editorial.txt

November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Making climate rules at Marrakech

The United Nations conference on climate change now under way in Marrakech, Morocco, has the ambitious task of drawing up the first steps on enhanced finance and technology transfer, which is vital to advance the Paris Agreement that entered into force on November 4. India’s negotiating positions at the ongoing Conference of the Parties 22 (CoP 22) must ensure that on both these aspects, the basic principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities laid down by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are upheld. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is central to the effort to contain the rise of the global average temperature in the current century to well below 2° Celsius since pre-industrial levels. But that goal is considered impossible even if sincere action is taken on all pledges made so far, necessitating a higher ambition. Moreover, the Paris Agreement does not have a carbon budget system that gives weightage to the emerging economies taking their historical handicap into account. The imperative therefore is to demand suitably high financial flows to both mitigate emissions and prepare communities to adapt to climate change. Such a mandate should be seen as an opportunity, since CoP 22 will discuss ways and means for countries to integrate their national commitments submitted for the Paris deal into actual policies and investment plans. In India’s case, new developments in sectors such as construction, transport, energy production, waste and water management, as well as agriculture, can benefit from fresh funding and technology.
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November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Theresa May’s underwhelming visit

India and the U.K. have many reasons to have close relations. They are two pillars of the Commonwealth, sharing democratic values and a world view on many political issues including terrorism. The Indian community that has settled in Britain has helped deepen ties. Today India is the third largest investor in the U.K., and the U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India. It stands to reason that for her first foreign visit outside Europe after taking over as Prime Minister, Theresa May chose India. As long as British courts don’t stand in her way, she will work to engineer the U.K.’s exit from the European Union in early 2017, and her visit to India was seen as a way of exploring a trade path outside of the EU, with preliminary talk expected on reviving negotiations for a free trade agreement that were first started in 2007. For the past few months, British ministers, including key advisers to Ms. May, have emphasised that the Brexit movement would benefit India-U.K. ties. Given this backdrop, it remains a mystery why, in the event, Ms. May’s visit turned out to be devoid of any substantial measures that would put India-U.K ties on a new trajectory. 
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


Understanding Trumpocalypse

Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. These words will echo in the hearts of 324 million Americans today, some shell-shocked and downcast, others delirious with joy. The sheer divergence of emotions over the surprise result is a poignant signal of how deeply divided the nation is, after a polarising two-year election campaign. Bigotry, patriarchy and racist rancour, which reared their ugly heads throughout this season of incivility, may find no welcome catharsis with the apotheosis of Mr. Trump. According to the exit polls, 58 per cent of whites and 21 per cent of non-whites voted for Mr. Trump, whereas 37 per cent of whites and 74 per cent of non-whites voted for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He also scored higher with men than women, and with those voters who did not have a college degree. In other words, blue-collared white men and women thronged to Mr. Trump in droves, angry about their perceived impoverishment and disenfranchisement inflicted by the country’s political and financial elites. It had left them with only one option: to throw a metaphorical grenade at these power centres. 
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


A method in the shock therapy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to curb unaccounted cash, or black money, circulating in the Indian economy by withdrawing the highest-value currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 as legal tender within three-odd hours of the announcement, is a bold one. He invoked provocative imagery to explain the measure — of corrupt officials stashing kilos of ill-gained cash under their mattresses, and such illicit black money fuelling inflation as well as terrorism. He pointed out how difficult it is for honest taxpayers to buy a house as the real estate sector seldom operates without a cash component, some of which finds its way to political funding. The increase in the circulation of these notes in the past five years has been disproportionate to the economy’s growth. The introduction of new Rs.500 and Rs.2,000 notes, the government argues, would not only check counterfeit currency, a problem that has assumed serious dimensions, but also purge India’s economy of the black wealth amassed in the form of high-value notes. Any decision like this needs to be sudden, and it is not surprising that it has caused hardship as people scramble to get notes of smaller denomination for daily expenditure. The only defence for this is that the larger public purpose outweighs the immediate difficulties.
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


The long battle for Raqqa

The operation to recapture Raqqa in Syria launched by a U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters is bound to increase the military pressure on the Islamic State, which is already under attack in Mosul, its power centre in Iraq. The Raqqa offensive has long been on the cards. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) finally moved their troops to the city’s defence lines after getting weapons and the clearance from the U.S. As in the case of the battle for Mosul where the U.S. provides air cover to the Iraqi forces and Shia militias, in Raqqa it will provide assistance to the SDF. The U.S. strategy is to choke the IS from both sides, and its partners on the ground seem ready to take the high risk of attacking the group’s strongest bases. Over the past year the Kurdish fighters have been consistently effective in ground battles against the IS. Most of the major territorial losses of the IS in Syria — be it Kobane, Tal Abyad or Manbij — were at the hands of the Kurds. The jihadist group, which once had direct access to the Turkish border, has now retreated to its core in Syria, stretching from Raqqa to Deir Ezzour. Against this background, the SDF clearly has an upper hand. The IS will also find it challenging to defend two of its most important cities at the same time. But that doesn’t mean that the SDF will have an easy walk into Raqqa. 
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


Waiting for Rahul

With Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, it is difficult to say who needs the other more. Indeed, it is not clear whether the party is shielding him from the risk of electoral failure or whether it is looking to him for political leadership and guidance. In any case the seemingly never-ending wait for his ascension as the president of the party was not doing either him or the Congress any good. If the decision of the Congress Working Committee to ask Mr. Gandhi to take up the top post was a surprise, it was only in its timing. Ever since the Lok Sabha election of 2014, Mr. Gandhi was being prepared for this very job; also, his mother and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had not been keeping good health. But two factors stood in the way. Members of the party’s old guard were unsure of his leadership skills, or were apprehensive of being left out if the order changed. More important, Mr. Gandhi himself wanted time. He wanted to make sure he did not appear to be hankering after power and position, and he did not get blamed for electoral defeats that were, by any reckoning, inevitable. But just as the seniors in the party reconciled themselves to the changing times, Mr. Gandhi too seems to have become more responsive to the requirements of an organisation such as the Congress: that he would have to deal with the party as it is, and that he would not be able to readily mould it to the form he would like it to take.
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November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Solutions after the smog

If Delhi’s crippling pollution crisis is to end, at least in the coming years, the Centre and the States concerned need to adopt a two-pronged approach: make policy changes to help farmers stop burning crop waste and tackle problems created by urbanisation. Every measure to curb the release of pollutants is important since the weather pattern in the post-monsoon months causes smog to persist. The capital experiences the inversion effect of air pressure retarding the dispersal of the foul cloud. There has to be strong political will to implement a time-bound programme that will stop the burning of crop residues — by one estimate about 90 million tonnes is burnt on-farm — and put them to commercial use. As the eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan has pointed out, farmers are not at fault for trying to remove the waste from the land, and they need help. In the northwestern States, they resort to burning straw to prepare for a wheat crop weeks after harvesting rice. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute published a guidance report four years ago on ways to use the residue, with an emphasis on converting paddy straw into livestock feed, compost, raw material for power generation, biofuel production and as substrate for mushroom farming. State support is vital for straw to be used as fodder, and farmers should be assisted with supplemental stocks of urea and molasses, green fodder and legume waste. 
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November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Chasing a grand alliance

Ever since the Mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, successfully stared down a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in the Bihar elections last November, speculation about a possible replication in Uttar Pradesh has been rife. The buzz has grown over the past week, after Congress election strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Even more recently, at the SP’s silver jubilee festivities in Lucknow, the air rang with calls for “unity of socialist parties” from assembled fellow-travellers from the Janata Dal days — including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad; former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, now of the Janata Dal (Secular); Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United); and Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has a significant support base in western U.P. Through all this, Mr. Mulayam Yadav has been enigmatically tight-lipped, as have been Congress leaders. The other two big forces in the State, the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party, have been uninhibited in talking down the threat such a Congress-SP-Lohiaite alliance would pose. This is not surprising as there are big challenges such a grand alliance would face in U.P. as compared to Bihar. 
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Back from the brink in Lebanon 
The election of Michel Aoun, the 81-year-old former general, as Lebanon’s President ends a two-and-a-half-year political stalemate. It signals hope that the country’s fractious political class will come together to form a government invested in addressing the many challenges it faces, from basic civil issues to threats coming from neighbouring, civil war-stricken Syria. The length of time it took to elect a President in itself shows the complex nature of the political system. Under a long-standing arrangement, the President has to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni, and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia. The major political parties represent these sects, and reaching a consensus on key issues is tricky. What makes matters worse is external intervention. Hezbollah, which represents the Shia community, has Iran’s backing, while the Sunni political faction led by Saad Hariri is supported by Saudi Arabia and the West. President Aoun, a Maronite politician, is a Hezbollah ally. His election is the result of an agreement among the Shia, Sunni, and Christian factions. Mr. Hariri backed Mr. Aoun’s election in Parliament, while the President, in return, named Mr. Hariri as Prime Minister. The Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has declared that he won’t oppose Mr. Hariri’s appointment.
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Looking for a humane solution

The agreement between India and Sri Lanka on establishing a Joint Working Group on fisheries is a small step forward in resolving the dispute between fishermen of both countries. In fact, such a mechanism had been in place until a few years ago to address problems that arose whenever fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Sri Lanka. The points agreed on are important: a hotline between the Coast Guards of both countries, a meeting of the JWG once in three months, and a meeting of the fisheries ministers every six months. Welcome too is the commitment that there would be no violence or loss of life of fishermen. These measures are useful in getting Indian fishermen or their boats released from custody, but they are unlikely to have any immediate impact on the livelihood crisis facing the fishermen of northern Sri Lanka. Such a crisis may grip Tamil Nadu fishermen too one day, after the fishery resources in the Palk Bay are exhausted. The real issue is how long trawlers from Tamil Nadu will continue to fish in Sri Lankan territorial waters, and how soon bottom trawling is ended. The official statement after the talks between the foreign ministers refers to “expediting the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest”. An agreement on this is crucial, but in the absence of a time frame there remains a question mark over a solution emerging.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Still unwieldy but just in time 
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has managed to break the stalemate with States at the Goods and Services Tax Council’s fourth round of deliberations over the contentious issue of tax rates for the new tax regime. He did this by retaining the standard rates of 12 per cent and 18 per cent proposed at the Council’s last meeting, but tweaking the highest and lowest tax slabs from 26 per cent to 28 per cent and 6 per cent to 5 per cent, respectively. Concerns of States that levy Value Added Tax at 5 per cent on items of mass consumption were met by lowering the threshold GST rate. Foodgrains and other items considered essential, that together constitute roughly half the consumer price inflation index, have been exempted from GST. Since inflation is a tax on the poor and indirect taxes are regressive, this would help check worries about inflationary repercussions. But raising the highest tax slab to 28 per cent to balance the fiscal books is a surprise, especially since it would be levied on items such as consumer durables and cars that are now taxed at 30-31 per cent. Even if producers do pass on this rate differential to customers, this is hardly likely to spur the kind of consumption that could drive more manufacturing investment, create jobs and bolster economic growth.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Ominous curb on media freedom

The order of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, directing that Hindi television channel NDTV India be taken off air for 24 hours on November 9, is a serious violation of media freedom. Coming as it does from a regime that seems to disapprove of any difference in opinion on issues concerning national security, the suspension smacks of a disturbing inclination to impose restrictions on journalistic content. The decision arises from the telecast of developments relating to the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in January. The news channel is accused of airing sensitive information that compromised the safety of military personnel and civilians even as operations were on to neutralise the attack. According to the inter-ministerial committee that inquired into the charge, the disclosure of details relating to the location of the ammunitions depot, the range of weapons and military assets available there and the presence of civilian residences in the vicinity could have been used by terrorists to their advantage. The broadcaster’s defence was that nothing was disclosed that was not published or aired by other media outlets, that its reportage was largely based on official briefings and that it was done in a responsible manner.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


Getting real on OROP

The suicide of Subedar Ram Kishen Grewal, allegedly over delay in receiving arrears under the One Rank, One Pension scheme, has set off a political storm. In a related move, the ex-servicemen groups demanding unconditional OROP have resumed their protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar; it had been called off six months ago after assurances from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Amidst all this, the real issues in the implementation of OROP have been lost sight of. The veterans are demanding OROP in its rightful form, which going by the accepted definition implies uniform pension to armed forces personnel retiring with the same rank and length of service regardless of the date of retirement. Among the major concerns highlighted by the veterans are: annual equalisation as against the approved five years; exclusion of those who opt for premature retirement (PMR) from the ambit of OROP; implementation from April 2014; and adoption of the highest pay scale of 2013 for revising pension. The government’s predicament is obvious. Except for PMR, all these are financial issues and have budgetary implications. Annual pension revision for over 20 lakh people would also be an administrative challenge.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


How to balance our gigs

An employment tribunal ruling in London last week that Uber drivers are “workers” and not “self-employed”, and therefore entitled to a minimum wage and paid leave, could have implications not only for Britain’s 40,000 Uber drivers but for others associated with the ‘gig economy’ in Britain and beyond. Uber’s business model is predicated on calling itself a platform that connects those who want transportation services to those who provide them. The ruling held that Uber sells rides, not software, despite its legal and corporate structure and licensing agreements attempting to suggest otherwise. The gig economy is driven by algorithms and technology. It extends beyond ride-sharing applications to food delivery, car rental and hosting services. Earning money as an independent contractor — that is, through a gig — is not new. But the changing nature and growth of such business models and their inextricable linkages to technology, often via a smartphone app, is making it hard for regulators to keep up. From the consumer’s perspective, app-based transportation services have been beneficial: increased clarity on pricing, speedy redress of complaints, decreased waiting times via efficient driver-passenger match algorithms, and so on. The business model has brought more drivers into the workforce by offering flexible hours and gigs to anyone who meets certain criteria. From the service provider’s perspective, the ability to work flexible hours can be a way to earn supplementary income. The British ruling, where the complainants were Uber drivers, focusses on the producer. It has ruled that clever use of legal and technological instruments cannot circumvent basic work-related rights. Thus it has begun the overdue process of determining the producer’s obligations.
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November 03, 2016 00:02 IST


Tight race in a divided country

A few weeks ago, many Americans would have guffawed at any suggestion that there could be a nail-biting finish to the November 8 presidential election. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had a comfortable lead in the polls, around 12 percentage points in some surveys. The campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump had been dealt multiple blows stemming from the “Access Hollywood” tapes, where he was caught boasting about groping women without their consent. His popularity plummeted further after at least nine women alleged he had sexually assaulted them years ago. However, with less than a week to voting day, the race has tightened. For the first time since May, Mr. Trump is leading in one major poll. The game changer is FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that his agency was reopening inquiries into Ms. Clinton’s email record after discovering correspondence relating to her in the computer of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of her aide Huma Abedin. There are multiple undercurrents to this vicious election battle that need to be parsed. 
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November 03, 2016 00:02 IST


Green farms and clean air

The massive pollution cloud enveloping northern India every year is a good example of the disconnect between official policy and ground realities. It has been known for long that burning of agricultural waste in the northern States significantly contributes to the poor air quality in large parts of the Indo-Gangetic Basin, with local and cascading impacts felt from Punjab all the way to West Bengal. Harmful fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 mm in diameter (PM2.5) is among the pollutants released. Punjab responded to the issue with a prohibition on the burning of paddy straw, and the launch of initiatives aimed at better utilisation of biomass, including as a fuel to produce power. Yet, there is no mission mode approach to the annual crisis. The efforts do not match the scale of agricultural residues produced, for one, and fail to address farmers’ anxiety to remove the surplus from the fields quickly to make way for the next crop. The national production of crop waste is of the order of 500 million tonnes a year, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal topping the list. Again, 80 per cent of straw from paddy is burnt in some States, impacting air quality and depriving croplands of nutrients. 
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November 02, 2016 00:02 IST


School’s out in Kashmir

It is almost four months since the unrest in Kashmir began following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani. Protests, intermittent violence and long stretches of curfew have continued to put normal life on hold. Delegations of civil society representatives as well as politicians have attempted to reach out to separatists and find a way to bring calm to the streets, but to little avail. In fact, the opposite is happening with increasing mindless arson attacks on schools over the past two months. By one count, 27 schools, most of them government-run, have been set afire so far in the Valley over this period. No one has yet claimed responsibility for these attacks. The government has blamed the separatists for encouraging the arson. In turn, the separatists charge the administration of failing to protect the schools. Amidst all this blame-shifting, it is disturbing that separatist leaders such as Syed Ali Shah Geelani have not condemned the acts of violence outright. Their equivocation must be called out, even as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the government to reopen all the schools despite the separatists’ shutdown call. 
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November 02, 2016 00:02 IST


Questions about an ‘encounter’

The killing of eight prisoners belonging to an outlawed group hours after their escape from the high-security Central Prison in Bhopal has set off a controversy that is unlikely to die down soon. The eight undertrials, belonging to the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, had been charged with serious offences and were alleged to have been involved in the murder of policemen and in armed robberies. While escaping, they killed a police guard who had tried to stop them. The murder of their colleague may have goaded the police to pursue the suspects and zero in on them within hours on the city’s outskirts with the help of the public. However, the dramatic events that took place subsequently are clouded in doubt as the official narrative does not quite hang together. The State government and the police have failed to provide a cogent explanation for the events of the day. The circulation of footage purportedly recording some moments before and after the encounter has invited charges that the encounter was ‘fake’. Doubts have been raised whether the eight men were carrying any weapons or posed an imminent danger to the police party that closed in on them. Were they about to surrender, having run out of options, when they were killed? One police officer’s claim that they had firearms and had attacked the police contradicts another officer’s version that they had no weapons.
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November 01, 2016 00:02 IST


Reign in Spain 

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November 01, 2016 00:02 IST


Caught in the crossfire

Exchange of fire between Indian and Pakistani forces on the Line of Control and the International Boundary has rendered the 2003 ceasefire ever more fragile. On October 29, the Army said it had destroyed four Pakistani posts in Keran sector along the LoC and inflicted heavy casualties. This came a day after Sepoy Mandeep Singh was killed in the Machhal sector and his body mutilated by a terrorist who fled across the LoC thereafter. In a social media post, the Army’s Northern Command had warned that the atrocity would invite an appropriate response, and the reprisal followed. This represents a major escalation in the ongoing exchange of fire. Ceasefire violations have become a daily occurrence since the terrorist attack on the Army camp in Uri in September and the subsequent “surgical strikes” by the Army. The use of 82 and 120 mm mortars in addition to small arms and light machine guns has become routine, a significant scale-up during peacetime. The firing has also spread to the IB, especially a 192-km stretch in Jammu that Pakistan refers to as the working boundary. In 2014, about 430 incidents of ceasefire violation were reported along the IB; in 2015 this dropped to 253. In contrast, till mid-October only four incidents had been reported along the IB — but that calm has been broken since the Uri attack. After the surgical strikes, there have been 60 ceasefire violations.
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November 12, 2016 01:15 IST


Punjab’s legislative adventurism

There was never any doubt that Punjab’s legislative adventurism in enacting a law in 2004 to terminate all previous agreements on sharing the waters of the Ravi and the Beas with its neighbours would not survive judicial scrutiny. Answering a Presidential reference on the validity of Punjab’s action, the Supreme Court has declared the State’s law illegal. It has ruled that Punjab reneged on its solemn promises by terminating its 1981 agreement with Haryana and Rajasthan to discharge itself of the obligation to construct the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal. Its objective was to overcome the 2004 decree passed by the Supreme Court directing it to complete the canal work expeditiously. The court’s reasoning draws from previous verdicts relating to the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar disputes, reiterating the principle that “a State cannot, through legislation, do an act in conflict with the judgment of the highest court which has attained finality.” It is another matter if legislation takes the form of a validating Act to cure specific illegalities or one that removes the basis for a particular verdict. The verdict by a five-member Bench is a timely reminder that it would be destructive of the rule of law and federalism if a State were to be allowed to usurp judicial powers by nullifying a verdict that has rendered findings on both fact and law.
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November 12, 2016 01:15 IST


The Tower of Song

“I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice,” wrote Leonard Cohen in “Tower of Song”, suggesting he was sentenced to a life of imprisonment in music. It was a life in which he fused pain and passion, blended the sacred with the profane. Among the greatest of the singer-songwriters to emerge from the sixties, Cohen spoke of extreme passions in liturgical phrases and with biblical references. The Canadian troubadour, who found inspiration in Greece and fame in the U.S., was a successful novelist and a poet before turning to lyrics “to slash your wrists by”, rendered almost conversationally in a brooding and arrestingly sensual bass. Unlike other musicians, he didn’t fade away as he grew older, or when “he ached in the places where he used to play”. His last two albums were suffused with witty, self-deprecatory humour and intimations of his own mortality. Cohen also remained a spiritual seeker in his verses all his life, his songs often deviating from the narrative to ask questions about the divine, as he wandered from Zen Buddhism to Advaita Vedanta while staying Jewish by faith.
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November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Theresa May’s underwhelming visit

India and the U.K. have many reasons to have close relations. They are two pillars of the Commonwealth, sharing democratic values and a world view on many political issues including terrorism. The Indian community that has settled in Britain has helped deepen ties. Today India is the third largest investor in the U.K., and the U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India. It stands to reason that for her first foreign visit outside Europe after taking over as Prime Minister, Theresa May chose India. As long as British courts don’t stand in her way, she will work to engineer the U.K.’s exit from the European Union in early 2017, and her visit to India was seen as a way of exploring a trade path outside of the EU, with preliminary talk expected on reviving negotiations for a free trade agreement that were first started in 2007. For the past few months, British ministers, including key advisers to Ms. May, have emphasised that the Brexit movement would benefit India-U.K. ties. Given this backdrop, it remains a mystery why, in the event, Ms. May’s visit turned out to be devoid of any substantial measures that would put India-U.K ties on a new trajectory. 
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November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Making climate rules at Marrakech

The United Nations conference on climate change now under way in Marrakech, Morocco, has the ambitious task of drawing up the first steps on enhanced finance and technology transfer, which is vital to advance the Paris Agreement that entered into force on November 4. India’s negotiating positions at the ongoing Conference of the Parties 22 (CoP 22) must ensure that on both these aspects, the basic principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities laid down by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are upheld. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is central to the effort to contain the rise of the global average temperature in the current century to well below 2° Celsius since pre-industrial levels. But that goal is considered impossible even if sincere action is taken on all pledges made so far, necessitating a higher ambition. Moreover, the Paris Agreement does not have a carbon budget system that gives weightage to the emerging economies taking their historical handicap into account. The imperative therefore is to demand suitably high financial flows to both mitigate emissions and prepare communities to adapt to climate change. Such a mandate should be seen as an opportunity, since CoP 22 will discuss ways and means for countries to integrate their national commitments submitted for the Paris deal into actual policies and investment plans. In India’s case, new developments in sectors such as construction, transport, energy production, waste and water management, as well as agriculture, can benefit from fresh funding and technology.
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


Understanding Trumpocalypse

Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. These words will echo in the hearts of 324 million Americans today, some shell-shocked and downcast, others delirious with joy. The sheer divergence of emotions over the surprise result is a poignant signal of how deeply divided the nation is, after a polarising two-year election campaign. Bigotry, patriarchy and racist rancour, which reared their ugly heads throughout this season of incivility, may find no welcome catharsis with the apotheosis of Mr. Trump. According to the exit polls, 58 per cent of whites and 21 per cent of non-whites voted for Mr. Trump, whereas 37 per cent of whites and 74 per cent of non-whites voted for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He also scored higher with men than women, and with those voters who did not have a college degree. In other words, blue-collared white men and women thronged to Mr. Trump in droves, angry about their perceived impoverishment and disenfranchisement inflicted by the country’s political and financial elites. It had left them with only one option: to throw a metaphorical grenade at these power centres. 
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


A method in the shock therapy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to curb unaccounted cash, or black money, circulating in the Indian economy by withdrawing the highest-value currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 as legal tender within three-odd hours of the announcement, is a bold one. He invoked provocative imagery to explain the measure — of corrupt officials stashing kilos of ill-gained cash under their mattresses, and such illicit black money fuelling inflation as well as terrorism. He pointed out how difficult it is for honest taxpayers to buy a house as the real estate sector seldom operates without a cash component, some of which finds its way to political funding. The increase in the circulation of these notes in the past five years has been disproportionate to the economy’s growth. The introduction of new Rs.500 and Rs.2,000 notes, the government argues, would not only check counterfeit currency, a problem that has assumed serious dimensions, but also purge India’s economy of the black wealth amassed in the form of high-value notes. Any decision like this needs to be sudden, and it is not surprising that it has caused hardship as people scramble to get notes of smaller denomination for daily expenditure. The only defence for this is that the larger public purpose outweighs the immediate difficulties.
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


The long battle for Raqqa

The operation to recapture Raqqa in Syria launched by a U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters is bound to increase the military pressure on the Islamic State, which is already under attack in Mosul, its power centre in Iraq. The Raqqa offensive has long been on the cards. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) finally moved their troops to the city’s defence lines after getting weapons and the clearance from the U.S. As in the case of the battle for Mosul where the U.S. provides air cover to the Iraqi forces and Shia militias, in Raqqa it will provide assistance to the SDF. The U.S. strategy is to choke the IS from both sides, and its partners on the ground seem ready to take the high risk of attacking the group’s strongest bases. Over the past year the Kurdish fighters have been consistently effective in ground battles against the IS. Most of the major territorial losses of the IS in Syria — be it Kobane, Tal Abyad or Manbij — were at the hands of the Kurds. The jihadist group, which once had direct access to the Turkish border, has now retreated to its core in Syria, stretching from Raqqa to Deir Ezzour. Against this background, the SDF clearly has an upper hand. The IS will also find it challenging to defend two of its most important cities at the same time. But that doesn’t mean that the SDF will have an easy walk into Raqqa. 
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


Waiting for Rahul

With Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, it is difficult to say who needs the other more. Indeed, it is not clear whether the party is shielding him from the risk of electoral failure or whether it is looking to him for political leadership and guidance. In any case the seemingly never-ending wait for his ascension as the president of the party was not doing either him or the Congress any good. If the decision of the Congress Working Committee to ask Mr. Gandhi to take up the top post was a surprise, it was only in its timing. Ever since the Lok Sabha election of 2014, Mr. Gandhi was being prepared for this very job; also, his mother and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had not been keeping good health. But two factors stood in the way. Members of the party’s old guard were unsure of his leadership skills, or were apprehensive of being left out if the order changed. More important, Mr. Gandhi himself wanted time. He wanted to make sure he did not appear to be hankering after power and position, and he did not get blamed for electoral defeats that were, by any reckoning, inevitable. But just as the seniors in the party reconciled themselves to the changing times, Mr. Gandhi too seems to have become more responsive to the requirements of an organisation such as the Congress: that he would have to deal with the party as it is, and that he would not be able to readily mould it to the form he would like it to take.
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November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Solutions after the smog

If Delhi’s crippling pollution crisis is to end, at least in the coming years, the Centre and the States concerned need to adopt a two-pronged approach: make policy changes to help farmers stop burning crop waste and tackle problems created by urbanisation. Every measure to curb the release of pollutants is important since the weather pattern in the post-monsoon months causes smog to persist. The capital experiences the inversion effect of air pressure retarding the dispersal of the foul cloud. There has to be strong political will to implement a time-bound programme that will stop the burning of crop residues — by one estimate about 90 million tonnes is burnt on-farm — and put them to commercial use. As the eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan has pointed out, farmers are not at fault for trying to remove the waste from the land, and they need help. In the northwestern States, they resort to burning straw to prepare for a wheat crop weeks after harvesting rice. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute published a guidance report four years ago on ways to use the residue, with an emphasis on converting paddy straw into livestock feed, compost, raw material for power generation, biofuel production and as substrate for mushroom farming. State support is vital for straw to be used as fodder, and farmers should be assisted with supplemental stocks of urea and molasses, green fodder and legume waste. 
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November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Chasing a grand alliance

Ever since the Mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, successfully stared down a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in the Bihar elections last November, speculation about a possible replication in Uttar Pradesh has been rife. The buzz has grown over the past week, after Congress election strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Even more recently, at the SP’s silver jubilee festivities in Lucknow, the air rang with calls for “unity of socialist parties” from assembled fellow-travellers from the Janata Dal days — including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad; former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, now of the Janata Dal (Secular); Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United); and Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has a significant support base in western U.P. Through all this, Mr. Mulayam Yadav has been enigmatically tight-lipped, as have been Congress leaders. The other two big forces in the State, the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party, have been uninhibited in talking down the threat such a Congress-SP-Lohiaite alliance would pose. This is not surprising as there are big challenges such a grand alliance would face in U.P. as compared to Bihar. 
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Looking for a humane solution

The agreement between India and Sri Lanka on establishing a Joint Working Group on fisheries is a small step forward in resolving the dispute between fishermen of both countries. In fact, such a mechanism had been in place until a few years ago to address problems that arose whenever fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Sri Lanka. The points agreed on are important: a hotline between the Coast Guards of both countries, a meeting of the JWG once in three months, and a meeting of the fisheries ministers every six months. Welcome too is the commitment that there would be no violence or loss of life of fishermen. These measures are useful in getting Indian fishermen or their boats released from custody, but they are unlikely to have any immediate impact on the livelihood crisis facing the fishermen of northern Sri Lanka. Such a crisis may grip Tamil Nadu fishermen too one day, after the fishery resources in the Palk Bay are exhausted. The real issue is how long trawlers from Tamil Nadu will continue to fish in Sri Lankan territorial waters, and how soon bottom trawling is ended. The official statement after the talks between the foreign ministers refers to “expediting the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest”. An agreement on this is crucial, but in the absence of a time frame there remains a question mark over a solution emerging.
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Back from the brink in Lebanon 
The election of Michel Aoun, the 81-year-old former general, as Lebanon’s President ends a two-and-a-half-year political stalemate. It signals hope that the country’s fractious political class will come together to form a government invested in addressing the many challenges it faces, from basic civil issues to threats coming from neighbouring, civil war-stricken Syria. The length of time it took to elect a President in itself shows the complex nature of the political system. Under a long-standing arrangement, the President has to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni, and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia. The major political parties represent these sects, and reaching a consensus on key issues is tricky. What makes matters worse is external intervention. Hezbollah, which represents the Shia community, has Iran’s backing, while the Sunni political faction led by Saad Hariri is supported by Saudi Arabia and the West. President Aoun, a Maronite politician, is a Hezbollah ally. His election is the result of an agreement among the Shia, Sunni, and Christian factions. Mr. Hariri backed Mr. Aoun’s election in Parliament, while the President, in return, named Mr. Hariri as Prime Minister. The Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has declared that he won’t oppose Mr. Hariri’s appointment.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Still unwieldy but just in time 
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has managed to break the stalemate with States at the Goods and Services Tax Council’s fourth round of deliberations over the contentious issue of tax rates for the new tax regime. He did this by retaining the standard rates of 12 per cent and 18 per cent proposed at the Council’s last meeting, but tweaking the highest and lowest tax slabs from 26 per cent to 28 per cent and 6 per cent to 5 per cent, respectively. Concerns of States that levy Value Added Tax at 5 per cent on items of mass consumption were met by lowering the threshold GST rate. Foodgrains and other items considered essential, that together constitute roughly half the consumer price inflation index, have been exempted from GST. Since inflation is a tax on the poor and indirect taxes are regressive, this would help check worries about inflationary repercussions. But raising the highest tax slab to 28 per cent to balance the fiscal books is a surprise, especially since it would be levied on items such as consumer durables and cars that are now taxed at 30-31 per cent. Even if producers do pass on this rate differential to customers, this is hardly likely to spur the kind of consumption that could drive more manufacturing investment, create jobs and bolster economic growth.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Ominous curb on media freedom

The order of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, directing that Hindi television channel NDTV India be taken off air for 24 hours on November 9, is a serious violation of media freedom. Coming as it does from a regime that seems to disapprove of any difference in opinion on issues concerning national security, the suspension smacks of a disturbing inclination to impose restrictions on journalistic content. The decision arises from the telecast of developments relating to the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in January. The news channel is accused of airing sensitive information that compromised the safety of military personnel and civilians even as operations were on to neutralise the attack. According to the inter-ministerial committee that inquired into the charge, the disclosure of details relating to the location of the ammunitions depot, the range of weapons and military assets available there and the presence of civilian residences in the vicinity could have been used by terrorists to their advantage. The broadcaster’s defence was that nothing was disclosed that was not published or aired by other media outlets, that its reportage was largely based on official briefings and that it was done in a responsible manner.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


Getting real on OROP

The suicide of Subedar Ram Kishen Grewal, allegedly over delay in receiving arrears under the One Rank, One Pension scheme, has set off a political storm. In a related move, the ex-servicemen groups demanding unconditional OROP have resumed their protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar; it had been called off six months ago after assurances from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Amidst all this, the real issues in the implementation of OROP have been lost sight of. The veterans are demanding OROP in its rightful form, which going by the accepted definition implies uniform pension to armed forces personnel retiring with the same rank and length of service regardless of the date of retirement. Among the major concerns highlighted by the veterans are: annual equalisation as against the approved five years; exclusion of those who opt for premature retirement (PMR) from the ambit of OROP; implementation from April 2014; and adoption of the highest pay scale of 2013 for revising pension. The government’s predicament is obvious. Except for PMR, all these are financial issues and have budgetary implications. Annual pension revision for over 20 lakh people would also be an administrative challenge.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


How to balance our gigs

An employment tribunal ruling in London last week that Uber drivers are “workers” and not “self-employed”, and therefore entitled to a minimum wage and paid leave, could have implications not only for Britain’s 40,000 Uber drivers but for others associated with the ‘gig economy’ in Britain and beyond. Uber’s business model is predicated on calling itself a platform that connects those who want transportation services to those who provide them. The ruling held that Uber sells rides, not software, despite its legal and corporate structure and licensing agreements attempting to suggest otherwise. The gig economy is driven by algorithms and technology. It extends beyond ride-sharing applications to food delivery, car rental and hosting services. Earning money as an independent contractor — that is, through a gig — is not new. But the changing nature and growth of such business models and their inextricable linkages to technology, often via a smartphone app, is making it hard for regulators to keep up. From the consumer’s perspective, app-based transportation services have been beneficial: increased clarity on pricing, speedy redress of complaints, decreased waiting times via efficient driver-passenger match algorithms, and so on. The business model has brought more drivers into the workforce by offering flexible hours and gigs to anyone who meets certain criteria. From the service provider’s perspective, the ability to work flexible hours can be a way to earn supplementary income. The British ruling, where the complainants were Uber drivers, focusses on the producer. It has ruled that clever use of legal and technological instruments cannot circumvent basic work-related rights. Thus it has begun the overdue process of determining the producer’s obligations.
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November 03, 2016 00:02 IST


Tight race in a divided country

A few weeks ago, many Americans would have guffawed at any suggestion that there could be a nail-biting finish to the November 8 presidential election. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton had a comfortable lead in the polls, around 12 percentage points in some surveys. The campaign of Republican nominee Donald Trump had been dealt multiple blows stemming from the “Access Hollywood” tapes, where he was caught boasting about groping women without their consent. His popularity plummeted further after at least nine women alleged he had sexually assaulted them years ago. However, with less than a week to voting day, the race has tightened. For the first time since May, Mr. Trump is leading in one major poll. The game changer is FBI Director James Comey’s announcement that his agency was reopening inquiries into Ms. Clinton’s email record after discovering correspondence relating to her in the computer of Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of her aide Huma Abedin. There are multiple undercurrents to this vicious election battle that need to be parsed. 
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November 03, 2016 00:02 IST


Green farms and clean air

The massive pollution cloud enveloping northern India every year is a good example of the disconnect between official policy and ground realities. It has been known for long that burning of agricultural waste in the northern States significantly contributes to the poor air quality in large parts of the Indo-Gangetic Basin, with local and cascading impacts felt from Punjab all the way to West Bengal. Harmful fine particulate matter measuring 2.5 mm in diameter (PM2.5) is among the pollutants released. Punjab responded to the issue with a prohibition on the burning of paddy straw, and the launch of initiatives aimed at better utilisation of biomass, including as a fuel to produce power. Yet, there is no mission mode approach to the annual crisis. The efforts do not match the scale of agricultural residues produced, for one, and fail to address farmers’ anxiety to remove the surplus from the fields quickly to make way for the next crop. The national production of crop waste is of the order of 500 million tonnes a year, with Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal topping the list. Again, 80 per cent of straw from paddy is burnt in some States, impacting air quality and depriving croplands of nutrients. 
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November 02, 2016 00:02 IST


School’s out in Kashmir

It is almost four months since the unrest in Kashmir began following the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani. Protests, intermittent violence and long stretches of curfew have continued to put normal life on hold. Delegations of civil society representatives as well as politicians have attempted to reach out to separatists and find a way to bring calm to the streets, but to little avail. In fact, the opposite is happening with increasing mindless arson attacks on schools over the past two months. By one count, 27 schools, most of them government-run, have been set afire so far in the Valley over this period. No one has yet claimed responsibility for these attacks. The government has blamed the separatists for encouraging the arson. In turn, the separatists charge the administration of failing to protect the schools. Amidst all this blame-shifting, it is disturbing that separatist leaders such as Syed Ali Shah Geelani have not condemned the acts of violence outright. Their equivocation must be called out, even as the Jammu and Kashmir High Court has directed the government to reopen all the schools despite the separatists’ shutdown call. 
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November 02, 2016 00:02 IST


Questions about an ‘encounter’

The killing of eight prisoners belonging to an outlawed group hours after their escape from the high-security Central Prison in Bhopal has set off a controversy that is unlikely to die down soon. The eight undertrials, belonging to the Students’ Islamic Movement of India, had been charged with serious offences and were alleged to have been involved in the murder of policemen and in armed robberies. While escaping, they killed a police guard who had tried to stop them. The murder of their colleague may have goaded the police to pursue the suspects and zero in on them within hours on the city’s outskirts with the help of the public. However, the dramatic events that took place subsequently are clouded in doubt as the official narrative does not quite hang together. The State government and the police have failed to provide a cogent explanation for the events of the day. The circulation of footage purportedly recording some moments before and after the encounter has invited charges that the encounter was ‘fake’. Doubts have been raised whether the eight men were carrying any weapons or posed an imminent danger to the police party that closed in on them. Were they about to surrender, having run out of options, when they were killed? One police officer’s claim that they had firearms and had attacked the police contradicts another officer’s version that they had no weapons.
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November 15, 2016 02:52 IST


Hope floats in Colombia


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November 15, 2016 02:51 IST


Demonetisation and after


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November 14, 2016 00:15 IST


The big deal with Japan 
When India conducted its nuclear tests in 1998, Japan was the country that took it the hardest: it put all political exchanges with India on hold, froze aid and announced economic sanctions within hours. A thaw in ties didn’t come until 2001, when sanctions were lifted. And then, in 2009, the two countries began an annual strategic dialogue. This has now come to fruition with the signing of the nuclear cooperation agreement in Tokyo during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit. The deal is critical to India’s renewable energy plans. Japanese companies that produce cutting-edge reactor technology were previously not allowed to supply parts to India. In addition, Japanese companies have significant holdings in their U.S. and French partners negotiating for nuclear reactors now, and that would have held up the deals. This is Japan’s first nuclear deal with a non-signatory to the Non Proliferation Treaty, and it recognises India’s exemplary record in nuclear prudence. It is indeed a much-needed moral boost as New Delhi strives for membership in the Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG). The move will boost the meagre, and dipping, bilateral trade of $15 billion, and lift the strategic military and defence relationship.
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November 14, 2016 00:15 IST


Punjab’s politics of defiance

With the Supreme Court responding to the presidential reference and terming illegal the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004, politics in the State has predictably acquired a defiant edge. Amarinder Singh, who was Chief Minister when the legislation was passed more than a decade ago in order to deny the neighbouring States their determined share of river waters, lost no time in announcing his resignation as a member of the Lok Sabha and that of all Congress MLAs from the Punjab Assembly. As an act of protest it has an absurd edge, but with Assembly elections due in early 2017, the party obviously wants to raise the stakes by identifying itself with the emotive water issue. In fact, it allows Mr. Singh the ideal launch pad to take on not just the Shiromani Akali Dal-BJP government, but also the Congress campaign strategist, Prashant Kishor, with whom he has been at odds. Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal had upped the ante earlier this year by shepherding a law in the Assembly to return to the original owners land acquired decades ago for the Sutlej-Yamuna Link canal meant to enable sharing of river waters. Even as the State Governor refrained from giving consent to the legislation, bulldozers were employed to fill part of the canal with uprooted trees and soil to mark the Punjab government’s defiance. In response to the Supreme Court’s advisory on the 2004 law, Mr. Badal has called a session of the presumably Congress-less Assembly.
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November 12, 2016 01:15 IST


Punjab’s legislative adventurism

There was never any doubt that Punjab’s legislative adventurism in enacting a law in 2004 to terminate all previous agreements on sharing the waters of the Ravi and the Beas with its neighbours would not survive judicial scrutiny. Answering a Presidential reference on the validity of Punjab’s action, the Supreme Court has declared the State’s law illegal. It has ruled that Punjab reneged on its solemn promises by terminating its 1981 agreement with Haryana and Rajasthan to discharge itself of the obligation to construct the Sutlej-Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal. Its objective was to overcome the 2004 decree passed by the Supreme Court directing it to complete the canal work expeditiously. The court’s reasoning draws from previous verdicts relating to the Cauvery and Mullaperiyar disputes, reiterating the principle that “a State cannot, through legislation, do an act in conflict with the judgment of the highest court which has attained finality.” It is another matter if legislation takes the form of a validating Act to cure specific illegalities or one that removes the basis for a particular verdict. The verdict by a five-member Bench is a timely reminder that it would be destructive of the rule of law and federalism if a State were to be allowed to usurp judicial powers by nullifying a verdict that has rendered findings on both fact and law.
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November 12, 2016 01:15 IST


The Tower of Song

“I was born like this, I had no choice. I was born with the gift of a golden voice,” wrote Leonard Cohen in “Tower of Song”, suggesting he was sentenced to a life of imprisonment in music. It was a life in which he fused pain and passion, blended the sacred with the profane. Among the greatest of the singer-songwriters to emerge from the sixties, Cohen spoke of extreme passions in liturgical phrases and with biblical references. The Canadian troubadour, who found inspiration in Greece and fame in the U.S., was a successful novelist and a poet before turning to lyrics “to slash your wrists by”, rendered almost conversationally in a brooding and arrestingly sensual bass. Unlike other musicians, he didn’t fade away as he grew older, or when “he ached in the places where he used to play”. His last two albums were suffused with witty, self-deprecatory humour and intimations of his own mortality. Cohen also remained a spiritual seeker in his verses all his life, his songs often deviating from the narrative to ask questions about the divine, as he wandered from Zen Buddhism to Advaita Vedanta while staying Jewish by faith.
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November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Making climate rules at Marrakech

The United Nations conference on climate change now under way in Marrakech, Morocco, has the ambitious task of drawing up the first steps on enhanced finance and technology transfer, which is vital to advance the Paris Agreement that entered into force on November 4. India’s negotiating positions at the ongoing Conference of the Parties 22 (CoP 22) must ensure that on both these aspects, the basic principle of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities laid down by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are upheld. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions is central to the effort to contain the rise of the global average temperature in the current century to well below 2° Celsius since pre-industrial levels. But that goal is considered impossible even if sincere action is taken on all pledges made so far, necessitating a higher ambition. Moreover, the Paris Agreement does not have a carbon budget system that gives weightage to the emerging economies taking their historical handicap into account. The imperative therefore is to demand suitably high financial flows to both mitigate emissions and prepare communities to adapt to climate change. Such a mandate should be seen as an opportunity, since CoP 22 will discuss ways and means for countries to integrate their national commitments submitted for the Paris deal into actual policies and investment plans. In India’s case, new developments in sectors such as construction, transport, energy production, waste and water management, as well as agriculture, can benefit from fresh funding and technology.
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November 11, 2016 00:15 IST


Theresa May’s underwhelming visit

India and the U.K. have many reasons to have close relations. They are two pillars of the Commonwealth, sharing democratic values and a world view on many political issues including terrorism. The Indian community that has settled in Britain has helped deepen ties. Today India is the third largest investor in the U.K., and the U.K. is the largest G20 investor in India. It stands to reason that for her first foreign visit outside Europe after taking over as Prime Minister, Theresa May chose India. As long as British courts don’t stand in her way, she will work to engineer the U.K.’s exit from the European Union in early 2017, and her visit to India was seen as a way of exploring a trade path outside of the EU, with preliminary talk expected on reviving negotiations for a free trade agreement that were first started in 2007. For the past few months, British ministers, including key advisers to Ms. May, have emphasised that the Brexit movement would benefit India-U.K. ties. Given this backdrop, it remains a mystery why, in the event, Ms. May’s visit turned out to be devoid of any substantial measures that would put India-U.K ties on a new trajectory. 
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


Understanding Trumpocalypse

Donald Trump will be the 45th President of the United States. These words will echo in the hearts of 324 million Americans today, some shell-shocked and downcast, others delirious with joy. The sheer divergence of emotions over the surprise result is a poignant signal of how deeply divided the nation is, after a polarising two-year election campaign. Bigotry, patriarchy and racist rancour, which reared their ugly heads throughout this season of incivility, may find no welcome catharsis with the apotheosis of Mr. Trump. According to the exit polls, 58 per cent of whites and 21 per cent of non-whites voted for Mr. Trump, whereas 37 per cent of whites and 74 per cent of non-whites voted for his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton. He also scored higher with men than women, and with those voters who did not have a college degree. In other words, blue-collared white men and women thronged to Mr. Trump in droves, angry about their perceived impoverishment and disenfranchisement inflicted by the country’s political and financial elites. It had left them with only one option: to throw a metaphorical grenade at these power centres. 
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November 10, 2016 00:15 IST


A method in the shock therapy

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s move to curb unaccounted cash, or black money, circulating in the Indian economy by withdrawing the highest-value currency notes of Rs.500 and Rs.1,000 as legal tender within three-odd hours of the announcement, is a bold one. He invoked provocative imagery to explain the measure — of corrupt officials stashing kilos of ill-gained cash under their mattresses, and such illicit black money fuelling inflation as well as terrorism. He pointed out how difficult it is for honest taxpayers to buy a house as the real estate sector seldom operates without a cash component, some of which finds its way to political funding. The increase in the circulation of these notes in the past five years has been disproportionate to the economy’s growth. The introduction of new Rs.500 and Rs.2,000 notes, the government argues, would not only check counterfeit currency, a problem that has assumed serious dimensions, but also purge India’s economy of the black wealth amassed in the form of high-value notes. Any decision like this needs to be sudden, and it is not surprising that it has caused hardship as people scramble to get notes of smaller denomination for daily expenditure. The only defence for this is that the larger public purpose outweighs the immediate difficulties.
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


The long battle for Raqqa

The operation to recapture Raqqa in Syria launched by a U.S.-backed coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters is bound to increase the military pressure on the Islamic State, which is already under attack in Mosul, its power centre in Iraq. The Raqqa offensive has long been on the cards. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) finally moved their troops to the city’s defence lines after getting weapons and the clearance from the U.S. As in the case of the battle for Mosul where the U.S. provides air cover to the Iraqi forces and Shia militias, in Raqqa it will provide assistance to the SDF. The U.S. strategy is to choke the IS from both sides, and its partners on the ground seem ready to take the high risk of attacking the group’s strongest bases. Over the past year the Kurdish fighters have been consistently effective in ground battles against the IS. Most of the major territorial losses of the IS in Syria — be it Kobane, Tal Abyad or Manbij — were at the hands of the Kurds. The jihadist group, which once had direct access to the Turkish border, has now retreated to its core in Syria, stretching from Raqqa to Deir Ezzour. Against this background, the SDF clearly has an upper hand. The IS will also find it challenging to defend two of its most important cities at the same time. But that doesn’t mean that the SDF will have an easy walk into Raqqa. 
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November 09, 2016 00:15 IST


Waiting for Rahul

With Rahul Gandhi and the Congress, it is difficult to say who needs the other more. Indeed, it is not clear whether the party is shielding him from the risk of electoral failure or whether it is looking to him for political leadership and guidance. In any case the seemingly never-ending wait for his ascension as the president of the party was not doing either him or the Congress any good. If the decision of the Congress Working Committee to ask Mr. Gandhi to take up the top post was a surprise, it was only in its timing. Ever since the Lok Sabha election of 2014, Mr. Gandhi was being prepared for this very job; also, his mother and Congress president, Sonia Gandhi, had not been keeping good health. But two factors stood in the way. Members of the party’s old guard were unsure of his leadership skills, or were apprehensive of being left out if the order changed. More important, Mr. Gandhi himself wanted time. He wanted to make sure he did not appear to be hankering after power and position, and he did not get blamed for electoral defeats that were, by any reckoning, inevitable. But just as the seniors in the party reconciled themselves to the changing times, Mr. Gandhi too seems to have become more responsive to the requirements of an organisation such as the Congress: that he would have to deal with the party as it is, and that he would not be able to readily mould it to the form he would like it to take.
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November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Solutions after the smog

If Delhi’s crippling pollution crisis is to end, at least in the coming years, the Centre and the States concerned need to adopt a two-pronged approach: make policy changes to help farmers stop burning crop waste and tackle problems created by urbanisation. Every measure to curb the release of pollutants is important since the weather pattern in the post-monsoon months causes smog to persist. The capital experiences the inversion effect of air pressure retarding the dispersal of the foul cloud. There has to be strong political will to implement a time-bound programme that will stop the burning of crop residues — by one estimate about 90 million tonnes is burnt on-farm — and put them to commercial use. As the eminent agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan has pointed out, farmers are not at fault for trying to remove the waste from the land, and they need help. In the northwestern States, they resort to burning straw to prepare for a wheat crop weeks after harvesting rice. The Indian Agricultural Research Institute published a guidance report four years ago on ways to use the residue, with an emphasis on converting paddy straw into livestock feed, compost, raw material for power generation, biofuel production and as substrate for mushroom farming. State support is vital for straw to be used as fodder, and farmers should be assisted with supplemental stocks of urea and molasses, green fodder and legume waste. 
		-------------------------------------

November 08, 2016 00:15 IST


Chasing a grand alliance

Ever since the Mahagathbandhan, or grand alliance, successfully stared down a resurgent Bharatiya Janata Party in the Bihar elections last November, speculation about a possible replication in Uttar Pradesh has been rife. The buzz has grown over the past week, after Congress election strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Even more recently, at the SP’s silver jubilee festivities in Lucknow, the air rang with calls for “unity of socialist parties” from assembled fellow-travellers from the Janata Dal days — including Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad; former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, now of the Janata Dal (Secular); Sharad Yadav of the Janata Dal (United); and Ajit Singh of the Rashtriya Lok Dal, which has a significant support base in western U.P. Through all this, Mr. Mulayam Yadav has been enigmatically tight-lipped, as have been Congress leaders. The other two big forces in the State, the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party, have been uninhibited in talking down the threat such a Congress-SP-Lohiaite alliance would pose. This is not surprising as there are big challenges such a grand alliance would face in U.P. as compared to Bihar. 
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Back from the brink in Lebanon 
The election of Michel Aoun, the 81-year-old former general, as Lebanon’s President ends a two-and-a-half-year political stalemate. It signals hope that the country’s fractious political class will come together to form a government invested in addressing the many challenges it faces, from basic civil issues to threats coming from neighbouring, civil war-stricken Syria. The length of time it took to elect a President in itself shows the complex nature of the political system. Under a long-standing arrangement, the President has to be a Maronite Christian, the Prime Minister a Sunni, and the Speaker of Parliament a Shia. The major political parties represent these sects, and reaching a consensus on key issues is tricky. What makes matters worse is external intervention. Hezbollah, which represents the Shia community, has Iran’s backing, while the Sunni political faction led by Saad Hariri is supported by Saudi Arabia and the West. President Aoun, a Maronite politician, is a Hezbollah ally. His election is the result of an agreement among the Shia, Sunni, and Christian factions. Mr. Hariri backed Mr. Aoun’s election in Parliament, while the President, in return, named Mr. Hariri as Prime Minister. The Hezbollah chief, Hassan Nasrallah, has declared that he won’t oppose Mr. Hariri’s appointment.
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November 07, 2016 00:02 IST


Looking for a humane solution

The agreement between India and Sri Lanka on establishing a Joint Working Group on fisheries is a small step forward in resolving the dispute between fishermen of both countries. In fact, such a mechanism had been in place until a few years ago to address problems that arose whenever fishermen from Tamil Nadu were arrested by Sri Lanka. The points agreed on are important: a hotline between the Coast Guards of both countries, a meeting of the JWG once in three months, and a meeting of the fisheries ministers every six months. Welcome too is the commitment that there would be no violence or loss of life of fishermen. These measures are useful in getting Indian fishermen or their boats released from custody, but they are unlikely to have any immediate impact on the livelihood crisis facing the fishermen of northern Sri Lanka. Such a crisis may grip Tamil Nadu fishermen too one day, after the fishery resources in the Palk Bay are exhausted. The real issue is how long trawlers from Tamil Nadu will continue to fish in Sri Lankan territorial waters, and how soon bottom trawling is ended. The official statement after the talks between the foreign ministers refers to “expediting the transition towards ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest”. An agreement on this is crucial, but in the absence of a time frame there remains a question mark over a solution emerging.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Still unwieldy but just in time 
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has managed to break the stalemate with States at the Goods and Services Tax Council’s fourth round of deliberations over the contentious issue of tax rates for the new tax regime. He did this by retaining the standard rates of 12 per cent and 18 per cent proposed at the Council’s last meeting, but tweaking the highest and lowest tax slabs from 26 per cent to 28 per cent and 6 per cent to 5 per cent, respectively. Concerns of States that levy Value Added Tax at 5 per cent on items of mass consumption were met by lowering the threshold GST rate. Foodgrains and other items considered essential, that together constitute roughly half the consumer price inflation index, have been exempted from GST. Since inflation is a tax on the poor and indirect taxes are regressive, this would help check worries about inflationary repercussions. But raising the highest tax slab to 28 per cent to balance the fiscal books is a surprise, especially since it would be levied on items such as consumer durables and cars that are now taxed at 30-31 per cent. Even if producers do pass on this rate differential to customers, this is hardly likely to spur the kind of consumption that could drive more manufacturing investment, create jobs and bolster economic growth.
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November 05, 2016 00:02 IST


Ominous curb on media freedom

The order of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, directing that Hindi television channel NDTV India be taken off air for 24 hours on November 9, is a serious violation of media freedom. Coming as it does from a regime that seems to disapprove of any difference in opinion on issues concerning national security, the suspension smacks of a disturbing inclination to impose restrictions on journalistic content. The decision arises from the telecast of developments relating to the terrorist attack on the Pathankot Air Force base in January. The news channel is accused of airing sensitive information that compromised the safety of military personnel and civilians even as operations were on to neutralise the attack. According to the inter-ministerial committee that inquired into the charge, the disclosure of details relating to the location of the ammunitions depot, the range of weapons and military assets available there and the presence of civilian residences in the vicinity could have been used by terrorists to their advantage. The broadcaster’s defence was that nothing was disclosed that was not published or aired by other media outlets, that its reportage was largely based on official briefings and that it was done in a responsible manner.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


Getting real on OROP

The suicide of Subedar Ram Kishen Grewal, allegedly over delay in receiving arrears under the One Rank, One Pension scheme, has set off a political storm. In a related move, the ex-servicemen groups demanding unconditional OROP have resumed their protest at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar; it had been called off six months ago after assurances from Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. Amidst all this, the real issues in the implementation of OROP have been lost sight of. The veterans are demanding OROP in its rightful form, which going by the accepted definition implies uniform pension to armed forces personnel retiring with the same rank and length of service regardless of the date of retirement. Among the major concerns highlighted by the veterans are: annual equalisation as against the approved five years; exclusion of those who opt for premature retirement (PMR) from the ambit of OROP; implementation from April 2014; and adoption of the highest pay scale of 2013 for revising pension. The government’s predicament is obvious. Except for PMR, all these are financial issues and have budgetary implications. Annual pension revision for over 20 lakh people would also be an administrative challenge.
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November 04, 2016 00:15 IST


How to balance our gigs

An employment tribunal ruling in London last week that Uber drivers are “workers” and not “self-employed”, and therefore entitled to a minimum wage and paid leave, could have implications not only for Britain’s 40,000 Uber drivers but for others associated with the ‘gig economy’ in Britain and beyond. Uber’s business model is predicated on calling itself a platform that connects those who want transportation services to those who provide them. The ruling held that Uber sells rides, not software, despite its legal and corporate structure and licensing agreements attempting to suggest otherwise. The gig economy is driven by algorithms and technology. It extends beyond ride-sharing applications to food delivery, car rental and hosting services. Earning money as an independent contractor — that is, through a gig — is not new. But the changing nature and growth of such business models and their inextricable linkages to technology, often via a smartphone app, is making it hard for regulators to keep up. From the consumer’s perspective, app-based transportation services have been beneficial: increased clarity on pricing, speedy redress of complaints, decreased waiting times via efficient driver-passenger match algorithms, and so on. The business model has brought more drivers into the workforce by offering flexible hours and gigs to anyone who meets certain criteria. From the service provider’s perspective, the ability to work flexible hours can be a way to earn supplementary income. The British ruling, where the complainants were Uber drivers, focusses on the producer. It has ruled that clever use of legal and technological instruments cannot circumvent basic work-related rights. Thus it has begun the overdue process of determining the producer’s obligations.
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