October 2017 Hindu Editorials Printed

EDITORIAL
Maximum neglect: on Elphinstone stampede

OCTOBER 02, 2017 00:02 IST
UPDATED: OCTOBER 01, 2017 23:25 IST
The Mumbai stampede was preventable; pedestrian access must be ensured in all
cities
M umbais ghastly suburban railway stampede, in which 23 people died after being
crushed on a narrow staircase, was the inevitable consequence of prolonged neglect of
urban public transport in India. The financial capital depends mainly on the 300 km suburban
system, which has some of the highest passenger densities for any city railway in the world.
Yet, it has no single accountable manager. It is unthinkable for a modern railway system to
continue with business as usual when about 3,500 people die on its tracks in a year. But
Mumbai goes on. Over the past two decades, policy attention has tilted towards road projects,
with just token appreciation of the challenges faced by public transport users. The
Elphinstone Road station stampede should lead to a course correction and re-ordering of mass
transport in all cities. Augmenting the creaking and broken infrastructure at suburban
stations should be a high priority, and with good management practices, this can be achieved
speedily. Creating canopies to shield passengers, such as those crowding the staircase to
escape the rain in Mumbai, putting in escalators and lifts, and providing exits on both sides of
train coaches towards the street level wherever feasible, will facilitate movement. These are
inexpensive, off-the-shelf solutions. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has called for a quick
survey of the suburban stations to identify areas of concern, but this is something that should
have been done without waiting for a disaster, and it must now be extended to all cities.
Reforming archaic transport planning and management for urban India remains the still
bigger challenge. Mumbais geography produces a distinct north-south commuting pattern
from the periphery, since the business district is located at the peninsular southern end. A
sound transport demand management strategy would consider mapping travel patterns, and
shifting some institutions to areas in the wider Mumbai Metropolitan Region where
infrastructure, including housing, and amenities can be planned in advance. The latest
carnage is evidence of the failure of civic policy to factor in the need for pedestrian access, and
it applies not just to stations but to the wider city. The number of private vehicles and taxis has
grown in Mumbai by four and six times, respectively, over the past two decades, leading to
lobbying for wider roads and more flyovers, while mass mobility systems and facilities for
walkers and cycle-users have not received similar attention. Skewed policies cannot help. The
immediate requirement to end civic bedlam is to remove physical and policy bottlenecks:
clear pathways inside and adjoining railway stations of obstacles, install escalators, create
multiple entry and exit points, and put in place an organised feeder transport network to
stations and bus termini. The families of the dead and the injured should be given exemplary
compensation, to reinforce the accountability of the railway administration.
EDITORIAL
Back to paper: on using VVPAT in Gujarat polls

OCTOBER 02, 2017 00:02 IST
A State-wide voter paper trail may silence the EVMs critics, but is a regressive step
T he Election Commissions decision to deploy the Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail
system for all the constituencies in the Gujarat Assembly elections is questionable. This
will be the first time VVPAT will be used on a State-wide basis. A costly but useful complement
to the Electronic Voting Machine, it allows the voter to verify her vote after registering it on
the EVM, and the paper trail allows for an audit of the election results by the EC in a select and
randomised number of constituencies. The implementation of VVPAT was to have been
undertaken by the EC in a phased manner, but this blanket use appears to have been expedited
after a series of unwarranted attacks on EVMs by some political parties and scaremongers. The
EC had sought to allay concerns and confront allegations of voter fraud by running through
the administrative and technological safeguards instituted to keep EVMs and the voting
process tamper-proof. It had also challenged political parties to a hackathon to see if, with
these safeguards in place, EVMs could be manipulated. The representatives of only two
political parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Nationalist Congress Party,
bothered to turn up. It is unfortunate that parties have found it worthwhile to cry wolf but
refuse to meaningfully engage with the EC when challenged to do so. The introduction of
VVPAT and the audit process should allay some of the doubts raised by EVM naysayers but
this is a costly process and should not become the norm going forward.
Read more: All you need to know about VVPAT
Meanwhile, it would be wise for the EC to rapidly transit to third-generation, tamper-proof

machines, which must be thoroughly tested and vetted by experts before deployment. The
ECs use of a standalone, non-networked machine that runs on a single programmed
microchip shows that Indias simple but effective EVMs were ahead of the curve compared to
the alternatives used elsewhere in the world. Many advanced democracies used networked
EVMs, which raised the question of remote manipulation through viruses and malware,
compelling many of them to revert to paper ballots. The EC has so far demonstrated that the
voting process is robust and its machines are continually upgraded to meet possible
challenges, but there are other concerns regarding the use of technology that it must be aware
of. For example, Russian cyber-hacking, using techniques such as spear-phishing of election
officials and related manipulation of voter data, has been suspected in some jurisdictions
abroad. The ECs move in late 2015 to avoid the linking of the voter identity card with the
Aadhaar number in order to avoid the trap of linkages with big data, thus becoming
susceptible to digital manipulation, was thus a wise decision. It must continue to keep its
processes decentralised and accountable.
EDITORIAL
The numbers game: IMD forecast for farmers

OCTOBER 03, 2017 00:02 IST
The India Meteorological Department needs to better tailor its forecast for farmers
W ith the India Meteorological Department getting its monsoon forecast wrong this
year, its modelling has necessarily come under the spotlight. In April, the IMD had
predicted near normal, or 96%, rains and then upgraded the figure to 98% a couple of months
later. These percentages refer to the proportion of rains to 89 cm, a 50-year average of
monsoon rains. However, the country finally ended up with below normal rains (that is, less
than 96% of the 50-year long period average). In itself, this is not a problem. Crop sowing is
expected to be only a little less than last year, which saw a record harvest, with more districts
posting deficient rain. Better drought management has over the years weakened the link
between rain shortfall and food production, but the IMD continues to persevere with the
meaningless practice of assigning a catch-all number to the quantum of rain expected during
the monsoon. While initially conceived as a measure to bring rigour to the task of warning the
government about a drought or weak rains, it has now become a numbers exercise, couched in
statistical error margins and pedantic definitions, to ward off blame for getting its forecast
wrong. While a single number, 96 or 95, has the power to brand rainfall as near or below
normal, the IMD never admits to being in error. It relies on the security of generous error
margins. Thus, a 98% forecast, say, implies a range from 94% to 102% and so could span below
normal to above normal.
The fallout of focussing on numbers to gauge a phenomenon as geographically and
quantitatively varied as the Indian monsoon is that it has ripple effects of tricking everyone
from policymakers to the stock markets that a normal monsoon implies all will be well with
rainfall distribution. So this years floods in Mumbai, Assam and Bihar, and the months-long
drought in Karnataka and Vidarbha were all merged under an umbrella number. The Indian
monsoon has over the centuries stayed remarkably consistent at around 89 cm during the
monsoon months, give or take 10%. The challenge lies in capturing intra-seasonal variation or
forecasting a sudden change in global weather (such as typhoons) that can affect rainfall over
specific districts. Therefore, simply getting these blanket four-month forecasts right doesnt
really help. While more and more farmers are opting for crop insurance and have far greater
access via mobile phones to news on weather patterns, what they seek are localised,
actionable inputs to guide them on sowing or harvesting decisions. The IMD is increasingly
relying on supercomputers and sophisticated models to warn of weather changes at the
district level. These localised estimates aim to warn of threatening weather and are
operationally useful rather than reduce rain to numerical jugglery. The IMD must give
momentum to this shift.
Printable version | Oct 3, 2017 10:20:44 AM |

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-numbers-game/article19786542.ece
EDITORIAL
Carnage in Vegas: the dangers of lax gun control

OCTOBER 04, 2017 00:02 IST
The mass shooting must awaken the U.S. to the dangers of lax gun ownership
regulation
T he famous Las Vegas Strip became the scene of a bloody gun rampage when a shooter
fired high-powered automatic rounds into dense crowds at a music concert, killing at
least 59 people and injuring more than 500. This is the worst mass shooting in modern
American history, although the June 2016 shooting at a nightclub in Orlando, Florida, came
close with 49 people dead. Perched high on the 32nd floor of a nearby hotel, 64-year-old
Stephen Paddock sat in a virtual snipers nest, armed with a collection of 23 rifles, some of
them automatic ones. And some of the semi-automatic rifles were boosted to automatic-
speed firing using bump stocks. He was subsequently found dead in the room from a self-
inflicted injury. Initially, confusion prevailed over whether this attack was linked to the
Islamic State. Speculation mounted further after its Amaq news agency reportedly claimed
credit for the attack. However, with the authorities saying there was no evidence of a
connection between Paddock and such terror groups, the authenticity of Amaqs claim has
been questioned by several experts. Whether Paddock had links to the IS or not, the Las Vegas
shooting once again puts the spotlight on a painful and oft-debated policy issue in the United
States that of gun control reform.
Despite authoring 15 attempts to bring common-sense gun control regulations to the floor of
the U.S. Congress, former President Barack Obama had in the last days of his administration
launched one final attempt to close loopholes in gun laws through executive action. These
aimed at expanding background checks for gun ownership, boosting funding for federal
agencies enforcing the laws, and improving treatment of mental health conditions
nationwide. Earlier, his most ambitious push to tighten the lax regulation of gun
proliferation, floated in 2013 in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting,
was speedily shut down by hostile conservative lawmakers. At the heart of the U.S. Congresss
reluctance to take steps to address the regular occurrence of gun rampages in public spaces is
the insidious lobbying on Capitol Hill by the deep-pocketed National Rifle Association and a
myriad of gun manufacturers. After several mass shootings, NRA spokespersons have claimed
that the only answer to gun deaths is more guns. In President Donald Trump, they may have
found their strongest ally yet. Although he described the Las Vegas shooting as an act of pure
evil, during the 2016 campaign he had pandered to the gun lobbys interest on occasion,
particularly through fear-mongering that if the Democratic agenda succeeded, Pretty soon,
you wont be able to get guns. The gun lobbys multi-generational success in this regard is
built upon a cultural proclivity for gun ownership rooted in the Second Amendment of the
constitution. Until Americans apply reasonable, if not stringent, restrictions to gun
ownership, they are unlikely to escape the regular visitation of such mass tragedies.
EDITORIAL
The cold facts: on tracking influenza outbreak

OCTOBER 04, 2017 00:02 IST
Its vital that India scales up surveillance to track various inuenza viruses
E ver since the influenza virus known as H1N1 landed on Indian shores during the 2009
pandemic, outbreaks have been an annual occurrence. The worst was in 2015, when
2,990 people succumbed to it. This year the virus has been particularly active; mortality, at
1,873 by the last week of September, is quickly catching up with the 2015 toll. In comparison,
official figures show 2016 to be a relatively benign year, with an H1N1 death toll of 265. The
problem with these official figures, however, is that they only capture H1N1 numbers, a
practice that has been adopted in response to the severity of the 2009 pandemic. But influenza
was present in India even before 2009 in the form of H3N2 and Influenza B virus types. Out of
these, H3N2 is capable of causing outbreaks as big as H1N1, and yet India does not track H3N2
cases as extensively as it does H1N1. This means that seemingly benign years such as 2016 may
probably not be benign at all. Data from outside government surveillance systems are making
this fact apparent. For example, a surveillance project for acute febrile illnesses, anchored at
the Manipal Centre for Virus Research in Karnataka, has found that influenza accounts for
nearly 20% of fevers across rural areas in 10 Indian States fevers that are often undiagnosed
and classified as mystery fevers. During the years when the H1N1 burden is low in these
regions, H3N2 and Influenza B circulation tends to spike.
All this indicates that Indias surveillance systems are still poor and underestimate the
influenza burden substantially. If numbers are unsatisfactorily tracked, so are changes in the
viral genome. As a 2015 commentary by a pair of researchers from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology pointed out, India submits a woefully small number of H1N1 genetic sequences
to global open-access databases for a country of its size and population. Sequencing is
important because it can detect mutations in genetic material that help the virus evade
human immune systems, making it more deadly. Because India does not sequence a large
enough sample of viral genomes, it would be missing mutations that could explain changes in
the lethality of the virus. Put together, the numbers data and sequence data will enable
sensible vaccination decisions. Vaccination is the best weapon that India has against this
menace, because Oseltamivir, the antiviral commonly deployed against flu, is of doubtful
efficacy unless administered early enough. Yet, India has thus far stayed away from
vaccinating even high-risk groups such as pregnant women and diabetics, because influenza
is thought to be a more manageable public health challenge compared to mammoths such as
tuberculosis. Better surveillance of influenza will possibly change this perception by revealing
the true scale of this public health issue.
Printable version | Oct 4, 2017 9:41:33 AM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-
cold-facts/article19791906.ece
EDITORIAL
Steadying hand: On RBI's monetary statement

OCTOBER 05, 2017 00:02 IST
By holding policy rates, the RBI shifts focus to the government to give a llip to growth
T he Reserve Bank of Indias Monetary Policy Committee has since inception retained its
unwavering focus on its primary remit: the preservation of price stability. It follows
then that the central banks rate-setting panel opted to leave benchmark interest rates
unchanged and retain a neutral stance to achieve the medium-term target of keeping
Consumer Price Index inflation close to 4% on a durable basis, while supporting growth.
Spelling out the rationale for the decision, the MPC felt that with global crude oil prices
having firmed up further amid a pick-up in demand and tighter supplies in the wake of
OPECs production cuts, the threat of upward pressure on accelerating inflation has increased
appreciably. Add to this the uncertainty posed by the prospects of weaker-than-anticipated
kharif crop output and the impact this may have on food prices, and the concerns agitating
policymakers will be evident. There are also the not-so-small matters of farm loan waivers by
States that could roil the quality of public spending and exert price pressures as well as the
question of when States may decide to implement their own salary and allowance increases in
the wake of the Centres Seventh Pay Commission implementation.
As the statement accompanying the rate decision points out, CPI inflation has risen by around
two percentage points since the MPCs last meeting in August: from 1.46% in June 2017, to a
provisional 3.36% in August. The RBIs September survey of household inflation expectations
too has shown in qualitative responses a marked uptick in the proportion of respondents
expecting the general price level to increase by more than the current rate. The welter of
domestic pressure points on prices has also coincided with, in the MPCs words, an escalation
of global geo-political uncertainty and heightened volatility in financial markets due to the
U.S. Feds plans of balance sheet unwinding and the risk of normalisation by the European
Central Bank. In the face of such a juxtaposition of risks to the outlook for price stability,
the overwhelming majority of the MPCs six members saw little choice but to hold rates; there
was a solitary dissent vote for a 25 basis points cut. The RBIs policymakers simultaneously
raised their inflation projection for the second half of the current fiscal to a 4.2-4.6% range and
cut the estimate for real Gross Value Added growth this year to 6.7%, from the August forecast
of 7.3%. Reiterating the urgent imperative to reinvigorate investment activity to spur
growth, the MPC has laid the onus squarely on the governments shoulders: from suggesting
the recapitalisation of stressed state-owned lenders, to calling for further simplification of the
GST regime and urging that stalled public sector investment projects be restarted. The baton
has been passed and now it is for the Centre to do the running.
EDITORIAL
Awestruck: on the Nobel Prize for Physics

OCTOBER 05, 2017 00:02 IST
The Nobel Prize for Physics is a recognition of a project involving a rare kind of
coordination
T he 2017 Nobel Prize for physics has been awarded to the LIGO-VIRGO collaboration for
their detection of gravitational waves arising from the merger of two black holes.
Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of spacetime caused by cataclysmic events in the
universe such as colliding black holes or neutron stars. Though extremely violent, when these
disturbances reach far-off regions in space and time the signals are weak and require
extremely sensitive detectors to sense them. The very first detection of gravitational waves
was made in September 2015, a signal of a black hole merger 1.3 billion years ago. In other
words, the signals took that long to travel to Earth. Hence the observatory offers a way of
looking back in time to unravel mysteries pertaining to the early days of the universes
existence. Since then, the LIGO-VIRGO collaboration has detected such signals four times.
Just as astronomy offers a way of mapping the visible objects in the universe, gravitational
wave astronomy is now a science of the near future whereby black holes, neutron stars and
more such objects may be mapped. Rainer Weiss, who identified sources of noise that could
drown the signal, gets one-half of the prize. Barry C. Barishs main contribution in scaling up
the project and Kip Thornes vision in guiding the large group of researchers are no less
important, and in fact are aspects that capture the marvel of coordination in the LIGO-VIRGO
collaboration.
An example was the effort made to bring some coherence into the source modelling. Even
though the detector had been built and was functional, the theory had to be developed. In
order to coordinate this, Dr. Thorne invited researchers from around the globe to Caltech in
the United States, and over a year and a half thought about the models of the source that had
to be calculated. An ensuing paper published in Physical Review Letters, titled The Last Three
Minutes, described issues of source modelling. Several Indians, including Bala Iyer and
Sanjeev Dhurandhar, were involved in this work. It was then that Dr. Thorne realised that
numerical models of relativity that could be fed into the computer and solved were needed.
He roped in groups from the U.S. and Germany to develop numerical gravity. In addition to
two detectors of LIGO, the Advanced VIRGO came online on August 1 this year. The advantage
of having three detectors is that the location of the source can be determined more accurately.
With the Japanese KAGRA detector set to go online in 2019 and LIGO India set to join in 2024,
the possibility of using gravitational wave astronomy to look back in time, at the very origin of
the universe, becomes a real possibility. When realised, this operation would owe, in no small
measure, to the time spent in organising and focussing, even directing, the efforts of the large
group of researchers, numbering over a thousand.
EDITORIAL
Theory and practice: on CPI(M)'s internal differences

OCTOBER 06, 2017 00:15 IST
CPI(M)s attempt to nd ideological clarity will affect the shape of any anti-BJP front
A divergence of interests within a political party can take many forms. It is either raised to the level
of an ideological divide that portrays the differences as a battle of ideas, or reduced to a clash of
personalities that presents the differences as a struggle for power at the top of the organisational
hierarchy. The fight within the Communist Party of India (Marxist) is essentially between the Kerala and
West Bengal units. The tactical line at stake is alliance-formation, whether or not the party should be part
of a larger broad-based alliance headed by the Congress at the national level. For the Kerala unit, whose
principal rival is the Congress-led United Democratic Front, any such alliance is difficult to sell to the
cadre. For the Bengal unit, which is ceding ground to the Trinamool and the BJP, the Congress is a natural
ally. At present, the Kerala unit is stronger, and it got the CPI(M) Polit Bureau to veto a proposal to change
the party line to allow for an alliance with the Congress and other secular opposition parties. The BJP is
growing in Kerala, but the Congress remains the main adversary for the CPI(M) in the State. The efforts of
party general secretary Sitaram Yechury to push through the proposal thus came to naught.
The pragmatic aspect to the differences within the party exists side by side with larger theoretical
issues. For the CPI(M), this manifests itself in questions such as whether there exists a fascist threat in
India, whether the BJP is a completely fascist party looking to create an authoritarian state, and whether
India is descending into communal fascism. If the answer in the eyes of the party is that fascism has
already arrived in India, then it is only logical for it to ally with social democratic forces to unseat the BJP.
If the answer is more nuanced with caveats and qualifications, then it would enjoin the CPI(M) to pursue
its own political goals independently of all so-called bourgeois parties. Clearly, the Polit Bureau did not
view the BJP as a threat serious enough to reorient the partys political strategy and electoral tactics. But
to the discomfiture of the CPI(M), the tussle within is also being perceived as a tug of war between Mr.
Yechury and his predecessor as general secretary, Prakash Karat. The alliance issue now goes to the
Central Committee, where Mr. Karat has greater support. Earlier, the CC had voted down an attempt by
the Bengal unit to give Mr. Yechury a third term in the Rajya Sabha, marking an assertion of the
Karat/Kerala faction over the Yechury/Bengal faction. However, as in 2004, the CPI(M) could still extend
support to a Congress-led government after having fought the party electorally across the country. Any
which way, the internal fights within the CPI(M) will have a bearing on the creation of a broad-based
front against the BJP in 2019.
EDITORIAL
The rhythm of life: on the Nobel Prize in Medicine

OCTOBER 06, 2017 00:15 IST
The Medicine Nobel touches on our curiosity about an inner clock and links to nature
T ime and clocks have held a special fascination for humankind down the ages. So, it is particularly
revealing that two of the three Nobel Prizes for the sciences announced this year have been linked to
time. While the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to a trio of physicists for their work in the detection of
gravitational waves emanating from the recesses of the space-time continuum, the 2017 Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine was won by a triumvirate of chronobiologists for their work in discovering the
mechanisms controlling the internal clocks that keep time in all living organisms, including humans. Jeffrey C.
Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michael W. Young, three Americans born in the 1940s, made pioneering
contributions in helping unravel the genetic coding and protein pathways that regulate the circadian rhythm
that rhythm which tells us when it is time to eat and sleep, or wake up even when we have no bedside alarm.
Working with the humble fruit fly, the three scientists isolated a gene named period that studies had shown
disrupted the flys circadian clock. Dr. Hall and Dr. Rosbash then went on to discover that the protein PER,
which acts as a functional communicator for this gene, accumulated at night and then diminished during the
day. Independently, Dr. Young made a couple of seminal breakthroughs that helped complete the jigsaw puzzle
first by identifying a second gene timeless that through its TIM protein, working in conjunction with PER,
helped engender the seesawing of cellular protein levels. He then spotted the third gene, doubletime, which
through an encoded protein served as the regulator of the frequency of the oscillations.
In its nod to the trios contributions, the Nobel Assembly at Swedens Karolinska Institute referred to how their
work had led to circadian biology developing into a vast and highly dynamic research field, with implications
for our health and well-being. It is this crucial human health angle that has spawned a mushrooming body of
science centred on understanding the linkages between sleep and normal metabolic activity, and the
potentially deleterious effect of sleep deprivation. From jet lag, when people travel across different time
zones challenging the internal biological clock, to the difficulties people engaged in shift-based jobs have in
resetting their sleep-wake cycles, contemporary medical science acknowledges the hazards that lack of
adequate sleep can pose. The ubiquitousness of the smartphone, tablet, computer and TV screens that may
disrupt the circadian rhythm because of the light they emit is being studied extensively. The Nobel-winning
researchers contributions have also led to an improved understanding of the link between peak physical
performance in sport and the time of the day. Ultimately, the prospect that the circadian rhythm may well hold
the key to future breakthroughs in the modulation and treatment of various diseases is truly tantalising.
EDITORIAL
Law, faith, unreason: on eradicating superstition from society

OCTOBER 07, 2017 00:02 IST
Banning evil practices by law is not enough: social reform must be more broad-based
M ere legislation is not enough to eradicate superstition from society, but laws do have the
utility value of curbing the prevalence of inhuman rituals and practices. Seen in this light, the
proposed Karnataka law targeting black magic and inhuman practices may be regarded as social
reform. The Karnataka Prevention and Eradication of Inhuman Evil Practices and Black Magic Bill,
2017 has been approved by the State Cabinet and is likely to be introduced soon in the Assembly. It is
not accurate to characterise this as just an anti-superstition bill, as what it seeks to prohibit are
actions that offend human dignity, result in the exploitation of gullible and vulnerable people or
cause harm to them. Organising macabre rituals, offering magical cures and threatening people,
under peril of incurring divine or supernatural displeasure, are covered by this law, even though these
can be treated as offences under the Indian Penal Code too. Perhaps ironically, it exempts established
religious practices and the propagation of spiritual learning and arts, besides astrology and vaastu.
Overall, it tries to heed the line between religious traditions and superstitious practices. Maharashtra
already has a law against black magic and other evil practices. It is not clear if it has made much
headway in eliminating blind faith, but it must strengthen the hands of people willing to take on
social practices steeped in ignorance and unreason. The proposed law ought to be seen as a reasonable
restriction on the right to practise and propagate ones religion under Article 25 of the Constitution.
As long as these restrictions are in the interest of public order, morality and health, the law may
withstand the test of constitutionality.
It is not uncommon to read reports of disturbing rituals. Among the rituals the Bill outlaws is the
urulu seve, also known as made snana, in which devotees roll over food leftovers, the practice of
walking on fire, branding children, and piercing ones tongue or cheeks. It is hard to make a case for
retaining these practices. However, it is possible that some may ask whether everything that appears
irrational to the less believing should be prohibited by law. When the state ventures to identify some
practices mostly prevailing among groups in the social periphery as incompatible with civilised
norms, it must demonstrate that these are wholly inhuman, or exploitative. One must denounce acts
that harm women in the name of exorcism, but is it possible to decry the very idea of devotees
claiming to be possessed by god or the devil, except from the perspective of a rationalist? Ultimately,
it is education and awareness that can truly liberate a society from superstition, blind faith and
abominable practices in the name of faith. Until then, the law will have to continue to identify and
punish acts that violate the peoples right to life, health and dignity.
EDITORIAL
Kazuo Ishiguro: An artist of the world

OCTOBER 07, 2017 00:02 IST
The surprise winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature is an abundantly deserving one
B y awarding the Nobel Prize in Literature to British-Japanese novelist Kazuo Ishiguro this year,
the Swedish Academy has pulled itself back to more classical criteria in deciding who makes the
cut. While announcing the name, it strove to make this evident, even at the risk of reducing an
appraisal of a great writer such as Ishiguro to a trite high school essay. If you mix Jane Austen and
Franz Kafka then you have Kazuo Ishiguro in a nutshell, but you have to add a little bit of Marcel
Proust into the mix, said Sara Danius, the permanent secretary of the Academy. Then you stir, but not
too much, then you have his writings. The Academy perhaps tried too hard given the criticism, and
the awardees snub, that came its way last year when the prize went to American singer-songwriter
Bob Dylan; it had clearly been trying to push the envelope in capturing newer forms of narrative-
telling, after bringing to the notice of a wider readership the brilliant Belarusian journalist Svetlana
Alexievich the year before for her oral histories dating back to the Soviet era. Ishiguro is more of a
purist, repurposing the classical forms to, as the Academy said, produce novels of great emotional
force. It added that they uncovered the abyss beneath our illusory sense of connection with the
world. In a body of work that also includes critically acclaimed short fiction, Ishiguro has consistently
evoked the loss of coordinates that individual characters sense with the uncertainties of memory as
well as of space and time.
Ishiguros credentials are impeccable. Strong, albeit strange and unreliable characters; spare prose,
used to devastating effect; genres varying from science fiction to fantasy, with no book of his reading
like the last. Born in Nagasaki in 1954, Ishiguro moved with his family to Britain when he was five. He
was a part of the great burst of new fiction-writing in the country in the 1980s, as the talent of writers
as diverse as Salman Rushdie, Ian McEwan and Hilary Mantel came to the notice of a global
readership. His earliest novels harked back to Japan, and they are still too little appreciated. But it was
his third novel, The Remains of the Day, that stunned the literary world in 1989, also winning the
Booker Prize. The story of an ageing butler, it evoked the difficulty of keeping ones bearings in a
shifting matrix of class, culture and history. Most of his characters understand displacement, a theme
he keeps returning to in his books in different ways. Thus, memory, time, past and present are
important signposts in the Ishiguro landscape. The names of his novels often indicate as much. These
include his second novel, An Artist of the Floating World, his most recent The Buried Giant, and his
standout dystopian novel Never Let Me Go from 2005, about a community of clones raised only so
that their organs may be harvested. In its moment of crisis, the Swedish Academy has pulled out a
winner.
EDITORIAL
Course correction on GST Council's alterations

OCTOBER 09, 2017 00:02 IST
The GST Council does well to simplify the tax regime; it must sustain this conciliatory stance
N early 100 days after Indias tryst with the new Goods and Services Tax regime began, the GST
Council empowered to oversee its implementation has approved several alterations. These
relate to coverage and compliance norms with a view to easing the burden of paperwork and stretched
cash flows imposed on smaller businesses and exporters. The Council lowered the rates on 27 items,
including dried sliced mango, khakhra, unbranded namkeen and, more importantly, yarn and sewing
threads to soothe the textile industry that has been in distress over GST norms and is a bulwark for
job-creation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the Councils decisions at its 22nd meeting,
taken at his behest to overcome the GST systems apparent shortcomings, are akin to an early
Deepavali. That the meeting was advanced by almost 20 days, and that it has tried to deliver on the
Prime Ministers promise to fix the problems faced by traders in the first quarter of GST is welcome.
The decision to switch the requirement to file three monthly returns and an annual return to a
quarterly frequency for firms with a turnover of 1.5 crore will ease the burden of compliances on
small and medium enterprises, and reduce the workload on the tax regimes fledgling IT backbone.
Equally critical is the expansion and proposed simplification of the composition scheme, under which
firms with an annual turnover of up to 1 crore pay a flat and low tax, and the six-month suspension
of the reverse charge mechanism that required large firms to deduct tax on supplies from firms
outside the GST net. This should spur fresh confidence among small firms and help expand the tax
base. The promise of faster tax refunds, starting Tuesday, for exporters facing a working capital crunch
too is re-assuring. Time will tell how smoothly these decisions pan out on the ground, but suspension
for six months of the payment of integrated GST (IGST) on inputs used for exports will bring
immediate relief. While putting off the e-way bill provisions dealing with movement of goods that
were making businesses and transporters nervous, the Council is instead considering a staggered
introduction. So the system would begin with one or more States from January 2018 and cover the
entire country by April 2018. It is not clear how this will impact inter-State movement of goods in the
interim three months, and industry has good reason to worry about fresh complications. Amidst this
flurry of adjustments, suspense persists on the operationalisation of the GST laws anti-profiteering
provisions, which cramp pricing decisions by businesses. The government needs to move swiftly to
bring clarity on all such remaining grey areas. Lastly, though some of the latest rate revisions may be
based on impeccable economic rationale, it is important to resist giving the impression that some
tweaks, even if they are warranted, are based on the Assembly election schedules.
EDITORIAL
New Left in Nepal on legislative elections in Nepal

OCTOBER 09, 2017 00:02 IST
Long-time adversaries form a leftist coalition altering the pre-election landscape
I n a most unexpected development, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified-Marxist Leninist), the
Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist-Centre) and the Naya Shakti Party (NSP) have agreed to form a
Left coalition to contest provincial and federal elections later this year. They have also formed a
coordination committee that will work towards their unification into a single leftist party after the
elections. This marks a major shift in Nepals polity because the status-quoist UML and the radical
Maoists have been at loggerheads for decades and have differed on significant issues in particular,
state restructuring after the Constituent Assembly elections of 2008 and 2013. While these parties
worked together along with other political forces in the run-up to abolishing the monarchy, there has
been little love lost between them over the past decade. But the Maoists have also undergone a series
of splits during this period. Hardline sections led by Mohan Baidya Kiran and Netra Bikram Chand
branched off to form their own parties, while Baburam Bhattarai, who preferred greater
parliamentary engagement and was unflinching on the state restructuring demand, also left the
parent party. So far the UML has been steadfast in opposing greater federalisation, basing its
argument on the principle of national unity, while the Maoist-Centre has changed positions
depending on the prevailing power equations to suit its chairman, and ex-Prime Minister, Pushpa
Kamal Dahal Prachanda.
In the run-up to the elections, Mr. Dahal sees a possibility of winning more seats by being in a Left
alliance, which is why he chose to talk to the UML even though he currently shares power with the
Nepali Congress. The UML did well overall in the local body elections held recently, but fared
relatively poorly in the second phase of the polls in which a greater number of the contests were in the
Terai region. The Maoists surprised many with a decent haul in this phase. Electorally it makes sense
for the two parties to come together in an alliance. The addition of the NSP gives the alliance what is
perceived by some as intellectual heft its leader, Mr. Bhattarai, had been the prime mover in the
Maoists giving up their armed struggle and joining the democratic process. In aligning with the UML
and the Maoists, Mr. Bhattarai may have to relent on his key demand of state restructuring but
perhaps this was already inevitable following the Madhesi parties poor show in the recent elections.
It remains to be seen how the contradictions over this issue will be resolved in the future, even if they
hope that a call for national unity and social justice will calm the Madhesis. For the Nepali Congress,
the new Left alliance will be a difficult adversary to overcome, and it would have to strive to bring
other centrist forces under its own democratic alliance. The Madhesi parties, however, may well be
left in the lurch.
EDITORIAL
Problem animals on wildlife protection strategies

OCTOBER 10, 2017 00:02 IST
The road to bad conservation is paved with good intentions
I n June this year, the Bombay High Court quashed an order by the Maharashtra Forest
Department to shoot a tigress in the Bramhapuri region after she killed two persons. The
death warrant was overturned as a result of a Public Interest Litigation petition by an animal
rights activist, which argued that the tigresss behaviour had been forged by illegal human
intrusion into her territory. Forest officials were then forced to capture the problem animal
and re-release her in the Bor forest reserve, less than 200 km away, putting another set of
villagers in harms way. This is the latest in a series of instances where forest departments have
gone against the advice of conservation researchers; the fact that they were arm-twisted into
doing so by animal-lovers makes it even more worrisome. The released tigress went on to kill
two others in Bor, and the authorities scrambled to capture her again. Such actions go against
conservation science. Translocating a large carnivore as a response to conflict does not work.
Large predators need a certain prey density and are territorial, and they would tend to find
their way back, even over hundreds of kilometres, to their original habitat. The stress of
relocation, with hostility from other predators already present, often drives them to greater
aggression. A 2011 study in Maharashtra showed that moving leopards from one region to
another to reduce attacks on livestock only increased attacks on humans. To translocate a tiger
in response to man-eating behaviour is absurd.
Conservation science sometimes throws up counter-intuitive wildlife protection strategies.

In 2015, there was a global hue and cry over the killing of the Hwange National Parks star
attraction, Cecil the Lion, by an American dentist. Animal lovers couldnt fathom how licences
to kill lions, under Zimbabwes trophy-hunting programme, could be legally purchased. It
remains a controversial strategy. Evidence in support of the controversial strategy is
admittedly mixed. But countries such as Namibia have shown that well-managed trophy-
hunting schemes help conserve charismatic megafauna, by pumping revenue from hunting
licences back into conservation. Selected individuals, often old and infirm, are sacrificed, but
the species wins. This is the aim of culling man-eating carnivores too, a practice that chief
wildlife wardens turn to only when they have no other choice. The idea is to mitigate conflict
with humans, which itself is a danger to the species. Experience indicates that introducing
problem animals into a region antagonises the local people, who can turn against the
predators and kill them indiscriminately. A major challenge for India in the coming years will
be to engage rural communities in conservation, because our burgeoning population and a
revival in tiger numbers will only increase the intensity of conflict. Coercing terrified villagers
to co-exist with man-eaters is the best way to ensure we lose our chance of doing that.
EDITORIAL
Towards transparency on judicial appointments

OCTOBER 10, 2017 00:02 IST
Disclosures on judicial appointments are welcome, but the reasons must be spelt out
T he Supreme Court collegiums decision to disclose the reasons for its recommendations
marks a historic and welcome departure from the entrenched culture of secrecy
surrounding judicial appointments. The collegium, comprising the Chief Justice of India and
four senior judges, has said it would indicate the reasons behind decisions on the initial
appointment of candidates to High Court benches, their confirmation as permanent judges
and elevation as High Court Chief Justices and to the Supreme Court, and transfer of judges
and Chief Justices from one High Court to another. This means there will now be some
material available in the public domain to indicate why additional judges are confirmed and
why judges are transferred or elevated. A certain degree of discreetness is necessary and
inevitable as in many cases the reasons will pertain to sitting judges. At the same time, it
would become meaningless if these disclosures fail to provide a window of understanding
into the mind of the collegium. It is important to strike the right balance between full
disclosure and opaqueness. The collegium has suggested as much, albeit obliquely, when it
says the resolution was intended to ensure transparency, yet maintain confidentiality in the
Collegium system. It is to be hoped that this balancing of transparency and confidentiality
will augur well for the judiciary. The introduction of transparency acquires salience in the
light of the resignation of Justice Jayant M. Patel of the Karnataka High Court after he was
transferred to the Allahabad High Court as a puisne judge, despite his being senior enough to
be a High Court Chief Justice.
Going by the decisions disclosed so far with regard to the elevation of district judges, it is clear
that quality of judgments, the opinion of Supreme Court judges conversant with the affairs of
the high court concerned, and reports of the Intelligence Bureau together form the basis of an
initial appointment being recommended. While district judges of sufficient seniority and in
the relevant age group are readily available for consideration, there may be some unease about
how certain advocates and not others come to be considered. Given the perception that family
members and former colleagues of judges are more likely to be appointed high court judges, it
is essential that a system to widen the zone of consideration is put in place. There are 387
vacancies in the various High Courts as on October 1. The mammoth task of filling these
vacancies would be better served if a revised Memorandum of Procedure for appointments is
agreed upon soon. A screening system, along with a permanent secretariat for the collegium,
would be ideal for the task. The introduction of transparency should be backed by a
continuous process of addressing perceived shortcomings. The present disclosure norm is a
commendable beginning.
EDITORIAL
Well-deserved nudge on Economics Nobel winner Richard

Thaler
OCTOBER 11, 2017 00:02 IST
Richard Thaler has been crucial in putting the human at the heart of economics
E conomics as a discipline is not infrequently accused of being fairly removed from reality.
The activities of societies, countries, corporations and the global macroeconomy itself are
meant to fit certain models, at the heart of which are rational agents maximising their utility or
welfare. However, economic models are, to varying degrees, abstractions of the real world in
which economic agents are all too often not rational. For decades, American economist Richard H.
Thaler has studied how decision-making deviates from rational behaviour in the real world and
how this can actually be incorporated into economic modelling. His analysis married economics
to human psychology and his work has formed the core of the field of behavioural economics. It is
for his pioneering contributions to this field that Prof. Thaler was awarded the Economics Nobel
on Monday. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences cited his analysis of how decision-makers
deviate systematically from rational behaviour as conceived in traditional economic theory. For
instance, individuals experience bounded rationality due to cognitive limitations. Two, they have
social preferences such as caring for others. And three, they sometimes lack self-control. These
are situations that every individual can relate to. In explaining the relevance of Prof. Thalers work
and their decision to award him the prize, the committee highlighted its everyday relevance.
Consider, for instance, the existence of social preferences. It would be rational for a shop to
increase the price of umbrellas on a rainy day but customers would probably think of this as an
unfair or exploitative policy if they were aware of the regular price. Their preference for fairness is
thus a factor that keeps the shop from increasing the price of umbrellas according to the weather,
when rational behaviour in traditional economic theory would warrant an increase. It is through
such applications that behavioural economics has made economics as a whole more accessible
and familiar. Richard Thaler had, as the Nobel committee put it, made economics more human.
Behavioural economics, like any other, is not free of criticism in this case, of being a patchwork
of cognitive psychology and mathematics, with so many individual exceptions that it neither has
the rigour of mathematics nor is free enough of modelling to be pure psychology. There are
several psychologists and economists with whom Prof. Thaler has collaborated, including Amos
Tversky and the 2002 Economics Nobel winner Daniel Kahneman. In a 2008 book Nudge, Prof.
Thaler and Cass Sunstein show how behavioural economics can be used in policy-making to
influence behaviours. It is here that they introduce the concept of libertarian paternalism, where
choice architects influence the behaviour of individuals to make their lives longer, healthier
and better but in a way that gives individuals the freedom to not participate in arrangements
that are not to their taste. And with governments slowly incorporating it into policy, behavioural
economics has not been restricted to campuses.
Printable version | Oct 11, 2017 10:15:07 AM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/well-

deserved-nudge/article19834933.ece
The Hindu
EDITORIAL
Foggy thinking on SC restoring ban on cracker sales in

Delhi
OCTOBER 11, 2017 00:02 IST
Delhis recracker ban may not work any better than Punjabs stubble-burning ban
did
F or the second time since November 2016, the Supreme Court has temporarily banned
the sale of firecrackers in the National Capital Region. The idea is to test whether it
cuts the deadly pollution levels seen in Delhi during and after Deepavali. In other words, to
see whether they can be collapsed from the astronomical 1,000-plus micrograms per cubic
metre of fine particulate matter seen in 2016 to merely life-threatening levels of a few
hundred micrograms/cu.m that Delhi usually sees in winter. But that is a big if. Given that
it came just about 10 days before the festival, it will be tough to impose the ban on an
industry that has already produced stocks to order. Nor will it be easy to rein in revellers
unconvinced by the court order. More importantly, despite delivering a big blow to the
industry and incurring the displeasure of many, it offers too piecemeal a solution, akin to
the even-odd licence number scheme of the Delhi government in 2015. North India needs a
more holistic solution to the toxic air that residents breathe at the onset of winter. The
major sources of pollution in the NCR have been clear enough to drive policy changes.
While their relative contributions are still indeterminate, these include construction dust,
vehicular pollution, waste burning, generators and crop residue burning in the Indo-
Gangetic plains.
To tackle each of these will take decisive and persistent policy actions, not panic-driven
and ill-considered bans. Take the 2015 ban on crop-residue burning in Punjab and Haryana
for example. Two years later, farmers continue to violate it, because the State governments
have still not taken the steps required to solve the underlying problem the high cost of
cleaning the paddy stubble instead of burning it to prepare the field to sow wheat. Though
the government has offered subsidies on a machine called Happy Seeder, which doesnt
require a stubble-free field to plant wheat, farmers havent taken to it as burning remains
cheaper. Another option is biomass-energy plants that buy paddy straw from farmers for
use in generating power. Yet, government incentives for biomass-energy plants havent
been enough to galvanise industry. This, in turn, leaves farmers wary. The only answer is for
the Punjab and Haryana governments to move purposefully on the solutions they know
will work just as the only option for the Delhi government is to raise awareness on the
impact of firecrackers, while also tackling vehicular pollution, construction dust and other
pollution sources. In the absence of these less dramatic, but more feasible solutions, it is
unlikely a firecracker sale ban will avert the kind of health emergency that struck Delhi
last year.
EDITORIAL
Banning the bomb on nuclear weapons

OCTOBER 12, 2017 00:02 IST
ICANs Nobel Peace Prize highlights the urgent need to outlaw nuclear weapons
T he Nobel Peace Prize conferred on the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear

Weapons (ICAN) is equally a recognition for the 122 countries that backed the 2017 UN
treaty this summer to ban the bomb. The fact that it has taken over seventy years to codify the
UN General Assemblys 1946 goal to eliminate atomic weapons from national armaments is a
measure of the significance of this years prize. Today, the terms of the anti-nuclear debate
encompass larger issues of environmental destruction, in conjunction with the catastrophic
humanitarian consequences of a potential holocaust. ICANs emphasis on this latter
dimension, an aspect underscored by the Nobel committee in Norway, marks a departure of
sorts in the nuclear discourse. To appreciate it, one merely has to draw a comparison with the
preoccupations of the peace movement during the years of the Cold War. The emphasis then
was principally on the grave danger from serious miscalculations, stemming from mutual
threat perceptions between the U.S. and the USSR. The committee has also lauded ICANs
endeavours to fill the legal gap through its leadership on the adoption of the Treaty on the
Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. With cluster munitions, land mines and chemical and
biological weapons having been banned, nuclear weapons remained the last category of
weapons of mass destruction that had not been outlawed. Here again, ICANs emphasis on the
humanitarian consequences of nuclear destruction have galvanised global support for the
new treaty. Notable is the perception that the sheer magnitude of destruction wrought by any
nuclear strikes would amount to crimes against humanity.
A catalyst to this process was the stricture that the use of nuclear arms had to be compatible
with humanitarian law. This was laid down in a 1996 advisory opinion of the International
Court of Justice. The long-term health implications for local populations from underground
nuclear detonations have also been a growing concern. A plea last year, also at the ICJ, for
compensation for exposure to contamination from the explosions in the Marshall Islands
failed on technical grounds. But the case amplified these concerns, which human rights
groups and organisations engaged in humanitarian relief activities exploited to shape a new
narrative with the result that a provision on victim protection has been codified in the new
UN treaty. Given this overall dynamic, it seems reasonable to expect that the minimum
number of ratifications would be submitted soon for the treaty to come into force. In
September, the Italian parliament passed a resolution urging the government to explore
accession to the UN agreement without contravening its obligations to NATO. A similar step
by the Dutch legislature had authorised the government to participate in the treaty
deliberations. These developments may not culminate in immediate ratification. But they
raise the prospect that governments will be forced to heed public sentiment sooner than later.
The ICANs endeavours may pay off eventually.
EDITORIAL
The will to die on living wills

OCTOBER 12, 2017 00:02 IST
Advance directives on withdrawal of life support must come with robust safeguards
T he debate on allowing euthanasia as a means to protect the dignity of patients in a

vegetative state has crystallised into a key question before a Constitution Bench of
the Supreme Court. Should the law allow living wills? These are advance directives that
people can lay down while being sound of mind, on whether they should continue to get
life-sustaining treatment after they reach a stage of total incapacitation, that is, a
vegetative state. The question is fraught with legal, moral and philosophical implications.
The court will have to resolve the question whether the right to life under Article 21 of the
Constitution, which according to an earlier verdict does not include the right to die, is
being voluntarily waived by a person giving such an advance directive. A living will, at the
same time, may relieve the close family members and caregivers of a terminally ill patient
of the moral burden of making a life-ending decision. Does a living will imply that the
state has come to accept a patients autonomy and self-determination to the point of
legalising a wish to die? For doctors, does it mean an abandonment of their obligation to
preserve life? Under U.S. jurisdiction patient autonomy is paramount, and many States
have laws allowing advance directives, even the nomination of a health care proxy who
can decide on behalf of the patient. Should India follow suit?
While reserving its verdict, the court has indicated that it may lay down comprehensive
guidelines on operationalising the idea of living wills. The government has opposed the
concept of an advance directive, arguing that it would be against public policy and the right
to life. The government is rightly concerned that the idea may be misused and result in the
neglect of the elderly. If the U.S. had a Terri Schiavo, India had its own Aruna Shanbaug,
both of whom were at the centre of right-to-die arguments. In the latters case, the
Supreme Court, in a landmark verdict in 2011, ruled out any support for active euthanasia,
but laid down a broad legal framework for passive euthanasia, or the withdrawal of life
support subject to safeguards and a fair procedure. In the present case, the court may have
to draw up stringent safeguards for certifying living wills, preferably by a judicial officer,
and lay down the exact stage at which the advance directive becomes applicable. The
courts observation that it would kick in only after a medical board rules that a persons
condition is incurable ought to be sufficient reassurance for those concerned about its
possible misuse. The present law provides for advance directives regarding treatment of
mental illness, so the concept is not new to Indian law. Living wills, if sanctified in law,
should come with robust safeguards.
EDITORIAL
Talk it over on Catalonia crisis

OCTOBER 13, 2017 00:15 IST
There is still an opportunity for Madrid and Barcelona to pull back from a
confrontation
C atalan President Carles Puigdemonts call for a dialogue with the federal
government is the first sign in many months of an attempt to break the stalemate in
Spains continuing crisis. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who has remained steadfast in his
defence of Spanish sovereignty and integrity, should seize the opening, slight though it is.
In his address to the regional parliament in Barcelona on Tuesday, Mr. Puigdemont insisted
that he would act on the popular mandate for a declaration of independence in the October
1 referendum. But he also expressed a willingness, not necessarily shared by allies in the
ruling coalition, to defer such a proclamation so as to negotiate with the Spanish
government and to explore international mediation. There are conflicting interpretations
on the essence of that address. But Mr. Rajoy seems to be in no mood whatsoever to relent.
He has said that he wants to ascertain whether Mr. Puigdemonts speech amounts to a
declaration of independence before Madrid triggers Article 155 to exercise direct control
over Catalonia. While it is an option he has been weighing for some months, this obduracy
is hard to understand in todays altered circumstances. The centre-right governments
refusal to engage the Catalan leadership in any dialogue may have had a context prior to
the referendum. There was sound legal basis to its insistence that the question of secession
was outside the framework of the Spanish constitution, as vindicated by the countrys
highest court. But the fact is that Madrid failed to convince Catalan leaders to abandon the
vote; in fact, the vote held on October 1 brought the Spanish government widespread
condemnation for the violent incidents of the day.
This grim backdrop should trigger fresh thinking on Mr. Rajoys overall approach. A plain
refusal to talk to the separatists is politically untenable when the other side seems inclined
to push back on the declaration of independence. The attempt instead should be to impress
upon his interlocutors in Catalonia that a sizeable proportion of the population was
opposed to secession. In fact, Madrid should weigh the larger ramifications of rolling back
Catalonias regional autonomy at a time when passions are running high. What is needed
most of all currently is calmer rhetoric. Mr. Rajoy needs to steer the public debate more
constructively to how regional aspirations could be met without precipitating a bigger
crisis. Whether the European Union could influence the course of events is at best a matter
for speculation. But a more interventionist posture cannot be ruled out, should there be an
unfortunate relapse to the violence of recent days. Mr. Rajoy should draw upon his
decades-long political experience, and the backing he enjoys of the opposition socialists, to
fashion an appropriate response to Mr. Puigdemonts overtures.
EDITORIAL
Saving child brides on SC ruling on sex with minor wife

OCTOBER 13, 2017 00:15 IST
Not the reasoning but the implications of the ruling on child marriage are a cause for
worry
B y ruling that marriage cannot be a licence to have sex with a minor girl, the Supreme
Court has corrected an anomaly in the countrys criminal law. Under the Indian Penal
Code, it is an offence to have sex with a girl below 18 years of age, regardless of consent.
However, it made an exception if the girl was the mans wife, provided she was not below 15. In
other words, what was statutory rape is treated as permissible within a marriage. By reading
down the exception to limit it to girls aged 18 and older, the court has sought to harmonise the
various laws in which any person under 18 is a minor. Overall, the judgment is in keeping with
the reformist, and indisputably correct, view that early marriage is a serious infringement of
child rights. The judges draw extensively on studies that demonstrate child marriage is a
social evil that adversely affects the physical and mental health of children, denies them
opportunities for education and self-advancement, infringes on their bodily autonomy and
deprives them of any role in deciding on many aspects of their lives.
As a move to strengthen the fight against child marriage and help stricter enforcement of the
Prohibition of Child Marriage Act, 2006, the judgment cannot be faulted. But the practical
implications of the judgment are worrying. Are all men married to girls between the ages of 15
and 18 to be condemned to face criminal cases as rapists? Given the prevalence of child
marriage in this country, it is doubtful whether it is possible or even desirable to
implement the statutory rape law uniformly in the context of marriages. What, for instance,
does this mean for those married under Muslim personal law, which permits girls below 18 to
be married? The age of consent under the IPC was raised in 2013 from 16 to 18 to bring it in
line with the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012. However, the age above
which marriage is an exception to rape was retained at 15, as fixed in 1940. POCSO
criminalises even consensual teenage sexual activity and the latest ruling has brought this
into the domain of marriage. A teenager could be prosecuted for a sexual offence under
POCSO even if he was just a little above 18. In the same way, a teenage husband may now be
threatened with prosecution for rape. Significantly, if boys under 18 but over 16 are charged
with penetrative sexual assault under POCSO or rape under the IPC, which can be termed
heinous offences, they could face the prospect of being tried as adults, according to the
juvenile law as it stands now. Treating all below 18 as children may be good for their care and
protection, but whether 18 is the right age for consent in this day and age remains a moot
question. The states argument that given the widespread prevalence of child marriage it is not
possible to remove the exception may be flawed from a formal standpoint, but its concerns
about the implications of the verdict must not be underestimated.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/saving-child-brides/article19847431.ece
EDITORIAL
Keen contest ahead on Himachal Pradesh Assembly

polls
OCTOBER 14, 2017 00:02 IST
With smaller parties fading away, Himachal Pradesh will see a polarised campaign
I t is not clear why the Election Commission announced the date for Assembly elections
in Himachal Pradesh a single-phase vote on November 9 but not for Gujarat,
which also needs to go to the polls this winter. The EC has said that the results for Himachal
Pradesh will be declared on December 18 while elections in Gujarat will be held before that
date. Be that as it may, the model code of conduct has kicked in for the hill State, which is
poised for a direct contest between the ruling Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Himachal Pradesh has returned these parties alternately to power for each term since the
early 1990s. Smaller parties formed by dissidents and rebels from the Congress and the BJP
in the late-1990s and the early 2010s faded away after gaining small pockets of support,
ensuring that this will be a clear contest between the two national parties. The Congress
already has a headstart in the campaign, having announced that the 83-year-old Chief
Minister Virbhadra Singh is its chief ministerial candidate, while the BJP is yet to choose
between former Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal and Union Minister J.P. Nadda. The
Congresss proactive strategy is understandable. Himachal is one of a handful of States in
the country that are ruled by the party, and holding the State is important to stave off
suggestions of a decline, or possibly to hold out hope for a revival.
As a State, Himachal Pradesh is placed somewhere at the top in terms of social indices,
which is reflected in its high HDI (human development index) ranking, rate of literacy and
rural well-being. This is largely a consequence of the welfare programmes of successive
State governments. The public sector, services and the tourism industry play vital roles in
its economy. With the lingering effects of demonetisation and the teething issues of the
goods and services tax regime casting a shadow on the economy, the Congress is keen to
make issues out of these in the election. It is seeking to cash in on the reported
disgruntlement among traders and the small-business community, which usually favour
the BJP. By fielding Mr. Singh as the face of the party yet again, the Congress probably
expects that the old networks of patronage fostered by the Raja-ji will come to its aid as
well as to attract public support for the expansive government spending on welfare in the
State. The BJP, on the other hand, will focus on the corruption cases plaguing the incumbent
and as always hope that Prime Minister Narendra Modis popularity will overcome
misgivings on the economic front and any possible friction between the Dhumal and Nadda
camps. If one were to go by recent elections, such as the closely contested municipal polls in
Shimla, there is no definite wave for or against either party. The campaign may throw up
pointers on which way the winds are blowing.
EDITORIAL
Benefit of doubt on Aarushi murder case probe and trial

OCTOBER 14, 2017 00:02 IST
As Aarushis parents are set free, there are troubling questions about the probe and
trial
T he Allahabad High Court verdict acquitting Rajesh Talwar and Nupur Talwar of the
charge of murdering their 14-year-old daughter Aarushi and domestic worker Hemraj
in May 2008 is not merely an indictment of the Central Bureau of Investigation Special Court
that sentenced them to life in 2013; it exposes the shoddy investigation by the Noida police in
the first few days after the double murder, and hints at the lack of probity even in the way the
CBI handled the case. The Bench terms some witnesses as planted, and concludes that
circumstances indicating that someone else could have committed the crime had been
ignored. At one point it even observes that there was clinching evidence about the presence
of outsiders in the Talwar residence on the fateful night. It is in keeping with the see-saw
nature of the investigation that the trial courts findings that the dentist couple committed
the crime, that they shifted Hemrajs body to the terrace, dressed up the crime scene and hid
the weapons now lie in tatters. The Talwar trial is illustrative of the vast gulf between public
perception, now lamentably exemplified in speculative media coverage and social media
frenzy, and courts of law that go by evidence and reason. However, the facts and circumstances
were such that anyone would have been torn between blaming the parents and sympathising
with them. It did not help their case that the murders took place in their home. The claim that
they were fast asleep while Aarushi was being killed in the very next room and the body of
Hemraj was being moved to the terrace did stretch credulity.
In the end, they have got the benefit of doubts that surfaced during the probe and the trial.
Usually, in a case based on circumstantial evidence the court looks for a cogent narrative
pointing to guilt, and will not treat suspicion as proof. Few would dispute the fact that the
investigation was botched up. The crime scene was unprotected. Hemrajs body was not found
for a whole day. Three associates of Hemraj were suspects, but there was not much evidence to
proceed. A DNA report implicating one of them, Krishna, was dismissed as a typographical
error. To be fair to the CBI, it did want to close the case for want of evidence, but was forced by
the court to pursue the prosecution. At the end of the appellate stage, it is difficult to say
whether the case should never have gone to trial or that it was desirable that the entire
evidence underwent scrutiny at two levels. Acquittal in a murder case is an injustice of sorts. It
either means the state has failed to bring home the guilt of the accused or that it prosecuted
the wrong people. Those exonerated will naturally feel vindicated, but the perception of
justice having been done is limited to the accused and their well-wishers. It is difficult to
ignore the fact that the culprits who murdered Aarushi are yet to be nailed and duly held to
account.
EDITORIAL
Iran-U.S. relations: On dangerous footing

OCTOBER 16, 2017 00:02 IST
By undermining the Iran nuclear deal, Donald Trump endangers the non-
proliferation goal
B y refusing to certify the Iran nuclear deal, which curbed its nuclear programme in
return for lifting global sanctions, U.S. President Donald Trump has put the two-
year-old pact on dangerous footing. Under American law, the administration has to certify
that Iran is technically in compliance with the deal that was struck between Iran and six
other world powers, including the U.S., every 90 days. All other signatories, as well as the
UN, insist that Iran is fully complying. But Mr. Trump, who had during his election
campaign threatened to tear up the deal and as President continued to call it the worst
agreement in American diplomatic history, disavowed it days before the next certification
was due. From its early days, his administration has taken a hawkish line towards Iran,
imposing new sanctions on its missile programmes and joining hands with its regional
rivals in West Asia. But even as he withdrew certification, he did not scrap the deal. Instead,
he passed the buck to U.S. lawmakers. The Republican-controlled Congress now has 60
days to decide whether sanctions should be reimposed. It is unlikely to do anything radical
in the near term as any sweeping legislation would require bipartisan support in the
Senate. Nonetheless, the damage Mr. Trumps decision has done to the agreement and to
American diplomacy in general is huge. He appears to be driven by political calculations
rather than a realistic assessment of the agreement, which, by its own standards, is
working.
With the withdrawal from the certification, Mr. Trump has put the final nail in the coffin of
an Iran-U.S. reset that had appeared possible during the Obama days. Now the threat of
sanctions will hang over the nuclear deal. This is a boon for hardliners in Iran, who have
suffered a political setback in recent years. The deal became possible only because the
reformists and moderates rallied behind President Hassan Rouhanis agenda, despite
strong opposition from the Iranian deep state. Even Mr. Rouhani, who promised a solution
to the nuclear crisis, got the deal done and won re-election this year, will now find it
difficult to mobilise public opinion behind the agreement in the light of continued U.S.
hostility. The larger question is, what kind of example is the U.S. setting for the global non-
proliferation regime? The Iran deal, despite its shortcomings, was a shining example of the
capacity of world powers to come together and sort out a complex issue diplomatically. It
assumed greater significance given the recent wars and chaos in West Asia. It should have
set a model in addressing other nuclear crises. Instead, by going after Iran even though it
complies with the agreement, the U.S. is damaging its own reputation.
EDITORIAL
Toxic farming: on insecticide regulation

OCTOBER 16, 2017 00:02 IST
India needs stronger regulation of insecticide sale and use to protect farmers
R eports of farmers dying from pesticide exposure in Maharashtras cotton belt in

Yavatmal make it evident that the governments efforts to regulate toxic chemicals
used in agriculture have miserably failed. It is natural for cotton growers under pressure to
protect their investments to rely on greater volumes of insecticides in the face of severe pest
attacks. It appears many of them have suffered high levels of exposure to the poisons, leading
to their death. The fact that they had to rely mainly on the advice of unscrupulous agents and
commercial outlets for pesticides, rather than on agricultural extension officers, shows gross
irresponsibility on the part of the government. But the problem runs deeper. The system of
regulation of insecticides in India is obsolete, and even the feeble efforts at reform initiated by
the UPA government have fallen by the wayside. A new Pesticides Management Bill
introduced in 2008 was studied by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, but it is still
pending. At the same time, there is worrying evidence that a large quantum of pesticides sold
to farmers today is spurious, and such fakes are enjoying a higher growth rate than the
genuine products. Clearly, there is a need for a high-level inquiry into the nature of pesticides
used across the country, and the failure of the regulatory system. This should be similar to the
2003 Joint Parliamentary Committee that looked into harmful chemical residues in beverages
and recommended the setting of tolerance limits.
It is incongruous that the Centre has failed to grasp the need for reform in the regulation of
pesticides, when it is focussed on growth in both agricultural production and exports.
Agricultural products from India, including fruits and vegetables, have been subjected to
import restrictions internationally for failing to comply with safety norms. It is imperative
that a Central Pesticides Board be formed to advise on use and disposal of pesticides on sound
lines, as envisaged under the law proposed in 2008. This will strengthen oversight of
registration, distribution and sale of toxic chemicals. There can be no delay in updating the
outmoded Insecticides Act of 1968. A stronger law will eliminate the weaknesses in the
current rules that govern enforcement and introduce penalties where there are none. Aligning
the new pesticides regulatory framework with food safety laws and products used in health
care will make it broad-based. After the recent deaths, Maharashtra officials have hinted at
the loss of efficacy of some hybrids of genetically modified cotton in warding off pests to
explain the growth and intensity of pesticide use. The responsible course would be to make a
proper assessment of the causes. It is also an irony that the Centre has failed to use its vast
communication infrastructure, including DD Kisan, the satellite television channel from
Doordarshan dedicated to agriculture, to address distressed farmers. A forward-looking farm
policy would minimise the use of toxic chemicals, and encourage organic methods where they
are efficacious. This will benefit both farmer and consumer.
EDITORIAL
Flip-flop on terror: On Hafiz Saeed

OCTOBER 17, 2017 00:02 IST
The withdrawal of terror charges against Haz Saeed in Pakistan is a reckless act
P akistans decision to withdraw terror charges against Hafiz Saeed, chief of the Jamaat-
ud-Dawa/Lashkar-e-Toiba, is an outrage, and calls into question its professed
seriousness to address terrorist violence emanating from its territory. Saeed, the mastermind
of the November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, had been detained by the Punjab
provincial government in January this year under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA). But last week
the government said it was not including charges of terrorism in a new order for his
detention. He is still in detention under the milder Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance
and under which bail is obtainable. Saeeds house arrest this year appeared to have been
prompted by a tough message from the U.S. government; it was also effected to avoid
sanctions by the UNs body on terror funding, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), which
has been conducting a review of Pakistans actions this year. The fact is that since 2002, when
the LeT was first designated a terror group by the UN Security Councils Taliban/al-Qaeda
sanctions committee, Pakistan has done very little to hold Saeed to account, which is a sign
of the immense power he wields given the LeT/JuDs reach and its role in the intelligence
agencies operations. Despite all the evidence and testimonies detailing Saeeds visits to the
26/11 terror training camps, his instructions during the attacks, and his call for violent
attacks in India, the Pakistani government has allowed, if not enabled, him to build a virtual
citadel in the town of Muridke near the provincial capital Lahore.
Oddly enough, it was only a few weeks ago that Pakistans Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif
held that Saeed was a liability. It may, therefore, be no coincidence that the terror charges
were dropped at a time when the U.S. President has openly praised Pakistan for cooperating
in the release of American hostages. Also, the U.S. and Afghanistan have only just revived
talks with Pakistan on reining in the Taliban. Regardless of the reasons, if Pakistan doesnt
take steps to reverse this latest move on Saeed, it will be seen as an open challenge to India,
the U.S. and the international community. While the UN has strict sanctions on Saeed, the
U.S. too has designated him a terrorist, with a $10 million bounty, for the 26/11 Mumbai
attacks in which American citizens too were killed. This is, in essence, a test of U.S. President
Donald Trumps new South Asia policy, in which he has vowed reprisals if Pakistan fails to
take action against all terror groups on its territory, not just those targeting the U.S. in
Afghanistan. If Indias persistent endeavour to bring Saeed to justice for his role in the
Mumbai attacks continues to fall on deaf ears in Pakistan, then all the international
declarations on terrorism will carry little weight. The next round of the FATF, which is due at
the end of this month, must be used to send a tough message to Pakistan.
EDITORIAL
Securing Somalia: On Mogadishu terror attack

OCTOBER 17, 2017 00:02 IST
The deadly attack in Mogadishu is a reminder that state-building must be

accelerated
I n the deadliest terrorist attack in Somalia, an explosives-laden truck collided with a fuel
tanker in Mogadishu, killing more than 300 people and injuring many more. Mogadishu
has seen a number of attacks and suicide bombings on soft targets, mostly hotels and
restaurants, and military targets orchestrated by the terrorist group al-Shabaab in recent
years, but none as horrific as this one. The Islamist organisation has not yet claimed
responsibility for the attacks but government spokespersons have blamed the al-Qaeda-
allied group. A weakened Al-Shabaab has managed to revive itself as a guerrilla force lately.
Reports suggest that it has not claimed responsibility for Sundays attacks as yet because of
the scale of the toll, as it did not anticipate the truck colliding with a fuel tanker. If it is
indeed al-Shabaabs doing, it would signal a dangerous reversal. Somalia must immediately
work towards building a sense of civic solidarity among the various clans in the country and
use the popular revulsion following the bombing to isolate al-Shabaab and its backers. Al-
Shabaab had retreated from Mogadishu in August 2011 following intense joint offensives led
by the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and the Somalian federal government.
The increased involvement of Kenyan and Ethiopian military forces, as part of AMISOM, in
the conflict had pushed al-Shabaab fighters even further into interior Somalia, particularly
to rural areas in the south. Beyond military help from AMISOM, logistical support from the
U.S. government, which was stepped up after Donald Trump became President, has helped
the Somalian government fight al-Shabaab.
Yet the groups defeat is predicated not just on military strategy but also on isolating it from
the levers of power in Somalias clan-driven society. Al-Shabaab still has the capacity and
wherewithal to carry out terror attacks as it is emboldened and aided by divisions within
Somalian society. The country has been slowly limping back from a state of anarchy that
began in the 1990s, with warlords controlling various parts of the country; now it has a
functional presidential government. It was the long spell of anarchy that enabled al-Shabaab
to attain a position of prominence as an offshoot of the conservative Islamic Courts Union,
which promised a semblance of order through the implementation of Sharia law and the
capacity to fill a vacuum in governance. Early this year, President Mohamed Abdullahi
Mohamed was elected through an indirect polling process by an electoral college of
parliamentarians nominated by society elders. The state of civil war prevented the conduct
of elections through universal adult franchise, but the Somalian President seems to carry a
positive reputation among the people. It is vital that he capitalises on this beginning.
EDITORIAL
New kid on the bloc: On Austria polls

OCTOBER 18, 2017 00:06 IST
Sebastian Kurz pulls off an audacious win in Austria, but his rightward shift is
worrying
A ustrias early elections on Sunday paid off for Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, who,
at 31, is set to become Austrias Chancellor and the youngest head of government in
Europe. Mr. Kurz, who took the reins of the centre-right Austrian Peoples Party last May,
has been called a wunderwuzzi, or whiz kid, for changing the face and fortunes of his party,
till now a junior partner in the countrys grand coalition led by the centre-left Social
Democratic Party (SVP). Mr. Kurz has called his political party a movement, which he
renamed the New Peoples Party, invited newcomers to run for elections and changed the
partys social media strategy. Initial results give the Peoples Party about 31% of the vote.
The far-right Freedom Party (FPO), formed in the 1950s by former Nazis, has got roughly
the same vote share as the SVP, till now the largest party, in the region of 27%. Two patterns
have been reaffirmed by the latest results. First, voters are responding to younger
contenders and voting them to power, at least in the West; Mr. Kurz is set to join a list that
has the likes of Frances Emmanuel Macron, Canadas Justin Trudeau, Irelands Leo
Varadkar, as well as the former leaders of Italy and Estonia, Matteo Renzi and Taavi Rivas.
Whether there has been a spill-over effect from the tech world, with its cohort of young
leaders, to the political would be an interesting line of inquiry in the future. What is clear
for now, however, is that Mr. Kurz has used his youth, as did some of his counterparts in
other countries, to attract voters and reinvent a political party. A second pattern from
Sundays results is the alarming growth of right-wing populism across the world and in
Europe, including in Germany last month, where the far-right Alternative for Germany
(AfD) gained a foothold in the Bundestag.
The Peoples Party could now enter into a coalition with the Freedom Party, or stick with its
old centre-left partner, but this time under Mr. Kurz. The FPO, which has an anti-Islam and
anti-immigrant platform, has capitalised on the fears of Austrians, many of whom are
wary of the influx of migrants into Europe. The party was at the forefront of the campaign
to ban face coverings, a prohibition that took effect earlier this month. It wants Austria to
join the Visegrd group of central European countries whose non-liberal values are posing
a strain on its relations with western European Union colleagues. Worryingly, Mr. Kurz
took his party further right during the campaign, taking credit for closing off the Western
Balkan refugee route and calling for cuts in welfare benefits for migrants. While his gamble
in calling an early election has paid off for him, fanning the flames of an exclusionist
ideology is unlikely to earn political dividends in the longer term.
EDITORIAL
Of faith and fever: On T.N.s dengue epidemic

OCTOBER 18, 2017 00:02 IST
Governments must not endorse alternative and unproven remedies for dengue
F aced with one of the worst dengue epidemics it has seen, this year the Tamil Nadu
government responded by freely distributing a herbal concoction, nilavembu kudineer,
recommended for fevers under the ancient Siddha system of medicine. Even though there is
no evidence of their efficacy, alternative remedies such as papaya-leaf juice for dengue find
many takers during epidemics. While it is hard for government bodies to curb such practices,
what they must never do is to endorse them. Yet, there are growing instances of exactly this
happening. For example, last year the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research launched
an anti-diabetic herbal pill called BGR-34 on the strength of what appeared to be very poor
evidence. One of the several ingredients of nilavembu kudineer comes from a plant called
Andrographis paniculata, which appears in herbal medicine systems across South Asia. As is
often the case with such herbs, some evidence exists for its potency against a range of
illnesses. For example, A. paniculata is known to inhibit the dengue virus in animal cells in a
laboratory, and to reduce symptoms of respiratory tract infections in small human trials. But
innumerable other herbal remedies also show such early promise. Sadly, only a tiny handful of
these remedies go on to prove their efficacy in large-scale, placebo-controlled human trials,
the gold standard of modern medicine. This is because the science of developing drugs from
medicinal plants is complicated. Poly-herbal remedies like nilavembu are a mix of several
compounds, while most of modern medicine relies on single-compounds. Plus, the amount of
the active ingredient the compound in a herb that acts against an illness varies across
plants. So drugmakers have to find a way to identify this ingredient and test it in large- scale
trials. This exercise requires not only massive financial investment but also intellectual
honesty.
Unfortunately, too many attempts in India by the government to validate traditional medicine
are driven less by honesty and more by blind faith. This has led to the promotion of herbal
remedies with scant evidentiary basis. Against this background, the endorsement of
nilavembu even if it is not pushed as an alternative to allopathic medicine has its
consequences in the face of a deadly epidemic. It is possible that people will misconstrue a
supplement for a cure. The risk of patients who need medical attention, such as those with
dengue haemorrhagic fever, opting for this drug instead of rushing to a hospital should not be
underestimated. So far dengue has made over 87,000 people sick across the country, while
killing over 150. Both numbers are underestimations, given the governments poor
surveillance systems. At a time when modern medicine is advancing towards greater
transparency and replicability in clinical evidence, the governments claims on nilavembu
arent fooling anyone in the scientific community. But these are misleading laypeople in ways
that can hurt them. This is a matter of shame.
EDITORIAL
A first step: On Multi Commodity Exchange

OCTOBER 20, 2017 00:15 IST
The debut of gold options should be seen as a step towards greater reforms
W ith the introduction of a new financial instrument, India is a step closer to

building a vibrant market for commodities. Success in the long journey, however,
will require avoiding some policy mistakes of the past. The Multi Commodity Exchange
has introduced gold option contracts for the first time in India. The derivative instrument
allows investors to enter into contracts to either buy or sell gold some time in the future at
a pre-determined price, thus allowing investors to hedge any volatility in the price of the
metal, for a price. The fact that options usually also turn out to be cheaper than binding
future agreements will help in the wider participation of investors in the realm of
commodity speculation. As Finance Minister Arun Jaitley stated during the launch of the
derivative at the MCX, gold options will also help bring into formal channels more of the
gold that is traded. Notably, the introduction of gold options is in line with the
governments announcement last year that it would take steps towards introducing new
varieties of commodity derivatives in the market. MCX, in fact, has said it might seek
permission to write options contracts on other commodities which, based on their current
futures trading volumes, satisfy rules set by SEBI. To improve market efficiency, the market
regulator is also mulling the entry of mutual funds and portfolio management services
into the business of investing in commodity derivatives.
Naturally, some concerns have been expressed over financial speculation. The benefits of
well-regulated commodity speculation, however, are likely to outweigh the potential
systemic risk from asset bubbles. Options, like other financial derivatives, allow price risks
to be transferred between market players in an efficient manner. The business of
anticipating prices in the future is left to professional speculators while their clients
benefit from the prospect of stable prices. In the process, financial derivatives can facilitate
the conduct of real economic activity in higher risk segments including in agriculture
and industrial activity that would not happen otherwise. Confusion over this has led to
an unjustified hostility towards financial speculation, as well as some hasty policy
measures. Almost a decade ago, a rapid increase in food prices pushed the government to
impose a blanket ban on any speculation on agricultural products. While it may have been
relevant for the specific circumstances, the wide-ranging nature of the move slowed the
development of a healthy market for commodity speculation. The government should now
resist similar temptation and focus instead on real-time monitoring systems. Apart from
the standardised derivatives approved by SEBI for trading in exchanges, a framework that
promotes over-the-counter products will help improve the scope for risk mitigation. The
debut of gold options should be seen as a step towards greater reforms.
EDITORIAL
West Asia, post-IS: On wresting Raqqa

OCTOBER 20, 2017 00:15 IST
As the IS loses yet another stronghold, a post-conict road map is essential
T he capture of Raqqa, the Islamic States de facto capital in Syria, by U.S.-backed

Kurdish and Arab troops this week is a crushing blow to the group. The IS, which
once controlled territories as large as the U.K., is now concentrated in some pockets in Iraq
and Syria. It lost Mosul, Iraqs second largest city, to government troops earlier this year.
With the loss of Raqqa to the Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), its self-proclaimed Caliphate
is now practically over. The last major population centre the group has control over is
eastern Syrias Deir ez-Zor, which is also increasingly under attack by Russia-backed Syrian
government troops. In both Iraq and Syria, though different actors battled the IS, the
strategy to counter the group was almost similar. In Iraq, government troops were joined
by Kurdish Peshmerga and Shia militias in ground battles while the U.S. provided air cover.
In Syria, the SDF, with cover by U.S. aircraft cover, and Syrian government forces aided by
the Russian Air Force opened multiple fronts against the IS. Under pressure from all sides,
the group finally crumbled. Its high-tech propaganda, which telecast beheadings and mass
shootings, is now absent. Its organisational network is a shambles. Its top leaders are either
dead or on the run. But the war is not over yet.
The IS was originally an insurgent group that transformed itself into a proto-state with a
global appeal. That state is militarily destroyed, but IS, the movement, is far from over. As
al-Qaeda in Iraq, the ISs predecessor, retreated to the deserts and regrouped during 2008-
2011, the IS could also retreat to the lawless parts of Iraq and Syria and wait for the right
moment to strike back. With terror attacks in faraway locations such as Paris and Brussels
and lone wolf attacks by individuals inspired by its world view, the IS has already proved it
could continue its lethal campaign even while under military pressure. And the geopolitics
of West Asia suggests that the troubled, chaotic countries from where the IS emerged are
likely to continue being troubled in the near future. Till now a common enemy had
brought them together. With the IS challenge fading, cracks are visible in the coalition.
Iraqi government troops and the Kurdish Peshmerga which fought together against the
IS in Mosul are now fighting each other in Kirkuk. Even in Syria, once the IS is defeated
the regime could turn its focus on the Kurdish autonomous region. Turkey too has raised
strong opposition to Washington arming the Kurds. Such voices will only grow in strength
with the Kurds gaining increasing prominence in the battlefield. Now the question is
whether the stakeholders have a larger vision for a post-IS West Asia in which the
fundamental issues that helped the rise of groups like the IS can be addressed. Mere
military victories do not usher in long-term changes.
EDITORIAL
Darjeeling deadlock: On elusive peace

OCTOBER 21, 2017 00:02 IST
Delhi and Kolkata must urgently sink their differences and hold tripartite talks
T he 104-day shutdown in the Darjeeling hills called by the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha
(GJM) may have been lifted in late September, but peace remains elusive. A host of
factors is responsible for this, not least the sparring between the Centre and the West Bengal
government over who should determine the next steps. That they are not on the same page
was evident in the way the deployment of troops in the region was handled. On October 15,
the Union Home Ministry wrote to the State government that it was calling back 10 of the 15
companies of the Central Armed Police Forces posted in the hills. In response, two days later
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee moved the Calcutta High Court and got a stay. What is more
worrying is that the situation on the ground remains tense and fluid. GJM chief Bimal Gurung
is on the run. While the announcement to end the shutdown had come from him after the
Centre appealed to protesters and offered to talk, the State government has raided his
properties, lodged several cases against him, including for misappropriation of funds and
triggering violence. It has issued an arrest warrant against Mr. Gurung and declared him a
proclaimed offender. In an attempt to exploit differences within the GJM, the State
government propped up rebel Gorkha leader Binoy Tamang, naming him chief of a new board
of administrators to head the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration, which had been set up in
2012 as a semi-autonomous body. Mr. Tamangs elevation has divided GJM followers. Ms.
Banerjee has also been holding all-party meetings the next one is to be on November 21 in
Darjeeling to arrive at a solution, with the GJM represented by the rebel faction.
With peace yet to be restored fully, the Central and State governments need to urgently sink
their differences, hold tripartite talks and meaningfully empower the GTA. The economy of
the Darjeeling hills has taken a severe hit with both the tea and tourism industries having
suffered huge losses and struggling to chart a way out. The tea industry, for example, lost
almost all its second flush crop, with losses estimated at 400 crore and counting. With
uncertainty prevailing in the hills and winter setting in, there is anxiety over whether the
gardens will be ready for the premium first flush crop which is harvested between February
and April. Tourists have begun to trickle back, but the peak season is over. With the West
Bengal government looking to be in no mood to talk to Mr. Gurung, the political crisis is far
from over. It was Ms. Banerjees initial statement that Bengali would be made compulsory in
the State, including in the hills, that revived the Gorkhaland stir. She later retracted it but
securing the peace will take a more conciliatory attitude by all stakeholders the Centre, the
State government and the GJM factions.
Printable version | Oct 24, 2017 5:40:39 PM |
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/darjeeling-deadlock/article19891544.ece
EDITORIAL
Back to the ballot: On Kenyan polls

OCTOBER 21, 2017 00:02 IST
The Kenyan President and his main challenger are yet to rise to the demands of the
occasion.
B arely days before the contentious rerun of the presidential election in Kenya on October
26, the CEO of its electoral board, Ezra Chiloba, has announced that he is going on three
weeks leave. Incumbent Uhuru Kenyatta had won the August 8 election, but it was
subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court. He remains the only serious candidate in the
fray. His principal rival and four-time contender, Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition
National Super Alliance, quit the race last week demanding a comprehensive overhaul of the
electoral commission. It is not clear if Mr. Chilobas temporary removal from the scene will be
enough to persuade him to change his mind. Mr. Odinga may have gambled that his boycott of
the election would prompt a postponement of the poll, thereby averting a victory for Mr.
Kenyatta, thus buying the opposition some time. In the event, the contest is expected to
proceed on schedule, even if it means that it will be a limited fray. The prevailing scenario is, in
effect, a continuation of the fluid situation on the ground, where scores of people have been
killed in the political turmoil of recent months. It also sheds light on the fragile nature of
Kenyas democratic institutions more than 50 years after it won freedom from colonial rule.
Two ethnic communities the Kikuyu, represented by Mr. Kenyatta, and the Kalenjin, by
Deputy President William Ruto have mostly occupied the countrys leadership positions. As
a nation that embraced multi-party democracy in the 1990s, Kenyas corridors of power are yet
to reflect its rich cultural diversity.
Marking a watershed moment on that journey is the exemplary assertion of judicial

independence by Kenyas Supreme Court, which overturned the outcome of the August poll.
In a strong indictment of the election commission in September, a majority ruled that the
popular exercise was not conducted in a manner consistent with the constitution. One judge
even made a reference to the electoral bodys refusal to allow the court access to its computer
servers as having lent credence to the oppositions claim of manipulation. But the courts
opinion has apparently had little impact on Mr. Kenyatta, who has enacted emergency
legislation to circumscribe the powers of the election body and the courts. Clearly, a robust
championing of the rule of law will be needed in the days and months ahead. Nothing is more
urgent for Kenya than political stability, transparency and a government that is accountable to
its people. The international community erred on the side of caution with its positive
assessment of the elections in August. But U.S. and European diplomats are now unambiguous
in their criticism of both Mr. Kenyatta and Mr. Odinga, who have adopted unreasonable and
unrealistic positions in the face of the volatile situation. It is time the two men heeded better
sense.
EDITORIAL
Unacceptable fetters: on the Rajasthan ordinance

OCTOBER 23, 2017 00:02 IST
Rajasthans ordinance shields the corrupt, threatens the media and whistle-blowers
T he Rajasthan ordinance making it a punishable offence to disclose the names of public

servants facing allegations of corruption before the government grants formal sanction to
prosecute them is a grave threat to media freedom and the publics right to know. In recent times,
the legislative mood is consolidating towards adding more layers of protection to officials from
corruption cases. While no one can object to genuine measures aimed at insulating honest
officials from frivolous or motivated charges of wrong-doing, there can be no justification for the
Vasundhara Raje government to prescribe a two-year prison term for disclosing the identity of
the public servants concerned. Section 228-B, the newly introduced Indian Penal Code offence
that relates to acts done in the course of discharging official functions, is a direct threat to the
functioning of the media and whistle-blowers. It is a patently unreasonable restriction on
legitimate journalism and activism against venality. In addition, the Criminal Laws (Rajasthan
Amendment) Ordinance, 2017 fetters judicial magistrates from ordering an investigation without
prior sanction, as an additional shield for public servants who already enjoy the protection of
Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, and Section 19 of the Prevention of Corruption
Act, 1988, which make prior sanction mandatory before a court can take cognizance of a case. It
may even paralyse an impending probe, as no investigating agency can approach a sanctioning
authority without gathering any material.
This is the first time a section prescribing punishment for disclosure is being introduced in India,
though provisions barring investigation or prosecution without prior sanction are also in force in
Maharashtra. However, the time limit for the sanctioning authority to act is 180 days in
Rajasthan, and 90 days in Maharashtra. The Union government, too, has a set of amendments to
the Prevention of Corruption Act pending since 2013, including a proviso for prior sanction. The
Supreme Court verdict of May 2014 striking down a statutory provision for prior government
clearance for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe against officials of the rank of joint
secretary and above is the touchstone against which the constitutionality of the pre-investigation
sanction requirement will be tested. The court had observed that such a provision destroys the
objective of anti-corruption legislation, blocks the truth from surfacing, thwarts independent
investigation and forewarns corrupt officers. Anti-corruption legislation in India seems to be in a
state of unacceptable flux. Amendments, including those redefining criminal misconduct among
public servants so that bona fide decisions by officials do not result in corruption charges, are yet
to be passed. The Lokpal Act is yet to be operationalised. It is time the Centre enforced a strong
body of legislation that punishes the corrupt, protects the honest, and ensures time-bound public
services and whistle-blower safety. Nothing less will behove a government ostensibly keen on
bringing down the edifice of corruption.
EDITORIAL
Cycle of terror: on the many deadly attacks in Afghanistan

OCTOBER 23, 2017 00:02 IST
A string of deadly attacks highlights the strategic muddle in Afghanistan
T he multiple terror attacks that killed at least 200 people in Afghanistan last week has
set alarm bells ringing in Kabul. That the attacks occurred at a time when the United
States was putting to work its new strategy to stabilise Afghanistan underscores the resolve of
the militants to stay the course of insurgency. Most of these attacks were carried out by the
Taliban. On Friday, bombings in two Shia mosques killed more than 80 people, mostly Shias,
for which the Islamic State has claimed responsibility. The security situation in Afghanistan is
increasingly worsening. If the government faced only one major armed insurgency till a
couple of years ago, now it has to fight on many fronts. While the Taliban, which control
almost half of the country, are focussing largely on government buildings and security
personnel, the ISs local branch, known as the Khorasan Province, is waging a bloody sectarian
war. Fridays was the sixth major attack this year on Shia shrines. While the Afghan
government has issued a strong statement reiterating its resolve to fight terror, such words
will not inspire confidence unless an international coalition strengthens Kabuls capacity to
enforce the rule of law. Civilian war-related deaths have risen since 2012, when 2,769 people
were killed. Last year the toll was about 3,500, according to the UN.

ALSO READ
The U.S. has made several promises vis--vis Afghanistan. But after 16
years of war, the worlds largest military force appears to be as clueless as
the Afghan army on how to put an end to the conflict. One option, as
many diplomats have pointed out, is to engage the Taliban directly, while
IS claims
responsibility
continuing the fight against other terror groups such as al-Qaeda and
for Afghan the IS. The Obama administration had expressed the willingness to talk.
mosque attack
But such attempts did not take off amid problems including the Talibans
ambitions, the American drone campaign against their leaders and
Kabuls inability to pursue a bold deal, let alone Pakistans dual play. The latest wave of Taliban
attacks occurred days after officials from four countries the U.S., China, Pakistan and
Afghanistan met in Oman, seeking ways to revive peace talks. The attacks are a message
from the Taliban that they are least interested in talks. Why should they be, at a time when
they are on the offensive? An outright military victory in Afghanistan appears remote, given
the Talibans swelling networks and the support they enjoy in rural areas. But an outright
victory looks impossible for the Taliban too as long as the U.S. remains committed to
Afghanistan. This makes peace talks the only practical way forward. But Kabul and the
coalition should first restore Afghan confidence in the governments ability to govern, before
reaching out to the Taliban.
EDITORIAL
The Abe manoeuvre

OCTOBER 24, 2017 00:02 IST
With a stronger win, Japans PM can go ahead with economic and constitutional reform
P rime Minister Shinz Abes Liberal Democratic Party has secured a resounding victory for a
third term in the poll to the Lower House of Japans Diet. The development bucks the recent
trend in advanced economies of incumbents being returned with much-reduced margins. A
vindication of his decision to call elections a year ahead of schedule, the outcome increases Mr. Abes
prospects of winning a third term next year as leader of his conservative party and becoming Japans
longest-serving premier. The deeper import of the verdict, however, lies in the requisite two-thirds
mandate to press ahead with plans to revise the countrys U.S.-backed post-War pacifist constitution
to reflect current geopolitical realities. The prospect of securing such a large majority had seemed in
doubt given the public scepticism over amending the charter, coupled with a drop in Mr. Abes
personal ratings. Now, having cleared that hurdle, he would hope to garner support to accord legal
status to the Japan Self-Defence Forces, leaving intact the no-war provisions in the 1947 constitution.
In this, he would count on the backdrop of escalating tensions over North Koreas nuclear
belligerence and Chinas growing military influence in the region. But public approval of the
proposal in a plebiscite will be the all-important challenge. Sundays verdict was otherwise largely a
foregone conclusion, as the charismatic Governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, did not even contest the
race from the new platform she had launched, the Party of Hope. In any case, her fundamentally
conservative orientation, even on the constitution, left voters with no real alternative. The
opposition Democratic Party, facing months of internal turmoil, initially considered fielding
candidates under the banner of Ms. Koikes party. But the latters insistence on a loyalty test for
nominees led to a split within the opposition.

ALSO READ
With a firm mandate, the government should be able to focus more on the
Abenomics strategy to further stimulate growth and demand. A June
assessment of the International Monetary Fund points to the countrys
sustained growth and record unemployment as evidence of the success of the
Japan
introduces
model. Also significant is the Funds support for the Bank of Japans continued
negative loose monetary policy in the face of weak demand. Mr. Abes poll promise to
interest rate to
boost economy
further boost the fiscal stimulus should please critics who say that concerns
over public debt were being overplayed. Whereas Mr. Abe is weighing a sharp
increase in the controversial consumption tax up to 10% by 2019, the Fund has proposed a more
calibrated approach. Such an alternative may be the right course in a country with a declining
working-age population, and faced with persistently low consumer spending. Mr. Abe has his eyes set
on seeing the country through the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Japan will by then be a very different
country from what it was in 1964, when it first hosted the Summer Games.
Printable version | Oct 24, 2017 4:59:46 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-abe-
manoeuvre/article19907517.ece
The Hindu
EDITORIAL
Facts in fiction: on 'Mersal' row

OCTOBER 24, 2017 00:02 IST
In attacking a lm, BJP leaders have shown intolerance and ignorance of the law
W hat are facts in a work of fiction? Are they to be treated as incontrovertible truth or as a
licence of creative imagination? In the answers to these questions lies the key to
understanding the most pressing issue currently occupying the mind space of the politicians of
the Bharatiya Janata Party in Tamil Nadu. Over the past week, senior State leaders of the party
have been busy ferreting out references to contemporary realities in a film, Mersal, and testing
them against their very own touchstone of truth. They now want the deletion of particular scenes
on the goods and services tax regime (because these are factually incorrect) as well as those on the
health care situation in the country (because these are critical of the government). India is no
stranger to threats to freedom of expression whether in art and movies or in news and academic
publishing, whether from organised civilian groups or from the government. From time to time,
all sorts of self-identified groups have claimed to be offended by something or the other that they
imagined to be an affront to their shared culture or communal heritage. In this Republic of Hurt
Sentiments, religion, caste, language and geography have been variously invoked by such groups
to mobilise opposition to some perceived insult in a painting or a motion picture. Controversial
sections of the Indian Penal Code such as 153A, which prohibits the promotion of enmity
between different groups, and 295A, which prohibits insult of religious beliefs, are routinely used
to silence voices or harass those who hold dissenting views.

ALSO READ
The cynical manipulation of such sections of the law is bad enough. But the
censorship demand of the Tamil Nadu BJP has touched a whole new level of
absurdity. There is not even a bad provision in the law that bars criticism of
the government, whether in newspapers or in films. Mersal is a pure work of
Vishal tears into
H. Raja; Kamal, fiction, and if the lead actor got his facts about GST in a twist, this is best left
Rajini bat for to film critics and the audience to react to. To seek cuts in a film on the
Mersal
ground that some of the spoken words are false is ludicrous. By this token,
there would be no place for fairy tales in cinema, no role for satire, allegory
or hyperbole. Initially, the films producers seemed to have been taken aback by the BJPs
intimidatory demand that the offending scenes be cut. However, the groundswell of support
from the film fraternity and the public bolstered their confidence in fighting the threat. Given
that the BJP is not much of a political force in Tamil Nadu, the entire controversy over Mersal has
a farcical character to it. But it is impossible to ignore what may have happened had the party
succeeded in arm-twisting the film-makers into effecting the changes it demanded. This would
have sent out a chilling message to the entire film industry.
Printable version | Oct 24, 2017 5:46:30 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/facts-
in-fiction/article19907516.ece
The Hindu
EDITORIAL
GST afterthoughts
OCTOBER 25, 2017 00:02 IST
The government must work double-quick to x the GST regime
T he Centre is clearly stepping up its bid to address concerns about the fledgling goods and
services tax regime. In what is being seen as official recognition that drastic action is called
for, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia conceded in an interview over the weekend that it is
possible that differential treatment to some similar items may not necessarily be fair. The rates
will be revised, he indicated, wherever small and medium businesses and the common man face
a big burden. While GST has brought 27 lakh new registered entities into formal tax coverage in
its first three months, just over half of those in the GST net are paying taxes and filing tax returns.
September GST collections stood at 92,150 crore by Monday compared to over 95,000 crore in
July, its first month. Separately, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday sought to assure
traders that anyone joining the GST net will not be harassed by taxmen seeking scrutiny of their
past records. These latest statements of intent cap the overtures the Centre has made over the
past three weeks to display its commitment to fix the flaws in the new tax regime, starting with
the Prime Ministers October 4 promise to address the woes of small businesses and exporters.

ALSO READ
With Mr. Adhia now saying that the GST regime will take a year to stabilise
Good and
simple tax: on and the government signalling a major revamp in the coming days, we may
the GST regime
still be some distance away from seeing the final shape of Indias one-
nation, one-tax plan. The commitment to correct course is welcome. But the
real question is the timing and sequencing of changes. At the last GST
Council meeting, rates of over two dozen items were reset, taking such rate
changes since July 1 to over 100 while some procedural and compliance-
related norms were eased. But many measures announced on October 6
havent been implemented swiftly enough refunds to exporters, for instance, have been slow
due to cumbersome norms for reconciling records. This should be a cue for the government to
consider doing away with the stringent requirement for matching invoices in order to allow input
tax credits, which is impeding the uptake of the new tax. On November 10, the Council is expected
to take up more rate revisions, process simplification and the inclusion of real estate in the GST
regime. Excessive tinkering with rates indicates that the initial levies were not thought through.
While at one level, high or incongruent rate structures have driven small and medium enterprises
to the wall, at another level, entire product categories are under threat of disappearing, such as
eco-friendly hybrid cars. Lastly, given the amount of damage control the government has
embarked on, in comparison with its spirited defence of the preparedness for a July 1 roll-out,
there needs to be some real introspection about why those at the top were led to believe all GST
systems were ready to fire.
Printable version | Oct 25, 2017 10:20:49 AM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/gst-

afterthoughts/article19913585.ece
EDITORIAL
Talk is good: on initiating dialogue within Jammu and

Kashmir
OCTOBER 25, 2017 00:02 IST
An interlocutor for J&K is welcome, and dialogue must be as broadbased as possible
T he Centres announcement of an interlocutor to initiate dialogue within Jammu and

Kashmir is a welcome step that has the potential to arrest the dangerous drift in the Valley
since the death of Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in January 2016. The appointment of
Dineshwar Sharma, a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, as a special representative also
signals a willingness on the part of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre to walk back from
some of its hardened positions: this comes three years after Home Minister Rajnath Singh had
called such an exercise non-productive. Every interlocutor appointed for Kashmir by New Delhi
has come to the task in trying circumstances, but none more so than Mr. Sharma. While his
appointment allows Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti to check off an item (to facilitate and
initiate dialogue with all internal stakeholders) on the Agenda of Alliance, the binding
document of her Peoples Democratic Partys coalition with the BJP, making such a dialogue
meaningful will be a challenging task. For one, there needs to be more clarity from the Centre on
the latitude available to Mr. Sharma to confer with individuals and groups in J&K. The recent raids
by the National Investigation Agency, among many pro-active measures against separatists, could
influence any outreach to Hurriyat leaders, for example. The Hurriyat, without doubt, stands very
isolated, but the interlocutor will have to broadbase his schedule significantly to have any chance
of winning the interest of civil society in the Valley.

ALSO READ
Mr. Sharma also comes to the Kashmir Valley too long after Ms. Mufti
assumed the Chief Ministers post in April 2016, since when she has
struggled to hold the reins of power as assuredly as her father did. It also
comes too long after the stone-pelting protests and the security forces
Dialogue is
open to all:
indiscriminate use of pellet guns after Hizbul Mujahideen commander
Mehbooba Mufti Burhan Wanis killing hit normal life in the summer of 2016, and
subsequently polarised the debate on the next steps. The NDA government
has waited more than a year, in which time the valorisation of slain
militants has acquired its own momentum and the leadership that protesters heed has become
more diffuse. The security situation has deteriorated in other ways too, ranging from militant
attacks on Kashmiri policemen to the regular breaches of ceasefire with Pakistan on the border. In
fact, the gains of the decade since the 2003 ceasefire have been frittered away. A new generation of
youth has taken to militancy since 2013, at least 200 by official estimates. The most poignant
evidence of the drift and anxiety in the Valley has been the mystifying allegations of and protests
over braid-chopping. Dialogue is vital. For it to be more than a headline-management exercise,
the Central and State governments must rein in the hardliners to enable a genuinely conciliatory
environment.
EDITORIAL
The life of Xi
OCTOBER 26, 2017 00:02 IST
The Communist Party Congress signals his growing power and Chinas assertiveness
W hen Xi Jinping was elected the leader of China and the Communist Party five years ago,
many had predicted that he would become the most powerful leader since Deng
Xiaoping, the architect of the countrys economic rise. They may be wrong. With the 19th party
congress, which concluded on Tuesday and has written his name and ideas into the party
constitution, Mr. Xi now appears to be the strongest leader since Mao Zedong. This amassing of
Mao-like powers could also allow Mr. Xi to stay in power beyond the usual two terms. Two of Mr.
Xis predecessors had stepped down after two terms to ensure an orderly transition in the party
and the government, where there is no dearth of talented and ambitious leaders. The practice has
been for the mid-term party congress to choose the likely successor of the incumbent and groom
him over five years to eventually take over the reins. However, the party doesnt seem to have
chosen anyone this time. All five new faces in the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee,
the highest decision-making body in China, are in their 60s, which lends credence to speculation
that Mr. Xi is not planning to step down when his second term ends in 2022. Even if he does step
down from the government, given the stature he has already achieved within the party, he could
retain a Deng-like sway over policy matters.

ALSO READ
In Mr. Xis world view, China has passed two eras the revolutionary era
launched by Mao and the economic reforms spearheaded by Deng. The Xi
Jinping thought on socialism with Chinese characteristics for a New Era
that has been written into the party charter marks a new era. This one is
Xi Jinping
unveils Chinas
about making China economically stronger and geopolitically more
new leadership influential. In his three-and-a-half-hour speech at the congress, Mr. Xi
lineup
placed great emphasis on strengthening the military and resisting the
whole range of erroneous viewpoints. The message is that the era of
peaceful rise is over. The more combative foreign policy Mr. Xis administration is pursuing will
continue, perhaps more aggressively, while at home he will consolidate more power. But this
doesnt mean it will be a cakewalk. If China takes a more aggressive, militaristic view of its
neighbourhood, it could trigger an aggressive response from neighbours such as India and Japan.
North Korea remains as much a foreign policy problem for Mr. Xi as for President Donald Trump.
Chinas export-oriented economy is still not free from the global economic whirlwinds. Mr. Xi
will have to factor in global market concerns while taking key economic decisions at home.
Besides, though the transition in the Communist Party has been orderly at least in the last 30
years, it was not free from troubles. Mr. Xi would be mindful of how he projects his own power,
lest it triggers a backlash. The challenge before him is to find a balance between his ambitions and
the realities that China confronts today.
Printable version | Oct 26, 2017 12:22:50 PM | http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/the-

life-of-xi/article19919644.ece
EDITORIAL
Pursuit of growth: PSB recapitalisation

OCTOBER 26, 2017 00:02 IST
Recapitalisation of public sector banks should set the sector well on the path to recovery
T he Centres decision to infuse 2.11 lakh crore of fresh capital into public sector banks
over the next two years, through a blend of financial mechanisms, should help revive the
growth momentum. Saddled with bad loans as well as stressed assets of close to 10 lakh crore,
Indias banking sector has been naturally wary in recent quarters of extending fresh loans, as
reflected in bank credit growth slipping to a 60-year low of just 5% this April. Since its first year in
office, the government has been seized of what Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian calls
the twin balance-sheet problem. If over-leveraged companies are unable to invest or borrow
afresh, and banks are unwilling or/and unable to finance fresh investments, a private
investment-led recovery is unlikely. However, it was only late last year that a new bankruptcy law
was introduced, and over the course of this year the Reserve Bank of India has asked banks to
invoke insolvency proceedings in the case of 50-odd accounts if settlements remain elusive.
Banks, under pressure from the RBI to acknowledge the stress on their books, face the prospect of
taking heavy haircuts to write off some of these loans at whatever residual value remains in the
businesses. When combined with their need to scale up their capital base to comply with Basel III
norms, public sector banks have naturally been in damage control mode rather than chasing
growth like their private sector peers.

ALSO READ
The three-part package for lenders includes 18,000 crore from the Budget,
58,000 crore that banks can raise from the market (possibly by tapping the
significant room available to dilute the governments equity that remains
well over 51%) and the issue of recapitalisation bonds worth 1.35 lakh
Govt. may get
equity from
crore. Though there are still many unknowns about the nature of these bond
PSBs for issues (whether they will affect fiscal deficit calculations or be off-balance-
recapitalisation
bonds: CEA
sheet sovereign liabilities, for instance), the overall plan gives banks a better
sense about their immediate future. The bonds will front-load capital
infusion while staggering the fiscal impact, which Mr. Subramanian expects to be limited to the
annual interest costs on these bonds of about 9,000 crore. The Centre is betting this will
strengthen the banks ability to extend credit at a faster clip. RBI Governor Urjit Patel has said this
is the first time in a decade that there is a real chance of meeting the banking sectors challenges.
But it is still a long haul. While more details on this package are awaited, including how banks will
be picked for funding and the possible interplay with proposed mergers of banks, equally critical
will be the reforms that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has promised as a necessary adjunct. Banks
are where they are, not just because of capital constraints but also because of their inefficiencies
and past lending overdrives.
Printable version | Oct 26, 2017 12:20:32 PM |

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/pursuit-of-growth/article19919642.ece
EDITORIAL
Czech churn: on billionaire Andrej Babi' most likely win

OCTOBER 27, 2017 00:02 IST
A billionaire businessman could unsettle the establishment in Prague
E lecting businessmen who claim to offer something better than the established order
is not just an American temptation, as the results of last weeks parliamentary
election in the Czech Republic show. Billionaire Andrej Babis party ANO (Action for
Dissatisfied Citizens, but ano is also Czech for yes) won 30% of the vote, making the
second richest man in the Czech Republic its most likely future Prime Minister. Mr. Babis
business ventures include food, chemicals, two of the countrys leading newspapers, radio
stations and a news portal. While ANO is part of the outgoing coalition, he established a
political foothold on an anti-establishment and anti-corruption platform, promising to cut
through cronyism and to run the state more like a business. Ironically, Mr. Babi himself is
embroiled in controversies. He is currently being investigated by the European Union for
his alleged misuse of EU subsidies in financing a construction project. How Mr. Babi, who
during the 1980s used to work for a state trading company in what is now Slovakia,
established himself so powerfully in the business world following the formation of the
Czech Republic in 1993 is unclear. Slovakias top constitutional court has recently
overturned a decision by lower courts to exonerate him of ties with the StB, the former
communist regimes secret police. This is likely to complicate an already complex situation
following last weeks vote, which saw mainstream parties taking a beating. Given the
fractured mandate, ANO will need at least two other parties to form a viable coalition.

ALSO READ
The Social Democrats, who have led the incumbent government in a
coalition with ANO and the Christian Democrats, got just 7.3% of the
vote, down from 20.5% in 2013. The election has also seen the growth
of the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy Party (SPD), which
Five things to
know about the
won about 11% of the vote. The party, run by Tokyo-born Tomio
Czech Republic Okamura, wants to take the Czech Republic out of the EU, bring
immigration down to zero and ban propagation of Islam. Despite the
fact that the Czech economy is doing reasonably well and there is low
unemployment, candidates have played on fears around immigration. Mr. Babi himself
used this to his advantage during the campaign. Mr. Babi has indicated he is pro-EU and
pro-NATO but is against the blocs migration policies, has ruled out joining the euro and
seems to view the EU mostly through the prism of trade. The relationship with Brussels is
tense, with the EU already having started infringement proceedings against the country for
not accepting its share of migrants to the EU under a 2015 deal. Meanwhile, the fact that
Mr. Babi has transferred his business to a trust does little to assuage concerns over the
power he would wield. Those within the republic as well as in the neighbourhood have
legitimate cause for concern.
EDITORIAL
The Gujarat stakes: on Assembly election 2017

OCTOBER 27, 2017 00:02 IST
Congress needs a cohesive agenda if it wants to push back the BJP in PM Modis home
State
It is in no small part due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Bharatiya Janata Party
president Amit Shah that Gujarat wields a disproportionately high influence on national
politics. The so-called Gujarat model of development was an important part of the BJPs
campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. To say that the Gujarat Assembly election of 2012
had a huge bearing on the parliamentary election that followed in less than two years will be
no exaggeration. For the same reasons, Gujarat 2017 carries an additional layer of
importance: whether for the Congress or the BJP, a win or a loss will cast a much longer
shadow until the summer of 2019. The two-phase polls on December 9 and 14 will thus be
keenly fought, with the BJP seeking a sixth straight win, and the Congress trying for a
breakthrough against all odds. The timing of the announcement of the election schedule
itself became a controversy, as Chief Election Commissioner A.K. Joti faced criticism for
delaying it till after Mr. Modi had made two more visits to Gujarat to inaugurate projects and
announce new schemes. The argument that flood relief work in the State would have been
affected if the schedule had been announced along with that of the election in Himachal
Pradesh, which is ruled by the Congress, was not very convincing. One, relief work had been
mostly completed, and two, the Model Code of Conduct would not have stood in the way of
such works.

ALSO READ
However, when the votes are counted, what would have mattered is not
the two-week delay in the announcement, but the BJPs performance
over the last five years. Also the Congresss ability to offer a viable
alternative. On the debit side of the political ledger for the BJP, Mr. Modi
De-linked polls
with reason: CEC
is not the chief ministerial candidate in Gujarat and may not be able to
on Gujarat cash in on his charisma the way he did in previous elections. The three
assembly
elections years since Mr. Modi moved to the Centre have not been the best for
Gujarat in terms of governance. The BJP had to replace Anandiben Patel,
who succeeded Mr. Modi as Chief Minister, with Vijay Rupani in order to infuse more life
into the administration. But the Congress does not seem to be well-placed to press the
advantage. It is reduced to seeking the support of leaders of caste groups to make a dent in
the BJPs vote bank. The wooing of the Patidar leader Hardik Patel and Dalit leader Jignesh
Mevani, and the induction of Alpesh Thakor, a leader of a backward classes grouping, into the
Congress might have brought an accretion to its vote bank, but the party will not get far by
artificially yoking together leaders with support bases locked in social conflict. These
youthful leaders in the company of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi will need much
more in common than a desire to vote the BJP out. Without presenting a cohesive
programme, this nascent, loose alliance will have no game-changing impact.
EDITORIAL
Big vision, hazy detail: on India-US relations

OCTOBER 28, 2017 00:15 IST
India and U.S. have some way to go in charting the path to deeper strategic ties
O f the seven countries he visited last week, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
chose to focus on India while spelling out his strategic vision. Just before starting
the tour, he gave a speech on India-U.S. ties that was as broad as it was deep, talking of the
road ahead together for the next 100 years. He reserved his most ambitious words for the
role of India in the U.S.s plans in two spheres. In Afghanistan, as a part of President
Donald Trumps new South Asia policy, and in the Indo-Pacific, as part of U.S. plans to
counter Chinas influence and contain North Korea. On both counts, Mr. Tillersons talks
in New Delhi with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Prime Minister Narendra
Modi made progress in developing a common vision, but appear to have made little
movement on the specifics. For instance, he is said to have minced no words when it
came to tackling Pakistans support to terrorist safe havens. Yet, the groups he referred to
are not those that directly threaten India, but Afghanistan and, by extension, the U.S.
soldiers based there. As for Indian hopes of increasing trade and development aid to
Afghanistan through the Chabahar route, Mr. Tillersons assurance that Washington
does not seek to bar legitimate trade is welcome. However, it remains to be seen whether
India can significantly ramp up cooperation with Iran to further its interests in
Afghanistan at a time when the U.S. maintains its policy of isolating the Iranian
leadership.

ALSO READ
Finally, both Indian and U.S. officials spoke in detail, and in public
statements, about building an alternative coalition to counter
Chinas Belt and Road Initiative as well as its aggressive moves in the
South China Sea yet Mr. Tillerson did not add clarity on where the
Trump and the
new world
funding would come from. For its part, India desisted from any clear
disorder commitments on joint patrols to ensure freedom of navigation in
the SCS, or even on the foundational agreements the Indian and U.S.
militaries must conclude to deepen cooperation in the region. While
India and the U.S. have taken great strides in aligning their vision and their hopes for
future partnership, reality often trips up such lofty goals. One reason is geography
while American troops remain in Afghanistan, it is difficult for the U.S. to completely
disengage from Pakistan. For India, while a maritime relationship with the U.S. is
desirable, geographic proximity to China makes a very close alliance with the U.S.
difficult. The other issue pertains to the strategic confusion within Washington and Mr.
Trumps withdrawal from U.S. commitments in Asia, Europe and at the UN, drawing
questions about its reliability as a partner. Given this, it may have been too much to
expect more than the warm handshake and the encouraging words of hope Mr. Tillerson
delivered.
EDITORIAL
Paved with big words: on govt's strategy to rescue

economy
OCTOBER 28, 2017 00:15 IST
Revving up infrastructure spending is necessary, but not sufcient
T he Central government is betting on a two-pronged strategy, revealed this week, to

rescue the economy from the slowdown. Along with recapitalisation of public sector
banks, it announced a huge roads project, which will help scale up public spending on
infrastructure and boost job creation and growth. The plan is to spend almost 7 lakh crore
to build 83,677 km of highways, traversing mostly the northern and eastern parts of the
country, by March 2022. The government estimates that the Bharatmala Pariyojana, which
constitutes a major component of this plan, could itself create as many as 14.2 crore man-
days of work directly, in addition to permanent jobs after completion. The benefits to the
economy are likely to be significant if the programme, as envisaged, manages to successfully
connect 550 districts as well as coastal ports to national highways, among other things.
While it is hard to quantify the likely economic benefits from the project, Transport Minister
Nitin Gadkari expects the contribution to GDP to be significant. With money flowing in from
the government and market borrowings, funding is unlikely to be an issue. The same,
however, cannot be said about the other familiar challenges in the infrastructure space.

ALSO READ
With this massive roads project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may be
banking on replicating, or even bettering, the National Highways
Development Project of the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government. However,
its success will depend largely on how the government tackles
Economic
slowdown is
problems that have held back the implementation of infrastructure
real, not just projects over the last couple of decades. While 2.09 lakh crore of the
technical: SBI
Research 5.35 lakh crore Bharatmala investment will be funded by market
borrowings, over 1 lakh crore is expected to come in the form of
private investments. Private infrastructure companies already reeling in the aftermath of
aggressive past bids and leveraged balance sheets will need more clarity to be genuinely
interested in such projects. This is an opportune time for the government to bring out of
cold storage the blueprint for reviving public-private partnerships prepared about two
years ago by a panel headed by former Finance Secretary Vijay Kelkar. Just as it isnt clear
why the government waited three years to unleash the full gamut of reforms needed to fix
the banking sectors bad loan mess, it is difficult to understand why little has moved on the
PPP framework after the Kelkar report came in late-2015. The NDA governments very first
Budget allocated 500 crore to create a new body called 3P India to reboot the earlier PPP
route that had left several projects stranded, with developers fleeing in the face of execution
issues. That institution is still to see the light of day, while land acquisition reforms
attempted in the NDAs first year have also been abandoned. More attention is needed on
these fronts to ensure this infrastructure ramp-up delivers, and on time.
EDITORIAL
On U-17 World Cup: Splendid goal

OCTOBER 30, 2017 00:02 IST
With the U-17 World Cup successfully hosted, India must build on it with focus on
grassroots
T he first FIFA event on Indian soil has been an unqualified success. The Under-17
World Cup came to a close on Saturday with a riveting final in Kolkata, the quality
of the football exemplifying what the competition had been all about. There was little of
the dour, cautious play that is a feature of major finals at senior level; England and Spain
instead attacked with freedom, making for an engrossing spectacle, with England taking
the game away in the second half. The likes of Englands Phil Foden, adjudged player of
the tournament, and his team-mate Rhian Brewster, the top- scorer, are clearly stars in
the making. India embraced the tournament wholeheartedly, with the turnout over the
three weeks shattering previous attendance records for a FIFA youth tournament. Over
1.3 million people thronged the stadiums, with the crowds in football-crazy Kolkata in
particular a sight to behold. While the Guwahati semifinal had to be moved because rain
had damaged the turf, and there were issues with the distribution of drinking water on
the first match-day, things by and large went off smoothly. India proved it could deliver a
world-class event. And the improvement in infrastructure, with new training grounds
built and existing stadiums upgraded, should ensure a longer legacy for football in the
country.
Indias U-17 players got the sort of exposure and opportunity that they would not
otherwise have. The home team did not progress beyond the group stage which was
hardly a surprise but it was not completely embarrassed either. It was evident that with
more competitive experience the players could have registered a better performance. The
footballers captured the imagination of the public, with players like goalkeeper Dheeraj
Singh and midfielder Jeakson Singh, who became Indias first goal-scorer in a FIFA
tournament, becoming household names. Football, for once, took centre-stage. There is a
sense, as the local organising committees Project Director, Joy Bhattacharjya, put it, that
football has reached a tipping point in India with the U-17 World Cup. This moment must
be seized. Youth development in Indian football has hitherto been non-existent, except in
a few, devoted academies. More organised, competitive football, starting from the
youngest of age groups, is vital. A national U-15 league was started two years ago; a U-13
league is scheduled to begin soon. The 5-12 age group must now be the focus, with the
involvement of local clubs; in this regard, India is light years behind the worlds
footballing superpowers. The All India Football Federation has already expressed a desire
to host the FIFA U-20 World Cup in 2019. But having competently staged a global event, it
is more important now to focus on the grassroots. Else, the cheer that accompanied
Jeaksons strike against Colombia may remain only a memory.

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/splendid-goal/article19944794.ece
EDITORIAL
On appointment of judges: Questions over delay

OCTOBER 30, 2017 00:04 IST
see Annex
A fresh procedure for appointing judges should be evolved by consensus
T he move by the Supreme Court to seek an explanation from the government about
the delay in finalising a fresh Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the
appointment of judges in the higher judiciary raises more questions than answers. We do
not know, for instance, what is holding up the process. It is not clear whether the
government and the five-member Supreme Court Collegium have been unable to agree
on some significant aspects of the MoP. It is possible that the consultative process has
broken down and the government requires a nudge from the court to both explain the
delay and expedite the process. The matter came to the highest court after the Delhi High
Court dismissed an advocates challenge to the appointment of judges without a new MoP
being finalised as per the Supreme Courts December 2015 order. The two-judge Bench
hearing an appeal agreed with the high court, but wanted to consider a related prayer
that there should be no further delay in finalising the MoP and that it should provide for a
mechanism to avoid any undue delay in the appointment of chief justices for the various
high courts. At present, seven high courts have only acting chief justices. The Centre must
use this opportunity to throw some light on the status of the consultation between the
government and the Collegium. The delay in finalising a fresh procedure for
appointments is a cause for concern, as vacancies in the high courts have continued to
increase while the pace at which new judges are being appointed remains sluggish.
What is really worrisome is that two issues may come to be seen as deliberately inter-
linked: the delay in evolving a fresh procedure and the perceived tardiness in clearing and
making fresh appointments. In the two years since legislation seeking to create a
National Judicial Appointments Commission was struck down by a Constitution Bench,
there have been many instances of incumbent Chief Justices of India voicing dismay and
anguish over the rising number of vacancies. Mercifully, these potential flashpoints did
not turn into full-blown conflicts. This was possible because the appointments process,
though slow, was never stopped and the recommendations of the Collegium were being
processed and cleared by the Centre. That the same issue should crop up repeatedly is not
a good sign. When it is agreed in principle that having a fresh and transparent
appointments process is vital to institutional reform, it would be unfortunate if the two
sides are seen as being obdurate and inflexible on the new MoP. A judicial direction to the
government to notify a procedure approved by the Collegium will be an easy way out, but
it will not do anything to address the problem of judicial primacy being seen as
detrimental to judicial accountability. A consensus on this matter will be far more
conducive to the public interest.
http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/editorial/questions-over-delay/article19944793.ece
NATIONAL
SC questions Centre on judicial posts
Krishnadas Rajagopal
NEW DELHI, OCTOBER 27, 2017 23:51 IST
Court asks why nalisation of Memorandum of Procedure continues to linger
Over a year and 10 months after a Constitution Bench placed its faith in the government to iron
out the dos and don'ts of judicial appointments to the Supreme Court and the high courts, the
Centre is yet to deliver. Now, the court wants to know why.
On Friday, a Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit issued notice to the Attorney-General of
India, the Centre's top law officer, to explain why the finalisation of the Memorandum of
Procedure (MoP) for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts continues
to linger.
The Supreme Court also wants Attorney General K.K. Venugopal to address it on the delay in
appointment of regular Chief Justices to various high courts.
The apex court underlined that the arrangement of Acting Chief Justices in high courts should
not continue for more than a month.
Six of the 24 high courts have been without regular Chief Justices for months.
In the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Court, Justice Ramesh Ranganathan has been Acting
Chief Justice since July 30, 2016. Earlier this month, Justice H.G. Ramesh was appointed Acting
Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court, taking the tally of high courts with Acting Chief Justices to
seven.
An amicus curiae (literally, "friend of the court"; plural, amici curiae) is someone who is not a party to a case and is not solicited by a
party, but who assists a court by offering information that bears on the case. The decision on whether to admit the information lies at the
discretion of the court. I had always understood that the role of an amicus curiae was to help the court by expounding the law impartially,
or if one of the parties were unrepresented, by advancing the legal arguments on his behalf.
Amicus curiae appointed
The Bench posted the hearing for November 14 while appointing senior advocate K.V.
Vishwanathan as amicus curiae. It recorded in a written order that it has been about two years
since a five-judge Constitution Bench, in December 2015, tasked the Centre with the drafting and
finalisation of the MoP.
The decision to give the job to the government was an aftermath of the same Constitution Bench's
historic decision, in October 2015, to strike down the government's National Judicial
Appointments Commission (NJAC) law. The NJAC law had given politicians an equal say in
judicial appointments to constitutional courts. Justice Goel was one of the five judges on the
Constitution Bench.
Even though no time limit was fixed by this Court for finalisation of the MoP, the issue cannot
linger on for an indefinite period. The order of this Court is dated December 16, 2015, thus more
than one year and ten months have already gone by... We need to consider the prayer that there
should be no further delay in finalisation of MoP in larger public interest, Justice Goels Bench
noted in a three-page order while issuing notice to the Centre.
Now, with this three-page order, the Supreme Court has brought this prolonged gridlock between
the Collegium and the Centre out in the open.
Advocates plea
The hearing before Justice Goel's Bench was on the basis of a petition filed by advocate R.P. Luthra,
which besides questioning the delay in the finalisation of MoP, also raised the issue of delay in the
appointment of regular Chief Justices in high courts despite the recommendation of the Supreme
Court.
Justice Goel observed that there was substance in Mr. Luthras submissions about the undue delay
in the appointment of regular Chief Justices in high courts. We also find substance in the
submission that the MoP must provide for a mechanism so that appointments of regular Chief
Justices of high courts are not unduly delayed. The court noted that the process of appointment
should start well in advance to prevent piling up of vacancies.
Judicial vacancies continue to be a formidable problem across the 24 high courts. Out of an
approved total strength of 1079 high court judges, there are 387 vacancies as of October 1, 2017.
Referring to the contempt proceedings against former Madras High Court judge, C.S. Karnan, the
Bench referred to the judgment in the case that had suggested re-visiting the judicial
appointments process and the need for an alternative to impeachment of an erring judge.
EDITORIAL
Rahul Gandhi's #Makeover

OCTOBER 31, 2017 00:02 IST
Rahul Gandhi displays a new and humorous energy on social media
C ongress vice president Rahul Gandhi set social media alight last weekend with a tweet stating his
pet dog Pidi was the author of his suddenly effervescent posts. The sarcasm had his detractors
scrambling to portray him, on the one hand, as frivolous, and doing so, on the other, without sounding
humourless and stodgy. The hashtag #Pidi trended all Sunday, capping Mr. Gandhis makeover since the
summer. The numbers speak for themselves: his followers on Twitter have shot up from about 2.5 million
in July to more than four million now. The change is clearly a result of the Congresss recently revamped
social media team; more interestingly, also perhaps its strategy. The playfulness, the self-deprecatory
humour, the regular-guy undertone in Mr. Gandhis social media messaging are aimed at creating a new
public persona, a plan that was evident since his tour of American campuses last month. What political
dividend this will pay is not clear, but its unsettling the official narrative. From being mocked as a
princeling of Lutyens Delhi, Mr. Gandhi is trying to recast himself as a humorous, almost subversive,
insurgent taking on the formidable powers-that-be. Referring to the GST as the Gabbar Singh Tax, he
harnessed the film Sholays capacity to myth-make, and to project the indirect taxes overhaul as an
extractive, arbitrary reign reminiscent of Hindi cinemas memorable villain.
Mr. Gandhi and his social media team are still a light presence in the Indian social media space Mr. Modi
has 36 million followers, and this machines drive to take the battle to every post is the stuff of case studies
in political campaign. But perhaps it is this mismatch that has given Mr. Gandhis campaign the oxygen it
seeks. During the second UPA government, as an anti-establishment mood swept the streets, Mr. Gandhi
appeared equally keen to be seen as a dissenter for instance, in 2013, when he angrily tore into the UPAs
ordinance to invalidate a Supreme Court curb on convicted legislators. Then, his assertion of power over
his partys Prime Minister smacked of dynastic entitlement. Now, he is the everyman blocked off from the
corridors of power, highlighting the depths of his failure after the dismal summer of 2014 to give an
assurance that he is on the learning curve, using disarming wit to isolate the trolls violent imagery. The
online space has been the staging ground for political projection before most notably, Mr. Modis
saturation strategy for the 2014 general election and Barack Obamas 2008 yes we can challenge. And
certainly, skilful use of social media allows a politician to control the message, as well as directly reach her
audience unobstructed. But it is not just that an electoral battle is ultimately won at the hustings on the
strength of party organisation and street campaigns. Unsettling the narrative is not enough; a campaigner
must shape it with a social and economic agenda.
EDITORIAL
Lessons from Kirkuk

OCTOBER 31, 2017 00:02 IST
Tensions between Baghdad and Kurds could undermine the ght against the Islamic State
T he conflict that broke out in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk between Iraqi government troops aided by
Shia militias and the Peshmerga, the military wing of Iraqi Kurdistan, this month is a reminder of the
divisions that run deep in the country. Both government troops and the Peshmerga are part of the coalition
that is fighting the Islamic State in Iraq. They are also American allies. The U.S. provides air cover in the war
against the IS and offers military advice to Iraqi troops, besides supplying weapons. Likewise, the
Peshmerga has received arms from the U.S., Germany, the U.K. and other western countries. The U.S. also
has a consulate in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan where hundreds of its diplomats and their families live.
But neither the common American factor nor the shared interests in the war against terrorists has
prevented the conflict in Kirkuk, that was captured by the Peshmerga from the IS in 2014. The alliance
between the Kurds and Baghdad is tactical rather than strategic. In 2014, after the IS scored a series of
military victories in Iraq, including in the cities of Fallujah, Ramadi, Kirkuk and Mosul, both Baghdad and
Erbil were threatened by the prospect of IS advances. They set aside their historical differences and joined
hands against a common enemy. But the IS is in retreat. Most of the cities it captured, including Mosul,
Iraqs second largest, have been freed. This receding IS threat has exposed cracks in the alliance.
More immediately, the Kurdish political leaderships push for independence from Iraq has alarmed
Baghdad. Masoud Barzani, President of Iraqi Kurdistan, wanted to mobilise the momentum created in the
battle against the IS in favour of independence. Despite strong opposition from Baghdad and western
capitals, Mr. Barzani went ahead with a referendum in late September, in which Kurds overwhelmingly
voted for independence. Though the vote is not binding on the Kurdish regional government, it has
undoubtedly strengthened Kurdish nationalist politics across borders. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
rushed troops to retake Kirkuk. Mr. Barzanis move was politically counter-productive as he is not in a
position to achieve independence for Kurdistan. Taking responsibility for the mess, he has announced he
will step down as President in November. This actually aggravates the crisis. The new Kurdish leader may
lack his charisma or authority but will have to deal with stronger nationalist aspirations. Baghdad has sent
a tough message to Erbil by sending troops to Kirkuk: if the Kurds go ahead with plans to secede, it would
invite a strong military response. The cracks in the coalition would be good news for the IS. The only
country that could constructively intervene in the conflict is the U.S., which enjoys good ties with Baghdad
and Erbil. It should mediate between the two sides on the Kurdish national question. Unless that is
addressed, the chances for another civil war in Iraq remain high.

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