்டிகையில் சிறிது அவசரம் வந்து அமர்ந்துவிட்டதைப் போல தோன்றுகிறது. கூட்டுக் குடும்பங்களின் சிதைவு, பெரும் நெருக்கடியில் தவிக்கும் விவசாயம், நகர்மயம் போன்றவையெல்லாம் பொங்கலின் மெருகைச் சற்று பாதிக்கச் செய்திருப்பது உண்மைதான். பெருநகரமொன்றின் குடும்பத் தலைவர் ஒருவர் மிகுந்த கூச்சத்தோடு ஒற்றைக் கரும்பைத் தூக்கிக்கொண்டு நடந்து வருகிறார். அதை பார்த்த அவரது மகன் கேட்கிறான், “இம்மாம் பெரிய சைஸ் கரும்பு எதுக்குப்பா?” என்று. காஸ் அடுப்பில் குக்கரில் வைக்கப்படும் பொங்கலும் இனிக்கத்தான் செய்யும். ஆனால், அதில் கொண்டாட்டம், பண்பாடு, அடையாளம், மக்களுக்கிடையே ஒற்றுமையுணர்வு என்கிற அம்சங்களுக்கு இடமில்லாமல் போவதுதான் பிசிறு தட்ட வைக்கிறது. கிராமங்களில் இப்போதும் பொங்கல் பண்டிகை, அதன் அடையாளங்களுடன்தான் கொண்டாடப்படுகிறது. அதற்கு சாட்சிதான், சென்னையிலிருந்து கடந்த 4 நாட்களில் பத்து லட்சத்துக்கும் அதிகமானோர் ரயிலிலும் பேருந்துகளிலும் சொந்த ஊர்களுக்கு சென்றுள்ளனர் என்கிற செய்தி.

கரோனா பெருந்தொற்றுக் காலகட்டத்திலும்கூட அவனியாபுரம், பாலமேடு, அலங்காநல்லூர் போன்ற ஊர்களில் ஜல்லிக்கட்டு நிகழ்ச்சியைக் குறைவான பார்வையாளர்களுடன் நடத்த அரசு அனுமதியளித்திருப்பது நம் பண்பாட்டு அடையாளங்கள் எவ்வளவு நெருக்கடியிலும் தலைமுறை தலைமுறையாகத் தொட்டுத் தொடரும் என்பதற்கு எடுத்துக்காட்டாக இருக்கிறது.

- மானா பாஸ்கரன், தொடர்புக்கு: baskaran.m@hindutamil.co.in



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தமிழ்நாடு அரசு ஆண்டுதோறும் சம்பா நேரடி நெல் கொள்முதலைப் பொங்கல் பண்டிகைக்கு முன்னரே ஜனவரி முதல் வாரத்தில் தொடங்குவதை வழக்கமாகப் பின்பற்றிவருகிறது. நடப்பாண்டும் அதேபோல் அறிவிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளது. சம்பா அறுவடைப் பணிகள் தொடங்கிவிட்ட நிலையில், நேரடி நெல் கொள்முதல் நிலையங்கள் திறப்பதில் தாமதம் ஏற்பட்டுள்ளது. எனவே, பல இடங்களில் அறுவடைக்குத் தயாராக இருந்தும்கூட நெல்லைச் சேமித்து வைக்க முடியாமல் விவசாயிகள் அறுவடையை நிறுத்தி வைத்துள்ளனர்.

காவிரிப் படுகையின் ஒருசில கிராமங்களில் விவசாயிகள் அறுவடை செய்யப்பட்ட நெல்லைக் கொள்முதல் நிலைய வாசல்களில் கொட்டி வைத்துத் தூக்கமின்றிப் பாதுகாத்துவருகின்றனர். திருவாரூர், நாகப்பட்டினம் மாவட்டங்களில் இதுவரையிலும் எந்த ஒரு கிராமத்திலும் கொள்முதல் செய்யப்படவில்லை. தஞ்சாவூர் மாவட்டத்தில் அங்கொன்றும் இங்கொன்றுமாகக் கொள்முதல்கள் நடந்தாலும் அமலுக்கு வந்துள்ள புதிய நடைமுறைகள் விவசாயிகளுக்கு எளிதானவையாக இல்லை. குறிப்பாக, விவசாயிகள் தங்கள் நெல்லை நேரடிக் கொள்முதல் நிலையங்களில் விற்பனை செய்வதற்கு இணையதளம் மூலமாகப் பதிவுசெய்துகொள்ள வேண்டும் என்கிற புதிய அறிவிப்பைத் தமிழ்நாடு அரசு வெளியிட்டு அதனைக் கண்டிப்புடன் நடைமுறைப்படுத்துவதாக அறிவித்துள்ளது.

இணையவழி முன்பதிவு

இந்தத் திட்டத்தின் மூலமாக, விவசாயிகள் எந்தத் தேதியில் அறுவடை செய்யப்போகிறோம் என்பதை முன்கூட்டியே பதிவிட வேண்டும். எந்தத் தேதியில் விற்பனை செய்யப்போகிறோம், எந்தக் கொள்முதல் நிலையத்தில் விற்பனை செய்கிறோம் என்கிற விவரங்களோடு தங்கள் நிலத்துக்கான அடங்கல் பதிவை கிராம நிர்வாக அலுவலரிடம் பெற்று அதனை இணையதள சேவை நிறுவனங்களில் பதிவேற்றம் செய்ய வேண்டும். பதிவுசெய்துள்ள விவரங்களும், அடங்கல் பதிவுச் சான்றிதழும் உண்மைதானா என்பதைச் சரிபார்த்து கிராம நிர்வாக அலுவலர் இணையதளம் மூலமே அதற்கு ஒப்புதல் அளிக்க வேண்டும். அதன் பிறகு கொள்முதல் நிலையத்தில் வரிசைப் பட்டியலில் விவசாயியின் பெயர் இடம்பெறும். இதெல்லாம் சொல்வதற்கு இலகுவாக இருக்கலாம். ஆனால், நடைமுறையில் பல்வேறு சிக்கல்களையும் நெருக்கடிகளையும் விவசாயிகள் எதிர்கொள்ள வேண்டியுள்ளது.

இந்தப் புதிய நடைமுறையானது, வெளிமாநில நெல்லை உள்ளூர் விவசாயிகள் துணையோடு விற்பனை செய்வதைத் தடுப்பதாகக் கூறி அறிமுகப்படுத்தப்பட்டுள்ளது. இந்தக் காரணம் அடிப்படையிலேயே தவறானது. வெளிமாநில நெல் கொள்முதலுக்கு வருகிறது என்றால் அதனை அந்தந்தக் கிராமங்களின் விவசாயிகள்தான் முன்னின்று தடுக்கிறார்கள். இயற்கைச் சீற்றத்தால் மகசூல் இழப்பைச் சந்திக்கும் வருவாய்க் கிராமங்களில் வெளிமாநில நெல் மூலம் அதிகக் கொள்முதல் கணக்கு காட்டப்பட்டால் தங்களுக்குக் காப்பீடு கிடைக்காது என்று அங்குள்ள விவசாயிகள் அஞ்சுகிறார்கள். எனவே, வெளிமாநில நெல்லைக் கொள்முதல் நிலையங்களில் தமிழ்நாட்டு விவசாயிகள் அனுமதிப்பதில்லை.

அதையும் தாண்டி முறைகேடுகள் நடக்கிறது என்றால், அது அதிகார வர்க்கத்தின் துணையோடு நடக்கிறது என்று அர்த்தம். விவசாயிகள் போடும் நெல்லுக்குக் கட்டாய வசூல் மூலம் ரூ.40 கிடைக்கிறது என்றால் வெளிமாநில நெல்லுக்குச் சிப்பம் 1-க்கு ரூ.100 முதல் 150 வரையிலும் கமிஷனாகக் கிடைப்பதால் அதிகாரிகள் அந்த முறைகேட்டை அனுமதிக்கிறார்கள். திமுக அரசு பொறுப்பேற்ற பிறகு வெளிமாநில நெல் கொள்முதல் செய்வதை முற்றிலும் தடுப்பதற்கான முயற்சியில் நேரடியாக ஈடுபட்டுள்ளது. அதன் ஒரு பகுதியாக, கொள்முதலுக்கான விவரங்களையும் ஆவணங்களையும் இணைய வழியாகப் பதிவேற்ற வேண்டும் என்பதைத் தீர்வாக முன்வைக்கிறது. ஆனால், அந்தத் தீர்வு விவசாயத்தின் அடிப்படைகளையே அறியாமல் முன்மொழியப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.

சாத்தியமில்லாத தீர்வு

ஒரு விவசாயி தனது நிலத்தில் பயிர் முதிர்ந்து குறித்த நாளில் அறுவடை செய்யலாம் என்று எதிர்பார்த்திருக்கும் நிலையில், சிறு மழை பெய்தாலும்கூட ஒரு வாரம் காலம் அறுவடை பிந்திவிடும். தற்போது ஏற்பட்டிருக்கிற ஆள் பற்றாக்குறை, இயந்திரப் பற்றாக்குறை ஆகியவற்றாலும் திட்டமிட்டபடி அறுவடையை செய்யமுடியாமல் போகலாம். விளைவித்த நெல் இப்படி வாரக்கணக்கில் வயல்வெளியில் அழிவதைப் பார்த்து விவசாயிகள் கண்ணீர் வடிக்கின்ற நிலையில், அவர்களை முன்கூட்டியே அறுவடையைத் திட்டமிட்டு பதிவுசெய்யச் சொல்வதும், அறுவடை செய்த நெல்லைக் குறிப்பிட்ட தேதியில் விற்பனைசெய்ய முடியும் என்பதும் நடைமுறைக்கு ஒருபோதும் சாத்தியமில்லாதவை. இது இயற்கைக்கே புறம்பானது என்பதைத் தமிழ்நாடு அரசு உணர வேண்டும். அறுவடை நேரத்தில், பல்வேறு இயற்கைச் சீற்றங்களால் மகசூல் இழப்பை சந்தித்துவரும் விவசாயிகள், இணையதளம் வழியாகப் பதிவேற்றம் செய்ய வேண்டும் என்ற புதிய நடைமுறையால் மேலும் பாதிப்புகளுக்கும் இன்னல்களுக்கும் ஆளாகும் நிலையே ஏற்படும்.

குறிப்பாக, இணையதளங்கள் மூலமாகக் கொள்முதலுக்கான ஆவணங்களைப் பதிவேற்றம் செய்வதற்கான சேவை மையங்கள், பல கிராமங்களில் 15 கிமீ சுற்றளவில் அமைந்துள்ளன. எனவே, இப்பதிவுகளை விவசாயிகள் தங்கள் தேவைக்கேற்பத் தேவையான நேரத்தில் பதிவுசெய்வதும் இயலாத ஒன்று. முன்கூட்டியே பதிவுசெய்தபடி குறித்த நாளில் கொள்முதலுக்கு நெல்லைக் கொண்டுசெல்வதென்றால், ஏற்கெனவே வெளிமாநில நெல்லைப் பதுக்கிவைத்திருப்பவர்களுக்கே அது எளிதாக இருக்கும். இணையதளப் பதிவேற்றத்தால் முறைகேடுகளைத் தவிர்த்துவிட முடியாது என்பதற்கு பிரதம மந்திரி கிசான் திட்டத்தில் நடந்த குளறுபடிகள் உதாரணமாக நம் முன்னால் இருக்கின்றன.

என்ன செய்யலாம்?

முறைகேடுகள் இல்லாமல் நெல் கொள்முதல் செய்ய வேண்டுமென்றால், கொள்முதல் நிலையங்களுக்குக் கொண்டுவரப்படும் நெல் மூட்டைகளை முன்னுரிமைப் பட்டியலின் அடிப்படையில் இணையதளம் மூலமாகப் பதிவேற்றம் செய்ய வேண்டும். அந்தப் பணியை நேரடியாகக் கொள்முதல் நிலையப் பணியாளர்களே மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டும். அதற்கான தொழில்நுட்பங்களையும் இயந்திரங்களையும் தமிழ்நாடு அரசே கொள்முதல் பணியாளர்களுக்கு வழங்க வேண்டும். வெளிமாநில நெல் கொள்முதலைத் தடுக்க உள்ளூர் விவசாயிகளைக் கொண்ட கண்காணிப்புக் குழுக்களையும்கூட நியமிக்கலாம்.

கடந்த முப்பதாண்டுகளுக்கும் மேலாக ஜனவரி முதல் பாதியில் தஞ்சாவூரில், காவிரிப் படுகை மாவட்டங்களை உள்ளடக்கி அமைச்சர் தலைமையில் கொள்முதல் அலுவலர்கள், வேளாண் அலுவலர்கள், விவசாயிகளைக் கொண்ட முத்தரப்புக் கூட்டம் நடத்தப்பட்டுவந்தது. அக்கூட்டத்தில் கொள்முதல் குறித்து புதிய நடைமுறைகள் இருப்பின் விவசாயிகளிடம் தெரிவித்து அது குறித்து அவர்களின் கருத்தறிந்தும் அதன் சாதகபாதகங்களை உணர்ந்தும் அரசு மேற்கொண்டு முடிவுகளைத் தொடர்வது வழக்கமாக இருந்துவந்தது. முன்னாள் முதல்வர் மு.கருணாநிதி தன் வாழ்நாள் அளவும் இந்த முறையைக் கடைப்பிடித்தார். அதிமுக முதல்வர்களும் அதையே பின்பற்றினார்கள். தற்போதைய முதல்வரும் விவசாயிகளை உள்ளடக்கிய முத்தரப்புக் கூட்டங்களை நடத்தி அதன் அடிப்படையில் முடிவுகளை எடுக்க வேண்டும். கொள்முதல் குறித்து மாவட்ட ஆட்சியர் தலைமையிலான சிறப்புக் கூட்டங்களும்கூட இப்போது நடத்தப்படுவதில்லை.

நேரடி நெல் கொள்முதலில் புதிய நடைமுறைகளைப் புகுத்தியது தொடர்பில் இதுவரை விவசாயிகளின் கருத்து கேட்கப்படவே இல்லை. இணைய வசதிகள் இன்னும் பெரும்பாலான விவசாயிகளுக்கு எட்டாக்கனியாக இருக்கும் சூழலில், அவர்கள் அலைக்கழிக்கப்படுவது நியாயமா?

- பி.ஆர் பாண்டியன், தமிழக அனைத்து விவசாயிகள் சங்கங்களின் ஒருங்கிணைப்புக் குழுத் தலைவர்.



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Economic challenges and issues of policy and welfare are all part of the election narrative

Assembly elections are due in five States: Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Manipur and Goa. In a conversation moderated byVarghese K. George, Yamini Aiyar and Manish Tiwari discuss the national implications of these Assembly elections. Edited excerpts:

Let’s start with an overview. Is the incumbent on the defensive in all the States — the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in U.P., Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa; and the Congress in Punjab?

Manish Tiwari:Incumbents are always on the defensive because people have high expectations. Not only the general public, but party workers also become very ambitious and also anxious. All the incumbent governments are facing a lot of challenges because they are unable to fulfil not just the general public’s expectations but also the expectations of the party cadre. In U.P., Brahmins are said to be unhappy with the BJP and now the OBC [Other Backward Classes] leaders are also leaving in herds. In Punjab, the Congress removed Amarinder Singh unceremoniously from chief ministership, and that has put a lot of strain on the party structure. In Uttarakhand, the BJP, which changed its leadership twice, faces similar challenges. In Goa too, if we look at MLAs and party leaders leaving the BJP, it appears that the ship is going to sink. The Congress has an uphill task and the BJP has the maximum stability only in Manipur.

Yamini, do you think policy and political issues such as the farm laws, the citizenship law and the management of the pandemic will be discussed in these elections?

Yamini Aiyar:This is the million-dollar question that is linked to your previous question on incumbents. These questions confront the incumbents. There is economic distress as a consequence of COVID-19. The farm laws exposed how we think about the challenge of agrarian reforms, the role of the farmer, the farmers’ political capacity to mobilise in some ways. The farm laws and the agitation brought the farmer to the centre of the political debate. And this creates its own challenges for the incumbents. In U.P., the BJP has a ‘double engine’ growth narrative. There is a distinction that the voter is increasingly making between national elections and State elections and that is very sharp in U.P. The Congress in Punjab is in a better position to handle the farm question, but it has not articulated an alternative. Are there alternative narratives to the options available for agricultural reforms? We are walking into an election with significant fault lines in society, economy and politics. I think a lot will depend on the extent to which political parties are able to provide voters with alternatives.

Incumbent governments and parties often manage to deflect from these issues and try and add an emotive flavour to a campaign. So, in this case, there are various issues at play. There is a thrust on Hindu consolidation that the BJP is trying. There is a Punjabiyat narrative that perhaps the Congress is trying, but there is also a Sikh religious politics that is active in the State. There is an OBC politics that the Samajwadi Party (SP) is trying to reinvent. There is also a new alternative politics that is being proposed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Punjab. In all this, would emotional appeals to identity politics overwhelm policy debates? And if that is the case, which identity politics is going to be stronger — caste, religion or region?

YA:Oh, you’ve hit the nail on the head. Despite the voters coming out to vote against the backdrop of the significant challenges that they are confronting, they are going to be confronting an election campaign and potentially even making electoral decisions on the back of an emotive campaign. I think of this as an ideological election. After all, U.P. in particular is the site of much of the ideological contestation that India has experienced, and it’s continuing to unfold and unravel in many different ways. And the economic challenges, the issues of policy, welfare are all going to be part of the election narrative. These are at the heart of the debates that we are having as a nation and are therefore naturally going to shape how the voter is going to choose to vote. What I do want to emphasise also is that, in many State elections, and we've seen this template play out, especially after 2019, State-level Opposition parties have found a template that works at the State level and that effectively manages to, in some senses, blunt the overall popularity of the BJP. And that template is very much about local issues, local governance and regional identity rather than an articulation of an alternative ideological narrative to what the BJP is presenting. And to my mind, that is ultimately at the heart of the challenge. Is the Opposition going to be able to present a viable, logical alternative?

There could be resentment against the Yogi Adityanath government, but still the BJP has one thing going for it — Hindutva, right?

MT:The Hindutva card has been successful for a long time. But this time, it is going to be a test for Hindutva. The BJP has got such a majority after a long time on the plank of Hindutva, which it doesn’t hesitate to showcase. Look at the Kashi project, that is how they are playing the Hindu card. Now, the question is, how long or how far will it work. Swami Prasad Maurya defected from the BJP. This is a kind of test case. The BJP has been claiming to be a party of the OBCs — now, managing the OBC claim and Hindutva together appears to be difficult. Mr. Maurya claimed, while leaving the party, that he helped the BJP come back from its 14-year vanvaas. If the OBCs stop subscribing to Hindutva, it will very difficult for the party to remain in power in most of the places.

Barring the 2015 Bihar Assembly election, this amalgamation of Hindutva and social justice has worked perfectly for the BJP since 2014. With these latest defections and the unrest among the OBC factions and leaders in U.P., do you think that phase of the BJP is now facing the most serious challenge since 2014?

MT:The challenge had already become apparent when Shivraj Singh did not win the majority in Madhya Pradesh. In Bihar, the BJP’s win was marginal. The BJP’s claim that it has more support of OBCs maybe true of its national leadership but for the regional leadership, it may not be so. This is the reason that the BJP is facing a serious challenge of keeping the OBC base intact in the name of Hindutva.

To bring together all the OBCs in the name of Hindutva does not always work because ultimately, society is much more diverse and segregated. The kind of exodus that the BJP is seeing in U.P., if it continues, will spiral in other States too.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), the Dalit party, appears to be on a terminal decline. Initial reports suggest that the BJP is the beneficiary of the decline of the BSP. Do you concur with that view? And related to that is a question on Punjab, where the Congress is trying to consolidate Dalits by appointing a Chief Minister from the community. Will that work?

MT:Dalits as a category is also not monolithic. A large section of non-Jatav Dalits in U.P. was already voting for the BJP. Now, the young among the Dalit supporters of the BSP are looking for political options. They aren’t going to vote for the BSP when it’s not a winnable option. My take is that the BSP, this time, would come down to a single digit in vote percentage in U.P.

In Punjab, by picking Charanjit Singh Channi as the first Dalit Chief Minister of Punjab, the Congress is not just addressing a large section of the Punjab population of Dalits but also their counterparts in different States. I have been speaking to a lot of them. Many are happy supporting the Congress even though they know that the Congress will not win.

Yamini, AAP has emerged as a potentially viable alternative in Punjab. Can it provide a viable alternative to both the Congress and the BJP?

YA:There’s no doubt that AAP has energy around it, and in Punjab in particular. AAP is certainly seen as a significant political opposition to the Congress. And it has been able to keep that momentum going. The AAP has also been able to build on what it did in Delhi, of governance and welfare that is local and responsive to voter demands. But it doesn’t add up to an effective challenge to the BJP at the national level. The BJP has effectively been able to bundle in elements of what have been part and parcel of Indian elections and the voter-politician compact, particularly welfare and aspects of governance (along with its ideology). And you will see pockets of good governance and significant pockets of weak governance across the country. A national-level challenge to the BJP doesn’t exist, which the governance narrative, the welfare narrative is not collectively able to articulate effectively.

There is this view that Indian democracy is facing some serious challenges, and for good reasons. How crucial are these elections for democracy?

YA:Elections are always a test of democracy. Even though the Indian voter stands up to this test effectively by coming out in great enthusiasm and casting their vote, politicians never come out with flying colours. We have long struggled with challenges of campaign finance and the quality of campaign. In the last few years, the challenges have been exacerbated because of the combination of centralisation of financing, the role of the media, and the ability of money and media to come together. And the weakness of institutions in ensuring fairness and equity and following rules have all further undermined the sanctity of the electoral process, even though the voter is coming out now in even more enthusiasm than the past to cast their vote. I think what is going to be particularly unique about this election is, in many ways similar to the elections of April and May last year, the voter is going to be asked to cast their vote against the backdrop of a raging pandemic.

Manish, we started off by asking whether the incumbent was on the defensive. From another perspective, one could argue that the incumbent has all the advantage because the incumbent has the power and the money. So, does the BJP have an upper hand by virtue of being in power?

MT:It definitely looks like it but the reality is not always what it looks like. We were all doubting whether the elections would be held or the government would impose President’s rule in the States for a few months in the name of COVID-19, but the Election Commission announced the elections. It has announced a lot of restrictions regarding rallies and campaigning. Yes, the ruling party has the advantage in the form of a largely favourable media, but ultimately the people of the country have their own minds. Even today, there are so many checks and controls.

The Hindutva card has been successful for a long time. But this time, it is going to be a test for Hindutva.

Manish Tiwari



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India’s latest COVID-19 advisory shifts the pandemic response from ‘treatment oriented’ to one focused on public health

On January 10, 2022, the Indian Council of Medical Research released an ‘Advisory on Purposive Testing Strategy for COVID-19 in India’. The advisory (Version VII; https://bit.ly/31UtJ7F) provides details on ‘Who may be’ and ‘People who need not to be’ tested. It proposes that ‘asymptomatic individuals in community setting’ and ‘contacts of confirmed cases of COVID-19, unless identified as high risk’, amongst others, need not be tested. The latest COVID-19 testing strategy replaces the previous advisory (Version VI), released on September 4, 2020 (https://bit.ly/3GsAexi) andinter alia, had the provision of COVID-19 testing on demand for ‘all individuals who wish to get themselves tested’. Clearly, there are a few paradigm shifts in the testing strategy.

Understandably, the revised strategy has now created a flutter and divided epidemiologists and clinicians, pandemic ‘experts’ and television channel commentators, in two halves — of those strongly supporting or vehemently opposing it. So, is the new advisory on COVID-19 testing a right approach? Let us deep dive.

Strategies in sync with stages

When the novel coronavirus pandemic began, the virus was new to any setting and every country including India followed a ‘containment strategy’ to stop the virus spread and prevent community transmission. This required aggressive testing to detect every infection and ‘trace and test’ every possible contact of confirmed cases. ‘Test, test and test’ — as it was colloquially referred to — was an approach recommended and followed by all countries across the world. India, following this approach, ramped up COVID-19 testing capacity and two years on, India has set up nearly 3,100 laboratories conducting COVID-19 testing with daily capacity of nearly two million RT-PCR tests. Over the last many months, additional testing approaches and kits such as rapid antigen test (RAT) and home kits for antigen test have been approved.

The aggressive testing approach seems to have worked — to a large extent and till recently. Yet, no country can claim that it has detected every COVID-19 infection. A few high income countries are estimated to have identified one in every two or three infections. In India, based on the fourth round of the COVID-19 national sero survey between June 2021 and July 2021, only one in every 30 infections has been detected. Clearly, an aggressive testing strategy was useful but not enough.

The emergence of Omicron (B.1.1.529) as a variant of concern now has changed the situation drastically. So there is Omicron, with a three- to four-fold higher transmissibility (when compared to the Delta variant) and also a large majority of new infections being asymptomatic. Along with very high new infections in a short period of time, the testing capacity in nearly all countries has been stretched. Countries are revising testing strategies, mostly with the focus on ramping up testing with the use of RATs and home testing kits. The approaches for other public health tools such as contact tracing, isolation and quarantine are also being reviewed and revised.

Testing with purpose

Any diagnostic testing — especially in outbreaks, epidemics or pandemics — has two broad objectives: of individual and public health benefits and tracking the extent of infection. At the individual level, early COVID-19 testing can help in a suitable modification in clinical management. However, with a decoupling of ‘infection’ from ‘moderate to severe COVID-19’ and a better understanding of disease epidemiology, it is known that for most asymptomatic or even mild symptomatic individuals (i.e., fully vaccinated, young adults, or those without comorbidities), a confirmatory COVID-19 testing would not alter the treatment. Therefore, testing asymptomatic or majority of mild symptomatic would burden the laboratory capacity with almost no individual benefit in treatment.

Second, the testing of asymptomatic cases would have the public health benefit of reducing transmission (if every infection can be detected at the earliest). However, with Omicron, it is neither feasible for any system nor required as transmission is already widespread and a majority cases are asymptomatic. As the COVID-19 testing capacity has been overwhelmed in even high resource health-care systems, countries are resorting to expanding RATs. However, with the low sensitivity of RAT kits, in a hypothetical scenario of even every infected individual undergoing a COVID-19 test, nearly half of them will be missed. Clearly, at this stage of pandemic, the individual and public health benefits of testing contacts and asymptomatic individuals are very limited, if not zero.

Promoting the use of self-purchased RATs has an equity dimension as well. This is in addition to it not being a very effective public health tool. A ramping up of RATs may be useful in a setting where every member of society has equal access by free of cost availability to such kits. However, in India, as per the Government announcement, 800 million Indians are eligible and dependent on free ration during the pandemic; they cannot be expected to purchase testing kits and are not likely to use them. Therefore, promoting RAT kits is unlikely to be a solution in India as well as in many other low and middle income countries.

In public health challenges such as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, every health intervention should be deployed to offer the maximum benefits to most citizens. The available laboratory capacity and the testing kits need to be used efficiently, optimally and intelligently. Testing asymptomatic people has a very limited marginal benefit and can overburden an already stretched testing system — which could essentially mean a delay in the COVID-19 test report for those with a high risk of getting moderate to severe disease.

Finally, the argument that testing should be ramped up to get better COVID-19 data is on weak footing. We need to remember that any data collection is a byproduct of public health interventions and not the primary objective. If we can use data being generated currently, even that would be enough to answer most policy questions and guide interventions. Then, in the end, in every country across the world, the final numbers of the pandemic will always be determined by the estimates.

A right epidemiological move

The public health tools need to be suitably modified and calibrated at every stage of the pandemic. Two years into the pandemic, there is limited relevance of continuing with the same old strategies for contact tracing, testing and isolation.

India’s pandemic response has received criticism for being guided by clinical experts and being medical care-oriented with excessive attention on hospital beds and intensive care unit facilities and with a focus on care of the sick. The recent advisory on COVID-19 testing is a hint towards a shift toward the public health approach. There appears to be more attention on a pandemic response guided by local epidemiology and the principles of public health. In addition to testing strategy, in the recent weeks, COVID-19 home isolation guidelines and hospital discharge policies have also been revised.

COVID-19 testing has to be used as a public health tool to benefit the most and not as a medical care tool. When the benefit of testing has become limited, as is the case in the current stage, targeted COVID-19 testing — to protect the vulnerable — is the right approach. Public health strategies have to be designed based on local context and cannot and should not be merely ‘copied’ from other settings. There are a few additional things that call for attention. There is a need for developing detailed COVID-19 hospital admission criteria and ensuring a better adherence to COVID-19 treatment guidelines, to prevent unnecessary admission and avoid unproven therapies that are not recommended. To respond to the current surge, there is a need to bring epidemiology and public health approaches to the forefront and ignore the ‘opinion’ of ‘mushrooming experts’ vocal and visible on television and ‘omnipresent’ on social media.

India’s latest advisory on COVID-19 testing is bold, pragmatic and epidemiologically sound. More importantly, it shifts the balance of India’s pandemic response from a ‘treatment oriented’ to a public health focused approach. It is another opportunity to bring science, data, debate, dialogue, evidence, epidemiology and public health in shaping India’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The revised COVID-19 testing approach, arguably, is a pandemic strategy in which the rest of the world is likely to follow India.

Dr. Chandrakant Lahariya is a physician-epidemiologist and public policy and health systems specialist. He is the lead co-author of the book, ‘Till We Win: India’s Fight Against The COVID-19 Pandemic’



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A new form of ‘Gandhian’ democratic socialism powered by cooperative economic enterprises is required

A surging tide of nationalism and authoritarianism has imperilled democracy globally, and within presumptively democratic nations — the United States, India, the United Kingdom, and the European Union — too.

Economies are not doing well. The benefits of growth are being sucked up to the 1% on the top; ‘trickle down’ to those below has diminished. With every global crisis — the financial crisis of 2007-08 and the ongoing COVID-19 crisis — the rich get richer while millions at the bottom fall off the ladder. Inequalities of wealth have increased around the world and India is becoming one of the world’s most unequal countries.

Political, economic symptoms

Like the COVID-19 virus, whose origins scientists are struggling to understand, another disease has been crippling the well-being of nations for 30 years. Political symptoms of the disease are the weakening of democracy and secularism. Its economic symptoms are inequities within economies and an unsustainability of economic growth. The socio-political and economic pathologies are inter-related. Economic despair is feeding the rise of authoritarianism, nationalism, and identity politics. Liberals who continue to advocate for more liberal economics must understand how their ideas have caused the rise of anti-liberal societies and governments which they lament. They can no longer have their cake and eat it too.

Opening national borders to free trade became an ideology in economics in the last 30 years. Taxes of incomes and wealth at the top were also reduced. The ideological justification was that the animal spirits of ‘wealth creators’ must not be dampened. Otherwise, the pie will not grow and there will not be enough to share. With higher taxes until the 1970s, the U.S. and many countries in Europe had built up their public health and education infrastructure and strengthened social security systems. The rich are now being taxed much less than they were. The pie has grown larger but the richest few have been eating, and hoarding, most of it themselves.

On ‘privatisation’

Governments are hamstrung without resources to provide public goods. ‘Privatisation’ of everything became another ideological imperative in economics by the turn of the century. Selling off public enterprises raises resources for funds-starved governments. Another justification is efficiency in delivery of services, setting aside ethical questions of equity. When ‘public’ is converted to ‘private’, rich people can buy what they need. In fact, they can buy more with their higher incomes even if the services become more expensive — better health care as well as better education for their children at the world’s best schools. The children of wealthier people with better education have greater access to opportunities in the future also. The gaps between the haves and the have-nots become larger.

Return of history

With not enough in the present, and receding hopes of better conditions in the future, people lose faith in their governments. History shows that whenever hopelessness spreads in societies, they are fertile grounds for messianic saviours who whip up pride in citizens’ identities to distract them from their woes. History has not ended, even though Francis Fukuyama said it had when the Soviet Union collapsed. With it, he suggested, the idea of totalitarian governments as saviours of the people had been debunked; and the idea of public ownership of property, which the communists had taken to an extreme by abolishing all private property, had failed.

History has returned. Authoritarian governments are now being democratically elected by people seeking a way out of the morass. The U.S., the leader of the Cold War against the Soviets, built the “Washington Consensus” around a starkly “unsocialist”, capitalist ideology which swept across erstwhile socialist countries of Europe and India too. Socialism seems to be back in U.S. politics now with Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, and young Democrats.

Liberal economists, promoting free markets, free trade, and privatisation, are worried by nationalism and authoritarian governments. They rail against “populist” policies of governments that subsidise the poor and adopt industrial strategies for self-reliance and jobs for their citizens. Liberals must re-examine their ideas of economics, to understand their own culpability in creating authoritarian and identitarian politics.

The property problem

Thomas Piketty’sCapital and Ideologytraces the ideology of “property” rights and its encounters with evolving ideas of “human” rights over the last three centuries. In proprietarian societies, it is just that he who owns more must have a greater say in the governance of the enterprise. In truly democratic societies, human rights must prevail, and every person, billionaire or pauper, must have an equal right to determine the rules of the game.

Democratic and capitalist principles were becoming reconciled with “socialist” ideas in Europe and the U.S. after the World Wars, and in developing countries such as India after the collapse of colonialism. The socialist era ended with the collapse of communism and the resurgence of neoliberal economics around the world afterwards.

While communism had lifted living standards, and the health and education of masses of poorer people faster than capitalism could, communism’s solution to the “property” question — that there should be no private property — was a failure. It deprived people of personal liberties. Capitalism’s solution to the property problem — replacing all publicly owned enterprises with privately owned ones (and reducing taxes on wealth and high incomes) has not worked either. It has denied many of their basic human needs of health, education and social security, and equal opportunities for their children.

The private property solution has also harmed the natural environment. The belief that private owners will husband natural resources sustainably for all has proven false. When natural resources, and knowledge converted into “intellectual property”, become the property of business corporations, they will use them for the purpose for which a business corporation is created — which is to increase the wealth of its owners. The ecological commons are harmed, and social equity suffers.

Communism and proprietarian capitalism carried too far have both failed. Climate change and political rumblings around the world are both warnings that capitalism needs reform. Economic policies must be based on new ideas. Thought leaders and policymakers in India must lead the world out of the rut of ideas in which it seems to be trapped. Principles of human rights must not be overpowered by property rights. A new form of “Gandhian” democratic socialism, powered by cooperative economic enterprises, is required in the 21st century, to create wealth at the bottom, not only at the top, and save humanity and the planet.

Arun Maira, Former Member, Planning Commission, is the author of ‘A Billion Fireflies: Critical Conversations to Shape a New Post-pandemic World’



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SC should restrain political parties from using any lapse in PM’s security for poll propaganda

An impartial inquiry into a politically contested incident is always welcome. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s convoy was stranded on a flyover near Ferozepur in Punjab for about 20 minutes. Treating this as a serious security lapse, and taking note of the potential for partisan inquiries, the Supreme Court has appointed its former judge, Justice Indu Malhotra, to lead an inquiry. Other members of the probe committee comprise the DGP of Chandigarh, a senior officer of the National Investigation Agency, the additional DGP (security) of Punjab, and the Registrar-General of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The court official has already secured the records related to the Prime Minister’s tour programme on that day. One hopes the probe, which has been constituted only to avoid one-sided inquiries at the instance of either the Union government or the State government, will give a quietus to the raging political controversy. None will disagree that once the matter was taken to the apex court, only an inquiry of this nature will steer clear of partisan politics, especially in the backdrop of the incident emerging as an exploitable issue in the elections to five State Assemblies. The Union government’s show-cause notice to the Chief Secretary and DGP of Punjab, demanding a response within 24 hours, evoked some resentment from the Bench.

Initial inquiries ordered by both governments have been put on hold. However, there is something disquieting about the way an isolated lapse in the Prime Minister’s security is being used to raise the political temperature and garner electoral dividends. It is unfortunate that the attempt on the part of the ruling BJP to fix the blame on the Punjab government, and the Congress which helms it, is continuing even after the Supreme Court appointed an independent committee to probe the incident. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has made some crude and unwarranted remarks on his Punjab counterpart, Charanjit Singh Channi, demanding Mr. Channi’s arrest and alleging a conspiracy to kill the Prime Minister. It is clear that a divisive narrative is sought to be built by key functionaries of the BJP, as though they have been asked to milk the issue as much as possible in the run-up to the Assembly elections. The petition, which the Bench headed by the Chief Justice of India, N.V. Ramana, agreed to hear early, seemed to be an exercise to put the Punjab government in the dock. However, the Supreme Court has managed to emancipate the litigation from its political overtones and preserve the scope for a dispassionate inquiry. It would be in the fitness of things if the Court took note of the attempts to use the incident for electoral propaganda and restrained political parties from the resort to needless rhetoric.



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Under a new leadership, ISRO willneed to continue innovation

This year, the harvest festival brings a change at the helm for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with S. Somanath who heads the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) at Thiruvananthapuram taking over as its chairperson. He succeeds K. Sivan, who also came to head ISRO after having led the efforts at VSSC. Mr. Somanath is the third consecutive chairperson of ISRO to have a master’s degree in engineering from the Indian Institute of Science. The organisation thus sees a continuation of the recent trend of being led by engineers. It is to be seen if Mr. Somanath’s specific expertise in leading innovations in rocket engines, the cryogenic engine, for instance, will shape future developments at ISRO. If earlier the Mars Orbiter Mission, which broke the records for expense by costing just Rs. 7 per kilometre, and Chandrayaan 2, had kept anticipation high, the new chairperson will oversee the unfurling of the human space flight programme — Gaganyaan. Another long-awaited mission is Aditya-L1. This has morphed and grown into what will be India’s grandest investment in space dedicated to science, specifically, solar physics. The aim to take a space observatory to the Lagrangian point one (L-1) to study the Sun offers yet another frontier for ISRO to breach.

Mr. Somanath will also lead a transition in the stance of ISRO towards privatisation. Until a few years ago, ISRO had remained largely preoccupied with deriving socio-economic benefits from space technology and applications that were used by the Government of India and some international collaborations. Of course, these ventures had a strong industry participation, but privatisation reforms have been pursued hard recently. The first announcement came in 2019, with the NewSpace India Limited (NSIL) being floated in March, and the commercial arm of ISRO was more firmly established. Apart from building and launching satellites, the company will provide launch services, build customised launch vehicles, provide services of Earth observation and communication through satellites and also transfer technology to Indian industry. As a sequel to the establishment of NSIL came the announcement of the creation of the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Center, in June 2020 — a channel through which non-governmental private enterprises can carry out space activities. The country’s imagination to get up to speed with other competing nations would be put to the test under the new leadership. ISRO and its sister organisations have much to offer in the form of spin-offs and technology transfer. Underlying these questions is the anticipation which stems from the very nature of space science; it not only contributes to immense learning and perspective but also unfolds the very horizon, enhancing universal feelings of oneness.



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New Delhi, Jan. 13: An indication that Pakistan has reconciled to the creation of Bangla Desh as an independent country has come from the most unexpected quarter. A telegram has been received from the Pakistan Government requesting the Union Ministry of Communications to arrange for delivery of mail from that country to Bangla Desh. The official telegram uses the word “Bangla Desh” which only shows that Pakistan has come to recognise the reality of the situation. Ever since hostilities broke out between India and Pakistan, and for several weeks earlier, there has been no mail service between West Pakistan and Bangla Desh. Islamabad has now sent a frantic request that the Indian Government should offer facilities in this regard.

Enquiries show that pressure had come from three directions which prompted the Pakistan Government to make this request. First, several Bengalis living in West Pakistan had been insisting on the Pakistan Government seeking such facility so that they could correspond with their kith and kin in Bangla Desh. Secondly, influential businessmen of West Pakistan had asked their Government to seek such facilities so that they could re-establish business contacts with Bangla Desh. Thirdly, the prisoners-of-war in Bangla Desh can write to their people in West Pakistan only when postal communications between the two countries are restored.



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Dial a lifeline

The Government of India becoming a shareholder in telecom major Vodafone India and also Tata Teleservices Ltd. and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) is likely to have an impact on the future prospects of the telecom sector. Despite the Government’s clarification about these companies (‘Business’ page, “Vodafone Idea, Tata Tele won’t become PSUs: DoT”, January 13), the development will inevitably focus the spotlight on the dismal track record of managing BSNL and MTNL. It also will draw attention to the privatisation ‘strategy’ of many a public sector unit, which could have been turned around.

The telecom sector confronts many problems which can be attributed to the taxation and fee structure. In the end, tax-payer money is also at stake.

Vijay Singh Adhikari,

Nainital, Uttarakhand

A medical first

News from the United States detailing the breakthrough experimental transplantation surgery (‘World’ page, “Pig’s heart beating inside human”, January 12) should be a shot in the arm for the medical sector now facing a tough time with COVID-19 and its variants. One hopes that David Bennett leaves hospital a healthy man, marking a turning point in the field of organ transplantation and medical science.

Going forward, the possibility of animal to human transplantations could end the crisis of organ shortages and curb organ transplantation rackets and organ trafficking.

Kannan K.,

Meloor, Chalakkudy, Kerala

Double fault

Novak Djokovic’s ‘admission’ (‘Sport’ page, “Entry form mistake human error: Djokovic”, January 13) changes things. He may or may not play in the Australian Open, but perhaps needs to pause and gracefully withdraw from the Open. Most importantly, it is incumbent on Australia to demonstrate that its COVID-19 protocol and other rules and norms apply equally to everyone.

C.G. Kuriakose,

Malippara, Kothamangalam, Kerala



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Keshab Chandra Gogoi was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Assam ending 197 days of President’s rule.

Keshab Chandra Gogoi was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Assam ending 197 days of President’s rule. He was sworn in by Governor Prakash Mehrotra at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan minutes after it was known in a surprise announcement that the governor had accepted Gogoi’s claim that he had the backing of 63 of the 125 members of the state assembly. Earlier, President N Sanjiva Reddy issued a proclamation revoking Governor’s rule imposed on Assam on June 30 last year and extending for another term of six months. Central rule was imposed when the government of Anwara Taimur failed to get the Assam appropriation bill passed by the assembly.

Antulay’s Successor

With the high command of the Congress (I) unable to decide on a successor for A R Antulay mainly because of intense campaigning by both the chief minister’s supporters and opponents, the “election” of the new leader of the Maharashtra legislative party is likely to be held only next week. Congress (I) general secretary Vasantrao Patil said it will take four to five days to appoint Antulay’s successor. One of Antulay’s critics, Shalini Patil, met the PM to impress upon her that the new CM shouldn’t be from the camp of the incumbent.

Agha Shahi’s Visit

Pakistan foreign minister Agha Shahi will arrive in New Delhi on January 29 for discussions with the government on a no-war pact. The visit is likely to last three days during which he will have talks with External Affairs Minister P V Narasimha Rao.

Saudi help to Pak

Pakistan is to get Saudi aid worth 500 million dollars from Saudi Arabia to purchase arms.



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The new alphabet speaks more of the VHP's ideological zeal than what 3-5-year-olds need.

Between the “new normal” of digital learning, prolonged isolation and an environment of constant uncertainty and stress, you’d think children are going through enough. Not according to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), it seems, which wants the learning of the English alphabet to be “Indianised”. To this end, the organisation has prepared a chart, which has, instead of “A for apple, B for ball…”, religious and historical figures corresponding to each letter. The new alphabet speaks more of the VHP’s ideological zeal than what 3-5-year-olds need.

Pedagogy in India has long been a victim of politics. A change in government, or “hurt sentiments”, has often led to texts being unceremoniously dropped from university syllabi or textbooks being changed ahead of crucial board exams. So far, though, the desire to control how the young think didn’t start till at least middle school. The alphabet is among the first things children learn when they have barely emerged from toddler-hood. Even the most committed ideologue, one would have thought, would let little kids be.

In its apparent eagerness to decolonise the coloniser’s language, the VHP seems to have run out of Indian figures to correspond to letters. So, you get “Q for Queen Lakshmibai” (queen is an English word, and “rani” doesn’t help matters) and “X for Laxman”. The chart also betrays an old failing of the Hindu right — it puts together historical figures it is trying to appropriate (Ambedkar, Bhagat Singh) with mythological ones (Laxman and a misspelt “Walmiki”). However, beyond the fodder for humour — what teachers for generations have called “silly mistakes” — the chart is terribly problematic. It places on children the annoying burden of correcting the imagined wrongs of history. A for annoying, B for burden, on C for children.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘Let kids be’.



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While it's still early days to accurately assess the impact of the third wave of the pandemic on the Indian economy, as the economic recovery continues to remain uneven, the pivot towards the normalisation of monetary policy is likely to continue to be cautious.

Data released by the National Statistical Office on Wednesday showed that retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index (CPI), rose to a six-month high of 5.6 per cent in December 2021. As a consequence, inflation in the third quarter works out to just about 5 per cent, marginally lower than the estimate of 5.1 per cent projected by the Reserve Bank of India in the December monetary policy committee (MPC) meeting. However, worryingly, inflation is likely to inch upwards in the months ahead due to a combination of factors. First, the base effect is likely to remain unfavourable in the last quarter of the financial year. Second, with producers increasingly facing cost pressures — the wholesale price index has remained elevated, witnessing a record high of 14.2 per cent in November — they are likely to pass on the burden of rising costs to end consumers. And third, the possible disruption in supply chains, due to the imposition of restrictions on activities by state governments, could also push prices up. The central bank also expects inflation to rise. In the December MPC meeting, it had pegged retail inflation to rise to 5.7 per cent in the fourth quarter, perilously close to the upper threshold of the inflation targeting framework.

The disaggregated inflation data shows that food and beverages inflation rose to 4.5 per cent in December, up from 2.6 per cent the month before. This surge was largely on account of cereals, vegetables and milk. Worryingly, core inflation, which strips away the volatile components, continues to remain elevated, even as the first advance GDP estimates released by the National Statistical Office suggest muted private consumption in the second half of the financial year. Inflation in clothing and footwear, recreation and household goods and services remains elevated. As does health inflation.

It is likely that even as inflationary concerns persist, the central bank will continue to attach primacy to growth considerations. While it’s still early days to accurately assess the impact of the third wave of the pandemic on the Indian economy, as the economic recovery continues to remain uneven, the pivot towards the normalisation of monetary policy is likely to continue to be cautious. While the RBI has begun to take steps on liquidity, considering the continuing economic uncertainty, the central bank may rethink or push back the timelines for the next policy steps which involve hiking the reverse repo rate, shifting the stance of monetary policy from accommodative to neutral, and hiking the repo rate.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘Managing the rise’.



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The PM’s security is an issue that concerns all, across the political divide. Regardless of who wins or loses in Punjab or elsewhere, that is also how it needs to be addressed.

The breach in the Prime Minister’s security in Punjab on January 5 was grave. As this newspaper reported, in the run-up to the PM’s visit, several letters were sent out to police officials on the field warning against disruption by protesters and urging them to make arrangements. The Supreme Court has set up a five-member committee headed by a former SC judge to probe the incident, observing that the matter cannot be left to “one-sided inquiries”. At the same time, the court has also called out the “blame game” and “war of words” between the Centre and the state government — they stand in the way of a “robust mechanism to respond at such a critical juncture”. In other words, instead of political point-scoring and grandstanding, what is needed is the sober pursuit of answers to serious questions about the breach, and what needs to be done to avoid a repeat. But the court’s wise counsel may have fallen on ears that didn’t hear. On Wednesday, at least six BJP chief ministers, almost in concert, came out to accuse the Congress and its government in Punjab of a “pre-planned, well-orchestrated conspiracy”, two of them alleged the involvement of “Khalistanis”, one even called for the arrest of the Punjab CM.

So far, the BJP has used party forums to accuse the Congress and its government of deliberately putting the PM in harm’s way in Punjab. Even though senior BJP ministers at the Centre have echoed the allegations, the apparently synchronised attack of the BJP chief ministers is a disturbing escalation of intemperate rhetoric. As the ruling party at the Centre and in several states, the BJP needs to pause, and take stock. For one, as the court has pointed out, it is obscuring due process — by rushing to pronounce guilt, it is pre-empting a free and fair probe. Then, the accusation itself represents a new breakdown in a public discourse that is not always known to abide by standards of mutual civility or respect. After all, to accuse your political opponent of a conspiracy to do physical harm, to do so at the level of instant rhetoric, is to lead the political conversation into a very dark dead end. By invoking spectres of “Khalistan”, BJP chief ministers are sending yet another disturbing signal — that the party which tried and failed to discredit the farmers’ movement in Punjab is still looking for labels to tar and taint the state.

Alongwith other states, Punjab is going to polls in a few weeks, and it may be that calculations of electoral gain lie behind the BJP’s apocalyptic rhetoric. But there are enough issues to take up in a state that is battling crises on many fronts and where the ruling party is visibly divided within. The PM’s security is an issue that concerns all, across the political divide. Regardless of who wins or loses in Punjab or elsewhere, that is also how it needs to be addressed. The CMs, by echoing each other’s conspiracy allegations, may be loyal party workers but as heads of their state governments, they diminish themselves. Maybe the SC panel should call them just in case they can shed some light besides their heat.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘6 CMs, 1 conspiracy’.



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Navin B. Chawla writes: Their unique brand of faith and compassion brings hope and relief to millions of destitute, sick and abandoned people, irrespective of their country, faith, or denomination

I was far away from Delhi when news trickled in that the government had not renewed FCRA permission to the Missionaries of Charity, the organisation that Mother Teresa founded in 1950. It was the year that our Constitution was promulgated and she was amongst the first foreigners to become an Indian citizen.

Associated with Mother Teresa for the last 23 years of her life, and with the MC sisters for over four decades, the refusal of FCRA permission came to me as a surprise, but I believed it was the result, as is often the case, of accounting errors, which would be corrected. And so it happened.

The sisters were able to explain the discrepancies to the concerned authorities and permission was renewed.

2022 awakened to the 25th year of Mother Teresa’s passing away, in her beloved Kolkata. For me, it was also an occasion to recount a little of my association with her. We know where she started, a lone presence on Kolkata’s streets with no money, no helper and no companion. By the time she passed away, she had created, one small step at a time, the presence of her Order in 123 countries. Together, with her band of 4,000 sisters and brothers, theirs would remain a unique brand of faith and compassion, reaching out to alleviate destitution, loneliness, hunger and disease, bringing hope and relief to millions of the abandoned, homeless, dying and leprosy outcasts, irrespective of their country, faith, or denomination.

Although she remained fiercely Catholic, her brand of religion was not exclusive. Convinced that each person she ministered to was Christ in suffering, she reached out to people of all faiths. Hers was not the 19th-century brand of imperial evangelism. Unlike most in the Church, she understood the environment in which she lived and worked. In the course of writing my biography, I once asked Jyoti Basu, that indomitable chief minister of West Bengal, what he, as a Communist and atheist, could possibly have in common with Mother Teresa, for whom God was everything. With a smile, he replied, “We both share a love for the poor.”

With such a long association and so many memories, I can at best present a few vignettes of an arduous yet joyful life that was ordained for her. I vividly recall my first visit with her to a huge leprosy settlement, not far from Kolkata. It was a very moving experience to see her surrounded by hundreds of inmates, many with no arms or legs, all reaching out to hug or touch her. “Ma”, as they called her, had made them feel needed by giving them the important task of weaving the saris that are worn by the MC sisters worldwide.

During her visits to Delhi, where she had “homes”, I would help steer her through our labyrinthine bureaucracy. Over time, I became familiar with the work of the MC. The Shishu Bhawans were crammed with abandoned infants, dressed in cheerful clothes, stitched by the sisters or volunteers; the “house” at Majnu Ka Tila for abandoned elderly destitute persons; the home for disabled children in South Delhi, many suffering from Down Syndrome and cared for in their cots.

It was here that my daughters and I first met Kusum, then a child of six. Two things struck me at once. The first was that she could not stand, and the second was her infectious smile. Whenever I visited, this little girl always greeted me with a smile. As she could only crawl, the sisters, helpers and volunteers fed her, bathed her, dressed her in fresh clothes every day, and carried her to the toilet every time she needed to go. They changed her clothes each time she soiled them.

Painstakingly, she learnt to say “hello” to me and one day, to my delight, added “uncle” to complete the little sentence. Kusum was found begging on a street. On the afternoon the sisters found her, it was pouring. The drenched child had a wracking cough. Unable to find a parent or guardian, they customarily reported the matter to the local police. After her condition stabilised in a nearby hospital, they brought her to their “ashram” to join about 60 children with physical and mental problems. Doctors had opined that her legs and arms had been broken, perhaps deliberately. When I once asked her who had done this to her, she burst into tears. It was the only time she cried. For the rest of the time, Kusum’s smile would invariably reach her eyes. When she died at the age of 18, the sisters cremated her body at the nearby cremation ground.

When I asked Mother Teresa how she and her mission could care for hundreds of thousands of destitute persons, and what made this possible, she explained to me simply but meaningfully. “You can, at best, look after a few loved ones in your family. My sisters and I can look after everyone, because for us they are all God”. So, the leprosy-affected man chained by his brothers in a hut, the infant left under a truck and saved just in time from prowling dogs, the woman dumped on a rubbish heap by her own son and left to die because he had now secured her property, were manifestations of her God in suffering.

Perhaps the most succinct summing up of Mother Teresa’s life and work was made by the chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize Committee, John Sannes. In his speech at the Nobel prize ceremony in Oslo in 1979, he said: “The hallmark of her work has been respect for the individual and the individual’s worth and dignity. The loneliest and the most wretched, the dying destitute, the abandoned lepers have all been received by her and her sisters with warm compassion, devoid of condescension, based on her reverence for Christ in man… This is the life of Mother Teresa and her sisters — a life of strict poverty and long days and nights of toil, a life that affords little room for other joys but the most precious.”

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘In service of man and God’. The writer is former Chief Election Commissioner of India



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Subrata Mitra writes: Narrowing down the agenda to his personality pushes back conversations on structural issues of Indian polity and economy that require urgent addressing.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the figure of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most significant talking point in Indian politics. Now that the Election Commission has set the dates for the five assembly elections, one can only expect the obsession of India’s political commentators and campaign managers with Modi to grow, and the process of showcasing his persona as the epitome of all that is good, or evil, in the current politics of the vast country to be speeded up. The point that the critics and acolytes of the prime minister miss is the harm that the narrowing down of the political agenda to just one person does to the larger interests of the country and its bustling, resilient democracy.

This poverty of public discourse about the nature and content of politics in India with its rich, classical tradition in political theory, vigorous political debates during the long-drawn-out freedom movement, its continuation in the Constituent Assembly debates, and in parliamentary debates during the early decades after Independence, is astounding. Had agenda-setting not been as important as it is for the critical decades ahead, all the Modi-bashing of the political class and the cartoons around his theatricality, would have provided some comic relief during these dark days of the pandemic. But the stakes are much too high not to take notice of what gets left out of political discourse thanks to the obsession with Modi, to the point of merchandising his personal security, in the ruthless game of political upmanship.

How has this fixation with Modi and the reduction of the full range of politics entirely to his persona come about? To this question, there are two possible answers. The images of a “saintly” Modi taking a holy dip in the Ganges, widely diffused by TV channels, would lead cultural anthropologists to take a cue from Clifford Geertz in pointing to the causal link of pomp and theatricality with state power. The second answer, going back all the way to Marx, would argue more about the political acumen of a talented leader, exploiting a structural flaw to cast himself as the embodiment of popular aspiration and will. “Man makes history, within conditions imposed by history”. Both insights help explain the emergence of Modi as the focal point of Indian politics, much like the parallel rise, quite ironically, of Gandhi and Churchill — in their deft use of language, metaphor, accoutrements, and theatricality — to the pinnacles of public visibility during the last decades of the freedom movement.

Deconstruction of Modi’s rise reveals the adroit manner in which he has encapsulated three strands of the deeper layers of Indian politics — the stalled process of state formation, a deep collective anxiety about where to place medieval history within the structure of the present, and, of course, state subsidised welfare such as cooking gas, micro-bank-accounts, toilets, infrastructure and so on. An analysis of the outcomes of the two parliamentary elections of 2014 and 2019 and the assembly elections in between, shows how neatly the electoral performance of the BJP follows the combination of the three strands. The most spectacular demonstration of the vulnerability of a Modi-centric campaign was seen in West Bengal, where the region has found its own mode of integrating Islam within its political culture and the tap of welfare was firmly in the grip of Mamata Banerjee — the local supremo and an equally deft politician in the mirror-image of the prime minister.

Shifting the focus away from Modi as the single issue will help bring public attention back to the structural parameters of Indian politics that get scant attention today. Not doing so will have grave, unintended consequences.

As things stand, a Modi win signals the continuation of his symbolic acts such as cow worship — it skips any analysis of the proper role of the cow in the agricultural value chain. A Modi defeat reinforces the tendency to “let sleeping issues lie” and skip over stalled processes of territorial integration, reform in key sectors of agriculture and integration with the global market economy, or even deeper and more conflictual issues of citizenship and national identity. In brief, with a single-issue election, India loses, whether Modi wins or concedes defeat.

Lest we forget, a Modi-centric electoral discourse skirts around the biggest conundrum of the politics of transitional societies: Can electoral democracy replace revolution? Elections — however free and fair — can only process politics “within the system”, but are not any good at tackling the “politics of the system”. Elections produce mandates that promise structural changes in the economy and society, but the hardship that they entail for key sections of the electorate stymie their implementation. Caught in a “middle democracy trap”, India is likely to go through cycles of “maintaining” elections that focus on the rewards of office, alternating with “transforming” elections that promise basic structural changes. By bringing the larger agenda of politics back in again, one would be able to prepare the electorate for the rough ride ahead as the next electoral cycle sets in, instead of their panicking about democratic “backsliding”.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘Perils of a single-issue election’. Mitra is an emeritus professor of political science at Heidelberg University. His The 2019 Parliamentary Elections in India: Democracy at Crossroads? jointly edited with Rekha Saxena and Pampa Mukherjee, will be published by Routledge, later this year.



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Sumana Roy writes: Once upon a time, one could be just a noun: ‘Professor’. That isn’t enough anymore and the adjectives must be worn like the medals on an army man

Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us … (Ecclesiasticus 44:1)

“Are you a distinguished person?” I ask my friend in a text message. “Very,” he replies, prompter than usual. “How did you become distinguished?” I ask, not giving up on my research. “I made an application,” he says.

My question to him wasn’t a joke. It came on the heels of a discussion I’d just had at home. My husband, an academic, had been looking for an appropriate title for the lectures he wanted to organise in his department. I’d offered my suggestions, some of which had been taken, but there was one word that I kept protesting against. “Distinguished” — “Distinguished Lecture Series”.

“Why do you need to call something or someone distinguished?” I asked.

His answer was simple: “Otherwise people wouldn’t know that it is”.

“Let people decide whether it is distinguished or not …” I gave up after some time.

“Distinguished” is only one of the many words that belong to the genre of image-building in the world of arts and letters. To many of us it might seem like putting the cart before the horse, for a word like that is meant to force obedience — we’ve been told that it is distinguished, and there is no space allowed for disagreement. This is how consensus is built, but, more importantly, this is how fake news is created. The whisper network has the butterfly effect, but the whisper begins from one person. Quite often, particularly in our times, the whisper about greatness begins from the person whose greatness is about to be proclaimed.

The mode of operation is similar to that of a ponzi scheme (I’m also thinking of the stunt that entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes was able to pull off for years). Like the non-existent company that investors trust their money with, adjectives are conjured to create reputations. It is, of course, a scam. But we are its willing collaborators. One only needs to look at the bios of writers and academics to see its operation. People calling themselves “eminent” in their bios is a sad commentary on the culture of self-advertisement that is necessary for survival, or “eminence”.

“Prestigious” is a word used for forums, but now, like a transferred epithet, also for people. Since it is hard to call oneself a prestigious person, particularly because the sophisticated society I am talking about wouldn’t ever be caught saying “Pata hai mera baap kaun hai?”, we call our endorsers prestigious. This is our way of endorsing those who endorse us, so that their endorsement of us is magnified.

“Famous”, “great”, “well-known”, “eminent”, “excellence”, “esteemed”, “legendary”, “magisterial”, “much-travelled”, “award-winning” — these are some of the stocks; there are the other more common ones: brilliant, unique, original, and, increasingly, “a classic”. This is the moment when I, in spite of my unease with such dictums, think of the MFA instructor’s phrase: “Arrey baba, show, don’t tell”. King, Emperor, Raja, Sultan, Ustad, Pandit, Gurudev — these were once the words designating a special status. In our new economy, the markers of fame have moved from nouns to adjectives. Once upon a time, one could be just a noun: “Professor”. That isn’t enough anymore. The adjectives must be worn like an army man wears their decorations.

There’s a bullying economy in those adjectives, and the sound of the siren that announces the arrival of automobiles with red lights, not very different from Bond’s use of the proper noun: the name is Bond, James Bond. The self-advertisement and self-congratulatory manner have been forced on us. A couple of weeks ago, while looking up a book online, I found an anthologist’s bio that made me pause to check whether I had read it right: They had been called “the most respected anthologist in the country”. Surely there had been a competition among anthologists whose news hadn’t reached me.

There’s a tragicomedy happening in our culture. We are praising ourselves because no one else is praising us. This is only part of the DIY culture that is essential for survival now. We are frantically arranging adjectives like one assembling a piece of IKEA furniture — the result must be as functional. That is the status of fame in our culture — its necessary functionality translating into axiom, like the United States of America calling itself the “greatest country in the world”. First self-belief, in these words, only then will the world outside us believe us.

When I wrote about what we call “literary” as being Brahminical (‘Read, without the sacred thread’, IE, December 19, 2020), there was a sense of anger in a certain group of people. Needless to say, they had been beneficiaries of how the “system” operates. Like the surname that indicates our caste, the words that announce or trail our names are like our surnames — perhaps this explains why Indians, when using the English language, have often conflated “title” and “surname”. Some of these new surnames are names and surnames of other people, often dead: Nobel, Fulbright, Charles Wallace, Windham-Campbell; or Booker and Chevening; or Oxford, Harvard, Rome; or New Yorker, Granta, The Paris Review, and so on. As if all of this weren’t enough, we also have those who claim Adam-like status: “was the first to be awarded the (some award or fellowship) …” and places which advertise themselves as “one of the greatest institutions in India”.

One must find fame somehow, and the easiest way to do so seems to be contagion: To be touched by the famous, their versions of gurukul, their gharana, their endorsements, deriving pedigree from them like people once used to by virtue of birth and the wealth of connections that brought. As I see the fame toolkit in operation everywhere, I sometimes think of Mark Antony’s words in Julius Caesar, and how he might have substituted “honourable” with famous today: “And… is a famous man”.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘The DIY fame toolkit’. Roy is a poet and author



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Satish Deshpande writes: Since it began in the 1920s, the larger Hindutva project had only been battery-powered. The Modi-Shah regime has plugged this project into the power of the state.

The truly shocking fact about the so-called “Bulli Bai” app (which reportedly featured a humiliating mock auction of more than a hundred Muslim women active in public life) is that some of its alleged perpetrators have actually been arrested. Vishal Kumar Jha, Shweta Singh, Mayank Rawat and Neeraj Bishnoi – those arrested so far – must be wondering if they have suddenly been transported into an alien world. Because, in the world that we have lived in for several years, this would clearly count as cruel and unjust punishment.

The “angry Hindu” cloak of impunity is evidently available to assorted godmen to incite mass violence against Muslims on millions of television screens. It is claimed by our highest elected officials to routinely denigrate those who say “abba jaan” or those who can be “identified by their clothes”. It is also offered to mobs who prevent Friday prayers. And even killers who led lynch mobs are publicly feted and tacitly assured that the law will go easy on them. If all this can happen, then it is certainly unfair to single out a mere digital app that has, after all, killed no one. A police force eager to bend before the winds of power would immediately recognise that, regardless of the Indian Penal Code, nothing much needs to be done here since the alleged purveyors of the app bear clearly Hindu names and their targets are all Muslim women. This is what happened some months ago when a similar app called “Sulli Deals” appeared. Neither the Mumbai police — which has suddenly woken up in the Bulli Bai case — nor the Delhi, Gurgaon or Noida police showed any unseemly eagerness to act. Why the flurry of activity now?

The most plausible answers involve the unfavourable coverage in the international media and the fact that Maharashtra is not ruled by the BJP. But these are not entirely convincing, because nothing happened in Maharashtra when the previous app appeared. It is also possible, but unlikely, that sustained pressure from the victims (many of whom are prominent in public life) finally forced the Mumbai police to act the second time around.

We may never be able to fully answer the why question, but the what questions are far more important. What is the larger significance of the uncharacteristic response to the Bulli Bai app? What does it point to or represent?

The first thing that the anomalous arrests point to is the changing character of our institutions. If we are surprised when the police act to curb crimes — something they are supposed to do — then it is obvious that a lot has changed. Of course, the law has never treated everyone alike in practice. In most societies and in most times, the rich and the privileged are treated more leniently than the poor and the powerless. But long-familiar patterns of social pampering and persecution are being radically re-arranged now. The Hindu-Muslim divide is being elevated above all our other divisions, including those between victim and perpetrator, or the innocent and the guilty. Moreover, this division is being turned into a rigid dichotomy. In India, we are used to the messiness of our social categories — there are always exceptions, grey areas, or contextual variations. But the Hindu-Muslim divide is being purged of its porosity and turned into a sharp, permanent line — literally a social Line of Control. A new border is being drawn inside our nation, where, as with international borders, no ambiguity is allowed about who is on which side.

This is still a journey, a process in the present-continuous tense. But its end is not far, and all our public institutions are well on their way towards the same destination. Our Parliament, our highest courts, our hugely bloated media, educational institutions and the entire bureaucracy, including especially its coercive arms – they are all changing their tune. Like the animals in Orwell’s Animal Farm, they are no longer a choir but a chorus chanting the same doha or couplet: “Hindus good, Muslims bad. Government good, opponents bad.”

The second thing that the Bulli Bai arrests alert us to is that the last line of the couplet is the punch line — the first is only a means towards this end. The anti-Muslim agenda is the most potent weapon in the electoral armoury of the current regime, the rath or chariot that has brought it to power. Its pitch and intensity can be adjusted according to need. But the new — and increasingly, the only — benchmark for our institutions is the government line on any issue. They are behaving as though their highest duty is to obey the stated and even the unstated wishes of the ruling regime rather than the Constitution or their own charters.

But the third indication provided by this episode is the most crucial. The Sulli Deals and Bulli Bai apps are part of a large and ever-growing list of hate crimes that are the spontaneous initiatives of ordinary people. What we are witnessing is nothing less than the successful culmination of a nearly century-long campaign of empowerment. It is only habit that makes us think that this word should be reserved for politically correct things, like the empowerment of women. Whatever else they are or are not, Vishal, Shweta, Mayank and Neeraj are certainly shining examples of empowered youth. They are living evidence of the success of the larger campaign that has shaped the environment in which they came of age, and bequeathed to them the fantasies that they have felt emboldened to enact in real life.

Since it began in the 1920s, the larger Hindutva project of the Sangh Parivar founded on hatred for Muslims (and others) had only been battery-powered, so to speak, requiring the dedicated labour of anonymous activists to keep the batteries charged. The Modi-Shah regime has plugged this project into the power of the state. Today’s spontaneous hate crimes are the bitter harvest of fields cultivated laboriously for a century and fertilised with state power since 2014.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘A social line of control’. The writer teaches at Delhi University. Views expressed are personal



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Sarbananda Sonowal writes: When performed on a regular basis, the surya namaskar improves physical vitality and immunity and helps maintain mental balance in a fast-changing world

The sun will rise a little to the north on Makar Sankranti, January 14, bringing along many messages of cultural, spiritual and agricultural significance for the country. The word “sankranti” signifies transitional movement, the movement for betterment within and without, transitions on a cosmic level and in the zodiac signs.

The Ministry of Ayush has decided to utilise this occasion to reach out to humanity with a special and topical message of rejuvenation through the surya namaskar — the set of yoga asanas used to “salute” the sun.

Most of us must have heard about the surya namaskar. Its significance goes much beyond a salutation to the sun. It has a profound impact on the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of humans. When performed appropriately on a regular basis, the surya namaskar not only improves our vitality and immunity but also helps maintain mental balance in a fast-moving and stress-generating world.

Considering the importance of yoga, the Ministry of AYUSH has dedicated due resources towards its growth and development — along with naturopathy — under the ambit of Indian traditional medicine systems. Furthermore, in a bid to popularise yoga at the global level, it has also been recognised as a competitive sport. The International Yoga Sports Federation (IYSF) has been constituted by the ministry and concrete steps are being taken to promote it as a sport at the international level.

Since 2014, when the International Day of Yoga was recognised, the event has grown each year, with greater international participation. As a part of its commitment to promote yoga on a grand scale, the ministry is in the process of setting up a centre of excellence for Ayurveda and yoga in the United Kingdom. In order to further boost professional activity in the domain, the Ministry of AYUSH has constituted the yoga certification board for yoga professionals and accreditations to the institutions.

Building upon the “whole of government” approach of PM Narendra Modi, a surya namaskar demonstration programme is being launched in line with the tribute to 75 years of India’s independence, Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav. The AYUSH ministry has not only engaged other ministries and state governments but has involved all major stakeholders in the global yoga fraternity in this mass demonstration programme.

The universal appeal of yoga is embodied in the surya namaskar. As the sun is the source of vitality for all living beings, the surya namaskar is a sure-shot dose of vitality for humans without any side effects. The world is realising that vitality and strong immunity from within are the most pressing requisites to battle the re-resurfacing Covid-19 infection. For this reason, the surya namaskar becomes even more important.

Our approach is not limited to one-off events as the ministry strongly believes in creating lasting impact, focusing more on building synergies and a continuum — both in the design and implementation — of our action strategies. The demonstration event on January 14 is also part of a continuum, as I had said in Hyderabad recently when we embarked upon an initiative of organising 75 crore surya namaskars.

Surya namaskar is a combination of eight asanas performed in 12 steps. The beauty of these asanas is that all age groups can perform them without much difficulty and their regular practice makes the whole system resilient. I will not go into the details of the benefits of performing regular surya namaskars here but would just like to remind the reader that a practitioner, like myself, is bound to feel energised, with overall well-being, throughout the day, thus saving personal and national expenditure on health-related issues to a great extent.

I am sure that this Makar Sankranti will herald the beginning of a novel resolve from the global community in making natural resources of energy, like the sun and the surya namaskar, our best and most dependable friends. This will help our planet in more ways than one.

This column first appeared in the print edition on January 14, 2022 under the title ‘Salute the sun’. The writer is the minister of AYUSH and the minister of ports, shipping and waterways, Government of India



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The Omicron-powered third wave has swelled blindingly fast but thankfully – so far – without the second wave’s accompanying devastation. The national test positivity rate has jumped to 12.1%, and it has breached 25% in some large cities. Although daily testing has gone up from an average 11 lakh to over 20 lakh now, the number is still inadequate given the likely spread, and most testing seems concentrated in big metro areas. Reported figures are, therefore, likely underestimates, perhaps by an order of magnitude. Plus, there are unreported infections getting caught by home testing. Given all this, authorities need to recalibrate their approach.

First, in a situation of uncontrolled spread, the metrics that matter most are the national numbers of hospitalisation and hospital caseload. Hospitalisation figures from large metros like Delhi and Mumbai show there’s no shortage of oxygen, ICU and ventilator beds yet. But we really should have much more data, like other countries do, on this. Second, we need national and region-wise break up of hospitalisation data by vaccination status. It makes a huge difference to public health policy and for citizens if we have data indicating whether the partially vaccinated or unvaccinated are the ones mostly needing hospital care.

In Mumbai, according to BMC commissioner Iqbal Chahal, the unvaccinated accounted for 96% of admissions for oxygen beds in the city. This kind of data should be collated and published regularly nation-wide. Why, after nearly two years of living with Covid, India still hasn’t managed to put systems in place is a worrying question. For one, if the media can point out everyday that those unvaccinated are getting more sick, the nearly 7 crore adults who haven’t yet got jabbed may get an incentive to change their vaccination status.

Third, GoI should now – finally – reduce the time between two Covishield doses so that the large pool of partially vaccinated can shrink. Alongside that, this group has to be seriously targeted by state governments. Most states don’t appear to be doing this. Fourth, children’s vaccination seems to have slowed down after a brisk start – perhaps a reflection of the Omicron surge-related fear of visiting jab centres. This factor may also partly explain why the booster programme has had a slowish start, the other factor being healthcare professionals’ ‘unofficial’ booster shots taken earlier. But GoI and states must not allow either programme to flag – relentless messaging is needed. Perhaps, it’s time to seriously consider door-to-door vaccination.



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Today, Pakistan will unveil its first codified national security policy that reportedly seeks peace with India and no hostility for a century. It doesn’t even rule out normalisation of trade and economic ties without waiting for a final resolution of the Kashmir issue. Give points to Islamabad’s strategists for thinking long and deep. But such thinking is useless unless Pakistan gives up its use of terrorism as an instrument of state policy.

As per latest Indian military inputs, Pakistan continues to host 350-400 terrorists at border launch pads. Plus, with Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan – which simply wouldn’t have been possible without Islamabad’s support – it is doubtful that Pakistan’s military-ISI complex is ready to abandon its tried-and-tested strategy of promoting cross-border terrorism. Therefore, if at all Pakistan is serious about peace with India and benefiting from geo-economics, the ball is in its own court. It is Pakistan that has to give up its destabilising activities in the region.

Predictably, its anti-India obsession has had disastrous consequences for Pakistan’s society and economy. It holds the inglorious distinction of approaching the IMF for bailouts a record 22 times between 1958 and 2020. And its current growing indebtedness to China makes it a likely candidate for a Chinese vassal state status. Just how wrong-headed and self-goal-scoring the Pakistani leadership has been is best exemplified by the success of its erstwhile eastern wing that became Bangladesh. The latter has overtaken India in per capita income and other HDI indicators like women’s labour force participation.

Yes, the Pakistani economy will benefit immensely if relations with India normalised – two-way trade potential is estimated to be between $10 billion and $20 billion. And projects like the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India pipeline and Indian FDI in Pakistan are possible if Pakistan were a normal country. It certainly can’t afford to take 100 years to get there.



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While Nato partner Turkey broke legacy norms by shopping Rosoboronexport products, India's 'historical ties' with Russia are no longer being perceived by the US as a deal-breaker.

In an article this week in Foreign Policy (bit.ly/3fqZubo), Jerad Harper and John Nagl of the US Army War College argue for a new strategy in the way the US develops military partnerships. They state that in its most heavily resourced overseas endeavours, the US 'creates partner forces as appendages of its own military and intelligence services rather than as independent and capable structures able to stand on their own'.

This is akin to 'helicopter parenting' - intervening in too many situations while leaving partner forces disempowered. India does not provide the US 'auxiliary support'. But a similar logic has been at play when it comes to its dealings as a major defence partner. Which is why the noises emanating from Foggy Bottom - from Joe Biden's nominee for the State Department's coordinator for sanctions policy James O'Brien on Wednesday in particular - is reassuring. Dehyphenating Turkey and India, both purchasers of S-400 missile systems from Russia, suggests that New Delhi is unlikely to be slapped with the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (Caatsa) that Ankara was in December. This would be the right thing for the US to do.

While Nato partner Turkey broke legacy norms by shopping Rosoboronexport products, India's 'historical ties' with Russia are no longer being perceived by the US as a deal-breaker. India gains more obviously if Caatsa is not invoked against it. But the US, too, stands to gain. Russia and China may not be Afghanistan and Iraq, but for the US to ensure its partners are not just cosmetic appendages in a larger containment strategy, it is to the US' advantage if it serves India a separate sauce for its well-measured defence measures from the sauce it serves less reliable partners.



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Much like any health or natural emergency policy, Covid has to be negotiated with in the long term. Knowing when to dial up and dial down localised restrictions is necessary in such a 'permanent plan'.

Narendra Modi's advice to chief ministers to be pre-emptive and proactive in tackling the third wave, and opting for local containment rather than lockdowns, makes sense. Limiting disruptions through local containment zones will ensure that economic activity, despite potential workforce shortages, will continue. The need to limit transmission while keeping 'business open' can happen only when disruptions are well-defined and localised. The most effective instrument of containment, of course, is vaccination and observing Covid protocols.

Scientists have stressed the role of vaccines in lowering the disease's virulence. Omicron may be milder than Delta, but it is not a 'mild' variant - it is vaccination that provides protection. This is evident in global assessments that have found an overwhelming number of Omicron-related hospitalisation cases comprising the unvaccinated. Which is why there must be no slackening in vaccinating the 15-18 year old category, and providing booster doses for healthcare workers and senior citizens right now. Strict adherence to masking and avoiding crowding - a continuing challenge - can flatten the rate of transmission without lockdowns. Last week, a group of former health experts to Joe Biden underlined the need to prepare to 'safely live with Covid' as it is unlikely to go away. This includes setting 'appropriate risk threshold', measured in hospitalisations and deaths, into policy, which, in turn, will set a cut-off when 'surge measures' (bed and workforce capacities) need to be enacted in the future.

Much like any health or natural emergency policy, Covid has to be negotiated with in the long term. Knowing when to dial up and dial down localised restrictions is necessary in such a 'permanent plan'. If we are to live with Covid, we also need to know how to go about our business - livelihoods and industry - with the virus. Governments and the citizenry must act with greater responsibility. Localised containments can contain caseloads, and keep the economic critical mass healthy, wealthy and wise.
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Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Yogi Adityanath — the face of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the upcoming assembly elections — and the Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav — the main challenger to the ruling party, are beset with the same problem: Their image as pro-Rajput and pro-Yadav netas (leaders).

While the BJP is handling caste at the party level, Akhilesh is using the time-tested formula of expanding his party’s base by opening the SP's doors to smaller, caste-based parties, and projecting their leadership in the polls.

Experts believe the caste aspirations are the only antidote to hyped religious sentiments, as proven during the 1990s when both Mandal (quota for Other Backward Classes or OBCs) and Mandir (Ram temple movement) were determining the elections.

Yogi's aggressive casteism

Yogi’s pro-Rajput image has been an issue of heated discussion in the state. Although Yogi vehemently denies being casteist, with his supporters highlighting his monk status, the Opposition reels out reasons to drive home their point. However, Yogi is known to project his Hindu face and Hindutva ideology as a whole rather than focusing on caste, because he knows caste has its limitations in national politics.

A bureaucrat said there was a time when the state had 20 Rajput district heads. This is strongly disputed by Yogi supporters who raise the issue of infamous police recruitments by the Akhilesh Yadav government in 2013, which saw Yadavs packing the state's police force.

However, the fact that Brahmins have been upset by the pro-Rajput politics of Yogi is established by the BJP setting up a committee to look into their grievances.

The BJP is confident that with Prime Minister Narendra Modi taking care of the forwards, the Brahmins will not desert the BJP, but they do fear their non-cooperation in the elections. Brahmins are not only great influencers of voting, but even 10% absenteeism by them on voting day can change the BJP's fate.

Thus, efforts are on to appease the Brahmins, even though the party with its Hindutva plank is that they have the unfailing support of the Brahmins, much like the Banias, who would crib about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and other issues during the BJP regime, but vote for the saffron party.

However, the pro-Rajput campaign against Yogi has disturbed the caste calculus set by Union home minister Amit Shah before the 2014 general elections. The BJP earlier faced a similar dilemma in the 1990s, when it was caught in the vortex of the OBCs vs Brahmins. At the time, Kalyan Singh, a leader from an OBC caste, was the face of the party, and later, Kalraj Mishra, a Brahmin, was appointed the state chief to restore the caste equilibrium.

Even while succumbing to the aspirations of his caste, Yogi projects his Hindu face and Hindutva ideology because of the limits of caste in national politics. After all, he is said to be the prime ministerial choice of the BJP's parent organisation, Rashtriya Swayam Sewak Sangh (RSS).

Akhilesh is shedding his pro-Yadav image

The young SP leader, Akhilesh, had to counter three main challenges after he took over the party from his father and founder-president Mulayam Singh Yadav in 2017 as the national president. He became the party’s state chief before the 2012 assembly polls.

The party, born in the early 1990s amid the Ram temple agitation, had used the emotive temple-mosque issue to consolidate its hold on minorities, who, until then, were divided between the Congress (pre-demolition days) and the Janata Dal. Mulayam took the stand of protecting the disputed shrine and earned the moniker "Maulana Mulayam". While he emerged as a leader to reckon with, his son Akhilesh faced legacy issues especially when a resurgent BJP went after his “red topi” and the alleged protection of the mafia and Muslims.

In 2017, students of Aligarh Muslim University, in an interaction with HT, said that while their first choice of a leader is Akhilesh, they had issues with the party. They mentioned the promotion of anti-social elements and aggressive casteism as two major issues that alienated them from the SP. The students, in the interview, were silent on the Muslim factor.

Akhilesh has done his bit in the past to correct the party's goonda image by denying the ticket to DP Yadav, a leader with criminal antecedents, back in 2012. He diluted the pro-Muslim image by projecting the SP as a new-age party that distributed laptops and focused on development issues such as metro and expressways. But the pro-Yadav image persisted.

However, it was in 2018 when he found a winning formula, which helped him shed his pro-Yadav image in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha constituencies where bypolls were held in March. The vacancies were caused by the resignation of BJP Members of Parliament (MPs) Keshav Prasad Maurya and Yogi Adityanath from their respective seats after taking over as deputy chief minister and chief minister of the state, respectively.

Akhilesh built a secular alliance by entering into an understanding with Mayawati, national president of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and fielding non-Yadav candidates.

In the 2018 Lok Sabha by-polls, the SP fielded Praveen Nishad, the son of Sanjay Nishad, a prominent OBC leader from Gorakhpur, and Nagendra Patel (Kurmi) from Phulpur. The SP won both the seats and an excited Akhilesh exclaimed, “We, too, have evolved a winning formula.”

Although his alliance with the BSP did not work in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh continued wooing prominent OBC leaders and now has an alliance with Mahan Dal (Maurya and Kushwaha- based party), Suheldev Bharatiya Samaj Party (Rajbhar-based party), Rashtriya Lok Dal (Jat- dominated party), Swami Prasad Maurya (a solid OBC leader who picked up lessons in mobilising caste groups from Kanshi Ram), Krishna Patel (Kurmi) and so on. On the flip side, they all are ambitious and unpredictable leaders.

The rainbow of the OBC coalition is complete.

At the personal level, Akhilesh has not only broadened his party’s base, but has emerged as a leader of the OBCs and not a leader of Yadavs and Muslims alone. After the demise of the BJP's Kalyan Singh, there has been a vacuum of OBC leadership at the state level.

It appears that after the 2022 elections, Akhilesh will not only shed his pro-Yadav image, but also emerge as the undisputed OBC leader of the state. His supporters contend that he will play a concrete role in national politics as he shares camaraderie with leaders of various political parties.



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In the 2020 Budget speech, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the National Mission for Quantum Technologies and Applications (NM-QTA) with a total outlay of 8000 crore over five years for strengthening the quantum industry in the country. A Lok Sabha question posed in July 2021 enquired about the status and progress of the mission. The reply that was provided by the minister of state for science and technology, Jitendra Singh, mentioned that the mission had not even received approval yet. Singh also announced that no funds were allocated, disbursed or utilised under NM-QTA during the financial year 2020-21.

With no credible advancements made by the government, there is a need to rethink how the proposed NM-QTA will evolve if India plans to harness the benefits of quantum technology. The focus should be to develop an overarching strategy for the next 10-15 years. The strategy must ensure that there is no misallocation of resources and that the efforts put in are concentrated in key areas that provide both economic and strategic benefits. This is needed for India to maintain any comparative advantage it may have in the global quantum playing field.

Adequate attention to those who can contribute to developing quantum technology must be the government’s top priority. In the current scenario, our view is that the government must follow a four-fold path to build a robust quantum ecosystem in the country.

First, the primary focus must be on establishing centres of excellence dedicated to quantum science and technology within academic institutions as well as government research institutes. Quantum technology remains a field highly concentrated in long-term research and development (R&D). Even the famed quantum industry of China started in a university laboratory, led by Pan Jianwei at the University of Science and Technology of China in 2008. In 2022, China boasts of developing the world’s first quantum satellite, creating a quantum communication line between Beijing and Shanghai, and owning two of the world’s fastest quantum computers. This was a result of decade-long research carried out in the hope of achieving critical breakthroughs. Hence, a majority of the Indian government’s outlay has to be pumped into institutions specialising in quantum R&D.

This can pay dividends in two ways: It will help create crucial intellectual property (IP) infrastructure that can be used for the country’s benefit. The focus on research and academia will also improve the talent pool and strengthen the domestic quantum technology workforce. Just a few hundred researchers, industry professionals, academicians, and entrepreneurs are in the field right now. A constant focus on R&D can change that significantly.

Second, there must be effective coordination between the central and state governments in promoting quantum technology projects. The manufacturing and fabrication process of basic quantum devices requires advanced semiconductor materials and chipsets. With state governments playing an integral role in setting up semiconductor fabs in the near future, quantum technology can benefit immensely from these domestic manufacturing facilities and units.

The establishment of “quantum innovation hubs” in partnership with selected state governments can help direct investments efficiently and build a well-connected quantum research network in the country. These hubs, set up with the help of government resources, can serve as centres of collaboration between academia and the private sector. Finally, it is the responsibility of both the central and state governments to establish a conducive fiscal and legal environment to foster innovation. This can potentially attract international firms to conduct their research in the country while involving local talent.

Third, the power of startups and Big Tech corporations involved in developing quantum technology and applications must be harnessed. The minister, in his Lok Sabha reply, stated that no private sector partners had been identified yet and no one from outside the government had been tapped for consultations for the national mission. The government must recognise the leaps made by these companies. While academic institutions are largely involved on the research side, quantum tech corporations and startups are vital in converting and commercialising this research into applications or products that can be of use.

This is buttressed by Google, Microsoft, and IBM. These companies have dedicated programmes for quantum computing and its applications. Similarly, several Indian startups such as QNu Labs, BosonQ, and Qulabs.ai are doing remarkable work in developing quantum-based applications for cryptography, computing, and cybersecurity. Facilitations must be made by the government to connect academic institutions and industry to translate research into real-world applications.

Finally, the necessity of international cooperation cannot be ignored. The quantum value chain remains highly complicated and it will be hard for India to remain self-reliant to build a successful quantum ecosystem. Quantum technology agreements with the United States/Australia/Canada/the United Kingdom and others should serve as a base for India to pursue a joint effort on projects related to quantum technologies. The first step could be for the government to engage with its allies in key groupings such as Quad and BRICS. Technology alliances are gaining traction, and India must look at signing some bilateral or multilateral agreements to leverage others’ growth in the domain. This is imperative for India to win critical technology transfer deals, get external technical advice or mentoring, and establish state-of-the-art facilities for joint R&D on quantum technologies.

The government has taken the first step by acknowledging the importance of quantum technologies through its plan of kick-starting a national mission in the country. The global quantum industry has already taken incredible strides and seen massive investments made by both governments and the private sector in recent years. India, which has fallen behind other technologically advanced states in the field of quantum technology, cannot afford to miss the bus this time.

Arjun Gargeyas is a researcher with the High Tech Geopolitics programme at the Takshashila Institution 

The views expressed are personal



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India and the United States (US) have ongoing cooperation dialogues and mechanisms across 30 areas or even more — from ayurveda and space to military exercises and education and, of course, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue with Australia and Japan, the current hot-bod on the beach. Time to add one more to the list: Sport?

But wait. We are not talking here of cricket or baseball matches between the US and India. They are more dissimilar than similar despite what your inebriated uncle argued at the last family wedding; one is ultra-boring and the other is super exciting, depending on which of them you truly love and which you are trying to understand.

But there is massive scope for cooperation — by both the public and private sectors — in a multitude of other sporting disciplines. How about athletics, track and field, to begin with?

India’s first track and field Olympic gold, brought home by Neeraj Chopra, must have inspired many young Indians to walk in his shoes, or try it at the very least. Most of them will try and then give up. Some would persist but eventually give up for lack of an enabling infrastructure — Chopra’s gold is heroic and inspiring because of the lack of the support structure that churns out gold medallists with regular frequency elsewhere. Take a shot and many of them will succeed. They need to be discovered early and put through the paces by leading coaches with world-class facilities and programmes. Till we have one, the US would be a good alternative.

We should be looking beyond individual initiatives being taken by Indians to relocate to the US to live, learn and compete among the best equipped, best trained and, generally, best organised.

Somdev Devvarman did it to great effect some years ago. There is a need for a more organised push for cooperation in disciplines like track and field where India gets a PT Usha-close to a world medal or swimming, which has produced a Khazan Singh but no Anthony Nesty, a Surinamese who lived and trained in the US but won an Olympics gold for his country — a country of only half a million people — in 1988. Nesty’s was a case of individual initiative as well, something like Devvarman.

There is probably a need for an organised private-public effort to spot young Indian talent and put them through the same process. Not all of them will bring India gold and glory and the scorecard may look no less dismal than now, but, with time, things could change.

Leading US coaches, schools and facilities could be interested in branching out into India if made a workable business proposition and could create a top-level school in India such as MRF’s pace academy.

Neeraj Chopra has offered India an opportunity. Let’s grab it. It may be possible to make a start, some start, at the upcoming meeting of the foreign and defence ministers of the two countries for the annual 2+2 meeting, though sport is not a subject covered by either ministry.

yashwant.raj@hindustantimes.com 

The views expressed are personal



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India is a land of festivities, with another season underway. Throughout the year, festivities boost markets, and the reverse is also true. Digitally driven e-commerce has taken to the Indian festive mood as fish takes to water. The Covid-19 pandemic has expedited the digital adoption manifold. According to a report by Shopify, 86% of Indians have adopted online shopping during the pandemic.

Initially, the shift happened due to the lockdowns and the growing fear of infection. However, last year, during Diwali, even though no major restrictions were in place, e-commerce witnessed phenomenal sales of $8.3 billion during a one-month festive sale from October 15 to November 15 — 18% more than the predicted $7 billion (according to consulting firm, RedSeer).

This indicates a structural shift in consumer behaviour. Retail usually picks up at that time of the year in India as consumers shop for the festival. With Diwali bonuses, consumers have more disposable income. Banks also reduce interest rates to boost consumer demand. Sellers look forward to the festive season to make some extra sales and clear out their inventories.

For certain businesses such as handicrafts and gift items, the bulk of the sales happens during the festive season. E-commerce has been the saving grace for consumers and sellers, especially small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which struggled to stay afloat during the pandemic.

CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition (CIRC) is undertaking a study to understand the e-commerce festive economy in India to ascertain if joining e-commerce platforms has benefitted SMBs, logistics partners and consumers during festival times. The research involves a consumer survey and a few case studies of small sellers to study their e-commerce usage and experience.

Preliminary findings suggest that approximately 50% of consumers preferred shopping online during the festivals amid the pandemic and sellers think that their presence online has become essential. The sellers interviewed deal in different goods: Handicrafts, gift items, grocery, jewellery, home decor, apparel, health care.

Some of the sellers, who have been running their brick-and-mortar outlets for several years, said they now operate in a hybrid online and offline mode. Several others started their businesses online during the pandemic. The seasonal item sellers said they have benefitted from the e-commerce festive sale events. One of the sellers even claimed to have made 300% higher sales during the e-commerce festive sale in October. Before joining the e-commerce platforms, small sellers were restricted only to local geographies. E-commerce has enabled them to expand their reach to national — and for some, even international — markets. This has increased sales significantly. The festive season deals and discounts also attract more customers. Most of these sellers said they add new products to their offerings during the festive season.

Looking at the benefits that e-commerce brings to all stakeholders, the government must work towards supporting and promoting the emerging e-commerce economy and ecosystem. With an increase in online sales, the government will also collect more taxes. In India, small sellers mostly trade in cash and provide “kaccha” bills. Through e-commerce, the government will widen the tax net considerably.

Unfortunately, in the last two years, policy changes have been frequent for e-commerce. Most of these are restrictive and increase the compliance burden for online platforms. India’s e-commerce foreign direct investment (FDI) policy has been revised several times in the last two years to restrict operations of foreign e-commerce platforms.

The recent draft Consumer Protection (e-commerce) rules also attempt to control their operations, including the sales they can organise on their platforms. The regulatory framework should create a level playing field for all platforms.

However, the direction of regulatory changes suggests protection for domestic players vis-à-vis foreign platforms. This not only skews competition, but is also detrimental to the induction of the latest innovations in retail technologies and logistic chain development that foreign platforms can bring to India that contribute to making e-commerce more efficient, and ensure wider reach.

While the regulatory compliance burden may not deter large platforms, it will create barriers for new entrants into the platform economy and distort competition. This will result in increased prices or quality deterioration of the goods and services detrimental to consumer interests.

Stable long-term policies will allow these platforms to grow and encourage the growth of new ones. In addition, government agencies, industry associations, and platforms should undertake extensive capacity-building programmes to get onboard more SMBs, especially in peri-urban and rural areas.

Several small sellers in these areas depend greatly on the festive season sales for their livelihood, with the season again on us over the next few days. E-commerce expansion to these areas will provide wider market penetration to them.

Arvind Mayaram is former Union finance secretary and chairman, CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition 

Garima Sodhi is senior policy analyst, CUTS Institute for Regulation and Competition 

The views expressed are personal



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Defections have become an integral part of our electoral process. The culture of deserting their parties on the eve of elections has been in fashion for decades. Our aaya Ram gaya Ram“netas” start searching for greener pastures after completing their five-year tenure as honourable members of assemblies or parliament, as the case may be. Politics is more a game of perception. Every political party strives to create the perception that they are within sniffing distance of capturing power and send an open invitation to all, with backing of some caste groupings, to join the bandwagon to enjoy the fruits of power for the next five years. This amoral game has been played for decades and is in full swing currently in Uttar Pradesh, which is poll-bound and where, very recently, a few leaders who were part of the ruling dispensation for the last five years have junked the ruling party complaining that the interest of the downtrodden, backwards, poor and marginalized sections of the people was totally ignored by the government, in which these honourable netas were ruling as cabinet ministers for as long as five years! 

These scenes are recurrent in the theatre of politics. The two netas who recently ditched the ruling party in Uttar Pradesh had done exactly the same some, years back, when they dumped the party which gave them cabinet berth for a full term of five years during its rule in Uttar Pradesh. Then also they had made the same feeble excuse that the then government had neglected the downtrodden sections of the population. Ironically, they were welcomed by the current ruling party with open arms, were promptly given tickets to contest assembly polls in 2017, and were inducted into the cabinet as full-fledged ministers. How long these party hoppers will last in their new dispensations is anybody’s guess. These two are not the only ones, there are hordes waiting to make a killing in the coming polls. Those who are crying foul need to introspect, at least now.

This culture of politics, sans ethics and morality, has run its full circle. Many prominent leaders have travelled across all parties and are now clueless where to go next. Political parties, as they are, also don’t have any scruples or ideological strength. Anybody is welcome in their fold -criminal, corrupt, rapist, looter, thug etc, if he is perceived as capable of adding some votes belonging to his caste to their new party’s tally. If they can satisfactorily prove their “winnability” at the hustings, then parties of all hues, irrespective of their proclaimed political philosophy and colour of their flags will rush to such netas to induct them into their party with fanfare. During election time, it is immaterial whether the neta is a history-sheeter or has an infamous background or notorious character. This unscrupulous political culture has created the current political cesspool. 

No country can ever prosper and move forward with the kind of unprincipled political environment that is prevalent in our country. Our nation has the requisite resources and skill to remove the scourge of poverty,  and provide a decent life to its citizens minus all hassles. The corrupt political culture stifles development and has crushed its potential. Unprincipled politics leads to induction of unscrupulous people in politics who get party tickets to contest elections and become ministers and rule the country. Can the country expect implementation of rule of law when inept, criminal, corrupt and opportunistic people, are only chosen, by and large, by all the political parties as their torchbearers?

The current spate of desertions by a few ministers in Uttar Pradesh is the outcome of admitting unscrupulous netas at the time of previous elections, by the current ruling party. These were the very netas who had deserted their earlier parties and had joined BJP, and they are repeating their past practice of deserting their current party to defect to another -to serve their personal interest only. There is no principle involved in their actions, so their actions don’t merit any discussion. Clearly all those who were accepted with garlands in 2017 by the ruling party are going to desert them and we will soon witness the drama of “welcome pageants” by other parties too.

When will this drama end is the question that begs an answer. Apart from political parties, we, the people also need to ponder over the current state of affairs of our polluted political culture and do course correction. This rotten politics has already cost the nation dearly. We remain one of the most corrupt, poor and backward countries which has been surviving with the “developing country” tag for nearly seventy odd years. When will this tag be changed to a developed country is not known, neither has any timeline ever been presented to our people in this regard. We should not wait for a Krishna avatar to come and cleanse politics. The time has come for people to act and eradicate the rot in our immoral political system. Otherwise, our second rate political representatives will continue to provide third rate governance.

(V. S. Pandey is a retired UP cadre IAS officer. He was

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Come Monday, India will enter its third week since the Omicron variant began pushing up cases, led by hotspot regions of Delhi and Mumbai. After a rise in infections in both cities, the optimistic presumption of the variant appears to have been borne out: The medical care infrastructure is unlikely to be overwhelmed as long as timely reinforcements are made and infection-control measures are put in place. Both cities have growing amounts of data on who is more likely to have severe disease, how the variant sickens those with one, two or no vaccine shots, and the critical comorbid diseases that could put people at risk of death.

Some of this data has been consistent with global experiences. For instance, in Delhi, close to 75% of the deaths were in unvaccinated people, and having two doses significantly lowered the odds of death. The state’s health minister also said that the death audit committee’s analyses showed most deaths were in those who came to a facility due to some other critical illness. This echoes the higher rate of deaths in unvaccinated people and the “incidental diagnosis” seen in other parts of the world. But Delhi showed other trends too: Almost 60% of the deaths occurred within 48 hours of admission, and almost all fatalities suffered from critical comorbidities instead of diabetes or hypertension — two diseases seen as big Covid-19 risk factors, but may now not be playing as big a role. A small subgroup analysis showed kidney disease might be a significant hazard.

These are still early trends, highlighting a crucial gap in India’s Covid-19 management: The lack of minute data. Authorities in Delhi and Mumbai have shared these analyses sporadically, releasing information in their own formats. But even these have not included data on how long ago the hospitalised or the deceased got their doses — information that could be critical to understanding the effect of vaccine waning. Outside of these two metropolises, the information gap worsens with hardly any data on comorbid conditions, age and gender distribution, vaccination status, and symptoms of serious cases. Understanding who needs what type of care will help determine who should be shielded the most. Without these, the scientific understanding of Covid-19 is incomplete. The government should consider a unified portal for states to feed data in a standardised format. This will be crucial in keeping India, as the prime minister implored on Thursday, ready for any variant.



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