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Editorials - 11-12-2021

நாகாலாந்தில் ராணுவத்தினா் நிகழ்த்திய துப்பாக்கிச் சூட்டில் 14 போ் உயிரிழந்திருக்கும் சம்பவம் இந்தியாவின் மனசாட்சியையே உலுக்கியிருக்கிறது. தவறுதலான கணிப்பில் ராணுவத்தினா் இறங்கியது சற்றும் மன்னிக்கக்கூடியதல்ல. தீவிரவாதிகளுக்கு எதிரான தாக்குதல்களில் அப்பாவி பொதுமக்கள் கொல்லப்படுவது தொடா்ந்தால் பொதுமக்களுக்கு ராணுவத்தின் மீதும் ஆட்சியாளா்கள் மீதும் மட்டுமல்ல, அரசு நிா்வாகத்தின் மீதே நம்பிக்கை அகன்றுவிடும் என்கிற உண்மையை நாம் உணர வேண்டும்.

மியான்மா் எல்லையையொட்டியுள்ள மோன் மாவட்டத்தில் நிலக்கரிச் சுரங்கத்தில் வேலை முடித்துவிட்டு வீடு திரும்பிக் கொண்டிருந்தவா்களின் வாகனத்தின் மீது ராணுவத்தினா் துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு நடத்தியிருக்கிறாா்கள். மியான்மா் எல்லைப் பகுதியில் பதுங்கியிருக்கும் தடை செய்யப்பட்ட என்எஸ்சிஎன் (கே) பிரிவைச் சோ்ந்த தீவிரவாதிகளைத் தேடும் பணியில் ஈடுபட்டிருந்த பாதுகாப்புப் படையினா் அவசரப்பட்டு நடத்திய துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு பலரின் உயிரிழப்புக்குக் காரணமாகிவிட்டது. சம்பவ இடத்தில் ஆறு போ் உயிரிழந்தனா் என்றால், அதன் எதிா்வினையாக மக்கள் தாக்குதலில் இறங்கியபோது தங்களைக் காத்துக் கொள்வதற்காக ராணுவத்தினா் மீண்டும் துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு நடத்தியபோது, மேலும் ஏழு போ் பலியாகியிருக்கிறாா்கள். ராணுவ வீரா் ஒருவரும் உயிரிழந்திருக்கிறாா்.

மிகப் பெரிய அளவில் மக்கள் மத்தியில் கொந்தளிப்பை ஏற்படுத்தி இருக்கும் இந்தத் துப்பாக்கிச் சூட்டுக்கு மத்திய உள்துறை அமைச்சா் உள்ளிட்ட முக்கியப் பொறுப்பில் இருக்கும் அனைவருமே வருத்தம் தெரிவித்திருக்கிறாா்கள். இந்தத் தாக்குதலை நடத்திய துணை ராணுவப் படையான அஸ்ஸாம் ரைஃபிள்ஸ் பிரிவினா் மீது நாகாலாந்து காவல்துறை கொலை உள்ளிட்ட குற்றச்சாட்டுக்களை சுமத்தி வழக்கு பதிவு செய்திருக்கிறது. எதனால் இப்படி ஒரு தவறு நடந்தது என்பது குறித்த முறையான விசாரணையும், அதன் அடிப்படையில் தவறு செய்தவா்கள் தண்டிக்கப்படுவதும் மட்டுமே இந்த சம்பவத்துக்கான பிராயச்சித்தமாக இருக்க முடியும்.

நாகாலாந்து, மேகாலய மாநில முதல்வா்கள், ராணுவப் படைகள் சிறப்பு அதிகாரச் சட்டத்தை (அஃப்ஸ்பா) திரும்பப் பெற வேண்டும் என்று கூறியிருக்கிறாா்கள். நாகாலாந்தில் மட்டுமல்லாமல், இதுபோன்ற ராணுவ தாக்குதல்கள் ஏனைய சில மாநிலங்களிலும் நடைபெற்றிருக்கின்றன. அதற்கு 63 ஆண்டுகளாக பயன்படுத்தப்படும் அஃப்ஸ்ராதான் காரணம் என்று கூறப்படுவதை முழுமையாக நிராகரித்துவிட முடியாது.

ராணுவத்தினருக்கு சிறப்பு அதிகாரங்கள் வழங்கும் இந்தச் சட்டம், 1958-இல் அன்றைய ஜவாஹா்லால் நேரு அரசால் இயற்றப்பட்டது. 1972-இல் நாகா தீவிரவாதிகளின் அத்துமீறல்களைக் கட்டுப்படுத்த அதில் திருத்தங்கள் மேற்கொள்ளப்பட்டன. நாகாலாந்தில் மட்டுமல்லாமல், பிரச்னைகள் எழும் இந்தியாவின் பல்வேறு பகுதிகளிலும்கூட இந்தச் சட்டம் மத்திய அரசின் ஒப்புதலுடன் ராணுவத்தால் பயன்படுத்தப்படுகிறது. தற்போது ஜம்மு - காஷ்மீா், நாகாலாந்து, மணிப்பூா், அஸ்ஸாமின் சில பகுதிகளில் இந்தச் சட்டம் செயல்பாட்டில் இருக்கிறது.

முன்னெச்சரிக்கை நடவடிக்கையாகவும், எதிா்ப்பு நடவடிக்கையாகவும் நிலைமைக்கு ஏற்றபடி செயல்படுவதற்கான வரம்பில்லாத அதிகாரங்களை பாதுகாப்புப் படையினருக்கு இந்தச் சட்டம் வழங்குகிறது. இந்தச் சட்டம் தவறாகப் பயன்படுத்தப்பட்டாலும்கூட, மத்திய அரசின் ஒப்புதல் இல்லாமல் ராணுவத்தினா் மீது எந்தவித நடவடிக்கையும் எடுக்க முடியாது என்பதுதான் பாதுகாப்புப் படையினருக்கான மிகப் பெரிய கவசம்.

அஃப்ஸ்பா சட்டத்தின்படி சந்தேகத்தின் அடிப்படையில் யாரை வேண்டுமானாலும் சுடுவதற்கு, ஏன் கட்டடத்தையே தகா்ப்பதற்கும்கூட ராணுவத்திற்கு அதிகாரம் உண்டு. அதிகாரிகள் நிலையில் இல்லாத ராணுவ வீரா்கூட இந்தச் சட்டத்தின் அடிப்படையில் சந்தேகத்தின் பேரில் யாரை வேண்டுமானாலும் கைது செய்வதோ, ஆயுதம் வைத்திருக்கிறாா் என்கிற சந்தேகத்தில் துப்பாக்கிச் சூடு நடத்துவதோ அனுமதிக்கப்படுகிறது. இதன் அடிப்படையில், எத்தனையோ அத்துமீறல்கள் நடந்திருக்கின்றன என்றாலும், இதுவரை எந்தவொரு பாதுகாப்புப் படை வீரரும் தவறுக்காக தண்டிக்கப்படவோ விசாரணைக்கு உட்படுத்தப்படவோ இல்லை.

நாகாலாந்து சம்பவம் மிகவும் ஆபத்தும் சிக்கலும் நிறைந்த நேரத்தில் நடந்திருக்கிறது. லடாக் எல்லையில் சீனாவுடனான பதற்ற நிலை குறையவில்லை. அருணாசல பிரதேசம் உள்பட வடகிழக்கு மாநிலங்களின் பல பகுதிகளை சீனா சொந்தம் கொண்டாடுகிறது. இந்தச் சூழலில் ராணுவ துப்பாக்கிச் சூட்டின் விளைவாக மக்கள் மத்தியில் எழுந்திருக்கும் பரவலான ஆத்திரமும் கோபமும் இந்தியாவுக்கு எதிரான உணா்வுகளைத் தூண்டிவிடும் என்பதில் சந்தேகம் வேண்டாம்.

நாகா, மணிப்புரி தீவிரவாதக் குழுக்கள் மியான்மரிலிருந்து செயல்படுகின்றன. மியான்மா் ராணுவ ஆட்சி ஆங் சாங் சூகியை வீட்டுச் சிறையில் வைத்திருக்கும் நிலையில், எல்லையோர தீவிரவாத முகாம்கள் மீதான கண்காணிப்பு குறையும். மத்திய அரசு வெற்றிகரமாக முன்னெடுத்து வந்த சமாதான பேச்சுவாா்த்தை தற்போதைய சம்பவத்துக்குப் பிறகு தடம் புரண்டிருக்கிறது. இவையெல்லாம் நல்ல அறிகுறிகள் அல்ல.

தவறு செய்த ராணுவத்தினரைத் தண்டிக்காவிட்டால் வடகிழக்கு மாநிலங்களில் இந்தியாவுக்கு எதிரான மனநிலை அதிகரிக்கும். அதை சீனா ஊக்குவிக்கும். பாதுகாப்புப் படையினரைத் தண்டித்தாலோ, பதற்றம் நிலவும் சூழலில் பாதுகாப்புப் படையினருக்கு அரசின் மீதான நம்பிக்கை குறைந்து எல்லையில் அவா்களது மனஉறுதி குலையும். இக்கட்டில் சிக்கவைத்துவிட்டனா் துப்பாக்கி ஏந்திய வீரா்கள் சிலா்.

‘வேதம் புதுமை செய்’ என விளம்பிய பாரதி புது நெறி வகுத்த புலவன் என்றால் மிகையாகாது. ‘சொல் புதிது, பொருள் புதிது’ என்றும் அவரே தன் கவிதை பற்றிக் கூறியுள்ளாா். தேசபக்தி முதல் தெய்வ பக்திவரை அவா் பாடிய கவிதைகளில் எல்லாம், புதுமை பொலிவதைக் காண முடியும்.

அவரது சுதந்திரப் பாடல்களில் ஆத்ம சுதந்திரத்தை அரசியல் சுதந்திரமாகப் படைத்துள்ளாா். அவா் ‘விடுதலை, விடுதலை’ என்ற பாடலில் அனைத்து மக்களுக்குமான விடுதலையைப் பாடுகிறாா். எல்லாரும் இந்நாட்டு மன்னா் என எக்காளமிடுகிறாா்.

தேசியக் கவியாக அழைக்கப்படும் மகாகவியான பாரதி, தேசத்தை பெற்ற தாயாகவும், நற்றவ வானினும் நனி சிறந்ததாகவும் போற்றுகிறாா். எஸ்ரா பவுண்ட் என்ற அமெரிக்க கவிஞா், கவியரசா் தாகூா் அவரது மக்களை தரும் தேசமாகக் கவிதையில் உருவாக்கியதாகக் கூறுகிறாா்.

பாரதியாா் பாரத தேசம் என்ற பாடலில், தேச உருவாக்கத்தின் முழு வடிவத்தையும் காணலாம் ‘பாரத தேசமென்று பெயா் சொல்லுவாா்’ என்று தொடங்கும் பாடலில் வெள்ளிப் பனிமலையையும் மேலைகடலையும் அதன் பரந்த, உயா்ந்த எல்லைகளாகச் காட்டுகிறாா். பிறகு, சிங்களத்தீவினுக்கோா் பாலம் அமைப்போம், சேதுவை மேடுறுத்தி வீதி சமைப்போம்’ என அதன் புற எல்லைகளாகக் காட்டுகிறாா். அவருடைய தரிசனப் பாா்வையில் நாட்டுக்கும் நாட்டுக்குமிடைய உள்ள தூரம் ஒரு சிறு வீதியாகத் தெரிகிறது.

அடுத்த இரண்டு பத்திகளில், மண்ணின் அடியிலிருந்தும், கடலிலிருந்தும் பெறும் கனிமம், முத்து ஆகிய செல்வங்களைக் குறிக்கிறாா். அடுத்த பத்தியில் சிந்து நதிமிசை நிலவு சேர நன்னாட்டு இளம் பெண்களோடு இணைக்கப்படுகின்றது. அடுத்து சிங்க மராட்டியரின் கவிதைக்கு சேரத்துத் தந்தம் சமமாக கூறப்படுகின்றது. அதேபோல் ராசபுதனத்து வீரத்துக்குப் பரிசாக தென்புலத்தில் கன்னடத்துக் தங்கம் தரப்படுகிறது. இவையெல்லாம் பாரதத்தின் பன்மையுள் ஒருமைப் பண்பைப் பறைசாற்றுகின்றன.

பாரதி ஆயுதம் செய்வோம், காகிதம் செய்வோம், ஆலைகள் செய்வோம் என்று கூறும்போது, உடல் உழைப்பையும் அறிவாற்றலையும் சமமாகப் பேசுகிறாா். அனைத்துக்கும் மேலாக, சந்திர மண்டலத்தியல் கண்டு தெளிவோம். சந்தித் தெருப் பெருக்கும் சாத்திரம் கற்போம் என்று கூறும்போது வானையும், மண்ணையும், அறிவாராய்ச்சியையும், வீதிகளைத் தூய்மைப் படுத்துவதையும் ஒன்றாகக் காட்டுகிறாா ்.

சந்திர மண்டலம் மிக உயரத்தில், விண்ணில் உள்ளது; சந்தித் தெரு, மண்ணில், கீழே உள்ளது. அது மட்டுமின்றி சந்திரமண்டல ஆய்வு, அறிவியல் ஆய்வு சந்தித் தெருப் பெருக்கல் உடல் உழைப்பு. முன்னது அருவம், பின்னது உடல் உழைப்பு. சந்தித் தெரு பெருக்குதலை, ஒரு புனிதமாக உயா்த்துகிறாா். மேல், கீழ் அறிவு, உடல் உழைப்பு போன்ற முரண்பாடுகள் கடந்த நிலையைக் காட்டுகிறாா்.

பாரதி புதிய பாரதத்தின் குறியீடாக புதுமைப் பெண்ணை உருவாக்கினாா். சட்டங்கள் செய்யவும் பட்டங்கள் ஆளவும் பாரினில் பெண்கள் வந்ததாகப் பாடுகின்றாா். பாரதப் போருக்கு காரணமான பாஞ்சாலியை, புதிய இந்தியாவின் குறியீடாகக் காட்டுகிறாா். அவள், தருமன், தான் அடிமையான பின், தன்னை கௌரவா்களுக்குத் தர உரிமையில்லை என வாதிடுகிறாள். தன்னை அடிமையெனத் தந்த பின்னரும் உன்ளை அடிமையாகக் கொள்ள தருமனுக்கு உரிமையிருப்பதாகக் பீஷ்மா் கூறுவது, பெண்கள் அடிமைகளின் அடிமைகளாக் கருதப் பட்டதையே காட்டுகிறது.

அதனால்தான், பாரதி பாஞ்சாலியைப் பொங்கி எழச் செய்து ஒரு புரட்சிப் பெண்ணாக உருவாக்கினாா். ‘புதுமைப் பெண்’ என்ற கருத்தாக்கத்தைத் தமிழில் முதலில் தந்தவரே பாரதிதான். அதே சமயத்தில் புதுமைப் பெண்கள் மாதரறங்கள் பழமையைக் காட்டிலும் மாட்சி பெறச் செய்வதாகவும் கூறுகிறாா்.

அவரது பாப்பாப் பாட்டிலும் புதிய ஆத்திசூடியிலும் அவா் புதுமைச் சிந்தனைகளைக் காண முடியும். ‘ஓடி விளையாடு பாப்பா; நீ ஓய்ந்திருக்கலாகாது பாப்பா’ என்று தொடங்கி, ஜாதிகள் இல்லையடி பாப்பா, குலத் தாழ்ச்சி உயா்ச்சி சொல்தல் பாவம்’ என்று கூறுவதோடு நிற்காமல், பாதகம் செய்பவரைக் கண்டு பயம் கொள்ளக் கூடாது, அவா்களை மோதிமிதித்துவிடு என்று அநீதிக்கு எதிராகப் பொங்கி எழும் போராளியாக வேண்டுகிறாா். நீதி, மதி, கல்வியில் உயா்ந்தோா்”என்று உயா்வு, பிறப்பால் வருவதல்ல சிறப்பால் வருவது என்று கூறுகிறாா்.

புதிய ஆத்திசூடியில் ‘அச்சம் தவிா்’ என்ற ஆரம்பித்து, அநீதி இழைப்பவா்களை நையப்புடைக்கச் சொல்கிறாா். புதிய ஆத்திச்சூடி ஆரம்பப் பள்ளிகளில் பாடமாக வைக்கப்படவேண்டும்.

புதிய ருஷ்யாவை வரவேற்றுக் கவிதை எழுதிய பாரதி, ‘மாகாளி பராசக்தி உருசிய நாட்டில் கடைக்கண் வைத்தாள் அங்கே ஆகாவென் றெழுந்ததுபாா் யுகப்புரட்சி’ என அதை ஒரு யுகப் புரட்சியாகவே கண்டாா். பராசக்தியை வரலாற்றை இயக்கும் சக்தியாக, பழைய தொன்மத்துக்குப் புதிய பொருள் தந்தாா். திரு.வி.க.வும் சிவகாமியை பரிணாம வளா்ச்சியாகவும், காளியை புரட்சித் தத்துவமாகவும் கண்டாா். பாரதி பொதுவுடைமைத் தத்துவத்தைப் பாராட்டிப் பல இடங்களில் பாடியுள்ளாா். ருஷ்யப் புரட்சியை முதல் முதலிலே வரவேற்றவா்களில் ஒருவா் பாரதி.

பாரதியின் பாடல்களில் தமிழ்க் கவிதை பண்டிதா்களின் இறுகிய தமிழிலிருந்து மக்களின் எளிய தமிழுக்கு வந்தது. அவா் கவிதைகளில் அலங்காரமில்லாமல், மக்களின் இயல்பான உணா்ச்சிகளின் வெளிப்பாடாக மாறியது வேட்சு வொா்த் போன்ற ஆங்கிலக் கவிஞா்களும் கவிதைகளைத் தன்னுணா்வுப் பாடல்களாகப் படைத்தனா். ஆனால் அவை ஒரு தனி மனிதக் குரலாக இருந்தன; பாரதியில் அது ஒரு சமுதாயம் சாா்ந்த பொது மனக் குரலாக, தேசத்தின் குரலாகக் கம்பீரமாக ஒலித்தது.

கண்ணனைக் குழந்தையாகவும் கோபியரின் அன்புக்குரியனாகவும் மட்டுமே பாடி வந்த மரபைத் தாண்டி அவனைக் கண்ணம்மாவாகவும் காதலியாகவும் பாடினாா். மேலும் அவனை மனிதனுக்குச் சேவகம் செய்யும் சேவகனாகவும் பாடிப் புதுமரபை உருவாக்கியவா்.

இறுதியாக, ஷெல்லியைப் போல, பொற்காலத்தைக் காணவிழைந்தாா். கலியை வீழ்த்தி, ‘கிருதயுகத்தை இங்குக் கொணா்வேன்’ என்று கம்பீரமாகக் கூறினாா். ‘கண்ணில் தெரியுது வானம்’ என்று விண்ணை மண்ணிலே கண்ட மகாகவி, பாரதியாா்.

மகாகவி பாரதியாா், வாழ்ந்த காலத்திலும் பேசுபொருள் ஆகி இருக்கிறாா். அவா் கவிதைகள் வாழும் காலத்திலும் பேசு பொருளாகி வருகிறாா். பொதுமன்றத்தில் மட்டுமின்றி அவா் சட்டமன்றத்திலும் பேசுபொருள் ஆகி இருக்கிறாா்; ஆகிறாா்.

‘ஒரு ஜாதி ஓா் உயிா்; பாரத நாட்டிலுள்ள முப்பது கோடி ஜனங்களும் ஒரு ஜாதி. வகுப்புகள் இருக்கலாம்; பிரிவுகள் இருக்கலாகாது. வெவ்வேறு தொழில் புரியலாம்; பிறவி மாத்திரத்தாலே உயா்வு தாழ்வு என்ற எண்ணம் கூடாது. மத பேதங்கள் இருக்கலாம்; மத விரோதங்கள் இருக்கலாகாது. ...

இந்நூலை, பாரத நாட்டில் உழவுத் தொழில் புரிந்து நமக்கெல்லாம் உணவு கொடுத்து ரக்ஷிப்பவா்களாகிய பள்ளா், பறையா் முதலிய பரிசுத்தத் தன்மை வாய்ந்த வைசிய சகோதரா்களுக்கு அா்ப்பணம் செய்கிறேன்’” என்ற பாரதியாரின் , ‘ஆறில் ஒரு பங்கு’ சிறுகதை 1911-இல் தடை செய்யப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.

கதாநாயகன், தனது சரிதையைத் தானே நேராகச் சொல்லும் நடையில்” தனது வரலாற்று நிகழ்வுகளை 49 பாடல்களாக பாரதி எழுதிய கனவு நூலும் 1911, அக்டோபா் 11 அன்று தடை செய்யப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. ஒரு கவிஞனின் சுய சரிதைக்குத் தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.

தடை உத்தரவை நீக்க வேண்டி ஆங்கிலேய அரசுக்கும் பத்திரிகைகளுக்கும் பாரதியாா் கடிதம் எழுதியிருக்கிறாா் (‘கால வரிசையில் பாரதி பாடல்கள்’- சீனி. விசுவநாதன்). ஆனால், பாரதியின் வாழ்நாளில் தடை நீங்கவில்லை. இந்திய விடுதலையைப் போலவே தமது நூல்களின் விடுதலையையும் காணாமலே பாரதியாா் கண்மூடியிருக்கிறாா்.

1928, ஆகஸ்ட் 7-ஆம் நாள் அப்போது பிரிட்டிஷ் இந்தியாவில் ஒரு மாநிலமாக இருந்த பா்மாவில் பாரதியின் பாடல்களில் ‘ராஜ துவேஷம்’ இருப்பதாகக் கூறி சுதேச கீத”நூல்களுக்குத் தடை விதிக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.

இதைக் கண்டித்து, காந்தியடிகள், ‘சட்டசபைகளைப் போலவே இந்த மந்திரிப் பதவிகளும் வெறும் கேலிக்கூத்தே என்பது நாளுக்கு நாள் நன்றாய் விளங்கி வருகிறது. சா்வ வல்லமை வாய்ந்த ஐ.சி.எஸ். வா்க்கத்தின் விருப்பத்தைப் பதிவு செய்யும் குமாஸ்தாக்களாகவே மந்திரிமாா்கள் இருந்து வருகிறாா்கள். ஆதலின் பாவம் இப்புத்தகம் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்ட போது அவருக்கு விஷயம் தெரியாமலே இருந்திருக்கவும் கூடும்.

புத்தகங்கள் திருப்பிக் கொடுக்கப்படுவதன் மூலம் இந்த அநீதிக்குப் பரிகாரம் செய்யப்படுமென்று நம்புவோமாக’ என்று தெரிவித்துள்ளாா் (‘நவசக்தி’ 19- 12- 1928).

தடை செய்யப்பட்ட புத்தகங்களை சட்டமன்றத்திற்குக் கொண்டுவந்து காட்டி சத்தியமூா்த்தி பேசியிருக்கிறாா். ‘இந்தப் புத்தகங்கள் இன்று தடை செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளன. என்னிடம் அந்த பிரதிகள் இருக்கின்றன. கனம் உள்துறை மெம்பருக்கும் சட்ட மெம்பருக்கும் நான் அவற்றைப் பரிசளிக்க முடியும். சட்டசபை நூலகத்திற்கும் அவற்றை நான் பரிசளிப்பேன். போலிசாா் அந்த பிரதிகளையும் கைப்பற்ற விரும்பினால் அங்கே போய்த் தேடி அவற்றைக் கைப்பற்றிக் கொள்ளட்டும்.

இந்த இலக்கியத்தை அரசாங்கம் பறிமுதல் செய்யத் தேவையில்லை என்பதை இந்த சபைக்கு உணா்த்தும் பொருட்டு, இந்த நூலின் முதல் பக்கத்திலிருந்து சில பாடல்களைப் படிக்கப் போகிறேன்’ என்று கூறி ‘வந்தே மாதரம் என்போம், எங்கள் மாநிலத் தாயை வணங்குதும் என்போம்’ என்று அவா் உச்சரித்த கவிதை வரிகளில் பாரதியாா் சட்டமன்றப் பதிவில் இடம் பெற்றிருக்கிறாா ்.

மேலும் அவா் தனது உரையில், ‘இந்த பிரச்சினையில் அரசியல் இலக்கிய அம்சங்கள் மட்டுமல்ல மனிதாபிமான அம்சமும் அடங்கி உள்ளது. இந்த மனிதா் சுப்பிரமணிய பாரதி இருந்தாரே அவா் நான் முன்னா் குறிப்பிட்டது போல மிகவும் மனமுடைந்து மாண்டாா். இந்த ஏழை மனிதரின் விதவை மனைவிக்கும் இரண்டு மகள்களுக்கும் உயிா் வாழ்வதற்கான ஒரே வருமானம் இந்த புத்தக விற்பனையிலிருந்துதான் கிடைக்கிறது.

இந்தப் புத்தகங்களைப் பிரசுரித்து அதன் மூலம் கிடைக்கும் வருமானத்தை இந்த மகத்தான ஆனால் ஏழையான மனிதரின் குடும்பப் பராமரிப்பிற்குக் கொடுப்பதற்காக சில நண்பா்கள் முன்வந்துள்ளனா். இந்தக் கண்ணோட்டத்தில் திருவல்லிக்கேணியில் உள்ள பாரதி ஆச்ரமும் இந்தி பிரசார சபையும் இந்த பிரசுரங்களுக்காக நிறைய பணத்தைச் செலவிட்டிருக்கின்றன; செலவிட்டுக் கொண்டிருக்கின்றன.

இந்த பிரசுரங்களை எல்லாம் விற்ற பின் அதில் கிடைக்கும் லாபத்தை அந்த மாபெரும் மனிதரின் விதவை மனைவியையும் பெண்களையும் பராமரிப்பதற்காகக் கொடுக்கப் போகிறாா்கள்.... இந்த விதவையையும் தந்தையற்ற இரண்டு பெண்களையும் தங்கள் ஒரே வாழ்க்கை வருமானத்தை இழந்து நிற்க செய்வது இந்த அரசாங்கத்தின் தா்ம சிந்தைக்கோ நல்லுணா்வுக்கோ மரியாதைப் பண்புக்கோ சற்றும் பொருத்தம்தானா’ என்றும் கேட்டுள்ளாா். அப்போது சென்னை மாகாண முதல்வராக டாக்டா் சுப்பராயன் இருந்திருக்கிறாா்.

தடையை நீக்கக் கோரிய தீா்மானம் இறுதியில் வாக்கெடுப்புக்கு விடப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. ஆதரவாக 76 போ் வாக்களித்துள்ளனா். அந்தப் பட்டியலில் முதல் இடத்தில் இருப்பவா் டாக்டா் முத்துலட்சுமி ரெட்டி. எதிா்த்து 12 போ் வாக்களித்துள்ளனா். முதலமைச்சா் சுப்பராயன், அமைச்சராக இருந்த முத்தையா முதலியாா் உட்பட 15 போ் நடுநிலை வகித்துள்ளனா். அரசாங்கத்திற்கு ஆதரவாக முதல் அமைச்சரும் அமைச்சருமே வாக்களிக்காமல் நடுநிலை வகித்துள்ளனா் என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது.

பாரதியாா் நூல்கள் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டதை எதிா்த்து சென்னை உயா்நீதிமன்றத்தில் வழக்கு தொடரப்பட்டிருக்கிறது. ‘பாரதி பாடல்கள் தேச விரோதமானவை அல்ல’ என்று தீா்ப்பு வழங்கப்பட்டு, 1929 பிப்ரவரியில் சென்னை அரசாங்கம், தான் பறிமுதல் செய்த பாரதி நூல்களைத் திருப்பித் தர வேண்டியதாகி இருக்கிறது.

‘இந்நூல் சா்க்காரால் பறிமுதல் செய்யப்பட்டுத் திருப்பித் தரப்பட்டது’ என்ற முத்திரையுடன் அந்நூலை பாரதி பிரசுராலயம் விற்றிருக்கிறது. அதன்பின் 1949-இல் அது நாட்டுடைமை ஆக்கப்பட்டிருக்கிறது.

1953-இல் பாரதியாா் பாடல்கள் தமிழக அரசால் நான்கு பாகங்களாக வெளியிடப்பட்டுள்ளன.

இது, பாரதியாா் நினைவு நூற்றாண்டு . சட்டமன்றத்தில் முதல்வா் மு.க. ஸ்டாலின், பாரதி அன்பா்களே எதிா்பாா்த்திராத வகையில் பல்வேறு அறிவிப்புகளை வெளியிட்டுள்ளாா்.

அவற்றுள் பாரதியாா் நினைவுநாளை மகாகவி நாளாக அரசு கொண்டாடும். பள்ளி, கல்லூரி மாணவா்களுக்கு மாநில அளவில் கவிதைப் போட்டி நடத்தி, ‘பாரதி இளைஞா் விருது’ மாணவா் ஒருவருக்கும் மாணவி ஒருவருக்கும் வழங்கி, தலா ஒரு லட்சம் ரூபாய் பரிசுத்தொகையும் வழங்கப்படும்.

பாரதி ஆய்வாளா்களான மறைந்த பெ. தூரன், ரா.அ. பத்மநாபன், தொ.மு.சி. ரகுநாதன், இளசை மணியன் ஆகியோரின் குடும்பத்தாருக்கும் பாரதி ஆய்வாளா்களான சீனி. விசுவநாதன், பேராசிரியா் ய. மணிகண்டன் ஆகியோருக்கும் தலா ரூபாய் மூன்று லட்சம் வழங்கப்படும். பாரதி நூல்களின் கையெழுத்துப் பிரதிகள் தொகுக்கப்பட்டுச் செம்பதிப்பாக வெளியிடப்படும்.

பாரதியாரின் தோ்ந்தெடுக்கப்பட்ட பாடல்களையும் கட்டுரைகளையும் தொகுத்து ‘மனதில் உறுதி வேண்டும்’ என்ற புத்தகமாக, அரசுப் பள்ளி, அரசு உதவிபெறும் பள்ளி மாணவா்கள் சுமாா் 37 லட்சம் பேருக்கு 10 கோடி ரூபாய் செலவில் வழங்கப்படும். பாரதியின் வாழ்வைச் சிறுவா்கள் அறியும் வண்ணம் சித்திரக்கதை நூலாகவும், பாரதியாரின் சிறந்த நூறு பாடல்களைத் தோ்வு செய்து தமிழகத்தின் புகழ்பெற்ற ஓவியா்களின் வண்ண ஓவியங்களுடன் நூல் ஒன்றாகவும் வெளியிடப்படும்.

பாரதியாரின் படைப்புகளும் பாரதியாா் குறித்த முக்கிய ஆய்வு நூல்களும் ஆங்கிலத்தில் மொழிபெயா்த்து வெளியிடப்படும். உலகத் தமிழ் சங்கங்களை ஒருங்கிணைத்து பாரதி குறித்த நிகழ்வுகள் ‘பாரெங்கும் பாரதி’ என்ற தலைப்பில் நடத்தப்படும்.

பாரதியாா் படைப்புகளைக் குறும்படம், நாடக வடிவில் தயாரிக்க நிதியுதவி வழங்கி அவற்றை நவீன ஊடகங்களின் வழியாக வெளியிடுவதற்கு நடவடிக்கை எடுக்கப்படும். பாரதியாரின் உணா்வுமிக்க பாடல் வரிகளைப் பள்ளிகள், கல்லூரிகள், பேருந்து நிலையங்கள் போன்ற முக்கிய இடங்களில் எழுதியும் வரைந்தும் பரப்பப்படும் என்பவை குறிப்பிடத்தக்கன.

பாரதியாா் பாடல்களுக்கு விதிக்கப்பட்ட தடையை எதிா்த்து 1928 அக்டோபரில் சட்டமன்றத்தில் நடந்த விவாதத்தில் பேசியுள்ள, ராம்நாத் கோயங்கா, ‘நான் ஒரு தமிழறிஞன் அல்லன். தமிழ்மொழியில் அரிச்சுவடி கூட எனக்குத் தெரியாது. நான் ஏற்கெனவே பாரதியின் பாடல்களைப் பற்றி கேள்விப்பட்டவற்றில் இருந்தும் இந்த நிகழ்ச்சியின்போது கனம் உறுப்பினா்கள் பேசிய பேச்சுகளிலிருந்தும் எனக்கு ஒன்று சொல்லத் தோன்றுகிறது. இந்த மாகாணத்தில் உள்ள தமிழா்கள் எல்லோரும் இந்தப் பாடல்களைப் பாடுவதற்கு எல்லா விதமான உரிமையும் பெற்றிருக்கிறாா்கள் என்பதுதான் அது.

பாரதி பாடல்களை வெளியிட்டு அவற்றைப் பரப்ப வேண்டியது அரசாங்கத்தின் கடமையாகும். படிக்காத பொதுமக்கள் அறிந்து கொள்வதற்காக இலவசமாக இந்த புத்தகங்களை அவா்களுக்குக் கொடுக்க வேண்டியது அவா்களின் கடமை’” என்று அன்றைய அரசாங்கத்திற்குக் கோரிக்கை வைத்திருக்கிறாா். அதன்பின் இந்தியா விடுதலை அடைந்திருக்கிறது; ஆட்சிகள் வந்துபோய் இருக்கின்றன.

பாரதியின் நூற்றாண்டு நினைவில் ராம்நாத் கோயங்காவின் கோரிக்கையை நிறைவேற்றும் வகையில் முதலமைச்சா் மு.க. ஸ்டாலினின் சட்டமன்ற அறிவிப்புகள் இருக்கின்றன. இப்படியாக இந்த சட்டமன்றத்திலும் பாரதி இடம் பெற்றிருக்கிறாா்.

கட்டுரையாளா்:

முன்னாள் துணைவேந்தா்,

தமிழ்ப் பல்கலைக்கழகம்.

ஆயுதமற்ற பொதுமக்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டதையும் அப்பாவி மக்கள் சித்திரவதை செய்யப்பட்டதையும் ஜூலியன் அம்பலப்படுத்தினார். இந்த விவகாரத்தில் மேல் முறையீடு செய்ய விரும்பியவர்கள் இதன் மூலம் ஜூலியனை அவர் வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் ஆழமான, இருண்ட மூலையில் புதைக்க விரும்புகின்றனர்

Julian Assange : அரசியல் மற்றும் ராணுவ ஆவணங்களை வெளியிட்ட குற்றத்திற்காக அமெரிக்காவில் தேடப்பட்டு வரும் குற்றவாளியாக அறிவிக்கப்பட்ட விக்கிலீக்ஸ் நிறுவனர் ஜூலியன் அசாஞ்சேவை நாடு கடத்தலாம் என்று பிரிட்டன் உயர் நீதிமன்றம் தீர்ப்பு வழங்கியுள்ளது.

அமெரிக்க சிறையில் தற்கொலை முயற்சியை ஜூலியன் மேற்கொள்ளலாம் என்று கருதி ஜனவரி நான்காம் தேதி அன்று அவரை அமெரிக்காவிற்கு அனுப்ப முடியாது என்று பிரிட்டனின் கீழ் நிலை நீதிமன்றம் வெளியிட்ட தீர்ப்பை எதிர்த்து அமெரிக்கா தாக்கல் செய்த மேல்முறையீட்டு மனுவை விசாரித்தது உயர் நீதிமன்றம். விசாரணையின் முடிவில் அவரை நாடு கடத்தலாம் என்றும் நீதிமன்றம் அறிவித்துள்ளது.

இருப்பினும், இந்த முறை, அசாஞ்ச் மன அழுத்தத்தால் பாதிக்கப்பட்டுள்ளதாகவும், அவர் நாடு கடத்தப்பட்டால் தற்கொலை செய்து கொள்ள முயற்சி செய்யலாம் என்றும் மருத்துவர்கள் கூறியதைக் கருத்தில் கொண்டு, அசாஞ்சே தற்கொலைக்கு முயற்சிக்கும் அபாயத்தைக் குறைக்கும் என்று நீதிமன்றத்திற்கு அமெரிக்கா உறுதியளித்தது.

அமெரிக்காவில், உளவு சட்டம் மற்றும் கணினி மோசடி மற்றும் துஷ்பிரயோகச் சட்டத்தின் கீழ் அசாஞ்சே கிரிமினல் குற்றச்சாட்டுகளை எதிர்கொள்வார். உளவு சட்டம், தேசிய பாதுகாப்பு தொடர்பான தகவல்களை உள்நோக்கத்துடன் பொதுமக்கள் பெறுவதை தடுக்கிறது. மேலும் இது அமெரிக்காவிற்கு பாதிப்பை ஏற்படுத்தும் வகையிலும் மற்ற நாட்டினருக்கு சாதகமாக பயன்படுத்தப்படலாம் என்றும் நம்புகின்றனர்.

சர்வதேச அம்னாஸ்டி அமைப்பு ஜூலியனுக்கு எதிரான வழக்குகளை திரும்பப் பெறுமாறும், அவரை நாடுகடுத்த முயற்சிகளை மேற்கொள்ள வேண்டாம் என்றும் கேட்டுக் கொண்டது. . 2016 இல், ஐக்கிய நாடுகளின் குழுவும் அசாஞ்சேக்கு ஆதரவாகப் பேசியது. நீதிமன்றத்தின் தீர்ப்புக்குப் பிறகு, அம்னெஸ்டி இன்டர்நேஷனல் தனது ட்விட்டர் கணக்கில், இது நீதியின் கேலி கூத்து. ராஜதந்திர குற்றவாளிகளுக்காக ஒதுக்கப்பட்டிருக்கும் அதிக பாதுகாப்பைக் கொண்டுள்ள தனிமைச் சிறைகளில் இவர் அடைக்கப்படமாடார் என்ற ஆழமான குறைபாடு உடைய அமெரிக்காவின் மேல்முறையீட்டை உயர் நீதிமன்றம் ஏற்றுக் கொண்டுள்ளது என்று குறிப்பிட்டுள்ளது.

அசாஞ்சேவின் இணையர் ஸ்டெல்லா மோரீஸ் இந்த நாடுகடத்தலுக்கு எதிராக போராட நிதி திரட்டி வருகிறார். ஆயுதமற்ற பொதுமக்கள் கொல்லப்பட்டதையும் அப்பாவி மக்கள் சித்திரவதை செய்யப்பட்டதையும் ஜூலியன் அம்பலப்படுத்தினார். இந்த விவகாரத்தில் மேல் முறையீடு செய்ய விரும்பியவர்கள் இதன் மூலம் ஜூலியனை அவர் வாழ்நாள் முழுவதும் ஆழமான, இருண்ட மூலையில் புதைக்க விரும்புகின்றனர். ஜூலியன் 175 ஆண்டுகள் சிறைத்தண்டனையை எதிர்கொள்கிறார் என்று மோரீஸ் உருவாக்கியுள்ள க்ரவுட் சோர்ஸ் பக்கத்தில் குறிப்பிடப்பட்டுள்ளது.

யாரிந்த ஜூலியன் அசாஞ்சே? அவர் என்ன செய்தார்?

தன்னை பன்னாட்டு ஊடகவியல் அமைப்பு மற்றும் நூலகம் என்று அறிவித்துக் கொள்ளும் விக்கிலீக்ஸ் 2010ம் ஆண்டு அமெரிக்க ராணுவ அதிகாரி செல்ஷி மேன்னிங் ஒப்படைத்த லட்சக் கணக்கான போர், ராஜதந்திர மற்றும் ராணுவ ஆவணங்களை வெளியிட்டது. அமெரிக்காவின் அப்பாச்சே ஹெலிகாப்டர் இரண்டு ராய்ட்டர்ஸ் ஊடகவியலாளர்கள் உட்பட 12 பேரை சுட்டுக் கொள்ளும் காட்சிகள் அடங்கிய பல்வேறு போர் ஆவணங்களையும் விக்கிலீக்ஸ் வெளியிட்டது.

டிசம்பர் 2018இல், உலகெங்கிலும் உள்ள அமெரிக்க தூதரகங்களால் செய்யப்பட்ட 16,000 க்கும் மேற்பட்ட கொள்முதல் கோரிக்கைகளின் தேடக்கூடிய தரவுத்தளத்தை இணையதளம் வெளியிட்டது.

ஆஸ்திரேலியாவைச் சேர்ந்த அசாஞ்சே 2006ம் ஆண்டு விக்கிலீக்ஸை நிறுவினார். விக்கிலீக்ஸ் என்பது உலகின் மிகவும் துன்புறுத்தப்பட்ட ஆவணங்களின் மாபெரும் நூலகமாகும். நாங்கள் இந்த ஆவணங்களுக்கு அடைக்கலம் கொடுக்கிறோம், அவற்றை பகுப்பாய்வு செய்து, விளம்பரப்படுத்துகிறோம், மேலும் பலவற்றைப் பெறுகிறோம் என்று 2015ம் ஆண்டு ஸ்பீகலுக்க் அளித்த பேட்டியில் ஜூலியன் கூறினார். தற்போது இந்த தளத்தில் 10 மில்லியனுக்கும் அதிகமான ஆவணங்கள் உள்ளன. விக்கிலீக்ஸ் ஆவணங்களை அதிகமாக படிக்கும் மக்கள் இந்தியர்களாக உள்ளனர். அவர்களை தொடர்ந்து அமெரிக்கர்கள் படிக்கின்றனர் என்றும் அவர் கூறினார்.

இங்கிலாந்தில் அசாஞ்சே இருக்க காரணம் என்ன?

2010ம் ஆண்டு இரண்டு பெண்கள் அசாஞ்சேவின் மீது வைத்த பாலியல் வன்கொடுமை குற்றச்சாட்டு தொடர்பாக ஸ்வீடன் நாடு விசாரணை மேற்கொண்டது. மேலும் அந்த சமயம் இங்கிலாந்தில் இருந்த அசாஞ்சேவை நாடுகடத்த வேண்டும் என்றும் ஸ்வீடன் கேட்டு கொண்டது. ஸ்வீடிஷ் வாரண்டிற்கு எதிராக போராட முயற்சித்த அசாஞ்ச், 2011 இல் பிரிட்டிஷ் நீதிமன்றத்தை அணுகினார். தீர்ப்பு அவருக்குச் சாதகமாகப் போகவில்லை, பின்னர் 2012ம் ஆண்டு ஜூன் மாதம் இங்கிலாந்தின் உச்ச நீதிமன்றத்தில் முறையிட்டு தோல்வி அடைந்தார்.

ஜாமீனில் வெளிவந்த அசாஞ்சே லண்டனில் உள்ள ஈக்குவேடார் தூதரகத்தில் தஞ்சம் அடைந்தார். அப்போது இடதுசாரி தலைவர் ரஃபேல் கொரியா தலைமையில் லத்தீன் அமெரிக்க நாடான ஈக்குவேடார் அவரது கோரிக்கையை ஏற்றுக் கொண்டது. அப்போது இருந்து அவர் லண்டனில் உள்ள ஈக்குவேடார் தூதரகத்தில் தான் தங்கியுள்ளார். 2019ம் ஆண்டு அவர் கைது செய்யப்பட்டார் என்பது குறிப்பிடத்தக்கது. ஈக்வடார் தூதரகத்தை விட்டு வெளியேறினால் அவரை கைது செய்ய வாரண்ட் பிறப்பித்தது வெஸ்ட்மினிஸ்டர் நீதிமன்றம். அவர் தன் மீது சுமத்தப்பட்ட குற்றச்சாட்டுகள் அனைத்தும் பொய்யானவை என்றும் அமெரிக்காவிற்கு அவரை நாடு கடத்தவே இத்தகைய திட்டங்கள் செயல்படுத்தப்பட்டன என்றும் கூறினார்.

இங்கிலாந்தில் ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்பு ஆயிரத்தை தாண்டியுள்ளது. வரும் நாள்களில் தினசரி ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்பு ஆயிரமாக இருக்கக்கூடும் என மருத்துவ நிபுணர்கள் கணிக்கின்றனர்.

தென் ஆப்பரிக்காவில் முதன்முதலாக தென்பட்ட ஒமிக்ரான் மாறுபாடு, கடந்த இரண்டு நாள்களாக ஐரோப்பியாவில் கடும் பாதிப்பை ஏற்படுத்தியுள்ளது. டென்மார்க் மற்றும் இங்கிலாந்தில் அதிகளவிலான ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்புகள் பதிவாகியுள்ளன.

டென்மார்க்கின் ஸ்டேட்டன்ஸ் சீரம் இன்ஸ்டிட்யூட்டின் அறிக்கைபடி, அங்கு மட்டும் சுமார் 1280 ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்புகள் பதிவாகியுள்ளன. இது மொத்த ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்புகளில் மூன்றில் ஒரு பங்கு ஆகும்.

இங்கிலாந்தில் ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்பு ஆயிரத்தை தாண்டியுள்ளது. வரும் நாள்களில் தினசரி ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்பு ஆயிரமாக இருக்கக்கூடும் என மருத்துவ நிபுணர்கள் கணிக்கின்றனர்.

சராசரியாக இங்கிலாந்தில் 50 ஆயிரம் கொரோனா பாதிப்புகள் பதிவாகுகிறது. நேற்று தான், மொத்தம் 58,000 க்கும் மேற்பட்ட வழக்குகள் பதிவாகியுள்ளன, இது ஜனவரிக்குப் பிறகு மிக அதிகமாகும். இந்த எண்ணிக்கை ஒரு நாளைக்கு 100,000 ஐ எட்டும் என்று இங்கிலாந்து சுகாதாரத் துறை எச்சரித்துள்ளது.

அதே போல், அமெரிக்காவிலும் கொரோனா பாதிப்பு தினந்தோறும் 1 லட்சம் வழக்குகள் பதிவாகிறது. தி நியூயார்க் டைம்ஸின் அறிக்கையின்படி, இந்த மாதத்தின் முதல் எட்டு நாட்களில் நாட்டில் 43 ஓமிக்ரான் கொரோனா தொற்று கண்டறியப்பட்டுள்ளன. இந்தியாவில் இதுவரை 25 பேருக்கு ஒமிக்ரான் பாதிப்பு கண்டறியப்பட்டுள்ளது.

ஒமிக்ரானை எதிர்க்கும் பூஸ்டர் டோஸ்

இங்கிலாந்தின் புதிய பகுப்பாய்வு படி, ஒமிக்ரான் மாறுபாட்டிற்கு எதிராக இரண்டு டோஸ் தடுப்பூசிகள் பலவீனமான பாதுகாப்பை வழங்குகிறது என்றும், பூஸ்டர் டோஸ் செலுத்தியிருந்தால் கொரோனா அறிகுறிகளுக்கு எதிராக 75 விழுக்காடு பாதுகாப்பு இருப்பதாக கண்டறியந்துள்ளனர்.

ஒமிக்ரான் மாறுபாட்டால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட 581 நோயாளிகள் மற்றும் டெல்டாவால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட ஆயிரக்கணக்கானவர்களின் தரவுகளின் அடிப்படையில் பகுப்பாய்வு செய்யப்பட்டுள்ளது.

உலக சுகாதார அமைப்பு தரவின்படி, ஒமிக்ரான் முதன்முதலாக தென்பட்ட தென் ஆப்பிரிக்காவில் மருத்துவமனையில் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டோரின் எண்ணிக்கை குறைவாகும்.கிடைத்த தரவுகளில், ஒமிக்ரான் குறைவான அளவிலே பாதிப்பை ஏற்படுத்துகிறது.

நவம்பர் 14 மற்றும் டிசம்பர் 4 க்கு இடையில் தென்னாப்பிரிக்கா முழுவதும் மருத்துவமனையில் அனுமதிக்கப்பட்டவர்களின் தரவு 6.3 விழுக்காடு ஆகும். இது ஜூலை மாதத்தில் டெல்டா மாறுபாட்டுடன் ஒப்பிடுகையில் மிகவும் குறைவாகும்.

ஒமிக்ரானால் பாதிக்கப்பட்ட 1200 பேரிடம் கணக்கிடுகையில், அதில் 98 பேர் மட்டுமே ஆக்சிஜன் சப்ளையும், 4 பேர் வென்டிலேஷனிலும் இருந்தனர். அதில், பெரும்பாலானோர் 40 வயதுக்கும் குறைவானவர்கள் தான். வரும் காலத்தில் பாதிக்கப்படும் நோயாளிகளின் வயது மாறும் பட்சத்தில், அதன் விளைவுகள் மாறக்கூடும்” என தெரிவிக்கின்றனர்.

Hong Kong is one of the last few places in the world that is still following a stringent ‘zero COVID’ policy.Ananth Krishnanreports on a populated but poorly vaccinated region that is doing all it can to keep cases at a minimum even as it becomes more and more isolated from the world

The first thing that hits travellers landing in Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok airport is the emptiness. Hong Kong International Airport (HKG to frequent fliers) used to be among the world’s busiest. It handled 71.5 million passengers in 2019, which is close to 2,00,000 a day. Now, a busy day means 1,500 passengers at most. On a lean day, sometimes only half that number walks through the airport’s doors.

When a passenger steps off the plane, they can walk minutes on end without seeing another passenger. The inter-terminal train, packed to capacity in pre-pandemic times, no longer takes passengers to the arrivals hall but to what is possibly one of the world’s largest testing centres. An entire terminal has been transformed into a ‘test and hold’ facility. The departure gates have been converted into massive waiting halls. This is where passengers await their results, with tests processed at an on-site laboratory.

HKG may be unrecognisable, but the administrative efficiency for which Hong Kong is famous is not. On arrival, every passenger is whisked into a makeshift tent for a quick nose and throat swab. A series of desks then beckon, where passengers fill in a multitude of forms. Within an hour of landing in Hong Kong, travellers are issued a government-recognised vaccination certificate that lists the date of their doses, the type of vaccine and where they had their shots — all prepared in advance from the online health declaration that every passenger is required to fill before boarding.

The certificate comes with a QR code that can be scanned and stored on Hong Kong’s ‘Leave Home Safe’ tracing app, which many Hong Kong venues, from dining establishments to cinema halls, now require for granting entry. Finally, every traveller’s phone number is registered with the health authorities and checked to make sure they can receive test results and other public health alerts. Arrivals are also introduced to Hong Kong’s 24/7 COVID-19 hotline, which usually takes not more than two minutes to respond to any query on WhatsApp, on everything from where to get a test to whether you can open your hotel window in quarantine (the answer is unfortunately a ‘no’, at least in most designated quarantine hotels).

Once the forms are filled and Hong Kong’s bureaucratic machinery is satisfied, a surreal sight awaits passengers who are ushered, finally, into a cavernous hall filled with a sea of desks. Travellers, pilots, air crew all sit in perfect silence as though at a massive examination centre. Over a nerve-wracking five-hour wait for their test results, passengers watch anxiously as every few minutes, health personnel in full PPEs appear, march up to numbered desks, quietly ask passengers who presumably tested positive to pack their bags, and then disappear.

A positive test means a passenger can neither clear immigration nor claim their checked-in luggage. They are taken away in an ambulance, lights flashing, to a hospital in Lantau Island near Chek Lap Kok, purpose-built for international arrivals. There they have to stay for at least 24 days in hospital, while all close contacts (those they sat next to on the flight) are taken to Penny’s Bay, the government’s biggest quarantine centre, for 21 days of isolation. This centre is also located in Lantau — an island once famous for hosting Hong Kong’s “happiest place on earth”, Disneyland, but now the centre of its massive quarantine programme.

Zero COVID, zero tolerance

If this elaborate arrival procedure and the vast system that is in place to keep it running seems excessive, it has been key to ensuring Hong Kong’s extraordinary record during the pandemic. Since the COVID-19 outbreak, Hong Kong, a region of 7.5 million people, has recorded only a little over 12,000 infections and 213 deaths. Its ‘zero COVID’ strategy — an approach predicated on maintaining zero local cases by squashing every outbreak with mass testing and quarantine — certainly spared thousands of lives in a densely populated island, where public health experts say a virus left to run amok would have overwhelmed its already stressed health infrastructure.

Even passengers who test negative on arrival are issued a quarantine order and taken in a government-operated shuttle to their designated quarantine hotel that has to be pre-booked, usually at least two months in advance, given the limited availability designed to cap the number of arrivals. Most passengers from countries deemed ‘high risk’ spend 21 days of quarantine in a hotel room at their own cost. The windows in these rooms are often sealed and cannot be opened. Stepping out of the room means a hefty fine, an immediate transfer to Penny’s Bay for 21 days of isolation, followed by six months in prison, reads the warning sign posted on every door.

This stringent screening of arrivals, Hong Kong’s health officials pointed out on November 29, helped Hong Kong detect its first case of the new Omicron variant, before it spread, in a traveller from South Africa who tested positive on his third day in quarantine. Every individual is tested six times during their three-week hotel stay. Hong Kong also emerged unscathed from the Delta variant, with most cases caught in quarantine and the region facing no wave. The only local spread came from an airport worker, whose close contacts were all promptly transferred to Penny’s Bay.

“A few elements have been key to ensuring that the cases were low,” explains Siddharth Sridhar, clinical virologist at the University of Hong Kong. “Border controls, 100% mask-wearing from very early on, very strictly enforced social distancing, and a highly efficient method of testing and tracing. We do a lot of contact tracing and quarantine. So, I’d say Hong Kong uses fairly traditional methods to achieve COVID-19 control and they have worked very well for us.”

Hong Kong’s sweeping testing system means that entire residential neighbourhoods are locked down and individuals tested if there is a single reported case, while hundreds of close contacts are immediately sent to quarantine at the government’s facility at Penny’s Bay.

Another major factor for low cases has been compliance from a public that lived through the SARS epidemic. If the costs of this strategy include mask-wearing and no international travel, the benefits are that people have been living largely normal lives, with open schools, for much of the past two years after an initial strict lockdown.

Yet, this ‘zero COVID’ approach, in place now for close to two years, appears increasingly incongruous in a world that is gradually returning to normalcy — or was, before the emergence of Omicron. After Singapore, Australia and New Zealand opened their borders, only the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, and Taiwan are still clinging on to a ‘zero COVID’ approach, with stringent travel restrictions meaning continued isolation from the world.

‘A victim of our own success’

A growing number of people from foreign firms who have made their base in a place that likes to call itself ‘Asia’s World City’ as well as people who haven’t seen their families overseas for months are now asking whether this strategy is sustainable. They may, however, still be in the minority, given the broad public support for a stringent approach.

Moreover, much of the debate about whether Hong Kong can — or should — re-open and follow Singapore’s path hinges on two pressing problems that complicate any decision. One involves public health — specifically, poor vaccination rates — while the other is political, with Hong Kong having to choose between the mainland — another ‘zero COVID’ region — and the rest of the world while returning to normalcy.

In Dr. Sridhar’s view, Hong Kong, at this moment, has no choice but to continue with this approach at least until it vaccinates more people. The single biggest concern is an extremely low vaccination rate among the elderly. On November 23, Hong Kong reached a milestone of vaccinating 70% of the population with one dose (67% have been given two doses). The number falls dramatically for the 80 and above population — the most vulnerable group — to just 18%.

Singapore’s example is the warning sign that gives pause for caution. Singapore, with more than 80% of the population fully vaccinated, crossed Hong Kong’s total number of deaths on October 16, mostly because of the Delta wave earlier this year. After Singapore opened its borders, it recorded more than 250 deaths in just November, which is more than what Hong Kong has seen since the start of the pandemic. Most of those deaths were among the elderly, with 95% of those who died above 60 years, and close to three-quarters of them not fully vaccinated. Given Hong Kong’s vaccination rates, opening up now would mean a wave of possibly thousands of deaths among the elderly.

What explains the low vaccination rates for a region that did almost everything else right? “We are a victim of our own success,” says Dr. Sridhar. “Because COVID-19 was so effectively controlled, many people don’t feel it is a threat at a personal level. Indeed, there is a perception that Hong Kong can maintain its current measures and keep COVID-19 out indefinitely.” Coupled with widespread misinformation about vaccines on WhatsApp groups, few older residents are seeking to get vaccinated.

Yet, the low rates also feed into a vicious cycle, a consequence of a conscious policy decision to keep Hong Kong isolated. If Hong Kong was to set a timetable for opening, it would certainly spur more people to get their shots. While Dr. Sridhar says there is “no such thing as a clean exit strategy, if you tell people that there is a deadline and you are going to have to open up eventually”, it would send a strong message to get vaccinated. “What we can do,” he says, “is mitigate the effects of a massive COVID-19 surge in the community as far as possible. And I would argue that we will be in the best position possible to make that happen only by 2022”, with a combination of more people being vaccinated and the possibility of anti-virals. “There is no other way to exit the limbo we are currently in,” he says.

The politics of opening

That is the public health argument. Then there is the politics. With the sweeping political changes introduced in Hong Kong last year, with the passing of a national security law that essentially decimated the pro-democracy opposition and gave Beijing more control than ever over its Special Administrative Region (SAR), Hong Kong’s future is more than ever before wedded to that of the mainland.

The unpopular Chief Executive Carrie Lam, embattled after months of protests calling for universal suffrage in 2019 and the clampdown in 2020 that saw Beijing essentially bypass her government to pass the national security legislation, said in October that opening up to the mainland was “far, far more important” than opening up to the rest of the world.

Lam’s government has spent months negotiating with Beijing about opening a travel bubble that will restore the once-thriving cross-border travel between Hong Kong and the Guangdong province. According to current rules, those travelling from Hong Kong across the land border have to quarantine for at least 14 days at a government-chosen hotel in Guangdong. This has hampered business activity and separated families.

At least 50% of the 1,011 Cantonese-speaking residents surveyed by the Hong Kong Public Opinion Research Institute in November said they “preferred to see the government take immediate steps to help Hongkongers travel to the mainland instead of overseas”, while “those who favoured opening international borders for outbound travel first accounted for 38 per cent of the respondents”, the Hong Kong Free Press reported.

A trial bubble is slated to begin by end-December. This will allow a very limited daily quota of not more than 1,000 travellers a day to travel without quarantine, but only to Guangdong province and not to the rest of China. Negotiations on the bubble have dragged on for a year, delayed mostly by demands from mainland authorities for even more stringent measures (although, ironically, Hong Kong has had no major local spread for most of the past year while it is the mainland that has recently seen a spread of local clusters).

Caught between opening to the mainland and to the world, Hong Kong has had no choice but to pursue ever-stricter measures in pursuit of the elusive bubble. Part of that effort has been to tighten rules for quarantine and impose tougher conditions for discharging positive cases. Most countries have now been moved to the high-risk category requiring mandatory 21 days of hotel quarantine. These rules are more stringent than those of the mainland that allow the last seven days to be spent at home.

Under earlier rules, anyone who tested positive could only be discharged after consecutive negative tests 24 hours apart and a minimum 10 days in hospital. In November, authorities said such people would also have to spend an additional 14 days in isolation, which means at least 24 days in hospital.

This also applies to ‘repositives’ — travellers who recovered from COVID-19 but tested positive on arrival in Hong Kong even if they tested negative in their home countries, which has happened in several cases because of Hong Kong’s stricter testing criteria and how it measures cycle threshold (Ct) values in its COVID-19 tests. So, even a trace of dead virus from a patient who recovered months earlier will mean a minimum 24 days in hospital. Given these rules, some experts have advised travellers to think twice about travelling to Hong Kong if they had previously contracted COVID-19 unless they were willing to spend considerable time in hospital.

The new 14-day rule was criticised by several health experts as being unscientific. They pointed out that there is no evidence to suggest that such repositives are infectious or that a 14-day isolation is needed even after testing negative. Hong Kong authorities have been sensitive to criticism of these measures. When epidemiologist Ben Cowling at the University of Hong Kong in November criticised the extended quarantine as a “waste of resources and actively harming the patient with no community benefit to offset against” as well as being “unethical”, Health Secretary Sophia Chan shot back saying while “it is understandable that they perceive our stringent but necessary measures to maintain zero COVID as harsh, zero COVID is our best strategy not only on public health but also social and economic considerations, and is in line with the aspirations of our community.”

The second much-debated move, which officials say is needed to open the mainland bubble, is to adopt a mainland-style Health Code app. This is a significant step up from Hong Kong’s Leave Home Safe app, which only requires users to sign in when they enter a venue. The mainland’s Health Code app, in contrast, tracks movements 24/7 and allows authorities to easily contact, trace and quarantine people based on their geo-locations. In Hong Kong, however, there are concerns over both privacy and sharing individuals’ data with mainland authorities when they cross the border. In preparation for the bubble, the new Hong Kong health code was launched on December 10. It is not mandatory for residents, but those who want to travel to the mainland will be required to register.

Impact of policy

That Hong Kong has decided to prioritise opening to the mainland leaves little prospect of any move away from zero COVID for the time being, regardless of the impact it may have on foreign firms and Hong Kong’s status as a financial centre for Asia.

Indeed, many foreign firms are already relocating to Singapore, while expatriates are either returning home or shifting to other destinations. Tara Joseph, president of the powerful American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, told Reuters in November that she would quit her post and leave Hong Kong because of its 21-day quarantine policy for overseas arrivals. “It is not in my nature to advocate on something and then embark on quarantine like a stooge,” she said. She later qualified those remarks saying this was only one of several reasons for her departure. Some international airlines are reconsidering their Hong Kong routes too, and asking if the stringent testing and quarantining is worth the risk for their air crew. In late November, British Airways said it had suspended flights to Hong Kong after several of its crew were sent to quarantine at Penny’s Bay after one crew member had tested positive. The airline said it was “reviewing operational requirements” for this route. Last month, after a Cathay Pacific pilot tested positive upon returning to Hong Kong, his entire family, along with more than 100 children in the kindergarten and primary school that the pilot’s child was studying at, were sent to quarantine at Penny’s Bay. Parents criticised this move as excessive and harsh as the children in the school were not even close contacts of the pilot, but secondary contacts.

Tens of thousands of Hongkongers have also already moved to the U.K. in recent months in response to Beijing’s tightening control under a new visa programme launched by London that offers a pathway to citizenship for Hongkongers. London introduced the initiative in response to last year’s national security law, which was seen as violating Beijing’s commitments under the 1997 handover treaty.

As a result of these measures, Hong Kong’s economy is beset by many challenges. More than ever, it is banking on the mainland and on closer integration with the Greater Bay Area (Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau) to keep its economy afloat. However, the relative normalcy of the last two zero-COVID years has also to some extent helped local businesses avoid the fate of those in other countries that struggled under the cycle of COVID-19 waves and lockdowns.

Hong Kong lawmaker Regina Ip, the outspoken founder of the pro-Beijing New People’s Party, says the current strategy is justified, especially in the light of the emergence of new variants, and has helped Hong Kong avoid the fate of much of the rest of the world over the past year.

“Our 21-day quarantine requirements with regard to travellers from most countries are a function of their COVID-19 situations,” she says. “The U.K. was in our Group B requiring 14-day quarantine but upgraded to Group A because of the surge of their cases involving the Delta variant. We have to stop flights from Africa because of the import of a new, dangerous strain identified by the WHO. Our priority must be to keep the 7.4 million people in our city safe, and we have done well in this respect.”

Ip says Hong Kong doesn’t have to choose between mainland China and the world. “Ideally,” she says, “we want to have the best of both worlds”. That is, of course, easier said than done. For now at least, it appears, Hong Kong has already made its choice.

Seen purely from a revenue point of view and as a fiscal policy tool, India’s GST is still on a rocky road

GST, or Goods and Services Tax, an institutional tax innovation intensively marketed in many countries by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, was wrapped in a “one nation one tax” package, and was accepted by India on the midnight of July 1, 2017. Despite the alleged haste in its launching by the central government, there were adaptations to make it to suit the Indian context.

Hailed as a landmark reform in India’s tax history, it was expected to improve tax-GDP ratio, end tax cascading, enhance efficiency, competitiveness, growth, and ensure lower prices. It was also projected as a watershed in India’s fiscal federalism. While the States have forgone a substantial part of their own tax revenue, they were in turn guaranteed a GST compensation assuring 14% growth in their GST revenue during the initial five years. Many exemptions, along with different tax rates, as against the single rate in many countries, have been accommodated to protect the interests of different stakeholders.

Unresolved issues

Even after 50 months in existence, a number of relevant issues, both for policy and action, remain unresolved. A recently held international seminar on GST, organised by the Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation that brought together experts from India and select countries (Malaysia, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico and Canada), was the venue for asui generispolicy debate focusing on India’s GST experience. We, as participant observers, cherry-pick some of the observations that were made for reflection by policymakers and the wider public.

The base and pillars

India’s GST architecture is built on the firm foundations of a GST Council and the GST Network (GSTN). The first is the key decision-making body, chaired by the Union Finance Minister with a Minister of State in charge of Finance and the Finance Ministers of States as members. This is envisaged as a due federal process to protect the interests of the States. GSTN generates high frequency data and subjects them to analytics for informed policy making. Built on this foundation, India’s GST paradigm stands on two key pillars: revenue neutrality and GST compensation for the States. Designed on the principle of destination-based consumption taxation, with seamless provision for input tax credit with CGST levied by the Centre, SGST by the States, UTGST by the Union Territories, and IGST levied on inter-State supply including imports, GST is applicable to all goods and services except alcohol for human consumption and five specified petroleum products with a common threshold exemption applicable to both CGST and SGST.

The assured revenue neutrality remains a mirage and many States have experienced a declining tax-GDP ratio. Studies show that in the case of major 18 States, the ratio of own tax revenue to GDP has declined. While the share of the Centre in total GST increased by 6%, that of States put together lagged behind with only a 4.5% increase. Stark differences between the Revenue Neutral Rates (RNR) for the producing States and consumption State have been observed. States producing exempted food grains also lost out.

Since the rates were lower under GSTvis-à-visthe VAT regime, revenue neutrality was not adheredab initio. The problems were compounded with massive evasion following the dismantling of check posts, and later on fake invoices, that grew by leaps and bounds. Exemptions and subventions complicated and worsened the situation. The South African experience illustrates how zero rating and large exemptions have defeated revenue goals. In Mexico, although the country relied more on income tax, with a standard rate of 16% they could raise over 4% of GDP from GST.

Reviewing 30 years of the Canadian experience with GST, it is shown that GST could be improved by limiting zero rating, tax-exemptions and harmonising tax rates. The Brazilian experience indicates that transfers through social security or subsides tend to be more progressive than subventions or exemptions because reduced rates or zero rating do not usually get passed on to target groups or industries as happening in India. The resilience of the economy at the time of rolling out of GST is critical for its wider reception as the Australian experience shows. However, India was in the reverse gear given the downturn following demonetisation.

GST in India was possible only because the States surrendered much of their constitutionally inherited indirect taxes. While the States collectively forewent 51.8% of their total tax revenue, the Centre surrendered only 28.8%. Yet, GST is shared equally between the Centre and States despite two expert committees recommended for a higher share for the States. Given the revenue neutrality failure and the host of other issues, many of the States are left with no option except to depend on GST compensation. While compensation legitimately has to coexist with GST, even the constitutionally guaranteed compensation for five years has not been implemented in letter and spirit, forcing the States to beg for their entitlement. This is not conducive to sustainable co-operative federalism.

IGST woes, other points

Although IGST is a key source of revenue for many of the States, the clearing house mechanism and the process therein remainsterra incognita. It was pointed out that GST is discriminatory to manufacturing States, indicating the need for a revenue sharing formula that duly incentivises exporting States by sharing IGST revenue among three parties instead of two. The Malaysian experience demonstrates the need for swift and transparent functioning of the input tax credit system through a flawless IT infrastructure. Malaysia ended up abandoning GST owing to these woes. We operate in an almost information vacuum especially with respect to IGST along with several glitches in the digital architecture. GSTN is now in the doldrums. It neither makes effective use of the massive and invaluable data being generated nor shares them to enable others to make use of them. Such practice in “data monopoly” was a fact of history in India’s statistical system and has to go sooner rather than later.

Australia, having several similarities with India, in terms of Centre and the subnational units, and destination-based, multi-stage tax with input credit provisions, has not been revenue-buoyant. The GST revenue of Australia has fallen relative to GDP from 3.85% in 2003-04 to 3.28% in 2018-19. It is a matter for consideration whether such adventures such as widening exemptions and the replacing of income-tax by GST in the case of small and medium enterprises are advisable measures in the Indian context.

GST should be seen purely from a revenue point of view and as a fiscal policy tool for efficiency, competitiveness and growth. Even by this standard, India’s GST is still on a rocky road, with several of the assumptions falling flat while expectations stand belied. Neither the States nor the consumers seem to have benefited since the rate reductions are not translated into prices due to profiteering and cascading. Despite many years of efforts in evolving an Indianised GST system and over 50 months of adjustments with over a thousand notifications, with accompanying uncertainties in the first year and the novel coronavirus pandemic and the lockdown still in the saddle, GST continues to be an unfinished agenda. But how far and how long?

M.A. Oommen is Distinguished Fellow, and K.J. Joseph is Director, Gulati Institute of Finance and Taxation (GIFT), Thiruvananthapuram

It is a very important first step in addressing the mental health and well-being of children scarred by the pandemic

It is now clear that COVID-19 caught us all by surprise. The school education sector in India too struggled during the novel coronavirus pandemic. While online learning for children has had its fair share of challenges, including learning loss, fatigue from online learning to mental stress, there is another group that faced severe adversity — a group that has not been adequately considered in the general discourse — our teachers, who too struggled with meaningful pedagogies embedded in digital platforms. The pandemic-induced conditions posed several challenges which largely remained unnoticed.

The two sides

India has an estimated nine million teachers, but they are not a homogeneous group in India. There are extremes: those working in schools under the Union government with better qualifications, working conditions, salaries and systemic protection to those in low-fee private schools with abysmally low salaries, poor working conditions and no systemic protection. Those in medium range, urban private schools faced a new type of ‘bullying’ by being under constant ‘watch’ of parents who pointed out even the tiniest mistakes, including variety in pronunciation in online classes. In addition to this, under COVID-19 duty, their deployment in undertaking door-to-door COVID-19 survey, distributing immunity booster tablets, policing inter- and intra-district check-posts, managing queues outside fair price shops, keeping records in COVID-19 care facilities and, at times, disciplining queues outside liquor shops led them to a sense of ‘loss of identity’.

This peculiar situation, juxtaposed with media reports suggesting that ‘teachers drew salary without any work’ led to much mental turmoil, a lowering of the self-image and self-respect. Teachers were also under constant pressure to submit records of efforts made to keep learning ‘alive’. These efforts could neither be fully verified nor could their effectiveness be gauged. One of the main pain-points for teachers during the pandemic was a total cut-off from contact with children during the initial months and during and after the second wave.

Not just a profession

For many teachers, teaching is not just a profession but also the most rewarding work as interacting with young children and adolescents brings with it great pleasure and joy. Mental stress due to being cut-off from children fuelled by societal perception of the salary of teachers being a great burden led to some innovative responses from teachers to mitigate their own stress and pressure. For example, at Akole (Ahmednagar, Maharashtra), teachers started a COVID-19 care facility which is operational till date, with more than 650 patients cured and returning home. Such work, according to Bhausaheb Chaskar, a Zilla Parishad teacher and Convener of Active Teachers’ Forum Maharashtra, is helping teachers rebuild their image under assault by vested interests and is also bringing a lot of solace, mental peace and meaningfulness to the community of teachers.

But, it is now increasingly clear that our children face a crisis in terms of their mental health and well-being. The silent pandemic of mental ill-health in adolescents and young people was brought to the fore globally by the pandemic. Teachers, as primary caregivers to children, influence the emotional environment of a classroom as well as the emotional and behavioural well-being of those in their care. The teacher’s ability to navigate this responsibility is significantly shaped by their own mental health and well-being.

Need for destigmatisation

Teachers, especially those working in high poverty environments and with marginalised groups, face an inordinate amount of job stress, it is very important to recognise and validate their stress, bring it out and discuss it openly. School environments often embody the larger cultural milieu and discussing mental health and well-being might be stigmatised; recognising and addressing this stigma through a cogent set of policies at a systemic level will help schools create an environment where mental health can be discussed openly. Some steps that might be helpful include-

Creating a space where teachers can talk about their daily stressors and their well-being with their peers in a supportive environment. Community of Practice of teachers and teacher unions can take this up as an agenda of priority.

Including mental health, well-being and burnout management in teacher training programmes and refresher training will go a long way in prioritising mental health.

Systemic investments in school mental health allow for a creation of an environment focused on well-being, addressed through clearly defined policies on anti-bullying, redress of harassment and grievances, creating a support system of psychosocial services that teachers can access.

An objective recognition programme focused on the small achievements of teachers also goes a long way in building a culture focused on strengths.

If we want to be a thinking, forward-looking, advanced society sensitive of challenges, a society in which children are safe, secure and protected with professionally well-trained teachers who know the ways of mitigating newer challenges (including mental health and the well-being of children), then there is no alternative to making the mental health of our educators a priority. It is a very important first step in addressing the mental health and well-being of our children. Our acknowledgement of systemic challenges created for teachers and our focus on teachers’ well-being and mental health would perhaps ensure a safe and secure ‘future of our future’.

Kishore Darak works with the Education team of the Tata Trusts. Tasneem Raja has over 22 years of experience in the health-care sector and has worked on a range of issues including non-communicable diseases, infectious diseases and maternal and child health

India could not have allowed two different captains to be in charge for the T20Is, ODIs

It was an expected coronation but the manner in which it transpired seemed like an exercise in smoke and mirrors. Late on Wednesday evening, an email popped up in the inboxes of Indian cricket writers. It was a press release from the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) and almost its entire part was devoted to the naming of the Test squad under Virat Kohli, set for the tour of South Africa. But the breaking-news bit was reserved for the last line, which stated that Rohit Sharma would be the captain of the ODI and T20I teams. After Kohli relinquished the T20I captaincy, Rohit had already taken over the reins in the shortest format and it was a matter of time before he was given charge of the One Day International squad too. Split-captaincy involves one leader for Tests and another at the helm for white-ball cricket, both for ODIs and T20s. There are enough overseas examples — Pat Cummins and Aaron Finch; Joe Root and Eoin Morgan — and closer home there was the duality between M.S. Dhoni and Kohli before the latter led across formats. Kohli’s resignation from T20 leadership while still nursing his ambitions in ODIs, was never ideal. Rohit was left with the crumbs, Kohli refused to blink and the selectors wielded the axe while grace went missing.

Captaincy shifts usually favour the younger player but in the latest musical chairs between Kohli and Rohit, the Mumbaikar at 34, is a year older. With the willow, Kohli is a splendid batter but of late he has not scored as much and leadership does take a toll. In the past Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, the present coach, gave up captaincy to focus on their batting. Kohli will remain at the helm in Tests but with Rohit replacing Ajinkya Rahane as the Test vice-captain, perhaps there is a sign there too. India has had a splendid run in Tests but its inability to win ICC silverware, be it the Test Championship or limited-overs’ titles, remains an issue. Rohit and Dravid are expected to plug that gap. Next year the ICC T20 World Cup will be held in Australia, and in 2023 the conventional World Cup would return to India. For Rohit, who was not picked for the 2011 edition which Dhoni and Co., won, that omission still rankles. If results and his fitness do not desert him, Rohit could lead India in the 2023 edition. But first up in his leadership endeavour would be the three ODIs in South Africa after the Test series. As captain, Rohit was magnificent with the Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. He needs to replicate that success with India in the next few years.

The Government should build political consensus on plans for reform in farm sector

The repeal of three controversial farm laws by the Narendra Modi government through a parliamentary resolution has defused the conflict over them, but the underlying questions regarding the sector remain unresolved. Farmers who had stayed put at sites around the national capital for a year are now dispersing, but not with much clarity on the road ahead. The defeatism of the Government, and the triumphalism of the farm unions and the Opposition over the repeal of the laws have created a hostile environment for a long-term resolution to the agricultural practices that are economically and environmentally unsustainable. No reform can be possible without building sufficient political support for it, unless unlimited state force is used to suppress the opposition. In this instance, the Government went ahead without adequate consultations and landed in a stalemate with entrenched farming communities. Any aggravation of the situation would have been dangerous for the stability of the country, but what forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) into retreat was its immediate political calculations for Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. But farmers remain ambiguous in their approach to the party. A section of them in western Uttar Pradesh might consider voting for the BJP, but for many, the wounds are still fresh, and they distrust the BJP. In Punjab, the BJP has managed to be a part of the conversation, but the road to any political reward over the repeal appears long at the moment.

Farmers have resolved to review the progress of their agreement with the Government in mid-January. Their key remaining demand is a legal guarantee of minimum support prices for all crops. While the Government has promised that the existing minimum support price regime will not be diluted, the questions on extending its coverage and backing it up legally have been left to a committee constituted by the Prime Minister. The committee includes representatives of farmers too. The Indian agriculture sector requires a balance between national development priorities and market linkages, and ensure long-term economic sustainability for those employed by it. Wider coverage of minimum support prices could encourage farmers in Punjab and Haryana to switch from irrigation intensive, and expensive rice to a diverse crop pattern without compromising on the food staple. Water abundant areas could adopt appropriate crops. To achieve an ecologically appropriate geographical spread of crops, the existing regional disparity in the sector needs to be addressed, by giving more state attention to regions and crops that are now in a shadow. Enhancing agriculture incomes is a shared objective of all political parties, and it is most unfortunate that they are unable to put their heads together to achieve this. The calm achieved by rightly repealing the three laws should be wisely used by the Centre to build a political consensus on the country’s agriculture sector.

It is not known whether the delegations led by Eric Gonsalves, secretary, External Affairs Ministry and by the Chinese vice foreign minister Han Nianlong had an agreed agenda or format for the talks, the first formal discussions in 21 years.

India and China held a day long dialogue with a declared objective to settle the border issue and improve relations. It is not known whether the delegations led by Eric Gonsalves, secretary, External Affairs Ministry and by the Chinese vice foreign minister Han Nianlong had an agreed agenda or format for the talks, the first formal discussions in 21 years. The Indian Ambassador, KS Bajpai said the talks would probably last till Sunday. Sources said the talks were held in a “cordial and purposeful” atmosphere and at the outset, both sides expressed a desire to settle the border problem and expand bilateral relations.

Opposition invited

The Prime Minister has agreed to associate opposition leaders with the talks between central ministers and leaders of the Assam movement in a bid to find an acceptable solution to the complex issue of foreign nationals. The government will soon hold a meeting with a “small group of opposition leaders” and representatives of the All Assam Students Union and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad to sort out the problem. The decision to make “combined efforts” was taken at a two-hour meeting, Indira Gandhi and her senior cabinet colleagues had with leaders of opposition groups in Parliament on Thursday evening.

New ministers

The much awaited expansion of the Darbara Singh Ministry was effected on Thursday afternoon with the swearing-in of two cabinet rank ministers, five ministers of state and a deputy minister, raising its strength to 16. The supporters of Union home minister, Zail Singh, and the Minister of State for Shipping and Transport, Buta Singh boycotted the swearing-in. The Chief Minister distributed the portfolios to the new minister, and reshuffled the portfolios of some present ministers.

The Congress is not the first, or the only, political party that has identified the woman voter as a potential game-changer in elections.

Elections in Uttar Pradesh have revolved around questions of identity, especially since the 1980s when caste and religion began to influence voting preferences. This has facilitated a politics of exclusion, which is manifest in the vituperative campaign rhetoric that often ignores real issues of governance and representation. With assembly elections round the corner, the Congress, which lost its base to the parties of Mandir and Mandal in the 1990s, namely the BJP, BSP and SP, has launched a manifesto for women with the intent to craft a narrative that it hopes will subsume claims made on behalf of caste and faith. The Congress thinks that gender is a compelling identity, one that can overcome the fault lines of caste and religion. The “pink manifesto” is an attempt by the party to cultivate the woman voter by appealing to her gender identity. This is a welcome change, especially in UP where politics has been a prisoner of overtly masculine rhetoric, mobilisation and negative agendas.

The Congress is not the first, or the only, political party that has identified the woman voter as a potential game-changer in elections. The Aam Aadmi Party, for instance, has announced in Goa and Punjab, where elections are due soon, that it would pay a monthly honorarium of Rs 1,000 to every woman above the age of 18. Earlier, in Bihar, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar instituted a slew of schemes for girls, including free education and bicycles. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M G Ramachandran and his successor, J Jayalalithaa, were the earliest to spot a gender dimension in the distribution of public goods. In West Bengal, CM Mamata Banerjee has introduced cash transfers for women. These interventions, erroneously branded as poll sops, have improved the quality of life of women, especially the under-privileged. The Congress manifesto has promised reservation for women in jobs, creche facility in government offices, honorarium of Rs 10,000 per month for Asha and Anganwadi workers, 40 per cent reservation for women in MNREGA work, smartphone for girl students of class 12, scooty for those pursuing graduation, residential schools for girls, free public transport, monthly pension of Rs 1,000 for elderly women, 25 per cent reservation in police, incentives for women to run businesses and so on.

It is anybody’s guess if these promises can influence electoral outcomes immediately, but parties sooner than later will be forced to start a conversation on these issues. Similarly, the Congress has announced that 40 per cent of its candidates would be women. Reservation for women in panchayati raj institutions has started to build pressure at the grass roots for better representation in assemblies and Parliament. These promises may not turn around Congress prospects in UP, but it may influence the election discourse and transform the state in the long run.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘The aam aurat’.

Like all campaigns that seek to divide, the propaganda against meat-eating rests on a dangerous, simplistic fiction. This is the myth of Gujarat as a vegetarian state.

How can you decide what I eat?” The Gujarat High Court’s angry question to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is a much-needed reminder that choice is at the crux of democratic freedoms — and that it cannot, and must not, be surrendered to divisive politics or the intrusive state. The court was responding to a plea by 25 street vendors, who say that the municipal authorities had seized their carts as a part of a campaign against the sale of non-vegetarian food in the city. Gujarat has recently seen political grandstanding around the sale of meat and eggs in the open, with BJP leaders in four major cities, Rajkot, Vadodara, Bhavnagar and Ahmedabad, last month cracking down on carts selling non-vegetarian food. Several arguments were deployed for this campaign of paranoia — that the sight of omelets and kebabs would offend the religious sentiments of one community; that the smell of non-vegetarian food was disagreeable; that it might even warp the minds of children. As the court pointed out, in the service of a political agenda, the municipal authorities decided to suspend the right of vendors to carry out their honest business and the right of their consumers to buy the food of their choice.

Like all campaigns that seek to divide, the propaganda against meat-eating rests on a dangerous, simplistic fiction. This is the myth of Gujarat as a vegetarian state. Or the myth that the majority of Indians are vegetarians because they belong to a certain religion. Both these misconceptions flounder on facts. According to the Sample Registration System Baseline Survey 2014, 71 per cent of Indians eat non-vegetarian food. Gujarat has a 40 per cent meat-eating population, which includes not just Muslims, Christians and Parsis, but also OBCs, Dalits and tribals. That is to say, mutton tapelu is as much part of a Gujarati meal as the panchkutiyu shaak. Perhaps, it is for this reason, and the political calculations that flow from it, that the BJP has had to roll back its campaign.

No community or religion in a diverse country like India can be reduced to a monolith. But the ongoing and growing contestations over identity and religion are forcing a homogenous idea of India that is not only at odds with its variousness and multiplicity, but also stigmatises other ways of living as inferior — or, worse, casts other religions as the other. Such culture wars have become a ruse for the political class to shrink individual freedoms, and bloat its own powers. The Gujarat High Court’s reprimand to Ahmedabad municipal authorities is, therefore, a welcome push-back. If the state oversteps its limits to interfere in the personal choices of citizens, the judiciary must continue to draw the red line.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘Choice is a right’.

Fashion is often considered an art form, and as appropriations go, many will argue, things can be a lot worse. The many, as they often are, would be wrong.

Say what you will about Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, they weren’t in it for the money or the looks. The two protagonists of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road, in fact, sparked a literary and social movement that was anti-materialist, into enhancing perception and almost certainly a reaction to the conservative capitalist excesses of 1950s America. Now, from being both plot and metaphor on the road, the Beat Generation has been reduced to a marketing gimmick on the runway: Dior’s menswear collection, unveiled earlier this week in a London show, draws from Kerouac’s aesthetic and characters.

Of course, it is unfair to blame the contemporary fashion industry alone. Che Guevara has long been a way to sell t-shirts and motorcycles and the Beat aesthetic has been used to sell clothes, coffee and even market tourism in the US almost since its inception. And, after all, when publishers sell books, aren’t they already part of the market? Fashion is often considered an art form, and as appropriations go, many will argue, things can be a lot worse. The many, as they often are, would be wrong.

The difference between substance and vacuousness, authenticity and performance, is context. And every time an aspect of culture that, in essence, challenges an order of conservatism and inequality becomes a way to make a buck and look cool — without really upsetting anyone — we lose something valuable. No, Dior and its designers aren’t merely “inspired” by Kerouac, nor are they interpreting his art in a new context. What they are doing is robbing it of its depth, and selling literature and worldview like a picture postcard featuring hipster-costumed models. Kim Jones, the designer at Dior in charge of the project said he loves “the moment counter-culture becomes culture”. But in that moment, he forgot to add, the former loses itself.

This editorial first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘On the runway’.

Himanshu writes: It requires the government to intervene when market prices fall below a pre-defined level, not buy all the produce

After more than a year, farmer unions have finally decided to call off their protests with the three controversial farm laws being repealed. In the end nobody is wiser as to why the laws were introduced and why they were withdrawn as the government has refused to discuss it in Parliament. But in the process, it has conceded to the demand of the unions to set up a committee to ensure minimum support prices (MSP) for all farmers along with other assurances, none of which were part of the laws that were passed and repealed.

Among them, perhaps the most controversial and ambiguous is the demand for a guarantee of MSP. It has been interpreted as a mandatory enforcement of trade in agricultural produce, including private trade to be necessarily at or above the MSP for that crop. Another interpretation is the nationalisation of agricultural trade whereby the government promises to buy all the crop produced at MSP. Both these formulations are not correct. But even if they were, there is no way these can be implemented. Commentators have been using these two interpretations to project large estimates of government expenditure needed to implement. While most of these estimates are hyperbole, imaginary and irrational, they fail to understand the true spirit of the demand for a legal MSP.

This ambiguity arises primarily due to the nature of the current MSP regime. By definition MSP is not an income support programme. It is designed to be used as a government intervention to stabilise prices, to provide remunerative prices to farmers. Currently, it is no more than a public procurement programme to meet the requirements of the National Food Security Act (NFSA). As against the official announcement of MSP for 23 crops, only two, rice and wheat are procured as these are distributed in NFSA. For the rest, it is mostly ad-hoc and insignificant.

The current demand for a legal guarantee of MSP has to be seen in the larger context of the situation of farmers. In addition to the twin droughts of 2014 and 2015, farmers have also suffered from declining commodity prices since 2014. The twin shocks of demonetisation and hurried rollout of GST, crippled the rural economy, primarily the non-farm sector, but also agriculture. The slowdown in the economy after 2016-17 followed by the pandemic has ensured that the situation remains precarious for majority of the farmers. With rural wages declining in real terms since 2014 and lack of employment opportunities, the crisis in the rural economy has actually worsened. Higher input prices for diesel, electricity and fertilisers have only contributed to the misery. In this context, the demand for ensuring remunerative prices is only a reiteration of the promise by successive governments to implement the Swaminathan Committee report in letter and spirit.

A price intervention scheme is not unique and is a standard intervention used by many countries. A true MSP requires the government to intervene whenever market prices fall below a pre-defined level, primarily in case of excess production and oversupply or a price collapse due to international factors. It does not require the government to buy all the produce but only to the extent that creates upward price pressures in the market to stabilise prices at the MSP level. What is needed is a mechanism to monitor the prices. While such a mechanism already exists, a policy for requisite market intervention is missing.

MSP can also be an incentive price for many of the crops which are desirable for nutritional security such as coarse cereals, and also for pulses and edible oils for which we are dependent on imports. That farmers respond to such interventions is clear from the example of pulses which witnessed an increase in production after the government started procuring them.

However, the current MSP regime has no relation to prices in the domestic market. Its sole raison d’être is to fulfil the requirements of NFSA making it effectively a procurement price rather than an MSP. Precisely why, the food subsidy of more than Rs 2 lakh crore is not a subsidy for farmers, but a subsidy to consumers for providing nutrition security to the country. However, political interventions have meant that actual procurement is way more than actual requirements for NFSA, leading to excess stocks. Apart from being a waste of resources, this is also inefficient and counterproductive, contributing to price distortions. On the other hand, a true MSP may not cost much given that the market intervention is needed only in the case of a price collapse and only for the commodity for which it occurs. The cost of such an operation is unlikely to be significant as long as the government has a mechanism to sell the grain procured in the open market or the export market.

Fortunately, the existence of NFSA also ensures that there is a fully functional distributional mechanism of distributing these commodities. Despite repeated demands from food activists, there has not been any progress in including pulses, edible oils and millets in PDS. These are not just essential for nutritional security but will also increase the pool of farmers likely to benefit from MSP interventions to include small and marginal farmers who grow millets, pulses and edible oil. This will also ensure geographical balance as most of these are grown in rainfed and arid regions. A guaranteed MSP then is nothing more than restoring the true spirit and functions of MSP, applicable to a broad range of crops and all sections of farmers.

It is obvious that there is neither a paucity of funds nor a lack of infrastructural and institutional mechanisms to ensure a guaranteed MSP. It is basically a lack of understanding of what agriculture needs and above all a lack of political commitment to ensure remunerative prices to farmers. But even an efficient and functional MSP is unlikely to be the permanent solution to the deep-rooted crisis in agriculture which suffers from low investment, absence of state support and inefficient management of the economy. But it is certainly the least that the government can do to protect a sector which remains the largest employer and a refuge for the poor and vulnerable as was seen during the pandemic.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘The effective support price’. The writer teaches at JNU.

Raj Mehta writes: Along with his work as CDS, his empathy will be part of his legacy

Four hundred years ago, the poet John Donne, convalescing from a near-fatal illness, famously advised: “Send not to know for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee” — it is inevitable that we’ll all die one day. This was an outlook that the Nobel Prize-winning writer Ernest Hemingway replicated in his celebrated book woven around death, For Whom the Bell Tolls.

I’m sure my friend and colleague General Bipin Rawat, given his ruddy health, would have responded with his infectious smile and bonhomie. He had taken two days off from a frenetic work schedule to address Indian and foreign students and faculty at the Defence Services Staff College at Wellington, the Nilgiri cantonment named after “Iron Duke” Wellington, who defeated Napoleon at Waterloo.  Like the Iron Duke, Bipin too was known for his unswerving ability to deliver on the daunting. His mandate as the Chief of Defence Staff was ensuring Integrated Theatre Commands, streamlining repetitive and wasteful defence expenditure and generating self-sufficiency in weapon manufacture, despite the sometimes trenchant opposing views that cropped up. Undaunted, he’d hoped to amicably nullify them, bringing all on board before retiring.

This requiem isn’t about the fatal crash. It is mainly about the writer’s memories of Bipin and his wife Madhulika’s essential humanity. This is far removed from the sometimes traumatising, thoughtless and irresponsible social chatter, the surreal and gushing TV tributes and the graphic footage showing clumsily-blotted crash victims, wreckage flames and detritus that have overshadowed the dignified recollections about the late CDS’ career.

However, in passing and for the benefit of lay readers, the writer, having been a student at the Defence Services Staff College in 1984-85, then a part of the faculty from 1993 to 1997, and still later, from 2018 to 2020, responsible for creating the niche Madras Regimental Centre War Museum in Wellington, has an accurate recall of the Nilgiris area. This is where the state-of-the-art Mi-17 V5 helicopter crashed, presumably in pea-soup weather, and exploded in a horrendous ball of flame.

The crash occurred at the fringes of the Nanchappanchathram settlement of mainly tea-garden workers. This settlement is located in a narrow valley on the opposite side of the two-lane Mettupalayam-Coonoor-Wellington highway on which the upmarket Kattery Tourist Park is located.  The road rises 5,000 feet above sea level, with 15 steep bends in the 34 kilometres from Mettupalayam, which is 1,000 feet ASL, to Coonoor, and thence to Wellington at 6,000 feet ASL, eight kilometres further away.

Commencing from the highway, there is an 800-metre long cemented village pathway ending in 150 steps, beyond which a short mud track through the shola forest leads to the crash site.

The writer’s last command in a 39-year long career, commencing in August 2003, was the elite 19 Infantry Division, headquartered in the north Kashmir town of Baramulla. This division had saved Kashmir for India during the 1947-1948 Indo-Pakistan War.

In 2012, the writer got an unexpected invitation from then General Officer Commanding of the 19 Division, Major General Bipin Rawat, for interacting with the local Kashmiri school and college children and awaam (community); this, after attending an open-ended Division symposium in which panellists interacted with students, civil Para-military, J&K Police, district-level appointments and the Dagger Division rank and file on the need, ways and means of improving working-level military-civil relations. This was the writer’s first meeting with Bipin.

During the three days of professional and social interaction, the writer called on the GOC at his Jhelum riverbank “hut”, which had been occupied in 1948 by former Army chief, General KS Thimayya, DSO and the Dagger Division’s first Indian GOC. What stood out was his and his graduate-in-psychology wife’s endearing humanity. Baramulla is a frontier town where terrorism first started in 1986-1987. The townspeople responded to the kindness and empathy in Bipin’s overtures. Under him, the contours of hearts and minds took on refreshing tones. The feedback was: Jenaab Rawat aur unki Begum Sahiba awaam ke saath behtareen andaaz se pesh aate hain . Unme hamdardi qabil-e-tareef hai. Hamen bahut accha laga ki voh apne buzurg walid ki bahut acchi dekh-rekh karte hain. (The couple interacts with us with courtesy and empathy. We appreciate that he is taking good care of his aged father).

Nibbling the delectable Kashmiri snacks in the GOC’s well-appointed hut, which had once been occupied by the writer, he was deeply moved when Bipin brought in his wheelchair-bound father, a veteran lieutenant general.

Though we never met or spoke again, we kept ourselves informed about each other’s well-being, even as Bipin kept his focus on his charter as a rapidly rising officer who became CDS and even when this writer sometimes disagreed on what he thought needed better handling by Bipin. Professional soldiers seek unbiased and objective opinions and it is my feeling that Bipin respected such feedback whenever he got it.

Bipin Rawat’s legacy will crystallise over time but what his worst critics accept is that he made the Integrated Theatre Commands and linked issues his key focus points, regardless of their final delivery shape. His heartfelt humanity will rise above the AI-fuelled, Internet of Things-driven warfighting to remind us that soldiers fight and win wars when handled with professional ability that is laced with a dash of essential humanity.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘A dash of humanity’. The writer, a retired major general, is Director Sarthi Museum Consultancy

Prakash Singh writes: Killing of 14 people in Nagaland was a terrible tragedy that must be investigated. But ill-informed criticism does disservice to army’s counterinsurgency role

What happened in Nagaland recently was a tragedy. The Indian Army, in an operation on December 4 that went horribly wrong, killed 14 civilians in Mon district inhabited by the Konyak tribe, who have generally been supportive of the government. The Army has set up a court of inquiry headed by a Major General to probe the circumstances under which the botched operation by the 21 para-special forces took place. The state government has also set up a special investigation team, which has been directed to complete its work within one month. Meanwhile, the Home Minister, in a statement before Parliament, expressed the Government of India’s regret over the killing of civilians in a case of mistaken identity, calling it “unfortunate”, and offered the government’s deepest condolences to the bereaved families.

The official version is that, based on intelligence inputs about the movement of insurgents, the Army laid an ambush. An approaching vehicle was signalled to stop but it tried to flee, which aroused suspicion. The Army personnel thereupon opened fire, which resulted in the death of eight persons. The villagers, thereafter, reportedly surrounded the Army unit and attacked them with daos and firearms. The forces again opened fire — this time in self-defence — killing six more civilians. Army personnel also suffered injuries and their officer is said to be in ICU.

It is a heart-rending incident for all right-thinking persons. For those sympathetic to the rebel Nagas, however, it is an opportunity to tarnish the image of the Army, demand its withdrawal from the area, and push their agenda to demand a separate Constitution and a separate flag for the Naga separatists. It must be remembered that the security forces are performing an extremely difficult and complicated task in the midst of multiple insurgencies in the Northeast. In fact, they are paying the price for our political mis-management and blunders since the mid-Fifties when trouble erupted in the Naga Hills.

Not many people in the country know that the rebel Nagas have gone back on every agreement that the Government of India negotiated with them in the past. The Naga People’s Convention held in 1957 demanded that the Naga Hills district of Assam and the Tuensang Frontier Division of North-East Frontier Agency (NEFA) be merged into a single unit. The demand was conceded and the Naga Hills Tuensang Area (NHTA) was formed. Another Naga People’s Convention, held in 1959, demanded the creation of a separate state of Nagaland. This was also conceded and Nagaland was carved out in 1963. Then there was the Shillong Agreement in 1975 whereby the underground groups agreed to deposit their arms while the government agreed to release the rebels held in detention and give liberal grants for their rehabilitation. The hardcore elements, however, did not abide by the terms of the agreement. Recently, there was a Framework Agreement in 2015, but the NSCN (IM) has been throwing spanners into its implementation.

This is, however, not to deny that the Mon incident was terrible, that it needs to be carefully investigated, and if there was any mala fide or excessive use of force, the guilty must be punished. The suo motu FIR lodged by Nagaland Police, according to reports, mentions that there was an intention to “murder and injure” civilians. This was an unprofessional entry. Mens rea is established only after thorough investigation.

Counterinsurgency operations are full of uncertainties. Intelligence may be right, it may be false. Sometimes you walk into a trap. It is not easy to distinguish friend from foe. To fire or not to fire is always a difficult decision. A split second makes all the difference. In such a situation, mistakes and even blunders happen. To give a few examples from other countries, in Iraq, on March 1, 2017, during a strike on ISIS near Mosul, there was an unintentional death of 14 civilians because the blast set off a secondary explosion. In Syria, on July 15, 2017, the Coalition aircraft engaged four Daesh fighting positions near the Hospital of Modern Medicine, but unfortunately 13 civilians were killed due to their proximity to the target location. In Afghanistan, it is estimated that 40 per cent of all civilian air-strike casualties during 2016 to 2020 were children (1,598 out of 3,977). Recently, on August 30, a drone strike by the US forces killed 10 civilians near the Kabul International Airport. The attack was targeted at a vehicle believed to be carrying suspected ISIS-K suicide bombers. General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, later said that they had “very good intelligence” for the attack. It need hardly be said that the US generally takes no action in such cases which are dismissed as “collateral damage”. We have much better institutional arrangements for such lapses.

There is, in this context, a vocal demand for repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Government has already, during the last few years, been gradually withdrawing AFSPA from different areas. The Act was withdrawn from Tripura in 2015 and Meghalaya in 2018 while in Arunachal Pradesh it is now restricted to the three districts of Tirap, Changlang and Longding. The whole of Assam, Nagaland and Manipur (except the Imphal municipal area), however, continue to be under AFSPA. The Jeevan Reddy Commission had, in 2005, recommended the repeal of the Act. The matter could be examined again in consultation with all stakeholders and a well-considered decision taken, keeping in view the requirements of national security.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘Probe before criticising’. The writer is a former Director General of Police, Assam

Mukulika Banerjee writes: Cultivation is a combination of dynamism and stasis, hope and fear, trust and vigilance. The ability to navigate these is what helped farmers succeed in their protest

In one of the makeshift stalls providing drinking water at Singhu, where farmers have been encamped for the past year in protest, a series of unusual posters adorn the walls. These feature portrayals of Guru Nanak tilling the land, creating furrows with his plough and oxen. The accompanying text explains that the sun never sets on hard work which can create gold from the Earth. The images are a reminder that the Guru showed through his own practice that cultivation is a productive activity that allowed him to grow food from the land he was given, and distribute it through the first langar he set up. His example gives the farmers the self-belief that while cultivation required hard work, vigilance and patience, such honest work also created rich rewards.

As we learn of the extraordinary victory of the farmers of India in forcing the central government to repeal the unwelcome laws it had forced on them, we are reminded that farmers have traditionally had a poor reputation as revolutionaries. “Potatoes in a sack” is how Karl Marx put it to describe an inert and insulated peasantry, incapable of building wider solidarities. How then was this movement successful? Could it in fact, counterintuitively, have everything to do precisely with being farmers and the values of cultivation itself?

When they started their protests over a year ago, no one thought the farmers would succeed, for they faced a particularly intransigent government. But they remained undeterred. As cultivators they knew that patience was key to growing anything, for the soil had to be prepared, seeds sown and then watched over as they took root and flourished, the elements had to be weathered, just like the taunts of passers-by; and through all this their eye had to remain on the distant goal to which there were no shortcuts. Cultivation is a combination of dynamism and stasis, hope and fear, trust and vigilance. Becoming a farmer is as much about learning to hold these sentiments together within the self as it is to farm.

These were precisely the qualities of character that the farmers brought to the protests as they set up encampments encircling Delhi. Throughout this past year, these sites were a hive of civic activity as protestors drew on their ethics of seva (service) and kirat (honest dedication) to organise langars to share food, tea, water, entertainment and even books. When asked how long they could possibly continue in such hostile conditions, their answer was always one of quiet resolve: “We will not return until the laws are repealed, however long it takes.”

Cultivation is about hope — it creates expectation from the moment that the seed is planted, and there was hope from the very start of the long protest. Cultivation also requires courage in the face of hostile conditions and figures from religion and history who had fought the Mughals — Mata Gujri and the four young sons of Guru Gobind Singh — and heroes such as Rajguru, Sukhdev and Bhagat Singh who fought the British, were evoked in murals to provide inspiration.

Courage also came through shared solidarity — just as every harvest requires cooperation and support from others, so does a social movement. In a “library” maintained in a large tent throughout the protests, every evening saw attendees sit together in a circle sharing ideas and learning to debate; a microphone was passed around so people could gain confidence and learn to speak to an audience. Thus, the protest created a new movement culture with new ways of behaving and relating to others. The threat of violence by the authorities and incidents of violence and suicides within the camp, were constant but the overall effort was to transcend them and ensure that the majority remained committed to peaceful protest. The new movement culture created an unprecedented social mixing over food and conversation between castes, big and small farmers, owners and workers, and different religions — exactly the kind of fraternity which Ambedkar imagined to be critical for democratic politics in India.

Ambedkar, despite his deep reservation about villages as “dens of vice”, used agrarian metaphors when talking about politics. He spoke of institutional democracy introduced by the Constitution as merely the topsoil on India’s deeply unequal substratum. He advocated the need to cultivate constitutional morality precisely because it was not a natural sentiment, to create both a political democracy of institutions and also a social and economic democracy of culture.

This past year, what we learnt is that such cultivation need not simply provide a metaphor for doing politics, it could also be its grammar. The result is a High Yielding Variety of Politics that the farmers are harvesting today.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘Cultivating hope’. Banerjee is the author of Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India

Menaka Guruswamy writes: Banning them would serve no purpose. What is needed is a regulatory mechanism that mandates the maintenance of customer and the transaction records

As the human species marches steadily into a present and future driven by innovation and technology, currencies for payment remain for the most part as paper money in circulation, saved up in bank accounts regulated by a centralised banking system or a banking system overseen by multiple regulators answerable to nation states.

Our future was promised to be different — Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and the CEO of Tesla and Space X would be living on Mars, we would continue to appear in law courts using highly stable and refined video-conferencing mechanisms, election campaigning would be done via holograms, and cryptocurrencies and digital currencies would be used to pay for services. Bitcoin, a kind of cryptocurrency, was expected to be more valuable than gold.

If the present is anything to go by most of that future is almost here: Musk is keeping his word, selling his lavish homes to unencumber his life for interplanetary living, “virtual” courts continue to exist as a means of adjudication, campaigning through holograms is here to stay. Only Bitcoin has failed to live up to its potential. Even Musk and Tesla have refused to accept payment in crypto since it is environmentally disastrous due to the carbon emissions generated by the computer processing necessary to mint new coins. According to The New Yorker, the electric mining of new bitcoins consumes more energy than Argentina on an annual basis. Meanwhile, the price of gold has risen, while Bitcoin has fallen in value.

Cryptocurrency continues to remain a great favourite of law-breakers, such as those who send ransomware into our computers and demand payments to let go of our valuable data. Greg Ip writes in The Wall Street Journal that illicit entities did an estimated $4.9 billion in business while legitimate merchants did only $2.8 billion worth in cryptocurrencies. Ransomware payments alone amounted to $348 million in 2020, a four-time jump from the previous year.

Earlier this year, China banned bitcoin, the most popular digital currency, and soon after introduced its own digital currency.

The fears about bitcoin were made clear when a few months ago, Colonial Pipeline, which runs the main fuel supply line on the Eastern Seaboard or the entire coast from Maine to Florida in the United States, agreed to pay hackers $4.4 million dollars as agreed in bitcoin.

Despite all these negatives, The Wall Street Journal estimates that the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies is estimated to be $2 trillion. The undisputed bright spot is that the underlying technology that enables cryptocurrencies, i.e. the blockchain technology could be used to replace the current global payment systems, which are slow, expensive and tightly controlled. Cryptocurrencies threaten to create a decentralised market space, that is more efficient, more egalitarian, and thereby disrupt the insular structures that control banking systems, globally and nationally. At its core, cryptocurrencies threaten to reimagine the nation state as the arbiter of local and international currencies and payment systems. They take us back to a time when gold, spices, and other goods — privately tradable commodities — were used to for trade and services.

Meanwhile, in India, we are behind China in terms of trying to crack down on cryptocurrencies. On April 5, 2018, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) by regulation essentially prohibited the provision of banking services to any entity dealing or using virtual currencies. Private entities challenged this regulation in the Supreme Court. In 2021, the Court in Internet and Mobile Association v Reserve Bank of India found that while the RBI had the power to regulate virtual currencies, the prohibition imposed by it was disproportionate and unconstitutional. The Court held that in the absence of any legislative prohibition, the business of dealing in virtual currencies constituted a protected right of occupation under Article 19 (1) (g) of the Constitution.

There is great value in this judgment, including its recognition of a lack of valid law that regulates or bans or provides for virtual currencies. The Court notes that while the RBI has the power to regulate VCs, the ban is disproportionate since no banks of any sort had suffered a loss on account of VC exchanges.

Reports indicate the legislative vacuum may soon be remedied, as the Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Bill, 2021, is to be introduced in this winter session of Parliament. Unfortunately, the bill itself is not available in the public domain. While it is unclear what the Bill will contain, if India goes the China route and bans cryptocurrencies, it would be unfortunate.

While issues of money laundering and ransomware can be dealt with by tweaking existing statutes, what should be utilised and encouraged is the blockchain technology that can make our payment systems more efficient. A ban would also succeed in pushing further underground systems that are here to stay. What would be most intelligent is a regulatory mechanism that mandates the maintenance of customer and transaction records. Eventually, India will have to learn from the mistakes and best practices of countries like Dubai, Singapore, Switzerland and the United States which are grappling with legislation to regulate cryptocurrencies. While that is happening, we can monitor the process of Musk relocating to Mars.

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 11, 2021 under the title ‘Who’s afraid of crypto’. The writer is a senior advocate who practices law at the Supreme Court

As is universally understood now, the pandemic’s most visible impact on white-collar work has been the dramatic increase in employees working remotely. While normalcy may moderate this trend, there is consensus that it is here to stay. But what may finally prove to be more disruptive are complementarity flexibilities, for example in work contracts. In what could set a trend among large corporates in India, HUL has launched ‘U-Work’ and ‘Open2U’ offers to employees and gig workers respectively, providing different combinations of flexi-work, financial security and medical benefits.

From the corporate point of view this flexi-curity is key to the talent pool that has outgrown the 40-40-40 model, whereby office workers wanted to be employed for 40 hours a week, 40 weeks a year, for 40 years. The enduring rigidity of that model has been blamed for India’s failures to either attract investment away from China or grow formal employment. Simultaneously, the white-collar tech and managerial segments, the unicorns and ‘soonicorns’ have seen a real war for talent. It follows that the new flexi-curity will also simultaneously sound attractive and sinister, depending on where one stands in the ‘wanted’ list of the white-collar job market.

Whichever category one belongs in, and India needs to expand specialised higher education to help one move up the ‘wanted’ scale, the bottomline is that only good economic growth can increase good jobs. Growth in turn is tied to business competitiveness and nimbleness. To creative destruction, as it were. The problem is that while in richer countries the unemployed have social security, in India job loss basically throws one to one’s own devices or whatever comfort family can provide. Therein lies India’s current problem – a low tax base makes social security unaffordable for governments, lack of social security makes employers less willing to experiment with work, and that in turn impacts innovation.

The protection of every citizen’s fundamental rights in a vast, populous country is an onerous task for constitutional courts. Not everyone has resources to fight miscarriage of justice. But interventions this week by Madras and Gujarat high courts held out hope for some very vulnerable individuals living on the margins of society. Madras HC’s Justice Anand Venkatesh  termed as unfortunate NCERT’s withdrawal of an action plan to ease education pathways for gender non-conforming children.

The report aimed to sensitise and prepare school teachers for accepting and handling gender non-conformingchildren besides acting as a link to parents to help the children secure vital family support. The judge slammed the ‘pressure tactics’ on NCERT and bemoaned the kneejerk withdrawal of the painstakingly produced report hours after being published, without due process like consultation or meetings to address grievances against the action plan.

Similar peremptoriness was evident in the casting out of poor street vendors in Gujarat when political functionaries decided against vending non-vegetarian food in public. This, despite due procedure laid down by the Street Vendors Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Streetvending Act 2014. In a blow for individual dietary choices, Gujarat HC’s Justice Biren Vaishnav asked Ahmedabad municipal authorities: “How can you decide what I eat outside?” Such judicial pushback against decisions hurting citizens’ fundamental rights to equality and livelihood choice is welcome. May the ranks of judges like Justices Venkatesh and Vaishnav swell.

2020 was the year of the pandemic for India — despite this year, 2021, seeing more cases and deaths.

2021 was (is) the year of the vaccine; the year of economic recovery; and the year when we realized that we will have to live with the virus, perhaps forever.

The emergence of the Omicron variant, and the fact that India has fully vaccinated only 55% of its adult population (another 30% are partially vaccinated) may mean we continue to treat Covid-19 as the pandemic (or epidemic) it is for some more time.

Preliminary research suggests that a booster shot may be necessary to prevent symptomatic Covid (and not just severe illness) for people who do not have the hybrid immunity that full vaccination and prior illness bestows. Partial vaccination, especially among those who haven’t suffered a prior infection, by extension, likely bestows no protection at all against the variant.

But at some point in time — if Omicron does not result in a sharp rise in infections in India, or, in case it does, a few months after what will be the third wave — Covid-19 will become endemic in India (actually, at the level at which it is right now, daily cases at around the same levels as June last year, it can already be treated as an endemic), albeit one that has the potential to spiral into an epidemic at short notice.

It’s important to tailor our response to this phase around four interventions.

Masking is the first. India should mandate (and strictly enforce the mandate of) masks — not just cloth ones, but surgical ones, or N95s — in all closed spaces. Having masks on is a small price to pay if it allows people to get on with their lives and work.

Ventilation is the second. I’ve written about this previously in the daily column I wrote on Covid during the first and second waves; offices, schools, and public places (malls, stores etc) should focus on ventilation. There are now a clutch of solutions available — from expensive ones requiring filters and physical changes to buildings, to low cost ones that merely require a smart understanding of air flows and the use of windows.

Vaccines and booster doses are the third. The government should put in place restrictions for the unvaccinated and announce incentives for the vaccinated to maximize coverage. It should also expand vaccine coverage to include at least those over the age of 12 years. And finally, with evidence now tilting in favour of boosters, India needs to move fast. It’s possible to administer booster doses to 300 million people in a month. That’s just what India needs to do (perhaps starting January 1).

Outbreak protocol is the fourth. India needs standardised protocol for air and train travel, testing and vaccination, quarantines, the declaration of containment zones, and the closure of educational institutions, retail and entertainment spaces, and offices. As the disease moves into endemic phase, there will be outbreaks, resulting in the flaring up of cases in some parts of the country; and given vaccine inequity, more variants, including some of concern will emerge. We cannot have each state coming up with its own protocol to deal with these, for that will hurt the still-nascent economic recovery. And there needs to be a clear trigger (ideally, one based on data) that defines when this protocol comes into play.

2022 may well be the year we learn how to live with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

Twenty-five years ago, in New Delhi, Prime Ministers (PMs) HD Deve Gowda and Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh signed a treaty on the sharing of the Ganga waters at Farraka. The governments viewed the treaty, valid for 30 years, as an outcome that would bolster future cooperation. The treaty had its fair share of criticism, on both sides, with the opposition, Bangladesh Nationalist Party, accusing Hasina’s Awami League government of “kowtowing” before India and “selling” the country’s sovereignty.

Several Indian parliamentarians were cautiously optimistic over PM Gowda’s statement in the Lok Sabha on the Ganga treaty as an end to “what has been a constant irritant”. Uma Bharati of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), unamused, retorted “more water is given...” while Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a wider discussion.

Congressman PR Dasmunshi, while hailing the treaty as a “milestone”, cautioned the government that West Bengal’s water utilisation was in the “hands of UP and Bihar” and that for the treaty to be effective the “role of the governments of UP and Bihar are equally important as that of the government of Bengal.” It was a striking observation as India’s bilateral water relations are challenged by domestic upstream-downstream dynamics.

The treaty’s evolution goes back to the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Before that, several inconclusive water dialogues were held with India. The last such meeting in 1970, however, established Farakka as the point of delivery of water into East Pakistan with the amount of water-sharing to be agreed upon later.

Born through the ravages of war, independent Bangladesh needed to be resurrected and as a mud flat downstream nation, India’s role as an upstream one would be critical.

Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the PM of the newly sovereign Bangladesh, met in Calcutta in February 1972 and opened talks. The following month, Indira Gandhi went to Dacca (now, Dhaka), and signed the Treaty of Friendship, Co-operation and Peace. Article 6 refers to joint studies in “flood control, river basin development and the development of hydro-electric power and irrigation.”

The permanent Joint Rivers Commission that was established carried hydrographic surveys (1973-74) and estimated that during the dry season, the average minimum discharge below the Farakka was 55,000 cubic feet per second (cusecs). Who would get how much was not established. With the Farakka Barrage construction, the first signs of bilateral strains emerged. Mujib visited India in May, 1974, and the joint declaration recognised the insufficient availability of Ganga waters to meet requirements, and the possibilities of augmentation in the dry season.

The Indian “hydrocracy” would not compromise on the Farakka Barrage designed to flush the Hooghly free of silt and keep the port in Calcutta open. The political leadership, however, wanted to consider Bangladeshi sensitivity over the matter. As the Farakka Barrage was ready for commission in May 1975, Jagjivan Ram, the defence minister during the war of liberation who had said “we do not have hegemonistic designs”, rushed to Dacca in April 1975 as agriculture and irrigation minister. Little headway was made with his counterpart Abdur Ran Serniabat. Mujib proposed an “interim agreement”, signed in April 1975, that allowed India to commission the Barrage and give Bangladesh 75.6 to 80% of water during the lean period (April 21 to May 31, 1975).

With the assassination of Mujib on August 15, 1975, the dynamics of water relations changed. Successive regimes in Dhaka tried to internationalise the Farakka issue and destroy the fabric of bilateralism. No long-term agreement on the sharing of the Ganga waters was achieved.

This turned around with Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League winning the parliamentary elections in June 1996. The daughter of Mujibur Rahman committed her government to improving bilateral relations.

The United Front coalition government was keen to improve relations in the neighbourhood. Hasina desisted from internationalising the water issues. But what brought about the breakthrough was the involvement of West Bengal in the negotiating process. West Bengal chief minister, Jyoti Basu travelled to Dhaka to discuss the terms of the pact.

While India made its calculations to sign the treaty based on fair play and no-harm, it would be fair to say that Bangladesh equally convinced India to do so.

Uttam Sinha works at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses

The views expressed are personal

The latest National Family Health Survey threw up some worrying trends on domestic violence. Of the women respondents across 14 states and Union Territories, 30% justified being beaten by their husbands under “certain circumstances”. In Telangana, a staggering 84% of women felt it was all right to be beaten for minor misdemeanours. In Andhra Pradesh, it was 84%, Karnataka 77%, Kerala 52%, and West Bengal, 42%. The reasons for this intimate partner violence (IPV) ranged from showing disrespect to in-laws, arguing, suspicions of unfaithfulness, and not cooking well — just about any reason justified the man beating his wife. So why do women justify this pain and humiliation in such large numbers?

I spoke to Renuka Pamecha who founded Mahila Salah aur Suraksha Kendra which is attached to several police stations in Gandhinagar and across Rajasthan. From her experiences with victims, she says that they justify violence as they have no option.

Very few have economic independence or societal support (not even from their parents), and they are worried about their children’s fate if they file a complaint. “We need short stays homes and rehabilitation and skilling policies for women victims of IPV. I have seen how the police behave when women do pluck up the courage to come forward. They show little empathy. Instead, they tell women ‘your husband gave you a few slaps out of love, why make such a fuss?’ Pushpa Saini, whom we helped educate after she came to our centre at a police station, has left her abusive husband, got an LLB [law] degree and is living with her children on her own. But such cases are few and far between.”

Nayreen Daruwala runs the non-governmental organisation, Sneha, which works in the slums of Mumbai, including Dharavi, and deals with domestic violence. “Money is the main issue, women normalise violence because they have nowhere to go and they feel that as long as the husband provides for them, beatings are justified.”

The effects of violence are debilitating; they include depression, anxiety, inability to care for children, gynaecological and neurological problems. The Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act 2005 provides safeguards for women, but these can only kick in if women come forward — which most do not out of the fear of repercussions, loss of status and economic safety.

The police, health workers, and lower levels of the judiciary need to be sensitised to respond with empathy to abused women. There have to be community awareness programmes involving men, and more efforts made to convince women that it is best to ask for help as this is not a problem that can either be justified, or will go away if they keep quiet. “In areas where we operate, sustained community mobilisation has led to a decrease in violence and acceptance of violence as a norm. Collective action has produced positive results but we are still a very long way away from eradicating this evil,” says Nayreen.

Since this is considered a private issue, the State is chary of getting involved in any substantial way. But it is time to understand that this kind of violence is a human rights, public health and economic issue.

Women must have the confidence that if they seek help from the police or the community, they will get it and not be pushed back into an abusive situation where there will be more violence visited on them.

Centres like the ones run by Renuka Pamecha, attached to police stations, have worked to an extent in giving women a safe and empathetic space to come forward to report abuse. This model should be replicated on a larger scale across the country.

lalita.panicker@hindustantimes.com

The views expressed are personal

Exactly 10 years ago, the India Against Corruption (IAC) movement was in full force. Symbolised by the Gandhian activist Anna Hazare, the agitation’s war room was led by the savvy bureaucrat-turned-activist Arvind Kejriwal. It was Kejriwal who brought Hazare to Delhi to energise and lead the nascent movement which implicated ministers — all the way up to and including Prime Minister (PM) Manmohan Singh — in corruption scandals.

Now, on its decennial anniversary, the IAC movement has again drawn attention from a broad range of commentators who question whether the movement had any policy repercussions or if it was simply a reflection of the naked political ambitions of its leaders, namely Kejriwal. Little, however, is known, or discussed, about the inner workings of the government it squared up against. Until now.

In a new book, When Ideas Matter: Democracy and Corruption in India, based on extensive and exclusive interviews with over 120 key United Progressive Alliance (UPA) decision-makers, journalists, businesspersons, and IAC activists from that period, I map out the political and ideological make-up and constraints of that government — the composition of which directly fed its “policy paralysis” reaching a reified summit with its response to IAC.

Between 2011 and 2012, the UPA government engaged in a series of negotiations with the IAC movement. These negotiations were less a result of the decision-makers’ collective desire to actively engage with the movement. Rather, State elites, as part of a division of policymaking power at the executive level between PM Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, established divergent diagnoses in response to the movement. Some leaders urged full negotiation, while others urged counteraction. Several distinct decision-makers were tasked with crafting a response to the anti-corruption agitation, within the Prime Ministers Office (PMO), the Cabinet, the Congress, and with the National Advisory Council (NAC) too playing an important role in this polycentric environment.

Singh effectively shared executive-level authority over policymaking during the UPA rule with Sonia Gandhi. Whereas the PM maintained objective power by leading the Cabinet and the PMO, a statutory body comprising technocrats, civic activists, and some politicians was formed under Sonia Gandhi to offer her executive-level policy input, consequently diminishing Singh’s subjective power in government. This statutory body, the NAC, would be the primary vehicle to design and implement core features of the Common Minimum Program (CMP), which ensured coherence on policy matters among UPA coalition partner parties and allies. Given the backgrounds of the decision-makers who comprised the de facto parallel Cabinet, the NAC would interface between the government and civil society to supplement executive policymaking recommendations.

Crucially, the decision-makers who surrounded the PM and the party president maintained divergent ideological approaches to social and economic development issues, including the causes of the nationwide anti-corruption collective action. This polycentric institutional environment, alongside a large number of parties in the coalition, placed structural constraints on the behaviour of the executive branch to act arbitrarily in response to the emergence of the IAC movement in 2011.

Between August 2010 and March 2012, the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) released reports that underscored the “presumptive loss” to the exchequer that resulted from alleged favours provided by the UPA government to large corporate houses for contracts pertaining to the 2G telecommunications spectrum and extractive industries such as coal. Some decision-makers in the UPA believed that, although some ministers in the government had pocketed illicit funds from the allocation process, the CAG’s logic, which was fully adopted by the IAC, was flawed in its understanding of the government’s push for economic growth in a politically intransigent Parliament. These elites noted also that those who had allegedly profited from the favours were subsequently sidelined by the government and in some cases arrested.

One senior official, who was also a close advisor to the PM and who headed a core institution under the UPA, argued that, while the IAC movement raised the vital issue of corruption, the leaders of the movement “were feeding off the CAG reports, which had over-extended their ambit and did not understand why we followed the processes that we did”. There were, he concedes, “ministers from the coalition parties that skimmed and the authorities rightly looked at this. But this presumptive loss logic was bogus”.

Some UPA decision-makers, chiefly PM Singh, claimed that the anti-corruption movement actively manipulated the CAG reports by failing to entertain the possibility that the economic growth strategy pursued by the government was warped by an intransigent political environment in which a more transparent system of contract procurement had been tabled but held up in Parliament by the Opposition party.

In his most detailed comments on the episode, Singh recounted to me: “We always started [in 2004 when the UPA came to power] from the belief that competitive bidding was the best process to auction contracts, but it was so difficult to put this through parliament and get the states on board. Meanwhile, people were saying, ‘The economy has to grow at 9%!’ And so for that you need coal, you need power, and 2G was part of those inputs. In fact, because there were problems in the TRAI [Telecom Regulatory Authority of India], they themselves said that as far as 2G is concerned we cannot go the competitive bidding route because this would mean too high a price being paid, and that processes of big enrollment of Indian consumers would not run smoothly. But they said maybe with 3G there could be competitive bidding. The irony was that we had been trying to get competitive bidding through parliament for some time.”

He continued: “I spoke in parliament on 2G and coal, but to no avail. We said again, ‘Let’s move toward competitive bidding’, but there was opposition from the state governments which produce coal, many of them are BJP-led, so we could not get this thing moved successfully through the political process of the standing committees. It took us three to four years. By 2012, we were able to put forward the law that made competitive bidding a possible route. But by then the entire government was painted with these scams. It was not just face-saving. It was the only way we wanted to get legislation approved by parliament. BJP blocked us at every path in states where they had a majority. The [IAC] movement’s feeling was that we had purposefully kept these things [procurement of government contracts] in the dark and taken money and pocketed it all to the detriment of the common man. No one understood that it took time for us to get competitive bidding legislation through, while we had to keep the country moving forward through [economic] growth. So my own feeling was that the movement manipulated these CAG reports. I had no reason to believe that anything good was a real motivation behind these reports and their [the IAC’s] uproar.”

Ten years later, as the implications of the IAC movement continue to play out in India’s political theatre, it is perhaps time to pause and look at the other side — why the government acted the way it did.

Bilal Baloch is a non-resident visiting scholar at the Center for the Advanced Study of India (CASI), University of Pennsylvania, and co-founder of AI startup, Enquire. His book, When Ideas Matter: Democracy and Corruption in India, is out now

The views expressed are personal

I imagine many of you have heard of Jack and Jill. If you remember, they climbed up the hill, Jack fell down and Jill came tumbling after. It used to seem like an innocent frolic, a children’s jape, but it turns out its real meaning is far darker and more portentous. And that, in fact, seems to be true of many other nursery rhymes I used to love.

According to an article in Vagabomb.com, sent by my cousin, Nonika, “Jack and Jill” are actually France’s Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette. In 1793, they were guillotined. Thus Louis “lost his crown” (ie his head) and Jill’s soon “came tumbling after”.

Another much-loved nursery rhyme “Baa Baa Black Sheep” has even older origins. In the 13th century, King Edward the First imposed an extremely harsh wool tax on farmers — one-third for the King or Master, one-third for the Church or Dame and one-third for the farmers. An older version of the rhyme ends “but none for the little boy, who cries down the lane”. In other words, there was very little for the people who actually cultivated the wool.

Do you remember “Old Mother Hubbard”, for whom “the cupboard was bare”? Well, it seems she wasn’t even a woman, if this article is to be believed. Old Mother Hubbard is supposed to be Cardinal Wolsey, who fell into Henry the Eighth’s bad books because he couldn’t get him a divorce. The king is the “poor dog” and the divorce is the “bone”. The “cupboard” is the Catholic Church. Hmmm...

Now, one of my favourite nursery rhymes is “Georgie Porgie Pudding and Pie”. There are many naughty versions of this that I will not repeat, but they’re not as inaccurate as I had always assumed. Georgie, it transpires, is none other than George Villiers, the Duke of Buckingham, who was once rumoured to be King James the First’s lover. Is that, perhaps, why the girls cried when he kissed them? But why did he run away when the boys came out to play?

A favourite of the teacher who taught me in kindergarten was “Ring-a-Ring-a-Roses” which, this article says, is actually “Ring around the Rosie”. Anyway, its origin lies embedded in the Great Plague of 1665. When “we all fall down”, we’re dead. Thank God the little children, who skipped around the school garden tunelessly singing this rhyme, weren’t aware of its actual meaning.

Interestingly, several nursery rhymes have their origin in Tudor times. “Mary Mary Quite Contrary” refers to Queen Mary, who reigned briefly between her short-lived half-brother, Edward the Sixth, and her glorious and successful half-sister, who first made the name Elizabeth famous. The “silver bells” and “cockle shells” are torture devices popular in her day. The “pretty maids all in a row” is a euphemistic reference to hundreds of women burnt at the stake for the crime of being Protestant. Mary attempted to re-impose Catholicism after her father, Henry VIII, had forcibly converted the country to the Church of England.

Another, that comes from the same time, is “Three Blind Mice”. They’re supposed to be three Protestant bishops who Mary burned at the stake for treason and heresy — Hugh Latimer, Nicholas Radley and Thomas Cranmer, then Archbishop of Canterbury. “It was mistakenly believed that she also blinded and dismembered them, as the rhyme goes, as if being burnt alive was not enough”. Incidentally, I wouldn’t use this precedent to call the next bishop you meet a mouse!

Finally, would you ever believe what “London Bridge is Falling Down” possibly alludes to? Of the many theories afloat, one is the belief “a bridge would collapse unless a human sacrifice was buried in its foundation.” For those who want to know, it’s called immurement.

Unfortunately, this article doesn’t relate the alleged origins of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. I wonder what that might be? But the ease with which it has lent itself to Punjabi interpretation suggests it could be a lot closer to home.

Karan Thapar is the author of Devil’s Advocate: The Untold Story

The views expressed are personal