Reporters as police stenographers – By Jyoti Punwani (Sep 27, 2012, Twocircles.net)

Will the English press ever again report verbatim what the Delhi Police’s Special Cell tells them? The Jamia Teachers’ Solidarity Association’s just-released report on 16 cases of terror filed by the Special Cell that ended in acquittal, is an indictment not just of the functioning of the Special Cell, but also of the English press. The report cites examples of reports in national newspapers such as The Times Of India, The Hindu, The Indian Express, and Hindustan Times, which carried verbatim, often without the use of the word “alleged”, the version given by the Special Cell at press conferences where often, the arrested innocents were produced as “hard core militants’. Among the many paraded this way was 24-year-old Kashmiri Imran Kirmani, an aeronautical engineering graduate who had just landed a job in Delhi. His background came handy for the Special Cell to describe him as “part of an LeT module” planning to carry out a “9/11 plot”. “Prize catch” was the caption given by The Hindu to his picture on page one, surrounded by Special Cell plainclothesmen. Four years later, the judge acquitted Kirmani. “And when I was released, there was no media, no cameras waiting to tell the world that I was innocent. It wasn’t a story,” Kirmani told the Kashmir correspondent of The Indian Express Muzammil Jaleel.

The JTSA report cites only the Express as having bothered to talk to Kirmani. But The Telegraph’s Muzaffar Raina did so too. The paper carried the story on page one. Not that this in any way compensated for Kirmani’s trauma. “My dream (of becoming an aeronautical engineer) has died,” he said more than once to Jaleel. “Who will give me a job now?” It wasn’t just Delhi’s Special Cell that ruined this blameless young man’s future. The English press also played a part. This columnist has tried for years to find an answer to the question: why do reporters implicitly believe the police when they claim breakthroughs in “terror” cases? Because the police bear the authority of uniform? They are the ones who should know? Even when the country’s first big terror strike took place on March 12, 1993 in Mumbai, there were doubts whether everyone picked up was part of the conspiracy. At that time, the lawyer of one of those arrested approached me with his client’s story. His client claimed that his only offence was that he had rented out a scooter, something he did everyday to strangers. How was he to know what it would be used for? (It was used to plant a bomb.) The TOI refused to publish the story, which was based entirely on the lawyer’s plea filed in court. The man was eventually discharged after spending three years in jail.

This was just after the 92-93 Mumbai riots, wherein the Mumbai police had shown just how aligned its men were with the Shiv Sena. The Times’ reportage of the riots had exposed some of this and earned it the abuse “Times of Pakistan” from the RSS. But riots were one thing, simultaneous bomb blasts across the city, killing random innocents, were a different kettle of fish. Would publishing that story have made the Times look like it was supporting the terrorists? Is that what stops newspapers from expressing doubts about police claims? April 2006 should have been a turning point for investigations into bomb blasts. That was when the Nanded blasts took place and the RSS hand in the bomb blasts became clear. But even after Nanded, the police stuck to its only-Muslims-are-terrorists theory. Given the well-known anti-Muslim prejudice of the police, that was understandable. But what prevented the press from questioning this theory after April 2006? Indeed, what prevents the press till today from picking holes in theories put out by our investigative agencies when it comes to crimes allegedly committed by Muslims? Why do reporters become “police stenographers” as the JTSA report calls them?

After the 2006 serial train blasts in Mumbai all newspapers faithfully reported the theory given out by the ATS. The seven bombs were assembled in a tiny room in a Govandi slum, open to all passersby. Then, from the north-east of Mumbai, they were carried to the north-west, to Bandra. They were kept in pressure cookers. These pressure cookers were kept in train compartments. Whatever you say, sirs. Never mind if the final charge sheet in the 2006 serial train blasts case has no mention of pressure cookers. Pakistan was involved, said headlines. Never mind that when it came to actually presenting evidence to Pakistan, the ATS developed cold feet. The most bizarre aspect of the 2006 train blasts is that another branch of the Mumbai police, the Crime Branch, discovered in 2008 that quite a different set of persons were behind these blasts. The ATS had laid the blame on SIMI’s door. But an alleged Indian Mujaheedin member arrested for a series of blasts in 2008, reportedly “confessed” to the Crime Branch, headed by the legendary Rakesh Maria, that it was the IM that was behind the train blasts. Both police units stuck to their respective claims. In 2009, this man who “confessed”, Sadiq Shaikh, was discharged by the court on an application filed by the ATS which said he had no role in the train blasts, a crime to which he had reportedly “confessed”! And these are the agencies we blindly trust. Among them is the Delhi Police Special Cell, as high profile as Maharashtra’s ATS, and, as the JTSA report shows, as dearly beloved of the Delhi press.

On September 23, 2007, The Times of India carried a news item titled: “Indian Intelligence informer spills the beans”. The report was sensational. It quoted a letter from Tihar Jail by an ex-IB informer detailing how IB, working with the Delhi Police’s Special Cell, plants its own “jehadi maulvis” to lure Muslim youth to commit terrorist acts. The CBI, directed by the Delhi High Court to investigate the case in which this informer was arrested by the Special Cell as an Al Badr terrorist, had corroborated the most important accusations made by the informer, said the report. In November 2008, the CBI filed a closure report in the case, gave the two accused a clean chit and recommended legal action against three sub-inspectors of the Special Cell: Ravinder Tyagi, Vinay Tyagi, and Subhash Vats, for “fabricating and planting evidence to implicate” the accused “for an oblique motive.” In its closure report, the CBI revealed that the mobile phone records of one of the accused showed that he was in constant touch with IB officers. Despite the Times following this story, these sensational findings were not widely reported in the English press. Even the Times did not do any larger article based on this “mind-numbing” report. (This phrase was used by the Times to describe one of the many so-called terror conspiracies solved by the Special Cell.) However, subsequent developments in the case were reported, including a complaint by CBI officer Santosh Kumar that one of the indicted Special Cell men had threatened him. So it can be safely said that the entire English press was aware of the CBI’s findings against the Special Cell. …

http://twocircles.net/2012sep27/reporters_police_stenographers.html

SEE ALSO:

• Accepting Aamir – By Samar Halarnkar (Sep 26, 2012, Hindustan Times)
  http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/Print/936163.aspx

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Narendra & Narendra Ltd – By Saba Naqvi (Oct 8, 2012, Outlook)

…Modi’s Vivekananda yatra is an exercise in deploying a well-oiled state machinery and keeping the cadre motivated to ensure polling and booth management is efficiently done. … The juggernaut moves on. In Radhanpur town, the entire population is out, stalling all movement. A truck moves playing Maa Tujhe Salaam…, sung by the ubiquitous A.R. Rahman. The carnival-like atmosphere is similar to the mood that prevailed in the early days of the Anna Hazare agitation. There are roadstops on the way and the next big meeting is in the Sankeshwar Jain temple complex. The rhetoric takes a subtle communal shift here. Modi says the Centre does not offer any relief on cotton. “But they give relief to meat packers/traders. They want to turn Gujarat into a katalkhana (slaughterhouse). They call it the pink revolution….” The traps are in place, the Congress can walk into it, engage in a jousting session that would surely immediately be projected as an insult to Gujarati pride, or avoid any engagement on communal lines. …

A day before, another Modi is revealed in Gandhinagar where he is addressing an industry convention at a massive, gleaming, state-of-the-art auditorium he calls the Mahatma mandir. (From Gandhi to Sardar Patel to Vivekananda, they are all icons Modi has appropriated, convincing many in Gujarat that he is part of the tradition). Modi first speaks in English for the foreign guests and then switches to Hindi. He says suggestively: “Leadership ko lekar bahas chal rahi hai (There is a debate on the leadership issue). I believe you can make leaders by training them. I make all my ministers undergo a week-long training….” (An advance warning perhaps of what lies in store for national leaders of the BJP!)

But away from the crowds that follow him, is Modi still clicking on the ground? In the course of a separate journey through Kheda, Anand, Godhra and Dahod districts, it’s rare to find any anti-Modi people, except for the Muslims who are clear they will vote against him. In Salon village of Kheda, an OBC farmer mutters that he voted BJP last time but will not do so again as “they are for the rich and do nothing for the poor”. After that, in village after village, the Patels say they are with Modi “like a rock”. In Saurashtra, they say, some Patels may go the other way because of Keshubhai’s departure from the BJP. In this Patel-dominated stretch, though, they are all fans of the CM. In Dahod, where the 2002 riots had seen many adivasi attacks on Muslims, the situation is unclear. The adivasis say their sarpanch will decide who to vote for. But Godhra’s townspeople say the adivasis are more conscious than ever now of their Hindu identity. Modi may have defanged the VHP-RSS structures, but the administration still does the job for him.

Ode in Anand district was one of the scenes of the big massacres of 2002—among the worst in rural Gujarat. In April this year, a court convicted 23 for the bloodbath. On March 1, 2002, 23 people, including nine women and nine children, had been burnt to death in a house in the Pirwali Bhagol area of Ode village by a mob. Today, the village looks peaceful and the many Patels gathered in the square near the bus stand say they aren’t upset that some of their community members have had to go to jail for the riots. As Rajinder Patel, a government servant, says, “Modi raj will continue because he is a revered figure for us.” Another young man, chatting with a Muslim resident, says quite nonchalantly, “Let’s face it. Modi is quite a man.”

Down a narrow street we meet Saiyad Rafiq Ghulam Rasool, who walks through the lanes and points to the still abandoned homes, burnt buildings, repaired homes. The final stop is that house in Ode where the entire family was burnt alive. It is now a ruin. In a plot across the house, a Ganapati puja is in full swing. Lalabhai Patel saunters across and helpfully offers the information that the land on which they are doing puja belongs to the dead family. “They have all disappeared. They were like our brothers. We don’t know what happened that day. I don’t know why the police has sent two of my uncles and my brother to jail for what happened.” The conch is blowing at the Ganapati puja, and well-dressed women and children walk in and out. This is Modi’s Gujarat that prospers under him.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282405

SEE ALSO:

• A historic judgment in Gujarat – By Monobina Gupta (Sep 1, 2012, Times of India)
  http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/rough-edges/entry/a-historic-judgment-in-gujarat
• A verdict in Gujarat, silence over Delhi – By Kuldip Nayar (Sep 5, 2012, Statesman)
  http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=422394&catid=39

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Back to politics old style – By Revati Laul (Oct 1, 2012, Tehelka)

It was an irony that Anna’s team missed entirely as they fended off a curious media in Delhi Monday, 1 October. The camera crews and posse of journalists were waiting hawk-like as Anna Hazare sat in a huddle inside ND Tiwari Bhawan to discuss the next stage of the anti-corruption movement. ND Tiwari – a name that has come to symbolise all the old world corruption, sleaze and dishonesty in politics, as he was dismissed as the governor of Andhra Pradesh after a sleazy sting operation showed him soliciting women in the governor’s house in 2009. The Anna movement in September 2012 then is a far cry from August this year and light-years away from the throng of the last; this time, there was barely a trickle. From hogging the headlines and the space for self-righteousness, the Anna movement is now a shadow. The man behind it searching for a new space as the old movement was split wide open two weeks ago. Now on the eve of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary, as Arvind Kejriwal and his team are set to launch their political party, Anna’s team says they want to hold on to the political high ground – the space of resistance movements. And not sully their hands in “dirty party politics”. But the words find few takers outside his home town of Ralegan Siddhi in Maharashtra.

In Delhi a dubious gaggle, some curious, rally around his new core group. Kiran Bedi – seen last in Arvind’s team has switched camps post the August split. So has sportswoman and former core team member Sunita Godara. Amongst the media handlers are Shivendra Singh Chauhan – former keeper of the India Against Corruption Facebook page. And journalist turned anti-corruption activist turned Anna camp follower, Sharmistha. Some of Anna’s old team are also gone. Like his close aide Suresh Pathare. Officially, his new team is tight lipped about why Anna’s right hand man left (or was asked to leave). Unofficially, they concede Anna was unhappy with Pathare’s alleged leaking of his meeting with Baba Ramdev to the press in Delhi two weeks ago. But the real question is this: why was Anna’s meeting with Ramdev meant to be secret? In a movement that is about transparency and accountability, what does Anna want to keep out? “We are not being funded by or supported by the RSS or Ramdev,” Kiran Bedi explained. And added, “Anna ji and Ramdev have been working together against corruption since the very beginning. They shared the stage in April last year and supported each other in August this year. So what’s new?” Glossing over the controversy a year and half ago when Ram Madhav of the RSS was escorted off stage in April 2011, causing Baba Ramdev to be thoroughly miffed with the anti-corruption team. And glossing over also how Arvind and his new team have repeatedly positioned themselves as anti-right wing, and therefore, against any association with the RSS.

Where Anna’s movement will go from here is not at all clear yet. What is amply clear is that the man from Ralegan Siddhi may just be back to where he began. Political agitation in his home state – Maharashtra. But in positioning himself stridently against Arvind, Anna has not left without raising even more questions than ever, about Arvind, and his reputed top-down style of functioning. Of leaving the middle class masses wondering if the man in the Gandhi topi was being pushed by Arvind in a direction; much against his will.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the fence, Arvind’s team has attempted to recover from Anna’s very public outburst against them by telling the press, including an exclusive interview to Tehelka’s Atul Chaurasia that the idea to go into mainstream politics was, in fact, Anna’s. On Gandhi’s birthday, they gear up to launch their political party, based largely on Arvind’s take on Swaraj. By which he is using the metaphors of the Indian freedom struggle and appropriating them to his own brand of patriotism. Strengthening Panchayati Raj institutions, socialism aka the JP movement are the expected order of things. But the big question Arvind has to tackle before all of that is: who will he finally take along with him? So far, a robust team of advisors have included eminent political scientist from the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies – Yogendra Yadav and journalist Madhu Trehan.

Stalwarts from the grassroot movements such as Medha Patkar, who were once on his side, have now preferred to keep their distance. But the questions Anna has raised against Arvind rise like a phoenix from the ground – how will Arvind set up a ‘clean set of political candidates’ or even ‘clean sources of funding?’ And in joining the mainstream, what will separate him from the rest? These are, however, questions that equally plague Anna, even as he chooses to stay out of Arvind’s political formation and protest loudly against his face and name being used for the party. For observers from a distance and the temporarily mesmerised middle classes, the sheen of Gandhi-giri has worn thin on either side of the wedge. And whatever symbols they choose – Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, or the JP movement – to the increasingly skeptical masses, they have begun to sound almost exactly like the parties they’ve been riled up about. To them, it all reads clearly like politics old style.

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ws011012PoliticsII.asp

SEE ALSO:

• A rift for the better – Editorial (Sep 18, 2012, Indian Express)
  http://www.indianexpress.com/story-print/1003926/
• The politics behind the split – By Revati Laul (Sep 29, 2012, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ne290912POLITICS.asp
• ‘It Was Annaji’s Idea, He Was Toying With It. They’ve Been Working On Him.’ – Arvind Kejriwal with Anuradha Raman (Oct 8, 2012, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282392

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Vicious cycle of Islamophobia – By Ram Puniyani (Sep 21, 2012, Countercurrents)

We are going through strange times. While the science, technology and rationalism has given us physical and intellectual tools to better the lot of humanity, we are witnessing the production of provocative material, literature and films in particular, which demonize the particular religion, Islam to be precise, and the prophet of Islam. On the other hand there is a section of community, feeling threatened and insecure coming to the streets to protest against such humiliation and insult of their religion. There are debates on freedom of expression, but how come the freedom of expression always goes to humiliate and demonize one particular religion only? Currently (September 2012), there are massive protests in different countries against the American embassies, resulting in death of four from the US staff, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, in Benghazi. Different countries are asking Google, the owner of YouTube, which is hosting this provocative and insulting video clip, ‘Innocence of Muslims’, to withdraw the film clip. At places the video clip has been withdrawn and blocked. US sticks to its ‘Freedom of Expression’ stance and the many protesters are still on the streets.

The film clip, of around 14 minutes duration is part of the full length feature film made by Nakoula Basseley, a US based Christian. The film is very insulting to Islam. In this film large number of modern day mob of bearded Muslims is shown to be attacking Christians. It also takes the audience back in time to show a distorted life of Prophet Mohammad with negative and aggressive traits of personality. It is crude film, made in extremely poor taste and has generated strong reaction amongst large section of Muslims. It must be pointed out that this is not the only type of reaction to this film. There are sections of clerics who have asked the Muslims to keep restrain. Quoting the moral precepts from Islam, Quran, they said that Islam is a religion of peace and no violent protests should be held. The best response to this despicable film has been from a section of Muslims distributing the book on life of Prophet Mohammad, the prophet of peace. During last several years, it has become a sort of standard pattern by many in the West and some here in India to demonize Islam. We remember the Danish cartoon of Prophet, where he is shown as a terrorist, with a bomb tucked in his turban. A Florida Pastor went on to burn this holy book, Koran, saying that Koran teaches violence. Some US soldiers in Afghanistan also burnt copies of Koran, on the ground that the terrorist elements had written messages on those copies.

The demonization of Islam and Muslims has a pattern and agenda. The cartons and films are the outcome of the deeper political processes, which aim to control the oil wells in West Asia. The imperialist greed of United States marshaled the flag of “Islam the New threat” since Ayatollah Khomeini came to power in Iran, overthrowing the US stooge Raza Shah Pahlavi. Later the slogan was worsened with US setting up Madrassas in Pakistan to train Al Qaeda-Taliban to initiate the Muslim youth to fight against the occupying Russian armies in Afghanistan. The word, Jihad and kafir were distorted to indoctrinate the Muslim youth in these Madrassas. With later trajectories and the event of 9/11, World Trade Center attack, the US media with all its guile, popularized the phrase ‘Islamic Terrorism’. The phrase was picked up by the media all over the World and later became part of the social common sense. This is a major abuse of religion for political goals by the imperialist power. One can understand this demonization of Islam as a part of US policy, a cover to hide its agenda to control the oil. To understand it in the way Noam Chomsky ‘coined the phrase’ Manufacturing Consent’, the coining of the word Islamic terrorism is part of the US mechanism of manufacturing consent of the world to give assent to the US attacks on Afghanistan and Iraq.

This US policy gas given rise to twin processes. On one hand the phenomenon like a Florida Pastor Terry Jones burning Koran or the Danish cartoonist drawing Prophet Mohammad as terrorist or the present film has been the outcome of the intense propaganda against Islam. This US propaganda has been backed up by the US sponsored ideology of ‘Clash of Civilizations’, according to which the current era of World History is the era of assault of backward Islamic civilization on the advanced Western civilization. This distorted perception, this ideology was used as a cover for US agenda in West Asia. The other process which got unleashed was that the psyche of global Muslim community started being affected. The perception came up that Muslims (Afghanistan and Iraq) are being attacked, they are under threat. In India the added aspect was the rise of RSS type politics, bringing up Ram Temple issue and starting hatred for Muslims. A large section of Muslims started feeling intimidated and besieged. It became easy for mobilizing them around identity issues. Any community which feels besieged, section of it becomes vulnerable to easy provocation and identity based mobilization.

It is a vicious circle, the Islamophobia on one side and besieged community on the other. In this scenario the Muslim clerics who are asking for peace are the beacon lights of hope for the community. The Muslims who are distributing the books on life of prophet need to be complimented. This is what the sane response from the community has to be. What about US, imperialist designs and its mighty propaganda machinery doing all the mischief in the world? Can there be a process of controlling that? Under Kofi Annan, when he was Secretary General of United Nations, a high level committee produced a report, ‘Alliance of Civilizations’. This report got lost under the barrage of Islamphobia. It is time the world as such takes note of the deeper humane values which have developed by humanity over a period of time, the values which have led to the reports of type of ‘Alliance of civilizations’, the UN conventions which have conceptualized the Human rights for all. The trigger which has incited the demonization process of religion and films like this one are provoking these insane reactions from a section of Muslims. Can United Nations be revived as a global platform for monitoring the norms for Nations, media and other aspects of our global life evolved to ensure that democratization and human dignity is promoted. Can the World come forward to check the aggressions of ‘The Super Power’? That’s when such films will cease to act as factors promoting violent reactions. And even such crude attempts at insulting others’ religion will come down. May be with such norms and restraints on US policies we can hope that such incidents will come down. Even if there are elements making some films like this there will be others making a film giving their own versions of Prophet’s Mission of peace in the World. And finally we also need to preserve the concept of freedom of expression moderated with its limits. We also need to cultivate methods of protest where hysterical emotions are kept at bay and rational approach is brought to the fore.

http://www.countercurrents.org/puniyani210912.htm

SEE ALSO:

• Loss of Innocence – Editorial (Sep 29, 2012, Economic & Political Weekly)
  http://www.epw.in/editorials/loss-innocence.html

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If The Soot Don’t Wash – By Saba Naqvi (Sep 8, 2012, Outlook)

On the embers of the coal scam a national contest has begun. As the countdown for 2014 starts, the soot seems to have settled on the visage of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who held charge of the coal portfolio for a long stretch. Still, it’s a game of ash, smoke and mirrors, with the BJP resorting to the scorched-earth tactic of disrupting Parliament to force the PM to resign. The BJP believes it occupies the moral high ground. The Congress has responded by trying to spread the coal ash around a little more evenly, and maybe also blacken the rival’s face. It’s a “tera muh bhi kaala” (your face is also black) display of competitive politics. The coal scam raises critical questions about how policy pertaining to national resources should be formulated and implemented. Both sides have also had their say on it. With Parliament derailed, last week the debate continued in the TV studios and, for the more complex points, politicians shifted to the editorial pages of newspapers. Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley wrote an opinion piece in The Hindu, the same day Union law minister Salman Khurshid wrote his take in The Times of India, while Congress spokesperson and MP Manish Tiwari made his points on the op-ed page of Indian Express. In typical Congress style, the PM’s defence was upgraded from routine to high-decibel after Sonia Gandhi asked the troops to rally behind. She told party MPs to fight back “aggressively”, adding: “Blackmail has become the bread-and-butter of the BJP…this is the handiwork of just one party, the BJP…once again showing up the scant respect it has for democratic values.”

Called to attention, the very next day the Congress produced Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal at its 24 Akbar Road headquarters as Parliament took a day off for Onam (the session continues at the time of writing in spite of disruptions). That was the day the Naroda Patiya verdict came and a former minister in the Narendra Modi cabinet was convicted. In ordinary times, the Congress could have been expected to take a few swings at the BJP in general and Modi in particular. But on August 29, the party had tapped into a new purposefulness. Sibal gave the most thorough and political defence of the PM on Coalgate. A document titled, ‘Selective Amnesia, Mr Jaitley?’ was circulated which sought to list the occasions when the BJP had questioned CAG. (About the CAG report on the Centaur Hotel divestment in February 2004, Arun Shourie, then minister for disinvestment, had said, “…the methodology of computing national losses is idiotic, sorry peculiar”. In 2001, when the CAG report on coffin purchases came out, Jaitley had said, “The CAG is an institution appointed to find faults.” And then defence minister George Fernandes had added that “CAG has acted unethically”.) Another document, titled ‘The boot is on the other leg, Mr Jaitley’, was also released. This sought to highlight the procedure for coal allotments followed by the NDA and the questionable deals of the BJP. Sibal and Jaitley, two great rivals of Delhi’s legal and political circuit, were sharpening their knives for the coal battle. Clearly, there is no end to the amount of mud one side can fling on the other when it comes to coal allotments (perhaps the original sin vis-a-vis India’s criminal approach to its natural resources). The PM may be the most clear, visible face linked to the scam at the present juncture but there is no end to the BJP’s loot in Jharkhand, not to forget its links to the notorious Reddy brothers, the mining barons of Karnataka/Andhra, and other dubious figures. There is, for instance, the matter of Ajay Sancheti-a contractor with close links to BJP president Nitin Gadkari who has been rewarded with a Rajya Sabha berth. His name crops up in the Adarsh scam in Maharashtra. The Chhattisgarh CAG report mentions a mine he has been allotted by the Raman Singh government. Besides, according to CAG findings, on June 29, 2010, the state government did him the favour of staying a tax penalty of Rs 17 crore ordered on his company, Shivnath Infrastructure Ltd! Just after the report was tabled, BJP MP and ex-mining minister Ramesh Bais echoed, “If Gadkari’s close associate can get a coal block, then why not me…I am a member of Parliament after all.” Why not indeed.

So clearly when a leader like Sushma Swaraj states that the Congress got “mota maal” (lots of cash) from coal allocations, she also opens her flanks to a counter-attack. Which is why one must pause and ask, why has the BJP taken the pitch so high? Why has the party risked middle-class censure for further undermining an institution like Parliament? What has got them so worked up that even someone like Jaitley-who enjoys the thrust and parry of a good parliamentary debate and usually opposes disruption-has made an argument for disorder? There’s a simple political calculation at the heart of the BJP tactic. The belief that the Congress is sinking and this is the opportunity to corner it. Senior party leaders concede that the muck is also being flung at them. But they feel it is not sticking and the greater damage is being done to the Congress. As a political force, the BJP’s DNA is very different from the Congress, which is a rambling sort of organisation. The BJP, by contrast, is a more cohesive unit in spite of all the factional feuds and existential issues that confront them. And currently the party has sensed opportunity both on the corruption and communalism planks. First, the Anna Hazare movement, once backed by the RSS, appears to be unravelling and strategic decisions have been taken by the Sangh parivar that the force of the cadre should now be shifted back to the party as opposed to what was presented as a spontaneous people’s movement. There is therefore an attempt to channel the anti-corruption urban rage back in a direction that would have a more conclusive political outcome. The Muslim settlers debate triggered by the Assam events also creates a climate that the BJP finds more salubrious, a national atmosphere when issues that it calls “emotional” are more likely to click with and galvanise potential voters. The BJP is after all a proven practitioner of the technique of outshouting opponents and of repeating something so many times that the public at large finally starts to believe it. The current strategy is not to force a mid-term election as the party knows it does not have control over that scenario. It is to keep the Congress off balance as it enters the season of crucial assembly polls. There are critical BJP-Congress contests in the run-up to 2014.

First the big face-off in Gujarat that the Congress will almost certainly lose (although there is always the hope that somehow Modi’s victory margin can be reduced). As the Himachal Pradesh elections take place at the same time, the Congress is hoping a victory there against the ruling BJP will help it enter the year 2013 with its honour intact. In May 2013, the Karnataka elections take place. This is one state the Congress should logically wrest easily from the BJP, the third smaller player being the JD(S). Yet Congress insiders worry about factionalism, the leadership question and the greater money power of the BJP. So here too there is anxiety, and about a state that should have been a cakewalk for the Congress. Worse news could come for the party in October next year when four assemblies, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Delhi, go to the polls, all states where direct Congress-BJP contests take place. Currently, two are held by the Congress and two by the BJP. But while the general perception is that the BJP will hold on to Chhattisgarh and MP, at the Congress headquarters people say with certainty that Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot will be defeated and that Delhi will be a “close call”. And this is happening at a time when 12 ministers of the Shivraj Chauhan regime in MP face CVC inquiries and several scams have erupted. Yet the BJP is seen as almost invincible in certain states.

Which is why the BJP has currently decided to gloss over the troubling questions of leadership and maximise whatever little opportunity it sees in the future. In the process, the party is certainly taking risks, exposing its own flanks and coming through as an irresponsible force with scant respect for institutions. There has also been some difference of opinion with allies but the larger belief is that ultimately the smaller parties – who are playing a wait-and-watch game – will rally around if the strategy appears to be working. The Congress conversely is rattled and waiting for some sort of clarity in September when a cabinet expansion/reshuffle is expected and, more significantly, Rahul Gandhi could come out to play a bigger role and give some deliverance from the current season of hopelessness. At the party headquarters, a veteran observed gravely that the fact that Sonia Gandhi has taken the initiative to counter-attack (after a long time) is being seen as a “good sign”, besides of course the fact that Rahul Gandhi “has to take the plunge as there are no choices left”. As usual, in the unique power-sharing arrangement between party and government, the members of the dynasty remain untainted while the PM and his regime absorb all the taint from coal dust.

http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282118

SEE ALSO:

• Seeing a sellout – By G. Srinivasan (Sep 8, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2918/stories/20120921291803600.htm
• Dragline Blues: The Hour Of Slack – By Lola Nayar, Chandrani Banerjee (Sep 17, 2012, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282228
• Managing bids – By Sagnik Dutta (Sep 8, 2012, Frontline)
  http://flonnet.com/fl2918/stories/20120921291803500.htm

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This is why farmers can’t afford fertilisers – By G Vishnu (Oct 6, 2012, Tehelka)

To droughts and abject poverty, farmers can add another crisis: sky-rocketing fertiliser prices. The issue has prompted eight chief ministers of large states to seek the intervention of the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers (MoCF) in the matter. Consider, for example, di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and muriate of potash (MoP), two fertilisers that used to have massive demand in India – now unaffordable by lakhs of farmers across the country. A 50-kilo sack of DAP that cost Rs 9,350 in April 2010, today costs Rs 25,300; and MoP that cost Rs 4,455 in April 2010 today costs a whopping Rs 23,100 – an unbelievable 170 percent and 418 percent rise, respectively. The problem lies in the pricing and subsidy policy that has been adopted by the MoCF. The startling bit about the existing pricing policy is that Srikant Jena, minister of state, chemicals and fertilisers, has on at least three occasions informed the Department of Fertilisers on how the private players are making massive profits at the expense of poor farmers. Both international players as well as Indian companies have been hiking the prices of fertilisers, taking advantage of the existing pricing policy.

In notes written on 19 March, 15 June and 4 August, the same issue was raised by the MoS. “By decontrolling retail prices of P&K (phosphatic and potassic) fertilisers, it was never the intention of the government that the firms are at their free will to gain undue profits at the cost of poor farmers, and if it is so, government should stop providing subsidy on decontrolled fertilisers,” Jena said in his 4 August note. However, the department has not even begun to recognise the problem, let alone seek an alternative policy. What’s more interesting is the political conflict it has triggered between Srikant Jena and the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilisers M K Azhagiri. In fact, the differences over pricing-policy turned into a full-fledged war, when in July this year, Azhagiri reportedly wrote to PM Manmohan Singh asking Jena to be removed from the MoS post alleging obstructionism.

The problem is identified by bureaucrats who have worked at the Department of Fertilisers. “The entire industry is in a state of anarchy. The State’s fertiliser policy has absolutely no control over the practices of these private players. The market is completely unregulated and it is the poor farmer who suffers the most,” says a former official with DoF on condition of anonymity. So why is a sector meant to uplift farmers completely unregulated and riddled with crony practices? “They (private players-manufacturers-importers) cite everything, from international prices to the exchange rates as the reason for hike in fertiliser prices. With DAP, for instance, in no way should the hike exceed Rs 21,000. But it still crossed Rs 25,000,” he adds.

According to government figures, the total quantum of fertiliser subsidy released in 2011 was a whopping Rs 65,836 crore. To understand how this works, consider Urea, the highest consumed fertiliser in India. Cost of production of Urea varies from Rs 8,000 to Rs 40,000 per metric tonnes (MT) depending on whether natural gas or Naphtha is being used for production. Currently, the market rate of Urea stands at around Rs 5,300 per MT. The difference between cost of production and the market price of the commodity is paid to the manufacturer by the government. Ministry officials say Urea is priced at Rs 11,200, with Rs 5,000 as MRP. This means for every MT of Urea, the government pays Rs 7,000 as subsidy. India produces around 22 million MT of Urea, while consumption is around 28 MT (the shortfall of 6 MT is covered through imports). The CAG in its 2011 report noted that due to subsidies given to companies without checking fraudulent claims, a loss of Rs 50,587 crore was incurred to the exchequer. The CAG also claims that between 2007 and 2010, a fertiliser importer company, Indian Potash Limited, got undue concession of Rs 782 crore after fudging its tenders.

Srikant Jena says the current policy itself is self-defeatist for the market. “Once the government fixes the prices on fertilisers and announces it, exporters inflate their prices accordingly – something they wouldn’t do if the government simply asked them for a price quote,” he explains, adding, “Why can’t we just buy the fertilisers at existing market prices, instead of letting the manufacturer determine the price once we declare our base price?” The trend is that exporters start hiking fertiliser prices October onwards as they know base prices are determined by the GoI around January-February every year. Explaining the method to the madness in the fertiliser sector and pricing, an official in the MoCF says the policy has many loopholes that benefit companies and spell doom for farmers. “On the one hand, Indian private players (manufacturers) jack up their prices to suit the market demand. If the farmer can afford a certain price, that price will be levied. There’s no upper limit, no regulations. The markets have been destroyed because the farmers just cannot afford the prices. Every monsoon, they jack up the prices as both demand and desperation is high,” he adds. …

http://www.tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ne061012This.asp

SEE ALSO:

• Power Exercised, Not Generated – By Lola Nayar (Sep 24, 2012, Outlook)
  http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?282276
• Greed – By Ashish Khetan (Oct 6, 2012, Tehelka)
  http://tehelka.com/story_main54.asp?filename=Ne061012Coverstory.asp

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