India legal 31 october 2014

NDIA EGAL L STORIES THAT COUNT

October 31, 2014 `100

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Supreme Court refuses to stay a court ruling that the barbaric ritual of animal sacrifice has nothing to do with religious freedom

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Continuing fallout from Modi’s US visit

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‘‘Live And Let Live...’’

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How oil companies are rigging wages

GLOBAL

50 24 78

Double Trouble

For Power Couple?

The CBI appears to be turning the heat on P Chidambaram and wife Nalini—both top lawyers

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received in the press. The decision—although specifi-cally addressing spectacular public slaughter cere-monies and ritual killings during Hindu religious cer-emonies in Himachal Pradesh—is actually a clarioncall to the rest of India, where thousands and thou-sands of animals are subjected to brutish torture, cut-ting across religions and beliefs.

What is truly courageous and luminous about thisnearly 200-page judgment is its unflinching uphold-ing of human and humane values above every count-er-argument based on freedom of religion and wor-ship, the right to eat meat, religious personal laws, ritualistic non-vegetarianism, ancient traditions,scriptural edicts, verses from religious texts and inter-national cases. With the wisdom of A Daniel Come toJudgment, the judges take the arguments of theirdetractors head-on with scholarly research matchingargument for argument, separating fact from fiction,myth and superstition from reality and commonsense, and argue their case for moral core values thatare essential spiritual beacons to guide a nation and apeople into the radiance of knowledge.

Readers of this column would do well to readthis judgment (High Court of HimachalPradesh, CWP No. 9257 of 2011 along with

CWP No.4499/2012 and CWP No.5076/2012) in full,not only because of the light it sheds on religion andreligious practices, but also because it is a transforma-tive experience. I will quote from it at length.

For starters, the petitioners (People for Animals,led by rights activist Sonali Purewal) relied heavily onthe rarely invoked Fundamental Duties of theConstitution – Article 51-A (h) — exhorting citizens ofIndia to “develop the scientific temper, humanism,and the spirit of inquiry and reform,” against Article25 — the Right to Freedom of Religion and the “rightto freely profess, practice and propagate religion.”

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

UDGES must often have to rush in whereangels have feared to tread. Especially indealing with matters of immense social, reli-gious, ethnic, cultural sensitivity. When legis-lators and administrators, fearing a popular

backlash, a violent repercussion or a political recoilback off from making tough decisions or enactinglaws that will be politically unpopular, the courts havethe obligation to step in to advance society’s move-ment towards achieving goals which the march of civ-ilization has come to accept as self-evident, universaltruths—kindness, fair play, equal rights, the right toliberty and the pursuit of happiness.

These ethical compulsions, our cultural evolutionas a species—propelled by religious and spiritual doc-trines, revelations, philosophical treatises, reasoneddiscourse, the voices of peripatetic preachers—markwhat is often referred to as the Ascent of Man.

It is an obstacle course in which the impediments—religious sanction, superstition, bigotry, racial rage,violent conquest—are removed, sometimes by the ter-rible weapons of war, sometimes by non-violent, pas-sive resistance, preachers, movements, the ballot, leg-islation, the courts. And we move on.

Last fortnight, India took a great step in movingon when Justices Rajiv Sharma and SureshwarThakur gaveled a new prohibition: The high courtbanned the sacrifice of animals in temples, sayingthey “cannot be permitted to be killed in a barbaricmanner to appease Gods.”

The judges decreed: “No person throughout thestate shall sacrifice any animal in any place of publicreligious worship, including all land and buildingsnear such places of religious worship which are ordi-narily connected to religious purposes.”

This massive judicial blow to openly sanctionedand wantonly celebrated spectacles of public crueltydeserves far more than the casual mention it has so far

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LIVE AND LET LIVE

INDERJIT BADHWAR

3INDIA LEGAL October 31, 2014

But does this “freedom” grant anyone, no matter what his religion, the right to practice licen-tious, profligate public cruelty? Do animals enjoyhuman rights? Maybe not in the technical sense offundamental rights as enshrined in the constitution.But the constitution is a creature of the highest polit-ical, ethical and moral values which our foundingfathers thought fit to enshrine in the guiding docu-ment for the Indian Republic. This ethical value sys-tem was articulated by none other than MahatmaGandhi, who said: “The moral progress and strengthof a nation can be judged by the care and compassionit shows towards its animals.”

The petitioners rubbished the wishy-washy standof the state that animal sacrifice has been a continu-ous practice since time immemorial and is a deep-rooted cultural trait. There is no justification for itscontinuation, they said, “because it contravenes thevery spirit of the constitution of India and the basicprinciples of a progressive and civilized society. Theissue of vegetarians and non-vegetarians is irrelevant

to the present context. The petitioner is not opposedto non-vegetarianism and meat-eating, but the ethosbehind sacrificing animals before a deity is embeddedin superstition and contravenes the constitutionalspirit of a scientific temper.”

They added: “The rituals attached to animal sacri-fice reflect only cruelty, superstition, fear and bar-barism and have nothing to do with either religion orculture. Practices like Sati, female feticide, child mar-riage, untouchability, etc., were continuing since gen-erations and were deeply ingrained in the socialmilieu, but have been almost eradicated with the education and reformation movements as well asjudicial intervention.”

Referring to an affidavit filed by an eyewitness,Bhajanand Sharma, the court observed that the ritualis a “cruel and barbaric practice and is far from thespirit of worship and reverence as the deponent hasseen many a time goats, sheep and rams suffering inagony and crying out in pain during the performanceof a sacrifice. The animals are sacrificed in the pres-


4 October 31, 2014

Getty Images

ence of other animals. It fills them with fear and dreadand becomes a very depressing and painful sight towatch. Many villagers of the area avoid going to thetemple premises. At such times, it is full of blood andcorpses of sacrificed animals that becomes a verypathetic sight to encounter.”

Other eyewitness descriptions from the casefile: “Lying around in pain and suffering afterreceiving blows on their necks which usually

does not kill them in first go. Sometimes, the animaltries to escape in a fatally wounded condition, whichis very painful. Goats, sheep and rams are held by fourpeople and then the head is attempted to be cut off byone other person, which is not always successful in thefirst attempt as there is no check on the sharpness ofthe weapon/equipment being used for the sacrifice,which may be blunt. At times, inexperienced peopletry and participate in the ritual killing and it is abom-inable to see that sometimes it may take up to 15blows to kill the sacrificial animal that keeps strug-gling in a brutally injured and bleeding condition.”

There was repeated testimony that animals arebeaten up mercilessly and dragged up to mountainslopes to meet their death. The scenic beauty of thereligious places is not maintained. According to thewitnesses, it takes 25 minutes to kill a buffalo bull. Attimes, the buffalo runs amuck to save itself. The ani-mals are mercilessly beaten up and chilies are throwninto their eyes.

The court noted the “insensitivity” of the state’sauthorities to petitioners’ repeated requests to pre-vent animal sacrifice under Section 28 of thePrevention of Cruelty to Animals Act of 1960. It notedthat “the larger beneficiaries of which are priests andthe Mandir Committee, animal breeders and desig-nated butchers.”

Nand Lal, a former practitioner of animal sacrifice,said in an affidavit that the sacrifice practiced is sohorrific and cruel that most of the people do not evendare to watch, what to speak of accepting the flesh ofthe sacrificed animal as prasad. The court noted that“the rope is fastened behind the legs of the goat orsheep as well as to its horns, after which the animal’sbody is cruelly stretched way beyond its normal limitand is tied up both at the front as well as at the back.After a person gives blows with a weapon to the ani-mal, (Nand Lal) was horrified to say that many times,because of an inexperienced person giving the blow orbecause of the bluntness of the weapon, it takes asmany as 15-20 blows to kill the sheep or goats inwhich the animal cries away in pain and the whole

“ACCORDINGLY, we allow the writ petition CWP No. 5076/2012 andissue the following mandatory directions, prohibiting/banning animal/bird sacrifice in the temples and public places as under:

“No person throughout the State of Himachal Pradesh shall sacrifice any animal or bird in any place of religious worship, adoration or precincts or any congregation or procession connectedwith religious worship, on any public street, way or place, whether athoroughfare or not, to which the public are granted access to or overwhich they have a right to pass; No person shall officiate or offer toofficiate at, or perform or offer to perform, or serve, assist or participate, or offer to serve, assist, or participate, in any sacrifice inany place of public religious worship or adoration or its precincts orin any congregation or procession, including all lands, buildings nearsuch places which are ordinarily used for the purposes connectedwith religious or adoration, or in any congregation or procession connected with any religious worship in a public street...

“No person shall knowingly allow any sacrifice to be performed atany place which is situated within any place of public religious worship, or adoration, or is in his possession or under his control;The State Government is directed to publish and circulate pamphletshenceforth to create awareness among the people, to exhibit boards,placards in and around places of worship banning the sacrifice ofanimals and birds.

“The State Government is further directed to give due publicityabout the prohibition and sacrifice in media, both audio and visual,electronic and in all the newspapers; and all the duty holders in theState of Himachal Pradesh are directed to punctually and faithfullycomply with the judgment.

“It is made clear that the Deputy Commissioners andSuperintendents of Police of all the Districts shall personally beresponsible to prevent, prohibit animal/bird sacrifices throughout theState of Himachal Pradesh.

Live and let live.”

The court order



IN the case of AS Narayana Deekshituluvs. State of AP and others, reported in(1996) 9 SCC 548, the judges held that

the only integral or essential part of the religion is (constitutionally) protected. Non-integral or non-essential part of religion, being secular in character, can beregulated by legislation. The essential orintegral part of religion to be ascertainedfrom the doctrine of that religion itselfaccording to its tenets, historical background and change in evolved process.

While performance of religious serviceis an integral part of religion, priest orarchaka performing such service is not so.The judges have further held that religion isnot merely an opinion, doctrine or belief. Ithas outward expression in acts as well. It isnot every aspect of religion that has beensafeguarded by Articles 25 and 26, nor hasthe constitution provided that every religious activity cannot be interfered with.Every religion must believe in a conscienceand ethical and moral precepts.

“From that perspective, this Court isconcerned with the concept of Hindu religion and dharma... Very often, one candiscern and sense political and economicmotives for maintaining status quo in relation to religious forms masquerading asreligious faith and rituals bereft of substantial religious experience. As such,philosophers do not regard this as religionat all. They do not hesitate to say that thisis politics or economics masquerading asreligion. A very careful distinction, therefore,is required to be drawn between real andunreal religion at any stage in the development and preservation of religionas protected by the constitution. Within religion, there is an interpretation of realityand unreality, which is a completely different experience. It is the process inwhich the ideal is made rule. Thus, perfection of religious experience can take place only when free autonomy isafforded to an individual and worship of theinfinite is made simpler, direct communion,the cornerstone of human system. Religionis personal to the individual. Greater the

law bringing an individual closer to thisfreedom, the higher is its laudable and idealistic purpose. Therefore, in order thatreligion becomes mature internally with thehuman personality it is essential thatmature self must be combined with conscious knowledge. Religious symbolscan be contra-distinguished from the scientific symbols and both are as old asman himself. Through scientific symbolsthere can be repetition of dogmatism andconviction of ignorance.

It thus follows that to one who is devoted to the pursuit of knowledge, theobservance of rituals is of no use since

the observance of rituals and the devotionof knowledge cannot co-exist. There is considerable incompatibility betweenknowledge and rituals inasmuch as theirnatures are entirely antithetical. It is only hewho regards himself as the agent of actionthat can perform the rituals; but the natureof knowledge is altogether different and itdispels all such ideas. All the wrong ideasbeginning with the identification of Self withthe physical body etc., are eradicated byknowledge, while they are reinforced byaction. Ignorance of Atman is at the root ofaction, but the knowledge of Atmandestroys both. How is it possible for one toperform the prescribed rituals whileengaged in the pursuit of knowledge inasmuch as they are incompatible! It is asmuch impossible as the co-existence oflight and darkness. One cannot keep one’s

eyes open and closed at the same time. Itis equally impossible to combine knowledge and rituals. Can one who islooking westward look eastward?

“Religion, therefore, be construed in thecontext of Articles 25 and 26 in its strictand etymological sense. Every religionmust believe in a conscience and ethicaland moral precepts…. There is nothingwhich a man can do, whether in the way ofwearing clothes or food or drink, which isnot considered a religious activity. Everymundane or human activity was not intended to be protected by the constitution under the guise of religion. The approach to construe the protection ofreligion or matters of religion or religiouspractices guaranteed by Articles 25 and 26must be viewed with pragmatism since bythe very nature of things, it would beextremely difficult, if not impossible, todefine the expression religion of matters orreligion or religious belief or practice. Thereligious freedom guaranteed by Articles 25and 26, therefore, is intended to be a guideto a community-life and ordain every religion to act according to its cultural andsocial demands to establish an egalitariansocial order. Articles 25 and 26, therefore,strike a balance between the rigidity of rightto religious belief and faith and their intrinsic restrictions in matters of religion,religious beliefs and religious practices andguaranteed freedom of conscience to commune with his Cosmos, Creator andrealize his spiritual self.”

The creation and the created

6 October 31, 2014

premises is covered with blood. Many times, the per-son sacrificing the animal also drinks the blood,which is a horrific sight and sends shivers down one’sspine about the kind of barbarism that is being prac-ticed under the garb of religion. Animal sacrifice isnot a form of worship but is in essence, a social evilthat is based on superstition and violence against thehelpless that goes against the spirit of Hinduismwhich preaches the spirit of Ahimsa”.

The Himachal court opined that Articles 25 and26 of the constitution of India protect religiousbeliefs, opinions and practices but not super-

stitions. “A religion has to be seen as a whole andthereafter, it can be seen whether a particular practiceis core/central to the religion. It can be a hybrid also.In the instant case, offerings in the temples can bemade by offering flowers, fruits, coconut, etc. Accor-ding to us, there are compelling reasons and groundsto prohibit this practice. A democratic polity is requ-ired to be preferred to a system in which each one’sconscience is a law unto itself. The State has also theobligation under constitutional mandate to promotethe health, safety and general welfare of the citizensand animals.

“The stand of the State Government in the reply isthat this practice is prevalent from time immemorialand the people have a deep-rooted faith and belief inanimal sacrifice. The Court has directed the StateGovernment to propose a regulation to arrest this evil.The State Government instead of filing an affidavitgiving therein measures required to curb this practicehas chosen to file the reply (citing the Vedas, andUpanishadas and Puranas)… Society has advanced.We are in a modern era. The rituals, which may beprevalent in the early period of civilization have losttheir relevance and the old rituals are required to besubstituted by new rituals which are based on reason-ing and scientific temper. Superstitions have no faithin the modern era of reasoning.

“These practices have outlived and have no placein the 21st century. The animal sacrifice of anyspecies, may be a goat or sheep or a buffalo, cannot be,in our considered view, treated as integral/central the-me and essential part of religion. It may be religion’spractice but definitely not an essential and integralpart of religion. Hindu Religion, in no manner, wouldbe affected if the animal sacrifice is taken out from it.

“We have to progress... The essentials of any reli-gion are eternal. The non-essentials are relevant forsome time. The animal/bird sacrifice cannot be treat-ed as eternal. We should experience religion. We haveto stand up against the social evils, with which the

society at times is beset with. Social reforms arerequired to be made... The new Mantra is salvation ofthe people, by the people. Hindus have to fulfill theVedantic ideas but by substituting old rituals by newrituals based on reasoning.

“The animals have basic rights and we have to rec-ognize and protect them. The animals and birds bre-athe like us. They are also a creation of God. Theyhave also a right to live in harmony with humanbeings and nature. No deity and Devta would ever askfor the blood.

“All Devtas and deities are kind-hearted and blessthe humanity to prosper and live in harmony witheach other. The practice of animal/bird sacrifice isabhorrent and dastardly. The welfare of animals andbirds is a part of moral development of humanity.Animals/birds also require suitable environment, dietand protection from pain, sufferings, injury and dis-ease. It is man’s special responsibility towards the ani-mals and birds being fellow creatures. We mustrespect the animals. They should be protected fromthe danger of unnecessary stress and strains.”

[email protected]

The United Kingdom Farm Animal Welfare Council (FAWC) hasexpanded five freedoms for animals as under:

� Freedom from hunger and thirst—by ready access to fresh water anda diet designed to maintain full health and vigour. � Freedom from discomfort—by the provision of an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.� Freedom from pain, injury or disease—by prevention or through rapiddiagnosis and treatment.� Freedom to express normal behaviour—by the provision of sufficientspace, proper facilities and company of the animal’s own kind.� Freedom from fear and distress—by the assurance of conditions thatavoid mental suffering.

Animal bill of rights


OCTOBER 31, 2014

Chidambarams face CBI heatFormer Home and Finance Minister Chidambaram is under the investigative agency’s scanner for his role in the 2G scam, as his wife faces aprobe for her role in the Saradha scandal. VISHWAS KUMAR reports

A sniff of troubleChildren are increasingly getting hooked to cheap and available intoxicants.SHADAB AHMAD MOIZEE finds out the reasons behind the habit

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Live and let liveA landmark judgment putting a stop to animal sacrifice in the name of religiondelves deep into faith and rituals and questions the basis of brutality against all living beings. INDERJIT BADHWAR commends the brave judicial stand

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HUMAN INTEREST

FOCUS

Three decades of agonizing waitJustice eludes victims of the 1984 gas leak from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal30 years on. SHASHIKUMAR VELATH and NIKHIL EAPEN write how the corporate,in connivance with the Indian government, has dodged accountability.

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EDIT

VOLUME. VII ISSUE. 28Editor-in-Chief Inderjit Badhwar

Managing EditorRamesh Menon

Deputy Managing EditorShobha JohnSenior EditorVishwas Kumar

Contributing EditorGirish Nikam

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Deputy EditorPrabir Biswas

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Art DirectorAnthony LawrenceSenior Visualizer

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Lalit KhitoliyaPhotographer

Anil ShakyaNews Coordinator/Photo Researcher

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8 October 31, 2014

20LEAD

60An anathemacalled ISBritish Muslims say NO to the hate propaganda ofIslamic State and other radical groups and wantthe UK government to fight the extremists. SAJEDA MOMIN says this is a far cry from their opposition to the war on Iraq in 2003

GLOBAL TRENDS

Manhattan maniaBIKRAM VOHRA describes why Narendra Modiwas lapped up by the NRIs and PIOs in the US,and why a similar visit to the Middle East would notbe hyped up by the media

50

Was the missionaccomplished?ANITA KATYAL assesses whether the USvisit of Modi achieved concrete results

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56Wooing theeastern powersIn attempting to improve relations with Chinaand Japan, Modi will have to do the fine balancing act of not annoying either of thetwo. An analysis by COL R HARIHARAN

74At crossroadsTRENDS

Insight into ISIpsycheA 2008 paper written by the new ISI chief Lt GenRizwan Akhtar reveals how paranoid the Pakistanestablishment is about growing proximity betweenIndia and the US. VISHWAS KUMAR analyzesthis document in the light of Modi’s US visit andthe current tension along the J&K border

NATIONAL SECURITY

DIPLOMACY

A L S O

Cover Design: ANTHONY LAWRENCE

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REGU

LARS

Letters…............................................................................................10Ringside..........................… ..............................................................12Quote-Unquote ...............… ..............................................................14Supreme Court..................................................................................16Courts................................................................................................18Briefs .................................................................................................77Is That Legal?....................................................................................80Wordly-wise .......................................................................................81People ...............................................................................................82

Photograph of animal sacrifice: GETTY IMAGES


What are thecareer optionsavailable to legalgraduates? JUIMUKHERJEEtalks to some ofthem to learnabout the paththey have chartedfor themselves

Boat clinics in Assamreach out to far-flung areas...............36

Why Kerala basks in hartal culture.................42

Need for ethical hackers to ensure IT security ....................46

How oil companies rig wages .........…........64

The suffering of immigrant labor.............67

Indian contingent’s performance in the Asian Games................70

An ode to Shakespeare in the backdrop of Kashmir trouble............78

Please email your letters to:[email protected]

Or write to us at:India Legal, ENC Network,A-9, Sector 68, Gautam Buddh

Nagar, Noida (UP) - 201309

Distorting factsThe story, Leave Cupid Alone (October 15, 2014issue) made interesting reading. The BJP’s bluffwas called in the assembly by-elections in UttarPradesh as far as propagating love jehad is concerned. It was a futile attempt to communalizepolity in India. Has the Modi team run out of ideas?Yes, there could be stray instances of Muslims wooing Hindu women, marrying them and laterforcing them to convert. But these are onlyabberations in a general climate of peace and amity.

Gyaneshwar Dayal, Lucknow

LETTERS

www.facebook.com/indialegalmagazine

www.twitter.com/indialegalmag

Quintessentially legalI am happy to see that India Legal is picking up steam as a legal magazine.There is a lot of legal material in the magazine now. I enjoyed reading theOctober 15 issue. The subjects coveredwere broad, whether it is the Smriti Iraniissue, the apex court guidelines onpolice killings, DNA profiling or stem celltherapy. Keep up the good work.

Arun Swarup, Delhi

A good attemptIndian Super League is a good conceptto improve football standards in India(It’s Kick-off Time, October 15, 2014).Unlike cricket, there is no football culture in India. Only West Bengal, Goa,Punjab, and northeastern states arebesotted with the game.

The youth needs to be drawn intoplaying football and taking it up as acareer option. It has taken years forcricket to blossom into a sport, with thepromise of money, fame and adulation.As a football fan, I look forward to the tournament.

Sudeep Dey, Mumbai

10 October 31, 2014

ErrataOn the cover page and the story LeaveCupid Alone (October 15, 2014 issue), thepictures of Naseeruddin Shah and RatnaPathak Shah were credited to Reuters,whereas the pictures belong to GettyImages. The error is regretted.

—Editor

Feeling the vacuumRefer to the book review Harvesting Hatred.Looking at the political situation inMaharashtra today, I am reminded of theimmense contribution of Bal Thackeray institching a deal with the BJP and makingShiv Sena-BJP a potent force in the state.Now that they have split, and with the BJPgoing into the state elections with all gunsblazing, the Sena’s future looks bleak.

Rajesh Kumar, Ghaziabad

Learn from ScotlandI am glad that Scotland chose to stay withEngland (Scotched!, October 15, 2014). Ifthe results would have been the other wayround, the ramifications could have beenfar-reaching on world politics. Pakistanwould have raked up the issue to seek referendum on Kashmir. Scotland hasshown the world that separation is not theanswer to identity issues.

Partha Dey, Kolkata

Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; theindifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice ofjustice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

— Haile Selassie

VERDICT

12 October 31, 2014

Aruna

“Indian Muslims will live forIndia. They will die for India.They will not want anything bad for India.”

—Narendra Modi to CNN’s Fareed Zakaria

"When the Prime Minister wasenjoying a swing with theChinese President, thousands of their soldierswere occupying our land in Ladakh.”

— Congress Vice-PresidentRahul Gandhi on Modi’s foreign

policy. India Today.in

“I am happy England gave us thegame of cricket, which they can’tplay very well, and the English language, which I can’t speak very well.”

— Kapil Dev, former Indian cricket captain,upon being honoured with the Lifetime

Achievement Award at the House of Lords.The Indian Express

“Manufacturing has tobecome the next big wave for us. This ‘Make in India’ campaign is a clarion call that will galvanize India’s economy to reach greaterheights.”

—Industrialist Kumar MangalamBirla, at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi,where the campaign was launched.

QUOTE-UNQUOTE

“We do not speak againstMuslim fundamentalism asstrongly as we should. We haveto attack Hindu and Muslimfundamentalism in the samemanner.”

—Congress GeneralSecretary Digvijay

Singh, on the Congress’need to redefine its

stand on secularism.Daily Bhaskar

“He (Narendra Modi) answersquestions brilliantly and is veryfocused on improving India.So, we are thrilledto be working with him."

—Indira Nooyi,Pepsico India,

CEO. The Times

of India

“Muslim boys good in studiesare sent to public schools by

their parents. Butthose who areweak, getadmitted inmadrasas.”

—BJP MP SwamiSakshi Maharaj.

Mail Today

“I've left my one-year-old son at hometo compete here and it took just oneminute for the judges to spoil everything for me.”

— Boxer Sarita Devi, on thealleged unfair decision of the judges in

the semi-final Asian Games match. Mint

14 October 31, 2014

SUPREME COURT

A rap on UGC’s knuckles

Is it possible to fairly judge the level of infrastructureand teaching faculty of a deemed university, merelybased on photographs and video footage, and

doing away with physical verification altogether? TheUniversity Grants Commission (UGC) believes it can.

However, it was pulled up by the Supreme Courtfor adopting such a sham procedure to seal the fateof as many as 41 institutions and derecognize them.The center had already received a report from theUGC panel in this regard.

While junking the report, a two-judge bench orde-red UGC to conduct a fresh inspection of these uni-versities within 12 weeks, make the universitiesaware of their deficiencies, if any, give them consid-erable time to address the pitfalls, and then submitthe final report to the center and the court. It decidedto take up the matter again on January 8, 2015.

The bench also demanded an explanation from theUGC as to why physical inspection was bypassedwhen there was an explicit mandatory rule for doingso in UGC Regulations 2010. It observed that thingsmust have changed a lot after the UGC physicallycrosschecked the facilities in these universities, wayback in November 2009.

The Supreme Court’s intention to curb rampant advertising in the media by the government for polit-ical mileage at the cost of public money might take

concrete shape soon. A committee set up by the apex courtfor guidelines on the issue submitted its report recently.

The committee has suggested that such publicity mate-rial should not have names and pictures of political partiesand people holding posts in them. It has also pointed outthat only names and photographs of the president, primeminister, governor and chief ministers should be allowed.

The Election Commission’s contention that strict regu-lations must be clamped on these advertisements sixmonths before elections has received vociferous supportfrom the panel, which has called for arming the poll bodywith enough powers for implementing the guidelines.

The panel feels that in case of birth and death anniver-saries of public figures, there should be a single advertise-ment from the information and broadcasting ministry. It hasadvocated for a budgetary allocation from all ministries andPSUs for advertisements, and stressed that the likelyexpenditure must be vetted by the CAG.

Strictures onpublicity

16 October 31, 2014

Illustrations: Aruna

It seems this was an opportunity thatthe Supreme Court was waiting for.Criticized for lack of transparency in

its collegium system, it was now theapex court’s turn to get back at the cen-ter on the issue of appointing centralvigilance commissioners (CVCs).

A three-judge bench asked the centerwhy it was adopting opaque proceduresto appoint a CVC through an “in-house”panel, thereby leaving immense scopefor nepotism at the cost of talented people. It pointed out that if transpa-rency was an issue for all institutionsand systems, why didn’t the same prin-ciple apply to the center. Was it not timethat the government cleaned its ownAugean Stables?

The court was hearing a PIL that hadraised doubts on the entire selectionprocess followed by the government.The center, while assuring the court that

Questioningprocedures

Memon to getanother hearing The Yakub Abdul Razak Memon case

will now be reviewed in an opencourt by the apex court. Memon was

sentenced to death for his involvement inthe 1993 Mumbai serial blasts, in which257 people were killed. The court, whilehearing a plea from Memon, stayed hisexecution, thereby “extending” its June 2,2014, order. The three-judge bench alsoasked the Maharashtra government torespond to his request.

A constitution bench of the SupremeCourt had recently ruled that those sen-tenced to death could seek a review of theorder from a three-judge bench in an opencourt, where they would be heard for 30minutes. Memon is the third death-rowconvict to get a reprieve from the apexcourt after Surinder Koli, accused in theNithari case and Sonu Sardar, a convictfrom Chhattisgarh.

COUPLES normally part ways ongrounds like cruelty, dowry harass-ment, mental incompatibility, inabilityto have kids, etc, but now, denyingsex for a considerable period of timeafter marriage could also become thebasis for divorce.

While taking up a case in which aman wanted divorce because his wifewas not interested in having sex eversince their marriage in 2005, a two-judge bench of the apex courtobserved that denial of sexual inter-course by any partner without a validreason is nothing but “mental cruel-ty”. The bench upheld the MadrasHigh Court verdict, in the same case,which ruled that the couple be grant-ed divorce.

The high court had rejected thewife’s contention that she denied himsex as he wanted children after twoyears, saying there were many waysto avoid pregnancy. The wife had thenappealed to the Supreme Court.

THE Supreme Court’s strong standagainst corruption became a referencepoint for the Karnataka High Court whilerejecting the bail and quashing-of-sen-tence plea of former Tamil Nadu ChiefMinister J Jayalalithaa in the dispropor-tionate assets case.

The bench drew inspiration fromrecent apex court verdicts wherein ithad observed that corruption was a vio-lation of human rights and adverselyimpacted the health of the polity andthwarted national progress.

The bench also took into accountthe Supreme Court’s viewpoint that aperson once held corrupt by a lowercourt, is liable to be labeled so by thehigher judiciary when it hears an appealagainst the judgment.

Divorced fordenying sex

Jaya verdict, a cuefrom apex court


transparent and fair procedures werebeing followed at the shortlistingstage, stated that the CVC will only beselected after the court took a finaldecision on the matter.

The court fixed the next hearing forOctober 14, and said that if it foundthe shortlisting process wanting, itwould scrap the entire list.

COURTS

18 October 31, 2014

Fast-track cellsfor tainted lawmakers

The law ministry is preparing a blue-print torevamp the criminal justice system withspecial emphasis on quick disposal of cri-

minal cases against MPs and MLAs. One of themain proposals will be the formation of a specialcell in each of the 24 high courts to deal withcriminal cases against lawmakers. A missive onthis issue will soon be sent to chief ministersand chief justices of each state. Under the newguidelines, district judges may be vested withpowers to arrest accused politicians in casethey are found to be influencing the investigationor take action against the superintendent ofpolice for failing to complete the probe withinthree months of the FIR being filed.

“Criminalize marital rape”

Ignoring ill husband causefor divorce

An additional sessions court judge in Delhi has madescathing comments against the lack of lawsto deal with marital rape while hear-

ing the bail plea of a man accused offorcing his wife into unnatural sex.Dismissing the husband’s bailplea, the court observed thatkeeping marital sexual vio-lence within the domain ofdomestic violence laws andkeeping it out of the purviewof rape laws reeks of “doublestandards and hypocrisy inlaw”. The court criticized thelopsided argument that thenon-recognition of marital rape inIndia is “set upon the bedrock ofequality”. The court said that the failureto recognize sexual violence withinmarriage as rape is the root cause ofsubjugation of women and it’s high timethat the issue is addressed.

Not looking after one’s husbandwhen he is ill could be a validground for seeking divorce. The

Bombay High Court has ruled in favorof a husband who is seeking divorce onthe grounds that his wife failed to takecare of him when he had chickenpox.

The wife insisted on staying separatelywhile her husband was recovering fromthe disease. A bench of Justices AbhayOka and AS Chandurkar ruled that theagony of the suffering husband cannotbe ignored and upheld the divorcesought by him.

1,000 obsolete laws to be discarded

The coming Winter Session of parliament will see therepealing of 287 outdated laws. Union Law MinisterRavi Shankar Prasad has said that the government

would introduce a bill in this regard. He has already soughturgent feedback from various departments concerned underwhose jurisdictions these laws continue to exist. In addition,the government is looking at repealing Appropriation Acts.

Every parliament passes around 12 appropriation laws eachyear to be used whenever the government decides to with-draw money from the Consolidated Fund of India. After thewithdrawal, that particular appropriation law is renderedobsolete. Their annulments would lead to the removal of 700such acts from statute books, taking the total count of dis-carded laws to around 1,000.

Illustrations: Amitava Sen

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this power couple’s name has cropped up in two major scams. thefall-out could be seriousBy Vishwas Kumar

LEAD/ chidambarams

Double

Anil Shakya

20 October 31, 2014

IN THE DOCK(Facing page) Former FMChidambaram and hiswife, Nalini, will need to explain charges against them (Below) Dayanidhi Maranmisused his authority as telecom minister and wasreportedly helped byChidambaram

amount” for the Aircel-Maxis deal.The CBI also chargesheeted Dayanidhi’s

brother, Kalanithi, along with Krishnan,Malaysian national Augustus Ralph Marshalland four firms. These firms were Sun DirectTV Pvt Ltd, Maxis Communication Berhad,South Asia Entertainment Holding Ltd andAstro All Asia Network PLC in the Aircel-Maxis case. The case has now gone for trial inthe 2G Special Court of OP Saini.

FORTUNES often change whenregimes change. This holds truefor former finance minister PChidambaram and his wife,Nalini Chidambaram, both

highly successful lawyers, who are under theCBI’s scanner for their alleged roles in twoseparate multi-crore scams.

While Chidambaram’s links with brothersDayanidhi and Kalanithi Maran, both accu-sed in the Aircel-Maxis deal, are under thescanner, in the case of Nalini, it is her associ-ation with Sudipta Sen, prime accused in theSaradha chit fund scam, that is the focus.

VESTED INTERESTS?It is no coincidence that though these allega-tions against the couple came to light in thelast two years of UPA-II’s regime, the CBIkept dragging its feet over them. But with achange in government, it has started a pre-liminary investigation into these matters.

In 2012, the CBI hinted at Chidam-baram’s role when it was probing the 2Gscam and ferreting out information on theMaran brothers and their Aircel-Maxis deal.This controversial deal took place whenDayanidhi and Chidambaram headed thetelecom and finance ministries, respectively,during UPA-I’s tenure between 2005-2006.

According to the CBI chargesheet,Dayanidhi misused his authority as telecomminister—from May 26, 2004, to May 13,2007—to force businessman C Sivasankaranto sell off his telecom company, Aircel, to T Ananda Krishnan, a Malaysia-based busi-ness tycoon. Krishnan was a close businesspartner and family friend of the Marans.

Soon after the deal, Krishnan’s companiesinvested around `600 crore in Marans’ com-panies. The CBI alleged it was a “bribe

The then Finance Minister, P Chidambaram,who headed FIPB, cleared the `3,500-crore,Aircel-Maxis deal. But he had the power to cleardeals only up to `600 crore.

Trouble


Since the Aircel-Maxis deal involved sell-ing off stakes to foreign companies, itrequired the approval of the ForeignInvestment Promotion Board (FIPB). Thisboard was headed by finance ministerChidambaram, who cleared the deal.

LIMITED MANDATEThe CBI recently informed the 2G court thatthe FIPB’s approval was a “mistake”, and wasinvestigating “why Chidambaram hadcleared the nearly `3,500 crore deal in 2006when he was competent to give approval fordeals only up to `600 crore.”

CBI prosecutor KK Goel recently toldJudge Saini: “Your ( judge) query was onFIPB approval. We are showing documentswhich show the power of the then financeminister. Power was vested in the thenfinance minister to give FIPB approval of upto `600 crore.

“For investment of over `600 crore, theCabinet Committee on Economic Affairs(CCEA) is the competent authority to giveapproval. This is under investigation and wehave not concluded the probe on this aspect

yet.” Incidentally, the CCEA, then, was head-ed by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.Chidambaram, however, denied allegationsmade by the CBI.

Meanwhile, the then Janata Party chief,Subramanian Swamy (now a BJP member),wrote a letter to CBI director AP Singh onApril 20, 2012, requesting that the role ofChidambaram and his son, Karti P Chidam-baram, in the Aircel-Maxis case be probed.He hinted at a “quid pro quo” between bothparties. The letter urged Singh to look intodetails of money flow in various companies.These were the questions he had raised:

* Have you noticed the irregularities andhuge money trail during the period from2005 in certain companies like AusbridgeHoldings and Investments Private Ltd. andAF Mentor Consulting Private Ltd., whereKarti P Chidambaram has majority shares?

* Have you noticed Ausbridge Holdingsand Investments Pvt Ltd., in turn, has major-ity shares in Kaiser Surya Samudra ResortsPrivate Ltd and Advantage StrategicConsulting Private Ltd. and there have beenhuge money flows and purchase of propertiesby these companies?

* Have you noticed that during the Aircel-Maxis deal period, Karti P Chidambaram-controlled Advantage Strategic ConsultingPrivate Ltd had several money transactionswith Aircel Televentures Ltd.controlled by C Sivasankaran?

SHADY LINKSComing to Nalini Chidambaram, the CBIquestioned her for several hours onSeptember 22 for her links with SaradhaCMD Sudipta Sen. She was questioned abouther alleged role in a television channel dealbetween him and journalist ManoranjanaSinh, estranged wife of Congress leaderMatang Singh. Manoranjana and Nalini areclose friends.

Nalini’s role first come to light after Sen’sexplosive letter to CBI director AP Singh,where he divulged the names of his scambeneficiaries, and it was leaked to the media.

The letter dated April 2013, alleged thattwo people had damaged him hugely. Hementioned Manoranjana Sinh and MatangSinh. He alleged: “Mrs Manoranjana Sinh

DOUBTFUL CREDENTIALS

The CBI also chargesheeted

Dayanidhi’s brother,Kalanithi Maran, in the

Aircel-Maxis deal

22 October 31, 2014

LEAD/ chidambarams

contacted us for selling her Positive Groupsand took me to Chennai to the chamber ofMrs Nalini Chidambaram as her advocate.Madam Chidambaram requested me to helpher (Manoranjana) set up a channel inGuwahati and support her by extending `42crore to her company.

“Madam Chidambaram herself preparedthe agreement, wherein she is the sole arbi-trator if at all any dispute arises…. She fixedher consultancy and during a period of one-and-a-half years, more than `1 (one) crorehas been given to her.”

Sen further alleged that whenever she vis-ited Calcutta with Manoranjana Sinh, herairfare and hotel bills at the Taj were paid byhim. Manoranjana Sinh, he said, assured himthat Nalini was the wife of P Chidambaram,the then home minister.

“Without assessing my financial strength,she (Nalini) has also pressurized me for sup-porting her (Manoranjana) by investing `42crore. So far, I remember that I have alreadypaid `25 crore to Mrs Manoranjana Sinh inthe name of GNN India Pvt Ltd and NKGupta, her father, who is also whole-timedirector of GNN India Pvt Ltd.

“For her travelling purposes and hotelaccommodation in various places in India,not less than `3 crore have been spent,” hefurther alleged.

However, Nalini in a statement to themedia said: “The CBI did not question me.CBI officers wanted to know whether MsManoranjana Sinh had consulted me profes-sionally. I told them yes, I was consulted.”

It waits to be seen how things will unfoldfor this power couple now.

“Mrs ManoranjanaSinh…took me toChennai to thechamber of Mrs NaliniChidambaram…where she requested me to helpher (Manoranjana)set up a channel inGuwahati and support her byextending `42 croreto her company.”

Sudipta Sen,Saradha CMD

DUBIOUS DUO(From left) ManoranjanaSinh, who has beennamed as one of the beneficiaries by Sudipta Sen

IL


yes, 30 years on, that’s what the world’sworst industrial disaster has become for its

tragic victims. does the new governmenthave the stomach to carry on this fight?

By Shashikumar Velath and Nikhil Eapen

FOCUS/bhopal gas leak case

FOR 30 years, a US corpo-ration has been dodging itsresponsibility and accoun-tability to the people ofIndia. Dow Chemicals, oneof the biggest chemicalcorporations in the world,

is liable for one of the most devastating indus-trial disasters in history.

This year will mark the 30th anniversaryof this chilling incident—when methyl isocy-nate (MIC) fumes from the Union CarbideIndia Limited (UCIL) swept through denselypopulated slums in Bhopal, killing close to10,000 people in the first three days. Over thenext 25 years, the accident was responsible forthe deaths of close to 15,000 people.

CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITYThe Bhopal gas disaster and the experiencesof survivors have raised fundamental ques-

tions about corporate and governmentresponsibility for industrial accidents thatdevastate the lives of people and the environ-ments they inhabit.

On August 4, 2014, the chief judicial mag-istrate (CJM) of Bhopal issued the third crim-inal summons to the US-based Dow, whichtook over Union Carbide Corporation (UCC)in 2001, to explain the failure of its wholly-owned subsidiary Union Carbide Company(UCC) before the court and account for thecriminal charges against it. The company hasbeen called to appear on November 12, 2014.The summons claim that as a 100 percentowner, Dow has a responsibility to ensure thatUCC faces these charges.

Despite its dominant position over UCC,Dow failed to ensure that it appears beforethe criminal court to face charges or toaddress pending liabilities connected toBhopal. No state officials have been held

Still livingthe death

24 October 31, 2014

In the immediateaftermath ofthe incident,company officials fromUCC andUCIL downplayedthe toxicnature ofMIC, assuringreporters thatthe gas leakwas only an irritant.


UNENDING WAITWomen survivors of thegas leak demand justicefor their sufferings; (facing page) the iconicphotograph of a child who died in the tragedy,by Pablo Bartholomew

accountable for their own failures related tothe gas leak or site contamination. But eversince Dow Chemicals bought UCC, its standhas remained firm—I did not own UCC at thetime, and therefore, I will not bear anyresponsibility for those affected by it.However, Dow’s claim that it did not ownUCC in 1984 is not relevant because when itbought UCC, it integrated and consolidatedits corporate identity, assets and liabilities.

Meanwhile, UCC is, and was in 2001(when the merger took place), a proclaimedabsconder, ie, a company that did not paydamages proportionate to the harm caused bythe gas leak, and a company that divested itsinterests in India without fulfilling its respon-sibility to make the Bhopal plant safe.

UNETHICAL DOWIn 2008, the Ministry of Law of India clarifiedthat “if there was any liability for Bhopal, itwould have to be borne by Dow”, and this was“irrespective of the manner in which UCC hasmerged or had been acquired by DowChemicals.”

But Dow has been able to effectively side-step its responsibilities.

When the CJM of Bhopal issued the firstsummons in 2005, the legal counsel for Dow’ssubsidiary in India was able to sway the courtto grant a stay order that lasted close to eightyears before it was removed on the groundsthat Dow and UCC were separate legal enti-ties. Ironically, while Dow was able to swaythe court on the one hand, on the other, itdirected court action against numerous sur-vivors and activists.

Dow Chemicals International PrivateLimited (DCIPL)—Dow’s India office—hasrecently applied for leave to sue numerousBhopal survivors and activists for `25 millionwith respect to an April 2013 protest. Since2001, it has brought four legal actions againstthem, seeking restraining orders that prohibitthem from protesting within 100-200 metersof the company premises.

Dow has also tried to interfere with thejudicial process to avoid being involved incourt proceedings. In a 2005 communication,revealed an RTI request, Dow lobbied the

MONUMENT TO FOLLYContainers in the Union

Carbide plant, fromwhich the gas leaked

26 October 31, 2014


Indian government to “implement a consis-tent, government-wide position that does notpromote continued government of India liti-gation efforts against non-Indian companiesover the Bhopal tragedy”. Consequently, thehaunting legacy of Bhopal has been the fail-ure of a company, as also the failures of theIndian government and the judicial machin-ery, to grant justice.

STANDARDS FOR REMEDYPrincipally, a victim’s access to remedy andjustice are firmly founded in the Indian con-stitution and in international human rightslaw (see box International provisions).

While UN rules are more formally estab-lished for countries, there is significant inter-national consensus that companies must alsorespect all human rights. The UN special rep-resentative of the secretary-general on busi-ness and human rights further emphasizedthe importance of both states and companiesacting in a manner that is supportive of judi-cial integrity and independence, and of courtsbeing able to act independently of any politi-cal or economic pressures.

Indian courts have, on occasion, held com-panies to account for harm to health andenvironment. Courts have ordered pollutingbusinesses to pay exemplary fines to serve as adeterrent to other enterprises. In 1987, in theMC Mehta v Union of India case involving theleak of oleum gas from a chemical plant, theSupreme Court held: “…[any] enterprisewhich is engaged in a hazardous or inherentlydangerous industry which poses a potentialthreat to the health and safety of personsworking in the factory and residing in the surrounding areas, owes an absolute and non-derogable duty to the community to ensurethat no harm results to anyone on account of[its activities].”

INDIA’S FAILUREIn 1968, UCIL, a company majority-owned bythe US-based UCC, built a plant in Bhopal,Madhya Pradesh (MP), to manufacture pesti-cides such as Sevin, using poisonous MIC andother chemicals. UCC had 50.9 percent stakeand the Indian government controlled 22percent. The rest was owned by thousands ofIndian investors.


�Ensure that any person whoserights or freedoms are violatedshall have an effective remedy, notwithstanding that the violationhas been committed by personsacting in an official capacity

�Ensure that any person claimingsuch a remedy shall have his rightthereto determined by competent

judicial, administrative or legislativeauthorities, or by any other competent authority provided for bythe legal system of the state, andto develop the possibilities of judicial remedy

�Ensure that the competent authorities shall enforce such remedies when granted

International provisions

WHEN TIME FROZEA statue epitomizing the grief of Bhopal gas victims

The UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) provides for general rights of individuals for an effective remedy. Article 2(3)states that each state party to the present covenant has to:

The central and state government wereaware that the Bhopal plant involved haz-ardous substances and processes. There isalso undeniable evidence that UCC was ableto influence administrators to violate indus-trial and environmental laws and standardsduring its operations in India. Under India’sIndustrial Development and Regulation Act,1951, the production of pesticides was reser-ved for small Indian companies, a provisionthat UCC was able to get a waiver for. In 1975,when MP ordered the relocation of the UCILplant, the order was reportedly opposed byUnion Carbide and a section of the stateadministration. Later that year, UCIL obtai-ned permission from India’s central govern-ment to produce and store MIC in the area.

The flouting of laws is evident from this1985 excerpt from a report of the Council forScientific and Industrial Research. It said:“The Sevin unit could process MIC to theorder of three to four tonnes per day. Theinventory of MIC in the storage tank was ofthe order of 90 tonnes, equivalent to nearly30 days production… It was entirely unnece-ssary to provide facilities for storage of suchlarge amounts of MIC in tanks. The quanti-ties stored were quite disproportionate to thecapacity of further conversion of MIC down-stream unit. This permitted the MIC to bestored for months together without apprecia-tion of potential hazards.”

Ironically, UCIL did not meet internalcompany standards that it had set up for itselfin countries such as the US. In May 1982,when an operational safety survey of theBhopal plant was carried out by a team ofUCC technicians from the US, numerouslapses in safety regulations were found.Others too raised concerns about the safety ofthe plant. Despite these warnings, a series ofcost-cutting measures was implemented at

Ever since Dow Chemicals bought UCC, itsstand has remained firm—I did not ownUCC at the time, and I will not bear any

responsibility for those affected by it.

POWER WITHOUTRESPONSIBILITY

(Below) IndustrialistKeshub Mahindra, whowas chairman of UCIL;

(facing page) WarrenAnderson, chairman of

UCC at the time of the tragedy

28 October 31, 2014


the plant from the beginning of 1983 and inthe months leading to the disaster.

During the factory design stage, UCIL hadpreferred to store MIC in small individualcontainers for reasons of both economy andsafety. However, UCC disagreed, and bulkstorage tanks for MIC were installed at theBhopal plant, similar to those at the UCCplant in West Virginia, US. The crucial differ-ence was that the West Virginia plant workedround the clock, processing large quantities ofMIC for production of pesticides or for sale asa chemical. In Bhopal, the processing capacitywas so low that it resulted in large quantitiesof MIC being stored for weeks. UCC alsofailed to set up any comprehensive emergencyplan or system in Bhopal to warn local com-munities about leaks, even though it had sucha plan in place in the US.

HELLISH NIGHTOn the night of December 2, 1984, silentlyand insidiously, MIC fumes from a leakingtank at UCIL swept through the densely pop-ulated slums that surrounded the plant.Hundreds died in their sleep, and many more

as they ran choking from their meager homes.Survivors said it felt like breathing fumeswhen chilies are burnt. People began cough-ing violently, and some vomited. The nextmorning, bodies were littered on the streets ofBhopal. By the time the sun set there onDecember 3, graves were fast filling andfuneral pyres were burning bright.

The Illustrated Weekly of India said:“Each symptom was dealt with separately,eye-drops for the eyes, antibiotics to preventinfections, antacids for the stomach. Therewas no attempt to purge the blood of thetoxin, which continued to ravage the organ-ism from within.” Till date, more than a lakhpeople continue to suffer from health prob-lems. Efforts to provide rehabilitation havefallen far short of what is needed.

In the immediate aftermath of the inci-dent, company officials from UCC and UCILdownplayed the toxic nature of MIC, assuringreporters that the gas leak was only an irritantand not fatal. Yet, UCC’s internal companydocuments mention the extremely toxic,volatile and reactive nature of MIC.

Less than 24 hours after the gas leak, stateauthorities launched criminal proceedings.Nine individuals and three corporations wereaccused of several criminal offences under theIPC, including “culpable homicide notamounting to murder”. The individualsaccused included: Warren Anderson, a USnational and chairman of UCC since 1982;Keshub Mahindra, an Indian national andchairman of UCIL; and VP Gokhale, an Ind-ian national and managing director of UCIL.The corporations accused were UCC, UCILand UCE.

Anderson, Mahindra and Gokhale werearrested four days after the gas leak onDecember 7, 1984, but Anderson was releasedon bail the same day, following interventionby the US embassy in India, and left the coun-try two days later.

In November 1988, the CJM issued a war-rant for the arrest of Anderson. However,negotiations between the government ofIndia and the companies resulted in an out-of-court settlement. In February 1989, theSupreme Court (SC) ratified it. Even theextradition of Anderson was delayed and itwas not until 2003 that India formally


“… All of a sudden my husband started coughingand in the meantime, heheard screams coming fromoutside. As soon as heopened the door, all wecould see was smoke entering our house. Then,everyone in my family startedcoughing and my kids started complaining of theireyes burning. Then we heardsomeone saying that weshould all run because somegas pipe has exploded in theUnion Carbide factory. We allstarted running and eventually, I got separatedfrom my family. I just remember not being able tolocate my family and afterthat, I lost consciousness.”

—PPuna Bhai, a survivorwho lived across the Bhopal

factory when the accidenthappened

“The gas ruined our lives so badly that neither my husband or I could do anywork….My first son developed TB at the age of 8 or 10, and the first daughter he had was bornwith a disability….The peoplewho struggle are mainly thepoor and women.”

—HHazra Bee, a survivor

“In the court, we were treatedwith no respect. Judges, officers and others treated us badly, even dacoits are treated with more respect incourts than us gas victims.”

— HHameeda Bi, a survivor

Blighted lives

IL

asked the US to extradite him. The US reject-ed this request in June 2004. According tonews reports, on July 31, 2009, the CJM reis-sued an arrest warrant for Anderson andordered India to press on with extradition. InAugust 2009, the CBI said that the matterwas with the Ministry of External Affairs.

TRANSFER OF SHARESIn February 1994, the SC allowed the sale ofshares held by UCC in UCIL. Advocatesworking on behalf of survivors filed applica-tions to halt the transfer, but these wereadjourned on five occasions. By the time theapplications were heard, on October 20,1994, the shares had already been sold. Thistransfer would later give grounds for UCC’slegal counsel to argue that Indian courts hadno jurisdiction over UCC because the compa-

ny had disposed off all its inter-ests in India. On September 13,1996, the SC downgraded thecharges from “culpable homi-cide (not amounting to mur-der)” to “causing death by negli-gence” (the charges on the for-eign accused remained un-changed).

Twenty-six years after theBhopal disaster, the CJM finallyconvicted UCIL and sevenaccused individuals for causingdeath by negligence underSection 304A of the IPC. UCILwas ordered to pay a fine of`5,00,000, while all the indi-viduals were sentenced to amaximum prison sentence oftwo years and a fine of around`1,00,000. This light punish-ment sparked outrage in Indiaand elsewhere.

In August 2010, the CBIfiled a curative petition (crimi-nal) seeking to recall the SC’s

1996 order downgrading the charges. On May11, 2011, the SC dismissed the petition, sayingthe CBI approached the court after a longperiod of 14 years and that there were not suf-ficient grounds to recall their 1996 order.

Bhopal is a human rights’ travesty today.The tragedy led to some positive legalreforms, though the Bhopal victims have beenunable to benefit from them, as many are stillwaiting for adequate compensation. Effortsby survivors’ organizations to see justice doneand gain adequate redress have so far beenunsuccessful.

For the new Indian government, takingeffective steps to hold Dow accountable is amomentous opportunity to restore faithamong the people of India. Tending to thewounds of Bhopal would mean sending aclear message to the world that in India,industry and business are stable because theyrespect international standards and guide-lines for environment, transparency andhuman rights.

Shashikumar Velath is deputy CEO,Amnesty International India, while Nikhil

Eapen is a researcher there

A CELLULOID SOLUTION

The Yes Men Fix TheWorld was a biting satire

on Dow’s stand in theBhopal gas tragedy

30 October 31, 2014

UCIL did not meet safety standards that ithad set up for itself in countries such as the

US. A series of cost-cutting measures wasimplemented at the plant.


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FOCUS/bhopal gas tragedy / experience

LOOK, how decrepit I look.Look at my son Shoab. He ismentally deranged, a veritableskeleton with swollen veins onhis legs looking like curled

snakes desperately clinging to two dried-uplogs. Doctors have diagnosed this disease,but I don’t remember the name. Both of usare the only surviving members in the familyand are maimed forever.

I couldn’t educate my son and he hasbecome wayward. Last week, I had to coughup `5,000 as bribe to drunken policemen,who barged into my home in the dead ofnight with my son. They said he was a crimi-nal. How would I know?

My sickness barely permits me to go to mycollege, where I am a clerk. I am bed-riddenmost of the time. My chronic breathing prob-lem aggravates so often that it is safe to be athome. At least half-a-dozen times every year,when breathing becomes acutely difficult, I

have to be admitted to gas relief hospitals. Doctors say my damaged lungs are bey-

ond repair. I am living on borrowed time.Life is miserable and the future, bleak. Shoabis 33 and of marriageable age, but no offerhas come for him. One offer came, but with acondition: transfer your home to your son’sname. How can I do that? What is the guar-antee that his future wife will not grab thehouse and chase me away?

Remembering the past saddens me, as my

happiness lasted barely three years into mymarriage. I was a 23-year-old happy-go-lucky graduate in Kanpur when my parentsmarried me off in 1979 to Ashraf MohammadKhan alias Ashraf Lala, a fitter in the UnionCarbide factory in Bhopal. For a young girl,who had never worn a burqa, my in-laws’conservatism came as a shock. Although theywere largely hostile to me, my husband wascaring. That was a great solace to me. Soon,we had two children—Arshad and Shoab.Those were happy days.

My husband, who was a union leader inthe Union Carbide factory, would often tellme about the lethal gases his factory pro-duced. I had not imagined that within fiveyears of marriage, these gases would kill myhusband and elder son.

In 1981, three years before the gas disas-ter, Ashraf was working in the factory when avalve malfunctioned and he was splashedwith liquid phosgene. He was dead within 72

hours. The Union Carbide management concealed his postmortem report. My in-lawsproved unwitting co-conspirators with themanagement. They would not let me comenear my ailing husband’s bed in the hospital.However, I was paid `50,000 compensation.

Soon after the death, my in-laws desertedme. I was devastated. Succor came from SHKhan, a co-worker of my husband. I subsist-ed with my two children, aged 18 months andseven months, by doing tuition and sewing.Those were difficult days, but life somehowmoved on. Little did I know that more miserywas in store for us, three years ahead.

On December 2, 1984, I boarded theGorakhpur-Bombay train with mychildren from Kanpur, where my

parents lived. Ironically, I had delayed thejourney due to the advice of my Hindu neigh-bours to start off on an auspicious day. Whenthe train approached Bhopal station at 1.30

“I am living onthis is the story of SSAJIDA BANO, a 58-year-old Bhopal gas victim. she

lost her elder son to the leak and has suffered physically as well as

financially. she recounts the horror of that night to RRakesh Dixit

32 October 31, 2014

pm, a ghostly silence pervaded the place. Atthe platform, I saw coolies running arounddesperately, fear writ large on their faces.

Suddenly, we started coughing and chok-ing as some pungent gas assailed our nostrils.Not realizing what had happened, I draggedmy sons to the waiting room. The scene therewas chaotic and dreadful. It was like jahan-nam (hell). Women were wailing over deadbodies and I heard somebody shrieking thatpoisonous gas had leaked from the UnionCarbide factory. Everybody was coughingviolently, their eyes bloodshot with irritationand tears. Arshad and Shoab collapsed on theground, coughing and vomiting.

Confused and terrified, I ran to Khan’splace. Mercifully, they had not fled. WhenKhan asked about the children, I told themthat they were in the waiting room. Khandespaired, saying I had left them to die. Ipanicked and ran back to the station. Theroad was littered with the dead—humans as

well as cattle. When I reached the waitingroom, I found Arshad, my four-and-a-half-year-old son, dead. Shoab had survived, I wastold, because he had soiled his pants and, asa result, the gas he had inhaled had passedoff. That was not the end of my miseries. Theordeal had only begun.

With my three-year-old ailing son inmy lap, I had nowhere to go. Myin-laws had already disowned me.

The disaster made them even more cruel. Myhusband’s elder brother got himself pho-tographed with Shoab, posing as his father,to claim the `10,000 ex-gratia offered by thestate government. Somehow, I learnt about itand reclaimed the compensation. Khan onceagain stood by me.

With his help, I managed to get accom-modation in a hostel, where I lived for 10years. In 1987, I got a job in a woman poly-technic college on compassionate grounds.

My economic condition has improved, butmy health continues to deteriorate.

After a while, I moved into a rented housein a predominantly Muslim locality in thewalled city. All attempts to get my ailing soneducated, failed. I tried to find solace in thefact that thousands of women were sufferingthe same trauma as me.

Compensation arrived almost a decadeafter the disaster, when we were given a flatamount of `35,000 each. But medicines con-sumed the bulk of that money.

Thanks to proactive help from bhai(Abdul Jabbar, the convener of the BhopalGas Peedit Mahila Udyog Sangthan), I havemanaged to get periodic treatments in hospi-tals. Otherwise, I would have died long agolike lakhs of other gas victims.

The compensation of `8 lakh I got in lieuof my elder son’s death helped me build thissmall house. Let us see, how long I manage tolive in it.

borrowed time”A HELL ON EARTHSajida Bano lost her husband and elder son to the gas leak and nowhas chronic breathingproblems

IL


TROUBLE

a recent study has shockingly found that 34 percent of children use cheap inhalants to get a high. little do they know the

perils of such behaviorBy Shadab Ahmad Moizee

HUMAN INTEREST/ drug abuse

34 October 31, 2014

A SNIFF OF

Anil Shakya

IL

privileged children, scrap dealers provide themcheap inhalants, forcing them into the habit.Chetna did a survey in Delhi and found that thesale of whitener there was up to ̀ 67 lakh a day,”says Gupta.

Stationary shop owners admit that sales ofwhiteners have indeed gone up. Madan, ashopkeeper in Malviya Nagar, says that saleshad never peaked like they have in recent days.Now, many school children, including girlsfrom good families, are using whiteners on adaily basis. “Let’s for a moment assume thatthey are using it to erase errors. But on a dailybasis? Something is definitely wrong,” heemphasizes.

REHABILITATE THEMShaiju Varghese, a program coor-dinator with Childline IndiaFoundation, an NGO that oper-ates a helpline called Childline,says drug abuse among children isrising day-by-day and there is noproper rehabilitation of them.

Dr K Zaman, consultant psy-chiatrist at Delhi-based AlshifaHospital, says that most childrenuse intoxicants due to anti-socialtendencies, peer pressure or fami-ly fights. Cheap intoxicants, hesays, are a tool to escape reality.They provide temporary comfort,but can cause serious illnesses, such as heartdisease and liver failure. He further adds: “It’slike a trend among school children and adoles-cents. Parents need to be watchful. If they smellchemical odors in their children’s breath orclothes or see stains on their faces and hands,they must question them. After using drugs, achild becomes irritable, lethargic, inattentiveand a loner who needs to be coaxed to talk.Counseling and meditation can help, but it’simportant to keep the child away from intoxi-cants and wrongdoers.”

But on asking children why they usedwhiteners on such a scale, the answer thisreporter got was far from the truth. “Masterjikaam hi aisa dete hain ki galti ho jati hai, isliyewhitener se hum wo galti thik kar lete hain(Teachers give us such work that we end upmaking mistakes. We correct these by using a whitener).”

It’s obvious they need urgent guidance.

RAJAN (name changed)has bloodshot eyes. Stillin his adolescence,Rajan craves for whiten-er or correction fluid. Hehas no errors to concealexcept a habit he wishes

nobody knows about. Rajan sniffs whitenerfluid and says it helps him get rid of examina-tion pressure in school. Somehow, he managesto get `30 and buys the whitener. He dropssome of it on a piece of cloth and sniffs it sostrongly that it knocks him down. This high ishis life.

Rajan is among a growing number of chil-dren who use cheap and easily available intoxi-cants. A study conducted by National DrugDependence Treatment Centre and the AllIndia Institute of Medical Sciences for theNational Commission for Protection of ChildRights reveals that 34.7 percent of childrenhave used inhalants, be they whiteners,diluters, glue, petrol, nail polish or nail polishremover. Acrid diluter, for example, not onlywipes out mistakes on paper, but weakens thememory of those inhaling it.

TRIPURA LEADSThe survey was conducted all over Indiaamong nearly 4,000 children in 135 sitesacross 27 states and two union territories. Itfound that Tripura had the highest proportionof inhalant users—a worrisome 68.3 percent.

Many of these children have started early.Take Rajan. He started sniffing whitener anddiluter at 13. He says: “My father was a richbusinessman and used to drink alcohol. I alsowanted to be rich like him so I started drinkingalcohol. Since it was expensive and I had a hardtime purchasing beer from a liquor shop, one ofmy friends told me about diluter and whitener.It was cheap and easily available at stationaryshops near my house.” Before he knew it, hewas hooked.

Sanjay Gupta, executive director of Chetna,an NGO working for the empowerment ofstreet and working children, says: “While thegovernment has rules and a policy for the saleof liquor and tobacco products, it has none forsubstances like whiteners. One can buy thesefrom any stationary or general store.” Often, itis peer influence that encourages school chil-dren to use inhalants. “But in the case of under-

A survey among nearly 4,000 childrenacross in 135 cities, 27 states and twounion territoriesfound that 34.7 percent of childrenused various types of inhalants.


some 4.5 lakh impoverished people in the state are reaping the benefits of the compulsory rural stint for doctors

By Rashme Sehgal

SPOTLIHT/boat clinics /assam

Arural posting is oftenshunned by India’s sixlakh doctors. But Assamhas decreed that MBBSdoctors need to put inone year of rural servicebefore they can apply for

an MD degree. The official order has come asa godsend to rural communities there, ravagedby disease and hunger. And two young doctorsin Assam have shown how their posting hasenergized these communities and improvedtheir health.

Dr Bhumidhar Barman and Dr NabakantaDas work with impoverished farming commu-nities living in islands off the Brahmaputra,the world’s second largest river stretchingfrom China to Bangladesh. During the mon-

soon season, the river, along with its tributar-ies, becomes so swollen that entire villages areknown to have been washed away in a day.

ON THE MOVEIn order to help those marooned in theseislands, the Centre for North East Studies andPolicy Research (C-NES) has helped set up 15boat clinics, operating in 13 districts. Thesecarry teams of doctors, pharmacists, lab tech-nicians and auxiliary nurses, along with vac-cines and medicines to the island villages.Both Barman and Das have, over the last sixmonths, ridden over these turbulent watersdaily in their attempt to alleviate the sufferingof people. India Legal recently joined the teamto gauge the selfless work done by them.

“The first time I had to travel on one ofthese boat clinics, I was very uncomfortable. Icould have never imagined a doctor’s jobmeant going by boat to treat patients living faraway. Travelling to all these distant, inaccessi-ble villages is an arduous task,” Barman toldthis correspondent.

One morning, the boat clinic travelled fromMukulmura Ghat, 60 kilometers from

36 October 31, 2014

A rowing success

IL

Guwahati, to Balachar village in a remoteisland, 50 kilometers downstream. The villageis mainly inhabited by an illiterate farmingcommunity, which grows rice and jute. Girlscontinue to be married off by the age of 13-14and are plagued by malnutrition and anaemia.Fever and skin infections are the other com-mon health problems.

Reaching this remote village was an adven-ture in itself. After a boat ride of 90 minutes,the clinic personnel walked in the hot sunthrough jute fields to reach a rivulet. Then, ina wobbly, leaky boat, they disembarked atBalachar. Another long walk led the team tothe village center, where they set up amakeshift clinic under the shade of two tower-ing jamuna trees. And, then, began the actualjob of healing the sick.

EFFECTIVE TREATMENTThere was already a serpentine queue of 200people waiting patiently for the clinic to begin.Women in assorted cotton saris, most hag-gard, waited with a motley group of bedrag-gled children. As an auxiliary nurse and amedic immunized the younger children, thedoctors checked the adults.

“We deal with 180 to 250 patients everyday, providing them with drugs for basic ail-ments. We also have a simple kit to test HIV,plasmodium falciparum (for malaria), bloodgroups, urine and hemoglobin levels,” infor-med Barman.

Begum Tahira, a mother of five, is deli-ghted to see the doctor. “I have been sufferingfrom an eye ailment for the last eight days. Myhusband works as a daily wager and recentlygot a job in distant Dibrugarh,” she said.

Most of the patients clamored for “liquid”medicines rather than capsules. The reason isthat the village quacks had been giving themsyrups in colored bottles and they believe thatmedicines come out of these bottles.

The doctors battle against all odds. Besidesthe difficulty of reaching remote locations,they also have to ensure that the vaccines arekept at the right temperature, given that thereis no electricity in these villages. They havemanaged to recently solve this problem atBalachar by installing a refrigerator run onsolar power.

Their work has paid off. The boat clinics

have already reached out to 4.5 lakh people,said Parvez Ahmed, head of C-NES in Nalbaridistrict under which Balachar falls. Some 98percent of children between 0-5 years inNalbari have been immunized. The districtwith a population of eight lakh also has a highbirth rate of 1,200 live births every year.

However, Assam has among the highestmaternal mortality figures, with 480 deathsper 1,00,000 live births. One of the main rea-sons is that around three million people live insocially and geographically isolated villagesalong the Brahmaputra.

As for Barman and Das, working withthese farming communities has been a trans-forming experience. “For one, we have under-stood how a small intervention like ours canmake a difference of life and death in these vil-lage communities,” said Das.

It is time for the return journey toMukulmura Ghat. Another adventure awaitedus. This time, weeds got caught in the pro-peller, bringing the boat to a halt twice.Removing them was simple.

Nonetheless, there was a sigh of relief wheneveryone finally disembarked.

To help the marooned in the islands off theBrahmaputra, the Centre for North EastStudies and Policy Research has helped set up15 boat clinics operating in 13 districts.


COMMUNITY SERVICE(Facing page) A boatclinic on its way to one of the islands off theBrahmaputra

(Above) Boat clinics havebrought succor to ruralcommunities in Assam hitby disease and hunger

as a new isi chief takes in over in pakistan, a2008 paper written by him tells us that india’sgrowing ties with the united states has deepened insecurity in his country By Vishwas Kumar

NATIONAL SECURITY/ indo-us-pak ties

38 October 31, 2014

SPYMASTERTHE

PRIME Minister Narendra Modi’shighly publicized US visit must haveunnerved the Pakistan militaryestablishment, especially since it ledto a joint agreement with US Presi-dent Barack Obama on terrorism.

Both the leaders committed “themselves to jointand concerted efforts to disrupt all financial andtactical support to Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-e-Taiba(LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammad, the Haqqani networkand the D-company”.

This would have had a disquieting effect on theISI (Inter Service Intelligence), which has, suppos-edly, been nurturing and financing these organiza-tions to fight proxy wars with India and Afgha-nistan. But with a new ISI chief, LieutenantGeneral Rizwan Akhtar, at the helm now, how willmatters play out between India and Pakistan?

Akhtar, a professional soldier, has been creditedwith leading the battle against terrorists on theAfghan-Pakistan border. He is known as a no-non-sense, hard taskmaster, who has cracked down oncriminal and terror networks in Karachi.

PREOCCUPIED WITH INDIA However, it is his views on Pakistan’s relationshipwith the US and India that need careful under-

1960s, the Afghan jehad (in the 1980s) andthe war on terrorism (post-2001).

KASHMIR CONUNDRUMAnd like all Pakistani leaders, Kashmir is amajor preoccupation with Akhtar. Heechoed Pakistan military’s rhetoric by statingthat the armed forces were unable to fullycommit to counter-terrorism activities due tothe pre-occupation with India over the “dis-puted” Kashmir issue. He further said that ifthe US was to “intervene” in the bilateral dis-pute to resolve the Kashmir issue, the Pak-istan army could start a full-fledged war on“home-grown” terror groups, which now notonly attack India and Afghanistan, but alsothe US and Western nations.”

“The resolution of the Kashmir issue andsecuring a lasting peace with India is vital tothe stability of Pakistan and the region. Thiscould free up significant Pakistani militaryforces for potential employment in othertroubled areas for operations against the

“The resolution of the Kashmir issue…is vitalto the stability of Pakistan and the region.This could free up significant Pakistani military forces for…operations against theTaliban and Al-Qaeda.”

—Lieutenant General Rizwan Akhtar, the new ISI chief


LIFE ON THE EDGE(Facing page) India willhave to closely monitorISI chief Lt Gen RizwanAkhtar’s moves, given hisradical views onPakistan’s relationshipswith India and the US

(Above) Pakistan’s recentshelling has not evenspared civilians in theJammu sector. Kashmir,as expected, is a major preoccupation with Akhtar

standing. This can be gleaned from a 2008paper Akhtar wrote when he was a brigadierattending a one-year course at the US ArmyWar College. The 6,313-word paper, titled“US-Pakistan trust deficit and the war on ter-ror”, says that the growing US ties with Indiaare the main cause of increasing trust deficitbetween Pakistan and the US. “A key factor inthe current and future US-Pakistan relationsis US interactions with India and how theyare couched within regional and Indian-Pak-istani contexts,” he wrote.

In the context of the Indo-US nucleardeal, which was signed in 2008-09, he wrote:“Pakistan, however, is concerned about therecent US-Indian nuclear agreement, andalso aspires for one itself, and is willing toaccept all the associated safeguards andinspections that follow. How this will playout within the region and between the twonuclear-armed antagonists is still uncertain.What is certain is that US-Indian activity hasa profound effect on the Pakistani populaceand Pakistan’s perceived security, which candisrupt or derail an otherwise positive US-Pakistani relationship.”

It is a common knowledge that Pakistanstoutly opposed the deal and later, demandedthat it too should get one like it. The US gov-ernment, however, rejected this and pointedout that India had an excellent track-recordwhen it came to nuclear safety standards andproliferation, whereas Pakistan’s chief atomichead, Abdul Qadeer Khan, had already con-fessed to selling nuclear secrets to severalcountries and even to terror organizationslike the LeT.

Akhtar further advocated that US policy“towards Pakistan has to be integrated withbroader regional policies, as the relationshipbetween regional actors and the global role ofSouth Asia undergoes rapid changes.” Hefeels the US is obliged to take care ofPakistan’s interests because it has been an oldally and several of the challenges like “radi-calization” and “terrorism” faced by it are dueto this tie-up.

He wrote that Pakistan-US ties were sha-ped during three distinct phases, startingwith the Cold War era of the 1950s and

UNI

Taliban and Al-Qaeda,” he wrote. Akhtar alsosaid that a stable and secure Pakistan wasmore likely to focus on its economic well-being and eventually, serve as an example ofa successful and democratic Islamic country.

Akhtar also advocated peace during theKargil conflict. “The on-going dispute bet-ween India and Pakistan has continued to bea source of both regional instability andinternational concern. On a positive note, theUS strongly encourages an ongoing Pakistan-India peace initiative. Additionally, severalrecent confidence-building measures haveeased tensions to a level that makes anotherwar unlikely. The US’s proactive mediationhas helped diffuse the Kargil incident.”

ACCUSATIONS GALOREAkhtar was also critical of the Afghan gov-ernment and NATO allies of the US, whoaccused the Pakistan army of allegedly help-ing terrorist groups in the Afghan-Pakistanborder. This is significant, as he will now bedealing with such issues and the new Afghangovernment there. According to him, such anaccusation is not healthy for US-Pakistan tiesand causes trust deficit. “The constant bar-rage of accusations hurled against Pakistanby mainly Afghan leaders and certain coali-tion force participants that criticize Pakistaniefforts to eliminate militant safe-havens and

cross-border operations do little to improverelationships….Both the US and Pakistanneed to better communicate and coordinatetheir respective strategies and avoid passingjudgment on the efficacy of each. There alsoneeds to be an increased recognition (andassigned culpability) for the many externalinfluences undermining Pakistan operationswithin the Waziristan Agency, includingthose emanating from Afghanistan,” heopined. “From the Pakistani perspective,building credibility and legitimacy within theclosed and insulated tribal regions requirespatience and time.”

Incidentally, Akhtar belongs to theFrontier Force Regiment and was commis-sioned in September 1982. He was generalofficer commanding in South Waziristanfrom 2010 to 2012. His postings in Karachiand South Waziristan provide him a goodbackground in counter-terrorism. Therefore,his differences with the US on conductingoperations against terror groups amongfiercely-independent tribal populations aresignificant. He says the US believes in “quicksolutions” to the problem, while the Pakistanmilitary thinks in terms of long-term strategywithout disturbing the local social fabric.

“The Pakistani government understandsthe importance of building close ties withtribal chiefs for the long-term strategic suc-cess against the Al-Qaeda and Taliban radi-cals. Conversely, US interests focus more onshort-term kinetic operations against theimmediate threat….While some of theseoperations achieve immediate successes, theyoften times alienate the tribals and result inincreased tribal support for the Taliban andAl-Qaeda,” he claimed, without explaining inthe first place why these terror organizationswere provided shelter.

He further said that US’s attempt toachieve a quick victory and withdraw rem-ains a contentious issue that can disruptlong-term US-Pakistan relationship. WithIndo-US ties growing, Akhtar faces difficultchallenges, even as US-Pakistan ties slip fur-ther. And with increasing border skirmisheswith India, it is a moot question whetherPakistan is acting out on the insecuritiesvoiced by the current ISI chief.

NATIONAL SECURITY/ indo-us-pak ties

IL

CHALLENGE AT HANDIt remains to be seen

how Akhtar deals withissues on the

Afghan-Pak border

UNI

40 October 31, 2014

NDIA EGAL L STORIES THAT COUNT Medical Crimes:

Can victims ever get justice? September 15, 2014

`100www.indialegalonline.com

IThe putrefying Ganges is India’s national disgrace. Can Modi deliver on his

campaign promise to revive the world’s holiest river?

Baby-killer Sisters:

In cold blood

RN

I No.

UPE

NG

/200

7/25

763

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No.

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CRY ME A RIVER

Who will be hit worst by Court’s

Coalgate crackdown?

Doshipura: Shia-Sunni imbroglio

At Last: weeding out antiquated bills

Bribes-for-bank-loans scam surfaces

Vanishing Birds:

Can laws save them?

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NDIA EGAL LSTORIES THAT COUNT

Film courtrooms: Reel vakils

September 30, 2014

100

IThe courts step in to

control rampant misuse of the much-needed

anti-dowry laws as weapons of vindictive

persecution

Kerala liquor law:Bottoms down

WHO ARE THE VICTIMS?

CBI MESS: Director’s directoriesSHANTI BHUSHAN: Facing the heatSEX WORKERS:

Green light ahead

Lions and the law: Rip-roaring rumpus

ALSO

HOW WILL THE US TAME ITS OWN MONSTER?

SECTION 498A

ISLAMIC STATE

PLUSWill J&K see a Hindu CM? The politics of toilets

OOOUUAT COOOUUNTNOOOUUAT COOUO NNTN

e.comm

liveererre oon o his

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747474PS????

WW

CBI MESSCBI MESS: DDirector’s directories

SSHANTI BHUSHAN: FFacing the heatSSEX WORKERS:

GGreen ght aheadlight ahead

ALSO

P

WH

Thof o


Diarygate plot thickens Rules on encounter killings

I How judges grab land Judge’s 24x7 tippling joint

Leave Cupid Alone

SMRITI IRANI: Violating ethics?

Naseeruddin and Ratna Pathak Shah

Shah Rukh and Gauri Khan

Saif Ali and Kareena Kapoor Khan

Muzaffar and Meera Ali

Shahnawaz and Renu Hussain

EVERY FORTNIGHT INDIA LEGAL WILL BRING YOU NEWS, ANALYSES ANDOPINION FROM THE SHARPEST INVESTIGATIVE REPORTERS AND MOST

INCISIVE LEGAL MINDS IN THE NATION ON MATTERS THAT MATTER TO YOU

ENC

ONLY THE STORIESTHAT COUNT

the state’s industrial backwardnesshas a lot to do with the endless

strikes that have paralyzed it. but thepeople there are ok with it

By TK Devasia

STATES/ kerala / strike culture

ANGEL SHAJI, a Class II stu-dent in Palakkad, checks thenewspaper every day beforehe goes to school. He wants toknow if there is a hartal(strike) that day. He need nottry too hard; most Kerala

dailies carry hartal calls prominently on their frontpages. His father, Shaji George, a lawyer, says Angelis happy when there is a hartal as authorities then,declare a holiday for all educational institutions.With Kerala witnessing at least 100 hartals at thestate, district and local levels annually (5-10 are atthe state level), it is a merry time for students.

Interestingly, so attuned have students becometo hartals that some like Angel have developed anaversion to going to school. Once, Angel even pro-posed to his father that he transfer him to a schoolin Alappuzha. Being part of the backwaters, thisarea often gets flooded, leading to additional holi-days. Unfortunately, this has led to a steady fall inworking days in educational institutions. Thoughthe minimum number of instructional days

Loving agood hartal

42 October 31, 2014

political parties calling for forced hartals andmade those damaging property pay for it. InJuly this year, the HC mooted legislation forconstituting an authority to assess compen-sation and recover it.

NO STOPPING THEMJudicial intervention was supplemented bysustained campaigns by half-a-dozen outfits,including the “Anti-Hartal Front”, “The ProperChannel” and “Say No To Hartal”. But this hasneither discouraged hartals, nor encouragedvictims to rise against it.

Ironically, those who are fighting againsthartals have themselves resorted to strikes tonegotiate their demands. The Kerala VyapariVyavasayi Ekopana Samithi, on whose petitionthe HC banned forced hartals in 2000, hascalled more than a dozen strikes, the last beingon August 20 to protest alleged harassment ofshopkeepers by commercial tax officials.

Raju P Nair, who heads the “Say No to Har-tal” campaign, says political parties and otheroutfits were enforcing hartals in violation of

prescribed under the Kerala Education Rulesis 220, the current average at the primary levelis 196 and at the upper primary, 194.

MERRY TIMEBut what is surprising is that these hartals areliked even by the general population. Peoplestay at home and celebrate by eating, drinkingand watching television, as channels beamspecial programmes during hartals. Salariedpeople are especially happy if the hartal fallsbefore or after a weekend. Even businessesaren’t complaining, as liquor shops, fish andpoultry outlets do brisk business a day beforethe hartal. Outlets of Kerala State BeveragesCorporation see an increase in sales between`3 crore to `5 crore. Nothing seems betterthan drinking in the salubrious environs ofGod’s Own Country.

Incidentally, calls for hartal come frompolitical parties, trade unions, religious andsocial organizations, student bodies and evenfarmers’ organizations. Earlier, while hartalswere called mostly over issues concerning thepeople, nowadays, they are over events whichthe state has no control over. For example,Kerala observed a hartal when former Iraqipresident Saddam Hussein was executed. Thestate also remained shut when George Bushvisited India as US president.

The joy with which hartals are receivedmakes the task easy for those who call it. Ananti-hartal activist in Kochi says that all ittakes to bring a state with a population of 3.1crore to a standstill is a press statement and afew musclemen. Though government officesand commercial establishments like banksand industrial units remain open, they don’tmind if employees skip work. And many ofthem do, citing absence of public transport.

With so much support from people, it’s notsurprising that court orders have had littleeffect on the outfits calling for the strike. It wasway back in 1997 that the Kerala High Court(HC) acted against forced bandhs (total shut-down). The decision was upheld by theSupreme Court (SC) in 1998. When hartalsstarted replacing bandhs, the HC stuck againin 2000 and banned them too. In 2002, theSC went a step further and declared all forcedhartals illegal. Further, in 2006, the Kerala HCasked the Election Commission to deregister

According to CII, hartals have led to a lossof `900 crore a day, resulting in industrialbackwardness, mounting unemploymentand high migration.


court orders because law enforcement agen-cies were lax. After all, the political partieswhich call hartals are their masters.

Worse, the attitude of ordinary people tohartals has been apathetic. NGOs who havebeen trying to build resistance against hartalsfor the last two decades are often disgustedwith the lukewarm response they have got. K Chandrababu, general secretary of theKannur-based “Anti-Hartal Front”, says thatwhile people who suffered financial losses dueto hartals were cooperating out of fear, com-mon people who were indirectly hit were notan organized lot. Attempts to bring them on acommon platform have not been successful.

The “Say No To Hartal” forum tried to cre-ate a fleet of vehicles to provide transport tostranded people on hartal days, but out of 170vehicle owners who registered over the lastfour years, only 30 have actually worked out,says Raju. “There were days when peoplereacted against injustice. But today’s Mala-yalee reacts only when something happens tohim,” rues Raju.

FORGET COMPENSATIONAlso, this laid-back attitude has made peopleaverse to taking risks. Even though the HC hasprovided for compensation to those who sufferlosses due to hartals, very few have come forward to claim it, says Raju. This is whathappened on September 2, when a hartalorganized by the BJP to protest the murder ofone of its leaders in Kannur led to widespreaddestruction of property. “We had announced afour-member committee of lawyers to providelegal help to those affected. But we got onlythree inquiries and none of them was willingto pursue the matter. They said they were notinterested,” Raju says.

One of the reasons for this disinterest isthat people do not want to fight cases againstpolitical outfits due to fear of a backlash. Curi-ously, even government bodies are reluctant tomove against political parties. The KeralaMetro Rail Corporation did not seek compen-sation for the `1 crore it suffered during arecent hartal called by the CPM.

Though Raju’s forum moved the HC with aPIL, a bench refused to entertain the petition,saying it had already passed orders in thisregard and that it was up to the executive toensure the compensation. Raju is now plan-ning to file a contempt-of-court petitionagainst the government for not following theHC order. He believes that outfits calling forhartals will be careful not to cause damage tothe public and private property if they aremade to pay for it.

The loss to Kerala’s economy when a hartalis 100 percent successful, is `900 crore a day,according to the Confederation of IndianIndustry (CII). CII’s estimate does not coverthe agricultural sector, which includes sizeableamount of exports. The net result of the statebeing in a state of perpetual agitation is indus-

STATES/ kerala / strike culture

HARASSED ANDHAPPYStranded passengers,deserted roads, menin khaki and vehiclesparked idly—these area common sight inKerala, thanks to itshartal culture

44 October 31, 2014

trial backwardness, mounting unemploymentand high migration. Investors have been driv-en away to neighboring states and Gulf coun-tries, while the state government’s attempt toregain industrial robustness by making effec-tive use of tourism and sunrise sectors likeinformation technology too have been marredby hartals.

POINTLESS EXERCISEThe strange thing is that a majority of the har-tals do not achieve what the organizers set outto. The maximum number was over hikes inprices of commodities, especially fuel.Chandrababu says that no government hasever rolled back a hike due to a hartal. Theyonly serve the cause of the hartal callers anddissuade people from productive work.

He said an alternative form of protest ispossible. The “Anti-Hartal Front” demons-trated a model hartal in Kannur recently without affecting life, where people protestedby carrying black flags and sending mass peti-tions to authorities.

While most political parties say this non-violent form of agitation was also used byMahatma Gandhi, it is usually violence or thefear of it that ensures its success. KEMammen, a noted Gandhian, says that hartalsare nothing but a misuse of power by politi-cians, who are used to a life of luxury. It can be

prevented only if people come out and votepolitical parties out of power.

Though many political leaders say that har-tals have lost their relevance, they are notready to come out against it. Congress MPShashi Tharoor terms it immoral, while thestate’s home minister Ramesh Chennithalahas termed it an archaic form of agitation.

But these are empty words. What the stateneeds is action to back it. IL


malicious hackers break into IT systems and getaccess to critical data. but with ethical hackers’

intervention, these become impregnable By Deepa Gupta

EVEN as technology has spiraled, it hascome with many security hazards. So,while most of us are constantly connectedvia emails, chats, apps and social net-working sites, little do we realize that theprying eyes of unknown predators areconstantly on us, trying to peek into our

world. And this hacking, be it for pleasure, harassment or ille-gal gains, has dangerous connotations for everyone.

In fact, the incidence of cyber crimes has gone up tremen-dously. According to National Crime Records Bureau data, itreported a jump of 122.5 percent from 2012 to 2013 and costthe government a whopping `24,630 crore in 2013 alone.With such crimes emerging as a risk to national security, it istime to gird up this sector.

DEARTH OF PROFESSIONALSBut for that, one needs security professionals and ethicalhackers, of which there is a dearth in the country. Due to this,proper assistance is not rendered to the police when it needsto crack down on cyber criminals. To combat the problem, a

License to invade

46 October 31, 2014

TECH/ cyber security / ethical hackers

have greatly increased such crimes in India.And these perpetrators think they can getaway with them due to the anonymousnature of the internet.”

And this is where the ethical hacker stepsin. Aided by the police, he tracks down cybercriminals. Tarun Wig, information securityconsultant of Delhi-based Innefu Labs, says:“Law enforcement agencies usually seek ourhelp in cases involving identity theft or cor-porate fraud. We have to identify a suspectonline, track his locations, identify his modeof communication, find out how the hack-

consortium of information security profes-sionals was created about a year back withthe support of the government. Called IndianInfosec Consortium (IIC), a non-profitorganization, it has experts who protectcyber space from potential hackers. Onlythose with precise technical know-how and athorough knowledge of the legal aspects aretaken on board.

Rohit Srivastava, director, IIC, says:“Tremendous internet penetration, socialmedia awareness and various types of cyberharassment, be it sexual or derogatory posts,

HIGHLY PROMISING Today, ethical hacking is a lucrative professionif one is working with corporates


ing took place and determine future methodsto block such attacks.”

RIGHT MAN, RIGHT JOBIt is also important to ensure that the rightprofessional is available to the right people atthe right time, says Tamaghna Basu, aKolkata-based security researcher. “Securityhas many sub-domains and there are special-ized professionals in each of them. But manya time, the police gets hold of the most popu-lar person to help them without knowing forsure if he will be able to crack the case effec-tively,” says Basu.

It takes a painstakingly long time to cracka case. But as professionals are poorly paid ornot paid at all by the police, they do not wastemuch time and energy in solving a case, saysSrivastava. “The last case where I helped thepolice was in 2006,” he reveals.

Rahul Sasi, a security researcher fromBangalore, who helped the government trackdown hackers that had plundered data fromvarious departments last year, agrees thatthere is a paucity of security professionals.

Worse, there is no certificate course to learn-ing ethical hacking, he says. “What is neededis practical, hands-on-experience. Only if youknow how to build a door, will you know howto break it. Only those with strong program-ming and engineering skills can be experts inthis field. No wonder, the country has only ahandful of qualified people in this regard.”

Also, there is a thin line dividing ethicalhackers and unethical ones. The former canswitch to the role of the latter in no time andfor no reason. And that makes it even moredifficult to secure the system. IIC member-ship, therefore, is based on reference. “Whenyou refer people, your own name is at stake.And the peer pressure keeps things on track,”says Srivastava.

NEW POLICYMeanwhile, recently at the InternationalHacker’s Conference in New Delhi, DrNirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, joint secretary, PoliceII and chief information security officer atthe home ministry, spoke about the NationalInformation Security Policy which he had

TECH/ cyber security / ethical hackers

“The law does not recognizethe concept of ethical hacking, but acknowledgesethical hackers as intermediaries. Ethical hackers accessing a client’scomputer system with his knowledge do not violate law.”

Pavan DuggalLegal Advisor, IIC

“What is needed is practical,hands-on-experience. Only if you know how to build adoor, will you know how tobreak it. Only those withstrong programming andengineering skills areexperts. India has few qualified people in this area.”

Rahul SasiSecurity researcher from Bangalore

“Security has many sub-domains and there arespecialized professionals ineach of them. But often, thepolice gets hold of the mostpopular person to help themwithout knowing if he willbe able to crack the case effectively.”

Tamaghna BasuKolkata-based security researcher

48 October 31, 2014

drafted. It was given to IIC for review andgot a feedback of 300-plus points, afterwhich, the policy was given final shape.

Today, ethical hacking is a top-paying jobif one is working with corporates. “Werecently investigated a case of corporatefraud where the mail ID of the accountantof that company had been compromised.Invoices with fraudulent bank accounts inChina were sent to customers of the organi-zation, and they ended up depositing themoney in these accounts. Monetary loss andloss of reputation were considerable. Wewere able to identify IP addresses used tocarry out the attack and the methodologyand also recommended measures to stopfurther attacks,” explains Wig.

Law enforcement agencies too are wak-ing up to the need for cyber security andtraining their personnel. They are now ableto handle petty cases involving fake pass-words, fake profiles and photo morphing onsocial networking sites, source code theft,intellectual property theft, etc. Srivastavahas been assisting military outfits, law

enforcement personnel, media agencies andcorporates. He has also helped police depart-ments in Mauritius and Malaysia.

NO VIOLATIONBut ethical hackers need legal protection.Pavan Duggal, legal advisor, IIC, says: “Thelaw does not recognize the concept of ethicalhacking, but acknowledges ethical hackers asintermediaries. Under law, they can exercisedue diligence while discharging their obliga-tions. Ethical hackers who access a client’scomputer system with his knowledge do notviolate law.” But if they commit unauthorizedactivities that diminish the value of electronicinformation of the company, they could facethree years imprisonment and `3 lakh-`5 lakhfine. They may also have to pay compensationup to `5 crore for contravention.

The Indian Information Technology Act,2000, deals with data and information in theelectronic form, and defines the offence ofhacking under Section 66. Hacking, at thattime, was a non-bailable offence, punishablewith three years imprisonment and `2 lakhfine, says Duggal. But the Act was amended tobecome Information Technology (Amend-ment) Act, 2008, and Section 66 underwentan overhaul. From being a provision that onlydealt with hacking, it now looks into othercomputer-related offences too.

After all no one wants to get caught in a web.

THE RIGHT MANThere is a thin line dividing ethical hackersand unethical ones. Thatis one of the major challenges for securing systems

IL

“Internet penetration, socialmedia awareness and varioustypes of cyber harassmenthave greatly increased cybercrimes in India. And the perpetrators think they canget away with them due tothe anonymous nature of the internet.”

Rohit SrivastavaDirector, Indian Infosec Consortium

What is ethicalhacking?It refers to the phenomenon of accessing a computerresource or a communication deviceof a third party with theirpermission. The purposeis to identify security weaknesses and loopholes in the systemso that these can be addressed.


while indian-born americans and tv anchorswere full of adulation during the pm’s recentvisit, this is unlikely to happen in the gulf,which is mentally equated with labor andblue collar massesBy Bikram Vohra

Iremember the good old days in Ahme-dabad when I was editor of The IndianExpress and Narendra Modi was afledgling politician and we were oldbuddies and we would meet and chew

the fat and eat dhoklas and bhajiyas and go tothe club to play tennis and all that.

Not that any of this is true except the firstline and I wish I had met him because I wouldthen take full advantage of our former relation-ship and ensure that my clods of deep andabiding advice get to him. Think of it. One dho-kla away from getting a hearing by jumping thequeue and not being one of several strangerspetitioning him and getting nowhere in ahurry. Imagine a Page 3 do and you say, justmet Namo and he was saying to me…kill aparty with that line.

TEDIOUS ANCHORSLike with Gulliver, I have followed his travelswith great attention. The other day, PrimeMinister Modi came to the US. He saw, wasseen and most of us have concurred that it wasa jolly good show, a sort of political cirque du

DIPLOMACY/ nris & modi

soleil with all the glamour. A tidy little mix ofex-native guilt and chauvinism brought out ahuge crowd of Americans of Indian originprancing about the place with ill-concealedglee. It made for great TV viewing despite thesquad of tedious Indian anchors who dideverything possible to mess things up and sho-uld have been given classes in pronunciationbefore being ferried to the US.

Then, unexpectedly, Modi donned a redcoat with white piping and dished out gifts ofgreat largesse. He could have stopped at givingall Americans visas on arrival or, at least, placeda caveat of sorts seeking reciprocal courtesies insome measure. He did not and that should gethim some stick, but, in all fairness, it was anexercise shamelessly aimed at giving some hi-octane boosts to the sagging tourism indus-try (rape de la rape) and also the “make inIndia” initiative that makes for lousy grammar,but might spark some flow of currency intoIndian corporate adventurism.

And as he spoke, the nation marveled,largely because after Nehru, Krishna Menonand Piloo Mody, the political eloquence ofIndians has been a bit drippy and fractured.Manmohan Singh’s 10 years of speechlessnessmade Modi sound like Mark Anthony atCaesar’s funeral. Rajiv Gandhi did a cameo inhis first round, but it petered out (we don’t leanleft or right, we stand up straight), while hismother’s lucidity was filtered through stridentintimidation.

Consequently, the tea-boy-to-top-gunromanticism prevailed and it was friends,Americans and anyone else who cares to listen.

DREARY GENERAL ASSEMBLYThe UN General Assembly is one of the worstplaces to give a speech. The atmosphere is dulland dreary, the podium is small and apologetic,there is scarcely anyone in the vast cavern andno one is really listening. You ignite little pas-sion and are often one of a line of speakers onthe schedule. Ergo, you are not likely to set theHudson on fire. The desultory attitude was bestreflected in the monotonous introduction ofthe Indian prime minister. It is done with morepassion at a primary school debate.

It was a typical UN speech, short on rheto-ric, long on intent and did make one point; it

FINDINGNAMO

50 October 31, 2014

HAND IT TO HIMModi being greeted by the Indiancommunity on his arrival at Andrews Air Force Basein Washington

in India, dangerously inept.Then again, why not get excited? After all,

40,000 people wanted to enter Madison Squ-are Garden where you can get in 18,000 for aprize fight. Modi beats Madonna. Mayhem atMadison. All good, except for the mildly disqui-eting impression that everyone was behavinglike a poor relative invited to a rich man’s wed-ding, you are a better man than I, GungaDin...or is it Barack Obama?

CLASSIER ACTAnd I finally watched Kaun Banega Crorepatiand I have come to the conclusion after pro-found consideration that Amitabh Bachchanand Narendra Modi speak with the samecadence and inflection. Suspect the Amba-ssador of Gujarat is teaching the PM the intri-cacies of delivery. Modi is getting to be aclassier verbal act. He has mastered the art ofthe loping rhetoric and the sudden stoppagefor effect.

But did he come home empty-handed?NRIs, as opposed to those who watched the tri-colour come down, shed a tear (hopefully)

put the UN on guard that if India did not get onto the Security Council, do not expect NewDelhi to be an enthusiastic supporter of everyUN initiative.

Indian analysts are so imbued by the Indo-Pakistan equation, they see nothing beyondthat horizon. Frankly, it was a damp squib anddid nothing to soften the impasse of six decadeseither from the Nawaz Sharif waffle or theeasygoing, scarcely intimidating, responsefrom Modi.

I have very little idea why everyone wasgoing so out of whack about Modi’s US trip,like okay nothing is going to happen, shibbo-leths and soda water, but the awe and rever-ence on the TV news channels would make youthink it was a kind of second coming. Theshrill, breathless anchors even spoke in whis-pers or screaming excitement when theyreferred to him. Here we go, into reckless adu-lation again. One guy anchor said: America iswaiting with baited breath. Where, in Montanaor Dayton, Ohio or Hicksville? Why can’t wekeep it in perspective? But TV is now thebridge of perceptions for 1.2 billion people and

Photos: UNI


and pledged allegiance to the Star Spangledbanner, would be quite teed off that they stillhave to do the 21-day boot camp to get a visa.US embassies have snaking lines of “hopefuls”wanting to go to Disneyland, their papers clut-ched in sweaty little palms, prepared to gothrough a series of indignities and sit in dank,dreary rooms, reduced to a number waiting tobe called. Is that a balanced relationship? Don’tthink so. Even if you fudge the scales. Are peo-ple a little confused by the equation betweenPIOs, Indian-born Americans and NRIs? Youbet they are. So was Mr Modi. He calledAmericans “desh vasiyon”, which they are not.

So NRIs per se, and especially the enclave inthe Middle East and the GCC, can’t be expectedto do the tango and find grand discoveries in

the five-day saga. They are not on the scheduleand that irks. You cannot keep getting enthu-sed by the Vyalavar Ravis.

Should Modi now visit these enclaves thickwith Indians who still have Indian passportsand pay taxes and have PAN cards and Aadharcards and are accountable to the system?Recognize their worth and channel their talentand signpost the way home for these 10 millionhigh net worth Indians (Gulfees remit $30 bil-lion plus annually) living in the mother coun-try’s vicinity?

NEW EL DORADOSeems like our Marco Polo premier shouldhave these destinations on his itinerary. Contrary to media perception, the richestIndians globally reside in the Gulf (the top 50wealthiest Indians are worth $40 billion).Their gatherings would make 18,000 attendeeslook like a trickle. If he popped over to the Gulf,they would go Pompeii on him and “many atime and oft, stand there on the walls and bat-tlements, their infants in their arms, to see

MANHATTAN MANIAModi addressing the

Global Citizen Festival at Central Park in New York

Amitabh Bachchan and Narendra Modi speak with the same cadence and inflection.

Is the brand ambassador of Gujarat teaching the PM the intricacies of delivery?

DIPLOMACY/ nris & modi

52 October 31, 2014

great Modi pass the streets from home.”(mildlyparaphrased.)

But would the media set it to music? Un-likely. It is too close, too familiar, not excitingenough. Indian foreign policy has always beengrossly shortsighted and the Gulf has mentallybeen equated with labor and blue collar massesseeking their Johnny Appleseed fortunes.

Then, you get the party poopers who wantto hold the fluff in the navel to the light.

During the writing of this article, I read apiece by Mrinalini Wasti: “...Frankly, I think theadoration of Mr Modi by NRIs comes from thefact that he so perfectly mirrors their duplicity.In public, he preaches accountability and inclu-siveness, while privately condoning the re-writ-ing of textbooks to reflect a Hindu hegemonyon history. He champions social media as asign of his own engagement, but is myste-riously silent on current instances of commu-nal violence and the imprisonment of thosewho criticize him.

“He is, in short, so familiar to NRIs, whohave thrived in America precisely because ofequal rights and a certain blindness to ethnicityand religion... a situation which ironically givesthem the right to practice an absentee fascismwhen it comes to their home country....”

My word, we are angry.

ABSENTEE FASCISMThese are largely Americans, not NRIs. India isnot their home country. Modi is not familiar tous. He is an enigma and we have not fathomedhim yet, so don’t jump to conclusions. It is alsothreadbare an argument to spear NRIs withthe guilt of departure. As for America, it wouldbe naïve to assume there are no ethnic and reli-gious divides. Finally, we do not practice absen-tee fascism, we just see the picture from a dif-ferent angle, but it is the same picture.

Such lacerating criticism is heavy stuff forwhat was a nice little PR walk in the park. Itwas a “nice” week, not deserving of such wrath.And I certainly do not understand the bit aboutimprisonment of those who attack him. Lastheard, India was a democracy and free speechstill had a talking part. I need to be educated onthis aspect. Does anyone know anyone who hasbeen locked up for tweaking the PM?

Having placed that bit of rage on record,let’s move on. Modi did not come home empty-

handed. Behind the garlands and the choreo-graphed bonhomie (except for the incrediblerudeness of his sidestepping the lineup of senators and Congressmen tamely placed onthe stage at MSG), there was work being done.He did manage to get more than a rhetoricalagreement on sponsored terrorism and New Delhi and Washington could well havewritten a leading paragraph that history willrecognize as the beginning of the end of a longreign of terror.

The one message that is clear is: We arecoming for you.

In the coming weeks, Modi and Obama willstrike at specific individual and collective tar-gets and bend a few arms in the region to bringseveral of the “protected” species to book and ifit is just that “positive” which emanates fromthe visit, so be it…much more effective than ahundred speeches and statements of intent.

One guy anchor said: America is waiting with baited breath. Where, in Montana orDayton, Ohio or Hicksville? Why can’t we keep it in perspective?

BUSINESS BRINGSTHEM TOGETHERNarendra Modi meets US Secretary of StateJohn Kerry in the presence of US PresidentBarack Obama in theWhite House


IL

it was a visit marked by showmanship and flair. but in concrete terms, what did

modi’s visit achieve? By Anita Katyal

WHEN senior BJP leader LK Advani describedNarendra Modi as anexcellent event manag-er, he was not far off the

mark. The prime minister lived up to his repu-tation as the ultimate showman on his first offi-cial visit to the US. He was feted and fawnedupon by adoring Indian Americans who treat-ed him like a rockstar, while the Obamaadministration rolled out the red carpet for aman they had once shunned.

The specifics of the relationship wereaddressed in a joint agreement, finalized after alengthy one-to-one meeting between Obamaand Modi. According to Milan Vaishnav, asso-ciate, South Asia Program Carnegie Endow-ment for International Peace, the rhetoric andbody language of both leaders suggested thatthey were able to set aside past differences.Modi also connected with the business com-munity to assure them that economic reformsin India were on track and that his governmentwas eager to facilitate foreign investors to setup shop here.

CONCRETE GAINS?So far, so good. But what did the high-octanevisit really achieve? Was it all hype or did itreally pave the way for “a transformative rela-tionship” between the world’s largest and old-est democracies? Vaishnav says that Modicame to America with three objectives: to rallythe diaspora, to convince the US private sectorthat India was again “open for business” and toreset relations with the US government. “WhileModi was largely successful in doing all three,gains will materialize in real terms only if he is

DIPLOMACY/ pm’s united states visit

able to fulfil his mandate at home to reviveIndia’s sagging economy,” he underlined.

Vaishnav says both were keen to recommitto a reinvigorated relationship. “Yet, their job isonly beginning; the true test is whether thesetwo men will be able to whip their bureaucra-cies into living up to the lofty rhetoric of theirjoint statement.”

A former diplomat says: “It is wrong tojudge a summit only in terms of tangibles,” hesaid. “A summit is meant to engage a personand establish rapport. On these two counts, thePM’s visit was a success.”

SCEPTICAL US MEDIAThe American media, however, was not toohopeful about the meeting as it pertinentlypointed that differences over taxation laws,India’s intellectual property, trade, investmentpolicies and civilian nuclear energy are yet tobe sorted out. The WTO stand-off figured inthe discussions, as did India’s concern over eas-ing access for its service sector professionals inthe US market.

The landmark civil nuclear deal, which wassealed by former Prime Minister ManmohanSingh, is yet to be implemented, as US compa-nies have serious reservations about India’snuclear liability law which holds suppliersliable in case of accidents. This issue came upduring the Obama-Modi meeting, but therewere no solutions. The two sides merely decid-ed to establish an inter-agency contact group toiron out all pending issues.

Similarly, Obama agreed that India meetsMissile Technology Control Regime require-ments and is ready for membership in theNuclear Suppliers Group, the WassenaarArrangement on arms trade treaty and theAustralia Group. The US president reiteratedhis government’s support to India’s claim for apermanent seat on the Security Council. But onboth counts, the agreement failed to spell outany time-frame, indicating that this show ofsupport was just that: a mere show.

For a large part, the joint statement (JS)

Operation Modi Storm?

54 October 31, 2014

“The job ofObama andModi is onlybeginning; thetrue test iswhether thesetwo men will beable to whip their bureaucraciesinto living up tothe lofty rhetoricof their jointstatement.”

—Milan Vaishnav,associate, South Asia

Program CarnegieEndowment for

International Peace

e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, the D-Companyand the Haqqani Network as the groups whichhad to be destroyed. This is the first time thatthe D-company has been included in the list ofterror groups.

Modi and Obama also sent out a signal toChina by expressing “concern about rising ten-sions over maritime territorial disputes” and“affirmed the importance of freedom of naviga-tion and over flight throughout the region,especially in the South China Sea”. This isanother first and comes in the backdrop ofChinese President Xi Jinping’s recent visit toIndia, which was overshadowed by reports ofrepeated border incursions.

Looking to the future, Vaishnav mentionsthree possible bright spots: One, the decisionby the two leaders to renew the US-IndiaDefence Framework Agreement for anotherdecade. Two, the two countries struck a num-ber of deals in the energy sphere, including theUS committing $1 billion toward climateresilience and an Energy Smart Cities Part-nership. Three, the two sides opened the doorto closer partnership on financial sector issues.

A beginning has been made by Modi andObama to repair the tattered Indo-US relation-ship. But their rhetoric must be followed byconcrete action. Only then, can both congratu-late each other for a successful mission.

was nothing more than a promise by bothcountries to address pending issues. Formerambassador MK Bhadra Kumar, dismissed thedocument as worthless. “The Americans havenot touched even with a barge pole Modi’smuch-vaunted ‘Made in India global initiative’.They simply ignored it in the JS,” he posted onhis blog.

He asked, “If economic diplomacy is thedriving force of Modi’s foreign policy, what hashe got out of Obama? Peanuts. Some more‘task forces’ or ‘working groups’ have been con-stituted in investment, infrastructure, intellec-tual property, higher education, ‘climateresilience’, nuclear power projects, EnergySmart Cities Partnership, Clean EnergyFinance Forum and, of course, in defence tradeand technology.”

HANDLING TERRORISMThe joint statement, however, did score inaddressing regional security issues and sendingout messages to both Pakistan and China.Expressing concern over the growing menaceof terrorism, India and the US agreed to make“joint and concerted efforts” to dismantle safehavens of Pakistan-based terrorists groups andcalled upon Islamabad to bring the perpetra-tors of the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks to jus-tice. The document listed Al-Qaeda, Lashkar-


U.S. Consulate General Mumbai

IL

DIPLOMACY/ japan-india-china ties

WOOINGTHE EAST

modi’s visit to japan, followed by the chinese president coming to india,has important strategic advantages

By Col R Hariharan

56 October 31, 2014

interest in building people-to-people equa-tions as well. Though it fell short of Indianexpectations, the visit was a success, as itpaved the way for speeding up multi-facetedcooperation with Japan.

The visit also sent a strong message toChina that India’s foreign policy revampwould be broad-based and national interestwould be the top priority. Though the much-awaited India-Japan civilian nuclear dealdid not come through, the two leadersagreeing to accelerate talks on a nuclearenergy pact was probably germane toPresident Xi’s offer to India to collaborate inthe nuclear energy sector as well.

Modi’s Japan visit was being closely fol-lowed by China, if we go by the outpouringof articles on it in the Chinese languagemedia. It highlighted the strategic securityaspects of the visit before President Xi visit-ed India from September 17-19. Japan’spromised $34 billion investment in Indiaover the next five years and likely sale ofJapanese amphibious aircraft to India werewidely reported in China.

The title of an editorial in the GlobalTimes was “Modi-Abe intimacy brings

Prime Minister NarendraModi’s hectic travelschedule within the firstfour months in officewould indicate that hisforeign policy initiativesare much more than

“mending fences” with India’s immediateneighbors. Recently, he neatly squared it upwith this catch phrase “Look East, LinkWest (LELW).”

Following on that slogan, he started toboost ties with the East. His visit to Japan,weeks before Chinese President Xi Jinping’svisit to Delhi, along with President PranabMukherjee’s visit to Vietnam and Modi’smaiden trip to the US, lays down the broadstrategic contours of LELW.

SUCCESSFUL VISITModi made a mark in Japan more stronglythan any of his predecessors. It went wellbeyond the warm, personal equation he enjoys with Japanese Prime MinisterShinzo Abe. Modi put through a well-orchestrated program to appeal to all sec-tions of Japanese society, indicating his

BALANCING ACT(Facing page) PrimeMinister Modi meets PrimeMinister Shinzo Abe ofJapan during his visit to the Pacific nation; (Left) Modiwith Chinese President XiJinping and his wife Peng

The Chinesedraw comfortin the fact thatChina is aneighbor Indiacan’t moveaway from, forall the intimacybetween Tokyoand New Delhi.


scant comfort” and sums up China’s discom-fort with this visit. The op-ed piece in theCommunist Party’s web magazine appa-rently tried to read between the lines withregard to Modi’s calling on both the coun-tries to strengthen strategic cooperation topromote peace and prosperity in Asia andcounter an expansionist mindset.

These were Modi’s remarks while addre-ssing business leaders in Tokyo: “Every-where around us, we see an 18th centuryexpansionist mindset: encroaching on another country, intruding in others’ waters,invading other countries and capturing territory.” This could have triggered China’sirritation and the editorial added: “Japaneseand western public opinion view hisremarks as a clear reference to China, alth-ough he did not mention China by name.This interpretation made some sensebecause Modi is more intimate to Tokyoemotionally. Therefore, it is perhaps a factthat he embraces some nationalist senti-ments against China.”

The Global Times tried to show the ad-vantage of having relations with China bysaying: “The increasing intimacy between

Tokyo and New Delhi will bring, at the most,psychological comfort to the two countries.What is involved in China-India relationsdenotes much more than the display of theblossoming personal friendship betweenModi and Abe. After all, Japan is located farfrom India. Abe’s harangue on the Indo-Pacific concept makes Indians comfortable.”

It reminded the readers that it is SouthAsia “where New Delhi has to make its pres-ence felt. However, China is a neighbor itcan’t move away from. Sino-Indian ties can,in no way, be counterbalanced by the Japan-India friendship…. Both as new emergingcountries and members of BRICS, Chinaand India have plenty of interests in com-mon. Geopolitical competition is not themost important thing for the two countries,at least at present.”

GROWING DISCOMFORTSuch comments show China’s difficulty incoming to terms with Modi’s readiness toimprove relations with it to do business onthe one hand, while showing equal keennessto improve strategic cooperation with Japanon the other. This is compounded by Modi

DIPLOMACY/ japan-india-china ties

THE FAR-EASTERNREVIEW

(Below) Prime MinisterNarendra Modi addressing a

gathering hosted by Prime Minister Abe of Japan in Tokyo;

(Facing page) PresidentPranab Mukherjee watching a

cultural performance in HoChi Minh City during his

Vietnam visit in September

Photos: UNI

58 October 31, 2014

inviting Japanese investments in infrastruc-ture, particularly railways, and manufactur-ing industries, many of which would directlycompete with China’s trade and investmentinterests in India. And Japan’s readiness toease export restrictions to allow its defensefirms to participate in India’s huge weaponsmarket is an offer that China cannot match.

The irony of Modi’s trip to Japan wasthat it coincided with the 69th anniversaryof Japanese surrender, celebrated with allpomp and show in China. Even as Modi wascompleting his five-day Japanese sojourn,Xi urged Japan “to admit and reflect on itshistory of militarist aggression”. He alsosounded an ominous warning to Japan:“With the utmost resolution and effort, wewill join with people all over the world tosafeguard the victory in the Chinese Peoples’War of Resistance against Japanese aggres-sion and the world war against fascism.”

India knows its strategic relations withJapan will be conditioned by Japan’s umbi-lical relations with the US. In case of anyIndia-China confrontation, this could act asrider on Japan’s support for India. This limits the scope for India-Japan strategicrelations to flourish.

STRATEGIC OPTIONMeanwhile, China has the strategic optionto tweak the border issue with India at atime of its choosing. Its intrusions across theLine of Actual Control in Chumar andDemchok areas on the eve of Xi’s visitdemonstrated it. India does have a similaradvantage in tweaking the borders or intriggering the Tibetan issue. It suits bothIndia and China to maintain the status quo.

China has already entered South Asia ina big way. It is selling its Maritime Silk Road(MSR) concept to India’s neighbors andwants India also to partner China in thisendeavor. Given MSR’s negative strategicimplications, it could benefit India only ifChinese involvement in South Asia is man-aged properly. This is possible only if cordialrelations are maintained between both.

One of the key objectives of Xi’s talkswith Modi has been to wean away Indiafrom the lure of Japan. The huge delegationof Chinese business leaders and five major

banks accompanying the Chinese presidentunderscored Xi’s serious efforts to win overModi. For the same reason, probably Xithought it wiser to postpone his visit to Pak-istan, originally clubbed with his Delhi trip.

Chinese analyst Liu Zongyi, writing inthe Global Times, aptly summed up Modi’sdilemma: “Modi’s biggest challenge is tokick-start a lagging economy. India needsJapan’s investment and technology, but italso needs economic cooperation withChina.” But the Chinese troops’ intrusionexposes the soft underbelly of India-Chinarelations. And this is where Japan has anedge over China in dealing with India.

The Global Times editorial observed:“Maintaining strategic independence isIndia’s diplomatic tradition. It’s also in theIndian interest to be a balancer in the inter-national system.” This shows its expecta-tions from India.

(The writer is associated with theChennai Centre for China Studies and

the South Asia Analysis Group)

“Modi’s biggest challenge is to kick-start alagging economy. India needs Japan’sinvestment and technology, but it also needseconomic cooperation with China.”

—Chinese analyst Liu Zongyi

IL


british-muslims want little to do with this terror outfit, revolted as they are by the barbarity of its merchants of death. this is afar cry from their anti-war mood in 2003 By Sajeda Momin in London

MORE than a decade ago,when the British govern-ment decided to join theUS in its war againstSaddam Hussein in Iraq,

there was a lot of resistance from the ordinarypeople of this country. In fact, over a million ofthem, an awful lot for this tiny island nation,had joined a historic anti-war march toTrafalgar Square to show their displeasure. Buttimes have changed. On September 26, after anoverwhelming pro-war vote in parliament,Britain has committed to a second war in Iraq,but this time, the anti-war voice has beenmuted, if not silent.

In 2003, the anti-war campaign was ledfrom the front by British Muslims and suppor-ted by left-wing and liberal non-Muslims.However, during the current war, the IslamicState (IS), or Islamic State of Iraq and Syria(ISIS), or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant(ISIL) or any other name it might like to callitself, has not received support from the major-ity of ordinary British-Muslims. Rather, theyare repulsed by the IS and its barbaric acts.

SEVERE BACKLASHThere have been no anti-war marches and veryfew opinions in favor of the IS in mainstreammedia. In fact, so strong has been the revulsiontowards the IS that British-Muslim womenhave launched a campaign proclaiming their“abhorrence of extremism and terrorism”. They

GLOBAL TRENDS/ british muslims

took their “MakingAStand” campaign to theMinistry of Home in Whitehall in London andurged Conservative Home Secretary TheresaMay to stop the “brutality and barbarism” of ISfrom spreading to the UK. They have alsourged other Muslim women to join them instopping hate preachers in their local commu-nities from trying to spread their propagandaand luring susceptible youth into fighting their“irreligious jehad”. And this backlash againstthe IS has also spread to other radical groupslike the Al-Muhajiroun, as people want thembanned in Britain.

The Al-Muhajiroun is a British organiza-tion based on the Salafi-Wahabi sect of Islam,which believes in establishing an Islamic Cali-phate around the world, much like the IS. Itwas founded by Omar Bakri Muhammad inSaudi Arabia in 1983, and banned by theSaudis in 1986, when Bakri moved to Britainand began operating the group from London.It was disbanded in 2004 because of bad pub-licity, but it is believed to have continued tooperate under a different name, The SaviourSect. This was, then, banned by Tony Blairshortly after the 7/7 London transport bomb-ings. In 2009, Al-Muhajiroun was relaunched,but banned in January 2010 under theTerrorism Act of 2000.

However, many of the terror acts that havetaken place in the UK since then and the hateliterature that is being dispersed are thought tohave been carried out by groups or people who

Disowning

60 October 31, 2014

CHANGING STAND(Facing page and above)British Muslims join thecause against IslamicState’s atrocities throughtheir “MakingAStand” campaign in London; (left) the same communityprotesting in TrafalgarSquare against the war onIraq in 2003

added that the reports of the slaughter were“not true” and that Muslims were living in“peace and security under the Sharia” in ISruled areas.

Most Muslims laugh at his views and dem-and that Choudary should go and live in this ISidyll rather than forcing others to go there. Butwhen British-Iraqi student Asmaa Al-Kufaishi,questioned the leafleters in Oxford Street, shewas assaulted by them. Al-Kufaishi is a Shiafrom Iraq—a community which the IS hasvowed to exterminate. “This group was pro-

owe their allegiance to the Al-Muhajiroun.British intelligence feels it’s this terror networkthat is linked to the IS.

Coming to the war in Iraq, there are manyreasons for the change of heart among British-Muslims, and the methods used by the IS havecertainly played a role. “I protested in TrafalgarSquare to prevent Britain from joining the waron Iraq in 2003, but that was because I strong-ly believed that it was an illegal war by Westerngovernments with an ‘imperialist’ agenda. TheUS, particularly, cooked up proof of nuclearweapons just to get their hands on Iraq’s oil,”says Saira Amin, a British-Muslim and motherof two. “But I am totally disgusted and repulsedby the IS. I neither believe in their aims ormethods, nor do I think they are Islamic in nat-ure. They are simply going around killing inno-cent people and I believe they need to bestopped. They are also giving Islam and Mus-lims a bad name,” she adds. Amin’s views reflectthe majority of ordinary British-Muslims.

DEAL STERNLYParents, family and friends of those few Britonsradicalized by groups like Al-Muhajiroun andwho have gone to fight in Syria and Iraq, havedemanded that the government deal severelywith these “merchants of death”. One of them isthe British-accented masked terrorist, who fea-tures in the latest round of beheadings of Ame-rican and British civilians by IS. He is said to bea rapper who has been nicknamed “JehadiJohn” by the British media.

Last month, former students of Bakri distri-buted leaflets in the heart of London’s shop-ping area, Oxford Street, demanding thatMuslims pledge allegiance to the “Khaleef”,Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of the IS.Anjem Choudary, spokesperson for the Al-Muhajiroun said there was “nothing wrong”with wanting to “go and to live there and bringup your children under the Khilafah”. He also

the IS


moting IS on Oxford Street. When my friendsand I spoke out, we were racially abused. Theydon’t know Islam. Promoting death of innocentpeople, telling me to die because of my faithand race and insulting me is not Islamic behav-ior,” she says.

Similarly, Ghaffar Hussain, managingdirector of the counter-extremism think-tank,the Quilliam Foundation, denounces the ISpropaganda as a clear breach of law. “We needto have a zero tolerance policy towards IS sup-porters and recruiters in the UK. It is aboutsupporting one of the most evil groups we haveever seen,” he says.

JEHADI BRIDESEven some women have fallen prey to the rad-icalization, with reports emerging of girls join-ing IS fighters and marrying them. They havebeen nicknamed “Jehadi brides” by the tabloidpress. One of them is 20-year-old AqsaMahmood, daughter of a successful Pakistani-origin businessman, who abandoned her uni-versity course last year to join IS fighters inSyria. Since then, she has married, has deliv-ered a baby, and is now posting regular mes-sages on Twitter, urging people to commitatrocities in the West. Her family and friends inGlasgow, where she was born and led a privi-leged life, going to an expensive private school,are shocked and shamed by her involvementwith radical Islam.

“We still love you Aqsa, but we now have toput your family first, as you have betrayed us,our community and the people of Scotland

when you took this step,” said her parents,Muzaffar and Khalida Mahmood in a pressstatement. Khalida Mahmood cried and war-ned of other young British-Muslim women following their daughter’s example. Her senti-ments put fear into many a parents’ heart, asthey do not want to lose their children to suchan abhorrent “jehad”.

Another case which recently hit the head-lines is that of Muslim convert, Sally Jones,who abandoned her two children to join herextremist husband in Syria after an onlineromance. The blonde 45-year-old now goes bythe name of Umm Hussain al-Britani and hasbeen described as “scatty” by her friends. Shejoined her 20-year-old husband Junaid Huss-ain in Raqqa province at the end of last year.Her family in Surrey in South England has saidthey will not disown her and feel there is moreto the case than meets the eye.

While most anti-war supporters feel thatviolence simply leads to more violence, in thecase of the IS, there is little political or morallegitimacy or sympathy for their cause. AsLabour Party leader Ed Miliband, an opponentof the 2003 Iraq war and now a proponent ofthe war on the IS, says: “This is not a clash ofcivilizations, but a specific war to stop thespread of IS, and supported by the democraticgovernment of Baghdad.”

This war has legitimacy, which the previousone didn’t. It is views like these, shared by amajority of Muslims, that makes the IS one ofthe most hated and feared terrorist organiza-tions in the world.

THE HATE PREACHERS(L-R) Al-Muhajiroun founder

Omar Bakri Muhammad; 45-year-old Sally Jones who

moved to Syria to join the IS; Sally’s 20-year-old extremist

husband Junaid Hussain

62 October 31, 2014

IL

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GLOBAL TRENDS/ oil industry / wages

AProPublica review of USDepartment of Labor (DoL)investigations shows that oiland gas workers—men andwomen often performing high-

risk jobs—are routinely being underpaid, and the companies hiring them often areusing accounting techniques to deny workersbenefits such as medical leave or unemploy-ment insurance.

The DoL investigations have centered onwhat is known as worker “misclassification”,an accounting gambit whereby companiestreat full-time employees as independentcontractors paid hourly wages, and then failto make good on their obligations. The tech-nique, investigators say, has become evermore common as small companies seek togain contracts in an intensely competitive

OF OIL RIGS AND

RIGGEDWAGES

64 October 31, 2014

BLACK GOLD, DARKREALITIES(Facing page) An operatorat Baker Hughes oil andgas company, which hadto pay back wages afterthe DoL investigation

investigations by the united states department of labor have uncovered hundreds of cases in which oil and gas workers, many involved in dangerous jobs, are being cheated of earnings By Naveena Sadasivam

University, who today heads the DoL’s Wageand Hour Division. “Employers are lookingfor opportunities in a changing businesslandscape, at the employee’s expenses, to cutcorners as much as possible, leaving room forwage and hour violations.”

Over the last decade, the oil and gasindustry has seen tremendousgrowth. Between 2007 and 2012,

when average employment in all US indus-tries fell by 2.7 percent, employment in theoil and gas industry increased by over 30 per-cent. According to research conducted byAnnette Bernhardt, a scholar on low-wagework, 84 percent of workers in the oil, gasand mining industry were employed by con-tractors in 2012.

At the same time, the industry has alsoseen an increase in fatalities and injuries onthe job. There is, so far, no evidence to sug-gest that these accidents are a result of inad-equate training or overworked laborers. Butaccounts from other industries that heavilyoutsource work suggest those risks could bepresent.

A 2012 investigation by ProPublica andPBS Frontline showed that cell phone carri-ers often contract out the dangerous job ofclimbing towers to smaller firms, which don’tprovide the necessary training and equip-ment to climbers. As a result, the death ratewas 10 times higher among cell towerclimbers than other construction workers.

market by holding labor costs down.In the complex, rapidly expanding oil and

gas industry, much of the day-to-day workdone on oil rigs and gas wells is sub-contrac-ted to smaller companies. For instance, onone gas rig alone, the operator might hire onecompany to construct the well pad, anotherto drill the well, a third company to providehydraulic fracking services and yet another totruck water and chemicals for disposal. Butfor the thousands of workers in the hundredsof different companies, a single standard issupposed to apply: by law, they must be paidmore than minimum wage and they must befairly compensated for any overtime accrued.

In 2012, the DoL began a special enforce-ment initiative in its Northeast and South-west regional offices targeting the frackingindustry and its supporting industries. As ofAugust this year, the agency has conducted435 investigations resulting in over $13 mil-lion in back wages found due for more than9,100 workers. ProPublica obtained data for350 of those cases. In over a fifth of the inves-tigations, companies in violation paid morethan $10,000 in back wages.

One of those companies was Morco Geo-logical Services, a company providing mudlogging services for other oil and gas drillingcompanies. In 2013, the DoL found thatMorco was paying some workers $75 dailyfor working virtually round-the-clock shifts.The company eventually agreed to pay$595,737 in back wages to 121 workers fol-lowing the DoL’s investigation. In anothersignificant case, Hutco, a company providinglabor services to the oil and gas industry,ended up paying $1.9 million to 2,267 emplo-yees assigned to work in Louisiana, Missi-ssippi and Texas.

“The problem of misclassification hasbecome pervasive,” said Dr David Weil, a former economics professor at Boston

Employers are looking for opportunities in a changing business landscape, at the employee’s expenses, to cut corners as much as possible.

—Dr David Weil, former professor, Boston University


DAILY DRILLWorkers cleaning

the oil spillage caused by rigging

the DoL show there are companies willfullydodging their responsibilities. The violations—accidental or intentional—are being com-mitted by companies large and small, lawyersand labor officials say.

“You would think that some of the largercompanies would be better in terms of com-pliance. What we’re seeing is these violationsare really rampant in this industry and affectall sizes of companies,” said Shanon Carson, alawyer with Philadelphia-based Berger &Montague, who has represented several oiland gas workers, including Bearden, in classaction lawsuits.

The oil and gas industry is hardly theonly industry to be afflicted with wageabuses. A recent investigation by

McClatchy found that misclassification ofworkers was especially rampant in the con-struction industry, where companies floutedlabor laws to evade taxes.

In the last few years, the DoL has beencracking down on companies in severalindustries, including construction, health-care and hospitality. In recent years, theWage and Hour Division has had its fundingincreased by millions of dollars and upped itsnumber of investigators by 300.

Federal wage and hour lawsuits have alsoseen an increase. Last year alone, the numberof Fair Labor Standards Act cases increasedby 10 percent to 7,764.

“Anecdotally, I think the trend is similar ifnot more in the oil and gas industry simplybecause since the downturn in 2008, they’vecontinued to grow and continued to expandand hire,” said Steve Shardonofsky, a lawyerwith Seyfarth and Shaw, a Chicago law firmthat typically represents the industry.

Yet, worker rights groups and some law-yers believe there are likely thousands of mis-treated workers unaware of protectionsunder wage laws, partly because oil and gasactivity primarily takes place in rural areas.

“Oil field workers are traditionally non-union. They’re isolated in man camps and ontheir sites and it’s hard to get to them,” saidAlex Lotorto, union delegate for IndustrialWorkers of the World.

Courtesy ProPublica

Between December 2009 and November2011, Troy Bearden worked on gas rigs inPennsylvania and Colorado for Precision AirDrilling Services, a company that provideslabor services for oil and gas exploration aro-und the country. During that time period,Bearden worked an average of 12 hours a day,seven days a week, unloading and hooking updrilling equipment and maintaining it dur-ing operation.

Bearden was a full-time employee ofPrecision Air Drilling, but the company clas-sified him as exempt from the federal over-time statute, the Fair Labor Standards Act,and did not pay him for his overtime hours.

In 2011, Bearden and other workers fileda class action lawsuit against the company.Precision Air Drilling settled for $5,00,000.

“We know that the oil and gas industryhas a reputation of paying high wages, but the economic reality often is they receivelarge paychecks because of the number ofhours they’re putting in,” said Betty Camp-bell, the Deputy Regional Administrator forthe Wage and Hour Division’s SouthwestRegion.

Labor lawyers specializing in wage dis-putes say the governing law—the Fair LaborStandards Act—is not easy to understand,interpret and comply with. As a result, theysay employers can be unintentionally violat-ing wage laws. But several investigations by

IL

66 October 31, 2014

GLOBAL TRENDS/ oil industry / wages

Flight to Perdition“sweet dreams are made of these”…this song by eurthymics could wellsum up the aspirations of many youth who migrate abroad and areshocked by the dismal conditions thereBy Ashish Srivastava

EXPLOITATION of Indian mig-rants in foreign countries is a fes-tering issue. They are forced tostay back, are tricked by recruit-ment agencies, have their pass-

ports impounded and are not paid wages—these are the common complaints heard fromthose who have returned home, somehow.

Take Mehboob Alam. I met him in 2012,when he came to us with a request to help himget his brother and 26 other youth from andaround his village in Gorakhpur back from aMalaysian prison. I used to work for an NGOthat was working against human traffickingand promoted safe migration. While he was

narrating the story to our director, I couldn’thelp but wonder how many of those who hadmigrated to Malaysia, the UAE and other Gulfnations, ended up stranded in prisons in analien land?

HUGE MIGRATIONMy questions were soon answered. We hadrequested the UP government for informationin this regard and soon, I was bamboozledwith a CD containing a data file that was soenormous that it could not be sent electroni-cally. Scanning through the 364 MB data file,I came to know that from 2009 to mid-2012,1.4 million youth from just eastern UP had

HUMAN INTEREST/ immigration woes


India, but the story doesn’t end there. Even therelease was possible only because the thenDIG of Gorakhpur, Aseem Arun, took a keeninterest in the case and did not rest till the 27boys had reached home safely. During theentire process that lasted six weeks, I noticed acouple of lacunae: The Indian embassy inMalaysia was not too interested in the matterand was able to inform us about the situationonly when the Ministry of External Affairs(MEA) instructed them

MEA also took an interest only after rigor-ous follow-ups from this senior IPS officer, ourNGO and a multilateral development agency

It was not just the detainment of these boysthat was distressing, but also the fact thatthere was not a single window which could bereached for redressal. What was equallyshocking was the attitude of the Indianembassy in Malaysia, which, alleged the boys,demanded `25,000 from each of them to pur-chase return tickets for them. It makes mewonder: If stranded abroad, do you really havethe option of returning home?

That’s not all. A couple of months later, wereceived a call saying that there were 257 peo-ple forgotten in jails in Riyadh. This time, thequantum of problems was huge. To beginwith, the new police official who was posted inplace of Aseem Arun as Gorakhpur DIG hadno time to listen to us as the state legislativeelections were going on. When we complainedto the MEA, it had only withered updates forus. Worse, the Indian embassy in Riyadh didnot respond to our emails. Not only did the

HUMAN INTEREST/ immigration woes

migrated to different parts of the world. Coming back to Mehboob’s brother, he had

paid more than ` 2 lakh to migrate to Malaysiaand ended up in prison. Worse, this humun-gous amount was for a job which paid just`20,000 a month and where the entireprocess lasted six months. The irony is thateven after paying this sum and wasting time,he was cheated as he was issued a simpletourist visa, which, he learned the hard way,was not good enough for a foreigner to work inany country.

But that was the least of their problems.The two months these youth spent in Malaysiawere pitiful. They ate just once a day and sel-dom slept with a full belly. They received theirwages twice, but it was just 25 percent of whatwas promised. Four agents from Gorakhpur toMalaysia received commissions on every hourthese boys toiled there. On top of that, the boyswere arrested in a raid, after which their laborcontractors vanished. And the company forwhich they were working washed its hands offall responsibility.

LACKADAISICAL RESPONSEThese youth were rescued and brought back to

ROAD TONOWHERE

(Above and facingpage) Construction

workers at a site in aGulf country;

(previous page)Workers keen to

immigrate queue upwith documents

As many as 1.4 million youth had migratedbetween 2009-mid 2012 from eastern UPalone. Most are cheated by agents and end

up in most abysmal working conditions.

68 October 31, 2014

hold illegal migrants for a certain period oftime, after which they are deported in thecheapest way possible—by sea. She furthertold me that one batch of 57 migrants that wasdeported in a boat was never heard of again.

I have developed programs which focus onthe transit phase of migration and feel thatinterventions should be done at the source ofjourney itself. There should be an associationof recruitment agencies, based in small cities,to provide services to migrants and preventillegal migration. Through this, we can devel-op a model code of conduct for recruitmentagencies with a joint monitoring mechanism.It should be spearheaded by the associationand include members of civil society, mediaand concerned government departments. Allrecruitment agencies can then report to thiscommittee on a monthly or quarterly basisand compile a report to be submitted to thedistrict administration for further action.

An alternate approach is to have migrationsecretariats at the block level, who act as one-stop solutions for aspiring youth who want tomigrate. Support from the government isimportant for the fruition of these efforts. I amworking on this concept and hopefully, it willfructify next year.

(The writer was associated with an NGO inUP which worked on human trafficking andunsafe migration)

rescue mission fail, it also left us in aquandary—whose was the ultimate responsi-bility in such crucial times?

TROUBLED LIFENot many people know the plight of familiestaking the risk of sending their boys abroad.These youngsters have to bear a lot of burden:Sisters who have to be married off, ancestralland that is mortgaged and aspirations to seethat their children get a good education, whichthey themselves never got.

Talking to the family of Mehboob and oth-ers who were frequent visitors to our office,made me sad and nervous. I had to resist thefeeling to take the placement agent to task.The words of his father still ring in my ears—how the mother wanted to see her elder sononce before she died, how their land had beenmortgaged so that he could go to Malaysia andhow Mehboob’s sister, Shazia, had waited for anew purple dress from her brother.

As of now, there is no concrete mechanismto solve these problems. I have worked on thehuman trafficking issue for over a decade andfeel there is a serious need for intervention,either at the source of the journey, transit ordestination. The organization I worked forhelped victims at transits points along theIndo-Nepal border.

India has, for very long, been a transitpoint for Nepali citizens to migrate to othercountries. This is not only because India hasbetter connectivity with every country, but alsodue to Nepal having several laws that makemigration for their countrymen difficult.Weird, isn’t it? Believe me, if a Nepali womanwants to migrate to a foreign country seekingemployment as a domestic help, the minimumage bar is 35 years. Though India has been asignatory to many conventions that preventhuman trafficking, keeping a check onemployment-induced migration has beenlackadaisical.

EXPLOITED LOTI had a chance to interact with the late IreneFernandes, who gave up her teaching job inher 20s to fight against abuses faced bymigrants in immigration detention centers inMalaysia. What she told me, made me lose myappetite that day. These detention centers


IL

the hockey gold made up for the dipin the medals tally. but there were

some stirring performances as well inother disciplines that hold promise

for the rio olympics in 2016By V Krishnaswamy in Incheon

THE medals tally came down as didthe gold count at the 17th AsianGames at Incheon, South Korea. Butthe disappointment of a lower countwas offset by the success of the

Indian hockey team which won a gold 16 yearsafter the 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok. Whatmade it even more sweeter was that the goldearned the team an automatic berth in the Rio deJaneiro Olympics in Brazil.

The medals count fell from 65, inclusive of 14gold, in 2010 to 57 medals, including 11 gold in2014. Not a very happy figure for the world’s sec-ond most populated country, and especially

SPORTS/asian games / india

Hopeamidst

despair

70 October 31, 2014

WINNERS’ PRIDE(From left) The women’s4x400 meter relay teamcelebrates after winningthe gold; Boxer Mary Komwith her gold; Hockeyteam skipper Sardar Singhposing with his medal; Thearchers after winning inthe men’s compoundteam category

India’s medalcount (57) aswell as the goldtally (11) fell ascompared to2010. Chinatopped with342 medals thatincluded 151gold medals.

CURTAINS DOWNFireworks near the

Incheon Asiadmain stadium

during the closingceremony of the

17th Asian Games

Photos: UNI


when the world’s most populated country,China, had 342 medals, including 151 gold.

India won gold medals in nine disciplinesthis time as compared to seven last. But in2010, India won medals in 18 disciplines,whereas this time, it was 14. But then, three ofthe disciplines in which India won medals lasttime—chess (two bronze), roller sports (twobronze) and cue sports (one gold, one silverand two bronze)—were off the program in2014. So, in that sense, India is very muchwhere it was four years ago. Not a very goodsign, considering that the rest of the world issurging ahead.

There were just four individual goldmedals for India this time. Jitu Rai’sgold for the men’s 50-meter pistol

event on the first day did give rise to height-ened expectations but the contingent had towait for almost a week to win a second gold.Apart from Rai, the other individual goldmedalists were wrestler Yogeshwar Dutt (men’s65-kilogram freestyle); women’s boxing legendMC Mary Kom (48-51 kilogram category); anddiscus thrower Seema Punia.

Gold medals also came in for India in ten-nis—the high-profile Sania Mirza partnering anear-tyro Saketh Myneni in the mixed doubles.The women’s 4x400 quartet, comprising 400meter individual bronze medalist MR Poova-mma, 800 meter silver medal winner TintuLuka, besides Priyanka Pawar and MandeepKaur ensured a fourth successive gold in thelonger relay.

That was not all. The men’s kabaddi teamcreated a record in the games with a seventhsuccessive gold—India has dominated thesport ever since the sport was introduced at the1990 edition at Beijing.

Women added to the supremacy with a sec-ond successive gold medal—kabbadi for

The men’s kabaddi teamcreated a record with aseventh successive gold.India has dominated thesport ever since it wasintroduced in 1990.

Athletics

Boxing

Tennis

Kabaddi

Shooting

Rowing

Cue Sports

Archery

Wushu

Golf

Sailing

Squash

Wrestling

Chess

Roller Sports

Swimming

Gymnastics

Hockey

Badminton

TOTAL

5

2

2

2

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

14

2

1

1

2

1

0

NA

1

0

0

0

1

1

NA

NA

0

0

1

0

11

2

3

1

0

3

3

1

1

1

1

1

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

17

4

0

1

0

1

0

NA

1

0

0

0

2

1

NA

NA

0

0

0

0

10

5

4

2

0

4

1

2

2

1

0

0

3

3

2

2

1

1

1

0

34

7

4

3

0

7

3

NA

2

2

0

1

1

3

NA

NA

1

0

1

1

36

12

9

5

2

8

5

4

3

2

1

1

3

3

2

2

1

1

1

0

65

13

5

5

2

9

3

NA

4

2

0

1

4

5

NA

NA

1

0

2

1

57

GOLD

2010 2014 2010 2014 2010 2014 2010 2014

SILVER BRONZE TOTAL

Performance index

72 October 31, 2014

SPORTS/asian games / india

women was introduced only in 2010.The men’s team squash gold medal reduced

the hurt for Asia’s top squash player, SauravGhosal, who lost the gold after almost having itin his grip at match point in the third game,before losing it to a Kuwaiti, Abdullah AlMezayen, in five grueling games.

But the finest story came from the groupof compound archers—men andwomen. Each member of the men’s trio

was so different from the other yet so devotedto each other. The team comprised AbhishekVerma, Sandeep Kumar and Rajat Chauhan.

In the women’s group, Trisha Deb, whoafter being part of the Indian team in aRecurve event—different from Compound—was at crossroads without a job and hope, tillshe met coach Jiwanjot Teja. The slightly-builtBengal girl moved from Kolkata to Patiala tostudy and pursue compound archery. Now, shehas a World Championships medal and abronze in an Asian Games, which came whenher rival, while leading by a big margin, missedthe target completely to hand the bronze toTrisha. And what does the simple girl want? “Ihope I can get a job at least now,” she said.

Here in Incheon and before the Indian con-tingent left for Korea, there were enough con-troversies. Before the team left, there was theusual “battle” between the Sports Authority ofIndia, the Indian Olympic Association and thesports ministry. Some teams were not clearedat first (it came later) while in other cases, themanagers were dropped only to come underdifferent heads as captains and coaches.

The Sarita Devi controversy raised a lotof heat and dust, and lost in that dinwas a similar decision suffered by male

boxer Devendro Singh. Steeplechasers LalitaBabar and Sudha Singh were led to believe theywere to be elevated to silver and bronze asKenyan-born Ruth Jebet from Bahrain wasfirst disqualified for cutting lanes, only to bereinstated a day later and the medal ceremony,too, was put off for a day. So, Lalita stayed atbronze and defending champion, Sudharemained fourth.

The shooters blamed their poor show onexcessive travel throughout the year and thebadminton duo, Saina Nehwal and PV Sindhu,

failed to make it to the semis in singles, but didmanage a team bronze at the games.

Tennis also took a hit as big stars SomdevDevvarman, Leander Paes and RohanBopanna gave the games a miss and SaniaMirza almost did the same only to come back atthe last minute to give the team a gold in themixed doubles as well as a bronze in thewomen’s doubles.

A rare bronze in swimming from SandeepSejwal in 50-meter breaststroke and the first-ever medal (a bronze) in women’s sailing (29erclass) were other noteworthy successes.

The next big multi-discipline engagementfor India will be the Rio Olympics in 2016, butas things stand, the wrestlers, shooters andboxers stay as the best hope in that mega event.

And needless to say, hockey will be the dis-cipline that most will emote with, just as it wasin Incheon. Let’s hope for the best.

THE 17th Asian Games will also be known forthe controversy surrounding boxer LaishramSarita Devi. There are various versions floating around—ranging from Sarita havingapologized for her actions at the presentationceremony to the medal being finally given tothe Indian chef-de-mission, AdilleSumariwalla. But what is still unclear iswhether Sarita “accepted” the decision andthe medal, or merely apologized for “disrupting” the sanctity of the medal ceremony.

Interestingly, there was a temporary office of the Council of Arbitration for Sport(CAS) at the games to ensure that participants had free access to quick justice. Theoffice was barely 300 meters away from the media center of the games. Did the Indianofficials know about it? If they did, were the players informed about it? And, did theIndian chef-de-mission know about it and inform Sarita that she had an option?

Technically, Sarita could still approach the CAS office, which could then ask for thevideos of the bout itself and a new committee could sit on it.

Having said that, Sarita and her husband did lodge a strong protest with the boxingofficials at the games, soon after the “injustice” meted out to her, even though theIndian officials stayed mum. The coach, GS Sandhu maintained that InternationalBoxing Association (AIBA) rules no longer allowed for a “protest” or an “appeal”. ButSarita and Thoiba insisted on filing an official protest.

With no other Indian officials in sight, Sarita and her husband put together $500.They had $400 with them and borrowed $100 from a journalist and requested Sandhuto lodge the protest. The coach finally relented.

However, the reply to the protest came with a couple of hours, with AIBA supervisorDavid Francis’ “notice of protest evaluation” reading: “After review of your protest for thebout between India and Korea, the protest was about judging of the bout. FollowingArticle 8.4 in the AOB competition rules, you cannot protest against the judges’ decisions. Therefore, we would like to inform you that your protest is now rejected.” So,what the AIBA in essence said is that “judges” are beyond reproach. Sandhu also threwin the towel and apologized after immense pressure from boxing associations.

Bout to forget

� Jitu Rai in men’s 50 meterpistol shooting � Men’s compound team in archery� Men's squash team � Yogeshwar Dutt in men’sfreestyle 65 kilogram, inwrestling� Seema Punia in women’s discus throw� Tennis mixed doubles team� MC Mary Kom in women’sboxing in the 48-51kilogram category� Men’s hockey team� Women’s 4X400 meter relay team� Women’s kabaddi team� Men’s kabaddi team

Golden moments

IL


bright, young minds today are taking up law as a career. but choosingone specialization over another is a tough judgment they have to arrive atBy Jui Mukherjee

TRENDS/ legal grads /emerging options

THESE words could well sum upthe dilemma facing fresh gradu-ates from India’s law schools.Should they go in for LLM(Master of Law) or garner work

experience? Dabble in corporate law or litiga-tion? As these youngsters step into the realworld of tough decisions, stiff competition andstrict opposition, the choices are many and thefinal decision, confusing.

The questions plaguing them are numer-ous: “Will I be able to support myself duringthe initial struggling years of litigation?”, “WillI be happy in a sterile corporate setting, awayfrom the hurly-burly of courtrooms?”, and“Will my LLM be of any value sans a solidwork experience?”

In a bid to understand their motivationsand choices, India Legal spoke to a few lawgraduates who have stepped into the world ofcut-throat competition.

KRITHIKA SUNDARAMAN, 23Landing a job in a law firm in Mumbai and liv-ing away from family seems like the ultimatedream for many youngsters. So it was forKrithika. But when the opportunity arose, shefound herself in a difficult spot. “I studied lawin Pune and had been living away from myparents for four years. So, when, in my finalyear, they decided to move from Hyderabad toPune to be with me, I was overjoyed. But whenI began looking for better job opportunities in

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…”

—Robert Frost

All the world’s

74 October 31, 2014

very attractive job in a good corporate firm inChennai. The perks included internationaltravel, township accommodation, free foodand a salary of around `45,000 per month. Ialmost took it up, but then came another joboffer at a bank in Mumbai, which paid me `10,000 less, but was interesting.”

After thinking hard and following endlessdiscussions with family and friends, she took itup. “I am happy with where I am right now. Iplan to stay here for a long time and gain experience. Who knows, I might just want toset up my own practice in a decade or so,” shesays, giving a hint about her future plans.

OSCAR VARGHESE ABRAHAM, 24Being a commerce graduate and having anaffinity for economics, Oscar decided to pur-sue chartered accountancy. It was only afterhis German tutor advised him to pursue law asa career that he thought it might be a more

Mumbai after my fifth year, my family was alittle disappointed,” she says. Her motherwanted her to stay in Pune for another year orso in order to keep the family together for awhile longer.

“I even received a job offer from a firm inPune, making matters worse. I was torn. Ittook me days to come to a final decision aboutmoving to Mumbai and it was very hard toexplain it to my mother. But she understoodand supported me completely,” adds Krithika.

Besides debating over which city to workin, there was also the question of the type ofwork she would take up. “I was very confusedabout whether to take up corporate law or liti-gation. While litigation work was appealing, Iwas also aware of its demanding nature, whereit takes at least 6-7 years to become an estab-lished advocate with a desired clientele. Onthe other hand, pay scales in corporate lawwere attractive too. I couldn’t pick,” she says.

After a while, Krithika started leaningtowards corporate law, as she realized that lit-igation would cause hardship in her personallife. “In litigation, people put in 14 hours a dayfor years without making much money toreach a respectable position. I knew I wouldwant to settle down in 4-5 years,” she says.

Her decision was met with criticism fromher peers, who knew her to be “the perfect fit”for litigation. Being an active participant inseveral national-level moot courts anddebates, her love for arguing was not a secret.“People would tell me: ‘Kaka (her nickname),you are crazy to go into corporate. It will be abig loss to the field if you aren’t arguing incourt.’ And it would confuse me even more.”

Finally, her love for litigation and every-one’s encouragement caused her to take up ajob in a law firm in Mumbai with a startingsalary of `20,000. She shifted to another lawfirm in the city after nine months, where sheworked for four months before the next bigchoice caught her off-guard. “I was offered a

CAREER PATHWith a knack for litigation, KrithikaSundaraman (facingpage) is working witha bank in Mumbai.She plans to set upher own practice in a decade

Oscar VargheseAbraham (left) didn’tpursue higher studiesin law abroad and isworking as a corporate lawyer

a court...


advancement in a career as a whole, but minuswork experience, it would be like a softy with-out the cone,” he explains.

Oscar is now working in a well-known cor-porate firm, where, after initially handlingcontracts, he is now looking into intellectualproperty. “It gets a little frustrating, not beingable to use my economics education, which Iloved. But I know it will kick in sooner orlater,” he says, adding that he will soon beshifting jobs to handle capital markets andfinancial instruments.

BHAKTI DHOREY, 23Bhakti is the oddball. While all her peers weredabbling either in corporate law or litigation,she found herself drawn to a completely differ-ent field—photography.

“I wasn’t very active in my law college inthe first two years. I made good friends in duecourse and started exploring what my inter-ests were. It was then that I discovered my lovefor photography, but still didn’t think of takingit up as a career,” Bhakti says.

In the fourth year, Bhakti took up aninternship under a family court advocate. “Myexperience there made me take the decision toshift my line of work. Every day in that court,all I saw was families fighting, children cryingand being asked difficult questions like ‘Doesyour father hit your mother?’, ‘Does yourfather come home drunk?’, ‘Do your parentsneglect you?’It started getting to me.”

Bhakti then took a course in photographyand landed a job involving candid photogra-phy at high-profile weddings with a top-notchphotographer in the country. “I was the firstamong my friends to land a job, and they wereall very happy for me because they knewwhere my passion was,” she says.

Bhakti now works on an assignment basisout of Pune, travelling across India to docu-ment lavish weddings, charging around`25,000 per day. She, however, is grateful forher education in law. “Knowledge of law helpswhen I have to negotiate the rights of picturesclicked by me and their use on websites andmy own portfolio. Also, if someone were tothreaten me with legal terms, I can alwaysstrike back and tell him I have a law degree,”she exclaims.

The future is, indeed, bright.

interesting option. “I thought it would be lessmonotonous of the two. My mother was com-pletely against me taking up law. “However,when I told my family that I was firm aboutmy career choice, they supported me.”

Oscar knew from the beginning that hewanted to get into corporate law. “It seemedmore exciting than litigation, which involvesusing the same procedures to achieve similarobjectives in court...” he says.

However, the path to success wasn’t easy.“It wasn’t until my final year that I realized Iwasn’t sure what I would do after college—whether to take up a job or pursue LLM. I gotthrough the London School of Economics andNational University of Singapore. But when Idecided an LLM wouldn’t hold much valuewithout work experience, my friends wereshocked,” he says. They warned him not to letgo off a “once in a lifetime opportunity” inthese colleges. Many felt he was making a bigmistake, but he was clear. “My parents wereextremely supportive of me. An LLM is an IL

FRINGE BENEFITSBeing a law graduate,

Bhakti Dhorey tookup photography as a

profession. But sheclaims that legalknowledge does

benefit her

TRENDS/ legal grads /emerging options

76 October 31, 2014

SAN FRANCISCO’S Board of Supervisors, a legislativebody, has given its nod for a controversial proposal.Popularly called the Airbnb Law, it legalizes short-termrentals and use of websites to facilitate that. Housing lawsof San Francisco had earlier barred residential rentals of 30days or less, which meant that most of Airbnb listings werebanned. However, the opponents of the bill raised concernsthat the new legislation was not stringent.

INTERNATIONAL BRIEFS

Draconian lawSARAH EWART of Northern Ireland was in the20th week of her pregnancy in 2013 when shefound out that her unborn baby was diagnosed

with Anencephaly, a condi-tion where the skull is notdeveloped. But she wouldhave to continue the preg-nancy, as the laws prohibitabortion. Instead, she trav-elled to London to get an abortion. This raised anational debate on the choic-es a woman has in these cir-cumstances.

A year later, NorthernIreland’s Department ofJustice is to begin publicconsultation on changingabortion law in case of fetalabnormality and rape.Justice David Ford, who isheading the

consultation, says: “It is not about the widerissues of abortion law, often labeled ‘pro-life’and ‘pro-choice’. It is about considering legislative changes in the two specific sets ofcircumstances.”

KENYAN president Uhuru Kenyatta,who had earlier said that he wouldrespect the summons by theInternational Criminal Court (ICC), hasstuck to his word, becoming the firsthead of state to do so. He received awarm welcome on October 8 at TheHague, as Kenyan expats flocked togreet him. He has temporarily cededpower by invoking Article 147(3) of theKenyan constitution, installing

vice-president William Ruto as acting president.

Kenyatta, son of Kenya’s foundingfather Jomo Kenyatta, faces fivecharges for instigating ethnic violencepost the 2007 elections, in which 1,200Kenyan lives were lost. The ICC tookup the case after the Kenyan courtsseemed unable to prosecute him. TheKenyan parliament withdrew from theICC’s jurisdiction this September.

Kenya’s Kenyatta vs ICC

Reprieve for short-term rentals


ISRAELI ministers recently held discussionson a new legislation to handle illegal immigrants. This comes just a day after thehigh court did away with the country’s infiltrator law that granted the authorities theright to detain illegal immigrants indefinitelywithout trial. The court also ordered theshutting down of “Holot” detention center

that houses around 2,000 African nationals. However, the residents of Southern Tel Avivare angry over the court ruling. As per thegovernment statistics, 48,000 Africans areliving illegally in Israel.This, according to the locals, has led to a rise in crime. A jus-tice ministry spokesperson said that new legislation would not jeopardize the fundamental rights of the Africans or contradict the court’s ruling.

A fine balance

in haider, vishal bhardwaj magicallyweaves the shakespearean narrativeinto the troubled valley’s landscape

By Ramesh Menon

KASHMIR’SHAMLET

VISHAL Bhardwaj rarely disappoints.Look at how he dealt with complexShakespearean plots in Maqbool andOmkara. With Haider, he shows whata celluloid craftsman can do within

the confines and limitations of Bollywood. Whenyou hear ranting, fanatic voices from the growingHindutva brigade demanding that the screening ofHaider, an adaption of Hamlet, be stopped, you seewhat I mean. They do not understand fiction orpoetry for that matter, and so, they can be forgiven.

Along with celebrated writer Basharat Peerwhose first novel, Curfewed Nights, which dealtwith Kashmir, became a bestseller, Bhardwaj trans-forms scriptwriting to a different level. The dia-logues are loaded. That Basharat is from Kashmirhelped bring reality to the gruesome violence, mid-night raids, simmering anger and guerilla justice inthe story. The film does not let you relax even after it

FILM REVIEW/ haider

78 October 31, 2014

is over. The helplessness of the characters hau-nts you. The truth is not easy to fathom; thereare many shades of black, grey and white. Thecharacters struggle in a timeless tragedy thatseems to have no end.

Set in the Kashmir of 1995 when mili-tancy and terror ravaged the country-side, the film forces you to think of the

continuing tragedy of broken lives and dreamsof what was once Paradise. Haider (ShahidKapoor) returns home to discover that hisfather was spirited away by the army for treat-ing injured militants as he felt that saving liveswas his job as a doctor. He later learns how hewas tortured and killed.

Meanwhile, Ghazala (Tabu), his widowedmother, has moved in with his scheming andover-ambitious uncle (Kay Kay Menon) andon an unannounced visit home, Haider findsthey are a cosy twosome.

This is enough to tear Haider into emo-tional shreds as he deeply loves his mother.The film subtly underlines the Oedipus com-plex playing out silently and devastatingly.The ache is deep. His only aim is to avenge hisfather’s death which was plotted by the schem-ing uncle to marry his mother…. But he hasArshia (Shradda Kapoor) to fall back on, who

soaks his pain and occasionally, lets him smile.If Shahid’s real mother hugged him, sayingthat this was his best film, she has a point. Itprobably is his best till now.

Bhardwaj chose Kashmir as his stage as heknew it was the story he wanted to tell. In arecent interview to The Indian Express, hesaid: “Kashmir is the Hamlet of my film.” Itwas the political turmoil and tragedy that tookhim there. No wonder the human conflictplays out in such haunting detail. Years of liv-ing in a war-like situation has made many ofthe victims numb to the senseless violence.

Bhardwaj once saw his wife crying whilereading Curfewed Nights. When he read thebook, he knew he had to make Haider. This ishow Basharat became his co-writer. He ack-nowledges that the film would not have beenthe way it is, had it not been for Basharat.

Breathtaking cinematography by PankajKumar, riveting script, soulful music and stel-lar performances help Haider soar. It is onlytowards the end that Bhardwaj slips on a typ-ical Bollywood floor. He must have thought ofrecovering the `57 crore the film cost to make.It is just not like him to be stereotyped.

Watch it. You will have some disturbingquestions for which answers are equally disturbing.

HAIDERDIRECTION: Vishal BhardwajSTARRING: Shahid Kapoor,Tabu, Kay Kay Menon, IrrfanKhan, Shraddha Kapoor

Rating *** out of *****

IL


IS THAT LEGAL?

A few companies are known tospecify a notice period of as long asthree months, which is not feasiblefor employees who are looking for ajob change. What legal recourse dothey have if they get a new job andtheir employer doesn’t relieve them?In case of private companies, wefind that there are different durationsof notice period for different levels ofemployees, ranging from one tothree months. Notice period of as

long as of three months is generallyfor higher managerial posts, to avoidany vacuum that might be created. Ifa person wishes to leave his job hewill have to follow the terms andconditions of his appointment lettergiven during the appointment. In anycase, when a person wishes to leavebefore his/her notice period expires,he can buy out his remaining noticeperiod, as specified in his appoint-ment letter.

The term “love jehad” is frequently used these days torefer to inter-faith marriages. Does the child born out ofsuch marriages take the father’s or the mother’s reli-gion for his official records? The right to freedom of religion is a fundamental rightguaranteed under Article 25 of the constitution. Article25 says that all persons are equally entitled to profess,practice and propagate a particular religion.

Even though the child is a result of an inter-religiouswedlock, he cannot be compelled to follow any parti-cular religion. The ultimate freedom lies with the childhimself to adopt or not adopt a particular religion.

In India, eyewitnesses give theirstatement to the police but backout by the time the matter reach-es court, often due to threat totheir life. Is there any precedentfrom other countries, where arecorded statement given to thepolice is accepted as evidence?Generally, a witness is labeled ashostile when he furnishes a cer-tain statement on his knowledgeabout commission of a crimebefore the police but refutes itwhen called as witness beforethe court during the trial.However, Section 154 of the

Illustrations: Udayshankar

80 October 31, 2014

The three-monthdilemma

Religion of love

Indian Evidence Act, 1872, thatdeals with this subject, does notdefine the term hostile witness.The matter is left entirely to thediscretion of the court. A witnessis considered hostile when, in theopinion of the judge, he bears a“hostile animus” to the partycalling him and not merely whenhis testimony contradicts hisproof. Under the Evidence Act,only the statements recordedbefore the court of law and notthe one given before the police isgiven evidentiary value.

There is no precedent fromother countries, where a recor-ded statement given to the policeis accepted as evidence.

Unreliable eyewitnesses

1. An inhabitant ofToronto.

A: Torontoist B: Torontorian C: Torontonian D: Torontan

2. A psychopath.

A: Unstable personB: Psychiatrist C: Psychologist D: Neurosurgeon

3. An Irish vacation.A: Business with pleasure

B: A term in prisonQuickly C: Work on holidaysD: All alone in vacation

4. Synonym for donkey.A: Honkey B: Moke C: Beast of JordanD: Dobbin

5. A shoemaker’s sonalways goes ....

A: alone B: earlyC: barefootD: hungry

6. What’s GIGO?A: Garbage In, GarbageOutB: Going In, Going Out C: Go India, GoOverseas D: Go In, Get Out

7. A jelly-belly.A: A fat person B: A thin person

C: A cabaret dancer D: A new-born baby

8. What’s the correctspelling?

A: Protruberant B: Protuberant C: Protubarant D: Protrubrant

9. What does “asinine” mean?A: Poisonous B: Foolish C: LethalD: Kind

10. As quarrelsome as a ....A: mom-in-lawB: weaselC: catD: dog

11. Fear of noise.A: Cacophobia B: AudiophobiaC: Radiophobia D: Phonophobia

12. The meaning of“nouveau riche”.A: Hitler rule B: Not for richC: Newly rich D: Only for rich

13. To recoup is to....A: retaliate B: recoverC: rehabilitate D: re-arrange

14. Roof of the mouth. A: Palette B: Palate

C: Pallet D: Pallette

15. So mean!

A: Viscous B: Viscious C: Viscose D: Vicious

16. Mutton dressed aslamb.

A: Cheating husband B: Big bribe C: Double-faced politico D: Old woman actingyoung

17. Talking turkey.

A: Serious talk B: Gossip C: Small talk D: Lovers’ talk

18. This term does notmean “brothel”.

A. Fish market B. Punch houseC. Knocking shop D. Closet of ease

19. A misogamist hates .A: women B: games C: marriageD: misers

20. There is no peacefor the ...!

A: wickedB: wiseC: wife D: wealthy

1. Torontonian 2. . Unstable person3. A term in prison 4. Moke 5. barefoot 6. Garbage In,Garbage Out 7. A fat person 8. Protuberant9. Foolish 10. weasel 11. Phonophobia12. Newly rich13. recover14.Palate15. Vicious16. Old woman actingyoung17. Serious talk 18. Closet of ease 19. marriage 20. wealthy

SCORES

0 to 7 correct—You needto do this more often.

8 to 12 correct—Good, get the scrabble

board out. Above 12—Bravo!

Keep it up!

ANSWERS

have fun with english. get the right answers. play better scrabble.

By Mahesh Trivedi

WORDLY

WISE

[email protected]


BOUNCY RIDEA dog surfs at the6th Annual Surf Citysurf dog contest inHuntington Beach,California.

Photos: UNI

BORN WITH A SILVER SPOON Whole Pet Kitchenin Metro Manila isa restaurant thatserves food ediblefor both humansand pets. Ahelper is seenspoon-feedingmini-schnauzerRex.

PEOPLE / dog’s day out

LIKE MASTER, LIKE PETA man and his dog take a dive into the sea in Piran,a town in Slovenia.

PILLION POOCH A local in HongKong rides his bicycle around thecity with his dog onthe carrier’s seat.

COMPANIONSFOR LIFEDog trainerJeremiah Gerbrachtfrom Los Angelescan’t part either withhis dogs or hisHarley Davidson. Soin 1996 he soughtand won permissionto ride his motorcycle with hisdog on board

.